Our Trafalgar Unlocked Awards has now closed and after combing through over 10,000 incredible entries, the lucky winners have been announced. Each of these winners will be joining us with their travel companion on a 12-day trip to the Balkans this June. One of the lucky Trafalgar Unlocked Award winners was Madeline, who shared this story as part of her entry:
Discovered this cute love heart whilst walking around Lake Bled. I was blown away at the beauty and clarity of the water. Grateful to have such beautiful memories with my husband!
We sat down with Madeline to find out how it feels to be one of our Trafalgar Unlocked Award winners. Madeline also shares more about her wonderful story, from feeling the romance with her husband in Europe to meeting the Ukraine wrestling team on the Croatian-Hungarian border.
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1. How did it feel to be one of the lucky Trafalgar Unlocked Award winners?
I opened my email late at night just checking it before getting ready for bed. When I saw the email I literally ran to the other side of the house to where my husband was and told him I’d won us a trip to Europe. It was a huge adrenaline rush and I hardly slept as my mind imagined the trip and the things I’d need to organise – my mind was just too active!
Also, I couldn’t stop smiling for the next 24 hours. I had to keep suppressing the smiles at work because every now and then my mind would wander back to thinking about the holiday and my mouth would start to curl up slightly. I had to remind myself to stay composed. My husband was excited but almost didn’t believe it.
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2. Who will you take with you on your Trafalgar trip to the Balkans?
My husband!
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3. What are you most excited to see and do during the Balkans Trafalgar trip?
I’m most excited to see Dubrovnik and the Croatian coast! I have heard from others how beautiful it is. I love that this trip takes you on a day trip to an island and a sunset cruise along the Dalmatian coast.
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4. Your Trafalgar Unlocked Awards entry is about your Highlights of Eastern Europe trip. Can you tell us more about why you chose this trip?
We took this trip in the summer, in July 2022. My husband hadn’t been to Europe before and I wanted to show him some of my favourite places. Europe is such a romantic place!
I felt confident organising our own travel through France, Italy and Spain as I have some basic Spanish and French language skills. I felt a little more nervous navigating through Eastern Europe though. So I booked this tour as it covered a lot of places in a good amount of time. My husband loves history and even studied this at university for a year. So I knew this tour would appeal to him as it contains a lot of world war history.
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5. What are some of your favourite memories from your Highlights of Eastern Europe trip?
Slovenia
We loved Lake Bled. It was stunning to walk around and explore the cute little island in the middle with the church. The colour and clarity of the water was incredible. It was very scenic and I think helps balance the tour nicely so that it is a mix of natural beauty in some destinations, combined with the architectural beauty of hustling and bustling cities. The caves in Slovenia were amazing. My husband and I loved the tour through these and were stunned by how extensive the caves were. This was a definite highlight of the tour.
Poland
We loved the food in Poland! I am a bit of a foodie and Poland was unexpectedly awesome for this! We had some delicious food in Poland and it is super affordable compared to other European countries. We particularly loved the food in the Jewish Quarter in Krakow and the quirky/unique little restaurants and bars. The night was certainly alive and buzzing in that part of town.
Prague
Our favourite city was probably Prague – the architecture is breathtaking. They had some paddle boats on the river and at the golden hour, we enjoyed cruising along the river in one of these together. It was so stunning to see the golden light reflecting along the buildings and the water.
Quirky museums
The joy of discovering unexpected cool things along the way is always a highlight of any travel I think! We found a few cool museums like the 3D Gallery in Budapest where you can interact with the art and take photos of yourself with various humorous scenes. The Gallery of Steel Figures in Prague was another museum we loved, where they had made real-size pop culture items out of steel.
Meeting the Ukraine wrestling team
We also spontaneously ran into the Ukraine youth wrestling team on the Croatian-Hungarian border whilst waiting for passport checks. Their bus had come from a wrestling tournament and were behind our Trafalgar coach in the queue. We got photos of them putting us in headlocks and had a good chat while we waited. There was a lady on the bus who spoke English perfectly but otherwise, the communication was rather simplistic hand signs and gestures which somewhat made the experience.
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6. What do you love about travelling with your husband?
I have done a mix of solo travelling and travelling with others. My preference is always travelling with people as I feel the shared experiences tie you together. I love travelling the most with my husband because it gives us that quality time together without the stresses of work, lets us experience other cultures and ways of doing things, and creates the most beautiful memories for us to look back on and re-live the joy over and over! When you get out of the everyday environment to beautiful other places in the world it certainly creates even more romance!
Also making new friends spontaneously! On tour, you get to spend a lot of time with the same group of people which means you get to form new friendships and have your own inside jokes which is awesome. We still keep in touch with our friends from our Trafalgar trip. It’s nice being in a foreign place and having other tourists to get lost with and adventure with.
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7. How many Trafalgar trips have you taken?
I have only been on one Trafalgar tour but have travelled with my own itineraries and other tour companies in the past. I was very impressed with Trafalgar as a tour company though and would certainly travel with them again.
8. What is your all-time favourite travel destination or Trafalgar trip?
This is incredibly hard – I love too many places for different reasons. If I had to pick a continent then Europe because there are so many cultures, different foods, languages, history and old architecture close to each other.
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9. What is the best thing about travelling with Trafalgar?
Not having to think about how I’m getting places as much- it’s all taken care of! The hotels that they choose are also awesome. Our tour guide and driver were also fantastic! A wealth of knowledge and always felt safe in our driver’s hands.
I do like booking organised tours as it takes a lot of thinking and stressing out of it. I don’t need to plan to get to the train station at a certain time or how we are going to get to our next hotel and lug the suitcase for a few kilometres over hills and downstairs.
10. Why is it important to travel and experience new places and cultures?
I believe one of the greatest forms of education is travel which traditionally has only been available for the upper echelons of the ultra-wealthy. It is such an amazing opportunity we have to live in a time of history where one has more opportunities to travel. It takes you out of the absurdity of your own echo chamber socially and gives you a richer perspective of yourself, others and how you would like to help and see the world improve for the better.
Culture teaches you different values and there is a real strength in drawing on the strong points of others, as well as giving a completely different way of thinking on how to interact or do things as a society. There is also a side of gratitude that travel gives, for how good we have things in Australia. It also gives you an appreciation for how many other absolutely wonderful countries there are as well as how many wonderful opportunities there are in the world.
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11. Where else is on your bucket list (besides the Balkans!)?
Where to start…. I’m too in love with travelling so the list is extensive. Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Morocco are all places that I’d love to see and have not been to yet!
My husband and I are actually really keen to visit Russia! We had a tour booked for St Petersburg and Moscow before Covid-19 which evidently didn’t go ahead. So once the war is over …hopefully we can finally get there.
I also would love to see some more of Asia – Japan in cherry blossom season, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
I also would love to do a trip to see more of South America and include Antarctica as well.
Congratulations to Madeline on being one of our lucky Trafalgar Unlocked Award winners and thank you for sharing your story. You can read more stories from our Trafalgar Unlocked Award winners on The Real Word blog.