Visit 8 new countries in 2012

We just came back from a big holiday where we visited Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. I can’t decide which one I loved most. All are unique and super!

Funny to see that from the 8 countries I listed that I wanted to visit I only went to one, and all the rest wasn’t in the plan. That’s just life for you, I guess. Expect the unexpected! :)

We went to Nairobi and visited the Nairobi National Park which is really amazing, the Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe center. We had a nice time and can’t wait to go back, but to a real safari next time at the Masai Mara.
The weather was great and refreshing, lots of greenery, kind locals. The strange thing for me was the uniformed people everywhere with huge guns and the checkings before you enter into a building. Apparently that’s because the Somalians created lots of trouble.

And finally the first country which was originally planned! We visited Rio de Janeiro, Ilha Grande and Sao Paolo. Rio de Janeiro is nice, Ilha Grande was really really great and we saw dolphins, but I didn’t like at all Sao Paolo. We would have liked to go to the Iguazu Falls, but we only got an extremely high rate and as it was some holiday we had no other choice to ask around, so that has to wait some time.

It also wasn’t on my original plans. This just shows how unpredictable life is! :) But I enjoyed Poland and would love to spend much more time there to discover the country. Nice people, good food, good prices and there must be beautiful nature as well! I will show you a picture of the biggest Jesus statue in the world (yes, it’s bigger than the one in Rio). The picture is not so good as it was taken from the running train but hope you can see it somehow.

It wasn’t even on my list planned for this year, but I’m so glad it happened. We went to Cape Town and the area and it was fantastic! The weather was perfect (although we got some sirious sunburnt, but our fault), food was excellent, beautiful landscape, lots of nature, interesting animals, kind people, great souvenirs! We loved everything and can’t wait to go back, there are still lots of things to do!

If I will be able to visit 8 new countries this year I will reach my first target of 35 countries total.
I will let you know my plans and then we will see if I am able to make it:
USA, Turkey, Egypt, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Japan and Oman. At least. If I can visit more, it’s even better!