Top 5 of my favourite cities in Europe

Last summer me and my family made kind of a roadtrip through Poland and I did not really know what to expect as I didn´t have a mental picture concerning this country at all. The last stop of our journey before returning back home was Krakow. I have already heard about Krakow before as some of my friends did already visit it and told me that it´s such a cute city. After vitising it, I can definitely confirm this! What I loved most about Krakow besides its beautiful sights was the fact that there were many small second hand shops all over the place as well as tiny cafés serving homemade lemonades (like you can see in the last pic). So staying there I just kept walking through the city finding one gorgeous spot after the other! Definitely worth a visit!

I did add Tromsø to this list for a totally different reason than the other ones. It ain´t got those really outstanding sights, but it´s the city´s special charme (that is really hard to describe) I fell in love with. Even thought it´s one of the biggest cities in this northern region, everything kinda seemed to be in slowmotion (cars, people,...) and the whole city was really quiet, so it felt as if someone pushed a button and slowed down the whole city. Kinda felt like in a movie. If you wonder why it looks pretty dark in almost all the pics - that´s because we´ve been there at the time of the year when there is polar night (stayed in Norway over new year´s eve) where it´s dark almost all day long and never gets 100% bright. So I guess this might also be one of the reasons for Tromso´s unique charm!

Living in Vienna I alsways thought about visiting Budapest "one day", but the pro about having a really spontanous boyfriend is that we only decided to visit Budapest shortly before actually travelling there. So the first thing that really surprised me was how cheap everything here is (if you compare it to Vienna). Actually I did compare Budapest to Vienna a lot (especially as both cities got quite the same size, both got many historical sights and are located on the river Danube) and even tho there are a lot of reasons why I love Vienna, there are also a some that made me add Budapest to this list instead. So the thing I love most about Budapest was the fact that the river Danube runs straight though the city (and it´s old town) seperating it in two parts (Buda and Pest). Buda is the hilly eastern part of the city, whereas Pest is the pretty flat western part. Fisherman´s bastion (picture number 4), the sight I enjoyed the most, is located on the Buda side of Budapest overlooking the whole city. So if you ever visit Budapest, this one is a must. You´ve also got an amazing view over the river Danube and the parliament building (picture number 2), which you can also have a look at while enjoying a boat trip. Last but not least I also really gotta mention the gorgeous floral looking ice cream (first pic) which you can buy at "Gelarto Rosa" at the Pest side. Budapest is such a gorgeous city!

Sintra is a pretty small city located just about 1 hour by car from Portugal´s capital city Lisbon. The thing I absolutely loved about Sintra was that I´ve never seen a city having so many sight and gorgeous spots at such a small size. The most impressive and also most famous sight in Sintra is definitely the "Pena Palace" - a yellow, red, orange and blue coloured castle located on a hill at the outside part of Sintra. I have had this place on my bucket list for a while, but was pretty surprised to see that sintra got much more to offer besides this colourful castle. We´ve only been there for a daytrip, but I guess I gotta really come back to Sintra to check out even more of it´s stunning sights. Actually I wasn´t sure if I should even put it on number one of this list, but anyway, the actual number one of this list is so deeply anchored in my heart that I could not manage to do that! So before scrolling further down, which city would you guess is the one I did rank as number one?

Growing up I spent quite many holidays with my family in Italy and most of them included a trip to Venice. That was not just because the city is located quite in the north of Italy so it´s pretty easy reachable from Austria, but also because my parents really love Venice - like I do now. The thing about this city is, that (in my point of view) you really gotta book a room within the heart of Venice (there are some reasonable prized options on Airbnb) as this city is becoming even more charming without the inrush of tourists (at night or in the early morning). Venice is also really charming in months like October or November as it ain´t gotta be really hot to enjoy the city. What I love most about Venice is getting lost there. Of course some spots like the Rialto Bridge or the famous St.Marcus´ Square are an absolute must, but the tiny alleys and little canals are just adorable (and when getting lost you got a pretty good chance to escape from tourist flows). Anyway, it´s out of question that Venice is just absolutely stunning!