Author Profile: Melissa Cherry Villumsen

I had already decided that I was going to spend the evening sightseeing in Oslo, so after I had collected my luggage, I paid a small amount to have it stored at the airport.Originally, I was going to take Flytoget, which would take me to the center of Oslo in 19...   view more

My time in Svalbard has been packed with activities and I actually only had one free day. For this day, I decided to explore the town that I’m staying in –...   view more

Visby is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Scandinavia. It’s also represented on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Because of the fascinating history and the many well-preserved ruins in the town, Visby has always been on the top of my list of places that I want to...   view more

I started my sightseeing day at the 73 meters tall Stadion Tower, where I paid 5 Euros to go to the top, where the view of Helsinki was amazing! I then went to the center of the city and walked to St. John’s...   view more

Girona, an ancient Catalan city founded in 79 BC, is a beautiful pearl in the Northeastern corner of Spain. But given its close location to the city of Barcelona, Girona is often greatly underrated and overshadowed by its majorly famous big...   view more

The first stop on my tour of Poland was the ancient harbour city of Gdansk. Founded in 1224, the city is rich on history and buildings from all ages can still be seen. town were ruined, but the buildings were later rebuilt in their original...   view more

Warsaw is a city that is rich on history. And at the same time, it’s a city that is reinventing itself all the time. Everywhere you go, you’ll see buildings from different centuries standing next to each other, creating a timeline in history in the modern...   view more

Poznan, which is the 5th largest city in Poland, is not your typical tourist city and most people that I met in Poland gave me a weird look when I told them where I was going and told me to drop it and go to Wroclaw...   view more

Of all the cities in Poland that I visited during my one-week travels, Kraków was the one I spent the most time in. My main reason for going and staying for three nights was to experience the notorious atmosphere of the old...   view more

I recently stumbled upon the term “urban hiking”. Everyone knows what hiking in the wild is, but I was completely clueless to the fact that one could actually hike in a city. But it actually makes...   view more

When I was planning my month in Australia, I already knew that I wanted to see some of the highlights on the East Coast. I hadn’t thought about the South, but I decided to add Adelaide – a city that I knew absolutely nothing about – to the list and stay there for 3...   view more

Elien and Liam wanted to show me some of their favourite places in the area, so we headed to Byron Bay, a famous beach town in the far-northeastern corner of New South...   view more

Brisbane, the third largest city in Australia and the capital of the state of Queensland, was my last destination on my one-month trip to Australia. Brisbane is a city that I’ve wanted to visit for ages, mainly because of my love for Black Milk...   view more

Belfast is a very charming city and deserves much more than just four hours of sightseeing. We did manage to see some of the highlights in and around the city...   view more

Dublin is a beautiful city with heaps to see and do: whether you enjoy getting drunk on one of the atmospheric Irish pubs, spending money on good shopping and dining or getting spiritual in the beautiful churches and cathedrals, there is something for...   view more

Contrary to popular belief, Canberra is in fact the capital of Australia. Not Sydney and not Melbourne, but Canberra. A small unknown spot on the map with only 350.000 inhabitants, located midway between the two previously mentioned...   view more

Being incredibly intrigued by mountains, fresh air and waterfalls, the Blue Mountains located just 50 km. from the center of Sydney were calling my name from the moment I got to Sydney. After so much time spent in concrete jungles, I knew that I had to go...   view more

With a dramatic skyline in contrast to quiet green parks, entertainment on every street corner, beach parties and rooftop parties with fireworks and a very multi-ethnic population, Sydney is a dynamic city where just about anything is...   view more

One day in the middle of December, I was searching for plane tickets on Momondo, just as I always do. I stumbled upon return tickets from Copenhagen to Budapest for just 278 DKK in January and I booked them. Just like that. Sometimes, I don’t even think, I just book, but I never...   view more

Due to the many different attractions that Vilnius offers, I would say that Vilnius is the most interesting capital to visit of the three baltic...   view more

Brunei Darussalam is a small, oil-rich country on Borneo that most people don’t ever visit or even hear about in their lifetime. Despite the fact that Brunei is not known for any major sights or nature, I decided to pay the small sultanate a visit while I was travelling through...   view more

So why Taipei? Well, it’s a huge city and I don’t really like huge cities, but it didn’t feel that big to me. Instead of spending money on the metro, I chose to walk everywhere, which resulted in some long walks to places that I otherwise wouldn’t have thought about going...   view more

On my second day in Taipei, after exploring the city for a bit, I decided to go on an afternoon hike to the popular Elephant Mountain at 183 m., where the view of the city is said to be...   view more

On my last day in Taiwan, I had a few hours to kill before going to the airport, so Jay and I decided to meet up and do a last little hike together. We chose to go to the suburb of Maokong, which is well known for its gondola lifts going up and down the...   view more

In case you were wondering, Asia is not all white beaches, tropical drinks and bikinis. I myself didn’t realize this until just recently, when I landed in the airport in Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost island of Japan –...   view more

Nara is famous for the many sika deer that roam the streets and the large Nara Park. In fact there are over 1,200 wild deer in the city and they are treated like...   view more

Macao is a popular tourist destination, mainly because of its current status as the world’s biggest casino city – in fact, the gambling industry in Macao is seven times bigger than Las Vegas. Thousands come to Macao to gamble in the many fancy...   view more

Mongolia was my 12th stop on the journey around Asia and the stop that I was most excited about. It was also the country that I had decided to spend the most time in, mainly because I was so intrigued by the nomadic culture that still exists in...   view more

Arriving in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, was an interesting experience. I boarded the full plane in Ulaanbaatar after much confusion, as the gate on my ticket had Istanbul as the...   view more

After meeting up at the airport in Istanbul, Steve and I boarded the plane to Tehran, the capital of Iran, and at 4.05 AM on January 13th, we arrived. When we arrived at the airport in Tehran, we had to go through a few things to get our Iranian...   view more

Kashan is an ancient city, and the name of the city comes from the Kasian, who were the original inhabitants of the city. The remains of the Kasian people are found at Tapeh Sialk near the city, which dates back 8000...   view more

Esfahan is located on the old silk trading route and was once one of the largest and most important cities in the world. The city flourished under the Safavid dynasty in the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was the capital of...   view more

The city of Shiraz is one of the oldest cities of Ancient Persia and dates back to 2000 BC. The city has been a regional trade center for over a thousand years, and during the 13th century, Shiraz was the leading center of arts and letters with many Persian artists and scholars living in the...   view more

Tabriz is the most populous city in the Iranian Azerbaijan area. The population consists mostly of Iranian Azerbaijanis and thus, the culture in Tabriz is quite different from the other cities that we visited in Iran, especially with the most spoken language being Azeri...   view more

Malmö is the fifth largest city in Scandinavia, the third largest city in Sweden, and the capital of the county of Scania. The city was founded in 1275 and was the second largest city in Denmark for many hundreds of years, before Scania became...   view more

So on October 17th, I arrived in the airport of Minsk, got my free 5-day visa and started my explorations of the country. I actually managed to see quite a bit of the enormous country in the short time I had, which you can read about in my upcoming...   view more

Vianden in the morning, Echternach in the afternoon! Sometimes I travel really fast, and on this 3-day trip to Amsterdam and Luxembourg I had no other choice than to hurry my way through my places of interest. Besides Luxembourg City, I also wanted to visit some smaller villages in...   view more

On my second and last day in Luxembourg, I wanted to get out of the city and explore some of the country’s smaller villages. I had read about scenic Vianden, located high up in the Ardennes Mountains near the border to Germany, and that was where I headed...   view more

Rønne has a population of 13,700 people, which is approximately 35 % of the entire population on Bornholm. The village, which is the administrative center of Bornholm, is strategically located on the westernmost point of the...   view more

If there’s something I cherish from my childhood travels, it’s all the summers spent in Thetford, a small town in East Anglia, where most of my mum’s side of the family...   view more

My younger brother Brandon and I had a long stopover in Montréal, the largest city in the French part of Canada and the second-largest in all of Canada after Toronto. We had seven hours left to explore Montréal before having to head to the airport. Montréal truly is...   view more

The main site in Lund is the cathedral, which is the largest metropolitan church in Scandinavia. Lund Cathedral was built in the 12th century as a Catholic church dedicated to Saint...   view more

The topography of Bergamo is unusual, since the modern part of the city is completely flat, but in the middle of it and above it lies the 16th century bastions of the old town on the crest of a...   view more

Borgholm is an extremely small town. I saw so many beautiful nature spots and interesting archaeological sites, which I’ll be writing more...   view more

Our first sight was the famous CN Tower, Toronto’s landmark. Towering above all other buildings in the city, this tower stands at 553,33 metres and is the second tallest manbuilt structure in the world, after the Burj Khalifa in...   view more

The old city is surrounded by a wall that encloses all the historic buildings and monuments of the city, as well as the homes of 3000 people, numerous restaurants, hotels and shops. The two most interesting sights within the old town, at least according to UNESCO, is the 900-year-old Maiden...   view more

We first walked to the Buckingham Fountain, a famous Chicago landmark located in the center of Grant Park. I LOVE fountains and this one was definitely one of the most beautiful fountains I’ve seen with its rococo wedding cake style architecture. It’s also one of the world’s largest...   view more

We were headed to Oklahoma City, the state capital of Oklahoma, where my friend Alexandria lives with her husband and...   view more

Los Angeles may be one of the world’s most developed cities, but an easy way to get from A to B does not exist. We thought about getting a taxi, but it was too expensive, at 50 USD for a short 20 km...   view more

On our first day of sightseeing, we walked all the way through the center and into an industrial area, which we had to go through to get to Cardiff Bay. We weren’t sure what to expect there, but despite the long walk, we thought it would be nice to see the...   view more

After many hours on a train from Minsk, I arrived in Brest and went straight to my hostel to get some sleep, after having two nights of only four and five hours...   view more

In the center of Luxembourg, the streets are narrow, some with cobbled streets, and the houses have colourful flowers in hanging baskets and cats in the windows. The squares are full of life and...   view more

We dropped off our bags and then headed into the streets of Zagreb. We walked into the center to the main square, Ban Jelačić Square, through the quaint Ulica Pavla Radica street, trying to locate the funicular to take us to the upper city,...   view more

Having just one day in Amsterdam isn’t a lot, but due to my plans of exploring the country of Luxembourg more thoroughly, I chose to spend less time in Amsterdam, as it’s a city which is well connected with flights to and from Denmark, unlike Luxembourg, so I can always...   view more

Ljubljana was a beautiful experience. It’s such a gorgeous city with so much to see and do that I think I could’ve spent months just wandering through its quaint...   view more

I had an entire day to explore Tirana, and to me that was enough. Most of the interesting sights are located within a few hundred metres from each other in the city center, such as the Pyramid of Tirana, which was designed by the daughter and son-in-law of Enver...   view more

Staying overnight in Berat meant that I had plenty of time to explore the city and see everything that this ancient pearl has to offer – it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site after all and also one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, so it deserves to be thoroughly...   view more

The Roman history is very apparent in the architecture all over Skopje, and it’s a highly unusual city with enormous roman-inspired monuments and buildings amongst rundown houses and garbage (the streets are full of garbage, much like...   view more

Ohrid has long been the most popular place in Macedonia for tourists and locals on holiday. I’d only heard great things about the place, so I knew that I had to see it for myself, despite it being three hours away from...   view more

There’s not an awful lot for tourists to see in Bucharest, and there aren’t any famous sights (the closest being the Palace of Parliament), but I think it’s a nice city to wander about in and people-watch. The old town in Bucharest is the perfect place to do just...   view more

On our second and last day in Romania, my mum and I decided to take a day trip out to Transylvania, a region in Central Romania known for its vampire stories, historic cities, cute mountain villages and scenic Carpathian...   view more

I ended up at the Revolution Square right in the heart of Moscow. Wanting to get to the famous Red Square, I walked through a cozy walking street with Christmas decorations (Russia is VERY into Christmas, even in January), and then I was...   view more

Denmark may not be at all mountainous, but we do have lakes, forests, beautiful coastlines and so much more. And then there’s our cultural heritage. There is so much history in Denmark (and Scandinavia in general) and it can be seen everywhere in the...   view more

Viðarlundin is my favourite place in Tórshavn, it’s a beautiful little haven, an oasis in the middle of the semi-busy city. A place where people come to relax, take a walk and feed the...   view more

Osh is a city that is very rich on history and its estimated to be more than 3000 years old, making it the oldest city in Kyrgyzstan. Osh is very different from any other city in Kyrgyzstan, mainly because of its ethnically mixed...   view more

Karakol is a top destination for travellers in Kyrgyzstan due to the amazing and diverse nature found in the area, and because of this, we decided to spend four nights there, which was the longest amount of time that we spent in any place in Central...   view more

In the evening after exploring Esfahan, we caught a bus to the city of Yazd, which took five hours and got us there at 1 AM. We stayed two nights in Yazd, and one full day was spent exploring the...   view more

For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard about Afghanistan in the news – and not for good reasons. When Steve and I heard that it was possible to travel to the only safe area in Afghanistan from the GBAO in Tajikistan, we just knew that we had to...   view more

It was on my second day in Azerbaijan that I decided to catch a bus to Sheki, to escape to the mountains, and stay there for a few days. I needed to spend some time healing in the...   view more

My days spent in Kharkhorin were very enjoyable and it was a perfect little getaway from the busy capital. Here is some useful information on how to travel to...   view more

Subotica is known as one of Serbia’s prettiest cities as it has one of the world’s largest collections of Art Nouveau architecture from the beginning of the 20th...   view more

Zrenjanin is the 10th largest city in the country with a population of just under 125,000. It’s the administrative centre and largest city of the Central Banat District and the third-largest town in the autonomous province of Vojvodina which makes up the northern part of...   view more

Although unbeknown to most, Belgium’s third-largest city was actually once one of the largest and most important cities in Europe, and its medieval centre is beautifully preserved to this day. For this reason, Gent attracts many tourists year-round, which is fully understandable. Visiting Gent is like stepping into a real-life...   view more

Last year in October, I visited Serbia for the first time, to work on an archaeological project in the northern province of Vojvodina. I missed out on exploring Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, so when I was invited back to work on the project again in March this year, I knew I had to incorporate Belgrade into my trip. I made it my first destination in the country, and my boyfriend spontaneously decided to join...   view more

Bergen is notorious for its constant rain; with an average of 239 rainy days per year, it’s actually one of Europe’s wettest places! Nevertheless, Norway’s second-largest city is known for its beauty, and it’s no wonder. The city is nestled below seven mountains that rise high above quaint streets and colourful houses. The unstable weather only adds to its...   view more

Serbia’s second-largest city officially became the European Capital of Culture on January 13th this year after a yearlong delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This designation highlights the city as a cultural hotspot in Serbia, and hope is that it will bring an influx of tourists to the area. There has never been a better time to visit Novi...   view more

Our first full day in Austria this summer was a gorgeous one. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky, and we decided to spend the day exploring Innsbruck. The city is known as the capital of the Alps, and it’s the fifth-largest city in the country with a population of over 130,000 people. It’s a colourful and picturesque city nestled beneath the mighty Alps, and it served as a great introduction to the area we’d be spending the next week...   view more

Ever since my trip to Azerbaijan in the winter of 2018, I’d been wanting to return to the Caucasus region, so when Covid-19 finally slowed down over the autumn and I’d received my two vaccines on top of a recovery, I felt it was finally safe to go. I chose to fly into Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and out of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. With 2,5 weeks to spare for the trip, I knew it wasn’t going to be enough to see everything these two magnificent countries have to offer, but at...   view more

During my roadtrip through Germany last summer, I tried to visit as many UNESCO sites as possible. It’s something I’ve done for a few years during my travels, and I’m currently up to 120 sites worldwide. The UNESCO World Heritage Sites are places designated by the UN for their outstanding cultural and/or natural heritage and their importance to the collective interests of humanity – and usually, that means they’re places well worth...   view more

The Basque Country (or Euskal Herria in the local language) is a large region in the western Pyrenees Mountains that comprises four provinces in Spain and three in France. It’s the ancient home of the Basque people, said to be one of the oldest peoples in...   view more

It was my last day in Lisbon and my last day in Portugal on my journey through Southern Europe two summers ago. There was one place I’d been dying (hehe) to see while in the country – the Chapel of Bones in Évora! So on my last day, I decided to catch a train to the city of Évora and spend the day...   view more

An unexpected turn of events brought me to the Hanseatic city of Lübeck last summer. The city is a Danish favourite due to its close proximity to the country in the northernmost state of Germany,...   view more

Northwest of Lisbon, at the edge of Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais sits the architectural gem of Sintra. The town was inscribed on UNESCO’S World Heritage List in 1995, and it’s one of the main tourist destinations in Portugal, famed for its historic castles and, in particular, the fairytale-like Pena Palace. It’s no wonder why people flock to...   view more

Córdoba is Spain’s City of Love. It’s so romantic that Venice and Paris pale by comparison. And with the second-largest preserved historic centre in Europe and a unique mosque-cathedral, Córdoba is a definite must-see on any trip to Andalusia – also if you’re travelling solo. Cutting Morocco from my itinerary ensured that I had time to visit Córdoba during my month-long journey through Southern Europe. As soon as I stepped foot inside the historic centre, I knew it was a decision I...   view more

I visited quite a few new countries this summer and the first one on the long list was the tiny nation of San Marino. San Marino is the third smallest country in Europe and the fifth smallest in the world. It’s an enclaved microstate on the northeastern side of the Apennine Mountains, surrounded completely by Italy, making it one of only three countries in the world to be completely surrounded by another country (the other two being Vatican City, also surrounded by Italy, and Lesotho,...   view more

Saxon Switzerland is a national park that stretches along the eastern German border and into Czech Republic, where it is known as Bohemian Switzerland. The main draw of the national park is the sandstone rocks protruding through densely forested mountains, and the German side is by far the most popular. But because accommodation is very expensive on the German side, a campsite in the small Czech city of Děčín ended up as my choice of accommodation when booking a trip for my travel buddy and I...   view more

Christiansfeld is a town like no other in Denmark. It was founded in 1773 by the Moravian Church (or ‘the Unity of the Brethren’) as its centre in Denmark, and named after the Danish king at the time, Christian VII. All the historic buildings are so well-preserved that it’s considered the best example of Moravian Church architecture in the...   view more

My dear grandmother is a huge fan of Austrian schlager singer Hansi Hinterseer and has been for many years. While we were in Austria last summer, my parents and I thought it would be fun to surprise her with a visit to his...   view more

Novi Bečej is located in the Central Banat District of the province of Vojvodina near the borders to Hungary and Romania. The town is home to a large population of Hungarians and a smaller but still significant population of Romani. However, Serbs make up the majority at around 60 %. The town is located on the banks of the river Tisa which begins in Ukraine and joins the Danube near the village of Stari Slankamen further south in...   view more

Greifswald is a small city in Western Pomerania, located on the Baltic Sea near the German islands of Rügen and Usedom and just 80 km from the Polish border. The city is well known for being a university city; in fact, out of a population of around 60,000, over 11,000 of them are university students! Just like nearby Stralsund, Greifswald was part of the Hanseatic League in the Medieval period, during which the university was founded in 1456, making it the fourth oldest university in Germany...   view more

For our summer holiday this year, my family and I decided to tour Rügen, the largest island in Germany. But when searching for accommodation on the island, we couldn’t find anything within our budgets, so instead, we searched in the mainland city of Stralsund, the gateway to Rügen with not just one but two bridges that connect the city with the island. We found the perfect combination there; nice hotel rooms for my mum, dad and grandmother and a cheap hostel room for my younger brother and I...   view more