i couldnt wait to put Italy behind me, the guy at the bus station in Venice told me i had to catch a train to Mestre if i wanted to catch a bus, which is no big deal it was only the next stop over. anyway, i caught it there and the bus station was closed for lunch so it looked like putting it all behind me had to wait a little while, i was a little bit worried that it wouldnt open in time, becuase my bus was coming at 4pm. when it finally did the guy at the bus station was so unhelpful, i think he wanted to go for a smoke so he just told me there were no buses today and walked off. knowing full well that there was a bus i asked the girl at the train desk and she found out that there was a bus at 4.50pm down the road and i could buy my ticket on the bus. why the guy couldn-t have waited 5 minutes to tell me that, i dont know? what a lazy sod!
so i waited around down this really dodgy alley for about half an hour and finally the bus shows up. buses arent that great at the best of times, but i had a feeling this one was going to be interesting. i've never read this book but i've been meaning to for years its called 'the guide to Molvanîa' its written by the guys that created the panel, the late show and thank god your here. the book is a guide to a fictional eastern european city called Molvanîa, i remember the tag line for the book being something like 'a land untouched by modern dentisty' and as soon as i got on the bus, i thought 'this bus must be going to Molvanîa' lets just say there were a lot of gummy smiles. the more i had a look around the more i noticed other things, people with sausages cutting off bits to eat, there was two guys sitting next to each other head to toe in leather, then about half way they put on a DVD to watch, it was the strangest B-grade movie (not good B-grade) it was a slap stick comedy and there were UFOs, it was bizarre, but it was a huge hit with everyone on the bus. The movie got about half way and died, it must have been a pirated copy becuase it didnt have scene selection so they couldn't get it back to the point it stopped so they started it from the start again.
the girl at the station told me it was 20EUROs to get this bus, so when i got on i handed them a 20EURO note and got on, the guy came up to me later handed me 6EURO back and in broken english tried to explain to me that is was 74EURO, i didn't hand over anymore money because he said something like 'pay later' so when i got into Ljubljana, i casually got off the bus, got my bag and wandered off into the night. there way no way on earth i was going to pay that much for that bus ride.
the hostel was really easy to find and pretty awesome. friendly staff, free internet, the rooms were great and more importantly, clean! i met a guy here that knew my friend Erin who i used to go to uni with, small world huh? anyway, enough with all the boring stuff, more about Ljubljana.
after the bus ride i wasnt sure what to expect from Ljubljana i think thats the great thing about eastern europe, its like a lucky dip in a lot of ways. anyway, Ljubljana is a really small little place but full on character. its got a big castle on the top of a hill which was originally built somewhere around the 1100s, and the town is pretty much built around. i dont think its the greatest of castles, bits and pieces of it are built in different periods but geez, if these walls could talk, throughout time its been used as a number of things, one example is during WWII it was used as a prison, these days its more or less a tourist attraction, the view from up the top is pretty good.
the old town is quite beautiful and kind of kooky. its got all these really old beautiful buildings, some of them really well restored others a little worst for wear. on a couple of them i noticed they had mutrals but they werent that well preserved, it looked like the sun had bleached them, but they were still quite pretty, well, what was left of them. the part i found kooky was i found this derelict building that looked like it was falling apart down stairs, but when i looked up top and in the window they had all this kitch furniture and lights on up the top, i thought it may have been a shop or something, it didnt look very inviting from downstairs but i thought, nothing ventured, nothing gained so walked up the dodgy stair case up the top and found nothing was in there and the stuff i had seen from the street was like a set of a movie to make you think something was there. i figure it must be some art piece, becuase there are a couple of strange things like that around, like a heap of crazy bird feeders all bunched together. i liked it, mainly because i didnt expect it.
there is a river that runs through the middle of the town and along there are quite a number of great little bars, everyone of them with there own individual flavour. the town centre at night is still quite viberant considering how cold it is here, it snowed a little bit while i was here, it wasnt too heavy which was nice, i could still walk around in it.
not far from the town centre is the Tivoli which is a big garden, its not really much to rave about but behind it is a forest which is quite beautiful i went for a wander around, but the paths werent that good and i had to turn around becuase i couldnt get any further, supposedly on the other side is a zoo but i didnt make it, im sure ive seen most of the animals before so no big loss.
they have an area here similar to Christiana in Copenhagen (click here to see my Copenhagen post) its not far from the main train station, it was pretty cool, plenty of street art and strange stuff but since ive been to Christiana it wasnt that exciting, it felt like i was just doing it again. apart from that and the Tivoli there isnt really much worth seeing outside of the town centre.
not far from my hostel is a market place, i always like to wander around market places whenever i get the chance, i dont know why, i think i just like the vibe of them. anyway, i got some food from one of the venders, just some bread, she must have realised i wasnt from her, i went to hand over the money for it, but she wouldnt take it, she just smiled and gentlely pushed my hand holding the money back to me. i think i was a little in shock, even though it wasnt that expensive, coming from Venice where everything is expensive and you dont get anything for free, i just didnt expect it. come to think of it, all the locals i have met have been very friendly.
while i was here I did a day trip out to Bled. its about an hour by bus and it was really beautiful. so much nature to take in the mountains are amazing and are snow capped at the moment which, i think, makes them look even better. Bled is a cute little place, its got a huge lake in the middle of the town, theres an island in the middle of the lake with, what i was told, was a monestry. but probably the main attraction is the castle perched on the top of a cliff, it beats the pants off the one in Ljubljana, mainly becuase it looks like its going to fall off the edge at any moment. to get up there is a bit of a hike but the view from up the top is amazing. something ive noticed about both Ljubljana and Bled was how clean they both were, (i think ive been taking more notice since ive been to Naples.)
during the bus ride to Ljubljana i was thinking to myself 'have i had enough? i'm not enjoying this that much anymore, should i just throw in the towel?' luckily Ljubljana has snapped me out of that, well, at least for the time being. even though there wasnt a lot to do here, it was very pretty and worth the look. i have no idea where im going next so i guess youll find out when i do.
Venice
finally we left Naples and thank god for that, at one stage i didn't think i was going to make it out alive, and we caught an overnight train to Venice. we arrived about 8:30am, having only had a few winks of sleep. we couldn't check into our hostel until 2:00pm so we just dropped our bags off and wandered the city. we were both really tired which i think ended up being a good thing because i was beyond sleep so i walked all day.
I think compared to Naples anything could've been beautiful but Venice actually was very pretty, probably the prettiest place i've visited so far. the canals look quite clean, well, cleaner than i thought they would be, i still wouldn't go for a swim in them, they sometimes left off a bit of a smell. speaking of the water i was surprised to see how high the water rises. some mornings it would be right up to the brim, sometimes even flooding the streets. but then in the afternoon it would drop down quite a bit with the tide. Piazza San Marco was a good example of this, a fair amount of it was flooded when i was there, and they had planks of wood to get from one side to the other. which has to make you think, what is Venice going to do about global warming?
speaking of Piazza San Marco, St Mark's Basilica is there, which is quite nice i suppose. at this point i'm really over seeing churches, but this one was interesting, it looked like it had mosaics on the ceiling. it would've taken so long to create so i appreciated the blood, sweat and tears that would've gone into making it. a famous part of the square is St Marks Campanile which is more or less a big tower that was originally built in 1500s. over the years its been burnt, damaged by earthquakes and it eventually collapsed in 1902 when it developed a huge crack, amazingly no one was killed, the only loss was the caretakers cat, but it was rebuilt and the replica still stands today.
the streets of Venice are fantastic, really small and windy, there's no point in having a map, you might as well throw it to the wind, so many times there we would walk and somehow make our way back to the hostel and never know how we did it, i swear there was a portal down one of the streets that sends you in the right direction.
obviously with all the canals there are quite a number of bridges around, the Rialto Bridge is meant to be one of the better ones, but to me it was just a bridge. seeing the gondolas go down the canals is quite special, something i liked most with having no cars there meant no horns, i think if i heard another beep i was going to go mad! italians love the horn! i didn't go on a gondola ride because they were too expensive, but i caught a ferry which was still expensive, but a lot cheaper. it was actually a really good way to see Venice some of the buildings are really beautiful, its kind of amazing that they are still standing. someone said to me going to Venice is a little bit like going back in time, and to an extent they were right.
something that Venice is known for is its Venician Glass some of it is really quite beautiful, great colours and some of the things that create out of it is nothing short of amazing. the Guidecca island is supposidly where all the factories are but i didnt bother going over there because i wasnt that into it. something else ive noticed here in Venice is there masks, they are sold everywhere and just like the glass, quite amazing, some of them quite elabrate and others plain freaky. they are mainly used for the Carnival of Venice supposidly the Maskmakers have a special position in society and have with their own laws. crazy! but the thing that puzzles me the most is Venician blinds, i didnt see one set the whole time i was here.
i checked out Peggy Guggenheim's house. Peggy Guggenheim was an american art collector who mainly lived in Paris but had a house here. she was a huge supporter of modern abstract art and some of the work in her personal collection rivals that of some countries. with Man Rays, Pollocks (i think she may have had an affair with Jackson Pollock but dont quote me on that), heaps of Picassos, Max Ernst (whom she was married to for a while) and Kandinsky just to name a couple. something that annoyed me was there was a piece of work by Yoko Ono, and i say piece very loosly, all she did was plant and olive tree. i swear Yoko Ono is such a joke i cant believe she hasnt been found out yet, i bet she didnt even water the plant to make it grow! not to mention she broke up the Beatles, need i say more?
our hostel was not bad and reasonably priced for Venice, it was in a cute little square, but it didn't have a kitchen which made it a little bit hard because generally thats how ive been saving money. actually it was really hard to find a hostel in Venice that had a kitchen. anyway, we met a nice guy from Brazil who was staying in our dorm. i kind of felt a bit sorry for him, because he had just moved over here on exchange to study, but by the sounds of it, he hadn't done much research. he didn't know anyone, he didn't have a phone, no where to live, the University here didn't offer his course, he didn't speak much of the language and when i spoke to him about money exchange rates he told me 1EURO is something like 4 Brazilian dollars (i didnt catch the currency they use over there). poor guy, he was really nice and understandably a bit scared i think too. so we invited him to have pizza with us one night, i hope it works out for him.
something i enjoyed while i was here was every morning i would go to the cute little coffee shop just underneath the hostel and get a coffee, i really liked going there the owners were really friendly, the price was pretty good and there coffees were easily the best i've ever had. anyway, i used to just sit there and people watch but my favourite thing to do was watch these two little birds that would come in everyday and sneak in the door to get the crumbs off the floor. everyday they would try and figure out ways of getting the crumbs without getting caught by the owner, who would chase them out. sometimes they would get away with being in there for ages. hiding behind chairs then sticking there little heads out to see if the guy had gone. i always wanted them to stay inside, so i would never tell the owner or i would cover for them by ordering another coffee.
one morning while i was there, there was an old italian man sitting having a drink, he had some photos he had taken and would show everyone and anyone that walked passed. come to think of it he might had had a bit of dementia. he showed me and i must of taken my beanie off and he began to show me how to style my hair, i laughed and tried to do it the way he showed me but he saw saying i had it all wrong, he gestured as if to say may i show you, i figured why not he's pretty harmless so i ran with it. he brushed my fringe forward and gave me a Elvis looking style with a curl at the front. he was so pleased with himself he was pointing it out to everyone. i thought it was hilarious and laughed my headed off.
i stayed in Venice for about 3 days which was probably a day too long, Venice is really nice but really quite boring to be honest, you can pretty much do all the sights in a day, and oh my god this place is expensive, everything costs an arm and a leg! for instance we had a pretty basic lunch one day and it cost me 10EURO! and the food wasn't even that good, actually you have to watch out because there are a lot of places that microwave pasta meals and serve them, how dodgy is that! and the price of internet was outrageous, thats why the blogs so late, sorry about that.
i have to say, overall i've been pretty disappointed with Italy. i thought, before getting here, it would be the gem of the trip, but it hasn't worked out that way at all. but i'm glad i went, at least now i know. Venice wasn't just the end of my time in Italy it was also the end of my time traveling with Ash. she had to fly back to Dublin to continue working at her job. i really enjoyed telling here fake history and would wait and see if she would figure out if i was lying. she figured out pretty early on that half the stuff that was coming out of my mouth was rubbish and i was doing it for a laugh because i was bored. it was nice to travel with someone for a bit, even though at times it was difficult, but i'm looking forward to traveling on my own again too. now i'm off to Ljubljana.
I think compared to Naples anything could've been beautiful but Venice actually was very pretty, probably the prettiest place i've visited so far. the canals look quite clean, well, cleaner than i thought they would be, i still wouldn't go for a swim in them, they sometimes left off a bit of a smell. speaking of the water i was surprised to see how high the water rises. some mornings it would be right up to the brim, sometimes even flooding the streets. but then in the afternoon it would drop down quite a bit with the tide. Piazza San Marco was a good example of this, a fair amount of it was flooded when i was there, and they had planks of wood to get from one side to the other. which has to make you think, what is Venice going to do about global warming?
speaking of Piazza San Marco, St Mark's Basilica is there, which is quite nice i suppose. at this point i'm really over seeing churches, but this one was interesting, it looked like it had mosaics on the ceiling. it would've taken so long to create so i appreciated the blood, sweat and tears that would've gone into making it. a famous part of the square is St Marks Campanile which is more or less a big tower that was originally built in 1500s. over the years its been burnt, damaged by earthquakes and it eventually collapsed in 1902 when it developed a huge crack, amazingly no one was killed, the only loss was the caretakers cat, but it was rebuilt and the replica still stands today.
the streets of Venice are fantastic, really small and windy, there's no point in having a map, you might as well throw it to the wind, so many times there we would walk and somehow make our way back to the hostel and never know how we did it, i swear there was a portal down one of the streets that sends you in the right direction.
obviously with all the canals there are quite a number of bridges around, the Rialto Bridge is meant to be one of the better ones, but to me it was just a bridge. seeing the gondolas go down the canals is quite special, something i liked most with having no cars there meant no horns, i think if i heard another beep i was going to go mad! italians love the horn! i didn't go on a gondola ride because they were too expensive, but i caught a ferry which was still expensive, but a lot cheaper. it was actually a really good way to see Venice some of the buildings are really beautiful, its kind of amazing that they are still standing. someone said to me going to Venice is a little bit like going back in time, and to an extent they were right.
something that Venice is known for is its Venician Glass some of it is really quite beautiful, great colours and some of the things that create out of it is nothing short of amazing. the Guidecca island is supposidly where all the factories are but i didnt bother going over there because i wasnt that into it. something else ive noticed here in Venice is there masks, they are sold everywhere and just like the glass, quite amazing, some of them quite elabrate and others plain freaky. they are mainly used for the Carnival of Venice supposidly the Maskmakers have a special position in society and have with their own laws. crazy! but the thing that puzzles me the most is Venician blinds, i didnt see one set the whole time i was here.
i checked out Peggy Guggenheim's house. Peggy Guggenheim was an american art collector who mainly lived in Paris but had a house here. she was a huge supporter of modern abstract art and some of the work in her personal collection rivals that of some countries. with Man Rays, Pollocks (i think she may have had an affair with Jackson Pollock but dont quote me on that), heaps of Picassos, Max Ernst (whom she was married to for a while) and Kandinsky just to name a couple. something that annoyed me was there was a piece of work by Yoko Ono, and i say piece very loosly, all she did was plant and olive tree. i swear Yoko Ono is such a joke i cant believe she hasnt been found out yet, i bet she didnt even water the plant to make it grow! not to mention she broke up the Beatles, need i say more?
our hostel was not bad and reasonably priced for Venice, it was in a cute little square, but it didn't have a kitchen which made it a little bit hard because generally thats how ive been saving money. actually it was really hard to find a hostel in Venice that had a kitchen. anyway, we met a nice guy from Brazil who was staying in our dorm. i kind of felt a bit sorry for him, because he had just moved over here on exchange to study, but by the sounds of it, he hadn't done much research. he didn't know anyone, he didn't have a phone, no where to live, the University here didn't offer his course, he didn't speak much of the language and when i spoke to him about money exchange rates he told me 1EURO is something like 4 Brazilian dollars (i didnt catch the currency they use over there). poor guy, he was really nice and understandably a bit scared i think too. so we invited him to have pizza with us one night, i hope it works out for him.
something i enjoyed while i was here was every morning i would go to the cute little coffee shop just underneath the hostel and get a coffee, i really liked going there the owners were really friendly, the price was pretty good and there coffees were easily the best i've ever had. anyway, i used to just sit there and people watch but my favourite thing to do was watch these two little birds that would come in everyday and sneak in the door to get the crumbs off the floor. everyday they would try and figure out ways of getting the crumbs without getting caught by the owner, who would chase them out. sometimes they would get away with being in there for ages. hiding behind chairs then sticking there little heads out to see if the guy had gone. i always wanted them to stay inside, so i would never tell the owner or i would cover for them by ordering another coffee.
one morning while i was there, there was an old italian man sitting having a drink, he had some photos he had taken and would show everyone and anyone that walked passed. come to think of it he might had had a bit of dementia. he showed me and i must of taken my beanie off and he began to show me how to style my hair, i laughed and tried to do it the way he showed me but he saw saying i had it all wrong, he gestured as if to say may i show you, i figured why not he's pretty harmless so i ran with it. he brushed my fringe forward and gave me a Elvis looking style with a curl at the front. he was so pleased with himself he was pointing it out to everyone. i thought it was hilarious and laughed my headed off.
i stayed in Venice for about 3 days which was probably a day too long, Venice is really nice but really quite boring to be honest, you can pretty much do all the sights in a day, and oh my god this place is expensive, everything costs an arm and a leg! for instance we had a pretty basic lunch one day and it cost me 10EURO! and the food wasn't even that good, actually you have to watch out because there are a lot of places that microwave pasta meals and serve them, how dodgy is that! and the price of internet was outrageous, thats why the blogs so late, sorry about that.
i have to say, overall i've been pretty disappointed with Italy. i thought, before getting here, it would be the gem of the trip, but it hasn't worked out that way at all. but i'm glad i went, at least now i know. Venice wasn't just the end of my time in Italy it was also the end of my time traveling with Ash. she had to fly back to Dublin to continue working at her job. i really enjoyed telling here fake history and would wait and see if she would figure out if i was lying. she figured out pretty early on that half the stuff that was coming out of my mouth was rubbish and i was doing it for a laugh because i was bored. it was nice to travel with someone for a bit, even though at times it was difficult, but i'm looking forward to traveling on my own again too. now i'm off to Ljubljana.
Naples
didn't get off to a great start. we brought our ticket and waited at the train station for our train to pull in. we saw it come up on the arivals board and just as it was time for it to pull in, the name dropped off the screen. there was no way we could've missed it, we were way ahead of it coming in, and with the way italian public transport is, there was no chance it would be early. are a bit of investigative work we found out that the workers had suddenly decided to go on strike. i've heard since this is quite common in italy, they go on strike at the drop of a hat. anyway i finally made it on the train and headed south to Naples. along the way was quite beautiful with mountainous country side and good weather to boot. i was thinking Naples is going to be awesome, becuase i my mind i had painted a picture of a cute sideside town, something maybe similar to Nice but perhaps a little bit more built up, and of course, Italian. boy i was wrong.
we got off the train station in the mid afternoon and wondered what i had stepped into. where was the cute little town i had imagined? what is this ghetto in its place? Ghetto in some cases might me a harsh word but to be totally honest i think it sums up the majority of Naples quite well. I thought Rome was messy and full of litter, but naples takes the cake. its so dirty here, mess and rubbish everywhere. i heard the further you go down in italy the dirtier it gets but this was ridiculous. and the amount of dodgy characters selling/pushing hot goods was out of control. you might think i'm imagining this stuff and perhaps carrying on a bit. but when we got to the hostel even the old man at reception told us to keep very little money on us at all times as well as keep it safe (like the inside pocket of a jacket) so that pick pockets don't steal it. he gave us a map of the city and showed us the safest streets to walk down to get to the sights and pretty much pleaded with us not to go out passed 10 o'clock. he was so nice and helpful, it was great to have someone keep an eye out for you.
we did the sights which to be honest were nothing to rave about. they have couple of castles on there coastline, not far from each other, and the area around there is ok. but part from that, i don't think it was that great. i heard you could do Naples in a day, i think i did it in a couple of hours! but to be honest i didn't really care, the main reason i came to Naples was to see the anicent city of Pompeii.
Pompeii is just a small train ride out of Naples. but even that was a eye openner, we were looking for our train (because there were about 20 platforms it wasn't as easy as it sounds) and this little italian man, who must have heard me ask the information area which platform, came up to me and said 'are you looking for Pompeii?' i said 'yeah' so he said 'i know where to go, you head this way, turn right and... actually, its on my way i'll show you' he had a toursit information badge on so i thought why not. but in the back of my mind i was thinking 'he's being a little too helpful, what does he want?' anyway he walked us down to the platform and as soon as he got there, he said 'this is the train to Pompeii that will be 5 EURO please' i was like 'what?' i couldn't believe it. i was kind of angry at him because i hate when someone pretends to be doing you a favour then when really its for there own benifit. i thought it was kind of sad that this is what the world had come to. he wouldn't leave us alone so we gave him some EURO because somehow in his mind he thought it was ok, once we did and he buzzed off. its a shame becuase those kind of experiences, i think, make you less trusting of everyone.
the train was pretty horrible, it leaked, smelt really funky and looking out the window during the train trip i saw how dirty naples and its surrounding towns were. which made me think, who is in charge of cleaning this stuff? i know that its the people that live here that make it dirty but i'm sure these people pay taxes. i had heard about the Italian government and how corrupt they are, but i didn't really realise how little they really did until i came here. people that live here don't really even seem to notice the mess and i think thats the main problem, education. i think that littering has become so much part of there lives that perhaps they don't know what they are doing. for instance you always see people smoking in italy, not just in Naples but everywhere in italy, and it just seems like a reflex action to throw there butt on the ground, not put it out and throw it in a bin. its sad but in some ways i think its too far gone. but then again, what do i know? i'm just someone on the outside looking in.
thank god after the train ride Pompeii was really worth it. it all started i suppose when Mt Vesuvius blew its top and covered the city with ash and volcanic debris thousands of years ago. to see this city preserved in time was quite an amazing thing to see you can still see shop names written on the walls, its amazing that some of the frescos are still intact. the thing i think is funny is it was accidentally discovered. in 1748 some workers were digging a hole or something and found some bones in a cavity. luckily one of them was smart enough to fill the hole with plaster and when they dug the plaster out they found it created a figure. to see those poor people and animals (there was a cast of a dog too) was a combination of tragic and amazing all at the same time, the amount of detail was breath taking, you could see the folds of there clothes and everything. something i found interesting was there was a laundry and back in those days they used to use urine to help clean clothes becuase of its ammonia properties. it made me think, not that i'd try it, but could we still use urine to clean our clothes? or would it be impossible because i imagine that our diets have changed so much over time. i dunno, until i figure it out i'll keep using Omo.
anyway, that was my Naples experience, i think in some ways experience is an understatement. the plan was to head to Bari and catch a ferry to Dubrovnik but the ferries arent running at the moment which is a bit of a pain, so were heading up to Venice, its a bi of the long way around but what can you do? more when i get there.
we got off the train station in the mid afternoon and wondered what i had stepped into. where was the cute little town i had imagined? what is this ghetto in its place? Ghetto in some cases might me a harsh word but to be totally honest i think it sums up the majority of Naples quite well. I thought Rome was messy and full of litter, but naples takes the cake. its so dirty here, mess and rubbish everywhere. i heard the further you go down in italy the dirtier it gets but this was ridiculous. and the amount of dodgy characters selling/pushing hot goods was out of control. you might think i'm imagining this stuff and perhaps carrying on a bit. but when we got to the hostel even the old man at reception told us to keep very little money on us at all times as well as keep it safe (like the inside pocket of a jacket) so that pick pockets don't steal it. he gave us a map of the city and showed us the safest streets to walk down to get to the sights and pretty much pleaded with us not to go out passed 10 o'clock. he was so nice and helpful, it was great to have someone keep an eye out for you.
we did the sights which to be honest were nothing to rave about. they have couple of castles on there coastline, not far from each other, and the area around there is ok. but part from that, i don't think it was that great. i heard you could do Naples in a day, i think i did it in a couple of hours! but to be honest i didn't really care, the main reason i came to Naples was to see the anicent city of Pompeii.
Pompeii is just a small train ride out of Naples. but even that was a eye openner, we were looking for our train (because there were about 20 platforms it wasn't as easy as it sounds) and this little italian man, who must have heard me ask the information area which platform, came up to me and said 'are you looking for Pompeii?' i said 'yeah' so he said 'i know where to go, you head this way, turn right and... actually, its on my way i'll show you' he had a toursit information badge on so i thought why not. but in the back of my mind i was thinking 'he's being a little too helpful, what does he want?' anyway he walked us down to the platform and as soon as he got there, he said 'this is the train to Pompeii that will be 5 EURO please' i was like 'what?' i couldn't believe it. i was kind of angry at him because i hate when someone pretends to be doing you a favour then when really its for there own benifit. i thought it was kind of sad that this is what the world had come to. he wouldn't leave us alone so we gave him some EURO because somehow in his mind he thought it was ok, once we did and he buzzed off. its a shame becuase those kind of experiences, i think, make you less trusting of everyone.
the train was pretty horrible, it leaked, smelt really funky and looking out the window during the train trip i saw how dirty naples and its surrounding towns were. which made me think, who is in charge of cleaning this stuff? i know that its the people that live here that make it dirty but i'm sure these people pay taxes. i had heard about the Italian government and how corrupt they are, but i didn't really realise how little they really did until i came here. people that live here don't really even seem to notice the mess and i think thats the main problem, education. i think that littering has become so much part of there lives that perhaps they don't know what they are doing. for instance you always see people smoking in italy, not just in Naples but everywhere in italy, and it just seems like a reflex action to throw there butt on the ground, not put it out and throw it in a bin. its sad but in some ways i think its too far gone. but then again, what do i know? i'm just someone on the outside looking in.
thank god after the train ride Pompeii was really worth it. it all started i suppose when Mt Vesuvius blew its top and covered the city with ash and volcanic debris thousands of years ago. to see this city preserved in time was quite an amazing thing to see you can still see shop names written on the walls, its amazing that some of the frescos are still intact. the thing i think is funny is it was accidentally discovered. in 1748 some workers were digging a hole or something and found some bones in a cavity. luckily one of them was smart enough to fill the hole with plaster and when they dug the plaster out they found it created a figure. to see those poor people and animals (there was a cast of a dog too) was a combination of tragic and amazing all at the same time, the amount of detail was breath taking, you could see the folds of there clothes and everything. something i found interesting was there was a laundry and back in those days they used to use urine to help clean clothes becuase of its ammonia properties. it made me think, not that i'd try it, but could we still use urine to clean our clothes? or would it be impossible because i imagine that our diets have changed so much over time. i dunno, until i figure it out i'll keep using Omo.
anyway, that was my Naples experience, i think in some ways experience is an understatement. the plan was to head to Bari and catch a ferry to Dubrovnik but the ferries arent running at the moment which is a bit of a pain, so were heading up to Venice, its a bi of the long way around but what can you do? more when i get there.
Rome
after i left Florence i was a bit worried, i felt that maybe Italy wouldn't live up to the expectations i had of it. but some of the train ride down to Rome was quite nice and i saw a few of the little villages i had in mind. but after being in Rome my faith was restored, well not religiously, but in Italy. i think i liked it a lot more than Florence, it has some beautiful old buildings and i think the streets have a lot more character and some of the Piazza's are great. i did a fair bit here but i won't bore you with all the details (as i'm sure i sometimes do) but i'll tell you a few highlights.
i suppose a good place to start is the hostel. because the hostel we stayed in Florence was so good i figured this one was going to ok because it was recommended by the last hostel. turns out i was wrong. well, i didn't think it was too bad, but i'm a boy and i think sometimes i'm totally oblivious to things like this. but Ash went and had a shower and when she came back to the dorm and i could see from the look on her face i was going to get an ear bashing. she threw a bit of a tantrum and said the showers were horrible. i found it really hard to keep a straight face to be honest its pretty rare for her to really lose it, and shes no princess so what she was saying was true, the showers were pretty rank. but i persuaded her that we should stay here becuase from what i'd heard about Rome, not many hostel here are that great. she soon got over it and i got a laugh out of it. actually the staff were pretty rude too and they had a creepy cleaner who always seemed to be peering around corners i even had a go at one of the staff members for being so unhelpful, and thats saying something, usually i wouldn't say a word. but on the positive we did meet some cool people at the hostel. Kim and Sam who were an aussie couple in there 30's who were at the tail end of there honeymoon around Europe. they were really lovely and we cooked together a couple of nights we were here. (oh, by the way they weren't staying in the dorm on there honeymoon they were in the other section of the hostel.)
i suppose a good place to start is the hostel. because the hostel we stayed in Florence was so good i figured this one was going to ok because it was recommended by the last hostel. turns out i was wrong. well, i didn't think it was too bad, but i'm a boy and i think sometimes i'm totally oblivious to things like this. but Ash went and had a shower and when she came back to the dorm and i could see from the look on her face i was going to get an ear bashing. she threw a bit of a tantrum and said the showers were horrible. i found it really hard to keep a straight face to be honest its pretty rare for her to really lose it, and shes no princess so what she was saying was true, the showers were pretty rank. but i persuaded her that we should stay here becuase from what i'd heard about Rome, not many hostel here are that great. she soon got over it and i got a laugh out of it. actually the staff were pretty rude too and they had a creepy cleaner who always seemed to be peering around corners i even had a go at one of the staff members for being so unhelpful, and thats saying something, usually i wouldn't say a word. but on the positive we did meet some cool people at the hostel. Kim and Sam who were an aussie couple in there 30's who were at the tail end of there honeymoon around Europe. they were really lovely and we cooked together a couple of nights we were here. (oh, by the way they weren't staying in the dorm on there honeymoon they were in the other section of the hostel.)
when you see the Colosseum these days, its a bit of a shadow of its former self. there is only one half of the other layer remaining, i thought maybe it was from a natural disaster like an earthquake, but i was wrong it was from the people and artists of rome. when Italys religion changed to Catholic the Colosseum wasn't used any more so they allowed people to take what they wanted from it to build there homes, statues more churches. because the other layer was marble, it was well sort after, hence theres only half of it left.
actually, another strange fact is before italy was catholic they were pagen and would burn catholics as torches to keep the Colosseum lit up at night. but i think the most ironic bit is, after the Colosseum stopped getting used it started filling up with soil (it went right up to the second teir) anyway, it turned out it was the Vatican that paid for it to be repaired. go figure.and now for a bit of a rant. on my tour of the Colosseum, i had a few American tourists on it. now i want to start off by saying, just about every American i had met up to that point i had got on really well with, i still keep in contact with some of them. the people on the tour were from Georgia which, going on there accents, is in the south. i dunno if that was the main difference but they were the rudest people i have ever met in my life. they did a number, and said a number of stupid things, but the straw that broke the camels back was when one of them, pulled out a texta and wrote his name on the Colosseum then gloated to his mate about it, i nearly died! i couldn't believe that they had just heard the guide say this is one of the 7 wonders of the world, and to respect it and look after it, and then he pulled out a texta and defaced it. and to top it all off they were in there 50's, you'd think by then you would have some sence. i'm kicking myself now i didn't say anything. i mean imagine how he would feel if i wrote 'Trent was here' on the White House. it was disgusting! for the people reading this, i don't want you to get the wrong idea about Americans because as i said, the majority i've met have been awesome. and its probably got nothing to do with them coming from America, there are idiots in every country, but i just needed to vent.
being the good little catholic boy i am i just had to visit the Vatican city. i actually never knew that the Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. it was actually a good day to visit because on wednesdays Pope 'eggs' Benidict does a service kind of thing, so i got to see him. i have to say i'm not much of a fan of this pope, i don't think i'm the only one, i think for a lot of people the jury is still out. in my opinion hes got big shoes to fill, Pope John Paul II was pretty bloody good. but also i heard that recently he made some offensive comments about homosexuals. i'm sure it did get things for numbers in churchs, seriously 'eggs' get with the times.
St Peter's Basilica is HUGE, but i wouldn't really rave about it, big doesn't mean better. i personally couldn't leave the Vatican without a bit of blasphemy, even if it was under my breath.
Capitoline Hill is quite interesting legend had it, its where Rome was founded by 2 brothers, Romulus and Remus who were found in the river by a wolf and raised by her. to put a long sotry short the two brothers had a fight, and Romulus killed Remus hence thats why is called Rome. its all rubbish of course but its a nice story. anyway, the area surrounding is full of old ruins, i think it might have been where the Palace was at one stage. its kind of interesting but after a while it becomes rubble, still its pretty crazy to think of how old it is though. something interesting in the Capitoline Hill area is the Arch of Titus, which is like a big arch way they built when the romans were victorious over the Jews. as a sign of respect you can't walk under it these days, but supposidly a important trumpet was stolen during the war and the jewish people what it back. there are two stories floating around, Italian government say they down have it and believe its lost. but another theory is its somewhere in the Vatican. i smell a rat, but i couldn't help but think, this kind of thing sounds right up Dan Brown's alley, did i hear someone say 'the trumpet code'?
something i thought was kinda funny is they are trying to build another underground line in Rome but contantly run into problems because whenever they dig they find something and the experts get called in to inspect it, its taken them something like 2 years so far and they are no where near being finished.
something i thought was kinda funny is they are trying to build another underground line in Rome but contantly run into problems because whenever they dig they find something and the experts get called in to inspect it, its taken them something like 2 years so far and they are no where near being finished.
now for some day to day observations. i had heard that the Police here are quite lazy but it was almost laughable at how lazy they actually were, i always caught them having a smoke or having a laugh with another police officer. supposidly they don't get paid very well so the locals don't really mind. but considering how lazy they are, there mad about sirens, i don't think you can go 3 minutes without hearing a police siren, there probably in a rush to get work so they can knock off for the day. i also heard the police target tourist a fair bit and get you to pay your fine on the spot to them, something tells me the fine doesn't make it back to the police station. i didn't experience this so i dunno if it really true or not. traffic in Rome is a nightmare. i heard about this too, but you really have to experience it to believe it. i think the road rules over here are there are no rules. no lines on the ground. no giving way. absolute chaos! i thought about hiring a Vespa for a bit of fun, you know the whole when in rome thing, but i dont think i would've come back alive. i don't really understand why they rush on the road, they dont when there off them. something i found a bit of a shame about Rome was the amount of litter. there river is totally choked with the stuff and the colour of it is like a lime green. yuk! on another note completely i've had 'Italian Spiderman' in my head the hold time i've been here. i can't take credit for it, my mate Gabe showed it to me ages ago, but its pretty funny, click here to check it out. the story behind it is pretty cool. it was done by some Australian uni students for an assignment, they put it on youtube and got heaps of hits so they kept doing episodes and it became a bit of a youtube sensation.
oh, i got a hair cut while i was here in Italy, the barber was hilarious. he didn't speak much english at all so it was kinda hard to explain what i wanted. as he was cutting away he kept saying 'milano, milano' and 'kaka, si?' i just smiled as i had no idea what he was on about. at the end of the hair cut he grabbed a newspaper and said 'Kaka' and pointed to a photo of a soccer player. i think he was trying to say he was cutting my hair like him but i don't think it really looks like it at all. it looks a bit nerdy at the moment but it always does when you first get your hair cut, give it a week or two and it will be fine.
looking over what i've just written i've realised that maybe i have bored you with the details, sorry about that, scary thing is i saw more than what i've written about. anyway, taking the good with the bad, i really enjoyed Rome, some might say I came, i saw, i conquered, i brought the T-Shirt. next Naples!
Florence
i got word of a really good hostel here in Florence from a guy that was staying in the hostel in Cinque Terre, it sounded a bit too good to be true. he said that for 18EURO a night you got a cooked breakfast, a cooked dinner, a free walking tour and free internet. it was worth checking it out regardless if i thought he was pulling my leg, but lucky for me he came through with the goods. its possibly the best hostel i've stayed in to date. its a really nice environment with people over the years drawing or painting on the walls pictures or quotes, though a couple of quotes were a little bizarre, ie this one 'you can put a cat in an oven, but it doesn't make it a biscuit ' what does that even mean? anyway, ive met some cool people here too which is always a bonus.
i did the tour that the hostel offered and surprise, surprise, it turns out Florence is quite an interesting place. the Medici family seemed to pop up in its history quite a bit. they were the people that invent the early banking system like interest rates etc (can i hear everyone at home saying "wow, thanks Medici family!") anyway as you might gather they were quite weathly and had a lot of power around here, so much so they governed for about 300 years. they were obscenely rich and had two massive palaces, the main Medici guy didnt like hanging around with all the poor people much so he commissioned a giant walk way, high above the towns people, to run between his two palaces, which were about 1km away from each other. even if things got in the way, like other peoples homes, even a church the walk way ran straight through it. its quite amazing to see but at the same time you have to feel for the people that lost half there living room to it. anyway, when it was finally complete the head honcho still wasnt pleased. when he walked over the bit that ran over the Ponte Vecchio (which is a bridge) he didnt like the bad smells from below, because in that time, the shops that ran along the bridge were butchers, so he ruled that from that day onward only jewelery shops will do business on the bridge, and its been like that ever since. supposidly some of the worlds best jewellers trade there. its actually a great little bridge, so much character, it looks like the shops are only propped up by stilts.
i personally think over the other side of the river is a lot nicer, mainly because of its gardens which make the place a bit greener. dont get me wrong the other side is nice too but its a bit commercial, at first i got a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stores, dodgy little markets and tourists. but, it wasnt until i looked up at the buildings the stores were in that i saw there beauty. they were actually really nice. having said that, there must be some good shops around because the general dress standard of people here, i think, is pretty high. there are some seriously trendy people around.
a particular part i really liked about Florence was there was this church in the poorer parts of town that centuries ago used to house a lot of homeless, then the government saw what good they were doing so they got they more or less funded the church to teach people how to make leather goods as a way to support themselves. and because of the skills they learnt some of them became really good at creating things from leather and this made some of the poorest families end up being some of the richest in Florence. The church now is burial site to some of Florence's most when known people like Michelangelo and Gallio Galilei.
there are some really famous pieces of art here in Florence. in the Uffizi gallery they have work but nearly all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but proberly the most famous piece they have is the 'The Birth of Venus' i was surprised at how big it was, most famous artworks you see are a lot smaller than you would imagine. but the most famous artwork they have here in Florence is the grand daddy of all sculpture, Michelangelo's 'David'. throughout the town there are quite a few David's but the real one is in a little museum which was something i was quite surprised by. the Museum it was in was in a really rubbish part of town, and there are hardly any signs to find the place. considering how famous its is you would think it would be in some amazing HUGE gallery, but not the case. still the work itself didn't disappoint. its quite amazing to see how well crafted it is, its hard to believe it used to be just a slab of marble. David comes from the story 'David and Goliath' of how a boy defeated a giant not by strenght but by using his brain, so was they commissioned Michelangelo to make him to describe the Florentine people, becuase it was there brains ie the banking system that made them one of the most wealthy towns in Italy, if not the world at that stage. i like how Michelangelo intensionally made the head and hands of David slightly bigger to physically describe this, subtle but clever. only problem with the work in my eyes is his pubic hair is a little too perfect.
thoughout are a number of stutues and there was one i really like called 'Perseus with the Head of Medusa', for a few reasons. the artwork is made out of metal, but as the artist was coming towards the end of finishing it, he started to run out of metal so get gathered up all the metal things in his house that were metal and melted them down to finish it off. the second reason is there is a secret self portait of the artist hidden in it, if you go around to the back of the statue and look up between his ears, and if you look closely you can see a man with a beard in the back of his head. i thought that was pretty awesome!
There is an amazing cathedral here in Florence called the Duomo. it has a huge dome at the top and its the only one of its kind anywhere in the world, theres a couple of great stories behind it. the first is nobody really knows how it was done becuase they believe that the architect either burnt the copy of the plans, or the plans are in the golden ball at the top, but they think if it is removed it may make the building crumble. i think its quite amazing that and even with todays technology it can never be reproduced due to its sheer size. i climbed the 400,000 odd steps to the top (ok, i may have embellished the number a little bit) are had a great view from the top. the building is really big, it wasnt until i was over on a hill on the other side of the river, that i was able to compare its size to everything else. ITS MASSIVE!
i did a day trip out to Pisa while i was here. i was planning on staying there for a night on the way to Florence but it ended up cheaper to day trip, the hostels cost an arm and a leg! lucky i didn't, there really isnt much to do there except for seeing the leaning tower. for me the fun bit was watching everyone making a fool of themselves posing with it, like they are trying to hold it up to stop it from falling. i must admit i gave it a go too, its all in good fun i suppose. i was really surprised as to how far it was actually leaning. i heard that over the years they had been trying to stop it from leaning too much, just in case it falls, but it didnt look like it. but to be honest if they straightened it, i dont think Pisa would really be worth the visit.
the free meal at the hostel was ok but nothing to really rave about, so a few of us from the hostel went out for dinner, i had a 'Margherita' pizza, which is the tradional pizza of Italy. i remember a few facts from when i learnt italian in my primary school days about the Margherita. it was named after an italian queen and the ingredients are meant to resemble the colours of the italian flag (red = tomato sauce, white = mozzarella, green = herbs). wow, i actually retained knowledge from school, 1 point to Trent! anyway, it was pretty good, but my plan is to try and get invited back to a Nonnas place so she can cook for me i think thats the only way i'm going to be able to try real italian cuisine.
i'm in two minds as to whether or not i like Florence, i mean its nice but i think i've seen so many great places along the way, it kind of felt like just another town. i dunno maybe i'm just beening too harsh, then again it could be one of those places i'll look back on in a few years and like my experience here. anyway, heading to Rome next which should be good, more when i get there.
i did the tour that the hostel offered and surprise, surprise, it turns out Florence is quite an interesting place. the Medici family seemed to pop up in its history quite a bit. they were the people that invent the early banking system like interest rates etc (can i hear everyone at home saying "wow, thanks Medici family!") anyway as you might gather they were quite weathly and had a lot of power around here, so much so they governed for about 300 years. they were obscenely rich and had two massive palaces, the main Medici guy didnt like hanging around with all the poor people much so he commissioned a giant walk way, high above the towns people, to run between his two palaces, which were about 1km away from each other. even if things got in the way, like other peoples homes, even a church the walk way ran straight through it. its quite amazing to see but at the same time you have to feel for the people that lost half there living room to it. anyway, when it was finally complete the head honcho still wasnt pleased. when he walked over the bit that ran over the Ponte Vecchio (which is a bridge) he didnt like the bad smells from below, because in that time, the shops that ran along the bridge were butchers, so he ruled that from that day onward only jewelery shops will do business on the bridge, and its been like that ever since. supposidly some of the worlds best jewellers trade there. its actually a great little bridge, so much character, it looks like the shops are only propped up by stilts.
i personally think over the other side of the river is a lot nicer, mainly because of its gardens which make the place a bit greener. dont get me wrong the other side is nice too but its a bit commercial, at first i got a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stores, dodgy little markets and tourists. but, it wasnt until i looked up at the buildings the stores were in that i saw there beauty. they were actually really nice. having said that, there must be some good shops around because the general dress standard of people here, i think, is pretty high. there are some seriously trendy people around.
a particular part i really liked about Florence was there was this church in the poorer parts of town that centuries ago used to house a lot of homeless, then the government saw what good they were doing so they got they more or less funded the church to teach people how to make leather goods as a way to support themselves. and because of the skills they learnt some of them became really good at creating things from leather and this made some of the poorest families end up being some of the richest in Florence. The church now is burial site to some of Florence's most when known people like Michelangelo and Gallio Galilei.
there are some really famous pieces of art here in Florence. in the Uffizi gallery they have work but nearly all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but proberly the most famous piece they have is the 'The Birth of Venus' i was surprised at how big it was, most famous artworks you see are a lot smaller than you would imagine. but the most famous artwork they have here in Florence is the grand daddy of all sculpture, Michelangelo's 'David'. throughout the town there are quite a few David's but the real one is in a little museum which was something i was quite surprised by. the Museum it was in was in a really rubbish part of town, and there are hardly any signs to find the place. considering how famous its is you would think it would be in some amazing HUGE gallery, but not the case. still the work itself didn't disappoint. its quite amazing to see how well crafted it is, its hard to believe it used to be just a slab of marble. David comes from the story 'David and Goliath' of how a boy defeated a giant not by strenght but by using his brain, so was they commissioned Michelangelo to make him to describe the Florentine people, becuase it was there brains ie the banking system that made them one of the most wealthy towns in Italy, if not the world at that stage. i like how Michelangelo intensionally made the head and hands of David slightly bigger to physically describe this, subtle but clever. only problem with the work in my eyes is his pubic hair is a little too perfect.
thoughout are a number of stutues and there was one i really like called 'Perseus with the Head of Medusa', for a few reasons. the artwork is made out of metal, but as the artist was coming towards the end of finishing it, he started to run out of metal so get gathered up all the metal things in his house that were metal and melted them down to finish it off. the second reason is there is a secret self portait of the artist hidden in it, if you go around to the back of the statue and look up between his ears, and if you look closely you can see a man with a beard in the back of his head. i thought that was pretty awesome!
There is an amazing cathedral here in Florence called the Duomo. it has a huge dome at the top and its the only one of its kind anywhere in the world, theres a couple of great stories behind it. the first is nobody really knows how it was done becuase they believe that the architect either burnt the copy of the plans, or the plans are in the golden ball at the top, but they think if it is removed it may make the building crumble. i think its quite amazing that and even with todays technology it can never be reproduced due to its sheer size. i climbed the 400,000 odd steps to the top (ok, i may have embellished the number a little bit) are had a great view from the top. the building is really big, it wasnt until i was over on a hill on the other side of the river, that i was able to compare its size to everything else. ITS MASSIVE!
i did a day trip out to Pisa while i was here. i was planning on staying there for a night on the way to Florence but it ended up cheaper to day trip, the hostels cost an arm and a leg! lucky i didn't, there really isnt much to do there except for seeing the leaning tower. for me the fun bit was watching everyone making a fool of themselves posing with it, like they are trying to hold it up to stop it from falling. i must admit i gave it a go too, its all in good fun i suppose. i was really surprised as to how far it was actually leaning. i heard that over the years they had been trying to stop it from leaning too much, just in case it falls, but it didnt look like it. but to be honest if they straightened it, i dont think Pisa would really be worth the visit.
the free meal at the hostel was ok but nothing to really rave about, so a few of us from the hostel went out for dinner, i had a 'Margherita' pizza, which is the tradional pizza of Italy. i remember a few facts from when i learnt italian in my primary school days about the Margherita. it was named after an italian queen and the ingredients are meant to resemble the colours of the italian flag (red = tomato sauce, white = mozzarella, green = herbs). wow, i actually retained knowledge from school, 1 point to Trent! anyway, it was pretty good, but my plan is to try and get invited back to a Nonnas place so she can cook for me i think thats the only way i'm going to be able to try real italian cuisine.
i'm in two minds as to whether or not i like Florence, i mean its nice but i think i've seen so many great places along the way, it kind of felt like just another town. i dunno maybe i'm just beening too harsh, then again it could be one of those places i'll look back on in a few years and like my experience here. anyway, heading to Rome next which should be good, more when i get there.
Cinque Terre
So i said goodbye to south of France and headed for italy. the train trip was rather enjoyable because the route it takes is right along the coast, which is absolutely stunning. i didn't get into Cinque Terre until about 9pm and by that stage it was like a ghost town and the hostel i planned to stay in showed no signs of life, i think the town goes to bed at 8pm. only one coffee shop was open, luckily the guy in there spoke pretty good english and i asked him where i could find a hostel that was open. he called a hotel that was open up the road a bit and i had to stay there, it was a bit expensive but it was only for one night so i didn't mind. the next day i got to my hostel, the guy that owned it was really nice and very helpful, i think his name was Macchiato, ok, not really, but it was something like that. the dorm was in a great location, not far from the town centre and right near a tiny little port which is really nice, its just a few boats and a couple of sleepy fisherman.
before i go on i should fill you in a little bit about Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 coastal towns (hence the name, Cinque means 5 and Terre i guess means town) Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore which is where i stayed. i had never heard of Cinque Terre until i came over here, it seems everyone that i've met traveling has recommended it so i thought i should check it out. Riomaggiore is a funny little town. its really cute and its exactly what you would picture in your mind of what a little italian villiage would be like. something i thought was funny was the little shops that selling groceries all sell the same thing at exactly the same price and are all about 10 steps from each other. but come 12 o'clock the town shuts down and there is nothing open until about 5pm when they open for a couple of hours. the first day i got caught out because i didn't get anything to eat for lunch so i was starving by the time they openned again. i think because teh town is so sleepy, it makes you feel the same way, i can't remember the last time i went to bed at 8pm but here it was the norm. oh, and i'm conviced animals run the town, cats and dogs run around everywhere, its hilarious!
Most of the towns are pretty similar, they're built into the side of the mountain and are quite small, the little lanes that run up and down the hill and around the homes are nice to walk around. out of the 5 towns i think Riomaggiore, Vernazza and Monterosso where the nicest, they just had a bit more to do in them. in Monterosso i had my first real italian Gelati, it was so good, i think i liked it more because i imagined the guy that sold me it had been selling them his whole life.
Cinque terre was definately worth a look, but a couple of days is more than enough, now i'm off to Florence. Ciao!
Cinque terre was definately worth a look, but a couple of days is more than enough, now i'm off to Florence. Ciao!
Nice
the night train ride was an epic one. there was a crazy guy pacing up and down the carriage the whole night which was a nightmare because it was hard enough to sleep as it was. but i did manage to get a couple of winks of sleep. my plan for heading south was to get away from winter as much as possible, below zero was starting to do my head in. i was a bit worried the trip south hadn't paid off, i looked out the window and saw snow capped mountains, but i then i looked out the otherside of the train and saw the sun come up over the riviera and knew it was all good! it was 16 degree outside, and it was the first time i'd seen double figures in ages!
Nice is well, nice. the beaches are quite beautiful and seem to go for miles and miles. i loved watching the people running along the water. it must be in fashion to where spandex while running and let me tell you, spandex isn't for everyone. the water is so clean too, i have never seen water so blue, there were even a couple of game people in the water having a swim. i didn't think much of the Nice to begin with, but then i stumbled across the old town which was beautiful. full of really old buildings that just seem to be built on top over each other. i really liked the colours of them too, i saw one guy painting his house and was doing such a shotty job, but it kind of added to the charm of it. the narrow little streets with washing lines hanging high up and plenty of food shops at street level was exactly what i had pictured in my head of what Nice would be like. i think the main highlight was the market where you could sample some of the local food and it was so fresh, i think its a shame to think that we don't really do our shopping like this in Australia, and whenever we need vegetables we generally have big chains like Coles or Woolworths top of mind. i managed to find a couple of cool, second hand furniture shops too. the church in the old town was great it was only lit with daylight and i think it made it more attractive, the way the rays of light would burst in though the windows was brilliant, it was like the big guy upstairs was pointing things out.
the view from castle hill was stunning, these days its pretty much a look out, but i from what i could gather from the bad translation, the Greeks once had a castle there and then when it was taken over, it was burnt down. well something around those lines, the translation was shocking. on a day to day level, every morning i would go to this bakery which was around the corner from where i was staying. the food was pretty good, but the part i loved the most was the way the lady would wrapped the food up and then say 'vuala!' i thought it was great, i couldn't wait until the next morning to order all over again!
i think the old town was probably the best bit of Nice, i found the town outside of that didn't really have a good vibe to it, its pretty quiet and i know that its not peak season but i don't think it would be much of a party town in the summer. from seeing the number of chemists around, i imagine its where a lot of the older crowd hang out. the main reason i made the decision to stay in Nice was it was so much cheaper to stay here and travel out to other areas than to move from place to place. i thought with it being in the off season everywhere would be a lot cheaper, but as it turns out, not the case.
i did a day trip to Cannes, which was such an amazing place. in case you've been living under a rock, its where they hold the Cannes film festival, they have to big cinema there with the red carpet, so walked up and down it pretending to be a movie star signing autographs, i think everyone thought i had a screw loose. there are famous peoples hand prints in concrete around the cinema, it turns out Clint Eastwood and i have the same size hand, and Bruce Willis has really small hands, and you know what they say about small hands... small gloves. the old town there is really beautiful also. small little streets with so much character, and its on the top of a big hill so you get to see a great view also. there are 2 islands not far from the beach that you can get a boat out to (something annoying is you have to catch 2 seperate boats to get to them, which means you have to go back to the beach to catch the other) supposidly one of the islands is where the man in the iron mask was held. Around Cannes there are quite a number of murals which i think were pretty cool, generally they have something to do with movies or making movies.
there were a couple of markets that were brilliant, a food one and also a second hand market, you should've seen the stuff they were selling, vintage Chanel, Dior, etc. they had some beautiful old vintage advertising posters that were put on canvas, i fell in love with one of them, the picture was of a swimmer with a diving board in the back ground, i wanted to buy it but it cost 350 EUROS which was a bit pricey, i still considered buying it because i liked it so much, but i eventually talked myself out of it, mainly because it was so big, even if i rolled it up i think i would have trouble sending it home and it would've been tricky traveling with it. not to worry.
there are some really expensive stores along the main street in Cannes too, Yves Staint Laurent, Armani, you name and expensive brand, they had it. i got the shock of my life while i was walking on the beach too, first of all its sand in Cannes whereas it was rocks in Nice, but that wasn't the shock, it was the 70 year lady walking around topless, she reminded me of the lady in 'Something about Mary'. my eyes are still sore! apart from that little episode, i really loved Cannes. Cannes is also the home of the Cannes Lions which is a really big international advertsing award, so hopefully its not the last time i visit here.
Another day i went out to Antibes, which is a nice little spot. it looked like it was surrounded by a huge wall, and you could walk on the the top of it. it was a nice little town, and was lot less touristy than Cannes but in some ways quite similar. not far from there is Fort Carre which is funnily enough an old fort. i didn't get to go inside because i only discovered it later in the day and it was closed, not to worry i think i've seen my fair share of forts and castles to last me a lifetime. it rather silly but i think my experience of Antibes was ruined by one of the waiters in a restraunt, he was just so rude, it was a bit of a shame because the majority of french i have met have been lovely and very friendly but he really lived up to the french stereotype, a stereotype i imagine if your french you would want to prove wrong. anyway, Antibes was still worth a look.
I also did a day trip to Monaco which was quite interesting, it was so clean and it was like everything had its place, i found the town was build really symetrical too which is no mean feat since its built on a hill. it is a lot more built up compare to the rest of the south that i have visited and of course it was extremely wealthy, the highrises are quite amazing and the yachts were unbelievable. i think it kind of had an old world feel too it too, it was kinda like you stepped right into the 1950's becuase generally the architecture is quite classic. i checked out a couple of casinos too, the first one i think was for the plebs but the second was in a beautiful old building, but there was a 10 EURO fee to go into the gaming area, it definately sorted the men from the boys because i wasn't that interested in watching other people pay, well, unless they were going to share the profits. Monaco is a tax haven, but i can't figure out, if nobody pays tax, how do they afford to have royalty? anyway it explains why you see so many sports cars around the place, Ferrari's, Porche, Rolls Royce, etc. and not to mention trophy wifes, it was pretty funny to see 70 year old men with 20 somethings on there arm, but i suppose, when you think about it, both parties are getting what they want out of it. speaking of playboys i saw the Royal Palace where Price Albert of Monaco lives, i get the feeling he's quite popular amongst the locals, they have a lot of photos of him and his family in shop windows. Albert is the son of movie star Grace Kelly, who later became royalty here, you can see heaps of photos of her around town and there are a number of streets named after her and other members of the royal family. its funny as i was walking around some of it was quite familiar and i figured out it was from a F1 nintendo game that i had as a kid, they race on the streets of Monaco when the Grand Prix comes to town, so it was kind of strange to think i had virtually been here before.
being in the south really reminds me a lot of the movie 'The Life Aquatic', esspecially in Monaco where they had a some prehistoric sea equipment out the front of one of the museums.
Monaco was nice, and it was interesting to see how the other half live but it wasnt really for me, it all seemed a bit too polished, i think the other places i visited where more interesting because they were more rustic.
anyway, its been great spending time in the south but now its time say 'Bon Voyage' to France and head to Italy, which i think should be amazing.
Nice is well, nice. the beaches are quite beautiful and seem to go for miles and miles. i loved watching the people running along the water. it must be in fashion to where spandex while running and let me tell you, spandex isn't for everyone. the water is so clean too, i have never seen water so blue, there were even a couple of game people in the water having a swim. i didn't think much of the Nice to begin with, but then i stumbled across the old town which was beautiful. full of really old buildings that just seem to be built on top over each other. i really liked the colours of them too, i saw one guy painting his house and was doing such a shotty job, but it kind of added to the charm of it. the narrow little streets with washing lines hanging high up and plenty of food shops at street level was exactly what i had pictured in my head of what Nice would be like. i think the main highlight was the market where you could sample some of the local food and it was so fresh, i think its a shame to think that we don't really do our shopping like this in Australia, and whenever we need vegetables we generally have big chains like Coles or Woolworths top of mind. i managed to find a couple of cool, second hand furniture shops too. the church in the old town was great it was only lit with daylight and i think it made it more attractive, the way the rays of light would burst in though the windows was brilliant, it was like the big guy upstairs was pointing things out.
the view from castle hill was stunning, these days its pretty much a look out, but i from what i could gather from the bad translation, the Greeks once had a castle there and then when it was taken over, it was burnt down. well something around those lines, the translation was shocking. on a day to day level, every morning i would go to this bakery which was around the corner from where i was staying. the food was pretty good, but the part i loved the most was the way the lady would wrapped the food up and then say 'vuala!' i thought it was great, i couldn't wait until the next morning to order all over again!
i think the old town was probably the best bit of Nice, i found the town outside of that didn't really have a good vibe to it, its pretty quiet and i know that its not peak season but i don't think it would be much of a party town in the summer. from seeing the number of chemists around, i imagine its where a lot of the older crowd hang out. the main reason i made the decision to stay in Nice was it was so much cheaper to stay here and travel out to other areas than to move from place to place. i thought with it being in the off season everywhere would be a lot cheaper, but as it turns out, not the case.
i did a day trip to Cannes, which was such an amazing place. in case you've been living under a rock, its where they hold the Cannes film festival, they have to big cinema there with the red carpet, so walked up and down it pretending to be a movie star signing autographs, i think everyone thought i had a screw loose. there are famous peoples hand prints in concrete around the cinema, it turns out Clint Eastwood and i have the same size hand, and Bruce Willis has really small hands, and you know what they say about small hands... small gloves. the old town there is really beautiful also. small little streets with so much character, and its on the top of a big hill so you get to see a great view also. there are 2 islands not far from the beach that you can get a boat out to (something annoying is you have to catch 2 seperate boats to get to them, which means you have to go back to the beach to catch the other) supposidly one of the islands is where the man in the iron mask was held. Around Cannes there are quite a number of murals which i think were pretty cool, generally they have something to do with movies or making movies.
there were a couple of markets that were brilliant, a food one and also a second hand market, you should've seen the stuff they were selling, vintage Chanel, Dior, etc. they had some beautiful old vintage advertising posters that were put on canvas, i fell in love with one of them, the picture was of a swimmer with a diving board in the back ground, i wanted to buy it but it cost 350 EUROS which was a bit pricey, i still considered buying it because i liked it so much, but i eventually talked myself out of it, mainly because it was so big, even if i rolled it up i think i would have trouble sending it home and it would've been tricky traveling with it. not to worry.
there are some really expensive stores along the main street in Cannes too, Yves Staint Laurent, Armani, you name and expensive brand, they had it. i got the shock of my life while i was walking on the beach too, first of all its sand in Cannes whereas it was rocks in Nice, but that wasn't the shock, it was the 70 year lady walking around topless, she reminded me of the lady in 'Something about Mary'. my eyes are still sore! apart from that little episode, i really loved Cannes. Cannes is also the home of the Cannes Lions which is a really big international advertsing award, so hopefully its not the last time i visit here.
Another day i went out to Antibes, which is a nice little spot. it looked like it was surrounded by a huge wall, and you could walk on the the top of it. it was a nice little town, and was lot less touristy than Cannes but in some ways quite similar. not far from there is Fort Carre which is funnily enough an old fort. i didn't get to go inside because i only discovered it later in the day and it was closed, not to worry i think i've seen my fair share of forts and castles to last me a lifetime. it rather silly but i think my experience of Antibes was ruined by one of the waiters in a restraunt, he was just so rude, it was a bit of a shame because the majority of french i have met have been lovely and very friendly but he really lived up to the french stereotype, a stereotype i imagine if your french you would want to prove wrong. anyway, Antibes was still worth a look.
I also did a day trip to Monaco which was quite interesting, it was so clean and it was like everything had its place, i found the town was build really symetrical too which is no mean feat since its built on a hill. it is a lot more built up compare to the rest of the south that i have visited and of course it was extremely wealthy, the highrises are quite amazing and the yachts were unbelievable. i think it kind of had an old world feel too it too, it was kinda like you stepped right into the 1950's becuase generally the architecture is quite classic. i checked out a couple of casinos too, the first one i think was for the plebs but the second was in a beautiful old building, but there was a 10 EURO fee to go into the gaming area, it definately sorted the men from the boys because i wasn't that interested in watching other people pay, well, unless they were going to share the profits. Monaco is a tax haven, but i can't figure out, if nobody pays tax, how do they afford to have royalty? anyway it explains why you see so many sports cars around the place, Ferrari's, Porche, Rolls Royce, etc. and not to mention trophy wifes, it was pretty funny to see 70 year old men with 20 somethings on there arm, but i suppose, when you think about it, both parties are getting what they want out of it. speaking of playboys i saw the Royal Palace where Price Albert of Monaco lives, i get the feeling he's quite popular amongst the locals, they have a lot of photos of him and his family in shop windows. Albert is the son of movie star Grace Kelly, who later became royalty here, you can see heaps of photos of her around town and there are a number of streets named after her and other members of the royal family. its funny as i was walking around some of it was quite familiar and i figured out it was from a F1 nintendo game that i had as a kid, they race on the streets of Monaco when the Grand Prix comes to town, so it was kind of strange to think i had virtually been here before.
being in the south really reminds me a lot of the movie 'The Life Aquatic', esspecially in Monaco where they had a some prehistoric sea equipment out the front of one of the museums.
Monaco was nice, and it was interesting to see how the other half live but it wasnt really for me, it all seemed a bit too polished, i think the other places i visited where more interesting because they were more rustic.
anyway, its been great spending time in the south but now its time say 'Bon Voyage' to France and head to Italy, which i think should be amazing.
Paris for a second time
The bus ride wasn't great, trying to sleep on those things is an art form, but i met a English bloke called Dan on the bus and we got on like a house on fire, he was a musician so we talked a lot about music, we also joke about the photo on my passport, because now it looks nothing like me, i cant get over how much i've changed! but i don't think i've just change physically, i think this trip has made me a different person too, i think having time by myself has been a really good thing and i've kind of sorted myself out a bit. oh, and i've got a 'things-to-do' list a mile long for when i get back, its brilliant, i think i'm going to hit the ground running.
I ended up staying where i did the last time i was here, which is pretty nice and cheap (well, cheap for paris) and the guy that checked me in, Marcus, remembered me from last time. hes australian also and we got on quite well, i fact on the first sunday of the year you are meant to eat a cake that has a little present inside it, the person who gets the present in there piece is king for the day. he gave me a slice but unfortunately for me, Marcus got a little aeroplane in his piece.
I didn't end up catching up with Maddy and Mike as i planned to do. on the first day her phone didn't work when i tried to call and the second day for sme strange reason my phone card didn't work, which was a bit of a pain, not to worry i'll see them back in London at some stage. but i did catch up with Claire, who i used to go to high school with. she has moved over here to live with a guy she met while traveling over her last year. we went for dinner in a little chinese resturant that was around the corner from my hostel, it was a really really cool little place and was deck out like St Jeromes (a bar i used to go to in Melbourne), the food was great and quite cheap, i think i was a bit of a student hangout. anyway, it was really nice to catch up with her, it felt like i hadn't seen her in ages. Claire is possibly one of he nicest people you will ever meet.
not really a lot to report on the tourist side, i kinda did everything last time i was here (check out my last Paris trip here). i spent a lot of time just walking around, checking out clothes and book stores and just enjoying paris. i brought Eric Captons Autobiography, so i've been reading that quite a lot so thats kept me busy. oh, and it was snowing here, i've seen snow before but i've never experienced it snowing so that was pretty exciting, well for about an hour it was, it was bloody freezing, its funny, because some of the fountains here have frozen over and only squirt out a little bit of water, they look like they have conjunctivitis or something. on the sunday i was here all the galleries were free, i saw most of them when i was here last time except for the pompedui, which is the modern art gallery. they had some brilliant work in there, like Duchamp's 'fontaine' which is a urinal, it was pretty outragous in its day. plenty of Matisse, Pollock and Picasso. i was really into this one artist that layered posters and then tore them off leaving this amazing collage. something i thought was good was this HUGE plane made out of wicker, it looked like it could've come from the Michel Gondry film 'Science of sleep'. they had a sculpture that was made with a trash compactor which i thought looked amazing!
anyway i'm off to the South of France, but this time i'm not going alone, i've got myself a travel buddy! i was kinda sick of traveling on my own, not that it hasnt been fun and i do like my own company, but the opportunity came up so i thought 'why not?' i met Ashleigh in Dublin, she is originally from Sydney and was one of the group of people that i got on with that worked in the Hostel there. i dont know how long we'll travel together for but i think it will be nice to hang out with someone for a while and have more of a conversation than 'where are you from?' 'where have you been?'
anyway, a bit of a short blog but i'm sure i'll have more to write about when i get south. though, its good to see i can write under a million words for a change. oh, incase you were wondering, the mime tally is still at zero. see you soon!
I ended up staying where i did the last time i was here, which is pretty nice and cheap (well, cheap for paris) and the guy that checked me in, Marcus, remembered me from last time. hes australian also and we got on quite well, i fact on the first sunday of the year you are meant to eat a cake that has a little present inside it, the person who gets the present in there piece is king for the day. he gave me a slice but unfortunately for me, Marcus got a little aeroplane in his piece.
I didn't end up catching up with Maddy and Mike as i planned to do. on the first day her phone didn't work when i tried to call and the second day for sme strange reason my phone card didn't work, which was a bit of a pain, not to worry i'll see them back in London at some stage. but i did catch up with Claire, who i used to go to high school with. she has moved over here to live with a guy she met while traveling over her last year. we went for dinner in a little chinese resturant that was around the corner from my hostel, it was a really really cool little place and was deck out like St Jeromes (a bar i used to go to in Melbourne), the food was great and quite cheap, i think i was a bit of a student hangout. anyway, it was really nice to catch up with her, it felt like i hadn't seen her in ages. Claire is possibly one of he nicest people you will ever meet.
not really a lot to report on the tourist side, i kinda did everything last time i was here (check out my last Paris trip here). i spent a lot of time just walking around, checking out clothes and book stores and just enjoying paris. i brought Eric Captons Autobiography, so i've been reading that quite a lot so thats kept me busy. oh, and it was snowing here, i've seen snow before but i've never experienced it snowing so that was pretty exciting, well for about an hour it was, it was bloody freezing, its funny, because some of the fountains here have frozen over and only squirt out a little bit of water, they look like they have conjunctivitis or something. on the sunday i was here all the galleries were free, i saw most of them when i was here last time except for the pompedui, which is the modern art gallery. they had some brilliant work in there, like Duchamp's 'fontaine' which is a urinal, it was pretty outragous in its day. plenty of Matisse, Pollock and Picasso. i was really into this one artist that layered posters and then tore them off leaving this amazing collage. something i thought was good was this HUGE plane made out of wicker, it looked like it could've come from the Michel Gondry film 'Science of sleep'. they had a sculpture that was made with a trash compactor which i thought looked amazing!
anyway i'm off to the South of France, but this time i'm not going alone, i've got myself a travel buddy! i was kinda sick of traveling on my own, not that it hasnt been fun and i do like my own company, but the opportunity came up so i thought 'why not?' i met Ashleigh in Dublin, she is originally from Sydney and was one of the group of people that i got on with that worked in the Hostel there. i dont know how long we'll travel together for but i think it will be nice to hang out with someone for a while and have more of a conversation than 'where are you from?' 'where have you been?'
anyway, a bit of a short blog but i'm sure i'll have more to write about when i get south. though, its good to see i can write under a million words for a change. oh, incase you were wondering, the mime tally is still at zero. see you soon!
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