Melbourne, 10.33am
Back in the day, I was in London - final destination! By the time I was leaving Helsinki I was in major pep talk mode whenever I had to deal with my suitcase. "This is it, you're off to your final destination, you just have to get to the airport and then you'll be in London and that's it, nowhere else." Except of course I changed accomodation in London three times, so until I very happily arrived at Jess and Marcus', everytime was not the last time and secretly, I think my suitcase knew it.
While in London, having a fabulous time, I stayed in Kentish Town with Sharon, Rickmansworth with Melinda and Ian and Notting Hill with Jess and Marcus. I really did the right thing by leaving London till last and hanging out with friends at the end of my trip, not doing the hostel chat thing, which I was pretty over. I also got to catch up with Carl, who I met on my Contiki tour, for a few beers in Leceister Square on my last evening. (The Jonas Brothers were also there, I restrained myself from throwing beer at them and using big words to confuse and insult them.)
One of the most exciting events of my trip was meeting Antonia of Whoopee fame, who I adore. I think she's one of my favourite writers and one of the funniest people on the planet, but I was very proud of myself for not hyperventilating or gushing when I met her. I think the stupidest thing I did was get half my lunch stuck in my teeth, which I didn't realize until I got home to Melbourne and saw the photo of the two of us outside Buckingham Palace enlarged on my computer screen. I'm so cool.
Another great part about London was the discovery that I had bucketloads of cash left and could essentially spend as much as I wanted on EVERYTHING while I was there. So I did. I shopped HARD right before I left, threw out half the clothes, shoes and a handbag that I'd taken with me. I also discovered the love of my life (for this month), a black Kenneth Cole handbag. I refuse to put it on the floor anywhere and you must have spotlessly clean hands to touch it. We will be besties for the next ten years, to justify the cost, but it's totally worth it! I don't think London would be fun, as a tourist or a resident, without plenty of money though. Everyone there was incredibly stressed about money and nobody was making enough and they were either unemployed or worried about being made redundant.
I didn't go as hard in London at all the touristy hotspots as I did in lots of other cities, I had nine days and I wanted to have fun and not try and tick everything off in my guide book. Despite that, I still managed to see and do plenty. I did the London Eye, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tower of London, Camden Market, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Madame Tussaud's, Westminster Abbey, the Tate Modern, outside St Paul's, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, plus lots of parks and gardens like St James' Park, Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I spent a very long and happy Saturday at Portobello Market with Melinda and Sharon, followed by a lazy Sunday afternoon in beautiful Windsor with Ian and Melinda. Jess and I went and saw "The Lion King", which was wonderful. I ate lunches and dinners at more pubs than I can remember, I had scones with jam and cream at the Crooked House of Windsor and Toad in the Hole at the Coy Carp. I ate banoffee pie at Trafalgar Square and breakfast at Pret almost every morning. I finally had pad thai (four months sans Thai take away was killing me) at an Irish pub in Kensington and a gorgeous Chelsea Bun from Covent Garden. I hunted down and visited a Nigella Lawson recommended baking supplies shop to buy two cookie cutters.
Basically, I had a ball!
And then, sadly, it was time to come home. I have to admit, I was kind of ready to leave Europe. Although I also believe that's a mental thing. I knew I was going for four months, so that's what I was mentally prepared for, if it had been two weeks or two years it would've been fine with me! Despite thinking that I was running out of "wow's", right up until the end, I was impressed and delighted and excited by everything. The only regret I have is that I didn't leave the time and money to go back to my favourite place, Barcelona, for another couple of days. Not to worry, I'll be going straight there next time, not passing go or collecting $200!
My flights home were fine, the timing everywhere was all wrong for my body clock, but my favourite part was my ghetto upgrade (as it's known in the travel business) on my final flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne, when I got four seats in the centre of the plane all to myself. I wolfed down the meal as soon as they brought it, whacked on the eye mask and conked out for several hours. That doesn't mean I wasn't totally antsy to get out by the time we arrived in Melbourne, but at least I wasn't exhausted and deranged as well as over it and smelly. After an hour of queueing for EVERYTHING at Melbourne Airport, I was out, ginned up, my luggage was taken by the family and two hours later I was finally in my own bed and happily passed out. Four months of random beds certainly gave me a new appreciation for my own bed!
Now, two weeks later, it's all completely normal and it feels like I didn't go anywhere. Or if I did, then it was only for two weeks, not four months. I just have to keep looking at my photos (half of which are still on their way from Prague with the child porn and home made bomb) and emailing my new travel friends so it doesn't feel quite so much like a dream. I plan to post one more blog, which will be all my top fives or tens of my favourites and least favourites. Just in case anyone wants to know where the best laundry was. Because let's face it, that's important! So I will return shortly with the Grand Finale of my Continental adventure!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I Am Fine
Melbourne, 11.21am
Writing about what happened at the end of my trip I think will be good for me, because after a week back at work it kind of feels like I never left. Plus the story you get in this blog is a GOOD one, so enjoy!
In my last blog I mentioned that I left Helsinki, just, and arrived in London, just, and let's be honest, what's a travel adventure without trouble crossing a border?
In Europe, most of the countries are part of an agreement called the Schengen Agreement, which means you can travel through those countries without having to show your passport everytime you cross a border. For Aussies, you're allowed to travel there for 90 days without a visa. There was some kind of communication error between my travel agent and I and I thought I was fine for the length of time I would be in the Schengen countries, 112 days. Finnish Border Security had other ideas.
I'm standing at the Border Security office while the man there is looking very confused as to why I'm blatantly standing in front of him going 'Yes, I know I've been here 112 days. I was told it was fine.' He then said I'd have to follow his colleague. I think it was at this point that my stomach plummeted to my knees and the phrase 'Don't freak out Nicola' ran through my head. That phrase stayed on repeat for the next, oh hour, that I was sitting in the security office.
That's correct! I got to sit on a wooden bench in the Finnish Border Security Office with the other terrorists trying to get into Finland, while the security guys sat in a little glass booth, WITH MY PASSPORT, tapping away on a computer and discussing me at great length. Occasionally one would pop back in and ask me something ('What is your occupation? What is your income? Do you have any under age children?'), while I sat there flicking my nails and not getting into hysterics.
I figured the worst that could happen would be that they would send me straight back to Australia, or fine me 1000 or 2000 euros. I was fairly certain it wasn't a jailable offense, but only time would tell. As for the other terrorists, apart from one bloke who was escorted off the premises by the cops (trying to make a run for it on a stolen passport after killing his sister in law's uncle for cheating him in a reindeer deal, perhaps?), I think I was actually the one in the most trouble. So that was a first for me!
After an hour, two security guys came out and stated 'You have been in the Schengen countries for 112 days, 22 days longer than you're allowed. So we are fining you 300 euros. You will have one month to pay. Please sign here.' I was so delighted that I wasn't going back to Melbourne early and that I wasn't being fined for my life's savings which I'd just spent on four months on the Continent, that I signed with great relief and then proceeded to thank them as they showed me the door out. Sometimes I think a little less good manners and a little coldness is called for, but apparently my parents did too good a job on me.
Adding to the general movie-like nature of it all were the security guys' accents which sounded a bit Russian, so I was almost hoping they'd start telling me about their evil plan to take over the world by blowing up the oil line from Finland to New York. Honestly, I was quite glad that (hopefully) my one and only problem at a border was with the very polite Finns and not somewhere like Thailand.
After that little ordeal I sat very quietly on the plane to London, trying to unwind and regain my excitement about getting to London, finally! Until I got there and encountered English passport control. Apparently everyone had it in for me that day.
When I arrived, I got to passport control before I got my suitcase, meaning I didn't have my return ticket home in my hand luggage, a thought which never occurred to me. I had my passport, I knew that I had only holiday intentions in England. That wasn't enough however, and I was subjected to an on-the-spot interrogation. Stupidly, I'd put my occupation on the arrival card as waitress (not enough room to write cafe manager or better yet, Chief of Operations for the Eastern Branch of the Gusto Group). So as far as my passport man was concerned, I was another Aussie waitress with not much money arriving in London. I had to convince him that I had bucketloads of money for my nine days in England, a job in Australia to return to, and that I wasn't going to marry, procreate and sponge off the system with my friend Carl who I said I was staying with (I wasn't). After a lot of sighing, hmmming and long pauses and disbelieving eyebrows, he eventually stamped my passport and made sure I knew to carry my return tickets next time.
I belted out of there, got my suitcase, stopped and tried to regroup. Good grief! What is it with the Finns and the Poms? Why don't they like me? I'm delightful and inoffensive and my only intention is to spend my hard-earned Aussie dollars in their silly countries. Pfft.
By the time I made it to a seat outside the Kentish Town tube station in central London, I was seriously in need of a stiff drink, but I settled for some wine and a take away curry and a venting session with Sharon instead.
It's a good thing I had such a wonderful time in London to block out that very tiring day! I will save my nine days in London for later this week - that story includes Toad in the Hole!
Writing about what happened at the end of my trip I think will be good for me, because after a week back at work it kind of feels like I never left. Plus the story you get in this blog is a GOOD one, so enjoy!
In my last blog I mentioned that I left Helsinki, just, and arrived in London, just, and let's be honest, what's a travel adventure without trouble crossing a border?
In Europe, most of the countries are part of an agreement called the Schengen Agreement, which means you can travel through those countries without having to show your passport everytime you cross a border. For Aussies, you're allowed to travel there for 90 days without a visa. There was some kind of communication error between my travel agent and I and I thought I was fine for the length of time I would be in the Schengen countries, 112 days. Finnish Border Security had other ideas.
I'm standing at the Border Security office while the man there is looking very confused as to why I'm blatantly standing in front of him going 'Yes, I know I've been here 112 days. I was told it was fine.' He then said I'd have to follow his colleague. I think it was at this point that my stomach plummeted to my knees and the phrase 'Don't freak out Nicola' ran through my head. That phrase stayed on repeat for the next, oh hour, that I was sitting in the security office.
That's correct! I got to sit on a wooden bench in the Finnish Border Security Office with the other terrorists trying to get into Finland, while the security guys sat in a little glass booth, WITH MY PASSPORT, tapping away on a computer and discussing me at great length. Occasionally one would pop back in and ask me something ('What is your occupation? What is your income? Do you have any under age children?'), while I sat there flicking my nails and not getting into hysterics.
I figured the worst that could happen would be that they would send me straight back to Australia, or fine me 1000 or 2000 euros. I was fairly certain it wasn't a jailable offense, but only time would tell. As for the other terrorists, apart from one bloke who was escorted off the premises by the cops (trying to make a run for it on a stolen passport after killing his sister in law's uncle for cheating him in a reindeer deal, perhaps?), I think I was actually the one in the most trouble. So that was a first for me!
After an hour, two security guys came out and stated 'You have been in the Schengen countries for 112 days, 22 days longer than you're allowed. So we are fining you 300 euros. You will have one month to pay. Please sign here.' I was so delighted that I wasn't going back to Melbourne early and that I wasn't being fined for my life's savings which I'd just spent on four months on the Continent, that I signed with great relief and then proceeded to thank them as they showed me the door out. Sometimes I think a little less good manners and a little coldness is called for, but apparently my parents did too good a job on me.
Adding to the general movie-like nature of it all were the security guys' accents which sounded a bit Russian, so I was almost hoping they'd start telling me about their evil plan to take over the world by blowing up the oil line from Finland to New York. Honestly, I was quite glad that (hopefully) my one and only problem at a border was with the very polite Finns and not somewhere like Thailand.
After that little ordeal I sat very quietly on the plane to London, trying to unwind and regain my excitement about getting to London, finally! Until I got there and encountered English passport control. Apparently everyone had it in for me that day.
When I arrived, I got to passport control before I got my suitcase, meaning I didn't have my return ticket home in my hand luggage, a thought which never occurred to me. I had my passport, I knew that I had only holiday intentions in England. That wasn't enough however, and I was subjected to an on-the-spot interrogation. Stupidly, I'd put my occupation on the arrival card as waitress (not enough room to write cafe manager or better yet, Chief of Operations for the Eastern Branch of the Gusto Group). So as far as my passport man was concerned, I was another Aussie waitress with not much money arriving in London. I had to convince him that I had bucketloads of money for my nine days in England, a job in Australia to return to, and that I wasn't going to marry, procreate and sponge off the system with my friend Carl who I said I was staying with (I wasn't). After a lot of sighing, hmmming and long pauses and disbelieving eyebrows, he eventually stamped my passport and made sure I knew to carry my return tickets next time.
I belted out of there, got my suitcase, stopped and tried to regroup. Good grief! What is it with the Finns and the Poms? Why don't they like me? I'm delightful and inoffensive and my only intention is to spend my hard-earned Aussie dollars in their silly countries. Pfft.
By the time I made it to a seat outside the Kentish Town tube station in central London, I was seriously in need of a stiff drink, but I settled for some wine and a take away curry and a venting session with Sharon instead.
It's a good thing I had such a wonderful time in London to block out that very tiring day! I will save my nine days in London for later this week - that story includes Toad in the Hole!
Friday, May 8, 2009
I Am Still Here
You poor things, you thought I'd forgotten about you, what with all the fun I've been having and many many countries I've managed to cram in since I last posted. (That would be four countries, if anyone cares!)
I left you in Norway, back when I was about to start having hissy fits if the people on my tour didn't leave me alone for half an hour. I am nobody's Siamese twin and I'm not in a thriller movie being tailed, so let's all just back off the Nicola for a moment or twelve.
After leaving Bergen, we had Fjord Day. We spent three hours on a ferry burbling up and down two arms of the Sognefjord. Beautiful. Huge huge rocky mountains, little houses and occasional villages on the edges of the fjords, seagulls drifting along with us on the ferry, warm sunlight and icy shade. Pretty relaxing way to spend your Saturday!
Back on the bus and off to Fagernes with a quick stop at another stavkyrkje. Fagernes was very pretty, our hotel was on the edge of a huge lake, with plenty of ice still on parts of it. After dinner I managed to duck out without anyone following me and wandered out to a little tree-covered mini peninsula into the lake while the sun went down. It was incredibly quiet and gave me a chance to breathe and unwind, let some of the tension from my fellow travellers go.
The next day we headed for Lillehammer, home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. They actually only had the ski jumping and opening and closing ceremonies IN Lillehammer, so headed up to the ski jump stadium. Obviously not much happening, but it was a nice view over Lillehammer. For my Mt Gambier readers, Lillehammer is about the same size - can you ever imagine Mt Gambier getting it together to host anything bigger than a BBQ for all the locals?
We were off to Sweden after that, so our tour guide put the 'Mamma Mia' DVD on for us, to get us in the Swedish mood as it were. The Swedish meatballs we had at the truckstop for lunch, bang on the border, also helped get us in the mood. Stayed in Karlstad that night, again about the size of Mt Gambier and even less to see - no Blue Lake in Sweden!
Finally we were off to Stockholm! Had a walking tour of the old town and a 'traditional' Swedish dinner after we arrived. I was imagining Stockholm to be all slick and contemporary buildings, steel and glass. In reality, it's built on HEAPS of little islands, some of which are built half on land fill from the 13th century, and the heart of the city is the old town. It was all built around the 13th century, everything had been burnt down a few times, but it was all wonderful. Really pretty and so unexpected. Our 'traditional' dinner did include more meatballs and nothing else that I thought was particularly traditional, but it was good food despite its inauthenticity!
On the way back to the hotel that night, we went quickly out to Drottningholm (where the royals live, include their unmarried prince who looks like Orlando Bloom, hello!). The palace and gardens were based on Versailles, but not quite as big and the gardens were a bit prettier, less stark.
The next morning we had a city tour, then two others and I watched the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. One of the people I was with said it was a million times better than the one at Buckingham Palace so I'll be skipping that one. The Swedish one went for about an hour, we were about a metre away from the soldiers, there were horses and swords and a band all on horseback doing formation type things, great!
Went and did a little bit of shopping that afternoon, had to get some genuine H&M since it's actually a Swedish company. For anyone unfamiliar with H&M, it's like Ikea for clothes. Heaps of stuff, cheap, decent-ish quality, best accessories for the ladies EVER. I now own three H&M scarves for example.
Had our oh so sad and teary tour farewell dinner that night, wasn't quite as emotionally wrenching as my Contiki farewells!
The following day I decided not to try and cram in more of the excellence that Stockholm had to offer, but to go with my gut and go and visit the BIGGEST IKEA IN THE WORLD. Hell yeah! They run a free bus service to and from the city, so hopped on that and headed to the 'burbs for some storage solution goodness. Turns out Ikea's no fun when you can't buy anything and everything. And it was just like every other Ikea in the world, sad. The one thing they had different were a range of Ikea toiletries (shampoo, sunscreen, towels) so I bought an Ikea deodorant!
That night I caught the overnight ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, which is a HUGE ship and is packed to the rafters with tax free booze. The next morning when we got off in Helsinki people were literally rolling shopping trolleys full of slabs of alcohol off the ship. Personally, I opted to go and see a movie ('The Boat That Rocked', cute) and then get an awesome night's sleep so I was fresh and perky for Finland.
In Helsinki I stayed at a hostel in the 1952 Olympic Stadium (have for some reason managed to fit in all this sporty action very late in my trip). So at least my hostel was easy to find, tucked right behind the HUGE Olympic tower! Helsinki was not what I was expecting, it was less European and Scandinavian and a lot more Russian than I was expecting. Not the prettiest city, although the White Church was incredible, you could see it from everywhere. The harbour area and Esplanadi were really cool too, little orange tents with some seriously good food happening. My first day there I had Baltic herrings with tartare sauce and salad - yum!
The second day I was in Helsinki was May Day and a public holiday and crazy fun for all the Finns. The whole city packed its picnic blankets and booze and put on little white sailor caps and headed for Kaivopuisto Park to celebrate graduation and the end of winter. I mingled with the masses, had a huge plate of whitebait and potatoes and then tried to catch a tram. Not the best day to be relying on public transport.
From Helsinki I also did a day trip to Tallinn, capital of Estonia. It was only an hour and a half on the ferry to get there and it is a very pretty city. Very small, I wandered around, had lunch, visited the Photography Museum, bought some postcards and was back on a ferry in 2.5 hours, but definitely worth it.
There was also a highly entertaining, if a bit crazy, Dutch guy at my Helsinki hostel too. The three main countries that I haven't visited on my trip are Germany, Belgium and Holland. When I tell a German I'm not visiting their country, they are okay about it and agree that it should be top of my list for next time. The Belgians are sad that I'm not visiting their country, mainly because I'll miss out on all the good beer. But the Dutch! MAN are they cranky when I say I'm not going there! So this Dutch guy at my hostel proceeded to tell me how my entire country and life were all because of everything the Dutch have done for us Aussies, from Gus Hedding coaching our soccer team into the World Cup, to the Dutch naming New Zealand and inventing Heineken. He then took great joy in showing off his new pimp shoes that he'd just bought. He was fairly interesting.
I left Helsinki on Tuesday, just, and arrived that afternoon in London, just. That story is a special one though, which needs my full attention and wittiness so I'll leave this here and leave you with the super tantalizing to be continued....
I left you in Norway, back when I was about to start having hissy fits if the people on my tour didn't leave me alone for half an hour. I am nobody's Siamese twin and I'm not in a thriller movie being tailed, so let's all just back off the Nicola for a moment or twelve.
After leaving Bergen, we had Fjord Day. We spent three hours on a ferry burbling up and down two arms of the Sognefjord. Beautiful. Huge huge rocky mountains, little houses and occasional villages on the edges of the fjords, seagulls drifting along with us on the ferry, warm sunlight and icy shade. Pretty relaxing way to spend your Saturday!
Back on the bus and off to Fagernes with a quick stop at another stavkyrkje. Fagernes was very pretty, our hotel was on the edge of a huge lake, with plenty of ice still on parts of it. After dinner I managed to duck out without anyone following me and wandered out to a little tree-covered mini peninsula into the lake while the sun went down. It was incredibly quiet and gave me a chance to breathe and unwind, let some of the tension from my fellow travellers go.
The next day we headed for Lillehammer, home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. They actually only had the ski jumping and opening and closing ceremonies IN Lillehammer, so headed up to the ski jump stadium. Obviously not much happening, but it was a nice view over Lillehammer. For my Mt Gambier readers, Lillehammer is about the same size - can you ever imagine Mt Gambier getting it together to host anything bigger than a BBQ for all the locals?
We were off to Sweden after that, so our tour guide put the 'Mamma Mia' DVD on for us, to get us in the Swedish mood as it were. The Swedish meatballs we had at the truckstop for lunch, bang on the border, also helped get us in the mood. Stayed in Karlstad that night, again about the size of Mt Gambier and even less to see - no Blue Lake in Sweden!
Finally we were off to Stockholm! Had a walking tour of the old town and a 'traditional' Swedish dinner after we arrived. I was imagining Stockholm to be all slick and contemporary buildings, steel and glass. In reality, it's built on HEAPS of little islands, some of which are built half on land fill from the 13th century, and the heart of the city is the old town. It was all built around the 13th century, everything had been burnt down a few times, but it was all wonderful. Really pretty and so unexpected. Our 'traditional' dinner did include more meatballs and nothing else that I thought was particularly traditional, but it was good food despite its inauthenticity!
On the way back to the hotel that night, we went quickly out to Drottningholm (where the royals live, include their unmarried prince who looks like Orlando Bloom, hello!). The palace and gardens were based on Versailles, but not quite as big and the gardens were a bit prettier, less stark.
The next morning we had a city tour, then two others and I watched the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. One of the people I was with said it was a million times better than the one at Buckingham Palace so I'll be skipping that one. The Swedish one went for about an hour, we were about a metre away from the soldiers, there were horses and swords and a band all on horseback doing formation type things, great!
Went and did a little bit of shopping that afternoon, had to get some genuine H&M since it's actually a Swedish company. For anyone unfamiliar with H&M, it's like Ikea for clothes. Heaps of stuff, cheap, decent-ish quality, best accessories for the ladies EVER. I now own three H&M scarves for example.
Had our oh so sad and teary tour farewell dinner that night, wasn't quite as emotionally wrenching as my Contiki farewells!
The following day I decided not to try and cram in more of the excellence that Stockholm had to offer, but to go with my gut and go and visit the BIGGEST IKEA IN THE WORLD. Hell yeah! They run a free bus service to and from the city, so hopped on that and headed to the 'burbs for some storage solution goodness. Turns out Ikea's no fun when you can't buy anything and everything. And it was just like every other Ikea in the world, sad. The one thing they had different were a range of Ikea toiletries (shampoo, sunscreen, towels) so I bought an Ikea deodorant!
That night I caught the overnight ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, which is a HUGE ship and is packed to the rafters with tax free booze. The next morning when we got off in Helsinki people were literally rolling shopping trolleys full of slabs of alcohol off the ship. Personally, I opted to go and see a movie ('The Boat That Rocked', cute) and then get an awesome night's sleep so I was fresh and perky for Finland.
In Helsinki I stayed at a hostel in the 1952 Olympic Stadium (have for some reason managed to fit in all this sporty action very late in my trip). So at least my hostel was easy to find, tucked right behind the HUGE Olympic tower! Helsinki was not what I was expecting, it was less European and Scandinavian and a lot more Russian than I was expecting. Not the prettiest city, although the White Church was incredible, you could see it from everywhere. The harbour area and Esplanadi were really cool too, little orange tents with some seriously good food happening. My first day there I had Baltic herrings with tartare sauce and salad - yum!
The second day I was in Helsinki was May Day and a public holiday and crazy fun for all the Finns. The whole city packed its picnic blankets and booze and put on little white sailor caps and headed for Kaivopuisto Park to celebrate graduation and the end of winter. I mingled with the masses, had a huge plate of whitebait and potatoes and then tried to catch a tram. Not the best day to be relying on public transport.
From Helsinki I also did a day trip to Tallinn, capital of Estonia. It was only an hour and a half on the ferry to get there and it is a very pretty city. Very small, I wandered around, had lunch, visited the Photography Museum, bought some postcards and was back on a ferry in 2.5 hours, but definitely worth it.
There was also a highly entertaining, if a bit crazy, Dutch guy at my Helsinki hostel too. The three main countries that I haven't visited on my trip are Germany, Belgium and Holland. When I tell a German I'm not visiting their country, they are okay about it and agree that it should be top of my list for next time. The Belgians are sad that I'm not visiting their country, mainly because I'll miss out on all the good beer. But the Dutch! MAN are they cranky when I say I'm not going there! So this Dutch guy at my hostel proceeded to tell me how my entire country and life were all because of everything the Dutch have done for us Aussies, from Gus Hedding coaching our soccer team into the World Cup, to the Dutch naming New Zealand and inventing Heineken. He then took great joy in showing off his new pimp shoes that he'd just bought. He was fairly interesting.
I left Helsinki on Tuesday, just, and arrived that afternoon in London, just. That story is a special one though, which needs my full attention and wittiness so I'll leave this here and leave you with the super tantalizing to be continued....
Friday, April 24, 2009
I Am In Woollens
Hotel lobby, Bergen, Norway, 3.20pm
Up here in good old Scando, it's like going back in time three weeks. The weather is back to being (at an absolute stretch) 17 degrees, the first wave of tulips and daffodils are just happening and I've had to put my new purple Budapest Tshirt back in the bottom of my suitcase. Was beginning to regret (again) bringing my ski jacket when I got a little bit sunburnt in Prague, then I was out at 6.45am in Bør in -1 degree yesterday morning, praising the wise and intelligent people in my life (ie Mum) for making me bring it. More thanks to Nicola as well, had the beanie on all day yesterday. Although to be honest, once it goes on it doesn't come off - I give new meaning to the term hat hair.
So where am I and what have I been doing? Well you'll be pleased to know that I'm younger looking and more intelligent due to all the salmon I've been throwing down! Started the Salmon Fest of '09 on Tuesday night in Oslo with a salmon and cucumber sandwich from 7-11 - and before any of you freak out, no I didn't get food poisoning. 7-11 is a godsend to travellers, they are always open and always have food and it's cheaper (generally) than going to a restaurant or cafe and sitting down for a meal.
Oslo was pretty, I didn't realize that it, and Norway, had such a small population. Or that they were completely povo till they discovered oil in the North Sea in 1969.
There are only about 550 000 people in Oslo, 250 000 in Bergen where I am now and it's the second largest city in Norway. At least it makes it easy to get around the cities and our hotels have always been in great locations. Oslo is quite pretty, wrapped around the Oslofjord, pretty little boats and wharf area. Their city hall, I'm afraid to say, is the ugliest building I've ever had the misfortune of being forced to go into and spend eons listening to descriptions of the whole place. We had an included city tour with a local guide and she was great, we saw some nice bits and pieces and then I guess they consider the city hall to be a bit spesh, but someone really should've let Edvard Munch loose in there and done more gloomy, crazy looking works (like 'The Scream', which I saw).
The best part of the city tour though, was going through the Vigeland Statue Park. It was a lovely big space and directly through the centre was a bridge, fountain and monolith, all designed by Mr Vigeland. He had a lovely simple style, we're not talking Michaelangelo type stuff, and all the works in the gardens were on the theme of the circle of life. I just missed my Contiki friends who would've happily posed AS the statues in lots of photos with me!
After the city tour, a few of us hopped on a ferry across the harbour to visit the Vikingskipshuset. Oh yeah, Viking ships! They found three in burial mounds in about 1905, completely covered in mud which meant they were incredibly well-preserved, especially one which had been used to bury a queen. They were so cool, exactly what I wanted to see!
We left Oslo that afternoon and drove to Bø (pronounced BURR, I am never learning Norwegian, too hard). After a very short night there (wake up call at 5.30am - ow, that hurt), we headed for Bergen. First stop was a quick photo stop at Heddal Stayvkirke, a stave church. Most of them (all over Norway) were built about 700 years ago, without nails. The Heddal one was amazing, very creepy looking, like I can imagine the Salem witch trials happening in.
After that we had the most incredible drive across Norway, past rivers, lakes, FROZEN lakes, until we ended up deep in the snow and above the tree line. It was so beautiful and exactly how you think Norway will look. Meanwhile the weather was perfect, COLD, but clear blue skies. Saw a few people heading out for a spot of cross country skiing. Stopped by a frozen lake for lunch and by frozen I mean you couldn't actually see the lake because it was frozen then covered in snow. It's the end of April and I'm guessing if they're lucky, that lake will unfreeze for maybe two months of the year. Crazy.
Stopped to take photos at a couple of waterfalls in the afternoon, took a quick ferry ride across a fjord, arrived in Bergen in the evening. Really long day, but incredible scenery. Took a gazillion photos out the bus windows all day, have been going through them today and deleting all the blurry ones, ones with trees in the way, ones with reflections off the glass in them. I did get a couple of good ones though!
Today we had a city tour of Bergen, bit of a waste, honestly. The city isn't that big and we could quite easily have taken ourselves to see the best bits. Never mind! Afterwards I STUPIDLY went into a shop called Ting. After about 5 minutes, the two girls with me suddenly realized what was going on and were like 'Nicola! What are you buying? How MUCH have you got there?!' Yeah, it was verging on ugly. I had stupidly realized this morning that I had way too much Norwegian cash on me for the short amount of time we have left in Norway, so was thinking I'd either spend it or I'd have to change it to Swedish dosh next week. Instead, I found the Best Shop In The World and decided to spend a lot there! To the point where I now have to go to the supermarket to do budget dinner and lunch for tomorrow! And I now have about 80 kroner left, for emergencies. 80 kroner is enough for a 7-11 sandwich, ie not much. But the stuff in Ting was FANTASTIC. Loved it loved it loved it. Oh and on the plus side, I can get some of the money back when I leave Norway, tax money, squee!
Tomorrow we're off to do our ferry ride on the Sognefjord, it's the longest, deepest and narrowest fjord in the world. Oh and I almost forgot! The position of the sun in the sky here is totally noticeable. It's up seriously early in the morning and doesn't set till after 9pm, wish I was here in July for some midnight sun action!
Up here in good old Scando, it's like going back in time three weeks. The weather is back to being (at an absolute stretch) 17 degrees, the first wave of tulips and daffodils are just happening and I've had to put my new purple Budapest Tshirt back in the bottom of my suitcase. Was beginning to regret (again) bringing my ski jacket when I got a little bit sunburnt in Prague, then I was out at 6.45am in Bør in -1 degree yesterday morning, praising the wise and intelligent people in my life (ie Mum) for making me bring it. More thanks to Nicola as well, had the beanie on all day yesterday. Although to be honest, once it goes on it doesn't come off - I give new meaning to the term hat hair.
So where am I and what have I been doing? Well you'll be pleased to know that I'm younger looking and more intelligent due to all the salmon I've been throwing down! Started the Salmon Fest of '09 on Tuesday night in Oslo with a salmon and cucumber sandwich from 7-11 - and before any of you freak out, no I didn't get food poisoning. 7-11 is a godsend to travellers, they are always open and always have food and it's cheaper (generally) than going to a restaurant or cafe and sitting down for a meal.
Oslo was pretty, I didn't realize that it, and Norway, had such a small population. Or that they were completely povo till they discovered oil in the North Sea in 1969.
There are only about 550 000 people in Oslo, 250 000 in Bergen where I am now and it's the second largest city in Norway. At least it makes it easy to get around the cities and our hotels have always been in great locations. Oslo is quite pretty, wrapped around the Oslofjord, pretty little boats and wharf area. Their city hall, I'm afraid to say, is the ugliest building I've ever had the misfortune of being forced to go into and spend eons listening to descriptions of the whole place. We had an included city tour with a local guide and she was great, we saw some nice bits and pieces and then I guess they consider the city hall to be a bit spesh, but someone really should've let Edvard Munch loose in there and done more gloomy, crazy looking works (like 'The Scream', which I saw).
The best part of the city tour though, was going through the Vigeland Statue Park. It was a lovely big space and directly through the centre was a bridge, fountain and monolith, all designed by Mr Vigeland. He had a lovely simple style, we're not talking Michaelangelo type stuff, and all the works in the gardens were on the theme of the circle of life. I just missed my Contiki friends who would've happily posed AS the statues in lots of photos with me!
After the city tour, a few of us hopped on a ferry across the harbour to visit the Vikingskipshuset. Oh yeah, Viking ships! They found three in burial mounds in about 1905, completely covered in mud which meant they were incredibly well-preserved, especially one which had been used to bury a queen. They were so cool, exactly what I wanted to see!
We left Oslo that afternoon and drove to Bø (pronounced BURR, I am never learning Norwegian, too hard). After a very short night there (wake up call at 5.30am - ow, that hurt), we headed for Bergen. First stop was a quick photo stop at Heddal Stayvkirke, a stave church. Most of them (all over Norway) were built about 700 years ago, without nails. The Heddal one was amazing, very creepy looking, like I can imagine the Salem witch trials happening in.
After that we had the most incredible drive across Norway, past rivers, lakes, FROZEN lakes, until we ended up deep in the snow and above the tree line. It was so beautiful and exactly how you think Norway will look. Meanwhile the weather was perfect, COLD, but clear blue skies. Saw a few people heading out for a spot of cross country skiing. Stopped by a frozen lake for lunch and by frozen I mean you couldn't actually see the lake because it was frozen then covered in snow. It's the end of April and I'm guessing if they're lucky, that lake will unfreeze for maybe two months of the year. Crazy.
Stopped to take photos at a couple of waterfalls in the afternoon, took a quick ferry ride across a fjord, arrived in Bergen in the evening. Really long day, but incredible scenery. Took a gazillion photos out the bus windows all day, have been going through them today and deleting all the blurry ones, ones with trees in the way, ones with reflections off the glass in them. I did get a couple of good ones though!
Today we had a city tour of Bergen, bit of a waste, honestly. The city isn't that big and we could quite easily have taken ourselves to see the best bits. Never mind! Afterwards I STUPIDLY went into a shop called Ting. After about 5 minutes, the two girls with me suddenly realized what was going on and were like 'Nicola! What are you buying? How MUCH have you got there?!' Yeah, it was verging on ugly. I had stupidly realized this morning that I had way too much Norwegian cash on me for the short amount of time we have left in Norway, so was thinking I'd either spend it or I'd have to change it to Swedish dosh next week. Instead, I found the Best Shop In The World and decided to spend a lot there! To the point where I now have to go to the supermarket to do budget dinner and lunch for tomorrow! And I now have about 80 kroner left, for emergencies. 80 kroner is enough for a 7-11 sandwich, ie not much. But the stuff in Ting was FANTASTIC. Loved it loved it loved it. Oh and on the plus side, I can get some of the money back when I leave Norway, tax money, squee!
Tomorrow we're off to do our ferry ride on the Sognefjord, it's the longest, deepest and narrowest fjord in the world. Oh and I almost forgot! The position of the sun in the sky here is totally noticeable. It's up seriously early in the morning and doesn't set till after 9pm, wish I was here in July for some midnight sun action!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
I Am Lilac
Hotel in Frederikshavn, 9.18 am
Time whips by too quickly and suddenly you haven't heard about Prague or Copenhagen or how old everyone on my Scandinavian tour is! Fun times! Keep reading!
Back in the day, I was in Prague. Actually it's a week ago now, but of course it feels like a month. The afternoon I arrived I went to the main post office to offload another 3kgs back to the parentals. That was fun. First I needed a box, then I had to tie it up with string (apparently the Czech Rep. aren't quite into the 21st century and our love of sticky tape), then I had to fill in a declaration form that was in Czech and French. So with my three words of French I filled in as much as I could, followed by the post dude asking me things in Czech and me just replying yes. I may well have told him it contained a homemade bomb and some child porn, but he seemed okay about that anyway and took my money. I guess now I just have to wait and see if and when it turns up! The excitement! Mystery! Suspense!
Prague is beautiful, as beautiful as you think it will be. What I wasn't prepared for, was sharing such a beautiful city with everyone from Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Easter holidays had brought all the Europeans out and they were soaking up the sun all over Prague. I had to queue for half an hour to get into St Vitus' Cathedral in the middle of a pack of 15 year old Italian students. Fun times. 15 year olds are appalling in every language.
Prague Castle was great and the area down the hill around St Miklaus' was also pretty cool. The Charles Bridge is very pretty, but it was lined with art/jewellery stalls and jammed with tourists. The Old Town Square was incredibly pretty too, but the middle part was full of ye olden Prague market stalls selling Stuff and food and beer. On the plus side - yay beer and sausages! And trdlo! Which is the dough cooked on a stick and dipped in cinnamon and sugar that I missed out on trying in Budapest. Not bad at all! Sadly on the two days I was there the Jewish Museum and main synagogue were closed for Jewish holidays, which was a shame because I'd heard such great things about the museum and how moving it was. Instead I went to the Mucha Museum - wonderful! Such beautiful and illustrative work. Went a bit crazy in the gift shop. Stupid notepads!
I had been hoping to see, somewhere anywhere, some lilacs on this trip too. They're my favourite flower and I can only buy them (expensively) for one month a year in Australia. Seeing that I'm on The Continent in spring, I thought I should get a chance to see them for an extra month this year. Sadly, nowhere. Until I was waiting to take the tram to the train station to leave Prague, the tram stop that I'd been at twice a day for three days in a row, when I focussed on what was across the road. Lilacs! Bushes and bushes of them! In flower! Right there! On the side of the road like a weed! And from there until half way out to the airport I saw them EVERYWHERE. Clearly they're not a big deal and quite common in Prague, not as rare as in Australia. I guess I just couldn't see the lilacs for the lilacs!
It was raining when I left Prague, which suited me fine, cooler for suitcase schleppage, plus I was pretty excited about heading up to Scandinavia finally. It was one of the areas I was most excited about visiting, even when I arrived in Portugal I just wanted to skip forward to this part of my trip! So I left rainy Prague and arrived under an endless blue sky in Copenhagen. Stunning.
Made my way into the city and was walking through their central city area towards my hostel thinking 'Oh yeah, this is fantastic! I am going to LOVE this!'. And I did! The city is small and very walkable, the people are ALL attractive, they have little hot dog vans everywhere which are the bomb, there are more bicycles than people so it's all enviro-friendly, Nyhavn is the most picturesque thing I've ever seen and their ice cream is just divine. On the downside they are crazy drunks, but their English is so good they can carry on normal conversations or abuse while alcoholically impaired.
I met up with the two girls I met in Budapest, Arden and Linda, and we went out for a few drinks and shots of Fisk (aka mouthwash), then on Saturday Linda and I had Mexican for lunch (yay eating what I want instead of feeling like I should eat local specialties!), followed by ice creams and sunshine on the wharf at Nyhavn.
Then I headed back to my hotel to meet the other people on my tour. Out of 24 of us, 7 of us are under 35 and the rest are all over 50. Bit different to Contiki. For instance nobody has yet mentioned the best clubs to go to and we never get offered the cheaper places to eat, just the super pricey and super touristy ones. Never mind, Scandinavia is gorgeous and for two weeks I get driven around to everywhere I wanted to go anyway. Plus they literally take your bags from your room to the bus and then bring them to your room at the next hotel - hello lazy! Of course in two weeks I won't be able to lift my suitcase, but eh! Not to worry!
So today we leave Frederikshavn on a ferry, we drive through Gothenburg, then straight over to Oslo for the night. Saturday is Fjord Day, so please think of me enviously around 8pm Saturday night (Australian time) when I'll be out on the water, being amazed. Which reminds me, I HAVE to get my photos burnt off my memory card!
Time whips by too quickly and suddenly you haven't heard about Prague or Copenhagen or how old everyone on my Scandinavian tour is! Fun times! Keep reading!
Back in the day, I was in Prague. Actually it's a week ago now, but of course it feels like a month. The afternoon I arrived I went to the main post office to offload another 3kgs back to the parentals. That was fun. First I needed a box, then I had to tie it up with string (apparently the Czech Rep. aren't quite into the 21st century and our love of sticky tape), then I had to fill in a declaration form that was in Czech and French. So with my three words of French I filled in as much as I could, followed by the post dude asking me things in Czech and me just replying yes. I may well have told him it contained a homemade bomb and some child porn, but he seemed okay about that anyway and took my money. I guess now I just have to wait and see if and when it turns up! The excitement! Mystery! Suspense!
Prague is beautiful, as beautiful as you think it will be. What I wasn't prepared for, was sharing such a beautiful city with everyone from Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Easter holidays had brought all the Europeans out and they were soaking up the sun all over Prague. I had to queue for half an hour to get into St Vitus' Cathedral in the middle of a pack of 15 year old Italian students. Fun times. 15 year olds are appalling in every language.
Prague Castle was great and the area down the hill around St Miklaus' was also pretty cool. The Charles Bridge is very pretty, but it was lined with art/jewellery stalls and jammed with tourists. The Old Town Square was incredibly pretty too, but the middle part was full of ye olden Prague market stalls selling Stuff and food and beer. On the plus side - yay beer and sausages! And trdlo! Which is the dough cooked on a stick and dipped in cinnamon and sugar that I missed out on trying in Budapest. Not bad at all! Sadly on the two days I was there the Jewish Museum and main synagogue were closed for Jewish holidays, which was a shame because I'd heard such great things about the museum and how moving it was. Instead I went to the Mucha Museum - wonderful! Such beautiful and illustrative work. Went a bit crazy in the gift shop. Stupid notepads!
I had been hoping to see, somewhere anywhere, some lilacs on this trip too. They're my favourite flower and I can only buy them (expensively) for one month a year in Australia. Seeing that I'm on The Continent in spring, I thought I should get a chance to see them for an extra month this year. Sadly, nowhere. Until I was waiting to take the tram to the train station to leave Prague, the tram stop that I'd been at twice a day for three days in a row, when I focussed on what was across the road. Lilacs! Bushes and bushes of them! In flower! Right there! On the side of the road like a weed! And from there until half way out to the airport I saw them EVERYWHERE. Clearly they're not a big deal and quite common in Prague, not as rare as in Australia. I guess I just couldn't see the lilacs for the lilacs!
It was raining when I left Prague, which suited me fine, cooler for suitcase schleppage, plus I was pretty excited about heading up to Scandinavia finally. It was one of the areas I was most excited about visiting, even when I arrived in Portugal I just wanted to skip forward to this part of my trip! So I left rainy Prague and arrived under an endless blue sky in Copenhagen. Stunning.
Made my way into the city and was walking through their central city area towards my hostel thinking 'Oh yeah, this is fantastic! I am going to LOVE this!'. And I did! The city is small and very walkable, the people are ALL attractive, they have little hot dog vans everywhere which are the bomb, there are more bicycles than people so it's all enviro-friendly, Nyhavn is the most picturesque thing I've ever seen and their ice cream is just divine. On the downside they are crazy drunks, but their English is so good they can carry on normal conversations or abuse while alcoholically impaired.
I met up with the two girls I met in Budapest, Arden and Linda, and we went out for a few drinks and shots of Fisk (aka mouthwash), then on Saturday Linda and I had Mexican for lunch (yay eating what I want instead of feeling like I should eat local specialties!), followed by ice creams and sunshine on the wharf at Nyhavn.
Then I headed back to my hotel to meet the other people on my tour. Out of 24 of us, 7 of us are under 35 and the rest are all over 50. Bit different to Contiki. For instance nobody has yet mentioned the best clubs to go to and we never get offered the cheaper places to eat, just the super pricey and super touristy ones. Never mind, Scandinavia is gorgeous and for two weeks I get driven around to everywhere I wanted to go anyway. Plus they literally take your bags from your room to the bus and then bring them to your room at the next hotel - hello lazy! Of course in two weeks I won't be able to lift my suitcase, but eh! Not to worry!
So today we leave Frederikshavn on a ferry, we drive through Gothenburg, then straight over to Oslo for the night. Saturday is Fjord Day, so please think of me enviously around 8pm Saturday night (Australian time) when I'll be out on the water, being amazed. Which reminds me, I HAVE to get my photos burnt off my memory card!
Monday, April 13, 2009
I Am Kulched
Expensive interent cafe, Mariahilferstrasse, Vienna, 11.40am
Am spending Easter here in Vienna, did lots of museums and sights on the first two days, leaving me two very relaxing days of sunshine and parks. However I have left you all a long way behind so I am here, now, to try and catch you up!
So way back in the day, when I was in Slovenia, after I arrived and stopped freaking out, I discovered that Ljubljana is one of my favourite places so far, top five for sure. The people in Slovenia are the NICEST I have come across anywhere, they are genuinely lovely and helpful and warm. Plus they ALL speak English really well.
My day of checking out Ljubljana didn't take long, the central old city part is tiny and only takes an hour to walk around. It's all centred on a river and there are some lovely bridges over it, including the famous triple bridge. Since it was Saturday the market was absolutely pumping, plus there was a Bosnian food festival on, which seemed to consist mainly of baklava and coffee. I chucked laps around the market and up and down both sides of the river, soaking it all up. Walked up the hill to the castle, took some photos of the View, gawked at a wedding party, then headed back down the hill for lunch at a bar I'd scoped out on the way past earlier.
Best coffee ever. I took a photo of it because it was so wonderfully presented, plus because I'm a tourist. Gorgeous cup and saucer, yummy little biscuit, glass of water, so civilized! And here I was thinking Slovenia would be all peasants with horses and carts (apparently that's Romania) and no teeth. Also had a big bowl of potato soup with the most delicious bread. (Best bread of my trip - Slovenia, everywhere, including my hostel.) And then I had to have another coffee to celebrate how much in love with Ljubljana I was.
I was so wrong about Slovenia, I thought it would be kind of pretty and old, but a bit backward by my oh-so-hip standards, but it is COOL. Great shops, great lifestyle, super trendy bars and cafes, and they were dressed in really interesting clothes, bit Brunswick St (the money side, not the filthy hippy side).
After lunch I headed for the Tivoli Gardens and spent a few hours reading in the sun, listening to some young guy practicing his sax and watching huge plots of daffodils wave merrily. Wonderful.
The next day I managed to arrange with Lisa (who I met in Naples) to meet and catch the bus to Lake Bled for the day. She brought along a couple of young Poms from her hostel so the four of us wandered around the lake all day, up to the castle and church, bureks and ice cream for lunch, Slovenian Snotblocks for afternoon tea! Lots of sunshine still!
Then it was off to Budapest. Long train trip again (what happened to everything in Europe being small and close?), but STRESS-FREE which is far more important than a quick trip. Budapest is a big city and has the filth to go with it. As soon as I woke up on my first morning there I went 'What's wrong with the sunlight? Why is it kind of dim and hazy?' That would be the pollution. It was bad, really bad. It was quite a hot day too so the hazy sky and nasty yellow Danube were just horrible.
On the plus side, made some great friends in Budapest at my hostel and we all hung out for the two days we were there. We did a free walking tour of the city, followed by lunch at this outdoor kitchen kind of thing - kebabs! Sausages! Salad! BEER! The beer certainly helped clear the pollution from my lungs! Had dinner at a nice Jewish Hungarian restaurant with a bunch of their friends who were studying in Budapest, followed by shots of the local specialty at a huge bar in an abandoned building.
The next day we went to the Szechenyi Baths, thermal baths that are all kept at different temperatures. So we did nothing apart from loiter in the baths and lie in the sun. I did NOT get sunburnt! If I'd been in Australia it would've been sunscreen every 30 minutes, in Budapest, three times in four hours and not a mark on me - squee!
All three of my new Budapest Buddies are studying in Copenhagen, which means I get to see them all again this weekend. Really looking forward to that, hoping they know somewhere cheap to get a drink, think I won't be doing much drinking in Scandinavia. Much of anything in fact!
On Thursday I made my way to Vienna, met a girl in my train carriage who was actually staying at the same hostel as me, so we found it together then hung out for a couple of days too. Vienna is lovely, heaps to do, plus some really beautiful parks and gardens to relax in. Janie (from the train) and I went to the opera on Thursday night for €3, it was....an experience! Won't be racing for season tickets anytime soon, but now I can say I've been! I went on Saturday night to see the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (€5) - now that was AMAZING. And on Sunday morning I was up way too early to get into mass with the Vienna Boys' Choir (€5), so good. The mass part was all in German so I was fighting to stay awake for that, but the boys were incredible, the one who did the solo parts had a voice better than any woman I've ever heard.
Friday was Klimt Day, went to three different museums to get maximum Klimt action, certainly wasn't disappointed. Plus I saw a huge exhibition of gorgeous Art Nouveau work by Alfons Mucha. Hadn't been to a museum since Rome, so was ready to wander and appreciate more than I would've been two weeks ago.
Apart from all of that, have just been enjoying the extraordinary weather in the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace and Stadtpark, will probably head back to the hostel, make some sandwiches and go back to Stadtpark again once I finish this. Might actually go to the movies later this afternoon too, haven't been at all over here and am hanging out for some cinematic relaxation.
Tomorrow I'm off to Prague for a couple of days, really looking forward to that, still haven't met anyone who doesn't love it. Then it's up to Scandinavia, finally! Still only up to 3/4 of the way through my trip, feels like three years people!
Am spending Easter here in Vienna, did lots of museums and sights on the first two days, leaving me two very relaxing days of sunshine and parks. However I have left you all a long way behind so I am here, now, to try and catch you up!
So way back in the day, when I was in Slovenia, after I arrived and stopped freaking out, I discovered that Ljubljana is one of my favourite places so far, top five for sure. The people in Slovenia are the NICEST I have come across anywhere, they are genuinely lovely and helpful and warm. Plus they ALL speak English really well.
My day of checking out Ljubljana didn't take long, the central old city part is tiny and only takes an hour to walk around. It's all centred on a river and there are some lovely bridges over it, including the famous triple bridge. Since it was Saturday the market was absolutely pumping, plus there was a Bosnian food festival on, which seemed to consist mainly of baklava and coffee. I chucked laps around the market and up and down both sides of the river, soaking it all up. Walked up the hill to the castle, took some photos of the View, gawked at a wedding party, then headed back down the hill for lunch at a bar I'd scoped out on the way past earlier.
Best coffee ever. I took a photo of it because it was so wonderfully presented, plus because I'm a tourist. Gorgeous cup and saucer, yummy little biscuit, glass of water, so civilized! And here I was thinking Slovenia would be all peasants with horses and carts (apparently that's Romania) and no teeth. Also had a big bowl of potato soup with the most delicious bread. (Best bread of my trip - Slovenia, everywhere, including my hostel.) And then I had to have another coffee to celebrate how much in love with Ljubljana I was.
I was so wrong about Slovenia, I thought it would be kind of pretty and old, but a bit backward by my oh-so-hip standards, but it is COOL. Great shops, great lifestyle, super trendy bars and cafes, and they were dressed in really interesting clothes, bit Brunswick St (the money side, not the filthy hippy side).
After lunch I headed for the Tivoli Gardens and spent a few hours reading in the sun, listening to some young guy practicing his sax and watching huge plots of daffodils wave merrily. Wonderful.
The next day I managed to arrange with Lisa (who I met in Naples) to meet and catch the bus to Lake Bled for the day. She brought along a couple of young Poms from her hostel so the four of us wandered around the lake all day, up to the castle and church, bureks and ice cream for lunch, Slovenian Snotblocks for afternoon tea! Lots of sunshine still!
Then it was off to Budapest. Long train trip again (what happened to everything in Europe being small and close?), but STRESS-FREE which is far more important than a quick trip. Budapest is a big city and has the filth to go with it. As soon as I woke up on my first morning there I went 'What's wrong with the sunlight? Why is it kind of dim and hazy?' That would be the pollution. It was bad, really bad. It was quite a hot day too so the hazy sky and nasty yellow Danube were just horrible.
On the plus side, made some great friends in Budapest at my hostel and we all hung out for the two days we were there. We did a free walking tour of the city, followed by lunch at this outdoor kitchen kind of thing - kebabs! Sausages! Salad! BEER! The beer certainly helped clear the pollution from my lungs! Had dinner at a nice Jewish Hungarian restaurant with a bunch of their friends who were studying in Budapest, followed by shots of the local specialty at a huge bar in an abandoned building.
The next day we went to the Szechenyi Baths, thermal baths that are all kept at different temperatures. So we did nothing apart from loiter in the baths and lie in the sun. I did NOT get sunburnt! If I'd been in Australia it would've been sunscreen every 30 minutes, in Budapest, three times in four hours and not a mark on me - squee!
All three of my new Budapest Buddies are studying in Copenhagen, which means I get to see them all again this weekend. Really looking forward to that, hoping they know somewhere cheap to get a drink, think I won't be doing much drinking in Scandinavia. Much of anything in fact!
On Thursday I made my way to Vienna, met a girl in my train carriage who was actually staying at the same hostel as me, so we found it together then hung out for a couple of days too. Vienna is lovely, heaps to do, plus some really beautiful parks and gardens to relax in. Janie (from the train) and I went to the opera on Thursday night for €3, it was....an experience! Won't be racing for season tickets anytime soon, but now I can say I've been! I went on Saturday night to see the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (€5) - now that was AMAZING. And on Sunday morning I was up way too early to get into mass with the Vienna Boys' Choir (€5), so good. The mass part was all in German so I was fighting to stay awake for that, but the boys were incredible, the one who did the solo parts had a voice better than any woman I've ever heard.
Friday was Klimt Day, went to three different museums to get maximum Klimt action, certainly wasn't disappointed. Plus I saw a huge exhibition of gorgeous Art Nouveau work by Alfons Mucha. Hadn't been to a museum since Rome, so was ready to wander and appreciate more than I would've been two weeks ago.
Apart from all of that, have just been enjoying the extraordinary weather in the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace and Stadtpark, will probably head back to the hostel, make some sandwiches and go back to Stadtpark again once I finish this. Might actually go to the movies later this afternoon too, haven't been at all over here and am hanging out for some cinematic relaxation.
Tomorrow I'm off to Prague for a couple of days, really looking forward to that, still haven't met anyone who doesn't love it. Then it's up to Scandinavia, finally! Still only up to 3/4 of the way through my trip, feels like three years people!
Friday, April 3, 2009
I Am Unwinding
Vila Veselova Hostel, Ljubljana, 6.57pm
Man, what a mental day! No, actually, just stressfully uncertain. And you all know how trying that is for me, Little Miss Prepared. Today was Salzburg to Ljubljana, Slovenia and I should've known something was up yesterday when I tried to reserve a ticket.
The girl in Salzburg printed out the times of when the trains went, but couldn't reserve me a ticket. She said not to worry, with my Eurail pass I could just get on without a reservation.
Turn up this morning for the 10.12 train which should go straight there. Decide that I would feel better if I had a reservation so have another crack at getting one. This time I pay E9.40 and get a ticket but still no actual seat and carriage number. Hmmf. Whatever.
The 10.12 train does not seem to be stopping in Ljubljana, in fact half the train might be headed for Serbia. That's all wrong! There's an announcement in German and then in English which says something about going to one end of the train or the other. No idea. Get on, ask a teenager and she is unsure whether it's the right one. How strange, a clueless 15 year old, they're universal. Jump off and ask some staff, am told it's the right one but I should be down the other end and at the next station I should move to the other end. Okaaaaay.
Ticket inspector comes round and he tells me that I just need to change in Villach, the train for Ljubljana will be on the other side of the same platform. Relax until I get to Villach. Train is where he said it would be! It's going to Ljubljana! I get on!
There are lots of announcements in German and/or Slovenian. Not in English. Who cares?! I am on the right train for the right city!
What is that expression about counting your chickens?
We stop in Lidernitznowhere and one man gets out of my carriage. Then the Norwegians get out. It's not my stop so I keep reading and listening to my iPod. Glance out the window. Everybody from my train is wheeling their suitcases across half a paddock and getting on a bus. WHAT?!
Call out to the last two girls getting off the train 'Excuse me, Ljubljana?' and point madly at the bus across the paddock. 'Yes.' RIGHT! Shove book and iPod into backpack and fling that over one shoulder, jacket and jumper in left hand, thump down the corridor with my thirty kilo suitcase in my right hand. Almost fall down the steep steep steep stairs and into the paddock. Hare madly across the paddock with my suitcase, but it's okay, I'm not last now and the ticket inspector did check the train to make sure no one was getting left behind.
So now I'm sitting on a bus still in Austria, I think, going I don't know where. All I can think is 'WHAT IS GOING ON? WHAT? WHAT?' Sit and panic silently for awhile. Then see that we are on a highway and following all the signs to Ljubljana. Okay, it's just a bus replacing the train, will just stay on it until I get to Ljubljana. I can handle this. Ooh and now we're in Slovenia. Okay.
Bus pulls in to the station in Jesenice, I don't get off because I'm not going to Jesenice. Except again everybody except me is getting off, perhaps I should too. So we all get back on a train. It's not a nice train. It's very Eastern European or vintage Spanish. Again I sit there for a very long time, hoping I'm not catching a disease from the 1970s and thinking 'WHAT? WHAT NOW? I DON'T UNDERSTAND! NOBODY ELSE SPEAKS ENGLISH! WHAT WAS I THINKING COMING TO THIS SCARY PLACE?!' And yes, I only thought in capital letters, it was that kind of day, hence I'm quite exhausted.
Train eventually starts to move. We stop in one place we're meant to and one place we're not meant to. By this stage the timing is all off, which means my safety back up plan which I normally use of knowing when to get off based on what time the train is supposed to arrive at my station, has gone out the window. I grip my iPod and give the Slovenian countryside desperate crazy eyes instead.
The train arrives in Ljubljana! I get off the train! It's okay! I'm here! Meanwhile, tell Communism I said hello, Ljubljana train station.
Now I just have to find my hostel. Directions. Exit station by main exit and go west.
Go WEST?! GO WEST?!?!
I'm not a compass. I didn't bring a compass. And I see no helpful signs saying 'For people wanting to go west, go this way'. The most helpful thing in my head is that Pet Shop Boys song 'Go weeeest, life is peaceful there. Go weeeest, da dee da dee dumm....'
The sun! I can navigate by the sun! Good lord, my intelligence knows no bounds. Locate the sun through the hazy cloud cover and realize that 3pm in Europe on daylight savings time is not a great time to start navigating by Old Man Tracker methods. Well anyway, if I were the sun, I'd be going....that way, I think.
I go that way. Find the right street. Dance madly in celebration in my head, continue dragging my suitcase and sweating profusely in reality.
The rest of the hostel directions are all in metres. 'Go 800 metres and turn right down Persenova'. Must have left my pedometer/measuring tape/wheelie measuring thing in my other pants. Bugger. So I keep going and going and going. 800 metres feels an awful lot like 3kms with a suitcase and too many layers on.
Found the hostel! It's quite nice! Brekky is included! Laundry is cheap! Internet is free! They have a TV with shows in English with Slovenian subtitles! The supermarket is nearby and huge and EXCITING!
Am absolutely exhausted by all the uncertainty, can't wait to go out tomorrow and explore and try to buy lunch. Am having SUCH fun!
Man, what a mental day! No, actually, just stressfully uncertain. And you all know how trying that is for me, Little Miss Prepared. Today was Salzburg to Ljubljana, Slovenia and I should've known something was up yesterday when I tried to reserve a ticket.
The girl in Salzburg printed out the times of when the trains went, but couldn't reserve me a ticket. She said not to worry, with my Eurail pass I could just get on without a reservation.
Turn up this morning for the 10.12 train which should go straight there. Decide that I would feel better if I had a reservation so have another crack at getting one. This time I pay E9.40 and get a ticket but still no actual seat and carriage number. Hmmf. Whatever.
The 10.12 train does not seem to be stopping in Ljubljana, in fact half the train might be headed for Serbia. That's all wrong! There's an announcement in German and then in English which says something about going to one end of the train or the other. No idea. Get on, ask a teenager and she is unsure whether it's the right one. How strange, a clueless 15 year old, they're universal. Jump off and ask some staff, am told it's the right one but I should be down the other end and at the next station I should move to the other end. Okaaaaay.
Ticket inspector comes round and he tells me that I just need to change in Villach, the train for Ljubljana will be on the other side of the same platform. Relax until I get to Villach. Train is where he said it would be! It's going to Ljubljana! I get on!
There are lots of announcements in German and/or Slovenian. Not in English. Who cares?! I am on the right train for the right city!
What is that expression about counting your chickens?
We stop in Lidernitznowhere and one man gets out of my carriage. Then the Norwegians get out. It's not my stop so I keep reading and listening to my iPod. Glance out the window. Everybody from my train is wheeling their suitcases across half a paddock and getting on a bus. WHAT?!
Call out to the last two girls getting off the train 'Excuse me, Ljubljana?' and point madly at the bus across the paddock. 'Yes.' RIGHT! Shove book and iPod into backpack and fling that over one shoulder, jacket and jumper in left hand, thump down the corridor with my thirty kilo suitcase in my right hand. Almost fall down the steep steep steep stairs and into the paddock. Hare madly across the paddock with my suitcase, but it's okay, I'm not last now and the ticket inspector did check the train to make sure no one was getting left behind.
So now I'm sitting on a bus still in Austria, I think, going I don't know where. All I can think is 'WHAT IS GOING ON? WHAT? WHAT?' Sit and panic silently for awhile. Then see that we are on a highway and following all the signs to Ljubljana. Okay, it's just a bus replacing the train, will just stay on it until I get to Ljubljana. I can handle this. Ooh and now we're in Slovenia. Okay.
Bus pulls in to the station in Jesenice, I don't get off because I'm not going to Jesenice. Except again everybody except me is getting off, perhaps I should too. So we all get back on a train. It's not a nice train. It's very Eastern European or vintage Spanish. Again I sit there for a very long time, hoping I'm not catching a disease from the 1970s and thinking 'WHAT? WHAT NOW? I DON'T UNDERSTAND! NOBODY ELSE SPEAKS ENGLISH! WHAT WAS I THINKING COMING TO THIS SCARY PLACE?!' And yes, I only thought in capital letters, it was that kind of day, hence I'm quite exhausted.
Train eventually starts to move. We stop in one place we're meant to and one place we're not meant to. By this stage the timing is all off, which means my safety back up plan which I normally use of knowing when to get off based on what time the train is supposed to arrive at my station, has gone out the window. I grip my iPod and give the Slovenian countryside desperate crazy eyes instead.
The train arrives in Ljubljana! I get off the train! It's okay! I'm here! Meanwhile, tell Communism I said hello, Ljubljana train station.
Now I just have to find my hostel. Directions. Exit station by main exit and go west.
Go WEST?! GO WEST?!?!
I'm not a compass. I didn't bring a compass. And I see no helpful signs saying 'For people wanting to go west, go this way'. The most helpful thing in my head is that Pet Shop Boys song 'Go weeeest, life is peaceful there. Go weeeest, da dee da dee dumm....'
The sun! I can navigate by the sun! Good lord, my intelligence knows no bounds. Locate the sun through the hazy cloud cover and realize that 3pm in Europe on daylight savings time is not a great time to start navigating by Old Man Tracker methods. Well anyway, if I were the sun, I'd be going....that way, I think.
I go that way. Find the right street. Dance madly in celebration in my head, continue dragging my suitcase and sweating profusely in reality.
The rest of the hostel directions are all in metres. 'Go 800 metres and turn right down Persenova'. Must have left my pedometer/measuring tape/wheelie measuring thing in my other pants. Bugger. So I keep going and going and going. 800 metres feels an awful lot like 3kms with a suitcase and too many layers on.
Found the hostel! It's quite nice! Brekky is included! Laundry is cheap! Internet is free! They have a TV with shows in English with Slovenian subtitles! The supermarket is nearby and huge and EXCITING!
Am absolutely exhausted by all the uncertainty, can't wait to go out tomorrow and explore and try to buy lunch. Am having SUCH fun!
Monday, March 30, 2009
I Am Snowblind
Smoky but cheap internet cafe on Gabelsbergerstra§e (yes you read that right) in Salzburg, 5.05pm
Too much snow! Too much excitement! It's WONDERFUL!
When last we spoke I was whingeing about the Italian transportation system, but I can safely say that I've left that well and truly behind and am now into the super organized and disturbingly efficient neck of the woods - Switzerland and Austria.
My train trip from Rome to Zurich (especially after Milan) was spectacular. I'd been having such a lovely time in Borghese Park in Rome, wallowing in the sunshine on Wednesday, that to be trundling along through the Gotthard Tunnel and right up there in the Alpine goodness of still-very-snowy Switzerland was just crazy! When we got quite high up and there was snow alongside the train I was practically licking the windows I was so thrilled. And the lakes! The lakes in Switzerland are stunning! Was almost relieved to arrive in Zurich because I was worn out with all the widened eyes and accelerated heartbeat.
Zurich was as opposite to Naples as it is possible to be. I was in Naples on Tuesday and 48 hours later I was in Zurich. One is the filthiest and dodgiest city I've ever seen. The other was clean and tidy and pretty and civilized. It was quite a bit colder though and threatening rain all weekend.
My lovely friend Sharon came over from London for a long weekend with me, so Thurs was craziness at the station trying to work out which train went to the airport so that I could meet her. (Useful word for anyone needing an airport in a German-speaking country: flughafen. Clearly.) Met her, fond reunion after not seeing one another for a year and a half, followed by a lovely bowl of pasta (better than anything I had in Italy) and a bottle of vino.
On Friday we headed for Lucerne, to swan about on the lake. Wow! Stunning! (I'm so sorry, after two and a half months of wow factors I've run out of adjectives.) It was like being in a postcard, like, do places like that actually exist? Apparently! We took a boat over to Vitznau and spent three hours next to the lake, in the sun, eating lunch and Swiss chocolate, dozing, taking photos, listening to absolutely nothing. Superb.
Caught the boat across to Beckenreid, but it was getting later and colder by this stage so we only jumped off for 5 minutes for some photos, then back across the lake to Lucerne.
Saturday we visited the Rhine Falls, largest waterfalls in Europe. I should point out that Europe isn't known for its waterfalls and its largest are certainly not quite on par with Niagara or Iguazu or the ones in Africa I can never remember the name of. Unfortunately it was also raining and we also saw the falls from the train and thought they must be a preview of the Larger and More Spectacular falls. So the falls were very pretty and it was a nice little excursion, but not quite as out-of-this-world as we thought they might be.
Went for a little wander round the shops back in Zurich, had to decide between buying a lovely new handbag or spending a night in Hotel Fox in Copenhagen. I'm going for the hotel. And for dinner - FONDUE! Yes, we fondid in Switzerland! The place we went was recommended by my guide book and it was certainly authentic - from the dark wood, dim lighting and Ye Anciente Cooke who made our bubbling pot of cheese. I've never had the real deal fondue before and it's....boozy! We just had bread to dunk and it was so rich. Afterwards our waitress said when she does it at home, she does it with water not wine. Did we get that option?! Slept well that night though!
Sunday EVERYTHING was shut. An excellent day to check out the Banhofstra§e, one of the world's most expensive shopping streets. So window shopped our way down to the river and back, checking out a few churches along the way. Walked to the gardens, lolled about there, wandered through their hothouses. It was so quiet because everything was shut, very old school Sunday vibe. Put Sharon back on the train to the flughafen and then went and packed for my train trip today.
Again today - SNOW! Somewhere between Switzerland and Innsbruck it all looked like cookies 'n' cream ice cream, all white with black bits (trees, rocks, etc). Arrived in Salzburg just before 4pm and made my way to my hostel, salivating over the snow on the hill where the castle appears to be and all the filthy snow on the ground around cars, bins, rooves, etc. SNOW! My trip is so awesome - I've got all three of my favourite things: gin and tonics, Barcelona and snow!
Speaking of my favourite things....! Oh yes! I am in THAT town where THAT movie was filmed and I'm going on THAT tour! The hills certainly are alive with the sound of strangled out of tune music!
SNOW!
PS Top two places in Europe for coffee (in my opinion): Portugal and Switzerland.
Too much snow! Too much excitement! It's WONDERFUL!
When last we spoke I was whingeing about the Italian transportation system, but I can safely say that I've left that well and truly behind and am now into the super organized and disturbingly efficient neck of the woods - Switzerland and Austria.
My train trip from Rome to Zurich (especially after Milan) was spectacular. I'd been having such a lovely time in Borghese Park in Rome, wallowing in the sunshine on Wednesday, that to be trundling along through the Gotthard Tunnel and right up there in the Alpine goodness of still-very-snowy Switzerland was just crazy! When we got quite high up and there was snow alongside the train I was practically licking the windows I was so thrilled. And the lakes! The lakes in Switzerland are stunning! Was almost relieved to arrive in Zurich because I was worn out with all the widened eyes and accelerated heartbeat.
Zurich was as opposite to Naples as it is possible to be. I was in Naples on Tuesday and 48 hours later I was in Zurich. One is the filthiest and dodgiest city I've ever seen. The other was clean and tidy and pretty and civilized. It was quite a bit colder though and threatening rain all weekend.
My lovely friend Sharon came over from London for a long weekend with me, so Thurs was craziness at the station trying to work out which train went to the airport so that I could meet her. (Useful word for anyone needing an airport in a German-speaking country: flughafen. Clearly.) Met her, fond reunion after not seeing one another for a year and a half, followed by a lovely bowl of pasta (better than anything I had in Italy) and a bottle of vino.
On Friday we headed for Lucerne, to swan about on the lake. Wow! Stunning! (I'm so sorry, after two and a half months of wow factors I've run out of adjectives.) It was like being in a postcard, like, do places like that actually exist? Apparently! We took a boat over to Vitznau and spent three hours next to the lake, in the sun, eating lunch and Swiss chocolate, dozing, taking photos, listening to absolutely nothing. Superb.
Caught the boat across to Beckenreid, but it was getting later and colder by this stage so we only jumped off for 5 minutes for some photos, then back across the lake to Lucerne.
Saturday we visited the Rhine Falls, largest waterfalls in Europe. I should point out that Europe isn't known for its waterfalls and its largest are certainly not quite on par with Niagara or Iguazu or the ones in Africa I can never remember the name of. Unfortunately it was also raining and we also saw the falls from the train and thought they must be a preview of the Larger and More Spectacular falls. So the falls were very pretty and it was a nice little excursion, but not quite as out-of-this-world as we thought they might be.
Went for a little wander round the shops back in Zurich, had to decide between buying a lovely new handbag or spending a night in Hotel Fox in Copenhagen. I'm going for the hotel. And for dinner - FONDUE! Yes, we fondid in Switzerland! The place we went was recommended by my guide book and it was certainly authentic - from the dark wood, dim lighting and Ye Anciente Cooke who made our bubbling pot of cheese. I've never had the real deal fondue before and it's....boozy! We just had bread to dunk and it was so rich. Afterwards our waitress said when she does it at home, she does it with water not wine. Did we get that option?! Slept well that night though!
Sunday EVERYTHING was shut. An excellent day to check out the Banhofstra§e, one of the world's most expensive shopping streets. So window shopped our way down to the river and back, checking out a few churches along the way. Walked to the gardens, lolled about there, wandered through their hothouses. It was so quiet because everything was shut, very old school Sunday vibe. Put Sharon back on the train to the flughafen and then went and packed for my train trip today.
Again today - SNOW! Somewhere between Switzerland and Innsbruck it all looked like cookies 'n' cream ice cream, all white with black bits (trees, rocks, etc). Arrived in Salzburg just before 4pm and made my way to my hostel, salivating over the snow on the hill where the castle appears to be and all the filthy snow on the ground around cars, bins, rooves, etc. SNOW! My trip is so awesome - I've got all three of my favourite things: gin and tonics, Barcelona and snow!
Speaking of my favourite things....! Oh yes! I am in THAT town where THAT movie was filmed and I'm going on THAT tour! The hills certainly are alive with the sound of strangled out of tune music!
SNOW!
PS Top two places in Europe for coffee (in my opinion): Portugal and Switzerland.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I Am Going Already
Hostel laundry/internet cafe, Rome, 4.35pm.
Apparently Italy has had enough of me and is making life difficult in an effort to get rid of me sooner rather than later!
I decided yesterday to catch the bus from Napoli to Amalfi, then work my way back up the coast, stopping in Positano and Sorrento. Lovely. Caught the bus to Amalfi without drama, unless you count the super twisty cliff roads and the driver chatting to his mate with both hands off the wheel Italian-style. I stopped watching where we were going because it wasn't worth the panic-induced wrinkles.
The coast was absolutely gorgeous, Amalfi was pretty and lovely and the weather was perfect. However I am firstly - me, and secondly - a whinging Aussie. Therefore let's ignore the gorgeousness of it all and go back to how the Italian transport system hates me!
I missed the first bus that I planned to catch to Positano because I was in the wrong place. Hmmf. I'll have lunch in Amalfi then and gelati in Positano.
Back with plenty of time to spare to catch the bus, get on what I (and my two new Aussie friends Amy and Jerome) think is the right bus. Two teenage locals are trying to tell us that we have to walk somewhere to get to Positano. Riiiiiiight. On the bus then. It's PACKED with stinky Italian teenagers so we're standing up. The Amalfi Coast road is not the place to be standing up on a bus. Squee.
Then we stop. Somewhere. We still don't know where, but everybody got off and started walking, so we followed. Apparently there was a landslide in the tunnel so it's impassable. Knowing Italy it probably happened six years ago. So down we go into this stunning little cove and village and around the cliffs and then up again. By this stage the hill has thinned the crowd out and we're not sure where to go so my two new friends see a sign and decide that's the way to go. I KNOW, in the way that only a Marshall KNOWS that it's the wrong way. But I've only just met them and I don't want to be the pushy smug knowitall so I follow up ALLLLLLLL the stairs and hills. Eventually they realise we've gone the wrong way and we ask some locals who point us in the right direction. Walking down a little street we see the connecting bus - YAY. We look back down at where we are going and by the time we get to the bus - there is no bus. When is the next bus? Ummm an hour and a half away, we think.
Luckily we'd only just met so we all had plenty of stories to swap and the spot we got stuck waiting was BEAUTIFUL (no gelati though). We all agreed that if we had to wait for a bus for half our lifetimes, that was the place to do it. Of course it's Italy, so the bus turned up in two hours. On to Positano then.
Positano was very pretty too, but there appeared to be a lot more money around, flashier and shinier restaurants and lots of renovations happening. We had a quick coffee, grabbed some postcards, were back to wait for the bus in under an hour.
TWO HOURS LATER, the sun had gone down, it was really cold and there were about fifty people waiting for the bus. We were not impressed.
Unsurprisingly the bus turned up, every seat already filled, but with the prospect of no bus for another two hours - if ever - all fifty of us GOT ON. I think the favourite part of those at the back of the queue to get on was the COMPLETELY EMPTY bus that rocked up behind the packed one and refused to let anyone get on. I am not this person, I swear, but all the waiting and the cold and the needing to pee brought it out - I may have flipped the bird at the driver as he drove off in spacious, non-fatal emptiness.
I was one of the last to get on the bus and was literally in the back door space with my head in Jerome's armpit and hanging on for dear life around every bend and cliff edge with one twisted arm and cramping left foot. Jerome and I quickly became friends with the Canadians also sharing the door space and we all tried not to freak out when we could smell something burning. Probably the brakes.
It was around this point that I decided that that particular bus trip, getting on a bus with 99 other people on a twisting road in the evening, had gone straight into my top three Most Stupid and Dangerous Things Done While Travelling list. Never mind eating from street vendors in Thailand, don't get on a bus with 99 other people in Positano!
Luckily half the bus got off half way to Positano and we all got seats, which was actually more vomity than hanging on with one hand and my head in someone's armpit. When we finally arrived at the train station in Sorrento we hopped straight on a train and back to Naples.
And then TODAY. Got myself to the station with plenty of time for my train trip back to Rome. I have a Eurail pass, I could catch the slow train at 10.22 for free. Five minutes before the train was due to leave they put up on the screen which platform it was leaving from. 3PG. 3Pwhatnow?? I go madly dashing for where I think platform three is. Yeah it's not going from there and I now have ONE MINUTE to not just get on the train, but FIND it. At this point an old dude in a train jacket stopped me and asked where I was going. He grabbed my suitcase and took me downstairs (of course PG means DOWNSTAIRS IN THE BOWELS OF NAPOLI TRAIN HELL) only to discover that I'd missed it. He then dragged me back to the ticket office and went in and got me a seat on the 10.39 train.
The 10.39 train is the fast one, if I use my Eurail pass I can book a seat for €20. The girl only charged me €15 and the old guy took me to the right platform and made sure I knew what carriage and seat I was in. By this stage I knew that I'd have to tip him so I whipped out €5 and his response was 'No, ten.' BASTARD. Of course being the polite non-trouble maker that I am, I just squinted and flickered one eyelid before handing it over, shook his hand, said thank you and tried not to stare at the place where the other twenty of his teeth should have been. Seethed until I got on the train and then had to let it go. It's in the past, it's happened, no more help from toothy old dudes at stations!
On the plus side, got a nice train and fantastically quick trip to Rome and no hassles once I got here. Am currently getting more washing done - never mind paying toothless men for services rendered, my own filthiness is making me poor! Also on the plus side, made four new friends in Naples in with all the bus drama and am having lunch with Romeka, awesome American, tomorrow here in Rome. Yay for random strangers WITH teeth!
Apparently Italy has had enough of me and is making life difficult in an effort to get rid of me sooner rather than later!
I decided yesterday to catch the bus from Napoli to Amalfi, then work my way back up the coast, stopping in Positano and Sorrento. Lovely. Caught the bus to Amalfi without drama, unless you count the super twisty cliff roads and the driver chatting to his mate with both hands off the wheel Italian-style. I stopped watching where we were going because it wasn't worth the panic-induced wrinkles.
The coast was absolutely gorgeous, Amalfi was pretty and lovely and the weather was perfect. However I am firstly - me, and secondly - a whinging Aussie. Therefore let's ignore the gorgeousness of it all and go back to how the Italian transport system hates me!
I missed the first bus that I planned to catch to Positano because I was in the wrong place. Hmmf. I'll have lunch in Amalfi then and gelati in Positano.
Back with plenty of time to spare to catch the bus, get on what I (and my two new Aussie friends Amy and Jerome) think is the right bus. Two teenage locals are trying to tell us that we have to walk somewhere to get to Positano. Riiiiiiight. On the bus then. It's PACKED with stinky Italian teenagers so we're standing up. The Amalfi Coast road is not the place to be standing up on a bus. Squee.
Then we stop. Somewhere. We still don't know where, but everybody got off and started walking, so we followed. Apparently there was a landslide in the tunnel so it's impassable. Knowing Italy it probably happened six years ago. So down we go into this stunning little cove and village and around the cliffs and then up again. By this stage the hill has thinned the crowd out and we're not sure where to go so my two new friends see a sign and decide that's the way to go. I KNOW, in the way that only a Marshall KNOWS that it's the wrong way. But I've only just met them and I don't want to be the pushy smug knowitall so I follow up ALLLLLLLL the stairs and hills. Eventually they realise we've gone the wrong way and we ask some locals who point us in the right direction. Walking down a little street we see the connecting bus - YAY. We look back down at where we are going and by the time we get to the bus - there is no bus. When is the next bus? Ummm an hour and a half away, we think.
Luckily we'd only just met so we all had plenty of stories to swap and the spot we got stuck waiting was BEAUTIFUL (no gelati though). We all agreed that if we had to wait for a bus for half our lifetimes, that was the place to do it. Of course it's Italy, so the bus turned up in two hours. On to Positano then.
Positano was very pretty too, but there appeared to be a lot more money around, flashier and shinier restaurants and lots of renovations happening. We had a quick coffee, grabbed some postcards, were back to wait for the bus in under an hour.
TWO HOURS LATER, the sun had gone down, it was really cold and there were about fifty people waiting for the bus. We were not impressed.
Unsurprisingly the bus turned up, every seat already filled, but with the prospect of no bus for another two hours - if ever - all fifty of us GOT ON. I think the favourite part of those at the back of the queue to get on was the COMPLETELY EMPTY bus that rocked up behind the packed one and refused to let anyone get on. I am not this person, I swear, but all the waiting and the cold and the needing to pee brought it out - I may have flipped the bird at the driver as he drove off in spacious, non-fatal emptiness.
I was one of the last to get on the bus and was literally in the back door space with my head in Jerome's armpit and hanging on for dear life around every bend and cliff edge with one twisted arm and cramping left foot. Jerome and I quickly became friends with the Canadians also sharing the door space and we all tried not to freak out when we could smell something burning. Probably the brakes.
It was around this point that I decided that that particular bus trip, getting on a bus with 99 other people on a twisting road in the evening, had gone straight into my top three Most Stupid and Dangerous Things Done While Travelling list. Never mind eating from street vendors in Thailand, don't get on a bus with 99 other people in Positano!
Luckily half the bus got off half way to Positano and we all got seats, which was actually more vomity than hanging on with one hand and my head in someone's armpit. When we finally arrived at the train station in Sorrento we hopped straight on a train and back to Naples.
And then TODAY. Got myself to the station with plenty of time for my train trip back to Rome. I have a Eurail pass, I could catch the slow train at 10.22 for free. Five minutes before the train was due to leave they put up on the screen which platform it was leaving from. 3PG. 3Pwhatnow?? I go madly dashing for where I think platform three is. Yeah it's not going from there and I now have ONE MINUTE to not just get on the train, but FIND it. At this point an old dude in a train jacket stopped me and asked where I was going. He grabbed my suitcase and took me downstairs (of course PG means DOWNSTAIRS IN THE BOWELS OF NAPOLI TRAIN HELL) only to discover that I'd missed it. He then dragged me back to the ticket office and went in and got me a seat on the 10.39 train.
The 10.39 train is the fast one, if I use my Eurail pass I can book a seat for €20. The girl only charged me €15 and the old guy took me to the right platform and made sure I knew what carriage and seat I was in. By this stage I knew that I'd have to tip him so I whipped out €5 and his response was 'No, ten.' BASTARD. Of course being the polite non-trouble maker that I am, I just squinted and flickered one eyelid before handing it over, shook his hand, said thank you and tried not to stare at the place where the other twenty of his teeth should have been. Seethed until I got on the train and then had to let it go. It's in the past, it's happened, no more help from toothy old dudes at stations!
On the plus side, got a nice train and fantastically quick trip to Rome and no hassles once I got here. Am currently getting more washing done - never mind paying toothless men for services rendered, my own filthiness is making me poor! Also on the plus side, made four new friends in Naples in with all the bus drama and am having lunch with Romeka, awesome American, tomorrow here in Rome. Yay for random strangers WITH teeth!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
I Am A Contikian - Part 2
And I'm back!
After Nice it was on to Italy! Amedeo, our guide, was Italian so he was beyond excited to get to his part of the world. We spent the day training it from one village of the Cinque Terre to the next, visiting three in total. Oh yeah, this was my Half Way Day, exactly half way through my trip, and Monterosa, our first Cinque Terre stop, came up trumps with The Perfect Lunch.
My three closest friends Dana, Carl, Meredith and I managed to leave the rest of the group behind and stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on the beachfront road. So we sat there, staring at the Mediterranean, in the sunshine, practically getting run over by cars, eating pizzas and bruschetta and unable to have a conversation that didn't turn into 'God this is amazing, could it get any better than this?'. Superb.
Our other two stops in the Cinque Terre were also beautiful, especially because we were all a bit tired and enjoyed just sprawling in the sun, watching people's washing flapping in the breeze and trying to work out if the tourist department organises fishermen to come sailing in once an hour so the tourists can take photos.
We stayed in Pisa that night so the next morning we headed straight for the Leaning Tower. It was pretty funny, such a familiar building and we walked around a corner and there it was and all we could say was 'Oh!'. Spent an hour trying to get the photos right!
And then YAY! Florence! Before I got to Florence I probably wouldn't have described it like that, but it's now right up there with Seville for me. It's just a bit dirty and completely lacking in trees or greenery of any kind in the main part of town, but there are the most gorgeous buildings and piazzas and the Duomo and Cathedral - WOW! I'd never really heard about them or seen pictures so to walk out of a narrow street and have that immense white, green and red marble building in front of you is fairly incredible. I went to the Accademia that afternoon to see Michaelangelo's 'David', and again it was walk around a corner and 'OH!'. It's big, really big, I had no idea. Carl, Dana, Meredith and I visited a few more places, got gelatis, soaked up the fabulousness of it all before we had to head off to the hotel.
The next day we had a leather factory visit, plus a walking tour of the city, which was really great, some seriously cool statue action. Then we headed for the epic Duomo climb. We decided to do that first and work up an appetite for lunch, rather than lunch first and a heavy climb afterwards. We're so smart. It was a tough climb, but completely worth it. Spectacular views, so many photos! Back down to street level for lunch, then we went to the Boboli Gardens to enjoy some green action. Technically I paid $20AUD to get into the gardens - CRAZY!RIPOFF! - but we had such a good time that I think it was totally worth it. We essentially made our way through the gardens taking photos of each of us imitating the statues. Very mature.
That night we had a traditional Tuscan meal up in the 'iyyys' around Florence. By this stage we had started to shamelessly imitate Amedeo's accent so 'hills' became 'iyyys'. He also had a wonderful way of using 'eventually' and 'opportunities' all the time, and everything was a 'joy for the eyes/nose/palate', or it was 'an essperience' or it was 'just WOW!'. We loved it.
So dinner up in the iyyys was great, I think we got served sliced roasted pork at 80%of our meals, but this was by far the best of all the sliced pig products we got! And instead of dessert we got fantastic biscotti to dunk in dessert wine - hello!
And the next day (are you getting the crazy Contiki pace? I barely had enough time to shower and dry my hair each day) we stopped in San Gimignano on the way to Rome. It's the most well-preserved medieval village in all Europe with 11 towers that were initially about showing off who had the most money. We climbed the only open one and got the full on perfect 'Under The Tuscan Sky' type view. I took lots of photos and I do expect you all to HATE ME. Then we visited the cathedral which was covered in frescoes, very impressive and useful to see before visiting the Sistine Chapel. Of course because we're a bit immature, Jesus on the cross on the back wall in his lovely crisp Calvin Klein's did give us a round of the sniggers. Who knew CK was so vintage??
Being the foodies that we are, we then spotted a gelateria which won the world title in 07/08 and 08/09 so we were in there like a shot. And damn, that was some good gelati! I had cherry and coconut and it is by far the best that I have ever tasted. Tuscan sunshine, rustic village, world's best gelati, I'm done!
Next stop, final stop, ROME! We arrived at about 4.30pm and sprinted out of the bus and Amedeo, in his home city, whizzed us through some of the biggest and best sights, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Santa Maria del Popolo and a few extra interesting bits along the way. My new favourite thing is crossing the road in Italy too, I'm desperate to do it the Amedeo way though, with The Hand. March out into oncoming traffi and hold out one hand in an imperious stop sign and keep going. Love it. Walk like you mean it is my current motto.
Anyway Rome, threw coins in the Trevi the Roman way, stood in awe under the hole in the dome of the Pantheon as evening fell, pastapastapasta for dinner. Unsurprisingly, I slept extremely well that night!
Next day was a guided tour of the Forum and Colosseum - oh no wait, you need to hear the FUN part where 45 Contikians tried to get on the Roman Metro at peak hour, including a train switch. Amedeo told us to use our elbows or whatever was necessary - squee! Ended up with half the group on one train and the rest on the next train, followed by a power walk ON THE ROAD to meet our guide because we were running late. Still not sure how this was easier than us all getting on our pink bus, but never mind!
Colosseum and Forum were okay, I was actually a little bit underwhelmed by them, maybe because they're familiar and what you expect to see in Rome, felt a bit like I was ticking a box on a list. Moving on to the Vatican City then. Now that WAS impressive! Amedeo wasn't allowed in with us, but he told us what to see so I led on and we managed to see almost everything he told us to. And in his words, it was just WOW! We actually went underneath St Peter's Basilica to see the tombs of the Popes and the exit from that led you directly up into the middle of St Peter's and man, what an entry! If you've been there you'll know how huge and magnificent it all is.
We had our farewell dinner that night, then we all went to a couple of bars, but it was almost impossible to get a drink and when they then cost me $16AUD, it wasn't worth it, so we did what had become our routine and a bunch of us hung out in my hotel room. Said our farewells because my closest friends were going home the next morning and the next day I said goodbye to Reiko and then, once again, it was Team Nicola!
Amedeo had scribbled all over my map of Rome so I went and visited a bunch of spectacular churches, walked EVERYWHERE, had some quiet time in Borghese Park, before heading back to the hotel for a nap, shortly followed by ten and a half hours of blissful and uninterrupted sleep! Think I need a post-Contiki holiday!
And now, I'm in Naples, scummy dirty Naples. Went to Pompeii yesterday, better than Rome and ran into another Contikian, today I went to a couple of churches in Naples without getting mugged and tomorrow I'm going down to the town of Amalfi and then back along the gorgeous Amalfi coast. Today is Sunday and I've essentially spent the day Sunday-style, am about to have a cup of tea and whack a DVD on.
Thanks for your attention, I know this was HUGE, I seriously left so much out! Like the vomit, everyone's favourite! Next blog will be sooner and smaller...
After Nice it was on to Italy! Amedeo, our guide, was Italian so he was beyond excited to get to his part of the world. We spent the day training it from one village of the Cinque Terre to the next, visiting three in total. Oh yeah, this was my Half Way Day, exactly half way through my trip, and Monterosa, our first Cinque Terre stop, came up trumps with The Perfect Lunch.
My three closest friends Dana, Carl, Meredith and I managed to leave the rest of the group behind and stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on the beachfront road. So we sat there, staring at the Mediterranean, in the sunshine, practically getting run over by cars, eating pizzas and bruschetta and unable to have a conversation that didn't turn into 'God this is amazing, could it get any better than this?'. Superb.
Our other two stops in the Cinque Terre were also beautiful, especially because we were all a bit tired and enjoyed just sprawling in the sun, watching people's washing flapping in the breeze and trying to work out if the tourist department organises fishermen to come sailing in once an hour so the tourists can take photos.
We stayed in Pisa that night so the next morning we headed straight for the Leaning Tower. It was pretty funny, such a familiar building and we walked around a corner and there it was and all we could say was 'Oh!'. Spent an hour trying to get the photos right!
And then YAY! Florence! Before I got to Florence I probably wouldn't have described it like that, but it's now right up there with Seville for me. It's just a bit dirty and completely lacking in trees or greenery of any kind in the main part of town, but there are the most gorgeous buildings and piazzas and the Duomo and Cathedral - WOW! I'd never really heard about them or seen pictures so to walk out of a narrow street and have that immense white, green and red marble building in front of you is fairly incredible. I went to the Accademia that afternoon to see Michaelangelo's 'David', and again it was walk around a corner and 'OH!'. It's big, really big, I had no idea. Carl, Dana, Meredith and I visited a few more places, got gelatis, soaked up the fabulousness of it all before we had to head off to the hotel.
The next day we had a leather factory visit, plus a walking tour of the city, which was really great, some seriously cool statue action. Then we headed for the epic Duomo climb. We decided to do that first and work up an appetite for lunch, rather than lunch first and a heavy climb afterwards. We're so smart. It was a tough climb, but completely worth it. Spectacular views, so many photos! Back down to street level for lunch, then we went to the Boboli Gardens to enjoy some green action. Technically I paid $20AUD to get into the gardens - CRAZY!RIPOFF! - but we had such a good time that I think it was totally worth it. We essentially made our way through the gardens taking photos of each of us imitating the statues. Very mature.
That night we had a traditional Tuscan meal up in the 'iyyys' around Florence. By this stage we had started to shamelessly imitate Amedeo's accent so 'hills' became 'iyyys'. He also had a wonderful way of using 'eventually' and 'opportunities' all the time, and everything was a 'joy for the eyes/nose/palate', or it was 'an essperience' or it was 'just WOW!'. We loved it.
So dinner up in the iyyys was great, I think we got served sliced roasted pork at 80%of our meals, but this was by far the best of all the sliced pig products we got! And instead of dessert we got fantastic biscotti to dunk in dessert wine - hello!
And the next day (are you getting the crazy Contiki pace? I barely had enough time to shower and dry my hair each day) we stopped in San Gimignano on the way to Rome. It's the most well-preserved medieval village in all Europe with 11 towers that were initially about showing off who had the most money. We climbed the only open one and got the full on perfect 'Under The Tuscan Sky' type view. I took lots of photos and I do expect you all to HATE ME. Then we visited the cathedral which was covered in frescoes, very impressive and useful to see before visiting the Sistine Chapel. Of course because we're a bit immature, Jesus on the cross on the back wall in his lovely crisp Calvin Klein's did give us a round of the sniggers. Who knew CK was so vintage??
Being the foodies that we are, we then spotted a gelateria which won the world title in 07/08 and 08/09 so we were in there like a shot. And damn, that was some good gelati! I had cherry and coconut and it is by far the best that I have ever tasted. Tuscan sunshine, rustic village, world's best gelati, I'm done!
Next stop, final stop, ROME! We arrived at about 4.30pm and sprinted out of the bus and Amedeo, in his home city, whizzed us through some of the biggest and best sights, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Santa Maria del Popolo and a few extra interesting bits along the way. My new favourite thing is crossing the road in Italy too, I'm desperate to do it the Amedeo way though, with The Hand. March out into oncoming traffi and hold out one hand in an imperious stop sign and keep going. Love it. Walk like you mean it is my current motto.
Anyway Rome, threw coins in the Trevi the Roman way, stood in awe under the hole in the dome of the Pantheon as evening fell, pastapastapasta for dinner. Unsurprisingly, I slept extremely well that night!
Next day was a guided tour of the Forum and Colosseum - oh no wait, you need to hear the FUN part where 45 Contikians tried to get on the Roman Metro at peak hour, including a train switch. Amedeo told us to use our elbows or whatever was necessary - squee! Ended up with half the group on one train and the rest on the next train, followed by a power walk ON THE ROAD to meet our guide because we were running late. Still not sure how this was easier than us all getting on our pink bus, but never mind!
Colosseum and Forum were okay, I was actually a little bit underwhelmed by them, maybe because they're familiar and what you expect to see in Rome, felt a bit like I was ticking a box on a list. Moving on to the Vatican City then. Now that WAS impressive! Amedeo wasn't allowed in with us, but he told us what to see so I led on and we managed to see almost everything he told us to. And in his words, it was just WOW! We actually went underneath St Peter's Basilica to see the tombs of the Popes and the exit from that led you directly up into the middle of St Peter's and man, what an entry! If you've been there you'll know how huge and magnificent it all is.
We had our farewell dinner that night, then we all went to a couple of bars, but it was almost impossible to get a drink and when they then cost me $16AUD, it wasn't worth it, so we did what had become our routine and a bunch of us hung out in my hotel room. Said our farewells because my closest friends were going home the next morning and the next day I said goodbye to Reiko and then, once again, it was Team Nicola!
Amedeo had scribbled all over my map of Rome so I went and visited a bunch of spectacular churches, walked EVERYWHERE, had some quiet time in Borghese Park, before heading back to the hotel for a nap, shortly followed by ten and a half hours of blissful and uninterrupted sleep! Think I need a post-Contiki holiday!
And now, I'm in Naples, scummy dirty Naples. Went to Pompeii yesterday, better than Rome and ran into another Contikian, today I went to a couple of churches in Naples without getting mugged and tomorrow I'm going down to the town of Amalfi and then back along the gorgeous Amalfi coast. Today is Sunday and I've essentially spent the day Sunday-style, am about to have a cup of tea and whack a DVD on.
Thanks for your attention, I know this was HUGE, I seriously left so much out! Like the vomit, everyone's favourite! Next blog will be sooner and smaller...
I Am A Contikian - Part One
Hostel of the Sun, Naples, 2.29pm
I think the prospect of writing this blog has been scaring me, hence delaying it even more. I am here now though and I will do my best to condense a very full two weeks into bite sized pieces. Just to set the scene though, I am currently in Naples, home of the Margherita pizza and crime! This place is a ghetto slum hole and unlike anything I've seen before. I have never been quite as paranoid as I am whenever I have to go to the train station here, which unfortunately has been multiple times. My hostel is super though and has bucketloads of DVDs so idling away the late afternoons/evenings in front of the box is fine.
Due to Contiki Funtimes, I haven't had a chance to tell you all about one of the best experiences of my trip. I got to hang around in the Tuileries in Paris outside the Christian Dior tent leading up to the start of his fashion show! I had a subscription to Vogue for YEARS and still consider Paris to be the most fashionable city in the world and spent a considerable amount of time traipsing its most chic streets, soaking up the Louboutin-laden atmosphere. So to hang around in my filthy sneakers and ski jacket and watch the Beautiful People in the most amazing shoes I have ever seen in my life, was pretty awesome! I also got to see the Bond girl from 'Casino Royale' doing some press action.
After Paris (love it!), I headed back to Madrid to join my Contiki tour. I got to share a room for two weeks with Reiko, Japanese girl, who was fun and had lived in Adelaide for a year in high school. (Yes it's possible to live in Adelaide and still be a fun person.) I missed the initial meeting and dinner, which everyone told me was a good thing and they wished they'd missed them too. So the first time I really got to meet people was the second morning when we all headed to the Royal Palace for a guided tour. Pretty mixed group, pre-dominantly Canadian, they actually beat the Aussies for once. Also a couple of Yanks, Singaporeans, Japanese and one lonely Pom. Did I say lonely? I meant lovely! (He owes me beer in London.)
We had a free afternoon in Madrid so I whacked in another art gallery before heading for the famed Parque del Buen Retiro. It's where all of Madrid goes on Sunday afternoon and now, from first hand experience, I can tell you that's true! The parque was just beautiful, spring flowers just starting to perk up, it was a warm day with no chilly breeze and the vibe was so relaxed and happy. The first time I went to Madrid I enjoyed it, but didn't 'get it'. After four hours lying in the sun under cherry blossoms, reading, dozing and listening to music and getting a tiny sunburn, I 'got it'!
Then we moved on to Barcelona! YAY! Barcelona has now become one of my Things That Just Make Me Happy (the other two being snow and gin and tonics). While everybody else tried to madly cram in all the best bits in one day, I very happily advised them all (smug knowitall) then walked into town, did some shopping, visited the inside of Casa Batllo, went to La Boqueria for ten kilos of fruit, relaxed in the sun in Parc de la Ciutadella (where ANTM filmed an ad) and generally enjoyed myself.
We battled on to France the next day, arriving in Avignon for a late afternoon walking tour. Most of my fellow Contikians will only remember the super-dodgy vibe of Avignon because everybody kept staring at us when we were walking around. However there were about 45 of us rampaging down the streets to try and get into a cathedral before it closed, I would've have given us grotty looks too! Plus, I've now seen True Dodgy in Naples, and Avignon was a picnic in comparison!
The next morning we got to stop in Aix-en-Provence for a couple of hours, would've like a whole day. It was gorgeous, so French, markets and squares and fountains and cafes. I meandered through the markets with two other girls, then we stopped for a coffee and to soak up the atmosphere, before I bought four macaroons, two chocolate and two almond. I will never eat another macaroon again, unless they're from that same stand in the Aix market. They were OUTSTANDING.
That afternoon we arrived in Nice - filthy! It should have been a sparkling sunny city by the sea, but no, rubbish on the streets and graffiti are way more appealing. Not to mention the pebble beach! PAH! I scoffed. We had a brief amount of time to doll ourselves up before we headed to Monaco for dinner with the Prince. Well, down the road anyway. We stopped to take photos of the views along the Cote d'Azur and at a perfumerie. This is where I need to be honest and say that the Cote d'Azur never held much appeal for me, I'm not a flashy beach person and I haven't got significant supplies of wealth to show off, I'll stick to Paris with the galleries and crepes. But WOW! WOW! Beautiful! Amazing! Stunning! Our tour guide, Amedeo, kept saying to us 'Guys, this is my dream, my DREAM!' and I have to say I could totally see myself on a yacht in the Mediterranean!
Dinner in Monaco was fun, it was an optional so we all paid extra if we wanted to do it and therefore wine was included in the price. So you can just imagine the volume going up and 40 of us falling out into the quiet, moneyed streets of Monaco and trailing back to our pink bus! Next stop was the Monte Carlo Casino. I am not a casino person and felt no desire to pay to get into somewhere that then expected you to spend even more while you were in there. Instead I wandered around the absolutely perfect gardens and fountains, feeling spectacularly safe since my every move and word was no doubt being recorded. I managed to find an empty Coke can on a fence and took a photo because it was the ONLY thing out of place. I'm surprised I wasn't thrown out of the country and my camera confiscated, quite frankly!
Our next day was a free one in Nice, so Dana, the original New Yorker who puts my cynicism to shame, and I did a few things in Nice then went to Cannes on the train for lunch. Cannes is beautiful too, they have a permanent red carpet, more boats than you can poke a stick at and the designer fashions to go with it. Again, me and my filthy sneakers felt like we were lowering the tone.
Now this night in Nice wasn't particularly memorable except that I did one thing which was fairly out of character and I feel like you all need to know the truth. I danced on a table at a bar. I feel so much better now that I've got that off my chest! Honestly, it got to a point of the night when it was get on the tables or get out and by far the easier option was to just get up there and shake it. So I did. Quite fun. Heh!
Am splitting this in two because it's a bit excessive for even my consumption....
I think the prospect of writing this blog has been scaring me, hence delaying it even more. I am here now though and I will do my best to condense a very full two weeks into bite sized pieces. Just to set the scene though, I am currently in Naples, home of the Margherita pizza and crime! This place is a ghetto slum hole and unlike anything I've seen before. I have never been quite as paranoid as I am whenever I have to go to the train station here, which unfortunately has been multiple times. My hostel is super though and has bucketloads of DVDs so idling away the late afternoons/evenings in front of the box is fine.
Due to Contiki Funtimes, I haven't had a chance to tell you all about one of the best experiences of my trip. I got to hang around in the Tuileries in Paris outside the Christian Dior tent leading up to the start of his fashion show! I had a subscription to Vogue for YEARS and still consider Paris to be the most fashionable city in the world and spent a considerable amount of time traipsing its most chic streets, soaking up the Louboutin-laden atmosphere. So to hang around in my filthy sneakers and ski jacket and watch the Beautiful People in the most amazing shoes I have ever seen in my life, was pretty awesome! I also got to see the Bond girl from 'Casino Royale' doing some press action.
After Paris (love it!), I headed back to Madrid to join my Contiki tour. I got to share a room for two weeks with Reiko, Japanese girl, who was fun and had lived in Adelaide for a year in high school. (Yes it's possible to live in Adelaide and still be a fun person.) I missed the initial meeting and dinner, which everyone told me was a good thing and they wished they'd missed them too. So the first time I really got to meet people was the second morning when we all headed to the Royal Palace for a guided tour. Pretty mixed group, pre-dominantly Canadian, they actually beat the Aussies for once. Also a couple of Yanks, Singaporeans, Japanese and one lonely Pom. Did I say lonely? I meant lovely! (He owes me beer in London.)
We had a free afternoon in Madrid so I whacked in another art gallery before heading for the famed Parque del Buen Retiro. It's where all of Madrid goes on Sunday afternoon and now, from first hand experience, I can tell you that's true! The parque was just beautiful, spring flowers just starting to perk up, it was a warm day with no chilly breeze and the vibe was so relaxed and happy. The first time I went to Madrid I enjoyed it, but didn't 'get it'. After four hours lying in the sun under cherry blossoms, reading, dozing and listening to music and getting a tiny sunburn, I 'got it'!
Then we moved on to Barcelona! YAY! Barcelona has now become one of my Things That Just Make Me Happy (the other two being snow and gin and tonics). While everybody else tried to madly cram in all the best bits in one day, I very happily advised them all (smug knowitall) then walked into town, did some shopping, visited the inside of Casa Batllo, went to La Boqueria for ten kilos of fruit, relaxed in the sun in Parc de la Ciutadella (where ANTM filmed an ad) and generally enjoyed myself.
We battled on to France the next day, arriving in Avignon for a late afternoon walking tour. Most of my fellow Contikians will only remember the super-dodgy vibe of Avignon because everybody kept staring at us when we were walking around. However there were about 45 of us rampaging down the streets to try and get into a cathedral before it closed, I would've have given us grotty looks too! Plus, I've now seen True Dodgy in Naples, and Avignon was a picnic in comparison!
The next morning we got to stop in Aix-en-Provence for a couple of hours, would've like a whole day. It was gorgeous, so French, markets and squares and fountains and cafes. I meandered through the markets with two other girls, then we stopped for a coffee and to soak up the atmosphere, before I bought four macaroons, two chocolate and two almond. I will never eat another macaroon again, unless they're from that same stand in the Aix market. They were OUTSTANDING.
That afternoon we arrived in Nice - filthy! It should have been a sparkling sunny city by the sea, but no, rubbish on the streets and graffiti are way more appealing. Not to mention the pebble beach! PAH! I scoffed. We had a brief amount of time to doll ourselves up before we headed to Monaco for dinner with the Prince. Well, down the road anyway. We stopped to take photos of the views along the Cote d'Azur and at a perfumerie. This is where I need to be honest and say that the Cote d'Azur never held much appeal for me, I'm not a flashy beach person and I haven't got significant supplies of wealth to show off, I'll stick to Paris with the galleries and crepes. But WOW! WOW! Beautiful! Amazing! Stunning! Our tour guide, Amedeo, kept saying to us 'Guys, this is my dream, my DREAM!' and I have to say I could totally see myself on a yacht in the Mediterranean!
Dinner in Monaco was fun, it was an optional so we all paid extra if we wanted to do it and therefore wine was included in the price. So you can just imagine the volume going up and 40 of us falling out into the quiet, moneyed streets of Monaco and trailing back to our pink bus! Next stop was the Monte Carlo Casino. I am not a casino person and felt no desire to pay to get into somewhere that then expected you to spend even more while you were in there. Instead I wandered around the absolutely perfect gardens and fountains, feeling spectacularly safe since my every move and word was no doubt being recorded. I managed to find an empty Coke can on a fence and took a photo because it was the ONLY thing out of place. I'm surprised I wasn't thrown out of the country and my camera confiscated, quite frankly!
Our next day was a free one in Nice, so Dana, the original New Yorker who puts my cynicism to shame, and I did a few things in Nice then went to Cannes on the train for lunch. Cannes is beautiful too, they have a permanent red carpet, more boats than you can poke a stick at and the designer fashions to go with it. Again, me and my filthy sneakers felt like we were lowering the tone.
Now this night in Nice wasn't particularly memorable except that I did one thing which was fairly out of character and I feel like you all need to know the truth. I danced on a table at a bar. I feel so much better now that I've got that off my chest! Honestly, it got to a point of the night when it was get on the tables or get out and by far the easier option was to just get up there and shake it. So I did. Quite fun. Heh!
Am splitting this in two because it's a bit excessive for even my consumption....
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
I Am Knackered
8.45pm, hostel internet cafe, Paris.
I am. So tired. Cannot. Stand up. Any longer. If Paris wasn't so damn fine, I'd kind of want to curl up and die right now.
Took me until last night to really warm to Paris. It is, obviously, amazing, but wasn't really feeling the vibe, the love, the atmosphere. Did some galleries today though, met a few of my own personal celebrities (Very Famous and Important Paintings), wandered the Rich People Areas and ate a hot dog with mustard wrapped in a crepe while wandering along the Seine, and suddenly Paris all made sense!
Monday was ticking things off the tourist list, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Musee d'Orsay (but closed), baguette for lunch, Notre Dame, the Conciergerie (Marie Antoinette was held there before they lopped her head off), wandering the St Germain area. Was an exhausting day, but I did walk everywhere and saw some wonderful things. Actually prefer the Eiffel Tower from the ground or elsewhere in the city, going up in it was actually just annoying, PEOPLE.
Tuesday I headed out of the city to visit Versailles, which was truly magnificent. Absolutely ginormous, opulent, packed full of people getting photos of the bed where one of the queens gave birth to 19 children - in public to prove they were really hers. Somebody ask me again why I'm never having children. (Ignoring the fact that I'm not a French queen.) The Hall of Mirrors was pretty cool and the Dauphin's apartments downstairs were great, less crowded and some great furniture, incl the royal bidet! The gardens were huuuuuuge, think they're probably a bit nicer in spring or summer when they're a bit greener and there are a few flowers, but there's nothing wrong with eating lunch by a small lake with a chariot and some horses rising out of it!
Back in Paris in the afternoon, I wandered round the St Michel area, splurged on some CDs that I won't be able to listen to for over two months, then had an hour of quiet time at the hostel before heading out for an evening walking tour of Montmartre.
Small group of us wandered the chilly streets for two hours and got to see places where van Gogh and Picasso lived and hung out, the Sacre Coeur, a statue of St Denis who apparently picked up his head and wandered around preaching after they chopped it off, the Moulin Rouge, plus - best bit - three of the places where they filmed 'Amelie'. The cafe, the grocer's and the park - SO COOL! If I have time (HA!) I'd love to go back for a coffee at the Cafe des 2 Moulins, they even have the gnome sitting on the bar!
And today was Double Gallery Day. Ambitious, I know, visiting galleries is harder work than shopping, back breaking work. I started (in the rain, squee) at Place Bastille, before wandering through the Marais area (rich people), through the Place des Vosges and past Victor Hugo's apartment, and eventually worming my way out to the Pompidou Centre. Seriously cool, industrial looking monstrosity of a building, but housing some Serious Works of Art.
To keep this within lunch break reading times, I won't go into all of them, but I think the highlight of the modern art works was Marcel Duchamp's 'Urinal' and 'Bicycle Wheel'. I wrote essays in exams on these pieces and seeing them in real life made them even more ridiculous and delightfully funny. These kinds of things are like celebrities for me and I will admit, there was a moment when I realised it was THE 'Urinal' when I couldn't decide whether to laugh or hyperventilate in excitement.
So many great things at the Pompidou, but I will move on to my crepey hot dog that I had for lunch while strolling along the Seine, past the Louvre (saving that till Friday) and across the river to the Musee d'Orsay. So many people have mentioned what an amazing gallery this is and they totally undersold it. If they'd told me exactly which art works were in this gallery, I would've been breaking down the door as soon as I arrived in Paris. The d'Orsay has The Paintings That Created Modern Art, that gave birth to Impressionism and everything that came after. Serious shit, in other words!
Of course, I was absolutely exhausted, but somehow you forget how much your back hurts when you're standing in front of a room full of amazing Pointillist paintings, van Gogh's, a haystack by Monet, Gaugin's tropical pieces. Better, I was having a sit down and trying to work out if there was anything on the final floor that I wanted to see when I suddenly realised in my haze that a painting was giving me the eye through a gap in a gallery wall. Oh yes, that would be Edouard Manet's 'Olympia'. This painting and one other Manet are The Paintings, as far as I'm concerned. They started everything. And one of them was seriously glaring at me and saying 'Get up you lazy thing, you haven't seen the best stuff yet'. And I really hadn't.
Round the corner were more Monet's and Renoir's and OH MY GOD! 'Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe'!!!! Manet's 'Luncheon on the Grass'. So that and 'Olympia' and you have my entire line up of celebrity paintings almost entirely in one building! CRAZY. Stood there gaping like a ten year old meeting Harry Potter, before moving on to gape at 'Olympia' properly. Incredible. One of the most incredible days, painting-wise.
Then I decided to walk to the Opera Garnier, accidentally took the circuitous route when I got distracted at the Place Concorde and along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. This is where the fashion aspect of Paris comes out, this street is where Hermes and Chanel hang out, and all their gorgeous friends. In my daggy attire I managed to restrain myself from entering any of these hallowed establishments, although Christian Louboutin really tested me!
Took such a long and lost way to the Opera Garnier that I actually got there five minutes after it closed - bugger! So instead of doing the Champagne houses tomorrow, will have a slower day, hopefully less walking and a sleep in, but will go back and visit inside the Opera Garnier - supposed to be gorgeous.
In summary, I think you could say that I've warmed to Paris! Don't think you could ever come here to relax though, this city really takes it out of you, although it certainly puts back with all the crepes, waffles, macaroons, pains au chocolat....never enough time for all of it!
I am. So tired. Cannot. Stand up. Any longer. If Paris wasn't so damn fine, I'd kind of want to curl up and die right now.
Took me until last night to really warm to Paris. It is, obviously, amazing, but wasn't really feeling the vibe, the love, the atmosphere. Did some galleries today though, met a few of my own personal celebrities (Very Famous and Important Paintings), wandered the Rich People Areas and ate a hot dog with mustard wrapped in a crepe while wandering along the Seine, and suddenly Paris all made sense!
Monday was ticking things off the tourist list, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Musee d'Orsay (but closed), baguette for lunch, Notre Dame, the Conciergerie (Marie Antoinette was held there before they lopped her head off), wandering the St Germain area. Was an exhausting day, but I did walk everywhere and saw some wonderful things. Actually prefer the Eiffel Tower from the ground or elsewhere in the city, going up in it was actually just annoying, PEOPLE.
Tuesday I headed out of the city to visit Versailles, which was truly magnificent. Absolutely ginormous, opulent, packed full of people getting photos of the bed where one of the queens gave birth to 19 children - in public to prove they were really hers. Somebody ask me again why I'm never having children. (Ignoring the fact that I'm not a French queen.) The Hall of Mirrors was pretty cool and the Dauphin's apartments downstairs were great, less crowded and some great furniture, incl the royal bidet! The gardens were huuuuuuge, think they're probably a bit nicer in spring or summer when they're a bit greener and there are a few flowers, but there's nothing wrong with eating lunch by a small lake with a chariot and some horses rising out of it!
Back in Paris in the afternoon, I wandered round the St Michel area, splurged on some CDs that I won't be able to listen to for over two months, then had an hour of quiet time at the hostel before heading out for an evening walking tour of Montmartre.
Small group of us wandered the chilly streets for two hours and got to see places where van Gogh and Picasso lived and hung out, the Sacre Coeur, a statue of St Denis who apparently picked up his head and wandered around preaching after they chopped it off, the Moulin Rouge, plus - best bit - three of the places where they filmed 'Amelie'. The cafe, the grocer's and the park - SO COOL! If I have time (HA!) I'd love to go back for a coffee at the Cafe des 2 Moulins, they even have the gnome sitting on the bar!
And today was Double Gallery Day. Ambitious, I know, visiting galleries is harder work than shopping, back breaking work. I started (in the rain, squee) at Place Bastille, before wandering through the Marais area (rich people), through the Place des Vosges and past Victor Hugo's apartment, and eventually worming my way out to the Pompidou Centre. Seriously cool, industrial looking monstrosity of a building, but housing some Serious Works of Art.
To keep this within lunch break reading times, I won't go into all of them, but I think the highlight of the modern art works was Marcel Duchamp's 'Urinal' and 'Bicycle Wheel'. I wrote essays in exams on these pieces and seeing them in real life made them even more ridiculous and delightfully funny. These kinds of things are like celebrities for me and I will admit, there was a moment when I realised it was THE 'Urinal' when I couldn't decide whether to laugh or hyperventilate in excitement.
So many great things at the Pompidou, but I will move on to my crepey hot dog that I had for lunch while strolling along the Seine, past the Louvre (saving that till Friday) and across the river to the Musee d'Orsay. So many people have mentioned what an amazing gallery this is and they totally undersold it. If they'd told me exactly which art works were in this gallery, I would've been breaking down the door as soon as I arrived in Paris. The d'Orsay has The Paintings That Created Modern Art, that gave birth to Impressionism and everything that came after. Serious shit, in other words!
Of course, I was absolutely exhausted, but somehow you forget how much your back hurts when you're standing in front of a room full of amazing Pointillist paintings, van Gogh's, a haystack by Monet, Gaugin's tropical pieces. Better, I was having a sit down and trying to work out if there was anything on the final floor that I wanted to see when I suddenly realised in my haze that a painting was giving me the eye through a gap in a gallery wall. Oh yes, that would be Edouard Manet's 'Olympia'. This painting and one other Manet are The Paintings, as far as I'm concerned. They started everything. And one of them was seriously glaring at me and saying 'Get up you lazy thing, you haven't seen the best stuff yet'. And I really hadn't.
Round the corner were more Monet's and Renoir's and OH MY GOD! 'Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe'!!!! Manet's 'Luncheon on the Grass'. So that and 'Olympia' and you have my entire line up of celebrity paintings almost entirely in one building! CRAZY. Stood there gaping like a ten year old meeting Harry Potter, before moving on to gape at 'Olympia' properly. Incredible. One of the most incredible days, painting-wise.
Then I decided to walk to the Opera Garnier, accidentally took the circuitous route when I got distracted at the Place Concorde and along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. This is where the fashion aspect of Paris comes out, this street is where Hermes and Chanel hang out, and all their gorgeous friends. In my daggy attire I managed to restrain myself from entering any of these hallowed establishments, although Christian Louboutin really tested me!
Took such a long and lost way to the Opera Garnier that I actually got there five minutes after it closed - bugger! So instead of doing the Champagne houses tomorrow, will have a slower day, hopefully less walking and a sleep in, but will go back and visit inside the Opera Garnier - supposed to be gorgeous.
In summary, I think you could say that I've warmed to Paris! Don't think you could ever come here to relax though, this city really takes it out of you, although it certainly puts back with all the crepes, waffles, macaroons, pains au chocolat....never enough time for all of it!
Friday, February 27, 2009
I Am A Crepe
2.55pm Video game shop, Grand Rue, Dinan
I think you can only eat so much of something before you begin to resemble it. Which means that right now I'm beginning to look a bit flat, golden and brimming with internal goodness. My nose is also probably starting to resemble a glass of cider.
The reason I came to Brittany, home of crepes and their savoury counterparts - galettes, was to sample one of my favourite cuisines in their natural habitat. Well I have certainly sampled! At the weekly marchè yesterday morning I had a galette wrapped around a peppery sausage for breakfast, snarfed down while watching the locals buy bread, cauliflowers, cheese, meats, fruit and fish. I got in on the action a bit later by buying some mandarins and bananas, managing NOT to buy trois kilos of mandarins from the toothy old bloke.
As it's been awhile since my last post, my apologies, I had planned to blog before leaving Barcelona, but I was understandably distracted by the spectacular city, by friends and by the beginnings of the Traveller's Illness From Hell. So I'll try and be brief, but here's what happened in the Time Before Crepes.
Barcelona has so much on offer, it's not at all hard to fill your days. I spent one day looking at all the Gaudi and Modernist buildings, gorgeous and crazy. This was the same day I found my way to La Boqueria - Barcelona's daily fresh food market on La Rambla. I ADORED IT. I went back everyday to buy more fruit and more of their ready-to-go juices. The whole place had me in paroxysms of delight everytime and I wished I had a home and a kitchen to go back to, it made me want to cook so badly!
Apart from daily visits to La Boqueria, I also went up to the castle on top of Montjuic on a beautiful clear day to see the view and write mean, jealousy-inducing postcards. I visited the Museo Picasso, wonderful, and MACBA, a contemporary arts place with some seriously excellent exhibitions. Kills me that I will never again see this much interesting and exciting art in one short space of time again. Also checked out the cathedral, wandered the lanes of the Barri Gotic, had churros with chocolate (Rio was better Dad), and managed a very restrained purchase of earrings and a ring. Barcelona is a city in which I could spend some serious money - and most of you know that I'm not a shopper.
One of the other excellent things that happened in Barcelona was tracking down my friends, Kim and John, who immediately ferried me off for great tapas at their local, did my washing for me, took me on a walking tour of some of their favourite spots, plied me with candy and Strepsils, hid fun things in my bag and had me round for dinner in their very cool apartment - a home cooked meal! I was very sorry to say goodbye to Barcelona, but also very excited because I get to go there again on my first bus tour.
By the time I left Barcelona, for Toulouse - first stop in France, I was feeling very below par. By the time I arrived in Toulouse, I was done. I crawled into bed and stayed there for the whole next day, with only one very hard journey to the pharmacy and the train station. Have never had a fever like it. Felt like Marianna Dashwood in 'Sense and Sensibility' except no one could fetch my mother, no one was bleeding me or holding a cold flannel to my fevered brow and my fever eventually broke at 10pm, not 3am. NEVERTHELESS it was VERY SIMILAR to a Jane Austen book!
So I did nothing in Toulouse. Was feeling much better, although still weak, by the time I arrived in Orleans, to be met by my Mum's penfriend, Catherine, and her husband, Lionel. I stayed in their home in Les Choux for three days and really enjoyed having time to recover and some time in a real home. I also met their son, his wife and crazy beast of a dog and one of their daughters and her two small children. Catherine and Lionel also had a very sweet little dog with bucketloads of personality.
While in Les Choux I visited a very famous pottery place, Gien, a gorgeous chocolate shop in Montargis and the castle of Sully. The weather was back to being the middle of winter, but the countryside was just beautiful, all bare trees with MISTLETOE in them! Was pretty excited about that one!
And now I'm in Dinan, slowly turning into a crepe! Dinan is gorgeous, stone buildings and streets, walls protecting the city and overlooking the river. I kid you not, you can't spit without hitting a creperie and the whole town smells like them, it's fantastic.
On Sunday I head to Paris, quite excited about that, although I did see the Eiffel Tower for two seconds on a train, practically wet my pants with excitement. That was quickly cancelled out when I looked at the Metro map and had to work out where the hell I was and where I was meant to be. Am getting wonderfully adept at maneuvering my suitcase through ticket barriers though! Ahh, the life skills I'm developing!
I think you can only eat so much of something before you begin to resemble it. Which means that right now I'm beginning to look a bit flat, golden and brimming with internal goodness. My nose is also probably starting to resemble a glass of cider.
The reason I came to Brittany, home of crepes and their savoury counterparts - galettes, was to sample one of my favourite cuisines in their natural habitat. Well I have certainly sampled! At the weekly marchè yesterday morning I had a galette wrapped around a peppery sausage for breakfast, snarfed down while watching the locals buy bread, cauliflowers, cheese, meats, fruit and fish. I got in on the action a bit later by buying some mandarins and bananas, managing NOT to buy trois kilos of mandarins from the toothy old bloke.
As it's been awhile since my last post, my apologies, I had planned to blog before leaving Barcelona, but I was understandably distracted by the spectacular city, by friends and by the beginnings of the Traveller's Illness From Hell. So I'll try and be brief, but here's what happened in the Time Before Crepes.
Barcelona has so much on offer, it's not at all hard to fill your days. I spent one day looking at all the Gaudi and Modernist buildings, gorgeous and crazy. This was the same day I found my way to La Boqueria - Barcelona's daily fresh food market on La Rambla. I ADORED IT. I went back everyday to buy more fruit and more of their ready-to-go juices. The whole place had me in paroxysms of delight everytime and I wished I had a home and a kitchen to go back to, it made me want to cook so badly!
Apart from daily visits to La Boqueria, I also went up to the castle on top of Montjuic on a beautiful clear day to see the view and write mean, jealousy-inducing postcards. I visited the Museo Picasso, wonderful, and MACBA, a contemporary arts place with some seriously excellent exhibitions. Kills me that I will never again see this much interesting and exciting art in one short space of time again. Also checked out the cathedral, wandered the lanes of the Barri Gotic, had churros with chocolate (Rio was better Dad), and managed a very restrained purchase of earrings and a ring. Barcelona is a city in which I could spend some serious money - and most of you know that I'm not a shopper.
One of the other excellent things that happened in Barcelona was tracking down my friends, Kim and John, who immediately ferried me off for great tapas at their local, did my washing for me, took me on a walking tour of some of their favourite spots, plied me with candy and Strepsils, hid fun things in my bag and had me round for dinner in their very cool apartment - a home cooked meal! I was very sorry to say goodbye to Barcelona, but also very excited because I get to go there again on my first bus tour.
By the time I left Barcelona, for Toulouse - first stop in France, I was feeling very below par. By the time I arrived in Toulouse, I was done. I crawled into bed and stayed there for the whole next day, with only one very hard journey to the pharmacy and the train station. Have never had a fever like it. Felt like Marianna Dashwood in 'Sense and Sensibility' except no one could fetch my mother, no one was bleeding me or holding a cold flannel to my fevered brow and my fever eventually broke at 10pm, not 3am. NEVERTHELESS it was VERY SIMILAR to a Jane Austen book!
So I did nothing in Toulouse. Was feeling much better, although still weak, by the time I arrived in Orleans, to be met by my Mum's penfriend, Catherine, and her husband, Lionel. I stayed in their home in Les Choux for three days and really enjoyed having time to recover and some time in a real home. I also met their son, his wife and crazy beast of a dog and one of their daughters and her two small children. Catherine and Lionel also had a very sweet little dog with bucketloads of personality.
While in Les Choux I visited a very famous pottery place, Gien, a gorgeous chocolate shop in Montargis and the castle of Sully. The weather was back to being the middle of winter, but the countryside was just beautiful, all bare trees with MISTLETOE in them! Was pretty excited about that one!
And now I'm in Dinan, slowly turning into a crepe! Dinan is gorgeous, stone buildings and streets, walls protecting the city and overlooking the river. I kid you not, you can't spit without hitting a creperie and the whole town smells like them, it's fantastic.
On Sunday I head to Paris, quite excited about that, although I did see the Eiffel Tower for two seconds on a train, practically wet my pants with excitement. That was quickly cancelled out when I looked at the Metro map and had to work out where the hell I was and where I was meant to be. Am getting wonderfully adept at maneuvering my suitcase through ticket barriers though! Ahh, the life skills I'm developing!
Monday, February 16, 2009
I Am Hiccuping Like A Madwoman
Hostel foyer, Carre de Casanova, Barcelona, 5.09pm
We meet again! So far from our last encounter in the Spanish capital, now I'm in the unofficial capital. The one everybody DEFINITELY visits.
Arrived in the dark last night and didn't see anything apart from the Metro (excellent) and my hostel and the 500m in between. This hostel is probably the best I've stayed at - certainly the best shower, all hot and hard and relaxing! And a similarly equipped hairdryer. On my list of things I miss most (not including friends and family) has to be my hairdryer. My hair certainly misses the power and heat of a full size model. So having access to a hotted up little one here in Barcelona is wonderful! My hair is smooth through drying technique, not greasiness!
But I digress, back to Madrid! My favourite things in Madrid were the Reina Sofia gallery and probably the sandwich I had for lunch that day. Both satisfying and uplifting, though in different ways. The Reina Sofia had the famous Picasso I wanted to see and it was HUGE and fairly impressive. The rest of the permanent collection was also excellent and it was a lot like being in Yr 12 Art History looking at all the Cubism and Surrealism. They also had a couple of temporary exhibitions of contemporary artists, my favourites being Zoe Anderson and Paul Thek. Zoe was a photographer with a sense of humour and Paul did collections of smaller detailed pieces, exactly the kind of thing I like. I did visit the Prado as well, but it had a collection of much older works, all fairly large and epic (not unlike Madrid itself), but they did have some excellent Goya's, although none of his prints, which are my favourites.
And then LUNCH! Spent forever walking trying to find somewhere and eventually plonked down in a reasonably hip kind of place. Selected a 'bocadillo' off the menu (baguette, sounds better en español) which I knew had cheese on it and something else random. I got presented with a toasted baguette with fetta and oozing brie and....CARAMELIZED ONIONS! I love caramelized onions! I almost ordered a second one I was so happy and it tasted so GOOD!
My second day in Madrid mainly consisted in Viewing Large Impressive Buildings, with a slight detour (an hour) in the morning where I viewed some of the inner city streets of Madrid (got lost). Highlight was spotting a cheese display in a window with a metre wide wheel of Swiss cheese in the centre.
After that it was off to Bilbao for Friday and Saturday. The countryside surrounding Bilbao is not what you expect from Spain. It was rolling hills, streams, twiggy trees and very green. Snow on the mountains in the distance, sheep with black faces in little flocks down in the valleys, stone farmhouses about five hundred years old.
Bilbao itself was also gorgeous and pretty cool. After Madrid being so LARGE and slightly lacking in atmosphere (apart from maybe being a little pompous), Bilbao was absolutely charming. I had the added bonus of a helpful chica from Uruguay who noticed me perusing my directions to my hotel and proceeded to walk me the entire way to the doorstep. Until I left Bilbao I couldn't, unfortunately, admit that she was genuinely helpful and kind because the whole time I was thinking 'Is she really this nice? Or do I have to be even more careful about getting my bag stolen while I'm in town?'. She was actually that nice though.
I stayed in the Casco Viejo area of Bilbao, which is very old, has lots of dark buildings close together over narrow pedestrian streets, packed with shops and bars, bit Melbourne really. Then the city is spread out along the river and is seriously dedicated to promoting a creative and arty feel for what was originally an industrial city. So along the river are some great buildings and sculptures, the Zubizuri footbridge and, of course, the Guggenheim. It's the Frank Gehry titanium, glass and limestone creation and is seriously cool! More sculptures outside it, including the Geoff Koons' 'Puppy'. If you haven't seen pictures of it, it's a ten metre tall puppy, sitting down, covered in plants, pansies at the moment.
The Guggenheim wasn't allowing access to their third floor and permanent collections, so I was only able to see the Cy Twombly exhibition - bit random. However the audio guide was included in the ticket price, so I did enjoy hearing more about the building itself, thought processes, inspiration, etc.
The other fun thing about Bilbao is that it's actually in an area of Spain where they speak a language called (something like) Euskada. It bears absolutely no resemblance to Spanish whatsoever. They all speak Spanish as well, but it certainly made for some interesting street names and signage. The best example I found was the word information. In Spanish it's: información. In Euskawhozywhatsit: agribideak. SEE?? CRAZY.
I then spent yesterday stuck on a shonky, noisy, cold train for nine and a half hours from Bilbao to Barcelona - squee. If I'd known it was THAT far, I would've sussed out a flight months ago. However, I did get to see a lot more of Spain in between the two cities, more lovely countryside around Bilbao, followed by what you actually expect in Spain - dry, rocky, harsh.
Today I got to hang out with Dan, Nicky and Nicky's mum, auntie and friends. We had lunch at their favourite restaurant, Dan, Nicky and I sharing a variety of tapas tasty bits and pieces. Dan and I had more of a chat in a bar that does a mean brekky (apparently) before he had to head back to his ship. Was absolutely awesome to see them and chat to them like I talk to all of you! Barcelona also seems to be busy and gorgeous, I look forward to seeing more tomorrow. Am thinking I will call it Gaudi Tuesday!
We meet again! So far from our last encounter in the Spanish capital, now I'm in the unofficial capital. The one everybody DEFINITELY visits.
Arrived in the dark last night and didn't see anything apart from the Metro (excellent) and my hostel and the 500m in between. This hostel is probably the best I've stayed at - certainly the best shower, all hot and hard and relaxing! And a similarly equipped hairdryer. On my list of things I miss most (not including friends and family) has to be my hairdryer. My hair certainly misses the power and heat of a full size model. So having access to a hotted up little one here in Barcelona is wonderful! My hair is smooth through drying technique, not greasiness!
But I digress, back to Madrid! My favourite things in Madrid were the Reina Sofia gallery and probably the sandwich I had for lunch that day. Both satisfying and uplifting, though in different ways. The Reina Sofia had the famous Picasso I wanted to see and it was HUGE and fairly impressive. The rest of the permanent collection was also excellent and it was a lot like being in Yr 12 Art History looking at all the Cubism and Surrealism. They also had a couple of temporary exhibitions of contemporary artists, my favourites being Zoe Anderson and Paul Thek. Zoe was a photographer with a sense of humour and Paul did collections of smaller detailed pieces, exactly the kind of thing I like. I did visit the Prado as well, but it had a collection of much older works, all fairly large and epic (not unlike Madrid itself), but they did have some excellent Goya's, although none of his prints, which are my favourites.
And then LUNCH! Spent forever walking trying to find somewhere and eventually plonked down in a reasonably hip kind of place. Selected a 'bocadillo' off the menu (baguette, sounds better en español) which I knew had cheese on it and something else random. I got presented with a toasted baguette with fetta and oozing brie and....CARAMELIZED ONIONS! I love caramelized onions! I almost ordered a second one I was so happy and it tasted so GOOD!
My second day in Madrid mainly consisted in Viewing Large Impressive Buildings, with a slight detour (an hour) in the morning where I viewed some of the inner city streets of Madrid (got lost). Highlight was spotting a cheese display in a window with a metre wide wheel of Swiss cheese in the centre.
After that it was off to Bilbao for Friday and Saturday. The countryside surrounding Bilbao is not what you expect from Spain. It was rolling hills, streams, twiggy trees and very green. Snow on the mountains in the distance, sheep with black faces in little flocks down in the valleys, stone farmhouses about five hundred years old.
Bilbao itself was also gorgeous and pretty cool. After Madrid being so LARGE and slightly lacking in atmosphere (apart from maybe being a little pompous), Bilbao was absolutely charming. I had the added bonus of a helpful chica from Uruguay who noticed me perusing my directions to my hotel and proceeded to walk me the entire way to the doorstep. Until I left Bilbao I couldn't, unfortunately, admit that she was genuinely helpful and kind because the whole time I was thinking 'Is she really this nice? Or do I have to be even more careful about getting my bag stolen while I'm in town?'. She was actually that nice though.
I stayed in the Casco Viejo area of Bilbao, which is very old, has lots of dark buildings close together over narrow pedestrian streets, packed with shops and bars, bit Melbourne really. Then the city is spread out along the river and is seriously dedicated to promoting a creative and arty feel for what was originally an industrial city. So along the river are some great buildings and sculptures, the Zubizuri footbridge and, of course, the Guggenheim. It's the Frank Gehry titanium, glass and limestone creation and is seriously cool! More sculptures outside it, including the Geoff Koons' 'Puppy'. If you haven't seen pictures of it, it's a ten metre tall puppy, sitting down, covered in plants, pansies at the moment.
The Guggenheim wasn't allowing access to their third floor and permanent collections, so I was only able to see the Cy Twombly exhibition - bit random. However the audio guide was included in the ticket price, so I did enjoy hearing more about the building itself, thought processes, inspiration, etc.
The other fun thing about Bilbao is that it's actually in an area of Spain where they speak a language called (something like) Euskada. It bears absolutely no resemblance to Spanish whatsoever. They all speak Spanish as well, but it certainly made for some interesting street names and signage. The best example I found was the word information. In Spanish it's: información. In Euskawhozywhatsit: agribideak. SEE?? CRAZY.
I then spent yesterday stuck on a shonky, noisy, cold train for nine and a half hours from Bilbao to Barcelona - squee. If I'd known it was THAT far, I would've sussed out a flight months ago. However, I did get to see a lot more of Spain in between the two cities, more lovely countryside around Bilbao, followed by what you actually expect in Spain - dry, rocky, harsh.
Today I got to hang out with Dan, Nicky and Nicky's mum, auntie and friends. We had lunch at their favourite restaurant, Dan, Nicky and I sharing a variety of tapas tasty bits and pieces. Dan and I had more of a chat in a bar that does a mean brekky (apparently) before he had to head back to his ship. Was absolutely awesome to see them and chat to them like I talk to all of you! Barcelona also seems to be busy and gorgeous, I look forward to seeing more tomorrow. Am thinking I will call it Gaudi Tuesday!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
I Am Wearing Pants
A nerdy basement, Madrid, 4.01pm
Arrived in Madrid about an hour ago, it's a beautiful afternoon here. One of the bus stops had a temperature guide saying that it was 19degrees, while another one across the street said it was 11degrees. I'm guessing it's in the middle somewhere, so let's say 15degrees! A tiny bit cooler than Melbourne, perhaps??
When last we spoke, I was headed for Málaga wasn't I? Well Málaga wasn't too exciting, I went there for a night because I wanted to visit the Picasso Museum, thinking that seeing he was born in Málaga they might have some good pinturas (paintings). They didn't. Took me maybe 20mins (and only because I was going really slowly) to look at some prints, a couple of ceramic pieces and a collection of photos OF Picasso taken by Lee Miller. So feeling a bit jibbed and hungry I headed back to the hostel for my first hot shower in three days. Hello country without water restrictions and therefore less guilt! My hostel was having a BBQ on their roof that night, so faffed around until that started happening at 9pm, then sat on the roof in about 5degrees (beanie - yay!) for hours, chatting to all the randoms staying at the hostel or had friends there or had stayed there....anyone and everyone basically!
This was when I first heard of the Erasmus program. Vaguely, it's for uni students to study in another country. So the semester starts next week and the hostels have been flooded with all these students looking for apartments. So in Málaga and then in Granada, the hostels were pretty full with students, lots of people to talk to and hang out with, which was great, plus being one of only a small handful of 'travellers' was a novelty.
Headed to bed, to discover the other person sharing my room - a lively Irishman, who'd had such a big night the night before he'd slept through the BBQ and was not impressed. 'Ah no, I've missed the f***ing BBQ! I can't believe I missed the f***ing BBQ! They didn't wake me up, the f***ers!', etc etc. It was like sharing a room with Father Ted. Certainly entertaining in the middle of the night. He was then all for us rolling a joint, which I politely declined and left him to trot downstairs and find some of the f***ers who didn't wake him up for the f***ing BBQ.
I headed to Granada on Sunday, really pretty drive in with the Sierra Nevada hovering in the background, all snow-capped and pretty. My hostel was in the Albayzin (Arabic quarter of the city) so to get through I was hauling my suitcase up this lane lined with shops flogging all the usual hippy/Moroccan-esque type stuff. My hostel was good, massive, and full last night, they also had activities every night, which was a great way to pass the evenings.
Sunday arvo I visited the Cathedral, someone needed to send Sadie in with a Pledge Grab-It to do a spot of dusting on some of the side altars. I also struggled up the hill to the look out at Plaza Sant Nicolas. It's on the hill opposite la Alhambra so if you want photos, that's the place to do it. Unfortunately, the HUGE population of the Great Unwashed (hippies) living in Granada have chosen this spot as their unofficial fiesta/sales position. So the little plaza was packed with them all dancing around, flogging jewellery, letting their free love offspring express themselves through juggling, playing weird instruments, breaking up their feral dog fights and just generally clogging up the view. So I took photos of them, not the view, and bought a postcard with a great pic of la Alhambra on it instead! Also had lunch at a tèteria, Arabic tea room, so a pot of bergamot tea and a Turkish pizza in amongst the cusions, rugs, candles and dinky little tables.
Sunday night was the tapas tour, so I wandered off with a massive bunch of randoms for the free tapas. In Granada, if you order a drink (sangria/cerveza) you get free tapas with it, some places you choose what you want, some you just get given something nibbly. It was good, for under ten bucks Australian I had dinner and a couple of sangrias! None of us could work out how you made money out of that kind of business, but agreed that it was a damn fine idea!
Yesterday I headed for la Alhambra, to see it all up close and personal from the inside. It's amazing, stunningly detailed and intricate, with some cats roaming around as well! Took hours to ramble through it all, took a gazillion photos, hard to do it justice really.
Bought one or two little bits and pieces of hippy stuff in the afternoon and more postcards. Managed to stop myself buying one of those Taliban-esque scarves that are all the rage, but in Granada more than anywhere. It's a uniform there, says you belong in Granada and that you are all about freedom, inner beauty and not washing. Needless to say, that doesn't quite fit with my image, despite the Sevillian unwashed glory.
Last night the hostel had an hour long Spanish class, so I joined that, met a couple of Aussie kids and an American, we all had a good time. Then they cooked up a cauldron of pasta for us for dinner and more sangria. Hung out talking to all the randoms till late, then had to get in the queue for the bathroom. Only bad thing about my Granada hostel - one bathroom for ten people. Yes indeed.
Oh my god! I almost forgot the Pantless German story!
So yesterday we got a couple of new people in our room, said hello to this dude as he headed for the bathroom in the evening. He came back out later when I was re-packing my suitcase and I thought he had no pants on, but didn't really look. Then I went in to where our bunks were to grab something and he was in there putting the sheets on his bed. Pantless. And proceeded to have a brief chat with me in only a Tshirt and jocks, while climbing and leaning over to make his bed because it was a top bunk. While I kept my eyes above the shoulders and tried hard not to giggle. PUT SOME PANTS ON MAN! I am definitely meeting a variety....
Tomorrow I head to the two big galleries here in Madrid - the Reina Sofia and the Prado. One of them, can't remember which, has Picasso's 'Guernica', his Spanish Civil War painting, very famous. So am looking forward to some good modern art action.
Heading back to my hostel for some clean clothes action and some food now, and maybe I'll even try and go to bed before 11 tonight - granny action española style!
Arrived in Madrid about an hour ago, it's a beautiful afternoon here. One of the bus stops had a temperature guide saying that it was 19degrees, while another one across the street said it was 11degrees. I'm guessing it's in the middle somewhere, so let's say 15degrees! A tiny bit cooler than Melbourne, perhaps??
When last we spoke, I was headed for Málaga wasn't I? Well Málaga wasn't too exciting, I went there for a night because I wanted to visit the Picasso Museum, thinking that seeing he was born in Málaga they might have some good pinturas (paintings). They didn't. Took me maybe 20mins (and only because I was going really slowly) to look at some prints, a couple of ceramic pieces and a collection of photos OF Picasso taken by Lee Miller. So feeling a bit jibbed and hungry I headed back to the hostel for my first hot shower in three days. Hello country without water restrictions and therefore less guilt! My hostel was having a BBQ on their roof that night, so faffed around until that started happening at 9pm, then sat on the roof in about 5degrees (beanie - yay!) for hours, chatting to all the randoms staying at the hostel or had friends there or had stayed there....anyone and everyone basically!
This was when I first heard of the Erasmus program. Vaguely, it's for uni students to study in another country. So the semester starts next week and the hostels have been flooded with all these students looking for apartments. So in Málaga and then in Granada, the hostels were pretty full with students, lots of people to talk to and hang out with, which was great, plus being one of only a small handful of 'travellers' was a novelty.
Headed to bed, to discover the other person sharing my room - a lively Irishman, who'd had such a big night the night before he'd slept through the BBQ and was not impressed. 'Ah no, I've missed the f***ing BBQ! I can't believe I missed the f***ing BBQ! They didn't wake me up, the f***ers!', etc etc. It was like sharing a room with Father Ted. Certainly entertaining in the middle of the night. He was then all for us rolling a joint, which I politely declined and left him to trot downstairs and find some of the f***ers who didn't wake him up for the f***ing BBQ.
I headed to Granada on Sunday, really pretty drive in with the Sierra Nevada hovering in the background, all snow-capped and pretty. My hostel was in the Albayzin (Arabic quarter of the city) so to get through I was hauling my suitcase up this lane lined with shops flogging all the usual hippy/Moroccan-esque type stuff. My hostel was good, massive, and full last night, they also had activities every night, which was a great way to pass the evenings.
Sunday arvo I visited the Cathedral, someone needed to send Sadie in with a Pledge Grab-It to do a spot of dusting on some of the side altars. I also struggled up the hill to the look out at Plaza Sant Nicolas. It's on the hill opposite la Alhambra so if you want photos, that's the place to do it. Unfortunately, the HUGE population of the Great Unwashed (hippies) living in Granada have chosen this spot as their unofficial fiesta/sales position. So the little plaza was packed with them all dancing around, flogging jewellery, letting their free love offspring express themselves through juggling, playing weird instruments, breaking up their feral dog fights and just generally clogging up the view. So I took photos of them, not the view, and bought a postcard with a great pic of la Alhambra on it instead! Also had lunch at a tèteria, Arabic tea room, so a pot of bergamot tea and a Turkish pizza in amongst the cusions, rugs, candles and dinky little tables.
Sunday night was the tapas tour, so I wandered off with a massive bunch of randoms for the free tapas. In Granada, if you order a drink (sangria/cerveza) you get free tapas with it, some places you choose what you want, some you just get given something nibbly. It was good, for under ten bucks Australian I had dinner and a couple of sangrias! None of us could work out how you made money out of that kind of business, but agreed that it was a damn fine idea!
Yesterday I headed for la Alhambra, to see it all up close and personal from the inside. It's amazing, stunningly detailed and intricate, with some cats roaming around as well! Took hours to ramble through it all, took a gazillion photos, hard to do it justice really.
Bought one or two little bits and pieces of hippy stuff in the afternoon and more postcards. Managed to stop myself buying one of those Taliban-esque scarves that are all the rage, but in Granada more than anywhere. It's a uniform there, says you belong in Granada and that you are all about freedom, inner beauty and not washing. Needless to say, that doesn't quite fit with my image, despite the Sevillian unwashed glory.
Last night the hostel had an hour long Spanish class, so I joined that, met a couple of Aussie kids and an American, we all had a good time. Then they cooked up a cauldron of pasta for us for dinner and more sangria. Hung out talking to all the randoms till late, then had to get in the queue for the bathroom. Only bad thing about my Granada hostel - one bathroom for ten people. Yes indeed.
Oh my god! I almost forgot the Pantless German story!
So yesterday we got a couple of new people in our room, said hello to this dude as he headed for the bathroom in the evening. He came back out later when I was re-packing my suitcase and I thought he had no pants on, but didn't really look. Then I went in to where our bunks were to grab something and he was in there putting the sheets on his bed. Pantless. And proceeded to have a brief chat with me in only a Tshirt and jocks, while climbing and leaning over to make his bed because it was a top bunk. While I kept my eyes above the shoulders and tried hard not to giggle. PUT SOME PANTS ON MAN! I am definitely meeting a variety....
Tomorrow I head to the two big galleries here in Madrid - the Reina Sofia and the Prado. One of them, can't remember which, has Picasso's 'Guernica', his Spanish Civil War painting, very famous. So am looking forward to some good modern art action.
Heading back to my hostel for some clean clothes action and some food now, and maybe I'll even try and go to bed before 11 tonight - granny action española style!
Friday, February 6, 2009
I Am Casi Española
That's right folks, all it takes is a week of classes in the morning and you will be almost Spanish! I can't believe how much I've learnt and picked up this week. I actually understand things my hostess is saying to me, I understand almost everything in class, I even walk past people on the street and understand them. What was an incomprehensible babble on Monday I am now able to break down into words, phrases, meanings!
The classes have been great, I've been in a class with two other guys. One is Dieter, a very German older bloke who'll just put his foot down and go 'I don't understand. Explain it to me.' And the other is a Pommy guy, Daniel, who doesn't pick it up as quickly as me, but is much nicer about it than Dieter. Our teachers have all been fantastic, Alberto, Antonio, Ana and Juande. I never heard more than two or three words in English out of any of them, but they spoke slowly and clearly so that we'd understand. And if we didn't understand a concept they would explain it again, still in Spanish, just in a different way. By yesterday I was pretty confused and struggling with stuff we seemed to have been doing for three days, but today we did some different things and I feel like I can now say a million more things based on what I learnt this morning. ¡Ahora es muy facil!
Plus there have been some wonderful moments of misunderstanding and murderous pronunciation, which have kept us amused. Well, me more than anyone. For example this morning, Daniel accidentally said he would need his bikini if he was going to rent a car. I just couldn't stop laughing! And what I will now refer to as a meat card - ID. The word in Spanish for meat is CARNE. The word for card is CARNÉ. So your carné el identifidad is your ID card. Or your meat card, as I prefer.
Alberto couldn't stop laughing at me yesterday morning when he made me read a sentence out of our text book too.
Written - Hay muchos canguros.
My pronunciation - Ay moochoss cunhooross. (Insert fits of laughter from Alberto here.)
Correct pronunciation - I muchoss kanhuross.
I had no idea what it even meant, which added to Alberto's mirth because it means 'There are lots of kangaroos.'. Crazy australiana and her murderous español accent!
So escuela has been excellent and I can't get over how much easier it is to pick up when you're actually IN a country where they speak it. Wish I was staying here a bit longer, can you imagine how awesome I'd be after another week?!
Sevilla is GORGEOUS. I did some group excursions with people and a teacher from school to la Catedral y Giralda and Museo des Bellas Artes. The teacher only spoke en español, but I picked up some of it and they were absolutely fantastic. La Giralda was built by the Arabs back in the day, like around 700AD I believe. Then the Catholics claimed it and built the largest Gothic cathedral in the world around it. Muy impressivo! Plus what bodily remains there are of Christopher Columbus are entombed there. The gallery had some great examples of Sevillian and Spanish art, understood more of that stuff due to art history lessons at school and uni.
Unfortunately it bucketed down with rain on Wednesday evening, until Thursday after lunch, so I got drenched repeatedly and wasn't horrendously interested in rambling the city. Plus there was a slight incident with getting my washing done. In other words, I didn't, so I may have worn some vaguely pre-loved clothes yesterday. Seven days does not a clean pair of undies make, however. I did get my washing done last night, so it's all good now! At least until Saturday!
Today, though, the sun has burst forth in all its glory for my last day here. So after this I plan to wander through the gardens and enjoy the orange trees a little bit more.
In case you're wondering, my living situation has been severely below par. The most horrendous food I have come across, Mystery Stew most days - hello random chunks marauding as carrots when in reality being sausage. I also had Heinz Baby Finger Pasta yesterday. And TOO MANY CHICKPEAS!!!! I also enjoyed the lesson on using the microwave on Wednesday morning because my hostess would be out that day. I was told most specifically not to put cutlery in the microwave and to put a cover on my plate. When I saw the inside of the microwave I did question whether it was a case of putting a bandaid on open heart surgery, but I fear my Spanish is not yet at such a sophisticated level as to convey the necessary sarcasm that would be needed to do that remark justice. Plus I can't seem to get the hot water happening. So perhaps it's a waste wearing clean undies at the moment if I'm not exactly pristine myself? I leave tomorrow - squee! - for Malága though, so I don't have to suffer uncleanliness and unidentifiable meals any longer.
Tonight Daniel, from my class, and perhaps a few others, are going to hit up a recommended tapas bar. I asked Daniel if he was interested and his response was 'Definitely! I need to get out for a night. I'm like a tightly coiled spring, I need a few looseners.' I took that as a yes. I also discovered that when visiting his brother in Sydney, he was given both VB and goon to drink. I was suitably appalled and embarrassed for all Australians. What is this 'hospitality' we're showing our foreign visitors?!
Yo, voy a plaza en pie tomar el sol. (I'm going to walk to the plaza for some sunshine.) Mañana voy a Malága por visito el Museo de Picasso. (Tomorrow I'm going to Malága to visit the Picasso gallery.)
¡Hasta luego chicos!
The classes have been great, I've been in a class with two other guys. One is Dieter, a very German older bloke who'll just put his foot down and go 'I don't understand. Explain it to me.' And the other is a Pommy guy, Daniel, who doesn't pick it up as quickly as me, but is much nicer about it than Dieter. Our teachers have all been fantastic, Alberto, Antonio, Ana and Juande. I never heard more than two or three words in English out of any of them, but they spoke slowly and clearly so that we'd understand. And if we didn't understand a concept they would explain it again, still in Spanish, just in a different way. By yesterday I was pretty confused and struggling with stuff we seemed to have been doing for three days, but today we did some different things and I feel like I can now say a million more things based on what I learnt this morning. ¡Ahora es muy facil!
Plus there have been some wonderful moments of misunderstanding and murderous pronunciation, which have kept us amused. Well, me more than anyone. For example this morning, Daniel accidentally said he would need his bikini if he was going to rent a car. I just couldn't stop laughing! And what I will now refer to as a meat card - ID. The word in Spanish for meat is CARNE. The word for card is CARNÉ. So your carné el identifidad is your ID card. Or your meat card, as I prefer.
Alberto couldn't stop laughing at me yesterday morning when he made me read a sentence out of our text book too.
Written - Hay muchos canguros.
My pronunciation - Ay moochoss cunhooross. (Insert fits of laughter from Alberto here.)
Correct pronunciation - I muchoss kanhuross.
I had no idea what it even meant, which added to Alberto's mirth because it means 'There are lots of kangaroos.'. Crazy australiana and her murderous español accent!
So escuela has been excellent and I can't get over how much easier it is to pick up when you're actually IN a country where they speak it. Wish I was staying here a bit longer, can you imagine how awesome I'd be after another week?!
Sevilla is GORGEOUS. I did some group excursions with people and a teacher from school to la Catedral y Giralda and Museo des Bellas Artes. The teacher only spoke en español, but I picked up some of it and they were absolutely fantastic. La Giralda was built by the Arabs back in the day, like around 700AD I believe. Then the Catholics claimed it and built the largest Gothic cathedral in the world around it. Muy impressivo! Plus what bodily remains there are of Christopher Columbus are entombed there. The gallery had some great examples of Sevillian and Spanish art, understood more of that stuff due to art history lessons at school and uni.
Unfortunately it bucketed down with rain on Wednesday evening, until Thursday after lunch, so I got drenched repeatedly and wasn't horrendously interested in rambling the city. Plus there was a slight incident with getting my washing done. In other words, I didn't, so I may have worn some vaguely pre-loved clothes yesterday. Seven days does not a clean pair of undies make, however. I did get my washing done last night, so it's all good now! At least until Saturday!
Today, though, the sun has burst forth in all its glory for my last day here. So after this I plan to wander through the gardens and enjoy the orange trees a little bit more.
In case you're wondering, my living situation has been severely below par. The most horrendous food I have come across, Mystery Stew most days - hello random chunks marauding as carrots when in reality being sausage. I also had Heinz Baby Finger Pasta yesterday. And TOO MANY CHICKPEAS!!!! I also enjoyed the lesson on using the microwave on Wednesday morning because my hostess would be out that day. I was told most specifically not to put cutlery in the microwave and to put a cover on my plate. When I saw the inside of the microwave I did question whether it was a case of putting a bandaid on open heart surgery, but I fear my Spanish is not yet at such a sophisticated level as to convey the necessary sarcasm that would be needed to do that remark justice. Plus I can't seem to get the hot water happening. So perhaps it's a waste wearing clean undies at the moment if I'm not exactly pristine myself? I leave tomorrow - squee! - for Malága though, so I don't have to suffer uncleanliness and unidentifiable meals any longer.
Tonight Daniel, from my class, and perhaps a few others, are going to hit up a recommended tapas bar. I asked Daniel if he was interested and his response was 'Definitely! I need to get out for a night. I'm like a tightly coiled spring, I need a few looseners.' I took that as a yes. I also discovered that when visiting his brother in Sydney, he was given both VB and goon to drink. I was suitably appalled and embarrassed for all Australians. What is this 'hospitality' we're showing our foreign visitors?!
Yo, voy a plaza en pie tomar el sol. (I'm going to walk to the plaza for some sunshine.) Mañana voy a Malága por visito el Museo de Picasso. (Tomorrow I'm going to Malága to visit the Picasso gallery.)
¡Hasta luego chicos!
Monday, February 2, 2009
I Am Orange
Another plaza, Seville, 2.59pm
After a fairly quiet few days, bumming around Lagos, I'm in one of the most gorgeous cities and learning their beautiful language to boot.
My time in Lagos was fairly low key, the lady at my hostel obviously didn't approve of packet soups and made me have some of her own soup (with chickpeas in it) a couple of times, plus cake with a microwaved apple on Saturday night. Not to mention the omelettes and twenty squillion pieces of toast every morning. Going hungry was not an option. I ate these meals at night in the company of her husband (truly the ugliest person I have ever seen, cracked toad comes to mind) while watching the French news. She only spoke to me in French and who knew nine months of French lessons would be enough for me to not feel completely clueless?
I did a day trip to Sagres, which is down on the very bottom tip of Portugal and quite dramatic and gorgeous, must be fantastic in summer. The town was no great shakes, but I did enjoy watching the old boys play petanque in the square while I waited for the bus. Oh and it was windy as hell..if hell is as windy as it is hot.
Friday in Lagos the rain came through and left me with my book and a cup of tea in my princess mug. Followed by a delightfully sunny winter day on Saturday, so I could wander along the main beach and get attacked by a friendly pride of stray cats at the marina. I kid you not, at least fifteen just hanging out on the rocks, desperately rubbing against my legs, hoping for a sardine. Being the sensible traveller that I am, I didn't touch them with my hands, not wanting to be sent back to Melbourne with feline rabies or similar.
Sunday saw me on the early bus to Seville, and there I sat with ice blocks for feet for five and a half hours, so by the time I arrived in Seville I was tired, hungry, cold and needed to pee. Plus it was 8degrees and BUCKETING down with rain. Everything I could see was falling down and covered in graffiti. I was not impressed. I was yet to be delighted by Seville.
So in the pissing rain I got a taxi driver who understood my hand-drawn map to my hostess' apartment and dropped me at the end of her 'street'. I use the term loosely, to me it was a lane, like something you'd go down in Melbourne and expect to find a really awesome bar at the end of, behind the obligatory dumpster. Apparently not so here, here it actually was a one way street, cobbled, of course, and lined with apartment buildings. Under my trusty umbrella, I wheeled as fast as possible my excellently wheeled suitcase in 4WD mode, for about seven kms (probably not quite) till I found #66 and got myself inside and out of the downpour. It was so wet. You know in movies to make it extra romantic they have the two leads in the rain and in about three seconds they are drenched to the bone and you watch it and go 'oh right, SURE, it never rains like that'. This was rain like that.
Anyway, upstairs to my hostess' apartment and oh goody she doesn't speak a word of English. But boy does she like to talk. And unlike French, I don't have a CLUE what she's on about. The apartment is fine, bit old lady naff, but my room is big and it's all pretty clean. Lunch was a broth with a potato, carrots and LOTS OF CHICKPEAS..followed by the obligatory Sevillian orange. Spent a lot of time thinking what a guest in my circumstances in my parents house would get fed....mustn't dwell on the excessive chickpeas. Also staying in the apartment is a 20yr old American guy, who's here for four months learning Spanish and travelling. He speaks a reasonable amount of Spanish, but wasn't horrendously chatty so no translating there. Although he did tell me one thing I'd obviously missed from my hostess - no hot water. Apparently the German guy before me busted the hot water system and it hadn't been fixed yet. I am DEARLY HOPING that has been fixed today, because I just stuck my head under the icy water last night to wash it and almost died. Seriously unimpressed. I can deal with a chilly apartment as long as for five minutes a day I can get hot and steamy in the shower. And in another wonderful misunderstanding I couldn't work out if I had to be at school at 8 this morning, or if my hostess would be up to get me breakfast at 8. So in case it was the former, I was up at 6.30. Of course it was the latter and she got moving more at 8.15, to stick a pot of water in the microwave to make it lukewarm enough for me to have a cup of tea with my toast.
In case it hasn't been clear just yet - I was fairly unimpressed with all of this.
I also didn't have anything better than a highlighted line on a map to get me to school, not the name of the school or anything. So off I went, map in pocket, tepid tea in tummy. Found the school where it was supposed to be and only because there was a line of young people inside and it seemed to be a school. Luckily they had my name and could direct me to a classroom so at least I knew I was in the right place and there were people just as confused as me at all the insistent use of Spanish and no English. Yes, it's one of those schools. I'm all for lots of use of the language once you understand a little bit, it's just really hard concentrating and hoping you've understood correctly when you really have no idea. And seriously, when I'm asking if I have classes in the afternoon, just explain it in English because you'll just have to say it all again in English once I've given myself more wrinkles, furrowing my brow in concentration.
Anyway! Got through my two morning classes, getting the gist of it all. I now know that clock in Spanish is 'reloj' and quite possibly the hardest word to pronounce that I've ever come across.
My classes finished at 1pm, so I trundled out to find lunch and explore a bit. My school is right near the central historic bit of Seville so I didn't have to go far. And now, I love Seville! It's exactly what I romantically thought it would be, everything I couldn't see yesterday in the taxi and pouring rain. They're incredibly serious about their oranges, orange trees literally line the streets and their buildings are beautiful, churches look AMAZING from the outside and again, the coffee is excellent (although unfortunately not as cheap as Portugal). Don't think I have to be home until much later, so plenty of time to wander this afternoon, and every afternoon.
I've written heaps, I know, so I'll leave you with this....They are as serious about their bullfighting as their oranges. My hostess had a televised bullfight on the TV last night and it went for ages and it was AWFUL. There certainly wasn't any disclaimer at the end saying 'no animals were harmed in the making of this show'. I was absolutely disgusted, riding around on horses and stabbing hooks into the back of a bull? I think not. Thank goodness Seville is so beautiful, helps me forget their more violent side!
After a fairly quiet few days, bumming around Lagos, I'm in one of the most gorgeous cities and learning their beautiful language to boot.
My time in Lagos was fairly low key, the lady at my hostel obviously didn't approve of packet soups and made me have some of her own soup (with chickpeas in it) a couple of times, plus cake with a microwaved apple on Saturday night. Not to mention the omelettes and twenty squillion pieces of toast every morning. Going hungry was not an option. I ate these meals at night in the company of her husband (truly the ugliest person I have ever seen, cracked toad comes to mind) while watching the French news. She only spoke to me in French and who knew nine months of French lessons would be enough for me to not feel completely clueless?
I did a day trip to Sagres, which is down on the very bottom tip of Portugal and quite dramatic and gorgeous, must be fantastic in summer. The town was no great shakes, but I did enjoy watching the old boys play petanque in the square while I waited for the bus. Oh and it was windy as hell..if hell is as windy as it is hot.
Friday in Lagos the rain came through and left me with my book and a cup of tea in my princess mug. Followed by a delightfully sunny winter day on Saturday, so I could wander along the main beach and get attacked by a friendly pride of stray cats at the marina. I kid you not, at least fifteen just hanging out on the rocks, desperately rubbing against my legs, hoping for a sardine. Being the sensible traveller that I am, I didn't touch them with my hands, not wanting to be sent back to Melbourne with feline rabies or similar.
Sunday saw me on the early bus to Seville, and there I sat with ice blocks for feet for five and a half hours, so by the time I arrived in Seville I was tired, hungry, cold and needed to pee. Plus it was 8degrees and BUCKETING down with rain. Everything I could see was falling down and covered in graffiti. I was not impressed. I was yet to be delighted by Seville.
So in the pissing rain I got a taxi driver who understood my hand-drawn map to my hostess' apartment and dropped me at the end of her 'street'. I use the term loosely, to me it was a lane, like something you'd go down in Melbourne and expect to find a really awesome bar at the end of, behind the obligatory dumpster. Apparently not so here, here it actually was a one way street, cobbled, of course, and lined with apartment buildings. Under my trusty umbrella, I wheeled as fast as possible my excellently wheeled suitcase in 4WD mode, for about seven kms (probably not quite) till I found #66 and got myself inside and out of the downpour. It was so wet. You know in movies to make it extra romantic they have the two leads in the rain and in about three seconds they are drenched to the bone and you watch it and go 'oh right, SURE, it never rains like that'. This was rain like that.
Anyway, upstairs to my hostess' apartment and oh goody she doesn't speak a word of English. But boy does she like to talk. And unlike French, I don't have a CLUE what she's on about. The apartment is fine, bit old lady naff, but my room is big and it's all pretty clean. Lunch was a broth with a potato, carrots and LOTS OF CHICKPEAS..followed by the obligatory Sevillian orange. Spent a lot of time thinking what a guest in my circumstances in my parents house would get fed....mustn't dwell on the excessive chickpeas. Also staying in the apartment is a 20yr old American guy, who's here for four months learning Spanish and travelling. He speaks a reasonable amount of Spanish, but wasn't horrendously chatty so no translating there. Although he did tell me one thing I'd obviously missed from my hostess - no hot water. Apparently the German guy before me busted the hot water system and it hadn't been fixed yet. I am DEARLY HOPING that has been fixed today, because I just stuck my head under the icy water last night to wash it and almost died. Seriously unimpressed. I can deal with a chilly apartment as long as for five minutes a day I can get hot and steamy in the shower. And in another wonderful misunderstanding I couldn't work out if I had to be at school at 8 this morning, or if my hostess would be up to get me breakfast at 8. So in case it was the former, I was up at 6.30. Of course it was the latter and she got moving more at 8.15, to stick a pot of water in the microwave to make it lukewarm enough for me to have a cup of tea with my toast.
In case it hasn't been clear just yet - I was fairly unimpressed with all of this.
I also didn't have anything better than a highlighted line on a map to get me to school, not the name of the school or anything. So off I went, map in pocket, tepid tea in tummy. Found the school where it was supposed to be and only because there was a line of young people inside and it seemed to be a school. Luckily they had my name and could direct me to a classroom so at least I knew I was in the right place and there were people just as confused as me at all the insistent use of Spanish and no English. Yes, it's one of those schools. I'm all for lots of use of the language once you understand a little bit, it's just really hard concentrating and hoping you've understood correctly when you really have no idea. And seriously, when I'm asking if I have classes in the afternoon, just explain it in English because you'll just have to say it all again in English once I've given myself more wrinkles, furrowing my brow in concentration.
Anyway! Got through my two morning classes, getting the gist of it all. I now know that clock in Spanish is 'reloj' and quite possibly the hardest word to pronounce that I've ever come across.
My classes finished at 1pm, so I trundled out to find lunch and explore a bit. My school is right near the central historic bit of Seville so I didn't have to go far. And now, I love Seville! It's exactly what I romantically thought it would be, everything I couldn't see yesterday in the taxi and pouring rain. They're incredibly serious about their oranges, orange trees literally line the streets and their buildings are beautiful, churches look AMAZING from the outside and again, the coffee is excellent (although unfortunately not as cheap as Portugal). Don't think I have to be home until much later, so plenty of time to wander this afternoon, and every afternoon.
I've written heaps, I know, so I'll leave you with this....They are as serious about their bullfighting as their oranges. My hostess had a televised bullfight on the TV last night and it went for ages and it was AWFUL. There certainly wasn't any disclaimer at the end saying 'no animals were harmed in the making of this show'. I was absolutely disgusted, riding around on horses and stabbing hooks into the back of a bull? I think not. Thank goodness Seville is so beautiful, helps me forget their more violent side!
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