Once again, sorry for the long silence, we've barely had time to sit down for an hour at a time let alone write blogs! It feels like we've spent the last few weeks lugging our massive backpacks everywhere...to and from hostels...on crowded metros...on buses...on trains, considering we both become the width of about 4 people with our packs on its no wonder we get some nasty looks. On the other hand, some Europeans find it highly amusing - yes, we have massive bags and we are lost in a foreign city. Hilarious.
So, backtracking a few weeks, we left Amsterdam and took an overnight bus to Berlin. On the morning of our arrival (after having another fun-filled adventure on a foreign public transport system - apparently German trains like to change number half way through the journey!) we went out for a proper Sunday brunch. After saying 'ja' to all of the waiters questions we found ourselves with champagne, wine, coffee, crepes, cold meats, bread and an assortment of fruits for breakfast!
In Berlin we did a really good walking tour, the guide had a really in depth knowledge of Berlin history which was really interesting. We walked on Hitler's grave...a dirty carpark - quite a fitting memorial, and checked out parts of the wall and all the other important Berlin things. On our first night we attempted to do a Pub Crawl but only one other guy turned up (it was a Sunday) so they couldn't run the tour. Instead us and Justin (an Aussie guy) had a few beers in the pub and came back the next night, where we managed to scrounge together about 7 more Aussie blokes so we could go for a proper Berlin pub crawl! It was a terrible idea - 7 Aussie blokes drinking strong German beer together...oh and did I mention our 5:30 am flight to Rome the next morning?
As you can guess, we missed our flight.
No not really, but almost. And after the sickening 4am wake up call, rush to the airport (on that confusing train system I mentioned...yes once again, some Germans found it hilarious) and undressing for security, we didn't care where we were going as long as it had a comfortable bed.
Arriving in Rome we found our hostel (overcrowded metro this time) and discovered that we weren't allowed to go to sleep for another 3-4 hours because of the 'cleaning period'. Joy.
Anyway, Rome was really beautiful. It has so much history, everywhere we went there are ruins of ancient building and beautiful sculptures and gelati shops (can't forget them!). After about 3 hours walking around Rome we managed to get scammed! Its a long story but basically some guy in a car asked for directions and was really really thankful and told us he lives in Spain and was just here for a day for his exhibition and he is some designer guy and says he's really annoyed at the Italians cos they wouldn't let him use his rental car card for fuel (and showed us his card and stuff) and then said he was so thankful he would give us samples of his designer gear. So he gives us a ladies leather jacket and a man's shirt and then talks to us for a while and seems like a really nice guy and then asks us for a few bucks for petrol (cos his card doesn't work). Ofcourse we give him some money (although a little reluctantly) and then shake his hands and say goodbye with his 'business card' and everything. After about 10 meters walking away we were like 'what just happened?!'. Anyway after we worked it out we had a good laugh at our 'designer' clothes and shrugged our shoulders, we might have been scammed but damn...he was good!
So after that we were very wary of all scams and pick pockets etc. and didn't have any more problems. We visited the Vatican museums, St Peters, the collesseum, the fountain and a whole heap more places. We enjoyed walking around, it was the first time we'd actually seen the sun for a little while. We met a lot of friendly people and ate a lot of good pasta and pizza.
After about 3 days in Rome we took the train to Florence. We have both voted Florence the best place out of our recent Europe trip. It was so friendly, warm, pretty and lively. We visited the Duomo, lots of museums and churches and saw Michelangelo's David - he is hot! We quickly filled in two days with gelati, sunshine, walking and beautiful artwork. Then we took another train to Venice.
Our arrival to Venice followed the same pattern as our arrival to every European city...lost. What should have been a simple bus ride to our camping ground (we had a cabin) was far more complicated. We got on the number 11 to the end of the line, on the correct side of the road...as directed...got out in the middle of nowhere and wondered around, nearly got attacked by a dog, couldn't find our campsite so we went back the driver who informed us, there's TWO number 11s! We were apparently supposed to know that all buses have the same number but go to different places. So we went back to the station, got on the number 11 on the same side of the road (about an hour later...its about 11pm by now) and took another half hour ride to the end of the line. Thankfully this time, the 11 took us to the right place.
The next day we took a boat to Venice and walked around the island. It was very very touristy...I don't think anyone actually lives there...they just sell masks and cheesy Italian souveniers there. We got lost a lot, many of the streets just stop. It was nice to be alongside the water and we saw some cool stuff - the Carnivale was beginning so there were heaps of people in costumes wondering around and sometimes they would break out into spontaneous spells of entertainment. We got attacked by pidgeons in Marco Paulo Piazzo...always fun. Overall Venice was fun, but a little different than expected.
So at the moment we are in New York (wow! we changed continents!) and internet is pushing $10 an hour so the New York story will have to wait for another day!
1 comment:
Good for people to know.
Post a Comment