Charlene's European Hijinks

Home Again

2008-09-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

Been home for nearly a month now, but thought I would finish off the blog 'cause I hate leave things uncompleted!

Spent about four days in Split. When I'd spoken to some backpackers in Zagreb they'd all said it wasn't a place where they had spent a lot of time and definately hadn't been there for long. So, I was really surprised, because it ended up being my favourite city in Croatia. Second day there caught a ferry out to Hvar Island. Very touristy but had a really nice holiday feel to it. Another really hot day, so it was a bit of a struggle climbing up the hill to a fort overlooking Hvar Town. Walked around the island a bit, but couldn't get into this fancy resort - but in my shorts and singlet it looked like I would have been really overdressed anyway!

Next day took another ferry out to Brac Island (not bad for someone who has a tendency to get sea sick!). Docked at Supetar which was cool, but again filled up with English and European holidaymakers. So, took a little bus around to a tiny fishing village called Milna. The bus ride was nearly more fun than the place itself - we winded around some pretty tight roads and got a good idea of what the rest of the island looked like. Milna was fantastic, very few tourists but just a gorgeous place.

Took a bus to Dubrovnik, where my very friendly host at the B&B picked me up at the bus station - which I was very grateful for seeing how high above the city we were. Spent the afternoon walking around the city walls surrounding the old town which took me a lot longer than it should have. So interesting looking down into the city and seeing people in their gardens and putting out their washing. For nosey people like me it was awesome. Next day I just explored the city and all the little shops and lanes. Good thing about a country which doesn't have the euro is that you have to spend all your kuna before you leave :) In the afternoon I took a little boat out to Lokrum - heard there was a nudist beach, but as hard as I tried could not find it! Spent the afternoon swimming, the water was so clear and blue - blissful. They had very cool stairs attached to the rock dropping into the water, which was very handy.

Next day, flew back to London. A bit of a relief to speak English again and not suffer from the guilt that you get when you can't speak the native language of the country you're visiting.

Spent the following day in Oxford, unfortunately a bit drizzly and cold, but it is England after all so I wasn't expecting anything less. The University was very old but pretty and I had a look around the museum as well. Nice old people who thought they were getting in my way kept saying sorry even when there was nothing to say sorry for - only the English do that, very funny.

Last day in London spent the whole day along Oxford Street, spending the last of my money on clothes to fill up my pack. Primark was an experience in itself - felt like the busiest shop you can imagine on Xmas Eve ....... times 10. It's a very cheap shop where people were piling clothes into these big baskets like they would never see the inside of a shop again! Best bit about English shops are that they have jeans with different lengths - genius! So good for shorties like me who always have to pay someone to bring their jeans up.

Then, had to go home, which I was happy about at the time, but now have itchy feet again. Getting out of Heathrow was an experience in itself, their computer system had failed, but after standing outside for 6 hours, our flight was the last to get out that night. Meant that my 2 hour transit in Singapore was literally cut to about a 2 minute run through the airport, so that was fun. But, in the end it is nice to be home and with Spring here now, can start thinking about my next trip .....

Cycling and Wine

2008-08-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a long post I think, since it must be nearly 2 weeks since I've written anything and I've done so much. Sorry, not going to post any photos because my memory card was playing up so I've started using another because I don't want to lose my photos like Rebecca did.

Left Grenoble a couple of weeks ago and had the longest train ride ever. Took 3 trains to get to Graz, Austria which included an overnight train between Zurich and Graz. I only had 10 mins to race through the train station to get to the train, didn't want to think about having to sleep in the station overnight. Arrived at Graz early the next morning and spent the rest of the day exploring the city before meeting up with the people on my bike tour for a few drinks in the evening. Graz is the second largest city in Austria after Vienna, but doesn't seem to be too crowded with tourists. They've tried to modernise the city and have a couple of weird structures around the Mur river running through the city. One of the buildings resembles something out of the Alien movies, and houses the modern art gallery (figures!!).

Had such a great time on the bike tour, it was so nice to not have to think for 10 days since everything is done for you. Never thought I would like an organised tour, but I think it helped that we were cycling around instead of being driven around in buses, and the sightseeing was mostly what we saw along the way rather than stopping at lots of museums. I was a little bit worried that I'd be the youngest there and there would be mostly couples, but there were a couple of us in our 20s and only 3 couples out of 16 people on the trip. They were mostly Brits except for one Canadian guy, but since Explore is a UK company they only really concentrate on marketing in the UK. Everyone was really nice, and the whole group got on really well together. Our guide was a Polish guy in his mid-20s called Michal, extremely good looking and we had a running joke between the girls about his preference for light grey lycra bike shorts (as you can imagine there is a reason why most guys go for black shorts!!). Needless to say, the scenery wasn't the only thing that the girls were admiring along the trip :)

Anyway, each day we cycled between 30 and 70 kms. Started off in Graz, then went on to Slovenia and finished in Hungary. Of the three countries, Slovenia was definately the most picturesque. It has small rolling hills covered with little old houses and vineyards.

The locals were really friendly, and it seemed that whenever we stopped some toothless old lady would appear and want to know where we were from and what we were doing. One of the best days was biking to a thermal bath (really a cross between Hanmer and Jelly Park - with hot pools and hydroslides). Had the craziest experience of somehow getting involved in a fitness class in one of the hot pools together with all these old overweight Slovenians. One minute they were lazing around and the next there was some instructor at the front of the pool getting them all to do the Macarena!! That afternoon we biked up to a little village called Jeruzalum. We had a very gay guide show us around the little church and give a talk about the history of the place. He was so enthusiastic, but I'm sure he was making up most of what he was saying because it was so implausible. He was telling us that they have a belief that if you ring the church bell, your wishes will come try. While he was saying all this he was giving Michal meaningful looks, so afterwards we were giving him such a hard time about what this guide was wishing for! That night we had dinner and a winetasting overlooking Croatia (we were only a few kilometres from the border).

During the tour we went to three vineyards to sample the local wine. Slovenian wine is very good, which meant that we tended to have a little too much of it and were a bit wobbly on our bikes for a bit afterwards. The best tasting was at a family run place just before we crossed over into Hungary. The old grandmother made us bread fresh from the oven that she wrapped around pieces of straw so that it was all twisted, the best bread I've ever tasted. Interesting border crossing, because since there are no longer border controls we just crossed through through the bush carrying our bikes. Felt like we were trying to illegally enter the country but Michal assured us it was perfectly ok.

Spent a few days biking around Lake Balaton, which is 75 miles long and seems to be where all the Hungarians and Germans spend their holidays. Lots of them were swimming in it, but it looked a bit murky to me so I wasn't so keen. Finally got to Budapest, where we finished the tour. The day we arrived there was the Hungarian Grand Prix, so the place was buzzing with lots of petrol heads. I spent an extra day there to see some more of the sights. So glad I did now, since the place is huge with tremendous old buildings.

Now I'm in Croatia soaking up the sun before going to chilly London before heading home. Started off taking a train from Budapest to Zagreb. Zagreb is lovely, but unfortunately all the locals are having their holidays so not much was happening.

My second day there I took a bus out to Plitvice Lakes for the day. These lakes are classified as UNESCO protected, which when you see them is totally understandable. Never seen anything like them, there are a series of lakes with the clearest blue water that flow one into the other creating spectacular waterfalls.

Just come from Zadar where I spent the day yesterday. The old town is enclosed within old Roman walls and is so cute. I spent ages just lying next to the waterfront, because they've put in a sea organ which plays as the sea washes into it, so relaxing.

Arrived in Split this morning, seems to be backpacker central. Really hot, has to be in the mid 30s.

Staying in a nice little hostel run by some Aussies, really handily placed within the old town, next to the sea. Got a couple of days here before heading to Dubrovnik then London.

Grenoble

2008-07-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

We'll, I'm all by myself now, since Rebecca left to go back to NZ on Sunday. It's definately not the same when you're on your own, but I've got the hang of having no one to check that I haven't left my bag on the bus, remembered the key for the hotel etc. I'm also having people come up to me and ask where I'm from and have a chat, which is nice except when they launch into their life story and how they we're locked up in a psychiatric unit 20 years ago (from a nice lady I spoke to yesterday!).

On Rebecca's last day in Paris we had a look around the Père Lachaise cemetary. If it wasn't for all the graves making it a bit morbid, it's a really nice quiet place. Found Jim Morrison's grave and Oscar Wilde's grave but very difficult to find any of the other famous people buried there since it's such a huge place. We also went down to the catacombs, which is fine until you realise that there are millions of skeletons lain out down there. Very creepy. Before Rebecca flew out we went up to Sacre Coeur, together with most of Paris by how many people were there! The inside of the church is not that exciting but the views over Paris from the top are pretty sweet.

After Rebecca took off, I took the train down to Grenoble in the hope of catching some of the Tour de France. Hasn't worked out though because to get to the Alpes d'Huez you had to spend two nights there and since the ride is closed, it's pretty much impossible to get there by public transport. At least it gives me a reason to come back to France so that I can follow it properly and be better prepared (not that I need a reason to come back to France, it's definately my favourite country I've been to so far).

So with no Tour de France to go to (I've only seen it on the tele) I've had to make do with exploring the parts of Grenoble we didn't see when we were here a couple of months ago. I decided to splash out and get the Grenoble Card - mostly so I could go for a ride on the mini train! Yesterday I went on a walking tour of Grenoble with our guide and a nice Spanish couple. Halfway through he said that a local journalist was doing an article on tourism in Grenoble, so we had our photo taken sampling some walnut chocolates, which apparently are a specialty in Grenoble. Very glad that no-one I know is going to be seeing that newspaper though!

I've also had another trip up in the pods to the fort, since it was so much fun last time. This morning I decided to get out of the city and headed to a little village on the outskirts of Grenoble to take a tour through the caves. Have to say not as cool as the caves in NZ, but it didn't help that they had these neon lights lighting up the caves, seems by themselves the caves are not exciting enough.

Tomorrow I'm off to Graz, Austria to join my bike tour so I'm excited about getting on a bike again, not so excited about the overnight train to get there though!

Prague

2008-07-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Taking full advantage of the free internet at our hostel at the moment, cause it's never fun when you have to pay (especially when you try to convert it to kiwi dollars!).

Our last morning in Mykonos, we took a little boat out to Delos, this little island 1 mile away from Mykonos. It's only about 6 square kms, but it has all these old ruins. We couldn't understand how the Greeks we're able to build these amazing temples on the island, it would have been a real effort transporting the materials. We then took a 5 1/2 hour ferry ride back to Athens, a lot nicer than our trip to Mykonos since it was a much bigger ferry.

We had a couple of hours sleep since we had a flight at 4.20am to Prague (you've got to love those cheap flights!). We obviously weren't looking that great because the Greek security guy at the airport was chatting up the two Aussie girls in front of us, but we barely got an hello :-) It was 27 degrees when we left Athens, and a chilly 16 degrees when we got to Prague at 6 o'clock, so we're using our cardies again. As you can imagine we weren't really up to much sightseeing that day, just had a bit of a nosey around our neighbourhood. We're right opposite the river, which is really handy to everything. The building is really old (like everything here), it even has a few cute little gargoyles.

Feeling a lot better the next day we got up early to bet the crowds to Charles Bridge. It was pretty cool to look at at 9am, but when walked back along it later that day, you could barely move for people! There are loads of statues lining the bridge, and it took us awhile to look at them. We spent the rest of the day at Prague Castle, which is really made up of a few castles joined together with courtyards. Saw another changing of the guard (must be our third or fourth now), this one was my favourite though because they had this band that played from the windows of the castle, sounded a bit like the star wars theme. There were some interesting areas within the castle, like a cute little lane of houses which are now used as souvenir shops, and this creepy exhibition of medievel torture instruments.

Today, we took in the astronomical clock, loved the little skeleton that rang the bell when the hour struck. We also had a look around St Nicholas church, a very elaborate baroque church (seen the inside of so many churches now, definately more now than the whole of the past 25 years!). Spent the rest of the afternoon at the Jewish museum, which is actually a number of synagogues with displays. It also included the Old Jewish cemetary, where there are apparently 12,000 people buried on top of each other, and all the gravestones are crooked. Quite weird.

Tomorrow we're back off to Paris and then Rebecca heads home and I'll be a bit of a loner for the next month or so!

Greek Islands

2008-07-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Athens about a week ago, seemed to have a very good transport system I'm guessing this is because of the Olympics in 2004. Nice to have most things in English because you can't even guess what the words are because the Greek language is so different from English. Although it was still hot, in the early to mid 30s it didn't feel as bad because they have this cooling wind which helps a bit.

Really liked Athens, probably more so than Rome. The Greeks are generally a lot friendly than the Italians have been and they all seem to speak really good English. We spent our couple of days in Athens looking around at all the old stuff. The Acropolis is amazing, shame that it's been under scaffolding since 2000 with all the restoration work. You can figure out wherever you need to go by using the Acropolis as a reference point, you can see it from wherever you are in Athens. Temple of Olympic Zeus was huge, all that's really left are a few of the columns, but they are just enormous you just couldn't imagine how they managed to get them to stand.

That night we took a cable car up one of the hills for really good views over the city and Acropolis. The cable car was really expensive though and when we got up there we realised that there was a nice path leading up there anyway, which was a bit frustrating but nice to walk down there on the way home.

Next day we spent quite a bit of time at the Archealogical museum. Pretty packed with tour groups, but we're used to that by now. Rest of the day we had a look around the lesser known sites like Ancient Agora and Roman Agora.

We took an overnight ferry to Hania, Crete. This was such a beautiful place. Lots of English and German tourists around, but at least that means everything is in English. Our accomodation was right on the waterfront in the old port. Beautiful all lit up at sunset. Not a huge amount of sights in Hania, but it was nice to have a swim and have a look around the shops. After all, we haven't really had much down time so far!

Right now we're in Mykonos. Had a very rough ferry ride to get here. It was supposed to only take 4 and 1/2 hours but ended up taking about 7 hours because the sea was so rough. We were very glad that we had remembered to take our travel sickness pills though because everyone around us was making good use of the sick bags. Didn't help that we had a really anxious Greek woman in front of us who kept making the sign of the cross on herself and getting really worked up when the boat was rolling around. She ended up freaking out and throwing herself out of her chair. At least it distracted us from feeling sick ourselves though!

We've been having a look around the town this morning. All the houses are white with different coloured doors, exactly like all the pictures we've seen. Also been up to see the windmills, now I understand why they have so many after our trip here yesterday. Might have a swim this afternoon, we have a lovely beach a few hundred metres from where we're staying.

Mafia country

2008-07-07T00:44:00.000-07:00

Moving on from Rome, we headed to the tourist resort of Sorrento to relax after hectic Rome. Lovely place, but quite expensive. First day we had a bit of a look around Sorrento, not a lot to see but a much nicer base than Naples, which seems to be the crime capital of Italy. It was a bit of a long trip with our packs on the train from Naples though. We were obviously looking a bit hot and tired, because this old Italian guy with no teeth was feeling sorry for us and trying to widen the gap between the doors to let more air in. It was very sweet, but the older people are a lot nicer generally than the Italians our age who won't even make eye contact with you when you ask for something!

Next day we were off for some celebrity spotting in Capri. Didn't actually see any celebrities though, I'm sure they would just hide out on their yachts anyway. Instead there were just a lot of wannabes with their ripoff YSL bags and sunnies, probably picked up from the street vendors in Rome. Once you get away from all that though it really is a beautiful island. We walked around the coast and didn't see anyone for ages.

We spent the whole of the next day in Pompeii, and we really needed all the time to try to see everything. People are right when they say it's huge. Like everywhere, once you get away from the tour groups it feels like there is hardly anyone there which is really nice. Some of the frescoes were amazingly intricate and well preserved, the paintings in the brothel though were quite interesting to say the least. You could really see how they lived though - much easier to imagine compared to the Forum in Rome.

Had a very windy trip along the Amalfi Coast to Amalfi. The scenery is spectacular but the roads are very narrow which is interesting when two buses are trying to pass each other. We finally got off the bus an hour and a half later feeling a bit sickly. Not a huge amount to see in Amalfi, though it is very stunning.
Instead we hopped on a sightseeing bus to take us round the coast to Ravello. Ravello was the most beautiful place I think we've been to so far. It's very green with terraces where they grow lemons and olives.
We checked out some gardens on the coast where there was stunning views around the coast. The terrace stretched out over the cliff though which was a bit freaky.

Our last day in Sorrento, we went to Herculaneum. This was another city which was destroyed when Mount Versuviaus erupted. It isn't as big as Pompeii, they're still excavating it and it looked like the modern town had been built over the ruins. This was where the rich people lived and you could really see the difference from Pompeii. They had a lot of huge mansions some even with a couple of storeys. Train trip there was a bit interesting, I had this slimey Italian bloke sit next to me and try to put his arm around me - yuck!!! We moved to another carriage after that, but we can see what people mean about Italian men though now.

Nearly missed our ferry to Sicily that night. We made sure we left in plenty of time but once we got to Naples we realised we got off at the wrong port and spent the next hour and a half walking towards the main port. Once we got there we were told we had to go to another port, by this stage we were running short on time so we just got a taxi. Sure we got ripped off though, since it was less than 5 mins to get there and he charged us 15 euro!!

Ferry ride was great though. We're in Palermo right now. Spent yesterday looking around the city but there wasn't a lot to see because it being a Sunday, everything was closed. Today we're off to Cefalu, a little town around the coast - might even get a swim! Next stop, Athens were it looks like it is going to be even hotter!!!!

Roma Bella

2008-06-30T12:09:00.001-07:00

Well, we've been in Rome for 4 days now. The heat is stifling again, like everywhere else in Italy - sorry for going on about it for all of you in NZ shivering away. We wake up each morning and don't even need to look outside to know that it's going to be sunny and hot.

First day was the Palantine and Roman Forum. Had to try really hard to imagine what it might have been like back in the day since now it's mostly all rubble. The little things are what make it really interesting, like stumbling across cute little mosaics and Latin inscribed in marble. We also checked out Trajan's Column, hardly any tourists were looking at this, but Rebecca remembered it from studying Classics at high school. It's this huge marble column with amazingly detailed carvings spiraling up around it. Colosseum was next, we're now experts on Roman arenas since we've seen them in Nimes and Verona. Not as big as we expected, but you got more of a feel for its size on the inside. Managed to avoid all the gladiators trying to get tourists to have their photo taken with them outside the colosseum, most were too old to look like real gladiators anyway!

Next day we were a bit all over the place. Started off in this little church, visiting the capucian cemetary in the crypt of the church. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen, made up of designs from the bones of 4000 monks. It sounds really odd but the effect is stunning, felt a bit faint though didn't like the thought of being around all those dead people. Carried on to the Spanish Steps. Still a lot of tourists milling around even though it was still a bit early. Decided it would be the perfect place to trip over myself which was very embarassing and I still have a couple of bruised knees for souvenirs. Hobbled over to the Trevi fountain - Rebecca didn't have much sympathy and wouldn't piggy back me, but felt better after we got some gelato.
We threw our coins in like all the tourists, beautiful fountain but a bit of a scrum to get close to it. Highlight of the day was the Pantheon. I didn't realise how beautiful it would be inside, we even had a choir sing for us which was nice.

Today we went to Vatican City. Huge queue to get into the Vatican Museums - this is where the Sistine Chapel is. Queue was fast moving though so we got in quickly. The mueseums leading up to the Sistine Chapel were really interesting, but obviously the real reason everyone was there was to see Michaelangelo's ceiling. Very surreal actually seeing it having read about it, our necks hurt from looking up at it so can't imagine how he did it. St Peter's Basilica was by far the best church we've seen so far. From outside you just don't realise how enormous it is. The artwork inside is incredible - definately one of my favourite places so far.

It's so hot!!

2008-06-25T07:09:00.001-07:00

Writing this from Florence, where it must be in the low 30s at least! Anyway, leaving off from the last posting, we eventually left Marseille train station to arrive in beautiful, touristy Nice. Had problems getting there because they had some sort of transport strike, so only a few trains were leaving the station. Meant that we had to sit in the corrider in the bit where the carriages of the train join for most of the 2 1/2 hour trip to Nice. Not the most comfortable especially in the heat but we were definitely glad to arrive. Went for a swim in the Bay of Angels, beautiful clear blue water but a stoney beach, so nice so nice to walk across, I wasn't looking very graceful at all walking towards the sea! Some very relaxed people there who don't have any problems walking around with every thing hanging out. Checked out some of the old town, lovely little shops and there was a cute little market that we stopped at too.

Next day was a day trip to Monaco. An absolutely amazing place, haven't seen anything like it before. We watched the changing of the guards, very amusing and the guards were very good looking (mostly, a couple you'd wonder how the got the job!). Also went through the acquarium, amazing fish and coral. Another crazy American was a bit overexcited though and was amazed at everything and had to let the whole place know how cool she thought the whole thing was - we've seen a few strange tourists on this trip so far, that's for sure. Of course we had to have a look at the casino. Too scared to go in, and besides we probably weren't dressed well enough. Some very expensive cars parked out the front, amazing to see how much wealth there is out there.

Following day was a day trip to Cannes. Not as stunning as Monaco, but we caught a ferry out to this island where the man in the iron mask was imprisoned. The island wasn't as touristy as Cannes so we spent some time swimming and had most of the beach to ourselves.

Next day we left Nice, which was a bit of a shame 'cause they had an Ironman on the next day. Amazingly expensive bikes around and alot of guys with very smooth looking legs. How they managed to do an Ironman in that heat is mind-boggling. Instead, we left France and hit Italy. Funny crossing the border and suddenly everything is in Italian and not French. Genoa was our first stop. Only had a night there, so spent the late afternoon/early evening wandering around the old port and the older part of the city. Nice to see everything a bit later though when it's cooler and not so crowded. Downside was that I got my wallet stolen. Any other time my bag would have been filled with stuff, but since we were going out at night it was pretty empty so easy for the thief to find my wallet. Didn't feel a thing and the funny thing was we were walking back to our accomodation and there were other people around when it happened. Rebecca felt a tug on her bag, so he obviously got my wallet before having a go at her. Not a great welcome to Italy, but a bit of a hassle having to cancel my card and get a new one sent out. At least I had Rebecca with me, so it wasn't as stressful as it would have been if I had been on my own.

After that, we were pretty glad to be leaving Genoa and heading to Verona. Arrived to a 34 degree day, so the gelateria's were working over time. Gelato is awesome, I have one a day and the aim is to try every flavour before we leave Italy. So cheap too, it's the same price as it is to use public toilets in Venice! Anyway, Verona is very cool - another Roman ampitheatre, also followed the crowds to Juliet's house covered with graffiti and love notes, apparently the council aren't too happy about that part of it.
Gorgeous old part of the city and is always good to try to get off the main tourist streets and see some of the parts of the city where the locals live.

The last couple of days we've been in Venice. Like everyone says it is an extraordinary city, much bigger than what I imagined it to be. Our campsite was on the mainland so each day we took a vapretto (little ferry) across the bay to the city. St Marks square is astonishing. It's weird to have all these tiny little streets and then suddenly come across this enormous square. We spent quite a bit of time yesterday just sitting and watching the tourists - a lot of them try to pick up the poor pigeons which is quite funny. St Marks basillica is amazing, not as big inside as out but the colours and sculpture are pretty special. Also took a vapretto to Munaro an island which is famous for its glass making. Cute little place to check out.

Finally in Florence now, about to head in to town, we've found that its better to go out about 3 or 4pm and in the mornings rather than try to do to much in the heat.

Our first night in Florence we saw an awesome sunset from Piazza Michaelangelo, just up the road from where we were staying in a little tent in a camping ground set in an olive grove. The view over Florence is amazing, doesn't matter that we're not right in the middle of Florence at all.

Next day we spent most of it lining up in the intense sunshine waiting to go to the Uffizi and Galleria Accademia - where Michaelangelo's David is kept. Uffizi is so cool, wonderful paintings and well worth the wait. Even though everyone says it, David was so much bigger than what you imagine him to be, amazing that he was made with a single block of marble. Italians are clever though, you have to pay 10 euro to go to the Gallery to see him, hardly anything else in the Gallery is of much note.

In Rome right now, again really hot, but I might talk about that in the next post .....

Marseille

2008-06-17T00:55:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Lyon to find there was a bit of a slog uphill to our hostel, but afterwards pleased to have saved 2 euro by not taking the furnicular up the hill. Spectacular views over the city from our dorm. I had a good nights sleep by thinking ahead and using my earplugs but Rebecca was grumpy the next morning having been kept awake all night by an American idol wannabe and his groupies outside our window. The earplugs the next night were not so effective, so we were both readty to smash up his guitar by the time he was attempting to sing "stairway to heaven".

Despite 2 sleepless nights, we still managed to explore the city, loved the old part of town with the cute little alleys and the beautiful huge park on the other side of the city. It was sweltering during the day but then we had massive thunderstorms each night, which unfortunately didn't seem to deter the American weirdo from sharing his 'talent' with the whole hostel.

Skipped over the border to Geneva, Switzerland which are hosting Euro 2008 (soccer tournament) and there was a game that night - Portugal vs Czech Republic, so there were loads of rowdy soccer fans around town. All the buildings were covered in flags from supporters. Geneva felt very similar to France, probably because they all speak French qnd it is so close to the French border. We could really tell it was a city for the well-to-do because there were lots of flash cars and either a lot of plastic surgery or the locals were naturally very good looking.

Lake Geneva is huge and the water is a beautiful clear blue, there is an enormous 42m jet of water that sprays skywards from the middle of the lake.
Our first morning we visited the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, which has some really interesting exhibits on the origins qnd the work of the Red Cross. There was a temporary exhibit on the nuclear issue - showing the various nuclear disasters, nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Made me really grateful that NZ took a stand against nuclear after seeing some of the photos - pretty horrifying really. On our way there we also checked out the UN headquarters with their 2 lines of steel security gates. Weirdly, there's a huge chair opposite the UN with a broken leg (given the name "broken chair" - very original). Apparently supposed to symbolise mutilation caused by land mines - not something you would guess by looking at it though!! Like many of the French cities we've seen, Geneva also has a pretty old town with cobbled streets and lovely brightly coloured houses.

Next up was Grenoble (back in France now). Spent a while getting into the heart of the city after we mistakenly got off at the wrong station - their bus system seems to be efficient though and we got to see some of the outlying suburbs so it wasn't all bad. But, that sidetript didn't give us long to check out the city, but we did have an interesting experience with a homeless drunk guy who wanted to have a chat. Fact that we pretended not to understand him (which wasn't far from the truth) didn't seem to put him off. Highlight of Grenoble had to be the trip up to the old fort overlooking the city. You go up in these alien-like pods which are very cool - Rebecca was a little bit overexcited though. Following our whistle stop in Grenoble (I'm going back later to check out the Tour de France), we headed to Nimes. Lots of Roman ruins in the central city, outside of that it's a bit industrial and uninteresting.
There was a Radiohead concert on while we were there so unfortunately the Roman arena was still set up for that, so a bit difficult to get an idea of how it would have looked 2000 years ago.

Finally, we're in Marseille in the south of France. Biggest city next to Paris but has an amazing mix of people big West African population as well so doesn't feel as French as the other cities we've been to. Yesterday we took a boat out to Ile d'If, an island whose castle was the setting for the Count of Monte Christo. Cool little island and nice to be away from lots of tourists. Also took this cute little mini road train up to Notre Dame de la Garde, a huge byzantine basillica overlooking the city. The church was stunning, but the crazy driver of this little train meant that the trip up the hill was actually more exciting.

Off to Nice in an hour to soak up some more sun, it's tough.

Tours

2008-06-09T00:46:00.000-07:00

Our third day in Paris began bright and early ticking off the rest of the sights we wanted to do on our museum pass. The Eiffel tower was first on the list to beat all the other tourists. Felt proud of ourselves as we strode past the long line of portly American tourists waiting for the lifts, as we made our way to the much shorter (and cheaper) queue for the stairs. This let us climb to the second level, with plenty of rest stops which kept Rebecca happy!. Since we had our cameras handy we used the opportunity to practice using the zoom feature on members of the local constabulory.

Onjce we checked out our awesome pics we carried on to the Arc de Triomphe, much bigger in person qnd the views from the top looking down to the Champs Elysees were awesome. The Arc is situated in the middle of the busiest roundabout in Paris - no rules apply, and heaps of near misses, the French certainly make use of their horns. The final stop for the day was Musee d'Orsay, stopped on the way for the third time by a gypsy who had miraculously found a cheap looking gold ring and asked if it was ours. Still can't figure out that scam, but we have ignored them each time, which seems to do the trick. Musee d'Orsay definately worth the trip, had some very famous artwork, but without the same crowds as the Louvre.

On Wednesday we took the train out to EuroDisney. Felt a bit silly without any kids in tow, but soon got over that. The queues were pretty short, helped that we could run faster than the little nippers with their short legs. There were lots of fun rides like the Hollywood Tower where you fell a few storeys in a hotel lift (much scarier than it sounds). Rebecca made me do the stupid teacups ride, so she didn't get to pick any more after that.

Next day got up at 5am to catch the early train to Pontorson/Mont St Michel. Ended up having to wait four hours in the village because the Mont St Michel stopped running between 11am and 3pm. Our accommodation was only about 1km from the Mont, so we only had to walk about 100m to see it. Mont St Michel is an amazing island in the middle of farmland, which has an abbey begun in the 8th century perched precariously on the top with little medieval shops and museums crammed around the base. Has a population of 42 (includes a few monks) but with tourists it gets really crowded. We were a bit late to explore the Mont the first day, but walked over to see an absolutely stunning sunset that night. The buildings are all lit up at night so it was really pretty special.

Next morning we took a guided tour around the abbey with an amusing French guide, then explored the rest of the island, trying to stay as far away from the busloads of tourists as we could!

We've spent a few Tours in now, leaving for Lyon today. Tours is the biggest city in the Loire Valley. Our first morning here we walked through parts of the old town, medieval half-timbered houses but only a small section remains as the rest was heavily bombed during WWII. In the afternoon we hopped on a minibus to take in some of the chateaux. Visited Chenonceau, which is a fairytale castle built over a river, and Chambord an enormous chateau with 440 rooms, no halls and only one kitchen. The tour guide said it was designed by a man - figures!

Woke up on Sunday to a warm sunny Summer's day. We decided to make the most of it by hiring bikes to cycle to another chateau, Villandry. I was really happy to be back on a bike, since I've been missing mine, but Rebecca was a bit sore by the time we got home, but had an awesome day. 42km return through countryside scattered with poppies and old farmhouses just like you would imagine the Loire to be. The French clearly love biking and there are loads of dedicated biking trails through the region. Our track was really easy to navigate, following the Cher river directly to Villandry. Villandry was the best castle of the three, stunning formal gardens with really cool designs - heavy use of multicoloured lettuces which was actually quite effective.

Bonjour Paris

2008-06-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

On moving on from Dublin we took a bus for the couple of hours it took to cross the border to Northern Ireland. We had a few days in Belfast, very different from Dublin, but not so hectic. We went on a black cab tour which is quite a popular touristy thing to do. We had a very cool Irish driver who took us around the Protestant and Catholic parts of town, showing us the murals and the peace wall.

It was really interesting, especially since neither Rebecca nor I knew a lot about the troubles. The gates to the wall are still closed every night and there is a different feel between the two sides. Just spent the rest of our time in Belfast checking out the place, there was an international food fair in the grounds of City Hall which only takes place every couple of years. So obviously we had to sample some of what was on offer!

Next stop was Glasgow, Scotland. We arrived on a surprisingly warm sunny evening which gave us a perhaps false idea of the place. Luckily the next day was overcast, more like the Scotland we had imagined. Our accomodation was on the posh side of town, right next to the Kelvingrove museum.
It's probably my favourite museum so far, very unusual layout with a spitfire hung above a stuffed elephant in the main entrance, very cool to look at. Still not having our fill of museums we tried something a bit different, the Science Museum. Having not gone past School Cert science this was an odd choice, but all the exhibits were interactive and very fun. Seemed to be the oldest ones there without any kids, so sometimes we had to elbow a few out of the way. Most of them were too little to understand the science behind the displays anyway.

We journeyed on down to Edinburgh to catch up with Mark and Sylvia, who let us stay with them. Unfortunately it only about 10° when we got there and a bit misty and drizzly. Not the best afternoon for Sylia to show us the sites, since most of them were obscured! Took in the Royal Mile, a very touristy street between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (very nice fudge shop on that street too). Spent the afternoon at the Palace, it's where the Queen spends her summer holidays, unfortunately it's not summery enough for her yet so we couldn't pop in for tea. Next day I nearly made it to Arthur's Seat looking out over Edinburgh. I say nearly because we'd already made a reservation to go do a tour of the underground streets of the Royal Mile (very popular and we couldn't go the day before). We ended up missing it anyway because of a 'misunderstanding' between Rebecca and myself. Instead we used the rest of the day to look around Edinburgh Castle. Lots of history and has awesome views over Edinburgh. Highlight of Edinburgh was quite possibly the haggis and tatties which Mark and Sylvia cooked for us on our last night. Definitely not as bad as what I thought and as long as I didn't think about what was in it, it was actually quite tasty.

We were getting way too comfortable in the UK, so we've finally made it to Paris. Amazing city, so far everything I thought it would be. Lovely warm weather, a bit rainy today though. I've had to pull out my school french, which is pretty basic to say the least. Managing fine, and the French people we've encountered so far have been v friendly. Our accomodation is great, but is in the lowmarket sex district of Paris (it actually says that in our lonely planet guide!!). The prostitutes that we see though are mostly pushing 60, and are wearing the most horrible pvc outfits, it's quite funny!!

Done lots in Paris already, first day was Notre Dame, St Chapelle and Conciergie (where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before she got the chop). Yesterday we spent the entire day in Versailles. Extremely extravegant both inside and out. The grounds are extraordinary especially when all the fountains go off. Today was a museum day - the Louvre (very busy with noisy Americans) and Centre Pompidou - where apparently blow up chairs are a work of art, fantastic!

If I have one gripe, it's that French keyboards are different which is driving me insane 'cause the keys are all in different places. So, before I throw this at someone I'm going to stop typing :-)

The Lovely Irish

2008-05-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Moving on from Bath we headed to the Welsh capital, Cardiff. About the same size as Christchurch so we felt right at home. Accomodation was lovely, right opposite the Millenium Stadium.

Our host was very nice (but sorry Mum, suspect was gay!). Not a heck of a lot to do in Cardiff, but they have a huge castle in the centre of the city - we were too cheap to actually go in.

Took a little bus out to St Fagan's Natural History Museum, just on the outskirts of Cardiff.

Unlike most museums, this is situated on about 100 hectares of land. They've taken a whole lot of buildings from around Wales and plonked them on this site for us all to look at and see how the Welsh lived over the last 300 years or so. Was really interesting and the weather was beautiful so we spent the whole afternoon wandering around.

The Welsh were really friendly and helpful, but could hardly understand a word they were saying! Unfortunately alot of the men aren't particularly good looking and the women cover themselves in makeup and all seem to have a kid hanging off them. Great contrast to what we've experienced in England though!

We were hoping to go have a look at Castell Coch the next morning, but Cardiff is getting a new bus station, and we just couldn't figure out where we were to catch the bus. The directions we were given by the bus information lady weren't that helpful either, even though we had worked up all our courage to ask given that we weren't that sure how to pronounce the name of the castle! Instead, we decided to check out the shopping in the city. Favourite had to be Primark, really cheap clothes, shoes, accessories etc. Got a couple of singlets for only £1 each!! That's about $2.50 - bargain. Spent the afternoon checking out the National Museum of Wales, nice and quiet compared to the British museum and pretty interesting exhibits. Even had a pretty scary Woolly Mammoth that scared the bejesus out of me when it moved!!

We flew from Cardiff to Dublin. Took forever to get from Dublin's airport into town (about 2 hours, when it should have taken about 1/2 hour). Had a typical Irish bus driver who thought he would take a short cut through the rush hour traffic by cutting through the port. He soon realised that that would be possible, so we had a double decker bus doing a seven point turn and holding up some pretty annoyed people trying to get home. Welcome to Ireland!!

This morning we decided to try one of those hop-on, hop-off sightseeing tours (this is after we got horribly lost last night trying to find our accomodation!). The Irish drivers we're very funny, it's like we were paying for stand up comedians plus tour guides all rolled into one. Took in Trinity College, but decided to skip the Book of Kells (queue was very long - must really find out what this Book of Kells actually is, suspect is famous!).

Took in Merrion Square, and the Oscar Wilde memorial. He was born in Dublin, according to our comedic bus driver. Lunch in St Stephen's Green (there you go Stephen, apparantly you were a Saint in another life, who would have thought!). The park seemed really popular with workers at lunchtime. Apparently this was a very important place in the Irish struggle for independence.

We spent a few hours in Kilmainham Gaol (visiting only!). This is a very old prison that saw the executions of a number of the instigators of the Easter uprising in 1916. Fascinating, but didn't want to spend long there - quite an eerie place. Amazingly, people actually committed crimes to get thrown in there, following the potato famine.

Went past the Guinness storehouse. Didn't actually go in, since it would be wasted on us. Huge place though, and didn't seem short of visitors either.

We took in Temple Bar this evening. Only really passed through since it was really starting to fill up after 5pm. Looked like there were a few people who had been there quite awhile already :-)

Tommorrow we spend the morning in Dublin then catch a bus to Belfast. I've liked Ireland a lot, the people really make it though. Probably helped that we've had some sunny weather today, much better than what we had in England. Not that I'm shallow, but Dubliners are a lot better looking than your Cardiff folk - the accents definately help with that though!

By the Sea

2008-05-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

Katie came up to visit us on Saturday for our last day in London. We took the opportunity to have a really cheap day and so did all the free stuff. Started out by taking a walk past Westminster Abby and the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Pretty impressive buildings much better than our crappy little Beehive! Thames River is pretty dirty though but fits in with the smoggy overcast weather we'd been having. But at least we got to see the real London, even though every one keeps saying that the week before they had beautiful warm sunny weather. Doubt that I believe them though since all we had were cold, overcast and drizzly days!!

Took the tube to the Natural History Museum. Since we have very short attention spans we just went round the main exhibits. Dinosaurs were pretty cool but the 'real-life' T-rex wasn't all that scary. Next port of call was a trip into Harrods. Crazy busy with tourists, sure the Londoners wouldn't be caught dead actually buying anything there. Very extravegant though. Favourite for the day had to be the British museum. The entrance itself is spectacular. The ancient Egyptian exhibit was amazing. Extraordinary that this stuff is so old! Again there were tourists for Africa so we fit right in with our cameras and comfy shoes.

By this stage we were pretty knackered, and my feet absolutely ached (really should have worn my sandals in a bit more!!). So we were pretty happy to take the tube to the Tate Modern which was the final stop for the day. The Tate is a converted power station which houses heaps of modern art. The entrance into the gallery is huge and very minimalist (probably goes with the whole alternative theme!) Only artists I really recognised were Picasso and Monet, so it was a bit wasted on me (the art-lovers will be hating me right now!). Favourite had to be the soap on a rope - very cool 'cause some guy thought it was art to use hundreds of used soap and string them on a rope. I thought this was pretty funny, but like most modern art I'm sure I could have done that myself!!

Next day we took the train to Hove. Hove is about 2 miles from Brighton so they've become incorporated to become known as Brighton & Hove. This is where Rebecca's friend Katie lives and we spent the night at her flat. So nice to get out of hostels, even though we've barely been gone a week! We explored Brighton with Katie and her friend Susanna.

The pier was the first stop (of course). Just as tacky and noisy and colourful as I thought it would be. You really just have to appreciate it for what it is! We spent about 10 mins trying to figure out how the stripy deckchairs folded out - much to the amusement of the locals. Sure it looked pretty funny the four of us looking like typical girls not being able to work out how they worked! Checked out the Royal Pavilion. Another weird structure stuck in the middle of Brighton. Looks like it would fit better in India somewhere, rather than by the sea in England. Had a bit of a look through the Laines, lined with quirky shops and even more eccentric people looking through them. Summed up Brighton, really. That night we caught the sunset over the countryside just outside of Hove. We stopped at a typical English pub (obviously a must-do). This seemed to be a pretty posh pub though, judging by the fancy cars parked outside. Experience was probably a bit wasted on me though, since I don't drink beer at all, but the banter with the publican was classic.

The next morning was spent being spoiled for breakfast by Katie, and then trying to walk some of that off through her neighbourhood in Hove. In the arvo we took a train to Bath, about 3 1/2 hours away (or 4 in our case, since the train had to be diverted).

Bath is the most gorgeous town. The houses all look the same (but you seem to get a lot of that in England, anyway). The view from our hostel is stunning, apart from the tree which is blocking a bit of the view. Took a look around the Roman Baths this morning as soon as they opened. Turned out to be very good planning, since it seemed like a whole school of American kids turned up after we had made our way through most of it! Like everything else we've seen, the baths are v v old (obviously). Amazing to think that they were actually used hundreds of years ago, a bit hard to picture it now though, especially when you have noisy kids running around you :-)

Spent the rest of the afternoon having a bit of a stroll through the rest of Bath. It's a pretty small town so it doesn't take long to walk from one end to the other. So nice to take it a bit quieter after everything being full-on in London. Bad thing is that we've discovered the local supermarket, which also means that we've had to sample the local chocolate (for comparative purposes only, of course).

Tomorrow we head to Cardiff, only about an hour's train ride away. Best be off to practice my Welsh accent then.

Spent the next day being

London Calling

2008-05-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

Finally arrived in London after a VERY long flight! Being the nice sister that I am, I let Rebecca sit next to an alcoholic Russian for the 11 hour flight to Singapore. His English was pretty poor and the only words he knew were 'vodka' and 'whisky'. His problem was that with a Russian accent, 'vodka' sounds very much like water, so instead of alcohol he kept getting given water by the poor airhostess. But he soon learned that they could understand the word 'whisky' so he kept asking for that for the rest of the flight. According to Rebecca he reeked of the stuff by the end of the flight. Nice.

We got to Singapore a bit spaced out, but were pretty pleased to see a familiar face in Ai Li. She was so good to come all the way out to the airport to see us, even though we were only there for a few hours in transit. Tried very hard to convince her to come back to NZ to work at Wynn Williams again, but no luck just yet!

Been in London for 3 days now, and managed to achieve heaps. Got there at 6am on Wednesday and after being dropped at our hotel had a quick glimpse of Hyde Park before heading into the city to catch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Pure luck that we were walking past when they were doing it. Also had cruise along to Regent's Park in a canal boat from Little Venice. Amazing that people actually live in those canal boats, they're absolutely tiny! Then we had a bit of a look at the zoo, nothing compared to the Auckland zoo, animals seemed a bit sad to be locked up but pretty sure it's heaps better than when it first opened. Fell into bed at 6.30pm and slept for 12 hours solid, no tea or anything which is extremely unusual for us!

On Thursday we packed in a cruise along the Thames, the Tower Bridge exhibition, Tower of London (much bigger than what I thought), St Pauls Cathedral (so many stairs to the top - but awesome views), the Tutankhaman exhibition at the O2 dome and finally the Lion King show in Covent Garden. Bit of a mission to get from the O2 to Covent Garden after figuring that the only way to get there was with 4 tube changes! But we got there just in time, with no wrong turns - so much easier than what I thought. Really packed tubes at rush hour though, you definitely can't get too hung up about protecting your personal space when you're packed in like sardines!

Hampton Court Palace on Friday, huge place. Seems ridiculous that people could have actually lived in a place that big! Beautiful gardens though.

Have to get off the internet now, we only get 1/2 hour at the hostel - really good that it's free though! Last day in London then we head to Brighton :-)