Brussels -> Grevenbroich -> Koln -> Hamburg

Brussels

That afternoon, we continued to walk around Brussels and for tea we had hot chips and baguette. The next day was Beautiful blue skies and no clouds to be seen, after a massive breakfast we headed to the metro to go to Mini Europa, which is a little village with tiny buildings from all the countries apart of Europe. The expos Atominum was there also.

The mini Europa was cheaper than expected, and was really cool. My favourite was the Eiffel tower, the leaning tower of Pisa. They had interactive ones where you can press the button and things happen… Cindy loved running around and pushing them. There were quite a few kids there and were quite rude pushing in front of us and so on… they obviously consider us Adults and expect that we don’t want to do the fun stuff. We spent awhile walking around and playing on the interactive games. After that we headed to the Atominum (the shiny balls in the photos) this was unveiled in the 58 World Expo. It was quite good ( a little pricey) but you went up these really steep escalators… We also took the elevator up to the top for a 360 degree view of Brussels.

We then went and sat in the sun for half an hour and had some afternoon tea and Cindy scared the Pigeons when they got too close to us. After this we caught the metro back and went and got some food for dinner.

The next day we were meant to go to Bruges, Cindy had done all this research of things to see and things to do. So after breakfast, we walk to the train station and find out it will cost 50 euros for the both of us for a return ticket. That’s like 85/90 dollars for a train trip that last 1 hour each way. We couldn’t justify the price so we trudged back to the hotel and hung out there for the morning and then headed into the city in the afternoon, we went to a pub later on and had a drink and a small afternoon tea/lunch.

On Thursday, our last day in Brussels we went and found the Drug Opera and La Lunette (two pubs mum and dad used to go to when they lived in Brussels)… As there drinks/Ice cream and food was very expensive we just looked at the outside and took a photo. We walked around and found a great little pub that did 1,2 euro beers and strongbow so I had quite a few different beers. We then went and had a pizza… and then walked back to the hotel.

Germany

Our last morning we were taken to the train by a courtesy bus from the hotel and then caught the metro to the euro lines bus stop. We waited for a while and then jumped on the bus, it took a while to get there but when we got to Dusseldorf we got a train to Grevenbroich where Jackie (one of my parents old friends) picked us up. We hung out with Jens and Cindy played badminton with him. Louisa was having a party – so she had her friends over. Gert gave me 2 different beers to try, which were very nice.

This morning Jackie baked some pretzels for breakfast which were yummy! We played a Lego game and I won, and then Jackie helped us book our train tickets to Berlin from Hamburg. Cindy and Jens are playing a Pokemon game.. I think Cindy won… I don’t know. We’re going for lunch now so type soon.

Lunch was great; Gert, Jackie and Gert’s sister took us to the little restaurant/cafe in a garden of a castle. It was really nice – we all had a nice sparkling white wine. Cindy got the curry wurst and I had a wurst with a beer mustard sauce. Both were very tasty (as I had some of Cindy’s too). Very Delicious.

Jackie helped us book some transport to Hamburg and to Berlin. That night we played some Wii and some other games, we had cool deserts which were animal shaped ice-cream.

The next day, Gert dropped us off at the train station on the way to church – we were going to Koln (Cologne). We had a great walk along the water, and we went to the chocolate factory (Lindt Chocolate). We got in as students and got a free mini chocolate each. The museum bits were a little boring but the highlights were the “tropical room” where you go in and see/feel how hot/warm it is in a tropical climate – It just brought back memories of the heat from home… and the old chocolate vending machines. However the cool parts were the actual factory bits where you saw the chocolate being made, we got to try some liquid chocolate on a wafer stick and it just melted in your mouth. Cindy’s favourite machine was the air lifter and it transported chocolate from one conveyer belt to another with air pressure (we’ll put a video up soon). The next floor was watching how they make molded chocolates – that was pretty cool – we also saw the machines that put the final touches on Lindt Truffel balls an then the lady was packing them up. She saw us watching and came and gave us one each – They are selling them for 50 cents in the store (so about 1 dollar). The chocolate was amazing, it just melted and was gooey and soooooo tasty.

We bought some chocolates from the shop (they were marked down after Easter) – we got some good buys! We walked around Koln and saw the big Cathedral – had some lunch. The train station’s toilets were 1 euro to use and the showers were 7 euros… I thought that was insane prices!! We bought 3 pretzels for 1.69 euros – very cheap – we had one each and kept the other one for a snack. We then headed back to Grevenbroich.

That night Jackie cooked a lovely lamb meal which was delicious. We hung out at the table and talked for a while and Jens played with some gifts we got him (It’s his birthday today{Monday}). Gert told us about growing up in Germany – it was quite eye opening.

The next morning we left at 5:30am – Jackie took us to the meeting point where we were catching a car – with a guy who was driving to Hamburg. This was the cheapest option of getting there… everything else was excess 100 euros. So the guy was okay – he spoke English an German… We picked up another girl in Dusseldorf – which was good because that meant they spoke to each other while we sat in the back of his nice BMW. He drove very scarily… At one time he was going 180kms… He also didn’t believe Australia had traffic on the road… he thought Australia was very small and we wouldn’t get traffic… he then said oh maybe Sydney… as if Sydney was the only busy place in the entire country…(moron!). We had a quick stop at McDonald’s and kept going. It took awhile to get to Hamburg – but we got there safely and found our hostel very easily.

We weren’t able to check in straight away so we wandered around the streets and looked in some shops, some shops were very cool – the supermarkets here are AMAZING! They have soo much of everything. Very cool.

Hostel is very nice – our room has like a tiny 2 bed room in the room so we’re in this little room – so we don’t get disturbed by other people. We met this really nice Aussie at dinner and ended up chatting with her for most of the evening.

We’ve also booked a bus to Prague after Berlin and we’re staying in a nice place for 4 nights  and then a bus to Munich.

Okay well that’s the update – I’m quite tired been up since 5am.

Hope all is well at home…

We’ll try to Skype soon.

Milan in a nut shell, to Barcelona…

We went out for dinner the first night in Milan to a pizza place that was recommended in our lets go book. We ordered a pepperoni pizza… when the pizza arrived it was actually a capsicum pizza! So we ate that then left, we got charged a fortune. Kath enjoyed the pizza! The next day we thought we would see the one sight Milan has to offer. We caught the metro to the Duomo, a giant church. We walked around the outside, it was very detailed. We then wandered the streets for a while then went back to the hostel and we had a new roommate, he was Mexican. We chatted to him most the arvo/night. We had a horrible salad for dinner. We shouldn’t try and be healthy, it never turns out nicely lol…

The guy had a cold and snored really loudly most the night, so we didn’t get a great deal of sleep. The next morning we hung around the hostel until check out time then went to the train station. We waited around and had some lunch/dinner in a near by family restaurant. When our train arrived we were the first to jump on, we put our bags in the rack and got ready to set off. They gave you a kids find a word on the back of a brochure, It was in Italian so we had no idea what words we were meant to find, so Kath created words then I found them. Then we played boggle with it. We are very creative!

After we left the station a ticket lady came and took our tickets and passports. We watched a movie and then I tried to get some sleep. The seats reclined so they were ok. Kath chatted to some American guys in front of us. They were really nice. They offered her some cake. At our first check point in France it was snowing. The police were in our carriage questioning some guy, after discussion over his passport he was escorted off the train, Phew it wasn’t me! The rest of the journey we both just rested and tried to get sleep.

Kath woke up pretty early and saw the sunrise, then she kindly woke me to see it as well. Nice sunrise over the coast of somewhere (in either France or Spain).

When we arrived in Barcelona we jumped off the train and headed to the Metro to go to the hostel. It was boiling! We had left 4-6degree coldness and arrived in 12degree heat! We found the hostel really easily as they gave you great directions. We checked in, but had to leave our bags in the storage room as we were early. We then headed back to the Metro to try and find the port. We found the port really easily and sat by the water and had some strawberries and juice in the beautiful sun. We saw some really huge fish in the water. People obviously come there all the time to feed the fish bread. After sitting there for a while we decided to go for a walk over the bridge to see what was on the other side. There was a shopping mall, an Imax and the Aquarium. We decided to go for a walk to find the ferry we are going to take to Mallorca. The ferry ticket place was closed, so we went to sit back near the fish feeding area. Apparently there are lots of people who come to get rid of their old bread there. There was one lady that had bags and bags of baguettes she was throwing in the water (whole). The fish were amazing they were really big, Kath wanted to sneak in a line (Look below for a video). We sat and watched them for ages then we decided to go back to the hostel and to the supermarket for dinner food. We were getting quite tired and hungry as we hadn’t really had breakfast or lunch. We cooked pasta for dinner. It was really good, we are so glad to have good facilities in this hostel. There is a big kitchen, big dining/common area, pool table, foosball table, punching bag, 2 exercise bikes, a cinema, and a terrace. We then went to bed and watched a movie.

We were woken up this morning by a rude girl who didn’t even sleep in her bed last night, she came in, turned the light on then left and didn’t turn the light off, so I got up and turned it off. We got up about an hour after that and got ready. We had our breakfast, it was packed in the dining area. Kath spoke to her parents on Skype then we headed out to do a free walking tour. When we arrived in the place we thought the walking tour was meant to start we couldn’t find anyone, so we just wandered around the street. We visited the Martime Museum and then kept walking around and came across a church, it was having massive renovations done to it. We kept walking and found a street parade that was going on. So we went to watch that. There were lots of Spanish dancers.. it was really entertaining. People in the parade were walking along drinking beer! We thought that was hilarious. Then one group came along and set firecrackers off in front of us, it was a bit scary. After the parade finished we walked along to the beach. There were lots of people doing beach sculpting. We walked along for a while, then turned back as the weather was starting to get bad and our feet were getting sore. We walked through some markets then headed back to the metro as it had started raining. The first train we caught was quite busy, 3 guys followed us off the train and through the metro. We were watching our bags and wallets. Then when we were on the escalator one of the guys stepped up onto the step Kath and I were on, so we stepped up a step then he stepped up onto that. As there were people in front of us we couldn’t move anymore. Kath had her hand on her wallet and I turned so my bag was against the escalator wall. Kath thought she felt one of the guys hand trying to get in her camera bag. When we reached the top of the escalator we walked away pretty quickly to the next train line. The guys followed us there as well, but we walked down the other end of the line, Kath checked she had everything. After we got off the next train we realised that the clip on her bag was undone. Nothing was taken, and the guy was pretty stupid to think that we would not realise if her bag was opened (it has a huge velcro strip which is hard to undo at the best of times). We are now back to the hostel and are making an itinerary for tomorrow. We are having pasta again tonight, so I am looking forward to that. Kath had a new beer called Saaz, I thought it tasted ok. I had a magners and now we are sharing a drink called a Damm Lemon (it is 6 parts beer, 4 parts lemon). Tastes pretty good.

Hope everyone is well.
Hope to hear from you all soon (comments are welcome, we are a little sheltered from Aussie life over here).

Love Cindy and Kath

PS: new photos are up in Italy and Spain!

Bologna, Montagnana, Venice, Verona…to Milan

On Thursday morning, our last day in Bologna, I woke up with bites all over my hands (nowhere else on my body). We got up and had our cornflakes then we headed into the city and went to the chemist for some cream (the supermarket didn’t have any insect bite cream). The pharmacist was really nice (and spoke english which was a bonus), we then wandered around the city and went to the Medieval Museum. The museum was pretty interesting, it had a few rooms full of old medieval swords, helmets and other armour. We had some lunch, and another hot chocolate and then went back to the camp grounds to pack our bags and get ready to leave early the next morning. We discovered that the hostel we were staying in, in “Padova” was not in Padova at all it is is Montagnana. That then meant we had to take different trains and buses to get to Montagnana and to get to Venice Saturday afternoon for the Mardi Gras Parade at 3pm. We found some buses and trains that got to Montagnana at 9.40am meaning we had to leave by 6am from Bologna, but meant we would be in Venice by 2pm for the parade.

We thought we were being really lucky that noone was in the room, that way we could just get up and get ready without the hassle of other people. At about 9.30pm 2 girls came into the room, and left the front door wide open (so the whole bungalow was freezing). They then came in and moved around really loudly, so we told them we were getting up at 5.30am and we will try to be quite but we have to turn the light on in our area. We then went to bed. We turned off the lights in our area and they were in their room, next thing you know they are smoking in their room! As the room had a big gap between the wall and the roof (stupid design) we could smell it. They then stayed in their room for another hour or so talking really loudly with their ceiling light on. They then both left the bungalow.. Finally a chance to sleep. Well the girls returned at 3.30am, turned on the lights and decided to call someone on their phone (on speaker phone)…grrr! They didn’t go to sleep and turn off their light until around 4.30am.. So at 5.30am when the alarm went off we weren’t too happy. Now normally we are very considerate people when it comes to getting up early etc. But as I was so angry that they were so rude to us, I decided to turn on all the lights in our area and eat my breakfast really loudly. It turned out that they didn’t even lock the door when they returned. We made our way to the bus stop (over 1 km away) on icy road. The bus was on time which was good, we jumped on and went to the train station. When we arrived we were 40 mins early, so we bought our tickets and then went to the platform. The train was already there so we waited for someone else to get on before boarding to make sure we were allowed on. We found some seats and got comfy. The train was getting fuller by the minute (it was a train going to Venice and apparently there were a lot of people heading up to Carnival). By the time we left the station the train was completely full and there were people having to stand. Each station just kept getting busier and busier. When we arrived at our stop, Monselice, it was so full we could barely get off the train. There were 2 people wide in the isle and noone wanted to move to let you off the train. When we got off we found the line we wanted to get to Montagnana. We waited a while for the train to arrive. It was 20mins late when it finally arrived. We boarded the train and off we went really slowly. We realised at this point that we were not going to make the return train to get us to Venice, so we were a bit disappointed. Nonetheless we continued on to Montagnana. Before the first stop the train just completely stopped, the ticket inspector came around and checked our tickets and told us it would be 5-8mins. Grr more time added to our day! When we finally arrived in Montagnana (40 mins later), we hopped off the train and found our way to the hostel. Pretty much the whole town is surrounded in a fort. We walked around the edge of the fort (we didn’t know if the streets would be like a maze) and we finally came across our hostel. The lady on the desk was really lovely. We are the only ones in our room and she gave us our own key to the bathroom and told us we can lock it when we want. We made our beds and got ready to get the 12.00pm train to Monselice (then to Venice). So we wandered down to the train station, 30mins early and then tried to find the ticket machine. Apparently there is no machine at the station so we had to buy tickets from the pub over the road. We went in there and got our tickets then headed back to the station. We re-checked the timetable and realised that because it was a festival day the train would arrive at 12.23. 12.23 came and went and we were still sitting at the train station, 1pm passed and finally at 1.08 a train arrived. We jumped on and headed into Monselice. The train was only 1 carriage, it was tiny and cool – we had a laugh every time they changed gears to get faster. When we arrived at Monselice we had to wait 20 mins for the train to come. When we got on the train, it too was packed. We had to wait until 2 stops before Venice before we got a seat. When we arrived at Venice at 3.03pm we decided to follow the crowds to get to the street parade (our whole reason for rushing to Venice today). As we exited the train station we saw a tent that had information about Carnival and we picked up a map/brochure. The first thing we looked for was the location of the parade. Turned out that the parade was actually at 2.30pm not at 3pm like the guide on the internet said!! We then decided to follow crowds and see the area. There were a fair few people dressed up. There were lots of little kids who were dressed up as crocodiles, there was also a superman, bumble bee, tiger, dog and many others. The adults were more dressed up in old clothes, however there was a ghost buster and also a Harry Potter. Kids were throwing confetti everywhere and other younger kids were so fascinated picking it up and throwing it in the air or collecting it.

We were getting quite hungry so we found a pizza place that seemed to do reasonably priced pizza. They did huge slices, so we both got a slice of Salami Pizza each. It was the best pizza we have had so far in Italy. After our pizza we wandered around the little streets. At 5pm we decided to try and find our way back to the train station so that we were at least heading in the right direction (we only had 2 trains to get back). The crowds were huge, you could barely walk anywhere. It took us a while to get back to the train station as it was just so busy. Kath pulled out our book to point us in the right direction.

We got our tickets and jumped onto the train. It was really busy, and we were lucky to get a seat. By the time the train departed it was so full again that people were standing 2 wide in the isles. It was easier to get off the train this time as some people had already got off and there weren’t as many people in the isles. We were lucky that we realised that the Montagnana train was already on the other platform, so we ran down the stairs on one platform then up on the other platform. The guard was nice enough to wait for us. We had a really long stop at the second station (no idea why). Then when we arrived at our stop we were quite tired and ready to go to bed. We walked through the town and to our hostel at around 8:30pm. We got into bed and watched a movie.

We got up this morning and got ready to head up to Venice for the Costume Parade. This hostel doesn’t have a kitchen or a fridge so we planned to get up early and buy some milk from the supermarket and then go to the train station. So we got ready and went to the supermarket. The supermarket was closed on Sundays. So we had some crackers for breakfast. We then went to the train station (stopped into the pub to get our tickets along the way), and waited at the station. There were lots of locals there as well, so we knew the trains were meant to be running today. We waited for 40mins for the train to arrive, but it never turned up. Lots of the locals slowly just left the station. The train going in the other direction turned up and then left again, no sign of the train to Monselice. We decided that we weren’t going to spend hours at the train station again today (the next train wasn’t until 12.00pm if it even turned up!). Luckily we hadn’t validated our ticket so we could use it another day. We went for a walk through the town, but as it is Sunday most things were closed, and there wasn’t even really anywhere to eat that we could find that was open and reasonably priced. We pretended that we were in Venice, the cars were boats and the pedestrian paths were bridges… though Kath kept walking in the water . We then came back to the hostel to try and ask the new person on reception is she could recommend a place to eat, if there was internet we could use and if there was a kitchen. She said there is no kitchen but there is a food machine, she didn’t really know what internet was and she recommended a place down the road. So we thought we would go down to the restaurant to try and see if it was open. The hostel has stupid hours and you can only get in when someone is on the front desk. We went down the road and it was closed so we came back up and asked her if we could stay inside when the hostel is meant to be closed and she said she had to call the manager (the lady from yesterday), we said ok and then went to our room. She didn’t kick us out before she left so we were locked into the hostel until 3pm. We were a bit disappointed with the lack of trains here and the open/close hours of the hostel. We decided we’d go out and try and get some dinner at a pizzeria near the train station tonight. And will try and use the hostel’s internet tonight. We organised our plans for the next few days. Probably go to Venice or Verona Monday and then Venice on Tuesday for the last day of Carnival. We would decide later about the rest of the week and where we would go! Kath got me some chocolates for Valentines day, so despite the fact we are locked in a hostel in a town that is pretty much a ghost town at the moment, we are at least spending the day together.

That night we ventured out to try some pizza at the pizzeria Cindy remembered seeing close to the train station. The guy was really friendly there and we got 2 big slices of Peperoni type pizza for a total of 4 euro, he also gave us a tourist guide to Montagnana (In Italian) but it was good. We ate that there and the pizza was delicious – It beat the Venice pizza we had the day before – the small town had something to it. We decided we’d try the gelateria in the middle of the town. The Gelati man was really nice and spoke some English – he asked us where we were from and there was a guy behind us that welcomed us as well. Cindy got a cone with chocolate flavoured gelati and I got a cup of vanilla with real big chocolate bits through it. We sat outside and watch the town slowly come to life as we ate our ice-cream. The gelati was delicious and really cheap so after a pretty horrible morning – we ate great pizza and delicious ice-cream we were very happy that night. We asked the lady at reception if we could go online on her computer and she said yes. We checked our emails and checked the times for the train to Verona.

The next morning we got up early and decided to go to Lidl and get some milk for breakfast before heading to Verona. We decided we’d catch the bus to Padova then get a train from there to Verona. The buses seemed to be a bit more reliable. We got two little things of milk for our cereal and went back to the hostel. Cindy opened hers and poured it onto her cornflakes to realise that we had gotten Cream! It didn’t taste very nice so we gave up on breaky and headed to the bus stop, the lady at reception said the bar on the corner sold tickets, so we went there and asked for 2 tickets (in italian) and he told us around the corner… (well we got that from his hand signals – we didn’t understand him)… We tried to communicate with the lady in the Tabacci store but she just looked at us blankly – apparently our Italian attempts weren’t good enough. Cindy showed her train tickets and then I said bus. We got the message across and got 2 tickets to Verona… which were quite pricey but we thought the train from Padova would be cheap.

As we walked out of the Tabacci store we saw the bus we wanted pass us and we were like great! So we waited 40 minutes for the next bus. We jumped on the next bus and validated our ticket and took our seats. After a couple of stops – one person actually bought their ticket from the driver. So we were a little annoyed we had missed the last bus buying a ticket when we could have bought one on the bus. The bus took forever… we got to Padova 2 hours later – where we had missed the train we wanted to catch to Verona. We decided we’d get something to eat as I wasn’t feeling to well… We stopped of at Maccas and got a euro cheeseburger each and then headed over the road to the train station. The train to Verona was more expensive for the later train which was annoying but we got the next train to Verona. When we arrived in Verona – It was a decent day and we found the info point and got a free map of Verona. We found the places we’d like to visit and off we set. If you don’t know Verona is the town Romeo and Juliet is set in. They had the Capulets and Montague houses (which actually aren’t the houses – but just a gimmicky tourist thing) but we went there and found some really nice piazza’s on the way. We passed the Arena which is like a miniature Colosseum which is intake that they use for events. Juilets courtyard was free to go into, and as you go through this little tunnel thing to get into the courtyard – people have written love messages and stuck them on the wall – the walls were covered with messages. Lots of loving. Haha – It was a nice little courtyard and you could pay to go up and be Juliet on her balcony – but we were happy just to look up at it. After this we walked around looking at shops and markets and some piazzas (one was covered in Love Heart confetti… obviously from Valentines day the day before).

We slowly made our way back to the station and got our ticket to go all the way back to Montagnana which was cheaper than the ticket from Padova to Verona… So that was a little weird. When we got back to Montagana we went to the Lidl and bought some snacks and little things we could have for dinner. We went online again and booked accommodation in Milan for 2 nights and looked at trains that go from there to Barcelona, Spain. The trains look very cheap… (a bit like is this right – as its so cheap… I refuse to believe the price until I have the ticket in my hand).

The next day we went to the supermarket and get some REAL milk and then went back to the hostel to eat our cereal. We then headed off through the town – and took some photos of the centre piazza. Our train was at 10:30am and off we set… we spoke to a man at the station who is half Italian and half American. His English was good but even though he’s lived there for a few years his American accent was very evident. The train came on time and off we set for Monselice – we changed platforms and the cold and rain started. The rain was very light but we weren’t too happy. Quite cold actually. Our trip to Venice was pretty ordinary.

When we arrived in Venice – we had decided to buy our tickets to get back to Montagana and to Milan the next day so we didn’t have to do when we came back. With that out of the way off we set – we followed our instincts and found the grand canal. We talked to one Gondola man and he wanted to charge us 100 euro – he got down to 70 but we didn’t want to pay that much. So we kept walking and found Piazza San Marco – Everything was happening there. There was this massive and impressive church and this cool courtyard that was made of fake fruit with this Giant Lion made entirely of like hedge and fake fruit and vegetables. There were a lot of people walking around dressed up in all these fancy and amazing costumes. They loved getting there photos taken and you should have seen the cameras that were there. It made my camera look like a baby… We walked around for awhile and looked in lots of little shops. We decided to try find another Gondola man, we found one and he wouldn’t budge from his 80 euros, so we kept walking and found another man who was happy to take his price from 100 down to 60 euros… so we decided that’d we do it. It was fun – but I don’t think it’s the same as what it would be like 10-20 years ago as to me it’s very commercial. The guy was an amazing steerer – we didn’t hit anything and we got so close to things. It was really cool to go through these little canals and see doorways and stuff under water. The grand canal is about 5m deep and the littler canals are 2m. The tour was 2km – and was quite short… I’d like to see these guys money books… I reckon that they’d earn a lot of money because so many people don’t even haggle the price and just pay the 80 or 100 euros that they ask – and they seem so busy.

After our gondola ride we walked around some alleys just following the crowds and looking at small stores. Venice is famous for its Murano Glass. They sell all different types of things from really small to really huge things. There was this really cool little glass bag with a little gold fish in it. They were charging a bit too much for it so we just looked. But to see the detail in some of the things – really amazing. We slowly winded our way through back to the train station, getting pizza on the way and got the train back to Monselice… I fell asleep so the trip went really quickly for me. When we got to Monselice we realised we had just missed a train and we had to wait like 40 minutes in the cold for the next train… bit annoying but we just huddled up on a seat.

A girl our age spoke something to us in Italian and I said we speak English and she nodded and spoke English. She seemed nice and asked us about our trip and where we were staying when I mispronounced Montagana she corrected me and said that’s where she lived. We chatted for a while… Cindy thought she liked me but I don’t think so… She was nice and made sure we had a seat on the train and came and got us when the station was coming up (even though we had been there a few other times). She left with her friend and we went to the Pizza place on the way back and Cindy got the Peperoni pizza again and I had a sausage pizza. Both were really nice. We then thought we’d go get some Gelati and Cindy got 2 scoops this time and I still got my one…. Little too cold for too much ice cream. That night we packed our bags and got ready for the next day. Before we knew it was 10pm… so put a movie on and went to bed.

This morning we got up early and waited until the lady came and unlocked the door so we could get out and get our milk for our cereal… the lady was late (we were a bit annoyed as our train was at 9.41am).. so we had our breaky quickly and hurried to the train station. As we got there a train pulled up and I asked the conductor if it was our train, he said it wasn’t but he suggested we get this one and just get off at the last stop and the catch the train from there. We decided what the hell and on we jumped. He was nice and let us know the time of the train to Montova. We waited for a little bit for the next train – but it arrived on time and caught that train to Montova where our Milan train was waiting for us. We had just under an hour to kill but we just got on the train and had something to eat and drink.

We got to Milan and jumped on the metro to our hostel and this man starts speaking to us – turns out he’s a scot from Glasgow and has just come over to watch the Manchester United game verse Milan… He’s an avid fan and follows the team where ever they go…

We found the hostel really easily but turns out theres no kitchen (when the site says KITCHEN)… We were looking forward to being able to cook a meal and it being cheap. Sigh! We’re rooming with two other Aussies… They seem nice. Well that’s the update – we have free internet so we might skype tomorrow.

Ciao for now.

Florence

We got up early and got our stuff all packed for our train trip to Florence. We headed to the train station and bought our tickets for a regional train (the cheapest and longest journey).  The trip was about 4 hours, but it seemed to go quite quickly. We had some seats to ourselves so we played some uno and cards to kill some time.

When we got to Florence, as per usual it took us ages to find the hostel. We didn’t have a great map of the city so I went into a real fancy pance hotel to ask for a map and directions after about 45 minutes walking to try find the place. The guy was very nice and pointed us  back in the direction we had came but we had a map now! So we found it pretty easily – but the hostel had a tiny tiny sign on the door (4cmx2cm). We got up the stairs and checked in. We decided to book a twin room as it was very cheap and was about the same price as a dorm room. The room was massive – and it’s like a double bed so that was good news. We’ve got a safe and a large dining table and a massive ensuite, really fast wi-fi. After dumping our bags – we went out to explore.

Walking the streets was great – you got woffs of fresh waffles being cooked and everyone seemed really happy. The first few pub/bars we looked at – we saw they sold cider and walking to the supermarket we past a piazza and saw they had a chocolate festival happening for 5 days.

There’s not a lot in Florence, but the atmosphere of the city has been one of best we’ve stayed at.

We got a few things at the supermarket and headed back to the hostel to drop our stuff off. We decided to eat out that night and then go for a couple of drinks. We had a great chicken kebab at this place… the guy gave us a 2 euro discount for something… we then headed across the road to this American pub and I had a beer called a Gasoline Beer and Cindy had a strongbow. We started talking to this Brisbane guy who works as a head chef called ’1889 Enoteca’ in Woolongabba.  He seemed really nice so we kept talking to him and after a drink we all went out to find the Australian Pub which was meant to be around the corner. Well we found it…but it was closed… it was 7:45pm so we thought we’d wait till 8 to see if it opened… we walked around the corner to have a look in the chocolate festival and OMG – The chocolate was incredible!! We just looked but everything look delicious. At 8, we went back to see that the pub was still closed. I remembered seeing a Scottish Pub back near our hostel – so we went there and it was open. I tried a Scottish beer called Devils Kiss, Cindy had a bulmers. After our first drink – Matthew and I had a Tequila shot… the bartender was like “you won’t need lime and salt, this stuff is smoooth”… I was a little apprehensive… but we shot it and it was soo good…. It didn’t burn or anything. After the shot we went back to the American pub and had a drink watching this band warm up, they sounded really good but apparently wouldn’t start till 11pm. So Cindy and I finished our drink and headed back to the hostel. We made an arrangement to meet up with Matthew for lunch the next day.

The next day – we slept in because we could and no one was in the room to bother us or wake us up. Plus I wasn’t feeling too well from that tequila the night before… so we took our time and then went out to meet Matthew.. It wasn’t the nicest day – cold and rainy.  We couldn’t find Matthew – we waited about 15 minutes and then gave up as it was raining. So we went and found a cheap place to have lunch. Found a place that did cheap cabonaras… It wasn’t great but it wasn’t too bad, we saw him warming it up in the microwave. ( I would think it would be illegal for Italians to serve frozen Italian meals). We walked around and went to a giant church – The outside was insane – so much detail was put into everything… but inside was very big but very plain.  We found a square (piazza) that had all these statues – there was a replica of the statue of David. We found a really cool looking pizzeria that we thought we would try out one day. We then went to the chocolate festival – there is such a selection – we tried some different chocolates.. but we bought a really lifelike spanner and nut and bolt. Was so cool.

We went to the supermarket again and bought ingredients for spaghetti. We ate the chocolate spanner, nut/bolt over the day/night and they were so delicious.

The next day we walked around town and had found that little pizza place… It was packed. I had a Mediterranean pizza and Cindy had a calzone (A pizza folded in half). They were really nice… We went back to the chocolate festival and thought we’d try a different chocolate. We went to this one booth and got a sliver (75grams) of this amazing hazelnut chocolate. We also bought a chocolate spoon.

I started to get a fluey during the afternoon… so we came back to the hostel and I drugged up with vitamins.

This morning, I took some cold and flu tablets and off we set to Pisa, It was really easy to get there by train. The leaning tower is so cool – really busy. Busy with tourists and locals as it was a sunday… the weather was so nice (not a cloud to be seen), still cold in the shade though. We sat and looked at the tower and had morning tea and then walked around Pisa. There’s not a great deal to do in Pisa, but we had a nice lunch and then headed back to Florence. We walked back and decided to have a Gelato, I had a peppermint one and Cindy had a vanilla. Their smalls were massive… They were delicious but sickening… You felt quite ill after eating a only a small tub. We walked around some smaller back streets that we haven’t seen, there was this tiny 3 wheeled car charging it’s batteries with this little electricity thing on the side of the road. So cool!!

We thought we’d check out the chocolate festival as it was the last day and we thought we could get a bargain. Some stuff was cheaper, Cindy got a chocolate dog and I got a chocolate camera. We also got this cool chocolate light bulb. The festival was packed – so hard to move around so we didn’t hang around.

We’ve booked another 2 nights in Florence – we might try do a day trip to Sienna and another town before going to Bologna for 3 nights before going to Padova which is about 3o minutes from Venice. It’s carnival time in Venice so there’s a lot of hotels booked out or is very very expensive – there are hardly any hostels ( I think 1 hostel).

So we’re staying outside of Venice and are going to catch the train into Venice everyday and see Carnival (Venice Mardi Gra) – Have to buy a mask!!

Hope all is well!

Bari to Naples…

After our luxurious ferry ride, we got off at Bari… We wandered out of the Port and set off for our hostel… There were directions given to us on the website, however I wonder if whoever wrote the directions has in fact ever been to Bari. So we made up our own directions heading through tiny little streets. Finally we found one that looked similar to the address we were given. I started to walk down the tiny little alleyway and Kath said I don’t think it is down there, it seems pretty dodgy, but I kept going insisting it was the right place. Finally we saw a tiny door and it was our backpackers hostel… mmm.. There were big signs up everywhere saying check in at 10.30 and it was only around 9.30. We were going to leave but decided to knock on the door and see if anyone answered. We knocked and one of the guests answered the door and he said that we had to call the number and I said we didn’t have a phone (can you imagine the cost of international calls!). So we just asked him if we could just sit inside and wait.. he said I don’t know I am a guest. So Kath just walked up the stairs past him and we put down our bags.. When we got inside my first thought was this is a mistake. We sat there for ages discussing our options and what we should do. The guest who let us in went out and we were stuck in a cold, dingy place with no food. We were sitting in a room not much bigger then a bathroom, that had a tiny bar fridge, a tiny tv, and a tiny kitchen – consisting of a sink and stove top. We were looking around the room and there were so many rules on the doors and walls. You must not cook in the Hostel. No Alcohol in the hostel. Check out is at 10.00AM, if you stay any later you will have to pay an extra night. (written in pretty bad english might I add). Finally at 10.40 the reception guy turned up. We were like we want to check in and he said have you got a booking (we were thinking well if we didn’t we surely wouldn’t be staying here now!) He was very nice and gave us a key to the front door and a map of the tiny town. He then took us upstairs to our room. We walked up some very narrow stairs and hit a wide open room with 2 bunks in it. He goes you sleep here. Here is your locker. We said thank you and looked at each other in horror. Why didn’t we just continue on to Naples. We made our beds and put some of our stuff in the lockers, then had a lay down on my bed. The bed was like sitting/sleeping on rocks. Every spring was out of place and jabbed you.. it was going to be a long night. In our room was a set of stairs leading up to the other 2 bunks (we think). It was really steep old wooden stairs (apparently made out of a whole oak tree, I think that was what it was). So the only thing that kept us from the outside world was the rickety old door at the front – great security! We tried to use the “wi-fi” that they had – but couldnt connect to it. The receptionist was busy sweeping and mopping the floor very thoroughly. Finally he said “internet” and I said yes, what is the code for your wi-fi and he was like you have to come down stairs, so I picked up my stuff and followed him downstairs where he gave me a cable to plug into my laptop (so much for wi-fi). We checked our accommodation for Naples and re-checked the bus times, then he was like you have to get off internet you can go back on at 3. (His hours were 10.30 – 2 then 3 – 10, I think it was close to that) We were like umm ok then. So we went back upstairs then decided to go out and see what this town had to offer and get some lunch/dinner. We wandered around the main street near the port and found a bar that apparently did pizza. We went in there and ordered some pizza. When the pizzas came out we were a bit horrified about the look of them. I picked up a slice of mine and the topping slid straight off.. Kaths looked like it was swimming in a bowl of liquid. I ate ¾ of mine before I was sure I was going to be sick if I had another bite, Kath ate about half of hers. We quickly paid and got out of there. We saw a Castle and then headed back to the hostel. ,but before the movie I had to use the toilet – Kath had used the toilets earlier but didn’t tell me what they were like, she said I just had to see. So I went down to the bathroom and it was a flimsy “divider” door that didn’t close, a toilet (no seat), a urinal, a shower (no curtain or door) and a massive sink. It was all very clean but was really awkward.. When we were getting ready for bed some people turned up at the hostel wanting to have a look at the rooms. The receptionist brought them into our room then proceeded to take them up the dodgy wooden stairs, they got half way up then said forget about it we will go elsewhere. We thought that was pretty funny – but glad they didn’t stay they looked a bit dodgy. We went to bed fairly early as we had to be up by 6 to get ready to take the bus. I don’t think either of us slept particularly well that night and when 6 came around we were really just ready to get out of there. We took all of our stuff into the kitchen/home entertainment area so we could pack our bags and see and not disturb the other 2 sleeping. As usual we had given ourselves far too much time so we sat there waiting. The free breakfast was cream filled croissants (not fresh), old cornflakes and tea/coffee. We opted against breakfast there as we knew there was a McDonalds at the train station that we could get some brekky.

We set off from the hostel at 6.50am, and went to the bus stop, to wait for our #20 bus. We waited for over an hour before the bust turned up (the first one just never showed up). When we got on the bus we hadn’t bought a ticket so I told Kath to go and see if the driver will sell us one. So we got our tickets for 3euro together, we thought that was pretty good. We were unsure of where we were exactly meant to get off but the bus seemed to say the place we were after. And we just had to look out for the big golden M. Finally the bus arrived at the train station and we hopped off. We knew we had to get a bus from around here somewhere, we weren’t too sure of where though. So we went to the ticket person and asked for 2 tickets to Naples. First he said 80cents each, I said to Kath are you sure. Then I told her to said Napoli, so she said that and he goes ohh ok 2.80euro. Kath said to Napoli? And he said si si. So we paid him and went looking for this bus. We spotted a Tourist Information point and it didn’t open until 9.30, the bus to Naples left at 9. We then spotted a sign that said bus #16 to airport. We then realised that the guy had sold us a ticket to the airport… grr. We then saw another sign that said #20 to Port, 80cents… the driver ripped us off!! I told Kath I was sure that on the map of the bus stop it was on the street behind the train station. So we went over the overpass and wandered down the street – no sign of any bus stops or ticket places, so we decided we would just have some brekky and wait til the tourist information was open and ask them. I logged onto the wi-fi in McDonalds and Kath got us brekky. Apparently they don’t do the usual breakfast menu, you can get croissants and other pastry. Kath then re-found the bus stuff and we realised we were infact only a street away from the bus stop on the other side of the train tracks. It was 8.50am. So we quickly finished our breakfast then re-loaded ourselves with all of our packs and walked really quickly to the bus area. This time we saw a whole group of people standing around, and some of them had suitcases. So I asked a guy if he had a ticket and he said yes. I asked him where he got it from, we spotted it was on online ticket – grr! There was a bus sitting there which was the same brand as the one we were due to take. So we asked the driver if he was going to Napoli and he said no other side of the road. Next minute a bus pulled up on the other side of the road and it was a mad panic for everyone to get over there. Drivers in Italy are terrible, they don’t care about the lights and they don’t care about pedestrians. We buddied up with some locals trying to cross and they just walked out and put their hands out to stop the cars so we snuck behind them. Everyone was putting their luggage under the bus and we finally got near the driver and asked if we could buy tickets on board, he was like no and pointed down the road… Grr so we started to trek off to find the ticket agency, luckily some other woman didn’t have a ticket and she gestured for us to follow her and all 3 of us set off on a run to the ticket place. Kath and I both had our big packs and our little packs and a shoulder bag on us. It was not an easy run! When we finally got there she got in first and asked for a ticket and we asked at the other ticket booth. Apparently there is only one printer and it took forever for her ticket to come out. Then she waved at us and set off on a run back to the bus (I was thinking, please hold the bus for us!). Finally our tickets were printed and we set off on a mad run back to the bus.. The worst part was crossing the road… We finally got near the bus and saw that the lady was just getting ready to board and there were 2 people behind her. We rushed to get our bags off and then jump onto the bus. We were puffing and panting something chronic! It is hard to run with an extra 20+ kgs of luggage on you! We finally got on the bus and he told us to sit on seats 27/28 so we found our seats and someone was sitting in there, and I said 27/28 is our seats and she said something in Italian then was like doesn’t matter. So we just sat somewhere else. We had a big drink of water and took off our layers. We were relieved we made the bus and didn’t have to wait for another 4 hours for the next bus. The bus trip was pretty good. Kath fell asleep quite quickly. There were heaps of orange and lemon trees everywhere. We passed through a few mountain tunnels which was cool.

When we finally arrived in Napoli we were just dropped on the side of a main road. As it had been raining Kath was trying to rescue our bags from being put into puddles. So we grabbed our bags and moved to the side to try and put them on. When we were finally all re-loaded with our bags we set off in search of our hostel. I saw a sign for the metro and pretty much knew that the hostel was meant to be close to the Archaeology Museum and a metro station. So we checked a map and found the station to get off at. We got a ticket and jumped on the metro. When we got off (one stop later), we wandered out and tried to find the Archaeology Museum. We couldn’t really see it, so we stopped to look at a huge map they had on the side of the main roads. As we were trying to work out where we were, 2 little kids came running at us, yelled something in Italian at us then sprayed us with party foam. So we were then standing on the side of the road, covered in bags, topped off with some white foamy stuff! Just great!! I was starting to get a bit cranky by this stage. We decided just to continue walking and get our bearing up the road a bit more. Finally we spotted a building that had flags out the front of it – I was sure that would mean it was a museum. It was! Then we knew we had to walk down the main street and the hostel should have been no more then 176m from the museum. Well we walked all the way down the street to the next metro line, then we walked in just about every street inbetween, it seemed like a pretty dodgy area and the people didn’t look that friendly. After I couldn’t take walking around anymore I had to pull out my laptop to get the address (we were meant to write it down in Bari, but completely forgot). We got the address and looked on a map we had in our Europe book. Still no clearer where we were going we kept walking. We found another map and located the street we were after (we had already walked down it). We headed back up and took a right (we had come down the left) and there was no sign of the hostel. We were both getting pretty frustrated at this point. We walked back down the street on the other side of the road, as we were about to hit the main road again I spotted a tiny sign that said Welcome Inn Hostel, 5th Floor. So we headed into the huge building (it has a courtyard type thing in the middle). We found only one set of stairs, and a really dodgy old looking lift, so we headed up the stairs thinking it would be the safest option. *I think we should now recap a few things, we arrived in Naples on the side of a main street no idea where we were going, some kids covered us in white foam, we had been wandering around for over 40mins looking for a hostel, which only has an A4 sign out the front of a huge building, and now we had to walk up 5 flights of stairs, which might I add were not just 5 flights, each flight has 3 sets of stairs*. So when we finally reached our destination of the “5th floor”. We were ready just to dump our bags and lie down and die! The owner of the hostel, Mario, was very nice and pointed out that we should have used the lift! Grrr! After we did the usual check in business we were shown to our rooms and given an option of beds. There were 4 bunks and one set had another single bed next to it, so we opted for the 2 beds next to each other. So as usual we made our beds and loaded up our locker with some of our stuff. We then decided to use the wi-fi and have a look at how to get to Pompeii. The son of Mario, Davide came and gave us a map and told us whats good to see and where the best pizza in town is. He was really helpful, he also wrote down how we needed to get to Pompeii and what ticket we needed to buy, etc. Very helpful!. We then decided to head out to try this pizza place and then go to the supermarket to get some supplies. When we arrived at the pizza restaurant, it was completely full and there were about 20 people waiting outside to get in. We were quite hungry, so we decided to go to the supermarket instead. The supermarket was pretty good, they had lots of varieties of foods (still no vegemite). So we got some bread and ham for lunch, muesli bars for snacks, apples, juice and Kath got a new beer. We then headed back to the hostel for our lunch. The bread we bought didn’t taste that nice, but the ham was pretty good. Davide was making everyone pasta for dinner, so we were stoked about free dinner! Dinner wasn’t until 8.30 though. We did some more research on places to stay in Rome and how to get up there. And I read a little bit about the story behind the Pompeii Ruins. Davide kept his word and we had dinner at 8.30 it tasted pretty good. Some American man was chatting to us – He is like 50 or 60, telling us how he is a published author and is meant to be here promoting his book but his published has held something up, and apparently his book is like one of Steven Kings, but he didn’t think so and how in 14 months he is going to have a massive contract for his book to be made into a film. He also said he used to be a famous basketball player back in America etc. But his book has been held up and now he has to live in hostels and wait until his book tour is up and running or something.. who knows! We headed off to bed quite quickly after dinner. We decided to watch a movie to relax. I fell asleep about 40 mins into the movie, I was completely exhausted.

I woke up at 6.30am, busting for the toilet – I meant to go after the movie but I never saw the end! Haha. We got ready to head out. It was looking very overcast outside and we decided just to take our jackets rather then our jumpers. Breakfast didn’t start until 7.30, Mario came in and set up some stuff for brekky. There was bread, croissants, tea/coffee/juice and mini toasty things. We had some toast and tried a croissant but didn’t really like it much. And I took some mini toast for later. We headed off to the metro to get to Pompeii. The ticket we wanted t buy could only be bought at a little shop outside the station. I showed the guy what Davide had written and I told him we wanted a 24 hour ticket. He kept telling me the price for 1 journey ticket and I was like no and pointed at the prices Davide had given us. He was talking really loudly at me as if I was dumb, so we just said forget it and walked off. We went to the ticket machine inside the metro and fair enough we couldn’t get the ticket we wanted from the machine. Some guy pointed us in the direction of another little shop that sold tickets, so that was nice. The guy in there was really nice and we communicated really well with him. He didn’t make me feel dumb!We had our ticket and off we went to the metro. We got off at the metro and went to the train station. We put our tickets into the gate to open it and it wouldn’t let us through. There were some ticket people there and they let us through (obviously we had the right ticket), thankfully! We jumped on the train and headed off to Pompeii. The journey was ok, there were so many orange and lemon trees and the fruit looked so tasty. When we arrived at Pompeii we found the entrance to the ruins and bought our tickets. Kath got 50% off for being an EU citizen and between 18-24. Woohoo! The ruins weren’t quite how I expected them. It was a huge town there and despite what it has been through I would say it was in pretty good condition. Though hardly none of the houses had roofs on them. The town was very large and it is a bit odd to think that is was undiscovered for so long! It was a bit annoying as there were so many areas that were blocked off for public access, but nonetheless it was pretty amazing. We saw old theatre areas, unfortunately we couldn’t get into the auditorium, it was closed. We saw some of the “bodies” of the people who had died there, I asked Kath if she really thought they were real and she thought so. When we were leaving the area with the bodies in it, we read in the book that they were actually just plaster casts of the actual bodies. But it was still interesting to see. It rained several times on and off while we were there, the streets were all flooding because of the rain. We wandered around the ruins for a good 3 hours then we were completely exhausted, so we decided to get something to eat and then head back to Naples. We got the train and metro back fine. When we came out of the metro station it was pouring rain, even the people with their umbrellas weren’t venturing out from under the shelter. We were going to head up to museum, but once we started walking and were completely soaked we decided to go back to the hostel instead.

We have put everything out to dry and are going to try the pizza restaurant again for dinner. Opens between noon and 3.30 and 7-midnight, so we are going to try and be the first ones there at 7 so we can get a seat and have the best pizza in Napoli. We also have to sort out if we are going to Rome tomorrow!