I stopped writing when my digital camera got pickpocketed, losing all 3000 of my photos from Venice and all of Croatia. Didn't want to talk about it.
Saw this quote on a friend's facebook today:
"Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward." -C.S. Lewis
Will finish up those posts soon, I'm pretty sure I have a couple still on my ipod, the rest I'll add what I remember!
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Aug 13/14 Mario Party
I'm starting to feel like were trying to cram too much of Croatia in a short period of time. I'd heard repetitive advice before leaving not to try to do too much or you'll miss what you're seeing, which has been well followed until recently. We arrived late in split the night of the 12th, and slept in an expensive cabin on campgrounds outside of the city. Unlike Venice, this one takes stupidly long to get to and the bus to get to/from is always uncomfortably crammed. Camping is cool, but the campsite is a little overdone. From the mini waterfalls and fake dogs/squirrels/animals around the campground to the resort-like beaches its all just a little fake feeling.
Yesterday morning we bought a cheap tent and switched from the cabin to this. In one Bohr the tent is paid off compare to sleeping in the cabin, but it wasn't even half as luXurious.
As we ate our cereal outside the tent, Baye said hi to a guy wearing a Cornell hockey sweater, and turned out they knew a tonne of the same friends, even one that the guy (jeff) was traveling with.
We got into the city again d noon and tried to get a round trip ferry ticket to the island of hvar. Turns out there's no late ferries back and we would've had to stay the night, and all our stuff was at the camp forever away. Plus we just invested in the tent. so we were bummed that hvar failed, and didn't even know what to do in split because we didn't feel like site seeing churches museums or buildings. We paid for an hour of Internet to try to figure things out, and I was able to finally post 11 days of blogs :p after nearly returning to camp, baye spotted 2 guys who looked beach ready, stocked with bags and towels I saw that one guy already had sand on his butt, buy for the chance that they were still heading to the beach, we decided to follow them like huuuge creepers. They led us through a cool market area, fruit and souvenir shops lining the street, restaurants and gelato stores, everything. Eventually they turned down a lonely alleyway, quite obviously to home, so we veered off and kept walking uphill. By following our feet, we made it to a lookout over the Split harbor. By then the guys we'd met at camp were on their way to town and invited us to go to the beach with them. Of course baye already had her suit on and mine was back at camp, so I had to buy another one, but it wasn't more than 20$ so nbd.
Beach was definitely not great after the places we've been spoiled with. There were barely any sandy parts and it was mostly concrete with restaurants along it, so the 5 of us split on a paddle boat with a slide on it, costing barely 3 bucks each for an hour. We brought aboard some beers and the only thing we were missing was music. Very fun idea, and especially brilliant when splitting with so many people. However, when taking off I had sneakers on still so on the edge of the concrete I had to take off my shoes and shorts before wading in to get on the paddle boat. My cellphone was in the pocket of my shorts, and before I knew it, my phone was washing in and out with the waves, having fallen out of my pocket in my haste to join the other beach-ready peoples. The battery is still ok, but the screen is all melted/washed away and I'm not certain it'll come back. It's a day later but im going to try leaving it out in the sun. No more phone for Carley :(
After the paddleboat slide we borrowed a volleyball from some other beach -goers and played in the water for at least an hour. we sat on the crummy beach for a decent time and then set out for a meal. I ordered a mix of pan fried fish. The fish came out full, heads and all, and it was really tasty but difficult to eat with the teeny tiny bones that you can't easily see.
I tried to order the famous Croatian pancakes with walnuts, which was on the menu, but when we asked the bus boy he said thy don't have desert. He looked high so we thought he was messing with us, and had a good laugh until the waitress finally came back she said 'nope the only sweets we have is me!" by then I'd made such a bug deal about no pancakes that the guys went and bought a chocolate bar for the table and gave it too us with our bill. Very nice of them :) but I still need to get me some pancakes.
That night we chilled on the rooftop of the guys' hostel in the city, where we learned a new game played with 15-16 with dice, which is kind of like a poker/gambling game. Will share when im home!
Nate and I had to dash to catch the last craZy bus back out to the campsite, where we had a sleep comparable to the night in the train station. The ground was unforgiving, and it got pretty cold at night so I had to get up in the middle to try to find clothes, but worst was thati was too tall for the tent so I had to keep my knees bent, but I woke up at least three times with leg cramps. Needless to say, we really weren't "happy campers" (har har)
Today (aug 14) we left camp as early as we could. Our new Canadian friends had left us a few beers in a plastic bag outside the tent, and so I put my one extra beer in the bag with them and had to carry it separate from my big pack. But while checking out, I couldn't balance holding the bag of beer and trying to get my money out, so the bag dropped and one bottle broke, leaking all over the super busy reception We were in such a rush I just had to toss all the beers out ;( no room to carry, no time to clean up.
Eventually we made it to the ferry which got us to Supetar on Brac island and then a bus to the town of Bol, with the famous pointed beach. The hostel was homey, an apartment turned hostel, but they still had to do cleaning so we ditched our bags and head out to the beach.
The beach is famous for changing shapes with the tides/seasons, but crammed with so many people it was t the most pleasant place to be. We walked by one crepe stand way too many times, it was torture cause it smelled so good and I still haven't gotten a walnut crepe.
We passed a loooot of excursion companies, rent a boat places etc. But we quickly decided to go check out windsurfing. We split a single teacher for a on hour lesson and i still can't get over how amazing it was. SO FUN!! The instructor (Mario) was really good, he taught us all the moves on land first and then we set out for the water. It was wavy (there was a boat tubing company right next door) and there were tonnes if other boats, whether anchored or moving, but I never once felt unsafe because the instructor told you exactly the move to steer you out of trouble :). The hardest part was keeping STRAIGHT. When a gust of wind comes along and pulls your sail, it's reflex to want to pull your elbows in to counteract what you feel is going to pull you into the water forwards. it's important that your whole body stay perfectly straight and you only lean your boy weight for balance, but it's hard to get the hang of! After an hour lesson I was tired (especially after our camping experience) but wished we had more time. I really hope I get the opportunity to go again soon!! This may be a future hobby (future only because it's an expensive hobby). Ahhh I just want to go again!
We stayed at the hostel called "funky donkey", and there was such a variety of people hanging out it was incredible. Not just the fact that we met people from France, London, Spain, Scotland, brazil, Australia, new Zealand, Switzerland and more, but different ages, personalities, educational backgrounds, traveling history/cultural experience.... And we all sat on the terrace, sharing music over drinks, and then out to continue drinking on a pier lined with sailboats, and finally to an outdoor club. Baye and I left much earlier than everyone else and still didnt get to bed until nearly 2am, despite getting up again at 630 to catch our bus! I really hope that wasn't the lAt 5 hours I spend in a bed... We don't yet have accommodations in Dubrovnik, we're banking on the fact that people come up to you off the bus trying to rent out their apartment Back up plan is to pitch the tent somewhere.
Though if I have to choose between crossing my fingers on getting an apartment vs praying on getting a rental car for the way back, I'll gladly camp in order to drive Dubrovnik back up north! The car company won't tell is ahead of time because it's high season, so we won't know until the 16th whether we can rent it for the 17th ;(
Monday, August 13, 2012
Keep calm and carry on (aug 12)
Got 6 hours sleep and it was good enough. Big travel day. We originally thought we would train all the way back to Zagreb and then down to split, but someone at the desk said it made more sense to transfer at a different spot. We tried to get off the train where we were told, but the man attending te doors stopped us and the doors closed and the train moved on. we weren't too late or anything, we were quite speedy, but we said we wanted split and he thought we were supposed to bar transferred at the last stop even though we had a reservation for the one he just made is miss. He knew not a word of English and us not a word of Croatian, but he was able to communicate that the stop an hour from now will have the same train still to split. I was still happy, we were originally going to go all the way to Zagreb and back, and we still had more than two hours to kill in the train station at the fitter stop, so it didn't really make a difference. Bays was next to tears Abe was so frustrated that he 'wouldn't listen', which I was shocked by because she I usually more considerate of the language barrier. Everything worked out, it was no problem changing our reservation so I'm glad I didn't cause my body more stress.
We were confirmed to stay in a cabin at the campsite in split for a little more money than Expected because they only rent 4 person tents not 2 person. The current plan is to spend tonight in the cabin for 27euro/night, and then buy a tent for the next 2 nights. I haven't voiced my concern about this yet.. I forsee it being more trouble than it's worth, though I do t know the cost/amount we'd save I just pitch a te t instead of using their cabin, abs tents are supposedly 200 kuna (about 40 dollars if this is accurate) and we would split the cost, but then we have to share who carries it and what to do with it after the trip; does someone keep it? Can we sell it? Anyways... It might make sense for cost efficiency, I just hope it doesn't come at the price if or happiness/cooperation.
We were confirmed to stay in a cabin at the campsite in split for a little more money than Expected because they only rent 4 person tents not 2 person. The current plan is to spend tonight in the cabin for 27euro/night, and then buy a tent for the next 2 nights. I haven't voiced my concern about this yet.. I forsee it being more trouble than it's worth, though I do t know the cost/amount we'd save I just pitch a te t instead of using their cabin, abs tents are supposedly 200 kuna (about 40 dollars if this is accurate) and we would split the cost, but then we have to share who carries it and what to do with it after the trip; does someone keep it? Can we sell it? Anyways... It might make sense for cost efficiency, I just hope it doesn't come at the price if or happiness/cooperation.
Not sprite (aug 11)
Today was a dream. I can now say I've experienced everything I expected Croatia to offer (except for the national parks) and it was even cooler than I could've hoped. Now the next ten days will be an adventurous discovery of even more coolness.
This morning we got up really early for a 25 minute walk to the bus station and then a 1.5 hour bus to the island of Krk. Here, we boarded a boat and had a 7.5 hour tour/excursion.
The views were out of this world, and thus impossible to capture on film despite using a quarter of my memory card. The water SO BLUE But really crystal clear, you can see the bottom so easily it seems the boat will always scrape it but never does. The mountains and cliffs are bright yellows and some are covered in trees.
Soon after leaving the harbor, the skipper came sound with small Dixie cups and a large, perhaps 3-4L plastic bottle called lemon-lime. He offered it to us, and remembering my moms advice to get those electrolytes, I gladly accepted and he filled my cup. I went to take a big sip and had an unpleasant surprise that it was straight vodka and not sprite at all. Having most f the boat speaking German no English, I think everyone found me quite hilarious because, according to baye, he had offered it a s schnapps ;which I dint know what that was anyways, but apparently everyone else in the world knows it's homemade vodka). How was I supposed to Hess this by him pouring me about 6 shots worth?! Well we laughed for a good 5 minutes abs considered finishing it before I came to my senses that I would probably Go to the hospital If I drank any of it in my current condition, so instead I held onto it for a ridiculously long time before subtly dumping it over the side of the boat. Drunk fishies.
Our first stop was my dream come true. We jumped into the crystal waters and swam a short distance to a cave. As we swam under we eventually reached a spot we could touch with our feet and kept going through, with the water staying the same level to our chests (but with waves rolling in) and the rock cave getting closer in to our heads. The rock underneath was wider, so you didn't feel as claustrophobic, and once we made it through one small spot the cave widened again and even came up to a very small rocky shore with sunlight coming in from above and green vines growing in.
The captain swam in with us, picked up one f the smooth white rocks off the ground, and explained
'you make a wish. You wish on money, you wish on boyfriend, you make a wish. Pick a rock. For wish on little boyfriend rake little rock, for wish on big boyfriend like me, take a boulder. Put the rock up in the cave with your wish'.
A) he meant it when he said you'd need a boulder to represent a wish on a boyfriend as big as him. Wait til you see photos.
B) he teased me when I picked up a small one saying 'you wish on little boyfriend?!?!'. I picked the small one cause I disnt want it to fall! A lot of people had made wishes before us, of course, and so finding a little ledge to leave your wish was difficult, even more so for a larger rock.
C) after the teasing I made a second wish on a bigger rock. So there.
You can only imagine the number of photos I took in here with a waterproof camera. Yowza.
We swam back to the boat, and tried home made sardines on bread Most people liked it but I wasn't a fan. Verysalty. Though supposedly tonnes of nutrients in the bones.
It was gorgeously sunny and with the boat in motion we dried off fast and it was not too hot and not too cold, just perfect :)
The next stop was translated o be called seagull island. The Rick of the island was all vertically jagged rock, but there was a spot between two of the rocks you could swim through. The side our boat started on was about 30m deep, and it was a decent swim to get to the rocks, where it gradually shallowed to a rocky bank (very difficult to stand/walk on the rocks, smooth from the water and covered in algae. On the other side of the bank, as you go through the narrow channel, the bank drops off, to 200-300metres the captain said. The skipper found a few extra masks for us, which was incredible to see Literally everything. Omg that water was clear. There were urchins and fish, rock orations and just endless blue!!
The skipper picked up some shells, claws, old urchins from the bottom and let me gave one of the shells. If i remember correctly, He told me that in croatian they call it saint peter's ear. Apparently there's a bible story where he cuts off his ear, ad the shell really does look like an ear! He also showed me small holes along the outer ridge of the ear, which he said the number tells you how old it is.
We dried off on the boat again and set off for the restaurant. There were people from Germany, Austria and holland on the boat (and maybe some others for the people I didnt get to talk to) and they were all super nice, of course. I think the only mean person I've met so far (since the people who are annoyingly pushy or just so friendly it's creepy fall in completely different categories) would be the guy who ripped m off for 2 bananas in the Venice market. Apparently we were the first Canadians on the ship, too!!
The restaurant was in a small fishing harbor, very cute. I suppose if I'd ordered a fishy dish I would've enjoyed the food better, but they started at 110 kuna and I didn't bring enough cash so I got an palette, burnt, instead. For the last hour of our trip we had 5-10 minutes of very light rain, our first rain since arriving in Paris. We stopped at golden beach, and I chose not to swim this time because it was getting cold and I only had a t-shirt, not even a towel, but it was still a beautiful view.
We had another 30 minute ride back to krk, where we were allowed to drive the boat like children... Captains hat and all. The photos are terrible, but it was still fun.
As we pulled onto the harbor, the misty rain made a HUGE full arcing rainbow overhead. It really sealed off the day quite nicely
We got a picture with the captain before we left. I'll share when I can, because he was exactly the image a captain should be, but in a speedo. So awesome.
The next bus back to town didnt leave until 930pm, and after catching an 8am bus to the island, it made for a very long day. we go home shortly after 11 and tried to pack everything up before morning, where we caught a cab to the train station at 6:50am. Travel day begins.
Taste some Croatian men (aug 10)
The pains were gone the next day, during which we thankfully had nothing 100% planned so I could theoretically take a break. I still had to eat very little and simple foods, and after a measly breakfast we had to move rooms since we re-booked. Going up to the 3rd floor and moving my bag was exhausting, and I slept for a 3 hour nap after. When I woke up, I was able to shower and it took me an hour to wash about 5 articles of clothing in the sink. We had to arrange our bus tickets to get back to krk island on Saturday (tomorrow), but the bus was a lot longer walk than I remembered and this was harder on me than I could admit to baye, who I sensed was already bored with me being weak. On the way back from the bus station we stopped for groceries where I was able to get some fruit and bread to munch on.
After a small break at the hostel, it was a ten minute (normally 5 minute) walk to the beach. Again I was blown away by the beauty of the water and the rocks and I was glad I came to sit here in the end, case I'd almost taken to stay in and mope in the room while baye went.
While on this beach we people watched for about an hour. As it started to get cool out and people were leaving, an older guy, leathery tanned and in a blue speedo, both so typically Croatian, invited himself right beside us and asked us where we were from as he sat down.
He tried chatting for way too long, not cluing into the awkward silences and smiles and nods suggesting untie convo was over. With the little english he did speak, we understood He worked on a contract for one of the transport ships and had been to Canada (Montreal) before. He tried suggesting more places for us to see, and told is that Canada was beautiful and so are we beautiful girls. He made jokes (again in very broken English) 'Canada is too much drink, too much dance, too much sex'. We laughed, but he laughed and went on something about sexy Canadian girls. Time to get outta there we said to each other through eye contact. Before we could make an excuse he was asking us what we think of Croatian men. We honestly said we dont know because we don't know any Croatian men... To which he told us 'agh, but you should taste the Croatian men!'
We thought this was awkward but funny, and I understood it as a mistranslation and tried to explain to him that I understood he meant 'try', but it is a funny translation in English to say taste. He laughed and said
'Why not?!'. And u will never know if he just didnt understand me and had funny English, or d he meant for is to literally taste men from Croatia. But we did eventually slip away.
We had been recommended a nice restaurant down by the water. We felt a bit out of place there, since it felt like a very local spot and weird for English people to be there, but the servers were very nice. I wasn't yet up for seafood, bit tried to catch up on my vegetables since they're actually pretty hard to come by I Europe.... Lots if fruit, not so much veggies. I'm hoping it won't be too long until I can get on tasting some I'd the local specialties, mostly seafood.
We got back way later than I'd hoped for being so exhausted, and got to sleep for about midnight despite an early start for our boat tour the next day!
Taste some Croatian men (aug 10)
The pains were gone the next day, during which we thankfully had nothing 100% planned so I could theoretically take a break. I still had to eat very little and simple foods, and after a measly breakfast we had to move rooms since we re-booked. Going up to the 3rd floor and moving my bag was exhausting, and I slept for a 3 hour nap after. When I woke up, I was able to shower and it took me an hour to wash about 5 articles of clothing in the sink. We had to arrange our bus tickets to get back to krk island on Saturday (tomorrow), but the bus was a lot longer walk than I remembered and this was harder on me than I could admit to baye, who I sensed was already bored with me being weak. On the way back from the bus station we stopped for groceries where I was able to get some fruit and bread to munch on.
After a small break at the hostel, it was a ten minute (normally 5 minute) walk to the beach. Again I was blown away by the beauty of the water and the rocks and I was glad I came to sit here in the end, case I'd almost taken to stay in and mope in the room while baye went.
While on this beach we people watched for about an hour. As it started to get cool out and people were leaving, an older guy, leathery tanned and in a blue speedo, both so typically Croatian, invited himself right beside us and asked us where we were from as he sat down.
He tried chatting for way too long, not cluing into the awkward silences and smiles and nods suggesting untie convo was over. With the little english he did speak, we understood He worked on a contract for one of the transport ships and had been to Canada (Montreal) before. He tried suggesting more places for us to see, and told is that Canada was beautiful and so are we beautiful girls. He made jokes (again in very broken English) 'Canada is too much drink, too much dance, too much sex'. We laughed, but he laughed and went on something about sexy Canadian girls. Time to get outta there we said to each other through eye contact. Before we could make an excuse he was asking us what we think of Croatian men. We honestly said we dont know because we don't know any Croatian men... To which he told us 'agh, but you should taste the Croatian men!'
We thought this was awkward but funny, and I understood it as a mistranslation and tried to explain to him that I understood he meant 'try', but it is a funny translation in English to say taste. He laughed and said
'Why not?!'. And u will never know if he just didnt understand me and had funny English, or d he meant for is to literally taste men from Croatia. But we did eventually slip away.
We had been recommended a nice restaurant down by the water. We felt a bit out of place there, since it felt like a very local spot and weird for English people to be there, but the servers were very nice. I wasn't yet up for seafood, bit tried to catch up on my vegetables since they're actually pretty hard to come by I Europe.... Lots if fruit, not so much veggies. I'm hoping it won't be too long until I can get on tasting some I'd the local specialties, mostly seafood.
We got back way later than I'd hoped for being so exhausted, and got to sleep for about midnight despite an early start for our boat tour the next day!
Surface souvenirs from Rovinj (aug 9)
We splurged and rented a car. With plans to check out on august 10th in time to board an intrepid sailing tour on the 11th, there was a lot to see and it was most efficient by car. Lucky baye and I both grew up on standard vehicles because I think that's all they have here (we didn't ask for either or, just got stick). We first drove to the nearby town of opatija, where we walked along the coast and through a small park with the villa annilese.
Our second destination was Pula. On the way there we passed a guy and girl backpacking. We decoded to pick them up, and sound out they were from Austria in a backpacking race! They had to get to a city kind if close to pula, so I guess our hour drive helped them out quite a bit. We dropped them at a kind of crazy intersection, so regrettably we got no photos with these cool cats, but we certainly were a bit jealous if their adventure!!
When in Pula we saw one of the largest amphitheaters left in the world. We only stayed long enough to do a walk around it before skipping off again, back to the winding highways that swerve around and through forested mountains, windows open and good music. What a life.
Third we continued to Rovinj, which I am so glad I requested, because I was able to check off the bucketlist exactly what I thought Croatia would be like.
Rovinj was hot, and we walked through a small harbor to get to a rocky coast. People were laying on various flat places in the rock (this isnt rocky like pebbles in place of sand, more like giant rock slabs). Baye already had her suit on, but I had to go find a place to change. I wandered through town, when I crossed an open door to a patio with a table and chairs and a menu on the table. A woman crosses the doorway, we made eye contact, and in my simplest/most polite English (not knowing a word of Croatian) I tried to ask if there was a place nearby that I could change (holding my swimsuit up to show I wanted to put it on), hoping she'd say it was ok to come into the restaurant to use their bathroom. She looked at me confused, not understanding english, so I tried again with the miming, this time adding the word toilet (most languages understand this, but never bathroom). She seemed to get it but called for a man, I assume her husband, for help communicating since he spoke some english, and he immediately invited me in so I could change. The second I stepped inside I clued in that this patio was not a restaurant patio, it was their home, and I felt so badly. When I faced from their patio into the house, I got nervous, feeling like I was invading a stranger's home. He saw me hesitate and said don't worry, nobody else is here so go ahead. I had to pass through their whole house to get to the bathroom at the back and I changed as quickly as I could. I thanked them over and over, wishing I knew the Croatian word for thank you, and they waved me off with smiles. and that is just the beginning of the niceness if people in Croatia.
Getting down to the water again, it was SO WARM! With encouragement from the locals we jumped off cliffs (for family, it was about the same height as the small jump at the rock on papineau lake), but took us a lot of nerve to jump initially just because of the water!! The water here is so so so clear that the bottom looks so shallow. Even standing a foot off of the water, I thought i had to scrunch up when I first hopped in (probably looking quite foolish to the locals) just because you expect the bottom to be right there. It was even worse knowing how deep you'd go with a high jump, but we never ended up touching! Climbing back up the rocks was difficult, mostly the part getting out of the water, so I got a few scrapes on my knees and my hands. One of the locals teased that I had souvenirs from rovenj.
It was so fun, and we got chatting with 2 men from Rovinj, a guy a bit older Than us and his dad. They were both so calm and chill, liked to share stories, and invited us to play some rummy card games with them. They told us about cliff jumping in other nearby places, about injuries and risky jumps they'd seen or done, about islands they thought we should go see, and that we should be more careful as we go more south. The older gentleman was saying how Rovinj and other northern Croatian cities really enjoy the tourists and are more welcoming, but they start to get more bitter in the south and won't be as nice he said. I suppose that makes sense because apparently the two big destinations are split and Dubrovnik, so they would get all the beach goers all the time.
We took some pics before slipping away, hoping to make it to three more destinations despite it already being 5pm. We tried to go to Birjuni national park, close to Rovinj, but we would've had to wait an hour for the next trip to the island and it was going to cost 210 kuna per person, so with 2 other cities in the agenda we decided to pass up his park since there are a couple others we planned on going to anyways.
We had to drive back through Rijeka, and we wanted to try to get to the risnjak national park, close to where we stayed actually, before checking out the largest Croatian island, krk. getting to opatija, pula and Rovinj was easy because we just had to follow major route signs and the towns are small. But teres no driving directions to the national parks kn street signs, only to towns, and without a map, navigating this got tricky. We decided to skip te park again after our delay, since it closed at ten and it was already nearly 9pm and dark out. So out to krk we went.
When I was driving on the highway (again through the mountains), there was a curved portion, like an on ramp but just linking highways, that had suck long supports to a lower part I'd the highway that you felt Luke you were driving over air. Correction* we were diving over air. It was intense.
It was also during this trip that I got my heartbreaking news that my sailing trip couldnt be booked. I had wanted to do the tour so badly, and I did my research into Croatian companies as well, but intrepid's was the best deal. Nate didn't make up her mind until that morning, so I ad sent an email, but by the time I called he said he had tried first thing and booking was all closed. I even tried calling intrepid directly, but no use. I was so bummed and frilustrated that I hadn't just booked it off the bat, and blameful of my travel friend for having to wait for her. It didn't mean as much to her as it did to me.
In Krk we were exhausted. We'd seen and done a lot, and it was half past 9. We wandered through, not expecting it to be as wildly packed as it was. There was a fair set up, booths selling trinkets and fair food, beer tents, a live concert and more. We passed an entire roasting cow/bull even. There were a lot of booths set up selling excursions. At first I was so frustrated I didn't want to see them, but for some reason I walked up to one with a woman who looked really nice, but only spoke Dutch or German it something (certainly not English). It was for a 1 day tour, one of the sites (the blue cave) being something I wrote down as a must-see in Croatia, and the price was right. For 180 kuna (30-40 dollars) you would spend 7 hours on the boat with sight seeing. It was for Saturday, though, meaning we would have to figure out sleeping arrangements for the next two nights and stay in town instead of driving on. Bit we decided to sign up.
For the ride home, we both decided coffee was a good idea, but thus us also where things started to go wrong.
t was good coffee, but I had a terrible reaction to the caffeine. Even as I finished the last sip my stomach started hurting, and in the 20 minute walk back to our parking spot my stomach was becoming increasingly painful.
It came in waves, my stomach clenched in pain and would cause me to hold my breath sometimes while I was talking, making it sound like I had the hiccups apparently. We were both out of water, so we stopped at a gas station 10 minutes down the road. I bought a bottle of water and took both an advil and a Tylenol, but by this time I was in tears and yelling in pain. Bate was inside chatting with the gas station attendant guy, nit realizing how badly I needed to get home. She has my medical papers and knew from the start what to expect, but with no physical symptoms I think it's hard for her to ubderstabd why I'm in pain. I made it home, debating what steps to take next. I was able to borrow a cooler pack from the hostel, which I honestly think saved me. I held it for 3 hours against my stomach until I finally fell asleep.
(aug 7/8) bums in the station
Today was our last day in Venice. We had to check out of camping at 10am and take our last bus into the city. I had paid for an Internet code at the campsite and was allowed to stay and use it, which caused some conflict when I had no support to research out next accommodation and had to go I to town to pay the same amount again at an Internet cafe despite having already found all the same information while searching from the wifi at camp. Oh well.
We locked our big packs at the train station and spent our last say wandering the streets, shopping. Our train left at 9, but we really only had to kill time from 2pm onwards after booking a hostel in Rijeka (a couple hours outside of Zagreb). Part if this time was spent eating if course.
Our train had a transfer between midnight and 6am in Austria. When we arrived we saw another schedule for a train to Zagreb at 4am instead f 6 so we decided we were going to see about getting on that one when the time came.
At first we tried sleeping on the metal benches inside the station. They had armrests in between, so you couldnt lay out on it, and even with a travel pillow it wasn't doable. So an hour later I pulled out my sleep sheet, already dirty from camping anyways, and slid down to the floor, trying to sleep between my big pack and leaning against the bench. Still no luck. After being disturbed by a few people on and out of the bathroom, I noticed that more backpacker had joined our ranks on the train station floor, but they were obviously new experienced than us. Many had thin foam roll-outs because they were campers, nearly all had sleeping bags, and all had put their sack up against the wall, used it as a pillow, and were fully stretched out on the floor. Well, they looked comfy enough cause they were all sound asleep. I tried to find my own little nook like this, and managed to get 20-30 mins of sleep before baye woke me at 330 to go check about the train.
Waiting at the station, We met two 19 year old Aussie girls who were going he opposite direction of us, having finished a sailing tour in Croatia and off to Italy for the rest of their 6 MONTH trip. One of the girls' dad owns an environmental education company in Sydney, so I swapped emails in case I want to apply in the next year :)
After their train left, we weren't allowed on the 4am train to Zagreb bc it was a reserved sleeper train, so we waited outside on the bench for another 2 hours for our actual train. For the first time in a month, we were freezing. I had put on a sweater, my windbreaker, and wrapped m legs in my sleep sheet and I was still so cold. So with sleep count at 30 minutes, we slept on the 6am train until about 10am in Zagreb, and transferred again to Rijeka.
We chose Rijeka because there were a few cities on the northern coast we wanted to see, but could likely do in day trips from Rijeka instead of changing beds wert night, and Rijeka still has a decent amount of connections to other cities. Rijeka I a port town, so moat if the views in this city are of monstrous ships carrying freight... But the mountains trees abs water we saw out the train window on the way to reijeka were breathtaking.
In a total of 13 hours, we'd been through 4 countries and had or passports stamped twice: Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia. Only on Europe :)
We dis go out for dinner when we got checked in, a place recommended by the front desk girl. I got what the waiter recommended and it was to die for, but meant for at least 2 people to ear I think! It was pork rolled and stuffed with ham and cheese, with really cool sauces and potato wedges Mmm!!
Glass and lace (aug 6)
I woke up crazy early because there was a lot of construction/machinery noise about 6am. I showered at 630, allowing me to avoid a shower lone for the first time! And then ate dry cheerios at 7am cause the little market didn't open til 8 for me to buy milk. I killed 3 hours writing post cards and catching ip on journal entries, and by the time baye got up at 1030 I was anxious to go into town.
I started getting worried about my toe, where my blister had been getting progressively painful and there was now purple and red blotch all around it. I put pen around the outside to make sure it wasn't spreading, and set out to the pharmacy. Here they only have pharmacies or hospitals, no doctors offices, so locals ask pharmacists first. When we finally found the "Farmacia" it was quite challenging to describe my concerns that it's infected/how should I treat it, because my Italian vocabulary consists of hello, thank you and youre welcome, and the pharmacist spoke no English either. Luckily there was a nice woman behind me in line who was able to help translate that I just needed to keep cleaning it (not infected).
Put a dent in my wallet today at the post office... In fact, today has broken the bank all at once, because up until now I've been pretty good at saving.
I bought a 12hour pass for the vaporetto/bus system today, and went to 3 different islands.... Lots of boating. I finally got to so some wandering/exploring on my own, and it was a very successful day!
I first took the vaporetto to lido again, but quickly changes my mind; I got too much sun yesterday and didn't want to be on the beach again So I went and hopped in another vaporetto back, which took me the other direction from Venice to get to the island "Murano". The entire island makes glass, and I got to watch people blowing/making glass vases! It was beautiful work! Store after store sold glass jewelry, dishes/bowls and artwork. I don't know how they compete with each other. I got a couple souvenirs but I thought I'd try in Venice again for certain earrings and a necklace I oft have time to find
After a long time in murano (I had to go in every store to compare prices, of course, and still never make up my mind) then I took another long vaporettoto Burano, skipping an island in between (which I supposedly all cemeteries anyways)
Burano was SO COOL. I wish I got more time there bc I only walked around for about 30 minutes b all the houses. Are so brightly colored, it makes for fantastic photos. The island is knob for making lace, and similar to murano, there were a lot of little shops selling very similar items, with patterns that I might call crochet, but they had dresses, fans, scarves, belts, you name it, in Italian silk and hand made lace. I caved and bought a pair of decorative scarves.
So I've already blown €110 in a day, but it wasn't over. I still needed dinner and planned on an evening show.
It took me forever o find my way back through th square of San marco to where the theatre de San gallo is, but a nice Venusian helped and I made it in time.
The play, called 'Venizia' had corny Acting, and despite it not really being what I expected, it was pretty cool because j learned a lot about the history of Venice. Some parts went by too quickly for me to catch/remember their facts, but there are a few that stand out to me.
Apparently the Venusian masks with the long hooked noses used to be worn by doctors in the plague, where they would stuff the nose with herbs to protect themselves while they identified bodies/illnesses.
I need to look ip again the lion of San Marco (with wings), because they told us the significance but I forget it... however, apparently I can remember thy there are 2636 lion statues around Venice... So I should probably find out why he lion is so important.
The play went through a timeline of tradition and custom that arose through historical events, touching on famous people who lived here or died here or just liked it here, including Vivaldi and Casanova.
I didnt have time after the show to grab dinner before I met Nate for the bus home, or so I thought. I toon another vaporetto through the grand canal, which is even more spectacular at night, with lights shining on the buildings, street lights glowing in the background, and passing live music At various points along the way.
I waited for half an hour for bate to meet me at the station, even though oft there half an hour late myself, and our bus left 5 minutes before he got there, so we had to wait ANOTHER half hour before we could get a way home. So I was upset because I was starving and tires and could've grabbed food after all. I feel like she owes me for the amount of waiting I've done today; I have now waited 4 hours this morning to go j to town, then one hour at the bus stop, plus wasted time wandering in the morning in Venice (though this part was my fault for not having the guts to tell her I wanted to buzz off)
Tomorrows another day, with more $€$€ to spend!
Let's go to the beach let's go catch a wave (aug 5)
We changes it up from the city scene and went out to the island of Lido. Lido is almost entirely beaches, so i soaked up the sub while handwriting my journal entries and reading for Croatia.
I had pizza and a drink at the beach-side bar, and while I read alone at the table (baye went biking instead) a guy asked if he could have the seat across from me (I was taking up a 4 person table in the patio) He worked for costa cruise lines ad an engineer, and I asked him to tell me about the crash and also about the rumours of being taken over by pirates. It was hard to understand with language barriers/thick accents but still interesting.
He invited me to play "beach ball", a common beach sport in Europe I'd seen a few times on he beach in Barcelona, too. Ira basically ping pong in the air (with no net or anything) but with bigger pAddles and a heavier rubbery ball that looks like a squash ball but bouncier. Another thing European beaches have a lot of: topless women and men in speedos, both regardless if age or body type.
That night, as planned, Baye and I set out for a supermarket, picked up a bottle of cheap red wine (~€4) and each got things to picnic on. We had trouble locating a grocery store and stopped to ask waiters who were standing on the street waiting for customers. One offered to walk is because it was close. At first we were very thankful for his niceness, but by the end I'd the night we were joking about things we wouldve rather done (such as pee our pants) to get him off our backs. He just didn't stop talking!! He wanted to teach us more Italian words, and have us teach him English, which would've been cool if it weren't so annoying. He kept listing countries, asking if we'd heard if them, and was always shocked when we had. And if we kept silent during conversation, implying we werent interested in the topic, he would just keep rambling until we replied.
Our Romantic picnic on the side of the canal near the brick wall garden was spoiled, cause he followed us there. I still had a nice cheap dinner of fresh bread, salami, and sweet cherry tomatoes, but would've been better watching the night boats pass in silence (with the exception of the music from the neighbouring restaurant of course).
We finally got home to wait for a shower and do laundry (which we've been forced to do every day in this stinkin heat), and slept to the sounds of crickets :)
Birfday (aug 3/4)
Was mostly a travel day. We left Rome at 10am and arrived in venice around 2:0pm
Hostels in Venice were both fully booked and stupidly expensive... And in really glad they were or we wouldn't havethought to try a campground.
We're staying at camping Rialto, with tents and bedding provided, a shower and toilet building and even laundry facilities. It's been fantastic.
After checking in and laughing at how small our tent is, we headed back into Venice ( a 10 minute bus ride ) and walked around. We passed San Marco square and basilica (but didnt go in) and the Rialto bridge; the two main tourist sites. We also took billions of photos in billions of tiny bridges over the small canals, which will likely all then out identical though I bought each was photo-worthy.
So basically we saw all of Venice on foot the first day, but just to make sure, we did it again on door on august 4th, too, but this in we added a little shopping. By this point, the clothes that we've packed fir practicality are sickening us because the city is so beautiful so we wouldn't mind looking half decent when we take photos in it... And we currently look like sweaty bums (mostly because we are sweaty bums). I've been looking for a particular dress, and still haven't been able to find it, but I did buy one nice black shirt.
That night we found a pizzeria/snack bar on the water that wasn't expensive. I ordered pork and fries, and bays for adventurous with ink-soaked spaghetti. It actually was black. She said it was good though.
Backtracking, earlier on the 4th we walked to baye's old apartment in a square to write our postcards. It was so hot I passed out/fell asleep on the bench and barely got any written (now aug 12 I still have some Venice cards to mail!). I had to get gelato to cure me from the heat :)
When we get back to he campsite it's always a challenge to charge electronics cause you either have to charge in the bathroom while you shower, or sit on the patio of the market/restaurant/bar and wait for one of the 4 plugs to become free. At least with the latter you can have a beer and watch the olympics. We ended up having to do both methods of charging to keep our phones and cameras juiced. Especially when you wait 30 minutes for a shower anyways.
... Act like romans? (aug 2)
"when in rome, act like romans" overheard when in the colosseum by a Herman father walking behind us. Well, we knew what he meant...
On august 2nd we had a full rollercoaster day. We started with the roman ruins (the roman forum), which is now my second favorite site.. We had an audio guide that we barely used, but seeing the ruins from hundreds of years bc and being able to touch them was out of this world. We went from the forum to the colosseum (which us actually called the fluvial amphitheater), my current number one site. That makes the sagrada familia (In Barcelona) my number 3 and the flamenco ballet in Madrid #4.
We took so many corny photos in the colosseum, pretending to battle each other, while the camera was on timer (is this what the Romans do?) This often resulted in someone walking across our photo haha
on our way to and from the colosseum a man named victor (I remember because it sounds like the name of a gladiator and we were at the colosseum) tries (and succeeded) to sell a on tickets to a pub crawl event. Originally we had no desire to go out, but he convinced us with the value of an hour worth of free drinks and pizza, a pub location, a boat location and a club location. You had us at unlimited pizza. Sold. Plus we got a free t-shirt :)
After the colosseum we did our best get to all the sites we'd missed, starting with the Vatican Gardens. When we hopped on the tour bus to get us there it was already nearing 3pm, and apparently the last tour that the company runs or the Vatican Gardens is at 130pm, so we missed that opportunity, wasted an hour getting there, and we had paid for it on our pass. If anyone has plans for Rome, I would recommend getting the "Roma Pass" (30€) not the "Omni Pass" (85€)
After our attempts at Vatican Gardens we got back to the pantheon so i could take photos ( the first time I'd lent my battery to guys we were touring with because yet only had the one day and their battery was out in he same model camera as mine). We also it gelato on be way, of course, and then after baye and I split up. I wanted o go to the campidoglio national museum and baye wanted to go back home to rest.
So, on my way to the museum I was obviously trying to take self photos.... And while on one bridge, overlooking done of the ruins, a man named Fabio stopped me and asked how I was enjoying Rome (I very obviously stood out as a tourist). He was really nice and very happy to share information about his city. He told me history about the surrounding buildings, such as the years they were built and for what purposes, asked what I'd been to see so far and recommended some places, showing me on my map. He asked if he could show me around, but I told him I really wanted to get to the campidoglio museum, which he said was great and really close by (but of course I already knew that). So for the 5 minute walk to the museum he showed me 2 incredible lookout points to see the roman forum (much better than the one I was originally at), spoke to officers in Italian about why a road was barricaded off (turned out to be because the mayor was staying in the building and security bc he was leaving soon), then was able to sneak me through the gates so I could fill up my water bottle AND take the shortcut to the museum.
The square out front if the museum was designed by Michelangelo, Fabio explained. He told me about the pillars/statues and said that the statue in the square I'd the man on the horse can't remember the actual name of it) was a replica I'd the original one thats in the museum I'm going to. That's where he left me to go into the museum.
However, they would t let me in. My Omni pass, at least I thought, was supposed to cover 2 museums and we'd only been to the castle, but they said only 1 and could tell me all the places I'd been in to. I got a reduced rate with the pass, but still didn't want to pay 10€ so I decided to go walking elsewhere.
So to summarize, the Omni pass got me into the Vatican museum (worth 12€) with line skip, the colosseum + roman forum/palentine (worth 12€) with line skip, and to castle St Angelo (worth 8€). We didn't make use of the Vatican garden (worth 24€). Or the city bus tours (worth unknown but I think about 30€), and we only used our audio guide in the colosseum and roman forum, so I do t think we got the full 85€ value even with line skip. Oh well.
As I walked away disappointed, I set out for an ATM and a backpack. I had started out with a drawstring pack from roots, and within 3 weeks, the amount of times opening/closing it the fabric wore out at the top, and recently ive been carrying it around on my hip like a baby since the strings won't hold it up anymore.
After successful errands I returned to the fountain of San Maria, near our hostel, because I'd only had photos at night and I really did want to know what the creatures in each statue were supposed to be. It was the first fountain (well, first anything really) I'd seen in Rome, and I really liked it. So I sat here and thought for a while.
Then it was pub crawl.
The free t-shirt we got for signing up says "rome's ultimate party". We also got vouchers for a free shot and a free mojito, because the rest I'd the free drinks were beer or wine. So for the freebie hour we got a mojito (finally, after Barcelona it was weird bit to hear the word every 5 seconds), 2 beers and a tequila shot, and 2 pieces of pizza. This lasted us the night, on top of the drinking contest we had to do!
They lined up all the girls, and while pouring beers they had us yell out where each of us is from. This is how We met totally awesome Canadians Kim and Natalie. Best friends in ten seconds EVER. We were laughing about bow the Canadian girl from Toronto (who won) must have cheated haha.
At midnight, a select few who knew it was my birthday shouted happy birthday in the streets for me. I didn't have a birthday cake or drink or dinner or anything on my actual birthday (with the exception of virtual cupcakes from my sister, and my moms card that I opened 4 days late because I forgot I carried it with me!) but that night, victor (the guy who sold us tickets) snagged me a pink pub crawl bday shirt :D
Its by no means attractive, and the list of things on the back that I've supposedly don at the pub crawl is only about 50% true... But I love it :)
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
HaiiiiiYAH
Totally forgot to mention that we went to the leaning tower of Pisa. On our way from Florence to Rome, we took the train to Pisa for a few hours because it would only count as one on our rail pass and we didn't need a whole night there. Took the typical tourist photos holding up the slanted tower, and also tried to take some original ones like kicking it, which all turned out terrible but hilarious. Hope I can post them from the next hostel!!
Prego!
Prego is a pretty common word in Italy, it means "welcome" so they usually start a sentence with Prego if they're in customer service, especially if they're seating you at a restaurant or something, but it's also for "you're welcome". Anyways, we hear it a lot, but i just can't help but think of "preggo" being slang for pregnant... it's how I remember the word, but also funny.
Today we went to the Vatican. We aren't in the greatest health/alertness, and I can't help but feel we wasted our pass a little. We walked there, which took us a good hour and twenty, and we have already seen a lot of churches and art museums. This is the largest church in the world, and we've already been in the Basillica, but we went to the museum and Sistine chapel today. Spent a few hours walking around, but our feet were really sore. Its not even the most walking we've done in a city, but I think its a combination of heat and poor diet (and maybe addition of so many days of walking everywhere) that its really starting to get to us. The Sistine Chapel wasn't as impressive as I expected, but Baye reminded me why. We've been to tonnes of churches with paintings, and you really get to take it in and feel the silence as you look around... Today the Vatican was SO DISGUSTINGLY PACKED, there was no way it was going to be silent, and the guards force you into the crowd instead of standing at the door waiting for people to move through. So the room didn't seem as large as it really was, and you couldn't really get a good look without people stepping on you or bumping into you. Plus no photos. But thinking about it now, every square millimetre of the place was covered with paintings, and the ceiling was really high. It was a cool place, just don't know if it was worth the pass we bought.
We walked through the museum a bit, but when we were tired of seeing the art/statues/paintings we tried to find where the Vatican Gardens are, and ended up walking around the ENTIRE Vatican City. By the time we made it back to the front of Vatican City (where the Basillica and the square with all the pillars are), someone told us that the entrance is right where the museum is, so we had to go back again... but by this time it was 4pm and I had read that they stop letting people in at 4pm because it's closed at 6pm. So we decided to try again tomorrow, even though they might not let us (our Vatican pass was supposed to be single entry only, but maybe they'll say the Vatican gardens is separate, I'm not sure..)
After that we walked to the Saint Angelo Castle, which we got free with our pass. The inside wasn't anything spectacular to look at, but it was really old and all brick (and nice and cool in the underground parts). They hid popes here/made apartments to protect them at one time, and it was also once a prison. You can see some of it, but mostly they're just weird little rooms. The top of it has a nice view of the city, too!
We decided we wanted a break, and went back to the Villa Bourghese to lay in the shade and read... and ended up sleeping, of course... after a long nap, we head out to the Spanish Steps again because I wanted to get some photos during daylight, and then to a restaurant for dinner.
At restaurants here, they don't really have host/hostesses, but they have people trying to recruit you to their restaurant. Some are HILARIOUSLY pushy! Yesterday, while walking through trying to find a restaurant, the guy walked right along with you, pushing a menu in your face and telling you what foods they serve (as if pasta, pizza, and spaghetti is really unique around here...). These guys, and many Italian guys on the street, are very flirty. Sometimes its annoying that they just eye you and cat call or kiss through their teeth (Baye and I look at each other and laugh, cause 100% of the time we're covered in sweat, wearing sneakers and/or duct tape around our feet, and in decently dirty clothes that are in NO way fashionable... but hey, I guess we're blonde.) But sometimes they think they're being so smooth. Unfortunately none of the Italian men have been attractive... not that that would've mattered ;) (LOVE YOU!) The same guy who was super pushy about getting us in the restaurant yesterday, we ended up sitting at the restaurant right across, so he kept making eye contact with me. He joked around and came up to us with his menu and fanned us, and in really broken English I think he said something about really good service to provide us air conditioning... all we could do was laugh cause it really was hilarious. After about 2 minutes of him fanning us, he leaned in and put his cheek infront of my face, obviously asking for a kiss (EWWWWWWWWWW). I made a kiss sound and then he turned and kissed my cheek (not in a smoochy way, but the way europeans greet each other). Oh GOD how embarrassing. Later he came back with a business card saying "see you at 10:30 tonight". and Baye and I both read it confused.... he tried to explain that that's when he gets off, and so we had to get another waiter to come in and help translate from us to him that we would definitely not be sticking around. He was a funny old man. Italians. Sheesh.
After dinner today (where I got my first serving of vegetables in a while), we went back to the Fountain of Trevi, which is really nice all lit up at night. There were a lot of people there, it's apparently a pretty decent hang out spot. We took a few photos, which were difficult in the night, and then also brought our coins down to make a wish. First time we just threw them normally, but then we saw that everyone else was throwing them backwards over their shoulders and wondered if our wish was going to come true if we did it wrong, so we wished again, this time throwing them backwards :)
Now I'm back at the hostel, disappointed that I can't upload photos to their computer to share them. Tomorrow is going to be a REALLY full day. Lots to see at the Colliseum + Roman Ruins + Palantine Hill, then the Capitaline museum, and a few other things I need to revisit because my battery in my camera died the first day.
Time for sleeps!
Today we went to the Vatican. We aren't in the greatest health/alertness, and I can't help but feel we wasted our pass a little. We walked there, which took us a good hour and twenty, and we have already seen a lot of churches and art museums. This is the largest church in the world, and we've already been in the Basillica, but we went to the museum and Sistine chapel today. Spent a few hours walking around, but our feet were really sore. Its not even the most walking we've done in a city, but I think its a combination of heat and poor diet (and maybe addition of so many days of walking everywhere) that its really starting to get to us. The Sistine Chapel wasn't as impressive as I expected, but Baye reminded me why. We've been to tonnes of churches with paintings, and you really get to take it in and feel the silence as you look around... Today the Vatican was SO DISGUSTINGLY PACKED, there was no way it was going to be silent, and the guards force you into the crowd instead of standing at the door waiting for people to move through. So the room didn't seem as large as it really was, and you couldn't really get a good look without people stepping on you or bumping into you. Plus no photos. But thinking about it now, every square millimetre of the place was covered with paintings, and the ceiling was really high. It was a cool place, just don't know if it was worth the pass we bought.
We walked through the museum a bit, but when we were tired of seeing the art/statues/paintings we tried to find where the Vatican Gardens are, and ended up walking around the ENTIRE Vatican City. By the time we made it back to the front of Vatican City (where the Basillica and the square with all the pillars are), someone told us that the entrance is right where the museum is, so we had to go back again... but by this time it was 4pm and I had read that they stop letting people in at 4pm because it's closed at 6pm. So we decided to try again tomorrow, even though they might not let us (our Vatican pass was supposed to be single entry only, but maybe they'll say the Vatican gardens is separate, I'm not sure..)
After that we walked to the Saint Angelo Castle, which we got free with our pass. The inside wasn't anything spectacular to look at, but it was really old and all brick (and nice and cool in the underground parts). They hid popes here/made apartments to protect them at one time, and it was also once a prison. You can see some of it, but mostly they're just weird little rooms. The top of it has a nice view of the city, too!
We decided we wanted a break, and went back to the Villa Bourghese to lay in the shade and read... and ended up sleeping, of course... after a long nap, we head out to the Spanish Steps again because I wanted to get some photos during daylight, and then to a restaurant for dinner.
At restaurants here, they don't really have host/hostesses, but they have people trying to recruit you to their restaurant. Some are HILARIOUSLY pushy! Yesterday, while walking through trying to find a restaurant, the guy walked right along with you, pushing a menu in your face and telling you what foods they serve (as if pasta, pizza, and spaghetti is really unique around here...). These guys, and many Italian guys on the street, are very flirty. Sometimes its annoying that they just eye you and cat call or kiss through their teeth (Baye and I look at each other and laugh, cause 100% of the time we're covered in sweat, wearing sneakers and/or duct tape around our feet, and in decently dirty clothes that are in NO way fashionable... but hey, I guess we're blonde.) But sometimes they think they're being so smooth. Unfortunately none of the Italian men have been attractive... not that that would've mattered ;) (LOVE YOU!) The same guy who was super pushy about getting us in the restaurant yesterday, we ended up sitting at the restaurant right across, so he kept making eye contact with me. He joked around and came up to us with his menu and fanned us, and in really broken English I think he said something about really good service to provide us air conditioning... all we could do was laugh cause it really was hilarious. After about 2 minutes of him fanning us, he leaned in and put his cheek infront of my face, obviously asking for a kiss (EWWWWWWWWWW). I made a kiss sound and then he turned and kissed my cheek (not in a smoochy way, but the way europeans greet each other). Oh GOD how embarrassing. Later he came back with a business card saying "see you at 10:30 tonight". and Baye and I both read it confused.... he tried to explain that that's when he gets off, and so we had to get another waiter to come in and help translate from us to him that we would definitely not be sticking around. He was a funny old man. Italians. Sheesh.
After dinner today (where I got my first serving of vegetables in a while), we went back to the Fountain of Trevi, which is really nice all lit up at night. There were a lot of people there, it's apparently a pretty decent hang out spot. We took a few photos, which were difficult in the night, and then also brought our coins down to make a wish. First time we just threw them normally, but then we saw that everyone else was throwing them backwards over their shoulders and wondered if our wish was going to come true if we did it wrong, so we wished again, this time throwing them backwards :)
Now I'm back at the hostel, disappointed that I can't upload photos to their computer to share them. Tomorrow is going to be a REALLY full day. Lots to see at the Colliseum + Roman Ruins + Palantine Hill, then the Capitaline museum, and a few other things I need to revisit because my battery in my camera died the first day.
Time for sleeps!
When in Rome...
What exactly DO the Romans do?
We arrived at the hostel at 11pm on July 29th. While the check in hostel guy showed us "must see's" on a map, there were a few guys using the computers. When we were done checking in, one turns to us and says " I couldn't help but notice the Canada flags on your packs... where are you from?" In the remainder of the conversation, we determined that Baye had been to their (it was two brothers) Christmas party just this year, and they knew each other because these two brothers had an older brother that coached Baye's older brother. We laughed so much about how small of a world it was, and ended up having a few beers with them downstairs while watching Olympics. Met a tonne of other people while hanging out in the common room, we blew them away with some of our new Kings rules. On the way to find McDonalds (which is much more expensive here) we saw a GORGEOUS fountain... there are tonnes of pretty fountains, but maybe it was just because it was at night that this one was particularly inspiring. It had four sculptures, and after a few beers, we had a tonne of laughs debating/arguing about what the sculptures were supposed to be.
Next day, after about 3 hours of sleep, we had an incredibly full day of Roma. If gladiators did lots of walking, well... we fulfilled the "When in Rome..."
We spent the ENTIRE DAY on our feet (until about 7 or 8pm for a nap). We walked to the Vatican, went in the Basillica, went to the Pantheon, to the Colliseum and the Roman Forum, to a tonne of piazzas and fountains (including the Trevi Fountain, one of my favourite sites so far), and to two gelato places along the way. I'm sure there was more. We really did see almost the whole city (plus, because Vatican City isn't technically Roma). This was all from the outside though... the people we walked with didn't have passes, and Baye and I did (to skip the lines) so we didn't go into anything, and saved our all inclusive passes for our next few days.
One of the places we went to is called the Vittoriale. It was/is an incredible building, it stands out brilliantly from any high point in the city as it's all white marble and absolutely huge. The front is all steps, and we had the "blow my whistle baby" song stuck in our heads all day, because if anyone sat on the steps a guard would come up and whistle at them. It was actually quite hilarious, to the point where we TRIED to get in trouble just to have them whistle at us. We also snuck in some dead pans.
We drank a bit again that night with the expectation of going out, but we ended up just playing Euchre until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.
..............................................................................................................
Yesterday (July 31st) we got up for our free breakfast, and then went back to bed. At this point we still thought we didn't have AC in our room (though a new Aussie roommate last night showed us how to turn it on... *doh*)... but after our late get up, we went to Villa Bourghese, a parc, which took us forever to figure out how to get up to... we walked along the highway because it looked like the easiest way on our map, but obviously wasn't intended for pedestrians because we ended up cutting through a field and coming otu with a bunch of sketchy guys carrying their sheets with trinkets (the street vendors have all their hats, or purses, or sunglasses, or hand fans or whatever laid out on the streets on top of sheets because it's illegal for them to sell it, so they can make a quick getaway by whipping up all 4 corners of their sheet and running... I've watched them in action, and they run along warning all their buddies about it, too. Its kind of funny, but not so cool to walk through a group of them just sitting in the middle of nowhere...)
From the Park at Villa Bourghese we could get to a Terrace (Called Pincio I believe), which had a GORGEOUS view of the city. We also went to see another Church, Santa Maria (they're all starting to blend together now... soooo mannyyyy churchesssss) and went to see the Spanish Steps at night after dinner.
We've had gelato literally every day... and sometimes (actually, more often than not...) twice a day. It's cheap and freaking delicious. And you never get bored because there's so many flavours to try!! Despite the terrible diet of all carbs, I might not come home healthy, but don't worry mom -- I won't come home lighter thanks to gelato! We've been tight on our money, only really eating dinner out and having gelato to tie us over... the hostels usually have breakfast, which is all croisants, bread/toast, and cereal... so the most protein I've been getting is milk in my cereal and tea... and then for dinner we almost always have pasta or pizza, which is my only intake of vegetables. Sometimes we try to pick up fruit when we walk through markets, but I've had that backfire a few times, too... I had 3 bananas smeared all over my bag, and a couple peaches rot from the inside out because I didn't eat them right away.
Before we did our sight seeing yesterday, we tried to figure out the end of our trip. We decided not to ferry across from Italy to Croatia, because we have an extra day on our pass and it was 90 Euro each to take the ferry, so it would've been a huge waste. However, that also ended up screwing up our day trip plans, we later found out. We spent more than 2 hours at the train station, just waiting to be helped, and the woman who helped us didn't speak English, which was OK, except she was really in a bad mood about us not knowing Italian, which made it difficult to get help about what to do. A day trip to the beaches at the Amalfi Coast would cost us 4 hours each way of transportation and 50 Euro, and even to do a trip to Pompeii or Positano was going to be inconvenient and expensive. Not to mention we'd already killed 2 days in Rome and still had to use our full "Omni Pass" (for tours of the Vatican, Colliseum/Roman Forum/Palantine Hill + two museums) and we hadn't even activated it yet... so day trips are now out, and I'm crushed I won't actually see the Amalfi Coast. This just means I really HAVE to come back. But, also for the best, because now we're cramming to fit in all the sight seeing by the end of tomorrow, our last day in Rome!!
We arrived at the hostel at 11pm on July 29th. While the check in hostel guy showed us "must see's" on a map, there were a few guys using the computers. When we were done checking in, one turns to us and says " I couldn't help but notice the Canada flags on your packs... where are you from?" In the remainder of the conversation, we determined that Baye had been to their (it was two brothers) Christmas party just this year, and they knew each other because these two brothers had an older brother that coached Baye's older brother. We laughed so much about how small of a world it was, and ended up having a few beers with them downstairs while watching Olympics. Met a tonne of other people while hanging out in the common room, we blew them away with some of our new Kings rules. On the way to find McDonalds (which is much more expensive here) we saw a GORGEOUS fountain... there are tonnes of pretty fountains, but maybe it was just because it was at night that this one was particularly inspiring. It had four sculptures, and after a few beers, we had a tonne of laughs debating/arguing about what the sculptures were supposed to be.
Next day, after about 3 hours of sleep, we had an incredibly full day of Roma. If gladiators did lots of walking, well... we fulfilled the "When in Rome..."
We spent the ENTIRE DAY on our feet (until about 7 or 8pm for a nap). We walked to the Vatican, went in the Basillica, went to the Pantheon, to the Colliseum and the Roman Forum, to a tonne of piazzas and fountains (including the Trevi Fountain, one of my favourite sites so far), and to two gelato places along the way. I'm sure there was more. We really did see almost the whole city (plus, because Vatican City isn't technically Roma). This was all from the outside though... the people we walked with didn't have passes, and Baye and I did (to skip the lines) so we didn't go into anything, and saved our all inclusive passes for our next few days.
One of the places we went to is called the Vittoriale. It was/is an incredible building, it stands out brilliantly from any high point in the city as it's all white marble and absolutely huge. The front is all steps, and we had the "blow my whistle baby" song stuck in our heads all day, because if anyone sat on the steps a guard would come up and whistle at them. It was actually quite hilarious, to the point where we TRIED to get in trouble just to have them whistle at us. We also snuck in some dead pans.
We drank a bit again that night with the expectation of going out, but we ended up just playing Euchre until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.
..............................................................................................................
Yesterday (July 31st) we got up for our free breakfast, and then went back to bed. At this point we still thought we didn't have AC in our room (though a new Aussie roommate last night showed us how to turn it on... *doh*)... but after our late get up, we went to Villa Bourghese, a parc, which took us forever to figure out how to get up to... we walked along the highway because it looked like the easiest way on our map, but obviously wasn't intended for pedestrians because we ended up cutting through a field and coming otu with a bunch of sketchy guys carrying their sheets with trinkets (the street vendors have all their hats, or purses, or sunglasses, or hand fans or whatever laid out on the streets on top of sheets because it's illegal for them to sell it, so they can make a quick getaway by whipping up all 4 corners of their sheet and running... I've watched them in action, and they run along warning all their buddies about it, too. Its kind of funny, but not so cool to walk through a group of them just sitting in the middle of nowhere...)
From the Park at Villa Bourghese we could get to a Terrace (Called Pincio I believe), which had a GORGEOUS view of the city. We also went to see another Church, Santa Maria (they're all starting to blend together now... soooo mannyyyy churchesssss) and went to see the Spanish Steps at night after dinner.
We've had gelato literally every day... and sometimes (actually, more often than not...) twice a day. It's cheap and freaking delicious. And you never get bored because there's so many flavours to try!! Despite the terrible diet of all carbs, I might not come home healthy, but don't worry mom -- I won't come home lighter thanks to gelato! We've been tight on our money, only really eating dinner out and having gelato to tie us over... the hostels usually have breakfast, which is all croisants, bread/toast, and cereal... so the most protein I've been getting is milk in my cereal and tea... and then for dinner we almost always have pasta or pizza, which is my only intake of vegetables. Sometimes we try to pick up fruit when we walk through markets, but I've had that backfire a few times, too... I had 3 bananas smeared all over my bag, and a couple peaches rot from the inside out because I didn't eat them right away.
Before we did our sight seeing yesterday, we tried to figure out the end of our trip. We decided not to ferry across from Italy to Croatia, because we have an extra day on our pass and it was 90 Euro each to take the ferry, so it would've been a huge waste. However, that also ended up screwing up our day trip plans, we later found out. We spent more than 2 hours at the train station, just waiting to be helped, and the woman who helped us didn't speak English, which was OK, except she was really in a bad mood about us not knowing Italian, which made it difficult to get help about what to do. A day trip to the beaches at the Amalfi Coast would cost us 4 hours each way of transportation and 50 Euro, and even to do a trip to Pompeii or Positano was going to be inconvenient and expensive. Not to mention we'd already killed 2 days in Rome and still had to use our full "Omni Pass" (for tours of the Vatican, Colliseum/Roman Forum/Palantine Hill + two museums) and we hadn't even activated it yet... so day trips are now out, and I'm crushed I won't actually see the Amalfi Coast. This just means I really HAVE to come back. But, also for the best, because now we're cramming to fit in all the sight seeing by the end of tomorrow, our last day in Rome!!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
There are a lot of statue penises in Firenze
Firenze=Florence
Yesterday (Friday the 28th) we went inside the basilica for free. We had to put on pants and shirts that covered our shoulders though because clothing that we're used to wearing (like the currently accepted length of shorts and dresses) could elicit lust, and isn't accepted if you go to view the church. It was deadly hot, and I wore my lulu pants with my dress on top and then tried to strip them off when we got back outside (and got a lot of funny looks while we did). We weren't prepared for Florence as much as the other cities we've been to: neither of us had a guide book and baye only had a map. We didn't know what to see and spent a long time wandering around, through markets and shops, along the water. It's nice to see, but hard to know If you're doing it right.
We've been going to a gelato shop right outside our hostel, and tried to get as many of the flavors as possible. Up until now, I've tried passionfruit, raspberry, cheesecake, melon, caramel macchiato, and coconut. I may get the green tea and pistachio flavors tomorrow, but I also still want to get mango and lime. I keep having to remind myself that there'll be gelato in Rome and venice too!
Pasta last night was delicious, but a very small plate for 10 euro. It was under the 'first course' part of the menu, so I think you're meant to get more than one thing. We couldn't afford more than one though; this is tourist area and all prices are jacked up
Our feet killed after all our walking, and I took some photos of how that resulted with duck tape and exhausted faces.
Today we got up early and went to the galleria academia, an art museum containing a variety of artwork including the statue David by Michelangelo. Didn't think I would be as impressed as I was. The statue if David is MASSIVE and so accurate, right down to the veins in his forearm and the wrinkles/creases caused by the positioning of his hand. I stared at his face for a while, trying to decipher his emotion... I wish someone would have explained the sling he was holding... Is it a weapon? Is it what's left of his clothing? Anyways, I can look that up later. There were other cool paintings and tonnes of statues, including modern ones that were so realistic I thought there was actually a guy my age who crossed the rope to get a closer look at the art.
Unfortunately no photos were allowed, so we only have cheesy (and dead pan) shots of a cartoon version of david outside.
It wasn't too hot when we left the museum so we decided to head for the Michelangelo park, but of course it only took 5 minutes in that direction for the sun to decide To become scorching. We snapped a few photos from the top of the hill before realizing that there was 4 or 5 weddings/wedding photoshoots going on right below us. The couples seemed young, and we considered it might be prom, but the girls were in all white and very extravagant dresses. However, only the brides and grooms were dressed up, all the others in very casual clothes, but everyone wore a red bow thing on their front, over their hearts or something, even the brides and grooms. All of the marrying couples were Asian. We thought about asking if it was a coincidence or if they all knew each other, but didn't want to be rude, so now we'll never know.
After this we visited the school of leather making. We intended to try to use this school as a back door entrance to slip into a church (attached to it) free if charge, as our hostel desk man recommended, but there were signs all over the connected passage that you must hold a ticket, so I guess the church caught on... (we didnt end up paying to go in)... But it was still cool to see the making of Italian leather! We stopped at a shop on the way home to get leather bracelets, too :)
When we came back to the hostel for naps, I checked my bed again for bugs.
I had a few bites, not many, but I knew there weren't any Mosquitos out the night before so I was thinking about it all day. Baye thought I was just paranoid, and didn't see anything when she checked her side of the bed, but then I checked mine and found two MONSTEROUS bed bugs. The hotel cleaning lady and front desk man both dealt with it very efficiently, changing sheets, spraying the mattresses, and even replacing one mattress just in case. Our whole room was thoroughly cleaned and sprayed.
After running a few errands we were going to go out for dinner, but the three guys who manage the hostel are celebrating Ramadan, and were making lots of food for when the sun set. They invited us to eat with them and told us what each of the foods were in Arabic (though I forget most of them now). There was a breakfast drink that was psaesa, with a finely ground cereal mixed in olive oil, honey and some other things I can't remember. There was 'omlette' (not what you're thinking), actually a spicy dish with chicken that I can't remember the Arabic name (but you eat with bread, and despite my low heat tolerance it was scrumptious) and bhatih (or something like this? I feel like I'm way off but I know it starts with a b!): a scrambled egg with onion, parsley and something inside a thin deep fried shell. Then there were Tunisian dates, grapes, some special kind of melon that's white on the inside and orange like a pumpkin on the outside (Italian melon, not Tunisian) and pasta with pesto sauce and black olives (also an Italian dish). They really spoiled us. The food was so so so good, and they told us about the Ramadan and their cultural beliefs, and about their home back in Tunisia, as well as how to write our names in Arabic!
We went back to bed to read, and within 20 mins I had a creepy crawly bed bug going up my leg. I found a few others and went and got one of the night staff to help. He brought really strong pesticide spray and changed all our sheets again. I can still smell the spray in our room an hour later, with door and windows open and a standing and ceiling fan on. I've heard that spray doesn't get rid of them, they can live through a lot of extreme conditions, but I'm hoping that it'll at least hold them off if there are more and then it wont be our problem If they're not all really dead. I HOPE. I've also drenched myself in bug spray. Not really convinced that it'll ward them off but better than nothing.
I've searched my sleep sheets that I brought thoroughly, and done what I can to search my backpack (it's hard to with so many pockets and possible hiding spots) to make sure they're not coming from me... But so far I haven't seen signs.
2 am and im feeling like it's going to be a looooong paranoid night! I feel every movement of every hair.
Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite
And if they do, chew a few, then they won't bother you!
Apparently...
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Not so nice in Nice?
Not so nice to be in Nice.
Nice turned out to be expensive so we only booked one night here. It was all we needed in the end anyways, since we'd already had beach time in Barcelona and it's not a very large city; we saw it all on foot.
When we arrived it was easy to find the hostel, it was incredibly close to the train. The air smelled of fresh rain, but we've still managed to have a completely sunny 2 weeks *touch wood*
The hostel was our worst yet. We arrived at 'Nice Art Hostel' just at 7 and they almost didn't let us check in. our room had a bathroom that I couldn't stand in without hitting my head and had no door; I could see the face of my (supposedly) sleeping stranger roommate as I peed.
One wall had a double window/door (I'm not quite sure what you would consider it) that opened inwards, looking into an enclosed area, that (looking up) was the walls of other buildings, and filled with garbage, an old toilet and other furniture and flies. It was lined with like a thin chicken coop wire instead of normal window mesh. There was no breakfast included and no ac anywhere in the hostel, but at least they also didn't include cockroaches mice nor bedbugs.
The only roommate we met was a dancer, and she went to bed hungover as we quickly went back out in search of food. We never spoke to her again, she was still sleeping when we woke up and left this morning.
We walked down our street in the direction of the ocean, and got heckled at Least 20 times in 10 minutes, Either with Rude comments or kissing noises. We kept up our 'dead pan' faces an our 'tunnel vision', beginning to get frustrated at the lack of suitable restaurants to escape to.
After a 12 hour day of train rides, with only special k bars and apples in my bag and no time to grab food on transfers, I was nearly in tears with hunger and already hated nice, with a grimy hostel, unavoidable and very humid heat, and no good food.
Lucky we kept walking though, cause we happened upon a market area lined with restaurants. Many were too fancy/expensive for our liking, but we decided on a kabab place mostly because it would be served immediately instead of waiting for our order. It ended up being gross in my opinion(not bayes), very much unlike the shawarmas from home I was expecting/hoping for, and I couldnt stomach the whole thing. I ended up getting an amazing Ferraro Rocher ice-cream later, but still went to bed hungry.
After our falafels on the beach our impressions of nice quickly changed. Before, we were on a bad street and now that we had seen the coast we soak it up for all it's worth.
After a few photos (okay a shittonne) capturing the cute houses over a coast with the bluest water, we walked along until we found ourselves encircled (literally) by rollerbladers. We perched on the railing of the sidewalk and watched for nearly half an hour watching both adults and kids turn tricks on their rollerblades through a line of tiny pilons. They would rapidly weave in and out on one foot, criss cross their feet while skating backwards, and coolest of all, one of the guys was only about 6 or 7 years old. We walked more along the coast until it got dark, thn followed a huge shopping street home to our hostel (thank goodness everything was closed by then, cause I looked for way too long in each store window). We even stopped and highjacked a code from a strangers receipt to use the mcdonald's bathrooms so we didnt have to go back to use our doorless one.
Day two in nice we did more walking through the small streets and markets and climbed to a lookout point before heading for our 1230 train.
I write this as I sit (bored because I've whipped through the hunger games trilogy and dont have Internet to download a new book yet) on the train from Milan to Florence (or firenze as it's actually called). It's 840pm and until about half an hour ago I had been in a constant sweat for 48 hours. (this is the first train on today's trip that has ac, and our hostel didn't either). I don't know how badly I reek, but I havent showered since the night before we left Madrid... So only Tuesday night and is now Thursday... But I still feel bad for the people who sit near me. I'm actually looking forward to doing my laundry (still by hand) at the hostel tonight Go me!
Now time to break out the Italian phrasebook.
Mojito, mojito, mojito?
Mojito, mojito, mojito?
Our third day in Barcelona (july23) we got up bright and early (allowing us to actually get some cold milk at breakfast!!!) and headed straight to the sagrada familia. I've seen a lot of cool churches since the start of the trip, and I've appreciated each one, but I didn't expect to be blown away by this one a much as I am. It's unfortunate that the whole outside is under construction ( they're adding spires I think) because ive seen photos on postcards and it's jaw dropingly stunning. Plus, you can easily spot it above the other buildings from look out points in the city, and it would've been nice to get a shot of it finished (I guess I'll be back in 2030... Or more likely it won't be finished even until after that). It's so gorgeous inside because there's windows so strategically placed that so much natural light floods the room. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the stained glass windows, and my camera failed to capture just how beautiful the colours are. We paid the extra 3 euros to take a lift up one of the spires. There was a small bridge linking two of the towers and a lot of spiral steps with some landings that you can go peek out of again. Needless go say, baye and I went nuts with the photos on this one!
After the sagrada we first visited the fcb football stadium (that means soccer) They were charging way too much for a tour of the stadium, and there were no upcoming games we could go to so we didnt stay too long. after this we walked down la ramblas, a street similar to shopping streets in Paris, but with a wider variety of things to buy as it's a market all the way down the middle. We saw flower shops, paintings, whole pig legs, and even a market pet store that had CHiPMUNKS in cages, among other cuddly things. We followed la ramblas back to the beach and spent the remainder of the afternoon there before setting off to find a good restaurant for tapas. With recommendations from my 'let's go student guide book', we found a place called bar bitacora. I ended up getting an apple walnut salad and a typical Spanish of deep fried hot peppers. It was really good!!!
On our last day in Barcelona, we hiked up montjuic to see the castle at the top. The castle's moat is now all gardens, and the cannons are fake, but it overlooks the harbor, the beach, and the entire city. We could spot all major landmarks that we use/see when getting around, such as the dildo building, the sagrada church, and giant pieces of art around the beach. On the way backdown the mountain we passed the old Olympic stadium too. The hike took a good part of the day, so we got back to the beach relatively late (330pm), prioritizing our books and suntans over a couple other things we wanted to do, such as browse around the streets of the Bari gothic region or go back to parc guell (because we didn't tour the whole thing the first time, it was so hot)
We went for dinner at a place recommended by bayes parents, called cerveceria Catalunya, where the line was an hour long and we arrived before it opened at 8pm. Everything coming out on the dishes to other tables looked so incredible I thought I'd never decide (my family will know it's true, I dont make up my mind easily), but there was a slightly more expensive option to order a sample of the tapas, so I got that. The plate comes out and it's got the deep fried hot peppers in the centre, and four seafood dishes around the outside. Gulp. I've never been much of one for seafood, so it was lucky I was so hungry (we've been living off the bread rolls they serve at breakfast). I ate prawn, clams, tempura little fishies, and something similar to a crab cake, very heavy. I ate it all. :) and liked it.
The plan was then to go to free salsa lessons at a bar back near the beach. It took us forever to find because our maps can't fit the words onto every tiny little side street, and this place was down a dimly lit alleyway, just like my travel book described. When we finally found the bar called sanga, she said the lessons started at 1130, not 11 like we thought, and we had to leave by 1130 since the metros and busses stop running at midnight, so no salsa for us :(
Met some cool people in our room, but we left at 7am on the 25th so we barely got to chat much. The new Aussie girl had her phone stolen at the night club that night... Very glad I've been so paranoid of pick pocketers!!!
In fact, we had a close call two days earlier, where I watched a shady looking guy walk too close to people. He quickly realized baye was a bad target cause I had her back so closely, but I watched him follow one of our new London friends soon after. In the crowd if people exiting the metro, he walked right close behind and swing his arms in sync with our friend in front I'd him. His fingers would stretch each time until I called for joe's attention and tried to get between the two of them. close call.
Adding to Paris, Barcelona makes the list of places I felt there just wasnt enough time to see it all, and I know I'll be back :)
Monday, July 23, 2012
Vamos a la Playa!
Arriving in Barcelona, Baye and I haven´t stopped singing our hearts out as we walk down the street. We have done this often in other cities, but it´s become more of a habit in Barcelona for some reason.
First night we arrived we met our roommates. How awkward. This is the first time we´ve had roommates we actually really met. (In Toledo we had people who didn´t talk much and\or arrived in much later than us and slept in so we didn´t see them). These roommates are exactly opposite. They never stop talking to the point where you don´t have any personal space. Upon arrival (at 10pm) they tried to convince us to go to Barcelona´s biggest club: Razmataz. Well we´d already heard about it when we checked in: 3 floors, 5 rooms with different music, oh yeah... and fits 5000 people (and sells out on Saturday Nights). THANK YOU, BUT NO THANK YOU. Baye and I thought that did NOT sound fun to be in such company, on top of a $15 euro cover, and tried to politely decline.
WELL these guys thought that since we weren´t going, they would just change their plans and predrink in the room with us (did we say we were even going to have one drink? No.) and we´d met for a whole 3 minutes by this time. We hadn´t even figured out our lockers, and they haven´t stopped talking yet, and we say we want to go get something to eat. So they offer to come with us. At first we welcomed the opportunity for them to show us where to go, but very very quickly regretted it. They took us to McDonalds (I´m only half joking... it was in a shopping mall, so we found a place that sells pasta which was better). They had both been a little in the bottle, which just eccentuated their chattiness, and the main topic of the evening as we walked: the brightly lit office building (in blue and red), shaped like a dildo. Yes, quite phallically shaped indeed. We laughed at first mention, but 20 minutes of analyzing it´s similarity to a penis or a turd gets tiring.
After food we eventually found other people in the hostel´s common area, where the common area has a bar and the night happened to have organized kareoke here (let me also add that the hostel is 12 floors high, with 10-12 rooms per floor, and 6 beds per room... there´s a LOT of people in this hostel, so the common area was bumpin). While trying to figure out the ticket machine to buy drinks, we met two blokes from London, who were getting in one last hurrah for the weekend in Barcelona before their work gets hellish for the London Olympic Games. It was their last night and day in Barcelona, but Baye and I were so glad we met them. They were more mature and already knew the city, and didn´t want to go to Razmataz either. and were HILARIOUS. (I will tell you more about the "dead pan" skills they taught us later...) We also quickly met a guy fresh out of the US military taking a few months before back to school, and a number of girls from switzerland, though they weren´t as easy to understand. As a group we decided to try for the clubs along the barcelona beach, but upon arrival we quickly decided that none of us actually wanted to be in a club, and decided to just sit on the beach.
Funny sales guys would be around LITERALLY every two minutes to try to sell you ¨ice cold beer¨. We had a LOT of laughs making fun of these guys, cause they would take a can out of their plastic grocery bag and touch it to your arm or your face to show you just how cold the beer was, as if that would change your mind as to whether you wanted some. We did buy some and the people kept coming by anyways trying to convince us even though we had many unopened cans already. Hilarious. We started playing jokes almost... even though they would advertise: "ice cold cerveca, ice gold beer" (x200 million as they walked along), we asked "is it cold?" (yes, yes, yes) "how cold?" (*touch it to your skin*) and things like this. Entertained us for hours, along with the many couples along the beach to which we could commentate on how absolutely public their love making was (in a David Attenborough manner, of course: "The male now climbs on top of the female and continues to carress her. At first attempt, she pushes his hand away from more inappropriate areas, but after a few more tries she becomes more submissive. The onlookers appear to be ignoring as if this is typical behavior for the Beaches of Barcelona". Funny, but also a little disturbing.
Our next experience of the night (this is still the Saturday we arrived... or rather, it would´ve been past midnight and technically Sunday the 22nd at this point) we decided we were hungry. A local said that there was a 24 hour McDonalds and that was our only chance at this point, so we set off on foot... unaware that, when we arrive, it´s only the drive thru open, and the two security guards are insistant that you MUST have a motor vehicle to place an order. WELL. We made friends with two guys in a jeep, and ordered (for 4 people at this point) EIGHT cheeseburgers. They wouldn´t stop laughing at us. But they did. They ordered for us and even gave us the change.
We got little sleep, but got up early the next day for sight seeing (figuring we could sleep on the beach). We went to the Parc Guell, which is at the very top of a hill (it´s ok, theres actually a lot of outdoor escalators here) and walked around the outdoor designs by Gaudi. We also sat on the world´s longest bench here (it´s all curved and tiled). Here, we tested our new knolwedge of "dead panning"... we had been taught the night before, and it´s actually SUCH a laugh. It could be considered like the next "planking", but to be honest, if it catches on it definitely won´t be fun anymore, because it´s the prank on people that makes it hilarious, not the actual photo itself...
To Dead Pan:
1) Ask someone to take your photo (because there´s two of you and you want to have a photo together at this great site).
2a) They agree, and you pose.... but you do NOT smile. Infact, you stand (or sit) very stiffly, and make the most straight face you possibly can.
2b) Do every possible thing you can to not smirk or burst out. More difficult than you´d think. One of the recommended strategies: Imagine your pet just died... but at the suggestion usually you start laughing. Hard to get both people in sync for the dead pan.
3) The person taking your photo is SO awkward (obviously wishing they never agreed to take the photo,confused as to why you´re not smiling) but obligingly count down and click for you.
We´ve forgotten to do this since our new friends left, but plan to continue the legacy at major sites throughout our trip. (Photos to come probably by the time I reach Florence, July 27th)
It was stupidly hot at Parc Guell so after a few decent dead pan photos, we walked all the way back down and took the metro to the beach, and spent the rest of the day there. We had our suits, but no towels... so we had to pay to rent one of the beach loungers, and Baye and I split one.. that was a little bit uncomfortable, though doable. The ocean was really nice, and compared to the heat at Parc Guell, there was a strong breeze at the ocean and it was actually pretty cool. But it´s not exactly a place to really relax... same as the beach at night, there are guys walking around selling drinks, but they do it in a very particular rhythm and tone every tone every time (different than the typical newspaper sales in North America) and it is really funny to mock:
"Mojitoooos, Mojitoooos, Mohitos?"
"Mojitooooos, Mojitooooos, Fresh Cold Ice Cold Mojitos?".
I will never EVER get this out of my head. I must mock it for you sometime when I get home.
At about 7pm we left back for the Hostel to shower up and get food, at which point we parted with our new friends cause they flew back to London for work.
PS: The title of this post is actually a techno song that Baye has on her ipod, the Spanish words meaning "Lets go to the Beach". Weve been singing this since we got here... and figured it was an appropriate title after having been to the beach twice in 24 hours :)
First night we arrived we met our roommates. How awkward. This is the first time we´ve had roommates we actually really met. (In Toledo we had people who didn´t talk much and\or arrived in much later than us and slept in so we didn´t see them). These roommates are exactly opposite. They never stop talking to the point where you don´t have any personal space. Upon arrival (at 10pm) they tried to convince us to go to Barcelona´s biggest club: Razmataz. Well we´d already heard about it when we checked in: 3 floors, 5 rooms with different music, oh yeah... and fits 5000 people (and sells out on Saturday Nights). THANK YOU, BUT NO THANK YOU. Baye and I thought that did NOT sound fun to be in such company, on top of a $15 euro cover, and tried to politely decline.
WELL these guys thought that since we weren´t going, they would just change their plans and predrink in the room with us (did we say we were even going to have one drink? No.) and we´d met for a whole 3 minutes by this time. We hadn´t even figured out our lockers, and they haven´t stopped talking yet, and we say we want to go get something to eat. So they offer to come with us. At first we welcomed the opportunity for them to show us where to go, but very very quickly regretted it. They took us to McDonalds (I´m only half joking... it was in a shopping mall, so we found a place that sells pasta which was better). They had both been a little in the bottle, which just eccentuated their chattiness, and the main topic of the evening as we walked: the brightly lit office building (in blue and red), shaped like a dildo. Yes, quite phallically shaped indeed. We laughed at first mention, but 20 minutes of analyzing it´s similarity to a penis or a turd gets tiring.
After food we eventually found other people in the hostel´s common area, where the common area has a bar and the night happened to have organized kareoke here (let me also add that the hostel is 12 floors high, with 10-12 rooms per floor, and 6 beds per room... there´s a LOT of people in this hostel, so the common area was bumpin). While trying to figure out the ticket machine to buy drinks, we met two blokes from London, who were getting in one last hurrah for the weekend in Barcelona before their work gets hellish for the London Olympic Games. It was their last night and day in Barcelona, but Baye and I were so glad we met them. They were more mature and already knew the city, and didn´t want to go to Razmataz either. and were HILARIOUS. (I will tell you more about the "dead pan" skills they taught us later...) We also quickly met a guy fresh out of the US military taking a few months before back to school, and a number of girls from switzerland, though they weren´t as easy to understand. As a group we decided to try for the clubs along the barcelona beach, but upon arrival we quickly decided that none of us actually wanted to be in a club, and decided to just sit on the beach.
Funny sales guys would be around LITERALLY every two minutes to try to sell you ¨ice cold beer¨. We had a LOT of laughs making fun of these guys, cause they would take a can out of their plastic grocery bag and touch it to your arm or your face to show you just how cold the beer was, as if that would change your mind as to whether you wanted some. We did buy some and the people kept coming by anyways trying to convince us even though we had many unopened cans already. Hilarious. We started playing jokes almost... even though they would advertise: "ice cold cerveca, ice gold beer" (x200 million as they walked along), we asked "is it cold?" (yes, yes, yes) "how cold?" (*touch it to your skin*) and things like this. Entertained us for hours, along with the many couples along the beach to which we could commentate on how absolutely public their love making was (in a David Attenborough manner, of course: "The male now climbs on top of the female and continues to carress her. At first attempt, she pushes his hand away from more inappropriate areas, but after a few more tries she becomes more submissive. The onlookers appear to be ignoring as if this is typical behavior for the Beaches of Barcelona". Funny, but also a little disturbing.
Our next experience of the night (this is still the Saturday we arrived... or rather, it would´ve been past midnight and technically Sunday the 22nd at this point) we decided we were hungry. A local said that there was a 24 hour McDonalds and that was our only chance at this point, so we set off on foot... unaware that, when we arrive, it´s only the drive thru open, and the two security guards are insistant that you MUST have a motor vehicle to place an order. WELL. We made friends with two guys in a jeep, and ordered (for 4 people at this point) EIGHT cheeseburgers. They wouldn´t stop laughing at us. But they did. They ordered for us and even gave us the change.
We got little sleep, but got up early the next day for sight seeing (figuring we could sleep on the beach). We went to the Parc Guell, which is at the very top of a hill (it´s ok, theres actually a lot of outdoor escalators here) and walked around the outdoor designs by Gaudi. We also sat on the world´s longest bench here (it´s all curved and tiled). Here, we tested our new knolwedge of "dead panning"... we had been taught the night before, and it´s actually SUCH a laugh. It could be considered like the next "planking", but to be honest, if it catches on it definitely won´t be fun anymore, because it´s the prank on people that makes it hilarious, not the actual photo itself...
To Dead Pan:
1) Ask someone to take your photo (because there´s two of you and you want to have a photo together at this great site).
2a) They agree, and you pose.... but you do NOT smile. Infact, you stand (or sit) very stiffly, and make the most straight face you possibly can.
2b) Do every possible thing you can to not smirk or burst out. More difficult than you´d think. One of the recommended strategies: Imagine your pet just died... but at the suggestion usually you start laughing. Hard to get both people in sync for the dead pan.
3) The person taking your photo is SO awkward (obviously wishing they never agreed to take the photo,confused as to why you´re not smiling) but obligingly count down and click for you.
We´ve forgotten to do this since our new friends left, but plan to continue the legacy at major sites throughout our trip. (Photos to come probably by the time I reach Florence, July 27th)
It was stupidly hot at Parc Guell so after a few decent dead pan photos, we walked all the way back down and took the metro to the beach, and spent the rest of the day there. We had our suits, but no towels... so we had to pay to rent one of the beach loungers, and Baye and I split one.. that was a little bit uncomfortable, though doable. The ocean was really nice, and compared to the heat at Parc Guell, there was a strong breeze at the ocean and it was actually pretty cool. But it´s not exactly a place to really relax... same as the beach at night, there are guys walking around selling drinks, but they do it in a very particular rhythm and tone every tone every time (different than the typical newspaper sales in North America) and it is really funny to mock:
"Mojitoooos, Mojitoooos, Mohitos?"
"Mojitooooos, Mojitooooos, Fresh Cold Ice Cold Mojitos?".
I will never EVER get this out of my head. I must mock it for you sometime when I get home.
At about 7pm we left back for the Hostel to shower up and get food, at which point we parted with our new friends cause they flew back to London for work.
PS: The title of this post is actually a techno song that Baye has on her ipod, the Spanish words meaning "Lets go to the Beach". Weve been singing this since we got here... and figured it was an appropriate title after having been to the beach twice in 24 hours :)
Toledo (oh LAY!)
Toledo was absolutely STUNNING.
It´s a small city, 1km both ways, but you still do get an incredible amount of exercise walking around... the whole city is hills. And not like, a couple that you can see and make sense of, the streets go up and down it seems at their own will, making it confusing (good thing it was small and we´d always end back up at the hostel in a couple hours anyways). We got in everything we needed to do in one day, and it would be nice to stay and soak up the beauty, but we were just as happy to move on after experiencing it.
The streets were so fun to walk down the cobble stone, with smells of deep fried food wafting from the homes´ windows. We´d have to plaster ourselves to a wall when a car came by (there was barely room for smart cars, and really impressive when the teeny tiny garbage trucks went by!)
Toledo was filled with little trinket shops, mostly selling swords (which is EXACTLY what I thought would be a perfect souvenier to carry around for the rest of the trip....) and knives, or gold jewelry. Baye got herself a cool ceramic jug labeled Sangria, and I bought myself a necklace with a round pendant hand carved with a pattern of a bird and flowers. I´ve been wearing it ever since and already gotten a few compliments here in Barcelona :)
I went through the Toledo Church, it was really impressive. Spent a few hours inside with a free English audio guide. Apparently the whole population of Toledo can live in there. I believe it, it´s massive. Weren´t allowed flash photo, so most of my shots are blurry. There were hanging red hats, a really cool massive gold...uh...thing. I don´t even know if it has a purpose, but it looks like a sculpture of a tower. I´ve already forgotten what it´s called ;(
Baye and I took a walk along the water that they have. It was really weird to be walking along water and still feel like you´re in an absolute dessert (cactuses and grasses all yellow and crispy). The water didn´t smell pleasant but you got used to it and it was really nice to look at anyways. We also tried to walk to the bull ring, which is decently far uptown, knowing that there wasnt´going to be a bull fight on... not sure if you´re normally allowed in, but it was closed when we got there so we only saw the outside of the building unfortunately!
We sat on the patio of a cheap tapas restaurant for a few hours, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast the next morning at the restaurant attached to our hostel. The hostel had an INCREDIBLE terrace up top, overlooking the city, tempting you to roof hop. It was a brand new hostel, only 2 weeks in business, so the terrace had just been finished when we got there. Photos will come, but unfortunately at my hostel here (in Barcelona) there´s no ability to plug in your USB so I can´t upload photos yet.
It´s a small city, 1km both ways, but you still do get an incredible amount of exercise walking around... the whole city is hills. And not like, a couple that you can see and make sense of, the streets go up and down it seems at their own will, making it confusing (good thing it was small and we´d always end back up at the hostel in a couple hours anyways). We got in everything we needed to do in one day, and it would be nice to stay and soak up the beauty, but we were just as happy to move on after experiencing it.
The streets were so fun to walk down the cobble stone, with smells of deep fried food wafting from the homes´ windows. We´d have to plaster ourselves to a wall when a car came by (there was barely room for smart cars, and really impressive when the teeny tiny garbage trucks went by!)
Toledo was filled with little trinket shops, mostly selling swords (which is EXACTLY what I thought would be a perfect souvenier to carry around for the rest of the trip....) and knives, or gold jewelry. Baye got herself a cool ceramic jug labeled Sangria, and I bought myself a necklace with a round pendant hand carved with a pattern of a bird and flowers. I´ve been wearing it ever since and already gotten a few compliments here in Barcelona :)
I went through the Toledo Church, it was really impressive. Spent a few hours inside with a free English audio guide. Apparently the whole population of Toledo can live in there. I believe it, it´s massive. Weren´t allowed flash photo, so most of my shots are blurry. There were hanging red hats, a really cool massive gold...uh...thing. I don´t even know if it has a purpose, but it looks like a sculpture of a tower. I´ve already forgotten what it´s called ;(
Baye and I took a walk along the water that they have. It was really weird to be walking along water and still feel like you´re in an absolute dessert (cactuses and grasses all yellow and crispy). The water didn´t smell pleasant but you got used to it and it was really nice to look at anyways. We also tried to walk to the bull ring, which is decently far uptown, knowing that there wasnt´going to be a bull fight on... not sure if you´re normally allowed in, but it was closed when we got there so we only saw the outside of the building unfortunately!
We sat on the patio of a cheap tapas restaurant for a few hours, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast the next morning at the restaurant attached to our hostel. The hostel had an INCREDIBLE terrace up top, overlooking the city, tempting you to roof hop. It was a brand new hostel, only 2 weeks in business, so the terrace had just been finished when we got there. Photos will come, but unfortunately at my hostel here (in Barcelona) there´s no ability to plug in your USB so I can´t upload photos yet.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Hot and Shitty with a little Hot and Shitty expected this afternoon..
Last day in Madrid
We really had a fantastic day.
Lots of walking, saw the whole city. They have tonnes of parks here with waterfalls and statues, plus plazas etc. We walked through Jeronimo Park and Parc del Retiro, which had a lake with rowboats aside a waterfall and a scene that reminded me of the Jungle book, with a wall (not a whole building) with pillars and steps of stone. It was gorgeous. We had a small picnic in the park and later headed for a tapas lunch at a place called Lateral. It was a little classier than we were prepared for, showing up sweaty and in shorts and tank tops, but the food was OUT OF THIS WORLD. When you order the Lateral salad it´s tomatoes with mozzerella cheese and a kind of ham\proccuito\bacon thing on top; to die for. Then we had two other appetizers, both kinds of stuffed peppers, one with goat cheese and another with a meat but both with incredible sauces. Lunch came with a really really sweet wine and only cost us 10.50 euro each.
We also saw 2 art museums today, which were free for students (BONUSSS!) There were tonnes of cool paintings. The Reina de Sophia museum we went to first was modern art, so some of it was more difficult for us to appreciate, but they did have a really large collection of Picasso. Most of the museum you were allowed cameras but no flash, so I took photos of the picasso until someone came up to me saying I wasn´t allowed a camera in that area at all... but I still snuck away with a photo or two ;)
The Museum del Prado was more religious paintings but very very detailed and impressive. Much like the paintings we saw in the Palacio Real (Royal Palace Museum) yesterday, but more vibrant because I suppose the colours have been preserved better? but many of the paintings were from 1500s!
We lastly went to see a Flamenco Ballet called ¨Carmen¨. It was my favourite thing so far. The live spanish guitar and singing, better than Santana (well... than Santana´s CD, I think I was excited to see it live) and the show was 1.5 hours of pure incredible. The dancers were so good, and the story wasn´t to difficult to follow. They were all in sync and their feet lead the music. It was priceless (on top of the 20 euro we paid, that is..).
Had a cheap dinner in our hostel, but first we went to the grocery store to pick up the pasta stuff. On the way to the store there were protests outside Plaza del Sol, the first plaza we went to, where I presume is the government building although I can´t understand what´s written on the buildings. HUGE protests outside, people in groups with giant banners and signs, all matchign red and white, and lines and lines of police busses with baracades infront of one building with spanish flags... we cut through as fast as we could as to avoid getting in the middle of anything messy (at the time it was still peaceful protesting, just chanting and standing, nobody moving) but we didn´t wait around to find out what happened. Further up the road police officers were closing it off so that no more vehicles could go through.
Safely back at the hostel, leaving for Toledo early tomorrow. There was supposed to be beer games for free in our hostel tonight, turned out it was at a hostel nearby and we missed it :(
We´ve had our hostel to ourselves the whole time, which at first was a blessing to have so much space and quiet, but it is a little difficult to socialize in the main areas and the only downfall of an empty room is no new friends. Hopefully we meet some more cool people in Toledo and Madrid!!
Miss you all
xoxo
We really had a fantastic day.
Lots of walking, saw the whole city. They have tonnes of parks here with waterfalls and statues, plus plazas etc. We walked through Jeronimo Park and Parc del Retiro, which had a lake with rowboats aside a waterfall and a scene that reminded me of the Jungle book, with a wall (not a whole building) with pillars and steps of stone. It was gorgeous. We had a small picnic in the park and later headed for a tapas lunch at a place called Lateral. It was a little classier than we were prepared for, showing up sweaty and in shorts and tank tops, but the food was OUT OF THIS WORLD. When you order the Lateral salad it´s tomatoes with mozzerella cheese and a kind of ham\proccuito\bacon thing on top; to die for. Then we had two other appetizers, both kinds of stuffed peppers, one with goat cheese and another with a meat but both with incredible sauces. Lunch came with a really really sweet wine and only cost us 10.50 euro each.
We also saw 2 art museums today, which were free for students (BONUSSS!) There were tonnes of cool paintings. The Reina de Sophia museum we went to first was modern art, so some of it was more difficult for us to appreciate, but they did have a really large collection of Picasso. Most of the museum you were allowed cameras but no flash, so I took photos of the picasso until someone came up to me saying I wasn´t allowed a camera in that area at all... but I still snuck away with a photo or two ;)
The Museum del Prado was more religious paintings but very very detailed and impressive. Much like the paintings we saw in the Palacio Real (Royal Palace Museum) yesterday, but more vibrant because I suppose the colours have been preserved better? but many of the paintings were from 1500s!
We lastly went to see a Flamenco Ballet called ¨Carmen¨. It was my favourite thing so far. The live spanish guitar and singing, better than Santana (well... than Santana´s CD, I think I was excited to see it live) and the show was 1.5 hours of pure incredible. The dancers were so good, and the story wasn´t to difficult to follow. They were all in sync and their feet lead the music. It was priceless (on top of the 20 euro we paid, that is..).
Had a cheap dinner in our hostel, but first we went to the grocery store to pick up the pasta stuff. On the way to the store there were protests outside Plaza del Sol, the first plaza we went to, where I presume is the government building although I can´t understand what´s written on the buildings. HUGE protests outside, people in groups with giant banners and signs, all matchign red and white, and lines and lines of police busses with baracades infront of one building with spanish flags... we cut through as fast as we could as to avoid getting in the middle of anything messy (at the time it was still peaceful protesting, just chanting and standing, nobody moving) but we didn´t wait around to find out what happened. Further up the road police officers were closing it off so that no more vehicles could go through.
Safely back at the hostel, leaving for Toledo early tomorrow. There was supposed to be beer games for free in our hostel tonight, turned out it was at a hostel nearby and we missed it :(
We´ve had our hostel to ourselves the whole time, which at first was a blessing to have so much space and quiet, but it is a little difficult to socialize in the main areas and the only downfall of an empty room is no new friends. Hopefully we meet some more cool people in Toledo and Madrid!!
Miss you all
xoxo
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