I'm back in The East...
When I last left you I was living the good life in Perugia after having to practically starve myself in Rome and Siena for fear that my unpriced 'pizza by weight' would end up costing me 8 euros - as it often did. From Perugia we caught the train up to Florence to meet back up with Amy who had returned to Rome from Siena to get her ticket dates changed at the airport where she was told she should have done it over the phone.. Florence was completely overrun by americans. I don't know if it was a seasonal thing, but I hope not cause they weren't the good american's like i've met in Russia and India, they were the americans that practically drive you to murder simply by allowing you to overhear them talking behind you in a queue. Our hostel was overrun too, and whilst it was a pleasant change from the old, slow, baseball cap, bumbag and new balance shoe-wearing, package-tour americans we'd previously encountered in Italy (and elsewhere) the frat boys complaining about italian pizza soon grew tiresome also..
From Florence we went to the Cinque Terre national park, where the main attractions are five seaside villages linked by a walking trail with awesome views of the sea, and rocks and trees and stuff... As we all know (or at least should know) hiking is not my strong point (god knows why i'm walking the inca trail - after cinque terre I now know that I am going to die in Peru), and there were certainly sections of the walk that had me huffing and puffing and getting dizzy, and having my left arm go tingly. But we were lucky enough to have a beautiful day of blue skies and sunshine, and the views were amazing. I said at the time that its the sort of place where my dad would just be saying 'wow' every few minutes. I would have loved to have gone swimming in the Mediterranean (and it was definitely warm enough) but silly us started at the one town with a beach and just kept hanging out for another one.
From Cinque Terre we spent a long day on trains to get to Venice. I think we arrived in Venice at just the right time. Everyone I've spoken to (apart from my mum) has disliked venice and said just spend a day or two because you have to - it smells, its expensive, its packed full of tourists, etc. I found every one of those false. I really liked Venice. We found an awesome pizzeria for dinner - after spending a couple of hours exploring, our hostel wasn't ridiculously priced (although it was run with military strictness) and even though it was grey and miserable it was still beautiful. The public transport is a bit steep (5 euro for a single ride) but I think most people do what we do and just use it as a cheap boat cruise down the grand canal (considering the alternative is a gondola at 60 euro an hour). And finally, there were barely any tourists there. Our hostel was the only one anywhere near being in Venice (there's a campsite near the airport and another hostel on a neighbouring island) and there were about five other people staying there. Made things a little lonely but much better than being swamped by idiot americans.
This morning we left Venice for Ljubljana in Slovenia. Our journey was fraught with trials (we chose 3 regional trains and a bus rather than a direct train) but we made it safely back behind the iron curtain. And after being charged 1.50 euro for 15 minutes internet in Venice (and that was cheap) we now have a computer with free internet in our room.. Money goes so much further here... We've been told Ljubljana is a highlight so we're looking forward to the next few days.
Good news about the soccer. I had no idea about anything that was going on. Internet's been so expensive I didn't even know who we were playing. Now Gus has some time to work with the team and we'll be the South Korea of 2006... And England will be the England of 2006.
Oh and finally can people stop leaving anonymous comments. What are you scared of? That I'll come home and whack you?
When I last left you I was living the good life in Perugia after having to practically starve myself in Rome and Siena for fear that my unpriced 'pizza by weight' would end up costing me 8 euros - as it often did. From Perugia we caught the train up to Florence to meet back up with Amy who had returned to Rome from Siena to get her ticket dates changed at the airport where she was told she should have done it over the phone.. Florence was completely overrun by americans. I don't know if it was a seasonal thing, but I hope not cause they weren't the good american's like i've met in Russia and India, they were the americans that practically drive you to murder simply by allowing you to overhear them talking behind you in a queue. Our hostel was overrun too, and whilst it was a pleasant change from the old, slow, baseball cap, bumbag and new balance shoe-wearing, package-tour americans we'd previously encountered in Italy (and elsewhere) the frat boys complaining about italian pizza soon grew tiresome also..
From Florence we went to the Cinque Terre national park, where the main attractions are five seaside villages linked by a walking trail with awesome views of the sea, and rocks and trees and stuff... As we all know (or at least should know) hiking is not my strong point (god knows why i'm walking the inca trail - after cinque terre I now know that I am going to die in Peru), and there were certainly sections of the walk that had me huffing and puffing and getting dizzy, and having my left arm go tingly. But we were lucky enough to have a beautiful day of blue skies and sunshine, and the views were amazing. I said at the time that its the sort of place where my dad would just be saying 'wow' every few minutes. I would have loved to have gone swimming in the Mediterranean (and it was definitely warm enough) but silly us started at the one town with a beach and just kept hanging out for another one.
From Cinque Terre we spent a long day on trains to get to Venice. I think we arrived in Venice at just the right time. Everyone I've spoken to (apart from my mum) has disliked venice and said just spend a day or two because you have to - it smells, its expensive, its packed full of tourists, etc. I found every one of those false. I really liked Venice. We found an awesome pizzeria for dinner - after spending a couple of hours exploring, our hostel wasn't ridiculously priced (although it was run with military strictness) and even though it was grey and miserable it was still beautiful. The public transport is a bit steep (5 euro for a single ride) but I think most people do what we do and just use it as a cheap boat cruise down the grand canal (considering the alternative is a gondola at 60 euro an hour). And finally, there were barely any tourists there. Our hostel was the only one anywhere near being in Venice (there's a campsite near the airport and another hostel on a neighbouring island) and there were about five other people staying there. Made things a little lonely but much better than being swamped by idiot americans.
This morning we left Venice for Ljubljana in Slovenia. Our journey was fraught with trials (we chose 3 regional trains and a bus rather than a direct train) but we made it safely back behind the iron curtain. And after being charged 1.50 euro for 15 minutes internet in Venice (and that was cheap) we now have a computer with free internet in our room.. Money goes so much further here... We've been told Ljubljana is a highlight so we're looking forward to the next few days.
Good news about the soccer. I had no idea about anything that was going on. Internet's been so expensive I didn't even know who we were playing. Now Gus has some time to work with the team and we'll be the South Korea of 2006... And England will be the England of 2006.
Oh and finally can people stop leaving anonymous comments. What are you scared of? That I'll come home and whack you?
posted by YT at 9:32 pm
1 Comments:
Hi Tighty, Italy is a fantastic place, if you have of told me you were going to Rome I could have got you cheap tours of everything.
I am thinking of doing my year abroad for uni in Italy.
Congrats on making the world cup, we will be there as well.
In fact I would go as far as saying we will do better than you at the world cup.
I was also glad to see that England beat Australia in the rugby at the weekend.
Thats about all or now.
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