Italy

I hate to leave this blog incomplete, even though I've been back in Canada for 3 weeks now. Lets pretend that I'm still in Italy.


We touched down in Rome at around 9:00am and started working our way downtown. We wandered a few blocks from the airport in search of a subway station and were ambushed by a hail storm. It turned out that the subway station didn't exists, so we found an overpriced shuttle bus to take us downtown.


It was disappointing to have our first day in Rome limited by the cold rain. We made the most of it, found a crappy hostel, and did a bus tour of the city. The next day was much more productive. The skies were clear and we were geared up for some serious touring. We buzzed by the Colosseum and Roman forum., the City Hall/Unknown soldier memorial, and the Castello di San Angelo. I was pick pocketed twice on the way, though they didn't take anything (i guess they weren't interested in my laundry). We slowed down at Vatican City, wandered around St. Peter's Square, and did a tour of the Basilica. They were very impressive although the extravagance was somewhat hypocritical, considering it's the headquarters for a religion that demands humble, modest, selfless obedience. The Sistine Chapel was by-passed, I don't think it was open that day. I guess I'll use that as an excuse to visit Rome again.


We found lunch, and then the Pantheon, which was apparently a structural and acoustical marvel for the time it was built. Wandering into the very well preserved ancient Jewish quarter (the name of which escapes me at the moment), the bottom of my shoe was assaulted by well hidden dog poop. I hadn't finished scrapping it off before a pigeon, on a bombing run got me on the shoulder. After a long day of getting pooped on and pick pocketed by the locals, we spent an early night at the hostel, and arranged another couch surfing host in Napoli for the next day.

We arrived in Napoli and were immediately disgusted. Apparently this city has the 5th highest population density in the world. And probably also the worlds highest sales of spray paint, because every surface was tagged. We tracked down some food and an internet cafe and met our host, Dave. Dave was an interesting guy, a Texan, and member of the American military who was stationed at the NATO base outside of Napoli. He had a great house near the base. He invited us to watch his football game that night (american football) and afterwards he showed us one of the favorite local restaurants. It was a very interesting night.

We caught an early train to Sorrento, where, for an early christmas gift mom and dad arranged 3 nights in a posh hotel. It was a much nicer area than Napoli, although had a lot of British tourists. We used it as a base point to explore the area. The next day we took a more thorough look at Napoli, saw some museums and castles. It was an interesting city, but very dirty, and every person I passed seemed like a thief waiting for an opportunity.

Pompey was very cool, way to big for a day tour. We focused on the mansions, theaters and gladiator arena. The shops and pleb areas will have to wait until next time. We weren't the only ones there though, it was crowded.


It was tough to leave our luxurious hotel, especially the breakfast buffet. Our next stop was Florence. The train ride was long, but the hostel we reserved was one of the nicest so far. There wasn't time to do much besides eat and have some drinks. Florence was the epicenter for the renaissance art movement, and was littered with famous museums. We found the Palazzo Vecchio by accident, and toured it for a few hours. It houses the bronze statue of Judith and Holofernes by Donatello, which was the world's most celebrated statue, until David. Next door, the Gallaria di Uffizi is considered the most important collection of art in Italy. It was way too crowded. We saw a number of famous paintings. There were three different versions of "The Annunciation", the most famous by Leonardo Da Vinci was surrounded by mobs of school kids.

We spent some more time touring around the city. "The Acadamia" is home to Michelangelo's Statue of David, we walked by it but didn't stop.. museumed out. It was later pointed out that we clearly have some beef with Michelangelo, having passed up the Sistine Chapel, and now the Statue of David. We gathered a group from the hostel that night, and did a bit of bar hopping. I was pretty hungover on the train the next day.

On to Venice next.
More to follow

Spain

I'm a little behind on the posts.. Sorry, I did warn you.

Our first taste of Barcelona was at 10pm after a 5 hour train ride on a vintage spanish passenger train. But our couchsurfing hosts were great. They met us in front of MacDonalds

We quickly became familiar with the architech Antoni Gaudi. His enormous Cathederal, Sagrada Familia has been under construction for 100 years already and has another 40 to go. Unfortunately he won't be able to see it completion as he was run down by a horse carrage 90 years ago. His projects, scattered throughout the city become very easy to spot.  We wandered past the marina; a home to hundreds of million dollar boats, and found a sign pointing out the 1992 Olympic Village. We made it halfway, but decided it wasn't meant to be done on foot.

The next day we had a bit of difficulty getting a train to Madrid, and so killed a few hours in the National Art Museum. It was interesting, we saw a few more Gaudi pieces and a few Piccasos, among others. We eventually caught a train to Madrid, but were stopped by a security guard from catching our train to Malaga.  In protest, we decided to spend the night in the train station. Except, it turns out that Madrid has the only train station in Europe that closes at night, so we actually spent the night huddled up for warmth in a hotel court yard. Not even a nice hotel, it was a crappy night.

We finally arrived in Malaga early the next day, and found our way to the resort that Robyn's mom book us into. It was beautiful, but un-prepared for our arrival. We slept on some chairs by the pool until our room was ready.

The following week blurred together. We found a nearby grocery store and stocked up, saw some of the local towns, got a touch of food poisoning, and did alot of sleeping. It was tough to leave the luxury, we've spoiled ourselves.

We struck out for Gibraltar, and found the rock after a four hour bus ride. It wasn't a beautiful place, but it was very interesting. We walked across the border into the English colony from the Spanish town, Lalina. Walked through the most laxed customs office, and right through the middle of a runway. During a hike to the top of the rock, we found a sign reading "Do not feed the Apes", we checked over our shoulders and quickly turned back to town.
It was a neat place, but mostly just a stop-over for home-sick Brits during their spanish vacations.. very over priced.

The next stop was Sevilla.  We bounced between a few hostels before finding a fairly nice hotel who offered a double room at a 40% discount (I guess we've been looking extra pathetic lately).  Sevilla was beautiful, our first stop in Spain that wasn't baited for tourists.  We found some impressive old world architecture, and some picturesque neighbourhoods scattered throughout.  On the south side of the river is the rotting carcass of Expo '92.  It was a huge complex, and had some very interesting new age architecture, but most of it was abandoned and dilapitated.  It was almost nastalgic, despite the fact that I'd never been there before. 

We left Sevilla via highspeed train to Madrid, spent another sleepless night in the airport, and caught an early flight to Rome.  

Ready for the next leg of our journey.

More to follow 

Belgium and France

I'm learning alot. Some things are getting much easier, like hauling a giant rucksack around like a pack mule, or sharing a dormroom with eight random vagabonds. Some things are getting more difficult, like tolerating a diet of bread (and occasionally cheese, or meat) or remembering to do laundry. Some other things I keep doing wrong over and over. Like neglecting to plan.

My last post was in Amsterdam. The language barrier has become much more real since then. In Germany and Holland, neither of us spoke a word of the local language, but most of the locals spoke some English. In France, the people have a very strong determination to speak no English at all, dispite the fact that they were very eager to help. So for the first time, we've been forced to bridge the language gap. I´m amazed at how quickly my highschool French flooded back to me.


Leaving Amsterdam, we strove to find a smaller, more out of the way town in Belgium, We´ve been focusing on larger centers thus far and wanted a taste of how the locals live. With this in mind we bypassed Brussels and went straight to Bruges. Only after we arrived did we find out it´s one of the most heavily touristed towns in all of Europe. Apperantly the population more than quadruples over the summer months. Oh well, it was quiet in November. There weren´t nearly as many shoot out as the movie might suggest.


We arrived on November 10, so for Rememberance Day we visited the nearby town of Ypres, which was a famous World War 1 battle ground. There were thousand and thousands of people there from all over the world for the event. We ran into a big Canadian Military delegation and several Canadian school trips. I made sure to put a maple leaf onto my bag that day.

In Ypres, every night at 8:00 since 1927, a lone buggeler has played The Last Post by the city gates. That day he definately wasn´t lone. There were probably close to 10,000 people crammed into that little square. It was moving. Just before the event we ran into a reporter from CBC radio, and gave him a little interview. So if anyone heard Robyn and I on the National News on Rememberance Day, let me know. I´m still trying to find out if my clip made it on air.


We didn´t stay in Belgium long. Our trip south into France was a masterpiece of poor planning. We hadn´t even really decided where we wanted to go next until we arrived at the train station. On top of that, the fact that so few trains ran between Belgium and France. I guess they like having a bottle neck at the border to make security easier. We travelled from Bruges to Brussels, to Lille, to Reims. It took most of the day, and we didn´t really see anything at all. It felt like a wasted day.

An odd thing we discovered about accomodations in France, (possibly everywhere, I haven´t noticed until now) is that a bed in a decent hostel dorm is about 15-20€ each, where as a room for two, in a cheap hotel, is around 30-40€. So in several cities, we opted for the privacy and security of a private hotel room, for less cost than the over crowded, 8 person dorm rooms of the hostels.

Reims didn´t have to much to offer, so we pushed on. We threw a dart at the map and ended up in Dijon. I love these old style towns, it was very nice. I also found the local french much easier on my untrained ear. We did some walking tours, found a museum and bought some mustard. Dijon has been one of my favorite stops so far.

Lyon is a much bigger city, and we arrived in the wrong part of it. The scenary was industrial and depressing, the people were pissy, and the hostels were along way away. In search of the only hostel advertised in Lonely Planet, we hopped on to a commuter bus which took us 45mins unto the slums and dropped us off. We found the hostel, which had been closed and turned into a homeless shelter years ago. Strike one for Lonely Planet. Discouraged and grumpy, we decided to catch the next train to Avignon, and write-off Lyon. After returning to the train station and finding some food, we decided to give the other hostel in town a quick look before leaving. It turned out to be very nice, and we had a room to our selves (bonus). So we stayed.
The hostel was in a student area just outside of old town. A massive Bassilica dominated the cliffs. There were a lot of nice areas to get lost in. I bought a better French-English grammer book to help get back into the language.

Our next stop was Avignon, a legendary tourist town... during the summer. After the tourist season is over they let the whole place go to shit. We happened to arrive during a European Union congress session, so the whole town was swarming with French National Police. The congress was held at the Palace of the Pope, which was impressive but unaccessable due to the hordes of foreign dignitaries. The bridge of Avignon is the subject to a wellknown french children´s song. It´s famous because it was only ever half completed, and stops abruptly halfway across the river, entrance cost: 5€.. so we passed. Overall, I wasn´t too impressed with Avignon.

We bought our tickets the next day for Barcelona, but stopped for a few hours in Montpelier. I really enjoyed this city. I was warm, sunny and very relaxed. About 400,000 residence, half are students. So many hippies. I wish we had passed Avignon by and come straight here for the extra day.

Barcelona tonight and our first Couchsurfing experience.

More to follow.

Ireland, Germany & The Netherlands

A lot has happened since my last post.. my blog-neglect has begun.

We arrived in Ireland via Ferry from Strunraer using a second free day on our rail passes. So from the original 4 days of train travel, we've used 6 so far, and have 1 left for a christmas day trip.
It was dark when we docked in Belfast, so we found a hostel and then a pub. There is so much construction in Ireland right now, probably the season. The next morning we wandered around town for a few hours, then took a two hour train ride to Dublin, followed by a 4 hour bus ride to Galway. We met up with Robyn's sister Ceiliegh, and finally unloaded the extra duffle bag. She is a long term residence in a hostel near city center and was able to set us up with a room for a few nights. It was a nice place, almost clean and very friendly. We took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. It was probably not worth the cost, but by some twist of fate I was forced to chug 2 Guinesses for lunch. We did a pub crawl that night, that was fun.
We hit Dublin next, and found a hostel on the internet that seemed good (good ratings, good reviews, etc), we got there and paid 2 nights down. Then found out it was the dirtiest, most dangerous hole, filled with depressed, out of work eastern europeans.. and a subway that passes overhead every 15 mins all night. At 2:00am, 2 thieves wandered into our room looking for easy targets, luckly I wasn't sleeping. We stayed the first night, then decided to cut our losses and move to a better place.
We later found out that the reason it had such good reviews is because they put a fake sign above their door with the name of a better hostel. Assholes

Dublin wasn't too impressive. We visited the Irish National Gallery to look at some old art, then the Irish Modern art museum to look at some new art. We found the Guiness Brewary, but the whole neighborehood stunk like rotten beer, and my hangover from the previous nights pub crawl flared up. Overall, it seemed very depressed, the recession hit them hard I think.

I booked a plane ticket to Dusseldorf for 15$, incredible. Ryanair, its the cheapest way to travel. Germany was a bit tricky, I don't speak any german, and they don't speak much english. We got by though. Skipped over Dusseldorf and headed straight for Cologne. Cologne didn't have a single room available due to a massive model train convention.. naturally. We learned a lesson about booking rooms ahead of time. Actually there was one room available, and a nice one at a decent price, probably the last one in the entire city. Cologne had some amazing architechture, I took lots of photos.

We caught a train to Amsterdam the next day. Amsterdam is fun. We stayed at a small town outside of the city called Noordwijk, so were on the shuttle out of town before the night life really started. Even during the day it was cool, the night life must be insane. I'll definately have to go back at some point.

More to Follow.

England & Scotland

Stonehenge was interesting, although heavily controlled and marketed. I suppose it's understandable, but a little disappointing. Returning to Bath, our tour group was turned loose in a nearby hamlet; Lecock. This was the highlight of the tour. A 700 year old town, preserved from gentrification by the National Trust and frequently used for film shoots. Highly recommend.

Bath was a beautiful town; so much sandstone. The Abby was breathtaking, if you like classical architecture, which I do. We didn't spend much time there.

We were able to experience Manchester through the eyes of a local. We were taken in by Robyn's cousins Brian and Allen, and their families. The country side around Manchester was reminiscent of the England that I imagined: Thatched rooves and rolling hills, sectioned by stone walls and layered with sheep. A large wind farm caught my eye. These were the subject of several papers I wrote in Uni, although I'd never seen one until now.

Due to some confusion with our Brit-rail passes, our trip to Glasgow was free. We've been playing dumb with the conductors ever since, hoping for more free transpo. We were taken in by another large branch of Robyn's family, in Kirkintilloch. We settled in Robyn's aunt Anna and uncle Fez's house, from which we've been staging trips into the highlands in the north.

Robyn's cousin Chris and Ruth have two new wanes, a 1.5yr old son, and a 16month old daughter. Robyn spent a day fussing over the babies, so I took the opportunity to explore Glasgow. I found it very industrial with a Victorian flavor. I stumbled across George's Square, the Palace of the People, and the Modern Art Museum. The museum was great.. and free. So I killed two hours appreciating art that confused and frightened me.

We took a day trip to Edinburgh. Arrived around 10am and found a bus tour of the city. The guide seemed knowledgeable.. I'm just guessing though, I didn't understand a word he said. We saw Edinburgh castle, naturally, and worked our way down the Royal Mile blending in with the mass of English tourists, (It was their midterm break from school) stumbled across the Uni of Ed. in our search for food and then snapped photographs of everything in sight.

The next day we visited Robyn's aunt Celia in Gourock. And headed up the north east coast to St. Andrews, which is known as the birthplace of golf, but is also dominated by a sprawling University. The hostel we stayed at was nice, but the heat was broken, so the first night was chilly. We photographed the ruins of an old cathedral and castle, which must have been very impressive in their day. Locked out of the hostel for an hour, we found a bar and had a drink. There was a bit of a party in the hostel that night, and a bit of a hangover the next morning. We shook it off and caught a train to Aberdeen. There was some impressive architecture, but not much else, so we didn't stay long. Back in St. Andrews for another night, we went to a pub with an Australian couple, and a Brazilian/Indian/English architect from London who turned out to be the heir to an international processed food distribution company. He was odd.

We're back in Kirkintilloch, and will be going out with Ruth and Chris tomorrow night, and then catching a ferry to Ireland on Sunday. Scotland is beautiful, but damn its cold.

More to follow.

Freedom

The sense of freedom I feel right now is incredible.


My trip began two days ago. The jet lag only had me for an afternoon, and hasn't slowed me down a bit. What has slowed me down is the case of Carlsburg and bottle of Bacardi Gold we drank last night.

Johnny, a roommate from university, took us in from the cold, gave us dinner, and got us pissed-drunk. We played Karaoke until 4am.


I flew into Heathrow airport on Sunday at 1:30pm, caught a shuttle to Gatwick airport, and met Robyn at a near-by boarding house in Horley. A reunion and a pub dinner later, I was ready for sleep (having been denied that luxury on the plane).

The pub we visited was 700 years old, and used as a boarding house for monks from the adjacent 'ye old six bells' church.


Some free time on Monday morning allowed for a quick trip to London, which we hit like a hurricane. Starting at London-Bridge train station, we borrowed a map from a bus tour salesman, and struck out on foot (too cheap for bus tours). Saw the London Bridge, Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Royal Court of Justice, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abby. Back onto the train for Horley from the London-Victoria station three hours later. Photos were taken on the fly, so please forgive the blur.




Today, we're shaking off the hangover and catching a bus to Bristol and Bath to see what we can find there. Possibly some sort of Henge.. made out of stone.




More to follow

More to follow, maybe

This, is a travel blog. It will chronicle my trip through Europe and India over the next few months... maybe.
My hope is that I can remember to update it regularly, but I tend to get distracted and discourage with such things.
It's a gamble; this could be the one and only post.

I live in Prince Rupert at the moment. My time here has been well spent. The people are friendly, and the town, although soggy at times, shines in the sun.
At dusk, the skies are breath taking.

Alas, the time has come to be gone. My packing lists are starting to take shape and my bank account is starting to empty.

If you're reading this you probably know me, and know that nothing I do is aimless. No matter how much I wish it were. But on this trip I'm diving in somewhat headfirst. Fighting the urge to plan, other than the vaguest shadow of an itinerary. I prefer the idea of drifting on the currents of the Eurorail system.

I leave in 12 days. And maybe, there will be more posts to come.

My itinerary follows:

• Leave Canada - Oct 18
  
• England - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Scotland - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Ireland - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Netherlands - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Germany - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• France - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Switzerland - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Spain - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Italy - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Greece - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• India - sometime between Oct 18 and Jan 14
• Back in Canada - Jan 14