Well to wrap up things in italy, what better place than venice? Venice is just beautiful. We booked 6 nights in generator hostel, which is just across the river from st.marks square. If you are a bit unsure as to which square that is, I always think of it as the one with all the pigeons. And yes, of course I fed them and got my picture taken. Afterwards I found out it is actually illegal to feed them, so I am pretty much a rebel... back to the hostel though. We booked 6 nights for the reason of our interail and eurail passes. Matt and I needed an address to have these passes sent to because there wasn't an option to get them at the station. We paid for 2 months of continuous rail travel throughout almost every european country. A bit pricey, but we hope it will be worth it. The good news was, mine arrived way sooner than planned. Matts came a day early as well. The bad news was, we were now stuck in venice. However, being stuck in venice really isn't that bad news afterall. We did all your typical touristy things, fed the pigeons, went on a gondola ride and visited some of the islands. There are 409 bridges in venice, according to our gondola man.. we probably crossed 50 over the 6 days. Our gondola ride was a little less than romantic because we shared it with four fellow travellers. Because we did this, we only had to pay €13 each. I am all for a good discount. The tour through the canals was very cool though, and an interesting look into how venice functions.
We stayed in a place called Generator hostel & it was probably the best facilities we have had so far. We booked a 7 share room, for 6 nights this cost us €100 each. When we arrived, we were put in a 5 share, which is always a bonus. They had separate sex bathrooms, with awesome hot showers. The living room of the hostel had a bar, menu for food and a photobooth. The hostel was on the right track for a great stay. Most hostels only allow 18-30 year olds, for the reason of everyone having the same interests, with a close enough budget. This hostel, was not the same. It completely missed the boat on the friendly atmosphere. It was far from welcoming and we found the staff to be rude. On our 2nd night, a group of 50+ French students all aged around 13 years old, showed up and just completely took over. What little friendly backpacker atmosphere there was, was ruined. There are signs at the entrance saying not to bring food or drink in, because they have a bar and menu. You wouldn't bring animals into a zoo. This is absolutely fair, and makes sense. However, when this march break field trip showed up, 50 of them opened up a packed lunch. The menu at the hostel was cheap compared to venice prices, however not cheap for a backpacker, and certainly not quality food. When I spoke to the receptionist, she was about as useful as chocolate teapot. (Matts description) The hostel was more about money making, then creating memories for each, individual traveller. For this reason, I would not recommend staying here. Matt and I really enjoyed venice overall, in fact it is probably my favorite place in italy. It is definitely worth a visit, just roll out the sleeping bag elsewhere.
We pretty much lived off of pasta from a place called alfredos. Matt and I ate here at least 8 different times over the six days. As you can probably imagine, venice isn't the cheapest place in the world. We came across alfredos on tripadvisor when myself and some of the girls we met were looking for a cheap place to eat or drink. Alfredos reviews were all fantastic. The one bad review we came across had an hilarious response from the owner, this was not an experience we wanted to miss. They had about 9 different pasta options, as well as 5 different noodles to pick from. My personal favorite was probably 'viagara' with a fusilli noodle. And yes, you did read that correctly. The customer service was unbelievable, and the pasta... to die for. So to sum up venice, I'd say a trip here isn't complete without a gondola ride, and some of alfredos pasta.
Now that we had our rail passes, we planned on heading down to Greece. The night before we were due to check out of venice, we found out that international trains to and from greece were on strike. Nothing like a strike to ruin your itinerary. We had to give up our day for Verona, to sort out a new plan. I will just have to wait until next time to touch Juliets right breast for good luck!
Our revised plan was Switzerland. Any plan of a budget, you would just want to throw that straight out the window. Unfortunately, tossing a budget away was not one of our options. We were torn between Geneva and Zurich. Zurich worked out to be cheaper, and closer to our next country. We booked for 2 nights in City Backpacker Hostel costing us a whopping €70..EACH! We had been robbed. This was the most expensive hostel we had paid for. To put it into perspective, you can get a private room in Portugal for €10 each. We paid €100 for 6 nights in venice... but zurich took €70 each and to top that off, we were in a 6 share. The train ride from italy to Switzerland was absolutely breathtaking. If you have a choice to fly or use the rails, I would recommend taking the train. Granted, it is a bit longer, but its absolutely stunning. On the train, I had already accepted that everything was going to be expensive, if we wanted to enjoy zurich we would need to just accept that and be smart about how we spend our time and money.
When we arrived at the hostel we walked up 4 flights of stairs to the check in desk where we recieved no information at all, except our keys. Most hostels when you check in, give you a map, show you some cheap restaurants and tell you what the must sees are in the area. We recieved nothing of the sort, and headed two floors up to our room. The room had 3 sets of bunks, and 6 small lockers, just enough for passports and electronics, the rest of our stuff was just left free in the room. The room had one plug socket, for 6 people to fight for. The wifi only worked in the reception area which had room for a maximum of 12 people. Our floor alone would have had 24 people amongst four rooms, sharing 2 showers and 2 toilets. There was four floors, and the main living area only had room for 12 people. Let me remind you, we paid €70 for this so called hostel. Oh and at three am I was woken up by what sounded like a hibernating bear snoring. Safe to say, I was happy to move onto the next hostel.
Zurich itself is so beautiful. Even prettier than venice. It is so rich and clean. The air is so fresh. Its worlds away from London, thats for sure. Since our budget was so tight, we opted for the free bike rental outside of the train station. We spent the day riding all over zurich. We went from the lakeside, to the main shopping strip, all the way to the redlight district. It was a beautiful day out and a great way to save the pennies. We went to sternen grill, which was in my lonely planet guidebook. It was a tad on the expensive side, but mine was definitely worth the 14 swiss francs. I had a schnitzel sandwhich. It was breaded veal with veggies, cocktail sauce and a fresh crunchy bun. Matt tried the currywurst which is sliced sausage with curry seasonings and tomato sauce. Zurich, although expensive was definitely a great day out and a culture very different to the others that we have experienced in europe so far. Next stop, berlin germany.
As I write this, I am now 11 hours into my travel day. We booked for the 9am train from zurich to basel. No problem, arrived in basel with 20 minutes to grab a pretzel and head to our platform. From basel we were now heading straight to berlin. About 40 minutes into our journey at the next station, a message was said that someone had jumped infront of a train 10km down the track and that we need to get off the now cancelled train. Long story short, we met a nice german lady trying to get home to berlin to tuck her kids in before bedtime. If anyone had a determination to get to berlin fast, it was a mother. We waited for 2 and a half hours at this station to get the next train heading north. We had to stop and change again, but at least now we are only a few hours away. About 2 hours ago we should have been sat in the hostel having a beer, but oh well. Shit happens. Alright, thats it for now. Next blog will have Berlin and possibly even Prague!
3/24/2014
Hung up the Redcoat & Put on the Backpack
Well it's safe to say, consistency is not one of my skills. It has been more or less a year & a half since my last post... sorry about that! The good news is, I am here now, with lots of stories for you. You, meaning friends, family and fellow backpackers. I should probably start at the end of my last chapter.
I finished off my two year working visa in February of this year. I was a Redcoat at Butlins, in Bognor Regis for the full two years. It was a really cool experience. I continued to grow within the job, and ended up being one of the main DJs. I stayed on for the adult break only period of the year, both years and DJd some pretty awesome nights. I stuck with the activities team, and met some amazing families through the kids clubs, particularly VIP, which was the teens. I was put in the Redcoat Game show, which I fell over on stage, was covered in cream pie and the girls ended up winning that night against the boys! I also became really good friends with a dinosaur named Ludo.. if you catch my drift. I have to say these were the highlights of my job.
If we put the job to the side for a minute, lets talk about the social. I celebrated my 19th birthday with a redneck theme, then topped it the following year, on my 20th with 'costumes starting with C'. I was a Canadian Flag, Matt was Captain America, and some other costumes were cave people, a candy cane, a care bear, etc. Around Halloween both years, I went to Thorpe Park with the entertainments team from Butlins to do all the haunted houses. Both years made for some great memories. Around Christmas 2013, a small handful of us spent the day in London, going to Winter Wonderland. It was amazing!! Winter Wonderland has lots of cute little bars, rides, shops and even a helter skelter. It was truly magical, one of my favorite days out in London. If you are ever in England in December, this is a must see for sure. Doesn't matter your age, as long as you believe in the magic of christmas. To end off the year, we had Gala. This is the big celebration with everyone that works at Butlins. They hand out awards, have someone famous to perform, then everyone gets drunk. Overall, always a great night!! The theme was the Great Gatsby, and the performer was Peter Andre, who definitely lip synced the whole performance, which is fine cause he is not the worlds best singer anyways! With loads of drinks vouchers as Matt and I were both leaving, we didn't have to spend a pence the whole night. The following night was the entertainment only party.This night wasn't as much fun, as it was a bit emotional saying goodbye to the good friends I had made whilst working on the resort. Overall, looking back on the two years, I feel that I grew up a significant amount in such a short time. I left Canada as a teen fresh out of high school, but I'll be coming home with a new outlook on life and the importance of family. Also, how lucky I am, that minimum wage in Canada isn't £4.13!!!
Now for the rest of Europe! To start, Matt and I moved into his parents house for the month of January. When we finished our contracts and parties, they came down with a van to load up our little appartment, then we drove home with his friend Chaz. It was a great month with lots of planning, pub days and clay pigeon shooting. February 3rd, just a few days before I had to legally be out of England, we headed to Ashford International. This is the train station that took us into Disneyland Paris. What better way to start 4 months of backpacking, then in Disney?! We stayed in the Santa Fe hotel for two nights, with three days of both park passes. The kid at heart was unleashed, and whether or not he will admit to it, Matt enjoyed Disney too! We both got our picture taken with Buzz Lightyear.. Yes thats right, THE Buzz Lightyear. He's kind of a big deal. I also took a picture with Captain Hook, Mr.Schmee, Tigger, eey ore, Stitch, Queen of Hearts, Pinoccio, Gipetto, Pluto, Goofy and the main man himself, Mickey. We watched all the parades and went on all the rides. My favorite would be a close draw between Buzz Lightyears & Finding Nemos. Both amazing, and more designed for kids, but I loved it. We watched the fireworks and show on the castle both nights as well.
On February 5th, we packed the bags, and took a train into Paris. We stayed at St.Christophers Inn Hostel, which was probably a bad idea, as it set the bar quite high for the rest of the hostels to live up to! It was so clean, and funky. Our bed was really comfortable and we got a private room to ourselves, so we didn't have that typical hostel experience just yet. We spent just one day in Paris as I had been there before, and Matt wasn't very interested in France. We did the typical tourist thing of going up the Eiffel Tower. We opted for the stairs, because the elevator had a really big cue, and the stairs were half the price. This now makes perfect sense to me why no one was lining up for the stairs. It was pissing down with rain and very windy that day. Walking up the Eiffel Tower was cold, and wet. If you've got the budget, take the lift. We took our touristy picture from the top, then walked back down, and headed back to the hostel for a hard earned pint of 'Frogs Bollocks', this was the beer on tap.
The following day we headed back to the train station, this time heading south to Lyon, France. Here lives quite a bit of my family. They are my second & third cousins, and my great aunt and uncle. Unfortunately, mine and Matts french when we arrived was very little, and my families english was the same. The first couple days was a bit of a nightmare when it came to the translation. By the end of it, they were speaking english, and I was speaking french, it was great! We stayed here for two weeks and they took us out on many different day trips, with alot of french cuisine in between it all. We went to a zoo on the outskirts of Lyon that is quite famous because of the gorilla named Digit. He lives in the owners house in his own little room. He also has a regular gorilla area with the other gorilla's but at night sleeps in the owners house. It had picturesque views everywhere and lots of beautiful animals. Because it was mid-february, they only people in the entire zoo were my family! It was like a private tour. During our stay it was my third cousins 14th birthday, so we went to that house for a meal. We tried fish cake.. this was basically a jello type dish which sets inside a cake mould with various fish inside. It sounds absolutely rank, however, with a bit of spicy mayo, tasted quite nice. We also tried 'fromage blanc' for the first time, which I fell in love with. Its a mix between cheese and yogurt, covered in sugar, jam or honey and its for dessert. Just beautiful. Of couse accompanied with every meal and course, is wine. Amazing, beautiful, delicious wine. The french have mastered cuisine. One of my cousins is a scuba diver, so he took us to his training pool where we got to try it. His friends taught myself and matt seperately. Matt has already been scuba diving, so he didn't really need to learn any of it, however for me, this was a first. I loved it. My coach didn't speak a word of english, and my french isn't strong enough to have done a whole lesson in underwater breathing, so we met in the middle with spanish. It was a really unique experience, and hopefully one day I will be able to do this in the sea. We spent a full day seeing the Lyon Basilica, roman ruins of an amphitheatre, and a movie museum, This same day we ate in a restaurant called Les Lyonnaise where we tried Fois Grois. Now if you don't already know what this is, don't google it, just try it first.. then you can ask what you've eaten. It is delicious though. Sylvie took us to a mining museum which was really interesting as well. There was so much that we did in France, we were sad to leave. As the two weeks came to a close, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Barcelona.
For some reason, we only booked one night in Barcelona, Spain which was very stupid of us. Barcelona is not a one nighter, it needs at least 3 days I'd say, so we will definitely be re-visiting one day. We stayed in Hostel One Sants, which was a fairly decent hostel. There was only about 15 people staying in the hostel that night, and what should have been a four share ended up just being a room for matt and I. We played Kings Cup that night with about 13 of our fellow roomies, and had lots of Sangria. The following day we went into Barcelona and wandered around a little bit, then headed to the zoo. For some reason, Matt and I always end up going to the zoo. It was quite a big zoo with a variety of animals, worth a visit. When we went to the Sagrada Familia, it was half under construction and had an enourmous cue. Unfortunately we were on a time crunch so we didn't get to go in, however it was beautiful from what we could see. We went to Park Guell and got to wander around for a little bit. The architecture and views of the city were stunning. Barcelona was a flying visit, and we were off to Madrid, Spain. Back to the airport we went!
Once in Madrid we headed to Flat5Madrid, our hostel for the couple of nights. This was so much better than a hostel, and we had a private room. So although we didn't have the hostel atmosphere, we had a very comfy bed and a hot shower, which was better! I lived in Madrid for 3 months when I was 16, so I turned into a mini tour guide for Matt. It was really nice being back in Madrid, and being able to show Matt that part of my life. During the couple days, Matt felt a bit sick, so we ended up just hanging out in Retiro park for quite a bit. We did manage to go to the San Miguel Market though and try out some beautiful tapas and sidra. Then it was time to head even further south, to Tenerife.
In Tenerife, we stayed with one of the guys we had met whilst working at Butlins. Turner hosted us for what ended up being three weeks. The majority of this consisted of breakfast at Legends Bar, some form of rugby down at Paddys Bar, and a whole lot of sangria and beach time! It was beautiful with hot weather almost everyday and black sandy beaches right on our door step. We did one day trip to Loro Parque. This is similar to Marineland and Seaworld, but with much better treatment of the animals. We saw quite a few whales, dolphins, sealions and birds. Tenerife was a lot of fun, but it was time to get back to the rest of europe.
We had a sleepover in London Gatwick, as that was the cheapest way to get out of Tenerife, and into Milan, Italy. Milan, in three words.. Do Not Go. This city is so dirty, and expensive. When you think fashion capital, this is the last city that should come to mind. There is nothing worth seeing here, massive waste of time. So lets move on. Another day, another airport, off to Rome now.
Rome is a weird one. It wasn't exactly what I had expected. Basically I think Rome is a big tourist trap. There are some truly fascinating things to see within Rome, for example the Colusseum, but because of how many tourists come each year, the prices in this city are extreme. We took a guided tour of the Colusseum which was really interesting, Tiberius really knew his stuff! We spent alot of the time just wandering the city, where we came across the Pantheon and saw a couple get engaged at the Trevi Fountain. We briefly passed the spanish steps as well. Whilst in Rome, for Matts birthday we went to see the Six Nations England vs Italy rugby match with one of Matts best mates from home, Feasey & his girlfriend, Lauri. It was really nice catching up with them for the weekend and having some drinks and meals too. England of course won that game and the atmosphere was phenomenal. Hearing upwards of 20,000 englishmen singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, all together followed by a mexican wave, was a pretty cool Saturday afternoon. We spent a full day in the Vatican, which literally has too much artwork to comprehend. Without a tour guide I found all of it overwhelming and wasn't exactly sure on what I was looking at. When we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel, I couldn't even find the picture I was looking for!!!! That was really annoying, but looking back on it, kind of funny. A friend of mine, Michelle, lived in Rome a couple years ago and had some advice on things to do and see, so we followed that. We went to the best ice cream place in our lives. It's called Frigidarium. I had their own home made flavor and stracciatella, which I then had dipped in heated dark chocolate. It was unbelievable. Thanks Michelle, we owe you one! Lastly, our hostel. We stayed in Thousand Sunny Hostel. This was a little appartment where we shared a 4 share room with an ensuite washroom. This hostel was really clean with some awesome staff and an adorable dog named Zoro. He was bad ass. Our next stop, Naples.
We took a high speed train from Rome to Naples and by accident booked business class. This is an awesome accident. For the first and probably last time on this trip, I felt rich! It was the first class of trains, we loved it. We almost didn't come to Naples because of how dangerous everyone said that it was, however after already paying for the train and hostel, we couldn't justify not coming. So we gave it a shot. Upon arriving at the train station we took the sketchiest taxi ride of our lives. We were dropped off a good distance from the hostel at close to 11pm, when we heard this little old man shout down from the balcony that he was Giovanni. So up the stairs we went to Giovannis Home. This was the best hostel we had stayed in so far. We had free dinner almost every night, even lunch on some days. We booked an 8 share room, which he ended up giving to just us for the whole 4 nights so we could have some privacy, that was really nice. The atmosphere was great and we made some good travelling friends, Devon & Emma. We went around the central area of Naples and did the underground tunnels as well which were interesting. We spent a full day seeing Erculano, and Pompeii which was bigger than I thought. Of course, we climbed to the top of Mount Vesuvious, THAT is what I call a hike. Naples was awesome, but I would only recommend going here if you stay with Giovanni as he made us feel like we were in a home away from home with the best advice possible.
Now to bring us up to date. Venice. We flew from Naples into Venice, which is where we are right now. Venice is so surreal. Its hard to describe, my advice, come and see it for yourself. We ended up meeting up with Devon and Emma as they were spending the weekend in Generator Hostel as well. We met another canadian called MC who is studying in France, and we hung out with them for the weekend. Together we went to Murano and Burano, two of Venices islands which are famous for their blown glass and lace work. Each house is a different bright colour, it looks like a cartoon. One of the prettiest places I have ever been. We also did the typical tourist trip of a Gondola Ride. This was awesome, 80 euros for 6 people to split, so it worked out to be quite cheap. We have eaten at Alfredo's alot, which is one of the best pasta places i've ever been to! We have 3 more nights here in Venice, then we are off to Greece!
Sorry this post was so long, but at least you know what kind of shenanigans I've been up to for the past two years!
I finished off my two year working visa in February of this year. I was a Redcoat at Butlins, in Bognor Regis for the full two years. It was a really cool experience. I continued to grow within the job, and ended up being one of the main DJs. I stayed on for the adult break only period of the year, both years and DJd some pretty awesome nights. I stuck with the activities team, and met some amazing families through the kids clubs, particularly VIP, which was the teens. I was put in the Redcoat Game show, which I fell over on stage, was covered in cream pie and the girls ended up winning that night against the boys! I also became really good friends with a dinosaur named Ludo.. if you catch my drift. I have to say these were the highlights of my job.
If we put the job to the side for a minute, lets talk about the social. I celebrated my 19th birthday with a redneck theme, then topped it the following year, on my 20th with 'costumes starting with C'. I was a Canadian Flag, Matt was Captain America, and some other costumes were cave people, a candy cane, a care bear, etc. Around Halloween both years, I went to Thorpe Park with the entertainments team from Butlins to do all the haunted houses. Both years made for some great memories. Around Christmas 2013, a small handful of us spent the day in London, going to Winter Wonderland. It was amazing!! Winter Wonderland has lots of cute little bars, rides, shops and even a helter skelter. It was truly magical, one of my favorite days out in London. If you are ever in England in December, this is a must see for sure. Doesn't matter your age, as long as you believe in the magic of christmas. To end off the year, we had Gala. This is the big celebration with everyone that works at Butlins. They hand out awards, have someone famous to perform, then everyone gets drunk. Overall, always a great night!! The theme was the Great Gatsby, and the performer was Peter Andre, who definitely lip synced the whole performance, which is fine cause he is not the worlds best singer anyways! With loads of drinks vouchers as Matt and I were both leaving, we didn't have to spend a pence the whole night. The following night was the entertainment only party.This night wasn't as much fun, as it was a bit emotional saying goodbye to the good friends I had made whilst working on the resort. Overall, looking back on the two years, I feel that I grew up a significant amount in such a short time. I left Canada as a teen fresh out of high school, but I'll be coming home with a new outlook on life and the importance of family. Also, how lucky I am, that minimum wage in Canada isn't £4.13!!!
Now for the rest of Europe! To start, Matt and I moved into his parents house for the month of January. When we finished our contracts and parties, they came down with a van to load up our little appartment, then we drove home with his friend Chaz. It was a great month with lots of planning, pub days and clay pigeon shooting. February 3rd, just a few days before I had to legally be out of England, we headed to Ashford International. This is the train station that took us into Disneyland Paris. What better way to start 4 months of backpacking, then in Disney?! We stayed in the Santa Fe hotel for two nights, with three days of both park passes. The kid at heart was unleashed, and whether or not he will admit to it, Matt enjoyed Disney too! We both got our picture taken with Buzz Lightyear.. Yes thats right, THE Buzz Lightyear. He's kind of a big deal. I also took a picture with Captain Hook, Mr.Schmee, Tigger, eey ore, Stitch, Queen of Hearts, Pinoccio, Gipetto, Pluto, Goofy and the main man himself, Mickey. We watched all the parades and went on all the rides. My favorite would be a close draw between Buzz Lightyears & Finding Nemos. Both amazing, and more designed for kids, but I loved it. We watched the fireworks and show on the castle both nights as well.
On February 5th, we packed the bags, and took a train into Paris. We stayed at St.Christophers Inn Hostel, which was probably a bad idea, as it set the bar quite high for the rest of the hostels to live up to! It was so clean, and funky. Our bed was really comfortable and we got a private room to ourselves, so we didn't have that typical hostel experience just yet. We spent just one day in Paris as I had been there before, and Matt wasn't very interested in France. We did the typical tourist thing of going up the Eiffel Tower. We opted for the stairs, because the elevator had a really big cue, and the stairs were half the price. This now makes perfect sense to me why no one was lining up for the stairs. It was pissing down with rain and very windy that day. Walking up the Eiffel Tower was cold, and wet. If you've got the budget, take the lift. We took our touristy picture from the top, then walked back down, and headed back to the hostel for a hard earned pint of 'Frogs Bollocks', this was the beer on tap.
The following day we headed back to the train station, this time heading south to Lyon, France. Here lives quite a bit of my family. They are my second & third cousins, and my great aunt and uncle. Unfortunately, mine and Matts french when we arrived was very little, and my families english was the same. The first couple days was a bit of a nightmare when it came to the translation. By the end of it, they were speaking english, and I was speaking french, it was great! We stayed here for two weeks and they took us out on many different day trips, with alot of french cuisine in between it all. We went to a zoo on the outskirts of Lyon that is quite famous because of the gorilla named Digit. He lives in the owners house in his own little room. He also has a regular gorilla area with the other gorilla's but at night sleeps in the owners house. It had picturesque views everywhere and lots of beautiful animals. Because it was mid-february, they only people in the entire zoo were my family! It was like a private tour. During our stay it was my third cousins 14th birthday, so we went to that house for a meal. We tried fish cake.. this was basically a jello type dish which sets inside a cake mould with various fish inside. It sounds absolutely rank, however, with a bit of spicy mayo, tasted quite nice. We also tried 'fromage blanc' for the first time, which I fell in love with. Its a mix between cheese and yogurt, covered in sugar, jam or honey and its for dessert. Just beautiful. Of couse accompanied with every meal and course, is wine. Amazing, beautiful, delicious wine. The french have mastered cuisine. One of my cousins is a scuba diver, so he took us to his training pool where we got to try it. His friends taught myself and matt seperately. Matt has already been scuba diving, so he didn't really need to learn any of it, however for me, this was a first. I loved it. My coach didn't speak a word of english, and my french isn't strong enough to have done a whole lesson in underwater breathing, so we met in the middle with spanish. It was a really unique experience, and hopefully one day I will be able to do this in the sea. We spent a full day seeing the Lyon Basilica, roman ruins of an amphitheatre, and a movie museum, This same day we ate in a restaurant called Les Lyonnaise where we tried Fois Grois. Now if you don't already know what this is, don't google it, just try it first.. then you can ask what you've eaten. It is delicious though. Sylvie took us to a mining museum which was really interesting as well. There was so much that we did in France, we were sad to leave. As the two weeks came to a close, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Barcelona.
For some reason, we only booked one night in Barcelona, Spain which was very stupid of us. Barcelona is not a one nighter, it needs at least 3 days I'd say, so we will definitely be re-visiting one day. We stayed in Hostel One Sants, which was a fairly decent hostel. There was only about 15 people staying in the hostel that night, and what should have been a four share ended up just being a room for matt and I. We played Kings Cup that night with about 13 of our fellow roomies, and had lots of Sangria. The following day we went into Barcelona and wandered around a little bit, then headed to the zoo. For some reason, Matt and I always end up going to the zoo. It was quite a big zoo with a variety of animals, worth a visit. When we went to the Sagrada Familia, it was half under construction and had an enourmous cue. Unfortunately we were on a time crunch so we didn't get to go in, however it was beautiful from what we could see. We went to Park Guell and got to wander around for a little bit. The architecture and views of the city were stunning. Barcelona was a flying visit, and we were off to Madrid, Spain. Back to the airport we went!
Once in Madrid we headed to Flat5Madrid, our hostel for the couple of nights. This was so much better than a hostel, and we had a private room. So although we didn't have the hostel atmosphere, we had a very comfy bed and a hot shower, which was better! I lived in Madrid for 3 months when I was 16, so I turned into a mini tour guide for Matt. It was really nice being back in Madrid, and being able to show Matt that part of my life. During the couple days, Matt felt a bit sick, so we ended up just hanging out in Retiro park for quite a bit. We did manage to go to the San Miguel Market though and try out some beautiful tapas and sidra. Then it was time to head even further south, to Tenerife.
In Tenerife, we stayed with one of the guys we had met whilst working at Butlins. Turner hosted us for what ended up being three weeks. The majority of this consisted of breakfast at Legends Bar, some form of rugby down at Paddys Bar, and a whole lot of sangria and beach time! It was beautiful with hot weather almost everyday and black sandy beaches right on our door step. We did one day trip to Loro Parque. This is similar to Marineland and Seaworld, but with much better treatment of the animals. We saw quite a few whales, dolphins, sealions and birds. Tenerife was a lot of fun, but it was time to get back to the rest of europe.
We had a sleepover in London Gatwick, as that was the cheapest way to get out of Tenerife, and into Milan, Italy. Milan, in three words.. Do Not Go. This city is so dirty, and expensive. When you think fashion capital, this is the last city that should come to mind. There is nothing worth seeing here, massive waste of time. So lets move on. Another day, another airport, off to Rome now.
Rome is a weird one. It wasn't exactly what I had expected. Basically I think Rome is a big tourist trap. There are some truly fascinating things to see within Rome, for example the Colusseum, but because of how many tourists come each year, the prices in this city are extreme. We took a guided tour of the Colusseum which was really interesting, Tiberius really knew his stuff! We spent alot of the time just wandering the city, where we came across the Pantheon and saw a couple get engaged at the Trevi Fountain. We briefly passed the spanish steps as well. Whilst in Rome, for Matts birthday we went to see the Six Nations England vs Italy rugby match with one of Matts best mates from home, Feasey & his girlfriend, Lauri. It was really nice catching up with them for the weekend and having some drinks and meals too. England of course won that game and the atmosphere was phenomenal. Hearing upwards of 20,000 englishmen singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, all together followed by a mexican wave, was a pretty cool Saturday afternoon. We spent a full day in the Vatican, which literally has too much artwork to comprehend. Without a tour guide I found all of it overwhelming and wasn't exactly sure on what I was looking at. When we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel, I couldn't even find the picture I was looking for!!!! That was really annoying, but looking back on it, kind of funny. A friend of mine, Michelle, lived in Rome a couple years ago and had some advice on things to do and see, so we followed that. We went to the best ice cream place in our lives. It's called Frigidarium. I had their own home made flavor and stracciatella, which I then had dipped in heated dark chocolate. It was unbelievable. Thanks Michelle, we owe you one! Lastly, our hostel. We stayed in Thousand Sunny Hostel. This was a little appartment where we shared a 4 share room with an ensuite washroom. This hostel was really clean with some awesome staff and an adorable dog named Zoro. He was bad ass. Our next stop, Naples.
We took a high speed train from Rome to Naples and by accident booked business class. This is an awesome accident. For the first and probably last time on this trip, I felt rich! It was the first class of trains, we loved it. We almost didn't come to Naples because of how dangerous everyone said that it was, however after already paying for the train and hostel, we couldn't justify not coming. So we gave it a shot. Upon arriving at the train station we took the sketchiest taxi ride of our lives. We were dropped off a good distance from the hostel at close to 11pm, when we heard this little old man shout down from the balcony that he was Giovanni. So up the stairs we went to Giovannis Home. This was the best hostel we had stayed in so far. We had free dinner almost every night, even lunch on some days. We booked an 8 share room, which he ended up giving to just us for the whole 4 nights so we could have some privacy, that was really nice. The atmosphere was great and we made some good travelling friends, Devon & Emma. We went around the central area of Naples and did the underground tunnels as well which were interesting. We spent a full day seeing Erculano, and Pompeii which was bigger than I thought. Of course, we climbed to the top of Mount Vesuvious, THAT is what I call a hike. Naples was awesome, but I would only recommend going here if you stay with Giovanni as he made us feel like we were in a home away from home with the best advice possible.
Now to bring us up to date. Venice. We flew from Naples into Venice, which is where we are right now. Venice is so surreal. Its hard to describe, my advice, come and see it for yourself. We ended up meeting up with Devon and Emma as they were spending the weekend in Generator Hostel as well. We met another canadian called MC who is studying in France, and we hung out with them for the weekend. Together we went to Murano and Burano, two of Venices islands which are famous for their blown glass and lace work. Each house is a different bright colour, it looks like a cartoon. One of the prettiest places I have ever been. We also did the typical tourist trip of a Gondola Ride. This was awesome, 80 euros for 6 people to split, so it worked out to be quite cheap. We have eaten at Alfredo's alot, which is one of the best pasta places i've ever been to! We have 3 more nights here in Venice, then we are off to Greece!
Sorry this post was so long, but at least you know what kind of shenanigans I've been up to for the past two years!
So until next time, lots of love,
Carlie xoxox
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