After a marathon trip, I finally arrived in Athens. I left Rome at 7:30am yesterday morning, took a train to Bari, an overnight boat to Patras and then another train to Athens, finally arriving at 6:30pm. The train from Patras was certainly interesting... there were a bunch of backpackers all waiting for the same train to Athens. Halfway, the train stopped and we had to get onto a different train, which had a sort of a Y shaped line - we started on one limb and Athens was on the other, but to get there we had to go down the trunk and then back again. We were all very confused, but the Greek people on the train told us to stay on the train, so we did. We made it in the end.
Unfortunately, after arriving at my hostel, I discovered that it doesn't have a kitchen. I was fairly sure that they referenced a kitchen on their website, but apparently not. That's not great - apparently a lot of Greek food includes eggplant (aubergine), which makes me very sick, so I was hoping to self-cater to avoid the possibility of not understanding what I was ordering. The hostel is a converted hotel, where they've just taken the double beds out of the rooms and chucked in two bunk beds. It's also in the red light district, and stinks of cigarette smoke. I met some other tourists who are staying at a different hostel, so I might find out how good theirs is and leave this one if theirs sounds much better - hurts to have paid for 4 nights, but I'm tired of crappy hostels.
I've been a-plotting, and it looks like I can do the things I really wanted to in 3 days - tomorrow I am hoping to visit the Acropolis/Parthenon, and it looks like Delphi and Mycenae are both about 3 hours away in a bus (in opposite directions from each other), so I should be able to do two day trips for about 20 Euro return each (tour bus tours are 85 Euro each minimum).
Time for bed perhaps.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Lazy Sunday afternoon in Rome...
Yesterday I visited Ostia Antica, which literally means the Ancient River Mouth - it was the old port of Rome before the Tiber changed its course. It is all ruins now, and the site is HUGE - it's at least a kilometre or two long. There are ancient mosaics everywhere, columns, buildings, statues, and a huge ampithreatre... it was really cool. It was a beautiful sunny day too - I was walking around in a t-shirt for the first time since I left Australia :) And after so many cities, it was really nice to be out somewhere with grass, trees and birds.
I met up with some American music students in the hostel who were pretty cool, so we had been hanging out eating gelati, drinking cheap crappy wine and playing Uno. A nice change from hanging around on my own. I have also discovered that nutella gelato is the most awesome ice cream in the universe. Seriously. If heaven existed, it would serve nutella gelato. Mmm. (Note to all those people who said "you'll lose weight in Europe" - totally wrong.)
Today I walked to the other city of the city to visit a huge market, where I bought myself an Italian leather wallet and a fake Prada handbag. After this I walked all the way to the Vatican, where I was planning on visiting the Sistine Chapel, but unfortunately it closed at lunchtime.
Because it's Sunday, everything in Rome is closed. I have no idea how they manage to run an economy when people only work when they feel like it. Shops are generally open from around 10am to 1:30, and then from 4 to 7pm... Saturdays some things are open in the morning, and Saturday afternoon and Sunday pretty much everything is closed. I also have no idea how they get away with having absolutely no customer service skills, but that's another story.
So here I am having a lazy Sunday afternoon on the internet. Tomorrow morning I catch a train to Bari, which is where the boat to Greece departs from. I'm trying not to think about 16 hours on a boat. I did manage to pick up some seasickness tablets, just in case.
I met up with some American music students in the hostel who were pretty cool, so we had been hanging out eating gelati, drinking cheap crappy wine and playing Uno. A nice change from hanging around on my own. I have also discovered that nutella gelato is the most awesome ice cream in the universe. Seriously. If heaven existed, it would serve nutella gelato. Mmm. (Note to all those people who said "you'll lose weight in Europe" - totally wrong.)
Today I walked to the other city of the city to visit a huge market, where I bought myself an Italian leather wallet and a fake Prada handbag. After this I walked all the way to the Vatican, where I was planning on visiting the Sistine Chapel, but unfortunately it closed at lunchtime.
Because it's Sunday, everything in Rome is closed. I have no idea how they manage to run an economy when people only work when they feel like it. Shops are generally open from around 10am to 1:30, and then from 4 to 7pm... Saturdays some things are open in the morning, and Saturday afternoon and Sunday pretty much everything is closed. I also have no idea how they get away with having absolutely no customer service skills, but that's another story.
So here I am having a lazy Sunday afternoon on the internet. Tomorrow morning I catch a train to Bari, which is where the boat to Greece departs from. I'm trying not to think about 16 hours on a boat. I did manage to pick up some seasickness tablets, just in case.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
A day in Rome...
This morning it was raining again (surprise surprise). While wandering to the Colosseum, I stumbled upon some sort of political rally. There were Communists there! I didn't think Communists existed anymore!
After visiting the Colosseum, I tried to go to the Palatine, but apparently it was closed to due a strike. (Of course, they didn't advertise this at the Colosseum where one buys the combined same-day ticket for both.) I'm guessing this is the march I ran into.
In the afternoon I visited the Trevi Fountain, which was much bigger than I was expecting, the Spanish Steps, and wandered up Via del Corso to Piazza Popolo or something, passing a few piazzas and obelisks on the way.
I can't say I really like Rome - it's dirty, traffic is a constant rush hour and there are always crowds of people everywhere (the metro is packed all day). Customer service is terrible - the minute they finish serving you, they start talking to the next customer without even saying thank you or goodbye. People don't walk places, they meander like they have all the time in the world.
On the upside, the hostel has free breakfast and dinner, which is a nice change. I wanted to visit Pompeii, but the tours are €140, which is more than a little out of my price range, so tomorrow I think I'll visit Ostea Antica instead.
After visiting the Colosseum, I tried to go to the Palatine, but apparently it was closed to due a strike. (Of course, they didn't advertise this at the Colosseum where one buys the combined same-day ticket for both.) I'm guessing this is the march I ran into.
In the afternoon I visited the Trevi Fountain, which was much bigger than I was expecting, the Spanish Steps, and wandered up Via del Corso to Piazza Popolo or something, passing a few piazzas and obelisks on the way.
I can't say I really like Rome - it's dirty, traffic is a constant rush hour and there are always crowds of people everywhere (the metro is packed all day). Customer service is terrible - the minute they finish serving you, they start talking to the next customer without even saying thank you or goodbye. People don't walk places, they meander like they have all the time in the world.
On the upside, the hostel has free breakfast and dinner, which is a nice change. I wanted to visit Pompeii, but the tours are €140, which is more than a little out of my price range, so tomorrow I think I'll visit Ostea Antica instead.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Weather with me...
I should really apologise to the other tourists who happen to be visiting places at the same time as I am - I seem to be dragging a huge raincloud behind me. Yes, today, as per the last week, it was raining.
Last night in my Venetian hostel was hilarious. The hostel had assigned beds - all the beds have numbers, and they give you the number of your bed when you check in. I checked in, was given bed 11, went up to my room, and found sheets on the bed. I went back to reception and said "someone is in that bed, there are sheets on it". Reception said that someone had probably just forgotten to take the sheets off when checking out, so I should just bring them downstairs. (I knew this wasn't likely - someone was in the wrong bed.) After dinner I was sitting on my bed reading when I am accosted by an angry Asian girl - "this bed taken! get off my bed!". Her mother was there too and started pointing and ranting at me in what I think was Cantonese or Mandarin. I showed her the bed number, my key number, and pointed her to her own bed. She started yelling - "no, that my bed, I sleep there last night, my sheets". (I hate yelling.) By this time, the whole room was listening, and one of the other occupants of the room stepped in to get shouted at too. I gave up pretty fast - "You have the wrong bed. Go and talk to reception." and went back to reading. 10 minutes later, the hostel reception guy walks in with her, and she starts yelling at him. He's pretty much an Italian stereotype, and starts yelling at her and waving his hands around - "why never you look at numbers? this your bed, go get sheets, make bed. not my fault you can't read!" After 10 minutes of this he laughs at her and walks out. She realises she isn't going to get her own way and heads off to get new sheets, and her mother (who is also in the wrong bed), moves her sheets across - and of course, I get pointed fingers and looks and what I'm guessing was verbal abuse in whatever language it was for the next two hours. (Your question will be - why didn't I just take a different bed when I checked in? Because Murphy's Law says that someone will check in at 11pm and be given the bed I took, and reception will make me change beds. I'd rather not have the hassle.)
The fun with the Asian guests wasn't over yet though - at 11pm, 14 out of 16 room occupants were in bed trying to sleep (turns out those "like, totally" girls were on a school trip and their teachers were in the room), but the two others are still walking around talking and rustling plastic bags with their lights on. At 12:30am they finally go to bed, so we can too. Ten minutes later though, the snoring starts. This wasn't the annoying snoring of the previous night, it was an earthquake emanating from the old woman's bed. Soon there are girls from the rooms on either side of ours congregating in our room - that's at least 45 people she's keeping awake. They finally poke her and wake her up and ask her to roll over. After another rude tirade, she does and at 1am, we finally get to sleep.
At 5am, a loud alarm goes off. Who should it belong to, but the old woman, who gets up, turns the light on and starts rustling plastic bags again. I can't believe it and hope she'll go back to sleep - I have to be up at 6:30am to catch a train, but I'm hoping I can get another hour's sleep in. No such luck - she starts boiling water and cooking noodles in a stove next to her bed. I give up and get up. When checking out, I tell the people behind the desk that someone is cooking food in the room and leave. Sometimes hostelling is just one joke on top of another.
This afternoon I arrived in Rome, raincloud in tow. It's not exactly what I had in mind - the ancient ruins are there, but they're right next to Metro stations... it seems a little strange. I got drenched walking around the Colosseum and wandered around for another hour venting my frustrations at the weather on the annoying umbrella salesmen who followed me around. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for sightseeing.
Last night in my Venetian hostel was hilarious. The hostel had assigned beds - all the beds have numbers, and they give you the number of your bed when you check in. I checked in, was given bed 11, went up to my room, and found sheets on the bed. I went back to reception and said "someone is in that bed, there are sheets on it". Reception said that someone had probably just forgotten to take the sheets off when checking out, so I should just bring them downstairs. (I knew this wasn't likely - someone was in the wrong bed.) After dinner I was sitting on my bed reading when I am accosted by an angry Asian girl - "this bed taken! get off my bed!". Her mother was there too and started pointing and ranting at me in what I think was Cantonese or Mandarin. I showed her the bed number, my key number, and pointed her to her own bed. She started yelling - "no, that my bed, I sleep there last night, my sheets". (I hate yelling.) By this time, the whole room was listening, and one of the other occupants of the room stepped in to get shouted at too. I gave up pretty fast - "You have the wrong bed. Go and talk to reception." and went back to reading. 10 minutes later, the hostel reception guy walks in with her, and she starts yelling at him. He's pretty much an Italian stereotype, and starts yelling at her and waving his hands around - "why never you look at numbers? this your bed, go get sheets, make bed. not my fault you can't read!" After 10 minutes of this he laughs at her and walks out. She realises she isn't going to get her own way and heads off to get new sheets, and her mother (who is also in the wrong bed), moves her sheets across - and of course, I get pointed fingers and looks and what I'm guessing was verbal abuse in whatever language it was for the next two hours. (Your question will be - why didn't I just take a different bed when I checked in? Because Murphy's Law says that someone will check in at 11pm and be given the bed I took, and reception will make me change beds. I'd rather not have the hassle.)
The fun with the Asian guests wasn't over yet though - at 11pm, 14 out of 16 room occupants were in bed trying to sleep (turns out those "like, totally" girls were on a school trip and their teachers were in the room), but the two others are still walking around talking and rustling plastic bags with their lights on. At 12:30am they finally go to bed, so we can too. Ten minutes later though, the snoring starts. This wasn't the annoying snoring of the previous night, it was an earthquake emanating from the old woman's bed. Soon there are girls from the rooms on either side of ours congregating in our room - that's at least 45 people she's keeping awake. They finally poke her and wake her up and ask her to roll over. After another rude tirade, she does and at 1am, we finally get to sleep.
At 5am, a loud alarm goes off. Who should it belong to, but the old woman, who gets up, turns the light on and starts rustling plastic bags again. I can't believe it and hope she'll go back to sleep - I have to be up at 6:30am to catch a train, but I'm hoping I can get another hour's sleep in. No such luck - she starts boiling water and cooking noodles in a stove next to her bed. I give up and get up. When checking out, I tell the people behind the desk that someone is cooking food in the room and leave. Sometimes hostelling is just one joke on top of another.
This afternoon I arrived in Rome, raincloud in tow. It's not exactly what I had in mind - the ancient ruins are there, but they're right next to Metro stations... it seems a little strange. I got drenched walking around the Colosseum and wandered around for another hour venting my frustrations at the weather on the annoying umbrella salesmen who followed me around. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for sightseeing.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Alone in Venice...
Sometimes night trains are great... other times, they're not quite so awesome. Last night on the way from Vienna to Venice I was in a sleeper with five Koreans who didn't speak English. They spent 2 hours before bed taking off their make-up and turned the heat up as far as it could go. At 1am I woke up when the girl above me (it's always the person directly above me) started snoring. The room was boiling - it was like being inside an oven. I got up, turned the heat right down and spent somewhere close to an hour kicking and punching her bunk - to no avail, every time she woke up, she went back to sleep without rolling over. Eventually I fell asleep out of pure exhaustion. An hour later (3am), the passport guys came through and woke everyone up, although I don't know why, as we weren't going outside the borders of the Schengen thingy. Blessedly, snoring girl had stopped snoring! I soon realised why - turning the heat right down made her turn onto her side and curl up into a ball to keep warm. Unfortunately my wonderful roommates noticed that I had turned the heat down and turned it back to the "oven" setting again. I gave up and slept fitfully until 6am, when they started putting their makeup on again. (It's an overnight train, no one expects you to look like you just stepped off a catwalk...). We actually got breakfast on this train, so after bread, jam and coffee I was feeling a little more alert and managed to find an empty carriage to hang around in for the 2 hours until Venice.
Unfortunately, my genius plan backfired - there are no showers at Venice train station. Tired and in desperate need of a shower, I deciphered the public transport ticketing system and eventually after half an hour of platform hopping, found myself aboard a vaporetto to the hostel. I had tried to book this hostel earlier via email, but got no reply - this is actually really annoying, because if I didn't get a bed, I would have to head to another city to find somewhere to sleep for the night. After 45 minutes on the ferry (and we all know how much I love boats), I arrived at the hostel... only to discover a sign on the door saying "Closed from 9:30am to 1:30pm, check-in from 1:30pm". Great - tired, in desperate need of a shower, and now having to carry my heavy backpack around because the hostel was closed.
Did I mention that it was freezing cold, grey and raining? I headed over to Piazza San Marco, which was half-underwater with little boardwalks everywhere, and dodged tourists for 45 minutes, before giving up and finding a restaurant that would allow a solo person with a huge backpack to take up a table for lunch. Pizza was actually quite nice :) I eventually headed back to the hostel and sat around reading until it opened at 1:30pm.
Short story is I did get a bed, but I'm doubtful of how much sleep it will provide - this hostel runs only 16 bed dorms (eugh), and upon walking in, what should I find but a bunch of 18 year olds singing dodgy pop songs and talking about all of the wine they were going to drink tonight ("like, totally!").
After that much needed shower I spent the afternoon wandering around laughing at those fake-designer bag vendors evading the police in the backstreets near the Piazza, and ended up catching a romantic twilight vaporetto back to the hostel with my photo of Stephen. Venice is quite pretty after all.
Unfortunately, my genius plan backfired - there are no showers at Venice train station. Tired and in desperate need of a shower, I deciphered the public transport ticketing system and eventually after half an hour of platform hopping, found myself aboard a vaporetto to the hostel. I had tried to book this hostel earlier via email, but got no reply - this is actually really annoying, because if I didn't get a bed, I would have to head to another city to find somewhere to sleep for the night. After 45 minutes on the ferry (and we all know how much I love boats), I arrived at the hostel... only to discover a sign on the door saying "Closed from 9:30am to 1:30pm, check-in from 1:30pm". Great - tired, in desperate need of a shower, and now having to carry my heavy backpack around because the hostel was closed.
Did I mention that it was freezing cold, grey and raining? I headed over to Piazza San Marco, which was half-underwater with little boardwalks everywhere, and dodged tourists for 45 minutes, before giving up and finding a restaurant that would allow a solo person with a huge backpack to take up a table for lunch. Pizza was actually quite nice :) I eventually headed back to the hostel and sat around reading until it opened at 1:30pm.
Short story is I did get a bed, but I'm doubtful of how much sleep it will provide - this hostel runs only 16 bed dorms (eugh), and upon walking in, what should I find but a bunch of 18 year olds singing dodgy pop songs and talking about all of the wine they were going to drink tonight ("like, totally!").
After that much needed shower I spent the afternoon wandering around laughing at those fake-designer bag vendors evading the police in the backstreets near the Piazza, and ended up catching a romantic twilight vaporetto back to the hostel with my photo of Stephen. Venice is quite pretty after all.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
A different day trip...
After consulting the Magical Book of Possibilities (also known as the European Rail Timetable), we decided to change our day trip from Salzburg to the closer and potentially more interesting Budapest, Hungary.
Budapest was... interesting. It didn't give a great vibe on arrival - the whole area around the train station looks like it belongs in a communist comic book, grey concrete, broken windows, dirty run down shops. We walked along a very very long street and eventually made it to the Danube though, and the city showed a totally different face - the Parliament building is beautiful, the Danube is wide and actually looked fairly clean with cool bridges, and there was even an art show. We actually didn't realise that tomorrow is Hungarian Republic Day or something, so most of the shops were closed (4 day weekend I think), but walking around was pretty good. We eventually found our way to the Heroes Square, which was huge and had really cool statues. Pictures to come when I can find a computer that allows it. (Would you believe this hostel is running Ubuntu?)
Tomorrow night I am catching a sleeper train to Venice, where I can hopefully find a bed for the night - apparently hostels there have never heard of online booking.
Budapest was... interesting. It didn't give a great vibe on arrival - the whole area around the train station looks like it belongs in a communist comic book, grey concrete, broken windows, dirty run down shops. We walked along a very very long street and eventually made it to the Danube though, and the city showed a totally different face - the Parliament building is beautiful, the Danube is wide and actually looked fairly clean with cool bridges, and there was even an art show. We actually didn't realise that tomorrow is Hungarian Republic Day or something, so most of the shops were closed (4 day weekend I think), but walking around was pretty good. We eventually found our way to the Heroes Square, which was huge and had really cool statues. Pictures to come when I can find a computer that allows it. (Would you believe this hostel is running Ubuntu?)
Tomorrow night I am catching a sleeper train to Venice, where I can hopefully find a bed for the night - apparently hostels there have never heard of online booking.
Monday, October 22, 2007
You shall not eat strudel...
I arrived in cold, raining Vienna yesterday evening at around 4pm, and checked into the hostel. Heading out to find food for dinner, I walked past a bunch of supermarkets, and thought "I'll just see what's up this street and buy groceries on the way back..." - not expecting that the supermarkets would all close at 5pm on Saturday. So last night I went out for dinner on my own - I've been avoiding it partly to save money and partly because the smoking in restaurants puts me off my food. I went to dinner early to avoid crowds, and sat in the furthest corner away from the only two other people in the restaurant... and five minutes after I ordered someone comes in, sits down 2 tables away from me and gets a pipe out. Seriously. I enjoyed my Wiener Schnitzel (not quite as big as my head by diameter or volume) and my huge stein of beer anyway, and got out of there as quickly as I could.
Boon arrived this morning, and I went out to the airport to meet him - after checking back into the hostel and having lunch in a cafe, we were wandering around and found a beisl (apparently a local pub) advertising apple strudel outside. We were still a little peckish, so we went in - after being sat at a table with someone else, and waiting 10 minutes for a waitress, we tried to order our apple strudel, but the waitress rudely told us "this is not a coffee house", took the menus away and refused to serve us. So much for hospitality.
Apart from the rude locals (the person in the tourist information booth was also rude when I asked her which tram to catch), Vienna has been cold (currently 7 degrees), raining on and off, and doesn't seem that interesting a city. We visited the Hofsburg today and saw lots of cutlery and crockery, visited Obie's recommended Cafe Demel which was packed and had unimpressive sacher torte, and wandered around. Pretty much everything was closed.
Tomorrow the plan is to head to Salzburg for a day trip. Unfortunately I think I have some sort of throat or chest infection, so not feeling the greatest - I am under orders to dress warmly and drink lots of juice. Hopefully I feel better for the delightful 3 degree maximum in Salzburg tomorrow. Maybe I'll get that snow after all.
Boon arrived this morning, and I went out to the airport to meet him - after checking back into the hostel and having lunch in a cafe, we were wandering around and found a beisl (apparently a local pub) advertising apple strudel outside. We were still a little peckish, so we went in - after being sat at a table with someone else, and waiting 10 minutes for a waitress, we tried to order our apple strudel, but the waitress rudely told us "this is not a coffee house", took the menus away and refused to serve us. So much for hospitality.
Apart from the rude locals (the person in the tourist information booth was also rude when I asked her which tram to catch), Vienna has been cold (currently 7 degrees), raining on and off, and doesn't seem that interesting a city. We visited the Hofsburg today and saw lots of cutlery and crockery, visited Obie's recommended Cafe Demel which was packed and had unimpressive sacher torte, and wandered around. Pretty much everything was closed.
Tomorrow the plan is to head to Salzburg for a day trip. Unfortunately I think I have some sort of throat or chest infection, so not feeling the greatest - I am under orders to dress warmly and drink lots of juice. Hopefully I feel better for the delightful 3 degree maximum in Salzburg tomorrow. Maybe I'll get that snow after all.
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