Last Friday, Greer, Caitlin & I met at 5am (I woke at 3:50am) to catch the first train from High Wycombe at 5:32am to go to Wimbledon! Caitlin & I had made a couple of yummy salad and mozzarella rolls the day before to take for lunch, plus snacks like peanuts (which we can't eat openly at school because of allergies amongst the girls), sultanas and apples. It sounds healthy when I write it like that...
As we walked to the station we were pretty excited - it was so light already, I was in shorts due to the nice weather the last couple of days, and we even saw the cute sight of a man dropping off glass milk bottles to people's front doors! We bought train tickets from the machine for the first time, since no-one was up that early to sell them to us. From Marylebone, we caught a train to Waterloo, then onto Wimbledon. Something I'd printed out which was supposed to show us the journey told me it'd take 28 minutes to Waterloo even though it was only about 4 stops. Luckily it didn't take nearly that long. At Wimbledon station there was a little stall set up where the man and woman inside called out to us 'going to the tennis?' then gave us the advice 'there's a good way to get there and a bad way: the bus is more expensive and doesn't get you to the back of the queue and the taxi is cheaper and gets you right at the end of the queue' so obviously we took the taxi (£2.50 each) after collecting some info from them.
The taxi ride was probably less than 10 minutes. We headed in the direction everyone was going and had our first glimpse of 'the queue'. So. Many. People. We followed directions to sit/stand in one line for over an hour, then we all moved and sat/stood in another line for a long time. Finally we started on the final movement towards the grounds, which was a long slow walk. Security checked our bags (luckily they didn't pull out the bigger of Greer's 2 Aussie flags as there was a size restriction) and then we finally got to the ticket sellers and bought our grounds passes! By the time we'd got in it was 11:30am and we'd arrived at 7:30am. Luckily it was beautiful and sunny most of that waiting time.
Games didn't start until 12 noon (that's weird, right? They start in the morning at the Aus Open, don't they?) so we looked at the Order of Play and then went and found the court where Hewitt/Luczak would be playing the second game, and where Aussie Jessica Moore was playing doubles in the first game. That was a pretty weak game all round and Moore & her partner lost. Casey Dellaqua and another Aussie were playing on the court behind so when the people in the row behind us vacated their seats, I moved back and had a view of both courts. Dellaqua's game was pretty bad too, I don't think I saw a rally the whole time I watched. The courts were really cute and intimate though, only 3 rows of seats on each side. You could see (and hear!) the crowd for centre court from where we were sitting. Oh how I wished I was part of it. Usually it's around January every year I get nostalgic about Tennis, when the Aus Open is on, but this year it was in June.
The Hewitt game was much better, the Germans they were playing against were really good, especially one's serve! The Aussie boys came out with their backwards caps of course, and it was really funny when they were letting each other know whose ball it was - 'yours mate' could be heard by everyone. We heard 'come on' a couple of times too, and not just from Hewie; the German got into it too. Unfortunately our boys lost that one too.
We'd already started eating our food during those 2 games, and then we went to check who was playing elsewhere. We bought our strawberries and cream which were yummm, and only £2.50 so not totally ridiculously expensive. We wandered around to court 3, the biggest one that ground pass holders can see, where Tomic was finishing his game from the day before, but there was even a queue there to get in and we had no chance.
We found the court where Sam Stosur was playing doubles against Jankovic, which was also a good game, and Stosur WON! These woman are so strong, just watching their serves, shots and muscles! Stosur's partner was really smiley and Sam even gave a little bit at one stage. The losers were also really gracious and friendly at the end. As we headed away from the court, Sam was signing autographs/taking photos and I just missed out! So shattered. Literally one girl caught her before she totally got away but I didn't want to be too harassing.
Anyway so then we checked out court 3 again, where Monfils was now playing but we were told we had pretty much no chance to get in. So we looked at the game schedule again and saw that there were some singles games on another court (I was kind of sick of doubles by this time). We queued again (pretty much my life on this day), and the weather got horrible and started raining. People started coming out from the court in ones and twos but there were 3 of us so no good. Then they covered the courts to keep them dry and eventually we got in but only to decide that that game was definitely not being finished that day. The guys who controlled who went in and out were from the fire brigade and I think they had to be there as part of work and were told nothing about whether the game was ever going to be restarted. So we waited for a bit once we got in, put the Aussie flags on to keep dry/warm and then headed back out, via the shop. The cashier looked at my flag and said 'you're not going to see Murray by any chance?'. Um, no. There is more to this flag than a Union Jack, lady!
On the way out of the grounds one of the workers told us we shouldn't have been let in with a flag that big, but whatcha gonna do. We caught a double-decker back to Wimbledon station, through Wimbledon town which looks quite cute, then caught the trains back. We were pretty tired by this stage and by the time we got back it was about 9:30pm and raining as we walked up the hill. Pretty much had a shower and went straight to bed at 10:30pm. Good day though.
All the gaps between Turkey and last Friday will hopefully be filled in before I head off for Summer, next Friday 8th July to Athens!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Turkey part 2
So, after that crazy night we woke up at 7am on Saturday 23rd April. J & I both felt pretty horrible, although Janet managed to make up some funny little songs while packing - with a bogan accent rhyming 'today' with 'me' and other things like that. I'm glad I wrote that down to remember actually... We had breakfast about 8am - just felt like basic stuff: cornflakes, plain bread, and stupidly a boiled egg and a piece of cheese.
We left about 8:45am (with me managing to throw up on the bus, over all my stuff but thankfully not on anyone else) for Pergamon, another ancient city which we had to take a cable car up to. It went really high, a bit scary but really amazing views. We saw more cats up the top. We had fantastic views the whole time we were up there, walking around through ruins, discovering a gorgeous lake from high above it. Also another huuuuge theatre. We took the cable car back down after a couple of hours.
We stopped at a restaurant/service station area for lunch, where I got a cheese and tomato pide for 10TL. I regretted that, though, when others got a yummy-looking buffet of rice and vegie sauces for 15TL which ended up being 12TL because a lot of the food was apparently gone by the time we arrived. Obviously I wasn't feeling so sick by this time (although nothing keeps me from yummy food)!
Our next stop was the ex-Greek island of Cunda (Choonda) just as I was falling asleep on the bus. I'm thinking we either must have gotten on a ferry or gone across a bridge. Probably the bridge. It was absolutely gorgeous. There were little market stalls (the ring and bracelet I got both broke that day, but fixable, but the vendor wouldn't give me a discount on another broken ring), restaurants along the water, and a few boats - SO. PRETTY! I have a couple of photos from this place that are possibly the best of the whole trip.
We arrived at our hotel about 7pm (I can't remember where - the itinerary says Bergama but that doesn't really ring a bell), with 5 people in each room this time so I was with Janet, Caitlin, Rose and Kate. I washed my clothes that I'd thrown up on (lovely, huh?)and tried to make them dry by hanging them outside. This was the coldest place we'd been though so not much luck there. We half-packed our day packs for the next day - night at Galipoli - and enjoyed the fact that there were hammocks outside and we were right on the beach again.
We went down to the fancy-schmancy dining room where individual bowls of beans and salad were already on the tables. Then we got our soup (with Janet making animal noises and gestures to ask if it was vegetarian - even though the Turkish word for vegetarian is very similar and we didn't get why he didn't understand!) and vego meal of rice and chips and tomato/cucumber. The desserts sat in front of us for the whole meal - sweet balls of deliciousness which made me so full!
We went back to our rooms, finished packing, walked to the beach to have a look with Caitlin. Had a horrible shower with no light in the bathroom, the showerhead wouldn't stay up so had to hold it the whole time and NO hot water. Slept don't know what time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next 2 days are kinda mixed together because I didn't get much sleep. On Sunday 24th April we got up at 7am after a freeeeezing night when no-one slept very well. For breakfast I had 2 pieces of toast (on an ingenious toaster which you put the bread onto a rotating grate and the bread falls through at the end), honey, feta, more cheese, Nesquik (!), olives.
We left at 8.15am, stopping at Troy for a bit, where we saw 4000 year old ruins, a fake Trojan horse which we took photos in the windows of, etc.
Then we drove on and stopped at a shopping centre/supermarket to get food for lunch and dinner that night, breakfast the next morning and possibly lunch the next day. We were to be at Galipoli for the ANZAC dawn service that night. So I bought really healthy stuff like a loaf of bread, Nutella to share, biscuits with Smartie-type things, Snickers & Twix (it was Easter after all although there were no eggs anywhere!), pretzels, corn cakes, pesto to share, bananas and apples. For lunch I bought a huge (didn't realise it would be that big) baked potato with cheese, corn, olives and carrot which was absolutely delish.
We drove about 15 minutes, then onto a ferry for another 15 mins then a bit longer to Galipoli on the other side. Once we arrived we were in a big bus queue so we had to wait a while. We eventually got out, got our bus number tags and walked along the unmade road to a grassy area near the entrance. It was something like 2pm but we weren't going to be let in till 6pm - but you needed to get there early to be near the front of the line to claim a big enough spot for 300 Topdeck travellers. We sat on the grass for a while, it was really sunny so stripped down to t-shirts and cranked out the sunscreen. The portaloos around the place were horrible; I managed to grab a bunch of toilet seat covers thinking they were paper hand towels and then had nowhere to put them, whoops.
We started lining up at the entrance gate eventually, only to be totally squished, have to squish even more for trucks to come through the crowd, and eventually be told NO-ONE THROUGH TILL 6PM so we sat back down only after being promised chocolate cake by one of the workers. I lost my thumb ring at some stage, I think when I was heading to the toilet and took off my rings before I went. Devo :( I also lost my Murano pendant and a Turkish bracelet the first night out in Kusadasi, not doing well.
We 'lined up' again about 5:15pm and the gates were opened a bit before 6, so slowly though, about 8 people let through at a time for security checks. We picked up arm bands and info packs then rushed to find the hopefully awesome spot that other Topdeck-ers had claimed. We weren't right at the front where apparently we normally would be but they'd laid out a big tarp so we quickly jumped on a bit of that.
We sat, ate, walked around, gradually building up our layers again as the sun went down. Everyone got into their sleeping bags and I was freezing and upset since I didn't have one (couldn't fit it in my backpack). Caitlin had brought some 'space blankets' though so we shared those although they ripped and didn't do much for the temperature.
I think music and things started about 8pm, possibly some before that. Some woman with a great voice kept returning with the Aus/NZ orchestras every now and then. Documentaries on the big screens started something like 9:30pm. Everyone started going to sleep, hoping to be semi-awake for when the dawn service came around. I got about an hour's sleep then woke up freezing and decided that trying anymore was just not worth it.
I went with a couple of women next to me to see a Today Show reporter (Sarah Harris I have discovered) interviewing a few people. Pretty sure I was in the background of a lot of the filming but had no time to let anyone in Aus know to turn on the TV. It was really hard to get back to my sleeping spot without stepping on lots of sleeping people, but I was warmer from standing anyway. I found Rose awake and we just walked back and forth along the road for a couple of hours just trying to stay warm. A young Turkish worker even asked for a photo with Rose, just a little bit funny. While we were still up and walking, a random film came on the screen which looked like a really bad movie trailer but we couldn't work it out.
Eventually everyone was told to wake up and we saw the speeches from the Prime Ministers. Then we saw picture and heard descriptions of ANZACs who had died, the youngest being 15 years 10 months plus mainly 18-23 year olds which was very sad. I didn't really cry though which I was very surprised about, considering my tired state. Following were speeches, odes, the Aus, NZ and Turkish national anthems, 2 minutes silence and The Last Post.
The sun had really started coming up at this point and it was now definitely into Monday 25th April, ANZAC day. It was still really cold, most people packed up and got ready to head up the road for the memorial services. As you can imagine, the line for the toilets was ridiculous but moved quite quickly, thank God. We started walking towards Lone Pine, where the Australian service would be held, and saw a few pretty beachside cemeteries on the way, with flowers around and between all the graves. Caitlin found her ancestor's grave in the first one. Continuing walking, now uphill, we all ended up with really burnt faces. We got to the Shell Beach cemetery - something about a famous cricket game there? - and eventually got to Lone Pine. It was a bit of a tiring walk, but that definitely added to the feeling of empathy towards the soldiers who had walked the same route 96 years before us. We found a spot on the grass in front of the stands and the orchestra was already playing, although we were a bit early. The ceremony started at 10:05am; I lay down with my knees still up but ashamedly I kept falling asleep - and waking up to every applause. We heard the same kind of things as at the Dawn Service - the anthem, silence, Last Post plus a couple of emotional poems.
We started towards Chunuk Blair (the site of the NZ service) where the buses would collect us from. It was a long steep walk, with a couple more cemeteries along the way; this time Rose found her ancestor's grave. We got stopped for a few minutes at the Turkish memorial site then headed onwards and upwards. I power walked the last 10 minutes or so and was hot and sweaty by the time we reached our destination. The grandstand for the service was crowded so we found someone with a big Topdeck flag and sat outside on the grass. We finished most of our food as it was lunchtime by now. Try Nutella and banana in a roll, so yum. Definitely ate too much Nutella overall though.
Our whole group eventually came together and we waited for bus 384 to be called out. Tolga said we'd be third but we weren't... as we drove away, though, we could see hundreds of buses still lined up on the other side of the hill so we did pretty well.
On the bus we had a competition - we paid 1TL to guess what time we'd arrive and the closest person would win all the money. It was 2:08pm and I had absolutely no idea, I ended up being about an hour and half off. We stopped a couple of times for the toilet - I can proudly say I squatted a total of twice the whole trip. I fell asleep a couple of times; Old School and Eurotrip were put on but I didn't see much of either.
We arrived back in Istanbul at 7:34pm and Felicity/Flick (christened Flaps at the start of the tour) won the munnay. Everyone grabbed bags, went inside the hotel (same one as start of tour), got room keys and headed up. There was no real group goodbye which was a bit sad. We had showers then went downstairs to say bye to some people heading out for final drinks - I think we were just tooo tired. We got free baklava from the hotel which was nice. We got to sleep about 11:15pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So that was basically the end of the tour. But Caitlin, Janet and I were staying a few extra days in Istanbul. On Tuesday 26th April we got up at 8:45am, got dressed and went down to breaky. Not that many people from our group were down there so not many goodbyes :( Delicious breaky but ate too much as usual - chocolate chip bread, olives, cheeses, more bread, yoghurt and fruit syrup, different corn flake-type cereal. We went out and sat in the lobby with Kasia for a bit, hoping to see some more of the group to say goodbye to, but hardly saw any.
We went up to our room, packed our stuff then headed to Georgie, Aisling & Kate's room which G, A and Rose managed to book for that night as well, lucky ducks.
J, C & I walked to our hostel, a good 40 minutes or so (near the restaurants we'd gone the first couple of nights) which was hard with a heavy backpack. The receptionists pretended they didn't speak English at first, thought it was pretty funny. They were actually really nice though, let us leave our bags, gave us maps and things.
We walked back to the hotel to meet the others and then we all went to the Grand Bazaar again. We went via some Turkish baths but they wouldn't do facials without the whole service. I bought some cushion covers for home, bracelets for friends and we all randomly got given free African scarves at a shop where Aisling and Georgie bought awesome hippy pants. We wandered through the bazaar, bought a few things (jewels mostly), got outside and ate at the same place we had the week before. As Kate said, it was like a circle, that we started and ended doing the same thing but we saw a whole lot of Turkey in between. Kind of weird to think about actually, it was crazy that we'd been gone that long!
Kate left to relax, catch a taxi and then fly back to London town and we went back in the bazaar. We said goodbye to G, A & R, they went back to the hotel and we went to check in at our hostel. We had an 8 bed dorm, I lay on the bottom bunk for a while before the others told me I was on the top, whoopsy. We relaxed for a couple of hours, using the wifi, etc., then went to meet any others from the tour who were still in Istanbul in the same area as those restaurants. We sat in the 2nd storey of a shisha bar on cushions which was a nice atmosphere. Some people bought drinks then most of us headed out for dinner not too far away. We got free apple tea and puffy Turkish bread and I had a veg pizza. The view from the top of the restaurant was of the mosques lit up against the sky, again just like Disneyland. I got charged less for my pizza than thought so that was a nice end to the meal.
We went back to the bar, some people had left but we filled out 2 circles of cushions. A couple of fish bowls were drunk (that sounds really weird - we all drunk a couple of 'fish bowls'). A lot of the cocktails were brought out with sparklers which was cool.
We eventually headed across the road to where we'd had drinks on our second night in Istanbul but it was midnight - and therefore closing! Some more of our tour was there so we said goodbye and to others who were now next door to the bar.
We found that our hostel was literally a 1 minute walk away - it took us 15 on the way there because we thought we had to go all the way around the mosque, no thanks to the guys working at our hostel! Still, I found the fact pretty funny. We all had showers then got to bed about 1:30am.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I pressed snooze a few times on my alarm on Wednesday 27th April, got up at 9:20am, dressed, headed upstairs to the 'rooftop terrace' for breakfast. Had yummy brown bread with 2 cheeses and tomato, egg, dried apricots, chocolate cake (what's with having dessert for breakfast in Turkey?), muesli with yoghurt and delish fruity syrup stuff. We checked out the view outside - over the sea and the mosques but with lots of ugly being-renovated or needing-renovation buildings in between plus lots of cats as usual.
We went back down to our room for a relax (still recovering from no sleep at Galipoli) and journal sesh. The workers started making beds so I followed Janet and Caitlin back upstairs to the terrace, and used the wifi and computers up there. The workers were cooking something for lunch and it smelt reeally good. After eating too much of Caitlin's leftover chocolate muesli we went out for lunch near the Grand Bazaar, past lots of tempting baklava places. Caitlin got really salty pasta for 4TL and Janet and I got a plate of 3 things - mine were rice, beans, and cabbage dolma - for 5TL. Yum but smallish.
We walked through the bazaar to find a bracelet place from the first day we were there, then decided we were too tired to think of anything particularly to do so we headed back to the hostel, stopping for baklava and Turkish delight on the way. Amazing stuff. I was still full from muesli/lunch so didn't eat it for a bit but when I did...!
We went back up to the terrace, sat inside and wrote postcards, looked through photos, used the internet.
We went out for dinner about 7:30pm at a restaurant nearby. There was one cheapish cute-looking place with a plastic-covered bit - it was raining so would have been perfect - but it was full so we found a nice restaurant. All the waiters we passed were really nice when we said we needed cheaper places, suggesting others. We got yummy bread and oil with cheese, then I got a tomato soup with mozzarella and C & J got veg noodles.
We went back to the hostel, still laughing about how close we were to all the restaurants/bars. Had showers then hit the sack at 10pm (although I wasted precious sleeping time wifi-ing so it was more like 11pm).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, Thursday 28th April, we got up about 9am and got breakfast a bit before half past. I had cheeses/tomato on bread, olives, sundried tomatoes and a delicious orange. We walked along the tram tracks (the only directions I remembered) to the Spice Bazaar, where we'd briefly gone on one of the first days after the cruise.
We went past lots of cheap funky little jewellery shops where we went a little crazy. We found the Bazaar, and had LOTS of Turkish Delight samples while Janet worked out which ones to get for her house mistresses (C & I had bought scarves for ours a couple of days before). The place she ended up choosing actually let us try whole pieces until the guy was ready to serve us, which was a long time - this place was popular. I obviously took advantage of this but definitely ate toooo much.
After that we walked through a tunnel which goes under the road where there were more shops and we all bought 5TL watches just for the sake of it. We followed the tunnel through to the other side which was on the waterfront, and fish and bread were all you could smell. We sat in one of the little places connected to boats where fish was being grilled and C & J got fresh fish rolls which were apparently very good.
We walked back underneath the road, bought some more rings then headed back along the tram line. We stopped so I could get a plate of rice with chickpeas which was tasty but weirdly greasy. These stupid Turkish guys who were definitely younger than us were harassing us as we walked so we stopped in a ceramics shop to get away from them.
We found a park and sat down for a bit, still struggling with what to actually do with our time. There were tulips everywhere plus bridges and fountains so we spent some time taking photos.
We continued on back the way we'd come, stopping at a guy on the footpath selling 1TL bracelets and all bought one. We got back to the hostel at 3:30pm - such bad tourists - and napped and used the wifi.
We went to dinner at 7:30pm, this time to the covered-in place we'd seen the night before - kind of felt like we were intruding on a possible date before another table vacated. I got potato borek which actually looked like 2 really long spring rolls but was still nice.
We were thinking of walking to the water/actually doing something but Caitlin was getting sick and we didn't think it was a good idea just 2 of us walking around Istanbul in the dark. Instead we went back to the hostel, packed our stuff, found out about the bus to the airport the next day, had showers and got to bed at 11pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday 29th April - got up about the same time as yesterday, breakfast about 9:30pm: we sat outside that morning and I had muesli, yoghurt, jam, dried apricots and an orange. Wasn't too cold so therefore quite pleasant. We finished packing totally, paid for the shuttle to the airport. We were told that we could just chill upstairs all day if we wanted, even though we'd checked out which was nice. It was Royal Wedding day and we were a bit annoyed we were missing it, while the others back at High Wycombe were heading into Hyde Park.
We headed out, with not really any plans again, looked at some shops in a little mall-type place nearby. Walked to the Spice Bazaar again. We went to find an ATM and found a whole strip of stores on the outside of the Bazaar full of cheeses and things - the one sample of Turkish mozerella made our day. Then we went inside to the same stall as the day before and I bought a bag of Turkish Delight for myself (which I still haven't opened almost 2 months later, how good am I?).
We went through the tunnel again, and the others got the same lunch as yesterday but from a different place. I bought spinach borek which didn't have enough filling :(
We headed back, buying a couple more bracelets and a ring, and a little bowl which I'd wnated the whole trip. Back at the hostel we went upstairs and watched the balcony part of the wedding on TV.
We caught our bus to the airport with a few other people from different hostels and I was really glad I sat backwards and could not see the scary driving, because I could definitely feel it!
We got to the airport at 4:50pm; our plane wasn't till 8:30pm so we waited, checked in our luggage, waited some more, headed to our gate which was changed 3 times. We were meant to start boarding at 7:30pm but didn't actually until 8:15pm and didn't leave till 9:20pm, since we were "15th in line for take-off".
The veg meal was okay - eggplant and a tiny piece of tomato with rice, salad, fruit salad, and for some reason didn't get the tomato olive dip that Caitlin got in her non-veg meal. I slept a bit. At the start the lights in the plane were off so you could see outside.
We arrived 10:50pm London time (12:30am), which was actually only 20 minutes late in the end. We went through passport control (the line for 'other nationalities' was actually shorter than the EU line this time), collected our bags and headed out to the taxis. We were told it would cost £85 and it ended up taking less than half an hour so that was ridiculous and kind of a crappy end to the holiday.
We checked out our new bathroom, which couldn't be used till Monday, grrr. Got to bed about 1:30am (3:30am for what we'd been going with).
We left about 8:45am (with me managing to throw up on the bus, over all my stuff but thankfully not on anyone else) for Pergamon, another ancient city which we had to take a cable car up to. It went really high, a bit scary but really amazing views. We saw more cats up the top. We had fantastic views the whole time we were up there, walking around through ruins, discovering a gorgeous lake from high above it. Also another huuuuge theatre. We took the cable car back down after a couple of hours.
We stopped at a restaurant/service station area for lunch, where I got a cheese and tomato pide for 10TL. I regretted that, though, when others got a yummy-looking buffet of rice and vegie sauces for 15TL which ended up being 12TL because a lot of the food was apparently gone by the time we arrived. Obviously I wasn't feeling so sick by this time (although nothing keeps me from yummy food)!
Our next stop was the ex-Greek island of Cunda (Choonda) just as I was falling asleep on the bus. I'm thinking we either must have gotten on a ferry or gone across a bridge. Probably the bridge. It was absolutely gorgeous. There were little market stalls (the ring and bracelet I got both broke that day, but fixable, but the vendor wouldn't give me a discount on another broken ring), restaurants along the water, and a few boats - SO. PRETTY! I have a couple of photos from this place that are possibly the best of the whole trip.
We arrived at our hotel about 7pm (I can't remember where - the itinerary says Bergama but that doesn't really ring a bell), with 5 people in each room this time so I was with Janet, Caitlin, Rose and Kate. I washed my clothes that I'd thrown up on (lovely, huh?)and tried to make them dry by hanging them outside. This was the coldest place we'd been though so not much luck there. We half-packed our day packs for the next day - night at Galipoli - and enjoyed the fact that there were hammocks outside and we were right on the beach again.
We went down to the fancy-schmancy dining room where individual bowls of beans and salad were already on the tables. Then we got our soup (with Janet making animal noises and gestures to ask if it was vegetarian - even though the Turkish word for vegetarian is very similar and we didn't get why he didn't understand!) and vego meal of rice and chips and tomato/cucumber. The desserts sat in front of us for the whole meal - sweet balls of deliciousness which made me so full!
We went back to our rooms, finished packing, walked to the beach to have a look with Caitlin. Had a horrible shower with no light in the bathroom, the showerhead wouldn't stay up so had to hold it the whole time and NO hot water. Slept don't know what time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next 2 days are kinda mixed together because I didn't get much sleep. On Sunday 24th April we got up at 7am after a freeeeezing night when no-one slept very well. For breakfast I had 2 pieces of toast (on an ingenious toaster which you put the bread onto a rotating grate and the bread falls through at the end), honey, feta, more cheese, Nesquik (!), olives.
We left at 8.15am, stopping at Troy for a bit, where we saw 4000 year old ruins, a fake Trojan horse which we took photos in the windows of, etc.
Then we drove on and stopped at a shopping centre/supermarket to get food for lunch and dinner that night, breakfast the next morning and possibly lunch the next day. We were to be at Galipoli for the ANZAC dawn service that night. So I bought really healthy stuff like a loaf of bread, Nutella to share, biscuits with Smartie-type things, Snickers & Twix (it was Easter after all although there were no eggs anywhere!), pretzels, corn cakes, pesto to share, bananas and apples. For lunch I bought a huge (didn't realise it would be that big) baked potato with cheese, corn, olives and carrot which was absolutely delish.
We drove about 15 minutes, then onto a ferry for another 15 mins then a bit longer to Galipoli on the other side. Once we arrived we were in a big bus queue so we had to wait a while. We eventually got out, got our bus number tags and walked along the unmade road to a grassy area near the entrance. It was something like 2pm but we weren't going to be let in till 6pm - but you needed to get there early to be near the front of the line to claim a big enough spot for 300 Topdeck travellers. We sat on the grass for a while, it was really sunny so stripped down to t-shirts and cranked out the sunscreen. The portaloos around the place were horrible; I managed to grab a bunch of toilet seat covers thinking they were paper hand towels and then had nowhere to put them, whoops.
We started lining up at the entrance gate eventually, only to be totally squished, have to squish even more for trucks to come through the crowd, and eventually be told NO-ONE THROUGH TILL 6PM so we sat back down only after being promised chocolate cake by one of the workers. I lost my thumb ring at some stage, I think when I was heading to the toilet and took off my rings before I went. Devo :( I also lost my Murano pendant and a Turkish bracelet the first night out in Kusadasi, not doing well.
We 'lined up' again about 5:15pm and the gates were opened a bit before 6, so slowly though, about 8 people let through at a time for security checks. We picked up arm bands and info packs then rushed to find the hopefully awesome spot that other Topdeck-ers had claimed. We weren't right at the front where apparently we normally would be but they'd laid out a big tarp so we quickly jumped on a bit of that.
We sat, ate, walked around, gradually building up our layers again as the sun went down. Everyone got into their sleeping bags and I was freezing and upset since I didn't have one (couldn't fit it in my backpack). Caitlin had brought some 'space blankets' though so we shared those although they ripped and didn't do much for the temperature.
I think music and things started about 8pm, possibly some before that. Some woman with a great voice kept returning with the Aus/NZ orchestras every now and then. Documentaries on the big screens started something like 9:30pm. Everyone started going to sleep, hoping to be semi-awake for when the dawn service came around. I got about an hour's sleep then woke up freezing and decided that trying anymore was just not worth it.
I went with a couple of women next to me to see a Today Show reporter (Sarah Harris I have discovered) interviewing a few people. Pretty sure I was in the background of a lot of the filming but had no time to let anyone in Aus know to turn on the TV. It was really hard to get back to my sleeping spot without stepping on lots of sleeping people, but I was warmer from standing anyway. I found Rose awake and we just walked back and forth along the road for a couple of hours just trying to stay warm. A young Turkish worker even asked for a photo with Rose, just a little bit funny. While we were still up and walking, a random film came on the screen which looked like a really bad movie trailer but we couldn't work it out.
Eventually everyone was told to wake up and we saw the speeches from the Prime Ministers. Then we saw picture and heard descriptions of ANZACs who had died, the youngest being 15 years 10 months plus mainly 18-23 year olds which was very sad. I didn't really cry though which I was very surprised about, considering my tired state. Following were speeches, odes, the Aus, NZ and Turkish national anthems, 2 minutes silence and The Last Post.
The sun had really started coming up at this point and it was now definitely into Monday 25th April, ANZAC day. It was still really cold, most people packed up and got ready to head up the road for the memorial services. As you can imagine, the line for the toilets was ridiculous but moved quite quickly, thank God. We started walking towards Lone Pine, where the Australian service would be held, and saw a few pretty beachside cemeteries on the way, with flowers around and between all the graves. Caitlin found her ancestor's grave in the first one. Continuing walking, now uphill, we all ended up with really burnt faces. We got to the Shell Beach cemetery - something about a famous cricket game there? - and eventually got to Lone Pine. It was a bit of a tiring walk, but that definitely added to the feeling of empathy towards the soldiers who had walked the same route 96 years before us. We found a spot on the grass in front of the stands and the orchestra was already playing, although we were a bit early. The ceremony started at 10:05am; I lay down with my knees still up but ashamedly I kept falling asleep - and waking up to every applause. We heard the same kind of things as at the Dawn Service - the anthem, silence, Last Post plus a couple of emotional poems.
We started towards Chunuk Blair (the site of the NZ service) where the buses would collect us from. It was a long steep walk, with a couple more cemeteries along the way; this time Rose found her ancestor's grave. We got stopped for a few minutes at the Turkish memorial site then headed onwards and upwards. I power walked the last 10 minutes or so and was hot and sweaty by the time we reached our destination. The grandstand for the service was crowded so we found someone with a big Topdeck flag and sat outside on the grass. We finished most of our food as it was lunchtime by now. Try Nutella and banana in a roll, so yum. Definitely ate too much Nutella overall though.
Our whole group eventually came together and we waited for bus 384 to be called out. Tolga said we'd be third but we weren't... as we drove away, though, we could see hundreds of buses still lined up on the other side of the hill so we did pretty well.
On the bus we had a competition - we paid 1TL to guess what time we'd arrive and the closest person would win all the money. It was 2:08pm and I had absolutely no idea, I ended up being about an hour and half off. We stopped a couple of times for the toilet - I can proudly say I squatted a total of twice the whole trip. I fell asleep a couple of times; Old School and Eurotrip were put on but I didn't see much of either.
We arrived back in Istanbul at 7:34pm and Felicity/Flick (christened Flaps at the start of the tour) won the munnay. Everyone grabbed bags, went inside the hotel (same one as start of tour), got room keys and headed up. There was no real group goodbye which was a bit sad. We had showers then went downstairs to say bye to some people heading out for final drinks - I think we were just tooo tired. We got free baklava from the hotel which was nice. We got to sleep about 11:15pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So that was basically the end of the tour. But Caitlin, Janet and I were staying a few extra days in Istanbul. On Tuesday 26th April we got up at 8:45am, got dressed and went down to breaky. Not that many people from our group were down there so not many goodbyes :( Delicious breaky but ate too much as usual - chocolate chip bread, olives, cheeses, more bread, yoghurt and fruit syrup, different corn flake-type cereal. We went out and sat in the lobby with Kasia for a bit, hoping to see some more of the group to say goodbye to, but hardly saw any.
We went up to our room, packed our stuff then headed to Georgie, Aisling & Kate's room which G, A and Rose managed to book for that night as well, lucky ducks.
J, C & I walked to our hostel, a good 40 minutes or so (near the restaurants we'd gone the first couple of nights) which was hard with a heavy backpack. The receptionists pretended they didn't speak English at first, thought it was pretty funny. They were actually really nice though, let us leave our bags, gave us maps and things.
We walked back to the hotel to meet the others and then we all went to the Grand Bazaar again. We went via some Turkish baths but they wouldn't do facials without the whole service. I bought some cushion covers for home, bracelets for friends and we all randomly got given free African scarves at a shop where Aisling and Georgie bought awesome hippy pants. We wandered through the bazaar, bought a few things (jewels mostly), got outside and ate at the same place we had the week before. As Kate said, it was like a circle, that we started and ended doing the same thing but we saw a whole lot of Turkey in between. Kind of weird to think about actually, it was crazy that we'd been gone that long!
Kate left to relax, catch a taxi and then fly back to London town and we went back in the bazaar. We said goodbye to G, A & R, they went back to the hotel and we went to check in at our hostel. We had an 8 bed dorm, I lay on the bottom bunk for a while before the others told me I was on the top, whoopsy. We relaxed for a couple of hours, using the wifi, etc., then went to meet any others from the tour who were still in Istanbul in the same area as those restaurants. We sat in the 2nd storey of a shisha bar on cushions which was a nice atmosphere. Some people bought drinks then most of us headed out for dinner not too far away. We got free apple tea and puffy Turkish bread and I had a veg pizza. The view from the top of the restaurant was of the mosques lit up against the sky, again just like Disneyland. I got charged less for my pizza than thought so that was a nice end to the meal.
We went back to the bar, some people had left but we filled out 2 circles of cushions. A couple of fish bowls were drunk (that sounds really weird - we all drunk a couple of 'fish bowls'). A lot of the cocktails were brought out with sparklers which was cool.
We eventually headed across the road to where we'd had drinks on our second night in Istanbul but it was midnight - and therefore closing! Some more of our tour was there so we said goodbye and to others who were now next door to the bar.
We found that our hostel was literally a 1 minute walk away - it took us 15 on the way there because we thought we had to go all the way around the mosque, no thanks to the guys working at our hostel! Still, I found the fact pretty funny. We all had showers then got to bed about 1:30am.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I pressed snooze a few times on my alarm on Wednesday 27th April, got up at 9:20am, dressed, headed upstairs to the 'rooftop terrace' for breakfast. Had yummy brown bread with 2 cheeses and tomato, egg, dried apricots, chocolate cake (what's with having dessert for breakfast in Turkey?), muesli with yoghurt and delish fruity syrup stuff. We checked out the view outside - over the sea and the mosques but with lots of ugly being-renovated or needing-renovation buildings in between plus lots of cats as usual.
We went back down to our room for a relax (still recovering from no sleep at Galipoli) and journal sesh. The workers started making beds so I followed Janet and Caitlin back upstairs to the terrace, and used the wifi and computers up there. The workers were cooking something for lunch and it smelt reeally good. After eating too much of Caitlin's leftover chocolate muesli we went out for lunch near the Grand Bazaar, past lots of tempting baklava places. Caitlin got really salty pasta for 4TL and Janet and I got a plate of 3 things - mine were rice, beans, and cabbage dolma - for 5TL. Yum but smallish.
We walked through the bazaar to find a bracelet place from the first day we were there, then decided we were too tired to think of anything particularly to do so we headed back to the hostel, stopping for baklava and Turkish delight on the way. Amazing stuff. I was still full from muesli/lunch so didn't eat it for a bit but when I did...!
We went back up to the terrace, sat inside and wrote postcards, looked through photos, used the internet.
We went out for dinner about 7:30pm at a restaurant nearby. There was one cheapish cute-looking place with a plastic-covered bit - it was raining so would have been perfect - but it was full so we found a nice restaurant. All the waiters we passed were really nice when we said we needed cheaper places, suggesting others. We got yummy bread and oil with cheese, then I got a tomato soup with mozzarella and C & J got veg noodles.
We went back to the hostel, still laughing about how close we were to all the restaurants/bars. Had showers then hit the sack at 10pm (although I wasted precious sleeping time wifi-ing so it was more like 11pm).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, Thursday 28th April, we got up about 9am and got breakfast a bit before half past. I had cheeses/tomato on bread, olives, sundried tomatoes and a delicious orange. We walked along the tram tracks (the only directions I remembered) to the Spice Bazaar, where we'd briefly gone on one of the first days after the cruise.
We went past lots of cheap funky little jewellery shops where we went a little crazy. We found the Bazaar, and had LOTS of Turkish Delight samples while Janet worked out which ones to get for her house mistresses (C & I had bought scarves for ours a couple of days before). The place she ended up choosing actually let us try whole pieces until the guy was ready to serve us, which was a long time - this place was popular. I obviously took advantage of this but definitely ate toooo much.
After that we walked through a tunnel which goes under the road where there were more shops and we all bought 5TL watches just for the sake of it. We followed the tunnel through to the other side which was on the waterfront, and fish and bread were all you could smell. We sat in one of the little places connected to boats where fish was being grilled and C & J got fresh fish rolls which were apparently very good.
We walked back underneath the road, bought some more rings then headed back along the tram line. We stopped so I could get a plate of rice with chickpeas which was tasty but weirdly greasy. These stupid Turkish guys who were definitely younger than us were harassing us as we walked so we stopped in a ceramics shop to get away from them.
We found a park and sat down for a bit, still struggling with what to actually do with our time. There were tulips everywhere plus bridges and fountains so we spent some time taking photos.
We continued on back the way we'd come, stopping at a guy on the footpath selling 1TL bracelets and all bought one. We got back to the hostel at 3:30pm - such bad tourists - and napped and used the wifi.
We went to dinner at 7:30pm, this time to the covered-in place we'd seen the night before - kind of felt like we were intruding on a possible date before another table vacated. I got potato borek which actually looked like 2 really long spring rolls but was still nice.
We were thinking of walking to the water/actually doing something but Caitlin was getting sick and we didn't think it was a good idea just 2 of us walking around Istanbul in the dark. Instead we went back to the hostel, packed our stuff, found out about the bus to the airport the next day, had showers and got to bed at 11pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday 29th April - got up about the same time as yesterday, breakfast about 9:30pm: we sat outside that morning and I had muesli, yoghurt, jam, dried apricots and an orange. Wasn't too cold so therefore quite pleasant. We finished packing totally, paid for the shuttle to the airport. We were told that we could just chill upstairs all day if we wanted, even though we'd checked out which was nice. It was Royal Wedding day and we were a bit annoyed we were missing it, while the others back at High Wycombe were heading into Hyde Park.
We headed out, with not really any plans again, looked at some shops in a little mall-type place nearby. Walked to the Spice Bazaar again. We went to find an ATM and found a whole strip of stores on the outside of the Bazaar full of cheeses and things - the one sample of Turkish mozerella made our day. Then we went inside to the same stall as the day before and I bought a bag of Turkish Delight for myself (which I still haven't opened almost 2 months later, how good am I?).
We went through the tunnel again, and the others got the same lunch as yesterday but from a different place. I bought spinach borek which didn't have enough filling :(
We headed back, buying a couple more bracelets and a ring, and a little bowl which I'd wnated the whole trip. Back at the hostel we went upstairs and watched the balcony part of the wedding on TV.
We caught our bus to the airport with a few other people from different hostels and I was really glad I sat backwards and could not see the scary driving, because I could definitely feel it!
We got to the airport at 4:50pm; our plane wasn't till 8:30pm so we waited, checked in our luggage, waited some more, headed to our gate which was changed 3 times. We were meant to start boarding at 7:30pm but didn't actually until 8:15pm and didn't leave till 9:20pm, since we were "15th in line for take-off".
The veg meal was okay - eggplant and a tiny piece of tomato with rice, salad, fruit salad, and for some reason didn't get the tomato olive dip that Caitlin got in her non-veg meal. I slept a bit. At the start the lights in the plane were off so you could see outside.
We arrived 10:50pm London time (12:30am), which was actually only 20 minutes late in the end. We went through passport control (the line for 'other nationalities' was actually shorter than the EU line this time), collected our bags and headed out to the taxis. We were told it would cost £85 and it ended up taking less than half an hour so that was ridiculous and kind of a crappy end to the holiday.
We checked out our new bathroom, which couldn't be used till Monday, grrr. Got to bed about 1:30am (3:30am for what we'd been going with).
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Turkey part 1
On Sunday 17th April we got up at 5:30am to give us lots of time to catch our bus to the airport from Rome to Istanbul, via Budapest (crazy, I know). The bus left a bit late, after 6:50am, but it still got to the next stop early and arrived at the airport early, about 8:00am. We found our terminal, and the check-in gate eventually. I got patted down at security - do I really look that sus? We got breakfast at the airport but my chocolate croissant was disappointing.
Eventually we got on our plane, via another bus. We left 20 minutes late which was quite worrying seeing as we only had 35 minutes leeway to catch our connecting flight at Budapest. We literally had to run from one end of the airport to the other for the 'last call' for our flight, but, luckily, we made it! We got a cheese roll for lunch, nothing compared with Lufthansa on our Berlin trip.
Descending at the end of the flight, it felt like we were going to land on the water, the airport was that close to it. The queue for VISA/passport control took ages, then, after we waited for the whole conveyor belt full of luggage to go through and no hint of ours, we got a bit worried. At lost & found they told us our luggage was still in Budapest. Of course it was - we'd had to run to catch the plane, how could our luggage have got there? One of the guys working there came with us to find our Topdeck representative who was picking us up for our 9 day ANZAC tour, to get the address of the hotel we'd be staying at so they could send our bags.
We got a shuttle with a few other people to our hotel (yes, HOTEL, no 's'!). I sat in the front and it was a very scary ride - the driver drove like the worst drivers in Melbourne, weaving in and out of gaps, on the phone, almost ran people over.
Once we checked in, we took our bags up to our room... verrryy nice! So good after a bunch of hostels. We went back downstairs to 'meet people' but as you can imagine we were all very tired, so I had a short nap then Rose, Aisling & Georgie arrived and we all headed out for dinner. Since we'd arrived a day early, we were with a lot of Aussies/NZers doing the 10 day tour plus our tour leader Michelle and Turkish guide Tolga. We walked a fair way, on a pretty confusing route. We got to a little strip of restaurants/bars and Rose, Caitlin & I ended up sitting with some Tassie guys and some others. Instead of boring bread you get while you wait for your meals, we got REAL TURKISH BREAD! So yummy. Then I had cous cous with tomato and vegie sauce which was tasty too.
We got tired and left eventually, finding our way back somehow. It started raining a little bit and the mosques looked incredible all lit up against the night sky, almost like Disney Land (is that disrespectful?)! Luckily I'd packed my toothbrush and toothpaste in my carry-on bag so I could feel somewhat clean when we went to bed at 11pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We got up before 9am on Monday 18th April, chucked on the only clothes we had and went down to breakfast. It was so different from any other breakfast we'd had at places we'd stayed - 3 different types of olives, bread with choc chips, real honeycomb (crunchy but soft at the same time), delicious cheese, dried apricots, sultanas, dried figs, fantastic breads, chocolate brownie thing, some sort of soup, scrambled egg, tomato, cucumber, weird Cocopops. Yum!
We went back up to our room and, still quite tired, relaxed for a while. We went down and sorted out our change in accommodation - 2 double rooms plus a triple (Georgie's friend would be joining us) for the next 2 nights instead of 2 triples.
We headed out to check out the Grand Bazaar and by now it was raining. The place was amazing though - a big indoor market with over 4000 stalls full of gorgeous jewellery, scarves, lamps, plates and so much more, with all the vendors trying to get our attention by calling us 'Charlie's Angels' or 'Spice Girls'. Pretty funny. We weren't really sure what a reasonable prince was yet, plus the courtesy is to haggle (but we didn't know how much), so we just looked. It was VERY crowded as you can imagine.
After a couple of hours of being amazed mostly by jewellery we came out at a different exit from the one we came in. We found a place on the street to eat, I had a cheese/egg/vegie pide for 7 Turkish Lira (less than half for £, about 3/4 for $AU?) which was yummy. Almost made me feel like I was back in Sydney Rd.
We walked back to the hostel via one of the many baklava shops. Janet and I swapped a piece each but for some reason they tasted weird and almost fishy to me. When we got back our luggage had finally arrived so we had showers, got into new clean clothes and relaxed a bit more.
We headed downstairs for a briefing at 6:30pm then headed out to dinner about 7:30pm, just like the night before. We even ended up eating at the same place as the night before (as a group this time) - I had a vegie kebap - before moving next door for more drinkies. There was another ANZAC tour group there called Fanatics and they were already totally out of it, but very funny, a huge blowup kangaroo and cheap Turkish hats included. And I drank more than a sip of wine for the first time, which we felt a bit when we got up to go to a karaoke bar across the street. Didn't stay too long, some of the Fanatics were dancing on verrry precarious tables. So Caitlin, Sarah & Kasia (on our tour, who we met that night) and I headed back. I got ready for bed then took our room key down to reception so Janet could get it when she came back. Realised just 3 glasses of wine makes you a lot tipsier than the same amount of other drinks. Slept about 11:30pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We went down for breakfast at 8:30am on Tuesday 19th April, where we met G's friend Kate who arrived late last night. We started our walking tour at 9:15am, which took us down the main street past the Constantine Column, traditional Turkish baths, the Grand Bazaar and the Blue Mosque, where we all lined up, took our shoes off and carried them in plastic bags inside. It was dark with beautiful ceilings, candles hanging down, stained glass windows. Outside stood a tall obelisk, complete with Egyptian writing. Kate & I decided that we would go to the expensive (125TL = £50) traditional Turkish dinner that night so we paid for that and got a bit excited.
We had from 11:30am till 2:15pm to do our own thing so we went back to the Bazaar. Kate was really good at haggling (we found out you should be able to haggle down to about 1/2 the asking price) so we all got into it and I ended up with a scarf for Mum for fairly cheap. Some more funny salesmen: 'Are your eyes from your mother or your father?' and 'Are they real?' while gesturing at his eyelashes. Also ended up getting pretty matching bracelets with Kate since we got the price down a lot.
We went outside for lunch, us vegos got vegie wraps with lots of sauces, salad plus chips - inside the wrap! - for only 4TL. We also bought yummy honey sweets from a little stall on the road on the way back to our meeting place. After meeting with the rest of the group we walked a fair way to the sea and caught a ferry down the Bosphorus, which separates Europe and Asia. It was a bit hard to hear Tolga explaining things over the PA but it was just nice to relax. We saw a castle-type structure, graveyard, few bridges and biiiig buildings. An hour and a half later we hopped off. We went inside the Spice Bazaar with lots of free Turkish Delight samples, plus lots of teas and, you guessed it, spices. Like the Grand Bazaar but smaller, and almost more crowded because of that.
We followed the tram tracks all the way back to the hotel. It was about 6pm and we had until 8pm to meet for dinner so we just relaxed some more, utilised the free wifi, had showers, tried on Mum's scarf and ended up wearing it out. The bus took about half an hour and Kate and I chatted all the way.
The place was pretty amazing - a dark and crowded restaurant (not just our tour group), with a stage in the centre, chandeliers. Over the night the entertainment was 4 belly dancers, a couple of traditional dance groups, a Turkish singer and a magician (awesome). Getting food for vego (me) and gluten free (Kate) was a bit of a hassle but we ended up with 4 dishes each - for me antipasto platter to start with, cheese/potato samosas, vegies/rice/chips/salad, and fresh fruit and ice-cream for dessert. Plus we managed to get through a bottle of wine just the 2 of us, even though neither of us liked wine. So full by the end!
After the acts they started playing mainstream music so the section where the stage was turned into a dancefloor and we all had fun dancing all the food off. The bus ride back seemed a lot shorter, I guess there was more traffic and we were hungry and desperate on the way over.
I picked up the key from reception, assumed Janet was still out but after turning on the lights, had a bit of an 'oh s*!t' moment when I saw her in bed. Slept about 12:15am.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Had to wake up at 5am the next morning, Wednesday 20th April, to get packed, take our bags down and have breakfast at 5:30am. Felt like I was still full from the night before. We all got our tour hoodies which was very exciting. They were really warm and snug but left fluff on whatever you wore underneath.
On the bus I sat next to Margot, a woman in the group, and opposite Rose and Caitlin. We drove about an hour and a half to the seaside then drove onto a ferry and were on there for half an hour. We went upstairs to watch the journey from higher up but it was very windy outside, although the cold sort of woke me up. We all got back into the bus before we hit land again then we drove a bit more. A car drove into the bus as we were nearing our stopping place so that slowed us down: had to wait ages for the bus driver to fill out forms, etc. Apparently the car's driver was intoxicated and ran away from the car because it is a huge offence in Turkey.
Eventually we stopped in Bursa; the Grand Mosque we were supposed to be visiting was closed to tourist groups on that day - bad planning? I think yes. We did have a bit of a wander through the silk markets and went with Kate to find a padlock (which we discovered is 'kilit' in Turkish), finally we found one at about the 3rd place. We wandered back through what we supposed was the silk market, felt nice scarves and piles of silk/wool. I got a non-silk scarf for 1TL. We also found a stall with awesome gem rings for 5TL but they were all too big for me :(
We waited for the bus then drove 1/2 hour or so more. During the driving bits we did a bit of get-to-know-you come-up-to-the-front-of-the-bus stuff - name, nicknames, where you're from, travel plans, 'traffic lights'/relationship status, embarrassing moment/random fact which was entertaining in parts. We stopped at a big shopping centre for lunch. We even had to go through a security thing like at an airport to get in, crazy. We found the food court but didn't know what anything was, how the prices worked, or what was vego so I just stuck with spaghetti with tomato sauce/olives/feta.
Back in the bus... we stopped a while later at a service station for toilets, massive line for the girls' of course. Gorgeous scenery surrounding us though, and all the drives were just beautiful. On the last part of the journey we watched Wedding Crashers & Anchorman, then slept. We finally arrived at Pamukkale a bit after 7:30pm.
We got our room keys, took our bags up, then took our cameras up to the incredible white hills at the end of the street. It was raining lightly but nothing could dull how excited we were all feeling. We walked back to the hotel and got dinner, which wasn't meant to be one of our included meals but was because we arrived so late - a huge buffet + desserts. Ate lots then had a shower and got to bed about 10:30pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can't remember what time we got up on Thursday 21st April but we packed all our stuff up and went up for breakfast, another yummy buffet - proper chocolatey cereal, random cheeses, olives and more. Then we drove to the calcium hills we visited last night and wandered around for a couple of hours. Amazing views. There were also thermal springs, which I was eventually persuaded to put my feet in. I was told it wasn't slippery and my camera would be looked after but I still managed to slip. Straightaway. In front of everyone. Very embarrassing. Decided I might as well just go in now and the hot moving water was very nice. Hopped out and kept walking around for a bit, taking lots of photos (need I even mention that?).
Back at the bus, we then headed to Aprodisias, which was lots of old ruins and things. Took group photos in the 'theatre'. On the way to Kusadasi we stopped somewhere for lunch where we got lentil soup, cheese/meat pides, vegie skewers with cous cous, and strawberries. There were adorably cute little puppies just wandering around and our group kind of adopted one that came inside. We were also serenaded by a guy playing mandolin around the table.
We watched 40 Year Old Virgin until we arrived at our beachside resort. We put our things in our room, then came out onto the balcony only to find the rest of the group doing the same. We didn't have the best view but you could see a patch of sea. Georgie, Aisling & Kate's view from their triple room was much better - higher up with a view straight over the sea including sunset. We all put on summery clothes (feeling optimistic) and walked over the road to the beach, took photos of the sunset. We found a 'supermarket' - very small - and bought cornettos and corn thins (about the only thing that wasn't chips or biscuits). We sat on the beach and ate our food then got ready and went up to the others' room for a bit of pre-drinking before we went out with the entire tour group plus the other Topdeck group.
Instead of Turkish clubs, we were taken to 2 'Irish Pubs' opposite each other. We had lots of fun dancing on tables, getting free shirts advertising the places, trying to steal roses from guys walking around with them. We left about 2:30-3am and pretty much went straight to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Being on a mainly Aussie tour, they understand that you need your sleep after a big night out. So we were able to get up after 9am on Friday 22nd April. Didn't feel too bad either. We had a nice breakfast - real cornflakes, cheese, olives, and took a boiled egg for later. Maybe weird but turned out well. We brought our packed bags downstairs, then walked along the beach road to a proper supermarket to buy lunch stuff - got a big loaf of bread, 2 apples and 2 bananas for Janet and me to share.
We left for Ephesus, another ancient city with another theatre, a 'library', ancient toilet holes,and a random fake gladiator fight. We got a 'pro' group photo taken in front of some ruins, the library possibly, which a few of us bought later for 5TL.
We then drove to a restaurant for lunch, where some people had a buffet inside, and we sat outside and ate the things we'd already bought - egg then banana in roll. We sat in the sun, and sap unfortunately, which still hasn't come out of the skirt I was wearing.
We randomly stopped at some leather place for a fashion show, free apple tea and people trying to sell us €1000+ leather jackets. We think they must have been Tolga's friends or something.
Back at the same hotel as the night before, we relaxed on the beach for a few hours - writing journals, eating ice-cream, and talking to young Turkish girls trying to practice their English, very sweet. Everything was gorgeous, with an amazing view of the sea in front of us and a huge hill to the left covered in buildings (lights the night before).
We got dinner about 7:30pm, another included meal of bread, soup, cheese, pasta, rice with vegies, potato salad. We sat outside to take in the gorgeous sunset over the water again. Another cat was hanging around too. There was also so much dessert: profiteroles with so much chocolate sauce, 2 cakes, plus more, and baklava appeared after we'd finished :(
We went back to our rooms, got ready for another night out, back up to G, A & K's room. Rose, Kate & Georgie decided to stay in that night (very wisely) so Aisling, Caitlin, Janet & I headed out, while the rest of the tour had gone a bit earlier. We had a much shorter night, but with more free tops and a free shot. Stuff happened and we ended up leaving very early, not particularly happily. It was also very interesting back at the hotel but that needn't be explained (read: don't ask). Let's just say Janet ended up sleeping in the bathroom in our room. Literally got into bed at 12:30am, how embarrassment.
~~~~~
The last week of our holidays to come soon.
Eventually we got on our plane, via another bus. We left 20 minutes late which was quite worrying seeing as we only had 35 minutes leeway to catch our connecting flight at Budapest. We literally had to run from one end of the airport to the other for the 'last call' for our flight, but, luckily, we made it! We got a cheese roll for lunch, nothing compared with Lufthansa on our Berlin trip.
Descending at the end of the flight, it felt like we were going to land on the water, the airport was that close to it. The queue for VISA/passport control took ages, then, after we waited for the whole conveyor belt full of luggage to go through and no hint of ours, we got a bit worried. At lost & found they told us our luggage was still in Budapest. Of course it was - we'd had to run to catch the plane, how could our luggage have got there? One of the guys working there came with us to find our Topdeck representative who was picking us up for our 9 day ANZAC tour, to get the address of the hotel we'd be staying at so they could send our bags.
We got a shuttle with a few other people to our hotel (yes, HOTEL, no 's'!). I sat in the front and it was a very scary ride - the driver drove like the worst drivers in Melbourne, weaving in and out of gaps, on the phone, almost ran people over.
Once we checked in, we took our bags up to our room... verrryy nice! So good after a bunch of hostels. We went back downstairs to 'meet people' but as you can imagine we were all very tired, so I had a short nap then Rose, Aisling & Georgie arrived and we all headed out for dinner. Since we'd arrived a day early, we were with a lot of Aussies/NZers doing the 10 day tour plus our tour leader Michelle and Turkish guide Tolga. We walked a fair way, on a pretty confusing route. We got to a little strip of restaurants/bars and Rose, Caitlin & I ended up sitting with some Tassie guys and some others. Instead of boring bread you get while you wait for your meals, we got REAL TURKISH BREAD! So yummy. Then I had cous cous with tomato and vegie sauce which was tasty too.
We got tired and left eventually, finding our way back somehow. It started raining a little bit and the mosques looked incredible all lit up against the night sky, almost like Disney Land (is that disrespectful?)! Luckily I'd packed my toothbrush and toothpaste in my carry-on bag so I could feel somewhat clean when we went to bed at 11pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We got up before 9am on Monday 18th April, chucked on the only clothes we had and went down to breakfast. It was so different from any other breakfast we'd had at places we'd stayed - 3 different types of olives, bread with choc chips, real honeycomb (crunchy but soft at the same time), delicious cheese, dried apricots, sultanas, dried figs, fantastic breads, chocolate brownie thing, some sort of soup, scrambled egg, tomato, cucumber, weird Cocopops. Yum!
We went back up to our room and, still quite tired, relaxed for a while. We went down and sorted out our change in accommodation - 2 double rooms plus a triple (Georgie's friend would be joining us) for the next 2 nights instead of 2 triples.
We headed out to check out the Grand Bazaar and by now it was raining. The place was amazing though - a big indoor market with over 4000 stalls full of gorgeous jewellery, scarves, lamps, plates and so much more, with all the vendors trying to get our attention by calling us 'Charlie's Angels' or 'Spice Girls'. Pretty funny. We weren't really sure what a reasonable prince was yet, plus the courtesy is to haggle (but we didn't know how much), so we just looked. It was VERY crowded as you can imagine.
After a couple of hours of being amazed mostly by jewellery we came out at a different exit from the one we came in. We found a place on the street to eat, I had a cheese/egg/vegie pide for 7 Turkish Lira (less than half for £, about 3/4 for $AU?) which was yummy. Almost made me feel like I was back in Sydney Rd.
We walked back to the hostel via one of the many baklava shops. Janet and I swapped a piece each but for some reason they tasted weird and almost fishy to me. When we got back our luggage had finally arrived so we had showers, got into new clean clothes and relaxed a bit more.
We headed downstairs for a briefing at 6:30pm then headed out to dinner about 7:30pm, just like the night before. We even ended up eating at the same place as the night before (as a group this time) - I had a vegie kebap - before moving next door for more drinkies. There was another ANZAC tour group there called Fanatics and they were already totally out of it, but very funny, a huge blowup kangaroo and cheap Turkish hats included. And I drank more than a sip of wine for the first time, which we felt a bit when we got up to go to a karaoke bar across the street. Didn't stay too long, some of the Fanatics were dancing on verrry precarious tables. So Caitlin, Sarah & Kasia (on our tour, who we met that night) and I headed back. I got ready for bed then took our room key down to reception so Janet could get it when she came back. Realised just 3 glasses of wine makes you a lot tipsier than the same amount of other drinks. Slept about 11:30pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We went down for breakfast at 8:30am on Tuesday 19th April, where we met G's friend Kate who arrived late last night. We started our walking tour at 9:15am, which took us down the main street past the Constantine Column, traditional Turkish baths, the Grand Bazaar and the Blue Mosque, where we all lined up, took our shoes off and carried them in plastic bags inside. It was dark with beautiful ceilings, candles hanging down, stained glass windows. Outside stood a tall obelisk, complete with Egyptian writing. Kate & I decided that we would go to the expensive (125TL = £50) traditional Turkish dinner that night so we paid for that and got a bit excited.
We had from 11:30am till 2:15pm to do our own thing so we went back to the Bazaar. Kate was really good at haggling (we found out you should be able to haggle down to about 1/2 the asking price) so we all got into it and I ended up with a scarf for Mum for fairly cheap. Some more funny salesmen: 'Are your eyes from your mother or your father?' and 'Are they real?' while gesturing at his eyelashes. Also ended up getting pretty matching bracelets with Kate since we got the price down a lot.
We went outside for lunch, us vegos got vegie wraps with lots of sauces, salad plus chips - inside the wrap! - for only 4TL. We also bought yummy honey sweets from a little stall on the road on the way back to our meeting place. After meeting with the rest of the group we walked a fair way to the sea and caught a ferry down the Bosphorus, which separates Europe and Asia. It was a bit hard to hear Tolga explaining things over the PA but it was just nice to relax. We saw a castle-type structure, graveyard, few bridges and biiiig buildings. An hour and a half later we hopped off. We went inside the Spice Bazaar with lots of free Turkish Delight samples, plus lots of teas and, you guessed it, spices. Like the Grand Bazaar but smaller, and almost more crowded because of that.
We followed the tram tracks all the way back to the hotel. It was about 6pm and we had until 8pm to meet for dinner so we just relaxed some more, utilised the free wifi, had showers, tried on Mum's scarf and ended up wearing it out. The bus took about half an hour and Kate and I chatted all the way.
The place was pretty amazing - a dark and crowded restaurant (not just our tour group), with a stage in the centre, chandeliers. Over the night the entertainment was 4 belly dancers, a couple of traditional dance groups, a Turkish singer and a magician (awesome). Getting food for vego (me) and gluten free (Kate) was a bit of a hassle but we ended up with 4 dishes each - for me antipasto platter to start with, cheese/potato samosas, vegies/rice/chips/salad, and fresh fruit and ice-cream for dessert. Plus we managed to get through a bottle of wine just the 2 of us, even though neither of us liked wine. So full by the end!
After the acts they started playing mainstream music so the section where the stage was turned into a dancefloor and we all had fun dancing all the food off. The bus ride back seemed a lot shorter, I guess there was more traffic and we were hungry and desperate on the way over.
I picked up the key from reception, assumed Janet was still out but after turning on the lights, had a bit of an 'oh s*!t' moment when I saw her in bed. Slept about 12:15am.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Had to wake up at 5am the next morning, Wednesday 20th April, to get packed, take our bags down and have breakfast at 5:30am. Felt like I was still full from the night before. We all got our tour hoodies which was very exciting. They were really warm and snug but left fluff on whatever you wore underneath.
On the bus I sat next to Margot, a woman in the group, and opposite Rose and Caitlin. We drove about an hour and a half to the seaside then drove onto a ferry and were on there for half an hour. We went upstairs to watch the journey from higher up but it was very windy outside, although the cold sort of woke me up. We all got back into the bus before we hit land again then we drove a bit more. A car drove into the bus as we were nearing our stopping place so that slowed us down: had to wait ages for the bus driver to fill out forms, etc. Apparently the car's driver was intoxicated and ran away from the car because it is a huge offence in Turkey.
Eventually we stopped in Bursa; the Grand Mosque we were supposed to be visiting was closed to tourist groups on that day - bad planning? I think yes. We did have a bit of a wander through the silk markets and went with Kate to find a padlock (which we discovered is 'kilit' in Turkish), finally we found one at about the 3rd place. We wandered back through what we supposed was the silk market, felt nice scarves and piles of silk/wool. I got a non-silk scarf for 1TL. We also found a stall with awesome gem rings for 5TL but they were all too big for me :(
We waited for the bus then drove 1/2 hour or so more. During the driving bits we did a bit of get-to-know-you come-up-to-the-front-of-the-bus stuff - name, nicknames, where you're from, travel plans, 'traffic lights'/relationship status, embarrassing moment/random fact which was entertaining in parts. We stopped at a big shopping centre for lunch. We even had to go through a security thing like at an airport to get in, crazy. We found the food court but didn't know what anything was, how the prices worked, or what was vego so I just stuck with spaghetti with tomato sauce/olives/feta.
Back in the bus... we stopped a while later at a service station for toilets, massive line for the girls' of course. Gorgeous scenery surrounding us though, and all the drives were just beautiful. On the last part of the journey we watched Wedding Crashers & Anchorman, then slept. We finally arrived at Pamukkale a bit after 7:30pm.
We got our room keys, took our bags up, then took our cameras up to the incredible white hills at the end of the street. It was raining lightly but nothing could dull how excited we were all feeling. We walked back to the hotel and got dinner, which wasn't meant to be one of our included meals but was because we arrived so late - a huge buffet + desserts. Ate lots then had a shower and got to bed about 10:30pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can't remember what time we got up on Thursday 21st April but we packed all our stuff up and went up for breakfast, another yummy buffet - proper chocolatey cereal, random cheeses, olives and more. Then we drove to the calcium hills we visited last night and wandered around for a couple of hours. Amazing views. There were also thermal springs, which I was eventually persuaded to put my feet in. I was told it wasn't slippery and my camera would be looked after but I still managed to slip. Straightaway. In front of everyone. Very embarrassing. Decided I might as well just go in now and the hot moving water was very nice. Hopped out and kept walking around for a bit, taking lots of photos (need I even mention that?).
Back at the bus, we then headed to Aprodisias, which was lots of old ruins and things. Took group photos in the 'theatre'. On the way to Kusadasi we stopped somewhere for lunch where we got lentil soup, cheese/meat pides, vegie skewers with cous cous, and strawberries. There were adorably cute little puppies just wandering around and our group kind of adopted one that came inside. We were also serenaded by a guy playing mandolin around the table.
We watched 40 Year Old Virgin until we arrived at our beachside resort. We put our things in our room, then came out onto the balcony only to find the rest of the group doing the same. We didn't have the best view but you could see a patch of sea. Georgie, Aisling & Kate's view from their triple room was much better - higher up with a view straight over the sea including sunset. We all put on summery clothes (feeling optimistic) and walked over the road to the beach, took photos of the sunset. We found a 'supermarket' - very small - and bought cornettos and corn thins (about the only thing that wasn't chips or biscuits). We sat on the beach and ate our food then got ready and went up to the others' room for a bit of pre-drinking before we went out with the entire tour group plus the other Topdeck group.
Instead of Turkish clubs, we were taken to 2 'Irish Pubs' opposite each other. We had lots of fun dancing on tables, getting free shirts advertising the places, trying to steal roses from guys walking around with them. We left about 2:30-3am and pretty much went straight to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Being on a mainly Aussie tour, they understand that you need your sleep after a big night out. So we were able to get up after 9am on Friday 22nd April. Didn't feel too bad either. We had a nice breakfast - real cornflakes, cheese, olives, and took a boiled egg for later. Maybe weird but turned out well. We brought our packed bags downstairs, then walked along the beach road to a proper supermarket to buy lunch stuff - got a big loaf of bread, 2 apples and 2 bananas for Janet and me to share.
We left for Ephesus, another ancient city with another theatre, a 'library', ancient toilet holes,and a random fake gladiator fight. We got a 'pro' group photo taken in front of some ruins, the library possibly, which a few of us bought later for 5TL.
We then drove to a restaurant for lunch, where some people had a buffet inside, and we sat outside and ate the things we'd already bought - egg then banana in roll. We sat in the sun, and sap unfortunately, which still hasn't come out of the skirt I was wearing.
We randomly stopped at some leather place for a fashion show, free apple tea and people trying to sell us €1000+ leather jackets. We think they must have been Tolga's friends or something.
Back at the same hotel as the night before, we relaxed on the beach for a few hours - writing journals, eating ice-cream, and talking to young Turkish girls trying to practice their English, very sweet. Everything was gorgeous, with an amazing view of the sea in front of us and a huge hill to the left covered in buildings (lights the night before).
We got dinner about 7:30pm, another included meal of bread, soup, cheese, pasta, rice with vegies, potato salad. We sat outside to take in the gorgeous sunset over the water again. Another cat was hanging around too. There was also so much dessert: profiteroles with so much chocolate sauce, 2 cakes, plus more, and baklava appeared after we'd finished :(
We went back to our rooms, got ready for another night out, back up to G, A & K's room. Rose, Kate & Georgie decided to stay in that night (very wisely) so Aisling, Caitlin, Janet & I headed out, while the rest of the tour had gone a bit earlier. We had a much shorter night, but with more free tops and a free shot. Stuff happened and we ended up leaving very early, not particularly happily. It was also very interesting back at the hotel but that needn't be explained (read: don't ask). Let's just say Janet ended up sleeping in the bathroom in our room. Literally got into bed at 12:30am, how embarrassment.
~~~~~
The last week of our holidays to come soon.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Rome
Our alarms went off at 6:30am on Thurs 14th April to prepare us for our 6:56am arrival at Roma Tiburtina. We actually got there after 7:45am though so we spent that time watching the stations closely and wondering why the countryside was still countryside. The light was was really nice as we came in. Once we arrived, we bought 3-day travel tickets and got the train to Termini station, and failed to find tourist info. We followed directions to our hostel - luckily a short, easy walk. We checked in about 9am, left our luggage and we able to take advantage of free breakfast there: cold drinking chocolate, the same weird cereal as in Milan, not great bread but nice jam, and juice. We got a couple of maps from reception and were told where the tourist place at the station was. We went there on the way to Barbarini (?) station and got some brochures.
From the station, we found our way to Trevi Fountain - you know, the one from The Lizzie Maguire Movie! We experienced how busy Rome was from the moment we came up from the underground - especially after Venice and its no cars! You never know when you can cross the road safely... if you walk out onto a zebra crossing, cars generally stop but it was scary! We were back to more normal, less pretty buildings too.
In front of the fountain we sang 'This is what dreams are made of' from the movie, very excitedly until my sunnies ended up in the fountain (all caught on video) but luckily I grabbed them before they totally sank. We all threw in a cent and I wished for an adventure just like Lizzie!
We walked to the Spanish Steps (via a FREE toilet - never thought we'd see that again); gorgeous to look up at and then, from the top, to look down over Rome. There were lots of stalls set up of paintings of Rome/caricatures of people. We went into the church at the top, gorgeous just like every other. We sat in the church and then halfway down the steps for a while, just too tired. There were horse carriages at the bottom of the steps and guys trying to give roses to everyone (and then demand money) very insistingly.
We walked past lots of pizza shops with deals on the way to the Pantheon, a huge temple. It was really pretty inside but very noisy - everything echoed despite signs everywhere about it's a sacred place be quiet yada yada. We got lunch at a place that offered pasta and a drink for €7 and no service charge. The waiter kept telling us 'you get a good plate of pasta' but really it wasn't very big. I had penne with tomato and basil sauce, and was so upset their cannelloni had meat in it! WTF! I reeeally wanted to get proper Italian cannelloni before we left but sadly, it didn't happen :(
We went back to the station, took the train then a bus to the Catacombs (burial sites), although I'm not sure we actually found them. We did come across a mausoleum or something, also free because of Cultural Week (we definitely chose to come at the right time!). A cute resident cat acted as tour guide and followed us around. The surrounding area was gorgeous, so different from the centre of Rome - tree-lined streets, lots of green and not many people. Although once we walked a bit down a quiet road we got to a fairly busy part. We took the bus and train back, on the bus with a bunch of lovely 60 year old German women who celebrate their milestone birthdays every decade by travelling somewhere as a group - one even had a cute story about meeting an Italian boy when she was young and staying in Italy for 3 years with him, and even catching up with him while they were there this time!
We went back to the hostel, went to our room, chose beds (top bunk this time for me), had a much-needed shower and had a quick nap before our free pasta dinner at 7pm. At dinner we chatted to a couple of American girls studying in Copenhagen. I hate to say I had 2 servings of pasta even though it wasn't that good - just penne with tomato sauce (and hardly any at that) but with chickpeas! We headed out around our area to find gelati for Janet (I was too full from din dins and wanted to have a day off after all the sweets from the last 2 days!). Back to the hostel, the others started using their free internet vouchers and I managed to nudge a precarious Twix out of the vending machine, yes I am a legend. Went to bed about 10pm.
Friday 15th April - got up and had breakfast about 9:15am, found out where the local supermarkets were, turned the wrong way a couple of times then thought one was closed before we found another entrance. We ended up just buying apples and a couple of other random things then went back to the station, via the hostel to use the toilet. At Termini, the train which would take us to Vatican City wasn't running so we caught a bus - after waiting for a few ridiculously crowded buses we actually got seats! We had no idea where to get off so we waited till we saw lots of people and big buildings. As usual we started wandering in the wrong direction but eventually found our way to St. Peter's Basilica and lined up for over an hour - the queue was huuuge, but we had eye candy ahead in the line to keep us entertained ;) Once we got inside, we didn't see the Pope's tombs or Cuppola (dome on the top of the church) but we went through the church. At this stage I was really getting over churches, even though it was amazing inside.
We headed towards restaurants, via souvenir shops where Caitlin & I bought Martin a sparkly I♥Roma keyring (which she proceeded to lose). We got €5 pizza (shared marinara (tomato & oregano) and margarita with Greer), the tomato sauce was really tasty. It was 3:30pm by the time we ate and I was starving, tired and with sore shoulders from a heavy bag and sore hip from who-knows-what. The Vatican museum closed at 4pm so we decided to go there the next day.
We walked back to the buses, had a very crowded ride back to Termini then took the train to the Colosseo station - walked outside and there was the Colosseum!!! Took some quick photos outside but then we rushed in just in case it closed anytime soon, since it was about 5:15pm by this time. We got in free - Cultural Week rocks! - and wandered around the edge a bit, went in and up even though the stairs said no climbing - uh, what? We were all pretty excited and took lots of photos. We saw lots of random cats walking around in the middle.
We headed back to the station and got back to the hostel about 6:45pm, ready for dinner at 7pm. It was the same as the night before plus spinach, chili and beans instead of chickpeas. Only had one serving this time. After dinner we asked at reception about any local gelati places they could recommend and followed an Aussie's directions only a few blocks away to Fassi's, the oldest gelati in Rome or something. It was much cheaper than any other place we'd seen (3 flavours in a cup or cone for €1,60). I got a cup with cherry (bits of skin made it beautiful), stracciatella (finally!) and creme caramel (just sweet). Janet finally got her tiramisu she'd been craving. The place was so big and bright and not too crowded and we just loved it.
We went back to the hostel, showered and got ready for bed. This new guy in our room got out a table, put out all his jewellery and tools and started making things, burning ends of threads and all, and apparently worked with the light on till midnight (glad I got to sleep)! He said he had to make 500 bracelets before Queen's Day in Amsterdam on April 30. Probably slept about 10:30pm.
On our last day in Italy (sad face!), Saturday 16th April, we got up at 7:30am, had breakfast (discovered drinking chocolate improves the weird cornflake-y cereal) and left about 8:50am. We went to the supermarket for rolls, salad and apples, then caught the train to Vatican City. We headed towards the museum, but came to the end of its queue about halfway around the second corner. We lined up about an hour in total, finally got inside but then had to line up for security checks (it is another country after all) and tickets. We went to the 'pinacoteca' first as it was right where we came in - gorgeous intricate eggs and jewels and frames. Then an Egyptian exhibition, with gorgeous ceilings and floors in all its rooms. We walked through a courtyard/Octagon, rooms of statues of Gods, painted ceilings, tapestries and finally to the Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) - we weren't allowed to take photos but almost everyone was. I decided to be respectful... We saw the famous fingers painting on the ceiling, and lots of others on the ceilings and walls, painted drapes and stained glass windows. It was very noisy though.
We were hungry and exhausted so we found our way outside, sat on the ground in the sun and ate lunch - big olive roll with salad for me, quite hard and not olive-y enough though. The sun got really hot after a while, I ended up lying down with a map covering my face. Another cat was nearby, what a surprise.
We went back inside, found an Aboriginal exhibition with some gorgeous photos, spears, headdresses, etc. We went to find the Rafaello exhibition near the Sistine Chapel but had to go all the way through the Chapel to get out which was hell. Eventually we made our way out of the chapel, Janet posted a postcard from the Vatican Post Office, and we walked down a spiral ramp/staircase to get out.
We trained to Termini then back to Colosseo station to find the Roman Forums. We found a nice big white building, took photos even though we weren't sure exactly what it was. The forums were next to it but we were so tired we just looked from above and didn't bother to walk through.
Back at the hostel, we asked reception about the bus to the airport tomorrow and whether they recommended any place for dinner. We headed to a nearby restaurant we were told would give us at least 10% off (ended up being less) and they didn't have cannelloni! So I got spinach and cheese tortellini with tomato sauce which was the closest thing but it wasn't big, warm or saucy enough!
We headed back to the gelati place from the night before and decided we could treat ourselves majorly since it was our last night - I got chocolate, blood orange and rice (like rice pudding texture) flavours, then a tartufo which was like a frozen mousse, delicious!
We checked out the bus stop for the morning, got toilet paper from the supermarket for Turkey, went back, used the computers, packed and got to bed at 11:30pm.
I just loved Italy, I think Venice was my favourite though - just so different from anywhere else!
From the station, we found our way to Trevi Fountain - you know, the one from The Lizzie Maguire Movie! We experienced how busy Rome was from the moment we came up from the underground - especially after Venice and its no cars! You never know when you can cross the road safely... if you walk out onto a zebra crossing, cars generally stop but it was scary! We were back to more normal, less pretty buildings too.
In front of the fountain we sang 'This is what dreams are made of' from the movie, very excitedly until my sunnies ended up in the fountain (all caught on video) but luckily I grabbed them before they totally sank. We all threw in a cent and I wished for an adventure just like Lizzie!
We walked to the Spanish Steps (via a FREE toilet - never thought we'd see that again); gorgeous to look up at and then, from the top, to look down over Rome. There were lots of stalls set up of paintings of Rome/caricatures of people. We went into the church at the top, gorgeous just like every other. We sat in the church and then halfway down the steps for a while, just too tired. There were horse carriages at the bottom of the steps and guys trying to give roses to everyone (and then demand money) very insistingly.
We walked past lots of pizza shops with deals on the way to the Pantheon, a huge temple. It was really pretty inside but very noisy - everything echoed despite signs everywhere about it's a sacred place be quiet yada yada. We got lunch at a place that offered pasta and a drink for €7 and no service charge. The waiter kept telling us 'you get a good plate of pasta' but really it wasn't very big. I had penne with tomato and basil sauce, and was so upset their cannelloni had meat in it! WTF! I reeeally wanted to get proper Italian cannelloni before we left but sadly, it didn't happen :(
We went back to the station, took the train then a bus to the Catacombs (burial sites), although I'm not sure we actually found them. We did come across a mausoleum or something, also free because of Cultural Week (we definitely chose to come at the right time!). A cute resident cat acted as tour guide and followed us around. The surrounding area was gorgeous, so different from the centre of Rome - tree-lined streets, lots of green and not many people. Although once we walked a bit down a quiet road we got to a fairly busy part. We took the bus and train back, on the bus with a bunch of lovely 60 year old German women who celebrate their milestone birthdays every decade by travelling somewhere as a group - one even had a cute story about meeting an Italian boy when she was young and staying in Italy for 3 years with him, and even catching up with him while they were there this time!
We went back to the hostel, went to our room, chose beds (top bunk this time for me), had a much-needed shower and had a quick nap before our free pasta dinner at 7pm. At dinner we chatted to a couple of American girls studying in Copenhagen. I hate to say I had 2 servings of pasta even though it wasn't that good - just penne with tomato sauce (and hardly any at that) but with chickpeas! We headed out around our area to find gelati for Janet (I was too full from din dins and wanted to have a day off after all the sweets from the last 2 days!). Back to the hostel, the others started using their free internet vouchers and I managed to nudge a precarious Twix out of the vending machine, yes I am a legend. Went to bed about 10pm.
Friday 15th April - got up and had breakfast about 9:15am, found out where the local supermarkets were, turned the wrong way a couple of times then thought one was closed before we found another entrance. We ended up just buying apples and a couple of other random things then went back to the station, via the hostel to use the toilet. At Termini, the train which would take us to Vatican City wasn't running so we caught a bus - after waiting for a few ridiculously crowded buses we actually got seats! We had no idea where to get off so we waited till we saw lots of people and big buildings. As usual we started wandering in the wrong direction but eventually found our way to St. Peter's Basilica and lined up for over an hour - the queue was huuuge, but we had eye candy ahead in the line to keep us entertained ;) Once we got inside, we didn't see the Pope's tombs or Cuppola (dome on the top of the church) but we went through the church. At this stage I was really getting over churches, even though it was amazing inside.
We headed towards restaurants, via souvenir shops where Caitlin & I bought Martin a sparkly I♥Roma keyring (which she proceeded to lose). We got €5 pizza (shared marinara (tomato & oregano) and margarita with Greer), the tomato sauce was really tasty. It was 3:30pm by the time we ate and I was starving, tired and with sore shoulders from a heavy bag and sore hip from who-knows-what. The Vatican museum closed at 4pm so we decided to go there the next day.
We walked back to the buses, had a very crowded ride back to Termini then took the train to the Colosseo station - walked outside and there was the Colosseum!!! Took some quick photos outside but then we rushed in just in case it closed anytime soon, since it was about 5:15pm by this time. We got in free - Cultural Week rocks! - and wandered around the edge a bit, went in and up even though the stairs said no climbing - uh, what? We were all pretty excited and took lots of photos. We saw lots of random cats walking around in the middle.
We headed back to the station and got back to the hostel about 6:45pm, ready for dinner at 7pm. It was the same as the night before plus spinach, chili and beans instead of chickpeas. Only had one serving this time. After dinner we asked at reception about any local gelati places they could recommend and followed an Aussie's directions only a few blocks away to Fassi's, the oldest gelati in Rome or something. It was much cheaper than any other place we'd seen (3 flavours in a cup or cone for €1,60). I got a cup with cherry (bits of skin made it beautiful), stracciatella (finally!) and creme caramel (just sweet). Janet finally got her tiramisu she'd been craving. The place was so big and bright and not too crowded and we just loved it.
We went back to the hostel, showered and got ready for bed. This new guy in our room got out a table, put out all his jewellery and tools and started making things, burning ends of threads and all, and apparently worked with the light on till midnight (glad I got to sleep)! He said he had to make 500 bracelets before Queen's Day in Amsterdam on April 30. Probably slept about 10:30pm.
On our last day in Italy (sad face!), Saturday 16th April, we got up at 7:30am, had breakfast (discovered drinking chocolate improves the weird cornflake-y cereal) and left about 8:50am. We went to the supermarket for rolls, salad and apples, then caught the train to Vatican City. We headed towards the museum, but came to the end of its queue about halfway around the second corner. We lined up about an hour in total, finally got inside but then had to line up for security checks (it is another country after all) and tickets. We went to the 'pinacoteca' first as it was right where we came in - gorgeous intricate eggs and jewels and frames. Then an Egyptian exhibition, with gorgeous ceilings and floors in all its rooms. We walked through a courtyard/Octagon, rooms of statues of Gods, painted ceilings, tapestries and finally to the Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) - we weren't allowed to take photos but almost everyone was. I decided to be respectful... We saw the famous fingers painting on the ceiling, and lots of others on the ceilings and walls, painted drapes and stained glass windows. It was very noisy though.
We were hungry and exhausted so we found our way outside, sat on the ground in the sun and ate lunch - big olive roll with salad for me, quite hard and not olive-y enough though. The sun got really hot after a while, I ended up lying down with a map covering my face. Another cat was nearby, what a surprise.
We went back inside, found an Aboriginal exhibition with some gorgeous photos, spears, headdresses, etc. We went to find the Rafaello exhibition near the Sistine Chapel but had to go all the way through the Chapel to get out which was hell. Eventually we made our way out of the chapel, Janet posted a postcard from the Vatican Post Office, and we walked down a spiral ramp/staircase to get out.
We trained to Termini then back to Colosseo station to find the Roman Forums. We found a nice big white building, took photos even though we weren't sure exactly what it was. The forums were next to it but we were so tired we just looked from above and didn't bother to walk through.
Back at the hostel, we asked reception about the bus to the airport tomorrow and whether they recommended any place for dinner. We headed to a nearby restaurant we were told would give us at least 10% off (ended up being less) and they didn't have cannelloni! So I got spinach and cheese tortellini with tomato sauce which was the closest thing but it wasn't big, warm or saucy enough!
We headed back to the gelati place from the night before and decided we could treat ourselves majorly since it was our last night - I got chocolate, blood orange and rice (like rice pudding texture) flavours, then a tartufo which was like a frozen mousse, delicious!
We checked out the bus stop for the morning, got toilet paper from the supermarket for Turkey, went back, used the computers, packed and got to bed at 11:30pm.
I just loved Italy, I think Venice was my favourite though - just so different from anywhere else!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Venice
Got up at 4:30am on Monday 11th April to get our bus at 5:30am. We checked out of the hostel and got to the bus stop with plenty of time. We followed a load of people from the bus to the station. We were there before 6am so we waited for the shops to open then went and got breakfast - I wanted a berry muffin but ended up with an apple one, clearly my Italian wasn't up to scratch (I thought pointing would be okay). It was fine but then I was a bit annoyed because the others found cheaper muffins.
Eventually we could board the train and discovered that luckily our seats - 61, 62, 63 and 68 - were all together. Slept a bit on and off but even with my inflatable (and constantly deflating) neck pillow it was pretty uncomfortable. It was pretty cool when we drove over all the water separating Venice from the mainland, it seemed to go on forever. At the station we used the toilets (had to pay - should have gone on the train!) then bought 72 hour vaporetto (water bus) tickets and got some info from the tourist office. We found the vaporetti, caught one to San Toma' with our mouths pretty much open the whole time at how beautiful everything was and found our hostel with directions from the website. After ringing the doorbell a voice came from above and welcomed us, and the front door clicked open. We came into a sort of inside courtyard that led to a set of stairs which we followed. We paid and left our bags since we were before check-in time again. Oh and the hostel door opened right onto a little canal!
We had a bit of a walk around, took photos with little bridges which are everywhere just like the canals (there are more than 500 in the whole of Venice!). We found a supermarket and bought another healthy lunch to share - salad, cheese, rolls and apples - and ate at the top of a couple of steps which led right into one of the canals. Lots of gondolas went past, some of the gondoliers singing (apparently costs more) and a cute dog who was lying in the street came to say hello when we sat down (another earlier jumped up and licked my fingers, so sweet!). There were so many glass/bead/Carnevale mask shops/street stalls everywhere. The masks were amazing, I seriously wanted one but had no idea how I would get it through the rest of Italy, Turkey and back to High Wycombe. It was so easy to get lost because there are just narrow lanes, footbridges, canals and old, coloured buildings everywhere. We were trying to find our way to Piazza San Marco but failed majorly; we couldn't even find any nearby streets on the map! We found a fruit market and a long strip along the Grand Canal with lots of market stalls. We caught the vaporetto - sat out on the back deck with a really good view - to San Marco instead (first the wrong way, it's a bit hard when the start and end points of the route are both the same). We saw the Basilica and Doge's Palace (but Janet & I weren't appropriately dressed to go inside either of them) and some tall building which you can take a lift up and see over Venice. It was so much more crowded there than where the hostel is. We sat down at one end of the Piazza (square) near these stupid French kids who were throwing their bags at massive groups of pigeons before luring them back with bread and sending them flying again.
We headed back to the hostel to put our bags in our room, then got back on the vaporetto just to relax for while. We were trying to read about buildings as we went past but got on the wrong way again so that was confusing. We saw the open water which we'd come over on the train, the southern island with totally different buildings and a MASSIVE ship. We arrived back at San Marco then walked back to the hostel via raspberry gelati (cheaper than Milan). We got back about 7pm and dinner, which we'd paid for, wasn't till 8:30pm so we chatted with some of the girls in our room, mainly Americans. We also found out we were 2 beds short so one girl moved into another room and the guy working there just pulled out another bed from the cupboard and eventually got us linen. We were then told that dinner was going to be half an hour late but we didn't get our gorgonzola risotto until 9:15pm! It was reeeally good though. Then we got warm, crispy roll with bruschetta, and blueberry strudel thing for dessert. It was all very tasty and the atmosphere was really nice, chatting to all the Americans and another Aussie along a long table. Unfortunately we were too tired after dinner to explore the nightlife; we went to bed about midnight.
We left just after 9am on our second day in Venice, Tuesday 12th April. We got brekky from a bakery where we'd bought olive bread the day before, this morning a very nice chocolate croissant. We took the vaporetto to San Marco, saw just about the only park area with benches on the whole of the island, then bought joint entry tickets for the Doge's Palace, Museo Correr, Archaeological Museum & some library archive. We spent 3 hours at the Doge's Palace: first in the Museo d'ell Opera with its big columns and statues; then in the Doge's apartment with lots of rooms and chambers where the senate and other councils held meetings; also the 'Bridge of Sighs' which led prisoners to their cells. The rooms were all incredible - carved wooden ceilings, tiled floors, tapestried walls, portraits, chandeliers and cabinets - but unfortunately photography wasn't allowed inside. We completed the circuit set out by the palace, waited ages behind a school group to use the toilet then headed next door to the basilica, this time dressed appropriately. This was stunning too but, again, no photos. The floors were especially gorgeous, and some of the patterns of the marble tiles almost seemed modern. We all bought some postcards and, although we were getting really hungry, we checked out the prices for the Campanile (clock tower). We didn't end up doing it but I was kind of regretting it. I think Venice would have been amazing to see from above.
We took the vaporetto to Rialto which was near where the Post Office was meant to be, since Dad demanded I send a postcard home from there. We found where the map said it was but it was totally shut up so we got lunch - a €3,50 cheese, lettuce & tomato roll for me, the others got €4 slices of pizza but then we found bigger pieces for €2,50! We sat on the edge of the Grand Canal and wrote our postcards. We saw an ambulance boat whizz past, siren and all, and that was only the second time it hit me that there were no cars in Venice! Which I thought was actually really great.
Janet and I bought expensive but amazingly delicious nougat and then headed to the Galleria Academia which some of the girls from the night before had told us was free because of Cultural Week (which you would have thought the tourist office might have mentioned). There were lots of rooms of paintings, some sculptures, lots of students sketching. It was nice, but tiring. The rooms had lovely ceilings and floors too, and there were even similar ceilings featured in some of the paintings.
We took the vaporetto back to San Marco to see if the other places our ticket got us entry to were open. The Museo Correr was and it turned out the archaeological museum and the library were adjoining. The rooms were breathtaking and again, photos weren't allowed. We saw paintings, maps, coins, busts and some great old photos of the canalside buildings.
We caught the vaporetto back to the hostel, found out dinner was going to be good so booked in for that again. The wifi kept going on and off which was a bit annoying. Dinner was almost as late as the night before but reeeeally good again - I ate way too much pesto pasta, arancini rice balls (same mix as the risotto) and fresh warm chocolate torte. I sat opposite a nice old Dutch guy and a young Russian girl (not together, don't worry). Again, we wanted to go out but we were too tired. Got to bed about midnight again.
We had an awesome last day - Wednesday 13th April - in Venice. We got up again at 8:30am and left about 9:15am, leaving our backpacks at the hostel. We tried to find the supermarket to get a healthier breakfast than the day before but we realised we'd kind of just come across it on Monday. I remembered a special pasty mentioned in one of my print-outs, so we found on the map that it wasn't too far from us and headed there. Contrary to what the article said, it wasn't crowded at all, so we all bought krapfen, cream filled donuts, for €1 - absolutely delicious!
We headed to San Marco on a vaporetto with a group of good-looking Italian guys and went to the open Post Office there to send our postcards. We then found the vaporetto which would take us to Murano, the glass-blowing island of Venice. It took a bit over half an hour, we saw a big park at the end of the main island and also went past the cemetery island. Once at Murano, we were directed to a free glass-blowing demonstration but it was almost finished when we got inside so it wasn't particularly exciting. We continued over to where they were selling things, from earrings to huge sculptures, cups, bowls and chandeliers. We all wanted everything. We kept walking around the island, along a canal, and saw so many more stalls and shops, a lot with similar stuff and often quite different prices - we discovered the first place was much more expensive than the rest. It was a bit cold and windy but still beautiful; the blue sky with its clouds looked as if it were painted. We got spinach and ricotta pastries for lunch then kept walking a bit more. Spent some money in a shop with lots of pendants. Crossed a little bridge across the canal, looked at some big blue glass star sculpture then walked back the way we came, on the opposite side of the canal. We checked if there was another glass-blowing demonstration as we had time till the vaporetto took us back but unfortunately we'd just missed the last one.
We sat on the edge of the island and tried to locate on the map the 'best Venetian gelati'. We were going to go straight to the Rialto station to find it, but we'd gotten quite cold by that stage so we went back to the hostel to get jackets and change into jeans. We found the supermarket somehow, stocked up on salad, rolls, cheeses and fruit for dinner, before going back to that morning's pastry shop for more. There was a lot less choice by this time but I got an apricot jam thing which was okay.
We took the vaporetto to the gelati place and I got nutella flavour - she first gave me coffee (I think because 'cup' sounds a bit like 'caffe') and then gave me 2 scoops when I only wanted one. Oh well, it was amazing of course.
We decided to chill in the Accademia gallery since it was free, they had free toilets (not like the public ones) and we could rest our feet and stay warm (we couldn't really stay at the hostel since we'd already checked out). We sat in a few different spots in front of paintings until about 7pm when they were closing. Then we got on a vaporetto to Lido (another island) after deciding to find the only stretch of 'free beach' in Venice. The trip was very fun, we sat out the front and had gorgeous views, watched most of the sunset, hair blowing everywhere, cold but not feeling it. Everything, again, looked like a painting!
When we arrived at the island, we saw buses, cars, roads! It was weird! We walked down probably the main street until we hit the beach, past lots of gelati shops but we'd already had today's. Trees too - there were hardly any on the main island! We were so excited to be on a beach for the first time since November... we took photos, touched the water, got cold so sat behind a platform a bit off the sand and ate our salad roll dinner (amazing smokey mozzarella-type cheese) and strawberries. It got dark eventually to we walked back to the vaparetto stop and caught one pretty quickly. We sat out the back and watched all the lights.
We went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and smelt the yummy dinner they were having, and went back to the vaparetto to get to the station. We were there from about 10pm, got a bit worried because we couldn't see 'Roma' anywhere on the departures lists but that was only because it wasn't the train's last stop. I got an instant hot chocolate from a machine on the platform and we eventually boarded our train at 11:30pm. 'Couchettes for 4' are great, 6 seats are turned into 4 bunks and we actually all slept pretty well, although it was only for about 6 hours. The train actually stopped for ages only a little way into the journey; we assumed it was so the trip actually took 7 hours but we ended up arriving an hour late. There was a button for the tap in the bathroom which I couldn't work out for a good while. Some American guys studying in London - seriously, everyone seems to do that! - a couple of 'rooms' down were doing shots. We eventually got given blankets and slept about 12:30am.
Rome is coming soooon!
Eventually we could board the train and discovered that luckily our seats - 61, 62, 63 and 68 - were all together. Slept a bit on and off but even with my inflatable (and constantly deflating) neck pillow it was pretty uncomfortable. It was pretty cool when we drove over all the water separating Venice from the mainland, it seemed to go on forever. At the station we used the toilets (had to pay - should have gone on the train!) then bought 72 hour vaporetto (water bus) tickets and got some info from the tourist office. We found the vaporetti, caught one to San Toma' with our mouths pretty much open the whole time at how beautiful everything was and found our hostel with directions from the website. After ringing the doorbell a voice came from above and welcomed us, and the front door clicked open. We came into a sort of inside courtyard that led to a set of stairs which we followed. We paid and left our bags since we were before check-in time again. Oh and the hostel door opened right onto a little canal!
We had a bit of a walk around, took photos with little bridges which are everywhere just like the canals (there are more than 500 in the whole of Venice!). We found a supermarket and bought another healthy lunch to share - salad, cheese, rolls and apples - and ate at the top of a couple of steps which led right into one of the canals. Lots of gondolas went past, some of the gondoliers singing (apparently costs more) and a cute dog who was lying in the street came to say hello when we sat down (another earlier jumped up and licked my fingers, so sweet!). There were so many glass/bead/Carnevale mask shops/street stalls everywhere. The masks were amazing, I seriously wanted one but had no idea how I would get it through the rest of Italy, Turkey and back to High Wycombe. It was so easy to get lost because there are just narrow lanes, footbridges, canals and old, coloured buildings everywhere. We were trying to find our way to Piazza San Marco but failed majorly; we couldn't even find any nearby streets on the map! We found a fruit market and a long strip along the Grand Canal with lots of market stalls. We caught the vaporetto - sat out on the back deck with a really good view - to San Marco instead (first the wrong way, it's a bit hard when the start and end points of the route are both the same). We saw the Basilica and Doge's Palace (but Janet & I weren't appropriately dressed to go inside either of them) and some tall building which you can take a lift up and see over Venice. It was so much more crowded there than where the hostel is. We sat down at one end of the Piazza (square) near these stupid French kids who were throwing their bags at massive groups of pigeons before luring them back with bread and sending them flying again.
We headed back to the hostel to put our bags in our room, then got back on the vaporetto just to relax for while. We were trying to read about buildings as we went past but got on the wrong way again so that was confusing. We saw the open water which we'd come over on the train, the southern island with totally different buildings and a MASSIVE ship. We arrived back at San Marco then walked back to the hostel via raspberry gelati (cheaper than Milan). We got back about 7pm and dinner, which we'd paid for, wasn't till 8:30pm so we chatted with some of the girls in our room, mainly Americans. We also found out we were 2 beds short so one girl moved into another room and the guy working there just pulled out another bed from the cupboard and eventually got us linen. We were then told that dinner was going to be half an hour late but we didn't get our gorgonzola risotto until 9:15pm! It was reeeally good though. Then we got warm, crispy roll with bruschetta, and blueberry strudel thing for dessert. It was all very tasty and the atmosphere was really nice, chatting to all the Americans and another Aussie along a long table. Unfortunately we were too tired after dinner to explore the nightlife; we went to bed about midnight.
We left just after 9am on our second day in Venice, Tuesday 12th April. We got brekky from a bakery where we'd bought olive bread the day before, this morning a very nice chocolate croissant. We took the vaporetto to San Marco, saw just about the only park area with benches on the whole of the island, then bought joint entry tickets for the Doge's Palace, Museo Correr, Archaeological Museum & some library archive. We spent 3 hours at the Doge's Palace: first in the Museo d'ell Opera with its big columns and statues; then in the Doge's apartment with lots of rooms and chambers where the senate and other councils held meetings; also the 'Bridge of Sighs' which led prisoners to their cells. The rooms were all incredible - carved wooden ceilings, tiled floors, tapestried walls, portraits, chandeliers and cabinets - but unfortunately photography wasn't allowed inside. We completed the circuit set out by the palace, waited ages behind a school group to use the toilet then headed next door to the basilica, this time dressed appropriately. This was stunning too but, again, no photos. The floors were especially gorgeous, and some of the patterns of the marble tiles almost seemed modern. We all bought some postcards and, although we were getting really hungry, we checked out the prices for the Campanile (clock tower). We didn't end up doing it but I was kind of regretting it. I think Venice would have been amazing to see from above.
We took the vaporetto to Rialto which was near where the Post Office was meant to be, since Dad demanded I send a postcard home from there. We found where the map said it was but it was totally shut up so we got lunch - a €3,50 cheese, lettuce & tomato roll for me, the others got €4 slices of pizza but then we found bigger pieces for €2,50! We sat on the edge of the Grand Canal and wrote our postcards. We saw an ambulance boat whizz past, siren and all, and that was only the second time it hit me that there were no cars in Venice! Which I thought was actually really great.
Janet and I bought expensive but amazingly delicious nougat and then headed to the Galleria Academia which some of the girls from the night before had told us was free because of Cultural Week (which you would have thought the tourist office might have mentioned). There were lots of rooms of paintings, some sculptures, lots of students sketching. It was nice, but tiring. The rooms had lovely ceilings and floors too, and there were even similar ceilings featured in some of the paintings.
We took the vaporetto back to San Marco to see if the other places our ticket got us entry to were open. The Museo Correr was and it turned out the archaeological museum and the library were adjoining. The rooms were breathtaking and again, photos weren't allowed. We saw paintings, maps, coins, busts and some great old photos of the canalside buildings.
We caught the vaporetto back to the hostel, found out dinner was going to be good so booked in for that again. The wifi kept going on and off which was a bit annoying. Dinner was almost as late as the night before but reeeeally good again - I ate way too much pesto pasta, arancini rice balls (same mix as the risotto) and fresh warm chocolate torte. I sat opposite a nice old Dutch guy and a young Russian girl (not together, don't worry). Again, we wanted to go out but we were too tired. Got to bed about midnight again.
We had an awesome last day - Wednesday 13th April - in Venice. We got up again at 8:30am and left about 9:15am, leaving our backpacks at the hostel. We tried to find the supermarket to get a healthier breakfast than the day before but we realised we'd kind of just come across it on Monday. I remembered a special pasty mentioned in one of my print-outs, so we found on the map that it wasn't too far from us and headed there. Contrary to what the article said, it wasn't crowded at all, so we all bought krapfen, cream filled donuts, for €1 - absolutely delicious!
We headed to San Marco on a vaporetto with a group of good-looking Italian guys and went to the open Post Office there to send our postcards. We then found the vaporetto which would take us to Murano, the glass-blowing island of Venice. It took a bit over half an hour, we saw a big park at the end of the main island and also went past the cemetery island. Once at Murano, we were directed to a free glass-blowing demonstration but it was almost finished when we got inside so it wasn't particularly exciting. We continued over to where they were selling things, from earrings to huge sculptures, cups, bowls and chandeliers. We all wanted everything. We kept walking around the island, along a canal, and saw so many more stalls and shops, a lot with similar stuff and often quite different prices - we discovered the first place was much more expensive than the rest. It was a bit cold and windy but still beautiful; the blue sky with its clouds looked as if it were painted. We got spinach and ricotta pastries for lunch then kept walking a bit more. Spent some money in a shop with lots of pendants. Crossed a little bridge across the canal, looked at some big blue glass star sculpture then walked back the way we came, on the opposite side of the canal. We checked if there was another glass-blowing demonstration as we had time till the vaporetto took us back but unfortunately we'd just missed the last one.
We sat on the edge of the island and tried to locate on the map the 'best Venetian gelati'. We were going to go straight to the Rialto station to find it, but we'd gotten quite cold by that stage so we went back to the hostel to get jackets and change into jeans. We found the supermarket somehow, stocked up on salad, rolls, cheeses and fruit for dinner, before going back to that morning's pastry shop for more. There was a lot less choice by this time but I got an apricot jam thing which was okay.
We took the vaporetto to the gelati place and I got nutella flavour - she first gave me coffee (I think because 'cup' sounds a bit like 'caffe') and then gave me 2 scoops when I only wanted one. Oh well, it was amazing of course.
We decided to chill in the Accademia gallery since it was free, they had free toilets (not like the public ones) and we could rest our feet and stay warm (we couldn't really stay at the hostel since we'd already checked out). We sat in a few different spots in front of paintings until about 7pm when they were closing. Then we got on a vaporetto to Lido (another island) after deciding to find the only stretch of 'free beach' in Venice. The trip was very fun, we sat out the front and had gorgeous views, watched most of the sunset, hair blowing everywhere, cold but not feeling it. Everything, again, looked like a painting!
When we arrived at the island, we saw buses, cars, roads! It was weird! We walked down probably the main street until we hit the beach, past lots of gelati shops but we'd already had today's. Trees too - there were hardly any on the main island! We were so excited to be on a beach for the first time since November... we took photos, touched the water, got cold so sat behind a platform a bit off the sand and ate our salad roll dinner (amazing smokey mozzarella-type cheese) and strawberries. It got dark eventually to we walked back to the vaparetto stop and caught one pretty quickly. We sat out the back and watched all the lights.
We went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and smelt the yummy dinner they were having, and went back to the vaparetto to get to the station. We were there from about 10pm, got a bit worried because we couldn't see 'Roma' anywhere on the departures lists but that was only because it wasn't the train's last stop. I got an instant hot chocolate from a machine on the platform and we eventually boarded our train at 11:30pm. 'Couchettes for 4' are great, 6 seats are turned into 4 bunks and we actually all slept pretty well, although it was only for about 6 hours. The train actually stopped for ages only a little way into the journey; we assumed it was so the trip actually took 7 hours but we ended up arriving an hour late. There was a button for the tap in the bathroom which I couldn't work out for a good while. Some American guys studying in London - seriously, everyone seems to do that! - a couple of 'rooms' down were doing shots. We eventually got given blankets and slept about 12:30am.
Rome is coming soooon!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Milan
On Friday 8th April, Janet, Caitlin, Greer & I headed to Milan to start off our 3 week Easter holiday! The night before I slept from about 9:20pm-12:10am then got up, had a shower and got everything ready for the final time. We all met at Highlands just after 1am (Rose even came to say bye, aww) and headed down to the bus stop to catch a 2am bus. It was so early, the bus station wasn't even open so we waited outside till the bus came 15 minutes late - it was alright though, because we had an hour and a half to spare (this was the last bus to get us to the airport in time). I felt really thirsty and faint on the bus, don't know why, but once we arrived I was okay. We couldn't check in till 4am and it was only 2:50am by this time so we sat down, bought hot drinks, listened to Italian phrases, read an Italian phrasebook, etc. Once we checked in, we waited until 5:45am in the 'lounge', I got a yummy yoghurt/berry/granola thing to keep me going. We lined up for aaaages, then still had to catch a bus to the plane.
The flight was 1 hour 45 minutes and I slept a little bit on and off. I woke up at one stage to an amazing mountainous landscape - obviously we were nearly there! The mountains changed to flat gridded areas with houses spaced far apart. Once landed, we caught a bus to another terminal (had to strip down to t-shirts!), then a train to Cadorna station, then the underground to QT8 (don't worry, this was the only station with a name like that - but we found out it had a story, can't remember it though). A man working at the station gave us directions to the hostel. It was a short, nice walk although we were already dying from the heat (found out later it was only about 25 degrees). We couldn't check in yet but we paid and left our bags in the luggage room and I changed from my jeans into a skirt. We walked to the supermarket and bought salad, donut-shaped bread, olives and cheese for lunch (and raspberries for me), and tried to find sunscreen but they didn't have any! So we bought super expensive stuff from a pharmacy then sat in a little park in the shade and ate our yummy lunch.
We talked about what we'd do for the rest of the day/weekend and decided we'd go to see the Milan Cathedral/Duomo which is the world's largest Gothic and 4th largest cathedral in general. We went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and took our sheets up to our dorm, which we'd forgotten was a 4-bed and was a nice surprise since the rest we'd booked were 8-bed dorms. Janet & I had single beds and the others were in a bunk. We headed back to the station via a nice quiet pedestrian road at the back of the hostel and bought 2-day tickets. We got off at the station which, according to our hostel, was where the tourist info place would be, but we couldn't find that, so we followed 'Stazione Duomo' signs around for a bit on a wild goose chase. The buildings were all amazing though, and we definitely saw a lot of them. We got back on the train since we thought it would be easier to find the station that way. The station steps led straight up onto the Duomo and seriously, it is so intricate and HUGE. We took photos out the front, of course, and experienced the people I'd read about who give you birdseed and bracelets 'free' and then try to make you pay, so we stayed away from them. Janet pretended she was German and we got a little worried when one responded 'German? Guten Tag!' but luckily that was the extent of his German.
Anyway, the cathedral is on one side of an amazing square with empty space in the middle and other gorgeous buildings taking up the other edges, including a big arched building which we later realised was actually on lots of the tourist-y lists I'd printed out. We went inside the cathedral; there were 'no photos' signs but everyone was. It was gorgeous and again, massive inside. I don't really understand any of the religious stuff but what I saw were beautiful ceilings, stained glass windows, huge painted banners, prayer candles, statues, thrones. You could tell how important religion is for some people - lots of bowing of heads, muttering of prayers, hands drawing the cross.
We got our first Italian gelati in a little van outside, very exciting. I got ciocollato (chocolate) & frutti di bosco, which I couldn't quite work out but which was still yummy. We sat down to eat them outside the Duomo and read through the print-outs again, figuring out that the glass-covered arched arcade was the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II with lots of designer brands - Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci - all in gorgeous buildings, and a Maccas in the same style of building which amused us a little. There were also little horse and rider figurines 'riding' around by themselves, sometimes getting in the way, sometimes falling over of their own accord. Also people splatting these toy things, which we saw all over Italy (photos needed to explain properly). Once through the other end, we sat down near some grass and a Leonardo statue and decided to find the Opera House which was apparently nearby, before realising it was across the road. Which kind of wrecked our plan to take up some more time. We walked a bit more through the streets, then trained back to the hostel to ask where we should go for dinner - they recommended a pizzeria so we went and found that. I got penne with tomato/spinach/butter sauce which was nice and the others enjoyed theirs too. We sat outside the restaurant in a little tent thing and it had cooled down a bit by that stage so it was quite pleasant.
We went back to the supermarket to buy fruit for dessert - I got a yummy container of pineapple, strawberries, blueberries and grapes. Back to the hostel, Janet & I had showers in adjacent cubicles so had a good chat. We managed to lock ourselves into our room and the receptionist had to come up and told us not to lock our door from the inside, which meant it had to stay open during the night, sooo safe.
A couple of random notes I wrote down from this day: the toilets at the hostel were really low; the lights in the bathroom turn off after 5 minutes which is very inconvenient if you're in the shower but yes, good for the planet; and there are shops in the underground - typical Italy!
The next day, Saturday 9th April, we went down to breakfast about 8:30am. We had weird but okay cereal, rolls, creamy cheese, jam, THE best hot chocolate you have ever tasted and bad orange juice. Then we headed off to a 'canalside' market - first we walked through fruit and veg stalls and a jewellery shop where we all got special matching rings and I got a couple of others (literally the only ones which weren't massive/ugly) for €1 each; the market came to a T and we headed off to the left, with lots of clothes and accessories stalls, many with the same things. Janet and I got backpacks for €5. It got really hot and crowded so we were relieved to eventually come out at the end. We found the canal on the map and walked to find it, crossed a bridge and walked back to the station past some more stalls on the street, fruit and veg shops, and what looked like a big Italian family having a nice bbq. We trained back to the Duomo and sat at the same spot as we had the day before, already feeling exhausted from the heat. We'd decided to walk to the top today so when the queue shortened a bit, we got in line and walked the 165 steps, with a little kid in front of us counting each one in another language (I forget). As you walk up the spiral staircases you can't see anything so coming out at (nearly) the top it was surprising how high we'd gotten. Seeing all the intricacies up close was fascinating. After walking through some beautiful sections, we went even higher. We sat up there for a while in the shade and just relaxed a bit. Caitlin got a call asking her to be a God mother and was very excited.
After a bit, we headed back down and got a late lunch at a pizza place nearby, right opposite a popular and delicious-looking chocolate and gelati place. We had a really nice waiter and got 2 pizzas between us (plenty) - both with tomato and mozzarella, one with ricotta and spinach, the other with rocket, some other tasty cheese and fresh tomatoes. We first became acquainted with service fees here. After lunch, we looked in the chocolate place but decided it was too crowded today. Then we were going to get McFlurries (cherry or chocolate cornetto, smarties or 'brownies') but the line was too long and then shut down. We saw the bull image on the ground with its testicles worn away from all the people spinning on it for luck - too many people seemingly waiting to do it. We ended up getting gelati from the same place as yesterday - this time just got cocco (coconut), nom nom.
I bought a Universita' Milan t-shirt so, feeling like it justified the purchase, we went to find the Uni. It wasn't a standout but it was still pretty. We sat in a small shady park near the uni for a while, then decided to head to the Golden Quad - four streets of designer shops. 5 minutes into walking I realised I didn't have my special ring but luckily it was right where I'd been sitting at the park. We eventually found the Quad - gorgeous buildings as usual - only walked 2 or 3 streets of it before seeing a big M sign for a station so trained back to the hostel. It was 6:30pm by this time but we were still full from lunch. We all collapsed on our beds for a while, J gave me a good massage then we went to the supermarket for fruit. Crunchy apples at last (the school ones suck)! We also got some peas to share, just to continue our healthiness. Slept about 10:30pm.
On our third and final day in Milan, Sunday 10th April, we had our last breakfast at the hostel (since we had to leave reeeally early the next morning) and then headed off to a castle. We saw a few marathon runners on our train and once we got off we saw so many more - we'd managed to be in Milan for the Milan marathon, but not only that - the finish line was right outside the castle so it was very crowded. We managed to get across the running track to the castle, marvelled at every brick and bought tickets for all the museums which are located at various areas in the castle, €3 for 'students'. First we went through the Museum of Musical Instruments; we had fun taking photos of each other 'playing' the instruments. This continued on to the Museum of Decorative Arts, which included gorgeous cutlery, vases, door knockers, plates, porcelain things plus more; following was a small oriental section. We saw the Museum of Furniture, then the picture gallery which was way too big - room after room - for our increasingly-hungry stomachs.
We left the castle (much more crowded by this time) and walked down one of the main streets we'd explored on Friday, past so many pizza shops pretty much on the road and chose the cheapest one. We sat inside and it was actually a really nice restaurant - antipasto platters, fish in a tank, lots of shelves full of wine, flowers everywhere. We got 2 pizzas between us again, they were that big. This time we had tomato/mozzarella/capers/artichokes/mushrooms/olives (delish) and mozzarella/carrot/cherry tomatoes/celery/spinach.
We walked back to the castle, this time it taking us longer to find a way in through the crowd. We tried to find the Egyptian Museum but with no luck thanks to the map. We did (we think) find the Ancient Museum and a Michelangelo section, full of sketches and other things. We were all getting a bit tired, Janet went outside to find a spot in the park behind the castle and we went on a search to find the photo archives, but they were closed. So we also went to the park, called J away from her perfect spot surrounded by Italian guys to come and meet us and found another shady/sunny place to sit and relax. It was a really nice atmosphere, lots of people just relaxing, some stripped down to their underwear to sunbake.
After a while, we headed back to the station, getting gelati from a little van on the way - I got fragola (strawb) and biscotti (like cookies & cream), so so good. We ended up buying daily train tickets as our 2-day ones had just run out, but then we realised that the trains didn't run early enough to get us to the Central station to catch our train to Venice in the morning. The guy at reception did tell us there was a bus we could catch though, and we could use our train tickets, so that all worked out. We went and checked out the bus times, then Maccas which was close and finally tried McFlurry Brownies! It was pretty damn good, a bit like Milo mixed with soft serve and crunchy choc bits. We sat in a nearby park in the fading light surrounded by daisies, ate our McFlurries and leftover olives and peas. Back at the hostel, we got codes for the wifi and sat in the dining room being antisocial for a bit. Headed to bed about 10pm, up early the next morning (see next blog post!)...
The flight was 1 hour 45 minutes and I slept a little bit on and off. I woke up at one stage to an amazing mountainous landscape - obviously we were nearly there! The mountains changed to flat gridded areas with houses spaced far apart. Once landed, we caught a bus to another terminal (had to strip down to t-shirts!), then a train to Cadorna station, then the underground to QT8 (don't worry, this was the only station with a name like that - but we found out it had a story, can't remember it though). A man working at the station gave us directions to the hostel. It was a short, nice walk although we were already dying from the heat (found out later it was only about 25 degrees). We couldn't check in yet but we paid and left our bags in the luggage room and I changed from my jeans into a skirt. We walked to the supermarket and bought salad, donut-shaped bread, olives and cheese for lunch (and raspberries for me), and tried to find sunscreen but they didn't have any! So we bought super expensive stuff from a pharmacy then sat in a little park in the shade and ate our yummy lunch.
We talked about what we'd do for the rest of the day/weekend and decided we'd go to see the Milan Cathedral/Duomo which is the world's largest Gothic and 4th largest cathedral in general. We went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and took our sheets up to our dorm, which we'd forgotten was a 4-bed and was a nice surprise since the rest we'd booked were 8-bed dorms. Janet & I had single beds and the others were in a bunk. We headed back to the station via a nice quiet pedestrian road at the back of the hostel and bought 2-day tickets. We got off at the station which, according to our hostel, was where the tourist info place would be, but we couldn't find that, so we followed 'Stazione Duomo' signs around for a bit on a wild goose chase. The buildings were all amazing though, and we definitely saw a lot of them. We got back on the train since we thought it would be easier to find the station that way. The station steps led straight up onto the Duomo and seriously, it is so intricate and HUGE. We took photos out the front, of course, and experienced the people I'd read about who give you birdseed and bracelets 'free' and then try to make you pay, so we stayed away from them. Janet pretended she was German and we got a little worried when one responded 'German? Guten Tag!' but luckily that was the extent of his German.
Anyway, the cathedral is on one side of an amazing square with empty space in the middle and other gorgeous buildings taking up the other edges, including a big arched building which we later realised was actually on lots of the tourist-y lists I'd printed out. We went inside the cathedral; there were 'no photos' signs but everyone was. It was gorgeous and again, massive inside. I don't really understand any of the religious stuff but what I saw were beautiful ceilings, stained glass windows, huge painted banners, prayer candles, statues, thrones. You could tell how important religion is for some people - lots of bowing of heads, muttering of prayers, hands drawing the cross.
We got our first Italian gelati in a little van outside, very exciting. I got ciocollato (chocolate) & frutti di bosco, which I couldn't quite work out but which was still yummy. We sat down to eat them outside the Duomo and read through the print-outs again, figuring out that the glass-covered arched arcade was the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II with lots of designer brands - Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci - all in gorgeous buildings, and a Maccas in the same style of building which amused us a little. There were also little horse and rider figurines 'riding' around by themselves, sometimes getting in the way, sometimes falling over of their own accord. Also people splatting these toy things, which we saw all over Italy (photos needed to explain properly). Once through the other end, we sat down near some grass and a Leonardo statue and decided to find the Opera House which was apparently nearby, before realising it was across the road. Which kind of wrecked our plan to take up some more time. We walked a bit more through the streets, then trained back to the hostel to ask where we should go for dinner - they recommended a pizzeria so we went and found that. I got penne with tomato/spinach/butter sauce which was nice and the others enjoyed theirs too. We sat outside the restaurant in a little tent thing and it had cooled down a bit by that stage so it was quite pleasant.
We went back to the supermarket to buy fruit for dessert - I got a yummy container of pineapple, strawberries, blueberries and grapes. Back to the hostel, Janet & I had showers in adjacent cubicles so had a good chat. We managed to lock ourselves into our room and the receptionist had to come up and told us not to lock our door from the inside, which meant it had to stay open during the night, sooo safe.
A couple of random notes I wrote down from this day: the toilets at the hostel were really low; the lights in the bathroom turn off after 5 minutes which is very inconvenient if you're in the shower but yes, good for the planet; and there are shops in the underground - typical Italy!
The next day, Saturday 9th April, we went down to breakfast about 8:30am. We had weird but okay cereal, rolls, creamy cheese, jam, THE best hot chocolate you have ever tasted and bad orange juice. Then we headed off to a 'canalside' market - first we walked through fruit and veg stalls and a jewellery shop where we all got special matching rings and I got a couple of others (literally the only ones which weren't massive/ugly) for €1 each; the market came to a T and we headed off to the left, with lots of clothes and accessories stalls, many with the same things. Janet and I got backpacks for €5. It got really hot and crowded so we were relieved to eventually come out at the end. We found the canal on the map and walked to find it, crossed a bridge and walked back to the station past some more stalls on the street, fruit and veg shops, and what looked like a big Italian family having a nice bbq. We trained back to the Duomo and sat at the same spot as we had the day before, already feeling exhausted from the heat. We'd decided to walk to the top today so when the queue shortened a bit, we got in line and walked the 165 steps, with a little kid in front of us counting each one in another language (I forget). As you walk up the spiral staircases you can't see anything so coming out at (nearly) the top it was surprising how high we'd gotten. Seeing all the intricacies up close was fascinating. After walking through some beautiful sections, we went even higher. We sat up there for a while in the shade and just relaxed a bit. Caitlin got a call asking her to be a God mother and was very excited.
After a bit, we headed back down and got a late lunch at a pizza place nearby, right opposite a popular and delicious-looking chocolate and gelati place. We had a really nice waiter and got 2 pizzas between us (plenty) - both with tomato and mozzarella, one with ricotta and spinach, the other with rocket, some other tasty cheese and fresh tomatoes. We first became acquainted with service fees here. After lunch, we looked in the chocolate place but decided it was too crowded today. Then we were going to get McFlurries (cherry or chocolate cornetto, smarties or 'brownies') but the line was too long and then shut down. We saw the bull image on the ground with its testicles worn away from all the people spinning on it for luck - too many people seemingly waiting to do it. We ended up getting gelati from the same place as yesterday - this time just got cocco (coconut), nom nom.
I bought a Universita' Milan t-shirt so, feeling like it justified the purchase, we went to find the Uni. It wasn't a standout but it was still pretty. We sat in a small shady park near the uni for a while, then decided to head to the Golden Quad - four streets of designer shops. 5 minutes into walking I realised I didn't have my special ring but luckily it was right where I'd been sitting at the park. We eventually found the Quad - gorgeous buildings as usual - only walked 2 or 3 streets of it before seeing a big M sign for a station so trained back to the hostel. It was 6:30pm by this time but we were still full from lunch. We all collapsed on our beds for a while, J gave me a good massage then we went to the supermarket for fruit. Crunchy apples at last (the school ones suck)! We also got some peas to share, just to continue our healthiness. Slept about 10:30pm.
On our third and final day in Milan, Sunday 10th April, we had our last breakfast at the hostel (since we had to leave reeeally early the next morning) and then headed off to a castle. We saw a few marathon runners on our train and once we got off we saw so many more - we'd managed to be in Milan for the Milan marathon, but not only that - the finish line was right outside the castle so it was very crowded. We managed to get across the running track to the castle, marvelled at every brick and bought tickets for all the museums which are located at various areas in the castle, €3 for 'students'. First we went through the Museum of Musical Instruments; we had fun taking photos of each other 'playing' the instruments. This continued on to the Museum of Decorative Arts, which included gorgeous cutlery, vases, door knockers, plates, porcelain things plus more; following was a small oriental section. We saw the Museum of Furniture, then the picture gallery which was way too big - room after room - for our increasingly-hungry stomachs.
We left the castle (much more crowded by this time) and walked down one of the main streets we'd explored on Friday, past so many pizza shops pretty much on the road and chose the cheapest one. We sat inside and it was actually a really nice restaurant - antipasto platters, fish in a tank, lots of shelves full of wine, flowers everywhere. We got 2 pizzas between us again, they were that big. This time we had tomato/mozzarella/capers/artichokes/mushrooms/olives (delish) and mozzarella/carrot/cherry tomatoes/celery/spinach.
We walked back to the castle, this time it taking us longer to find a way in through the crowd. We tried to find the Egyptian Museum but with no luck thanks to the map. We did (we think) find the Ancient Museum and a Michelangelo section, full of sketches and other things. We were all getting a bit tired, Janet went outside to find a spot in the park behind the castle and we went on a search to find the photo archives, but they were closed. So we also went to the park, called J away from her perfect spot surrounded by Italian guys to come and meet us and found another shady/sunny place to sit and relax. It was a really nice atmosphere, lots of people just relaxing, some stripped down to their underwear to sunbake.
After a while, we headed back to the station, getting gelati from a little van on the way - I got fragola (strawb) and biscotti (like cookies & cream), so so good. We ended up buying daily train tickets as our 2-day ones had just run out, but then we realised that the trains didn't run early enough to get us to the Central station to catch our train to Venice in the morning. The guy at reception did tell us there was a bus we could catch though, and we could use our train tickets, so that all worked out. We went and checked out the bus times, then Maccas which was close and finally tried McFlurry Brownies! It was pretty damn good, a bit like Milo mixed with soft serve and crunchy choc bits. We sat in a nearby park in the fading light surrounded by daisies, ate our McFlurries and leftover olives and peas. Back at the hostel, we got codes for the wifi and sat in the dining room being antisocial for a bit. Headed to bed about 10pm, up early the next morning (see next blog post!)...
Thursday, April 7, 2011
It's 7.15pm here, and we leave in about 6 hours to catch the bus which will take us to the airport, headed for Milan, and then onwards to Venice, Rome, Istanbul and other parts of Turkey.
Pretty exciting, but honestly, I'm not feeling it yet. I just weighed my bag and it's 12.5kg - with our EasyJet flight over, there are only size restrictions but the other flights have weight restrictions of 10kg and 8kg respectively. We think we can check in luggage on those flights though. It's also just having that weight on my back, and I don't even have any jumpers in there...
I'm also nervous because none of us speak Italian. I know everywhere in Europe people speak English, but it's only my second time in a country where the first language isn't Enlgish and at least in Germany I could understand a bit of what the locals said.
I know, I know, it'll be fine, it'll be enlightening, it'll be amazing, but I'm just scared.
Ciao for now, back late on the 29th - Royal Wedding day!
Pretty exciting, but honestly, I'm not feeling it yet. I just weighed my bag and it's 12.5kg - with our EasyJet flight over, there are only size restrictions but the other flights have weight restrictions of 10kg and 8kg respectively. We think we can check in luggage on those flights though. It's also just having that weight on my back, and I don't even have any jumpers in there...
I'm also nervous because none of us speak Italian. I know everywhere in Europe people speak English, but it's only my second time in a country where the first language isn't Enlgish and at least in Germany I could understand a bit of what the locals said.
I know, I know, it'll be fine, it'll be enlightening, it'll be amazing, but I'm just scared.
Ciao for now, back late on the 29th - Royal Wedding day!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Feeling pretty good right now. Today I walked down and up the hill, played a bit of tennis with some of the older boarders and just finished an hour aerobics workout with Georgie & Aisling from a video from 1990 they got at an op shop this morning.
The trip to town wasn't particularly interesting, just picking up things like bandaids, moisturiser, and lip balm (they don't have Lucas' Papaw over here :( BUT I found a site that ships it). I also picked up a belt for £2 at another op shop I hadn't been to before.
Yesterday I spent the day going through all 15GB of my photos and am pleased to say I only have 700+ photos from Berlin now as opposed to the original 1000+. We also played tennis before dinner last night which was good, I love how social it is. We had lots of fun playing 'it's still in!' rules. We watched 10 Things I hate About You after dinner, good Friday night in (there was not even mention of going out, we were all so tired).
I'm heading off for an early night tonight seeing as I have been exhausted for the last week and we leave in 6 days!!! Still have a few things to do, and I have barely even looked up what to do in Milan, Venice, Rome and Istanbul, let alone started packing!
Just did this post in 10 minutes... which means I can and should do it more often and it will be easier to read.
The trip to town wasn't particularly interesting, just picking up things like bandaids, moisturiser, and lip balm (they don't have Lucas' Papaw over here :( BUT I found a site that ships it). I also picked up a belt for £2 at another op shop I hadn't been to before.
Yesterday I spent the day going through all 15GB of my photos and am pleased to say I only have 700+ photos from Berlin now as opposed to the original 1000+. We also played tennis before dinner last night which was good, I love how social it is. We had lots of fun playing 'it's still in!' rules. We watched 10 Things I hate About You after dinner, good Friday night in (there was not even mention of going out, we were all so tired).
I'm heading off for an early night tonight seeing as I have been exhausted for the last week and we leave in 6 days!!! Still have a few things to do, and I have barely even looked up what to do in Milan, Venice, Rome and Istanbul, let alone started packing!
Just did this post in 10 minutes... which means I can and should do it more often and it will be easier to read.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Just want to fill in the gaps for the last few weeks...
The weekend between getting back from Berlin and EXEAT, we saw Tangled in 3D (really good) on Friday and didn't go out on Friday night so working Saturday morning wasn't too bad. On Sat afternoon we went with all the boarders to the theatre to see Goodnight Mister Tom. On the Sunday we went to the cinema and I saw Rango with some of the girls while the others saw Gnomeo and Juliet. The older girls saw I Am Number Four which I want to see sometime.
The Tuesday following, seeing as I started later in the afternoon, I went for walk. The same walk I'd done a few weeks before - along the back of the cemetery behind school. I took lots of photos and went just at the right time to see the sky looking almost sunset-like even though the sun was still high in the sky. I couldn't go as far as I had last time as I saw a huge cloud of smoke across the second road and cops turned up just as I got there.
The next day I did a bit of op shopping. I got a pair of 'Versace Couture' jeans for £1.50. Whether or not they're real I couldn't say but they're awesome anyway - light purple and high-waisted and I will probably cut them into shorts eventually. I also got a denim vest for £2.50 and a couple of nice-patterned skirts for £3 each (one of which is a size 20 but so pretty).
Friday-Sunday we were in Bath (see 2 posts below).
I went down to town every day of the next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which means a walk up the hill each time. On Tuesday Janet and I saw the Adjustment Bureau because we both started later and Tuesday is cheap movie day. It was okay but the ending sucked. Massive cop out. Wednesday I went down after lunch to get a haircut for £13.95 (the cheapest you'll get - around $23). I just got a trim because my hair was becoming awful, and because I didn't need it washed she cut it dry - I thought she would spray it! Very weird. I was also that awkward person you walk past in a hairdressers who has to stand to have their hair cut... But I think it turned out okay. (No, I have not done anything about my regrowth and it is getting worse/better by the day.)
On Friday night (18th March) we went for dinner at a 60s diner in High Wycombe for Caitlin's birthday on Sunday (since we have to work). We were planning to go out afterwards but I was too tired so just Rose and Caitlin went. I stayed and watched Comic Relief for a while in the flat with the others. I ended up falling asleep on the floor at about midnight and then headed back to Highlands. But it was so moving, I ended up donating £10 to Red Nose Day the next day.
I worked Saturday morning and it was a good feeling not being hungover/ridiculously tired. I even played a bit of tennis with an 8 year old who was surprisingly good. I'm getting so nostalgic every time I see the tennis nets up now (the girls have moved on from lacrosse in school). Rose and I went down to town after lunch and bought ingredients for truffles and came back up and made them for Caitlin. We also spent good time taking pictures of us on Rose's Macbook holding up 'happy birthday Caitlin' signs, which I stuck on her door that night.
On Sunday we got breakfast in the house (including muffins!) and then we took a bus to Henley-on-Thames (I think) and had a packed-lunch picnic on the river. The weather was nice so it was really pleasant. Then we went and painted plates to be put in a kiln, which Amanda and Sam have just picked up (exciting!).
The following day, the four of us walked down to check out the equivalent (but definitely not as good) of Officeworks here, called Staples. It was a bit of an adventure trying to get across a massive roundabout to get there but we did it in the end. It wasn't as big or cheap as Officeworks which was a bit disappointing. We walked back a safer way and saw the uni for the first time.
Wednesday was a nice day, we lay in the sun (YES! So warm and nice!) in the morning and then we watched the dress rehearsal for the lower division (grades 2 and 3) production before work in the afternoon. The main character, who is a boarder at Highlands, was sick so her sister, also a boarder, had to fill in for her, script in hand. I also squeezed in an episode of 90210 (Izzy and I are now on season 2 - me for the second time). The sun was out again on Thursday and we lay out on beanbags on a picnic rug and read and ate cake. Martin (groundskeeper) started mowing the lawns and the smell of fresh grass just added to the Spring feeling! So nice!
We thought that maybe seeing a movie last Friday was wasting the time we could have in the sun but nevertheless we ended up seeing Limitless, which also had a stupid ending, and a seemingly stupid message about drugs. We watched the real performance of the production that night after dinner and then headed down to Yate's. It was the pub's 1st birthday so they had a 'special guest', some soapy star, serving drinks and helping out with the DJing. Izzy was the only one who knew who he was but I was still pretty excited. Caitlin, Georgie and I walked back up the hill (yes, we're silly) and the others taxi'd. I think we got back a bit before 3:30am and God, it was a great feeling not having to work on Saturday morning for the first time in so long (because of holidays our alternating weekends/Monday mornings had gotten out of whack)! On Saturday afternoon I 'helped out' with the international fashion show, which most of the boarders were involved in, because of International Weekend. But really all I did was take photos. I'd watched the rehearsal a few days before and thought it was going to be horrible but it was quite good really.
I worked Sun morning - daylight savings started early that morning and getting the girls up at the usual 8am which was actually now 9am meant I worked an hour less, woo! We were busy making dishes for the international buffet at dinnertime. After brunch/work Rose and I went down to town where I had quite a successful shopping trip: flowery belt £1 and wedges from Primark £4 (meant to be £6 but whatcha gonna do); lacy summer PJ set from the op shop £2.50 which works as a jumpsuit; an amazing ring from Topshop £8.50 (just about the only thing not on sale); and a compact mirror (on my travel to-buy list) from another op shop for 99p. The buffet was so so yummy that night and we all ate so much.
I've been pretty tired this week. Caitlin and I went into town on Tuesday to check out some travel things like towels, sleeping bags and backpacks, since we leave in 8 days! So close! Camille (an amazing cook who helps at Highlands every weeknight) brought me in some of her travel bags and a travel towel last night for me to have a look at so hopefully that takes away some of the stress. Yesterday, Janet, Caitlin & I got driven to Hughenden, 10 minutes down the road, to do a walk and a risk assessment, as the girls will be doing a sponsored walk there next term. It was quite uneven, lots of uphill and downhill and a bit slippery but it was very pretty at times and good exercise for us. It started raining though which wasn't so nice. It took 1 3/4 hours but with the girls it will be hell. It will probably take 3 hours with them and we'll have to put up with moaning and complaining. Ah well, don't have to think about that till May!
The weekend between getting back from Berlin and EXEAT, we saw Tangled in 3D (really good) on Friday and didn't go out on Friday night so working Saturday morning wasn't too bad. On Sat afternoon we went with all the boarders to the theatre to see Goodnight Mister Tom. On the Sunday we went to the cinema and I saw Rango with some of the girls while the others saw Gnomeo and Juliet. The older girls saw I Am Number Four which I want to see sometime.
The Tuesday following, seeing as I started later in the afternoon, I went for walk. The same walk I'd done a few weeks before - along the back of the cemetery behind school. I took lots of photos and went just at the right time to see the sky looking almost sunset-like even though the sun was still high in the sky. I couldn't go as far as I had last time as I saw a huge cloud of smoke across the second road and cops turned up just as I got there.
The next day I did a bit of op shopping. I got a pair of 'Versace Couture' jeans for £1.50. Whether or not they're real I couldn't say but they're awesome anyway - light purple and high-waisted and I will probably cut them into shorts eventually. I also got a denim vest for £2.50 and a couple of nice-patterned skirts for £3 each (one of which is a size 20 but so pretty).
Friday-Sunday we were in Bath (see 2 posts below).
I went down to town every day of the next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which means a walk up the hill each time. On Tuesday Janet and I saw the Adjustment Bureau because we both started later and Tuesday is cheap movie day. It was okay but the ending sucked. Massive cop out. Wednesday I went down after lunch to get a haircut for £13.95 (the cheapest you'll get - around $23). I just got a trim because my hair was becoming awful, and because I didn't need it washed she cut it dry - I thought she would spray it! Very weird. I was also that awkward person you walk past in a hairdressers who has to stand to have their hair cut... But I think it turned out okay. (No, I have not done anything about my regrowth and it is getting worse/better by the day.)
On Friday night (18th March) we went for dinner at a 60s diner in High Wycombe for Caitlin's birthday on Sunday (since we have to work). We were planning to go out afterwards but I was too tired so just Rose and Caitlin went. I stayed and watched Comic Relief for a while in the flat with the others. I ended up falling asleep on the floor at about midnight and then headed back to Highlands. But it was so moving, I ended up donating £10 to Red Nose Day the next day.
I worked Saturday morning and it was a good feeling not being hungover/ridiculously tired. I even played a bit of tennis with an 8 year old who was surprisingly good. I'm getting so nostalgic every time I see the tennis nets up now (the girls have moved on from lacrosse in school). Rose and I went down to town after lunch and bought ingredients for truffles and came back up and made them for Caitlin. We also spent good time taking pictures of us on Rose's Macbook holding up 'happy birthday Caitlin' signs, which I stuck on her door that night.
On Sunday we got breakfast in the house (including muffins!) and then we took a bus to Henley-on-Thames (I think) and had a packed-lunch picnic on the river. The weather was nice so it was really pleasant. Then we went and painted plates to be put in a kiln, which Amanda and Sam have just picked up (exciting!).
The following day, the four of us walked down to check out the equivalent (but definitely not as good) of Officeworks here, called Staples. It was a bit of an adventure trying to get across a massive roundabout to get there but we did it in the end. It wasn't as big or cheap as Officeworks which was a bit disappointing. We walked back a safer way and saw the uni for the first time.
Wednesday was a nice day, we lay in the sun (YES! So warm and nice!) in the morning and then we watched the dress rehearsal for the lower division (grades 2 and 3) production before work in the afternoon. The main character, who is a boarder at Highlands, was sick so her sister, also a boarder, had to fill in for her, script in hand. I also squeezed in an episode of 90210 (Izzy and I are now on season 2 - me for the second time). The sun was out again on Thursday and we lay out on beanbags on a picnic rug and read and ate cake. Martin (groundskeeper) started mowing the lawns and the smell of fresh grass just added to the Spring feeling! So nice!
We thought that maybe seeing a movie last Friday was wasting the time we could have in the sun but nevertheless we ended up seeing Limitless, which also had a stupid ending, and a seemingly stupid message about drugs. We watched the real performance of the production that night after dinner and then headed down to Yate's. It was the pub's 1st birthday so they had a 'special guest', some soapy star, serving drinks and helping out with the DJing. Izzy was the only one who knew who he was but I was still pretty excited. Caitlin, Georgie and I walked back up the hill (yes, we're silly) and the others taxi'd. I think we got back a bit before 3:30am and God, it was a great feeling not having to work on Saturday morning for the first time in so long (because of holidays our alternating weekends/Monday mornings had gotten out of whack)! On Saturday afternoon I 'helped out' with the international fashion show, which most of the boarders were involved in, because of International Weekend. But really all I did was take photos. I'd watched the rehearsal a few days before and thought it was going to be horrible but it was quite good really.
I worked Sun morning - daylight savings started early that morning and getting the girls up at the usual 8am which was actually now 9am meant I worked an hour less, woo! We were busy making dishes for the international buffet at dinnertime. After brunch/work Rose and I went down to town where I had quite a successful shopping trip: flowery belt £1 and wedges from Primark £4 (meant to be £6 but whatcha gonna do); lacy summer PJ set from the op shop £2.50 which works as a jumpsuit; an amazing ring from Topshop £8.50 (just about the only thing not on sale); and a compact mirror (on my travel to-buy list) from another op shop for 99p. The buffet was so so yummy that night and we all ate so much.
I've been pretty tired this week. Caitlin and I went into town on Tuesday to check out some travel things like towels, sleeping bags and backpacks, since we leave in 8 days! So close! Camille (an amazing cook who helps at Highlands every weeknight) brought me in some of her travel bags and a travel towel last night for me to have a look at so hopefully that takes away some of the stress. Yesterday, Janet, Caitlin & I got driven to Hughenden, 10 minutes down the road, to do a walk and a risk assessment, as the girls will be doing a sponsored walk there next term. It was quite uneven, lots of uphill and downhill and a bit slippery but it was very pretty at times and good exercise for us. It started raining though which wasn't so nice. It took 1 3/4 hours but with the girls it will be hell. It will probably take 3 hours with them and we'll have to put up with moaning and complaining. Ah well, don't have to think about that till May!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
I said I'd do a post about my daily/weekly life here. So here goes...
- During the week my general hours are 7am (earlier to wake up the girls) till around 9.30am and then 3.30pm to about 9.30pm. However, Caitlin and I alternate Monday mornings and I also have every Tuesday morning off. I start at 5.30pm on Thursday afternoons. The boarding gaps have every Friday off (which I've mentioned previously).
- In the mornings, we wake the girls up, take them down to breakfast, come back and get them ready for school, hustle them off to school/escort the form 1s (about grade 2) to school, come back and do dorm scores, put laundry away, unload the dishwasher, and do any other random jobs (not very often - we're often done before 9.30am).
- In the afternoons: 3.30pm we go and get snack from the kitchen and organise the rest of it, occasionally go and collect a boarder from lodge (grade 1); at 4pm go and get the form 1s; 4-5.30pm put laundry away, help the girls out with prep (homework) who have a club during prep time; 5.30-6.30pm either go across to school to supervise and help the lowers (grade 4) with prep or stay at the house and help the form 1s and 2s; 6.30pm dinner; 7-8pm get the girls ready for bed, check and chase up who's handed in uniform for washing; 8-8.45pm get the different year levels to bed and lights out 15 minutes later; 8.45-9.30pm put washing on, load the dishwasher, sit in the office and hope no-one comes down comlaining of crying, talking or sickness.
- Caitlin and I go across to the gap flat after work probably at least 3 nights a week to see the others *coughwatch90210withIzzy*.
- On weekends, I either work Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon OR Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Morning shift goes from 8am to 12.30pm (lunch) and afternoon is 12.30pm to about 9.30pm. Breakfast is at 8:30am and dinner is at 5:30pm.
- On Saturday mornings the girls have some sort of activity, whether it be something crafty, a skipping or cheerleading workshop or a dental hygenist coming in to talk about brushing properly. The afternoons are pretty relaxing, often with 'sweet shop' where the girls can choose a bunch of sweets up to 50p, and hot snacks and a movie in the evening.
- Sunday mornings sometimes there is a service, put on by either David (headmaster) or one of the houses - ours was on Valentine's Day - and then a brunch at 11:30am. Sunday afternoons are also pretty chill and we try to get the girls off to bed a bit earlier.
- During the day on weekdays, us 4 boarding gaps usually meet up at Highlands and just waste time on the computers, walk down to town, go for a walk and other fun things. We've also been busy booking accomodation for Easter and now -- IT'S ALL BOOKED! Milan, Venice, Rome and Istanbul are all organised and we are so excited! So, in 20 days, we take a plane to Milan, stay 3 days, train to Venice, stay 3 days, take an overnight train to Rome, stay 4 days then fly to Istanbul where we stay 1 night before our 9 day ANZAC tour starts, then stay another 3 days afterwards before flying back to London in time for the summer term to start. Eeeee!
Hope you've now got a good idea of what my life here is like and that this was a bit easier to read :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)