Rome to Valencia

It´s quite fair to say that a lack of blogs on this program is directly proportionate to the amount of fun I´m having and with the arrival of my good old mate BJ, time spent indoors on computers has been limited.

As we speak I am sitting in a hostel in Valencia, Spain. I was able to get here by way of train from Rome through cities like Venice (Venezia), Florence (Firenze), Nice (in the South of France) and Barcelona. Yes, I have pictures for all of these places... They´re piled on in the memory of a stack of memory cards I have in my bag and in my camera. It´s a bit risky to have them only in one place but I really do have so many pictures and so little patience and time to upload them right now. On the 11th of July I will be flying out of Berlin to London. There, I am excited to be catching up with Uncle Paul and his lovely wife Karren, who have just moved there. Hopefully, here, whilst under some more stable conditions, I will be capable of backing up everything (and dishing out some photos of places between Rome and here - and I do have some belters).

Just to update you all, I did fly quite quickly through the north of Italy, spending a couple of days in Florence (a great city for art, culture and massive old buildings) and a couple of hours in Venice (I actually stayed overnight but the way train time tables worked out, I had 3 hours to see the whole city - did pretty well I thought haha).

After the north of Italy, I caught a train through the South of France to Nice where I walked the streets looking for the cheapest accomodation I could find. Ended up walking right past a restaurant where I heard some Aussie accents and with my backpack, walzing up to this table and asking how well they knew the area. Needless to say, this good old Aussie lass ripped the bag off me, put me in a seat and shouted me a mojito. I soon found out that she had done the same thing in her youth and seemed to be doing a fellow world tripper a favour. I´m sure I´ll do the same one day.

Soon enough, I got to Barcelona where I ran into BJ. Ever since, we´ve been having a great old time seeing the sites and checking out Spains imfamous night life. By some crazy coincidence, we managed to be in Barcelona for the countries largest beach party of the year. The fiesta which ate right through the night seemed to be celebrating Fire, Water and Summer. This was evident through a surpluss of mischievous fire-work activity.

So after the party, we decided to come down to check out Valencia, the home of the traditional Spanish seafood and rice dish that I adore. We havent actually had one here yet.. but we will get around to it. Still sussing out the best prices..

The other thing we´re keeping an eye out for is when and where they hold the historic bull fighting ceremonies. I am very keen to see one as I´d love to see my star sign in action! Hopefully the matador cops some too...

Rome

When in Rome: Blow your mind with history, say ciao bella, eat pizza, drink peroni, and spend 70 aussie dollars per night for a hostel...

A couple of days ago I caught a train from Sorrento through Napoli to Rome. On the train I ended up meeting this guy from Torronto in Canada who helped me find a bed.. As the city is quite packed over the weekends, I had to stay in a hotel on my first night due to the hostels inabilty to bed me.. But since then Ive been staying at a hostel called "Yellow". Cool place.. Lots of fun..

Before I got here, I was planning to stay in the city for at least five days as I heard there was A LOT to see. I heard right.. This city is a mecca for history fanatics such as myself. However, I may even be out of here in a day or so because Aaron (my new canadian mate) and i have absolutely smashed the sites... Waking up at around 8am each day, weve covered alot of turf in a very short space of time. The Spanish steps, the fountain of trevi, the colloseum and the roman forum rank among the many sites that we had the pleasure of visiting in the last couple of days..

Each of the sites here really have the power to have a profound effect on anyone who sees them.

Its amazing.. At least 4 or 5 times now, ive found myself standing still, marvelling at one of the many sites for a good half an hour before taking a breathe.. The sheer grandeur and detail of some of these ancient buildings is purely shocking... Something else that shocked the system, while I think of it, was when I stood in front of Raffaellos (the painter) tomb.. I could read his name enscribed on the side of his stone coffin. Wow..

Saw the Colloseum today, and actually ended up joining a tour group for the full experience..

It was amazing to actually see it..

I imagined that I was a gladiator walking his last 100m into the arena to salute the emperor whose private box we could see from the inside..

Although one could spend years discovering Rome, I think I might spend a day or more here before heading up to the north of Italy towards Venice and Florence. You wont believe me when I say this (i still dont) but I bumped into a bloke last night who gave me three days of eurail travel that he didnt need as he was flying out of italy back home. hows that for lucky!?

I sure am doing alright for myself here in the country that looks like a boot...

Lesvos to Italy

Hey! Im still alive!

(and typing on an Italian keyboard now, so forgive me for the punctuation)

Lesvos was amazing. For those who dont know, Lesvos is a Greek island just off the coast of Turkey. I could literally see Turkey from the local beach! Its really only a stones throw away.. we even tested the theory by trying to hit it with rocks from the beach!

I had a great time there with a group of French Canadian Arts students who are currently studying photography and history on the island itself.. We had a blast!

During the time I was there I picked up a bit of French (nice and bad words) and even some cooking skills.. To thank the girls for letting me stay with them, I picked out a night to cook for them. Check it out.

Not bad eh!?

Just look at those smiles...

hahaha

So After alot of fun in Lesvos, I spent three days getting to where I am now in Sorrento, Italy.

Ive lost count how many buses and ferries it took me to get here, but im here now and im loving it.

If I had the time and the money, I would definitely be looking at staying longer here. The food is good, the scenery is amazing, the girls are all 10/10 and there is history literally everywhere you look. This is truly Gods country.

Last night I met an old German lady at the Pizzeria who has lived here for 6 years who, over a Peroni, offloaded hundreds of places to see and go in Italy. I could hardly fit it all in my little note book. Thanks to her, the trip to Pompei today ran very smoothly.

Speaking of which, even if you have the slightest interest in history, Pompei will blow your mind!! Its a whole city of ruins! What struck me the hardest was how well preserved every building was due to it being surrounded in volcanic matter for hundreds of years.

These ancient Italians were so much like us!! Check this out!

Unfortunately, the beers were warm..

So tomorrow Im off to see the island of Capri. I hear its quite the sight. I even got the lowdown from the German woman on this island. She gave me a map showing me some cool historic places to visit including one of good old Tiberius' holiday villas.

Ps. I got good prices for accomodation in Sorrento! Just before I was about to give in to 30 euro a night accomodation, I managed to screw a camper van guy down to 15 a night for my own little Jayco trailer.. Happy days!!