So I finally have decent internet and am too tired to write anything. I am hopping from place to place without much down time at the moment so I am keeping very busy. Since I last wrote I have been to Genova, Venice, Bologna, and Florence. I had less than 24 hours in Venice. Probably in Genoa too. And tomorrow I'm going to Siena for the day. So now, when I have a bit of time I don't really want to spend it writing about how busy I've been. Don't you feel loved? Maybe tomorrow evening I will have the energy. Or the next day when I am hoping to do a day trip to San Gimignano and then catch an evening train to Perugia. Or maybe I will never again have enough time to sit down and write a decent update.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Insert clever title here.
So it's been a few days. Filled with many things. I am now in Italy, on the train to Genova. Trains are very useful for updating things. And for finishing books.
I spent the last 3 days in Nice. And yes, it was nice. Got there somewhat late on Friday. Just hung out in the common area chatting with the other people staying there. Next day I explored the city. The Vieux Nice (old twisty lane part of the city), the site of the old chateau (no castle there now but good views, some ruins and a waterfall), the beach and the modern art museum in the morning and in the afternoon I walked out to the Matisse museum and the ruins of an arena which are quite a way from the centre of town. It's a lovely city. In my wanders I passed a restaurant called Le Maori which was playing the rugby world cup the next morning but it was bit out of my price range. Instead I went to the Irish bar to watch the game. I thought it was more likely to have a more pro New Zealand atmosphere than the sports bar around the corner from my hostel. It was not very pro NZ. And it was packed. I there 40 min before kickoff and had to wait 25 to get in. It was quite a game. And somewhat painful to watch at times surrounded by very loud and exuberant french supporters. But we won, and I was there to see it.
After the game i headed back to the hostel (via ice cream) and took my time over lunch. In the afternoon I grabbed a train to Monaco. I had been warned that it wasn't worth a lot of time but it's super easy and pretty cheap to get there from Nice so I went anyway. I only ended up spending about half an hour there. It is pretty place with the mountains and the water and in between the forest of pines and palms and luxury apartments. But mostly it just makes it abundantly clear that you will never be that rich. I walked past a real estate office at one point and if my french is right you could get a 50 sq.m one room apartment for just 2.85 million euro.
The main sight in Monte Carlo is the casino so I found that. It wasn't really very awe inspiring. So I headed back to the train station instead of lingering. On the way back I stopped at a couple of towns that I'd heard good things about. Eze has some good walks. I climbed half way up the hill but found a sign saying the short walk was 40 min from there and the long one was about 3 hours. So I went back down and sat on the beach for a bit instead. Then I got the train onwards, this time stopping at Villefranche sur mer. It's a colourful little town with streets from about 13th century. Unlike Monaco the harbour was filed with little boats of all different colours and people fishing instead of row upon row of white luxury yachts. I liked that better. Spent about an hour wandering the town, enjoying the views and sitting on the beach before I got back on the train to return to Nice. All in all it was a really lovely laid back sort of day.
Yesterday I took the day off from being a tourist. Mostly. I slept in a bit, lingered over breakfast, talked to mum on skype and didn't leave until after noon. Went to the train station to buy my tickets for today, wandered back past the market. Went back to the hostel for lunch and chatted with Catie on skype. Booked lots of stuff for Italy. In the afternoon I went on a grocery store hunt. And bought some macarons on the way back. They were pretty good. The pistachio one was amazing. Managed to read my book for a bit. Spent the evening staying in with some of the other guests and went to bed fairly early.
And then this morning. Up early, breakfast, trek through the rain to the train station to catch a train to Ventimiglia and from there to Genova. Will post this when I get to internet.
I spent the last 3 days in Nice. And yes, it was nice. Got there somewhat late on Friday. Just hung out in the common area chatting with the other people staying there. Next day I explored the city. The Vieux Nice (old twisty lane part of the city), the site of the old chateau (no castle there now but good views, some ruins and a waterfall), the beach and the modern art museum in the morning and in the afternoon I walked out to the Matisse museum and the ruins of an arena which are quite a way from the centre of town. It's a lovely city. In my wanders I passed a restaurant called Le Maori which was playing the rugby world cup the next morning but it was bit out of my price range. Instead I went to the Irish bar to watch the game. I thought it was more likely to have a more pro New Zealand atmosphere than the sports bar around the corner from my hostel. It was not very pro NZ. And it was packed. I there 40 min before kickoff and had to wait 25 to get in. It was quite a game. And somewhat painful to watch at times surrounded by very loud and exuberant french supporters. But we won, and I was there to see it.
After the game i headed back to the hostel (via ice cream) and took my time over lunch. In the afternoon I grabbed a train to Monaco. I had been warned that it wasn't worth a lot of time but it's super easy and pretty cheap to get there from Nice so I went anyway. I only ended up spending about half an hour there. It is pretty place with the mountains and the water and in between the forest of pines and palms and luxury apartments. But mostly it just makes it abundantly clear that you will never be that rich. I walked past a real estate office at one point and if my french is right you could get a 50 sq.m one room apartment for just 2.85 million euro.
The main sight in Monte Carlo is the casino so I found that. It wasn't really very awe inspiring. So I headed back to the train station instead of lingering. On the way back I stopped at a couple of towns that I'd heard good things about. Eze has some good walks. I climbed half way up the hill but found a sign saying the short walk was 40 min from there and the long one was about 3 hours. So I went back down and sat on the beach for a bit instead. Then I got the train onwards, this time stopping at Villefranche sur mer. It's a colourful little town with streets from about 13th century. Unlike Monaco the harbour was filed with little boats of all different colours and people fishing instead of row upon row of white luxury yachts. I liked that better. Spent about an hour wandering the town, enjoying the views and sitting on the beach before I got back on the train to return to Nice. All in all it was a really lovely laid back sort of day.
Yesterday I took the day off from being a tourist. Mostly. I slept in a bit, lingered over breakfast, talked to mum on skype and didn't leave until after noon. Went to the train station to buy my tickets for today, wandered back past the market. Went back to the hostel for lunch and chatted with Catie on skype. Booked lots of stuff for Italy. In the afternoon I went on a grocery store hunt. And bought some macarons on the way back. They were pretty good. The pistachio one was amazing. Managed to read my book for a bit. Spent the evening staying in with some of the other guests and went to bed fairly early.
And then this morning. Up early, breakfast, trek through the rain to the train station to catch a train to Ventimiglia and from there to Genova. Will post this when I get to internet.
Friday, 21 October 2011
Rain on the Pont du Gard
Aqueducts never fail to amaze me. It's such a feat of engineering. Not so much the arches and such, the romans did a lot of arches and obviously had to know how to build bridges. No, I'm amazed by the parts you don't see. The Pont du Gard is a massive aqueduct spanning a valley with a river in the bottom. Except it's actually just a tiny part of the aqueduct. The Pont du Gard is about 130m long. The Nimes aqueduct was about 50km long. And the whole way it has an average gradient of 25 cm per kilometre. Because if the slope is much more than that the water moves too quickly and will spill over but much less and it won't move fast enough. So the big bridge part is impressive because that's what they needed to build to keep it going at the right angle, but they kept the angle right the whole way, and the land wasn't always leaning in the right direction. All to get water to Nimes. So that's your lesson in classical engineering for the day. And next time you see pictures of those towering arches of aqueducts remember that that is just the visible part.
Sorry about the mini lecture, I just find it really interesting and had to share. Now that Catie is gone I don't have anyone to vent my amazement on.
As you may have guessed I visited the Pont du Gard aqueduct yesterday. It's about a half an hour away from the city of Nîmes which has a bunch of other really well preserved examples of Roman architecture including the Maison Caree (a temple from Augustus' time) and an amphitheatre from the 2nd century AD which is in such good condition that it has been fitted out with lights and benches so that it can still be used.
So I wandered around Nîmes in the morning and saw the main sights in the city as well as the museum of archaeology and natural history (it was free) which had no signs in English and a lot of not very good taxidermy. I mean a lot (and am also now thinking about an alot of taxidermy and it is scary).
In the afternoon I grabbed a bus to the Pont du Gard. It was pretty awesome. Then as I was heading back from the actual bridge toward the entrance (it's a bit of a walk) it started pouring down. I had been warned that it might rain so I was wearing my jacket but I got pretty drenched anyway. It was wet and cold and lovely. I have missed the rain.
Caught the bus back to Nimes (with a pause in the middle to watch some large vehicle ballet when a truck in front of us failed to get around a tight corner on a skinny village road and then our bus had to get around it on the road which would hardly fit 2 normal cars let alone a truck and a bus). By the time I got back I was mostly dry so I decided to keep going and went to find the gardens of the fountain and climb the hill to the tour magne.
So I had a pretty full day but managed to see pretty much everything there is to see in Nimes. Then this morning I caught a train to Marseille.
So far Marseille is lovely but very windy. I climbed up to the basilica at the top of the hill this afternoon and practically felt like I was going to be blown off the hill it was so windy. Mostly I just wandered the city around the vieux port. Looked for cheap sunglasses because mine did a very impressive vanishing act at the Pont du Gard (I know where I had them and I know where I didn't have them and I only went one place in between but they weren't there). Met a random french guy who thought I was lost but then we had a whole conversation about how France is going to lose on Sunday. Now I think it's time to eat.
Talk to you again soon.
Sorry about the mini lecture, I just find it really interesting and had to share. Now that Catie is gone I don't have anyone to vent my amazement on.
As you may have guessed I visited the Pont du Gard aqueduct yesterday. It's about a half an hour away from the city of Nîmes which has a bunch of other really well preserved examples of Roman architecture including the Maison Caree (a temple from Augustus' time) and an amphitheatre from the 2nd century AD which is in such good condition that it has been fitted out with lights and benches so that it can still be used.
So I wandered around Nîmes in the morning and saw the main sights in the city as well as the museum of archaeology and natural history (it was free) which had no signs in English and a lot of not very good taxidermy. I mean a lot (and am also now thinking about an alot of taxidermy and it is scary).
In the afternoon I grabbed a bus to the Pont du Gard. It was pretty awesome. Then as I was heading back from the actual bridge toward the entrance (it's a bit of a walk) it started pouring down. I had been warned that it might rain so I was wearing my jacket but I got pretty drenched anyway. It was wet and cold and lovely. I have missed the rain.
Caught the bus back to Nimes (with a pause in the middle to watch some large vehicle ballet when a truck in front of us failed to get around a tight corner on a skinny village road and then our bus had to get around it on the road which would hardly fit 2 normal cars let alone a truck and a bus). By the time I got back I was mostly dry so I decided to keep going and went to find the gardens of the fountain and climb the hill to the tour magne.
So I had a pretty full day but managed to see pretty much everything there is to see in Nimes. Then this morning I caught a train to Marseille.
So far Marseille is lovely but very windy. I climbed up to the basilica at the top of the hill this afternoon and practically felt like I was going to be blown off the hill it was so windy. Mostly I just wandered the city around the vieux port. Looked for cheap sunglasses because mine did a very impressive vanishing act at the Pont du Gard (I know where I had them and I know where I didn't have them and I only went one place in between but they weren't there). Met a random french guy who thought I was lost but then we had a whole conversation about how France is going to lose on Sunday. Now I think it's time to eat.
Talk to you again soon.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Goodbye Catie
Well I just saw Catie off to the airport. What will I do without her? I will have to post my own pictures.
Right, so I just checked and apparently I have to cover the first day in Lisbon to the second day in San Sebastian. If only I remembered any of it. So... in Lisbon... we did stuff. We only stayed the one night and got a train to Porto at about 5pm. So we spent the morning mostly just wandering. It's a nice place. Embraces it's history but doesn't stop for it. We saw a bunch of things, got waffles. I don't really remember the specifics. Just the overall feel of it.
Then we got to Porto which was also lovely. I really liked Portugal overall. Porto was very different from Lisbon aesthetically. Both nice but very different. In Porto we mostly wandered too. Had a pretty day just because we could. For the first time in a while we didn't have to lug any backpacks so we wore our most impractical skirts. Went down to the river then crossed the high bridge, decided not to pay to take the gondola, walked back down to the river, decided to skip the port tastings because Catie was feeling less than excellent, crossed the lower bridge and made our way slowly back to the hostel. Had naps. 'Twas good. Did an evening wander too. We didn't really strive to see a list of things in Porto but we saw a lot anyway.
The next day we dragged all of our luggage to Coimbra, left it in a cafe near the train station for the afternoon (what train station has no luggage storage?) and had a look around. It's a pretty place but it was disgustingly hot. It is meant to be autumn. That was not autumn. Turns out it was uncommonly hot. It must have been around o-week for the university because we walked past groups in matching t-shirts singing. Some group of people (i assume law students but don't know for sure) have to wear suits and ties and big black capes. I felt sorry for them in the heat.
We ended up just getting to the university (oldest in Portugal) and saw a couple of churches then took refuge in the shade in the botanical gardens and read or books for a bit.
Back to the train station to catch an overnight train to San Sebastian. It was a long and painful trip. We arrived at 6.30 am to find the directions to our hostel were wrong and then that they didn't open until 9. So we went for breakfast. We were rather exhausted all morning. We went back to the hostel at 9 but weren't allowed in the room until 1pm so we pushed ourselves back out to see the city. It's all a bit of a blur. We found the cathedral and followed signs to tabakalera because we didn't know what it was (it turned out to be something like a culture factory or something similar so we still don't really know what it is). Tracked down the bus station, stopped for a caffeine hit and then went to the old town. Found a couple of churches and a square but somehow lost the museum. Then finally got to go back to the hostel and get into our room. Where we napped for a couple of hours. I finished my book too.
That evening... we cooked... went somewhere... I don't remember. And all of my sources of reminder are far away because the internet doesn't work in the rooms here. I'm sure it wasn't that interesting.
So that should get you caught up to the previous blog. Which I wrote yesterday. So now I just need to catch you up on since then. Where did I stop? Right, summarized the gothic part of the city. Left out the main event though. As we were on our way to the cathedral we heard drums so we went for a closer look and found a whole parade. So we followed it. It was some sort of procession of groups of people who make human pyramids. We followed a long way (and got sprayed with water at one point) and saw a bunch of little towers of people but we got hungry and didn't stay to see if they were going to make one of the giant towers we'd seen pictures of. Instead we went to find the cathedral (which was closed for mass) then walked to one if the gaudi buildings. Wandered a bit more and spotted a nice place for dinner (Catie decided to treat us to a proper meal on our last night together) and wound our way back to the hostel to look some things up on the internet. Fast forward a couple of hours (and a backwards blog) and we headed back out to find the shops we had googled. Turns it everything is closed on Sundays here so it didn't do us much good. So instead we tracked down the restaurant we'd seen earlier and had an amazing meal of tapas and sangria and some pretty awesome desserts which might not have been quite so spanish. It was really lovely (thanks Catie). If you find yourself in Barcelona and want a good tapas place for a reasonable price look for Xaloc in the Medieval Jewish quarter just off la rambla. It was a great place.
Then this morning we got up nice and early to get to la sagrada familia half an hour before it opened. The line was only all the way around one corner at that point. By 9 am it was around 3. It was pretty incredible to see something of that scale that is still being made. And it's very Gaudi, but it is so many other people too because of the nature of the project. I don't know if I could describe it. Some if it was incredibly beautiful and overwhelming. You can really see the forest theme inside. Above the altar is a spectacular crucifixion sculpture which was hanging from the tackiest chandelier I have ever seen. The two faces have very different themes and kinds of sculpture but both convey the emotions really well. It's interesting the way so many different people's ideas have come together within one guy's dream. I wonder if it would have been like that if the original plans hadn't been lost about a decade after Gaudi died. That may have given a little more freedom to his successors which had a really interesting affect on the building. And it's still only 60% finished! Maybe someday I can come back and see how it's progressed.
Then we went to the flea market to hunt for sunglasses because mine are getting pretty bad but instead we got socks and a bag (for me and her respectively). Then we walked back to the big plaza in the middle of the doing district to look at cameras (Catie had a slight mishap and now needs a new one). Lunch, back to the hostel to get organized and then off to the train station to send Catie off to the airport while I stayed and bought a train ticket to France. Tomorrow I head to Nimes. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll get to see the Pont-du-gard which I remember studying back in high school. And for the first time I will be trying couch surfing. Here's to free accommodation. If it goes well I could save a lot on my budget.
Now I have to go make myself some food. Hopefully it will be less than a week before I write again.
Right, so I just checked and apparently I have to cover the first day in Lisbon to the second day in San Sebastian. If only I remembered any of it. So... in Lisbon... we did stuff. We only stayed the one night and got a train to Porto at about 5pm. So we spent the morning mostly just wandering. It's a nice place. Embraces it's history but doesn't stop for it. We saw a bunch of things, got waffles. I don't really remember the specifics. Just the overall feel of it.
Then we got to Porto which was also lovely. I really liked Portugal overall. Porto was very different from Lisbon aesthetically. Both nice but very different. In Porto we mostly wandered too. Had a pretty day just because we could. For the first time in a while we didn't have to lug any backpacks so we wore our most impractical skirts. Went down to the river then crossed the high bridge, decided not to pay to take the gondola, walked back down to the river, decided to skip the port tastings because Catie was feeling less than excellent, crossed the lower bridge and made our way slowly back to the hostel. Had naps. 'Twas good. Did an evening wander too. We didn't really strive to see a list of things in Porto but we saw a lot anyway.
The next day we dragged all of our luggage to Coimbra, left it in a cafe near the train station for the afternoon (what train station has no luggage storage?) and had a look around. It's a pretty place but it was disgustingly hot. It is meant to be autumn. That was not autumn. Turns out it was uncommonly hot. It must have been around o-week for the university because we walked past groups in matching t-shirts singing. Some group of people (i assume law students but don't know for sure) have to wear suits and ties and big black capes. I felt sorry for them in the heat.
We ended up just getting to the university (oldest in Portugal) and saw a couple of churches then took refuge in the shade in the botanical gardens and read or books for a bit.
Back to the train station to catch an overnight train to San Sebastian. It was a long and painful trip. We arrived at 6.30 am to find the directions to our hostel were wrong and then that they didn't open until 9. So we went for breakfast. We were rather exhausted all morning. We went back to the hostel at 9 but weren't allowed in the room until 1pm so we pushed ourselves back out to see the city. It's all a bit of a blur. We found the cathedral and followed signs to tabakalera because we didn't know what it was (it turned out to be something like a culture factory or something similar so we still don't really know what it is). Tracked down the bus station, stopped for a caffeine hit and then went to the old town. Found a couple of churches and a square but somehow lost the museum. Then finally got to go back to the hostel and get into our room. Where we napped for a couple of hours. I finished my book too.
That evening... we cooked... went somewhere... I don't remember. And all of my sources of reminder are far away because the internet doesn't work in the rooms here. I'm sure it wasn't that interesting.
So that should get you caught up to the previous blog. Which I wrote yesterday. So now I just need to catch you up on since then. Where did I stop? Right, summarized the gothic part of the city. Left out the main event though. As we were on our way to the cathedral we heard drums so we went for a closer look and found a whole parade. So we followed it. It was some sort of procession of groups of people who make human pyramids. We followed a long way (and got sprayed with water at one point) and saw a bunch of little towers of people but we got hungry and didn't stay to see if they were going to make one of the giant towers we'd seen pictures of. Instead we went to find the cathedral (which was closed for mass) then walked to one if the gaudi buildings. Wandered a bit more and spotted a nice place for dinner (Catie decided to treat us to a proper meal on our last night together) and wound our way back to the hostel to look some things up on the internet. Fast forward a couple of hours (and a backwards blog) and we headed back out to find the shops we had googled. Turns it everything is closed on Sundays here so it didn't do us much good. So instead we tracked down the restaurant we'd seen earlier and had an amazing meal of tapas and sangria and some pretty awesome desserts which might not have been quite so spanish. It was really lovely (thanks Catie). If you find yourself in Barcelona and want a good tapas place for a reasonable price look for Xaloc in the Medieval Jewish quarter just off la rambla. It was a great place.
Then this morning we got up nice and early to get to la sagrada familia half an hour before it opened. The line was only all the way around one corner at that point. By 9 am it was around 3. It was pretty incredible to see something of that scale that is still being made. And it's very Gaudi, but it is so many other people too because of the nature of the project. I don't know if I could describe it. Some if it was incredibly beautiful and overwhelming. You can really see the forest theme inside. Above the altar is a spectacular crucifixion sculpture which was hanging from the tackiest chandelier I have ever seen. The two faces have very different themes and kinds of sculpture but both convey the emotions really well. It's interesting the way so many different people's ideas have come together within one guy's dream. I wonder if it would have been like that if the original plans hadn't been lost about a decade after Gaudi died. That may have given a little more freedom to his successors which had a really interesting affect on the building. And it's still only 60% finished! Maybe someday I can come back and see how it's progressed.
Then we went to the flea market to hunt for sunglasses because mine are getting pretty bad but instead we got socks and a bag (for me and her respectively). Then we walked back to the big plaza in the middle of the doing district to look at cameras (Catie had a slight mishap and now needs a new one). Lunch, back to the hostel to get organized and then off to the train station to send Catie off to the airport while I stayed and bought a train ticket to France. Tomorrow I head to Nimes. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll get to see the Pont-du-gard which I remember studying back in high school. And for the first time I will be trying couch surfing. Here's to free accommodation. If it goes well I could save a lot on my budget.
Now I have to go make myself some food. Hopefully it will be less than a week before I write again.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Really? A week? When did that happen?
So apparently I haven't posted in about a week. It really doesn't feel that long. And I will have to have a look and see what we've done since then. Or I could try telling it backwards. Just got back from wandering around the gothic part of Barcelona. Saw the outside of the cathedral but the inside was closed for mass. Found the medieval jewish quarter. Lots of pretty streets. This morning we went to an irish pub to watch the rugby (it was an awesome game. We had to fight every minute but we still destroyed them). The atmosphere was fantastic. There were a couple of aussies who were sore losers but the overall feeling was great. I also just realized that I will be in France next weekend. Could be interesting.
Last night Catie and I went out for a drink in the reval area. Though it took us a while to find it. Had mojitos and then crepes. Very tasty. We'd spent the afternoon doing some gaudi. We headed up to park guell (the place he designed to be a sort of gated community but it failed economically and the city turned it into a park) after we saw how long the lines were to get inside the sagrada familia and decided just to admire the outside then and go back early monday morning.
That was our first stop in Barcelona (after dumping stuff at hostel) since we spent all morning on a train from San Sebastian.
San Sebastian was pretty. We found Jesus. It wasn't hard. He was right at the top of the hill where they'd left him. He's a cell phone tower now. Who knew the best way to reach god was by text?
In the morning we had gone to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim (Catie had been to all of the others) but we decided it was a bit pricey when lonely planet told us the best thing was the building itself so we just walked around the outside then headed to the old city. We went to the much cheaper (but not at all in english) basque museum instead. I bet it would have been really interesting if we could have read the signs. It was still interesting but we didn't learn a whole lot.
And that was our second day in San Sebastian. Now I have to go sort laundry before we head back out so I will try to fill in the gap in the next couple of days.
Last night Catie and I went out for a drink in the reval area. Though it took us a while to find it. Had mojitos and then crepes. Very tasty. We'd spent the afternoon doing some gaudi. We headed up to park guell (the place he designed to be a sort of gated community but it failed economically and the city turned it into a park) after we saw how long the lines were to get inside the sagrada familia and decided just to admire the outside then and go back early monday morning.
That was our first stop in Barcelona (after dumping stuff at hostel) since we spent all morning on a train from San Sebastian.
San Sebastian was pretty. We found Jesus. It wasn't hard. He was right at the top of the hill where they'd left him. He's a cell phone tower now. Who knew the best way to reach god was by text?
In the morning we had gone to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim (Catie had been to all of the others) but we decided it was a bit pricey when lonely planet told us the best thing was the building itself so we just walked around the outside then headed to the old city. We went to the much cheaper (but not at all in english) basque museum instead. I bet it would have been really interesting if we could have read the signs. It was still interesting but we didn't learn a whole lot.
And that was our second day in San Sebastian. Now I have to go sort laundry before we head back out so I will try to fill in the gap in the next couple of days.
Monday, 10 October 2011
So far behind
I am falling further and further behind in these things. And we had a pretty epic couple of days. So I guess I'd better get this started. Apparently I haven't updated since we arrived in Seville. Seville was really lovely. We wandered around the streets all day. We saw the cathedral and the alcazar and the fancy big plaza. We stumbled across more than one little market and a festival of nations where there was an australian stand selling kangaroo burgers. We didn't try them but were tempted. Odd to have to go all the way to Spain to get the chance when we are usually much closer to the source. Took a break in the afternoon when everything was closed anyway but in the evening Catie managed to drag me along on some shopping (we didn't end up buying anything). In the evening we got some mojitos and sat up on the roof for a while. But we'd had a pretty full day so we crashed fairly early. The next day we had grand plans to go to Granada and see the amazing Alhambra. Didn't work out. It's a giant palace. We've been to a few now. Never have I heard of such a place having a limited number of tickets each day. They were sold out before we got there. So we wandered the town for a bit instead before catching our train to Madrid. We got there late and lost the hostel (spent about an hour walking 3 different wrong ways before giving up and getting a cab. We were really close too, just could not find the right street. And the people we asked for directions either had never heard of it or were completely useless. But we got there in the end.
The next day we headed for the palace because it is free on Wednesdays but we got there an hour before the changing of the guard so it wasn't open at all. We went away thinking we would come back in the afternoon. We walked around the city for a bit. Saw some sub par gardens, a whole row of statues of people we'd never heard of, the outside of a cathedral we weren't willing to pay to see the inside of, the outside of a convent we also wouldn't pay for. Generally had a see the city without any pressure to see specific parts in a particular order. In the afternoon we headed back to the palace to find lines practically round the block (there wasn't really a block for it to go around but it zigzagged across a square a long way). We couldn't be bothered waiting. And the sight of the number of people who jump at the chance to go when things are free made us reassess our plan to go to the Prado museum in the last 2 hours when it was free. So we hopped on the metro to that part of the city and went to check out the botanical gardens (we walked around them...literally, who charges for gardens? They didn't look that much better than the Christchurch ones from the entrance and there was a free park really close by so we didn't choose to enter) and the Prado. Which it turns out students get into for free all the time anyway. I love my ISIC card. It cost Catie €10. But she got more out of it anyway. I can only enjoy art to a certain point. Then my brain becomes saturated and everything I look at just washes over me without leaving an impression. Catie apparently has an infinite capacity for art though. After the Prado we got ice cream and sat in the free park before heading back to the hostel to make some food. Mmmmm... grilled cheese sandwiches. They were pretty epic sandwiches. Salami and olives and emmental cheese on good brown bread (we get free breakfast at most of the places we stay but it is always heavy on the white bread and we miss good bread). And a side of salad because we are good healthy people. So tasty. Anyway, moving on from the subject of food.
The next day we did a day trip to Toledo. We'd heard great things about it and it lived up to expectations. It had a free museum with a bunch of artworks and one small display case of neolithic objects. It had a massive cathedral that just kept going. And marzipan everywhere. We didn't actually eat any because we aren't really marzipan people but we took a picture of a church made out of marzipan. We also got a little lost (in a good way). Then back to Madrid for some free (but not very good) sangria.
The next day I had claimed for a free day. Do anything or nothing. I did a bit of nothing then a bit of anything then a bit of nothing again. Catie went shopping and did buy things this time and I bought a skirt that is completely impractical for traveling in. We went on a dessert hunt that night which proved harder than expected. I guess in Spain they start dinner so late that they don't bother with dessert.
And the next day was the first of two very full days. And I've been writing this for a while so I will abandon you for a bit and come back to that later.
Right, so where was I?
Yesterday. So close to caught up. Except those 2 days were rather busy. Started early yesterday (after a pathetic sleep. Here's a hint if people are sleeping you don't hold a loud conversation about it being 3 am right next to their bed) to get to the train to Segovia. The trains often sell out quite early but for some unknown reason we can't book ahead online because our cards are from overseas banks (after having trouble with the ticket machine I was told that they don't accept foreign cards because if it is lost then anyone can use it but I don't see how that is any different to local credit cards). So we had to go super early. Segovia was lovely. Very different from other things we've seen so far. They have a giant roman aqueduct and a palace that the lonely planet describes as 'fairytale'. It was more or less what you would imagine if you heard fairytale palace. More recent than most of the palaces we'd visited so far. We paid the extra €2 to climb the tower. Just a few steps. Somewhere around 150. But the view was pretty amazing.
We wandered the town without a goal for a bit too. They have a huge number of churches for a town that size. And also a large number of tourists. But we got away from the majority of them (the tourists not the churches) in our wanders.
Then it was back on the train to head back to Madrid. The other art museum, the Reina Sophia, is free on Saturday afternoons so we headed there. It's more modern art. Where the Prado had a lot of Goya and El Greco the Reina Sophia had Picasso and Dali. But mostly Picasso. The guernica has an entire room to itself but there are so many people crowded round it that you still can't see it all that well.
There were a few interesting things and a few not so interesting things. That's just how it goes with modern art I guess. In some ways I preferred the uncertainty of it to the all very comparable works in the Prado. Which might make me uncultured but oh well.
After we finished with the museum we walked around the streets looking for a decent but not too pricey place for dinner. We'd thought paella but it was a bit more expensive in that area than where we had seen earlier and we couldn't agree on one flavour to share so instead we went for the very spanish lasagne. Finally we made our way back to the train station one more time to catch a night train to Lisbon. Which is where we are now.
The night train was better than all of the night buses in Turkey but it doesn't make for the best night sleep and since it was the second night of not enough sleep we were rather weary by the time we got here. But we pushed our exhaustion aside (though not without some complaining) and after dumping luggage at our hostel jumped on yet another train to Sintra. Not a long trip but I almost fell asleep anyway. We applied caffeine before making our way slowly up the very steep town to the castle at the top. There were a lot of hills and stairs in the last 2 days. I have calf muscles. I can feel them. They were never really necessary in Christchurch.
We accidentally took the long way down, grabbed some lunch, checked out some of the cork stuff they had and headed back to Lisbon. Then we took a break and I started this epic account. Then I stopped this epic account and we went for a walk. Oddly there wasn't a whole lot open at 8pm on a Sunday but we had a decent look around anyway. We'll see how different it is in the morning.
And now you know everything. To a very limited definition of everything anyway.
The next day we headed for the palace because it is free on Wednesdays but we got there an hour before the changing of the guard so it wasn't open at all. We went away thinking we would come back in the afternoon. We walked around the city for a bit. Saw some sub par gardens, a whole row of statues of people we'd never heard of, the outside of a cathedral we weren't willing to pay to see the inside of, the outside of a convent we also wouldn't pay for. Generally had a see the city without any pressure to see specific parts in a particular order. In the afternoon we headed back to the palace to find lines practically round the block (there wasn't really a block for it to go around but it zigzagged across a square a long way). We couldn't be bothered waiting. And the sight of the number of people who jump at the chance to go when things are free made us reassess our plan to go to the Prado museum in the last 2 hours when it was free. So we hopped on the metro to that part of the city and went to check out the botanical gardens (we walked around them...literally, who charges for gardens? They didn't look that much better than the Christchurch ones from the entrance and there was a free park really close by so we didn't choose to enter) and the Prado. Which it turns out students get into for free all the time anyway. I love my ISIC card. It cost Catie €10. But she got more out of it anyway. I can only enjoy art to a certain point. Then my brain becomes saturated and everything I look at just washes over me without leaving an impression. Catie apparently has an infinite capacity for art though. After the Prado we got ice cream and sat in the free park before heading back to the hostel to make some food. Mmmmm... grilled cheese sandwiches. They were pretty epic sandwiches. Salami and olives and emmental cheese on good brown bread (we get free breakfast at most of the places we stay but it is always heavy on the white bread and we miss good bread). And a side of salad because we are good healthy people. So tasty. Anyway, moving on from the subject of food.
The next day we did a day trip to Toledo. We'd heard great things about it and it lived up to expectations. It had a free museum with a bunch of artworks and one small display case of neolithic objects. It had a massive cathedral that just kept going. And marzipan everywhere. We didn't actually eat any because we aren't really marzipan people but we took a picture of a church made out of marzipan. We also got a little lost (in a good way). Then back to Madrid for some free (but not very good) sangria.
The next day I had claimed for a free day. Do anything or nothing. I did a bit of nothing then a bit of anything then a bit of nothing again. Catie went shopping and did buy things this time and I bought a skirt that is completely impractical for traveling in. We went on a dessert hunt that night which proved harder than expected. I guess in Spain they start dinner so late that they don't bother with dessert.
And the next day was the first of two very full days. And I've been writing this for a while so I will abandon you for a bit and come back to that later.
Right, so where was I?
Yesterday. So close to caught up. Except those 2 days were rather busy. Started early yesterday (after a pathetic sleep. Here's a hint if people are sleeping you don't hold a loud conversation about it being 3 am right next to their bed) to get to the train to Segovia. The trains often sell out quite early but for some unknown reason we can't book ahead online because our cards are from overseas banks (after having trouble with the ticket machine I was told that they don't accept foreign cards because if it is lost then anyone can use it but I don't see how that is any different to local credit cards). So we had to go super early. Segovia was lovely. Very different from other things we've seen so far. They have a giant roman aqueduct and a palace that the lonely planet describes as 'fairytale'. It was more or less what you would imagine if you heard fairytale palace. More recent than most of the palaces we'd visited so far. We paid the extra €2 to climb the tower. Just a few steps. Somewhere around 150. But the view was pretty amazing.
We wandered the town without a goal for a bit too. They have a huge number of churches for a town that size. And also a large number of tourists. But we got away from the majority of them (the tourists not the churches) in our wanders.
Then it was back on the train to head back to Madrid. The other art museum, the Reina Sophia, is free on Saturday afternoons so we headed there. It's more modern art. Where the Prado had a lot of Goya and El Greco the Reina Sophia had Picasso and Dali. But mostly Picasso. The guernica has an entire room to itself but there are so many people crowded round it that you still can't see it all that well.
There were a few interesting things and a few not so interesting things. That's just how it goes with modern art I guess. In some ways I preferred the uncertainty of it to the all very comparable works in the Prado. Which might make me uncultured but oh well.
After we finished with the museum we walked around the streets looking for a decent but not too pricey place for dinner. We'd thought paella but it was a bit more expensive in that area than where we had seen earlier and we couldn't agree on one flavour to share so instead we went for the very spanish lasagne. Finally we made our way back to the train station one more time to catch a night train to Lisbon. Which is where we are now.
The night train was better than all of the night buses in Turkey but it doesn't make for the best night sleep and since it was the second night of not enough sleep we were rather weary by the time we got here. But we pushed our exhaustion aside (though not without some complaining) and after dumping luggage at our hostel jumped on yet another train to Sintra. Not a long trip but I almost fell asleep anyway. We applied caffeine before making our way slowly up the very steep town to the castle at the top. There were a lot of hills and stairs in the last 2 days. I have calf muscles. I can feel them. They were never really necessary in Christchurch.
We accidentally took the long way down, grabbed some lunch, checked out some of the cork stuff they had and headed back to Lisbon. Then we took a break and I started this epic account. Then I stopped this epic account and we went for a walk. Oddly there wasn't a whole lot open at 8pm on a Sunday but we had a decent look around anyway. We'll see how different it is in the morning.
And now you know everything. To a very limited definition of everything anyway.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
No update today
Well I wrote a nice big update on my phone but the internet at this hostel is incredibly unreliable. It took about an hour yesterday to succeed in checking just my email and bank account. So I wrote the update assuming that it would only require about a minute of connection to post it once it was written and that should only take about half an hour on this internet. But apparently by the time I started my phone only had 10 minutes of battery left. I will charge it and try again later but you might not get it until we get to Madrid tomorrow night. Also the y and z keys are backwards for some reason on this keyboard. I will try to fix all of the mistakes (I never realised how much I use y) but I might miss some because it is underlining every word in red so that will not help me. Also I cannot find the apostrophe. It is marked on the key but does not show up.
No hablo español.
If only we were from the Dora the Explorer generation we would understand so much more. But no, I watched Sesame Street and got a shorter attention span instead. I know you haven't heard from me in a while. Internet has been unreliable (and still is, I am writing this offline on the hope that I can get the connection to last long enough to post) and when we did have internet I didn't feel like writing. So let me sum up Morocco for you. It had some magic moments but in between was a whole lot of hassle. Marrakech was worth the hassle, Fes was not. By our last night in Fes we were completely exhausted with the entire country and wanted to just get to Spain. But Marrakech (after a few difficulties) was great. We wandered all over the medina, got sufficiently lost, found our way back again, ate ice cream, got attacked with henna, and watched some snake charming. The next day we visited the palaces and the saadian tombs (which were cool, the first one literally) and watched the square fill up with people from a terrace restaurant. It was lovely overall.
Then we headed to Fes on an overnight bus. Our hostel offered a walking tour of the medina and convinced us that a tour was necessary because you would get completely lost on your own. You would, but the tour turned out to be less amazing than it had been made out as. Bits were really interesting but it also included a lot of trying to sell us stuff. Why they thought people paying €10 a night for accommodation would be buying carpets for $3000 I don't know. But they tried very hard to convince us anyway. And it turned out the medina was so labyrinthine that any time we wanted to go somewhere we had to walk out to the main roads and around the outside. Also, there were a lot more creepy people. I'm fairly certain someone called me breakfast. So we abandoned Fes and Morocco. We stayed one night in Tangier (that was quite a bit better anyway but we only stayed about 12 hours). The waiter at our restaurant asked us where we were from and when we said New Zealand he said "Oh, Irish!" And when we tried to explain that it was sort of the other side of the world he told us he liked scottish whiskey.
But then we left Morocco and, after a very bumpy ferry ride with some not so pleasant background noise, arrived in Spain.
It's fantastic already. We are currently staying in Sevilla which is a beautiful little city. No creepy people staring or following us, clean, open, colourful. It is very hot. They still do the siesta here and since it is currently sitting around 35 and it's October you can understand why. But it is more of a dry heat than it was in some of the other places so if we stick to the shade it's fairly manageable. And there is a lot of shade. This is clearly a city that has had hundreds of years of experience of dealing with heat. I wouldn't want to visit in summer though. But other than the weather this is the first place we have seen that I could imagine living in. We have passed some buildings and said imagine living there. It really is a lovely place. And there are so many shoe shops. I don't know how they can all survive they're just everywhere. Catie is hoping to convince me to go shopping this afternoon. I might have been away from it for long enough to consider it.
So now you're somewhat caught up. I think I didn't go into a while lot of detail but oh well. Maybe next time. We are planning to have 4 whole days in Madrid so might have more time then. And hopefully more reliable internet. Now I have to see if I can connect long enough to post this.
Then we headed to Fes on an overnight bus. Our hostel offered a walking tour of the medina and convinced us that a tour was necessary because you would get completely lost on your own. You would, but the tour turned out to be less amazing than it had been made out as. Bits were really interesting but it also included a lot of trying to sell us stuff. Why they thought people paying €10 a night for accommodation would be buying carpets for $3000 I don't know. But they tried very hard to convince us anyway. And it turned out the medina was so labyrinthine that any time we wanted to go somewhere we had to walk out to the main roads and around the outside. Also, there were a lot more creepy people. I'm fairly certain someone called me breakfast. So we abandoned Fes and Morocco. We stayed one night in Tangier (that was quite a bit better anyway but we only stayed about 12 hours). The waiter at our restaurant asked us where we were from and when we said New Zealand he said "Oh, Irish!" And when we tried to explain that it was sort of the other side of the world he told us he liked scottish whiskey.
But then we left Morocco and, after a very bumpy ferry ride with some not so pleasant background noise, arrived in Spain.
It's fantastic already. We are currently staying in Sevilla which is a beautiful little city. No creepy people staring or following us, clean, open, colourful. It is very hot. They still do the siesta here and since it is currently sitting around 35 and it's October you can understand why. But it is more of a dry heat than it was in some of the other places so if we stick to the shade it's fairly manageable. And there is a lot of shade. This is clearly a city that has had hundreds of years of experience of dealing with heat. I wouldn't want to visit in summer though. But other than the weather this is the first place we have seen that I could imagine living in. We have passed some buildings and said imagine living there. It really is a lovely place. And there are so many shoe shops. I don't know how they can all survive they're just everywhere. Catie is hoping to convince me to go shopping this afternoon. I might have been away from it for long enough to consider it.
So now you're somewhat caught up. I think I didn't go into a while lot of detail but oh well. Maybe next time. We are planning to have 4 whole days in Madrid so might have more time then. And hopefully more reliable internet. Now I have to see if I can connect long enough to post this.
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