When In Rome

I attempted to leave you hanging last post. Did it work? I wish I could say 'we missed it' just to add a twist to the story but we jumped on the train seconds before it pulled out of the station. After weaving our way through the people asking us to stay at their hostel we left the terminal walked five minutes to our hostel. The first day we just walked around checking out a few of the many sites to see in Rome. However, we were very disappointed to see scaffolding covering about half, if not more, of the buildings and statues. I guess that is what we could for going in the off season. Below is the fountain of four rivers while under renovation.


Regardless of all the annoying scaffolding Rome was gorgeous, especially the Colleseum and Roman Forum. Being a structural engineer I was especially impressed with the size of the structures that they built over 2000 years ago. And they're still standing, well mostly. I can't help but wonder how they designed the columns and arches that long ago, when today we have complicated design procedures to follow. Have I bored you yet? Because I can keep going.


While avoiding being hit by the tons of scooters whizzing around we finally made it to Trevi Fountain. That reminds me, we forgot to go see the Spanish Steps. That's too bad. Anyway, I was standing beside Trevi Fountain just about to throw the coin when I thought 'which shoulder am I supposed to throw the coin over?' So, I chose the left because I thought the picture would look better then. I chose the wrong shoulder. An American couple informed of this apparently well known fact. The fountain got a second coin from me that day.


I almost forgot to talk about Vatican City where we had the pleasure of lining up in some of the longest queues ever. Even the womens washroom line up was huge! But we did get to see the Pope. We couldn't believe that we were going to see him because it seemed like such a rare event. But then we found out he speaks every Wednesday. So, I guess we were still lucky to see him but it made the queues for the Basilica and Vatican Museums longer.


Over 200 pictures later, we miraculously finished our tour of Rome in one and a half days. With an extra day we decided to venture outside Rome. We went to one of the mob centers of Italy and where the pickpocketers thrive. I am talking about Naples. Fortunately, we escaped with al our belongings. As much as I wanted to meet the mob, that was not my main reason for going there. I wanted to visit Pompeii and Mount Vesuvias. Our late arrival left us with choosing one or the other though. After much reluctance we chose Pompeii - an over 2000 year old city preserved under ash after the Mount Vesuvias eruption. It was very cool to walk up and down the streets of the uncovered city, that is still being dug up.

If you recall from my previous post, I mentioned that we were heading back to Florence to see the Museums that were closed on Mondays. Well, there's a new addition to this story. We came back on a Thursday to find out by a tourist information lady that the museum employees were on strike all day. As unfortunate as this was, I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the situation. I guess we were just not meant to see the statue of David. With a whole day wasting away we decided to rub the pigs nose in the Signoria Square, which is supposed to give you good luck. I'm superstitous when it comes to the Leafs but I might have to change that now. We walked by the museum where David was hiding and there were people walking in FOR FREE! Well, the later isn't true but we did get to see the statue, which was far more impressive than I could have ever imagined. Before seeing the statue I just brushed it off as any ordinary statue but I take that back. The detail and immense size blew me away.


The picture above is a rarity as you're not supposed to take pictures of the statue. But still a lot of people sneakily were. I'll never forget the look on one middle aged guy's face when his flash went off while taking the picture. He was hiding behind a pillar with the camera at stomach height. In my head I was giving him congratulations for his seemingly flawless effort until *FLASH*. Everyone turns and looks at him as he looked down at his camera with a puzzled face that spoke 'how did that just happen, I didn't do that.' While shrugging his shoulders, he nonchalantly walked backwards behind the pillar. It was gold! I feel his awkwardness though, as my camera's flash has accidently gone off while taking pictures in museums.


After buying my new camera (no more pink pictures) we caught an overnight train to Nice. I'll save that absolutely wonderful experience (how do you put sarcasm in writing?) with you in my next post. Until next time, just...just keep on truckin'.

Touring Tuscany

After my brief stay in Venice I already feel in love with Italy and touring Tuscany only increased that love. Tuscany was everything I would have expected and more! We did a bike ride through the rolling hills, and walked around Florence and Pisa. The first day we did a walking tour around the old town and then crossed the river to try to find a good view of Florence. This turned into quite the adventure. We could see the hill we wanted to walk up on but could not find the way to get to it. We were walking aimlessly until eventually we found a wall behind thick bushes that we could climb and get a decent view of the town. We could tell that others had been there because he glass on top of the wall (to prevent people from climbing it) was all broken off. So after a few hours of hiking and searching here is the result.


As you can see the picture turned out alright but there's a crane blocking the Duomo. Maybe Photoshop can remove it. The Duomo is one of the major attractions in Florence and there is a story behind it that I will tell at the end of this post. Along with the Duomo, a second major attraction is the Old Bridge. Well at least it's a major site for me; I do love my bridges, as Jack and Josh know well after travelling with me for over 40 days. Below is a picture of the Old Bridge, which I originally thought was in Venice. I searched hard for it in Venice and eventually gave up but luckily I found it in Florence. It is almost 700 years old and has survived many floods and is the only bridge in Florence to survive WWII. As you can see I haven't bought a new camera yet because the pink is still in the picture.


The second day in Florence we took a train to Pisa where we got to see the Leaning Tower. Wow, I don't understand how it is standing. It is leaning a lot, I believe 4.8 meters at the top of the structure! On the walk back to the train station we had to stop to get some Gelato as it is irresistible. We had to continue the trend of having Gelato in every Italian city. I'm still searching for the infamous whiskey flavour though. Once at the train station I had a bite of Josh's pizza so know I can say 'I have had a piece of a piece of Pisa pizza in Pisa.' Say that ten times fast.

There have been a lot of beggers and sellers on the side of roads in Pisa and Florence. All of them walking up to us trying to sell us the same stuff over and over. If it's not sunglasses, watches, or belts, it's handbags or even little toys. Luckily when we got out into the countryside there were no beggers and sellers.

We rented bikes and did a 70 km figure 8 from Florence south to Greve in Chianti. I could certainly feel that I hadn't been on a bike since the summer. My legs, arms, and neck were in pain at the end. It was well worth it though. There were a lot of vineyards and small villages along the way with plenty of gorgeous views. I tried a road bike for the first time and they really fly! I was reaching speeds over 50 km/hr on all the downhills, almost passing cars.

The next day we were planning on climbing the Duomo (460 steps). My legs were not looking forward to that but then we found out that it is closed on Mondays. That could be thought of as a good thing but the museum where the statue of David stands was closed as well. So, it turned out to not be good but we are planning on stopping back at Florence after Rome just to do those two things. That's the beauty of an unplanned trip! Instead we left to Rome early to see some of the many Roman sites.

There were 2 trains within 25 minutes of each other leaving for Rome, one at 9:09 and the other at 9:32. The time that day was 9:07 when we found out that the 9:09 train was free and the 9:32 train cost 15 Euros. The people walking through the train station then got a good laugh as we ran as fast as we could to catch the 9:09 train with our huge packs on. Did we make it on the train? You'll have to wait for the Rome post to find out.

From Salzburg To Venice

Salzburg was a lot better than I expected! We could have easily spent more than the one day there. The city is super clean and all the buildings fit in perfectly with each other. Our short stay here leaves me with very few stories other than just how nice the actual city was. There was a lot of The Sound Of Music stuff around. You could even take a bus tour to all the major sites from the movie. They were basically full of only women. I guess I should watch the move because it's a classic but we'll have to see about that. They played the movie every night in our hostel.

To get away from all The Sound Of Music stuff we went up to the fortress on top of a 300 meter hill and had a coffee overlooking Salzburg. The coffee was expensive but well worth it. And it was a real coffee! You know what I mean if you've been reading Jack's blog.

The mountainous scenery was very impressive from the hilltop cafe. Unfortunately, that's as close as we were getting to the Alps. Actually, that's not true because we had an hour long transfer in Innsbruck where we quickly walked around. The mountains here were almost, if not equally, as impressive as the Fjords in Norway. The train ride after Innsbruck was equally as impressive. I was taking pictures with my hands holding my camera outside a small opening in the train window. Every time a train passed in the opposite direction my camera shook in my hands, almost dropping it. But it was very worth it, as the scenery was gorgeous.

At the end of the train ride we pulled into Venice, the famous floating city. But since Venice is so expensive we had to stay at a hotel outside the city in a small town called Mirano. We got a HOTEL for 20 euros a night and were feeling great! The problem was getting out to this small town. We found a train leading out there but we did not have a map. We bought a map from an information booth but she gave us a Murano map. So, it ended up being useless and once we arrived at the dimly lit, small Mirano station there was nobody there and no map. We started walking towards some country roads and realized we were in some trouble. As we stood there contemplating what to do a super nice bus driver saved us from wandering around all night. He left his normal bus route and after much searching he found our hotel. What is this, lucky time number 20? It feels like we have been very lucky at a few points on this trip. We're definitely due for something to go wrong.

(Don't mind the pink, that's just my camera gasping it's last breath. Unfortunately I have to buy a new camera in Italy. Why couldn't it have broken in cheap Czech.)

The next morning we found a different bus that left 3 minutes away from our hotel and went right to Venice. But hey, if we found that bus the first time we would never have had that worrisome experience. This bus took us to Venice in 50 minutes. After stepping off the bus and walking for 5 minutes all I could think was WOW! I couldn't believe I was in Venice. We took a water bus down the grand canal to San Marco Plaza. We then decided to just walk around and basically get lost. Well actually, we didn't have to try to get lost; I don't know how anyone could figure out their way around the city. There's no cars or scooters anywhere on the island so the streets are super narrow and zigzag back and forth. Many times we went down a path that ended at water. There were only a few bridge crossings and they were tough to find sometimes. But we prevailed and can now say we conquered the streets of Venice.

We could only afford to spend one day in Venice but you really don't need much more time than that anyway. Next destination was Florence. Now I'm only one city behind, as I am in Rome right now. I think Jack has written about Florence though; he's always a city ahead of me. I've been trying to get pictures up but the internet is just too slow. Anyway, it's time to put myself in a Rome touring mindset by watching Gladiator. Until next time, cheers.

Relaxing Budapest

After 35 days of travelling my body finally gave in to all the walking and training. I needed a rest city; the three of us needed a rest from the constant moving around. And there is no better place than a city known for their baths and spas. Naturally we had to check a bath out. It was exactly what we needed. One of baths was basically a giant hot tub with people relaxing and playing chess.

Along with the baths we actually slept in each night too! Sleeping in has been a rarity on this trip. I think the atmosphere of the Budapest Bubble is what did it to us. The Budapest Bubble is the hostel we stayed at and I have to say that it has been, by far, the best hostel yet! It was a small, cozy hostel run by a young, and extremely nice, Hugarian girl. And when I say extremely nice, I mean you couldn't even imagine someone nicer. She went out of her way for anything that we would have needed even after we may have caused a few problems for her; one of the minor ones being the lose of our keys, which was my fault. Everyone that we met there were good too. There were a few Israeli's, American's, and Aussie's.

Anyway, that's enough about the hostel. Budapest was a very cool city. It used to be two cities, Buda and Pest, until they merged together. We walked around both sides and found the Terror Museum on the Pest side which was very interesting. It was about the widespread terror caused by the Nazi's and Communist's on Hungary during the 1940's and 1950's. Think about the book 1984 but as a reality and with less care for people's lives; that was Hungary in that time. Everyone knows about the millions killed in the Holocaust during this time but the Russian's were actually worse. They killed a lot more civilians for no reason other than inflicting terror on the community.

Other than that museum it was a very relaxing city before heading back on the move. We were convinced by the Guelph girls (Jack's friends from home) to go to Salzburg. We have to thank them for that because it was awesome there. Probably better than Vienna, our originally planned city after Budapest. Anyway, I'll talk about Salzburg tomorrow as the internet is very slow here. That also means that I didn't get many pics up. I'm sorry but I'll get them up eventually. Until next time, cheers!

Krakow and Auschwitz

Welcome to Poland! Well, at least a written version of Krakow and Auschwitz with pictures included of course. I should really have a seperate post for Auschwitz but unfortuately I don't have time for that. So be prepared for a big change of pace half way through this post.

We arrived in Krakow on Oct. 7th via another long train ride. I will definitely not want to ride trains anymore after this trip. We arrived late at night, around 9:30. If it wasn't for bad map directions we should have got to our hostel at 10. However, we wrote the wrong street name down and ended up walking up and down a street looking for this wrong street name. We tried walking down every street in the area, tried looking in parking lots, and tried finding a map. Just as we were running out of options we bumped into some Quebecers. As we were talking we found out they were staying at the same hostel as us and they gave us directions. It turned out that the hostel was at the end of a parking lot; who could have found that? Fortunately the rest of Krakow went smoothly.

Krakow is an extremely nice city that escaped bombing in WWII because, along with other reasons, Hitler liked it so much. You will have to look at my pictures to get a full sense of the beauty of this city. Most of the pictures are of the old town square and Wawel Castle.

Krakow is a very easy city to walk around and it seems that every corner you turn there is something new and interesting to look at. At night however, the story is a little different. Every corner we turned, everything was closed. Just like the rest of Europe, everything closes very early, including the pubs. One of the nights we walked around for about 45 minutes looking for somewhere to get a beer but couldn't find anything open. Eventually we found a pub deep in a basement that gave a feeling that we were in a sewer. The pub turned out to be really cool though.

The next day was a very different story though. This was the day we visited Auschwitz-Birkaneu. Before arriving there I had an idea of what to expect but never would I have guessed the magnitude and brutalness of what occured there. There were three concentration/extermination camps in Auschwitz. We walked through two of them. The smaller of the two has a museum showing the atrocities that occured in the camps. Walking on the roads/rails leading into the camps was very eerie.

Walking up and down the paths, between the row upon row of barracks, all I could think about was 'how could the Nazis do this?' The Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other minorities were unloaded/sorted and striped of all belongs. Then were sent either to the gas chambers or were used for slave labour. In the museum part, they piled up real belongings (suitcases, shoes, combs/brushes, artificial limbs, toothbrushes, and basically everything. They sold as much of the belongings as possible. They even sold women's hair that was used to make fabrics. They also removed gold fillings from the teeth of the corpses. In total, there were over 2 million people, really no different than you and I, murdered in the three camps.

I don't understand how anyone could follow orders to murder innocent people. The worst part is that the Nazi's didn't do all the work in the camps, they were basically supervisors. The Nazi's made the Jews plunder/pillage, kill, and cremate there own.

I can't give a good feeling of Auschwitz, you would have to visit it to really see and feel what happened there. It was definitely the most touching place I have been and will probably ever be. Unfortunately, I am leaving this post on a sad note but the next post will be better.

Prague, the Cheap but Amazing City!

Finally, I have the chance to get on the internet here in Budapest to talk about Prague. Budapest is our place of relaxation so I can upload a lot of pictures and write a few posts here. We arrived in Prague 9 days (Oct. 4) and stayed there for 3 nights, but could have easily stayed longer. There was a lot to do there and the city is extremely nice. The people weren't too nice but the architecture and landscape were beautiful. This was the first city that we started having language problems, which may have exacerbated the unhelpfulness of the people. We rarely could find someone who could speak English. However, The language barrier was a very cool experience despite how frustrating it got.

One particular incident occured when we were trying to get to Plzen, about 2 hours west of Prague, for a day trip. We asked the lady for bus tickets, then paid thinking everything was good. So, then we tried to find the bus but was unsuccessful. We asked someone where the bus leaves from and the guy gave us a confused look as he told us it was a train ticket, go to the train station. Eventually we made it to Plzen where we walked around the city and did the Pilsner Irquell brewery tour. The city was full of people because we happened to be there while Pilsner Fest was on. There was a band playing in the market square playing English songs but with Czech lyrics, which made for a good time since we had to sing along in English.


While in the market square we climbed over 300 steps to the top of the church. You could see the entire city from the top of the tower. Upon our arrival back to Prague we went out to dinner with friends from Guelph. I have to say I was not impressed with Czech food but they did have an Edmonton Oilers vs. San Jose Sharks hockey game on the TV. That definitely makes up for the bad food!! Speaking of hockey, I wish I could watch the Pittsburgh/Leafs game tonight but Hungary isn't as big a fan of hockey as the Czech Republic. We're hoping to see a Raptors game in Italy or Spain, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Things to do in Prague. As I said before there is a lot but most of it is walking around. Speaking of walking, you would definitely want to take a walking tour. We've been doing them in a lot of the cities and they are always well worth it! While walking around we saw Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock, the castle hill where the cathedral stands, Peltin hill, old town square, and many other buildings. We went through the Communism Museum, which I thought was really good. Walking down the streets and seeing the buildings that were built with communist ideals is very strange but interesting. We walked through Wenceless Square where all the riots and resistance against communism occured.

Overall Prague has been my favourite city so far and it's extremely cheap!! We're able to go out for dinner every night. A pint of Pilsner Urquell (the main Czech beer) is $1.50 CDN. Poland and Hungary are our next stops and they are equally as cheap. Finally I can be under budget. I got some pictures of Prague up but the internet is very slow here so you'll have to wait a few more days for the rest. Until next time, ______ (I can't remember what cheers in Czech is).

Oktoberfest!!

As I said in my last post, the time has come to talk about Oktoberfest, or at least what I remember of it. Unfortuantely, I can't remember any of the songs anymore since it was so long ago that I was there. I didn't know what to expect of Oktoberfest until I saw the mass of people inside and outside the beer tents. Take the Milton fair and time it by...a lot. There were rides and games but we were most concerned about the beer tents. That's where the fun occurs.

When we stepped into the tent we couldn't believe our eyes. There was row upon row of tables. As the day went along people starting singing and standing on the benches. But by the end of the night everyone was singing, what they know, and standing on the benches while swaying the liter steins in the air. We learned most of the songs from the many Germans there. Who also loved Oktoberfest, which debunks the rumour that Germans hate Oktoberfest. A lot of people told me that Germans didn't like it because there were too many tourists. But there were probably just as many Germans as tourists on the day that we went.

We happened to go on Reunification Day so that could have been why there were a lot of Germans. When going to the bar at home, usually we would try to beat the line up by getting there before 10:30pm but here we were rushing to get there before 10:30am, and we still barely found a sit. There were about 5 or 6 tents that held a total of 100,000 people!! Over 6 million litres of beer are drank in the 5 week long Oktoberfest. I contributed my fair share to that number. Josh and I were so fixated on the good times that we forgot to eat lunch and dinner; that's especially unbelievabe for Josh.

Anyway, I have to leave this post short because I don't have anymore internet time. I just finished uploading pictures of the German countryside, which are some of the best yet. Until next post about beautiful Prague, prost!

Don't Miss the German Countryside!

I haven't been able to get on the internet until here in Prague. There's too much to write about right now so I'm just going to talk about everything leading up to Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest deserves it's own post. I'm currently doing laundry so I will be typing very quickly so don't mind the spelling mistakes, not to mention that this keyboard is in Czech. Anyway, the German countryside was absolutely beutiful; way nicer than Berlin!

We visited Nuremburg, Wurzberg, and were supposed to visit Rothenberg but we missed our stop so we stayed in Treulingen. If I was able to upload pictures here you would see just how picturesque these towns are. In Nuremburg the Old Town was good but the highlight here was the Nazi Rally Grounds. There was a very eerie atmosphere here. I stood on the podium where Hitler gave his speeches; that was very weird. The history of the Nazi party was extremely interesting and I will have to read a book about it when I get home. I recommend you do the same if you haven't already. In Nuremburg we also visited the courthouse where the Nazi leaders were tried and convicted.

From Nuremburg we travelled to Wurzberg where once again we were lucky to find a hostel. We really need to start booking hostels before arriving in the town. But that is half the experience of backpacking, right? Wurzberg looked veryt historic despite being completely demolished in less than 24 hours in WWII. We decided to rent bikes here so that we could see all the city in as little time possible. Upon arrival to the top of the largest hill overlooking the city, we realized that there was no other way to see the city.

After leaving Wurzberg we were supposed to go to Rothenburg, an old town of 12,000 people. We actually booked a hostel for this place but never ended up there. Instead we went right through the station where we were supposed to transfer, but didn't know enough German to realize this, and ended up at the end of line, which was Treulingen. Fortunately, we were able to find a hotel, which was a nice change from hostels, and talk the lady down to letting us stay for 20 Euros. We're starting to enter places where we need to negotiate a little. This was a nice relaxing town. The weird part was that these past 3 cites/towns we visited shut down at around 8pm. Everything closes.

The next stop was Munich. The train was full of people dressed up in the German outfits (I can't remember what they are called) and ready to spend a whole day at Oktoberfest. I'll leave Oktoberfest fot my next post but I will say this: I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life until this day. I also learned a lot of German songs and sayings here, which you will learn in my next post. Anyway, I better go get my laundry. Until next time, salute!