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14th April 2006, 06:37 pmNow go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!!PermalinkOK, That's a Monty Python comment. We've been making them all week - I'm going to watch it when I get home.
Well today's our last full day in Paris and ultimately in Europe. Tomorrow in the afternoon we shall catch a train from Paris to Waterloo in the UK and then have dinner with suz's uncle, who will then take us to the airport for another gruelling 24-hour flight. I'll miss sunday completely. I believe this entire flight is operated by QANTAS though, so i'll have games, etc to play for the whole trip. I'm going to be wrecked when I get home.
OK, so in Paris, we've seen the Eiffel Tower, The Victory Arch, and the Louvre yesterday - We saw the Mona Lisa, and I yawned. It's tiny, to say the least. It's not too bad to see, but I appreciated other paintings more. But meh, I can say I saw it. We weren't allowed to take photos, but I wanted to take one just to annoy the guard there who was trying to stop everyone else from taking photos!
So today, I don't know what we're doing. It's good friday, so we'll at least be going to Hillsong France for their good friday service, which'll be good.
Yeh, paris isn't so bad once you get used to it. I've not had much trouble getting around here as we did when we first came. I still would prefer to learn Italian/Spanish/German over french though - i seem to pick the former up more quickly.
Andrew and I counted our photos today. All up, we've got about 5,000. 12GB worth. We've been backing our photos up to his little portable hard disk, and yeah, there's a lot to say the least.
So this will probably be my last blog entry for Europe, unless something really amusing happens today. So, I guess I'll be back in Australia real soon. Au Revouir! |
13th April 2006, 06:23 pmWe We...PermalinkWell I've been in Paris for the last few days. Had a lot of fun TRYING to work out the metro system - it's one big hack of a job that has left the system in a bit of a mess. Mind you, once you've worked out how it works, it's not too hard to get around, but the first day we were here, it took us 3 hours to get from the international train station to our hotel, and most of that time was not spent on a train or metro. Anyway. It seems most of the "systems" in place at the train and metro stations do not work - we can't buy tickets because they only except coins and credit cards - and our credit cards aren't euro-mastercards or visas, so that's proved useless. We were also asked to provide identity photos for our weekly ticket - she couldn't take photos for us, so she pointed us to a photo booth. however, the photo booth also only accepted coins - so we had to go back to the lady to get our notes converted. *sigh* Anyway. Once we're on it, it seems to work.
The guy who owns the hotel here loves Australia and Australians, so he's made our life very easy. We've had trouble finding a laundromat though, so suz and andrew washed their clothes in the bathtub - we've got a lot of clothes all over our hotel room
Yesterday we went up the Eiffel tower - all 640 stairs - because elevators are for pansies. I tried to use the stairs to get from the 2nd level to the 3rd, but they wouldn't let us and made us use the lift. Otherwise we would've walked all the way to the top!
OK, so today we're going to the louvre to look at art. I probably won't last too long because i'm all Reneissanced out. Nevermind.
OK, I'll be home soon! Au Revouir...
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12th April 2006, 05:53 amSo, how much for the gondola?PermalinkOK, so this blog is the second one I wrote on my PDA - i'm sorry the dates are all out of whack. This one was written on the 9th, just after leaving venice.
So, lets back-track a little. Yes, I'm on the train from Zurich to Geneva, but i haven't given any details to what venice was like.
Well ,we arrived at Venezia station, and the cold hit me as I got off the train. Andrew Reckoned that it was only 14C or so, but the wind chill made it feel like -5C. We got on one of the water buses, and my teeth were chattering - and that NEVER hapapens. But the view was amazing - I've never experienced anything like it before. I used to think that Venice was attached to the mainland, which of course it isn't. Venice is made up of 183 little islands, which have all been built up and connected by hundreds of little bridges. The buildings are tall, at least 4 stories high, and the streets in some areas are no wider than two people. All the streets were made of small stone blocks about 10cm square, set in cement. The atmosphere is so amazing. I kept getting lost though, because it seems I get my bearings from the sun, and the sun is something you don't really see in the narrow inner-parts of the city.
The streets aren't exactly neat and square either; I've already likened it to a maze of stone, canals and bridges. I even got lost the first night - I was going bacdk to the hotel while Andrew and Suz when for a stroll. Unfortunately I didn't have the name or the address of the hotel we werre staying in, but I did have a map, and had marked on it where we were staying before we parted. Unfortunately, I had marked the wrong street on the map - I thought andrew said it was right, but it wasn't. I wandered for 40 minutes trying to find the hotel. It was cold and dead quiet. Luckily I eventually found it, and helped myself to a hott shower.
Now, Venice doesn't have the same problem Rome does with traffic because cars and even bicycles aren't allowed. Everything's moved around on the street by handcart. Think of garbage collection for example. This too is done by boat, and people bring their rubbish to the canals. Police, buses and txies also use the grand canal (the big canal that goes through the heart of Venice). The city itself has a population of around 65,000 but that's not surprising when you see the size of the place. But the place is over-full in terms of what the place can support, so hat makes things like permanent accomodation and employment a problem.
One of the more common jobs besides fishing is Gondola tours. There's gondolas everwhere, and Fabio was telling us (Fabio is the name I gave to our gondola tourguide - he looked it) it's a family business, so you can't simply decide one day you want to operate a gondola. Further to that, the Black Plague hit Venice pretty bad, so the original use for the gondola was a kind of Hurst for funerals, and thus they're all black.
So yeah, I pretty much love Venice the most out of everything. I've got lots of pictures to show, but as mentioned, I can't upload them right now :-( - I'll upload them when I get home. Although there's some similarities between Rome and Venice, for the most part they're very different. And Milan was different again. Although we were never supposed to leave the station, Suz and I went walkies since andrew got on the wrong train, headed back for Venice. Milan is much more modern, and appears to be more of a business city than a cultural icon. The feel of the place was similar to that of Brisbane, from what we saw anyway. But since we weren't there very long, I can't really comment any further on Milan.
From Milan we caught the train to Zurich after Andrew found his way back to where he left us. Zurich was mostly cold and wet. It was fine on the way in; the scenery was amazing. I believe I ook quite a few videos because it was stunning. The train weaved between the alps, and snow was everywhere. There was no snow in Zurich itself though, which was depressing - Andrew and I wanted to build a snowman and then demolish it.
Traffic was much more civilized and they stopped for you if you got out onto the crossings. They also have a large tram network and - get this - electric buses. What's wierd about the buses was that they were attached to two overhead cables. A Bus. Attached to cables. It jus looked so bizarre.
Oh, and the other thing about Switzerland - they speak 4 different languages, depending on where you are depends on which one they speak (I think i've covered this in a later post, but i'll continue to transcribe). So, down south they speak Italian, and East/North Switzerland speak German because of Germany and Austria, and then the West speak French because of france. A few speak english as well, so that was helpful.
So anyway, since it was raining today we strolled around the town, had a hot chocolate and got some internet time, which I used to breifly reply to your emails and write my last quick blog (That blog would've been dated the 9th). I've been wanting to put my pictures up, but I'll never get them all up - I've taken over 1,500 so far, so if I ever get the chance, i will be a few select pictures. Nevermind.
Until next time, Ciao! |
12th April 2006, 04:46 amTo Venice: Blog from the 6thPermalinkWell, I know it's been 6 days since I wrote this one - but here's the blog from the 6th I did on my PDA. Unfortuntately I don't have a card reader here so I have to type it out by hand - but that's not a concern - nobody else is around so I can use the PC for as long as I like. So here goes...
Well, I'm on the eurostar now which is the train that will take us to venice. It's a 4 hour ride, so I thought I'd amuse myself by trying to blog on my primitive PDA - It can only recognize letters at a time, compared with my previous PDA which could recognise words and even sentences at a time, so currently it's a slow process.
So, Rome. It's the most isolated I've ever been. I mean, I had fun, but i felt so cut off; I can now appreciate on a small scale what our Asian friends go through when they come to Australia. At least Italian is latin-based like English, Most Asian languages (with the exception of Bahasa Indonesia and Filipino) do not use the Latin character set. So at least we're able to decipher most things we read.
For instance, we were in a large square yesterday, and there was a church with a Leonardo DaVinci display on. I was approached by a man who was japanese in apperance. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him hesitate, put his classes on and then approach me. He cautiously asked me "Entrance?" as he pointed to the church. I tried to point the entrance to him down the road that was hidden by some stairs, but had a hard time trying to explain to him not to actually go up the stairs, but go around. He looked confused, so I told him I'd take him to the entrance. It was cool to see his face light up as he said "Oh, you're very kind!" I asked him if he spoke much itlaian, and he said "not much, bonjourno, Grazie..." and I laughed with him. I led the little man to the entrance and left thinking about how much of an advantage I hade compared to him. His english was broken but was much more comprehensive than his italian. I decided he was much more braver than I.
Oh, and it was a complete shock to me to see shacks and make-do shelters on the bus from the airport to rome. I had no idea with regards to the poverty of the people. To see blocks and blocks of shanties made from scrap metal and whatever else they could find was truly moving. In the city itself, there are a lot of beggars, but it's hard to tell if they're legitimately poor - a lot are just scammers.
Around Rome itself, it's hard to tell the demographic of an area - in Australia , you can usually tell by the standard of housing. In Rome, there aren't houses per se, but more like what we'd call apartments. And because they're so old, it's unlikely that one person owns all the apartments in a particular building, so of course maintenance is never done on them, and they're old to begin with of course. So sometimes you'll see really well-dressed people get out of a nice modern car, and walk into a little dingy apartment building. It's sorta wierd.
There are, however, some really fancy houses owned by the rich, i'm assuming. They don't stand out because on the outside they look like everything else, but you notice gates every now again in the walls, and these gates often lead to courtyards which appear to double a driveways for the hidden house-come-mansion.
Speaking of driveways and cars, may I take a moment to winge of the driving, er "style" of the Italians. If i ever get the opportunity to put the videos online (which, by the way are the "not a photo" links in the gallery - you'll need Quicktime installed to play them) You'll see exactly what I mean. I was nearly run over 3 times, all at pedestrian crossings. Police vehicles don't even stop at the crossings, and the traffic seems to govern itself - I missed a great video yesterday that involved a busy main road intersection. A pack of cars (including a police car) were trying to make their way through the intersection, and so the first 3 cars (I'm sure there was only 2 lanes) just kept creeping forward until the other traffic stopped. We couldn't believe it - we just stood on the side of the road laughing.
Food was also cheap. Little resturants everywhere, with really nice food. Most sold an Italian menu of course, which is what we ordered mostly. Coffee has also been amazing. There's a few differences though. For example, Andrew likes hot chocolate. But when he ordered it for breakfast, he was pleasantly suprised when he was presented with an Italian hot chocolate, after which we both excplaimed "ah, of course." For those that don't know, an Italian Hot Chocolate is very thick, almost like a mousse. Also, if you ask for a latte, you'll be given a glass of steam-frothed milk, as I discovered. It's on the menu as just that, and if you wanted what most Australians would call a latte, you need to order a caffe latte (coffee with milk) - all of which taste pretty amazing.
Well, we're nearly at venice, so I better stop here. It's taken me 4 hours on and off of writing to complete this - so I hope you've enjoyed it. Ciao! |
9th April 2006, 12:54 pmI'm Switzerland!!! I'm Switzerland!!!PermalinkOk, for those that don't know, that's a quote from the Simpsons. Nevermind.
OK, so "Guten tag" - I'm in Zürich. I love it lots, but it's raining. Alps are amazing. I actually have a huge blog entry waiting to be uploaded on my PDA, but I can't here because there's no card reader. *Sigh* When i find a card reader, I'll upload it as well.
Venice was pretty much amazing. I liken it to a maze of tall walls, cobblestone pavement and canals. I rode in a gondola, and saw many of the different aspects of the town. Definately on my todo list again.
And unfortunately, due to the lack of card reader, I can't upload any photos either. In a single day in Rome, I took 530 photos, which is more than my entire trip to Sydney. So yes, there's a lot! I should've brought a laptop so I could prep all the photos I wanted to show you guys and stick them online quickly.
Anyway, We're heading back to the hotel soon to collect our bags and get back on the train.
We visited Milan in Italy longer than expected yesterday. Drew went to get some snacks for the ride, and had 10 minutes to do so. He came back, and went to the wrong platform. He couldn't see us, so he assumed that we had jumped on the train already, so he jumped on it as well. Unfortuantely, it was the train heading back to venice. So, Suz and I were stuck and Milan for 3 hours. Which was fine. I bought another spoon! So yeah, that was drew's stuff-up. We've all had a few laughable moments but over all, we're having the best time.
OK, well I'm running out of time. I'll try and blog more about venice and Zürich on the train. And those that have requested postcards, sorry they've taken so long - I posted them on the last day of our Rome trip, and have been trying to do it regularly, but it's time-consuming waiting in line at the post office. But i've managed so far!! |
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