Europe Here I Am!!!

I left Cinque Terre today so sad, it is just so beautiful!!!! i will be going back there and everyone should visit it!!!!! then it was onto Nice driving in along the coast line was amazing.... i cant wait to go exploring!!!!! so thats my plan for tonight is to organise my next two days... i wish i had more... i think i will be coming back here for sure!!!!!

Day 2 in Florence didnt really get up to much. I went for a walk around and visited some buildings found a Supermarket and got a few things. I really just hang out at the hostel. Nothing really exciting!!!! later on i meet up with the girls and we walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo (by the way there are a few steps to walk up.... just a few... NOT) anyway the view was totally worth it... apart from all the guys selling hang bags and sun glasses they are everywhere!!!! you cant enjoy any nice area of Europe without running into them!!!!

So we hang out there for a while. Its so pretty that there was even a couple having their wedding photos taken!!! it was so cute!!! after chilling out for a while, we walked down the Ponte Veechio and watched the sun setting, it was beautiful. There was music playing, i think it was this point i fell in love with Florence... Now i had convinced the girls to come and wait with me on the bridge to watch out for the bats that were apparently suppose to come or go or something. But sadly after about 1.5 hours waiting there were no bats Tony!!!! who knows what happened to them, maybe it was there night off!!! hahaha.

After finally deciding to leave the bridge we walked through town, not before i trip over on the path and nearly fell in front of a bloody car... bloody Italians have a slack replacement programme of broken footpath tiles things.... they are a death trap!!! I reckon Florence is 100 times better at night, we there are not as many people and its cooler and the lighting is just amazing on the buildings!!!!

1st day in Florence, a group of us had signed up for the food market tour, it was amazing, it is the oldest market in Italy and there was so much yummy food. We got to sample some local wine (very good, but not on a empty stomach at 10.30 in the morning) and local olives, sun dried tomatoes, garlic cloves soaked in ovile oil (my favourite) different cheeses and bread. It was amazing and we were all so full afterwards. I have converted to italian and greek food, i love it. Expect me to be eating a lot of it back at home!!!!

After the tour we check out the markets, which were a little dispointing all the same touristy crap, no local products or anything. the guys walking round with the fake LV, Chanel hand bags and sunnies were getting really annoying as well!!!! Its not like our saturday market at all!!!

After that we walked over the Ponte Venochi, such lovely Jewerly. I was in dream land.... We walked round the streets a little more but by this stage it was about 2pm and it was stinking hot. It was time for my siesta... Im loving the siesta!!!!!

At 6pm another group of us meet up and went to a local resturant, that when you buy a cocktail for 7 euro and pay 1 euro you get to eat from a buffet table, it was amazing. The food was fresh, local and amazing. I havent eaten like that for a while, fresh vegetables, cheeses, rices, AMAZING!!! and we could just keep eatng more. The best value meal ive eaten in a very long time. So after 2 hours of gorging and talking, we left feeling very full and satisfied!!!!!

Leaving Roma and onwards to Florence, im very excitied about Florence!!!!
Well i think you all get the point of these days where its just hop on the bus and drive to get to the next place!!! well thats really all we did, we did stop at a place called Orevito and i brought some cheap sunnies, as mine were so broken there was a piece of the lens missing in the middle of them.

On arrival into Florence, it didnt look to pretty but i guess we were driving through the Ghetto... getting to the hostel, i decided to chill out for a couple of hours and have a bit of a siesta, there was a group of us heading out for Dinner which was organised by busabout!!! Then apparently a karoke bar was next door!!!

On the way to the resturant we got a little walk around Florence and saw some buildings, but our guide wasnt that up to speed with a lot of things so she couldnt really tell us about anything!!!!

On arrival to the resturant, it wasnt a italian place or anything, but we were kinda rushed through all our courses, it was ok i wouldnt have a sing and dance about how great it was!!! It was good we were hungry and it was food!!!! Then to our surprise Top Deck turned up (they are another tour company, they are kinda between busabout and Contiki) and then we all thought on no!!! whats this turning into!!! As we walked next door. The place was crawling with Contiki, top deck and sadly us. It was all good fun when the karoke started, there were some actually really good singing. but then there were also just chicks getting up and wanting to dance on the stage so everyone would look at them!!! There was even an incident were one girl wasnt wearing panties and we all got a show that we didnt expect or pay for!!!! (those contiki girls) well we decided to call it a night when all the contiki people started rubbing up against each other!!!!!

Today was shopping day, im on a mission to buy a new camera. I heard about this department store thing all the way out of Roma, i had to take the metro to the end of the line. Where the camp ground is, is on the other end of the metro line. So i rode the entire metro line apart from 1 stop today, that felt like a real accomplishment. I found the department store but it didnt sell electronics my heart sunk, but then next door was a indoor outdoor mall thing and there was an electronic store there and i found a camera, a fujifilm one for 120 euro, hopefully it will do the job i have all confidence in it. I also hoping that the insurance company will completly cover my other camera, i loved that camera. it saw half of my europe trip with me!!!! a bit sad saying goodbye to it. Well today is my last day in Roma and im off to florence tomorrow.. im very excited im going to go on a horse wine trail hehehe (very expensive but apparently really good value) cant wait. So tonight i hear they are playing another movie in the outdoor theatre thing, so i might check that out. hehehe. well youll be hearing from me in Florence very soon, love ya all and miss u lots xxoo

Today was the big day i was hitting Vactian City!!!! First it was off to the Muesum, wow i think is all i can say, so many paintings, scuptures, artefacts that have been "collected" by the Vactian over the years. There was even a mummifed woman in the Egyptian Section, that was strange. To see a previous Popes residents where Rapheal had painted the rooms they where amazing. Better than wallpaper or a lick of one colour of paint. Not many people could boast about there rooms with that art work. It would be hard to sleep cos you always have something to look at. The Sistine Chapel, i must admit wasnt what i expected, i thought it was going to be much larger. But it was very expressive but it was so crowded that it wasnt much fun and didnt really get a look but i got the jest of it. The ceiling was amazing how it told the story of the bible pretty cool.

After missioning through the rest and got out it was down to St Peters Basillica, now that was increaible the massive open square and the Basillica itself just beautiful!!!! So the line to get in was huge but it was moving along which was awesome. There was guys selling tickets to get in to skip the queue but i think i was only there about 15 - 20 mins so no skin of my nose... I walked down into the crypts first and that when disater struck, a kid ran past me and bumped me and i dropped my camera and it hit the marble floor and now it is all over, it wouldnt respond to the on button, even when i pleaded with it, asked it nicely.... Nothing!!! guttered!!!! well atleast it wasnt stolen or else i would have lost all my photos!!!! so walking through the crypt was a bit of a blur cos i was playing with my camera!!! but i must admit some of the popes have quite nice burial areas, one looked like it was a mini apartment or something...

After that i walked into the Church, it was increiable, words cant really describe it, it was massive and everywhere you turned was something else.. There was so much to take in... There was even a service underway in there in just a tiny section of the church. I was really guttered i couldnt take any photos of it though, so it was a little dissapointing.

Well today, i had a nice sleep in and decided to hit some sights just a nice slow crusiy pace, nothing to rushed and this time i wasnt walking as much as yesterday, so im going to make full use of my day metro pass.

1st stop was the Trevi Fountain, its so cool but in such a random place. You are walking round these dinky shops and cafes and then round the corner bamm there is the Tervi Fountain... I had a good seat day and thought about my wish i was going to make. I found a couple of 2 cent coins in the bottom of my bag. I threw one in for a return to rome and the second for my wish, it was pretty cool. After hanging out there for a while and wandering the streets for a bit it was back to the metro and onto the Piazza della Repubblica which is amazing and inside one of the winged buildings was a mcdonalds, it amazes me they are everywhere even in historic buildings!!! I also walked down to the Santa Maria Maggiore another big church and past the Opera house which i must admit is probably the most boring opera house that i have come across (compared to other opera houses and just general buildings). Then it was back to the metro and i went back to the Colosseum and just took my time to walk around and walk past the Arc Contantine.

After walking round in the heat for a bit, i decided to head to the Villa something Gardens (the name escapes me at the moment). It was really nice to sit on green grass in the shade and just chill out. The road noise was bearly noticeable, apart from the ocassional horn blast. It was so nice to not feel like in a huge city for an hour and just relax out of the heat. After chilling out there for a while i was getting really hungry so i called it a day in Roma and headed back to the campground on the dreaded bus.

But to my suprise and i think even Roma's i decided to head out at night, so i braved the bus system again. It was really nice to go out in the evening it was so much cooler, it was relaxing. I decided just to head to the Colosseum and it was beautiful. Such a difference at night, i think with a lot of iconic buildings and sites, there is something different about seeing them at night and in some cases probably the best time to see them.
Even though i was only there for 30 mins the whole trip still took 2.5 hours, stupid bus took ages to turn up. Grrr public transport in Roma.

Well today i am doing a walking tour this afternoon and am meeting up with megan and rebecca to go for a walk around in the morning of the things that we will probably wont see on th tour....

The problem with staying in these campgrounds is that you are so far from the city. We have to take a bus and a metro to get into the city, and the bus is not very realiable, it comes at its own time (its like its stuck on island time or something).

We ended up basicallz walking from one end of the map to the other and what a sillz idea.... it got so hot so fast. i dont think i have ever drunk so much water in my life and not needed to go to the toilet.
I saw something saying it was 34 degrees and with no wind it is hot. the asphalt was even bubbling and stinking to my sandels.

We cruised up to the spanish steps and walked past all the fancy shops, i was in dream land, LV, prada, chanel, valentino, jimmy choo to name a few. it was tourture. At the top of the spanish steps i had to get a bottle of water. i didnt bring a bottle with me. 3.50 euro was a F***king rip off, that is a mistake i will only do once. I was desperate. stupid people taking advantage of poor back packers, we arnt all rich american tourists. grrr!!!!

Walking around the streets there was always something to see, a church, a ruin, a square and must likely a fountain. If it wasnt so hot it would be really nice to walk around. it was getting close to the time to meet for the walking tour. Such a sillz idea to do 4 hours of walking before a 4 hour walking tour. my feet were killing me, one of mz blisters popped, so they were killing me, no drama!!! :D

the walking tour was amazing, the guide was an american guy who has been living in roma for 2 years and it made Roman history entertaining and actually made us laugh and kept us entertained which is bloodz hard to do when its 34 degrees out and a group is walking around!!!

We saw all sorts of things and im going to struggle to remember everything.

Palentine Hill, Jewish Ghetto, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Colosseum, where Julis Ceasers was assassinated, lots of different ruins, Castel Sant'Angelo, Arches of Constantine. to name a few things. We also got the entire run down of the Roman history, which is pretty intresting.

By the end of this, i was buggered. so it was back home on the stupid metro and bus which took forever to turn up.

To finish off the evening, the camp ground was playing James bond movie on a outdoor screen which was great!!!!

Well it was back on the bus and it was weird not knowing anyone, it was time to make some new friends.... But it is really hard on the bus as everyone zones out and watches the movie or sleeps.

It was a really long time on the bus leaving at 8am we arrived at 6pm which sucked but the view along the waz was amazing, Rural Italy is verz beautiful. I know i will be back and do some more exploring esp through southern Italy.

It was pretty cool though on the way we watched Gadiltor which got us all in the mood for Rome.... I love that movie...

We made it to the camp ground and again i got mz own room which is awesome, cos this little shed things arnt that big. I got majorly ripped off with the air con.. its just a fan that blows the hot air around!!!! and it is stinking hot here.

Then it was just a chill out evening and i caught up with a couple of girls that i meet on the bus, Megan and Rebecca, they are aussies that are leaving in london on a summer holiday... i love that...

Well leaving Greece so sad but as the same time i was pleased i was heading back to the main land. But before i could get back to Italy i had a massive mission ahead of me. The ferry from Ios back to Athen was suppose to leave at 11.50am it turned up at 12.40pm so not a good start, the ferry right was really rough so the ferry had to go slower as well. so we ended up turning up at athens at 5.40pm i think it may have been later... then there was a train and a bus to get to the station where i had to catch a 3 hour bus to Patras to catch the ferry at midnight...

Lets say there was some nailing biting moments and even some tears were shed, but i made it to Patras with about an hour to spare... and i was back on the same boat that i arrived to greece on. I even sat in the same seat....

The ferry right was like any other ferry ride, i read a book, tapped my fingers, listened to some music, but it sucked that i didnt know any one on it this time. It was a pretty lonely 30 hours or so.... But i made it bacsk to Venice and managed to swing a free shuttle back to the bus terminal where i caught the shuttle back to the campground which turned out to be free also bonus!!!!!

Once back at the venice campground, there was so much needed sleep and rest cos two nights sleeping on the floor of a ship really isnt that much fun!!!! and there was even air con which was magically!!!