Europe Interrail 2004

25/09/04 Day 84 - L Day +1 Oh my, what a long and painful wait in a grotty 4 small airport! But the slight wear alright: we had three seats to ourselves and I managed to sleep most of it. Heather proved absolutely that she has changed since the 16 July: she did wake up for the arrival but down the runway, but excluding that was fast asleep the whole time! "A far cry from the "I don't sleep on transport" and "near hysterics at take-off" those many weeks ago! I was slightly confused when the pilot informed us that the temperature was currently 4°C in London. You should have seen our faces when we got off the plane - I'd forgotten it could BE that cold! How will we ever survive?! And then, after the most synthetic British breakfast sandwich ever, came the inevitable parting and the the real "end" to it all. There was so much to say, yet nothing as well. It's amazing how much better we know each other now, and I can't wait to see what it...

 24/09/04 Day 83 - The Last day. Also 8 months... Our third "anniversary" in Europe got off, in my opinion, to a bad start. Aside from the constant exhaustion, my only real anticipation of going home is an end to the unrepresentative and upsetting irritableness? in our relationship. So we had our last breakfast - enjoyable despite being denied our own fruit at Bosco - and managed after a while of false starts to head for an underwear shop. This was a waste of time. So we set off in search of our picture spot, eventually found it and got a gondolier to take the photo. Unfortunately he seemed more intent on getting his gondola in. Then our plans deteriorated as I bluntly refused to wander down another street, and, slightly more influentially, the entire city began to scaring & carry and as horrible dark clouds swept in. It is interesting how the Unbroken sun gates fauna! Through the canals and streets in a furious and dust-carrying way that hurts the whole city into a freez...

  23/09/04 Day 82 (there's no point just to San Marco taking lifts) We were going to get up early first everyone in the whole world decided they wanted to have a shower at the same time as us and we ended up leaving late and getting to San Marco to find a 10 min (only a guess) wait for the basilica and the same for the tower (we'll come back later we thought. And so I wentoff on my own for my long-awaited souvenir shopping trip during which time I bought the coolest gondola-shaped pasta and got very excited about murano glass bonded which I had decided I needed but the nice ones were expensive and the cheap ones were tacky. So I gave up on all that and went to an "art gallery" instead. It was an oriental and modern art gallery like first sector consisting of funny specs and Chinese vases - not my cup of china tea. The modern art was a lot better - several paintings of Marco and other energy places well soon. I was slightly disappointed to only find two pieces of likes...

  22/09/04 Day 81 I am itching to speak generally and emotionally of this fascinating city and the people we've met - but just I must deal with chronological facts. I think Heather has gone a bit crazy, as her entries were rather terse, and she's now prancing around the room like a Victorian show-girl! We got up a little earlier than intended due to the appearance of two Columbians in our bedroom. (Yes - I had the most painful mozzy bite night so far, worse, somehow, than Vienna - I think my body has just given up - oh how I long for England). This turned out to be beneficial. A breakfast was a laughing affair, and we were graced by Chris - "I'm so arrogant I won't even accept that other people have views, let alone that they are different from mine, let alone that they might just be right" - the hippy. He proceeded to preach about how to behave in foreign countries, and was chagrinedly (?) rude to Heather, who's Italian could not be more better than his. ...

  21/09/04 Day 80 After a restless night bouncing about on a squeaky too-trunk I decided to put the stress out of our misery and jump down, which I did rather gracefully. The new flow like windows looked out over water and also San Marco and Rio Carmere. And early in the morning the mist made it really look like a piece of Turners. After finding the shower room busy with naked women I went in search of my own private bathroom, which I found of course, and pranced around naked. I joined my crazy travelling companion in the dining hall for a delicious breakfast consisting of a bread roll and cup of cocoa. We decided to not the vaporetto without a ticket(for a third time), looking at a £30 fine if we got caught. We got so scared we decided to get off a stop early. We arrived in our new home, dumped our stuff and worked on amusing no tent without a B&B, her daughter, a telephone call to some Brits and 3 old Italians. It was a bit hectic, to say the least, and eventually we managed ...

  20/09/04 Day 79 Good job we had the alarm clock as we had to wake at 6, gulp down some breakfast and run through San Gimignano in the dark but with the sky slowly lightening and lighting the ruined hills. We got the bus for free which was nice. There was a little Erin had a grunt in each machine + bus felt up. How most beautiful sunny of the quibble over which platform we were to wait at but thanks to him we got the right train. However when I suggested was we could stay on that train right to Florence rather than change at Empoli that seemed like a silly idea so we got off in Empoli, stood around for 10 mins and then got on another train to Florence where we had to stand for half an hour. In Florence train station I managed to spill water everywhere, get my bag wet and the LP soaked. On the next train to Bologna I fell asleep which hadn't happened since Greece. Bologna was a pleasant surprise - big and touristy but not crowded or smelly. We made a pleasant visit to Modena where ...

  19/04/04 Day 78 Heather: For me, we seemed like Tuscany - living on a sleepy olive tree meadow a few km out of San G., with a scrabble picnic of Greek salad, bread, cheese bean pâté, biscuits, olives, yogurt, and of course a bottle of wine. It wasn't just a little too idyllic - not a sound except for the crickets and hoarse wasps, and a perfect view over what must be one of the most picturesque areas of the world. Sleepy and dreamy is Tuscany - there's not much more to it than that. The hill top houses look shut up and asleep all day long, nobody except tourists are on the roads, and nobody seems to mind you strolling around the grapevines and olive trees which take over 80% of the grassy rolling hills. The pace takes very highly on my top 10 moments. We must have looked very strange wandering off into the wilderness with a huge backpack - purely to accommodate our picnic. We met two people on the way and there were these unsure moments where we could have general chat or som...

  18/09/04 Day 77 I lived my throtes not to wake, Sleeping majesty but yet ogun (field and 'made' sum up out of led pormatos the shower, however was wonderful (except for the shower curtain). look at the tourist office, they gave us a handy accomodation booklet (could have done with that yesterday) and over an expresso and cornetto at a cafe (doing the Interrailing) we debated the merits of San gimignano or Asciano (having realised we are not classy enough to Stay in Siena - but that ok cos Im going to live here later in life where I marry a local italian - I have discovered this is the only way to truly live my Italian dream). We decided on San Gimignano and walked well rise to miles out Lucca, Carrara and Monte Siracause due to lack of fast moving vehicle. Italian clearly did not want to hang around for much more than an how but got in case I fell in and could went it was requested a tour round the town, including a Stop at the one and then the cathedral, which, to save time,...

 17/09/04 Day 76 While with Strange disgruntiated girl and sweetful girl, there was a bit of a queue for the shower. So I went up to our rooftop spot and for the last tellys breakfast. Then we set to Pisa. It was a strange day in that we had heaps of different plans lots of connections and now containing. I liked Pisa lots and lots. And left the walk from the train station crossed a large river with tours multicoloured, unbroken Italian garandes stretching along each side. And the tower! Photos have immortalised it to such an extent that it doesn't even feel like you are looking at a building - more like a concept or something! Great! And the Square was lined + lined with tackly souvenirs. It was a bit dishartining how our plans gradually fell apart: no moped, no suitable accomodation... But it turned out positively well as 4 nights in Pisa would have been nasty. So we ended up staying there only 3 hours. Picked up some link on the way to the station and got on a train to Siena. We...

 16/09/04    Day 75 In the day started with the london thunderstorm (never heard and very heavy rain. I could see the day turning out badly. We had to pack up all our stuff, put our mascara buy stuff - in the rain to the reception where we were told we'd be in the room next to the one we'd just left. So, very unnecessary to cart our stuff about in the rain. When we got to our new room, the owner chucked 2 people out (before check-out time) so we could have their beds - We felt rather embarrassed as we had just planned to leave our bags downtime. All the end of the day It turned out they had double booked and 2 people were left on the street in the rain - by the time we got back outside the clouds had cleared blue sky emerged. We spent a good hour in the internet place and then headed to the metro (almost getting on the wrong train) and to the colloseum began, where we walked to Piazza d'camp? degano also designed by Michalangelo and formerly the seat of the ancient Roman ...

  15/09/04    Day 74 I got off rather lightly yesterday, leaving the nitty-gritty events to Heather's largely and illegible hand. So today our roles are reversed, which is fortunate really, as today was a day that, to put it mildly, I got quite passionate about. The morning was our first test of the 'let's do it without an Alarm clock' philosophy and I suppose, was largely successful. It was events outside our control that delayed our arrival at the Vatican to 8:45, the when the queue is just reaching its peak. The only event worthy of note - very worthy for that matter - is the metro system. We were boarding the train in rush-hour, at the main train station, so it was bound to be busy - Indeed, the platform was full, so we prudently moved to the far end. My choice of words when the train pulled up was. "I do hope some of those people are getting off here". Well I would say about three people exited each door, and their space was swallowed up instantly by the ...

 14/09/04 Day 73    (a day of walking) Our breakfast was a very pleasant affair on the rooftops of Rome - and Kelloggs Cornflakes as well! Our route was long, about 8k, and was chiefly Roman sites. There was an obscene amount of information to organise and I spent a lot of time scribbling on corners of our map.x Another point close to my heart - restoration. The colosseum only made me more mad about restoration principles. They are preserving the effects of time, the history of the middle-age leaders, the impact of major earthquakes and NOT, the a city scape whatsoever, the genius, imagination and vision of the Romans. Admittedly its deteriorated state gave me plenty of entertainment trying to work out how it was meant to fit together, but I would rather have just marvelled at its brilliance. And to those people who think it would be less interesting if in perfect condition: look at St. Peters. It would seem that for a building to survive, the institution must too - carin...

  13/09/04    Day 72 A relatively relaxed morning was followed by a walk to the train station, only to discover that we had to pay for the circum whatsit and we had missed all the proper trains. Never mind though. The journey to Pompeii was a like a glorious metro and enlivened only by trying to explain to another traveller how difficult the Graeco-Italian ferries are! A fly first indication of what Pompeii was (these days the Unescous had just been newies and news reports which had taken (like no no interest in) an ariel photo at a stall near the station: it looked magic! But the real thing was even bigger! Normally we divide three days to a city - which is large and with a smattering of historical sites. Pompeii is large, and EVERY SINGLE house had church, temple, forum, wise, Amphitheatre, thermo, time pool, villa, tomb, statue, gate and water reservoir is anomalously preserved historical sites. And we had one hours! And it was hot - hot and dusty. We ended up, once ag...

  12/09/04 Day 71 Ahh! it's a the talk today is it?- an advantage of being updated with the diary writing... Things looked a bit dainning as we realised we would miss the early train to Rome and have a 6 hour wait in Brindisi - but nothing in Brindisi burned out as we expected it to... It would be very difficult to account accurately the events of this morning, as we are not entirely sure where we went, but I shall do my best: The ferry, of course, dropped us at the port, thecustoms people weren't checking passports, and once we were on our free shuttle bus one stuck her head in and said "Don-)our-ius?" and "Italians!?" to which we allowed the 6 (presumably) 'Italians' to answer "see" and we were off. From the port we drove around the port and were dropped at the train station, which was also the port. From there we walked up the pedestrian precinct (deadly quiet, but really attractive) until we began to near the port. Not liking the way th...

  11/09/04 Day 70 So we had this fancy and new alarm clock (which is now broken, blu) but neglected to turn it on. I think at about 8'SS, and was surprised to see us only 5 minutes away from another nights rent! This set the tone of our fast day 'back on the road'- Afraid, rushed, we washed...at recalling the counting, gelling d2 short, and but (cambridge came very easily (this is all on the Beach ostere pushes from Bryan). Then Heather (finally) got bored and headed off into Hat wilderness (to be added to the snake and waves incidents), while I became the new beach bum of our formidable partnerships. It was back to the sh-so-crowd Gyro pitta for lunch, up in the reception building watching Starsku and hutch (most amusing I must say - some quite subtie tok (or Americans). And then: "we're on the road again, we're on the road again". The process of getting from Ayios Gordius to Brindisi was a sequence of contradictory statements concerning ferries (and we t...

  10/09/04 Day 69 We just watched a couple of girls set off from the PP beach in a beach canoe. It was most yoney and the appsionately chosen short skirt did not stay day! The episode ended with them both on board, the front of paddling forward the back, backwards. (back in the correct way!!)- we nearly misred breakfast having become so accustomed to the life of a beach bum. And this morning we dined with the local dewey which is, Im sure, fed up of the PP. It looked longingly at me - for coffee - I'm sure we were on the same wavelenght to suck our beach stuff down with us and set up camp on the beach for the day. I sunbathed and listened to music for about 4 hours (looking sughtly like a red tomato, or to maytto, as the Americans would say...) Then we went for a bit of wave surfingwhich was most fun (I was smoking with laughter!!) Apart from that we bought an alarm clock (after the 2 broken watches!!) used the incredibly slow internet and then yet again, another dinner consisting ...

  (Thurs) 09/09/04 day 68 I came face we taught or waving in the early hangover we slept until 10 without thing. We really wein holiday and not travelling mode! Breakfast was yet again a feast, we felt we couldn't really leave corfu without visiting the old town so we got the bus (which was, again, more like a luxury coach) down the winding roads and into the town. From what we saw of the new parts it was busy and with too much traffic, we weren't quite sure where we had been dropped but it soon recognized the port and found the fortresses. I was imagining another Dubrovnik but once and stepped through the gates it was swarming with (clearly British) Tourists, all porkey white and not really enjoying themselves. Every shop was a souvenir shop. so it was hard to step back and admire the venetian qualities the LP raves about. And it was hard to imagine it ever was a ever could be a sleepy Greek town. The locals clearly stood out as they were the minority drinking iced coffee and ...

  08/09/04 day 67 And so to the beginning of our much needed holiday. I suppose Heatha had been fairly relaxing but I found it difficult to chill in 30 C - and then we had doted moved it through six to eight countries, 5 capital cities, - 11 towns or cities in all- anda lot of all-day or all-night journeys, in just a fortnight and, quite understandably, were a bit worn out. We sailed into Corfu town as the sky redened over the mainland, and made our way off the coach and seemlessly onto the Pink Palace's 'luxury coach'. The scarey lady - an executant of brutal slave driver who herded backpackers onto her bus (before they had time to wake up, made us promise not to tell the others of our 'special price' - which I'm still sceptical was not all a big con as she sensed our uncertainty - and we ended up with en-suite double room with breakfast and dinner included for 20 e. But the benefits of paying a bit more did not stop there; the alternative would probably have l...