Holy Smokes!

We went to the Vatican City a couple of days ago, and it was well worth it. We headed there in the morning and were accosted by a guy selling tours. After a bit of discussion we decided to join the tour, and it was great! There was a pretty big group going, but it meant we could skip the massive queue, and the guide, an Irishman named Ian, was really informative in a funny way (not like a boring nerd). We saw all the great works, the Pieta by Michaelangelo, works by Da Vinci, Raphael, and the Sistine Chapel, which you aren't allowed to take photos of because the Vatican sold the rights of imagery to some Japanese company for the next 25 years (for an undisclosed amount). We had a look around St Peter's Basilica, which is hard to describe. The inside was so enormous and opulent it's bizzare. There are giant marble statues all over the place and a giant altar thingy in the middle made of the bronze stripped from the Pantheon from ages ago. They also have quiet No-Tourist areas where people can go specifically to pray and be religious, which is ace. We climbed up the cupola to the top of the basilica, and the view was brilliant. Looking over the piazza was just like looking at a postcard!







Yesterday we caught the morning train to Florence, and this town is so cute!!!! Our hostel is really neat, it's really close to the train station, but not noisy, and we have a private room with ensuite. AND IT'S CLEAN!! It's called Ostello Archi Rossi if anyone's planning on a visit to florence. It's also within walking distance of everything, so it's perfect. When we got here we unpacked everything and went for a walk around town. As it was raining we thought we'd head to the Uffizi Gallery, where famous works like 'The Birth of Venus' by Boticelli, 'Annunciation' 'The Adoration of the Magi' and 'The Baptism of Christ' by Da Vinci are kept. They also had a show all about Caravaggio on. It's interesting seeing all the different styles of painting... there are some really beautiful pictures, but also some really minging ones, like where they haven't gotten the proportions right, so everyone looks like they have alien heads and stuff. We went to the Duomo as well, and it wasn't too busy! Probably because of the rain.







Today we're planning on taking a walking tour that the hostel provides (it's FREE!) and then seeing the David by Michaelangelo (wherever he may be), and checking out the Jewish Quarter which mum has on good authority is the shizz. Hopefully it stays nice and cold for the next few days - not raining, but cooler - it's not so easy reading a map in the rain!!

til next time!
xx Laura

to Pompei and back

We just finished our Busabout Italian Adventure tour and are back in Rome. It was absolutely amazing, but we saw so many things that I cant even begin to upload anything. I'm just going to put the pictures on Facebook and you can see it there. So we started off by getting an early morning taxi to the pickup point, which was an adventure in itself, 3 people, 3 giant backpacks, two small backpacks and a handbag, all fitting with the driver intoa teeny tiny little taxi - somehow we managed though! We joined up with the rest of our tour, 28 people in total! We drove to Pompei and took a 2 hour tour around the site. It was absolutely amazing, the city is so well preserved, with lots of murals and buildings intact, and lots of tile work/mosaics still surviving! There were casts of the people who had been living there when Vesuvius exploded, which was a bit of a shock, because you can see the skeletons and all. I think the most disturbing part is seeing the bodies twisted up in pain, and there is one cast of a guy who was huddled up with his hands over his face because he couldn't breathe. One dog was left in Pompei, because his owner wouldn't untie him, and his cast is really disturbing. Afterwards we stopped for a lemon slushy - OMG - they have GIANT lemons, like, bigger than your fist. More like two fists together, crazy! And they're everywhere! We then went on to sorrento, where we had a quick tour around and went to a little shop for limoncello tasting. Everything in the region is all about lemons here, lemons and ceramics.

The next day we went to the isle of capri. Beautiful, but a little overrated. We went all the way through capri and anacapri to the chairlift, which takes you to the top of the island, with great views everywhere. We had a great day just roaming around, and then had a group dinner back at the campsite.

The last day we drove along the amalfi coast, stopping in Amalfi and Ravello. We saw a demonstration on cotton paper making, and mum had a go. They were quite pretty towns, and we had a nice relaxing time.

Today we're heading out to the vatican, so I've got my long pants on, and shoulders covered.

til next time!
Laura

In which we lose her, and we find her...

Wow, after 56 hours (roughly) in transit from Santorini through to Rome we finally made it. It was pretty rough, but we managed to see this ace sunset:



Anyway, we got to our hostel, M&J place hostel, and I just wanted to cry. The place is such a hole, tiny cubicle showers where everything you own gets wet, no kitchen (only open from 3pm to 10pm!!) holes in the ceilings, cracks all over the walls, beds that are falling apart, rust and dirt everywhere. But I stopped being a whingy moaner and realised that we have a pretty ace location and after all, its just a bed to sleep in. We also have a supermarket nearby which is ace because we can buy breakfast, lunch, and dinner from there at a fraction of the cost of eating out in rome.

The next day we got up bright and early and went to the train station to pick up mum. We waited, and waited, and waited. The train came, and went. We roamed the station looking for mum, and checked if there were any other trains coming from Bologna (where she was due from), and there were none. I was pretty panicked, so we went to an ecafe so I could try to skype call her. Her phone was off, but i got a hold of may lee and dad, but no mum. After another circuit of the Termini station we decided to go out anyway, and we were pretty sure she would show up at the hostel when her train came in. It was a bit crappy though, because we were both worried about her and we packed it in pretty quickly.




We went back to the hostel and lying on my bed was mum!!! her train was running late, and so she had to stay on the local train which arrived 2 hours later. She had been texting my phone, but my greek sim card was causing my phone to glitch.

The next day (today) we went to the Colosseum, and did a lap of the inside. It's a lot smaller than I thought it'd be! We went for a jaunt around the area, including the Arch of Constantine, and the Roman Forum. We then walked up to Trajan's column, and on towards the Trevi Fountain. I couldn't believe the crowd at Trevi Fountain, I mean, I knew it was going to be ridiculously busy, but this was insanity. The square the fountain was in was packed, but so were the streets leading up to the square!!! (If you can avoid it, DONT COME TO ROME IN THE SUMMER!!!)







After the Trevi Fountain we went to the Pantheon, which was a bit stink because they've got massive scaffolding up over half of the front of it! We then walked over to Piazza Navona and watched the street performers, and looked at the paintings for sale. There are great fountains and statues all over town.

We were knackered, so we headed home to our hostel to pack for our adventure tomorrow - we're joining the Busabout 3 day italian adventure tour, which goes to Pompeii and the Isle of Capri.

more later
xx Laura

p.s. sorry no pics of Stacy this time - these are all his photos, because I accidentally locked my camera deep inside my backpack :S

p.p.s. my computer was uploading really slowly, so about halfway through I stopped putting up pics. Next time I'll put more effort in, I promise.

Island Fever

Ahhh the greek islands!

We started our trip in Mykonos with high expectations, as we had been chatting to a lot of people at the hostel who all said how great it is. We rocked up to Paradise Beach where we were staying, walked through the gates and went ...... is this it?! It was a teeny little beach, packed with umbrellas and loungers (for 4 euros a day each!) and naked fat old men! We spent three days there and had some good times and relaxed on the beach, but it was quite different from what we expected. The beaches don't have sand, it's small rocks, and it was really busy, and it wasn't even high season yet!







One day we headed into town to check out the famous windmills and see if we coud find the pelican. Sadly we couldn't find the pelican, but the windmills were pretty cool. There was a great view from the hill, and the town along the waterfront was a great place to people watch and had a great vibe.







After three nights in Mykonos we caught the ferry over to Paros, which was ACE! We stayed in a great little place close to the port, Ampeli Studios, and we ended up witha 4 people dorm all to ourselves, had tv (english channels!!!), a fridge, and private bathroom! And it was cheap! We took a walk through town that afternoon. The town is so quaint and beautiful, and there weren't hordes of tourists overrunning the place. It was fantastic!






The next day it was hosing down, so we couldn't go explore further on Paros, which was such a pity! Our hostel was so nice, they let us stay in the room hours after checkout with no penalties. In the afternoon we caught the ferry to Santorini, and were greeted at the port by the owner of our new hotel, Villa Dimitri, which is in Perissa, and a 2 min walk from the beach. We met up with Eva at the hostel, who got there the day before us, and had a walk around, got dinner, and made plans to meet up the next day for a bit of sightseeing. We spent the next morning at the beach chilling out - the beach is over 3kms long and has this black sand/stone, and clear deep water. It's sucha difference from Mykonos! There was practically noone on the beach when we got there in the morning!










We then went to Oia to watch the sunset and see the famous blue domed churches. The teeny tiny little streets and blocky white buildings built into the cliffs were really amazing to see. We ate at this cute little crepe place, with only JUST enough arm room to use your knife, and tried this greek dessert I've seen around. I cant pronounce the name of it, let alone spell it, but it was like a sweet (very sweet!!), er, thing (??) with walnuts underneath and syrup inside. Sorry for the useless description!!
















As a side note, Stacy's really developing and eye for photography :D He's come up with some amazing shots... pretty much all the good ones on the blogs are his :D I better start putting more effort into my photos or I might as well chuck away my camera!! (the cat photo's mine though :P - just for you ML).

Tomorrow is our last day with Eva before she flies back to the States, and then we have 1 and a half more days on Santorini. After that we take an 8 hours ferry, overnight for a few hours, catch a 3.5 hour train, a 21 hour ferry, and a 4 hour train to get to ROME! I'm really looking forward to seeing mum in Rome, I haven't seen her for over three months now!

till next time!
xx Laura