oh I'm so terrible, I know! I cant even remember the last time I updated the blog. I'm going to start from Venice though...
We got to Venice in the morning and stopped by the hostel we were supposed to be staying at. After a few hours they finally told us that there 'was a problem' with our room, and that we'd been transferred to their sister hotel the Hotel Astoria, and assured that it was 'much better' and it was right by Piazza San Marco. Well it was right there, but I shudder to think what the old hostel would have been like if this one was better!!! But fortunately we had a private three person room with ensuite and an unsecured wifi connection in the area.
After offloading we fell back into our steady rhythm of sightsee in the morning, head back to the hotel for a siesta in the afternoon, and head back out in the evening. The heat here is unbelievable!
The first evening we headed out to San Marco's Square and had a look around. I couldnt believe it but the whole piazza was flooding with water. I knew it happened, but I thought it only flooded during extreme weather conditions, but apparently this happens every high tide and the Venetians don't even bat an eyelid. the tourists were another story though, one Japanese woman kicked off her shoes and started running through the water giggling like a school-girl. We wandered along the waterfront and got talking to a gondolier who offered us an hour gondoliering for 100 euros, which seemed like a pretty ok price. He explained that at this time of the day it was actually better as there was less water traffic, which sounded like a complete sales ploy, until we actually got on the water and into the small canals and realised he was absolutely right. There were so many gondolas still moored, and the small canals still had a few on them, but overall we had a peaceful and beautiful canal ride through Venice. I was so impressed!! I know people say that going on a gondola ride is overpriced and overhyped, but I really think that it was worth it. Maybe I would have thought differently if it was in the middle of the day in the heat with lots of other boats around, so maybe I'm lucky, but I would definitely recommend it.
The next day we headed over to the island of Murano. On our way there we were accosted by an older gentleman who looked like he was selling tickets to something. In his accented engish he explained that there was a 'promotion' on for Murano, and you get a free water taxi over to the island and you get to see a glass works factory. I was suspicious, because everyone knows there's no such thing as a free lunch, but he assured us we didn't have to buy anything if we didn't want to. So we went along and got a free ride to the island (saving 6.50 euros each!) and were ushered into this glass workshop. A family of glassblowers were working there making a chandelier, and it was amazing seeing them at work. We were brought to a shop next and left to our own devices, no pushy salesmen, just an opportunity to browse through their stuff, and if we didnt want anything we could just leave (which we did).
I realise now the reason they had the promotion of a free water taxi is because the regular waterbus that takes tourists to the island usually drops everyone off in another area of the island, and not that many tourists come to that particular workshop to buy their wares, so it's a pretty good marketing ploy. There were several asian ladies dropping some big money on glassworks in there!! We spent the day wandering around and enjoying the island. It was really nice because there were less tourists and more local people just wandering around enjoying their day.
The next day we went to an island called Lido. This is the 'beach island' where all the rich europeans and venetians go for their holiday. We spent a nice day wandering around at the beach and the neighbourhood.
On our last morning in Venice we headed to the local market near the rialto bridge. We saw some crazy looking fish and got ripped off by a fruit merchant (stupid rotten nectarine!!) and then we headed to the train station to catch our overnight train to Paris.
Overall I really feel like the Italians in these tourists spots are completely OVER having their towns overrun by tourists. In most places we went the general attitude was "oh god heres another one" or "give me your money and get out". It's a pity for the tourists, but also understandable from the locals' point of view. Imagine my surprise when we get to Paris, the capital city of a country renowned for being snooty and stuck up and abrupt (and NON ENGLISH SPEAKING!!) and everyone is so lovely, really try to speak english or be understood, go out of their way to help you, etc. I'm so surprised, but the french people are so lovely, and they have really made Paris a lovely place to visit!
Unfortunately our hotel doesnt have wifi, but we are now in good old MacDonalds as they are the only cafe in Paris which has a wifi connection (dont know why, but they just dont have wifi in cafes here!!!).
The first day here we checked into our hotel and headed out to have a look around. We're just at the bottom of the hill the Sacre Coeur is on, so we walked up there and watch some guys who were just awful at breakdancing, and then had dinner at the Place du tetre, and then walked down to the Moulin Rouge, and then back home.
This place is seriously packed out - it's high summer, and we just found out that the "Sale Season" in Paris has just begun, so not only tourists, but european shoppers are all converging on Paris to take advantage of the -70% sales going on. However on a backpacker budget, 70% off expensive is still expensive lol.
The first full day in Paris we headed out to have a look at the Notre Dame, but the lines were hectic and in the full summer sun, so we thought we'd leave it for another day. Then stace decided to go back to the hotel, because his hayfever was going bananas. Me and Mum ended up spending the afternoon chilling in the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is this insanely massive park attached to the palace of er, luxembourg? But its massive, there are free chairs all over the place for people to pick up and move around to where they want to sit, forests of trees, big grassed areas with signposts stating youre ALLOWED to sit on the grass!!! They even have a lake/pond thing where people put out their remote controlled boats! And giant marble statues all over the place. It was busy, but not in a bad way. More like a great place to people watch and enjoy seeing the kids running around and being happy.
The day after we got up early and went to the Louvre. We didn't realise but the metro takes you straight into the underbelly of the museum, and you can buy your ticket from a small newspaper stand and miss out on all the lines!! (Also - Anyone who is 25 or under and an EU citizen, YOU CAN GET IN FOR FREE - if and ONLY if, you have your passport. which I didn't. *sigh* - remember this for the arc de triomphe as well). So we saw the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. Saw some works by Michaelangelo (the dying slave - doesnt reeeaaallly look like he's dying - see it, you'll get what I mean), and Vermeer. After that we took a stroll towards the place de la concorde, and then headed back to the hotel for a siesta.
Then in the afternoon we met up with Benj who was in Paris for one afternoon only! So we met up had some drinks, then headed to the Arc De Triomphe, climbed up that (go mum woop woop!) and then climbed down and wandered over to the eiffel tower. Wow has the arc de triomphe changed since I was here last. It cost 9.50 to get in (5.50 with ID to say youre under 25, free for under 25 EU citizens), and now it has interactive displays, tv screens, a giftshop and all sorts of tacky things inside. The top, for some reason, had a military tent on top of it (??? why???).
Anyway, so we went to the Eiffel tower and who would happen to stand in line, but RISE AGAINST! Favourite band ever! So we started chatting to them, got a photo with them, and their autographs, and then we went up the eiffel tower. It was getting dark and the tower lit up. Man it was PACKED!! We went right up to the top. Some great views but no space to move in at all. We were quite lucky to go when we did as there were virtually no lines at all - only a short wait!
We had to say goodbye to Benj after that and headed back to our hotel. The next morning we had to say goodbye to mum, and I couldnt stop crying. We thought we'd go to Parc Asterix to distract ourselves from being sad so we bought a metro ticket and tried to get to Charles de Gaul Airport 1 to get the parc shuttle. HOWEVER, someone decided to off themselves that morning by throwing themselves under a train and we were all offloaded early. We then had to get a train load of people and their luggage onto a couple of small buses, which wasnt happening at a very fast, or even medium pace so we though blah, we're just going to go back and go to Parc Asterix the next day. On the way back the trains had another spaz and we had to abandon one train and get on another train, so imagine a whole train load of people dashing off the trainand running to another platform to get on that train! It was chaos! We finally made it back and went to Champs Elysees, where a really nice girl at the movie theatre pointed out which movies were in english. We went to see prince of persia, which was pretty cool, but cant understand why the persians are all caucasians with fake english accents.
The next day we went to Parc Asterix, which was really cool. A lot fo the rides dont have anything to do with Asterix at all, but it was overall really awesome. There was one ridiculous ride which went up and then almost vertically down, i think i nearly broke stacy's arm as I clutched it screaming. There was also this insane rollercoaster which made around 5 loops and 2 corkscrews!! Overall a really mint day. I think one of the most fun parts was going to the Gaulish Village in the middle of the park, and you can go inside the houses and muck around in the village, and there are costumed people, so we saw asterix, obelix, cacophonix, Vitalstatistix and Impedimenta :D
Today we're taking a day off to recuperate. We're a bit exhausted and to be honest, a little over the travelling, just for now. It's been a bit much going to so many different places and not having a home for 4 months.
Anyway, til next time!
xx
Laura
