Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Czeching out Prague

Disneyland move over, there's a new magical land in town!

Once upon a time in a far away land, in a city called Prague, you need to see to understand.
The magical castle high up on the hill, is the largest and oldest of its kind to be standing still. 
Its gothic gargoyles and high pointed towers, make you dream of princesses and wizards with powers.
While it would be good if I could carry on rhyming all day, Im just not that skilled, but keep reading anyway!

One cold autumn day, a train carrying two princesses flew through the mountains of Austria and into the land of Czech Republic. Snow had already begun to settle on the peaks while the sun shone brightly through the misty morning sky. Pine trees tower above the carriage and over the forrest, leaves of green starting to glow orange, yellow and red. While wiping the sleep from her eyes, one princess thought she had woken up on the otherside of the ward drobe, and was waiting for Aslan to come out of the trees at any moment. 
The ice cold air was a painful shock to the body, and the girls were desperate to find shelter fast inside the castle (Hostel Elf). 
After warming up the princesses decided to explore the Royal Gardens. As they wandered through the citrus trees, 2 little squirrells- one black, one red, scurried accross the grass, leaping and bounding, furroging for food to hord during the winter. 
Hot chocolate and fresh spiralled doughnuts rolled in cinamon and sugar kept the girls happy and warm. As they reached the end of the castle grounds the view of the entire kingdom took their breath away. Thousands of terracotta tiled roof tops, the famous clock tower, Powder tower and many other church steeples and basilicas can been seen. It seemed to go on forever. Walking down the stone steps back to the main village the smell of hot foods waft through the air, tempting the tastebuds. Fried pork knuckle was devoured, with a side of potato dumplings, and the crackle was the crispiest and juciest they had every tried. Over the course of their stay countless delicious beers were consumed, to keep them warm...
Back at the castle some royalty from Argentinia and Uraguay were playing a small guitar. One princess also new how to play and they all ended staying up til the early morning playing music and singing songs, a perfect way to end a perfect day.

One day while exploring the streets they came upon a fellow prince they knew  from their home town. Spontaneously the prince decided to join them for the day, venturing out to the neighbouring village of Kutna Hora. Here they visited a church elaborately decorated by the bones of deceased victims of massacres and war. As the candle light flickered casting shadows into the eyes of the skulls the three of them left for fear that the skulls would come back to life. Many lovely stories and experiences were shared between the three of them that day, it was almost like they were back home for a moment. 
The prince also had his own princess with him so as a group they went out to a local Inn, where they danced with other folk to a Czech music band, had their portraits drawn, drank beers and became merrier by the minute. Then two of the princesses decided to explore another bigger 'Inn' by the name of Cross Club. With 5 stories and decorated like something from a science fiction movie it proved to be a great night filled with dancing and drinking til the early hours of the morning. Upon return one princess couldn't sleep and ended up accidently waking up the prince and staying up all night playing backgamon and checkers. 

During their visit, the princesses met up with a wise Wizard who gave them a tour of the whole kingdom and taught them about the interesting history of the land. The Czech people were in many wars, and often lost many good lives during battle. They have a long and sad history, however they had a happy ending eventually.
More delicious foods were eaten including Old Prague Ham, klobásy- sausage, Cabbage with potato and bacon, pretzels, potato dumplings... The list goes on!

Sadly though, like all good fairytales they must come to an end. So the princesses packed up their belongings and boarded a train to leave this magical land, off to live happily ever after... Til their next stop anyway.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

That's Amore

Place: Florence
What to do:
~Stay at Archi Rossi Hostel, you get free breakfast of eggs and bacon sandwiches, as well as free walking tours
~ See the Dome, a magnificent green, white and pink marble cathedral. Once the biggest in Europe
~ See David (we unfortunately missed out due to a conference that didnt allow entry to the public). However you can see the place where the original David once stood in front of an old Palace
~ Many other beautiful chuches with marble walls and both rennaissance and gothis designs
~ Learn about the amazingly long history of the city which was once the capital of Italy
~ Go to Space Electronica, learn how to say "I am a student in Florence" in Italain to get in for free, meet american army guys who take you into the VIP area and give you free Red Bull Vodka and a vowl of amazing pineapple
~ Watch and enjoy live music in the main square under the monlight and stars, while the magical carousel goes around in the background
~ Eat some of the best gelati you've ever had in your life!
~ Take a day trip to Pisa and mock all the other tourists taking their ridiculous pictures. Then shamefully join in and do it as well...
~ Visit the beautiful Cinque Terra beaches, see breathtaking sights from up high of the vast blue ocean and monstrous cliffs

What not to do:
~ Stay for longer than 4 days, you will run out of (free) things to do
~ Eat at 'Little David' restaraunt, the service is bad, they gave me almost fluro green apple juice that tasted like liquid roll-up, which would be ok if I hadnt been craving REAL juice and the carbonara was a major dissapointment
~ Blaspheme in the Pope's house


Place: Venice
What to do:
~ Walk along the canals admiring the gondolas and the beautiful men with lovely singing voices and striped shirts rowing them
~ Visit St Marks Square
~ Get freaked out by the copius amount of masks in shop windows. though there were a few very special ones which I liked
~ Visit the free art exhibitions, we saw a display of controversial paintings of circumstances like a headless Ronald McDonald, naked Marge Simpson and the worst of all- Little Red Riding Hood committing beastialty. Artist name was Giuseppe Veneziano.
~ Get the most amazing tiramasu and have the waitress forget to charge you for it!!
~ Buy a pear and chocolate pie- to die for.
~ Convince a stupid Californian that Aussies spell 'cats' like 'kats', the logic being that kitten starts with a 'K', and Americans spell 'Mum' - 'Mom' so its plausible.

What Not to do:
~ Stay longer than a day or 2, you can literally walk around the entire main city in 4 hours and see everything worth seeing. If you walk any longer you end up walking in circles and ending back in St Marks square everytime
~ Stay at Plus Venice, atleast in low season. As they will close the pool the day you arrive, are quite far away from the main city, and if you stay in a bungalow not only will you accidently lock yourselves in within 5 minutes of arriving, but you will be awake all night feeling like you're sleeping through an earthquake as people move in connected houses and your bathroom will be invaded by a giant mosquito which will in turn force you to shower etc elsewhere for the remainder of the day

Place: Rome
What to do:
Everything! 'When in Rome', right?
But seriously...
~ Make a wish in the Trevi Fountain
~ Remaniss about how awesome the film Gladiator is while walking around the impressive Colloseum
~ Find the Pantheon, which can be difficult when you don't know what it is you're looking for. Its magnificance is undescribable- as the largest dome until the 9th Century, its shear size for its age and its amazing architectural design is jaw-dropping
~ Eat the most gelati you've ever had in one sitting and subsequently experience a huge sugar high
~ Bump into Canadians you met in Venice
~ Meet a young Aussie couple who have a jar of Vegemite, befriend them, gain their trust, and taste some on your finger because its only the 3rd time in almost 3 months that you've had it!
~ Meet one of the only Perth people from the entire trip, and find out she was 2 years ahead of you at your High School, and be reminded that the world is SUCH a small place
~ Eat at the restaraunt next to Yellow Hostel, the pasta is amazing, you get free bruscetta before the meal is served and the wait staff are ridiculously friendly and charming. 
~ Drink delicious Belgium beer that tastes like liquid salami 

What Not to do:
~ Choose the cheapest restaraunt on the main road, as the food you order will be cooked in bulk like on a school camp and warmed up in the microwave right before your eyes
~ Eat the whole basket of free bread you're given before a meal, as this will result in you being filled with bread and struggling to finish your bowl of pasta, and make your waiter mock you for it when you return to the same restaraunt the next day. 
~ Do the Pub Crawl that Jeff reccommends, even though he makes it sound like it will be the best night ever. You will end up lining for ages for drinks, which end up being 90% bad vodka with a drop of OJ and actually undrinkable
~ Try Fosters beer for the first time, one pint will give you a killer head ache the next morning

Monday, 10 October 2011

Nice is nice

So I'm thinking that my blogs are starting to get a little monotonous, so I'm going to try and mix it up a bit and hopefully  make it a more interesting read.

Where: Nice
When: Early September
Who: Charlie, Ashlei, Aussie couple who gave us some great tips for traveling in Turkey and many new backpacking friends
How: Train from Barcelona
Feelings (in order):
Day 1: Ridiculously hungover, tired, hungry.
Day 2-4: Refreshed, hungry, excited, optimistic, delighted, hungry, amused, entertained, hungry, full, sleepy. Repeat.
Activities: Explored Old Town, Contemporary Art Gallery where we saw some amazing sculptures by Yves Klein and other amazing artists, day trip to Cannes and Monaco (>See also Monaco below), Waynes Bar
Beverages: Water, cheap-ass beer, even cheaper white wine, free red wine from some locals
Foods: Baguettes, Croissants, Toast with Nutella and Jam, Macarons *, Gelati **, Homemade pasta, Camembert, Soca (traditional Nice food- savoury buckwheat crepe with salad and tuna), Mussels***
Likes: Friendly people, beautiful buildings, wonderful sun shining everyday, romantic language
Dislikes: Pebbles on the beach, Nightlife ends around 1:30am


* Flavours: Chocolate, Hazelnut, Nutella, Coffee, Rasberry and Passionfruit & Basil
** Flavours: Speculose ( like gingersnap biscuits from Belgium), Passionfruit, Coffee, Chocolate biscuit.
*** Charlie got food poisoning from them 2 years ago, this was her first attempt to eat them since then. after 4 or 5 she couldn't eat any more so our German friend, Erik, who already had Mussels for his entre, offered to eat her main of Mussels as well and gave her his main of Soca. Such a gentleman.

>Where: Monaco
When: One day during our stay in Nice
How: Awesome scenic bus drive through hills and along the sunshine coast
Feelings: Excitement
Sight seeing: Princes Palace where Grace Kelly lived, Monte Carlo Casino which is larger than life!

Where: Marseille
When: Mid September
How: Train
Activities: Bumped into friends we met in Barcelona a week beforehand, Day trip to Aix en Provence where we saw live music in the streets, window shopped and saw some amazing clothes and shoes that I had to fight really hard not to buy! Ventured to the beach which ended up being the biggest adventure yet! Had to scale down the side of a mountain, in our thongs, in the sweltering heat, only to reach the bottom and find a beach of pebbles and ice cold water. We stayed for about half an hour, but we were worried that we wouldn't be able to scale back up the mountainside before dark and I was certain we would be spending the night in the woods with the mountain lions and goats. So we started our journey back up, enjoyed the wonderful view of white cliffs which meet the ocean, and made it up in record time.
Learnt how to play checkers and absolutely owned at my first game, taught the rules of Circle of Death to foreigners, played and won numerous times at Connect four and Jenga.
Who: Essendon supporter (HAH), Canadian from Edmington who has experienced weather of -40 degrees during the day in his home town, an American who is living in Marsielle and can do the best Family Guy impressions I have ever heard, English guy who studies at Oxford and was living in Japan at the time of the Earthquake- luckily had decided to cancel his trip to Tokyo a couple of days beforehand by chance, Swiss guy who is studying Photography in Nice, and a Sydney writer/ linguist who told me about WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms).

And here concludes our adventures in France. Definitely didn't stay long enough and am dying to come back next year to see more!

Thursday, 6 October 2011

The Not-So-Lonely Island of Mallorca

So I'm sure once in a while everyone has had some time to kill, and a cafe is usually a place one can go to help pass the time relatively quickly. However, after 8 hours in our 'cafeteria' seats on the ferry from Valencia to Mallora (ma-yor-ca) it's safe to say I wont be visiting another cafe anytime soon. 
On arrival to our hostel we were delighted by the presence of 2 gorgeous hostel dogs and a large swimming pool on the terrace. So while we waited to check in we dipped our feet in, played with the dogs and lay in the sun. After checking in we were told the beach was literally across the road and down the stairs, so we got down there pretty fast. 
Charlie had sought out employment during her stay on the island, so we went to the town she was working in- Magaluf, to check it out. We also found out an old friend of hers was also on the island, and infact in a hotel around the corner, so ended up spending the next couple of days with them on the beach, curing our hangovers from the wild parties from the nights before. 
If you picture Bali, then replace all the Aussies with young Brits, then that is essentially Magaluf. As you're walking down the main strip after 7pm it is lined with Promo guys and girls, who will do anything to get you to come into their club or pub. One guy literally slung my small friend over his shoulder and tried to take her in, to which I was outraged and yelled "put my midget down!" For we were heading to our favourite club called Mulligans, which I liked to call 'Funnigans', no one else seemed to apreciated my witticism though. Here we were given unlimited drinks, no catch, for €6, until 4am. Suffice to say, we (mainly I), went a little overboard and I ended up crashing on a lilo on my friends hotel room floor for 3 subsequent nights. 
Our last night before I headed to another quieter town was by far the best. It all started when Tishy had gotten red raw sunburnt and could only wear her PJs without being in pain. So, being the good friends we are, Charlie and I decided we would also wear our PJs. This then developed into us staging a fake hens night for our mate, Molly, who was repping a skin tight leopard print dress. The story we wove was one of true love; Milly had met Enrique Sanchez the year before in Magaluf, along with all of us. We had all instantly bonded and had come back to celebrate their marriage at the magical Magaluf where their love began. Most people I think, totally baught it. And for those who questioned us, we had our stories all worked out and that seemed to sell them. The night was filled with copious amounts of drink, dance and laughter. However at somepoint I lost everyone and ended up walking home cold and lonely at 6 in the morning.
After three hours sleep, we had to get up and checkout, so went a lay by the side of the pool until we had to catch our respective buses and planes out of Magaluf.

While Charlie stayed behind and worked, I travelled over to the quiet side of the island to a town called Alcudia. Here I went for long walks along the beach, taking occasional dips in the water when the sun got too hot (which was quite often). The nights were kind of lonely, it was the first time Charlie and I had seperated since starting our travels more than a month before. 
One day I spent bike riding around to all the different secluded beaches, trying to find some peace and quiet away from all the families on the main beach. I left the hostel at 9 am and got home at 6pm, I was pretty damn tired after trekking up the hills on my 5 geared bike, so I pretty much crashed as soon as I hit the bed. The sights had been beautiful though and totally worth the splitting head ache I got from being in the sun all day. 
On my last day I went to the markets and splurged a little, buying a cute lace vest, some nice roman sandals and 250g of the most delicious and soft dried apricots I have ever had.

On returning to Magaluf for Charlie and my last night on the island, we decided a big night was the best way to say goodbye. We walked up the streets, trying to find a Promo guy to give us a good deal, and sure enough, at Tokyo Joes they gave us FREE drinks, no catch, until 2 am- we literally didn't pay a cent all night, it was great. 

The next morning we caught a 20minute flight to Barcelona, where we chilled out for a couple of days, trying to figure out where to head to next. We booked an early train to Nice, however got convinced to go out the night before by our room mates. While I had only been keen for a quiet night, I ended up stumbling back to the hostel at 6:30am, only to be woken by my room mate at 7:30am telling me I have to get up or I'm going to miss my train at 8:30! We made it just in time, though the transit was a bitch to do hungover.

Now we have to get all the Spanish words out of our heads, which we had grown so use to using over the past month, and start learning some French!