ahh italia!

I entered Italy on the 29th of April with a long stop over in Milan. Fortunately (and rather oddly) I ran into Edgar from my studio class in Leeds with his friend who had just arrived from the airport! So we hung out for three hours and got gelato

HI EDGAR AND FRIEND IN FRONT OF THE MILAN TRAIN STATION EATING GELATO!!


I arrived that evening in Roma really late and had a dreadful time finding the hostel. Note to future interrailers: it’s best to arrive while the sun is still out if possible and have very clear and precise directions on how to get to your hostel if it is not within walking distance.
I ended up eventually getting there after taking two buses (for free hooray!) and was greeted by a dreadful mess of a hostel: this place was TERRIBLE! It was like a warehouse or old factory. I was in a room for thirteen people by myself and don’t get me started on the bathrooms. Needless to say I left the next day with my bags. I actually walked through most of Rome’s city centre with my pack because the luggage store queue was forever long! The city is beautiful looking at the photos now I can see that but I just didn’t have a good time there myself. But for the record… it was hot and I got some sun on my face and one shoulder HOORAY!!!

So here are Rome photos:
Nice little houses


Some ruins


Coliseum!


big important gate thing


me happy in the sun by the big important gate thing!


some important building.. I think parliament or something like that


little street


Spanish steps


trivoli fountain


that was beautiful but so crowded with people… there were just far too many tourists!


in this alley I got gelato (again) (of course!) (remember that is what tourists in Europe do!) and I think I found the pantheon but I’m not really sure. Although Alice said this is it so I think I was right!


those are all the photos I have of Rome. I left in the afternoon. I didn’t get to the Vatican though I was about to get on the subway when I was by the Spanish steps but I just didn’t want to risk missing my train. So I arrived in Florence in the evening on the 30th I believe. It’s called Firenze in Italian! (little Italian lesson for you from my very limited Italian knowledge!)
There I found myself at a beautiful (though slightly far away) hostel and in the company of some lovely people. Here is the courtyard of the hostel:


and the view from our window:


Florence was incredible. It was definitely one of my favourite places to be I really had a blast there. I met a cool girl living in Lyon but from Vancouver named Nikki. We ended up hanging out the whole time together. The first day we had the lovely (not) hostel breakfast of stale bun and jam… although the coffee was really nice.
We then went to the city and found a really cool market FULL OF MEAT AND CHEESE! And I mean full of meat. I do recall some kind of carcass going by on a cart…
Anyway… here is a huge chunk of parmesian… oh and nikki! (har har une blag… I know not very funny!)


then I think I went to the train station while nikki was at the academia where the real David is … the queue was forever long so yes I went to the train station to book my train ticket
here are bicycles outside!


then we met up and went for lunch at a pizza place by the duomo church… LOOK AT THIS PIZZA!


AND LOOK AT THE GELATO!!! (we had this gelato the next day!)


I think next we went to the duomo church to look around. It happens to be right by the restaurant and made of marble CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT! Yes a whole church made of marble.
Here is the outside:


I was laughing at these sculptures on the building across… I think I said one was like ‘I have a hat for you’ and the other was like ‘ha ha what a dorky hat!’

I could have been tired at the time that happened.. but definitely not drunk if that’s what you were thinking.

Here is some more of the outside:




and here is the inside:








we then climbed 400 and some odd steps to get into the dome of the church…


and got right close to that dome… it was so amazing to think that someone had painted… realistically that high up and those angles. I just can’t imageine it. And carrying supplies up those steps everyday?? Damn they must have been so fit!




we also got to go outside and see Florence from above


CIAO FIRENZE!!!


then we got lost
in the bohemian part of town
that wasn’t very interesting
or no wait … then we went to the oldest bridge yes


that is not the oldest bridge in the background… I am standing on the oldest bridge. There were also locks locked all over everything on this bridge… some kind of tradition but no signage about what it meant. We figured it was couples because initials were written on the locks.

RANDOM MARY-GO-ROUND!

just for mom :)

we went to an internet place and then this really straaaaaaaaaange little bar run by a very old man playing techno. It was so bizarre. Also there was a club in the basement. We decided to go to this place called il latini which in the guide book said was really good and cheap.
Well it turned out to be AMAZING and not cheap but that’s ok!
Here is nikki and our starter of pasta… spinach/cheese stuffed ravioli mmmmmmmmmmmmm!


next was a whole chicken!!!


and then desert and aperitif of brandy and biscotti as well as raspberry something and caramel something else




and of course… A GIANT BOTTLE OF WINE!!!




we went back to the strange bar with the old man and partied harty till four am at the basement club where they actually played jamiaroquai! I THOUGHT I MIGHT DIE!!!
Here is the nice boy I met who was from germany. Don’t ask me his name… I cannot remember!


nikki met a boy too who drove us back to our hostel since it was four am. And you might remember from the email though I’m not sure if I added this charming detail that when I got back to the hostel… someone else was IN MY BED!!! So weird so embarrassing so creepy. Not good! Anyway I was glad to have a sleeping bag then so as not to have the make the bed at that point!

The next day we went to the Uffizi which was INCREDIBLE! Artemisia Gentilischi and all! (I hope I spelt her name right this time)
Here is a picture of the old bridge from the Uffizi


sadly I lost Nikki and ended up wandering around on my own for a while and going back to the hostel where I promptly passed out from exhaustion. The next day I had to leave at some on godly early hour for Brindisi.

One great thing about this train was the ladies on it! They taught me so much Italian words and they even shared their lunch with me. They also scared the haberdashery out of me (ha ha new English word that doesn’t fit here at all!) because of where the train was going. Also unfortunately for me… I had to back track up to bologna and then down again to bari and theeeeeeeeeen to brindisi! I covered a lot of land in Italy.

The first thing I did the day I was in Brindisi was go to the beach. Sadly it was very dirty and too cold to swim or even sit in the sun but look at the water!!!!



in the eternal words of my beloved grandfather…. WOWZA!





here is near where the dogs tried to attack me


some pictures of buildings in brindisi




and the hostel doggy named luke!


there was not much of anything to do in this town except catch the ferry. At one point all the payphones by the train station stopped working and I went to an internet café where the woman wanted to see my passport… to use the internet? Weird!
In the evening I caught the ferry for patras in Greece and also left my alarm clock in the car of the guy who owns the hostel. LUCKY MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Anyway that is the end of italy. My ferry left at 7pm I believe and 15 hours later I was in Greece! Tune in TOMORROW maybe for Greece pictures!

For info on life in leeds: things are fiiiiiiiiiiine lots of school work and me and yancy are watching loads of films! So productive! We also went to the library pub yesterday and had two snake bites. This is something I have to teach all my Canadian friends about SO GOOD! Lethal too. We also had jacket potatoes for dinner… how much more British could we be! I also bought new shoes that have SEQUINS on them and hair dye! Hooray!
So hope you enjoyed this so loooooooooooong!

switzerland!!!

So the next stop on my trip was to Geneva on lake Geneva in Switzerland. I really wanted to go to a place in Switzerland and was developing a bit of a fascination with the swiss and all things swiss for some reason... but sadly i was not too happy while in Geneva. though I did get a collection of rocks that are lovely so that's good!
I arrived in the evening. one excellent thing was my hostel was in walking distance from the train station hooray! the hostel was nice but a bad thing about switzerland is everything is expensive despite the great exchange with the canadian dollar... it doesn't matter. BOLLOCKS!

the next day despite the rain i went out into the city anyway. i walked along the lake and into the old town where i promptly got completely lost and very wet and that was not fun! but eventually a very nice woman who spoke english showed me how to get to the art gallery i was looking for where it was warm. coming back to the new part of the city i found a grocery store and a map (would have been useful before!) and got CHOCOLATE! (of course....!) and then i bummed around the hostel and phoned people (aww mom and krista!)

here is the lake and the bridge to old town


that huge fountain is apparently geneva's trademark... it is highly impressive





here is a street with weird trees


sleeping swans on the lake edge


random signage


me being not impressed that it is raining


a nice park by the river.. i bet in the summer and when not raining it would be even nicer!


cobbled streets awww


by the university


the main street by my hostel


the best thing about being in switzerland was definetly the train ride. not because i was leaving but for the breathtaking view of the alps. never have i seen anything like this! and no scenery after really compared to this.









this was taken on the train on the way to italy... that took a long time. i stopped in milan for three hours i think but you'll hear about that tomorrow!!!
hope you enjoyed this stop on the trip.