Thursday, 27 May 2010

Our first Gypsy

We survived our first Gypsy in Milano!

After our trip on the glacier express we got the train to Zurich and then to Milano ready for an over-night train to Roma!!!
But when we arrived in Milan, there was only 15 minutes to spare and to get a reservation for the train. So we raced down two escalators to the ticket offfice only to find it closed up for the night 2 minutes before. We found a ticket machine but couldn't figure it out, especially when it was firing Italian at us.

So there we were in a rush and then this lady appeared out of thin air. And came and pressed all these buttons. I was paranoid that she was going to do some crazy Gypsy voodoo and somehow get herself a ticket for free. Or steal $1000. (I couldn't find a pound button!) But luckily for us she managed to book us on the train we needed at the time and price without stealing anything from us. I was impressed. We grabbed our tickets and turned to run back to our train, but she was already begging with a handful of change, so Richard threw some change into her hand and legged it up the escalator before I'd even realized. That run to the train with my 10 tonne rucksack about killed me!

We were given sheets and a pillow in a packet. And water in a little sealed pot. We shared our cabin with an Italian who couldn't speak a word of English but he was very friendly. I was surprised by how well I slept on the train and we arrived in a very sunny Roma at 7am. We had to walk across the city to find our hostel, it was hard work trying to keep at Richard's pace with my bag. An hour later I spotted that the temperature was 24 degrees, in the shade - Our first sunny day! No wonder I was so warm!

Once we had found the central station, we locked up our baggage and headed out with The Book to find somewhere to stay. On our 3rd attempt we found ourselves in a launderette/internet place and were unsure that it was the right place, but the people were pretty happy and wouldn't let us leave. When we asked if they had spare bed, his response was yeah yeah! But he then disappeared to the computer to check on hostelbookers. After a few phone calls to other hostels and he found us two beds in a dorm. Relieved we'd found somewhere to stay we went to the place to pay, and headed straight back out for a coffee and a croissant for breakfast. Once we had left our luggage with the hostel, we went out to explore our first day in Rome.

Florence

A copy of something Rhiannas book says is famous! (We didnt want to pay to see the original)

Monday, 24 May 2010

Does Uncle Alun have a moustashe?

Our next day of trains was exciting. The first took us through the forest and out of Germany into Switzerland. The second took us to a little station where we saw our very first bit of sun. From there our next train took us up into the mountains, with spectacular views. That day we spent our weeks budget on trains, but it sure was worth it! We arrived in a ski village called Zermatt, The hostel was nice but the showers were rubbish! We got tickets for the rack railway, from Zermatt to the top of the Alps which were covered in waist deep snow! With only 15 minutes before the last train back down, We raced to the very top and took photos. Unfortunatley it was rather cloudy, but it was still amazing to see.
When we got back down to Zermatt, guided by the book we went to this little restaurant and had Fondue! It didn't look like much with a small saucepan of cheese few little potatoes and some bread, but trust me that night I've never been so full!

The day after we went on the Glacier Express. 8 hours on 'The World's Slowest Express Train'. That was incredible. We sat down in our seats, in second class, and it really was amazing. The seats were comfy, and even fit Richard in them, the windows gigantical and we were even waited on so we couldn't say no to a meal. We saw all the views of Switzerland from the little towns in the valleys to the snowy mountain-tops. A definate must do if anyone ever visits Switzerland!

Park, my ass!

The Hostel took us on a pub crawl that night and I'm sure everyone else who went was Canadian. We all stopped on the brigde to have a shot, made by the hostel, of what I swear was just tobasco sauce and vodka. We all had lots of fun sampling the German beer and singing kareoke. No I did not sing! Eventually at 6am we decided it was a good idea to go to bed. The next day we explored the city with a couple of the Canadians and I had my very first European ice cream!

Our next train took us to Frieburg and from there to Titisee. Right in the middle of the Black Forest. Titisee turned out to be the worst excuse for a tourist town ever! Apart from the fact it had no tourists. It was completely empty and there was a park with a sign that said 'No dogs, No ball games, No picnics, And stay off the lawn' I mean what kind of park has no picnics!!!! But I guess it had a lovely huge lake to look at, but you couldn't even swim in it!
We found the hostel, found a microwave, cooked our uncle ben's and set up camp in a room with four enthusiastic Chinese ready for a day of walking and exploring Germany's black forest. Next morning we got up bright and early for breakfast before Richard fell back to sleep wasting my precious walking time! When he woke we got a free bus to the middle of nowhere and bought another Giant pretzel, those things were yummy! We went to get maps for our walk but unfortunatlely the tourism office was having a nap (Rich: for the rest of the day), so with my Genius idea I took a photo of the map in the town and we set off into the forest. Somewhere along the walk I asked an apparently ridiculous question that resulted in a 3 hours physics lesson from Richard. That day I learnt all about forces, atoms and electricity. (Rich: She somehow seems to have missed 5 years worth of Physics lessons!)

Friday, 21 May 2010

Dissapointed in Pisa

Seemed out of place on the edge of the river in Pisa

Pope comes out to say hi & the ceiling

Sleeping on train to Rome & the colliseum

Glacier Express

Switzerland

Zermatt & the Matterhorn

And Schnitzels

We eventually got on another train that took us down the other side of the Rhine river with lots of lovely views of German mountains and villages.I followed Richard off the train, out the station and round the corner into Frankfurts Red Light District! Seriously I did not want to be in a red light district.. with my brother. But apparently that was where the Hostel was, I however didn't believe him so after rummaging aroung in my bag to find the leaflet I was proven wrong!

We checked in at 6:45 and were informed that the hostel were taking people out for a traditional German meal. So we agreed and very quickly found our room, got ready and gathered with two French guys. We were led by a german who worked at the hostel for a 15 minute walk to a little German place the other side of the river. 40 minutes later we arrived. Lucky for us they all spoke English, but unluckily for the French who didn't know what sauerkraut was, we had difficulty trying to explain what a cabbage was. I decided on German noodles- a bowl of thick noodles covered with cheese, with Apfelwine and lemonade. Richard went for the Schnitzel (according to The Book as the food of Germany) and a a big German beer!

We spent the next day using the free laptop rental!! To plan more route, places to stay and things to do. Once we had decided, we set of for another train journey round the mountains and to get our scenic route back to Frankfurt. Nearing the end of our trip we saw a very fancy castle type thing that we tried to take photos but there was way too many trees, but the train stopped and it was where we had to change trains. So we very quickly headed up the hill through this very unreal little village, it really looked like there should have been little wax people wearing lederhosen dotted around. We found the building took photos and headed back to the train and back to frankfurt for takeaway pizza!

Pretzels

I was glad to be out of the Koln hostel, it smelt funny! Apart from the free internet it really wasn't that good. We went out to check out the Dom which was practically next to where we were staying so after about an hour of taking photos and exploring the inside we walked round the rest of the city, in the rain, to find it was just full of shops and a huge lego woody! We walked across the bridge and down along the river back to the station where we both bought our first German Pretzel!

We got on the next train to Frankfurt but we had to switch trains at Koblenz, when we arrived we had about 40 minutes to spare so we took a walk up to the river and back again reasy for the scenic train through the Rhine Valley. However we never actually made it up to the river and my mistake of saying lets go down the next road before turning around made us miss our train. Oops! We did though find a nice little staion cafe where we sat and people watched while drinking frozen yogurt. Yummy.

Thursday, 20 May 2010

Black Forest area

Sign in a park near where we stayed
lake nearby,
Gorge we walked along

Red light district



Sent from my HTC
Location of hostel in Frankfurt; middle of the red light district

We went for a trainride through the German countryside and came across nice little town.

Thursday, 13 May 2010

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Rhianna in Amsterdam

Even crazier bike parking

Multi-storey parking for bikes!

Trains

We missed a train today. Twice!

We got up esspecially early to to catch the international train from Utrecht to Köln at half past 8. We raced to the staion, well I did trying to keep up with Richard's super duper speed and a crazy heavy rucksack on. We struggled to find the right train so we ask the information man to looked crazily scared that we had to run to catch the train. Racing round the station to find the stairs, which I swear were completely hidden from view, up down the stairs to stand right next to the train and watch it slowly pull off on it's way to Germany.

We went back up to the station as I was determind there was another way into Köln. After half an hour we found one that took us half an hour on the way, so to waste time we took the train to Arnhem. When arriving we found we still had 2 hours to wait til the international train we needed to catch. We wondered round the most emptiest city in Europe and decided to sit on platform 6B and wait. When eventually 11:37 appeared still with no train I stood up to see where it was to find it the other end of the platform in 6A hidden behind building works! We grabbed our rucksacks and ran like fools to catch the train we would NOT miss a second time only to yet again stand and watch it very slowly pull out and head off without us.

After sticking around in the freezing cold (yes it is freezing cold over here! I came here to enjoy the sun, not to sit around in boring England weather) we went for a hot chocolate and a coffee. Eventually at 13:37, 5 hours after originally planning, we were on our way to Köln! Yay!
We found our hostel, made our beds and went straight out again to catch a train on a scenic route to watch Germany's mountains fly by (Rich: makes a nice change, Netherlands are so flat and boring!).

I'm now sat in the Hostel completly exhausted, I have no idea why because we have sat on platforms and trains all day. After plans to see the city tonight which were very quickly destroyed by the rain, I found another free computer to use. But the 'Z' key and the 'Y' key the wrong way round which has confused the hell out of me these last two posts!

I'm all up to date with my posts now so we're off adventuring to Frankfürt tomorrow and we'll post at our next free computer!

The Netherlands

After spending the day in Antwerp we arrived in the Netherlands and headed straight to Utrecht to stay at the best hostel ever. From the moment I walked into the door I was amazed by the pully they had on the door from the reception area. Only 15 Euros a night each for a bed, a free kitchen, free bed sheets and free internet with a free computer. The people were amayingly nice and one of them, after discussing our trip, even disapeared out the room and came back with leaflets on hostels in Germany. And after 2 nights there we had to stay for a third.


We spent our first day there catching up on lost sleep, and planning on where to stay next. On our way to Rotterdam, in the station there was a man with tables and tables of tiramisu handing it out for free!! We had to stay and get our share, Richard gobbled his down but unfortunately for me I dropped mine on the floor. I was highly disappointed by this but it didn't matter because it shortly followed Richard being chatted up by an old man! Rotterdam turned out to be very unexciting and grey. It was however completly covered with sculptures. And after following them through a park we lost our way out and found our selves surrounded by ducks. This one duck waddled right up to us and at first I was amazed by how friendly it was, But then it bit me!

That evening we dossed around the hostel and met a Canadian, Simon. We spent all evening talking about our adventures and his. He bought me a hot chocolate, Richard a coffee and even gave me 2 Canadian dollors and an olympic 25c and we now have a place to stay if we ever visit Vancouver!


We spent all of yesterday walking around Amsterdam. The centre was full of 'coffee shops', bong shops and people. We settled in the square and watched a man from Ethiopia fit through a tennis racquet! A five minute walk out of the centre and it was transformed into canals and bikes. We went into the Anne Frank Haus had a coffee and arrived back at the hostel for another early night.

I'm a little disapointed by the little I have written for Amsterdam, essecially considering that it's the capital. I hope the rest of our trip is more excitng!

Monday, 10 May 2010

Brugge beer!

Brugge

More bikes!

Sent from my HTC

Gent

Bikes bikes and more bikes!

Belgium

Brussels

Naked today!

Waffles!






The Last Of Belgium

Our free breakfast of 2 slices of bread at the hostel about summed the place up. As we headed for the Netherlands we made one last stop at Antwerp. We'd found a funky map at the hostel (the best thing about the place) that had all things to do, so we drew a route and followed the information. First through the amazing station (4th in the World's most beautiful train station list), then past a zoo where there was a window in the wall and therefore a view of the Giraffe's for free! The map then led us down a road for 20 minutes to these very big pretty Fairy houses. And really did look like something from a fairytale. Heading back towards the centre of the city we walked through the Jewish Quarter and through a Bunny park, but unfortnatley I think it was too wet for bunnies that day! The square had a remarkably old building with apparently 40 entrances and a statue of a man throwing a hand, that according to the map noone knows why! We spent the rest of the day wandering round the streets looking at the old buildings and little old alleyways and pigging out on supermarket bought waffels.

When arriving at the station we found some lockers for our bags. However I decided to save my 3Euros and carry it around with me, which turned out to be a bad mistake. By 3 hours Richard was practically dragging me through the streets, over the bridge to the castle and through, what I'm sure one of the Australians described to me as, the worlds smallest Chinatown. So in answer to your comment Mum my shoulders, along with my feet aren't doing ok. But after 2 days rest and a stroll round Rotterdam, we're all ready for a long afternoon in Amsterdam before heading into Germany in the early hours of tomorrow!

Sunday, 9 May 2010

More Belgium

Nights in Europe: 5
Hostels slept in: 3
Places visited: 6

Not done a post in a while due to the lack of internet (And Rhianna being tired!). But this Hostel has free internet and a computer to use it with - WooHoo! So get your reading glasses on because this is going to be a long one.

Spent Wednesday evening in Brussels for one drink of Leffe, much to Richard's enjoyment. The whole city lit up in the dark and was so beautiful- Got lots of photos to show. The pubs weren't particualrly busy apart from one Irish pub we past that was full and overflowing out the doors, I guess all irish pubs are!

Thursday morning we got up esspecially for Brussels biggest flea market. Was possibly the weirdest thing I've seen. There must have been everything yuou can think of laid out on rugs on the floor, with people rummaging around boxes of spoons, forks, kifes, old furniture, paintings, televisions, saws, hammers, fridges, jewellery, squirrel-like skins. There was a doll with no arms, a fork and a picture in a frame spread out on a fur rug. Back to the busiest street in Brussels to find the Manneken Pis absolutely naked!! (photo coming soon) And a REAL-LIFE Belgian Wafel, with bananas and Lots of cream. YUMMY! A long stroll around the rest of Brussels proved that there really was nothing more to see. But painting on the sides of buildings. Back to the hostel to spend the rest our evening planning our trip down to Switzerland!

Friday morning we were pleased to find that our Interrail tickets were valid and we could move out of Brussels. Spent the morning in a lovely little city called Gent. We were greeted from the station by bikes (see photo) and the kamikaze cyclists haven't stopped since! We followed a canal to find the entire centre and Cathedral was a building site-including the pavements! Recommended in 'The Book' we stopped for a boost in a little coffee shop, called Mokabon, that smelt wonderful. The place was so cosy and small it even made me feel big with my gigantic rucksack, and I'm sure Richard wiped someone out with his! The owners were amazingly friendly and were excited that they had appeared in our book. Contiuing our tour of the city we found more old medieval beautiful buildings and even more cyclists. A place definately to be found in The Chellies Guide to Europe!

Back on the train, for FREE!!! (Rich: It's not free! Rhianna: Let me think it's free) To Brugge. Very similar to Gent but taken over by tourists, and when I say that, everyone there was speaking English. With chocolatiers lining either side leading up the the huge square full of restaurants. We went to see what people beleive is the blood of Jesus but I was disapointed to find it had been put away. A walk around the city to see all the old buildings and back to the '3Euro for a giant spaghetti Bolognese' place to find it fully booked. Richard led me back through all the streets to find another cheap replacment. A hour later we settled on the first placed we saw opposite our original plan. With a margherita pizza in front of us Richard spotted out the window a huge group of people gathering in the street to steel our seats and our cheapo pasta!
We then, esspecially for Richard, went to a pub to try their very own Beer. Which with the free cheese I didn't find too bad. We moved onto our next pub purely for the free wi-fi connection and the fact it was in a cellar but when ordering our first very Belgian drinks there, we met 3 Australians. We spent the rest of our night with them enjoying more drinks and a qiuck dance. And headed back to the Hostel, in Brugge, for an early start.

Sorry about the extreme length, but this should keep those of you with no lives busy!

Wednesday, 5 May 2010

Staying in a room with four bunkbeds and sharing with a dutch and an american! Had a nice lie in this morning before heading out to see brussels. Full of old fancy buildings, lovely little garden, but the best thing by far was the manneken pis wearing a jazzy yankee doodle type!!! With a nutritional lunch of bread and oranges by 4 o'clock we'd seen everything we wanted to. Back in the hostel now and after a day of keeping up with rich i'm absolute beat! Relaxing with a book and a possible snooze before heading back out and checking out the night life.

Tuesday, 4 May 2010

On train we played nullos & Rhianna announced to everyone she needed a wee!
Arrived in Brussels.
Eventually figured out the trams and found one to the hostel.

Quote of the day: at the station in Brussels, when looking at the map for the toilet. "Only one toilet in this f***ing station. And you have to put money in it!"

Nullos score Rich:2660 Rhianna:640

And we're off! Nottingham Station.

Monday, 3 May 2010

Finalising Packing.

It's the night before we leave for our big trip round Europe and I still don't have any food in my rucksack.

Here you can keep track of Rich & Rhianna as they head off over Europe, thats assuming a regular internet connection in lovely little European Cafes.

Finally things seem to be coming together. After years of discussing the transiberian express it turns a hastily planned trip of trains and fully booked hostels.
The train leaves Nottingham tomorrow at 15:36, at which time we're guaranteed to have forgotten something (Rich: already had to return to Sheffield for my waterproofs....and nearly my passport!).

All we need to do now is find somewhere to sleep tomorrow night in Brussels, And I told the travel nurse we weren't going rough!