Praha

19th-20th January 2013
When I think back to what I ate on a daily basis, I draw a blank. I can't remember what I ate for dinner. Or lunch. Prior to the Czech Republic, I had always been in an English speaking country or I could butcher my way through the names of roads or train stations. But with Czech words, I didn't even know where to start with my pronunciation. When I landed at the airport, unless I walked past it, I didn't even notice an immigration/ customs counter. I am not sure what happened, but for some reason I felt so sick and was feverish. It was actually a little scary because I realised that if I was sick, I was on my own and I would have to take care of myself. Luckily, when I woke up the next day I felt fine.

I worked at the Pie Shop for 4 years and everyone I worked with was from another country but was in Australia on a) working holiday visa or b) was a student. There was a guy from Czech Republic who I worked with all the time. We had a lot of fun together. I have great memories. He used to let me take an extended break so I could spend some time with my then boyfriend and I would let him spend some time with his "friend" (I was 99% convinced he was in a relationship with that married friend) and he would cover for me as I would for him. We experimented and made our own combinations of pies and when I had my Trials and HSC exams, he would let me study in the back whilst he served customers. It was really sweet; we always worked with each other so we were in tune and it was really nice feeling knowing that little things, he knew how many sugars I liked in my coffee etc. Anyways, I had promised him back when he was in Sydney that I would visit Prague one day. And I did.

He met up with me and it was lovely, although somewhat hard because whilst we were close coworkers, we weren't close friends. It was incredibly sweet that he went to the library, borrowed a tourist guide and then studied it before taking me around Prague (he lived 2hrs by train from Prague). I don't really know where we went, but it was all over the city. It was so cold. I had been spoilt with the warm weather in England and Italy and when I went to Prague, it was back to the < 3 degrees C. He laughed at me since he was wearing a t shirt, a rain jacket and that was it. Whereas I was bundled up in my coat, my scarf, my beanie, my gloves and was still freezing.














He took me out for lunch at a typical Czech cafeteria type of establishment. Apparently it is the normal place for business workers to eat at. He ordered for me.


A typical Czech dish. Svickova na smetane. He told me that the Czech cuisine centres on meat and sauce.

I don't really drink alcoholic beverages. I had asked Jan to get me the smallest size possible which is the one pictured and for himself, he had ordered a 1 L beer. In the end, I only had 90% of my beer and he consumed his and my beer too. He also tried to teach me to say "cheers" which is this but I just couldn't do it.

Prague Castle


An odd moment when you are on Charles Bridge and there is a busker playing the didgeridoo.


John Lennon Wall


My tour guide. He refused to take a photo or be in a photo so I had to sneakily take photos of him. Compare what he was wearing to the tourist on the left hand side.












Prague Castle was a little underwhelming. It was pretty, but all I could think was that my face was about to fall off. It was quite touristy (as expected). As we were wandering around, there were so many stalls selling mulled wine and we finally found the cheapest one and bought a cup each. Correction: he bought mine for me.


The wine was too hot and we wanted to drink it immediately so we placed it in the snow for it to cool down. It was quite funny.





It was really lovely catching up with Jan and having someone to take photos of me. Although it did remind me that he is a little ... odd. When I first met him many years ago, I was always a little wary of him. He has a weird vibe, serial killer type of vibe almost. Will I ever meet with him again, truthfully, probably not unless he happens to be in one of the European cities I visit next year.

I was in Prague for 2 whole days however I didn't do much on the second day. As Jan had already taken me to all the tourist sites on the day we were together, I spent the second day just wandering around the area. Didn't really stumble upon anything amazing or interesting. It was nice to just walk around in the lesser explored regions but I didn't take many photos.




My Overall Thoughts
Prague is known for the cheap beer and the cheap food. Of course, also the beautiful city. But mainly the cheap-ness of the whole city in comparison to other European countries. Which is so true! For the conversion rate from Euros to AUD, I roughly just had to times the Euro amount by 1.25. But when converting from Kč (Czech Crown) to AUD, roughly, all I had to do was divide by 10 and then divide by 2. For example, I bought a large loaf of bread for 10Kč which would have equated to $0.50ish.

Would I re-visit?
 I would love to explore more of the Czech Republic (there is a high chance of me returning as I would like to catch up with an exchange student). I would like to visit Prague in the warmer months. So I guess the answer is: yes, at some stage. 

Venezia

17th January 2013
Venice was the second most anticipated city. It was a 4.5 hour train ride from Rome. For some reason, the overhead baggage storage was incredibly high and I couldn't actually reach it. So there I was, with my 10kg hiking backpack and on my tippy toes trying to shove my backpack into the compartment. No one helped. No one at all and it was just strange because on every flight that I have been on, someone has always helped me. Just bizarre; everyone was just watching me struggle. Ah well, finally I suceeded and settled into my window train seat.


It was quite hard to look for an adequate hostel and one that didn't cost a fortune. Out of all the cities that I stayed in, Venice was the most expensive which was surprising since it was low season (don't want to imagine how expensive it would cost during the summer). I stayed at Ca' Contarini which in hindsight was sort of a bad idea. It was on the other side of all the islands and almost the furthest from the train station. Getting from the train station to the hostel was a nightmare. Firstly, I caught the wrong water bus (well it was right, but apparently there are two water buses with the same number but they have different destinations) and it dropped me off in the wrong location. I got off and tried to ask for help, no one could help me. What? I went into so many stores asking for directions and no one seemed to have any idea of the outlay of the entire city which was incredibly frustrating. Finally, I stumbled upon a bunch of tourists and asked to look at their tourist map and had to awkwardly ask for my current location. Finally, I found out where I was and headed in the right direction. But that was only the beginning. The buildings in Venice aren't ordered by street names but only by numbers. Their numbering system would have been 'fine' if there was actually an order. It would start decreasing from 100 and once you turned a corner, it would start increasing from 300 with 200s probably 3 corners down. Finally I found the hostel and the person there was really nice. Although I think he was hitting on me. Hmm. I didn't have anyone in my room which was lovely as it was the first night that I had a room to myself. Although half way through the night someone* did turn up which wasn't a problem, except for the fact that I had scattered all my stuff onto the other bed. Including my bra. Whoops. But overall, I would not recommend that hostel. It was fine as I was only there for one night, but it just wasn't worth it and it was also potentially quite problematic (although not for me since there wasn't anyone there basically).

Back to Venice.








When I was booking my inter-continental flights back in Sydney, my travel agent actually told me it was a good thing that I was travelling to Venice in winter since there wouldn't be a) flies and b) sewer type smells from the canals. The water was unnaturally blue, more of a turquoise than a blue.


San Marco




No photography allowed but I managed to sneakily take some photos as it was just incredible.






Not entirely sure why everyone was so interested in having the pigeons on them. Pigeons just freak me out.

















I am actually surprised that I didn't get lost. The paths in Venice basically looked like the picture above. From a distance, every path appeared to be a dead end but it actually wasnt since every path had a sharp 90 degree turn.

I eventually stumbled upon a church and tried to warm my freezing hands using the candles.















It got a little creepy walking around Venice at night. Honestly, it felt as though Jack the Ripper would have just popped out from around the corner.

 
Actually, I think I was alone in most areas of the city.

 
* The person who turned up late at night was an Australian guy from Perth! He was super lovely and it was really nice having a decent conversation with someone. He went on exchange to South Africa and was also travelling around Europe, although he was nearing the end. It was a scary moment when he hauled his 15kg! backpack onto his shoulders and the entire room shook. He learnt something from me (to use a cable management pouch) as I did from him (to buy those super large carabinas to ease the load from my front backpack).

I left on the 18th January and I thought I could just casually stroll to the train station. Oh boy no. I got a little lost and asked for help. Apparently I butcher "Santa Lucia" (name of the station) although every time the Italian person said it, I honestly could not hear the difference in pronunciation. It got to the point where I actually started to see a road. Yes, a road. Venice is a pedestrian only city and somehow I managed to find the only area of Venice with cars (it was near the ports). I actually got really stressed since I thought I would miss the bus, miss my flight to Prague and everything would just start to fall apart. Finally, I met this gentlemen who took me most of the way to the train station and I thanked him profusely. I didn't miss the bus and made it onto my flight to Prague.

My Overall Thoughts
Venice was nice and it was as I expected. I really did like travelling in the low season since it felt as though I had the entire place to myself. Venice was very cool, and that is honestly all that I think when Venice is mentioned.

Would I re-visit?
For Carnivale, yes. Otherwise, I am not entirely sure. 

Rome Pt 4

I am on a roll! Mainly because I don't want to be studying for my exams or completing my take-home final.

16th January 2013
After yesterday, I was just fed up with Rome and I had already visited everything that I wanted to see. I was tossing up between visiting Lido di Ostia or heading down to Naples. But people's comments on Naples seemed incredibly mixed and, as it was a last minute decision, train tickets were quite expensive. In the end, I decided to head to Lido. Lido is part of Rome and is Rome's beach and coastal area. The journey required an interchange and I still don't know if my pronounciation was so poor that no one understood me or if people were just rude, but when I asked the people who worked at the station, no one helped me. Or refused to. Actually, now that I think about it, I also had a rude experience with the person at the train station at Pisa. Finally, I found the right platform and the train. I stood out like a sore thumb. Again.There was also a random person singing (poorly) on the train carriage and everyone just ignored him.

It was a short ride and upon leaving the station, I was almost blown away. Literally. Just my luck that there were gale force winds.












Perhaps I have been spoilt by the beaches in Australia, but the beach was very ugly with brown sand. Although I did find it very interesting that there were summer huts, for lack of a better word. It seemed like a very small version of a beach house but they were all in rows.

Eventually I headed for Ostia Antica, upon Exchange dude's recommendations. Put simply, it was disappointing. It cost € 6,50 to enter and I also bought a guide for €2,50. The biggest waste of €2,50 in my entire life since it was bloody pointless and all the information was identical to the information provded on the signs at each location. Grr.










The place was so disappointing, although it would have been an amazing location for a game of hide and seek. The entire area was deserted and then it started to hail. Yes, it was hailing and my flimsy umbrella did not really provide me with much protection. Eventually I retreated back to my hostel.

The hostel I stayed at was Legends Hostel. The people who ran the place were from the Phillipines (they actually thought I was from there) and they were super lovely and super helpful. The hostel itself was so-so. There was free dinner of pizza and wine every night although it wasn't the best. The bathroom was so-so, although the shower was interesting. The water from the showerhead seemed to come out in a V formation so if I was careful, I could actually put my hand in the middle and my hand would still be dry. It was also the first hostel where I socialised properly with the people in my dorm. There was a Canadian girl called Alice from Canada who was backpacking in Europe for 6 months (she had previously backpacked around South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand), a girl who had just completed her exchange semester in Spain (who was from Brazil) and a Korean girl. They were all so lovely and it was just really nice having a talk to people's travelling experiences and ranting about Rome (and the whole 'ciao bella' among other things). At one of the free dinners, Alice and I were talking to this guy from, allegedly, a southern area of Italy who was so incredibly dodgy and also an alleged Luxembourger who was also dodgy (apparently he had a masters in economics and as a hobby, he drove people's cars to other countries. It honestly sounded like some black market thing). But it was really lovely and the girls were nice and respectful. I guess if I was paranoid, I would have felt a little hesitant about the fact that there weren't any lockers in the room, but honestly, perhaps I was too trusting, but I never carried my important documents (i.e passport and a lot of cash) with me and left it in my hostel room. Whoops. It was all good though.) I also picked it because the location was good and reviews weren't bad.

My Overall Thoughts
Rome was disappointing. So incredibly disappointing. It was one of the cities that I was most excited to visit and yet nothing seemed to be interesting.I believe it was a variety of different factors that resulted in my dissatisfaction; the people on the streets, the fact that I got lost, the gloomy weather/ rain/ hail and generally, the vibe of the city. I don't believe I mentioned it previously, but another thing that frustrated me to no end was the traffic. Traffic and traffic accidents are notorious in Rome and I can completely understand. There is something quite frightening when you literally have to bolt across a road because the cars just don't slow down. Not even a little bit. In fact, I was convinced they actually accelerated. And if they did stop for you, it was literally 30cm away from your legs. I was so scared of crossing any roads and only crossed if there was someone else crossing at the same time, and even then, I made sure that I was on the other side of the person (so the other person was closest to the approaching car). One of the hardest roads was right in front of the Monumento a Vittorio since you needed to cross 4 roads.

Not mine.

Would I re-visit?
No.