Leaving Roma - City on the Water - Impromptu Sidetrip

Leaving Roma

 

We're leaving Italy already. It was never supposed to be a huge section of our trip but still...the time we spent here went by so fast. Let me get you up to speed:

I think our last update was from Roma - the night before we left. The following morning, we woke up early since we had a date with the Colosseum. They opened up the dungeons and third tier to the general public that morning...for the first time in 40 years! We had reservations for a guided tour, so we wanted to make sure we got there on time.

After checking out, we dropped our packs at the train station and headed off to the Colosseum. This was the place where gladiators had fought against each other and animals in ages past! Although the walls have started to crumble, much of the impressive structure still stands.

We bypassed the long line, laughing at the tourists waiting for tickets ^_^ and picked up our reservations. The tour guide arrived shortly and showed us around the second tier. You could see all the way down into the underground levels (now visible because of the decay of the floor) - if you could see around the tourists.

Then the fun began. Our guide led us though a locked gate to another set of stairs, and we climbed up to the third tier. Our small tour group was the only one up there, so we had no problems seeing down. It was truly an awesome view from the top. Behind us, we could see the Roman Forum. The tour guide rambled on, but I didn't listen. (We generally look down on guided tours - the only reason we paid for one was to get access to the top tier and dungeons.)

We descended until we were at the level of the arena, and went through another set of locked doors. The dungeons awaited us! We saw tunnels and vaulted caverns where animals and gladiators used to wait their turn. Admittedly it was nothing like what we expected - we only saw a small portion of the dungeons - but it was well worth it. I'm sure David will go into more detail about the Colosseum and the surrounding area.

We saw the Roman Forum and then headed off to catch a train. One thing worth mentioning: we had to wait for a few hours at the train station since our train was pretty late. The later it got, the more homeless people showed up - and many of them were pretty crazy. We were glad when our train got there because it got very sketchy at the station.

Our train ride was made in comfort and style since we managed to snag a private compartment for 6 and take it over. We soon discovered that if all the seats were slid back, they met in the middle and created a comfortable double bed.

There was a slight snafu in the morning - our train stopped just short of Venezia and started going in the opposite direction after a short delay. We got off at the next stop (an hour later) and caught a train back, but our car had ended up in some random town called Latisana. We spoke with someone else later who had been on the same train and he had reached Venezia just fine. The only explanation I can come up with is that our car got switched onto another train - which is very odd. But we did get there eventually.

City on the Water

 

Venice! The city on the water - the place of canals, vaporettos, gondolas, and masks. I had been especially looking forward to seeing it on our trip, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. We made the trek across the island to our hotel in about a half hour, then went back out to explore.

Starting off with the obvious: there are no roads in Venezia. Only canals. So instead of cars, there are boats. Personally I liked the absence of noise brought by cars, but the downside was that transportation is expensive. It would've cost us €6.50 to get to our hostel by waterbus. Taxis and gondolas can be even more expensive, often charging up to €100/hour. So we walked everywhere, which wasn't a problem since Venezia isn't a huge place.

The city is just as you would picture it from a movie or whatever. It's very beautiful and, I suppose, romantic if you're there with the right person.

During our first full day in Venezia, we took a trip over to Murano, a neighboring island. The trip only cost us 2 euros each way, luckily. Murano is famous for its glassblowing artists and I wanted to see the works firsthand. Now, normally I'm not an art fan - but when you see a guy effortlessly shaping a small elephant using tongs and a blowtorch, you can't help but be impressed. I enjoyed watching him work.

One thing you have to remember about Venezia is that it's right on the ocean, so the tides cause problems. At high tide, spots in the city tend to flood with up to 3-4 inches of water. We found that out the hard way when our route was blocked by a veritable lake - we had to backtrack around it since neither of us had adequate footwear. (My boots are only somewhat water-resistant.) In St. Mark's Square - a very popular tourist attraction - they set up temporary raised paths every day so that people can still get from A to B.

Our hotel had advertised free wifi, but I ended up paying $5/night for it. I spoke with the manager though and I may get a refund. In fact, the hotel overall was underwhelming - but it was a place to sleep. Oh well.

We had real Italian pizza one more time before we left Venezia. I'll never like American pizza quite as much now. Our last meal in Italy was pasta - it was very good but not as different from American dishes as the pizza.

I'll never forget what Venice looks like at night. The moon reflects off of the Grand Canal and makes the scene look like something out of a movie. The sight escapes description by words - my only advice to you is to go to Venezia and walk the streets by night yourself. The silence envelops you and you can look out across the water for ages.

Eventually we had to leave Venezia - and Italy. We took a night train out after saying farewell to the city on the water. I'll say this, though - Venice is one of the places that I know for sure I'll be back to. Arrivederchi for now, Venezia!

Impromptu Sidetrip

 

Our train was heading to Budapest, Hungary on part of a side trip we created. Hungary was never on our original itinerary, but we had a few days to kill while we were waiting for a package from home to arrive at our next waypoint. The ride there was certainly an interesting experience, if not a restful one.

We were in a 6-person compartment again, but with assigned seats this time. We were sharing it with two friendly Poles, a Hungarian with two dogs, and a Russian. The Poles spoke a little bit of a lot of languages - mostly English and Polish though. The Russian guy shook his head when asked if he spoke English. The Hungarian dude rambled at us in Hungarian with an English word thrown in every few sentences.

We struck up a conversation with the Poles - the guy with the dogs wanted to join in as well and talked at all of us in Hungarian throughout the train ride. The Russian guy was silent.

We had to pass through Slovenia and Croatia to get to Hungary. Slovenia implements the Schengen Agreement so we had no trouble with customs. However, the dogs started barking if anyone knocked on the compartment door. They barked for an hour straight at one point, which caused the Russian guy to tell us to "Shoot the dogs, please.". (Evidently he did speak English and just wasn't in a friendly mood XD).

One of the Poles saw my class ring and thought I was engaged. I was amused XD but had to admit that it was only a high school ring.

The Hungarian guy also thought I was German - which was one of 5 individual instances on this trip where someone has mistaken me for a German. One time someone even told me that I speak Spanish with a German accent, which completely mystified me.

Anyways, the Poles and the Russian guy got off about 4 hours into the trip. We had 10 hours left to go with the other guy talking amiably in Hungarian XD. We got some sleep, but unfortunately Croatia is not a Schengen country. We were woken up about every hour and a half by armed border guards who wanted to check our passports. There was one time 4 guys lined up outside our compartment, and each of them wanted to see our passports...

We got here safely, though. I think this blog post is fairly long as it is, so I'll tell you about what happened when we got to Budapest in another post!

< Derek >

Florence, Rome, and the Misadventures inbetween

Florence

We found our hostel in Florence without too much trouble; Derek managed to find it despite my constant pestering. Our hostel was decent. We had wifi (though with another annoying log in system) and no bed bugs, unlike in Nice. Yes people bed bugs are real, and we have dozens of bite marks to prove it. Our room in Florence had twenty-two beds in it, giving it the feel of a military bunker.

Our first day in Florence actually consisted of a day-trip out of Florence. We travelled to Pisa to find the legendary leaning tower. Unfortunately the train station is on the complete opposite side of Pisa as the tower, so it took us a while to get there. We were accompanied by our Vietnamese roommate, Bing. Bing likes taking pictures. The tower is next to a few other historic buildings I didn't bother to get the names of.

The Leaning Towemof Pisa really does look like it's about to fall over. The top edge is 5 meters offcenter, which is pretty significant for a 56 meter tall building. It cost 15 euro to go up, which was a bit pricey but well worth it. Climbing up a slanted building is truly an interesting experience. You follow a staircase around the tower that varies from being angled slightly uphill to slightly downhill. The view from the top is excellent, revealing then enitirety of Pisa. Bing had made it very clear he would not be climbing the tower (I suspect a fear of hieghts) so Derek and I tried unseccesfully to get his attention fron the top, though I believe we succesfully pissed off the security guards who were working up there.

For the first time in my life I paid to use the bathroom. 30 cents down the drain... Well at least they were clean...

In Pisa we also had some fantastic and cheap pizza, though to be honest I prefer Bertucci's. In Italy we have yet traverse a block without seeing at least one pizzeria.

The next day we explored Florence a bit. We saw Brunellecshi's Dome, which really stood out when we found it. Derek went in to take pictures, but as I was wearing shorts I was apperantly indecent and not allowed in. We explored Florence a bit longer and took a train out later that day.

Getting to Rome

Despite being an hour early for the train, we somehow only managed to board within 10 seconds of the doors closing. We seemed to be taking an extra long time at one stop, which I suspect had something to do with the strong smell of smoke we detected at this time. The train ended up arriving over an hour late. When it arrived, the few other passangers in sight took off quickly. Derek and I grabbed our bags and tried to leave the train. The doors wouln't open.

We tried multiple doors and pushed every button. They wouldn't open. There didn't seem to be anybody else on the train. For all we knew we'd be stuck there till morning, as our stop was last on the line. We spotted someone else moving towards the front of the train, and were soon let out by a conductor on the platform. As we headed out I noticed somebody sleeping in one of the trains compartments. I knocked on the glass to wake him up as Derek and I got off the train. I said "termini" to the drowsy guy, trying to communicate that this was the last stop. He grumbled and went back to sleep.

As we got off the conductor spotted the sleeping guy and went inside the train to get him out. Derek and I were assembling our bags on the platform when the guy I'd woken up starts asking if I was the one who woke him up. He was speaking itilian so I only got the gist of what he said.

When he understood that it was me that woke him up, he started freaking out and yelling. He was going on and on, saying something like I can take care of myself and he'll take care of himself blah blah blah. All I did was wake him up so he didn't get stuck on the train. I guess he was a bum who wanted to be stuck on the train, but me waking him up hardly had an affect on the conductor finding him and kicking him out.

Since Derek and I were the only people on the platform besides the clearly unstable bum, I decided to be nonconfrontational. I did the smile and nod thing, ready to smash his nose with the heel of my hand if he came to close. After a while he stomped off. Derek and I shouldered our packs.

Thus began the most annoying hostel search ever concieved. We had directions to the hostel courtesy of the costumer service email we'd recieved. We boarded the correct metro then the correct bus. That's when the trouble began.

The directions told us to get off at a stop called Basilino or something. We discovered there were 7 stops called Basilino. The directions said to look out for a restaurant called Le Papere. We did not see it, but since I hadn't realized there were 7 Basilino stops we got off at stop number 2. We realized it was the wrong one, and since we hadn't seen the restaurant we got back on the next bus that passed and searched diligently for the landmark. (we found the restaurant in question the next day, and it is nearly impossible to identify it before you have passed it, and even then it is only possible only if you are looking backwards.)

When we reached the last Basilino stop the driver called us to the front. It was the last stop and we were the only ones left on the bus. He asked where we were trying to go. I told him and he laughed. He knew where it was alright. When I asked he pointed the way we had come. His was the last bust for the night. We got out and walked two miles all the way back to the very first stop.

Well in the end we found the place. It was dirt cheap for a reason. It's not very nice. Cheap beds, flat out scary neighborhood, way out of the way. Oh well. It's good enough for us, but I wouldn't reccomend it to others.

Rome

I like Rome. Today we saw this truly enormous fountain, which was pretty cool. We wandered around Rome until we found what we had been searching for: Segway rentals!!

Segway are awesome!!!!! Leaning forward and back to move is confusing at first but we quickly got the hang of it. The segways plowed along at a decent 8 miles an hour, when you could avoid the crowds that is. Derek was able to disable "turtle mode" on his and his max speed doubled. "turtle mode" would not turn off on mine :(

Despite getting completely lost we found ourselves at the Pantheon. We locked the segways and had a quick look around. It was pretty cool to look around inside and imagine the real history that happened there.

We hghtailed it back to return the segways so we didn't get charged for another half hour, then made our way to plaza de spagna. We saw the Spanish Steppes I think... Honestly I'm not sure if those were them or not but the area was cool anyway.

The steps or whatever it was tha we saw led up to an area that towered over the city. You could literally step from the steps onto the rooftops of the buildings below. I guess that's why they like to film action movies in Italy; you can't get those rooftop chases back home.

The ancient Egyptians were well known for building giant stone obelisks covered in hieroglyphs. It seems the Italians have become famous for stealing them. In the few hours we spent wondering around Rome, Derek and I saw 5 of them.

I have a brief warning for those planning to use the metro in Rome. Our roommate put it this way; it's nice to see that when the government can't afford to paint their trains, the community steps in to do it for them. If that sarcasm was too subtle for you, it means the trains were completely and utterly covered in graffiti. Also there only two lines; A and B. Sounds simple right? Well it is. Too simple. It means that stations are very far apart, and that every train is crammed to bursting. Not a metro I enjoyed.

When we got back to our Hostel we discovered the battery charger we left during the day was missing. It seems to have been stolen, which is extremely annoying and odd. The adapter was left behind, which would make the charger useless here anyway. It's just annoying that we'll need to buy a new one. Well it's the only thing that has been taken so far, so it could be worse.

We found out that the dungeons of the coliseum are opening for the first time in over forty years the day after tomorrow! We're going to try to get tickets!!

Ok I've got to go!
David out!

3 DAYS LEFT!!

David Speaking
It's September 9th and commence our invasion in 3 days!
Needless to say I'm ecstatic! I've been busy contacting the relatives of mine we shall be bunking our travels. For the most part though, we shall be relying on youth hostels. I don't have time for a long post so I thought I'd post a quick itinerary of the first few days of our trip.

We are arriving in London on the afternoon of the 12th. For we will be staying until the 15th just outside of London with my Grandmother. We'll probably have a few raids on London, but nothing too brazen yet. On the 15th we report to my uncle's house, further south. On the 16th we depart for Spain and will be landing in Madrid, where our journey truly begins.

Well that's all I have time for right now!
Thanks for reading! Get ready for the trip of your lives... well of our lives anyway.