The Reader's Digest Version: Italy-France-Croatia

Okay this has to be quick, it seems that as I travel more I get less and less time to update on what's been happening. But here is a quick rundown of everything I did between Cinque Terre and getting to Greece.

-Hired car to drive from Florence (where I went to 'The Mall' and bought an expensive handbag, no it wasn't Gucci)
-Drove to Nice where I saw Monaco, the home of Grace Kelly
-Went scuba diving in Nice which was absolutely amazing
-Visited the eagle's nest style village of Eze which was just shrouded the whole time in clouds so much so that you thought you had left the human realm entirely
-Drove 11 hours from Nice to Naples to visit Pompeii where I took a picture with Caecilius' house (yes of Caecilius est pater fame, and if you don't know what I'm talking about you obviously never learnt Latin)
-Spent time in Dubrovnik, pretty but not so exciting
-Spent time in Korcula which was like Dubrovnik but far more amazing, we went sea kayaking and found perfect little coves and swam (sort of) in crystal clear waters...
-Took a boat back to Pescara where we spent another day lounging on the beach before taking the plane out to Greece

Okay I realise that that was super hurried but at least everyone knows I'm still alive now :p
I'll write more later.

The Floating City of Venice

Venice is a beautiful canal city. And when I say beautiful, I really, really mean beautiful.

Now of course it's super touristy but it doesn't really detract from how enchanting the city truly is. To get to Venice (which is actually an island made up of over 100 mini islands) you take the train across the bridge and the train seems to sit so low in the water that you imagine the water to be almost lapping at the tracks. The sea stretches out as far as the eye can see and the surface is dotted with miniature islands as well as windsurfers and kite boarders. Then you get your first glimpse of the creamy red and pink buildings of Venice old town and it really feels like you're arriving somewhere enchanted.

If you ever head to Venice make sure you get up really early in the morning just as the sun is rising. There is not a tourist in sight at this hour - the only movement is the moored boats bobbing up and down in the water and the only sound is the morning chorus sung by the birds. If you're lucky you'll smell the bakers abaking and if you have a keen nose you can follow it all the way to a little hole in the wall cafe where the croissants are just layers of melt in your mouth pastry enclosing a warm heart of marmalade...

Savour if because when Venice comes alive at about 9:30am the tourists outnumber the pigeons (which, believe me, is no small feat) and all the souvenir stores open their doors allowing the beautiful coloured handicrafts (papier mache masks, gorgeous Venetian glasses) to spill out into the narrow alleyways. That's the wonderful thing about Venice, even though you're bound to get lost going from point A to point B walking doesn't feel like a chore because you take so many shopping detours to admire the gorgeous stores.

Oh and I want to mention that I did take a gondola in Venice! And I didn't pay a small fortune for it! Instead of bobbing up and down getting motion sick and having to pay 70 euros for that misery I took a 'traghetto' to cross the Grand Canal in Venice which provided 5 minutes of gondola pleasure for only 50 cents per person! I'm mighty proud of myself. :p

But at the end of the day it's so sad to leave Venice... as those pinky old town buildings faded into the distance I couldn't help thinking that I'd left something truly magic behind. But, as I always say, it provides the perfect excuse to return soon! :p

This is how excited I was...

...to get to the front of the bloody line to see Michaelangelo's 'David' at the Galleria dell 'Accademia in Florence.

Blooming hell, in Florence you have to line up for everything. To see 'David' we were in a queue for almost 3 hours in the sun, standing. I finished an entire book. Not happy Jan. Johnny and I actually developed a rotating shift system whereby we would each get to sit for 15 minutes in the shade while the other person lined up against the sunned on wall. It was pretty bad.

Plus right at the front of the queue some guy who pretended he only spoke French and didn't understand the rules tried to cut in. I led the lynch mob to kick him out of the queue. Eventually he backed out although he tried to cut in a bit further down the queue. So I did the civil service of informing the people he tried in front of that there was a queue jumper on the loose. They lynched him too. I did the triumph dance when he left, defeated. Muahahahaha!!!

Okay I spent the whole post talking about lining up because it wasn't worth it. The statute is pretty damn good but the rest of the gallery is pretty crap and just seeing David is not worth lining up for 3 hours AND paying 10 euros for no matter what anyone says. I'm glad I did it this one time, but I will definitely not be repeating this epic feat any time soon...

For those of you after photos I have uploaded new photos in my Album (look for 'Italy').

Or here is a link to the Facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12125&l=85aa2&id=709057418

It Leans! It Leans!

Okay I know it's the Leaning Tower of Pisa but really, I was really suprised by how much it actually... well... leans.

To be honest, there isn't really much that Pisa has got going for it apart from this tower. Sure it's on this beautiful square that the locals call 'Campo dei Miracoli' ('Field of Miracles') full of other leaning buildings (personally I think it earned the moniker because it's a miracle that any structure is standing on that damned field at all) but there's really nothing else in town (no matter how many 'Pisa, More than just the Leaning Tower!' brochures they hand out).

Also, I should mention angrily that they charge a whooping 15 euro to ascend the tower and make you wait over an hour (we waited something like 80 minutes) before allowing you up there. Luckily we made good use of the time by taking as many of these stupid 'With the Leaning Tower' pictures as we could.

Oh, plus we got endless amusement out of the fact that you're not actually allowed on the grass so every once in a while the security guard would come out with a whistle to chase everybody off but after 2 minutes people would resiliently get back onto the grass (if once you fail...)...

Eventually they just turned the sprinkler system on :p

Roma, non basta una vita...

Rome, a lifetime is not enough.
That's what they say, and it's pretty damn true. Although I've left Rome I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed by the plethora of sights there.

I crammed as much as I could into the three and a half days that I was there - I ran through the museum in the Vatican (oohed and aahed at the Laocoon and berated Johnny when he complained that he didn't 'get' classical sculpture), marvelled at the beauty of St Peter's Basillica, sweltered under the relentless Roman sun while I took at tour of the old Roman Forum, covered my shoulders while visiting countless churches, sat on the Spanish Steps which are no longer populated with beautiful people hoping to be picked as artists' models but rather surrounded by endless glitzy and over-airconditioned designer outlets, ate Italian food (which is not nearly as good as good ol' Papa Gino's on Lygon) and took a bus ride out along the Appian Way (not as glamourous as it sounds) to visit the old Christian catacombs (called the Callisto Catacombs if you're reading this Lil!) to see the history and old burial site of St Cecylia. It was pretty full on.

But my favourite, favourite part of Rome, which most people miss out on, is just wandering around the back roads around the Trastevere area which has the coolest little bric a brac stores and themed stores (one completely devoted to maps and time!) and cheap Italian restaurants. At night a bunch of stalls and neat bars come out along the Tiber river and you can spend ages enjoying the sight of the lights dancing on the fast moving water. The best part is when I was there, a big group of marimba players had lined themselves up one after the other equidistant along the water edge, each spotlighted and playing together a symphony of chimes and tinkles that was pure magic...

When in Bavaria...

... you do what the Bavarians do. That is you drink beer. By the LITRE...

I haven't done much in Munich. I took a walking tour of the city and watched the Glockenspiel (the famous chiming clock which isn't doing much chiming because the bells are being cleaned so you kind of just stand there for 10 minutes straining your neck to watch the figures in the clock move around rather surreally), saw the place where the Munich Beer Hall Putsch happened (and the place where Hitler's bodyguard took 11 shots to save his life, there's a road block post there) and then just sat in the beer gardens and watched Johnny drink. I took some sips of the stuff but considering I don't like it much I let Johnny do most of the drinking.

Now this all makes Munich sound a little boring. It's not true. Munich is a gorgeous city, rebuilt to look the way it did before 80% was destroyed in WWII and there are heaps of galleries, palaces and stuff to check out. But since we can do all that in any European city Johnny has just decreed that we spend all our time in the beer gardens.

If you haven't check out my lastest photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11372&l=7e5da&id=709057418

The Crazy King Ludwig II

...built the Schloss Neushwanstein just outside the small town of Füssen in Germany (on the border with Austria).

Now Füssen itself is a charming town with its cute little Altstadt (old town) all nestled into the most magnificent mountains. It truly does look like a town at the start of the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road in Germany) should.

But the tourists don't come in droves to see the town. They come for the aforementioned castle which is built by the mad king Ludwig II and is apparently the inspiration for that famous white Disney castle icon.

It's easy to see how the castle could be inspirational, the exterior of the castle gleaming perfectly creamy white really does look magical, especially when it is settled so charmingly atop spectacular mountain forests.

The interior is something of an exercise in what can happen if you allow someone who is really that side of loopy with a penchant for swans and Wagner an unlimited interior design budget. It's a little wonder that the king died in 'mysterious circumstances' and construction work on the castle ceased immediately upon his death.

It has come to my attention that my FastAlbum isn't working.

If you're keen to check out my latest photos follow the link below instead:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11372&l=7e5da&id=709057418

The Hills Are Alive, With The Sound of Music...

It's true. In Salzburg the hills are always singing. Mainly because every day there are at least 4 odd 'The Sound of Music' tours ranging through the hills blasting those epic Rogers and Hammerstein's songs at an unreasonably high volume all the while encourage a bus load of tourists to sing along completely out of tune.

Yes, I did take one of these tours. Yes I did sing along. And yes, I did do cheesy poses next to all the film locations. Did you expect anything else?!? I love The Sound of Music!

But aside from the kitschy tours, Salzburg really is a place to make you want to sing. The Alps and the natural beauty of the place is almost unbelievably heart-wrenching. One amazing experience was visiting the world's largest ice caves just outside of Salzburg. They give you old fashioned oil lanterns and you spend a hour trawling through the cave with a guide seeing the most amazing natural ice formations... wow...

For Xin's newest trip photos go to:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11372&l=7e5da&id=709057418

Hungry in Hungary!

Okay, I realise that was so far that side of cheesy but I can't help it.
Johnny and I made so many hungry/Hungary jokes in Budapest that it is now thoroughly ingrained into my conciousness.
Not that this gorgeous city is anything to shake a stick at - there is an absolute wealth of things to do, it's unassuming grandeur and sheer 'fun-ness' has allowed it to vault into one of my favourite cities of all time.
I could write so much here but I'll just settle for a 'Top 3 Budapest' in the vein of all iconic travel writing.
1. The thermal baths! Okay, so they are little more than overglorified swimming pools like the ones that they have at home but they are housed in such elegant buildings and the water is supposedly sooooo good for you so I'm not complaining. Plus after travelling for so long, relaxing in the 30 degree pools and then steaming in a sauna before plunging into cold water was just the ticket for my tired muscle. Mmm... chilled and relaxed Xin...
2. Buda Castle - the whole hill actually. It's incredibly beautiful. The palace houses the national art collection (which lacks famous faces but makes up for it with some utterly dreamy paintings which you can spend all day sinking into) and underneath the whole complex a damp, dank, utterly fake but utterly fun labrinyth lurks. They play atmospheric music to make the fainthearted jump and have tunnels with no light to truly shake even the most courageous soul. Plus they have the beautiful white Fisherman's Bastion and the beautifully painted Matthias Church (which is currently home to the Hungarian crown, that is to say the oldest crown in Europe) so Xin is a happy, happy tourist today.
3. The best 'gem' of a hostel. It is called the Vamhaz House and it is located at the top of a long, winding staircase that looks like it could be used for a serious James Bond chase sequence you get to a tiny but charming hostel where the staff have the best advice in the world and the internet and breakfast is free!!!

It's places like Budapest that make travelling (more!) worthwhile... :p

PS: To everyone who hasn't heard, CONGRATULATIONS TO CHIAN AND CC WHO ARE NOW OFFICIALLY ENGAGED!!!

...But the dancing was a lamentable mess!

Yes it's true, Vienna remains Vienna even as the years go by and the big glassy buildings go up. There is something so quintessentially Viennese about this city that nothing can destroy. Mozart and Strauss rule supreme here and you can feel so classy just by ducking into one of the elegant coffee shops and sipping on a latte (or Viennese coffee if you're feeling particularly touristy! :p)

There is so much to do in Vienna that it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Almost every building is beautiful enough to be a 'tourist' sight.

But personally I think it's worth pointing out two highlights.

First the Hofburg (the royal palace in the city) houses some extraordinary state apartments as well as the Sissi museum! For those of you who don't know Sissi, obviously you didn't get to watch that delightful Romy Schneider movie when you were little. (For the unenlightened, she's a famous Hapsburg empress who's beauty and tragic life have made her famous.)

The second is the incredible gallery at Belvedere which is another palace housing an exquisitely eclectic collection of art, the centrepiece of which was The Kiss by Gustav Klimt (see picture). Not all the paintings were famous but there is something beautiful and special in each and every painting to appreciate.


On another note I let Johnny talk me into seeing a kitchsy touristy performance of Mozart and Strauss instead of catching a performance at the Staadtopera and although the band had a phenomenally cute Audrey Tatou lookalike it wasn't enough to save the more than average male singer and the worst ballet dancers I have ever seen (they probably couldn't even make it into the corps de ballet of the Australian Ballet, a true lamentable mess...). The performance was also spoiled by people who kept skipping into better seats than they paid for, the entire crowd who got up to leave before the orchestra had left and people watching the entire performance through their video camera. (I know, I'm a ballet snob but I can't help it...)

But all in all Vienna is such a beautiful city, it's the kind of grandeur and beauty that you hear in the music of Mozart and Strauss, it really is a song in life.