As Tanya indicated, the Beehive is by far superior to the Two Ducks. As we didn't get to stay at the Freedom Traveller (where we originally booked but were bumped without a good explanation), we can't compare it to either the Beehive or the Two Ducks. You need to have stayed in a bad place to know when you are in a good place. The Two Ducks was ...

Today we checked into another hostel, the Beehive. You could not imagine how happy we were to change hostels. The Two Ducks is a dump compared to the Beehive. When you first walk in to the gated terrace of the Beehive, you are immediately transported out of the city and into a lovely little garden. The interior is so nice, and actually has more ...

Took the train from Florence to Rome. I had planned on spending the weekend in a small town in the Tuscan countryside, but after not being able to find any reasonably priced accomodation, I just decided to head to Rome 2 days earlier than planned. The first night I stayed in a great hostel called The Beehive, run by an American couple. They had ...

I just sat here for more than a half hour and typed a long entry and then the window closed and my blog disappeared. I should be in bed and I just wasted all this time. I'm really upset. My pictures are up though, so you can look at them and then I guess I'll just have to retype everything tomorrow, and I'll tell you about my whole time in Rome....

here i am all done in rome and i never finished telling you about london since my blog was deleted last night, so i want to do that real quick. forgive my typing, but i am on this weird keyboard at this computer place. anyway after i went to the british library and national gallery on sunday i went to st james park, which is close to buckingham ...

As you can tell from my title, I had a little of each during my time in Rome. I want to end on a positive note, so I'll start with the ugly. First of all after being in lovely, clean, green London, Rome was so filthy--particularly the area that I saw first which is near the train station. It was so crowded you could hardly move and there were to...

<Brian's brief time-tabled list of "highlights" (and of whinging)> - Left Adelaide on the 12th and flew 7 hrs to Kuala Lumpur... kinda painful. - Met up with Lang's boss from work who was returning from a trip to the UK. Had an interesting conversation about sex shows in Amsterdam and the like... you know, the good stuff. - Flew 13 hrs fr...

<Brian's brief time-tabled list of "highlights" (and of whinging)> - Woke up earlyish to catch the bus to St Peters Square. - St Peters square was huge and very overwhelming. We had a prebooked tour of the Vatican for 10:30am and the directions were to follow the left columns to the starting point. Got to the manned security point where we...

<Brian's brief time-tabled list of "highlights" (and of whinging)> - Received a warning to be careful on the metro from our neighbours who had been pick-pocketed the night before... the rumours about Rome are true! - Went on a tour of the Colosseum... It was strange to actually be at this famous site. The ruins were pretty impressive as i...

<Brian's brief time-tabled list of "highlights" (and of whinging)> - Woke up early to catch a train to Pompei via Naples (Or Napoli as the locals call it) - Talked to the other passengers on the train, there were some from the US and a bunch of Chinese students studying in France. We were all headed down to Pompei and during the train chan...

<Brian's brief time-tabled list of "highlights" (and of whinging)> - Went to the Borghese gallery on a prebooked tour at 9am... only 360 people let in at a time and no cameras or bags are allowed to be taken in. - Awesome gallery with some lovely paintings and statues... or maybe it's all the female nudity, I dunno. - The famous statues of...

<Brian's brief time-tabled list of "highlights" (and of whinging)> - Slept in and then packed our gear for our exit from Rome. Checked out at the Beehive office and left our gear there to be picked up at a later time. - Caught the bus to Trastevere. It is an area to the southwest of Rome and started off as a working class area which has gr...

Well then. I'm in Florence (and back on a more normal keyboard). Dubrovnik continued to charm us and be gorgeous, enhanced by the fact that we arrived in time for the festival of St Blaise. St Blaise is the patron of the city, and his image, holding a model of the city in one hand and a crook in the other, is over doorways and on walls everywher...

Well we are full steam ahead on the European leg of the journey. After a bit of a rocky start with the unfortunate lifting of our camera in Lisbon and a slow adjustment to European tourism, we are now enjoying life again. Africa was full of wonder each day and it always felt like you were on an adventure. It was not until we saw the Cathedral in...

PISA Our purpose for being in Pisa was to meet Paul's parents, Rick & Kath, off their £9 Ryan Air flight from London. We had instructed Rick & Kath to travel light - a concept they are not familiar with. As we had an hour to spare we went to Il Campo dei Miracoli to see if the Leaning Tower was still standing... It was... barely...being ...