TravelStream™ news feed for member rbaluyot on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/rbaluyot en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:53:06 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192556460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192556460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192556460/tpod.html Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:53:06 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Amsterdam, Netherlands

Left Frankfurt for Amsterdam, on a train which ended up taking three hours longer due to electrical problems on the train. When we finally arrived into Amsterdam, it was 7:00pm and just had time for dinner and a brief tour of Amsterdam and the area were we staying.

The following days we roamed around the streets of Amsterdam, which was filled with the numerous canals, the "coffee shops" and of course the red light district.

We found ourselves at Dam Square many times throughout our stay in Amsterdam, which is located in the heart of city and thoroughly additive.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192729320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192729320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192729320/tpod.html Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:44:24 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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London, United Kingdom

Finally we made it to London. This ultimately means we are on the final leg of the trip. Departing Amsterdam and arriving in Gatwick in the evening we caught the Gatwick Express from the airport to Victoria were Rob's Aunty (Tita Yollie) meet us and took us back to her place and rested.

October 17, 2007

After resting well and Tita Yollie treating us to a traditional English breakfast equipped with eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, toast, crumpets, croissants, cornflakes, yoghurt, juices and of course English Tea.

We headed out to Buckingham Palace to visit the queen but pressed on to visit more London sites.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192396920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192396920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192396920/tpod.html Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:21:13 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Frankfurt, Germany

We caught an overnight train from Vienna to Frankfurt, which was a good experience. A ten hour ride on the train, we decided to buy tickets for a two bed cabin with a wash basin. It didn't take us long to fall asleep, and as soon as we knew it, we were in Frankfurt bright and early at 6am, greeted by Corinna and Phong.

We spent the day lazing about with Corrina and Phong and waited for Matty to finish work so we could head out for some dinner and drinks. More pork knuckle and schnitzel for dinner, washed down with a stein of beer, then made a pit stop to pub for Kölsch and cocktails and then we headed back to Corrina and Phong's place to tank up and go to a club.

A fairly messy night, but we had a great time. It was so good to catchup with mates, and hopefully the wait between drinks won't be too long. Thanks again guys for everything!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192219920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192219920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192219920/tpod.html Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:48:52 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Vienna, Austria

Vienna was more of a stopover rather than a trip; we only allocated one full day (next time we'd include a day dedicated to go Salzburg). We arrived late afternoon and lucky for us our accommodation was located in Vienna central. Five minutes away was St Stephens Cathedral (yes, more Cathedrals), built 13th century, the cathedral can't be missed as it towers over surrounding buildings.

The rest of the sights were very close (central Vienna is fairly small), so we covered off most sights in the one night. Among the sites were, Stephanplatz (Vienna's main shopping strip), St Peters Church, Hofburg (the Imperial Palace), the University quarter and Volksgarten (park near Hofburg).

After dinner, we found a Aussie pub called, Crossfields and we couldn't resist going in. What did they have on tap? Fosters and Strongbow. Among the other drinks offered at the pub was Carlton Cold, XXXX and Bundy Rum and on the menu they had grasshopper and kangaroo burger.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192056960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192056960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1192056960/tpod.html Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:20:42 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Prague, Czech Republic

Finally, we received another stamp in our passport! We caught the train from Berlin HBF to Prague Hlavani, this time in a second class carriage which was still okay, there was plenty of leg room and comfortable.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we left our apartment and begin our tour of Prague. We headed for Stare Mesto (Old Town), which was a 20 minute walk. For us to get to Stare Mesto, we crossed Charles Bridge which was filled with tourist just like us. The bridge was lined with little stalls, portrait artists, performers and 30 18th Century statues towering over the bridge.

The Charles Bridge led us to Starmestske Nam which is Prague's Old Town Square. The town square complete with overpriced restaurants, cafes, souvenirs outlets specializing in Bohemia Crystal, ceramics, puppets and garnet jewellery. The town square is known for housing Tyn Church, St Nicholas Church and what's a town square without a clock tower? The clock tower also has an astronomical clock, where the bells ring every hour.

What else is the Czech Republic for?? BEER...nice and cheap beer! The Lonely Planet recommended a traditional Prague beer hall called Kolkovna. The beer hall is owned by the Pilsner Urquell brewery (one of their most famous brands), so we had to try the pilsner, complemented with traditional Czech food. There was no point in even considering drinking anything other than beer. The beer (0.5L) was cheaper than soft drink and water and only cost around $2AUD.

The next day we ventured up the hill to Prague Castle to check out the biggest castle complex in the world. The castle was more like a small town which comprised of St Vitus Cathedral, the palace, museums and a beautiful garden (Garden on the Ramparts).

At the main entrance of the castle we watched one of the hourly changing of the guards, and then went inside St Vitus Cathedral which is flooded with beautiful stain glass windows and housed many tombs. On the side of the cathedral we climbed 287 narrow, spiral, steep steps, this made it interesting when going up and down the tower, but it was worth the great views of the city. On one side of St Vitus' exterior is the "Golden Gate", which is a triple archway door topped by a 14th gold mosaic of the last judgment.

On the way down the hill we stopped off at Mala Strana (Little Quarter), built in the 17th and 18th century, in the back streets of the castle. When we hit the bottom of the hill we stopped off for a few beers at Malostranske Nam (another square in Mala Strana), known for its café crowds and nestled in between are small traditional beer halls. We thought the night before the beers were cheap, but found another pub which had 0.5L beers for $1.50AUD. After having a beer each, Belinda struggled to finish off her second, so she poured ¾ of her beer into my glass which ultimately made my glass full again. Soon after, our waiter walked past our table glanced at Belinda's glass, impressed and smiled in amazement picked up her empty glass, then ready to pick up mine and but realising I had still a full glass of beer, he gave this look of horror and disgust. You could almost read his thoughts at that point......."SOFT".

For dinner, we went to another traditional pub for more of the same!

The following two days were spent on catching up on domestic things and grazing around. We had a lot of washing to do and found a café/bar close by with washing machines, called "Wash Cafe". It was 10:30am and had a two hour wait for our washing to complete. We still had not had any breakfast and unfortunately their menu was only in Czech and the only thing we could understand was cappuccino and pivo (beer). We started off with a cappuccino each, the proceeded with beer. At the end of the two hour wait, we had a liquid breakfast of three beers each. Gotta love Prague, with all our drinks and the washing, it was still cheap, only costing us around $18AUD.

Finished with our chores, we headed out to Nove Mesto (New Town), which is really not new at all. This part of Prague still had many buildings from the 14th century, but most of this part housed the commercial shops, banks and restaurants.

If we did lose any weight during this trip (no chance), we probably put it all back on in the last four days, with the amount of food and more so the beer we've been drinking.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191746580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191746580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191746580/tpod.html Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:59:42 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Berlin, Germany

A very comfortable and short EasyJet flight from Marco Polo Airport, Venice to Berlin Schonefeld Airport, we decided to take on the challenge of the S-Bahn (above ground rail). Berlin Schonefeld is serviced by a train station, and our hotel was close to a U-Bahn station (Berlin subway).

We grabbed a pamphlet at the train station, which contained an all in one combined map of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn, took one look at it and we're quite overwhelmed. Anyways, we managed to find our way to the hotel after three rail changes.
Over the pizza and pasta, we went to a bar close to our hotel (Graffiti Bar and Restaurant) and had a huge feed at a great price and it was happy hour! The Euro definitely goes a lot further in Germany in comparison to all the other countries visited thus far. Highly recommend it.

The following days in Berlin were mainly occupied by tours. The first tour we did was on a hop on/ hop off bus tour, it was a good way to get quickly introduced to the city. The most notable sites we did get to see were the remains of the wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate / Pariser Platz and Kurfurstendamm (the main shopping district which happened to be around the corner from our hotel)

After completing the tour we spent the rest of the day walking and shopping around Alexanderplatz then headed back home to rest up for a night out. We headed back out around 10pm to Hackescher Markt, one of the main tourist areas for eating and drinking. The area was once full of squatters, so it was a fairly interesting place to visit (quite safe now). We found a German pub which who brewed their on beer, and once again Germany came good with the food and beer.

After dinner we decided to head to one of many bars in the area to checkout the night seen, we came across a chic cocktail bar that was funky, dark and moody. It was odd shaped bar like a tunnel with a bright curved ceiling. After having "Sex on the beach" (Our cocktails) we found ourselves extremely worn out and considering it was a long day for us we called it a night.

The next day, we joined a walking tour to get a history lesson on Berlin, hear stories and get a better understanding of the places we saw the previous day. The walking tour was excellent it was educational and interesting, most of it based around WW2 and the Cold War. After completing 4 hours and 5kms with the walking tour we found ourselves walking to Hauptbahnhof to the The Bundestag (A modern Parliament wrapped in a historic cloak) which contains a panorama of Berlin from its cupola.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191516120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191516120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191516120/tpod.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:37:03 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Venice, Italy

After our 4 hour train ride from Rome to Venice and arriving into Venice quite late the previous night we decided to venture out early. With this in mind we were desperate to see beautiful canals, the many bridges of Venice (400 of them) and gondolas. We had fairly high expectations of Venice, and we weren't disappointed. Venice is divided into six districts, and we walked through the quieter districts first. The quieter districts were "suburban", not many restaurants, cafes, etc and no designer / boutique shops, although it was still very interesting.

After getting lost in the streets of Venice, we finally found a vaporetto station (ferry station), and got on a vaporatto to Murano. Murano, home of Venetian Glass, upon arrival we were offered to join a demonstration of glass making techniques and tour of one of the many furnace outlets. It is an amazing and skillful technique to watch intricate statues of horses, vases and chandeliers being made.

From here we decided to venture to the Piazza San Marco Venice's most famous sight (A.K.A Pigeon Central) for those that unaware I (Belinda) have a phobia of birds. Initially, just walking through the piazza was a mission in it's self but with lots and mean lots of coaching from Rob I managed to become a friend of the birds and I was welcomed into the community of Pigeonville. So for those that are aware of my phobia, the pictures are for real and I have overcome the phobia.

The Piazza of San Marco is tourist fuelled, so watching many others embrace the atmosphere was a splendor to watch. In the Piazza you can purchase anything from a balloon from a vendor to purchasing corn to feed the pigeons (for 1 Euro, in which you don't need to do as the birds are accustom to humans and simply putting you arm out they will come to you). Not only are there birds but a 15th Century Clock Tower and a Basilica which are all worth a look from the Piazza.

October 3, 2007

After having a day of exploring the mainland and Murano we decided to explore the island where we were staying, Lido. The main reason to Visit Lido is for the beach, so that's exactly where we headed. Rob and I hired bikes rode to the other side of the island (around 10km) were we kicked back and enjoyed the lunch time sun at Alberino. The water was surprising clean and very chilled with still numerous locals and tourist lining the beach shore.

After returning our bikes we decided to head back to the mainland where we contemplated on doing the gondola thing but after hearing an offer $100 Euros for 40min we decided maybe not and considering we had seen most of Venice by foot and vaporette it wasn't our worthwhile.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191343200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191343200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191343200/tpod.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:11:23 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Rome, Italy

See ya later Florence, another fairly ordinary dinner from the night before. Both places we had dinner charged some form of a surcharge, it was either a cover charge per person, or a 12% surcharge based on the bill.

We were looking forward to our first high speed Eurostar train to Rome and wanted to compare the process against flying. After a fairly short train ride it only took three hours (door to door) to get from our hotel in Florence, to our hotel in Rome. Train is a great way to get around, no check-in, no security checks, and no baggage check-in/retrieval.

Piazza Navona, a two minute walk from our hotel was our first stop. Piazza Navona was laid out on the ruins of a stadium built in 86 AD, which is why the Piazza is shaped like an oval. This is the busiest and largest piazza we had seen thus far, the piazza was filled with restaurants and street performers. We then walked past Torre d'Argentina, ancient Rome ruins where Caesar was assassinated.... the place now houses a whole lot of cats!?

Next we headed for the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi (did the tourist thing and threw a couple of coins into the fountain), the Spanish steps and St Peters Basilica. Looking at the state of the Pantheon, we couldn't believe it was in a fairly good shape considering it was built in 27BC. By the time we got to St Peters Basilica, our luck with great weather finally ran out, it started to rain and apparently it was the first time it rained in months. Walking around St Peters Basilica, we decided it was probably best to do a tour to appreciate the Basilica so we headed back home after a very long day.


September 28, 2007

It was 10am by the time we got to Vatican City and saw how long the queue was to get into Vatican Museum / The Sistine Chapel, which looked like a 2-3 hour wait time. We opted not to queue up and join a tour, where the tour leaders are already in front of the queue allowing us to slot in and jump the queue.

The exercise to immediately get to the front of the queue and join a tour cost us an extra 25 euro each, which was worth it considering the wait time and avoid queuing up in the rain.

The tour went for around two and a half hours, which took us through the museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica, we were very happy with the tour leader, he was interesting and informative, especially when he was taking us through Michelangelo's Last Judgment, and Creation of Man. Unfortunately, two and a half hours is no where near enough to really appreciate the relics and artworks contained on the Vatican Museum.

We then headed for Ancient Rome to check out was left of it, although interesting because of the history, the area is bare, but there is still enough structure in place of the palace, forum and coliseum for you to use your imagination and envision how it once was.

Completely drained from all the walking over the last couple of days, we kicked back and relaxed at Piazza Campo di Fiori. The piazza had a cool vibe to it, unlike Piazza Navona, Campo di Fiori is more focused on bars and pubs place so it's a great place to go for a few drinks, it was like being in Madrid again.


September 29 - October 1, 2007

After seeing how bare Ancient Rome was, we decided to go back and join a tour for an explanation of the "things" there. We only paid 10 euro each for a two hour tour, which was excellent. We discovered that the reason why the buildings were bare was due to all the mosaics, marble and other relics were "recycled" to build and "decorate" the churches and other buildings in Rome today. The following days were spent roaming around Rome, which included watching the NRL grand final from an Irish pub.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191515880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191515880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1191515880/tpod.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:55:53 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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Florence, Italy

Leaving La Spezia for Florence, we decided to stop off at Pisa to see one Italy's most recognisable monuments, the leaning tower of Pisa. We didn't expect to spend much time in Pisa.

Viewing the tower, and seeing the tourists walk up and around the tower looked pretty weird given the tower is 4.1m off the perpendicular. After doing the touristy thing, taking silly pictures of ourselves pushing and trying to save the tower, we left for Florence.

Once again, the drive on the freeways was very easy, but once we arrived into Florence, things became interesting. We must have broken every road rule which would be normally policed in Sydney, lanes....what lanes, they don't really exist in Florence, you need to be an aggressive driver in Florence. Two can play at their game!

We did have the car booked for another day, but after what we experienced, we decided to return the car early and get rid of it and start checking out the tourist attractions on foot.

First stop, Cathedral De Santa Maria, one of the largest cathedrals in the world, it's famous feature the enormous octagonal dome, then moved onto Piazza San Lorenzo which was a street market mainly filled with leather jackets and touristy shops. Behind the piazza was the Basilica di San Lorenzo. We ended the night at a terrible restaurant, so we headed for Maccas.

The following day, we checked out the other piazzas, Piazza Dela Repbblica, Piazza Vecchio (more markets) and Piazza Della Signoria, which is where a replica of the statue of David is. We spent the rest of the day walking around, waiting for our 5:15pm slot to enter the Museum Dell'Accademia (where the real David is) and along the way checked out the gold markets at Ponte Vecchio, and continued along to the other side of the river to Piazza Pitti, and then decided to head back to do some shopping.

Arriving at Museum Dell'Accademia, we jumped into the queue for those who had made a reservation. The other queue went for around 50 metres, we were glad with paid the extra 3 euros and avoided a two hour wait. Entering the museum we headed straight for the statue of David where almost immediately we had a clear shot of David standing tall in the center of the dome museum, no sooner did we pull out the camera security was screaming at us "NO PHOTOS". As soon as we moved closer to the sculpture we noticed people sneaking pictures behind the pillars so we decided to do the same. Michelangelo's David is arguably the western's world's famous sculpture. The sheer giant figure made from a single block of marble was absolutely incredible and a must see in Florence.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1190734620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1190734620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbaluyot/europe-2007/1190734620/tpod.html Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:18:27 -0400 After talking it up for so long, finally decided to just do it.

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La Spezia, Italy

The first real test in driving long distances in Europe, we left Nice for La Spezia, Italy, a three and a half hour drive. We were fairly confident that the trip to Italy by car would be fine after getting advice from friends before we left, and they were right, the drive was easy and came with great scenery.

The freeways do have speed limits between 110km/h and 130km/h, but we saw a lot of cars speeding way past the limit. We got to see what the Rolls Royces, Bentleys, 5 Series Beamers are really made for, and at least 80% of the cars flashing their high beams at us to move out of their way were one of these cars.

Arriving at the toll gates near La Spezia, we paid a 24 euro toll! Fair enough, we did cross a border, but we weren't expecting it to be that much. Driving into La Spezia from the freeway, the place looked very similar to Port Botany (our hotel was located very close to the Port).

We checked into our hotel, went for a walk around the port and headed for the tourist office to grab a map of La Spezia and the Cinque Terre. The lady at the tourist office told us La Spezia was a very small place; she then pointed us to the city centre, which was another 10 minute walk.

Once we reached the city centre our view on La Spezia, it was what we expected a city like Milan would be like, preppy dressed teens, women and men dressed in designer labels. Every bloke over the age of 30 wore tailored pants (colours included peach, pink, some striped), a long sleeved button shirt and the sweater tied around their neck. Belinda and I on the other hand had shorts, shirt and thongs on.

After seeing how everyone was dressed, we decided to head back to the hotel and change into shoes, jeans and a decent top for dinner.

September 23, 2007 - Cinque Terre

After checking out Sean's blog whilst he was on his EU trip and seeing the pictures of the Cinque Terre, Belinda and I had to put it into our itinerary. Sean's entry of the Cinque Terre mentioned that he did the coastal walk along the Cinque Terre National Park and said the walk was "challenging".

We kicked off the walk at around 8:30am to coastel walk to the five villages (Riomaggriore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso) and checkout the stunning views. Starting at Riomaggriore and ending at Monterosso, the walk took us five hours, 10km in total and it was a fairly warm day. Belinda and I were goooone, due to the steep hills we walked up and down, and couldn't wait for the end goal, the beach at Monterosso.

When we finally reached Monterosso, the first thing we did was dunked ourselves into the water to cool down. The water was phenomenal, its probably how the Greek Islands would be (never been there). We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out on the beach, downing cocktails as a reward to ourselves for the long walk we had just endured.

Marrying into an Italian family, I had high expectations of the food we were going to eat whilst in Italy, after all the home cooked meals I've had with Belinda's family. The food in La Spezia didn't disappoint! I had the best of everything, and cant wait for the rest of the food coming to us. Had the best tiramisu and cannoli I've ever had, great gelato, pizza, calzone, red wine, fizzy red wine........and so on!
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