A big update from Rome
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2008
1
23
28
Trip End
Ongoing
Rome,
Lazio,
Italy
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Unfortunately the laptop which we were looking at getting to take with us on our travels (which would inarguably have made life a lot simpler) didn't quite eventuate before we left Whalley, though Dougie might be able to do something about this while he's back in the UK. Basically, this is just another offering on the shrine of excuses I'm constructing to cover my blogging inadequacies.
As I sit here and write this, courtesy of a very nice young lady who was kind enough to let me use her laptop while she heads off to explore Rome, Dougie is in actual fact, back in the UK. While he's there, as you may by now have surmised, I'm in Rome (and let's face it, that's a pretty cool place to be)! So I suppose the question that begs an answer and is pretty much the purpose of this update, is the tale of how we came to be here and the places we went through on the way.
We left good ole Whalley on Friday the 19th of September after a pretty huge leaving party and some surprisingly emotional good-byes the night before. We had thought the village would be more likely to celebrate once we'd really gone. Life is full of surprises, eh? I'm pretty sure that I may have gotten some of the photos from that night on facebook by now. Our good mate Ben Craddock drove us down to Burnley bus terminal and at one stage, the wrong way up a wrong way street. Life is seldom dull when you're in a car with Ben ;)
After a long and pleasantly dull bus trip we made it to Gatwick airport and duly embarked on our flight to Budapest where we joined the Fanatics tour that was to take us through Salzburg, Munich and Prague. It was also to take our livers to hell and back and give the wallet a pretty hefty work out, but we enjoyed every moment of it, made some great new friends and had what I can only describe as a fucken awesome time. There's really too much to tell about that trip and given my tendency to unabashed prolixity, I'm not even going to try and cover it all here. This bloody entry will wind up mind rottingly long anyway, I think, so maybe just some of the highlights? Yeah? Right then...
In essence, it was 8 days of absolute drink fueled madness and some very unpleasant bus trips with heaving stomachs, and one poor bloke who actually shit himself. On one of our nights in Budapest, Doug and I were having a drink with one of the tour guides, Treggas, when this cute little Budapestian girl comes over to talk to us in some pretty broken English. We exchanged some pleasantries and then she mumbled a sentence at me which I couldn't really make out, but the last word of which sounded like, "kiss". Surely I hadn't heard right. I asked her what she had said again, and got the same, "mumblemumblemumble kiss". Somewhat perplexed, I asked, "did you just say kiss?" She nodded. "Like, a kiss" I asked again and pointed to my mouth. She nodded again and smiled prettily. Still not quite following this unexpected turn of events, I asked for more clarification, "You want me to kiss you..? Is that it?" A big smile and more nodding from the girl this time. Go Budapest! This shit NEVER happens to me! "Alright then," I thought to myself. So, figuring that I had finally understood her intentions, the young lady leant in, closed her eyes, tilted her head to the side a bit and then, as I leant in to kiss her, I realized that she had her tongue out and was wiggling it about. Now, I realize that I'm no Casanova, but believe it or not, I have kissed a few girls before, but I've never been confronted by a tongue that was wiggling away before our lips had even met. By this stage, she had sensed my hesitation, put her hands on her hips, looked at me crossly and signaled for round two. Fuck it, I thought and went in with a will. After what definitely goes down as the strangest and briefest kiss of my life, she pulls back, looks at me and says, "that was not right". Not right? Not right?! No shit it was, "not right". It was also, "not me" who was at fault. Budapest girls are weird.
On the one night that we had in Salzburg, we went to a truly enormous beer hall / building type thing that was just packed to the rafters. There was a heap of people outside as well, who were not just clamoring to get inside, but were almost on the verge of rioting. The police were on the scene pretty quickly, and the very young crowd who so wanted to get in were kind of contained. The were held at the gates largely, though quite a few did manage to scale the walls and get in. They were pretty easy to identify, they were the ones looking around blankly, clearly uncertain about what to do, now that they had actually achieved their goal and made it inside. We discovered later that it was some sort of a political demonstration. They were protesting and trying to disrupt a speech being made by some famous dude who was speaking in another part of the big beer hall thingy.
The two nights that we spent in Munich at Oktoberfest were almost without doubt the highlight of the Fanatics tour. It is difficult to understand the size of the beer halls without actually seeing them. We spent our first day in the Hoffbrauhaus (I think that's how it's spelt and I think that's where we were. My thinking by this stage though, it should be noted, was probably pretty suspect). Inside the tent, suspended from the ceiling and slowly rotating was an enormous papier mache figure of something or other. It may have been a pig playing a harp or something, whatever it was though, isn't as important as the unwritten law that accompanies it. Apparently, within the confines of this tent, undies are absolutely not permitted. "Yeah, yeah, whatever" we had all laughingly thought about this little tidbit of information. Until, that is, we saw a pretty big guy lifted off his feet by about five other guys, who were in the process of forcibly tearing his undies off him. In a voice that I am sure was several octaves higher than his normal one, he was loudly screaming, "my scrotum! My scrotum! Aarrgghhhh, my scrotum!" and so on and so forth. Once the offending undergarment had been removed, complete with bloodstains (I'm not kidding) it was flung up and onto the big figure hanging from the ceiling to great applause. We realized at this time that it was nestled next to a considerable number of other such garments. At the table where we were, which was right next to the table of the poor unfortunate whose undergarments now graced the suspended figure, there was a sudden and massive exodus in the general direction of the toilet, which I am not ashamed to admit, I was a part of. Five minutes later, we all returned, sans undercrackers. It was actually quite funny watching the periodic flinging of undies at the big thing hanging from the roof, often because undies aren't the easiest thing to throw and they'd frequently fall short of the roof and land on someone else's head, or in their stein, or on their plate etc. Funny stuff.
As for Prague, well, what a city! Nice and cheap, by European standards, with some awesome nightlife. Unfortunately, by this stage, the non stop boozing had taken it's toll, and I was horribly ill and had no voice left at all. I was alternately told I sounded like a pirate or someone who should do movie trailer voice-overs. We didn't let that stop us though and still had a great time at the end of tour party, wherever the hell it was. There is a truly enormous nightclub in Prague called, Karlovy Lazne. Five stories high, different style of music on every floor and tons of fun.
Pretty much everyone from the tour departed the next day, except for a few of us who were traveling on elsewhere, or just needed a little more recovery time (like me). Doug and I spent a couple of extra days wandering around Prague, taking photos, doing the pub-crawl and catching up with an old army mate of ours, Adam "chopper" Gale, who happened to be in town at the time. We went and checked out the "sex machine museum" which was interesting and also where we watched possibly one of the worlds earliest pornographic films, from 1925 no less. It was surprisingly nasty, don't think you're grandparents weren't getting freaky back then guys! Maybe granma wasn't so nice as you like to imagine. We also checked out the Museum of medieval torture instruments, which actually featured a lot of the same exhibits, the primary difference being I suppose, that the people who used the stuff from the sex museum, actually volunteered.
From Prague, Dougie, Chopper and I decided to fly out to Milan, where we spent only one night. After having wanted to get to italy for so long, our arrival in Milan, fairly late in the evening of the 30th September was pretty anticlimactic. Milan was a bit of a dirty looking post industrial city and according to my lonely planet book, "a difficult place to enjoy on a tight budget". So, taking that advice to heart, we left the next day, after having spent a very interesting night in Hotel Verona. I say interesting, because Dougie had the worlds biggest freak out about an hour after we'd gone to sleep. Chopper and I woke up to the sounds of an absolute panic stricken and scared shitless Dougie who was totally freaking out and crashing blindly about the room, convinced, apparently, that something (a ghost) was eating him, or his arm at least. Truth be told, it kind of freaked me and Chopper out too, he was really packing it! Once some semblance of calm had been restored, we managed (or rather dougie managed) to work out that he must have slept weirdly on his arm and it went all dead and hence felt really strange, which, coupled with an exhausting preceding 10 to 12 days and an overactive imagination may have led to the nightmare that he was being eaten. Or maybe a ghost really was hanging off the end of his arm while he was crashing about. I couldn't see much, it was pretty dark, so who knows? ;)
From Milan, we caught a train down to Venice, which is a really pretty city. We didn't have very long to roam around Venice, as we were planning on getting down to Rome the same day, but we did get lost (which is apparently compulsory for all first time visitors to venice) eat some pizza and have an awesome gelati. It would have been nice to spend a little more time in Venice, but we were pretty keen to get to Rome and so we bid it good bye, and got train tickets to Rome.
When we got to Rome, we booked in at legends hostel which was quite nice hostel, only a few minutes from the train station. You can pretty much walk all over the old historical center of rome, without needing the metro or buses and this we proceeded to do over the next two or three days. We saw the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, Fonte di Trevi, heaps of different piazzas, Pallatine hill, St Peter's Basilica and lots of other places.
After Rome we headed south to Naples, which we had been advised could be a bit rough around the edges. Not to be deterred though, we set about thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the city that reputedly, makes the best pizza in the world. Well, it certainly wasn't bad pizza, but pizza over here in Italy is a lot different from pizza back home. Even though the pizza you can get over here is literally, the real deal, is exactly what pizza should be 'cause hey, this is where it was invented... there is still a lot to be said for some of the pizza we get back home. Most pizzas over here will have about 2 toppings. 4 - 6 if you're really pushing it. It all tastes great, but if you're after a super-veggie-supreme, or a meatfeast, you're just not going to find it. The best thing to do is simply forget all of your preconceptions of what you think pizza is, and just enjoy whatever you get. The last bit isn't hard.
During the few days that we were in Naples, we went south to Pompeii and climbed Mt Vesuvius (yes, we climbed an active volcano in double pluggers, how aussie is that? Henceforth, they shall no longer be known as, pluggers, or Chinese safety boots, but Chinese mountain conquering super boots!) and then visited the ruins of Pompeii and saw the figures of the people who died protecting their children, or who simply didn't make it out of the city. Quite touching, some of them. After the awesome views from the top of Mt Vesuvius though, I have to admit that Pompeii was a little bit underawing.
We asked the lady at the Hostel of the Sun in Napoli, where would be the best place to go out and were told and area called Chiaia. Later questioning of the next hostel receptionist who came on shift revealed that Chiaia, while cool, was a bit of an expensive place to go out. If you really wanted to have a good time, meet some of the locals and weren't scared, the place you wanted to go out was Piazza Keske (or something like that). It was basically a small piazza, absolutely swarming with people who were fed alcohol by two small pizza shops that were selling beer. About 660ml for 1.50 euros. Consequently, we had quite a few ;) On the way back from this square, we came across another small piazza that had soccer goals at either end and a soccer ball floating around. Drunk, we started kicking it about with some other likely lads that we had met in the hostel and pretty soon we had a tourists vs the locals soccer match going on. Amazingly, we won about 10 - 4 or something. A few times during the match it looked like things might get nasty, but it all cooled down and we got some photos with them at the end. Or rather, someone got some photos, but it wasn't us. I think I need to facebook someone to get em. Leave it with me and I'll come back to it. I still can't believe we won. Individually, the local guys could have played circles around any of us, but they were so busy trying to show off in from of the girls that they couldn't get it together and play as a team, which I think, is the only reason we won.
After that, we headed off on a short ferry trip to L'isola D'Ischia (the island of Ischia) which has so far been, just about the highlight of the trip. For me anyways. It has some wonderfully secluded beaches, breathtakingly beautiful sunsets, staggering views from the central mountain (which Dougie conquered in, you guessed it, his Chinese mountain conquering super boots) and amazing clear waters. We spent about 5 wonderful days there in some extremely pleasant company. We were about the only people at the hostel we stayed at, except for Phil, Cath and Sharone with whom we quickly became good friends and spent many pleasant hours hanging out with, at the beach, climbing mountains or eating at the family restaurant of the people who own the hostel. Every night, Lorenzo would call by the hostel at about 8pm to take anyone who wanted to go, to the restaurant and then bring them back later. This was about the only time of day you would see any hostel staff around the place. Aside from two asian tourists who came later and kept pretty much to themselves, we really had the run of the place. Getting in a vehicle with Lorenzo to go to the restaurant was never really a big deal, but the trip back to the hostel, no doubt after a few wines, was really something else. The streets and alleyways of the town of Forio on Ischia are unbelievably narrow. Every vehicle on the island beeps when approaching blind corners, because there is simply no way to tell who or what may be around the corner, nor is there any room for error is there is someone there. In some alleys, you literally have to climb into someone's doorway to let a vehicle go past. Under these conditions, the ride back to the hostel, with Lorenzo at the wheel, bore a great deal more resemblance to a rollercoaster ride than a car trip. The whole van full of us would be giggling madly and encouraging him on to greater speed and crazier cornering and it was always a disappointment when the ride finally ended and we arrived back at the hostel, usually with a fresh scrape or two on the van. Sadly, our time on the island came to an end though and we bid fond farewells to Ischia and our new friends, Sharone, Cath and Phil.
From Ischia, Doug and I decided to head south again and this time we went to a small place in Calabria, called Praia a mare. Another beautiful place, we found this one almost deserted as well, the high season being largely over. The weather though, was still fantastic, as it has been pretty much the whole time we've been in italy. We were met at the station by the mother of the girl who runs the hostel we were to stay at. With the season pretty much over, she had decided to take herself off on a holiday of her own, and left the running of the hostel to her parents, both of whom were absolutely lovely, but spoke pretty much no English. This was great for me, as I found myself kind of forced into the role of translater for me and doug and the other two guests (Aaron and Rebecca) who were at the hostel. I'm sure my Italian improved a bit while we were there. The very afternoon of our arrival, the father, Pappi took us out fishing in his little boat and, miracle of miracles, we actually caught some bloody fish! I was amazed. I am quite possibly the worst fisherman in existence, and even I pulled a few in. The next day, we went out with Aaron and Rebecca and Pappi (as tour guide) on a cliff diving tour around Dino Island and the rest of the bay area. We jumped off 5, 8, 15 and 22 m cliffs. Well, I didn't do the 22m one, because I stuffed up my entry on the 15m one and knew damned well how much that hurt. Basically, I pussied out, but I can live with that. I also dove head first off the 8m one, which took more balls than I thought I had too. Dougie did the 22m one though, and full credit to him. Crazy fucker.
On another day there, we just lazed around and enjoyed the sunshine, and on another we did heaps and heaps of walking, some of which was looking for a post office, and some of which was up to a huge cave in the side of a mountain, into which had been built a church or cathedral of some sort. The signs proclaimed it to be Il Grotto del Santuario, which is literally the Cave of the Sanctuary. Yet another beautiful place we've seen. I think we had a total of 3 nights down in Praia a Mare, a truly beautiful spot, or, in the words of Pappi, "un vero paradiso".
And that, folks, pretty much finally brings us almost up to date. From Praia a Mare, we came back to Rome, where I finally managed to post off some postcards from me and Dougie, a lot of which will probably arrive in about 3 wks or so im guessing. But if you get one, don't expect too many more! We had let all our postcards pile up, and then when I posted them all at once it cost me bloody 25 euros (something like 30 or 40 AUS)!!
Anyways, that's about it for now, I hope it hasn't bored you too senseless. If you have actually managed to read this enormous diatribe, congratulations and give yourself a pat on the back for your perseverance (and if your at work, give yourself another pat on the back for procrastination). As always, I hope I managed to throw in a few chuckles as well as bring things reasonably up to date, so don't be shy with the comments. All the best from Dougie and I, and I'd love to hint at where we're going from here, but I don't really know, so stay tuned, and keep an eye on facebook I suppose.
Bye all!!!
Comments
Rome
G'day Paul & Doug, What did you do with my little boy? I'm sure he loved Whalley but I'd have thought he could have stayed away a bit longer! It must be something realy deep & meaningful? Take care men,best wishes,Dad (Noel)
Hello
Hey Dougie & Paul,
Sounds like you are having a ball. How cool is the five storey night club in Prague, we went there too! 8% beers and flamin' Absynthe. woo hoo.
Keep up the good work Kelvin & Rach.
Hey there happy travellers
Hey there guys looks like you are having the best time. missing you over in oz thinking of you both keep safe and have fun- if you can do both of those things together.lol
Shelley and Hawkins