Friday, October 19, 2007

Cannes, Rome, Cinque Terre

Okay so it's been awhile since I've had a chance to blog, we've been very busy and internet prices have been extortionate. However, we are in Florence now and have found an internet parlour with reaonable rates. I was excited to find my first comment on my blog (cheers lauchy) which confirms that I have at least one reader. Anyway I should go back to what has happened since Avignon. Well as you may have guessed, from Avignon we headed to Cannes for a couple of nights. The train trip there was excellent, we had a great view of Cosa Azure along the way, which is so beautiful that I have decided that I will buy a beach house there... well when I've got that kind of cash. Cannes itself, although touristy was still stunning. We had an excellent cheap hotel room just out of town, and perfect weather for swimming, which we made the most of. From Cannes we had a trecherous train trip to Rome, it took about 15 hours, we had to change trains several times and we for each train we had to pay a booking fee which we were horrified to find was 15 euros each. So after a couple of those I ouldn't afford to eat let alone rent accommodation. We got into rome at around 10pm, tired, hungry, grumpy, and with some alarming indicators of sickness, we got terribly lost on the way to the hostel and then when we eventually found it we were told our bookin had been given away, and were directed to another place that was 20 minutes walk away (which is annoying with a 20kg pack on your back), and also was a shithole. The next day Brit and I awoke sick with severe colds, but perservered with sight seeing regardless (having little choice as we were locked out between 11am and 4pm for a "cleaning" time that was not very evident upon return...), we went and saw the ruins and the Colosium, and it was all very exciting. we also ate a lot of Gelati and Pizza and Pasta, and that was almost equally as exciting. The following day, still ill, we headed to the Vatican, we waited in line for almost 2 hours and pay 26 Aus dollars, and for that I hoped that we would at least see the Pope dance the Charleston on top of a flagpole. We didn't but it was all very impressive and the Sistine Chapel was probably worth the admission. After that we sat outside of Saint Peter's Catherdral, which was equally impressive, and I reflected upon the fact that this was probably as close as I wold ever get to the Pope, and realised that I didn't really care either. I also wondered why he so closely resembles my own image of Satan rather than God, and that if there is a God why thinking this means that I am likely to go to hell. 15 minutes later I was eating Gelati and had forgotten all about it. We then stopped at the Fountain Di Trevi and that was cool also, but by now we had had just about enough of Rome, we were sick, tired, and decided to get an ealy night's sleep so we could ge up early to go to Cinque Terre. An annoying American girl had other ideas for us though.
After being asleep for a couple of hours tops, she and a Local Roman man crashed into the dorm drunkenly, and took part in some very unpleasant activities in the bed directly next to me for the entire duration of the night. I hardly slept a wink and at 4.45 I got up and used the hostel compute until Brit got up at 6am and we headed to Cinque Terre.
Now this place really did live up to expectations. We stayed at an cosy hostel filled with lovely people, we met a really nce Canadian couple that we spent some time with. And Cinque Terre itself was amazing. The walk was fantastic, the weather again was superb, the water a clear bright turquoise that couldn't be resisted, and the views were unbelievable. I could spend weeks there swimming off the rocks in the calm sea, I'd recommend it to anyone with half a chance of making it there. We spent 2 and a half days there, and today we travelled quite easily to Florence. We've got ourselves some cheap accommodation at a camp ground that overlooks the city, and we're going to spend at least four nights here, maybe 5. Then it's on to Paris!
I'll keep you informed regardless.
regards,
Dylan

2 comments:

Chris said...

Hi Dylan,
I've finally had the opportunity to log into your blogspot and as usual, your brilliant blogs manage to convey exactly how you are travelling in more ways than one. Hope the rest of the trip exceeds your expectations. If you see a deliriously happy Australian couple wandering around Europe in your travles, it is probably Mark and Erin. Their wedding went off superbly. Cheers, Uncle Chris

Emma said...

I'm reading fatty head! GAH Cinque Terra was my favourite place by sure, it's amazing... even how the sun seems to set quite ALOT higher than the horizon.... did you notice?