UPDATED - Finally!!

I've managed to update the blog till the end of Europe.. but I'm starving now and have to go get dinner..

So if you want to, go back to the post after the one about the theft (entitled Garrucha) and read upwards..

I can see on my new "Gucci" watch (to replace my stolen one - you can't get a non-famous rip off here) that it's dinner time.. so Vietnam updates will have to wait, but I am having a good time despite losing valuable possessions, and am back in Hanoi today after trekking to visit hill tribes in Sapa - amazing!

later,

Ness xxx

Venice

What can I say about Venice? Well, it's gorgeous, but getting around is a pain in the butt when you have heavy bags. Dragging my bag over bridges, and not just once, but several times.. I think I spent more time in Venice moving my luggage around than actually seeing the sites.

The problem was that the place I'd booked was in a great location - close to the train and bus stations so I could get in and out, and it was pretty cheap for a dorm.

So when I rocked up, I had to leave my bag and check in later. So i did this, wandered through the market, down to St Marks Square - which is incredible, up the Bell Tower, into the Basillica.. it was just gorgeous.

Then I went back to check in where I discovered that the "dorm" was really a room in the attic where camp beds were separated by sheets. It looked like something out of a world war 2 film! And there were mozzies and no airconditioning, and I faced a 20 hour 3 changes flight the next day. So i left to find something else, which I managed to do - a great place where I splurged on a single room thinking I'd get a good night's sleep.

So back to my first place, pick up the bags, back to the second place, go find somewhere for dinner. The people in the place were very rude and at one poni it looked like a guy who was hanging around had done something to my drink, so I got a new glass, and the owner ended up not charging me for it.

I don't know what it was, but Venice was the one place where I couldn't understand a great many people when they spoke. Usually between Spanish and Italian we could get by, but not in Venice.

Finally my great night's sleep was interrupted by a dopey German guy who'd locked himself out and banged on the hotel door all night to no avail. I'd never met him, and wasn't sure what was going on, so I put ear plugs in and attempted to sleep but it just didn't work.

The next day I had to take my bags to the train station, leave them in left luggage. The I went to the Ghetto area where the jewish community had originally been forced to live, and then stayed in the area, and visited the museum and did a tour of the synagogues. I figured if I'd spent enough time queueing for Christian things, then at least I could spend some time on my own heritage :^).

It was really fascinating, particularly learning about the divisions amongst communities even within the ghetto, and seeing the tiny synagogues where people managed to find space to worship.

I did get hassled by a yeshiva bocha (a very treaditionally religious guy) who asked if I was Jewish and if I had somewhere to go for shabbat dinner (because it was Friday). I vaguely mentioned I'd be in another city, but didn't have the heart to say shabbat would probably be spent on a plane flying to Asia, and no, I hadn't ordered the kosher meal. At least I'm not a guy, or I would have been dragged in to put teffilin on! (This happened to one of the guys I met in Rome when he was there)

Finally I went back to St Marks square, via all the little glass shops, and managed to get myself 2 murano glass rings, which thankfully weren't stolen along with my other things.. And also managed to watch a guy making the glass and squeeze in a few Venice biennale pavillions.

At the very end I mad a mad Valporetti (water boat - like a ferry) dash back to the train station, picked up my bags, another Valporetti to the bus station, bus to the airport and finally on my way to Vietnam.

Florence

I'm so glad I didn't skip Florence. It was one of the most beautiful cities I went to. The light was incredible, the art was amazing, David was huge - much bigger than I'd imagined. Unfortunately I only have my memories in my mind because all my photos are gone... but I'll stop going on now.

I saw the Duomo (another queue) and then went to the bell tower to see the view, as the queue to the cupola was way too long to face. I managed to find myself at the Ponte Vecchio at sunste which was just gorgeous - and the light was amazing!!!

After taking my parents advice about enjoying myself (I'd been living on salami, tomato and cheese sandwiches every day that I prepared from ingedients bought at the supermarket, because Italy was so expensive), I took myself out for a wonderful dinner at a really lovely restaurant full of actual people from Florence. I had Zuppa di Cozze (mussel soup) and the best pasta I had in Italy, made with fresh ricotta.

Finally on the last day I managed the Uffizzi (another 2 hour wait) and David in one day, and went home to pack. I went out to get some dinner, and found myself in the middle of a left wing political rally - Unita. It was food stalls, clothing stalls and an old school political debate, which I didn't really understand, as my Italian is heavily reliant on other people understanding my Spanish. Still I did have a sandwich with buffalo mozzerrella and bought a shirt from a left wing/anarchist group that says the rules were made to be broken in Italian, and enjoyed myself watching the debate for a while.

The best bit was the guy from the communist stall spoke english and explained a bit to me, and then gave me an I didn't vote for Berlesconi sticker!

Rome

I arrived in Rome with no where to stay. I rocked up at the main train terminal and walked to the hostel I'd been hoping to stay at who had told me just to "turn up". They had nothing, and told me I could wait for cancellations, so I went around to corner to a laundry/internet cafe and got 15 mins free email while they did my washing. Finally I managed to get a bed, and then spent that night chatting to Christina from Mexico in the lounge area.

The dorm was big - 12 beds, and the showers were absolutely tiny. I had to develop a 2 plastic bag policy to deal with having a shower and not getting my clothes wet!

The next day I went with 2 guys from my room to the Vatican, where the queue for the Sistine Chapel was so big that we wouldn't have made it in before it closed. So We saw St Paul's, the dome, and wandered around Rome, including having gelato in a square next to a fountain - how Roman Holiday ;^)

That night we went on a Pub Crawl.. yes I went along with all the youngsters and did a touristy pub crawl of Rome. It was pretty average I have to say, and this was even before I was sick of evey Italian man trying to ask me out, but at the very end we went to a late night night club where all they played was hip hop music, and I spent the night dancing with a great guy called Tony whose Dad was an Italian and who's mum was an Indigenous Australian, so that was heaps of fun.

The next day I went to the Parthenon, the mouth of Truth, Circus Maximus and the Colleseum. Italy was just queues and queues of tourists. I have never seen so many tourists... to the point where I'd just get my map out because I didn't care anymore. Even to see the Mouth of Truth (a 100m distance) took over 45 mins!!

The next day I got up early and went and queued for 2 hours to see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. It was truly amazing, but a bit hard to appreciate when it is just jam-packed with people, and they have to keep blowing whistles to stop people lounging on the floor to look at the ceiling.

Finally I saw the Roman Forum and the Palatine, before heading home to pack, and then out again to see the Trevi Fountain at night.

Disappointingly (as you'll see later) I got my photos burned in the afternoon before going to the Trevi Fountain, so that was the last point at which I had photos on CD when my camera was stolen... sigh

Barcelona

Barcelona was good - not as amazing as I had expected, but perhaps I'd been spoiled by Granada. The first hostel I stayed at was too far out of town, even though the people were nice. So I spent day 2 trying to find somewhere in town to move to. In doing so I bumped into an irish guy called Al, who has lived in Barcelona for 2 years, dj-ing and hanging out with a burgeoning rasta, reggae, hip hop scene, but not managing to learn any Spanish. He was living upstairs from one of the places I was looking at and I asked if he thought it was good thinking he was a guest.

So we hung out - we went to one of the cheapest places to eat in Barcelona, and then the next night he put me on the door for 2 clubs, which we went to. The first was a hip-hop gig that was very cliched, so we left and walked around Barcelona to get to the reggae nightclub. We got a bit lost, but I did get the night tour of Barcelona, which was excellent, including seeing the Arch de Triumph that was presented by France... it looked just like the one in Paris...

The second reggae nightclub was very cool, and very underground.. so underground that not only was it hard to find, but most people there knew each other, or at least pretended they did.

Other amazing Barcelona sights included La Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's cathedral), La Perdrera (his apartment block), the Picasso Museum, Las Ramblas, the old parts of town.. I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it.

Also managed to dip my toes in the water at the beach, but couldn't swim as I hadn't planned to go that far and didn't have my swimming costume.

The last night I managed to find myself in a gorgeous little bar with vermillion walls called Sugar, where I'm not sure if it was a gay bar, or whether people just didn't want to speak to me sitting in the corner looking worried because I had no where to stay in Rome...

Garrucha

Well, after Granada I caught a bus to a little town called Garrucha, on the Almerian coast, to stay with a friend of a friend from work. Aaron and Marianna used to live in Granada, but now they live in Garrucha, a seaside town very popular with British tourists.. or at least they did until about a week before I got there, when they moved to the pueblo - outside of Mojacar in the middle of nowhere. An absolutely beautiful place, but not the easiest to do stuff on your own, so on the first day there, I spent the whole day hanging out at their place, reading, listing to music and finally using the pool which is shared by all three residents of the little community.

The rest of the time there was great. Aaron took me to Cabo de Gata, which is the national park there. We swam in the ocean at the base of a huge mountain range - just amazing! Have to tell you that prawns were the most expensive things I'd ever seen.. so didn't get to eat them for dinner, but the fish we had was truly amazing.

Marianna and I did a huge dash to the train to get me to Barcelona, including a stop at the gas station because it looked like we could break down!! Luckily I made it in a mad rush, and made my way to... BARCELONA!

Guess it had to happen sometime...

Yep. while on a boat trip to Halong Bay, my money (but not wallet or credit card), mini iPod and camera were stolen...

Feeling annoyed and upset, but have had some great girls to help me through it.. will be visiting the police tomorrow, so that will be an interesting experience..

Think I'll get a new iPod in Singapore, and maybe a new digital camera, but need something for the rest of the trip, so any suggestions for what to do about getting a new camera will be gladly welcomed...

Whiling away the hours...

Yep it's stopover time here in Bangkok airport. So far I've changed some Australian dollars to Baht, which allowed me to have a shower (yes it costs), find a hotel in Hanoi and call and book, and hopefully get a bit of blogging in, but we'll have to see, because time is now getting away from me. Haven't even read my guidebook yet for Vietnam, so have no idea of what I'm going to do there, except for laundry, and use internet and sleep..

I've even splurged on getting picked up from the airport because I'm so jetlagged.. guess we'll have to see after I get there what the deal is with staying in a cheaper place.. or maybe not if it's really nice :^)

Still have 20 or so baht to spend before I go.. better find some chocolate or something..

It's pissing down in Venice

Great.. I have one night here (I know, don't ask.. stupid bloody planning on my part) and it's just started pissing down rain.. First rain I've seen since NY... However I won't be deterred.. I shall be heading out for dinner, but I won't be going all the way to the Piazza San Marco to eat expensive tourist food. The woman at the second hostel (i"ll explain that in a little bit) has told me that there is a good area nearby with cheap food and some live music in a Mexican restaurant... I'm going to check it out.

A few things to catch up on, I know, but it'll have to wait till Vietnam before I can tell you all about my exciting adventures in Barcelona, Garrucha, Rome and Florence. I'm having an excellent time, but getting internet time on free internet is hard, and I was going to pay in Florence, but ran out of time. And while this hostel has free internet, it's only for 20 mins until 10pm, and there's already a queue. The internet here costs 7 euro a pop!!!!! that's fookin' stooooopid... Everywhere else was 2 or 3 max, often 1.

Anyway, I arrived in Venice this morning, left my bags with the place I'd reserved cos you couldn't check in till later, and then went for a long walk.. Venice is gorgeous.. I went to Piazza San Marco, went into the basillica, the bell tower, wandered all around, and then came back to check in. When I got there, they showed my my "dorm bed". It was a camp bed separated by all the others with sheets. Looked like a 2nd world war film. Considering I have a 20 hour flight tomorrow, that's not aq good thing. I ended up moving, and lucky I did so, because this place is much better, friendlier and I splurged and got my own room. So Ill be able to pack, chill etc etc without being disturbed, and I'll actually get some sleep I hope.

Anyway, better run, others are waiting..

Updates Later, hopefullty with pictures, but we'll see...

Granada

On the train on the way down here, I happened to sit across from 2 girls, Tizzy & Alice, one Spanish and one English, who´d gone to English boarding school together. The hostal I´d booked over the phone I couldn´t find on the map, and the guy had been quite rude, so we all got a room together in another hostal which was down near the south of the city, and then we spent the next 2 days hanging out together, so it was really good to do some things with other people after being on my own for a while.

I spent most of Sunday jumping in and out of various fountains around Granada. It wasn´t my idea, but as the day got hotter and hotter, it seemed like a very good one. We hung out for 2 days, seeing some sights, taking in some of the festival of music and dance, including a flamenco show out in the barrio where it was just us and all the locals, who were generally from the housing commission flats nearby, and also somehow I got to be part of an acrobatic show put on by some famous Morrocan acrobats.. I´m not one for audience participation, but some how I got involved, and I have the photos to prove it!! Alice & Tizzy then went back to Madrid, and I moved to a really excellent hostel, where I met heaps more great people and had a wonderful time. So good in fact that I extended my stay.. twice!! I love Granada...

I visited the Alhambra again, and it was just as good as I remembered.. I also saw an amazing photo exhibition of Jazz photos of John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and others. The first night in the hostel I ate communal dinner with everyone, and then a whole bunch of us went out dancing and I got home in the very wee hours of the morning... Let´s just say the the next day was a bit of a quiet one ;^) But I managed to go to the Arabic Baths for bathing and a massage. Not quite as good as the korean baths back home, but you can´t have everything..

Did a big tapas circuit in Granada that night, because in Granada all the tapas is free!!! Myself and a few others left when some of the English guys started doing the shots in the shots bar where you light your mouth on fire after you drink, and one guy breathed in at the same time, then his friend set his fingers alight.. lets just say I knew that in a bar you can´t move in, where some stupid guys are playing with fire, is not such a great place to be...especially if you had a big night the day before and it´s already well into the early hours of the morning..

The next day I went on a day trip to a river in the Sierra Nevada, and you can swim in the incredibly fresh clean and a little cold water. At the village we stopped in on the way, I took some water from the town fountain which was crystal clear and direct from the mountain top. An old tio started talking to me and told me that after drinking from the fountain, I´d be married in 4 months!!! Hmmmmm...

The following day I sent another package of stuff home, helped by Alex and Leona who kept saying "do you really want to carry that?", visited the Lorca museum, went to see the caves in Sacramonte, and finally had a farewell dinner with some of the people from the hostel.

It was very hard to leave Granada.. it´s a town I could definitely live in...

Not in London

Well, just to confirm that I´m not in London, but if you´ve read my previous blogs you´d prob already know..

My friends there seem to be ok, and I´m very glad about that..

On a brighter note, have had an amazing time in Granada - thought I was too old for hostels, but found a cool one that isn´t 18 year olds getting drunk, throwing up and sleeping together. Have hung out with cool ppl and will write more later, but running for a bus to Garrucha - 4 hours from here to hang out with friends of a friend near the beach...

I love this city - have extended my stay here longer than I intended.. I could so live here...

later..

Ness xxx

Free Internet Access at Last!!

Well, I´m staying at a fabulous hostel in Granada with free internet access, there´s 1.5 hours till we head out for tapas, and so it´s time to catch up on my blog!!

This is from the train on the way down here

Well I´m on the train between Madrid and Granada - it´s 9:30pm, the sun is setting behind fields and rugged mountains and huge dusty plains scattered with shrubbery. It´s just like every spaghetti western you´ve ever seen. We even just passed an old whitewashed building in the middle of nowhere nd a shepherd with 3 dogs walking towards his flock at the top of a craggy hill (no I´m not making this up!!)

Madrid
Madrid was great - I love Spain. The hostal I stayed in was good - my own room and friendly easy going owners, but it meant I didn´t get to meet people so I hung out on my own a lot.

My first afternoon I went for a stroll and happened across a long queue of people outside a shop. I asked someone why everyone was queueing (a popular pastime in Cuba, but not so much elsewhere) and she told me that the shoes they were selling were incredibly cheap. Now Spain is renowned for its shoes - shoe stores, shoe makers, you name it. That style that´s going to be popular next summer all around the world? Trust me - it started in Spain. So what´s a girl to do when faced with getting hold of a bargain in the shoe capital of the world? Naturally I joined the queue.

Now my Spanish is decent, but it'd been a while, and it was my very first afternoon. Think of the language of shoe shopping - there´s the style, the colour, the fit and of course the size. Now I´d waited in that queue a long time and so I wasn´t going to chicken out. But think of the pressure of all that language with a huge queue of impatient shoe shoppers behind you.. Happily I walked out with 2 pairs of shoes, which is why my bag is an absolute nightmare, but more on that later...

The following day I went on a tour of the Royal Palace, and that night I wandered into Chueca and right into the middle of a huge Gay Dance Party / Street Festival, and suddenly felt right at home.

3 of the performers were these older women with so much makeup I actually thought they were drag queens, but no. When the last dj and the music got too house-y for me, I headed into an internet cafe and checked my email, before heading out to join the throng. I managed to make it back to the hostal around 2 am.

On Friday I did the great Art Tour of Madrid - 2 of the 3 Famous Art Museums in 1 day. I saw Valasquez´s "Las Meninas" and Picasso´s "Guernica. Finally I went to buy my ticket to Granada, took my voucher number and headed outside to escape at least part of the 1.5 hour wait. Unfortunately, when I returned, my number had been and gone, and it looked like all was lost, when a security guard suggested I approach one of the guys on the desk. I did my best "please take pity on a poor uninformed, but Spanish speaking girl who needs to go to Granada, and didn´t know I had to wait my turn inside" number, and pretty soon was on my way... ;^)

As I walked out, something was obvious. All this walking led me to the conclusion that the shoes I´d bought in NY because they had incredibly spongy comfy soles were downright painful on the tops of my feet. I´d thought a few days would break them in, but after 2 weeks crippling pain, huge welts on the tops of my feet, a fortune spent on bandaids and major shoe envy of another tourist in the Museo de La Reina Sophia to the point of thoughts of theft, it was time to trade them in.

I´ve braved sales all over the world, and compared to Jakarta and Sydney Boxing Day, Madrid´s El Cortes Ingles summer sales were fairly tame in terms of fighting shoppers, but I did find the magical shoes that have saved my feet.. They are a pair of Timberland Sandals which are super comfy and easy to walk in, and I will praise them everyday and think that the 76 Euro I spent on them was worth it...