how do we get to Toledo?

5TH AUGUST

THIS was a day of high stress although it started out laid back. We caught a bus to madird but as we are fairly lazy travellers and don’t do a lot of thinking we could only get the bus at 1pm. Which meant we didn’t get into Madrid until about 8pm. This would have been fine if we had accommodation in Madird but we had a hotel booked in Toledo which is a 35 minute train ride away. We assumed because it was so there would be plenty of trains going there at night. Long story short- we wenrt to the wrong train station then raced to the right one only to miss the train by about 60 seconds. We asked if there were alternative ways to get there but the guy at information was useless. We called the hotel in Toledo (and this is where I got very excited- by this stage it was 10pm) and the lady didn’t speak any English at all. So I spoke to her (I was nervous because I doubted my Spanish ability a lot) but she understood everything I said and I understood her. Basically the only way to get there was by taxi which she thought would cost about 80 euro. She also told me the hotel reception closed at 11. I assumed we wouoldn’t make it and told her to cancel our booking. After this we did some quick cal we did thatucaltaions and realied we were going to lose 200 euro between the 4 of us and so we decided to race to a taxi and negotiate the taxi driver was more than happy for such a fare to come his way and told us he could get us there in an hour so we should call the hotel and say we might be ten minutes late (he also spoke no English). We were in the taxi and away and ready to cal the hotel when we realised one phone was dead and the other creditless. Long story short we got credit on the phone and called the woman again who said she would wait for us.

We arrived and she was there. She quickly gave us our keys and answered some questions. Its funny how when you are trying to speak another language quickly your mind goes for most circuitous route to get what you want. We needed food and instead of just asking if restaraunts were open (the word for restaurant in Spanish is essentially restararunt) I asked if they were shops with food. Such an idiot. Anyway we traipsed up to our rooms and Emily opened her door then quickly shut it again with a horrified look on her face. Apparently there was a naked couple asleep on the bed in the room. Hysterical with laughter we raced down to inform the lady who was clearly horrified that she gave us the wrong key and sorted it out.

We found a bar with food and we were happy.

Spain, BArcelona

It was a relief to be finished with Italy to be honest. A very disappointing country on the whole. Polluted, not very friendly locals and too hot. Arriving in Barcelona was like a breath of fresh air. It was cooler, cleaner, the people were way more interesting and friendly. When you attempt speaking Spainish they will have a conversation with you etc. First thing we noticed was the buildings were cleaner, fresher looking and the streets were wider and more open. The claustrophobia lifted and we all felt quite elated. We spent the afternoon napping and chilling out. We had an apartment so it felt great to be able to cook pour own dinner. At about9pm we ventured out to Las Ramblas which is the famous walking street in Barcelona. It was beautiful to walk down, full of life and some really great buskers. We watched a group of young guys doing the most incredible acrobatic/gymnastic stunts which climaxed with one of the guys leaping across 5 adults who were about 6 foot tall. So he jumped higher than 6 foot and longer than the length of 5 people standing in a row. Amazing. I liked Spain already.


4th august

We basically spent the day wandering Barcelona. On Las Ramblas during the day is the most incredible fresh produce market. They had the most beautiful Summer fruits arranged like something from Disney land. Seafood was eq1ually amazing and the meat selections were somewhat disturbing even for me as an omnivore. They sold whoel animals, like rabbits with their heads and eyes in, skinned. Pigs etc. Massive cows tongues, pigs trotters anything you could name they sold it dead and skinned. Made my stomach turn a bit.
The only thing that was a b it disappointing was the tapas. We had been told that tapas in Spain was a cheap kind of bar disht that you had with drinks and was often free. Nope they have cottoned on and are charging 5 euros for a plate with 3 deep fried prawns on it. Luckily you can buy fresh prawns for 10 euro a kilo at the market and we made an amazing homemade paella complete with nearly a kilo of prawns and a bottle of wine for 14 euro in total. Great feast. We wandered along the beach and the marina etc.

I was excited to be trying out some of my Spanish. Even though they speak Catilan in Barcelona they still understand Spanish. Just from reading signs etc it was easy to see that catilan is actually very different from Spanish.

5th AUGUST

First thing was another trip to the market to indulge in some amazing fresh juice. They sold pure raspberry juice for 2 thing I have ever tasted I think. So good. Then we made our way to the Gaudi Cathedral. Finally a Catholic Church in Europe that doesn’t look like all the rest (can anyone tell I am over old buildings yet especially the religious ones???). But this Cathedral was an exception. Where crucifixes would have been on other churches this cathedral had colourful bowls of fruit. Above the main entrance was a massive green tree with white doves in it. Its still under construction and so we didn’t bother going in. The outside colours look like they have faded a lot though. It was an awesome building nonetheless.

Next we made it to Barcelona beach. I was particularly delighted to find that it looked like some kind of fairy troupe had dropped mountains of glitter into the sea. Literally you could cup your hands in the water and come out covered in massive flecks of gold glitter. It was really beautiful. Despite the beauty the water was freezing cold. Considering it was in the mid 30s outside I didn’t expect to be shivering in the water.

We worked up a massive appetite and went for a 3 course meal on Las Ramblas. The choices were fairly basic but tasted great- I had meat balls with rice and potatos but they spiced everything up so it worked really well. Garlic and cheese soup and fruit for dessert. Not bad way to end the day.

Sorrento and Rome

28th – Sorrento
Glad to be out of Naples we spent 2 days never leaving the camp site. There was a cooking room, a beach and a pool and plenty of cheap beer to keep us occupied for a couple of days and it was nice to take a break from old churches. The beach wasn’t particularly a beach but a cove, that you had to walk down a cliff face to get to and there was no sand just rocks but the water was very salty and boyant and lovely to swim in.

29th Sorrento

30th – Rome
31st – rome – Vatican City St Peter’s Basilica
So the Vatican was disappointing- not in the sense that I’m a red hot Catholic on a pilgrimage and I missed seeing the Pope because he was on Summer holiday but just in the sense that I was hoping to see a lot more security guys with machine guns. I suppose because the big guy was elsewhere no one cared.


1st – Rome Colosseum

2nd – Roman Forum, Pantheon

Napoli, POmpeii etc

25th – heading to Napoli.

When we got out of the tube station near where we were staying in Napoli I thought we had magically arrived in the Bronx. There were children running around swearing at each other and threatening to kill each other. People piled on scooters not wearing helmets and driving on the pavement. Really didn’t feel safe. A little girl pointed us in the right direction and we were glad to get moving- even though it seemed as though we were getting deeper and deeper in the heart of the true seediness that turned out to be the whole of Naples. In a nut shell- a total shithole- but it did have the best pizza we experienced in the whole of Italy (but more about that later). It was getting darker and darker and we didn’t know anything about where we were except that there were on average 100 mafia related deaths per year in Naples. Eventually we reached our hostel which turned out to be a room in a fat guys apartment. Seediness exceeded.



26th – Pompeii
Hottest day ever and we decide to walk around some dusty ruins. Good choice. I don’t know where my memories of studying this at school went because I was shocked by its size. I thought there would be a few ruins and that would be it but it was 60 hectares of town uncovered. Pretty amazing. But we lost Jonno after about half an hour which meant a lot of wandering around discovering just how big the place was.




27th – Napoli
Spent the day in Napoli- went to a pizza place recommended by the fat guy who owned the apartment- and it was worth it. Huge pizzas for about 5 euro and with fab toppings. It was so popular that we had to line up outside to get a seat. The res of Naples isn’t really worth mentioning. Terribly polluted and ugly.

Florence

22nd July Florence

We made it to Florence eventually – our camp site was out of town and we had a bit of a pain finding the bus to get there but after the calamity fo camping Verona we were pleasantly surprised to find our twin cabins had a private clean shower and air con. We were done. And there was a pohaol.

23rd – we spent the morning fart assing about swimming in the pool- reading Stephanie Myer’s books and having a great time discussing her poor ability to write dialogue. Eventually we decided to head to PISA- at about 3pm. After a hot train ride we made it. I actually was surprised to see the tower was in fact on a big lean – I kind of imagined they might have been exaggerating it to draw tourists in. Other than the tower there’s not a lot to Pisa. Their gelato was the worst.

24th – Florence

We wandered about Florence- eating overprice pasta and trying to find whatever it is that people rave about Florence for. There was a big fairly impressive church- but at the risk of sounding like a philistine I just wish Europe had a bit more to offer than old churches. I’ve seen enough. We thought we would go see David- there was a cue that wrapped around Florence so after hearing some people say it wasn’t that impressive we went and found an imitation David in a piazza and had photos with him instead. The sun was incredibly hot- had to be in the 40s.

Venice and beyond- first few days in Italia

18TH JULY

It may take only 2 hours of flying to get from England to Italy but it takes about 2 hours of train travel to get from Gravesend to Stansted airport and then Treviso airport was similarly in the middle of nowhere- so it makes for a day of travelling nonetheless. Our flight seemed to be made up of school leavers and other such party annoyances – basically a large group of morons who liked to shriek and scream about anything and seeing as they were at the front of the plane and we were literally at the very back sometimes it made for a nervous journey when you can’t tell if the screams are warranted or not. A Ryan air threw us to the ground in what they like to consider a blaze of on timeness triumph- we even got treated to their little trumpet ditty that plays when you arrive on time. Didn’t matter that the landing was less than spectacular- we were on time. Just.

Due to my minor control issues I had taken a lot of planning in hand and together with my folder of booking and directions we jumped on board a bus headed for Venice. It took about 30 minutes then we were supposed to get on board another bus which would take us to our camp site. The camp site had claimed to be less than 20 minutes away- turned out that was a conservative estimate. We jumped on the bus loaded up with our bags. The bus sat there for about 20 minutes and allowed more and more people to clamber aboard until it was Thailand 3rd class conditions. It was a fairly frenetic trip but we eventually made it to be greeted by a 150 year old man who only spoke Italian who took us to our cabins.


19th July – Venice

Venice certainly lives up to the fantasy image- absolutely stunning! I had been told by countless people that it had a distinctly bad odour- but we were lucky and didn’t seem to encounter this problem. We spent the day moving between pizza slices, gelato stores, coffee bars, bars, fresh fruit stands and beautiful scenery.

Along the way we decided we would purchase a fairly hefty flagon of wine to consume back at the camp site. It went down a treat and was swiftly followed by a third bottle. Somewhere between the third and the fourth bottle (that Johnno ran to the shop to get before closing) we were joined by a dude called Trevor. He was an American studying for 3 months in France. Couldn’t speak a word of French after that time. Enough said.

20th July

Hangover city. More wandering. More fruit and more gelato. Venice is gorgeous.

21st July

Leaving Venice for Verona. Following the form we had developed over the last few days of spending about 3 hours deliberating over coffee it was after midday by the time we got to the train station. On arrival in Verona it was relatively easy to make our way to our campsite. This campsite claims to be the only campsite in Verona, and perched on the top of a hill near a castle overlooking the town we dared to assume it would be rather spectacular. View was. Accommodation wasn’t. We had booked a 4 person cabin- what we got was a one person 7-0 year old stationary caravan. It looked like some kind of Disney creation and seriously wasn’t built for four. We bunked down pretty much all on top of each other re-creating some kind of teenage slumber party gone terribly wrong. Em and Jonno ended up sleeping outside in the early hours because it was so hot. Not good. We were quite relieved to get out of there. Verona itself was quite beautiful- whole streets made of marble and lots of high end fashion stores. Not great for finding cost friendly food but nice for a day trip.

Croatia

23^rd May

Since our last Europe adventure started out so horrifically we decided to be up early, sober and ready for anything – passports on board! Subsequently we arrived at Stansted Airport about 3 hours early. Really duty free shopping is incredibaly boring.

Our flight to Zadar was quite alright, flying over the alps and having quite a good view.

I think our arrival at the airport indicated a fair bit about what this part of croatia is all about. After a smooth landing it wasn’t the size of the airport that struck us as unusual (its about as big as DUBBO aiport) but the fact that the plane actually crosses a road of traffic. We watched out the window as a man in a yellow jacket held up the stop signal for the oncoming cars and ushered the plane across the thoroughfare. Very strange.

By this stage it was nearly 9pm and considering we weren’t exactly sure how to get to our accommodation (which we knew was in a little town called Zaton 16km out of town) we thought we had better get a move on. We jumped on a bus we hoped went into Zadar. Luckily it did. Then very smoothly we arrived at the main bus stop to find that a bus to Zaton was coming in another ten minutes. It all seemed very fortunate considering our lack of planning.

The bus arrived and we were fairly sure from the Croatian non English speaking bus driver we were on the right one. We anxiously watched out the window for any signs that indicated we were going in the right direction. On occasion we saw a sign to Zaton and felt that was a good sign. It was pitch dark by the time we decided we should get off the bus. Basically we were in the middle of nowhere (so it seems when arriving in a foreign country and jumping off the bus on a road with about 3 houses on it). We asked one other person who got off the bus if we were in the right place and managed to make out from some English and gesturing that we had the wrong bus and would need to wait for another one. (I think this was some bad advice the place we were staying (Zaton holiday Village) is sort in between nin and zaton, but it is about a 2km squared (it has its own radio station and doctor) so the zaton bus stop is about 1 and a half kms from one end and the nin stop is about 1km from the other end. Either way you’re in for a walk and once you reach the gates your still only half way home) Naturally my panic buttons started to sound and Tim’s calmness kicked in. We found a sign with a map and on the other side of the town was our accommodation, so we decided to walk. This seems like an ok idea in the middle of the day when you know the way. These were streets with the occasional street light, very reminiscent of the areas near my parents house in Dubbo but with even less houses and more space in between. Actually it felt very familiar and reminded me of walking around the streets of Dubbo on Christmas eve- except for the lack of Christmas lights. Most of the time I felt really ok about wandering somewhat aimlessly in the dark and then I would remember we were in Croatia and had never been there before and were being a bit risky. Nonetheless we safely arrived at Zaton holiday apartments and excitedly fell asleep.

24^th

Our aim for this trip was to do as close to nothing as we could bear before getting bored. So we slept in, cooked up a breakfast and then wandered to the beach for a swim. Essentially the beach was a bit disappointing in the following regards:

1. The sand was not yellow/white and fine to tread on but more a grey colour with fairly large shards of rock strewn throughout. (the beach can either be described as having the most uncomfortable sand possible or the most comfortable gravel)
2. There were no waves

However there was a quite nice view of the islands in the distance and the water was nice and warm.

So we spent some time swimming and relaxing on the beach reading etc.

Pretty relaxed day in all. Nice to see some warm weather but after the long dark English winter the 30 degree heat is a bit of a shock to the system and warranted a mid afternoon nap followed by some Croatian beers.

25^th May

We wanted to take a day trip to Zadar and had to walk the 1km or so back into Zaton town to get the bus. It was stinking hot but really nice to see the streets we had wandered in the dark in the daylight. Beautiful Mediteranean style houses dot the landscape, complete with their own mini vineyards and collections of various farm animals. The wild flowers are in full bloom it would seem and wandering along roads with waist high stone fences it seems a bit like a fairytale. It took us ages to walk to the bus stop because we kept stopping to take photos of little lizards that dart out of the undergrowth all the time. They are bright nearly fluro green on the head and top half of the body and then brown on the lower half- kind of like a choco mint treat or something. Very cute. They are about 10-20 cm long at most. The peeling of church bells and an old woman sitting on the road side, peering out from her scarved head at us completed the scene. (church bells and the twittering of songbirds are common sounds in croatia, but by far the prevailing soundscape is the thumping of distant techno)

When we eventually made it to the bus stop we were pretty sweaty and thus fairly miserable to see the bus fly past us. We had a good twenty minute wait for the next one. Not to mention that there was extremely limited shade on this fairly barren stretch of road. We got an icecream from a randomly placed corner store and I thought it was a good sign that within the wrapper of my heart shaped icecream I found an owl temporary tattoo. Considering the family connection with owls I felt pretty happy and didn’t mind standing in the sun. icecream (the on-a-stick sort) have weird branding in Europe, my icecream was called “macho” and contained liqueur others have cars on the wrapper, in the Czech republic we had Harley Davidson icecream.

Zadar itself is quite lovely. The centre is an ancient Roman walled city, with narrow winding cobblestone streets and a thousand year old Church. Quite picturesque. We wandered along the waterfront and eventually found a restaurant we wouldn’t have to sell our right arm to eat at. It would seem by browsing that Croatian cuisine is fairly similar to Italian- perhaps with a greater focus on seafood.

In the afternoon we found what lonely planet describes as a ‘must see sight’- the Sea organ. This is essentially a series of steps leading into the water which has pipes etc. underneath, so when the water moves up and down it pushes air through the pipes producing different sounds- almost like the sounds of blowing across bottles. It would have been really atmospheric except that an International cruise liner was stationed right next to it and running its motor. So the sea organ wasn’t so easy to listen to.

We grabbed some pretty delicious fresh fruit from the famed Zadar market and by this stage realised the day had reached the point where most people are either swimming in the harbour or shut up having their afternoon nap so we decided to go home.

26^th May

Starting the day with pretty fabulous Tim made pancakes and fruit we again had a lazy rest around Zaton. Beaching, reading, getting slightly sunburnt (I figure its ok- we need to store up our vitamin D supplies before heading back to the miserable island).

One excitement of the day was the discovery of Zadar’s finest- Cherry Brandy. Apparently made with a cherry that is renowned for its taste this brandy was simply stunning. Not being really a brandy or a cherry person I had my doubts- but we just couldn’t get enough of this stuff. Really really tops.

27^th May

Today we did a bit of exploring and checked out Nin. The town is an island or islet, I think it depends on the tide. On our way there we stopped at a stone jetty and watched little iridescent fish darting around the rocks. The town is full of roman ruins, cathedrals, wall stone houses and wildflowers. We visited the world’s smallest cathedral, there is also a statue of dumbledore’s younger brother grgurninski renown for his magically prowess and lucky toes. At the edge of Nin there is a huge sandbar and as we approached to we hear a bus load of kids mucking about in the water, so we decided to do likewise and stopped for a swim, the sand was nicer than at the resort and there were some waves, but at all of the beaches here you need to walk out about 100 metres from the shoreline to find water that reaches above your knees. All over the place and especially on the beach there are snails sleeping the day away at the top of grasses and plant stems, they seem to be doing the opposite of hiding. After having a dip we decided to walk along the sandbar and we soon meet some of the kids wandering in the other direction covered head to toe in black mud. We read in one of the brochures about a medicinal peoloid (the spellcheck confirms our suspicions that this is not a real word) near Nin so we formed a theory that it was some sort of healing mud bath. We soon found the source of the mud, the sandbar is only about ten metres wide but somehow there was a 3 metre wide bog in the middle of it complete with its own ecosystem of crabs and some weird sand coloured jelly-fish like thing. I took two steps into it and was up to my knees, Steph preferred to scoop up some mud and smear it on her face, making her look like someone pretending to be a black-a-moor in some racist play. We took a look at our map and realised we were nowhere near the area marked as peloid but after washing the mud off Steph was still convinced her skin had improved. Next we wandered back into town for a late lunch, gelato and some freshly picked mulberries before we headed back to the apartment. Once there we realised we had both forgot to put sunscreen on our legs and had burnt the backs of our legs and the tops of our feet.

28^th May

Today we set off in search for the REAL peloid