Monday, August 06, 2012
Fire!
3/17 - 3/20
Fallas is probably the pyromaniac's dream festival. Hundreds of huge paper, wax, wood and polystyrene constructions are built up around the city. Every day a ridiculous number of fireworks and firecrackers are let off and on the last night everything gets exploded and burned. A 5-storey polystyrene sculpture going up in a tower of fire is something everyone should be able to see at least once.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Couchsurfing Montserrat
3/14 - 3/17
Didac replied to our last-minute couch request and gave us a place to stay before the start of the Valencia Fallas. Didac's a really nice guy, a teacher who loves his work. We realised how lucky he is to have work at all when we heard that unemployment in Spain had topped 50% for people aged 16-24. Terrassa is just 20 kilometres from Barcelona but we didn't really spend much time in the town itself; Montserrat and climbing were our goals. Thanks to the Oatmeal for helping me check that that semicolon wasn't misplaced.
Didac replied to our last-minute couch request and gave us a place to stay before the start of the Valencia Fallas. Didac's a really nice guy, a teacher who loves his work. We realised how lucky he is to have work at all when we heard that unemployment in Spain had topped 50% for people aged 16-24. Terrassa is just 20 kilometres from Barcelona but we didn't really spend much time in the town itself; Montserrat and climbing were our goals. Thanks to the Oatmeal for helping me check that that semicolon wasn't misplaced.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Gaudi Barcelona and The Ring
3/7 - 3/13 + 3/29 - 4/3
Got drunk on 1 Euro wine and had fun chatting with fellow travellers a few times in Barcelona, which was great. Don't drink much these days, believe it or not, especially when unemployed (Montenegro being the only other occasion that comes to mind).
The street performers are fun and the overall ambience of La Rambla is great. Nice place for a stroll. We spent quite a lot of time in Barcelona, almost two weeks in all, hanging out and sometimes just killing time. Good place for it.
Got drunk on 1 Euro wine and had fun chatting with fellow travellers a few times in Barcelona, which was great. Don't drink much these days, believe it or not, especially when unemployed (Montenegro being the only other occasion that comes to mind).
The street performers are fun and the overall ambience of La Rambla is great. Nice place for a stroll. We spent quite a lot of time in Barcelona, almost two weeks in all, hanging out and sometimes just killing time. Good place for it.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Naples, or 'Margherita heaven'
3/4 - 3/7
Naples was surprisingly filthy. Rubbish everywhere and tons of people just hanging out on a Sunday afternoon, discarding their wrappers, cups and plastic wherever they were standing. Nice atmosphere though. Lively. Naples is famous for its food so we made sure to hunt out one place that appears in all the travel guides. 'Da Michele' is renowned for taking the 'no nonsense' approach to pizzas to its extreme. Margherita and Marinara pizza are the only two items on the menu, and the ingredients listed for both are the bare minimum required. You take a scrap of paper from the guy on the door and wait outside on the pavement with everyone else until enough seats are free.
Naples was surprisingly filthy. Rubbish everywhere and tons of people just hanging out on a Sunday afternoon, discarding their wrappers, cups and plastic wherever they were standing. Nice atmosphere though. Lively. Naples is famous for its food so we made sure to hunt out one place that appears in all the travel guides. 'Da Michele' is renowned for taking the 'no nonsense' approach to pizzas to its extreme. Margherita and Marinara pizza are the only two items on the menu, and the ingredients listed for both are the bare minimum required. You take a scrap of paper from the guy on the door and wait outside on the pavement with everyone else until enough seats are free.
Piano di Sorrento, Amalfi and Capri
3/1 - 3/4
We took the train to Naples and the Circumvesuviana line to Piano di Sorrento. Met a Neapolitan (not the ice cream) on the first train who was both really friendly and helpful and rather upset we weren't planning to spend any time in Naples. So we promised to return later.
Anyway, the place we'd booked on the strength of ridiculously good reviews on TripAdvisor was a slightly too expensive B&B run by the super enthusiastic and excitable Rachelle. She was so happy to be hosting someone Japanese, apparently because of the love her father had for the place when he was the captain of a ship. She got steadily less enthusiastic and excitable each day we stayed, which we can only hope was due to something other than our presence. She was very helpful though, and loaded us up with more sightseeing information than we could process.
We took the train to Naples and the Circumvesuviana line to Piano di Sorrento. Met a Neapolitan (not the ice cream) on the first train who was both really friendly and helpful and rather upset we weren't planning to spend any time in Naples. So we promised to return later.
Anyway, the place we'd booked on the strength of ridiculously good reviews on TripAdvisor was a slightly too expensive B&B run by the super enthusiastic and excitable Rachelle. She was so happy to be hosting someone Japanese, apparently because of the love her father had for the place when he was the captain of a ship. She got steadily less enthusiastic and excitable each day we stayed, which we can only hope was due to something other than our presence. She was very helpful though, and loaded us up with more sightseeing information than we could process.
Rome and pope country.
2/28 - 3/1
All the Colosseum shots with us in them were blurry or otherwise screwed up. I like this one though. Rome is a great place, and I think both of us wanted to spend some extra time there, but we got kicked out of our hotel and went to Piano di Sorrento in a huff.
All the Colosseum shots with us in them were blurry or otherwise screwed up. I like this one though. Rome is a great place, and I think both of us wanted to spend some extra time there, but we got kicked out of our hotel and went to Piano di Sorrento in a huff.
Burnt Siena
2/26 - 2/28
I have fond memories of dozing in the sun at the sloping piazza in Siena, and the place is still much as it was then, if a little larger than I remembered. The signs saying 'no sleeping' and 'no eating' might be new though, but no-one was paying them any attention.
I have fond memories of dozing in the sun at the sloping piazza in Siena, and the place is still much as it was then, if a little larger than I remembered. The signs saying 'no sleeping' and 'no eating' might be new though, but no-one was paying them any attention.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Florence: Gold, conspiracy theories and ice cream
2/23 - 2/26
Very slow train to Florence. Florence is alright, I suppose. I'm sure it's a fascinating place if you're interested in religious renaissance art, but I'm no more enamored of the place than I was 10 years ago. Having said that, by skipping all the boring art galleries we were able to see more of the city itself, which is quite nice in places. The Ponte Vecchio is now famous for its goldsmiths after all the butchers were cleared off it for the visit of some lord or pope. We spent a while looking for rings there, but found that one manufacturer had pretty much bought up all the shop fronts still open so they all sold the same stuff at inflated prices. Although we didn't find anything we liked we did get a few helpful pointers about comfortable fits from one of the few remaining independent goldsmiths.
Very slow train to Florence. Florence is alright, I suppose. I'm sure it's a fascinating place if you're interested in religious renaissance art, but I'm no more enamored of the place than I was 10 years ago. Having said that, by skipping all the boring art galleries we were able to see more of the city itself, which is quite nice in places. The Ponte Vecchio is now famous for its goldsmiths after all the butchers were cleared off it for the visit of some lord or pope. We spent a while looking for rings there, but found that one manufacturer had pretty much bought up all the shop fronts still open so they all sold the same stuff at inflated prices. Although we didn't find anything we liked we did get a few helpful pointers about comfortable fits from one of the few remaining independent goldsmiths.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Not-a-wedding party!
Still 6 countries and several months to catch up on, but we've been getting everything ready at the last minute for our grand not-a-wedding party in the UK. This world tour is done, but the party is just getting started.
Friday, June 22, 2012
The Carnevale
2/17 - 2/23
From Amsterdam to Milan by plane. So excited by the funghi porcini pizza, but we got sick of eating pizza all the time soon enough! The duomo is the biggest gothic cathedral in the world, 600 years in the building, and the surroundings also featured guards dressed like M. Bison (aka Vega), which was a definite plus.
From Amsterdam to Milan by plane. So excited by the funghi porcini pizza, but we got sick of eating pizza all the time soon enough! The duomo is the biggest gothic cathedral in the world, 600 years in the building, and the surroundings also featured guards dressed like M. Bison (aka Vega), which was a definite plus.
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