Julia's Journical

Rome II

November 13, 2009 – 8:19 am

We woke up on Colosseum day and had a (free) breakfast of sugary sweet croissants with medicine tasting cordial and bounced down the street. When the sugar rush crashed we rushed to get some decent food. Pizza!

It was another steaming hot day! We walked up to the Colosseum and were approached by another tour pimp. The guy was very nice and I grilled him, asking heaps of questions. I didn’t want to get ripped off again. The tour was actually affordable and I also got a discount for the entry ticket to the colosseum because I am an EU citizen under 26 (handy!).

We met our tour guide who had a thick Italian accent and a wicked sense of humor. He asked everyone where they were from, to the English he said “fish and chips” and to the Americans he would say “McDonalds”. He had lots of funny stories. His favourite topic was virgins and when ever he spoke about the virgins from ancient Rome he would grab a pretty girl and lead her around and the group.

Here is one of the girls attacking a friendly gladiator:

Our guide asked us if any of us on the tour had been to the Colosseum before, when everyone said no he answered with “mistake” and walked off expecting us to follow. (he still held one of his ‘virgin’s hand’) It was v. funny.

He told us how the seating in the colosseum was organised. The politicians, nobles and rich families sat closer to the arena, with the lower classes sitting high up and further away from the area. At the very top, the women stood. All the women got was a platform to stand on.

The entry into the Colosseum for the Ancient Romans was free, with free food and wine all day. There was a shade cover manned by professional sailors who would roll out and up roll the sail cloth used for shade.

The white blocks are the original stone.

Most of the original stone was stolen by a Pope hundreds of years ago so he could use it in the Vatican!

Instead of the flat arena I was expecting was a series of tunnels and corridors.

Wild animals were brought through these corridors and through trapdoors in the arena floor. The animals, lions, tigers, bulls etc were killed as part of the show and then eaten!

Our tour then left for the Roman Forum,

but we were more interested in hanging around the Colosseum.

We met another Julia

who has brought a plate with her! How thoughtful.

Then we had our photo taken by a very enthusiastic Japanese fellow

After spending the day walking around in the crazy heat we were exhausted! We walked back to our hostel with the usual bread and cheese on the way back.

Our last day we went to check out the Pantheon. It was closed, for a wedding. So we had to have gelato instead.

And then!

We saw the Pantheon. Which is basically a round church.

So we walked and found a bridge!

Then we spotted an Angel who liked to play croquet!

That afternoon we caught a train to Civitavecchia, an hour away from Rome. From there we to catch a ferry to Barcelona.
The boat was huge!

It can hold up to 2000 passengers, there were only 150 people on board! We had booked airplane style seats. But decided to pay to upgrade to a cabin. I guilt tripped the guy at the desk to giving us a discount!

We watched the pilot jump out of the Ferry onto his pilot boat.

I got really sea sick and found standing in the really strong wind at the back of the boat to be brilliant fun. It made my hair look like I was a mad woman.
We spent the rest of the day sitting in the lounge area chatting to an Australian couple we met who were in their 50’s doing a similar trip to ours.

We arrived in Barcelona after 20 hours on the boat.
Up Next Barcelona.

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged Add new tag, arena, colosseum, ferry, gladiator, italy, pantheon, rome, tour | Comments (0)

When in Rome

November 11, 2009 – 12:50 am

We watched the sun seat from the deck of the big car ferry as we left Hvar and made our way to Split, the first leg of the trip to Italy.

It was a bit chilly!

Lindsay and I arrived back in Split and pushed through the room-selling crowds of people like pros - a wave of your hand and a stern no is all it took. We bought tickets for our next ferry and convinced ourselves to actually get on. For 4 euros we bought a soggy sandwich, when 500m away on land we could have bought delicious seafood for the same price. GRRRRR.

The boat pulled out of Split, I entertained the thought of jumping off and swimming back to shore. But Lindsay convinced me not to. We went to bed and woke up as the boat was coming to to Ancona, Italy. We walked off the ferry, through the very convincing passport control. A woman standing by an orange witch’s hat glancing briefly at passports.

And then we were in Italy. There were no directions to the train station, no information. No nothing. Just a car park, a ferry terminal and a bunch of lost backpackers. We saw 2 girls with big backpacks walk off, and 2 other backpackers picked up their packs and followed. Lindsay and I thought, why not, lets just follow them. 4 backpackers behind us thought the same thing. Without any discussion between us at all just followed each other to the train station! We all worked together to find out what train we needed.

We found a helpful conductor who looked so happy to be helping all us young-uns! He cheerfully pointed out which trains we needed and we all went on our separate ways. Our train to Rome took about 2 hours. With nice countryside to look at, it went very fast. The train station at Rome was packed! When withdrawing money from an ATM, the machine sucked up Lindsay’s card and didn’t look like it was going to spit it out again! Fortunately, after thinking about itself for 2 minutes, it gave back the card. We meanwhile were having panic attacks in front of the ATM.

We found a friendlier ATM and then started to navigate our way to the hostel, Hotel Lella. Walking through the station and the streets of Rome, I noticed an awful lots of priests and nuns. I whispered to Lindsay asking if he noticed it also, and how strange it was. He then wisely reminded me that we were in Rome, where the Vatican is.

We arrived and tried to check in, and there was a debate in Spanish not Iitalian. Turned out they had decided to give us a free room upgrade because we were a married couple. Being a very obvious Catholic establishment they were really into that sort of thing. (There were crosses, crucifixes and virgin marys everywhere)

They also decided to include a free breakfast! We were happy about this - the breakfast was a croissant full of custard of chocolate with the strongest cordial ever. Not what I would consider breakfast…but it was free.

Our first afternoon we walked to the Trevi fountain via 2 pizza places (yum!)

Yeah, it was nice. But not as nice as the ones we had seen in Vienna.
What I found the most interesting were the tourists!

Most were from the USA and wearing matching things so they could easily work out where the rest of their tour group was,

e.g. the classy yellow hat gang.

After escaping the mass of people at the fountain we walked up to the Roman forum. Where we (I), spotted a fine example of a behind.

We were so incredibly tired, we sat down and didn’t have the energy to get up. We were literally 400m away from the Colosseum and didn’t have the strength to walk over and have a look!

After resting for a bit we decided to walk back to the hostel with a quick walk around the outside of the Colosseum. On the way back to our room we stopped again to share this:

I am thinking about writing a book called Julz and the giant peach, and is a story about a girl who falls into a peach and makes friends with giant insects.

We purchased bread, cheese, salami and olives for dinner.

The 2nd day in Rome: Not a happy day.

We caught a bus to the Vatican, dressed conservativly because today we were going to meet the Pope! (we didn’t think we actually would)

The bus was packed, slow and hot. So we sweated our way to the Vatican. We arrived at the court outside St Peter’s Basilica.

A man approached us and said “we have a group tour starting in a minute, it will cost you 28 euros each and it includes your entry into the Vatican museum” We thought…hmm sounds good. The vatican only costs 14 euro. So we joined the first part of the tour which is free. The girl was really nice and knew what she was talking about. Then she led us up to the Vatican museum, through security, then Lindsay’s backpack was too big so had to be taken to the cloak room.

She then tells us the prices, 25 euros ($AUD50) each for the tour, and then you must go and buy your ticket for the Vatican, which is another 14 Euros each! This made me furious! The man had lied to us, and tricked us into going on the tour. The tour guide gave us a 5 euro discount each, because we didn’t have enough money otherwise. A 2 hour tour + entry cost us about $AUD100!!!

I decided to try and enjoy the tour and go back and find the man afterwards so I could rearrange his face for him.

I must admit the tour was good.

We learnt that the chest and arm on this statue was used by Michelangelo as a model when painting the Sistine chapel.

Photo is from here.

You are not allowed to take photos in the Sistine Chapel, but I found some people on Flickr braver than I am!

Photo is from here.

There were pompous looking Italian men whose job it was to walk around the chapel shhhh-ing everyone….like school teachers shhhh-ing a bunch of naughty school kids. I could not stop giggling. They looked like they thought they were so important and special and all they did was go SHHHHHHH! One man even started to growl! The artwork was pretty amazing, but giggling is not really the best way to enjoy the place.

We said goodbye to our tour group of fail, and walked around the Vatican by ourselves. We found this:

No they are not boobs… but bull testicles, which makes perfect sense!

This ceiling is completely flat but has been painted to look 3D!

We walked through rooms of religious art

and were bored senseless.

And were by this stage practically unconcious with hunger and thirst. Our lunch was in Lindsay’s backpack which was in the cloakroom. So we had to spend our last 8 euros on a plate of pasta so small I almost cried and wanted to peg it at the serving lady’s head. We did manage to have a drink which helped!

We then braved the heat again (did I mention is was a really really hot day?) out in the court yard we spotted the Death Star.

I wonder why they have a model of the Death Star at the Vatican Museum?

After another nervous breakdown (mine again) we found the Egyptian section of the museum. Where some Egyptian Priestesses were playing chasies

And this God who had won the fruit basket at the local Bingo

I was by this stage seriously crabby and ready to Karate chop the next catholic, Italian and/or annoying tourist.

So we decided to leave the Vatican and get me some food before moving onto St Peter’s Basilica.

It was nice enough…but its a Church, with lots of gold and bits of dead people. But thats just my opinion, and as I said, I was seriously grumpy.

Finally we escaped the church and started making our way back to the Hostel. We got to end of the street and saw that the traffic had been blocked off. We hung around waiting to see what was going to happen.

After waiting for 30 minutes a motorcade drove past, with the Pope in it!

These guys traveled with their doors open!

hardcore!
and here is the Pope

and if I zoom & crop :

the Pope!

And then we walked back, buying bread, cheese and salami on the way back to our room.

Up Next the Colosseum!

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged ancona, art, blue line ferry, catholic, church, con, croatia, death star, ferryboat, giant peach, hostel lella, hotel lella, italy, motorcade, musuem, pope, roman forum, rome, scam, sistine chapel, split, trevi fountain, vatican | Comments (0)

Hip Hip Hurrah for Hvar!

October 29, 2009 – 9:26 am

After our day at the bay, we decided to reunite again for another day at another bay so we could finish off our picnic lunch.

Luka drove us again in his big green van to this lovely beach

On the way back from the bay house the day before, a wasp had got into the van with us. Lindsay and Erik spent the first half of the trip leaning over the back seat trying to kill the wasp with the yellow plastic plates we had with us.

Knowing the plates were an effective weapon, we were armed and ready when we arrived at the beach that day.

A point system was developed. You got points for:
-killing a wasp in 1 hit
-hitting a wasp while holding the baby
-saving the baby

Erik demonstrates the bank-hand swat while Noëlline demonstrates ’save the baby’.

As it was Louise’s last day in Hvar she spent most of the day in the sun getting as much colour as possible.

While those of us with more time for tanning hid in the shade of the only tree.

After lots of snorkeling and searching for electric fish, Lindsay walked around taking some amazing photos of:

The pebbles that are on the beaches instead of sand:

The private island and lighthouse we could see from the beach:

And pine trees that are native to the island:

I meanwhile snorkeled and swam. Erik had assured me that there were no sharks left around Croatia so I was really brave and swam by myself in the deep water!

I saw all sorts of cool things like star fish, big fish, small fish and stalker fish who would seriously not leave me alone!

After a day of sunbaking, wasp killing, photographing, swimming and snorkeling we walked up over the hill back to Luka’s.

That night we were to have a feast! Louise had organised a big fresh fish dinner. We sat in the lovely outdoor kitchen while Luka cooked the fish on the woodfire BBQ for us.

We had lots of salad, potato salad, fresh bread, fish and lots and lots and lots of delicious homemade olive oil.

Oh and don’t forget the Donkey wine! The local and delicious red wine.

We sat around eating, talking, drinking, laughing and joking.

We all just, you know, hung out together…

We all said sad goodnight and good bye to Louise who was heading back to cold grey London the following day.

That next day was a bit stressful, we found out that Lindsay’s clients had no money and no intention of paying him (or apologising!). So we spent the day fighting, yelling and hating each other. Not only were these clients ruining our holiday, they were also affecting our relationship! So we decided to pull ourselves together and find some other options. We did a trade with Luka. Lindsay would make him a website in return for the accommodation. Being in such a beautiful place, it was not hard for Lindsay to find inspiration for the websites.
Here they are if you want to see what Lindsay made.

WARNING! You will want to stay there once you have seen these websites!
Luka’s Lodge

and

Luka’s Bay House

The day after the stressful day we went back to the beach. Boy was it hard work. Alternating between sitting under a tree reading a book,

and swimming in the beautiful clear water.

It was windy that day, and there was a single wave! (I seriously love that photo…you can see their legs in the wave!)

After the beach Lindsay and I walked the long way back to Luka’s enjoying the view.

The wind was so nice and fresh!

The ocean really choppy, unlike other days where it had been very calm.

Meanwhile back at the ~~ranch~~ lodge,

sangria was being prepared by Noëlline and Erik. Using the bottles of wine that had failed to impress the night before.

The sangria however did impress! In one evening I was converted from a non-drinker to a Sangria lover! The sangria was flowing from the giant saucepan to our plastic cups via a ladle! We spent the evening chatting to our French-Canadian friends (who also cooked us dinner!) and 4 other Aussies who were also at the Lodge. Sometimes Noëlline and I would have to go to ‘our happy places’ when the conversation got geeky. Did I mention Erik was a fellow geek with a ‘hackintosh’ exactly like mine! Lindsay for the first time in months was able to talk geekage!

The next day we hung around while Lindsay worked on Luka’s websites as well as taking lots of photos needed to make the website pretty. Everything from the clear water,

to the stations of the cross which were spread along all the little streets in Hvar Town.

(turn right at number 14 to get to get to the hostel)

We cooked dinner that night for Noëlline and Erik. A huge batch of Spag Bol and lots of Donkey Wine. The Sangria had turned me into a red wine drinker and I officially love Donkey Wine.

It was their last night in Hvar. They had to catch a ferry early the next morning. So another sad goodnight and goodbye.

Lindsay and I spent the last few days swimming, relaxing and website building. One day while snorkeling we spotted an octopus making its way along the bottom of the sea. We floated above it, watching while the sun set over the water. It was magical.

Another day we made a trip to the bay house to take some photos for the website. We convinced all the other remaining guests at the Lodge to join us (4, it was low season by then and we had the place to ourselves!)

Here we are, a big bunch of friends who have never met before this week, drinking juice in paradise.

To take the next photo Lindsay submerged himself in the water, he had to climb over sea urchins and a big slipperly rock while I stood above him worrying about the camera.

The photo is awesome!

Here he is climbing out, safe and sound

all that worrying for nothing!

Isn’t it stunning!?

That night we went for a walk enjoying one of our last sunsets

I am sitting on one of the many benches that line the promenade that follows most of the shore line around Hvar Town.

We went for a last supper to Lungo Mare, for scrumptious fresh seafood

The next day, our last full day we walked around to the other side of Hvar town, to where all the resorts were closing up for the winter.

We did some more reading and swimming,

and some last minute sun-baking.

We then had another swim at the resort beach which was completely sea urchin free…it felt like we were cheating!

The view of Hvar on the way back to Luka’s was awesome!

Then it was time to go! To leave the Island. ~~The Others were after us, and the polar bear was really getting on our nerves, not to mention the man eating smoke machine~~ Europe was calling and we had to answer that call.

We said goodbye to the awesome outdoor kitchen,

the beautiful clear water,

and the relaxation!

Despite Luka’s frequent suggestions that we stay longer, Lindsay and I managed to convince ourselves to get on the Ferry back to Split.

What ever is coming next totally doesn’t compare to Hvar…so if I were you I would not bother reading any future posts…

But then again if you stop you will miss out on the story about us seeing the Pope o_O!

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged boats, clear, croatia, feast, ferry, Friends, hanging out, holiday, hvar, hvar town, meal, ocean, party, relaxation, sangria, sea, snorkeling, sunbaking, swimming, vacation, wasp, water, yellow plastic plates | Comments (3)

Hurrah for Hvar.

October 28, 2009 – 7:18 am

To get to Hvar we had to catch a ferry. We walked down to the port and bought our tickets for the ferry. We walked the wrong way then doubled back just trying to work out where the boat was.

The view as the catamaran pulled away from Split was awesome.

This is where the catamaran pulled up and let us off.

We had not booked accommodation because other backpackers had told us about the huge number of people waiting at the wharf ready to offer rooms for rent. If you show any sign of interest or weakness everyone pounces on you. We had one old lady speaking to us in German and trying to practically climb on top of me. She stood in front of anyone else I tried to talk to. Lindsay at the same time was asking another man about his rooms. This man was Luka.

Me: how far from the beach?
Luka: 5 minutes
Me: you have internet?
Luka: yes
Me: we choose you pikachu!

I didn’t really say pikachu but that would have been hilarious for me and not many other people. Maybe the old lady speaking to us in German but it would have been pretend laughter because she was just trying to win us over.

He walked us over to the shade where he had another guest waiting before walking us all back to Luka’s Lodge.

That’s Luka at the top of the stairs to the Lodge.

Checking us in took ages! Only because we were all having such a great time chatting and getting to know each other. The other guest was Louise from London. And we worked out pretty fast that she was really nice.

After talking our heads off for over an hour Luka asked “Are you hungry?” We 3 said, “Yes!”

Then Luka said “Ok, I will call my cousin, he will take you to his restaurant”. 2 minutes later the said cousin arrived, picked us up in his car and drove us for 2 minutes back to his restaurant. Lungo Mare:

(photo was not taken on that day in case the whole night and day thing confuses you)

We sat down and drooled over the menu of fresh seafood. In the end we decided to choose a plates of mussels, prawns and squid to share between the 3 of us.

It was sooooo good!

After stuffing ourselves it was time for a swim.

this was a 3 minute walk away from the Lodge, not the nicest swimming place because of all the boats but if this wasn’t the best…just think whats to come!

From our spot we could see the island hopping party boats coming in. There was probably about 15 all up.

On the way back to Luka’s we could see the beautiful sunset

and then we walked by this church where a wedding was being held, everyone was singing and clapping!

Luka for dinner cooked us delicious steak on his BBQ… his real BBQ with flames! The meat was amazing, as was his home made olive oil and red wine vinegar! OMG, my mouth is watering now just thinking about it!

After dinner we walked into town to meet some people Louise had met in her hostel in Split. She treated us all to Champagne!

Our 2nd day in Hvar, Lindsay and I walked to the supermarket, bought a loaf of bread, some olives and a dip and walked along the cliffs to find ourselves a private patch of beach/rocks where we could swim, eat and sunbathe.

We climbed into the water through this sandy patch

You have to be careful because there are sea urchins everywhere.

We swam around for a while before climbing out and soaking up the sun on the flat piece of concrete jutting out from the rocks in the photo below:

I am terrified of deep water, and if I can’t seem the bottom I tend to freak out. So we decided to invest in a pair of goggles and a snorkel. We walked into town to buy some at the little marketplace. On the way we accidentally bought ice cream, but it was delicious so we decided to eat the ice cream.

We walked back to the beach and tried out our new goggles and snorkels at a very deep swimming hole/beach. The was a concrete ledge you climbed off and the water was immediately at least 5m deep, and it got deeper fast! The water was crystal clear all the way to the bottom. We could see fish swimming, and bit of debris at the bottom. It was awesome.

We then moved back to our first swimming rock and had a look to see what we were swimming above. Nothing remotely dangerous except for sea urchins. Once we were well and truly wrinkly we hopped out and read our books until it started getting too dark to read.

The next day we bumped into Louise who invited us to go to Luka’s bay house with us. We met Erik and Noëlline, a very nice French-Canadian couple and their very cute baby Olivia. On the way to the bay house we picked up a picnic lunch.

Luka dropped us at the bay, which was completely deserted except for one German couple. We immediately set up our picnic lunch and got stuck into the food.

It was not long before the wasps arrived, note how no one is sitting down.

We are all standing - the trick was to walk up to the table, put food on your plate then run away with the food before the wasps got you.

After eating Louise found a nice jetty to sun-bake on

Olivia had a nap in her tent

while Erik, Noëlline, Lindsay and I took it in turns snorkeling in the bay.

As Lindsay was getting into the water the first time he slipped on this boat ramp

and hit his head on the concrete!

He convinced me he was ok, and there was no blood so I believed him. He then went swimming by himself, and came swimming back to the beach to tell us about the electric fish. We took it in turns to swim out with him to look for the electric fish just to be sure he wasn’t suffering from brain damage.

Here he is returning with Erik…after their hunt for the electric fish. Seconds after this photo was taken Lindsay explaimed “oh a squid!” This was followed by him and Erik spending the next 15 minutes looking for the squid.

Noëlline and I meanwhile discussed how we thought Lindsay was brainwashing each of us into thinking the fish were electric.

I might note, just so you don’t all freak out and think I let Lindsay swim with brain damage, Erik and I saw the electric fish also.

When we were not swimming in the bay we were lying on deck chairs

reading and looking at the beautiful clear blue water

or watching the crabs scuttle around us

Lindsay collected these for me from the bottom of the bay, they are the shells(?) of sea urchins.

Once we had finished swimming, reading, dozing and eating, Luka came and picked us up. He then took us for a drive up to the village his family is from, Brusje. The village’s income for hundreds of years came from their Lavender, olives and grapes. But a fire destroyed these plantations many years ago. The village of Brusje is now very quiet, neglected and forgotten. Most houses are empty with a large number of the inhabitants immigrating to Argentina and some to Australia.

Luka showed us his family home, where he was born and grew up.

No one lives in the house, but Luka looks after it really well, and it was such a lovely house.

Lindsay took this photo of the sun setting through one of the collapsed roofs on a forgotten and empty house. Its one of my favourite photos.

Coming up, another week in Hvar.

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged bay house, brusje, clear water, concussion, crabs, croatia, ferry, hvar, hvar town, juliaholmwood, lindsayholmwood, luka, luka's lodge, lungo mare, picnic, swimming, wasps | Comments (1)

Zagreb and Split.

October 23, 2009 – 11:57 pm

I have quite a conundrum, do I encourage you all to go visit Croatia or tell you that its horrible so I can have the country all to myself?

We arrived in Zagreb, we hopped off the world’s emptiest train (there was only 1 nun and a businessman on our carriage!) and walked down the world’s longest train platform. Seriously, it took like 10 minutes before we saw any sign of non train life.

I looked around and thought “oh my god, where have I brought us?”. The train station at Zagreb looks very 3rd world, all the buildings are a bit rough, old and forgotten looking.

We walked out and hundreds of people enjoying the sunshine in the plaza and park. We walked to our hostel through streets of people wearing amazing, expensive and top brand clothing…shopping for more amazing, expensive and top brand clothing. Streets full of terraces and cafes, american tourists, backpackers and trams packed to the brim!

We found out hostel, went to reception…which was a chain smoking girl sitting in a lounge room with a laptop surrounded by hungover people. Their internet was down. So they had no idea who had booked rooms over Hostelworld.com. She didn’t know how much we had to pay…we made up a number and that was that. We followed the chain-smoking girl up to our room where we met our roommates: a quiet girl who, if you spoke to her, went pale, and 2 Australian/Italian guys from Ryde. I told Lindsay I wanted a quick nap, and fell asleep for 3 hours!

We woke up and on the suggestion of the guys from Ryde we went to a restaurant that served yummy and cheap food. For about $20 I got a huge pizza and Lindsay a giant veal steak filled with cheese! We then went for hot chocolate with our new friends from Ryde.

The next morning we thought Zagreb was so nice we would like to stay another night. I went and asked chain-smoking girl if we could. She asked me “how many people are staying in the hostel?”. I didn’t know, then she said she didn’t know either…

Then Lindsay and I decided that maybe we would move on instead of waiting to find out how many people were staying in the hostel that night.

We spent the morning having a wander around the city

it was very pretty

After rescuing our bags from death by cigarette smoke we made our way to the bus station. We caught the first bus to Split. The trip was terrible, we were exhausted and the woman in front of my had her seat back so far it was resting on my lap! It was hot and all I wanted to do was thump the woman in front of me.

6 hours later we arrived in Split. We looked out the window and saw looks of excited looking people waiting to greet the bus. I thought to myself “wouldn’t it be nice if there were people waiting for us”
In fact, these people were waiting for us! They all had rooms for rent and they pounce on all the tourists as they get off the bus. They are pretty hardcore too! We already had a place booked so had to shoo everyone away.

Our hostel was called the 3 Turtles. They have only 9 beds, its a duplex and the bottom house has been turned into a hostel.

They really do have 3 Turtles…which are actually tortoises!

We spent our day in Split walking around.

There was a tour we joined which gave us a history of the town. The old part of town used to be a Roman palace, which has been lived in since it was built! As time went by parts of walls were removed, rebuilt and built up on. So what used to be a palace, military barracks, store houses etc within castle walls is now hundreds of little apartments, shops and windy streets. It was a maze of awesome living history.

The original paving stones are still in place:

They have been worn smooth by thousands of years of people walking over them.

This is an old Roman Mausoleum…

…with a round open roof? (is it a roof if there isn’t one?)

Inside was an acapella choir…

…with guitars…so not really that acapella-ish.

We spent the afternoon:

looking at amazing bougainvillea plants:
peering over ledges:
and walking around the maze of dark, cool streets:

All the time looking up, our tour guide had told us, look up and you will see some amazing things:

The wall next to the staircase is the old Roman castle wall!

The clock is part of the old castle walls, which have disappeared from view and are now the walls of shops and houses. One man bought an apartment which has an old roman wall in it with genuine roman mosaic decoration!

We then decided to climb this bell tower to have a look at the view which we were told was amazing.

The first part was alright, the steps were huge but you were in a walkway so all you could see where the very steep steps.

But then it opened out to this:

I went up the first section of stairs and I learnt something very important - I am scared of heights. So while I stayed halfway up the bell tower having a nervous breakdown, Lindsay went all the way up.

And looking at the photos he took,

the view was pretty breathtaking!

we rewarded ourselves by having lunch at a popular fish cafe. We ordered grilled fresh and local fish. They still had their heads and tails on! But I was brave and ate some fish, pretending that they were not watching me saying “why are you eating me?”

We were chatting to a guy at our hostel who said he had been to Hvar the past few days and that is was really nice.

So we thought, ok we will go for 3 nights. Famous last words!

Up next Hvar, where we stayed a little bit longer than 3 nights.

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged 3 turtles, bell tower, cafe, chainsmoking, croatia, eurail, fish, hostel, nun, roman palace, scared of heights, split, train, zagreb | Comments (0)

There are no Kangaroos in Austria

October 14, 2009 – 6:41 am

We arrived in Vienna and found our way to our hostel, helping two guys from Malaysia along the way.

That night we cooked dinner and went to bed. We decided to give ourselves the next day off because I was feeling very tired. Lindsay and I hung around the hostel using the internet and doing some much needed washing. That night I realised I was alternating between freezing cold and boiling hot. I tossed and I turned and I ached all over. I was sick! I took some paracetamol to try and reduce my fever which helped and I managed to get some sleep. By the time Lindsay woke up I was well and truly sick. He was great, he went down to the reception and asked them for a private room. An 8 bed dorm room isn’t the best place to be sick.

Lindsay carried both our giant backpacks and our daypacks over to our new room. We had our own bathroom and a lovely double bed and a door opening out over a non-smoking garden. I went straight to sleep and slept all day. The next day I was still way too sick to leave our room. Lindsay brought me food, went to the shops and bought groceries. He looked after me and sat with me when it hurt to much to even sleep. He was wonderful! I fell sick on a Wednesday and it was not until the Sunday that I was well enough to venture outside! I had no idea that so much time had passed, for me it felt like only 2 days.

Once I was well enough to leave our little hospital ward we started easing me into some sightseeing.

We bought a travel pass, nurse Lindsay had decided that I didn’t have the strength and energy to do lots of walking. He is so clever. Being in Austria we decided to have sausages! In rolls! Otherwise known as Hotdogs! or Sausage Rolls! (I am so busted for my overuse of exclamation marks!!!)!!!

We had been keen to try some authentic Austrian fast food for a while

I however made the hot dogs kiss, ate about 1/3 of mine before handing it over to Lindsay to finish off for me.

We walked a little more and I made a new friend who gave me a high-five for recovery, which is similar to the high-five for affection that Lindsay and I had implemented to avoid him getting sick.

I am the one of the left, I know its difficult to tell because the cherubs are almost as pale as I am. If you zoom in you can’t even see any freckles on my face! Thats how sick I was!

My 2nd day free of illness we went to Hundertwasserhaus it was very interesting and quite quirky!

all different colours, and mosaics, and interesting building materials.

each resident has written into their lease contract that they can decorate around the outside of their windows as far they they can reach. This adds to the unique look of the building.

That night back at the hostel there as a group of young aussie guys sitting around the bar. Each of them were introducing themselves and saying where they were from. They got to the last guy who said he was from Tasmania. There was an awkward silence and then everybody laughed!

Our last day in Vienna we got up extra early…like 9am o_O!
We caught a tram to the Summer Palace
We went on an audio guide tour inside the palace and learnt about the past Austrian royalty.

After the tour we walked up through the gardens to a labyrinth garden. We completed the maze

and then went an checked out all the fun things they had to play with
as you rocked on this one water was sprayed into the air

This one was a giant glockenspiel

Lindsay by this stage was having so much fun, he was like a kid in a candy store!

Each time he found something cool to play on he would thrust the camera bag at me and run towards the next exciting thing

It was really hot, and one attraction was a water thing…that you pushed down on a handle and water would shoot into the air. Lindsay and I had a water fight and got completely soaked. It was so much fun!

Next up we had a look at this amazingly beautiful fountain

where I showed off my spitting abilities

We then walked up the hill to the Gloriette

from where we could admire this amazing view over Vienna

Then we spent another hour or so wandering around the massive gardens looking at all the fountains

Lindsay wanted to jump on the other end of this plank of wood sending the poor sleeping duck flying!

This was my favourite fountain

despite the fact that she is riding a giant duck and has tendrils instead of feet I thought the woman looks so beautiful and normal with her flabby thighs and tummy!

This fountain was built to look like roman ruins,

its supposed to look that way

this one was interesting

with the giant mouth spewing water…

We took one last look at the Palace

then head in the direction of our next musuem, the HausDerMusik
Lindsay said it was a museum about music and I was already bored, he then said it was about composers and I offered to wait in the cafe for him while he went inside. But he convinced me to come with him and I am so glad he did. It is without doubt the best museum I have ever been to and I am not really that interested in music! There was a whole section about sound, and how we hear and interpret sounds. It was all very hands on and informative. It was open until 10pm, and we were probably one of the last people to leave!

The next morning we got up extra extra early, 5.45am! and made our way to the train station to catch our train to Croatia.
We were so tired that we soon fell asleep. Here I am demonstrating sleep

Our train trip took us through Hungary.
Look a Hungary field with Hungary houses

A Hungary van and Hungary train station

and last but not least a hungry Lindsay

At one stage the train stopped at 3 immigration officers and 3 customs officers came aboard the train, from Hungry, Austria and Croatia. It was confusing because we didn’t realise they were from 3 different countries and we asked to show our passports 3 times! Then the customs officers asked us 3 times if we had anything to declare. Being a good Aussie I showed them all the food we had, they gave me a weird look and said no, “alcohol or cigarettes” Turns out you don’t need to declare food…oops!

Next up, Croatia.

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged composers, customs, eurail, fever, flabby things, flabby tummy, flu sick, fountains, hausdermusik, hostel ruthenstiener, hungary, immigration, labyrinth, maze, passports, summer palace, train, vienna | Comments (0)

Prague

October 13, 2009 – 12:46 am

On the train to Prague Lindsay and I tried to teach ourselves how to say thank you. It didn’t work so well, so decided to take the mumble then run approach.

We arrived in Prague, found our hostel, Hostel One Prague. The guy who checked us in showed us around. We went up to our room where the party had already started. Not being a huge fan of dorm room parties Lindsay and I were not exactly thrilled.

Our first day in Prague we did the New Europe walking tour. We had been told by the hostel that the New Europe tour was terrible. But we had had so many good experiences with New Europe so far we decided to do the tour anyway. And I am so glad we did! It was brilliant. We had Isaac, he had us laughing from the very beginning.

standing in the middle of the main square in Prague our guide suddenly shouted out “I know what you are all thinking…tell us a story about Nazis”

this photo is of a human arm that was hung in the back of a church

the story goes that a priest caught a theif and to punish him cut the mans arm off and hung it in the church! About 400 years ago!

One story the guide told us was how during a Russian invasion after WWII the Czech people renamed small towns as Dubcek or Svoboda. They removed all signs except for those pointing back to Moscow, confusing their enemy and making it very difficult for them to reach Prague.

Our 2nd day in Prague we went to the Jewish quarter. Our first stop was an old Jewish Synagogue. Every single wall, from floor to ceiling was written the names of all the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Prague. There were so many names.

Upstairs from all the names were drawings done by Jewish children in the Prague Ghettos, they had an art teacher who tried to help the children deal with the stress by taking art classes. The teacher found out that they were all to be sent to concentration camps she hid over 4000 of the artworks in an attic. They were found sometime later and have been on rotating display in the Synagogue. Next to each picture was the childs name, date of birth and if she survived or not. Most didn’t.

Next door was a really old Jewish cemetery. When the cemetery was full the city refused to grant them more land for a cemetary. So they pulled up all the graves stones and put another layer of soil down, and put the old grave stones but in the ground, buried their dead there until it was full again. They did this about 14 times. This is the result:

no one has been buried here since the 1700s!

Prague has a chain of cafes called Bohemian Bagel which serve real, hard core and delicious cheese cake. Unlike the rest of Europe who still are unaware of such a thing. Lindsay loves cheese cake more than anything. So we ate there daily!

we spent the rest of that day admiring the pretty streets around Prague

Our last day in Prague we crossed the Charles Bridge, half way along the bridge is a plaque. There is a woman on the plaque who you touch for good luck, you can see where because it is polished from all the people touching it.
on the left side of the plaque is a dog, that some people as a joke polished. The dog is considered bad luck. All the tourists touch both sites thus canceling out any good luck!

We walked up a very steep hill to the largest palace still in use!

the view from the top of the hill was so good.

we could see all the higgelty piggelty orange roof tops

I also spotted this….

Um??

These statues were above the gates to the palace

they were huge and not the least bit threatening…

We then spotted this young chap in his handsome blue uniform

The cathedral has some amazing stained glass windows

We then found this statue outside the toy museum

remember how I talked about the plaque earlier and how the parts of the metal which are touched frequently become polished…

We then bought a cup of hot mulled wine

saw a funky tree

and skipped down the mountain (we hadn’t eaten much and the alcohol went straight to my head!)

Back in the main square we saw the famous Prague Clock

there are hundreds of people standing under the clock every hour waiting for the next “show” its very beautiful and old not hugely exciting as tour books make it out to be…but it was lovely.

I spoked these naked giants leaning casually against a little balcony in Wenceslas Square

In case you are worried, yes, I did sing Good King Wenceslas for Lindsay over and over again.

Up next Vienna!

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged blue uniform, bohemian bagel, castle, charles bridge, czech republic, giants, golden cow, guard, hostel one, jewish quarter, new europe, palace, prague, roof, scary statue, view | Comments (0)

Berlin: tag zwei

October 3, 2009 – 9:58 pm

Our second day in Berlin was depressing museum day.

First stop was the Topography of Terror
It was an open air museum about the history of the site which was once an arts school but then the head offices of the SS and Gestapo. There was so much information it took us about 2 hours to get through 1/6 of the information. It was really really hot and there is no shelter at the museum so we left with the plan to return after sunset.

We headed towards the Checkpoint Charlie museum, it is a museum that was set up in the apartment overlooking the Berlin wall shortly after the wall was built. The museum has since spread to several buildings. After WW2 Berlin was split up, the west went to the Allies and the East became part of the DDR (Deutshland Democratic Republic) and was controlled by the Soviets. When the division was made over 1 million people escaped from from the DDR to west Berlin. Escapees were given jobs, apartments and passports by the allies. So many people were crossing the border into West Berlin that the Soviets built a wall. There were 2 walls with a section of no mans land in between. This area had land mines, guard dogs and watchtowers every 100m. The wall separated families, siblings, friends and lovers. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum is about the daring escapes people made. There were tunnels, home made aircraft, homemade hot air balloons, daring sprints across the no mans land and people smuggled in speakers, suitcases and even inside the drivers seat of a car!

this is what Checkpoint Charlie looks like now, a death trap for tourists

here you can see what the checkpoint looked like in the 90s.

Afterwards we went back to the Topography of Terror Museum and tried to read as much as we could before they closed. It had a heartbreaking amount of information about the Holocaust. Reading what occured in the SS offices just made me sick, it was horrible and depressing but I couldn’t stop reading. We were just over half way when they closed the museum.

Our last day in Berlin started well…I got new Birkenstocks!!
We then made our way to the Pergamon Musseum. (sounds like pokemon!) It was amazing and the heaters were on full blast…so very hot.
This whole temple was take from Pergamon, Turkey (I think) and rebuilt here in the museum. It was amazing.

This gate was the entrance to a market place in Greece

Lindsay made a new friend

and then was mauled by a tile goat.

My favourite section was the royal entranceway from an Byzantine Palace.

The lions

and the Daisies

were still in brilliant colour. It was huge and amazing.

The artifacts in the Pergamon would make the British Museum green with envy, and Cassie red with fury!

After the Pergamon (pokemon) museum it was time for a pretzel, because you are not allowed to leave Berlin until you have tried one

it didn’t actually taste very nice

We then went back to the Brandenburg gate

and the Reichstag

to take some better photos.

The next morning we got up early-ish and made our way to the train station, where we waited for our train to Prague

the train arrived, we hopped on. Lindsay went straight to laptoping

and I took photos of weird stuff like
my new birkenstocks

and bright yellow buildings

Up next Prague!

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged Add new tag, artifacts, berlin, birkenstock, checkpoint charlie, eurail, juliaholmwood, lindsayholmwood, museum, pergamon, ruins, temple, topography of terror, train | Comments (0)

Berlin

October 2, 2009 – 9:00 pm

Lindsay and I woke up very early at the crack of dawn…7.30am! and said a sad goodbye to Beer and hopped on a tram to the train station.

We got our Eurail tickets validated at Den Haag and hopped on a train.

Here is a blog I wrote while on the train to Berlin:

Today we caugh our first Eurail train. It was a bit scary at first, because where the train leaves from and when is actually a secret! Shhhh don’t tell anyone but the 10:57 train from Amsterdam central to Berlin actually leaves from Hilversum at 11.22! Hilversum is a 25 minute train trip from Amsterdam. Its a bit like arriving at central station to catch a train and finding out it actually leaves from Chatswood!

Nowhere is this posted or advertisted that the train is leaving from Hilversum instead of Amsterdam. No, in order to find out how to catch the train you must ask bad tempted women who I am postive are just mean and grumpy to encourage us to keep the secret! I am so sure they hate having to pretend they have an attitude problem and that they actually find sitting behind a desk telling lost tourists that the train they want to catch is at another station 25 minutes away a truly pleasent and life enriching job.
Another thing I have learnt as a brand new eurailer is follow the other backpackers. If they hop into a car of someone you don’t know…you can stop following them. We got to Hilversum, a random little town in Holland and were totally WTF?! What do we do now? After looking at the timetable and realising that it’s really a decoy to confuse everyone we followed 3 dudes with backpacks. The dudes asked for information from the ticket lady (also a very happy soul) as they too had fallen for believing that the information in the timetable booklet was real and not a decoy. We followed them to the platform. The sign on the platform said that the next train was going to Berlin! (surely it’s against the rules to actually tell travellers where the train is really going!?)

On the platform next to us was an older American couple. They were teeny tiny, normally I wouldn’t point out if someone was teeny tiny but for this story it is vital! These teeny tiny Americans had suitcases that were so huge that the 2 of them together could have fit inside just the one suitcase. When the train arrived no one was sure how to open the door. We stood there staring at it willing it to open. (the doors over here don’t open automatically. One bright spark pressed the button and the door opened.
Everyone stood back and let the teeny tiny old Americans with their huge suitcases up first. But being teeny tiny and having elephant sized suitcases was a challenge for these 2. Poor things couldn’t get them on the train. I couldn’t help either because I looked like an overworked packhorse. They pulled and pushed and got them on. Then couldn’t get the giant suitcases down the aisle of the train. This would be no problem if there wasn’t 3 other people standing behind Lindsay and I swearing and freaking out because the gaurd was blowing the “get in the train because it’s leaving” whistle!

When we were in holland all announcements were in Dutch, English and German. We crosses the border and the German staff came on. They obviously figured, that we were now in Germany and everyone who speaks Dutch had promptly forgotten the Dutch language and thus there was no need to make any announcements in that silly Dutch language (ignoring the fact the Dutchies spoke German for them). The deeper we got in to Germany the heaveier the german accented English got. The last annoucment in English sounded like someone a terrible actor pretending to speak German. Towards the end they pretty much gave up on the English altogether.

We arrived at Berlin train station to find they also didn’t believe in signage. So after a long time of faffing about and asking at information we worked out how to get to our hostel. Upon arriving at the hostel we found out we had accidently booked for the following night! But they kindly let us have one of the empty apartments for half the price which was excellent!

Despite the graffiti

the hostel was really nice!

On our first day in Berlin we did a free New Europe Walking tour, with a guide called Maria. She was excellent and had a background in drama so was a great story teller!
This is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby over the balcony

the Brandenburg Gate

Victoria is looking at the French embassy with scorn because Napoleon kidnapped her and took her to Paris!

We then went to the place where Hitler’s bunker was,

there is now only a car park and a dog park where residents in the surrounding apartments takes their dogs to do their business.
While we were there at the site, 1 girl fainted and another got stung by a wasp! So we left pretty fast because its a evil place.

Next our guide took us to an old Jewish Department store

it was riddled with bullet holes and has been abandoned for many many years.

We then went to the square where the Nazi’s burnt all the books in Berlin that were written by Jewish or Gay Authors. There is a memorial to these books

you can’t see it because its underground. You look through a glass window in the ground and all you can see is rows and rows of empty bookshelves.

We stopped at this memorial from WW1, the roof above the statue is open, so when it rains it looks like the woman is crying for her dead son.

Our tour finished by this cathedral

Lindsay and I then made our way to the holocaust memorial

the place is huge, and so intense.

walking through the concrete blocks you can’t see anyone, its really cold and you feel like you are all alone. If you are walking with someone its so easy to lose them

It was scary losing Lindsay but I was always happy to find him again

That night we walked up the glass dome of the Reichstag
where the camera let me take 1 photo

before running out of battery…but the view was amazing.

Up next, Berlin continued.

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged amsterdam, berlin, brandenburg gate, eurail, hilter's bunker, hilversum, new europe, new europe walking tour | Comments (0)

We interrupt your holiday with fail.

October 2, 2009 – 7:35 pm

After our awesome camping trip with Cassie and Jimmy we went and stayed with Pauline’s friend Marlene. From her house we caught the train to Edinburgh to enjoy the festival.

We went to mostly free shows, some were so funny we were crying. My favourite was the Improlympians, they do improvisation skits based on suggestions from the audience. Somehow the scene ended up being set on a beach in Australia. They were doing fantastic Australian and terrible Italian accents. It was brilliant!

After the week in Edinburgh we flew over to Holland. We had tickets booked to Norway so that we could begin out Eurail trip, but Lindsay’s clients didn’t pay him, so we had to cancel that part of our trip and return to Holland. We arrived at Weeze airport and were unable to find a way into Holland so we spent the night in the airport. There were about 20 other backpackers there, so we were not alone.

We then caught a bus driven by a cranky German man, he dropped us at Nijmegan train station where we caught a bus to Dick and Marja’s place. We were so tired and stressed from having to deal with Lindsay’s client, it was so nice to be greeted by Marja who fed us before I crawled into bed and fell asleep for 4 hours!

We were only able to spend 1 afternoon with Dick and Marja because they were going away for the weekend. Nikki was home from Arnhem and Lindsay and I made home made Pizzas for dinner.

They were so yummy! We then spent the rest of the evening spinning the cat

Well Lindsay and Nikki did, I just took photos.

Dick and Marja got back from their weekend away and then left for Spain, they were very happy for us to stay while we waited for things to unfail money-wise. So we stayed and babysat their 4 cats for them. Lindsay did some work for his clients in the hope that they might pay him. We spent the whole week just waiting for the money.

The next weekend arrived and both Tim and Nikki came home. We spent the whole day on the Sunday playing cards. It was brilliant fun!

Tim and Nikki taught us some games, and we taught them some games

Lindsay then got a little loopy and did this to his hair

This is their beautiful kitchen, Marja did the painting on the wall. I am going to steal it…please don’t tell her!

We then spent the next few days hanging around, I did some more mosaics because Marja said I could and because its sooooo much fun! It was then time to head to Oss, where we stayed with Maarten and Yvonne. Oma and Opa picked us up from the station and took us out for a drink. That night they bought delicous Chinese food for us…which was actually Indonesian food because in Holland they call Indonesian food Chinese food, which is confusing but seriously tasty! I can’t remember the name of my favourite dish…but its also Yvonne’s favourite dish so I just order what ever she is ordering

We then said goodbye to Oss again and headed to Den Haag for a few nights. Avi was not there but we were very happy to see Beer again. Some money came in from Lindsay’s clients and they promised to pay the remaining 70% the next week. Which meant we were able to head off on our Eurail trip! So up next Berlin!

By Julia Holmwood | Posted in Backpacking | Tagged edinburgh festival, fail, family, Friends, improv, nijmegen, oss, weeze | Comments (0)

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