Day 31 - Final effort

Day 31 was actually like a week ago. I am posting this from the comfort of my own home and there is a pretty good chance I have forgotten the whole lot.

We woke up in our last hostel pretty damn late. Headed down and did the old checkout / bag leave jobby. We then headed to the old standard cafe for our free croissant and espresso even though it was like 37 degrees. It was then a case of a metro to the Vatican.

We didn't intend to get a tour but after rejecting a number of tour guides we were captivated by this one fit bird with an Aussie accent. After negotiating her down €5 each we decided to actually do a tour. Lorcan didn't have his student card and Mick didn't have a student card so we had to do a bit of cunfoolery at the ticket office in order to get us all in cheap.

We joined a tour of 8, us 4, and 4 American, old, large, female jehova's witnesses. Purfickt... Our guide began by explaining some kick ass things about the sistine chapel, how the pope asked Michaelangelo to paint it, even though he hadn't painted in 18 years, how he said GTFO but ended up doing it anyway. And fucking kicked ass cause it looks unreal. She also explained how the side panels were done by other artists including Raphael (the legend) who are largely forgotten.

Anyway we walked around and saw some cool stuff like Laucoon from the classics course and some pictures with stuff that followed you. And even an entire sculptured roof.... That was 2d. Impressive shit. Shortly before the chapel we had the option of doing an extra wing for another 40 minutes. Our fellow touries decided to bail so we missed a shit load of art and stuff. Oh well, more for next time.

We saw the chapel, which was savage before going out to the basillica and splitting with the dodge Christians. Then us and the tour guide (Jo) bantered for a while. It emerged she was good mates with the super hot blonde bird from transformers which was interesting. Eventually we let her go and headed into St Peter's. Here we saw some cool stuff like that Michaelangelo who's name slips my mind... Damn.

Then we headed outside and walked down to castle saint angelo. Being 17 as I was I got in free as did the lads and we headed up to finish our tour with a spectacular view of Rome. We cruised across town and home through a fire alarmed subway. Grabbed our bags, 30 euro taxi to the airport and then our flight home. No drama really.

So now I am home, I have lots of time to write and nothing to write about... Yay.

Day 30

Tecnically speaking I am home, but I wanted to finish the diary.

Today was a big day for us, we were finally going to see some of Romes biggest and most impressive attractions. Namely the Colleseum and Pantheon. However our iternerary pointed us in a completely different direction to start off.

We headed down the same old streets and ended up back at the all too epic "Momument to the forgotten soldier", tonight it was open so we headed up the steps and into the museum to see some of the more impressive modern sculptures around Rome. The place is epic, a huge marble monument made in the Neo Classical style, I for one, really like it.

After that we headed to the forum area, the true ruins of Ancient Rome. It was here we "bought" our tickets for the Colesseum and stuff too. I said "Bought" because they were actually free for under 18 EU citizens. Noice. We walked around in the baking heat and discussed the wonders of the city as it spread out before us, however something was on all of our minds. The arena.

We finally headed up to the Colesseum itself, we skipped the queues and scanned our tickets. Before stepping in to the immpressive oval arena. This 75,000 seater stadium is known for being one of the most impressive buildings in the world, and for good reason. It truly is fantastic.

However our mamoth day sightseeing did not end there, we wanted to go to the Pantheon and get inside, some of the lads hadn't been too impressed with the view from the outside as it wasn't all that cool. Once we were there though they had the oppurtunity to see inside the oldest Christian church, To stare at the almost perfectly hemispherical dome, with its circular iris, to marvel at the beauty of such a wonderful building, that had somehow surved the rape of the Catholic churchl.

Later we headed back to the hostel before intending to go out into town. This was a bit of an epic mess up. The river side was a promenade of classy bars and expensive areas, town itself was quite and boring. Drinking on streets was illegal so our bottle of wine got confiscated by an under cover cop, and worst of all Mac Ds closes at 11pm in Rome... WTF

Day 29 - Rome, where we finish Roaming...

Today we arrived in Rome after a pretty early train from Florence, we pretty much agreed straight away that Rome was a better option. We headed to the old station and bantered into the longest queue yet, there were some really weird people in there, and a couple of dogs too, wtf.

Eventually we got on our high-speed to Rome, I was sitting opposite a small child for the second time on this triop and honestly they need to stop stepping on my legs its far too annoying, like honestly, what the hell are they playing at.

We arrived in Rome at like 2pm and bantered to our extremely funny hostel. I am sitting in hgere right now, but basically what you enter is a laundrette, which has a table in the middle, they check you in, give you a map and show you a logical route for you to take around Rome, then they take you across the street to an apartment building to show you your room.

We basically then headed out on our first walk, we saw all 4 fountains, a couple of Piazzas and the outside of the Pantheon. Rome was hot, like 35 degrees as usual so we were dying, but we were presently surprised that the city was serviced by free water fountains which we basically dominated.

Later we headed back to the hostel, ate some pizza and stuff, and then two of us headed out again at around 10pm, me and Col just walked the streets aiming to see the city at night. Many of the sights including the "monument to the forgotten soldier" were bathed in white light. The Colosseum was of course epic as usual, and the whole place was buzzing...

Banter really. +1 Rome.

Day 28 - Firenze

Florenzo, the home of Michaelangelo's David, and pretty much nothing else, but its actually worth going just for that. Like the 5.17 metre monumental statue of David shortly before his battle with Goliath is savage. Considering it only cost us 5 euro to see it, and it had no queue whatsoever it was defo worth the trip.

Otherwise Florence is like every single other differnt italian city. Its kinda quiet, hot and has a pretty alright church. Nothing really to write home about, so why the hell am I bothering to. The answer, I am kinda bored in Rome already. Lorcan is asleep and Mick is typing some stuff. Me and Col want to go out and do something.

Also in Florence we saw some botanical gardens and spent a whole lot of time in a sports store as usual. Banter really, I bought a Ferrari shirt, wtf, why I am bothering....

We got food in a random place, was pretty cheap but we had to have a desert cause the legendary waiter told us it was "Orgasmic", we went out to some bar were some American 25 year old try to hit on Col, legend. After that we went strolling at night to see the city, had a quick chat with the police about the original position of David.

Day 27 - Venice

Our second day trip running was a visit to the sinking city of Venice, we arrived via the worlds least comfortable night train from Vienna at around 9am. We strolled across town to Saint Mark’s square, the most famous square in Venice and there we were just 4 in a massive horde of tourists, locals seemed almost nonexistent.

We started with a Gondola journey in true Venetian fashion, despite me saying to Mick “you can go to Venice without taking a Gondola, just watch me”. However we got it for a fairly ok 80 euro, and I was quite happy to see Venice from the Canals. The boat was 11 metres long but the helmsman seemed almost too happy to just bang around corners keeping the entire gunwale just inches from contact with the cold stone.

After the Gondola we got some food before bailing up the coast to a park where we chilled, chatted, and eventually I ended up swimming for about 30 seconds in the sea, which was a really really awful idea, but meh you only live twice.

After that we decided to visit the famous Saint Mark’s basilica where we took the free English tour, which I very nearly slept through, needless to say I am wrecked. The church is truly beautiful though, despite the sinking floor creating a stone wave effect.

Day 26 - Vienna

We decided to take a day trip to the Capital of Austria Vienna in between our Eastern Europe and Italian legs. It was a welcome change to once again be back in the Euro zone, however what we weren’t welcoming was any change, because prices were back to their EU extortion.

We strolled the gorgeous streets and saw some general sights, including the wonderful church on Stephen’s Platz, and various other things, before heading to try find a tour. Initially we went into the Jewish Welcome and Israeli tourism centre; they were helpful but useless and directed us to the tourist information centre proper. Once there we talked to the girl at the desk, who was far too banterous, and recommended us a bus tour around the capital.

The bus was playing Mozart between bits of tourist info and made for a good trip, Colman got me on for child because I am 15 (lolwut) and because of that I saved 7 euro, which was all too banterous. The bus tour showed us various sites including the biggest intercity bungee jump in Europe, the temptation was evident.

After that we got lost in a sports store for like 5 hours. It had a golf sim, putting green, climbing walls, table tennis, roller blades and various other distracting activities. We basically got food and then headed for our train.

Our train was going pretty well, we were 4 in a 6 man compartment watching shooter, however once the other two (an antibanterous old Austrian couple) got in, it was real shit. An uncomfortable 10 hours or so followed.

Day 25 - Fooking Starvin

Our final day in Hungary started with disaster, we headed out to the tourist information recommended water park, and it was catering for a slightly younger target audience, despite the trek, we made a decision to bail and go to the one we had originally had in mind. Once back in town we decided to hit the “house of terror” first.

This is a museum dedicated to the persecution, torture and execution of Hungarians under the Nazi and Soviet regimes from 1944-1945 then 1945-1989. The exhibit was interesting; however by the end we agreed that the histories of the entire eastern bloc were much of muchness in the 20^th century.

Mick wasn’t feeling his best so he didn’t join us for the second water park. We knew this was a trek out of town, but we weren’t sure how much of one. Needless to say, we were in for an experience. We got the metro to the end of the line, switched to another train and started getting that a mammoth 14 stops. However it didn’t really stop at stations, in fact to quote Colman “this isn’t a stop, it’s just a place where the doors open”.

But eventually we reached the infamous “stop 14” where we dismounted onto a deserted “platform” in the middle of fooking nowhere. We then rang our taxi number and he arrived, explained it was a fixed rate to the park and took off on the world’s smallest paved road which went through various floods and over a mountain. It was looking bleak until there stretching out in front of us... was not the water park, but the huge Hungaroring formula one circuit, where just the week before Filipe Massa had been involved in a 125 mph crash.

My day was made, but the water park was icing on an already far too sweet cake. Rain earlier meant the place was empty, but the weather had improved. Over 1 mile of slides, and needless to say, we hit every one, and a lot more than once. Perfect.

We headed back to Budapest and started packing for our 4am get up.

Day 24 - Even more Hungary

Hungary day 2 was my first real active day in Budapest, I was well rested and well pumped to see the city. Our free tour was at 2, so we started with some light shopping. Bantered around in H&M and Pull & Bear. After that we headed to the apartment for lunch and tried to reach our tour. We were late of course so when a low chain blocked our way we simply jumped it, before the fat Hungarian guard tried to kick us out of the British Embassy for being terrorists...

We got to the tour anyway and started walking around the city guided by our native tour guide. Her English wasn’t great, the route wasn’t perfect, and her style involved too much lecture. Because of this the tour was really lacking. What was humerous however was the horsemen on top of the castle hill. Every year local students touch the horses balls for good luck in their sex lives. Because of this the statue has gone green as copper does, but the balls remain gold. Lol.

After the tour we decided it was time to experience the baths. Several pools and saunas in once facility made it fairly expensive at 12 euro for 2 hours, but really worth it for health and fitness reasons. I guess I was the only one disappointed there were no really cold pools. Most were around 38 Celsius, with saunas as hot as 100 Celsius. I’m not very heat resistant, so I bailed on the hot ones, the others tried em out, didn’t last long. We finished the trip with some lengths before messing around in the 38 degree outdoor pool.

Thunder and lightning rolled in, so we bailed on the two hour mark. On our way home however we passed the victory monument, in the back ground lighting flashed every few seconds but it was dry right at that moment. It has to be one of the most impressive things I have ever seen.

That night we ate in TGI Fridays, needless to say I destroyed free refills.

Day 23 - If your Hungary, eat.

We arrived in Budapest early on the morning of whatever day that was, let’s face it, days and dates have become an absolute mash of cheese. I arrived wrecked because of our pre soviet era train from Prague. So after our Hungarian neighbours gave us a tour, and we hit the grocery store I went to bed.

I basically did nothing else that day, the others tried fruitlessly to hit the baths and they walked around aimlessly in the heat.

We ate out in a very cheap but very nice Italian, I had like loads of food and two drinks for once. Heaven is cheaper.

Day 22

We pretty much didn't wake up this morning, based on the staying up late we were dead the next morning. So we were well late, we then didn't leave for ages while we showered and chilled in the hostel, which made us feel kinda bad cause we were meant to get the hell out of dodge.

Eventually we mustered up the strength to get out, we just walked around aimlessly, we finally saw the astronomical clock tick, and tock and do some other stuff that wasn't that great. But we were glad we finally saw it.

We then bantered across Charles Bridge to climb up to the castle, when we realised the extortianate rate for water and shit we bailed back down, but then we got ambushed by some lad selling concert tickets. So we ended up going to see some works by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven performed by String Quintet, which was bant.

We then bailed on to the world's worst night train, we were in a room with two Americans, who were banterous, and after an hilarious first few minutes we started to try get some sleep. The problem was with the window closed it was far too hot, with it open it was raining, really cold, really loud and kept closing. Eventually Colman just jammed the curtain in the window bant.

Day 21, banter...

The Czechs are famous for very little, but anything they are famous for is pretty shit. Charles' bridge for example, is little more than a cobbled bridge that is far longer than it should be, the astronomical clock, is hardly out of this world and the beer is nothing on Munich. However the city of Prague is very beautiful and today we decided we wanted to tour it.

We had to get up far too early and try and book our train to Hungary, before trying to find our way to the city centre for our tour. Eventually we sorted it out, and ended up on my third "new Europe" tour. Our tour guide was a young girl from Worchester and was far too enthusiastic, cringy doesn't quite cover it. However soon we got around the cringe and began to banter back with her. By the end of the tour I feel we kinda dominated the group a little which may have been unfortunate for any others on the tour.

Our hosteler had recomended us some night clubs, including one which was 5 floors with 5 different kinds of music. The biggest night club in central Europe. When we told our tour guide this she kinda laughed at us and said "its good if you like 14 year old Italians" and tried to persaude us to join her pub crawl.

We switched hostels in the afternoon and got food, me and mick decided to get some sleep while the other two went boating again. Boring boring boring.

We began to get ready to go out, and some German guys from across the courtyard invited us to theres, we kinda didn't go. We got dressed up, went out, saw the bridge and the clock at night before entering the club. In the club we met a lot of people, in fact we did the old classic where we met someone who knew someone we knew, he also recognised us because he had been in our hostel in Berlin. (Colman has a stripe in his hair). Basically the 5 floors were really cool, but we just spent all our time in the chillout zone at the top. Banter.

We cruised home at 4am, and here I am.