France
Ok, I actually wrote this yesterday so it's about a day behind, but here's an update!
Whew! Where to begin.. Since leaving Zurich Friday night, it feels like we've been constantly on the move; and we have. The sleeper compartment on the train from Zurich to Rome was very small and pretty expensive, but if you ask me, well worth the cost of admission. It was nice to settle in and get a good night's sleep. We woke up to a beautiful haze of fog over the Italian countryside, and to the realization that Jill's empty wallet meant we had a visitor overnight. We both suspect the train car attendant as the door was locked all night long. It was an early lesson in security and we've changed our ways in the precautionary department. Italy supposedly has the world's best pick-pockets, but we've heard the same about Barcelona.
Other than that, and a relatively minor mistake with our Eurail pass, things have been fairly smooth. We arrived in Rome early Saturday morning and after a quick shot of Italian espresso, we were off on one of those ultra-touristy double decker bus tours. For 15 euros, it afforded us our own personal massively oversized taxi.. that takes you all over the city and to all of the most popular and impressive attractions. On the list was the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps (proper name?), Trevi fountain, the Vatican city and plenty of other incredible sights.
All of the historical sights were certainly an eye-ful and I feel privileged to have seen them in person, however briefly. Italy though, especially Rome, isn't my kind of place. I'll surely come back some day to gaze at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and perhaps find a few famous and hidden sculptures.
We hiked to the hostel which was absolutely nothing to write home about, and we back on the move to the train station by 8am. We figured our how to get around Rome pretty easily, all things considered. Enough so to take a bus, then train, to get ourselves to the "Roma Termini" station by the time our 9:46 train pulled out towards Genova.
The western Italian coast is probably one of the most beautiful things I've seen in my life.. absolutely stunning, and I'm sure my photographs won't come close to doing it justice. But after all, that's why I'm here to see it all with my own two eyes.
An hour layover in Genova was enough time to find an internet cafe, slug another Italian cappuchino, snap a few photographs, and fall in love with the city. This will most certainly be a destination for me in the future, I think.
Back on the train and we'll be in Nice, France by around 9pm tonight. It's about 1km to the hostel so we should have an easy stroll and a tasty stop off for dinner..
Tomorrow, we've got only a short time too explore Nice, but I imagine that a couple french espressos, some strolling around the streets and a tasty lunch should do the trick..
This kind of travel is something I've never experienced before and I think I can say that it's by far the most difficult. I've had my fair share of difficulties during motorcycle travel, but the language barriers in other parts of the world prove to make things that much more challenging. I think we take for granted many of the subtleties of everyday life. It's quite difficult to figure out what bus to get on, and even harder to learn the rules of the system. By the trip's end, we'll have bits and pieces of swiss german, italian, french and spanish.. I've found so far that "thank you" is the phrase I use most.. Danke, Gratzi, Merci, Gracias... I think it's important to express gratitude when on someone else's turf.
So, there's definitely no moss under our feet on this trip.. constantly on the move and absorbing incredible amounts of information.. it's a dream come true for an experiential junkie like myself. Everything is new.. all the time.. and it's all so incredibly foreign and humbling. I've heard it a thousand times over that there's so much more to the world that what's within our american boundaries.. and that once you cross those borders, everything changes. Europe was never all that high on my to-do-list, but now that I'm here I feel incredibly fortunate to be experiencing parts of it.
***addition***.. Nice was lovely.. spent a little time sitting on the beach at the Mediterranean, then back on the train to Montpellier.. here tonight and in Barcelona by lunch time tomorrow!
(photos coming soon!)
Whew! Where to begin.. Since leaving Zurich Friday night, it feels like we've been constantly on the move; and we have. The sleeper compartment on the train from Zurich to Rome was very small and pretty expensive, but if you ask me, well worth the cost of admission. It was nice to settle in and get a good night's sleep. We woke up to a beautiful haze of fog over the Italian countryside, and to the realization that Jill's empty wallet meant we had a visitor overnight. We both suspect the train car attendant as the door was locked all night long. It was an early lesson in security and we've changed our ways in the precautionary department. Italy supposedly has the world's best pick-pockets, but we've heard the same about Barcelona.
Other than that, and a relatively minor mistake with our Eurail pass, things have been fairly smooth. We arrived in Rome early Saturday morning and after a quick shot of Italian espresso, we were off on one of those ultra-touristy double decker bus tours. For 15 euros, it afforded us our own personal massively oversized taxi.. that takes you all over the city and to all of the most popular and impressive attractions. On the list was the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps (proper name?), Trevi fountain, the Vatican city and plenty of other incredible sights.
All of the historical sights were certainly an eye-ful and I feel privileged to have seen them in person, however briefly. Italy though, especially Rome, isn't my kind of place. I'll surely come back some day to gaze at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and perhaps find a few famous and hidden sculptures.
We hiked to the hostel which was absolutely nothing to write home about, and we back on the move to the train station by 8am. We figured our how to get around Rome pretty easily, all things considered. Enough so to take a bus, then train, to get ourselves to the "Roma Termini" station by the time our 9:46 train pulled out towards Genova.
The western Italian coast is probably one of the most beautiful things I've seen in my life.. absolutely stunning, and I'm sure my photographs won't come close to doing it justice. But after all, that's why I'm here to see it all with my own two eyes.
An hour layover in Genova was enough time to find an internet cafe, slug another Italian cappuchino, snap a few photographs, and fall in love with the city. This will most certainly be a destination for me in the future, I think.
Back on the train and we'll be in Nice, France by around 9pm tonight. It's about 1km to the hostel so we should have an easy stroll and a tasty stop off for dinner..
Tomorrow, we've got only a short time too explore Nice, but I imagine that a couple french espressos, some strolling around the streets and a tasty lunch should do the trick..
This kind of travel is something I've never experienced before and I think I can say that it's by far the most difficult. I've had my fair share of difficulties during motorcycle travel, but the language barriers in other parts of the world prove to make things that much more challenging. I think we take for granted many of the subtleties of everyday life. It's quite difficult to figure out what bus to get on, and even harder to learn the rules of the system. By the trip's end, we'll have bits and pieces of swiss german, italian, french and spanish.. I've found so far that "thank you" is the phrase I use most.. Danke, Gratzi, Merci, Gracias... I think it's important to express gratitude when on someone else's turf.
So, there's definitely no moss under our feet on this trip.. constantly on the move and absorbing incredible amounts of information.. it's a dream come true for an experiential junkie like myself. Everything is new.. all the time.. and it's all so incredibly foreign and humbling. I've heard it a thousand times over that there's so much more to the world that what's within our american boundaries.. and that once you cross those borders, everything changes. Europe was never all that high on my to-do-list, but now that I'm here I feel incredibly fortunate to be experiencing parts of it.
***addition***.. Nice was lovely.. spent a little time sitting on the beach at the Mediterranean, then back on the train to Montpellier.. here tonight and in Barcelona by lunch time tomorrow!
(photos coming soon!)
posted by Dude at 4:16 PM
1 Comments:
bring on the photos world traveler!
Post a Comment
<< Home