Ah, Paris

I think I might love France. Admittedly, I have just arrived in Paris and given that I am basically waiting for people to be rude to me, I am not expecting the mood to hold. Nonetheless, French people have been nice so far, so maybe it's all just a horrible cultural stereotype.

Want to know what isn't a cultural stereotype? French people going on strike. I suppose it isn't really a complete holiday until you have been in someway inconvenienced by striking French railway types, but I had vainly hoped to avoid it. Queue train strike the day I wanted to get from Nice to Lyon. Somehow I managed to get a seat on one of the few trains that were running that day but it involved queuing. Extensive queuing.

Nice was great. Beautiful weather. Having a picnic on a beach wall with Lauren, who I met in Munich, then La Spezia and the Cinque Terra, her friend Jen and two random American guys who had come all the way to Europe to see Radiohead. Twice. One was a lawyer who supported Hillary Clinton. I think I had to pick my jaw up off the ground. A young MAN who supported HC? It defied belief.

I liked Lyon, though I wasn't precisely sure what I was supposed to be looking at while I was there. So I kind've wandered aimlessly. It's a beautiful city. The weather was good. I was staying in a one star hotel with no windows to my room, which was excellent as it enabled me to sleep in. Not so excellent the way there was nothing to open to let the smoke stench out.

Now I am going ot report something that will make my mother despair of me. Cue Wednesday morning when I wanted to leave my one star hotel room. I couldn't find my keys. The door was locked. I tried unlocking it, and at that point I realised that I had left the keys in the lock ALL NIGHT. And it's not like I was in some secluded room. My room was right at the top of the first flight of stairs, which meant that EVERYONE in the hotel had to pass by my door to get back to their rooms. Worse, someone had turned it and locked it so I couldn't get the door open. I sliced my hand open playing (screaming at and aggressively turning) with the lock and banging on the door loudly. No one came to help. After about 20 minutes of this I managed to jiggle the lock just so and it came undone.

What made it worse was that I left the lock in the door that night as well, but only for about an hour before I realised that I may actually have premature altzeimers. Be assured, I am not normally this daft. Mainly because most hostels don't give me keys.

So far in Paris I like the canals and the way they give you a small baguette when you buy salad. I also think it is weird that you can get beer with a McDonalds meal. I think French people are beautiful. It's raining on and off.

Anyway, this hostel runs on a swipe card system and is truly the poshest hostel I have ever seen. There are little curtains that close on each bunk and you have your own reading light and power plugs within your little enclosed area. It is perched on a canal near where Amelie was filmed. Paris is such a cliche. As soon as I finsih this I am going to buy pastry.

And I am supposed to do what then?

So, you know how I said it has stopped raining? That was my overly optimistic side coming out. Queue thunder and lightning within milliseconds of each other last night. And

So I am in Cinque Terra, where you go to hike, with bad weather, a 'broken' foot (any med students want to do an over the internet diagnosis? It's been painful for week now), the easy walking trails shut, no ferry and I left my rail pass at the hostel. I am spending a lot of time on the internet at the moment.

However! I think we have had a break through - there may be one path we can do and the sun may be peeking out. There are more tourists in these towns than people who actually live here. It would drive me nuts.

BUT - it's still beautiful and I am still enjoying myself, even though I am not particulalry inclined to love French hostel owners at the moment. Don't get me started. Grrrr....

Should be heading to Nice tomorrow where I hope the weather will improve. I am beginning to feel jinxed!

Rome! By all means, Rome.

I almost didn't go to Rome. Every second person you meet says it's dirty, Italians are rude, it's expensive (granted) and some people have even told me that they wouldn't go back there if you paid them.

All due respect, they are wrong. It's beautiful. I loved it. I love how you can't walk 100m without falling over a piece of history or a store selling overpriced pizza by the slice. I love how things light up during the evenign and you can just wander around and feel like you're part of the city. I love that it was warm.

I didn't go to the Papl audience on Wednesday, using it as an excuse to get into the Vatican Museums wihtout having to queue. As an agnostic, I don't feel that it's really right to exploit something that is meaningful to someone's religion as a tourist event. Looking at art and architecture is one thing, actively participating in something that is not part of your faith is another. This was not clearly understood by the American tour guide trying to get me to go on his tour and go to the blessing. NOT BEING CATHOLIC IS A COMPLETE JUSTIFICATION FOR NOT GOING. Additionally, if you wanted me to list reasons why I am particualrly not a fan of this Pope...anyway. The museums were nice. The Sistine Chapel was smaller than I thought it would, as was the picture of the creation.

I loved the Colesseum. It looksed like an Asterix comic! Also smaller than I thought it would be.

Trevi Fountain was nice but it would be incredibly hard to imitiate La Dolce Vita without getting arrested or having 1000 other tourists in your photo.

I almost got killed by a Vespa only twice. I think that is pretty good. I am not entirely sure WHY they bother to paint zebra crossings in Rome. I think it's just to indicate to Vespas where they need to dodge tourists. Getting across the road is more weight in numbers to stop cars moving.

Currently in La Spezia and it has FINALLY stopped raining!

Catch Up

*Waring: This post uses the word 'breasts' quite frequently. If you can't deal with that, I am sure my next post will be anatomy free and deal only with statues and churches*

So, I haven't blogged for a while. Here's a summary.

Place I would Most Like to Move To
Berlin. They had a store where you could buy vintage clothes by the kilo and there was a happy hour every Tuesday where things were half price.

I also thought the memorial for the book burning was kick arse. The 170 tracks of Audio at the Jewish Museum was a bit much. But you can't have everything I suppose.

Best Moments
Meeting my German family which was intense.

Sunrise, town square, Krakow. After an amazing night out with some crazy Polish people.

Prettiest Place
Bled. Even though it kept raining and I decided to do a 6km walk around the lake with a bright pink umbrella and shoes that were in no way waterproof. But really, Slovenia looks like every fairytale you ever read.

Funniest Moment
My 88 year old great uncle from Bavaria telling me that I should buy a dirndle. He was trying to tell me why, but I don't speak German and he doesn't speak english. So there was quite a lot of gesturing. It turned out that he thought I should get a dirndle because I have big enough boobs to fill the front part. Thanks for that Uncle Reinhold!

German Words I Can Say
Hot, cold, big small, palace, castle, rock, swan, strawberry, asparagus, beer, wine, chilren, thankyou, how are you, water, cancer, goodnight, good morning, sausage

Mainly because they sound like the English words.

Biggest Cultural Stereotype Proved True
Italian men love women. They really, really love women. So much so that today a man followed me all the way home trying to get me to go to dinner with him. I did think for a while he was trying to mug me. Then I realised I was wearing a white shirt and it had been pissing down with rain. They're just boobs!! It is not necessary to walk several blocks in the rain for further observation!

Also, I went to a party in Bavaria with my family where they served steins of beer and women wore Dirndles without irony. That made my week.


Best Food
Currywurst

Other Random Things
I think 'The Birth of Venus' is lovely in real life. I have always liked it but it is a different colour in person. It seems lighter and brighter! Queuing for 2 hours to see it was not that fun though.

David was magnificant.

Beer gardens in Munich are ace. Ugly, naked German men are not.

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers...

Vienna was great. I have a couple of stories not for for internet consumption, but when I get home they wil be part of the 'Slide Night Extravaganza' I will be subjecting all my friends to. I figure I've got to dangle the occasional carrot out there to get people to look at my not very good photography at (short) length.

That is, of course, a joke. There will be no slide night.

Apart from all the brilliant things I am seeing I am constantly struck by the amazing an friendly people I have met. In the last 5 days I have met the following people:

1. dJim (yes, there is suppsoed to be a d there and it's a weird, long story). I met Jim on the train yesterday as we were both missing our connection to Krakow because apparently Polish trains only got at 40mph when people are actually trying to get somewhere. So we chatted on the train to Krakow about life, the universe, everything. He was a really interesting man - he made records for bands like the Microphones (!!) and was a musician/painter. Currently an unemployed musician/painter, but for the past 11 years he had worked as a caretaker for a woman in Boston on her estate. She let him turn any building he wanted into a temporary studio. When she recently passed away, he and his musician friends had a 2day long session in her vintage gymnasium recording songs in tribute to her.

Anyway, we went for dinner last night and ate Polish food at this random restaurant with weird dolls everywhere. He was so cool and interesting. As part of his trip to Europe he had brought photos from the estate to a Czech woman who was friends wth Louise, his employer. He saved the photos of this lady's mother from being thrown out by the people inhertiting the estate and had brought them all the way to the Czech Republic for her.

2. Erna I met Erna on the train yesterday and she was such a cool old lady. She would have been in her 70s and she spoke limited English - explaining to me that she had started learning before Communism but had to stop afterwards. I thought she was doing pretty well. She gave me sweets on the train (yes, I know that's how all good fairytales start, with old women giving youg girls sweets) and pointed out all sorts of things in the countryside and explained some of the history and geography of the country.

When she asked me about me about my trip, I explained what I was doing. She asked me if I knew anyone in Prague and I said no. She told me that now I knew her and that if I ever come back I should come and stay with her. Her husband died 2 years ago and she had no children and that I should definitely call on her. She gave me her address, phone number and was insistent. It was also very cute when she told me that she was very modern and had a mobile number.

Erna is going to Turkey for 2 weeks in July. She said her friends told her she should be home in bed not wandering around Turkey. I couldn't disagree with them more.

3. Austin I met Austin, who is an American missionary and her Czech friend whose name I can't spell, when I first got to my hostel in Prague. They work for a Christian group who teach English in the Czech Republic. Anyway, after my first night there they were heading back to he border town where their program was run and Austin said to me I've been thinking about you travelling by yourself for 6 months and wondering how many hugs you get'. I then got two massive hugs which were very much appreciated, especially since I was in the process of having a massive internal sook about the hostel I was staying in.

Their thoughtfulness almost made me cry actually.

4. Stefan I met Stefan on the train from Vienna. He was from the west of Austria and working in Vienna. He said he missed the mountains. He was so cute and sterotypically Austrian. It may have been that his sports short and golf socks were very 'European Abroad' but he was incredibly sweet.

I also thought Prague was brilliant, even in the rain. I loved its gothic beauty. I am now in Krakow and it is still raining. But again, it is a beautiful city. At least the few blocks of it I have seen.

You know, Hostel, like the movie.

*sigh*

My sleeping issues of a couple of nights ago were resolved by battering my eyelashes at the English stag group mentioned in the previous post. I was too tired to think that sleeping on the couch was going to be that great. But I would have done it had Juulia not said that there was one free bed in the hostel, but it was in the stag party room - one of their friends hadn´t come and they'd paid for the bed to keep the room to themselves.

Anyway, they let me have the bed and were insistent that I not pay for it (which of course I did) and then I felt incredibly guilty about being mean about them previously. They didn' seem like that bad a guys.

BUT my temporary good impression was erased when I woke up the next morning and the following conversation ensued:
Me: Hey. Did you guys have a good night last night? Good weekend?
Guy: Yeah. It was okay. Not as cheap as I thought and I didn´t get laid.
Me: Riiiiiggghhht....aren´t you the stag?

Obviously I have missed something about the concept of getting married. Ah well. At least I was well rested!

Stayed the last few days in Bratislava, hanging with some cool Canadians. It's a small town with not much to do other than drink coffee and lay in the sun. Pretty lazy times. Discovered a fair few interesting facts about Candaian engineers as well.

I know I said I wouldn´t mention bars but this was way too funny to ignore. I don't know how many people have seen the movie 'Hostel', but it´s set in Bratislava. The basement bar at my hostel was decked out in theme from the movie - complete with severed heads and limbs. There was even a ´table´ made out of a bathtub with blood smeared through it. Hilarious! But a bit ghoulish. But the beer was good and very cheap. The entertainment was provided by a group fo 6, 18&19 year Irish girls who were absolutely mad and hilarious. And a foozball table.

Industrial Complex

I have had exactly one hour of sleep, I am going slightly around the bend and I have discovered that there are NUMEROUS really cool bars in Budapest. I also have nowhere to sleep tonight which is something that I should remedy sooner rather than later.

Hung out with Julia, Finnish girl from the hostel and the two French guys. Also spent the night with actual Hungarians - nice to actually meet the locals instead of just running away from them. Briefly considered working illegally in Budapest at a vegetarian restaurant. Decided against it alhough apparently it's what everyone does. Works illegally, I mean. Not specifically at vegetarian restaurants.

First bar last night was in a big warehouse with a massive skeleton structure hanging from the roof. Music was industrial/hardcore which isn't exactly my type of thing (except for the brief moment that I wanted the Matrix Soundtrack in year 10 and thought it was pretty heavy). But it was great. Must hang out with metalheads more when I get home. Having said that, I just don't think Australia has the right type of weather for me to be a fan of that type of music in general.

Second bar was smaller. Last club was crazy - had to get in a tiny lift that only carried 5 people at a time and one of those with the guy operating the lift. Victor, the mad Hungarian intent on improving international relations was, by this point in pretty fine form.

I ended up with Julia, Eric and Manu in a park next to the hostel this morning, drinking a bottle of red wine with the cork pushed in at 6am. Talking about not much and trying not to fall asleep on the bench. Very, very classy.

Yesterday I went to the Terror Museum, St Stephen's Basilica, Heroes Square, the park around Heroes Square and some other stuff. Also manged to see the Croatian Head of State's convoy which included a lot of armed Hungarian guards with machine guns.

The next few posts will not be about bars, I promise. Julia has said I can sleep on the couch at the hostel tonight, which I am seriously considering. Tempting...