29/06/2013 Pisa, not Florence

Today we woke up super early just to catch the bus to the station and was there about an hour early only to realize that we were at the wrong station… apparently Venice has two of them, who knew.  So we ran about like crazy, caught a random train to the other place, ran up 3 staircases with my 30kg suitcase and then missed the train by about 10 seconds… merde!

We went to the ticket counter to beg for mercy, but they couldn’t change it because it was bought overseas, so we have to fork out more of our very little cash to buy a new ticket for 2pm.  In the end we decided to go directly to Pisa, since our hostel was there meaning that we wouldn’t be able to see Florence L , so now we’re sitting in McDonalds as usual writing this blog to burn up the 5 hours of waiting (with no food, since we’re too poor now).

The good news is that some Italian lady thought my drawing was good.  Maybe I can see it for train money.

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After a few hours of drawing stupid pictures and waiting indefinitely, we got on the train for Florence, but were stuck with some annoying Australian girls who were talking about sex and poop very loudly. (Please stop embarrassing my country.)  

Then we stayed in Florence for about 20 minutes before getting on another train for Pisa.  We were intending to spend the day in Florence and the night in Pisa, but because of the previous problem we had to skip Florence all together.

In Pisa we checked into our accommodation, which is a youth hostel.  We share a room with about 16 other people, but since all of them are tourists like us it doesn't fell that weird.

After that we decided to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa (the only famous thing here), but for some reason we couldn't find it.  In fact we made about 3 circles, crossed 2 bridges twice, got hit on by random Italian guys and even passed by an Italian festival (not sure what it was) before we found it.

This is not mini golf,
it's actually a small tower

Tatiana taking a picture of me, taking a selfie

Me taking a picture of Tatiana, taking a selfie

Then after that we went to get dinner.  I wanted to get Spaghetti, but I thought it might be funnier to get a Pizza.  Eating pizza next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Pisa pizza.

Tatiana and me in Pisa

Awesome night photo

Then we went back to the hostel, to get ready for tomorrow (can't afford to buy a new ticket again...)

Next is our last stop, ROME!!!

Venice 28-6-2013

Yesterday we woke up in our room in Milan and saw that there was a random guy there… (he was our roommate, he was supposed to be there.  Not a stalker.)  Then we left really early, like organised people, and had breakfast in the station at Milan.

We had croissants and… Krappuccinos.  It was pretty good, despite what the name says :P

Then we got on the train thinking it was the right one, but then found that we didn’t have seats.  Apparently the travel agent booked the ticket on the wrong day.

So we travelled in front of the men’s toilet for a while until the ticket checker guy found us and told us to get off at the next stop, so we wouldn’t get a fine for being there illegally, despite having a ticket… a useless ticket.  Good thing he kind of spoke English.

So we landed in a place called Brescia and stayed in the café for a few hours.  We were so bored that we tried to remember all the Japanese prefectures.

1st attempt (with random Australia).
Japan was too small  for everything to fit in

2nd attempt.  Japan was too big for the paper this time.
Forgot Ibaraki...

Then we boarded the right train and finally went to Venice.  First we went to our accommodation to drop off our stuff, but we missed the bus stop, because there are no names and ended up walking by the side of the road on the non-existent sidewalk until we made it to the camping place.  (We couldn’t afford to actually live in Venice.)

Although, it nice because it had lots of light, the camping toilets and showers had lockable doors, hot water and for once a camping place wasn’t really dirty and creepy. Nice!

Then we took the bus back to Venice (island) and touristed (is this is a word?  It is now.)  First we took the… sea bus? (ferry) over to St Marco and walked around a bit.  Then did the first touristy thing, eat real Italian food in actually Venice, Italy.

Us on the boat

St Marco

Spaghetti was awesome

Then we walked around the little streets, over little bridges and canals and found the actual St Marco and a church that was having Mass.

There were also lots of awesome carnival shops, which sold masks.

As well as other awesome stuff, which only fuelled our Harry Potter obsession.

Then we fulfilled one of my life long dreams and item off my bucket list, which was to ride on a Gondola in Venice (before it sinks, which might be in a few 100 years, but who cares.)  It was pretty expensive (100 Euros together for the basic package), but fun.

line of gondolas 

In between a court house and a jail

Gondola guy in the background

Evidence, evidence!!!!!

Apparently some of these buildings were made in the late 13C…
which is older than my country.

Sunset… what time was that?  9pm?

Yeah, close enough

Then we went back to our awesome camping cabin.  We payed for Wi-Fi, but it never worked, so we got bored and wrote letters to our beloved Pot-Kun 

And played French music, so we couldn’t hear the creepy neighbours next door. 

P.S this is another situation where I have videos, but due to the fact that I’m writing this blog in McDonalds I doubt I’ll be uploading it anytime soon.  Think of them as surprises, or OMAKE if they ever get uploaded.

OMAKE:

What the travel book said to do	What we did
Don’t visit Venice in one day	Visited Venice in 1 day
Don’t visit Venice in Summer	Visited Venice in Summer
Go in March or October for carnival	Didn’t do that either…
Tatiana’s grandmother said: The Gondolas are rip-offs	Went on the expensive Gondola
Visit the museums	Didn’t go inside a single building
Visit the Biennale	Vaguely saw it from the ferry

Milan

The station

So after about 9 hours we arrived in Milan at 5:30am.  I actually didn't mind the night train, but then again I just fell asleep for the whole time so I didn't have to suffer much (except for a few pictures that were taken when my guard was down...)

For some reason all the French I'd forgotten was starting to return and whenever I needed to use Italian, French or Japanese came up as the default.  It must have been when we crossed the border.  Some how this keeps on happening; forgets Japanese in Japan, but uses it in France, forgets French but remembers it in Italy... Yeah, too much culture shock. I think traveling between 4 countries within 1 week is starting to make me crazy.

Anyway after waiting for the metro to open, we went and dropped our things off at our inn and went into the city to do tourist stuff.

First we went to the Duomo cathedral, which was in the city center.  For once it was awesome waking up early, because we made it before rush hour and was able to take photos without there being a crowd.

In front of Duomo

Inside Duomo

After that we went looking for breakfast, but for some reason noting was open... Nothing at all (except for the church).  Eventually after walking around and wasting time we decided to go to McDonald's since we were pretty desperate.

That McDonald's was the poshest McDonald's that I've ever seen in my life.  The normal restaurant part was closed and everyone ordered from the McCafe section.  I got a strawberry frape and jam filled croissant.  Lucky Italian uses the same characters as French or English, other wise we would have really been screwed.  Either way, I'm going to be spending a lot of my free time learning Italian.  I swear I haven't felt this dumb since I first went to Japan... actually dumber.  It's weird that I only know how to say "My name is..." in Italian, considering that I did 3 years of Italian in primary school, but then again I think out teacher gave up on us.

Anyway, after that we just walked around the whole day, especially since we had to wait until midday to check into our hotel, the only problem is that everything was closed until about 10am at least.  Apparently things open and close late in Italy, but I'm not exactly sure how the system works here, at least not yet.

Also, it's true.  So many people ride vespas here.  Lots of people in suits were zooming around on them like gangs of businessmen.

Wasn't fast enough to take a picture of the moving ones
but you get the idea

Then we got fed up of feeling like zombies and got some gelato (making the most of the Italian experience) before heading back to the hotel to sleep.

 

suffering from train- jet lag

Finally we ended the day by waking up at around 10pm feeling incredibly hungry, so we went to the store next door and get a Kebab Pizza.  I have no regrets.

Catacombs

Hey, didn't get a chance to update yesterday's adventures because we took the night train from Paris to Milan, so here it is.

First of all we went to Denfert-Rochereau to visit the catacombs (we knew where it was because we went there last time and found out it was closed), however every other tourist in the city though of the same thing meaning that we had to wait in line for over 2 hours until we got in, which sucked because it was super sunny.

 Denfert-Rochereau

See that yellow thing in the sky?
Yep, France actually has the sun for once.

We waited for so long that I had time to draw us waiting

Then we went inside the catacombs and explored the creepy tunnels.  I tried taking a video, but my video camera doesn't capture light as well as a normal camera, so everything looked black, but I did managed to take normal photos.

Lots of bones...

...Lots and lots of bones

This is the most she's smiled this whole trip

now that you think about it, most people would
probably be scared by this kind of situation.

Then I practiced my French/ Latin by trying to read and translate some of the texts.

there's even a spell check on the stone inscription.

So after that we were really hungry and went to a French restaurant, however I was so hungry that I ordered something without actually knowing what it was...

...raw meat

I did try it, but it was kind of weird, like spaghetti meat before you cook it.  Asides from that, the food was pretty good, except the servings were huge.  I wonder who actually eats that much food.

Salad

Crème brûlée

Then we figured that we still had some time before we had to take the train, so we walked to Trocadéro and took some photos with the Eiffel Tower.  

Then we took a photo with the Arc de Triomphe and walked down Champs Elysées.  Basically putting a few more stamps on the tourist bingo card.  We didn't really stop in Champs Elysées, because it's practically the most expensive part of Paris.  Even the train station was posh with touch screen maps.

After that we went back to Tatiana's friend's place, said goodbye and left for the Gare de Lyon station and took the night train to Milan.

The cabin was set up with 6 seats, which transformed into bunk beds.  I fell asleep straight away, probably because I had to drag my heavy suitcase across Paris with a broken handle, but Tatiana was wide awake because we crossed the Swiss border meaning that her Wi-Fi came back for that time.  Then we arrived in Milan at 5:30am.

OMAKE: Some random Australian themed restaurant