Rome day 2 1/07/2013

Was super tired last night to write my blog, (I still am), but I better do it before I forget what happened.

 As you know from my last entry, I had some accommodation issues, so I made sure to go and check into my apartment first thing in the morning.  It's actually a really nice place.  The place is made for 6 people, but only 3 people are using it, so it's super comfy.  I'm sharing with Sharon who was in my photography class last year and Lucy, whose an architectural student from Cambera.

Then we took the bus to go to class, however we accidentally went to the wrong campus.  Apparently they sent an email with an address change, but we were unaware of it.  Luckily enough one of the ladies there was nice enough to show us the way.  

Then we were introduced to our Teachers who are Italian, but teach the course in English.  For the first day, we went through orientation, which was pretty much about our schedule for the next few weeks, how to use the materials and getting to know each other.

For this course I expected it to be like last time where people from all around the world came to participate, however 12/14 of us are Australians!  Anyway, the good news is that everyone's nice and gets along well with each other.

Everyone in my class

Also, the course is also amazing!  I am really happy that I chose it.  After our debriefing, we were told to go into the garden and draw the buildings, probably to try out the new materials they gave us.

I think that all the times that I went out into the city to draw with my friend Yvette really payed off, because I understood what they wanted me to do straight away without being stressed, which was good.

They wanted us to focus on 2 different styles: Creating the sensation of the place, which means that it doesn't have to be too accurate, but the fluid movements and shapes give you a sense of the atmosphere, such as this picture.

red and grey pencil and markers

The second style was to pay attention to a specific detail, such as the decorations of a column and draw it more accurately.  

It was hard for me to get the hang of this style at first, because of a few reasons.  First is that I haven't focused on detailed drawings for a few years (I used to draw like that in high school though), and secondly I have a really short attention span and I get bored really quickly.  So this was hard for me to do, but I got it in the end.

a really boring window

pillar and some bricks

After class I went off into the city with a group of people from my Uni to look at the monuments, such as the Spanish Steps, an Egyptian Oblisk, the Colosseum and a bunch of other random ruins.  I'm sorry, but I generally don't care too much about historical things to pay enough attention to where I am, (which is how me and Tatiana managed to go though half of the country so fast), only enough to say "that's pretty cool".  

Does that mean Rome is wasted on me, since it's one of the most historically rich countries in the world?  Who knows, probably...  Or at least the historical bits.  As for the drawing part, i'm going to embrace every opportunity I have to become a better draughtsman!

grey markers and pencil

We stopped in a park and drew this statue.  (I swear this is the 3rd time I've seen something like this.  The first in Milan and the second in Venice.)

Anyway, the walk was exhausting!  Especially since it was about 29 degrees, which is a killer after a whole week of fake Summer.

Apparently the Romans stole a whole bunch of
Obelisks from Egypt and put them in front of Churches   

Spanish Steps 

a random street

Slutty skeleton advertisement for... something?

Cool column with spirally, 3D Roman hieroglyphics  

Colussim 

Unfinished Colussim drawing

It's also hard walking in a big group, because you don't get to see what you want to see or go where you want to go, do maybe next time we should split up into smaller groups.  Either that or I'll go places by myself, since I don't get scared of walking around by myself.  

In fact, I have a better idea!  I'll go into an AIR-CONDITIONED McDonald's and draw from there, that way i'll stay cool and eat cheap food... oh yeah, wasting Rome again... Yeah, well Europe is expensive, so it's either one or the other.  (I should stop fighting with myself on the internet (-_-; )  ).

Enough rambling!  After all of that we to an Italian restaurant... (actually that's kind of obvious now that I live in Italy) and had dinner together.

As some of you know, once I like something, I tend to eat it all the time, such as anything with strawberries (Fragola in Italian) and normal spaghetti.  (It's also the cheapest item on the menu, which is a bonus too.

First day of Rome 30-6-2013

This morning Tatiana and I left the hostel early and made it to the (right) station on time, making sure to check the ticket about 50 times just in case.  Then we had cappuccinos and croissants before boarding the (right) train to Rome… unfortunately the train decided to run late.

When we finally arrived in Rome we realized that Tatiana only had about 4 hours left until she had to leave to go back home to Geneva, meaning that the ride was a complete waste.  (ごめね～ (Japanese for sorry) Ta-chan).  So we spent our last hour together eating spaghetti, because food is delicious.

Then we parted ways, which was a terrible idea!  Because Tatiana was always the navigator and if anyone knows me well, they would know that I have the worst sense of direction and always walk in the exact opposite direction of where I am supposed to go.

So I headed towards my accommodation, which was in a place called Prenestina, but after getting off the tram and walking for a few hours with an even more broken suitcase (the rubber have completely burned off the wheels) I realized that Prenestina was the name of the tram line and not the actual station, which I still didn’t know.  Basically it’s like saying you’re accommodation is in Oxford street (for non - Aussies, it’s a ridiculously long street in Sydney, which goes on forever).

After a while I started to use Google maps on my Australian phone out of desperation, (I hope I didn’t kill my phone bill), but that didn’t help since it said that the place was in the middle of the side walk.

By that time I was ready to die, or fall asleep on the side walk, but then some guys started talking to me.  One of them was a nice guy called Arsen who helped me find the place, only to realize that it was closed.  Damn it!

I tried calling AIM Overseas (the company in charge of my exchange), but they didn’t answer because it was 12am in Australian, then I called International SOS to see if they knew anything, but they weren’t able to do too much.  So Arsen took me to a café and helped me check into a hotel.

He was seriously a nice guy and he even told me his life story.  Apparently he had a hard life where he had to work very hard, so he was happy to help me, since I was in trouble.  While I was very gracious for his help, I was kind of scared as well. 

I couldn’t help it.  I mean, practically every girl in the history of anywhere are told by their parents not to talk to strangers, especially guys.  What’s that?  I’m 20 years old?  I’m a grown adult… Hahahahaha!!! Yeah, sure whatever you say.  Just because my passport says I’m an adult, doesn’t mean I mature.  (Peter Pan syndrome).

Also since I’m pretty polite (probably picked it up in Japan) I didn’t have the courage to tell him to go away, so I let him help me, which was cool I guess…  Either I’m extremely lucky or stupid… maybe both.

I think I was freaked out because I’m a control freak.  I prefer to be lost and know it’s my fault as well as know that I can fix it.  When someone helps me I lose that control.  (Yeah… I like to analyse myself, so I know how to improve my faults and stuff.)

After a few hours I went back to the accommodation office to figure out the best possible route to carry my broken bag tomorrow only to realize that I was open again.  Apparently Arsen went back to check and told them that I would come back tomorrow.  (No please, stop being so nice.  I’m not used to strangers being nice to me for no reason.  It’s weird.)

I guess the good thing about renting a 50 Euro room (out of desperation), is that its looks ridiculously fancy, especially after I just spent last night sharing a room with 16 other people (not that I actually minded).  A double bed, for me?  Kitchen (that I won’t use), for me?  Ensuite…  Ahhhhh!  Too posh!

The funny thing is that despite all this weird shit happening, I fell pretty ok.  Who know, maybe I’m used to all these shenanigans now.  Also it’s crazy how much stuff we did this week.  4 countries, 7 cities and 4 languages, awesome! 

The bad news is that I’m having some weird kind of culture/ language shock.  I swear English is my 1^st language!  (Even though I have to get the French girl to check my spelling and grammar).  Oh man, now it’s going to be weird talking to all the Australians, because I doubt that they’ll be able to understand me when I randomly switch to Japanese, while inserting random French words into the sentence.  Shoot, Ta-chan I miss you already.

Anyway enough of my stupid rambling, I need to go to bed so that I have enough energy to carry this ridiculously heavy bag.  Here’s a video of my (posh) room.

P.S.  Random Italian guys kept hitting on me and Tatiana (even though we we’re really gross and smelly from travelling everywhere), one guy thought we were German and tried to talk to us, but because I’m as dense as a brick, I only found out that they were hitting on us after Tatiana told me.

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.