67 stairs.

Cinque Terre (which translates to "5 towns") is awesome. We're staying at a small apartment in the first town, which is called Rio Maggiore. Our apartment is about 20 metres from the train station, so it gets a bit noisy, but otherwise is quite nice. Another great feature of this apartment is that it's on the fifth (and top) floor of a building which has no lift! Up 67 stairs just to get to our room... We're building some large leg muscles.

These towns are all built pretty much into the side of some very steep hills right on the ocean. The farmers hundreds of years ago built thousands and thousands of stone retaining walls up the sides of the hills so they could plant crops... looks amazing, but not very efficient.

There are lots of hiking, biking, and horseriding tracks around here, so lots of tourists with hiking boots and extendible walking sticks. (the other half seem to be 20 year olds from the US). The most popular trails are set up along the coast between the five towns, 9 km in total, which is meant to take about 5 hours all up. Lucy and I did the first 2 sections (quite easy and not too many hills... except for some insane stairs at the end), and I went on the do the next one also, which had more ups and downs, and is meant to take you 90 minutes, but I finished it in just under 50 'cause I'm awesome.

We went to the "beach" here... the water is just the right temperature, and quite clear, however their idea of a beach differs somewhat from ours...
Imagine a small cove covered in rocks. Then imagine more rocks to the sides, and imagine people laying on towels on top of rocks, and trying to find the ideal rock on which to perch and pose. Then imagine a bunch of aussies standing at the side trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The water was nice though! No sharks either... or waves for that matter, but nice all the same. Definately a good thing after being in crowded smelly cities for so long.

Well no pictures this time again as this particular fascist internet point does not allow the use of any kind of USB device... so next time for sure.

Off the Venice tomorrow... I hear there's lots of water there too... probably not a good place to swim though.

J

Mighty erections

Well Florence (or Firenze in local speak) is hot, and the sun doesn't set till after 8:30, but thats OK, cause it's a pretty cool place (haha, I make a funny!). Lots of tiny streets, churches, leather-goods shops, ristorantes, trattorias... etc. Lucy has resisted the urge to buy stuff so far, but I'm not sure how long she can hold on. It's only a city of about 375000 people, but apparently it used to be quite powerful back in the day, but now it seems to be mostly tourists. Maybe that's because we've only really been in the historical centre. For a town/city of it's size, it seems to have a large amount of enormous churches and cathedrals... I think there used to be an ongoing competition between the surrounding cities to see who could erect the largest one.

Here in Florence we checked out the local Duomo, built around the 1300's on top of another church built around 5th or 6th century. It is a huge building indeed, filled with lots of old sculptures and paintings... there seems to be a recurring theme here. Next to it is a very tall bell tower which you can climb to the top of. 414 steps to be precise. No lift. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, and the view from the top was worth it. Looking down you'd think you were in the 1500's... apart from all the scooters zipping around. Also next to the Duomo is a Baptistry which is actually a converted Pagan Temple, and still has the original zodiac symbols on the floor, and pagan designs on the walls.

Yesterday we did a day trip out to Siena, which is about an hour and 20 minutes away by bus. A city of only 50 000 people, once again, has churches that could easily fit the entire population plus more inside them. Now I thought that the streets were tiny in Florence, but they're nothing compared to Siena. Cars literally wouldn't fit in some of them, and most of the old town is walking zone only. We checked out a church that holds the disembodied head of St Catherine, which unfortunately is not viewable, but there is a cabinet that holds one of her fingers! Very Indiana Jonesey.

Also checked out the Duomo in Siena... what was inside you may ask? More awesome paintings and sculptures, elaborately ornamented pillars and ceilings, and for some reason a bunch of motorcycle helmets attached to one wall. Never worked that one out, but I'm assuming it was a recent addition.

Apparently according to legend, Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus, who was in turn the brother of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. Legend has it that Romulus and Remus were raised by a wolf, and there are lots of decorations depicting the two with the wolf that raised them in, on, and around this Duomo.


Today we went to the Uffizi Gallery. This holds a collection of paintings/scupltures/drawings that used to be privately owned by an old/rich family over here called the Medici's. It's got everyone from Da Vinci to Bottecelli to Rembrandt and everyone in between. It's one of those 'must do' things in Florence, and we only lined up for just over an hour... but we got there 45 minutes before it opened, and were pretty close to the front.

Well we're off to Cinque Terre tomorrow for some sun and swimming. Oh yeah.

I'll upload some pics soon.

J

I'll have one art please.

The last two days have been full on to say the least. Sights seen include: the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, various other monuments, fountains and obelisks, St Peters Basilica (Popes tombs), and Cistine Chapel (both at the Vatican). We also walked through a whole bunch of Piazzas (open area with cafes etc) and back streets at night, and saw a bunch of the nightlife etc. Drunk teens pashing etc.
This is St Peters Basilica from the outside. Much cooler on the inside.
All of these things require many more words than I can muster to describe and do justice, so I will just say one word that tries to sum them up: Awesome. Not in the "radical" surfie type way, but in the old school "inspiring awe or admiration or wonder" way. Particularly the Pantheon and the Vatican and... (well all of it really) just needs to be seen in person to get an idea of what I mean. I think my chin has been firmly anchored to the ground for a while, only raising again for fear of gypsies thowing babies in my mouth.

Now if you ever want to go see the Cistine Chapel, GO EARLY. We rocked up at about 9 o'clock, and got to the beginning of the line just over 2 hours later. I hope I never have to get into a line that long ever again. It was worth i though. You have to go through a whole lot of other galleries and rooms and stuff before you actually get to the chapel, but it's all priceless sculpture and other art up to 2000 years old (or more!). Stuff you've seen in books and in calendars etc. Much cooler in real life. We've got heaps of photos, and will be bringing them home for all to see.

Here's one for Ben. (Happy belated birthday dude! Keep rockin' the free world.) It's from a bus station near the Vatican.



Off to Florence tomorrow...

Word.

Cultural week!

We made it over to the Coloseum yesterday, and let me tell you, that place is awesome. Apparently it's "cultural week" here in Rome, which means that most of the big attractions - including The Colosseum - are free! Hows that for good timing. They seem to be fixing up a small section of the building to its former glory, so you can see what it would have been like back in the day.

We also checked out Palatines Hill which is full of ruins etc and a lot of Roman history happened up there e.g. Caesar was cremated there etc. Unfortunately we couldn't find any pamphlet around with info about what the individual ruins were, so most of the time we were just kinda looking and guessing...

Well I gotta go... off to The Vatican today...

Rome.

We've made it to Rome.
After being awake for more than 24 hours (with a couple of short naps), and being on planes for at least 15 of those hours, we made it to Rome... only to realise that I had forgotten to print out the details for our accomodation (oops). It was about 10:30 at night and we headed toward the train station at the airport to catch the train in to Termini station, which is in the middle of town. A bunch of American girls ran past us, and we realised that the last train to Termini was about to leave, so we followed them. Luckily it was still on the platform and we made it.

We reached Termini some time around midnight, and pretty much as soon as we got off the train, people were coming up to us trying to sell us information about hostels etc. We had heard that Rome is infamous for this kind of thing, and the best thing to do is to say no and keep walking... we had a hostel anyway... we just didn't know quite where it was. After a couple of frantic phone calls to family (apparently Joseph doesn't like being called at 7:30 in the morning... or was it 6:30?) we still didn't have the address. We headed off in the general direction that we remembered from looking at a map previously, and after a couple of minutes stumbled across an internet cafe that was still open! 5 minutes in and out and we had the address, which apparently was only a block away from our current location! Nice.

The next day (yesterday) was spent mostly recovering from sleep deprivation, but we went for a small walk to get some groceries etc, as we will be staying here for 5 nights.
If you are ever in Rome, be aware that for cars, the traffic laws are a mere suggestion, and that scooter drivers have a death wish.

Today I think we're going to go check out the Colosseum and maybe some other stuff.

Laters.

J

Buddha

Last night we caught the Ferry across the harbour and watched the "light show" from the water. Every night at 8 o'clock, heaps of buildings light up in different colours and have lasers and spotlights going all at the same time. Looks cool, but must waste soooo much power.

Today we caught the cable car up to the Big Buddha on Lan Tau island. Apparently its the biggest outside one in the world. It's made of bronze, and sits on top of a hill in a monastery. The cable car took about 20 minutes to get up... but theres a track you can walk up which is pretty gruelling (steep mountain terrain), and looks like it would take a serious walker all day. I'll do it next time. It's mostly forest and jungle, and looks awesome to trek through... there might be monkeys...

Hong Kong

So we did some sightseeing in HongKong today. Mainly, we went up to "The Peak" from where you can look out over HongKong from on top of Mount Victoria (I think?). We took the "Peak Tram" up the hill, which goes up on about a 30 degree angle, counterweighted by another one coming back down at the same time! They had some nice walking paths that went across the hill at the top, through some awesome forest type stuff.
Then I met Bruce Lee, and vaulted a wall. Whos the Boss now biatch!

It has begun!

Well we got up at 3 o'clock this morning, drove to Sydney, hung out at the airport for about 4 hours, then we were on our way!
9 hours, 2 movies, and a crazy Aussie/Hungarian lady who wouldn't shut up sitting on the other side of me, we arrived safely in Kongkers.
This place is crazy! It really has to be seen to be believed. Imagine Sydney but with more people, more roads, awesomer buildings, dodgier buildings, (I'm talking bamboo scaffolding here people), and you'll be getting closer to what it's like. Driving from the airport through the middle of the city was great. So many lights and tall skinny buildings. Fully like something from Ghost in the Shell or other anime style thing.
Space is at a premium here. We're staying with Lucy's dads cousin Ian. He lives on the 22nd floor of a building in an area called Happy Valley (what the?). The apartment is about the size of the loungeroom in an average Canberra home, but it is nice, and with great views.
It's about 30 degrees and real humid, but there's air con in every room.
We're gonna go check out some touristy stuff tomoz, so will report back when more awesome comes to hand.

The photo is of Sydney from the window of a 747.

It's 8:55pm local time, which is 10:55 Aussie time, so I've been awake for far too long.
Out.

The Unofficial...

We're going on a 3 month trip around Europe and UK. I want to record the awesomeness of this trip in blog form.
Lucy has started a blog which can be found at: http://www.statravelblogs.com/lucycarson/

That blog will be going out to heaps of people including work friends, family etc... so it may contain a slightly more "user friendly" take on the events.

Nothing like that here though. "The Unofficial Europe" is where the real action is. No censorship of any kind. Nothing but the goods. Hopefully I'm not too lazy to update it semi-often...

Enjoy.