Equi Terme

After school yesterday a group of us headed off into the hills to a wee medieval village called Equi Terme. Equi Terme, besides being a GORGEOUS town, is famous for it's natural hot springs, caves, and hiking.

Alas, the hot water springs were closed. (Apparently they only open them when the air matches the water temperature. :P) So a few of the crew went for a dip in the frosty river water instead. Not me though. I'm chicken! But I did get my tootsies wet. That's gotta count for something...

Excuse me... Right now I have Remington breathing over my shoulder and it's VERY distracting. Thanks Rem. So if I mis-type blame him and his wet gargly breathing. Rem, I told you jumping in that ice cold water would be bad, but nooo you had to prove how manly you were.

Anyways, back to Equi Terme. The cave system has carved away the mountain side into these incredible shapes and it was amazing to sit beneath them. Especially wonderful given the icy wind blowing out of the caves. Sooo nice on a boiling hot day.

Today we're off to the Cararra marble mine. I'm going to look like a ghost, call covered in marble dust. So fun!

Milano You-lano

Friday they poured us into a bus at 6am and carted us off to Milan. Which should have been awesome, but was a major bust. Instead of seeing the Duomo and the Last Supper, we saw a woodshop that makes Ikea furniture. Ugh. Being so close to amazing things and not being able to see them was sheer torture!

But my weekend made up for it.
On Sunday two of my classmates and I (Sherri and Colin) hiked the Cinque Terre trail. The whole Cinque Terre trail. In 40 degree heat. Oi. But besides feeling like I might die from sheer exhaustion it was by far one of the most beautiful places I've been on my trip. Sheer cliff faces with small rainbow coloured villages clinging to the rocks like shy children and the most unbelievable un-nameable shade of blue (somewhere between emerald, turquoise, cyan, and cerulian). Not to mention the amazing butterflies that followed us along the entire trail.

We'd been warned that the part between Montorosso and Vernazza was a bit like the Grouse Grind. And that's pretty acurate. Except it's the Grouse Grind made entirely of stairs, with no rest stops, trails that are only 2 feet wide with no railings, and sheer cliff faces down one side. Oh, and doing it at the hottest part of a searing hot day doesn't help much. But still, it was amazing and I definitely recommend it.

We also found this incredible local beach. Populated by only a handful of people. Granted most of them were naked, but hey you take what you can get. Still, the beach was great. It had huge perfectly round and smooth stones that made it look like the whole beach was covered in dinosaur eggs. And they were wonderfully warm after our dip in the water. OMIGOD and what water it was! I could have stayed in there for hours. Sherri and I were extremely reluctant to leave, but being the fine upstanding students that we are we figured it would be horrible if we missed any school. :P

I've managed to suck the photos from my camera onto a computer here. So now I just have to figure out how to get them up on my blog. So stay tuned for a photo dump of the last month.

I live in a Castle

That's right. You read correctly. I live in a Castle.
A real castle made of stone and wood, with stairwells that definitely do NOT conform to Canadian building code. (Standard risers? Nah, them's for wusses.) A real bonified castle with bad plumbing, flickering lights, and ghosts! That's right folks, my castle is haunted. With eerie noises at night and miscelanous things going missing from rooms. I LOVE IT!

But on to more serious things...
Looks like I won't be able to make it to the Palio in Sienna. Because the group has decided to forgo the trip to the Cararra Marble mine and go to Pompeii and Capri instead. Woo! It means I'll have to put up a bit of my own money (*cough* 200 Euro *cough*) but I think it'll be worth it. Especially since they'll be taking us on guided tours and the like. Now I get to look up my Capri contact that my colourist gave me. I'm to arrive on the island, ask for "Alphonse", and tell him that Tom and Louis send their love "hugs and kisses".

Tomorrow they're carting us off to Milan! Unfortunately we leave at 5:45am. Oi!

I live in a Castle

That's right. You read correctly. I live in a Castle.
A real castle made of stone and wood, with stairwells that definitely do NOT conform to Canadian building code. (Standard risers? Nah, them's for wusses.) A real bonified castle with bad plumbing, flickering lights, and ghosts! That's right folks, my castle is haunted. With eerie noises at night and miscelanous things going missing from rooms. I LOVE IT!

But on to more serious things...
Looks like I won't be able to make it to the Palio in Sienna. Because the group has decided to forgo the trip to the Cararra Marble mine and go to Pompeii and Capri instead. Woo! It means I'll have to put up a bit of my own money (*cough* 200 Euro *cough*) but I think it'll be worth it. Especially since they'll be taking us on guided tours and the like. Now I get to look up my Capri contact that my colourist gave me. I'm to arrive on the island, ask for "Alphonse", and tell him that Tom and Louis send their love "hugs and kisses".

Tomorrow they're carting us off to Milan! Unfortunately we leave at 5:45am. Oi!

Bimbo a Bordo

Was walking through town today on a sketching assignment and a sign posted on the back of a car cought my eye. "Bimbo a Bordo". And I'm thinking, what lame mullet sporting shmuck (Italy has gone mullet mad) would drive a car with that plastered on their car. Then I realized that "Bimbo a Bordo" doesn't refer to a plethora of loose women. But is in stead Italian for "Baby on Board". Oops!

Am spending my off time (when not frantically trying to cram my head full of 1500 years of architecture history) trying to get to the Palio horse race in Sienna. That's the crazy one where everyone dresses up in Medieval pagentry, wears crazy colourful costumes, and flies a billion Medieval style banners. It's also the one where ANYTHING goes. You want to kidnap your rivals jockey? Sure. Steal his horse? Go for it. You want to wack at him with a big stick while you're racing. No problem. Unfortunately it looks like we might miss it as the last train for Aulla leaves at 5:40pm a good solid hour before the actual race begins. There is an overnight train that is mighty tempting. It gets me in at 7:30am on the Monday morning... I mean... it's not like I need to use my brain for school or anything. ;)

Back to School

So I've made it to Aulla (pernounced Oh-yew-la) for my Art classes.
Whoo that was a bit of train hopping. But I made it. Nothing quite like hopping on a train and having no idea if it's headed to your destination or not. Especially when no one on said train speaks any English. :)

But it's good to be in one place now. Lots of good people here too.
And wonderously HUGE lunches. Thank God! I though I was going to waste away from not eating. But it's soooo weird to be back at school, with assignments, quizes, exams and general classroom type drama. I haven't had to study in 5 years!

Went to the local Beer festival last night with a couple of my classmates. Apparently by "festival" they mean 2 kinds of beer. Oh well, it was neat to see the locals having fun. Even if it did involve us hiking to the next village to see it!

It is DAMN hot here. Waaay hotter than by the water. There's a sign we pass on our way to and from town that shows the temperature. Yesterday afternoon? 36 degrees and humid. The sweat just doesn't move! Geh.
Needless to say I burnt like an abandoned bbq hotdog and am now sporting the oh so attractive combination of sheet white and lobster red. Least I don't have to haul my pack anywhere soon!

The Flag Thing

I've been asked my so many people about the Canadian flags plastered all over Canadian's backpacks. And it really is pretty silly. Because we ALL have them. I actually get surprised remarks because mine is so small!

Still, it's interesting that a whole Country could be so paranoid of being mistaken for Americans that we've become rediculous to everyone else.

Genova / Genoa

Still haven't figured out which way you're supposed to say it.

Either way it's a weird city. There isn't actually all that much here to see. Most of the information the tourist office has to offer involves wandering around and looking at buildings, but there isn't a whole lot of museums to see. Mind you, the tourist map she gave me is in Italian, so I could be missing boat loads.

But Genova has a dirty salty charm to it. Managed to find THE street. The kind of street that every city has. The one where all the local young kids hang out. The ones with the piercings and the wierd hair. The ones that don't fit in. The ones that are shopping for loads of indie music and clothing!

Pity I'm so brutally sick right now, otherwise I would have definitely spent my day there.

So arriving in Genova was interesting. I had my first experience of Italian buses. Woowee. I will never EVER complain again on Vancouver buses. There's nothing like careening around hairpin turns that drop away to sheer cliffs in a completely over crowded bus, trying desperately to get directions from a bus driver that doesn't speak English and quite frankly probably thinks you're scum for even trying. At this point I know only a handful of Italian words:

- Chaio (Hello/Goodbye)
- Scusi (Excuse me)
- Si (Yes)
- No (No, duh)
- Quanto costo (How much?)
- Ostello (Hostel)
- Gratzi (Thank you)

So getting the bus driver to get me where I wanted to go presented a bit of a challenge. However, I also had a huge monsterous pack on my back that pretty much said "Greetings, I am a ignorant backpacker. Please take me to your local hostel." So in the end I managed to make it just fine.

People

I've made it a mission to talk to as many people as possible. As such I have met more new people in the last two weeks that I have in the last two months.

In no particular order:
Cam and Stew who are from Adelaide in Australia, currently working Manchester but road tripping around Europe. Ken from Utah who got arrested before boarding the Eurostar train to Paris for carrying a knife and was headed to the French coutnryside for some frest. Aminta from California who was being chased around London by an amourous and very persistent guy who followed her to the hostel from the airport. We spent most of our time giving him the slip. The two sisters from New Zealand, crap forgot their names, who are trying to find work in Lyon. Matieu from just outside Hull Quebec, studying in Lille and in Paris to the sights. The two french guys who helped me figure out the trains even though they barely spoke any english and I barely speak any french. Lee from Vancouver who I bumped into on the Paris metro and then ran into again in Nice and with whom have spent the last couple days hanging out. Enrique from Brazil who spoke excellent french but not much english and after having an extremely broken conversation with in french offered to keep an eye out for the socks I lost in the laundry room in Paris. (They were my favourite blue stripy ones!) Ingrid from Mexico City who I met in Lyon after having "issues" with my dorm door and ended up spending 2 days exploring the city with, and who is awesome! Andrea from Chile who loves art and who I followed from Lyon to Nice, with whom I got into a 4 hour conversation about Action art. Chris from Toronto who is headed to Interlocken in Switzerland to leap off cliffs. Jen and Suzie, who are halarious and with whom I got into all sorts of trouble in Nice with. And a whole whack of others for short but neat conversations.

An Amazing Two Weeks

I've landed in the Villa St. Exupery (still in Nice, just a different hostel) with delicious free internet! So it's time to give a little more detail on the places I haven't had time to talk about. Excuse the spelling though. Even though this keyboard is proper, it types too slowly and I make mistakes.

The British Library, London England
Anyone who is a bibliophile MUST go here. The British Library contains a room set aside to showcase its collection of antique books. And I don't mean antique as in the 30s. Let me give you an example: Upon waling into the tastefully darkened room, I caught sight of an illuminated (big word for "it's got pictures") bible. Approx age? 350 AD. Next to it lies a huge leather bound first edition by some guy named Shakespeare. Over in it's own room is a series of documents written on what I first assumed was sheep's bladder. This presents a certain amount of confusion on my part until the exhibit explains that the grey shrivelled hanging off the bottom is in fact a wax seal and not some vestigial organ that proved too difficult to remove. These documents are original versions of the Magna Carta. And all these for free!

Hostel Le D'Artagnan, Paris France
Interesting place. The decore is something out of an arcade. Every wall is a different colour. Weird signs on the walls. I liked it. Though I will admit the blue light by the computers is bloody hard on the eyes. And the pink light in the laundry room meant I thought I'd turned my knickers purple.

The Eiffel Tower, Paris France
This was the first thing I did when I arrived in Paris. I came out of the Metro station, rounded a building, climbed up some stairs and BAM! There was the frickin' Eiffel Tower. Couldn't have asked for a more dramatic reveal. Didn't stop smiling for hours. It really drove home the fact that I definitely was not at home. That I was really on this trip. I'm on it. I'm in it. And it's awesome.

The Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Musee D'Orsay
The next day I pried myself out of bed as early as I could (7:30am, rough I know!). As it rurned out it was the first Sunday of the month and many museums were free. Including the Louvre. Now I figured there'd be a line up (or a "queue" in brit speak). If I had read it in my Lonely Planet then so did everyone else. But even pre-warned as I was the line up blew me away. Still it only took about 45mins or so to get in. Not bad considering it took me an hour and a half to get up the Eiffel Tower!
Like everyone there I scooted over to see the Mona Lisa, but opted out of the DaVinci Code audio guide (voiced by Jean Reneau!). Mona is a beautiful panting, a bit dark, yellowed, and small, but still very beautiful. Though she seems a bit dwarfed when you turn around and on the opposite wall is an absolutely mamoth battle painting in gorgeous vibran colours. I recommend the rest of the Louvre too. And if you need a break from the crowd, but don't want to leave, head for the Objet D'Art section. Dead quite and you get to check out some amazing tapestries and things.

Taking a look at my trusty map, I noticed that Notre Dame (the famous one, they're all called Notre Dame something something) wasn't too far away and decided to hoof it on over for some photos. But as maps often do, it lied and those tiny blocks were a lot longer than they looked. I got there eventually though and have pictures to prove it. It's pretty and curly and sufficiently gothic. Great gargoyles too!

The Musee D'Orsay was another map error, but unlike the Louvre it's closed on Monday's so it had to be done. They have a reconstructed Art Neavaux (spelt wrong I know, sorry there's no dictionary here) room that I wanted to stay in forever. The Renoir and Toulouse exhibits were good too. Always neat to see something in real life that you've only known from books. Though I wasn't all that impressed with the Rodin they had. I've seen better.

Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, Paris France
This is where Jim Morisson, Oscar Wilde, and a whole lot of other people both famous and not so famous are buried. It's only about 25mins by foot from the hostel, so I figured what the heck. Crazy place. It's packed with mausoleums with hardly any space between them. Was torn between finding it very beautiful and being really creeped out. But there are lots of gardens and trees though, so it's not totally barren. Jim Morisson's was small and modest, very unlike the man. But neat to see it covered with gifts. Oscar Wilde's on the other hand was a huge naked art deco flying man covered in lipstick marks.

Where the hell have I been?

Ok, looks like blogger has decided to behave so it's time for an update.
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time, internet is expensive in France and it takes me 5 times as long to write anything as the keyboards are SERIOUSLY messed up.

Lyon was beautiful. Terracotta rooftops and stone chimnies cover the old quarter, with church spires scattered between. Despite having such anold part of the city, Lyon feels quite young and laid back. Reminds me of Vancouver in it's laid-back-ness.

Discovered that the quaint curving street that listed my hostel on my map was in fact a nightmare of a cardiac buster. My hostel is perched way the hell up on the side of a steep hill. My room is actually the basement and really really scummy. I took my glasses off in the bathroom, too scary! It does however have an absolutely breathtaking view of the city and lots of friendly people. So I guess you really do have to take the good with the bad.

Today I find myself in Nice. Originally I had planned to go to Avingon before Nice, but couldn't find a place to stay. All booking happens online these days, so it was all full before I could get there. So straight to Nice it is and it's been a FABULOUS time. Sure Nice is touristy, but I kinda like it. And what am I doing in Nice? Absolutely nothing but hang out on the beach.
Oh the hard life of a backpacker!

Quickie Update

Ok, the time is running out on my Internet session, so I'll have to make this quick. :)
The last 3 days have been pretty frickin' amazing.

Friday:
Did the Portobello Road market (could have bought everything!) and the British Library (awesome for bibliophiles).

Saturday:
Took the Chunnel train from London Waterloo to Paris, then saw the Eiffel Tower in the evening (it's huge!).

Sunday:
Was free museum day so saw the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Musee D'Orsay.

Monday (today for me):
Spent most of the morning waiting in line to buy my train ticket to Lyon. Spent the afternoon with Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde in the Pere Lachaise cemetery (beautiful, but gave me the heebee geebies)

Tomorrow: LYON!

I promise I'll give a more detailed update when I get some more time.
Blogger's been a real pain lately though, so if you don't hear from me, fear not!

Hallelujah!

All praise the mighty ATM card!

C-c-c-cold!

Bloody hell! London's freezing today.
It's not so bad when the wind isn't blowing, but when it does it chills to the bone. It's also raining... and I forgot my rain jacket... and it's just my hoodie between me and frostiness.

Anyways, got the travellers cheques thing sorted out yesterday. Costly, but done.
Which meant I could do a bit more exploring. In the last two days I've done Covent Garden, Southbank, St. Paul's, Whitehall Street, and Trafalgar square. In no particular order.
LOVE Southbank. It's a bit like Granville Island, but well... older.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this week is a holiday for Brits. There were literally HORDES of families around Southbank and Covent Garden today and the wordes "bank holiday" keep popping up. Coincidence? I think not.