Now we're sure you've all been missing us lots, so we've decided to come back so that you can all tell us how much. What have we done since our last blog you ask, basically Copenhagen, which has been the least busy stop of our trip due to the fact that its the only place where prices are higher than the UK, and so we can't really afford to do anything. This means we've spent most of our time cooking pasta, (with onion, tomato puree and cheap cheese), which even I am now sick of, but is all we could afford (and even then only by buying onions in bulk). Oh, and for the record cheap horrible cheese here costs about the same as cheese in England. Although we have managed to save up enough money to go on a bus tour of the city seeing all the major sites and to buy an unlimited ride ticket to the Tivoli Gardens (just not quite enough to buy an entrance ticket aswell but as usual our powers of persuassion have been endlessly useful). hahaha, we were discussing today how cheeky we've been at certain points on this trip.. more of these stories when we get home... not long to wait now ;)
the tivoli gardens were awesome, definitely the highlight of copenhagen! And definitely worth not paying to get into. Lol. we are very sad to be leaving, it seems like ages since we wrote the first blog! we have decided there are far cooler places to be than England. Yes, we're not entirely sure Copenhagen is one of them (although Tivoli may swing it) but there are definatly much cooler places, e.g. Paris, Sete, Rome, Naples, Venice, Bolzano, Innsbruck train station, Ljubliana, Salzburg, Vienna, Krakow, Zilina (well the like 3 streets we saw), Prague and Berlin. And of course the many places in Italy we plan to visit next summer.
And of course the tour of the City was quite cool. We saw like all the big places by bus, Little Mermaid, the changing of the Guards (one of whom really freaked out when I walked behind him!), etc. then saw many of them again from the boat, (little mermaid etc.). All the guide books said she was "disappointingly little" but I don't get it, she's life sized, which for a statue named "LITTLE mermaid" is I'd have thought is the biggest you can expect.
well thats about it from us, for the last time this trip, a fond farewell! but this wont be the last blog you get from us! thanks for reading. lots of love dani and scott xxxxxxxxxx
Song of the Moment: Mark Owen - 4 Minute Warning
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Friday, 8 August 2008
Homeward Bound
We´re in Copenhagen, we actually made it! I think I´m actually more shocked than you guys. Our train got in all of an hour and a half before our interrail ticket ran out - and it went over a Ferry!!! It was possibly one of the most exciting moments.. of my life. we had no idea until the people that were sitting next to us told us that at some point we would be going on a ferry on the train, otherwise we would have just thought they were saying "get off the train" for uh... legal reasons??!?!?! so yeah that was pretty awesome. i went to the loo on the train, and thought id missed it. turns out it was quite a long crossing. 45 minutes in fact! I thought it was quite exciting too, but to be honest more because it had a duty free, which meant we bought enough to drink for our 4 nights in Copenhagen which turns out to be a very good thing when you see the prices here. We just spent £3 on lunch - for which we got 3 coissants, from a supermarket, and like £1.50 for a bottle of Oringina, and this wasn´t in a Posh Cafe, just a corner supermarket!
we went into a second hand clothes shop and scotts eyes nearly dropped out of his head when he saw a rugby top for €16. They were 190DKK, so like £12 I think, its shocking. I could buy a new rugby to for less than that, they weren´t even like famous strips, just your average public school rugby to that some kid somewhere grew out of and his mum gave to a charity shop!
our experiences of copenhagen so far have been, mixed. our hostel has like 30 beds in one room and this was after we fell out with the first one and left, and found our new hostel at about 12.30am! they also have communal showers and a hefty charge for the internet. but hey... as scott says this mornings going to be the last morning we wake up there without a hangover! at this point he says i should mention that the point of this was because the showers were cold. which is good when you have a hangover (?!). So the Hostel may not be ideal, but it is better than the one we booked into, which despite accepting our booking, about a month ago, and confirming about 2 days ago, didn´t have our booking. In fact the room we booked didn´t even exist! when we arrived we got told they had no mixed dorms (ie you can´t stay in the same room) something of an issue given that by this point our cloths, money, and washbag are totally mixed up between the two bags, so it makes it rather an impracticallity to stay in different rooms, that aren´t even that near each other. given that boys and girls weren´t allowed in each others dorms atall we would have to meet in the hall each time we wanted to wash, clean our teeth or get dressed. so yeah, our experiences of copenhagen have been mixed, further reinforced by the fact that the last hostel we stayed in, in berlin has become the yardstick against which all hostels shall be measured. i actually want to move into it and live there forever. its also raining. very heavily. so we're sheltering in a library where there is free internet. and newspapers in english! and sofas! so thats pretty cool. and we're going to a flea market tomorrow (im a little put off by the name flea in the title) so all is good. we also have 3 litres of wine and half a litre of jagermeister!
remind us to talk about the "weinerei cafe" when we get home.. it was really awesome in berlin but have to go pretty soon so not enough time.
Anyway, while the internet is free you are also allowed only 20 minutes, we´ve been on half an hour (since no-one was waiting) but now someone is, so we must say our goodbye´s;
Bye.
tah - rah.
Song of the Moment: Abba - Money, Money, Money
we went into a second hand clothes shop and scotts eyes nearly dropped out of his head when he saw a rugby top for €16. They were 190DKK, so like £12 I think, its shocking. I could buy a new rugby to for less than that, they weren´t even like famous strips, just your average public school rugby to that some kid somewhere grew out of and his mum gave to a charity shop!
our experiences of copenhagen so far have been, mixed. our hostel has like 30 beds in one room and this was after we fell out with the first one and left, and found our new hostel at about 12.30am! they also have communal showers and a hefty charge for the internet. but hey... as scott says this mornings going to be the last morning we wake up there without a hangover! at this point he says i should mention that the point of this was because the showers were cold. which is good when you have a hangover (?!). So the Hostel may not be ideal, but it is better than the one we booked into, which despite accepting our booking, about a month ago, and confirming about 2 days ago, didn´t have our booking. In fact the room we booked didn´t even exist! when we arrived we got told they had no mixed dorms (ie you can´t stay in the same room) something of an issue given that by this point our cloths, money, and washbag are totally mixed up between the two bags, so it makes it rather an impracticallity to stay in different rooms, that aren´t even that near each other. given that boys and girls weren´t allowed in each others dorms atall we would have to meet in the hall each time we wanted to wash, clean our teeth or get dressed. so yeah, our experiences of copenhagen have been mixed, further reinforced by the fact that the last hostel we stayed in, in berlin has become the yardstick against which all hostels shall be measured. i actually want to move into it and live there forever. its also raining. very heavily. so we're sheltering in a library where there is free internet. and newspapers in english! and sofas! so thats pretty cool. and we're going to a flea market tomorrow (im a little put off by the name flea in the title) so all is good. we also have 3 litres of wine and half a litre of jagermeister!
remind us to talk about the "weinerei cafe" when we get home.. it was really awesome in berlin but have to go pretty soon so not enough time.
Anyway, while the internet is free you are also allowed only 20 minutes, we´ve been on half an hour (since no-one was waiting) but now someone is, so we must say our goodbye´s;
Bye.
tah - rah.
Song of the Moment: Abba - Money, Money, Money
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
"From Paris to Berlin, in every disco we get in..." (so close and still in one piece)
So our interrail ticket runs out in all of 11 hours and we´re just about to leave our penultimate stop, Berlin, which btw has been amazing. Before we tell you about that though I have a slight complaint. I know we´re nearly finished, and you guys have pretty much decided we´re on the home straight, and its plain sailing from here, but there´s no need to totally stop caring about us, so a little more appreciation for this blog than the last (show via well thought out and interesting comments) would be great.
scott has checked the blog for comments every day and has come off the internet saying sadly "no comments :(" you guys should be ashamed of yourselves!
Anyway, moving on from that sad note, Berlin has been awesome. yesterday we went to an... interesting museum, which would have been great except for the fact that it was written entirely in german and russian. i guess we should have realised from the name "german-russian museum" huh?! And they really didn´t like tourists foreigners (ie not German/Russians) being there - we were getting evils from the people running it the whole time, and the book we got in English said they didn´t have English titles due to a lack of space. To be honest from what i seen there was plenty of space available for a bit of english shoved on the side, i mean movable plaques or something at the very least! then they could just have got them out from their shameful positions on the side when they had english visitors and no one would have needed to know there was english there!! In short, the English were allowed in, but no welcomed.
On a brighter note, the other museum and the tour we did were both awesome. The tour covered all the major sites in Berlin, checkpoint charlie and one of the last sections of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Quarter and Museum Island. Along with lots of cool stories about the History of Germany (its formation, how WWI started, how it lead to WWII and then the divide of Berlin and eventual fall of the Berlin wall). I learnt more than I have in years of History lessons. It really put the stuff in other countries into context, since for obvious reasons Berlin is at the centre of European History over the last 100 years. Its where world history was changed forever with two words - "effective immediatly"! (ask when we get home)
The other museum was the "Museum of everyday life in the DDR" Deutchland Democratic Republic - not as Democratic as it sounds, it was the name of Communist, Dictatorship east Germany! ok so gotta be quick coz we have a train to catch, but yeah this museum was awesome. its really interactive so they have a wardrobe of clothes that were available for east germans at that time which you could try on. Dont ask to see pictures when we get home, theyre never leaving my pc. but more on that when we get home. we must be off now folks, we will blog again before we see you again. Yes must rush, we have a train to catch - that if we miss leaves us far from our flight home (127€ each to be precise) and that we havn´t technically booked as such. So may be an idea to get there in plenty of time. :p
lots of love dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment (by popular demand, but we'd already thought of it anyway) : Infernal - From Paris to Berlin
scott has checked the blog for comments every day and has come off the internet saying sadly "no comments :(" you guys should be ashamed of yourselves!
Anyway, moving on from that sad note, Berlin has been awesome. yesterday we went to an... interesting museum, which would have been great except for the fact that it was written entirely in german and russian. i guess we should have realised from the name "german-russian museum" huh?! And they really didn´t like tourists foreigners (ie not German/Russians) being there - we were getting evils from the people running it the whole time, and the book we got in English said they didn´t have English titles due to a lack of space. To be honest from what i seen there was plenty of space available for a bit of english shoved on the side, i mean movable plaques or something at the very least! then they could just have got them out from their shameful positions on the side when they had english visitors and no one would have needed to know there was english there!! In short, the English were allowed in, but no welcomed.
On a brighter note, the other museum and the tour we did were both awesome. The tour covered all the major sites in Berlin, checkpoint charlie and one of the last sections of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Quarter and Museum Island. Along with lots of cool stories about the History of Germany (its formation, how WWI started, how it lead to WWII and then the divide of Berlin and eventual fall of the Berlin wall). I learnt more than I have in years of History lessons. It really put the stuff in other countries into context, since for obvious reasons Berlin is at the centre of European History over the last 100 years. Its where world history was changed forever with two words - "effective immediatly"! (ask when we get home)
The other museum was the "Museum of everyday life in the DDR" Deutchland Democratic Republic - not as Democratic as it sounds, it was the name of Communist, Dictatorship east Germany! ok so gotta be quick coz we have a train to catch, but yeah this museum was awesome. its really interactive so they have a wardrobe of clothes that were available for east germans at that time which you could try on. Dont ask to see pictures when we get home, theyre never leaving my pc. but more on that when we get home. we must be off now folks, we will blog again before we see you again. Yes must rush, we have a train to catch - that if we miss leaves us far from our flight home (127€ each to be precise) and that we havn´t technically booked as such. So may be an idea to get there in plenty of time. :p
lots of love dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment (by popular demand, but we'd already thought of it anyway) : Infernal - From Paris to Berlin
Saturday, 2 August 2008
We're In Prague Czech Us Out!!
Just got to Prague, which is awesome, staying in a great place and city is awesome. We had a very near miss when we first got here, but we'll save that story for when we get home, lets just say we very nearly became worse off than many communist refugees. But other than that prague is awesome, went to a jazz bar last night. scott wants to talk about krakow first though, so over and out for now. Basically last thing before leaving Krakow we went to Auchwitz and Burkenheim (spelling couretsy of Dani coz i didn't have a clue) and I don't think I should say it was good, in fact all the normal verbs to describte tourist attractions are out, but I think awesome (not in a "it was great" way but a literal, but a shocking scale of it way) is the best I can find. it really was shocking, we watched a film after (in polish coz we missed the english version) but the general jist was pretty clear, graphic is the least i can say. ive got to say though, the worst thing about it was the smell, like a hospital. i dont know if that was psycho-sematic though. I think basically all we can tell you is things you already know from TV documentories and History lessons, but its totally different to see the sheer size of the place, and the piles of shoes etc. that they found when they liberated the camp - just to think each pair of shoes is one person. If Shindlers list made you cry then it'll blow you mind to see it in reality.
Anyway, after this made a move for Prague, which has been awesome. We found a really good, authentic czech pub with a really cheap menu (like 100 Kc or less for a main course). Only problem was when the bill came it was getting on for twice what we expected. He had charged us 4 times the cost of my dumplings (because there where 4 on the plate), a service charge of 60 Kc (not mentioned on the menu), for my beer the more expensive not the cheaper one (like 8 Kc extra)and had ontop of that put a 10% or 15% tip. We dicussed this with him, explaining that its common practice to charge the price stated on the menu. He then dropped everything bar the 60 Kc service charge and extra 8 Kc for beer, which works out to just under 3 euro's over what he should have charged us, so i gave up arguing and paid at this point - still the cheapest meal we've had in Prague, and one of the better ones other than the service.
Lol scott was very angry, it was quite amusing. nearly as angry as when this hostel in prague gave away our rooms, so he told them that maybe they should train their staff to take names for reservations and not give away rooms in future. hahahahahaha. To be fair, we had a reservation, the lady on the phone said that unless she had our name written down we didn't, I explained we had offered to give a name but been told there was no need, so prehaps if they need names for booking staff should be told to take names for bookings, seems logical to me. it was very logical, but also very funny!
anyway, i cant believe we only have 2 places left to go, it makes me very sad. although very surprised as our bags are still almost in 1 piece!! we're just hoping they come off the plane like that aswell! Lol..
ok.. next thing.. free walking tour! scott made us get up really early to go on this walking tour which actually turned out to be quite good. (though i will never admit he was right) I'm pretty sure you just did but I'll be the bigger man and let it go. i should hope you'd be the bigger man seeing as im a girl! he admitted i was right and always am last night though, so i might let him have this one.
Anyway, what did we do in Prague - ummm, went out to Jazz Bars (one just round the corner from the one we went to last time, then the bar, not the actuall show, of the one we went to last time), drank lots of beer, and are just about to go to a Communism museum on our last day.
over and out chaps. we have to go as theres someone else waiting for the pc, plus we have a lot more beer to drink before we can leave!
Next stop Berlin.
lots of love to you all... dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment; Dont Stop Me Now - Queen
Anyway, after this made a move for Prague, which has been awesome. We found a really good, authentic czech pub with a really cheap menu (like 100 Kc or less for a main course). Only problem was when the bill came it was getting on for twice what we expected. He had charged us 4 times the cost of my dumplings (because there where 4 on the plate), a service charge of 60 Kc (not mentioned on the menu), for my beer the more expensive not the cheaper one (like 8 Kc extra)and had ontop of that put a 10% or 15% tip. We dicussed this with him, explaining that its common practice to charge the price stated on the menu. He then dropped everything bar the 60 Kc service charge and extra 8 Kc for beer, which works out to just under 3 euro's over what he should have charged us, so i gave up arguing and paid at this point - still the cheapest meal we've had in Prague, and one of the better ones other than the service.
Lol scott was very angry, it was quite amusing. nearly as angry as when this hostel in prague gave away our rooms, so he told them that maybe they should train their staff to take names for reservations and not give away rooms in future. hahahahahaha. To be fair, we had a reservation, the lady on the phone said that unless she had our name written down we didn't, I explained we had offered to give a name but been told there was no need, so prehaps if they need names for booking staff should be told to take names for bookings, seems logical to me. it was very logical, but also very funny!
anyway, i cant believe we only have 2 places left to go, it makes me very sad. although very surprised as our bags are still almost in 1 piece!! we're just hoping they come off the plane like that aswell! Lol..
ok.. next thing.. free walking tour! scott made us get up really early to go on this walking tour which actually turned out to be quite good. (though i will never admit he was right) I'm pretty sure you just did but I'll be the bigger man and let it go. i should hope you'd be the bigger man seeing as im a girl! he admitted i was right and always am last night though, so i might let him have this one.
Anyway, what did we do in Prague - ummm, went out to Jazz Bars (one just round the corner from the one we went to last time, then the bar, not the actuall show, of the one we went to last time), drank lots of beer, and are just about to go to a Communism museum on our last day.
over and out chaps. we have to go as theres someone else waiting for the pc, plus we have a lot more beer to drink before we can leave!
Next stop Berlin.
lots of love to you all... dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment; Dont Stop Me Now - Queen
Monday, 28 July 2008
Oh and one more thing...
Why has no-one tried our Rissotto recipe from France? I want comments, you like? :P
Austria
woah so much has happened since we last blogged, (of course we've waited till now to tell you any of it since we have free internet here) firstly after leaving ljubljana we went back to salzburg, we went for a free walking tour and rented bikes, went up monk mountain, one of the biggest forts in europe. basically some archbishops got a bit of centre of the world-itis and built a huge palace as a kinda shrine to themselves with the trinity replaced with themselves. there is of course the slightly more practical element of protecting them, a little over board though, the rooms of the archbishops are about the size of my house. also, should bishops really be involved in wars?! I liked the fact that the fortress was totally inpenitrable, it fought off attackers like a dozen times (well 2/3 atleast) but then in the end it surrendered to the French (i think) without a fight, what a waste. then we tried (notice the use of the word tried) to find helbrunn palace on bikes, the most successful thing we did was ride our bikes really fast down a hill! (We saw a road sign to Hellbrunn at one point, but followed it and then there weren't any more) so we gave up on that and rode down along the river, where we found a lot of people singing amazing grace, we eventually found out it was an anti abortion march (1000 ungeboren jeden tag) though quite what amazing grace had to do with it im not sure. Oh, and the other thing to know about Salzburg is their obsessed with the sound of music. The Hostel we were in showed it daily! There are "Sound of Music Tours" where you drive round in a "Panoramic Bus" seeing places it was filmed and listening to the Sound of Music Soundtrack ("See and Hear it all in just 4 hours"). what shocks me is that you have to PAY to do this?!?! I'm more impressed by the fact that a three hour film has a four hour sound track. Anyway, needless to say that however much we may have wanted to do the sound of music tour it was slightly out of our budget so we has to, unfortunatly, pass on this occassion.
Anyway, moving on from Salzburg we went to Hallstatt (leaving our bags in Salzburg). Stayed there one night, and on the morning before leaving went to the salt mines which were quite cool. After seeing the "Ice Man" we also heard about the "Man of Salt" a prehistoric miner killed by a cave in, and preserved in salt. However rather than keeping him for acheological research he was burried when he was found and is now lost somewhere in Hallstat grave yard. But the tour guide couldn't tell us this herself, we were slightly dissappointed to here that "you can spent 3 minutes not understanding Joseph (a miner) then can watch another video". so we didnt understand joseph, but we also didnt understand the video... the subtitles were backwards accross the screen! (like a mirror image of what it should look like) there was a really clear underground lake of which we took 1 stunning picture where you can see all of a black screen and then the camera ran out of battery. Its not all bad though, the picture really helps you appreciate the dark conditions the poor miners had to work in. lol it doesnt help you appreciate the lake so much though...
we stayed with a really sweet old couple in a tiny b and b, meaning a spare room in their house. I dont know if we've told you much about Hallstatt, its a little village perched on the side of a cliff looking over the halstatter see, it can only be reached by boat from the train station, and the salt mines there are the oldest in the world still to be mined.
What I loved about their mining process is that they used to just break out and carry up lumps of rock, but now they have a better way, they pump water into holes where there's salt, the salt dissolves, and they pump out salt water to a treatment plant where the water is evaporated to get salt again. This seems much more simple than mining it out, and it is, but given that they live on a salt lake is there no an easy way to get salt water than mining into the mountain for it???
ok moving on from hallstatt we realised there was a significant flaw in our master plan... our bags were still in salzburg. (we were doing a round trip, so no point taking bags, in the end that plan changed and we just had to double back on ourselves to collect them) and eventually ended up asleep on the floor of a train on the way to vienna. where having spent ourso we returned to the hostel, accidently drank a lot hostel money on alcohol we slept on the floor of the train station. (We ressented the idea of paying full price for a Hostel when we would arrive at 1am and have to check out by 10, and no-where gave a discount to us for only staying half a night). some austrian security guards woke us up at half 5 the next day shouting guten morgan, im not sure we could agree with that! by mid day we were on our 3rd coffee shop, though funnily enough our guide book says thats an essential part of viennese culture, we like to think we've experienced it the best way! For the third Coffee Shop we went somewhere specially recommended by the book, and it was really Vienesse. A little coffee shop with big Sofa's either side of each table, a tram line just outside the window and newspapers (unfortunatly in German) everywhere.
Anyway soon enough it was time to leave, we headed out to the Sud Bahnhof by tram to catch the train to Brataslava, in the end we missed it by 5 minutes, and the next one was 55 minutes later. But we were in luck, there was a train to Krakow, so we caught that. We'll double back on ourselves to Brataslavva before going to Praha, but it actually saves us a day! this way we got a couchette aswell rather than a train station floor, which we both felt we deserved after a night in vienna train station. we nearly fell asleep on freuds couch in the museum we went to! a couchette is 6 beds in one carrige about 14 euros each, well worth it i think, you sleep much better than just in the seats.
oh by the way: mum whats nan and papa's post code?! i tried to post them a postcard in austria but didnt know it. So after forgetting to post it in Italy, not having the postcode in Austria, and hopefully actually being posted in Poland its becoming one of the best souvenirs you could want, collecting stamps from each country we've visited (well, 3 of them). it has 3 stamps already, i wonder how many by the time it gets home?!?! anyway, send me a text if you could or i might beat it home!
So thats the story of the last few days, plan from here is to head to Bratislava eventually, but we'll see what happens, love to you all,
Scott and Dani
Song of the Moment (for Salzburg); The Sound of Music (doe - a deer, a female deer etc.)
Song of the Moment (for Hallstatt); Whistle While You Work (for the mining)
Song of the Moment (for Vienna); Whatever Will Be Will Be (for trains)
Anyway, moving on from Salzburg we went to Hallstatt (leaving our bags in Salzburg). Stayed there one night, and on the morning before leaving went to the salt mines which were quite cool. After seeing the "Ice Man" we also heard about the "Man of Salt" a prehistoric miner killed by a cave in, and preserved in salt. However rather than keeping him for acheological research he was burried when he was found and is now lost somewhere in Hallstat grave yard. But the tour guide couldn't tell us this herself, we were slightly dissappointed to here that "you can spent 3 minutes not understanding Joseph (a miner) then can watch another video". so we didnt understand joseph, but we also didnt understand the video... the subtitles were backwards accross the screen! (like a mirror image of what it should look like) there was a really clear underground lake of which we took 1 stunning picture where you can see all of a black screen and then the camera ran out of battery. Its not all bad though, the picture really helps you appreciate the dark conditions the poor miners had to work in. lol it doesnt help you appreciate the lake so much though...
we stayed with a really sweet old couple in a tiny b and b, meaning a spare room in their house. I dont know if we've told you much about Hallstatt, its a little village perched on the side of a cliff looking over the halstatter see, it can only be reached by boat from the train station, and the salt mines there are the oldest in the world still to be mined.
What I loved about their mining process is that they used to just break out and carry up lumps of rock, but now they have a better way, they pump water into holes where there's salt, the salt dissolves, and they pump out salt water to a treatment plant where the water is evaporated to get salt again. This seems much more simple than mining it out, and it is, but given that they live on a salt lake is there no an easy way to get salt water than mining into the mountain for it???
ok moving on from hallstatt we realised there was a significant flaw in our master plan... our bags were still in salzburg. (we were doing a round trip, so no point taking bags, in the end that plan changed and we just had to double back on ourselves to collect them) and eventually ended up asleep on the floor of a train on the way to vienna. where having spent ourso we returned to the hostel, accidently drank a lot hostel money on alcohol we slept on the floor of the train station. (We ressented the idea of paying full price for a Hostel when we would arrive at 1am and have to check out by 10, and no-where gave a discount to us for only staying half a night). some austrian security guards woke us up at half 5 the next day shouting guten morgan, im not sure we could agree with that! by mid day we were on our 3rd coffee shop, though funnily enough our guide book says thats an essential part of viennese culture, we like to think we've experienced it the best way! For the third Coffee Shop we went somewhere specially recommended by the book, and it was really Vienesse. A little coffee shop with big Sofa's either side of each table, a tram line just outside the window and newspapers (unfortunatly in German) everywhere.
Anyway soon enough it was time to leave, we headed out to the Sud Bahnhof by tram to catch the train to Brataslava, in the end we missed it by 5 minutes, and the next one was 55 minutes later. But we were in luck, there was a train to Krakow, so we caught that. We'll double back on ourselves to Brataslavva before going to Praha, but it actually saves us a day! this way we got a couchette aswell rather than a train station floor, which we both felt we deserved after a night in vienna train station. we nearly fell asleep on freuds couch in the museum we went to! a couchette is 6 beds in one carrige about 14 euros each, well worth it i think, you sleep much better than just in the seats.
oh by the way: mum whats nan and papa's post code?! i tried to post them a postcard in austria but didnt know it. So after forgetting to post it in Italy, not having the postcode in Austria, and hopefully actually being posted in Poland its becoming one of the best souvenirs you could want, collecting stamps from each country we've visited (well, 3 of them). it has 3 stamps already, i wonder how many by the time it gets home?!?! anyway, send me a text if you could or i might beat it home!
So thats the story of the last few days, plan from here is to head to Bratislava eventually, but we'll see what happens, love to you all,
Scott and Dani
Song of the Moment (for Salzburg); The Sound of Music (doe - a deer, a female deer etc.)
Song of the Moment (for Hallstatt); Whistle While You Work (for the mining)
Song of the Moment (for Vienna); Whatever Will Be Will Be (for trains)
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Free internet access needs to be abused so I thought I'd tell you all about Ljubljana some more. Basically, its awesome. We went to the "Museum of Contempory History" the other day and basically its facinating! Its about the formation of Slovenia, which became a country 16 years ago. Before that the area was part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy till end of WWI, then a democracy till '29, then a dictatorship, then from '31 Communist (part of Yugoslavia), then in 1990 the rebellion started forming the Republic of Slovenia, which was accepted as the 173rd UN member in 1992. Anyway - however awesome the museum was thats probably boring if you havn't been there. We also found a really cool vegi restaurant. Basically a quite awesome day, especially given we arrived here at 6.00 yday and spent the first 2 hours in the train station waiting for the TIC to open and find us beds. In the end we ended up here, which has beds, and free internet, but is otherwise not great. Ironically its more expensive than the B&B in Venice, which is meant to be really touristy, but to be fair the B&B in Venice was more just the bed part with a couple of stale roles.
Hmmmm, running out of stuff to say now, today we went to a castle and did washing, neither was that interesting really, and not worth talking about.
This may have been a slightly dull blog but what you gona do, its late, i'm tired,
Anyway, half way through and still in one piece, even if our bags may not be,
Scott
Song of the Moment; Perfect Day (coz yday was awesome)
Hmmmm, running out of stuff to say now, today we went to a castle and did washing, neither was that interesting really, and not worth talking about.
This may have been a slightly dull blog but what you gona do, its late, i'm tired,
Anyway, half way through and still in one piece, even if our bags may not be,
Scott
Song of the Moment; Perfect Day (coz yday was awesome)
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Ljubjub
we have actually discovered that ljubljana is actually pronounced lubliana, the woman in the train station was most confused when we requested tickets! we went to see the ice man yesterday (he was very well preserved *giggle*) (Dani finds it funy that his willy hadn't rotted and was still very much intact).
there was loads of really interesting stuff about him, they know that the last meal he ate was seeds and deer meat, that his eyes were blue and he was probably about 46 when he died which was very old for a copper age bloke. He was 5ft 2 - 5ft 4 depending on what part of the museum you believe and he had siye 5 feet. He died a violent death, killed by another copper aged bloke, not suprising he lost the fight really, short ass. lol, they still have his hat, its perfectly preserved with all the straps intact and everything, we found it very funny that his clothes (and bag) are in better condition after 5300 years frozen than ours will be after 6 weeks round europe. one of the small bags is almost in 2 pieces now, we have decided to store all our valubles in it as we think no theif would think we're stupid enough to store our stuff in something thats falling apart, plus it looks very much like a hobo bag. plus we can see them through the bag and check theyre not being stolen! More to the point if our valuable were in a bag in one piece we'de have to watch one bag to make sure it didn't break and one for the valuables, eggs in one basket is the much better solution, even if the basket is breaking.
we spent last night in salzburg train station, drinking wine in sleeping bags on the floor with a thermarest and broken bags, scott hasnt washed in 4 days could we look much more hoboish? To be fair to go against the Hobo image the wine we were drinking was a very nice Pino Grigio, and the fact that we bought it at a place that sells wine from the vat, by the litre, which we used to fill a plastic water bottle is irrelevant!
we walked up the seiseralm before we left bolzano, scott will tell you about the serious stuff about it, all i care about is that we saw cows WITH BELLS!!!!!
And we walked up the big peak in the centre of the seiseralm, called Panorama, seriously cool view (2011 meters, we walked from the top of the cable car, don't know how high that was). And by the time we got to the top we we're both starved, but had no money for lunch if we planned on paying for our campsite (which the guy had already reduced to 20 euros a night from 28 for us). ironically tho we kept the money back coz we thought he wouldnt accept travellers cheques, he did in the end! Dani was very upset that we both starved for a day for no good reason (we shared one coissant for lunch, and a couple of biscuits, after a days hard walking up a big ass hill, then had to walk down again, and had to walk not only to the top of the cable car but to the bottom (about 2 hrs, 7/8/9K) because we couldn't afford the cable car return, only one way.
scott doesnt mention that for the last half of our journey down the mountain it was torrential rain! neither of our shoes are dry yet. we have noticed that rain seems to follow us wherever we go. we have only been to one place where it hasnt rained so far, and thats coz we were only there for 1 night! It also didn't rain in Monacco which was atleast 4 hours we were there. Lol, we arrived in ljubljana this morning to the beautiful sight of.... rain!
Back to the hill though it was absolutely torrential rain, anyone who was on the Gold D of E final with me, only marginally better than that, and we had a cheap mac each and that was it for rain gear (it was really sunny when we left). Plus we had to walk down the mountain with no map, so it was a case of, go down hill and hope we come across a town we recognise (sies) or our campsite at some point.
i was only wearing a skirt! it was very cold! still we got through by singing if you're happy and you know it clap your hands, i dont think ive ever invented so many verses! (if your happy and you know it say "I'm wet"/say "I'm cold"/say "We're nearly home"/wave to the car/pretend you're a train/poke Dani etc.
Anyway, we are now in Ljubjub, and since we both are wearing all our clean cloths (and after a night on the train the term clean is used loosely) we'd best go do some washing.
Sorry for no song of the moment last time, forgot/couldn't think of one, but this blog;
Song of the Moment; "Always take the weather" - i think its by travis im not sure. scott wants why does it always rain on me coz he thinks its about rainbows. Dani thinks its too sad, but a song that has the line "Why does it always rain on me, even when the sun is shinning..." must be about rainbows and is therefore happy, and appropriate to our wet situation!
Oh, and can we have a vote for which people think is the better song (because I'm clearly right :p) but always take the weather is appropriate because a) we're english and b) whats the weather like guys?! also because its more happy. (More happy than a song about rainbows, hmmm, not so sure). its not even ABOUT rainbows! the rain is a metaphor for his depression not literal rain. Thats much to deep and boring, mines more fun and therefore more right, and also is simpler, Occams Razor. scott has spelt that wrong but im not telling him how to spell it coz then he will (falsley or not) be invoking the power of the wonderful oc***m. See the below the belt tactics of my opponent, that is enough reason in itself to vote for me. Anyway, we'd best take our couples squable/election campaign to the laundrette :p hehe, love to you all, VOTE "RAIN ON ME",
(dont - look up o****ms razor, it doesnt work anyway, plus the song is just rubbish)
Scott and Dani (big love) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
there was loads of really interesting stuff about him, they know that the last meal he ate was seeds and deer meat, that his eyes were blue and he was probably about 46 when he died which was very old for a copper age bloke. He was 5ft 2 - 5ft 4 depending on what part of the museum you believe and he had siye 5 feet. He died a violent death, killed by another copper aged bloke, not suprising he lost the fight really, short ass. lol, they still have his hat, its perfectly preserved with all the straps intact and everything, we found it very funny that his clothes (and bag) are in better condition after 5300 years frozen than ours will be after 6 weeks round europe. one of the small bags is almost in 2 pieces now, we have decided to store all our valubles in it as we think no theif would think we're stupid enough to store our stuff in something thats falling apart, plus it looks very much like a hobo bag. plus we can see them through the bag and check theyre not being stolen! More to the point if our valuable were in a bag in one piece we'de have to watch one bag to make sure it didn't break and one for the valuables, eggs in one basket is the much better solution, even if the basket is breaking.
we spent last night in salzburg train station, drinking wine in sleeping bags on the floor with a thermarest and broken bags, scott hasnt washed in 4 days could we look much more hoboish? To be fair to go against the Hobo image the wine we were drinking was a very nice Pino Grigio, and the fact that we bought it at a place that sells wine from the vat, by the litre, which we used to fill a plastic water bottle is irrelevant!
we walked up the seiseralm before we left bolzano, scott will tell you about the serious stuff about it, all i care about is that we saw cows WITH BELLS!!!!!
And we walked up the big peak in the centre of the seiseralm, called Panorama, seriously cool view (2011 meters, we walked from the top of the cable car, don't know how high that was). And by the time we got to the top we we're both starved, but had no money for lunch if we planned on paying for our campsite (which the guy had already reduced to 20 euros a night from 28 for us). ironically tho we kept the money back coz we thought he wouldnt accept travellers cheques, he did in the end! Dani was very upset that we both starved for a day for no good reason (we shared one coissant for lunch, and a couple of biscuits, after a days hard walking up a big ass hill, then had to walk down again, and had to walk not only to the top of the cable car but to the bottom (about 2 hrs, 7/8/9K) because we couldn't afford the cable car return, only one way.
scott doesnt mention that for the last half of our journey down the mountain it was torrential rain! neither of our shoes are dry yet. we have noticed that rain seems to follow us wherever we go. we have only been to one place where it hasnt rained so far, and thats coz we were only there for 1 night! It also didn't rain in Monacco which was atleast 4 hours we were there. Lol, we arrived in ljubljana this morning to the beautiful sight of.... rain!
Back to the hill though it was absolutely torrential rain, anyone who was on the Gold D of E final with me, only marginally better than that, and we had a cheap mac each and that was it for rain gear (it was really sunny when we left). Plus we had to walk down the mountain with no map, so it was a case of, go down hill and hope we come across a town we recognise (sies) or our campsite at some point.
i was only wearing a skirt! it was very cold! still we got through by singing if you're happy and you know it clap your hands, i dont think ive ever invented so many verses! (if your happy and you know it say "I'm wet"/say "I'm cold"/say "We're nearly home"/wave to the car/pretend you're a train/poke Dani etc.
Anyway, we are now in Ljubjub, and since we both are wearing all our clean cloths (and after a night on the train the term clean is used loosely) we'd best go do some washing.
Sorry for no song of the moment last time, forgot/couldn't think of one, but this blog;
Song of the Moment; "Always take the weather" - i think its by travis im not sure. scott wants why does it always rain on me coz he thinks its about rainbows. Dani thinks its too sad, but a song that has the line "Why does it always rain on me, even when the sun is shinning..." must be about rainbows and is therefore happy, and appropriate to our wet situation!
Oh, and can we have a vote for which people think is the better song (because I'm clearly right :p) but always take the weather is appropriate because a) we're english and b) whats the weather like guys?! also because its more happy. (More happy than a song about rainbows, hmmm, not so sure). its not even ABOUT rainbows! the rain is a metaphor for his depression not literal rain. Thats much to deep and boring, mines more fun and therefore more right, and also is simpler, Occams Razor. scott has spelt that wrong but im not telling him how to spell it coz then he will (falsley or not) be invoking the power of the wonderful oc***m. See the below the belt tactics of my opponent, that is enough reason in itself to vote for me. Anyway, we'd best take our couples squable/election campaign to the laundrette :p hehe, love to you all, VOTE "RAIN ON ME",
(dont - look up o****ms razor, it doesnt work anyway, plus the song is just rubbish)
Scott and Dani (big love) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
"Its four in the morning and I'm eating Ice Cream - I'm Wild"
The Italy Blog
We did eventually get out of Sete (lovely though it is it was time to leave). We took a train from;
Sete to Montpilliar (which may possibly have been the train we were meant to take if we wanted to go to Geneva instead of Italy)
Montpilliar to Avignon (whcih in would have been the final stop of the first train had we just stayed there)
Avignon to Marseille
Marseille to Nice
Nice to Monaco (just one stop along - but we thought Monaco would be a fun place to stay the night! - this is where we got Dani's slightly random quote)
And the next morning Monaco to Ventmiglia
Ventmiglia to Genoa
Genoa to Rome ("A Long Way to Roam")
A rather long way round but all the more fun for it. Got some kip in the only place we could afford to sleep in Monacco - the bench outside the train station - then wondered round the race track from like 2.00 till 5.00 in the morning (with ice cream).
Anyway got to Rome at like 16.00, and found a B&B near the train station. it wasnt a b and b it was very posh, complete with bidet and mini fridge a-woah!
Then we went and drank a litre of wine (and food of course) in a restaurant with a very cool waiter, who by the end of the evening gave us free tea and said to "take care!". I'd like to point out that when Dani says "we drank a litre of wine" what that translates to is "I drank three quaters of a litre of wine, I think Scott might have had a glass as well". no one will believe that they all know what an alcky you are! :p
The next day I went to the Colloseum with a slightly hung over Dani in tow! :p Thats so not true, i may have had a slight head ache but i wasnt "in tow"! we've just realised that we are in a hotel and internet cafe somewhere in china town naples, the keyboard keeps trying to type in chinese! The colloseum was pretty awesome although we were slightly worried about a "photo shoot" that seemed to be going on on one of the lying down pillars ! roman forum on the same day, it certainly needs some basic maintainance! i thought it was a bit run down if you ask me! It did however make me want to see the Forum in Pompeii which I've heard is in slightly more one piece. went to the catacombes the next day, i wonder if after the christians had buried 150000 bodies and none of them had mysteriously sprung into action again they might have started to disbelieve the idea of a bodily ressurrection?!?!?! we also thought it would be very funny (if a little disrespectful) to have someone swaddled in cloths and hiding in one of the shelf tomb things, jumping out on unsuspecting visitors as they passed. Catacoombes were rather cool and the guide we had was awesome, told us about varios martryrs and popes etc. who been burried (and in one case even killed) down there. More then anything it was a great place to visit because it was underground and shady and really cool out of the hot Roman sun (btw hows the weather at home). Dani says to tell you its 19 degrees in our room with air con on! Anyway, after this made a move for the Vatican, saw a few dead popes, thought we saw the real one aswell, but I don't think he's in Italy, and then got invited into the Holy See, but couldn't figure out who we wanted to see (thought saying the pope would be pushing our luck a bit so stuttered then gave up).
Anyway, that was Rome, have now moved onto Naples (with a rather more simple train journey than the ones we've had before) and spent our time in a streetside cafe for a few hours, one of the holidays more productive and cultural moments I feel. tomorrow we're going up to Bolzano a city in the dolomites, staying on the seiseralm which is a big alpine flat thing with lots of cows and trees. there is also a very old frozen man, scott says its thousands of years old i think its more like 600, but anyway, its very old and we're going to see that/him! The poor sod fell into a cravas in a Glacier and was frozen to death about 2000 years ago, a few years ago he popped out the end and became a tourist attraction, but it should be interesting to see. like the 600 year old popes body we saw yesterday, that was a bit.. yukky. I found it quite interesting, loads of them where only Pope for like 22 days, 33 days, etc. in the 1500's, can't be a job people where fighting to take can it! have sorted out a route for the rest now, so we hopefully will be able to not get lost again :p
To be fair we had a route planned last time it just didn't go quite to plan, but the new route for anyone interested goes roughly into the eastern block and then out again (Dani wants to save the rest as a suprise for our faithful readers so watch this space - also this way you don't get to see our total inability to stick to a plan, whatever we do next it was our plan all along!)
lots of love to you all Dani and Scott xxxxx
Thursday, 10 July 2008
A Change Of Plan
Though we're not entirely sure what to yet! Sete is a beautiful town but with certain transport troubles. although whilst we were in the train station for at least an hour we saw many trains leaving, apparently none of them actually go anywhere! We cannot get trains to: Bolzano, venice, milan, Rome, Berne or "Tout de italie" which we asked for in that order!
Basically this is just to let you know that we are yet know what next, but are about to go back and try again, and is in part a warning to David that when he comes down in the summer holidays in 3 weeks time not to be too suprised if we are still here and looking for a lift over the med to Italy! Also has anyone tried our recipe from a couple of blogs ago?
i dont advise you do, its er... interesting?! if a little crunchy. Dani only didn't like it because she got hungry and made me serve it before the rice was properly cooked, other than that it was lovely! Lol. anyway folks over and out from us, got to return to the train station now we have learnt how to say "anywhere in italy" en francais! we're hoping they will find us a train before they strangle us! will let you know our eventual destination, lots of love Dani and Scott
Song of the Moment; Its A Long Way To Roam - Marty Siltanen
Basically this is just to let you know that we are yet know what next, but are about to go back and try again, and is in part a warning to David that when he comes down in the summer holidays in 3 weeks time not to be too suprised if we are still here and looking for a lift over the med to Italy! Also has anyone tried our recipe from a couple of blogs ago?
i dont advise you do, its er... interesting?! if a little crunchy. Dani only didn't like it because she got hungry and made me serve it before the rice was properly cooked, other than that it was lovely! Lol. anyway folks over and out from us, got to return to the train station now we have learnt how to say "anywhere in italy" en francais! we're hoping they will find us a train before they strangle us! will let you know our eventual destination, lots of love Dani and Scott
Song of the Moment; Its A Long Way To Roam - Marty Siltanen
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
The Sete Blog
While this is our second blog in Sete (infact second today spoiling you guys arent we?!) we forgot to mention sete last time really, getting engrossed in Paris talk, so thought we'd do another one. last time we forgot to mention scott hitting on the 40 year old tennis player
.. probably because it never happened and Dani's makin g the whokle thing up. I so am not it was very funny... he was whistling at her There was no whistling, only clapping and only when she played a good shot, i simply appreciate good sport. it was very funny anyway, certainly a blogworthy moment!! Anyway, this is the Sete blog and we're yet to mention the place, so in Sete we have been... watching water jousting! only little kiddies doing it, it looked fun though and now i really want to try it, or atleast watch real adult jousting. yes me and scott are thinking of forming a water jousting team once we return, our home ground being the tone next to debenhams. Anyone interested in joining or with a spare motor boat or two around then leave comment :p
we have a really great picture of the water jousting, the little kid is flying through the air! My expert photography I might add, and when we get round to taking a camera to an internet cafe will add that pic to this blog, and various other pics to various other blogs, but that may turn out to be when we get home with Dani and my combined organisational skills. shhh theyre going to bring up the tent incident if you mention organisation!! Lol, and for any worried parents we have got much better for Europe than Glasto, we remembered a tent, and we havn't lost anything yet (that i've noticed at least). went to the beach yesterday, the water was freeeezing right scott?! "Oooh it touched my willy!" Well i was walking into the sea and suddenly cold sea water got high enough to make my willy not just my legs cold, so shush. then he nearly DROWNED ME!!! well thats an exaggeration but he did push me in. You splashed me first, and tried to push me in, stop trying to make me look like the bad guy! oh hes not the bad guy... i made him get up at 5am and come to the toilet with me coz it was scary and dark :p after a political and philosphical discussion until 2am thats no mean feat!!
Right, I think time to go, we need to go find a restaurant for dinner, celebrating our half anniversary (hence the song of the moment).
Lots of Love, and until next blog goodbye,
Scott and Dani
Song of the Moment; Love is the Only Feeling
.. probably because it never happened and Dani's makin g the whokle thing up. I so am not it was very funny... he was whistling at her There was no whistling, only clapping and only when she played a good shot, i simply appreciate good sport. it was very funny anyway, certainly a blogworthy moment!! Anyway, this is the Sete blog and we're yet to mention the place, so in Sete we have been... watching water jousting! only little kiddies doing it, it looked fun though and now i really want to try it, or atleast watch real adult jousting. yes me and scott are thinking of forming a water jousting team once we return, our home ground being the tone next to debenhams. Anyone interested in joining or with a spare motor boat or two around then leave comment :p
we have a really great picture of the water jousting, the little kid is flying through the air! My expert photography I might add, and when we get round to taking a camera to an internet cafe will add that pic to this blog, and various other pics to various other blogs, but that may turn out to be when we get home with Dani and my combined organisational skills. shhh theyre going to bring up the tent incident if you mention organisation!! Lol, and for any worried parents we have got much better for Europe than Glasto, we remembered a tent, and we havn't lost anything yet (that i've noticed at least). went to the beach yesterday, the water was freeeezing right scott?! "Oooh it touched my willy!" Well i was walking into the sea and suddenly cold sea water got high enough to make my willy not just my legs cold, so shush. then he nearly DROWNED ME!!! well thats an exaggeration but he did push me in. You splashed me first, and tried to push me in, stop trying to make me look like the bad guy! oh hes not the bad guy... i made him get up at 5am and come to the toilet with me coz it was scary and dark :p after a political and philosphical discussion until 2am thats no mean feat!!
Right, I think time to go, we need to go find a restaurant for dinner, celebrating our half anniversary (hence the song of the moment).
Lots of Love, and until next blog goodbye,
Scott and Dani
Song of the Moment; Love is the Only Feeling
Leaving Paris to Sete
Ok so the title isn't very imaginative but it sums up what we're doing... Since our last blog we've been up the eiffel tower, on a boat tour of paris and scott has news of his health...
Dani wants me to tell you how i got food poisoning, was throwng my guts up and how she took brilliant care of me, spending most of the day looking after me. I wish i could deny this but unfortunatley thats actually a pretty accurate account of how things happened.
I find it quite ironic that that was after we went out for dinner, so the one night we actually had food prepared in a kitchen rather than outdoors on a trangia he was ill. Anyway i hasten to reassure you all that he returned to full health very quickly after my tender loving care.
(And after 24 hrs not eating, which any of you reading this must know me well enough to know how hard that is for me.) he has since attempted to buy 20 pain au chocolat and croissants , so he must be fine! Dani also banned me from buying that many because we're only here for 3 days, and now we've ran out after only 2 breakfasts. Silly girl.
Anyway, talking of cooking we have had some rather interesting meals...
Our first trangia cooked meal - Sweet Potato and Tomato Risoto;
Ingredients (serves 2/3);
1 sweet potato
1 leek (preferably one that has had a nice days sight seeing before serving its purpose as a meal - ours particularly enjoyed seeing the sights of Paris from the top of the eiffel tower)
Half an onion
2 tomatoes
150g tomato puree
250 ml white wine
250 grams of rice (we may have been making rissotto but we could only find long grain rice, it worked)
Method;
1) Dice and boil the sweet potato, for like 20 minutes
2) Take weet potato off so you can use the trangia to fry onions, well travelled leek, and then after a few minutes add the tomato (obviously all finely sliced with your swiss army knife)
3) Fry these for about 5/10 minutes before adding the tomato puree and sweet potato 5 obviously drained off all water)
4) Add wine, start drinking the rest of the bottle, add rice.
5) Keep heating and stirring until rice is well cooked, adding water as needed (this is the bit we got too hungry for and couldn't be bothered with, leading to extremely al dente rice!)
Moving swiftly on, thank you all for your comments, we didn't really check them till the day we were leaving Paris so couldn't follow any of your reccomendations for the City. And Hero - I apologise for flying, we did try to avoid it, but any other option was about 3 times the cost and I couldn't afford it, and we're taking trains for the rest of our travels, which are like the best form of long distance travel for the environment, so we've been good there.
talking of which we took our first interrail covered train night before last... its possible that our interrail passes werent technically valid, as we left at 10 and they kicked in at midnight but it went ok. The Lady selling us the tickets said it was fine (because it was an overnight train leaving after 19.00, but I have a feeling thats for a different ticket slightly, and she just didn't understand our very broken french, so my complete incompetence with foreign language was a benefit for once, but no-one checked our passes on the train so we can never be sure if we would have been thrown off).
we got here eventually though, and sete is awesome! thankyou so much to Dave etc for letting us use the boat. Your letter didnt say anything about the sink, just to double check using it is ok (pouring water down it, but not using the taps). we're heading to monaco and then bolzano from there. Any tips of things to do here or even in Venice (the stop after Bolzano) would be much appreciated.
Lots of love to you all, thinking of you back home! Dani and Scott
Song of the Moment; Stairway to Heaven (for walking up the eiffel tower)
Dani wants me to tell you how i got food poisoning, was throwng my guts up and how she took brilliant care of me, spending most of the day looking after me. I wish i could deny this but unfortunatley thats actually a pretty accurate account of how things happened.
I find it quite ironic that that was after we went out for dinner, so the one night we actually had food prepared in a kitchen rather than outdoors on a trangia he was ill. Anyway i hasten to reassure you all that he returned to full health very quickly after my tender loving care.
(And after 24 hrs not eating, which any of you reading this must know me well enough to know how hard that is for me.) he has since attempted to buy 20 pain au chocolat and croissants , so he must be fine! Dani also banned me from buying that many because we're only here for 3 days, and now we've ran out after only 2 breakfasts. Silly girl.
Anyway, talking of cooking we have had some rather interesting meals...
Our first trangia cooked meal - Sweet Potato and Tomato Risoto;
Ingredients (serves 2/3);
1 sweet potato
1 leek (preferably one that has had a nice days sight seeing before serving its purpose as a meal - ours particularly enjoyed seeing the sights of Paris from the top of the eiffel tower)
Half an onion
2 tomatoes
150g tomato puree
250 ml white wine
250 grams of rice (we may have been making rissotto but we could only find long grain rice, it worked)
Method;
1) Dice and boil the sweet potato, for like 20 minutes
2) Take weet potato off so you can use the trangia to fry onions, well travelled leek, and then after a few minutes add the tomato (obviously all finely sliced with your swiss army knife)
3) Fry these for about 5/10 minutes before adding the tomato puree and sweet potato 5 obviously drained off all water)
4) Add wine, start drinking the rest of the bottle, add rice.
5) Keep heating and stirring until rice is well cooked, adding water as needed (this is the bit we got too hungry for and couldn't be bothered with, leading to extremely al dente rice!)
Moving swiftly on, thank you all for your comments, we didn't really check them till the day we were leaving Paris so couldn't follow any of your reccomendations for the City. And Hero - I apologise for flying, we did try to avoid it, but any other option was about 3 times the cost and I couldn't afford it, and we're taking trains for the rest of our travels, which are like the best form of long distance travel for the environment, so we've been good there.
talking of which we took our first interrail covered train night before last... its possible that our interrail passes werent technically valid, as we left at 10 and they kicked in at midnight but it went ok. The Lady selling us the tickets said it was fine (because it was an overnight train leaving after 19.00, but I have a feeling thats for a different ticket slightly, and she just didn't understand our very broken french, so my complete incompetence with foreign language was a benefit for once, but no-one checked our passes on the train so we can never be sure if we would have been thrown off).
we got here eventually though, and sete is awesome! thankyou so much to Dave etc for letting us use the boat. Your letter didnt say anything about the sink, just to double check using it is ok (pouring water down it, but not using the taps). we're heading to monaco and then bolzano from there. Any tips of things to do here or even in Venice (the stop after Bolzano) would be much appreciated.
Lots of love to you all, thinking of you back home! Dani and Scott
Song of the Moment; Stairway to Heaven (for walking up the eiffel tower)
Thursday, 3 July 2008
"Is Paris the Capital of France?"
Yes Dear. Since getting to Paris Dani's been learning alot about the city; the above being my favorite example.
I also lost my train ticket. It did turn up a few hour later.... in my pants! Out of interest we questionned how it could have gotten there... no plausible explanation has yet been found but all suggestions are welcome...
We flew with easy jet, so it was delayed! But we did eventually get here only an hour late, and in the rain!
First day down and neither of us are yet lost, (aside from the brief moment in the louvre!) dead or hungry so it can only be a success! In fact we are off to the eiffle tower in a mo with a breadstick and some cheese :)
I have to briefly interupt here to tell you Dani may be lying a little. We started our day yesterday (after pitching tent etc.) by heading into Paris and getting totally lost in the Latin Quater (although I did find the bar i went to last time i was in Paris) [if you go into every bar youre going to find it arent you?!- Dani] (for the record i went into no bars - Scott). [he did - and he discovered a brothel within about 5minutes of being here!!!] Anyway, after getting lost in the Latin quarter we went to the Louvre (on the way Dani lost here RER ticket for the next 5 days), the fun part of which was at 9.30 when we were in some African Sculpture wing at closing time with us, no other visitors and about half a dozen security guards. Dani says I should mention the funny willies, the were also quite cool sculptures with skulls etc. After this we walked down throgh that famous parc (we were really hungry so we stopped for dinner at some restaurant) then to the Arc de Triomphe. So we were hungry and lost, but not yet dead atleast.
I should point out here that this keyboard is french and therefore extremely hard to type wtih, not i mean just because its french but because all the letters are in the wrong plqces. Its my turn to type and I cant think of anything else we've done... love to you all back home, bet you're all missing us already ;)
We're off to get lost in the Latin Quqter again (they had a shop selling cheese for lunch and another one selling veg to cook tonight).
Over and out folks.... lots of love Dani and Scott xxxxx
Song of the moment; Living on a Prayer
I also lost my train ticket. It did turn up a few hour later.... in my pants! Out of interest we questionned how it could have gotten there... no plausible explanation has yet been found but all suggestions are welcome...
We flew with easy jet, so it was delayed! But we did eventually get here only an hour late, and in the rain!
First day down and neither of us are yet lost, (aside from the brief moment in the louvre!) dead or hungry so it can only be a success! In fact we are off to the eiffle tower in a mo with a breadstick and some cheese :)
I have to briefly interupt here to tell you Dani may be lying a little. We started our day yesterday (after pitching tent etc.) by heading into Paris and getting totally lost in the Latin Quater (although I did find the bar i went to last time i was in Paris) [if you go into every bar youre going to find it arent you?!- Dani] (for the record i went into no bars - Scott). [he did - and he discovered a brothel within about 5minutes of being here!!!] Anyway, after getting lost in the Latin quarter we went to the Louvre (on the way Dani lost here RER ticket for the next 5 days), the fun part of which was at 9.30 when we were in some African Sculpture wing at closing time with us, no other visitors and about half a dozen security guards. Dani says I should mention the funny willies, the were also quite cool sculptures with skulls etc. After this we walked down throgh that famous parc (we were really hungry so we stopped for dinner at some restaurant) then to the Arc de Triomphe. So we were hungry and lost, but not yet dead atleast.
I should point out here that this keyboard is french and therefore extremely hard to type wtih, not i mean just because its french but because all the letters are in the wrong plqces. Its my turn to type and I cant think of anything else we've done... love to you all back home, bet you're all missing us already ;)
We're off to get lost in the Latin Quqter again (they had a shop selling cheese for lunch and another one selling veg to cook tonight).
Over and out folks.... lots of love Dani and Scott xxxxx
Song of the moment; Living on a Prayer
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
To whom it may concern,
It is with regret and great excitement that we (Dani and I) must inform the world that we are, to all intensive purposes, unavalible for the next six weeks. As you will know if you have been talking to us recently we are soon to be on a one way flight to Paris (and later a one way flight home from Copenhagen). We will be "bumming around" Continental Europe for the six weeks between these flights (more commonly known as interrailing - well occasionally known as interrailing). This is a blog set up to let anyone who may be interested know whats happening in Europe, with particular reference to our travels. We'll update it as often as we can find the internet and can be bothered. This post is written by me (Scott) since Dani is otherwise engaged, but there will be posts from me, her, and even join posts as we go around. In short, the "whom it may concern" is anyone with interest in our travels, and the message is "watch this space".
Don't ruin England too much while we're away,
Scott
Song of the moment: John Denver - Leaving on a Jet Plane
Don't ruin England too much while we're away,
Scott
Song of the moment: John Denver - Leaving on a Jet Plane
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