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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)