London

We did make it to the London Eye yesterday, Boxing Day, but unfortunately it was closed due to ‘technical difficulties’. We saw it moving at one stage, a ‘test run’, and it looked perfectly fine to us, but it didn’t get up and running in the time that we hung around for. So instead we walked across the river to visit Westminster Abbey, which is a massive big cathedral where they hold all of the royal funerals etc. It was a lovely church, but not at all what we expected, as it is full of tombs! We were expecting the great big hall like what you see on the telly, but most of the abbey was taken up with tombs and monuments. The best part of it I thought was the beautiful stained glass windows.

Afterwards we walked back across the river and found a little café to have lunch at, just near the Eye, which was still not running. Jo, Phil and Ara then headed home, and Alice and I went off to explore London a little bit. After a night of less sleep than normal, Ara did very well to walk around for so long, especially in a not overly interesting church! She had gone to bed on time Christmas night, but was awake for ages, and after a few hours, Phil went up to see what was happening up there (we could hear her footsteps), to find her sitting in her bed, in the dark, painting her own face with her face paints!

Alice and I headed back over the bridge and managed to see a few sights, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street and Bond Street. We hopped on to a red bus to go to Oxford Street, but were a bit scared to get off once we got there, as the crowds were so enormous for the Boxing Day sales! We did eventually get off and had a bit of a look around, before finding our way on the underground back to Jo and Phil’s’ without too much trouble.

We (sort of) taught Ara to play Trouble, before she headed off to bed, exhausted after a napless day. Jo, Phil, Alice and I all had a nice dinner together and then occupied ourselves with some mind bender puzzles that Phil’s parents like to give him, and of which we managed to solve a few together!

We were all up early this morning to pack up and make our train to Bath. After our last bowl of cereal (a nice change from the pastries!), we said goodbye to Jo and Ara at their house, and Phil caught the bus to the train station with us, which is lucky, because I don’t know if we would have found it without him! Our train to Paddington came just as we arrived, and then we sat around Paddington for an hour or so until we caught our Bath train, which we are currently on. This is just a short trip, and we should be in Bath in less than an hour. We have just been through Reading, and Ali stared out the window hopefully, but we did not see Dheepan, maybe on the way back! We only found out this morning that we go through Reading so didn’t have much time to let Dheepan, who would still be asleep I am told, know to come down to the station.

The scenery we are passing through is beautiful. Very green with lots of fields and cute little houses. Ali is very excited to arrive in the home of Jane Austen, and it looks like the sun is coming out, so will hopefully be a lovely afternoon exploring, and possibly going to the baths, at Bath! I’m hoping to get some wifi on my laptop soon, as I have a massive backlog of blogs to upload. There will be an influx of new entries when I do!

Winter (but not white) Christmas

The night of Christmas Eve, we were busy putting out food for Santa and his reindeers, and of course all had to be in bed early so that Santa could come! We were not too worried that he would turn up though, as Ara has been sure to be a very good girl the last few weeks! We spoke to everyone in Australia just as we were going to bed, and as they were waking up on Christmas morning. A quiet day with a seafood lunch was planned at Port Stephens, and mum was very pleased and surprised to now also be able to class herself as a ‘mac girl’! Dad is feeling a little unsure about his ‘relaxation massage’ that Ali and I got for him and Mum, but there is a clear consensus that, if he is not going to enjoy it, then Mum should just go twice!

Christmas morning in London, we woke up and, low and behold, Santa had been and eaten all of his food! He must have been very quiet, as Alice and I were sleeping right next to the Christmas tree and did not hear a thing! Ara did apparently hear him, but was sure to go straight back to sleep! We all had a nice breakfast together, and Ara was very restrained in waiting to open all of her presents until Grandma and Grandpop arrived around 9.30am. They had to take a taxi from their hotel, because in London on Christmas day, all public transport, including the entire underground system, shuts down! Very strange!

Santa spoiled Ara this year, and she received lots of cool things, including an umbrella, some big bottles of paint, some face paints, lego, her first Barbie from Grandpa, which has been a great hit, some books, cookie cutters and ‘Trouble’ from Julie and Jonathon, a lovely green vest from Great Gran, and some ‘soft stuff’, which is yet to be brought out, but I think it is like play dough. Ali and I found a few little things for Ara in Paris, an apron for when she is painting with all of her paint and cooking cookies with her cookie cutters, and a little wooden train that has the letters of her name on each carriage.

Lunch in London was one of Kath’s recipes, coq au vin, a yummy chicken and wine dish a la Phil, potatoes, salad and garlic bread. Followed by delicious pudding and custard, yum! We were all very full afterwards, and after Ara went off for her nap, we had a few quiet hours, after a game of Trouble of course!

Ara, Alice and I had a busy day testing out all of her new toys, especially the face paint! Ara is very good at it and has turned herself into a fairy a number of times! We also tested out the dominoes, built some lego, read a few books and searched for the elusive treasure hidden around the house somewhere! Ara is now tucked up in bed, singing, as she often does, and it will be soup or something like that for our dinner tonight. Tomorrow we are hoping to go out again on Gran and ride the London Eye, but it will really depend on the public transport been up and running again! Hopefully we will get out and see a bit of London though. 

It is too cold for the Eurostar

We originally booked in to take the eurostar from Paris to London for Christmas. They were having some problems with it though and it didn’t run for a few days. All of the news was in French so I don’t really know what the problem was, something to do with the temperature difference between outside and in the tunnel apparently. Seems pretty strange when they have weather like this every year, but then again, apparently they have problems like this every year!

Eurostar said to come to the station and they will put us in the ‘next available seat’, but who knows how many hours/days we could have been waiting for that!
So we booked ourselves onto a bus, as Eurostar will give a refund to anyone who doesn’t travel. And although we were expecting mayhem at the bus station as well, with many peoples Christmas plans left in ruins, it was very civilized and easy! The bus was very full, but that’s not a problem, we had a seat and we were on our way to England!

The bus trip was very uneventful. It was again white outside and Ali and I occupied our time by making our way through a reasonably sized bag of maltesers. The most interesting part came when we got to the border, or the edge of the English Channel. We drove into the official customs area and all of a sudden had to be off the bus, with all of our bags and luggage from below. We were slowly shuffled through French customs, got a stamp in our passport (!), and had ours bags scanned. Then back onto the bus, forward a few metres, and then off again to go through UK customs! We didn’t have to take our bags this time, and the customs lady was very nice. And in a pretty big small world moment, the lady had spent about the last 5 years or so working at the hospital in Reefton, NZ!

After we had finally all cleared customs, the bus waited in line for ages, waiting for what, we weren’t really sure! No one seemed to really know how we crossed the channel, I had heard rumours that the bus went on a boat, or maybe you can drive under the English Channel? But no, neither of these options was right. Instead, we suddenly found ourselves driving into a very narrow tunnel, and by narrow, I mean about a foot of space on either side of the bus! I initially thought we were going to drive all the way to England in this tunnel, but turns out that the tunnel was actually a train! So the bus stopped, and more buses and cars filed in behind us, and eventually the train took off. You really couldn’t tell that we were moving though, only if you looked out the window and could then see through the little train window. You were allowed to get off the bus to go to the bathroom a few carriages up, but we were comfy so stayed put. Initially when we realised what was happening, a lot of people were feeling a bit claustrophobic, but I found it best just to not think about it too much, and before we knew it we looked out the window to light, and had exited the tunnel in England.

After waiting around in customs for so long, we were sure that we would be late arriving into London, but in the end we were right on time. We found our way to the underground, and almost spent 38 pounds on a ticket out to Jo’s, before we found the correct ticket machine and got our tickets for 8 pounds, much more friendly on my bank account! Phil met us at Northfields Station and we walked home to Jo, Phil and Ara’s house, through typical English streets, in typical English weather, in the rain! Ara was awake late that night to see us, and gave us a very thorough tour of her new house, showing us every inch and cranny. She then proceeded to explain to us what buses we need to catch to go everywhere in London, what we can play with in the morning and just generally everything we could possibly need to know! After she was done, she went off to bed and we very much enjoyed a home cooked meal for dinner, Phil’s special spaghetti bol.

Gran sent over a very nice chrissie present for all of us spending Christmas in London, shouting us a day (or two!) out in London. So on Thursday (Christmas Eve), after a busy morning playing in Ara’s tent, and reading stories, and riding a magic carpet, Jo, Ara, Alice and I set off to go ice skating! This was Ara’s first time ice skating and caused much excitement! It was a lovely outdoor rink that we went to, and was full of lots of excited kids on school holidays. The skates were initially a bit too uncomfy and strange for Ara, but she eventually came out for a few laps of the ice. She skated between my legs, with me holding her up, and it was apparently a funny sight, with Ara’s legs going like crazy, and me hunched over just trying to keep us both upright! We did manage to get around a few times though, and got up a little bit of speed, which Ara loved. We (me!) were pretty exhausted after all of our ice skating, so we took the underground back to Northfields and went to a Crepery for lunch. The crepes were awesome, and just as good as the ones in Paris. Ara and I both went for chocolate and strawberry, and they also did a very good milkshake! 

J’adore Paris

We woke up on our first day in Paris to some sad news from home, which left us in a bit of a daze. Here we are in Paris, but really we just wanted to be at home. Not really sure what to do with ourselves, we took a bit of time to get ourselves going, and then headed out in search of some nice Parisian food. Food always holds the answer, for these two aussies at least anyway!

After a bit of a search, which involved wet snow (not as fun as the soft fluffy stuff), we found a little restaurant that had the typical French breakfast we were after. We had been looking for a patisserie, but do you think we could find one when we really wanted one! So our breakfast and first real French food – a baguette, croissant, hot chocolate, bowl of what they call soft cheese, but to me tastes like sour cream, jam and French butter. It was verrry nice.

Afterwards we went walking, in search of an Internet café so we could chat with home. We found the address that it was supposed to be at, but no Internet cafe! After wandering around searching for a while, and asking for directions and been sent to a computer shop, we eventually gave up. We walked around for a while longer, and seemed to be in a pretty cool little area, but ended up finding a movie theatre and seeing a movie. It was a good thing to do when we just wanted to get that day done and start again tomorrow. The movie was in English (bonus!) and was actually pretty good - it was called ‘Away we go’.  The theatre was funny, it was really little and narrow, and the seats actually sloped upwards, so the front row was the highest up. Sounds strange, but it was actually really comfy and worked well!

After the movie we had a quick dinner at a little French café, one of those ones where the seats are lined along the footpath, and it was good food, though a con of sitting outside is that you are eating with all the smokers, who seem to be everywhere in Paris. I had a croque monsieur (I think that is what it’s called), which is basically a toasted sandwich, except the cheese is on the outside of the bread. We have gotten quite used to the cheap food around Europe, but here in Paris, it is so expensive. My crepes that I intended to live off are often 4 euros each (about $6-7), and pastries etc are always at least 2 euros.

Our second day in Paris we started afresh with the hotel breaky, which was not as nice as the day before but still a pretty nice way to start the day! We had a few spare hours before the tour we intended to do, so we went off in search of the Picasso Museum. We found it, but turns out that it is actually been restored, and is closed, until 2012! So instead of looking at artworks, we did what we always do and found some food, this time a yummy baguette to share, and what I call a ‘snail’, of the pastry variety! It was so nice, and Mum, you would have loved it. We ate it at a main square in Paris and finished in time for our tour.

This was another one of the Sandemans tours, and was also really good, taking us around to all of the main sites in Paris. The most interesting fact that I learnt from the tour was about the statues of important people on their horses. Depending on the position of the horse in the statue, you can tell how the person died. If all four of the horse’s feet are on the ground, then they died of natural causes. If one front and one back foot is on the ground, then they were murdered, and if the horse is reared back with both front feet in the air, then they died in battle.

We also saw a bridge that is adorned with all of these concrete heads pulling funny faces. Apparently, a man had all of these heads made impersonating the faces his friends were pulling after a big night out! Every single face is different, and they are pretty funny, slash ugly!

We walked across the lovers’ bridge, which is where the last scene of Sex and the City was filmed. It is also tradition to go there with your lover and attach a padlock to the fence, which will ‘lock’ you together forever (or until the council comes through and cuts them all off anyway!).

We were told about the French Institute, whose main function is to preserve the French language from the perils of English! So when words such as ‘computer’ and ‘weekend’ were invented, they quickly needed to invent a French equivalent to preserve the sound of the French language. They won out with their word for computer, but we won with weekend, and the English version is still what is used the majority of the time. Our tour guide was telling us about a recent issue they faced, with the invention of the ’iPod’. Should the iPod be ‘la iPod’ or ‘le iPod’, feminine or masculine?! After months of consideration, the iPod was declared a boy.

Tonight was an exciting night, as we had tickets to the Moulin Rouge! After heading back to the hotel briefly to spruce ourselves up a bit (‘elegant’ attire is required at the Moulin Rouge), we caught the underground to the red light district of Paris. We (or really me, but Alice got dragged along for the ride) decided that tonight, as well as being Moulin Rouge night, should also be the night of the snail, and this time, I am referring to the creepy crawly variety! So we found a cute little place to eat with pink seats, and ordered pina coladas, coke (to wash down the snails), six snails, chicken and a salad. We decided that snails didn’t count so ordered a bit much!

We had to be shown by the waiter how to eat our snails (you use a special clamp thing to hold the snail while you scoop the meat out with a skinny fork), but once we extracted them from the shell, they really weren’t too bad! They were cooked in yummy garlic flavours, and were a bit chewy, but apart from that, quite nice! It was really only knowing that they were snails that made it a bit strange! I made it through four, Alice only one, but I am impressed that she managed that! The rest of our food was yummy (and pricey, but worth it!), it was just a shame we had to rush through it a bit to get to our show!

Next was the Moulin Rouge, just up the road. From the outside, it is just as it looks in the pictures you see, with the big windmill on top. Apart from that though, it does sort of blend in to the street. It is pretty small from the outside and just on an ordinary road. Inside, you are led to your table, which for us was towards the back, but with a perfect view of the stage. I don’t think there would be a bad seat in there. We were on a table with two other couples, and each pair of people is brought a bottle of champagne, which is included in the ticket. You can also go for a three course meal before the show, but that adds a LOT to the price, and I have heard the food isn’t anything to get excited about. We had a really nice meal before hand for less than half what we would have paid at the Moulin Rouge.

Anyway, the show started pretty much straight away, with a stage full of dancers in sparkly outfits. The dancing was fantastic, and so mesmerizing. Throughout the show there were a lot of different dances performed, all with new costumes, and I think a story was been told, in French though so I have no idea what it was about. It did involve some Egyptian type outfits though, and at one stage a pool rose out of the stage with a great big snake in it (real), that a dancer proceeded to jump into and danced around in, twirling herself with the snake!

In between dances, they had a few other sideshow type acts, which were good quality. First was an amazing juggler. Second one was a clown act, and this was fantastic. They did all sorts of awesome acrobatics, and at one point the female was left balancing on a thin pole, and then suddenly the pole was gone and she was standing straight up and balancing on the male clowns outstretched arm!

The third act, and probably the best, was a ventriloquist, who started out with some puppets, and then had a real fluffy dog who was having a bit of a whine, and then he got four members of the audience up on stage and turned them into puppets! It was so funny, they were from all different nationalities, and he took on each of the stereotypes. There was a deeply spoken Russian, a giggly blonde from Netherlands, a middle aged French man and a Japanese. Every time he squeezed their hand they had to open their mouth, and it looked so believable, like they were making the noise. I think in actual fact they were just laughing!

The second half of the show was more can-can style, with, like the first half, a lot of nudity. It was very well done, and it took me a little while to even notice that the majority of these dancers were half naked. They looked so classy with their g-string leotards and jewels draped over their breasts (no sarcasm!). It seemed that the more senior role they played in the show, the more skin they had to show. So I imagine the excitement they must go through the night that they premiere their breasts, as that would mark their first big show it would seem!

Afterwards we got the obligatory photos out the front, as well as a crepe, and jumped back on the metro. The metro is so good here, during the week it runs until around 1am, and who knows how late it goes on the weekend. Moulin rouge was an expensive night, but well worth it I think, it was fantastic. 

We had a busy third day in Paris, where we visited the Notre Damn (impressive, but not up there as far as churches go for me I don’t think), some cute little local markets with lots of cheese, jams etc and where we ate strawberry tart and chocolate éclair (GOOD!), and then headed out to Montemartre to visit Sacre Coeur and wander the streets of what is apparently the arty area of Paris. In Montemartre we discovered lots of cute little shops which had some stuff that was finally different to the repetitive tourist stuff that we see in shop after shop around the French tourist areas. I may have had a bit of a splurge and bought myself a few little French mementos! We were also on the pressie hunt and managed to find a few little goodies around the place.

As it got later and we felt that we were stocked up enough for Christmas, we headed to the Eiffel Tower to see the light show and take the obligatory photos! It is an amazing sight every time, and though we only hung around in the slushy grounds long enough to get a few good shots, it was a worthy trip!

A bus and 2 trains

We always anticipated our Prague to Paris trip to be the most challenging, as after we decided that that is where we wanted to go, we discovered that it is apparently not a common route with a straightforward connection. We began with a bus to Nuremburg in Germany, with a 25 minute gap to make it to our first train. No problems, the bus was five minutes early and we found the platform easily enough. Phew, that is the one we were worried about! The train from Nuremburg to Stuttgart (also in Germany) then left on time, but before we had really moved anywhere at all, it seemed to just stop, I think due to the weather - it was a very white winter wonderland outside. The train remained stationary for about an hour! We had a one hour layover between this train and the one which would take us to Paris, so we were now cutting it pretty fine, as each station we passed had signs up saying our train was running around 60 minutes late.  As we pulled into Stuttgart, one hour late, we were waiting at the door ready to jump off the train and run for it, and hoping that ours would be an easy platform to find! The doors finally opened about 3 minutes before our train was due to leave, and, luckily for us, when faced with no signs and two possible directions, we chose the right one, found a sign and our platform was right in front of us. I swear we must have jumped onto the train right as it was supposed to leave, but of course it didn’t leave on time, not too much later though! We found ourselves in the first class section of the train, and eventually found a little half carriage section which was second class. It was a bit squishy, but there was no way that we were going to get off the train in order to walk down one carriage to hop onto the main 2^nd class section!

We had a few interesting characters in our little 2^nd class carriage, mostly people with 2^nd class tickets who had taken the liberty to make themselves comfortable in the 1^st class section, and then been promptly delivered to our carriage by the ticket inspectors! It was quite funny, one lady in particular, who was a very sophisticated frenchy looking lady, came in with her furry handbag, matching furry scarves and gloves, a little too much leg showing for a lady of her age, and a fluffy dog in her designer handbag.  She insisted that Ali and I move over so that her dog could have his own seat, and then proceeded to spread herself out over the seats with all of her designer get up, while her dog wandered the carriage. She spent the first half of the trip arranging herself and reading fashion magazines (which she kindly shared with the exuberant stereotypical French man sitting across the aisle, also kicked out of 1^st class), and the second half of the trip doing her makeup, hair etc in the window reflection, and then of course wrapping her pooch up in his own little jacket!

           

According to the people I booked the train tickets through, this was supposed to be the ‘fast train’, though it really did not seem to be going that fast, and in fact, towards the end of the trip, when we would have expected to be almost in Paris, it came to a complete stop in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, it was dark outside. And then the lights in the carriage dimmed. And then they completely went out, and we were sitting in pitch black! They eventually came partly back on, and after awhile a man came to the carriage, and from his little spiel in French, I picked up ‘technical difficulties’ and apparently he said we would be 15 minutes. Which we were, and we eventually made it into Paris around 2 hours late, and after 14 hours of travel. But we did make it and that is the main thing!

I love Haagen Daas, regardless of the weather!

On the recommendation of our tour guide from the previous day, we spent the morning of our second day in Prague wandering through the Jewish synagogues and museums. As the tour guide said we would, I found the museum to be very confronting. It is just a small building with high ceilings, and inside, all that there is to see is thousands and thousands and thousands of names written in tiny handwriting, covering all of the walls. They are the names, and birth/death dates, of those taken during the Holocaust. Because of the scarcity of the museum, it is completely empty apart from all of these names, it is quite a stark image.

Upstairs of the museum is another very reality setting display. A collection of drawings are shown, which were done by children in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. While the adults held there had a horrendous time, for the children it was even worse, and apparently many people worked together to try and give the children a little bit of light in their days. One lady in particular gathered any paper and tools that she could and got the children to express how they were feeling through artwork. The pictures give a disturbing insight into the terrible things these children went through and how they were affected. A lot of the pictures represent just everyday things, like not been allowed into playgrounds, or missing the family home.  Apparently for many of the children, these drawings are the only evidence that they ever lived.

A part of the museum pass was also to walk through the Jewish Cemetery, which, for a long time, was the only Jewish cemetery in Prague. It takes up only a small area, and apparently parts of it have up to 11 layers of graves.  It was a very snowy day when we were there, and with the thousands of now haphazard gravestones surrounded by white, it was quite a sight.

As a reward for all of our history trawling (and because we are both getting sick and needed some proper food!) we found a decent looking restaurant for lunch. Food in Prague was really cheap, so we managed to have a good meal for not too much. Ali went for the good old spag bol, and I had the specialty, pork ribs, which were SO GOOD. Ok, so still not the healthiest, but at least it was some meat!

With not much planned for the afternoon, we went wandering and eventually found ourselves in the botanical gardens, which were, of course, white! It was continuously snowing on and off while we were in Prague, a really nice snow, not wet at all, just little flakes that seemed to settle overnight and left a nice solid layer of white everywhere! It was quite novelty for us to wander through the snow, to discover how SOFT it is, but then also how COLD it is if you are silly enough to remove your gloves!

To warm ourselves up after a snowy afternoon, we headed to Haagen Daas, the ice cream shop! I had spotted it earlier, and remember how good this ice cream is from trying it in the DR. It didn’t disappoint either, and silly as it may sound, we actually did get to warm up as they had a nice little warm upstairs section to sit and relax, which had a great view of everyone freezing out on the street!

It was exciting that night to have our first Skype conversation home. I haven’t really used Skype before, and it really is like you are sitting right there having a conversation with someone! We were even able to point the computer out the window and show Mum and Dad the snow and the Prague Castle. Very novelty!

For our last day in Prague, after Ali survived a trip to the train station to buy bus tickets to Germany, we went and checked out the ‘cubist café’, a café inside one of the cubist style buildings in Prague. Czech architects are apparently the only ones to have built this style of buildings, and it did look pretty cool! Everything, down to the wallpaper and lampshades was cubist.

We also went on a tour of the Prague castle, though unfortunately did not get quite as much out of it as we would have hoped, and will definitely have to visit again if we are ever in Prague again! It started off well, and before it felt like we had even started we had a pit stop at the Monks brewery to test out their Christmas brew! Yes, around 30 monks still live in the castle, and among their many hobbies, they brew beer, and developed a Christmas one this year, it was quite nice too! It was good fun and a good chance to meet some fellow travelers whilst defrosting from outside.

By the time we left the brewery, it was starting to get dark and was very very cold. We wandered through all the different parts of the castle and were given the historic lowdown on each, but it was just so so cold, that by the time we got to the end of it, I don’t think too many people were focused on what the guide was saying, we were more concerned about the quickest way to get the hell out of the cold to defrost! Anyway though, I guess just been out in that sort of weather is a good experience to have been through, and we did learn some interesting stuff, I just can’t recall any of it now!

After the tour, we were luckily quite close to our hotel, so practically ran there and stuck our feet on the heater. After a bit of warmth we were ready for food though, so headed out for a quick feed from the Christmas markets, and then some more Haagen Daas for dessert. (Oh, did I mention the Haagen Daas we got before the castle tour as well?? No, we didn’t eat ice cream three times in two days in minus 10 or some ridiculous temperature! It was very good ice cream though!). 

First day in Prague – Saturday Dec 19, 6pm

Alice and I took full advantage of having our own room, by getting a good sleep and sleeping in a bit, and by doing some much needed laundry and then hanging our underwear all over the room to dry! When we did eventually decide to leave our own little haven, it was just in time to do the first free walking tour of the day. For any future European travelers, there is this great company called Sandemans Tours, and they run free walking tours all over Europe, working only for tips. They run the free Prague tour twice a day, every day, and it was a great way to get an overview of the city and to see what parts of it deserve more of our attention!

We made our way across what we later discovered to be the Charles Bridge, a big Prague landmark, to the main square where the tour started. It was a very cold morning, and before the tour was over, we were walking through snow! Prague is a city full of beautiful old buildings, statues, cobble stones and the odd tower. It all goes together to make for a lovely looking place. And the snow really did add to it, I must say! The people who have grown up in the snow do not seem to find it exciting at all, but it sure made it exciting for us, trying to catch the snowflakes and all!

Our tour guide was a New Yorker who has been living in Prague for a few years, and he really knew his stuff, but was also really funny, making a three hour long history tour much more bearable! As per usual, the majority of the info went straight over my head as I took in the sights, but there were a few funny slash strange stories that I will try and remember for you!

First of all, there is a tower in the main square, which has two tall spire type things on it. One is slightly taller and wider than the other one. Prague proclaims this to be on purpose, as the towers are representations of ‘Adam and Eve’. According to our tour guide though, someone just stuffed up!

Another feature of the main square is the Astronomical Clock. This is a complex structure, which, every hour, does a little performance (and by performance, I mean that the four figures on the clock make some small movement, like a head nod, or an arm going up and down). People gather to see this though! Although in this day and age, the clock really is not very impressive, when it was created, it really was. Our tour guide described it as the iphone of its day. In fact, it was so amazing, that some people in Prague did not want to risk a greater one been created elsewhere, so they took the clock maker to the top of the astronomical clock and, as thanks for his wonderful creation, gouged his eyes out! Of course, the clockmaker then went on to place a ‘curse’ on the clock, and it did not work for 100 years. Interesting stories that these old cities have!

This clock is apparently a source of much information, but as far as we got in learning how to read it is how to tell if it is night time or not. Another part of the clock is a circle with 365 names around it. These are apparently the only Czech names, and each name corresponds with a day of the year, and hence everyone has a ‘name day’. People like to keep their name day a secret though, as it is tradition that you buy everyone else a drink on your name day!

For a long time (don’t ask me when!), the majority of people living in Prague where completely illiterate. Therefore, instead of having street names and numbers, buildings were identified by a statue on them. For example, the black Madonna, or the violin etc. A lot of the statues are still around, and it is a quirky little thing to look out for! They say that Prague is the European city with the most statues in it. Having been to Rome though, I really find that hard to believe, but whatever they say!

There is a statue on the Charles Bridge, and it is apparently representing the story of a man who was thrown to his death from the bridge, for refusing to reveal his affair with some lady of importance. There are two little plaques either side of this statue. One of them, you are supposed to rub, and it will bring you good luck. Beware though! The other plaque, the one with the dog on it, is BAD LUCK to rub! We saw so many people rubbing the bad plaque, I just hope they rubbed both of the plaques to at least cancel out the bad luck! It is easy to find these plaques, as they have gold patches on them from been rubbed and polished so much!

And for my last little history re-tell, the story of Prague’s’ liberalization! I really don’t know my world history at all, but regardless, this is a pretty cool story! Apparently, once WW2 was over and the allies and Soviets were working their way through Europe liberalizing everyone, Prague got a little impatient, as the Soviets were still around 5 days from getting to them. So they decided to take matters into their own hands. The signal that they used to let all of the Czech’s know that it was LIBERALISING time, was to say the word six in German instead of Czech over the radio. Once the signal came through, all civilians poured out onto the streets with their kitchen knives and ancient revolvers and began to attack the Nazi’s. The Czechs managed to back all of the Nazi’s into a corner, but before too long, the Nazi’s backup arrived with fresh ammunition, and the fight seemed lost.

Meanwhile, there was a group of traitor Soviets fighting with the Nazis’. With the Soviet army only a few days away though, they realised that, if found as traitors, they would either be killed on the spot or tortured for life. So they turned themselves in to the allies, in the hope of a fair trial. As they made their way to the allies, they dumped all of their weapons, leaving them free for the Czech civilians to collect.

Now, with proper equipment, the battle between the Czech civilians and Nazi’s was a bit more even. As the Nazi’s realised the imminence of the Soviets arrival, they sat down and made an agreement with the civilians, that in exchange for a free walk out of Prague, they would leave the Czechs alone. And in doing so, the Czechs liberalized themselves! The Soviets arrived the next day though, and in sacrificing nothing, took all of the credit. And the allies handed the traitor Soviets over, and they were tortured for the rest of their lives. They played a key role though in allowing the Czechs to gain power and free themselves from the Nazis.

After a lunch of soup and a big plate of steamed veggies (yes, it is true! We are ready for some healthy stuff!), we headed back to the hotel via a supermarket, and cracked the vegemite for vegemite bread for dinner, yum! After a big day of foreign history, there is nothing like getting back to your roots!

A not so simple day – Saturday, Dec 19, 5 pm

We were due to catch a train from Vienna to Prague on Tuesday (well I think it was Tuesday, I am losing track of the days!), but were not sure what time the train was leaving, as it was left blank on our ticket. We went down and asked at our hostel reception, and she was so helpful, even printing off a list of times. She seemed to think that the train was very regular, and gave me three times for alternate trains leaving within 45 minutes of each other. 

So off we set, not to worried about the time, because if we missed one, we could just catch the next one! Got to love European public transport!

First of all, getting to the train station that our train would leave from was not as easy as anticipated, as we had to change from one type of subway line to another type. Well, that was my interpretation of what we ended up doing anyway! Some nice elderly Austrian ladies helped us out though and we eventually made it. We had by then missed the train we had planned to catch, but not to worry, there were plenty more! We couldn’t see the Prague train on the departures board though, so we found ourselves a nice English speaking man at an information desk to ask. Only to be told that the next train was not leaving for two and a half hours! Turns out the three times we had been given were actually the times of each of the stops that the ONE Prague train would be making.

So, with a few hours to spare in the middle of who knows what part of Vienna, we found ourselves a nice little park bench to call our home for the next few hours, and took turns bag sitting and going into the nearby shops to defrost ourselves! We also sampled some Austrian McDonalds in order to make use of their comfy chairs and heating!

We did eventually make our train, and were just glad that there was a second Prague train on that day. It was a nice train ride where we got to see some Austrian and Czech country side. Lots of naked trees, piles of fire wood and funny little houses. I think you could tell when we had changed countries, but I couldn’t name how. It just looked different!

We made it to Prague, and on first impression, right in line with what I had been told, it seemed like a beautiful city, with lots of nice people.  Our hotel was easy to find, and was really good. We booked a cheap private room for Prague, and it turned out to be a really good deal. It was a massive room with views of the Prague castle, and we only had to share our big bathroom with one other couple. Lucky us! It also had free wifi in the room, which was a bonus.

It was pretty late when we arrived, but we set out to find some dinner anyway. Without having had a chance to suss out the hotspots yet, we headed in the total opposite direction to what we later discovered to be the centre of town. We did find a cute little restaurant though that seemed pretty cheap, so headed in there. We both just went for a pasta for tea, but also like the sound of these fruit drinks on the menu, Moravians. They came in all sorts of flavours, and I was imagining a fruit slushy type thing. Sounded good, so I ordered a strawberry Moravian, and Alice ordered an apple Moravian.

Now I am not sure if this is a common name that just us non-big drinkers aren’t aware of, but it sure took us by surprise when the waiter brought out two tiny little wine glasses full of what looked like straight liqueur! And I’m pretty sure that that is what it was, strawberry and apple liqueur! Tasted disgusting, but we are on a budget, and cannot let anything go to waste! So we quickly ordered a couple of cokes to wash it down with, and bit by bit, sipped down our Moravians! I took it pretty slow, and tried to at least pretend I was enjoying it. Ali went more for the bandaid approach, and very quickly washed each mouthful down with some coke. For anyone who has seen her take her migraine medication, she used the same brutal method. However we did it though, we both managed to finish (but no, not enjoy, unfortunately!), our Moravians. I think the waiters were all secretly laughing at us! (Oh and dinner was nice too by the way!).

Busy day in Vienna, Tuesday December 15, 4.45 pm

Monday was a busy and very touristy day for us tourists! We started off with the usual pastry for breakfast from our ‘local’ bakery – we are quite enjoying these European breakfasts, though I don’t know how my waistline is liking it, and we are contemplating buying some cereal.. we’ll see! No vegemite toast cravings so far though, the food is too good!

After eating our breakfast in the fresh morning air, we caught the train into the city centre and headed for the central landmark of Vienna, St. Stephens cathedral – it is not hard to find as it towers over the city, and is in plain view when you come up from the train station. St. Stephens is a gothic church, and starkly different to all of the churches we saw in Rome. Beautiful in it’s own way though. They are in the process of restoring it at the moment, and the difference they have made to the restored parts so far is amazing, the ‘dirty’ parts of the stone walls are black, compared to the parts which have been cleaned, which are a normal stone gray colour.

From the church we headed towards a Lonely Planet recommended coffee house (of which Vienna is famous for), via a few shops I admit! The winter clothes over here are beautiful and hard to resist. I am already developing a wish list, I just have to wait until I find that ‘perfect’ item though! We found our coffee house, Café Spurl, and it was well worth the walk, as it stood above the other few we had called into for Ali’s daily caffeine hit. This one was large and luxurious with chandeliers and fancy little booths to sit in. It also had billiards tables and an array of newspapers, none of which were in English though! Our order was delivered to our little round table on a quaint little silver tray, and tasted as good as it looked. The cake thing was yum yum yum and Ali and I are looking forward to Granny’s version of it (yes Granny, that is a challenge!).

We like to take advantage of the bathrooms in places like this, as public places like the train stations tend to charge! This café was not designed for tourists though, as they did not include the universal little man and woman symbol, and instead just two foreign words! I had to retreat and check with my language guru sister in order to work that one out. I have previously on this trip used the males bathroom, it wasn’t until I was actually sitting on the toilet and noticed a sign which addressed the customers as ‘gents’ that I realised!

The language has definitely been a challenge in Austria, where they speak German. Unlike in Italy, where we could decipher the meaning of many words, here it is completely foreign and we have felt quite out of our depth! We looked up a few words before we came, but the only one we have really been able to use is ‘dunkishan’, or thank you. And that is how you pronounce it (I think anyway!), not how you spell it! Apart from that, a lot of hand gestures have been involved! You know you are in a very foreign place when, as Alice just discovered on our train to Prague, they have a sign translated into five languages, none of which are english!

We found a good little market near the coffee house, sort of Vic Market style, but with less junk and more food! We enjoyed sampling their offerings in their attempt to lure us, and then bought a few things for our picnic lunch (Does it sound like all we are doing is eating?! I promise time is passing in between all of these culinary delights!) The picnic was a little disappointing though. We sat out on the street and bravely removed our gloves to eat. The bread and dip was nice, but the delicious looking cream cheesey things wrapped in prosciutto turned out to be a mouthful of garlic, and our ricotta filled dry apricots were not nearly as tasty as they looked. All the same though, we had fun! And then even more fun defrosting in the nearest shop!

We went on a Jewish Vienna walking tour in the afternoon, just us and two middle aged couples, very intimate! The presumed knowledge for the tour was a bit above our level, but it was interesting never the less. Thousands of Jewish Viennese were wiped out during the Holocaust, and only one synagogue was left standing, as it was joined to a building containing a lot of important documents that the Nazis’ didn’t want to destroy. I did not know either, that Hitler was actually Austrian, but this is something that our tour guide was very clear that they are not proud of. By the tone of her response, it seems to be, understandably, a very sensitive issue for the Austrians. She also said that he wiped out something like 70 Austrian villages, including the village that he grew up in and that contained his family. There is a memorial in Vienna to the people lost in the Holocaust, and it is a large concrete structure, essentially an inside out library, so that the outside walls are adorned with books. Apparently in art, turning things inside out is symbolic of death, and the books in the memorial symbolically contain the names of the 65,000 (I think that was the figure) Austrians killed.

We also visited one of Mozart’s apartments that he lived in in Vienna. He had many residences in Vienna, but this is the one that he lived in for the longest, and where he wrote some of his best works. It is essentially a museum of Mozart’s life, contained within the building that he lived in. If you look out the window of what historians have guessed to be his lounge room, you can see another of his apartments, though much less exuberant, and from his less successful days. It was an interesting place to visit, and we also enjoyed getting out of the cold for a few hours (possible ulterior motives!).

Tuesday night we headed to the opera! Well really, it was a string quartet, with a bit of opera and ballet thrown in for good measure. One of the tourist sales people conned us in this morning outside St. Stephens, giving us two tickets for the price of one, so we though we may as well check it out. In the pamphlet, it was advertised that Mozart himself performed in this same theatre. I wish now that I had kept this pamphlet so I could look at it a bit more closely, as we have since been told that Prague contains the only still standing theatre that Mozart himself performed in! Hmmm. It was a good show though. The theatre was a tiny little thing, but lavishly decorated. A string quartet performed all of the Mozart classics, plus some other well known classics that I recognized, but would not have a clue who they are by or what they are called! They played beautifully, and then every couple of songs an opera singer, or two ballerinas, would come out and accompany them. The opera singer was good, but the ballerinas were just there for the sake of it really, as the stage was so small that they had no space to stretch out and do anything impressive at all.

Found – Christmas spirit, Dec 13 10.30 pm

Alice and I arrived in Vienna late Friday night, and had an interesting experience in trying to find an empty bed in our pitch black room. But that is all part of the fun of hostels, and we are learning! The next morning the majority of the people in our room checked out, so we quickly re-arranged ourselves into the bottom bunks etc before the next lot arrived!

After a bit of a slow start on Saturday (our first sleep in – we are finally on European time!), we caught the train into the Vienna city centre, which is only about 10 minutes. Vienna has an underground public transport system (which is very user friendly, go Vienna!), and as you come up the escalator onto the ‘Bourke Street Mall’ of Vienna, it is quite spectacular, with all of the old and extravagant architecture, the street full of live Christmas trees for sale, fairly lights everywhere, and Christmas carols playing.

While the Austrians’ are noticeably less beautiful than the striking Italians, they also seem much more friendly. To be honest, Alice and I left Rome with a great impression of the city, but not so much of the people (I would love to be proven wrong by anyone though!). In Vienna, some people manage to return a smile and in general have seemed much more approachable to us. It did make us laugh though, when the first really friendly people that we met were a couple of Aussies who wandered into our dorm!

We have spent most of the last few days in Vienna wandering through Christmas markets. We have been to three now, all wonderful. They are full of wooden stalls decorated with fairly lights, and sell all sorts of nice things, from soaps, candles and jewellery, hats and gloves, notebooks, Christmas decorations and little wooden toys, to all types of food, hot dogs, roast potatoes, hot punch, pastry, and all sorts of other things that I wouldn’t have a clue how to name (but it all looks delicious!).  Christmas carols play, and they are absolutely packed with rugged up people! It has been snowing on and off the last few days, only very lightly, but for us aussies, it certainly adds to the magic of it all.

Every second store in the markets seem to sell all sorts of hot punch, and it is yummy. I have had an orange one, berry, chocolate. Some come with whipped cream on top and look delicious. I actually think the plain ones are nicer though, and do a much better job of warming you up! I initially wondered whether or not they were alcoholic, but after about half of one, when the warmth was spreading, it was very clear that yes, they are! They sure do keep you warm, and I think that this is the secret to European winters! The punch is served in proper coffee cups, and if you return the cup you get your 2 euro deposit back. Everyone stands around the market drinking them and been merry!

This morning we got up early to see the Vienna Boys Choir sing at Sunday Mass. Standing room is free, which seemed perfect for us! We managed to get front and centre of the standing room, and heard the boys sing one song, before Ali had a bit of a faint and we had to quickly push our way through the crowd before she hit the deck. And just to confirm what we had been thinking about the Austrians, a heap of people rushed over to help us, offering drinks and a chair, a doctor if we wanted one! She was fine though, she just needed her jellybeans and we sat out the back and watched the mass via a TV screen. We could still hear the choir, and they do sound lovely, I don’t know how old they are, but their voices certainly haven’t broken and they look only around 10 or so.

As a bit of an extra sugar hit afterwards, we sampled the famous ‘Sachatorte’ chocolate cake that we have heard so much about. It was yummy, a rich chocolate cake with apricot jam through it. Other Viennese food highlights thus far.. rhubarb strudel, german hotdog, choc coated strawberries, pork schnitzel, a funny deep fried pancake thing, kebab. And there is much more on my list of ‘things to sample’! I wish my stomach would get hungry a bit more regularly!

We had tea tonight at an Austrian pub, and that is where we sampled our schnitzel. We decided just to share one, as we had been grazing all day on all sorts. Lucky we did decide that, as one schnitzel serve consisted of two full sized schnitzels and a pile of chips! It was massive and we couldn’t finish it between us! We didn’t find it to be anything too special, but eating a schnitzel in Austria is just something that you have to do!

Our list for tomorrow is the big cathedral, Mozart’s house, some more markets, a Jewish walking tour, and a recommended coffee house. Forecast is sunny and -6 to a beautiful 0 degrees!

Vatican City, Sunday Dec 13 9.30 pm

Our third day in Rome was dedicated to Vatican City. As we had been bombarded with tour offers when we approached the coliseum, we assumed the same would happen at VC, so did not bother to book anything ahead of time. But, of course, we were not approached, and could not see any tour operators around at all. So it was off to find an internet café, which proved to be quite an ordeal. A few translations later though, we had managed to find one, book a tour for the afternoon, and were wandering along the river in lovely sunny Rome. It was such a nice day, and though cold in the shade, when we were in the sun we were stripping the layers off.

We found ourselves meandering through a maze of laneways, and, after purchasing an afternoons supply of biscuits from a cute little food place, we came across a fairly ordinary looking church (remembering that ordinary does take on a whole new meaning when you are in Rome!). On walking in though, this church was absolutely breathtaking. As a total non-churchgoer like myself, my breath is not easily taken by a church! It was not as big as some of the others we had seen, but beautifully intricate with a golden roof and little chapels off to the side. I have discovered the peacefulness that is found inside churches. It was truly truly lovely.

Vatican City was an interesting ordeal, although it is Alice who was taking in all of the facts and figures. After awhile it just lost me. But the artwork was incredible, and it was very interesting learning about ‘fresco’, the method that Michael Angelo and the like used in decorating the Sistine Chapel and other rooms in VC. Fresco involves painting directly on to wet plaster. Michael Angelo spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel, and ended up with a very crook neck apparently! It was good to have a tour guide explaining to us the meaning of all of the paintings and statues, it gave a deeper meaning to everything that we saw and really enhanced the experience.

A highlight of VC for me was the Swiss Guard, men from the Swiss Army dressed in funny outfits who protect VC. And despite their outfits, we were assured that they are very serious, as I learned when I took a step too close to have my picture taken with them, there was no small talk going on there! They are pretty funny though, and quite eligible bachelors I would say, based on the criteria for the acceptance.. Aesthetically pleasing, single, a certain height, a certain age (19-30 I think), catholic, and speak 5 (five!!) of the main languages fluently (and of course be willing to stand around in public in funny outfits having your picture taken!).
Pic: Vatican City

Friday night we splurged and had some real Italian pasta. We had tried some of the cheaper stuff, but it just wasn’t that special. But the one splurge was worth it, delish. Alice had carbonara and I had something called tritoli I think, which was filled with pumpkin and oh so smooth. Another food highlight for the day was mandarin gelati. It is definitely up there with the tuscan banana!! Other Italian foods to remember are the jam/chocolate filled croissants at breakfast, slightly warmed panini’s from street stands, and clementines.

Saturday morning, our last day in Rome before flying to Vienna, we spent the day just wandering around Rome and seeing what we saw. Excitement for the day came early on, when as we were passing Termini, the main Roman train station, we came across a massive mob of people and crowds of police. From the way photographers were acting, we thought perhaps there was someone famous in the middle of it all. We went in a bit closer to have a look of course, when all of a sudden, the crowd turned and starting stampeding towards us! I thought we were going to be run down for a moment their, but it was fairly short lived, and we got out of the way pretty quickly after that! Turns out that it was a mass student protest against the privatisation of universities. The streets were absolutely packed with protestors, and it seemed that everywhere that we went that day, we came across these swarms of people! It was a great stark contrast to see, all of these uni and alternative types out in masses, with ancient Rome in the background. 

My scarf is purple! Wednesday Dec 9, 5.30 pm

Today Roma came alive! I don’t think we realized yesterday how quiet it was (as a result of the public holiday), but today the streets were buzzing and a lot more interesting. After another croissant for breaky (jam filled today) and picking up some ‘clementines’ (mini mandarins) from a local market, we bought a ticket for a hop on hop off bus to get a bit of an overview of the city. It was beautiful and sunny today, and sitting up on top of the bus it was lovely and fresh!

Our first stop was at the Pantheon, of which the dome is ancient rome’s greatest archeological feat. It is quite breathtaking when you walk in and look up, but unfortunately us amateur photographers could not capture the essence of it on film!

From the Pantheon we wandered through the roman streets to Piazza Navona, a great big square which had what resembled a fair in the middle of it, including a carousel. Alice enjoyed an Italian cappuccino, and then we shared a delicious street stall snack, like a giant doughnut which they heated up and flattened in a foccacia maker, and then spread with nutella. Yum!

Next our bus took us past Vatican City, but that is our plan for tomorrow so we didn’t hop off. We did go to Castle Sant’Angelo though, which is right on the river and happens to be an important scene in one of Ali’s favourite books! She of course went for a look inside, I opted to sit in the sunshine for a while and people watch.

Trevy Fountain was a highlight of today I think, it is a massive big fountain that you can hear before you can see, and it is set within a lovely area of little alley ways full of shops, gelato bars etc. The legend says that if you throw one coin over your shoulder into the fountain, it will ensure that you return to Rome again in your life. I have heard conflicting stories of what throwing a second coin results in, either a wish coming true, or finding love in Rome! Regardless, we of course took part in this legend and I am expecting Prince Charming to walk through the door at any moment! Just near Trevy Fountain is ‘the best gelato in Rome’ according to Lonely Planet. I gave it a go, and it was yum, and was certainly a fancy looking place, but I don’t think it compares to the ‘world’s best’ gelato we had in San Gimignano a few years ago. That gelato tasted like banana, while today’s gelato tasted like banana cake. Yummy though!

We spent a bit of time wandering around some shopping strips, and I am quickly developing a liking for this European winter style. Lucky I suppose, as I will be in it for a while! No major purchases were made though! I have noticed that purple is the BIG colour over here at the moment. And I mean big. Every second person seems to be wearing it. While some wear just a feature piece, others are dressed purple head to toe. I saw a school group in casual clothes, but it was as if their uniform was just to dress in purple, as they all did. While I was sitting by the river, everywhere I looked, it was all I could see! Purple pants, purple jackets, scarves, tights, tops, jumpsuits, too tight trackpants! I was feeling very daggy, not because I was wearing runners with jeans, but because I was wearing no purple! I then realised that my scarf is of course purple. Ali and I are in dispute over this though, and I will not agree to disagree! She is trying to tell me that it is gray, but it is definitely purple, which is very appropriate, because when in Rome..!

This pic is of Alice and I by the river just outside Castle Sant’Angelo.

Blog Numero Uno – Tuesday Dec 8, 10pm

Well Alice and I have made it to Rome! The flight here was long and I think in the end we were travelling for 34 hours, but it was not too bad for me thanks to my trusty blue neck pillow! It was less pleasant for Ali who was not well, but she still managed to sample all aeroplane food and is much better now. Our layover in Doha, Qatar was very interesting, a very foreign country to us westerners! Flying in, the landscape was all desert and funny little circular scatterings of buildings, some on what looked like little sand islands. According to our plane buddy Olivia, these structures were built on the islands in order to claim the land.

We felt a bit ripped off on the second leg of the trip, as after reserving a window seat, we got on the plane to discover that we were on one of those annoying back rows where you are on the window, without a window! But never mind, we will know for next time!

We managed to make it to our hostel without too much hassle, and after a quick first Italian meal which we zombied through, and then one fairly sleepless night due to the joys of jetlag, we spent today at the Colosseum and it’s surrounding areas. We were both wide awake pretty early so made it there before it opened at 9 (after our first croissant for breaky of course!). We quickly realised entry was cash only though, and set off on a mission to find an ATM. After trying a few with no luck with any of our cards, we decided we needed to go into a bank. At 9.30am they were still all closed though, and it was at this point, after a quick referral to the trusty Lonely Planet, that we discovered that today is an Italian public holiday (Feast of the immaculate conception or something along those lines!). So, with a few cents on us, literally (as a result of a tourist trap which we fell for – having our photo taken with a ‘gladiator’ outside of the coliseum - we thought he was just been friendly, turned out he wanted us to pay him 10 Euro! Luckily we only had a few euro on us and all he got out of us was 2 euro and a good telling off for not telling us we had to pay first! Never the less we learnt our lesson there), we wandered aimlessly for a while wondering what on earth one does when in Rome with no access to money! Luckily, in our wandering, we came across another ATM, and on trying it were presented with some glorious cash! That was a relief, crisis averted! You don’t realise what a security blanket your money is until you are faced with the prospect of not having any!

So anyway, we made it back to the colosseum and went on a tour of that, which was very interesting, but a little hard to understand. So we hung around a bit afterwards trying to be good tourists and reading the information boards. We took a bit in, but neither of us are history buffs, and we both wished that we had one of our artsy friends (Anna? Catherine?!) here to explain it all to us!

A few things I worked out (or I think I did anyway, I may be way off track!).. The Roman Empire who instigated the building of the colosseum seemed like a pretty cool dude, into equal rights etc and anti aristocracy/Men ‘worked’ as gladiators in order to win roman citizenship/People who came to watch the gladiators had to bring body guards with them to protect them from the tigers and lions who could easily jump over the 9.5 foot fence between them and the stadium!/Around three quarters of a million gladiators died fighting in the colosseum (or was that figure in all of Italy, not sure)/Female gladiators existed, but were not allowed to fight to death/Only around 40% of the remaining colosseum is original/one of the gates is numbered ‘LIIII’, which in it’s day was correct, but is now laughed at as an error.

After sharing a delicious tomato and mozzarella Panini for lunch, eaten in the rain whilst people watching, we wondered the streets for awhile and then had a second tour, this time of the Paletine (on Ali’s correction, I thought it was Palestine we had a tour of, woops!) and Roman Forum. Our tour guide this time was much clearer and made the story so much more interesting. Now once again, I lack in history skills, but my interpretation and memory of the story goes something like this.. There was a man, and he made his wife promise to remain a virgin forever, as he was scared his children would over rule him. While the wife was sunbaking by the river though, a god from above could not resist and came and took advantage of her. The woman became pregnant and gave birth to twin boys, Remus and Romulus. For breaking her vowel of celibacy, the woman was sentenced to death, as were her boys. The man set to kill the baby boys however, could not bring himself to do it, so set them off down the river in a basket. The basket and boys were found in the river by a ‘shewolf’, who suckled them in a cave. This story was always though to be a legend, but in 2007, this very cave was found and the story hence proven! The boys were then adopted by I can’t remember who, and when they were older, fought over who’s hill should be developed into what is now known as Rome. After asking the gods which man’s hill should win, by seeing which hill the most vultures would circle over in a day, Romulus won. Later on, Remus, the sore loser, agitated his brother, resulting in Romulus killing his own twin. I got a bit lost in the story after that, but the hill which Romulus had sat atop was developed into the hot spot of those days, the ancient days Beverley Hills as our tour guide said, and Romulus is known as the founder of Rome. Remnants of all of this remain, and it is a fascinating place to walk though.

Anyway, I think that will do for now, Ali is tucked up in bed, our roommates are out somewhere and I am hoping for some sleep tonight! Arrivederci!!

Testing..

This is a test run to figure out how blogging works before I am faced with the added challenge of funny keyboards!