Of idiocy and beauty in Florence, and travelling with uni.

This morning, I did something that was simultaneously fun and ridiculously stupid in Florence.

In the words of Boromir, it was folly.

I was going to have a nice quiet one, visiting the statue of David, and not visit the Duomo, because I figured it would be much the same as every other Duomo. Also, I had slept about four hours because the Italian people partake in traditional car honking celebrations after their team wins a football match.

Of course, I ended up at the Duomo, and not seeing David.

Why?

The line for David was just not moving. Because I am an ultra-patient person, I left after 10 minutes of queue inaction.

I went to the Duomo, expecting maybe just to walk around inside, take a few good photos of stained glass and whatnot, and go home.

What I ended up doing was scaling a bazillion stairs, not knowing where it would stop, because I had no idea what people generally did at that place.

What people generally did was climb to the top of the place. By climbing the aforementioned one zillion steps.

The view at the top, however, made the trip almost worth it.

(I'll upload a pic a bit later maybe)

Truly breathtaking.

The way down wasn't as bad as expected either.

So after that, long story short, I more or less stumbled towards Prato and uni people.

So we haven't done much so far, except for wandering around Prato. The two people I was wandering with, Jamie (Melbourne High old boy - saw it from a mile away - seriously) and Louise, were quite swell, and the wandering was fairly good bonding time. Met a few more cool people at dinner, which was all good, and I look forward to doing more of the same over the next few days. Off to a good start already. Not that I expected anything less.

Word of the Day: Folly

Thank-you, KIG.

So of course, my last train ride (I think/hope) of this journey is delayed by an hour-and-a-half or something. And, of course, no announcements in English to tell me, or any non-Italian speakers (because I’m not selfish and all that) what’s going on. Thankfully, a nice girl who spoke both Italian and English fairly well (well, I assume she spoke Italian fluently – I’d obviously have no idea) kept me up to date and stuff. Thank-you, kindly Italian girl, even though you’ll probably never read this. Without you, I might still be stuck on Platform 10 or whatever it was, trying to figure out how to say “I don’t know what the hell’s going on, please help” in Italian.  

While on said train, I watched/listened to the football with a whole trainload of Italians (obviously). Absolutely hilarious and enlightening experience (the only positive to come out of the whole delay). From 20 years old to 80, the people were equally passionate, crowding around the few streaming iPads, exalting in the two goals at staggered intervals (one of the streams were about 2 minutes behind the other). They were absolutely loving it, especially the aforementioned kind Italian girl, who kept calling someone and asking for the score. Made me think that the only reason they were upset at the delayed train was because they were missing out on the game.

One of those weird, impromptu, interesting, money-can't-buy experiences. Some of the best experiences. I love them. More so when they happen not because of a delayed train.

Now, because Italy's thrashed Germany at the Euros, they are partaking in their traditional post-football-match-victory celebration, which sounds suspiciously like the honking of car horns. This is at midnight. About three hours after the victory. And it seems to get louder and louder.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon, I'll join up with uni. On the one hand, I'm very, very relieved to have someone else look after the planning and talking and stuff. I'm so far over all that it's not even funny. On the other hand, I'll have to meet new people.

Actually, that's quite good. What am I even talking about?

Also, I wish Germany would've won. I like Germany. Most in-depth football commentary ever.

Word of the Day: Honking  

Venetian decadence + Rome-ing

So yeah, Milan, didn’t manage to do a whole lot there. Basically saw the Duomo, got lost on the way back, found my way back to the hotel eventually, then left the next morning for Venice.

Venice was quite nice. The architecture, the wateriness, and music, and all that was lovely.

The prices of things, however, were definitely not nice. Certainly not for the faint-hearted/poor. Patrick  shouted me, to repay my shouting of the Bordeaux dinner, what is, if not the most expensive coffee in the world, the most expensive coffee I've ever had. 5,80 euro (they use commas instead of decimal points over there, dontcha know - culcha) for the live music charge (there was live music played - it worked out to be about a euro a song), plus about 9 euro for the coffee itself. It did, however, come with complimentary chips and water. And they did play 'La Vie En Rose'. You know, that song by Rachael Leachar (lololol I just mocked mX readers). Yippee. Cheers Paddy.

Also, everything there seemed really manufactured. Even the skies the next morning when we were leaving looked manufactured, and they were to a certain extent. They had those planes spraying white lines in the perfectly clear blue skies.

Everything seemed to exist purely to suck money away from tourists. There were very few, if any, organic sort of businesses that exist to serve the needs of everyday citizens. This may be because there are very few ordinary everyday citizens. I don’t think I saw any locals apart from those sucking money from tourists. A very nice place on the surface, but quite cynical underneath I think.

So as I write this up, I’m sitting in the hotel lobby of my hotel in Rome. A very nice hotel, but a relative age away from anything worthwhile.

I don’t want to sound like I’m Rome-bashing, but there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot here, despite its size. It’s much the same as everywhere else, except less good. The tourist attractions (Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps) were nice, but the city itself, by and large, is not very beautiful. It’s a bit run-down and old, crowded and busy (especially the trains. Can you believe they have two train lines to service the entire city? Bizarre).

The highlight for me was probably Vatican City. A very nice place, and it had a great ambience to it.

The weather was also really hot. It’s only 30-odd degrees, but it’s sweltering from about 9am in the morning, right through to God knows when at night. I think it seems hotter because during the Melbourne summer, it usually only starts to really heat up at around midday, rather than pre-breakfast.

So now I am a nice shade of brown, and I travel to Florence in the few hours. Kind of wish I’d made the train earlier.

Word of the Day: Organic

Leaving Paris + Bordeaux good times.

As I write this, we are in a car in Bordeaux, rocketing towards the biggest sand dune in Europe, and apparently a beach as well.

While I enjoyed my time in Paris, especially towards when we left the place, Bordeaux has been nothing short of amazing.

First, the Boyé family, with whom I have been staying, have welcomed me with, quite literally, hugs and kisses, and, somewhat contradictingly, with open arms. They have been amazing tour guides, hosts, and friends, and I could not have asked more of my stay in Bordeaux.

The Boyé family minus Marie and Simon. Great people (including the missing ones).

Second, the city itself is amazing. The architecture is beautiful, and amazingly unified, kind of like Bath in England. Matthieu has been kind enough to give me a tour of the place by both night and day. Very charming city.

By day.

By night.

The people also seem to be quite a bit friendlier than those in Paris, despite me being a minor minority here.

Visiting the countryside was interesting, despite it being more or less as expected - that is, full of wineries.

-------

So a bit of time-lapse magic, and I'm now on the train from Milan to Venice. A bit about that later.

Back to where we started, and then a bit after.

We scaled the epic sand dune, known as the Dune de Pilat. Going up was ok, because there were stairs. Going down to the other side was also ok, because it was just sliding down sand.

Coming back up the sandy side was absolute hell. Walking up a steep mountain of loose sand for what I think was 1km was just slightly exhausting. I was extremely pleasantly surprised when my legs didn't hurt one bit the day after. Must be the magic in the water.

The water that I fell into after wading in and tripping on a submerged rock.

Despite the physical pain of both the climb and the fall, a fun time was had, and it was beautiful there. An amazing experience that money probably can't buy.

Me on the top of Dune du Pilat.

While Matthieu and I trekked back up the dune, he imparted some of his many fun facts on me, which he had been doing during the whole stay, some of which include:
- French people enjoy breaking rules, and Germans will hate you for it;
- the two important elements in how good a wine is are the earth, and the year in which it was made;
- life without coffee is not really a life a all;
- people in Madagascar are very resourceful;
- the wealth of Bordeaux is built on both slavery and wine;
- colonialism was bad;
- despite his frequent disregard for timeliness, his children are puzzlingly continually concerned about the issue of punctuality.

Anyway. Enough of that. After trekking back up and down, we proceeded to Arcachon (driving, thankfully), a nice beachside town. We had dinner while watching the sunset, which was quite a perfect last night in Bordeaux.

So now I'm on the train to Venice, still missing Bordeaux.

I did pretty much nothing in Milano except visit the duomo, and managing to get myself lost. The duomo was nice, as was the hotel. Yeah, end commentary.

So Paris, my favourite places were the Louvre, and the Luxembourg Gardens. The Louvre was amazing for what was in it as well as the architecture. The Gardens were very serene, beautiful, and relatively people-free. I also quite liked Versailles, although I thought it would be bigger.

In Bordeaux, I'm fairly certain my favourite part was everything. Just sitting around and eating, shooting the breeze, sightseeing with The Best Tour Guides Ever, and experiencing how people actually lived in a non-Paris part of France.

I don't mind Paris, but I definitely love Bordeaux.

Word of the day: Dune

What she order, fish fillet?

The more astute of you will have picked up from the title that I am blogging from Paris.

Paris, the city of romance, beauty, art, fashion, French, and incredible rudeness.

To be sure, it is a nice city (no idea why I'm coming over all Irish and stuff). It's beautiful, in fact. Well, the good parts are anyway.

But it's like kind of like a gorgeous girl who knows she's gorgeous, and acts accordingly. Externally, architecturally, and artistically, it is probably close to being without compare. It has a kind of beauty that cannot be matched by anything made by modern man. The level of care, meticulous attention to detail, and scale of many things in this city are amazing.

For this reason, it would be one of the greatest cities ever. However, there's one thing that severely, severely lets it down.

Yes, the people. I know, I know, people say it's exaggerated, and they're not that bad.

From what I have seen and experienced, it is that bad.

First day I got there, I ordered a fillet o fish at Maccas. The attitude of the guy, who knew very clearly that I was speaking English, was one of "Oh my god, this guy speaks English. Why do people have to speak English?". He sighed, and proceeded to speak in French with sign language. He was about 16 or 17 years of age. Surely he knows rudimentary English?

The next day, at the Eiffel Tower, the security dude started speaking to me in Chinese. Bad Chinese, because he wasn't actually Chinese. Not that I would have understood. Which is my point exactly.

However, although it was unnecessary, as the question I was being asked was not being asked of anyone else there, it was sort of understandable, so we'll let that one slide.

Other stuff happened in between, but I've forgotten now. Anyway, that night, we went to buy something at the supermarket. Assistant was all friendly and chummy with her French mate, then threw our stuff on the counter and got us to bag it ourselves. The difference is quite startling.

Today, I tried to put credit on my phone. The woman could speak English, knew full well that I spoke English, and still spoke very angry and frustrated French with me.

A bit later, I got laughed at the bakery because I spoke English. Once again, they knew I spoke English, and still insisted on speaking French with me.

I hate to stereotype, but most of the positive experiences with French customer service has come from black people. The taxi driver who drove us on the first day, very well spoken and very happy. The guy in the phone store today, who explained things to me in English after ascertaining that I didn't speak French. Another phone store guy today, who after not understanding me initially, got me to speak slower, and gave me directions.

The worst seem to be guys and middle-aged women. Most of them act as though you go into their store asking for money or something.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a Paris hate-fest. Again, it is a very nice city. While public transport is quite old and in need of sprucing up, it is very efficient and convenient.

While we did the Eiffel Tower, the Musee D'Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame yesterday, I enjoyed today much more. We went to the Louvre and the Luxembourg Gardens, and I went to Sacre-Coeur by myself today.

The Louvre has been my favourite so far. Absolutely amazing place. The building itself is a work of art comparable to the masterpieces that it contains. While waiting in line for an hour (because we got there at 8 in the morning), we started talking to these Canadians who were quite cool and nice. In hindsight, a good start to the day, and pretty much set the tone.

The Luxembourg Gardens come a close second. Beautifully natural, and lacking in massive crowds.


The Sacre-Coeur also had no lines. While inside, there was this moment that I would've loved to have captured on camera, but was forbidden by the no photography signs. Well, I could've, but disrespect and all that.


Anyway, it was the sun streaming in from the windows at the top, and it looked like sunlight that filters through a gap in the clouds sometimes. Beautiful. 


Speaking of lines, they're ridiculous. Everywhere. Which is also another annoying aspect. 


Backtracking a bit to London and England. 


People over there were more or less quite friendly and nice. Although quite a few of them started speaking Chinese and Japanese to me, or speaking English to me as if I were a three-year-old, it's not entirely unexpected when most of the Asians I saw (which were few and far between) were international students or tourists. 


The first day we got there, we pretty much only went to Emirate Stadium.

What an amazing stadium. Aesthetically beautiful, and so grand.

The coolest thing happened there as well. We were trying to get in an do the stadium tour, when the guy was like, "Sorry, the Legends Tour is about to start, so you'll have to come back at 1:30."

Charlie George, the legendary Charlie George, stood up for us, being all like "Oh, let them through." Then started conversing with us about where we came from, and how the football there was progressing. Apparently he'd played at some now-defunct Melbourne football club. Amazing.

What also amazed me was that the girl who sold me the Arsenal jersey actually knew about football. It's a feature that I've found with sales assistants in England. They're usually quite approachable and know what they're on about.

That night, I decided to go for a wander to London Bridge, because I thought it was the Millenium Bridge, because an alternate universe operates in my brain. Anyway, I got there, and was slightly disappointed, because there is essentially nothing there. It barely even resembles a bridge. However, it did give one a rather nice view of Tower Bridge (the good bridge). After taking some photos for a Swedish couple, I got them to do the same for me, and everyone was happy and stuff. (I later pulled this stunt off again at the Sacre-Coeur). Whilst there, I also saw the Monument, which is essentially a pole in the ground. And because London public transport is also quite efficient, I just jumped on the tube and went home.

So the next day, we went on a tour to Windsor Castle (cancelled because it was closed or something) Hampton Court Palace (because that's what they do when Windsor is closed), Bath (as distinct from bathing) and Stonehenge. Hampton Court Palace was massive and quite pretty inside and outside. Bath was stunning. The town planning restrictions - only limestone allowed in buildings - is pure genius. Stonehenge was what it is - a pile of rocks. It was absolutely freezing there too. While London was rainy, it wasn't as cold. Great tour.

We visited Buckingham Palace after the tour. Yeah, cool story.

The next day, Kenny and Cloris took us around London and efficiently and effectively took us to visit all the main London attractions. (We also visited the actual Millenium Bridge). We spent an inordinate, but very enjoyable, amount of time at Harrods, which is pretty much a museum of cool and expensive stuff.

I think Kenny worked it out to be roughly 6000 quid a pop. That's British Pounds. Not dollars. Not that 6000 dollars is exactly cheap.

Lol Harrods Wine.

A fun 'game', where we sniff different bottles (nothing suss), try and guess what we're smelling, and confirm our suspicions. Fun times.

Afterwards, Kenny and I headed to a bar to watch the football and catch up on various goings on. Overall, an awesome day. It was great having very amicable and knowledgable tour guides taking us around London town.

Tomorrow, we head to Versailles for a bit of opulent, decadent sightseeing. Should be good. 


Word of the Day: Paris

Camberwell Market + Jetting off.

Chronologically jumping all over the place here, but on Sunday, I went to Camberwell Market. I thought it'd be a good idea to share some reflections upon the event. Dunno why, but then again, do I ever?

First thing is: people there are really cool. Like, they dress, and look, cool. I guess you'd call it a little bit kooky, but it just works.

Second thing: People sell second-hand stuff for a lot there. Stupidest thing I saw there was a lady selling 2 Chinese dollars or however much it was for $180 AUD or something. Like, what the hell.

But yeah, interesting place. Might visit again one day after my trip to Europe.

Which brings me (seamlessly, I might add) to my next point.

I am leaving for Europe tomorrow. In case you're interested, I'll be trying to blog along the way, time/wi-fi/motivation permitting. Again, in case you're interested my itinerary is as follows (I'm not posting dates because a) I can't be bothered and b) you most likely don't care):

• London for three nights;
• Paris for four nights;
• Bordeaux for two nights;
• Milan for a night;
• Venice for a night;
• Rome for two nights;
• Florence for a night;
• Prato for two nights;
• Milan again for a day;
• Berlin for a night or two;
• Poland for the next week and a bit; 
• Lithuania for a night sometime during that period of time; and
• Hong Kong for three nights. 

I may have posted this previously, but whatever. Again, if you need/want anything from any of the above places, let me know soon. Like, before tomorrow afternoon.

Catch up after I get back and all that. xoxoxoxo

Word of the Day: Camberwell
 

Yeeeeeeeeah man.

Today, I acquired a copy of Usher's new album, the atrociously-titled 'Looking 4 Myself'. Somewhat more surprisingly, and despite the desecration of the English language, I duly listened to it.

It is better than his last effort. However, that means very, very little, given how poor I thought the last album was.

On this album, he's becoming progressively less Usher, and more electro-pop-trash. Despite me hoping otherwise, the sound is predominantly, and heavily electro. While at least he does it better than on the last album, I'm still not a massive fan of this new sound. They've also done this weird thing with his voice when it's in the lower register. I think they've really warped it with autotune or something. Sounds strange and not like him at all.

For some bizarre reason, and I don't know whether it's his fault, or the producers', or whoever, but two of the best songs are from the ones that aren't on the proper album - that is, the ones that are only found on the deluxe edition, or whatever it's called. Like this one:



How amazing is it?! So smoove and cool.

On the album proper, the two best songs are a toss up between this:


and this:



Leaning more towards the latter, because I think it's truly innovative, well-constructed, melodically pleasing, cool, and a little bit different. Sort of electro, but heavily RnB.

I'm putting money on him reverting to R&B next time out, because I think this predominantly electro mess - not just with respect to him, but to music in general - is going to get stale really quickly. While I wouldn't say everything sounds the same, many songs now sound very similar, and it's all getting a tad boring. I first started loving his music because of how cool it was, and how nice his voice was. The electro is starting to ruin both aspects. While I don't think it would be pragmatic or interesting at all to revert to exactly the same sound, 'Say the Words' illustrates how old and new can be melded together with very pleasing results. 

Maybe it's more wishful thinking than any true prediction. Sometimes, though, they can be one and the same thing. (So profound right?).

Word of the Day: Melodically

Surprise Song Sunday: London Calling - The Clash

London calling.

London is indeed calling. And it is a call that I have decided to answer. 

I'm off to London on Thursday. Paris follows soon after, as does Bordeaux, and various cities in Italy. After all that, I go to Berlin, Poland, and Lithuania with uni. On the way back, I visit the good old Hong Kong. 

A bit rushed, but should be great fun. 

If anybody wants anything, let me know. I shall grant it if it is in my power. If not, you could always cash me. Or we could work on a credit system. 

So yeah, I won't be here for four and a bit weeks from Thursday. So if you're looking for me then, yeah, tough. Swallow your disappointment. 

If any of you read this and feel like hanging out before Thursday, however, please buzz me. I would like to see friends before I leave for my long and arduous journey to the other side of the earth. I know most of you are in the midst of exams, but if you're not, or you don't care about exams, let me know. 

Word of the Day: Credit

  

Surprise Song Sunday: Snow (Hey Oh) - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hey oh,

This is what I say, oh.

On a pretty irrelevant note, good luck to all those with exams. I'm sure you'll all do really well and stuff. 

Word of the Day: Snow