Europe trip - Jun 2011

Europe trip was awesome bla bla bla don't feel like writing about it even after settling down and about to fly on another mini holiday.

Maybe some other time when I really feel like it.

Alright I'll do it now, might as well right?

London felt a lot like Melbourne, or should that be the other way around, whatever, but I didn't feel like I left Melbourne at all. Still curious with Pret though. Oh, when we first arrived at Goodge St station, people were queuing for the two elevators. We couldn't be bothered and took the circular stairs. Boy was that a hasty and wrong decision (but can you blame us for being tired from the fourteen hour flight and just wanted to check-in to the hotel?). The stairway was over two hundred steps. Congrats and welcome to London.

Paris, first of the three attempted theft/scams, right after we got off the Eurostar and got on the train at Gare du Nord. Responsible parties: a group of three young girls. Uncool. Relaxing on the stairs in front of the Sacre Coeur with buskers entertaining us though, was cool. Eiffel tower, so so, but when we did the Paris by night tour, that's when the madame really shone. She was colourful, the lights, the sky, the bridges, the river, the everything.

Amsterdam, in my opinion, was the best city I visited on this trip. The canals, the bikes, the bike lanes, Indonesian food, Suriname fried rice (best meal I had on the trip), the red light district, everybody spoke English, windmills, boat hotels and a real plus for not having the annoying company of thiefs or scammers. Beautiful.

Venice, I thought was ok at first, you know, the gondolas (for €100 per ride, oh c'mon), the canals, the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, St Marco, everything was right until the next day when I woke up with my body full of bug bites. I will never go back to Venice again, this I swear. PS: this oath is only valid until I feel like going to Venice again or someone would somehow pay for my trip to Venice then all is forgiven.

Florence was a nice city, I think, we didn't spend much time in Florence since we went straight to Pisa (trust me there's nothing in Pisa except if you like seeing people posing like they're trying to support the weight of the leaning tower, talk about your big time waster) after checking in then straight to Cinque Terre. Supposedly beautiful but we couldn't get to the really nice parts because they were closed. Aaah the beauty of travel. The Vespa Tour was definitely a breather. The countryside of Tuscany (we went to Chianti) was beautiful and my feet got a well-deserved rest from all the walking for the past ten days.

Rome, the second of the three attempted theft/scams, again right after we got to Termini station from Florence and got on to the train going to our rented apartment. Responsible parties: a group of three gypsy mums. Merda. Spaghetti was the size of hokkien noodles and pizzas were beautiful, thin based, just the way I like it. Coffee was molto delizioso.

Madrid. I had very little recollection of Madrid. The ones I remember were Zara, trying to buy a new electric adapter, a flamenco show, Zara aaaaaaand...Zara again.

Valencia, the last attempted scam. I was by myself and it wasn't until the scammer asked me to input my credit card pin into his phone that I realised they had scammed me. And it actually almost worked if I did input it in. The City of Arts and Science made it all go away though. I loved spending time in the Oceanographic. I felt so calm in there.

Barcelona, the last city on the trip. Gaudi, Gaudi and Gaudi. La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. The international airport needs a redesign though. Who on earth decided to put the stores before the immigration and not after? Who? Who? Spent the last hour and a half in the airport waiting in McDonald's because we couldn't walk around into the stores anymore. Muchas gracias flawed airport design! Mierda!

So that was it. Inspiring? Definitely, especially the Eurorail train rides, definitely the way to travel Europe if you have the time. Tiring? You betcha, after all, a lot of the time we had to carry our backpacks and we had to be alert the whole time and that by itself made the trip far less enjoyable. I didn't whip out my camera as much as I would like to and it's not Southeast Asia, this continent runs on Euros baby, and that was harsh on the bank account.

Until next time…I hope. Oh and pics are, as usual, up on my Flickr