Lake Bled, Slovenia

Dan: After a few train rides and a short bus trip, we arrived at Nova Gorica train station in Slovenia on the border with Italy. The station felt like we had gone back in time a few hundred years, with no computer screens telling us the departure times and only one major 'platform'. After asking an equally confused English couple where our train was going to show up, we were told platform 3 - a strip of concrete no wider than 2 feet, which required you to cross track 1 and 2 on foot!

Platform 3

Once on the train we made our way through some very scenic valleys complete with winding roads and rivers that made it one of the most enjoyable journeys so far. We arrived at Bled station a couple of hours later and could partially see the lake when exiting the station.

View of the lake from the station

After dumping our stuff in our accommodation we went for a nice stroll round the lake, made friends with some ducks and bought some much needed ice cream (at a much nicer price than in Italy). There is a pedestrianised path that goes round the whole lake, with the town being on the east side of it. We are staying on the west side which means a 20 minute walk to the main town, but to be honest it's worth it. We spent the evening in and cooked our own food to recover from our long travel day.

Lake Bled

The second day we took a morning walk to the supermarket then came back and hired some bikes from our hosts. We slowly ventured round the lake and stopped off several times to take some pictures. Unfortunately the clouds started to appear which made the weather much colder than what we were used to. We had a quiet night again after our strenuous exercise.

New friend

Our third and final full day was spent contemplating if we wanted to go out in the rain. We eventually decided to waterproof up and walk to the castle that overlooks the lake. After a bit of treacherous hill climbing on some wet rocks and gravel, we got to a little secluded spot round the side of the castle which gave us an amazing view of the lake (better than paying the €8 entrance fee). We took a dodgy detour down and stumbled across a pizza place where I had a gigantic burger and Sally had an equally huge pizza for a reasonable price. At this point we were pretty miserable in the wet and cold so we went back to dry off, warm up and watch some Animal Planet on the TV!

View of the lake from near the castle

It makes a nice change staying in such a rural area for the first time during the trip; I almost got used to scary pedestrian crossings, crammed pavements and long queues! I think Slovenia is my favourite country so far because of the landscape and scenery. We're heading to Ljubljana tomorrow which is the capital so it'll be interesting to see how different that is to where we are now and to the other capitals we've visited.

Padova & Venice

We originally planned on staying 2 nights in Venice, but struggled to find anywhere to stay that wasn't extortionate and/or a complete dive. A bit of googling suggested Padova/Padua which is about half an hour from Venice by train.

We turned up in Padova and realised that it's actually a really lovely place. It's supposedly the oldest city in Northern Italy and it's very sweet and Lincoln sized. We ended up spending our first day just strolling through the cobbled streets and sitting in the Prato della Valle - the largest square in Europe (?).

Today we took a day trip to Venice. We got one of the regional trains for about £3 each taking about 45 mins - Easy. We arrived in Santa Lucia Station (which itself is a bit rubbish looking) and headed outside to the canals.

We initially avoided the mental crowds and went for a really enjoyable stroll through the streets, getting lost and not really minding. After a couple of hours we headed back to look for San Marco Piazza, which is the main touristy bit. We spent 3 euros on ice cream and came back to Padova. Venice on the cheap - love it!

Tomorrow we travel to Lake Bled in Slovenia. This involves the hugest amount of faffing around ever: We get the train from Padova to Mestre, then from Mestre to the Italian side of the Slovenian boarder, Gorizia. From there we take the bus to Nova Gorica on the Slovenian side and then take the train to Bled. Eurghh.

Verona

Friday was a write-off as Dan was ill so we spent the rest of our arrival day in the room, not venturing into the town until Saturday.

Buses are stupid! We couldn't buy the ticket on the bus unless we had exact change as the ticket machines are picky. This means two 1.50s (not 3 euros for both of us....). Tickets can be all bought at Tabacconists and some shops, but these all close over dinner for about 3 hours. In the end we broke our change at the one bar that was open at lunch - which didn't sell tickets. We got on the bus, found the ticket machine impossible and I nearly went through the window when the driver decided to break sharply. In the end, after two people tried to help us, we got sorted and got to Verona.

Verona is pretty, but unfortunately for us it kept raining. We went up the hill to the old Ampitheatre to look out over the town and then mooched down to 'Juliet's House'. You can leave messages to Juliet on the wall (why?) - I wrote my name and then the pen ran out...

On Sunday we went to the castle to have a look round, crossing the bridges to look at the pretty violent river. The weather seems to change really fast in Italy - it's sunny one minute and next thing you see a mass of grey cloud on the horizon - sure enough, we got rained on again. We waited for it to stop and then headed back to the arena to have another look at it. The whole area was weirdly packed with shrill teenage girls who kept singing. I didn't think owt of it until I noticed a few separate groups were wearing 'One Direction' (puke) t shirts. Turns out there was a non-direction gig in the Arena that night -EURGH.

Anyway - a pretty place, would have been better if we'd had the weather. :)

Rome

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday


Rome was one of the places I'd been most worried about for being rough and for getting pestered. We were staying close to Termini station which was handy for us but not the nicest area. In fact, the Thai family who we were sharing the apartment with (it was 3 rooms and shared kitchen) suggested we don't go near the station when we told them we were going for a walk the first evening there. But hey, we didn't get robbed! The place we stayed in was small for the amount of people it slept - three rooms for 12 people! Luckily our room was just for us two with a private bathroom. Unfortunately the gobby women in the next room didn't shut up until about 1am and then got up again at 6am so I wasn't well rested... They left thankfully after this night. The couple who ran the place were really sweet though, turning up with a bottle of wine and a pack of biscuits for us... Then having a half an hour chat with me moaning about her rich landlord - epic people :).

  

On Tuesday, we went to the Colosseum - I expected a load of horrific faffy queuing but I was wrong! The ticket for the Colosseum covers Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, and you can buy the tickets in any of these three places. We queued at Palatine Hill and only had to wait about 15 mins to get in. After spending about 2 hours around both the hill an the Roman Forum, we simply walked past the huuuuge Colosseum queue (stretched right round the damn thing like an extra wall) to the ticket holders' entrance - epic! Naturally Colosseum was awesome, not as crowded as I thought but still mighty hot (I have the sunburn to prove it). It's pretty expensive, but we got in for 8 euros as we're under 26 EU residents. In the evening we took the metro up to Pincian Hill and looked over Rome for the sunset which was pretty awesome.

On Wednesday we went for a walk and went to the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Rome Cat Sanctuary and the Spanish Steps. I'm curious as to how many people got pickpocketted at the fountain - it was mental. We stayed about 5 minutes then dodged the multitude of beggars, handbag sellers and the few thousand tourists to go find the Pantheon. That was nice to look at inside, but again we didn't stay long as it was crammed and the guards were constantly going "SILENCE THIS IS A CHURCH!!!" naah. There were a few more pesterers here, my favourite being the man dressed as a gladiator who asked me "Princess, would you like to take a picture?" Naturally I did not respond.

We went to the Rome Cat Sanctuary which may be my favourite thing in Rome (I know...). Apparently Cleopatra introduced cats to Rome and now there's hundreds, and the Sanctuary tries to neuter them all and vaccinate them. You can just go in and stroke all the cats and talk to the nice people who run it. I made a friend.

On Thursday we weren't feeling too well and went to the Vatican. I nearly got tickets for the Vatican Museum online (to avoid the 4 hour queue) but it was about 16 euros each - it's not as if the Catholic Church is skint so we gave it a miss... Plus people were telling us how crowded and hot it is. We were gunna go round St Peter's Basilica but the queue was intense as well and took up most of the square, so we just mooched around and took some pics and left. On the way out we found Castel Sant'Angelo and had a look up there for some views over St Peters.

I quite liked Rome and I think I'd return. It isn't as rough as I thought it would be, but you really have to be careful. There's a lot of dodgy people around, my favourite being the bloke hanging around the ticket machines at the metro. He came up to me and Dan, no doubt planning on pretending to help and really nicking our change. We really loudly repeated to him to go away and he got the jist that we weren't having it. Also theres a lot of street sellers who get on your nerves. I saw a hat bloke try and force a hat on a lady at the Colosseum, asking "HOW MUCH?" and a scarf bloke following a woman while she repeated "no thank you!" You have to abandon manners and pretend they don't exist. My method was walk on and don't even look. A rose man tried to put a rose into my hand and I had to proper shove his hand away - I hate being a cow but you don't really have a choice.

Florence

Beautiful, beautiful Florence.

Thursday, Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon

We arrived on Thursday, and when we first got to Florence I was a bit mardy (default setting), the station was bloody hot, crowded and a bit mental. We had to leave our luggage at the left luggage bit, which had a distinct Del Boy air about it. Unlike the left luggage in Madrid, which was all security intense with lockers that you access directly, this was just us passing our stuff over the counter to two guys with a radio on, having a fag under the sign "We our not responsible for your valuables." Needless to say I lacked confidence, plus I had to pay a tenner for the privilege.

Anyway, once we got to our place and cooled off things seemed nicer. Our apartment was large, a huuge bedroom and then sharing the bathroom and kitchen with other guests. The highlight of this has to be the American chap by the name of Ralph, equipped with bum-bag and peaked cap (inside) who knocked on my door asking for me to help him figure out the Internet as it cut out while his wife was watching Coronation street archives. Naturally, I laughed but it turned out he was deadly serious and didn't understand why I was amused. In true I.T. Crowd style we fixed it by turning it on and off again.

Anyway, Florence.

On Saturday we went up to Piazzale Michelangelo to get a view over the town. Florence is that nice size where you don't have to get on a metro or a bus, which was a nice change for us. Anyway, we stayed up there most of the afternoon looking out over Florence and the Tuscan surroundings. On the way back we saw a load of people in medieval gear looking like they were practicing some kind of reenactment.

On Sunday we walked around loads and debated going up the Duomo but I didn't fancy the queue and having to cover up (it was hot). I wanted to go see Michelangelo's David in the Academia gallery, but the queue was like 3 hours long. We nipped back an hour to closing time and there was still no way we were getting in so instead nipped into the Uffizi. Because we only had 40mins in the rooms, we walked straight in, the museum was dead and we got discount for being under 26 and in the EU. Awesome, AND I got to see birth of Venus.

Florence has loads of market bits, and we were bang over one that was a little away from the main rabble so really cheap, with cheap leather too. if I wasn't lacking space and sick of lugging an already overlarge/overweight bag I'd have been tempted to buy a leather coat. Instead I bought scarves. lots.


There's a lot of pestery people trying to sell you fake Gucci bags and glasses and all manner of crap but I just pretend they don't exist and keep walking while everyone else who  gets heckled - but it wasn't a major issue like I thought it may be. You also still feel like everyone's eyeing up your possessions but then I'd prepared for that... plus there's enough people with huge cameras swinging around their necks that the thieves are probably after them.

I got the distinct feeling that Florence really was just for tourists - does anyone actually live here that works in something that isn't a restaurant, museum or some other tourist related venture? But I don't care, it's such a beautiful place for once I didn't mind (unlike the many Americans I chatted with, I don't throw the word 'beautiful' around lightly so I really mean it !)

- Sally

Geneva

On Tuesday we took the regional train from Lyon to Geneva that took about two hours with some awesome views of the mountains. We got to the station and had to get the bus to our accommodation which took about 15 minutes. The first thing to strike me here was how pricey public transport is - about 3.5 francs for an hour ticket each (about £2.45) and 10 francs for a day ticket (about £8).

Geneva is very clean and safe, and you get a serious impression of money - lots of designer labels, lots of suits. It may possibly be the only place you'll see a bloke in an Armani suit riding a kids scooter like it's the most normal thing in the world. I felt more scruffy than usual amongst this lot in my jeans, hoodie and knackered cat boots.

After our arrival we jumped back in the tram and rode it out the CERN. We didn't get a tour because you have to book them like 5 months in advance. We went round the 'Universe of Particles' exhibition and watched the awesome film about the Higgs Boson and LHC. The exhibition is mainly about the LHC but also includes info on dimensions, dark matter, etc. There was also the computer that the internet was invented on. Very cool. Turned out we missed the auditorium which had more stuff, but it was closed when we left at about 5ish. Still brilliant stuff.

On Wednesday we abused our InterRail passes and took a regional train up to Martigny, had a quick gander and came home. Took 3 hours and had some spectacular mountain scenery. We then nipped back into Geneva to have a look at the UN before heading home to pack. We now go to Florence.

I got a good vibe from Geneva - it's efficient and clean, and people seem genuinely friendly. The people at the train station seemed more than happy to help you. You hear a load of different languages here - I'm guessing because of it being the headquarters of the UN? Bloody pricey though.

Nîmes & Lyon

Nimes & Lyon

Sally:

We took the train from Figueres-Vilifant to Nimes, involving a bit of faff as Figueres-Vilifant isn't in Figueres OR Vilifant, it's in the middle of nowhere and the shuttle bus taking you there only coincides with certain trains, not ours. Our host ordered us a taxi because I didn't fancy dragging my bag 2 miles out of town. We got one of the new fancy double-decker trains which turned out to be not as cool as I expected. It seems to be more a budget airline approach to train travel, trying to get as many people on as possible and reducing the amount of space for luggage (which is ridiculous as everyone had like 2 suitcases each.)

Onto Nîmes: We stayed in this cool house that looked like a conversion of an old boarding school. Our host wasn't home the first two nights and it was a bit creepy being there alone (Dan suggested it was haunted so I couldn't sleep because I'm five). Everywhere had this old rustic look about it, looking completely different to Paris. Prices were high, the supermarket threatened to bankrupt me.

We had a look at the Roman ruins, including mooching around the big Roman arena and sitting on the steps of the temple, the Maison Carrée. We didn't pay to go in because apparently it's not that great inside, and you're just paying to see some cheesy 3D show.

On the Saturday we had planned to go to the Pont Du Gard, which is this massive Roman aqueduct 20 miles outside of Nîmes and is a big tourist attraction. We spent ages trying to get the jist of the timetables and finally figured it out. OR NOT. We turned up at the bus station and it turned out the timetable change starting on 8th May had jumped a few days early and in the new timetable the buses don't run on a Saturday. To a top tourist destination. SIGH. So after feeling a bit mardy about all the faffing we spent the afternoon in the Jardins de la Fontaine.

Lyon:

"I bet the train will be dead as it's a Sunday." HA. Train was packed out and we had no room on the overheads for our luggage, meaning we had to leave it at the end of the train. I don't really have anything nickable on me but it'd still be a pain in the arse to discover someone's ran off with your clothes. It was only a two hour trip so it was fine, but getting off was a pain as you don't exactly have long to jump off the train and when everyone is getting on and blocking you from your luggage you start to get in a bit of a mardy.

Lyon reminded me a lot like Paris, but more chilled out and cleaner. The old town was gorgeous and we walked up about a zillion steps to get to the old Roman ampitheatres and had a view over the city where we watched another protest going on in a square (3rd protest we've seen so far).

We spent the next morning in the museum of fine art, which we got in for free because we're under 25 and citizens of the EU (whey). We then went round the awesome Parc de la Tête d'Or, which is also a zoo. It was lovely but I fell out majorly with the public toilets there. They have some retarded system where when someone leaves the loo, the door locks for about 3 minutes and you have to wait for a buzz and then you can open the door. The result was me and a group of confused women getting really annoyed, and some woman shouting Écouter at me (listen!) until I somehow ended up opening the door on this girl. I couldn't remember French for sorry so I just legged it out of the queue with Dan behind me pissing himself. FAIL.

Figueres

Dan: We arrived in Figueres after a 5 hour train journey from Valencia, on which we had the option to watch a film about a boxing robot and Hugh Jackman. I chose to look out the window instead.

The weather was still rubbish when we arrived and for the first time since England I was actually cold with all my layers on. We arrived at our accommodation which is really swanky with one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in! We decided to grab some spaghetti and have a quiet night in since we were both knackered from walking around with our gigantic bags all day.

Dali Museum

We woke up the following day to sunshine and with the intent of visiting the Salvador Dali museum, until we saw the queue. People arrived by the bus load and formed a queue which took nearly an hour to get through. We left it until later in the afternoon to visit with the flawed logic that maybe people will all follow advice to visit in the morning, leaving it relatively quiet during late afternoon nearer closing time. So after an hour queue we were herded around the museum by the relentless crowds of people, unable to really get a good look at anything. I got pretty annoyed with the following: people deciding to stop in the middle of narrow corridors, people who take steps back without looking where they're going, people who decide a narrow staircase is a brilliant place to stop and take a picture, people who take pictures of the exhibitions from the opposite side of the room when there's a large mass of people waiting to get past, tour groups who made whole rooms off limits and people who drag their screaming two year old (complete with push chair) to appreciate and contemplate the surrealist paintings and sculptures; I'm pretty sure I was more in to toy tractors at that age. So overall not a great deal of enjoyment, I could have just stood in ASDA for an hour for the same experience, although I probably would have got more out of the £20 it cost for us to both get in.

In the evening we decided to grab a cheap burger and amble about the town, only to discover there was a festival going on with plazas full of dancers and drummers which was quite a unique experience. We stood around for a while and sort of enjoyed not knowing what it was all about.

Festival parade  

Festival orchestra

Today we continued to enjoy the festival by looking around the festival market that had been set up nearby, where Sally went to the same stores several times to decide she didn't want to pay a certain amount for a scarf or a retro camera. We then spent the afternoon up at the Castell de Sant Ferran which was a nice breath of fresh air after the traumatic Dali museum. We got a free audio guide and just ambled around the fort, taking in amazing views of the mountains on one side then views of the town and the sea on the other side.

 Festival market

View of the mountains from the fort

Minus the crowds I quite like it here, it's a small place and has a unique atmosphere with the festival, plus the fort was definitely a highlight. To be honest I didn't have high expectations as Figueres was pretty much a place to stop on the way to Nîmes from Valencia that wasn't Barcelona - the pickpocket capital of the world that I have no incentive to visit.