Venice

Day 1 - Day one was basically a full day of travel, I didn't realise it but I had booked my train for 3 pm from Ventimiglia so I had to wait for 3 hours after my train from Nice to Ventimiglia. After that a long train trip through Milan and ending in Venice was followed by about 45 minutes on the water bus here in Venice to my hostel. I arrived here at 12 am and was feeling very tired so I quickly went to sleep. My advice, do your research on how long things will take, I would have just stayed a night in Milan had I realised it would take so long! 

The water bus was also filled with bugs which I found weird, I guess that happens when it's the only thing around with lights though! 

Day 2 - 

I spent most of my day simply strolling around Venice, it's not a terrible place to do that so I enjoyed myself. Eventually I found a pizza for 6 euro so I devoured that before getting a Traghetto ride. The traghetto is basically a poor man's gondola that takes you across the grand canal, costs 2 euros, is shared with a big bunch of people and takes about 3 or 4 minutes. That was an experience even if it didn't last long. There was no way I would pay 80 euro for a gondola ride though, this was enough novelty for me! 

I also stumbled upon the most chilled out cat I've ever seen, it was funny I was standing near it because there was wifi there and saw about 10 people take pictures with it in 10 minutes time. Here is a picture of it. 

Later in the evening I met Rachel from America at my hostel and we ended up hanging out since we were both traveling alone. The good thing about other solo travelers are even if you probably don't have that much in common it's easy to become friends when you have been traveling alone for so long and have the similar experiences. 

Day 3 - I hung out with Rachel and going to check out San Marco's square and a whole bunch of churches around Venice. San Marco was pretty beautiful, even if most of the space was filled with either other tourists or pigeons. They actually had signs up around Venice saying do not feed the pigeons because they cause health problems and damage to the monuments, that did not seem to deter the pigeon fanciers amongst the crowd though as I saw plenty of people feeding them. I ate a lot of gelato on this day too, that was especially nice even if I didn't stray from my usual favourites in frozen yoghurt and strawberry. What they say about Italian gelato is true, it is just incredible! 

After seeing the sights of the city we eventually made our way back to the hostel for a fairly uneventful evening as we both made plans for the next legs of our journeys. What will be the final leg for me! 

It is hard for me to fathom that I only have 5 days left in Europe and under a week until I get home. In honesty as much as I have loved Europe I am about ready to come home and resume my normal life. This in fact was the final leg of my trip that I will spend in hostels which is a relief, I can't wait to get to Rosenheim to stay with Martina, it has been too long since I have been in an actual house! 

Song for the moment: Golden Slumbers - The Beatles

Nice

Day 1 - I do not think my hostel in Nice could have been a much bigger contrast to my hostel in Marseille, it was incredibly easy to find, had great facilities and I made a friend within an hour of being there. I met Anna (USA) as I was checking in and we got along pretty well so headed down to the beach and chilled out there for an hour or two. The beach in Marseille is nothing compared to the beach in Nice, it is so beautiful and even though it is a pebble beach they are at least smooth enough that they don't hurt. I actually heard someone comment on there being "surf" at Nice which made me chuckle quite a lot considering there was barely a wave the whole time we were there. 

The first thing I saw at the hostel was that there was a spaghetti party that night for 3 euro which included unlimited spaghetti and  wine, those who know me well will know how much that would have excited me and it did not disappoint! By this time I had made a bunch of friends and we all hung out there before heading to a bar called Wayne's. Wayne's seems to be the most popular place for tourists in Nice as I don't think I heard anyone speaking French in there, they had a band playing and it was absolutely packed, I had a good but not great time. 

Day 2 

I headed to Monaco with a group of people from the hostel, the ticket price of €3.70 return was well worth going there! The beach was probably on par with Nice so that was fun and relaxing. We also checked out the casino from Casino Royale (James Bond movie) which was very flash even though we didn't go inside, the cars outside and in the whole of Monaco in general were very fitting of a James Bond movie. I find Monaco to be quite surreal, 1 million euro application fee to live there amongst other things seems insane or at least to me! We also walked through the tunnel from the formula one track, a lot of the streets still have signs of being part of the F1 track all year round. 

One more amusing thing I saw in Monaco was the presence of a GUM TREE of all things at the beach! I could not believe it! It's funny what other people consider to be exotic.

After catching a packed train back to Nice and hanging out at the hostel for a bit Anna and I went to get dinner at an Italian restaurant in the old town. Sadly I did not take a picture of my bowl of spaghetti but it was ridiculous, I don't think I have ever been served so much food before! I think we could have just ordered one and had enough for both of us. I managed to finish about 75 percent of it before raising the white flag (napkin in this case), sadly our suggestion of a doggy bag for all that food was quickly thrown out by the waiter. 

Day 3

Most of the friends I had made left Nice on this day so I had to make some new friends, which a while back would have been fairly daunting but I'm starting to get the hang of approaching random people and just finding a common interest however small it may be. In reality most people in hostels are in the same boat and are more than happy to make new friends, groups much bigger than 3 or 4 don't really tend to socialize with others much but anyone other than that generally is usually up for a chat or a day trip or beers or whatever it is you want to do! 

First things first though I headed down to the beach for the afternoon to have a dip and lay around on some pebbles, I probably only stayed for an hour and a half but still I loved to go for a dip! People are also a lot more revealing at beaches here, however it always seems to be the old leathery people and no one needs to see that. 

I went down to a pub to watch the Chelsea v Fulham match at about 6.30 and thank god Chelsea won, I was becoming a bit worried about the season! I also was talking to a guy from England that was in the academy at Werder Bremen and played for Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga which I found pretty cool! Sadly I didn't catch his name. Here's a picture of my beer.

In the evening I made friends with a few other Australian people from the hostel and after the complete disaster that was my kebab (the jerk put hot chilli sauce in it and it was not fun) everyone told me about a free champagne party that had happened the night before at the hostel and that there was another tonight. Basically the hostel throws these parties every time big groups of Americans who are studying in Florence or Rome or whatever come and stay at the hostel, I was more than okay with this as it was good champagne too! However I think by the end of the night I learnt the power of drinking something that's very easy to put down, I swear I was still drunk when I awoke in the morning. Unsuprisingly the room was packed!

Reflections:

I must say if you ever go to Nice and are looking to stay in a hostel I would definitely recommend Antares hostel or the bacara which is on the opposite side of the courtyard. Both hostels seem to have a fairly open door policy when it comes to their events. I had a great time in Nice and only wish I had more time there to really soak up the city a bit more! 

That also concludes my time in France, it is an interesting place. I've seen the good, the bad and the plain ugly here but all in all I had a great time and will definitely return (maybe not to Marseille though). 

Marseille

Day 1 - my trip to marseille did not get off to a good start when I missed my train by about 5 minutes and had to pay 90 euro for a new one, this was not a fun experience for me. It did teach me to try not to get too drunk the night before going places again, it turned what could have been a great time into a really frustrating day. 

Eventually after some help from a kind American stranger I made my way to my new hostel. It had mixed reviews on tripadvisor (my new love) so I was not sure what to expect, however even during my check in I realised that this would be a negative experience for me. The staff were very rude and unhelpful, the hostel had literally no facilities apart from absolute basics and a microwave. While they may have advertised themselves as a youth hostel I think the average age of guests would have been somewhere between 30 and 40 (one guy looked about 60). Knowing my luck this old man just happened to be sleeping in the bed next to mine, snoring away, talking in his sleep and doing his best to creep me out during the day. 

Day 2 - the start to day two was not what I needed, I woke to some terrible pains in my stomach and a few other things that I won't go into. Needless to say these were all the telltale signs of gastro aka every traveler's worst nightmare! After a quick chat with mum on Facebook I made the decision to move to the good old bananas and rice diet. For me this actually wasn't too bad, I love bananas and for some reason don't have a huge problem with eating plain rice. 

Eventually I decided that sitting around feeling bad for myself was not a good way to deal with my illness so I decided to head out to check out the sights of Marseille. My first stop was Notre Dame De La Garde which is a beautiful church in a even more beautiful location on top of a hill (possibly a mountain) in the middle of Marseille, the walk up there gave my calves a hell of a workout but I think all in all it was well worth it. The views from up there have to be seen to be believed, whether it is the view of the port or the view of the rest of the city or the mountains that encircle the city what you see is simply breathtaking and I was glad that I went up there despite the pain in my legs! Plus it was a nice place to sit down, relax and enjoy the good old banana and Gatorade combo.

My next stop was a beach that was about a half hour's walk from the church thankfully most of this was downhill and the fairly cold water made the trip a solid investment. I was a bit scared to leave my things in my bag so I hid my cards/phone under my towel and kept a close eye on my things, there was probably only about 10-15 people at the beach but I don't really want to be taking chances on things like that. I probably swam for about half an hour before getting out and discovering something I had never heard of before, this beach had free wifi! Every backpacker absolutely loves finding wifi and needless to say I was pretty excited about it (I also thought about mum's reaction which I can only imagine would have been a similar if not higher level of excitement). So I chilled out at the beach for about half an hour before making the hourlong trip back to my hostel. I felt far more content with myself and the city as a whole after what turned into a pretty nice day, the hostel on the other hand was still doing its best to create terrible vibes and this was a theme that continued throughout my stay. 

Day 3 - this was another day of mainly rest as my battle with gastro raged on, one of the highlights was going down the street and doing my laundry which is always a fun task. I sat there eating a banana and listening to Arctic Monkeys' new album (AM for anyone interested, well worth a download or purchase or whatever it is that you do) as I waited for the washing to be done.

In the evening I discovered that there was a champions league football match in marseille on my last night there. I quickly hopped online to find that tickets were still available at a store that was only a 10 minute walk from my hostel. At this time there was only 25 minutes until they closed when I discovered this so I sprinted through the streets of marseille and made it with 15 minutes to spare! The ticket was somewhat pricey setting me back 40 euros however I could not have been much more happy considering the match was Marseille vs Arsenal and Arsenal had just signed Mesut Özil who is arguably the 3rd best player in the world at the moment. 

After the rush of running around to get my ticket I went down to the port and had a look around, the port is pretty beautiful and I was there around sunset which made it that little bit nicer! They also have a peculiar sunshade type thing that is completely reflective so of course being a tourist I had to take a picture of my reflection in the top of it, I think about 20 other people were doing the same thing. 

I returned to the port later in the evening to watch a few champions league games at a pub which was packed with arsenal fans due to the game the following evening. The Manchester United - Leverkusen game was being shown and I do not think I have ever heard such a big roar in a pub as when Leverkusen leveled the score at 1-1. The celebrations carried on for a good 5 minutes. Sadly Leverkusen couldn't hold on and united ended up winning 4-2. 

Day 4 

As I awoke it appeared the worst of gastro was behind me so I went out adventuring for the day and checked out an old castle that overlooks the port (I can't remember the name but I'm sure if you google castle marseille you will find it). This was another case of the views being more impressive than the actual attraction itself. I spotted a nice looking park nearby and headed over there to eat my lunch and chill out on the grass for a while before heading back to my hostel for a nap.

After awaking from my nap I went and had my now traditional bananas & rice dinner even though I thought the worst of gastro was behind me. I then headed up to the velodrome for the match, I could barely contain my excitement for this was the highest standard of football I have seen live. The match did not disappoint, Arsenal seemed a bit flat in the first half and Marseille really deserved to be in front at half time however they could not take their chances. Arsenal took it up a gear in the second half and started to take control. The match ended 2-1 for arsenal, marseille's goal coming in the last minute of added time through a penalty. The atmosphere at the ground was electric! The ground is being rebuilt for the 2016 European championships at the moment so the stadium only has 3 stands, that did not stop the marseille fans from making a deafening noise every time Arsenal had the ball for more than 2 or 3 minutes. I imagine it would have made for an intimidating atmosphere for the Arsenal players, even I was intimidated by it! 

That brings to an end my time in Marseille, it was definitely interesting. At first I hated it so much that I wanted to go home for probably the first time in my trip, however I slowly learned to love it and had a good time despite not having a conversation of more than 5 minutes for the whole time I was there and the general weirdness of my hostel! 

Paris

Day 1 

I got the Eurostar over from London, through the English channel and everything but it wasn't very exciting. Honestly I slept almost all of the way because it is pitch black in the tunnel anyway. After arriving in Paris I realised my complete and utter lack of French was going to be a slight issue when getting around in Paris, I have noticed most French people seem to actually speak fairly good English but are very reluctant to use it. Also the talk of French people not being the most polite people around is definitely true (at least from my experiences and maybe not all of them but a lot more than any other people I have had to deal with). 

Day 2

I had planned to Skype with nella at 11 am but somehow managed to sleep through my alarm and woke up at 12. Anyway I ended up skyping with her and that was nice, I miss her so much. 

Afterwards I went to Le Jardin Du Luxembourg which was a cool garden near my hostel, it was beautiful but that was not my main reason for going there. The garden was the place where the picture on the cover of the album Lonerism by Tame Impala was taken and I tried to create a replica photo, I think minus a slight angle and the completely different weather I did a pretty good job.

After that I headed over to the Eiffel tower for some typical touristy snaps and action. One thing I have come to realise on this trip is that I love the major tourist attractions like the Eiffel tower or the London Eye. There is a reason that they are so touristy and popular because they are awesome, anyone who tells you not to go to them is an idiot. The views from the top of the eiffel tower are spectacular and well worth checking out, plus it only cost me 13 euros. Anyway, I ended up going up the tower all the way to the top and up there I found out a few things including that I was 17,000 kilometers from home and that the guy who designed the tower built an apartment at the top of it. In this apartment he had many distinguished guests such as my old friend Tsar Nicholas II of Russia who I remember so fondly from doing revs in year 12. 

Afterwards I went back to the hostel and cooked my dinner which was really awesome despite the kitchen at this hostel being very basic. I even had to buy oil to cook in their pans! Not sure if I mentioned this in other posts but cooking has fast become one of my favourite things on this trip plus it is a great way of meeting people. 

Day 3

I went out adventuring with Grace and Elyse who I had met the night before in the hostel. We went to go see Notre Dame which was very cool, in my opinion it seems kind of satanic with all these gargoyles and dogs coming off of it. 

Afterwards we also went past the lovers bridge where they have a bridge full of locks with names of couples on there so I thought I had better put one on there, throw the keys in the river and be a big old cliché. I found it funny to see some combination locks on there though, guess they're for people who aren't 100% committed.

We went past the louvre as well but it was closed so I only got a photo of the outside which was not overly exciting, still a cool looking building though! From there we walked through a park and saw a duck eating the dead body of another duck in a fountain which was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. Then walked along des champ delyselles or whatever it is called until making it to the Arc De Triumph which is one of many ridiculous structures in Paris. It was pretty cool to stand there in front of it though. 

Later on in the evening after having a few drinks with people in the hostel I went to bed to discover a guy in my room was reading the newspaper with all of the lights of the room turned on at 2 am. It was one of the most selfish acts I have ever witnessed and eventually I decided that it was time to be the hero of the room and get him to turn off the light. 

Day 4 

I went inside the Louvre with Elyse from the hostel, it's hard to understand the huge size of the place until you actually go there. I think it would take around 3 days to properly see everything in there and I mean if you have the time for that go do it because the Louvre is awesome! Of course I went to see the good old Mona Lisa in all it's glory. There was a crowd of around 100 people around it, most of them typical rude French people that love nothing more than pushing in lines and just being arrogant. Anyway the painting itself is pretty cool, I think it's more just the awe of seeing the most famous painting in the world compared to the actual painting itself. I tried to get a seldom with her but you just could not get the space at all. 

After that I hung out at the hostel for the afternoon/evening just chilling with my crew I had established (Tristan from New Zealand, Ricky/Richard from USA, Elyse from USA and a few others that came and went) we drank some beers and talked some smack. Eventually we decided to go to the Eiffel tower at night to see it light up. We left it a bit late and had probably had a few too many beers but we did see it from the other side of the river so saw the full tower light up as the clock struck 12. It's quite beautiful if not a bit seizure inducing with the sheer amount of lights and pace at which they flicker. 

Day 5

I got up fairly late after being very tired from a lot of walking in the few days previous, this was not a huge problem as I had plenty of time in Paris. Eventually after a bit of stuffing around I made my way over to the catacombs which are the huge underground tunnels/graveyards of Paris. Although I had to wait in line for an hour and a half it was well worth it, I have never seen anything like it just rows and rows of bones and skulls piles up on top of eachother! In some parts they were 1.5 meters high and roughly 10 meters deep, I remember overhearing that there are about 2 million skeletons in there which is pretty mind blowing. 

Afterwards I met up with Ricky and Tristan at the hostel where we made plans for the evening. We went for dinner at a little fondu place that Ricky knew from when he lived in Paris when he was younger, it was 20 euros for a hell of a lot of fondu, wine and a desert (all this was was basically a can of 2 fruit but hey, I like 2 fruit). The most intriguing thing about this place was that they served their wine in baby bottles, yes you read correctly baby bottles! Honestly after finding it to be a humorous gimmick for a while I found myself just wishing I could drink from a glass like an adult. We did meet some cool people there and something I found to be just awesome but bizarre as well was that at our table of about 15 people 4 of us were named Simon. Here is a photo of the 4 Simons after we went to the bar next door which was serving 2 EURO PINTS. 

Day 6 

Tristan and I went to the Basilisque du sacré coceur which is a beautiful church on a hill somewhere in Paris. It also has one of the best views of Paris, I think I liked the view more than the actual church! Sadly I only have a picture of the church, still pretty cool though.

Afterwards we went to the Salvador Dali museum as it was right near the church and was actually the main reason we went there in the first place. Dali made some pretty interesting things and I am 100% sure that this guy was on many many drugs. 

After that we went to the Maine-Montparnasse which is the second tallest building in Paris after the Eiffel tower coming in at 200 meters give or take 15. I almost preferred the view from the top of this building to the Eiffel tower but maybe that was just because I could see the Eiffel tower at the time! 

In the evening we went for a drink with some people from the hostel and one of the guys ended up missing his flight back to America because he drank too much.. This was something that I didn't think much of at the time but should have thought about. 

Day 7

This was a tough day for me, I struggled my way to get up and went to a museum of modern art with Tristan and some Slovenian girls we met at the hostel. Now I thought that Tate modern in London was a bit ridiculous at times but this took things to a whole new level. 

The guy who painted the above painting apparently was a musician who lost his passion and went into "art".

Not much needs to be said here.

The walls of this room were made from wool, it was to symbolize "warmth" which could probably be done by putting on a jumper but hey why not waste a whole heap of wool! Not sure what the piano and piece of wood on top of it were about though!

 

We spent most of our time failing at feeble attempts to not laugh at how ridiculous most of it was. Every so often you would come across an actually good piece and it was shocking, you had to take a step back to be like wow what is going on here. I think a lot of people in the museum were pretty angry at us but seriously who actually likes modern art? Go into google and type in "why is modern art" and see what comes up in the suggested searches. 

Afterwards we went to the opera building however my phone died as we got there so I did not get any good pictures which was a shame as it was a beautiful building. You can always google it if you are really interested. 

In the evening we went to the pub across the road from our hostel and hung out at the hostel which was a nice way to end my time in Paris. I think of all the cities I have been to I met the best people in Paris. 

London

Day 1

The highlight of my first day was probably that my bus from stansted airport had free wifi on board, I think mum would have raved about it! However I was pretty exhausted from the whole day so as I got to London I did not do too much, simply cooking my dinner and washing my clothes. I did discover I actually love cooking food though. 

On another note you can see Europe's most unfortunately named skyscraper (the shard) from the window of my hostel room. 

Day 2

I was still feeling very tired so day 2 was not a huge day, it was also transfer deadline day and for any football fans they know that's a pretty important day of sitting in front of the tv making observations about players you have never seen play and hoping they will join your club because they are good on FIFA. 

I did however go to the Australian embassy and stand in the line for about 45 minutes to hand in my vote in the election. I voted for the greens, I must say I was very surprised by the swing against them considering the amount of frustration I can see towards both pragmatic major parties.

After voting I thought the only right thing to do would be to go and drink some of Australia's best as there happened to be an Aussie pub around the corner. That vb was one of the most glorious beers I have ever tasted, well worth the ridiculous price of 4.50 pounds.

Day 3

As I was cooking my dinner on day 2 I met a couple of German girls called pia and Jana who I had a chat with and it turned out they were staying in my room. So on day three I hung out with them and I spoke in German pretty much the entire day which was cool. 

We had a picnic in regent park which was awesome, it was by far the best I have eaten on this trip. One of the first times I felt good after eating. Regent park is pretty beautiful too, they have a lot of flower displays that were impressive. The grass though was just not up to the standard of good ol' rosiland park in bendigo! 

After that we went to Hyde park and hung out around there, I saw a squirrel for the first time so that was pretty exciting. I ended up feeding one chips from my hand, sadly I only have a picture of pia feeding one. It was still pretty awesome and ridiculous though! 

On our way to Hyde Park we saw a man feeding pigeons which probably doesn't sound like much however this man was feeding roughly 50-60 pigeons and they just seemed to be under his spell. I found it very amusing.

I also saw Stephen fry and Boris Johnson later on in the day. My favourite part of the day however was finding a few brilliant postcards in a typical tourist store, they are pictured below. This is no joke these are genuinely on sale, I'm not sure which I prefer, the photo of Kate and Will is very awful though so it may take the cake. 

Day 4 

I went to the Camden markets with a few friends I met at the hostel, Camden markets is like hipster heaven. You can find anything and everything there from 10 stores selling rip off beats by doctor dre to arts and craft stores to a store that resembles a rave club and sells much more than just rave things.. I really wanted to spend all of my money at the market however all I picked up was a present for Nella and some badges to make by bag a bit more punk.

After the market we headed to a nearby pub to have the traditional British fish n chips with mushy peas, I must say it was very very good. I drank a pint of fosters as I did, honestly I think fosters is nowhere near as bad as people say! 

After eating we went and did a few of the more typical tourist things such as big Ben and the London eye. Both were very enjoyable, in front of big Ben someone came up to us and asked if we had the time.. People can be pretty stupid sometimes. The London eye for me was a good experience although a bit nerve wracking, I'm sure many of you know I'm not great with heights regardless of that it was awesome. The views of the city are wonderful! 

After a pretty half assed attempt at going to a gig in Camden we eventually returned to our hostel at 1 am, I was more than glad to sleep after such a huge day. 

Day 5 

On day 5 I went to the Tate modern museum, I had heard a lot of people saying how great they found the museum so was pretty excited about it. I left the museum feeling a bit disappointed, I've never been a huge fan of modern art and I did quite like some sections of it however most things post 1950ish just made me cringe, such as this.

After the museum I returned to my hostel and went out with Ellese who is also 18 and from Australia, at first we went to the M n M world in Leicester square. Not being a huge chocolate fan it was not that exciting for me, however it was a pretty cool place. The many union jacks below are made entirely from M n Ms.

After the M n M's world we went to a few clubs in the area, most of them were empty which was a bit disappointing but I still had a good time. 

Something interesting I noticed in the area of the club after leaving was the presence of around 40-50 gypsies trying to sell flowers to people, this was not really the attempted sale of flowers more of a general harrassment of everyone within 50 meters of them. 

Day 6

This was the day I had been waiting for, finally seeing the England national team at Wembley stadium. Seeing the likes of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard playing right in front of me was a surreal experience. England ended up beating Moldova 4-0 which was to be expected so the crowd was in full voice and it was a really fun night.

Before the game I went to the British museum which was just incredible, I didn't get to stay for long enough even though I was there for 2 hours, with roughly 8,000,000 artifacts there I can imagine I could spend days there. I especially enjoyed the Egyptian section and the mummified animals, my favourited being the mummified cats and mummified sacred bulls. 

Another part I found interesting was the section on money and the development of it, specifically this part on the Zimbabwean dollar.

After the game I went with some friends from my hostel to a club in Vauxhall, it was very fun. One of the guys from the hostel wanted to see the dj that was playing and to his surprise when we got there we discovered it may have been a gay bar due to the presence of a drag queen on the door but hey, I had fun anyway haha. 

Day 7 

I was pretty out of it from the night before so the day mainly involved just getting myself together and eating a glorious burrito, Ellese and I met up a with a friend of hers and went to Leicester square again which was a nice way to end my time in London. 

Album for the city: Hungry Ghost - Violent Soho - this album came out on the Friday of my stay in London and all I can say is wow! It is like grunge like Smashing Pumpkins meets 90's punk-pop like Blink 182. For me this is the best album I've heard this year, definitely check it out if you like that sort of music and support the Australian scene. Key tracks: covered in chrome, in the aisle, saramona said and ok cathedral.