Tagged with: traveljournal

  • Day 16

    My phone had long stopped working, so I had no way of knowing what the time was when I got up. I had arranged to meet John, Chris and Sunil at the Coliseum at noon, so I had plenty of time. Ten days before, I had left them in a concentration camp north of Berlin, and since then they had visited Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Hamburg.I caught the bus and metro, and arrived at ten. Looked round for something to do, and spotted a ‘time elevator’ – a simulator ride thingy classified as ‘edutainment’ all about the history of Rome. Decided to give it a go. Very Disney, but it was quite well put together. It even included a light rain shower when the character on screen ran through a storm. The basic premise is that an Italian scientist invents time travel and goes back to important events in the history of Rome, including the founding by Romulus and Remus, the rise and fall of the Roman empire, history of gladiatorial fighting, the renaissance, and modern day Rome. Apparently there is one of these in London too.

  • Day 15

    Arriving in Rome, the city’s budget accommodation options were a bit thin on the ground, and availability seemed limited to a huge Hostelling International place a long way from the centre. Having no real choice in the matter, I got on the metro and headed west. I had to get off at Ottavio St Petro and change to a number 32 bus, and finally arrived at the hostel realising that it was actually off my map.It was a typical HI hostel – ultra clean, but anonymous and completely devoid of any helpful utilities like power sockets. It also featured a curfew and a lockout, which wasn’t terribly helpful when it takes so long to get there from the centre.

  • Day 14

    I woke up to find that the Italian hikers were dressed and packing. I checked the time and decided that 7am was too early for someone of my trekking experience to be getting up, so I dozed until eight, when the last of them left the room, casting an amused glance in my direction.An hour later the other guests were only just ready to check out when I arrived to do the same. I let them go in front, and regretted it. It started cordially enough, but soon arms were flailing and much fast and loud Italian was being exchanged. Eventually they left, and I presented myself to the now very worked up lodge owner to settle my bill. I was then stuck with the same problem the others had had, which was that the lodge’s credit card machine had stopped working. This was quite a problem, because I had no cash and the nearest cash point (ATM) was about 10 km away, and a long way down the mountain. It wasn’t a problem though. The owner wrote down her address and asked me to send a cheque. She didn’t even seem too bothered that it would be a couple of weeks.

  • Day 13

    It turned out that there were other guests at Zita’s, a German mountain biking couple. They spoke English in addition to German and a smattering of Italian, so we talked over breakfast about walking, cycling and why Britain hadn’t adopted the Euro.I left my big bag at Zita’s, using a complicated series of signs and muttered Italian to indicate that I would return for the next day, but no I wouldn’t be staying the night. I left with my day pack, in which I’d stowed a change of clothes, towel, waterproof, first aid kit, camera, water, map and documents. My plan was to undertake a circular trek back to Cortina, staying in a mountain refuge overnight.

  • Day 12

    At precisely 6:30am my phone did not start to make the irritating noise I had been expecting, because in my infinite wisdom I’d left it in vibrate-only mode. Fortunately I had my hand on it at the time and so I did wake up. This was therefore not the event that was to make me miss my train some 70 minutes later.I packed quietly, but had a panic when I couldn’t find my towel. Eventually it was located hanging on the bunk above mine, but this was also not responsible for my missed connection.

  • Day 11

    I’m up and out by nine, and Venice is just waking up. Shops were mostly still shut (though some were just opening), and the buskers were gone. One supply boat chugged down the canal delivering coca-cola.I walked to the station, brought the aquatic equivalent of a one-day travel card, and took a boat bus to St marks Square. I found the city’s main tourist information office and asked about visiting the dolomites. Unfortunately the assistant only had information about Venice, and referred me to a travel agency. I went in search of a travel agency, doubtful that I’d get any decent information out of them except stuff about package tours.

  • Day 10

    At about 1:30am our short visit to Croatia was at an end and more immigration officers boarded. Now if you happen to be an immigration officer, let me give you some advice. A good way to wake me up against my will at 1:30 in the morning is to gently prod me in the shoulder or arm. Turning on the compartment’s bright fluorescent lighting is not a good way.

  • Day 9

    I checked out and headed for the station to leave my luggage. A large sign indicated the ‘Luggage Room’, which turned out to be a big but very dark room despite the bright sun outside. A man sitting behind the desk took my bag and wordlessly tore off a ticket for me. I wondered how many hours of sunlight he got each day. Maybe his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light and were now super-sensitive.Another short metro ride back to the centre of the city, and I switched lines to the city’s park. Lunch used up most of my remaining florents at a restaurant near the national museum of culture. I’d had quite enough culture the previous evening and was feeling very poor, so I skipped that museum in favour of the transport museum, which cost just 150 florents to enter (about 40p, US$0.28).

  • Day 8

    No repeats of the previous days delay – I knew the metro by now and I was in the centre in no time. I had a few other things to do before seeing more of Budapest, the first of which was to arrange to leave it. I went to the MAV office (Hungarian railways) to book a seat, and found yet another take-a-number system. I took a number and went to play with the touch screen information terminal while I waited.It was quite a long wait, but the system on the touch screen terminal was excellent. I looked up trains to Istanbul, Venice, Bucharest and Athens, so I had quite a lot of food for thought by the time my number was called. It was all getting very complicated. I could go to Istanbul, where I could then connect to Greece easily, but I’d be way ahead of John, Chris and Sunil so we’d probably never regroup. Bucharest would be a good place to stop on the way to Istanbul or Athens, but it seemed silly to go there simply because it was conveniently located. Going to Athens directly was a long trip, and it would probably result in passing the others in Italy somewhere but not managing a proper regroup. Venice was an interesting option, putting me in northern Italy to get to Greece from the other side, and almost certainly meet up with the others en-route, but it meant cutting short on Eastern Europe.

  • Day 7

    I imagined I might be sharing a compartment with some seasoned travellers, and that we’d exchange stories about our adventures long into the early hours.Of course, as it turned out, none spoke English – though one, a Romanian farmer, was happy to try out his high-school English. The others also looked as though they were on business rather than pleasure, so we were all in bed by 22:30.