We left Cinque Terre after a few days to catch 3 trains to Ancona, on the east coast of Italy, where my relatives live. We arrived at 10.40pm and there they were with a Welcome sign waiting for us. Mind you we didn’t see them at first and they ended up running down escalators trying to get our attention. And so there we all were – me, Mark, and my dad’s aunty, uncle and cousins. It was so surreal standing there looking at them knowing that they probably knew more about me than I knew about them. After meeting we all went out for pizza and then were in bed by 2am. The next day we went to lunch at my uncle’s house and stayed there for hours. We FaceTimed back home and my dad spoke to his uncle for the first time in years. It was only a quick chat but they spoke about how excited they were to be meeting again in October and at this stage we all had tears in our eyes as we watched them speak. Apart from eating way too much we spoke a lot and I listened to a lot of stories about my Nonno (grandfather) and his family and their reasons for leaving Italy or going back in the case of my uncle. There were so many stories I hadn’t heard before and I sat there listening trying to take it all in, making sure I didn’t forget anything. We went out that night with my cousins and their friends and it was the first time in a couple of months we had been out like that. It was so nice being with a group of people our age especially because so many of them speak English – lucky for us, otherwise we would be the 2 Australian mutes. Getting home at 6am was a shock to our system so we slept in and eventually got up and made our way to the beach where we soaked up not just the sun but the Italian lifestyle.
The next 2 days we spent with family, relaxing, eating of course, talking, listening to stories and even stopping by the local shoe and handbag factories! One of my favourite parts was our last night where we had dinner at the beach with even more relatives and sat and talked. By this stage our Italian had improved dramatically and both Mark and I were able to keep track of other conversations and what was going on around us. At one point during the dinner I stopped and looked around and felt homesick for my family back home but also so comfortable with my family there that I felt at peace. Mark was joking around with a cousin – eating and drinking, some others were talking in smaller groups and my uncle was telling a story of his time in Australia and all I could do was smile at him while he spoke a mixture of English and Italian while telling us about how he loved to dance especially when he was young and in Australia. I had the most amazing few days and I am looking forward to spending even more time with them in August and again in October.
After spending 2 days at a hotel near the airport we decided it was best we utilised our time in Sardinia so we booked an apartment and hired a car for the drive there. Our car was of course the quintessential Italian Fiat 500. It was a tiny car so we had to put the back seats down just to fit our backpacks in but after doing so we drove for 2.5 hours to Cala Gonone. We arrived, got the keys to our apartment and went straight to the supermarket to buy groceries for the next 4 days. After eating our lunch of bread, prosciutto and mozzarella we went straight to the beach. This was pretty much our schedule everyday in Sardinia. Wake up, eat, go to the beach, eat, go back to the apartment, eat, go for a walk, and then finally eat gelato to finish our day.
The only day that was different for us was when we hired a boat to go and explore the coast line. Driving around was so amazing because we were able to look back at the island instead of looking out to the sea. We spent 6 hours driving the boat around a small strip of water. Looking back on the island of Sardinia was breathtaking. The colours changed along the whole strip but everything blended in so well. At one section the plants on top of the cliff were a grey-green colour, with some being so close to silver that they shone in the sunlight. The water also changed going from a turquoise blue to a rich sapphire blue, but either way it was so clear, allowing us to feel like we were in the shallows. We anchored a couple of times to stop and enjoy our surroundings and also to jump in and swim. The water was so refreshing it took away the scorching heat from the sun. We didn’t just drive around though or anchor to swim we also anchored close to a private beach where we didn’t stay for long because ants swarmed all over our beach towels and a group of kayakers rocked up taking up half of the beach so it gave us a good reason to get moving and to go check out one of the caves. Mark dropped me off at the beach and then drove the boat out to deeper water to anchor and then swam back. The beaches either had sand or rocks and this particular beach had rocks which either swallowed your feet or made you feel so unbalanced while walking that you looked like a baby deer walking. After our day on the boat we went back to our apartment to cook dinner where I discovered that I had heat stroke after spending an entire day in the sun. Yay for me!
We splurged on ourselves and hired a boat 🙂
We enjoyed our time in Sardinia so much even though we did very little in comparison to some of the other places we have been to. It felt like we had a little bit of normality in our crazy world.
Cooking – a little bit of normality for our lives.
We left Sardinia for Cinque Terre which I was really looking forward to because so many people raved about it. We stayed in the smallest of the 5 towns which is also on top of 360+ stairs. I had to psych myself up once we arrived to climb the stairs in 30 degree heat with our backpacks but thankfully before we started we bought some bottles of water and noticed some people standing around what looked like a bus stop and sure enough a minute later a bus drove up and would easily take us up the top in 5 minutes for 2.50 Euro. We were straight on the bus happily standing because there were no seats. Our days in Cinque Terre were spent pretty much in the exact same way as Sardinia. And, just like in Sardinia we spent our days relaxing and one day out exploring which was just as well because all of the other towns were so full of people that there was no way we would have relaxed in them. We loved Corniglia and would recommend it to anyone staying in the Cinque Terre. The day we spent exploring was amazing though and Mark took so many unbelievable photos that when he first showed me some of them I thought he had just googled some.
One of the most amazing photos! Courtesy of Mark.
One of the other reasons I think we’ve spent the past 12 days relaxing is because we didn’t have any internet and I’ve been writing this on a word document waiting for internet, and not just any internet but internet that is strong enough to open up a website. That means that this post will be delayed and you’ll know we finally have a strong wifi connection somewhere.
After a rather wet and windy time in Ireland we were looking forward to getting back to London because the weather forecast had said it would be sunny for most of our time there. We got to our guesthouse at about 10.40pm and met a guy from the holiday company who gave us the keys and showed us around, not that there was much to show in our room. The room was a futon, folded out as a bed which we could normally handle but the one thing that was a bit frustrating was the lack of space. By the time we put our bags in the room and closed the door there was only enough room for us to stand next to each other in the corner or to sit on the edge of the bed (sorry futon). Had we not been meeting up with friends during our stay I think we would have been very unhappy campers.
2 and half years ago while on a train in Russia we met Tom & Kirsty who we would travel across the Trans Siberian Railway with. We instantly had a connection back then and when we saw them for the first time since saying goodbye in Beijing years ago it was as if we had never said goodbye. We simply picked up from where we left off. The 2 days we spent with Tom & Kirsty were so nice. They took us on a tour of London, showing us all of the sites and catching us up on everything they had been up to in the past couple of years and when it was our turn we did the same, updating them on our travels and everything that lead us to be where we were. I’ve learnt that in life you meet so many people and those that are meant to be in your life will be, no matter how far away they are or how long it is between seeing them. Tom & Kirsty are those types of friends. They understood us when we spoke about issues we had while travelling (they had travelled extensively themselves) and we understood them when they spoke about their jobs and home lives. On our 2nd and last day with them they treated us to the London Bridge Experience which is a horror attraction that takes you through the history of the famous London Bridge and then scares the s**t out of you. At one point in the attraction the whole group is sitting in a room made into a chapel. We were in the second row of pews and the actor was telling us about the witches and drownings that took place there years ago. If you were thought to be a witch you were tied up and thrown in the river Thames, if you floated to the top it meant you were a witch and you would then be burned at the stake, if you drowned it meant that you were innocent but dead. Out of the entire group the man suddenly points to me and asks my name to which I reply “Bianca”. He then got the entire group chanting “Burn the witch” while pointing at me. I sat there stunned and slightly freaked out that they were going to make me get up and actually do something. Mark, Tom & Kirsty all thought it was hilarious. I believe everyone else there thought it was quite funny too. After the factual part of the experience they make you watch a video warning you of the horror that lies ahead. The main part of it is actually quite terrifying and at one point Tom had run off while Kirsty, Mark & I were left running after him and then being completely scared when an actor jumped out at us from around the corner. After the experience ended we were all laughing at each other and how we all reacted. After this we had to say goodbye and there were tears from Kirsty and I but we all spoke about when we will see each other next, not if.
Rain couldn’t stop us from enjoying our time with friends.After saying goodbye we headed out to see a friend of Mark’s that he hadn’t seen since she left Melbourne for London years ago and who is a musician. We caught up over coffee (I had tea) and drinks afterwards and I know Mark really enjoyed being able to properly talk to someone about music but also about how much their lives had changed since high school. As we did with Tom and Kirsty we spoke about the next time we will see her and promised to stay in touch between now and then. The day after we were on our own again but only for a few hours before we caught up with Mark’s cousin who is now living in London. He showed us around different parts of London and it was nice speaking to him and hearing about how much his life had changed since leaving Italy for Australia and then leaving Australia to go back to Italy and onto London. It was a bit sad saying goodbye to Giuseppe as well. It’s always so hard knowing when we will see people again and no matter how many promises and plans are made sometimes life simply gets in the way and it becomes years before you are able to see someone again. It’s one of the reasons why being online has helped us so much during this trip. Even though we are away we still feel so connected to everyone all around the world.
We had an amazing time in London despite all of the rain and will definitely be back there in our lifetime, maybe even on this trip!
We arrived in Paris via the Eurostar from London and by the time we got to our hotel it was already getting dark so we walked to Sacre Coeur which wasn’t far from where we were staying. We stood on the steps and looked out over Paris where we could see the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty amazing to be standing there looking out over Paris but the feeling didn’t last long when it stated to pour. It was a rather wet walk back to our hotel.
The next day we got up early so we could be at the Louvre by 9am. Luckily we bought tickets online because it can be crazy sometimes when you realise how much time is wasted waiting in lines. By the time we got inside it would have been 9:20am and we went straight to check out the Mona Lisa and the whole time I was just thinking about the Mr Bean movie. We spent a lot of time looking at the Italian artists and the sculptures (they were my favourite) and then we started to get hungry so left to get ourselves a drink before heading to the Champs Elysees. We walked along up towards the Arc de Triomphe and then sat down for a hot chocolate (me of course) and a coffee with some macaroons. At this stage we had felt like we had accomplished a lot so we got back on the metro and went to the Eiffel Tower. When I think of Paris I think of the Eiffel Tower so I was stoked to be there looking at it. My dream was so sit on the grass eating lunch while admiring it but due to the EuroChampionship and the high terror alert in France at the moment the surrounding gardens were closed off so we bought our lunch and sat on the grass behind the Eiffel Tower where we could admire part of it.
The one and only Eiffel Tower
We were in bed early because we had a 7:00am flight to Milan. At 4:00am our alarms went off to wake us up. I have a habit of checking our emails when I wake up each day just to make sure we haven’t received any emails from hotels/airlines etc. I was slightly hopeful when I saw one from our airline because I thought “ok, our flight is delayed we can sleep a bit longer”. I was right, our flight was delayed and we could sleep a bit longer if we wanted, a whole day in fact because they cancelled our flight and put us on one the following day. So at 4:30am we were both up trying to figure out what we were going to do – should we stay in Paris another night? Get on a different flight with another airline? Get a train to Milan? All options were so expensive especially because Italy had just played France in the Euro the night before so the cheapest options for us was to stay another night in Paris but to make things a bit easier for ourselves the next day we moved to a hotel right next to the airport.
Thankfully our flight wasn’t delayed a second time so we were up early and at the airport. We had emailed our hotel in Milan twice to let them know we were delayed but still wanted the booking, and we would pay for the night we missed if we had to, and because we hadn’t heard from them we assumed it was ok. To be honest why wouldn’t it be? We were paying them for a night when we weren’t even there. Anyway so we got to Milan and I jumped on the airport wifi to check our emails, still nothing from the hotel so we quickly bought tickets and jumped on the airport train to the city. While getting on the train I saw an email come through: “Your booking has been cancelled due to no show”. Argh! We couldn’t even reply or call them because the train was moving away from the station and I had lost the wifi connection. Staying positive we just thought we would just go to the city and find a hotel.
Nope, no hotels within our budget. We just stood around for a while not knowing what to do and then I turned to Mark and was like “wanna go to Genoa a day earlier?” – why not, was his answer, so we got on a metro train to take us to Milan central station and there we stood in line to try to change our tickets. After a little bit Mark waited on his own and I went to check the automated ticket machines. There was a train leaving in 10 minutes and it was cheap, so I went back and asked Mark if he wanted to get that one. Yep, he did so I went back and tried one of the machines and it wasn’t working so I went to the next and bought the tickets. While paying it said “you are purchasing tickets for a service that departs within 5 minutes” I clicked ok because I didn’t think we had to walk far. Have you ever been in a situation where you think to yourself “this is movie worthy”? I did when we were running to the very last platform that just happens to be smaller than all the rest and therefore further away from the others and while running watching the train and the clock and then thinking “I’m either running slower or the train is moving” and then realizing that we missed the train by mere meters. We sat on the ground for 10 minutes just not sure what to do with ourselves. Eventually though we got up to make new plans. After a couple of hours we booked a return flight to Sardinia and 3 nights accommodation – We would find more when we got there.
Even with all of the messed up plans we still had time to see the Duomo.
And that brings us to where we are now – the A’Italia Lounge at Milan airport waiting for our flight so we can have a few relaxing days to recover from our pile of messed up plans.
Hello Ireland. Looks like there’s a bit of rain here. Any chance of it stopping over the next few days?
Just like our day in London, Ireland wanted to show us what it was like for locals for a large part of the year, so it rained and then barely stopped for our 4 days there.
We spent our first day in Dublin and our first stop was a pub where we had fish & chips and a pint. Well, Mark had a pint, I had a coke and to be honest we didn’t do much after that.
The next day we walked to the car hire office and picked up our car so that we could start our short road trip. We drove from Dublin to Middleton so that we could stop off at the Jameson Distillery and check out where all of the whiskey that Mark loves is made. We arrived just as a tour was starting so we caught up to the group and wandered around listening to how all of the different types of whiskey were made. Mark seemed to be off in his own little world and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to what was happening until I called him over and he was picked to be a part of a whiskey tasting lesson and I thought he would be excited after that but he still seemed odd right up until the tour finished and we got our free drink. He seemed all fidgety and he was finally annoying me enough that I asked him what was wrong, to be which he replied “nothing’s wrong I just really want to go into the shop”. So I finished as much of my drink as I could (I don’t drink whiskey) and we went to the Jameson Distillery Shop. Mark was like a kid at Disneyland. He ran around looking at all of different types of whiskey he could buy and within 10 minutes we had walked away having bought 5 bottles to be sent back home. This resulted in a very happy Mark driving further onto Cork where he spent the whole night talking about the different types of whiskey he had bought and when he thought he would open each bottle.
Mark at his whiskey tastingDriving the next day from Cork to Galway was pretty easy except it just continued to rain with some occasion pauses for the sun to shine through. Did you know that the weather forecasts on the radio in Ireland don’t tell you when it’s going to rain, they tell you when it’s going to be sunny, or at least if they think the rain will stop. We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher on our way and when we pulled into the carpark to buy tickets the lady asked us if we still wanted to go in even though there was “zero visibility”. And so I replied “ok but what does that mean?” To which she replied that we wouldn’t be able to see anything. We decided to go anyway considering we had driven so far. When we parked and walked into the national park we could see the cliffs and although there was a bit of fog it wasn’t as bad as the lady made it out to be. After getting a couple of photos we thought it would be better to walk up the hill to see them better. After walking about 100m we turned around to see if this was a better spot and they were gone! It was just like the lady said – zero visibility. Luckily we had seen them for that brief moment! We were pretty tired once we left and continued into Galway and the mood in the car dropped significantly when we made it into town only to find most of the roads closed because of a marathon. Safe to say Mark was not a happy driver when a 7 minute drive turned into an hour of being stuck. Dinner that night consisted of a bottle of wine.
Before zero visibility became a realityOur time in Ireland flew and when we left Galway to drive back to Dublin for our flight to London we managed to fit a couple more sites in along the way. We kissed the Blarbey Rock which is said to give you the ability to tell great stories and we went to the Guinness Storehouse because you can’t go to Dublin without drinking a Guinness.
The main thing we realised during our time in Ireland was just our friendly everyone was. People who had no real reason to be extra nice to us just were. It was just so nice to meet people who were happy to help us.
Arriving into London was amazing, mainly because it felt a lot like home. We woke up early because we only had one day there and had a lot of things to do. First thing was to catch up with an old colleague of Marks who is now living in London. Although I was just meeting her for the first time I know Mark really enjoyed being able to talk to someone about the difference he felt in himself after leaving work. She also told us about how she had just voted in Brexit because she was an Australian citizen living in London. From our point of view that seemed odd. She has only been living there for less than a year but had a right to vote in one of the UK’s most life-changing referendums. Lunch was really nice but by the end we had spent our entire days budget on one meal and it was then that we realised just how expensive London could be if we didn’t watch what we were spending our money on. London’s gift to us was making sure we experienced London as it is for the locals – rainy.
Before it started pouring rain and we stopped by Buckingham Palace
It rained for the rest of the day and we were soaked by the time we made it to the Australian High Commission so we could vote in the Australian Election. The High Commission is a beautiful building in the heart of London. As soon as I saw the building I got a little bit excited and blurted “Do you think they will have a sausage sizzle like they do back home?” Mark rolled his eyes at me as we walked closer but I think he was secretly hoping there was one too. It was so weird stepping into a building and hearing so many Australian accents. We were greeted by a man who said we were a very “colourful looking couple” and I took that as a compliment as I assumed he was talking about my yellow rain jacket, not us being weird. He directed us over to the VIC line where we were marked off and given our voting papers. The process was so quick that we thought it would be quicker to fly to London and vote in future elections instead of waiting in line at home. The only downside of course is the lack of sausage sizzles in London. Feeling very proud of ourselves we went to the British Library simply because I love libraries and could spend hours in them just looking at books. The British Library is spectacular. To access what they call ‘reading rooms’ which is where most of the books are kept, you need to register and show documentation of a local address so we were unable to go and actually read the books but they have collections throughout the library that you can go and see. We spent most of our time looking at the amazing historical collection containing all different types of documents, from all different parts of the world, from all different periods in history. It would take an entire day, if not longer to look at each item and understand the enormity a lot of the items had on history. There were spiritual documents, original Beatles lyrics, scientific documents, literature and writings from artists. It was an amazing room that wowed me at every turn. The first thing I would do if I ever lived in London would be to go to the library and register.
After being in the library we headed out to dinner to catch up with another friend from home and we caught up on her time living in London and the differences she has found between London and Melbourne and had generally a really good night that felt really normal which was just what we needed after quite a few days of travelling.
We are at the airport now though taking in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. When we went to bed last night the news was saying that the UK was to remain in the EU, however when we checked XE this morning for exchange rates the site crashed which prompted us to check the news and what do you know? the UK has voted out of the EU. I won’t bore you readers with my detailed view on why I thought the result was a good one but simply say that travelling around a lot of Europe recently has shown me that change in the region was needed and the UK has just began this change. A defining moment in history and I hope only positive things come from the Brexit vote. We have friends and family all over the UK and Europe and even though I imagine things may become difficult for a short time I hope in the end the UK and eventually Europe are better off.
We’ve spent the last 12 days travelling through 4 towns in 3 different countries. It’s been pretty laid back and we’ve taken most days as they come.
Our first stop was Warsaw in Poland and there wasn’t a whole lot for us to do there which was okay because we only had one full day there. We had booked train tickets online and the Polish Railway Company sent our tickets to our hotel. I felt really organised as all the tickets matched what we bought and the train stations were all close to our hotels so we could easily catch buses or trams to our hotels and save money. After our day in Warsaw we packed our bags and I worked out how to get to the train station – everything was fitting in well; check out was at 11am and our train was at 12.06pm so if we left straight after check out we would have plenty of time. We did that and were so relaxed once we got to Warsaw train station, why wouldn’t we be? we had half an hour before our train was due to depart. We put all of our bags down and I took our tickets over to the departures board to work out what platform we were on. I was staring at the board and found our train but the time was showing as 12.15pm so I figured that it was delayed slightly. Just to check it was ours I looked at our tickets… Turns out it wasn’t our train. Our train didn’t depart at 12.06pm like I thought, it departed at 10.30am ON the 12th June (12.06). Yep, we missed our train. Turns out I wasn’t as organised as I thought. Mark just laughed the entire time so while he stood with our bags laughing I was lining up to buy new tickets which cost close to 3x the original ones and we had to wait over an hour. We had no real option though, we needed to get to Krakow so we waited at the train station and had a sneaky cheeseburger from McDonalds.
The train to Krakow was really straight forward and as soon as we arrived in Krakow we immediately liked it so much better than Warsaw. It was a lot prettier and everything seemed to have so much more character to it. Our main reason for being in Krakow was to travel out to Auschwitz I & Auschwitz II Birkenau Concentration Camps which we did on our third day there (we lost a whole day after our train error in Warsaw). We didn’t book a guided tour out there and just booked entry tickets for the afternoon. Before we left we caught up with some friends from back home and it was so nice to talk to friends about what was news with them back in Melbourne and also to have honest conversations about our travels and theirs. There was no need for small talk and we could just hang out. After catching up with them for lunch we caught a bus out to Auschwitz I. The camp has been turned into a museum using the old buildings and structures and contains exhibits displaying the daily struggles and atrocities that took place there. Because we weren’t part of a guided tour we did a bit of research before we went so that we knew what we would encounter. I think for this reason we weren’t as shocked as a lot of people say they are when they visit but of course there were a few things that shook me. There were rooms filled with possessions that were taken from people when they arrived at the camp, there were barracks set up with the beds that the prisoners were forced to sleep in (often 3 to a bed), there were photos of the starvation that occurred but the one display that got me was the window full of human hair that was cut and shaved off bodies after being murdered in the gas chambers. The amount of hair that still remains is just unbelievable and to make things even more unbelievable there are mats in the same room that are created from human hair. Often, the hair that was cut off was later sold for a small price and was made into fabrics. After seeing this nothing shocked me and we left soon after to go to the Auschwitz II – Birkenau camp which is about 2km away and was built after the first and held and murdered more people. Not many of the buildings and structures still remain here but because we arrived at Auschwitz I later in the day it meant that by the time we got to Auschwitz II – Birkenau, the last of the daily guided tours were finishing up and there were only a hand full of people at the camp. We waited until the last shuttle bus back and it wasn’t until we were walking out of the camp that we realised we were the only people there besides the security guards. It was eerily quiet and we just stood for a moment looking down the train tracks and thought of the terrible things that happened there.
After visiting Auschwitz we were ready to leave Krakow and did so on a train to Prague. I celebrated my 24th birthday in Prague and did so by nearly getting a fine at the metro station, walking 10kms because we didn’t know if we should attempt to use the metro again and then avoiding all train stations because of an ‘incident’ at the main terminal. By late afternoon I wanted the day to be over so that I could try to ignore all the signs that showed just how terrible turning 24 was. I will admit it wasn’t all that terrible though. My beautiful younger brother created a slide show for me with messages from my whole family and some family and friends sent me video messages saying Happy Birthday. My family did also sing Happy Birthday to me over FaceTime, we had a cake and all – I just had to pretend to blow out the candles while someone else did it for me and they all got to eat cake while Mark and I watched. Months ago Mark and I had talked about how it looked like we wouldn’t be able to afford to go to New York for New Years Eve and I was pretty devastated but did look at the bigger picture, for my birthday though Mark decided that it was possible after all and bought us tickets to New York. And because Mark felt bad that my birthday wasn’t as spectacular as his birthday he bought me banana cake in bed for breakfast the next day and downloaded a birthday cake app so I could blow out candles after he sang Happy Birthday to me, he also let me spend the day booking accommodation for New Years and looking at all the things we could do there without complaining once. I then spent the afternoon at the hairdressers cutting off half of my hair. Okay, not half but a lot of it! We left Prague the next day for Budapest.
24 years old means short hair.When we arrived in Budapest the city was a complete mess. Hungary had just drawn the night before in the Euro against Iceland so we could definitely tell the whole city had been celebrating. There were bottles, broken and whole, everywhere, along with piles of rubbish so we spent most of our first day in Budapest inside avoiding the remaining dirt and drunks. This probably wasn’t a good idea because we starting watching Orange is the New Black S4. By the end of our time in Budapest we had watched the complete 4th season which had me heart broken at the end but also hoping that the inmates at Litchfield would rally together. It is prison though so I guess they can’t all trust each other, they are criminals after all. It is also a TV show so I can’t go around pretending it’s real…
Getting to the airport in Budapest was just a normal occasion until we went to check in and apparently our reservation number didn’t match our e-ticket number. Now because all of this information was in the airline’s system you could just assume that it was their problem and fault and not ours, but unfortunately the staff at the airport kept saying we had changed it. The whole problem just seemed crazy to us because the website would let us check in online when we tried but their system wouldn’t allow us to print baggage tags nor register that we should have been on the flight. Of course all of this could be fixed if we just paid the airport staff to change it in their system. Mark did not like this answer but because we had no other choice we paid up just so we could get to London and I am writing this as we sit at the airport waiting for our slightly delayed flight. Ahhh the joys of budget travel.
The weather leaving St Petersburg matched our mood – dreary. We took the most famous overnight Red Arrow train to Moscow and arrived early in the morning to rain. Rain was pretty much a constant while we were in Moscow. It was ok from our point of view because we had been to Moscow before and there were things we could miss because we had already seen them on our previous trip to Russia. When it stopped raining we would venture outside (with our raincoats just in case) and check out a few of the sites. On our previous trip to Moscow we had walked inside the Kremlin, however this time we decided to walk around it. We forgot how big it was but luckily made it back to Red Square in time to check out St Basil’s Cathedral before it started pouring rain again. The one thing we noticed different about our time in Moscow compared to last time was this white pollen ‘stuff’ floating in the air everywhere. We asked our hotel receptionist what it was and he told us it was from a tree that is all over Moscow. He then added “it snows the entire year in Moscow”. We gathered he was talking about how much of this white pollen that seemed to be everywhere – he didn’t look too happy when he spoke about it and I could understand why. It got in everywhere! As soon as we opened the door to our hotel it would fly in and just form clumps all over the ground. It would be a constant job just trying to get rid of it all which is why I imagine they just left it. On our last day we got caught out in the rain so we decided to run into a huge shopping centre we saw. When we first walked in we noticed that all of the stores were for kids and there was a huge play area for them so we made our way up through all of the levels and at each level there were more and more kids shops until we worked out that the entire shopping centre was purely for children. It was amazing. It had everything from baby furniture stores to H&M for kids and even jewellery stores just for children! To make the shopping centre even more grand there was this ginormous gold clock mechanism that hung from the roof, all the way down to the ground level. Mark especially loved the Legoland creations and as he said “we got to see Moscow in miniature form”.
Miniature Moscow in Legoland
We left Moscow after a few days to get another train but this time to Kazan. We hadn’t been to Kazan before so were excited to see another part of Russia. Arriving at the train station in Kazan, the maps on our phones weren’t working properly so we couldn’t see where our hotel was in the city. After walking around a bit trying to see if there was somewhere we could go to get WiFi we decided to just get a taxi because it was pouring rain and all of our bags were getting soaked. Walking up to a taxi driver we had the address out and were asking how much to take us there. He was looking at us in a slightly odd way but we just figured it was the language barrier so Mark tried to explain slowly what we wanted. The taxi driver just looked at us and said “Crystal Hotel?” to which we replied “Yes!” he then looked at us with a smile on his face, turned around and pointed across the road. We looked up to see a huge hotel with the name sprawled across the top in English and Russian. We just laughed with the taxi driver and walked across the slightly flooded roads to our hotel. We had the option of waiting 5 hours until check in or we could pay more to check in early and considering I had stepped in a massive puddle and one of my shoes was soaked all the way through we opted to pay some more and check in early. It rained for our entire 3 days in Kazan with the occasional dry spell (mainly at night though). Because we hadn’t been there before we braved the rain as much as we could and walked around to check out the sites which lucky for us are all pretty much in the one area. When it’s raining that much it makes it difficult to really look at many of the things a city or place has to offer but we are glad we went out anyway, even if we weren’t out for as long as we would have liked. After days of rain we got up at 2am for our flight to Minsk and what do you know? Clear skies everywhere. Thanks Kazan!
Kul Sharif Mosque in Kazan. The photo doesn’t do it justice!
As Russia & Belarus are 2 different countries we had read that we required visas to enter both. We knew this of course for Russia and it didn’t surprise us when we read this about Belarus. What we didn’t realise though, and what we still don’t totally understand, is that there seems to be open travel between the 2 countries, even for foreigners. What this pretty much means is that we left Russia to fly to Belarus on what is considered a domestic flight. We still don’t know if we even needed our Belarussian visa but are glad we had one. Imagine getting detained in Russia or Belarus for not having the right visa… no thank you.
Minsk was pretty much like a country town of Russia. 2 thirds of the country is actually covered in woods and forests and Minsk seems to just pop up out of nowhere after driving for about 45 minutes from the airport. It was slightly chilly when we arrived but we were so glad it wasn’t raining that we went and sat in a park for a while and watched some artists paint. After a little bit the sun started to get really warm so I laid down on a park bench and rested my head on Mark’s lap while we just enjoyed the warmth on our faces. After about an hour of this we went to check into our hotel. On the walk back I started to get a bit itchy and I thought it was just the heat and me wearing too many clothes so once we got to our hotel I went to our room to change into a t-shirt and it was then that I found the cause of my itchiness. I had these hive-like lumps and bites all over me and more and more were starting to show and get even itchier. So, like I would back home, first thing I did was take a photo and send it to my mum asking her what she thought it was. She told me she thought they were bites of some sort and to get an antihistamine. It took a full 12 hours after taking the antihistamine for everything to go away which was annoying but I was glad it was gone! Today was our only full day in Minsk and we spent it checking out some of the sites before heading to the airport later in the afternoon for our flight to Poland. One of the first things we are going to do when we get to Warsaw is eat Pierogi! – It’s always about food!
Artists in Minsk enjoying the sun and clear skies.
1. My favourite book is The Bronze Horseman.
2. Subsequently my favourite author is Paullina Simons.
3. I automatically love anyone who loves The Bronze Horseman as much as me.
4. Our first trip to St Petersburg a couple of years ago was because I wanted to see the city she writes about.
5. Our trip to St Petersburg this time was because we loved it the first time.
6. St Petersburg is now one of our favourite cities in the World. I may be slightly blinded by my love for the book but I don’t care.
Arriving in St Petersburg in the afternoon was a bit exciting for us. It was the first time we had ever re-visited a city in Europe. We got to our room which was really bright and clean and because it was a part of a huge apartment it felt like it could easily be home for a while. For this reason we decided to go grocery shopping so that we could cook for a change, instead of eating out constantly. We bought enough food for breakfast everyday and some dinners. By the end of the day we felt like we had accomplished a lot – checked into our room, went grocery shopping, put on a load of washing and went out for a walk.
The first time we visited Russia was during winter so it was very cold and dark, this time however it is summer which means White Nights in St Petersburg. Because of St Petersburg’s geographical location, during summer the sun never really drops below the horizon which means that although the sun has ‘set’ it’s still light outside. There are always people out on the streets during summer and at 2am, although it’s quiet it’s not deserted by any means. It was nice knowing we had been to St Petersburg before because it meant we could spend more of our time outside, instead of inside museums and cathedrals. We checked out some of our favourites of course, but only from the outside. The Hermitage & the Winter Palace which never disappoint as well as The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood and St Isaac’s Cathedral. We spent most of our time though walking around the Summer Garden, checking out the Bronze Horseman and pushing through crowds on Nevsky Prospect.
Forcing Mark to take a tourist photo with The Bronze Horseman
During this visit we did 2 things we didn’t do on our previous trip. The first was going to the Ballet. I’d always wanted to go to see the Russian Ballet in Russia but last time we just didn’t have the time, this time around, thinking we could book last minute tickets to the famous Bolshoi in Moscow we were told that everything was sold out! So we thought “not to worry we will just go here in St Petersburg”. “Sorry, everything is also sold out for the time you’re here” WHAT?! Turns out that wasn’t the case, it was just that new shows were opening a couple of days after we left and these were sold out. After being sent on a mission around St Petersburg we finally found one of the authorised sellers we were after and it was meant to be! There were 2 tickets left on the day we wanted, but for a different, smaller theatre. We bought them because there was no way I was going to Russia twice and not seeing the Ballet. The ballet culture in Russia is huge! Everyone gets dressed up, arrives early for drinks and canapés and then heads out for dinner after the show.
Getting dressed up for the Ballet!
We got to the theatre super early and had some drinks and food while we waited, just before going into the show our waiter asked if we would like to pre-order some drinks for the intermission “Of course we would – 2 of the same please”. We walked into the theatre to look for our seats and were told we were at the end, so we walk all the way to the end until we can’t go any further and there is no entrance which is when we were given our our swipe card to a private room. Crazy I know. So we go through one door, into a small waiting room with private bathrooms, through another door into a private sitting room and then finally through another door onto a private balcony. We were shocked. And then, to top it all off, it looked like we had gate-crashed a small party, because the other 6 people all knew each other and had booked the entire balcony, or so they thought. We then discussed that they probably assumed no-one would buy 2 tickets, one in front of the other, but they didn’t count on us doing just that! They were lovely people who made us feel really welcome and I get the impression they were regulars at the ballet. So there we are in our fancy seats watching the ballet and then at intermission we walk out and think “Hmmm how do we get our drinks we ordered, we didn’t get a ticket or receipt” we didn’t even have to worry because as soon as we walked out, our waiter found us and took us over to our old table which was now reserved for us. Our entire experience of the ballet was a positive one, maybe because of our seats, maybe because of our reserved table, but mainly it was because of the formality and tradition behind the way everyone acted and the respect everyone had towards the art of ballet. We can’t wait to go again, although next time we will book well in advance so that we can go to the Bolshoi in Moscow!
Mikhailovsky Theatre
The other thing we did this time was visit Peterhof which is the Summer Palace of Peter the Great. This place was ridiculous. It is called by some as the Fountain Capital of the World and once you’re there you can understand why. Everywhere you turn there is a fountain, either big or small, real or trick. The real fountains are quite obvious but the trick ones can get you, however you can usually spot them from a far by the crowds of kids running and squealing. The trick fountains just mean that the can shoot out water at anytime, and some that are hidden in the ground can catch you off guard completely. It was nice watching families running around these areas just enjoying the time outside. Sometimes we forget how much joy can arise from a water fountain or sprinkler. Besides the thousands of fountains at Peterhof, the gardens are simply breathtaking. My brother is a landscape gardener so pretty much the entire time we were walking around we kept saying “Chris would love this place” “Imagine what Chris would say if he was here” “We should take a photo and send it to Chris” “We should tell Chris to come here”.
We had been told to pack a lunch so we sat by the waters edge, looked out towards Kotlin Island, St Petersburg, ate chicken salad rolls and watched a newly married couple celebrate with what we imagine were 8 of their closest friends. It really was a nice way to end our time in St Petersburg.
Peterhof Palace / Summer Palace. Amazing weather and sites for our last day!
A smiling face is half the meal – Latvian Proverb.
I normally try to write each post when we are leaving a city or country as it kills time while we wait around but I wasn’t able to write about Riga when we were leaving Latvia, not because we didn’t have time but because I didn’t know what to write. When we first arrived we were so impressed. The airport was so clean and new, our bags were waiting for us when we walked through to the baggage point and getting a taxi was super easy. We met our host from Airbnb about 30 minutes later and walked up 6 flights of stairs to their apartment. They were such a lovely couple with a small 3 year old daughter who reminded us of our friends back home and that made me miss home. Because we had arrived at about 10pm she had stayed awake and didn’t want to go to sleep until she could see us. We stayed up quite late that night talking and speaking about life in Australia compared to life in Latvia. Surprisingly there were actually quite a few similarities although Australia just doesn’t have the same history as any country in Europe.
The best way to describe Riga is like a capital city with a country lifestyle. Everything is so clean and relatively quite. People spend a lot of time outside when the sun is out just walking around or sitting in the parks. We did this on both of our days in Riga, and on the second day, after going to the biggest market in Europe we sat in the park and made our own lunch with the food we had just bought. It was so calming just sitting on the grass. It doesn’t get dark in Riga until about 10.30pm so we always made sure we stayed out until the sun had gone down.
Music and busking is really popular in Riga. There was always someone playing an instrument or singing on every street in the Old Town but the songs always had a melancholy feel to them. On our walk back to our apartment one night we walked past a young band playing. They had a relatively large crowd – mostly people the same age – watching them so we kept walking up to an older man playing a small instrument. There was no one standing by watching him so we stood for a while and listened. After a little bit, Mark walked up and put some money in his hat and the smile on the mans face almost broke my heart. When Mark turned around to walk back to me the man wipe a tear from his eye and started playing a new song for us. That was it for me and Mark knew it. I couldn’t speak the entire walk back. The next night he was there again and at first I don’t think he recognised us but we went and spoke to him this time hoping that he spoke English. He did of course (everyone in Europe seems to speak English) and he told us the instrument he was playing was a banjolele and he was Latvian and 76 years old. Quick maths in my head told me that he would have been born during WWII and subsequently lived through the occupation of Latvia. Not wanting to make him uncomfortable and disturb him any long we stood back and listened to him play another song before going back to our apartment for our last night in Riga.
When I think of Latvia and our few days there I picture an old quiet town and an old man with white hair and a sad smile playing a banjolele. Whether his life has been difficult or not, I don’t know, but I do know a lot of people have had difficult lives in Latvia so for whatever reason it is I want to smile and cry at the same time and hope that I’ll be back there one day to watch more of the buskers, singing happier songs.
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