History – Page 2 – theplaceswe

July 10, 2016July 17, 2016

You had plans? That’s cute

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.

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.

Love, a tired B xxx

July 5, 2016July 3, 2016

It’s Voting Day

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.

DSC07442_Fotor — 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.

June 11, 2016

White Nights of St Petersburg

There are some things you should know about me.

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.

IMG_9377_Fotor — 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.

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!

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.

DSC06297_Fotor — Peterhof Palace / Summer Palace. Amazing weather and sites for our last day!

June 4, 2016

A smiling face is half the meal

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.

DSC06033_Fotor

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.

May 29, 2016

The word on the street is: Awkward

It should have taken us 2 hours to get from Barcelona to Munich. Instead, thanks to all of the delays it took us 8 hours. The hotel we were staying at in Munich was a relatively big family-run hotel. When we arrived and went to check in the family were sitting in the breakfast room which at night is closed to guests. We of course didn’t know this as we had just arrived so we followed the husband from outside into the breakfast room while he looked for our booking. We walked further into the room only to be told by an older lady that the room was out of bounds and we had to stand by the door. We apologised and went to stand awkwardly by the door (but still in the room) to wait. After we had moved, there was this awkwardness that descended over everyone there. It was like those times in movies when something awkward happens and people try to find things to pre-occupy themselves with. I wanted to laugh because it didn’t bother us at all where we were allowed or not allowed to be but it seemed to make some of the workers/family members awkward.

As I think about our days in Germany I wish we had filmed our time there. If I had to find one word to describe our time there it would be awkward. Awkward situations don’t actually really bother me most of the time and I find them more awkward for other people, watching how they react to the ‘awkwadrness’ – I myself generally find them amusing. On our second day in Munich when we were walking around the city we noticed groups of people all by the side of the park eating, drinking and playing bocci. Mark walked off to watch some of the games close up and I walked a bit further on and was just observing the entire area when I noticed a rather tall blonde guy walking towards me. At first I thought he was walking to someone behind me so I thought”woah better move out of the way otherwise he’s going to walk straight into me” this was quickly followed by “oh no, I think he is actually walking towards me” and then it was at this point when he was mere steps in front of me rapidly speaking in German that I just stood there, laughed and said “sorry English only” to which his reply was “Oh no problem. I was just saying that I thought you looked cute and that I should come over to introduce myself”. I hadn’t expected him to be able to speak such good English so this is where I got awkward and ungracefully pointed to Mark and said “I’m here with my partner”. After a bit of small talk I realised he thought I said parents and had pointed to an older couple standing near Mark. While trying to be polite I just couldn’t help but think about how ridiculous I must have looked and sounded the entire time, especially when I was talking about “our round the world trip” and he was thinking I was travelling with my parents. When Mark finally sauntered over the conversation ended pretty quickly but was followed by Mark’s questions and mocking. He found the entire scenario hilarious and then at the end of the day decided to tell me that he had been wondering what I was doing and had a photo…

Munich was a beautiful city, extremely clean and really quite so we were looking forward to seeing what Berlin had to offer. We got to Berlin early in the morning and couldn’t get access to our room at the hostel (yes, we stayed at a hostel again) until 4pm so we thought we would be productive and put on some loads of washing to kill some time. After our washing was done we sat outside with another Aussie and talked complete crap for an hour or so while we people watched. Our hostel was down the road from arguably the most famous club in Berlin, The Berhain. The club is infamous for its strict door policy, or lack thereof, which, according to numerous posts online, says that you can wait in line for 4 hours to be rejected simply because you didn’t fit their type. Well what is their type you ask? People speculate that it is a variety of different things but in the end I don’t think anyone but Sven, the main bouncer knows. So while watching people walk up the street towards The Berhain we would guess on who we thought would get in and who wouldn’t. So many people didn’t get in that we eventually stopped guessing because we just knew they wouldn’t be getting in.

Berlin is so full of history that when it wasn’t raining, we spent our time outside checking out the Wall, monuments to those that died or other historical landmarks. Berlin is so free from what most people would call ‘they normal way of life’ that it can be a bit of a shock. We definitely didn’t blend in with those in East Berlin – neither of us had enough piercings, tattoos or colours in our hair to be able to fit in, although my usual all black attire worked just fine. Apart from the huge variety of people in Berlin I don’t know if I can describe the general atmosphere there. My mind is all over the place when I try to think of a way to explain it so I think I’ll just leave you with a few contradictory words that could be used to describe Berlin all at once. Mournful, sunny, cheerful, dark, bright and grim. Also, I can’t forget to mention the vast amounts of graffiti that covers everything from buildings to rubbish bins, park benches and the ground.

DSC05903_Fotor — East Side Gallery, Berlin

I think we will definitely come back to Germany, although next time we want to explore the countryside as I think it would be so picturesque and authentic there. I’m not sure when we will be back though so I’ll have to start writing a bucket list so I don’t forget about it. We fly to Latvia tomorrow afternoon. I have no idea what is to be expected there and that makes me excited.