Friday 30 March 2012

Colossal Colleseum

Day: 31

Today we finished off the last of the "Rome list" with the Colleseum, The Pantheon, and the Roman Forum.





The Colleseum was aweseome!! It was so fascinating to see the original walls and ruins as well as the reconstructions that make it that much easier to imagine how it was in its heyday. We had an audioguide which made it that much more interesting. As many of you know, I am a trivia nerd and love all the facts etc. The audioguide was perfect for this as you learned so much more than simply walking around. Example; the first show (i.e. Gladiator fight)was around 4th century B.C. and the last was around 500 A.D.

We went past the Roman Forum, which are so much more expansive than I thought. It was incredible to see the ruins all laid out and they are discovering (and reconstructing) more everyday.

We also visited the Pantheon, which from the outside looked gorgeous and impressive but inside was just a church (had my fill of that the day before yesterday!)

It was a great day. We even ended up visitng a few places we didn't plan on, simply by walking around (i.e. getting lost) such as the Bascilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore, Piazza Collona and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Bascilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore has the claim of being the largest Roman Catholic Marian church in Rome, Italy. Yes, another church but seriously, we are in Italy so there is little you can do to avoid it. The inside of this particular church was incredible. The marble alone was astonishing. It is also pretty impressive from the outside.



The other interesting thing is that under the altar of the basilica is the Crypt of the Nativity or Bethlehem Crypt, which is said to contain wood from the Holy Crib of the nativity of Jesus Christ.


The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was so incredible. It is by far the largest, most elaborate war memorial I have ever seen. The statues themselves were huge!!




It has been an enormous couple of days and this has resulted in me being a bit slack with my blogging. These past days have been very long days that have consisted of hours of walking (and eating) and when they come to an end I only have enough evergy to return to the room, shower and crash into a deep sleep. I also had to wait for an opportunity to use a proper computer so I can upload the pictures from my camera. Worth the wait I think!

Today's count
Cappucino: 1
Gelato:2

Sunday 25 March 2012

Backpackers Best Friends!

 Day: 26

Today I travelled from Genoa to Florence. I am getting much better with the navigation and haven't gotten lost going to my accommodation here or in Genoa. There was only one almost hiccup on this trip. I fell asleep on the train and almost missed my changeover in Pisa. Close call!!

The hostel in Florence is huge and much better organised than some I've stayed (Nice, I'm looking at you).

My roommates are a lovely Japanese girl, Sayo, who I have become friends with and a pair of Argentinean sisters, ?? & ??.

At this hostel I have had the pleasure (?!) of having two very special hostel only experiences. One is the late night mysterious roommate in the form of a girl who arrived well past midnight, was asleep with a blanket over her head when I got up and was gone when I returned. The second was drunken inhabitants of the rooms next door/down the hall. Noisy and didn't care who they disturbed. Due to both of these I finally had to break out what my Canadian backpacker friend Clodie calls the "Backpackers Best Friends" aka earplugs and an eye mask.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Reality vs.....

Tomorrow I leave France and head to Italy!!

I am very excited about this. I should be just fine because my darling girl Lola has me well prepared by giving me a copy of 'Eat, Pray, Love' and making me watch 'Under the Tuscan Sun'.

 That's all I'll need, isn't it? Real life is exactly like the movies, isn't it?

Maybe not exactly like this....(he doesn't really do it for me)


Note to self: pack sunglasses and wind machine

Yup exactly like that!
Travel note: Make friends with nuns and find yellow dress











Yup I'll be just fine!!

Friday 16 March 2012

Crowds, gardens(?!) and a fine

 Day: 12

With the lovely Clodie winging her way back home, today I was on my own.

With the sun shining and most of my Paris list ticked off I decided to head south to Chateau Versailles, former home of King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.

It is on the train down there that I get my first fine for not having the correct ticket. Ah damn it!! Even my pleas of ignorance had no effect and I hand over 20€.

The chateau itself is very impressive with wrought iron and gold gates and a huge cobblestone expanse in front so you can truly appreciate its size and grandeur.




Before reaching the chateau/exhibit itself there was an exhibition of paintings by  Louis François Lejeune who was also an officer during the Napolianic Wars. The paintings were very impressive, large and incredibly detailed but after a while the subject of death, destruction and 19th century wars was depressing so I skipped the last half and went on.

To imagine the kind of wealth it took to build (and maintain) such a place is mind boggling. The detail and extravagance that adorned every room was breathtaking. From the massive paintings on the ceilings to the gilt edged cornicing and door frames to the marble everywhere, the whole place was one big 'look at how much money we have, we almost can't spend it fast enough'. No wonder the peasants revolted, kicked the gates in and stormed the place (exact historical citation needed).

Certainly the most impressive room was the 'Hall of Mirrors'. A 239.5 foot (73m) long room with 17 enormous mirroredarches echoing floor to ceiling windows opposite and the whole thing set off with countless numbers of lights/candles. It was truly spectacular and no photo can do it justice.






Some of the other rooms that can be viewed are Marie Antoinettes bedroom and the Kings Grand Apartment.

The chateau and the rooms were spectacular but the whole experience was ruined by the fact that there were quite a few people trying to cram their way through those narrow halls and of course everyone wants to stop and take pictures so there were several times where we were crushed together like cattle, which is neither pleasant nor fun.

I managed to snap a few photos while fighting the crush.







Finally breaking free of the crush I wandered the infamous Versailles gardens. Now these gardens are immense and there is no way you can see them all on foot (you can hire golf buggies to drive around!) so I knew I was never going to see it all. But I did expect to be completely awed by the small part I would see....

Unfortunately not the case. Bitterly disappointed. The initial gardens right by the chateau I would describe less as gardens and more as gravel surrounding dried shrub looking things. In pretty patterns though.

Most of the statues we're covered up (I assume to protect them from the weather, seems they did ok the previous century or so) and the fountains were not on. There was a sign saying they were only turned in in the summer season. Excuse me? Did I not just pay the same entrance fee as you would in the summer season yet I don't get the same experience? Not happy at all.



I continued walking to see if there was more to the gardens that might deserve my appreciation. Well, not quite. More covered over statues, more gravel and very few places to sit down. I finally found a place that was nice (and I could sit down) although I would consider it less 'gardens' and more just 'nature allowed to grow'.

As with Paris, I had high expectations and minimal results. Yes I'm glad I went and there were some wonderful things to see but the overall experience left much to be desired.

Finally I had had enough and got back on the train (making sure I had the correct ticket) and headed for Paris.

I still had some time left in the afternoon so I went the Musee d'Orsay, which is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive former railway station built between 1898 and 1900. Musee d'Orsay shows many beautiful paintings, statues etc including many by Van Gogh,  Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Sisley, and Gauguin, of the Impressionist Movement. They were very interesting and it was well worth the 4€ for an audio tour as this just made it that much more interesting.

I tried to stick around to see the Eiffel Tower at sunset and then all lit up but it had been a long and tiring day. Luckily I will be returning to Paris so I can still experience both those things another day.

Thursday 15 March 2012

A little bit of culture...

Day: 11

Today was a much more cultural day than yesterday and much more calm after the excitment of climbing the Eiffel Tower!

Today was the Museé de Louvre, a boat ride of the Seine and Notré Dame.

First the Louvre Museum.







For all the panicked talk of massive lines and hours of waiting we had been very lucky so far and that luck continued (I think it might be a different story in the summer season). Because we caught the metro to the Louvre there was no wait for tickets and nearly no wait for entry (only about 12 people ahead). Of course the Louvre is massive and so we had to choose what we wanted to see carefully.


I was really interested in the Egyptian wing to see the things that France has taken from Egypt after seeing where they originally came from (Egypt trip, 2010). The Museé de Louvre is much more organised and nicely set out than the Cairo Museum!! They even have handy cards you can pick up with translations of the exhibit descriptions.



As increidble as the exhibits are what I found fascinating was the building itself. The Museé de Louvre was once a palace and some of the features from then have been maintained. From the paintings on the ceiling to the gold embossed doors to the marble work, it is spectacular and almost over shadows the museum peices.






After Egypt we hit the Roman and Greek areas which includes some fantastic sculptures. Paintings I get, I understand how they get the paint from the brush to the canvas and work with shadow and light and colour but sculpture...it never ceases to amaze me. I mean, there is zero room for error and the detail on them is unbelievable!




The Venus De Milo!!



Of course, no trip to the Louvre is complete without the requisite visit to the Mona Lisa so here she is....

 

The people crowded around the painting was amazing. We just did a quick fly-by to say we saw it but some people were crazy, jostling for position, trying to get closer...madness. Especially considering there's a pretty good chance that is only a replica...!?

After we finally made our way out of the museum (not an easy task actually!) we headed for the water for our boat trip on the Seine.

It was on;y a quick trip but was quite nice and relaxing. so relaxing in fact that I drifted off. That's right, I went to sleep. Oops!! Didn't mean to waste the opportunity but it had been a big few days and it was nice just drifting along....

Clodie and I cruising the Seine

The Eiffel Tower , from the water

A side view of the Notre Dame

We alighted from the boat and headed for the Notre Dame.

Notre Dame de Paris (French for Our Lady of Paris), also known as Notre Dame Cathedral or simply Notre Dame, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral and is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in Europe.

The cathedral is impressive from the outside although I expected the famed gargoyles to be bigger and more imposing. They are very high up and you have to really want to see them to make out any detail. The Notre Dame was damaged during the French Revolution with many of its paintings and religious icons etc were destroyed but still the inside is pretty amazing to see. The stained glass and the vaulted ceilings are so detailed. It really makes me wonder how this was all created!



The gargoyles




After a long day of absorbing all that culture Clodie and I decided we deserved a treat so we walked halfway back up to the Sacré-Cœur (not a treat!) to a little cafe in a tiny square we had seen on our previous hike. we stopped in and I had my first real French coffee! And wow was it strong! especially for someone who has only started drinking coffee (and only ocasionally) in the last 8 or so months!

Coffee crazies!

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