..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Posts tagged short
14 hours in Dublin
2After a pleasant journey via train and ferry we had made our way to Dublin. We arrived around 5pm and were quite tired from the late nights and early mornings we had on our short stay with friends in London. But weary eyes and sore feet were not going to get in our way, we only had 14 hours in Dublin (including sleeping time) and we were going to make the most of it.
We dumped our things at Abigail’s Hostel, grabbed a free map and headed towards the Temple Bar district. We hadn’t done much reading on Dublin but what little literature we had looked over, Temple Bar had been mentioned. It was a 2 minute walk from the hostel to the area and since it was filled with pubs and restaurants we thought we would save it to the end of our evening’s tour.
Using the landmarked sites on the free map as our guide, we walked around the nearby streets to see whatever we could in the dwindling daylight. We passed some beautiful old churches and buildings, generally made out of stone. Dublin was a surprisingly quaint, clean and nice looking city but I couldn’t help feel its residents were the poorer, dumber, drunker cousins of big city Londoners. Perhaps it was all the crazy drunk homeless people we saw that gave me that impression, or maybe it was the guy that walked past us with blood seeping out the cut on his forehead. Regardless, the locals were a colourful bunch – although they surprisingly didn’t make me feel too unsafe.
As the sunlight diminished and our tummies rumbled we realised it was nearing 10pm so we headed back to the Temple Bar area for dinner. Day time travelling often means no real meals and today was no exception, so we were quite hungry and looking for a good feed. Luckily many of the pubs were offering 3 course menus at “early bird” prices and the pub we settled one came with some great food choices. Soup, bruschetta and delicious burgers filled us up, but then we were privledged to yummy icecream and Baileys flavoured cheesecake. Bellies full we headed back to the hostel, satisfied with the what we had seen in the little time we had in Dublin.
While our stay in Dublin was the shortest of our European trip, it was a great stopover and I really enjoyed my time there. As much as I’m sure there is more to do in the city, I think I would be more likely to return to Ireland to explore some of the Emerald Isle’s gorgeous countryside.
Friends in London
0Prologue: this blog entry is well overdue and my apologies to our loyal followers for its delay (hello family!) but as you can imagine there has been far more pressing issues to organise since our arrival in Whistler. Anyway…
Our stay in London was postponed by a week thanks to Eyjafjallajokul the Icelandic volcano, which meant our original 9 day stay was transformed into a whirlwind 2 day stopover. Understandably I was quite disappointed about this as time with friends was now drastically reduced, but such is life and we just had to make the most out of the little time we had.
We arrived at London Stansted airport late Monday evening. Note to travellers; airports don’t seem to operate customs during the evening so if you want to bring in half a kilo of Swiss honey rather than eat it every day for 2 weeks at your previous destination, you best travel at night. We walked through the non-EU gate, only to see it lead to the same place with no staff as the other gates, and made our way to the bus terminal. Kindly our friend Greg had volunteered to pick us up from Liverpool Street Station in the early hours of the morning and after a catch up with him we called it a night.
The next day we saw all the sights of London with Greg. It was an interesting city and one we will definitely have to revisit to explore further. The city put on some beautiful weather for our short stay, which was wonderful as it only made the gardens and parks we walked through look that much more amazing. We had some traditional English food for lunch (meat, potatoes and peas), shared some drinks and saw all the cliché British icons; black cabs, red double decker buses and the queen’s guards.
That afternoon Jase and I went our separate ways as we had different evening plans. Jase stayed in London with Greg, experiencing more of the London city culture, while I caught the train to spend the night with my friend Jess and her boyfriend Glenn at her place in Wadhurst. I had to laugh as I got on the train and looked at my fellow passengers. Prior to boarding Jason, being the good husband that he is, told me to hold on to my bag and stay safe. Somehow I don’t think the white, 50-somethings in their suits that would be worth more than everything I was carrying and wearing were going to mug me!
My arrival at Wadhurst brought on a wave of emotions. I was so happy to see Jess as for a while I didn’t think we would get to see each other at all. That evening we spent catching up over another traditional English meal at the pub and I was introduced to her lovely boyfriend and toured around her beautiful little cottage house.
The next morning Jase caught the train up from London and Jess took the two of us to an old English castle, very typical of the historic sites around her area of England. It was really enjoyable to wander the beautiful gardens while chatting to Jess. The scenery was just like you would imagine, something from a water colour painting with willow trees, lakes and greenery for as far as the eye can see.
The afternoon was spent with Jess and Nicholas, the little boy whom she cares for as a nanny. Nicholas was really cute and it was fun to hang out at the playground with them and another mum and son, just chatting away in the sunshine as the kids played on the awesome pirate themed playground. After a nice dinner at Jess’ we said our goodbyes and headed back to the train station to go back to Greg’s.
The next morning we were up early to catch the underground so we could get to the train station that would be the starting point for our trip to Dublin. While our stay in London was only very short we were lucky to see both the busy city and gorgeous countryside during our visit. Thanks to both of our wonderful friends for being such fabulous hosts and guides… we hope to see you either in the UK or Australia again soon.
A rough night in Milan
1The cheapest destination to head out of Switzerland and back to Udine was via train to Milan. We had made the decision some time ago that we wanted to stay with my Italian family one last time before we left Europe so it was just a matter of finding a cheap and relatively hassel free means of transport back. Milan provided us with the opportunity to see another Italian city and break up our travel, whilst still taking us in the direction of Udine.
Our 5:45am train trip wasn’t the greatest of starts to the day but it was a cheap ride out of a country that has generally very expensive train travel so we were happy to deal with the lack of sleep. The early start also allowed us to spend nearly a full day sightseeing, sleep the night and then make another early (but not so early) start the next day to catch the train to Udine.
We had heard mixed things about Milan so we didn’t know what to expect. We were apprehensive upon our arrival but pleasantly surprised by the grand central station that greeted us. Since we aren’t keen shoppers there were not many items on our ‘things to do in Milan’ list. After catching the metro to our accommodation to drop off our bags we headed out to see the Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the Castello Sforzesco. It was for the best that we didn’t want to see a lot as Jase’s heel became really sore. After a sit down in the park we headed back to our hostel and called it a day.
We headed out for dinner and awesome gelati but the real adventure of the night didn’t begin until our apparently successful business man of a roommate returned to the hostel drunk. Thankfully I slept through this first part but Jase informs me that the man came in at about 11pm and then proceeded to drink, take tablets, listen to the same song repeatedly and cry – yes, cry. You can imagine Jase’s concern that this guy was going to kill himself, or worse, kill us then himself, so he went to tell the owners. They weren’t too interested in the matter and assured Jase that the man was a happy and successful banker who practically runs the banks. Like any hotshot banker spends his business trips sharing a room with backpackers in a one star hostel! Jase returned to the room, got his earplugs and saw a brief glimpse of sleep long after the drunk did.
Then it was my turn. One in the morning rolled around and I was awoken by the sound of choking and moaning. I think with our time in hostels we’ve become fairly tolerant of snoring, but this guy took snoring to a whole other level. For around an hour I lay in bed with the pillow over my head, wishing to go and smother it over the man’s face. Thankfully the earplugs were working for Jase, and I eventually got back to sleep. And in case you were wondering, Jase contemplated waking me up to give me earplugs too but thought it better to let me sleep… he is always looking out for me.
When it eventually came the time for us to get up we were pretty tired, but the image of my beautiful cousin Serena waiting at the train station kept us going.
The Lonely Planet guide says that you either love or hate Milan but I disagree. Sure, we hated our night’s sleep however perhaps because we didn’t fully explore all that Milan has to offer I’ve left the city feeling fairly indifferent to it all.
1 Day in Florence
0We only had two nights in Florence, and only one of the days were really useable – the day we arrived we made the 2.5km walk to our accommodation and finally had time to stop and think about the family we had just left, and today we had a train departing at 9:13am.
Nevertheless I think Florence was another very successful short visit. Yesterday we left our comfortable bed and breakfast and began our walk back to central Florence. From the centre everything was an easy walk away (for us anyway), and the warm weather meant we were able to walk through the city without jumpers, although the locals still managed to dress in more clothes than we did in Stockholm.
As with most cities, the major attractions come with an inflated entry fee, however we only had one day so there was no point. In fact our somewhat “frugal travel” is a lot of fun for the two of us as we usually end up seeing things that aren’t in the guidebooks and crowded by tourists.
While viewing the Orsammichele from the outside we saw many people paying to visit the church, yet when we walked around the corner we saw an entrance to a building across the road that offered free admission to a display on the second floor. We climbed the stairs, crossed the road via a walkway and entered the Orsammichele. Inside were numerous statues, all very impressive, not to mention the view that we also had of the Florence rooftops.
We made our way through the busy yet skinny streets, stopping frequently to see the famous sites along the way. The Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, Basilica di San Lorenzo, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, Ponte Vecchio and so on.
Finally we had made our way to Fiume Arno – a river that makes it’s way through Florence. We had been told that there was a good view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo, and we were not misled! With the sun shining we sat outside on a bench and watched the other tourists walk by for about an hour. At one stage a Japanese couple even arrived in a chauffeur driven Bentley for wedding photos in front of the view. Perhaps a little bit more of an extravagant honeymoon than us!
In the early afternoon we made our back to the centre via the scenic route. If anyone is ever looking for something to do in Florence I suggest walking along Viale Galileo Galilei. The road was one of the nicest we had seen, dotted with trees the entire length, and provided views of both city and “country” Florence, perhaps providing an insight of what country Tuscany would be like.
We returned to our accommodation via the supermarket, picked up some supplies and cooked dinner. Exhausted yet satisfied it was an early night, all packed and ready to leave in the morning.
Two days in Copenhagen
2We arrived in Copenhagen at 8am in the morning after catching an overnight bus from Stockholm. It was a new experience for the both of us and I personally found it fairly comfortable.
It was Valentines Day, and when we arrived it was snowing lightly. Thankfully it was quite still compared to Stockholm and while the temperature was cold (-3 degrees Celsius) it was a lot more comfortable.
We had a hotel room for the night staying at a place called Hotel Alexandra. Travelling as a couple often presents itself with advantages – in this case we were able to find a last minute hotel room for cheaper than two beds in a hostel dorm. We booked it the day before and tried our luck with an 8.30am check in. Luckily the room was free. Hotel Alexandra is located right near the Tivoli and for walkers like us it couldn’t be in a better location.
The benefit of a hotel room is that you have a bathroom to wash clothes in and more space to dry them. Sure, you get privacy too, but at this point in the trip we were banking on doing a fair bit of washing! After washing the clothes and having a quick freshen up we went for a walk to see what we could find. Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens.
They are a bit different to those back in Australia and the one we saw in Singapore. Although flowering plants are few and far between, the snow brings it’s own beauty to the gardens. There was also an excellent greenhouse which was the perfect place for us to thaw out. From here we walked throughout Copenhagen aimlessly. We didn’t have a lot on our list of objectives here so it was nice to take it easy for a change.
Valentines Day ended with us finding an “eat all you can” pizza place called The Astor. Anyone who knows us would have a good idea of how much pizza we ate, and all for 59DKK! We went back to our room and watched some TV together ready to call it a day.
The day after we walked over to Amalienborg Palace to watch the Changing of The Danish Royal Guard. It has been pretty cool watching this in a few different countries now. I’d say Denmark has had the most impressive so far. After freezing in the cold for about an hour, the guards were changed and we were off on our way to Kastellet.
Nearby was a statue of The Little Mermaid, named after the story by Hans Christien Andersen. Interestingly enough, Copenhagen seemed like a fairytale place. The gardens and the snow, the lights at night, and the music! I swear they had Disney music playing when the trains arrived at the station.
On top of all of this it was even more of a fairytale for me; pretty much everyone in Copenhagen is a cyclist. The infrastructure is amazing, and according to the owner of a local bike store “the drivers have to watch out for bikes”, not the opposite that applies in Australia.
Short and sweet once again, just like Athens. While you could spend some time here exploring the day to day life, we both had a great two day visit.
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