Time is definitely flying by now and I’ve fallen behind on updating the blog again. Honestly can’t believe it’s been almost two weeks since writing out the last one. So I’ll split the last two weeks into two posts, that way it won’t be such an effort to get through and hopefully easier for everyone that is actually going to suffer through reading it, I know they become pretty tedious.

Starting where I left off I just arrived into the village of Bwlch a little village near Brecon in the middle of Wales. After arriving at the hostel (again the only one) I dropped my things and organised what I was going to do for the next couple days. Considering I caught the bus from Cardiff I had a full days use out of my bus ticket as I bought an explorer pass for the day which worked out perfectly as I hopped back on the next bus and made my way to Hay on Wye. This was one of the places from the very beginning that I wanted to visit but seeing as it’s in the middle of Wales I thought it was going to be pretty impossible while having to rely on public transport. It’s a pretty awesome little town, famous for being the capital of second hand book stores. It has over 30 bookstores and I easily spent 3-4 hours just walking around exploring them all – shame I couldn’t buy any of course. It is more famous for the Hay-on-Wye literary festival that’s held every June which attracts over 80,000 people to the town – I could only imagine how insane it would get considering the size of the place.

The next day I had planned a 25km hiking circuit through the Brecon Beacons, of course it was pretty miserable weather still but couldn’t let that stop me. I was lucky enough for the hostel owner to offer me one of his rain jackets which turned out pretty vital considering how wet it got. I had been walking for just over two hours before I had to turn back the way I came, unfortunately the ground had become impossible to maneuver as it was absolutely flooded the closer I got to the lake. Saying that I had been walking for the last two hours in constant downpour trudging through what can only be described as bog, nothing like shoes full of freezing water. Therefore it was pretty disappointing having to turn around and head back the same way I came and not being able to finish the circuit properly. The problem with heading back was instead of trudging through the boggy ground uphill I was trying to make my way down, to put a long story short there were a few slippages. The first was the worst as I went straight up on a slippery rock and slipped ass up into the mud, no harm done but just when you think there is no possible way for your hands can get any colder or numb try plunging them in freezing cold mud, hurt like blazes. It was another half an hour from there back to the hostel from there and by that time I was pretty over the rain and cold so was just happy to get out of the dripping wet clothes and defrost before I lost a couple fingers haha. The rest of the afternoon I set out to make a plan and organise my movements for the next couple weeks before I fly to the Canary Islands as it is a lot more stressful I’ve found having no idea where you’ll be sleeping night to night.

I caught the bus to Abergavenny as it was the nearest place to Bwlch with a train station, from there I made my way to Birmingham where I was going to spend the weekend. Birmingham wasn’t originally on my go-to places but I am glad that I made the visit as I thought it was a pretty cool place. I arrived on opening of there Christmas festivities and there were people everywhere and streets closed off for the parade that was taking place – Santa was apparently going to turn the lights on at the end. I originally had no idea what was happening as I was just walking around after dropping my bags off and it was only around 3pm. It was then pretty obvious when they were setting up the barriers down the main streets and considering it’s dark by 4:30 everyone was waiting around for a good spot. It was a big hype for not much – the parade only lasted about 15 minutes but saying that it was a bit of fun and the lights looked great throughout the city. That’s another thing over here all the places I’ve visited since then have some pretty impressive Christmas decorations and lights throughout the cities. 

The next day I went out to explore the city by daylight minus the thousands of people to have to get through. I started the by going to the Library which was apparently a must see as it had just re-opened after undergoing 188million POUNDS worth of redevelopment. It was pretty impressive I must say and I’m a big fan of libraries I’m already regretting not seeking out more throughout my travels. So after a couple hours exploring that and sitting around the awesome lounges and study areas they have throughout I went out and found myself in the middle of the remembrance day service – I obviously was caught unawares since I was Naive to think it was 11/11 like in Australia but of course it is on the 10th over here. So I sat through that for the next hour until it finished and then made my way further through the city. There were a lot of people around the main streets setting up for the Christmas markets – unfortunately they weren’t going to be open while I was there. Birmingham is a lot like Bristol however they are massive on their retail, hundreds and hundreds of shops, all good if you like shopping or have money or better yet space to carry anything more. I then came across the pen museum! Laugh all you want but this was really awesome and I easily spent two hours going through it, I never knew before that Birmingham was the provider of 75% of all the worlds fountain pen nibs. The co-owner/founder of the museum is a collector and with his partners set up the museum with all their own collections as well as donations and on loan objects. They walked me through almost everything and I got to make my own nibs, it was all pretty interesting. That night was the beginning… Here I was saying I’ve been having dorm rooms to myself and I won’t even exaggerate the guy that I had stuck on the top bunk was the absolute worse snorer out of the six months I’ve been travelling with – to make it clearer think back to my worst night ever the dorm room full of bikies – this guy is on par. What makes it worse was he comes in at around 12:30 and wakes me up before he even goes to sleep and tries to have a conversation – to put I was in an even more unsociable mood then ever (I know hard to believe it possible). 5 minutes later he is snoring his head off, no sleep was had that night.  

It was a pretty big struggle the next morning to lug the bags for half an hour to the train station but was just happy to get away from the hostel by that stage. Arrived in Liverpool and it started pouring down with rain so I made my way to the museum where I spent the next couple hours – as tired and blase I have become with some of these museums this one was pretty interesting. They had a fantasy and magic exhibition on which was interesting and they had a pretty cool astronomy room on the top floor. After that I dropped in to look at the library which I liked even more than the Birmingam library solely for the reading room which was incredible and my ideal room. The rain finally eased up and I spent the rest of the day walking the whole city taking in all the tourist attractions before returning to the hostel, think I was asleep by 8! 

The next morning I had an early train to Conwy – back into Wales. It was about a 2 and a half hour journey each way but it was definitely worth it, walking along the city walls and visiting the castle it was a good day out. Returned back to the hostel and all thoughts of happiness quickly disappeared when I recognised the same bag as my own and the clown umbrella (It’s seriously some horror story) meaning only one thing. The guy from Birmingham was here, in Liverpool, the same hostel, the same dorm, I admit I was pretty dispirited at the thought of it mostly just for the sake of another sleepless night to come because it was easy enough to avoid him through the waking hours. It was as you could imagine another painful and frustrating night to endure, morning couldn’t come quick enough to move on to my next destination.

So that’s what has happened for one of the two weeks since my last post anyway, I’ll hopefully find time to update the rest in the next few days. For all those playing at home I fly to Canary Islands on Friday and then it’s only two weeks until I’m flying back home, like I said time is definitely flying but starting to get excited to head back home and seeing everyone now!

So I survived the massive storm with no harm or damage done and besides the delayed train to Bristol the next day it hardly bothered me. It has hardly stopped raining since though and I’m getting pretty tired of getting soaking wet every day. I also haven’t had any internet for almost a week in the hostels I’ve been staying in so that’s been incredibly frustrating when trying to organise transport and accommodation to the next destination and also the reason I haven’t updated the blog in over a week.

Awakening that morning in Bath the weather was a lot better than I was anticipating after the storm that hit through the night despite it being bitterly cold with a few showers the walk to the train station wasn’t unbearable. My train was delayed over an hour, a lot of other services had been cancelled altogether so it could have been worse. It was only a fifteen minute train ride as Bristol really isn’t very far away from Bath, however in that time the weather definitely started to worsen. The rain had well and truly settled in now and I wasn’t looking forward to the half an hour walk ahead of me to the hostel. I lasted about 10 minutes carrying my 20kg worth of bags in it before finding the nearest shelter, a subway where I ducked in dripping wet and had lunch to try wait it out. It had definitely settled in though so after about half an hour I couldn’t wait any longer and made my way out into it again. Luckily unlike most other occasions I didn’t get completely lost (well not for long anyway) so I made it to the hostel about 15 minutes later. Upon arrival I was told that I had to wait until 3 to check in so I was stuck sitting around the common room for a couple hours as I wasn’t overly enthused on the idea of exploring while it continued to pour down. It did eventually stop though but it was about 4:30 by this stage and almost completely dark, I ended up walking around exploring for a couple hours before getting dinner and returning back to the hostel. It’s very different to travelling Europe through summer there is hardly anyone staying at the hostels which is a bonus as I’ve had a 6-8 bed dorm room to myself for majority of the week but on the down side hardly meet anyone new while travelling. 

The next day I actually got to explore the city properly the only way I know how, by foot. I did of walking fortunately it was one of the only days I didn’t get caught out in the rain also. There wasn’t overly a lot to do I found and no major tourist attractions that I fancied but I did walk an hour or two out of the city to see the Clifton suspension bridge. It was pretty impressive and provided some nice views back over Bristol and it definitely pushed my fear of heights walking over and back on it. It was a loooong way down and the 80km winds probably didn’t help even though it would have been impossible to fall off haha. After that I made my way back to explore the rest of the city, from what I could tell Bristol is mostly a shopping district with hundreds of stores and since I’m not one for shopping it didn’t overly appeal to me.

The next day I made my was West to start my exploration into Cornwall starting at Plymouth. It was about a 4 hour train ride, unlike Bristol when I arrived I really did get lost trying to find the hostel I was staying in, I think I walked aimlessly for about an hour before I finally found where I was going. The problem in Cornwall I found is there were hardly any street signs what so ever which was makes it pretty difficult for people like myself with absolutely no sense of direction.

Eventually found it and by this stage I was well over carrying my bags and walking in circles (in the rain of course). I was welcomed to the hostel by the cleaner who informed me that the owner wasn’t in so I wouldn’t be able to check in until he got back so seeing there was nowhere to store my bags I had to sit around and wait for an hour or so. By the time I did get checked in and got a map it was around 3:30 and already starting to get dark outside seeing as I only had the one night here I made ventured out into the rain and covered as much of the city I could, I lasted until about 7 when it really started to come down.

It was then on to Newquay, a popular tourist destination mostly for surfers which there were plenty of despite the weather. For the first time since leaving bath I came across people my own age though and people staying in my dorm room another Australian that I got along with and a couple of teenagers on a surfing weekend. Besides surfing there really is nothing to do in Newquay, it was however Halloween and there were a lot of people dressed up and the hostel even put on a bit of a show.

The next day seeing as there was no way I was going surfing, I hopped on a bus and made it out to the Eden Project.  It was about an hour and a half trip out in to the middle of Cornwall. What is it you ask? It’s dominated by massive biome greenhouses that were built on an exhausted and abandoned clay pit, it now houses the worlds largest indoor tropical rainforest as well as millions of other plants from around the world. It was a pretty interesting way to spend a day albeit it being extremely overly priced. It was definitely something different walking out of a 10 degree rainy UK day and into a massive 22 degree rainforest with 99 percent humidity haha. It was actually pretty surreal walking around as you find yourself almost lost in this rainforest hardly realising the biome that surrounds it. It took about an hour to walk around it appreciate it fully and then it was out and into the next biome which houses hundreds of Mediterranean plants my favourite being all the chilli plants that they had growing.  

From Newquay I was back on the train and headed even further west to Penzance. There was only the one hostel here and it was about a 3km walk from the train station. I got checked in at the hostel around 1pm and had the room to myself again for the next two nights. I then made the walk back to seek out the information centre to figure out bus times to Lands end for the following day. Seeing as it was for a Sunday I was told there was only going to be a few buses running and worse the timetables were set to change and they wouldn’t know when they would be running until the next morning. So I decided that I’d just return early in the morning and made my way out and started on a 8km round trip along the coastal path towards a little town called Marazion to get some good views of St. Michaels Mount. Despite the wind it was a pretty enjoyable walk, that was until having to turn around and make the journey back. This is when the rain hit. It came from nowhere really just bucketed down and the wind picked up which made it even harder walking back into the teeth of it so It turned out to be a pretty hard walk back to the hostel.

Woke up early and made the walk back down to the bus station where I find out the new timetable, there wasn’t a bus running until 12:30 so I had a fair bit of time to kill in the meantime so got out of the blustery conditions and spent majority of it in a coffee shop. A bit of luck because of the change to the bus timetables the machines weren’t updated on the bus so I didn’t have to pay for the trip. The trip out there was just over an hour and the whole time you could see that the weather was worsening, by the time I hopped off it was well and truly pouring down again. Obviously not the most ideal conditions to be visiting Lands End, turns out I was about one of three people stupid enough to visit on the day haha. I didn’t come all the way to the West of England not to see it though so I gritted my teeth and bared the full force of it for about an hour as I walked along the cliff faces, not quite the Cliffs of Mohar but still pretty cool. The weather continued to worsen however and I had to get out before I got blown off the edge. I found out that there was only going to be one more bus returning that would take me back to Penzance and it would arrive around 4:08. I was also advised that I should get out and wait at the bus stop which was about 500 metres past the car park with absolutely no shelter. Like hell I was going to do that. It was absolutely bucketing down with massive winds off the sea so I decided to wait the shelter of the entrance, didn’t protect from the wind or the cold but at least I wasn’t in the rain, the plan was to wait until I saw the headlights of the bus coming down the road and then I’d make a run for it before it got to the bus stop. I ended up having to wait for just over an hour waiting like that as there was absolutely no way that I was going to miss it otherwise I’d be in a whole world of strife. Got back into Penzance and the rain was still coming down strong, I pretty much ran the entire way back to the hostel except where I almost had to swim in places that the roads had flooded.

The next morning I boarded a train and made my way on a 5 and a half hour journey to Cardiff. Again I was welcomed to a near empty hostel and had the 7 bed dorm room to myself, after checking in and obtaining a map I did the usual walk around the city trip and made a plan for the following day. I also stopped in to the information centre as for this part of the journey it really started to become more difficult as I had no plans and no idea where I could travel to next after Cardiff. The people at the information centre were extremely nice and went out of there way to help me but unfortunately they couldn’t advise me on anything that I hadn’t found out myself besides suggesting some possible day trips from Cardiff. The problem being having to rely solely on public transport there is no way that I can get to places that can offer affordable accommodation. I would love nothing more then being able to hire a car and spend a week exploring but unfortunately that is also near impossible while being under 25. So I left with no clearer notion as to where I was heading or what I could hope to see during my time in Wales. I ended up looking through the pamphlets and making a decision that night on what I was going to do as it becomes pretty daunting when you have no idea where to go next.

I woke up and decided that I’d book another night in Cardiff which wasn’t a problem as they obviously weren’t going to be booked out. I then went out and did the touristy things starting with the castle, I spent about two hours there but in my opinion it was another over priced attraction that wasn’t overly impressive. I walked around the parks where I enjoyed what you would call an almost nice Autumn day, anything that isn’t constant rain I’m considering as nice even though I’m in four layers of clothing haha. It was also the fifth of November (remember remember the fifth of November) so when I arrived back to hostel there were all kind of people floating around in Guy Fawkes masks. I ended up finding a place where I could get some internet access for half an hour so I booked a couple nights accommodation in a little village near Brecon called Bwlch (pronounced Boolkh). I was originally planning on spending three nights but seeing as buses don’t run on a Sunday that ruined that plan pretty quickly. I was again stuck with the dilemma of having no where to go afterwards as no buses would take me further North to anywhere that I could find accommodation. So I had to make the decision to head back out of Wales which is a shame seeing as there is so much that I wanted to explore. Just means that I’ll have to return next time with my own means of transport and at a better time of the year!

The next day I made a day trip into Pembrokeshire on the west coast of Wales at a picturesque coastal town called Tenby. Unfortunately my luck with the weather was short lived and although still a lovely spot it was again one of the most miserable days with the rain well and truly set in for the entire day. Seeing that it was over a 5 hour return trip though I was going to make the most of it and despite being freezing, wet and one of the only crazy people outside. I walked around exploring the town admiring the colourful houses (reminded me of Cinque Terre in Italy), the rugged cliffs along the coastline, the castle, the fortified wall that still surrounds part of the town as well as the fort itself situated on a small little island in the sea. So despite the miserable weather it wasn’t a bad day and I spent the next couple of hours with the rest of the town sitting around a coffee shop out of the worst of it until I needed to catch my return train.

On another note I know this blog has been pretty long and tedious enough but thought I’d continue and just update everyone that is still following and interested in my movements. Upon a lot of consideration I’ve made up my mind and have decided that I’m heading back home in December. The whole reason I wanted to stay over here in the first place was to have a base to keep travelling, after seeing the work conditions and the cost of living however I can’t justify staying. Considering how much I’ve been able to see and do in the last six months it’s a pretty easy decision and makes you realise just how good we have it back home. So it’ll be back to work and saving to fund my next adventure which at this stage will be a trip around the country I love most, Australia! The problem now is I come back with a list bigger than when I left.. New Zealand, South America, Canada, Eastern Europe and here I was thinking I would be immune to the travel bug but after getting over the first few hurdles of the journey I definitely caught it. So after travelling for what will have been almost 7 months. It’s seen me travel travel through some of the most amazing places in the world from the Swiss Alps to the Amalfi coast, the Colloseum to the Eiffel tower, 16 countries, countless hostels and hundreds of people met along the way. I still have a whole lot of travelling to do in the next month as I continue making my way north through the UK and I’ll even be returning to Spain at the end of November! The Canary Islands anyway but I’ll be sure to keep you all updated and until the next blog I hope everyone is doing well and I absolutely can’t wait to see everybody when I get back.

One week back into travelling now and despite the weather it has definitely been the right decision! So I arrived in Brighton around 3pm in the afternoon after a two hour bus ride. I won’t bore you all with the details of the weather from now as after the last week I can’t see it being anything but cold and wet and even on the verge of the worst storm in decades (apparently). My hostel in Bath was in a prime location, only a two hundred metre walk to the famous pier and the bus stop was right on the doorstep which was an added bonus. Having checked in and going up to the dorm I was welcomed by another Australian, no surprises there. I haven’t been to one place in the last six months where I haven’t met another fellow Aussie pretty unbelievable when you think the country only has a population of 23 Million there must atleast another half of that over here! She had only just finished her travels herself and was in the same position I was, giving up on trying to live in London and instead try find a place to live and work there in Brighton. The other people staying in my dorm spoke little or no English so didn’t get much out of them besides a Spanish couple that had were also moving to Brighton to improve their English. 

So that first night I went out and started to explore Brighton, starting of course with the Pier. It’s a probably Brighton’s most famous attraction as it is an all year round carnival of sideshows, rides and arcades stretching along the 500 metre pier. It was a pretty cool place to walk around and to see and hear the waves crashing into the stone beach just added to it. After that I went and walked around the lanes for a while before stopping and finding a place for dinner, it’s definitely more expensive to eat here in the UK than what I was used to in Europe. It was a struggle getting back into hostel living that night to put it simply the location was the only good thing going for that hostel the rest was an absolute nightmare. 

Next morning I decided to do the rest of the touristy things starting with the Royal Pavilion, a good excuse to get out the rain also. It was pretty impressive I’ll give it that, an Indian themed palace on the outside and Chinese inspired decor within. Couldn’t take any pictures inside but I must say the dining room was by far the most spectacular room of the whole place, having gone through the entrance and the hallway with an “eh this is alright” attitude to come across that it definitely hits you, which was obviously the intention. The one tonne chandelier is the stand out of the room and my favourite especially the eight foot dragon that held the whole thing up in it’s claws. I was in there exploring for a couple hours and even made a stop in the tea room to refresh before finishing up going through the remainder of the rooms. After that I did some explored more of Brighton starting in North Laine where there were a lot of old antique shops to wander through before coming back down through the Lanes and back to the hostel.

You definitely don’t need three days in Brighton as like any small town as a tourist there isn’t much to do after doing all the main attractions, but I had booked three nights as I had purchased tickets to attend my first ever theatre show! It was absolutely brilliant, a three man show of P.G Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense. It was definitely fortunate timing that I was there at that time, it was a show that I’m glad I didn’t miss while over and it’s also the first ever Jeeves show to make it to West End. 

The next morning it was a half a 20 minute walk from the hostel to the train station where I was to catch the train to my next stop, Salisbury. The problem that I’m finding now that I’m back in the UK is that I am very limited to the places that I’m going to be able to visit because of the lack of hostels. I would love to be able to have access to a car and travel on my own terms but obviously it’s not affordable being under 25 and seeing as it’s costing me $30-50 a night to share a room with 10 other people at the moment B&B’s and hotels are definitely not an option for a solo traveller. It took a couple of hours on the train with a stop over and then another half an hour walk to the only hostel in Salisbury – another thing that I’m going to have to get used to is the long walks to get to them (usually in the rain). 

Salisbury is a nice pretty little town also, mostly made up of shops and not a whole heap to do but I stopped here for the main reason to make a trip out to Stonehenge. So the afternoon that I had there on arriving I spent wondering around and visiting the cathedral which was impressive, but the amount of churches and cathedrals that I’ve visited throughout my travels they have definitely become a bit blase. 

The next morning I waited at the bus stop for the train that would take us out to Stonehenge, it was pretty expensive as all the tourist attractions are here but definitely worth it of course. Again it was one of those places that are just so incredible and pretty surreal when first face to face with it and it’s not until late upon reflection that you really come to appreciate places like that. After Stonehenge the bus took us around Old Sarum where I also had the opportunity to get off and walk around and explore the remains of the old castle.

The next day I was back on a train and headed for Bath. Instantly on arrival I was impressed, it’s such an awesome place the architecture is amazing. The first afternoon I went about just exploring around the city, starting with the main streets I could not believe the amount of people, definitely wasn’t expecting there to be so many people walking around this time of the year. I then went and walked around and saw the circus and the royal crescent admiring the incredible semicircular Georgian buildings. By that stage I was wet, cold and hungry so headed back to the hostel for dinner and to start trying to make a plan for where I’m going to be able to travel and stay next.

That brings me to today. It has been a pretty full on day, I awoke to find that the clocks had changed. I had absolutely no idea this was going to happen so for most of the day I had no clue what the time actually was. It is now ten and a half hours time difference to back home. So I went and got breakfast at my favourite cafe that I had made the day before and had a really nice takeaway English Breakfast in a baguette (without the beans haha). I then made my way straight to the baths, it was again another really great place to visit and spent hours just walking around seeing and listening to the audio guide that was provided. You end up finishing in the pump room where you have the option to actually drink some of the hot spa water. It has 43 different minerals in it and yes I did try it and yes it did taste like warm dirty bath water. After the baths I made my way back to my cafe for some lunch – stay to where you know I say – and then made my way on a long hike to Prior Park. It was about a 40 minute walk from bath and up a steep hill and about 10 minutes in the rain really started to come down, by the time I made it to the entrance it was well and truly pouring. I didn’t realise you actually had to pay to get in and was called up as I walked past by a friendly guy who gave me an umbrella and made me pay seven pounds for entry and tried very hard to convince me to pay 30 to join the national trust. Wish I’d done that when I arrived the amount of money I’ve spent on getting into these national trust places!! It was a nice walk around the gardens however and I got to see and walk over one of only four Palladian bridges in the world. 

As for tomorrow I have bought a ticket and have planned on going to Bristol tomorrow but that is going to depend on transport now as they are already talking about all train lines being closed down due to this storm. Bristol really isn’t that far away from Bath so hopefully the train will run or a bus otherwise looks like I’ll be in bath another night but will update you all again in my next post. 

So a quick update for everyone. I received a response on Friday regarding the golf retail sales position that I mentioned in my last post, unfortunately I didn’t get it. Obviously extremely disappointed as I was really hoping I’d get it, I’m also pretty dispirited with the whole job hunt altogether after having the last three weeks lead to nothing. So I am done sitting around hoping for something to happen, as of tomorrow I’ll be hitting the road to begin travelling again. I will be travelling around England beginning the journey down South in Brighton and making my way west. It’s going to be an exciting journey with no set direction or plan, a bit like when I first started nearly six months ago, travelling completely on a whim. Perhaps I’ll make some contacts and find work along the way or perhaps I won’t. Either way I would much rather be travelling meeting people, exploring and experiencing new things than wasting the rest of my time and savings sitting around waiting for something to happen. I’ll be sure to post more regularly than I have been for those who are still interested. 

Ps. Hope everyone back home is well and healthy also that you’re all enjoying the sun and warmth because it has well and truly left this part of the world! 

So the last stop off in Europe and the end of the dour and a half months of backpacking came to an end here in Paris. It was an extremely long bus ride leaving at 8am from San Sebastian and not arriving into Paris until 10pm. Was glad to get off the bus to say the least and get checked into the hostel. I didn’t get up to anything as I was pretty spent from the long ride so went up to my dorm and made a plan for what I was going to do over the next three days I had in Paris. 

Woke up to find atleast the weather had improved and the sun was shining again, being the third time in Paris it was good to actually have the chance to be able to start doing some touristy things and start exploring the city. So I made my way to the nearest metro station only a five minute walk from the hostel and made my way to my first stop the Notre Dame. I walked around here for a couple hours admiring all the amazing buildings and iconic buildings, I made way way to the Latin Quarter where I found the famous Shakespeare and co bookshop which was pretty awesome also. I did a lot of walking this day heading from the Latin quarter on to the Louvre which was pretty surreal seeing in person for the first time. From there I walked through the gardens, past the fountains and obelisks and towards the L’Arc De Triomphe. It was pretty incredible standing there looking at it for about 15 minutes more so just to see the insane 8 lane round about surrounding it and the poor drivers that had absolutely no idea what they were doing and how to get out haha, apparently there is an accident on it every fifteen minutes which seriously doesn’t surprise me after seeing it. I then headed to the one and only Eiffel Tower. Again it was pretty surreal standing in front of one of the biggest landmarks and tourist attractions in the world, I sat on the grass for about half an hour while I waited to meet up with Mike’s Bikes tour guide as I had purchased a night time bike tour around Paris. The bike tour started at 7 and went four around four hours as we made our way around the city, a lot of the places I had visited and seen during the day but was pretty awesome riding around seeing Paris all lit up at night. The bike tour also included an hour cruise on the canal around Paris which gave some pretty spectacular views of the Eiffel Tower. I was lucky enough to get a t-shirt after the tour for volunteering to be the “assman” and sticking at the back of the group the whole time so that no one got lost or left behind. Was a good way to get a souvenir after all the bike tours that I went on throughout Europe. We went out for a late night dinner afterwards before having to catch the metro back before it stopped running as I didn’t much like the idea of being lost that time of night in Paris. 

The next morning I decided that I would spend the day at the Louvre so after finding somewhere for a truly awful coffee I made my way back through the metro. I don’t know what all the hype about massive lines are all about, I lined up for about 5 minutes and got through the pyramid entrance and straight in. It’s hard to even describe how overwhelming the Louvre actually is, I spent four and a half hours exploring and didn’t even make it to the top floor. You could truly spend weeks in there and still not appreciate everything. The Egyptian artifacts were by far my favourite part of the Museum and spent majority of my time looking over that section, unfortunately the Roman section of the museum was closed so again just another reason for me to return at some stage. I was pretty mentally drained and physically drained after walking through a museum for the better part of a day so I made my way back out and decided to find somewhere to have dinner. I headed back to the Latin Quarter where I found a nice restaurant where I could have a sample of some snails as I obviously couldn’t leave Paris without saying I had them. They were pretty nice though since they are pretty much soaked in garlic butter so as long as you can deal with the texture and having to dig them out you’re fine. 

The next day I made my way back to Notre Dame to line up to get inside, probably a shame it was what felt like the thousandth church or cathedral I visited in Europe but saying that it was still impressive. After walking around inside I decided that I wanted to climb it so I had to find out where to go for that which turned out to be an entrance back outside and around the corner. The fifteen minute line that I stood in was nothing compared to the two hour line up I was stuck in to actually climb it. It is pretty dull standing in line for that long but thankfully I don’t go anywhere without my kindle. It was worth it though and glad that I went up as the views from the top were pretty incredible and to see all the gargoyles up close was pretty cool as well. After making my way down I decided I’d return to the Latin quarter to find something for lunch before some guy stepped on the back of my thong which completely broke it beyond repair. Now this leads to a bit of a conundrum, what do you do when you are left with only one thong in the middle of Paris. It was extremely inconvenient as I had to make it all the way back to my hostel just to get some shoes which by this time it was late afternoon so I ended up having dinner at the hostel with some people from busabout and a pretty quiet night getting all packed up and ready for the bus back to London the next day. 

The next morning I awoke to the realisation that after four months of travelling meeting new people, seeing and experiencing something new everyday that it has all come to an end. It was definitely mixed feelings as it felt like it absolutely flew but by this stage I was pretty exhausted and over living out of a backpack, the long bus rides, the same conversations on a daily basis and just the non stop go that is travelling. Saying that the drama didn’t stop, I caught the metro out to Porte Maillot where I was going to catch a bus back to London from, the only problem being I had absolutely no idea where the coach park was. Luckily I left myself with an hour to spare before the bus actually left, I continued my best to speak in French and get the help by absolutely anyone that would give me the time of day but nobody knew at all what coach park I was referring to and kept pointing me in the direction to the buses going to the airport. Finally I found it, just a car park with a couple buses parked in it including the one I was catching to London, bur no still couldn’t catch a break apparently the booking reference number I had wasn’t the one they needed. Having no internet or means to bring up the e-mail the driver decided to be nice enough and put a call through to confirm I actually was booked on to the bus. So with relief I jumped on the bus and prepared myself for another long day stuck on a coach to head back to London and face reality and begin the hunt for a job. The relief didn’t last long however when we stopped at our first passport checkpoint, my passport hadn’t been stamped coming into Europe so I was getting a horrible feeling that I was going to be asked a lot of questions, thankfully it all went well however and with another two stamps in the passport I was back in the UK.

And that brings me to right now. I have been staying in London thanks to the incredible generosity and hospitality of Sarah and her family for the last 3 weeks. It has been extremely dispiriting being on the job hunt applying to hundreds of jobs and getting nowhere and hearing nothing. I had a couple interviews that turned out to be direct sales positions, door knocking or trying to sell things to people as they go about their business in shops working in performance based positions. But I know that nobody hates those people more than I do and I know that I could never be working in a position like that. So I now find myself in an extremely tough situation, I had a promising interview on Monday at a golf course in Surrey for a retail position in a massive golf superstore. I won’t hear back whether I get it or not until the end of the week however which means I can’t make a decision on what I am to do. Whether I do get the job or not I need to make a move as I have well and truly overstayed my welcome and need to start making decisions on where to go next. Because of the expenses of living in London (paying 30-50 dollars a night for a 12-24 shared dorm) hostels I am considering starting to travel around the UK a bit. Visit some places like Bath, Brighton, Cornwall before the weather gets even worse before I waste all my remaining savings trying to pay for cost of living without a source of income. It’s a pretty hard situation I find myself in because if I’m not able to find a job soon I’ll have to seriously consider coming back home which would be pretty disappointing not being able to have the chance to use the working visa I can only get the once. Never did I expect it to be as hard as it’s turning out to get a position I have started applying for everything from bar work to retail but have had next to nothing in ways of responses. So all fingers crossed to hear good news this week for this position that would be absolutely perfect for me in a place that I’d really enjoy and be able to get settled in to. 

I apologise to everybody that has been following my blog and has been awaiting the last remaining posts of my adventures. So I’ll try to finally update and finish off and start from where I left off which was in Madrid..

I was up and ready for the bus to leave at 8am only to find it was still dark and extremely cold outside. I was beginning to wonder if I woke up two hours early or something but no just an ominous sign that summer was well and truly ending and winter was on it’s way. It was a pretty long bus ride to get into San Sebastian with a stop in Pampalona where only one person was making the stop over. When we did finally arrive we were welcome to cold, wet and overcast conditions which was a bit unfortunate as I had the next five nights staying here with the hopes of sunshine, and some relaxing on the beaches. It was a twenty minute walk to the hostel I was staying in from where the bus dropped us off as I was told the recommended hostel was apparently one of the worst ones people stayed in throughout Europe. My hostel however was an old Spanish man’s house that he had transformed into a hostel. I was welcomed by the man himself as he actually still lives in the house with all his guests, he didn’t speak a word of English so that was pretty interesting also, after about 20 minutes of getting checked in and having him explain everything as best he could for me to understand I was left alone. Thankfully there were a couple others from busabout that stayed in the hostel with me so it ended up to be a pretty good spot and we got pretty well looked after with clean towels and freshly made beds every day.

That first night we went and met back up with our busabout guide and majority of the group that travelled to San Sebastian and went out on a Tapas Crawl. We started out at a tapas bar called Atari which turned out to be one of the best of all the places we visited, there actually wasn’t a day we didn’t return as the food and atmosphere was so good. We continued on the crawl though and went to another tapas bar where we had miniature hamburgers which were pretty good also but extremely expensive for what you got haha. The last tapas bar we visited was one of the most interesting of them all it was an extremely fast paced seafood tapas bar. You go up and order and the waiter yells something over everyone and within five minutes you are served with your meal. I had salt and pepper squid and patatas bravas which was pretty excessive after everything I already had but it was all really good food, it was definitely all living up to the reputation San Sebastian has with its cuisine. When eating in this and some other tapas bars you are expected to just drop your plates, napkins, everything on the ground afterwards as apparently a sign of respect but I’d say it’s just to get people straight in and on the table you just left. 

The next day we awoke to more cold and rain, definitely not beach weather. I went and met up with some busabout people from the night before and found somewhere for breakfast and made a plan for the day. We ended up walking to the one hundred year old funicular, it wasn’t overly fun. It did however take us up to one of the best lookout over San Sebastian which was pretty incredible and better yet up to an abandoned theme park. It was a pretty awesome place I could only imagine how much fun it would be if everything worked and was open as it is the absolute perfect location. It did have some pretty old dodgy things that you could still do though, I put a euro in to go on one of those attractions where you swing the hammer and try get the high score. I did end up getting it to the top though and some bells and lights still worked but I didn’t get a big plush toy for my efforts only a cut finger and probably tetanus from the chain attached to the hammer. We then continued to walk around the park some more and came across a massive holly tree which I think would be the first living one I’d ever seen and it even had red berries which apparently signifies a cold winter. Then it began to rain and put a dampening on the fun and attraction the theme park had so we made our way back down the funicular and decided the next plan of attack. We ended up going out for lunch at a really cheap and awesome sandwich bar that served Carolina’s (massive full chicken schnitzels with salad and aioli). Afterwards we went back to the hostel, dried off and got ready to go out for dinner again out at Atari. 

The next day rain again was threatening so we went out for coffee again and decided what the plan was going to be as obviously relaxing on the beach was out of the question. We ended up going and spending most the day at the aquarium which was a bit of fun, not quite as impressive as the one at Valencia but still worth the admission. Afterwards we went to a patisserie where I got a massive meringue like cake that was way to sweet to finish and ended up having some really weird guy that was hovering around ask if he could have it when we got up to leave. Who am I to say no but wasn’t going to stay around for the waiters to come see this guy take our seats eating left overs haha.. 

The fourth day was probably the worst weather of them all so we ended up going to the museum as we were told that it was going to be free. Even though it was free I still feel we got ripped off, really didn’t understand what was going on in there and the audio guides we were given were useless and didn’t match up with anything. It was a lot like the weird art museum in Madrid just more frustrating then anything weird “art” that makes no sense what so ever. So we left the museum and made our way out to Atari for lunch where we ended up staying for the entire day eating and playing cards until dinner time when we met up with a lot of other people.

The last day that I had in San Sebastian was again pretty cold we were pretty unlucky to get the cold and wet weather for the entire time. We walked around the city seeing some of the stuff we hadn’t gone and seen already including the “surf” beach where we sat and watched crazy people trying to surf for a while. There was some guy making a really cool sand sculpture there though who deserved some recognition for the work he put into it, After that we went to the spa’s which was turned out to be a really awesome idea as we had two hours where we could go into a spa resort with 5 different pools/spa’s, saunas, water beds, pool gyms you name it. Was a pretty relaxing way to spend an afternoon that’s for sure, afterwards we headed back to pack our bags in preperation for the bus that left for Paris the next morning.

We woke and checked out of the hostel by quarter past 7 to make sure we made it to the busabout hostel in time to meet the guide. Of course it was raining and a 20 minute walk, wearing thongs was definitely not the smartest move as the ground was extremely wet and slippery and almost had some close calls, wouldn’t be fun stacking it with 20kg of backpack. It was another 15 minute walk on top of that because the bus driver parked the bus so far away from the hostel so that was incredibly annoying. Eventually got on the bus though completely wet but happy to get the bags off and on the bus ready for the 13+ hour journey that was ahead of us to get into Paris. 

The bus arrived into Valencia around 2pm and it took about an hour more to get everyone checked into the hostel as there was only one girl working behind the counter. I just waited and sat around for an hour happy enough to be checked in last as I wasn’t in any rush to be doing anything. Eventually got checked in and stored my bags in the dorm and then looked over the map of the city and decided where to start exploring. Valencia is another impressive city (aren’t they all) mostly for the architecture of the buildings which are pretty incredible. I spent about three hours walking the city until I started getting incredibly hungry so made it my mission to seek out the popular food markets and get some more Paella as it originated from here. After getting lost (yes I still get lost – often) and walking in circles for a while I finally found it only to find it closed – apparently it closes at 3pm so I was only about 4 hours late. So I headed back towards the hostel and found a place to eat along the way. When I arrived back to the hostel I was welcomed to two others sharing the dorm – two guys that had just arrived and about to start studying here in Valencia. One of them was from Turkey and he offered me some Turkish Delight that he had brought with him so that was pretty awesome and delicious a bit different to our good old fry’s Turkish delight.

The next morning I decided to find a place to hire a bike and ride through the massive park surrounding the city towards the Oceanografic – the largest aquarium in Europe. I locked the bike up bought a ticket and spent the next three or so hours walking and exploring all the marine life from around the world. It was really incredible and much more enjoyable than the zoo I visited earlier in the trip, walking through buildings connected by underwater tunnels. I also saw the dolphin show which went for forty five minutes demonstrating just how amazing an animal they are and how smart and well trained they can be. By this time it was 4:30 and I had to make it to the Hemisferic – the largest
hall in Spain to contain three systems projecting onto a concave screen of 900 square metres. It was only when I got back to the entrance that I realised that it was a building about 1.5km from the aquarium so I had to jump on the bike and race to it – having found it the next obstacle was tying to find somewhere to lock the bike up as I didn’t particularly like the idea of losing the bike seeing as I had a 50 euro deposit on it. I was directed to a car pack and found the nearest bar to lock it on to and then raced back just in time to make it into the cinema. It was a documentary on coral reefs and how important they are to protect and how we are destroying them and just how detrimental it is for the ecosystem. Afterwards I returned thankfully to find the bike still there and started the ride back into Valencia through the park. Along the way a came across a group of people participating in LARP (which I found out to mean Live Action Role-Playing), it was pretty funny and interesting to watch all these people dressed up and fighting with foam swords, shields, maces, flails, mauls etc. It was getting towards 7 by this stage so I had to get a hurry on and get the bike back before the store closed at 8.

The next day it was back on the bus again for another pretty long bus trip on to Madrid. It arrived at 7 and again it was another long wait to get checked in with majority of the bus staying at the drop off. This hostel was pretty impressive with a very large common room, actual swings through the corridors for something different and what I’d like to call suicide bunk beds as the top bunk is about 4 meters high with no railing – guess what one I got. I could only get one night booked in at this hostel however so I had the next two nights booked in another hostel around the corner (so as that I wasn’t too far away for the bus pick up). I didn’t get up to heaps that night seeing it was already 8:30 by the time we had settled into the dorms so I just went out for tea enjoying more tapas and a steak sandwich (disgraceful to Australian standards).

The next day I woke had the free breakfast (awful), checked out and then walked over and checked into my other hostel. Thankfully the internet here was good enough and I was able to sit and watch the Port vs Geelong game live and what a game even if we didn’t get up, really proud of what they were able to achieve this year. So after that I made my way out to find the nearest hairdresser as it was past time for a haircut. This was definitely another experience as not one of the staff talked any English. Sitting down and the lady pull the clippers out and point to the sides was just the beginning – no I didn’t want a European soccer haircut thanks. So I shook my head and motioned out the scissors. Didn’t end up too bad after that she did her own thing as obviously she wouldn’t understand anything I said anyway. So after the haircut I got the map out and made my way exploring the city. I made my way down past more incredible buildings and streets before coming across “Mercado De San Miguel” a really cool tapas market. It had a dozen or so tapas bars serving all different kinds of foods and drinks albeit pretty expensive – not the best idea going to a tapas bar if starving. Afterwards I made my way back through the big squares and busy main streets of Madrid for a few more hours before retiring back to the hostel.

For the last day I spent in Madrid I made my way to the massive 350 acre Retiro Park. I spent most of the day walking around and exploring it was pretty incredible with a lot of beautiful gardens, statues and a big lake in the middle where people again were on paddle boats. There was also a large glass palace and an extremely weird “art” museum which I seriously just didn’t get, can’t say that I’m a big a fan of contemporary art. After feeling confused and frustrated with what I had just experienced I made my way back through the rest of the park towards where I entered. The rest of the afternoon I spent exploring more of the city that I didn’t come across the day before before stopping for dinner and a really awesome frozen yogurt store. I got back to the hostel and again faced the dreaded packing of the bag, can’t express enough how bad it is living out of a backpack after this long haha..

Another early morning to get up and ready for the 8am bus to Barcelona. I was sitting at breakfast where again the fire alarm went off – pretty thankful that I wasn’t still trying to sleep as wouldn’t be happy to be woken twice to it. It was an extremely long day as the bus trip was 11 hours long as we didn’t arrive into Barcelona until around 7pm. We had a stop off in Avignon and I immediately regretted not stopping off there as it looked like a really great place to get off – very medieval like. Not to mention the antique market that was underway where the bus dropped us off – those who were travelling on to Barcelona had 45 minutes break here to get food and explore a little. I didn’t waste time with looking for food but instead spent the entire time walking through this market looking at all the antiques – Dad you would have been in heaven, 45 minutes was no where near enough not to mention I couldn’t even get anything. Another massive downfall of being on the bus all day was obviously missing the Power game so it wasn’t until the last service stop that I could find out the score which I wasn’t originally going to do as I wanted to find a replay, but I couldn’t not know so was obviously ecstatic when finding out we got up – extremely proud of them and how far they’ve come this year.

When we eventually did make it to Barcelona we dropped our bags off and settled in the hostel getting to know each other and then went out exploring for somewhere for dinner. We came across a small tapas bar which seemed pretty busy so went in and had to wait for 10 minutes for a table so gave us a chance to order and taste some Sangria – while in Spain right. The dinner was pretty good but expensive for the amount we were given. I had an entree tapas of fried calamari and a main of beef skewers with balsmati rice. We didn’t get up to much else for the rest of that night as we were all pretty run down from the bus ride so we just got gelati (think I’m addicted) and headed back to the hostel.

The next morning I went off on my own to do my usual exploration of the city. I started along the coast and passed the Christopher Columbus monument and on to another small antique market (nothing compared to the one in Avignon) and kept walking until I arrived at one of the parks. I must admit the parks through Europe are always interesting to walk through as there is always something happening when going through them. This park had a small lake where people could paddle around in small row boats, nice gardens and a massive fountain, not quite Trevi Fountain but still really impressive. From there I made my way towards the old city and admired all the old gothic architecture and a lot of street performers. I kept walking with no real direction and came across a big outdoor book festival, still have no idea what it was all about as everything was all in Spanish but was interesting none the less. Then I came across another fountain which was infested by hundreds of pigeons and I am not exaggerating it was disgusting and the worst of it was people seemed to actually enjoy them as if pigeons were actually an attraction. By this stage it was getting later into the afternoon so I headed back to the hostel and met up with the people I had met the previous day. We organised to go out for dinner again after some recommendations from the hostel we headed out and found a really amazing restaurant where I had one of the best meals of my travels. Firstly we ordered an 8 course tapas menu to share between the three of us which consisted of lots of seafood (prawns, calamari, mussels and clams), meats, patatas bravas and lots of bread. That alone almost filled us up but then came the main course which was a “Fideua con allioli en cazuela” which translated into seafood in noodles with garlic and aioli sauce.

The next day I went on an all day bike tour that took us all the way through and around the city covering a lot of the history and tourist highlights Barcelona had to offer. It was a really interesting and great way to experience the city and like I’ve said previously I’m a big advocate for the walking and bike tours as it is definitely the best way to see and learn about the cities. After the bike tour ended I headed back to the hostel where I only had a couple hours of rest before getting ready and heading to the other activity that I booked which was the “Spanish Cooking Class”. For 19 Euro this was one of the best activities and well worth the money. We met the travel bar which was about a 15 minute walk from the hostel where we met the guide, from there we went straight to the food markets to buy the fresh ingredients for the cooking lesson. This was another really amazing food market, I only wish I’d found in the previous couple days that I was in Barcelona. Our guide advised us on the best produce to buy and what to look for when buying the seafood and after getting a whole lot of mussels and prawns we headed on our way to the next destination where the cooking could begin. To begin with we were give Sangria and Tapas appetisers including the most incredible patatas bravas which was piled on an omelette like dish with green peppers – I couldn’t stop it was so good and was pretty much full on this alone before the cooking of the Paella even started. Then our guide comes out with the biggest frying pan you will ever see and the lesson began. 45 minutes or so later it was all cooked and ready to feed around twenty of us – we didn’t even get close to eating even half of it between us all even though how delicious it was. After we had eaten we were taught how to make our own sangria which we enjoyed before the tour came to an end. It was then back to the hotel to face the worst thing about travelling – trying to pack everything up again ready to jump on the bus the next morning.

So I leave Florence another 8am start and leave for Cinque Terre where I am to spend the next four nights. We have an hour and a half stop off in Pisa for everyone to get there photo’s and walk around – no I did not conform with the rest of the world and get a cliche photo of me pushing over, leaning against or holding up the tower. It was a pretty cool place to stop over for a photo though and another thing that I can say I’ve seen at least. From there it was only another hour and a half to get to Cinque Terre. We had to catch a train to the first of the five villages of Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore) which was only an eight minute trip. There were around 15 of us staying with this hostel and I was one of the lucky ones that were put into one of the apartments down the bottom of the village, half the others had to hike up about 300 steps with bags and suitcases to get to there own.
I met a really great group of people while here and the first thing we did was head down to the marina and go for a swim and cool off and plan what to do for the remainder of the day. We ended up getting a picnic dinner which we took back down on the waterfront to watch the sunset and treated to some really awesome acoustic music from Mark who had just bought a new guitar whilst in Rome. Was a pretty good way to start my time in Cinque Terre.

The second day we caught the train to the last village (Monterosso), which was the only one with a sand beach. We bought goggles as soon as we got off the train which seemed an awesome idea seeing as the next few weeks I’d have lots of opportunities to use them. Within the first dive under I was questioning the decision after diving in and seeing  jellyfish absolutely everywhere – perhaps it’s better not to see! The jellyfish were only small close to shore however and everyone was swimming without any trouble. That was until I swam further out though and got stung pretty badly – it’s been a pretty long time since I got stung by a jellyfish but this was extremely painful, the Pelagia Noctiluca jellyfish which is the species here do have one of the most painful stings apparently. We had lunch before heading back to our own village to hire kayaks. We kayaked for an hour altogether seeing the second village (Manarola) and in to some caves along the coast. After the kayaking adventures we split up and Chris, Jared and myself made our way to the rocks where where people were cliff jumping. It was pretty exhilarating jumping from about 10 meters and then to hear about the stories of people jumping from double that is just craziness. After that went back and showered before going out for dinner with the whole group at a really great restaurant (there really isn’t many bad ones here) and had a really nice tomato marinara spaghetti.
The third day Chris, Jared, Monique and myself went for a 6 hour hike. We started by catching a train to the third village (Corniglia) and began walking up 900m above sea level around the cliffs before coming down and into the fourth village (Vernazza) almost three hours later. There we stopped and had lunch and a walk around before starting our second hike along the coast towards Monterosso, It was another hour walking to the last town and from there we had a quick swim to refresh before catching the train back to our hostel. We decided to have a home cooked meal for a change as we had a kitchen to use for a change so we got some ingredients and made a really good chicken stir fry.

The last day in Cinque Terre I didn’t get up to much other than swimming, relaxing and reading a book on the rocks along the coast. I also started to realise I was getting a pretty bad rash up my arm so had to find a pharmacist for their opinion and get some cream. I figured it must have been some reaction to something along the hike or perhaps even the jellyfish sting but the pharmacist wasn’t any real help but sold me some cream all the same.

Woke up the next day and the rash was twice as bad and spreading so I went back to the pharmacist before meeting to catch the bus – they still had no idea and were surprised to see it had spread so badly and suggested tablets to start taking for allergies. Caught the bus at 12pm (as Cinque Terre was one of the middle stops between Florence and Nice), we arrived in Nice around 6pm. That night I walked around exploring some of old town where I found another pharmacy for a second opinion and perhaps someone who could communicate better in English – turned out as helpful as the last and suggested different tablets again. I spent the next hour walking around and exploring a bit of the city and finding some dinner before heading back to the hostel.

The next day I walked the city properly and explored all through old town and seeing what Nice had to offer. It’s a good spot but not a lot to do in the actual city although they do have a nice food market and as I’ve written before I’ve enjoyed walking through the food markets throughout Europe. I found another pharmacist on the way back to the hostel again as the rash still showed no improvements and still had no ideas what it could be from and why it wasn’t improving but actually spreading as I now had it on both arms and part of my leg. The pharmacist was pretty sure it was heat rash and suggested me to get out of the sun and sitting under air conditioning for a day or two if possible and keep applying cream to it. He asked if I had been using 50+ sunscreen which I replied with a no as I’ve hardly been burnt the whole time being over here, he was pretty adamant going on about my white skin blue eyes saying I needed to have lots of sunscreen and pointing to my rashes, go figure. I decided to walk back to the hostel and follow his advice and sat under the air conditioning for the next few hours which allowed me to update my previous couple of posts for you all. That night I ran into Mark (from Cinque Terre) and some other people and we went out for dinner where we shared seafood risotto, pizza,  salad and pork ribs with chips – pretty nice meal I must admit.

The next morning I awoke to the fire alarm blaring away at 7:30 in the morning, if there was an actual fire happening I was pretty content with taking my chances as there was no way I was getting up for it. Seemed like I wasn’t the only one seeing no one else around my dorm was in any rush to get moving. After 10 minutes of suffering it finally stopped and I obviously wasn’t going to be getting any more sleep though so I got up and made my way downstairs to have breakfast and see what the situation was. Burn toast. Whoever that person was obviously wasn’t a very popular person that morning haha. I signed up for the free walking tour which went for a few hours and ended by dropping me at the bus stop where I wanted to get to so that I could make a day trip to Monaco. I stopped in Eze first a very small medieval village where Walt Disney actually lived for a significant amount of time. Was a pretty impressive little town and I spent a couple hours walking around exploring before going back down to the bus stop to wait for the next bus. It was another twenty minutes by bus before arriving in the second smallest country in the world – Monaco. I never have felt so poor in my life walking around in the same tatty clothes I’ve been travelling in for months. Walking through Monaco with all the billionaires suited up with their million dollar yachts and cars at every turn it’s a different place that’s for sure with the massive palace overlooking the city and the impressive Monte Carlo casino being the major attraction. I ran into some other girls that I was on the walking tour with earlier that day so I walked around with them for another half an hour before catching the train back to Nice.

I spent five nights in Florence as I planned to use it as a base to explore the surrounding Tuscan region. The bus arrived in Florence about 3pm so had the chance to check in and put the bags down before meeting up with the rest of the bus that signed up for the “welcome to Florence” tour. For 22 Euro we were given an introduction to Florence through an hour walking tour of the city and on to a leather demonstration on how they make leather products and also how to tell the difference between genuine leather and fake. After the leather demonstration we were treated to four course meal which was included in the price, was really great food starting with bruchetta, pasta, beef stew and then ice-cream for dessert.  From tea we were then lead to the karaoke bar next door where we spent the rest of the night. 

The second day I spent on my own exploring the city and wandering through all the markets and leather stalls spread out through Florence. It’s a really nice city and I enjoyed walking around taking in all the Renaissance art that is Florence. 

The third day I met up with Rick who I’d been travelling with since the Italian adventure and went on our wine tasting tour that we signed up for through busabout. We were told to meet at 9am outside the Mcdonalds opposite the train station. I arrived at 8:30 being  extremely punctual as there was no way that I was going to miss another tour after the whole Munich fiasco. 9am comes around and we don’t have a tour guide arrive so we are getting pretty nervous being the only two waiting around. I went and spoke to another couple that seemed to look like they were waiting and found out they were waiting for a tour through the same company but for a 9:30 start. Another 15 minutes pass and we are still on edge until finally a guy turns up and starts speaking to the couple I had just spoken to, after approaching him also we found out he was also going to be our guide for the day. So there were only four of us, Rick and myself that signed up for horseback riding and the wine tasting tour and the other couple that were going to go through Tuscany on scooters. 

It was a 45 minute drive out into the Tuscan countryside where we stopped at a farmhouse and tasted locally produced honey. After that we hopped on our horses and spent the next couple hours riding through vineyards and surrounding countryside. Having been on the horse in Czech Republic obviously I obviously became a professional so had no troubles what so ever haha.. it was a pretty easy trot with no troubles what so ever, I would have like to have been given the opportunity to go for more of a gallop though. 

After the horse ride we were given the opportunity to join the others on scooters to head to the small medieval town of San Gimignano. Having not ridden a scooter before I didn’t think it would be a big deal, not much to it surely. So I got on all ready for a practice ride around, the scooter however was very slow responding but when it did go It bolted and I ended up crashing it haha. After the initial crash and getting back on and figuring it out I was alright so we all rode for about 8km on the road to San Gimignano – I can now say I’ve gone on a scooter through Italy lol. We walked around the small town for an hour it was a pretty awesome spot and definitely felt medieval. Also was fortunate to have the absolute best Gelati in Italy at Dondoli who have been rewarded consecutive years for their Gelati. After our walk through the town we got back on our scooters and back to the farmhouse to drop off the scooters and get back into the van and head to our next stop – the winery.

Fifteen minutes later we arrive at the winery where the wine tasting started. We were presented with 3 massive wine glasses and instantly filled with one white and two reds and a big plate full of salami, cheese and bread soaked in olive oil – absolutely beautiful! The wines were really impressive and live up to their reputation that’s for sure and the owners gave us some great information on how we should drink it which differed slightly from how I was told through my tour in Austria. After the first course and first three wines we were served a slice of Lasagna and poured another 3 different red wines. The lasagna was really nice and then they came out with some truffle oil to put over it which made it even more amazing, it completely changed everything about the meal. We then tasted 30 year old balsamic vinegar which was also really tasty – apparently amazing with vanilla ice-cream. To finish we had a desert wine and biscuit bread that you were supposed to dip in it. The biscuits were too nice on their own though so after initially trying  the dip in wine I gave up and ate them without it. Altogether a really amazing wine tour and good day out in the Tuscan countryside!

Our tour guide took us back into Florence and stopped at the park overlooking the town providing a really beautiful view. To cap off the day he brought out a bottle of champagne that he had one of us to open with a sword that he brought along. As you do. It was a nice and fun way to end the tour though and I would definitely recommend the tour to others visiting Florence. I got back to the hostel to drop my stuff off then Rick and myself went out for dinner being his last night in Florence, so we were going to part ways so needed to have a send off after the last week of travelling together. 

The next day was another quiet and relaxing day for me and gave me the chance to clean clothes and explore the rest more of Florence that I didn’t see during the first day of exploring. I got caught in the rain again though – seems to be a common occurrence lately. This was a really weird down pour however seeing as it was almost complete sunshine yet still it was pouring with rain. I ended up going back and met up with other fellow busabout travellers I’d met along the way whilst travelling and had a quiet night sitting around.  

The last day that I had in Florence I decided to make a day trip to Sienna. It was an hour and a half by bus and I spent four hours walking around the town. I am glad that I decided against spending two nights there and heading straight to Florence, although a pretty town there was really nothing to do there, I spent four hours walking around and had lunch and then caught the bus back. Had another quiet night trying repacking my bag (one of the worst parts of travelling!!!) and preparing for the next stop Cinque Terre.