Some randomness for today. The english translation on a pizza place 'Pizza Go Home'. I thought I saw Brad Pitt today - there was a cutout in a shop and upon first glance I was convinced it was actually him. It's freaking cold and rainy here in Prague so I went and saw X-men: The Last Stand - with Czech. subtitles. When I was a kid I had these wooden dolls that would open up and then you could put the small in the medium, medium in the large etc. Well I found a huge store devoted entirely to them.

I think I left off with Vienna?

Vienna, Austria - As much as I loved Italy it was nice to see a new country. Plus they speak german. Woot! Really liked the city too as well, mostly because of all the music. My hostel was quite interesting though. I thought I was at the right place but it was like a run down apartment building with a spraypainted Arnold Schwarzenegger on the side of the door. The inside was pitch black and there were broken windows and I was like - I'm going to get stabbed. But once I found it it was quaint. A small apartment with a ton of beds (think bunk beds with 3 levels) but it was fun and the people were really nice. Met a guy who lived two blocks away from me in Ottawa. Small world. I went to the small village of Melk that is an hour and a half outside the city, since I had my railpass still. It was really cute and I saw a huge monastery on a hill and the Danube and it was nice to wander and do nothing thought provoking after a messy night train. I walked around the Museum quarter for a while, which is massive and lovely even if you don't actually go in any museums. I went into the Haus der Musik, which was a really cool interactive museum where you learn about sounds etc, plus I got to listen to the Vienna Philharmonic in a theatre. Visited more nice churches and pretty old buildling. I'm so uncultured :). Highlights of my two full days included; going to the Opera! It was wonderful and I loved it so much. Saw Madame Butterfly in standing room tickets but they were really really cheap and wow it was just amazing. My last morning I saw the Vienna Boys choir sing mass. Another amazing experience. Those two were some of the best, the music was just so wonderful. Right up on Emily-interests-alley. Oh and I saw Beethoven, Shuberts, and Brahms' graves. I picked a daisy from the grass between the first two graves but now I've gone and lost it.

Well I could update on Prague but I'm still here so I'll wait. Guess I'm all caught up more or less. They make you pay to walk down the street that Kafka lived on. What's that all about??

It has been a few countries since I've update. Oops. Although from the looks of it no one reads this anyway so I may not continue updating unless I'm at a hostel with free internet. Unless someone of course would like to comment and let me know they are reading it. Then I shall do my best. Promise.

Here are some quick city updates.

Florence, Italy - I enjoyed this city a lot. It felt like Rome but the streets were all more narrow and had a smaller town atmosphere to them. It made a good city to wander around in. The lines however to get into the museums were madness. I only did one on each day simply beacause they were so long. Uffizi Gallery the one day (which ended up taking me hours to get through inside as well but some of the paintings were lovely) and the Galleria dell Accademia the next day (where I got to meet David - he's bigger than I thought he would be). I wandered up to a hill just outside the city where there were great views (since I didn't want to pay the money to go up the bell tower at the Duomo). I also attended a few masses. I have become obsessed with going into every church I see because they are free if you pretend to attend mass or even be remotely religious, and they are usually so magnificant inside. Went to a scary food market where I could swear I saw brains for sale.

Cinque Terre, Italy - There are 5 villages along the coast that are only accessible by train or foot. I stayed in the second one, Manarola. The scenery here was really great. I took a day and did the hike through all the villages. I took me about 6 hours with some stops to explore places that looked interested. I totally underestimated how out of shape I was though. Ha ha. I met up with an aussie couple and did part of the hike with them. While hiking you alternated between walking through forests, villages, vineyards, and the edge of the cliff with huge waves below. However, as much as I loved my time away from the city it was totally not a place to go if you are travelling on your own. Everyone there is married, or just married, or celebrating an anniversary or whatever the hell, and it was a pain in the ass. The second day though, I met up with a girl I had stayed with in Florence so we bitched about the PDA and everything together. Oh and I spent a day on the beach. Speaking of which I'm really tanned at the moment but I'm afraid it's going to go away as I go further north. I never get tanned too. Woot. My hair has gone lighter and is some strange orangy colour now. Anyway I'm exhausted so I'm ranting about my hair. Moving on.

Venice, Italy - I had heard from a few people that Venice was disappointing but I think they were on crack. I came over with an aussie girl, and it made the city so much better because it's one where you walk around for hours and get lost because all the streets are either unmarked, or you have the option of chosing three different street names. It was really neat to walk out of the train station, expect to see buses, or a metro line or something, and have a canal right in front of you. I loved the lack of cars or stupid mopeds running you down. My first full day in Venice we went to St. Marks Square. Thats the place you always see pictures of people covered in pidgeons. We watched them for a while because honestly why would you pay money to be covered in gross birds. It's a mystery to me. We took a vapparetto ride along the grand canal which the cheapest form of transportation you can get along the water. They make you pay at least 100 euros for a gondala ride! We were satisfied with just taking a pictures of one. We had some dinners out which was nice.

Ok I am currently in the Czech. Republic so there are some holes I will fill in when there is not someone waiting over my shoulder for the computer. Tschus!

Just a quick post from Rome. I am half waiting to catch my train to Florence and half making lunch so I just wanted to drop in since there was a free computer. What a great few days it has been here. I absolutly love this city! It's wonderful. I am tired of the crowds and tourists though but I have seen some really magnificant things. St Peter's Basillica for example, in the Vatican city, was the most beautiful (and massive) building I have ever been in. Sistine Chapel was of course wonderful too. And everything pretty much. I will update more later because apparently my next hostel has free internet. I am trying to switch my time around a bit so I can spend some more time in Central Italy and see some of Tuscany. Anyway I hope everyone is well and I shall talk to you all soon.

Ciao!

Well I am still alive! Go me! I'm sorry that it has been so long. All my followers have probably deserted me. Internet is really quite an arm and leg here and since I am on a budget that barely lets me eat, I don't have time for frivolity such as this. Anywho. Here is a quick update.

I am in Sorrento in Southern Italy at the moment. It is a really cute town and am extending my stay here but part of a day and taking out part of Rome. It is more suited to my interests (I'm going to some blue lagoons tomorrow) in terms of outdoor related coolness so that's good.

My first three days were spent in Santorini (a greek island) after a long and complicated and delayed due to 'crew rests' on the sketch Turkish airline I took. Never doing that one again! It was great to meet up with the boys down there who were all tanned and I was jealous of all of them. The beach was really nice the first day, got to spend the day getting burned and swimming. They had also hiring a Jeep and we got a drive around the whole Island. That night I proceded to get far too drunk and had a run in with a fence and a pile of beach chairs and broken glass. Too me a few days to get over that but its all good (for the sake of my mother I probably should not have put that part in - oh well!).

Rob, Hil, and I then headed over on the ferry to Paros. It turned out to be such a cute island, complete with all the blue and white buildings that were in Santorini, but with a cute little town feel to it all. The place we were staying in was a bunch of Germans which made things interesting. Since I can figure NOTHING out about the Greek language. I liked the town we were in a lot, it felt more like what I had imagined a greek island to be.

Hilary and I then left Rob to head out on a really long journey to Turkey and we stayed in Athens for a few days. Turns out it is just as sketch as everyone says it is. Our hotel was cute though and we had some nice early nights eating lots of bread and cheese. Our day at the Acropolis and Temple of Zeus etc. was amazing though. Wow. Totally worth it to stay in a city I wasn't a big fan of. I'd go into detail about all the places we saw but time is short. You can look it up on the internet :P. I loved the temple of Zeus though. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We also went to the (very deserted) Olympic stadium. It was interesting but odd to be in such a huge place with so little people.

I left Greece then after a journy that lasted a few days and involved a bus, train, metro, and a very cold overnight ferry sleeping on the deck (stupid economy class). So far I have loved Italy though. I wonder if anyone ever says that they don't. The countryside in Southern Italy is just beautiful, and ranges from rolling agricultural fields, to orchards of lemon and orange trees, to hill and valleys of trees with scattered villages on the tops of them. I met some people in Bari that were also searching for this ellusive bus stop so I had friends for the first day I was here. I also convinced one of the American girls to come down to Sorrento with me, so its been nice have someone around for a bit of the time. This travelling alone is going to be an experience.

Phew almost there. I have a cramp in my hand. Today I went to Pompeii (WOOT!). Finally got to see it. Ending up spending hours more that I thought. It was really great. I especially loved that I had seen the exhibit in Ottawa beforehand. Pulled it all together. The city was huge, and it had a lot more than I though it would ie. a Gladiator ampitheatre. It started to rain this afternoon so that blew my plans of going up Mt Vesuvius. So thats was abit of a bummer. I have decided to blow tomorrows budget though and take a ferry out to Capri.

Ok thats a bareboned version of what I have done the last few weeks. I shall try to be more diligent in the future but in all honestly it might not happen. I am writing down tons though since I'am alone most of the time so thats a good thing. Going to have a kick ass travel journal.

Please say hi. I would like to hear from friends at home. And if you have somewhere specific you want a postcard from....