Europe Day 22 - Part Three

Last part of the last day in Rome!

After the ruins we set out for the Bocca della Verita



Which honestly I don’t know much about other than it’s in Roman Holiday and E wanted to go. But it was still fun!

Last doings after the break!

Europe Day 22 - Part Two

From the Colosseum we moved onto this huuuuge archeological site, which the ticket include admission to.



That is not it. That’s the Arch of Constantine. Which is right outside.

See after the break!

Europe Day 22 - Part One

Whoops, had this all written up and forgot to post 8D

2nd and last day in Rome!
We had leftover pizza for breakfast and hit the same cafe for awesome deliciousness, then off to… the Colosseum! I was most excited about this :D



Onto the Colosseum!

Star Wars Exhibit!

Alright! Brief break from Europe so some more current happenings. Local travels! Nearish to me is the Tech Museum, which is a lot of fun and I recommend it in general, but they also have exhibit space for temporary exhibits or traveling exhibits and such. They had a nice Star Trek exhibit some years back, the traveling Body Works (or whatever it’s called) was there, and a wonderful DiVinci exhibit was there a few years back. Of course there’s been more, but those are the ones I’ve been to.

Anyway, on the 15th I went and checked out the Star Wars exhibit! It will be there until February 13th, 2014. So if you’re around San Jose before then, and like Star Wars, I recommend checking it out!

I took loads of pics, so clicking any of these will take you to my flickr gallery.

But here are some of my favourites

Europe Day 21 - Part Five

It was a bit dismal when we left the Vatican, but  not too bad.

We wandered Saint Peter’s Square for a bit, which is a circle by the by.

End of Day 21 (about time)!

Europe Day 21 - Part Four

So I think I mentioned, but we went to the Vatican for the Sistine Chapel, kind of a must. All the other things are bonuses.

Beyond not realizing how huge the Vatican Museum is in general, there were a lot of painted ceilings I was totally unaware of. To be honest though, partly due to the fact that we knew we didn’t have a lot of time and that we were unprepared for the vastness, we were hitting processing overload. So we wanted to get to the ceiling before were just like “Okay yay another pretty thing.”

That is not it.

But it was on the way there, and I really liked that hallway.

Sistine Chapel! Finally!

Europe Day 21 - Part Three

The Vatican, STILL.

Today will be a bunch of statues! (Then ceilings, then a castle to end the day)

You can see a bit in the background, the transition from Egypt to Greece 8D

Bring on the marble!

Europe Day 21 - Part Two

The Vatican! OMG!

I took a lot of pics, so this is mostly pics and not commentary. Also, it’s just some of the pics 8D

I loved the Egyptian section. We have a very fine Egyptian museum local to me, the Rosicrucian Museum, and I loooove going there. Still, I’ve been many times, so it was lovely to see new things :D

Pics!

Europe Day 21 - Part One

I’ve been avoiding this post! Because we went a lot of places. It’s gotta be split up!

So! After we woke up in the morning, it didn’t smell so bad with the window open all night. But it was super cold :/

I took a super fast shower and off we went! During our post midnight jaunt to get *to* the hostel we’d passed a cafe, so we went there for breakfast. We just had to point at things ‘cause yeah, I don’t know any Italian. I mean, I could have tried my hand with Latin but… can’t think of a way to order orange juice like that 8D;; Actually, we did have orange juice! ‘Cause on the counter there was this thing… and they juice the oranges RIGHT THEN. IT WAS SO GOOD.

Europe Day 20

Oh man, this day. Leaving Budapest day.

Well, we started it by eating or throwing out all the leftovers, and we had a semi early start because checkout was at 12:30, and we wanted to walk around Not With Our Backpacks. I don’t remember if I’d mentioned, but based on e-mail we’d been under the impression that we could leave our backpacks there the entire day, sadly not so. Anyway, the door bell rings. I think for some reason the guy must be WAY early… obviously I am not thinking, ‘cause I open the door. And. It’s not him. It was a handy man who needed access to the balcony to take some measurements, ‘cause he was working next door or something. I thought, well we’re eating, we’re there, it’s just some measurements, I guess that’s okay.

So he takes the measurements, then comes back and tries to explain More Things. In Hungarian. I’m just like “This cannot end well.” Well, I just called the person who was supposed to meet us for the key exchange, and had him talk to the handyman. And he said just let him do whatever he needs to do. But… somehow he didn’t convey to the handyman himself that we were leaving, and it was fine to just.. do whatever. So this poor guy, he’s getting frustrated I have no idea what he’s talking about. Eventually he got us to follow him downstairs to talk to the apartment manager, who speaks English. I told him we were leaving, and gave him the guys phone number, the manager said that was fine, he’ll just explain it again with the new people… so we left. It was just very weird, and sounds super short here, but it was quite a bit of time and the poor handyman was all frustrated, and I was getting flustered ‘cause I thought the phone call settled the whole matter.

ANYWAY.
I’m sure it worked out in the end.

We went to the Great Market.



It was pretty great!

Europe Day 19

This was chill day! In hindsight, I’d rather have swapped this day w/ Monday. But that was poor planning/research on my part, and general schedule constraints.

Anyway, since we fell asleep before we got the new Who episode, we watched it over breakfast. And that was very exciting! Watching Who *in* Europe! So it wasn’t live ON TV exciting, but it was still something :D

So Jey had to leave at one to catch a flight back to Dusseldorf, it had just worked out better for her that way because of lack of direct flights back to Ramstein. And we only had one key so… we just chilled in the apartment, and at one said our sad goodbyes and parted ways ;_;

After that, E & I went to the Great Market! Which was actually very close to Vaci street (I think I did mention, there was a lot of retracing our steps!).

Well it’s closed on Sundays...

Europe Day 18 part Two

So after visiting the Parliament building, we headed to that castle we’d seen on the way back from the bath house the day before.

While we were walking there we passed a restaurant called Sir Lancelot, which was themed and looked like fun, so we decided to have dinner there after the castle :D

View Larger Map

It was sort of awesome we passed the restaurant at all, since we were just meandering from the one place to the other, and it’s on a pretty small, non-busy street.

The rest of the day!

Europe Day 18 part One

Saturday! After breakfast times we started the day by going to Vaci Street, which is basically a shopping street, but was recommended to us by Jey’s coworker. Also souvenir getting is generally a good thing.

We passed a cool, old looking church near there on our way to Elizabeth Bridge.

Lots of pics!

Europe Day 16 pt two & Day 17

Alright! So we took a train from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Budapest, Hungary.

We walked from the train station to the apartment we rented through airbnb and waited there for my sister, who had flown in the same day. So she met us in front, and we were buzzed in by the owner’s father, who was meeting us because the owner was out of town (hence renting the apartment!). The elevator… was broken. So with our backpacks (getting heavier by the day ;_;) we trekked up 7 flights. I started thinking about just abandoning my backpack and buying new things as I went… but we did make it! And of course, he showed us a working elevator (wish he’s told us that on the intercomm…).

So after getting everything sorted, we dumped the bags and went in search of a grocery store for breakfast things.

We passed this! My sewy heart went pitter patter. Closed for the night, I meant to go back but actually never did.

End day 16, bring on day 17!

Europe Day 16

So! Bratislava!

We got up at a reasonable hour, checked out of the hostel & stashed our bags there, and went in search of breakfast! (We still had leftovers, but at this point we just tossed them 8D)

So there was this free walking tour, which I think we found out about the previous night when we checked in, and due to our limited time we thought that sounded good, so we went to Greentree Cafe, which was closeish to the meeting pointl.



On the way, crossing a street, I saw those planters, super cute!

Bratislava in less than 10 hours!

Europe Day 14 - Part Three, and Day 15

The stunning view upon exiting the dungeon!

Since we’d bought tickets to that concert so now had timing to think about, we skipped the Old Royal Palace (which I think was the most modern building on the premise, and actually was still in use as a government building) and went to have tea!

Tea!

Europe Day 14 - Part Two

So! Prague Castle!

And more~!

Europe Day 14 - Part One

Czech money! Every money is prettier than the USD ;_;

Busy day in Prague!

Europe Day 13

Leaving Berlin day!
Jey and I got up pretty early, checked out, and went over to the train station. From there we trained to the main station and transferred and uh, it was really crowded. So crowded, we couldn’t find seats, and we ended up sitting on the floor by the bathrooms until Dresden, where lots of people got off and we were able to find seats.

We got into Prague around 1:30, wandered a bit for an ATM for local currency, then some more to figure out the metro, then to the hostel!



Lookit that metro art! So pretty.

Yay Prague!

Europe Day 12

Today, as our last day in Berlin, we thought it would be easier to do the breakfast offered by the hostel. You buy a ticket at the front desk, and head over to the dining room! I want to say it was 4 euro? Whatever it was, we thought it was reasonable, especially as it was buffet style.



Bye bye Berlin ;_;

Europe Day 11

Okay! Determined to post all my Europe trip before it’s been a year.

So we bought these four ticket deal things, I can’t remember if I talked about that before, but it’s 4 tickets at a flat rate to be used on any 4 trips. So our thought with these was each day we’d walk where ever we were going, and then train back, which is what we did the previous day and would do this day. Anyway, we set out for the Brandenburg Gate:


View Larger Map

(approx, as you’ll see, we didn’t exactly go straight there)

Cupcakes! Lights! Memorials!

Europe Day Ten - To Berlin!

Alright!

Jey and I got up semi early (6ish, I believe) for train times :D

It was off to Berlin!

We made sammiches and stuff the night before (or maybe that morning, my memory, it blurs) with the afore-pictured salami deliciousness, had some snacks and drinks packed up and walked down to the train station yay~

Since Ramstein is so small, there wasn't a direct train from there, but all in all we only made two transfers. One only one stop over at Landstuhl and one in... Frankfurt maybe?

And into Berlin either at 13:00 or 15:00, one of those I can't remember which.

Off the train and to the hostel!

According to the directions, it was to be a less than ten minute walk from the station. We stayed at Plus Berlin, which had good reviews on Hostelworld but to be honest as we walked there the neighborhood seemed a little skeevey and I was a tad nervous! (It was for naught, to dispel any worry up front [though obviously I made it back safe soooo])

On the way there I saw this graffiti!



I thought it was hilarious 8D

Hostel, Berlin Wall, and More!

Europe Day Eight

I know I said I did day Eight already, but that day Eight was actually day Nine. I forgot Trier was befooore the military base.

Also I got a bit confused about which day I was waiting for the train. That's because I had to wait both days 8D The first day, when going to Kaiserslaturn, I had wandered about more and shops were open and I got to go *in* to many places. So this time, I remembered how the machine wouldn't take the 50 Euro notes so I popped over to the bank on the way to get change. Which took longer than I thought so I literally watched the train leave as I walked down to the station :/
So again, an hour to kill. Only this time no shops were open yet (and anyway, I'd been in them all) so I walked right out of Ramstien 8D



Couple shots in Ramstein, then Trier!

Europe Day Six! And Seven. And Eight!

Three days at once! Oh my. It sounds daunting, but it isn't really.

Monday, August 27th, I left England for Germany~

So it was a bit of a short day.

Europe Day Five (with a smidge of Day Four)

Augh whoops, I haven't posted about my trip for over a month! I'm only on Day Five ;_;

I'm determined to actually post about this trip though (which... is what I said about India, three years ago, and Japan, two years ago....).

So anyway.

Time change and all means my camera thought something that was this day was actually the previous night.



I'm.... running.
Because it's the Who thing to do.


Rest of the night aaand... Clothes day!

Europe Day Three - Part One & Day Four

Didn't take as many pictures these days, so I can squeeze it into one entry!

So after we went back and ate delicious cheese and bread and so on, aralias and I headed out again.



We went to the British Museum!

Europe Day Three - Part One

Bah I am the slowest at uploading photos/updating.
But hey! At least I'm doing it! Remember India? No? Yeeeeah, that's 'cause I only posted once >.>
So, doing better already!

aralias is a wonderful host, she gave me tea in the morning and really, what more could you ask for?

But there was!
More I mean 8D



Her and X took me to Borough Market!

Locals! If we have the equivalent here, I need to know, because I need to go there every day.

Foooood...

Europe Day Two part two - The end of Wales!

Alright, let's do this!

Also, if someone would like to remind me to poooost. I keep meaning to. And then I don't. So, poking would actually be appreciated.

So I left the Doctor Who Experience with a heavy heart, I pretty much wanted to live there. Or at least go through the interactive part again (which you can't). The gift shop was only okay, it was pretty much the same Who stuff you can get anywhere. I was really hoping for something special. Also I wanted a TARDIS air freshener for my car. Boo.

I don't actually remember whether I hopped a bus or if I walked (which is more reason I really need to actually post), probably bus since I had a pass. Anyway, headed to Mermaid Quay for some more Who locations.



The last of exploring Cardiff...

Europe Day Two Part One - Still Wales!

Early start!
Not really.
I think it was around 7-8.

This is why Riverhouse was extra cool...

Europe 2012! Day One

So I started this blog to chronicle my India (2009) trip and anything subsequent (which there has been), but the problem with travel blogging is if you're really having fun and experiencing all you can... there's no time for blogging!

I may never go back and finish my India trip, or Japan in 2010/2011, but I'm going to try to get my Europe trip out!
In August of 2012 I quite my job and went to Europe for 5 weeks!

Anyway!
Day one!



And somewhere in there I changed a setting on my camera and didn't notice it so sadly a lot of these ended up out of focus and strange....

Day one (and two) are SUPER Doctor Who heavy, so uh, you've been warned.


I flew from SFO into Heathrow and then got a bus I'd pre-bought to Reading train station. I juuuust missed one 'cause I went on a water fountain hunt to fill up my water bottle, then I had to wait 40 minutes. This was kind of a theme on my journey >.>
At Reading I had to wait about an hour since I'd pre-bought those tickets as well, and had wanted to give myself plenty of time. The Reading train station is pretty boring, fyi...