All photos here.

Italy

France

oops … looks like I forgot to mention that I also finished off Turkey … *cough* about a week ago *cough* … View Here

http://www.leighrolfe.com/gallery/v/europe/Turkey/Goreme/

Anyways, this website isn’t really made for photos, so I’ve put them in my usual photo gallery at http://www.leighrolfe.com/gallery/ easy to find once you get there, under, wait for it … European Vacation … of yeah, it hurts when I think up names!

I was up til 2am … and only managed to get through 150 photos, so it may be many late nights before they’re all there.

Well the past two days have been interesting ones. Travelling by yourself allows you far more freedom although so far I have found it only 1/4th as fun as the past 3 weeks were, 1/11th as the 3 weeks before that.

Yesterday I managed to sleep into, cough, 12pm so I figured most of the morning was given to jet lag. After crawling out of bed I managed to make my way to little India where I did the walking tour recommended in the Singapore Lonely Planet….well most of it. See I got a bit lost and ended up I think in the slums of Singapore. For those of  you in Melbourne think commission flat building in collingwood, carlton and Fitzroy. Singaporian druggos isn’t the best to hang around I figured so I hightailed it to a local safehaven (711 store) and asked for directions. Little India was just as cool and probably more appreciated than Little China. Little China I saw with majorly bloodshot eyes after a plane flight from Paris, Little India I saw after a pretty good 8 hour sleep. Spices, curries, hindu temples, electronics and a mosque which I visited. Seeing a Victorian style mosque is an interesting thing to say the least, completely different to other ones I saw whilst in Turkey. People where sleeping on the floor in this mosque for one thing, they weren’t praying, just sleeping. It was that hot that they needed a nap after praying I guess.

After this little trek and its supposed 2.5 hour walk turning into 4 hours I made my way to the zoo. You would think by now after all the times I have missed museums and shit due to not checking the opening and closing times of places I wouldn’t make the same mistake, well you are wrong. I arrived at the zoo right after they closed admitance to the zoo(differnet and earlier to closing time….grrrr) so I bought tickets to see the night safari and the zoo. I did this for two reasons, to force myself to see the Singapore Zoo and also it was cheaper. 

Night Safari was I guess you could say, ummm, interesting. I have a real problem with caged animals to say the least but I am not going on a safari anytime soon so I thought why not. I thought I may have changed my opinion or this zoo maybe different to all the others I have seen… nup. The reason why the night zoo is supposedly so good is that you don’t see the cages that the animals are enclosed in so you feel closer too them…. This is bullshit as you still see how small the enclosures are. I did the walk around, took the wanky bus trip through it all (only did this because it took you places you couldn’t walk) then caught the next taxi ride home skipping a few other things I could have seen. Partially it was due to tiredness but mainly I did a runner because, as I said before, I don’t like seeing caged animals. Once I arrived back at the hostel I must say I piked (around 11 pm) and slept…ahh sweet sleep.

 Today I woke up bright and perky, a bit less stressed about caged animals so I decided to see the Singapore Zoo (yes different to the night safari). This was slightly better, although only marginally so. A polar bear being in a equatorial climate?, penguins too? are there polar bears and penguins around the equator?? I couldn’t imagine anthing worse. One thing I did like about the zoo is its message of conservation and rainforest depletion. I thought the amount of Indonesians and Malay’s that see the message may eventually have an effect…who knows. As soon as I saw more than one pacing and rocking animal I decided to quicken the speed of the zoo and leave.

From the zoo I made my way to the Marina bay area to do a Colonial walk mentioned in Lonely Planet. Not too bad, a bit boring but still alright. I think Singapore really is geared towards shopping so I can accept that most walks that don’t involve shopping won’t have as much to do. After the walk I sat in the Fullerton Hotel and had a cold beer, some calamari and read my book. That I must say was my highlight of the walk, the beer at the end. Maybe I should have just started and finished there….mmm beer. From beer to watching Pirates of the Carribean 2,  not a bad transition really. Recommend seeing the movie if you havn’t already.

Well this is me, probably my next update will be me back in Melbourne making a very long awaited, well by some people at least, photo update. I will hopefully cull the crap ones and only upload good ones. Leigh will be doing the same I am sure when he finds the time away from saving his company.

I will have to say I hope to see you all soon, at least to rub in the fact that I am tanned, well as tanned as a geek like me can get.

   Found myself the nearest hostel to Orchard Street although now I am wondering why. Shopping isn’t really my best ability, especially when it comes to Versace, Dior, Armani and Luis Vitton and after my walk once arriving at my hotel I was already in shutdown mode!!!

   Once hitting the threshold of that critical mode I managed to recover and head off to China town and have a walk around, grab a bite to eat then head back to the hotel for a try hard nap that never quite worked out. I managed to find myself in a room with two other jet lagged travellers that snored worse than Leigh, which I must say is very loud!.   

   After becomming frustrated enough to drag myself out of my bed I managed to make my way to the pool to have a swim and a power nap in the sun. After all this fun, or lack thereof, in the sun I dragged myself back down Orchard Street to grab a bite to eat. Lucky for me there seems to be a food festival on at the moment with existing food stands supposedly trying different dishes. I wondered from shopping center, to shopping center, to shopping center eating a bit here and a bit there, very satisfactory. Eventually I managed to find a book shop as I was hoping to read the lonely planet on Sinapore in the store to see what the go was. Unfortunately it was shrink wrapped so I had to buy it (thankfully it is thin and light).

   On the way home I came across a bar that had outdoor live music where I then sat for the rest of the night where I drank beer and read. That is my night apart from the wild story how I found this Internet cafe….nobody and I mean nonbody in the area knew where it was. it was 1.30am  yet I found it through my ears hearing the noise of the game Warcraft 3 in the distance. Who said being a geek is a disadvantage!

Patricko “the dork” Villalobos. aka Keith

Next stop, had a brief look at the famous Opera building, big, old, detailed. Gotta get some photos out - soon my pretties … soon … Then onto the Arc De Triomphe, huge arch, with allegedly the largest round about in the world … or maybe Europe, or Paris, can’t remember which, but it was pretty impressive. Pat and I climbed the 200 and something stairs to the top with views of Paris in every direction. Then made it down in time to see some guards and the lighting of the flame of remembrance.

Then back to our favourite stop at Notre Dame to hunt for sustenance. We stumbled across a bar at happy hour, so we made ourselves happy with some beer. Then happy hour ended, and since we were happy we ordered some more beer. This continued for several hours, later finding out that Maia was supplying most of her beers to pat and I. Me and my usual uncoordinated self put half a beer on my legs, so the lovely waitress supplied me with free beer, did I mention I like French waitresses? The night also contained Karaoke, with Pat getting 2 girls to sing to him in French, he didn’t give them much choice by sitting in front of their screen.

Allegedly at some point we were singing We Are The World with some French guy who may or may not have been gay. At the end of the night we found Chinese food, and some American guys to listen to us crap on. Then Pat and I woke up the next morning lying on the double bed, width-ways (at opposite ends of the bed, don’t get any ideas) - in what must have been the exact same position we landed.

Begin the final day in Paris, Bastille was pretty quiet for Bastille day. Unfortunately since we only found out the day before that Bastille day was on Friday, and that was the day we were going to visit Versailles, we missed out because it closes, as do many of the sites around Paris. But we found out that the Hotel de Invalides, a place, big, old, hmm … I sense a theme … it was built for 4000 injured war dudes in the 17th century, enough history I’m babbling now.

Outside there were tanks and soldiers, some Bastille Day remebrance things, and some army recruitment by the looks of things. Then we wandered around the inside for a few hours visiting the war museums, checking out the cool old armour and weaponry. Then it was time to hunt down food, we found escargot and cheese … only fitting for your last day in Paris. Afterwards, we meandered, or continued meandering our way to Champ de Mars (big grassy area near the Eiffel Tower) and found drinks before continuing on.

As was our goal for the day, we made it to Champ de Mars to sit and wait with tens of thousands of other like minded fools for the sun to set. The time came, the sun disappeared, night set in about 10.30ish, the classical music began and permeated the entire area as the lights on the Eiffel Tower were turned off, the sky lit up behind us in the most awesome fireworks display any of us had ever seen. It must have lasted almost an hour, but seemed to go so quickly.

This marks the 3rd time fireworks has seen us off (fireworks on our last night of the Turkey tour, and once again on our last night in Mykonos). Europe loves us.

And yey, it was an awesome holiday. I leave it here, Pat has a couple days left. It’s 2am now and we have to be up at 7 for our flight. See you all soon.

Following morning we went to La Fayette to do a spot of shopping although nothing was purchased. Leigh saw a T-shirt which cost 200+ euro so you can imagine the price of most things. La Fayette was pretty much a time kill while we waited to sadly see Stef off to the airport. This was a sad one as for the past 3 weeks we were living out of each others pockets. Group dynamics change and you get used to how it all works, when someone leaves, as I said in when the Turkey trip finished, it is a fairly sad moment.

So after pushing Stef through the train turnstyle and throwing her guitar over the barrier we all legged it to Notre Dame to see it in daylight and so we can go inside. It really is a nice church, so far in every place I have been in France I have seen the local Cathedral, this one is a nice one although I really liked the Duomo in Milan. I think the crowds in Notre Dame took away something… Oh and here is a tip, if you are going to visit Notre Dame, get the audio guide; I didn’t and regretted it. Highlights are the massive stained glass windows, the little alters devoted to certain Saints, Stations of the cross, treasury where you have to pay extra to see but it is worth it. We didn’t climb to the top, not sure why but I think you get to a point when queues are just plain annoying and I couldn’t be assed waiting around any more. I also think I am cathedralled out!!! Moving on from Notre Dame we decided to catch a bus tour for 22euro which allows you to take a bus around to all the major sites for 2 days. Leigh and Maia met an american guy at the wedding who recommended it so we figured why not. We didn’t really have much time to see everything so it was an easy way to check out the major sites. Hopped off at the Navy Museum to get a great view of the Eiffle Tower, some postcard shots and then to climb it. I had darryls thought in my head about how the queue for the stairs was shorter, for some reason we ended up lining up in the queue where you couldn’t climb the stairs, you could only take the elevator. The queue wasn’t that bad, bareable 30 minute wait to see something pretty spesh. I must say it was worth it, great views and something that is a must do in Paris. Not really much else to say about it apart from it being a nice view.

Afterwards we had some dinner and a place nearby, probably one of the worst places we have chosen so far. Surrounded by Americans with very plain food, even though all that we wanted was salad. We sat next to a guy who ran with the Bulls not once but twice in Pamploma. Actually did it that morning before driving to Paris. We walked back from the Eiffle tower not realising how knackered we all were, nice little 1.5 hour walk so we pretty much got back to the hotel and crashed.

Once upon a time we were in Milan. Then we travelled to Aix en Provence in Francem quite south in France. It was a very pretty train trip travelling through the mountains between France and Italy, would make a nice quiet getaway around there, with waterfalls coming off the mountains and green green pastures. After getting up at 5.45 to get the train out, we stopped a couple of stations, some which we were to travel back through on our way up to Paris later. We arrived at about 3.30 and had to find a hotel. We did alright, nice place close to everything, but had 2 double rooms and I had to share a bed with Pat, something that became a little tooo regular if you know what I mean.

We had our first French dining experience with some amazing foodm except my main. Ordered lamb somethingm which ended up being a very small portion of lamb shish, tres petit. For the price of the meal, that lamb was worth its weight in gold! But the friendly, cute French waitresses made up for everything. As did the desserts, we quickly learnt that the French seriously know how to do dessert. From here on in it’s wine and dessert with everything! We also learnt that there are soooo many cute young lasses in France, I’m definately moving here!

Then we caught the end of the game, which Pat storified already so I’ll skip on. As became a habit in France, we wandered the city by night, soaking up the atmosphere, checking out cathedrals and such by night. We went to a tea house at some point, and had tea, cake and the French hookah … I’m afraid Turkey does hookah better.
Next day, we started late, not doing much and decided to forgo eating out for I think only the 2nd time since leaving Australia. We had a picnic in the park with you guessed it, 2 bottles of wine, several cheeses and a couple of baguettes. So we sat listening to some French rock band warm up for some kind of show later that night, sounded good warming up, but looked like it was going to turn into some death metal event once we noticed guys turning up early.

Rest of the day was just more town wandering, and drinking beers in one of the many “squares”, France seems to have a lot of sqaures, while watching street performers, and attempting to speak French to waitresses. Later on we tried hard core street foodm which is nothing like hardcore Turkish street food. We had an awesome pizza, and possible one of the cheapest meals so far.

Then we had some really bad cocktails on the main drag and gave up and found beer near the hotel. Then home for cards and Raki (yeah, still got left overs from Turkey), and falling asleep while doing so.

Next day was train to Avignon, can’t remember when we found accommodation, but possibly booked it the day before, that’s about as organised as we ever got. Ended up with a really cool hotelm the Hotel Medieval, was kinda old (as everything is) and down a side street, ol’ skool big staircase leading up to the rooms. And just a really nice room, with comfy beds, except one which we gave Pat.

After that we wandered for food, I think we spent 1/3 of our trip wandering for either food or beer/winem just the way it should be. Found a German restaurant, I had sausage, I like sausage. While eating dinner we decided to look for a show to see, as Avignon was in festival mode, all sorts of things going on, streets all very lively. I decided on a juggling show that sounded very cool from the guide in the very limited French that I pretend I know.

So we found out where this show was, and managed to get there with minutes to spare (OK, about 15 of them) but still not bad for a last minute decision. The show ended up being fantastic, the other guys struggled to keep themselves awake, I had trouble in the last few minutes, due to exhaustion, not boredom. Was called Convergence 1.0 and was basically a kind of weirdo futuristic, modern interpretive movement juggling act, with a transparent screen in front of the juggler that had images projected onto it, so he was juggling light balls. The audience was very quiet the entire show, until one point a pong game was projceted onto the screen, with our juggler interacting with the pong balls. That got a laugh out of them.

It was soon to be dark, so you guessed it … we wandered the city, saw some live music outside the palace, cathedral, pope’s hangout thing in the town. People everywherem still very festive. Then wandered to a broken bridge, basically went half way otu to an island and stopped. Can’t remember why it was broken, but it was cool. Then we got lost on our way back to the hotel, I was too tired to use my spidey senses that have gotten us home so many times before. But eventually they came back to me and we made it back.

Next day Maia and I had to find our way to Loriol, small town, middle of nowhere for Maia’s friends wedding. We got our trains and tickets OK, but when we got the the Loriol stop, it didn’t look like a stop, train appeared to have stopped in the middle of the line, and we didn’t know that we had to push a button to open the doors. So next stop, we realised we did and got off there. Luckily it was only 5 minutes down the track, as opposed to the others that were about 20-30 minutes apart.

Then we met some girls who didn’t speak a word of English, yet were probably the most helpful people we have come across, who got us the number for a taxi. Maia tried ordering one, but sucked at it so one of the girls ordered it for us. The taxi finally arrived, and took us to Loriol, and for some reason there was mother and assumed daughter as driver and direction giver. Both had no idea where the church we wanted to go was, so that made for an interesting ride! But we got there eventually, with backpacks in tow, and only about 30 minutes late.

After the church, met some Aussie year 11 exchange student who was only at the wedding because his French homestay family knew one of the relatives, these guys then drove us to the reception, which was at a purdy country house. Wedding was interesting, mostly in French. Reception was full of food and wine, started with appertisers at about 5.00 and food just kept coming til after midnight, dessert started at midnight. Lots of meats, cheeses and wines and dessertsm so many desserts.
Maia and I crashed a bit earlier cos we had to get up for train to Dijon the next day, and another of those cute little French girls helped us out with a timetable - which she didn’t really seem to understand at the time, and as we found out the next day, also didn’t realise that there’s only 1 train out of Loriol on Sundays at 7.30am! Ah well, we found this out at the station, and it was my turn to attempt taxi ordering in French. At the end of the conversation, girl on phone speaking French, me speaking English, and only understanding key words, I thought I had it right, and I figured we might have one in 20 minutes. Taxi turned up 20 minutes later, so I must have, phew!

We were told Montellimar was only 15 mins away - half an hour later, and 70 euros poorer, no way! 2 minutes left, gotta hurry! Also, couple Aussies got up and sang Rolf Harris at the French wedding, so wrong.

Then it was train to Dijon. Done for now. Aurevoir!