OK, so at the minute I am in Milan but before I get to the excitement of Italy I will fill you in on the last few days.
So
on Wednesday night I arrived in Barcelona in the sweltering heat. I
stayed at an awesome hostel called Barcelona Dream, it was a bit out the
way but the place itself was really great. Thursday was dedicated to
sight seeing. I went to Park Guell to have a walk about and enjoy
Gaudi's art which was fantastic. I really enjoyed they way his mosaics
and sculptures are so colourful and stand out so vibrantly against the
natural background. Despite the trek (and it really was a mission) up
the hill to visit the park it was totally worth it, the place was
beautiful and you could see all around the city, truly magnificent. I
had to buy one of those flamenco fans because it was so hot and i don't
fare to well in the heat! I did visit the Gaudi museum but to be perfectly honest it was over priced and i wouldn't recommend it. I then
went to La Rambla to see all the shops and street entertainment which
was a lot of fun. I popped into this amazing food market and the produce
was amazing. Thousands of fresh fish (you can imagine the smell) and
glorious looking fruit. I decided not to buy anything cos it was all a
bit pricey. I walked along the river front by the harbour soaking up the
atmosphere and enjoying the tranquillity of the coast. The city is so
alive and energetic it was nice to have some peace. The hostel hosted a
paella night that evening which was great fun, yummy food and sangria,
great times! Unfortunately I didn't get to see half the stuff i wanted to
but it's a place i will definitely by visiting again, I loved it!
The
next day I caught a train to Nice. I was originally going to get a
direct fast train but the reservations were full so after the panic
(Greg and Dom will understand) I found a way, much longer with 4
changes, where reservations were not needed (phew!). This route turned
out to be extremely enjoyable and was only an hour longer than the
original (a breath taking 11 hours in total)! I made friends with 2
American girls which kept me occupied for the first 3 hours and after
that I had some glorious alone time with Edward Cullen!!! To say the
route was scenic is a massive understatement. I am no stranger to the
sea but seeing it for the first time as we crossed the Spain-France
border was breath taking. I don't think I've ever seen the sea so blue
and perfect, amazing! We coasted through little French villages where
the colours of the terracotta roofs, vivid green foliage and cloudless
blue skies stood out against each other like you wouldn't believe it!
Looking out the train window was seriously amazing. At one point there
was this perfectly situated sail boat all alone in the middle of the
ocean, it was like a postcard. The South of France is truly amazing, I
would love to live there!
I arrived in Nice late and because I originally thought I wouldn't make it I cancelled my hostel booking, bad
idea! Every single place was fully booked and any rooms available costed
€150, mad! Fortunately I found Maya, a lovely Canadian girl, who was
also stuck! We considered sleeping on the beach, breaking into a hostel
to sleep on someone's floor (this we were actually in the process of
doing) until Emily came to the rescue and said we could sleep at her
apartment in Monte Carlo. After walking around for hours with are
luggage, Maya and I boarded a train to Monaco, almost missing it (the
last one as well) but spent another hour getting lost until we found
Emily. We got to bed after 2 and were relieved to say the very least.
What a palava but of course looking back it was all a bit fun!
Whilst
running around Nice we got to see a bit of the place but I wasn't
impressed! It wasn't as glamorous as I'd expected it to be but maybe
this was due to all situation, anyway i wasn't sad to leave it behind.
The following day Emily showed us around Monte Carlo which was super
amazing, so fancy and perfect, I want to live there, but also was too
expensive. We ate croissants and ogled at the €70 millions plus super yachts. We went to the casino and generally fell in love with the place!
That
afternoon I got a train to Milan and spent bloody ages finding my
hostel! I'm sharing a room with English people which is nice because I
haven't come across any yet, but thankfully everyone speaks English
anyway! Today I have wondered the city visiting the Duomo which is beautiful (you need to be dressed in certain way to get
in and luckily I fitted the bill)! I went to the fancy shopping centre
and naturally ogled the Prada and Gucci, wondered around the Opera
house (amazing) and went to the Casello Sforzesco which had a really
good museum. I chilled out eating ice cream with my feet in a fountain
and listened to Italian music outside the castle grounds, lovely!
Not
sure what the plan is for tonight but I'm off to Florence tomorrow and
looking forward to precious reading time on the train as I'm about to
start New Moon, I never imagined I'd love Twilight so much!
The
travelling is great, but the weather is vile, too hot for me I feel like melting! Hopefully I'll get back on the net in a few days and PS the
Italian as sleazy to say the very least!
Ciao
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