UrbanSeven

The city of romance…and Americans!

Arrived last Saturday (20/04/08 - I am getting way behind) into Venice and I am so glad I managed to get a place right near the train station as Venice is surrounded by water, who would ave thunk it. Seriously though, there were people still wandering around at night in the tiny alleyways and pulling their suitcases up and over all the bridges…soo happy about that.

The place is pretty amazing as everything comes via the canals, they have taxi´s, ambulance, police, couriers, constuction boats (dump truck like boats with bins and cranes)…and of course Gondalas, and lots of them. It would appear as though the people of Venice have found their cashcow and everyone is getting on board…so to speak!

The first night I made my first mistake, I ate dinner at the cheap restaurant next to the hotel, before I could say “arrivederci” I was pulled in and sat down. It didn´t take to long long to realize that the entire place was full of Americans and as I suspected the food was shite and the service was worse.

There were many sights to see in Venice however many of them were Churches and as I do not belong to any denomination they are not that particularly interesting to me (not after the first 50 or so anyway). So instead I found myself just wandering all the Allys and going over all the little bridges, basically just getting lost as “Getaway” had told me to do so before I left.

On the last day during a high tide I noticed exactly how much Venice is sinking, most the doors on the ground floor of places along the canals had water half way up the doors on the ground floor and many looked like they had been bricked over. When at St Marco´s square you could see the water bubbling up in certain places.
That night I found a quiet place off the main through fair to have dinner, the service was a little uninviting (she properly assumed I was an American) but the food and vino was great.

Not looking forward to the upcoming days as I have to travel for 31hrs straight!
Venice>Milan>Geneva>Barcelona>Madrid

_B

 

Just a quick note to say everyone can checkout my photos on FaceBook now, I am working on getting a plugin to bring them straight into my blog but it´s taking ages to find one to work. In the mean time you can click on the link in the “Eurotrip Gallery” or here to see them.

_B

So I go to Vienna right and the place is called Wein, how funny!.

My new wheely suitcase has been pretty good so far, much better then lugging around that massive backpack.
Vienna has many stunning buildings and churches as does most of Europe so far and they are nice to look at but I think its getting a little old.
Austrian´s (Viennese) are crazy and down right creepy. All the teenagers wear skinny jeans and leather jackets and have either shaved Mohawks or tracks, and all the older people seem sick and homeless. That´s probably a huge generalization but it´s what I saw.

I went looking for “SnitzelMaxx” under recommendation from Dean but as usual I got lost and frustrated and ended up having one at a carnival type thing on the way hope…it was pretty good.
Last night I had to find a supermarket to get food for the 7hr train ride and everywhere was shut - after what seemed like hours I found a place and it was chockers!
…and this is what is wrong with the youth - they were all in the supermarket buying 4 Euro bottles of Wodka (Austrian Vodka).
Sorry to bring it up again, but Damo man you would love Europe. Not just the cheap alcohol but instead of chocolates at the registers they have mini spirit bottles…fantastic!

Off to Venice, Italy tomorrow for 3 day, it should be good as I got a place in the centre, next to the train station and they have breakfast included (scrambled eggs….finally somewhere that doesn´t just serve cold ham and cheese).

_B

 

Hey all

Just thought I would let you know I updated my blog settings today so I could use some new editing tools. Please let me know if it stuffs up at all….my German is still rusty.

P.S I know the gallery is broken, I will fix that soon

_B

Finally in Munich, home to beer and wurst!

Everything has been perfect in Munich, I got a place right near the train station and my EuRail global pass is valid on the city U & S-Bahns. The first night I was slack and had Asian at the train station as I didn’t get in to late, but thy did have Singha so it wasn’t all bad.
The next day I went exploring and first went off to find an english book store cause I stupidly left my Europe book on the train from Prague. I took advantage of the store and got myself a few books as the long train rides are starting to become less exciting.
I did some walking and visited the Opera House, English Garden (which was really cool, loads of ducks) and the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) where at noon it chimes and has little statues dancing around in the clock tower for about 15mins.

At about 4pm it was totally time to visit the Hofbrauhaus (World Famous Brewhouse) for some steins and wurst. A word of warning to anyone that goes there or to Oktoberfest the dark beer is god damn strong, by the end of the second stein (1L each) I was pretty much hammered and some of the other guys had to help me home….not a  pretty sight!

On the third day I trained it over to the Olympic Stadium (and got lost for an hour or so as there is a few Olympic stations), however once I got there it was pretty cool. I obviously couldn’t go in but seeing it and around was nice, but that wasn’t my main intention for heading over there, right across from it was the BMW Headquarters, Museum, Showroom and Factory
Unfortunately the museum wasn’t open but to my surprise they were running plant tours and with my Student ID only cost me 3 Euro. The tour went for 2hrs and was amazing, it was awesome to see all the robots working together holding, welding, painting, moving…at one stage they had like 12 robots working on a car at once and they go sooo fast.
After the BMW tour I headed back to the Hofbrauhaus again, this time for some light beers so I can make it home myself.

Tomorrow I head off to Vienna, Austria for a little more German culture ( did you all know Adolf Hitler and Arnold Schwarzenegger are from Austria?)

_B