Am I poor?

You know your poor, or at least look as such when your sitting on the ground and people throw you money.

We arrived in Prague a few weeks back. I felt a little tired so I decided to sit against the wall while Mel figured out where our hostel was. The next thing I knew, and old man had thrown me a coin! He smiled, almost showing pity. Never the less I laughed, put the 20 cents into my back pocket and carried on with my day.

Yesterday at a skatepark in Rotterdam some local kids shouted out "are you poor"? At first I was almost offended, but then I looked down and realised I had no shoes on, was sitting next to a plastic bag full of rubbish, my clothes were filthy and I had a joint in my left hand. Today I checked my bank account; they were right to assume I have no money. But as Shakespeare once wrote, "Poor and content is rich and rich enough", and God knows I am certainly content!

Through France and Belgium

Mel and I arrived in Paris after a 16 hour commute from San Sebastian. We got in about 11pm and went in search of food. The receptionist pointed out a lovely area in which to get a meal. We jumped on the metro and ended up in the sex district of Montmartre. We didn't mind too much, we had a good meal and a view of the Moulin Rouge!

Paris has some of the biggest flea Markets in Europe, so on Saturday I visited a few. I went to Marché aux Puces and Puces de Vanves. They were full of second hand clothes, antiques, bikes and stolen goods! I was in opp shop heaven!

On Sunday we wanted to get all our 'sight seeing' done so we got up early and started with the Louvre. We saw everything we needed to see, including the Mona Lisa. After that we went walking through Tuilleries park, down the Champs Elysee and eventually made it to the Arc de Triomphe.
Later that night we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and watched the sun go down as the tower lit up. We finished off the day with a walk up to the church at Mon Martre to get a beautiful view of the city.

On Monday, much to Mel's delight we went to Disneyland Paris. We went on a few rides, went to see a show, watched the parade and did as any good tourist would do; bought souvenirs.
That night we returned to an interesting situation. An underage American had been sculling beers and I made the mistake of sitting in front of him. Seconds later vomit was spilling down my back. I made sure to had a shower that night.

The next day we went to Versailles with a friend from the hostel; Anthony. We enjoyed a sunny Parisian day laying in the endless gardens. On our final day in Paris we relaxed with a few baguettes at a park nearby our hostel with fantastic views of the Sacré-Cour.
Later we visited the Latin Quarter, made out way to Notre Dame and finished off the day with a delicious Vietnamese meal in China Town.

Overall Paris was so-so. It is all you expect it to be, and then again it isn't. There are of course all the beautiful sites and parts of the city but this is contrast with the dirty sidewalks and evident poverty on other areas. Paris is also very expensive.

Notre Dame

The Eiffel Tower

On Thursday our bus took us on a short journey 3 hours east to Brugge, Belgium. We checked in about midday and later that afternoon hired bikes. We rode past windmills and visited some parks before trying some traditional Belgium chocolate, fries and of course beer.

Frites

We had read about a city near Brugge; Ghent. Lonely planet had once dubbed it the most under rated city in Europe. They weren't wrong, it was scattered with medieval buildings and free flowing canals. That night Mel and I enjoyed a pizza and some beers by a canal back in Brugge.














Saturday was our final day in Brugge, but before we left Mel and I braved the 366 stairs to the top of Bell tower. When we made it to the top we were greeted with beautiful view of the city, a good way to spend our last moments in Belgium.

Viva España

Spain is on a different level to the rest of Europe. It's vibrant, full of colour and down to earth.

I'll start with the food and drink.

Alcohol is cheap. The beer of choice is San Miguel. For a pint of cerveza (beer) from a supermarket I'd only have to pay a mere €.60, and if I wanted it from a bar it would set me back about €1.50 but this would normally include some tapas such as chorizo or olives to nibble at. 

Tapas is very popular in Spain. Most commonly it's some sort of meat in a small dish, such as chorizo. Another popular tapas is 'patatas bravas'. They are basically wedges covered in a red and white sauce. Tapas hoping from bar to bar, eating one dish at each place is definitely the way to do eat tapas!

In the north of Spain it was more likely to see Pinchos served; very similar to tapas only smaller and eaten with toothpicks. Mel and I certainly ate our fare share of Pinchos in San Sebastian. We found a seafood bar; 'Mejillones', meaning mussels in English and ordered 'Tigres'; mussels covered in a spicy sauce served with bread. It was the best seafood I'd ever eaten. To me the bar opitimised the Spanish way of dining; people yelling over each other trying to order, loud, lively, fast and served with beer.

Now for the people and their way of life. Spain is on another schedule. People get up late, work for a few hours, sleep some more then work until about 8 or 9pm before eating dinner at about 10 or 11pm. It wasn't uncommon for Mel and I to walk down almost deserted streets during the middle of the day while the rest of Spain was having a siesta.

Spain also knows how to party, and of course they do this very late. Mel and I would go out for a meal at midnight, have a few drinks then head to a bar about 2am and before we knew it the sun would be coming up. The pub crawls in Spain don't even start until 1.30am! The Spanish are a very proud people. Wine is the best example of this. In Australia as you know we drink wines from all over the world, but the Spanish refuse to drink anything but Spanish wine. Even though they know its terrible wine, they still serve it everywhere but drink it with lemonade to make it taste better, even at the most fancy restaurants!

Finally Barcelona has some of the worlds best skate spots. I took a day off sight seeing to go skating. I traveled along the yellow metro line and went to 6 of the best spots Id ever skated in about 4 hours. I'm looking forward to skating a lot more of Barcelona with Joe and Ali!

Spanish cities are trying to be trendy or stylish, they are effortlessly cool and have more style than any other place I've ever been to. You walk down any street in Spain and hear chatter, the clinking of glasses, see bars pouring out on to the street with people and the smell of coffee brewing. Its a very lively country.

With trips to Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian and San Vincente Spain has been my highlight so far!

Local football, Madrid

Mel's Truffle 

San Miguel Markets 

Bull Fight, Barcelona

Barcelona

San Vicente 

Cafe boredom

San Vicente

3 nights in the Swiss Alps

Mel and I made a quick trip to Switzerland via bus from Nice. After Cinque Terre we stayed the night in Nice, France before making our way to Lauterbrunnen in the south west of Switzerland.

We arrived late on a Thursday night and fell asleep after playing a few rounds of cards with our Kiwi roommates. The next morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the Swiss Alps. Our campsite was in a valley, between two mountains and adjacent a waterfall.

It was a great change from the hot weather and at times eccentric Italians; we found the Swiss to be much more polite and conservative! Mel and I got the chance to go hiking, paragliding, to visit a waterfall (Trummelbach Falls) and of course buy Swiss Army Knifes!

The Mcdonald's Eurosaver Menu

What I've been surviving on



It's really a Godsend. Mel and I have spent many an evening dining on a €1 meal.

Ciao

Mel and I just finished up 2 weeks in Italy with visits to Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan and Lake Como, however there is one place in the north of Italy I cant speak highly enough of; the Cinque Terre region.

Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It´s in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of La Spezia city where our bus dropped us off. The region is composed of five villages; Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Mel and I had accomidation in Riomaggiore with an amazing view of the town and port. We stayed with another couple from Australia; Ali and Alex, who became good friends of ours.

Riomaggiore 

We spent the next few days swimming and jumping off rocks by the port, drinking beers on our balcony while watching the sunset and and hiking our way through the 5 towns along the coast with Ali and Alex.















Above is a  map of the region which shows the 5 towns we hiked through (Riomaggiore to Monterosso)

This hike ended up taking about 10 hours and covered some very rough terrain but the beach at the last town; Monterosso made it all worthwhile.

After spending time in Italy I've come up with some pros and cons for the country shaped like a boot.

PROS

• The Coffee! In most places you can get coffee for only €1 when you drink at the bar (if you sit down they charge about €4!), and this coffee is amazing. There is no water, just coffee and milk. There is certainly a 'coffee culture' in Italy and its evident when you walk into a cafe and its packed with Italian men lining up to get their fix.
• Free pouring of alcohol; they don't measure they just pour until they feel there is enough alcohol in the glass, and often its more than enough.
• Street drinking is legal, or at least I think so.
• Of course the pizza and pasta. There is an abundance of side markets selling slices of pizza big enough to feed a family; all for only €2.
• Late dinners; often Mel and I would go for a meal after 11pm.
• Beautiful piazzas (squares) in every city.

CONS

• Bad driving; Italian drivers are terrible! They certainly don't know how to park either.. many times I witnessed people double parking, parking people in or parking on a curb, this just wouldn't fly in Australia!
• Stairs. Italy is the land of stairs, you cant go anywhere without having to walk up about ten flights of stairs; the train station, hostels, and having a huge backpack on doesn't make it any easier!
• The main cities are packed with tourists, but I suppose you cant escape them in any major city in Europe. 
• Italy is expensive 

The view from Michelangelo's Piazza

A cafe in Orvieto

Gondola's on Grand Canal

We arrived in Athens dazed and confused after a two day commute from Dublin. Our first impression of Athens wasn’t great, there had been a taxi strike leaving us stranded at the airport. We eventually managed to jump on a bus headed for the Port, and our ferry to Santorini.














We arrived in Santorini on a Monday night where we were greeted by Stavros, who owned the hostel we were staying at; Stavros Villas. This place was great, we had a spacious room by the pool.

The next day we hired a quad bike, this would be our transport for the next few days. I really found it hard driving on the right side of the road! We then made our way into Fira, the centre of Santorini, and found a bar with a view of the coastline.

Later that day we drove up to Oia (north of Santorini centre) to get a good view of the sunset, unfortunately about 1000 other people had the same idea!

We spent our time in Santrorini visiting beaches and wandering around the Fira town centre admiring the coastline and the beautiful white buildings. Before leaving Mel described Santorini as 'one of the most beautiful places on earth', I'd have to agree.
































On Thursday morning we made our way to Ios, a.k.a Party Island. We checked into our hostel and had a few drinks by the pool. Again we hired out a quad bike and visited a few more beaches. In the afternoon we swung by Ios's main beach; Mytopolas, before having our first of many Souvlakis. If ever in Greece I highly recommend one!

We headed out later that night into the town centre where we drunk with hundreds of other people in Ios's main square. Unfortunately I peaked a little early that night.

The next day we relaxed at the beach before heading out once again. After plenty of shots and 3 souvlakis we made it home at 6am.

We had an early rise the next morning to catch our ferry back to Athens, where we spent that night. That was our Greek experience.