Well we didn’t make it into Rome on the first day we decided to hang out at the campsite and continue relaxing.
We headed into Rome the next day and walked from the train station to the Colosseum via the back streets, this took about 2 hours. We sat near the Colosseum waiting for the sun to set (as you can see from the photos).
The next day we decided to visit the Catacombes, the tombs of the Christians and Romans. After our lack of exercise and overeating in Macedonia we decided walking would be better option. Without a detailed map we set out on our expedition. All was good until we reached the first Catacombe, St. Calisto, there was a gate that was open, a car had just passed through. We walked through this gate and headed up the hill, the sign said 900m. As we passed the top of the hill we noticed another sign saying that the Catacombe was closed on Wednesdays!! The place was looking awfully quiet; we walked to the side gate which was bolted shut. We looked over the wall but the road was a drop of about 3 metres, we thought we might be locked in this place forever!! We decided to continue walking away from the first gate and reached the other end to find another gate which was also closed, although this one had an intercom so without any other option we pressed the red button, after a few seconds the gate swung open….. okay that wasn’t hard!!
We passed through these gates to find ourselves at the Catacombe of St. Sebastian, which was OPEN!! As we walked into the ticket area a staff member told us that the last English guided tour was about to start if we wanted to purchase tickets. We bought our tickets and joined the back of the line, about 20 people.
We followed the group down the first set of steps and along the passage, but started to fall behind as we looked into adjoining rooms and passages. As we rounded the next bend the guide was standing there saying “why are you so far back, you’re suppose to be with the group”, we felt like we were back at school getting told off. The young Canadians who were also detouring with us found this quite funny especially when the guide asked if anyone was missing!!
The Catacombe was quite interesting but there were no dead bodies, they had been removed previously. Sorry no photos were allowed in the Catacombe so you’ll just have to visit them for yourself.
We decided that our walk to the Catacombe wasn’t too bad and headed back on foot.
The next day we packed up our van and headed to Venice in the northern part of Italy.
 
 
Posted 1 year ago at 9:06 am. Add a comment
Well, we’re back in Rome! Not disappointed about that at all. I love the campground here and I am looking forward to seeing Rome at night. Something we haven’t yet done.
It’s officially been 6 weeks since we left home and I am certainly getting into this camping thing. We think about everyone back home a lot and along our travels we have seen so many reminders of family and friends. I have tried to capture it… some examples; Stephanie – a hotel in your name ‘Palace Stephanie’ on the French Riviera; Aneta – a road sign in Italy on our way to Pompeii ‘Anche’; Vicky – a shop in Bitola called ‘Vicko’; Alex – a statue of Alexander the Great in a Rome museum; Merita – a detergent or spray called ‘Merito’ – sorry didn’t have my camera for this one!
Thanks to everyone who has posted on our blog. We do read them all and I get so excited when I see that someone has posted a message. So keep us updated too!
It has been too long since our last post and I can list a range of reasons (excuses) why we haven’t, but who can be bothered about reading that. I will work backwards and give you an update on our journey so far.
I am sitting here surrounded by the shade of very large trees in approximately 28 degrees. I can hear the trees rustling gently in the breeze. It’s quite peaceful. I am also being eaten alive by insects and have sprayed myself with ‘Off’ to keep them away, not working for the giant ants! (they’re not that big Violeta).
Most people staying at the campsite have gone into Rome; today we’re happy to take it easy and head into the city tonight. We attempted a sleep in today but got woken by the hot sun (9am).
Yesterday we flew back into Rome via Tivat, Montenegro from Skopje, Macedonia. We had to get up at 4am to get to the ‘Aerodrome’ (as they call it) by around 5am. That was fine…. Having only 3 hours sleep and a 7 hour stop in a tiny airport in Tivat was not good! We finally boarded our delayed flight to Rome.
Once we arrived in Rome we discovered that our backpacks that we checked in at Skopje did not come through the baggage collection. We stood there for over an hour waiting. We stood in line at the customer care counter where we started filling out details of our missing bags. We tried to explain to the lady that there was an earlier flight that the bags could have been on. She told us to have a look in their storage and what did we find there? Our BAGS!!!! Thank goodness. We collected our van and drove to the campsite arrive just before 8pm. I am hoping all our bad luck is behind us.
MACEDONIA – (PHOTOS)
We spent over 7 days in Macedonia and it was fabulous! We would not have gone if the Petrovski’s weren’t there (Cousins from Melbourne). I had so much fun, here is a list of some of the things we did
*Making ice-cream with Belinda and Melissa
*Being entertained by taxi drivers
*Laughing so much that I cried
*Discovering all the delicious food like ‘Makalo’ (a watery yogurt and garlic dip), donuts, fresh lemonade and all the meats – BBQ, Smoked, Skewered.
*Visiting my Dedo’s grave (Grandpa) and freaking out because it was the only site that was overgrown in the whole cemetery.
*Being amazed by the age of the Archaeological site “Heraclea” in Bitola – 600 B.C.
*Feeling how cold the water is in the “Little Lake” in Ohrid and finding out that it is always between 8-11 degrees.
*Walking along the Korzo (main street in Bitola – only pedestrians) and visualising my mum as a little girl playing in these streets.
*Meeting family and discovering how kind and friendly they all are.
*Seeing the contrast of big modern city Skopje and traditional historic small Bitola.
After all the trouble we went through to get to Macedonia, it was definitely worth it! You’re probably wondering …trouble? Well yes! If there is one thing I have learnt about on this trip it is that you can never account for anything (You’ll have to keep reading).
POMPEII – 25/07/09
After leaving Rome around the 21st July, we travelled down to Sorrento a small costal town on the west coast of Italy (full of crazy scooter riders). We spent a couple of nights there and did a day trip to Pompeii. It was pretty amazing to see a civilisation frozen in time. A volcano buried the city around 76 AD and preserved it, as it would have been all those years ago. My most memorable moment is seeing the plaster casts of some of the victims.
OUR ADVENTURE TO MACEDONIA – 26/07/09
We left Sorrento and headed to Bari, a port on the lower east coast of Italy. We arrived at around 5pm (about a 4 hr drive) and bought our Ferry tickets to Durres in Albania. The ferry left at 11pm and we slept uncomfortably across several chairs through the night. We woke at 7am and got off the boat at around 8am.
When we went through boarder control (customs) they asked us for our green card for the van (they spoke very little English). We didn’t have anything to show them apart from a copy of our highway insurance and our contract with Wicked. After waiting 2 hours and not getting any assistance, the officer finally signed us through (with the help of another local) and we were off on our merry way.
We drove for 3 hours through Tirane and its mountain ranges avoiding pot holes along the way. Some of the views were breathtaking, and others, well, very poverty stricken and full of gypsy kids. We reached the Macedonian border and are met with more difficulty. They too were asking us for the green card – essentially rego papers – something we did not have in our possession. We were told that we could enter Macedonia, but our vehicle could not. AND to top it off, they suggested that we park it on the Albanian side and travel in via taxi. Did I mention that this place is full of beggars? The guard on the Albanian side was very helpful, letting us use his mobile phone to contact Wicked as our phones didn’t have reception. We managed to get Wicked to fax us through some paperwork, but as we thought Maco wouldn’t accept a non original (we weren’t even sure if we had the correct paperwork). The Albanian guard even offered to let us park our van at his house…a little dodgy we thought. We gave him money for the phone and had no other choice but to try and return to Italy that night.
We did the long journey back to Durres Port arriving about 6pm. Fortunately for us there was a 9pm ferry which we booked. We even had to get the young girl from the ferry booking place to send a sms to my cousins in Maco to let them know why we hadn’t arrived (we couldn’t find a public phone throughout Albania).
Another 10 hour ferry trip but this time we booked a cabin and managed to get some good sleep. We thankfully arrived back in Bari and spent a day trying to find a way to get to Macedonia without our van. We went to a travel agent who couldn’t speak English and asked her to check for flights to Skopje, Macedonia. She was a travel agent working in Europe and she didn’t know where Skopje or Macedonia was!!!!
In the end we booked flights (Rome to Skopje) ourselves in an internet café and got a free show at the same time. We were ready to go when a lady aged about 30 came in and had a physical and verbal fight with the man working there. They exchanged many heated words which unfortunately – or fortunately – we could not understand. He even called the police! (we got out of there before they arrived).
We left Bari at 4pm and headed towards Rome. We spent the night at a servo on the toll road and headed towards a campsite closer to the airport in the morning. We thought we left our bad luck in Albania, but it followed us to Rome. What was meant to be a 40 min drive turned out to be over 3 hours. Rome’s ring road was gridlocked! I choose not to go toilet at the servo thinking that we would be at the campsite in 40 mins, but it didn’t turn out that way. We finally detoured and made our way to the campsite according to the GPS and map only to discover that there is no such campground. We circled for another 40 mins and asked for help and found that there was one, 10 km away. We checked in, showered, ate and tried to relax (what a stressful 48hrs).
We had an early morning flight to Beograd (1hr), Serbia and a 3 hour stop over, we met an aussie so we weren’t too bored. We then hopped on a smallish propeller plane (about 50 seats) to Skopje (another 1 hr flight). We were lucky to be greeted by Jenny, Vlade and his nephew Sasho who drove us quite quickly to Bitola (about 2 hours).
ROME – 20/07/09- 24/07/09 – (PHOTOS)
Before Pompeii, were spent 3 ½ days in Rome. It was fabulous. We got a ‘Roma Pass’ which entitled us to 3 days of public transport, entry to 2 sites, skipping the very long queues, and half price entry to most other sites. Some of the things we saw and did were;
*Trevi Fountain – stunning! We threw in 1 coin each. Apparently the saying goes, throw in one coin and you will return to Rome! Need I say more?
*Colosseum – spectacular. It’s hard to imagine that without the technology we have today that this huge arena was built 2000 years ago.
*Museum Romano – ancient artefacts and sculptures from 4000 B.C.
*Spanish Steps – they’re steps, watching the dodgy men with roses trying to scam people by putting them in young women’s hands and demanding money from them or their partners (was interesting though).
*Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.
*Pantheon – again, 2000 years old and still so well preserved.
*Vatican city – walking up 500+ steps is fun!
*Eating Pizza in front of the Trevi Fountain.
PISA and FLORENCE – 18/07/09 – 19/07/09 – (PHOTOS)
We didn’t spend too much time at Pisa. We arrived in the evening at around 7pm after many hours of driving from the French Riviera. We had to see this famous landmark. It looked like a giant wedding cake to me. It has a lean of 4 degrees and at its most a lean of 5 degrees which deemed it unstable. We chose not to walk to the top because I thought that the best view would be from outside. After taking way too many photo’s we headed towards Florence and stayed on the toll road at a servo overnight. Early morning we set off to see the city of Firenze aka Florence. We waited in line for 2 hours at 11am to see Michelangelo’s statue of David. Although I was going berserk waiting in line, it was quite amazing to see the amount of detail and perfection in the creation. I think we stood there and sat there for about 30 mins just looking at it trying to ingrain it in my memory. There was a vein in his forearm and one in his neck. It was amazing to think that this statue was done with only one piece of marble. It was much bigger than we expected. We walked the streets and took in the sights and tried our first pizza slice. Oh my goodness! It was delicious! I couldn’t take a photo of it because I was so hungry and I gobbled it all up before it even crossed my mind! We set off to Rome after 4pm that day.
FRENCH RIVIERA – 15/7/09 – 17/07/09 – (PHOTOS)
We stayed in a town called Villenueve Lebout (so French sounding, the t is like the t in ballet). We stayed at a campsite 5 min walk to the beach along the French Riviera, which stretches from Cannes all the way through to Nice. This place was smack bang in the middle of the two. If a beach doesn’t have sand is it still a beach? This place has stones!!
We spent our first day in Cannes (about an 20min ride on the double-decker fast train – pretty cool). We had to check out the place where all the movie stars go. I even put my hands on Angelina Jolie’s handprint (her hands are quite small). We had some beach time where I stayed in the water for over an hour until I wrinkled up. We headed back home via train and Hamish had a swim on the stony beach at Villenueve Lebout.
The next day we took the bus into Nice (about an hr) and walked around the medieval part of town, which was bustling with little jewellery stores and cafes. I bought myself a ring; which I have now claimed as my European Wedding ring.
BARCELONA – 12/07/09 – 14/07/09 – (PHOTOS)
Barcelona was great because we had the company of Michelle and Logan, another couple from NZ, doing the Vantour like us. We decided that because of our limited time that it was best if we did a bus tour of the city. It was worth it as it took us everywhere. Before going to Barcelona, I hadn’t even heard of the name Gaudi. Now that name is synonymous with the place. He was an amazing architect who’s work was beyond the times. If you have a look at some of our Spain photos you will see what I mean.
Barcelona made me feel a little unsafe. However writing this now, my opinion has changed. I have been through much rougher places. Mind you, the 4 of us were standing in the underground train station when a little kid holding his mums hand knocked into mine and Hamish’s backside. We then saw the mum speaking to the kid as though she was telling him off. We looked around thinking that maybe it was busy and that is why he bumped into us, but the place was totally empty. We were aware of pick pockets in Barcelona so luckily we had nothing in our pockets to take.
SAN SEBASTIAN – 9/07/09- 10/07/09 – (PHOTOS)
This place was beautiful. Stunning beach, gorgeous old buildings and yummy Tapas! All the pubs in town serve Tapas throughout the day, finger food on plates, which you select and eat. We stayed here with Michelle and Logan and enjoyed a great meal together. We walked up the hill/mountain to where the statue of Sebastian stood. There are photos in the Spain page if you want to see.
PAMPLONA – RUNNING OF THE BULLS – 5/07/09- 8/07/09 – (PHOTOS)
Words are sometimes not enough to explain the experience we had at Pamplona. It is definitely a once in a life time event! We arrived at the Ezcaba camp site (about 5km out of town) and parked our van with the other 20+ Wicked vans.
We met Michelle and Logan and taxied it into town to buy the traditional clothing of the festival…white and red. We walked the streets of where the bulls would run the following days.
Day two changed my life…and I am lucky to be alive after that experience. The first day of the festival is kicked off with everyone waiting for the mayor of the town to announce that the festival has begun, this occurs at 12 midday. Leading up to that, everyone gathers in the square and drinks Sangria and pours Sangria onto themselves and those around. They don’t care who you are, if you are there, expect to get wet! The photo’s of this speak for themselves. I can handle getting sangria, water, beer, coke and anything else poured on me ….but what I can’t handle and didn’t expect was to be nearly crushed to death. By about 11:20am the amount of people who gathered in the square was excessive. At this stage we became stuck in the middle and did not have a choice of getting out. My arms were up against my chest to protect myself from being crushed in my ribcage. We managed to squeeze our way to the wall thinking it would be safer because before that we were pushed over 2 metres at a time, people falling over onto broken glass and losing their shoes. I became a Koala onto Hamish. I wrapped my arms around his chest so tightly so not to lose him in the crowd. There was one swell that pushed Hamish’s camera straight into my chest bone which was sore for about 3 days after. After this experience I was so drained that by the time we met up with Sonia and Kevin (friends from Melbourne) I looked freaked. My words cannot do this experience justice. It was so bad. That night Son, Kev, Hamish and Mitch (another vantour guy we met) set up a tent in the dark, it was quite funny watching people who are a bit tipsy do this. It took over an hour LOL!
Day 2 of the festival is when the bulls do their first of 7 runs. We got up at a ridiculous hour to catch the 5 am bus to get a good spot to see the bulls run. We thought we picked a good spot, but realised that the double gate was for the medics and it was all just a blur.
Day 3 we went to the arena and had the best view. Not only that, Kevin ran, so it made it even more interesting. I got some video footage at the arena, I can’t wait to watch it back.
FRANCE – 2/07/09 – 4/07/09 – (PHOTOS)
We arrived by ferry at Boulogne, France at about 7pm, remembering to keep to the right side of the road we started off on our Vantour.
We had to be in Pamplona (Spain) by the 5th July so our plan was to
drove down the west cost of France only stopping at a few places.
Our first night in France was in a gorgeous little countryside campground that was only possible to find using GPS (Did I mention that the GPS is saving out marriage???) Here I spoke French and I was understood! While we slept a thunderstorm passed overhead but cleared by morning.
We drove on and then stayed in Tours. Our first supermarket experience! Wow they are huge. Like a Coles, Kmart and Liquorland combined with a touch of ALDI, oh and a fresh fish market. Even their home brand food is high quality. Bring on the cheese and baguettes…mmm
Our next city we passed through was Bordoux. It was pretty with medieval buildings. We needed to go toilet so we scouted out a Maccas only to discover that you needed to purchase something and get a receipt with a special pin number to use the toilet. A helpful couple typed the pin in for us…who said the French are rude?
We continued on to Bayonne (along the south west coast) I had my first freak out and actually uttered the words “I want to go HOME!”
Looking back now it doesn’t seem too bad… when you navigate to a town on the GPS it takes you to the CENTRE of town. We arrived in Bayonne on a red petrol light (thinking that we could fill up in town), only to find that most of the petrol stations were closed and the “24hr” stations aren’t manned (you just use your Credit/EFTPOS card) and of course ours didn’t work!!
So trying to find a campsite we headed out of town (yes we were on a red light). Getting a little worried as the roads were narrow and dark we pulled over to contemplate what to do. As we were sitting there (at an intersection) a car came up behind us. I jumped out and luckily one of them could speak a little English, she said that all the petrol stations would be closed until morning. She said that there wasn’t a campsite nearby (we didn’t want to risk running out of petrol) so we asked if there was somewhere nearby we could park for the night. She tried to explain that there was a football field nearby and we could park there, she said for us to follow them and they would take us there. The area seemed okay and with little options we stopped for the night.
After surviving the night we set off down the road to the petrol station. We arrived to find no attendant!! A local who was pouring petrol said there was no attendant on Sundays, he said card only!! I asked if we could use his credit card and we would give him the cash, he agreed and we were on our way again to Pamplona. Since then we make sure we don’t go below a ¼ of a tank!!
Posted 1 year ago at 9:06 am. Add a comment
Click here for some of our London Photo’s
Sunday 28/06/09
We arrive in London Heathrow at 1:35pm after circling the city waiting for the pilot to get the all clear to land. What a teaser!! 10 mins in the air longer than we needed to be.
We go through to collect our bags and expect to go through customs only to discover they don’t really have customs. We are officially in London! The sight of the arrival lounge was not the best, but nonetheless we are happy we landed safely.
We take out some money and head for the tube and get our way across the city. The tube is impressive, trains arrive every 2-5 mins. If you have to wait 5 mins, then Londoners get really shitty. Oh and did I mention that it is quite hot? Sunday, Monday’s weather was like a hot humid day in QLD, and Tuesday’s was like Melb, hot and Dry.
Anyway this is how our last few days have been.
Out to dinner at a not so affluent part of London called Brixton. Had a cheap yummy asian noodle dish
Monday – 29/06/09
Go on the tube at 10:30 and check out Trafalgar Square
Walk down towards Big Ben, past parliament to the river Thames (pronounced Tems)
We snap some photos along the nice long walk by the river and see the London Eye. Very big
London Bridge, Millennium Bridge and Tower Bridge (the best of all three)
Then walk some more and make our way to St Pauls Cathedral. Wow it is huge. We get there after 6 so we sit on the steps with about 50-70 other people and watch the Ballet.
Leave at about 7 to avoid peek our only to make a 20-30 min trip back to 2 and a half hours. Get home at 9:30 starving and tired from all the walking
Tuesday – 30/06/09
Spent over 3 hours in the Imperial War Museum. Very sad, and not enough time to really absorb everything. It was information overload!
We were hungry so we got a packet of chips and water and these absolutely yummy giant chocolate M’n’M caramel tasting things and headed over to Hyde Park. We sat along the river/lake and gave our feet a rest. I went over to see Pricess Diana’s Memonrial Fountain.
We then went to Buckingham Palace and the Queen was home coz the flag was up. It is bloody massive!
Walked along Regent Street an popped into the massive Apple store for Hamish. Then walked along Oxford street and around to meet with Kim and Phillipa for dinner.
We had yummy crispy pork, Ho Fun chicken pudding thing, veggies and rice. Oh so nice!
Wednesday - 1/07/09
We pick up our van and are greatly revlieved that it isn’t so bad. Phew!
Spend the afternoon trying to navigate our way back. The GPS will save our marriage lol.
Walk around Brixton for a little then headed into the city to check out Harrods. I bought a Lonely Planet phrase book (one that I left at home 
). Then sat for a coffee and made our way back home to eat and chill out one last time before we depart for France tomorrow.
London is ….great, clean, fashionable, expensive, fast, old, new, people don’t use pedestrian crossings properly, not many cars in the inner city, police sirens are defening, humid, long daylight, que on the right when walking, lots of walking, many differnt nationalities, cerni people.
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 11:06 am. 3 comments
