Sound of Music, Salsa dancing and Sculptures

Well, I have had a lot of adventures since my last blog. So where was I? Well, I believe last post I was bored out of my brains in the middle of nowhere in Austria. I left this place refreshed and ready to take on the world and headed straight to Salzburg, the home of the Sound of Music and classical music. The city was beautiful with huge baroque buildings surrounded by mountains; I felt like I had stepped into the 18th century, or some time around there. I also found out this stage, after not using it for 3 weeks, that my bank card had expired. It seems no matter how prepared you are, things like this will always pop up. I think I need to interrupt this blog to say that I have the best mum in the world. She jumped into action straight away at home and made sure that I wasn't without cash for too long. That night I had to find somewhere to watch Holland play Uruguay, so on a recommendation from the hostel I found a huge Oktoberfest-style beer hall inside a monastery with huge steins of beer and a massive screen. I met a friendly group of Israeli guys who bought me some massive beers, and then after the fantastic game (which Holland won) we found a salsa night club. Yes, I went salsa dancing in Salzburg with some Israelis. Just another day in the world of backpacking.

The next day I did the Sound of Music tour, since everyone on Facebook told me it simply had to be done. The tour was led by a lady wearing a Julie Andrews style hill-twirling costume who took us to many places where the movie was filmed such as the huge house they lived in, the lake they fell in, the gazebo where Liesel fell in love and the gardens where they sang "Do re mi". We had a good singalong on the bus to the soundtrack and that night I watched the movie itself so I could recognise all the places. I really forgot how much I love that movie. I swear for the next week I had all the songs on repeat in my head.

Next stop was a town called Innsbruck right in the Austrian Alps. I arrived at this town and it was the first time I had arrived anywhere without pre-booking. I think it will surely be the last. Apparently there were some medical exams going on, so the whole place was booked out by students. Just my luck. So I spent 3 hours frantically calling place after place on the Internet before I finally found a rather expensive room a little out of town, but conveniently located at the foot of the alps. Relieved that I wasn't going to have to spend the night sleeping in a train station or park bench, I had a well-earnt bath and then collapsed into my large and expensive double bed. The next day I caught a cable car halfway up the mountains, then hiked to the summit. The view was well worth it. I felt on top of the world and even spotted a wild mountain goat. As I was descending, however, I went a bit off the beaten track and ended up almost rock climbing, but without the safety of a harness. There were a few hairy moments where the rocks got a bit slippery and as I watched some loose rocks fall the 600m or so down the mountain I decided it was time to go back the way I came. I don't think my travel insurance covers stupidity.

So from Innsbruck I caught a long overnight train to Rome, back to Italy, where I would be meeting up with Fi and Shelley. I was excited but completely exhausted, yet somehow I couldn't seem to get any sleep on the 10 hour train ride. Maybe it had something to do with the school and scout groups that were all over the train. But I made it to Rome and checked into a camping site about 20 minutes out from the city centre where a friend of Fi's welcomed me and I gratefully fell into a deep sleep under a tree by the pool. That night I had dinner with Katrina (Fi's friend) and her family, a good old fashioned aussie BBQ with sausages and kebabs. It was pure bliss. The next day I awoke to find that Fi and Shelley had arrived and we kept hugging because I simply couldn't believe they were really there. We caught the train into town for Fi and Shelley's first Italian meal, during which a pigeon thought it would be funny to poo on Fi's head and in our drinks. Well, they do say it's good luck. Welcome to Rome. We then did a bit of shopping, as girls tend to do when they get together, especially when every shop window is shouting "Saldi!" (sales). We threw our coins into the magnificent Trevi fountain, then we went back to laze by the pool and get ready for the World Cup final between Holland and Spain. Unfortunately it was a ridiculously boring game and the outcome was disappointing and Fi and Shelley were struggling to keep their eyes open, so we went to bed, as we had an early start in the morning to get to the Vatican.

We had a booking for 8:30 for the Vatican museum. So we left at 7:30 to catch the train. But the train had other ideas. Let me tell you a bit about public transport in Rome. They consist of rickety old trains covered in graffiti and with no air conditioning and they are usually so packed that you can't get a seat. This is an issue when every day is 40 degrees. And when the train decides to stop for 10 minutes at every stop and then even in between; which is what this train did. Everyone was looking pretty frazzled, fanning themselves and then finally someone knocked on the train driver's cabin and asked what the deal was in Italian. Only then did an announcement come over the speaker, and it mustn't have said anything reassuring because everyone groaned. I asked a man what it said and he replied "They are having technical difficulties". Well duh. So what should have been a 20 min train ride took us an hour and we didn't get to the Vatican until 9:30. Luckily our booking still held, because the queue was already about 1 kilometre long as it weaved around the city walls in the hot sun (I am not even exaggerating). I was definitely glad to pay the extra 4 euro booking fee to skip that queue. I felt a bit like VIPs getting into an exclusive club. Except that this club was full of sculptures and religious artwork and the Sistine Chapel. Amazing yet totally overwhelming.

We then went to see St Peter's Basilica and climbed the 320 steps to the top for an amazing view of Rome. The church itself was by far the most amazing I have seen, with such intricate detail in every square inch of wall and you sort of had to wonder at the decadence and power of the Catholic Church. Shelley and I got a photo with the Swiss guards who made sure we kept a healthy distance and then we decided it was time for some of the best gelati Rome had to offer. Katrina took us to a place which was so packed you couldn't even read the flavours, but it was definitely some of the best gelati I've had.

The next day Shelley and I went to see the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We got a summary of over 2000 years of Roman history in about ten minutes and we stood at the top of the Colosseum just staring at the very place where years before people watched as slaves were eaten alive by exotic animals. And I thought human kind was messed up nowadays. That night we went out for dinner with Katrina and then went out for a few drinks. We met a very interesting character as we were downing our Mojitos... he looked like he was trying to be Axl Rose from Guns n Roses and he was surely wearing more make up than the 3 of us combined. He was also generously tattooed and kept us entertained all night with his anecdotes. On the way home, I suddenly became very fluent in Italian and chatted to our taxi driver all the way home in what I thought was perfecto Italiano.

Soooo, we shopped, ate and drank our way through the Rome heat, but after 3 days, it was time to part ways with Fi and Shelley again and move on to my next destination; Naples, then the Amalfi coast. Stay tuned for more adventures... it only gets more exciting. :)

xxxxxooooo Meg

Dobro Došli u Croatia

You may want to get a tea of coffee and get comfortable for this one, it's been a while between blog posts.

After finding my green thumbs in the Umbrian soil and farewelling my kind hosts, I ventured up to Verona to reunite with my long lost sister Beth. The city that inspired Shakespeare's tale of two households was an old and beautiful town and we visited the alleged balcony where Juliet allegedly called out to her Romeo. We were met at the hostel by a lovely and enthusiastic Italian lady who looked after us for the two nights we were there. After Verona, we both decided we wanted to get out of the cities for a while, so we randomly caught a train up to Bolzano, a small town at the foot of the Dolomites in Northern Italy. In fact, it was so northern it pretty much felt like Austria. We did a walk in the mountains after catching a cable car up and we half expected to hear someone yodelling or Julie Andrews twirling around in a grass field. The rocky Dolomites themselves still had snow on top, so we couldn't go right up there, but they looked cool, kind of scary and misty like something out of Lord of the Rings.

We then caught a train to Venice, a labyrinth city of crazy canals and narrow alleyways. It was a little surreal walking around the city you've seen so many times before in movies. It was our last stop in Italy, so after wandering the streets (getting lost more times than I can count), testing out the bar scene, eating our weight in pizza, calzone and gelati and scamming a few free rides on the waterbus (not to mention a "free" night at the hostel), Bonnie and Clyde aka Beth and Megan boarded a bus to our next adventure: destination Croatia.

I really didn't know much about Croatia before getting there, just that heaps of travelers had told us it was beautiful. So we disembarked at Pula not quite knowing what to expect. We walked for what seemed like forever to our hostel with our backpacks, getting accosted by old Croatian ladies who barely spoke English to see if we wanted to rent a room from them. We walked past an old Roman colisseum then up some gruelling steps to finally be greeted warmly by the lovely Croatian lady called Gordana who ran the hostel. After the tourist circus that is Italy, it was nice to stay somewhere relatively quiet and with the most motherly lady - she was so hospitable and welcoming, we didn't want to leave - "For me this is not job" she says "This is my passion, I love to meet the young people". So we booked three extra nights and proceeded to lie on the beach, sunbake, swim and lie on the beach every day. We also did a day trip to Rovinj, one hour north to lie on the beach, sunbake, swim and lie on the beach. Although, in Rovinj it was a little harder to enjoy the view of the islands and crystal clear waters as we were kind of distracted by all the nude people sunbaking, fishing and lying on the beach. Apparently there was a nudist island nearby, but I think some people had lost their way.

So then we farewelled Gordana ("I will miss you so much" she said) and moved on to Zadar, a lively student town with more crystal clear water. We were fascinated by the "sea organ" which was a set of steps with holes in them and somehow the wind and sea made a sound like a huge wood pipe crossed with a whale call... it was such a cool sound, but it took us a long time to figure out where it was coming from. We had the best gelati in all of Europe here (well, maybe) and watched the worst movie in the world (Sex and the City 2). Coming out of the cinema we nearly forgot we were in Croatia for a while. There are times like that where I have to pinch myself and remember that I am actually in Europe and all my family and friends are over the other side of the world. It's a bit crazy.

Next was Plitvice National Park, a place that could have come out of a mythical land like Lord of the Rings or something. Massive waterfalls, green moss, trees and bushes everywhere and the clearest bluest lakes you have ever seen. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but Beth took heaps of photos. That night we went to a Croatian music concert in "town" where people were crowded around to watch geriatric rock bands and barbie doll girls lip sync their way through the night. They weren't even convincing... the guitar and bass weren't even plugged in. But it was a great experience nonetheless. An accordion player was the highlight of the night, playing his way through a medley of rock songs with a cheesy smile on his face the whole time. Beth and I decided it was official: accordions were now sexy.

We then missed a bus to Split... actually, the bus missed us, just deciding not to stop for some unknown reason... from where we caught a ferry to Hvar Island. Here we got some more chillout time and met some cool people to watch the World Cup with. Unfortunately, the Australian vs. Germany game was just embarrassing, so we went to some bars to drown our sorrows. The next day a group of us hired a little boat with a motor tacked on the back to explore another island. The guy who suggested it had never driven a boat, but the owner of the hostel agreed to hire it to us anyway. But the smile faded from his face as he watched our Captain crash into two moored boats and the jetty before getting out of the harbour. He seemed very relieved 6 hours later when we pulled back in without scraping anything and with the boat in one piece.

So now I am in Dubrovnik, a nice little town with some more beautiful beaches and islands. The hostel is once again the epitome of Croatin hospitality with a motherly woman named Milka who serves us all breakfast every morning and calls us her beautiful children. I really do love Croatian people. Yesterday we did a day trip to Montenegro - you know, another day, another country - and did some snorkelling and cruising around. But once again I am parted from my sister for a while. She goes onto Greece and I am about to board a bus to Austria, where I have lined up some volunteer work at a hotel in the Alps. They need someone young and fit to lead some hiking tours and serve some food. And I need to stop in one place and relax for a while, as I am feeling a little burnt out and am starting to take some of these amazing sights for granted.

Halfway home,
Megan