Imagine the perfect little english town - a sleepy place, at the very end of the underground line - as far from London as you can be without being inaccessible. The narrow laneways all lined with small brick houses, overflowing gardens both out front and back. Neighbours talking along the high street where the children address their school teacher as miss and are visibly stealing from the local market. People sit reading the local paper, others pass walking the dog, all with a friendly hello. You catch snippets of conversation - all including the latest soap, the royal family, gardening, and neighbouring villages.
But then you realize that you must be playing into some sort of stereotype and can English towns really be That different from Canadian ones? And if anything - there can't be that much to say about the royal family!
But then you come to Chesham - indeed the end of the metro line, settled snuggly on the hill between Amersham and Berhamstead - the perfect little sleepy English town. Where the neighbours do have you over for dinner, and I eating more than I've eaten in the past week sleepily listened to conversation about Gardening, their family and neighbours, the best markets and restaurants in the dozen surrounding villages and of course the Royal Family (And the weight they have lost!).
And not far from London, its made for a good weekend. Two days to catch up on sleeping and journaling in Chesham, and a weekend of royal gardens, art museums (the tate was Amazing!) and theatre in the city. Saturday was Havana Rakatan - a night of Cuban dancing, and Monday will be the matine of the ballet of Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House and for the evening we are going to see Wicked! Plus tonight we are going to "Shake your booty" at the local pub George and Dragon for the bank holiday. All the pubs here have two names - george & dragon, the booth & slipper, and rabbit & hare.... but I'll be getting my true English pub experience!
May 20, 2008
Detour to Hungary
I met a girl from Halifax in Venice last Saturday who was staying in the same hostel, which hasn't technically opened, and due to a series of odd coincidences and mishaps we ended up spending the Saturday together. Someone gave us a bottle of wine that night and we had a very entertaining walk home across Venice convinced that we'd most likely fall into a canal and die - but since it was the ideal way to go, we ventured out and eventually did make it through the winding streets to our hostel where for the first time ever we managed to get the old door open (we were staying in a little apartment above a pharmacy).
Venice - the city of winding narrow cobblestone streets and criss crossing canals is the most beautiful city in the world. The narrow streets are either full of tourists, or completely empty with only rare sightings of locals. Never knowing what your going to come across around the next corner - a canal, dead end, small courtyard, running water pump, streets filled with hanging laundry or bustling market - it was the perfect city to just wander and get lost in. In the outer districts, the melancholic streets are even narrower, often reaching dead ends at a canal. With no grassy area the only plant life is the abundance of flowers and ivy spilling over the walls or the wrought iron balconies and window boxes. There's definitely no lack of colour and life. The buildings, packed together, are all deep colours and the ground floors filled with small gelaterias, snack bars and cafe's. The islands nearby that I visited - Burano and Mozzorpo are reminisce of small retirement/fishing villages. Every building is brightly painted - pinks, purples, red, green, blues, orange, or yellow. The little old couples sit outside their front doors, and people stroll along the shoreline.
After Venice we decided that since we were both worried about whether we are going to get to Hungary later on in our travels we would just go there on Tuesday. so we took an overnight train to Budapest. Which was really incredibly fun. Except for the border crossings at Slovenia and Croatia where they woke us up at 4 in the morning to check our passports. My favourite thing about Budapest is the surprising find that it is made up of two main districts - Buda and Pest! (as well as a third called Obuda, the hilly suburbs). I spent the two days here just wandering and coming across the monuments interspersed throughout the large city. Also exciting here was our lunch on the first day - we actually sat down in a restaurant and ordered food which was quite different from the usual panini or pizza on the street. Parts of Budapest look like any commercial city, parts are filled with old medieval lanes and Gothic architecture wonderful for wandering through. From the high castle hill I watched the sun set over Buda and had a wonderful view of the light reflecting off the commercial district of Pest across the river.
Since Budapest I've been traveling a lot, and spending less time in places, we came back to Italy on another overnight train, spent one night in Verona - the city of Romeo and Juliet, then went to Bologna, Pisa, and spent a disastrous night in Sienna.
Venice - the city of winding narrow cobblestone streets and criss crossing canals is the most beautiful city in the world. The narrow streets are either full of tourists, or completely empty with only rare sightings of locals. Never knowing what your going to come across around the next corner - a canal, dead end, small courtyard, running water pump, streets filled with hanging laundry or bustling market - it was the perfect city to just wander and get lost in. In the outer districts, the melancholic streets are even narrower, often reaching dead ends at a canal. With no grassy area the only plant life is the abundance of flowers and ivy spilling over the walls or the wrought iron balconies and window boxes. There's definitely no lack of colour and life. The buildings, packed together, are all deep colours and the ground floors filled with small gelaterias, snack bars and cafe's. The islands nearby that I visited - Burano and Mozzorpo are reminisce of small retirement/fishing villages. Every building is brightly painted - pinks, purples, red, green, blues, orange, or yellow. The little old couples sit outside their front doors, and people stroll along the shoreline.
After Venice we decided that since we were both worried about whether we are going to get to Hungary later on in our travels we would just go there on Tuesday. so we took an overnight train to Budapest. Which was really incredibly fun. Except for the border crossings at Slovenia and Croatia where they woke us up at 4 in the morning to check our passports. My favourite thing about Budapest is the surprising find that it is made up of two main districts - Buda and Pest! (as well as a third called Obuda, the hilly suburbs). I spent the two days here just wandering and coming across the monuments interspersed throughout the large city. Also exciting here was our lunch on the first day - we actually sat down in a restaurant and ordered food which was quite different from the usual panini or pizza on the street. Parts of Budapest look like any commercial city, parts are filled with old medieval lanes and Gothic architecture wonderful for wandering through. From the high castle hill I watched the sun set over Buda and had a wonderful view of the light reflecting off the commercial district of Pest across the river.
Since Budapest I've been traveling a lot, and spending less time in places, we came back to Italy on another overnight train, spent one night in Verona - the city of Romeo and Juliet, then went to Bologna, Pisa, and spent a disastrous night in Sienna.
May 16, 2008
Only Me
OK, I'm ready to blog - For finally the anxiety has subsided and slowly been replaced by the adventurous spirit. That said there was definitely cause for anxiety. Upon arrival in Paris I had a complete panic attack in the airport because I mistakingly thought that I had left my eurail pass at home. It took me well over an hour to make it into Paris, and the series of mishaps continued... the trains were full for the next couple days so I was stranded in Paris and wouldn't make it to Italy. The hostel was on the sketchiest of corners and I picked up a stalker who found me every time I left the place and refused to leave my side. When not with me - he sold Marlborough's on the street corner. (in all fairness - after wandering Paris the next day I did decide I enjoy the city)
I spent all of Tuesday on a train to Florence Italy. Upon arriving I was lost, misdirected by the police officer and about five others. Eventually I found my hostel and for once relaxed being able to speak english when I met girls from Vancouver. My last day in Florence, after getting up early to go to the Uffizi so I could skip the long lines I was kicked out of my hostel. Luckily I did find another hostel for my last night, but it was far from the Florence train station, and because of my late start i ended up waiting for 3 hours to get into the gallery.
Once I reached Venice I needed to be anxiety free, so I planned on staying there for quite a while. Luckily things worked out surprisingly well and it is here that the anxiety began to subside. Although the Sospiri hostel was under construction and not technically opened, I managed to get checked in when someone met me at the hostel. When another girl showed up no one met her but I happened to be walking by and together we got a drunken man to figure out how to use my key to get in and called the main hostel - a venice fish.
And besides our difficulties getting into the hostel (every time) and the shower that was held together with masking tape, Venice was the most amazing city I've ever visited...
I spent all of Tuesday on a train to Florence Italy. Upon arriving I was lost, misdirected by the police officer and about five others. Eventually I found my hostel and for once relaxed being able to speak english when I met girls from Vancouver. My last day in Florence, after getting up early to go to the Uffizi so I could skip the long lines I was kicked out of my hostel. Luckily I did find another hostel for my last night, but it was far from the Florence train station, and because of my late start i ended up waiting for 3 hours to get into the gallery.
Once I reached Venice I needed to be anxiety free, so I planned on staying there for quite a while. Luckily things worked out surprisingly well and it is here that the anxiety began to subside. Although the Sospiri hostel was under construction and not technically opened, I managed to get checked in when someone met me at the hostel. When another girl showed up no one met her but I happened to be walking by and together we got a drunken man to figure out how to use my key to get in and called the main hostel - a venice fish.
And besides our difficulties getting into the hostel (every time) and the shower that was held together with masking tape, Venice was the most amazing city I've ever visited...
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