tour de l'Europe...: binka

binka_boo

tour de l'Europe...

Jul 12, 2009 02:24

well, here is the long overdue europe post!

i headed out of paris on monday june 22nd, and went to agen via bordeaux to visit smange and thornae . there was a bit of a hold up in bordeaux... i was frantically looking for the train to agen and i went to ask what platform it might be on, and the man shook his head took my ticket and handed me another ticket - for an hour later. *sigh* so i range Ange, ate some pringles and read the time traveller's wife. I finally got to Agen at around 10, a half an hour late, where bruce and ange met me and took me to see their new place which we toasted with champagne! it's a cute little 2 floor place and will really suit them. then we headed to the 'mansion' where ange cooked hamburgers *nomnomnom* and bruce plied me with leffe ruby. omg that stuff is good (if you don't like 'real' beer lol). We talked late into the night, eating french brie and drinking beer, and then bruce and i swapped avi files until about 4am. oooops. he was a grumpy grump in the morning apparently! bruce and ange saw me off at around midday when i caught another train to Toulouse.

originally my not-paris leg of france was going to be nice, but the fellow at the train station who booked my tickets recommended toulouse over nice. well i still haven't seen nice, but toulouse is just lovely. i stayed in a little hotel (there are no hostels in toulouse) called hotel de taur (hotel of the bull) which was right off the capitole plaza, a huge open square which reminded me a lot of barcelona actually. the capitole itself is a massive building with a theatre, the tourist info centre, and all the local town hall stuff. behind it is a gorgeous little park. the centre of toulouse is quite a shopping area and it was sale time, so nice and busy and open late. the first day i just wandered around and took photos, taking in the style and atmosphere of the city. i went to a little restaurant down a tiny side street and had a very expensive traditional toulousian meal - a salad gourmandise, with foie gras, this sort of gizzard sausage which i almost didn't ask to identify cos it tasted great, but i knew it would be something gross, smoked duck and a spiced sausage, on a bed of salad. it was actually ridiculously filling and the foie gras in particular was super tasty. i followed this up with a cassoulet de la maison, which had a confit duck leg on the top. nomnom, though i couldn't finish the beans part of the cassoulet at all. far too full. for dessert there were prunes in wine. there were a total of 6 prunes. i could only eat one. i was so ashamed of how full i was! lol.
the next day i did a few touristy things. i went to the local top sorbet place and had violet and cherry icecream. i bought lots of violet sweets - violets are a toulousian specialty and they make everything with them. i also went to maison des violets, which is a houseboat turned into a store and cafe on the canals. here i had violet tea, very delicious and refreshing, accompanied by little violet chocolates and sugared flowers. i also went on a river and canal cruise, which was a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon. the canals are really really gorgeous, but we didn't go down the middle canal which is actually a man made canal from the middle ages connecting the west and south coasts of france. how cool is that!
my last day in toulouse ( i left at midnight so had a whole day) i went to the abattoirs - the contemporary art museum, to the musee paul dupuy - the decorative arts museum - and the natural history museum. i actually went to the natural history museum for lunch and was so taken by the adorable peahen with her chicks that i decided to buy a ticket. it's a great museum and laid out in a really interesting way. earth and geology, the naming of life/things/animals etc (so making order of the world), uncovering the past, people and the fundamental constants of life and the future. there were lots of interactive games, designed for kids, but they're still fun and i learnt stuff from them! the abbattoirs wasn't that great, to be honest, though they had a dream time themed exhibit and had a lot of aboriginal art, which made me smile. paul dupuy was nice, with an amazing clock collection and a great deal of apothecarial artifacts.
i ate a very late dinner at one of the restaurants in the capitole - a nice piece of fish with ginger and citrus and the best cup of tea i'd had in ages - then headed to the train station for my first time on a couchette (a sleeper car) :) it was very comfortable and i slept well!

i arrived at nice early in the morning, but just had enough time for breakfast before getting the train to milan. the train was 15 minutes late to begin with and over the course of the beautiful picturesque meditteranean journey we managed to lose another 45... which meant i missed my train to venice. now in france they'll give you a ticket for the next available train with a seat and everything. in italy, it's just, get on the next train! so this lovely italian who spoke french and was getting on the same train helped me out. we found the next train to venice, went to get on and were told, no, the train is broken, so they announced a different train would be going to venice so we got on and claimed two seats hoping against hope no one would have tickets for them. we almost did it, but a few seconds before the train departed, two bloody aussies claimed them! lol they were very nice and chatted with me a bit. i seat hopped a bit, sitting down when i could as people got on and off the train, but probably spent at least half the journey sitting on the floor :( finally finally i got to venice, hot, dirty, stinky, tired and very cranky. i went to book my ticket from venice to vienna, the only one i hadn't been able to make a reservation for in france, and got my ticket then realised it was for a day earlier than i wanted. luckily i had just enough energy to go back and argue about it,because it turns out he booked the wrong thing entirely. so i felt a bit better after getting the right ticket and took a water bus (eeep) to the hostel.
where i discovered unlike the other HI hostel i had stayed in, i needed a towel, which i had left in paris. gah! i eventually had a shower sans towel since i was so desperately grotty. then i raced out for something to eat - was so hungry i went to the crappy cafe next door and ate very very average seafood risotto. so all in all i was feeling pretty miserable. but i decided before i went to bed to go across the canal and have a look at the heart of venice - the piazza di san marco.
well i'm very glad i did as it absolutely revived me. it was totally beautiful with many of the restaurants providing live musicians for their customers, which the general public also get to enjoy. an orchestra playing nessun dorma brought tears to my eyes. i found a venizia fabric store that sold towels - not very big, but absorbent and better than nothing - with pretty lace edging. so huzzah! i had a towel. i also found this gorgeous glass store- not realising that venice is famous for murano glass! i finally found an owl (actually two) for my grandmother. although i hope she can see them well enough - they're tiny tiny miniatures. i also got something for the house o squid though how you all are going to share it/enjoy it/display it i'm not sure!
more relaxed, smiling and finally aware of just where i was i headed back to the dorm to sleep - and met two of my dorm mates - a canadian and an irishwoman, nannies from torano! the next day i spent with another dorm mate - erin from missouri. we ended up spending the whole day sight seeing together which was just lovely. we wandered around the piazzo - in the rain - shopping for glass (and an umbrella) - i wanted a bottle stopper and she wanted a red glass heart, both of which we found. we had a delicious tourist lunch - i had spaghetti bolognese and roasted chicken, with another delicious cup of tea! then we went to the basilica di san marco - it's a very beautiful church and i wasn't struck down by lightening as i crossed the threshold! we headed up the san marco tower, and had a wonderful view of venice, then went to the palazzo ducale - the doge's palace. the ticket also gives access to other museums, which i'll get back to later.
the doge's palace is great, all the rooms describe what they were for, including all the courtrooms, senate rooms, hearing rooms and function rooms. there was a room with maps painted on the walls and ceilings with two amazing globes - which feature australia bizarrely (they must have been touched up after 1788). we went down across the bridge of sighs, which is surrounded by blue painted sky and clouds since they're doing a lot of restoration work and they like to cover all the scaffolding. it was quite strange. the prisons are a bit chilling too. after that we headed to the ponte di rialto which actually has shopfronts on the bridge. very cool (and steep gah) and we went to this very old famous shop which sells leatherbound journals and glass quills. probably not the cheapest place to get them, but couldn;t resist a glass tipped quill and ink set. so pointless, but so lovely.
we had a little rest in the afternoon whilst i did some much needed washing and erin booked hostels for her next city and we did some convincing and got a group of 5 together from our dorm to share a gondola, erin and i, the nannies and our newest dormmate, another irishwoman. between the 5 of us the gondola was only 20 euros each which is quite reasonable really. we met up at about 11pm and off we went.
it was AMAZING. it was soooo quiet since it was so late (it's more expensive after 7pm) and we only saw about 3 other gondolas out on the canals. it was all dark and peaceful and our gondolier sang a little and told us about all the sites - including giacomo casanova's house! all the lights were so pretty and every now and again a child on a bridge would point and wave :) it was really quite magical and i'm so glad the girls all agreed so i got to go!
the next morning erin had to leave early, so i spent the morning with theresa and steph, the nannies. we aimed to catch the slow boat to murano island, the glass blowing centre. weeeeelll, i don't know how it all went wrong, but we spent about 2 hours on the boats and got no where near murano. which was fine for me, since i had all afternoon, but the girls had to go at about one, so luckily we got back to the piazzo just in time for them to walk to the train station! i then took the regular boat to murano and wandered around the island, and went to the glass museum, one of the museums i could get into on my palazzo ducale ticket :) it was great reading about how they make glass (god i'm a know it all, i really am) and it's quite remarkable to look at some of the older glass (talking 600 years) and see the quality and craftsmanship of it. they also have items from an excavation in venice that date back to the first century AD. some of the glass pieces are still completely in tact. quite incredible!
my train to vienna was another overnighter, so i headed to the railway station about an hour early and had (a very expensive) dinner at a restaurant nearby. after having the seabass recommended (at around $90 australian eep) i opted for the viennese fish soup which was just delicious. not only was it a local delicacy, it was just plain nummy, all hearty and tomato-y with fish, muscles, cockles, prawns and octopus. nomnomnom. i was nice and sated when i got on the train - oh and i had a pimms for sajee!

i arrived in vienna at around 9am, but couldn't check into the hostel until 11 or 12. i hired a locker and headed out and about. my first impressions of vienna weren't great. it was sort of a bit grungy and urban and not pretty like i expected, but i found 2 yarn stores and bought pretties, which always makes me feel better :P. and i had a kebab, since i suddenly realised i was staaaarving. reminded me of home :) when i checked in i had a shower and a nice little relax, checking out the vienna tourism site and planning my day and a half. when i finally got going i headed into the centre of town - old vienna - and this was the part of vienna that really captured my attention and my imagination.
i took the vienna ring tram, a total tourist device, which provides commentary on all the old buildings and land marks. then i wandered back through the said landmarks taking photos of them all - parliament, the town hall, the volksgarten, the imperial palace, the museum quartier, the viennese opera and the statdpark where johann strauss used to have outdoor concerts. it was really quite lovely. it rained a little bit, but it was light and warm. then i headed into the centre of town to see st stephen's cathedral and to have dinner - viennese goulash.
that night i went downstairs and hung out at the hostel bar, where i met a whole swag of totally awesome people - americans, canadians, brits. i drank tequila sunrises and then beer (and was completely fine) and we had so much fun we were asked to shut up at 11pm lol. we headed to this aussie travellers bar - they had vegemite toasties! - but i couldn't deal with the cigarette smoke so was time to go to bed for me!
the next day i went to the schonbrunn palace where they have the vienna zoo, one of the oldest and largest in europe, but also one of the most progressive and modern. i had company which was great - two americans, a san franciscan (very cute too) and a guy from new york. we came around the back of the palace, heading to the zoo and were greated by the most gloriously unexpected site: the privy gardens stretching out to an amazing fountain, with the backdrop of the gloriette at the top of a rather steep hill. of course the boys wanted to walk up to the top of the gloriette and made me come too. what a hike! but it was totally worth it. the view was fantastic and we had lunch up there and i had this delicious savoury pancake thing with mince meat and cheese. after enjoying lunch and the view we headed to the zoo. it was pretty damned good, with an excellent rainforest exhibit. the highlights were definitely the pandas, the bears and the penguins. they also had a very alert koala - more alert and active than i've ever seen a koala. i always feel like giving the aussie animals a hug - i feel akin to them being so far away!

i had a 5pm train to prague - which was fine, i got back to the hostel which is around the corner from westbahnhopf, with plenty of time to spare, then checked my ticket. i was leaving from sudbahnhopf, which was about half an hour away and i had about 32 minutes to get there. eeeeeeep. i don't know how i did it, but i made the train about a minute before we took off! i was starving though - having intended to buy a wrap or something to eat on the train. i had some chips, but by the time i got to prague i was ready to eat a horse. which would have been fine, but the hostel kitchen had JUST closed! eeeeeep.. luckily there was a very nice young man who found me some harmerlin cheese (a spiced soft cheese, flavoured with capsicum and onion) some bread and some tomato and cucumber. god cheese has never tasted so good. i was really really hungry!

so... i'm going to write a new post for prague, berlin and dublin... need to go eat dinner!
i'm now in london, at the college. i have a phone, so email me if you need the number at all, have regular internet (although i have to be ethernet cable connected ick) and have unpacked all my stuff. i have two days before the course starts so will attempt to get up to date with updates and flickr photos! love you all :)