why am I so delicious?!

So I thought I would try writing something down as I am in Venice, getting it all down as soon as possible. I found a nice little cafe on a backstreet in Venice, now when I say backstreet, its not the negative sort of backstreets you would find for example in London, which is full of bins and smells bad and houses mass murderers, rapists and terrorists, but a sort of chilled out spot away from the press of the crowds on the main streets. In Venice I suppose there is more pressure to make the most of every road, as this is a place rather limited by the lagoon around it, though of course, therein lies its charm. Last time I came to Venice I remember I didn't like it, it was too crowded and there always seemed to be someone who wanted to stand where I was standing, or walk where I was walking. I was a lot younger then though, and so I thought I should give Venice a second try.

I think I started off by making a mistake, I slept in until 11am, the first time that has happened, so I didn't get into Venice until approaching 1pm, when the crowds were already everywhere. It seems you have to pay and queue for all the cool things, like Sant Marco's Basillica and the queues were huge. I decided to follow the advice of my travel guide, which said to truly get to know Venice you have to go wandering around the back streets, which is what I've been doing, and its been a pleasant day. Its got me thinking what it is I like doing most when in a city, is it the tourist piece, checking out old buildings, muttering under my breath about all the other tourists (and I'm pretty sure they do the same) or is it chilling out a little more, wandering round without a set route and just finding my way, but also encountering all the little places that look interesting and exciting without necessarily being a historically crucial location. In the end I have to acknowledge its both, I would feel pretty disappointed if I arrived in Ankara with no photos of the coliseum or Vesuvius or the Acropolis but at the same time its enjoyable to just wander, find nice little shops which I can't buy anything from and eat ice creams while I go. Venice is not the place for the tourist act, its very expensive and very crowded and as the guide says, to truly get to know the place you have to wander the back streets. There won't be any striking photos from Venice I'm afraid, but I am enjoying it rather a lot.

In other news the French girls have found some French boys, and so are not coming to Venice but are driving home with them. I'm thinking these camping hostels are better if your travelling as a group, I had a great time in Rome and I was travelling with them, now it seems a little more difficult to get talking to other backpackers, as the place is more spread out. I'll be looking for a slightly more conventional Hostel in Athens I think.

Perfect, that took me just as long to type as it did to drink my 'speciality' coffee, which I'm confident was more than a little alcoholic.

Awwwwwwwww sausagedog

You can probably ignore the title, I couldn't really think of one, and there's a sausage dog wandering round, so why the hell not. I'm not too chuffed with the last blog so I'm going to try be a bit more light hearted with this one. It may help that I am starting to get into the rhythm of things now. After leaving Barcelona I went to Palermo to a really surreal hostel, it was run by a lady who seemed to never sleep, she was there when I checked in at midnight, and there when I woke up at 8, she was there all day and when I checked out, she took my key. Certainly she acted as thought she was either running on fumes, or completely high. the room was oddly nice for a backpackers, it was huge, and we had single beds instead of bunks, it looked like a big old fashioned room, lacking any architectural knowledge, I'll just stick with it looked old.

Aww Sausagedog Pt. 2

So I wrote that paragraph, and then went out, that was on my first day in Naples, as I write now, I'm on a super fast Euro-train from Rome to Venice, that gives you a pretty good idea of how regularly  I write.
Naples was really good, I met some cool folk, a spaniard, a German, and Aussie and 2 French girls, turned out the french girls were travelling my way so I came up to Rome with them. We've now split ways, they're going to Florence but I will see them again on the last day I'm in Venice. I was in Naples for 2 full days, and on the first night I was there, met the cool hostel people and went out for some drinks.By the way, Duff Beer is not only real, its cheap as hell too. EUR 1 for a bottle, made mine and Aussie-Josh's night. The day after I took a boat tour out round Capri which cost EUR 50 but seemed a good buy as it kept me entertained for a whole day, we got food and I got to go swimming, which I've been wanting to do since I started travelling. The boat we went on was more comparable to a large jetski, in that it went very very fast, which was entertaining provided you had a good hold onto the boat, if you didn't you were in serious danger of getting thrown into the sea. every so often, the boat would stop and we'd all hop in the water for a swim, the water was really warm and I went swimming in some caves, chasing some fish, essentially if you imagine the reaction of a dog that's never seen the sea before, your pretty close.
That evening I stayed in with Anais and Marie (don't try and pronounce them, it seems impossible for non-French to pronounce French names) which was uneventful, as they left for Rome the next morning, and I was going to catch them up in the evening after I'd been round Pompeii. Pompeii was obviously the second full day in Naples and was good, I struck lucky in that I went in the wrong entrance and started my tour at the furthest part of Pompeii by the Ampitheatre, this worked out as the busiest part of Naples around the Theatres and Brothels was crowded with herds of  Americans in tour groups. No I don't want to be stereotypical, but they can really fill a street from wall to wall, and getting stuck behind a tour group essentially means you stay in the same place for the next 10 minutes. Either way I still got to see all the cool parts, and the bodies too. I didn't take any photos of the bodies, as it seemed a little distasteful, the figures were very detailed and you could easily see the faces, fingers and toes, even in some cases the folds of clothing. However they were all in the sort of position you'd expect of someone being suffocated and buried alive in burning hot stones, and as such, were rather sinister. Also a lot of these bodies are clearly of a very young  age, children and babies were obvious.
I caught up with the French in the evening, and got a nice little caravan for my dorm, which I had to myself for the first night. The day after was exploring Rome. I was expecting to be pretty amazed by seeing the Colosseum, palatine hill, all the things I've seen in movies but it didn't seem to strike me as I was expecting.

History
There's something about heavy tourism that really saps the character out of a place, the signs saying you can't do this and the people having their photos taken with every vacant piece of masonry, I got the sense that the Colosseum is as much a source of profit and entertainment for people today as it ever was in the past. its less a case then of it being saved as a relic of the past, and more that it has  been changed into something very modern. Its not the first time I've had this thought that these places should be free and open to the public all the time. Using the colosseum as an example, it was created for a purpose, however it has fallen into disrepair, and no longer suits that purpose, however as a building it is an icon of an age gone by, of a different world. To me it would be more fair that it is acknowledged that it has no practical value, but is left as a reminder of the achievements of previous civilisations. This I think would give people more freedom to use the collisseum, or Palatine hill or Wingfield Manor as a part of their every day lives, they could have a picnic there, or meet friends there or go and visit and take photos without feeling like it is just another business out to make money. This is less of a practical Idea and more of a rant I suppose but I can't help but resent the fact that a relic of a civilisation that is extinct, is now the possession of certain groups, and these groups  somehow manage  to sell it back to everyone else, in short, they're making money selling something that isn't theirs to sell. Obviously there are drawbacks, how would it be maintained for one, where would the money come from to allow people to continue to enjoy these buildings? taxing the vendors who sell trinkets outside would likely just scare them off, besides, I doubt the looky-looky men and men dressed as romans for photos pay any tax on their earnings, should they? even if someone tried to tax them I think they would find it very hard. As I said, this is more of an idealistic concept than a proposition.

And back in the real world...
The day after I went and had a look round the Vatican, seeing the Cistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basillica. Just in passing, the Basilica is free entry and in my mind atleast was a much more pleasant visit, whilst  agreed, we were all still taking photos like the place was melting away infront of us, there were also people praying, singing and doing God-related things, there was even a fellow in a dress at the front shouting in Latin. I took some time to chill out in there, listen to the music in the cool of the cathedral which was pleasant, whilst I may not be much of a believer in what they were singing about it still created a pleasant atmosphere that this magnificent piece of history was still in use, it was still doing what it was meant to do. If your a fan of Metaphors, the Basilica was like a wise old man that had seen it all before, and had moved with the times, in comparison the Colosseum was a corpse, it had aged, but stopped functioning and now had little more worth than so people could take photos of it to prove they had been there. Maybe the Colosseum could be restored, and used as a theatre or stage for gigs?
That evening me and the French's went back into Rome to see the Trevi fountain, which Marie had been wanting to see since we got there. She also really wanted to swim in it, but that understandably wasn't allowed, so she hopped in for a quick paddle instead.
This morning I stopped off by Percy Shelley's grave, my English teacher in Sixth form had told my class to do so if ever we were there, so I did.
That pretty much brings me to where I am now, except now I'm in Florence station, Trains only ever seem to run on time when I'm late, when I'm on time, or on the train as I am now, they take a more relaxed approach. The train I took from Naples to Rome was 2 hours late, despite leaving Naples on time. How do you manage to be late by 100% of the actual journey time?! Italians can't railway.
There seems to be a lot of things I haven't covered, like how I managed to get severely mosquito-ed on the Capri tour. I've always taken mosquito bites badly, but this is just silly. Two became infected one on my ear and one on my leg, whilst I managed to bandage up my leg and smother it with antiseptic, meaning it only became an odd shade of purple, the one on my ear was way to awkward to bandage, and seems to resist sun cream and now gets sunburnt whenever I go out. I think its going to scar when it eventually heals.
I also managed to get sunburnt on the same trip, either that or I just went more pink than usual, which is pretty pink by standards. However it has yet to go back to white, I wonder if I'm about to achieve the unheard of and develop a suntan?!
Also also, I'm reading about my hostel now, and it appears it has a jacuzzi?! my luck in hostels is consistently improving, from the wierd Barcelona and Palermo Hostels I've had great hostels in both Rome and Naples. I think the qualities that make a good hostel for me are;

• communal drinking area (with bar)-It needs to have a place where you can chill out with other backpackers and make friends, the more things you have to draw people to one place (like WiFI, a TV, a kitchen or cheapish food vendor)  the easier it is for them to find other people they like, then they go do things with these people, and that is probably the single most effective way to ensure they enjoy themselves.
• Excursions/trip planning place- Its weirdly hard to find a place to organise day trips aimed at young people.Most travel agents aim for people with bigger budgets, and travelling down to the port/bus station/train station to try and pick up a tour always seems a little risky. A selection of leaflets for good tours/excursions are always good, and it never seems to much to ask for the receptionist to phone up and book tours on your behalf, they speak the local language, and its likely a lot cheaper to use the reception landline phone as a pose to the backpackers own mobile. On a side note, this could  stretch to nights out, organised fancy dress nights/pub crawls will definitely help get people talking to one another, or open mic/karaoke nights at the hostel.
• Gardens are always cool, or at least, a place to chill out without feeling you need to buy something in order to sit there as you would in a cafe.

Essentially that just describes Wake Up Sydney Central, which I guess makes sense as that was by far my favourite ever hostel in the world ever. Flashpackers are good too, as are Plus Camping, which is where I stayed in Rome and where I will be staying in Venice too.

And that brings my second blogging to an end I suppose, I guess I'll reread before I post, but hopefully, its been a little more tolerable to read.

Now to find a toilet on this train.

I said I'd do it, and look! I dud it!

So the first post was meant to be about my previous experiences, and why I chose to come backpacking before Turkey, however a stale re-telling of events that happened over a year ago can be typed out now, or in a months time, my recollections will remain the same. However what is happening in Barcelona right now will be forgotten in a few days, so it is important that I record this first, and save the 'introduction' for another time, maybe I can save it for useful procrastination when I'm meant to be revising.

The sum total of my packing amounted to two bags, my rucksack, a recent purchase that was to be the thing I carrried out and about with me, carrying the essentials to explore, and a suitcase that carried clothing, washkit, everything else I would need whilst backpacking, and then afterwards when I was at the university. My suitcase was full to bursting, the sad irony of this being the grotesque amount I had forgotten. I was trying to keep my rucksack as empty as possible, as it is very close to the maximum hand luggage dimnensions, and I wanted to be able to crush it down as much as possible. I had tried to secure my turkish housemate's bank details to set up a direct debit to pay the rent for our house before I left, however I did not get access to them before leaving, posing difficulty number one.

Hilariously, I've partly decided not to shave whilst backpacking, so I can arrive with a vague appretiation as to what its like to be as hairy as the natives. Also, I have talked myself into believing that beards are rugged and traveller-y. I was half way inclined to take photos of myself every day to see if there was any difference in my appearancce over my time backpacking. I decided against the daily photo because;

A) I'm lazy

B) If it doesn't work out, and I look like a rapist, I want to be able to expunge every ounce of evidence it had ever been a consideration.

On arriving in Barcelona, I found the hostel reasonably quickly, though not without realising I'm going to need to make sure I have a map to all future hostels before I go looking for them. The hostel looked like a real dive from outside, it was on a backroad parallel to a the main road through sants, which was dark and narrow, it had no shops, on the backs of buildings and the hostel door was locked shut. However inside seemed a bit better, the spanglish* signs in the toilets telling the men they probably weren't as well endowed as they thought they were. However it took me a long time to get to sleep, and then it took me a long time to get to sleep again when some germans came marching in (they're german, its marching) at 5:30am (5:30am?!?!). Leaving the hostel the morning after I realised the street was not as bad as I had thought it was when I arrived the night before, the sun adds a lot to places. Applying this logic to the fact that only certain nationalities seem to go backpacking provides a strong correllation, you will regularly see Canadians, Germans, all flavours of Scandinavians and British, However Americans are absent. Could this be connected to the fact that countries with more sun are more happy where they are, and less inclined to go visit other places?

That first day was a good one, Maria proved to be a great tour guide and we must have covered a good few miles in walking, going through la rambla, the old district and climbing Mont Juic to see the castle, and including the views, most of the rest of Spain. I arrived back at the hostel thoroughly knackered, had a shower and headed out to the travel-bar off La Rambla, though I knew the free dinner offer expired at 9pm, which I missed, I didn't realise this applied to the entire pub aswell, which I arrived to find had closed down at 9pm. I found another restaraunt/tapas/beer establishment and went in to burden them. I say burden as I took up the last table, was on my own and was evidently a poor travelling-type, as the staff that served me would well have been aware, this table could have gone to a couple, that may well have had more money and more inclination to spend time there, they likely weren't too wild about my patronage. I sat and disected a fish, drinking pints that would get me lynched if I served them in any of my previous jobs (head the width of a biro? This had a head the size of my... well... head!). When I arrived back at the hostel, I checked out the lounge area, being too late for the terrace roof (“sunny, funny, crazy! But only till 22:00”) it was empty, so I went and poked about on facebook trying to sort out a hostel in Messina. After an hour or two of trying, I gave up, it would appear Messina doesn't have hostels, or cheap trips to mount Etna, or anything catering to someone with an income lower than that of a Mafia Don at all.When I got up, after a long, pleasant and German-free sleep, I went to book my hostel in Palermo, as a girl was still asleep in the dorm and I couldn't pack my bags very quietly. The kyaking trip had been cancelled, as I was the only person interested in it. Instead I went mooching about whatever streets looked cool in barcelona and it proved a good way to spend a day, just wandering round, not really visiting any tourist destinations just wandering.

All in all this blog has taken far too much editting, I'm not sure I'm really cut out to be a writer, so I'm just going to thump out some different styles, see which one is the least painful to read.

*Spanglish- English the way the Spanish speak it