Venice, in water? No way.

You know when you put some thing off for a while, in your mind you have categorised it into the 'bad' stuff group, stuff 'I don't want to do'. Somehow my blog ended up in that group this week.

I visited Venice last weekend with one of my great friends Speck, who I do know reads this blog. So I apologise if it looks like I was a psycho lazy freak who didn't want to talk about our never ending fight against Italy and it's weather. It was simply lumped into the 'I'll do it soon' pile. 

But never the less my subconscious and excitement of the next few weeks has spurred me on to update  this blog.  Forewarning, this will be a long blog, so go grab a cup of tea, or a coke, or a beer, or something. You'll need it to wash down your jealousy with.

Friday, 26th October 2012
I have to say today was probably one of the worst days ever, in relation to things going my way. It was an early morning start, by early morning I mean 2.20am, walking out of my flat, bag packed weighing 7kg.... Yes, you heard me 7kg. One digit weight! Caught the 3.20am bus to Stanstead airport, an hour away, from the galleria; a massive outlet shopping centre, 10 minute walk from my house.

 

That was an uneventful trip. I had previously printed out the boarding pass, and tucked in behind my ipad in it's case. Reaching my hand into my sports bag, shovelling around and coming up empty. I have to say I have never felt so away at 4.30am than I did this morning. No iPad. My stomach dropped. No friging way. I lift my iPad at home. Looking down, I remember thinking, well that's alright, first travelling mistake in 4 months, not  shabby not to shabby at all. Just a pity that it'll cost me £60 for a reprint. 

However before resigning to wasting more money, and getting into to this ridiculously long cue for this time in the morning, I do one more soul searching, arm raping of my bag. And guess what. I FOUND ITTTTTT! It was at the other end of the bag. Opps. Blonde moment. Morning moment. Red head moment. Awesome moment!

So booyah, waltz through security, grab a Frappuccino, and find my plane... A bit bumpy but amazing views whilst flying into Venice!

I met speck at possibly the smallest airport i have ever had the pleasure of being in. We caught the shuttle bus into Venice, all perfect timing and great so far. 

Get into Venice, the main bus station, walk down to the canals, get slightly lost, ask for directions tot he 'people mover'. Slightly nerve racking name right? Back to the bus station, get pointed to the 'people mover' i.e. trams like the ones at changi Singapore airport. Spend a euro  to move 400 metres, yay for ripping tourists off.  We were now at the meeting point for our hostel shuttle. Hour and a half later, no shuttle. We make the wise decision, and call it quits, time to dominate Venice's mad public transport. 

We miss the first bus, and have to wait another twenty minutes. Get off at the right stop thank goodness. In a neighbourhood that doesn't look to shabby, I would possibly classify it as the suburb of Venice's, if that's even possible. 

We get lost, eventually find our hostel. Grab our keys, chill in our cabin, decide to take the 4pm shuttle into Venice. Hop on the bus, get kicked off the bus for no ticket. Walk to the public bus stop and find the best Gelato EVER! The whole day was just recovered! Our reward every time we caught public transport was gelato... Good reward system.

Upon arrival back into Venice, the heavens opened, flooding the streets. We were spectacularly drenched in record time, shoes and socks sodden, jackets no more use than a wet towel, but it was fantastic. Successfully got lost again after dinner, illegally stowed away on the ferry taxis, in an attempt to get back to the bus station.     All in all, the first day was amazing.

Saturday 27th October 2012

I think today i got a experience of what it would feel like to be living on a flood prone area. Today consisted of balancing acts. Walking the plank, as on one side the canal, the other side half meter of flooded path. 

Purchasing new 'Alien boots', these plastic contraption that you strap to your legs, so it looks like you feet won't get work. Lie.

Curly hair, drenched again but oh so worth it! we ventured out to St Marks, which was absolutely beautiful, we caught a ferry taxi out to the glass island. Finishing the night with bucketful sex on the beach cocktails and gelato. 

Golly gee. Good day all in all. 

Sunday, 28th October 2012

End verdict Jayllee and Speck 2:Venice 5

I think today would have been the coldest I have been, wettest I have been, and numbest I have ever been in my life.

Walking out the cabin door, no rain just thunderous winds. That's a good thing, perhaps it wasn't as flooded today as it was yesterday? An optimist in my head, the realist saying, its Venice, the place is on water, when it's been raining, and storming, go die of pneumonia. 

But I'm if the half glass full variety, therefore Speck and I donned our thermal tops, singlets, jerseys, jacket, scarves, mittens, beanies, umbrellas, pants (basically every piece of clothing we brought with us), and thongs (flip flops). Yes thongs, our shoes had not yet dried, we debated that if our feet were going to be wet all day, we mine as well be able to dry them at some stages if they were not covered. Let me tell you. WRONG IDEA. Hello 6-degree weather, winds and rain. Smile.

So first journey of the day, get into Venice. This was made nearly impossible for other less worldly independent travellers, but our worldly experience made speck and I a force to be reckoned with. This is where we got our first point against Venice.

The Venice marathon was on today, meaning many roads were cut off because of flooding and closed off for the marathon. Resultantly almost all bus routes has been changed, however, never fear, running across 4 lanes of traffic, risking our necks because remember we're in our thongs. Joined by our new found friends one Australian and one American both students on exchange in Dublin who did indeed end up missing their train. Awkward. But 30 minutes later we arrived saturated but victorious in Venice. Oh yeah. The day was just beginning.

We then proceeded to view the Biennale Architecture 2012. This is where nations from around the world put together a room, competieng. It was fantastic to se e la different sorts of creativity and designs from the worlds best architects!

After a day exploring these venues, we headed home, tot he sanctuary of our warm cabin!

All in all a great trip, with great company! However, I think if I were ever to go to Venice again, I would only go in the Summer months!

Ciao Bella, bro my name is Jayllee... TIA

Phew, what a whirlwind of a week, hundreds of kilometers covered, over 20 UNESCO world heritage sites visited, amazing new friends, funny stories, a new tan, and fun times!

Ill begin with Florence. It was astronomically amazing, the historic buildings,the DOME, the statues, monuments, bridges, sites, weather, all ten out of ten. Many people have meet have not really liked Florence, I can see why, it is quite small, but small is refreshing. It is not overwhelming, seeing all the sites is actually achievable! I'm not a huge fan of the Italian culture, but their buildings and environment I absolutely adore. It is with out a doubt one the top five most beautiful countries I have every had the pleasure to visit.

 Florence, saw a an elderly fellow attempt to pickpocket me. Idiot. What girl carries anything in her pockets these days, it is all in the handbags mate, did he not see the size of my handbag! I'm also quite certain the tongue thrashing I gave him we he groped my short pockets motivated him to quickly disappear from my sight. This occurred on one of the oldest bridges in the world, also one of the only bridges in the world to still have functioning shops on. I am of course talking about the Ponte Vecchio bridge.I  made the killer trek up a hill, which really should be classified as a small mountain but the view was worth every tortuous step!

A day trip to Pisa was called for, it was quite easy to catch the train from the main station in Florence to Pisa, on and hour train ride. Pisa was surprisingly small, it is basically a university town. The Leaning tower of Pisa, not Pizza, was great. The white stone used and the incredible tilt was a site to behold, however what was even greater was the amount of tourists there posing with the typical pushing the tower picture. My gosh. I couldn't bring myself to do it, it also did not help that I was taking the picture myself. So a selfie whilst attempting to get the correct angle was not going to be an easy task. However I only recommend a half day trip, because to be honest that's about the only thing there. After catching the train back, I chilled in the air con at the hostel

Sunday morning had me catching a train to Roma, or Rome. My first impressions of this historic city and its 3 million population was not complementary. The people were aggressive, rude and pushy, not my kindred spirits. A lady on the short bus trip from the train station to the hostel had her laptop and purse stolen from her backpack. Welcome to Italy peeps.

 I checked in no problemo, had a lovely couple of girls in my bungalow, ended up hitting the hostels pub with them, and making a tonne of new friends! Travelers are always such a friendly bunch, always a good thing when you are traveling by yourself.

Monday morning up bright and early to begin my Italian adventure, with Busabout the Italian Tour Itinerary was super busy, but amazing. However one down point I feel that people should be aware of would be the multiple extra costs. I easily spent around 50 euro a day, far more than I had expected.

I don't want to drag on about what we did, but Ill mention a few of the highlights. I would definitely recommend anyone traveling to Italy.

• Pompeii – destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD
• Local boat trip to visit the glamorous Capri and chair lifts!
• The infamous Blue Grotto Cave this was surreal!
• Swim in the Mediterranean Sea on the Amalfi  coast line!
• Drive the Amalfi Coast road, one of the best scenic views in Europe 

Now to some observations...

• It is normal for men of all ages, shapes, and sizes to wear speedos, the same goes for women in bikinis. 
• If you are not tanned, you will soon be. 
• Buses will always win on one way streets. 
• Italians loved their pirate watch towers. 
• Italians can wear the most inappropriate clothing to go hiking in. 
• There is no such thing a traffic rules, however over here,  it is polite to toot your horn, as you are signifying- to other drivers wear you are and what you are doing. 

I have explored Rome, what a historic city. However this is also the place in all my travels that I have seen the most obscene amounts of tourists. Honest to goodness I have never seen lines for attractions as long as these, almost a k long. Ridiculous. I found that very off putting, so I did not go into any of the historic buildings, because lets face it i am so not patient enough to wait that long.

I have to pack up my stuff today, getting ready to fly back to London on Saturday. I cannot wait to have my own bedroom, to stop living out of a suit case!

It must be love.

The hectic life, is my life and I absolutely love it! I love being tired from running around a new city and experiencing new things.

The last few days have been extremely educational and interesting, as well as fully jam packed of touristy things and tea breaks!

 This is what I've been up to...


My best friend Jess arrived from the big scary world of Oz on Sunday afternoon, which was absolutely wonderful! So lovely to see great friends, especially when we're about to embark on such a wonderful adventure together! Then later that evening her cousin Caitlyn arrived, which is great! The more the merrier!

Monday saw us hit up the hop on hop off bus tours, getting a real feel for what we do and don't want to see. For instance we just had to re-visit Westminster Abbey, and need never see again the the district behind waterloo station, old industrial area thats now been revamped since it was blown to pieces during the great blitz, truly they did us a  favour by bombing it, no need to repair it....

We then hit up Knightsbridge for some shopping at Harrods and of course a shopping expedition in London would not be complete without introducing this two London shopping virgins to Topshop and Zara. The girls have been absolutely blown away by the fantastic clothes that are on sale!

Then after crawling home on the trains we got up at 7.30am this morning. Aka Jess, the coolest girl out, came and hopped into bed with me, "Time to wake up", my response "yehhhhhhhh, later bro".

However I did have my hair curled and make up done by 8, and downstair for brekky , whilst they were all still in their jammies, eating brekky, and gossiping away.

We then jumped on the train to be scarred from the London Dungeons, however huge delays on the rail network, resulted in us changing lines, and adjusting our plans, but never feared we still arrived in time to be scarred.... a lottttt....





Our group for the tour was quite stimulating in itself. first off we walked in the initial scary introductory room, where there were 'dead' rats hanging down from the roof that we would walk into, absolutely scaring the little girl who was say around 12 years old, enough that she did not start screaming, and then of course much to my delight a scary lady all dressed up, with a white ghoulish face of make make up and loud croaky voice started jumping at the young girl, which resulted in the girls screams breaking the sound barrier.

The next blog-worthy mention was when after hearing about how surgeons use to high grave robbers to steal dead bodies so they could explore the human body. Here's some prior knowledge you need to understand this. A Nana had brought along her two assumed grandsons, the younger of the two was already freaking out, so Nana being as good of a nana is that brings their grand kids to a scar show, says just don't look, come here as he huddles into her chest.

A yound man (qute a looker actually) 'voluntered' to sit in the torture chair, he was starpped in- simply his hands- and the utentials surgeons used to extricated bodily organs, such as slicing of hands was demonstrated on this guy, lets call him Ted. So when the scary surgeon went to chop Ted's hands off, the lights went dark, and all of  a sudden a light spray of water was squirted from the walls onto us- it was meant to be the blood, you know.


The next thing, lights are on, and we hear, "I think he fainted, yep, he fainted".

Absolutely made my day! The little squirt had flat out fainted on his Nana. Poor Nana, she looked terrible, as if she'd just committed treason.

Above: The hang mans noose ride. It was pitch black and we'd just watched people get hanged. Not a nice feeling.

But otherwise it was on the up from there, learnt a tonne of interesting history, hit up the London eye and saw some terrific views, and then attended the Westminster Abbey tour.

Now let me just tell you Westminster is and absolutely MUST see for visotrs. Honest to goodness there is simply so much history to remember. Breath taking.

Then of course we then went to The Ritz for afternoon tea, which was absolutely scrumptous. i had orange and passionfruit tea, delicious!!


Now here I am tired and sore but so excited for tomorrow. You'll hear about that another time! x

Images, photos, pictures, graphics, illustrations and all that jazz,.

You should all very happy reading this, I finally have my laptop back, therefore my blog updates will now have paragraphs! (yay paragraphs), and secondly I should be able to bombard you with photos!


However about that later, crazy stuffs been happening! I caught up with my Air Force buddy Warlum last night, which was delightful. Hearing what he's been up to and also new goss he's in the know about. Fantastic way to spend an evening!

I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

Just some stones that have been baffling human kind for thousands of years.

 

Rain makes hair frizzy. Plastic stops rain. Plastic rain jacket = God's present to women.

My local hangout back in the day. 

This is just such a stunning photo my Mum took. 

Ahhh you know when you watch those border security shows and see people sitting on the ground looking like homeless people. I joined their club. Repacking at Heathrow. 

My fabulous Mum conquering her fear of heights (We were on the roof of Trim Castle)

The Amsterdam Pancake. Tthe best thing I have EVER had. 

Being a tourist, and ticking off all the corny photographs. 

CarnabySst in London, cute not so little globe, just incase you forgot which planet you were on. 

My future Sister and Brother-in-law at Hamleys.

Hampton Court. Quick little culture observation here, England has the loveliest parks in manors, however none of it is mowed. it's like someone thought, we own these lands, why do we need to mow them. 

Olympic rings.

Next up Warlum is amazing, because he gave me two tickets to the sailing in WEymouth ( down south) on Monday! So very excited to go watch and cheer on the Aussies and Kiwis!

ALos the australian girlies Jess and Caitlin arrive tomorrow! Which shall be fantastic! So much to see and do in such a  little bit of time. 

Peace out homies.

The merry life...

Here's what's been happening. I changed accommodation to this amazing home with a lovely family in London. It has been a marvellous week of relaxing, and getting to know local londoners and London spots.

 I've been biking,  walking, kayaking down the thames, watching the olympics- and admiring the amazing gymnasts- Kristian Thomas can marry me any day!

Reading books, exploring covent gardens, and making some small purchases!

I should hopefully get my laptop back from my cousins house down south tomorrow or Friday, and then I shall blast you all with photographs!

For now I am going to continue reading books and relaxing!

When one door closes another opens. You hope.

Today was a melbourne day, four seasons in one day. I'll quickly ramble off what was achieved Woke up, got dressed, went out to trafalgar square to get touristy pics with the count down clock, had yummy brunch with mum at the cute heathy food cafe. Ended up breaking my sandals, resulting in me walking around London city barefoot for an hour or so on the look out for a shoe store.

Our mission to find shoes took us past a protest/demonstration of an African nation. Then thank goodness came across 'clarks', where the overly helpful store lady stuck to my back 'helping' me find shoes. with shoes back on my feet, and not looking quite so homeless Mum and I hit up Regents street and did some retai therapy.

 After making our feet sore again we went home to chill out before we headed to the airport to say our goodbyes. Yes there were tears, who doesn't cry when say bye to their amazing Mum? But right this moment I'm in bed after finishing packing my humongous suitcase. It has somehow magically multiplied itself in the last three weeks!

 No idea how I am going to manage to lug it around tomorrow on trains to get to my next impromptu home! However ignoring all this blubber, I need to mention a few achievements so far on this journey.

My Mum who is petrified of heights is no longer prettified, probably slightly scared would be an apt description now. The escalators here, going down to the tube are almost vertical. Mums initial reaction was one of a statue, a frozen stance, shaking and panicy breathing, she was practically a new woman today, looking up down, back and around, and not holding on to the rail. The Opening Ceremony so far has be incredible, absolutely amazing! The creativity, celebrities, music and acting. Wow.

Racing car driver

Well yesterday was a long long long day. But fabulous! We did some little touring throughout St Ives and then headed off to Mt St Michael, a castle on an island, there is a path from the mainland to the island! However due to bad weather we were unable to visit the island, but perved upon it for awhile! We the hit the road to drive across the country to be where we are now, Wych Cross in Sussex. On the journey (9 hours), we hit multiple road closures and diversions, courtesy of the Olympic torch relay. Oh the joy, who cares that we had a dinner date with our cousin Steve, who looks after a manor here. But to my great surprise these road closures allowed me to experience a new side of my mother. The Racing car driver. It went like this, one way area and police car trying to push in front of us "fat chance buddy, push over", my mother cutting of the police :) Next we were in a little country lane and we are over taken by some young hooligans, "What pussys, I haven't been passed all day, not starting now"' we then proceed to tail gate the young boys for at least 15km, sticking rights there bum. Was quite an enjoyable experience :) Off to Ireland today!

St. Ives what?

Marvellous Tuesday is what today should be called. My day consisted of waking up at 5am (still haven't kicked this jet lag)then continuing to wake up the rest of the household with my shower and blow drying. What a pity, who needs sleep when they're on holidays, right? Then we packed, trekked down the road to drop our apartment key off, caught a cab from a friendly Brit. Figured out that if we caught the piccadilly line to Heathrow it would cost £5 = $12AUD roughly as opposed to the Heathrow express that cost £19 each. Ripped off tourist right here. Then picked up our rental car and were on the road jack. The driver being my Mum, she is a fantastic driver. A great person to travel with but (there's always a BUT right?), she doesn't exactly enjoy driving in the city. Therefore after a few wrong turns and some terse looks we were on our way to Stonehenge. However one day if you ever travel to England you will noticed the fact that when driving all of the road signs are symbols of sort, there is very few signs that actually have words or numbers on them. Therefore for tourists who are insure of the speed limit , this is slightly problematic, add in the fact that at very overpass bridge there is stationary speed cameras. It is a right picnic to drive. However upon arriving at stonehenge after a delightful lunch in Andover, where I handily picked up a sim card for my iPad, it was breath taking. We were able to skip the line as we had purchased online an English heritage overseas visitors pass- would highly recommend them to anyone! Stonehenge and how it came to be is a miracle, the maintenance and potential reasons of why it was created are fascinating and frustrating all at the same time! I cant wait to come back at winter time and get photos of it with snow! It is a magical place. We then Headed back in the car, made some wrong turns, learnt that the Brits truly don't have enough lines on round abouts or speed signs. Or space on the side of the roads, or ANY good radio stations! Honest to goodness after spending 6 hours in the car today I can quite confidently say that every radio station I heard was absolutely useless in relation to the music and presenters. St Ives which is where I currently am, is my favourite place in the entire world, hands down. It is his little British holiday spot, on the coast, with cobbled streets, quaint pubs, b&b left right and centre, step streets, narrow enough the only an anorexic reason could fit through the, but absolutely beautiful! Well I'm off to grab some zzz's, talk later! X

24 hours on and still strong!

Hectic! Crashed last night and woke up bright an early at five pm, realised that the adaptor I had did not was missing the piece it needed to function therefore my hair was insanely frizzy, imagine einstein but worse.

But otherwise I had a spectacularly jam packed day. Mum and I squished in the bus tours, buckingham, palace, kensington palace, Hyde park & biking, Harrods, new sim cards, Finding Aspley house to pic up our heritage passes and then finding out they are shop. Oh and of course making the London underground our bff :)

 The weather was more pleasant thank goodness.

Some observations people here don't talk, people that work at Harrods are ten times worse than people that work at Myers, their pubs are quite reasonably priced, always order the 'London Tower' burger at Garfunckle- it was amazinggg! Lastly don't forget to lock your room when you share an apartment. Close one.

Tomorrow we are off to Windsor Castle, Stone Henge, Bath, and end up in St Ives. I'll update you then! xx

London Baby!

So right this moment it is 10.32pm and I am sitting on the floor in our London apartment while restoring my computer and recovering from the trip here!

Here's how the last 48 hours have spent.

 Saturday morning up and adam, say bye to the family and best friend, drive to perth with the Mum, Dad and littlest brother at this stage , Mum is not feeling to crash hot so we have to practically drug her up so she is able to board the flight. A promising start to our adventure.

Next after actually receiving great service and comfort in our flight from Perth to Singapore with Qantas airline, we do a quick little dash to our next gate. however a small problem i encounter one downloading the ebook of 50 shades of gray. Which i now consider to simply be a porno book, about a deranged man that is a complete wack job and needs to betaken down a peg or two. Secondly when we (My Mum and I) arrived in SIngapore my phone was still not working so i restored my entire settings, and am currently now fixing my phone and getting it in a functioning condition!


Next off we arrived in New Delhi. Yay we slept in these pods:

But they really felt like:

 However in saying that it was exactly what we needed some privacy and  a bed to get a bit of zzz's. Secondly at the moment India's Ghandi International Airport rates as the worst airport I have ever been to. It lacked the simple essential, yes it was glitzy and glamourous but not having a single atm in the departure/duty free hall, and then on top of that having no currency exchange centre. COme on. India step up.  But we did get foot massages and they were heavenly if slightly painful at times!

then a long journey from Delhi to London, and can i just say it has been a long time since i have seen an air hostess be so stroppy and impatient, but i give her congrats on keeping up that attitude for the entire trip. Plus another fun fact from that flight is that my chair was broken, and on sets in planes as most of you would know there is a button that you press that allows you to lean your chair back. My button did not work. My chair just slide back on it's on accord, quite a horrible predicament for the lovely lady sitting behind me.

Then to finish off this update i can quite proudly say Mum and I caught the heathrow express to Paddington station, then the circular train to Victoria station, then walked to the business to get our apartment keys, then to our apartment without once getting lost or robbed :)

 Always a positive now to sleep and get ready for a massive day tomorrow!

x