Bath was my favourite English city and I was struck by its beauty as soon as I caught sight of it as the bus made its way down into the valley. Bath Backpackers was really close to the bus stop and the centre but that was about its only redeeming feature - it belongs to a chain known as "Funky Hostels" and it was covered in boozy murals that were obviously an attempt to make it look "funky" but actually made me feel like I was slumming it. My first visit was to the Abbey where I was wowed by the [View Full Entry]

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It was on the long haul to Salisbury that I discovered that the English public transport system is rubbish. I'd done a bit of research and discovered that bus fares were about half the price of train fares and so had decided to invest in a National Express 7 day pass which would enable me to get on and off as many buses as I felt inclined to travel on. This sounded like a great plan but what I hadn't realised was that the route connections were often terrible and that certain companies also owned particular routes (I almost burst into [View Full Entry]

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It was in Canterbury that I came to the realisation that I was indeed no longer on the Continent - upon arriving in England, you stop paying to visit the public toilets and instead start "donating" to see the Churches. Donating is in quotations because they're of the kind that suggest if you don't give them five pounds, a big burly security man is going to come out of nowhere and kick you in the kidneys. I didn't know what to expect from Canterbury - all I knew was that there was an impressive Cathedral there. And we've already seen, on [View Full Entry]

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After tying up loose ends in Brussels, doing my last minute pack-up of things I'd accumulated over the last three months and saying some sad goodbyes to my flatmates, I flew out of Brussels feeling a little melancholy. I was destined for "The Motherland" - also known as England - where I'd spend the last ten days of my European adventure and, to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I was tired, fed up of travelling alone, under the impression that England couldn't be as exciting as The Continent, and scared to death of the Pound/NZ dollar conversion [View Full Entry]

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Day One My time in Venice was, unfortunately, not exactly that productive. My Lonely Planet guide had warned me that everyone gets lost in Venice - the place is made up of 117 islands, around 150 canals and 400 bridges and to make matters worse, street signs either don't make sense or there just aren't any at all. Upon my arrival, I quickly understood the meaning of the warning because even with a map I managed to make a wrong turn somewhere and then found it impossible to retrace my steps. I was also baffled by the fact that to get [View Full Entry]

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Day One I arrived in Rimini in the evening and was greeted by the lovely Andrea who took me home, fed me a few snacks and got me all settled in. When not in Brussels, he lives with his sister Alice (pronounced "Aleechay" in Italian) in a really nice apartment with great views over the city. I met Alice a little later on and we all went out for "piadina" for dinner at a hill-top restaurant. Piadina are apparently typical of the Emilia-Romagna region in which Rimini is situated and they actually look a bit like Indian chapati! They are delicious [View Full Entry]

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Day One After dropping my bags off at my hostel I decided to tackle the Duomo, also known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, before it got too hot - there were 463 steps waiting for me! It was still hot enough that morning to be a bit of a chore but everyone took a breather upon reaching the platform right under the dome to admire the artwork - it was truly amazing - although also a little disturbing! From the formerly ruling Florentine family, the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari to [View Full Entry]

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Day One The heading would perhaps be more appropriately titled "night one", as I arrived in Rome at a quarter to eleven on the night of the 17th... the pressure was on to get off the plane and find may way quickly to the train station to catch the "Leonardo Express" train to Roma Termini before it stopped running for the night - eek! It was all a bit rushed but I managed it - and then had 40 minutes on the train to calm down as the "Leonardo Express" wasn't really so "express". I arrived at Termini thinking it would [View Full Entry]

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Day One I arrived in Prague early Friday evening not quite knowing what to expect... I'd heard the city was absolutely beautiful and at the same time had accounts (thanks, Mum) that there were real problems with petty theft - pickpocketing being the main problem. As a tourist all the way from the other side of the world I was a little uneasy - the thought of losing my passport or my credit card would have been a real problem given I had to be back in Brussels by Monday. As it was, I encountered no problems whatsoever other than the [View Full Entry]

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Realising that I had less than a month left in Europe and that I had yet to see any of Belgium itself, I embarked on an action packed weekend visiting Antwerp, Leuven, Ghent and Bruges... did I have a four day weekend? No - it's just that I have now mastered the art of efficient sight-seeing. Antwerp, 6 July 2007 Life at Parliament is non-existent on a Friday and so I made the most of it and visited Antwerp. Unfortunately I took the regional train instead of the InterCity and it took me over an hour to get there instead of [View Full Entry]

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