Open your Ize (Part 2)

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That feeling was back again. That feeling of nervousness, nausea, anxiety and overall depressed. I was heading to Rome, to spend 2 nights by myself before joining the tour group ‘Topdeck’ and travelling by bus around Eastern Europe for 14 days. I was feeling scared. Scared about getting on a bus full of complete strangers. What if they didn't like me? Scared about arriving in a foreign country by myself, with no one there to greet me, Scared of being out of my comfort zone.

I remember feeling that I didn't want to do it anymore, I wanted to cancel and stay in China with Lou or fly back home to my family and Tahlia.

I was picked up from the airport and taken to my accommodation, which was called ‘village Roma’. I was given the key to a little bungalow, by this stage it was midnight, I was jet lagged and tired and looking forward to some shut eye in my own private room. Unlocked the door and there was a Lithuanian couple having sex, I scared the shit out of them. Apparently they had paid for a private room. It was an awkward moment. Welcome to Europe I thought. I climbed into my crappy little bunk bed and drifted off into a deep sleep. I was happy to wake up and the couple had gone. It turned out that reception had given me key 25 instead of 52. I moved into my new room and was sharing with a girl from Panama. Nice girl, Spoke broken English.

I had a full day to explore as I didn’t meet up with the group until the following day. I had no idea what I was doing, or where I was going but ended up having a pretty busy day. I visited the Vatican museum and Vatican City. The museum displays work from the immense collection built up by theRoman Catholic Church throughout the centuries including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world.

By far the most impressive was the ‘sistine chapel’, painted by the one and only Michelangelo. There are 54 galleries, or salas, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the very last sala within the Museum – visitors need to proceed through the other 53 salas before earning their reward with access to the Sistine. I was disappointed that I couldn’t take photos inside this beautifully painted place.

Vatican City has an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of just over 800. This makes Vatican City the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population.

02-06-10 Email to family:<br style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top !important;" />“Went to the Vatican Msuem and Vatican city yesterday. It was unreal. Took so many photos, will send a few soon. I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the Sistine chapel, Google image it-pretty impressive. Have you seen the movie Euro Trip, that’s what i kept thinking about when i was at the Vatican.”

The next day came around fast and it was time to meet the people I would be spending the next 2 weeks with. It turns out the tour had started a week ago, and me and a few others were just joining in now. I met the newcomers first and straightaway to friends from Australia- Hayley and Ivan took me under their wing.

The bus had close to 40 people aboard, 36 of them happened to be female. I was in heaven.

Our first short stop after Rome was in Verona, Italy. This city has been awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture. Verona is most famous as the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

We were quick to visit Juliet’s house (Casa di Giulietta), supposedly the location of the famous balcony love scene. This is a massive tourist destination, with young couples posing for kissing photos upon the balcony. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a nice attractive Italian girl to kiss up there.

Next stop after Verona was Venice, Italy. We would be staying here for 3 nights.

Our first night there was a ‘Toga party’, which was fun and was a good chance to get to know a few of the other people on the bus over a few beverages and dressed like an Ancient Roman.This was a great night, fun was had by everyone.

It was only our second night in and I had earned the name ‘The crazy one’. I didn’t see anything crazy about break-dancing in my toga with a red wine bottle in hand. Well if that’s what they were going to call me, i had better live up to the reputation.

I remember arriving back to my room , by myself after a heavy kissing session with a girl from another tour group to see Ivan had vomited red wine all over the room, and on my lap top, it never worked the same after that. He was very apologetic, but assured him all was fine and I would probably be apologising to him at some point over the trip.

We explored venices’ famous canals. I thought it was a bit overrated and somewhat dirty and smelly. Don’t get me wrong it was still beautiful, just not what I had expected.

The grand canal is one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city. Public transport is provided by water buses and private water taxis, and many tourists explore the canal by gondola. We pigged out on Local cuisines and drank vino in St Marks square (Piazza San Marco). Italy is a beautiful Country, and even though we were moving onto to Vienna, Austria the following day I would be back to this country in a few weeks to see what else it had to offer.



It would be well over 600km on the ‘Topdeck’ bus to get to the capital of Austria- Vienna. This time passed reasonably quick, looking at unfamiliar territory out the window and clowning around with the girls up the back. Yes I had made it onto the backseat of the bus in only a few days. It usually consisted of myself 2 friends from Melbourne Emma and Penny, 2 girls from New York Linzey and Kristin and sometimes Ivan and Hayley. The topic of conversation usually centered around sex.

We stayed at ‘Wombats city hostel’ in Vienna, a nice, friendly hostel. We were only going to be on Austria for 2 nights. The first night we went out for a group dinner for traditional Austrian Schnitzels. They were massive and they were nice. I helped most of the girls eat theirs too.

Prater park was on the to do list after dinner. This happens to be one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. Probably not the best thing to do after eating enormous schnitzels and drinking pints of beer. But it all stayed down. We all had a fun night, thinking and acting like we were 12 again.

In Vienna we also visited Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna ,

Coming up next was something that was a little more my style- ‘Alt Weiner Schnapps Museum’. Austria is famous for its schnapps. The Fisher family has been producing some of the finest schnapps in the country for well over 100 years. Easily the most popular part of the visit however is the tasting.

You get to sample many off the different flavours and styles of schnapps produced by the Fishers as well as the famous absinthe while you also have to opportunity to purchase some of the local product if you like.

Tours usually visit the Old Vienna Schnapps

​ Museum in the afternoon. I walked out much more ‘chirpy’ and in high spirits than I did when I walked in.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top !important;" />The Day at the Schnapps museum only primed us up for what would be the nights activities- a traditional Austrian orchestra. Vienna is undoubtedly the home of classical music; Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Strauss have all had their compositions proudly premiered here. Afternoon Schnapps, Traditional Austrian dinner and drinks maybe wasn’t the ideal warm up before the civilized event. I think there was a lot of unhappy local people , and including some of the people on our bus. I look back now and see that we acted immature, but in saying that , its now a fond memory and wouldn’t take it back.

We left early for Budapest, Hungry early the next morning. Our tails between our legs.

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