Rory's Blog A more detailed status update.

The Last few days

Sorry for the delay of writing this, I had no internet access from my Paris Hotel.

Pisa Day 5:
Well I was lazy today and stayed in bed till later on. Then I decided to pack up and check out of my hostel and walked to the train station, where I then got a ticket to the Airport for 1 Euro 10 Cent, Bargain!

I decided even though my flight wasn’t scheduled to 20:30 that i’d go to the airport since there wasn’t anything to do in Pisa and that I had a giant backpack aswell to lumber around.

So 20:30 came and I had heard my flight had been delayed to 23:55 due to Paris Orly strikes. 23:30 came and there was an annoncement over the tannoy saying that there were further delays on this flight.
Finally getting on the plane at 2:00 the next morning. I arrived at my hotel at 4:00 tired and bored.

Paris Day 6:
Getting up at 10:00, I grabbed a quick shower and got dressed and headed for Notre Damm Cathedral, after getting lost I finally decided to go see the Eiffel Tower, the only clearly marked attraction on the map. I went right to the top. Finding my bearings for the Arc de Triompe I headed in that direction. Walking around the Arc I took a few photo’s and moved on. Next stop the Louve, the main thing I did want to see was the Mona Lisa, after a hour or two I decided that I needed to get to Cathedral before it went dark, after waking up a little I went to the Catherdral and inside to have a look. I went to the very busy Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and went back to my hotel.

Day 7 – I arrived home after travelling the Eurostar

Pisa Day 4

Day 4:

I woke up early, had a shower, got dressed and packed the remaining things. I was so organised I had 20 mins spare before I could eat breakfast, so I popped online. Then I ate breakfast and checked out of my hotel.
I Headed towards Termini station via the Metro system and waited for my train… I couldn’t see it on the departures sign All in all I ended up paying for another ticket which I didn’t need. Not even the Railway Police could help me. Stupid Italian Train system, you would think where it says “Destination” it would mean thats where it will end up… oh no not for the Italian trains!

Anyway I ended up getting to Pisa around 1pm, went up to my hostel and dumped my bags. I then went to the leaning tower of Pisa. I went up and down the tower, took a few pictures etc. Got back to my hostel and though my bag had gone missing, but in fact is was me who had epically failed and walked into someone else’s room. I then went into my own room to find my bag sitting there. Went for Dinner and went to bed.

Rome Day 3

Day 3:

I woke up and headed toward Vatican city, after waiting for approximately and hour and passing through security I headed inside and was advised to see the cupola, I decided to pay an extra 2 Euro to skip 200 steps, so glad I did, the cupola is the highest point of the Vatican. After I skipped 200 steps, I then needed to walk up the rest 500. Exhausted at the top, I grabbed a large Coke Cola.
The effort had paid off, I could see most of Rome and overlooked St Peter Square, What a View!
I then proceeded to walk around the Vatican snapping photo’s as I went. Then decided to go on a Guided tour of the Treasury, I have never seen so much Gold, Silver, Bronze and Jewels. After I popped into the souvenir shop (One of many I saw). Where I glimpsed up and saw the T.V. playing a advert to buy a DVD, to which next to the T.V. was a PS3?
After that I headed towards the exit and couldn’t see any signs for the Sistine chapel. I headed towards Castel St Angelo.

At Castel St Angelo I went in, I got a audio tour to talk me through the Castle, however I was very disappointed with the whole thing, ALL the staff were rude, the Cafe prices were a rip off and the audio guide wasn’t very clear, so I gave up after point 7 of 24. There wasn’t that much to see, just a lot of old paintings. I walked back through Rome, getting quite lost but seeing the Trevi Fountain, Panethon and the Spanish Steps again.
I got back to the hotel and packed all my belongings for the next day.

Rome Day 2

Waking up this morning I jumped out of bed, got showered and dressed ready for breakfast.

I got asked if I would like a drink, when the pot of hot water and milk came I looked for a tea bag, I couldn’t remember which twinnings tea was just the standard one. I didn’t want Orange flavour tea etc.
Then I wanted Coco Pops only to discover the bowl wouldn’t fit in the dispenser.

I thought this was going to be a bad day….

Turned out that in fact it wasn’t, I went on the Metro a day pass only costing 4 Euros, Bargain! I ended up going round the:
Spanish Steps (Amazing sight, went up the steps… took a few photos and moved on)
Piazza del Popolo (Blown away with the scale of area, massive statues, huge tower in the middle, stayed and walked around for abit then moved on…took ages to find the next place)
Piazza Navona (Again another big statue and building….again didn’t stay long)
Panethon (Stayed here for awhile, the sheer scale and beauty of the building is immense)
Piaza Venezia (One of best locations of the day, its absolutely massive, I could easily could have spent the rest of the afternoon there)
Trevi Fountain (Real popular location, a nice place to see, statues are very detailed)
Collessum (Went on a guided tour and learned loads more about it, not bad for 16 Euros and I skipped the queue as well)
and the Roman Forum (Just a brisk walk through as its all ruins)

Then I went back on the Metro to the hotel and got changed, ready to go for a meal in the Hard Rock Cafe. I went and got my souvenir glass and went back to the hotel to chill out.

Heres a link to a gallery of some photo’s I took.

Rome Trip

Hey I know I really should update this more, and I’ve decided to start now.

I didn’t sleep last night but got out of bed at 3am, ready to fly away on my own for a week. After packing some last minute things I was on the way to the airport, never flying on my own before I was getting some butterflies. After finding the correct terminal and arrivals point, I entered into the terminal, I had already checked in online and went to drop my baggage off. After speeding through bag drop off and security, I had nearly three hours to my flight, so I went and got myself a new memory card for my PSP hoping to download GTA: Liberty City Stories with the free Airport wifi, that failed however. Thank god that the flight wasn’t as long as I expected.

Once on the plane I enjoyed my morning breakfast, its not the worst i’ve had but not the best either. We landed with abit of a bump and then went to the terminal via some crowded shuttle bus’s. Once at the terminal and past security, I went to retrieve my bag, which took about 20 mins. Getting my bag i dragged myself to the airport to termini shuttle service, got my ticket and left for Termini.

There were all sorts of people on the train, some who had just come off my flight, some Greek and some American passengers, all going different places and speak all different languages.

After getting to Termini (Rome’s central train station), I needed to find the metro station but ended up finding McDonald’s first, so I popped in and ate some lunch. Finding that my Metro ticket only cost 1 Euro, I was quite pleased. I got to my hotel checked in and checked my room out. Its quite small but at least its clean. By now I was very tired, so I dumped my bags, went for a quick walk around the block and retreated to my bed. I woke up had some Italian pizza at the hotel’s bar and then back to my room to relax and fall asleep.

See here again tomorrow for another update, hopefully with some photos.