Florence, Italy

I was so excited about going to Italy and could not wait to eat some really Italian food. I felt it would be a good country to work in to as it would give me a chance to really get into the culture and the Italy way of life.

My first stop was at Florence before heading to Torricella to start work. Florence or Firenze, as it is called in Italian, is the home of Renaissance art and Michelangelo's David. I really wanted to see David so when my train arrived at Florence at 7 am I went straight to the Accademia to wait for it to open. At 8.15am they opened and I rushed inside. David is by far the best sculpture I have ever seen and I think will ever see. It is huge and so detailed. I can not explain how prefect it is . Not the real thing but still a great looking peice of art.

After looking at the other art at the Accademia I went to the Galleria degli Uffizi. When I had seen Haley in Paris she had given me her card to the Uffizi which was meant to get me in for free and jump the line. I could not wait to use it. Haley said she was never ID when she used it so I should be fine. Hahaha! As you can imagine this one time I am asked for ID and then told I am a theft and have to run out of the Uffizi. Not how I imagined it working but that is the way it goes sometimes. haha!

So instead of joining the line which was 3 hours long I walked around Florence until 8pm when my train left for Torricella. Florence is so lovely and ever building in it is stunning. I could not believe how many Piazza, or town squares the place had. Florence is not very big and you can walk from one side to the other in about 30 mins.

While on my walks I went to the Cappelle Brancacci. The church is the home of some of the best restored frescoes by Masaccio. Luck for me they had a free information video on before you enter the chapel to explain about all the works of art and how some of the works actually contain three scenes in the one piece inorder to tell a story. It was really interesting and the best piece was the Expulsion of Adam and Eve.

Finally after walking all day I took the train to Torricella. I arrived at this small station which did not even have a full length platform at 10pm. I was so scared and had no idea what I was about to do. Lucky when the train departed from Torricella station it revealed La Casa sul Lago on the opposite side of the tracks and a smiling girl called Sese greeting me. She took me inside and two Estonian girls called Ege and Stefani, who showed me to my room which I was sharing with them. I instantly liked both of them. They were 17 and had been working at the hostel for the past 2 months in their summer holidays. After getting settled in they took me down stairs to join the others for dinner. Wow! Everyone was so nice and I was really excited to start work.

Budapest, Hungary

I had heard so many great things about Budapest and was really excited to see it. When I arrived I had not booked any accommodation and hoped it would be easy to find it. Little did I know that it was actually the biggest music festival of the year on called sziget. Luck for me I got a bed at the local university dorms through the information centre at the train station.

After reaching the dormitories it took me 3 hours to check in. The place was just packed with people. It was insane! After finally checking in I went out to look around the city. Budapest is actually made up of two parts Buda and Pest divided by the Danube river. Buda, which was where I was staying, is home to castle hill and the very impressive Buda Palace. While Pest on the other hand is flat and is where everything happens. It has all the shops, nightclubs and even the Parliament.

The Buda Palace

The Parliament

The next morning I decide to look around the Buda side of the city and then go to the communist statue park, which is a must see according to my travel guide. I started off walking up the hill to the Citadella and the Liberation Monument. The Liberation Monument was one of the few Soviet monuments to have survived the fall of the iron curtain. The Citadella was a low fortress but today contains nothing much but over priced restaurants and was not worth the climb.

Afterward I went to the Buda palace. The palace was just as impressive up close as it was from the river on its hill looking over the city. And the view from the Palace of the city was very great.

After looking around the Palace I went to the Matyas Church. The church is a reconstruction using the structure of an original church from the 13th century that had survived 150 years of Ottoman rule. During which the church was converted into a mosque. I really liked the detail on the roof of the church and the inside was amazing.

After looking around the church I walked along the river to have a closer look at the Parilament. I think it is the most impressive building in the city and at night it looks even better light up in flood lights.

I then took a tram and a bus to the Communist Statue museum. The weather was so hot. It was about 45 degrees in the Communist Statue park. The Statue park was great and I was even worth standing in the heat to see it. It had a collection of the best communist statues from Budapest. The statues were so big. These photos do not do them justice. Here are a few of the best...

After the extreme heat and exhaustion from walking around the park I went to the Gellert Baths on the way home for a relaxing dip in a thermal pool. These are the best publicized baths in the city and were built in 1913. The baths are so grand that I had to take some pictures of them. I could have got a cheaper ticket to just lie in the thermal pools but I wanted to see the whole complex and it was worth it. The Hungarians takes their baths serious and they have a range of pools for different purposes. I spent most of my time in the inside pool partly because I did not wanting to get sun burnt and partly because the indoor pool was so glamours.

The indoor pool

The next day I felt a bit average so just went to the Hungarian National Museum to learn about the history of this once great empire. It was really interesting and I learnt heaps. That afternoon I logged on to the 'help exchange' website to find some work. Help exchange is a website that helps travelers find work at farms or hostels where they work in exchange for free food and a bed. Sometimes if you are luck they might pay you a little bit on top of that. I found a job at a hostel called La Casa sul Lago in Torricella near Mangione and Perugia in Itlay so I made plans that afternoon to travel to Italy.

The next day before my train left for Florence I went to the Szechenyi Baths. This is one of largest spa complex in Europe and a must see in my option! I could have spent all day there. It had so many different pools. At a guess I would say it had 20 pools, 3 steam rooms and 3 saunas. It was amazing. My favourite pool was the outdoor whirl pool. I could have spent all day being moved around by the water in the whirl pool. All you needed to do was float and the movement of the water did the rest. It was so much fun. I was the oldest person in there by 10 years but did not care. I finally left the pool after 3 hours and took the train to Vienna and then the night train to Florence.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

When people think of Amsterdam the first things that comes to mind is liable drug laws, red light district and the best established gay scene in Europe. I was there for none of this reasons so was not sure what I would get out of the experience. I had always wanted to see Holland and see what a country looks like when around half of it lies below sea level.




Amsterdam is a lovely looking city with all its canals and cute little houses. It is also the home of the best Indonesian food outside of Indonesia. I spent the first day just walking around the city and looking at the canals. And of course eating Indonesian food!! I really miss Asian food. Unlike at home Asian food is seen as being really exotic in most places in Europe and costs a fortune.



By day I really liked the feeling of the city with everyone ride bikes. At night however I found it no where near as fun. Because most people come to Amsterdam to try the 'Coffeeshops' there are heaps of people just sitting around stoned or falling asleep. Unlike drinking, smoking tends to make people less sociable and I found it difficult to meet people that wanted to just hang out.

I made a few friends at my hostel who were really nice but due to smoking too much they were in bed by 9pm that night. After walking around the streets and decided I should leave the next day to see the other cities of Holland I came across a nightclub. The club was really classy and had a door list but they let me in because I was by myself. Everyone inside was local. The locals unlike the tourist are not so excited by the liable drug laws so were much more fun to hang out with. So I danced the night away.


The next morning I got a message from Max who was arriving that afternoon with his mum. I was so excited to see him and to have someone to hang out with in Amsterdam. I meet them at train station. After Max and his mum Janet got settled into their hotel we went to Anne Franks house.


I had read the book in high school and was so interested to see the actually house. We had to line up for around an hour but it was worth it! The rooms that Anne and her family lived in where so small and I could not believe that survived for so long in there. Afterwards Max and I went out for a few drinks at a jazz bar near Leidseplein. The music was good but nowhere near as good as Prague jazz.


The next day we went to the Museum quarter of Amsterdam to see the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. Janet (Max's mum) is an artist and an art teacher so it was wonderful to visit these museums with her. It was like having your own guided tour of the museums.

The Rijksmuseum was under renovations so the whole collection was not on display but there was enough Rembrandt and his pupils on display to keep me happy. My favourite piece in the museum was Vermeers, The Milkmaid.


Afterwards we went to the Van Gogh Museum. I was really excited to see this museum as I had loved all the Van Gogh work I had seen at the Hermitage in St Petersburg. The museum did not disappoint. It was amazing. It was set out in chronological order so you could see how his art work changed through his life. I had always assumed that his darker looking art work was towards the end of life before he killed himself but in fact his most colourful and best art work was just before his death. It was such a lovely collection and Janet's insight made it even better.

That afternoon I left Max and Janet and took a train to Vienna (Wein) and then Budapest.

Palace of Versailles and final days in Paris

One of the days we made a day trip out to the Palace of Versailles. I was really wanting to see Versailles as I had seen a copy of the palace, called Herrenchiemsee, built by mad king Ludwig in Germany. The copy was meant to be larger than Versailles but the country went broke before Ludwigs dream could be finished. So as you image I had high expectations of this palace.

The art work in the Palace was great and it gave me a chance to learn more about the French royal family history. And I think that perhaps as kid I could have passed as one of the members of the royal family, what do you think?

The palace from the outside is very grand and the gardens are incredible. You could spend hours walking through the gardens. But my favourite room by far was the Hall of Mirrors. The Hall of Mirrors at the copy in Germany was no where near as good as the really one. The mirrors made the hall look double the side and the chandeliers where just amazing!

The next day Haley and Pia left. I was going to leave too but discovered that I could save 45 Euros if I left the next day so stayed the night at a hostel down the street from the other hotel. When I reached the hostel to check in I saw Anna from uni. I know she was also travelling around Europe but did not know she was in France. We went out for lunch and catch up each others travels. She had been travelling for over 5 months and was towards the end of her trip. It was great to see her and it made me feel like I was at home again.

After lunch I went to the Musee Picasso. I was really glad to have an extra day and get to see Picasso as he is one of my favourite artist. The museum was better than I expected, not only did it have all his paintings but it also had some of his sculptures. I loved it and it was great to see some of his earlier work before it became abstract.

That evening I went back to the hostel to see Anna but she was not around so instead I went to the Moulin Rouge. I did not see a show as they started at 100Euro so instead I sat a near by bar and had a glass of red and watched everyone go in for the show. It was great people watching.

The next day I took a train to Amsterdam, Holland with the hope to catch up with a friend from Melbourne called Max!

The Louvre, Paris

I was so excited when we went to the Louvre. I could not wait to see the home of the Mona Lisa and many other fabulous works of art. I also was looking forward to comparing it to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

The Louvre is huge and you have no chance at ever seeing everything in one day. So we decide it was important to see the 'must see thing' first before getting too tried and not being able to take in any more art. We went to see Venus De Milo first followed by the Mona Lisa. Both works of arts had huge crowds of people around them as you could expect. The Mona Lisa was behind glass so we could photograph her. I had heard so much about the Mona Lisa but it could not prepare me for how amazing the painting was. It felt like she was watching you from everywhere in the room. As if her eyes followed you. I was very impressed by it.

Me at the Venus de Milo
The Mona Lisa behind glass.Me and the Mona Lisa

After seeing the must see sights we then had a look at the rest of the art we were interested in. I did not really want to see the Eyptian Antiquities so instead we looked more at the sculptures and paintings. My favourite sculpture was the Roman Sleeping Hermaphrodite sculpture. From one side it is a woman

But then from the other side she is actually a he! I loved it. It was so funny.

After several hours of walking around the Louvre we were delirious and could not find our way out. It all became very funny and we were joking that we would become works of arts ourselves walking around the Louvre and never getting out. Finally we worked out where we were on the map and made it out.

That afternoon we just sat in the sun on the grass near the Louvre and looked at the amazing building.

Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle -- Paris

In the morning we went to Notre Dames. It was such an amazing Gothic cathedral with stunning stained glass rose windows.

One of the rose window

To help us understand the importance of the cathedral (and because it was free), we went on a tour of Notre Dame. It was really interesting to learn about Gothic architecture and the reason behind the three levels in the church and the use of light and height to assist in explaining the religious message further. I was so surprised to learn that Notre Dame was the keeper of the crown of thorns that was worn by Jesus in the Crucifixion. Not being a very religious person this whole tour was very eye opening to me and I really enjoyed learning more about the architecture .

After Notre Dame we walked over to Sainte Chapelle which was produced for Louis XI to hold his collection of holy relics including the crown of thorns. The first thing that you notice about Sainte Chapelle is that it is so light due to the huge stain glass windows. Most of the windows are the original from 1248. It was amazing.

The high ceilings and stain glass windows in Sainte Chapelle makes it feel better than it is.

Paris, France-- Haley's birthday!

I arrived in Paris at the North train station at 9am. Haley's and Pia's flight did not arrive until 12. I had not work out any accommodation and decided I would just crash on the floor of Haley and Pia's hotel room for the night. So I had some time to kill until they arrived. I decided to walk from the North Station to their hotel via the Lourve and Jadin du Luxembourg. It was a long walk but I was so excited to be in Paris that I did not even notice how heavy my bag was or anything.

Me at the Louvre

After reaching the hotel and having some lunch I waited for Haley and Pia in the foyer. Their bags were delayed to they were a bit later than expected. It was so exciting when they arrived!! Haley had been studying in Italy for the past 3 months and Pia just came over for a break from work and to see Europe.

Pia and Haley in Paris

The three of us at the Eiffel tower

After our initial catch up we had lunch in a very French looking restaurant watching everyone walk past on the street. We decided as it was Haley's birthday we should go to the Eiffel tower to celebrate so we slowly we made our way there.

The Eiffel tower by day

Everything in Paris looked so lovely. The building where just like I had imagined them. Also unlike everyone had warned me, the people were so friendly and no one cared that I could only say Bonjour and Parlez-vous anglais? in French.

That night we had champagne on the grass in front of the Eiffel tower and at 9pm we joined the line for the lift to the top. The view from the top was really impressive and I could have spent all night there but it was really cold and we were not dressed for the weather so instead we took a cab back to the hostel.

The Eiffel tower by night

Us up the tower

The cab ride home

Notre Dame by night

That night we had a really hard time finding dinner at 11pm. Everywhere we asked stopped serving dinner hours before. This was a shock to Haley and Pia who had just come from Spain and Italy when food is available at all hours of the day. Finally we found a place and I had a great steak! Yum!