Pompeii & Mount Vesuvius!

I was super excited about this particular tour. Our day started off with a 6am wake up to get ready and out the door by 7. We all met up with our tour guide and other travellers and headed off by 7:30. The drive from Rome to Pompeii took us roughly 3 hours. A long one.

Perfectly preserved ceiling

When we got there we all headed straight into Ancient Pompeii for a 2 hour walking tour with a local guide. I thought walking in that I would see small/half walls, a few vases in houses, and no casts of the bodies. Oh boy I was wrong. Ancient Pompeii has been so greatly excavated, it’s almost as if you’re walking through normal, populated places in Europe. Half reminded me of Arles actually…

You also see quite a few casts of the bodies they uncovered. They aren’t located in the houses they were found in as quite a bit of Pompeii is still roped off understandably. There were, if my memory is correct, 2 human casts inside one building that still contained the original ceiling artwork and colouring, a cast of a dog inside an area where the archaeologists stored the vases, and 2 other human casts that accompany the dog. I did feel a bit disrespectful and inappropriate taking photo’s of the casts but after seeing so many other tourists take them, I figured I wouldn't be returning any time in the near future and it will be a good reminder of what the people felt at the time of the eruption.

Cast of a dog

After lunch we all headed off to Mount Vesuvius! Once again, super excited about going there. The tour bus drove half way up the mountain and dropped us all off at a little cafe/kiosk/bar. I got out of that tour bus incredibly fast and headed straight up the walking track as fast as I could. Stupidly, I decided to try get up there as quickly as possible. It took me 20 minutes to get up to the top and by that stage I was as red as you can get. I sat down for a while and waited for Grandad to make his way up to join me before I headed out to stand next to the crater. Luckily I had time to cool down a bit before I had my photo, though I am still rather red and sunburnt as you can see. 

Cast accompanying the dog

After heading down back to the cafe, we all jumped on the tour bus and headed back to Rome. Visiting Pompeii was such a wonderful experience. Would definitely recommend making the trip out there if you head to Italy. It is such a long tour (13 hours in our case) but worth it.

...and I got to cross something off my bucket list :)

View from the top of Mt. Vesuvius

A very red Cate at the crater 

Borghese Gallery

I typically don't like going in to gallery's. Purely because I find them to be quite boring and I feel like I've seen all the good ones from photographs and movies. The Borghese Gallery however blew my mind. Not because of the sculptures, which I am aware is one of the big draws to the place, or because of the paintings on the walls. I find most paintings that contain a cross, a halo, or any kind of christian/catholic religious symbol in it to be an eye roller. 

The thing that blew me away was the paintings on the ceilings. I've never seen paintings on such a large scale done so incredibly well. 

Also, above each doorway were two cherubs holding a golden leafy vine whilst staring down on the person passing through. Each pair of cherubs were positioned differently with different expressions of their faces. It was really quite marvellous. 

Unfortunately you're not allowed to take any bags, cameras, or phones inside the gallery so I couldn't manage to grab any photos. If you do go ahead and look up the Borghese Gallery and see some of the ceiling art, I must must must inform you that they don't do any justice at all. I did go ahead and try to find a photograph of my favourite ceiling that did it justice but I couldn't manage it. 

If you do decide to travel to Rome, I definitely recommend heading over to the Borghese Gallery even if you don't particularly like seeing art.

Part of my favourite ceiling

♡ A few changes ♡

You may or may not have noticed a few changes happening over the past week with my blog. Firstly some of the photos may not have been showing up in posts. I believe I have fixed this issue (which was due to my stupidity whilst playing around with settings in a different but linked program). Silly me. Also I've added in one new topic and changed an existing one. 

We'll start with the existing one, "Gaming", which I've changed to "Games". I've played many games in the past on many different platforms under different genres, all aimed at different age groups. So I figured why not do a fortnightly post on one game that I find to be entertaining and fun. The posts will generally be covering Playstation, PC, and Wii platforms so if you're interested, keep an eye out for those.

Introducing the "Unboxing/Hauls" tab. For those who don't know what an unboxing is, an unboxing is when you receive a package containing various items, or you purchase something like a computer or tablet or phone for example, typically you record yourself unwrapping and explaining what's inside the box with a few comments and opinions thrown in as well. Toward the end of the month there will be a post up on an unboxing and occasionally one in-between as well.

So keep an eye out on those if they interest you. I'll still be doing posts on Books as well, generally once or twice a month (study load permitting). I'll be travelling until the 8th of June so those posts will be coming through probably up until the 9th or 10th. Of course any travelling or holidaying I do in the future will be posted up in the Travels tab also :) 

Delphi - GREECE

Your first view into the ruins

Originally we weren't planning on heading out to Delphi but after finding out that our Mycenae tour included Corinth, we decided to change! And what a brilliant change it was, so glad we did. It was a long drive out from Athens, roughly 3 hours, but definitely worth it. 

When you arrive, you start out at the bottom of the archaeological site, pay for a ticket (or in our case collect it from the tour guide), and start walking up the stone path that heads up the mountain through Ancient Delphi. As you walk up you have a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding you. I personally found as you headed further up to the top of Delphi, the more beautiful the scenery appeared.

Treasury of the Boeotians

The first thing you'll see is a few open rooms shown in the picture on the left. I won't go in to too much detail about it as I didn't find it to be too jaw dropping, however I will point out that whilst building the walls, the ancient Greeks made them capable of draining any water that may flow down them as you can see in the patterns in the walls. Smart.

Treasury of the Athenians

Continue walking approximately 30-50 metres ahead and slightly uphill and you come across the Treasury of the Boeotians. The pathway to the left of this has been roped off however there is a plaque sitting on the left side indicating it also led to another treasury. Delphi must've been a treasury centre as only a few metres further forward and uphill (again), you see the beautiful Treasury of the Athenians. All the artefacts found from this site are located down in the museum attached, roughly a 3 minute walk from the entrance of Delphi.

Further along you have the Rock of the Sibyls, an object used to foretell the future.

Temple of Apollo

And on to the most wondrous part of Delphi (in my opinion), the Temple of Apollo. My favourite part of Greece is the rich background and cultural investment in the Greek Gods. Apollo being apart of this Greek God family, naturally peaked my interest. After walking around the Temple of Poseidon the day before, being able to walk around the Temple of Apollo was an amazing experience.

Finally we have a shot of the Treasury of the Athenians and the ruins that surround it. From this far up the mountain the view is incredible. Unfortunately the clouds were billowing in quite quickly as by the time I had reached the top, going past the theatre and up to the stadium, it was almost raining.

For anyone thinking of going to Greece, would definitely recommend taking a tour out to Delphi as the tour guides are quite informative and Delphi itself is a beautiful place.

Views from the mountain 

Athens (sneak peak!)

Mycenaen Tomb

As I am still out exploring and doing things in Greece I thought perhaps I should share some photos and snippets now, and on Saturday morning, share my adventures from Delphi! I will be posting some individual posts with additional images for the places that I personally quite enjoyed but for now, here are a few photos to give you an idea!

 1. From our visit to Mycenae and Corinth
    Mycenaen Tomb

 2. On our way climbing up to the Acropolis 
     Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus

 3. My most favourite place of all so far
     Temple of Poseidon

Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus

Temple of Poseidon

Chateau du Chillon, Switzerland

I figure instead of writing a huge amount of descriptive words poorly stringed together, perhaps Switzerland would be best described if you could see it for yourself. 

First (1) photo is of me (yes, I know I'm awkward) in front of the Chateau du Chillon. We had to park a while away and walk alongside the train line and decided this would be a good enough angle to take photos from! I think it turned out alright... 

Second (2) photo is from a window on the highest part of the castle. For those who don't know what a chateau is and hasn't guessed it already, means castle...mostly...The majority of the roof and towers look like this from the outside with the inside looking like a stereotypical medieval castle you'd see from movies or Game of Thrones. Probably more so Game of Thrones.

Third (3) photo is from a window inside the castle looking out toward the South. I thought it was just the perfect view to have from a window. The stone slabs are extremely thick, I'd estimate at around half a metre at the thin points. Taking this photo did scare me a bit as I had to lean out and stick my arm out over the water. I am slightly paranoid of dropping things down places where I can't retrieve them.

Fourth (4) is from what I believe was the "womens area". It isn't technically called that but in the description of what the room was used for, it basically described that the females in the castle would spend most of their days in this particular room doing whatever was req. Unless they had to leave the room of course.

Fifth (5) photo was simply taken because I have never seen a white swan before! I live in Western Australia. We only have black swans there so seeing a white one was just weird. Personally think the black ones are prettier but that could just be me being biased. I suppose if you're accustom to seeing white swans this could be a strange photo to post up but I figured it was a part of my experience in Switzerland, and why not!

♡ I'm baaaack! ♡

It's been a while guys but I've finally managed to stop and rest for a day and get some decent net (which is harder to find than you'd think)! I'll be uploading posts on my trip through Switzerland and where I currently am, in Greece. On Saturday I will be heading from Greece to Italy and spending a week there so hopefully I'll also be able to find some net to update you guys there as well! Especially as I will be swinging by Pompeii which I believe is entitled to its very own post. 

When I get back from my trip I have a list of books I'd like to read as well so there will be a few of those posts (it's a bit hard to carry books around when your suitcase is overflowing). I've also got a few little projects I'd like to start so there shall be updates on those too. 

So yeah! Keep an eye out as my posts will (hopefully) be coming through more frequently now and in 2 weeks some different things as well! I'll also be posting links to my posts on Twitter as soon as they're published so keep an eye out on that, or subscribe to posts via email and you'll be sent a notification.

More posts coming soon!

Pont Du Gard and Millau!

Roughly an hours drive away from Arles we finally reached our first stop of the day, Pont Du Gard. I wasn't sure what to expect. I've seen photo's of the monument but in each photo it was not clear on what size it is and what's around it. Unless you get an aerial photo of course, then you can see everything surrounding it and get some perspective.

Myself at the Pont Du Gard

I thought it would be...longer. As you walk up to it you can see parts of it through trees, seeing one end of it but not quite the other. Impossible to tell where it ends by seeing just one end, it made my imagination go a little overboard. Grandad and myself made the walk up to the Pont Du Gard with Grandma staying behind in a cafe. Unfortunately we've all come down with a cold so walking a distance against strong cold winds isn't the best idea. We made our way out to it, walked halfway along the bridge adjacent and stared up. I tried to read the plaque stuck onto the side, a considerably recent addition, as well as all the graffiti that has been etched into it over the decades. The plaque was written in French even though it is in an old style, similar to Greek, and dedicated to Emperor Napoleon III for his restoration of the Pont Du Gard. I didn't know this at the time and only recognised the name so I asked Grandad for a little bit of background on Napoleon III as I was unsure of exactly what he did, and why he was so important he had his name on the monument. We discussed it as we walked back to the car, meeting Grandma on the way.

Chateau in Millau

After the Pont Du Gard we continued on to Millau where we are to spend the night at a chateau. The view driving in was incredible. I was too awe struck to dig through my bag and find my camera. You drive in from such a height that you get an aerial view of the entire town. Surrounded by lush, green mountains, a huge bridge in the distance behind it, Millau looks like the little hidden town you could run away to and be safe from everything from the outside world. Of all the French and Spanish countryside I have seen in the last few days of tours and driving, Millau is by far the greenest. That, coupled with the style of the town makes it one of the prettiest places I've seen. The chateau we're staying in overnight is so large and quaint, old and modern. It's adorable. The hourly ringing clock tower next to it not so much but the chateau is adorable.

Side of Chateau and clock/bell tower beside it

Tomorrow making our way up to Lyon for an overnight stay and then on to a weeklong stay elsewhere. 23 more days of exploring parts of Europe!

Arles, France!

France. Honestly never thought I would ever make it here. Sure, Spain and Portugal were always going to be a definite as the ship I was on (Liberty of the Seas) was stopping there whether I wanted to or not. But the idea of driving up through France was a reality I was beginning to question...

View of Arles from top tower of Amphitheatre

Arles was our first stop. My first impression was that it was windy and cold. Much colder than I thought it would be. On the best of days it was 19 degrees, minimum 3. Needless to say I was less than prepared.

Scarily narrow streets are a hard thing to stop be scared about. Driving on the right hand side when your accustom to the left is one thing, but doing it on a street barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other is a different thing entirely. Once I managed to get over the fear of having a head on collision or my side of the car being wiped out by a pole, I began paying attention to the buildings and people. The architecture is so uniquely beautiful. At first it was just a bunch of orange, white, and pink buildings, but after a few minutes of staring I noticed the details in the window sills. How each house had it's own individual style from different ages, how the personality of each house managed to remain unique in a city that looks the same. 

Inside the Amphitheatre

Once we reached our hotel and had settled, we walked around for a while looking for somewhere to eat dinner (thankfully Grandad is fluent in French so finding a menu we all liked wasn't too hard). Once that was sorted and our reservations made we walked across the road from our hotel and went inside the amphitheatre. I thought something that old wouldn't have modern structures inside it, let alone still host festivals. At the time of our exploration a gladiators class was going on inside. We sat down and watched them fight for a while before we moved on to dinner.

Gladiator's lesson

Food in France I am told is amazing. I expected great things when I ordered my food. Gladly, I wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately there were no frogs legs or anything exotic or native to try, just duck, fish, and lamb. Whenever I eat meat I generally don't notice much difference in quality or taste unless it's terribly good or bad. Vegetables I tend not to eat. Obvious reasons; 1) They don't taste great and 2) they don't contain my favourite thing of all, sugar. I wasn't surprised at all with the meat, but the vegetables... I couldn't stop eating them. I'm not sure what they did to them but they were amazing. Hopefully tonight's vegetables will be just as good if not better.

The following morning (this morning) we packed up everything and moved on to our next stop, Pont Du Gard and Millau!

Lisbon, Cascais, and Sintra!

FINALLY! Back on land and how nice it is to be somewhere different and exciting. After being on a ship surrounded by Americans, Germans, and Canadians, it is such a relief to hear a different accent and language. Feels nice to the ear. 

Lisbon as a city is beautiful and breathtaking. The sea breeze coming in over the atlantic ocean is cold, a refreshing and well needed feeling as you walk around in the hot sun. In the city itself there are quite a few historical buildings, monasteries, monuments, and fortresses. Constantly surrounded by people, both locals and tourists. Whilst in Lisbon I visited the Monastery of St Jerome and marvelled at the architecture. The place was packed with others from the ship so it was hard to move around and get the right angle for a photo, but it was interesting to see the monastery from the tour guides, and local portuguese, perspective. They are very proud.

In Cascais we walked alongside the river and into a fortress. Unfortunately as it is a Saturday, all the cafes and restaurants are closed. There really wasn’t much to see inside. A few statues outside and an open hotel down the street.

We stopped off as a group for lunch. Instead of typically ordering your food or choosing from a buffet, everything was brought out to you and served a size of the waiters choice. A strangely nice tasting cabbage soup, followed by rice, chips, salad, and a giant pork kebab. For desert we were served an almond cake. The soup and salad were nice, the rest of it I’m not so sure about.

Back on the giant tour bus we headed out for Sintra via the coast and mountain. We stopped off at the westernmost peak on the coast for a 10 minute breather before heading off through the mountain to reach Sintra. Unfortunately, again, we didn’t see too much of it as we were restricted for time. The castle at Sintra look amazing to walk through however we didn’t manage to do that.

Portugal as a whole is a geographically diverse country. Drive a few kilometres and you’ve gone from metropolis to countryside. A few more kilometres and you’ve reached sand dunes. Another few and you’ve reached civilisation again. The freeways here are only 3 narrow lanes across, occasionally 2, and aren’t very busy at all. All in all it was both slightly educational and a huuuuuge relief to get off the ship and away from all the New Jersey and Boston accents. Tomorrow time to explore Cadiz!

Welcome to Fort Lauderdale, Miami!

My stay here in Fort Lauderdale is brief. Only one night! But so far Florida has made an impression. It’s hot pretty much all the time, this morning at 7:30am it was already 27 degrees Celsius. 

The flight from Charlotte to Miami took roughly 90 minutes. We were on a small plane, three seats spanning the entire width of the aircraft. As it was so small, every passenger could feel the bumps on the tarmac and the sway in the turbulence. It was rather violent at times but I wasn’t worried.

The view as we flew in over Miami was incredible. I’ve never visited a city that has canals running alongside and under the freeways and highways. All leading out into these big lakes and ponds and then continuing on under another road to another lake or pond. It seems as if almost every house has their own watery backyard. The houses themselves are fairly large. Not as large as the ones in Charlotte, but large in comparison to Perth. You can see the difference in design as well. More Spanish influence on the architecture. 

The boats here, of course, are ridiculously massive. I can’t imagine someone needing a boat that big for leisure. Boats take a lot of work to maintain and a lot of money to run. Must be a lot of rich people in Miami…or everything is just cheap. 

Staying in the Hyatt Regency in Fort Lauderdale overnight was incredible. I stayed in my own room which was nice. Two Queen sized beds, sofa couch, large bathroom, and my favourite feature of all was the adjustable air conditioning. It is surprisingly nice to walk outside in the humidity and return to your room which is sitting at your perfect temperature. For me it’s 22.5 :)

I visited the Pier Tower at the very top of the hotel as you can see from the image above. Unfortunately I am waaaay too far away to see Miami clearly on a camera (it is also rather smoggy around the city). I also walked around the grounds of the hotel and took a few photos.

Now on to the Liberty of the Seas…

Last night in Charlotte, NC

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Miami where we will then go on to drive up for Fort Lauderdale and spend the night in a hotel. The following day we board the Liberty of the Seas to spend 12 days at sea crossing over to Spain.

In my short time in Charlotte, North Carolina, I’ve observed a few things. 

Fashion is very….conservative. I spent a good two days walking around malls and looking in different shops. Most of the items we saw were block colours, with only a few having prints or patterns on them. In Australia a lot of clothing stores have interesting t-shirts and tank tops. Bright patterns and prints across a lot of them. I found myself feeling a bit lost as I walked around trying to find something I was would usually buy.

Shop Assistants and general workers are always so happy and smiley. It’s a bit eery. Just thinking about standing in a store and folding clothes for hours on end makes me feel a bit cranky, but whenever I go somewhere, everyone is so happy and upbeat. I suppose that’s what they get paid for, but I can’t imagine anyone staying that happy all day. 

The houses are massive around here. I’m accustom to seeing small houses that sit close to the kerb and are practically piled on top of each other. Here, the driveways are these long curving paths that cut through the perfectly manicured green lawns. Each house of course comes with the standard flowery shrubs under the windows, tall trees that match the neighbours, and window shutters that don’t work as window shutters. The doors are all bigger than needed and sitting in grand archways. Windows all looking roughly the same, varying in colour, and generally sitting in the same spots on the front of each house.

I have a theory that everyone is trying to make their house more grand and distinct than their neighbours but also trying to fit in with everyone else and not stand out too much. To conform.

Mailmen. I can’t tell if it’s genius or laziness. Probably a mixture of both. All the mail boxes are sitting up on the kerb alongside the driveways so it is accessible by road. The mailmen drive up in their trucks, simply lean out where the door would normally sit, and deliver the mail without having to get out of their seats. Lazy, but genius.

One thing that I was hoping would be different were the accents. It varies from person to person, but everyone pretty much sounds regular. Given the slight drawl and excruciatingly executed words, I didn’t have any trouble understanding anyone.

Next stop Miami and Fort Lauderdale. And then a ship. 

I saw a squirrel! And two foxes, and a deer.

Squirrels are just as I imagined them really. Small, fluffy little things. When they’re just chilling out, their tales sit hunched over their bodies, making them look even fluffier and cuter than they really are. Eventually when the little guy noticed I was there he scurried away like a strangely coordinated bunny rabbit.

The foxes I spotted were both running through the back yard. Only about knee high, red toned hair though not a bright red. I thought their tails would’ve been bigger, perhaps a bit more noticeable but alas they weren’t. 

The deer was smaller, more delicate looking. With thin legs, a small head and a relatively skinny body, I always imaged deer as these strong, large animals. The one I saw, I’m sure was strong, but I didn’t think they would be quite THAT small. Perhaps it was only a young deer.

The cars in America are quite a bit wider than the ones in Australia. Taller too. The utes, or 'trucks' as they call them, are these tall, block-like things. All the ones I have seen so far are shiny, which to me suggests they aren’t used for what they were originally designed and just a statement. Most other cars all look relatively new, or clean. I haven’t seen a ‘bombshell’ car yet. 

I’ve seen a few police cars, a few police officers as well. The police here look like they’re dressed in very casual clothing. Either that, or their posture is appalling and makes them look underdressed.

I also went to the shops today, or what I believe Americans call the ‘mall’. They aren’t particularly busy and a lot of shop employees are quite smiley. Happy. Too happy. No one should be that happy to stand for hours upon hours and serve people. Makes me a little suspicious. The shopping centres, or malls, are also very clean, which is also a bit strange. 

In a half hour I am to attend what I am told to be a very ‘American’ dinner. I’m both looking forward to it to see what is usually made, and also a little worried that it will be large servings and strange tasting food. We shall see.

Too many planes...

Never again will I travel on a plane for 15 hours. Never. Ever. Again. I will give QANTAS a bravo for such good service and the most decent plane food I’ve ever had.

When I arrived in Dallas Fort Worth, the immigration line was massive. It took my Grandparents and myself a good hour to clear the line. When we reached the immigration officer, we were fingerprinted and photographed. For security purposes I’m sure, however I’m not so sure I like the idea of having my fingerprints in someones system for good. 

With our spare 40 minutes between flights we sat down for a quick snack and coffee. The nearest place that had seating and food was a cantina. The walls were covered in paintings of spanish women and a seemingly endless playlist of spanish music in the background. I can’t remember the name of it and it smelt weird, but a place that sold food was all I needed. Craving chips, or fries, the only way I could get my hands on them was by ordering a cheeseburger. I didn’t quite think it through. The burger was roughly the size of my entire head. Americans…

Our next flight from Dallas to Charlotte only lasted 2 hours. Small seats, crowded, no service or any form of inflight entertainment. I was only awake for 20 minutes of it thankfully. I managed to get my iPod out and sleep listening to music. Waking up a few times when bass lines or the treble were a little bit too loud to be comfortable.

Needless to say I was overdue for a shower. Once I had arrived at my Grandmothers sister’s house, Joanne, the bed I was given was like heaven compared to my previous sleeping arrangements.

♡ Flights ♡

So for those who don't know, I'm currently travelling with my Grandparents to the US and through Europe. So far I've only flown one leg, Perth to Sydney. A dreadful 5 hours on a plane to be driven straight across to the International Airport where we stayed overnight in an attached hotel. 

In about 3-4 hours my Grandparents and I board our next flight to Dallas where we will then board another flight that continues onto Charlotte, North Carolina. To say that I really dislike the idea of this next flight is a bit of an understatement. 15 hours on a plane. Two inflight meals. With a two hour wait for the next flight, which only takes 2 hours, I get a little tired just thinking about it.

Now I haven't spent too much time alone with my Grandparents. Usually my Mum or my siblings accompany me. So far I've confirmed what I already know. 

My Grandfather loves his history and can talk about it for hours on end. Last night I hypothesised different ways a nuclear war could begin and how different countries would behave and what treaty's would be called into play. With him knowing every single treaty signed and how each country is would respond by using past events as a basis, it was a quite interesting conversation.

My Grandmother is rather quiet. Though she always has been so that wasn't really much of a surprise. She looks after me and questions how and where I will sleep and what pillow I'll use and making sure I have everything with me when I leave planes and airports. Though she did forget her Nintendo DS on the last plane...