I figure I might start the blog again, even though it probably won't be interesting. I am currently on the Campiano express to Sorrento. I don't know what makes this train special, except it was three times the price. I didn't know that at the time of booking. It is noisy, slow, old, and my window is covered with graffiti so I can't see out. It did come with a lady that gathered us up at the station and walked us to the platform. I don't know why. She's on the train with us too.
I left Sydney a few days ago, flew to Guangzhou, stayed at a very nice and cheap hotel. The area was strangely quiet, except some arsehole honking his car horn repeatedly right through the night. The next day I discovered it wasn't one arsehole, it was several. They were at a neighbouring hotel and the automatic boom gate wasn't working so they would honk their horn until someone came out to let them out.
I got the train into the city the following morning and went to the Canton Tower. It has an observatory similar to the one in every city. Guangzhou was quite nice. More akin to Singapore than Bangkok. Very calm for the most part. I walked from Canton tower over the bridge to the museum and opera house on the other side. There is an enormous square that is decidedly rectangular. Underneath is the mall of the world. It is a big rabbit Warren of shopping. I wanted a headphone flight adapter, the sort of thing that costs 30 cents from alibaba, but I couldn't find a single shop selling shitty Chinese stuff. It was all very nice. There was a bloke in a suit with white gloves ushering me into a store that sold nothing but crocs.
I waited around in that square for the sun to go down. The tower lights are switched on so I snapped some photos then jumped on the metro back to the airport. In rush hour on a Friday. I've never seen so many people crushed together so tightly and still manage to stay on their phones. In fact everyone seemed to be on their phones at all times. It was actually bizarre.
That smog got worse in the time I was up there.
I flew into Rome yesterday. Arrived at 6:20am. Got the train into Termini, which is the central station. My hotel is across the road, so I dropped my bags and went to the Vatican. Because it was so early there was hardly a line to go into St Peters. It was pretty impressive, I must say. Number 1 Church I reckon. I went and had a look at where the dead pope's are interred, then went to the Sistine chapel, but couldn't figure out the ticket situation as I don't think it was open, so I went back to the hotel and slept for 13 hours.
This morning I went to the colloseum before the sun came up as I was awake from jet lag. It was quite cool being there so early, literally and figuratively. There were one or two other early birds. I wandered around taking photos then headed back to check out and get on the train to napoli, and now Sorrento. So far I have mostly eaten burger king, McDonald's and airplane food. Looking forward to something Italian in Sorrento.
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OK, quite a bit of time has passed. Sorrento was nice. I stayed in an apartment and they had upgraded me so I had a balcony. It was really nice. The first night there I walked down to a restaurant that was recommended only to find a huge queue. So I walked back and stopped at a restaurant I believe nobody has recommended, ever. Plastic chairs, tables and walls, but the waiter was really nice and the food was decent, especially for the price. I planned to get up for the sunrise the following day, but the sun kinda didn't rise. It poured with rain. So I spent a good part of the day inside. I did venture out to the nearby fishing village, which actually isn't a seperate village anymore. It sits on its own little cove and the fishing families apparently also have restaurants. The food was good there and not too expensive but far more expensive than the place with plastic chairs. The waiter also stood in judgement while I ate.
There isn't a whole lot to do in Sorrento except wander the cobblestone streets and look at things you don't want to buy. I spent the second evening taking some photos. I tried to sneak down this private road that runs along a crack in the cliff. The town Christmas tree was at one end of the crack and I wanted to get to the other end to take a photo of the tree. It would've been a good shot, but unfortunately security caught me almost immediately.
I went back to Rome and stayed in a hostel near the Vatican. When I arrived at the hostel there was no hostel and no signs. I eventually found the hostel listed on a building entry. I rang the buzzer and it didn't buzz. A local went through the big wooden door and I followed her. It opened up into a huge courtyard with stairs and doors everywhere. I wandered around for a bit and another local pointed me towards the hostel. It was definitely a unique set up and so incredibly poorly communicated. When I checked in I asked the guy about booking an airport transfer for boxing day, as I thought it might be difficult to organise on Christmas day. He told me not to worry, which is terrible advice.
I ducked out that evening for some food. I walked down this street with heaps of restaurants until I got to the McDonald's at the end. I actually hate sitting down in a restaraunt on my own for a meal. It is boring as. I wanted takeaway but I couldn't find any. So I got my McDonald's and felt awkward walking past all those fancy restaraunts with maccas, so I cut down a side street and headed towards the river to find a quiet place to eat. I ended up on this well lit boulevard and there was a seat. I started eating and noticed people taking photos. I turned around and St Peter's Basilica was right there! So I ate my McDonald's with quite a view. I also got some weird looks off all the jealous people. I then wandered closer to see what the fuss was about. People were going through security and I heard a kiwi bloke say "This intry luks qwoiter shirrun" to his wife, Sharon, so I figured I'd go through the quiet entry and I ended up at the midnight mass, which is conveniently held 5 hours before midnight. It was deeply, profoundly boring, plus I had to poo, so I left after about 10 minutes. Got some good photos though. I also let my hair down thinking I'd look like Jesus and everyone would go into hysterics, but I looked like Hagrid from Harry Potter instead.
For Christmas I went and had breakfast then wandered to the Vatican for the Pope's address, the Urbi et Orbi. There were far less people than the night before but the entry took quite a while. Over half an hour. The pope came out and spoke. The only words I understood were Columbia, Venezuela, Gratzi and Amen. It was really cool though and he kept it fairly brief. There were a bunch of different varieties of guards on parade as well.
I spent the afternoon wandering, making my way towards the pantheon, but I somehow missed it. I've been there before so I gave up and had dinner at a restaraunt. The blokes working there wanted me to take their photo and I did and it's actually really good, so now I have to send it to them. I then waited on the Umberto Bridge for the sun to go down. There is a good shot of the Sant Angelo Bridge with the basilica in the background. I waited there for like an hour and a half and I'm not sure if I got a very good shot. I probably took about 50. After that I went back to the hostel and prepared for my flight the following morning.
There was only 1 other guy in my hostel room. A Nigerian guy I barely spoke to. He seemed nice though. He snores really badly. I have sleep apnea and so does he. But when he stops breathing he panics and sits bolt upright. This happened repeatedly. I know that feeling, but I don't jump up. On the first night he jumped up so violently he fell out of the bed. I was awake at 3:30 this morning (I have made no attempt to adjust to the time difference, I'm enjoying being up early) and he launched himself up and stared straight at me for at least 30 seconds. It was like he thought I was somehow messing with his sleep. It was a little unnerving.
I left the hostel at 4am so didn't get a chance to tell that bloke he has sleep apnea. It was in a hostel in 2012 that someone first told me I have it, so it would've been nice to pass on the favour. I got the 4:30am bus to the airport, so I could be 2 hours early for my 7:10 flight because Ryanair are pricks and I thought they'd screw me somehow. Turns out, I was checked in, bags dropped and through security by 5:30. I have a hole in my coat pocket so I put stuff inside the lining of my coat so they didn't ping me for my bag not fitting (they were walking up and down the line getting people).
I'm now in Malta, and I must say first impressions are very good. It is 14 degrees, so not as warm as I expected, but still very nice in the sun. There were people swimming in the ocean. The buses were easy to navigate from the airport, everything was calm, the people seem nice. Im in a private room at a hostel. It is in an area called Sliema. I walked down the street to the promenade along the water, which was very nice. It seems fairly cheap. There is a Lidl nearby too. Lidl is like aldi, but in my opinion much better. If you were to go back about 100 entries in this blog, I am sure I would've expressed my love for brie foccacias from Lidl. Well when I walked in the bread section was right in front of me and I was so excited, but... No brie foccacias! Instead they had goats cheese foccacias which were also very very good. 59 cents each...
I'm now back at the hostel. I'm going to post this then settle in to watch the spurs game. Then I'll map out some places to get to tomorrow. I'm going to probably hire a scooter and see as much of the island as I can.
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