Paul's 1999 Europe trip

Thursday March 18th Arrived in Rome at 7.20am, after a torturous flight via Bangkok. Actually, the flight wasn't so bad, it was the conversation with the person sitting next to me that was painful. Dragged myself through the airport and onto a train into town - although it was sunny, it was a lot colder than I'd expected. Last time I was in Italy it had been around 30 degrees every day - and I'd been staying considerably further north than I was now.

Had arranged to meet Shelley in the hotel sometime after lunch, so I decided to try and shake off jet lag by getting myself oriented. I wandered around town for a while, briefly taking a look at some of the better known areas from the outside.

The Colusseum, Rome, Italy

Friday March 19th Tried to get into the Rome youth hostel to avoid paying for another night in an expensive hotel, but unfortunately they were full. Found another hotel (the first one we'd stayed in was now full, although funnily enough they found a couple of rooms just as we were leaving), around the corner, and then went out to see the sights - first stop, the Colosseum.

Saturday March 20th Day Three in Rome - today we went to see the Vatican. Word of advice to anyone going to see the Sistine Chapel: go early. It closes around lunchtime, and a part of the visit involves a long walk through hallways filled with ancient paintings, sculptures, jewellery and architecture. In order to make it to the chapel, you have to rush past all of this, and it's possibly more interesting than the chapel itself.

Later that day we wandered over the grounds of the Roman Forum, and checked out one or two pizza restaurants.

The Roman Forum, Rome, Italy

Sunday March 21st Still in Rome. The weather warmed up considerably today ... enough to get about in a t-shirt after 10am, anyway. We headed off on the Metro to see the Catacombs, after a considerable amount of walking through rural country lanes...

Monday March 22nd. Only just made it onto the train to Florence in time. A bank in Rome was evidentally having some trouble with its credit card service, and the hotel in Rome was refusing to accept travellers' cheques. After gathering up some cash we finally managed to convice them to accept the balance in cheques and then took off. The train was the cleanest, fastest, most-efficient thing I'd seen in Italy so far. Hehe. Upon arriving in Florence, we spent some time finding the correct bus to the Youth Hostel. After sorting all that out, we came back to the city centre to meet Shelley's friend's friend Alessandra, who showed us around town.

The Florence Youth Hostel, Italy

Tuesday March 23rd Florence. Alessandra showed us through various galleries and restaurants. Tried to get into the Uffizi gallery at the end of the day, but the queue was too long.

Wednesday March 24th Still in Florence. Day trip out to Pisa, to see the Leaning Tower (well, why else would you go there?)

Thursday March 25th Last day in Florence. More galleries, museums and restaurants.

Friday March 26th. Off to Venice today. Got stuck at Venice-Mestre Station for about three or four hours, courtesy of a bus that had plowed onto one of the railway lines... finally arrived there at about 4pm, and then set about finding the Venice Youth Hostel, cunningly hidden on a southern island.

Florence, Italy

Saturday March 27th. Unfortunately, the Youth Hostel was booked out for the weekend, so we could only stay one night. Had to find a hotel to stay in for the next two nights... which proved quite expensive. But it was a nice hotel, nevertheless. Spent the day wandering the streets (and canals) of Venice.

Sunday March 28th. Went out to see some of the neighbouring Venezian islands today.

Monday March 29th. Venice still. Got to see some of the more hidden back-streets today, as well as a quick trip out to the island of Lido (but the weather got cold, so we didn't stay there for too long). Moved back to the youth hostel for Monday night.

Tuesday March 30th. Headed off by train to Verona today. A bit of a surprise, after Florence and Venice - it felt like I was back in Rome again, with the chaotic traffic... The hostel was, let's say, interesting. Small, bordering on clean, and housing a mad American called Don, a German tutor who visits from Koblenz every year. Went to see Verona's answer to the Colosseum and a few other sights...

Wednesday March 31st. Verona still. Saw more sights.

Thursday April 1st. Headed for Milan by train today. Arrived early in the afternoon and set about finding the hostel. After checking in, we had some time left in the day to explore the town, get accosted by some locals who were trying to sell bird-seed (don't touch the pidgeons. Just don't touch them) and have dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The hostel seemed more like a military installation - barking attendants, spartan breakfast... we decided not to stay another night.

Friday April 2nd. Off to St. Moritz today. This involved catching a train to the small rural town of Tirano (near the Swiss border) and then changing to another train (on a completely separate railway line) which was to take us up into the mountains. The views were amazing. Checked in at the fantastic hostel, which was more like a ski lodge - a very pleasant change from the overly conservative Italian hostels.

Saturday April 3rd. St. Moritz. Did a bit of hiking through the lower trails today, as well as a walk across the large lake which had iced over. Had lunch, consisting of a bunch of rolls, cheese and fruit bought from the supermarket, at the side of the lake.

Sunday April 4th. St. Moritz to Visp, via the Glacier Express. More amazing views of the mountains, as the train weaved its way up a narrow-gauge track. Spent the afternoon and evening in Sion, after checking into a hotel in Visp. It's kinda weird to be able to travel from one town where they speak German and then have dinner in another where everyone speaks French...

A castle in Sion, Switzerland

Monday April 5th. Day trip to Zermatt. Spent the evening in Brig.

Tuesday April 6th. Visp to Geneva, with a few hours in Lausanne.

Wednesday April 7th. Geneva. Took a tour of the UN and the International Red Cross museum.

Thursday April 8th. Geneva. Out to see CERN today.

Friday April 8th. Geneva. Packed Shelley onto a plane back to London, and then went for a wander through the old town. Mental note: avoid the lake front. It's inhabited by strange people offering illegal substances. Later that day took an overnight train to Hamburg. Gave Russ a phone call from Basel to see if he wanted to meet me in Copenhagen. He didn't seem surprised to hear from me, evidentally someone had tipped him off that I was in Europe.

Saturday April 9th. Woke up in Hamburg at about 8am. Rapidly shoved my bag in a locker and used the remaining portion of my Eurailpass for that day on a trip to Berlin. Went and sought out the Jugendherberg auf dem Stintfang once I'd arrived back in Hamburg, since I'd booked accomodation there.

Sunday April 10th. Hamburg. Out and about on the town today. Took a tour of the parliament building (the English tour didn't eventuate, so I went on a German one instead. Amazingly I actually understood the majority of it). Some advice when travelling on the S-bahn trains in Germany - they have 1st and 2nd classes. Watch out ... I hadn't noticed that I was sitting in 1st class and the ticket inspectors found me.

Monday April 11th. Still in Hamburg. Took a day trip to Luebeck.

Tuesday April 12th. I had planned today to head off to Ribe, on the west coast of Denmark, but the hostel there was full, so I decided to go straight to Copenhagen. Arrived in the early afternoon, to a freezing cold wind gusting down the road beside the railway station. Put myself on a bus for the long hike out to the Copenhagen Amager Youth Hostel.

Wednesday April 13th. Spent today getting familiar with the town. Spent quite a bit of time in the Danish Resistence Museum, as well as seeing the Little Mermaid statue, and a changing of the guards celebrating the Queen's birthday.

Thursday April 14th. Copenhagen. I jumped on a train to the western side of Sjaelland today, to visit Trelleborg, one of four remaining sites that previously housed Viking fortresses. Very impressive - and I couldn't resist the urge to make a mobile phone call from the middle of one of the thousand-year-old remains. Managed to get caught in a blizzard just as I hung up. Visited Roskilde, the home of the biggest annual rock music festival in Northern Europe, on the way back to Copenhagen.

Helsingor Castle, Denmark

Friday April 16th. Got myself a Copenhagen card today, and visited a few of the standard fare of Museums and so forth. Also paid a visit to the outskirts of Christiania ... possibly Denmark's answer to Nimbin...

Saturday April 17th. Copenhagen to Lund, via Helsingor and Helsingborg. The Lund Youth Hostel is very cool ... it's an old sleeper train converted into a fixed residence. The rooms were tiny, but fortunately I had one to myself.

Sunday April 18th. Lund. Lund was wet and cold, so I decided to try my luck on the southern coast of Sweden, hoping that the weather there might be vaguely better. So I bought myself a return ticket to Ystad, jumped on a train to Malmo and waited two hours there for the connecting train. Unfortunately the weather in Ystad was just as bad as in Lund, so I didn't get to see much.

Monday April 19th. Lund to Stockholm. Another cool hostel. This one was built into a permanently moored ship. Met a couple from Britain/Canada (whose names I've forgotten) and learnt a few new card games from them...

Tuesday April 20th. Spent the day wandering around Stockholm. Visited the open-air museum on Skansen.

Wednesday April 21st. Stockholm. I visited the old town today, and wandered through the winding streets. At around 10pm that night, I caught an overnight train back to Copenhagen. I had reserved a bed in a couchette carriage, and I shared the room with two Americans who were travelling through Europe after having done some work on the American Embassey in Beijing. They were, err, let's say, interesting people - anyway, they turned out to be fairly harmless, aside from their tendency to read the newspaper out aloud to the whole room...

Stockholm, Sweden

Thursday April 22nd. Woke up in Copenhagen and jumped on a train to Hamburg. Then headed onto the first train to Leipzig, but got off in Berlin instead, on the spur of the moment. Couldn't get in at the first hostel that I tried, so I had to give the Jugendgaestehaus Wannsee a call. Fortunately they had a bed for the night. They were a fair way out of town, but the public transport in Berlin is great, so it really didn't matter. Took off back to town for dinner in a restaurant, which I managed to conduct entirely in broken German.

Friday April 23rd. Berlin. Out to see all the things I missed the first time - the concentration camp, a few outer suburbs, the technical university (for lunch).

Saturday April 24th. Berlin. Visited Trepptower park, a huge monument built by the communists when they ran East Germany. Later that night, I caught an overnight train to Munich.

Sunday April 25th. I arrived in Munich just after dawn. I had about an hour before my train to Vienna was due to depart - enough for a walk out of the station, down the street a little way and back again. But I had my backpack with me and didn't really want to spring for a locker for just an hour - so it came along too, making walking somewhat painful, at that time of morning. Piled myself onto the train again at 9ish, off to Vienna, via Salzburg. Arrived in Vienna at around 2pm, and trudged off to find the Jugendherberg Myrthengasse.

An underground station, Berlin, Germany

Monday April 26th. Spent today wandering around Vienna. I think I know the city centre almost as well as I know Melbourne now... amongst other things, I visited an Internet cafe, popped into the University for lunch, and had a wander through the amusement park in the south...

Tuesday April 27th. Still in Vienna. Went out to see the palace formerly occupied by many Austro-Hungarian rulers. Later caught an overnight train to Zurich.

Wednesday April 28th. Arrived in Zurich, shoved bag in locker and spent the day in Lucerne. Came back later in the afternoon and checked into the Zurich youth hostel.

Thursday April 29th. Zurich to Geneva via Bern. Spent most of the day in Bern, where I wandered the length of the town, visited the bear enclosure (which contained some fairly bored looking brown bears) and then left for Geneva. Later I caught an overnighter to Barcelona, after having been herded by the French border police into a cramped waiting room to wait for the train to arrive.

Friday April 30th. Woke up at about 5.30 am as my train was pulling into Port Bou, where it was terminating. At this point, I didn't know whether I was on the French or Spanish side of the border... it's a weird experience finding yourself standing on the platform of a railway station in the middle of nowhere whilst half asleep. The train continuing to Barcelona pulled in on the next platform, so I dragged myself onto that and tried to shake off the rest of my sleepiness...

Saturday May 1st. Barcelona. Went with Fiona (from Sydney), Sandra (from Alice Springs) and Georgia (from Toronto), who I met at the hostel, to see some post-modern architecture in Barcelona and then onto the gothic cathedral. Finished the day with dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

Sunday May 2nd. Still in Barcelona. Spent the morning booking an overnight train to France, and then went for another walk up the hill overlooking Barcelona, with Fiona and Georgia. Later that afternoon I headed back to the railway station for my train to Paris.

Monday May 3rd. My train pulled into Paris-Austerlitz station at around 7am. I spent half an hour or so trying out my broken French on the phone trying to find somewhere to stay. Found a hostel with a free bed, and took off ASAP to find it. It was a reasonable hostel, a bit cramped and untidy. Anyway, I dumped my backpack and headed out to see the city. Did the usual sites - the Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower (well, under it, not up it. Queues were far too long). Back in the hostel that evening, amazingly, I ran into Ernie Lim, one of the postgrad students here in my department. Well, it's a small world.

Tuesday May 4th. Out and about in Paris again, today I visited Jim Morrison's gravesite, after trying to book myself on a train to Amsterdam. No such luck, all of the TGV's and Thalys trains seemed to be booked out. I didn't particularly want to arrive in Amsterdam at night, so I decided to think about going somewhere else. Spent the rest of the day wandering around town.

Jim Morrison's Grave, Paris, France

Wednesday May 5th. I decided that Luxembourg was probably the best place to head, although I'm not entirely sure of my reasons. Just seemed like a good place to go, I guess. Well, indeed it was - an incredibly picturesque town and incredibly relaxing at that. I'm still fascinated by the town's valley and the vast bridges spanning it. I checked in at the hostel and then proceeded back to the station to book myself a train ticket on to London.

Thursday May 6th. Took some walks through the parkland beneath the bridges and got a feel for the town. I decided that I needed to see a film that afternoon, so I went for a walk to one of the nearby suburbs. Found myself heading down a freeway that was blocked by construction work and thought it best to move off the road a little way. Needless to say, I got lost but managed to stumble right into the cinemas with the help of someone who had actually asked me for directions!

Friday May 7th. Time was running out, so I had to head off to London today. Jumped on a train to Brussels, where I spent about two hours (walking from Brussells-Midi to the Grand Place and back. Then onto the Eurostar to London via the Channel Tunnel.

Saturday May 8th. Met up with Russ in Leicester Square. Russ has been maintaining his usual style of frequenting expensive restaurants and shops, and he took me to visit a good percentage of them (grin).

Sunday May 9th. As I woke up this morning, I think the constant movement and travelling had finally got to me. I wasn't able to keep my balance whilst standing up, and I even felt dizzy whilst lying down. I decided that going back to bed was probably the best answer. Rang Russ and put off lunch until after 1pm. Later we went and listened to some of the loons speak at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park.

Monday May 10th. London. Headed down to Westminster Abbey, saw Big Ben and the British House of Commons. They don't seem to let people in to see it, unlike in Australia, which is a pity. Later I went out to see the Observatory in Greenwich. Apparently the Queen was going to be there later on to open something, but I didn't have time to stick around.

Tuesday May 11th. London. Did the British Museum today and had a wander through Harrods. Went out to Leister Square later that night with Tina from Salzburg, and had a look through the shops.

Wednesday May 12th. Said goodbye to Tina, who was flying back to Austria and Robert, who was heading back to Germany, and then checked into the hotel I had booked for my last night in Europe. Saw some more of the British Museum. Ran into Ernie once again... looks like he didn't spend as much time in France as he was going to. Sat around in a bookstore whilst Russ had a book signed by a sci-fi author... then hit the restaurants again, just as Total-Toxic-Overload was beginning to settle in.

Thursday May 13th. Flew back to Melbourne, via Bangkok and Sydney.