One month in Europe

[Johnny8Bit]

Will be taking a month long trip to Europe soon, I leave this coming Wednesday. Can't friggin wait anymore its been in planning since the start of the year.

Places that will be taking some damage:
Wroclaw
Krakow
Barcelona
Ibiza - This one should be interesting, there for a week
Naples
Rome
Piza
Majorca
Marseille

There is a Mediterranean cruise liner involved somewhere in the middle of all of this, never been on a big boat before.
Oh and I am doing this alone, call it a journey of self discovery.

 

[S1NGH 001]

Enjoy buddy, take lots of pics :joy:

 

[OppositeLockMT]

Wow, that's going to be an experience of a lifetime. I plan on doing the same one day....enjoy :thumbs:

 

[petrivanzyl]

:bravo:

 

[///Moose]

Enjoy, I did something similiar a few yrs ago, its awesome u gonna have a blast

 

[Twinz]

Wonderful. :inlove:
That is going to be an awesome journey. :joy:

 

[bmwforlife]

Sweet

 

[Mr H]

Bon voyage! :thumbs:

 

[Jerez]

Will be taking a month long trip to Europe soon, I leave this coming Wednesday. Can't friggin wait anymore its been in planning since the start of the year.

Places that will be taking some damage:
Wroclaw
Krakow
Barcelona
Ibiza - This one should be interesting, there for a week
Naples
Rome
Piza
Majorca
Marseille

There is a Mediterranean cruise liner involved somewhere in the middle of all of this, never been on a big boat before.
Oh and I am doing this alone, call it a journey of self discovery.

Enjoy, when in Spain and Italy, beware of pickpockets.
Innocent looking ladies with coats over their arms, at train stations.
La Ramblas is where you want to be - cant miss it- tapas again

Majorca ( Palma ), sound like where you will be catching your boat- enjoy some Tapas whilst you're there.
Pisa... Great Pizzas- the flavours in the dough... Great Sunday market- must go to the ice cream parlours.

Weather should be ok... Not at 20s yet but Cardin or hoody should be fine


Have a great time and watch for those crafty pickpockets

 

[Johnny8Bit]

Thanks for the words guys.

I've been on a Contiki through Europe some years back, and anyone who has been on one of those can vouch they can get quite out of hand (a story of bouncing the bus through the streets of Paris comes to mind..). More party than anything else. Hoping this one will be a little slower paced.

@Jerez - thanks for the tips, besides Spain I have been to quite a few of these places before so have to some extent done all the 'touristy' stuff, won't be chasing from attraction to attraction if I can help it. Rather park down in a spot and watch the world go by. The boat actually sails from Barcelona, you were close.

Pickpockets... learned that lesson recently, in good old Cape Town..

 

[Jerez]

Enjoy.... Actually, it will be much Warmer than the 20 I mentioned

 

[XMAX]

Last minute in... Congrats bro...


Enjoy it... Something to remember when youre old... cos touring at 60 and touring at 30 are completely different. Theres a different mindset....

 

[Rooi_Willie]

Enjoy man!! Soooo jealous!!! :bravo::bravo:

 

[Johnny8Bit]

Ok so I never did report back on this and it happened all the way back in May.
Truth is that I got back and got into the swing of things and before I knew it the thoughts of holiday time had faded.

But, on my way back I did have a bit of a wait at the airport so sat and wrote a little write up. Forgot about it since and found it recently again on my tablet so decided to share. Everything is as it was written back then when it was still fresh.

Just added some pics..

Here goes, my travel report:

Wroclaw. Enough to see to keep you busy for a good few days, I didn't do too much sightseeing as this is my hometown. Instead took in some Speedway (taken very seriously over there) and the opera just to get a little culture. Wroclaw has been chosen to be the cultural capital of Europe for 2014. Also as with all old European cities the main square has more than enough places to eat, drink and party. The city parks are something else too, some spanning multiple city blocks. European culture at its best with the parks filled with all sorts of people just relaxing and doing their thing in peace, for me its the single biggest thing missing in South Africa. Spent most of my time with my family there which was overdue.

Krakow. Took a road trip to get there, about 3 hours by car from Wroclaw. Krakow is bustling and very much geared for tourism. Had so many people approach us speaking English almost forgot its a Polish speaking country. Tons of history too and plenty old churches, castle and museums, some quite high tech. For example the main square was excavated a couple of years ago, underneath the street were the ruins of the old city. This was converted to an archaeological site, then covered up again to return the square to what it was. The underground section was then filled with multimedia and electronics to help tell the story of what happened there over the years, the mix of bits and pieces of the actual ancient city along with the visual effects is very impressive. Also had the opportunity to see the local chamber orchestra. There is quite a bit of that over there and they play in all the old churches, the performance we went to was in the huge church of Peter and Paul. With the tall thick granite walls the acoustics were something else. Spent a few days really getting into the history of the place but barely scratched the surface. Krakow is also night life capital of Poland, there are I think three major universities there.

Driving, best way to describe it would be baptism by fire. My first time driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, and instead of the Astra which was requested the rental company delivered an oversize Mondeo station wagon. There are a couple of things here. First the fact that everything is backwards, just didn't have the muscle memory having done it the other way around all my life. Its easy enough when its open road and not much going on but its interesting how you switch to automatic mode as soon as there is more to consider. Then funny things start happening like reaching for the door handle when its time to change gear. I always thought this was an urban legend until it actually happened. Just keeping the car in one lane takes conscious effort in the beginning, there seems to be a natural tendency to drift over to the right. No doubt it has to do with where you are sitting in the car and where your visual queues are as a result. Then the traffic rules which are different, in Poland anyway there is a concept of main roads and arterial roads, denoted by a round white sign with a yellow circle on it. This means you are on a main road and all roads joining that road must yield to you. There are no yield signs as such. If the yellow circle is crossed out then you are no longer on a main road and must now yield at the next intersection. So if you don't keep track of this you can plough straight into someone. Then pedestrians, unlike South Africa where pedestrians do not have the right to even be in the road, alive anyway, there pedestrians have right of way and walk, and expect you to be stopped when they do. Then trams, not something you want to have an accident with, they also have right of way. Its all good further out of the centre where the tracks are out of the way. However inside the older parts of town the tracks overlap with the road, meaning you drive on the tracks. Some lanes can be shared by trams and cars and others are reserved just for the trams, and this is not clearly marked. So I found myself standing at a red light, in the wrong lane, with a train in my mirrors. Very unnerving. Worse is that you then have two options, skip the red light or hope he stops, I skipped the light. Anyway, trying to process all of this on day one was hard work. The good thing is that the highway limit in Poland is 140, and a 10km/h grace is given, so you can legally cruise at just under 160 on the clock, give or take.

Zakopane. This is a fantastic little ski resort town where things like the winter X-Games take place. Liked it there, very nice places to eat and friendly people. Awesome views of the mountains too. Interesting fact, the Tatry mountains are 20% in Poland and 80% in the Czech republic. Actually took a raft ride on the Danube river which flows in the valley bordering the two countries, not possible to see some of those sights other than by boat.

Barecelona. Had some time to kill there but spent it mostly driving between airports, bus terminals and sea port. And writing this. Did see the Gaudi cathedral that is being built still, and has been for the last 100 years, but unfortunately only from a distance. All I can say is beware the taxi driver as they will take all your money. Cabs are damn expensive and its a big city.

Ibiza. Interesting. For the most part it looks like any other South African coastal town, think Amanzimtoti or Margate. Basically apartment blocks and souvenir shops and most of the buildings could do with a coat of paint. Things change when you get to the harbour and old town though, here there is a maze of little streets with shops and restaurants. Also tons of history dating back to the Roman times, complete with castle, was initially surprised to see so many elderly tourists but soon realised age is not a thing in Ibiza. Hired a quad bike to get around as quad bikes are legal on the road. This was a bad idea, firstly you can get a car for the price of a quad, probably because its high risk, and secondly because I nearly died, same reason. Don't think ill be mixing it up with trucks and buses on a little four wheeler again any time soon. Did drive the thing to the other side of the island though and saw some nice sights and caves. Quite happy to have explored into the island somewhat. The party season officially started a few days after I was there so it was relatively quiet as far as night life went. But the people were slowly streaming in, did get a chance to go to the (in)famous Pacha nightclub, it was brilliant but definitely not the huge crowds of people that you see on YouTube. Oh and if you want to hit a bar and get out a bit don't bother before 11pm, the place lives at night. Some shops only open at 5pm. One final mention of the hotel I stayed at, Ushuaia, officially the coolest hotel ever. Not getting into details it is something you need to experience for yourself. Spent a week on the island mostly on the balcony of my room looking at the goings on around the poolside, even in off season the music doesn't really stop at that hotel.

The rest of the trip was done on a cruise liner. The Norwegian Epic, its massive, Wikipedia lists it as the 3rd largest in the world. It was my first time on a big ship so enjoyed the experience, but its basically a floating casino/mall/bar/theme park crowded with families and kids running around. The best part for me was getting to a port and getting off the thing. And no it wasn't the seasickness, was actually looking forward to some rough seas. The Mediterranean is after all a calm sea and it would take some doing to rock that boat. Have mixed feelings about doing the cruise on my own, yes you do meet people and there really is no reason to eat dinner on your own if you don't want to, but it just didn't feel right.

Naples. Explored the old town on foot, decided to walk from the port to the castle at the top of the hill. Not sure exactly how much fluid I lost doing that but if you see the pic. notice the sky scrapers down at the bottom. What was surprising was that people live all around and up that hill. There I was dying having never climbed so many stairs in my life and around me were old ladies walking around carrying their shopping, very interesting how and where people live. This is I feel the good part about exploring a place on foot, you get to see and smell how life is there. As opposed to driving from attraction to attraction on a bus and taking guided tours. Both approaches are valid but you see and learn different things. Naples itself is a bit of a mess, very dirty to begin with, and the traffic needs its own paragraph. How people don't die everyday is beyond me, it makes JHB traffic look like a walk in the park, really. Sat on a busy corner and watched it all happen for a while. Even the elderly skip the red lights! I suppose every city has a system worked out that works for that specific city, this one is just particularly chaotic.

Civitavecchia. Port of Rome, this is the closest you can get to Rome by sea. Although it is still a 80km bus ride, which I didn't care for having been to Rome before. As for Civitavecchia itself there is not much to it, its a little industrial harbour town. There is a fort right at the harbour but it is apparently a military installation so wasn't allowed inside. Nice thing is that there is free Wifi for everyone all around the town.

Livorno. No pedestrian exit from the port, skipped this altogether. Closest place of interest is Pisa with its leaning tower, about 20km away but I've seen that before too so it was basically a day sitting next to the pool. Quite amazing the view you get from deck 18..

Marseille. Trying to figure out what to say about this place. Didn't really go into the history of it, the historical buildings around town were too far to walk and the cathedral in town was closed. Did explore the streets and it seems like a very decent port town, well city really its one of France's larger settlements. Don't think I did it justice, would have loved to see more of it, maybe this was the time to take one of those guided tours. The day was spoiled by the weather, overcast with a wind chill factor in double digits. Was too dark to wear sunglasses but wore them anyway to stop my eyes from watering. Unfortunate.

Palma. Was actually taken back by this place. Its by far the cleanest and best kept town I've ever seen. It actually hits you how much time was spent attending to all the details. Fountains, benches, pavements, shady places to walk and sit, and barely a cigarette butt in the street. Founded in the year 123 so they have had enough time to sort themselves out I guess, but they have done so in style. Very nice atmosphere around Palma and its a truly beautiful place. Its also boating and marine paradise, the number of boats docked in the harbour was in the hundreds if not thousands, everything from the smallest dingy through to commercial liners. Didn't have the time to find a vantage point for a decent photo that nicely shows exactly what I mean. Highly recommend this place if you're in the market for a relaxing island getaway.


All in all, it was a good experience. Travelling alone is not for everyone, I didn't mind it really as I needed the downtime, but have to admit that on average the days that were spent with family or friends were more exciting. Would happily travel solo again but probably not for such an extended period of time.


There are more pics on flickr if you want to see, and a ton that I haven't yet uploaded.

 

[malickk]

Europe is small in size but has a lot of beautiful destinations to visit i also have visited some countries of Europe but some places which i mostly like are: places which are the beautiful places of the world; Barcelona, Paris, Roma, Berlin, Lisbon, London etc.

 

[Dippies]

Thanks for the feedback, Looks Like a Awesome Experience :thumbs:

 

[prospect]

Great stuff! Enjoyed reading this :thumbs:

 

[e23]

Amazing pics & great write up.

The only thing that stops me from travelling in Europe is the exchange rate :yuck: