i'm home, and back to my normal blog (writingwithcomputer.blogspot.com). i wrote about the last days of our travels on that. i'll speak to you again when i do some more escaping, which will hopefully be soon (i spoke to eloise on the phone today and we discussed going to iceland for a few days later this year).
bye blog, i'll miss you un po. x
Thursday 25 September 2008
Tuesday 23 September 2008
i'm in paris with katrina and simon and ayoola. it's great. like rome, everyone here is beautiful. and the boys have nice haircuts, which i think is important.
as soon as we arrived in paris and had dropped our bags off with simon's lovely younger sister we found ourselves at a barbecue full of french people. us english lot were quite antisocial and just sat in a corner catching up and eating stolen baguettes. i drank quite a lot of chinese beer (which, i have discovered, is very nice) and then most of a bottle of white wine and then i don't remember much after that except i know that we somehow got to a bar (and this was only at about 9pm) and i had two margaritas and me and katrina were singing and then i fell asleep on an oriental woman on the train.
yesterday we spent a large part of the day with simon, first of all inviting ourselves to his (beautiful) flat on rue pestalozzi on the cinquieme arrondissement to use his shower because we were very homeless-looking. then we drank japanese tea by the window overlooking the street and ate little chocolate biscuits. then simon took us around the local area (rue mouffetard is wonderful) - we went to the jardin des plantes and then sat in the luxembourg gardens in the sun by the fountain. when it started to get cold we headed back to collect our bags and make our way to katrina's. on the journey i found myself getting progressively tired and woozy and realised that i was feeling the effects of a very strong painkiller that simon gave me for my wisdom tooth. so when i got to katrina's i tried to have a nap but instead ate some cheese and then lay on her bed thinking.
that evening we made pasta with courgettes and we met a russian boy who was making himself a very strange supper of overboiled sprouts and cauliflower in a saucepan. he invited us to share a bottle of wine with him (in the kitchen) and we introduced him to the delights of gin. he was the most hilarious person i have ever met, partly because his english was a little strange. upon tasting the gin he remarked, after a long pause, 'it is......... pleasant'. he was so sweet. i fell in love with him a little bit.
today is a new day and we are meeting the english kids in town for lunch. then we are having dinner with katrina's mum. i am going to be a big fat when i leave here.
good day, mon petit blog.
as soon as we arrived in paris and had dropped our bags off with simon's lovely younger sister we found ourselves at a barbecue full of french people. us english lot were quite antisocial and just sat in a corner catching up and eating stolen baguettes. i drank quite a lot of chinese beer (which, i have discovered, is very nice) and then most of a bottle of white wine and then i don't remember much after that except i know that we somehow got to a bar (and this was only at about 9pm) and i had two margaritas and me and katrina were singing and then i fell asleep on an oriental woman on the train.
yesterday we spent a large part of the day with simon, first of all inviting ourselves to his (beautiful) flat on rue pestalozzi on the cinquieme arrondissement to use his shower because we were very homeless-looking. then we drank japanese tea by the window overlooking the street and ate little chocolate biscuits. then simon took us around the local area (rue mouffetard is wonderful) - we went to the jardin des plantes and then sat in the luxembourg gardens in the sun by the fountain. when it started to get cold we headed back to collect our bags and make our way to katrina's. on the journey i found myself getting progressively tired and woozy and realised that i was feeling the effects of a very strong painkiller that simon gave me for my wisdom tooth. so when i got to katrina's i tried to have a nap but instead ate some cheese and then lay on her bed thinking.
that evening we made pasta with courgettes and we met a russian boy who was making himself a very strange supper of overboiled sprouts and cauliflower in a saucepan. he invited us to share a bottle of wine with him (in the kitchen) and we introduced him to the delights of gin. he was the most hilarious person i have ever met, partly because his english was a little strange. upon tasting the gin he remarked, after a long pause, 'it is......... pleasant'. he was so sweet. i fell in love with him a little bit.
today is a new day and we are meeting the english kids in town for lunch. then we are having dinner with katrina's mum. i am going to be a big fat when i leave here.
good day, mon petit blog.
Saturday 20 September 2008
hi blog. i'm in Nice. it's a bit strange here. everyone's faces are made of plastic and no-one knows how to dress despite the fact that they are shitting money. right now i am sitting at the computer of a crazy hostel that has 200 people in it. everyone is annoying, i hate them all. today me and jane wandered around the old town of nice and the fruit and flower market. it was OK. we also went into a cathedral but i thought it was ugly and gloomy and needed cleaning. then we went to the beach which was nice, it is pebbly. i put a pebble in my bag to take home, it was smooth and perfect. i fell asleep on the beach with a copy of Greek Tragedy over my face. when i woke up i didn't know where i was.
i feel a bit wistful today, maybe because we are nearing the end of the holiday.
i was third wheel again last night because we met kieran in Nice centre. i had a disgusting long island ice tea that was full of sugar syrup; i only drank half.
also we had to pay 120 Euro for tickets to Paris today because the train was all booked up. that was pretty bad.
i hope paris will cheer me up, anyhow.
bonne nuit, blog.
i feel a bit wistful today, maybe because we are nearing the end of the holiday.
i was third wheel again last night because we met kieran in Nice centre. i had a disgusting long island ice tea that was full of sugar syrup; i only drank half.
also we had to pay 120 Euro for tickets to Paris today because the train was all booked up. that was pretty bad.
i hope paris will cheer me up, anyhow.
bonne nuit, blog.
Wednesday 17 September 2008
dust
hi blog, sono in napoli.
it's nice, but i'm hungover. and it feels a little different from last time we were here, i don't know how. they are doing a lot of building work at the moment including in the beautiful galeria umberto so that might be it... it feels a bit insubstantial and dusty.
i have been thinking that though travelling outside of peak season has its advantages, i miss meeting other travellers. it's a bit lonely with just the two of us.
and i miss rome. i am thinking seriously about whether or not i want to live there for a bit after i leave university... right now i'm thinking yes.
and, strangely, i miss home a little bit. i just had a nap (a rarity) and dreamt about my family. i also, incidentally, dreamt that jane started crying in a shop because she missed rome, too.
i am in a strange groggy dream state now and feel a bit shit. we are now going for pizza in the place that apparently invented pizza with a very beautiful portuguese girl from our dorm, who has moved to napoli to study. ciao blog. that's bye in italian, in case you don't speak italian, blog.
it's nice, but i'm hungover. and it feels a little different from last time we were here, i don't know how. they are doing a lot of building work at the moment including in the beautiful galeria umberto so that might be it... it feels a bit insubstantial and dusty.
i have been thinking that though travelling outside of peak season has its advantages, i miss meeting other travellers. it's a bit lonely with just the two of us.
and i miss rome. i am thinking seriously about whether or not i want to live there for a bit after i leave university... right now i'm thinking yes.
and, strangely, i miss home a little bit. i just had a nap (a rarity) and dreamt about my family. i also, incidentally, dreamt that jane started crying in a shop because she missed rome, too.
i am in a strange groggy dream state now and feel a bit shit. we are now going for pizza in the place that apparently invented pizza with a very beautiful portuguese girl from our dorm, who has moved to napoli to study. ciao blog. that's bye in italian, in case you don't speak italian, blog.
Saturday 13 September 2008
i'm in rome
hi. i'm in rome and it's so beautiful it makes me sad. i think i am sad also because we just dropped jane off to meet her boyfriend at the station and i looked out the window and they were so happy to see each other and i felt a bit alone and then on the way back home whilst the beautiful city glowed orange behind the glass lily the little girl asked me if i had a boyfriend and i said no.
maurizio lily's dad took us on a tour of rome earlier in their big yellow people carrier after a detailed one-and-a-half hour run-through of rome's history whilst we sat at the kitchen table in their small, marble-floored flat trying to keep our eyes open. he got very enthusiastic about the maps and pictures he was showing us; it was sweet. the tour took us in a big circle around rome, and he showed us the axis, the walls, the hills. it was lovely to be shown around by a besotted local.
my favourite new place (a place i have never before visited in rome) was the EUR quarter that mussolini built. the buildings there are replications of classical architecture with the proportions warped to such an extent that they are menacing. in the grey-blue light of dusk they look incredibly eerie, so much so that i would not want to visit them alone at night. i love architecture that can scare you like that, make you feel uncertain of your place in relation to the world.
then they took us out for pizza and miles the little boy questioned me about popular culture, asking me several times to reveal the plot of sweeney todd, which he has been forbidden from seeing until he's 18 (sadly for him, as he is obsessed with johnny depp at the moment). i had a carciofini pizza (artichokes), it was very good but i shouldn't have eaten it all because now i feel like a boa constrictor that has just swallowed a pig and will thus have to roll around for 3 months waiting for it to digest like a big silly snakey balloon.
ah, la bella roma. i didn't realised i missed it until i returned. everything is beautiful. all of the people are beautiful. i want to live here so i can look at all the beautiful things.
oh and also i have forgotten all of my italian. not that i could speak it well before but today i couldn't even ask for a spoon in a cafe.
and blog i am sorry that you have become a bit shit. there are big gaps in you and my writing is not very good. it is because i am tired, i hope. and i said i'd talk about the old man but my sentences are crumbling like ruins so i'll go to bed to sleep or maybe just lie there like a sad snake
maurizio lily's dad took us on a tour of rome earlier in their big yellow people carrier after a detailed one-and-a-half hour run-through of rome's history whilst we sat at the kitchen table in their small, marble-floored flat trying to keep our eyes open. he got very enthusiastic about the maps and pictures he was showing us; it was sweet. the tour took us in a big circle around rome, and he showed us the axis, the walls, the hills. it was lovely to be shown around by a besotted local.
my favourite new place (a place i have never before visited in rome) was the EUR quarter that mussolini built. the buildings there are replications of classical architecture with the proportions warped to such an extent that they are menacing. in the grey-blue light of dusk they look incredibly eerie, so much so that i would not want to visit them alone at night. i love architecture that can scare you like that, make you feel uncertain of your place in relation to the world.
then they took us out for pizza and miles the little boy questioned me about popular culture, asking me several times to reveal the plot of sweeney todd, which he has been forbidden from seeing until he's 18 (sadly for him, as he is obsessed with johnny depp at the moment). i had a carciofini pizza (artichokes), it was very good but i shouldn't have eaten it all because now i feel like a boa constrictor that has just swallowed a pig and will thus have to roll around for 3 months waiting for it to digest like a big silly snakey balloon.
ah, la bella roma. i didn't realised i missed it until i returned. everything is beautiful. all of the people are beautiful. i want to live here so i can look at all the beautiful things.
oh and also i have forgotten all of my italian. not that i could speak it well before but today i couldn't even ask for a spoon in a cafe.
and blog i am sorry that you have become a bit shit. there are big gaps in you and my writing is not very good. it is because i am tired, i hope. and i said i'd talk about the old man but my sentences are crumbling like ruins so i'll go to bed to sleep or maybe just lie there like a sad snake
Thursday 11 September 2008
hi blog. i am in croatia, sitting at the computer in the hostel and consuming a rather large piece of gouda. hi. i'll tell you what happened since i last spoke to you.
jane and i took a bus from ljublana to bled with an australian girl called kate who we met at the hostel. it was wonderful shooting, all of a sudden, from the tired grey-orange sprawl of the city's outskirts into the deep green of the countryside. slovenia is one of the greenest places i have ever seen; the grass is springy and full of clover and is a rich, soft carpet that stretches for miles and miles. where the grass ends, the pine trees begin. the pine trees hug the sides of the mountains, which rise into soft blue peaks shrouded in cloud. power cables cut across the pines like spider webs that skim the trees before swooping over an expanse of fields. blackbirds sit on the cables like pensive raindrops.
we spent a day in lake bled, a brilliant blue pool rimmed with pines, the spires of little churches poking out. it was a burning day, the sun's rays making opalescent paths into the lake's depths. We took a boat out in the hope of reaching the island at the centre of the lake, but the day was hot, and our rowing was slow, so we had to turn back half way.
ˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇ
on our journey from bled to split myself and jane became the wards of an elderly croatian gentleman whose name we never discovered. he had white hair and was wearing a pale blue pinstriped shirt and a beige tweed suit jacket and beige linen trousers. his eyes were sad. he restored my faith in humanity. i'll tell you about him when i next write, because i am very sleepy now.
jane and i took a bus from ljublana to bled with an australian girl called kate who we met at the hostel. it was wonderful shooting, all of a sudden, from the tired grey-orange sprawl of the city's outskirts into the deep green of the countryside. slovenia is one of the greenest places i have ever seen; the grass is springy and full of clover and is a rich, soft carpet that stretches for miles and miles. where the grass ends, the pine trees begin. the pine trees hug the sides of the mountains, which rise into soft blue peaks shrouded in cloud. power cables cut across the pines like spider webs that skim the trees before swooping over an expanse of fields. blackbirds sit on the cables like pensive raindrops.
we spent a day in lake bled, a brilliant blue pool rimmed with pines, the spires of little churches poking out. it was a burning day, the sun's rays making opalescent paths into the lake's depths. We took a boat out in the hope of reaching the island at the centre of the lake, but the day was hot, and our rowing was slow, so we had to turn back half way.
ˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇ
on our journey from bled to split myself and jane became the wards of an elderly croatian gentleman whose name we never discovered. he had white hair and was wearing a pale blue pinstriped shirt and a beige tweed suit jacket and beige linen trousers. his eyes were sad. he restored my faith in humanity. i'll tell you about him when i next write, because i am very sleepy now.
Monday 8 September 2008
well hi there. i deleted yesterday's post because it was horrible drunken foolery. it said something about how me and jane got very drunk in a bar full of plastic skeletons (in fact i wasn't sure they were plastic - you can't trust these slovenians). we have discovered margaritas. them's nice.
anyway i woke up this morning feeling like satan had just shat on me. cocktails plus wine plus vodka plus not having slept for three days plus a freezing cold air-conditioned flight not the best of combos. the night itself was restless because i was developing a fever and was burning hot one minute and shivering the next and whenever i moved it really hurt. then whenever i managed to drift off someone in the hostel room would make a noise or sneeze or something. selfish bastards.
our hostel room is nice but i'm not sure that i like communal living, seeing as i don't really like other people or communality in any way. there is a couple sharing one bunk on the other side of the room to me and they're a bit too touchy feely for my liking... get a room. not a room shared with six strangers. and then this morning i was greeted with the sight of the slightly portly guy in the bunk opposite rubbing oil into his torso. yum.
ljubljana is like a postcard, all green river and pastel-coloured apartments and fountains and old people wobbling around on bikes. it is very beautiful but, to be honest, a bit dull. though we did find a beautiful old church today with a green domed roof, and we are heading to tivoli park this afternoon to check out the happy haps.
i'm looking forward to moving on to Lake Bled tomorrow. i expect lots of pine trees and castles and people who look like dracula.
anyway i woke up this morning feeling like satan had just shat on me. cocktails plus wine plus vodka plus not having slept for three days plus a freezing cold air-conditioned flight not the best of combos. the night itself was restless because i was developing a fever and was burning hot one minute and shivering the next and whenever i moved it really hurt. then whenever i managed to drift off someone in the hostel room would make a noise or sneeze or something. selfish bastards.
our hostel room is nice but i'm not sure that i like communal living, seeing as i don't really like other people or communality in any way. there is a couple sharing one bunk on the other side of the room to me and they're a bit too touchy feely for my liking... get a room. not a room shared with six strangers. and then this morning i was greeted with the sight of the slightly portly guy in the bunk opposite rubbing oil into his torso. yum.
ljubljana is like a postcard, all green river and pastel-coloured apartments and fountains and old people wobbling around on bikes. it is very beautiful but, to be honest, a bit dull. though we did find a beautiful old church today with a green domed roof, and we are heading to tivoli park this afternoon to check out the happy haps.
i'm looking forward to moving on to Lake Bled tomorrow. i expect lots of pine trees and castles and people who look like dracula.
Saturday 6 September 2008
expectation, tickling skittish spirits
hi. so i am going on holiday tomorrow (thank FUCK) with jane who, for those not in the know, is often mistaken for my lesbian lover (because she is). i should be sleeping like a baby now in preparation for the morn's events - which will include cramming more crap that i don't need into my suitcase whilst worrying that we're both going to be murdered on our 18 day pan-european trip. i hope we are not murdered. but instead i am writing this, for which i will hate myself at 6am when i am supposedly getting up (i set two alarms). yeah so last time we went interrailing i kept a diary which was mainly just filled with me complaining and a few sketches of the Parthenon. but this year i have this cyberthing as my project. so WATCH THIS SPACE. ...if you want. if all goes to plan i shall write at least two entries.
we start our travels in slovenia/ see you there.
we start our travels in slovenia/ see you there.
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