Czech it ooooooouuuuuut

We arrived in Prague after an uncomfortable overnight train from Rome. After putting our bags down at the hostel we did we did the only obvious to do.. get some Chinese food. It was pretty tasty .

Then we went did the classic sight seeing of Prague like Charles Bridge which was cool as well as the old town.

and then of course what the hostel owner described as "the Eiffel Tower only better"

We also broke our Tesco virginity. It was very exciting and we bought pack-a-soups :)

That night we headed to Old town square and had mulled wine and walked around the river which is possibly even more pretty at night. There was also a light show on the water which was quite cool.

Sadly being Australians, we do not know how to deal with cold so we had an early night in a heated hostel.
The next day we were off to a walking tour of the town pretty much squeezing the whole of Prague into a 3 hour tour so we saw Old Town Square, Astronomical Clock, Old Jewish Quarter and the Old New Synagogue. We also saw the Jewish cemetery which is really small but actually has over 100,000 people buried because people were bried in layers on top of each other.

The jam packed day of sight seeing continued with the Powder Tower, Art Nouveau Municipal House, Church of Our Lady Before Tyn and St James church. There was a really strange story behind the St James church. There is actually a mummified hand that has supposedly been there for 400 years. The story behind it is that a thief came in the night and tried to steal a jewel necklace around Lady Madonna neck but the statue grabbed him and he got stuck. The next morning a monk came in and he cut the thief's arm off, then the Lady Madonna let go of his arm. The arm is now hung on a chain to warn other theives. Yum.

After using our brains a bit to much that day we decided to go to an all you can eat chinese restraunt. Which was WAS ONLY $5! and got new coats so we wouldnt complain the rest of our trip.

That night we went out and checked out some bars and clubs and I tried pilsner which is czechs famous beer.

and Nell ate her vegtables.

We then were off to Kutna Hora which is a small place with alot of churches but the main reason we went there was because of Kostnice which is a church that is decorated with the bones of 40,000 people. It is really creepy but actually quite cool looking.

We were then on a train again to Cesky Krumlov which is one of the prettiest places we've been, with all the cute little houses with orange roofs and church in the centre of town

We woke up the next morning and stared at its prettiness for awhile and got our bridge photo.

We then had the tradition czech pastry which is pretty much dought in a cylinder shape covered in cinnimon and Sugar which I feel is the best way dough should be served

The main attraction of the town is a castle which is pretty much half the size of the town and its guarded by bears which definitely upped the coolness of the castle. The gardens of the castle were amazing it had a maze garden and a pond.

we attempted to steel a boat but sadley it was attached to the dock

We then went out for a vegan lunch and made a new cat friend

Then what better way to finish the afternoon than walk through mirror and glass labyrinths.

and watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch goes to Rome..

We spend the rest of the night relaxing at the hostel with a lot of Australian and talked about Australian things like Pie floaties, spinach bread dip and Australias overcompensating by making large useless objects to attract people.  

Pisarella had many fellas

We were off to Rome and we met Caitie at the station after a few very confusing conversations over the phone and Caitie walking across some railway tracks.
We went to our hotel which resembled a prison but that was OK because it was located right next to our new favourite place in Rome.. Pizzeria Secolo, which serves quality pizza at all hours of the day.

After a good night sleep on a not very comfortable bed we headed to the Pantheon (mostly to be close to gelato but alsobecause of the whole historical thing)

and down Imperial road to the Colosseum

We then rushed back to eat chinese food for lunch and do some very important grocery shopping before our train ride to Florence

Sadly, figuring out the platform system in Rome was just too complicated for us so we ended up missing our train by about a minute and had to wait for two hours for the next one. So we had a little picnic at the train station with our 450g of chips..

Second time round we managed to figure out where and what 'Platform 2est' was and got on the train. We then attempted to look intimidating and slightly gangsta to get a whole compartment to ourselves ... yes we realise we arent very nice people but our intimidation worked.

We got to Florence and wondered the streets..
The next day me and Nell left Caitie behind and headed to Pisa and wow that tower is really leaning. We stayed for a while and watched hundreds of people try to push the tower. They aren't very smart..  then Nell had an epiphany... the leaning tower of Pisa is not in France

On the way back we went in search of a kebab store for some much craved falafel
We then went back to Florence to meet with Caitie and headed off to Poggio Primo
We arrived at our swanky hotel in Poggio Primo and decided there was no better way to spend our night then stuff our faces with pizza, watch Italian TV and paint our nails. But not just any pizza. Superpizza.

The next morning we enjoyed the buffet breakfast with our two new arrivals, Amy and Miz. After stocking up on pasta that we would be eating for the next few days we were then off to a random vineyard that looked pretty in photos...
Sadly really pretty vinyards in the middle of nowhere are often hard to get to so we spend alot of time confused until a guy from the appartment we were staying in picked us up in and shoved us in the back of his van..

The place we were staying at was so cute it was a little apartment which was surrounded be vineyards.

The rest of the night we just chilled and talked and it was really nice being with everyone again
The next day we woke up ate pasta with shanelles hair in it and went to explore the nearest town.

 It was sligthly deserted but we found a coffee shop which was pretty much the happening place in Castiglion Fibocchi
We then decided when in Italy it is almost essensial to eat your weight in pizza... so we went to the local pizza shop and bought about 150m of pizza goodness

The next day Nell wasnt feeling all to good and had to take a quick ambulence ride.
　

**Note our looks of concern and the happy ambulence driver laughing .. Nell was in good hands.

After that adventure we were off to rome for our last night all together. We spent the last day together in Rome, doing pretty much the same things as we had done in Rome before but with more friends so more fun....

A stroll down Abbondanza...

It was the 11th of October, and after the long and cold two weeks apart, me and Lee reunited in the quaint town of Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre. I waited outside the station, night had struck and the coastal winds were taking their toll. Until finally, the large black backpack appeared amidst the sea of strangers. My heart leaped. She continued walking, unaware of her estranged friend's casual yet excited waves, until finally our eyes met. We smiled, hugged and cried, all the while sharing stories of our solo adventures and reunited our separated lives.
After a pasta dinner and a moonlight stoll through the deserted and humble streets, passing many cats, guarding their doors like stone lions overlooking the royal castle, we lay our heads on our pillows as dreams whisked us away.
So anyway..
The next morning we woke up early to do the hike through the 5 villages of Cinque Terre. We woke up so impressively early that the pizza shops weren't open and we had to go to 2nd town, Manarola without breakfast. But never fear! as Manarola was only a 10 minute stroll down the Via della Amore.

After snacking in Manarola and wondering around the town we took the train to Corniglia as the path was closed.Corniglia was incredibly cute and smaller then the other towns. By smaller we mean less opportunities to buy food. But we still managed to stock up on water and snacks for the next hour and a half hike to the next town, Vernazza.
Vernazza was the town that Google image promised to be the most adorable so we were understandably very excited. The hike there was so pretty that we had to stop every 10 metres to take postcardworthy photos.

Vernazza was probably the most lively of the towns, but this may have been because it was lunchtime. So we ate way too much foccacia and quiche by the port, and searched for cats in cute places. We also developed another theory that there were people whos entire job consisted of 'cuteifying' the towns in Cinque Terre, this included startegically placing cats to be adorable. Dont worry, we have photos.

The final town was Monterosso, and it was about a 2 hour hike there. Luckily we chose the right direction to go in because the people walking the other way looked like they were crying. But it was so pretty!
Monterosso was the biggest town, we rewarded ourseles with icecream/Sprite. Apparently we were "omg so pretty I must take a photo"'d out because neither of us took any photos but instead I will put a bridge photo.

We went to Back to our hostel in Riomaggiore to make a fancy dinner of pasta with eggplant. We spent the night chilling with the other people in the hostel (which was really cute except that the owners fanatical stuffing of beds in the apartment lead to a bunk bed in the kitchen).

We woke up at 4.30am to catch the train to Naples (the joys of Eurail) and spent 7 hours on the train.
We spent the afternoon in the History museum which pretty much consisted of about 3 hour of Nell sqweeling and running to differnt staues and artifacts which related to Pompei.
and I learnt some kinky stuff about anicent civilisations.

That night we walked around the city centre and ate true napolitana Pizza

We woke up that morning to crappy overcaste and rainy weather and decided that in mental preperation for Pompei we would spend the whole day coffee shop hopping and we sqeezed in some sight seeing on the way like the Castel Nuovo were we got our bridge photo

POMPEI!
So we woke up, got very excited, then headed towards the 66 uncovered hectares of Pompei. When we got to the modern city of Pompei, we wondered around for a while until we finally got the courage to ask someone directions to the Pompei ruins. First we saw the Great Theatre. Having a capacity of 5000, it was very large and almost completely reconstructed, which makes one ponder, does it destroy the integrity of the remains?

Okay Im going to try and not give a virtual tour of everything we did because it will be really boring. So just highlights. Oh but theyre all highlights! Just the main, main things. Next we found the Via dell Abbondanza, the main road (decumani) of Pompei. I told Lee of the stepping stones and she was very impressed.

We passed some thermopolia (ancient take away food places) which I squealed at for a while and lee sat on

We went to the Forum and saw the Building of Eumachia, the Macellum, the Mensa Ponderaria, the Basilica etc. and walked around and passed the House of the Tragic Poet, a couple bakeries, the Fullery of Stephanus and the Forum Baths. Along the way we discussed the ethical issues involved in the study and display of human remains.

I also got very excited about the ancient graffiti and Lee asked me to explain the ancient significance of 'PIE' that was graffitied on another wall.

Last we went to the palaestra and the Amphitheatre where we (very historically accurately) posed as gladiators.

It was time to leave, but although leaving Pompei was devastating, we were leaving for Rome to meet up with the lovely Caitie.

On a separate note, if anyone is interested in more photos of cats in astonishingly cute places, please enquire.

PROST FOR OKTOBERFEST

Nell and I met back up after 2 heart wrenching weeks outside of starbucks and were instantly jealous of everyone wearing dirndls and lederhosen and decided that we simply had to not eat for a couple of days and invest in some snazzy traditional German clothing ..

We arrived at the campsite later that night and had a early night in preparation of tomorrows early morning to get a seat in one of the tents.
We woke up bright and early and went to the oktoberfest grounds and went to the lowenbrau tent

and each finished our first 1ltr jug of beer.

and snuffed some snuff?

We then had a nutrtious lunch of fried dough

Went to look at the other tents. Then I (Lee) saw a guy who I had met in Frankfurt and we the sat with them for the next 10 hours.. which comprised of
Drinking
Sitting
Singing strange unfamiliar songs with weird hand movements
Dancing on chairs+ tables
Talking
Shouting
eating festive ginger bread hearts
Going to the bathroom.
and getting my first Oktoberfest related injury

It was a good day..