#Yesterday was amazing! It was raining heavily as I walked to the train station for home. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zurichtooslo · 5 years

Text

Day 19, 8th Sept, Milan

Today, the 5 of us were booked to do a 6 hour walking tour which included a visit to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. It had rained over night so the others decided to catch a taxi to the meeting point. I was more than happy to walk so I left a bit earlier. Early morning is a lovely time to wander the streets as there is never many people about. The attractive columned walkways near the Duomo.

Milan feels very safe to walk around. The police were all ready early morning near the square and on the other side were army vehicles and personnel. You see a combination of the two groups around but they aren’t in your face.

I thought I might visit the Duomo seeing no one was around and went over to where the line started but you needed tickets. I said I wanted to go to Mass so I was directed to the other side and after a security check went straight in. A good little tip to know. This was the main organ.

It is a fairly intimidating structure with all its columns. 52 to be exact. One for every week of the year.

Outside in the Plaza. The front was all covered in scaffolding last time I was in Milan with Danielle in 2007. It was covered for cleaning between 2004 to 2008. It is very white looking now.

It took me about half an hour to walk to the meeting place and the sun had come out by that time. Charles was our guide who was a Frenchman but had lived in Milan for 11years and taught English. He was fabulous and as we all wore earpieces he just talked as we wandered the streets. Very entertaining but informative. This Needle, Tread and Knot sculpture outside the train station was to symbolise trains going through the tunnels and the thread were the colours of the different metro lines. It also referenced Milan’s influence in the fashion world.

70% of people in Milan own their own apartments and many are very green. If you look up as you walk the streets you see many green gardens on balconies and rooftops.

As it turned out we were to visit a few of the places I had found yesterday but as I loved them so much it was interesting to visit them again and get a lot more details about them. This was the outstanding church and convent. The road outside was once a canal.

The public church area. The painting behind the altar was added later. That area was once open into the convent area but after a visit by an Archbishop it was closed in by the painting. The nuns could still see through the grill underneath.

As the highlight of this tour was going to be a visit to The Last Supper there were a lot of references or copies of da Vinci’s work in other places we visited. Charles was able to educate us about his impact on the religious world. Leonardo used a very different style for his paintings which at first was very shocking to the art world and the church but then painters followed his lead.

The organ in the nun’s section.

Milan has a number of old established cafes.

Inside.

This is Milan’s second Opera theatre. It was built in 1939 as a cinema but in 1999 it was restored, reconstructed and modernised for Opera.

Maria Callas was a huge Italian Opera singer and when she dies they wanted to name a street after her but the streets around La Scala, which was were she mostly preformed, were too famous to rename. Now she gives her name to a very small street near the second Milan opera house.

Statue of Garibaldi the unifier of Italy.

Castello Sforzesco which was the C15 th seat for Milan’s ducal family.

It was both a fortress and home. The holes were used for scaffolding during battles.

This was once a moat but now you find lots of cats there to keep the rodents away. There is even a cat lady to look after them.

Drawbridge

Arco della pace was built in 1801 as an entrance arch to the city. Napoleon had ordered the demolition of much of the fortress which left space for the arch to be built.

Santa Maria delle Gracie church and convent where Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is found.

The Last Supper was thought to have been painted between 1495-1498 and was commissioned as part of a plan of renovations to the church and its convent buildings. It is one of the world’s most recognisable paintings. It is housed in the refectory of the convent. It was common to have a Last Supper and Crucification painting for the monks to contemplate during meal times. The Prior of the church was frustrated by the length of time that Leonardo was taking to paint the painting and the mess that he made but that was how he worked. Beside the quality of his painting Leonardo depicted the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus and his apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John. He depicted the consternation that occurred among the 12 Apostles when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him. No one had ever done that before.

Due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors and intentional damage, only little of the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999. This last one took 22 years and has saved the painting.

Almost immediately after the painting was completed other artists copied Leonardo’s ideas and style so in many churches around Europe are examples of perhaps what the original almost looked like in colour and completeness. Bernardino Luini was one such painter so his Last Supper in Lugano and even in Milan is similar.

The stables were next to the refractory and at sometime a door was cut through the wall and through the painting. Jesus’s feet were lost but again from similar later paintings done they know what his feet originally looked like.

To protect the painting, viewing is strictly controlled. Up to 2 million people a year would like to see the painting but only 450,000 are given that privilege. We booked months ago. They only allow a small number in at a time which gives you plenty of space to see the painting and then a buzzer goes and you must leave. This lady makes sure everyone leaves.

This is the Crucification painting at the other end of the refractory.

During WWII the convent was heavily bombed and huge damage occurred. You can just see the Crucification on the wall. A bit of the edge was damaged.

The Last Supper was sandbagged all over so survived luckily as the wall around it was destroyed.

Next we caught a tram back closer to the centre. They run all the time so quick to catch.

We revisited the Finger at the Stock Exchange.

This building was built in the 30′s like the Stock Exchange and are good examples of Art Deco Brutalists style. Very imposing and solid.

We stopped for lunch and this colourful chandelier was in the cafe we went to. A bit different.

This building was a hospital during WWII and Earnest Hemmingway was treated here and fell in love with one of the nurses. His book Farewell to Arms was written as a consequence.

Santa Maria pressi San Satiro

This church was quite amazing as the altar looked very deep but it was all just a painted illusion. When the church was built they wanted to demolish the building behind to have enough room but there was a well established restaurant there and they didn’t want to move hence the illusion.

The altar was very shallow up close.

Old Venetian looking buildings in this area.

Statue of Leonardo da Vinci opposite La Scala.

La Scala is Milan’s famous Opera House. Opera was thought to have started in Italy and La Scala is the most renounced opera house in the world. The theatre was inaugurated on 3rd August 1778. Most of Italy's greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. The theatre is regarded as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world. Maria Callas was a famous Italian singer associated with La Scala for many years.

The Galleria is a truely beautiful space.

The story goes if you press your heal on the bull and twirl around it will bring you good luck. Lots of people were trying it out.

This was Prada’s first store started in 1913.

Central roof of the Galleria.

The Galleria

The Duomo is a very elegant building on the outside.

The square was crowded with people. It was a Sunday plus the Grand Prix was on. While we were there a flyby went over head heading towards Mons and the start of the race.

The huge bronze doors on the main entrance of the Duomo tell many stories from the bible.

The brown spots on the door is where the door has been repaired after bomb shrapnel damaged the door during WWII.

A mass was going on while we were there.

The Duomo is impressive and dominating. However, the outside is more decorative than the inside.

This is the statue of “St Bartholomew skinned”, made by the sculptor Marco d’Agrate in 1562 for the Veneranda Fabbrica of the Duomo. St Bartholomew was one of Christ’s twelve apostles, executed for his Christian faith, portrayed here based on how he is identified by iconography following the agony suffered.

The Saint, skinned alive, carries what looks like a drape on his shoulders and around his body. But it is his skin a clear reference to the torture inflicted The apostle was portrayed dressed holding a book and a knife; alluding to the Gospel proclaimed and martyrdom suffered.

The floor of the Duomo.

The tour finished at the Duomo and we were all full of great information. Maggie, Di and Myra headed back to the apartment but Glenice and I visited this bookshop in the Galleria as it had been recommended to her. It has been in this location since 1930 but the business was started in 1779. Glenice was in seventh heaven.

It had the most amazing floor. Made up of very unique different tiles.

The Art Gallery and unfortunately it will be closed tomorrow being a Monday.

Glenice and I were just wandering. This area around Via Brera is famous for its restaurants and bohemian atmosphere. Another interesting part of the city.

We found the restaurant we had booked for the night.

Lots of great places to chose from.

Our last dinner together and Di ‘s birthday. It was one of our nicer meals. It has been fabulous travelling with these women. We never run out of conversation.

Still a lot of people around the Galleria.

There are some nice restaurants inside. I imagine they would be expensive.

The Duomo lit up at night.

It took me about 40 minutes to walk home but I enjoyed the walk. The streets were well lit and there were plenty of people out and about. It’s good to walk off the meal. It

3 notes · View notes

everyday-effing-therapy · 5 years

Text

12/09/19

Oh my, oh my,

Did you even expect me to come back? I mean, I know the last post wasn’t that long ago, but it was still not that recently either.

The school started and it’s one of the things why I completely don’t have the time for anything. It’s like they want us to do so much work outside school that it does get hectic sometimes.

I have to do a lot since it’s the year of the exams, which are supposed to open the entire path of education that follows.

I think I will be sitting advanced exams from maths, biology, chemistry and English and every single one of us has to take basic literature, maths and English. It’s going to be a long road and a very lengthy exam season, as all of those exams are day after day, they take up over a week in total.

I wasn’t sure about maths, I still am not, but I think that might be one of the most necessary exams and I have already signed up for a preparation course that is bound to start in October.

From other news, I came home from the Maldives and I already went to school the next day. Nobody saw that coming, but since I came back at early enough night hour, I decided not to miss out on anything.

I also horribly missed Black, but we’re not talking about it.

So, school started out nicely. Upon seeing Black I somehow wondered whether that would clear my mind and let me know, whether I have a crush on him. I obviously do and from the moment I saw him, I knew I was fucked.

He wears braces now and I didn’t think that braces could be so fricking hot. I didn’t know that long hair could be that hot and I certainly didn’t know that shirts with dark prints could make me swoon so much. And the sweatshirts, the fricking sweatshirts.

Fall is approaching, which means more sweatshirts (which are my favourite part of male’s wardrobes) and also, fall means rain.

I hope that you all understand how much you can smell everything after it rains and certainly, you can definitely feel the smell of other people so much more intensely.

That’s why I love boys in the rain.

Well, apart from that, school is really hectic. We get lots of homework, but so far I kinda managed to wrap my head around it, or at least so I hope. For now, it is manageable, but I don’t have as many extracurriculars either, as not all of them have started yet.

The yoga plan is also not ready to be implemented and that makes me sad, cause I really, really wanted to take yoga classes.

Last Saturday, I organised my birthday party. My cousin arrived on Friday, after I went out with Black and Silver, took my driving classes, ate supper and had my nails done. We talked a lot, laughed and eventually fell asllep, cause I was so ungodly tired.

The entire Saturday was spent doing shopping, some preparations, decorating the place and overall, me being super stressed.

I think I looked absolutely stunning, but at that time, I didn’t know how to react. Fewer people than I expected came, but the place didn’t look empty and I was glad everything turned out alright. People ate, danced, I managed to have a dance with Opal, Silver, even Gold, my dear friends and so many other people. I felt amazing, stressed but surely amazing. So many people congratulated me on choosing that place, gave me the most amazing birthday wishes and the gifts were truly ideally picked. However, even now when I think about it, I feel the stress. I don’t know what made me so uneasy. Maybe I was afraid that people wouldn’t come, or they wouldn’t get along or maybe they wouldn’t like the music. Everything turned out fine, everything, apart from one thing.

Do you remember the situation that occured on a birthday party of my best friend? It was in June, in a week that had a horrid series of birthday parties. A few days after I actually talked with Black and danced with him for the first time. It was before I started crushing on him, when everything was calm and collected.

Basically, on that party, Silver told me that there was going to be a song played for us, but while the song was playing, he was gone and I felt really bad. After that, Black came and got us the song, the same song that we danced to on the previous birthday party and I guess, that’s how it started being “our” song. During the holidays we’ve had the situation with this song twice and we also talked about it. He looked stressed in that scenario and that led me to thinking that maybe that song meant something to him also before me, which woke up hurtful memories. We talked about not having that song on my birthday party once, but I told him I will still have that.

Now, on my party, I wanted to dance with him and he did dance with me, promising me a dance also to “our” song. Unfortunately, while the song was playing, he was gone and it was Silver who danced with me to that. The situation turned out to be the direct opposite of what went down in June.

It’s funny, cause when I dance with Silver he is very brave and flirty, and I truly love dancing with him, but to that song, I think I didn’t even smile. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I think everybody knew what happened, cause when the song started playing, they started screaming Black’s name and searching for him. He didn’t come.

Before midnight I collected myself and in that moment, Black came up to me. I confronted him on his absence during our song, he apologised and asked me multiple times whether we could have the song again. On midnight, I got as many belt spanks as my age, which is a sort of tradition. Obviously, it’s one spank for every more important person. We started out with my cousin, then it was Black, then my close friend, some girl friends of mine, Black again, Silver, Opal, Black again, Opal again and my besties for the end. After that everyody sang happy birthday, I made a wish, blew out candles (and pretty much missed one, oop), we ate cake and then I danced with Black. It was marvelous, truly, he hugged me and was so close, I felt his hair tickling my face and I was so, so happy.

Not for a long time.

Half an hour later he drank shots with one girl (the one with whom he cheated on his girlfriend at that time) and I found them ferociously making out outside. They hid behind a wall, but I just felt that if I make those two more steps, I’ll see them. I came up to my friend who stood there and he tried to crack a joke about the situation, but when I looked into his eyes with my almost teary ones, he was completely serious and so was I.

He told me that maybe it was for the better, he saw us dancing, watched us dance and told me that maybe it’s better that I knew then, rather than in the future when I would be completely head over heels for him. He also asked me whether I needed any help and that they are going to be there for me, him and his brother and all of the people in our friend group. I am very grateful, cause without that, I probably would have burst into tears.

I came back inside, talked to my cousin about it and to my besties. V was the one who got the most into the situation and she talked with Opal. Suddenly everybody talked and I just danced, danced it off, cause I didn’t want to drink, I’d already felt sick. I ended up being taken by V by the hand and we went to see one of my guests off, while walking directly next to Black and that girl snuggling. V was blunt enough to come up to them, ask them about the direction and then we went on. I looked Black in the eye and he looked at me. I felt my heart break, turned around, held V’s hand and ran for my life.

Directly after we came back, V took Black by the hand and they went away “to talk”, so I got a mini panic attack. My cousin got me going, but V was gone for good 20 minutes and then they came back and drank shots. As it turned out, V told him to leave the party, then they talked about morality and my being hurt and in the end she told him to stay. In the meantime that girl came up to me, apologised with saying that she heard I like Black, that she doen’t feel anything towards him, she just wants to have fun in life and that she’s sorry, cause she didn’t want to ruin the party.

After that I danced and danced, Black didn’t speak to me and at about 3am, we all went home.

The next day I looked at the gifts, finished my homework, saw off my cousin to the train station and came back home, slept everything off.

So far, V has made up with Black and I think I did too, cause we talk now. We maturely ignored the topic which made me feel bad, cause I still have a crush on him, I see that he’s probably not that good of a person, my cousin heavily dislikes him and he hurt me and might just know that I’m crushing on him and yet, I still can’t let go. I just want to stay.

There’s this song Be Alright by Dean Lewis and the second part talks exactly about what happened on that god forsaken night.

“So I still look back at all the messages you'd sent And I know it wasn't right, but it was fucking with my head And everything deleted like the past, it was gone And when I touched your face, I could tell you're moving on But it's not the fact that you kissed her yesterday It's the feeling of betrayal, that I just can't seem to shake And everything I know tells me that I should walk away But I just want to stay”

It’s like, I touched his face last Friday and we stared into each other’s eyes and this Monday, we didn’t look at all.

It’s all weird.

I still feel his presence in the room and I can’t stop staring when he wears his hair down and I just want to kiss him or talk to him constantly.

It’s so bad.

Today, I didn’t go to school, cause I had to go get my vaccination at the doctor’s. The problem was, everything turned out to be way more complicated and I had to come back there an hour later. I spent an ungodly amount of time there, but I’m glad at least this is done and I hope I won’t be sick.

I don’t know whether I have any plans for tomorrow after school, but if any of my friends would be willing to go out, I will go with them. If not, maybe I’ll get my ear pierced, who knows.

Today’s light I am sending to my cousin and V. They are both amazing, truly sassy queens, that are standing by my side and protecting me when I need it the most. They made that night truly valuable.

Every single one of us has some problems to work out.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

Love,

#12/09 #22:36 #finally a long post #finally a new post #diary #journal #journal entry #it's more of a diary now i guess #love #friends #birthdays #parties #boys boys boys #c posts #c is feeling so bad #c is so frickin' lost #night post

1 note · View note

lindoig4 · 5 years

Text

The Zephyr - 8-10 July

Today, we are leaving San Francisco and boarding the Californian Zephyr for Chicago. I think we slept a bit better last night, maybe the jet lag is starting to lag, but we were still up by about 6am and checked out before seven. As we were checking out, I saw the TV with news of a series of serious earthquakes with a lot of damage and casualties about 300 km from here. We are fine, but I thought the earth moved a little for me at one stage when we were out walking yesterday. Perhaps I wasn’t just imagining it after all.

Our train is called the Californian Zephyr, despite it traversing California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois!

We walked through a dank and foggy San Fran down the hill to the bus station and in due course were transported across the magnificent kilometres-long Bay Bridge to Emeryville where we caught the train. The bridge is quite wonderful, an engineering masterpiece affording great views of the huge turbid bay and its surrounds with its ships and docks. We even drove across Treasure Island and although I kept an eye out, I never saw Long John Silver (although I did see two Jolly Rogers swinging from the flagstaffs.).

We followed the shore for quite a long way before crossing a very wide area of marshland where I saw a few birds and even identified a couple. For the rest of the day, though, we saw very few birds, all too far away, too small, too fast, too fleeting or just too uncooperative for me to identify. The only ones I did identify were four Canada geese swimming along close to the track when we were travelling very slowly. And the only non-bird animal I saw all day was one lonely white butterfly.

I should make a declaration at this point! I have already run out of superlatives and the next few days make superlatives pretty pathetic anyway. Please just add as many ‘spectaculars’, ‘fantastics’, ‘brilliants’, ‘gorgeouses’ and so on as you can and I will limit my amazement in my comments and retain it primarily in my memory. There simply aren’t words or pictures adequately to describe the wonder of some of the things we saw. But here goes anyway…..

We climbed up into the Cascades and passed through range on range of steep hills and deep valleys, mainly covered by a few varieties of conifers. We transitioned through several landscapes during the day, but after the marshlands, we were very quickly into heavily wooded conifer forest and steep mountains with valleys disappearing into the deep gloom. There were patches of dirty snow hidden among the trees, still laying around almost in the middle of summer and large areas of pristine snow on the mountains a little further from the train. Everything seemed so clean, fresh and green, but no doubt cold as well if it were not for the air-conditioning in the train.

Then we were into open grassland that reached the horizon in all directions with just a few stunted trees scattered about. There were areas that weren’t flat – indeed, where nothing was flat. It was as if a group of giant children had been playing at mud pies and left lumps of dirt and mud everywhere – often mound on mound with one misshapen lump running into the next. It was strange to see such a jumble of small round hillocks crowded one on the other and to wonder how in the world they formed and why they haven’t weathered uniformly.

Further on, we were in desert: large flat grey muddy patches in otherwise brownish-grey scrubby expanses. The bare earth didn’t look sandy. Rather it looked more like dried mud in such a neutral ‘muddy’ colour that it was indefinable. And the scrub was almost the same – dull green that was almost washed out of any colour at all. It was real ‘cowboy country’ that we saw in so many Westerns a hundred years ago. (But wait until tomorrow!)

At dinner time we went through a flooded area, a waterlogged grassland with lots of birds, but again, very hard to identify. I eventually identified several with a reasonable level of confidence – just enough to claim them – but I will talk more about bird identification later.

During dinner, our bunks were set up by our steward (Maclin – a huge friendly black man and a lot of fun) but they took up so much of the cabin space that we virtually had to go to bed. I was in the top bunk and it was quite coffinlike. Not a lot of room between the bunk and the ceiling and I recalled a lot of the Edgar Allan Poe horror stories I read as a teenager about being buried alive or confined in small caves, etc. The mattresses were rock-hard and we slept very badly with aches and pains, perpetually either too hot or too cold, but we survived the night. We had a very long stop in Salt Lake City in the middle of the night so on our first day, we had crossed California, Nevada, Colorado and half of Utah.

We were up early next day and looking out, I immediately saw some antelope – about 20 or so in singles and several small groups. I also saw a jack rabbit just outside the window on one of our stops. There were lots of stops, some for small stations, but also for traffic reasons. They had some extreme heat here recently and there was an amazing rain storm and a couple of hours of continuous(!), completely uninterrupted(!!), lightning on our second night combined with signal problems around Denver and an escaped alpaca on the tracks later on – all contributing to our trip being exactly 7 hours longer than expected. The slow progress due to the heat risk and rainstorm resulted in the crew being over their maximum legal stretch of shift so we sat at one little siding for a long time until a fresh crew arrived from another station to relieve them. The end result was that instead of arriving in Chicago at 2:10pm, we arrived long after dark sharp on 9:10 in the evening.

In the daylight, Utah was really iconic cowboy country. Nothing seemed quite as big and grand as Monument Valley, but all the features were there, just a bit more crowded and closer together. Massive buttes and mesas, unbelievably jagged and craggy rocks, every conceivable structure. Buttes and long ranges of hard rock with precipitous cliffs falling to great triangles of scree around the base – typical Western badlands landscapes and impressive beyond words. We sat agape, staring out the windows, clicking frantically on our cameras as each more magnificent vista paraded in front of us. Did I say ‘Spectacular!’?

Then there was the Canyon country. We traversed two very long canyons beside the Colorado and Fraser Rivers with towering cliffs on both sides, incredibly rugged, with the rivers roaring past – the Colorado hurtling westward to the Grand Canyon and the Fraser racing eastward to the Mississippi. The speed of the rivers was breathtaking, especially after an apparently extremely wet season, and the rapids were awesome – many turgid Category 4s and 5s. We saw hundreds of canoeists and rafters – and one long stretch of the Colorado is nick-named Moon River – due to the long-established routine of the rafters ‘mooning’ the train as it passes. We saw an awful lot of (awful) bums over maybe 100km.

We were now well into the Rockies and again, words fail me. I never imagined I wold see them and they are not quite what (or where) I imagined, but maybe even more spectacular. Towering mountains, craggy rocks everywhere, plenty of snow-caps not too far away. Quite an awesome journey, but equally impossible to describe. Imagine as much as you can and double it – and then again a few more times!

We continued eastward through Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, all less awesome, but still fascinating. Gigantic swathes of corn fields – enough to feed the entire world surely – truck farms and increasing industrialisation as we approached our destination. Many little towns, all amazingly neat and symmetrical, quite quaint in many cases, but with little to separate them from their neighbours. Lots of silos, some for corn, but mainly for silage – in goes mountains of grass, it ferments and out comes astronomical volumes of stockfeed.

Because we were running so late, they had to provide an extra meal on the train (everyone got beef stew and veges for that one). The food was generally very good with about 6 choices for each meal (the same set of 6 each day) and a fair choice of alcohol that we had to pay for. Staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful – maybe with an eye on their anticipated tips, but they seemed genuine enough. Tipping is alien to us, of course, but we did what we thought reasonable and hope we didn’t offend anyone or appear too stupid to them.

Chicago at last and a cab ride to the hotel where we checked in and slept in much more comfort than the hard mattresses on the train.

1 note · View note

iainisnotinberlin · 5 years

Text

Klagenfurt/ Wörthersee

I departed Vienna for Klagenfurt, catching the train at 10:20 from Vienna Hauptbahnhof. I was really looking forward to spending some time by myself, or at least sleeping in a room alone, and being in nature after a couple of weeks in large cities. The train journey was very pleasant and I really got a feel of the topography of Austria. After a relatively flat start the train snakes up and down valleys and through the occasional mountain. I had a fairly unproductive morning as the train wi-fi was crap, but the view out the window was a serviceable alternative to work.

I arrived at Klagenfurt at 14:20 and instead of getting a taxi as I had originally planned due to an unfavourable bus timetable, I decided to wait 2 hours until the bus arrived. I set up camp at the station bar, enjoyed a coffee and a couple of beers and made up for my lack of work in the morning. Shortly before the bus was due I paid up and headed for the bus stop. A 40 minute journey later I was at my stop, and walked 10 minutes to my destination.

The guesthouse is in a small village called Dellach and has a golf course directly adjacent. It is a sweet place with a nice area to sit outside and very quiet, with sounds of animals and insects occasionally interrupted by the ping of a golf shot. I met the host, dropped my stuff in the room and headed out to see the Aussichtsturm Pyramidenkogel, a landmark I had seen previously on maps. As the crow flies it is probably less than a kilometre, however it’s quite a windy road and the hike features a fair amount of aerial elevation.

I arrived at the tower after a wonderful hour featuring breathtaking views. I was also lucky enough to see a bird of prey (not sure which species) up close, as I inadvertently interrupted it’s resting place causing it to fly off towards the lake below. There were quite a few people around the tower and it seems to be a popular attraction, so I paid my €14 and took the 440 steps up to the top which wasn’t a lot after the hike I had just done! The price was totally worth it. There was a 360 degree view and it was one of the most stunning places I’ve ever seen. There were lakes, forests, plains and mountains fading into the distance for as far as the eye could see, and with sunset approaching the colours of the clouds, sun and lake were glorious.

After taking far too many photos and plenty of gawking I took the steps back down and went to the restaurant at the bottom. I looked at the menu and to my surprise and delight there were vegan options. The waiter came over and said that only pizzas were available so I was somewhat dismayed, but after looking at the menu it transpired that they had vegan cheese! So I had a pizza and a beer in the fading light, then headed back down to my accommodation in the vain hope I’d be back before it was fully dark. I was not there before it was fully dark and on the way back down I broke into a run, but in the end I resigned myself to walking through the woods with only my phone light as company. I got back to the guesthouse at around 22:00 and headed to be shortly after, glad I had got the most out of my evening.

Day two in Wörthersee. I arose at around 8:00 after a pretty good night’s sleep and started work quite quickly after as i wanted to have a long lunch. I spent the morning working in between the courtyard and my room, as the room is very warm. My host had told me that in Maria Wörth it was possible to rent bikes from the tourist information office and I wanted to be a bit more mobile, so I went for a run there at lunchtime.

On the run I passed by several great looking swimming holes, but I had decided that I should reward myself with a swim on the way back from the run. I got plenty of funny looks, as I’m probably not the sort of person to visit Wörthersee. It seems very rich and full of older couples, and the way the majority of the lakeside property is privately owned is pretty depressing. There are very few sections where the public can swim for free. Still I was aiming to find a good spot on the way back.

I arrived at Maria Wörth, had a quick coffee (first of the day) and a mooch about the village/ waterfront. I found the tourist information and spoke to the employees, but it wasn’t possible to rent a bike for more than one day, and I don’t have much use for it between 8:30 and 18:30 so I declined. Around this point I noticed that I haven’t spoken English in 2 days, definitely the longest time ever.

Slightly dismayed, but looking forward to running more I set off back to the guest house and stopped at the best swimming spot on the way back. It was just off the road, but featured plenty of space for 40-odd people to chill out in the sun. I dumped my stuff and headed straight in to the water. It was quite warm, but so incredibly blue and clear, more so than I’ve ever seen in my life! The swim was so joyous and it felt amazing being in the lake and seeing the beautiful hills and mountains all around.

I left the ‘beach’ and arrived back at the house and had a casual afternoon’s work. Then in the evening I thought I’d head into Velden, the main town on the lake, for the evening and see what it’s like. It was over an hour’s walk away and I arrived there at around 20:30. Unfortunately, the place was horrible. It was full of middle-aged rich-looking couples and tourist families and felt very tacky. On the walk I did see the below bar, but it seemed to be long dead. I found a petrol station and hot-footed it back to the guesthouse as quickly as possible. I got home at around 11 then headed to bed.

The next morning I planned out the day to come. I wanted to go for a swim and a read at lunchtime, then head to one of restaurants I came across yesterday in the evening. The first part was achieved successfully, but by 17:00 there was a spectacular thunderstorm, which also featured some large hailstones. I was confined to my room for an hour and a half, but after the storm passed I wandered down to the restaurant (spotting some storm destruction en route) for some soup and pommes, the only vegan options on the menu. It was satisfying to have a decent dinner though, as it’s been difficult to maintain a good diet the last few days as there’s not too much around and no kitchen.

During the evening there was some spectacular lightning strikes on the other side of the lake, which were distracting, but also very cool. After dinner, a few beers and making a considerable dent in my book I wandered home to pack up my things and read some more!

The next day I was checking out, so I awoke at around 8:00, went through the familiar routine of packing up my things, then headed downstairs. I had checked the bus times and to my dismay I found that they don’t run at the weekends. I asked my host to provide me with a good taxi firm, but fortunately he gave me another suggestion. It turned out there’s a ferry which goes to Klagenfurt and after checking the ferry website we discovered the next one was in 10 minutes. I hastily said my goodbyes and got to the jetty with 5 minutes to spare, which was handy as the next one was 3 hours later. The journey took around an hour and was extremely enjoyable, made even better by getting a large discount due to my Wörthersee discount card! It halved the price to around €8 and also provided me with free bus travel around town all day.

Once docking at Klagenfurt I hopped off and caught the bus into town. After alighting the bus I walked to the hauptbahnhof to deposit my bags in a locker and proceeded to have a wander around the city. After a quick lap I came across the stadtsgalerie, which had three exhibitions on, the highlight of the three being a display of photographs from a recent body-painting festival to which Klagenfurt is host.

After my culture fix I had a couple of beers, a bit more wandering then decided to go to the bouldering gym, Boulderama. First impressions were it was a good size gym, very quiet and a wee bit dirty. A lot of the walls had comp stuff on them which is unfortunate a I think I would have preferred some more everyday problems. Still I climbed for a few hours until my fingers were raw, then walked to the only vegan restaurant in town, triVida. Sadly the outdoor area was full, so I had to sit inside alone. I had a wrap/ summer roll-esque creation to start and a polenta pizza as a main. Both were really nice and I had a beer alongside. The waitresses were very friendly and I ended up chatting to one of them for about 2 hours. She was pretty cool and was also quite a talented artist!

I left around 22:30 still with a few hours to kill until my bus to Genoa, so upon my new friend’s recommendation I went to a few bars near the restaurant. I had a couple of beers and read, but during my time in the bar it started to rain very heavily! Fortunately it eased off just before I had to leave, so I wandered to the bus station and boarded the bus to Bologna, after a fantastic last day in Austria.

0 notes

taiyaki-travels-blog · 6 years

Photo

Tokyo day 1:

Today we had brekky at 8:30am and were in taxis on our way to JR Nikko station by 9:30am. We took local trains to get to Tokyo and we switched trains twice along the way, stopping for a quick bite to eat for lunch at Akebane station.

This morning I woke up with a sore throat and it only got worse as the day went on… 風邪をひいてしまいました。I, thankfully, was allocated a single room for tonight’s stay in Ours Inn in Oimachi, meaning that I could have an early night and rest up in preparation for the days ahead.

After checking into our hotels we quickly rushed out to Harajuku for the afternoon, followed by a dinner in Shibuya. I didn’t buy much today, but I was able to show one of my friends around Harajuku and Takeshita Dori and she seemed to have a great time, despite the rain! Along the way, I stopped in at a drug store to try and find something for my sore throat, I was so amazed at the amount of drinks, lozenges, lollies, medicines, and all sorts that were available for a cold and a sore throat. Japan is really ahead of Australia in terms of modern medicine, even Leigh Sensei was put onto some strong antibiotics to kick his cold and they worked practically overnight! No more “let the cold run its course”, it is fixable here in Japan! On a rainy day in Japan, all of the stores provide umbrella rests and umbrella bags for customers in order to keep store clean, this is something that Australia DEFINITELY needs to take on board!

I left dinner early in order to return to the hotel and take my concoction of new cold remedies, hopefully I will wake up tomorrow with less symptoms!

Tokyo day 2:

Today was the day that everyone left for the Ogasawara Archipelago. I chose to stay in Tokyo for those 5 days so I could catch up with my old friends, it was a tough decision to make, especially since the archipelago seemed so beautiful!

I had terrible cold symptoms today and I felt really drained, but I pushed through and trekked on. I left everyone at Shinagawa station and headed off to my Air B&B in Nakano. I was greeted by the dad of the house who had prepared a lovely lunch for me! He spoke in really broken English until he realised that I could understand Japanese, then he completely switched to Japanese. It is always really funny being in a foreign country and having locals figure out how to best talk to you. In a café today I walked up to the cashier and he said “ちょっと待って下さい” and then sent out an English speaking staff member, how then realised I spoke Japanese and served me as per usual. They are very welcoming here in Japan and really try to fill everyone’s needs, but often assume all non-Japanese people do not speak a word of Japanese.

I went back to Shibuya for the afternoon and got a present for my mum and my grandmother, along with some little things for myself. I got myself a pre-made donburi from the supermarket (only $3!) and went home for a night in.

Tokyo day 3:

Day three, and still no signs of slowing down. Today I arranged to meet up with an old friend and go to Ueno Zoo and Shinjuku. The zoo was beautiful and only 600yen to enter! (Meanwhile at $50+ entries in Aus…) My friend and I stopped for lunch and had 回転寿司 which was easily the best sushi I have had in my entire life! We then went to Shinjuku to get some baseball merch for my dad as a gift, and to book off for some cheap, and easy to read, Japanese books. Book off is a second hand book/dvd/game/etc. store which is normally at least 2 floors high and as wide as a maccas. This company also owns many other second hand chain stores such as mode off (for clothing) and hard off (for furniture etc.). These stores make finding cheap and functional items at super low prices, for three new books I only paid 400yen ($4!). I wish Australia was this into reusing/selling items, maybe then we wouldn’t produce so much waste…

We then headed for coffee, and my friend took me on a tour of his university to meet his friends and to have dinner altogether. We went to an 居酒屋for drinks and dinner. Just another lovely day full of memories, friends, and activities. Time for bed!

Tokyo day 4:

Turns out it isn’t just a cold, it is TONSILLITIS!!!! So I went and got some medicine and headed off for a day visiting my old host school from two years ago! The class I was in at that time are now in year 12 and about to graduate. It was so weird to see all of my classmates and friends all grown up and ready for university.

I helps teach some English classes and had a big class party with lots of sweets at lunch. It was such an amazing and nostalgic feeling to be back at Chiyoda, even if they have renovated most areas and even build a whole new building ready for an international school! I also found out that from next year there won’t be any more middle school attachment, and they are making it co-ed! Everyone has such mixed feelings about letting boys into the school, but they need growth so しょうがない.

After a sad goodbye to everyone at the school I headed off to ice skate with my best friend Momo. We hadn’t seen each other in two years, but it only felt like yesterday that we were together. After ice skating we had an udon dinner and wandered for hours as we chatted and reminisced.

I’m now home are ready for a loooooong sleep. I even cancelled my plans for tomorrow in order to rest up and attempt to cure this tonsillitis. Goodnight!

Tokyo day 5:

Today was uneventful, except for the evening.

I spent most of the day lying in bed, resting up to fight the tonsillitis, only making one trip out of the house to get some throat medicine. In the evening I met up with my friend from western Tokyo and we went shopping, took purikura, and had dinner in Shinjuku. Purikura is a photo booth machine that all girls (and boys) use here in Japan. They are normally in game arcades and are a must for any outing. It was wonderful to see my friend all grown up and ready for university, but it was also sad to say goodbye at the end. Bittersweet…

Tokyo day 6:

Today I woke up with a much better throat than the day before. This medicine is working a treat! Today I went back and visited my host family from 2 years ago that welcomed me into their family for 8 months. It was so amazing to see everyone again and they even got a new dog! (Now they have three in one apartment!) It is such a lively household full of laughter and love and it was amazing to go back. When visiting someone’s house in Japan, culturally, taking some sort of おみやげ with you is appropriate. That being said, when I was in Australia I got a personalised Vegemite jar for them as a gift ready to take with me.

Papa drove us all (us all being me, host sister, and host grandma) to Yokohama where we had a delicious lunch in China town, followed my some shopping in the local area. It was a very causal, yet exciting day and once again, saying goodbye was so so hard. It felt like it was just another day with the family, as if I was going to go back home with them and go to school the next day just like two years ago. Time moves so quickly…

Tokyo Day 7:

Today I left my Air B&B, packed up my things, and headed to meet back up with the group. I was actually starting to get a little bit lonely staying by myself for 5 days, so I was really quite excited to see everyone again and start having roommates! I really did love being in a Japanese style home for the past few days though. Living in a narrow townhouse, on a narrow road, in a crowded neighbourhood is the normal lifestyle for most Japanese people that live in the cities. This is quite different to the spacious front and back yards of Australian houses, you would be lucky to even have a pot plant here in Tokyo!

I spent the day at a café waiting around and reading a book before the group arrived back at the hotel from Ogasawara. We then headed out for dinner at an 居酒屋 and headed out for some shopping in Shibuya. The shops here are always open until at least 8pm and normally 10pm every night.

When we got back, I headed down to the 温泉 and relaxed after a long night. Now I am so ready for bed!

Tokyo day 8:

Today was a jam packed day! Most of the day was spent at the magical Disneyland, filled with laughter, food, and friends. After Disneyland, me and some other group members headed out for サイゼリヤ and shopping in Ikebukuro. We saw the famous Pokemon centre, at heaps of food, and got some cute stationary.

Not much to say today, just tired after a long day.

Tokyo day 9:

Today was our trip to 三鷹の森ジブリ美術館. I had been to this museum before, but there are new short films shown all the time that can only be seen there, so I was still excited to go back there! We walked through 井の頭公園 on our way to Ghibli and the 紅葉 was extremely beautiful as the trees here in the Autumn change into really bright reds.

After our afternoon at Ghibli we headed our separate ways to get out own dinners. Me and some group members went to 吉野家 where we got so much food for under $5 each! It is extremely easy to get not only healthy, but substantial sized meals in a hurry here in Japan.

Off to bed now!

Tokyo day 10:

Today was the last full day in Tokyo, and it was also a public holiday! I went and met up with my best friend and we spent the day in Kamakura. This was my first time going to Kamakura, and even a morning of 大雨 did not ruin the experience. Kamakura has a lot of Chinese food, is famous for its しらす, and has lots and lots of mochi. There are also many temples and shrines located in Kamakura and it seems like a very heavily Buddhist influenced city. There are large statues of Buddhas located around the city and no matter where you go, there is either a temple or a shrine within walking distance.

After a day of experiencing Kamakura, of course my friend and I had to take プリクラ. Saying goodbye again to one of my best friends was so insanely hard, but it was a little easier that last time we parted as I am hoping to come back next year.

At night I did some last minute clothes shopping with a group member and then headed off for a night of washing, packing, and sleeping.

Overall, Tokyo is a very very busy city, full of life and adventure. Not the best place if you want to experience the culture of Japan, but definitely full of stuff to experience, see, and do. This city will always have a special place in my heart as I have spent nearly a whole year of my life there, and this is definitely not goodbye, more like see ya later!

#tokyo

0 notes