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Sarah Manson

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November 28, 2015

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Italy: Other places we’ve been & Notes on uniquely Italian randomness.

Other places we visited on our Italian travels:

Lucca:

Well, what I was expecting and what we got were not entirely on the same page. I had anticipated a day out strolling the historic city with its old town city walls and wandering the streets in search of interesting architecture, something yummy to eat and perhaps stop in at the torture museum (seems everywhere in Italy is doing it, but we hadn’t looked in on one as of yet). When we arrived it became increasingly apparent that something was already happening in town. Something big. All the car parks were full to bursting and cars were parked in all sorts of spots that would normally considered no bueno. What’s more, there were people everywhere attired in all sorts of anime, game and comic inspired costumes. Looked suspiciously like a ComicCon was on, in the middle of regional Italy. On further inspection, it turned out that the annual Lucca Comics and Games convention was on in full force, having started the day before. The town was literally crawling with people, and the town walls I had expected to take a leisurely stroll around was the primary location for all the stalls for the convention. There was also nowhere to park. It took some driving around, but eventually we found a carpark set up to accommodate visitors to the convention, and finally we were on our way to exploring Lucca.

One of the things we had wanted to visit was the local craft beer store, a place that because of its opening hours had changed the intended day of our trip to accommodate this. It was closed on Mondays, and the next available day for us to go sightseeing was Friday. That’s how we ended up in Lucca during Italy’s version of ComicCon. Craft beer is surprisingly difficult to find in Italy. Rome and Florence was not much of a problem if you wanted something from a bar (if it was open), but outside of that it was actually quite difficult. We wandered through the crowds and eventually found the store in question, which was closed off in order to serve beer by the glass to the public during the convention. Figures. However, we spoke to the vendor and they were more than happy to let us into the store anyway for a bit of a sticky beak. So sticky beak we did. Most of their stock was in hiding due to the shop being temporarily retrofitted to serve drinks, but we still managed to make off with a few interesting brews to try.(Plus one for the road, of course.)

The rest of our day in Lucca was spent investigating the various exhibits and general antics of the convention. Really, I could have stayed the entire day and just watched people go about their business (albeit perhaps dressed as a cat or vampire or some such). However, Pisa was the next stop planned for the day, so we eventually left to explore yet another iconic piece of Italy.

While strolling the city walls…

At the Resident Evil display!

Pisa:

Never really thought about the prospect of visiting Pisa. Never really appealed to me all that much. But, since we weren’t all that far away from it, we decided it was worth a stop in to check it out anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a worthwhile trip, and seeing the Square of Miracles in person was indeed much better than the pictures. There were people everywhere taking their cheesy “Look, I’m holding up the leaning tower!” pictures, and plenty more just idling around enjoying the view.

There wasn’t too much more to see in Pisa, so before long we were on the road again to explore the Pisan coastline. We walked along the harbor and watched the fishermen deploy their nets for a while (it was very interesting, never seen their technique before – made me think of one of those claw games but using a net) before finally calling it a day and moseying home.

The early approach of evening made the drive a rather dark one. However, it was nice to see all the castles on the drive home all lit up like Christmas trees. Made them quite obvious and brought quite sharply to attention that there were many more than we had thought. Castles, castles everywhere.

The Square of Miracles

The leaning tower of Pisa. Very beautiful to see in person.

Fishing, Italian-style.

Venice:

We drove out to Venice, choosing the car over the train in the hope of seeing some more of the countryside on the way. It didn’t turn out to be quite as scenic as hoped for, as we discovered low hanging cloud and fog to be a constant and irritating companion for the majority of the drive. So much so, that when we arrived at the Venice airport, the fog had gotten worse to the point of ridiculousness. There was little to see, and our boat trip from the airport parking to Venice only allowed for maybe 30m visibility. It was much the same when we arrived in Venice proper. That being the case, we didn’t make the journey out to Murano & Burano like originally planned. Instead we walked the streets. As many of them as our feet could deal with, since Venice is so small and winding and as complicated as a rabbit warren. We did a lot of exploring. Also came across a lot of dead-ends. Back-tracking was a common occurrence.

No, we didn’t go on a gondola ride. Frankly, paying 80 euro for 20min seemed like daylight robbery. Even more so, when you consider that the gondolas were all lined up in a row nose to tail, making a snails pace journey through the canals like a mother duck and her ducklings. Besides, the gondolas were by and large filled with a large group of noisy tourists. They were very loud. There would be about zero serenity to be had cruising the canals. …And I don’t feel like we missed out on anything by not making the effort. There was plenty enough to see, either way.

We walked the streets, enjoyed the Venetian nightlife, visited a local craft beer bar, tried out cicchetti (the Venetian version of tapas) and generally got far more exercise than anticipated. Although we had some seriously crappy weather, I loved Venice nonetheless. A definite spot worth returning to, and we should have allocated more time to explore the area more thoroughly.

The real unexpected highlight of the trip was actually the drive home. It certainly wasn’t all beautiful scenery (the fog didn’t help), but once we eventually left the coast and headed back inland (this time not taking the toll road and thereby saving us 19 euro) the countryside took a significant turn for the spectacular. It’s difficult to say that the drive was the best overall (since we have been on some seriously amazing drives everywhere we have gone), but I’m hard-pressed to say whether it is or isn’t one of the top three. I simply can’t decide. For all the other driving we did in Italy, I can easily say this drive was the best we did while we were there. The drive was amazing and we were very sad when we ran out of sunlight.

One of the many Venetian canals.

The Bridge of Sighs… I wonder how that gondola got away from the rest of the pack?

The fog did lift…A bit.

The last night in Italy:

It seems every month goes a little faster. With our stay in Prato more or less ended, we checked out a day early to make our way down to Fiumicino in preparation for our flight over to our next stop. We hoofed it along the toll roads, not wanting to make a 3 hr trip into an all day experience. Cost us 19.50 euro for the privilege, but totally worth it to save so much time (at least 2 hours). Wanting to get there in a hurry had more to do with wanting to go check out Ostia Antica than any other reason, and we did indeed arrive with plenty of time to explore. I had wanted to see Ostia Antica and go exploring since we were too late to check out the Forum when we were visiting Rome. It was quite the epic experience, I’d read that it was large, but the reality was a bit more than I bargained for. Seemed like a endless vista of archaeological ruins, the remains of a city long gone. I could have easily spent a whole day just wandering around, although without a guide book it was mostly just appreciating the ruins without too much in the way of understanding. There were some placards, but not many. Enough to be able to identify the purpose of some of the buildings, in a very general way. Another place I’d be happy to return to.

Our hotel for the night we chose for its proximity to the airport, and the fact that it also boasted a trattoria – one of the best in the area. The area was farmland – fennel bulbs and carrots, fields and fields and fields of them. There had to have been enough carrots in Fiumicino to feed all of Italy (and possibly then some). The hotel room was great, although when we got there it turned out there was roadwork right in front of the building, preventing access to the hotel and to the carpark. We did a 10km blocky just to get to the hotel, only to find the approach from the other side was no better. The road noise was horrendous, and they continued to work well past the point of sundown. So much for a relaxing last evening! (Jackhammers and everything – enough to make the floor shake.) Eventually they did pack up for the night, and we were able to enjoy a fabulous dinner in the restaurant. Their specialty was grilled meats, and we enjoyed some excellent T-Bone steak and a mixed grill liberally dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and cooked on the wood-fire grill. The fresh flatbread was possibly the best bread I’ve ever eaten… We also forgot about our potato “chip” experience in Rome, and ended up with a bowl of freshly fried potato crisps with our meal. That was a bit weird. The house wine was decanted out of a giant amphora. That was weird, too (but delicious). I’ve noticed as we try more and more different foods abroad, it has become apparent that the most simply prepared foods are the most delicious, not the complex creations.

…Our last day was a great end to our Italian visit, and the whole trip was a fantastic experience. Italy is certainly worth a second look.

Ostia Antica, or what remains of it.

Ostia Antica…How much longer will it continue to stand?

Interesting bits and bobs we noticed about Italy:

Public transport is not taken seriously by the locals.

We considered taking public transport home after our sojourn about town in Rome, and when we asked the locals about the buses & how to purchase tickets (since you can’t buy them on the bus, and newsstands that sell tickets were already closed for the evening) we were informed in no uncertain terms that no one pays for the bus. Fair enough. It explains a whole lot as to why almost no one was validating their tickets when we were catching the train in Florence…

Supermarkets in Italy:

So what was different here? Well, for one: the bread sucked. Like France and Croatia, if it’s not fresh baked, it’s probably not worth eating. There isn’t any sandwich bread – anything made for that sort of purpose has extended life spans and taste stale fresh from the pack. Nasty. Admittedly, they do market it as being “ideal for toast”, so they aren’t exactly pulling any punches by providing stale bread. As there wasn’t any regular bread, we bought a loaf anyway to use for said toast, and discovered it’s not even packed like a loaf inside the bag (packed in 3 sections sideways, as if the bread was not sliced, but perhaps individually processed like a Pringles chip). I have to say, it creeped me out a bit (maybe it’s Soylent Green!)…And then there was actually toasting the stale pseudo-bread. I’d say that 3 out of 4 times (or worse) I overshot/undershot the mark in producing a normal slice of toast. Attempt 1: Stale. Attempt 2: Still stale. Attempt 3: Stale, but slightly crispy. Attempt 4: Now it’s a crouton. Great.

On the whole, the supermarkets were actually pretty normal. There were the ubiquitous Carrefour hypermarkets, Lidl, plus a few we hadn’t seen before like Conad, Pam and Coop. I was very surprised to find that the fresh pasta selection was largely made up of things similar to San Remo and Latina pasta you’d see in the fresh products area at home. Maybe everyone makes their own.

Rubbish collection…Or lack thereof.

Our place in Prato (likely by virtue of the location in the hills) did not have a rubbish collection service. Instead, all refuse is sorted in the home into organic waste, plastic/metals, cardboard/paper, undifferentiated & finally glass…and then taken to an appropriate skip bin for disposal. These skip bins were often notoriously difficult to find, although we established that they usually lined the streets of the more central parts of town (located there as I suspect there is also no rubbish service within the old town walls – some of the streets are stupid skinny). They were an ass to use, as the bins faced the street and were most commonly in locations with no parking or standing… I’m not really sure how people are meant to use them (unless you are intended to approach on foot from your house and then stand in the busy street). To make things more interesting, all skip types were rarely located in the same spot. Generally, glass bins would adorn almost every corner all over the city (but almost never with the other skips) and the plastics/metals bin was often located on the other side of the busy streets from the rest of the skips. To top it off, the bins were often overflowing, and cursory inspection of the bin contents indicated that the local residents didn’t give too much consideration as to which bin they chucked their rubbish into (except glass, the glass bins were reliably full of glass). I’d say all in all, a bit of a recycling fail on almost all fronts.

Clean Streets…Sort of.

I get the impression that Italians are very house-proud. Always, there are people sweeping the streets with an old-school besom, washing down the stones with buckets of water, scrubbing marks off the streets and walls, and carefully tending their plants. It’s definitely been noticeable that the streets are cleaner than most places we have visited…With the exception of the areas surrounding the waste disposal skips (that’s usually a disaster area), the streets are clean to the point of spotless.

Often the entrances to Italian homes are beautiful and carefully manicured.

Food in Italy:

I had some sort of grand expectation that food in Italy was going to be some sort of amazing experience to rival anything we had tried everywhere else. However, having eaten Italian chow for a month, I can’t say I was particularly impressed. Yes, we did have some amazing food experiences (I’m looking at you, olive-oil flatbread, slow-roasted octopus and wood-fired grilled T-Bone)…But on the whole, things were pretty unexciting. Pizza, pasta, mediterranean style fish & Venetian cicchetti, were tasty, but we have definitely had better and paid less. I guess, unless you are making an effort to visit fine-dining establishments, food from a restaurant is often pretty mediocre, no matter which country you are in.

Bars in Italy:

What gives, Italy? Murray had pinned a bunch of places that he had wanted to visit, based on the very limited number of vendors selling craft beer in Italy. Everywhere we went, we found the same thing: The vendors do not open until 5pm or later. Sometimes, opening at 7pm, and then apparently already shutting by 10pm. Seems like some pretty weird system they’ve got going. That, or shops are particularly crap at opening at what to me, seems like normal business hours. It’s not like we wanted to visit a nightclub, these places at home would have been open from 10am all the way through to maybe 1-2am. Who opens for 6 hours or less, especially in a tourist hotspot (which presumably would also be one of the major sources of trade)? Too strange Italy, too strange.

Craft beer:

Murray ended up giving up on visiting craft beer bars and settled for buying his Italian craft beer online. Many attempts to locate/buy craft beer from actual stores failed, so using the powers of the Internet turned out to be the winning formula. It has been surpassingly weird to find that shops don’t sell craft beer, even though Italy makes a substantial amount of it. Does it all go overseas? Where is it? Maybe there is a secret society like the Freemasons of beer…

Google, I love you…But sometimes you suck.

As I’ve previously mentioned, Google upon occasion will take us on the odd sojourn to places not intended. This happened a few times while we were in Italy. Search for a location, and presumably Google will direct you there. But sometimes, (with all this recent travel it seems more frequent) sometimes, Google will take you to somewhere else. Like it decided midway that maybe you should visit a location other than the one requested (or try to tell you that the location you want actually exists somewhere else). Or take you on a gigantic 10km loop in order to perform a u-turn (when you could have turned around or taken an alternative route). No, with repeated use it has been very clear that Google is not to be trusted. Indispensable, but also not 100% infallible by any means. This happened on the way to Siena, with Google directing us some 20 minutes past the desired location…to an industrial district.

The hills are alive, with the sound of car horns…

Horn tooting. So, as I probably mentioned somewhere, many Italian roads of the not-main-road variety are on the skinny side. The kind of skinny that permits only one car in one direction and often with stone walls on either side (or alternatively, no walls and a sharp drop-off). In Filletole, this was compounded by the presence of many steep hills, blind corners, and surprise intersections. …Making for all sorts of hazards when it comes to trying to figure out whether someone might be coming in the other direction. So people around these parts toot. Pre-emptive horn tooting is apparently the order of the day when approaching any blind corners, and given there are so many of them, the hills of Filletole constantly sound like a horn-tootling convention (plus some drivers are far more enthusiastic than others). Despite the tooting, Mexican standoffs occur. Although it may be good form for one party to back down (reverse out of the road), sometimes when traffic backs up this becomes impossible. Resulting in car-maneuverability Tetris. Plus some people plain suck at reversing and won’t back down (even when it makes no sense/is impossible for the other party to do so). Seriously, if you can’t reverse your car, you shouldn’t drive/live in Filletole. Thank goodness I didn’t have to drive. I’d probably have cried, or lost the car off the side of an area with no guard rail. Or both.

It’s not just car horns the hills are alive with. Meet the Jingle Sheep!

Next stop:

Montenegro. Probably best visited in the warmer months, but thanks to Schengen & the mysteries of not being able to be in multiple places at once during the sweet spots of the year, we are headed there to catch the end of Autumn. Hopefully it’ll still be great! Fingers crossed for good weather…

Posted by

Sarah Manson

Posted on

November 25, 2015

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Italy: Visiting Rome and Exploring Tuscany

Italy:

Visiting Rome:

Rome, what an amazing city. A place so full of history, much more history to be appreciated than the two days we had allocated to see it…

…We arrived at Fiumicino airport in the evening, and the subsequent evening traffic. The place was a hive of activity, hectic and unfamiliar. Even still, we managed to get ourselves sorted and on the road in no time. Was one of the most painless airport exoduses so far! (Mostly because we hired a driver.) …We had originally planned on hiring a car from the airport and leaving it parked while we visited Rome. However, during our research, we discovered that it turns out if you’re not a resident you can’t drive where we were staying. Glad we discovered that before we got there. Even more glad Murray didn’t have to drive, since on the drive into the city it was clear that reputation of the whole Italians and driving appeared to be correct. It appears drivers in Italy are rather more aggressive than most (our driver included). Nevertheless, our driver got us to our destination, taking us through the cobbled cramped and maze-like locals-only zones to our apartment for the next couple of days. Even helped us with our bags to the door. Although organising the driver cost more than our flights from Germany (the flights were cheap), I’m sure the expense was worth it in terms of the pain in the derriere we were saved from having to experience by using public transport. With our bags, plus a bike…no thanks to riding the bus. Plus the added joy of also getting our bags from wherever public transport would have dropped us to the apartment. That would have been no fun at all.

Our apartment was comfortable, quiet and conveniently located close to plenty of restaurants and bars and other assorted nightlife. We wasted no time in settling in, more or less dropping our stuff off and heading out to explore. The streets were bustling with people, even though it was only a Tuesday night. Although it was our first night in Italy, we did the decidedly un-Italian thing and ate burgers and drank sour beer for dinner. No regrets. (Although we did discover that “chips” in Italy is actually fresh cooked potato crisps. Weird.)

The river Tiber, maybe 400m from our apartment.

The Roman Forum

I didn’t expect much from Rome, since in my mind’s eye I had figured it was going to be similar to Paris or Amsterdam or any of the other big ticket locations (huge crowds and hawkers galore). I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed visiting Rome. Plenty to see, much more than we had time for. Yes, there were hawkers, but they didn’t seem to be as pushy or ubiquitous as other places we had visited…And although bustling with people, Rome didn’t feel anywhere near as crowded either (maybe because it’s not peak season anymore). Having enjoyed the tour we tagged along on in Munich, we did another free walking tour and then continued by doing plenty of exploring on our own. Actually, we almost did two of the walking tours, but we weren’t real impressed with the first one, and the second one was worse (strong Italian accent, too quiet and very difficult to understand). We walked almost continuously all day. (We did stop for pizza, beer and a power-nap. Exploring a big city on foot is hard work!)

…We walked just about everywhere we could think to go, occasionally stopping to enjoy the smell of fresh-roasted chestnuts, a scoop or three of gelato or just to admire the many fountains and statues dotted all over the city. (Not Trevi fountain however, as it was emptied for maintenance. My luck.) Occasionally this involved braving the scary pedestrian crossings – it seems in Rome at least, the cars do not stop if you wait at the kerb, and there are often no button-activated crosswalks – you have to assertively wade into the traffic and hope like heck that they stop. (They do, but it feels a bit touch and go.) The Colosseum and the Trajan’s Forum, Market and associated ruins were definitely a highlight (although the Colosseum was also under some serious maintenance/restoration) and if given the time, would have easily been a whole day out. I had also wanted to check out the Roman Forum, but by the time we got there, the gates were closed for the day, so unfortunately we weren’t able to go in and inspect the ruins in more detail. However, by then it was already late afternoon and our feet had more or less indicated in no uncertain terms that it was time to stop. So that more or less completed our Roman sightseeing experience.

Fontana Del Pantheon..Looks a bit like Donald Duck...

Fontana Del Pantheon..(Looks a bit like a scary Donald Duck!) …Most of the fountains were turned off for the cooler months.

During our two days in Rome (more accurately one day and two nights) we also visited a few craft beer bars (once they opened for the evening), and sampled some of what Italy has to offer in terms of beverages and edibles. Ate possibly the best roasted octopus ever prepared. So good, I would have quite happily ordered a second serving (or more). But we didn’t. …But I might just remember that octopus for the rest of my life. I had no idea octopus could even taste anywhere near that good. The beer was also good, but was considerably less memorable.

I’m sure you know what this is. The other side is covered in scaffolding.

Arch of Constantine

In no time at all, our two days in Rome were up. It was well worth the visit, and in my opinion, well worth another day or two or more in the event that we pass by again.

Our trip back to the airport to acquire a hire car for the month went without a hitch (thanks to our driver), and without much delay we were on our way to our next stop: Tuscany. We opted to take the coastal roads and bypass using the toll road, thinking that this would perhaps be a scenic way to see some of Italy. It wasn’t. The drive along the coast was substantially longer, and perhaps the least scenic drive we have undertaken thus far, but was an interesting journey nonetheless. Once we began the drive through Tuscany things improved considerably, and the hills and small towns were much more interesting than anything else we saw on the drive. Plenty of castles on hilltops, seemingly ancient olive groves and churches with bell towers. It took us quite a while, but we made it to Prato without incident.

Home for the month: Prato, Tuscany

Our home for the month was in Prato, which is part of Tuscany and about 15 minutes away from Florence. The apartment was part of a villa based in Filletole, an organic olive growing area on one of the terraced hillsides surrounding the city. It was harvest time while we were there, and every day there were people busy at work in the fields stripping the trees of their olives for oil. (Which was also processed locally – we scored a bottle from our host!) Although we were staying in quite a large and populous city, the actual location where we were staying was very rural, complete with sheep adorned with bells. So jingly, it felt like being in Germany again. It was crazy that just on the other side of the river from the apartment, was the city proper, and with it, suburbia.

Home!

The roads around Filletole leave a bit to be desired. This road comes with mini-chickens and a guard rail! Very fancy.

Our place was quiet and for the majority of the time, quite peaceful. Although, the peace was occasionally shattered by virtue of thin walls in a shared space. Apartments in Italy seem to lack soundproofing, and our villa was no exception. So we were treated to all manner of Italian squabbling at various times of day. I’m not even sure if what we were hearing were disagreements, but whatever it was, it had a whole lot of what seemed like inappropriate volume (often at inappropriate times). You could hear the neighbours in the kitchen from the bathroom. (Awkward.) Also, it was rather evident that our upstairs neighbour was into Placebo. Particularly, singing along to Placebo. We heard a lot of Placebo. (Luckily, I like Placebo.)

Hilly Filletole, an excellent workout for the legs.

Exploring Central Italy:

Florence:

We did a day trip into Florence, opting to catch the train in and spent the day exploring. Although Florence is technically only 26km away, it’s a solid 45 minutes or better to drive there (and then the joy of parking in Italy – Hint: It’s not a joy). Traffic around Florence I strongly suspect is always terrible (and our experiences in its proximity for a month indicated much the same). However, it’s only 15 minutes on the train, so train it was. We eventually managed to figure out how to get a ticket for the train…But then couldn’t figure out how to validate it. It didn’t help that some of the machines we tried were not functioning, and that there wasn’t any English directions on how to validate said ticket. There were, however, plenty of English announcements describing the fining you were likely to receive if caught traveling using an unvalidated ticket.

We didn’t manage to validate our ticket before boarding the train. But, we had to change trains anyway to get to our destination, and our second attempt at validating resulted in success. Turns out the machines (when working) punch a hole in the ticket…It was not quite as high tech as I had imagined.

We arrived in town without incident and proceeded to walk the streets through alleys full of leather goods and the market full of fresh produce, smoked meats and delicious smells. The market was interesting, but unremarkable (I did, however, want to run away with a leg of cured pork). Before Florence, I don’t think I’d ever seen so much leather in one place. Numerous stalls selling jackets, purses, wallets, belts and bags abounding on almost every street corner (and often also all the way down the street), while the shops sported leather footwear and yet more assorted leather fashion (in case the stalls weren’t enough variety). It was a bit of overkill, really…and no, I did not purchase any leather products. So this tourist at least, managed to resist the pull of what must be the allure of several hundred cows worth of leather whatnot. Walking the streets, the air even smelled of leather.

Aside from the ubiquitous leather, Florence was plenty interesting enough, and we spent several hours wandering around checking out the various architectural hotspots on offer. Having minimal interest in art, we opted not to visit the Uffizi gallery, since realistically, neither of us were likely to get good value for the experience. Sad, but true. An art aficionado I am not. Besides, we were more than occupied enjoying the scenery without having to fork out money to see museums or galleries as well. Needless to say, our shoes got another good workout exploring the city streets.

Packed with pedestrians, the streets in Florence were often very narrow and despite this, still fair game for public transport. I’d never seen such tiny buses before, but I guess that’s the only way they were logistically going to be able to get through the streets of Florence in the first place. It was super weird walking the narrower streets to find that the many pedestrians were expected to share a tiny lane with an equally tiny bus. The wider roads were more the domain of vehicular traffic, although it seemed like the foot-traffic still had the upper hand in terms of controlling the streets. Cars moved at the mercy of the people, not the other way around.

While we were out exploring, a football game was being held in a nearby stadium, one team being Polish. The was so much noise in the streets that we stopped what we were doing to check out what the fuss was all about. The game had not yet started, but the fans were definitely eager for the game. We approached the wall of noise to find that the fans were chanting and singing and marching in force to the stadium. It was beyond strange. Not that they were singing and marching, but that they were being escorted by hordes of police in full riot gear while they walked the streets to their destination. Cops on foot, cops on motorbikes, cops in cop cars and paddy wagons and armoured buses. It was quite the spectacle. I assume they all arrived safely at their destination, although I’m not sure if the fans were being protected by the cops, or if the cops were protecting the locals from the fans…

Churches in Florence - particularly stunning.

Churches in Florence only come in one flavour: stunning. Pictures really don’t do the intricate work justice.

David’s stunt double.

Ponte Vecchio… All the little shops lining the bridge were jewellery stores. How peculiar.

San Gimignano, Siena and Monteriggiano:

Another day trip was out to San Gimignano, Siena and Monteriggiano. Having been informed by one and many that San Gimignano was not to be missed, we made sure that we stopped in for a sticky beak. We also discovered that it is the home of supposedly the best ice cream in the world, so we ate some (olive oil, saffron and hazelnut flavors to break the mould of always choosing coconut and lemon). Pretty good, but I’m not sure if I’d declare it the best I’d ever had. We also ate some terrible pizza. (That was surprising.) We had a good few hours exploring San Gimignano – it was definitely a good-sized town to visit, not too big, not too small.

Enjoying some of supposedly the best gelato in the world. Tasted pretty good. Best? Not sure.

Outside San Gimignano

Next stop was Monteriggiano. Much smaller than San Gimignano, the walled town was pretty but not big enough to warrant much more than a cursory inspection. It’s difficult to believe that people actually live in these tiny pocket-sized towns. Also worth the stop, but not a whole lot to see.

Streets of Monteriggiano. So cute and clean and tidy. Picture perfect.

Monteriggiano, surrounded by olive groves: The tiniest town we have visited so far.

Siena was hilly plus plus. Larger than anticipated, Siena was another beautiful city, full of all the usual historical points of interest. Italians, like most other European countries, sure know how to lavish some serious skill on the churches and other buildings of import. It has been interesting to see how different churches have been in each country, as indeed they have been very different in style (although opulence seems to be a common thread). We didn’t stay long, as we were rapidly losing the last of the afternoon light. Still, we were there long enough to get a good work out walking up and down the myriad of hilly streets.

…All in all, our day out was filled with plenty of lovely countryside, historic buildings and opulent churches. A feast for the eyes.

Another epic church, this time in Siena.

All of Siena was dotted with various fluorescent animals in various sizes…

We stopped to watch the Army/Airforce(?) do aircraft carrier drills dropping cargo over the countryside…They look like dandelion fluff on the breeze…

Whatever else we got up to while in Italy. 🙂

Posted by

Sarah Manson

Posted on

November 16, 2015

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Bavaria, Germany

Germany:

We only allocated two weeks to see Germany. Mostly because Oktoberfest drove the Munich accommodation prices through the roof. Sad, since Germany was pretty fabulous. If we get the chance, there is plenty of Germany to see so we will have to try to go back.

As it is, we stayed at two different places during our two week stay. Munich was definitely outside of our normal price range given the inflated costs during Oktoberfest (accommodation twice the price, and very little available even months in advance), so we decided that a week there was more than enough. However, on airBNB there wasn’t anything to be had for under $2000/week in the Munich area. Luckily, we found a cabin not too far out of town in Schäftlarn which allowed us to easily train it in when required. For our second week, we opted to stay out in Immenstadt im Allgäu, in order to check out the mountains and enjoy some of the more scenic side of Bavaria.

Where we stayed in Schäftlarn: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4039093 (Place was awesome! So cute and cosy.)

Where we stayed in Immenstadt: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/420950

What we got up to in our 2 weeks:

Dachau

We visited Dachau. Being so close to Munich, it seemed appropriate that we visit the memorial to learn more about the place, the war and pay our respects. It was a very sobering experience, and quite different from our visit to Oradour-Sur-Glane in France. The amount of information presented was stunning in volume, and despite wanting to read all of the information presented, it was just too much (not just too much to read, but also too distressing to digest the reality of so much misery and death). It was well worth the visit.

Hard to believe so many people died and were cremated here...

The crematorium wasn’t big enough, so they had to build a bigger one. So many people died at Dachau and then were cremated here…

Munich

We only came into Munich on two days, having only a week to visit the area meant rationing our time. We came in one evening via the train for a bit of a wander and to check out the local craft beer scene. Turns out Bavaria doesn’t exactly do craft beer (the whole Reinheitsgebot thing is still taken quite seriously), so we spent our evening in what seemed like the only place that did: Tap-House Munich. Although drinking beer is as natural to Germans as breathing, breaking out of the mould of the traditional brewing processes has yet to really happen (in Bavaria, at least). The traditional Bavarian beers are all different in that each area specialises in their own local brew, but at the same time they are all very similar in flavour and style. After having explored craft beer in the USA, the UK and Belgium, Bavarian beer suddenly tasted less like the liquid gold that I once thought it had. Clearly, at some point, my palate had changed considerably. Not to say that any of the Bavarian beer was bad, just my appreciation of it has diminished in the face of so much variety. Nevertheless, our evening out was a success and we managed to round out our evening with German sausages, pretzels and some much anticipated beer cheese (delicious).

Our second trip was a whole day in Munich. Had a great day out exploring, spending the day wandering the streets and seeing the local sights with a free walking tour that we had happened upon when we arrived. It was the first free walking tour that we have participated in thus far, mostly because we have been more than happy to explore and be left to our own devices, but since it was starting, and we were there, why not? Turned out to be a great experience, and it went for nearly 3 hours. We got to see a lot of the local sights and our guide was informative and friendly…And all it cost was a tip for the guide (more than fair enough for trotting us around for 3 hours). Good value. Our day consisted of wherever our feet took us: we watched the glockenspiel do its thing, climbed up the bell tower, wandered the market, investigated churches, munched on fresh pretzels with cream cheese and chives, ate Bavarian-style schweinhaxe (crispy roasted pork knuckle) and drank cold beer by the stein. Even spent some time in a beer hall and appreciated the raucous goings on before finally moving on in the early evening to our real destination: Oktoberfest.

Marienplatz – City Hall, from St Peter’s Church bell tower

One of the ubiquitous Maypoles, this one adorning the marketplace in Munich.

Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest. Where to start? Well, we waited until the last Friday of Oktoberfest before heading in to check it all out. Should have known better than to select a Friday night, but I had (mistakenly) thought that most folks would be more or less over it by the that time (being the tail end of the festival and all). So very wrong. For starters, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but Oktoberfest was much larger in scale than anticipated. Much, much larger. Like, ridiculous in size. Like the Ekka, it featured a massive sideshow alley consisting of many rides (in particular, lots and lots of haunted house rides) and was packed with people of all ages. Jam packed. We initially just wandered around for ages checking out all the rides on offer and more or less shouldering our way through the crowds (the only way to get around). For all the rides we saw there were many reminiscent of home (old favourites from Dreamworld like the Enterprise, the Gravitron, Wipe Out & the Giant Drop and many more). Plenty of rides to choose from, but they were not cheap. We opted out on going on the rides, instead choosing to just enjoy watching others enjoy the rides and save our money.

So wanted to go on ALL the rides…

Rides everywhere! Ooh, seems we found a spot with less people…

Having walked around solidly all day through the streets of Munich, all we really wanted to do was find a spot in a beer tent and relax. Our feet had done more than their fair share of work, plus we had opted to walk from Munich to the Oktoberfest grounds. It was high time for a drink and a sit. However, finding a beer tent to settle down at turned out to be the biggest challenge of the evening. The beer tents were HUGE…And yet, everywhere was packed to the rafters with copious numbers of people queuing outside just waiting to get in. Suddenly it made sense why people had recommended heading into the festival in the morning to find a spot in the beer tents. Not that I could possibly justify spending an entire day mooching in a beer tent (if you leave it, kiss your table goodbye). Any beer tent we managed to make it into had standing room only, and the volume meant conversation was a definite no. After much frustration and circling of the tents, we ended up finding a spot in the beer garden of the HB tent. Having found a spot, we weren’t about to relinquish it, and as a result we didn’t move from the table for the rest of the night for fear of not finding another table anywhere else.

We spent the evening hanging out with one of our friends (thanks Pitt for an entertaining night!) and marvelling at the many skills of the bar ladies. There was a mother-daughter team working our area, and they definitely made the evening more interesting with their antics and extreme beverage holding skills. Although once or twice there was a few iffy moments when there was some rescuing (of both the bar ladies and their beer they were toting) in order to avoid 12L of beer being a beery mess on the floor. I have no idea how they could possibly carry so much! 1L beers are far too large for reasonable consumption, but apparently that’s the only size they serve. So 1L beers it was. I could barely drink out of the damn thing (it’s like as big as my head!!), but I persevered.

Eventually we called it a night (mostly because Oktoberfest wraps up at like 10pm), so we all made our way home having experienced more than enough of the Oktoberfest to last us for the foreseeable future. Definitely don’t feel the need to repeat it, but I’m glad we went.

In my opinion, this beer is too big. As it is, I need two hands to lift and drink it.

In my opinion, this beer is too big. As it is, I needed two hands to lift and drink it (to avoid getting a face-full of beer). Murray had no such problems.

Neuschwanstein Castle:

I’d wanted to check out this castle for some time. Like most of the other big tourist hotspots, Neuschwanstein Castle was no exception. When we got there (on our way to Immenstadt), the line to purchase tickets was epic, and the wait time for an entry into the castle was a good 3+ hours away. Murray was not keen (admittedly, I was not particularly keen either to wait so long). Given that we had very limited time to actually do anything touristy during our stay in Allgäu we decided that actually exploring the inside of the castle was a job for another day. Since we were already there, we opted to just see the castle from the outside, but it as it happened, the bridge and the paths leading up to the castle were under maintenance, so we didn’t even get to do the scenic walk up to the castle as planned. To top it off, it turned out we didn’t end up having the time to go back. Oh well. We at least got to walk around the town and appreciate the castle from afar (albeit from a brewery).

Immenstadt

We didn’t get up to very much in our second week in Germany, but we did spend a couple of days hanging out with Pitt and Sandra. They showed us some of the local sights and took us on a scenic a tour which even nipped through Austria for a wee bit. Ate more pork knuckle (yay!) and tried out the local beers. Murray was more or less flat-chat the entire time with work, so that was a bit unfortunate. Oh well. However, we did still get out and about a little bit.

Castle under restoration across the road from our place in Immenstadt

Lake Constance (aka Bodensee)

Instead of heading back to Neuschwanstein, we opted to spend the day driving more of the Deutsch Alpine Highway. On the way, we stopped in for a ride of the Alpsee Coaster. Best. Ride. Ever. Longest toboggan-coaster in Germany, I believe (about 3km of coaster track). Certainly felt like it went on for forever. Cost about 10 euro, but that included a trip up the mountain on the cable ski-lift as well. Money well spent, although it’s still steep enough that I probably wouldn’t pay for it twice (in a row at least). The place was almost empty, and there was no line for the coaster, which was pretty cool. The ride up on the cable ski-lift was quiet and scenic (although really quite cold), and had we more time, there was plenty more exploring to do at the top but we didn’t stay due to cloud cover obscuring pretty much everything in sight as we approached the zenith. The ride down on the coaster was amazing, but also pretty disconcerting, as the whole time was mostly spent contemplating whether if the brakes were not used, would the toboggan somehow come off the tracks? (I know it’s highly unlikely, but it certainly felt like it wasn’t going to stay on the rail. Apparently it goes up to 40km/h at top speed.) It was a quick visit to Alpsee-Bergwelt. Up the lift, down the coaster and back on the road out to the Bodensee.

The drive out to the lake was another scenic adventure, and we got to drive through many small towns and through farmland on both the way there and back (the stretch of the Deutsch Alpine Highway we planned to drive was actually closed for maintenance, so the drive involved a lot of small locals-only single lane roads instead of the more direct route). Lake Constance connects Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and from the pictures it seemed like a plenty scenic spot to visit. However, like at Alpsee-Bergwelt, by the time we got there, there was significant fog obscuring any kind of view we might have had. So, not so many scenic photos as expected, but still a great day out.

Out at Lake Constance, no fog just here, but plenty obscuring the view out over the lake.

Autumn is almost in full swing at Lake Constance. Why are some trees earlier than others?

The best part of the Deutsch Alpine Highway was actually when we were driving back to the airport (via the long way – if there’s time for it, the non-motorway version is always best). The scenery was spectacular, and the fall colours were the best that we have seen so far. Winding roads through the mountain ranges, past lakes and through small towns and villages. Many spots we saw would have been worth a stop, but unfortunately, no time to stop and investigate more thoroughly.

Walchensee

Autumn brightening up the hills everywhere we go.

Interesting things we’ve found while visiting Bavaria:

Cows have bells. All of them. Not just one or two. Makes for some seriously jingly countryside anytime some cows are around. The cows in Romania occasionally sported bells, but not like in Germany. There is no way you would walk into a cow in the dark. (Unless it was completely motionless, and cows are usually chewing even if they aren’t walking around. Makes them plenty conspicuous.)
There are often no fences around the cow paddocks. Generally, the outskirts of each paddock are furnished with electric fence tape and that’s it. Makes some of the country roads seem like driving through a expansive golf course with all the rolling hills and manicured green pastures.
Since we were only staying for 2 weeks, we didn’t end up needing to do a whole lot of shopping. Still, just like everywhere else we have been, shopping in a new place equals new experiences every time. I never thought that something as mundane and basic as food shopping would likely constitute much of a change from place to place. We accidentally went shopping at an Edeka that was sort of like a combination between a Wholefoods and a Beer Barn. It was a strange experience, and put a larger than average hole in our wallet (and yet we didn’t end up with a normal assortment of food). Lidl and Aldi were more normal, and we even found some bake-at-home pretzels. (Which were amazing – why doesn’t Australia have them?)
I had somehow thought that Germany was going to be rolling in sausages and various other smoked meat product. There was certainly not anywhere near as much as I had expected. (We get more German sausage variety from the German Sausage Man at the Rocklea markets at home.) It was a bit of a let-down, really. German sausage is like, one of the best things about Germany, isn’t it?? Isn’t it?? Where are they?? Having said that, during our visit we still managed to scout out some currywurst and debreciner which ticked the box for German sausage consumption.
OMG. The autobahn. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel as horrendously scary as anticipated, although people were certainly traveling on there at speeds upwards of 160km/h. Everyone seemed to be well behaved, and it gave Murray the opportunity to try out driving a bit faster than Australia would ever allow.
We noticed that 4pm appears to be designated kitty hunting time. Bavaria it seems has no roaming dogs, unlike Romania (which seems to be liberally coated with them). But it does have plenty of cats, if you look at the right time. We even made a game of it. As all the pastureland had been recently mown and the hay harvested, apparently it makes for plenty of un-homed mice and other small animals just waiting to be eaten. By cats or hawks. I’ve never seen so many cats stalking the countryside nor hawks parked on the grass patiently waiting for something to move.
3G internet in Bavaria sucks. What a joke! Allgäu: land of the E network status. It has been surpassingly strange to find the best internet we have had has been in the places that are the least developed – Croatia, Bosnia, Romania – all have had high speed internet, often faster than what we get at home even in the middle of nowhere (that’s probably not hard to achieve). U.K., France and Germany… Not so flash. Our second week in Immenstadt had no cell service and even the house ADSL was shoddy at best.
It may have taken me almost my entire life, but I finally discovered that porcini mushrooms, are in fact -karljohan – the mushrooms I spent my childhood Swedish vacation picking (many happy memories). Also known as Boletus edibilis. They are available fresh in the supermarket (being Autumn), although they don’t look anywhere near as perfect and fresh as the mushrooms of my memory. In fact, they mostly looked slightly slug-eaten, dog-eared and sad. But, they were still delicious. Chanterelle were also available fresh, and a few others I didn’t recognise but was happy to sample. I wish we had this sort of selection of fresh mushrooms in Australia. Or even just frozen, which is a common sight everywhere we have been in Europe.
I was surprised at the train system in Germany. There’s some sort of honour system in place. You purchase a ticket as per normal, but there isn’t any validation… Didn’t think this sort of thing would actually work, but maybe Germans are a more trustworthy sort (that or the government doesn’t care too much about lost revenue from unpaid fares).
Bavarians actually dress in their traditional costumes. Not just at Oktoberfest, but whenever the fancy arises. Apparently it is not unusual for the average Bavarian to rock up at work on any given day in their dirndl or lederhosen. Why not, I guess? Seems fun.

So long, Germany!

Well, sad to say the trip was over far too quickly. Two weeks in a new place feels like nothing at all. With Murray also very busy with work, we didn’t get to see as much of Germany as we would have liked, and Schengen will likely prevent us from seeing more at least on this trip. However, from what we have seen, I am confident that a return trip is warranted. Hopefully, we might be able to see a little more when we stay in Prague, but I guess we will have to wait and see… Next stop: Tuscany, Italy.

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Sarah Manson

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November 4, 2015

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Transylvania Continued: The weird and the wonderful.

Weirdness out and about:

Romania, just like everywhere else we have been has had several notable points that will make the visit unforgettable. Thought I’d better write them down before I forgot.

Dogs. So, so many dogs…

I have never, ever seen so many stray dogs. Although, after several weeks’ worth of observation it seems that maybe they aren’t all strays, but rather a combination of strays and pet dogs given free reign over wandering the countryside and city streets. There were dogs utterly everywhere. Lazing on the road (although more often than not sleeping in the middle of the road), rooting through the rubbish bins, trotting around the streets in packs and generally doing whatever it is that a dog might want to do if left to its own devices. I had read that Romania had a lot of dogs about, and that there was risk of rabies if bitten. However, I had severely underestimated the kind of numbers they were referring to. Sure, there were dogs about on a lead with their owner. But the dogs with no lead (or apparent owner) outnumbered them by a good 5:1 or better. Almost no cats. …And once we left the city proper, it was quite normal to see shaggy, unkempt pooches on every corner. Most of the time they were asleep. They always seemed to be friendly, though…Not that I’d risk patting one.

Transylvania seems to be quite the hub for primary industry.

Potatoes, onions and corn. It’s everywhere. Plus there is plenty of animal husbandry going on. Sheep, goats and cows for the most part…And every herd of animals has a keeper. (Possibly because there are generally no fences to keep the animals in.) …And the animals are everywhere, even in the vacant lots in town (also unfenced). It’s a strange sight driving past a petrol station in town to find the adjoining lot is awash with un-fenced sheep, placidly munching on weeds.

In the whole time we were in Romania, I don’t think I saw a single flock of sheep or herd of goats or cows without a human minder (who may or may not also be having a nap). I expect it is a totally legitimate profession to be a full-time herder of animals.

I’ll never get over seeing renegade goats high tailing it across the busy road while the goat herder gives (moderate) chase. Wish I had caught some of it on video. Think: Yakety Sax-style shenanigans. Benny Hill would have been proud. Goats are certainly a whole different kettle of fish vs sheep. Cheeky ratbags.

Being eyeballed by a multitude of goats. Situation Normal.

Things are quite frequently still done by hand.

When out for a drive, it was often apparent that industrial modernisation hasn’t really caught on. Being largely a farming area, it was not unusual to see on one side of the road, potatoes being harvested via machine; on the other side, people harvesting potatoes by hand. But more often than not, whatever was being harvested was being done without any form of mechanical assistance. During our stay, it seemed that the majority of things you’d expect to be done with machinery are still being done using physical labour. We saw very few tractors, but very many horse-drawn carts. …And haystacks. Lots and lots of haystacks. Which of course, were assembled by hand (and the grass cut by hand, using a scythe – I’d never seen that before). I don’t know why there were so many – there were more in Romania than anywhere else we have seen. Although I guess if they don’t use tractors to cut the grass or hay-bundling machinery to turn the grass into bales, what was I expecting to happen?

Rollerblades.

They are still a thing. (In Romania, at least.) As Murray rightly pointed out – we’ve never seen this many people rollerblading since the 90’s. Too strange, and rather nostalgic. Frankly, I’d be mortified at the prospect of rollerblading on the streets in Romania. The drivers are a bit on the wild and loose side. Definitely, Romanian drivers display the most devil may care attitude in our travels so far.

The Roads, and the Drivers of Said Roads.

It seems that Romanian drivers consider lane markings when overtaking minimally, if at all. Never have I seen so many cars overtake other cars, oftentimes in areas clearly marked as unsuitable for any sort of overtaking at all. It’s no surprise to see a car (or usually, cars) overtaking from a good 5-6 cars back, planning to overtake yet another 5-6 cars in front. In single lane traffic on a mountainside marked as no overtaking, with no shoulder.

I should probably also mention that the round-abouts in Romania scare the hell out of me. Unmarked, multi-lane free for alls. You never know what you’re going to get from the driver navigating the lane next to you.

Additionally (as if dealing with scary drivers aren’t exciting enough), the road quality consists of two kinds: 1. Extremely good quality and 2. Good quality extremely absent. I’m suspicious that the hire car may now have some undercarriage damage, as many roads unexpectedly cease being good quality with no notice. This case being especially prevalent when leaving the main road. I.e. “We will seal this road up to…here.” *arbitrarily stops, replaced by road suitable for off-road vehicle*

Our foray out to the Bucegi national park was thwarted due to discovering the road devolved into something more akin to a goat track. Made for exciting times. I’m quite sure the goat herder we passed repeatedly must have thought we were nuts. It certainly felt nuts in the car. As in a can of nuts, being shaken vigorously. Preferably not to be repeated. With all this crap road, I’m very surprised most people don’t have 4×4 vehicles. Scrapey noises from the undercarriage were definitely the norm when driving off the beaten (asphalt) path.

This road was asphalt, and then it wasn’t. Shortly after this it devolved into mostly potholes and ruts.

Alternative Transportation.

There are horse-drawn carts everywhere. It seems to be a totally legit method of transport. Like the herds of cows, sheep and goats that are led along the roadside, it’s not unusual for a horse and cart to impede the flow of traffic. Sometimes, there is even an extra lane just to help the cars get around. It’s a little bit strange, waiting at a set of lights while a woman casually breastfeeds her baby on the side of a cart…The things you never expect to see.

Horse-drawn carts, the eco-friendly alternative.

Beer:

While being in Europe, we have noticed that the normal place to purchases alcoholic beverages is not at a bottle shop, but at the supermarket. (Since alcohol is freely sold pretty much everywhere.) Occasionally there will be places like a Package Store (USA), Off-License (Ireland), or Drink-Markets as places similar to an Australian liquor shop, but on the whole they seem more like specialty stores, not where the average Joe picks up a beverage when they want one. Beer in Romania was much the same. Except Romanian beer mostly consists of pilsner style products packaged in PET bottles. It’s not uncommon for the beer section to resemble the soft drink aisle, with many beers packaged in plastic, and in similar sizes also (2L PET bottle beer, anyone?). On the whole, not a winner. Lucky for us, the international selection was quite reasonable.

In terms of craft beer, we didn’t come across much while in Romania. There was a coffee shop/bar in town (Tipografia) that served a couple of local craft beers (quite nice), and it was here that we met up with another Australian couple. Big respect to their journey – they have been missioning it across Europe on their bikes (for fun?) and staying at AirBnb places along the way. I’m sure it would make for a fascinating trip, but it seems like a lot of effort and risk, but would be a completely different experience to the average traveller. Good on them, I certainly couldn’t do it.

Acquiring Food.

Going to restaurants in Romania was not so bad. The usual awkwardness: Choose a table or wait to be seated? English or Romanian? How to get/ask for the bill? To tip or not to tip? How much to tip? The weirdest part was expectations vs reality. We went to a Jamaican restaurant and the only thing Jamaican about it was the Bob Marley posters and music. Went to a traditional Romanian restaurant and found my meal vs Murray’s was a difference of about 4 x the size. (For almost the same price.) The tradition of fresh bread with chunks of raw Spanish onion, whilst complimentary, makes for a taste to be acquired (the amount was also ridiculous… like a whole loaf worth of giant sized sliced bread). Our experience was that whilst not haute cuisine, eating out in Romania was least pretty cheap and cheerful.

Also, doing the food shop in a strange place has consistently been a great source of insight into what different people eat, and for me (maybe not for Murray) a pretty interesting venture every time we go on a mission to refill the fridge. At the Romanian supermarkets, the following things were notably strange:

The frozen veg is sold loose.

Same with the frozen berries.

Same with the frozen seafood.

Same with the frozen pastries.

Weird. Weird. Weird.

There was also plenty to purchase prepackaged, so I’m not sure why there were so many loose options as well.

Not Allen’s Snakes.

Meat:

Most meat appeared to be sold from the butchers counter, like we had seen in Croatia & Bosnia. (Too bad I had no idea how to order it in Romania, either.) …And when I say it’s at the butchers counter, it is still in the uncut state as part of a much larger piece of meat. So, there was no way I was even going to take a crack at asking someone to cut me a rib eye steak in a foreign language. Which is not to say that there wasn’t any prepackaged meat. Just that the cold case featured mostly chicken, pork and chevaps. They sure love their cevapi. Not that it’s quite like what we think of as chevaps at home. It’s not just a sausage with no casing. It’s more like the McRib… This sort of compressed meatwich (think sandwich but sausage mince) shaped into the vague outline of dividable meaty fingers. It’s weird but tasty…

Beef seems to be scarce (or at least if you want it, you’d need to ask the butcher to cut some for you). Pork and chicken seems to be the in thing. Although almost all the cut meats are not cuts I recognize (other than chicken drumsticks and pork chops). Also, for all the squillions of goats and sheep we have seen, it appears that they don’t eat them. When I saw all the goats roaming the countryside I was excited about the prospect of some goat curry, but it seems they just use them for milk and cheese. No idea what happens with the sheep. Cheese as well, I guess.

I discovered that duck is cheap. Not as cheap as chicken, but reasonably close. I put this to good use. Made for a nice alternative to chicken as a reasonably cheap meal. (Red meat has definitely been rather expensive in Europe, so the go-to meat is usually chicken. I’m so over chicken.)

Quail eggs are super cheap. Managed to buy two dozen for $2. I’m not quite sure why I’m attracted to them. They taste just like regular eggs, but are more of a pain in the keister to crack or shell. I’m guessing it’s the miniature appeal. Miniature things taste better, right? Nothing like a hard-boiled quail egg with a smidgen of herbed salt.

Final Verdict:

All things considered, Romania has definitely been a great destination. Cheap accommodation, cost of living is inexpensive and the countryside is beautiful. It also has much faster internet than we get at home (and is cheaper, too). Further inspection also seems to indicate that it would be a cheap way to enter Europe from Australia. Must remember this for future reference.

Would have liked to have seen more of the countryside, but the attractions are spread across a rather large country. Maybe we will have to come back again…

Next Stop:

Next up, off to Germany to check out Oktoberfest. Some trepidation involved, as I’m pretty sure it is going to be more than we have bargained for…

Posted by

Sarah Manson

Posted on

November 2, 2015

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Destination: Transylvania.

Arriving in Romania:

Huzzah! New country, this one the much anticipated trip to Transylvania. Having to choose non-Schengen countries to visit has made us think of places we might not otherwise choose to, but Romania was one that there was never any doubt we wanted to go check out.

Arriving in Romania was much the same as any other, although this time around we were arriving with less than the usual amount of poorly spoken local language. Makes life more interesting. Although, with Romanian being a romance language, there were a few similarities with French (this wasn’t really an advantage, but it did make things marginally easier).

Collecting our hire car was once again, memorable (but not in a good way). It seems that the hire car aspect of every trip gives us the most grief. This month was no exception. It’s (un)surprisingly tricky to navigate your way around an airport when the signs (or lack thereof) fail to communicate your anticipated needs. Such as: “Where is the car hire collection point?” Our failure to speak Romanian, and the general failure of Romanians at the airport to speak any English resulted in a lot of walking up and down the concourse and waiting around at the only hire car shuttle sign. Eventually we discovered that there is a whole rank of hire booths on another level that we would have seen, had we disembarked from a different gate and baggage carousel. Somehow, anti-fortitude led us to not see this area at all. Anyways, having successfully checked in (finally), next up was finding the hire car shuttle. It was not where we had been waiting (i.e. The one and only signed area indicating a hire car shuttle collection point). It was in fact a) unsigned, and b) not even in the arrivals area. Instead, we were directed to the departures stop, drop & go area and left trying to figure out what was going on. After milling around for quite some time, Murray eventually headed back to the rental booth for a second go at instructions. Turns out we were in the right place, just no one had organised the aforesaid shuttle as of yet. *Sigh.*

…Long story short(er): The eventual outcome was yes, we did get our car. However the whole experience was a whole lot more challenging and time consuming than expected. Which was closely followed by Google taking us bush within the first 5 minutes of collecting the car whilst attempting to locate a nearby McDonald’s for a bathroom break. Google Maps never ceases to amaze me. Can’t live without it, but sometimes it seems that it must be on some binary form of crack.

Once we were on the road (and headed in the correct direction), our drive to Transylvania was reasonably uneventful. Although, at the same time it was quite an eye-opener, with the landscape and local architecture seeming charming, but also considerably run down. Crumbling buildings and rivers choked with rubbish amidst beautiful pine forests and mountains. I expect the state of affairs is fallout from the communist regime, but some areas seemed to be positively shambolic. I will never forget how lucky we are to have been born in Australia. But it certainly wasn’t anywhere near all bad, and the houses (if old) were often quite cheerful.

Homes are frequently rather colourful.

Home sweet home:

This month we chose to locate ourselves in Brasov, a largish city in Transylvania. Mostly chosen because it was large enough to have decent internet, whilst also being close enough to some of the places we wanted to check out during our visit. Our place in Brasov consisted of a 2 floor apartment (one of which was a loft level). It has been one of the nicer places we have stayed at (and was the second cheapest, coming in at about $1100 for a month). Can’t believe the value for money. Also came with fast internet, the like of which is a good 10x faster than what we get at home. Go figure. Better internet than at home. Hmmf.

If you wish to check it out, go ahead: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3659477

Brasov, features its own Hollywood-style signage.

View from our window: Brasov (along with a few other towns around these parts) features its own Hollywood-style signage.

What we have been up to:

Actually, not all that much. Lots and lots of work and not a whole lot of free time meant the trip to Romania was not big on activities. It didn’t help that the weather was not the best, either. There was plenty of rain, thunderstorms (complete with hail) and generally not nice weather to be had (some days hot, some days cold – I’ll never get used to the temperature shifts). The hail storm was pretty cool though, with the loft window providing an excellent view of the incoming hail (Foolhardy, I know, but the window was double glazed, so I wasn’t too concerned about the prospect of getting a face full of glass).

So with the weather being average and Murray being a busy bee, we spent a lot of our time in Brasov. But we did manage to make it out and about a few times…

Romanian Oktoberfest:

We didn’t plan for it, but Romania happens to celebrate its own version of Oktoberfest, with Brasov hosting the largest beer tent in Romania. So it was on, and we were there. How convenient. Interestingly (read: unfortunately), the beer was almost all local beer eg. Ursus brewery’s Ciucas and other lagers, and not much in the way of German beer. But we discovered that there was a Weiss beer made for the festival that we found to be worth repeating. The festival was definitely worth a visit (very festive, very family friendly), and it gave us the opportunity to try various Romanian food (and the obligatory German pork knuckle) on our forays into the festival. Due to my lack of competence in reading a Romanian menu, it took us a couple of visits before we successfully got that pork knuckle… (i.e. gave us a reason to go back for another look)

The Romanian Oktoberfest included a parade, complete with a kiddie float. Too cute.

Castle Bran:

Bran Castle was one of the places that I had wanted to visit while we were in Romania. Being touted as the home of Dracula, the historic castle looked like it would at least make for an interesting day out. Being in Transylvania, it made sense to visit Dracula’s Castle, since the whole vampire business was said to have originated in these parts (and I’ve always been a little bit fascinated by the whole vampire myth). Not that there is really any truth to the name. I think Vlad the Impaler was incarcerated at the castle at one stage (Vlad being the inspiration for Dracula), but the castle and location was not part of the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s creation. Bran castle wasn’t bad, but it was very touristy and like other places we have visited, it was more or less a case of penguin-walking through the castle sandwiched between hordes of other tourists. The castle was more of a museum showcasing aspects of the royal family’s history (who also lived there), with a small portion dedicated to torture devices, vampires, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. Can you believe people were tortured based on whether they were considered to be the appropriate weight vs a Bible? It was still very interesting even if the vampire business was a bit of a farce. Reading about Vlad was fascinating (and rather horrifying), and exploring the castle with it’s rabbit warren corridors and skinny staircases was pretty cool. Would have loved to have done it at night, minus all the people.

…In terms of visiting castles in Transylvania, Poenari Castle would be more truthfully the one Vlad the Impaler should be associated with (its location being more Dracula-esque, too). We did think about visiting that one as well, but it’s considerably less accessible. Solid drive to get there, and then there is a climb of almost 1500 stairs to get up there. After seeing bucket loads of castles on our trip, that many stairs just didn’t seem worth it (especially since there is not much left of the castle, just the ruined remains). Suffice to say, we did end up driving past it. (Read: Appreciated from a distance.) …And we drove past it mostly because it was actually on the Transfagarasan route. Retrospectively, I kind of wish we made the effort to check out the ruin, since we didn’t go to any other ruins during our stay in Romania. Oh well. (The whole attraction to checking out every castle we see is a hard thing to kick.)

Castle Bran. Dracula’s castle it is not.

Driving the Transfagarasan:

As supposedly the ultimate driving experience in the world, it was a fair assumption that we would give this one a go. Not that what Top Gear has to say would have made all the difference, since all reports (and photographic evidence) all back up that this would be quite the epic road trip. The Transfagarasan is probably the main reason why we chose to stay where we did. But even so, it was still a solid drive to get anywhere near this iconic drive.

I wasn’t expecting it to be anything too ridiculous, since when we got there the signposted speed limit was listed as 40 km/h. Having said that, there were a few others out and about but not many were adhering to the limit. However, no one was traveling at high speed, either.

The initial approach to the iconic drive up the mountain was on road of extremely poor condition. The drive down was also much the same. But the road in the middle, through the range, was top notch. Switchbacks and scenic views aplenty. Hung out at the lake for lunch, which although reasonably busy and very pretty, was by no means packed out with tourists. As we came on a weekday, I suspect we also avoided most of the crowds. Lucky us, as I expect the Transfagarasan would have been substantially less enjoyable if it was backed up with traffic (which I’ve read is quite common). As it happened, we narrowly missed out having to contend with several busloads of people. Nice timing, yes?

After reading many reports on TripAdvisor about the dangerous nature of the road, the reality was substantially safer than their reports implied. Yes, some areas were missing guard rails. But if you are traveling at 40, I’m not sure how this is a problem. But the poor quality road on the way up and down really took the cake (not super dangerous, but it would really suck on a bike). In Australia, rather than try to patch it they would just resurface the lot. IMHO it was definitely past the point of patching. So much of the road had been removed, it was very nearly a complete resurface. And you were expected to still drive on it whilst the repairs were underway. On sticky asphalt and through pot holes that had potholes…At least they were trying to fix it. But alas, too late for Murray (who had planned on riding the road as well as drive it).

The trip to check out the Transfagarasan was a long one, and we opted to do an overnighter rather than drive back to Brasov. We stayed at a random hotel in the mountains in a tiny bungalow by a stream. Was not quite as picturesque as it sounds, but chilling out by the stream was definitely a nice touch. The Romanian red wine also helped. Quite nice, actually. The resorts were a strange sort, being only a few stand-alone ventures with nothing else going for them. The place we stayed was at least part of a small village of sorts. But, being the off-season, it was still more or less a ghost town. With random dogs. And the road there was also being resurfaced, so the place smelled of bitumen and was subjected to the usual noises of roadwork. Ah, the serenity…

That’s about it for this post. I’ll recap on some of the Romanian quirks in the next post.

Lake at the summit.

These dilapidated shacks probably command a pretty excellent view of the mountains.

Italy: Other places we’ve been & Notes on uniquely Italian randomness.

Other places we visited on our Italian travels:

Lucca:

Pisa:

Venice:

The last night in Italy:

Interesting bits and bobs we noticed about Italy:

Public transport is not taken seriously by the locals.

Supermarkets in Italy:

Rubbish collection…Or lack thereof.

Clean Streets…Sort of.

Food in Italy:

Bars in Italy:

Craft beer:

Google, I love you…But sometimes you suck.

The hills are alive, with the sound of car horns…

Next stop:

Italy: Visiting Rome and Exploring Tuscany

Italy:

Visiting Rome:

Home for the month: Prato, Tuscany

Exploring Central Italy:

Florence:

San Gimignano, Siena and Monteriggiano:

Next post:

Bavaria, Germany

Germany:

What we got up to in our 2 weeks:

Dachau

Munich

Oktoberfest.

Neuschwanstein Castle:

Immenstadt

Lake Constance (aka Bodensee)

Interesting things we’ve found while visiting Bavaria:

So long, Germany!

Transylvania Continued: The weird and the wonderful.

Weirdness out and about:

Dogs. So, so many dogs…

Transylvania seems to be quite the hub for primary industry.

Things are quite frequently still done by hand.

Rollerblades.

The Roads, and the Drivers of Said Roads.

Alternative Transportation.

Beer:

Acquiring Food.

Final Verdict:

Next Stop:

Destination: Transylvania.

Arriving in Romania:

Home sweet home:

What we have been up to:

Romanian Oktoberfest:

Castle Bran:

Driving the Transfagarasan: