Language barrier was hard, but as the train we left it on was still travelling and we had carriage and seat numbers, they phoned through, located it and then put it on a train back to Bologna, finding it when it arrived was another story, I think we did circle work at the station for an hour, being told to go here, go there, no go back there again!! Again words getting lost in translation 
Good grief, that would have very traumatic, both incidents
I didn’t say it was necessarily the most impressive, though it is a very pleasant stroll up the gorge to it.
(May be biased, lived in Ithaca for five years as a kid.)
Hold the phones DJ, Taughannock Falls and Ithaca Falls are two different places
That’s pretty amazing BM. I suppose on those trains (intercity or freccia) most people tend to have tickets and are fellow travellers, so better that it was left there than on a metro system!
The real question is which of the two hosted my avatar picture?
(The sister in the background is a notably less talented actor than myself.)
Yeah but full of tourists and I think the hotels ruin the experience.
Up state New York is just a hidden gem (going to explore another new place today and more walks)
Really easy to access via train and car.
Also if you are looking to hire cars here go a Hertz (especially after you find online coupons) over the fancy Zipcar. Cheaper if you’ve are looking to drive for a day or longer
Or better than someone trying to pick a fight with you on the escalators while his partner comes up behind rips open your backpack to grab ■■■■ and run, as per my experience in Rome’s major train station.
Air China doing Melbourne to Shanghai return in Feb for $333. They are pretty good to fly with so now I just have to convince my wife to go back again so soon
I was at Termini two days ago. I swear at one point I walked past an area being used as toilets by hobos. This is despite the fact there are toilets in the station. It’s dodgy as, alas as is much of western Europe. Rellos in Milan even have a hobo who lives out the front of there building and ■■■■■■ on the walls, and Milan is seemingly a bit more “orderly” than Rome.
You just reminded me of when I went into a toilet in a big station area in Vienna, and firstly saw some hobo lying on the floor like he was dead, then looked across and saw two dudes next to each other at the urinal leaning and looking at each other a little too closely. I thought I was in a Gaspar Noe film or something and turned and hightailed it out of there. Vienna isn’t even bad, I had to keep my wits about me as a backpacker in parts of Rome. I tend to wander obliviously into seedy areas haha.
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■■■■■■ oath BG, we were talking about it today, what if we had left it on the train from Naples to Sorrento, would have been gone in a flash. Napoli centrale is one scary station, very intimidating
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From 4 years ago when we were in Italy last, much more homelessness, graffiti, beggars, etc. many more immigrants from other countries etc I’ve noticed, all looking to make a living in Italy. As I’ve said, Naples was very intimidating, on the platforms people just wandering up and down checking your baggage etc, asking you for money. Just not used to it I suppose
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Paris train stations are still the dodgiest I’ve ever seen. Pick pockets and grifters everywhere and the foulest stench imaginable. It was not uncommon to see guys get off the train and urinate against the wall. Pigalle station was easily the worst of a bad lot, just groups of youths roaming around waiting for prey, we were in a group of 8 luckily but wouldn’t go solo after dark there
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We came out of the gates of a Metro station near Sacre Couer and walked to the elevators. I hit the button and suddenly realised three youths hanging around nearby for no reason. The elevator took ages and I was getting nervous, with a baby strapped to my chest and my wife. I said let’s go for the stairs. Halfway up I felt a hand on my wrist and one of the three was trying to rip my watch off. I swung my hand free and he made a motion like “relax dude” and backed back down the stairs. I told my wife hurry lets get to the street. Thank god the elevator didn’t come, they would’ve had us cornered for sure.
Most of my day today consisted of lounging around surfing the net and knocking back vodkas
Novotel Kuta Lombok is a pretty chilled out place
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Get back on the phone and finish off those trades, slackarse!
Last night here and then off to Bali tomorrow before flying out tomorrow night. As always it’s been too short but need to get back to work and earn some money. Off to the Philippines on Nov 6th for just under 3 weeks so the countdown is on
Japan, Dec & January. Silly idea being so cold or still worthwhile?
Not a snow bunny so not too interested in that. Snow and hotsprings though, yes please.
Climbing up the belltower of the cathedral in Split…
… near the top, I stopped to give way to someone going down the precariously rickety ladder. He said (with an Australian accent) “How about that European Health and Safety?”
The only clue he would have had that I was not a European was my BomberBlitz cap…
Any of you guys in Croatia last weekend?
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