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Week 11: Pompeii, Rome and Pisa

I have been travelling for just over 11 weeks and am currently in northern Italy. Since my last post I have visited Pompeii, Rome and Pisa. Pompeii was a strange place to visit, it is a lot bigger than I expected and I got a little bored after a while because all the interesting things, like the casts of dead people, were in one place. The rest of the town is just empty ruined buildings, which was nice, but I got the idea quite quickly. I had planned to camp near Pompeii, but when I found out it was more expensive to camp there than it was to stay in the hostel in Naples, I decided to go back to the hostel.

Europe Trip

After a few days in Naples I travelled up to Rome, I stayed in a hostel very close to the Colosseum and visited as many places as I could. I enjoyed Rome, but it was different to what I thought it would be like. I’m not sure what I expected but it wasn’t what I found there. I had a great time though and enjoyed wandering through the streets and squares seeing all the statues and fountains, even if I had to put up with the crowds of tourists.

Europe Trip

During my last couple of days in Rome I was sharing a room with a group of three Turkish guys. They were really friendly and we spent some time exploring the streets together and visited the Vatican. I’m in no way religious, so the Vatican may not have had the same attraction for me as it did the hundreds of other people that were visiting, but I enjoyed climbing up all the steps to the top of the dome and looking out over Rome.

Europe Trip

From Rome I had a long ride up the coast to Pisa, This was a great ride, probably because I chose to avoid the motorways. The views were great, driving through small coastal towns and villages, driving on small roads overlooking the sea and lots of tunnels. Pisa is a small town and there isn’t much to see there, basically just the tower. But the town is quite nice anyway, with little bars and restaurants, I managed to pass the time easily enough. There was a bar inside the hostel too, so I spent the evenings in there talking with other travellers.

Europe Trip

I am now in Bologna and will be visiting some other towns over the next week. Some of you may have noticed that my Africa route has changed on the route map, this is not a final plan but I think I will be riding down the west coast of Africa to South Africa, then up the East coast to Tanzania. I’ll let you know when this is decided for certain.

Blog Posts, Europe Blog Posts

Week 10: Athens to Naples

After I left my last couch surfing host I travelled into central Athens to find a cheap hostel. I drove around for about an hour, asking people for directions as I went, before I actually found the place. I checked in and went to relax in the room. Later in the day I was joined by a Japanese tourist who was travelling around Europe, we went for some food together and played some guitar in the room.

Europe Trip

During the week I visited the sights of Athens to take some pictures, the weather was very hot and humid, this meant that I could sit and cool down while admiring the views.

Europe Trip

I arranged to meet with a couple of couch surfers in Athens for a coffee and a walk, this was a nice way to see the city. One of the girls was an American student who was studying music in Athens, the other girl was a local. We got some drinks and wandered through Athens, ending up sat on top of a hill looking down onto the city.

After leaving Athens I drove to Patra and camped there for a night before getting the ferry to Italy. I camped next to some German bikers who were very well travelled, they pointed out some extra planning that I need to do before I go into Africa. Firstly to get myself a carnet de passage and secondly to find out which borders between countries are open and which are closed, then plan my route accordingly. The Ferry journey was long and not very exciting, although I did meet a guy from England who had been travelling through Greece on his motorbike.

When I arrived in Italy I drove across the country to Naples. Driving on the motorways in Italy is stupidly expensive, I had to pay over 10 pounds to drive across the country from Bari to Naples. I plan to use smaller roads for the rest of my stay here. Over the last few days I have been staying here in Naples, eating pizza and drinking Peroni. Yesterday I went to explore the city with a couple of Spanish tourists who are staying in the same hostel as me. We ended up in the old castle on the hill above the city and got some good pictures of the city and the sunset.

Europe Trip

Today I am heading to Pompeii to camp for a couple of days before I head up to Rome for a long weekend.