Blog Posts - Tgon's Travels

Week 12: Couch Surfing Northern Italy

Posted on 04/10/2011

Three months on the road and still loving it. This week I have managed to arrange couch surfing, although I have had difficulties doing this in Italy. I sent out lots of requests, some of which were rejected, most of them were just ignored. I eventually placed some posts in the SOS emergency last minute couch forums, this did the trick, I had offers from some very kind people.

Firstly I went to Bologna and stayed in a basic, cheap hostel for one night before heading to Parma to meet my first Italian host. Ian was a great guy with excellent English, he is planning a trip by canoe in East Asia, which sounds like it will be great. The first night we started talking about travelling and had some beers and suddenly realised we had been talking for around 5 or 6 hours. The second night we went for a walk around Parma to get some food and have a couple of drinks. Ian also suggested a route through Switzerland which I am looking forward to trying out.

My next hosts were a couple who lived in Padova, around 30Km from Venice. The night I arrived we went for a meal and some drinks in Padova, it is a really beautiful place but I didn’t take my camera out that night. The next day we went into town again to see the main tourist sights of Padova, the Cathedral of St Anthony and the town square.

In the afternoon I took the train into Venice and explored. Venice is like a huge maze of tiny paths and bridges, even with a map it is a real challenge to find your way around. After exploring for a few hours I headed back to Padova to rest.

From Padova I headed to my third Couch surfing host in Verona. On the way I dropped into a small town which had been suggested by my second host Simone. There is a beautiful castle but unfortunately it was closed when I visited. I got a good picture anyway.

When I arrived in Verona I stopped for some pasta before heading to the village where my third host, Federico, lives. After I arrived we headed back into Verona, by car, to have some pizza with another two Couch Surfing hosts from the Verona area. Yesterday we both headed out on our motorbikes to Lake Garda, picking up another Couch Surfer on the way. The lake is really beautiful but I didn’t get any pictures this time, I will be visiting it again soon though so I can get pictures then.

I am leaving most of my luggage here in Verona while I take a trip around the North of Italy, then in about a weeks time I will head into Switzerland, then through the south of France, Andorra and Spain. I’m also starting to do more research on the paperwork that I will need for my trip through Africa.

Week 11: Pompeii, Rome and Pisa

Posted on 27/09/2011

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Africa Route Problems

Posted on 23/09/2011

As you probably know, I will be arriving in Africa in a month or two. With this in mind I decided that it was probably about time that I planned the route, but I am having some problems.

Firstly the border between Morocco and Algeria is closed.

Secondly Libya.

As I see it there are three possible solutions.

1 – Travel back to Italy, after visiting Morocco, to get the ferry from Venice to Alexandria. The problem with this is that the ferry is currently not running, although there have been stories that it will start running again next month.

2 – Travel back to Turkey, after visiting Morocco, to get a ferry to Israel then drive to Egypt over land. The problem with this is that I will be doubling back on myself through Europe again. But I did miss out on Turkey the first time round, maybe this would be a good opportunity to see it.

3 – Go to Egypt the long way around. Basically drive south from Morocco, possibly as far as South Africa, then head north again, to Tanzania, then go to Egypt after I have stayed in East Africa for a while. The problem with this is the time it will take and the amount of money I may have to spend.

At the moment I am hoping that the ferry starts running again.

Blog Posts, Europe Blog Posts

Week 10: Athens to Naples

Posted on 19/09/2011

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.

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.

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.

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

Blog Posts, Europe Blog Posts

Week 9: Athens

Posted on 11/09/2011

My ninth week of travelling is over and I have arrived in Athens. After I last added a post to the site I stayed a night on the sofa of Apostolis, my friend from Starbucks, after we had been to a party at one of his friends houses. The next day we took my bike to the electrician, who seems to have fixed the problem even though he said he didn’t actually find anything wrong. In the afternoon I went to meet my second Couch Surfing host, Myrto. She Lives with her two flatmates Filip and Maeve, there was also another couch surfer, from Argentina staying there, she was called Sole. Sole took a really nice group photo of us all which I don’t have a copy of yet, but will add to the facebook group once I get it. In the evening we walked up to a village in the mountains, ate a meal and drank wine, then walked back to the flat. It was really cool but also very tiring.

The next day I took my bike to a mechanic to get the front suspension oil changed. And then in the night we went to the University, where the students are on strike as a political protest. We sat and had a meal outside the University and then there was a party. The final day at Myrto’s I was really lazy and stayed around the flat most of the day.

Then I headed down to Athens to meet my third Couch Surfing host. She lives in the posh area about 30 minutes from central Athens, it is called Kifisia. Afi, my host, is a Kite Surfer so today we went to a beach near Athens where all the Kite Surfers hang out. It was really cool and relaxing to be sat watching them all on the sea.

I will spend the next couple of days in a hostel in central Athens before I head towards the western coast of Greece and eventually Italy.