Worldwide Adventures of a Blonde Aussie

After a stressful trip from Sorrento to Rome, which involved a 5am rise for a 6am bus that never arrived, to nearly contracting rabies from stray dogs at the horrible Naples train station, Vanessa and I miraculously arrived safely in Rome.

I had already had the pleasure of exploring all of Rome’s historical sights in 2005, when I travelled Italy with my wonderful mother and brother Sam. This was Vanessa’s first time to Rome however, so we spent our last afternoon in Italy doing the Crash Course Tourist Trail of Roman Historical Sights!

First stop…the beautiful Trevi Fountain. This place still captured my imagination as it did last visit. Again, this place was packed with people lulling around and taking photos.

Everyone was eating gelato, so we joined the fad, and enjoyed a double scoop gelato each and enjoyed the last rays of sun catching the intricate designs on the fountain.

We wandered the cobbled streets, browsed the shops, bought some fake Prada bags for our mothers, and enjoyed our last Italian meal together. Fresh pasta with mussels, bellisimo!

Second stop on the trail…The Pantheon. On my previous trip here, Mum Sam and I pretty much stumbled across this sight, which, to our delight, turned out to be one of our favourite places in Rome! Unfortunately the inside was not open at this time, but it was still as commanding from the outside, particularly lit up at night.

Third sight…The Vittorio Emmanuelle Monument. Obviously not open also, but definitely worth a picture out the front!

Last and possibly the most iconic and amazing of all monuments remaining in Rome…the Colosseum. I loved exploring this place during the day on my previous visit, and loved seeing the Colosseum lit up at night on this trip.

What a ‘perfecto’ end our stay in lovely Italia!

I met my great friend Vanessa at a hotel in Rome and we travelled down to the Amalfi Coast the following day by bus. We arrived at a town called Sorrento in the evening, where we were staying for a few nights. This place had a vibrant village atmosphere! As we trekked down the main street to find our hostel, we were delighted to find boutique shops and restaurants buzzing with people. We dumped our bags and ventured out to immerse ourselves in this atmosphere. We headed to the main town square where we chose a nice restaurant, that overlooked the activity in the square, so great for people watching!

Of course, our first meal proper meal in Italy together consisted of traditional Italian cuisine. Homemade lasagna for me, and gnocci for Vanessa, of course, washed down with a lovely drop of Italian wine. But we weren't finished just yet, on our walk down the main street back to the hostel, we couldn't resist but to finish the night with some gelato!

We spent the next day exploring Sorrento. We caught a little train around the town, and then wandered the cobbled streets and alleys exploring the shops and restaurants. Sorrento is filled with designer stores and boutiques, quite high class living for a considerably small Italian town. The amount of tourists, however, was still very notable, even during this off peak season, which I'm sure explains a lot.

We visited the ancient ruins of Pompeii the following day, which was just a 30min train ride from Sorrento. I had studied Pompeii in Ancient History at school so was fascinated to see this place in real life! We tried to do the self-guided tour with earphones, but shortly into the ruins, decided this was far too ambitious, so joined a tour! We got far more out of the Pompeii experience this way - an amazing place, with so many of the ruins still intact and in original form. The plastered bodies were particularly fascinating and haunting.

Some of the more interesting things that weren't in our Ancient History text books..

Pompeii Porn...graphic pictures displayed in the many brothels!

This way to the brothel!

Most of our nights in Sorrento were spent eating pasta and drinking wine! This was far more relaxing than going to one of the bars and dealing with the Italian men. As two girls together, we attracted a lot of attention by the Italian male. The first 'Ciao Bella' was semi-sweet, however, after this, the constant jeering, whistling and staring was uncomfortable and annoying. Vanessa and I were later to end up in an argument with an Italian man who tried to tell us this behaviour was romantic and should be taken as a compliment as a woman. We told him it was bordering on harassment. He then told us he was horrified that he had heard that in Australia women approach men in bars and pubs if they wanted to! Vanessa and I both agreed Italian men were not for us...instead we enjoyed each others company over a pizza and bottle of red most nights.

The following day we caught the ferry out to the glamorous Island of Capri. This Island has a reputation as a Hollywood Glamour island, with celebrities flocking there in the summer months to enjoy the high-end designer shopping and gorgeous beaches and marinas.

This random Italian man wanted to have his photo with us. More to note...two coffees and one croissant set us back $25 AUD!

No celebrities were spotted on our trip, and unfortunately no Gucci bags or Prada dresses were purchased, although we did discover a beautiful beach area called the Marina Piccolo. The walk to this Marina was stunning...a steep road on the edge of a mountain led down to this private oasis. The view out to the Mediterranean was magnificent!

Marina Piccolo

That evening we caught a bus to our next destination, Positano, a small sea-side village further south on the Amalfi Coast. Despite the amazing scenery travelling along the coast, this was possibly the scariest bus ride of my life. The road to Positano was extremely windy along the mountainside and on one side there was sheer drop hundreds of metres down to the sea. We were unfortunately travelling on the sheer drop side! Italians driving are renowned for their hasty driving – speeding and proceeding without caution, and this trip was no exception. At one point another bus was coming the other way, so our bus had to brake to let this bus around the sharp corner! Meanwhile, looking out the window, all you could see was the drop hundreds of metres down to the sea. It was terrifying to the point I had my head in my hands on my lap, saying to Vanessa, who mind you, was wanting to throw up, “tell me when its over, tell me when its over!.” And we weren’t alone, an Italian woman, who was clearly a local and had travelled this route many times, was doing the Hail Mary at every corner!

We miraculously arrived in one piece and it was completely worth it…Positano was gorgeous, even by night. We checked in to our hostel, which was perched up the top of the village on the mountainside, and headed out for a nice meal, of the Italian variety of course.

We awoke the next morning to the most spectacular view from our hostel room, which had its own private balcony which overlooked Positano. In situations like this, it does pay to travel slightly off-season, as Im sure this room would have been very pricey in the middle of summer!

The walk down to the main Marina of Positano involved over 600 steps, a small pathway that winded down the village from the top of the mountain to the bottom.

This was no easy feat on our way down the next morning and was completely out of the question on the return trip! Positano is extremely beautiful, one of the most scenic places I have ever visited. Colourful houses are set into the mountain and the hovering mountains and cliffs, coupled with the Mediterranean water at the bottom, makes for a truly gorgeous place.

We found a smaller Marina, hired two sun beds, and lay in the sun and swam, for most of the day…

When we returned to our hostel, we heard an Australian couple chatting and drinking beer on the balcony. The Australian accent is so distinct when you are overseas! We started chatting and they invited us to join them, which we happily did! The friendly outgoing nature of most Australians is such a nice quality, especially when you are travelling. I feel like Australians travelling instantly bond with one another, I wonder whether that is the same with other nationalities…I strongly doubt it. The sunset drinks together turned into pizza and wine, and lots of it, at a local restaurant down the road!

The next morning we all shared a coffee together on the hostel balcony, along with a Polish guy who we has all befriended the previous night when we stumbled back to the hostel and woke him up. Vanessa and I had decided to take the ferry back to Sorrento, rather than risk our lives on the bus again! We bid farewell to our new friends and caught the ferry from Positano back to Sorrento, for one last night, before we headed back to Rome.

The view looking back on Positano from the ferry was just spectacular…

New York really is a city you can fall head over heels in love with. It is the city that never sleeps, never ceases to amaze, delights you, drowns you and sweeps you up in all it’s vigour!

I think our stay in New York was made so great due to the location of our accommodation! We had been advised to look for an apartment in New York, as apparently many people sub let their apartments for short stays. We were lucky to find one that was available for four nights at a reasonable price. We joked that this could turn out to be either be really dodgy or amazing. Luckily for us, it was the later. We arrived to find our apartment was in a lovely street, in a nice apartment block, very modern inside, and the best part of all, only two blocks from Times Square! We felt like real New Yorkers, living right in the heart of this vibrant city!

Our New York apartment block...

I could tell this city really was the city that never sleeps when we arrived at midnight on Friday and the city was bustling. There were cabs everywhere, people eating in restaurants or drinking at bars, even the little flower shop on the corner of our street was still open! It wasn’t surprising then that we didn’t go to sleep until 830am Saturday morning...

Our first few days in New York were filled with lots of sightseeing, there is so much to see and do in New York. We wandered Times Square and got swept up in the craziness of it all. You can’t help but become mesmerized by this place. It really is so surreal.

The picture with the naked singing cowboy just had to be done...

We couldn’t have been living two blocks from Times Square and Broadway without seeing a show, so we lined up our first afternoon for cheap tickets to a Broadway show for that Saturday night. What more iconic show to see on Broadway than...Grease! We all dressed up 60's style glam that evening and hit the town! It was awesome to experience Times Square at night as well.

The Statue of Liberty was next on our list. We ventured to 'lower' Manhattan to catch the ferry to Liberty Island the following day. The view back to the New York Skyline was great! The Statue is very commanding. It was given to the United States as a gift from France in 1886 to commemorate the Centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. I still wonder how it arrived from France?hmm...

We then visited Ellis Island, which is close to Liberty Island. This was the immigration checkpoint for people wishing to move to the USA up until 1954. This was really interesting, although stories of people traveling months by boat and then being refused entry due to illness for example, were sad!

Luckily, this immigrant was granted entry into the USA...

The World Trade Centre site is also in Lower Manhattan. It still has a very eery feel about it. It is still very much a demolition site, cranes and machinery are still clearing the area. The surrounding streets are quiet and I had to wonder how these shops have survived. Many i imagine haven’t. I was surprised there was not more of a memorial in the area. Apparently New Yorkers are bravely trying to move on and to show no defeat have purposely decided against this. I couldn’t decide if I agreed with this approach or not...nonetheless, a very sad area and so surreal being there and imagining what happened that day.

On the last day before Kelli and Hazel ventured back to Washington to work, we explored China Town and walked the Brooklyn Bridge! I was quite excited about this, particularly because it was the setting in the Sex and the City movie where Miranda and Steve meet in the middle, Miranda from the Manhattan side and Steve from the Brooklyn side, and get back together! This was the first of many Sex and the City locations I was to come across, which i loved seeing in real life.

After the departure of Kelli and Hazel it was just the two Dutchies and I! We had planned a relaxed night, as unfortunately we had to leave our great apartment the next morning and venture to our hostel for the last two nights. The 'small night' was soon to change...

We decided we wanted to see New York from above at night so headed to the nearby Rockefeller centre to catch the view from the top. For some reason we thought this was free, how silly of us, and get a rude shock when it was 20 bucks to ride an elevator to the top! We quickly decided against this and thought there must be an easier way! We asked the lady and she suggested, because we were dressed up nicely, we try and get in to the exclusive Rainbow Room bar on Level 65 for a drink. We were more than willing to give this a go.

Level 65. We entered a glamorous room with no problems...The room had a chandelier, a DJ, people milling around and in the centre a rotating bar with a tower of Schmirnoff bottles. It didn’t exactly look like a bar, but we tried to blend in, in the corner of the room. The view, mind you, was indeed spectacular! When we ordered exotic Schmirnoff cocktails and didn’t have to pay, we began seriously doubting whether we were supposed to be in this party! But we forged on and ended up staying at this amazing party, drinking free cocktails, requesting our own songs from the DJ and ripping up the dance floor by ourselves for a few hours without being approached!

Towards the end of the night we befriended a guy who told us we were at an exclusive Schmirnoff ‘Around the World Experience’ night- it was a party that travelled from London, Moscow, New York and Shanghai! He thought it was funny we were not supposed to be there, and told us him and his friends thought we were journalists! The Dutchies and I were the last to leave the party and we followed the DJ, who was now our new best friend, to a bar down the road.

This bar was awesome fun as it had a mechanical bull! You can imagine how ‘American’ we felt! After way too many drinks, this was sure to be a challenge. The guys were actually very impressive, lasting a good minute. Me on the other hand failed miserably, lasting a maximum of 10 secs!

When the mechanical bull was ‘turned off’ it was time for the night to end. What an amazing random New York night it was for us!

The next day, understandably, was a mighty struggle. We had to be out of the apartment by 10am and make our way up to Upper Manhattan to our Hostel. It turned out to be located in Harlem, which was definitely a step down from the Times Square district!

Harlem, which was once a sketchy area of New York, infested with drugs, gangs and crimes, s now becoming a middle class district, with lots young families moving there. Known for being the African American hub of New York, this gentrification has apparently caused much discontent with the locals, who feel with rising costs of housing and living, they are being pushed out of their own neighbourhood. Some parts were still quite run down, but interesting to experience an entirely different part of New York.

Our hostel was near the top edge of central park, so after napping for an hour or so in a sunny corner, we spent the day wandering through the Park and enjoying all it has to offer! I was amazed by the beauty and tranquillity of this place – a huge green luscious oasis, in the middle of a sprawling, hustling bustling metropolis of a city!

The following day, our last full day in New York, we visited 5th Ave and Madison Ave (unfortunately just window shopping this trip!), the Empire State Building, the New York Public Library and Greenwich Village!

The Library I fell in love with. Despite the fact many Sex and the City scenes were filmed there, it oozes so much sophistication! Marble staircases, arched windows, gorgeous wood rooms with classical paintings – amazing! I could have spent hours here soaking up this ambience! I couldn’t help but think how lucky New Yorkers were to have this public place to come to.

The famous Sex and the City scene...

The view from the Empire State was quite mind blowing. It was great to get a sense of perspective – from Central park to downtown Manhattan out to the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island.

This pigeon was on top of the world...literally!

This great day exploring New York ended on a bad note, when I was sucked in by the boys craving for a Wendy’s burger, and ended up with either mild food poisoning or bodily rejection of sheer fat content from a Wendy’s Double Cheese Burger!

The boys hit the Meatpacking district that night, and I hit the TV room at the hostel! It turned out to be a fun night, with a group of us from Australia, New Zealand and the UK hanging out. It’s the one thing I love about fun hostels, meeting new people and hearing about their travels! After discovering a common appreciation of Seinfeld, and hearing one of the Aussie guys had discovered the location of the Seinfeld diner was only a few blocks from our hostel, we set a group breakfast outing for the next morning.

We ventured out as a newly formed group and visited the Seinfeld Diner, which is called Tom’s Diner in real life, as opposed to Monks Diner in the show, and enjoyed a typical ‘diner’ breakfast consisting of a milkshake and pancakes!

This was the perfect end to our wonderful stay in New York.

Four score and seven years ago...well, actually just last week, I enjoyed living and breathing American politics and history, and also meeting up with three of my closest friends from our Sweden exchange group in Washington DC!

Kelli, my American friend from Sweden, now lives and works in Washington DC, so for the first few days in DC after meeting up together, we enjoyed being able to hang out again and relive old memories and catch up on new times! With her friends, we road-tripped out to Virginia one day to the Virginia Wine festival. This was a wine festival with a typical American fair atmosphere, so I really felt like I was in the USA! I ate fried dough and even got to hold some antique rifles! Although the Virginian wine had nothing on Australia’s, we still all managed to purchase several bottles to take home…

Feeling like a true American, holding my first gun...

While Kelli worked and I awaited the arrival of Jorrit, my good Dutch friend from Sweden, his housemate Edwin, and Hazel, another American girl from Sweden, I explored DC. I learnt a lot about American and DC history thanks to the Hop On Hop Off bus!

Washington DC is not actually a State in America, it is a ‘District of Columbia'. George Washington formed this district when he was the first American President and it was to be an area for politicians to meet from around the country. Obviously, as time progressed, people settled here and are now residents. However, residents of Washington DC still have no vote, so there is a disgruntled sentiment and unofficial motto used by DC residents, even on their number plates - ‘Taxation without representation’. DC is still however a very transient district, with the majority of professionals working for government departments, many of which come and go throughout the week.

I visited several monuments and some of DC’s free museums.

The commanding Capitol Building

The massive Abraham Lincoln Memorial - which is also where Martin Luther King gave his ‘I have a dream’ speech

View towards to Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

Check out the American flags - talk about patriotism!

DC has a population that is 55% African American. Kelli told us DC is referred to as a ‘chocolate coated marshmallow’ – the city is very attractive, clean and safe, however, the outskirts are quite poor and dangerous. DC has one of the highest crime and murder rates in America and some of the stories I heard freaked me out a little! Kelli and her housemates live in an all-black neighbourhood, but in a really nice house. When I was walking to the metro those first few days by myself, it was the first time that I really felt like a minority. I think this was a good experience for me to have, as many people experience this feeling on a daily basis! And not once was I approached or felt unsafe, in actual fact most people were friendly, but just very different to life back in Freemans Reach and Bondi Australia!

When the Dutch Duo arrived, I had mastered the DC metro system, so we visited more monuments together, including the White House. I had always imagined the White House to be positioned on large acreage, just outside the city, but instead it is smack bang in the middle of the city! Unbelievable, imagine the security this would require! The are snipers on the roof of the White House 24 hrs - apparently if you enter the lawns of the White House, security will chase and tackle you as a first measure, however, if you have a backpack on, the snipers are allowed to shoot you! Word on the street was Mr George W Bush was in 'da house during our visit!

Me and the Dutch

One of many snipers on the roof of the White House

Many parts of Washington DC have an ‘old english’ feel about it, the bars and pubs are all quite conservative and classic. I really loved Georgetown. Not only did this area have gorgeous shops to browse through, but the area is so pretty with flower pots that line the streets, old colonial style houses and buildings and cobbled streets.

DC was a really interesting place and was good to be able to learn a bit more about American history and politics, especially on the eve of a very historical time, not only for the USA, but for the world. It was also so much fun to be able to hang out with my mates from Sweden again. Despite not seeing each other for a few years, the friendships picked up from where they were left. We were all definitely pumped to hit New York together!!

I couldn't be in America's capital, Washington DC, the heart of American Politics, the home of the White House, standing on the same grounds as American forefathers like Abraham Lincoln, and not blog on the upcoming Presidential Election!

It really is election fever pitch here in the United States with the Presidential election between Barack Obama and John McCain occurring on the 4 November! Although all American elections are pretty monumental events, this one seems particularly historical. Obama is the first African American to stand as a Presidential nominee and if he wins for the Democrats, obviously will be the first African American president elected in the USA. If McCain wins, his controversial vice president, Sarah Palin, will be the first woman elected as Vice President in the USA.

The commercialisation of politics here is unbelievable! Kevin Rudd’s campaign team were criticised for their ‘American’ campaign style in Australia’s previous election, and all he had was a slogan ‘Kevin 07’and a T-shirt! This is NOTHING compared to what goes on here. Everywhere you go there is something that reminds you of the election lurking…in particular the merchandise shops, these were directly opposite each other in the shopping mall! They are full of shirts, pens, bumper stickers, caps, coffee mugs,badges, mouse pads, pretty much anything you can think of, with your chosen political figure on it. It is completely over the top, but somehow, I must admit, I've been sucked in to the hype of it all!

It’s been very interesting being in San Francisco and now in DC and the comparison between the political viewpoints. San Francisco, and the whole of California, is very liberal and therefore staunchly democratic. Travis and Joe said they would consider moving to Australia if McCain and in particular Palin are voted in! Everywhere in San Fran there were Obama posters, Obama stickers and public displays of support…

Washington DC is much more diverse in political views. I guess this is because the majority of workers here work in politics and therefore work either for democratic or republican senators and congress people. Speaking to Kelli who works for a government department and several of her friends who work in politics, they say it could go either way and it is going to be an extremely close election. Some say America is not quite ready for an African American President, others say people are ready for change and Obama is the one to deliver this with his revolutionary style.

I actually had the pleasure of meeting Barack Obama (strangely I bumped into him in a tourist shop!?). He said I was a consideration as his Vice Presidential candidate…but Biden pipped me right at the end! Damn, I surely could have taken on Palin!

It’s great to be in Washington DC, the heart of American Politics, at this very historic time!