Steve & Ella's Excellent Adventure

Naples : The Final Frontier! Saturday (December 22nd) and our final day in Naples before our scheduled departure from Naples international airport at 7pm! That morning - after the wine and the grappa Steve and I found it extremely hard to peel ourselves out of bed. Our hotel room was also notoriously dark because of the several layers of insulation between the actual balcony window glass and the room itself...no natural light didn't exactly motivate you to spring out of bed! Steve and I checked out of the hotel room around 11am and managed to get into the hotel breakfast before it closed. Breakfast actually looked lovely, a selection of pastries, cornflakes, fruit salad and natural yoghurt! Thankgod - natural yoghurt I thought. I didn't mention it before, but I discovered that the local water had a strange effect on my well - digestive tract and had found myself suffering from cramps in the evening and incredible urges to evacuate my bowels! Oh go on.. have a good laugh, get i...

Destination : Pompeii Scavi! Friday (21st December), Steve and I dragged ourselves out of bed and down to the Central Train station in Naples to find our way to Pompeii by train. The train line that runs towards to Pompeii and Sorrento is called "Circumvesuviana" which literally translated means Circle Vesuvius or around Vesuvius. It runs around the base of Mt Vesuvius. Maximum speed for the train is 90 km/h, although we didn't know that and therefore did not expect our journey to the Pompeii ruins to take quite so long. The trains that run out that way are OK, not as luxurious as the Treni Italia train we took from Rome to Naples... and of course these trains were covered in graffiti! Still, it got us to where we were going! For those of you uninitiated and that have been living under a rock and let history pass them by - Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried over the course of two days by a massive eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. It was buried under metres of A...

Naples : National Archaeological Museum & Grappa! Thursday (20th December) got off to an interesting start. Firstly, by waking up in complete darkness due to our balcony insulation and then having my shoulder spasm up and completely paralyse my left side while in the bathroom! *chuckles* Yeah I know, it could only happen to me... no matter. Steve and I got dressed and headed out in search of breakfast. Well breakfast ended up being brunch/lunch because by the time we dragged ourselves out of bed and got going the morning seemed to fly away. We went looking around for something to have and ended up being called telepathically to the Golden Arches again..and promptly found a seat at the McDonald's at the central station. Steve actually sat down and minded a table because it was fairly busy and I went to order our meal since I was the most competent in language for the both of us. While seated a guy cleaning the tables around him tried to relocate Steve because he wasn't act...

Destination : Rome to Naples! Happy Birthday to me! Wednesday (19th December) I turned the golden 30 yrs of age! That morning Steve and I packed up our bags and checked out of Hotel Mirage near Roma Termini. That morning was sunny and bright and there was still an obvious chill in the air but at least it wasn't raining! Steve and I decided to grab our breakfast at the train station before boarding the train to Naples. We sat down in a cafe with table service to relax and enjoy our last day in Rome. Our breakfast was delicious but we just couldn't eat in peace.. I was shocked by the number of beggars that approached us while we were trying to enjoy our breakfast... I politely declined the first two.. but after the 5th and 6th I was shooing them away like flies rather abruptly! I honestly don't mind contributing to those who are less fortunate than us and often do, but it was just one after the other and women with babies playing the sympathy vote... Shocking! But in my prev...

Rome : Fontagna Di Trevi, Pantheon & Spanish Steps! Tuesday (the 18th December), was a new day after the storm I guess and after a bit of a sleep in to try and remove the remnants of the horrendous headache the day before we decided to set off for some more sightseeing. Steve and I went down to Roma Termini for a bit of breakfast and faced the day fresh and in hope of covering more ground and getting to more of the beautiful sights that Rome had to offer. A couple of panini and due capuccini later -we were off! We had a rough plan of where we wanted to go so we jumped into our picture map and planned to visit some of the cute little picture places along the way. Firstly we came across a street called "Via Delle Quattro Fontane - Street of the Four Fountains". Yeah I know it can't get any more obvious, but still it was a popular place to stop and take photographs because I wasn't the only one dodging traffic and people in order to get a clean shot of all four fount...

Rome : Il Vaticano! Monday (the 17th December), another day in Rome. This time a bit overcast, chilly and a little harder to get out of bed this morning.. I woke up feeling a little sore in the head today but with that thought I also had the "We are in Rome! No time to waste feeling sick...!!" and dragged myself out of bed... Steve and I grabbed some breakfast and headed to Roma Termini to catch the Roman Metro to Ottaviano the closest Station to the Vatican. We figured there was heaps to see so we didn't want to waste time walking there. The Roman Metro was very easy to navigate. We walked around in circles for a bit trying to find somewhere to buy a ticket, but once we found it I confidently asked for "Due Biglietti per Ottaviano per favore!" I had a total blast relearning the language already and we were only 2 and half days into the trip! On jumping on the train we realised that the Roman Metro was very cool. Very clean (unlike our friends in Paris!) and ver...

Rome : Piazza Venezia & The Colosseum! Sunday (16th December), Steve and I had a majorly lazy sleep in. We'd both had a busy week at work and felt we both needed some extra sleep to recharge. Probably not the best day to choose to sleep in as we had an entire new city to explore. Having slept in, we had missed the hotel breakfast and had to go in search of our own. A bit of a challenge if you haven't explored the city prior! After walking around in a circle for a bit, Steve and I came across the Golden Arches (McDonald's) just a skip from Piazza Della Repubblica. Our stomachs were growling by then and the prospect of searching longer for a place to eat just seemed a nuisance and Steve risked me getting grumpy if I wasn't fed soon! So we decided to just skip breakfast completely and plough straight into Lunch! The menu at McDonald's in Rome presented us with varying options. The Quarter Pounder did not exist here, it seemed to be replaced with a Crispy McBacon Bu...

Destination : Rome! On Saturday the 15 th December, Steve and I awoke with the prospect of being in Rome, Italy by the end of the day. We had originally planned to fly out from London - Gatwick at 9am so we could be in Rome earlier enough in the day to get from the airport to our hotel room, check in and settle in and then head out and explore Rome for the rest of the day! It has been tradition, that we normally do our best to get somewhere early in the day and then set out to familiarise ourselves with the city a little before we head out and do the BIG tourist run! Unfortunately for us, our early 9am flight to Rome was cancelled by a certain airline the day before via SMS to Steve's phone. Lucky for them, they were very accommodating and booked us both onto a flight at 2pm. So after a bit of kerfuffle, some time wasted checking in luggage, being screened through security - to the point of them actually making us take off our shoes.. (great if you have slip on ones, not so con...

London : Traveller's Bulletin! Hi all! It has been a while since Steve and I have written a kind of personal blog about what has been going on with our lives here in London on a day to day basis. We've mainly concentrated on writing to you about our tourist type excursions, the cities we have been visiting in England (Oxford, Bath & Manchester) as well our fabulous trip to France (Paris, Cannes & Monte Carlo.) We think it is time, we talked about some of the more recent events. As you can see by the picture we've added to this blog that after we came back from our wonderful holiday in France, we reassessed our living situation. Thoroughly sick and tired of our shoebox studio apartment in Queen's Park (and the lease ending very soon), Steve and I started to look for new places to live. Our search took us back to the original neighbourhood we began our adventures here in London in - Willesden Green. We found a 1 bedroom flat, that is fairly spacious and we have ...

Manchester - Day 2! Sunday 11 th November (and remembrance day!), we awoke to another chilly, windy and rainy Manchester morning. Before I get into what we got up to for the day I thought that I should provide a bit of background about Manchester (for those who are interested of course!) . Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. The city part of Manchester has a population of approximately 450,000 while the entire borough has a population roughly at 2,240,000. Manchester is also home to two Universities - The University of Manchester & Manchester Metropolitan University. It was created in 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester & University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. The Manchester Business School is also part of the University complex. Manchester is also home to two football clubs - Manchester United & Manchester City. Manchester also hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2002. Anyway, on Sunday Ste...

Destination : Manchester United - Day 1! Friday (the 9th November), Steve and I hopped on a train at Euston Station in the evening and made our way to Manchester. Why go to Manchester you ask? Because we can! Actually, I had this mild obsession about going there from the moment I chatted to a young gentleman while we were stuck at Regent's Park tube station one evening on the way home from work, because of a faulty train. We struck up a conversation on the platform after a sighed heavily at the possibility of waiting a long time to get another train.. he told me he was in a hurry and needed to get to Marylebone because he was getting a train to Manchester where his family was. Fascinated, I talked to him about Manchester a little and decided that Steve and I should make an effort to visit! So, anyway.. after a 2 and half train journey we arrived at Manchester Piccadilly to a chilly Manchester! Bloody England! I must say after our weekend in Manchester - I adapted to the cold reall...

London : MACBETH - Featuring Patrick Stewart! On Saturday (the 29th September), Steve and I decided to increase our cultural experiences a little more and head out for a traditional and cliche dinner and a show! We actually purchased tickets for this show before we went to France, just after I dragged Steve to 'We Will Rock You'. We were wandering down Shaftsbury Avenue and saw that Macbeth was opening at the Gielgud Theatre. Steve being a dedicated Star Trek series watcher and a fan of Captain Pickard.. LOL.. INSISTED that we get some tickets. I figured it was a fair trade - I got to see 'We will Rock You' and he gets 'MACBETH' with Patrick Stewart. I also thought that I should go and get myself informed and see what MACBETH was all about. I only ever did Romeo & Juliet in high school, so I figured I should experience this as well. Just a little history on the Theatre itself, it first opened on December 27th in 1906 as the Hicks Theatre. In what named the ...

Destination : Cannes to Paris! Saturday (22nd September), brought the end to our French Riviera experience in Cannes - a very sad, pouty end to our Summer experience... *sighs* We headed back to Paris by TGV (Trains a Grande Vitesse). The bright side was that we got to enjoy the trip back along the coast between Cannes and Marseille and the proceeded to fly through the French country side until we reached Paris at Garè De Lyon around 3pm. Steve and I had booked the same hotel we had at Garè De Nord at the start of our Paris experience, so we caught the Mètro from Garè De Lyon, back to Garè De Nord. On arrival, Steve and I kicked off our shoes and jumped into bed for an afternoon nap. Well I did anyway, Steve booted up the lap top to check email because we didn't have wireless internet at the hotel in Cannes! LOL... He just can't help himself sometimes.... ;o) A bit later on, feeling refreshed from our 5 hours trek across the French country side, we decided to head down to the...

Destination : Monaco - Monte Carlo! Friday (the 21st September), Steve and I awoke to another beautiful morning greeted by the sunshine blaring through our rustic wooden shutters. On awakening, I decided after breakfast we were going to find a way to get to Monte Carlo as advertised in some of the brochures we had seen when we arrived in Cannes a couple of days earlier . I myself had grown up watching Grace Kelly movies and reading about Prince Ranier , Prince Albert and his sisters Stephanie and Caroline, so curiosity just killed the cat. I wanted to get there and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and how the Rich and Famous have flocked over decades to Monte Carlo. After having a glorious breakfast by the beach again, Steve and I headed to the train station on how to get a train ticket to Monte Carlo. For 12 Euro's each return, we hopped on a train and started our 55km journey along the coast towards Monte Carlo. This train was not nearly as luxurious as the TGV tra...