On Reflection...

Just a short interlude to show off the tattoo that I booked earlier in the year - I'm so happy with it and I love it so much, it's my own little reminder of my trip






With a little mix to go with it!

Tattoo feels from onceuponalastyear on 8tracks Radio.

My cousins and I booked a holiday together before I even got into the country. They travel all the time so we had to find a place they hadn't been. I think it came down to Scandinavia or Morocco in the end, but they ended up booking New Years up there, so Morocco it was!

I enjoyed Marrakech, but not for the reasons I thought.

I'd done Italy for 2 weeks completely on my own, and in some parts of Florence I'd get catcalls for wearing lipstick - you deal with it.

I was woefully unprepared for Marrakech. I feel like I need to preface this by saying that the place was gorgeous. And being able to spend time with my cousins was awesome. But the trip will always be dampened a little for me because of the way I was treated by a minority of the population.

It annoyed me even more because my cousins grew up in Saudi Arabia, and we made sure that we were dressing conservatively and being respectful, doubly so if we were entering places which required more respect. And still, some of the things I had yelled at me across the street or when we were wandering through the Souks were just disgusting.

When we were walking through the Souks, I had a shopkeeper grab my arm and try and get me to come into his shop - I politely but firmly asked him to let me go. And he mimicked me and laughed in my face. One of my cousins had to drag me away, more angry than I can ever remember being in my life. We went everywhere together the whole time just because it was safe that way.

So it was a strange one for me.

There was so much beauty tarnished by people not treating each other with respsect. I'll refrain from turning this into a feminist rant, because it's not the place, but just the lack of respect people have for each other in some places was really highlighted to me.

On a much lighter note, we made a trip out to the waterfalls, walked through the Jardin Majorelle, and got to know each other. Here's some highlights.









 

My first time in London was strange - I didn't do any of the regular touristy stuff that's normally taken care of on a first trip to London, of all places. Like above all else, the touristy stuff is a first time thing.

Instead, I got the train down from Liverpool (and can we talk about how that blows my mind for a second? I can get a train from one huge city to another easily, and it takes about 3 hours in comfort and I can buy food and - yeah this is the bit you can tell I come from Perth) and met another one of my friends from back home who was in the UK for a wedding.

She actually hired me at my first job, and we've known each other for over 6 years now, so it was the simplest thing to go down and meet up. And do things that aren't generally that touristy, because she's been to London a few times.

We caught the tube (again, I was in awe - I love the god damn tube, fight me) to Camden, which just quietly has been on my personal list of places to visit for the longest time. Then proceeded to wander around the markets for hours. I mean literal hours. It was amazing and I can't wait to go back hopefully soon.





I feel like the day went so fast I barely realised I was in London - we used the little time we had left after the markets to visit Platform 9 and 3/4

Settle in for a long post. I was going to split all of this up into 3 separate posts, but I have such trouble breaking up Italy.

 I've been enamored with Italy for as long as I can remember. When I got the chance to go there on a tour with my high school and play music in a few different cities, it didn't go away. That was in 2008, when I'd just turned 15. 6 years later I booked my own trip, all by myself. I've touched briefly before on the way that I'm a bit anxious when left to my own devices, but I was determined the two weeks on my solo trip would be something special to me.

 (You can tell from my face that I'm excited - in my defense I had about 4 hours sleep)

I arrived at Leonardo Da Vinci International airport at around midday and successfully acquired a train ticket to get into central Rome, at Termini station. Anyone who knows anything about me while I'm travelling will know two things; I hate being late because I like to know what I'm doing before I do it, and I am the most nervous traveler in existence. It's not because I'm scared something bad will happen per say, it's that I'm scared of missing my stop or being late or something ridiculous like that.

So then of course my worst nightmare happened when I couldn't find my hotel.

That drama aside (it wasn't even that much drama) I put my luggage in my room and headed into the late afternoon to set myself up for my three nights in Rome. The area around Termini station is an eclectic district that is far enough away from the bigger tourist attractions that the streets once you're a minute away from the train station are quiet and full of locals.

I realised at some point that I'd planned getting to Italy, and moving between each of my stops, having my money on travel cards and generally how I was going to handle myself, but not so much what I was going to do in each place.

I ended up walking a lot.

On the first day I got a 3 day pass for a sightseeing bus, because who was I kidding, I was absolutely there to do all of the cliche tourist stuff that I missed out on when I was there the last time (funnily enough taking 60 students straight off a 20 hour flight into Rome in the middle of summer for half a day of sightseeing is not at all conducive to sightseeing - who knew). I ate at a little cafe across from my hotel (and found out that if I speak the little Italian I can manage to Italians I don't have much of an accent, so they will spout off in rapid-fire Italian that I can't even begin to comprehend) and set my alarm for early the next day.

I did a full lap on the bus listening to the tour guide, spent it mostly waking up and basking in the sun (I don't think there was a day I was in Rome under 35 degrees - I might also be part lizard) and deciding what I wanted to do that day.


I'm sad that I lost a lot of my photos from Rome when my laptop got stolen later on in the year, but it's the tiniest things crystal clear in my head from my days in Rome. I remember lining up to get a ticket into the Roman Forum (Palatine Hill and The Colosseum) behind an American couple on their honeymoon and listening to them talk about all of the things they looked forward to, my favourite sandals breaking after 2 days of walking nearly everywhere because the weather was so glorious and I love nothing more than wandering around aimlessly, I found out.



---

Assisi is a tiny place about half an hour train ride away from Rome, situated on top of a huge hill that you have to get a bus up to. I stayed at the bottom of said hill in a lovely little hotel just to save myself from dragging my (admittedly huge) suitcase onto the bus, to a place up the hill, off the bus and then back down in 3 days.

It was a nice quiet break from how busy Rome was, and I made an Italian friend who showed me around (when we went with school we saw the inside of the St Francis' church and the courtyard because that's where we performed). It's a classic provincial Italian town that gets a bit more attention because of St Francis of Assisi.

---

I was possibly the most excited about my next stop. I'd figured out the trains by this point so I was a lot more relaxed, and Florence was somewhere I was looking forward to. It helps that I spent a little more money on a hotel right across from the main train station (and they may or may not have only had a deluxe room left...) and I was in the middle of everything.

As a side note, I love the Assassin's Creed games, specifically the second one and it's spin off games which all take place in Renaissance era Italy, and start in Florence. Coming back to Florence having played and fallen in love with them, I was head over heels for the city as soon as I saw it again and could picture making Ezio climb up all of the historic buildings that were RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES.

So yes, I was a little bit excited.

The weather was still amazing and I'd really liked using the tour bus to get around to the main spots in Rome so I decided to do the same thing in Florence.







If I fell in love with Italy all over again I don't even know how to describe the place the Florence has in my heart. I walked around and soaked in the buildings and galleries and museums and the way it felt for the majority of my stay (I don't even think I used my bus pass on the last day, I just spent hours walking). I was absolutely crushed at the thought of leaving it behind (but at the same time I'll definitely be back. I don't think I could happily go the rest of my life without doing it again).

---

Montecatini was another something of a rest stop for me to recharge after Florence. It's a town built on thermal baths that has a bottom (terme) and a top (alto) part of town. I spent most of the time we came with school in the alto part of town so decided to spend most of my 2 nights there down the bottom. It's a really pretty place that's a bit anachronistic; all of the architecture and the feeling of the place is old, but in the oldest looking building in town there's a super high tech. spa.

I absolutely got a whole spa package and it was AMAZING.

---

Venice was my last stop and really where I packed in the most thinking time.

Venice is all bridges and winding streets and hidden corners. There's no room for anything new or flashy in among the old buildings crammed together and the waterways. I adore Venice in a completely different way to Florence or Rome.

It's where I wandered for hours and got lost and un-lost over and over again. The very last day of my trip was the only day it rained, as I was leaving Venice. I couldn't help but think it was at least a little poignant (although I'm not so totally self involved as to think it was for me).

Another little filler place here. A couple of my friends from Australia were also travelling around the same time as me, and we met up while we were all in the UK. Because I was up in Liverpool and they were down in Coventry we met up in Birmingham (slightly in the middle? A little bit? I don't know). Daisy, who I've known for about 6 years now, is a vegan who normally has to (and is more than happy to) make do when we all go out to eat. But this time me and her boyfriend found a vegan place that got rave reviews, not too far from the markets and the bullring shopping centre (mall, whatever it likes to be called). We thought it was hysterical that she'd finally be able to have her pick of anything she wanted and we'd be the choosy ones. Turns out that the day we went THEY WERE CLOSED. OF ALL THE DAYS. We went to a pub and then perused the markets - which are awesome by the way. I'm sad I don't have pictures but we were having way too much fun - I also booked my tattoo while I was there at Vividink Birmingham - totally awesome place. This being a bit of a non-post serves a purpose though; most of the big posts will have heaps of pictures and a playlist, they're the big, stake-in-the-ground, remember this moments of my time away. But 6 months is a long time to be away, and essentially I was just living up by Liverpool airport with my gran and my cousins (until they went back/off to uni). Everything really happened in fits and starts, hence the title of this post. But it's all about balance, right? I'd be lying if I said it was all action all the time.

            (This is where we stayed, at an Airbnb about 5 minutes walk from the middle of town)

Have some canal pictures too because I'll never get sick of them. It was 30 degrees plus most of the days we were there, and I can safely say the only downside of the trip was the fact that I got a cramp in my foot on the second last day that hung around until 2 DAYS after we got back to Liverpool.

Amsterdam from onceuponalastyear on 8tracks Radio.