Annemaart

One of my favorite stops on my tour in Italy (bar Napoli perhaps) was Firenze. Partly this was because I told myself to cut down on all the walking and put my feet up for a bit. I stayed at this gorgeous hostel in the Villa Camaretta. Only downside was that it was a YHA hostel (so many rules, no kitchen, no atmosphere). But in the afternoon when there was hardly anyone there and I was sitting in the garden reading my book with just the birds and a squirrel for company, it was lovely.

And Florence itself is just amazing. There is so much to see, from the Ponte Vecchio to the many squares to museums and the boatload of churches. And it also has the best pistacchio icecream (I did an analytical study on the matter) which is a tiny spot in one of the sidestreets of the Duomo. You can spot it by the queue outside.

The only thing I found annoying about Florence is there are a lot of ticket issues. You have to order your tickets ahead at extra costs or wait in line a lot, some churches separate tickets for the cloisters, church and crypt, which really add up.

This is just the prettiest place to spend some time. I went at sunset, and the sky was turning all shades of blue and there were artists and music and the fountains were lit up pretty. Sigh. Just lovely. COuld have spent a day there just watching the people go past.

I went to Rome when I was 17 or something, and I remember liking it then, but I don’t remember much of it. I took hardly any pictures. So this trip to Rome was to remember the places properly and see a few more.

The beauty of Rome is that there is something amazing around every corner. Every building is followed by an even more fabulous building. Especially loved going to the Piazza Navona again, which is so pretty. Also loved the Pantheon, EUR and just all those little streets to wander through.

Absolutely fantastic, Pomepii gives a little look into the scale of roman cities and the disaster of the eruption of Mt Vesuvius. Not a lot of the frescoes are left, so I recommend going to the museum in Napoli the day before, so you can really get an idea of what it could have looked like.

I spend the whole day in pompeii, and I didn’t even see all I would have liked to see. Also, and this is very important: bring supplies. There are lots of spots on the site to refill your waterbottle, but there is no place to get food, only outside the gates of the site.

Best bits about Milan: The Last Supper (boko ahead). This gorgeous little church full of frescoes and, of course, the Duomo. When I was in Milan there was a concert in the Duomo with medieval music. Wonderful.

I almost didn’t go to Herculaneum, but so glad I did. Pompey shows the scale of a roman city very well. But herculaneum better shows the riches and you get a better feel of what it must have looked like. Very much worth visiting.

I just came back from Iceland today. So I visited in March, in the wintertime. The entire place is covered in snow. We went for a drive, visiting the must-see golden circle, and we were just driving through this white dessert. Saw Gullfoss, where bits of the waterfall were just frozen solid. Geysers shooting up in the snow. The steaming Blue Lagoon. It’s just amazing.

Also, Reykjavik is filled with great little living room style cafe’s and little run down bars. There’s also some very classy stuff. My friend took me to the Perlan for my birthday, which is really expensive, but if you have the money (or a good friend with money) it’s totally worth the visit. The decor is beautiful, the food is lovely and in two hours the restaurant turns and shows you all of Reykjavik.

Dammit, I’m a girl so I can’t get in :(. How silly…

http://www.inathos.gr/athos/en/VisitMountAthos.html

Ephesus is extremely touristy. Was greatly annoyed by the tour groups, especially one guide who found it necessary to gather his group in by honking this extremely annoying honkingthingie. It is a very nice site though, especially the library and of course the amfitheatres. If you wander around a bit you can distance yourself from the tousist masses a bit and enjoy the athmosphere. I would advice going very early, if possible, to avoid tourgroups and also the quite warm weather.

Me and my friend were in Istanbul for Ramadan. First I wasn’t too happy with the planning, since it felt sorta weird to go on holiday, which usually involves a lot of nice food, at a time when people are fasting. But actually it turned out great. At night, just before dusk, people would come out onto the streets and start stacking up on food, settling down on benches and in parks, or at the fair-like concoction next to the mosque. And then at sunset the mosque would call out it was time to eat. The athmosphere was great and it was an amazing sight to see all those people sitting around in front of the Blue Mosque.