Had the whole morning to look around in Bulawayo, our bus leaves at 2pm so we would have plenty of time to walk around in this beautiful town. Up at 7, breakfast at 8, tour of Bulawayo club right after and then headed to town. Bulawayo seems very friendly, buildings are old and big, streets are wide, people seem polite and all seems safe. We wondered around for few hours - National Art Gallery and Natural History Museum. Both definitely worth visiting. Looked around at the park, tried to grasp all the beautiful architecture and lively streets.
Bulawayo is Zimbabwes second largest city and the capital of Matabeleland, home of Ndebele people. Town is located 1350m above sea level giving it a bit cooler climate than in the rest of the country. There are 2 important names to mention that are connected to this region:
King Lobengula - the son of Zulu king Mzilikazi, leader of a breakaway faction from South Africa's Natal that was to become the Ndebele nation, based in this area.
Cecil John Rhodes - an influential colonialist with ambitions to bring the whole of Africa under British control, while increasing his already phenomenal personal wealth.
Those two figures were the leaders of two sides fighting over the land (late 1800's - around 1894), finally peace negotiations took place. 1920's saw the introduction of municipal electricity even before it was in London. In 1931 the first aerodrome opened to service the Imperial Airways London-Cape Town route, and in 1941 Bulawayo was granted city status.
Right before heading back to the hotel I managed to offend a statue :( Full story is that I took a picture of a building and in front of the building there was a statue that was all covered up and two policeman were guarding it (with guns!). And so they were on the photo as well. One police (a lady) walked over to me and asked what did I just do. I explained that I took a photo of the building. Well, the whole conversation took at least 5 minutes me explaining that I did not mean any harm and it is just a photo and I can delete it if that would help at all. But no, the harm had already been done, photo was taken and deleting it would not help at all. They would take me to the central police station where they would then see what to do with me as this is a very very big offence and I could go to jail (yea, they were serious about it). All was sorted out and I was not taken anywhere, but this was quite tense. So lesson learned - not only is it forbidden to take photos of government buildings, but also of police.
Quickly got back to the hotel, packed our things, checked out and took a taxi to the bus "station". There was no station really, the bus was parked just in the middle of the street and that was it :) One bus was facing one way, going to Harare, the other the other way, going to Victoria Falls. Had to get on the last one (we are getting off earlier though, at Halfway, going to Hwange National park for 2 days). For the longest time we were just standing there waiting for our bus from a different company, only to find out that existing bus is actually the one we need - some confusion right there, but I'm glad we caught on early enough otherwise we would have just missed the bus and would be still standing there probably :-P
Bus was packed, it was a minibus with about 17 passenger seats and additional 4 pull-down seats at the isle. I think they put 20 people on the bus :) No air conditioning (did I mention it is about 27C here during the day?) but it was possible to open the windows. They handed out water and also fast food dinner. There was an attendant from the bus company who said a prayer with everybody once the bus started moving :D We were about 40 minutes late getting out of Bulawayo, but we got to our destination 1.5 hours later that originally planned :) One of the reasons were quite numerous road blocks where police would pull the bus over and ask all kinds of questions from the driver.
Bus drive was pretty good though. Even though my chair turned into a rocking chair at some point and the sun was burning hot and the windows had no curtains - it was all good. The crowd was fun :) There were two local guys at the bus sitting close to us and we managed to get ourselves laughing so hard at some point that I got tears running down my cheeks :) Bus ride was about 3 hours. Once at Halfway the others continued on and about 5 of us stepped off. Our accommodation organized a pick-up for us, another 40 minutes in the bus and there we were - in a small quiet camp where housing is arranged at elevated tree-houses :) There are no walls really, just some shades. It all looks very comfortable though: there is a big bathroom with a shower and water toilet, there are 2 comfortable beds with mosquito nets hanging over them. This place is really in a deep deep bush, closest people are in a village 3km away.
They have a habit to serving cereal and a full English breakfast here in the morning and a 3 course dinner in the evening :) Dinner was super nice also in this accommodation. Right next to the open dinner area there was a bonfire lit. Rest of the evening went in the name of Zimbabwe wine, talking, staring at the fire and gazing at the bright stars up above. The stars are amazing here since it is so dark - just beautiful, clear and bright stars.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Bulawayo club hotel - deserves its own chapter!
This place is a colonial era hotel - most wonderful and truly posh. Check the photos as well to see all the different rooms and settings. Club itself is from 1895, it was founded as gentleman's club where they would socialize and do lots of business networking. This club has some very strict rules, quite many of them still being enforced. About some of them you can read down below. But this particular building was built 1935, at the time it would strongly show their capability and resources, to be able to build such a big and fancy building. It was turned into a hotel just a year ago - there are 16 very nicely decorated rooms on the third floor, rest of the house would be club member rooms, restaurant, coffee rooms, dining area, bar areas, conference room, balcony and so on.
Now a bit more about our evening. Got back from Matopos at 7:30. One of the nicest things here is that you are always approached and asked how are you doing and how the day has been :) It is all very sincere and nice. Once few sentences are exchanged they sometimes also get to the point, this time to ask what time could they expect us downstairs for dinner so they know to set the table :) How wonderful is that? Now the dinner - menu is just for a week. There is a complimentary soup served for all guests dining. There are 3 main meals in the menu (pork,chicken and fish) plus a desert. Food was first of all very pretty - the way it was presented was fancy. And of course it was very delicious as well. Sitting at this table one would forget that he/she is in Africa. It could easily be a restaurant located in London or in New York. At this beautiful setting we had the most interesting discussion about social and economical problems in the world, developing countries and the history of Africa. Those are the kinds of conversations I would like to have more often, those are the talks that get my thoughts running in different directions and afterwards I feel like I have just read 10 books in the last hour :D
Now about the bar :) We were warned previously (already in Harare) that the bar in this hotel is only for men and women are not allowed in there. We just could not believe it and we wanted to see how and if they actually would make us leave, we figured we play innocent tourists who know nothing about the rule. So here is the story of two white females in Bulawayo, the year is 2010:
We walk into the bar area, there are 2 white guys sitting at one of the round tables talking. All the staff is black. We approach the barman asking if there is a separate drinks menu and if we could have a look at it as we would like to have a drink. We make ourselves comfortable on the stools behind the bar. He finds the menu for us and steps a bit back. Nothing else, he does not say anything or make funny expressions or anything - so we figure all is fine. We order our drinks and he disappears to the back room/kitchen area. Few moments goes by and another black young guy comes towards us, leans over the bar and says quite quietly that unfortunately we can't have a drink here tonight. Now the conversation goes something like this:
him- ladies, unfortunately you can't have drinks here tonight
me- tonight? what is so special about tonight?
him- it is gentleman's night tonight
me- so if we come here tomorrow evening we could have a drink here?
him- no not tomorrow, but on Fridays and Saturdays you could
my friend- oh so no women allowed today is that it?
him- correct, no women allowed except on Friday's and Saturday's
my friend- so where do women have their drinks then?
him- there is another bar upstairs, but at the moment it is closed
us just looking confused- where should we go then?
him looking around- well, since it is past 10 already and the bar is closed you can just have your drinks here no problem (but don't tell anyone!)
my friend- but you know there are civil rights and gender equality nowadays!
him- but in this place are different rules and those will never change, never :)
Then the next 10 to 15 minutes we heard about the other rules of the club and what is done here and how it all works and where he is from and all sorts of interesting things :) It was a good talk - I learned a lot about the traditions and about the history. Ah the wonders of traveling and talking to locals - me loves it!
Now a bit more about our evening. Got back from Matopos at 7:30. One of the nicest things here is that you are always approached and asked how are you doing and how the day has been :) It is all very sincere and nice. Once few sentences are exchanged they sometimes also get to the point, this time to ask what time could they expect us downstairs for dinner so they know to set the table :) How wonderful is that? Now the dinner - menu is just for a week. There is a complimentary soup served for all guests dining. There are 3 main meals in the menu (pork,chicken and fish) plus a desert. Food was first of all very pretty - the way it was presented was fancy. And of course it was very delicious as well. Sitting at this table one would forget that he/she is in Africa. It could easily be a restaurant located in London or in New York. At this beautiful setting we had the most interesting discussion about social and economical problems in the world, developing countries and the history of Africa. Those are the kinds of conversations I would like to have more often, those are the talks that get my thoughts running in different directions and afterwards I feel like I have just read 10 books in the last hour :D
Now about the bar :) We were warned previously (already in Harare) that the bar in this hotel is only for men and women are not allowed in there. We just could not believe it and we wanted to see how and if they actually would make us leave, we figured we play innocent tourists who know nothing about the rule. So here is the story of two white females in Bulawayo, the year is 2010:
We walk into the bar area, there are 2 white guys sitting at one of the round tables talking. All the staff is black. We approach the barman asking if there is a separate drinks menu and if we could have a look at it as we would like to have a drink. We make ourselves comfortable on the stools behind the bar. He finds the menu for us and steps a bit back. Nothing else, he does not say anything or make funny expressions or anything - so we figure all is fine. We order our drinks and he disappears to the back room/kitchen area. Few moments goes by and another black young guy comes towards us, leans over the bar and says quite quietly that unfortunately we can't have a drink here tonight. Now the conversation goes something like this:
him- ladies, unfortunately you can't have drinks here tonight
me- tonight? what is so special about tonight?
him- it is gentleman's night tonight
me- so if we come here tomorrow evening we could have a drink here?
him- no not tomorrow, but on Fridays and Saturdays you could
my friend- oh so no women allowed today is that it?
him- correct, no women allowed except on Friday's and Saturday's
my friend- so where do women have their drinks then?
him- there is another bar upstairs, but at the moment it is closed
us just looking confused- where should we go then?
him looking around- well, since it is past 10 already and the bar is closed you can just have your drinks here no problem (but don't tell anyone!)
my friend- but you know there are civil rights and gender equality nowadays!
him- but in this place are different rules and those will never change, never :)
Then the next 10 to 15 minutes we heard about the other rules of the club and what is done here and how it all works and where he is from and all sorts of interesting things :) It was a good talk - I learned a lot about the traditions and about the history. Ah the wonders of traveling and talking to locals - me loves it!
Matobo National Park in Bulawayo - 7.sept
Up nice and early, at 6, quick breakfast and second try to get a flight out of Harare. Got to the airport nice and early, checked in and had a bit of spare time. They did not ask our ID or passport once when doing the check-in or getting on the plane or getting off :) Wonders of domestic flights :) Got all nicely seated at the plane, plane was quite full to my surprise. Perhaps because they crammed 2 flights on there - yesterdays cancelled flight and then the regular morning flight that we were on now. Anyways, got all seated and plane even made it to the runway when we turned back to the terminal house. Lady announced that the plane has a technical problem that needs attention. Oh uh - not very assuring I'd say. Few men in bright yellow vests ran around one of the wings, more people gathered and they seemed to have some sort of meeting :) We did not get more information and we were left sitting in the plane. Hour later we returned to the runway and the journey started :D No update on what was wrong or what got fixed - the plane just took off :D Luckily we all landed safely 45 minutes later in Bulawayo.
Bulawayo airport is under construction so there was a very minimal temporary terminal up and running - but it all worked without a big hassle, we got the luggage quickly and all was good. Found nobody there waiting for us though. Later found out that they were there at 9:30 already but then got told that there is a delay and never got any news of how long the delay would be. Anyways, got our transfer and got dropped off at our hotel - Bulawayo Club. This place deserves it's own chapter so look at the next entry after finishing this one ;)
Dropped our stuff off at the room and hurried back down to take a trip to Matobo National Park (Matobo is the correct name, but Matopos is used more often). Our guidebook knows to tell that at 425 square km it is one of Zimbabwe's smallest national parks, yet it is second only to Victoria Falls National Park in terms of visitor numbers. Apart from the spectacular landscapes and the hundreds of examples of rock art, which together have given the park UNESCO World Heritage status, the very special Matopos habitat carries the greatest concentration of leopards in Zimbabwe.
First we visited one of the rock paintings at White Rhino Shelter. The paintings are faded, but it is supposedly one of the fine examples of line drawings, probably the best in the country. There are hundreds of rock shelters and caves around this rocky area which have been decorated by descendants of the world's most ancient peoples. This is one of the few areas in the world proven to have supported continuous human occupation for over 40 000 years.
Next stop in the park was at the View of the World (Ndebele, who are the local people, it is their sacred place known as Malindidzimu, meaning 'place of benevolent spirits') and Cecil Rhodes' grave (read about him in the next entry). Rhodes found this place while negotiating peace with the locals, called it 'View of the World' and chose this as his burial cite. He died 1902 in Cape Town at the age of 49 and was buried here. The view is of course beautiful, also the colored rocks here are something that will take away your breath.
The rock formation here are beautiful, our guidebook calls them dramatic rock landscapes :) Granite is the building material and weather the artist as it writes. One can find the balancing rock 'kopjes': huge angular blocks of granite piled on top of and beside one another, forming pillars and stacks. Most dramatic in scale, however, are the massive, bald 'dwalas' or 'whalebacks', grey granite hills rising from the surrounding woodland and criss-crossed with fault lines.
Last but not least our search for wild animals started - game drive. It is really really difficult to spot a leopard, so did not even dream of that. We were prepared to see rhino, buffalo, elephant or hippo, but did not see anything! Only 3 zebras after many hours of driving around. All the wild animals must have taken a day off or something. Our guide even said that this is his first time when he does not see any game at all. We were a bit disappointed about missing all the animals - this being my first safari and all. But the rest of the sights were beautiful. On our game drive we passed through Togwana Dam, being the prettiest reservoir in Matopos.
Just this past weekend they had a huge fire here at the park and we could clearly see the damage it had done. Apparently the ground burns here a lot - it helps to clean the bushes up and is totally natural. While driving around the ground was still smoking from many places and I'd even spot live fire here and there (just very small flickering flames). Our guide informed us that in 2 weeks it would all be green and it would be the best time to spot many different wild animals munching away at the tasty fresh food.
Bulawayo airport is under construction so there was a very minimal temporary terminal up and running - but it all worked without a big hassle, we got the luggage quickly and all was good. Found nobody there waiting for us though. Later found out that they were there at 9:30 already but then got told that there is a delay and never got any news of how long the delay would be. Anyways, got our transfer and got dropped off at our hotel - Bulawayo Club. This place deserves it's own chapter so look at the next entry after finishing this one ;)
Dropped our stuff off at the room and hurried back down to take a trip to Matobo National Park (Matobo is the correct name, but Matopos is used more often). Our guidebook knows to tell that at 425 square km it is one of Zimbabwe's smallest national parks, yet it is second only to Victoria Falls National Park in terms of visitor numbers. Apart from the spectacular landscapes and the hundreds of examples of rock art, which together have given the park UNESCO World Heritage status, the very special Matopos habitat carries the greatest concentration of leopards in Zimbabwe.
First we visited one of the rock paintings at White Rhino Shelter. The paintings are faded, but it is supposedly one of the fine examples of line drawings, probably the best in the country. There are hundreds of rock shelters and caves around this rocky area which have been decorated by descendants of the world's most ancient peoples. This is one of the few areas in the world proven to have supported continuous human occupation for over 40 000 years.
Next stop in the park was at the View of the World (Ndebele, who are the local people, it is their sacred place known as Malindidzimu, meaning 'place of benevolent spirits') and Cecil Rhodes' grave (read about him in the next entry). Rhodes found this place while negotiating peace with the locals, called it 'View of the World' and chose this as his burial cite. He died 1902 in Cape Town at the age of 49 and was buried here. The view is of course beautiful, also the colored rocks here are something that will take away your breath.
The rock formation here are beautiful, our guidebook calls them dramatic rock landscapes :) Granite is the building material and weather the artist as it writes. One can find the balancing rock 'kopjes': huge angular blocks of granite piled on top of and beside one another, forming pillars and stacks. Most dramatic in scale, however, are the massive, bald 'dwalas' or 'whalebacks', grey granite hills rising from the surrounding woodland and criss-crossed with fault lines.
Last but not least our search for wild animals started - game drive. It is really really difficult to spot a leopard, so did not even dream of that. We were prepared to see rhino, buffalo, elephant or hippo, but did not see anything! Only 3 zebras after many hours of driving around. All the wild animals must have taken a day off or something. Our guide even said that this is his first time when he does not see any game at all. We were a bit disappointed about missing all the animals - this being my first safari and all. But the rest of the sights were beautiful. On our game drive we passed through Togwana Dam, being the prettiest reservoir in Matopos.
Just this past weekend they had a huge fire here at the park and we could clearly see the damage it had done. Apparently the ground burns here a lot - it helps to clean the bushes up and is totally natural. While driving around the ground was still smoking from many places and I'd even spot live fire here and there (just very small flickering flames). Our guide informed us that in 2 weeks it would all be green and it would be the best time to spot many different wild animals munching away at the tasty fresh food.
Arrival to Zimbabwe - 6.sept
Just a note - the wedding day is present in the blog as well now :)
As I last wrote I was hoping that nothing too interesting would happen before I get to Harare - nothing much did :) Leaving Italy went smoothly other than the fight for getting on the airport bus. That was an experience on its own, lots of struggling and yelling and angry people. But luckily I got on it, quite many did not.
My flights were all in schedule and went by quickly. Route was long as usual (Venice-Frankfurt-Addis Abeba-Harare), but my layovers were nice and short. There was a minor setback entering Zimbabwe as the visa given to me in Stockholm did not have the required stamp on it. Guy at the customs was not happy about this and ran around the building trying to find out what to do. I was let in nonetheless though.
My friend had arrived already an hour ago and was waiting in the lobby. Seeing Tiina was a great relief for me as her making it out of Mozambique was under a big question mark due to uprisings taking place in Maputo. Claire - Tiina's friend came to greet us at the airport and took us around Harare a bit. Just so we would not have to sit in the airport for 6 hours waiting for our next flight to Bulawayo.
So Harare is my first impression of Africa :) As I don't know anything else of the local life I had zero reference points and don't really know what to think :) As Claire was taking us around she updated us on local life, politics, history and local happenings. It is always the best part to hear the information from a trusted source who is up to date and familiar with all the facts.
City of Harare is sandy, there is not much green around, but this is due to the dry season at the moment. Buildings are old, cars are mostly run down, streets are not very clean. Oldest buildings are from about 80 years ago or so. Streets are full of people, locals just chatting and going about their everyday lives. As I heard 90% of the population is unemployed.
I haven't updated myself on the history of Zimbabwe yet, so until then just some bits and pieces of what I saw. Photos - a big part of traveling - one is not allowed to take photos of government buildings here. Question I got is just that how I know which building is a government building :D Anyhoo, just gotta be careful when running around with a camera I guess.
One is not allowed to criticize the president Robert Gabriel Mugabe, which is understandable as well. Drove past his residence, it had soldiers with guns guarding the palace. During the night the road passing by the palace is closed to traffic alltogether. As far as I have understood there is some resistance towards former British rule from government and from the people as well. Once I get the bigger part of history cleared up for myself I'll update you too.
I did see lots of bits and pieces of British culture around like a golf course, cricket fields, horse race courses and such. As Claire has two little kids we learned about the public school system as well. Zimbabwe used to be one of the most developed countries in Africa some 15-20 years ago, but is now in the ruins in many areas, also in education system.
Claire was telling us stories of how the locals have strange names, some samples being: Broken Fridge, Pride, Gift and Breakfast (yea, no joke, Broken Fridge is a person's name here). What else? Umm, the electricity! There is more demand that they can produce so power cuts are quite common and many buildings have their own electricity generators. Quite a bit bigger problem is street lighting - it gets dark here around 6pm and none of the roads have lighting. Driving around at night time is mostly avoided as I understood.
Stopped by at Claire's house for afternoon tea. Claire lives a bit out of city center with her family in a nice private houses area. Their house has gate guards, a nice yard with a pool, 2 fluffy white chickens and a big balcony to enjoy the afternoon tea. Chatted a bit and then headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Bulawayo. As soon as we got out of the car there was an official greeting us who informed that the flight has been canceled and we can take the same flight the next morning at 9. Tried to see if there are alternative ways of getting to our destination, but train is not going on Monday either.
Claire invited us over for the night. Had wonderful dinner with her family, chatted about history and our countries, enjoyed a glass of wine - a wonderful evening alltogether. My first day in Africa has been full of surprises and I'm getting a feeling this should be expected throughout my visit here :)
As I last wrote I was hoping that nothing too interesting would happen before I get to Harare - nothing much did :) Leaving Italy went smoothly other than the fight for getting on the airport bus. That was an experience on its own, lots of struggling and yelling and angry people. But luckily I got on it, quite many did not.
My flights were all in schedule and went by quickly. Route was long as usual (Venice-Frankfurt-Addis Abeba-Harare), but my layovers were nice and short. There was a minor setback entering Zimbabwe as the visa given to me in Stockholm did not have the required stamp on it. Guy at the customs was not happy about this and ran around the building trying to find out what to do. I was let in nonetheless though.
My friend had arrived already an hour ago and was waiting in the lobby. Seeing Tiina was a great relief for me as her making it out of Mozambique was under a big question mark due to uprisings taking place in Maputo. Claire - Tiina's friend came to greet us at the airport and took us around Harare a bit. Just so we would not have to sit in the airport for 6 hours waiting for our next flight to Bulawayo.
So Harare is my first impression of Africa :) As I don't know anything else of the local life I had zero reference points and don't really know what to think :) As Claire was taking us around she updated us on local life, politics, history and local happenings. It is always the best part to hear the information from a trusted source who is up to date and familiar with all the facts.
City of Harare is sandy, there is not much green around, but this is due to the dry season at the moment. Buildings are old, cars are mostly run down, streets are not very clean. Oldest buildings are from about 80 years ago or so. Streets are full of people, locals just chatting and going about their everyday lives. As I heard 90% of the population is unemployed.
I haven't updated myself on the history of Zimbabwe yet, so until then just some bits and pieces of what I saw. Photos - a big part of traveling - one is not allowed to take photos of government buildings here. Question I got is just that how I know which building is a government building :D Anyhoo, just gotta be careful when running around with a camera I guess.
One is not allowed to criticize the president Robert Gabriel Mugabe, which is understandable as well. Drove past his residence, it had soldiers with guns guarding the palace. During the night the road passing by the palace is closed to traffic alltogether. As far as I have understood there is some resistance towards former British rule from government and from the people as well. Once I get the bigger part of history cleared up for myself I'll update you too.
I did see lots of bits and pieces of British culture around like a golf course, cricket fields, horse race courses and such. As Claire has two little kids we learned about the public school system as well. Zimbabwe used to be one of the most developed countries in Africa some 15-20 years ago, but is now in the ruins in many areas, also in education system.
Claire was telling us stories of how the locals have strange names, some samples being: Broken Fridge, Pride, Gift and Breakfast (yea, no joke, Broken Fridge is a person's name here). What else? Umm, the electricity! There is more demand that they can produce so power cuts are quite common and many buildings have their own electricity generators. Quite a bit bigger problem is street lighting - it gets dark here around 6pm and none of the roads have lighting. Driving around at night time is mostly avoided as I understood.
Stopped by at Claire's house for afternoon tea. Claire lives a bit out of city center with her family in a nice private houses area. Their house has gate guards, a nice yard with a pool, 2 fluffy white chickens and a big balcony to enjoy the afternoon tea. Chatted a bit and then headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Bulawayo. As soon as we got out of the car there was an official greeting us who informed that the flight has been canceled and we can take the same flight the next morning at 9. Tried to see if there are alternative ways of getting to our destination, but train is not going on Monday either.
Claire invited us over for the night. Had wonderful dinner with her family, chatted about history and our countries, enjoyed a glass of wine - a wonderful evening alltogether. My first day in Africa has been full of surprises and I'm getting a feeling this should be expected throughout my visit here :)
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Arrived in Africa :)
Quick update - I have safely arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe! Currently waiting for a flight to Bulawayo with my friend (who made it here nicely yesterday as well). We were suppose to fly out last night, but the flight was canceled unexpectedly - new try now.
Will update you more thoroughly some other day.
Cheers!
Will update you more thoroughly some other day.
Cheers!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Last day in Italy - 5.sept
Got up early in the morning and walked to the bus station with my friend whose plane leaves at 11, I still have a whole day here, my flight is at 8pm. Getting to the airport seems to be nice and easy with a bus - 2.5EUR and 25 minutes. It is yet another trick that they send all the tourists to take the water bus. Coming over I was wondering where on earth did all those people go as on our water bus there were only 20 people or so, but there were many many planes flying in. Next time when I'm in Venice I'll be smarter than this :) You live and learn, in any case - you live :D
Around 9 walked back from the bus station, showered, tried my best at getting the printer working at the hostel, packed my bags and headed out. This town is crazy today. Currently there is a film festival in Venice and architecture biennale and it is Sunday - those narrow streets are so crowded that everybody walks at the same pace and it is impossible to pass anybody. At times the whole crowd just stops and you won't know why, can't move anywhere, luckily after a bit the crowd starts moving again. It is absolutely packed.
So on one of those streets packed with people I ran into a friend of mine from home :) Seriously, just bumped into him on the street of Venice (it was Martin K, Liina who were visiting with college friend). We were both surprised as hell :)
Walked all the way past Piazza S. Marco all the way to Isola di S.Pietro and Isola di S.Elena - there was much more space and not that many people. While wondering around I tried to keep my eyes open for any Internet cafe. When telling my sad story of trying to find a place to print few pages my friend jokingly said that most likely there is exactly one place in whole Venice where you can do it and it is impossible to find it. Well, I found it :) Absolutely randomly, just stumbled on the sign and found the only place to print (this whole time I saw only one other place offering Internet access, but there was no printing capability). Now I had to spend 3EUR on buying 30 minutes of Internet usage to print out 5 sheets of paper :( But at least this printing problem got solved as well almost by accident :D
While sitting at the balcony at the hostel, using the last bit of free Internet, I can hear the movie playing outside on the other side of the building - I did not make it to the film festival, chose to sit in the Internet for 2 hours instead :)
Now heading over to the bus station to go to airport. My route will be Venice - Frankfurt - Addis Abeba - Harare. Days here have been packed and intense, nights have been way too short - even Martin found the courage to mention that I look tired. All those long flights should be enough to catch up on sleep :) Hopefully nothing too exciting happens before I make it to Harare, Zimbabwe.
Around 9 walked back from the bus station, showered, tried my best at getting the printer working at the hostel, packed my bags and headed out. This town is crazy today. Currently there is a film festival in Venice and architecture biennale and it is Sunday - those narrow streets are so crowded that everybody walks at the same pace and it is impossible to pass anybody. At times the whole crowd just stops and you won't know why, can't move anywhere, luckily after a bit the crowd starts moving again. It is absolutely packed.
So on one of those streets packed with people I ran into a friend of mine from home :) Seriously, just bumped into him on the street of Venice (it was Martin K, Liina who were visiting with college friend). We were both surprised as hell :)
Walked all the way past Piazza S. Marco all the way to Isola di S.Pietro and Isola di S.Elena - there was much more space and not that many people. While wondering around I tried to keep my eyes open for any Internet cafe. When telling my sad story of trying to find a place to print few pages my friend jokingly said that most likely there is exactly one place in whole Venice where you can do it and it is impossible to find it. Well, I found it :) Absolutely randomly, just stumbled on the sign and found the only place to print (this whole time I saw only one other place offering Internet access, but there was no printing capability). Now I had to spend 3EUR on buying 30 minutes of Internet usage to print out 5 sheets of paper :( But at least this printing problem got solved as well almost by accident :D
While sitting at the balcony at the hostel, using the last bit of free Internet, I can hear the movie playing outside on the other side of the building - I did not make it to the film festival, chose to sit in the Internet for 2 hours instead :)
Now heading over to the bus station to go to airport. My route will be Venice - Frankfurt - Addis Abeba - Harare. Days here have been packed and intense, nights have been way too short - even Martin found the courage to mention that I look tired. All those long flights should be enough to catch up on sleep :) Hopefully nothing too exciting happens before I make it to Harare, Zimbabwe.
Day in Verona - 4.sept
Another early wake up call, quick breakfast and a tram ride to the train station. Have to mention that the tram kinda broke down at half way to the station after making a loud horrible sound. It would not move. So the tram driver made a restart :) All the lights went out, the quiet humming noise stopped for a while, then came a beep, humming noise started again, all the ticket machines ran a log and restarted themselves and our journey continued after a few minutes. Must be running on microsoft :) ?
It took a bit over an hour to get to Verona from Padova. All we knew about the town was that we need to go and visit the Arena and Julias balcony :) Of course we found more things to look at, the city is beautiful, city's flag is almost the same as Swedish flag only the cross made of two yellow stripes is aligned to the center of the flag. When Bologna was very massive and heavy, Verona is much different. There is a river winding through the city with many bridges crossing it every now and then, there are even more churches here than there were in Venice, there are statues on every corner and the heavy stone tombs are lifted up to about 3 meters from the ground and accompanied by lots of decorations.
Anyhow, first we found the Arena - a Roman amphitheater, which is internationally famous for the large-scale opera performances given there. It is one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind. The building itself was built in AD 30 on a site which was then beyond the city walls. The ludi (shows and games) staged there were so famous that spectators came from many other places, often far away, to witness them. The amphitheater could host more than 30 000 spectators in ancient times, currently it seats 20 000 people. It is used for opera performances nowadays.
Next we found Julia's Tomb, but it seemed so boring and half way under construction that we did not even bother to get a closer look. Found Juliet's balcony. Statue of Dante. Walked by the castel- which was magnificent. As wiki knows to inform about the bridge by the castle: with a span length of 48.70 m, the 1356 completed segmental arch bridge Ponte Scaligero featured at the time the world's largest bridge arch.
History of Verona is colorful, starting from Romans, continuing with Napoleon and also Germans. Won't go any further with covering the history, but I strongly suggest looking it up ;) As you all already figured out Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was based in Verona. Oh and Leonardo Da Vinci was from Verona!
I just have to mention that toilets here in Italy are something different. Some of them are in the tiniest closets, most toilets in public areas (including bus and train stations) cost up to 80 cents. More than once I have found a toilet where there is no seat, there are simply locations for your feet and that is it. Kinda like they used to have in Lauluväljak times ago (this was my friends term). Toilets are all clean and everything but it just seems so ancient and strange to me.
Now comes the story of our wonderful hostel :) It is located right on San Polo square. In the directions that I printed out it was stated that it is best to call ahead of time so they can arrange a pick-up. Well I did call but as it came out this was the only way to get into the hotel, not because of a pick-up, but because they would open the front door via mobile :D Further instructions were given by phone to walk upstairs where we would find the key in a pouch stuck to the door, open the door with a key and keep walking towards a door with my name on it :) How cool is that :) And the house keeper would only come the next morning during breakfast, this would be the time to pay as well. Haven't seen anything that relaxed in a while.
And this place has INTERNET! With a cable and all :) Took me quite a bit more than an hour to make few posts, go through my e-mails and find out what is happening in the world. This was all followed by a quick dinner and off to bed we went - afterall tomorrow we need to wake up very early.
It took a bit over an hour to get to Verona from Padova. All we knew about the town was that we need to go and visit the Arena and Julias balcony :) Of course we found more things to look at, the city is beautiful, city's flag is almost the same as Swedish flag only the cross made of two yellow stripes is aligned to the center of the flag. When Bologna was very massive and heavy, Verona is much different. There is a river winding through the city with many bridges crossing it every now and then, there are even more churches here than there were in Venice, there are statues on every corner and the heavy stone tombs are lifted up to about 3 meters from the ground and accompanied by lots of decorations.
Anyhow, first we found the Arena - a Roman amphitheater, which is internationally famous for the large-scale opera performances given there. It is one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind. The building itself was built in AD 30 on a site which was then beyond the city walls. The ludi (shows and games) staged there were so famous that spectators came from many other places, often far away, to witness them. The amphitheater could host more than 30 000 spectators in ancient times, currently it seats 20 000 people. It is used for opera performances nowadays.
Next we found Julia's Tomb, but it seemed so boring and half way under construction that we did not even bother to get a closer look. Found Juliet's balcony. Statue of Dante. Walked by the castel- which was magnificent. As wiki knows to inform about the bridge by the castle: with a span length of 48.70 m, the 1356 completed segmental arch bridge Ponte Scaligero featured at the time the world's largest bridge arch.
History of Verona is colorful, starting from Romans, continuing with Napoleon and also Germans. Won't go any further with covering the history, but I strongly suggest looking it up ;) As you all already figured out Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was based in Verona. Oh and Leonardo Da Vinci was from Verona!
I just have to mention that toilets here in Italy are something different. Some of them are in the tiniest closets, most toilets in public areas (including bus and train stations) cost up to 80 cents. More than once I have found a toilet where there is no seat, there are simply locations for your feet and that is it. Kinda like they used to have in Lauluväljak times ago (this was my friends term). Toilets are all clean and everything but it just seems so ancient and strange to me.
Now comes the story of our wonderful hostel :) It is located right on San Polo square. In the directions that I printed out it was stated that it is best to call ahead of time so they can arrange a pick-up. Well I did call but as it came out this was the only way to get into the hotel, not because of a pick-up, but because they would open the front door via mobile :D Further instructions were given by phone to walk upstairs where we would find the key in a pouch stuck to the door, open the door with a key and keep walking towards a door with my name on it :) How cool is that :) And the house keeper would only come the next morning during breakfast, this would be the time to pay as well. Haven't seen anything that relaxed in a while.
And this place has INTERNET! With a cable and all :) Took me quite a bit more than an hour to make few posts, go through my e-mails and find out what is happening in the world. This was all followed by a quick dinner and off to bed we went - afterall tomorrow we need to wake up very early.
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