Lille

I settled in Lille in May 2018, after living for 7 months in Valenciennes, 45 minutes south of Lille by train. I moved to Valenciennes from Scheveningen in the Netherlands, once my seasonal bar job came to an end, and a job opportunity in the travel industry arose. Valenciennes was a nice small town, but the commute to work was taking up a lot of my time, 3 hours of my day from home to the office and back again. Therefore I chose to move closer to the office and to the interesting city of Lille. Check out my previous post on how I got set up on the French system, and how to get insulin and diabetes supplies in France.

Basilica of Notre-Dame des Enfants – Valenciennes

Being the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, Lille has great transport connections to the rest of France and Europe, with a high-speed TGV train line connecting Paris with Lille in one hour. This along with a Eurostar stop puts Lille at the center of a triangle connecting Paris, London and Brussels.

The old town (Vieux-Lille) has some fantastic French and Flemish architecture, with small cobbled streets, home to an array of branded shops. Down the rue de la Clef there are alternative clothes stores and music shops, all which lie behind colorful shop fronts. There are also many antique shops and small boutiques, as well as some great restaurants and bars. Being a university city there are a large number of students, over 110,000 in the metropolitan area of Lille, leading to an electric atmosphere in the evenings.

Out of the old town there are renowned art museums, such as The Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. This museum is dedicated to fine arts, modern art, and antiquities. The collection includes works by Raphael, Donatello, Rembrandt, Goya and El Greco. There is also more stylish shopping, churches with fantastic architecture and great restaurants and bars, my favorite being La Luck, with Brasserie-style dining and artisan beers. It has outdoor seating & a board game library upstairs, where you can play games as you eat and drink.

The main square of Lille, the Place du Général de Gaulle (Grand Place), is surrounded by many buildings with their beautiful facades, dating from the seventeenth century and the Flemish Renaissance. These include the Théâtre du Nord, La Voix du Nord, the Old Stock Exchange and Chamber of Commerce. In the center is the fountain with the Column of the Goddess.

Most places are closed on a Sunday, but a 10 minute walk from the main square, or a couple of stops on the Metro, is Wazemmes Market (Marché de Wazemmes). This is a large flea market open from 07:00 – 14:00 (not every day, these are the Sunday hours). Here you can spend your time exploring the interesting market where you can find, and taste, all sorts of local products. Like any market in a city, be aware of pickpockets.

Situated close to the city and accessible by foot from the center to the north, is the Citadel. You cannot enter the Citadel itself as it is still used as a military base, but the park and the moat that surrounds the building offers a lovely walk, and a nice place to relax in the sun away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The Braderie de Lille is an annual street market/flea market, that takes place on the first weekend of September in the city center. The city is turned into a pedestrian zone with more than 10,000 sellers, and a seemingly endless line of stalls selling a wide variety of products and antiques. With so many different stalls and products, the Braderie is divided into areas by type of object being sold. A map of this is available to download a few weeks before the event. The traditional meal during the event is mussels and chips (Moules Frites). Nearly all of the city’s restaurants sell mussels during the flea market, accompanied by a local beer. It used to be that each restaurant participates in an unofficial competition to see which one is able to build the highest pile of empty mussel shells, but I’m led to believe that this no longer takes place. However I haven’t visited for a couple of years due to cancellations and moving away. The atmosphere is carnivalesque and in the evenings this turns more into a party atmosphere, with people lining the streets sampling a few too many of the local beers.

My time is Lille came to an end, as the company I was working for closed their office due to the COVID pandemic. Therefore everyone was working from home and they gave the option of working from anywhere in mainland France. Therefore I packed my bags and went to sunny Perpignan, at the foot of the Pyrenees and only a few kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea.

Getting Insulin in France

In late September 2017 the summer season was coming to an end, meaning the pop up beach bar I had been working in for the previous 7 months in the Netherlands was closing. A job opportunity came up in Lille, working for a company in the travel industry, so I decided to make the move. At that time the UK was still in the EU, so it was perhaps easier to move then, than it would be now. I never planned to stay in France for 4 years, but as the world came to a standstill due to the COVID pandemic, travelling became increasingly difficult. As the office closed, all staff were given the opportunity to work from anywhere in mainland France. Therefore in April 2021 I decided to give up my apartment in Lille, and head down to sunny Perpignan, at the foot of the Pyrenees and only a few kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea.

How to get insulin in France.

As I knew I would be staying in France for the foreseeable future, and my insulin supplies were running low, I needed to get set up on the French healthcare system in order to obtain my diabetes supplies. The good thing is, if you live and work in France then you are entitled to state healthcare cover. I was given insurance through my work, so the next step was to register on the French social security system, the most common being the Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie (CPAM). This doesn’t guarantee free healthcare but will cover the amount the French state agrees to reimburse (usually around 70%). If you have a chronic medical condition, such as Type 1 diabetes, you can receive 100% coverage!

I went down to my local CPAM office to register and needed to show the following documents – my passport (national ID card also works), proof of my long-term residence, birth certificate, evidence of income and proof of address in France. I also booked an appointment at a doctors surgery to obtain a prescription. The diabetic prescriptions are valid for 3 months/3 visits to the pharmacy, and after it has expired (it is stamped in the pharmacy each time you use it), you will have to book another appointment at the doctors to have the prescription reissued.

Once you are fully registered in the French healthcare system you will be sent a Carte Vitale. You show this every time you use the healthcare system; at the doctors, in pharmacies to process your prescription, at the hospital etc. The card is entered into the system by the healthcare professional, which registers the treatment you receive with CPAM. If you visit for a diabetes related reason you will not be charged up front and it is all taken care of with the Carte Vital. If the visit is for another reason, you will have to pay up front, and then you will receive some money back (usually 70% as stated above), directly into your bank account once it has been processed by CPAM.

If you have not received the Carte Vital yet, but still need medical assistance, you will be given a treatment form (feuille de soins) once you have paid. When you receive the Carte Vitale, you can sign the feuille de soins and send it off to CPAM, and they will reimburse the correct amount directly into your bank account.

Getting set up on the system was smooth enough and in the last 4 years I have no had a problem with obtaining the supplies I need.

The Netherlands

In the spring of 2017, 10 months after I had left the UK on a 1 way ticket to Mongolia, I was running low on money. I decided to take up the offer made by some friends, who I met on my travels in Vietnam, to move to Scheveningen on the west coast of the Netherlands. They offered for me to stay with them for 1 month, whilst I looked for a job in one of the beach bars and more permanent accommodation. I flew to Amsterdam from Venice, then caught a train to Den Haag (The Hague), taking 30 minutes and then a tram from Den Haag to Scheveningen, taking 20 minutes.

Scheveningen is a lovely little town, with a harbor and a huge beach lined with beach bars and restaurants, which are set up along the beach during the summer season. It was in one of the beach bars that I managed to secure a job, not as a barman or a waiter, but as the Nightswatchman, working from 23:30 – 07:30, four nights a week, making sure nobody enters the area when its closed, doing some cleaning and keeping an eye out for any fires or potential fire risks. This the main thing the manager’s are worried about, they have so many gas fires around, and people coming in and cooking barbeques on the wooden terraces. The whole place is made of wood and the risk of fire is high. That was in fact the easiest job I have ever had, working 8 hours a night but spending 6 of them watching Netflix, needless to say I have seen a fair few TV series now! The pay was good, the staff really nice and it worked really well for me at that time. I used to get back at 8am, sleep for a few hours and then head down to the beach to sunbathe/sleep for the afternoon. The sun rises at 04:30 and sets around 23:00 so I still got plenty of daylight, the main thing people miss when working nights. 

After a month with Naomi and Jesper I needed to move out and find somewhere to live. I’m incredibly grateful for what they did for me but they needed their own space back. I managed to get a long term deal at the only hostel in Scheveningen, Jorplace Beach Hostel. The price is normally around €25 a night, depending on the season and which room you take, but I managed to get a deal for €320 a month, a little over €10 a night. This was a lot cheaper then any flat/shared apartment I could find in Scheveningen. There are places available in the city center for around €400 but I didn’t want to commute that far every night, and wanted to be by the beach. The hostel life worked well for me. They had a kitchen, a bar and I often got given left over BBQ food when the paying guests don’t eat it all.

I set up a bank account with ING, I went in to a branch on Scheveningen high street and made an appointment for the following day to set up a simple current account. For this you also have to provide an address, so I asked Naomi and Jasper if I could use theirs, to which they said yes. At the time the UK was still considered part of the EU, so perhaps things have changed now for UK residence, but the following information should still apply to the rest of the EU: I wanted to stay in that job for the full summer season, as my rent was cheap, the pay was ok and I was managing to save some money. However to legally work in the Netherlands for longer than 4 months, you need to register an address with the government, but they did not consider the hostel as a valid permanent address, for obvious reasons! However the owner of the beach bar allowed me to register his address in the system, this way ensuring that I could work until their closure in October, and meaning I was set up for the next couple of months.

How to get Insulin in the Netherlands.

Everyone living and working in the Netherlands is obliged to have basic Dutch health insurance. In order to get your diabetes supplies, you will need to set up an appointment with a doctor to get a prescription and take along your insurance. If there’s a delay in your insurance, it will be backdated to the date that you arrived. Therefore if you go out and get a prescription from a GP to buy your diabetes supplies while you are uninsured, you will be reimbursed nonetheless once the insurance is activated. It may be that you’re travelling through the Netherlands and your insulin has run out. The solution to this is to visit a doctor, pay for the visit, and pay for your insulin upfront, the price of which varies from provider to provider.

what to do in and around scheveningen

There are a few different things to do in Scheveningen but for me the main draw was the beach. I didn’t really know that the west coast of the Netherlands had such long sandy beaches! From the end of March to September/October beach bars sprout up along the edge of the beach, where you can relax in the sun with a cold beer and a cook-it-yourself BBQ. Being towards the north of Europe, it is obviously not beach weather every day! The pier is well worth a visit and the Panorama Mesdag museum is cool, with a 360-degree panoramic mural depicting Scheveningen in the late 1800’s.

There are 11 different tram lines in Scheveningen, and if you are going for a long weekend you can buy a 1 or 3 day ticket from on board. If you plan to spend longer in the Netherlands you can acquire an OV-chipkaart, which you charge for use on public transport.

Tram number 1 runs from Scheveningen to the beautiful town of Delft, taking around 40 minutes, famous for its ceramic Delft Blue pottery. It is also known as the birth place of the famous painter Johannes Vermeer, known for “the girl with the Pearl earring”. There are a number of beautiful buildings, squares and churches. The New Church’s tower offers a perfect view across Delft and its surroundings. In good weather, you can easily see Rotterdam and The Hague from the top of the 85 meter tower. To climb the tower, you must buy a token from the New Church.

The flower fields of Noordwijkerhout are a 30 minute drive north of Scheveningen, and well worth a visit, however not so easy to reach by public transport so I drove out with Naomi and Jesper to take in the amazing sights. The best time to visit is the end of March until mid May.

I really enjoyed my time in Scheveningen for the summer beach season. From there I decided to move to Lille, in northern France, as I found a steady job that could fund my future plans!

Andorra

In late October I travelled from my current base in Perpignan, to the Principality of Andorra, situated in the Pyrenees and landlocked by France to the north and Spain to the south. The drive from Perpignan is simple enough and very scenic, taking around 3 hours to reach Andorra la Vella. There is the option of crossing the border into Spain from France, and entering Andorra from the south, or staying in France and entering Andorra from the north east. If you enter through France you will have to pay €6.40 to drive through the 2km long Envalira Tunnel which connects the 2 countries. If you are driving at night I would recommend going through Spain, however during the day the scenery on the French route is beautiful. The two closest airports to Andorra are Barcelona and Toulouse, where you can book a bus, taking around 4 hours to reach Andorra la Vella.

I arrived on Friday evening and there was a bit of a queue at the border crossing, but I was not stopped and my passport not checked. I’m not sure what the queue was for, perhaps they stop some cars at random. I had 2 days in Andorra, before heading back to Perpignan Monday afternoon. I based myself in the capital, Andorra la Vella, and stayed at the Hotel Pyrénées, having a great location and comfortable rooms.

I wanted to spend a day looking around the city and see what it had to offer. However if I was going skiing (not possible in October) I would look to stay in a chalet in the villages further into the mountains.

As Andorra is not part of the European Union, the country’s trade policy is not affected by the strict European regulations, meaning that items such as perfume and alcohol are a lot cheaper there then in many place in Europe. Therefore you can stock up on goods without breaking the bank. For shopping for just about anything, from electronics to perfumes and accessories, to sportswear and equipment you can visit the Shopping Mile. In this area, you’ll find over 180 shops and restaurants that include the most well-known international brands. The food is very reasonably priced in most places, and a lot cheaper then where I am currently based in France. There are some nice buildings and fountains around, which look pretty lit up at night. As tourism is a big in Andorra the majority of people speak English, which is useful if you don’t speak Catalan!

On the second day I decided to head up into the mountains. The roads were wide, spacious and very comfortable to drive on, offering great scenery of the mountainous countryside.

Leaving from Andorra la Vella I headed west out of the city for around 2 km, arriving at Pont de la Margineda, a lovely picturesque bridge built around the 15th century. There is an exit from the roundabout where you can park up and walk over the bridge, and also head down to the river.

From there it was around a 30 mins drive up to Coll de Cabús, on the border with Spain. I got very lucky with the weather and could see for miles. It’s worth taking some time to walk around, exploring the pine trees and taking in the fresh mountain air, however being 2302m above sea level it can get quite cold in the wind.

You can continue west on the road into Spain if you so wish, but the road is not tarmacked, and looked quite dangerous, especially if the weather turned. Therefore I stayed in Andorra and descended down the mountain the same way I came, heading east for another 30 minute scenic drive to Coll d’Ordino, a beautiful mountain pass. There is a viewpoint overlooking Ordino where you can pull over and take in the views, and 600m further up the road, there is a car park, where you can get out and explore the walking trails with breathtaking views.

Five minutes further up the road from the carpark I stopped to visit Mirador Roc Del Quer. This is a suspended platform with glass panels in the floor and views over mountain peaks, valleys & villages. There was a big queue to get to the viewpoint, which I did not join. However there are still stunning views of the country on the approach to the viewpoint, and the road to drive on to head back to the city looked fantastic.

Andorra is a lovely place to visit for a long weekend and I will definitely be back for a longer period to go skiing. The scenery on the mountain roads is fantastic, the roads are wide, safe and great fun to drive. Perhaps in the winter they will be more dangerous and you would have to prepare the car to drive in icy conditions, however at the end of October this was not needed, even at 2000+ meters above sea level. Andorra la Vella is a nice, modern city with lots of shopping options, however if this is not your cup of tea, then you can easily spend the time out, up in the mountains!

Venice

I arrived in Venice from Milan via another €12 Flix Bus, leaving from the Milan Lampugnano Bus Station at 10:35 and arriving at Venice Mestre Train Station at 13:50. Venice Mestre is situated on the mainland, so I caught a train to Venice Santa Lucia on the main island, costing €1.25. I had booked into the cheapest hostel I could find, Apartment Garden Venice, which had 7 beds squeezed into a 4 bed dorm. It was €20 a night, including city tax and cleaning tax (whatever that is?!), which for Venice is not too bad at all. The location was very good, just don’t expect too much. 

I had 3 nights in Venice, 2 full days so I spent my first full day getting lost. The weather wasn’t fantastic but that didn’t really matter as it is such a beautiful place. The main places to see are: The Rialto Bridge, Bridge of Sighs, St Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace, The Santa Maria della Salute and the Scuola Grande San Marco. This easily takes up a whole day, especially when you get lost down all the different alleys, but you will eventually stumble across all these places. The best part about Venice was getting lost and discovering the quiet little alleys, and beautiful bridges, with no one around. There are plenty of bars and restaurants lining the canals but there’s something about eating a pizza and having a glass of red wine overlooking the water on your own that doesn’t isn’t quite as fun as doing it with someone else. I did find a great little restaurant called Gino’s that had a margherita pizza and a glass of red for €7.90. It’s situated a 5 minute walk after taking a left out the train station, on the main strip. 

On my second full day I decided to splash out €20 and buy a 24 hour boat taxi ticket. A one journey ticket cost €7.50, so as long as you jump on 3 boats then it’s worth paying the money. I was skeptical about purchasing the ticket as it seemed like a lot of money, but it was definitely worth it. You can’t go to Venice without zig-zagging from side to side down the canals on a boat. I decided to head over to the island of Murano, famous for it’s glass, and spent a while looking at all the different fascinating glass shops. I then continued over to another island called Lido and spent a bit of time walking the calm street and enjoying a coffee, in one of the many coffee shops.

I was then going to head back to the main island, but at the last minute changed my mind and jumped on a boat to Punta Sabbioni, which I thought was another island, but it turned out to be miles away and actually back on the main land of Italy. I went for a walk to an old castle and ended up walking for 2 hours through some beautiful idyllic farmlands and eventually stumbling across the biggest beach I have ever seem in my life, with not a single person on it. I walked along the beach for a bit and ended up getting stuck inside as a fence ran along the whole length of the beach and big padlocked gates stopped anyone getting in or out. After walking for 20 minutes I had to turn around and leave the same way I got in, which turns out was a building site I wasn’t meant to enter. I eventually made my way back to the port to catch a ferry back to the mainland, for my last dinner in Italy. 

I am now on my way to the Netherlands, to stay with some friends for a while that I met in Vietnam, after a fantastic 2 weeks in Italy. I am flying out of Marco Polo Airport which is a 30 minute bus ride from the Piazzale Roma Bus Station, which is located next to the Santa Lucia Train Station on the main island. Bus number 5 heads to the airport every 30 minutes costing €8. I really did have a great time in this beautiful country and I will definitely be back someday!!

Milan

I arrived from Florence via another Flix Bus, leaving at 13:30 and arriving at the Milan Lumpugno Bus Station at 16:45, costing €12. It was a pleasant, easy journey but the scenery wasn’t amazing due to the amount of tunnels we went through.

I was never really very interested in Milan, I’m not the biggest fan of fashion and needless to say I definitely cannot afford to shop there. For this reason I only booked for 2 nights and set aside some time to watch the final three 6 Nations games. Once arriving at the Lumpugno Bus Station, the Metro Station is located directly opposite. I was one staying 2 stops away, a 5 minute walk from the Lotto Metro Stop. This was a nice area to stay, it felt safe and it has good transport links to the city center and back to the Bus Station when I needed to leave.

I woke up early in the morning and went to explore, catching the Metro to Duomo in the city center. This is the main area to explore, and like in Rome the Metro ticket cost €1.50. I however bought a 24 hour ticket for €4.50, with unlimited travel in the 24 hours. Once at Duomo you exit onto the main square of Milan’s iconic cathedral, so name Milan Duomo. It is free to enter the main building but to go into the treasury costs money. It it a very impressive building being the largest church in Italy and the fifth largest in the world.

From the cathedral I walked over to Castello Sforzesco, an old castle with a nice fountain out the front, and some gardens and parks to explore. It is an impressive castle, originally built in the 15th century, but extensive renovation work has since being carried out. I continued through the grounds round the back and side of the castle, which opens up into a beautiful park where you can lose an hour or so walking around or relaxing on one of the many benches in the sun. If you walk all the way through the park you will stumble upon the Arco della Pace an impressive archway built in the 19th century, to mark the gateway to the city, but it’s origins can be traced back to the where the original Roman walls stood. 

From here I continued north to the FourFourTwo Sports Bar, situated very near Gerusalemme Metro Station. I settled down to watch the 6 hours of rugby, mingling with the Italian fans who were there to watch Inter Milan play and lots of Irish who were celebrating the St Patrick’s weekend and who were also overjoyed that the Irish best the English. This bought an end to my time in Milan, I don’t think I really gave it the time it deserved, but for now I’m off to Venice, maybe to return to Milan someday! 

Florence and a Day Trip to Pisa

From Rome I had 2 options on how to get to Florence, a train for over €30 taking around an hour, or a bus for €12 taking 3 hours. As I have all the time in the world, I decided to go by bus. I booked my ticket online at FlixBus.it, printed out my ticket and I was set to go. The bus left from the Tiburtina Bus Station, 4 stops from Termini on Metro Line B (Blue line). On your ticket it will have your departure point, arrival point and the bus number and the Flix busses are all bright green so you can’t really miss them. There is no schedule or electronic board displayed at the Bus Station, you just have to wait and see where your bus pulls up. The bus was big, comfortable and clean, with reclining seats, WiFi, a toilet and charge points for your electrical items. Florence is called Firenze in Italy so make sure you don’t miss your stop. When looking for trains on the Train Italia website you have to enter the Italian names for the stations. 

I arrived in Florence at the Firenze Piazzale Montelungo Bus Terminal, situated directly behind the Firenze Santa Maria Novella Train Station, which is fantastic to say in an Italian accent… try it!! I had booked into a hostel, Hostel 7 Santi, near one of the other Train Stations, Firenze Campo di Marte so I caught a train costing €1.50 for the 7 minute journey. From there it was a 5 minute walk to my hostel. The hostel was nice, had an all you can eat breakfast for €5 and an all you can eat dinner for €7 which was pretty good.

From the hostel it was a pleasant 20 minute walk to the historical part of Florence. I decided I was going to have a free day so I didn’t pay to go in any of the museum’s or buildings, I just admired the amazing architecture from the outside. The most notable attractions were: Florence Cathedral, Santa Croce, Palazzo Pitti and The Florence Baptisery. I then walked down to the river and followed it for a while, which was lovely and relaxing, before crossing and heading up the Piazzale Michelangelo. It wasn’t a hard climb, only took 5 minutes and it offers fantastic views of the city of Florence, with the domed buildings and churches dominating the skyline with a mountainous background.

The following day I decided to take a day trip to Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower. A train ticket cost €8.40 from any of the Firenze train stations, but you will nearly always have to change at the main Santa Maria Novella Station. If you are staying near one of the other station don’t buy an individual ticket to Santa Maria Novella and then another one to Pisa, as this will cost you an extra €1.50. The train to Pisa Central took 47 minutes and from there it was a nice 15 minute walk to the Leaning Tower, through the main high street. The city of Pisa is lovely but I didn’t feel like there was that much to do apart from visit the Leaning Tower. It does have some fantastic architecture but nothing you can’t see in Florence, so I would say half a day is easily enough time. The Learning Tower is actually the Bell Tower of the adjoining Cathedral and it really is crazy how far it leans. Originally it slanted the other way and many architects tried over the year’s to remedy this, causing it to slant the other way. There is the option of climbing the Tower but the queues are long and it costs a whopping €18. 

I had a great time in Florence and Pisa, soaking up the relaxing atmosphere and admiring the amazing architecture, but from here I am heading to the fashion capital of the world, Milan. 

Rome

Arriving in this beautiful city from Ancona I had to get my priorities straight, Wales had beaten Ireland in the 6 Nations the day before, meaning that if England beat Scotland then they would be crowned 6 nations champions. I went out for my first walk on the streets of Rome, bypassed the Colosseum and went straight to a pub showing the game. First up before the England game was Italy v France, which had a great atmosphere in the pub and then England thrashed Scotland, what a great start!

I had 3 days in Rome altogether and I knew I could fit everything in that I wanted to do in the remaining 2 days. First up was the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. A ticket cost €12 and allows entry to both sights and the Palatino (I actually forgot to go in the Palatino… oops) and is valid for 2 days, with 1 entry into each attraction. If you are between the ages of 18-25 and are from an EU country the ticket is only €7.50. Now I missed the whole Brexit thing, being in the middle of the Gobi Desert with no WIFI, but I’m pretty sure we are leaving the EU, luckily that didn’t matter, I managed to secure the cheaper ticket.

The Colosseum, or Colosseo in Italian, is an amazing piece of architecture. Make sure you approach it from the park to the east as you will see it growing bigger and bigger through the trees, and eventually it towers over you, a spectacular sight. After your visit follow the walkway round the outside which takes you to the Roman Forum and dive inside to explore. A good tip given to me by my mum’s window cleaner (weird I know!) is to purchase your combined ticket at the Roman Forum, that way you skip the queues at the Colosseum, however I didn’t have too much trouble with the queues as its not a busy time of year! The Roman Forum is huge with a large number of historical ruins, with information boards next to each ruin to fill you in on the history of this fantastic site. 

From the Roman Forum I continued north by foot and arrived at the Pantheon, another fantastic building and very similar to the one I had just seen in Athens, just in a lot better condition. There are plenty of restaurants and cafes surrounding the Pantheon, so it’s probably a good place to stop for lunch and soak up the atmosphere. From there I walked over to the Trevi Fountain which was incredibly impressive and then I continued on to the Spanish Steps. After I walked up the Spanish Steps I took a left and followed the road into the park, where I spent a lazy afternoon recovering from the long walk and I took my time watching full grown adults falling over trying to learn to rollerblade.

I then walked over to the view point and looked down over the Piazza Del Popollo which offers great views of the city, if you time it right you can catch the sunset. I then went down the steps to view the Piazza Del Poppolo up close before catching the Metro back to my hostel to freshen up, before an amazing Italian dinner. I was staying a 10 minute walk from the Central Station or Termini which I felt was a great location. It meant I was close to the public transport links if I didn’t feel like walking, and I wasn’t far from the Colosseum. A ticket for the Metro costs €1.50 and is valid for one whole journey with a total time of 100 minutes. It means if you want to travel from the end of Line A, swap lines at Termini and continue to the end of Line B, as long as it takes under 100 minutes, it will cost the same as travelling 1 stop, €1.50.

On my final day I caught the Metro to the Vatican. The stop to get off at is Ottaviano even thought the stop before is called Lepanto Vaticano. You will see a lot of people getting off at Lepanto but it is a longer walk to the Vatican. The 2 main attractions are St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum, which houses the Sistine Chapel. One thing to note is you are not allowed to enter if you are wearing shorts or showing your shoulders, no matter how hot it is or what gender you are, I saw people getting turned away. Also the Museum is shut on a Sunday which can be annoying if you are only there for the weekend. When you enter St Peter’s Square you will see a huge queue with people queuing to go through, airport security style, to enter the Basilica. I decided not to join this queue and went back outside and round to the left to join the queue for the Museum.

I had about 20 touts come up to me and say that the queue was over 2 hours long and I could pay them €60 so I could jump to the front of both lines, for the Museum and the Basilica. I decided against this and joined the queue, which was down to the second corner and I was inside within 37 minutes. Now this was quite a long time to wait but it saved me tons of money and everything moves quite quickly. The entry ticket was €16 and the Museum is home to sooooooo much art and history, if you are an art lover then you could easily lose 5 hours in the museum.

If you haven’t purchased the queue jump ticket make sure you visit the Sistine Chapel last. It is an amazing piece of art and it takes a while to get through the crowds. Once you are through to the end there is a door on the right which says “Exit Strictly For Tour Groups Only” and an exit on the left which takes you back out the front. If you take the door on the left you have to walk back round to St Peter’s Square and join the queue for the Basilica. Or you can be cheeky and do what I did… I immersed myself into the middle of a tour group heading out the exit on the right and 2 minutes later found myself in St Peter’s Basilica, looking out at everyone queuing in the square.

I took my time looking around and taking in the amazing architecture before joining another queue to head up to the top of the dome. This is definitely something you have to do, as the views from the top of the whole city are amazing. You can pay €6 to walk up all 551 steps or pay €8 to get an elevator up some of the way and then walk up 301 steps. It’s not worth paying and waiting for the elevator, the first 250 steps are small, wide and its an easy climb, its after that things get narrow. The final 301 steps are quite steep, tight and tricky but I thought it was fantastic. There are a few places to stop and rest if needed and the views from the top make it all worth while. After I took a few snaps I made the descent before walking back into the center of Rome along the river, appreciating my final walk in this beautiful city.

From Rome I’m catching a bus to Florence, supposedly one of the most beautiful cities in Italy, it will do well to beat Rome

Patras to Ancona Ferry

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, the Workaway I had travelled over 200 miles and 9 hours for was cancelled as I arrived at Corinth station,. This left me in a pickle as I didn’t want to travel back to Athens and didn’t want to stay in Corinth. I perhaps rather rashly booked a ferry to Italy for the following day. The ferry left from Patras at 17:00 meaning I had all day to travel there and I left early to avoid any hiccups.

In order to get from Corinth to Patras (Patra) you have to catch a bus from the main Isthmus Bus Station in Corinth, over by the canal. To get to the Isthmus Bus Station a bus leave from the smaller bus station in the center, costing €2. I ended up catching a taxi to the Isthmus Bus Station as it was hammering it down with rain. I didn’t have any waterproofs, I was wearing jeans and the waterproof cover on my bag is broken, these 8 months of travelling are taking their toll. The taxi, from New Corinth town, cost €7 and as soon as I got to the Bus Station my bus to Patras turned up, leaving at 10:10 and arriving at 12:20, costing €13.80.

From Patras Bus Station to the New Port you have to catch the blue bus, ask inside the station if you are unsure, costing €1.20. I was allowed to check in for my trip at 15:45, meaning I had a couple of hours to kill at the Port which was easy enough to do in the bar. The ferry cost €65 for an air seat, basically the same as an airplane seat, to get a cabin would have been €200 more. Checking in was very smooth, my passport was checked and my bag scanned, there were no issues with my injections and I walked straight onto the boat. The seats were comfortable enough and there were only 5 people in the 150+ seats meaning I could lay down across 3 and get a good nights sleep. The ferry was absolutely huge, with 3 restaurants, a swimming pool, a casino and 11 decks, if only I had more money!

I arrived in the beautiful town of Ancona at 15:30, around 2 hours late and walked for 15 minutes to my hostel next to the train station, my passport didn’t get checked at the Port, I was allowed straight off the boat and on my way. The cheapest hostel I could find was €16 a night but it was very pleasant with only 2 people in an 8 bed dorm. There was a shop next door and a launderettes round the corner, meaning I could finally do some washing. In the evening I went out for my first taste of Italian food, which was amazing, before settling down for a much needed rest in a proper bed. The following morning I caught a train to Rome, leaving at 08:45 and costing €17.75 (same time and price everyday). The train ride was very nice, at first following the coast, before cutting inland through the mountains, past rivers and beautiful waterfalls. I arrived in Rome around 12:30, just in time to catch some of the 6 nations! 

Santorini And A Cancelled Workaway

What a fantastically diverse, beautiful island Santorini is, with it’s mountains, green landscape, rocky landscape, red sand beaches, black sand beaches and beautiful seaside towns. I had a brilliant time and it is a shame I only had 3 nights, however it was the low season so there was hardly anyone about. 

I managed to secure a return flight from Athens for £30, half the cost of a return ferry ticket and considerably shorter, with the flight taking 35 minutes and the ferry 8 hours. I did only take hand luggage with me on the flight, as to check in a bag would have been over double the price. Flying to the Greek Islands is definitely something to consider as you not only save time, but money as well if you can find a nice deal. However the views from the ferry I’m sure would have been fantastic.

I was staying in Kamari, a small town with a beautiful black sand beach. To get there from the airport you first have to catch a bus to the capital Thira (Fira) for €1.80, and then another bus costing the same amount to Kamari. When I say bus they are actually big comfortable coaches which make up the Santorini local bus network. The buses can get you to all the main towns on the island, however in the off season they do not run frequently at all, sometimes I was waiting for an hour and half and on Sundays only 4 buses a day run to each town. I arrived on a Sunday morning and when I eventually got the 09:00 bus from Thira to Kamari I arrived in a ghost town. The whole day I saw 7 people, the restaurants were boarded up and the hotels closed for the winter. I spoke to my hotel owner and he said in the summer it is teaming with people, but in the winter it is not worth it for a lot of the businesses to stay open.

If you want to travel around the island in the winter by bus I would definitely recommend staying in Thira. If you stay in one of the other towns you always have to transfer in Thira and wait a considerable amount of time for another bus to the next town. Alternatively you could easily rent a car and drive, the roads are in good condition and not busy at all. On my first full day I caught a couple of buses and eventually arrived in Akrotiri, the location of the beautiful Red Beach. The total travel time was 2 hours, in which 23 minutes were spent on the buses. The bus from Thira drops you a nice 10 minute walk from the Red Beach, where you have to clamber up a rocky hill and make the shingly descent to the beach. The beach itself is actually quite stony but it was nice to relax for a while watching a catamaran glide past and birds swooping through the air. There was a group of girls determined to sunbathe on the beach, making me feel silly in my jeans, jumper, trainers and scarf, whist they were laying there in bikinis. I figured they must have been from Alaska! I made my way back to the bus stop for another long wait and after 30 minutes the girls drove past on 4 quad bikes having a whale of a time, they clearly had the right idea. After my bus turned up I made my way over to the lovely beach town of Perissa before heading back to Kamari for a well earned rest.

The following day, my last full day on the Island, I decided to do the 12km walk from Thira to Oia, this meant I was finally doing some proper exercise for the first time in months and I didn’t have to wait around for the buses, well apart from the one to Thira. The walk has to be one of the nicest I have ever done. From the bus station head north until you reach the cliffs and then just basically follow the dirt track all the way. There is a couple of steep hills which are totally worth it for the views from the top, and you also stumble across some amazing hidden churches. The track takes you right alongside the cliffs and at some points you can see the sea in both directions. I didn’t see a single person on the walk, I knew it would be quiet, so I was well stocked up with snacks in case my diabetes started playing up. I took my time, stopping every now and again to take in the views and at one point stopping in a cave for a diet coke, next to a lovely hidden church.

I eventually descended into Oia, a beautiful town built what looks like into the cliffs, with crisp white buildings, blue domed churches and donkeys wandering the streets. I timed my walk well and didn’t have to wait long for the bus back to Thira, then in Thira I had an hour’s wait for my bus to Kamari. On my final night it started raining, the first time I had seen rain in over 3 months. My room actually got flooded with 2 inches of water overnight which was a shock when I got out of bed in the morning. My flight back to Athens was at 08:00 but of course the buses didn’t start early enough for me to get to the airport in time. A taxi to to the airport from Kamari costs €20.

Once back in Athens I headed over to Corinth as I had organized to do a Workaway on a farm for 3 weeks, 5 hours work a day for free food and accommodation. I rang my host Kostandis when I was back in Athens to tell him I was on my way, and he told me to ring him again when I was on the last of my 3 trains. I eventually got on my last train and called Kostandis who didn’t answer I then tired again with no answer so I continued trying. I didn’t know what to do, I thought my phone was playing up because I have an English number, trying to call a Greek mobile in Greece. The phone wasn’t connecting and just kept beeping every time I tired. I eventually reached Corinth Train Station and tried one last time. He answered the phone this time and said I couldn’t stay with him and do the farmwork as I rang him too much when he was trying to sleep. He’s the one who told me to call, he’s the one who didn’t answer, what did he expect me to do? I had travelled for 9 hours, over 200 miles, caught a taxi, a plane, a bus and 3 trains to get to Corinth to help him on his farm and he cancels because I did what he asked me to do.

It turns out there are no hostels in Corinth either so I had to pay €25 for a hotel for one night. This had thrown my plans up in the air. I regrouped in my hotel and tried to decide what to do next. I’d already stayed in Athens for 5 days and didn’t need to go back, all the flights out of Greece were over £100 for the next day, and I didn;t want to stay another night in Corinth. I decided to book a ferry to Italy, leaving the following day from Patras and arriving in Ancona with a travel time of 20 hours (more information on this will be in my next post). I am currently writing this from the ferry, rocking from side to side as a thunderstorm hits from all angles, it turns out I don’t miss rain after 3 months without it!