Sweden is more like Eden

Ahhhh, Sweden. Touching down in the pink glow of the late summer sunset on the thickly forested shores of Gothenburg (Sweden’s second largest city) was like a long, cool, glass of water after a hot and sticky final day in Italy.

Sweden contrasted Italy in almost every way. Like Red and Green. It was friendly, organised, sophisticated and über cool. We had only one week to explore the three main cities of this sparsely populated country, but Heath, Andrew and I all agreed it would be very easy to have spent a lot more time in Sweden. We had three nights in Gothenburg, two in Malmo and two in Stockholm. Stockholm was definitely a highlight. We managed to get tickets to see the troubled genius of Daniel Johnston perform in the stunning Berns Salonger. He played with a bunch of his mates, including members of Yo La Tango, Teenage Fanclub and Scout Niblett. There was something very fragile about his great lumbering figure singing the sweetest love songs and stories of redemption. He even managed to Rock Out too!
It was also refreshing not to be overwhelmed with tourist attractions. We were very happy to just spend the week exploring the beautiful lanes and squares of the old towns, poking about in the amazing clothing, design stores and museums and lapping up the lifestyle in the abundant cafes.
Perhaps the only disappointment was never finding an IKEA….

Mr Gothenburg.

The first day we were in Gothenburg we decided to hit the amusement park of Lisberg. We talked ourselves into going on the "Worlds Best Wooden Rollercoaster" (See above). By the way, the day after we went one of the rides fell apart.

This was on an Island Fortress we visited in Gothenburg

Malmo

Old Town in Stockholm

Changing of the guard at the Palace in Stockholm. Did you know Sweden has one of the worlds oldest monarchies. They are also much more attractive than the English royals!

Daniel Johnston and friends

Kickin it old school on the "garden" island in Stockholm. We rode around the whole island.

Thanks Sweden. Hope to see you again someday.

PS. Ever wondered about that particular scent that Ikea has? Turns out its Sweden! The whole of Sweden smells just like Ikea! That heady mix of new pine, clever, functional design and blonde, athletic types.

It's Italy, not Shitaly! Part Two: Roma!

8. Roma: What a beautiful city. It's really one of the best in the world and has so much culture and history to offer. And the tourists to match. But it's a testament to the city that on 34-38 degree days we were still eager to trek through winding streets past sweaty tourists, pick-pockets and street beggars.

Anyhow, the hits:
St. Peters at night. We will eventually photoshop those chaps out of the picture.


Inside St. Peters. You can actually feel the big guy peeking inside.The Fountain de Trivoli. We're happy we managed one photo without tourists in it, even at 11pm. Damn tourists.

Inside the Vatician Museum in the hall that leads to the Sistine Chapel .
The confusing layout of the museum, complete with very poor signage and NO maps (which was enough to make Sarah go crazy) leads you to the chapel as it's climactic ending, but by the time you get there after fighting with every other joe tourist it's hard to really appreciate the chapel. Due to the shear number of tourists they really cram them in there and then wonder why they can't get complete silence in the room. So you hear the minders and security guards constantly loudly whispering, "Shhhhhhhh, silence!" and "No photos!". No one listens. In this same hall we heard a guy telling what we could only assume were his parents that you can't take photos in the Sistine Chapel because a Japanese television company owns the rights to it.

Not our photo of the Chapel. A pic form the net so you can visualise the room.The Colosseum on the outside starring Sarah.
The Colosseum on the inside. Click to enlarge.
Z.Z. Top have become ministers. I knew it!

Scenic.
Rome's Pantheon.
Believe me there are many more photos. Maybe some other time! Next week Sarah will take you to a country different in nearly every way, shape and form to Italy: Sweden!

It's Italy, not Shitaly!

Welcome to part one of our manic seven day tour of Italy. To give you a better idea of the travel involved I've included a map of our destinations with allocated numbers (Next to the photos i'll allocate a number so you know where the shot was taken). For our trip we formed a team of Super-Friends with my best buddy Heath McGregor and friend, ex-work colleague, and Italian Language expert Emily Petricola. For this trip we hired a car to roam (no pun intended) the lands freely. And what lands! Italy proved to be one of the most beautiful countries we've ever been to and it really was worth hiring a car to get a truly personal view of the country side. Also Emily ought to get extra credit points for doing an astounding job of driving!

1. Pisa
2. Tavernelle Val d'Pesa
3. Siena
4. Florence
5. Cecina
6. San Gimignano
7.Naples
8.Rome

(2) The Super Friends.


(1) The leaning tower of Pisa isn't just the name of a good Pizza and Pasta place in Ballarat. No, it's also a major landmark. After a stuggle with getting the hire car (which was when we learned of Emily's brother's nickname for Italy's lazy and unorganized attitude to anything involving organization: 'Shitaly') we could finally hit the road.


(2) This is the town we were based in for four nights, a beautiful quite town with a communtiy atmosphere I've never encountered anywhere else. They live a very social lifestyle which includes a lot of sitting outside, gossiping, walking the streets, gossiping, drinking coffee and of course, gossiping. A week long festival was on when we arrived which includes different parts of the town wearing different colours, marching together and singing until they arrive in the town square and play bingo.
5. Florence was beautiful, but the day we where there it was 36 degrees with around a hundred percent humidity and then add the throng of loud sweaty tourists and it all adds up to a flying visit.

5. We decided to take advantage of the 35 degree weather and headed to the beach at Cecina. The beach was more a grit than a sand. The only problem was that the wind was so strong that we were constantly in a sand storm. Nice otherwise.

6. San Gimignano is a beautiful walled town a half hour from where we where staying.

Emily makes friendly with the locals.2. Ah, the lovely rolling hills of Tuscany.
I love the souvenirs.
7.Naples is a great city which we all wished we could have spent a little more time in. We raced into town after a five hour drive in from Via Della Tavernelle into it's chaotic, lawless streets. See below.
Going to Naples? Odds are you'll be going to see Pompeii. We were greeted with yet another scorcher of a day. It truly is an amazingly large set of ruins. That night we roamed the backstreets of Naples and had one hell of a great pizza. It's true, they do do the best pizzas in the world. The streets were pretty amazing, too.
Can't find the number 8.Rome? You'll have to call back next time for those shots as it's a City that really deserves its own blog entry.

TO THE END OF THE WORLD....(or at least the UK)

We were graced with the presence of father Strickland (my Dad) for a week a couple of weeks ago, when he came over for a flying visit to check we were alive and ok and to experience some of the delights that Scotland can offer. He really got us up and moving and on a 2 day road trip to John O'Groats at the very top of Scotland. The town's (I use the term town very loosely) claim to fame is:
Not the most northern village...
but the northerly end of the longest distance between two points on the British mainland. Land's End being the other.
(Does that sentence need some punctuation? I don't think grammar is a big deal in this part of the world)
After about 6 hours solid driving from Edinburgh we finally arrived at JOHN O'GROATS to find this:
That strange box that Dad and Andrew are standing next to is where you would usually find the sign that looks kinda like this:
It seems that vandals continuously pinching the sign have lead to it being locked up. There was a notice on the sign suggesting you could give Pete a call and he would come down and unlock the sign and let you take your picture with it. We decided not to disturb Pete's Sunday night.
Apart from one of the most overloaded crappy tourist souvenir shops there was not a lot to this end of the land. It did have a kind of bleak beauty about it all. See for yourself:



There is something quiet Dickensian about this Manor house, that stood empty and dark, not far from our accommodation:
We stayed up to 12am just to see how dark (or light) it gets in this northerly place.
On the way home we came across this delightful castle. It looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.



All is all we had a fantastic road trip and a brilliant week with my Dad. Thanks for visiting Dad! Can't wait to see you again soon!