Rome, how to get lost... the taste of Bacon!

Ok, the second day, time to get lost in rome, first of all, I had to get to the railway station.. no big deal, I checked the maps, before arriving at my hosts... and had driven back with them....

WRONG... I missed a turn... and walked 2-3km before realising I had gone the wrong way...

anyway, after correcting this mistake, I made my way back.... then back up to the railway station, to find, there were no machines to issue the tickets like in Roma, wtf... I asked in my best italian, for where I could get the chu chu tickets... rofl, it worked...  brought the tickets... to find I missed by train by 30 seconds... (had to wait another hour)....the said part is... they never check the tickets....

Anyway, Made it to Roma Finally! time to get lost, (goal was to find the Vatican....) I knew it was on the otherside of the river..... I had my trusty lonely planet map with me... so I walked...

some markets I walked into..

some interesting bits I found along the way...

my goal, soo soo far away, the views from up here were amazing..

I've had my first leason on how to cook italian pasta, I can't remember the name, but it tasted amazing, yes.. I had bacon, I will go to the Vatican tomorrow, and confess my sins...

Europe, after soo soo long, I am finally here...

Roma! after 12 hours from KL, I'm finally here... 6am on a Sunday morning... Airport, had no customs... to my amazement... I feel fine, was sleeping on and off on the flight... no dramas... sleeping pills seemed to do the trick...

Anyway... first mission, sim card for my mobile... got one... it works... cost around 70 euro with 50 euro credit... bad side... not all of my contacts got transfered... it's some strange roaming sim... can be used anywhere in the world... when you make a call... it calls you back... to make the connection... anyway... the sales man... very good English, asked if I was an Ozzy, ugh... when I said I was from NZ, he said, I love the accent, wtf, I don't have an accent!

Anyway... off to rome

unshaved... and soo soo smelly... the backpack... soo soo heavy... I was running around with this one for 4 hours... before I realised I could leave it at the lockup at rome cental railway station... good exercise...

Another amazing building... no idea  what is is... this place is unreal...

The popes summer home... first outing with my hosts... bottom right, is Claudio one of my amazing Italian hosts!!

Me, CLEAN, after a bath/shave... I'm really to take on the world!

Well that's it for now, about to go back into Rome, visit some more amazing places...

16 hours in KL, first real blog post, wish me luck!

KL, omg the airport is HUGE, I arrived, only to hear my name come over the intercom system, "christopher burton" please come to the information counter, hell, I had only just got off the plane, and I was already in TROUBLE!

turned out, there was another "christopter burton" that had got lost and his wife was trying to find him! phew!

KL, visiting the city, ok... typical me, I had a quest, find the KL towers, how hard could that be? look for the big buildings? WRONG, damn, everything is big, Anyway... I started to walk...

First friend I got to meet along the way he was HUGE atleast 20cms long

Anyway, back to my quest... the towers... after walking, for around 4 hours, meeting the locals, I noticed, they wouldn't even look at you, not make eye contact.... anyway.. I finally was getting close to the towers... navigating though the city... getting the general direction, I must have been within 2 km of the towers, and turned back... only to run into a guy outside one of the hotels... I got talking to him.. he offers a tour! 40myr per hour, on his taxi $20nz/10 euro and hour min 2 hours... I was thinking... him... ok.. deal..

Picture of me at the caves, the statue is HUGE, wykie would be happy.. I ran up all those stairs... only to have the bump on my leg start to bleed, (see the next picture...) blood offering to the gods maybe?

Yes, my socks/shoes were covered with blood.. kinda freaked out all the tourists at the top, that all tried to help....

Finally... the towers... mission complete...

total time, 4 hours walking to the towers, and a 4 hour tour... that covered most of KL, a lot of pictures and stuff not in this post.... still getting used to the blogging stuff...

other points of interest... my guide... used the word.... "jig jig?"  and at the end of the tour, said, you want to go for boom boom now? 150-300 myr I was like aaaahhh, no... but then he said... you can have a shower.... hmmm,  soo soo temping... as I really needed one... but no...

Well that all for KL... see you in 3 months!!

Finally the nightmare is over....

Hit KL Airport,

Damn thing is HUGE am, kinda lost at the moment... still have another 16 hours to chew up, I believe I got probably 5-6 hours sleep on the plane... is kinda good....

did have a small moment of stress... tho, step off the plane... walk around a bit,

only to have.... would 'christopher burton' please report to the information desk...

WTF have I done... turns out there's another cb at KL airport at the moment, and his wife was paging.. ROFL...

Anyway... off to explore/get lost in KL

When will this nightmare be over?

Final few hours before the plane... and wait...

Ok, am all packed... poor back pack is loaded too the max, I have unpacked soo much stuff I didn't need... and it's still stuffed... I really should have got a bigger daypack... but I will make do...

Lets hope I can sleep on the flight...

Ordered my Vegie Meal on the plane, purchased my first lot of tickets to Cologne...

Bring on KL/ROME!

Under a month to go... 29 days....

The terror kicked in this week, just one week after the horrible Christchurch earthquake, the NZ dollar started dropping FAST, time to convert my NZ Dollars to Euros!

I am now have a fancy cashpassport creditcard thingie that's is ment to work in Europern ATM machines. I love my bank, I could do EVERYTHING over the phone, hopefully it will be easy when I have to reload the card later!

Only 4 weeks to go, I've got so may things to tidy up at work, to ensure a smooth transfer, I'm sure I will forget something, and they will have a little voodoo doll out of me, to poke some pins in it!

Anyway, my money problem, is sorted... it's just a matter of waiting... and working out... a plan I guess where to go after Rome!

46 Days to Go

Just an update... 46 days.... and I am already nervous

on the plus side, I now have my fancy camera, Panasonic Lumix fz40, so hopefully there should be some fantastic photos from Europe! showing my ugly face!...

I have a backpack!, hopefully it will be big enough for 3 months, I have been told to just take enough clothes for 1 week, so we will see...  I am also a proud owner of some macpac clothes, this stuff you don't need to wash! yeah!, well the record is 196 days... I have taken them out for one test run, they were hmm, well wet, and they don't smell at all... feel ok... (I will wash them honest! before coming to Europe)...

Things to do, before it is time....

• Sell my damn white car, may baby has to go :-(
• get an iPad or netbook for Blogging/Couchsurfing requests
• pay my bills! ugh!, I have to pay my land rates/water rates x2! because the repayments will fall while I'm on holiday! pfft that kinda sucks!
• get some souvenirs to take to Europe for my hosts! or anyone else I meet along the way..
• map, where to go to after Rome
• get an android phone? for the translator (seems alot of money tho)
• international drivers licence! incase I rent/buy a car in Europe
• plan my next stage after Roma!

Here is my current map plan:

View omg Couchsurf Europe in a larger map

I still haven't planed out my route yet, currently I am thinking about travelling up though Italy into France, then down into Spain/Portugal then back up into France.