Lost again, in Roma!

Yet, another fantastic day to get lost, however this time, I had a bigger map... problem was, it was poor quality... couldn't read the street signs... duh!

I came across a peep hole, people were queue up to look?

The little peep hole

ok, this is very close to what was in the hole, looked direct at the Vatican.. was pretty cool

Anyway... I walked, as I always tend to do, this time, I headed south,

Found some kinda fort

haven;t seen one of these since Egypt 

 War graves

ok, this bit kinda scared me, though the art was petty cool, but when I went in, there appeared to be remains of laptops, bags, and other items, i.e. where people had been robbed..

This was the first time, I did not feel safe in Roma, there were fires on the street, people living in tents, on round abouts... I found the nearest metro station, and headed back to the centre... enough walking around roma for now, I didn't want to press my luck

Ok, I booked a tour bus, thinking, hey there will be lots of spots I've missed while on foot...

WRONG... pretty sure I covered atleast 90% of it by walking around lost!... still It got some great photos from the bus.

Well thats it for now, next stop, Cologne... gotta hike to the train station with my backpack... wish I had never packed soo many clothes now,

Vatican, unreal, nothing could prepare me for this...

bronze ball in the centre.. note, you were not allowed to take photos in some locations

this is painted to look 3d

ok, this little room, made my skin tingle, for 3 to 4 mins something was inside.. you were not allowed to take any photos inside.. but I must have spent 20 mins in there taking in the silence

more pics

the workmanship and skill to great this was unreal... I don't know if we could create something the same today..

outside the vatican

Walking back to the terminali, is where I discovered the shoe shop!

Lastly, another epic shot of me... preparing for combat... only to be asked for 10 euro for the shot... @#$# I gave him 5... still think that was too much... still no better for next time!

Well off to explore some more of Roma...

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!