Warning: session_start(): open(/var/lib/php5/sessions/sess_e46b59e5c15828e110fec529deb3856e, O_RDWR) failed: No space left on device (28) in /var/www/html/index.php on line 4

Warning: session_start(): Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /var/www/html/index.php:4) in /var/www/html/index.php on line 4
https://www.mymapblog.com//rss/callanw The lasts posts from user callanw en-us
Luckily it seems i wasnt missing out on much. Vienna has the reputation of being quite a beautiful city, but if there was a word i would use to describe it it would be 'grey'. Literally EVERYTHING is grey or white, which means that on an overcast day (like i had) everything seems incredibly bland. There were still some nice highlights (Schonbrunn Palace in particular was quite impressive), but generally it was a lesser version of a typical European city i think (perhaps i am growing tired of that now). Even the surroundings on the waterway were quite ugly (old apartment buildings everywhere) which i found quite surprising. Oh well, i know now, and it WAS only a day!!

In any case, back to Munich now for 2 days, before i fly to Helsinki on Saturday.
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/28_10_09/Vienna/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/28_10_09/Vienna/
Once again i havent had internet access (this time in Verona) which is why i havent been able to write. While i only spent a day and a half in Verona, it certainly left a good impression-it is by far the most beautiful of the cities i have visited in Italy. This may be in part due to the waterway that winds its way through the heart of the city, which combines with the hilly surroundings to give the stereotypical Italian surrounding.

I spent most of my time walking around the city taking in the main sights, which primarily includes the 'Colosseum' which is effectively a much smaller version of the Roman one, but which sits right in the city centre. Verona is of course however most famous as the setting of Romeo and Juliet, and i was able to visit the house of Juliet (which apparently Shakespeare drew inspiration from), and other areas involved with the tale. The city has plaques up with quotes on each of them to show where each event in the tale was supposed to have taken place which made it quite handy.

There were also a few other things of note in Verona. Firstly, my accommodation was about 4km outside the city centre, which was painful in some ways, but also placed me in a quiet area for the first time in ages as i have always been in city surroundings for the last 3 weeks. It also meant i got a really good view across Verona and its surroundings as i was situated on a hill.

Well, thats the end of Italy now. Off to Vienna next and then back to Munich for 2 days before i begin to head home!!]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/26_10_09/In_Fair_Verona~dot~dot~dot~dot/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/26_10_09/In_Fair_Verona~dot~dot~dot~dot/
Milan was surprisingly spacious, which was particularly welcome from the claustrophobic surroundings of Florence. The main must see attraction here is the Duomo (Cathedral) which absolutely dominates the city and which lies right in the centre. Therefore i made this my first stop. The Duomo here almost matches the Koeln Dom in terms of it grandiosity, even though it is quite a different design. From there i headed up towards Castello Sforzeco, which was the seat of power in the city for a long period, but later became a fortress and army barracks. Having seen these two dominating sights, i went for a bit of a walk around town and came across the Piazza Scala, home of the famous La Scala theatre. Here i also managed to strike yet another protest march (this one wasn?t as big as Rome, but still just as irritating). Once again it seemed to be regarding new anti immigration laws here, and once again it seemed to be illegal immigrants doing the marching. At least this time it didn?t hold me up for hours on end!!

Well, best go pack for Verona tomorrow, will write about there as soon as i get the opportunity
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_10_09/Milan/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_10_09/Milan/
Sorry that i haven?t been able to wrote the last 3 days, but i have had no internet access at my accommodation and so haven?t been able to get online (or more to the point, the accommodation wouldn?t give me the password to allow me to get online). So therefore i am having to post from Milan now about Florence
Florence really is quite a bizarre city, because everything is crammed into such a small space. Therefore literally all the sights are 10 minutes walk from anywhere in the city, and there is really no ?main street? as such. Therefore, it gives quite a different atmosphere to any city i have been in so far (almost comparable to a little town, the land space would be much smaller than Hobart). Even more strange is the fact there is a great big church plonked right in the middle of the city, which totally disrupts the flow of everything, because it is right where all the streets merge and yet at precisely that point no traffic is allowed because it is a pedestrian area. Quite strange.

I suppose the main thing I have done here is visit Michelangelo?s ?David? probably the most famous sculpture in the world (certainly Italy anyway). That was certainly impressive, although at 10 Euros it was kind of a rip off as there was nothing else of note in the gallery, which was itself quite small.

Unfortunately the lineups here are horrendous to get into anything, as the Italians like to not let anyone into anywhere for about 40 minutes, then they let 30 people in before waiting another 40 minutes not letting anyone in again. The result is ridiculously long queues, although when you do finally get inside you almost have the place to yourself as no-one is in there. Honestly, if they worked like that at the Louvre the line would be 10km long and you would never get in.

Anyway, onto Milan now for the next day or so and then onto Verona for 2 days to finish off the Italian section of my trip. Only 2 more weeks till i get home now, on the final stretch!!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/23_10_09/Florence/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/23_10_09/Florence/
Well i had a change of plan today and decided to go to the Vatican, which is on the other side of town. I was looking forward to this as i had been told that the museums there in particular are brilliant, and could easily rival the Louvre. Clearly, whoever that was was being sarcastic. While the museums were ok (nothing great), it cost you 14 Euro to get in and you were constantly being told by the museum guards to keep moving, to the point where you couldn?t even stop to read about what it is you were actually seeing. The highlight was supposed to be the Sistine Chapel of course, and while it was to a certain extent spectacular, they had the room so dark you could barely see anything at all-and in any case you couldn?t take photos.

Also at the Vatican is of course the home of St Peters Basilica, which is essentially considered the primary church in the world. Also surprisingly, this was nowhere near as awe inspiring as the Koeln Dom for example. I did also notice a significant difference in the content of the St Peters Basilica in comparison to the Koeln Dom which was quite interesting; while the Koeln Dom placed its emphasis on the glory of god etc, with images of Christ and the like, St Peter?s was more a monument to the glory of the Popes-i think i saw an image of Jesus once in the whole cathedral. Clearly then, St Peters was more an attempt at self glorification by those who control it more than anything else.

Anyway, tomorrow i will be off to the Colosseum and the Foro Romano, which im sure will be much more interesting!!!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/18_10_09/Roma_Day_2/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/18_10_09/Roma_Day_2/
Another busy day here in Rome, spent entirely at the Colosseum and the Foro Romano, all of which is about 10 minutes walk from my accommodation. I began with the Colosseum first, and after the usual lineup of about 30 minutes (which is of course expected-i mean it is the Colosseum and the Italians seem to be thoroughly disorganised when it comes to efficient queue control) i was able to get in. While obviously quite large, it certainly isn?t overwhelmingly massive as i expected the ground base would be smaller than the average football ground i would imagine)-the thing that is quite impressive though is its height of 50 metres, spread across what would have been 3 viewing levels. This would have given people quite a view from the top tier I imagine.
It was not as busy as i expected in there (probably because everyone was still stuck in the queue outside), which meant that once inside you could get to all of the viewing platforms quite comfortably to take your happy snaps. It was frustrating though to see people posing on top of 2000 year old monuments (such as marble column remains), putting their footprints all over it so they could make some ridiculous pose-also people were smoking and dropping their cigarette butts EVERYWHERE which left a quite unsightly view in some of the areas- i was surprised the authorities allowed this to take place. Perhaps the most interesting part of the entire Colosseum visit was not the colosseum itself, but an exhibition of relics from the Flavian dynasty, and in particular Vespasian (who built the Colosseum to give the area back to the people of Rome after Nero had effectively privatised it with a huge artificial lake before his death). This was really informative and placed the Colosseum into context of the wider social and political aspects of the time (and unlike the Vatican Museums, you could actually stop and read it!!)

Directly opposite the Colosseum is the Foro Romano, or the area which was effectively the seat of government and power in Ancient Rome. This area is quite large and the remains are extremely impressive (since they are mostly from around the period 81 AD). The most well known of these monuments is the Arch of Titus, built by Domitian after the Emperor Titus? death in 81 AD. Domitian and Titus were both sons of Vespasian, and while Titus? short reign (only 2 years) was well regarded by the people, Domitian was quite an authoritarian megalomaniac to tried to centralise all power into himself. He also enjoyed self glorification, building an 18x12 metre statue of himself right in front of the Senate in the Forum (which unfortunately no longer exists). Nevertheless, much of what Vespasian, Titus and Domitian built can still at least be seen in fragments in the Foro Romano.

Tomorrow is my last day in Rome before i head to Florence on Tuesday. As i have seen most of the major sights here i will most likely spend it walking around the areas of the city that i haven?t been to as yet, as well as the shopping-another lovely day for my feet coming up!!!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/18_10_09/Rome_Day_3/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/18_10_09/Rome_Day_3/
Wow, what a busy day!! Have spent the day travelling around half of Rome and have already seen so much, but there is still plenty more to see over the next 3 days. Began by leaving my accommodation on Piazza Vittoria Emannuelle II and walking towards the Colosseum and Forum Romano-my plan wasn?t to visit these properly today, but my accommodation is only 5 minutes walk from the Colosseum and i will pass it every time i go into the city! So i saw the Colosseum from the outside for the first time and also walked past the ruins of the Foro Romano, which was where the Roman Empire was effectively run from during ancient times. From there i went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (i think every single country seems to have one of these), which was the most impressive of the ones that i have seen yet. The monument was originally created in honour of Vittoria Emannuelle II, but has now been appropriated for the tomb purpose.

From there i continued on to the Pantheon, which was constructed approximately 2000 years ago and is still effectively in perfect working condition, which makes it the best preserved building of that time. I was lucky enough after this to stumble upon Piazza Navona, which is a large open area near the Pantheon that is where a number of different local painters ply their trade. They are obviously all very talented, but because they are trying to each differentiate themselves from their competition for the tourist dollar, there is quite a lot of variance as to the portraits you can see. After a quick stop there it was on to the Trevi fountain (completed 1762) one of Rome?s best known sites, and certainly the best known of the cities many fountains. Once i had worked through the crowd at Trevi, i headed north to the Spanish Steps, which were actually once of the less satisfying aspects of the day...they are supposed to be quite famous and quit iconographic but they are really just a set of steps and nothing else-however i was comparing them to Sacre Couer at Montmartre, and they are nothing compared to Montmartre at all.

By that stage it was getting quite dark, so i decided to head back across the city toward my accommodation (Rome, with all its narrow streets is not the city to be wandering about in after dark, as (a) it is like amaze, so if you cant read the street signs and will surely get lost and (b) when you do wander off down the wrong narrow alleyway there is a high likelihood you will get mugged). At the same time I wanted to wait until it was late enough to see the Fora Romano at sunset and the Colosseum at dark. This was definitely worth it, as they are both quite something else during those periods of the day.

Well, i better go rest up, because tomorrow i plan to walk through the inside of the Colosseum and the Foro Romano, as well as hopefully visit the Musei Capotolini which is close by. I will write about those tomorrow hopefully!

]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/16_10_09/Roma_Day_1/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/16_10_09/Roma_Day_1/ Well, yesterday i flew in from Stockholm to Zurich without any troubles, and so now i am back on ?Continental? Europe. I spent the day wandering around the city, which surprisingly wasn?t as nice as i had anticipated (it is still nice, don?t get me wrong, but coming from Stockholm my standards are now pretty high!). The weather hasn?t helped though-it is an overcast 10 degrees, which means that i haven?t really been able to see the surroundings of the city all that well (the Alps), which is supposed to be one of the main attractions of the city. It is also amazingly small, which is concerning for me because it has a much higher population than Hobart and yet it seems tiny after coming from Paris, Berlin and the like. Hobart will seem like a ghost town when i come back!!!
I am hoping that tomorrow has better weather to be able to go up Uetliberg, the local mountain which can be climbed by foot as far as i am aware (it is smaller than Mt Wellington). It is supposed to give great views across the city, so if i can get some decent photos i will post them tomorrow!!!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/13_10_09/Zuerich/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/13_10_09/Zuerich/ Sorry i have been slack the last few days, but my internet connection in Stockholm was horrible, which meant that i basically couldnt do anything other than check email without it breaking down. So i have spent the last 3 days in Stockholm, and while it was particularly chilly (most nights it got down to negative degrees, and the days themselves were only 5 or 6) it was an enjoyable city to be in. It is probably the most scenic of all the cities i have been in, as it is does not have a single city centre as such, but is rather an archipelago interconnected by bridges, which makes it unique in the sense you are literally going from island to island within the city itself.
There were probably two main highlights for me: firstly, the district of Gamla Stan (the oldest part of the city) was very nice, and different to walk through. Because this is a small island, the buildings are crammed in as a result of expansion until literally nothing else could be put in there. The result is a series of tiny walkways and alleys, all filled with different shops and cafes, and you could literally get lost within the confines of the island by taking an alleyway that no one else had taken. The second highlight was probably the visit to the Nobel Museum, which is located on Gamla Stan. The Nobel prizes are of course named after Alfred Nobel, who was a Swedish citizen (who ironically invented dynamite) and who bequeathed his fortune to the formulation of prizes in Literature, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and of course Peace. The museum was quite small but was filled with interesting facts about Nobel himself, as well as the various winners of the prizes since their inception. It was also quite timely, as the 2009 winners had only just been announced the day before my visit (Obama winning was massive news over here, all the Europeans love him)and so the museum must have literally been updated overnight to include these winners.

Overall, i would definitely say the visit to Scandinavia was definitely worth it-it is certainly a bit out of the way (it was 13 hours train from Munich to Malmo, and then i had to fly out from Stockholm because it is so remote) but the cities are really nice to be in and the culture is different to continental Europe also. Just don?t travel in Winter!!!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/12_10_09/Stockholm/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/12_10_09/Stockholm/
Well, tomorrow i leave Malmo for Stockholm, so i thought i better just write something quickly on my overall impressions of both Malmo and Copenhagen.

The first thing to note is how incredibly CLEAN the cities are here-i would be surprised if you could find a speck of dust on the pavement everything here is that spotless. This is very much a welcome change from some of the cities further south i have visited (most notably Berlin), where i did notice that certain cities were dirtier than our Australian ones (in contrast here, they are a million times cleaner).

Second thing is that despite Copenhagen and Malmo being only 30 minutes apart by train (and therefore Sweden and Denmark also being 30 minutes apart), you can still distinguish who is a Dane and who is a Swede quite easily, as each culture has different mannerisms. Also, despite the proximity, it is quite true that most Swedes are blonde haired and blue eyed (with a couple of exceptions-i expect this to be even moreso in Stockholm where i imagine the gene pool is a bit more isolated than here) whereas the Danes cant be generalised as easy. I expected there to be hardly any difference at all due to the constant relations between the two cities, but there are definitely differences. Also, the Swedes seem to be much more laid back whereas the Danes are quite headstrong.

Well, I better go pack so i am ready to head off to Stockholm early tomorrow!]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/08_10_09/Malmo_And_Copenhagen/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/08_10_09/Malmo_And_Copenhagen/
Today i headed across the Oresund Bridge and left Sweden for Denmark for the day (Copenhagen to be precise). The trip only takes 35 minutes, and there is a train between the two countries every 20 minutes, so it is quite easy to swap from one country to the other (they don?t even check passports). Unlike Malmo, Copenhagen is quite a sprawling city, and all the key sights to see are unfortunately miles apart, so you are in for a long day of walking if you visit here. The first thing i had to do once i arrived in Copenhagen of course was exchange currency to Danish Kroner, and so it is all getting quite confusing now as i have Swedish, Danish and Euro currency all in my wallet (and they all look fairly similar)-also trying to figure out exactly how much something costs is a pain as well, as they all have different exchange rates to the AUD, and so in Denmark everything looked cheaper, even though the rate meant it was actually more expensive.

Anyway, my first stop was Christiansborg Palace, the palace which is now used to hold the Danish parliament-it was surprisingly unspectacular for such an important building though (made even moreso by the fact half of it is being renovated). From there i crossed Helmans Kanal (the city is full of canals) and headed way north towards Kastellet, which is near where the famous ?Little Mermaid? statue is located. Kastellet itself is a military fortification from Medieval times, which is still used by the Danish forces today. This was actually one of the highlights, because the park itself as well as Kastellet had great walking paths and even better views out to sea-which was just as well because the little Mermaid wasn?t anything spectacular! Amazing how such a bland artwork can end up the main tourist attraction in such a scenic city...
After visiting her i headed back down the other side of Kastellet to Amalienborg, Queen Margethe?s official residence, which was also under renovation-but still more imposing than Christiansborg. From there i could head to Nyhavn, which is a famous canal that is lined with old ships and restaurants and is really quite lively, and then walk around the Esplanade of Sydhavnen, where a lot of the shipping seems to come and go from. I sat there for a while and took in the view (and gave my feet a break) before heading back to Stroget, which is the main shopping strip in Copenhagen and is completely a pedestrian walkway. Unfortunately, at the end of Stroget there were police everywhere, as some student movement (quite massive) was protesting about something or other in the streets-everywhere was cordoned off. Finally (avoiding all that) i headed back to the Station and back to Malmo, and back into Sweden again-another day, another country!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/06_10_09/Copenhagen_Day_1/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/06_10_09/Copenhagen_Day_1/
Well, today was the first full day i had in Malmo, and it is a very picturesque city indeed. It is also good to be around the sea again, as for the last 2 months i have been inland and so haven?t seen it, so the water here makes quite a nice change. However, the weather here is much colder (only about 7 degrees today, but it isn?t so cold you have to put about 3 jumpers on just to go outside, and the weather itself is actually perfect (barely a cloud in the sky today, although it always seems to be windy here)
I began by walking into the city centre here, which effectively has an inlet running through it, with the Central train station on one side and the remainder of the city on the other. I followed that a while and checked out the local shopping centres and gathering places, before heading back past the central station toward the ?Turning Torso? which is the most famous building in Malmo. This is a building built only recently, but which effectively rotates 90 degrees on itself between its base and its highest point. This means that all the rooms cant possibly be square, although i wasn?t able to check out the inside as it is now just office space. From there i was able to walk toward the Oresund Bridge which connects Denmark and Sweden (miles away though from Turning Torso) through a virtually empty barren park with the waves crashing up against the shore-it reminded me a lot of the West Coast actually, as there was flotsam everywhere and it was blowing a gale.

After walking through there a while i went back from the way i came and went to the Malmohues Museum, the main museum in Malmo, which for some reason was holding an exhibition from the Nelson Mandela Museum in South Africa (apparently this is the first time it has ever been outside of South Africa, but why they would choose Malmo of all places i don?t know). This was really interesting and educational, but it seemed strange to be learning all about Mandela in Sweden!!

Well, i better get some rest, because tomorrow i am probably heading to Copenhagen-different country, but only 20 minutes by train from here!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/05_10_09/Malmo_Day_1/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/05_10_09/Malmo_Day_1/
Well today was supposed to be a simple travelling day from Munich to Malmo, but it turned out to be a completely bizarre one instead. Firstly, i caught the train from Munich at 6.50 this morning, the plan being to get into Hamburg at 12.50 to make my connection to Nykoebing in Denmark at 1.30. That was, until the driver decided to go insanely slow, so that by the time we stopped in Wuerzberg we were about 18 mins behind schedule-which was fine still i thought. However, i hadnt planned on railway works at Goettingen, which delayed us another 20 minutes. That meant that by the time we were in Hannover we were over 40 minutes behind, and suddenly i was looking at a 3 hour wait in Hamburg and not getting to Malmo until 10.30pm because of all the connection troubles that would occur from missing the Nykoebing connection. Luckily, we got a different driver from Hannover who made up a few precious minutes, meaning that our train arrived to Hamburg at 1.26, with my train to Nykoebing leaving at 1.28 7 platforms away. Well, i have never sprinted so quickly in my life, and somehow managed to make it on the train (completely the wrong compartment but at least i was on) with about 35 seconds to spare.

After that, i had a relatively quiet couple of hours until we got to the Danish ?border? and i found out that the train actually goes on a ferry to get to Denmark!!! This is completely unnecessary as Denmark is connected by land to Germany anyway, but for some reason the train literally drove on to the ferry and we had a 45 minute ferry ride in extremely windy and rough conditions (sure some people were seasick) and reached Denmark. That was all good, until finding in Denmark that about 15km of rail was damaged and we couldn?t go on it. Therefore, the train?s passengers all had to be loaded on to 3 seperate buses and driven 1 hour to a station further down the road, and the buses were EXTREMELY cramped. From there we would be taken to Copenhagen. That was all fine, but when we got to the station we (me and 3 Americans on board) realised it wasn?t Nykoebing, and so therefore technically our tickets weren?t valid on that train, only for the regional Nykoebing one, and for the next hour we were paranoid about them checking our tickets (luckily they didn?t as it is a 50 Euro fine for travelling without a valid ticket). So we all reached Copenhagen safely, but during the train trip I was lucky enough to find out that one of the Americans (Kyle, from Oregon-about my age) is living in Malmo and so knows everything about it and all the train connections/platforms etc, which meant i could follow him until i (finally) reached Malmo about 13 hours after I left Munich. I plan to catch up with him the next few days and he will show me around the city a bit, which will be good.

Luckily there were no problems finding my accommodation, i had had just about enough by the end of the day!!!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/04_10_09/Made_it_to_Malmo%2C_somehow!!/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/04_10_09/Made_it_to_Malmo%2C_somehow!!/
Well, it has been a pretty quiet week (went to Oktoberfest a couple of times, did another couple of things but not much really), and most of my time has been spent getting ready for the next 26 days when i travel to Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

However, as i now only have 1 full day left in Munich before i return home (October 31), it may be a good time to reflect on the time i have spent here. I guess the main thing i have noticed is that now i pretty much now know how the city runs-i know which trains to catch to get where, i know when shops open and close, and i know my way around the city well enough to not need any directions at all. It is strange to think that 2 months ago i knew none of this information, as it all seems entirely natural now that i know all of it. I think it would be quite easy for me to be able to stay here on my own and find my way around and do things without any trouble at all, whereas when i got here i knew absolutely nothing about the city at all.

Well, i better go, off to Malmo in Sweden tomorrow (where the temperatures will no doubt be colder, it is STILL shorts and t-shirts stuff here), so will hopefully write from there about Malmo and nearby Copenhagen.]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/03_10_09/Munich/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/03_10_09/Munich/ From there i headed to Notre Dame, which was surprisingly less impressive than i expected (although after seeing the Koeln Dom i don?t think anything will be as impressive as that was). Nevertheless, it was still interesting to go in and see where all the French kings had their coronations, and also to see the roman ruins which lie underneath the building. From there i was able to walk along the edge of the river Seine to the Musee D Orsay, which holds artworks from 1848 to 1914. This building was originally a train station before it was transformed into a museum and the collection, spread across 5 floors, was quite impressive. It certainly took a while to get through!
After Musee D Orsay, I continued along the Seine until i came to the Pont Alexander (a rather over decorated bridge) where i could turn and go to the Hotel Des Invalides, a building set up by Napoleon to support veterans of his wars who had been injured. Part of the building is still used for this purpose today, but it now also holds a HUGE museum of French military history right from the middle ages to the end of WWII. The building is also attached to Napoleon?s Tomb, which was built for the return of Napoleon?s remains in 1840 and is certainly one of the most impressive buildings i have been in so far.
Once I had managed to get through the Invalides, i was able to cross the Pont Alexander, which led me onto the Champs Elysses (undoubtedly the most famous street in Paris). It is easy to tell once you are on Elysses as you can see the Arc de Triomphe at the end of it from miles away, and this was where i headed now. This monument was an idea of Napoleon?s to commemorate his many victories in battle, although the monument itself wasn?t completed until after his death in 1821. At the Arc you are able to climb the stairs to the top which gives you a magnificent view of the whole of Paris, and i was lucky enough to go up on a clear day which meant i could see from miles. By the time i came down it was about 7pm, so, exhausted, i headed back to my accommodation. Another big day tomorrow when i head to the Louvre!!
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_09_09/Paris_Day_2/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_09_09/Paris_Day_2/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_09_09/Day_3_Musee_D_Louvre/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_09_09/Day_3_Musee_D_Louvre/ From there i headed back north to the Tuileries Gardens (opposite the Louvre) where the Musee De La Orangerie is located. Although this is a small museum (anything is compared to the Louvre i guess) it does hold some important works by artists such as Renoir and Cezanne. By far the most important, and recognised, work though which is kept in the Orangerie is the Waterlilies series of Monet. This is actually 8 paintings (4 in each of 2 rooms) which are massive in size but still have immense detail. They were incredibly impressive, and probably the best paintings i have seen here yet (which is saying something, cos i have seen about 20,000 i reckon).
After the Orangerie I headed out of the Tuileries and followed the Seine to the most recognisable of all the landmarks in Paris-the Eiffel Tower. In actuality, it seems to spoil the skyline a bit-there are so many impressive old buildings and palaces everywhere here that a 300 metre high metal monolith seems to be totally out of place. Luckily it isn?t in the middle of the city, otherwise it would completely ruin the view. Nevertheless, i headed to it (couldnt come to Paris and NOT go to it could i?) and walked up the 668 stairs (fun, but by doing it i avoided a 90 minute queue to take the lift) to the second floor of the structure. I was lucky as all day it was cloudy except for the 30 minutes i was up there when the sun came out, which gave me a good panorama of the city. The size of it is staggering ( i was already 43 floors up, and that wasn?t the top), but it does just seem totally out of place-no wonder there were howls of protests when it was built in the 1880?s. After coming back down, i had quick look in the shops Rue Rivoli before heading back home to rest up for another busy day here tomorrow.
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_09_09/Day_4%2C_Pantheon%2C_Orangerie%2C_Eiffel_Tower/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/24_09_09/Day_4%2C_Pantheon%2C_Orangerie%2C_Eiffel_Tower/
Already looking forward to getting back to Munich from Paris and having a REALLY good look at Oktoberfest.
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/22_09_09/Oktoberfest_Begins!!!!/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/22_09_09/Oktoberfest_Begins!!!!/
Well i have arrived in Paris and spent the first day (or half day, i arrived here at 1pm) in the district of Montmartre, which is in the north of the city but close to both the train station and my accommodation. Montmartre is a very bustling district, home to the Moulin Rouge and also the famous ?Sacre Couer? church, which overlooks the whole district. I went to both these spots yesterday and i must say that Sacre Couer is amazing. You enter the area via a park below and so the church itself is about 100 metres above you, which makes you feel as though it is towering above you-and as it is bright white on a sunny day (which it was yesterday) it literally shines. From there it was only a 10 minute walk to the Moulin Rouge, which is NOT as impressive. It lies in a seriously seedy area of the city, and the building itself is actually not that large (although as you can imagine there are still 100 tourists on the street taking pictures). From this area it is about 30 minutes to my accommodation, which seems to be in quite a nice district (a park is also nearby which is good) and the accommodation to this point is quite quiet.

Tomorrow I am off to the city centre (probably to see, amongst other things, the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees) so better rest up but will write again soon

]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/22_09_09/Day_1%2C_Montmartre/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/22_09_09/Day_1%2C_Montmartre/
The second highlight was a match between the European Number 6 and German number 1 player against an 11 year old from Moldova (yes, 11 and yes, Moldova!!!) The 11 year old had already beaten at least 2 senior players to make it to the 3rd round where she met the German, and they played the match on the centre court so about 6,000 people were watching. It was incredible to see the standard of this 11 year old, and although she lost she did take the German to deuce in the final game and had a set point as well. Needless to say, the next day she was all over the news here!

No pictures with this story, as i only took video (to analyse!) and needed all the space on my memory cards i could get.

Write soon

Callan
]]> http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/17_09_09/Stuttgart_Tischtennis_Europameister_Mannschaft/ http://www.mymapblog.com/callanw/17_09_09/Stuttgart_Tischtennis_Europameister_Mannschaft/