Alex Harris
After 36 or so hours of plane trips and transits, we all arrived in Athens on a warm Saturday afternoon where the passport control officers took not much more than a glimpse of our passports and we then bought some bus tickets from two angry men who were hesitant to charge us a student fare rather than adult.
After the bus ride to Syntagma square in central Athens we all had our first experience of what would be a month of dragging suitcases between hotels and modes of transport in 30C+ heat. Tired and jet lagged we spent our first night climbing up a Mt Lycabettus which turned out to be worth it with views of the Acropolis, ancient olympic stadium, and all of Athens city.
The first full day in Athens was packed with walking, museums more walking up to the Acropolis and its museum before we got some free time in the evening for dinner and shopping, which the sixth formers spent most of the time lost trying to find our way back to the square near the hotel. The next two days in Athens involved lots of long bus rides to Delphi and Corinth and a really cool canal before heading to the ferry port bound for Ancona, Italy, only to find our boat was delayed by five hours.
When we finally boarded the boat and left port about 6 hours later than planned we managed to get some sleep after some short lived fun on the boats night club. Rooms were very small, with four of us in each plus suitcases, and with Minoan lines charging 4euro for half a croissant , we all either went without food or ate what we had left from the supermarkets in Greece for breakfast and spent a majority of the day on the deck in the sun or inside playing cards. Finally having landed in Italy at 9pm after a 22 hour trip, we had missed our 8:30 train so had to (attempt to) sleep in the train terminal before being woken by police and told lying down was not allowed, and with our train to Rome arriving at 3:50am we all got on and slept, on the floor in my case, until we arrived in Rome about 8am.
The first day in Rome was long and tiring having had not much more than 4 hours sleep the night before and involved a lot of walking, sightseeing, and an art gallery. The second day was also lengthy and full of church visits and some haggling shop owners in Spanish. We also saw Hadrian's villa which was huge and quite interesting and got caught by Sir eating McDonalds that night - Italian cuisine. The next day was a trip to the Vatican City which we had to queue for about an hour to get into, which wasn't too bad or long. Very tight security to get in to door and lots of guards inside the museum watching the group of 24 school boys make their way through priceless and ancient pieces of art - we didn't break anything. Managed to snap some photos of Michael Angelo's chapel roof as requested by mum without being caught before heading to queue for St. Peter's basilica in the 3pm sun. After making it through the huge church, we were given 5 hours of free time, in which I set myself back a couple hundred euros on shoes and clothes as we walked our way from the Vatican City all the way back to our hostel by Termini via many shops. The next day was spent in Naples, and ancient Pompeii, which was amazing to see in real life. It was a long day of walking before our final day in Rome where we were meant to go to Ostia which was closed, so we went to see more churches and Hitchcock, Fraser, Jefferies and I accidentally ended up in some kind of mass where we got fed and blessed by a priest before having to then make prayers on our knees along with the rest of the heavily religious Italians surrounding us - oops. After finally seeing the interior of the colosseum, it was our final night in Rome which we spent checking in with New Zealand at an Internet cafe, and all the sixth form boys seeing off Rome with a communal clothed shower - a very efficient way to wash clothes.
The next morning we were effectively straight onto a train bound for Florence, a city I have wanted to visit now for several years. The train ride was short, no longer than 2 hours, and we headed straight for our hotel on the riverside where we had to climb over 100 stairs with our suitcases to get to our floor as the elevator was very small. With our luggage stored for the day we headed into central Florence to get some food for the day and jumped on a train to Pisa. Pisa was full of tourists doing cliché photo poses in front of the leaning tower, however we managed to take photos from some more interesting angles… Mr Buckingham shouted ice creams and we made the walk back to the train station to head back to Florence for dinner where everything seems to close at 8pm so we got a sly Burger King, didn't get caught this time. The next day was very chill, getting in and out of Uffizi gallery before 11am with a short queue, which had taken groups in other years several hours longer. Due to this, we had free time from midday until 4pm, so we went and dropped some more money in shops and on food before spending some time at an Internet cafe and chilling at the hotel. We then went up by bus to get a view over the whole of Florence which made for some great photos, got some time to buy dinner and had to be at the hotel for a night walk starting at 8:30, we walked along the river Arno and again went up another hill which offered some great night views and photos of the city. The last full day in Florence involved seeing some more churches and the amazing Il Duomo, before a brief free time to shop and then a bus trip out to Siena, which was a very chill place to walk around and see the town and get some dinner. With heavy traffic on the way home, we arrived back at the hotel around 10:30 but however could not go to bed without seeing off Florence with the sixth form shower. Finally we packed and went to bed ready to get up for an 8:30 train the next morning to Venice.
Having written this on the train to Venice, you are now up to date with my experience so far, and I look forward to tomorrow where we will arrive in Beaucaire for 3 days that aren't so heavy and tiring.
After the bus ride to Syntagma square in central Athens we all had our first experience of what would be a month of dragging suitcases between hotels and modes of transport in 30C+ heat. Tired and jet lagged we spent our first night climbing up a Mt Lycabettus which turned out to be worth it with views of the Acropolis, ancient olympic stadium, and all of Athens city.
The first full day in Athens was packed with walking, museums more walking up to the Acropolis and its museum before we got some free time in the evening for dinner and shopping, which the sixth formers spent most of the time lost trying to find our way back to the square near the hotel. The next two days in Athens involved lots of long bus rides to Delphi and Corinth and a really cool canal before heading to the ferry port bound for Ancona, Italy, only to find our boat was delayed by five hours.
When we finally boarded the boat and left port about 6 hours later than planned we managed to get some sleep after some short lived fun on the boats night club. Rooms were very small, with four of us in each plus suitcases, and with Minoan lines charging 4euro for half a croissant , we all either went without food or ate what we had left from the supermarkets in Greece for breakfast and spent a majority of the day on the deck in the sun or inside playing cards. Finally having landed in Italy at 9pm after a 22 hour trip, we had missed our 8:30 train so had to (attempt to) sleep in the train terminal before being woken by police and told lying down was not allowed, and with our train to Rome arriving at 3:50am we all got on and slept, on the floor in my case, until we arrived in Rome about 8am.
The first day in Rome was long and tiring having had not much more than 4 hours sleep the night before and involved a lot of walking, sightseeing, and an art gallery. The second day was also lengthy and full of church visits and some haggling shop owners in Spanish. We also saw Hadrian's villa which was huge and quite interesting and got caught by Sir eating McDonalds that night - Italian cuisine. The next day was a trip to the Vatican City which we had to queue for about an hour to get into, which wasn't too bad or long. Very tight security to get in to door and lots of guards inside the museum watching the group of 24 school boys make their way through priceless and ancient pieces of art - we didn't break anything. Managed to snap some photos of Michael Angelo's chapel roof as requested by mum without being caught before heading to queue for St. Peter's basilica in the 3pm sun. After making it through the huge church, we were given 5 hours of free time, in which I set myself back a couple hundred euros on shoes and clothes as we walked our way from the Vatican City all the way back to our hostel by Termini via many shops. The next day was spent in Naples, and ancient Pompeii, which was amazing to see in real life. It was a long day of walking before our final day in Rome where we were meant to go to Ostia which was closed, so we went to see more churches and Hitchcock, Fraser, Jefferies and I accidentally ended up in some kind of mass where we got fed and blessed by a priest before having to then make prayers on our knees along with the rest of the heavily religious Italians surrounding us - oops. After finally seeing the interior of the colosseum, it was our final night in Rome which we spent checking in with New Zealand at an Internet cafe, and all the sixth form boys seeing off Rome with a communal clothed shower - a very efficient way to wash clothes.
The next morning we were effectively straight onto a train bound for Florence, a city I have wanted to visit now for several years. The train ride was short, no longer than 2 hours, and we headed straight for our hotel on the riverside where we had to climb over 100 stairs with our suitcases to get to our floor as the elevator was very small. With our luggage stored for the day we headed into central Florence to get some food for the day and jumped on a train to Pisa. Pisa was full of tourists doing cliché photo poses in front of the leaning tower, however we managed to take photos from some more interesting angles… Mr Buckingham shouted ice creams and we made the walk back to the train station to head back to Florence for dinner where everything seems to close at 8pm so we got a sly Burger King, didn't get caught this time. The next day was very chill, getting in and out of Uffizi gallery before 11am with a short queue, which had taken groups in other years several hours longer. Due to this, we had free time from midday until 4pm, so we went and dropped some more money in shops and on food before spending some time at an Internet cafe and chilling at the hotel. We then went up by bus to get a view over the whole of Florence which made for some great photos, got some time to buy dinner and had to be at the hotel for a night walk starting at 8:30, we walked along the river Arno and again went up another hill which offered some great night views and photos of the city. The last full day in Florence involved seeing some more churches and the amazing Il Duomo, before a brief free time to shop and then a bus trip out to Siena, which was a very chill place to walk around and see the town and get some dinner. With heavy traffic on the way home, we arrived back at the hotel around 10:30 but however could not go to bed without seeing off Florence with the sixth form shower. Finally we packed and went to bed ready to get up for an 8:30 train the next morning to Venice.
Having written this on the train to Venice, you are now up to date with my experience so far, and I look forward to tomorrow where we will arrive in Beaucaire for 3 days that aren't so heavy and tiring.