Romany

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SUMMER EDITION

Welcome to Summer

Welcome to our brand new Summer Edition - filled with ideas, inspiration and advice for travelling and backpacking in Summer.

i took a walk...

Contents EUROPE 3

To Rome

9

To Meteora

15

To Barank de la Encanta

17

To the South of France

19

What to pack?

21

Gaudi’s Barcelona

Article about travelling in Rome Picture diary of a trip to Meteora Article on the Barank de la Encanta An exploration of the medieval town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence What should you pack while travel ling in Europe?

A view of Barcelona through the striking architecture of Antoni Gaudi

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Interview: Antonio Carluccio

27

Backpacking through Europe

An interview with adventurous chef, Mario Jones in Naples A diary of a journey backpacking through Europe

ASIA 33

To Thailand

37

Through the rainforest

Teaching in Thailand A story of a journey through the rainforest in Malaysia

41 Why did Thailand become popu lar?

Article about the rise in popularity of Thailand as a travel destination

45

Interview: Jerry Springfield

An interview with Jerry Springfield, a backpacker, in India

49

Poem ..to Asia

Europe

Italy France Spain Greece Netherlands

...TO ROME Katie Goss-Jones

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took a walk to Rome. Rome has always been on my bucket list of cities to visit in my lifetime because Italy is my favourite country. The people are so friendly, the food is delicious and the architecture is beautiful. When I received the opportunity to travel to Rome for forty-eight hours last summer, I accepted almost instantly. With four days to plan a two-day trip, I set to work in researching the best places to visit in Rome; I wanted to make sure I saw as much as I could in the short time. I learnt a lot from the masses of articles and tourist guides that I read, but I learnt the majority of travelling in a big city from actually experiencing it for myself.

My trip to Rome was the shortest trip I had ever taken to another country, it was a completely new experience for me, but like anyone visiting a new destination I wanted to make the most of it.

I arrived on a Monday, taking the two and a half hour flight from London to Fiumicino at 7:30am. The wake-up call was early, but worth it for the extra day of exploring that was ahead of me. When travelling I always try to book as early a flight as possible, even though it’s tiring, it provides you with the whole day to settle into your new environment, and have that initial day to walk around the city, and ultimately it provides for a very interesting experience.

Once I was out of the airport, I met with my friend who I would be staying with for the next two days; taking a Taxi to her apartment I was able to get a whistle-stop tour of Rome through the Taxi window. I had a slight advantage in terms of having my own guide who had become accustomed to Rome as she had already lived there for three months. However, she was still learning, and I was now learning with her. I dropped my bags at the apartment and then instantly went out to begin my first day in Rome.

Travelling around the city was easier than I could have hoped for; the public transit bus service is constantly running twentyfour hours a day, so you’ll never get stranded, or have to pay extortionate amounts for a Taxi. The city also has a Metro, but the best way to get around the centre is to use the bus, or walk!

My first stop had to be, probably Rome’s most famous landmark, The Colosseum, a site that is almost obligatory see. There are so many of these types of attractions in Rome that it may seem overwhelming at first when trying to see everything, especially if you are only visiting for a short amount of time.

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However, I recommend only seeing the things that you are interested in, instead of trying to do the typical tourist sites, why not explore the city and find things that catch your eye? But I recommend you do a small amount of research, otherwise that overwhelming feeling will stop you in your tracks.

“Why not explore the city and find things that catch your eye?”

Possibly my favourite attraction was the Trevi Fountain, its beautiful figures of the sea god Neptune surrounded by tritons and horses, with water flowing through, is a beautiful site, especially on a warm summer’s day.

The water glistens from the thousands of coins that fill the fountain, a tradition that if thrown over your left shoulder will assure your return to Rome, and one that I was sure to complete.

I have always found Roman sculptures fascinating, the detail and work that went into creating such masterpieces is something that I find incredible, so having the opportunity to see this in real life was definitely a highlight for me.

Apart from being the ultimate tourist, the next best thing about my trip to Rome was the delicious Italian cuisine that I got to experience.

Once I had explored as much as I possibly could manage, I began my search for traditional Italian food, with either pasta or pizza on the menu.

One thing that I learnt from dining in Rome is that restaurants often stop serving meals between 3pm and 7:30pm, so make sure to bare this in mind when looking for food, something that I learnt from my Rome resident friend. From street food style pizza, to traditional restaurants, it was never difficult to find amazing food. As a

student there is always the budget at the back of my mind, so for cheap but tasty pizzas, Il Corallo was the place to be, with pizzas from €10, sharing with a friend worked well for me.

The evening was one to remember! Instead of doing the sensible thing, which would have been to get an early night after my 7:30am flight, my friend and I took to the bars, getting the cheapest drinks as possible, making as many new friends as possible. This ended with us staying up to watch the sunrise, a beautiful view when sitting high up in the Aventine Hill area of Rome.

Even though my night was long, I managed to be out of bed by ten in the morning to begin my second day in Rome.

I took a walk to the Vatican City, home to the Pope and the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the first things I saw on arrival was a bride and her groom taking photos outside. I learnt that many newly-weds visit here to be blessed by the Pope, so when visiting you are almost guaranteed to see at least one bride.

If you have enough time I would recommend visiting the Vatican Museum, there is a tour, but I find exploring on your own is a lot easier if you are on a tight time frame. I purchased one of the headsets in order to find out more about the work within the Museum, which provides you with a good alternative to the three-hour tour at your own pace.

My forty-eight-hour trip to Rome came to an end on Wednesday morning. As I took a Taxi back to the airport to catch my flight home, I reflected on the last two days and the amazing things I had seen, the amount of food I had eaten, and the happy people that had befriended me and it put a smile on my face. A two-day trip may seem pointless, but if you take the opportunity, the memories you make are worth it.

TO P L E F T TO B OT TO M R I G H T: T R E V I FO U N TA I N , A S T R E E T I N R O M E , S T. P E T E R ’ S B A S I L I C A , T H E C O LO S S E U M

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...TO METEORA Divina Meigs

“It was the most wonderful adventure of the summer!”

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ometimes the most memorable trips are those you didn’t plan for. When I took a gap year after what felt like a fruitless first year of university, I had no plan. As a result, when my friend Nicole suggested I go on a trip with her I accepted, more to do something during the summer months than out of a true desire for travel. She was halfway through her own gap year and, as many other Australians do after high school, was taking advantage of that time to visit as much of Europe as she could in a year.

We planned meticulously every detail of a trip that would take us around Turkey and then Greece for six weeks. We knew where we would be every single day of that trip. Except for four days right after arriving in Athens. Four days between our plane landing, and the departing ferry that would take us to the next leg of our journey. We had vague notions of visiting the Acropolis and other sights in the city, but after three weeks of visiting ancient Roman ruins around Turkey, we were both a bit weary of ionic and Corinthian columns. So, after posing for an obligatory picture in

front of the Parthenon on the first day, we decided to see something different. Thus started our adventure in Meteora.

I remember little of our journey to Kalambaka, the town nearest the Meteora site, once there a receptionist assured us in broken English that we would be able to take a bus in the morning that would take us around to each Eastern Orthodox monastery.

We set out the next day at 7:30am intent on catching that bus. Perhaps we missed it, or perhaps we were waiting in the wrong place. After waiting a while we assumed the first, and after a nice man who was passing by told us that the first monastery was only a fifteen minute walk up the road; we set off with the intention of catching up to the bus. We never did.

That August day, we took a walk to all six monasteries in Meteora. We had the wrong shoes, the wrong bags and only a couple of bottles of water. It took us nearly twelve hours in all. Our feet will never forgive us, but it was the most wonderful adventure of the summer!

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I

took a walk in the south of France, on a hillside several kilometers from the Mediterranean. It was nighttime, and the sky was spangled with bright stars, this is the time of night (if you were lucky) you’d see leopard spotted geckos scurry under the cross-hipped roofs of villas. I’d arrived short of an hour ago, coming to this area for the quiet so I could write and duck into the art galleries in town around lunchtime. The next day I asked the locals if they knew of a scenic bus route that would take me into town, they were getting it too so I rode with them. On the way down, I saw orange tree groves two yards from the road, like sharp glints of sunlight. The people I sat with told me in early June people would pick them off the trees and make homemade orange juice, leaving it on the benches in their gardens as they went about doing garden chores.

The thirty-minute bus journey was a very rewarding one because it takes you through the smaller villages and offers you a captivating panorama of St. Paul, where I was staying for the week. When I got off the bus I saw a train of the lemon yellow Serin birds flying over the green and red checked awning of a patisserie; it was so beautiful. A jungle of plant life was climbing over the rustic buildings, so when I was trying to find the Seiller Art Gallery, it was incredibly challenging. I got there sure enough though and there were a handful of Victor Hash sculptures in the window, copper-twined and all hand carved to perfection. I found a figurative painting I liked by Claude Sauzet, which embellished an idealized female figure sublimated in a symbolic composition, where she was either in the intimacy of a room backed onto the full light of a garden or in a completely abstract environment. I left the shop and pushed further up the hill, delving deeper into the medieval town where houses sit snugly on R I G H T: S T. PA U L D E V E N C E

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large dents in the earth where the Cotswold stone (that most of these houses are crafted from) are found and other rich minerals. I followed a narrow stream that sluiced through the back lanes and laughing children were heard chasing its course, carrying red buckets waiting for the sticklebacks to swim into their traps.

On my way back up the hill on the town bus at 6:00 pm fires were burning in the eastern sky, probably for slash-and-burn agriculture in order to make room for livestock. From the window of the bus, you could see how close families and communities were; sitting by the poolside chatting by barbeques, where sea bass was left frying. This last view of the people of Saint De Vence brought home how important it was to make the most of each other so we never feel alone. Togetherness not only unites the voices of the people but it gives us a chance to work with each other for a bright and hopeful future.

... TO THE MEDIEVAL Oliver Wheater

“A jungle of plant life was climbing over the rustic buildings”

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... THROUGH GAUDI’S BARCELONA Caitlin Beaumont

I

took a walk to Barcelona. Anywhere you go in Barcelona, Antoni Gaudi’s art noveau influence can be seen. From the Arabian-inspired architecture of his first house, Casa Vincens, which recently opened as a museum, to the colourful vibrancy and distorted shapes of the Park Guell. Both are must-see locations for any tourist or art-lover, and fortunately many, like the Sagrada Familia, are free in the evening for all to see and others have significant student discounts.

The Sagrada Familia Temple is possibly the most wellknown of Gaudi’s architecture. It’s imposing shape is hard to ignore. However, there is more to Barcelona and Gaudi’s architecture than this nouveau Gothic masterpiece, such as the Casa Batllo which has a strange and fascinating take on the aquatic inside, as well as Casa Calvet which is now a restaurant.

Each of his architectural triumphs are worth a visit if you are in Barcelona, if not for the history, for the stunning photo opportunities they offer. What completes a visit to Spain more than a photo with the famous El Draco at the Park Guell or the curling dragon that graces the Casa Batllo’s facade?

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... THROUGH EUROPE “We had quite the journey” India Bayley

I

took a walk through Europe. Deciding to go backpacking around Europe with my best friend after just turning eighteen was equally the best and scariest decision I’ve ever made.

We started our journey by flying to Corfu at the beginning of October. We decided to go off-season as it would be cheaper, and quieter. Yet quiet doesn’t even begin to describe the town we were staying in.

The whole week we were there we only met three other non-locals. There was only one bar open, a taxi journey away. Which would all have been bearable had the weather been good, however we had one day of sun and the rest rain and thunder storms. As tempting and freeing as it is to just pick somewhere and learn about it whilst you’re there, I would recommend at least a small amount of research first.

Our first bit of real travelling was a disaster. But hey! It’s all about the journey, not the destination, right? Well we had quite the the journey.

We left Corfu at 6pm, getting a taxi to a ferry port to take us to mainland Greece, and then onto Ancona, Italy. Getting to mainland Greece wasn’t a problem, we arrived at 8:30 and had to wait till midnight until our ferry to Italy. Our first mistake was assuming the ferry would be from the same port we arrived into. At about 11pm we saw a boat go past the port we were at. I followed it and realised there was a separate, much more developed port where you have to check in properly, go through security.

As it was coming up to midnight and I had already walked about ten minutes to find this other port I had to ring my friend, asking her to run with our two massive backpacks towards me whilst I ran

back to her in order to make it in time.

Once we got there we ended up waiting in two different queues before getting to the right one, by this time we had ten minutes before the boat left. We had to ran through the port to get on the boat, with only a couple of seconds to spare. Once on the boat things weren’t much better. It was a sixteen-hour ferry journey, full of screaming kids and only a bumpy floor to sleep on.

We eventually arrived in Ancona at 6pm local time, with twenty-one minutes to find the train station and get to our train. We made it to Roma Termini and had to change trains, nearly getting lost in the maze of platforms. Finally, we boarded the last train, excited to have an actual bed shortly.

We met two girls on our final train who were staying at the same camp we were which made us relax, knowing they knew the way to the camp. However, once we got to the station we needed to get off at the train door wouldn’t open and the train continued before we had a chance to get off. We were on the last train of the night and eventually came to the conclusion we had no other choice than to go to the next largest station and ended up waiting there fore the morning train at 5.30am. I tried to, once again, sleep on the floor only to wake up and see cockroaches walking around. By the time we got to where we were staying in Rome we had been traveling for forty-eight hours and it was so nice to sleep, shower and lounge by the pool.

As we were trying to do this journey as cheap as possible we were staying in a campsite resort, the tent we were staying in had electricity, a bunk bed and a single bed. There were communal showers and bathrooms so as long as that doesn’t bother you I would recommend Camp Roma. We spent the first two days in Rome doing laundry, eating pizza and lounging by the pool at the resort we were staying at

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to recover. We decided to add an extra couple of days to our there so we’d still get to do everything we wanted.

We wanted to visit all the typical tourist attractions in Rome so the first day of exploring we hit up the coliseum, the roman forum and Palentine hill.

It was great to see some culture and history for the first time, this was a time when traveling offseason was a good idea, as it wasn’t too crowded when we were walking around.

The second day of exploring Rome we went to go and see Trinita dei Monti and Fontana de Trevi but both were having work done and covered in scaffolding. Our dream of living The Lizzie Maguire Movie was ruined. The streets were packed and full of people trying to put various animals on you to charge you for photos. Next day of sightseeing we went to the Vatican, we got a bus from the campsite, most places offer trips like this so it’s always good to look into what your accommodation is offering to organise for you.

The queue for the Vatican was over an hour long and almost went the whole way around the wall.

It was the most beautiful place. We had to cover our knees and shoulders and unfortunately the only appropriate clothes I had were thick and left me fanning myself with anything I could. Some advice: think about the whether! We spent our last day in Rome at the campsite relaxing, the evening was when it got fun. We went to the restaurant and were convinced (and bribed with free drinks) to go to the bar area, which is usually empty or full of kids. Us being there eventually attracted more people to come in and we all ended the night doing the Macarena on the bar.

Our 6-hour Journey to Venice the following day went far better than our previous one but we still decided we hate travel days, however looking back on those I have grown to realise they were the most stressful but also the funniest! We stayed in a campsite, outside of Venice, in a caravan. A caravan with our very own bathroom! We were starting to appreciate the simpler things in life.

Our first day exploring Venice was amazing. We spent the day walking around without an actual plan but never once got bored. Looking in all the

shops at the incredibly elaborate masks never got any less spectacular the more we looked. I wish we had stayed in the main part of Venice so we would have been able to experience it at night. Going on one of the ‘water taxi’s’ is a cheap way of being able to experience going down the canal without having to pay 100 euros for a gondola.

Our next leg of the journey was a quick two-hour train ride to Tuscany. There was supposed to be a shuttle bus taking us from the station to the next campsite after waiting an hour we realised it wasn’t showing up, we couldn’t see any taxis nearby and therefore started what would be a 1 hour walk with our huge backpacks on the side of a steep windy road.

About halfway a young woman, who spoke no English, offered to give us a lift after we used the little Italian we knew to explain where. When we got to the campsite, we were informed as it was off-season you had to book the shuttle buses they normally had running. We also got a free upgrade to a 3-birth caravan with a balcony.

Staying up in the Tuscan hills was beautiful, sunny but cold. But we loved it. It was a nice piece of quite from the usual busy cities. Whilst staying there we did day trips to Florence and Piza. The leaning tower of Piza was exactly how you’d expect it to be and the rest of Piza was unimpressive. Florence on the other hand was a maze of beauty. Just like Venice, we were able to walk around without getting bored and never failing to be in awe of the beauty.

The journey from Tuscany to Germany was around eight hours but it was a lovely journey, for once.

We stayed right in the centre of Berlin which was a welcome change from staying on the outskirts. This time we were staying in a hostel with six other people.

We were excited and nervous to try this, we knew it was a key part of backpacking that we were avoiding because of hostel horror stories.

Fortunately, the hostel was one amazing, clean, comfortable with lovely staff. As we were staying for 6 nights there were people coming and going from our dorm, the majority to which were lovely.

However, on our 4th morning we were woken at 6am by a frantic guy claiming his laptop and money had been stolen. Everyone checked their belongings and

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we discovered someone’s camera, someone’s phone and people money had been taken out of the lockers available in the room. We were lucky that none of our stuff had got stolen as we put it in a pouch next to our beds. Two of the men that were staying in our hostel room were missing and we were re-awoken by the police questioned about them. Theft aside, Berlin was my favourite place.

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asia

ADVICE

Thailand Malaysia

...for travelling in Asia

India

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Remember to check with your doctor what injections you need before you go

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You can never have too much sun-

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It is essential to stay hydrated but

screen!

make sure you drink bottled water as local water can make you sick, also be wary of products like ice-lollies which contain local water

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Read up on the culture before you go to avoid making any disrespectful clothing choices or social faux pas

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Food and accommodation is cheap but only if you stay out of popular tourist areas

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... THROUGH THE RAINFOREST

The sun bore down hard even in the early hours of the morning on the Cameron Highlands. Up in the mountains it was a lot cooler than the rest of Malaysia but it was still hot enough that the air felt heavy and still as a blanket all around us.

We had slept that night in a hostel where mosquitoes buzzed through the permanently open windows all night and tailless lizards had laid flat upon the ceiling as still as decorations until approached, when they would skitter towards the cool safety of the shadows. Like the lizards, it was said that these highlands were where the British politicians had hidden away from the stifling heat of the rest of the country.

It was hard to believe that under the burn of the rising sun during breakfast, though, surprisingly, they served ‘English’ breakfast in most of the cafĂŠs along the main street.

After an hour break for food, we set out for the jungle. Fat flies hung lazily in the thick air, their black, glistening bodies suspended only by a pair of buzzing wings, the same ones that reverberated within the shaking, waxen flowers that lined the road we walked upon. We stepped in twos, silent, too hot to talk, but made progress quickly. Before we had realised the tarmacked road had been reduced to nothing but a slim gravel path leading to one cement bridge upon aluminium pipes. It disappeared under the dense canopy of treetops that adorned the mountain.

Looking up, the wide, flat leaves of palms stretched gracefully among the dark foliage, the light shining through them colouring the land below with dapples of bright, lime-coloured light. It was beautiful, full of sound but silent all at once: empty apart from the foreign calls of birds twittering somewhere high among the treetops and the rhythmic thud of our boots on the hollow ground.

Following the vague routes on a map, we managed to pick our way among the dirt tracks as they gradually steepened. On more than one occasion we had to turn back, finding out that paths had fallen away during the night from notes helpful travellers had scrawled upon signs. If not for that, though, we never would have come upon the waterfall that rushed down the smooth stones of the mountain or met the elderly people on their way down from the top, looking a lot more composed than we did as they told us we were only halfway up.

The slowly increasing incline we could walk up almost without noticing suddenly turned to something we had to climb with both our feet and hands, luckily roots from the tall trees formed natural steps that we could clamber up. At that point, we had begun to struggle in silence, just concentrating on reaching the top without time for chatting and singing as we had been doing earlier. It was just one on one.

A personal battle to finally reach that patch of sky that would mean we were almost there.

We took a break for a lunch of fruit and bread

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in the first clearing we could find, much to the surprise of other hikers, who hadn’t seen people for miles until they came across our group lying lazily among fallen tree trunks and moss-covered rocks.

It took a while to encourage everyone to get up again but once we got up that was it, we were getting to the top: determined once again. And soon, there it was. Not the patch of sunlight we had expected but a view of a stormy sky, heavy with clouds, that marked the top of the mountain.

We didn’t realise, however, that to get up there, we would have to climb up a series of half-circles of concrete pipes that were already slick with mud from other traveller’s boots, just as the clouds above were threatening to burst. At least that meant we were going the right way. We hesitated for only a moment and then, after one brave volunteer took the first step, made our way up, holding hands and half-crawling but reaching our goal all the same.

Even though it was grey, the sight from the top was magnificent. Miles and miles of dark green mountains faded to blue and purple in the distance. People picnicked and rested up there, but we could tell we had no time to rest. It would soon rain, and we wanted to be out of the jungle before that happened, so we tiptoed over the laid-out blankets and away from the stunning view after only a few rushed photos and back into the darkness of the jungle.

Of course, we couldn’t be that lucky. We were only halfway down the zig-zagging path back down the mountain when the air turned to a damp mist that cloyed all around. We had to hurry, crossing dangerously straight down the hill instead of following the paths, just holding on to trees and chunks of fern for some leverage as we fell.

We were almost out when it started raining. Not like rain back in England, here it was just like the

skies had opened. Sheets of water fell through the trees and turned the entire ground to a slick of mud. The paths disappeared, so we had to stick to our shortcuts directly down the hill, just slipping down and hoping we didn’t fall as rain blinded us.

I don’t know quite what we were expecting when we finally found our way out, covered in mud and soaked without having had time to put our coats on, but it was not the back of a power plant. We checked the maps as we put on our rain coats over our already soaked clothes, thinking we had gone wrong at some point, but we were right. We had to balance upon thin concrete walls and walk the entire circumference of the power plant if we were to find our way to the road which would take us home.

Not only that, we had to trip our way down a hill, through a chilli farm, and ended up at the back of a surprised woman’s house before we found our feet back on tarmac. Still, as soon as we were out, we missed the jungle. In there, it had been cool, damp and quiet.

Out here, it was boiling hot without shade and our ears were full of the familiar sounds of cars, the animated shots of people and barking dogs.

Normalcy had returned, but we were not sure we were happy for it. It had felt like a different world under that canopy, a prehistoric world of curling ferns, tall trees and the flying creatures we heard but never saw.

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