Blisters and beggars

Finally made it, Rome Italy.

Now when I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that Helsinki was a cultural shift, I had no idea what Rome had in store.

I arrived in Rome at about 1930 on the Friday afternoon sun still beaming and a dry heat that reminded me of summer in aus. The cab driver on the way to plus Roma was hitting like 180km/ph on the highway but I made it in one piece and in a timely fashion too. 

My first act of sightseeing was the next day. I met and American from Texas named Caleb and he was travelling by himself as well, I think we were both happy to have some company and decided to travel around Rome together. I was fortunate to have met him when I did since he gave me a heads up on how hectic the pick pocketing was on the public transport here.

The Vatican City was first.

 The line to get in was probably like 1km long and I was like 'fuck that". Then we travelled to the colosseum and the varius historic sights around that.

 

When I got into there I was shocked to find out that the original floor that was built had deteriorated so much. Then we booked it to get some late lunch, went to one of many Italian restaurants and got some of the best carbonara pasta of my life for just 6 euros. We made it to the trevi fountain but it was in the middle of getting restored so that sucked. Now while I'm writing I'm chilling by the pool at the hostel with blisters on my feet sipping on cold beer. 

 Life is pretty good atm

Fosters beer tastes like piss.

 Tastes like piss that is all lol

Those Crazy Russians

The last couple of days have been pretty awesome, some good pubs and sights and even a venture 150km out of Helsinki with 2 Russian guys.

On Wednesday my first stop was to check out this naval base out on some remote islands off the coast of Helsinki.

Long story short, the Swiss wanted more protection from the Russians so they built this hectic fortress and founded Helsinki. Eventually the Russians took over Helsinki and this fortress. Then when the war was over Finland got independence. #shouldnotbeahistorian 

. 

The following day I wasn't as enthusiastic, my legs were really sore and I forgot to mention the fact that the sun is up 24hrs a day can make it a bit harder to sleep at times haha so I decided the best course of action was goin to be to drink beer and I ended up at this place 

. After a couple of beers I decided just to walk. 

 When I made it back to the hostel at about three, I walked into my room to a couple of new guests, 2 Russians from st Petersburg, the spoke broken English and were gothic as hell. Whatever worry I had was instantly dismissed when they offered me beer and food. One of the guys could speak just enough English to communicate that they were going to a museum out of Helsinki and that I could come. I thought this could be fun. Neck minute I'm here 

 a further 45 minute walk and we were there

 Tank museum.

We finished there and got some beers and chilled until the train came to take us back to Helsinki.

 Off to Italy now ;)

Foreign beer, awkward convos and a lot of culture

Soooo I found the hostel pretty easily, totally jumped on a tram with out paying #suchabadass to get there. I dropped off my stuff and the first thing I wanted was a beer, luckily for me there was bar across the road "pub Peter" unlucky for me the bartender couldn't speak a word of English. So as I'm repeatedly saying "one beer please" over and over getting louder each time I said it in some hope he would understand, I eventually just pointed to what was on tap and to my discust it was a cider... In my head I was like "I knew this would happen"

Pumped up from the fresh cider I went in search of some stuff to see then I found this shop.

The first thing I thought was Andre from the league had opened up a chain of clothing stores haha

The I managed to find my way down to market square. It's like the hub of everything touristy so to speak. I decided to jump on a canal ride first, but instead of explaining this thing I thought I'd just show you some picks.

 Then went and checked out the cathederal. Biggest set of organs this guy has seen. 

Finally for the day was the Finnish art gallery, now I've been to a couple of art galleries before and been like "wtf is this meant to look like" but some of the paintings is this gallery that I managed to sneak a couple of pics of were really inspiring and moving.

Singapore and aus airport

It begins

Just got to Finland now and just chilling in the first cafe I found free wifi. First flights out of the way they were a bit more simple than I thought they would be :)) Pretty pumped to see what's going to happen over the next couple of weeks.

It's always going to be a good start when the first pub you see coming into central station is a Chelsea fc sports bar!