i've had no time to go online in the last few days, so i'm dumping the last few days photos and words on here in one big chunk now.
right now im in the swiss alps in a town called interlaken, which is in between two lakes and a load of mountains. i'm staying in a hostel full of people from all over the place which is nice, there's loads of people travelling alone, so i'm feeling totally at home here, ive met lots of cool people here.
people come to interlaken to hike up to the mountains and walk around in forests and explore the lakes. im choosing to do none of that, and instead im sitting in the sun in the garden of the hostel with loads of other lazy people. apart from hiking, there's really nothing to do here, so i'm spending the day recuperating and doing some work. it's been a hectic few days so i need some time to rest.
some pics from interlaken:
a house on a lake:
it's so pretty here i can't help but take photos of things like this:
driving to here is a bit like playing videogames
finally! a schnitzel. about time.
anyway here's the stuff from the last few days, in chronological order:
sunday 9th
bern, switzerland
i decided to follow the sunshine and a bit of random instinct, and came to switzerland today, and im now in the town of bern, sitting in the common room of a surprisingly nice hostel called glocke - like everything else in this county, the hostel is super clean, my room is basic but nice, the staff are cool, and it's just generally nice and relaxed. there's also a very lonely looking football table behind me, which i might have to investigate later on.
the drive from turin through the mountains was absolutely beautiful. the photos won't do it justice. i had to keep stopping every few miles and just get out of the car and stare at stuff. it's making me want to stay in this country for maybe another day, although i haven't quite figured out where to go tomorrow yet - possibly interlaken, or i might even go to zurich. don't know.
it's sunday again, so when i got here the whole town was completely empty, but i was told to go and look at the rose gardens which are on the other side of the bridge, at the top of a small hill - this is where everyone likes to hang out on a sunday night here. it's basically just people sitting around drinking and smoking and watching the sun go down in a massive garden overlooking bern. i sat down to take a few photos and i heard a girl next to me talking in english, so i got chatting to her, and ended up going for a few drinks with her, her boyfriend and a few of their mates. unfortunately at that point my camera batteries died, so i only have crap mobile phone pics of them which is a shame, because they were cool, mostly swiss and therefore incredibly chilled and civilised, and they even offered me their garage to park my car in - but for tonight the car is gonna stay on the street, fuck it, i dont care.
anyway here are the photos from today - ok theyre completely touristy this time but it really is so pretty here that i couldnt help it.
the town of "wankdorf". wonder what the people who live there do all day:
the drive up here is amazing:
bern is pretty:
the view from the rose gardens
everything here is so fuckin tidy
driving thru some mountains
i stop here for lunch
i meet a cow
i shop at "dick".
nice drips
saturday 8th - torino, italy
ok so i decided to leave france completely, and head for italy today. it means missing monaco, but i don't care, i needed a change of scenery and i've had enough of france now. the weather reports are saying rain for the whole italian coast, so i pointed my car in a slightly different direction and came to turin, which means missing tuscany too, but again - i don't care, i'd rather follow the sunshine than drive around the italian coast in pouring rain just for the sake of it.
turin turned out to be amazing, blazing sunshine and loads of people everywhere, and i got talking to a really sweet brazilian girl called nani, who ended up inviting me out for dinner with a load of her friends (about 20 full on hardcore italians who turned out to be the nicest people ever - they even gave me a lift home at the end of the night). and the coolest thing about these people was that they were all my age or older, and kind of living normal lives in turin (one of them was a policeman, another was a butcher, another was a hairdresser etc), so it was a bit like seeing some proper turin life for a night. i yakked away in english, they yakked away in italian and we all got on like a house on fire.
anyway i got drunk again, so the photos are shit, but there you go. and for future reference, lemoncello - just don't. not out of a big wine glass anyway. my stomach feels like i've drunk a gallon of acidy cat piss.
i'm definately in italy
turin street
non ce vita
what the fuck are you doing??
old man and what he's thinking
a girl with a lampshade on her head
bloody hungarians
didn't know richard gere lived here
italians drive too fast. this is me in the slow lane. shitting my pants.
dog of the day
my torino friends
the view on the way to italy
friday 7th - st raphael, france
well, im in st. raphael and it's shit. the weather is kind of nice, and the beach is nice too, but this town is mostly made of plastic, and i've seen the following kinds of people:
- old people, loads everywhere. most of them are trying to find their way out of the car park
- twitchy middle aged women in brown leather, which matches their brown leathery skin
- french teenagers in motorbike clothing with cigarette logos. marlboro is popular
- estate agents
- actually i did see one really cool thing, a dog attacked its' owner and ripped a big chunk out of her trousers. didn't have the camera ready at that point tho.
the rest is all casinos and kebab shops.
i was gonna spend 2 days here, but i really can't be bothered, and i'm feeling a bit like i've seen enough of france, and i'd rather go to somewhere else now. i know there's loads of cool places everywhere in france but i wanna go to another country.
the weather looks like it's gonna be crap all along the west coast of italy for the next 5 days, and i don't really fancy driving to tuscany in pouring rain, so tomorrow i'm gonna change direction and head towards the mountains via torino, and see what happens there.
some quality photography from the day:
the beach is nice:
local poetry..
..and local art. how shit is this????
