173 from ITALY to FRANCE

Day 35, 03-08

Had a slowish morning, checked out at 11 then headed to the train station to get to Naples. We had a train booked from Naples at 3.50pm, arriving in Rome at 5pm but we thought it would be smart if we got there earlier to swap to an earlier one. FYI, Naples is dirty and disgusting. There was a guy comad out in a pool of some sort of liquid against a shop INSIDE the station. The men are sick and seedy. We ended up hopping on a train at 2.30pm, but as luck would have it to our heavy minds we found out it was a ridiculously long route train which only got into Rome at 5.10pm!! Cannot believe this, it was the hottest humid yuck train ride ever and we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere with all these rural stops. Yuck, and very dumb… We finally arrived back at Rome Termini at 5.30, and in a last minute decision decided to go into town for a while before finding our final hotel by the airport. Nush went to see her friend and I got off at the Spanish steps to walk Via del Corso (main shopping road) one more time. We met back at the station, got some WOK and McDs for a quick bite then had to wait another hour till the bus to the airport. Loooong stupid day. At the airport we caught a taxi to Excel Roma Ciampino – the driver was a complete douchebag and tried to double our fare with no legit reasoning. After a minor protest, he goes “look girls, my English is bad, you can either believe me that I have to charge you double, or you can call the police”. We had no choice! The airport hotel was a lovely stay though and we got a good final night’s sleep in Rome/ITALY. I wouldn’t say I am sick of Italy, but we have definitely done it well. 

no photos today :/

Day 36, 04-08

AMAZING BREAKFAST. Best of the trip! It was free, and buffet, but it wasn’t even just normal buffet that I was getting overexcited about, it was simple but of such yum standards. Delish bacon and eggs and croissants and yoghurt, I had a feast. We made our way to Roma Ciampino airport, and after slight mares checking in, we were on our flight to Lyon, France. We arrived in Lyon just before 11. It was straight away such a change of scenery. A lot cleaner, newer and more peaceful. Had my first Orangina! They had what seemed like an almost brand new train station running to the city centre, which was pretty ideal. We are staying at Hotel Bayard Bellecour, which is around Place Bellecour in the new Lyon centre. Lyon is sooo pretty! There are a good fraction less people, minimal tourists, lots of tree lined streets and cute little areas to soak up. The hotel is pretty good, we got a teeeeny room but peeked into others which looked like massive modern apartments. Crazy. We started off our walking tour with lunch – by our hotel’s recommendation of the two food streets near us. Lyon is after the gastronomic capital of France!!! Not a single menu on the pedestrian road was in English, so we ended up just choosing a place. Again, it was difficult. After recognising words such as chicken, fish, or chocolate, and a barely English-speaking waitress, we ordered our food with only an inkling of what we would get. All the restaurants had menus of the day, Lyon specialty menus, and other such variations – they did not come cheap, but we spoiled ourselves. It was delicious though! I got a Lyon menu. I ended up with a soupe de poissons for entrée – a traditional French soup which came with sides of garlic croutons, grated mozzarella, and a delicious garlic creamy aioli (which I have now found out is called rouille sauce). I never would have expected it, but all mixed together was this delicious creamy cheesey tomatoey broth which I have never experienced in my life. Main was a Lyon specialty soufflé which was a delicate spongey texture amongst this creamy savoury but semi sweet sauce. I can’t really tune my taste buds to find the exact flavours but it was great. It came with sides of basmati rice (weird?) and beans which had been cooked in a lot of butter. SO good, but at this point I was almost rolling out of my chair. Nush’s main was chargrilled steak with AMAZING potatoes and the same beans, which also floated my boat. Dessert was chocolate fondant, which I had such high expectations of but unfortunately it was a bit lame – it didn’t even try to ooze sauce out of the middle. The heat and fullness took a while to get over, but we spent the afternoon walking around the Lyon main shopping streets, the older vintage and second hand backstreets, across the river to Old Lyon (full of beautiful little restaurants, food and souvenir shops) and back to our side to get a view of the spectacular Lyon church up on the hill. I love Lyon! It’s secretly so hipster but so laid back it doesn’t let it get to its head. We thought we would be smart and picked up some fruit for a cheaper and lighter dinner. However by 10pm we were hungry again so went out, got ice cream and McDonald’s… c’est ne pas bon!! Sat by the square and ate, watching a hilarious crazy Asian boy playing around the ONLY LYON sign in the square.