So we didn’t do much. We slept, planned to go ice skating, visited the sites of ‘The Third Man’, ate Chinese food and smily faced sausages.

Wow, Austria is so beautiful. I took a sleeper train last night from Rome to Innsbruck (above), I had a bed which was good and slept quite well. I woke up at about 5 or 6 this morning and the train had stopped, I freaked out and thought I´d missed my stop but the train was running and hour and a half late. So I was lying in my bunk half a sleep when this girl who was sharing the cabin through a snow ball at our window. I lept up to look out the window and sure enough the tracks were covered with snow. Ah, the smile on my face, I swear, I was like a little kid, so excited. Anyways, shortly after we got moving again we had to get off in Innsbruck before getting another train to Salzburg.

I really enjoyed the train ride to Salzburg, after having to move twice for other people with reserved seats (the late train) I walked to the end of the train and sat in the spatious and fairly deserted first class carriage. All I did for the next hour and a half was look out the window at the mountains, the snow and the blue sky, so pretty.

I haven´t done anything today except watch The Sound Of Music at the hostel in preparation for the tour. I read that most Austrians haven´t seen the movie which I can´t tell if I should be surprised by or not. I am get to try any Mozart balls, strudel or kasnocken. Haribo lollies are from Austria and they are good.

Hauswurst with Kraut

Baked Potato with Gorgonzola & Garlic Cream

Deep Fried Apple Rings

Fried Dough with Plum Jam & Cream

The Sound Of Music – I Have Confidence

I enjoyed Rome much more than Florence and Venice, there is just a lot more going on and the tourists are a little, just a little bit, more spread out or concentrated in main areas. There were a few nice streets that I found, this area below had a few cool clothing stores and the great place I had lunch. I met some really nice girls from Brazil and I spent my last day with them. It´s really annoying that all the cool people I met and could genuinely be friends with I meet on there´s or my last day.

I was sick and there was torrential rain so I decided to see a movie. I went to the largest, village, cinema only to discovered it didn’t open until 4pm!! Insanity.

Will be seeing Em and Georgia on Sunday and I am really happy to be leaving Italy. It will be nice to get a little costumer service and things done quicker than at a snails pace. Get your shit together Italy, fuck. And why do Italian men think it´s okay to call you baby or alike?

Mia Market

They have mini chopping boards and knives that you can take to your table and make your own sandwich with the meat and cheese you buy.

Orange Cupcake

This Lentil & Potato Soup was very nice. It came in that jar and it was hot.

Cherry Tomato & Mozzarella Bread

Apple Syrup Cakes

Im in Florence now and Im feeling a little more confident in finding a good meal. I spoke to the owner of the place Im staying (where they gave me a private room with dvd, bathroom etc… for the price of a shared) and he was extremely helpful admitting it was hard to find somewhere good but recommended two places and told me not to eat pizza anywhere in Florence.

I ate at this nice deli cafe where they had simple quality sandwiches, not a piece of processed meat in sight, fuck I saw so much shit in sandwiches in Venice.

Sufjan Stevens – Vito’s Ordination Song (zSHARE)

I just ate amazing well just real buffalo mozarella, it totally made this miserable wet day in Venice. The mini pizza was shit. It snowed which was cool.

I love Italian food and it is probably my favourite food to cook but that might be because its so hard to find good Italian food in Melbourne. Im not into Lygon Street Italian, sweet, creamy or over complicated sauces, or mushy rice or pasta – I like it simple. I love peasant food, Im happy with stale toasted bread in tomato soup.  I will only eat Italian cooked by Italian family friends or from a few restaurants (if anyone has any good ones Id love to know about them). My favourite thing to have with spaghetti is cherry tomatoes fried on a low heat with whole garlic in olive oil until everything is soft and thats when I mush it all into the oil and chuck the spaghetti in. I might have it with a little bit of cheese or basil but its great just as it is.

On a night out in Barcelona I met this guy from Venice and I asked him where I should eat. He told me what I had feared, that I wouldnt eat good food unless got way out of the cities or ate at someones house. I cannot do either of these things. Italians dont go out to dinner so almost all the restaurants are for tourists most of the boasting a tourist menu, such a turn off. So Venice is a really amazing place to see but I couldnt have stayed there more than a day, apart from the people working everyone is a tourist. A girl was telling me that only 30,000 people live there but 34,000,000 or something ridiculous like that visit every year. And everything besides gelato is so expensive.

Beirut – Postcards From Italy (zSHARE)

I fear I didnt see enough of Barcelona. It was a pretty cool place with amazing food and the best food market Ive ever seen but it was by far the most stressful part of the trip. I couldnt imagine having to live in a place with the constant fear youre going to get robbed. On the first day on her way to the hostel my friend had both her wallet and her passport stolen out of her bag in the metro. Everyone warned me about this but I didnt think they could do it so easily. And it doesnt just happen to tourist the guy working at the hostel from Barcelona had his wallet stolen on the train that morning. Although I met some really friendly nice people I personally felt that a lot of people were very abrupt and rude, I havent experienced this in any other place and I was a little shocked. It pisses me off that everyone says the French are so rude when I didnt find this at all even though I made no attempt to speak any French which I admit was pretty pathetic of me.

The other reason I could never live here is because everything except for replacing a passport takes 10 times the amount of time to do. People are too slow and not like in Sweden were they are chilled out its more like that cant be fucked. I hate the police in Barcelona, they are incredibly rude and fucking lazy and show no compassion even too the two women, one an older lady, who had been beaten and im sure than had to wait 5 hours considering we had to wait 2 and a half for a bloody simple police report that would have taken 10 minutes in Melbourne, I know because Ive had to do it before.

So every place we ate at was incredible and reasonably priced. The shit place we ate at even had this terrible review posted on the wall next to our table which we didnt read until after our meal and obviously they didnt realise as it was in English that it was not a good one.

Goats cheese, rocket, quince paste and pine nut salad (which we didnt realise we had to dress)

Amazing potatoes with garlic aioli and smoky paprika sauce.

Razor shells (so exciting) with the simple oil and parsley that comes on most seafood here.

Goats cheese with honey and pine nuts.

Jamon, potato omlette, tomato bread and tomato and mozarella.

Fried squid, chorizo, stuffed olives and monk fish.

Cheese risotto (not sloppy enough) and fried wild mushrooms.

Hamburger with cheese ‘injection’ (apparently)

The market juice was amazing. The kiwi mango and the banana coconut kiwi were particually good.

Fried wild mushrooms with spring onion.

Tender beautifully cooked squid tubes.

Razorshells.

Salmon and tuna tartare.

Squid with cheese (?) and chips and fried eggs with chips and chorizo, this was pretty tasty.

Mussels.

Tempura with soy foam.

Spinach jamon and chickpeas and fried squid.

Beirut – Scenic World (zSHARE)

Peter Bjorn And John – Barcelona (zSHARE)

Air – Universal Traveller (zSHARE)

Fleetwood Mac – Gypsy (zSHARE)

I want to live in Paris – this city is so alive. There is so much to do and most of the city is really beautiful. Its just an awesome place to be, so much great food to eat and cook with and I like being around well dressed people, not as well dressed as Sweden, but I was still impressed. I love that Paris hasn´t sold out like the cities I visited in Italy for instance - the Parisians own Paris. I really love that they have such respect for food, hardly any supermarket and no 7 elevens. There are great markets in every area and its really hard to eat badly, the average quality of food is quite high. I didn´t encounter any rudeness and I´m pretty sure this is no longer an issue. If I lived in Paris I´d be even more of a snob, I´d want as few wankers there as possible.

This is La Famille, the food was pretty good and the cocktails were fantastic.

Mojito with pear foam.

Gourmanyat

La rue Mouffetard

Berthillon

The raspberry & rose and the salted butter caramel were both great.

Du Pain et des Idees

I walked really far for this tart but it was so worth it. Fuck, the pastry was perfect, Ive never had anything like it. The good thing about Paris is you can kind of get good food, especially baked goods, everywhere but when you have something outstanding like this is very exciting.

Chez Rene

These mushrooms were simple, buttery and garlicy just how I like them.

Au Pied de Cochon

This is a very popular 24 hour eater and its a little tacky and popular with Parisians and tourists. The french onion soup was excellent and I think if you stick to the basics youll be okay. I ordered salmon, bad idea.

Laduree

This is an expensive cake store located on the Champs-Élysées. There is a bar in the back and a huge area where you can dine in the front. The tarts and macaroons were amazing. Ladurée made all those scrumptious cakes for Sofia Coppolas Marie Antoinette.

Pear Tart Tatin

So I went back a second time and got my favourites, the ones with jam and the ones with rose cream.

Lemon and Passionfruit tarts. The only lemon tart I had that didnt taste like eggs.

Expensive hot chocolate at Angelinas.

Expensive broccoli and cheese quiche at Angelinas.

Gorgeous plum tart.

Romain Duris & Joanna Preiss (Dans Paris) – Avant La Haine (zSHARE)

Air – Run (zSHARE)

Phoenix – Love For Granted (zSHARE)

Sufjan Stevens – Free Man In Paris (zSHARE)

Peter Bjorn And John – Paris 2004(zSHARE)

I’m in London and exhausted. I don’t think I’m going to have time for the full Bedknobs and Broomstick and Mary Poppins tour. It’s not as cold as Sweden and the sun is shining.

London is really cool, it’s ashame I couldn’t stay longer, I am going to try however to come back into the city from the airport before my flight back to Melbourne.

I headed to Soho because I thought there might be some cool stores around there but it wasn’t really a great area but it is possible I didn’t explore enough – not sure. Then I went and got some sushi and ate in The Phoenix Garden, this cute little community garden in the west end. I walked through the west end towards the Thames and I found a good area for shopping, it had some really cool gift stores as well as clothing and an awesome cheese shop.

I then walked to the Thames, on the way I stopped and contemplated whether I should see a show, I was thinking The Lion King or The Sound Of Music, when I remembered my 4 o’clock wake up tomorrow morning. I saw a photography exhibition at Somerset House which was quite good and then I headed up to St. Paul’s cathedral to ‘feed the birds’. There were only 2 birds and if you could feed them I doubt the bags would be a tuppence!

I caught the tube to Camden Town and walked around for a while and then I walked up to Regents Park. It was getting dark and I was still tired so I popped into a cafe called Tupelo Honey before I caught the train back to Piccadilly. I’m going to Paris tomorrow and I’m so excited. One of the guys that works at the hostel, Herman, just moved here from Paris 6 months ago and he’s told me the best arrondisments to visit, where there is good shopping and some great little bar and restaurants to go to, including an all cheese one. Oh there was one other nice guy from Mexico, so that’s 3 people so far.

Elliot And Quixotic – What You Know, Scientist? (Coldplay vs. T.I.) (zSHARE)

Sufjan Stevens -What Goes On (The Beatles Cover) (zSHARE)

Hot Chip – Take Care (zSHARE)

Fleetwood Mac – Sara (zSHARE)

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Goldfrapp – Ooh La La (zSHARE)