The soldiers are actual real trained soldiers with skills (one was awarded the longest shot in recorded history- something like 200 meters and he made the target!!) and the weapons are loaded
Their coats are red because it was an easier color to spot in the smoke of battlefield gunfire (could tell friend from foe easily) and because it was harder to see if one was injured (a little bit of ego there…)
Changed positions every 5 (or was it 10?) minutes to keep skills sharp and their muscles from atrophy
There is now a rope and guards between tourists and the soldiers… No more being able to get right in their faces and do silly things to try and make them laugh or break their concentration!!
Gentlemen’s Club:
Some of the most expensive real estate properties in all of London
True gentlemen’s club, i.e. no ladies allowed ever, or anywhere in the building- this included workers!
To join you also had to be filthy rich (in addition to being male) and in some cases had to wait upwards of 20 years to get in!
The clubs have nothing to do with strippers or other female entertainment. Simply a club where the good ol’ boys could get together, drink their liquor, smoke cigars and talk about the affairs of the world… sounds sinister to me if you ask me…
Random comment: Golf (the game) was first invented in Scotland as it’s own “gentlemen’s club” in a way… apparently it’s an acronym (GOLF) that stands for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden! who knew…
We met at Green Park then headed out toward Buckingham Palace just in time for the changing of the guards! Now what I had assumed is that the changing of the guards happens hourly. This is not so. It apparently only happens officially once daily at 11am in front of Buckingham Palace. People line up for hours on end (as early as 6 or 7am) to get a good spot to see all the action. Our guide had a different plan for us… Basically he had us rush a spot (which basically meant elbow our way to the front for a few seconds) take the necessary picts then rush back to him for some stories, then we hauled across the lawn toward Prince Charles’ place to wait for the guards to come and walk right past us without any crowds at all:) Clever guide…
The only bits I will share from this part of the tour are as follows: First, the original palace wasn’t at all Buckingham palace. Buckingham palace was built as a private house by the Duke of Buckingham and it was called Buckingham House. He was quite wealthy and didn’t blink twice about the cost of erecting his home of over 700 rooms… The actual palace at the time was quite humble and petite compared to the Buckingham House… King George the III occupied the palace and though the history books say that Buckingham House was purchased by legal and proper means, our guide suggested basically that King George III wanted the place for himself, so he took it! Subsequently the place became called Buckingham Palace. Ok, well it went through another name change first- it was the Queen’s House after Buckingham House, then to Buckingham Palace.
Moving on, the second story is one of my favorites. Apparently in the summer of 1982 an Irishman named Michael scaled the gates of Buckingham Palace… Or more correctly, around 5am a very drunk and disorderly Irishman named Michael scaled the gates… While the security alarms did go off to alert that something was very wrong, the security chief (new on the job after only 2 weeks) thought that surely there must be a mistake… a glitch in the system of sorts since there is NO WAY that at 5am someone would try to break in! So instead of checking the alarm out, he simply had the staff shut the alarm OFF… So Michael scaled the wall and wandered inside the Palace. Apparently there are signs all over the walls for staff (since it’s such a large place to navigate!!) and Michael, after his exhausting feat of climbing the Palace gate decided he needed a drink!! Mind you, he was drunk already upon entering and police later even estimated he had been drinking for over 18 hours!! So he followed the signs on the walls that led to the basement where they had the very best of ports and wines and whiskeys, etc, etc, etc…
After indulging in some more beverages, Michael eventually became hungry. So he wandered back upstairs and followed the signs to the kitchen. There he made himself a sandwich. How he was never spotted by anyone is beyond me, but I guess it just shows how large the place really is!! And it was quite early still… In any event, after his snack and booze he wandered out into the halls and saw signs for… the Queen’s Bedroom… He wandered into Queen Elizabeth II’s room and sat of the end of her bed.
The Queen woke to find a drunk, smelly, dirty and bloody Irishman on her bed. The blood he got from scaling the gates, the drunk and smell and dirt was accumulated by his drinking, falling, and eating food sloppily… She miraculously kept her cool and simply greeted a good morning to the man. He was apparently quite cordial to her and they started to have a pleasant chat (what else could you do I guess??). During this chat, the Queen was hitting a secret button near her bed to alert security that she needed help. However, if you recall from above, the security chief had the system turned off, so while she pushed the button, it wasn’t heard by anyone!!
After about 10-15 minutes of no one arriving, the Queen realized that something was not right. But again she just calmly chatted with Michael and kept her cool. She offered Michael a cigarette to which he accepted. So the Queen picked up her phone and asked the reception to bring her a cigarette. Thankfully the gentlemen on the reception line had some wits about him!! He knew that the Queen does not smoke and that she would be asking for a cigarette was very strange behavior. He called the police and had them enter the Queen’s room where they found and arrested Michael.
The best part about this is that Michael never saw more than a few days in jail. This is so because in fact, up until this incident all royal property was considered public property. So Michael was not trespassing! He didn’t even really break and enter since nothing was broken and it was public domain! He only got charged for drinking the ports and for stealing food from the kitchen, LOL!!! The laws have obviously changed since then and it IS now considered trespassing if you try and get into the Palace without an invite…
On my first official morning I opted to take part in a “free” walking tour of the “TV” “London”. I will explain in further detail why quotes are around the three words in the previous sentence in a bit…
Upon first checking into the hostel they mentioned that there was a “free” walking tour that operated daily leaving the hostel at 10am. They said that the tour covered central London, but that the main attractions (for example Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc) would not be covered, but that the tour would end so close to those areas that they would be easy enough to explore after the tour.
Ok, so here was a great example as to the incompetence of the staff (sadly) at the Generator hostel… First off, the “free” walking tour required a not-free train or bus ticket to get you to the meeting point (Green Park) from which the tour would actually begin. Now, I’m not complaining about having to buy a train ticket, because as it turned out it came in quite handy for the rest of the day (I bought a day pass from the hostel for 9 pounds that allowed unlimited access to all buses and trains for the entire day, and after my day it was definitely worth its price!) I was just irritated that this little bit of important information wasn’t explained to me when the staff talked about the free walking tour. Now, I’ve been told I’m too literal a person taking what people say quite literally and to that point I admit that I literally did think that the walking tour would be entirely that… walking. So when the lady who came to pick up the people participating in the walking tour from the hostel (on foot I may add) we started walking out toward the next hostel where we were to pick up more people when she thankfully asked “do you have a train ticket?”. My first question of course was “For what? This is a walking tour, yes?” To which she explained that we would need a train ticket to get to the meeting point.
So I turned around as she waited outside for me while I worked out the details and purchased the all day train pass. I’m just saying, if the whole procedure for the “free” walking tour was explained to begin with then that little bit of confusion and wasted time would never had occurred… Oh, and one other little thing… Goes along with the incompetence of the staff at the Generator (who otherwise were very friendly) per their knowledge of this free walking tour that they at least informed people about… ok, so a few more points… #1 no one knew how long the tour would last #2 no one knew exactly what time it started (I was told 10am, at 10am asked where the tour met and was told -by the same person who told me 10am- that it met at 10:15… 10:15 rolled around and I was told once again by the same person, “oh they meet between 10:15 and 10:30… GRRRRR!!!!!) #3 the areas that they said would be covered on the tour in fact were NOT covered at all… I’m not complaining on this point again because the tour actually did cover all the areas I wanted to know more about, i.e. the “TV” areas of London (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc). All I’m saying again is that there was just a HUGE lack of knowledge from the staff at the Generator hostel about this tour.
Now, to the perhaps credit of the staff, the lady that picked me up from there on foot said that the regular staff were on vacation and that she’d never seen the ones that were there that morning before… so maybe the regular staff are more knowledgeable than the apparently new ones that were there… But I will never know for sure…
Ok, so I’m done venting about the frustrating start to the tour… The tour itself was in one word: brilliant! The tour guide was funny, friendly and incredibly informative! As I mentioned above we all met (turned out to be about 30 people in total from various hostels around London) at Green Park and from there began the two hour tour entirely on foot:)
Oh, I almost forgot… the above words in quotes! So “Free” is in quotes above because as you guessed, the tour wasn’t “free”. It required a train/bus ticket and a tip for the tour guide. The guides aren’t paid by the organization that provides the free tours, so they only rely on tips. “TV” is in quotes simply to mean that the areas covered were in fact the most popular tourist destinations in London, and “London” is in quotes because all the areas we went to (TV areas) are actually in Westminster… London, the REAL London is only one about square mile!! The rest of what people consider to be London is Westminster. That’s your first bit of info I got from the tour…
To make it a bit easier for reading perhaps, I’m going to break down each part of the tour and associated stories for each area into links below. That way this page doesn’t drag on forever! I’m not going to tell every story told during the tour (I’ve got to leave something out to make you all want to go to London and do the tour yourselves!!) but will give you my favorites. Cheers and happy reading your free tour with accompanying pictures:)
Quickly here I wanted to share a few culture shocks I experienced (aside from the prices, lol!!). Really the only time I had ever before done the whole backpacking hostel thing was when I traveled through Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. So really my only basis of comparison was with hostels there…
What I had gotten used to from hostels in Latin America was places where basically younger people (early 20’s to 40’s) would go to sleep cheap. It was a place for singles or couples of friends, but not large groups per se. Everyone was also very inviting and curious of the newcomer. You would tend to meet several people and hang out with them from the hostel. It was like meeting a new member of a family at each place. You always had someone to do something with if you wanted and everyone seemed very chill as we were all in the same traveling boat so to speak. You exchanged information and traveling tips with fellow hostel goers. It felt like an underground society in a way… Places where the backpackers would convene nightly to exchange stories and dos and don’ts…
Hostels in London have a completely different feel!!! First the age range literally included children all the way to senior citizens. Entire families stayed at the hostel! And groups of people booked into the hostel. I’m talking for Stag parties (aka bachelor parties) or gangs of girls wanting to party it up in London. I was shocked at the dress that people were coming out of the hostel with! No more sensible travel clothes anywhere to be seen on people, except for a few random ones, but rather short skirts and tall heels!! These girls are traveling??? No, hostels in London were definitely not for the traveler. They were simply (at least I believe) the only cheap way to go since I don’t think many people can actually afford hotels in London!! Or if they were travelers, they weren’t long term, they were just away for the week or weekend on a holiday. Because of this there was no real camaraderie among the people. Everyone was out for their own business and no one would really acknowledge others since they had basically all come in their own group anyway. Personally I didn’t really care if I met people to talk to or not because I’m perfectly comfortable doing what I want on my own anyway, but it just gave such a “cold” feel to the place. So uninviting.
So, needless to say this aspect was quite a shock to me. I was very curious at this point how hostels all across Europe would be in general… If they would be what I was used to from my previous travels, or if they would be like the London hostel…
I’m no stranger to making fun of myself at any point… and well the title to this particular post is aimed to do just that… it’s actually specifically aimed at showing how uneducated and retarded I can be… I once saw one of my bosses (originally from England) wearing a shirt saying “Keep Calm and Carry On”… and I made the very uneducated comment of, “Oh, is that a spin-off from The Chive slogan of “keep calm and chive on”???
Yea…. enough said… I can be THAT blonde quite often in life really… and it’s usually ALWAYS when I’m trying to be impressive somehow… Goes to show you should ALWAYS be humble, otherwise stupidity (at least in my case) will always creep out!!!
Moving on, I flew over the pond on British Airways on a fairly cheap one-way ticket I found on my favorite flight site of skyscanner.com:) Let me tell you, British Airways has it going on!! The flight was comfortable, the food was actually tasty, and beside a little bit of a hiccup during my movie where it turned off and wouldn’t restart until hours later (which really forced me to get some much needed sleep) it was quite the pleasant flight!
After landing I did what I always do… Sat down and started searching for a place to stay for the night… You would think I would change my ways and plan SOMETHING ahead of time, but hey, that’s kinda part of the adventure of it all, isn’t it?? The only bummer here is that Heathrow airport only gives like 45 minutes of free WiFi to use!! After that you have to pay for it!! Seriously??? What if I had a layover there longer than 45 minutes?? Then I would have to PAY for WiFi??? Seemed like a total scam to me, but it was what it was…
Anyway after a bit of researching I did find a hostel that would potentially work. What I really wasn’t expecting was how absolutely expensive everything was!! Part of the reason it took me so long to find a hostel was because I was price shopping!! I knew and had heard that in general Europe is expensive, but seriously London is out of control!! But I’m getting ahead of myself…
So after getting a place in mind to possibly stay, I headed for the ticket booth, got a map and ticket for the Underground tunnel train and headed off. About 20-30 minutes later I was off the Underground and pounding the pavement of the streets with my feet. I walked for about 15 minutes until I found the hostel that I thought to stay at. Why did it take so long? Well, the map I was given of the streets really wasn’t quite as accurate as it could have been. So there were several times I wasn’t sure if I was going the right way as some streets were on the map, then the next several were not, then one would pop back up on the map… strange…
Anyway, I stopped into the YHA (Youth Hostels Association- they have a chain of hostels throughout Europe… Red flag #1 in my book as I think hostels should be more private than corporate) which had prices advertised at 26 pounds per night…. Upon arriving however, it was 32 pounds per night… No thanks!! That didn’t even include breakfast!! So I asked about another hostel nearby and was shuttled in the direction of Generator Hostel London.
After another 20 minutes of wandering around somewhat aimlessly while attempting to follow the map but still needing to stop for directions I found the Generator hostel!! Now, to my miracle, the days I spent in London were actually clear skies and warm!! You all know by now how much I LOVE warm weather!! However… when having to walk in it with a 40lb bag on back, it gets annoying quickly! And I tend to sweat quite a bit. So needless to say after the first mini-hike to the first hostel, then the second mini-hike to the Generator, I was looking forward to putting my stuff down and showering! Luckily they did have room and though I was planning originally to stay 3 nights, I only went for 2 since the first 2 nights were 26 pounds each and the third was 40 pounds!! At the time the rate exchange was $1.71 to 1 pound so 26 pounds was basically well over $40 to stay for each night… Oh and that amount was for ‘no breakfast included’ AND I was sharing the room with 11 other people and the bathroom with the entire floor (which was in the basement and probably had over 100 people at least per floor).
I was definitely missing the hostel prices I was used to in Central and South America!! This was seriously a completely different ballgame financially! In any event I paid for my room, headed down to my basement room, changed clothes, made a few calls and sent some emails then headed out for a beer!
I thought I should put in an area for Colombia where I only talked about the myths and truths since one of the more frequent questions I get when telling people I’ve traveled there alone is “Isn’t it dangerous???”.
No, Colombia is just like every other country in the world I’ve been to so far as far as danger is concerned. If you don’t go looking for danger, and you are at least semi-smart about your actions, there is no danger. I know that in the past Colombia has had a pretty rough time with drug dealers and cartels, etc that made much of the country unsafe to travel through apparently, however that was quite a long time ago. And as I’ve heard many others say, basically the drug dealers are now in the business of protecting tourists instead of making the country unsafe to travel through as they’ve apparently learned that tourists can be their clients too! And it would certainly be bad business to scare them away! Now, whether this is the actual case or not, who really knows. I’m just sharing what I’ve heard others say as their opinion on why it’s now so safe to travel around Colombia.
Because of the rocky drug past Colombia has had, people I’ve talked to also seem to have a preconceived idea that everyone there too is somehow involved in drugs or are dealers or are dangerous. This again is quite false. Honestly I ran into more people on drugs throughout Costa Rica and Panama than I ever did in the more populated Colombia. People there are quite nice, respectful and are just living normal life like others do. I’m not saying no one there does drugs, just that it wasn’t in your face the way I too thought it would be before getting there and hearing the testimonies of others who had already been there.
What is becoming more popular in Colombia are the higher class scams. All over the walls of each hostel I went to in Bogota at least, there were stories of scenarios to avoid. What criminals were now into doing was watching for people in vulnerable positions and taking advantage. It’s best I just describe a scenario:
Say you had to go into a bank for business. When coming out of the bank, you could be approached by a professional looking person (dressed well, etc) claiming to work for the bank telling you that you forgot to fill out “X” form or sign “Y” form. However, instead of taking you back into the bank (as it would make sense to do) they would say that it was only possible to finish the business at their other location… then they would basically take you around the corner, down an alley and rob you of all your possessions. Why anyone would allow a “bank” employee to escort them anywhere other than back into the bank, I’m not sure…
Another scenario involved people claiming to be police officers. They would be dressed in street clothes claiming to be undercover police and they would claim that you needed to come with them because you were found doing something wrong or there was a problem with “XYZ” somewhere. Then they would walk you around the corner, down an alley and rob you.
Basically the best defense of any of these scenarios is #1 don’t follow strangers anywhere and #2 there were cops on the streets of Bogota literally everywhere. They were always in pairs and in full police gear so if there was any doubt whatsoever in a conversation that a stranger had with you, simply walk toward the police to ask for whatever help and chances are if the person who approached you (false banker or false cop) isn’t legit, they would literally run away.
I flew back into the States from Bogota, Colombia after almost a full year of traveling between Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. I had spent most of my time in Costa Rica in the sleepy small Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo on the Southern Caribbean coast. Coming back to the States was a bit of a shell shocker from a few perspectives. First the amount of technology blaring in your face in the form of TVs was one thing I definitely noticed that took some getting used to again. The second thing was the blinders were put back on. You know, those blinders we tend to put on walking down the street, not saying hi to a soul unless you know them. Not being present to the outside world while moving through it yet just keeping to your own world. Those blinders… When first going to Costa Rica it literally shocked me that people would say good morning to me and acknowledge me as I walked down the streets. Then I got used to doing the same to others as I went from place to place. Then back in the States at first I kept my newly adopted persona of acknowledging people but was met with strange looks and no responses or people literally making a wider gap around me as they walked past. So eventually the blinders went back on… Oh well…
Coming back to the States was a choice I made primarily because the bank account was starting to get a little low and because where I had been traveling in Colombia was getting too cold for my taste and the travel enthusiasm was just dwindling. I went back to Houston to help house-sit my sisters place (and her two adorable dogs) as she was away quite often. I got a job there as a bartender and server (a trade I picked up for the first time ever in Costa Rica) and stayed about 6 months or so. Once my sister was back from her work obligations and I was no longer needed as a dog/house sitter, I moved to Key West, Florida.
I lived and worked in Key West for 10 months, saving all my pennies as much as possible (though of course I did have a little bit of a life too!) and then packed it all up and headed out traveling again. This time the destination was Europe. My time in Key West I’ll never forget. And who knows, one day I may still return. Though it isn’t the kind of place I could see myself living at permanently (there are no beaches on the island itself and it’s a little too much of a party town for my taste… If you don’t like to drink to oblivion on an almost daily basis there’s not much of a life to be had there really) I had so many amazing opportunities and met many people I consider life-long friends. It took a while to find some of these people, but I’m blessed that I did.
Key West really is a drinking town with a fishing problem. It’s no wonder people get way too carried away there. Tourists come for the party and as a person in the service industry we were there to provide it. Mind you, we only dealt in the LEGAL party! Though many tourists did come to Key West literally thinking they could do anything (it’s amazing, I seriously think people thought Key West was no longer part of the States and they could do whatever they wanted!!) and we were sometimes asked for drugs at my work from tourists, but they were always turned away. Yes, Key West also has lots of drugs. Go figure. Until having lived in Costa Rica I never really realized how prevalent drugs really are. Then from there on they literally seemed to be everywhere. Sometimes I miss my rose colored glasses, but just like everything else in life, you can choose to be involved or you can choose not to be involved. Everyone has a choice.
You know, as I type this up I can’t help but think that even though I really couldn’t wait to get out of Key West at the time (since there were a number of things I didn’t really like about it) it somehow grew on me and now I can say I have a little strange spot in my heart for the place. Perhaps its also because I really enjoyed my job. I know that’s an odd thing to say, but I really enjoyed bartending and serving; creating a positive vacation experience for tourists and such. Anyway… that’s enough nostalgia for now!
So after leaving Key West, surprising my mom in Houston for her birthday, taking a trip out West to see family and friends in Arizona and New Mexico, then a trip to Mexico (Puerto Penasco aka Rocky Point) with my mom and finally seeing my Tennessee family back in Houston, it was time to hit the road again. July 30th, 2014 I landed in Heathrow airport in London…
After yet another long and exhausting day on a bus (you’d think by now I would have just caved in and sought alternate transportation between cities!! Then again I would have missed really seeing the countryside…) I arrived in Bogota. If I thought Medellin was large, well it was quite small compared to Bogota!! I had to take a 20 minute cab ride to an area of town that was somewhat central and more well known for having hostels in the area.
No, I once again didn’t book any hostel in advance, but rather was dropped off and walked around until I found something. At least this time there was still light in the day left! Anyway, I wandered up and down several streets in what was kinda the chic area of town it seemed, and settled on one hostel (Hostel Platypus if memory serves…) for the night.
“Funny” story here, my roommate for the night was an older woman, probably in her 40’s to 50’s who was from England, yet had apparently been living in Ecuador for the past 11 years… She was at the time just traveling around (I believe Venezuela was her next stop) but what I found particularly funny… Or rather quite disturbing really, is that she didn’t speak a lick of Spanish!!! Not two words!! AND she would even say “Hola” pronouncing the H!!!!! She was also in a strange way oddly proud that she didn’t speak the language even though she lived in a Latin American Country!!! I found this honestly quite disgusting, really. In my opinion if you are going to live in another country that isn’t your original country, the least you can do is show some sort of respect to the new country by learning their language and something about their culture! This applies to visitors too in my book, though I know it’s not so easy to try and pick up a language during a 2 week vacation…
Needless to say, knowing she was going to be staying in that same hostel for several nights, I checked out the next day and found somewhere new to sleep as I couldn’t tolerate such blatant ignorance and disrespect to another culture!!
I found a lovely hostel just a few blocks away called Hostal Casu. Located above a restaurant on the corner of Carrera 3 and Calle 15A, Hostal Casu became my home for the next week. I had a private room with a shared bathroom and negotiated a good price for each night since I was going to be staying for the week. Again, the reason I had come to Bogota was to see my brother who happened to also be there around the same time. Traveling down to see him however, with the changes in the weather and the bank account slowly draining, I made the decision to go back to the States so I could get a solid job, refill the coffers and head out again to travel. So staying in Bogota a week really served 2 purposes. First it gave me a week to see my brother and second I was flying out of Bogota back to Houston, and my flight was simply in a week.
The area of town that I was in I really liked. It was nestled at the foothills of basically a national park, at the top of which was a lovely church. The area had a young hip, artsy vibe to it that I really liked as well. I felt safe there and have no complaints of the area… Except the weather!! I know I keep saying this, and I know I’m a total wimp, but to me it was soooo cold day after day there!!! Bogota is 8,660 feet(2,640 meters) above sea level so you would think I would have realized it would be cold, but again, since I rarely researched anything about where I was going and just preferred to figure things out once I got there, this aspect of Bogota was a shock to me. And once again it was uninspiring!! Though I did get out daily to walk for several hours to get in my exercise and to eat, that was about the extent of my drive to do anything!
Even going to see my brother turned out to be a total bust as he was apparently tied up with work things day after day of my being there, and we were only able to get together for an afternoon the night before he left the country himself. We were to meet at the very opposite of Bogota from where I was, basically due North from where I was so as usual I opted to walk there, and after about 40 minutes and 70 or so blocks later with my little map in tow I found him at the eatery that we planned to meet at and we spent the evening wandering the area with one of his coworkers in tow. We ate a lovely meal at one of the local restaurants and then parted ways. I opted on the way back to take a cab as I was a wee bit too intoxicated by this point to try and walk my way back! Plus, it was starting to get dark and it just wouldn’t have been a sound choice to try and walk back.
So all in all, my time in Bogota wasn’t terribly eventful, but it was quite relaxing and a nice place to try and transition going back to the States. Before making the decision to go back to the States, I did wrestle with the idea of going back to the Caribbean coast of Columbia, like the Cartagena area, but the thought of traveling there by bus just jangled my bones in thinking of it! And the flight would have been a bit out of my price range. So I opted to stick with my plans of going back to the States.
Part of me is bummed that I didn’t go to Cartagena and even to Armenia since after all I was in the country already! And honestly had I known that I would have only had an afternoon to get to see my brother, I would have gone to Cartagena first, then perhaps made my way to the Bogota area instead of rushing to Bogota to try and see him, but as they say everything happens for a reason and as it should. And as I’ve already mentioned before, I plan on going back to Columbia to explore more of the country and less of the cities! Though the actual physical riding in the bus from place to place was quite hard on the body (due to road conditions) the sights were unbeatable and absolutely beautiful!! I loved the nature of the countryside’s and can’t wait to be able to see more!
Though not terribly far from Medellin, once again it took several hours winding in and out and up and down mountain range after mountain range to get to my next destination. Manizales is itself situated on the top of a mountain and you either need a car, a cab or most popular, a tram to the town! It was much smaller than Medellin but had a lot of character as well. It was also quite a bit colder than Medellin… I took the tram to the town and found a hostel again right on the main strip, though a little toward the end. I was basically one of the only ones in the hostel leading me to think that that particular time of year was simply out of season. The hostel was quite nice, so I couldn’t think of any other reason it would have been so slow. Perhaps it was the cold that drove others away too;)
View from Hostel
View from Hostel_2
Tram Station
Two things I noticed specifically in Manizales: #1 the HUGE amount of candy, cake, bakery, sweet shops, and ice cream shops!! Literally every other store had something to do with selling a sugar based treat to eat. I’d never seen so many sweet shops in such a small amount of space. And what stores, you may ask, were in between each of the sweet shops? Well, that would be #2, the SHOE shops!! Manizales would definitely be the dream place for any shoe enthusiast. From boots to heels to stilettos, Manizales had every shoe possible and catered quite strongly to women. The amazing thing to me was that the majority of women were wearing stiletto heels and walked the streets as if walking down the red carpet or a runway!! I mean they worked it and made it look so natural and easy! Now, I myself have been known to rock a heel shoe, but what made the Colombian women wearing stilettos so impressive is the quality of the roads!! They were walking in stilettos as if the roads and sidewalks were perfectly paved without a hint of a defect anywhere. The reality however was far from this as the roads and side walks left quite a lot to be desired! And many of the little roads were made of brick, so the spaces in between each brick…. I’ve no idea how they didn’t break their ankles on a regular basis!
View from Hostel Rooftop
View from Hostel Rooftop_2
View from Hostel Rooftop_3
Anyway, I stayed in Manizales for only a couple of days. And honestly, because of the weather mainly (I’m seriously a wimp in cold weather) I was just uninspired to do anything! Not to say there wasn’t anything to do in Manizales, but the cold just made me want to curl up with a blanket and a little fire. Plus, I was still trying to make sure that I got to Bogota in plenty of time to see my brother, so that too cut my time there to just a few days.
View from Hostel Rooftop_4
Had I had more time to explore that are however, I would have absolutely (and I do plan to still check this area out) gone to the coffee region of Colombia, one of the more famous spots: Armenia. I’ve heard a lot about this area from fellow travelers and from some who are from the area and have heard of nothing but fabulous reviews. Perhaps once I get there I will have found a spot in Colombia with awesome coffee and where they drink it not only at breakfast;) Seriously, it was shocking to me how unimpressed I was by coffee in the areas I did travel of Colombia. It was as if they saved the best coffee to be exported elsewhere or something, lol!!
Medellin is a proper, fairly large city situated in the valley between two mountain ranges. It is very picturesque despite the land being completely covered in homes and apartments. It has a great energy to it, very young and vibrant and they have quite a few things to do there. The temperature wasn’t quite what I had been used to… Now you have to bear in mind that until now I had been used to and living in tropical, Caribbean temperatures so anything less than 78 Fahrenheit (about 25.6 Celsius) I considered COLD!!
I stayed in Medellin for several days simply walking the streets, taking the tram up to the top of one side of the valley and going to their various museums, which included a science and natural history museum. It was a big city like many others, which really doesn’t appeal to me in any huge way other than it being nice to have the conveniences of a big city. But definitely worth a visit just to see the way the city is structured!
I have to admit really that after the craziness of actually getting there and getting settled there, every other day spent there was quite dull in comparison! Sorry, no crazy stories of actually staying in Medellin!! So to keep this post somewhat interesting, below at least are some pictures! Several from the bus ride over, and several more of Medellin itself. Some of the pictures taken from the tram seem foggy. That’s due to the glass of the tram, not from any pollution from the city:)
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
Ramblintraveler 