Summary of a Summery Holiday

I've been thinking about writing this post ever since the wheels of my flight left Scottish soil almost a month ago. In fact right from the moment when I knew that I was going on holiday I already had it in my head that, yes I was going to miss a whole month of posting, but that at the end of it I would have some really great things to write about - I was not far from the mark. The truth is that I've got so much to write about from my 3 and a bit weeks of traveling around Europe that I'm not sure that there is enough disk space on any computer in the world to hold it all. My fingers have been twitching for a long time as I've encountered new and interesting things; it felt like I had lost a limb with not being able to post for a whole month. Had it been for any other reason than being on one of the best holidays of my life I doubt that I would have been so accepting of the situation. Anyway, enough of the reasons for me not being able to write and lets get back on it! My holiday consisted of 5 different stops right up the middle of central Europe: Florence, Venice, Vienna, Prague and Berlin. The plan for this post is to give a little insight into my favourite things about each of them. I should say that this post comes with a warning though: I'm going to recommend that you visit each of these places and will continue to do so for pretty much every post that I write about my holiday - for this I can only apologise!

So our first stop was Florence which was just fantastic. Having been in Rome last year for my summer holiday, I had an idea of what to expect. In pretty much every postcard that I sent home and every time I've talked about Florence since I came home, I've described it as something of a 'mini-Rome'. The mix of old and new (and the bloody traffic!) was something that seemed very familiar to me. In my journal that I wrote when I was away (which will be the topic for a future post(s) I'm sure) I wrote that the main reason that I'm starting to fall in love with Italy is this interesting balance between the past and present that seem to dovetail with each other perfectly. It's one of the many reasons why I'll keep going back to Italy for many years to come. It's the country that I've spent more time in that any other in the world which, I think, shows just how much I like it.

That brings me nicely onto the longest stop on our trip - Venice. If you think that you can appreciate Venice from the things that you've seen on TV and in books then you are sadly very mistaken. To really appreciate how the city is and works, you really have to go there and soak up the atmosphere before you can even begin to work out what's it's like. It's like nowhere else that I've ever been before and I think that might be because there is probably nowhere else like it in the world. In a place where cars are replaced by boats and where you can stumble across some of the worlds most beautiful sights because you are slightly lost, there really can't be anywhere that's like it. I watched a programme on TV a couple of nights ago about 3 guys traveling to Venice (one of which was Dara O'Briain who is my favourite TV personality just now) and it was fantastic to see some of the shots of the places that I was only a few weeks ago. It feels like a lifetime ago now but I've got many fond memories of the week that we spent there and thankfully I've got photos and my journal to keep those memories eternal.

Our next stop was Vienna in Austria which was such a beautiful city and a place where we had better weather than at any point in the week and a half that we were in Italy. Despite the fact that everything was more expensive in Vienna it was a very enjoyable few days that we spent there. There are so many fantastic buildings and other sights that make it, not only very different to the things that we saw in Italy, but unique in it's own right. Everything was so clean and smart that it's almost as if they have a team of people that only come out at night to prune the trees and sand down the rough edges - very suave indeed. It is of course another place that I would visit again but maybe I would go back there when I've got a few more Euros in my pocket because I think that you could get so much more out of a holiday there if you aren't on a budget!

Our penultimate stop was the beautiful city of Prague. Out of the 5 places that we visited I would say (with a touch of trepidation) that Prague was the most attractive place. I had been told that it was a very impressive place and that I should expect to have lots of photo opportunities and I certainly wasn't let down. For someone such myself who goes a little bit crazy when they've got a camera in their hand, Prague was something of a dreamland for me. Having said that, I have come home with well over 700 photos from my whole trip; the photos from Prague just happen to be rather nice. The capital of the Czech Republic is not only a very nice place to visit, it is also a particularly cheap place. When a litre of beer costs under £3 then you know that you have hit the jackpot. I gather that it is quite a popular place for stag weekends which was quite obvious on the night that we went to a bar but it certainly didn't lessen our enjoyment of the place. Another city that I would love to see again and not just because of the cheap beer!

The last stop on our trip was Berlin and what great city to finish our travels in. It is such an interesting and vibrant city that it is sometimes easy to forget the terrible history that surrounds it. The thing is that if you do forget about it for a moment you are likely to be reminded the next time you turn a corner. There are so many reminders about Berlin's past about both of the Wall and the period leading up to and including World War 2. There are many areas of the city that are decidedly eerie and some that are just impossible to be in without being moved by the things that have happened there in the past. However it is a city that had been rehabilitated and is trying desperately to create a new image; trying to lose some of its past whilst also being very respectful to the atrocities that were manufactured there in the last 100 years. I was very impressed (if that is the right turn of phrase) by the way that that memorials have been put together and presented; if it's possible to do that kind of thing 'well' then Berlin has managed that. Aside from it's negative history, Berlin is a very interesting and bustling city and is the first place out of the 5 that I would go back to - there's just so much to do!

So that was a very brief look at what was a fantastic 3 and a bit weeks of my life. I could write a whole book about the things that I saw and did in that time but I wouldn't want to bore you guys more than I already do at times! It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and one that I'm planning on using as inspiration for my writing for quite a while to come. Maybe when I stop using it I might have something that looks like a book but hopefully stretching it over time into little chunks will prolong the enjoyment I've had out of it.

Thanks for reading and it's nice to be back!

Martin