From our 6th form leaver: Jake Pittman

A little about me

Well there we have it. Eight years of mollycoddling, homework, lessons, inter-house competitions and the like came to an end at the Leavers' Ball last Thursday; a final farewell to those teachers and fellow students who had made our time at City so memorable and enjoyable. As we were escorted off the HMS President at 2am on Friday morning, it was hard not to feel an (admittedly somewhat drunken) sense of sadness at it all being over, but there rests an inevitable excitement at the thought of what is to come in the next years.

For those of you who are reading this and wondering who it is that is still clinging on to City life by writing this blog, my name is Jake Pittman and I joined the school in 2002 and am embarking on a gap year, the reason for this blog, before going on to Bristol to read French and Spanish in 2011. In the next 15 months I'm planning to Interrail around Eastern Europe (starting tomorrow!), take advantage of my family in Australia and New Zealand by working on my tan on a few Aussie and Kiwi beaches before backpacking around South American countries such as Argentina and Peru to work on my Spanish. However, as much travelling and enjoying myself as I plan to do in the coming times, I do also plan on working hard on my return from Eastern Europe to fund my more than ambitious travels, either at the New Zealand owned Sacred Café where I currently work, or the advertising agency McCann Erickson.

Anyway, that's more or less it by way of less than interesting introductions and I better sign off in order to get some last minute packing done before my flight to Budapest tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be writing weekly while I'm away so by this time next week I expect to be somewhere suitably exotic like Montenegro if everything is going to plan! Thanks heaps to anyone taking the time to have a look at this - first time I've done anything of the sort so I hope it's legible enough and I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures over the coming year!

Latest post: 16 August 2010

The Prague bar crawl was a great success, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were able to bear witness to a few closely fought games of Beer Pong as well as meeting some very interesting Italians who dubbed me as a "blonde Hugh Grant" (not sure I can see the resemblance myself...) among many many others. Definitely another experience I'd recommend to anyone looking to enjoy a bit of the famed Prague night life though definitely make sure you don't have a 6.30am train to catch in the morning as we felt a bit worse for wear after only a couple of hour's sleep...

We were however extremely excited to arrive in Berlin and snoozed away the 4 hour train journey between the two cities before navigating their pretty superb S-Bahn system to the east side of the city to get to our hostel. The New Europe free walking tour that we did in the afternoon was just as good as the one in Prague and actually given by a German historian studying in Berlin so he certainly knew his stuff - we heard such stories as Napoleon stealing the statue off the top of the Brandenburg Gate for his collection at the Louvre before the Germans retook it and recast the face of the statue so that it looks towards the French embassy in order to "keep an eye on the French", and Hitler's crazed plans to build an Imperial Palace 35 times the size of the Reichstag with a dome to hold 250,000 people (apparently the perspiration and heat of all 250,000 people in the dome would condense on the inside of the glass dome and provide a constant stream of rainfall inside the dome... not that Hitler would hear anything of it).

The tour took us through the majority of the old East Berlin, along sections of the old wall and of course Checkpoint Charlie which has a really incredible open air exhibition about the lead up to the erection of the wall, life between 1961 and 1989 and various escape attempts etc. which was a real eye-opener since I have to admit to not knowing a whole lot about that period of history. One of my favourite stories was one involving a US general from West Berlin who was refused access to East Berlin where he wished to go to the opera and decided to gather several US army tanks at the checkpoint in order to threaten his way into the East side. The Russians responded by gathering their own tanks there in a mass confrontation that could have potentially sparked a third world war had the situation not been resolved peacefully. 

It really is a city with a fascinating history and since Hannah and I had both learnt about the rise of Hitler in Germany it was interesting to see where Hitler's bunker used to be and where his body was burnt by Nazi soldiers after his suicide as well as, of course, the much newer but sombre and striking Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which consists of 2000+ concrete blocks of varying heights laid out in a dizzying grid. There were also the slightly older French and German cathedrals, built in the same square and the German one is almost a carbon copy of the French one as they liked it so much and wanted something similar but in typical German dominant style they built it a grand 10cm higher than the French cathedral, and Museum island which holds Berlin's 4th and possibly most spectacular cathedral which was built in the 1900s but made to look about 300 years older which it really does.

We rounded off the evening in the most amazing beach bar on the river which had been recommended to us by some fellow backpackers during our stay in Slovakia and whilst it was really out of the way and impossible to find without knowing where it was, it was the most peaceful and lovely place- we even found our first sandy beach of our trip in the shape of their artificial beach on the riverbank! 

We hired bikes on our second day in Berlin which is a really great way of seeing the city as it seems very cyclist-friendly and everything around the centre is within a short ride's distance of each other so we made the most of our time before getting a rather uncomfortable night train to Paris. 

Arriving at 11pm we again navigated a foreign metro system to a flat I'd been lent for a few nights by my acupuncturist (don't ask...) in the east of Paris. We explored the Pere Lachaise cemetery, resting place of names such as Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and Moliere before walking through Place de la Bastille to Notre Dame and the beautiful surrounding area. It was amazing to be in Paris and finally have the chance to speak a bit of French so we spent the following two days wandering, taking in the main sights such as L'Arc du Triomphe, Sacré Coeur, Le Louvre etc. and looking through various small markets for souvenirs. We found original Tin Tin comic books in French which we considered a bit of a find as they were around 50 years old, and experienced the café culture of the beautiful streets of Montmartre before our time in Paris and indeed our whole trip culminated in a big treat of a steak-frites dinner out before climbing the Eiffel Tower at about 11pm and having the most wonderful view of Paris at night. 

Now I sit here writing back in London, thoroughly missing being on the road having without doubt caught the travel bug and it will seem weird unpacking my back pack tomorrow as opposed to packing it for a train journey somewhere. Hannah and I had the time of our lives and I count myself very fortunate to have seen the sights I've seen and to have experienced so much over the past five weeks- it's a journey that will stick with me forever. For anyone considering Interrail or even just travelling/backpacking around Eastern Europe then I would highly recommend it as not only is it much cheaper than Western Europe (0.5l beer in the most popular bar in Budapest cost about £1.50 whilst 0.5l in a Parisian restaurant was a shocking €6.50...), the people are fantastic and very welcoming and I can unconditionally guarantee that places such as Montenegro have scenery that will absolutely blow your mind- just try it, you won't be disappointed! 

It is time for a reality check now however and I begin work at the end of the week to start saving for my next planned trip- over to Australia, New Zealand and on to South America. As it stands I'm still working at the New Zealand-run Sacred cafe in Westfield shopping centre so if anyone fancies sampling one of the finest Flat Whites or Lattes in the capital then pop on over and I'll sort you out with a freebie! Slightly more importantly are the forthcoming A-Level results day this Thursday which, touch wood, will bring good news and with it a university place at Bristol for French and Spanish for 2011 so I'll write again soon afterwards. 

For now, enjoy the couple of photos that I've (hopefully) uploaded and I hope you've enjoyed reading about this first and very special part of my gap year. If anyone's got any feedback or wants to ask a question about where we stayed/the trip in general then feel free to drop me an email at Jake_Pittmania@hotmail.com and I'll get back to you. 

9 August 2010

First things first, I did indeed manage to eat that pizza, becoming the 27th English guest at the Ginger Monkey hostel to do so! However, I´m afraid it´s meant that I never want to see a mushroom again as one half of the pizza was ham, cheese and mushroom (the other was ham, cheese and sweetcorn) and it turned out that the mushrooms were canned and rubbery which got very sickly by the end... Anyhow I managed to eat it and felt much the worse for wear afterwards; it took a long hike through the beautiful Slovensky Rai national park the next day to burn all 1.5 kg of it off, though to many of the other guests´ surprise I did eat three full meals the day after. The hostel was by far our favourite of the lot so far, topping our previous fave in Belgrade, as it was just so homely and friendly no matter what time of day. Little touches like everyone going to dinner together, organising day trips together and being able to walk the owner´s dog meant that we got to know heaps of really nice people and had some great times while we were there. We ended up staying 4 nights instead of the planned 3 which was well worth it as it meant we got to climb to a peak of one of the Tatras Mountains at 1900 metres (the climb took us around 2h30, very heavy going...) so I would definitely recommend for anyone who is considering Slovakia or Southern Poland to get a bus to Zdiar and stay at the Ginger Monkey; I promise you´ll enjoy it!

Anyway, our next stop was Zakopane on the southern border of Poland, a place we thought would be a small mountain town similar to Zdiar but actually ended up being the most popular holiday resort for Polish people. We found it to be tacky yet fun in a strange way as it wasn´t built up at all and still had the old wooden buildings and everything was extremely cheap (coffee and cake for two was only 3.50). Two nights there however did make us miss Zdiar and the Ginger Monkey so we were relieved to move on to Krakow, a must for anyone travelling around Eastern Europe. Its beautiful market square is the biggest in medieval Europe and you can easily lose yourself in the streets of the Old Town and be sure to come across a cool antiques shop or cheap, delicious cafe. The bars in the Jewish quarter are also second to none and very cheap; we got to sample honey vodka and banana juice as well as cherry vodka shots in a bar whose tables were all adorned with sewing machines. Another hostel recommendation would be to stay at Mundo Hostel, a very funky place (each room decorated in the style of a different country) with the best breakfast we´ve had on our trip. It was easily one of our favourite cities and somewhere we could have spent a few more days happily wandering around, but at the same time it was equally nice to move onto Wroclaw (Vrots-Suave apparently...) in the west of Poland, essentially a smaller version of Krakow with the second largest market square in medieval Europe. A lovely town in itself, it was a lot more compact but still very beautiful.

However, our current location of Prague is by far my favourite city of the lot. It is the most stunningly beautiful city I´ve ever had the chance to visit with breathtaking buildings around every corner, not to mention the Charles Bridge, Prague Castle and the Old Town square. Everything in the centre is within walking distance and we did a free walking tour today with New Europe walking tours (definitely do their tours if you´re in any of the right cities) which taught us a lot about the history of Prague and meant we left with a few interesting facts to go along with the amazing sights we saw. Tonight we´re trying our hand at the famed Prague bar crawl which gives you two and a half hours of free drinking and entrance to several bars around the Old Town- sounds awesome but I may be thinking otherwise when we have to get up to catch a 06.30 train to Berlin tomorrow morning... 

30 July 2010

It's taken a while longer than I intended for me to give you an update so for that I apologise but I guess it's a testament if anything to how action packed and crammed the last few weeks have been for us around Europe. It all started at the EXIT festival in Serbia which, for those who don't know, is a night festival that takes place in the spectacular venue of Novi Sad's big fortress. The earliest act was generally at about 9pm with the latest coming on at 5am - quite a long night! Among our favourites were Placebo, Missy Eliot, Royksopp, Pendulum and The Chemical Brothers and the atmosphere was fantastic for all four nights - luckily we were staying in a house with a Serbian friend though as the temperatures at the campsite during the day were always around the 30 degree mark...

The 13 July heralded the start of the Interrailing leg of the trip so armed with my backpack I set off with Hannah (girlfriend/tour guide/travel companion) on our first train to Novi Sad to Belgrade. What struck us about Serbia was how cheap everything was but also how eminently friendly the people were, something we experienced first hand on the 12 hour train journey through stunning Montenegrin scenery from Belgrade to Bar when we got talking to a few locals in our compartment. We fell in love with Montenegro as we took buses to different towns along the coast, staying in private rooms or sobe offered to us by little old ladies waiting at the bus stations (extremely good value- 25 euros paid for a double room with air con, TV, balcony and a stunning sea view in Petrovac!) and spending a lot of the daytime on the beach working on our tans and swimming in the crystal clear water. For anyone travelling in the area I would definitely recommend spending a night or two in Petrovac or Sveti Stefan (look this town up on Google Images- it's amazing) and sitting around for the sunset; I haven't seen many better ones.

Two nights in Kotor's pretty old town were marked by a tough climb up the fortress walls in hot weather and a lack of a decent beach (Eastern Europeans are blissfully unaware of the beauty of a sandy beach...) whilst we were much keener on beautiful Dubrovnik which lived up to all expectations. Dubrovnik's old town is a bit more glam but better preserved and stunning albeit more touristy (the city wall walk is well worth the crowds though) and meant we weren't expecting much up in Split, although we were pleasantly surprised. The island of Vis is a must-see for anyone looking for an island a bit more off the beaten track and the one place we wish we'd had more time in so far, but we soon headed inland to Ljubljana (the quietest capital city I've been to, but we stayed in a old military prison where the rooms are actual renovated cells complete with bars on the window) and Zagreb (sleepy on Sundays).

We swiftly moved on to Budapest, another place that had been talked up a lot back in London but justifiably so as it's absolutely stunning on the river front and walking around Buda, whilst the nightlife and bars of Pest are unbeatable for being so cool and ridiculously cheap (paying maximum 1.50 for a pint is not hard to get used to). Three nights included a day trip to the famous Lake Balaton which was sadly surrounded by resorts comparable to trashy, Hungarian versions of Blackpool but is well worth a visit if you can avoid the resorts (generally anywhere not on the train line) as it is really beautiful. That brings us pretty much up to the present as an 8 hour journey yesterday brought us up into Slovakia to the High Tatras where we're staying in the incredible Ginger Monkey hostel in the lovely town of Zdiar, another must-see for the scenery and if you can stay in the hostel then even better! Went for a long walk today in the rain but it was real pretty and I'm off to fulfil my hunger by taking on the Ginger Monkey challenge and attempting to eat the gigantic 50cm pizza that they make down the road, I'll let you know how I go!

A lot to catch up on so not as detailed as I'd like but thanks heaps for reading it and I'll write again soon.