Around the World – Page 3

September 19, 2016

Why so windy Malta?

As I mentioned in my previous post we were looking forward to getting to Malta to enjoy the hot weather and get out and about to explore but nature had a different plan for us. When we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon our room wasn’t ready so we went to the top floor to eat (yes we eat a lot!) and sit by the pool but it was so windy that it just wasn’t enjoyable. Once our room was ready we went upstairs, dropped our bags off and went for a quick walk. When we got back we spent the rest of the night eating room service and talking about our lives and what’s changed for us. At some times the conversation was difficult but when we woke up the next day we both felt a little bit lighter. Spending 24 hours a day together can be hard but we have been doing it for so long now that it’s quite easy for us, however that doesn’t mean we don’t have to put in effort and that’s what that conversation was about – checking up on each other to make sure everything was ok.

We left our hotel in the afternoon after a quick FaceTime call to Mark’s mum and got a taxi to the port. As we were paying the taxi driver we asked him where the ticket office was for the ferry. “There isn’t one, you buy the tickets when you come back”. Usually places make you buy a return ticket when you leave but not this time, so we simply walked straight onto the ferry and within 30 minutes we were on Gozo island. From the port in Gozo our apartment was only 1km away so we had planned to walk it. Once we got to the port and looked out we saw that yes, our apartment was probably only 1km away but it was on a constant incline. So walk we did and by the time we got there we were so hot and tired that we collapsed on the couch but sometimes there is just no time for rest so we grabbed our wallet and walked to the supermarket to buy food for the next few days. We always buy a lot of water because we find if we have it we drink it, but if we don’t have it we can forget so we bought a 6 pack of 2L bottles, along with all of our food. We obviously didn’t think it through because the walk back carrying everything was a killer. We made it back though and after that we truly collapsed on the couch.

It was so windy while we were in Gozo that going to the beach was just no fun. We spent our 2 full days there venturing out to check out some sites when it wasn’t raining or blowing a gale. We managed quite well and on the day we had to leave the sun was finally out and the wind was gone so we woke up early and got a small taxi boat to Blue Lagoon which was absolutely beautiful.

I’m so glad we got there early because there was hardly anyone there and within an hour boats full of people started to arrive and that was our sign to leave. Mark had worked out our timing for the entire day and we were on schedule for everything until we got on the taxi boat to go back to Gozo and the driver decided to take a longer route and added 20 minutes to our trip. This threw everything off course so when we got back to the port we raced back up the hill to our apartment, had the quickest showers ever, grabbed all of our stuff and raced back down the hill carrying our backpacks. We got on board the ferry back to Malta with 3 minutes to spare. We looked like absolute ferrels, but we made it and could relax for 20 minutes before we had to move again. Once back in Malta we got a bus to the airport which took an hour, we dropped our bags off at the luggage deposit and walked back out to the bus stop to get another bus out to Valletta, the capital of Malta. I’m so glad we went out. Valletta is so beautiful and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and admiring everything before getting back on the bus to the airport.

Thank god we were staying at the airport hotel, because after speaking to some friends they cancelled plans to go into the city to see them as they had just flown in that day and were exhausted (we could totally understand that feeling) so we got our bags and pushed them on the airport trolley all the way to our room, ready to go the next morning. I can always tell when we are tired when we fall asleep without eating dinner. But luckily we slept because we are on our way to Barcelona to see some other friends so we will need all the energy we have for that!

Plus side of staying at the airport hotel!

September 11, 2016

I’m going for a swim

“I’m going for a swim” is a sentence most people will generally never hear me say. If people ask if I want to go for a swim I might say yes, but rarely do I ever think about it myself. I love the water but it’s needs to be extremely hot weather for me to go in – I just get cold easily. So I wish I could have filmed the look on Mark’s face when I walked out, towel in hand and announced I was going for a swim in the pool.We treated ourselves and booked a nice Trullo House in Cisternino, 15 minutes from Ostuni, which had an amazing pool and with the weather being so hot I went for a swim every day. Shock I know!

Apart from going for a swim everyday we went out most days for a drive to check out beaches or other towns. On one particular day we woke up early as we had planned to go for an hour long drive to a beach west of where we were staying, but us being us, we snoozed our alarm and slept for another hour and then when we did get up we took our sweet ass time getting ready because “Hey, we’re on holiday so who cares”. Turns out we should have cared a bit more because by the time we got to the beach, clouds as dark as charcoal rolled in bringing with them sheets of rain and ferocious winds. We sat at a beach side cafe eating our paninis, before jumping back in the car and driving to Gallipoli (not the Gallipoli in Turkey) where it was not raining and in fact really hot. By this stage we both wanted a drink so we ordered some wine and sat in the sun before deciding that we should just head back to our trullo and sit by the pool.

Gallipoli was beautiful especially after we escaped a torrential downpour

Leaving Gallipoli for this was not such a bad idea, a swim and more food 🙂

One of the downsides to staying in old style accommodation is often the height of the ceilings. In our trullo one of the corridor ceilings was really low, I could walk through without hitting my head while Mark had to tilt his head to walk through. Karma did get me though when I laughed at him for hitting his head and the next day while I was walking with my wet hair wrapped up in a towel it got caught and snapped my head back.

Our time here has been very relaxing. It was the first time in a while where we didn’t have any major plans nor did we have to see anyone so we could relax as much as we wanted. It was the perfect end to our time in Italy as we’re on our way to Malta for hopefully some more nice weather but not as much relaxing! Italy has been amazing though and by now it has become really easy for us to be here. We have seen so much of Italy that we can easily understand the differences and can compare. We feel like we are pros.

much love, the Italians – B & Mark xxx

September 7, 2016September 7, 2016

Lunch in Milan please

We spent the day walking around Verona and of course we checked out Casa di Guilietta (Juliet’s house) and walked to the top of Castel San Pietro to admire the view of all of Verona. While doing all of this I was messaging a cousin of mine who lives in Milan and was trying to organise a time to see her. We quickly realised that it wasn’t going to be possible unless we went the next day for lunch. So that’s what we did. The next day we ditched our train to Bologna, booked a train to Milan and made our way to the university where she works. She’s originally from Sydney so it was odd when I heard her say hello because it was Australian. We meet a lot of people who speak English as a second or third (sometimes even more) language and everyone has their accent but in the end there is no mistaking an Australian accent, especially when you haven’t heard another in a while.

Mark found the whole situation funny because I had never actually met Maria prior to our lunch in Milan. Yes she’s from Sydney but she’s been living in Italy for years and our paths just never crossed but in the end it doesn’t matter. Family is family and it was nice to meet her and catch up, we did also try to plan some other possibilities of us meeting later in the year but what will happen will happen. It was amusing to see how quickly word spreads back home. I told my mum we had had lunch with Maria and an hour or so later she sent me the photo we took of us together. My mum had got the photo from my aunty who got the photo from Maria’s brother who I had sent the photo to. When my mum sent it to me I just laughed. At lunch we were also reminded just how small the world can be sometimes because when Mark mentioned a project he worked on in Sydney and the man he dealt with Maria knew exactly who he was because she grew up with his children and calls him uncle. Ahhh Italians. After lunch we made our way back to the train station to wait for our new train to Bologna. The rest of the day and night was very uneventful as was our next day there. Neither of us really enjoyed Bologna and looked forward to leaving after just 1 full day there.

We left Bologna to go to Ferrara to meet Mark’s cousins (this time) Carmelo & Mirko. We spent 2 days there hanging out with them and enjoying the Annual Buskers Festival. At the end it was sad saying goodbye to them. When we said goodbye in Sicily it wasn’t “Goodbye” it was “See you later in Ferrara”, this time it was “See you later, sometime, somewhere” and because no matter what everyone’s intentions are sometimes life gets in the way and it can become 10 years or more before you see them again. I hope that doesn’t happen in this instance!

Another train, this time for 6 hours from Ferrara to Bari which is where we are now, inside a semi-rundown hotel, scratching the mosquito bites we got on our walk to get pizza. On the plus side the pizza is good and I’m full.

mariafotor — The infamous photo of Maria and me

August 29, 2016August 28, 2016

Meet the Relatives. Part 2

We finished our time in Sicily with a first birthday party which was nice because it gave us the opportunity to see everyone one last time and say thank you and goodbye. We were dropped at the bus stop early in the morning and arrived at the airport 2.5 hours later. After a flight to Rome and a train to Ancona we arrived at my cousin’s house, said hello and went to go get dinner. It felt easy being back in Ancona and was nice to see family again. We spent the next 2 weeks there between 2 houses, one in the city centre and another 45 minutes south in a small town. Our 2 weeks were filled with relaxing days, day trips and catching up with family.

The first few days we spent with my cousins who are the same age as me which was nice because we got to hang out with them and their friends. We would meet up with their friends for lunch or at night after dinner for a few drinks. Luckily for us pretty much all of their friends spoke English which made things easier for us. They were all so nice and welcoming towards us and it was interesting speaking to a lot of them who had family or friends in Australia at the moment. We’ve learnt that Italians love Australia!

A trip we took out to Due Sorelle beach with my cousins

It is an odd thing knowing you have family in another country – especially ones you have never seen before. Back home I know all of my nonno’s family there, after all, it’s just us, so it was so strange sitting down at dinner one night with more than one of my nonno’s brothers. It was even stranger when we grabbed a pen and starting writing out the family tree on the paper place mats. There were so many names it was ridiculous and then all of a sudden cousins showed up during desert and one of them knew every name and connection so she helped us write it all down. It was a pretty productive dinner. It’s also nice having the opportunity to look at photos and read letters I had never seen before. My Zio was really happy to show me everything. We spent a couple hours one afternoon going through some photos and letters.

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We went on a few day trips, one to Grotte di Frasassi, which is the largest series of caves in Europe, we went to the Olive Festival in Ascoli, spent the day in San Marino on Ferragosto and drove to Assisi to see where St. Frances was from. Every part of Italy is different to the one before it. Even if at first glance it looks the same it isn’t, and even if you can’t actually see any differences there are differences in the way people go about their lives there. From eating habits, festivals and even dialects, Italy is so diverse.

DSC00773_Fotor — View from our day trip to San Marino

I really enjoyed spending time with my relatives especially for 2 weeks. We were able to get to know each other a lot better and learn things that wouldn’t have been possible during one meal. Saying goodbye to my uncle and aunty was really hard. I couldn’t look at them for very long after saying goodbye even though I know I’ll see them again in October. After a second hug goodbye I had to turn around and leave otherwise I would have been a blubbering mess. 2 days later when we were dropped at the train station the same thing happened when we said goodbye to my cousin and her family. They looked after us so much that it was like we had always been there.

On the train leaving Ancona we had a bag full of food that was to get us through our trip. Within half an hour we had eating half of it and forced ourselves to eat the other half on the next train, which we did as soon as we sat down. We arrived in Verona quite late and went to sleep straight away.

When we woke up this morning we had a mountain of messages from people asking where we were and we didn’t know why until we checked the news and saw the story about the earthquake. It was just a sad thing to read first thing in the morning but it was amazing to see how many people were checking up on us. So as I’m writing this Mark is replying to everyone’s messages, telling them we are all ok.

So, until next time, a safe Mark & B xxx

August 28, 2016

Meet the Relatives. Part 1

We left Ancona Central Station at 8am – 11 hours later, we arrived in Tonnarella, Sicily. It was a long journey from Ancona. But… it was worth it.

After collecting our bags at Catania airport, we walked out into the arrivals hall, and waiting for us was none other than my cousin, Carmelo – I hadn’t seen him for years.

We waited at the airport for another hour or so as my father, Gregory (or Gregorio as he calls himself in Italy) was on his way from Rome. We spent the hour catching up with Carmelo over coffee and pizza.

Gregory arrived, strolled out into arrivals with his friend Kevin (photo below), very pale white skin and a cool hat – he was in holiday mode. It was interesting waiting for my dad to arrive, perspective wise. Only an hour ago my perspective was that of Greg’s, now it was the opposite – this was the first time in months that someone, a group of people were coming to visit us.

13754535_661355790683239_5888046046424096889_n — This is Kevin

My Mum was already in Italy – she flew the ‘kids,’ my Nonno and Nonna over a few weeks prior so they could acclimatise (which they did thank god!). Mum was waiting at Tonnarella – it was so nice to be with my folks again. I’d only spent just under 2 weeks with them in 7 months.

We spent the next few days exploring my Nonno’s old stomping ground – the Island of Salina. It’s probably my favourite or top three islands in the world. It’s simply beautiful and so local. It was nice having my Nonno talk to us about where he was born – there was and still is a real sense of pride about where he came from and who he is now; his journey. Both Dad and I spoke about the this bar we went to years ago weeks before he got to Italy, it was our sole mission of the trip to reacquaint ourselves with this bar overlooking the med. We’d been there 15 years prior and wanted to relive the memory. We found it, it was still open and the granite was just as good.

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Carmelo had lived with my folks in Australia for over a year so there was a pre-existing connection between the three of them. Carmelo’s parents took a few days off to spend some time with us – we made our way to San Vito lo Capo and spent a few days there relaxing, eating and exploring. Carmelo’s brother, Mirko also met us there – I hadn’t seen him for 15 years. It was a holiday within a holiday.

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After returning from San Vito lo Capo, Carmelo only had a few days left before he started a new job up north in Turin. He only had a week or so off – I was pretty keen to spend us much time with him as possible. Carmelo is from Bafia, a tiny village (<500 people) about an hour from the beach in the mountains – we spent a few nights up there, drinking and chilling out with Carmelo, his brother and their friends. Their usual hangout was a friend‘s ancestor’s deserted house. It was horror movie cool. I even managed to quickly learn a few Italian songs on the guitar so they had some music to sing along to.

Carmelo and I made plans to catch up one more time in Italy – maybe Ferrara or Turin, not sure where yet, but it was going to happen. After Carmelo left my attention moved to my folks and spending some quality time with them.

We made our way over to Lipari, where my Mum was born, and spent a night there. I’d been to Lipari when I was a youngster, and it was nice being back there with my folks as an adult this time, I was excited. We cruised around parts of the Island on my cousin’s boat, visited different towns on the island, had dinner with the relatives etc, it was a busy day. The highlight was watching my Nonno try to contain one of the cousin’s mischievous 4 year olds that was walking all over him… she even threatened him with a fork. I’m not joking. It was hilarious and nice to see my Nonno interact (negotiate) with children that spoke his language.

After getting back to the mainland, the four of us (Bianca, Mum, Dad and I) finally had a few days were we could chill on the beach and spend some quality time together. And that we did. It was interesting listening to what they had to say about what was going on back in Australia: The Election, news, family updates, what they were up to. I noticed how things essentially don’t really change back home… we all do the same thing, follow the same path, and talk about and do the same things. Hell, I was doing it before I left. It’s just what you do. And now, here we were traveling the world doing something different, it reminded me to be grateful for the opportunity we had.

Mum and Dad left early in the morning to make the +2hr journey back to the airport – we woke up early to say our goodbyes. We wouldn’t seem them for maybe +7 months. It was difficult saying goodbye. I’ll miss them but I’m grateful for them coming to see us and for the memories we created together.

Mark

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August 3, 2016

La mia famiglia

We left Cinque Terre after a few days to catch 3 trains to Ancona, on the east coast of Italy, where my relatives live. We arrived at 10.40pm and there they were with a Welcome sign waiting for us. Mind you we didn’t see them at first and they ended up running down escalators trying to get our attention. And so there we all were – me, Mark, and my dad’s aunty, uncle and cousins. It was so surreal standing there looking at them knowing that they probably knew more about me than I knew about them. After meeting we all went out for pizza and then were in bed by 2am. The next day we went to lunch at my uncle’s house and stayed there for hours. We FaceTimed back home and my dad spoke to his uncle for the first time in years. It was only a quick chat but they spoke about how excited they were to be meeting again in October and at this stage we all had tears in our eyes as we watched them speak. Apart from eating way too much we spoke a lot and I listened to a lot of stories about my Nonno (grandfather) and his family and their reasons for leaving Italy or going back in the case of my uncle. There were so many stories I hadn’t heard before and I sat there listening trying to take it all in, making sure I didn’t forget anything. We went out that night with my cousins and their friends and it was the first time in a couple of months we had been out like that. It was so nice being with a group of people our age especially because so many of them speak English – lucky for us, otherwise we would be the 2 Australian mutes. Getting home at 6am was a shock to our system so we slept in and eventually got up and made our way to the beach where we soaked up not just the sun but the Italian lifestyle.

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The next 2 days we spent with family, relaxing, eating of course, talking, listening to stories and even stopping by the local shoe and handbag factories! One of my favourite parts was our last night where we had dinner at the beach with even more relatives and sat and talked. By this stage our Italian had improved dramatically and both Mark and I were able to keep track of other conversations and what was going on around us. At one point during the dinner I stopped and looked around and felt homesick for my family back home but also so comfortable with my family there that I felt at peace. Mark was joking around with a cousin – eating and drinking, some others were talking in smaller groups and my uncle was telling a story of his time in Australia and all I could do was smile at him while he spoke a mixture of English and Italian while telling us about how he loved to dance especially when he was young and in Australia. I had the most amazing few days and I am looking forward to spending even more time with them in August and again in October.

July 25, 2016July 27, 2016

Island time

After spending 2 days at a hotel near the airport we decided it was best we utilised our time in Sardinia so we booked an apartment and hired a car for the drive there. Our car was of course the quintessential Italian Fiat 500. It was a tiny car so we had to put the back seats down just to fit our backpacks in but after doing so we drove for 2.5 hours to Cala Gonone. We arrived, got the keys to our apartment and went straight to the supermarket to buy groceries for the next 4 days. After eating our lunch of bread, prosciutto and mozzarella we went straight to the beach. This was pretty much our schedule everyday in Sardinia. Wake up, eat, go to the beach, eat, go back to the apartment, eat, go for a walk, and then finally eat gelato to finish our day.

The only day that was different for us was when we hired a boat to go and explore the coast line. Driving around was so amazing because we were able to look back at the island instead of looking out to the sea. We spent 6 hours driving the boat around a small strip of water. Looking back on the island of Sardinia was breathtaking. The colours changed along the whole strip but everything blended in so well. At one section the plants on top of the cliff were a grey-green colour, with some being so close to silver that they shone in the sunlight. The water also changed going from a turquoise blue to a rich sapphire blue, but either way it was so clear, allowing us to feel like we were in the shallows. We anchored a couple of times to stop and enjoy our surroundings and also to jump in and swim. The water was so refreshing it took away the scorching heat from the sun. We didn’t just drive around though or anchor to swim we also anchored close to a private beach where we didn’t stay for long because ants swarmed all over our beach towels and a group of kayakers rocked up taking up half of the beach so it gave us a good reason to get moving and to go check out one of the caves. Mark dropped me off at the beach and then drove the boat out to deeper water to anchor and then swam back. The beaches either had sand or rocks and this particular beach had rocks which either swallowed your feet or made you feel so unbalanced while walking that you looked like a baby deer walking. After our day on the boat we went back to our apartment to cook dinner where I discovered that I had heat stroke after spending an entire day in the sun. Yay for me!

DSC07769_Fotor — We splurged on ourselves and hired a boat 🙂

We enjoyed our time in Sardinia so much even though we did very little in comparison to some of the other places we have been to. It felt like we had a little bit of normality in our crazy world.

DSC07730_Fotor — Cooking – a little bit of normality for our lives.

We left Sardinia for Cinque Terre which I was really looking forward to because so many people raved about it. We stayed in the smallest of the 5 towns which is also on top of 360+ stairs. I had to psych myself up once we arrived to climb the stairs in 30 degree heat with our backpacks but thankfully before we started we bought some bottles of water and noticed some people standing around what looked like a bus stop and sure enough a minute later a bus drove up and would easily take us up the top in 5 minutes for 2.50 Euro. We were straight on the bus happily standing because there were no seats. Our days in Cinque Terre were spent pretty much in the exact same way as Sardinia. And, just like in Sardinia we spent our days relaxing and one day out exploring which was just as well because all of the other towns were so full of people that there was no way we would have relaxed in them. We loved Corniglia and would recommend it to anyone staying in the Cinque Terre. The day we spent exploring was amazing though and Mark took so many unbelievable photos that when he first showed me some of them I thought he had just googled some.

DSC08352_Fotor — One of the most amazing photos! Courtesy of Mark.

One of the other reasons I think we’ve spent the past 12 days relaxing is because we didn’t have any internet and I’ve been writing this on a word document waiting for internet, and not just any internet but internet that is strong enough to open up a website. That means that this post will be delayed and you’ll know we finally have a strong wifi connection somewhere.

July 10, 2016July 10, 2016

Hello & Goodbye

After a rather wet and windy time in Ireland we were looking forward to getting back to London because the weather forecast had said it would be sunny for most of our time there. We got to our guesthouse at about 10.40pm and met a guy from the holiday company who gave us the keys and showed us around, not that there was much to show in our room. The room was a futon, folded out as a bed which we could normally handle but the one thing that was a bit frustrating was the lack of space. By the time we put our bags in the room and closed the door there was only enough room for us to stand next to each other in the corner or to sit on the edge of the bed (sorry futon). Had we not been meeting up with friends during our stay I think we would have been very unhappy campers.

2 and half years ago while on a train in Russia we met Tom & Kirsty who we would travel across the Trans Siberian Railway with. We instantly had a connection back then and when we saw them for the first time since saying goodbye in Beijing years ago it was as if we had never said goodbye. We simply picked up from where we left off. The 2 days we spent with Tom & Kirsty were so nice. They took us on a tour of London, showing us all of the sites and catching us up on everything they had been up to in the past couple of years and when it was our turn we did the same, updating them on our travels and everything that lead us to be where we were. I’ve learnt that in life you meet so many people and those that are meant to be in your life will be, no matter how far away they are or how long it is between seeing them. Tom & Kirsty are those types of friends. They understood us when we spoke about issues we had while travelling (they had travelled extensively themselves) and we understood them when they spoke about their jobs and home lives. On our 2nd and last day with them they treated us to the London Bridge Experience which is a horror attraction that takes you through the history of the famous London Bridge and then scares the s**t out of you. At one point in the attraction the whole group is sitting in a room made into a chapel. We were in the second row of pews and the actor was telling us about the witches and drownings that took place there years ago. If you were thought to be a witch you were tied up and thrown in the river Thames, if you floated to the top it meant you were a witch and you would then be burned at the stake, if you drowned it meant that you were innocent but dead. Out of the entire group the man suddenly points to me and asks my name to which I reply “Bianca”. He then got the entire group chanting “Burn the witch” while pointing at me. I sat there stunned and slightly freaked out that they were going to make me get up and actually do something. Mark, Tom & Kirsty all thought it was hilarious. I believe everyone else there thought it was quite funny too. After the factual part of the experience they make you watch a video warning you of the horror that lies ahead. The main part of it is actually quite terrifying and at one point Tom had run off while Kirsty, Mark & I were left running after him and then being completely scared when an actor jumped out at us from around the corner. After the experience ended we were all laughing at each other and how we all reacted. After this we had to say goodbye and there were tears from Kirsty and I but we all spoke about when we will see each other next, not if.

DCIM102GOPRO — Rain couldn’t stop us from enjoying our time with friends.

After saying goodbye we headed out to see a friend of Mark’s that he hadn’t seen since she left Melbourne for London years ago and who is a musician. We caught up over coffee (I had tea) and drinks afterwards and I know Mark really enjoyed being able to properly talk to someone about music but also about how much their lives had changed since high school. As we did with Tom and Kirsty we spoke about the next time we will see her and promised to stay in touch between now and then. The day after we were on our own again but only for a few hours before we caught up with Mark’s cousin who is now living in London. He showed us around different parts of London and it was nice speaking to him and hearing about how much his life had changed since leaving Italy for Australia and then leaving Australia to go back to Italy and onto London. It was a bit sad saying goodbye to Giuseppe as well. It’s always so hard knowing when we will see people again and no matter how many promises and plans are made sometimes life simply gets in the way and it becomes years before you are able to see someone again. It’s one of the reasons why being online has helped us so much during this trip. Even though we are away we still feel so connected to everyone all around the world.

We had an amazing time in London despite all of the rain and will definitely be back there in our lifetime, maybe even on this trip!

July 10, 2016July 17, 2016

You had plans? That’s cute

We arrived in Paris via the Eurostar from London and by the time we got to our hotel it was already getting dark so we walked to Sacre Coeur which wasn’t far from where we were staying. We stood on the steps and looked out over Paris where we could see the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty amazing to be standing there looking out over Paris but the feeling didn’t last long when it stated to pour. It was a rather wet walk back to our hotel.

The next day we got up early so we could be at the Louvre by 9am. Luckily we bought tickets online because it can be crazy sometimes when you realise how much time is wasted waiting in lines. By the time we got inside it would have been 9:20am and we went straight to check out the Mona Lisa and the whole time I was just thinking about the Mr Bean movie. We spent a lot of time looking at the Italian artists and the sculptures (they were my favourite) and then we started to get hungry so left to get ourselves a drink before heading to the Champs Elysees. We walked along up towards the Arc de Triomphe and then sat down for a hot chocolate (me of course) and a coffee with some macaroons. At this stage we had felt like we had accomplished a lot so we got back on the metro and went to the Eiffel Tower. When I think of Paris I think of the Eiffel Tower so I was stoked to be there looking at it. My dream was so sit on the grass eating lunch while admiring it but due to the EuroChampionship and the high terror alert in France at the moment the surrounding gardens were closed off so we bought our lunch and sat on the grass behind the Eiffel Tower where we could admire part of it.

We were in bed early because we had a 7:00am flight to Milan. At 4:00am our alarms went off to wake us up. I have a habit of checking our emails when I wake up each day just to make sure we haven’t received any emails from hotels/airlines etc. I was slightly hopeful when I saw one from our airline because I thought “ok, our flight is delayed we can sleep a bit longer”. I was right, our flight was delayed and we could sleep a bit longer if we wanted, a whole day in fact because they cancelled our flight and put us on one the following day. So at 4:30am we were both up trying to figure out what we were going to do – should we stay in Paris another night? Get on a different flight with another airline? Get a train to Milan? All options were so expensive especially because Italy had just played France in the Euro the night before so the cheapest options for us was to stay another night in Paris but to make things a bit easier for ourselves the next day we moved to a hotel right next to the airport.

Thankfully our flight wasn’t delayed a second time so we were up early and at the airport. We had emailed our hotel in Milan twice to let them know we were delayed but still wanted the booking, and we would pay for the night we missed if we had to, and because we hadn’t heard from them we assumed it was ok. To be honest why wouldn’t it be? We were paying them for a night when we weren’t even there. Anyway so we got to Milan and I jumped on the airport wifi to check our emails, still nothing from the hotel so we quickly bought tickets and jumped on the airport train to the city. While getting on the train I saw an email come through: “Your booking has been cancelled due to no show”. Argh! We couldn’t even reply or call them because the train was moving away from the station and I had lost the wifi connection. Staying positive we just thought we would just go to the city and find a hotel.

Nope, no hotels within our budget. We just stood around for a while not knowing what to do and then I turned to Mark and was like “wanna go to Genoa a day earlier?” – why not, was his answer, so we got on a metro train to take us to Milan central station and there we stood in line to try to change our tickets. After a little bit Mark waited on his own and I went to check the automated ticket machines. There was a train leaving in 10 minutes and it was cheap, so I went back and asked Mark if he wanted to get that one. Yep, he did so I went back and tried one of the machines and it wasn’t working so I went to the next and bought the tickets. While paying it said “you are purchasing tickets for a service that departs within 5 minutes” I clicked ok because I didn’t think we had to walk far. Have you ever been in a situation where you think to yourself “this is movie worthy”? I did when we were running to the very last platform that just happens to be smaller than all the rest and therefore further away from the others and while running watching the train and the clock and then thinking “I’m either running slower or the train is moving” and then realizing that we missed the train by mere meters. We sat on the ground for 10 minutes just not sure what to do with ourselves. Eventually though we got up to make new plans. After a couple of hours we booked a return flight to Sardinia and 3 nights accommodation – We would find more when we got there.

Even with all of the messed up plans we still had time to see the Duomo.

And that brings us to where we are now – the A’Italia Lounge at Milan airport waiting for our flight so we can have a few relaxing days to recover from our pile of messed up plans.

Love, a tired B xxx

July 8, 2016July 8, 2016

The land of a thousand smiles

Hello Ireland. Looks like there’s a bit of rain here. Any chance of it stopping over the next few days?

Just like our day in London, Ireland wanted to show us what it was like for locals for a large part of the year, so it rained and then barely stopped for our 4 days there.

We spent our first day in Dublin and our first stop was a pub where we had fish & chips and a pint. Well, Mark had a pint, I had a coke and to be honest we didn’t do much after that.

The next day we walked to the car hire office and picked up our car so that we could start our short road trip. We drove from Dublin to Middleton so that we could stop off at the Jameson Distillery and check out where all of the whiskey that Mark loves is made. We arrived just as a tour was starting so we caught up to the group and wandered around listening to how all of the different types of whiskey were made. Mark seemed to be off in his own little world and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to what was happening until I called him over and he was picked to be a part of a whiskey tasting lesson and I thought he would be excited after that but he still seemed odd right up until the tour finished and we got our free drink. He seemed all fidgety and he was finally annoying me enough that I asked him what was wrong, to be which he replied “nothing’s wrong I just really want to go into the shop”. So I finished as much of my drink as I could (I don’t drink whiskey) and we went to the Jameson Distillery Shop. Mark was like a kid at Disneyland. He ran around looking at all of different types of whiskey he could buy and within 10 minutes we had walked away having bought 5 bottles to be sent back home. This resulted in a very happy Mark driving further onto Cork where he spent the whole night talking about the different types of whiskey he had bought and when he thought he would open each bottle.

Driving the next day from Cork to Galway was pretty easy except it just continued to rain with some occasion pauses for the sun to shine through. Did you know that the weather forecasts on the radio in Ireland don’t tell you when it’s going to rain, they tell you when it’s going to be sunny, or at least if they think the rain will stop. We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher on our way and when we pulled into the carpark to buy tickets the lady asked us if we still wanted to go in even though there was “zero visibility”. And so I replied “ok but what does that mean?” To which she replied that we wouldn’t be able to see anything. We decided to go anyway considering we had driven so far. When we parked and walked into the national park we could see the cliffs and although there was a bit of fog it wasn’t as bad as the lady made it out to be. After getting a couple of photos we thought it would be better to walk up the hill to see them better. After walking about 100m we turned around to see if this was a better spot and they were gone! It was just like the lady said – zero visibility. Luckily we had seen them for that brief moment! We were pretty tired once we left and continued into Galway and the mood in the car dropped significantly when we made it into town only to find most of the roads closed because of a marathon. Safe to say Mark was not a happy driver when a 7 minute drive turned into an hour of being stuck. Dinner that night consisted of a bottle of wine.

DSC07367_Fotor — Before zero visibility became a reality

Our time in Ireland flew and when we left Galway to drive back to Dublin for our flight to London we managed to fit a couple more sites in along the way. We kissed the Blarbey Rock which is said to give you the ability to tell great stories and we went to the Guinness Storehouse because you can’t go to Dublin without drinking a Guinness.

The main thing we realised during our time in Ireland was just our friendly everyone was. People who had no real reason to be extra nice to us just were. It was just so nice to meet people who were happy to help us.