History – theplaceswe

February 18, 2017

South America for days

We’ve spent the last six weeks traveling around South America with a friend of ours. Originally we had thought we would catch long distance buses to move around but decided we couldn’t be bothered with that so we flew around instead. These are our highlights from the past month.

Colombia
We met up in Cartagena and it was the picturesque start to our trip together that we had hoped for. One day we paid for a return trip across the bay to a popular beach. We had a really relaxing day and met a great family there. At the end of the day, a few minutes before our agreed return time we packed up our things and went in search of our boat driver. Half an hour later we were still on the beach with the driver nowhere to be seen. Welcome to South America, where you should never pay for a return trip because you probably won’t get it!

aadsc08238 — Little did we know we would be left on this beach!

We flew to Medellin after a few days in Cartagena and took a day trip to the Rock of Guatape where you climb 740 stairs to reach the top and over look to scenery. At a higher than normal altitude 740 stairs actually takes your breathe away and we quickly learnt that anything in altitude is harder than normal. Medellin is also where Mark discovered a girl was trying to pick him up by offering to be his guide.

On our flight to Bogota I met a guy who had lived in NZ to study English and after I told him where we were staying he advised me that it actually wasn’t a safe area. Upon arrival at our hotel we discovered that it wasn’t a safe area very quickly and once we got to our rooms and realised they didn’t lock properly we picked up our bags, booked a room at another hotel and left. Our new hotel was more like an apartment which was perfect because we hosted a dinner party to say thank you to Joel and Carolina for taking us out the night before and for Joel’s advice on where to stay – they did make our time in Bogota so much better!

Peru
We spent a day at the beach in Lima and then picked up a hire car and drove to Paracas to spend a few days there while our Brazilian visas were being processed in Lima. Along the way we were pulled over by the police and after 45 minutes of back and forth we were able to reduce our ‘fine’, which was in fact a bribe, to a quarter of what they wanted and then because they realised I was filming them they discreetly handed us the money back and then offered us some advice on police in Peru, even though they had just been asking for a bribe. Nevertheless because we were quite sure they would either follow us or radio the police up ahead we gave them some money as a token of our appreciation for their advice. Safe to say they were a bit shocked and wanted to confirm that it was a ‘gift’. They were quite happy when we confirmed it was and they freely took the money offered. Two days later we woke up early on our 365th day of travel and climbed huge sand dunes nearby and felt super proud that we had made it to a year.

Peru was full of nature for us. We spent 3 hours hiking up Rainbow mountain which was the hardest thing any of us had ever done but at the end it was so rewarding to be able to see how high we had climbed and look out over the mountain range. Surprisingly, out of the 3 of us, I was the only one that didn’t get hit with altitude sickness. Safe to say we slept well that night and 2 days later when we arrived at Machu Picchu we decided our legs just couldn’t take another hike so we got the bus instead and felt super happy with our decision once it started pouring rain.

Bolivia
Arriving in La Paz we were immediately hit with the altitude and pouring rain. It stayed like this for the entire time we were there and this time around I was the one to be hit with altitude sickness and spent a full day pretty much sleeping or not doing anything. We travelled to the town of Uyuni to spend a day visiting the Salt flats which were absolutely amazing. I had never seen anything so flat and white, not only that but because of the recent rains some parts of the salt flat looked like huge natural mirrors! Our day there was definitely the highlight of our time in Bolivia

aadsc08958 — Mirror, mirror on the floor

Brazil
We arrived in Rio with no energy whatsoever. It took us all a couple of days to recover from what we think was an effect of the constant changing altitudes we had been at. It didn’t matter too much though because we spent each day by the roof top pool which over looked Copacabana Beach and had views of Sugarloaf Mountain and if we stretched out over the ledge we could see Christ the Redeemer. We took a day trip out to visit Christ the Redeemer which is actually a lot bigger once you are standing right below it. The area was packed full of people though so it was difficult to stand still to appreciate it without being pushed from side to side. Sugarloaf Mountain was a lot quieter and gave us amazing views of Rio de Janeiro. On our last day we walked across to Copacabana Beach where we sat and watched all of the people for hours.

Argentina
We travelled to Argentina for the sole purpose of meeting some of Mark’s relatives that he nor his family in Australia had ever met before but to make the most of our visas we first stopped to see the huge Iguazu Falls that occupy both Argentina and Brazil.We arrived at the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls and got a taxi to drive us across the border into Argentina. We spent just the day there admiring the huge waterfalls and then early the next day flew to Buenos Aires to meet his relatives where we were welcomed with open arms and they looked after us like they had known us our whole lives. We spoke a weird mixture of English, Italian and Spanish and were thankful when we were able to speak English and have it translated. We were fed amazing Argentine BBQ and home made empanadas and when we left it was once again an emotional goodbye of “until next time”, although no one knows when next time will be we were all sure that there would definitely be a next time.

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Chile
After a whirlwind 6 weeks of travel we arrived in Santiago and slept for hours and woke up starving but refreshed. After an intense period of travelling we always have to spend a few days planning ahead and looking back at our most recent trip and that’s what we did here in Santiago; planned for the future, and our immediate future holds a trip to Mexico, snowboarding through Canada and buying an RV. Can’t wait for the next few months!

South America didn’t always live up to our expectations. In some moments we were pleasantly surprised but at other times we would travel somewhere and feel like that particular place was letting us down. This is one of the downfalls of travelling for as long as we have. We have seen so much of the world that unfortunately now we know what we like and what we don’t like and this makes appreciating great places difficult because we don’t want to see great, we want to see amazing places. This isn’t to say we didn’t enjoy our time in South America because we most definitely did, but if we are to ever come back we will be very selective about where we go, spending most of our time in Argentina, Chile & Brazil.

December 27, 2016

Goodbye Fidel, Goodbye Cuba

We arrived in Havana on a Friday afternoon and after we stood in line to change money at the airport and then got ripped off by a taxi driver we were standing face to face with a small Cuban lady rapidly talking to us in Spanish. She owned the casa particular that we would be staying in for 3 days. Although I could barely understand what she was saying I liked her immediately for the small reason that her house was spotless. We left our bags in her room as our room was still occupied by some other people – I noted that she didn’t seem really thrilled with those particular people – and went to explore Havana. We made our way to the main square and climbed 2 flights of stairs to get to a bar with balcony views over the square, and it was here that we sat, ate lobster, drank mojitos and watched the musicians and dancing that we were expecting to find all over Cuba. We moved onto another bar and after more music, more lobster, more mojitos and some Cuban cigars we decided it was time for bed, after all, we knew we had over a month of this so why cram it all into one night?

The next day we were up and noticed the casa owner didn’t have that same spark she had the day before so thinking we may have gotten in her way some how we quickly left for the day. We spent the whole day walking around and checking out what Havana had to offer. At one point a local was trying to sell us a newspaper and we kept trying to explain to him that there was no reason for us to buy one as we didn’t speak or read Spanish, he looked at us with a bewildered expression and eventually left. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant (for Cuban standards) and thought we would take our time eating because there didn’t seem to be a lot going on in the city at the moment and figured we just had to wait until it was later in the night. While talking to our waiter he just casually through in “well because Fidel died yesterday we are hoping it is the start of change” and then because we were too slow to actually say anything in reply, he continued talking, told us to enjoy our meal and walked away. It was now our turn to look slightly bewildered as we realised the guy selling the newspapers today was selling the edition announcing Fidel’s death. We then heard from other people talking that there would be 9 days of mourning which meant no alcohol and no music. That explained what we thought was a rather slow Saturday night, we also realised that explained why our casa owner was down this morning – she had learnt of his death. Sunday in Havana was a weird experience. The privately owned bars and restaurants were still selling alcohol while the government ones most definitely weren’t, however the private ones didn’t know if they were going to be allowed to do so for the entire 9 days of mourning or if it would change again, there was quite a bit of confusion. A lot of the locals, especially the older ones could be seen crying on the side of the street while most of the younger locals looked like the whole process was going to be an inconvenience to them. We walked around for the day, eating churos and eventually bought the newspaper announcing one of the biggest events in modern day Cuba – Fidel’s death.

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We left Havana for Vinales, the land of tobacco, and when we arrived we were swamped by local casa owners wanting us to stay with them. We weren’t in the mood to really fend them off so very quickly we had one lady follow us and tell us we could stay with her. We just went with her because, well we don’t really know why, I guess we just couldn’t be bothered. She was lovely though and her house was on a side street where we had a view of the mountains. The next day we were up before sunrise for our horse ride through the countryside. Our first stop was what can only be described as a jungle lookout where we climbed to the top to watch the sunrise over the mountainside of Vinales. It was so peaceful up there that we stayed for a while just to relax. Our second stop was a tobacco field where we were given a mojito for breakfast and a quick 2 minute show and tell on how cigars were made and then because we were the only ones there we bought 3 cigars fully aware that we were probably being ripped off, just as we read that everyone seemingly is at these types of places. We had a few more stops after the tobacco field but we were in and out very quickly as they didn’t really interest us. With the horse ride over after 4 hours we were both hurting and tired so we went back to the casa for a sneaky nap that turned into a 3 hour sleep. We had thought we would need 3 days in Vinales but after our horse ride there wasn’t really anything else we wanted to do so we spent the next 2 days chilling out on our balcony and walking through town. We had caught a bus to Vinales and thought we would try a Taxi Collectivo to leave Vinales. Everything seemed great when we got picked up and were only sharing the car with another couple who sat on the bench seat next to the driver. After half an hour we pulled into a stop off the side of the main road that was filled with all other collectivos and had a restaurant and a few stalls. We thought we were there just to grab a coffee but after a little bit our driver was taking all of our bags out of the car and palming us off to another driver. This happened 3 more times before we were finally in a car driving towards Playa Giron. Our days in Playa Giron were just what we needed. We went to the beach everyday, read and ate great food. We were a bit hesitant to leave because we had been having a great time but we felt we needed to keep moving otherwise we wouldn’t get to visit all of Cuba.

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We left Playa Giron and spent the last days of the country wide mourning period in Cienfuegos and Guajimico and then ended in Trinidad. We had a couple of days in Trinidad but it was here that Mark mentioned that he wasn’t enjoying Cuba the way he thought he was and my quick reply was “me neither, I’m happy to leave if you are”. He was quite surprised by my response as he thought I had been enjoying our time there. We spent a couple of hours the next day working out what we were going to do and how soon we were going to leave. We agreed we would spend another week in Cuba and then would fly to Mexico and spend our remaining free time there before flying to New York. After working all of this out we had a really good final week in Cuba. We saved ourselves a decent amount of money by getting a local train for 3 hours between 2 cities and although we had to stand for majority of the train trip it was better than some of the buses and taxis we had been in. We stayed at a casa of a lovely family and from there we met a Spanish couple travelling on their honeymoon with their baby daughter. They offered to drive us an hour and a half the next day so we could get to our next stop and go to the beach. The beach at Cayo Guillermo was simply breathtaking and it was nice to spend a day with some other people, chatting to them and getting some advice for our travels to South America. After two days by the beach we packed up our stuff and travelled to another city just for the night before we made our way to Varadero, which would arguably be the most tourist-populated area in Cuba with a long stretch of beachfront all-inclusive resorts. We didn’t stay in an all-inclusive because it’s just not in our budget but it worked out much better for us. We stayed in a quiet street, a 5-minute walk to the beach that brought us to a part of the beach that was relatively quiet – our type of beach! Another great thing about Varadero was the amount of international cuisine restaurants that thankfully gave us a break from the standard Cuban dish of meat, chicken or seafood with rice and beans, which we had been eating everyday since the day we arrived in Cuba.

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We left Varadero and spent our last day and night in Havana. Havana is a really cool city and it ended our time in Cuba perfectly. Next stop: Mexico.

November 5, 2016November 4, 2016

Dear Family

We’ve spent the past month travelling with my family and it has been an amazing experience, not always easy but always worth it. Mark and I had a total of 9 people meet up with us – my Mum and Dad; my three brothers, Chris, James & Oliver; Chris’ girlfriend Jess; my Aunty and Uncle; and another Aunty. This is an open letter to them all after we travelled through Rome, Bratislava, Prague, Ancona, Venice, Tuscany and Sorrento.

Dear Family,

Growing up I used to think we were normal and it’s not since I’ve gotten older that I’ve realised we are not normal at all. It’s like when they say “if you don’t know who your annoying co-worker is, then you’re the annoying co-worker”. Well that’s us, we are that crazy family you see out in public that can show up anywhere and just take over but not always in a good way. The past month stirred a range of different emotions in me.

You made me so happy. You travelled so far to see Mark and I. Of course I know you didn’t come just for us but the fact that you came because of us meant the world to me.
You made me laugh to the point it hurt and I made ugly snorting sounds.
You angered me when I watched you treat each other badly.
You reminded me of our old life by talking to us about life back at home.
You frustrated me because there were so many of you and it was so hard to make everyone happy.
You made me cry, both in good ways and bad.

I loved being able to watch your faces as you experienced things I had already experienced.
I loved having you there with Mark and me when we went to a new city and were able to experience it for the first time.
I loved being able to split taxi costs, which meant splurging on a taxi wasn’t as bad, as normal.
I loved watching you meet your relatives for the first time and getting to know them.

I hope your trip away was everything you imagined it to be. A month away is a long time but I hope it was worth it. It was worth it for me.

Dad, I’ll never forget listening to you talk to all of your family in Italian, smiling the whole time while learning things about your family you never knew.
Mum, I’ll never forget the smile you had on your face as you watched your family walk through unknown cities in foreign countries. You were watching us, but I was watching you.
R, S & J, I’ll never forget the heated debates and intense discussions we had after dinner some nights, the laughter and tears that came from them.
Mum, R & J, I’ll never forget the typical ‘mum’ comments that were made throughout the whole trip, giving us ammunition to laugh and to tease you about.
Boys & Jess, I’ll never forget being able to hang out with you like we did at home, laughing at each other and with each other.
I’m not sure when I will see you all again but it’s ok because this holiday with you will stay with me forever. Thank you for giving that to me.

And now to Mark, I’ll never forget what you did for my family and me. Thank you isn’t enough but it’s a start.

All my love,

B xx

November 4, 2016November 4, 2016

Here come the Griswolds

Leaving Denmark for Rome was a bit of a shock to the system but oddly enough we felt at home. We have after all spent months of our trip in Italy. We got a taxi out to our apartment to meet my family there to find that they were all out and about exploring so Mark and I walked up to a restaurant, ordered a pizza and ate. After finishing our food we went to wait outside the apartment as we didn’t have a key. I sat down to read while Mark played his guitar and after an hour and a half my family showed up. Months ago I would have said it was going to be emotional but before I saw there I knew it wasn’t going to be. I speak to them quite often and if it’s not on FaceTime then it’s via emails or messages – they also keep track of what we are doing via our blog and Instagram. It was nice seeing them all and it’s funny how even after being away for 8 months, our relationships just didn’t change.

The next morning Mark and I woke up early to go to the Trevi Fountain and before we knew it almost everyone was up and walking out the door with us.

It was funny watching them over the next few days grapple with their jet lag. I always find that you think you’re doing fine and then it just hits you like a tonne of bricks, and slowly, one by one, without them really noticing that it was happening they all experienced their jet lag. The next 2 days in Rome Mark and I were getting used to the idea of travelling with 9 other people and then once we thought we had the hang of it we got a flight to Bratislava. One of the main reasons for my family’s trip was to meet relatives and Bratislava was where my mum and two aunties were to meet their father’s family. My grandfather had one younger brother who married and had a daughter. My grandfather died many years ago and as a result my mum and aunties have minimal memories of him so meeting direct relatives of his was a huge thing for them all. It was an emotional 3 days for them all and I know memories were created that will last a lifetime. It was an teary goodbye for everyone but everyone was so happy to have had the opportunity to meet.

We left on the train for Prague early afternoon and it was just like a circus rolling into town. We got to Bratislava station early just so we could take our time and I’m so glad we did. Once everyone was settled the 4 hour train trip went pretty quickly and with 30 minutes to go the Griswolds aka my family, starting bringing all of their luggage down and preparing themselves to disembark. We arrived to a rainy and cold Prague and once we got to their apartment everyone was happy. The apartment was beautiful but didn’t have room for Mark and I so while everyone went out to explore Mark and I jumped online to find somewhere to stay. A couple of hours later we had checked into our own place and met up back at their apartment. This was pretty much the pattern for the next 2 days. Mark and I would meet up with everyone at some point in the day and we would hang out for a while. We didn’t have a great experience when we were in Prague earlier in the year and our visit there this time was a bit non eventful except for the fact I got my hair cut again. This time it’s actually all gone!

We left Prague late in the afternoon and caught 2 flights to Ancona, Italy where we were to meet my dad’s relatives. Mark and I had spent 3 weeks with them so seeing them again was quite easy for us but it was emotional for my Dad to see his aunty and uncle who he hadn’t seen for 30 years. We spent 5 days in Ancona, visiting relatives and seeing some sites when we could. The main event the family put on for us was a huge family reunion where more that 70 people came to see ‘the family from Australia’. It was an amazing night and we were so grateful to be able to meet so many people who we were related to in some way. I think it was more amazing for my Dad as he was able to speak to everyone with the need of a translator like the rest of us. Towards the end of the night Mark managed to get a group photo of everyone which was absolutely amazing.

We left Ancona with bags full of food curtesy of my Dad’s family. The quick train ride to Venice was really easy and when we arrived Mark and I pointed my family in the direction of their water bus while we walked in the opposite direction towards ours. After google maps sent us to a completely different address we eventually found our way to our apartment and settled in. I had always wanted to go to Venice but being there in the windy, cold weather didn’t really match what I had imagined so I promised myself I would be back one day in summer and then was able to continue on enjoying our short time there. We spent a day checking out the Burano and Murano islands. While we were all standing around waiting for Mark and James to relax after their ‘friendly’ wrestling match I noticed something fall on Mark’s head and then when I looked up I saw a huge seagull had just flown over us, and then quickly putting 2 and 2 together I realised that Mark had been shat on. The laughter and commotion that followed was hilarious and once I had cleaned all of the bird shit from Mark’s hair we were ready to go get some drinks! On our last day we took a gondola ride because you can’t go to Venice without getting one and it was the perfect end to our trip to Venice.

We were staying in a beautiful Tuscan Villa that took hours to get to by the time we left Venice, got the train and then drove to the countryside. It was such an amazing house and we spent the week there cooking, drinking and simply relaxing. We woke up early one day during our stay there and drove out to Pisa. It was a long drive for a relatively short visit but it was a great experience, especially once we got everyone involved in taking the classic tourist shot. We found that, at the right angle, the photos looked great!

After our short visit to Pisa we drove back to our Villa, stopping off to have lunch at the amazing Antinori Winery. The architecture, gardens and vineyards there were so spectacular that after lunch we spent an hour walking around admiring everything.

We left Tuscany for Sorrento, just south of Naples. Arriving at Napoli Centrale station was a stark contrast to where we had been further north. There is a local train that can take you straight from Napoli Centrale to Sorrento station and when I asked everyone they were all happy to get the local train. So as soon as we arrived we headed for the local train and were engulfed by a sea of people. It was quite an adventure just getting through the crowds and down to the platform but we had just missed the train so had a 20 minute wait before the next one. While everyone was slightly anxious (I had told them all to be vigilant with their belongings as Naples was famous for it’s pickpockets) and waiting for the train, the crowds around us started to grow and before we knew it the platform was packed. Our train was approaching so we all pushed forward and my aunty had told Chris to go first because she didn’t want to hold him up. As soon as the train arrived though she panicked, ran, tripped and fell, blocking the pathway onto the train. Once somebody (maybe my uncle?) helped her up and we were all on board the train like sardines we were in tears of laughter. (Disclaimer:We checked she was ok and once we knew she was we were free to laugh.) And so began our last week together we spent it in Sorrento which is such a picturesque holiday town that it was the perfect way to end my family’s holiday. On the sunniest day there we got the ferry across to Capri where we hired a private boat to take us on a tour around the island and just like so many other parts of Italy it was amazing. It was also my mum’s birthday while there so we hired Fiat 500s and drove the Amalfi Coast for the day. Mark booked us lunch at a restaurant high above Positano and the view and food there was unsurpassable. I don’t think it’s a birthday my mum is likely to forget any time soon! The last 2 days in Sorrento Mark and I had some planning to do for the next part of our trip so everyone else went off to Naples and Pompeii and on our last night in Sorrento we ended it with a family dinner with possibly one too many bottles of wine.

We took yet another train back to Rome and once there we packed our bags and sorted everything out. I had done quite a lot of shopping in the past month so bought another suitcase to send home with them all. At one point it looked like everyone was carrying some of my shopping! The next day we were up super early to say goodbye to them all. It was an emotional goodbye for me because every other time I’ve said goodbye it was always goodbye until a certain date, this time the date is unknown so it’s goodbye until we see each other again. Once we saw them off Mark and I walked to the Colosseum, bought ourselves some breakfast and sat and ate while the sun rose. It was the perfect end to our time in Europe. We arrived in Rome for the first time in the middle of April and now here we are, end of October finally saying goodbye to Europe.

Our time spent in Europe was a dream come true and when I look back I’m constantly trying to remember things that have already begun to slip my mind. I think it will be time soon to go back and start reading my blog posts. Europe is such an amazing place and Italy truly began to feel like a second home to us. I can’t wait to come back here again but for now it’s time to move on to new places and it feels like another adventure is just about to start. First stop – Iceland!

Love, a soon to be very cold, B

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.