Summer – theplaceswe

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017

Tans, Tacos & Tarzan

We spent a whole day travelling from Chile to Mexico City so when we arrived we were dead tired and starving. First thing was first though, we needed to wash our clothes so after checking into our hotel we grabbed all of our dirty washing and headed straight for the closest laundry service. After dropping our clothes off we realised we needed more money so off we went to find an ATM. The rest of our day continued like this, in our tired state we would remember we needed to do something and then set out to do it until we decided enough was enough and went back to our hotel to pass out. We fell in love with Mexico City and were a bit disappointed we only had two days there. We explored a couple of free Art exhibitions and admired the architecture all over the city. We also made sure to eat our share of tacos each day because who can say no to 0.75 cent tacos?!

We left the amazing Mexico City for Cancun and when we arrived were immediately shocked at the difference in temperature. We thought it had been hot in Mexico City but we were wrong. The humidity in Cancun was over powering. We got a ride to Akumal which is about an hour and a half away and checked into our apartment. We dropped all of our things off and sat down to just relax but just like when we were in Mexico City we had things to do so we got a collective taxi down to the supermarket to buy our week’s worth of groceries. We were quickly filling up our trolley when Mark headed off to pick out the alcohol. We were nearly finished shopping when an attendant told us in Spanish that we couldn’t buy any alcohol because it was after 5pm. We were quite confused and put it all back on the shelves but when he was out of site we put it all back in and thought there was obviously just a misunderstanding. As soon as we got to the check out the guy serving us told us the same thing. It was so odd but we just went with it and bought the rest of our groceries. On the way out we stopped to buy a slice of pizza each because we were starving and the owner of the shop was Canadian so we asked him what was going on. His reply was “I don’t know why but after 5pm on a Sunday you can’t buy alcohol”. It then made sense when he told us it was Sunday so we left with all of our food and made a note to go back the next day for the alcohol. We spent our 5 days in Akumal being woken up by the sun shining into our room, eating amazing smoothie bowls for breakfast and then spending the rest of the day reading by the pool. Each day I made us lunch and dinner and felt like we had somewhere we could call home. On our second last day there we ventured out to the national park area so we could spend some time by the beach. Spending some time at the beach made us excited to head further south to Tulum where we stayed during our previous visit to Mexico.

We arrived in Tulum early in the afternoon and organised bikes for our week there. Once they got dropped off at our apartment we rode straight down to the beach. As much as we loved our time in Akumal we definitely loved out time in Tulum more. We spent days at the beach and other days out exploring the cenotes nearby. Casa cenote is a huge water system with the most blue-green water we had seen in a very long time. It was so quiet there that we were able to swim around for half an hour without bumping into anyone. And then to top off a great time we walked across the road to a beach from bar where we looked out onto a tranquil beach with only a handful of people in site.

Casa Cenote was quite compared to Grand Cenote but we could tell straight away why the Grand Cenote was more popular. Apart from the main cave area there are smaller areas where you can go and spend time in the water with hardly anyone around you. One area in particular was quite enough that Mark was able to climb up the handrail and into a tree where he undeniably looked a little bit like Tarzan.

Unlike in Akumal we ate out most nights while in Tulum and admittedly ate out at the same place each night. We didn’t know the name of the taqueria but we simply called it “The coca-cola taco shop” because it has coca-cola chairs and it sold tacos. Our order each night only varied on the amount of tacos we ordered but usually we ordered as soon as we sat down, not needing to look at the menu. I actually think one of the waiters knew our order after the second night because he looked like he stopped listening to us after that but he always got everything right.

We were so sad to be leaving Mexico. We’ve decided Mexico is our Vietnam of Latin America. If we were to pick a country in Latin America to live in it would unquestionably be Mexico, just like if we had to pick a country to live in in Asia it would be Vietnam. So as sad as we were to be leaving Mexico we know that we will most definitely be back but for now it’s time for some snow in Canada!

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.

October 1, 2016

I Am Pilgrim

Lisbon is such a cool city. Both Mark and I liked it as soon as we arrived and over the 2 days we were there we spent them walking around the city, enjoying the sun and enjoying the city. Towards the afternoon on our second day there we stopped by a market place set up with small restaurants selling food. We sat down straight away, ordered a starter of tuna in passion fruit and a glass of rosé each. We finished our food quite quickly and our wine even quicker and moved onto the oyster bar where we down 6 oysters between us and moved on again but this time to a deli where we bought fresh figs stuffed with prosciutto. I didn’t even sit down to eat mine, just took the plate from the lady, picked the fig up and ate it while standing. By this stage we were in a great mood but were literally eating through our money so we decided to have a quick walk around before heading to our apartment. This then turned into us finding the Gin Bar and ordering 2 gin and tonics, after which Mark thought another glass of rosè would be lovely. I was struggling to get through the G&T so gave Mark my wine glass. Back at our apartment we sat down and looked for a cheap place to eat dinner after blowing most of our money at the market. It was while we were looking for dinner that I started to feel sick. I laid down and an hour later was experiencing probably the most violent case of food poisoning I’ve had since I was in Mongolia a couple of years ago (that’s a whole other story). Mark later told me that he had been feeling sick too but after seeing what I was going through forced his body to get over it. I went to bed hungry and so exhausted that Mark woke up early the next morning to pack my bag for me so I could sleep a bit longer. He also left me at the apartment to go pick up our rental car, again giving me more time to sleep.

I can’t say I remember much of the drive as I slept as much as I could but as we got closer to Peniche we started to notice this thick fog everywhere and as we pulled into town we could barely see a thing. It was like this for the whole day so we just drove around checking out places close by and planning our few days there. The whole reason we went to Peniche was so that Mark could surf and I could learn to surf. Thanks to the fog and cold weather I sat on the beach each day in a jumper and read while Mark braved the cold water to surf. Had the weather been warmer in Peniche our time there would have been even better but despite the cold we still had a great time. I was looking forward to heading down south though because the weather forecast was much warmer there. We left Peniche early one morning and drove south to a place called Salema on the Algarve coast. Salema is a really small town so there isn’t a whole lot to do there. Our days there were spent driving to some sites and towns nearby. We hired a kayak one day and paddled for awhile around the caves and rock formations along the coast. After nearly being run over by 2 boats we decided it was maybe best we turn around and head back in. By this stage my arms were killing me and because we swapped and I sat behind Mark on the way back I found it was easy to just relax and let him paddle. Once he realised what I was doing he was constantly looking over his shoulder trying to get me to participate. The Algarve coastline is so beautiful and I loved our time there so I was a bit sad to be leaving.

algarve — Beautiful spot along the Algarve coast

On the morning we had to leave we were up early and out the door by 8am so we could drive 2 hours and get to Monte Rei by 10am. Now before you go googling Monte Rei to see what kind of town it is I will stop you there. It isn’t a town as such but a County Club and Golf Course. Yes, that’t right, we were there to play golf. I don’t play golf but I am an excellent golf cart driver so I drove while Mark played 18 holes. To occupy myself I had downloaded a new book and after 2 holes I decided the book was more important than driving so Mark drove both of us around the golf course.

golf_fotor — This is what a backpackers golfing attire looks like – a mix of old, borrowed and new.

My day went super quick thanks to my book and by the time we were at our new accommodation it was late afternoon but not so late that the sun was hidden so I quickly changed and sat by the pool to continue reading. To be honest I can’t really tell you what Mark did that afternoon because I wasn’t really paying attention. And so the next day when he asked me what I wanted to do my first answer was to continue reading which is exactly what I did. I spent the entire day moving around the accommodation grounds reading either in the sun or in the shade. It was after I had moved a third time that I noticed Mark had been following me and he now had quite a large collection of photos of me reading. Again, I can’t really tell you what else he did that day apart from follow me around with his camera for a bit and drive us to go get lunch. By the time I was in bed I only had a few chapters to go and of course there was no way I was going to sleep until I had finished the book.

file-oct-01-10-19-02-pm — One of the photos Mark took while he was following me around

I finished the book and had a very restless sleep thinking all about it. I love books in general but I especially love books that play on your mind days after you’ve finished reading them. That book was one of them – it’s called I Am Pilgrim and even as I write this post I can’t clear my mind entirely of it so I will quickly tell you that we are at Rome Airport waiting for our flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. First stop will be the Royal Palace to say hello to our fellow Aussie, Princess Mary.

Love, I Am Pilgrim

September 23, 2016

Reminds me of home

We flew to Barcelona and instead of getting the bus into the city we splurged and got a taxi. After the day running around Malta I just couldn’t be bothered and thankfully Mark felt the same. We arrived at the front of our friends apartment and were organising all of our stuff on the side of the street when I saw them drive up in their car and there I was waving on the side of the street like a fanatic… They didn’t see me. When they stopped the car I walked up while Mark minded all of our stuff and said hello before we made our way up 85 steps with everyone’s stuff. After that we decided it was time for a drink so we walked down to a bar and sat outside catching up. That night we didn’t go out for dinner but stayed in, eating, drinking and talking. When I woke up the next day Mark bought me breakfast in bed while I was on my phone replying to some messages. When I got up, I went to the kitchen and sat at the table with everyone. While everyone was talking I found that I couldn’t look up. It was the oddest feeling but I felt that if I looked up I would feel like I was back at home and I knew I wasn’t. After a few minutes I looked up and smiled, thinking about how Mark and I were back in Barcelona with friends from home; some we knew better than others but friends all the same.

Mark and I spent the day riding around Barcelona and then chilling at the beach before meeting everyone back at the apartment. We sat around for a while talking about our day and choosing a restaurant to eat dinner at. Once we found one we booked a table, got ready and went out. We spent the next few hours eating an amazing Spanish tapas tasting menu. I lost count of how many courses we ate and by the end we were all so full. We walked for about 10 minutes after to dinner to find a bar Mark and I went to when we were in Barcelona the last time. This kicked off the start of our night and the next morning we were all feeling a bit sorry for ourselves so everyone seemed to take it easy.

Taking it easy for me turned a 20 minute rest into a 2 hour nap. It worked out quite well though because by the time I woke up, Andrew and Paula had just finished cooking dinner for all of us so I sat at the table and ate a home cooked meal. It was so nice. We talked some more after dinner but not for too long because we were all so tired. Mark and I packed our bags ready for the next morning.

It felt strange walking out the door the next morning. I knew we only had a short time with them but I was shocked at how quickly time went by. Mark and I are both so happy we were able to see them all and spend some time with them and we are looking forward to catching up when we get home some time next year.

We just got to our apartment in Lisbon and so far this place seems really cool. We are looking forward to heading out to explore!

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 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.