Wow, who would have thought I was capable of it - miserable weather and zero autonomy have left me under house arrest since my return from Spain, and as a result I have pretty much been attached to my computer screen for 3 days straight. Huge progress in the study, the entire modelling process and associated hypotheses for thesis are understood, now I am just missing a few crucial references to back up some of our data choices... still planty more to do, but I feel I will be going home with most of the Italian side of things complete. Meanwhile I am SOOO glad it's the weekend, both my current adoptive parents (how many will I have accumulated in this country before my time is up??) are around and I can hopefully get out of the house! Assuming it stops raining and the temperature gets about 12 degrees.....
Pretty jealous right now of all you uni students who are, at the very moment, probably very drunk celebrating the end of exams, for some of you the last uni exams ever, with nice Sydney Spring weather!! Save yourselves, as I will be there in just a few weeks drinking with you!! Can't wait!
Love to all, see you quite soon!
Kels xox
Friday 16 November 2007
Monday 12 November 2007
La fiesta es finida.....
It's the end of my last day in Spain, and the thought of getting on a plane tomorrow for Rome inevitably brings thoughts of getting on a plane back to Australia in 25 days... oh my god it seems so surreal. I'm so excited about going back to summer, getting on the surfboard and seeing everyone again, especially a final family christmas at Tathra, but nothing can equal the months I've spent over here, I feel like I've had a chance to try EVERYTHING!! From living a normal life catching up with mates and going out in Civitanova, to backpacking around Europe, to cycling the countryside and then being a student in Rome. Holy cow I've been so lucky!
I'm absolutely exhausted after this week in Spain - if ever I found it ahrd to get used to how late things happen in Italy, it was nothing compared to Spain. Italians tend to eat at around 9 and go out around ten, the Spanish start thinking about food at ten and go out at midnight!! Sleeping until 3pm is considered kind of normal... ?!? I found this especially hard at San Sebastion since I wanted to make the most of the daylight to go surfing - not really compatible with staying out until 6am, ahem. As a result I may not have spent quite as much time in the water as I would have liked, but I did get one awesome Friday night out with Ilaria and all the surf instructors, which was unforgettable... well maybe not so unforgettable, the typical drink from San Sebastion, Patxaran, seems to have memory altering qualities because there are serious gaps in my recollection and I was NOT that drunk! Hmmm, wild night. But it was the last one for quite I while, and damn it I had fun, so I don't care!
In the end Ilaria had a few problems with one of her mates so we stayed an extra day to let her sort it all out, and it just so happened that we were blessed with yet another rare sunny day at San Sebastian, and spent all morning in the water. It's a perfect beginners beach there, the waves are gentle, clean, constant, and usually not too big. It would be so great to spend a few weeks there and really improve! So the result of all this was that I had only today in barcelona, having caught a night bus and slept badly for the whole 7 hour trip. Ilaria and I mustered every effort to see as much as we could, and I know know the architecture of Gaudi` intimately - what a beautiful city it is, if only for his influence! Absolutely amazing, I've never seen anything like it in my life! And to think that the Sagrada Familia has been under construction for 125 years and may be yet for many more to come! I had Tapas for dinner, too, more to say I did than anything else, and because I was so damn sick of eating rolls and hamburgers, as good as they may be here!
So now I'm having an early night (for Spain, anyway, haha) and leaving my backpacking days behind me as I trudge back to Rome to stick my nose in books and go blind staring at my computer screen, haha. And to think that everyone at Uni has either finished exams (some for good!!!) or are about to finish them, i'll be studying right through summer (not that it won't have been worth it).
Adios España, me gustas muchas!!
I'm absolutely exhausted after this week in Spain - if ever I found it ahrd to get used to how late things happen in Italy, it was nothing compared to Spain. Italians tend to eat at around 9 and go out around ten, the Spanish start thinking about food at ten and go out at midnight!! Sleeping until 3pm is considered kind of normal... ?!? I found this especially hard at San Sebastion since I wanted to make the most of the daylight to go surfing - not really compatible with staying out until 6am, ahem. As a result I may not have spent quite as much time in the water as I would have liked, but I did get one awesome Friday night out with Ilaria and all the surf instructors, which was unforgettable... well maybe not so unforgettable, the typical drink from San Sebastion, Patxaran, seems to have memory altering qualities because there are serious gaps in my recollection and I was NOT that drunk! Hmmm, wild night. But it was the last one for quite I while, and damn it I had fun, so I don't care!
In the end Ilaria had a few problems with one of her mates so we stayed an extra day to let her sort it all out, and it just so happened that we were blessed with yet another rare sunny day at San Sebastian, and spent all morning in the water. It's a perfect beginners beach there, the waves are gentle, clean, constant, and usually not too big. It would be so great to spend a few weeks there and really improve! So the result of all this was that I had only today in barcelona, having caught a night bus and slept badly for the whole 7 hour trip. Ilaria and I mustered every effort to see as much as we could, and I know know the architecture of Gaudi` intimately - what a beautiful city it is, if only for his influence! Absolutely amazing, I've never seen anything like it in my life! And to think that the Sagrada Familia has been under construction for 125 years and may be yet for many more to come! I had Tapas for dinner, too, more to say I did than anything else, and because I was so damn sick of eating rolls and hamburgers, as good as they may be here!
So now I'm having an early night (for Spain, anyway, haha) and leaving my backpacking days behind me as I trudge back to Rome to stick my nose in books and go blind staring at my computer screen, haha. And to think that everyone at Uni has either finished exams (some for good!!!) or are about to finish them, i'll be studying right through summer (not that it won't have been worth it).
Adios España, me gustas muchas!!
Thursday 8 November 2007
Hola chicos!! Yo estoy en España!
This is my final fling before I am once again homeward bound (even thinking about it makes me nervous, sorry but I DO NOT want to leave...). One fated day, my best mate Ilaria thought to call me to see if I wanted to join her for a few days in Spain... as a result, I am now at San Sebastion, hanging out with all her bautiful surfer mates and mooching off them to hire wetsuits and borrow boards etc, speinding the daylight freezing my butt off in the water and loving it, and the nights drinking Patxaran and trying to switch between Italian, English and Spanish to have a conversation! This is potentially the coolest thing I have done in this entire trip. Don´t get me wrong, everything has been absolutely fantastic in it's own right, some places have been more beautiful than others, and for different reasons, some more historically interesting, some more different, but this is just plain fun!! I couldn't think of anything better right now. What's more it's also the cheapest thing I've done - 20 euro flight each way, 18 euro for a private room in a charming little hostel in the centre of the old part of town, even the food here is cheap because they specialise in these rather substantial and very satisfying hot filled rolls called camperos. Fair enough it's ten degrees outside and god knows what the water temp is, but at least that means there's hardly anyone in the water. What an awesome way to finish travelling! We've got 3-4 days here, then a day or two in Barcelona before heading back to Italy once and for all.
I have postponed my flight home but not by much, I rang to check on the dates in case I needed more time for the research and it turned out there was only one other day in December available, so I took it just in case. I wish I could transfer all the things and people I miss in Australia and chuck them in with all the things and people I love in Italy, it just kills me to think I will be leaving here in less than a month and it could be years before I get to do all this again. I'm torn to pieces because I want so much to come home and see everyone and live out the Aussie summer, but I choke up when I think about how many beautiful people I will be leaving behind :( I've been so damned lucky in everything I've done. Who'd have thought 5 years ago that ilaria and I would wind up on the same path, surfing together in San Sebastion!?! And my current hosts near Rome are the loving, caring, supportive host family I never really had at Civitanova, who call me when I go anywhere to check that I arrived safely or bend over backwards to help whenever they possibly can, making me feel incredibly guilty! I'm trying to think of a single time when the Romagnolis called me for anything at all, even if they needed to talk to me... I seriously don't think they ever have. I've always been the one to call them and say hi, to see how things are going, to visit them etc. Anyway this isn't about complaining!! Sigh, I'm just so overwhelmed by how wonderful everything here has been. I knew it would be fun and interesting and that I would learn about the world, yada yada yada, but who knew it would be so perfect. In 4 months I think I've had 2 days when I felt sad, and had good reason to. The rest of the time I've been either exhausted, or just plain loving life.
Hope everyone is well back home, I am missing you ALL heaps and heaps, whether or not it seems like it, haha. Seriously, there are so many moments when I think about certain people and wish I could share with them, so I am constantly talking about friends and family back home to everyone over here. I'm sure they're all sick of it, but you will all get a taste of the reverse when I get home, I'm sure!
Kel xox
I have postponed my flight home but not by much, I rang to check on the dates in case I needed more time for the research and it turned out there was only one other day in December available, so I took it just in case. I wish I could transfer all the things and people I miss in Australia and chuck them in with all the things and people I love in Italy, it just kills me to think I will be leaving here in less than a month and it could be years before I get to do all this again. I'm torn to pieces because I want so much to come home and see everyone and live out the Aussie summer, but I choke up when I think about how many beautiful people I will be leaving behind :( I've been so damned lucky in everything I've done. Who'd have thought 5 years ago that ilaria and I would wind up on the same path, surfing together in San Sebastion!?! And my current hosts near Rome are the loving, caring, supportive host family I never really had at Civitanova, who call me when I go anywhere to check that I arrived safely or bend over backwards to help whenever they possibly can, making me feel incredibly guilty! I'm trying to think of a single time when the Romagnolis called me for anything at all, even if they needed to talk to me... I seriously don't think they ever have. I've always been the one to call them and say hi, to see how things are going, to visit them etc. Anyway this isn't about complaining!! Sigh, I'm just so overwhelmed by how wonderful everything here has been. I knew it would be fun and interesting and that I would learn about the world, yada yada yada, but who knew it would be so perfect. In 4 months I think I've had 2 days when I felt sad, and had good reason to. The rest of the time I've been either exhausted, or just plain loving life.
Hope everyone is well back home, I am missing you ALL heaps and heaps, whether or not it seems like it, haha. Seriously, there are so many moments when I think about certain people and wish I could share with them, so I am constantly talking about friends and family back home to everyone over here. I'm sure they're all sick of it, but you will all get a taste of the reverse when I get home, I'm sure!
Kel xox
Saturday 27 October 2007
Wonewee, oh so wonewee!!!!
Just waved goodbye to mum as she got on the shuttlebus to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, lugging behind her all my moroccan goodies... (thanks mum) and suddenly I feel very alone again! We've been together virtually every second of every day for a whole month, probably the most of our lives!! Well, since I was a baby, anyway. And while we certainly got on each other's nerves, we had many an adventure together and it suddenly feels so empty without mum here!But for better or worse I'm heading back to Rome on a late night flight tonight, and will be reunited with my studies in Rome tomorrow. I've never been more motivated! Haha.
The last three days in Paris have blown my mind. Somehow I expected it to be just another cheesy European capital city, with the same beutiful big buildings and architecture and crappy weather... well I was right about the weather, but of all the big cities I've been to so far, Paris tops the list! The place is neverending, and aside from the hundreds of tourist attractions, every corner you turn reveals a new cafe, patisserie or funky shop. It sprawls out for miles in every direction, with each arrondissement having its own particular flavour, and everything just blending in nicely in between. People of all races speaking all languages mill the streets, and with my elementary french to break the ice, there was not a SINGLE sign of the stereotypical snooty-french-waiter-type. They were all absolutely charming! What's more, it has none of the artificiality, chaos or filth of Rome or many other cities, with the tourist merchandise shops being few and far between, and the tourists themselves blending in easily with the multicultural population. To top it all off, every time we jumped on the metro we were greeted by live music, ranging from clarinet solos to entire mini-orchestras! So very atmospheric.
We did it all, considering how little time we had. Freezing our buns off, we did a night tour of the city on bikes to get our bearings. We also did a full day tour of Versaille. We walked from Notre Dame right along the "historic axis of symmetry" through the Louvre, the Tuileries gardens and down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomph. We spent an evening drinking champagne and watching a show at the Moulin Rouge, climbed the huge hill to the Sacre Coeur, wandered through the Musee D'Orsay where we could literally have touched many famous works of Van Gough, Monet and many others, and said goodbye to the city shrouded in grey from atop the Grande Arche, in the funky and enormous business district, La Defense. We also did our best to stuff ourselves full of French bread and pastries, and struggled through a delicious meal of Fioe Gras and Duck Magret, having only just rediscovered our appetites after Morocco. Which leads me to another sotry.
For the first few days in Morocco we could not believe the amazing flavours you could get with just a few dollars, and were filling up on Tagines and sweets left over from ramidan. But just as we were getting over our culture shock from the medinas and about to head away from the hectic Moroccan cities and onto the backroads..... the dreaded bug hit. Six of our crew of eleven went down overnight, quite violently, several of them vomiting uncontrollably. Mum and I were amongst them. We assumed food poisoning was the culprit, as the other 5 sat smugly, feeling quite good about themselves. We had a full day on the bus that day, and had to stop every ten minutes or so, so that someone could have a chunder on the side fo the road, or to find toilets. I sat shivering, huddled up to mum, wrapped in about 50 thick layers of clothes. The mood was pretty low. I don't remember anything about midelt beause I slept for 18 hours that night.
Eventually everyone else caught the bug as well, so that by the end all of us got hit, except our blessed young Japanese doctor, who was taking a short break from her 2 years of solo volunteer work in Africa and probably ended up working harder on her holiday than she would have in Africa. Her boyfriend Tristan was pretty flat out translating, too, as she didn't speak English and only two of us could speak French with her.
As it turned out we all rallied and were well enough to at least get on our camels and ride into the Western Saharan sunset, although I don't think anyone's stomach enjoyed the sensation too much! We couldn't do justice to the enormous berber-cooked tagine either, as tasty as it was! Nonetheless, the desert remained a hilight for all of us, as the sound of bongo drums and berber songs carried on way into the night, and the stars were unlike any I've ever seen before. I got to see my first shooting star, too! Sa'id, our Moroccan guide, did his best to keep us all laughing and well-informed about Morocco right to the last hour of the trip, despite our low morale. I also spent rediculous amounts of money, unable to resist all the cheap prices (which of course when all added together are no longer cheap!!!), and splashed out on hand-woven bedspreads, a leather jacket, beautifully decorated tagines and tonnes of other tidbits. I don't feel too guilty though, since mum bought a large silk carpet....!
So that is just about the end of my adventures, until my last hurrah, which will be 5 days in Barcelona and San Sebastian with Ilaria. I may get some surfing in after all! Meanwhile I will be studying hard and hopefully making daily breakthroughs in the climate change problem, hahaha!
Love to all!
Kel xox
The last three days in Paris have blown my mind. Somehow I expected it to be just another cheesy European capital city, with the same beutiful big buildings and architecture and crappy weather... well I was right about the weather, but of all the big cities I've been to so far, Paris tops the list! The place is neverending, and aside from the hundreds of tourist attractions, every corner you turn reveals a new cafe, patisserie or funky shop. It sprawls out for miles in every direction, with each arrondissement having its own particular flavour, and everything just blending in nicely in between. People of all races speaking all languages mill the streets, and with my elementary french to break the ice, there was not a SINGLE sign of the stereotypical snooty-french-waiter-type. They were all absolutely charming! What's more, it has none of the artificiality, chaos or filth of Rome or many other cities, with the tourist merchandise shops being few and far between, and the tourists themselves blending in easily with the multicultural population. To top it all off, every time we jumped on the metro we were greeted by live music, ranging from clarinet solos to entire mini-orchestras! So very atmospheric.
We did it all, considering how little time we had. Freezing our buns off, we did a night tour of the city on bikes to get our bearings. We also did a full day tour of Versaille. We walked from Notre Dame right along the "historic axis of symmetry" through the Louvre, the Tuileries gardens and down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomph. We spent an evening drinking champagne and watching a show at the Moulin Rouge, climbed the huge hill to the Sacre Coeur, wandered through the Musee D'Orsay where we could literally have touched many famous works of Van Gough, Monet and many others, and said goodbye to the city shrouded in grey from atop the Grande Arche, in the funky and enormous business district, La Defense. We also did our best to stuff ourselves full of French bread and pastries, and struggled through a delicious meal of Fioe Gras and Duck Magret, having only just rediscovered our appetites after Morocco. Which leads me to another sotry.
For the first few days in Morocco we could not believe the amazing flavours you could get with just a few dollars, and were filling up on Tagines and sweets left over from ramidan. But just as we were getting over our culture shock from the medinas and about to head away from the hectic Moroccan cities and onto the backroads..... the dreaded bug hit. Six of our crew of eleven went down overnight, quite violently, several of them vomiting uncontrollably. Mum and I were amongst them. We assumed food poisoning was the culprit, as the other 5 sat smugly, feeling quite good about themselves. We had a full day on the bus that day, and had to stop every ten minutes or so, so that someone could have a chunder on the side fo the road, or to find toilets. I sat shivering, huddled up to mum, wrapped in about 50 thick layers of clothes. The mood was pretty low. I don't remember anything about midelt beause I slept for 18 hours that night.
Eventually everyone else caught the bug as well, so that by the end all of us got hit, except our blessed young Japanese doctor, who was taking a short break from her 2 years of solo volunteer work in Africa and probably ended up working harder on her holiday than she would have in Africa. Her boyfriend Tristan was pretty flat out translating, too, as she didn't speak English and only two of us could speak French with her.
As it turned out we all rallied and were well enough to at least get on our camels and ride into the Western Saharan sunset, although I don't think anyone's stomach enjoyed the sensation too much! We couldn't do justice to the enormous berber-cooked tagine either, as tasty as it was! Nonetheless, the desert remained a hilight for all of us, as the sound of bongo drums and berber songs carried on way into the night, and the stars were unlike any I've ever seen before. I got to see my first shooting star, too! Sa'id, our Moroccan guide, did his best to keep us all laughing and well-informed about Morocco right to the last hour of the trip, despite our low morale. I also spent rediculous amounts of money, unable to resist all the cheap prices (which of course when all added together are no longer cheap!!!), and splashed out on hand-woven bedspreads, a leather jacket, beautifully decorated tagines and tonnes of other tidbits. I don't feel too guilty though, since mum bought a large silk carpet....!
So that is just about the end of my adventures, until my last hurrah, which will be 5 days in Barcelona and San Sebastian with Ilaria. I may get some surfing in after all! Meanwhile I will be studying hard and hopefully making daily breakthroughs in the climate change problem, hahaha!
Love to all!
Kel xox
Monday 15 October 2007
Culture shock....
Mum and I have now been in Morocco since yesterday morning and it's only now starting to warm on us. It could have something to do with the fact that it took us 2 days of getting up at 4am to get here, and that we came from 2 blissful days of getting close to nature at the Cinque Terre... so when we flew in yesterday morning we were exhausted, stressed and probably fairly sick of each other, only to be hit hard with the heat, the awful smells and the poverty of the area. There is clearly no garbage collection system here and the plastic bags and bottles fly around the place, accumulating in alleyways and dried up agricultural fields, while fruit from the street stalls rots in the gutter an flies buzz around everywhere. The men sit in cafes and watch us strange western women walk down the street; women are nowhere to be seen. But it would seem our hotel in Casablanca wasn't in the nicest area...
Today we got the train to Meknès and have seen the medina and mosque. It is cleaner, more colourful and more cosmopolitan. So I spent money on stuff at the first opportunortunity! Very uplifting :-) In the meantime I am LOVING the food (tagines every day so far, mmmmmm) and everything is SO cheap! We have a small tour group of all ages and a few diff nationalities where I think everyone will get on great for the next 10 days. I have also fallen in love with the Moroccan children - while their Arabic parents can be quite judgemental and give us funny looks, the kids are inquisitive and give us cheeky grins, flashing their beautiful wide brown eyes: I wanna take one home!!!!
Tomorrow we leave for Fez where we will have 2 nights, can't wait!!!
Cinque Terre - not as spectacular as I had expected, as everyone had talked it up so much as THE place to be, and I certainly don't agree with that! However it is a really unique place; you would never find 5 coastal villages, all so different and yet so close, withing a national park. Really glad I saw it and did the walk, it was a beautiful 2 days!!! Especially since we got to catch up with Sonia; our Italian exchange student from '03 (who, incidentally, has not changed a bit!).
Today we got the train to Meknès and have seen the medina and mosque. It is cleaner, more colourful and more cosmopolitan. So I spent money on stuff at the first opportunortunity! Very uplifting :-) In the meantime I am LOVING the food (tagines every day so far, mmmmmm) and everything is SO cheap! We have a small tour group of all ages and a few diff nationalities where I think everyone will get on great for the next 10 days. I have also fallen in love with the Moroccan children - while their Arabic parents can be quite judgemental and give us funny looks, the kids are inquisitive and give us cheeky grins, flashing their beautiful wide brown eyes: I wanna take one home!!!!
Tomorrow we leave for Fez where we will have 2 nights, can't wait!!!
Cinque Terre - not as spectacular as I had expected, as everyone had talked it up so much as THE place to be, and I certainly don't agree with that! However it is a really unique place; you would never find 5 coastal villages, all so different and yet so close, withing a national park. Really glad I saw it and did the walk, it was a beautiful 2 days!!! Especially since we got to catch up with Sonia; our Italian exchange student from '03 (who, incidentally, has not changed a bit!).
Thursday 11 October 2007
Rome and Florence in a day
I just about managed to murder both the parentals by dragging them around Rome all day in the blistering heat, but we saw everything we needed to see, well almost. Guided tour of the colosseum and the roman forum, Trevi fountain, Castel Sant'angelo, Tiber River and St Peters. We had to skip the Pantheon as their poor old legs were just over it! But to be quite frank, the whole day jusit reinforced my perspective on Rome - it is a magnificent city rich with thousands of years of history, a testiment to the amazing engineering powers of the Romans, and it is so superficial and commercial and crowded with tourists and dirty that I can never wait to get the hell away from the place!!! I'm so glad I'm living outside the centre of Rome now!
Florence, on the other hand, has been a beautiful experience. We shipped dad off on Tuesday morning back to Australia, well and truly ready to leave I think! Now it's just the Adlam women let loose in Europe. This is my second visit to the city of art, but since I was 15 the last time I was here I have certainly appreciated it a lot more. We were fortunate with trains and managed to get here from Rome at about lunchtime (1.5 hour eurostar trip) after accompanying dad to the airport, so we knocked off all the major sites on the first day - Duomo, Baptistry, Piazza della signoria, Arno River and Piazzale San Michelangelo (from which we watched the most AMAZING firey sunset over the city, a very pleasant surprise!), dined under the ancient city walls and cruised back via a very talented busking flautist outside the Uffizi gallery. And there hardly seemes to be any people or any annoying vendors selling their stupid noisy little toys - couldn't have had a better start to the stay.
Yesterday (Wed) was full of random encounters! I left mum to explore the Uffizi gallery in her own time while I perused the markets alone - dangerous for two reasons. First, I spent all my money on leather goods. Second, I stupidly wore my beautiful Australia T-shirt which always seems to make me a lot of friends wherever I go (it's awesome coming from a country that everyone loves!!!) and made a few less than desirable friends. Most of them were just interested in making a sale and were very sneaky, and just would NOT give up! One guy Luca was interested in other things... I agreed to have a glass of wine with him, in their family shop as he seemed like an interesting, well travelled sort of guy, and pretty cute to boot, except he just wasn't interested in talking so it all ended up pretty awkward... I avoided that street for the rest of the afternoon! But then I met a really sweet Mexican guy who didn't even try to sell me anything! So I decided he was trustworthy and had a decent chat to him - turned out he was just on a working holiday so didn't really care about selling leather, very nice change! His name was Elio and we had a good chat about languages, as he spoke Spanish and I'll be going there very soon! What a sweetheart he was! Lastly and most unexpectedly, as I sat waiting for mum to come out of the Uffizi, one of the millions of Moroccans who get around all the major cities selling illegal goods sat down next to me for a rest and, once again, didn't try to sell me anything. So I had a chat to him about Morocco and he was really nice too! He showed me a picture of his brand new baby nephew, just born in Italy, obviously very proud of his brother for establishing a family in Italy! He explained that alhtough the police fine them for selling their goods, nothing happens if they don't pay the fine. So there's not much they can do to stiop it!!!
Today we are off to Riomaggiore, the first of the Cinque Terre, and spending the afternoon there with Sonia, the crazy Italian girl who stayed with us for 5 months! Only she sounds so settled - she has a job, a licence, and a boyfriend of 3 years! Can't wait to see her! Oh, and also can't wait to walk the 9km from start to finish of the paths along the Cinque Terre. I hope I can get some photos up!!
Ciao for now,
Kels (and mum)
Florence, on the other hand, has been a beautiful experience. We shipped dad off on Tuesday morning back to Australia, well and truly ready to leave I think! Now it's just the Adlam women let loose in Europe. This is my second visit to the city of art, but since I was 15 the last time I was here I have certainly appreciated it a lot more. We were fortunate with trains and managed to get here from Rome at about lunchtime (1.5 hour eurostar trip) after accompanying dad to the airport, so we knocked off all the major sites on the first day - Duomo, Baptistry, Piazza della signoria, Arno River and Piazzale San Michelangelo (from which we watched the most AMAZING firey sunset over the city, a very pleasant surprise!), dined under the ancient city walls and cruised back via a very talented busking flautist outside the Uffizi gallery. And there hardly seemes to be any people or any annoying vendors selling their stupid noisy little toys - couldn't have had a better start to the stay.
Yesterday (Wed) was full of random encounters! I left mum to explore the Uffizi gallery in her own time while I perused the markets alone - dangerous for two reasons. First, I spent all my money on leather goods. Second, I stupidly wore my beautiful Australia T-shirt which always seems to make me a lot of friends wherever I go (it's awesome coming from a country that everyone loves!!!) and made a few less than desirable friends. Most of them were just interested in making a sale and were very sneaky, and just would NOT give up! One guy Luca was interested in other things... I agreed to have a glass of wine with him, in their family shop as he seemed like an interesting, well travelled sort of guy, and pretty cute to boot, except he just wasn't interested in talking so it all ended up pretty awkward... I avoided that street for the rest of the afternoon! But then I met a really sweet Mexican guy who didn't even try to sell me anything! So I decided he was trustworthy and had a decent chat to him - turned out he was just on a working holiday so didn't really care about selling leather, very nice change! His name was Elio and we had a good chat about languages, as he spoke Spanish and I'll be going there very soon! What a sweetheart he was! Lastly and most unexpectedly, as I sat waiting for mum to come out of the Uffizi, one of the millions of Moroccans who get around all the major cities selling illegal goods sat down next to me for a rest and, once again, didn't try to sell me anything. So I had a chat to him about Morocco and he was really nice too! He showed me a picture of his brand new baby nephew, just born in Italy, obviously very proud of his brother for establishing a family in Italy! He explained that alhtough the police fine them for selling their goods, nothing happens if they don't pay the fine. So there's not much they can do to stiop it!!!
Today we are off to Riomaggiore, the first of the Cinque Terre, and spending the afternoon there with Sonia, the crazy Italian girl who stayed with us for 5 months! Only she sounds so settled - she has a job, a licence, and a boyfriend of 3 years! Can't wait to see her! Oh, and also can't wait to walk the 9km from start to finish of the paths along the Cinque Terre. I hope I can get some photos up!!
Ciao for now,
Kels (and mum)
Friday 5 October 2007
More cycling pics!
Our last dinner at Hotel Dory was a bit of an event, since this is their 10th year.
Is it just me or do we all look slimmer than when we started?
This was an amazing view to reward us for our 5km ascent. Where the blurry background changes colour slightly in the photo is the horizon on the Adriatic sea... no that you can tell!
It's a tough life but someone's gotta do it!
Today's route was the most scenic of them all, with breathtaking views, although I have to say there were some much better ones than this! We were just going too fast to get my camera out...
See, I really was there, I did do it!
Mmmmm Vino Santo - so sweet and so good. I can't believe we all made the 20km back to the hotel! Dad bought 3 bottles...
New gear - my Hotel Cory cycling nicks and dad's kickass new jersey!
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