Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Not a fan of French keyboards
I'm in the south of France these days soaking up the beauty of Monaco and near by cities. let me tell you that Grace Kelly knew what she was doing when she became the princess of Monaco. Holy smokes, it is beeeeeautiful here!!! Ash and I met some silly new friends while staying at a hostel in Cap D'ail (next to Monaco) and spent the next 4 days hiking, drinking wine, exploring (even went to a perfume museum in Grasse), visiting Monaco, swimming, cliff jumping and obvi eating delicious food!!! internet is spendy and the keyboard looks like someone dropped it and all the keys fell off then a three year old replaced them in a totally irrational order. Because of this my post is short but later will tell of our awesome train rides, the random fancy hotel in Marseille and our new adventure as we begin to explore Provence. We are currently looking for a place to rent bikes and go wine tasting! btw if u r reading this u should email me and let me know what is going on in ur world. <3
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Holy Cannoli
My time in Italy is nearing an end... Sad but it was incredible while it lasted. Ash and I left Jenny and her friend Chris after a few museum rounds in Florence. Firenze was charming, romantic, classy, full of food (esp. gelato - Florence is the birthplace of this bit of mana) and excellent shopping (obvi had to buy an Italian leather wallet). A mini miracle occurred while we were here; there I was just minding my own business the checking out the intertubes when Melinda Collins began chatting with me. Low and behold she was in Firenze as well!! What a treat! She and Emily met up with us for the next day and a half! (For those who don't know, Mel and I will be traveling together in about a month so this was a total chance encounter. After two nights of staying in a dorm-style hostel in a room with 16 girls that smelled like hot foot all night - really actually worse than a tent eagle scouts... we were done with Florence and ready for Venice. We took a cheap train that left Florence at 4 AM with no plans on where to stay. After trucking around in the heat of the mainland just outside Venice we found a super sweet, rad, totally modern HOTEL (yes, actual nice hotel, not hostel)- it has only been open 2 weeks so we were able to get a rocking deal and have a clean and totally private place to rest our tired heads. Now if it smells like hot foot then I know who is to blame! Venice was quaint and really quite lovely. St. Mark's was even better than I had imagined and equally as covered with flying rats. For the life of me I cannot understand why a person would hold out their arms and allow those foul beings (pun intended) to perch on their perfectly clean skin!?!?!? Nasty! Whilst exploring Venice we decided to take a tip from our lovely tour guide, Rick Steve. Anyone know him? He said to not bother trying to follow a map around Venice but to just amble about the various alleys, dark corridors, bridges and other alluring components that make up the hay maze of Venice because you can't really get lost, it's an island after all. In total, I think we spent about 15 hours meandering the streets of Venice, convincing ourselves and each other that we had "totally been here," and "I for sure know where we are now." We eventually made it home and are sad to leave but need a break from the blisters on our feet from all the walking so we are headed to Monaco tomorrow morn with fresh produce, a bit of Baileys in our coffee and perhaps a baguette to pass the time.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Greece and Italy
It has been a red hot minute since I attempted to tell ya'll what has been going on and right now it is rather late and I am sleepy so this is a rough summary of the past few weeks.
After 2 days of travel home from Africa I had 4 short days to get ready for Europe. In short, I tried to cram too much into too little time. I got to fancy Europe with a bunch of gross, dirty-backpacking clothes that I took to Africa and have been feeling fairly grungy ever since my arrival. I have been traveling with Ms. Ashley and we make a flippin' awesome team. We like to hike and run (morning runs and walks are part of our regular routine) eat healthy food and explore. Oh and we like wine too.
Our first stop was Athens where we hit all the major tourist spots (yes, we saw all the old rocks) then we took an overnight ferry with 1209834720897 nineteen-year olds who were wasted and yelling until the wee hours of the morn (but really, who was the dumb one for thinking they could sleep on the deck of an extra slow ferry?). We spent 5 days on the black beaches of Santorini, exploring ancient ruins, sampling local Greek food and trying to get accustomed to the lifestyle of going out at midnight and staying out until the sun rose over the water. I guess we aren't as young as we used to be because we could only hold out for about 1.5 nights of this silly sauce. We stayed in the most charming location owned by a lovely Greek couple who we loved. After Santorini we hopped on another ferry to the isle of Paros for 3 wonderful days. We had a quaint three story apartment all to ourselves (a bit excessive but why not?). Then back to Athens for another day/night before we nearly missed our flight to Rome.
Jenny met up with us in Rome where we stayed in the MOST incredible apartment owned and rented out by an old Italian lady who didn't know a lick of English. Our location couldn't have been better; we were right across from the Vatican. If you walked out of our beautiful apartment complex you were facing the Vatican wall (it didn't hurt that one of the best gelato places was right next to our front door). We saw the sights of Rome and all with very little tourist traffic. We pretty much had the perfect days in Rome... ahh, I am falling in love with Italy... Chinque Terre followed and WOW was this amazing! It is a series of 5 hilltop villages who are obsessed with recycling, growing organic produce in the tiered fields on their vast hills and keeping track of all the tourists who choose to hike the trails between the 5 villages. Most of the towns are very over-crowded with foreigners but we stayed in a tiny village whose primary population exceeded the age of 70. I loved it! And the food - be still my heart! Fresh seafood and organic fresh veggies - not to mention there are some pretty tasty wines one can purchase for about 3 Euro. Now that fits into the budget nicely. :) We were sad to leave our tiny paradise but jumped on a sweaty train to Florence where we did a tiny bit of shopping, scoped out the hostel we'd use when we returned in a week then picked up our sweet rental car. We have been driving the damn cutest little crayon box of a car called a Fiat, Panda. It is the colour of soft butter, or wait better yet, the colour of half-melted lemon gelato. Whatever, it is flipping cute and feels about the same as driving a Matchbox car. By far the best part of the trip began the minute we opened the door to our charming little villa on a hilltop peaking out between the vineyards in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. We were so fortunate to have Jenny's family friend allow us to come stay in their beautiful home for the past 5 most perfect days. We have morning runs, afternoons at the pool, cook healthy dinners of fish and produce from the farmer's market and drink wine and wine and wine while we watch the sunset from our porch. We also have had several day trips, one to Pisa (yes, the tower is still leaning and yes, we took plenty of stupid pics of us appearing to push it over- ha ha ha lame I know but we are still tourists...). Oh speaking of pictures, the first night we were in Tuscany I set up my camera to take a sweet shot of us 3 ladies and our masterpiece of dinner when a mighty gust of wind blew my perfectly (or no so perfectly) perched camera off the table onto the soft brick floor. Yah, you may have guessed that the camera didn't fare so well... I am REALLY sorry, Dad. At least for now I have Ash and Jenny to take pics while I figure out what to do about replacing my camera for the rest of my journey. Given that we are in wine country it would only be fitting that we did a bit of tasting while in the area. We have had the opportunity to make a few friends and had a couple private tastings and tours of the facilities which have been awesome.
Tomorrow I may cry as we pile in the Panda and leave this place that truly became our home... I think I will have to watch Under the Tuscan Sun or something when I get home... yah probably not. It is late and I have to get some rest because tomorrow we are going back to Florence!
After 2 days of travel home from Africa I had 4 short days to get ready for Europe. In short, I tried to cram too much into too little time. I got to fancy Europe with a bunch of gross, dirty-backpacking clothes that I took to Africa and have been feeling fairly grungy ever since my arrival. I have been traveling with Ms. Ashley and we make a flippin' awesome team. We like to hike and run (morning runs and walks are part of our regular routine) eat healthy food and explore. Oh and we like wine too.
Our first stop was Athens where we hit all the major tourist spots (yes, we saw all the old rocks) then we took an overnight ferry with 1209834720897 nineteen-year olds who were wasted and yelling until the wee hours of the morn (but really, who was the dumb one for thinking they could sleep on the deck of an extra slow ferry?). We spent 5 days on the black beaches of Santorini, exploring ancient ruins, sampling local Greek food and trying to get accustomed to the lifestyle of going out at midnight and staying out until the sun rose over the water. I guess we aren't as young as we used to be because we could only hold out for about 1.5 nights of this silly sauce. We stayed in the most charming location owned by a lovely Greek couple who we loved. After Santorini we hopped on another ferry to the isle of Paros for 3 wonderful days. We had a quaint three story apartment all to ourselves (a bit excessive but why not?). Then back to Athens for another day/night before we nearly missed our flight to Rome.
Jenny met up with us in Rome where we stayed in the MOST incredible apartment owned and rented out by an old Italian lady who didn't know a lick of English. Our location couldn't have been better; we were right across from the Vatican. If you walked out of our beautiful apartment complex you were facing the Vatican wall (it didn't hurt that one of the best gelato places was right next to our front door). We saw the sights of Rome and all with very little tourist traffic. We pretty much had the perfect days in Rome... ahh, I am falling in love with Italy... Chinque Terre followed and WOW was this amazing! It is a series of 5 hilltop villages who are obsessed with recycling, growing organic produce in the tiered fields on their vast hills and keeping track of all the tourists who choose to hike the trails between the 5 villages. Most of the towns are very over-crowded with foreigners but we stayed in a tiny village whose primary population exceeded the age of 70. I loved it! And the food - be still my heart! Fresh seafood and organic fresh veggies - not to mention there are some pretty tasty wines one can purchase for about 3 Euro. Now that fits into the budget nicely. :) We were sad to leave our tiny paradise but jumped on a sweaty train to Florence where we did a tiny bit of shopping, scoped out the hostel we'd use when we returned in a week then picked up our sweet rental car. We have been driving the damn cutest little crayon box of a car called a Fiat, Panda. It is the colour of soft butter, or wait better yet, the colour of half-melted lemon gelato. Whatever, it is flipping cute and feels about the same as driving a Matchbox car. By far the best part of the trip began the minute we opened the door to our charming little villa on a hilltop peaking out between the vineyards in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. We were so fortunate to have Jenny's family friend allow us to come stay in their beautiful home for the past 5 most perfect days. We have morning runs, afternoons at the pool, cook healthy dinners of fish and produce from the farmer's market and drink wine and wine and wine while we watch the sunset from our porch. We also have had several day trips, one to Pisa (yes, the tower is still leaning and yes, we took plenty of stupid pics of us appearing to push it over- ha ha ha lame I know but we are still tourists...). Oh speaking of pictures, the first night we were in Tuscany I set up my camera to take a sweet shot of us 3 ladies and our masterpiece of dinner when a mighty gust of wind blew my perfectly (or no so perfectly) perched camera off the table onto the soft brick floor. Yah, you may have guessed that the camera didn't fare so well... I am REALLY sorry, Dad. At least for now I have Ash and Jenny to take pics while I figure out what to do about replacing my camera for the rest of my journey. Given that we are in wine country it would only be fitting that we did a bit of tasting while in the area. We have had the opportunity to make a few friends and had a couple private tastings and tours of the facilities which have been awesome.
Tomorrow I may cry as we pile in the Panda and leave this place that truly became our home... I think I will have to watch Under the Tuscan Sun or something when I get home... yah probably not. It is late and I have to get some rest because tomorrow we are going back to Florence!
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