Oct 20, 2003
life is good
well hello again everyone,
there were a few doubts (mainly by me) but we managed to make it to croatia and our final destination - rovinj.... and i think it will take a lot of effort to leave this place. it is truely amazing.
let me take you back....
we get on the train in munich. not really sure about where we going to end up - sunny croatia, or siberia....
the train trip was a crazy adventure in itself. after leaving munich, we went through 4 countries (including germany and croatia) before getting to our destination with suprisingly minimal fuss. train went through salsburg, austria before heading to ljubljana, slovinea where we had to get off the train and change to a local train. this seriously felt like something out of a second world war movie. everyone talking a different language, 5 in the morning, getting on some weird train.... but the train pulled out and we were told that we were heaing to rijeka, coratia....
so we tried to grab some more sleep - i had been asleep with one eye open the whole way from munich, hoping not to end up in kuzbekistan or something.... and then we entered another scene from a movie...
sun streaming in through the window woke lauren and i to one of the most beautiful country side i had ever scene. rolling tree covered hills, with little cottages nestled in the foothills, a light fog still lifting.... things were looking good for us.
arrived in rijeka and had to wait about 2 hours for a bus to rovinj. the drive along the adriatic coast was another dose of breath taking beauty.... massive hills plundging into crystal clear water, with cottages spotted all over the hills and by the sea.
got to rovinj and the great scenery continued. wasnt sure what to expect about croatia.... maybe hills and guns for some reason.... but the picture of a wicked sea side town, excellent sea food, great weather and some of the nicest people that we have met on our trip so far was not what i had thought of.
we scored some excellent accomodation with this lovely old croatian lady. it is a fully self contained appartment and is olny costing us 12 quid a nite. was a bit hard to comunicate with her. she saw lauren and started talking in italian, saw me and started talking in german.... we settled on a hybrid italian/croatian/english mix, with lauren doing most the negotiating in italian...
so since then we have been doing very little. up late, light breakfast. few hours in the sun and water. lunch later afternoon of the best cheapest seafood, home for nap and shower, then changed to go out for drinks and a light meal.... life is good
onto italy in on wed to meet up with pip and bb in venice. should be wicked to get back to italy also... all that food....
till then
as always
mic
Oct 15, 2003
meeting with the pope
hey everyone, hope you are all doing well.
it has been a while since my last email due to lack of time/email access/money...
this is a bit of a run down on what we ahve been doing for the past 2 weeks...
entered italia via venice and met up with pip and bb. had a few dramas with the place that we ended staying at. was about 30 min drive out of venice, under a flight path and the room that lauren and i were meant to stay in was this weird hybrid caravan7pod thing... sounds strange, i will send a pic and it will become clearer.
venice was wicked. really nice place and loads to see and do.
from venice trained it to verona and to what is described as one of italy,s most beautiful cities... not far from the mark. loads of little cobble stoned streets that wind around. while the city is set in a valley of sorts with houses and churches dotted all over the surrounding hills. the hostel that we stayed in had an amazing view of the city, shame that girls and boys had to stay in seperate dorms - kinda like school camps.
weather forced an early exit from verona, and lauren and i parted with pip and bb and headed to bolgna (home of bolognese) this is not really a tourist city, but one of laurens friends is from there and she gave us loads of tips about the place. had a really good time there. the uni there is the oldest in all of europe so there are a lot of young ppl in the city. really friendly ppl. food was wicked as well.
made the decision in bologna to head to the coast in stead of going through tuscany. so on a train again and headed to the mediteranian side of italy to cinque terra (group of 5 towns hung along the edge of cliffs). stayed in the first town called rio maggiore in a wicked little appartment, so we were glad to be out of hostels for a few nites. had an amazing time in cinque terra. spectacular scenery. hard to describe what it is like, i will send photos soon and hopefully this will do it some justice.
on our second day in rio we did the walk from the 1st to the 5th town, a cracking 12kms. we werent too sure if we would do all the towns in one hit, but one we started we couldnt turn back. the first half of the tracks we not too bad, a bit of room to over take, and plenty of safety rails etc. too stop you falling to the rocks below.
the last too sections of track were a little bit harder then that. some pretty serious hiking, adn with lauren and myself not being too familiar with the whole walking/hiking thing we began to struggle a little. added to this the fact that the safety rails became almost none existant (meaning that the lazy italians had the copper logs for the rails, but instead of errecting them into railings, they had simply left them on the ground), and the paths thinned to 1 person wide the going was getting tough... made it to the end though... and the views were unbelivable.
headed to florence after rio and stayed with none other then miss alicia terry whitall - the water polo playing genius (btw: thanks soooo much for having us leash. we all really appreciate it. expect lauren to be back for the sales ;). leash showed us around her town of florence and even got up in a hard game of water polo - just for us. had a really funny nite at a brazilian show/resturant/nite club with alicia and some of her italiano friends.
hard to leave florence - really beautiful place, but off to roma for our last stop. been here day and a bit and blown away again by the history of this place. headed to the vatican city this morning anf just missed the popes weekly address. but, it is the popes 25th anniversary tomorrow and he is giving a special address/celebration, so we are going to try and see some of that. had a look in st peters today - most amazing church i have ever seen. did a walking tour tonite and saw most of the sites around rome.... looked wicked at nite....
and that brings you up to speed.... sorry for such a long email, but had a bit to fit in. if you are still reading this, try adn watch the news tomorrow nite (16th) and see if you can see me and lauren having a cuppa with the pope.
as always
mic
