Well, well, well. :) It HAS been a wonderful couple of weeks, thats for sure. Sorry for the temporary disappearance of the blog.. We're still not entirely sure what happened. But it was fairly easy to get back, so that was nice.
Later that night, after saying goodbye to newfound friends Vickie and Kevin, we took validated our Eurail Global 2 Month Continous Pass, :) and experienced our first European train, an overnight train to Rome, then catching another one up to La Spezia. This first experience of being on an overnight train was very.. interesting. Definately not the best way to get a really comfortable nights rest.. :) But its cheap! And thats what we are ALL about. (Or trying to be.) :) We eventually made it up to La Spezia, and then on to a tiny little village called Riomaggiore, part of an area called Cinque Terre... MMM.. My new favorite place in the world!! I fell quite in love. Even if it did rain for much of our time there. It was beautiful. 'Cinque Terre' means 'five lands', and thats exactly what it was. Well, more like 5 little villages, but they were very separate and different! Riomaggiore is the southernmost of these towns, (they are all on the northwest coast of Italy, just south of Genova) and this is where we had a hostel for 2 nights. It was SO beautiful. I want to come back in the summer/later spring. :) We made it to each of the 5 towns on our second day there, and during the first 2 or 3, it was really fun! But then, it started pouring, and all we felt like doing was going back to our hostel and being warm.. :( But we had to see the rest of the little villages! So we did. We were freezing by the time we got back, but we huddled underneath our blankets and watching some Scots play snooker on TV. :) I now know how to play snooker! We bought some pasta and cheeze to cook up in our little kitchenette area for supper. :) MMm. Then, in the morning, we left for Pisa! The tower is beautiful!! ..However that is ALL there is to see in Pisa. :) So we spent about 2 hours there, taking tourist picture of us chopping, kicking, punching, poking, leaning on, and blowing over the tower. :) We did everything we could think of, and got close to a million pictures, I would say. :) Haha, maybe not quite, but LOTS. We hopped back on our train, and headed down to Rome, where we fairly easily found our hostel we had booked for the night. We got free pasta and wine, :) and bunkered down in a beautiful, modern, VERY bright green room to get lots of sleep for the busy, busy day we had ahead of us. The next day, our train was scheduled to leave at 2:30 pm for Bari, on the East Coast, to catch the ferry for Patra, Greece. So.. that meant we had the morning, basically, to see all the sites of Rome. ..NOT enough time. But, we did what we could! We woke up early for our big day, and headed first to the Colloseum. WOW. This is an incredible place. Just, all the HISTORY that happened here. It is mind-blowing to think, actually. I was walking where people walked thousands of years ago. Where gladiators walked!! It was incredible. We got an English Tour for €4 extra, so that was very nice. From there, we hustled to Palatine Hill, which was right across from the Coloseum. The ticket we got at the Coloseum was valid for the Coloseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. So we figured, why not?! :) So, we ran through them.. :) Snapped a few pictures, then had to hurry off.. I would have LOVED to stay for longer!! But now I know where I can come back and, at a more leisurely pace, enjoy the sights. :) So, we then caught the train onto our next stop, Saint Peter's Square and Basillica. This was quite beautiful as well. Wow. How did people make stuff like this back in those days?! It blows my mind. :) We had to stand in line for maybe 20 minutes, all the while thinking, "Is it worth it, to 'waste' time standing in line..?" ..But it was so worth it. That church is.. HUGE. And quite incredible. The shock and awe factor made the place so quiet inside, even with hundreds of people in there. Incredible. A holy hush.. It was so cool. :) Then, from there, we hustled over to the Vatican! Mostly just to say we have seen the great walled city-state. At 110 acres, its the world's smallest State. Huh. So, we saw the Vatican, (we didn't have the time or € to go in the place.. :( It is really too bad. Someday.. ) Then, we rushed off to the train station to head to Bari, to catch the ferry to Greece!
And I believe Anna is going to tell y'all about Greece. It was pretty incredible as well!! :)
(Hoping to put up some pictures soon..)
Signing off,
Demara. :)
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The ledgendary "Venice at night"
shot.. SO beautiful!
Anyways, on Feburary 14, 2011, we flew from Frankfurt Hahn Airport (which is NOwhere near Frankfurt.. hm.) into Treviso, Italy. From there we caught a 40-minute bus ride into the glorious city of Venice!! The bus dropped us at Piazzala Roma, the center of town. And from there we followed the instructions given to us by the hostel we booked. We found our way without getting lost once, to the amazement of the other guests at the hostel. :) We are just amazing, I suppose. :) |
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The view from our hostel balcony, to the left. :)
When the man who checked us in first heard that we were from Canada, he yelled to the back, "We've got more Canadians!!", and this bouncy, blonde young woman came running from the back. :) She was fun to get to know. Her name is Vickie, and she is from Calgary!! AND she is a member of the Alliance Church, and she went to Ambrose in Calgary, where my brother-in-law's sister is attending! Small world. :) It was wonderful to spend some time with her. It was not hard to get conversation going, thats for sure. It was so fun to be able to talk to someone about Canada! She saw we were wearing flip-flips, and she loved it. :) |
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..and to the right. Awesome, eh? |
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Well... Anna enjoys it, anyways. :) |
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..Venice.. :) |
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Our first Italian breakfast..!! WOW. Their hot chocolate is.. incredible. :) |
The next day, our first full day in Venice, we decided to try to make our way to the islands surrounding Venice. When we told Vickie, she mentioned that she had been thinking about trying to do that as well, so her and another guy, a Californian named Kevin, came with us on our Island Hopping Adventure! It was SO fun. We had terrible luck with catching the right ferries on time and such.. but it all added to the adventure, I suppose.! (Earlier on our trip, when I lost my luggage, I made up this word, "apota". Its an acronym that stands for "all part of the adventure". :) Its become my mantra for when things go wrong. :) Kinda like "hakuna matata".. ANYways.)
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The OCEAN! :) |
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San Marco Basillica. SO awesome.
There are two Islands that stood out to me the most. One was called Burano, and its famous for its lace. And you could definately tell! They were selling it everywhere!! And it has BEAUTIFUL pastel houses, so colorful and lovely. Took lots of pictures here. :) And every single one looks like a postcard. :) The other Island I loved was called Murano, and it is famous for its glass-work. I have been looking forward for SO long to come to this Island!! My mom once bought a beautiful glass ring from a shop in Eastend, and on the back was inscribed 'Murano'. So I researched it, and found that it was made on this Island! Ever since, I have wanted to go! And now I have!! And I was thinking of my mom the entire time. Its beautiful. :) |
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mmMMMmm.. BURANO. Our favorite island to walk around on. SO beautiful and so small!! |
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The leaning tower of.. Burano. :) |
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Our friends! |
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More pictures of the beautiful Burano. |
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Again, quite happy to be here.. :) |
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MOM! This one is for you. (These are almost look-alikes of the ring she got in Eastend. Except these ones are on the island of Murano!) |
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More glass-work that I just thought was awesome. :) |
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Walking the streets of Riomaggiore. It was beautiful. And raining! |
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The OCEAN! (..I took a LOT of pictures of the ocean.. Be glad they are not all on here..) :) |
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MMmm.. So beautiful. This is also Riomaggiore. |
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The view from our hostel window. |
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uh.. Riding the camel/cow/dog.... and Anna was definately more happy about it than it was.. :) It looks so.. unimpressed. |
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the.. OCEAN! :) Its so incredible. So unending!! |
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|Look.. this time I'm touching the ocean! :) |
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The shoreline was so cool, and the waves going in and out sounded AWESOME, with all the rocks tumbling over themselves. :) |
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The village of Vernazza. Also quite lovely. :) |
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Huh.. This is the way, we think, they get fruit from the orchards down from the hills. It looks so SKETCHY. :) I would love to be the driver for this little rollercoaster down the side of the mountain. :) |
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Using her super Ninja skills to destroy the Leaning Tower of Pisa.. Anna, thats a BAD activity. But it was a fun photo to shoot! :) |
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The classic.. hold-up-the-tower pose. :) |
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The Coloseum! It was so cool. |
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Anna's artsy shot of the magnificent Coloseum. Beauty. :) |
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St. Peter's Square. (And thats Anna in the middle there, if you were wondering..) :) |
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The columns around the outside of the square. |
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The Vatican! |
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MMMMM... GELATO.
:) |
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I might have to start using apota! Great to hear that you are enjoying yourselves & looking forward to seeing you in May (and beyond in Saskatoon?)!!
ReplyDeleteI.B.
I love the "flip-flips" expression. :)
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