All The Small Things

Hello ...
Just to pick up where i left off and keep you up to date on how things are going.
I'm not going to put many pics in this post so if you want to see them there is a link just there to the left to them all. Putting pics in the posts is a pain in the arse and takes up an extra 90 mins (putting them on and correcting everything else) in the Internet Cafes.
So where was I.

Ah yeah..So we went to stay with Brent in Tuscany on his Goat Farm. He also makes cheeses and soaps and has 600+ olive trees and chickens.
when we arrived he was in the middle of milking the goats. As you probably know its all machines now and takes him only 50 mins to get through 70 goats.
On our first morning we were up at 5.30am to start work. Feeding the goats and changing the water buckets of the males who were in separate holdings to the females.
Feeding the females was easy, drag bales of hay out and put them in the troughs.

The males were a little trickier. One of them had a habit of charging the gate at night which left it hanging off most days. Having to go in and give him hay - his trough being at the opposite end of his entrance gate. In the time we were there he only charged me twice. First time i nearly shat myself second time he was just nudging me out of the way.

After we had finished, Brent came to us to tell us he had the "Deal of the Century" for us.
The next day he would bring us to his other house, which was situated in the Tuscan mountains.
The house is in Priello. What we had to do was clean this house because he had guests coming to stay in the next few days. He rents out the house to tourists.
So we get there and we have this 5 bedroom 5 bathroom house with a swimming pool and an amazing view all to ourselves and all we have to do is clean it. Sounds easy, Yeah......NO!(The above picture is the View from our Dining room window)

Whoever had stayed there previously had left it in a state. While we were cleaning it we felt like we got a raw deal but after we had finished it was OK, especially since we got to stay on an extra couple of days there than expected. While cleaning up the kitchen which was the worst room, a lizard (we had seen hundreds of them so far but not this big) came running out from behind a basket. This was like an iguana, it was huge.


So, after our time in Priello we were to go back to Anghiari and back to the Goat farm and 5.30am starts.
We really didn't mind this because after you got started it was OK. Feed and water goats, clean up afterward and then feed the chickens and take the eggs...easy enough
Most days that we were there it was 5.30 til just after 7am, only because i think he was a bit uncomfortable asking us to do things for him.

Eventually it was us that went to him looking for things to do because after you've played every card game in the world theres not much to do.
On one of the days we were raking grass in 35 degree heat which was a killer, them make it all into piles and then put it on the back of his Pick-up truck and then i had to drive it down to the barn.
After 4 trips down (yes there was that much grass) we finished, it only took about 3-4 hours...

Another thing we did while there was we drove to Pisa to see the leaning tower.
With me at the wheel and Lisa with map in hand we made our way there
We eventually made it there after several veering turns off the motorways and about 6 hours....
I have to say that it was very UNimpressive.
There is nothing else in this place only this, nowhere to eat and nothing to do.
After parking the car, walking for 10 mins to find it we then stayed about 3-5 mins, took pictures and then left again for another 6 hour trek.
By the time we got back to the farm it was 11pm and i never fell asleep so fast but then..5.30 am starts again...

On our 2nd last day he asked us to bring the goats out. All we had to do was watch that they didn't wander into his neighbours field. Not long later, Brent is running towards us saying, this is not my land kids....
We were watching them eating the neighbours apple trees and olive trees....
He seemed a bit pissed off at first but we joked about it later..
Sadly, we had to leave Anghiari and the farm but not before we bought some of the soaps to send home...

Next on our list was Napoli, home of the Pizza. After a 5 hour drive we reached there only to find the driving conditions a little scary. (by a little i mean unbelievably scary)
No road markings, no traffic lights no queues no nothing just people driving where they want when they want.
When it was time for me to turn left i was a bit far right but managed to bully my way through about 200 cars to get there.
We eventually found a parking spot near our hotel but we looked around and this was not a safe place to stay. After they had trouble this year with rubbish collection the streets are really not clean. Below is a video of some of the streets, its not my video but it will give you an idea.







After seeing this we decided not to stay, so we were on the road to Pompei. The famous ruins from 2000 years ago where excavations had found ruins of a town kept preserved by lava from an eruption of mount Vesuvius in 79AD.
As we drove out of Napoli we came across some streets similar to the video above.
We eventually got to Pompeii after waiting over an hour in traffic, there is a Toll booth and there is about 15 lanes, but these 15 lanes turn into 2 lanes and everyone gets stuck.
We drove around for ages looking for a 24 hour car park so we could sleep in the car, since we had nowhere else to sleep. We found one behind an amusement park and had the worst night sleep ever and got eaten alive by Mosquitoes.

After seeing the sights of Pompeii and being attacked by wild dogs we made our way to Rome.
We dropped the car off at Leonardo Da Vinci airport and got a taxi to the hotel we booked.
We stayed in Rome for 6 days. In those 6 days we seen what we needed to see otherwise it was just way too hot to go out, even at night.

We went to the Colosseum and queued for about an hour. When we reached counter we tried to pay with my Maestro card and they said they dont take cards. So after going through all my pockets we were 75cent short of the fee and had to walk away without going in.
Other sights we seen that i can remember off the top of my head were piazza navona, trevi fountain, Spanish steps, campo del fiore, santa maria maggiare (which were staying right beside).
We also went to an English Cinema in Republika square. We went to see the new Batman which is EXCELLENT...back to the trip...

A place you cant miss is Vatican City.
We arrived outside and the queue was about a mile long which would've taken about 4 hours to get in the door. But, there were people offering tours in English for 45euro and you would get into the Vatican in a few minutes.
Even though its only about 10euro in, it was worth the extra money rather than stand around for hours in that heat.

We seen everything in there, Sistine chapel, Michelangelo, Raphael. blah blah blah......pictures will come later i forgot to bring the USB cable to this Internet cafe.
After Rome we decided to go to Greece and the Greek Islands because soon we were to head to India and its Monsoon season so not a good time to be going there.
We got a train from rome to Bari on the South-East coast of Italy and waited for a ferry to Corfu.
We got on the ferry at 6.30pm and the ferry was due to depart at 8. After several hours of listening to these pack of Italian c**ts acting the bol**x the ferry left the port nearly 2 hours late.

The ferry arrived in Corfu about 7.30am. We were on the deck of that ship for 13 hours listening to them eejits. I was lucky to get the 2 hours sleep i got considering the winds and everything else that goes with being outside in the middle of the sea at night.

We hadn't got any hotel booked but luckily the first we went to had available rooms and we stayed in Corfu for 4 days. The hotel was nice and had wireless (at a price)

We were 10 mins walk from Corfu old town and the views we had i the room were great (as above pics to come)
The old town was full of tourists as well as Greeks but it wasn't ruined by typical tourist crap shops.
There obviously was a few but there were more traditional shops like hand made crafts where you can watch them make their items, the items in these shops came at a price.

After Corfu we wanted to go to Kefalonia which is where we are now.
We had to catch a ferry to Patra to get to Kefalonia, which is strangely the only way here from Corfu
After leaving our hotel at 12pm we had to wait until 9.30pm for the ferry here.
Of course the ferry was late and it departed at 10pm.
We arrived in Patra at 5am and had to wait til 6am for the port building to open and then to be told the next ferry to Kefalonia is at 12.30pm.We lay on the benches in the port building til 9.15 and then walked to the ticket office for Ferry Tickets.

The ferry to here was only 3 hours and was comfortable enough after we found some seats indoors. We walked looking for a hotel here but so far all we have found is this expensive place we stayed in last night whose walls and doors are paper thin.
When someone knocks on a door down the hall you think its your door.
I'm tired, cranky and i really really don't like ferries (the ferry to patra didn't agree with me)
But well, its all part of the experience i suppose.
Keep in touch, I'm not getting enough emails people....let me know how your doing
Its feels very one-sided.

Pat

DayTripper

Whoooossssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!

Everything seems to be going by so fast...

Welcome avid readers....ha ha...This post wont be as long as the last...

I'm in a place called Anghiari which is in Arezzo in Tuscany.

A mouthful i know, we are leaving here tomorrow to go to Naples.

A nice 500km drive awaits me,

I have uploaded a shit load of new pics, the link is on the left there.. they even go beyond this post....

Here's what we have been up to since Milan........

Verona

Not really sure of days and dates at this stage, not really sure what day or date it is today.

We stayed in Verona for 4 days. We were 2 mins walk to the main area which had the Arena and all the fancy shops and probably the best ice cream that money can buy!

The Arena is most famous for hosting opera and stuff like that.

It was built nearly 2000 years ago in 30AD by the Romans. It looks amazing from outside.

Other things to do in Verona were obviously places related to Romeo and Juliet.

We went to see what is supposed to be Juliet's House and the balcony from where....................................must I !!!

THE ICE-CREAM

Seriously unbelievable, 2.50euro for 2 scoops of whatever and they piled it on top. Generous is not the word.

I must say that Italy is beautiful but there really isn't a lot to do if your not willing to put in the leg work, which the heat made it too hard to do sometimes. getting back to the B&B with water was sometimes a priority

VENICE

Venice, in my opinion, doesn't live up to its great name. Although we stayed just outside Venice in a place called mestre we were just a 10 minute bus ride away.

The place we had booked to stay in was in the centre of Mestre. We get there and the girl tells us we are not staying there but around the corner at their other building. After a few sighs from both of us we followed her to the other building.

From outside it looked a lot better than the other place.

We get inside and its a small apartment.

Open plan with a separate kitchen with cooker fridge etc etc.

Clean...Very Clean...

And cheap (Lisa has a knack for finding good places)

Now Venice, we got the boats and the rest but there really is not a lot to do except walk.

Unfortunately we went on a weekend and not any weekend, it was some festival weekend, so the place was packed full of tourists (like us) but most of the them were a pain in the arse, as usual.

Food was over priced and didn't live up to anything.

In summary the only good thing about Venice was the apartment and that was outside Venice.

FLORENCE

Next on the list was Florence, our first taste of Tuscany.

Florence over the last few years has turned into bustling tourist city. Every second door is a hotel or a B&B.

Speaking of hotels...booked a half decent place in a good area close to everything...

But again we get switched because they are "FULL".

Why take the f***ing booking then!!!!!!!!!!!!

The place i booked, looked nice and had wireless Internet etc etc.

The place we get moved to, no Internet, no English speakers (a deal breaker when it comes to picking somewhere to stay) and it was scruffy.

The walls were stained....oh holy jesus it was awful.

NO WAY WAS I SLEEPING UNDER THOSE SHEETS

I had about 1.5 hours of sleep that night. walking the streets of Florence at 5am wishing somewhere to be open for internet or even a coffee...but no

We went to see the famous, Michelangelo's David

The 5 meter high sculpture of some chap in the nip....

No, on a serious note, it was €10 in to the museum.

After about 2 mins of walking through things you were obviously not there to see, you get there, take your camera out and..............

YOUR SCREAMED AT TO PUT IT AWAY
NO PICTURES....NO PICTURES

WHAT???????

i just paid 10 euro to see it and no photos

They were actually throwing people out because of this.

Mad!! We did manage a couple before they screamed at us...

We only stayed in Florence 1 night and next day we rented a car (after hours and hours in an Internet cafe looking for somewhere to go next and where to rent a car from)

Finally found a car and a place.

We signed up to a website called helpx, where you offer to do work for them (generally farms) and they give you free accommodation...sounds good (again another Lisa idea, i seem lacking at the moment)

We find somewhere we would like to contact, 1 problem...they don't have a phone number, we email them instead but we are looking for somewhere today.

So we look for somewhere else and find 1 more that was interesting so we email them too. They email us straight back saying they are not ready to have people yet but will soon and to try this other person and gave us a link.

It turned out to be the 1st person with no phone number.

We emailed back and asked if they had a phone number and she duly obliged (thanks Lucie)

We collected the car, and after much to-ing and fro-ing (we booked through an agent and hertz hadn't received the booking yet) we got the car, a beautiful Hyundai Alto....ha

Next we rang the number Lucie had given us, Brent is his name. Got through, asked if he needed help...he did...great..we're on our way...nearly 2 hours later and many directions later we arrive at Valle de Mezzo.

I will finish off this wonderful story next time as i am running out of time in the Internet cafe.

A little sneak peak picture for next time...

My new friends..............

Its Been a While....

Haven't updated in a while, no place to do it in the cities we were in.

For all my photos go to the link on the left that says my FLICKR Photos

The last thing i wrote was about arriving in Biarritz, well, I've a lot to tell so brace yourself for at least a 10min read...

Biarritz

Biarritz was good but got quite boring after a few days. We stayed here for a week as we were waiting for post to arrive from home.

The day it did we were out the door like a shot.

Biarritz was mainly a surfers town. Every beach had its thousands of surfers hanging around waiting for the perfect wave.

On one of the days i went down to the nearest part of the beach at 7am for a swim ( it gets really busy after 9am)

Its like a swimming pool how calm the water was - not even a wave came on to the beach - but it was icy cold despite the sun splitting the skies.

There's not much to say about Biarritz except the last day. It was actually cold and raining in the south of France. So we went to the Musee de la Mer ( The aquarium, or Museum of the Sea) Sharks, Seals, Turtles and lots of different types of fish.

After we left we walked around to where i was swimming the day before. The sea was choppy and the waves were high. Video below if it works.....








We then left Biarritz on our next stop....

MADRID

To get to Madrid we had to get a train to Irun in North Spain and the a train from there to Madrid. Sounds straight forward doesn't it.

Not so...First we had to get to Biarritz station by taxi

Next we had to buy tickets to Irun....Took a while because of people at the desks were on a go slow seemingly enough.

Because of that we missed the train to Irun which meant 2 things

1: The next train to Irun wasn't for another 2 hours

and 2: it meant we would miss the connecting train to Madrid

SIGH!!!

So we get the train to Irun and then we had to wait in Irun for 3 hours for the next train to Madrid.In both these places there is not much to do in a train station.

The other thing was they only had first class tickets on the train for an extra 14euro per person.

We get on the train for our 5.5hour journey to Madrid. Snazzy seats, TV's, radio stations when they give you free earphones. Free Wine, Orange Juice, Bags of dried Fruit and Nuts.

Very Comfortable i must say ;-)

Then about 3 hours into it, they come around with your dinner. Gazpacho (cold tomato soup) with bread to begin, Ham Salad next, Beef Stew thing with rice for main course, and Fresh orange slices with cinnamon for dessert, and as much wine and coffee and water as you could drink. Living like a king....they even gave you a wine list to see which wine you wanted...crazy

Eventually the train arrives in Madrid at 11pm and we walk to the train station to get a taxi to the hotel.

The place we (I) booked was a 4 star hotel on the outskirts of Madrid for the same price as some smelly hostels in the city. It turns out some of the hostels would've been better than here.

The taxi charged us 26 euro the hotel (robbing taxi bastards same as Irish ones)

Hotel seemed nice, big enough room, Big plasma TV, nothing to complain about...yet

We tried to order room service on the second day but was told they only made sandwiches for room service and in their restaurant between 2 and 8 even though the menu said 10am to 11pm.

So on our 3rd and last nite we had been out most of the day in the city when we came back to the room and found the room swarming with Ants. Now i know they are practically harmless but do you wanna sleep in the same room as them, especially in a 4 star hotel.

I went down to reception, the chap there didn't understand a word, so i brought him up to the room to show him. He had a look on his face that said "so what" and after a few minutes of staring he says "You want change room"I felt like saying " No we just wanted to show you the local fucking wildlife"

We got changed to a different room for the last nite and Lisa filled out the comment card with some harsh words about the hotel...ha ha

Other things about Madrid.....I went to Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid Stadium) and Estadio Vincente Calderon (Athletico Madrid Stadium)

Both were quite impressive and really lived up to how you see them on TV.

When we went to Athletico's it was a scorching day so we didn't hang around too long.

We also went to Palacio Royal, or royal palace, which has 2800 rooms and no one lives there.

We didn't get in as we got there too late to do the walk around tour, but we go pics from outside.

We went to the Prado museum which has some of the most famous pieces or art in the world. Including, Adam and Eve by Durer, and other works by Bosch (not the drill) Goya, Raphael and Velazquez, among others.

Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos so i have none to show and im too lazy to google them.

Madrid was extremely Hot and Humid, we even seen LIZARDS on the footpath outside the hotel. The metro system is great but the people are not...I do not recommend Madrid for a holiday, especially if you don't have word of Spanish.

Next stop was a Flight to Marrakech in Morocco.

Marrakech

We flew into Marrakech on a 2hour rocky plane ride with a company called atlas-blue

I wasn't too happy about a plane that had Arabic writing all over it and every person getting on board looked like a terrorist.

Everybody here wants your attention to sell you something, if its not a taxi its orange juice, if its not that its clothes or food or take picture with a monkey or a rattle snake or a python

I'm not messing, its serious shit over here, monkeys on chains and snake charmers are the norm. So are rip off taxi men, its cheap but too expensive in comparison to what it should be. The taxi driver dropped us off with a guide, who shows you where to go and carries your bags in a cart type thing and walks you through these tight little dark lanes. All your waiting for is some fella to come out with a knife and demand money. As your walking along through Jamaa el Fna - which is the main square - you are jumping and weaving away from hundreds of Motorcycles, cars bikes. Eventually we get to our Riad (like a B&B) down a dark lane in a residential area full of beggars and shops with flys on everything.

Its hard to take in at first but is a great experience and it really felt like our first travelling experience. We were only 3 mins walk from the square but every time you made that journey you felt like you were taking your life into your hands.

The days were Hot, the nights were hot....HOT HOT HOT...Should've left in winter, maybe the 2 jumpers i brought with me would've got some use.

We didn't get many photos of the place due to the fact that if you took your camera out for a long enough time it was bound to be stolen. There was even a fella selling things on the street that had been stolen from other people....

In the evening is when the square gets lively and thousands gather for the food stands and the music and story tellers. This is also the most dangerous time to be around there if you keep your wits about you, your hands in your pockets and ignore everyone who asks you anything, you will be ok.

The Madness was soon over and we returned to Europe on Thursday with a Flight to Milan.

Milan

We arrived here 2 days ago, good to be back in Europe in a way. Bus to the Central Train station from the airports in 45 mins, our hotel is 10 mins walk away.

We have a laundrette and Supermarket across the road and the metro station around the corner.

Yesterday i went to the San Siro stadium (yeah i know it seems like I'm on some stadium tour)

Stadium is big but its scruffy inside and out. The stands are nothing compared to those in English and Spanish stadia. Its just not what i expected from the san siro. i thought it would be bigger inside, but it looks to me that the only reason its 85,000 capacity is some of the stadium is standing.

Yesterday evening we went to Duomo cathedral, which is a gothic cathedral similar to the one in Barcelona only this one is bigger and 400 years older

They started to build it in 1386 and it took nearly 600 years to build.

Still to this day they are having work done on it.

We are in Milan until tomorrow then are headed for Verona , home of Romeo and Juliet and then to Venice.

Hopefully it wont be as long til my next post.

PS: as you know I'm in Italy so i can text you back coz it will count in my text bundle thing. It doesn't cost you any extra becoz I'm away its the same as if i was at home, so get in contact, or at least leave a comment here, I've changed it so you don't have to register first.

Talk to ya soon