Back in the motherland!!
Yay!!
So relaxing!

Told mum we were arriving on the 25th but rocked up on the 23rd as a bit of a surprise!!
:-)
Catching up with Chrissy D and Naoko in Sydney for a couple of hours was great too!
Return to Adelaide soon guys!!
Got home in time to watch the Crows go down to West Coast in a most appalling fashion... dammit!!

Coming back was a bit of a bitch...
long flights... little sleep...
worrying about customs busting our butts about weapons or alcohol or excessive boutique goods...
but all was peachy!!
soon (maybe) shall come the SUPER MEGA BIBLICAL PROPORTION entries regarding the remainder of our trip... soon...
should be easier than typing it all on my mobile so might be able to get them done relatively quickly!

good to be back on home soil...
god i need a shave and a haircut!!
evBSc

SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP!

;-)

AUGUST 12th

So we arrived in Milan (The Last Supper baby!) after yet another sleepless-ish night and soon were on the connecting train to Bern.
Really weren't prepared for what a difference there was going to be between Italy (or Southern Europe in general) and Switzerland. But i guess something mystical happens as you cross those mountains cos it was flipping gorgeous!

The green fields. The milky green rivers. The brown cows. The wooden houses. The forests. And the mountains... it's difficult to not be enchanted by such towering giants.

SWISS (C)RAVINGS...
We fell in love with Switzerland from the beginning and it just got better and better the more we experienced.
The natural beauty is wonderful. The people are some of the nicest we've come across. It's so clean! Such a peaceful and calm place too.
We never wanted to leave...
But seeing as i'm writing this from my hostel bed in Prague, i guess we eventually did and i must continue my story...

Arrived in Bern and checked into Pension (or Hotel or Garni depending which sign you were looking at) Martahaus which was superb. good location and really nice and clean. headed out for lunch and started our roamings in beautiful Bern.

To compare Bern and Naples would be the difference between Heaven and Hell.

Bern... so clean, so peaceful.
Naples... so filthy, so hectic.

I'm sure there are people out there who love Naples for its energy or some other fantastical reason. They can have it. Naples' one saving grace is its pizza.
Bern is Gabriel. Forever beautiful and angelic.
Naples is Lucifer. Now cast down into the pit and never to be redeemed.

Enough ranting...

We walked around blissful Bern to Munster Cathedral which has some rather impressive 12m high stained glass windows. The old town is UNESCO protected and really beautiful. On to the bear pits (the bear is the symbol of Bern) where they've kept bears since the late 1800s.
Unfortunately the bears were sleeping when we checked it out, so no ursine action for us.
we cruised along one main street which has a fountain about every 100m. Each fountain consists of a bowl with four spouts and then a central column upon which sits some sort of statue. There was Lady Justice, Samson, a bear in armour and lots more, but the best was the baby eating ogre fountain! I was a tad disappointed though. I'd read both in the LP and a few comments on the net that "you've gotta see the baby eating ogre fountain", so i thought that it was gonna be like Roman scale fountains (ie big). But no. Same size as the others, just quirky! :-) Still worth a look though!

Before dinner, the weather drove us home to secure warmer clothing and umbrellas. Wanted to catch a tram to the restaurant but weren't sure which one. As we were pondering over a map, a very kind (and hot!) Swiss woman asked us if we needed some help. She was getting on the same tram and also suggested instead of changing trams to get to our destination, that we walk along a particular street which would take us straight there and was covered so we didn't have to worry about the rain.
Love the Swiss! :-)

The restaurant had been converted from an old tram depot (and retained the name) and is still running Bern's first micro-brewery. They make three different types of beer, my favourite being Weizen (which i've recently discovered means wheat).
Not sure, but think (for those in the know) that Schoffer Hoffer might be a weizen beer. Mmmm tasty!
Food was great too. I had a veal and mushroom dish with rosti (hashed potatoes) and Jee had a couple of boiled Bavarian sausages (they came out in a bowl of hot water too) accompanied by a giant pretzel and sweet dipping mustard. Superb!
Had to sample all three varieties of beer, so ended up pretty tipsy by the time we got home!

AUGUST 13th

The hotel has a great breakfast included in it's price so after we broke our fast, we headed to Gruyeres, about 2 hours from Bern. The country side on the way and surrounding Gruyeres was some of the most beautiful we'd seen (up until that time anyway!). Most people head there to visit the famous cheese factory, but I really wanted to check out the H.R. Giger Museum. Giger is the twisted little puppy who designed THE Alien for Alien (and Aliens, Alien3 and Alien Resurrection) (mind you Giger should have shot them for the fourth installment!) (maybe Sigourney Weaver should request to do a fifth to redeem herself!).

But Giger is definitely much more than jus Alien. He's got some amazing stuff, both pictures and sculptures. He does a lot based on biomechanical (as in humans or nature blended with machine), he's almost like a perverted Antonio Gaudi!

Grabbed a snack after the museum and then went to the Giger Bar for a coffee and to warm up. Basically rained all day long. :-(
Giger Bar has some funky seats and the ceiling is like a giant spine with ribs extending out.

Headed back to Bern to grab our gear before jumping on the train to Interlaken. Switzerland is small and the trains are fast, but due to the mountains the travel time can be a bit longer than you'd think by looking at the distance on the map.

Interlaken is another gem in the Swiss crown. Surrounded by massive mountains (the taller ones are snow capped even in summer), it's just peaceful and the air is alpine fresh.The walk to the Funny Farm Hostel was through quiet suburban streets and our souls were at ease. Ahh the calm before the storm... what a wonderful feeling...

We were booked in at the Funny Farm Hostel but it shares its reception with the Hotel Matterhof. When we were checking in with the lady (quarter Korean plus quarter Japanese plus half German equals Hot Stuff! Even the missus agrees!) at reception, she took our name and she said "oh" in a rather dismal fashion. I asked her if our booking had been filled or something but she just said the walk out the back might be a bit cold. Meh i think, no biggy.

But there was a biggy waiting for us. Drafty rooms with no locks (or even lockers for safe storage) in a building which probably used to be a barn! The communal showers were in a large open room which looked cold enough as it was but probably freezing in winter! There was a pretty healthy looking dope plant growing out the back too! It truly was a "backpackers" and not really a hostel.Jee just sat on the bed looking depressed and said she wanted to get out of Interlaken as soon as possible. This was a different Jee who got off the train staring at the mountains, deeply inhaling the fresh air and stating with glee "it's so beautiful".

After much discussion I went to the reception to see if we could upgrade to the hotel. In the LP, a double in the Matterhof seemed darn expensive but we were desperate.
The lady knew as soon as i returned what i was going to request. I said that I thought we were a bit old for that level of accommodation. She said that she was too old for it a couple of years ago when she went to South Africa with a friend and thought they'd try to rough it but changed their minds after the first night!
For only ten Swiss Franks more per night, we stayed in the hotel in a room which had a double bed and a bunk bed and a private bathroom. There was the potential that two other people might join us, but we didn't care and it never happened, so that was sweet!
What an emotional rollercoaster! Love it!

The Matterhof i think has been around since the end of the 19th century. Interior needs a bit of modernizing perhaps but it's clean and comfy and that's what's important!

AUGUST 10th

ferry was shite. was only a small ferry so the chairs didn't recline much and was pretty crowded. and on top of everything, the engine noise was loud enough to prevent any possible form of decent sleep. jee got some fitful rest but i got bugger all.

they showed Pirates of the Caribbean (why you would show a pirate movie on a ferry i have no idea!) then Daddy Day Care then Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
i saw most of the first, must've passed out for Daddy Day Care cos the next thing i knew LOTR was on.

So we arrive in Piraeus at 7am, 3 hours later than expected. we trekked to the station then caught the train towards the Acropolis.
original plan was to take in some of the ancient sites of Athens prior to heading to Patras. however it takes about 4hrs from Athens to reach Patras and there are only a few trains AND we wanted to get there as soon as possible to book tickets for the ferry to italy, so we were in a bit of a pickle.
got off at the acropolis station and looked for lockers but there were none so we had no choice but to lug them. the Acropolis and its associated monuments are up on a hill overlooking Athens and lugging heavy bags uphill ain't the most entertaining practise so about halfway there, Jee said she'd watch the bags and wait for me to go and check them out.

jogged up the hill and through various tour groups that were just arriving to the entry. i could see the top half of what i think was the Acropolis so i took a snap shot and headed back down to meet Jee. marked that down as something to see next time we come to Europe. there's been a few things along the way that we've skipped over and promised to return to someday.

Next 4 hours were spent training it to Patras. were lucky enough to get seats on the longer of the two trains we had to catch, so that was a small mercy.

grabbed our tickets and chilled. had something to eat (Jee had another bloody yiros! i think she's addicted!) at Chick'n Chicken and were undercharged by a rookie waiter. got on the boat bout an hour before departure and secured our seats. also grabbed the two seats behind ours cos no one appeared to be in them. we learnt from previous ferry rides that if people have the "deck" seat tickets, they can jump in the aircraft style seats if no one has them reserved. otherwise a fair amount of them sleep on the floor! it's much better than the deck for sure. the deck does have a roof covering the area, but the sides aren't covered so once the ship is moving the wind whips in and makes things pretty chilly. and to add to it, the evening we were leaving, it started raining pretty heavily and the roof of the deck was really leaky so the place was covered in water!indoor space was at a premium!

tried to get to sleep pretty early on. wasn't the most comfortable, but was the best i've been able to sleep on an overnight ferry so far! stretched out over two seats with my legs dangling off the end wasn't too bad at all! can't remember exactly what time it was - maybe midnight - when suddenly they announced that the self-service restaurant would be open for another 30 mins. they woke me outta quite a deep sleep and i was rather pissed off seeing as it had closed about two hours ago anyway. i could hear a fair amount of movement going on, so i took my bandana off my eyes to see what was going on. we were docked at another port and more people were boarding! and some of those people had seat reservations and were kicking sleepers out of their seats! so i sat up and stayed awake making sure no one disturbed my sleeping beauty (girl sleeps like a bloody log! she never woke up once thru the whole commotion!). once the ship started moving again and i was sure that no one else was coming along, it was off to dreamland again...

SIDENOTE: I've read back over a couple of my past bloggings and feel i must pass on my humblest apologies for the lack of eloquence in these entries, along with the grammatical and spelling mistakes and sometimes missing out entire words! i'm writing all these entries on my mobile phone then sending them to my email address. then when time is willing, i paste them into my blog.
typing on my phone is plenty slower than thinking speed (mind you i can basically touch type at great speed on this keypad thanks to all the practise i've had!) and thus sometimes i'm ahead of myself before i've had a chance to write it and don't realise that i've left something out.
then when copying from my email and pasting into the blog window, it does a wierd double up kinda thing that i try to get rid of if i notice it has happened.
Perfektion is impossible I guess...
;-p

AUGUST 11th

Arrived in Bari, Italy feeling quite refreshed and ready for the next long haul. plan was to catch a train to Rome and then an overnight train to Bern, Switzerland.
(my grandmother generously put me through a very good education, but i always thought that Zurich was the capital of Switzerland! Didn't study Geography! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) (and the dubious Mr Tang also believed that Geneva or Zurich was the capital of Switzerland, so I'm not the only one!! yay!!)
unfortunately the sleeper was fully booked so we had to book an overnight train from Bari to Milan and then catch another to Bern.
Bari's a nice enough town to spend a day in and due to being a main port, it has plenty of boutique shops for those last minute duty free purchases, so Jee was plenty happy!
So we wandered and window shopped until 9pm.
The 1st class sleeping seats on the train were in cabins of six seats and we were sharing ours with just one guy initially. Very nice Swiss guy called Cedric who was from the French speaking part of Switzerland but could speak Italian fluently and English and German very well! He'd spent a month in Australia in January brushing up on his English and having a holiday, so he actually knew Adelaide!
The cabin was very comfortable with only the three of us (especially cos we could stretch our legs out to the opposite seats!), but unfortunately after an hour, we were joined by a rather portly (shall we call him "prosperous" Lucinda?) gentleman who snored rather loudly and then later on a youth, so leg stretching was not to be had.
soon got pretty cold in the cabin making sleep even more difficult.

AUGUST 7th

had booked a tour to go and check out the active volcano in the centre of Santorini. caught a ship out to the central "island" and were led by our guide around the various craters. no sign of lava or billowing smoke unfortunately, but there was a steam vent and some areas that'd turned yellow from the sulphur. you could really feel the heat coming outta the vent!
cos the volcano is very closely monitored, the guide said the residents of Santorini don't fear and eruption, it's the earthquakes that are the killers - literally. Santorini is beautiful, but it's not the most "permanent" of islands!

next stop was off to the hot springs.
the boat couldn't get close enough due to being too shallow, so anyone who wanted to paddle in the springs had to swim there. the volcanic vents warm the water to about 36 degrees and due to the minerals, change the colour of the water too! only a small area that's closest to the vents is a vivid green and then it's an orange-brown colour till quite far out.
swimming towards the vents, you don't notice the temperature difference too much, it's more when you are swimming back to the boat that you feel the cold!

next moved on to the other island that makes up Santorini for lunch. yiros (of course) and a greek salad.
grabbed the boat back to Oia where some people alighted but as we'd just been there a couple of days before, we were happy to just head back to the main port. took the cable car up to the town cos the donkeys were a touch too stinky!

if you happen to be in the area, here's the perfect coffee and cake break in Fira, Santorini!

grab cakes from Zotos Family Pastry.
grab take away coffee from Quinta.
sit on porch of Replay (clothing store).
ENJOY!

the cakes at Zotos looked soooo good, but they didn't sell coffee and the next door wouldn't allow us to have their coffee with Zotos cakes in the store, so we had to search for a take away coffee joint. after we'd had our cake, we returned to Quinta for another coffee cos it was a funky joint. think it becomes a bar at night. i tried a "greek coffee" for the first time and regretted it! don't know if it was just bad there (i doubt it though), but it tasted crap (really weak too) and is full of sediment (purposefully i think). will have to check with "she who pays my wages" if that's the way it's meant to be!

headed home and swam in the pool for a couple of hours until it was dark then headed our for dinner. expressed that i didn't want yiros again, so we wandered around the beach road a bit looking at various places and settled on one that had good descriptions in english of the food! :-)
had squid, a greek salad and moussaka which was a first and fantastic!

AUGUST 8th

had a truly relaxing and very very lazy day. did nothing but swim and sit by the side of the pool.
the reception desk is adjoined with a little kitchen and so when we got hungry, we just ordered some food, had a beer, chilled for a bit more and jumped in the pool again!

aaah that was the life...

no looking around museums or churches.
no rushing to catch the next train.
just the sun and the water...

AUGUST 9th

had to check out in the morning but because they understand a lot of the ferries don't leave till the afternoon and there's an outdoor toilet and shower everyone's free to use the pool until they leave!so we first went out and booked our accommodation in switzerland on the net then came back and swam and frolicked till about 7pm.

Jee suggested yiros for dinner again (we'd had one for lunch!), but i didn't think i could stomach another plus cos it was our last night in Santorini i felt like something special.
found a restaurant where you walk out the back and select what you want then they cook it up for you.
so we chose a skewer of meat and veg each, a greek salad and a stuffed tomato and capsicum. the stuffed vegies and salad came out quite soon with bread and we were fairly full after all that.
took a while for the skewers and we were wondering if we could cancel them cos we'd really had enough. but they came eventually and you'd never guess what accompanied them on the plate...

pita bread, vegies and sauce to make your own yiros!!

NOOOOOOOOO!

and it was chunkier than your average yiros!
but we soldiered on!
can't waste good food - even if it was the same thing you'd eaten for the last five days!

by the end of it all, we were super stuffed.
but we were lucky that night. towards the end of our meal, the moon started to rise and it was bloated and blood red. very beautiful for our final night.

we rushed home cos we thought the guy was leaving to take us to the port between 9 and 930pm. when we got there, he was sitting by the pool with a cigarette looking very relaxed. we apologised for being late but he told up not to worry cos the ferry wasn't till 11pm and it's always late anyway.
so we relaxed for a bit and took some night shots of the pool area.
at about 10 we started wondering when we were leaving. i think by 1030 Stelio could see we were a touch agitated about possibly missing our ferry so we hit the road.
unfortunately, he was right... very right.
it was late... an hour late.
the ferry was meant to be boarded at 11pm arriving in Piraeus at 4am.
but we boarded at midnight and didn't get in till 7am!

AUGUST 5th

although we'd originally told Tony that we'd stay for four days, we started the day by moving places. Tony was a fast talker with too many empty promises and there was a really skanky smell outside our room. at first i thought the smell was like rotting seaweed from the beach. my brain was associating the smell with a memory from my childhood of an odour i'd smelt around my grand parent's farm. i was sure it was a beach smell. i realised later that it was the smell of a septic tank! Santorini is a small island and thus (i think so anyway) some places have septic tanks instead of proper sewerage systems. we sometimes saw a truck that G labelled the DONG-CHA (shit truck), which appeared to be driving around and pumping out people's septic tanks. nasty times!

so we looked for something else. the trusty LP guided us to Stelio's Place which was only a few minutes walk away, had a decent sized pool and was quite a bit nicer.

we went out and hired a quad bike or All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) as it was labelled but in the rental contact, it is illegal to ride the ATV on unsurfaced roads, thus losing the meaning of "All Terrain"! (and yes mother we even had helmets!) we rode our ATV from tip to tip of Santorini! was great fun!

started on the southern end at the lighthouse and Red Beach and then rode up the highest mountain and eventually to Oia (pronounced Ia) which is on the northern tip of the island.
the ATV wasn't exactly the fastest creature. with Santorini being part of a volcano, it is quite mountainous in places. max speed uphill with 2 people on it was about 20kph. on the downhill, we'd get up to fifty, but that's when things started to shake a little too much for comfort!
:-)

Oia is really beautiful and if you've seen pictures of the traditional white buildings with blue highlights, probably most of those shots were taken in Oia. we got there at about 6pm but wanted to watch the sunset which is meant to be most beautiful from that area so we meandered around a bit before finding a restaurant that was pretty pricey but had a brilliant view of the sunset. After a beer, some prawns, a great salad, a bottle of Santorini wine, a fantastic sunset, chocolate mousse and coffee we happy, stuffed to the gills and quite tipsy!

whilst i was a little unsure about my blood alcohol level for riding the ATV home in the dark, we didn't have much of a choice (there's always a choice evBSc... always) as Stelio's Place was on the opposite end of the island and the bike had to returned by midnight.

however i soon discovered there's nothing more sobering than a stiff sea breeze in the face while riding high on the edge of an active volcano! made it home in one piece, took a photo of my very sunburnt upper legs and collapsed into bed!

AUGUST 6th

had a slow morning then a yiros for lunch (forgot to write it but the day before we had a yiros for lunch as well!) then went to Perissa beach which was literally a stone throw from where we were staying.
this has gotta be the strangest beach i've ever seen! leading up to the water, there wasn't sand, but black pebbles.
once you got to the water, rock.
no sand.
solid rock.
it was like water frozen in time.
it had ripples in it.
super mega ultra freaky!
and to top it off, it had a thin layer of algae on top which made it very slippery!
it was so bizarre. i guess that's what a volcanic beach is?!
swam for yonks just looking at the way it was formed.

some guy on an inflatable raft started swimming out to sea and just kept going. i would sometimes look out and assumed he was gonna turn back at some stage, but he never did! he went out of visible range (over the horizon?) and was out of sight for maybe an hour.
eventually a little speak was visible which turned out to be him. a lifeguard actually swam out and met him about 100m offshore, probably to check if he was ok or to give him a slap up the side of the head! :-)

like i've stated before, european beaches (well at least the ones we've encountered so far) are very calm in comparison to Oz waters. you'd probably be lucky to return if you did that in Australia. or when you did finally return, you find yourself 10km down the coast!
while Jee experimented with sunbathing semi-topless, i dug a hole in the pebbles about 3 metres from the water. eventually reached coarse black sand and water and then i couldn't dig any further cos i hit "the bottom"! and that was only about 40cm deep!

we had to change our departure day for the ferry and that could only be done in Fira, the capital of Santorini. so we caught the bus in, changed our tickets and had another yiros for dinner.

AUGUST 3rd

woke up after bugger all sleep.
ship arrived in Patras at 1pm.
caught a train at 155pm and gradually made our way to Piraeus - the big port for Athens.
stuck with Yvonne and Craig all the way and picked up a couple of chicks from Perth along the way who had about as much of an idea about where they were going as the four of us. safety in numbers!

everything was booked out for going to Santorini that night, so instead of spending a night in Piraeus, we booked an overnight ferry to Crete and an early morning ferry to Santorini.
Piraeus was where we experienced our first of many yiros. and it was bloody marvelous! it may have been due to the fact that it was only 1euro60cents or that we hadn't eaten since breakfast, but it was soooo good!

the ferry was "okay", but definitely nowhere near the standard of the Blue Star ferry from the previous night. this one did have showers though, but they were pretty dodgy looking so we decided against it. it took off at 9pm and we were pretty beat from lack of sleep and all day travel, so after a whiskey for me and a coffee for G, we TRIED to sleep. the seats were about as good as the night before and this time it was cold in the cabin area. couldn't just grab some extra clothes from our bags though cos for this ship (and only this one out of all our trips) the big bags were locked in the hold.

on top of the cold, the light and tv were left on all night. the light is no problem - i always tie my bandana over my eyes to block out the light when travel sleeping. but the bloody tv was a different story. maybe if they had greek programs i would've been ok cos i wouldn't have been able to understand a word. but every single program was in english with greek subtitles! CSI, Law and Order, Walker Texas Ranger, Desperate Housewives, The Shield and one more that i think has slipped my mind.
when i couldn't sleep, i tried watching some of the shows but then i'd get sleepy so i'd try to sleep. but i couldn't sleep cos of the cold and noise.
i couldn't wait till 6am...

AUGUST 4th

got into Crete at 6.
thankfully the sun was up. had to wait till 9 for next ferry to Santorini, so we thought we'd grab some food. could see the Golden Arches up the road, so walked up there. not open. :-(
couldn't even see an opening time written anywhere either.

headed back down to the port where the boat was already sitting and just waited there. had to wait until 30 mins prior to departure before we could board so were starving when we got on! grabbed food at bar at were soon zooming off to Santorini.

got into Santorini and started to look for accommodation. one guy grabbed us and began ranting about his place - Tony's Villa (the Legend). seemed decent enough so we went for it.
place was ok.
Tony kept talking about how he can get us a good deal for this or half price for that. he drove past one place and said that if we mention his name there, we can drink wine for free! turned out later to be a winery that had free tastings!

seeing as we hadn't showered or slept properly in two and a half days, we had a shower and then crashed for 4 hours. we then got up, went and ate a yiros and then went back to sleep again!

AUGUST 2nd

caught the early train to Bari, a port town on the eastern coast of italy. it looked nice and pretty after the filth of Naples, but we didn't see much of it. once we arrived at the station, we jumped on the first bus to the port. once at the port we booked our tickets for the ferry to Patras in Greece. ferry didn't leave till 8pm and we couldn't board till 4pm.

basically twiddled our thumbs till 4 and then jumped onboard. the ship was great (little did we know that we were starting with the best and going downhill from there, but more of that later!). it was like a floating hotel! with our first class eurail pass we were able to book "aircraft style" (reclining) seats at half price (46euro post discount). they seemed quite comfortable and they were in an enclosed area. went exploring around the boat a bit until we got hungry enough and headed to the restaurant. there was a self-service restaurant or a-la-carte but we felt like a touch of class, so went for a-la-carte.

we were the first ones there and there were some really nice looking tables with a view out the window, so we asked the waiter for a table. he gave me a once over and led us to a table far from the windows. :-(

ok, so i was very unshaven and wearing my rather vivid spiderman t-shirt with bright green shorts and had been travelling for long hours on trains and waiting in cafes all day so i looked a bit scruffy, but come on! we later discovered that the part we were seated in was the non-smoking (3 tables) and the rest (maybe 10 tables) was for smoking, thus we were seated where we were. still, you think he could have asked instead of looking me up and down!

during our meal the ship set off. we were soon joined by an american couple, Yvonne and Craig, who were on their honeymoon. they were at the end of about a month in europe, with the plan to spend the last few days in the Greek islands. a greek lady came to eat as well and gave us some advice on good islands to go to, but we were set on Santorini anyway. she actually kicked up a bit of a fuss with the waiter when he wanted to seat her on the third and final table in the non-smoking section but he wouldn't budge.

we both had pasta dishes that were really nice and the bread with olive tapenade was great too.

tried to sleep in our "reclining" seats. they maybe go back an inch more than aeroplane seats do. sleep didn't come very easily unfortunately.

AUGUST 1st

caught a bus bright and early in the morning to catch a ferry to the gorgeous island of Capri!

paid for a coastal tour of the island by boat which included a stop a the Blue Grotto which is a rather large cave that only has a small opening. if the sea is too rough, it's inaccessible, but luckily for us it was calm enough. it wasn't calm, but just not TOO rough! when we first arrived in Capri, they said we wouldn't be able to go in due to the sea condition but by the time we got there, it'd eased up a bit. one of the guys at the minbak at been to Capri two days in a row and both days couldn't visit the grotto, so i guess we were lucky.
you have to pay extra to go in cos it requires you to jump in a small boat that can only fit 4 people and the oarsman. they definitely know how to milk you for all you've got. i think you actually pay for two separate tickets - one for the boat and one for entrance to the grotto. bit steep really for what it is, but meh, that's what being a tourist is all about!
once the boat gets to the entrance, you have to lie flat in the boat and the oarsman pulls in the oars. he then grabs onto a chain which is permanently attached to the cave and waits for the waves to dip down enough. then he drags the boat thru the hole using the chain and suddenly you're in peaceful waters. the reason it's called the Blue Grotto is that the way the light enters the cave thru the entrance makes the most amazing sapphire blue colour.
a bit of paddling around (enough time for us to take photos and not too long or we'd be holding up the next boat load of tourists!) and then out again. was sure almost cracked my head on the way out!

tour continued on around the island, stopping at various famous or pretty spots.
back at the port we caught a bus up to Anacapri. it was insane! they crowd as many people as possible onto this tiny mini-van kinda bus which then hoons up narrow roads that are on the edge the cliffs. you really don't want to sit on the right side of the bus - like i did - cos all you see is an unforgiving, straight down drop to your doom!
from Anacapri there's a chair lift up the mountain! was good fun and the views were great. but up the top was amazing. we were up in the clouds! on one side, it was clear and you could see down to the city. on the other side, it was like someone had erased the world. just pure, blank white. really peaceful too.

down the chair lift again (some chick was sun bathing topless almost directly under the chair lift towards the end!) and wandered around Anacapri a bit. almost bought you an italian leather hand bag that we thought you would've liked mum, but it turned out to be 500euros so you might have to wait till next time! ;-)

after lunch we caught the ferry back to Naples. were so tired that once we'd sat down, we fell asleep and the next thing we knew, we'd arrived in Naples!
at the train station, we booked tickets for the next day and i got G to take a photo of me with one of the station police who get around on Segways!

That night we had the best pizza ever. Again LP recommended and just around the corner from the place we'd eaten the night before.

Pizzeria da Michele.

that name again...

Pizzeria da Michele.

When we got there, we had to grab a ticket and wait for a table. 10 minutes later we sat down and checked out the menu which was stuck to the wall.

it went something like this:

1 - Margherita (medium, large or double cheese)
2 - Marinara (medium or large)

Coke, Fanta, Water or Beer

and that was it!
can't remember the prices exactly, but it was only 3 - 4 euros for the pizzas! we had the double cheese margherita and the medium marinara. both were big and tasty! we also ordered two cokes and the total bill ended up being 11 euro!

ARGH! TOO CHEAP! TOO DELICIOUS!

personally i don't think i'd piss on Naples if it was on fire, but i would charge into the blazing inferno to save the chefs of Pizzeria da Michele!

we slept well that night with happy bellies!

SIDENOTE: gonna have to check this out when (if?) we return to oz (or someone can leave an informative comment on the blog!), but marinara in italy has nothing to do with seafood. it has more to do with garlic i think. i have been enlightened...

So even swearing on Jim Morrison's grave (which we did see!) didn't provide enough inspiration to get around to posting those messages on me blog.

BUGGER!! >:-()

But in London at the mo and heading to the House of Tang in Nottingham (Men in Tights?) tomorrow and i believe there is access to the "information super highway" (when was the last time you heard that phrase used?) within the abode, so ye may be receiving some EvCentric nourishment soon!

Super bugger about Peter Brock too...

I think Al Qaida's new plot is to knock off 3 top Ozzies by Sept 11!
Bastards...

Speaking of which, five years to the day...
how time has swept along so quickly...
I still remember kneeling on the tatami in the tv room of Parkside House with a bunch of my housemates watching the early scenes fall further and further into chaos...
If you have a chance, check out the Spiderman comic with the pure black cover.
Powerful stuff...

CRIKEY!
He's carked it!
Don't know the exact details yet, but when I woke up this morning, there was a "breaking news" sms on my mobile.
"Steve Irwin has died."

Bugger...

Have seen a couple of posters for "Snakes on a Plane".
They thought hard about that title...
What has Samuel gotten himself into?

GAY PARI!

(well i did enter wearing a pink t-shirt after all...)

;-)

Arrived at 7am after a night train from Heidelberg (Germany) and was stuffed on coffee and croissants by 9am!
(don't know if the old dude serving breakfast doesn't understand English properly or if just wanted to stuff us silly!)

Had a very Paris day! After a rest in the morning, we had lunch at a small French restaurant. I had steak tartare which was rather tasty. Nothing like a chunk of raw beef mince mixed with raw egg and herbs to give you the energy to take on the sights of Paris!
The Hotel of the Invalids (hors d' to the Revolution), Alex the 3rd bridge, L'Arc de Triumph and ye olde mighty Eiffel Tower! Tall and fantastic! Can't believe they were thinking of tearing it down at one stage! Haven't gone up it yet but will soon.

Have just finished watching a special on CNN about Osama bin Laden and now watching the CNN news report about the new Al Qaida tape on the net and potential terror arrests in England.
YEEHAA!
Think we shall be checking smarttraveller.gov.au to see what the recommendations are.

Speaking of the net, I have 13 days worth of blog sitting in my email begging to be published. There is internet at the hotel but it's bloody expensive. Saw a net cafe round the corner that'll hopefully be cheaper and I swear on Jim Morrison's grave (we'll hopefully see it in the next coupla days) that I shall post these on EvCentric!

Biblical proportions baby!

Delicious North Korean Cheese...