Tres_crays

Character building in Bolivia

marts_and_ange — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 22:41:00 GMT

So it was after our lengthy stay in Valpo that we made our way up to the top of Chile into San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis in the driest desert in the world. It was a charming little town, completely kitted out for tourists (save for the atms which failed to work for the 4 days of our stay). We booked a trip to Moon Valley to watch the sunset; a place of crazy landscapes, used by NASA to test out their robots. It was really gorgeous despite not being able to climb the sand dune to get the best vantage point on account of the recent earthquake. We were bemused by the warning sign urging us not to "throw ourselves inside the big dune"... maybe they were afraid of another earthquake?

Our other, much anticipated trip to the geysers didn't eventuate as we (or rather the atms) ran out of money so we needed to get a refund in order to pay the entry fee to the moon valley national park. The most frustrating thing was that we were only about AU$2.5 short of affording both tours thanks to our ingenius idea of boiling our drinking water. It was only later that we found out that the water contains dangerously high levels of arsenic from the mining activity in the area, oopsy... still kicking! Despite the disappointment of the tour cancellation, we booked a 3-day 4wd safari into Bolivia which included geysers so we were appeased.

Our 4wd trip started early with an enormous climb in altitude to over 4000m, past huge volcanoes to the border where we were herded into our somewhat recyclable 4wds and introduced to our equally recyclable drivers! There were 6 of us in the car plus the driver. Thankfully we had a really great bunch of people in both our car and the other one in our convoy... crazy French couple intent on constantly distracting our driver, taking over the wheel and sitting out the window when we were tumbling across the desert... huge Dutch guy who comandeered the front seat on account of his gargantuan proportions (cool guy tho, lol)... bubbly French-Canadian chica who derived waaay too much enjoyment out of playing in the snow (we were in thongs you see)... and Leo, our boozing, coca leaf chewing, mechanic-come-chef-com-driver with his o-so infectious laughter. The other car had in it the lovely Spanish smokers (one of whom just finished studying law with our Chilean host in Santiago!), the German gardeners, or our adoptive parents(!), and the ridiculously patriotic Columbians... I can’t help it if people have told me it’s dangerous there!

So off we rattled across the deserts, past amazing lakes containing colonies of flamingoes. Laguna verde (coloured a stunning aqua) was devoid of wildlife on account of the arsenic, oh yes, that old chestnut! Laguna Colorado however was filled with thousands of the pretty pinkies and surrounded by llamas and alpacas of every colour. We were to stay at a shocking dive of a place on the shores of Laguna Colorado so we took a long walk around the lake and up to a lookout, snapping liberally at the flamingoes and llamas along the way. The air was so thin, we were almost at 5000m with little to no altitude sickness to speak of. Thankfully we hadn’t really been rained on despite being in the peak of the rainy season. We could see huge storms on either side of us though, so I guess someone was watching over us, cheers for that.

Our dinner is worth noting, solely for interests sake and so that nobody reading this dares serve it up to us again!!! Chopped “little boy” stir fry (only in Bolivia) with instant mashed potato... lucky we were hungry. The Spanish had been told we’d be served “traditional Bolivian cuisine”, between our special stir fry and the spaghetti we were served, there was a unanimous feeling in camp that, heaven forbid, we had been lied to.

We all slept fitfully on account of our driver and the local sheilas getting into our dinner wine (which we didn’t see) and causing a llama-waking racus. The morning arrived eventually and we woke up to blocked toilets and a huge pile of spag-vom, just at the foot of one of the toilets... chaaaaaaarming!

Leo emerged long after the other driver, reeking of alcohol (with a suspicious spag-vom tinge). We were pretty hesitant of getting into the car with him but were also keen to move on from little boy territory. After hurling a few full gas bottles from the roof much to our horror, Leo strapped and tarped our bags to the roof and we jumped aboard.

We stopped off at arbol de peidra (the stone tree) which was pretty cool (yep, we do have pics... you will see them in time) and we all climbed some rocks and felt like regular explorers. We then ascended some more and came across a whole plain of snow where we enjoyed (or otherwise) a snowball fight. We visited another cool rock in the shape of a condor which we again climbed.

The geysers were cool too, literally... it was snowing, crazy contrast to the bubbling earth and squirting water. Oh, and never mind the safety rails alongside the bubbling, molten earth, just see how many of those stupìd tourists fall in, thankfully none of us.

We were all very much looking forward to the culmination of our trip in Uyuni as it was the location of the salt desert (or lake depending on the season) and we were to be staying at a hotel made entirely of salt! That wasn’t to be, apparently the rain came down so heavily that the lake became impassable so alternative arrangements had to be made to stay in the shanty town of Culpina K. We stayed in a really cute establishment and just as we walked in the door the rain and hail came down with a vengeance, spilling through the roof in our room and onto our beds: nothing a roll of blue plastic couldn’t fix. We ate our friend the llama for tea (llyumy) and played cards for a bit before retiring to our damp quarters.

The salt desert awaited us the following day but before we got there we had to stop off at Uyuni’s other drawcard: a train graveyard, yep, fascinating stuff! We did a bit more climbing and urged Leo to take us to the salar, we had waited long enough!!

The salar was an incredible sight to behold, we were so lucky it had stopped raining but there was still a couple of inches of water covering the lake. We drove across it for about 3kms to a disused salt hotel- now a museum. The water was the most amaing colour and reflected the sky so perfectly that all perspective was lost, which is where the fun began... we took heaps of pics exploiting this phenomena, Marts holding me in her hand, me standing on Marts’ head, rows of us jumping in the air, popping people out of a coke bottle... ahhh, the list goes on and I could have gone on playing with the camera for much longer than old mate Leo was going to permit! The craziness of the trip was all worthwhile for the salar and the friends we made.

Now to Uyuni where the real adventure began.... The Spanish smokers (I’ll name them now), Alex and Laura, were desperate to get to La Paz as they had a flight out of there the following day and had only a few days of their holiday left. So there were running around desperately trying to find a bus, to no avail. Some of our party found buses to Sucre, the Bolivian capital but there were none available to La Paz.

Marts and I, hardened travellers that we are now, evdeavoured to find a way. As luck (or otherwise) would have it, we managed to organise a 4wd to take us directly to La Paz with an estimated trip duration of 6 hours, we were thrilled, it was only double the bus fare too and we had lined up Alex and Laura along with two passing Brazillian girls to join us, sensational.

Then the departure time came and went and then the price went up and then the driver couldn’t be bothered so we desperately went in search of another place which we were successful in doing, paying only slightly more than our originally negotiated price. We waited around for about an hour for the 4wd to arrive and were shocked to find it older than our Uyuni tour 4wd, circa 1970 is my guess with a dreadfully bare spare strapped up on the roof. The rain was coming down hard as they strapped our bags to the roof and we were loitering in the street, waiting to go when up went the bonnet for an inspection... no, a bit of repair work... the driver’s wiper was not working at it was monsoon season, ahem.

We refused to get in the car before he got it to work and just before we set off we found out that there was to be an Alaskan girl accompanying us half way (no worries about hiring out the whole car boys!) and there was going to be another driver (ahhhh, we felt at ease again). As it turned out the other driver was there to stick his foot against one of the gearsticks so it didn’t pop out mid journey and was actually too young to drive.

They were wet, muddy, unsealed roads and the people in the very back seat were bouncing up and down like a comedy and despite our original nerves we began to see the amusing side of 9 people crammed into a museum worthy land cruiser, sliding our way through the mud and swimming our way across rivers (sans snorkel!). It wasn’t until we got our first flat at about 1am that the nerves returned, namely because the tyre they changed to was that bare puppy strapped to the roof. We consoled ourselves by saying that it wouldn’t be long before we got to La Paz, only another 3 hours by their original calculations. Well... as it turns out the nerves were well warranted as the journey took another 15 hours (!!!!).

We had to make the driver stop as he fell asleep at the wheel and swerved into the oncoming traffic at least half a dozen times, I don’t think he had slept since the night before (contrary to what we were told). We all had a two hour kip outside our mid-way town, where we moved from the slow moving mud roads to paved madness with speeding trucks full of ancient looking gas bottles (hundreds of them) and buses hurtling along at impossible speed. The sleep was welcomed and we felt ready to make it to La Paz when we woke up. Our driver tried to find a tyre repair shop a couple of times but it was too early, nothing was open or they didn’t have what we needed. At one point the dashboard caught on fire so we had to pull over while father and son attended to the minor incident. Next, while pulling in for fuel I had to insist on an emergency evacuation as the rear of the car was on fire, smoking next to where I was perched in the back, timing... right next to the petrol bowser.

The next incident was almost the last, our bare tyre exploded while we were at cruising speed on the highway and our car swerved violently in front of one of those gas cylindar transporters, narrowly missing it, then another was hurtling our way which again we narrowly missed, the whole car was shaking and I thought we were going to tumble down the embankment. Neither Marts nor I have ever been more terrified. Our driver finally slowed us down and stopped on the side of the freeway, in a very dangerous position but we were alive. All six of us were crying on the side of the road while driver and son went to get a new tyre. It was horrendous, we were lapsing between giggling and bawling and had to walk about 200 m up the hill so we felt safe as the trucks were passing each other where our car was parked on the side of the highway and could so easily have clipped one or the other. We were so scared of getting back in the car when they returned but did so, crying out each time the gear slipped. There was one more flat before we made it to La Paz, this one a non-event comparatively. We were so pleased to retire to the safety of our hotel and a bit of cable, nightmare over!!

La Paz was a beautiful city, nestled way up in the clouds. We were staying on a street filled with alpaca wares and we bought up as much as our bags would tolerate, scarves, beanies, gloves and socks (all the things we would need for the Inca Trail). We also took in the markets, selling all kinds of weird stuff including llama fetuses, fetus hooves, bubble gum ice cream, ponchos and the world’s biggest popcorn (or was it packing foam?).

We met up with our German friends and they took us to one of their favourite restaurants which was a treat, filled with antiques, mirrors everywhere and an array of thrones around each solid wood table. The food was excellent, fresh strawberry juice, Chilean wine and delicious trout and llama steaks!

We did a city tour the next day, taking in all the major sights including San Pedro... the jail where Rusty Young’s “Marching Powder” is set – we even chanced upon visiting day but were too chicken to approach the large-weapon weilding guards and offer them a few bolivianos for a peak inside!

We climbed our way up to a lookout recommended by the Lonely Planet which turned out to be a big children’s playground... nonetheless it did give a good 360 of the city.

Next stop was Copacabana, Lake Titicaca where the trout was plentiful and the boats were “Bolivian”. The town itself was sweet, lots of restaurants with $2 tourist menus set in reed roof and bamboo surrounds. We took a trip out to Isla del Sol which was a touch on the laborious side as the boat was going about 0.5 knots and there was a whipping southerly lashing us on the roof of the boat where we sat on damp wooden boards (geez, whinge!!)... it was beautiful when we FINALLY got to the island though and we climbed some Incan steps and saw Incan watering systems (some of the pioneers of agriculture it would seem).

Border crossing into Peru involved another Bolivian boat which it’s fair to say, if carrying one more person, would have capsized. Safe and sound to the other side we continued on to Puno, Peru, still on the banks of the lake. Our bus driver manged to hook us up with a hotel for 2 nights, boat tour the following day and our bus to Cuzco the following day, such efficiency! Shame I came down with $2-Bolivian-special-tummy and had to spend the following day with my head in the loo while Marts enjoyed a trip to the floating islands where unfortunately it rained most of the day. The (pics of the) islands looked amazing and were used as a defence against aggressive little locals back in the day... up and float away into the Tititcaca mist, ingenious!

Chile

marts_and_ange — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 21:56:00 GMT

Christmas for us this year was very different to what we would have at home! We were so lucky to be introduced to Nestor, a friend of Ethan's. Nestor is from Santiago and is now a very good friend of ours too! He showed us around the city and took us in to his family home for Christmas dinner, Chilean style! In Chile, Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve. Everybody has a very late dinner, then when the clock strikes midnight, it's Christmas day which means time for Father Christmas to come! Nestor has a little brother Max who is 10 and still believes in Santa. So, at midnight, we all went off to the park and Marts stayed back briefly to quickly put out all of the presents! Then when we got back we got to watch Max open all of his gifts from Santa! It was such a lovely night! We had Chilean salmon with gourmet trimmings, thanks to Ariel (Nestor's other brother) who is a chef. And Nestor's Mum was such a lovely, kind lady. She didn't speak English, but we managed to rustle up enough Spanish to have some kind of conversation and at least convey how happy we were to be there!

As Christmas Day is celebrated on Christmas Eve, I had my birthday all to myself for the first time in my life! Ange and I had a great day, beginning with phone calls from home and opening our presents from each other! We then had a champagne breakfast and spent the day relaxing, Ange even put together a cake for me so we could sing happy birthday! In the evening we went to Nestor's who organised a little party and cooked us dinner. So, we were looked after so well and it was the best thing we could have wished for, short of being with our own family and friends back home.

We spent a few more days with Nestor and his girlfriend in Santiago, eating fresh seafood the market, shopping in one of the massive malls, trying to dance salsa, and drinking quite a lot of pisco! Then, it was time for us to go to the coast, to a place called Valparaiso where we were going to spend New Years Eve. It wasn't quite the sleepy beachside town that we had imagined, but it ended up being fantastic! Our hostel was like an old mansion with the greatest group of people staying there! We had a Cuban band come and play for us in the evening, then at 11pm everyone went to watch the famous fireworks display to welcome in 2008! We went to the waterfront with thousands and thousands of people! The atmosphere was just amazing! Everyone was singing and chanting in Spanish, you couldn't help but join in! Crackers of glitter were going off everywhere and then... the countdown! Everyone went crazy and the fireqorks were so spectacular! WE've never experienced anything like it! It truly was the most exciting NYE we've ever had! The party continued on all night in the streets and also in our hostel. The next day we had a big BBQ with everyone and it felt like we were sitting around with a bunch of friends from home! We were just so lucky to have coincided with such a great group of people!

We spent a week in Valparasio, exploring the hills with all of the coloured houses perched precariously on them. All the walls are painted with street art and it has a really relaxed, bohemian feel. Again, we ate lots of seafood, and we had one really special dinner that was our Christmas and my birthday present from Georgie (thank you again sweets)! We went to a gorgeous restaurant with a terrace overlooking the sea where we watched the sun set, sipped on champagne and strawberries, ate a big seafood platter which was followed by a very decadent dessert! We've had a fantastic time in Valparaiso, but now we must move on! Tonight we're taking a bus that will eventually get us to San Pedro de Atacama, a little town out in the middle of the Atacama Desert!

Argentina

marts_and_ange — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 21:34:00 GMT

After another 40+ hours in aeroplanes and airports, we finally arrived in South America. First stop: Buenos Aires (BA), Argentina! We spent almost a week in BA, dividing our time between San Telmo in the South and Palermo in the North. San Telmo is one of the oldest parts of the city and has some lovely antique shops and clothing stores or plazas where you can sit in the sun and drink wine or eat whatever takes your fancy. It was so nice to be in summer and out of the cold European winter! We did a few bicycle tours of the South and the North of BA to try and get our bearings as BA is truly massive! The steak is absolutely to die for and the chimi churri sauce is so yummy I wanted to send some home! Palermo is much quieter than San Telmo, and there are a lot of lovely parks that you can walk around. There are also some great bars and restaurants, including a great sushi restaurant that was so cheap! It is a very lively city with so much to see and do. You could really spend a lot of time there. But it's like everywhere, you see what you can and what you don't know doesn't hurt you! One of our favourite areas of BA was La Boca. It's quite a dangerous and poor area, but all of the houses and buildings are painted in bright greens, reds, yellows and blues! It's so lively, with people tango dancing in the street and little market stalls selling leather goods and jewellrey.

From BA we took an 18 hour bus ride to Iguazu. This was o ur first experience with South American bus rides and the rumours (if you've heard them) are true! The seats are huge and extend to almost horizontal position! They bring you wine and food and play movies. It sounds crazy, but an 18 hour journey is relaxing and is even enjoyable! Anyway, enough of the bus! Iguazu is where some of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world are found! They are on the border of Argentina and Brasil. We spent an entire day exploring the nantional park, absolutely blown away by the beauty and the massive scale of the waterfalls. There are hours and hours of nature walks that we did, which enable you to see the waterfalls from so many different perspectives! This is truly one of the most stunning natural wonders that we have ever seen. We even took a boat into the waterfalls which was so much fun! And a bit scary! Needless to say we got totally saturated! The hostel we stayed at in Iguazu was also fantastic, with a massive pool for us to sunbake by and sip on caiparhiñas! The waterfalles are in the Missiones rainforest so it is very hot and humid, but so tranquil and beautiful.

After a few days in Iguazu, we took another mammoth bus trip and went from the Northeast to the Southwest of Argentina. There (in Patagonia) you can find the beautiful Lakes District. We visited Bariloche and a beautiful town called San Martin de los Andes. As you may have guessed, the Lakes District is in the Andes, near the border of Argentina and Chile. It is like Switzerland in South America! Huge lakes surrounded by snow covered mountains, but the only thing was that it was 30 degrees! Even the buildings are like Swiss chalets and it has a very ski resort feel. We did a lot of walks and exploring in the mountains and around the lakes. We lay on beautiful almost deserted lake beaches that were like islands (the only give away that they were not were the families of ducks that occasionally swam past)! This area is also famous for it's art and crafts and gourmet foods and produce. We could have spent weeks there, but Christmas was fast approaching so it wsa time to push on after a week of relaxing! That was the last place we visited in Argentina as we were going to spend Christmas and New Years Eve in Chile!

Scoping out Switzerland

marts_and_ange — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 17:09:00 GMT

We spent our last five days in Europe in stunning Switzerland, the place that Marts is going to call home come 2009. As most of you know I have accepted a post-doc position in Lausanne and although I had already visited the lab during my post-doc tour, we returned to Lausanne so that I could meet my new boss who was away at the time of my last visit.

Lausanne is just a stunning city, situated on the banks of Lake Geneva, surrounded by the snow-covered alps. In the winter, you are only half an hour from some of the best ski fields in Europe and in the summer, Lausanne is a place of festivals and water sports on the lake, or hiking in the mountains. It is in the French speaking part of Switzerland so I will get to learn French which is very exciting.

While we were there, Ange and I were lucky enough to meet some lovely people (Cedric and Jerome) who really looked after us! They showed us that there really is a nightlife in Switzerland, despite the rumours! We also went out for dinner and discovered some of Lausanne's restaurants and we even were invited to Cedric's house by the lake for a traditional Swiss raclette! I met my new boss and visited everyone in the lab again and it feels like the best decision I could have made, combining the best of work and a new, exciting culture! I think I will love it here, even though it means I will be far from home. You will all just have to come and visit me!

Magical Morocco

marts_and_ange — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 16:53:00 GMT

We found ourselves with a bit of time up our sleeves in Spain, so we decided to hop over to Africa for a taste of Morocco! We flew into Marrakech, spending our first night in a beautiful 4 star riad. The next day we moved to a cheaper option, but we were right in the thick of the action! Our hotel was about 50m from the main square, Djamaa el-Fna which absolutely comes alive at night! It i s full of people, colours, smells and sounds. There are open air restaurants cooking everything from seafood to couscous, snake charmers, henna tattooists, dancers and story teller. To the north of the square are the crazy winding laneways of the souqs (the markets) that sell everything you could imagine and are just the place for getting lost! We spent most of our time in Marrakech as we just loved the vibrancy of this city. The people were so friendly and it was like no other place we had ever been before.

But we left Marrakech for a 3 day expedition to the Sahara Desert, which was an experience that we will never forget. We rode donkeys across a river to visit a kasbah, we rode camels at sunset into the desert and camped in tents. We surfed down sand-dunes under the light of the full moon and we rode camels back out of the desert at sunrise. We visited a huge gorge and saw with our own eyes that oases really do exist in the desert. We drove over the huge High Atlas Mountains and even experienced a freak snow storm in the desert! The people here are so warm and beautiful. Our experience in Morocco is almost too difficult to put into words and is a place that we cannot wait to return to and taste again.

Spain

marts_and_ange — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 16:20:00 GMT

Well, if you're regular readers of our blog, you've probably noticed that our updates have been not so regular lately! But let us fill you in a some of our travel tales from Spain, the country that never sleeps and, in my opinion, must be a little malnourished from the lack of variation in their tapas! We began our visit in Valencia, quite a pretty walled city. Here we quickly learned that Spanish people don't eat until about 11pm and they don't go out to bars or clubs until about 1am! The tapas was a little disappointing unfortunately. A lot of fried fish and calamari and not much else. So we tired of that pretty quickly! But the night life was a lot of fun! We spent about 4 days in Valencia, then headed south to Andalucia. Over about a week, we visited Almeria, Granada and Sevilla. Southern Spain is quite beautiful and rugged. There are huge mountains near the sea that are so barren you feel like you are somewhere in the Middle East.

Spain is very different to the rest of Europe. It really is a country that you can't take at face value and first impressions don't always last. Most of the cities have a new part and an old part. You really need to spend a few days exploring the cities to find their beauty, and when you do that, the country really grows on you. Almeria was a seaside city, while Granada and Sevilla were further inland. Granada was very laid back and full of hippies. All of Andalucia has quite an Islamic influence which makes the cities quite unique. And each of the places we visited had huge muslim fortresses that are now ruins, and are quite spectacular.

After Sevilla, we continued our bus trip around Spain and moved on to Madrid. Madrid is a beautiful city! Spanish architecture is quite unique and in Madrid the buildings have been looked after so well. The city felt so alive, with the streets full of people day and night. Here we met up with Javier and Benito, some friends of a friend from home. They took us out on the town and showed us that Madrid is a place that you can party in, no matter what day of the week! The nightclubs are full of people from Monday to Sunday, until 6am or whenever they close! How anyone gets any work done I don't know, but it's great for people who are on holidays like us! We also discovered some great restaurants in Madrid, sampling spicy Ecuadorian food for the first time (a taste of things to come)!

From Madrid we went to Morocco, but that's another story to tell! So, our Spanish story ends in Barcelona, yet another amazing city. Barcelona is like no other place, which is largely due to the wacky, 'Alice in Wonderland' style architecture of Gaudi. We spent a lot of time walking and riding around the city, finding as many buildings as we could that were built by him. He even built a park (Parque Guell) which has the house that he lived his last 20 years out in (now a museum, filled with furniture and other things designed by him). We were lucky enough to have another host to look after us in Barcelona (Carlos). He took us out to some great eating spots and bars. We spent about 4 days there, soaking up the cosmopolitan atmosphere of this city where the mountains meet the sea. Then we geared up to farewell the sunshine and boarded a plane for Switzerland, our last country in Europe!

Rome

marts_and_ange — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:09:00 GMT

Rome deserves a story to itself as it was one of our favourite cities in all of Europe! It's just amazing, this place has so much history. Everywhere you go there is evidence of ruins or a beautiful monument. Our hotel was in a fantastic spot, just around the corner from the Colosseum and the Roman Forum! As we were feeling a little plump after spending a few weeks eating 3 course lunches and dinners, we decided to tour Rome on foot! Everyday we set off for a couple of hours and explored a different corner of the city. This was a fantastic way to do it and by the end of our 4 days we really felt like we knew Rome so well! We walked along the river from Piazza Venezia to Piazza de Popolo. We wished at the Fontana di Trevi and climbed the Spanish steps. We poked our heads inside Antico Caffe Greco (the oldest bar in Rome), window shopped along Via Condotti (with the likes of Prada, Gucci, Dolce e Gabbana & Bulgari), strolled within the walls of Piazza Navona and admired Il Pantheon, which is said to be the greatest achievement of Roman architecture of it's time.

No visit to Rome is complete of course without a visit to Vatican City and San Pietro is really something else. Never before have we seen a church (well I guess it's a Cathedral) so massive and so decorated inside! But underneath it's beauty, you can't help thinking about the message that the church really is sending. How can they spend so much money on a place of worship when so many millions of people are dying and starving to death around the world? One can't help thinking that helping others should be where the money of the church goes, not to building places like this. Nonetheless, it is a very beautiful place and it is also home to La Pieta, one of the most beautiful statues ever made. It really depicts emotion and feeling, which must be incredibly difficult to do with marble. It's quite hard to explain. Many say this is one of Michelangelo's finest works. The cupola of San Pietro is also one of Michelangelo's many achievements and we climbed the massive dome for a fantastic 360 degree view over Rome!

However, perhaps the most beautiful part of Rome and the place we spent a lot of time is Trastevere. It is the oldest part of the city and it has lovely little laneways, washing hanging between colourful buildings and is home to some lovely bars and restaurants. Here we found a bar that we ended up frequenting every night for the rest of our stay in Rome! It was called Antico Caffe del Moro and it is the second oldest bar in Rome. We made friends with the 3 guys who owned the bar. Luigi was the chef (and he put on a fantastic sushi buffet every night that was free I might add when you drank there). Sandro was the cocktail maker and barista and when you taste a drink made by someone like that, you realise that cocktail making really is a fine art. Gian-Luca was the manager I suppose, but all 3 owned it together. Over our 3 nights that we spent there we became quite the locals and our Italian improved dramatically! Apart from befriending the people that owned the bar, there were a number of fun customers along the way, including the "Elton John"-like restraunteur and maitre d', Jim and John from New York and a group of English lawyers who we later referred to as "tab and cab", but we'll let you try and work that one out! Marts even managed to persuade someone to give her a scooter ride around the laneways of Trastevere one night!

So as you can see Rome was packed full of sights, fun and people and we were sorry to leave this beautiful city! We shall return that is for sure! But from Rome we flew to Spain so stay tuned for tales of tapas, flamenco and sangria!

Sailing in Croatia

marts_and_ange — Mon, 5 Nov 2007 19:57:00 GMT

We arrived in beautiful Dubrovnik after our brief stoppover in Stuttgart (good pretzels and schnitzel and a high proportion of he-shes) and were rapt to feel the warm evening air. Our apartment was gorgeous, overlooking the sea with a balcony to boot. Our hosts were lovely, especially the mother who couldn't speak a word of English but we got by with smiles and the thumbs up. Excited by the warm air, we went straight from our apartment to the nearest cocktail bar to sample the "Dubrovnik" which was a lethal mix of local grappas, quelle introduction!! The place was empty, the streets lined with tables and chairs spilling out from the restaurants but all empty like a ghost town, we vowed to return in high season to see the place rocking...

We had done some practical shopping in Stuttgart and purchased some speedos, goggles and caps so that we could get some exercise and what better place to try out our sexy new swimmers than on the Dalmatian coast... complete with our all-but private beach! We even spotted a Dalmatian damatian, not bad!!

We were accosted by a cruise vendor and lacking better options, jumped aboard our "Kate" bound for 3 islands off the coast of Dubrovnik.... our cruise promised a chef, captain, fish picnic and unlimited drinks (including softdrink and home-made Croatian wine and brandy), what more could we ask for? Well the chef, captain and producer of the wine and brandy were all packaged neatly together as Marco, our ruddy-nosed tour guide (who by the end of the trip was too sloshed to man the boat!). The weather was abysmal, needless to say we donned the speedos at the first port and swam some laps, warming ourselves later with some Marco specials. Ange tried to steer us home but to no avail as the brandy and fanta had taken over so a poor unassuming German woman took the helm and steered us into port under the drunken Captain's directions.

The rest of our time in Dubrovnik was spent exploring the beautiful old walled city, eating some fantastic seafood, the highlight of which was Adriatic squid at Dondo Maroje, the owner of which told us some harrowing tales of the war.

We set sail on our ferry toward the island of Hvar where we were promised (thank you not very much Lonely Planet) AMAZING nightlife... again the tourist season was over but we found our own fun, naturally! We spent some time fishing with some local fishermen, exploring islands and drinking in local restaurants with hospitable Dalmatians.

Marts' brother met us in Hvar which was a blast, he amused us with tales of his European adventures... we all hit the town after being kicked out of our hotel for our raucous laughter. We fortutiously met up with some Englishmen who were over in Croatia for a regatta. The next day we all went sailing on their 50ft racing yacht around the islands of Hvar enjoying the wonderful cuisine of our resident chef Niels and the flowing jokes of the rest of the crew. We carried on well into the evening and made ourselves some great friends. The next day we farewelled Marts' brother who we were to rendezvous with in Italy, and carried on with our new friends to Split.

We sailed to another perfect Dalmatian island for lunch (thanks Niels). Ange was hoisted up the mast on a harness and then out on the jib, over the ocean for much of the trip while Marts nursed her hangover on the sail bags! We farewelled our new found friends and boarded our ferry destined for Italy where our next adventure was waiting to begin...

Bella Italia

marts_and_ange — Mon, 5 Nov 2007 19:46:00 GMT

After a very rough overnight ferry trip from Croatia, we arrived safely in Italy! My Mum and her partner (Robert) are living in Florence for 4 months so Ange and I went straight there for some family TLC, a place we called home for about 2.5 weeks! The villa that they are living in is just gorgeous! A typical Tuscan farmhouse, surrounded by olive groves, with wild deer, pheasants and cinghiali (boar). They are on a hill with a beautiful view over the Southern end of Florence from the terrace. And although it is only about 7km from the centre of Florence, it is so peaceful, with the closest houses about 200 m or more away! Ange and I had our own room and our own area of the house, complete with a bathroom and a study which proved very useful as while we were there I found out that I passed my PhD! So I spent quite a few hours in the study preparing my thesis for its long distance final submission!

We spent 5 days relaxing in Florence, visiting markets, churces, cathedrals, nearby Tuscan villages and of course sampling the many culinary delights at various osterias, trattorias, ristorantes and pasticcerias! Italy is certainly a place of indulgence! Every region has its own typical dishes, that you just have to try! Torta della Nonna was one of our favourites from Florence, which is a custard and almond-type tart! Ribolita, a "re-boiled" vegetable soup was another favourite, especially when it was cold and rainy. Unfortunately we did strike some bad weather here, we even saw snow on our way to the Le Cinque Terre! Pisa was a washout, but we dealt with it by having a long lunch (so hard) followed by a fly-by visit to the leaning tower. From there we headed to Cinque Terre (this time there were 3 of us as Mum was able to come on a mini-holiday for a few days)! We stayed in Vernazza for one night, the most beautiful of the 5 fishing villages! We also stayed in Riomaggiore (the first of the 5 towns). There is a 9km walk that stretches from Riomaggiore through all of the 5 villages. Unfortunately it rained for the first 2 days so we couldn't walk the whole trail, but on our last day, the skys were blue as blue and the sun was shining so Ange and I set off on the trail and finished it in the record rime of 4 hours! We even had enough time to have lunch and take a boat back before taking our train to Lucca to meet up with Robert (and Mum who had left Cinque Terre earlier that morning). Just before we caught our train we randomly ran into Kate and Stevo (2 friends from Melbourne)! That was crazy! They'd just arrived and they were staying in Italy for a week so we organised to meet them in Venice and spend the weekend together!

Lucca was another beautiful walled Tuscan town. And it's the perfect place for sightseeing as it's so easy to go everywhere on foot. It was fantastic visiting all these places with Robert too, our own private art historian! After Lucca we all returned to Florence to recover from our holiday within our holiday (tough lives we're leading). Mum spoilt us with delicious cooking and we basically just vegged out for another 5 days with the odd trip into town to visit a museum or shop at a market! My brother joined us in Florence for the last few days of our stay so we had a great big extended family dinner! Then Nick, Ange and I headed to Venice for the weekend to meet up with Kate and Stevo! Venice is one of the most beautiful cities in the world! We all went for a gondola ride and even managed to get the gondola man to serenade us while we sipped on Italian red wine (out of gelati cups I'm afraid) and passed under the Rialto Bridge at sunset! Venice was teeming with tourists (mostly Italian ones though which was refreshing) as it was a long weekend. We got lost numerous times wandering the little side streets. A lot of laughs were had... dancing in the street with strangers, singing in piazzas, eating at probably the worst place in Venice (how on Earth does one end up at an "Italian restaurant" that is run by Asian people)? Let's just say that the kitchen consisted of 3 microwaves and Stevo couldn't work out whether his "tomato sauce" on his gnocchi was Watties or Heinz!

We returned briefly to Florence for 1 night after Venice to farewell Mum, Robert and Nick which was a bit sad. We're now flying solo for the rest of the trip! But we arrived in beautiful Rome this morning, with a whole new set of adventures ahead of us! Our hotel is just around the corner from the Colosseum which we explored this afternoon! The weather is perfect here too! We'll be in Rome for 3 more days, then we're off to Spain for 3 weeks!

Loire Valley

marts_and_ange — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:19:00 GMT

So the travelling duo packed up and left the old fortress of St Malo and headed for chateaux country in the Loire Valley. We made it into the city of Blois where we had booked a hotel for a couple of nights... the traffic and steep streets were rather chaotic and there were a few (more) near misses to add to the ledger. We were unable to locate our hotel and had done a couple of crazy laps of the city so we decided to eat our picnic down on the Loire River as it looked quite pretty from up on the road. Well as it turned out, our riverscape was in fact good from afar but far from good... the dumping ground of the local homeless and the flight path of millions of tiny spiders who set sail on lengths of their webs and sink their fangs into you if they happen to snag a bit of flesh (we're still carrying the scars). Anyway, we managed to find our hotel after our less than peaceful lunch which left us involuntarily scratching ourselves and shuddering at the thought of those little suckers crawling all over us.

Aside from the spiders, Blois was a gorgeous old city with a huge chateau in the city centre with mainly pedestrianised streets. Our hotel (which we eventually found; never give up on that female intuition) was great... it even gave us enough room for some Marts' gym (did I forget to mention female ingenuity?!) which may have had the downstairs residents wiping the plaster flakes from their heads.

We went to sleep that night with the NZ France WC match on, turning it off after half time, figuring it a foregone conclusion... we were awoken by the crazy, elated French who proved our assumption wrong (but I guess they got their come-uppence in the end!).

The following day, two semi-well rested girls set off in search of the bike hire shop with the very ambitious aim of riding 60km through the Loire Valley and visiting the numerous chateaux along the way... the bike man was also optimistic telling us that it should only take us about 5 hours and that the terrain was completely flat so we would be fine. All I can say is thank god for the wrong turn we took which reduced our trip to a mere 40km. We only ended up vising one chateau, Chambord, the most distinguishing feature of which was the double-helix staircase in the centre which was believed to have been designed by da Vinci. We were so lucky with the weather, it was a perfect day with very little wind such that we were even able to dodge most of the flying spiders as we rode along! The leaves were all turning on the grapevines and trees and it was just gorgeous on the bike paths, which were were able to utilise for most of the trip, needing only to share with the cars through the villages... We even saw real life hunters (dressed up like Prince Charles) with hapless hares swinging from their belts, rifles slung over their shoulders and beagles, ever sniffing! I think Marts thought the pair of us would soon be swinging from the belt of one hunter as Ange skidded to a halt and excuse-moi'ed him before snapping away on the camera... turned out he knew the meaning of a kodak moment and stuck more than a few poses with his hound before we bid him farewell and continued our pedalling.

As for our bikes... the gears had been removed and set at a particular speed (picture Ange pedalling at twice the speed of Marts) and the seat had been hardened and enlongated to make the most of the cobbled streets (of that we were convinced... such bruising!!!). We did make it home in one piece, somewhat battered and very relieved for our wrong turn.

The next day we made the trek back to Paris where we were to stay out at the airport as our flight to Dubrovnik via Stuttgart was early. Remiss of us not to have estimated the time we would arrive in Paris, ie... to try and avoid peak hour especially as we didn't have a map and relied solely on our whole of France map and signs (and the intuition!). Bloody scarey! Saw a good handfull of accidents and nearly cleaned up a couple of motorcyclists as they zoomed by with a death wish... and they had the nerve to beep us for creeping over into their "lane-between-the-lanes"... hmph!!

And so the story goes, we made it finally and slept in one of those airport hotels which felt like a boat cabin but was comfortable enough despite Ange exclaiming to Marts in the night "Do you think there's bedbugs?", on account of all the scratching from both. No bedbugs, just those Blois spider bites reminding us of the good times...