I’m not sure where I finished last, I’m writing this without internet so I can’t see what I last wrote. I’ll just wing it.
Avignon was lovely. We went to the old town for a bit of a wonder. It’s lovely there. It reminded me a lot of Mallorca, Spain. We saw where the Pope lived back in the day and had a walk around the park. The walls of the old town where only 4km around but 100,000 people lived inside them. It didn’t seem like that many people could live there. We went to dinner with Bree, Sarah and Kat at a restaurant just inside the front gates. The girls ordered a pina colada and the lady didn’t even know how to make it! She came and asked us if we knew so we just changed the order. We were a little worried as she was the only one working bar and witnessing. We saw the chef walk in from sitting in the restaurant next door. But it was all fine in the end. The food was lovely. I had a steak and the girls had pizza. After dinner we went and sat on the grass with Alan and waited for everyone else to meet us. We had an early-ish night that night as we had another early morning the next day.
Day 7 we made our way to Barcelona. We stopped off at Pont du Gard and took some photos. Some of the guys and grils climbed up and planked on thee top level. Crazy people!
Once in Barcelona we had a driving tour of the city before checking into the hostel. We saw the AMAZING Sagrada Familia the cathedral by Antoni Gaudi. It’s absolutely incredible! Like nothing I’ve ever seen! He started it over 120 years ago and it’s still not finished. They were working on it when we were there. Aapparently it’s being built by donation. The first side we saw was the back, the oldest side built when Gaudi was alive. The entrance in build in a newer, modern architectural design. It’s just as amazing but very different. I love the driving tours because we get to see things we might not go back to the next day and it gives us an idea of how big the city is. Once we checked in we got dressed up and went for dinner at a restaurant. Most of the girls were in heals so we all got sore feet from the long walk! After dinner we went to a bar while we waited for the flamenco show to begin. The show was fantastic! The music was great and the dancers were so talented! Very passionate. We went to another bar across the square after the show and had a little dance. At 12.30am we went back to the flamenco place where the club had opened downstairs and had a little boogie. The music was better in the first bar but it was still goof fun. After a while a few of us went up stairs where they were playing 80’s music. A group of us walked home at 2am. I walked barefoot because my feet were so sore!
We slept in the next morning and missed breakfast and a walking tour. Kat and I got up at about 11am and had maccas for lunch, healthy I know. Kat got some retail therapy at H&M before we caught the bus up to Parc Guell. It was amazing! It was designed by Gaudi. We were there for hours looking around. There was so much to see! I was thinking about Mum and Dad a lot as I think they would have loved it there. We took so many photos! I’ll put them up soon. After we thought we’d seen as much as we could we got an ice cream and headed back on the bus. We then caught the metro to the beach. It was lovely to walk along but the weather had turned by that stage so we didn’t go in the water. We came across a few people from our tour so we sat with them while they ate an early dinner. We all caught the mreto back together. That night Kat, Sarah, Bree, Cheryl and I went for tapas at a restaurant across from our hostel. Our waitress was the rudest person I’ve ever beeen served by. She was horrible! We all wanted to punch her in the face! She had such an attitude! The food was ok but overall it was a pretty bad experience.
Day 8 we headed for the French Riviera. We stopped for a tour of a perfumery on the way. It was nice but very expensive even though it was at factory prices. That night we went for dinner then to a bar. It was pretty cool in the bar. There was a band on and we got the dance in thhe tables. Lots of fun! It got so hot in there and very busy! We left at about 12.30am.
The next day we got up early and went t breakfast before catching the train to Cannes for the film festival. It was so lovely there. Very posh. We walked along the marina and dreamed about being rich and famous one day. The boats were amazing! Most were bigger than houses and all had staff working on them! Sooo nice. We had a walk along the beach and I put my feet in. it was nice to have sand between my toes again! It had been too long. After lunch we walked up to the castle but it was closed for the festival. We took some photos of the view before heading back and walking down the high street. It was all very posh but it was great to see. It was such a nice day too. We got back around 3ish and got dressed up to go to Monaco. On the way we drove past some of the most amazing views so we stopped for a photo op. in Monaco we saw where they’re setting up for the Grand Prix and drove along some of the track. We went into the casino and some people had a little gamble. It was so lush inside! Very quiet though surprisingly. Everyone was on their best behaviour. It cost 10 euro to get in which wasn’t really worth it but it was good to see. Now I can say I went into the casino in Monte Carlo. We took some photos with the shiny cars parked out the front and dreamed of own one of those one day too. Some people just have too much money. You have to apply to the head of Monaco to be able to live there as it’s tax free. It’s really hard to get the green light and costs an absolute fortune to live there. They are very picky of who they let in, even Michal Jackson got denied.
We went to another casino after the grand casino and watched a few people play crabs. I didn’t get any of the games so we just watched.
Day 10 we make our way to Venice stopping off in Verona for a rub of a booby. We walked through the streets to Juliet’s balcony and took a photo of us rubbing Juliet’s right breast for luck in love. That night we stayed in cabins at a campsite. They are the best stops because we have a on site chef who cooks us amazing home cooked meals. We had an anti pasto platter with a tomato and mozzarella salad for starters and pasta for mains. They even had gluten free pasta for me! It was delicious! Oh and wine with it too! Two bottles of white and one red were on the tables too. We had a few more drinks after dinner before they kicked us out then we went to get ready for the toga party! We all got a white sheet each and made them into togas before hitting the bar for some more drinking and dancing. It was a great night. Its amazing how one sheet can look so different on everyone. There were lots off different designs and some even came off! One of the guys, Drew, got so drunk and was dared 20 euro to take his off and run around the tables outside the bar where a group of us were sitting. It was hilarious! You couldn’t help but look. Only a quick glance though, there wasn’t much to see. Hehe The night went on from there. One of the girls stuck herself to Alan all night. She was so drunk but it was so embarrassing to watch. She literaly did not leave his side. It was strange. He kept running away but she was always there two seconds later. It was a fun night and everyone felt quite ‘tired’the next day. Most people went to bed early but Kat and I and a few others were up till 3.30am and some were up even later! I didn’t want to go to bed but we were getting up early the next morning so we needed to sleep.
Day 11 we reluctantly got up and we at breakfast early! Could have had another 20 mins sleep but oh well. We had a bus take us into Venice where Alan took us to the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s square. We went to a local glass factory where we saw a man ‘blow a horse’ as Alan put it. It was amazing! He took a glowing red ball of glass out of an oven and started shaping it into a horse. It was incredible. Once he was done he set it on the table and it looked like the Ferrari horse. Then the man who was telling us about it took a piece of paper and put it against the horse and it lit on fire. It was still so hot even though it looks almost clear. It was done in about 2 mins. We had a look around the shop and some people brought some crystal necelaces and earrings. I was tempted because it was beautiful and sparkling but I resisted. Some of the glass things on sale were so ridiculously expensive. I never knew glass could sot so much! A lot of it was stunning though. Once we were done there we all hopped on gondolas and had a ride around the canals. Venice is so beautiful! We tried to get our gondolier to sing for us but he wouldn’t. I had Kat, PJ, Ryan, Mike and Glev in my gondola. It was great to see the canals like that. We even went out into the Grand Canal and saw a fire boat go passed. It was strange to see but that’s how they’d do it. Theres not cars allowed in that centre of Venice so if there’s an emergency or you want to get somewhere without walking you have to go on the water. After the gondola ride a group of us went to lunch at a local restaurant. Everyone had pizza except me. There was nothing I could eat that wasn’t about 15 euros or more so I had a bowl of chips which were 6.50. They were like maccas fries. Pretty disappointing. One of the girls, Christina, is also gluten intolerant but she only just found out so she still eats it sometimes. She gave me the rest of her toppings when she was done and I got some off one the others pizzas too. So I didn’t miss out totally. Most of the group went home after that but Kat, PJ, Ryan and I stayed together and ‘got lost’ in the streets. We went up the bell tower and took some photos of the view. It was lovely to see the rest of Venice like that. It’s so beautiful and like no where else I’ve seen. We had some gelato while we were walking the streets looking at masks. I was looking at a basket of them and one dropped on the ground, not even out of my hand and they picked it up and made me may for it. I was like whatever I don’t care, it wasn’t very expensive. I brought a few anyway but now I don’t know how I’m going to get them home without breaking them. I’ll find a way I’m sure. As we were starting to make our way to catch the water taxi back to meet our transfer bus we came across a pub so we had a sit in there and used the wifi. Then we tried to navigate our way back through the streets to get to the grand canal. It proved to be a tad difficult and we were stressing because we only had an our to make the transfer bus. We finally found our way and got on the vaparato to take us back to the car park. However we were running out of time quickly and it was going to take us 40 mins to get back when we only had 20. So we decided to get off half way and walk back. We thought there was one straight road pretty much all the way from the stop to the car park but we were very wrong, well the map was anyway. The street are everything but direct so the amazing race was on. We started running the moment we got off the boat and kept an eye out for the signs because the map wasn’t helping at all. We had 10 mins to get from the boat to the bus and we made it with 2 to spare! We were all so tired and sweaty by the time we got back. But we made it so that was the main thing. When we got back we showered and had another amazing dinner cooked by our onsite chefs. Then we were meant to go and learn to line dance but hardly anyone came so there was just 6 of us in the end. It was fun though. We went to bed by 11ish because we had to get up early to go to Pisa and Florence.
We saw the leaning tower of Pisa and look lots of cheesy photos of course! It was so surreal being there! At one stage I looked up and I thought, wow I'm actually standing at the bottom of the tower! It was a pretty cool moment. I never knew there was a cathedral next to it though. Most people didn't but it makes sense seeing it's actually a bell tower so of course there would be a cathedral next to it. Once we'd taken our photos we headed back to the car park and had a nice picnic lunch prepared by our chef in Venice. It was a cold pasta salad with fonzies, an apple and a juice box. (btw fonzies are like twisties but not as good).
It was such a lovely day too, the sun was shinning and there was hardly any wind. Bad for sunburn but it is good to see the sun out!
Now we are in Florence. When we got here our rooms weren't ready so we went on a walking tour first. The Italian maffia don't international tour guide so we had a local lady take us through the town. She was lovely and pretty funny too. Once the tour was over we went to a local leather shop where we were taught how to tell the difference between real and fake leather. There are so many tricks that shop keeper use but apparently even pretending to light with flame is nonsense because leather will burn if you hold it there.
We're back at the hostel now and I'm about to have a shower to freshen up before dinner. It's Aiva the drivers birthday today so we're having a party for him. Alan printed off an A4 size photo of Aiva for us so we have to wear it to dinner. I made mine into a mask. Aiva doesn't know so it will be pretty funny.
So glad I'm up to date now. Hopefully there's not too many mistakes as again I have't proof read. Sorry! Not enough time for that!
Lots of love xox
