Libby's Life of Leisure!

Party at Amy & Mandy's

2006-10-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

Drinks at mine!

2006-09-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

The holiday comes to an end :(

2006-09-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

Murano Island
St Marc's Square

The view from my hotel window

My hotel!
St Marc's Square

Bongiorno a tutti xx

I'm in Venice. I nearly died when I hopped off the train & saw the platforms surrounded by water.
Guess who gets boat-sick?! So no gondola ride.
I was lucky to find my hotel was right infront of where the boat dropped me off. I was unlucky to realise this after I had walked 20min away from the hotel & then back again. Venice is so expensive so I am quite happy to be leaving today for Paris. I went to Murano to see the glass factories & galleries but they were not blowing glass for the public on Wednesdays. I couldn't be bothered returning back there today because it was nearly an hour boat ride & I'll get sea sick. I think it may actually be cheaper to buy artistic glass in Melbourne because the euro conversion is terrible & there is no shipping & insurance costs.

The final day of my holiday has arrived. I've thrown out heaps of stuff like my towel, bed sheet, toilletries, some shoes, clothes & underwear I never want to see again! & believe it or not, my backpack is half empty & the day pack on the front is empty. What's going on? So I took the bedsheet out of the bin &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; re-packed it!

Bye everybody & see you back in Australia. Ciao xo

Sight-seeing in Milan

2006-09-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

il magnifico Duomo
I'll have to tell you what these 2 photos are later. I've forgotten!

The view from Piazza il Duomo
Inside the walls of Castello Sforza

The dried up moat
Wearing a less offensive skirt!

The entrance of Castle Sforza
The Hari Krishna float
Il Duomo

Inside the Duomo
even the floor was magnificent!

Antique hand block collection
hand block up close
The finished product on fabric.

Entrance to the most fantastic 'shopping mall' building. The picure above it is the inside

Lady offended by my legs!

2006-09-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Whilst enjoying my last day in Milan, a lady approached me on the footpath & gave me an angry scolding in Italian, then walked off. I didn't know exactly what she said to me but I heard the words gambe & stamattina (legs & morning) & with her tone of voice I gathered she was telling me off for showing so much leg so early in the morning (it was 10:30am). Later that afternoon 2 italian boys approached me showing major concern that the front of my dress was being messed up by my shopping bags. This dress will not be worn again!

Kimi Raikkonen's Boat

2006-09-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today I did a day trip to Portofino. You may remember this village from past episodes of Bold & the Beautiful! It's on the Ligurian coast just near the Cinque Terre & I really wanted to stop there back in July but never had the time. From the train station I had to catch a bus (or boat) to get there - you know a town is pretty exclusive when it's off the train line! Boy what a village! The boats! And the boats!! I was looking at this giant yacht thinking 'hey that looks like Kimi Raikkonen's boat from the Monaco GP' & then I read the name "One more toy" & it was his boat!! Unbelievable! I asked the deck staff on board if he was likely to come outside & they said no.

Monza Gran Premio!!

2006-09-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

Driver's parade before the race. The truck was driving so fast it was nearly impossible to get this photo - that is why it is so crap - but you can see some big-guns in there.

Flying!
Go McLaren!

Alonso waving to the crowd.
Kimi.... we love you!!

And the winner is.....
Storming the track after the race!

I can't show you any more photos of the winners podium etc because I was clicking so madly the camera overheated and broke. - Don't worry, it's fixed now. It just needed to cool down & rest.

What a fantastic weekend! A storm was predicted for the race weekend and both days were perfect and sunny. It couldn't have been any better... well it could of if Raikkonen won the GP! I was sitting on the lateral parabola. The cars would fly past me then jump on the brakes for the curve. I think I have whiplash from turning my head so fast. All you could see was a flash of colour and when you could actually see the car, you knew they were losing serious time. I got to see some great overtaking and afew wheels touching and some real sprints to reach the corner first. Brilliant!! The TV screen and english/italian commentary was opposite me.

At the end of the race we all jumped the fence and ran onto the track upto the start-finish line so that we could see the winners podium. I got there just as the champagne was spraying but then it was all over. The next big problem was how to climb back over the fence because it was triple the height now and I had on a little skirt and sandles. I managed! It involved me and 30,000 people all trying to squeeze through a small hole in the chicken wire and it took about an hour.

I want to give a big shout-out to Trenitalia!! You've out done yourself - Milan should be proud! The city has hosted a world-wide event and the train company scheduled trains to Monza 2.5hrs apart on friday, 1.5hrs apart on saturday & more than 45min apart on sunday race day. And the bus system on paper looked to be more frequent but turned out to be even longer. Well done Milan!

I managed to fit in some sightseeing in the late afternoons. The duomo is the most magnificent building and I went there daily. I went to a shop that made hand blocked fabric & wall paper. They had a museum that boasted the worlds largest collection of printing blocks as old as 16th century and the recent prints seen on nearly every bedspread in any hotel/motel I've been in!

Today I went to a Sforza Castle. The moat around the outer & inner perimeters of the walls has dried up and has grass in it. I was too late for a tour of the museums but it was enough to just walk through the premises. The Hari Krishna's had a huge float that was being pulled by people & they dragged it all through the city (slowly) for what seemed like hours. I was wandering around sightseeing & every corner I turned, the float (& the singing) was there!

I think tomorrow I will do a small day trip somewhere. It all hangs in the balance of how early I wake up.

The photos the computer doesn't want you to see...

2006-09-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

What are Dinosaur Designs doing in the National Archeological Museum of Rome??
For some reason, I cannot load some of the photos onto certain pages. I can't explain. So I'll throw random photos on here.

Greetings from the Italian Grand Prix

2006-09-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

Where the hell am I?
This is where the bus dropped me off for the GP. Don't know where I'm supposed to go now! I followed the noise behind the trees in the far distance.
Alonso
Schumi. Raikk's was just too quick. I could never get a photo of his car.

Today is Monza!

I caught the train to Milan, dumped my bags & went straight to the autodrome in Monza. It was the most insanely difficult exercise getting to the track. The city of Milan didn't bother throwing in any extra trains to Monza or direct buses to the track on Friday. By the time I waited an hour for each connecting transport I arrived at the very end of the 2nd (and final) practice session for the F1 cars. My Friday ticket gave me access to all the grandstands & I checked out my seat for tomorrow's action & it is a very good spot indeed - up high & right infront of the giant TV.

Bike riding in Viareggio

2006-09-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

Last time at the beach (in europe)
Party at Virgy's!

The most delicious cake EVER!

Elisa & I went bike riding around Viareggio today. I loved the bike but I found it difficult to keep right & turn corners whilst staying on the correct side. Wearing no helmet didn't fill me with confidence! We met Elisa's mum on the beach & I surprised myself by falling asleep on the sand. When I woke up, Elisa's dad was there instead!

Virginia was throwing a party at her house that night. Coincidently, Viareggio was celebrating another festival with huge bonfires from pine trees & fireworks which we could see from the terrace. Now it's 4 fantastic dinners in 3 days! Virgy has an open fireplace style BBQ on the terrace and the flavour it gave to the meat was brilliant! Virginia can throw a great party!

Home Cooked Dinner!

2006-09-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

On the pier at Fort dei Marmi
A common site - blocks of marble - everywhere!
The beautiful village of Pietrosanta
The first floor of the restaurant we had lunch in used to be a prison. They have left the walls untouched to show the drawings of the prisoners back in the day. This guy was obviously no Picasso!

prisoner drawings on the wall as early as 1868.

an unusual sculpture in the middle of the piazza
Bellino!!
Virginia & friend.
The beautiful church of Pietrosanta
Elisa's parents

All the villages surrounding Viareggio are 10min away. Virginia took me to Forte dei Marmi (Fort of Marble). It is a beautiful village populated in summer by the rich & famous. Many talented marble sculptors live here. Virgy told me that back in the day, MichaelAngelo would go into these hills to choose his piece of marble to sculpt from. A suprising fact: Cararra is only 10min away!

There was a great market on today. It had your better than average stock to what is normally sold at a market. I was shocked to see Miss Sixty jeans for €30! I almost thought that a department store had been robbed & the market was a garage sale. The quality of the leather & fur on sale was amazing. I only shopped at the €2 shop!

Elisa's parents invited me over for dinner at their house. Mmmm..... home cooking! Elisa's mum made the nicest risotto, roast beef, potatoes & peppers, mushrooms & bruscetta. I was in food-heaven! That is 3 brilliant meals in 2 days - for lunch, Virginia had taken me to her friend's restaurant for traditional Tuscan cuisine. No pasta in site (I keep thinking back to my frozen microwave pasta in Siena - disgraceful).

6th Sept 2006

'Country Party'

2006-09-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Chiara, Virginia, Elisa & me on my first night in Viareggio
Out to dinner at a traditional Tuscan-style trattoria
On the pier at Viareggio

Note the desert table in bottom left of the picture - mmmm!
Francesca, Virgy & me at the 'country party!'
Dinner best dinner ever! - Tuscan style.

Bingo!!
Cheers! Last night at Francesco's (Ios). Candice had made us some mystery shots!
Virginia & Elisa
The view from Francesco's. The postcard photographers come here to take their pictures of the sunset.

I decided to blow off the Amalfi coast & Naples part of my holiday in favour for another week in Tuscany. It was an easy choice really..... risk having my bag snatched by thieves on scooters & stay in a dirty hostel? Or go north to fashionable & picturesque Toscany & stay with my new friends Virginia & Elisa!

Best decision ever!! I stayed with Virginia in Viareggio, a coastal town 10min drive from Lucca. Viareggio has everything: Boats of the rich & famous, beautiful beaches, a promenade lined with fantastic designer shops & boutiques, dozens of public swimming pools located adjacent to the beach, bike trails, gelaterias, bars with free antipasto in the evenings....Great!!!

The girls picked me up from the station & took me out to dinner with their friend Chiara who was just lovely! Virgy told me it is very rare for an Italian person to have an Australian friend so all of her friends were curious to meet me - to see what an Australian girl is like!! The next morning Virginia's younger brother came over as soon as I'd gotten out of bed - to see his sister's Australian friend! It was very nice that people were so interested in meeting me & I was so impressed that everybody knew so much english - and even if they didn't, they would be too polite to say so & continue listening to me! I think that happened alot! Everyone I spoke with was so extremely nice.

I was taken to a 'country party' (aka, la sagra). It was a porcini mushroom festival held in the countryside marking the arrival of the mushroom season. There was an enormous amount of food & it was one of the best meals I've eaten. I played Italian bingo!! It was so much fun. I know the numbers 1-99!

5th Sept 2006

Barcelona has 2 pirate bars opposite eachother!

2006-09-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

More Gaudi....
Smurf-house!
' Sagrada Familia' Gaudi's most famous landmark! It is absolutely amazing - so much detail in every square inch. Every wall is a different style. It's completely crazy, especially the bunches of fruit on the roof-tops!

I fled Barcelona today on the back of my shocking salsa performance last night. Every one of my dance partners dumped me as soon as the song ended.

This morning I was woken to the soothing sounds of a whistle. The Spanish think it's great to take a whistle out on a saturday night because it's very musical. But not at 7am in the morning.

I'm in Rome now & I finally got to see the Raphael exhibition on display at Galleria Borghese. I made the booking when I was here 1 month ago..... I was so cross when I went the first time. I planned my whole day around this gallery, arrived well before it opened, lined up in the queue for ages, got to the desk & was told no ticket if I didn't have a booking. Nowhere in any of the brochures did it say you have to book. So today I felt so sorry for this old man who was lugging his suitcase all the way to the gallery (and we waited 1hr for the bus) only to be turned away at the door.

Wolfmother play Barcelona!

2006-09-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

The beautiful beach at Setges! Lovely!
Tapas bar. The payment method is: at the end of eating, take your toothpicks to the counter & you pay per toothpick! Gotta love that system!
Muchos mojitos!

Crazy cafè
Manuel Gonzalez- the best spanish guitarist in the world!

the 'tree' cafè. And that's a real waterfall! (doesn't photograph very well).
is that a bed in the corner of the cafè? and why is there a woman hovering in the air??

The famous wee on the street! It ran the entire block!

Last night Wolfmother played a support gig for Pearl Jam in Barca. It was so cool seeing the posters around the city and adverts on the ATM. The ATM´s give you the option to buy concert tickets as well as withdraw money! If Pearl Jam weren´t in their 5o´s and totally lame I would´ve gone to the show. Instead, I saw Concerto de Aranjuez played by Manuel Gonzalez inside a grande cathedral. The acoustics were amazing. I had my photo taken with him after the show! His photo on the promo posters was taken about 20yrs ago & he looks nothing like it now!
Today I went to a shoe museum! They had shoes from the 12th, 16th & 17th centuries. The little old man who ran the shop gave us a detailed tour & luckily Jo could translate it to english for us! No photos allowed because they wanted us to buy the shoe poster at the end of the tour. The shoe poster was so awful. I would´ve bought it if it were a little bit funny, but it was just plain awful!

Jo took us on a quirky cafe-bar tour of the city. Some of the bars are completely insane. One had mop tops as seats and oragami figurines all over the walls and windows. One was pitch black with some candle light & had fake trees & leaves everywhere & even a waterfall inside. It was very bizaaro - like something out of alice in wonderland. The toilets had crazy mirrors and trees in there too! At the place where we had lunch, we sat at a table that was already occupied with people & just sat down one at a time every few minutes so they wouldn´t feel like we were taking over the table!? I had the hottest chilli of my life & nearly passed out! my lips were stinging for hours! One thing is certain: this town makes the best mojitos ever! I am bringing the 'special recipe' home with me!

We were walking home the other night (when I say 'we' I mean Joanna, her boyfriend Eddie, her friend from Warnambool Ange, me & whatever other friends of hers are tagging along!). There was this little old lady pushing her little shopping trolley along the street and as I passed her I felt spray on my feet & so did Joanna. We then realised she was doing a massive wee as she walked down the street and it was gushing out like a hose. Gross! It continued all up the street! Yuck! That was probably the only un-choice thing I´ve seen whilst here in Barcelona. It is so amazing here. I´ve seen no dodgy people. No hassels. No drunk & disorderly people at night. Its all very civilised!

Yesterday we all went to Setges which is Barcelona´s prettiest beach. It was an hour train ride but well worth it. The water was amazingly warm, the sand soft, the waves perfect. There were these 2 people giving massage on the beach and all of a sudden a whistle blew and they got up and bolted, halfway through giving the massage. Tonight we are going to a party at a friends house then off to a Spanish Salsa club! I hope I can remember the salsa from my bullring days.

The other day in Valencia was the festival of tomato throwing! It´s this crazy annual event where tonnes of tomatoes get dumped across the village & at 11am to 1pm, people go nuts throwing tomatoes at eachother. But the crazy part is that before the tomatoes can be thrown, someone has to climb the greasy pole & retrieve a giant ham that is bolted to the top of the pole. Makes sense!? I nearly went! Ange was going for 2 days & I so nearly went with her. Believe it or not, the friends she was meeting up with in Valencia were also friends of mine from Melbourne! I couldn´t believe it. It never occurred to me to ask 'who are your friends?' Maybe I´ll bump into them further down the track. It´s my last night in Barca then I´m back in Rome to catch up with the girls I met in Ios. I miss being in Greece - the land of fake Paul Frank merchandise and €20 havaianas (what a rip-off). And the genuine paul frank t-shirts were €85. Thats about $160AUD.
I will post photos next time. I have the CD... i just cant read spanish instructions on how to upload the photos. Anyway, if my salsa dancing is that bad tonight it doesn´t matter coz i´m leaving the country tomorrow!!

Barcelona

2006-08-31T05:08:00.000-07:00

Classic Gaudi mosaic.

Smurf house! Parc Guell.

I am in Barcelona now! My friend Joanna who lived at Whitley College with me now lives right in the heart of the city. It´s great having a nice apartment and the luxury of being able to throw toilet paper in the toilet again. I really missed it! I´ve done a very leisurely tour of Barcelona over the days (because I´m here for so long). My first trip was to the Gaudi casa-museum at Parc Guell. The park was absolutely amazing with tile mosaics & crazy curvey shaped structures everywhere. Everything there was so impressive! I walked back into the city (it was a long walk!) and saw most of the famous buildings designed by Gaudi. They were completely insane. Like out of topsy-turvey land or something. The buildings in the city were completely random. Some were ornamental style dolls houses but with a crazy roof! Mad!

I am pleased to announce that I got to see the Picasso exhibition!! The reason the museum in Antibes was closed for the year was because all of the works were being loaned to the Picasso museum in Barcelona (not Melbourne). So I got to see 2 shows for the price of 1. Bonus! And of course that meant another book! I have since posted (or shipped - not sure what I agreed to as I just nodded to whatever Spanish was being said to me & handed over the money) all of the books back to Oz so I no longer have to lug them around. It was a great day!

The Ugly-Boat Cometh!

2006-08-31T04:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Santorini
Perissa beach - where I was staying. It is small black pebbles on the beach, but once you step into the water you are standing on smooth solid lava.
The famous Santorini sunset
Here I am wearing Roberto Coin!
Just amazing
There is a chance I may have bought this ring! - a small chance.

So I never went back to Ios. Apparently the ugly boat arrived just after I left. I know this because a day later my 2 roomies Simon & Tim & 2 other guys arrived at my Santorini hostel. It was great having the same familiar faces close by. Two nights before I left Ios, I went to bed early & half an hour later, 20 people bust through my door making all sorts of noise. I thought it was friends bringing the party to me because they were sorry I left early, but then I saw Simon being carried in and dumped into bed. He´d broken his foot. It had to happen to someone (I really thought it would be me because the stone steps are really hard to negotiate & if I hadn´t been wearing flat shoes the entire time I definitely would´ve done some damage). It was really quite funny because he´d fallen really far away from our hostel & here was this 6foot giant being carried in by 2 shorties. And the funniest part was that in all the commotion, someone had carried his broken havaiana thong home too! Out of all the things to be worried about, it just seemed mad that someone had bothered. - All over Ios there are single shoes scattered across the footpaths - where people have fallen, and lost their shoe. I can imagine if there was a lost property or something, there´d be a thousand shoes to choose from. So the mission for the next day was to find a matching thong! It was no wonder they´d fled to Santorini now.... it is the place where everyone from Ios goes to recover before leaving Greece!

Santorini has some of the best gold jewellry in the world. Some of the pieces were amazing. I was hanging out at this particular shop where I´d made friends with the girl that works there & for the hours that I´d just sit around chatting they let me wear some of the most breath-taking diamond & precious stone jewellry. And they photographed me with it on! It was great. Every so often I´d put on another elaborate piece ie, diamond mega-bracelet worth €30,000! and matching ring! And I´d just sit their with my glass of wine (or espresso) and enjoy the sunsets (the shop was right on the rocky coastline). I happened to go into another shop where they knew Anastacia (the nice doctor) from RCH neonate dept.

It was really nice being back in Athens again. The hostel I stayed at was really great and in an area I was familiar with from my first visit. There were 2 girls in my room that I´d sat with on the ferry to Santorini so that was a nice suprise. I spent the day at the Archeological Museum which is full of ancient treasures that they found at excavation sites. It was truly amazing (I took lots of photos!)

Finally left Ios

2006-08-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

These are the Italian boys I spoke to for an hour and then at the end they told Virginia & Elisa (my translation team) that they had no idea what I was saying for the past hour & they couldn't understand English!
This guy met a girl named Sarah last night and then went to the tattoo shop. What a dickhead! A group of us were actually gonna get Sarah's name tattooed on our shoulders but a policeman came out of no where & blew a whistle & the tattooist rolled his little sheet-on-the-ground shop up & ran away! Too bad. It looks really good!

Now this is his mate showing us the right way to get a tattoo. Coincidently, it happened to be Mandy's boyfriend! Nice one Mandy!!!
These girls were hysterical! They came to Ios for afew days at the start of the month and then flew home to London. But they loved Ios so much that they came back 2 weeks later to stay for a month & brought their entire wardrobes with them. It was quite exciting to see them come down the stairs every night in their many glamorous outfits! Rumour has it that one the sisters is 15!This little kid was in the clubs every single night selling glow sticks & glow necklaces. It was insane! Every single night - at midnight to sunrise. And the bouncers let him in all of the clubs. I think he's 8. Madness!

I've made it to Santorini! It was a half-hour ferry ride. I spent all day on a beautiful black sand beach in Perissa but I kept wishing I was in Ios. I think I'll go back after I get some rest here.

I think I might live here......

2006-08-22T02:45:00.000-07:00

Me & Amir.
Jager. Evil.
Virginia & Elisa - my Italian posse.
10:30 drinks at Francesco's.
Nice One!

I have extended my stay here yet again! I'm having so much fun. The days are all rolling into one because it's the same thing every day but with different people. Each day I hang out with someone new. The other night when we all got back from clubbing, I shaved this guys beard off! He had been travelling for 3 months and hadn't shaved & at 5 in the morning it seemed like a great idea to take it off! It was quite a group effort, everyone contributed razors, shaving cream, lotion etc. It took me about an hour to clip it with little nail scissors and just as I was cutting the part on his throat, he was like "oh my god! are you drunk?" and I was like "Ummmm.....!!" The Aussies are taking over the hostel. I am in a dorm with 2 Sydney boys & they own so much pink clothing and one even has the same girl-shorts as me, that when the 4th person moved in he thought he was sharing a room with 3 girls!

I am getting to practise my Italian alot because I'm hanging out with 2 Italian girls. It's really good. Tonight is my last night here in Ios and then I'm off to Santorini to dry out for a couple of days. The Italian girls are coming with me! A big group of us are meeting up at the beach today for a 'last day party'.

Oh I forgot to mention, I spotted Millsy on the beach & also Charlie from Lost!!

Ios Update!

2006-08-18T01:37:00.000-07:00

Matching shorts! Me & my room-mate.
My other room-mate!
And here they are keeping the beach safe.
The blonde girl sitting next to me 'appeared' in my dorm one night and sneaks in every night to sleep on the floor. Apparently the place she's meant to be staying at is a filth-hole & she feels safer & cleaner in my room on the floor. Who is this girl??? She just shows up then vanishes!

The girl in the yellow (Valentina) is 17! She's here for 2 weeks it's hilarious!
Every afternoon we'd leave the beach & go to this place for drinks & dancing, 6pm sharp!

Yamas!!

I'm staying in Ios. I've cancelled the next island to stay here as long as possible because it is so much fun! A 2nd Melissa from Cinque Terre is flying over to Ios especially and we will spend the rest of my time in Greece together! Cool!!

Ios party scene better then Melbourne!

2006-08-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

Candice - the loveliest girl ever!

This is a not a girl - yet he had the most fantastic hair ever.

Limbo - on the dancefloor!

The water-melo donkey!

Mylopotas Beach
The view from my bedroom doorstep!

Ios goes off. It's nightlife is way better than Mykonos & I'm sorry to say, better than Melbourne. Everyone here is young, and Australian (with afew Canadians). The locals say it's like a suburb of Melbourne. All the lifesavers, bar staff, club promoters are Aussies who came here to party, and then decided to live here. I'm at this really cool place that has it's own bar, and every night at 10:30 everyone meets there and at 1am we all hit the clubs together. It's so great! There's some guys who I met in Mykonos who are staying at my hostel. It was such a nice suprise because neither of us knew we'd be in Ios.

Yesterday on the beach there was a donkey carrying tubs of whole watermelons and you could buy them and then feed the green bit to the donkey when finished!

More Mykonos

2006-08-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

There are policemen in Mykonos! I saw one car.
It's my last night here on this island & what a great time I've had. It's so easy to just go up to people and talk but really strange because you're in bathers. I've barely had to wash any clothes because you just put your bathers on and hang around in them all day, even in the cafes & restaurants! Tonight I joined strangers at their outdoor dinner table because I wanted to sit outside but there were no tables left. One guy from Milan knew Melbourne Mayor John So & helped design Piazza Italia (near lygon st). He says John So has a cool reputation in Milan!?

Tonight I found the main village centre. It only took me 4 nights! I'm so glad I found it because my impression of Mykonos has changed dramatically now. Originally, I figured it to be similar to how you'd imagine the mountain desert land of Afghanistan to be, with all the rocks! And the occasional little white upside-down ice-cream tub house. But now that I've seen the part with actual civilisation & the glittering lights on the port & water front restaurants, I'm alot more impressed & can see why it's so popular. There are so many jewellery shops. I've just decided to buy nothing now because there is so much range to choose from. I'm so lucky that I only discovered these shops until now. I was standing outside a jewellery shop window ogling an enormous gold necklace masterpiece & the owner/creator came out and told me "40 thousand euro". I went inside! I am so lucky to be leaving tomorrow because the man was going to create a ring for me & needed afew days to make it. In my head I could see the bank taking my house......

Mykonos

2006-08-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

My cousin Cynthia.

Paradise Beach!

Double click on this image to get a closer look at that girls abs. I put my t-shirt on that afternoon..... Actually, I think I left the beach!

I'm staying at Paradise Beach which is the 24hr party-centre of Mykonos! There was a ministry of sound party on my first night & only 2 days earlier felix da housecat played (I'm so bummed out I missed that). I met up with Melissa (from the baggage carousel in Athens - & Cinque Terre) and her friend Janelle. Had an absolute ball. I'd bought a lilo & was floating around on it in the sea. Entertained half the beach trying to get on the lilo...kept slipping off it! I also bumped into my cousin Cynthia from Shepparton. Small world!

Everyone zips around on little motorbikes without helmets. Dunno how no one gets killed. The roads are skinny & the buses often get stuck trying to turn the corners. When I arrived at the port, i was herded across the road and joined a queue of people (who I assumed were waiting for the bus to take us into town). I waited about 10min and then my big group began to board the ferry I had just got off! Then I saw the man holding the big sign for my accommodation. 25 people & luggage were jammed into a 12 seat minibus. During the journey through the hills, the driver was concentrating more on peeling & eating his pistachio nuts. I do not think there are any policemen in Mykonos!

Greece

2006-08-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

One of the Cinque Terre Villages.

Yummy octopus salad! Mmmmm

This isn't Greece. I don't have the CD burnt yet! This is all of us at the Cinque Terre doing the hike! I couldn't fit any more photos on that page.

At the baggage carousel in Athens I bumped into Melissa, a Melbourne girl who walked with us at the Cinque Terre. What are the odds? We caught the train into town & arranged to meet up in Mykonos. Again, what are the odd? (well pretty high actually considering everyone in Athens goes to Mykonos). I was determined not to get a taxi to my hotel because I'd spent enough money to get here full stop. Except I had no map, and no idea where the hotel was. The lady at metro security office caught not have been more helpful (except if she'd driven me). She phoned my hotel and asked them (in Greek) which train station to get off at & what streets it's near. So I was on my way. I got off at my train stop & looked at the wall map (that every bus & train stop has.....and it was all written in Greek alphabet! I knew it started with an A so I searched all the A's and found afew that might have been my street. Then I asked a passer-by to read the names to me & I found it!

I can't believe how swish this place is for such a budget listing. It has a trendy bathroom with glass mosaic tiles & glass basin. The shower has got side jets! There are double doors that open to a big balcony, and of course, my favorite Phillipe Starck chairs! There aircon is brilliant! And here is the down side: you have to throw your toilet paper in the bin, not the toilet. So gross.

It is so easy to get around Athens & figure out (very roughly) which Greek alphabet words correspond to the English equivalent. So long as I don't speak, the locals leave me alone. That is because I look exactly like nearly everyone in Athens. They all assume I'm a local & I get really good service in shops and restaurants possibly because of it, but I think it may just be that everyone is naturally very friendly & extremely helpful. And after just one day in Athens so far, my skin has already gone 3 shades darker. Amazing! Today I climbed the hill (in my dress shoes.... I assumed there would be a sealed road) to the Acropolis. It was amazing. I didn't know that each column consisted of several slabs of marble all sitting ontop of one another (with metal reinforcements of course). At the bottom of the hill I bought a bottle of water for 50cents. At the top, it cost 3.50EU. Of course it did! Why not make it 4EU?

The food here is amazing. Greece is a country where a small is large! and large is large! I got a whole salad bowl full of tomato & cucumber. A large salad bowl... for 1. I also got chopped meat & potatoes. There was so much food. Including bread & large bottle of water, my bill came to 7.50 euro. I nearly died. In France, the salad alone costs that much. At breakfast, I put on my elastic waisted pants and went to town on the buffet! The buffet won. There was too much food & I just couldn't eat them out of house & home like I did at the French places. We're talking skinless frankfurts & bacon, scrambled eggs, real toast in a proper pop-toaster, pastries, fruit, cakes, the works!

I Love Rome!!!

2006-08-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Rome is the most amazing city on earth!! Everything there is just lovely. Everything has been built to look beautiful, for example, an insignificant road between 2 brick walls has carved marble statues encased in the brick walls - purely for the motorists to see. What a nice city! Before I arrived in Rome I hopped off the train at Siena. So many people have raved about it and my travel book says 'absolutely don't miss it!' so I went. Coincidently Anna was at the bus stop when I arrived (I had to bring my bags along with me as there were not bag lockers at the station). We both left the dorm & caught the same train without even knowing it! When the bus dropped us into Siena I did the 20 min walk down the hill to to the tourist information office to find out where to dump my bags. The woman told me that it was at the top of the hill right where the bus dropped me off (It was also about 33degrees).

It was about 10am on Sunday. All the shops were closed. All the museums/churches were closed or opened at 2pm and when we tramped uphill to the Duomo, it had a big canvas cloth covering the front of it with a printed picture of the duomo on the cloth. I had to laugh...but no photo. So we found a place that looked great with a set lunch menu. When lunch arrived, it was a frozen microwave pasta dish.

I'll give you a minute!

I've gone to Italy - to Tuscany - to experience traditional Italian cuisine at a real sit-down restaurant, and I get a frozen microwave dinner. The reason I know this is because they served it in the plastic dish it comes in with abit of the plastic top that you rip off, still on! And half of the tortollini that cooked in the cream sauce had gone back to its original flour and water consistency & the other half that had frozen near the top of the packet was bright yellow and hard like macaroni. And the cream sauce had separated. And then the power in the restaurant went off momentarily. I swear the alarm bells should have been ringing as soon as the waiter put us upstairs where it was like a sauna & the ceiling fans were broken. After lunch, I left Siena. Forget about the church & museums... Siena sucks.

My hostel in Rome was fabulous. It must have huge publicity in Japan because all of my room mates were Japanese & all the signs were in Japanese. The girls there were lovely, I had a great time with them.

Because it was monday, nearly all of the museums were closed. I went to was the Vatican museum. It was one of the best I've ever been to. I also think the Sistine Chapel is overrated because the ceilings in the other rooms were equally impressive, if not more. I spent all day there looking at everything. The coolest bit was in the private apartment quarters where one of the pope's had collected some art for his personal collection - and it had alot of extremely modern art (even some contemporary stuff). I couldn't believe that amongst all the thousands of Jesus & Mary portraits were some brilliant modern art from 2000, 1970's etc. but you won't find pictures of it in any of the Vatican books. I could find absolutely no books on this art collection anywhere. I had that section of the museum completely to myself because it was on the way to the Sistine Chapel & everyone just walked straight past. Next was the Collosseum (pls excuse spelling) & Roman Forum (all the ruins of the ancient city). Camera battery died so was forced to buy another book... heavy!

On Tuesday, I think I saw all the museums in Rome! So sad to leave. I considered blowing off Greece completely to stay in Rome for the month, but I'll be coming back to Rome again next month (when the shops re-open!) and thankfully, it's not on a Monday.

6th August 2006

Sight-seeing in Florence

2006-08-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Picnic in the park with Anna & Sarah (from North Fitzroy)! 2hrs later the security rock up & inform us it is forbidden to be on the grass. Oops!

Anna (the Brazillian girl I'm sharing the dorm with) & I went to quite afew museums/palaces. No photos is typically the norm but I managed to sneak a picture of the ceiling at the Palazzo Pitti (which was the Medici residence). Anna got me entry to the palace at a student price!

Piazzale Michelangelo is at the top of a hill overlooking the river and most of Florence. There is a replica bronze statue of David on the top of the hill. This guy asked me to take a photo of him infront of the statue & for some reason when I took the photo I cut him out of it and just got the statue! He was quite irritated when he saw the picture saying "I could have taken this one myself.... you've chopped me out of it!" & I was just rolling around with laughter!

Today I went to a gallery that had the real statue of David. The line was 3hrs long but I bought my ticket straightaway from another outlet & walked straight in! I was quite amazed to see the before & after restoration photos of some of the paintings. Some paintings had deteriorated & discolored quite badly, and some of the naked people had clothes painted on them in a later century but the gallery staff had restored the paintings to the original condition - nakedness & all!

I wandered for miles today. I think I have walked through every street in Florence. The shops have all closed up for the month (summer vacation) which is typical of France & Italy. The only shops open are the tourist type stalls and market-style outlets. Fur lined coats with huge fur collars and fur-trim are huge this winter. Unfortunately these shops aren't open until September so I haven't been able to go in and look closely at them. Tomorrow Anna & I are off to Rome. It is coincidental that we are going at the same time. I hope we get to meet up and go sight-seeing together. In a few days, I join the masses and jet off to the Greek islands for the rest of August.