hello everyone! i'm writing today from a little port town called plataria in greece. we have just spent the last few days sailing around the island of corfu. this sailing trip was supposed to be the highlight of the tour - we imagined lots of sunshine and laying around on the deck in the sun. oh no, don't expect sunshine in greece in summer olivia!!! the first day we sailed the rain was horizontal, the wind was gale force and the thunder and lightening was shaking me in my boots. i couldn't help but laugh, the last time i went to queensland it rained 52mm in one night and me and Jus woke up floating on our lilos in our tent. and then there was that new years eve in phillip island when we took the ferry to french island and spent the day in the rain. so luckily, i had past experience to draw on and knew that just because something isn't the way you planned doesn't mean you can't have a great time.
we were lucky enough to have been put on a boat with the only guy on our tour who actually had sailing experience and he just did all the work for us! we motored over to corfu because the weather was just insane, but somehow, while people were being sick over the sides of boats and our yachts were lurching right over me and jus curled up and fell asleep!! when we woke up the storm was over, our clothes were almost dried out and the were patches of blue sky!!
We spent the afternoon in port in a tiny little village on corfu that really only had a restaraunt and stray cats. we just hung out and swam and relaxed. we had dinner that night at the restaraunt and the owners came out and taught us geek dancing! then they made us pick up tables in our mouths and dance around!! it sounds weird, but i have photos to prove it! then they put on party anthems 96 and we all had a great night dancing. it rained again during the night, but in the morning there was even more blue sky!
we sailed up the island to the main town of corfu, which is cleverly called 'corfu town'. we went up to the town for dinner that night and got 2 euro souvlakis which are the best things in the whole wide world. they even put chips in them!! then me and jus got some gelato and wandered around the shops. i love the greek islands, they are all different but still similar. we like corfu because unlike mykonos and santorini, it has trees!! it seemed a little more classy too. less of a party island.
this morning we left corfu town and sailed all the way back to plataria. we have spent the afternoon here and will sleep on the yachts again tonight before heading to albania tomorrow!
ok, so backtracking back to florence now....
after our great night taking over the campground in florence, we ventured into the actual city of florence for a walking tour. we had a lovely little old lady as our guide who looked after us very weel. florence is so beautiful, mum you would love it. me, jus and rikki ended up accidently on purpose leaving the walking tour early to go back to some markets we saw to buy handbags. after some impressive bartering rikki and jus came away with lovely leather bags at half price. well, half the original price. we went back and had lunch in a little restaurant we'd seen earlier. after some awesome food and even better gelato we made our way back to the coach to head to roma!!
claudia took us on a walking tour of rome, before she did though she explained that in italy it is illegal to have foreign guides, they only let you have local guides. she told us that she could get arrested for taking us around so if we saw any police looking interested in us we had to break out into 'happy birthday' and then the police would think we were a birthday party instead of a tour group. so off we went through the dirty dirty underground train system and popped up into the heart of rome. we started at the spanish steps, then claudia took us to this church where crazy monks had decorated every room with thousand of human bones. everyone seemed to think this place was great but it creeped me right out and im sure it will give me nightmares for the rest of my life. yuck yuck yuck, i don't even like thinking about it!!
from there we walked up to the trevi fountain, which i was really looking forward to seeing! it was beautiful and of course i threw enough coins in there to guarantee me some love for the rest of my life.
Next up was the pantheon. Claudia was in the middle of giving us some history when she broke into happy birthday, we all joined in as we saw some police eyeing us off suspiciously. as soon as we had finished we dispersed into the crowd very quickly, it was very funny. we had pizza for tea and justine dragged me around to four different gelato shops before we found one that was good enough, and i have to say it was a pretty amazing gelato shop. we wandered up to the piazza navono and saw some awesome street performers and then walked up to the colosseum. by this time it was dark and it was lit up beautifully. we got a big group photo there and then made our way home.
the next day we were up bright and early because we had a date with the pope!! yep, the real pope! we had to line up for about two hours in the vatican, finally got into this hall, saw the pope for long enough to get his blessing and then got out of there. i have to say, i felt quite guilty when we all came out because there were so many people lined up waiting to get in who actuallycared about the pope, and i felt like i had taken up a seat when i really couldnt care less about him!! i felt like i was only there to see him as a novelty thing when there were people who were desperate to be in there! we then went on a tour of the vatican and its museums. i think i would have had a much better time if i hadn't been in so much pain from my poor feet!! i had like 5 blisters on my feet and was dying. it also didnt help that it was about 38 degrees and we had to be covered up from knees to shoulders. but again, listening to the history was fascinating. the vatican is an incredible place, so much history!! the sistine chapel was amazing, but kind of surreal too. i think it was weird because it was crammed full of people but you have to be silent while you are in there so it was bizarre.
after the vatican we had pizza and gelato for lunch again (you can never have enough) and me and jus decided to call it a day. we still had a few more days in rome and my feet were sore and it was hot so we trained back to our campground and spent the afternoon by the pool. its a hard life guys.
that night we had lasange and tiramisu in our top deck kitchen tent. best meal ever!! this was our last night on the tour before they left us and continued up to poland and prague and germany. there was quite a few of us leaving the tour so we all had a big night of volleyball and dancing! me and justine had some good games of doubles pool and won 2 out of three games which i was quite pleased about, but i think i only sank one ball and the rest was jus. but the one ball i remember sinking was really good. had an awesome night dancing and went to bed very very late.
the next morning we got up early but only to wave goodbye to the bus! it was very sad watching everyone go and not being on the bus! but we reckon we've made some pretty good freinds and hopefully will catch up with a few of them back home. The next few days were just relax days, we did our washing, caught up on emails and went back to the colosseum to go inside.
the night we met our new tour group the heavens exploded and there was a massive thunderstorm. it was fabulous. heaps of lightening and huge thunderclaps. it has pretty much rained since then! we made our way over to Greece on the ferry overnight and then got on the yachts which pretty much brings me up to speed.
We are having fun on the new tour, but we are having fun because of what we are doing, not who we are with. On the last tour we could have had a tour of a box factory and we would have fun just because the people were awesome. This new tour just hasn't got the same vibe. So yeah, we are missing the old group heaps! But, I'm still very happy to be here! I threw my neck out sleeping on a bad pillow in Rome, but have been blessed to have a Korean guy on the tour who is a qualified acupuncturist with a major in massage!!! Woo hoo!! So we have all been lining up for treatments from him! Today was had an acupunture session while sailing!! It was great.
Ok, so I am halfway through my trip, loving it! not missing home at all really. until next time! xoxo
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