SUPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2009
1
10
16
Trip End
Sep 25, 2011
La Spezia, Italian Riviera, Italy
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Wow it has been a long time in between blogs... I just had to re read my previous one to see where I was up to! Sorry about that!
After Oslo we kept working as usual trying to work back the expensive weekend that we had just had! I continued working a Fulham and their results kept getting better and better and they eventually, after a 62 match season, made it to the Europa League Final in Hamburg versus Atheltico Madrid. The shop got incredibly busy with everyone buying merchandise to wear on their travels to Hamburg. So busy in fact that we did over £5000 the Saturday before the game, more than they make during the whole week normally. I didn't know at the time, but this was my last shift with Fulham. It was an exciting game, with Athletico scoring early on in the game and then Fulham scoring just after half time. It went into over time and then the match winning goal was scored by Athletico Madrid.... Heartbreak for all Fulham fans!! It was a good game and while everyone was heartbroken I think it can be agreed that it was an amazing season for them! I did, however get a phone call on the Thursday after saying we won’t need you on Saturday, it won’t be busy. I am not sure whether I will go back to work at Fulham next season, I am leaving it open as I really enjoyed working match days and getting to see the games for free!
Finally! The day had come that I had been waiting for! Time to pick up Liz, Rod and Jo from the airport! After a rush home from work to get changed and get Todd, we are on our way. The weather was unbelievable for their weekend in London. On Saturday we went and visited some of Rod’s old haunts in Brixton and Clapham and spent Saturday afternoon sitting in Clapham Common with a few drinks and getting very burnt in the almost 30 degree heat. The weekend felt like I had had a holiday and it was time to face my last week of work. I had the Tuesday off to pick up Mel, Gail and Dayne. It was so exciting to see them, just to have my girls to talk to again was amazing!
My last week at work went slowly! I guess I just wanted to finish and get travelling. Finally my last day came and it came to leaving speeches. I felt weird for having leaving speeches when I had only been there for 5 months but none the less, my boss was very nice and blamed himself for me leaving as he was constantly tell me to travel. I also got a present off them, it was a "Van Tour Survival Kit" containing many useful things including a clothes line, knife, plastic cups and jug, binoculars, ponchos and a Shewee.... for those of you who do not know, a Shewee is a funnel type mechanism that a woman can use to go to the toilet standing up. Undecided whether it will be used or not. It has quiet a few more items and all are very useful. After a few goodbye drinks I was happy that I was finally unemployed... and finally ready to travel.
On the following Monday, we flew to Pisa to meet up with Liz and Rod in La Spezia. We arrived in the morning and spent the afternoon walking around La Spezia getting to know the beautiful surroundings. In the afternoon Liz and Rod arrived and after they settled in we went to go to dinner. Liz and Rod told me a STORY (you’ll understand the caps later in the paragraph) that Rod’s Uncle and Aunty had been in La Spezia the week before and found this lovely Pizzeria in a little side street near a red statue. So off we went, found the restaurant and sat down to eat. We had been given one English menu which didn’t really make sense and were still catching up on their time in Holland and the waitress annoyingly came over about every 3 minutes to take our order... Lizzy kept on telling her we need more time and we kept chatting/deciding what we want. As I was enjoying the lovely bread they put on the table I get a nudge from Todd and he pointed to the direction of the entry into the restaurant.... and there, was none other than Leisa and Brad. Standing there, actually standing in Italy, in La Spezia, in our restaurant!!! With a mouth full of bread which was half spat out into Todd’s shoulder as that was my first reaction to nuzzle his shoulder thinking this isn’t real. Then of course the tears flowed and my first words were “I can’t believe you got on a plane and came here”. Pretty much the whole night I was just staring at her, thinking that tomorrow morning I will wake up and it was a dream. We spent Tuesday in Cinque Terre, pretty much the most beautiful place on earth. The colourful lego-like houses all joined together on the coastline were beautiful. I can’t imagine living in a place like that, it would be second rate going on holiday anywhere else! The Cinque Terre is made up of 5 villages which stretch over 12 kilometres. Each one with there different characteristics, my favourite had to be Monterosso. It’s main characteristic was its magnificent beaches. Although some of the beach was taken up by banana lounges which were €15 to hire! We thought, no way are we spending that to lay on a lounge. We discovered why they are popular... pebble beach! I had an open blister on the bottom of my foot and physically could not walk on the beach without thongs on.
On Wednesday, we decided to go to Portovenere which is south of La Spezia. I thought Cinque Terre was amazing, this place WAS paradise. It’s beautiful water side was filled with restaurants, little knick-knack filled shops and orange Europeans sunbaking on rocks which led up to a church right up on the cliff face. With a small winding cobble stone pathway with shops selling Gelati and Nutella Crepes. As we were looking for somewhere to have lunch, Brad stumbled across a bar which had a balcony overlooking the amazing streets. We sat up there for a couple of hours, drinking and eating all by ourselves. We all agreed that it was a beautiful afternoon and I didn’t want that day to be over. After we had watched the sun set we decided it was time to head back to La Spezia for our last night there. After our return to our accommodation and a freshen up, we headed to a small cafe for dinner. When we arrived we saw a stage set up in the square and later found out there was an American pop punk band playing. It was very random as La Spezia is quiet a small place and there was only around 100 people came but it seemed everyone enjoyed it. We left soon after they started as we were quiet tired from the long day. We were sooo lucky with the weather, it was 25-30 degrees and sunny everyday.
The next day was time to travel to Rome by train. The train journey is about 4 hours and was quiet pleasant. When we arrived it was very overcast and muggy and we made our way to our hotel (thanks for the wotif.com vouchers family – a hotel was a spoil!) and once checked in we decided to go out for dinner. When we went out it was pouring with rain but by the time we got off the bus in the middle of Rome it had stopped and we spent the night walking through the winding streets of the restaurant district and eventually found a restaurant for dinner.
After a nice sleep we all went into the middle of town and decided that we would do a hop on hop off bus tour as we were only in Rome for a short time. We had a little issue with the person who sold us the tickets for the bus tour. He was dodgy and took us to a place for breakfast and us being stupid tourist went along with it and they ended up charging us €15 per person for breakfast. Not a mistake we will make again. A homeless man also came into the cafe when we were in there, sat right near us and then when we made a quick dash after paying, he followed us towards where the bus is. After he realised we were onto him, he quickly left and went down towards the office in which we bought the tickets. A little dodgy we thought but never the less we got on with our day. We stopped at the Colosseum and walked around the outside and admired the amazing ruins. On we went to the Vatican and did a tour of the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, we didn’t realise the tour would go for 2.5 hours or that the tour guide would speak to us like we were 2 year olds. We left the group as soon as we could and made our own way through the amazing museum. The chapel itself is breathtaking. The walls and roof so full of colour, it’s hard to imagine you are standing in the actual room in which they were painted so many many years ago.
After that, we made our way back to the bus stop and now we had a time restriction as Todd and I had to leave at about 5, we quickly made our way to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is always beautiful, but it particularly sparkles in the sunshine. We tossed our coins over our shoulders into the fountain and headed away from the area as it was very crowded. After a short walk, it was time to go. It is hard enough having to say goodbye to my sisters the first time, the second time sucks just as bad! Somewhere on a random street in Rome, we had to say goodbye again. After a quick hug goodbye we were off... trying to find a train to get back to the hotel to pick up our bags. It felt like this week was a dream. I thought to myself, this was pretty much the most amazing week of my life.
After we eventually made it home at 2:30am on Saturday morning, we had to sleep on the lounge as our room was occupied. As Mel, Dayne and Gail were staying here, and also Elyse and Lisa who had finished their Contiki tour while we were away, there were already 5 in our room so staying the lounge was ok. Saturday night was even better, we got our bed back and we had 7 sleeping in our room. Quiet an experience.
We spent today packing up our room, ready to start our van tour. We also did a big shop today, buying bulk amounts of rice and pasta to get us by. We are very excited to get going tomorrow and I don’t know whether we are fully prepared or not – I guess we will see when we are on the road.
I will try my hardest to keep everyone updated on our whereabouts and how things are going. We are still missing everyone more and more as the months go on.
Lots of love
Danni and Todd
xxxooo
