It has been days since I last blogged but in fairness, I haven’t been anywhere near free wifi which is ridiculous. In this day and age, where EVERYWHERE has free wifi in public places the camp sites we have stayed at charge ridiculous amounts. Sure, 2 euros for 24 hours, but I am not paying 3 euros for an hour or 8 for 24 hours of which I will only use it for a small amount of time. Still, at least I am not as bad as the young ones. They literally shout and carry on when they don’t have free wifi. Even worse, they won’t sit in a restaurant without it. That is sad.
Barcelona was a good day and night out. I am loving just
taking my time pootling around. So my day out in
Barcelona consisted of me wandering off. I went to Sagrada Familia. It was the most amazing and different looking interior that I have ever seen. It was stunning. Guadi who designed bits of it was amazing in his idea of what the interior and exterior of the church should look like. He used a lot of natural things, like tree trunks and leaves and and animals then he created artistic versions of them. It might possibly be my favourite church interior. The outside is a hodge-podge of this and that, but the inside is indescribable.
After visiting the church, I split up from the two girls I
was with and made my way down to La Rambla to check out the sites. It is a long
street. Really long. I can’t believe how long it takes to walk it. Along the
way, I would cut off down side streets to explore those shops. I spent a few
hours hunting down a pair of jean shorts because it is too damn hot here.
In the afternoon I met up with the group and we headed back
to the camp for a rest. My feet have never ached so much as they do while here
walking everywhere.
That night, despite having walked all day, we all got changed on the bus into dressier clothes and went out for a meal. It was a ginormous meal, consisting of 5 tapas starters of mussels, whitebait, prawns, potato, tuna bake things, squid rings - there was a lot of seafood. As well, there was as much Sangria as we could drink. So we drank and drank and drank. Then came the main, by which point, I actually couldn't eat. I had a few mouthfulls of the bolognaise I had ordered, then pushed it around the plate.
From there we headed out to the bar to celebrate on the guys birthdays. We stayed there till about 1.30am then went to a bar called Opium which had a 30 euro door charge but we got in for free thanks to Kesha, our cook, sweet talking the bouncers. It was a fun night. I ended up making out with a complete stranger for most of the time there on the dance floor. He was pretty gorgeous and, Cherie and Stoy, you will be so proud of me, he was as black as the blackest night. Not exactly my type but he knew what he was about and he kissed like a legend. I went back to the camp ground at around 3am. We were back up at 6am, tents down, breakfast, then on the coach. I think I was still a bit drunk when I woke up. 3 hours wasn't enough but I slept on the bus.
From Barcelona we headed back into the France. We stayed in
a camp ground in Antibes and bused into Nice. Before heading into Nice we went
to Fragonards, the perfumery. Sigh. I have been there three times now and I am
no closer to buying their overprice perfume than I was the last time.
Nice is, of course,
stunning, and wouldn’t be a bad place to stay if I had a few million to throw
around on an
In Nice, Katie, Emma and I went for a walk up the hill that
stands looking out over the water. It used to be a look out point with a
castle, and now there is just a bunch of ruins, cafes and look out points.It was a tame walk up the steps but the heat is a killer here and by the time I got to
the top I had soaked my singlet with sweat. It is really difficult in that
respect because the others complain when they get sweaty pits. Boohoo for them.
Not.
At the top of the look out point is the most stunning vistas
of the beaches and city of Nice. There is also a waterfall up there. It helped to relieve some of the heat we were feeling with the mist hitting us. I could hae stood there for hours. The seas were such a rich, inviting blue that
I wished I had brought my togs. On an interesting note, the French don’t really
have the whole togs- undies rule. If you can see the sea, you are wearing togs.
The girls who walked back from the beach to the bus stop in their bikinis got a
few funny looks they said.
Katie, Emma and I also went out for some lunch. We wanted a pizza but when we sat down and tried to order one pizza between the three of us we were told we couldn't stay unless we ordered a second meal. We left. It was so rude. We ended up finding a square where we could sit and eat a much cheaper meal.
That night we went out to Monoco and Monte Carlo Casino. I
lost 10 Euros and that was all I was willing to spend. I am trying to behave
with spending. That is not to say I’m not doing things but that I am not
playing loose with cash. It is only day 12 of 46. I have a long way to go.
The next morning we headed from Nice to Venice. We made a
brief stop at Verona on the way to see Juliet’s balcony and stretch our legs
before we went down Venice to set up camp amidst the hundreds of thousands of
mosquitos.
The next morning we headed out into Venice. Again, I have
been before and I always promised myself that if I ever went back I would go
lose myself in the city streets and canals. So my day consisted of chilling out
in St Marks square with the pigeons, then getting lost, ending up back in St
Marks and doing a sketch, then getting lost again. It was great and I now feel
like I have had a proper time in Venice and no longer need to return there.
I don’t think I have walked this much in a long, long time,
if ever, and I have been doing it every day in sandals as it is just too hot to
wear my tramping boots.
Florence was my next stop. We had a coach drive to Florence, stopping off at Pisa. It was a nice to see the tower again. It was such a scorching hot day that people were sitting in and following the shadow the tower created. We took some great photos and then headed on down to Florence.
That night, some of the group went out to the Space Electronic disco. I have been there and done that and really had no desire to step in there again.
The next day though, we headed into Florence and had a walking tour first up as well as a leather
demonstration. I was excited to be in Florence because I have been holding out for the last three months in buying a decent leather belt when I knew I was going to be in the leather capital. 