ITALIA sardinia part UNO (my first caravan in palau!)
FINALLY left for sardenia! we took the train to piombino and then boarded the biggest cruise ship i have even been on. actually, it is the biggest one i have ever seen. the company is moby lines, but since it is partnered with wb, the side of the ship says ‘moby’ but with looney tunes characters all over the place. and all over the inside of the ship. ugh. i liked it fair enough growing up, but it was kinda claustrophobic to turn around and have bugs bunny in your face. don’t ask. just because. anyway, the ride was pretty short-about four and a half hours, so it went by pretty quickly. due to haze, seeing the island and getting into the port of olbia was pretty unimpressive. i guess it also had to do with the fact that we were getting into a port, not a secluded beach. haha. but it was still so exciting as this was what we had been waiting for!
there were a few hours to kill before boarding the bus to palau, so we headed into town and found a really bomb pizza spot. 4 euros a pizza, so of course we ordered three. . .and finished them off! afterwards we had to find a bus back to the station, and were having trouble since the bus we took and were being told to take by locals was bus number nine. too bad none of the stops said bus number nine. we then had to start walking, when we saw a bus number nine driving our way! we flagged it to stop, and it ACTUALLY stopped. . .it was the same driver who had dropped us into town. what a nice guy. turns out everyone we meet will be super nice. . .
we got into palau at midnight, and had to walk to where we were staying. the directions in the book was simple enough, so we were following it when the bus driver who drove us from olbia to palau ( so a different one than the previous driver) drove by and asked us where we were going. he then says, “hop in, i will take you there!!!” our spot was awesome. absolutely awesome. the security guard told us we were gonna be placed in a ‘caravan’-which turned out to be a trailer about 30 metres from the beach! it was a pretty small trailer and were in each other’s way when we were all in it, but this caravan rocked. this thing had a kitchen, toilet, outdoor grill, fridge, patio, and the most comfortable beds we have slept on all trip. the beds were actually converted tables, but simply the best. the showers which were down the path were also the best showers. . .i could’ve stayed for a few weeks!
portable speakers. they are one of the best inventions ever. . . especially when you are traveling and instruments are hard to come by. jonah brought his, and it is so so so good to hear other people’s music!!! i am extremely over mine. the successful day was complete as we played it out on our picnic table and drank a bottle of gin and juice. holla!
ITALIA firenze (dov’e il duomo?)
damn train strikes. alex and i had our tickets and were wondering why the platform number was not showing up on the board, when we found out the train was cancelled. there was nothing we could do, but to wait it out with a night in nice, france. after getting kicked out the the internet cafe, we went back to the station to ask information about other routes outta there. after giving us half ass answers, the people were like,”the airport and bus stations are already closed, and we are closing now.” i do not know why they did not tell us this in the beginning. also, since we got in at night, we were not able to see the waters that everyone was talking about. . .or anything else for that matter. what the fuck. i guess the strike was for trains coming from france into italy, and they happen pretty regularly. so i guess i will be better prepared next time. . .and i will definitely enjoy the beaches when i go back.
in any case, after getting up first thing and getting tickets with like 5 transfers, we finally got into florence to meet alex’s friend jonah. he was understandably more frustrated, as he had booked plans to leave for sardenia. . .and we were two days late. but we made it, and feel kinda settled now. things worked out as they usually do.
there is so much to see here, and i do not think i will get to see everything. . .but there are definitely some spectacular sites! we have seen a lot of duomo’s, but this one is definitely the most impressive. with a white, pink and green marble facade, it is in the middle of the city and you have to walk by it to get anywhere, but it is so beautiful that i love walking by it. . .and then there is the basilica di santa croce, which houses the remains of michelangelo, galileo, and rossini! we got lucky on the day we got in, and watched fireworks go off with the basilica in the backdrop from this piazza!!! there is also the ponte vecchio, which was the only bridge that was not bombed during ww11.
dinner was awesome. jonah took cooking classes here, so we made the best potatoes i have ever had. they are boiled and then baked with olive oil and rosemary. . .mmm. so simple yet perfect. it makes me want to settle here for a bit just to take cooking classes!
SPAIN barcelona (handcuffs for some paella)
on the way to barcelona, we stopped by alex’s mom’s (libby) house which is in a little town by mont de marsan. (which is a couple of hours from bordeaux) it was really cute and relaxing, since it was in the countryside! we were then ready to road trip it over to spain!
barcelona is an awesome city. it reminds me of buenos aires, in that the people and culture is more european influenced than spanish. . .the architecture is grand, and people watching (rattails and mullets) was even grander. a lot of nasty dreads with the side of the head shaved, and hair wraps. . .and mullets.
the architecture of antonì gaudì that we got to check out was amazing! the cathedral, park guell, and sagrada familia were just beautiful pieces. this is definitely a must for anyone that is interested in architecture.
overall, our time in barcelona was pretty relaxing except for a little run in with the spanish police. this happened when we went out for dinner on the strip, and alex and his mom ordered a paella to split. well, the waitress misunderstood and served a big plate of paella which ended up being two portions on one plate. when the bill came and they refused to pay for it, she ended up hysterically denying her mistake, and insisting we pay. after alex went over to the station which was conveniently NEXT DOOR, things did not get much better. the issue was not getting solved, and alex pulled out his camera to take a photo of the guy’s badge number when the popo flipped out and grabbed the camera. when alex tried grabbing it back, there were other popo’s who tried to hold him back. they basically got him around the corner and on the ground, when libby tried to protect alex. so then we had more men holding libby back. . .what a mess. but i bet libby could have taken the whole squad herself. awesome. but then the ultimatum was pay or leave alex handcuffed in jail. . .we paid. . .lame
FRANCE paris (what reservations?)
what an ordeal it was to get tyson to the paris airport before his morning flight! first of all, we got to the wrong station in torino with about ten minutes to spare. . .and then after smashing it to the correct one we had missed the only train we could have taken turns out you needed reservation and we did not have any, so we could not have gotten on the train anyways. and then when we tried making reservations, seats were booked for the next two days! so then we had to head north to geneva, where we surprised his mom who was flying back to the states the next morning. needless to say, she was not happy. he ended up flying to paris and making his flight, but it was definitely n exhausting day of running between stations. you think we would have learned out lesson in interlaken when the ticket guys warned us. . .
so the three of us made our way to paris, and i feel like we got do see a lot of it in a day. alex and tiff had both been there, so we didn’t do a lot of sightseeing. but but we saw the louvre, notre dame, and the eiffel tower lit up at night! this was enough for me, since i will probably be back sometime.
what really surprised me was how big of an international hub paris is. it was also a nice surprise, since we had chinese for lunch, and japanese for dinner. for real. and it was delicious! some variety away from pizza and pasta was just what i needed.
the highlight of paris was actually the starbucks toilet. . .tiff and i found some color contacts at the drug store and decided to try them, but could not get them in since neither of us have contacts. they were only ten euro, so why not? so then we spent the next half hour trying ourselves and on each other before dragging alex in to try it on him. after prying his eye open and forcing ONE in, he was not having any more of it. so then we had to take it out after two minutes. . .but we laughed so hard the whole time that it was definitely worth it!
ITALIA torino (20+ hamburgers…eew)
before getting on the train for torino, we stopped at the milano mcdonalds across the street for our free toilet stop. and then we saw that hamburgers were only .50 euro each! we had already had some earlier, but needed food for the train ride. so we ended up getting 16 more. tiff and i had pretty normal ones but the creations the guys made were ridiculous. alex had stacked four and added sauces like bbq, mayo, hot mustard and ketchup. . .yum. i bet the cabin just reeked too. but atleast we were full.
have you ever woken up and did not know what country you were in? first of all, the night train was awful. for some reason, the air con was on the whole night, so we lay there freezing for a few hours before falling asleep. it was kinda ridiculous since we were laying shivering in our shirts and each of us were too lazy to unload clothes from our bag up above. so finally falling asleep a few hours before getting into town might have contributed to us sleeping past our alarm. in any case, tiff and alex got up to use the bathroom, when they noticed the train had been stopped for a while. . .and that there was NOONE left in our whole car. or the other cars. AND the train was stopped with a bunch of other trains next to it with no platform in sight. don’t they do cabin checks before going to the home station? we could not have been in torino, as the train’s ultimate destination was nice, france. . .so we grabbed our bags and found ourselves walking along the tracks looking for anyone that could tell us where we were. it was not long before we found a rail attendant who told us we were not at a regular station. duh. but good news! we were IN TORINO! what a relief when the guy told us this! he gave us directions to the torino station and we were on our way. we still do not if we ever stopped in nice and the train headed back to tornio (since it was an italian train) but atleast we were still on our way to meet aldo. we ended up getting breakfast from the super, which was cheese, ham, and knacker bread. uh-huh.
in torino, we got to stay with tiff’s friend aldo. . .at his family’s weekend home in the italian countryside! we had to go up a really windy road to get there, but since we were in the alfa romeo, it was no sweat. it was so peaceful up there, and the town down below was so cute as well. we got to hit up awesome places with aldo, as we had the biggest and cheapest servings of gelato and pizza i have ever seen at local spots!
it was cool to go out in the square and then head down to the river, since a lot of bars are along the water and outdoors! the bridge lights illuminating on the river was beautiful, and provided for a really chill atmosphere.
everything had been going pretty smoothly till then, but the next couple of days were exhausting as we soon figured out the importance of reservations and timely planning. . .