Venice & Slovenia: Traveling On a Shoestring.

The last stage in our Tour d’Italia was the unmissable crowd-pleaser, Venice. We stayed in an awesome camping-hostel which even had a pool! This, combined with the absinthe-wielding Dutchmen we met on the first night made it a little difficult to leave the hostel in the mornings, especially with the temperature staying around 35 degrees from 8am to 11pm. However when we did get into Venice, we started to see what all the fuss was about. There’s no denying that Venice is beautiful and unique – the narrow winding little back canals and alleyways are super cute, and it’s easy to duck into a side street and get lost from all the tourists. As with all touristey cities though, it is expensive, and it has kick-started our new regime of money-saving initiatives...

Let us introduce you to our latest money saving initiative, salad-in-a-sack. How to prepare: Buy a lettuce, some mozzarella, tomatoes and olives. Strain the mozzarella and olive liquid into the train toilet. Mix all the ingredients in the sack in which you purchased the lettuce. Eat the salad out of the sack. Healthy, and delicious...

The life-saving pool. Undoubtedly we would have died of sweat without it.

Money saving initiative #2: Watching people riding in a gondola is just as good as riding in a gondola yourself, but cheaper and safer.

Gelato for breakfast, lunch and tea, ge-la-to is for me-ee-ee! Our Achilles Heel when it comes to money-saving.

Masks are a big deal in Venice. In this awesome mask shop the mask maker creates everything from the original clay mold to the decorative paint work. That's him in the mirror there, such a boss.

From Venice we cut a path north-east into Slovenia, a tiny country hidden away between the big boys of Europe. We spent 3 nights in Slovenia, 1 in the capital Ljubljana and 2 in the lovely lakeside town of Bled. We still have no idea how to say hello in Slovenian, let alone “I’m about to miss my train because you are taking too long to scan my groceries, please hurry up lady!” (we ended up missing the train). For a country we had hardly even heard of, we were surprised at how much Slovenia reminded us of home. It was so green with more than 50 percent of the country covered in forest, the lakes and rivers were beautifully clean and clear and the people were incredibly helpful and friendly (with the exception of that supermarket cashier).

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We only spent one night here, but got a fairly good feel for the place. It was thriving with Slovenians (mainly students) drinking and getting merry in the streets to celebrate the end of their exams and the arrival of summer. Like a much classier version of Dunedin!

Caution: Small Slovenian children may run out onto the road and explode at any moment.

KITTY! Felix begged me not to put this one in.

Ahhh, Lake Bled. The loveliest place you ever did see. The perfect place to rest and recover from the exhaustion of travelling for a few days!

Money saving initiative #3: Instead of hiring a boat to row to Bled island for 10euro per hour, swim there yourself. The water's warm and the carp don't bite!

Everyone in Bled loses the plot when they talk about the local speciality - Kremna Rezina. There was one restaurant in Bled where they make all of them fresh each morning and distribute them out to every cafe in the region. Not bad at all, yet we're not sure it beats the good old kiwi custard square!

The Vintgar gorge, near Lake Bled. Clean, green, Slovenian natural beauty at its finest. The water was deceptively cold - compared to Lake Bled which was near swimming pool temperature, this glacier-fed stream was bone-achingly chilly.

You can't spell Slovenia without love ;)

Next time: Getting ruckus with Molly, Ally and Rammstein.

Naples & the Amalfi Coast: Summer is Finally and Definitely Here.

Before arriving in Naples we had been warned multiple times about how dangerous the city was, how crafty and numerous the pickpockets and hoodlums were, so we were on high alert when we arrived into the city on the sweatiest train ride of our lives. Half an hour later, Felix was at the local police station reporting the theft of his wallet. This was obviously rather stressful, but thankfully the police officer we talked to was a bit of a legend, offering us biscuits, seats in his air-conditioned office, and even getting his wife to call Felix twice, just to check that he was managing emotionally. We only stayed one night in Naples, which is a pretty rough and chaotic city, but situated in a very beautiful region.

The backstreets in Naples are all pedestrian, except for the cars and scooters which hoon through them with no regard for the po-po. Also, being the birthplace of pizza, it's pretty damn delicious and cheap.

 A visit to the ruins of Pompeii is essential for anyone visiting the Bay of Naples.The ghostly town with the looming shadow of Vesuvius in the background had a pretty haunting feel about it, and the town was surprisingly huge and filled with easily the best preserved ruins we saw in Italy. They even have body casts of people who were found amidst the ruins caked with ash and debris.

The next 4 nights we spent camping on the Amalfi coast, immediately south of the Bay of Naples. We were clearly the most novice campers at the site, sometimes fellow campers would shake our tent and laugh at how poorly it was pitched, unaware that we were sitting just inside on our deflated air mattress. Aside from that the Amalfi coast is unbelievably beautiful; steep hills and cliffs rising straight up out of the turquoise Mediterranean, dotted with villages, lemon and olive trees, and crazy winding roads, all clinging to the sides of the cliffs. The only tourists there are those crazy enough to hop in one of the buses that speed along the clifftops at alarming speeds, so it's fairly easy to find a quiet spot along the coast.

The stunning town of Positano gives Wellington a run for its money in terms of buildings built on hills!

Big cliffs hanging over blue sea creates huge potential for cliff jumping. Most of the cliffs actually looked decidedly lethal, but we found a few fun-sized ones.

Escaping the tourist crowds is pretty key to really appreciate the beauty of the Amalfi coast. This beach was only accessible by walking track or boat. It was hard to lie on the sand for more than half an hour without turning into a baked potato.

We decided to splurge and go on a day trip to the island of Capri. We had a tour guide explaining the history of the region, while we circled the island and squeezed through the iconic Faraglioni rocks.

Capri was very touristy; the cost of getting to the top of Monte Solaro in a one-seater chairlift was 10euro each.The cost of walking to the top was a mere 10litres of sweat.

On Positano beach we were chatting to a neighbouring sunbather, who harmlessly asked if we wanted a photo together. One thing lead to another and she made us get into the water and was ordering us into lots of different poses and making us (Felix more than Phoebe) feel mildly uncomfortable. At least we got a couple of nice ones from the 20 photos.

In Sorrento we stumbled across a gelato/limoncello factory on their opening night. We got to try so many of their products including walnut and basil varieties of limoncello and at least 10 gelato flavours each. They took us beyond our comfort zone in terms of gelato quantity eaten in one sitting, and we loved it. Phoebe's curiosity for following free-tasting signs finally paid off.

Next time: Heading north to Venezia and across to Slovenia, failing miserably to escape the heat!

Pisa, Florence, Rome: When in Rome, Do Like the Tourists

When we first looked online at how long it would take to get from Chamonix to Pisa, we couldn’t understand why it took 7 hours. We soon found out that the main reason for this was that we had in fact signed up for a scenic train route through the Swiss alps, including far too many changeovers. Our time in Switzerland was brief (but not brief enough), the lunch was adequate, the views were slightly above average, and we will not be returning.

Pisa is a pretty cute town. The friendly locals, tasty foods, and general feel of the old centre were easily the highlights – the main attraction was also pretty impressive, but quite frankly it seemed to have some serious structural flaws.

 This man you see here, he KNOWS how to make a pizza.

There she is. Isn't she intriguing. The amount of people you can see along the bottom, posing in such a way that it makes it look like they are supporting the leaning tower, was pretty hilarious. Aren't you guys clever.

A fun fact about the leaning tower of Pisa: Building buildings in this region is generally a bad idea due to the instability of the soil. This tower was already leaning by the completion of the second storey.

From Pisa it was a quick train ride to Florence, thankfully. We thought we would get into the travelling spirit by not pre-booking accommodation, which turned out to be a terrible idea. Despite not having huge crowds, all the central hostels were completely full. After a couple of hours of wandering through the streets in the rain, weeping and searching for a home, we found the worst, most over-priced bunk-beds in all of Tuscany. Hell yeah, travel spirit. After a shaky start, we discovered that in fact Florence is a pretty next level city. It’s got all the charm and beauty of Pisa, only amplified, yet it doesn’t quite attract the crowds that we found in Rome. The perfect balance.

Top things to do in Florence:

- Go out for 'aperitivo', where for 5 euro you get a cocktail and buffet of nibbly treats! This would get totally abused in NZ but somehow it works here and is amazing.

- See Michelangelo's original statue of David. It's huge, close to anatomical perfection, and made of marble. The statue, that is.

- Climb up to Piazzale Michelangelo and get a lovely view over the city. So romantic.

 Cattedral di Santa Maria del Fiore. YOU SO BIG AND PRETTY.

 Some of the statues had pretty entertaining facial expressions.

 You'd probably still have to keep your normal job.

Continuing our journey south, we headed to Rome. Here we were put up like Roman Emperors by Pierre and his family of Romans, who introduced us to the delights of fresh mozzarella and nightly gelato (they had a nutella “gelato” – not nutella flavoured, no, literally just a scoop of chilled nutella in a cone). The heat and crowds made exploring Rome a rather sweaty affair, but it was totally worth it for this special city. We made sure to cover most of the must-sees in Rome and the Vatican while also squeezing in some bike riding and sun bathing.

 The Colosseum! By far the most impressive of the Roman ruins you can see in Rome.

 The rest of the Roman ruins require a lot more imagination to picture what it was like 2000 years ago. It was very cool to see how modern Rome has grown around all these ancient structures, while leaving them as they were found. This one here is the Imperial Forum.

 Felix loved pretending to be a Roman. As you can see here; he is charging his chariot across the Circo Massimo.

 Shortly after, Phoebe threw 3 coins into the Trevi Fountain to secure her fate of marrying an Italian.

The Vatican City! Look how tiny it is hahahahaha.

 The point in Saint Peters' Square where all the columns align. Michelangelo, you've done it again.

 

Next time: We borrow a tent from Pierre and head further south..

Southern-ish France: Chums, Whanau & Flying Kiwis.

On the 27th of May, we activated our Eurail passes in Barcelona. This marked the beginning of a 3 month, European country-hopping extravaganza, as we can basically hop on any train we please in 24 European countries. Cool potatoes!

First stop: Hostalric. This was a completely accidental stop, as we hopped off the train 6 stops too early. Hostalric is a very barren place, never go there. First proper stop: Girona. This is a lovely little town about an hour north of Barcelona, near the French border. Go there.

Our next stop was in Montpellier, where we were very lucky to be put up for a couple of nights by a family we had met in the Alps. Phoebe was complimented on her enormous progress with French and Felix wasn’t complimented at all. They were amazing hosts, feeding us delicious meals and even letting us borrow their car to explore the region! The next few nights we continued to be spoilt with Felix’s aunt Severine just out of Tarascon (near Avignon). She owns a ‘mas’ which produces apricots, cherries, peaches, apples and delicious olive oil. We ate as many cherries as humanly possible. Felix got diarrhoea.

To top off our first week of Eurail, we spent the weekend with some of Felix’s cousins at their grand parents’ chalet in Chamonix. It was a joyous occasion with much drinking, eating and game-playing to be had. Phoebe’s French vocabulary improved in a not-so-textbook kind of way.. Her prowess at the ‘poker menteur’ game earned her the name ‘flying kiwi’, a name which she lived up to in a more literal sense on the following Monday. See photos below.

Lugging a huge pack around Europe for 3 months is a gruelling challenge, even for the fittest amongst us. This is why we've started a Eurail training scheme to keep us nice and strong. One more push-up, ya worm!

 Golly-gee, Girona sure is pretty! Phoebe enjoys practising the dance moves she learnt off Solange in Barcelona.

Some very well done artwork in Montpellier. Making 2D appear 3D!

Getting a little too excited outside the Montpellier Med school. There were posters up for the end of semester med party which we were pretty gutted to miss out on.

Montpellier zoo, which is free!!

 

 The impressive walled city of Aigues-Mortes, near Montpellier. Literally mountains of salt could be seen across the pink salt marshes where they harvest it.

 We like our clichés. Wine tasting in a small vineyard in the south of France, why not?

 The cute courtyard at Severine's, where we first met the fateful cherries.

 It was hard work lugging our fat asses up this hill, but pretty worth it for the fab views over Les Baux de Provence and the surrounding region.

Félix claims he is destined to be a matador. (Outside the bullfighting arena in Arles).

And a professional rock climber.

 The Lamarche cousins, a blur of excitement over the cheese fondue.

Putting on a brave face after coming down the steep ridge at the top of l'Aiguille du Midi. Pretty terrifying stuff. What could she possibly do next that would be more terrifying than that?

 Oh my god she didn't.

Oh my god, they did. Very patriotic choice of colours for the parachute.

Paragliding off l'Aiguille du Midi at 3842m (roughly 100m higher than Mt Cook) over the Mont Blanc range and the valley of Chamonix. You crazy bastards.

Next time: Italia!!