Trip notes worthy of blogsphere..

After our long trip, we were sipping on an ale and came up with some interesting facts about our trip, we hope you find them as funny as we did:
1. Number of stairs in Holland our 20kg bags got carried up: 38.
2. Longest transit time: Florence to Cinque Terre, 7 hours.
3. Number of nights in Italy we ate Pasta in a row: 8.
4. Highest number of Tapas items ordered in one sitting: 5.
5. Number of seasons of 'The Wire' watched: 1 & 2.
6. Number of Easyjet flights taken: 7.
7. Number of times in Malta resort an instrumental Phil Collins* track was played: 18. (*post-Genesis)
8. Best Mullet found: Barcelona on arrival, with an accompanying 'prince' style cross earring.

Food glorious food...

As you’ve previously read, we like our food, but I think it actually makes up a huge part of the experience. We have really tried to taste local foods from each region, a fair cry from my last Europe adventure when it was the closest kebab shop would do. We have decided to do a Top 5 foods from each of us:
Nick’s Top 5:
1. Stamppot – Amsterdam, Holland
2. Spanish Doughnuts – Barcelona, Spain
3. Chorizo – Barcelona, Spain
4. Croquettes – Van Dobben, Amsterdam, Holland
5. Tuscan Pork Pasta – Rome, Italy
Patricia’s Top 5:
1. Lobster & Pasta – Cinque Terre, Italy
2. Chorizo Sausage – Barcelona, Spain
3. Spanish Doughnuts – Barcelona, Spain
4. Beef cheekbone – St.Emilion, France
5. Trofie Pesto Pasta – Cinque Terre, Italy

Malta

We chose Malta as the ‘operation wind down’ section of our trip. Time to sit back and recap the events of the last 3 months. The place is a mix between Italy and Egypt in landscape, with beautiful water and friendly people. The island is quite small and we stayed in a resort in the North overlooking the islands of Gozo and Camino. It was definitely an R&R session worthy of retired folk, as we shared the resort with an eclectic mix of German and old old English people. We visited a famous fish market on the Sunday, with us getting a little green watching a lady play with live Squid, and caught a glimpse at a Swordfish bigger than a small child. Overall Malta was very cool to chill out and enjoy the spring sun.

Cinque Terre

Hype is a huge thing when travelling. The expectations we had on this place were obscenely massive, talking to our friends who had travelled there would result in this “you’ve gotta go” type of look on their faces. After being there for 4 days, if anyone wants to talk to me about the Cinque Terre, I’m going to be giving you the same look! Italy in all its glory; coastline and villages that make your eyes stop and stare in wonder at their beauty. If there is any chance anyone of you reading this are heading anywhere near Europe, this is the one and only place I implore you to visit. We had a massive day in transit from Florence by train, due to some cancellations and the electronic departure board at Florence termini shutting down! In the end, it all didn’t matter when we arrived at Manarola, the second village and the home for the next 5 nights. We were just in total shock the first few days, the place is amazing, and nothing a camera will ever capture. We found out that one section of the walk was closed due to mudslides, we were shattered as we wanted to complete the entire walk. But as we had dinner one night we were chatting some Americans who told us about another hike we had to do instead. So, we searched through our packs for our expert hiking boots, I went for the Nike Air Max, Patricia chose the ever reliable Asics Tigers. And we hiked, we hiked, we hiked some more, and then hiked some more. We hiked for 5 hours in total, going from Manarola high up into the mountains, and hiked right along the ridge to the other villages. It was an amazing view up that high, as you could see all five villages from one point. We then hiked the coastal routes also so we could see the other villages. Vernazza and Manarola to us were our favourites, and we were lucky to stay in Manarola as the two little restaurants were unbelievable. Patricia had this spicy lobster pasta for 8 Euros, it was so good, and will feature in the “food post” shortly on the blog. In short, the Cinque Terre blew our minds and confirmed its place in my Top 5 destinations of all time.

Florence

I was particularly looking forward to getting back to Florence as it was my favourite Italian city previously, and it didn’t disappoint a second time around. We strolled around this beautiful place for two days, taking in “David”, the basilica, Ponte vechhio, and even managed to climb up to the viewing point that overlooks the city. An amazing piece of Italy, and again Michelangelo’s “David” blew us away, but the pasta and coffee again showed why Italy is the best in Europe. Mind you, I’ve had some coffee over this trip, and our cafes in Melbourne can compete with any in Italy.

When in Rome...

The famous saying took exactly 2 hours to come out. We decided to only do a whirlwind trip of Rome, spending only two full days there. My previous travels there had figured this would be enough time and we were spot on. We managed to get to all of the major tourist spots bar one. The Vatican Museum was closed on the day we went, the only day outside of Sundays in the month of March, we were shattered! Luckily, we had to come back to Rome in order to fly to Malta, so we raced from the termini to the museum just in time before it closed, and Patricia got to finally see the Sistine Chapel. Rome was as I remember it, smelly, dirty, buzzing and full of the greatest historical monuments in Europe.

The South

This was one place in my time in London that I always regretted not getting to. Thankfully, Isabelle took a day off and we sped down the motorway to see the sights and sounds of the south of France. We were only gone for one night, but we went through Marseille, St Tropez, San Raphael, Nice and Monaco. The coastline is amazing and we really loved all of the towns we went through. I think it may have been a nice little introduction to the coastline we will be seeing a bit further along called the ‘cinque terra’, I’m seriously in hyperventilating mode looking forward to it, trust me!! To keep you all updated with our trip, we fly to Rome on Thursday, then up to Florence to see my mate David, then to the Cinque Terra, then back to Rome and fly to Malta for a week, before heading back to London and onwards to Melbourne. We arrive back in Melbourne on April the 9th so look forward to seeing everyone when we get back.

Lyon

When we arrived back in Lyon, Isabelle and Adrien picked us up from the airport and we spent some time in Lyon. Isabelle booked us on a fantastic walking tour of the ‘old city’ of Lyon, which we really loved.

Barcelona

Bar-they-loyna…as they say it, blew us both away. It was awesome to arrive in a city neither of us had been before and take it all in for the first time. Our five days here were super, from the tapas, sangria and Spanish doughnuts, fair to say if we didn’t walk so much during the day we would have put on 10kg I reckon. The sun was out every day, and even though it was only 12 degrees, it felt like 30 for us after the weather we’ve had so far. Highlights for us and probably for anyone who has been to Barcelona is clearly Gaudi’s works. The Sagrada Familia is clearly one of the greatest things ever ‘being’ built, and we made a pledge to travel there 10 years from now when hopefully its finished. We took a journey to the zoo which was also very cool, I spent 3 months in Africa and never saw a Leopard up close like I did in this Zoo, it must have been feeding time cause it was snarling and prowling around its pen, awesome animal and awesome sight, number 3 on the ‘coolest animal in the kingdom’ awards. We stumbled upon an amazing street art gallery called ‘Montana’ which blew us away, but some of the street art we got photos of in town were ace. Overall though, I must say it was a huge contrast going from France to Spain and seeing the atmosphere’s change. We felt really relaxed and content in Barcelona strolling the streets, and sitting in bars, it reminded us a lot of home and the outlook we have on our lives. Anyhew, enough philospihisationing……

Divajeu

Upon saying goodbye to Lysel, Valerie and team, we hitched a train ride out east to Patricia’s other cousin Isabelle’s house in a tiny mountain town called Divajeu. It’s about an hour from the Alps and their house is this amazing stone mansion that sits in a lush valley. My stomach let me know who was boss the first day we arrived, so I missed out on the sunshine on the farm. I was all geared up to feed the chickens, sheep, rabbits and Isabelle’s donkey called ‘Balthazar’. If we ever have to live on a farm (which thanks to the current home buyers market in Melbourne we may have to), we are so getting a donkey. Just a little behind the Warthog for the title of ‘coolest animal in the kingdom’. So, when we woke up Sunday morning it had started to snow, not UK-type frostings, hardcore Japanese-powder type snow. On the Monday morning we woke up and it had snowed 25cm in one day, it was awesome. Isabelle’s son Adrien couldn’t get to school so we got out the sleds and went crazy! Only time the whole trip I wanted my snowboard as there is a huge glade right behind their house.

Vezere Valley

On our second day with the red Citroen beast of a car, we ventured east this time, into the heart of the Vezere Valley. This region of France is best known for its grottos and prehistoric artifacts. The mountain grottos here have carvings and paintings in the caves that date back to 30,000 BC. Now that’s old school…
One of these grottos was actually found in 1940, by some kids looking for their dog believe it or not, and the paintings are so diverse that Picasso commented after seeing them that; ” we haven’t created anything like this’. So, with all this in mind, we drove the red rocket through dense woods to find this grotto. Upon arrival, we saw an opening, darkness, and two white vans there in the parking lot. Fair to say we didn’t feel like being in the next Silence of the Lambs, so we bolted. Seriously, this is one of the major pitfalls of travelling in the winter, a lot of stuff is closed! Nevertheless, we found the National Museum of Prehistoric History. This place is something Ross from ‘Friends’ would really love, full of bones and rocks from 20,000 years ago. To see the bones of mammoths, cave bears and cave lions were very cool.

Toulouse

Our weekend in Toulouse didn’t go entirely to plan however. Although our Friday night was huge because of the Vampire Weekend gig, we unfortunately stayed in a hotel near the venue, in other words, we were out of town a bit. The metro and buses stopped at 8:30, so we opted for a quiet pizza Saturday night because we couldn’t get back from the city if we went in. We did, thanks to the lonely planet, discover this amazing Photography exhibition on at an old water tower across the river. The gallery was in a spiral shape all the way up the tower, amazing use of space yet again from the French. Our personal favourites were the pieces based in IKEA. The photographer had organised her subjects to appear in IKEA kitchen/bedroom setups, it was so clever, she dressed the subject in the colours matching the bedspread for example. Was very cool. On the Sunday, thanks to the lonely planet again, we found a cinema, which screened original versions of films, that is, it hasn’t been over dubbed in French. We caught Tom Ford’s first feature “A Single Man” in this wicked little indie cinema in Toulouse, great way to spend a Sunday.

St Emilion

We have been staying at Lysel’s house in Bergerac (Patricia’s Aunt), and she kindly lent us her car for the past two days. So in true Aussie fashion we just basically hit the road!! We drove ourselves west to the medieval wine village of St Emilion. This is our most favourite place so far in France. It is the epicentre of the wine region in and around Bordeaux and Bergerac, with some history of its own aswell. The village is named after a miracle-working monk who lived in a cave here between 750AD and 767AD. We climbed the belltower for an amazing view of the village and surrounding vineyards, and then ventured down to this quaint café for some lunch and red wine. We bought 3 bottles of plonk from the local wine merchant, and drove away fully satisfied that we had seen a perfect piece of French countryside. The wine was very very nice by the way….

Vampire Weekend

The venue was ‘Le Bikini’, placed in an industrial estate in outer Toulouse. It housed about 2000 people, so was very intimate, especially as they served Heineken pints. Thankfully the sound was spot on that night, Vampire Weekend were so great live, we were both sceptical about how they would transform their CD sound to a gig, but they just blew us away. They were fun, energetic and we danced away all night!! The drummer had a Spurs long sleeved home kit on, which Rohan would have been proud of no doubt. Highlights included some newbie tracks including ‘Run,’ ‘Cousins’, while a crowd chanting version of ‘Blake’s Got a New Face’ was sensational. I hear they are coming to Melbourne, do yourself a favour and go, they are a must see live.