Cinque Terre, Firenze, and Pisa

Well I'm back in London again, and I'll be back in Calgary tomorrow. Avril and I just returned from Italy, and man were we sorry to say goodbye to the Gelaterias. Seriously, it's amazing that I didn't make myself sick with the amount of gelati I ate!! Soooo taaasty.... mmmmm.















So we arrived in Genoa, and promptly hopped on a train to Monterosso del Mare, the first of the five towns along the UNESCO world heritage site of the Cinque Terre. We stayed the night here, and of course ate a lot of gelati and very delicious pasta. On sunday we got up early and hiked south from Monterosso to Vernazza, the next town, which we had been told was the prettiest (and I think I agree). For those of you who don't know, the trail follows the coastline, so you constantly have an amazing view of an azure sea. The trail was deserted for this section (not really an early riser type of location), which we certainly enjoyed. We then took the train from Vernazza to Corniglia to avoid the very ominous looking clouds that were threatening to rain on us. Of course by the time we arrived in Corniglia, it was clearing up a bit, so we got back on the trail and walked through Manarola to Riomaggiore, the final two towns on the route. This section was much more like a crowded sidewalk, but of course still very beautiful. After lunch and a gelati in Rio, we hopped on the train to Firenze, where thoughtful Avril had booked us a fantastic little hotel right near the Duomo.

After a lovely shower, our evening was filled with (you'll be shocked to hear) pasta and gelati. We made an early move back to the hotel, as both of us were pretty tired, and then ended up watching some Italian tv. I think it was an italian version of Beauty and the Geek, or something like that, but these poor guys were dressed up in black unitards and had a foam turtle shell stuck onto their backs, and then had to complete a gymnastics course in front of their 'beauties' and a live studio audience. It was pretty hysterical to watch this tiny, balding, rotund little Italian guy named Monti try to vault (ran straight at and into the vault, completely bypassed the springboard), traverse the parallel bars (couldn't hold his body weight up, so the host held him up by the foam shell for a bit and then just pushed him), somersault (well he misunderstood, and did a log roll, so the host explained the somersault and he was sort-of able to stick his head on the mat and kick his feet up a little...), and then get dragged up to the rings by a pulley-and-harness system. Some people are just really not that athletically inclined and this guy was such a good sport about doing this on national tv!! Ok, so I actually found the thing on YouTube. (maybe funnier after 1/2 litre of cheap white wine...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhFbU4wGuI&search=italian%20tv%20reality%20show%20pupe%20secchioni%20Vittorio%20Sgarbi

Anyhow, monday we shopped (yes, those words really were typed by my hand) and saw the sights, ate a lot, and tuesday Avril and I both made vailant attempts to be cultured: Avril headed off to the Uffizi Gallery and check out some renaissance art while I went in the direction of the Galleria dell' Accademia to see the David. Unfortunately, there was a three to four hour lineup at each place so Avril ended up... doing something else art-y, I forget what, and I climbed up the tower by the Duomo to check out the view. We ate some more and then hopped on a train to Pisa, to check out the leaning tower. Our flight from Pisa back to London was quite late last night, we didn't get back to Avril's place until 3am so I was glad to be able to sleep in this morning while Avril had to get up and go to work...!

See you all soon...

My new favourite

Country, that is. Slovenia is absolutely beautiful! If I really had a hankering to buy a farm and raise some sheep, I'd for sure do it here. Beautiful landscape, friendly people, really good food, what more can you ask for? We spent the first night in Ljubljana, and really didn't spend any time exploring the capital city before picking up a rental car and heading north to Triglav national park the next day (check out the map from my first blog entry).











We drove up towards Austria, and then headed west along the only road that goes all the way through the park, and stayed in a town called Bovec. The Julian alps are AMAZING, and the roads are pretty crazy switchback action that definitely test the stomach (although when you're driving them yourself at a reasonable speed, they are much more enjoyable than similar routes on a bus in Ecuador or India!). We did a few hikes the next day, to Kozjak falls near Bovec, and then continued through Kobarid to walk up the Tolminka Gorge. We then took the back roads just south of Triglav park back over to Bled, which was an adventure in itself, where we had reservations at some swanky hotel that overlooks the lake. Bled is quite famous, as there's an island in the middle of this glacial lake that's got a church built on it. We finished off the day by having some wine on our balcony looking over the lake (not really missing work too much at this point...).

Vrsic Pass, the highest point on the highway through Triglav National Park to Bovec.

Kozjak Falls near Kobarid.

The bridge over Tolminka Gorge.

Bear's Head Rock, lodged in Tolminka Gorge.

Another shot along the Tolminka.

A shot of the back roads we took to Bled -- amazing views the whole way.

Lake Bled.










The next day we walked up the Vintgar Gorge near Bled, and then drove west into Triglav park to Bohinj (near Mt Vogel on the map), which is another town situated on yet another glacial lake. We walked around the lake and then spent another evening drinking wine on another balcony. Man, life is ROUGH these days! All of these streams and gorges we walked up were teeming with trout, and apparently they are a species that are unique to Slovenia (pretty amazing since the country really only encompasses one valley, essentially). They are the Soca trout, and look kindof like brookies but with a bit different marbling pattern. Next time I come, I'll either be fishing or skiing! On saturday we hiked up to Savica waterfall (the word for waterfall in Slovene is slap. how rad is that?), which was quite beautiful but a little disappointing after the Kozjak falls because these ones where fenced off, and you couldn't get close. Still the hike provided an excellent view back across the valley as well.

Vintgar Gorge, with a boardwalk along the cliffs for much of the walk.

Falls near the end of the Vintgar walk.

Savica falls near Bohinj.















Then we drove all the way across the country to Piran (to put this in perspective it only took about three hours total), stopping along the way at Predjama castle, which is built into the side of a cliff. We had a tour of the cave system below the castle, which is four levels and was etched out by stream water. We arrived in Piran just in time to install ourselves in a hotel backing onto the Adriatic Sea, have a quick swim, and then enjoy a wicked dinner watching the sun set. Piran is a really beautiful mediterranean town, I'll have to come back and spend some more time there.

The view of Piran from our balcony.

This gull is just chillin with the boats in Piran harbour.

The sun setting over the Adriatic Sea in Piran.








The next day it was back to Ljubljana to return the rental car and stick Eoin on a plane back to London. I still had another day to spend in Slovenia, so I went into the central part of Ljubljana to check it out, and was amazed at how beautiful the city is. Narrow cobbled streets line a treed canal, with all numbers of cafes where you can sit and enjoy a Union (beer) or a coffee.












All in all it was an amazing trip, and Eoin managed to put up with me for an entire week. I loved Slovenia and can't wait to go back! Now I have a few days to spend in London, catching up with friends, and then Avril and I are off to Italy on Sunday, to hike the Cinque Terre and check out Florence. I'm pretty stoked, I've never been to Italy and Avril has been a few times so I hope she's ready to play tour guide!

Thank goodness for Avril

Who got her photos put on a cd when she got the film developed, despite having to leave for Hong Kong on business (for a week) the day after we arrived back from Africa. She got about 8 hours notice... sound familiar to anyone?? although really, Ft. McMurray? not as exotic-sounding as HK, is it. So here are a couple of her pics (for some really wierd reason, they are almost exactly the same as mine?? Ooooohh right. We were in the same van for seven days.)

Elephants o' coolness...

This was the waterhole that our hotel backed onto at the mountain lodge in Nyeri, near Mt. Kenya. Yes, the reeds ARE in the shape of Africa, complete with Madagascar hangin out off the coast over there. Spine-crawlingly cheesy, if you ask me, but then I'd never woken up at 4am to "Madam? Sir? We have elephants!" before, and proceeded to look out my window only to see 10 elephants drinking 25 feet away.

Ah, the vervet monkeys. I swear Avril took more pictures of these little guys than of the lions (it may be a bit of an obsession...). They were hanging around our hotel in Amboseli.

Here's a wicked one of a couple elephants. They were part of a group of 6 that walked right by our van on the way to a water hole. It was a pretty surreal experience.

Here's some Grant's gazelles. There were so many species of ungulates, it was crazy.

Here's a few giraffes spinning on by...

This is one of the white rhinos we saw in Masai Mara.

These bushbucks were checking us out in Lake Nakuru park one evening.

Here's some zebras. "hey we're zebras, how cool and stripey are we? We's got stumpy little legs, but still fast!"

And here's Av's best shot of a lion. Rawr.








With that, I leave you. Slovenia? Tomorrow, friends.

If I could get my photos up...

this is what some of them might look like (well. optimistically.)

Lake Nakuru, and hundreds of flamingos

lions!

this is pretty much what our leopard was doing, except our guy had a gazelle he'd killed up in his tree as well.

Some Zebra and ... maybe wildebeest? I can't tell what they are... in Masai Mara.

Sa-fa-ri!

We arrived back in London last night, and all agreed that despite the amazing wildlife and lanscapes we'd seen all week, none of us was sad to see the sight of our little van pulling away forever!!

Amazing experiences included giraffes running alongside our little van, being woken up at 4am by 'Sir! Madam! We have elephant!' at the waterhole next to our hotel, which we watched from our window, and sitting in the middle of a pride of lions (admittedly with a lot of other jeeps/safari vehicles around). Oh. And I don't know if any of you know the show Big Cats (it's british, and all about.. you guessed it, big cats), but those guys had to haul us out when we got stuck on our last game drive.

So, the itinerary: We arrived in Nairobi late evening saturday, where we were greeted by Peter, who organized our safari, and by Boniface, our driver for the next week. The next morning we left for Amboseli, a park south of Nairobi on the Kenya-Tanzania border. Here, most unfortunately, Chris got food poisoning (lesson: don't eat the peppered steak in gravy at a place that only has electricity for 4 hours in the morning and 4 in the late afternoon) so unfortunately he missed our game drive. We did swim in the lovely pool at our hotel (read: resort -- thanks Avril!), and Chris slept all day. Avril and I saw wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, giraffe, grant's and thompson's gazelles, blacksmith and crowned plovers, crowned cranes, ostrich, hippos, and probably lots of other stuff that I'm forgetting. Oh, also the warthog. Which Avril made the mistake of calling her favourite (many a warthog chase ensued...)

We next drove back through Nairobi to Nyeri, near Mount Kenya, and stayed at a mountain lodge. From our hotel room, we had a view of mount kenya as well as the waterhole that the hotel backed onto. I'm fairly certain it's manmade (there's an island of rushes in the middle shaped like Africa, complete with Madagascar...) but we still got to see elephants at 4am, which was really cool. They feed some of the wildlife here (songbirds, stork, mongoose), which I'm not really all that approving of. ahem.

THe following day, we were slated to drive to Lake Nakuru park via Hell's Gate, where we were going to do some hiking or biking. However, most unfortunately, a big rock fell off a lorry in front of our van while Boniface was on the way to pick us up, and smashed up the windshield pretty good. So, due to the lost time and after a liesurely morning of watching the waterhole, we headed straight for Nakuru. Here, another game drive -- this one Chris was actually able to come along! We saw the recovering black rhino (at one time nearly extinct, now a breeding program is successfully reviving the population), white rhino, lions (!!!), impala, and thousands of flamingos that blanket the shores of Lake Nakuru. Chris saw his first warthog (Avril: Look, warthog! Chris, is this your first warthog? Boniface: defeated sigh, complete with head tilt).

After a brief morning stop to get the windshield replaced, we continued on to Masai Mara, the park which borders the Serengeti in Tanzania, and through which the Great Migration takes place. Unfortunately we were too late to catch the great migration, but we did see a massive amount of wildlife -- a leopard! As well as a pride of lions, some amazing scenery, the usual suspects (wildebeest, buffalo, zebras, giraffes, gazelle, impala), and some more little ungulates -- the dikidik, the eland, and the waterbuck. This is where we were able to spend some time watching the pride of lions, complete with cubs.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I have to say that its going to be VERY difficult to travel as a backpacker again, after living the high life with Avril and Chris for a week! Back in Nairobi, we just had time to grab some food and hit the sack, before getting up early enough to catch our flight back yesterday.

I'm sure you're all thinking, where are the photos? Well, they're on my camera, and I can't get them onto Avril and Chris' computer. So you'll just have to wait patiently for three weeks till I get home.

Off to grab some lunch, and pack up the bag for Slovenia -- more in a week!!

How cool is this?

So Avril just sent me this link, where you can create a map of all the countries in the world that you have been to. Here's my map, look how much of the world I still have left to check out!!!



create your own visited country map

I think the map is a bit misleading though, because for bigger countries (like Australia or the US) you don't get to choose specific regions that you've visited... so it's kinda false advertising, because I've never been to Alaska but it sure looks like I have from that map! Anyhow.

Ok, time to pack....

The Adventures Continue...

Hey All,
I've set up a blog to keep you updated on my latest adventures. Stay tuned, the mayhem starts on September 7! This blog may not (read: won't) contain many entries, but I am going to try and make a concerted effort to post an entry after each main trip. For those who aren't aware of the schedule, I'll be heading to Kenya, then to Slovenia, and then to Italy to hike the Cinque Terre, with some time in London between each trip (you all know what stellar planning skillz I have).