Croatia

So it seems as though the position I was going to take in Italy next year is no more :( They have been investigating a problem of how they were going to fund the position for the last month or so but then last week I found out that now it looks like the research group I was going to work for is going to be dismantled - therefore without a research group and without funding, the position is unlikely to be filled. On one hand it is a shame, as I had been quite excited about the opportunity, but on the other hand I am feeling happy and settled in Norway so staying here also has an appeal. Anyway, that is the update on the Italy position and with that, I would like to close the Italian chapter of this blog and move on to one equally as exciting and beautiful - Croatia.

Liesl and I had booked a week on a sailboat to cruise some of the islands of the Adriatic off the coast of Croatia. We flew from Rome into the city of Split, stayed in a great room in a private house, had a rather unusual morning trying to find anywhere that would serve us a breakfast, located our boat and boarded ready for action. To our surprise, everyone else on the boat, about 25 people all around the age of 25, were all (except one) Australian. Most of them were Australians living in Europe (London, Zurich, Frankfurt etc) but all Australians nonetheless. Most strange. But then we found Croatia in general to be crawling with Australians - every backpacker or tourist you saw seemed to be an Aussie, it was really incredible. Especially after spending such a long time in Norway and being amazed any time you stumbled across anyone else from down under. Here is the crew of Aussies (and one guy from Crete who was dating an Aussie) that we spent that week with. The shot is missing two of our favourtie people from the trip - sorry Zoe and Paul but you take an afternoon nap and you snooze you lose!

Yes, it was very very hot the entire trip and that is why we are all half naked, and yes, that is a guy in a mankini. Strangely he had a wife who didn't seem to mind and even stranger, we ended up getting used to seeing him in it too. It was never very pleasant but it became familiar somehow.

Let me first say that this was a wonderful trip and anyone who is thinking about visiting the Adriatic should definitely go, as soon as possible. It is stunningly beautiful. Here are a couple of teasing shots of some of the views from the boat, just to convince you of this point.

Basically our schedule was get up, eat some breakfast and leave the dishes for the staff, change into bikini, read on the deck and watch the fabulous views roll by, swim when the boat stopped for some hours, snorkel if feeling energetic, eat the three course lunch the chef had prepared, snooze, sunbathe, swim again, change into something nice and go ashore in a new city every night for cocktails and a restaurant meal. Totally divine.

Okay the rooms were small and incredibly stuffy little sweatboxes but we could always sleep on the deck. Yes the Captain was kind of an alcoholic but we travelled safely and generally didn't have to have anything to do with him. Yes we were trapped on a boat with random stangers but most of them turned out to be great people and those who drove us crazy only did so towards the end. Yes the concept of being a vegetarian was taken to mean omelettes and sliced cheese were needed as protein supplements, but then I like eggs and cheese. So despite all the potential issues, I would still recommend the trip to anyone. What I thought I would do, is to use the rest of this post to put up some pics of the boat and then in some that will follow, show you some of the fabulous locations we stopped at.

The first pic shown in this post is me relaxing outside the door to our room, while here you can see the deck of our boat, one of the swimming locations we stopped in, and another boat just like ours in the background.
Here is the dining room packed to the brim at lunch hour
And finally, here is the deck where we sat in the sun, read, sipped G&Ts and watched the islands approach and drift by. Man, I miss that tan already :) xxx

Rome Round 2

So I guess 'tomorrow' is fern language for sometime in the not too distant future! Sorry about the break, that annoying little thing called work kind of intervened. Last week I was away in Manchester attending a meeting for an EU research project I have recently joined. Perhaps more on that later, but I have so many cool holiday places still to blog about that work in Manchester may not get a look in. I really need to get on with this holiday blogging thing though as it was now months ago that I was tripping around with Lies and sunning myself on foreign shores! So without any further ado - here is the rest of our visit to Rome.

On our last day, Liesl and I decided to sneak in a quick visit to the Colosseum before we went to the airport. Again, it was fiery hot and I looked jealously on at this little pigeon who had by far the best seat in the city! To help our maintain our sanity while standing in the sun with the lines of other people also waiting to walk around the ruins, we both bought chinese fans from some street vendors. This was the best investment of 2 euros I made during the whole holiday, both for that day in Rome and for the rest of the holiday in Croatia! That fan was truly my saviour - in the lines, in the underground, in the stuffy little ship rooms, and in any other location where the air hung around us as heavy as lead curtains. You may therefore see my little friend fan pop up in quite a few of the photos from now until the end! Now though, some shots of that big famous ancient Roman battleground.

First, the classic view...

Second, the view from inside...

Third, a detail view of the inside walls...

The brickwork was so diverse and so beautiful that even though this may look like a boring pic of a brickwall, I took it to remind myself of the detail and creativity of the ancient craft and to wonder why we don't build like this anymore...

Here is Liesl and I and the Chinese fan as tourists...
Now me as a lion...

and finally, Liesl as a gladiator :)

And that was our holiday in Italy! Absolutely fabulous. Great food. Great coffee. Great weather. Great sites. Great life. Would go back tomorrow if I could and still have my fingers crossed to work there next year - although that unfortunately is looking less and less certain with all kinds of problems facing the funding of the position. More on that though when I know more. Next post - we are off to Croatia! xxx

Roma

To move on to our next location - Croatia - Lies and I had a flight out of Rome. Rather than just arrive and fly out again, Lies and I decided that Rome was a worthwhile enough location to spend at least a couple of days. So we booked 2 nights accommodation and planned a super whirlwind tour of this incredible city. First though, we had to get there, and that took some effort!

We took a ferry from Capri to Naples and the plan was to take a train from Naples to Roma. The trick was that we had to get from the Naples ferry terminal to the Naples train station. On the map it looked like an easy couple of kms walk, so walk we did. And regret it we did!! It must have been close to 40 degrees. Our packs weighed a tonne and Naples is, as I mentioned before, a completely insane city. Crazy and dirty. We slogged our way along the streets, through the rubbish and around the traffic for what felt like 20kms in the stinking heat. We kept asking people if we were going the right way for the station and we just kept getting looks of sympathy and fingers just pointing straight ahead. Keep going girls! We were absolutely drenched in sweat when we arrived at the station. And I mean drenched! Wring your shirt out kind of drenched. Beetroot faces kind of drenched. Hate your pack with a passion kind of drenched. That walk became the low point of the whole holiday for Liesl, because it was, excuse my French, an absolute bitch! It didn't help that we saw a guy from our hotel on the train looking fresh as a daisy, he must have taken a train or a taxi. That hurt! I think I can convince myself that it was a rewarding experience though. In that we got a sense of Naples and we felt like we earned that rest on the train. It did, however, make me claim that I would not care at all if I never returned to Naples ever again! We did, however, eventually arrive in Rome.

Both Liesl and I were initially pleasantly surprised by Rome. As it had not been a planned stop as such, we both had rather low expectations, but after walking around and seeing some of the sights on the first day, we decided we liked the city, that it indeed did have some charm and class and that we were very glad we stopped over. Some of the sights we saw that first day were the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Can you find me on the steps? Once again, we were amongst thousands of other tourists in Rome, it is completely overrun with them! And hot, OH MY GOD was it hot! I think the heat was intensified by the fact that previously we had been able to swim when we felt like the heat was overtaking our ability to think straight, but in Rome, we just had to sweat it out. Am I talking about sweat too much in this post? Well that is the way I remember Rome! Sorry. Sweat and bedbugs.

Originally, Liesl and I were very happy with our chosen bed and breakfast accommodation in Rome - good location, good room, good services and reasonable price. After the first night though, I was no longer so happy with it. For the 5th time in my life, I was attacked by bed bugs and unfortunately, suffered my usual allergic reaction. After waking and realising that I had been made a meal of, I was forced to retreat to my yoga mat on the floor, which Liesl of course thought was so funny that she had to record the event for all eternity. Thanks Lies!

This meant that the next day when we headed off to see the Vatican, mostly to see that most famous ceiling painting of the Sistine chapel, I was itching like a bastard! Those little bites swelled up to enormous hard lumps and drove me completely spare. I bought a thousand drugs and creams, none of which seemed to work, and I suffered terribly for the rest of our time in Rome. One of the ways Liesl helped me cope with the situation was by playing the game where we named the worst of the bites and followed their development with interest. Meet Vesuvius...not sure he shows up in all his glory in the pic, but he was a real beauty!

Enough of my self pity though, here are some pics from the Vat...although not of the hand of God because there was no photography allowed in the chapel, and in fact no talking was allowed in that most hallowed location!!


One of the things i was most astounded by in the Vatican was the sheer enormity of the art collection. In my mind it was completely obscene, far too opulent for the religion to be demonstrating any spirit of generosity. Surely the more Christian thing to do would be to sell half that shit and use the money to feed the starving millions. But then maybe I am missing some point about a greater glory...maybe.
It was pretty though, no doubt about that.
My favourite aspect of all the artwork on display though was the incredible mosaics on the floors. The detail was truly stunning.
Now blogger is having another little fit about posting photos so I will tell the rest of the roman holiday story tomorrow. xxx