Tomato in the eye...

Hola!

Have you ever got tomato in your eye? Not likely....perhaps you got just a little squirt when you chomped into a tomato in your salad. Let me tell you know, that is nothing compared to having a whole, over ripe tomato pegged at ur face and landing in your eyes.

Yes, yesterday I took part in the biggest food fight in the world. Approx 40 000 people (i think) piled into the little town of Bunol just outside Valencia in Spain to throw tomatoes at one another. Its a tradition that´s been going sfor about 60 years, and the fight doesn´t begin until someone climbs the greased up tall pole and retrieves the ham of the top. Once they do the cannon sounds and the trucks pull in and drive by and dump the over ripe tomatoes and its on.

It was SO much fun. It only got a little scary at times whn you thought you were literally going to be squashed from all the people (especially when the trucks drove by) or when the spanish boys started chanting "tomatina" and tried to rip your shirt off (didn´t happen to me luckily).

Not much else to tell, except before valencia checked out almeria and allicante for a couple of days. Both are on the beach and so we had a bit of a break and chilled out by the waves in the sun. Met some lovely random people on the beach and had a little party one night and learnt to use poi´s (think thats how you spell them?) good fun!!!!!

We are in valencia now and checking out the town today. Flamenco dancing tonight and then off to Barcelona tomorrow.

xoxo

Sunny sunny Spain

Hola!!

I am in lovely, fun and sunny spain!

Yes, Italy was good fun and is nice. Our last day we checked out Pompeii, the village that was preserved from almost 3 thousand years ago after Mt Vesuvious erupted and encased it in ash etc. Was awesome!!!! Its actually really big (44 ha) and you can walk through the streets into the houses and shops, and theres still painting and artwork left over. Very cool.....

It was brought to my attention that I say amazing and awesome alot when describing all these places I see. But they really are!!!!! There is no other way to describe them.....so im sorry but you´ll have to bear with me over the next month or so.

We got to spain on wednesday and flew into madrid (scary flight, my seat wasnt attatched to the rest of my chair...so when everyone clapped when we got there...well i was relieved). Next day I went and checked out Toledo which is this cool little medieval town about an hr away. Very hot!!!!!

We hopped on a train to Granada yesterday and just had a look around the town centre. Had a nice bbq at our hostel last night, and then got up at 5am this morning to go and line up and visit the Allumbrah. The Allumbrah is this amazing ancient arabian palace from when the arabs occupied spain (or at least part of it). It really was amazing! One of the greatest things Ive seen!

So we´re of to Almeria and Allicante for a few days for the beach and then to La Tomatina the tomato throwing festival! Stay posted....

xoxoxoxoxo

Best thing about Italy.....

Hey there!

Another week another country...you know how it is. This week is Italy! And the best thing about Italy besides the amazing views, the great wetaher, and friendlyish people is of course the food. Namely the gelati.....mmmmm. I think Ill be leaving Italy at least 5 kg heavier!

We got to Italy last week from the overnight ferry from Greece. Took a whole day to train it to Naples and met up with Jen (Pennys mate from NZ). Didnt see much of Naples, although, what I did see was grubby and dodgy so kind of glad we werent there for long. We took a train down to Palermo, Sicily (the boot of italy).

Sicily was great (despite the mafia and ocassional gunshot). There were NO english speaking tourists anywhere so that was nice for a change. We checked out the city of Palermo that has amazing architecture, interesting, because it has influences of Spanish and Arab culture as well as Italian. Also went to a nice beach on the SW coast to meet up with a friend of Jens and saw inside a real italian house. We went to Lipari, one of the Aeolian islands which are all volcanic. Was really pretty there and we had a mud bath which was lots of fun!!!!

Went back up the coast (after much trouble with transport and speaking minimal italian) and now we are on the Amalfi Coast. We are staying high on a cliff in a hostel and walked for an hr and a half this afternoon down to the lovely city of Amalfi. Absoulutely amazing gorgoeus views (if the internet connection was better i could show you photos). Its really lovely here.

Tomorrow we are going to try and get to Pompeii and then Rome. Wednesday we fly to Madrid for our next country adventure.

Happy days!

Took a train back up the coast

Sorry cant get pictures on aaaaaahhhhhh so annoyed.

Until next time xoxoxox

Island Hopping

Hi all!

Wow what an amazing week. Feels like I say that all the time, but really, i'm having such a great adventure. Hmmm where did I leave you last. I believe on the Island Ios. Well we had great fun on Ios, partying the night away and chilling out on the beach on the day. Getting an hour or so of sleep before hopping on a ferry to the gorgeous Santorini.

Santorini was great. First we actually did stuff beside just laze around and drink at night which was nice! We took a boat tour out and climbed up a live volcano and saw the gases and heat coming out of the ground. After that we swam through the sea to get to hot springs and swam in them, aahhh so warm. Then we rode donkeys up an amazing hill to a small village perched on the top. To finish off the day we watched supposedly one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world, and yes, it was actually pretty amazing.

Caught an overnight ferry last night back to athens, and a train today to patras where we're catching another overnight ferry to Italy!! On to naples and sicily then, bellisimo!

NB: Sorry about the lack of pictures. Slow internet connection and silly blog site = not all my pictures. If the Greece ones I tried to just put on work out they are of me and the acropolis in athens, and then penny and I and the sunset in Santorini.

Some Pictures...

Hello!

I'm on the Island of Ios in the greek Islands having a great time! So far in Greece we checked out athens for the day and the ancient acropolis there which was awesome. Then we headed to Mykonos (one of the islands) for some sunbathing, swimming and partying. Just got to Ios this arvo so will keep you posted on that one.

The pictures in order are of - Brighton, St Ives, Wales, Newquay, Ireland and Greece. Enjoy!

Happy Days of the Craic

Hi all!

Wow what a crazy crazy week. Ireland is amazing, been having a great time here. Drank for 7 nights in a row and every day went another great adventure.

It all started saturday last week when I took the ferry here from Wales. Met up with Janelle and Naomi here in dublin and we went out for my 21st. Had a great time actually, it was quite a themed night. We started off at a 50's style burger bar with ice cream floats and burgers and progressed on (eventually via another pub) to a funky little club playing lots of old rock and soul music. Had a great time and especially thanks to lovely naomi and janelle who made it an amazing night!

Sunday was a bit of a recovery day, although Naomi and I went out that night and had a few drinks while watching an Irish band play traditional songs amongst others, and then a performance of Irish dancing. Good fun!

I started my tour on monday (my birthday) and met up with lots of new friends. We checked out the preserved head of Oliver Plunkett, Slane castle and some amazing celtic crosses dating back to 900 AD. We drove to Belfast (Northen Ireland) and did a black cab tour of the Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods HAVE to be seperated and segregated by around 29 or so huge 20m high walls still. I didn't realise that the conflict between these people was still going on. But as we toured the protestant area a British Armed Forces helicopter hummed overhead to remind us of their presence and that there is still a lot going on there as we speak. Interesting and depressing, and quite scary.

Tuesday we crossed a rope bridge in 50 mile and hour winds to walk out to a lovely little island off the coast. After that we check out the Giants Causeway which is this amazing magical/volcanic occurence that is a rock formation that juts out into the sea towards scotland. We checked out Derry that evening where the Catholic and Protestants are seperated by the river that runs through town. This was the town where 'Bloody Sunday happened'. Went out that night for some great irish music also.

Wednesday saw Keats' grave and had a celtic seaweed bath which was absoulutely heavenly! Checked out the funky little town of Galway which was filled to the brim with people due to the races. Lots of fun. Thursday saw the amazing cliffs of moher and went down to the dingle peninsula. We walked on Lynch Beach where supposedly Coldplay filmed their clip for 'Yellow'.

Friday we checked out dingle (lovely seaside town) and then moved onto Killarney and took a horse and carraige ride through the national park there. Gorgeous! Went out that night and saw a local cover band play and they were great! Good times. Yesterday kissed the Blarney stone and made our way back to dublin.

I'm just detoxing and chilling out today before flying to Athens tonight for the next adventure in the greek islands. Phew!