Australia Day long weekend at Jervis Bay

Day 1

Cookies had organised a weekend away to Jervis Bay. I took the Friday off work, after I dumped the responsibility of breaking the news to our Project Manager that the estimates for a project may be 5 times what he expected. What a great way to start the trip. The plan was for Gus to pick me up and we would drive down to Jervis Bay, around the same time that Cookies and friends would be leaving. Gus rocks up at my place on time, only to be greeted by my dad and my 7 bags. I think he had a semi stroke when he saw that. We shoved everything into the boot and off we went to Dan Murphy's. We had been given the responsibility of stocking up on alcohol for the trip. So here I am, in Dan Murphy's, with a trolley filled to the brim with alcohol. And who should I bump into? My Dad. He's eyes practically popped out when he saw the amount of alcohol I had in the trolley! He kept lingering around the cash register as we were paying, with his jaw practically on the floor. I have a lot of explaining to do.

We made a quick get away and shoved all the alcohol into the car. Gus has a new TomTom which we turned on to give us directions all the way to the front door of our rented house. Whilst we were nearing Kiama, I decided to give Cookies a call to see how far away they were, as there were talks of meeting up for lunch. Apparently they haven't even left the house yet. Good one. We were supposed to get the keys off her, but since we were supposed to leave around the same time, we figured she could keep the key. So what could we do? We stopped in Kiama and took a nice leisurely stroll around the town and I ended up showing Gus where the blow hole was.

The blow hole

We jumped back into the car and drove to Berry, where we had decided to stop for lunch. It also allows me to hit "The Berry Bon Bon" shop where we picked up the most delish triple choc rock candies last time. I clean the shop of their supplies before we went in search for food. Gus picked out this little café/restaurant in the back alley of some shop. Within minutes, we had ordered our lunch and a spider each. Apparenly Gus has never had a spider before, so I decided to devirginise him! LoL

Gus with his first spider

Chicken schnitzel burger with the works

Beef burger with the works

God the food was really good. I was completely stuffed by the time we were finished. We trundled back to the car and off we went to Jervis Bay. 5mins from our destination, Cookiez called to check where we were. Wow, I didn't realise we took that long sightseeing! They actually managed to beat us! It took us awhile to find the place as you need to find this tiny little secluded driveway, but we managed to pull up outside the house. This is when Cookiez comes running to check if we had a sleeping bag. Apparently our 3 bedroom house turned out to be a 2 bedroom house. We originally had 10 people sharing 8 beds. We now had 10 people sharing 6 beds. This will be a cosy holiday ;)

We unload everything into the house when Cookiez and the rest of the gang decided to go grocery shopping. Whilst they were out, I did the next important thing. Jellyshots.

1/2 of the alcohol and snack food supply

I also managed to squeeze a whole heap of alcohol into the fridge to start chilling. Life is all about priorities. When they get back from the shops, everyone relaxes a bit before Richard and Alex begins cooking dinner for the rest of us. Since it'll be a good few hours before dinner is ready, I headed out for a stroll around town when I bumped into Gus (who snuck out earlier). We scoped out the alcohol store before heading back to the house.

Dinner was a lovely spag bols put together by R&A. We completely stuffed ourselves with pasta and some wine before turning on the tv to watch Federer vs Djokovic.

Spag Bols

Half way through the night, Dave, Mey and Christine showed up as they left after work. Next thing you know, the corks are off the bottles and we're having shots. (I needed the alcohol to numb the pain of Federer losing!) We started playing drinking games which involved us drinking over 3/4 of a bottle of cowboy shots.

Since there were only 6 beds, we decided to rotate the sleeping arrangements each night just to be fair. So whilst half of the people decided to watch a DVD, I passed out into bed.

Day 2

10 people. One Bathroom. You gotta be quick otherwise you'll be waiting for ages! After a quick shower, I went downstairs to the aroma of freshly cooked bacon and eggs. After a nice breakfast, everyone got changed and ready for an early morning swim at the beach. I also bought a new brand of spray on sunscreen (Face of Australia) which was fantastic! This sunscreen is completely non greasey and so easy to apply! In fact, everyone started using it because it was so good. There were also a few trigger happy people who just went around spraying people with sunscreen (You know who you are!). We gathered our gear and headed into town so we could quickly pay for a dolphin cruise we were going to do later in the day. I also managed to pick up a really nice straw hat to stop me from turning into a Lobster! We then headed to Collingwood beach, which is about a 5-10min walk from our house and we had a fantastic time!

Walking to Collingwood beach

The waves were quite gentle and calm, letting people like me who isn't really confident to start swimming at the beach. We also brought along my Volleyball and a football which we tossed around and used as a floatie. We eventually packed everything up to go home for a shower before heading off to our cruise. I bought my DSLR camera along as well.






About 45mins into the cruise, we finally spotted a dolphin in the far farrrrr distance. Everyone swarmed to the front of the boat (Where I had planted myself for the entire ride) trying to spot the dolphin. Next thing you know, Christine (who was standing next to me) screamed "Dolphin!". I looked down and the Dolphin is DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH ME! My DSLR goes off like a fire cracker and I managed to capture the only shots of the dolphin.


After that, he was gone. The boat continued to cruise for awhile after that without a sight of a dolphin. I gave up and retreated to the cool and shadey cabin. About 15mins from when we're about to return back to shore, the boat slows down and an announcement goes over the PA that they've spotted some dolphins. Without thinking, we grabbed our cameras and ran onto the deck.

At first, I couldn't actually see any dolphins. Someone near me screamed and next thing you know, you can see the dolphin weaving in and out from under the boat. The dolphins like to ride the current the boat causes, so as the boat is going, they're catching a free ride, meaning plenty of photos for me!

Its breathing!

And you know the funny thing? We spotted these dolphins just a few hundred meters from where we were swimming today! We get back to shore and immediately find a cafe for lunch. Well, lunch at 4pm.

Another patriotic shot - It is Australia day after all

Mey wanted an artistic shot

My hooooooooge burger and chips!

Gus's $19 frozen snapper and chips

We head back to the house where we get ready and hit the beach again. This time round, the water was much colder and much much windier! Mind you, we had a fantastic time though. We head back to the house again where Mey and Dave were busy cooking dinner for everyone else. Luckily they were making Viet Summer Rolls, which is quite light. Everyone was quite full after that late lunch.

Viet summer rolls - Pork, beef and prawn

The rest of the night was spent infront of the TV watching Bourne Ultimatium.

Day 3

I ended up sleeping on the floor in the lounge room for the night and ended up freezing my arse off. I had to get up in the middle of the night to look for a jumper and tissue since my nose was all blocked up. I ended up getting up really early as well since it was so cold I couldn't sleep and had to have a shower to defrost. When people finally got up, it was basically a breakfast of Miso soup, instant noodles, bacon and eggs plus cereal.

We then packed our stuff for a day at the beach. Armed with my trusty beach umbrella and volleyball, we set up shop at Collingwood beach. As I'm laying there relaxing, Gus decided it was time to give his volleyball net a go.

Gus warming up

Hmm...what does this button do?

Is there candy in this thing?

The boys comparing the length of their rods

Apparently its alot more complicated than extending the pole and tying it down..... *cough*

We gave up on the net and decided to just play volleyball in the water. By "volleyball" we mean a bunch of full grown adults screaming, yelping, screeching and splashing about to keep the ball in the air. We had an absolute blast of a time and there were quite a few people who looked like they wanted to join in on the game. But there were also a few who wanted to drown us.

We called it quits and headed back to the house around lunch time to avoid the sun. This was a chance to grab a quick bite, which meant gorging on chips and dip. But Gus did cook me lunch!


After that, we basically lazed about and watched TV for awhile before we all bundled into the car to Hyams beach. We had originally planned for a Volleyball rematch, but the minute we saw the waves crashing to shore, we knew that it wasn't going to happen. Didn't stop us from trying though. That is, until the ball gets dragged out to sea.

We then spent the next hour getting dumped again and again by the waves. There were a few times where I got completely smashed by the waves and got dragged backwards on my ass back to shore. I almost lost my board shorts a few times and ended up with an ass full of sand. I gave up after a while, but it still took me about 30mins to feel like I was back on land.

Back at the house, whilst everyone was having a shower, it was me and Christine's turn to make dinner. On the menu was a bacon, olive and chillie pasta bake, with home made garlic bread and salad.

The spread

MmMmm cheesy....

My plate round 1

Half way through dinner, the Australian Open Men's finals were on. So we pretty much spent the rest of the night watching Djokovic play Tsonga. I ended up having to drink half a bottle of alcohol because I couldn't stand the suspense! I wanted Tsonga to win so badly!!! The night ended pretty early as we had an early day tomorrow.

Day 4

We had ALOT of leftover pasta from last night. So breakfast was another carb loaded pasta meal. We quickly got changed and headed down to the beach. And although it was grey and cloudy, we committed and all jumped into the water for a last game of volleyball! It was then time to do some final packing a good clean of the house before we headed back to Sydney. All in all, it was a fantastic trip!!!

Day 21 - The return to Milan

Its freezing. I'm pretty sure I had frostbite by the time I woke up. The good news was, my security system worked wonders again and we had survived our La Spezia holiday in one piece! We headed downstairs to "breakfast" where I had a big piece of crouton and packet jam. God I missed our 5 star hotels. We roamed outside to try and find some sandwiches/pastries we could buy to eat on the train. After walking around half of the town, we ended up back at yesterday's bar where we picked up 1 crossiant for Moishii, and 1/2 a piece of foccacia for me. And of course we had to have a coffee to kick start our day. We went back to our room for last minute packing before we checked out. Because the lift was so tiny, we actually had to leave separately as we couldn't possibly fit in together.

Then we had the nice long climb to the train station. It took us a good 5 minutes to get up the stairs as the plan was to lift the suitcases up about 10 steps. Stop. Go back and get our hand carry and bring it up the suitcase. Rinse and repeat until you got to the top of the stairs. By this time, I was huffing and puffing and sweating like I just did a marathon. At the top of the stairs was a cafe, and the people were just sitting there staring at us bent over and trying to breath. We dragged our stuff to the train station and went down in the first elevator to go underground, then we jumped into another elevator to go to the platform. Now, everytime we've used these elevator, I have been the operator. Don't forget, you must HOLD ONTO THE BUTTON THE ENTIRE TIME for it to move. However, at the last elevator, because of the way we got into the lift, I couldn't reach the buttons properly. So Moishii was in control of the elevator. So up we go. As the top of the lift reaches the platform, we could see our train on the platform since this is a glass elevator. SHIT! We're 20mins early but the train is already here! WE'RE GOING TO MISS THE TRAIN! The elevator comes to a stop and I push on the door to get out. Wait, the door isn't moving. I push harder. The door is locked! I drop everything and grab the handles with both hands and start tugging on it (*Flash back to the Santorini sunset moment......*) when someone walks past us. Out of nowhere, Moishii lunges over the suitcases and starts pounding on the door with his fists like a lunatic. He was about 2 seconds away from screaming his head off for help. This is when I turned around and decided to press the "up" button on more time. The lift moves up about 2 inches and suddenly the door opens when we toppled out. FFS! WHAT IS IT WITH US AND DOORS???????

We quickly drag everything with us and start racing down the platform to our carriage when we noticed that the doors are closed and everyone is crowded on the platform. The train wasn't due to leave for another 20mins! So much for our panic. So we're standing around our carriage and notice there is about 10 people crowded around the door. We decided to move to the other end of the carriage where there was no one waiting at all. So we're standing around a door and staring at this sign all written in Italian. The guy standing near us must've seen the drool coming out of our coma-like face and decided to tell us that the door is broken and won't be opening. God we must look intelligent. So we trundle back to the other door with the now growing group of people.

Finally the train doors open, and its worse than the Myer's Boxing day sale. Even the 70y.o. woman was about to pummel me in the face to get onto the train before me. Of course, I jump straigh into action and managed to elbow our way to the front of the queue. I jump onto the train and Moishii starts throwing the suitcases at me. We drag everything to our cabin, and thank goodness we're the first ones there. Since the train wasn't going to depart for awhile, we happily loaded all our stuff onto the overhead racks. Once we settled down, closed the doors and drew the curtains. We figured if people thought we were "doing things" in the cabin, they won't interrupt us or try to gas us. However, once the train started going through the tunnels which threw us into pitch darkness, meaning had to leave the curtains open.

After a few stops, people slowly started to trickle into our cabin. All was going well until this woman sat down next to me. for the next 2 hours, Moishii sat across from me, trying not to laugh. Not only was this woman as white as a ghost, she had these MASSIVE EYES. I called her Alien eyes. You know, those massive egg shapped eyes on the green alien? Except this Aliene was white. VERY WHITE. And she would sit there and read her book, and suddenly, her head will pop up. And she'll look. She'll slowly turn her head and look as if she was in a trance. Then go back to her book. Everytime she did this, Moishii practically peed himself trying not to laugh. It didn't help that I sat opposite him, with my eyes opened as wide as I can and doing those clown/ping pong ball imitation.


So here we all were, sitting in our very full cabin when this old guy walks in. He stares at his seat, this is being occupied by a woman dressed in a Highlighter fluroscent orange. Suddenly there was alot of commotion all happening in Italian when the old guy finds himself in the corridoor. From what we could understand, the Highlighter and stolen the guy's seat, and he's stuck in the corridoor whilst she gets the airconditioned cushy seat. And to add to the fun, some woman in the cabin next to ours started SCREAMING her head off. We were tempted to run next door to see if she was pulling her own teeth out. It went on for a good 10mins of her screaming randomly at someone.

As we get pull up to Milan, we spotted one of those massive thermometers stating that its currently 38degrees. FARK! This is going to get interesting. Next thing you know, half of the cabin jumps out of their seats to get ready to leave. Alien eyes next to me jumps up and tries to yank her HARD SHELL suitcase off from the overhead racks which was sitting directly above my head. My eyes practically popped out when I screamed at Moishii to help her before she crushed me to death! Out of harms way, we decided to sit back and wait for everyone to get off first. This was a smart move as it was another 10mins before we pulled up to the platform.

When we managed to get off the platform, we were hit by the heat. It was bad, but atleast we were undercover. We drag our suitcases around to try and find the information desk. The next 15mins involve us, with 4 bags, pushing our way through the crowds whilst going around in circles (OK, mainly me pushing through the crowds because Moishii was getting bowled over). We eventually did a smart thing and found a trolley. After another 10mins, we finally got directions to our hotel. By this time, we're sweating and tired. We race through the crowd and start unloading the trolley to drag all our bags down about 100 steps when we suddenly realise that there is an escalator! Thank god! We were seriously going to throw the bags down the stairs and just chase after them.

It took us about 15mins to get to the hotel when it should've been a 5min walk because we had to keep stopping and resting. By this time, the weather was stinking hot. Much much hotter than the 38 degrees when we got off the train. We finally spot our hotel and push our way through the doors and almost collapsing into the lobby. This is when we noticed half of the hotel has been ripped to shreds as a part of their renovation. Well I hope they're friggin putting in some elevators!! BECAUSE THERE ARE NO ELEVATORS!! And the guy behind the reception desk was practically laughing on the inside to watch us two morons drag our bags up the stairs to our room. He didn't even offer to help in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER!!! By the time we got into our room, I was drenched in sweat and my arms and legs were weak and wobbly. And the best bit? THERE IS NO AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!!

We throw the window open praying for some breeze when we're greeted by next door's laundry. We can't even move at this stage and just sit/lay where ever we landed. We decided to grab a quick shower each. The only problem was that there was no hot water. I guess thats not too bad when its 45 degrees!!! After our shower, we packed all our stuff and headed out to the Duomo. Our plan was to spend today sightseeing the Duomo and climbing to the top of the roof. Thats the ONLY sightseeing we want to do in Milan. And the rule for tomorrow is, no DSLR. We can bring our point and shoot if we want, but we really needed a break from the DSLR.

We catch the metro to the Duomo where we walk around in circles until we finally find the lift to the top. Once we're at the top, the view is breathtaking. There are no words to describe the intricacies on every inch of the roof.






As much as this place was gorgeous, it was 45 degree heat already. Standing on the roof of a WHITE MARBLE church that reflects the sun back on you, makes it almost 48 degrees. Teh 38 degree heat we felt when we got off the train would've been highly welcomed instead of this weather. At one stage, I had to sit down because I was getting such bad head spins. Is this called a heat stroke? Once I sat down, I couldn't get back up. Yet there were chicks in mini skirts and stilettos tromping aroung this place! Like wtf?

We called it quits when we realised we were going to pass out. I desperately needed a drink since I guzzled all my water climbing up to the roof. I spotted a Burger King and I immediately screamed that I am getting a drink. I'm pretty sure Burger King will have a big 1L icy cold coke waiting for me. I get in line, and before I can even order, Moishii screams that he's going to get food. Next thing you know, we had both ordered a meal deal and practically inhaled the whole thing down our throats. It was only then did we realised that we were famished! Not surprising considering we only had a crappy crossiant/crouton for breakfast and a small slice of pastry/bread each for lunch. This was possinly our best meal in Italy. Don't get me wrong. I loved the Italian food. But everytime it was meal time, it was either standing at a bar eating a sandwich because it was cheap and instant or sitting at a restaurant eating pizza which took them ages to make. This was cheap and instant, we got a seat AND it was HOT FOOD and GOD IT WAS GOOD! It was definitely better than sex!!!


After our meal, we walked around the local department store and being totally disgusted with the Milan guidebooks, we decided to head back to our hotel. I don't know why the hell we did that, considering we had NO AIR CONDITIONING, and the day certanly wasn't getting any cooler. We decided to stop by the local supermarket and stock up on water and supplies before heading back. As Moishii paid for the stuff, I started heading towards the door and stepped on this metal "speed bump" like thing on the floor. It goes "BAM!" and I basically got the dirties form the security guard who was just sitting 30cm away from it. 10secs later, Moishii stomps on the thing and it goes BAMMMMM!!!" again. This time, the security looked like he was going to shoot us if we didn't get out of there!!!

When we got back to the hotel, we told the guy at reception that we had no water. He just told us to run the water for awhile, and if there is no hot water, he'll look at it tomorrow. So we did exactly that. We turned the shower on and let it run for 2 mins, 5 mins, 15mins and there still wasnt any hot water! In the end, I just jumped in and rinsed off before jumping out. Even though it was 45 degrees outside, the water felt like -30!! So there was no lift, no air con, no hot water, and to make things worse, the TV had no remote. Not too much of an issue IF I COULD REACH the bloody controls. I finally give up and go to sleep. But it was so stinking hot, I ended up tossing and turning the entire night. I didn't even use a sheet because I was sweating in my PJs. I ended up sleeping less than 2 hours.....

Day 20 - Cinque Terre

It feels GREAT to sleep in! We didn't get up til about 8am which is a rare change for us. I'm surprised we actually woke up that early considering our room was FREEZING COLD and we should've been cryogenically frozen and not wake up until there was a power failure! When we had defrosted ourselves, we went down to the lobby and grabbed another time table for the trains to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is fast becoming one of most popular tourist attractions in Italy. There are 5 coastal villages that make up Cinque Terre. Cinque being 5, and Terre being Village. And after hearing my workmates rave about it, it was a place we had to visit.

We walked towards the breakfast hall where a lady stops us and starts going on about something in Italian. Next thing you know, we're ushered into the breakfast room where they plonk 2 crossiants down on the table and screamed that they only had one chocolate crossiant left. Me not having a sweet tooth, didn't really care and took the plain one. And honestly, their breakfast wasn't the most appetising anyway. After staying at so many 4 and 5 star hotels, with a full buffet breakfast from bacon, eggs, sausages and various other deli meats and cheeses, to mountains of pastries and cakes as well as baskets filled with loaves of fresh bread, not to forget the cereal, fruit and mass amounts of freshly squeezed juice, their leftover crossiant just doesn't cut it.

After breakfast, we quickly headed upstairs and grabbed our gear before heading back to the train station. We purchase our tickets and quickly did a scan of the timetable to see when our train will be coming. This is when we noticed that there won't be a train for atleast 1.5hrs. Apparently from 9am to 10:30am, there are no trains to Cinque Terre. And you know what the best thing is? The timetable we got yesterday from reception and the one we got today from reception AND the one hanging in the foyer of the reception ALL SAY THAT. Yet neither of us bothered reading the timetable properly! This meant we had 1.5hrs with nothing to do! God I could've slept in some more! *Sigh*

With that in mind, we immediately went to the nearest bar for some coffee. This is the first bar we've been to that has bar stools. We weren't sure if sitting on the bar stools AT THE BAR counts as sitting down for coffee, so we did this half ass on half ass off the stool type thing. So we're KIND OF SITTING, but we're not. Anyway, half way through the coffee, this little asian girl comes out and sits at the bar with us. She would've been the age of 6? 7? This almost caused Moishii to have a laughing fit, because he reckons that was the young me. Whatever.

After the coffee, we still had a good hour left, so we went back to the hotel where we fell back into bed. God it was harder getting up the second time than it was the first time. After an hour, we headed back to the train station to wait for our train. Whilst we were there, we thought we'd pop into the ticketing office to try and upgrade our train ticket to Milan from second class to first class, simply because we thought we would get more luggage space. After lining up for 15mins behind a bunch of tools going off at the workers, they gave us a basic "NO!" and to do it on the internet. What a nice way to waste our time.

The train pulls up and we immediately jump on. First stop was Riomaggiore. We get oiff and wonder around aimlessly lost for a few minutes before we located the sign to the "lover's walk". This is an easy paved walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola, the second village from La Spezia. They call it the Lover's Walk as the lover's can stroll along the coast without breaking into a sweat! Plus the view is gorgeous! Probably why there are so many proposals that happen at Cinque Terre.




The walk was a pleasant stroll allowing us to admire the coastal view. Along the way, they had a cafe that allows you to sit back and relax. We also reached a tunnel where the walls are "decorated" with various love declarations.



We also managed to find the $40 woman's sister!!


We finally reached Manarola, we had to decend this friggin steep steep set of stairs to get down to the town.


And this is where we had to climb this FRIGGIN steep hill just for the fun of it.


The only consolation was that we managed to pick up a whole heap of really nice postcards. We strolled around the town a bit and managed to take some gorgeous photos of the town:





And suddenly, for some STUPID reason, we decided to walk from Manarola to Corniglia, the 3rd Village. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind the walk too much. But it was around 35degrees and this was an unpaved road and we didn't have hiking shoes! I was wearing my 4 year old tacky running shoes, which I had planned to throw in the bin if I ran outta room in my luggage! There were a few times where we thought we were going to slip to our deaths.

And this is the "nice" part of the road

The bad thing was, all the people from behind kept overtaking us! And along the whole way, they have these signs telling you how long it should take you to walk to the next sign. And what should've taken 15mins, would take up 25mins! My only excuse was that we had to keep stopping for photos, and the photos were gorgeous!

Does that look like a pair of boobs and feet to you?

We had to run over that!

When we got to Corniglia, we were about to pass out from heat exhaustion. Why didn't we just take the easy way and catch the damn train?? *Sigh* Atleast we did the smart thing and waited the 20mins for a local bus to drive us to the town centre rather than hiking up the mountain. We followed the narrow pathways through the town in a desperate search for food. We were SO OVER sandwiches that we were craving for a nice BIG BOWL of pasta. And we spotted a few tables of people chowing down on the best pasta I've ever seen, so we decided to sit down.....in the cafe next door. Yes I know. We didn't sit down at the restaurant we were salivating over, but the one next door. Like WTF? Don't ask me why. I don't know why either. We ended up ordering a tortelini each, as well as a caprese salad. However, what we got was this:

Caprese salad

Tortellini

Look VERY carefully, there is still plastic wrap on the edge of the bowl. That's right. That's a FROZEN MICROWAVE PASTA MEAL!!! Its practically lean cuisine!! But you know what? That lean cuisine wannabe, tasted better than some of the pasta you get around Sydney. How sad is that?


After indulging in some ice cold coke and coffee, we set off to explore the town a bit more. Except we were thinking this place is the crummiest village we've been to, until we saw this:

Of course, someone ALWAYS has to ruin it

OK, this village ain't that crummy afterall!! By this stage, it was about 1pm and it was STINKING HOT. I was about to pass out! We decided to catch the local bus back to the train station and catch the train to Vernazza. We walked back to the town square and saw the whole village waiting for the bus. Bloody hell, this is going to be a tight squeeze. We waited for a bus when suddenly a woman charges past us with a massive vacum cleaner. Like wtf? Who runs around with a vacum cleaner? Our theory is that she's going to hike from Corniglia to Manarola with that vacum cleaner. We barely got our laughing fit under control when the bus came. Within seconds, there was a stampede. Luckily I managed to grab hold of Moishii and dragged him onto the bus before we got stomped to death. Meanwhile, there were these 3 Japanese guys that have been following us from Manarola to all around Corniglia. And when we jumped onto the train to Vernazza, they were right behind us as well. It was as if they didn't know what to do, and seeing that I was the only asian, decided to do whatever I was going to do. We had to lose these stalkers.

However, we completely forgot about them the minute we got to Vernazza. It was a small quaint little village with the cobblestoned walkways. There were people lounging about enjoying their gelato whilst soaking up the sun. As we kept walking, we eventually came upon their little piece of heaven:







We ended up just sitting by the pier watching the people for a good half hour. And we were probably watching this couple play frisbee more than anything. Whenever the guy does a bad throw to the girlfriend, who misses the catch. She would HURL the frisbee back at him, aiming for a spot near a boat. It seemed that she was hoping he'll lunge for the frisbee and smack himself into the boat. '


We eventually got up and hit the bar for some alcohol. Its been a long day and we need alcohol alright?? After that, we hopped back onto the train to the last village, Monterosso. This is probably the most touristy village of them all. The beaches are lined with beach chairs and umbrellas. It looked more like a resort than a village to me!

Leaving Vernazza for Monterosso

That looks sooooooo wrong doesn't it?? Hehe

By this time, we were completely exhausted. The sun was blazing hot and if I was a piece of steak, I was beyond well done. We strolled through the seats until we found a nice quiet shady area outside a church to rest. This is when Moishii spotted the church security guard sleeping on the job:

Church Security

Random woman watching security slack off

We had finally had enough of the whole sight seeing thing and decided to head on home. Instad of catching the train back to La Spezia, we hopped onto a ferry that would take us from Monterosso to Manarola. The views was worth every cent we paid:

The Ferry

When we got back to Manarola, it was a hike all the way back to the train station to get to La Spezia. By this time, I was ready to drop dead. However, if we went back to the hotel to rest, we would not leave again to go have dinner. So we decided to have an early dinner and then go back to rest. However, I think it was TOO early for the Italians. We went back to the same pizza restaurant and sat there, and sat there and sat there. No one came out to serve us after 15mins so I stormed in to see all of them sitting down to dinner. They were completely disgusted that we wanted to eat dinner there. And they kept telling us all they're willing to serve us is pizza (hoping we'll leave), but we only wanted to pizza. So they were screwed either way. We also ordered another bottle of wine to help with the packing of our luggage tonight.

I needed that drink BADLY

Ham, mushroom and olive pizza

Porcini mushroom pizza

Suddenly, out of no where, the most gorgeous dog appears! And I said outloud to Moishii "OMG! Thats soooooo cute!". So the owner stops, and steers the dog towards me, and instructs the dog to jump all over me! However, the dog was so cute I didn't mind!


After we finished our meal, we stumbled back to the hotel in a drunken stupor to pack our belongings and crashed into bed for the night.

By the way, this photo seems to capture the essence of Cinque Terre for me. I didn't even remember taking this until I was browsing through my photos the other day. It totally took my breath away and brought me back to Italy. I must admit, I couldn't help but smile when I realised I took this photo! It was something I would've paid for if it was a postcard! hehe