After a most relaxing week in Cinque Terre and the French Riviera, I have made it to Barcelona.

I ended up spending 4 nights in Cinque Terre, staying in Riomaggiore, reading newspapers and books, a bit of sun and a bit of mediterranean sea, drinking wine, cooking up pasta in our kitchens in our apartment/dorms, watching sunsets etc.

Quite relaxing really.


And then Nice which was ironically not particularly nice.

It was like any other city in many ways, except with a beach of rocks.
The surrounding towns on the Cote D'Azur however were rather nice, such as Monaco/Monte Carlo and Cannes. Never seen so many Ferraris, Lambourghinis, and Porsches in my life.

From Nice, we headed through Avignon in Southern France to Espana and Barcelona!

However, it was to be for one night only as the La Tomatina Festival was just days away!

The following morning I jumped on an old, dodgy bus driven by a young english guy (appropiately named Mr Dodge) who I met in an internet cafe in Florence.

We drove down to Valencia along the coast, stopping at the beach for a swim along the way.

We stayed the night in a beach car park just south of the city and used the facilities of the campground nearby: Cheap!

From there we headed off the next day out to Bunol, a typical small town west of Valencia, where, in a small dead end street at the end of town, about 30 people had set up camp in théir various cars and vans.

The next 36 hours were so ridiculous that i can barely describe it.
That night, Ash (Mr Dodge) went to pick up his mum from the airport in the bus, accompanied by 26 drunken revellers. His mum, who was amazingly cool about the whole situation, received a rock star´s welcome at Valencia Airport, cheered by 27 people and then escorted back in to Bunol in the packed bus.

That night, this small peaceful town was pumping with carnivals and temporary outdoor clubs all night until the festival started in the morning.

At 10am, after hundreds of buses brought in 40000 people to fill the streets completely shoulder to shoulder, the festival began with the Ham on a high pole, which was the precursor to the main event.

When 11am came around, the shots went off and the high powered hoses started soaking everyone, as the first trucks moved through the streets dumping and throwing thousands of Roma tomatoes.


And the fun began......


What followed was at times exhilirating, violent, hilarious, and always messy.

Nevertheless, everybody ended up covered head to toe in tomato residue, parts of which were to inevitably remain for days to come.

And then it was over.


As the thousands of tourists headed back to Valencia, the town had a well earned siesta.


However, yet another random event was to occur that night.
Not publicised at all, and hence more for the locals, at 3am another shot rang out as the same streets that had been covered in tomatoes earlier that day were now covered in fireworks.

15 mins of fireworks at ground level shooting out through the streets: alot of fun and of course quite dangerous.


Following this bizarre display, hundreds of people appeared from nowhere setting up fires all along the street, for a big cook-up.
So we helped one old guy collect his firewood and then watched him prepare a massive dish of mojete, a thick meaty soup which we ate with no hesitation.


So apart from random bus rides to airports with 30 drunk people cheering on someones mum, all night parties, 40000 people throwing tomatoes at each other, random 3am street level fireworks, and 5am family and friends cook ups, it was a pretty boring 3 days.

Just arrived in Riomaggiore, the first village of Cinque Terre.

Fortunately, the' Italian Explorer' generally lived up to expectations, the main problem being that it was a little rushed.

Pompeii was fantastic. To finally see the deep lines along the ancient roman roads worn away by chariots 2000 years ago, and some remarkably 'unruined' ruins was amazing.

From there we headed to Sorrento, the resort town and our base for 2 nights.
The next day was Capri, a stunning island off the coast, where we went on a lengthy boat tour around the island (lengthy because we went into the Blue Grotto (look it up) which required waiting for 90 mins as it hadn't been open in 2 weeks).

And the guy rowing our little boat into the grotto decided to dump water on my camera just before we went in, so I had no photos of the inside.

Following this, we headed up to various towns (Capri, Anacapri) making our way to the top of the island, where a chairlift took us right up to the top.

The views were incredible, the sheer cliffs, perfect blue water, little houses coming out of the cliffs, yachts of the rich and famous dotted around..

The next day was even nore spectacular as we headed down the Amalfi Coast, with more little villages shooting straight up from the sea.

We eventually returned to Rome, whence we left the next morn for the rolling Tuscan Hills and Florence.

Florence was very very expensive, but we did the obligatory visit to Davo and the Uffizzi Gallery which was initially disappointing but came good at the end with some famous Botticelli and Da Vinci works, and a large Da Vinci exhibition explaining his drawings, inventions etc.

Now in a quiet and rather steep village in Cinque Terre, I'll be leaving Italy soon, hopefully to return when I have money.

The french riviera awaits before what will be a crazy 2 weeks in Spain, hopefully involving me being pelted with hundreds of tomatoes.

I may have spoken too early about (and misspelled) precipitation. I was rudely awoken from my deep sleep on the deck of the ferry Hellenic Spirit from Patra to Ancona at 9am by the beginning of a storm that had made its way across northern Italy into the Adriatic Sea. The rain and cooler breeze that followed intermittently over the next few days was a nice change from the stifling heat with no relief in Athens.

After a midnight swim at the beach our rooms overlooked in Paros, we headed on to Ios, where we stayed at Far Out Camping, adjacent to the far nicer and inevitably more expensive Far Out Village. Unfortunately, for the first night i was condemned to what could only be described as a dog kennel, which although fine at 4am, became more furnace like once the sun rose at 8am. I made the mistake of not staying out til sunrise as many others did (particularly the large Italian contingent), staggering back along the beach as others were setting up for another day.

This was Ios, the party island, although i did manage to fit in some sea kayaking out into a cove where we jumped of cliffs into rocky water, and ate some minging sausages (look it up if your not from the UK). And somehow caught up with Mark Finn,
a mate from school and blues jam sessions, who i thought had gone to Santorini but had returned to Ios.


The lasting impression of the Greek Islands was a good one despite lingering memories of 'Love Generation' and Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie', and large groups of irritating Italians 'singing' the riff from the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army ad nauseum.

And so, I was stuck on yet another ferry back to Italy.


Finally we arrived in Ancona (described in Lonely Planet as a 'Grimly Industrial Port City'), and instead of catching the train into rome, Carrie (a Canadian girl i'd met on the way over)and I stayed the night there, which was relaxing but not very exciting, although that suited me fine after Greece.

And finally we headed into Rome, watching Gladiator (again!) on the bus.

Rome has been my favourite city so far.

This is my third day here and I have done some hardcore sightseeing but it has been worth it.

The first day involved a Vatican tour, the spanish steps and the Diocletian Baths.
The Sistine Chapel is amazing and St Peters Basilica enormous!

The next day, the Palatine Hill and the Colloseum, the Capitoline Hill, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Navona, et alia.

Today, the Piazza de Popolo, Villa Borghese, Circus Maximus, Travestere and Giancolo

I may or may not have eaten Gelati 3 times yesterday, but it is so good.

I managed to consume scoops of Vanilla Bourbon, Honey, Blackberry, Bacio (pretty much like the soft fillimg from the Baci Chocolates), Blood Orange, Strawberry, and Profiterole gelato!

Tomorrow, I'm off down the coast to Pompeii and Naples, which was one of the main things i wanted to see in the entire trip.

Hopefully, Italy will continue to live up to expectations...

Now sunning myself in the Greek Islands, having left Italy by 21 hour ferry for Patra and then a 3 hour bus into Athens.

After drinking so much in the previous 3 weeks, it was nice to have a few days off in Athens where I had 4 nights. It was very hot (obviously), so it paid to follow the lead of the locals and have a siesta in the afternoon after sightseeing in the morning.

The Acropolis was amazing, and i just sat up there overlooking the city for a quite a while taking it all in. Once again using my (still valid but shouldnt be) student card to get a substantial discount, i got a pass to all the main archaeological sites and the acropolis museum.

The next day i went to the National Archaeological Museum, which was very interesting, if a little tiring.

By this stage i had moved into the nice Achilleas Hotel where i met alot of Busabout people, most of whom had just been in the greek islands and had alot of stories to tell, whetting my appetite for the adventure to come.

The remaining day or so before i left, I had a couple of good wanders by myself around Athens. Putting the map away is very liberating. I ended up in various narrow dingy streets, and didnt see any tourists for 3 hours! Which when youve just been at the acropolis is very refreshing.

Although it was very hot, unlike most of central Europe, The greeks actually know how to deal with the heat. EG. Such inventions as refrigeration, air conditioning, cheap bottled water in large bottles (1.5L for 0.55c in the supermarket), and alot of juice that is actually 100% juice!

Finally I met up with Tracy, our guide for the greek islands, and 10 or so of the group for dinner the day before we left.

The next morn, at an hour that could only be described as unearthly, we rose bleary eyed to catch the ferry to the first stop, Mykonos, the busiest and most expensive of the Cyclades.

we were staying in the contiki resort of all places which was very expensive but very nice. Not surprisingly, Ive found that you get what you pay for everywhere you go.

After some laying in the sun, we headed into town and did a bit of a tour and had a nice and not too expensive greek dinner. Then, it was off to some bars and clubs, where, a long island ice tea or 8 later, fun was to be had.

The next day, we once again laid in the sun at the pool and beach, where we also did a spot of sea kayaking.

In the early arvo, it was off to town and then to Paradise Beach.
The roads on the greek islands and the people travelling on them have got to be the most crazy in the world. There are a lot of people on mopeds with no safety gear at all speeding around through incredibly narrow gaps between buses and walls and pedestrians going in various directions.

So having survived the bus ride across the very arid and sparsely populated island, we entered through a door into a massive beach with clear blue water, almost entirely covered with sunbeds and several bars at the back pumping out music.

Unlike the rather disturbing sight at the Englischer Garten in Munich (Old german men laying out with all to see and nothing that anybody wants to), there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds (you get the idea) of stunning girls.

But it all started about 5pm when the music started really pumping, and everyone started dancing on the tables. After an hour or so, it was basically just a massive massive massive beach party!

And we supposedly havent got to the 'party' island (ios) yet!


Today we moved over to the rather more serene, inexpensive, and greek island of Paros, where my room looks over yet another picture perfect beach.


I'm now at about the half way point of the trip and it has gone so fast, but telling people where ive been and where i'm going (as you do all the time when you are meeting hundreds of people), and looking over this blog, i cant believe how much ive done and seen and spent and experienced.


Oh, i forgot to mention the weather, but you don't really notice it when you havent seen a cloud or any form of precipitaion for months....