The Happy Travelers

Today, our leaving day. It seems impossible that our trip is done and we are now packing to go home. At this point we're quite efficient in our morning packing for day trips, but somehow, planning for the trip home seems inefficient to our travels! There is so much world to explore, it would be a wonderful life to wander and discover! Alas, it is time to go home and share all our stories and experiences with our friends and family...not such a bad deal!! Some final reflections on our journey: Anywhere you go, there will be people who are determined to bask in their own negativity and remain in a self serving bubble. But there will also always be the people who make traveling -and life in general- such a wonderful endeavour. People whose hearts ... read more

So we've found a little piece of paradise. The pebble beaches and wonderful apartments are great, the mountain coastline is amazing; but the culture, the friendly people we've come across, are really the icing on the cake here. The ouzo doesn't hurt either!!  ;) There are a lot of really genuine people here. For example, we arrived at our apartment (late), Angela met us outside before we even look for where we were supposed to go. She asked us how our trip was, how we liked Greece so far and showed us to/around our apartment. Meanwhile, her dad is parking our car because "it's dark, we've had a long trip, and it can be tricky...no problem!". And what's sitting on the kitchen table but homemade cookies and cake from Angela's mom. Ya, that's right, baking.   ... read more

We woke up feeling extra ambition and decided it was high time we dangled ourselves off one of the fine cliffs we had been ooh-ing and ahh-ing. So we set off to Murren, one gondola ride up from our town, Gimmelwald, to get mountain wear: harnesses and helmets. With no signs marking the trail we wandered the streets of Murren until we ran into our auberge neighbours going the same way. We started out together, but only one of the three in that party made it through. We, on the other hand, were two for two. So we started out with some gorgeous views, some seriously steep rolling drop offs, but nothing we couldn't handle. A few iron rod steps, a serious respect for the sheer size and height of the mountains, and we were on ... read more

After leaving Rome we were ready to cruise through to Sorrento and crash...but why be so plain? Instead, we..."toured"...Sorrento for 2 1/2 hours and introduced ourselves to several store owners, gas station attendants, and taxi drivers who thought they might know where our apartment was. It was some comfort to know the taxi driver himself was lost in his attempt to bring us to our street. We also found a number of would be NASCAR drivers who watch too much Fast & Furious, and motorcycle/scooter drivers with big cahones and little brains. Perhaps the grappa is a little too accessible here! We did find our apartment though...very cute! We took a lazy day and walked around Sorrento for the afternoon. Some neat shops -one of which introduced me to chocolate liqueur...OMG- a few shops that made ... read more

After a good sleep in Siena we were ready to tackle a new day (and sort out the previous day)! The house we rented was actually a few km's outside Siena in a place called Viglaglia. We walked into town, caught a bus into the old Siena (a beautiful walled city) and set out looking for an Internet cafe. On the way, we found some awesome shopping! Found aspace with Internet, sent out a couple choice word emails, found a Siena location for the car rental company, and went on our way to get a car. Ready for fight (I'm sure you can all imagine!), we entered the building...only to find we'd been beaten to the punch. We took notes from this feisty Italian, sure we would soon have a round of our own. By the ... read more