Thursday 28 April 2011

Cinque Terre

Can you tell we are excited to hike cinque terre (the 5 cities) again! This is mine and Bryan's second time but everyone else's first, but this time we have a tour guide. One of Dylan's "old" (old in age & in investigatingness) investigators- Robbie. For some reason Robbie knows everything about everything in Italy and loves to share it. We are so excited!! This was my favorite part of my last trip in Europe. GEE!


Within 15 minutes of hiking we were mesmerized. Me and Sam kept pinching each other, but it wasn't really hurting so we figured this all couldn't be real. So in case you are wondering these next few pictures are not reality.


The second the of the cities. We went on a long swim here and all of us got cut somewhere on our feet or hands from the barnacles. It was magical.



After all that hard exercise we stuffed our faces. Nice Robbie.


The third city.



The rest of the kiddies had to get back to Genova earlier than me and Sam so we stayed and finished the hike. Is just so happened that the last stretch of hike was called pathway of love. I know, I know, crazy stuff. So gooshy deliciousness. Here I am being so sexy on the pathway of Love. Don't be tempted by my body that is covered in sweat, dirt, and saltwater.


But if this guy doesn't tempt you, I don't know what will.





This is the last city. This is the one where all the ladies and I stayed our first travel here. And this next picture is where last time Bryan cut her foot open on a broken beer bottle and the paramedics came and clean her up and bandaged her and everything for only 15 euros. But then a few weeks after our trip my dad made her soak her foot and a another piece of glass fell out of her toe. I guess you get what you pay for, no?



This was one of the funnest days ever. Go Funnessestness!

Dylan's Genova

Me and Sam tagged along with the Mckinnons on Tuesday. Dylan gave us a delicious tour of one of the cities in his mission. The tour started out with a variety of different focaccia breads. Dylan is here displaying the deliciousness with his stuffed cheeks. Thank you D.



Then Dylan took us to this cool restaurant for lunch that creates a new menu each day. They simply write up on paper what they will be serving that day and when they run out they just cross off that option on your menu. You pay a flat rate of 9 euros and get a drink, first plate, and second plate. It was so fun. We were all so full when we left.



We be walkin'.


We be stoppin'.


We be posin'.

Yo.
Our view from our balcony. Mckinnons rock for letting us stay with them. The best part about staying with them (besides the free bed, of course) was the up-late game playing we did. Boo-ya.

Due Anni in Portofino

We celebrated our two year anniversary on Monday. Yea, I know. Weird. Anyways, in celebration we did this sweet hike that Dylan suggested. This hike goes along the coast of Italy and it is all through this national park. It was fun, hard, cool, and cool. We packed up our bags with towels, food and lots of treats.

This is the thing I wanted to bring home with me from Italy. But the owner of the car told me no. Rude. It is about the size of my checked luggage.


Well, let's get going on the hike.


A big part of the hike smelled like lilacs.







This is the little village we hiked down into and had our lunch and swam and saw lots of nakedness. It was perfect.






We Finished.


We ate lots of delicious focaccia bread because it is famous in this part of Italy and because we don't need a reason.


This is the city we finished our hike in. Well, when we got there I asked Sam to braid my hair and these three older ladies walked by and asked if they could take a picture cause they thought it was so cute. Anyways, they eventually came back over and started talking to us and you could tell they had had a little too much wine. They were from New England and they were cool/crazy/tipsy/funny. It was nice that we could celebrate our special day with them.

The lady demanded to have my camera so she could take pictures of us. I was almost positive she was going to run off with it. I know I would have if I was sloshed. I would do lots of cool things if I was drunk, I am almost positive.


Happy 2 years in Portofino to us. Go love.

Sunday 24 April 2011

Faces of Siena












Thanks Siena, it was . . . . fun?

Nice, France and Old Friends

My old neighbor Evan has been living in Nice, France for the last two years as a traveling musician. He's the guitarist in a band called the Phly Boyz that travel all over Europe and parts of the U.S. performing at private parties for rich people. He's a PHENOMENAL singer and started the band with a few of his friends and a drummer from England. He pretty much lives the life that thousands dream of, and he totally deserves it because he rocks. He and his two friends live in the heart of old town Nice and share two flats between the three of them. They let us stay in one of them for a few nights. They rock.


We got there on a Friday evening. It ended up pouring all day Saturday... I mean all day! But we still loved every second. We went to this little market right around the corner from Evan's place and ate the best pain au chocolat I've ever had. No one really spoke any English or Italian, so it was fun trying to get around with hand gestures and the two or three words of French we know.

Rainy beach day.

Evan treated us to France's attempted at American food for lunch. It was delicious. We giggled while watching all the French people around us eating burgers with a fork and knife.


It was great to reunite with Evan and reminisce about all the dumb things we used to do, which included a lot of singing to Back Street Boys and N'Sinc in his basement. Since it was raining, we decided to do a little jam session. He pretty much could start play any song on the guitar right after listening to it, so we had a blast. We even did a little recording of "Here Comes the Sun" using the sophisticated recording technology of IMovie on my computer. (we'll see if I can get it posted)


Reagan always happily returns my love.


Cloudy beauty at the beach.



We bought some candy at this little stand which ended up being terribly sour, and equally overpriced. We had a competition to see whole could hold a straight face the longest after shoving some in their mouth. I won. I also won the ugly face contest. I always win that one.


Here's Evan and two of his band buddies. I walked upstairs to their flat one evening and they were playing the theme song from the TV show Friends (which happens to be one of Reagan's favorites right now). I told them that Reagan would love to here it, so we went down and knocked on the door. As soon as she opened it, they burst into song. She was mesmerized, and they were awesome. Then we spend the next hour playing the card game version of Monopoly. Evan rocks. Nice rocks.