I'm baaack

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 3peanuts:
A-hem...guess your Polizio were "Poliziotti", we cut words a lot...

---

<font size="2" face="Comic sans ms, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well thats what it said on the car [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Here are some Swiss Mountain photos.

Me in front of the glacier on top of Mt.Titlis
Look snow! It doesn't snow in Auckland and this was only the 2nd time I've seen it.

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-1-3.jpg

The view from our hotel balcony
http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-1-4.jpg

A view from the top of Mt.Titlis
http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-1-5.jpg

And some Venice ones too.

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-2-1.jpg

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-2-2.jpg

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-2-3.jpg

Day 13

This morning it is looking like a scorcher of a day, first we are going on an official walking tour of ancient Rome, the 5am people are going to struggle. The guide was really serious every time you stood more than a meter or two away, usually to take photos, she?d go on about how we didn?t seem interested. It was like being in school. We walked around the outside of the Colosseum and through the excavated ancient city, it?s amazing to think there is even more underneath it all.

We all took a bus to the Vatican city, it was quite amusing 60 or so people trying to jump on two already full buses, like a tin of sardines which was very hard to get out of when you heard Steph call ?Andiamo!? as we reached our destination. We congregated under one of the huge pillars of the Piazza San Pietro and slipped on more appropriate church dress over our shorts etc. We walked into the Vatican museum, there are large rooms of pilfered Egyptian relics. There are more obelisks with hieroglyphs in the squares of Rome than there are in Egypt. There are rooms full of sculptures especially of Roman emperors and there was a room of cool animal sculptures too. We walked through dozens and dozens of rooms covered in paintings, not in frames but all over the walls and ceiling. The scale was enormous. We finally got to the Sistine Chapel, it was pretty amazing, what I actually thought were lines of statues near the roof were actually painting of statues. Steph had given us a few clues what to look for. We found Eve tucked under God?s arm as he reaches out to Adam. We checked out the ?Final Judgement? the painting on the far wall. We found the face of Michelangelo cleverly hidden the stripped skin of a man being held by another guy. We found the ?naked woman? hidden in the knee and shin of the main guy. All the people in the painting were in fact naked when first painted but one of the accountant?s complained so much to the Pope that Michelangelo had to cover them up some how with fig leaves and wotnot. However he did it so that when the painting was restored years later the company doing it could remove the cover-ups. At the bottom right-hand corner in Hell he painted the accountant as a horned figure being constricted by a large snake, which also happens to be biting his balls off.

We went to St. Peter?s Cathedral, it was really huge, saw the Pieta, rubbed St. Peter?s foot, scratched head over the people taking photos of a dead Pope lying in a glass case. Oh and I had to take a photo of this huge statue that fascinated me because it was a strange thing to have in a church and if anyone can explain it I?m dying to know. There was a huge statue of a man sitting on a chair/throne with long flowing robes (this was all above head height) and when you looked up when standing all you saw was a skeleton angel holding an hourglass being smothered and crushed by the robes. It was sweltering hot and it was good once we left St. Peter?s to be able to take the extra T-shirt and unzip the bottoms of my zip-off pants and turn them back into shorts.

I spent the afternoon wandering off on my own again. I think the 5am crew went back to the hotel to sleep. I found the Ponte D?angelo and wandered down a tree-lined street where almost everything was closed for an afternoon siesta. I wandered down the main shopping street and bought a really cool wallet, ate more gelato by the Trevi fountain (I have so many photos of the fountain I must?ve taken one every time I walked past it).

I didn?t quite make it back to go inside the Colosseum I instead decided to try find the Capuchin Monastery. I finally found it after a slight detour into a shop to avoid a rather strange man, must?ve been fate as I ended up buying a cute outfit there. It turns out I was the only one of our Contiki to actually go to the Monastery. The main attraction? Five rooms are completely made out of the bones of dead monks, its all a bit ooky spooky all the stuff in the rooms is made of bones, all the walls decorated with bones and one room has a monk kitted out like the Grim Reaper peering at you from the ceiling with his scythe ready to chop you down. What can I say, I saw it on TV some time before I went and weird but cool appeals to me.

Returned to the hotel for dinner, heard rumours that Paul and Steph had spent the entire afternoon drinking with the leaders of the other Contiki group in Rome and then while the others looked out for Polizio had stripped down to bra and shorts (or just shorts in Paul?s case) and jumped in one of the fountains at the Piazza Navona. Paul was still drinking in the evening and he had an argument with the waiter because he brought his drink with him from the bar to the restaurant. Step had to intervene before Paul got thrown out and then spent most of the rest of dinner arguing with Paul at their own table. We watched the whole thing it was very entertaining.

I have decided Italy is totally cool, I just wander around saying Ciao and eating gelato and it seems a perfectly decent way to spend the day. I have also TXTed 3P and Sarabiga as I?ll be meeting them tomorrow in Florence. Wicked!

Oh and I couldn't tell you what my fave flavor of gelato was I had a different one every time.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 01, 2004 08:15 PM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font>

I'm being harassed to finish this and hurry up with the photos by friends so here's a start anyway.


Day 14

Today we travelled to Florence, we stopped at a prime spot overlooking the city for our Contiki group photo. We arrived about 12pm and were taken to a leather/jewellery shop for a leather demonstration. I bought a Nomination bracelet there. Nomination.com I decided to make one of my trip so it has the flags and monuments of countries I went to on my trip. Then we were left to wander around the city for the afternoon. I went for a wander while I was waiting for 3peanuts and Sarabiga to arrive. I eventually met up with them at the Ponte Vecchio a cool, old bridge. So after the initial shy greetings, they became my tour guides, I got chatting to Sarabiga about horses which is one of my pet topics that I could talk all day on, luckily for 3P we?d reached the Duomo a big Cathedral so she could interrupt horses with history. Now I know that in Europe, history is one of the compulsory school subjects (hmm, I could fit my history knowledge into a shotglass) but 3P and Sarabiga seem to know everything, especially 3P. She said I was very quiet but that?s because I was listening to her running commentary (hell I had to show some students around the lab. last week and I?m sure I wasn?t that good). After the Duomo we went to Santa Croce. All the tombs of famous people like Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli etc. are there I can?t remember if Da Vinci was there or not, there is one for Dante the founder of the Italian language but he is actually buried outside Venice somewhere. After that I had to meet up with the Contiki group again to go to the hotel. So sad, [img]frown.gif[/img] only 2 hours with 2 great people who had actually taken a train for about 2 hours to meet me. I am trying to get them to come to NZ. I had better start remembering some NZ history now so I?ll be prepared.

We got dressed up for our Tuscan dinner which was fantastic, I think part of the place used to be a monastery and there were some musicians dressed as monks as we came in although I have to say they were slightly dodgy for monks, even pretend ones. There was lots of entertainment. A woman their sang some fabulous opera arias during dinner. After dinner there was dancing and proof that even the beauty of Tuscany isn?t safe from YMCA, the chicken dance and the Macarena. [img]graemlins/party.gif[/img]

After dinner we went to the Space electronic disco. It was rather strange for a nightclub, even a very touristy one. There was a karaoke bar downstairs and a big dancefloor upstairs. Upstairs the DJ was playing hip-hop and R&B and not very good examples of either of those so after a valiant attempt at dancing to bad music I went downstairs to the karaoke where it seemed the real party was. Nina had found her Margarita?s and Steph was just a bit wasted and the karaoke was really going off with Steph hogging the mike most of the time. Once again drinks were expensive but at least value for money with JB and coke a 50/50 concentration in the glass. Just as I was starting to warm up the club closed at 3pm.

I went with the group going back to the hotel. Nina got to the room with the help of Daphne and kind of passed out on the floor by the door. I managed to coax her to crawl a bit further in so I could close the door. Then I sat down contemplating what to do next and decided that taking a photo of her with her camera seemed like a good idea. [img]graemlins/devil.gif[/img] I helped her take her boots off and she managed to crawl onto her bed. I got ready for bed and left one of the lights on for her, I was trying to go to sleep about 10 minutes later when Nina woke up and came to the conclusion she was too drunk and too sick to sleep and decided to get up and pack or party or both. I woke up and said What? And discovered her up and about half pie throwing things in her suitcase, turning on Italian MTV to maximum volume, dancing around and poking me telling me I had to wake up and party. [img]eek.gif[/img] I say again What??? I have never seen anyone who once they?d passed out drunk turned around 10 minutes later into peppy party girl, I only just managed to convince her that drinking the contents of the mini bar was probably not a good idea. I tried to ignore her and pretend to go to sleep but she opened a packet of pretzels and I ended up eating pretzels in bed having absolute hysterics at her. I tried once again to sleep but she kept poking me and telling me I couldn?t go to sleep and we had to party ?til 6:30am. I eventually dozed off and didn?t hear Tarin come in at 5am.

Nina you're a legend!

Oh and for my friends who haven't seen the pics of me Sarabiga and 3P

Photos of 3P & Sarabiga

Day 15

It?s a very quiet bus this morning; in fact we have lost Ren and John, they we?re too hung over to wake up for the bus. They will have to take the train to Nice later, oh well at least Ren speaks a bit of Italian as he?s an Italian Aussie. The quiet trip was relieved by a hilarious but vicious neck pillow fight between Steph and Vanessa and the fact that Brooke has taken the honour of the first person to puke on the bus (Thankfully into a plastic bag). We stopped at the Tower of Pisa for photo opportunities. My personal fave is the one of me pushing the Tower over with a mischievous look on my face. [img]wink.gif[/img] A rather sorry for herself Nina has topped Brooke by being the person to puke at the Leaning Tower. [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img]

Apparently we passed through 217 and a ? tunnels going along the mountainous coast between Italy and France. The ? is because one is on the border. I got another handy hint TXT from my friend Terry at home, today?s gem is: Always wear fresh underwear?in case you get body searched. We drove into Carros near the French Riviera where our hotel was.

Tonight we drove into Monaco in Monaco to see the palace and the sights. Apparently the Prince is busy changing the rules so that not just the male family line is heir to the monarchy but the female side will be as well so they won't lose the principality, Steph says this is because it looks like he may be a bit more into boys than girls. We had an absolutely exquisite dinner and a great view of the marina.

Paul took us for a drive onto the main street that is part of the main Grand Prix track. Steph played big revving engine and tyre screeching noises on the stereo as Paul weaved the coach dodgily down the street.

We went to Monte Carlo. Even the outside and foyer of the Grand Casino are beautiful I wasn?t quite feeling up to paying the 10 euro cover charge just to go inside the main floor. Outside all the cars were, Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari etc. I had my photo taken with a nice red Ferrari. [img]graemlins/car.gif[/img] There is an awesome park right near the casino; it has great fountains and all these incredibly amazing statues of people doing everyday things. They seemed to be wearing real clothes, sort of soaked in plaster so they were hard and painted over. They were so life-like sometimes you didn?t realise they were statues until you got really close. There was a man walking his dog, people sitting chatting, reading the paper, looking at the view, carrying children and even taking photos of the casino.

the mysterious statue is San Girolamo.
The angel represents the emptyness of life and the passing of time.

Thanks for meeting us.

We've been nervous on our train to Florence. i was nervous about photos and sarabiga was nervous about her English.

So it turned out to be pleasant btw, and in spite of nervousness...


[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Chaos, those pictures look so fabulous, and you look so cute in the mountain one!! Would you mind giving me permission to post that picture on the other sip forum site, because you've been posting regularly over there now, and I'm sure people would love to see how cute you look.

If you don't want me to, don't feel afraid to say, "No way Gem! Bug off!"

I will understand. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Sure Gem if you like tho' its a bit blurry, I'm hoping to put up a few more Florence ones that may be better.

I'm in no rush. It was just an idea. If you want to post some other pics, I am happy to wait. Looking forward to seeing them actually. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Day 16

Yay! Ren and John have shown up. We went into Nice for the day to explore or as many people did just sit on the beach all day. The beach is all rocks and pebbles, no sand at all, there is only sand at Cannes and that sand is imported and dumped on the beach. There are free sections of the beach and there are paid sections with comfortable sacking underfoot, loungers, beach umbrellas and people to bring you any drinks you order. A lot of the Contiki handed over their 15 euro for the day and went to blob on the beach. I decided to do some exploring.

I went up to Le chateau first to get a great view of the coast. I found the little public toilet you had to put coins in to open the door a bit unnerving; I mean what if it got stuck while I was in it. I had toyed with the idea of taking the train to [img]graemlins/star.gif[/img] Cannes because I?m such a movie freak but considering it would take over an hour to get there I decided not to. I walked down through the old town it was quite interesting as there was a local food market going on. I walked up the main shopping street and into a posh mall. It was funny watching people with little dogs being allowed inside a shop where I couldn?t afford a lot of the stuff. I wandered off into side streets and picked up some really cool jeans quite reasonably. I got completely lost despite occasionally looking at the map and actually seemed to be getting further away from the beach which I was actually desperate to find by now as it was so hot. [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img] I was however probably the only one to find an amazingly groovy building which I took a photo of.

I finally made it to the beach but with dismay realised I couldn?t go swim because I had no one to look after my bag. So I wandered up the beachfront towards our eventual meeting point and who should I spy under the same beach umbrellas they had hired that morning but Contiki. So I wandered down to the free section of the beach and yelled ?Hey Contiki!? over the partition and Tarin came over and I said hey guard my bags and handed them over. [img]biggrin.gif[/img] Hurray! I could go for a swim the water was really warm.

The coach took us back to the hotel then and we all went and swam in the pool. And I learned never to put your microfibre quick-dry towel on the grass as absolutely everything sticks to it and it doesn?t shake off you have to pick it off piece by piece.