True Backpackers

Well the car has officially left our lives. It was towed from our campsite in Sferracavallo on Tuesday afternoon after a bit of a struggle with our insurance.
Justin bought European breakdown insurance for our trip - Turns out they signed him up for national insurance (for the UK) only. Justin told them he was misled and the lady listened to the prior phone call and agreed that it was their fault. To make a long, fairly frustrating story short, they figured it all out for us and towed it to a wrecker.

Sferracavallo was a strange dirty little town to be stuck in while we dealt with all of that. There was a festival going on and that certainly livened up the city. If you were out and about during siesta things looked downright depressing. We tried arancini for the first time there (a sicilian specialty- meat sauce stuffed rice balls) and they are just so yummy.

We made our first official train trip with all our belongings on our backs from Sferracavallo to another little Sicilan town called Taromina with the hopes of trekking up Mt. Etna; an active volcano. As soon as we arrived here I think we knew that wasn't going to happen. The town is just so beautiful - 2 crystal clear bays surrounded by houses all built up on the cliffs above it. There is an amazing Greek theatre here and a cable car takes you down to the sea. Our hostle is really great, not only because simply having a bed for the first time in a few weeks is such a treat, but it has a terrace that overlooks the city and water where everyone hangs out and socializes. We went out last night with a group of people and it was really fun.
It's been super hot here in Sicily and we have taken full advantage of it here in Taormina. We went snorkeling for a few hours today and found a huge grotto that I found really scary, and we saw so many amazing fish. My favorite was a long needle nose one that I have never seen before.

We leave tomorrow on a long train ride for Naples. I've been told its absolutely filthy and dangerous, so that should be fun.

Thanks for reading my little update.
Gen

RIP Micra

At approximately 1PM on Tuesday the 24th of September our little red 1995 Micra passed away. It had 101,492 miles on the odometer and took us 2,776 miles from London.

We stopped in Cefalu, about 60km from Palermo, west Sicily to check out the old town, and on our way out we stopped and filled up the tank, €67 at €1,90\L. Almost immediately after the transmission warning light started flashing. It had flashed before in Cornwall briefly, and only once or twice randomly on our trip. This time is was continuous.

Now since we have done all we can as far as prolonging its life, and we have driven through every clunk, noise and smell so far, I just kept going. We were fine in the same gear on the autostrada, but when we came into Palermo we hit traffic about 15km from our campground in Sferracavallo. After the first time we came to a stop we had serious trouble getting going again. I knew she was gone. Palermo, and Sicily on the whole, are pretty sketchy, and this section of road was not where I wanted this to happen. We did manage to crawl along, and we got through Palermo, and we got to our campground, slowly, and we managed to park at reception. I turned it off there for the last time.

After checking in here for a few nights I went to start it up and see if we could drive to our pitch. I'm guessing the computer knew it was too gone to turn over because it just didn't, we had to get a push up to where it sits now. A fitting end. To be fair that last bit was in the direction we came from. The Micra literally went as far as we were ever going to go, everything from here was on the way back. It's like a script.

Before we left Wimbledon I went to to a local mechanic for a little advice, and as well as explaining what transmission fluid to use and how to fill it they also shot the shit with me a bit and laughed at my ambition. One joked, if that thing makes it to Sicily send me a postcard. You'll be lucky to get to Dover. The other said it could very well make it all the way home. I took that for what it was and figured we might as well go for it, but if we did hit Sicily they were getting a postcard.

We left some luggage at our friends Will and Lorna's before leaving, and debated driving it to north London, but a couple hours in traffic seemed like wasted time on its life, so we took our heavy bags on the tube. I think that shows how we felt from the start, we just didn't know. Perhaps had we driven to Finchley we wouldn't have made it to Sicily.

Every stretch of road we have driven was something we wouldn't have seen by train. Even if it was boring toll autostrada it was new. We went to so many amazing campsites and saw a totally different kind of traveling from hostels. We went down so many strange back roads getting lost and found in the quietest corners of different countries. We've seen the edges of cities as well as the hearts. We've seen the most amazing scenery, from the Alps to the Adriatic coast of Southern Italy. I could go on and on, and our photos do.

The further this little car went to more I fell I love with it. Every new place we saw away from a train station was a memory it gave us. I actually think Gen got a little jealous when I started calling it baby towards the end. It very easily could have died when we got off the ferry in France, and it could have died when we dragged it through the Dolomites for 5 hours until after dark, and it could have died in some vineyards in the middle of nowhere or on a side street in sketchy ass Bari or Palermo. But it didn't, it drove us exactly as far as we were going to go. Of course I had plans of things to see the next few days, but life goes on.

From here we figure out how to scrap it, leave behind our camping gear, our stump, and a number of other things we can't fit on our backs, and continue by train. It's going to be a totally different trip, but still a good one. I'm so happy this great little car took us so far.

Rest in peace little red Micra, thanks for the adventure!

-Justin

The Unassuming South East Coast

Yesterday we drove from Italy's 'spur' to a little town called Alberbello. The spur was not a planned destination for us, but i found a campsite there that was open (which has been a problem as of late) that looked like it had an amazing beach, so we went. It was a huge resort campsite right on the beach, and it was almost deserted so we had a choice spot. It was so nice to be on the ocean; although it would be nice to be in a bit busier atmosphere to meet people.

The drive south along the coast of the spur was absolutely breathtaking. The two towns close to us were Peschici and Vieste, and they were stunning; white washed, built up all on hills, and overlooking the ocean. The drive to Alberbello from the south of Vieste rivaled any I have ever seen as far as beautiful coastline is concerned. If you are lucky enough to have seen most of Italy I would absolutely recommend visiting this area for something a little quieter and undiscovered by tourists. I should mention that this area has plenty of hotels, campgrounds and services, as Italians vacation there in the summer.

On our drive south near Bari we encountered our first Italian prostitutes. These women are on the most random outskirts roads far away from any city centre just chilling at pull offs or the side of the road. We were very confused by them at first, especially the group of women wearing bikinis waving stop signs, but I looked it up and apparently prostitution is very legal here. Who knew.

The town of Alberbello and area surrounding it have these little homes made of stones called Trulli houses. They look quite quaint and are unique to this area. We camped near here and the campground had a pool and real toilets. It was a treat.

Except for two days in a hostel in Munich, we have camped every single night for almost 3 weeks now (one night sleeping in our car). It's an interesting life and very different from how we camp in Canada. Back home I would scoff at paying for a site or staying somewhere with showers and real toilets and wifi. Now when we get those things I am so happy. I don't think I will look at the people in provincial sites back home the same now; They just have a different agenda than I normally do.
For the past 4 nights our air mattress had had a leak. We found one for sale but it was €50... and as we don't know how much longer we will be camping for we held off on buying it. The longer the Micra lasts and the more we continue to camp the more I regret not buying it. Camping supplies, as most things here in Italy, even food sometimes, are not easy to come by because we don't know where to go or how to ask. The farther south east we go the more we notice a language barrier and a much longer siesta (where everything is closed mid day).

I think we have a pretty big adventure ahead of us in the next couple days.

Gen

East Coast Italy

Venice and Rome were the two big ticket visits for me on this trip so as we were getting close to Venice I started to get a bit excited more than anywhere else so far. As Gen mentioned, we stayed in Punta Sabbioni which is on the tip of a peninsula that surrounds part of the Venice lagoon. Part of the drive there was on a dyke that had the ocean on one side and houses and fields a good 2 metres below sea level on the other. It was a perfect preview on the mentality it takes to have a city like Venice, mental.

We were a short ferry ride from the city that was part of the public transit system and €25 got us 2 days cruising to Venice, around the perimeter, over to Lido and of course up and down the Grand Canal. I knew to expect hoards of tourists, but it didn't phase me there like other places because it was just such a surreal place. It doesn't make any sense to have a city like that, and in reality it looks every bit the way you'd picture it. An accident waiting to happen, but a beautiful one. Some buildings are visibly tilting as they sink, and many walkways and doorways are below water level. There's even a massive construction project in place to build retractable flaps to block sea water if necessary. If I describe Venice at all like I snapped pictures I'd never end. I'll just say It was pretty cool. Check it out.

After Venice we drove down the east coast of Italy. It was cool to see Venice outside of Venice, the lagoon is actually really big with industrial areas as well as small fishing towns with cool hut/net things built all over the canals I didn't get a picture of. As soon as we were out of Venice it became pretty clear not many tourists came this way.

We drove as far as Ancona as we read about Frasassi Caves, which sounded unreal, and we wanted to camp near there. When we got close we went to a beach town called Senigallia with a bunch of camp sites listed, but it ended up being a complete ghost town and everything was closed.

This part of Italy seems to only operate during the really hot high season, I guess since there's so many other parts to see there's just not enough tourism to go around. We ended up driving into the hills near the caves and pulling off the road and sleeping in the car. Wild camping (as we read its called) is illegal in Italy so we weren't sure how it would go over, and a few people did see us, but we were discrete and it was actually not too bad a sleep in the little Micra.

I should mention that I'm falling more in love with this car every day. Even though every noise and smell scares me half to death it's still going and I couldn't be happier.

So the next day we followed signs to the caves in circles for a while until we started losing it and almost gave up. Once we ignored the retarded signs we finally found it. Thank god we did, Frasassi Caves is well worth a google search at the least and a visit if ever possible. It's easily the most incredible natural sight I've ever seen, there's a series of rooms, the largest big enough to fit the Milan Cathedral, a reference that luckily makes sense to me now. It was so expansive and other worldly it took my breath away many times. We lucked out with an English guide to ourselves who was meant to be there for a group that never showed, but there were no photos allowed and she was always close. Snuck a couple with my phone though.

We are now camping on the beach at the tip of the spur of the boot in Vieste. A beauty spot that closes tomorrow. Then we keep following the sun and camping south.

-Justin

Haida Whales and Wine Rats

It's so strange to be traveling after being away from Canada for a year. I find myself looking for things that remind me of home, rather than the opposite as most travelers do. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying the differences, but when I see something that makes me think of Canada I give an extra pause to enjoy it.

In the heart of Verona Justin and I came across a store called 'Canadiens' - A high end winter clothing company from Italy. Everything was super nice and had our maple leaf all over it. There was even Haida art in the store. It made me happy.



Overall Verona was really beautiful. Quite touristy. Lots of high end shops and restaurants. Lots of people making out for a really long time everywhere. Our campsite was in the botanical gardens of Castle San Pietro overlooking the city. It was amazing and unforgettable for the view and the site... but the toilets and showers were holes in the ground and there were lizards and 'wine rats' (as dubbed by a camper sitting next to us on  the terrace) which scurried over ledges and in the olive vines above us. This adds to the 'unforgettable' part I guess.

The Gourmet Camper

On our last night there I went all out at the Supermercato and made a creamy pesto gnocchi and bruschetta at our campsite. With 2 beers and wine it worked out to be about a €20 meal which was quite a lot by our standards, but much less than dinner out would have been.

We are in Venice now (Punta Sabbioni actually - a ferry boat ride to Venice) and leaving tomorrow. We will head down the east coast without really a plan from here until Sicily. 




A couple random things I wanted to document so I don't forget them:

Almost all of our campsites have offered fresh bread for an extra nominal charge in the morning. It seemed strange at first but it actually quite nice now. In Brugge there was a bread vending machine that was filled every morning. In Innsbruck the receptionist at the campsite game me flash cards of every different type of bread they offered. Most sites just have a store or restaurant you can go buy it from.

So far we haven't paid for laundry; we've been doing it by hand. Most campsites have a laundry sink that we have been taking advantage of if we know the weather will be warm enough to dry it. The first time I washed everything I was next to a German lady doing  the same and I watched what she was doing and learned a lot about handwashing. Seems like a simple task but there is a method to it.

On our last night at Lake Como the lady at the bar gave us free Limoncello shots. It was icy cold and soooo tasty, and really sweet of her. Well, she didn't speak English at all so I gathered they were free...   

Anyways that's my muddled blog post today. Hope you are all well and I'm really looking forward to seeing you soon.

Genevieve

International Stump

Anyone unfamiliar with the game stump must not know me at all, and has been living a less fulfilled life. You can learn a bit from this Wikipedia page although our rules slightly differ in a much more awesome way.

As soon as we landed in London I was missing stump, but as the English cut down all their trees hundreds of years ago I knew acquiring an adequate stump was a lost cause. I did keep my eyes peeled on every drive we took, hoping, but it wasn't gonna happen.

I brought my hammer from work on this trip thinking I might be luckier in Europe, and when we passed a house in Belgium that had recently cut down and bucked up a couple trees I knew that was my chance. We went back later and swiped the perfect little stump to put in the back seat for the rest of our trip.

Now I figured once we found a stump nails would be the easy part. Granted we passed through Germany before I really started looking. In Italy I assumed if I kept my eyes peeled I'd notice some kind of building supply store on our drives but after 2 days I gave up. I looked online and found out that Italians aren't big on DIY home improvement. They strongly believe in the importance of individual trades and when something needs fixing they call Tony from down the street. I did however find the word for ironmonger (hardware store in Canada), which was 'ferramenta' and a google search of that came up with a few results.

The first mission was to a small town near our camp ground but my address was an apartment building and no ferramenta in sight. I now know not to fully trust google maps in tiny Italian villages.

The next day we went to Milan and there appeared to be a few there. We walked in to one only 5 minutes from the Duomo in the very heart of Milan that was a tiny cluttered shop with a random assortment of home improvement stuff ranging from screws to towels to cutlery. Luckily they understood my request for 'chiodi' and we went to a bin of assorted nails. I pointed out the big ones and said I wanted 50 and this poor kid dumped them on the ground and started sorting. He got to 35 and that was enough. They ended up being a ridiculous €8,50 but after all that trouble I was happy to pay.

We had mentioned our game to the German couple we met and they said it sounded familiar. Looking at the Wikipedia page I saw a link to a game called Hammerschlagen that's similar and a couple hundred years old.

We haven't gotten to play with anyone else yet, but tossing a hammer in the air has caught a few eyes, so it's only a matter of time.

-Justin

Lago di Como

We're on our fourth night at our campground on Lake Como. It's in a little town called Abbadia Lariana on the east side of the lake, not far from the town of Lecco. We really wanted to spend some time in the area so figured we would get comfortable here for 4 nights. Couldn't be happier we did.

The campground is right on the lake, and Lake Como is absolutely beautiful. We are just on the southern edge of the Alps so it's still mountainous an incredibly scenic. We did a drive around half the lake the other day that went through a bunch of cool villages perched on the hills around the lake. Lots of sketchy narrow roads and crazy drivers again. Should note the Micra rolled over 100,000 miles on that drive. While most of them weren't us I still feel better that the car can die more fulfilled having used every digit on the odometer.

Yesterday we did a day trip to Milan, which is about an hour by train and only €10 return. First glimpse at a very convenient and efficient train system here. It was great to see the Duomo and wander the fashion district, but it wasn't my favourite city. An aggressive gypsy lady was our first encounter, "helping" us buy our metro tickets by frantically pressing buttons we didn't want and then trying to take our change. The African men in the centre trying to sell shitty string bracelets were also way more aggressive than anywhere else we've been. Not that it means much but did leave an impression. I think Milan is a city you'd need to spend at least a few days in to enjoy the nightlife and maybe have some money for shopping because for a rushed day it's not heavy on sightseeing. On our way back our transfer train in Lecco was delayed an hour and a half due to an accident and we had some trouble finding out what was going on and how to get back as it was all in Italian. Luckily someone else stranded spoke a bit of English and translated the broken information he got, but it was a helpless feeling before that.

Our campground has a bar right on the water that has hosted an event every night. It's definitely the most happening spot in the area and it's been an amazing time being around so many locals in a small town party spot. A pizza for €5 and a litre of wine for €8 doesn't hurt. We met a really nice German couple who are in the area for rock climbing and got to drink and chat with them the last three nights which was really fun.

We're off to Verona tomorrow for 2 nights. I'm actually a little disappointed because its been so nice to settle in somewhere so beautiful and so much fun. If anyone ever has a chance to visit Lake Como do it, it's absolutely awesome.

-Justin