Florence and Pisa

I feel so disorganised, but its actually working out fine. The Italian trains aren't all that, they do run regularly and are really cheap. I'm glad I didn't get the Eurorail pass, it doesn't really make sense. From Cinque Terre to Florence its only a 2 hour journey and the hostel is really close to the train station but they choose to run you around in circles with their directions...it should have been a 5 min walk, not 15!!

The Archi Rossi Hostel is very nice, the rooms are cosy with your own lamp and bedside shelf, and the common area is great for eating the free breakfast and cheap dinners.

Once my luggage is dropped off, I do my routine check out of the town for a few hours to get my bearings. I am totally overwhelmed by the first sight I see. The Cathedral. Coloured in the patriotic red, green and white, it is completely decorated with statues and all the trimmings.

My walk continues through streets of leather shops, gold shops, tones of people, statues, amazing architecture, and I then to the river, and the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge.

The weather is boiling hot at this stage, and I am totally sweating!!!

'David' is in the Academia Gallery, so I wait out in the ever long queues. He really is beautiful, the statue is made of one piece of marble which is very impressive, and stands in the centre of the museum. I take a couple of sneaky pictures but quickly get yelled at for doing so.

Literally dodging the sun, I make my way back and meet my new room mate Alexandra. She's a styly lady from California. We chill out in the sweet little garden with a beer or two, finding it strange that we are the only ones enjoying the evening.

The next day we jump on a walking tour, that takes us where I went yesterday, but explains what buildings were what back when.

On this tour, I meet Vivian and Steve from Aussie. Steve and I finish the tour and trek down to the train station for a quick trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We had Pizza in Pisa :)

The tower is great, yet not as big as I had thought, but its well cool, and naturally we did the touristy thing, looking like a knob head trying to hold the tower up in a photo! After about 50 photos we kinda did it, but not really!

Back in Florence, we all meet up and go for a massive walk up Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sunset over the whole city. Such great ambience, the stairway is full to the brim of sightseers and a small band was playing Italian music at the bottom as the sun slowly set over Florence. God its soooo beautiful!! We are about 3 big beers through at this stage, and decide to have a race to see who could get back to the hostel first, and I drop my beloved camera scratching it pretty bad and cracking the screen. Annoying!

The night ends with a drunk Gina, playing Kings. Brilliant.

The Cinque Terre

Day 26-29

The train from Nice to Cinque Terre is relatively easy to find, it cost me €21 and I booked it 5 mins before it left!! It takes about 5 hours and its coastal, so the sights are amazing.

The first afternoon I spent sightseeing around Riomaggorie, the village I stayed at. It's the most eastern village of the 5.

The Hostel is more of an apartment set up, with 10 beds all together. In my particular room there were 6 beds and all were full. We had a view over the town square, which was alive with people celebrating some kids birthday, a band was blearing and it was really nice to sit and watch.

Can't remember where I got this quote from, but it pretty much sums up the Cinque Terre good and proper: 'One of the wildest stretches of the Ligurian coastline, gets it's name from the 5 picturesque villages that cling to cliff edges and tumble down steep hillsides to pretty little bays'

Its gotta be one of my favourite spots this trip.

My 2^nd day in and I'm walking one of the paths thinking 'this is fine, I don't see what they are all talking about' until I reach the actual path! It's a series of steep steps that reach a long way up into the mountain, sweet little grape farms are on each side of the path. The views are stunning, once you look pass the person in front's arse! The path is totally packed with tourists.

I manage the walk from Monterosso to Vernassa and instantly fall in love with the place! The houses are on top of each other with steep staircases everywhere, I'm sure the people who live here must be in the guiness book of records for having the biggest calf muscles! Seriously!

I spent a few hours chilling out on the rocks by the beach, watching all the trampers trek down.

I spend the evening back in Riomaggorie watching the sun go down.

The next day I meet the lovely Jo! We share some wicked convos, and a crazy unplanned day! She tells me about a hidden beach in Corniglia she had read about, and of course I’m up for an adventure. The day starts off a bit cloudy, so we train to Monterosso, and Jo picks up a skirt she had been bargaining for, and we stumble over the most strangest church I've ever seen!! The outside is decorated in black and white stripes and the inside with skulls and crossbones. Weird! The weather turns for the better so we train to Corniglia and find the legendary tunnel to lead us to the hidden beach. I didn't realise it was going to be about 15 minutes of walking through pitch blackness (except for our teeny torch that hardly worked) The walk was truly scary, imagine being in a super quiet, pitch black tunnel, not knowing where the hell you are going, or how long it is supposed to take, and then you hear the familiar sound of a train, which sounds like it is right next to you, go by in the tunnel over, it scares the complete shit out of you!!!! Oh my god, I still can't believe we did it. Totally ridiculous! On the other side we find the cliffs turn in to stone, revealing 2 beaches completely packed with nude people. The majority men. Great.

 

Anyway, we decide to give it a whirl, and walk down the stupidly steep and thin steps to the beach. We are welcomed by about 20 penises and try to find our own spot away from view of those disgusting things! Jo tests the water, telling me it's really rough, and that she knew someone who had died on these beaches a few years back. I jump in, not expecting to even go past my knees, it dropped so fast, and the slippery rocks and the powerful waves knocked me right over and stole my sunglasses! Not happy! Jo was confused why I had gone in that far, it wasn't my fault!

The Italian men we saw down there started to get a bit fondly with their packages, so we decided to gap it back to the tunnel where we survived our 2nd walk through, this time at a much faster pace as we were completely alone and freaked right out!!!

On to Manarola, another of the villages, and this one also blew me away. We strolled over to the rocks and sat a while watching the brave ones jump from a huge rock. We found a nice rock to sit on where every minute or so a wave would submerge us. Then these 2 men came over and seemed a bit sleazy and couldn't take their eyes of Jo, so we packed up and headed up the hill to check out the views. Sweet.

Back in Riomaggiore, we decide to do the ultimate walk up about a million steps to this sweet church on the very top of the most enormous mountain ever. The view from the top was incredible, and we found another path that we trekked along for another hour or so taking us even higher to this awesome lookout clearing. The day ended with a great sunset and bottle of wine. Primo.

  

My last day in the Cinque Terre was by myself, but it was nice, I spent it down at the water on Monterosso's beaches, reading, eating and drinking. Nice!

Nice is nice!

 Day 22-25

Ok, so I caught up with Mark again on my finale day in Paris, we were going to chillax in a park, but it decided to be shit weather again, so instead we did a quick walk through Luxembourg Gardens, and found the closest Cafe to relax and Mark was starving for choco croissants and coffee. We checked the Notre Dame Cathedral inside and out, and had some yummy Italian.

I then started my travel to Nice, and upon arriving to my new hostel, the place was alive with the sound of music! I was shown around, and I was in a shitty mood to begin with, but there were people everywhere, the music was pumping, and the room absolutely smelt like curry.

The next morning, in a much better frame of mind, I took the shuttle down into town to catch a bus to the Village Eze. I met Mo from Amsterdam on the way and he decided to join me. He's a crazy guy, kind of going through a quarter life crisis, and he's loving being free from work and life in general. Quite a motivating guy really, I enjoyed hanging out and chatting with him.

The small Village Eze is so incredibly gorgeous, a big cliff that spikes out of nowhere, revealing a small medieval type village. The walk is steep, but when you reach the summit its totally worth it. You pay €5 to walk through a cute garden which has the best views ever!

After our walk around we grabbed some olives, cheese and bread and made a mean lunch. And caught the bus to Monaco, about 10 mins away.

Monaco is its own country apparently, and it has the Monte Carlo Casino, that is ridiculously beautiful and the cars outside show how expensive and rich the area must be. Also the harbour holds some of the nicest yachts and boats I’ve ever seen. It must be really cool to get a job aboard.

The coastline is very pretty the whole way along the coast.

The hostel I stayed at, is actually really cool, it is definitely a place to party, the whole common room could turn into a dance floor, its continuously packed with people, there's about 15 free computers scattered around, and a massive bar to accommodate your thirst.

They have a dinner each night, and bloody hell it's amazing! I ended up having a few drinks and chatting to a few Americans.

The next day brings rain, and heaps of it. I manage to make friends with this guy called Josh from Canada, there's so many Canadians and Americans travelling! We take the bus up to Eze again, and find the coastal path down to the beach, and as we get there it starts pissing down, so of course its beer o'clock. Annoying really. We walked for ages more checking all the beaches, and got so cold that all I wanted to do was go home and shower!!

The 3^rd day in Nice turns out to be sunny. I take off with my ipod and walk around the coast to find heaps of cute little coves and beaches. I swim and sunbathe at pretty much every beach I walk past, and then walk the main path to the bus and flop out at home, unable to move!!!

I wish I had more days in Nice, totally a place I will revisit.

4 days in Paris

Day 18

Arrived into Paris Charles de Gaulle and trained/metro-d into the city centre.

The hostel wasn't hard to find, I think I just came out the wrong exit and still followed the directions in the wrong way!! It's quite the shit hole. But it's all about the location, right in the city centre, and apparently most hostels are shit in Paris anyway.

I met Angie from Argentina and went for our first walk around the city. The Pantheon is just around the corner, and it leads to St Michel's fountain, and then to the Louvre. I couldn't believe I was standing in front if it!

Later in the night we grabbed a pizza together, and missioned it home. It took over an hour as we got severely lost!

We then experienced the worst night ever in a hostel!! 2 noisy Mexican couples arrive home after 2.30am, just as we had jumped into bed. The most inconsiderate people ever. I'm talking lights on, loud talking, packing bags (plastic bags), un-packing bags, brushing teeth in the stupid little sink, and then finally after about and hour, they go to sleep. At 6.45am they get up, and do it all again – well a for bit longer in the morning? I don't understand!!! BAD.

Day 19

3 hours of sleep.

Angie and I had decided to go on a free walking tour. The queues to get on the tour alone were ridiculously long and we just made it!

Our tour guide Tyler told us a bit about French history, Napoleon and the architecture.

I wish I had learnt more in school about the history of a lot of the places I’ve been to. I also wish I knew back then that it is actually interesting and I should read, and actually pay attention!

The city is so alive and beautiful.

Back in our hostel I met Nate from Hawaii (conveniently I had to move rooms) and we start a trek to the Eiffel Tower. I'd been told it lights up on the hour every hour after sundown. The walk took about an hour, again getting lost in the Labyrinth of streets.

It's pretty crazy standing next to the Eiffel Tower, very surreal. 

Day 20

The day of the longest walk. I got up after a much needed good sleep, and decided to go to the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. I started off at about 9.30am, and hiked to the Louvre and spent about 3 hours walking the halls checking everything out. You really need a couple of days and a very openly artistic mind to survive it all. It is beautiful, but it's very full on.

The Mona Lisa was gorgeous, as expected it was in its own room, and very small. I pushed my way through the crowd and got my 20 seconds with Mona. Great.

I then walked the whole Avenue Des Champs-Elysees to the Arch de Triumph, and took an extra long walk round to the Eiffel Tower. The view over the grassy Avenues from the Mhusee de l Homme is spectacular. Again, Bag boys litter the streets.

The queues weren't as bad as I thought they would be, about an hour to get up to the 2^nd level, and an extra 45 mins to the top. I'm surprised at how cheap Paris is, in terms of sight seeing. I was expecting a lot more than 10 Euros each for pretty much everything.

The views were stunning!

I tubed back to the Hostel so I wouldn't get lost again, and had a few drink with 3 very young Aussie girls before they went out into town.

Day 20

I get to see a familiar face today! Mark (who I met in San Sebastian a few weeks back) and his mate Chris were hanging out on the Right bank, so I tubed over to Mont Mark to meet up with them.

At the summit stands the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, its beautiful and holds a different view over the city. We chill out for a while, watching the bag boys and friendship bracelet boys trying to win over the tourists.

The area is well known for Art back in the day. Now, artists are scattered around the street painting views of Paris, and others are asking everyone and anyone to have their portrait painted.

We then had a drink at a sweet little cafe overlooking a rather steep street, I broke my flip flop and have to buy replacements – the only thing around, some rip off Havaianas. And boy do they squeak! 

Mark had heard of a park not far away...turned out to take 1 hour to get to as opposed to the 15 mins we thought....although we really saw some of Paris's dirty side, out in the back streets of the suburbs.

The park was pretty cool with a pavilion at the top of a hill and surrounded by a lake.

Modern Art museum is free on Sunday's, but were too hungry to look around, so started a new mission to find food. We just so happened to stumble into possibly the richest area of Paris! The prices of most cafés and restaurants exceeded our budget by over double, and the streets were full of ridiculously beautiful cars.

In the end we settled for a baguette with cheese, ham and tomato near the Louvre, and I caught the tube back home as my legs were aching big time after the last couple of days adventures and hours of walking.

The weather changed so fast into this massive electrical storm, and our crusty backpackers decided to leak all over one side of the room. Brilliant. It was nearly flooded...Great end to that shitty Hostel!!!!! Don't go to 'Young and Happy' Hostel!! EVER!!!

But yes. I do Love Paris!!!

So, I'm in Portugal.

Day 13

Lisboa

I sat next to this Portuguese guy on the plane, who thought he was gods gift. To be fair, he was pretty good looking, but also had the most smelliest breath I think I've ever smelt. It was worse when he fell asleep with his mouth open. Nice.

Luckily I am reasonably fit, as Lisbon is built on hills, and trying to find 'Lisbon Poets Hostel' was a work out in itself. The Hostel is amazing, the best by far, so clean, friendliest staff, great kitchen, sweet lounge area, the bedroom is wicked, just really good quality through and through. I liked it so much I booked another night, and 2 more in Porto under the same branch.

I got in late, so spent the night chilling out in the lounge with a lovely bottle of Portuguese Red fruity wine, and sat in the lounge with pretty much everyone staying there. The Barcelona VS Man United soccer game was on. It's safe to say Man U got thrashed! 

I met my room mates, Tato, from Japan, Vilijus from Lithuania and Max from Germany. Great lot! Max and Genuine (Villy) didn't come home until about 6, and 8.30 the next morning! 

Day 14

Since travelling alone, I actually haven't done anything by myself...so today I make a point of getting some Gina time in, and take off on what I thought would be a relaxed tram ride to explore 'Belem'.

It turns out every man and his dog want to go to Belem today, so many, that we are literally stuck together in the tram, packed in, and I feel terribly claustrophobic.

We 'un-stick' ourselves and hop off at Belem, and set eyes on the fantastic view of the huge monastery 'Mosteiro dos Jeronimo', flooded with tourists taking advantage of the free entry to museums on Sundays.

The Modern Art museum was holding 'BesPhoto 2011'. It was quite a good exhibition, and I took my time walking around.

I could see 'Torre de Belem' in the distance, and the streets were ridiculously packed with pink ladies doing the 'Walk for Breast Cancer'.

The tower is really cool, another 16^th century fortress, Lisbon's most photogenic landmark.

I wait in the stupidly long queues to check out the view over the Tagus estuary, and spot the 'Discoveries Monument.

Back in Lisbon again, I find a random Police museum that holds fantastic views out of the window and into the roofless church that was totally destroyed in 1755. Right next to it stands a tall tower

with the best views over city.

This city is so pretty, even the graffiti is cool to see everywhere, its so much different than N.Z, it holds a strange personality. Lively, people everywhere and each corner you turn something is happening. The streets a relatively clean, although there are some beggars.

I take the old tram up to the castle 'Castelo de San Jorge' and wander around its winding streets.

That's plenty sightseeing for today. Time for a drink out with the guys :)

Day 15

We were supposed to go to Sintra, but the weather wasn't on our side and neither were the train staff, as they were striking again.

I met Gemma, an Aussie girl who lives in Germany, and we met up with the guys down in the Rialto, and then  stroll up to the Cathedral and Castle, checking out the graffiti along the way, taking random photos. The boys were well keen for a photo shoot and it was a right laugh!

Had a lemon beer at a wee bar and then I went back to make lunch.

I randomly got on the Metro to try and find this one building I had seen on the way from the airport, but apparently it's not where I thought it was so I wasted an hour or so walking through the rain. I did however find another couple of run down buildings with heavy graffiti, and then went to Olypmia, where all the buildings are brand spanking new and very warped.

Dinner time! I meet everyone back at the hostel, and have a much needed stir-fry with heaps of veggies. We go out for a night time stroll which turns into an evening of Heineken at this one lovely bar.

Sleep Deprived Sightseeing

Madrid, Toledo and Segovia

Day 10

Madrid, the capital city of Spain, apparently 3.4 million people live in the centre of the city alone!

I arrived via train and found it relatively easy to get to my pre-booked hostel - Las Musas Residence in Tirso de Molina. The Metro here reminds me of the Matrix with rolling blue symbols down a large screen wall. I think it must be fairly new as the carts are roomy and really clean.

Once bedded and showered, and now with no idea of where to go, I manage to find a few architectural buildings such as 'Puerto del Sol', 'Plaza Mayor' and 'De La Villa', before stumbling across the beautiful 'Palacio Real' (a mahooosive palace).

Spain is going through some changes at the moment, and the streets are filled with protesters, tents and their signs all over the place. I think there is another election coming up.

In order to meet a few new people, I head along to the flamenco night that my hostel is organising. There are about 15 of us going, and we fit comfortably in this random underground bar.

Flamenco dancing is gorgeous, the dancer was immaculate and controlled the band perfectly. It consists of a singer (a girl with an amazingly husky voice), guitarist, flute player and the dancer.

That nights sleep was possibly one of the worst nights sleep in a hostel ever. I was not a happy girl. At around 12 I start to get into bed, my bed being the top of a swaying bunk, which starts to make me nauseas, and at 2 a.m people are still coming back making the loudest noises, flicking on lights, spraying perfume and heading out again? They also think that packing their bags is a good idea at 2.30am. Disrespectful or what! 

 

Day 11

One of the reasons I came to Madrid is to go to Toledo, a small city about 50mins south west of Madrid.

I managed to find 4 friends at last nights Flamenco, that were all keen to check it out.

Tom and Dave from USA, and Kasia and Basia from Canada.

Conversation flowed as we all got to know each other on the tube ride to our bus stop.

Toledo is lovely, a fortress surrounds the old city that holds many intertwining streets. A Spanish-Moorish monument, the 10^th century Mosque called 'Mezquita Cristo De La Luz' was our first stop. It is famous for the legend it holds: 'When King Alfonso IV entered Toledo in triumph after the reconquest, the horse kneeled down before the mosque and refused to move, as an act of worship to the Christ that was behind a partition in the wall, lit by a lamp'. Apparently the lamp had been lit for many, many a year.

Right smack bang in the centre is high Gothic cathedral built back in 1226.So we check that out for a bit.

We then make a pit stop for some lemon beer and Spanish omelette. You could spend days in Toledo, its really pretty, the streets go on forever. 

Toledo is famous for its metal works, all the swords and metal wear used on Lord of the Rings was made here.

 

Day 12

So a nice early rise of 7.30am, seems to be common here. Way better sleep last night, only 1 girl snoring and I managed to shut her up after 'coughing' my arse off! Ha I got her!!

I was stood up by the girl I met last night, she was from London and was 'soooo keen' to go on a day trip that she didn't turn up. So I left her sorry ass behind, and went to find the tubes myself. Eventually, after being told the wrong stop, I did find the right bus, and then the bus was over sold and 2 older ladies had to get off which caused so much commotion I thought I was about to get robbed again!

I didn't check the weather forecast before leaving, as I thought every day in Madrid was perfect and way too hot to even move. I was wrong. When the bus pulled up in Segovia, it was pissing down.

I was only wearing shorts, teeshirt, and jandels (or for those in England – Flip flops). It's a higher altitude in Segovia too, and was actually quite chilly.

I randomly met some Americans in the same situation, well the lady was, and we ended up buying 2 ponchos to wear around while sightseeing. They invited me to join them, and me being the lonely sod who was stood up earlier, accepted! They were really lovely people, in Madrid for business, their jobs something to do with aero-dynamics? Claire was pretty much unimpressed with Madrid, she was also pick pocketed but they took her whole bag. Luckily she got her passports and credit cards back, but lost out on a lot of cash and some diamond earrings worth a fortune.

Anyway, we carried on through the town, John leading the way as he had been there previously. This group I was tagging along with were all in the 40's and 50's, and had some interesting stories and different perspectives on things. I was keen to chill out and listen in.

The Viaduct kind of appears from nowhere, it is so beautifully made, and is why I decided to make the hour long trip out there. Worth it, and the rain that came with it!

It is from Roman times, and leads quite the distance through the town.

We walked up to the top, and along the walls of the city.

We were all craving food now, and even after seeing the dead piglet bodies in the restaurant windows (its a delicacy and is well known to eat piglet in Segovia) we take a seat in a small restaurant.

Claire tells me about this weird diet she’s on, it takes forever as is everything she says. She is a classic American lady, very loud. We both order a chicken salad which is so good and I eat mine and half of hers!

Walking through the skinny streets we make our way to the 'Alcazar' castle (from the 13^th and 14^th centuries), where we buy tickets to see the castle and the tower. It's really raining now and annoying the hell out of me and my poncho. 

San Sebastian Day 6 - 8 The red wine detectives.

Day 6 

Great. We wake up to find a football on our balcony, the streets look disgusting scattered with beer bottles and the remains of goofy costumes from the night before.

The weather is really crappy, and so is my mood after I spent the night listening to the big English guy snoring. 

To get my bearings, I rain-proof myself and head out to find the beach and grab some food.

On the stairwell, I meet Mark from Australia who has been living in England for the past 10 years, and he stops to have a chat. He doesn't know it yet, but he's now my wine drinking partner for the next couple of days!

He was waiting to speak to the Hostel manager Gordon, the slack arse American who's never really there. We both hang out for a while and meet Sarah, a self confessed hedonist and bibliophile from USA Austin, Texas - she's a teacher.

With nothing to do and the un-clearing weather, we decide to go for a long hilly walk to meet Jesus, who 'is always above us'!!!! Ridiculous Mark at his best. Nice.

We took some lovely photos of fantastic views over the old town and main beach of San Sebastian.

Then watched some comedy films from the 1920s and 30s of sack races, high jump without the flop and general fun days on the beach.

The steep walk down the hill 'of animals' we saw the Spanish skipping terrier, and Sarah engaged in a long winded Spanish conversation to the cat lady who implored her to take one of the cats who had just been neuted to save it from death. She didn't, I hope he’s still ok!

Pintxos time.

With Sarah leading the charge effortlessly speaking fluent Spanish, charming the bar staff and locals

we wandered randomly through packed bars with cured pig legs dangling from the ceiling.

Obviously Pintxos was the order of the day, my favourite being a Baguette slice topped with Jamon smoked ham and goats cheese, nice and simple yet delicious.

This was all washed down with variety of Booze (Red wine, White wine, Green wine (Txakoli ), Sangrai and Cidre)

One small observation - for some strange reason, the Spanish throw their used napkins on the floor under the bar...its considered rude to leave it on the plate. It does get swept up later. But I felt so wrong doing it!!!

We were joined by Lisa who (my new walking buddy) marched ahead to the last bar.

That was the end of the Jesus mission, and we had our fair share of 'holy communion'!

We all spit up, and Mark and I walked the beach La Concha to the other end of the bay where we caught the funicular (if it was more €3 we were going to walk it!!!) to the top.

Immediately struck by the amazing views we took half a dozen pics if not more, and were then wooed by the boat ride (if it was under €2 we weren't going to do it!) It went for all of maybe 2mins?!!! But was brilliant! We thought it was just for the scenic ride, until we were encountered by Peter Pan and a bear!!! And then we had to get off.

After all the excitement, we thought we deserved an ice-cream. I had a single boring chocolate, and Mark gorged himself on Rum and raisin and Caramelised milk.

On the long down we found a hard, rubber bouncy ball, and the Spanish snog and show car area.

We walked down past 'Wimbledon' to find the Wind Combes and and blow hole where I had my hair blown from my head!!!

Another 2km walk home along the beach we were hungry again, and met up with Sarah to enjoy a Large pizza and bottle of Red.

Day 7

Wow what a beauty of a day! Lisa, the hard-core adventurer, walker, and sightseeing addict from Canada, invited me along on a bus trip out west to see a tiny town called Zumaia.

Basically, once there, we power walked the coast for about and hour or so and stopped in at 3 very picturesque towns and a beach with cool rocks along the way. 

Later in the afternoon, after the bus ride home I find Mark siesta-ing and manage to wake him up by punching in the code to my locker. Good, cause I was bored and needed entertaining!!

We find a local Lidl and buy a shit load of tapa type food and red wine, and go back to the hostel for food. Living in a hostel and having lots of spare time and nothing really to worry about, we have time for creativity, and Mark takes it to the next level by making a Sydney Opera House and a ship out of Bread, wrapped in ham and cheese with taco chips as the sail garnishing. Sweet.

We then proceed to the beach for some afternoon sun-napping.

 

Day 8

Unfortunately, another cloudy day in San Seb, after an amazing Day7.

Bummer. But Mark introduces me to a couple of German girls from Berlin. I love Berlin. We all take a walk around town to check out a few more sights. Mainly the shops, but we get a good look at the closed Cathedral too.

A short stop off into Lidl's again to pick up salad and 4 bottles of red wine...I know, piss-heads right! We make it back for a much needed green salad with chicken, and chill out for a while.

And then again, its time for more food so pop down the road to a local restaurant for beef and free red wine. Great. Lets just say I’m pretty much red-wined out!