Right. Let's face it. I'm not a good blogger.
On the rare occasion that I remember to update, the blog itself is simply an apology for the lack of updates, followed by some rambling excuse, and then some kind of poorly told recount of my boring life since the last update.
So why do I bother?
This is something I ask myself quite frequently and, as yet, I haven't found the answer. But something keeps drawing me in (when I remember, that is), like a druggie with amnesia.
I like to think that this is some kind of diary that I can look back on when I'm older. Since I lack the discipline and sensitivity to pour my guts out to a notebook each night, I like to substitute it with a poorly-kept blog that, if I do look back on, I will have to piece together and rely on memory to fill in the gaps- more like finding a fossil on a beach.
So what boring snippets of my life can I tell you about today?
Well, it is now nearing the end of my first half term of sixth form, and much to my surprise, I am not dreading the return to school on Monday. For the past few weeks I have been looking on the brightside of my education, with astonishing results. It means that, even though I still often fall asleep in lessons, I have a much higher interest in my subjects, and love even more the subjects that I already loved (Drama and Astronomy, even though Astronomy isn't technically one of my subjects, although I wish it were). So that's good. Maybe I will be able to survive two years of A Levels after all.
The real reason that I am updating today is because in less than 24 hours, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) begins. This will be the first time I have ever taken part, and I have to say I am quite scared. I haven't flexed my creative writing muscles in a very long time- the only time in the past two years was for my GCSE coursework, which was approximately 2,000 words- so the thought of having to write 50,000 words in a month is quite daunting.
Last weekend, when I decided I was going to take part, I was obviously in a very optimistic mood... Tonight, having realised that I need to write 1,667 words a day, it is a VERY different story.
I'm not even sure what I'm going to write about. I know that my main character will be a girl called Sammy, and that she's 17, but that's it.
Am I excited? Hell yes.
Creating a whole new world, full of brand new people, is something I love doing. It's just that I normally do it in my head. Trying to get it out of my head and into the physical world will be tough. But as the NaNoWriMo website says, it's not going to be a good, complete novel.
So yeah, I think that this does actually count as a good, valid reason why you won't see me during November. Maybe I'll pop in once to tell you all about my novel-induced nervous breakdown, but until then, I hope you enjoy the image of me smashing a computer to smithereens...
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Another Return.
3 weeks!? Has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted!? No, you're right, it hasn't. It's been 3 WEEKS and 2 DAYS! Shocking, I know. And to be honest, it feels like much, much longer. I'd like to say that my lack of posts is due to my exciting and busy life. But as I'm sure you've guessed, it's not. Really not.
In fact, I don't even know why, I just haven't been on the internet much at all in the past few weeks since school started. I don't even have that much homework- on average less than one piece a day- compared to all of my friends, who seem to be inundated with essays and tests. I know that that will all soon change when we get into doing coursework and stuff, so for now I'm just trying to enjoy it.
Which isn't easy, but before I get into a long moan about school again (Drama is good! One positive thing!), I will talk about something else.
Ummm...
I was ill a few weeks ago. I had to run out of a play mid-performance cos I thought I was gonna throw up. That wasn't fun.
Nor is it an exciting story.
Ummm...
I managed to watch an entire play last night at the Birmingham REP- 'East is East'. It was amazing, better and funnier than the film, so if you get the chance, GO SEE IT.
Ummm...
I have become weirdly obsessed with classical music in the past few days.
Ok, I'm just gonna stop now. This is going nowhere!
Speak to you soon :)
In fact, I don't even know why, I just haven't been on the internet much at all in the past few weeks since school started. I don't even have that much homework- on average less than one piece a day- compared to all of my friends, who seem to be inundated with essays and tests. I know that that will all soon change when we get into doing coursework and stuff, so for now I'm just trying to enjoy it.
Which isn't easy, but before I get into a long moan about school again (Drama is good! One positive thing!), I will talk about something else.
Ummm...
I was ill a few weeks ago. I had to run out of a play mid-performance cos I thought I was gonna throw up. That wasn't fun.
Nor is it an exciting story.
Ummm...
I managed to watch an entire play last night at the Birmingham REP- 'East is East'. It was amazing, better and funnier than the film, so if you get the chance, GO SEE IT.
Ummm...
I have become weirdly obsessed with classical music in the past few days.
Ok, I'm just gonna stop now. This is going nowhere!
Speak to you soon :)
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Holiday? What Holiday?
Whenever I say "I've been back at school for a week", I simply can't believe it. This has to have been the longest week of my entire life, and I wish I was exaggerating. I can't even remember having a holiday, to the point where the entire concept seems completely alien to me.
The worst thing about it is that we haven't even had that much work yet. I've had three pieces of homework. So it isn't even the work load that is getting me down.
I may not have started at a new college, but it still feels like I have entered a different world. I look back on the past fives years I have spent at that school, and wonder where on earth that school is now. Sure, I knew it would be different, but I just feel completely lost. And what's worse is that none of my A Level subjects are exciting or interesting me. My favourite (and in fact, the only one I really like) at the moment is Drama, and I know that as soon as we start properly working on the course, that will all change.
There are some good things about it. Being a student librarian, being able to walk into the canteen early, having a pigeon hole... you have to focus on the little things to keep you sane.
Today has been the worst day so far, not least because I had a big argument with my Dad this morning about something so stupid that I'm just baffled by it.
But to save this from simply being a dull, monotonous whine of a blog, I'm going to tell you about something fun I did on Thursday.
It was my friend Flic's 17th birthday. We went to her house after school and had an awesome children's birthday party, with pass the parcel and sausage rolls and all the fun things of a party. We then went to the theatre to see 'The Grain Store', which is a play about the Soviet Ukraine before World War II. But that wasn't the exciting part, oh no. Before the play started, we, along with 40 other members of the audience, had a banquet on stage with the cast as the other members of the audience we taking their seats. It was a traditional Ukrainian feast of Borsh (sp?), which is a spicy beetroot soup, cheese and potato dumplings and a slice of watermelon. Despite our fears about the meal beforehand, it was actually really nice and was such a great experience- just sitting on the stage, with all the lights on us, sitting with people who I'd seen in so many plays before. It was very surreal, and I've never experienced anything like or before, or expect I ever will again, but it was great fun, and to top it all off, the play was amazing too.
So some good stuff. But there we go. I don't really know what to say now... BYE!
P.S. If you're reading this, which I doubt you are because I wouldn't if I were you, hello to Alice and Olivia *waves* :)
The worst thing about it is that we haven't even had that much work yet. I've had three pieces of homework. So it isn't even the work load that is getting me down.
I may not have started at a new college, but it still feels like I have entered a different world. I look back on the past fives years I have spent at that school, and wonder where on earth that school is now. Sure, I knew it would be different, but I just feel completely lost. And what's worse is that none of my A Level subjects are exciting or interesting me. My favourite (and in fact, the only one I really like) at the moment is Drama, and I know that as soon as we start properly working on the course, that will all change.
There are some good things about it. Being a student librarian, being able to walk into the canteen early, having a pigeon hole... you have to focus on the little things to keep you sane.
Today has been the worst day so far, not least because I had a big argument with my Dad this morning about something so stupid that I'm just baffled by it.
But to save this from simply being a dull, monotonous whine of a blog, I'm going to tell you about something fun I did on Thursday.
It was my friend Flic's 17th birthday. We went to her house after school and had an awesome children's birthday party, with pass the parcel and sausage rolls and all the fun things of a party. We then went to the theatre to see 'The Grain Store', which is a play about the Soviet Ukraine before World War II. But that wasn't the exciting part, oh no. Before the play started, we, along with 40 other members of the audience, had a banquet on stage with the cast as the other members of the audience we taking their seats. It was a traditional Ukrainian feast of Borsh (sp?), which is a spicy beetroot soup, cheese and potato dumplings and a slice of watermelon. Despite our fears about the meal beforehand, it was actually really nice and was such a great experience- just sitting on the stage, with all the lights on us, sitting with people who I'd seen in so many plays before. It was very surreal, and I've never experienced anything like or before, or expect I ever will again, but it was great fun, and to top it all off, the play was amazing too.
So some good stuff. But there we go. I don't really know what to say now... BYE!
P.S. If you're reading this, which I doubt you are because I wouldn't if I were you, hello to Alice and Olivia *waves* :)
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Summer '09: Part 4.
Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have no excuse. I do, however, have quite a lot to tell you, but unfortunately I started telling you about my holiday, and so I will finish. This blog post is all about POWERING THROUGH. Then I can move on from the stuff that happened over a month and a half ago...
Wed 29/07/09
Hot hot hot. After an early start, Dad, Charlotte and I took a windy bus through the hills to get to Florence. I went there back in 2007 on the choir tour, but we didn't get to see a huge amount of it, so I was glad to go back and see the rest. The first port of call was the Ponte Vecchio, a mega famous bridge (apparently) with shops on it. We then walked to the top of Michelanglo Mount, to see the stunning panoramic views of Florence.
Florence from Michelanglo Mount
We then walked back down to explore Florence from the ground; we walked past the Uffizi gallery, the fake statue of David and the Piazza della Signora. We went into the cathedral, which was stunning from the outside, but quite disappointing inside. We then started walking around the non-touristy parts, and got lost in the heat of the day. I only remember snap shots of those few hours because I was so dehydrated and heat-crazy. Eventually, we stopped at what looked like a nice café where we could sit down and regain our senses, but after having bought some ice creams, it turned out that was actually an extortionate place where you were charged for breathing. Ok, maybe not, but you had to pay if you wanted to sit down, so we ended up having to stand at the bar. Not great when all we wanted to do was sit down and chill for a bit, but at least we had ice cream :)
We were still extremely hot as we walked through the small streets to San Lorenzo, a nice church, where we saw some nice pieces of art in the museum as well. Afterwards, we walked through the market, but were too hot and bothered to really look properly at anything, and we eventually got back to the bus station, where we sat in the shade as we waited for our bus to come. I slept all of the way back to the camp site, where we had left the girls in the swimming pool. We met up with them and then had a very nice meal (PIZZA :D) at the restaurant, overlooking all of the hills as the sun set...Thurs 30/07/09
We left Florence and drove to a town on the coast, just outside Pisa. When we got there, we had to put on these yellow wristbands to show we were part of the campsite, or we'd get kicked out. I really really hated that wristband. It just felt completely wrong, and no one else seemed to understand my hatred of it. But I was forced to wear it, and despite my efforts to get it off, I knew I would have to keep it on for the two nights we were staying there. All afternoon, we played Rolit, a french game that is too difficult for me to explain here, but is very addictive. The adults went for a bike ride, and whilst they were gone, us kids turned the van into a posh restaurant: Dora and I were the waitresses, and Becca was the chef. We cleaned the inside of the van, set up a candlelit dining area (using the citronella candles), made posh menus and made a sign saying 'Chez Oz' (Oz is the name of our van), which we stuck to a tree, and I think we forgot to take down when we left :P Anyway, I had lots of fun doing that, but I think Dora and Becca thought I was a bit crazy...
Fri 31/07/09
I actually stopped writing my diary at this point, so now it is up to my brain to remember what we did.
As we were so close, we decided to go into Pisa. We didn't spend much time looking at the tower. We didn't do much. End of day.
Sat 01/08/09
It was time to leave Italy. As soon as we left the campsite, I cut off my wristband. I was free! We had a long drive through Italy, Switzerland and France, which was made longer by the traffic getting through toll booths in Italy and some horrendous traffic in Switzerland. However, we eventually arrived three hours later than planned at our French friends' house in Metz. We ate tea with them, although I have no idea what it was now- I was so tired because it was late and my memory fails. We also met their two new kittens, who's names I have also forgotten, and who were only a couple of months old. So cute!
Sun 02/08/09
We spent the day with our friends- Nathalie, Alain, Claire, Anne and Pierre. We went bowling at the alley, and then went to the local bowles (although it's not called bowles, it's Petung or something that I have completely forgotten) where we split into teams and had a tournament in front of some very experienced French bowles players, who called us English people 'roast beefs', cos apparently that's what we eat all the time. We had a lovely pizza meal in the evening, before going to bed. The adults slept in a room inside the house, so it was only us kids in the van, which was quite fun!
Mon 03/08/09
It was our final day of holiday, and the majority of it was spent on the road. We left Metz quite early and drove back up through Belgium, Luxembourg and France. We spent a few hours at the Cité Europe, where I bought Harry Potter 7 in French, before taking the channel tunnel back to England and driving back up to Charlotte's house.
I had a really lovely holiday, and was so happy to see such amazing places such as Venice. I love camping, and wish I were out there doing it right now.
DONE. :)
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Summer '09: Part Three, with present day extras.
So before I get carried away with my summer memories again, it's time to update on today.
Today is the day I have been working towards for the past two years: GCSE results day.
I got quite a shock, but a good one! I got 4 A*s, 6 As and 1 B. It took me a while to let it sink in, but 12 hours later, I think it finally has! All of my friends did really well, and I'm so happy for everyone! Yay ^_^
Now back to the story... Where was I..?
Sun 26/07/09
We spent our second day in Venice a bit differently. We decided to buy day passes so that we could use any of the water buses to, from, and around the island. The water buses are exactly what it says on the tin: buses, but that go on the canals. I hate boats, so I really wasn't looking forward to it.
The boat we got across to the island made me feel very sick, so it wasn't a great start to the day. But then we got on a water bus down the grand canal, which was much calmer, and by the time we got off at our stop, I had relaxed about it. We then walked around the non- touristy parts for a bit. It's really nice to get away from the main attractions, as many of the streets we were walking down were completely empty apart from us, and they were just as beautiful.
We ended up on the other side of the island, where we decided to get a waterbus across to another, smaller island: Murano.
Murano is where they make all of the famous Venetian glass. It's pretty much the same as Venice, apart from it has even more glass shops, which I didn't think was possible! Unfortunately, as it was a Sunday, we didn't get to see any glass making, but it was still nice to see all of the finished products.
Two boat trips later, and we found ourselves on the Lido, a long, thin island next to Venice. We went there because there was a beach, so, as usual, I just sat there with a towel wrapped around me.
We accidentally took the wrong boat back to Venice, so we had to take a very long boat trip around the island, but it was nice to see the island in the evening. We got to see a lot more of Venice, and I kinda tackled my hatred of boats a bit, so it was good. I absolutely love Venice, and would love to go back there one day...
Mon 27/07/09
The day of pain. After a sleepless night, a 7 am start and a three and a half hour drive, we finally arrived at our campsite in the hills, 12 km from Florence. It was a scorching hot day, which just made me feel worse, especially since I was COVERED in bites. One bite was half the size of my calf. To take my mind off it all, I read 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' whilst sitting in the small patch of shade. The campsite had a free pool, so we didn't see much of Dora and my sister Becca...
Tues 28/07/09
We had a nice lazy day: a long lie in, and then we left Dora and Becca at the pool to drive around the hills for a bit and to explore the local towns. We eventually managed to find a supermarket, in which we ending up spending more time than we expected because it was air conditioned. Then we went back to the campsite and just did nothing for the rest of the afternoon! A nice break...
And back to today, it is time for some sleep, methinks...
Today is the day I have been working towards for the past two years: GCSE results day.
I got quite a shock, but a good one! I got 4 A*s, 6 As and 1 B. It took me a while to let it sink in, but 12 hours later, I think it finally has! All of my friends did really well, and I'm so happy for everyone! Yay ^_^
Now back to the story... Where was I..?
Sun 26/07/09
We spent our second day in Venice a bit differently. We decided to buy day passes so that we could use any of the water buses to, from, and around the island. The water buses are exactly what it says on the tin: buses, but that go on the canals. I hate boats, so I really wasn't looking forward to it.
The boat we got across to the island made me feel very sick, so it wasn't a great start to the day. But then we got on a water bus down the grand canal, which was much calmer, and by the time we got off at our stop, I had relaxed about it. We then walked around the non- touristy parts for a bit. It's really nice to get away from the main attractions, as many of the streets we were walking down were completely empty apart from us, and they were just as beautiful.
We ended up on the other side of the island, where we decided to get a waterbus across to another, smaller island: Murano.
Murano is where they make all of the famous Venetian glass. It's pretty much the same as Venice, apart from it has even more glass shops, which I didn't think was possible! Unfortunately, as it was a Sunday, we didn't get to see any glass making, but it was still nice to see all of the finished products.
Two boat trips later, and we found ourselves on the Lido, a long, thin island next to Venice. We went there because there was a beach, so, as usual, I just sat there with a towel wrapped around me.
We accidentally took the wrong boat back to Venice, so we had to take a very long boat trip around the island, but it was nice to see the island in the evening. We got to see a lot more of Venice, and I kinda tackled my hatred of boats a bit, so it was good. I absolutely love Venice, and would love to go back there one day...
Mon 27/07/09
The day of pain. After a sleepless night, a 7 am start and a three and a half hour drive, we finally arrived at our campsite in the hills, 12 km from Florence. It was a scorching hot day, which just made me feel worse, especially since I was COVERED in bites. One bite was half the size of my calf. To take my mind off it all, I read 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' whilst sitting in the small patch of shade. The campsite had a free pool, so we didn't see much of Dora and my sister Becca...
Tues 28/07/09
We had a nice lazy day: a long lie in, and then we left Dora and Becca at the pool to drive around the hills for a bit and to explore the local towns. We eventually managed to find a supermarket, in which we ending up spending more time than we expected because it was air conditioned. Then we went back to the campsite and just did nothing for the rest of the afternoon! A nice break...
And back to today, it is time for some sleep, methinks...
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Summer '09: Part Two.
Thurs 23/07/09
We decided to drive to another lake, Lake Como, because apparently it's very pretty and lovely and blah blah blah, which of course it was, as Italy is just generally very pretty. We walked through the town, which was a mixture of markets, little ice creams shops, big clothes shops, and historic buildings. We sat on the bank of the river, eating ice cream (because that's compulsory in Italy) before taking the funicular up one of the mountains.
The funicular is basically just a one carriage train that takes you from the bottom of the mountain to the top. It's quite strange though, because it is built on a diagonal. The best way to describe it is like a stairway that has been turned into a train. Imagine your stairs, with a seat at each end of each step, and windows and a roof, and that's the train. It then travels up a straight path to the top of the mountain, pulled by a pulley system, with no driver or anything. It's basically a ghost train taking you to heaven. Pretty cool.
Looking up from the bottom, we could see that there was a big house at the top of the mountain, which I thought was amazing. How did they get it up there!? So I was in for quite a shock when we reached the top and found an ENTIRE TOWN up there. Fully functioning, with shops, cafés, a post box... It was like being in a real, normal, average town, if you could just forget about the fact that the Cathedral in Como that had seemed so big before was now just a tiny dot far, far below...
We then left Como, and that night we went to a pizzeria near the campsite. My first taste of Italian pizza on the holiday! I had become quite an expert on Italian pizzas during a trip to Tuscany back in 2007, when I had the same type of pizza every day, at different restaurants in different towns. I never got bored of them, even though I only had a margherita pizza every day! The most boring of the lot! The amazing taste certainly didn't disappoint this time round, either...
Fri 24/07/09
It was soon time to leave Lugano behind and embark upon our next adventure. I have to say, I was looking forward to this part of the holiday the most, because we were heading for a place I had always wanted to go, but never thought I'd get to go to, especially this young.
Venice.
I'd heard so many fantastic stories, especially from my Dad who went there over 5 years ago, and now says it is his favourite place in the world.
But first, we had to drive for a few hours to get there. But it didn't take us too long, and we soon found a campsite on the mainland. It was a very full campsite, but we found the perfect space, right on the bank of the lagoon. Across the waves, we could see all of the landmarks of Venice. The bell tower of Saint Mark's, from there looking absolutely tiny. Another great thing about being right on the bank was that there were some HUGE carrier ships going by, and sailing quite close to the bank, so we were very close to them, which was pretty amazing.
We also made friends with some english people staying in a campervan next to us. They were four young kids with their parents, and we soon discovered that we were from the same neck of the woods. The Dad of the family played a swingball tournament with Dora (my Dad's girlfriend's daughter), and she was beating him 4 games to 3 when it got too dark to continue...
The campsite itself was my favourite of all that we stayed at, not just because of the lagoon, but also because it had a bar where they played loads of good music right into the night. My family couldn't hear it from the campervan, but I could from my tent. I love the sound of music and people having fun in the distance. It reminds me of camping when I was younger. It wasn't so good at karaoke time though...
Sat 25/07/09
Our first early morning of the holiday, but we decided that it was best so that we could see as much of Venice as possible. We took the bus to the island, which I enjoyed because I like using public transport, especially in other countries!
Venice wasn't what I expected. It was even better.
It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I thought it was really small, with just the main famous square and then a few streets leading off it. I don't know why I ever thought this, because it's pretty much the exact opposite. It's very easy to get lost there... We found the main touristy parts, like St Mark's Square, which unfortunately had some construction work going on in it, so it wasn't quite as spectacular. But we also explored the less touristy places, and found a really nice park to sit and eat the bread we bought from this tiny supermarket.
We also found the most expensive toilets on our travels so far: 1.50 euros EACH! They weren't even very good! Although the cubicles were the size of my bedroom, just with a toilet at one end.
But before this blog turns into a 'Loo Review'...
"Just one Cornetto,
Back to the present, and tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for for the past two years, so I had better get some sleep for it...
We decided to drive to another lake, Lake Como, because apparently it's very pretty and lovely and blah blah blah, which of course it was, as Italy is just generally very pretty. We walked through the town, which was a mixture of markets, little ice creams shops, big clothes shops, and historic buildings. We sat on the bank of the river, eating ice cream (because that's compulsory in Italy) before taking the funicular up one of the mountains.
The funicular is basically just a one carriage train that takes you from the bottom of the mountain to the top. It's quite strange though, because it is built on a diagonal. The best way to describe it is like a stairway that has been turned into a train. Imagine your stairs, with a seat at each end of each step, and windows and a roof, and that's the train. It then travels up a straight path to the top of the mountain, pulled by a pulley system, with no driver or anything. It's basically a ghost train taking you to heaven. Pretty cool.
Looking up from the bottom, we could see that there was a big house at the top of the mountain, which I thought was amazing. How did they get it up there!? So I was in for quite a shock when we reached the top and found an ENTIRE TOWN up there. Fully functioning, with shops, cafés, a post box... It was like being in a real, normal, average town, if you could just forget about the fact that the Cathedral in Como that had seemed so big before was now just a tiny dot far, far below...
We then left Como, and that night we went to a pizzeria near the campsite. My first taste of Italian pizza on the holiday! I had become quite an expert on Italian pizzas during a trip to Tuscany back in 2007, when I had the same type of pizza every day, at different restaurants in different towns. I never got bored of them, even though I only had a margherita pizza every day! The most boring of the lot! The amazing taste certainly didn't disappoint this time round, either...
Fri 24/07/09
It was soon time to leave Lugano behind and embark upon our next adventure. I have to say, I was looking forward to this part of the holiday the most, because we were heading for a place I had always wanted to go, but never thought I'd get to go to, especially this young.
Venice.
I'd heard so many fantastic stories, especially from my Dad who went there over 5 years ago, and now says it is his favourite place in the world.
But first, we had to drive for a few hours to get there. But it didn't take us too long, and we soon found a campsite on the mainland. It was a very full campsite, but we found the perfect space, right on the bank of the lagoon. Across the waves, we could see all of the landmarks of Venice. The bell tower of Saint Mark's, from there looking absolutely tiny. Another great thing about being right on the bank was that there were some HUGE carrier ships going by, and sailing quite close to the bank, so we were very close to them, which was pretty amazing.
We also made friends with some english people staying in a campervan next to us. They were four young kids with their parents, and we soon discovered that we were from the same neck of the woods. The Dad of the family played a swingball tournament with Dora (my Dad's girlfriend's daughter), and she was beating him 4 games to 3 when it got too dark to continue...
The campsite itself was my favourite of all that we stayed at, not just because of the lagoon, but also because it had a bar where they played loads of good music right into the night. My family couldn't hear it from the campervan, but I could from my tent. I love the sound of music and people having fun in the distance. It reminds me of camping when I was younger. It wasn't so good at karaoke time though...
Sat 25/07/09
Our first early morning of the holiday, but we decided that it was best so that we could see as much of Venice as possible. We took the bus to the island, which I enjoyed because I like using public transport, especially in other countries!
Venice wasn't what I expected. It was even better.
It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I thought it was really small, with just the main famous square and then a few streets leading off it. I don't know why I ever thought this, because it's pretty much the exact opposite. It's very easy to get lost there... We found the main touristy parts, like St Mark's Square, which unfortunately had some construction work going on in it, so it wasn't quite as spectacular. But we also explored the less touristy places, and found a really nice park to sit and eat the bread we bought from this tiny supermarket.
We also found the most expensive toilets on our travels so far: 1.50 euros EACH! They weren't even very good! Although the cubicles were the size of my bedroom, just with a toilet at one end.
But before this blog turns into a 'Loo Review'...
"Just one Cornetto,Give iiit to meee..."
We spent a nice evening back at the campsite, playing with the kids from next door, who were all so cute and lovely. They had SO much energy and were constantly laughing... They were also jumping about on the rocks next to the lagoon, which scared me a lot, being the over- imaginative wimp I am... I mean, the youngest was about 1, the oldest was only about 7! We were hoping to play swingball, but the swiss family who were also our neighbours asked if they could play on it and ended up doing so all night... Still, Dora and the Dad from next door managed to finish off their tournament by the light of our campervan's brake light. The Dad ended up winning, but ah well.
I sat for a long time on the rocks by the lagoon, just looking out across it to Venice. It was so beautiful. I will never forget it.
I sat for a long time on the rocks by the lagoon, just looking out across it to Venice. It was so beautiful. I will never forget it.
Back to the present, and tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for for the past two years, so I had better get some sleep for it...
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Summer '09: Part One.
So, in my last post (which was quite a long time ago- I need to get a grip...) I said I would talk about my holiday in a later post. This is a later post and, since it has now been three weeks since I came back from my holiday, I think it's about time I document it before I completely forget.
I did kinda keep a diary during the trip, which I wrote by the light of my iPod in my tent each night before I went to sleep, so I'm now trying to decipher the scrawl to help me :)
And to make it more digestible/ less for me to write, this blog comes in an as-yet-undetermined number of parts.
I did kinda keep a diary during the trip, which I wrote by the light of my iPod in my tent each night before I went to sleep, so I'm now trying to decipher the scrawl to help me :)
And to make it more digestible/ less for me to write, this blog comes in an as-yet-undetermined number of parts.
Mon 20/07/09
We set off in our campervan, prepared for the 17 hour drive we had in front of us. We drove down to Folkestone, which took about four hours, where we ate some food before getting on the channel tunnel train. I really like the channel tunnel. It's fast and simple, and if you book in advance, probably the cheapest option too. There's no sea sickness involved, like on a ferry, and I don't think they accept campervans as luggage on planes, so we might have had a problem there. All we had to do was sit in our own van for half an hour and there we were, in another country.
That other country was France. This was the main part of our drive- we drove from Calais, through Belgium and Luxembourg, then came back into France, before stopping just south of Metz for a break. My Dad was driving the whole way, as we thought it would be better doing the whole drive in one go. His girlfriend had sat in the passenger seat up until this point, but now it was 10 pm, so I swapped with her to do 'the graveyard shift' of navigating, which wasn't really necessary since we had the sat nav, but otherwise my Dad would've been driving in the early hours of the morning whilst everyone else was fast asleep, which I didn't think was fair. Also, I really LOVE driving at night, and I'm so glad I stayed awake.
We drove past Strasbourg and into Switzerland, which is so pretty at night, because you can see all of the lights on the mountains. However, it was even prettier at dawn, with the sun coming up over the mountains. Beautiful.
We set off in our campervan, prepared for the 17 hour drive we had in front of us. We drove down to Folkestone, which took about four hours, where we ate some food before getting on the channel tunnel train. I really like the channel tunnel. It's fast and simple, and if you book in advance, probably the cheapest option too. There's no sea sickness involved, like on a ferry, and I don't think they accept campervans as luggage on planes, so we might have had a problem there. All we had to do was sit in our own van for half an hour and there we were, in another country.
That other country was France. This was the main part of our drive- we drove from Calais, through Belgium and Luxembourg, then came back into France, before stopping just south of Metz for a break. My Dad was driving the whole way, as we thought it would be better doing the whole drive in one go. His girlfriend had sat in the passenger seat up until this point, but now it was 10 pm, so I swapped with her to do 'the graveyard shift' of navigating, which wasn't really necessary since we had the sat nav, but otherwise my Dad would've been driving in the early hours of the morning whilst everyone else was fast asleep, which I didn't think was fair. Also, I really LOVE driving at night, and I'm so glad I stayed awake.
We drove past Strasbourg and into Switzerland, which is so pretty at night, because you can see all of the lights on the mountains. However, it was even prettier at dawn, with the sun coming up over the mountains. Beautiful.
Tues 21/07/09
We soon got to the area we were planning to stay at, Lake Lugano, at around 6 am. We didn't know which campsite we were going to stay at, but since none of them were open yet, we pulled over and had a nap at the side of the road.
We ended up in a very nice campsite just south of the Swiss border in Northern Italy. We could literally step out of the campsite and onto the bank of the lake. The first time I did this, I was speechless. My little brain couldn't quite take in the stunning views of mountains and lakes and... gah. It was just amazing. If I use my technical skills here, I might be able to add a picture...
We soon got to the area we were planning to stay at, Lake Lugano, at around 6 am. We didn't know which campsite we were going to stay at, but since none of them were open yet, we pulled over and had a nap at the side of the road.
We ended up in a very nice campsite just south of the Swiss border in Northern Italy. We could literally step out of the campsite and onto the bank of the lake. The first time I did this, I was speechless. My little brain couldn't quite take in the stunning views of mountains and lakes and... gah. It was just amazing. If I use my technical skills here, I might be able to add a picture...
If only my photography skills could portray the true awesomeness...
That night was the first time I had slept in a tent by myself in a foreign country and the first time that I would be doing it for more than a few nights, so I was pretty excited. XD.
Loser.
Weds 22/07/09
This was the first full day of the holiday, and it didn't actually go too well.
We decided to drive to drive around, to 'look at the lake from another angle'.
Van + small, windy Italian roads which aren't well signposted = disaster.
We got quite lost and couldn't find anywhere to park to get out and look around. We were driving down some quite narrow, steep roads and around hairpin bends. Luckily, my Dad has some experience with this, thanks to the great Cretian 'Stuck-in-a-Nine-Seater-Van Up a Winding Footpath on a Cliff Hundreds of Metres Above the Sea' incident of '05 (it's a long story), but still, we really were fed up when we found ourselves at a dead end and had to do a 1000-point turn in the van to get back up the road whilst loads of impatient Italians beeped their horns at us.
Eventually, we pulled over somewhere to make some sandwiches, and it started to rain. So, we had nap. Then we drove straight back to the campsite.
This time, it was traffic that was our nemesis. The roads were COMPLETELY full. We stopped at a supermarket to buy supplies, but then remembered that we had crossed the border into Switzerland, where they use Swiss Francs and not Euros, which is all we had. Thank god for credit cards, but we have no idea how much we spent...
Back at the campsite, we were all hot and a bit fed up, so we went to the lake. One thing about me is that I don't swim. I just don't like it. I haven't swum in three years, and don't even own a costume, so I wasn't expecting to swim on this holiday.
The rest of my family were swimming, and I stood on the edge, kinda talking to their bobbing heads in the water. My Dad suggested that I just get in fully clothed. I don't know if he was joking or not, but in the end I decided that I would. So I took off my belt (it's too colourful and cool to get damaged :P) and walked straight in, wearing my full length jeans and t shirt.
As I say, I hadn't swum in three years, and I had almost forgotten how to, but I eventually got better, and had fun! I got loads of weird looks from passers- by, and my clothes took days to fully dry, but it was certainly an experience!
Now I must stop, because I am so tired that I just forgot how to spell 'got', so part two of my Italian adventures will continue in another (and hopefully more interesting and concise) vlog soon.
:)
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