Who you callin' lazy?

So remember there was that time I went backpacking? Feels like ages ago...oh wait it was.

Hmm....where were we? Well we had a pretty chilled week and a bit in Greece. The islands there are gorgeous. The first island, Paros, was pretty much a beach island so that's what we spent most of our time doing. Apart from the odd drinking sesh as well, of course. The hotel we stayed at was this weird old fashioned style hotel, run by a man and his elderly mother. The place was a bit creepy and reminded me of Pyscho meets Agatha Christie in Greece....

I think my highlight of Paros would have to be waking up the entire village at 2am with my excellent rendition of Gwen Steffani cheerleader style at the top of my lungs, followed by a joint group singalong to the Sound of Music.

After that we caught the ferry to Santorini. Santorini is amazing. The huge cliffs and white houses are exactly how you imagine them. Maybe even better. I even managed a cruise and volcano tour with Tammy, Lesley and Jo. Was def a great way to see the island. Our hotel was lovely, complete with swimming pool which we managed to hog.

So after several days in the sun in Santorini it was time to head back to Athens to begin the marathon journey back to Italy. We literally spent about 3 days at sea (with one day's rest in Athens) before we arrived back in Ancona in Italy. Ancona is the port town nearest Rome and my first stop on Busabout and really not much else. Our hotel room did have MTV so we holed up in the rooms watching music tv and dying each others hair. Who said backpacking meant you had let grooming go...?

From Ancona it was onto Roma! Va bene! Rome was amazing. There is literally so much to see and do in Rome, there was no way we could see it all even with 3 full days there. We got to see all the main sites - the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palpatine Hill, the Vatican, St Peters, the Sistine Chapel.... I think our highlight of Rome was the ancient roman ruins Russell Crowe's Aussie Rules field which we discovered at Palpatine Hill and best mushroom pasta ever from the campsite we stayed at. Unfortunately we didnt get to see the new pope but we did go and visit John Paul II's tomb. Oh and I managed to blaspheme inside St Pauls while I was climbing to the top. Go me!

After Rome we went on Busabout's 3 Day Southern Italian Explorer. We stayed in the gorgeous town of Sorrento and got to visit Pompeii and the Isle of Capri and well as drive through the Amalfi coast, one of the most beautiful views in the world we were told. And it was pretty amazing.

After those 3 days it was back to Rome for a quick stop, then we headed off to Florence. Florence of course is Art City. We spent most of our time there visiting (or queuing for) the two main galleries - the Academia, which had Michelangelo's David and the Uffuzi, with Botticelli, Raphael, Rembrandt...etc, etc. We managed to see work by all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by the end of it.

Our next stop after Florence was Cinque Terre, on the North Eastern coast of Italy, it is made up of 5 small villages, all clinging to the coastal rock. We stayed in the first village Riomaggiore in a lovely little apartment, which was like heaven after a few weeks of hosteling and camping. It is a gorgeous area, another of the most beautiful areas in the world. We spent most of our time hanging at the beach or wandering around the tiny village.

After Cinque Terre, it was finally time for us to say goodbye to Italy. I really enjoyed our time there but I think we must have had enough pasta and pizza to last us for a good ten years. We headed to Nice, France next.
Nice is really cool. The beach resembles Brighton or somewhere in England, but much cleaner and really nice weather. We got to tour around Nice on our favourite method of transport Le Petite Train (which we discovered in New Caledonia so many years ago). Also made sure to hang out at the beach and we had the best ice creams ever from a shop in Nice. They have really bizarre flavours like rose, lavender etc... It was sooo good, better than all the gelati we ate in Italy. .

From Nice it was on to Barcelona in Spain. We spent 2 days in Barcelona and got to see heaps and heaps of Gaudi buildings (Barcelona's most famous architect/designer), stroll down Las Ramblas and even managed to fit in a visit to the Picasso gallery.
After Barcelona it was onto Madrid and the weather just keeps getting hotter the further in Spain we go. We spent 2 sweltering days in Madrid where we visited the two most famous art galleries in Spain and the Real Palace, then it was onto Seville.

Phew, so there you go. More later. Hopefully....