Bol’s Beautiful Beaches

Wow, after the epic travel day yesterday, man was it nice waking up knowing all we had to do was stumble the 50 ft down the path to the beach!  Shan got up early and hit the grocery store while the rest of us slept.  It was also so nice to cook our own breakfast of sausage and eggs with toast.  You sure appreciate the simple things in life when you don’t have them for a while.  Sat out on our deck for breakfast, found a coffee place and headed for the beach.  There is this beautiful promenade above the beach that is made of tiles so you can wander above the beaches and water.  The first thing we notice was the beaches aren’t white sand they’re white pebbles.  That’s why the water is so clear is there’s not silt from the waves when they crash against the sand.

The streets of Bol in the morning.

The promenade along the water to our place.

So between sleeping, reading and cooling off in the water it was a pretty nice way to spend the day.  There was a floating jungle gym type of thing just off the beach that Alyssa really wanted to try so her and Jenna swam out and tried it out.  There were trampolines and slides and all sorts of obstacle, balance things.  There was also a big inflated bag where one person climbs out on one circle while the other person climbs a latter and jumps on the other circle.  It totally catapults the other person into the water so we watched the girls hit that.  It was pretty funny as I had to swim out to help Alyssa get on and when Jenna jumped, Alyssa went flying.  It was pretty comical!  

Ready to attack the fortress.

Alyssa airborne!

The place we are staying has all sorts of stuff you can use on the water too.  Alyssa and I got out the kayak and went for a paddle out to the infamous Zlatni Rat beach in Bol.  The wind started picking up pretty good and I had Alyssa bouncing pretty hard in the front of the kayak.  We made our way back to our beach weaving between all the kite and wind surfers.  Turns out Bol is a pretty popular place for both!  After a round of showers to get the salt off, we got to enjoy a home cooked meal and then explored into town.  There was sure a lot going on in this little town of 1,500 people.  The town swells to 4,000 right now and up to 10,000 in the middle of summer.  It’s a nice time to be here by the sounds of it before the real crowds show up!  We got a great feeling from this place and look forward to exploring some more.  Four more days for that!!!

The downtown promenade with Hvar in the back ground.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Well our series of unfortunate events just had to be on a travel day... It started out with the fact our flight to Croatia was cancelled. However they didn’t email us and it got cancelled 3 days before!

Not a very comfy seat!

Well we figured that out after driving to the airport and waiting in the check in line with heavy backpacks (which I was pushing the cart with all of them on it).  We figured it out by dad saying our flight was to Split. This is exactly what the checkin girl said “the flight to split, oh um (says something in Italian to the other people in the both thing) ya that flights been cancelled.  Well we were all confused but me, mom, and Jenna sat down as dad went to figure out what to do.

We sat there for what seemed like forever. As Jenna decided to sleep on the ground I put together a puzzle on my iPod and mom I think read.  Her and dad are reading the same book being that before the book store dad didn’t have a book to read after he finished his old one and mom couldn’t convince him to read a chick flick (P.S. I Love You). So I think mom was enjoying having her book to herself. I got bored and headed to find dad but before I got up we saw him so I sat back down on a really sore butt. The chairs are not comfy at all. We were thinking about how we would have a 10 hour stop-over in the Seattle and hoping that the seats there would be comfier.

When dad came back and sat on  then after that get on a bus than on a ferry than on a taxi and get their at around 9-10. The other option was stay at a totally paid hotel that had a pool and then go on the flight they had tomorrow. Well after a very long conversation that I don’t really know how long it was cause I zoned out or fell asleep (couldn’t tell) we decided that we would go to Croatia today. However Jenna wasn’t very happy for the fact she had to get up at 6 in the morning for a flight that didn’t happen. She decided it should be illegal to get up before 7.

This doesn't look much better.

The gate we needed to go to was in a different terminal than the other one that we had on our previous tickets. When we got there we found a seat (another uncomfy one) then we sat down.    I started to read my book which I’m almost done (thanks Parker, it’s awesome but confusing) and when I stopped I fell asleep for a bit.  When I woke up I was aching all over being I was cramped in a little seat so I got up and moved to the floor.  That time I fell asleep for a couple of hours.

People mover and I had a front row seat.

When I woke up it was time to check into our flight and drop off our bags.  So we gathered up all our stuff and headed to the line hoping that our flight would actually go this time.  It went better this time so we headed to security.  It was confusing though as one security guard told us to go to one entrance and the other told us to go back to where we started.  Well we got through security fine and called a people transporter but all it really was was a small speed train that went on for one minute.  When we finally got there we waited for our flight to be called. 

While we were waiting we met this nice family from Johannesburg who were giving us tips on what to do when we go down there.  That was when we figured out that our new flight was delayed an hour.  So we waited for a bit more and after the hour found out it was delayed again as the ground crew didn’t show up for work.  Well finally we were able to get onto the plane and took off not long after.

Split on our ferry ride.

It didn’t take long to get to Croatia as they did what dad called, “put the hammer down” and knocked 15 minutes off the flight time.  When we got there we took a bus down to the ferry in Split.  When we got there, dad got the tickets for the ferry and just as we were walking towards the ferry we met this taxi driver that said he could give us a ride to Bol.  Dad was really happy as we dumped our bags off and headed onto the ferry, giving everyone high 5’s to all of us for making one of the last ferries and getting the taxi ride.  The ferry ride was beautiful as the city was lit up with lights as we left.  When the ferry landed we headed to the taxi and set off to Bol.

Finally, we made the ferry!

My stomach didn’t like the drive there as the road was twisty and it was dark out.  I didn’t quite throw up but I sure felt like it.  By the time we got there it was about 10:30 and it took another half hour to find the place after the taxi driver talked to a bunch of different locals and just before 11 we found our accommodation.  All of us were really tired after our 18 hour adventure and we all fell asleep just like that!  Hopefully that’s our only Baudelaire family moment (the family from A Series of Unfortunate Events) for this trip!

Carefree Travelling

Today is a bit of a setup day for tomorrow’s trip to Croatia.  We decided to get a place near the airport as it’s around an hour away from our accommodation downtown and there was no way the kids we getting up early enough to get to the airport from Rome.  Thought we’d have a nice mellow day where we caught the bus to the airport and caught a cab to our place in Fiumicino.  It was called the B&B Retro that I had booked a couple of days ago based on all the great recommendations it got. 

So we get to the place and pulling our bags out of the taxi when the big metal door for the place swings open and we met our host, Daniele.  Smile from ear to ear or as Alyssa said he had a smile that took up half his face.  Wow, this guy was the ultimate host.  We sat outside in the yard as they hadn’t finished cleaning the room so we hung out and ate lunch listening to the birds, the odd dog and a few planes leaving a little ways to the north of us.

After getting into the room and catching up on the blog, Jenna and Shan had a nap while Alyssa and I went outside to attack our books.  Another beautiful sunny day in the low 30’s which sounds pretty nice compared to the 40+C I heard it was in Revelstoke today, holy!  After, I went to check in with Daniele and it became apparent.right away why the rooms were as they were and thename of the B&B was call Retro.

I guess I need to jump back to describe the room a little.  Each room has a theme and ours was the Ray Charles room.  Red, with record covers and records framed and

hung on the walls.  Even the tile work in the bathroom was white tile with red grout!  The doors had the egg shell foam painted red on the doors but it wasn’t tacky at all, it was funky and quite homey feeling.   So when I went in to pay he showed me his house too and we hung out with an espresso shot (everyone does in Rome!). The guy has over 2000 records as he used to be a D-jay and also collects old games.  The whole room had records shelved on one end and wrapped up collector’s games all around the room on shelves.  He was definitely a collector of things, many of which he used to decorate his rooms.  One of the things I see on his wall is a book on the Bueno Vista Social Club.

I need to digress a little further to my experience with the Bueno Vista Social Club.  When Shannon and I were hitch hiking on the Big Island of Hawaii before we got married we got into this beautiful little town in the northeast (after a pretty rainy day where we had issues getting rides) and found this cool old style cinema.  We had no clue what the Bueno Vista Social Club was but it was playing at the theatre so we went to watch.  Turns out it’s a really cool story about these older musicians in Cuba that are located by this American guy and he gets them back together to play some incredible music.  It was an amazing movie and I’d recommend it to you all.  So I told him this story to Daniele and he actually got goose bumps from me telling it!  He then told me his Bueno Vista Social Club story where he saw them play in Rome.  Once again goose bumps!  It was a really funny experience with a pretty genuine, exuberant guy, thought I’d share it!

Chilling out infront of our huge laptop screen!  All 11 inches!!!

After it was off for dinner, chill out together to watch something on the laptop and bed.  Good and early start tomorrow for the airport!

A Visit to the Vatican

After yesterday’s chaos at the bus

Outside the Vatican with no line!

station I suggested we all get up early and head to the Vatican so we could beat the heat and possibly some of the people.  At 6:15 am the alarm went off and it was a bit of challenge getting everyone moving.  Jenna was not very happy about having to get up that early.  After a quick breakfast we headed to the bus station.  Thankfully we had no problems getting on the bus or getting a seat.  Not too long and we were there... outside the Vatican City walls.  We found a little cafe to get Kevin and Jenna a coffee to help them wake up then proceeded to St. Peters square.  We arrived in line about 8 am and only had about 15 minutes to wait before we could head into St. Peter’s Basilica.  Wow, what a beautiful church.  It was pretty moving to know we were actually there.  People were pretty respectful and quiet which let you just take in the sites and pray if you wished to do so.  A mass was taking place in one portion of the church and even though I did not understand what they were saying, I knew exactly where they were in the mass as it is delivered in the same way across the world.

The statues and sculptures were incredible.

The crazy staircase up to the Dome.

 After spending some time in the church the girls and I went up to the dome.  Like the Eifel Tower we climbed a lot of stairs.  The one difference here is that most of it was in a very tight narrow spiral staircase that started to make us all a little dizzy.  The first place you come out is in the inside dome portion of the basilica.  From here you can look down into the church which gave you a whole other perspective.  What amazed me the most was what I thought were paintings on the ceilings and upper walls were actually tiny pieces of different coloured tiles.  What a work of art!!!  Going further up we arrived outside the upper portion of the dome.  Wow, what a view!  Unfortunately I seem to have developed a bit of a fear of heights so I had to stay close to the wall while the girls looked around the fenced in portions.  They had a good laugh at me as I kept my hand on one of the walls at all times.  The Vatican gardens looked amazing from up there and the statues along the front of the Vatican building were enormous when you saw them at a fairly close distance.  While we were admiring the view Jenna said to me “THANK YOU MOM FOR GETTING ME UP EARLY”.  After seeing the line of people that went from where we entered the basilica all the way around the square to the other side she realized getting up early helped her avoid waiting in line for probably 3 hours in the sun!  I tried to get her to repeat what she said but she only smiled and gave me a goofy grin.  None the less I cherished that moment!

The view of the gardens from the Dome.

The view from the Dome with the crazy line.  The line of people between the arches is the line that extends well into the arches along the right of the photo.

A few more photos...then we headed down to the river and to find some lunch.  We grabbed a few sandwiches to go and found a shady spot to stop.  We were lucky to be serenaded by an amazing opera singer who was singing for money near the river.  After looking at a few market stalls we decided it was time to go back to the hotel to relax.  Jenna couldn’t wait to have a nap. 

The tile work in the dome that look like paintings from below but they are actually tile mosaics!

For our last night in Rome we decided to go for dinner then seek out this famous place we heard about for gelato.  It took us a few tries to find the place and when we did we realized people weren’t lying about how good the gelato was.  The gelato and various desserts were made on the premise and people would line up all the way outside waiting to get some of their delicious treats.  If you ever go to Rome look for Gelateria La Romana.  It is so.....good and not nearly as expensive as in Revelstoke.  It was a great way to end a nice day.

More crazy sculptures and cool  lighting.

The Dome from below inside the Basilica.

When in Rome....

We started our day like any other, pretty mellow morning, head for breakfast and get a plan together.  We were going to hit the Vatican, thinking it would be mellower than on Saturday, but ohhh, were we wrong! 

The start to our day!

Headed to the bus station

Second try to close the door.

to catch the number 40 bus and as we got there we watched people trying to get on and off the bus, it was chaos!  There were so many people trying to push on that people were grabbing others to drag them off.  I’m pretty sure I saw two fist fights just on the one bus.  We figured, no way are we trying that, so head for the Metro.  Well turns out the line we needed wasn’t working or so we thought.  So back out to the bus to wait for the next one.  They were supposed to come by every 6 minutes but we waited for 30 until the next one came.  As it circled around we were first in line but by the time it stopped there were 100 people standing in front of us!  We watched as people pushed and jammed, one woman was pinned to the bus as others pushed by.  As people tried to get leverage to get on at the end, one person just reached up and grabbed someone’s hair to pull themselves on!  It took the bus driver 3 tries to close the door as people jammed and squished on so the doors would close!!!  So needless to say, we weren’t getting the bus today.  Later we were told that there was a strike so that’s why the metro and so few buses were running.  Turns out they have these “strikes” every last Friday of the month!  Don’t know why they don’t just call it a long weekend and let everyone know not to attempt travel on those days!

Okay, new plan,

Three pm at the Pantheon exactly.

cab ride to the Pantheon and walk home.  This part of Rome was really cool.  All these narrow streets and super old buildings and then there was the Pantheon.  Its incredible how in Roman times (I think) someone could design and construct a building like a sun dial so that the light illuminates all these statues inside the building.  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves as it was pretty cool.

After that we wandered the streets and kept running into these crazy churches.  Usually you’d just be completely awestruck by these buildings but when you see dozens of them...hate to say it but, “oh look, another church!”  The statues and paintings are just incredible with the detail and condition of them.

Pretty incredible design and construction.

On our stroll home we managed to navigate the streets of Rome and find our way back to the hotel.  Found an English book store on the way so we had to stop as we’ve all read through most of our books and we still have two months left!  Stocked up on some reading material and found a place for dinner.  We had a pretty mellow evening as Alyssa enchanted us with stories of crocodiles and kangaroos with long, sharp, killer toe nails!  Off to bed as it’s going to be an early start to see the Vatican tomorrow... I’ve been told the strike is over!!!

Some other crazy building and Alyssa's photographic eye.

 Just another crazy church.

 

Simple bracket supports for the balcony.

I almost forgot... we found out what Santa Claus does in the summer.  He’s touring in Rome!  Maybe he’s having a meeting with the Pope!  We even got photographic proof....

Santa on his off time!

But First, Let Me Take a Selfie.

In the morning we had to get up and get dressed right away because where our hotel served breakfast was across the street at a bar/coffee place. The selection for breakfast was very small so we each had a croissant and

But first....Let me take a selfie

something to drink, me and dad had a coffee latte and I made mom try it. Hah, you should have seen her face, it was like a little kid accidentally drank some of their parents wine. After breakfast we came back to the hotel room and grabbed our stuff for the day.

We then headed to the subway and made our way to the coliseum. Mom and dad had bought tickets to get in yesterday so we wouldn’t have to wait in line today and I am so happy they did. The line just to get past security was probably about 45 minutes for them then about another 45 to get a ticket. We got in in probably 15 minutes. It was so cool inside and to see what I had been learning about this past school year. I had expected you would be able to go to the 3^rd floor and walk around more but only the 2^nd floor and parts of the 1^st floor was open to the public. There was also no floor in the center of the coliseum but it was cool cuz you could see all the rooms and hallways they kept the gladiators and animals in underneath the stadium. After walking around for a while and taking A LOT of pictures we decided it was time to leave and go get some lunch.

Jenna rivals Cam McLeod for the ultimate panorama on a smart phone.

We just went to a grocery store and got some pre made salad. You don’t even know how hard it is to find veggies here. Anyways we went back by the coliseum with our food and

Different view of the Coliseum

found a shady spot to sit down and eat. There are constantly venders walking by and being really persistent. The funny thing is that every 4 out of 5 venders are selling selfie sticks. Everyone has them too, it’s really funny to watch all these people trying to take selfies, the funniest is the middle aged men wearing suits selfieing in front of buildings. We decided to join in on all the selfies since everyone else was. We met some of the venders and it was pretty funny to watch them annoy people because the people would say no right away to what they are selling or they would just put their hand to the venders face. The vender started making fun of the people who said no and kept hitting the fence when the person that put her hand to his face was trying to take a picture through the fence.

Not quite a selfie, stick wasn't long enough.

After lunch we headed to Palatino... west of the coliseum... dad made me right that cuz apparently people are gunna google map it and we aren’t too sure of the name in English.

A view from what we called the Forum

Anyways we walked around for a while, it was like a little town full of ruins. We found a grassy spot to lay down under an olive tree and laid there kind of napping.  Later we got really hungry so we went to find something to eat, sis was really craving chicken fingers so guess where we went... burger king. It was pretty good though, I got to get a chicken ceaser wrap which I’ve been wanting since I left revy. I was also crowned as the burger king. We later went to Mcdonalds and got McFlurrys... It was a pretty great dinner for Rome, where they make such delicious food!  Did you know that you can get a burger and beer from dons here, dad thought it was pretty great.  On our walk back to the hotel we were walking down the sidewalk when we all got a big surprise.  We walked over these grates and all of our skirts flew up in a Marilyn Munroe moment.  It was pretty funny....

Afternoon nap on an ancient pillar...life is tough.

The newly crowned Burger Queen.

New take on burger and a beer!

Our First Taste of Roma

Off to the train station for the next leg of the journey to Rome.  I had to drag Shan and the girls by the market just outside of our hotel as we headed to the train station.  We didn’t have much time as I pre-purchased the tickets but I’m sure it killed them to just keep walking...

Yep, another train station

 We had to change trains in LaSpezia and had about an hour layover.  I had to go validate the tickets and stumbled on a McDonalds!  Alyssa has been dying to get a McFlurry so I got in line but they weren’t open so we had to give it a miss this time around.  Once the train arrived everyone piled on and we soon discovered it was all assigned seating.  We thought we were smart by getting the last car as those ones are never full but instead we found out we were on car one and had to get to car six.  Well, everyone was messed up and people were booting others out of their seats so we just sat back and watched the chaos!  Shannon had to sit in the bathroom for a bit as there was nowhere else to stand until things cleared and then we went for it.  Eventually found our seats but as we walked into our berth the two girls sitting there didn’t move at all and were sprawled all over the cabin.  I finally had to tell them to get out of our seats and they begrudgedly moved.   They got off at the next stop so we had some sprawl time of our own until two girls from Germany got on so things were a bit cramped with six big backpacks in a six person berth.

As we headed down the coast things seemed to get a bit drier and we passed some huge marble quarries.  It was crazy how mountain sides have been cut away and we passed a number of areas where they load the huge cubes of granite on the train.  Pretty incredible how you can look out and see three or four mountains being cut down with huge vertical faces that they work.  Guess they had to get the granite for all the cathedrals and palaces that we’ve been touring for the last few weeks from somewhere.

Pretty cool light as we walked around Rome.

On this train trip Alyssa discovered something about the train system that none of us could believe.  The bathrooms just open and dump right on the tracks.  I was wondering why I was seeing so much toilet paper on and around the tracks at stations.  You guessed it, when you flush it just gets dumped where ever you are.  

Pretty incredible stone cravings on buildings.

We arrived in Rome and headed toward our hotel and well.... let’s just say we really weren’t impressed.  There were a pile of homeless people everywhere, drunks, it was dirty and smelly, tonnes of graffiti and not really looking all that safe.  Thank god it was the middle of the day as at night it would have been scary.  We got to use our code word “fluffy unicorns” for the first time as there was this dodgy looking guy following us so we put our backs to the wall and watched him walk by!  As we struggled to find our place apparently Jenna and I almost stepped on a dead rat on the sidewalk.  We sure didn’t see it as we were busy looking at addresses.  The place we had booked had no sign outside so when we found the location we were a little dumbstruck as there was just an apartment buzz in sign.   Hit the buzzer and were let in only to discover that they had a plumbing issue and they didn’t have a room for us after all!  Well I thought “this could be interesting” but I checked my email right away and found I had mail from our booking agency.  We’ve been using Booking.com for everything and they had already found us another place and said they would pay the difference in cost!  We decided to catch a cab as we were all done walking and it quite a ways from where we were.  Turns out this place is in a way better part of town and everything worked out nicely in the end. 

Crazy hotel and huge round about near the Termini Rail station, Rome.

 We checked in, got organized and had some downtime before we headed out for dinner.   Had a nice dinner and decided to go for a walk about to see some of Rome.  We definitely had a different feeling about it from our first impression as we came back to our hotel.  This place definitely has some poverty, homeless issues and there is the smell of urine around a fair bit but you can tell the city is trying to deal with it.  There are a number of army vehicles stationed around our area and not nearly the homeless stumbling around the street as there was in the other place.  The impressive part is when you walk down the street among all this beautiful older architecture; you stumble on a 2000 year old ruin right in the middle of the town.  They sure like their marble around here.  Tomorrow we head to the Coliseum which we’re all pretty excited about.

Cool light and crazy clouds welcomed us to Rome.