Day 1 - Helsinki to Cork

1st August 2016

I woke up in the morning to the chime of the alarm on a new application on my phone called "Sleep Cycle". It shows you how well you sleep, and when you sleep best for future adjustments. And when you should wake up so that you are feel most awake ;)

So after breakfast, and any last minute packing of miniature toiletries (because I only had carry-on luggage, and could only take 100ml)  Harri, mum and dad drove me to the airport. I don't know why I didn't have a cup of tea with them before they left, but anyways ... I got through security and bought myself a large bottle of water and a muffin. I then sat myself down at a table with a wood burning fire, ate and read for half an hour till it was just before boarding, when I headed to the gate.

The first flight was in a small Canadian jet, and I was sitting right at the front in seat 4F. Of course, it was with a window seat; ;) It was just taking me from Helsinki to Stockholm, so it only took 40 minutes.

Getting off the first flight in Stockholm

The next flight was not for two hours, so I went to another cafe and bought yogurt with blueberries and I cut a banana into it. I lost an hour, from Helsinki to Stockholm, so I was getting quite hungry.

My snack at the airport overlooking planes

Here I finished writing my previous blog post for Rome.

Boarding a bigger plane from Stockholm to Dublin, and sitting down in my window seat 3A, felt completely natural. Maybe I am getting too used to this luxury?

Here I got hooked on the novel I was reading, as it had just reached the main climax of the plot. So ... I forgot to eat. haha. When I finally remembered to eat I was starving, and so I think that started my upset stomach ;) I am not sure ...

First glimpse of Dublin behind the clouds

Arriving at Dublin airport was lovely. It was not raining, but it was quite fresh and grey when I got off the plane. I then had to walk for a long distance to get to the exit.

When I got to the exit, I realised that I needed to get some snacks for the 3 hour bus journey I would be taking from Dublin to Cork, so I went to the only cafe to buy a muesli bar, some traditional sweet bun, and a juice. After I had bought these snacks I realised that I needed to buy some water, because I couldn't fill up my empty bottle. So, back in the line I went :)

Sinking in to my seat on the bus was heavenly. It was much more cushiony and large compared to aeroplane chairs.

This is when my stomach started really hurting. I through perhaps I was hungry, so I had something to eat. While it did stop for a while, it then started hurting again, so I ate some more. But I don't think I was hungry ;) Thinking back, it could have been the gherkin (that I don't like) and hot mustard (which I never have) on the sandwich on the plane that was making my stomach go all weird.

I finished my novel ...

I checked my mail ...

I started on my group devotional reading for the week ...

I read some articles online ...

And finally I was in Cork :)

River Lee, which goes right through Cork city

Danielle, my friend from university, and her brother were there to pick me up, because I was going to stay with them in Saleen, which is outside of the city.

Cork is in the top left corner, and Saleen is where the blue dot is

After this we had a lovely dinner, caught up on each others Summer adventures, and went to bed.

Now you are uptodate,

Laura

xoxo

Day 7 - Rome

 12th July - written in the past tense

So, today was our final day in Italy: The final day we could actually tour around and see things. Tomorrow we were heading on the plane, early in the morning, so we would not be able to really SEE anything ;) As per usual, our feet were tired, but our minds were excited to see the most famous city for "Asterix and Obelix" comics fans in the world: Rome or Roma. 

The day began at around 7 a.m. with a lovely buffet breakfast, and then a quick tour of the hotel gardens. We had been looking on it for a while, and finally had some time to do it!! 

Harri eating his exquisitely made sandwich for breakfast

Awesome views from nearby the breakfast area

Heading to the gardens

Dad pretending to be the sculpture behind him ;) 

Here dad wanted me to take a picture of the lion sculptures that they have all over the garden. I don't know why they have them all over the place. I guess the lions mean strength: the strength of Italy? ;) 

After cleaning our room, we got in the car and, for the last time, winded down the narrow roads of the mountain. Sad, really :(

Onto the highway to Naples, and we were all making the most of the views of mountains and the coast. 

At Naples we handed in our dear car that had been through SO MUCH with us in the last three days, was it really three days? 

They were really nice at Hertz, and did not say anything about the scratch on the side mirror of the car from those narrow roads. I guess because there was already scratches there from before we got the car... 

We then got a free shuttle to the airport, and a taxi from there to the central railway station. The first shop we passed in the train station was a lovely bakery shop, where we got some sandwiches for the train, a tea towel for our grandmother, and (after I asked for one) gelato.

 I got two flavours, as it was the same price as one: Salerno gelato, which was a mixture of walnuts, lemon and orange; and coconut gelato. Just to rub it in, these were both mouth-watering amazing!! I don't know why they don't make coconut ice-cream anywhere else ?? ;) 

Getting the train from Naples to Rome was not difficult at all, and it was definitely worth booking our seat numbers, as the train quickly filled up! 

Off we went, and we were seeing scenery after scenery of lovely Italian countryside. I was looking up the history of Rome on my laptop, and trying to memorise the tourist map so that we wouldn't have to look like tourists while walking around the touristy streets... I guess that it doesn't really make sense, as we would be on the touristy streets to BE tourists anyway ;) 

The train arrived in Rome, and we were all getting tired ;) haha. The train was very lulling. 

And getting off the train in Rome was HOT! It hit you like a plank of wood, straight in the face. Hot, humid and sticky. We followed everyone else to get out of the station. 

As we were walking along we saw on a screen that there had been some kind of train accident, which we thought (for some reason) was in Greece. I guess cause it looked very hot. I don't know ;) We didn't know until we got back to Helsinki, but that had been the train crash in Southern Italy which we fortunately missed on our train journeys.

Getting out of the train station was a relief in one way, because we had made it to Rome, the famous capital, but a drag at the same time, because it was just so humid. I mean, I was fine because I had on my new blue shorts from the Amalfi coast town, but mum had on a singlet AND a shirt over it, and the others had longer shorts on. Oh, and to make it worse ...

Our hotel booking was all mixed up! 

We had been told previously that our hotel had no working air-conditioning, and so they had kindly booked us in to another hotel with air-conditioning for no extra charge. Which was lovely. 

So we found the new hotel, which seemed like a step up from the one we were going to stay in, but apparently we were not booked in there. They were FULLY BOOKED!! 

So we went out searching for our original hotel to ask when happened, and then we realised that no-one was in the office because they had gone to get parts for the air-conditioning. So, we ended up just waiting outside in the humid hotness for twenty minutes, just waiting for someone to come from the hotel so that we could ask them what happened. We weren't just waiting aimlessly, we HAD called them numerous times ...

In the end Harri and I went back into the hotel that we were booked in to with the air-conditioning, and they found our reservation under the name of the manager of the original hotel!! 

So, to cut a long story short, we wasted an hour of our day in Rome waiting around for our hotel. (It was pure bliss getting into our hotel room: a.k.a. into the air-conditioning). 

Out we went, following the trail of the tourist bus. 

While chasing the shaded paths ;) 

This was the first church we saw, which is one of four of these special churches called "Basilicas", which represent the four corners of the earth where the Catholic faith has reached. See, the research on the train DID help me ;)

A little short cut we found. 

Mum and Harri enjoying the shade 

We found some amazing original paintings! We ended up buying the one on the top right corner, after looking into ALL the other pictures ;) 

Here is Dad with the artist, who signed the painting.

Our next stop was the Colosseum, where we stopped under a water vaporiser in one of the restaurants ;) 

Family selfie :)

Next to the Colosseum was the Plaza, which is ruins of the old hub of Rome. It was built in the 7th Century B.C. But then in the Middle Ages it was know as the 'Cow Field', because everyone was stealing marble and stone from the area. 

Anyway, we didn't go in. For one, you had to pay for it, and two, it looked too hot because there was no shade.

A panorama shot of the road we were walking along

Continuing along the road

These trees were pretty amazing!! They look like trees that would be found in a desert.

The Roman Forum

Mum was getting tired of stopping to look at the map :D Or she was staring in awe at the road. Either way ;)

Harri and a Roman soldier. He then asked for money from us, so we quickly blended into the crowd :)

At the end of this long road was a palace of some sort. It is apparently called Piazza Venezia, which is the modern hub of Rome. There was a monument (huge palace looking thing) here dedicated to King Victor Emmanuel II, who was the first king of Italy. 

There was two huge water fountains either side on the palace, and this is one of them

Here we had a lunch/afternoon tea. I had a lovely waffle of coconut gelato. However, it is super pricey in these touristy regions, especially because we decided to sit in. We found out the hard way ...

We headed up to the Trevi Fountain next!

When we arrived there were hoards of people sitting and staring all around the fountain. Not how I remembered it be in the 'Lizzie McGuire movie' at all really ...

Nevertheless, Harri and I barged through the crowd to at least get a glimpse of the fountain without staring into the backs of people, and (of course) to throw our coins (in this case a useless 2 cent coin on my part ;)) into the fountain. Apparently, this signifies that you are going to be coming back to Rome. So ... Why not ;) haha. Now I am singing the 'Why Not' song sung by 'Lizzie McGuire' ;)

The water is so turquoise!! They must paint the bottom of the fountains this colour ;) 

Throwing my 2-cent coin into the fountain. I didn't plan this too well ... I was meant to get the coin on the camera, not my hand ;) 

Where did my coin go? 

We then turned in to a cobbled road, and followed a group of tourists for a while. We supposed they were all going to one of the touristy places, so we didn't have to look at the map for a change :)

Cobbled-stone streets

Pretty ceramics!!

All along the touristy sections there were shops selling paintings. This one was lovely with the frame around it :)

We found Herbie's descendant

The Pantheon! That horse was in the right place at the right time. Just to be in one of MY photos :D How privileged that horse must feel!! ;)

The inside roof of the Pantheon. Apparently, this now Christian church used to be a pagan church where a flame was constantly burning, and that is why there is a hole in the roof. Somewhere for the flames to get out. Now it is a catholic faith church

Outside the Pantheon there was an Opera singer. He was very good!! He looked so proud after he finished a song. It was very cute ;)

There was a little shop selling marble slabs with latin sayings on them, so Harri and I get one each saying: 'Veni, vidi, vici', 'I came, I saw, I conquered', which Julius Caesar said to refer to a swift, conclusive victory. When in Rome ... ;)  This one had a lovely saying as well 

Cute little alley way

Now we began heading across to the Vatican city!! I was really unsure whether we needed a visa, or not, but apparently we don't ;) The gates were open, so off we went.

Mum looking like a model putting her sunglasses on ;)

Over the magnificent bridge

Bunny ears!!

Ahh, that's better :) Family selfie at the pope's place. 

Here is the pope's post office truck ;) It's cute!!

After this we decided to head back the same way. As you can see, it was getting to the late afternoon when we were at the Vatican City. So I was getting quite hungry.  

Dad showing us how to eat our pasta (I showed him first) ;)

After dinner we retraced our steps back to the hotel. What we found was at this time of night, around 8 pm, all the locals came out. Therefore it was so much more crowded than it was during the day time!! 

It was exhilarating :D 

Piazza Nevona. There were so many paintings being sold in this square!! My dad and mum were very tempted to get one, but they were a bit out of out price range. Especially considering we had already bought a painting that day ;)  

Here I am at the Trevi Fountain. The colour seems to come alive at night!!

After getting back to the hotel we attempted to use the wifi in the hotel lobby to download our plane tickets for the next day, without success, and had a lovely shower in the bath without a shower curtain. So we had to kinda sit in the bath and use the shower head. I enjoyed it, as I filled the bath, but Harri and Mum didn't enjoy it because they didn't fill the bath ;) 

So, that was our day in Rome!! 

Now you are uptodate!

Laura 

xoxo

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Day 6 - Hike on the Amalfi Coast

 11th July  - written in the past tense.

Today was the day I had been waiting for. The day that I had planned, all on my own, that was not a real touristy thing to do. Not from my research anyway. The day that we would finally get to hike through mountains right next to the Mediterranean Sea!!

We didn't wake up at 5 a.m. as planned, according to my schedule (well, we did all think it was a good idea to get up early to begin with). We woke up at 7ish, and quickly got ready for the day.

After eating a healthy breakfast: heaps of fruit and other goodness like that (a.k.a nutella pastries), we packed our bags and set off for our first stop of the day.

And then we remembered that we needed to book trains for the next day ...

So at around 9 am we left, with our train tickets booked, and a change of swimmers for when we finished our hike.

As repetition of yesterday, we winded down the mountain. We then headed onto the highway, after realising that something was wrong with our Nav Nav and taking a wrong turn. Boy, the highway was
so peaceful after all those windy roads!!

We turned off the highway towards Agerola, and up we turned onto the beginnings of another mountain. Winding, winding, beeping and waiting for car doors to be closed to squeeze through narrow lanes.

Winding up the mountain.

The amazing view of the mountain

Winding through the narrow streets of Agerola

Almost there. . .

We finally reached the small town of Bomerano!

 Here we parked the car, and found the entry point for our hike called "The Path of the Gods"

 Mum wanted to go to the info, so we went there to check if we had everything we needed. Check :D

Mum started telling the guide that we would be going to Positano and back again, but the guide was very insistent that we could not come back again along the hike. haha ;) She suggested taking the boat to Amalfi and then the bus back to Bomerano. To be honest, at that point we had no idea what we were really getting ourselves into ...

Here is the map of our hike:

We started in the top right corner and walked right around to the top left corner

So we bought some sandwiches at the local pub, as one does on long hikes, and went to the bathroom. Different signs said different lengths of the walk, so we were not sure how long it would take.

After filling up our bottles of water, we set off.

The first part was basically just getting to the main path we would be walking on, so that was lovely.

Harri and I were hungry, so we stopped to eat our sandwiches. At this point we had got to the mountain top, which is the path we would be following for the next couple of hours.

Our view while eating lunch

As we started off again we noticed this lovely little nook with little doors in it. I wonder if people actually live down there? ;)

The little nook that inspired imaginings of dwarf homes ;) 

Now the path started getting less paved, and more rocky. I

t was lovely at this point, because we still had the energy to take pictures while walking ;)

Walking,

Walking,

Walking.

And then we reached a pitstop, where you could turn off to the coastal town of Praiano. By this point we were starting to feel the heat of midday, and the first drops of perspiration were falling from the hairline of my forehead.

Like a mirage, and just as we were feeling thirsty, we happened upon a drinking fountain to fill up our water bottles.

Pitstop ;) 

Here we met another couple who came from the opposite direction, and were now turning back to go Positano again like us. We asked them to take picture of us, which they kindly did, and how far it was to go to Positano from there. They said that we had done nothing yet ;) I think they then felt bad, so they said this wasn't that bad, just to lighten the harshness of their words.

The fellow hikers kindly took a family photo in this lovely location

After walking through a lovely lush pathway, we descended on rocky stairs.

I HAD to take a flower photo :D 

You would think here that we were in some national park or something, not walking along a mountain. Well, we were walking along a mountain ;) 

Such cute paths!!

 That was when it REALLY began.

The beginnings of the rock steps,

which were really steep, and huge. The people who made these must have been giants ;) 

This picture is bringing back so many hard-felt memories... 

Catching our breath from the hike, we stopped to take in this amazing view  

This is how far up we were. The water was so translucent; you can even see the bottom of the water bed in the picture!!

After this point I was sweating too much, and the person walking in front of me was flicking dirt up on me, so I thought it would be best to put my camera away. I will just have to tell you about the amazing difficulties that we went through.

Well, the rest of the way we walked in and out of forests, up and down steep rocky stairs, and along the most narrow of paths that if we had moved a fraction closer to edge I am sure we would have fallen. But it was all worth it to see the amazing view.

We did stop again for a fruit break, where we discovered that the nectarines we had packed were at the bottom of my bag and, therefore, squished. But we didn't mind. I think we may have been too exhausted to really care about the squashed fruit ;) It still tasted the same, actually even better because it was made in Italy ;)

Panorama shot nearing the end of the hike

Getting closer to Positano, which is the town in the centre of the image

After some more extremely steep rocky stairs, we came upon a cafe. This was like another mirage. Because just as were sweating like anything and in need of a cool refreshment, we found it!!

The owners of the cafe really had an opportunity there to sell to the hikers!! I mean, there IS NO competition for them ;)

They were lovely and hospitable, and when we walked in they handed us all a paper towel to wipe the sweat, or should I say ', ' off our foreheads, and then they aimed the standing fan on us so that it would cool us down.

We then bought some lemonade and water, and just sat there drinking and feeling exhausted.

We were gulping down those drinks like they were the last drinks we would have for a LONG time ;) 

Artistic shot

The view of the sea from this cafe

It is amazing, though, because when we got up again we had more energy to keep going!!

Here we are all refreshed and ready to go again :)

Walking under grape vines. They had heaps of these grape-vine-covered-paths throughout our adventure through Italy.

We were now in Nocelle, which you can see on the map is very close to Positano.

What you can't see on the map, however, is the 1700 stairs that you need to go down to reach the city.

We started in the top right corner and walked right around to the top left corner

The stairs!! Doesn't look like much, but when there is staircase after staircase ...

Now, that is a whole other story!! The stairs were really the leg killing machine!! Just from a few steps our legs were beginning to shake! I think it was probably because of all those steep rocky stairs from before ...

Here we were all complaining in our head. It was REALLY difficult to find a comfortable way of going down those stairs!! Harri and I tried cantering our way down the stairs but that didn't last long ... Mum tried pointed her leg after every stair to help her knee, which helped her. Dad alternated between different techniques.

That was BY FAR the most difficult part of the hike. It was definitely not a cool down ;)

At every bottom stair of a staircase we hoping like anything that around the corner there would be no more stair cases ...

But they just kept coming.

And then we finally reached the bottom!!

Only to find that we still had to walk a while to get to where we all wanted to be: The Beach.

Walking along the roads and paths to get to the beach it felt like we were wearing heavy snow boots.! The backs of my legs were feeling super heavy, and when I stopped walking my legs felt like jelly, so I just kept walking.

Harri did get me to stop for a quick selfie though ;)

Looking all fresh from the hike ;) We did NOT feel fresh in this picture at all! I am very surprised by this picture ...

On we went, and we started walking through a lovely market place with shops selling everything from leather sandals (what Positano is known for) to gelato. Oh, and the clothes looked amazing!! Mum and I were so annoyed that we could not look into the shops, or touch anything, because of our sweat-mixed-with-dirt yucky feeling.

Dad put it in to perspective. We were like Mr Bean looking for the beach in France. You know, in the movie called 'The Holiday'. I know truly understand why Mr Bean walked along the trucks and cars, down those surfboards and the backs of those poor sunbathing people, to burst out into the song about finally reaching the sea!! LE MER ~ I truly was singing it in my mind when we were almost at the beach.

The beach!!!!

Mum had to quickly get changed into her swimmers, so we stopped off at the bathrooms for a quick sit down and change from our dirty sneakers to the heavenly, cool thongs. It was an amazing feeling!! While writing this I am overwhelmed by the emotions I feel then.

And then sinking into the sand ... ARGH!! It was boiling hot!! I had to quickly put my tongs back on ;) The sand was huge pebbles, which were boiling hot and difficult to walk through ;) We were extremely determined, so we plonked our bags on the beach and waded into the most relaxing Mediterranean ocean ~ ~

~ pure bliss ~

You can see the pebbly sand, and the crystal clear waters. An equation for happiness :D 

The city of Positano from the beach

After eating some gelato, and buying tickets for the boat, we boarded the boat from Positano to Amalfi.

Positano from the boat

This was amazing!! We could see where we walked along the mountains ;)

More rocky mountains 

 A cute little bridge there going between a mountain

It looks really mystical here

 Cute little coastal town :) 

Dad, mum and I on the boat

Dad and Harri with the mountains in the background

In Amalfi, I bought some blue shorts, Dad bought a print of the coast line, Harri bought some thongs, and we all got some small savoury pastries. Mine was delicious!! I don't know what it was called, but it was a crumbed outer filled with macaroni and mince. Mum had mozzarella inside, Harri had pizza inside and Dad had the same as me.

We then boarded the bus to take us to where we parked our car in Bomerano.

As soon as we boarded the bus, we were off speeding along the Amalfi coast. Dad enjoyed it some much, because 1. He got to see the scenery while someone else was driving, and 2. there was a dog in the seat in front of him which looked very much like our auntie's dog called "Lucky".

The Lucky look-a-like. Here you can see how fast the bus is going, while driving along the narrow mountain roads.

The full bus! Mum and I were sitting in the back seats, where I felt like a kid who finds enjoyment just from sitting at the back of the bus ;)

Arriving half an hour early in Bomerano, thanks to the amazingly confident fast driver of the bus, we walked to our car and drove to our hotel.

Driving back to the hotel

While chasing the sun ;)

When we arrived back at the hotel, we had a lovely shower with a lovely, new, fixed shower head, and went to bed. We had to wake up early the next day to begin the journey to Rome!!

Now you are uptodate,

Laura

xoxo
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