Rome, London, Barcelona..Lift off

So with the Tour de Thames in full swing I have a weekend in Rome to regale about, Euro - job hunting craziness to update on and a wedding that was quite safely a highlight of this manic year of mine..

So starting with Rome. The reason for this visit was simple.. A little prezzy from me to Beckalina for her birthday, which I missed back in July.. She had never been to Italy so the plan was that I should have met her after finishing my season on the Italian boat in Rome for a weekend of decadence.. The trip nearly got cancelled as I came home a month early from said boat..after much contemplation I realised if all went well with my job hunting I wouldn’t see her for at least 6 months (she has an epic journey of her own touring Asia in Jan), I knew Tour de Thames on my return would be hectic and we wouldn‘t see lots of each other.. And as if that wasn’t enough of an excuse to carry on regardless we discovered her uncle held the coveted role of a live in priest in the Vatican.. The thought of me and Bex cavorting with the Pope sealed it.. Rome was placed on red alert!

To be fair it was one of the best weekends away I can quite safely say I have ever had.. We arrived late at night and checked straight into the 5 star accommodation I had booked = 8 bed female dorm in “ Youth Station Hostel“ On dealing with the vision of 6 girls wearing smelly T-shirts and pants mulling round a tiny room filled to the brim of bunk beds we promptly opted OUT in search of food and fun!!!

Our hunger took over as we realised Italy doesn’t do the whole late dining thing! It was a squeeze and it was a rush but a pizza later mellow yellow was back…bizarrely enough my pathetic mutterings in Italian concerning where the local nightlife was managed to get us a lift from the waiter who took us in his car to what he thought was the hub of all activity.. Hmmm nice of him yes.. Middle of nowhere on a dual carriage way not so buzzin!
But we settled on down to a few vino biancos in the least dressy place we could find (Italians like a dress up and this being Friday night and us straight from plane-dorm hell in flip flops meant we sort of stuck out at your normal bar)…then the next thing we know we’re chatting to a jordy who lives in Rome and an Irish backpacker on her way round Europe..both were suspiciously running back and forth to the manky toilet together but managed to regale us with bizarre tales and relieve us from Italian male stares.. Apparently “flip-flop, post-dorm-hell” chic goes down well at this establishment… the rest is all a little blurry we took ourselves back to the scary dorm and I managed to flag complete strangers down in the hope that they would drive us to our door.. As ever it didn’t quite end like that a few more bars later and a lot of mangled Spanish, Italian and Beckalina embraces we found our way back “home", much to our room’s disgust (tee hee)

Morning broke after about 2 hours of sleep.. Sharing a room with 6 eager american travellers doesn’t lend itself to lie-in‘s… Bex hilariously refused to wake up shoving me the 2 fingers whilst asleep - classy!!!.. I had flash backs of her missing our Great Barrier reef dive when she wouldn’t move as I tried waking her up and resolved not to let that happen on this little ole weekend!!! Great thought almost impossible to implement!! However she got the picture and after grumping her way out of the bed

we headed outside to explore lovely Roma… what an amazing day ..



Sun in Rome - I think I was still half cut and decided to phone her uncle - this was our only Roman contact, a priest who has lived in the Vatican for 30 years!!! Before we knew it we were on route to the nearest square and restaurant to meet uncle Domingo!!!





I was trying to placate Bex with food and beverages!! We were dressed in shorts and vests for the heat of the hangover (not quite priest meeting attire)

Hey Ho then there followed probably the hardest day of mine and Bex’s life (slightly dramatic but at the time it was VERY real!) we were “shown” around almost all of the religious sights in Rome



- being the home and capitol of Roman Catholicism that’ll be quite a lot then!!!!









And by the way it was all done in Spanish.. Domingo is from Bex’s Spanish side of the family. Think one of the funniest points was when we were told to follow the people down into the catacombes..”..I’ll meet you back here in 45 minutes!” 45 MINUTES.. that’s a near life time to two hanging little girls who just want a large bed in a darkened room.. Not a religious tour of Roman tombs on a VERY bright sunny day..



You know in hindsight - don’t you just love hindsight - I did love that day - not sure Bex can quite agree with me.. But he was a star and eating lunch with his 6 other Spanish speaking Priest room’s was a definite moment that I loved…Bex was holding on for dear life but I insisted we went out and explored Rome on our 2nd to last night - which coincidently was a Saturday… we ate (sorry, I ate Bex was too hanging to even really talk bless her) and met back up with the night before’s chauffeurs..




Then ensued the normal banter and madness.. I even managed to get Bex to have her 1st expresso - not to be smirked at, she wouldn’t even contemplate it when we were doing 13 hour days driving across the states so this was a big step for her!!!



After doing the customary wish at the Trevi Fountain






Suddenly Bex interjected at the strike of midnight-”that’s enough I’ve had it I am off get me a taxi” with her packed away the three of us went off to Rome’s cool quarter..



Stamina, Stamina stupid stamina.. Bex woke up fresh.. I barely slept….

Our Sunday found us cruising round Rome





meeting back up with our chauffeurs who had morphed into our own local tour guides.. They were excellent showing us all the sights giving us real info about the place and its history - Bex and I don’t tend to “do” the historical thing whilst away - that’s not to say we don’t like it we just don’t end up getting round to it. As this was done with obvious passion and by 2 very funny cool guys we loved it!! And absorbed it.. Consequently we fell in love with Rome on many different levels… that night ended slightly more stylishly with beautiful Italian food and red wine and great conversation.. Well I definitely got good conversation. Bex got a little more than she bargained for …




(It still amazes me how you can meet what are seemingly complete strangers and end up feeling like you’ve known them half your life…)







Our last day consisted of a hit and run at the hostel (Don’t ask!) and the final bar - Bex finally made it to the cool quarter of Rome



with our last beer



making us nearly missing us our flight…. The lateness of Easy Jet forced us to raid our Limoncello stash….





My mum definitely found us comical as we screamed a report of our weekend at her in Stereo down the M25.

That weekend was the first “holiday” I have had with Bex for years.. And was bloody excellent.. Then followed a 2 week hit of me running over to Bremen in Northern Germany for an interview (I am supposed to be back in the UK looking for work its not just fun fun fun you know!!!) Very bizarre interview on a huge boat!! Definitely didn’t want the job but managed to get loads of Dr Hauschka products though.. Good ole Germany!

I managed to squeeze in a wedding of one of my oldest mates



Nick Dare got married to lovely Lou…



It was wonderful, held at the Pembroke Lodge in Richmond with the amazing Richmond river view as a back drop. I was in new blue dress and met up with mates I haven’t seen in what felt like years.. Reunited with my old Tequilla partner,



the best man, me and Jim were as ever the last 2 standing.. Finding the bar in the hotel conveniently switched on and unmanned!!


BAD MOVE Richmond Hill hotel!!!!!!!! Only down side of that wedding was by hooking up with everyone it made me realise just how much I miss by being away..



There were babies new and in the belly (good luck Carla), marriages and relationships new and old all around.. And just loads of faces that by seeing them made me realise just how much I miss them…Must admit I felt the odd one out with no babies and no relationships to name…Nick and Lou CONGRATS love you both just keep in touch now!!!

Then off I was again on a 2 day work trial in Barcelona with an interview on the 3rd day. Amazing for me being back in Spain blabbing away in my pigeon Spanish.. And great to be on this boat as my mate LuLu who I met back in Feb on my safety course worked on it and got the me the in… Suffice to say I was blown away and loved it - they bizarrely liked me and I am now officially a crew member of Callisto..



No piccies of the interior this time round. The captain, not only has read this blog (god how embarrassing a moment that was when he revealed how much he was intrigued by my ambulance in the interview - not my most professional moment!!!), but also pointed out putting pictures on the net of someone’s private boat (liken it to their home!) is not quite the done thing - totally fair point…

With only a few days at home I managed to do the family goodbyes, the final friend moments, (a Monty and Munchk morning. Lorna’s birthday with a surprise visit from
Nobby Mitch and Leon



and the “getting a little predictable now” Beckalina-Nerdalino-lost weekend including AWOL-noshow’s by me, YET AGAIN!!..

I type this little (or rather bloody long) insert from my crew cabin in Barcelona..

Must admit a good friend asked me just before I left if was I feeling sad about going, I gave the standard knee jerk reaction of mine “NO. just nervous!”..

Truth be told I was actually really sad this time about leaving home… and have had many doubts about this little living abroad dream of mine - probably doesn’t help when loads of my mates have been asking me why I am leaving again, or more precisely ”stop showing off and come home!”

But after a firm talking to by Dee, low and behold within the first 12 hours of being on board I am back in the mindset that this is definitely where I want to be.. The people are tip top… I have been reunited with my mate LuLu and feel I could be on route to making lots more mates… How the hell I stuck on that other boat for so long I will never know (Monz if only you could be here!!)…and then just to top it all off I watched Ewan McGreggor’s: The Long Way Round - and I find myself re-inspired and convinced I’ll have a go at that plan of mine…Colombia needs to be warned!!!

But for the moment: Bring it on Barcelona... I have 1 month here, lots of work to get my head round and a big ole city to explore.. then mid Nov I'm headed over the seas to the Caribbean (ahh so excited).. but more of that later!!!!!

Hasta la Proxima x