Continuing along… the next notable thing that I did with my life was head to Edinburgh two weeks after Roisin’s departure to support her for her EP Launch and fill up on all the UK things that one requires once they know that they exist. Like… getting an entirely new wardrobe of sassy clothes for about £100 from Primark. (I must have spent about 8 hours in there.) Load up on cheap hair dye, Boots’ nice quality cotton make up remover pads, Bonjour Paris eyeliner that I’ve made my staple, and of course delicious burritos, haggis and smoothies.

My whole travel scenario was a bit of a mess… I took a bus 6 hours from Montreal to Toronto- hopped on a plane to Manchester, missed my bus due to a delay- then I had to grab a train from the airport to Edinburgh. Then I finally met Roisin! and then we went and did necessary and slightly un-fun things like getting our eyebrows threaded and picking up all the necessary items from Boots. Then we went back to Roisin’s place and waited for the arrival of one of my favourite people – Mr. Scott Midson- to come join us, also arriving from Machester.

That night we went out for burritos at Illegal Jack’s nom nom nom and decided that evening to dye my hair blonde and then this mango colour that I’ve been swooning over for about 5 years. It turned out fantastique!

The next morning we all went and got piercings (me- rook, Roisin- nose, Scott- forward helix) before coffee and more chit chats, a haircut and then heading to Glasgow that evening for a gig that Roisin was playing with her producer and multi instrumentalist pal Lewis as a lead up to her EP Launch later that week. I also must note here that if you’re ever in Edinburgh and feelin’ an itch for a new piece of jewelry head to Tribe Tattoo and see George. He’s the bloody bee’s knees. I’ve had two piercings done with him and both have healed extremely well.

Another thing to note is that Lucy at Sassoon is the best hairdresser ever. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. I honestly think I’ll continue to travel to Scotland to make sure that no one else touches my tresses- my only exception would be if they are also Sassoon trained. This haircut in particular I think is my favourite… of all my life. And that’s such a nice feeling.

So Roisin was playing The Roxy that night with Erin Todd and Rosie Bans who were delightful. We got to have a sneak peek at some of the tunes that were going to be played at the launch and hear some fantastic music from the other ladies. The video below is one that Scott took of 14.

The next morning we had to say good bye to Scott but we had breakfast at my old work Hula before parting ways so Roisin could practice and I could head to Primark… forever. And never leave.

I ate all the haggis that evening once Roisin persuaded me to leave the store and just chilled out as the EP launch was the very next day.

We kinda had to make the EPs the next morning prior to the show so we made a necessary trip to Lewis’ to get things sorted. Then we got gussied up. Yes, gussied, before making our way to The Wee Red Bar.

Another one of my favourite people- and “mother” of Roisin Hannah O’Reilly opened the show, followed by the incredible Donna Maciocia. I’d never seen her live so that was indeed a treat. Then Roisin took the stage and I was overcome with the proudest “HOLY SHIT THAT’S MAH GIRLFRIEND” feeling ever. She’s so bloody fancy.

For better photos than my shitty horrible ones of the show you can head here.

The rest of my time was pretty much a blur of Los Cardos burritos, coffee, Hula, a fry up and tears … before heading to Manchester to spend a brief evening with Scott before he literally threw me into the train heading to the airport (I would have missed it otherwise heh) and I was on my way back to Montreal… alone… where I would spend about 66 days (not that I’m counting) on my own. *sob*

The happy ending here is duty free of course. I fahking love the duty free store.

K

I had weddings, funerals, exams, flights- any kind of engagement that you literally could not work around or get out of, on many nights that they were in town playing a gig. So I just kept thinking- “next time…”.

I said “next time” for literally almost 10 years, it luckily never crossed a full decade…
I waited for the next time as they eventually trumped all the music I listened to and became my official favourite, as I played albums so excessively at a previous job that they banned anything prior to ‘The Con’ :(

Finally I got my chance in 2010 at Glastonbury.

To see a Canadian band live, I had to be in England.

I knew it wouldn’t be a full concert experience as it was a festival but I was more than happy to be in attendance. It was a pretty incredible 30 minutes. My highlight of the whole festival.

In the fall after returning to Canada I started to hear the rumblings of a new album approaching. That album was Heartthrob and it meant a tour. Because Roisin is lovely and clearly the best bear, she purchased some tickets for us to attend their December show in Montreal as my Christmas gift, and oohhhhh the best gift he was. We got to hear Heartthrob tunes before the album even came out and enjoy some classics.

The Setlist

I’m Not Your Hero
Back In Your Head
The Con
Walking With A Ghost
Hell
So Jealous
Where Does The Good Go
I Was A Fool
Now I’m All Messed Up
Nineteen
Living Room
Arrow
Alligator
Feel It In My Bones
Closer

Encore:
Dark Come Soon
Not Tonight
Call It Off
Body Work

I took quite a few videos but you can actually watch higher quality and better clips from the show over at “wojo4hitz”‘s YouTube Channel.

And now I’ve also acquired VIP tickets to see them again this July for the full fledged Heartthrob concert experience. Exciting times.

K

I was really nervous on the way back because my folks hadn’t met Roisin yet, also this was her first time in Canada so I was just hoping that in general things would work out and be fine.

We ended up spending about 3 weeks with my parents which was lovely- we were welcomed home with chocolate cake and I was given the Wish Book. For anyone who’s not familiar – The Wish Book is the Sears Christmas Catalogue which as children was the most coveted item in our household. I’ve gone to desperate measures to get one… including grabbing an abandoned copy on someone’s front lawn after I’d given them 24hours to claim it. Am I a bad person?

We relaxed and caught up on sleep, enjoyed some North American television and just tried to sort out what our next move would be.

We were trying to decide between heading to Montreal- or going to Toronto. There were definite pros and cons to both.
Montreal- new city for both of us, I had a few friends there and one indicated that I’d not have trouble finding work and that he’d lend a hand, cheaper rent, allure of new experiences.
Toronto- where I lived before heading to the UK, super familiar, loads of pals, more expensive, heard the job market was tricky.

In the end we decided to opt for the new experience and head to Montreal. So I made some appointments to view some flats, and I made arrangements to stay with my friend Brenden for those first few days. Then we said goodbye to my parents (my mum had made yet another chocolate cake for my birthday which was fast approaching- YES!) and we made our way to Toronto for a quick stop before landing in Montreal.

There we stayed with my friend Bevan who I’d not seen in ages and we got to meet her bloody adorable son Zachary. He’s a keeper.
I also set up a night out at a pub I used to frequent to see some of my Toronto pals before we went to Montreal. It was a lovely evening- really short- but so nice- only complaint here is something went wrong which resulted in me having to pay almost $100 for our bill for food I didn’t eat. Jobbies. Roisin and I had purposely not eaten as we were trying to save our pennies as we were unemployed. I’m still not entirely sure what happened there.

Then we finally made it to Montreal. Brenden came and picked us up and we started to sort ourselves out. Roisin had won tickets to see The Gossip from Cult MTL early on so we went to that concert and then I started to get sick. Which was awful. I spent my birthday apartment hunting and trying to eat tasty things like a Cora’s breakfast and poutine… when really I was just feeling horrible. I ended up getting an apartment in a single day- so after a week of X Factor and Jeremy Kyle we bid Brenden farewell and made our way to our new tiny and affordable apartment.

We tried to settle in pretty quickly- a couple of body breaking trips to IKEA allowed up to furnish our wee apartment for about $500. We bought some food, Roisin became absolutely obsessed with this cat available at the local animal rescue called Benjamin because he was said to “not be good with other cats, animals, children”. Luckily our apartment doesn’t allow pets… otherwise I’m sure I’d be struggling with this surly kitty.

We made curtains and Roisin reupholstered our kitchen set- started to make our place feel like home. Roisin also acquired my birthday gift which was a total surprise and the loveliest thing ever- literally a necklace with our Eurotrip lasered into wood. SO COOL.

Then I started to job hunt. I had a few of the most embarrassing interviews of my life. One included a test for Excel- which I know and am good at… but I’d not used Excel since 2009… so I was rusty and I just needed practice. So I failed that big time. I just feel like I was making a bum of myself every bloody time I walked out of the house.

We decorated for Halloween and I got Roisin to carve her first pumpkin- we walked around and tried to get used to our neighbourhood but we weren’t entirely sure how we felt about Montreal. I finally got a job around this time at a call centre. I did this for several reasons.
It was a 10min walk from our house so I didn’t have to pay for a metro pass, it was steady work paying more than minimum wage, it had benefits, and I also figured there’s no way in hell I’d want to stay there- so it was the perfect job to take while I continued to look for something that I’d be better suited for. Something more creative and challenging.

So while I waited for that job to start I spent loads of time with Roisin and … The Sims. It’s her fault. She got me addicted to that game just as I was about to start working. It’s so bloody addictive…

The job was exactly what I thought it would be- it did allow me to gain a new friend, Grainne who did training with me- but she left after 3 weeks … we still keep in touch though which is nice. Woo friends! But yeah, call centre work is brutal. Completely awful.

So I applied and applied for more jobs getting no interviews or call backs… apply apply apply…
Winter came along so we purchased new coats and I dragged Grainne and her bf Donal to the Santa Claus Parade… Roisin hated it and caused one of our strangest arguments. I like some childish fun at times. Christmas is important.

We still weren’t really feeling the city. Roisin was working on new material re: her music so she wasn’t at the stage where she was ready to do gigs and open mics. So we didn’t really have that option for income as she didn’t have enough material ready. My job hunt was continually fruitless so we just comforted ourselves with the company of our two friends, going to see this incredible band The 24th Street Wailers, seeing Brenden when we could at Cult MTL events, for me Christmas – decorating and baking and Roisin improving her music skillz.

The winter really was a blur with only a few highlights. One of them being Roisin’s Christmas gift to me of getting to see Tegan and Sara live headlining. I’ve had years and years of really bad luck seeing them live. It’s a long story… but put it this way I had to wait almost a decade to see them live the first time and that was a Glastonbury so it wasn’t even a full concert experience. But finally- this was a real, full concert weee! And it was amazing!!! (I’ll post more on that this weekend)

Getting to go home for Christmas was incredible as I wasn’t able to be with my family for the last two Christmases. The first I was in Manchester and then the year before I’d been out in the highlands incapable either time of affording the trip home.

It was extra special because my parents were performing with members of the Tea Party for this special charity event in Windsor so I got to see the show. Such a lovely experience. Christmas in general was a win.

We made it home just in time for the worst winter snow storm Montreal had had since the 70s. We honestly were ahead of it just by about 3hours. So much snow. We were so lucky.

Then time has just continued to drift by… we had a chill one for New Years opting to enjoy a steak dinner and each other’s company.

Then on February 20th Roisin had to start her journey back to Edinburgh. She could only stay for 6 months so it was time to get her visa sorted and to do so she had to go back to Scotland.

So I spent the rest of February on my own… continuing with the most fruitless job search ever attempted in history… waiting. Just waiting for news on Roisin…

(More to come ’cause these recaps are huge)

K

BEST
1- Dresden, Germany
2- Český Krumlov, Austria
3- Bern, Switzerland
4- Bruges, Belgium
5- Munich, Germany
6- Cinque Terre, Italy
7- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
8- Salzburg, Austria
9- Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland / Nice, France
10- Orvieto, Italy / Venice, Italy

WORST
1- Ancona, Italy
2- General heat/humidity, Italy
3- Nice Etape Hotel, France
4- The two idiots who didn’t close the lift doors- Florence, Italy
5- The greasy pizza that literally made the pizza box leak, Italy
6- The assholes who wouldn’t let us sit together on the bus that one time.
7- The creepy dude in the ladies bathroom Vienna, Austria
8- Milan, Italy
9- The wasp in our hotel room Berlin, Germany
10- The final season of Roseanne

I really loved areas in every country that we visited. I was shocked at how much I loved Germany. Honestly would move there tomorrow if I woke up fluent in German. Love, love, love Germany.

But really learned a lot in those few months, would love to go back to so many of those places. There’s so much more to see and do.

K

So here’s some of the best photos that I took with my phone- some filtered with Instagram.
The first is from my last day of work at Hula before I embarked on this adventure. Awww I miss that place :(

The final picture is of the Royal Albert which we drove past while we were briefly in London on our way home. I have many good memories from that place.

K

We have arrived to my final Europost! (Before of course I give you two more rambles about our trip to finish out the week- but for that tune in tomorrow heh.)

We left Lauterbrunnen and our cozy chalet that next morning to head all the way to Munich. This meant that we had one more shot at seeing the lovely Neuschwanstein Castle. And this time we were successful!!
HUZZAH!

Now I say successful- but what I really mean is that I was super pumped and ready to rock that hill to take some beautiful photos and Roisin was ready to be a total dick.

Honest. Hoooooonnnnnestly, I could have killed her and left her body in the woods. I could have. No one. NO ONE moans as much as she does when physical activity is involved. And she moans and whinges like a Scottish lassie whinges . With anger. She again was thrust into the whole “no one is suffering like I am suffering” escapade where she almost missed out on the whole thing entirely. About three times she just wanted to stay where she was and wait for me. What. A. Wanker. The love of a my life. But a wanker. She’s reading this right now and likely raging. But she knows she pushed me. The walk down of course was effortless and completely fine.

I think the walk up was worth it. The castle is lovely and I was so happy that I got a second chance to see it. Roisin is still alive. For now.

Then we hopped back onto the bus and made our way to Munich. Our staple, Hotel Mons Am Goetheplatz was full so we ended up staying in a hotel that in fairness was much closer to the pick up point. Munich felt like our home away from home though – this being our third time there over the few months of travel. We wandered a little bit that evening and got some noodle boxes from the train station then used the wifi in the hotel bar to catch up on the world.

The next morning we were going to start the longest fucking journey ever. And it was going to be just as awful as we thought it would be. The next time we were going to sleep would be in Edinburgh.

We got on the bus at 8am and drove from Munich to Paris. Then in Paris we walked all along the Champs Elysees to the Megabus stop to take the bus through France to hop on the ferry to head to Dover. This part was slightly tricky as I didn’t remember to print my plane tickets so I was a Canadian trying to enter the UK with nothing indicating I had intentions on leaving… luckily the border guard trusted that I was being honest that I was flying back to Canada in a week so we wiped the poo out of our pants and sallied forth.

Once we made it to Dover we continued on our route to London where we switched buses for one heading to Edinburgh. I believe our trek in the end was 26 hours long. TWENTY. SIX. HOURS. on buses – no sleep. I honestly don’t think either one of us got much more than a few hours of shut eye.

Then Roisin’s dad picked us up from the bus station and we were on our way to her family home to die/ recoup.

Thank you for joining me as I tell the tales of our wee excursion. I have had chats with so many lovely new faces over the last… well… almost year as I recount this journey. Please stick around, I always blog regularly and I’ll likely have some more adventures soon.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting the best of- from my Instagram photos from the trip.

x
K

The bus drops you off quite far from the city center so immediately we had to hop onto the tube in order to get closer to our hotel. We had a fair walk to get there as well so we were pretty exhausted once we made it.

The hotel itself is decent- the courtyard on the way in is really pretty and the area feels safe- there’s a grocery store nearby and you’re walking distance to pretty much everything. Our room was quite literally in reception… you had to walk behind the desk and then through this door and there you were. That was a bit strange. It did the job though. Oh!- and there’s no seating area for the breakfast they offer- so you have to grab essentially a cafeteria tray and then bring things to your room… so strange. But hey- breakfast!

My favourite Milan story is how we went looking for food and snacks that first night and then decided to get a nice cold beverage to go with our delicious Italian treats. Near the chocolate milk was this pink milk carton with strawberries on the front and immediately I was like… “YEAAAAHH! Strawberry milk”. Normally I would never even get strawberry milk nummers but it was hot and I was thirsty and this is what my body wanted.

So we went back to the hotel got settled in for our chill out nap time and we both took enormous swigs of this beverage- which was cream my friends. Fucking. Cream. We’re clearly lacking in the intelligence department. I take full responsibility here yes- but Roisin never questioned my strawberry milk acquisition.

Don’t do this. When you’re hot and in Italy. Don’t guzzle cream.

Anyhoo- so we just stayed close that night- we went for a brief walk of our surrounding area and got our bearings but we decided to save our actual sightseeing for the next day.

I have to be honest though- I was pretty underwhelmed with Milan. I was expected loads of models roaming around and I dunno… I actually don’t know what I wanted. But Milan left me feeling “meh”. So I wouldn’t really recommend it. It wasn’t a highlight. It’s pretty damn low on my list actually- him and Ancona.

We of course went straight for the Milan Cathedral in the Piazza del Duomo. It is really beautiful but they have these horrible men in the middle of the square literally grabbing your hands to shove birdseed in them so you can get a ridiculous photo of you and your pals/partners feeding pigeons in front of the cathedral. It’s a fucking circus. I was getting so upset. Literally I had to keep my hands pressed against my stomach to stop them from just grabbing my arms trying to put birdseed into my paw. It was awful. AWFUL. I hope they’re not there all year round. What a joke. I could barely look around cause I felt uncomfortable about the whole thing.

So we ended up rushing into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in order to get away from these guys. Roisin was proper raging. The Galleria is beautiful but I think we were pretty grumpy.

So we just wandered around for the rest of our time in the city. Saw Castello Sforzesco and Porto Sempione and just had a wander.

There are some really pretty bits in Milan but I don’t really think it’s for me.

So the following day we packed up everything and we started our journey back to Edinburgh. Our very, very, long journey. The first thing we did was head back to Switzerland to Lauterbrunnen where we got in really late and stayed at Camping Jungfrau once more- this time in one of the chalets in our very own room with massive wooden bunk beds. I have to admit it was really nice to be somewhere familiar. It was also nice to get one more look at Switzerland before we continued on our way back to Munich the following day.

K

So um… well… here’s a few more photos from our second day in Nice. Of all the things I previously discussed.

On this day we did find this amazing little shop that we bought our pal Hannah some earrings in. It was part cafe, part book store, and then it sold loads of crafty things from local artists. I loved it. It was the best shop ever. So we lingered there and drank all the coffee. And no, I have no photos of that place. I’ll have to search through my Instagram mess to find some. Insta-mess…

We did truly enjoy Nice though. The old town was perfect.

Next up is Italy again- Milan. Two more posts to go!

K

This had to be one of the most beautiful parts of the bus journey. We went all along the coast- got a really good look at Monaco and other swanky places on our way to Nice.

Kinda like Vegas this whole area feels a little excessive it just appears and then you’re driving by houses of the rich and famous and fancy pants cars pass you every few minutes. It’s quite strange. I wouldn’t mind heading back here though to check out some of the islands and such.

We didn’t have the best stay at all in our hotel. You can read my review here. Ahhh screw it- here’s the review:
“The area isn’t the best as it’s right by the train station- but that’s somewhat a given as you get all sorts near public transportation- but our windows opened up right onto the tracks so it was always quite loud as the trains rattled by. First of all the hotel was tricky to find as there’s no signage out front, there’s nothing to indicate which floor the hotel is on- and once we made our way inside the building we had to wait an hour after ringing the bell for anyone to come to the door- to be asked why we hadn’t rang the bell (when we had as well as phoned two separate numbers for assistance). When I got the chance to use the wifi I noticed an email sent from the hotel 2 days earlier confirming my stay and asking us to confirm our check in time- with directions and codes to get into the building- but this wasn’t helpful as we hadn’t had wifi access in our previous hotel and I’d booked way back in May … This email seemed a bit delayed. Once we got into the room we noticed the two twin beds pushed together had entirely different mattresses, the towels provided were stained and of course the noise from the tracks. You had to kind of make a choice between roasting in the heat or shutting out the noise. My booking confirmation mentioned laundry facilities and breakfast but neither were offered to us- to be fair the woman had let us in in her dressing gown so I felt as if we’d caught her at a bad time… The shared toilet wasn’t the cleanest room and we ran out of paper once during our stay. The sink also does not work in the room so you have to hope no one is in the shower so you can wash your hands. The shower itself floods and the shower head isn’t fastened to the wall. At check out we wanted to complain but it’s hard to communicate with this woman who had literally disappeared for most of our stay until it came time for payment- she seemed to struggle in both French and English a bit which I found odd…”

To add to that- she asked at one point what we thought of Nice and we said we’d been enjoying it to which she responded “c’est fatiguant” which for anyone who doesn’t speak French – means wearying, irritating, boring, tiresome. I guess honesty should be appreciated but for fuck sake she’s in the travel industry. Cheer up toots.

She also tried to overcharge me by a couple dollars so I pulled out my confirmation and set that straight. Do not stay there. Good lord.

Moving along- Nice is lovely. I really, really like France in general. People were generally quite friendly and helpful. We did our laundry on our first night and got some Chinese food before heading back to our room.

The next day we explored. We were really lucky the whole time we were there it was very warm- but not Italy warm and we had constant sunshine. Notre Dame de Nice was right by our hotel so we checked him out. The way they light him up at night is really pretty.

We walked down to Place Masséna. I love the Jaume Plense statues there. We admired the Fontaine de la Soleil, checked out the Jardin Albert 1er, as well as the Promenade des Anglais. The water is so blue in Nice. It is so lovely. We pondered going for a swim but we never did end up in the water.

Then we started to make our way to Vieux Nice. Easily one of my favourite spots that we traveled to. Old Nice is AMAZING. So, so, awesome. We walked through Cours Saleya on the way and admired all the strange trickets that people were selling. Every time we went through that area the market was entirely different. This time it was antiques and odd knick knacks. I saw so many old posters, signs, typewriters, glasses, etc that I would have LOVED to own- but the thought of carrying any of that stuff around in a backpack deterred me.

We checked out Nice Cathedral as well as Chapelle de la Misericorde. We ate gelato, we peeked at loads of wee shops and made the decision that we’d pretty much spend all the of the following day wandering through the Old Town again.

K

We didn’t have much time to adventure in this area so there was a bit of stress to try and fit everything in. Not to mention that logistically this was probably our trickiest feat. The bus drops you off in La Spezia and then from there we had to find the bus stop for this one rickety strange route that climbs through the mountains and makes you think you’ll be flung out the bus windows due to the sheer swinging swayness of it all- in order to get to Biassa where our hostel was. This wee bus honestly had to honk it’s horn all the way up the hill to warn any potential traffic as there’s all these sharp turns… mental.

Once we finally arrived safe and sound we had to wait a couple hours before the hostel would open so we sat with these two Australian girls chatting at a picnic table. I felt like we were making pals and that we were having good chat- but somewhere along our stay I feel like the one girl started to not like us so much. And I’m still boggled on this switch. Drrraaama!

Anyhoo- So we were finally let in to our room- it did have a load of mosquitoes but I think at this point pretty much everything did. I do think it was odd that they had one shower room with clear doors. Honest. Clear doors. Wtf? Not the best selection there. Privacy when showering is something I enjoy.

Breakfast was included and did the trick. I love a free breakfast me.

We went for a walk that evening through the village. It’s the same size as the village I grew up in so it was neat to see an Italian equivalent of a 600 person community. Biassa is beautiful. We found this wee restaurant/pub and ordered a pizza to go. It was probably one of the best we had. One of the ones we got from the pool bar at Plus Camping Roma literally had so much grease that it leaked through the box. This one did not deliver a drippy box.

That night we did quite a bit of planning. The next day we were going to try to see all 5 villages of Cinque Terre in one go. We booked a shuttle from the front desk to Riomaggiore where we’d explore then hop on a train to see the rest of the villages.

So after a tasty wee breakfast we were on our way bright and early. Riomaggiore is one of my favourites. It has loads of wee restaurants and cafes- the area by the water is gorgeous as well. We were trying to give ourselves at least an hour in each place but I think we may have lingered here longer then some of the others.

Our next stop was Manarola. Afternoon was fast approaching at this point so we did start to suffer a bit with the heat. We didn’t spend as much time here- he is lovely but we had three more villages to get to so after a look around we hopped on the train to head to Corniglia.

What we didn’t anticipate here was a trek from the train station to a massive staircase in order to get to Corniglia. My research did not mention this. Those stairs honestly seemed to go on FOREVER. Roisin was not pleased no, no, no. There was so little shade on this trek as well… he is not a happy memory. My calves were all wriggly the following day.

Corniglia stands out to me though for reasons beyond the massive staircase. It’s so narrow- it’s pretty much one corridor through to the view of the water – so there’s no beach area in the main bit like the others. He was also so much cooler. Thankfully. Full of shade and wee shops. We got some gelato and caught our breath before heading to Vernazza.

On 25 October 2011, Vernazza was struck by torrential rains, massive flooding and mudslides that left the town buried in over 4 metres of mud and debris, causing over 100 million euro worth of damage. The town was evacuated and remained in a continued state of emergency. (Wiki) But you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’d suffered that tragedy so recently. Everything was cleaned up so beautifully- you could still see some signs of the damage but the village clearly worked extremely hard to restore everything. We spent a lot of time here grabbing a bite to eat, a beer and dipping our feet in the water. We chatted with two Irish ladies who were there with their wee girls. It was lovely. It was also nice to slow down a bit as we only had one more village to go.

Monterosso al Mare I liked the least. Overpopulated beaches and it generally lacked the charm of the other 4. Just seemed really busy, so we didn’t linger too long. We took a walk around then grabbed a seat by the water and chatted while the sun started to go down. Then we hopped back on the train for the journey back to Riomaggiore.

There we waited for our shuttle bus and ended up riding with some French Canadians. Here is where Roisin realized that they’re so French they have French accents. Apparently this idea hadn’t crossed her mind. Yes, they really are that French. Not just French speaking Canadians. This is why she’s my favourite.

We were exhausted once we made it to the hostel. Sleep was our first priority. We had to catch a bus the next morning to get us back down to La Spezia in order to wait for the bus which would be bringing us to Nice. I was very excited to return to France.

K