If it's October then this must be India!

Wow.. can't believe I haven't been anywhere out of Australia since March - well other than that quick trip to Dubai, but that hardly counts... ;)

Anyway last Friday saw me back in the Qantas international lounge at Tulla heading for Malahide, just north of Dublin, where I had the honour of representing Australia in the IEA General Assembly. Five days in beautiful Ireland and then time for me to head back south again, to Singapore then across to Delhi. The day started well in Dublin where the girl on checkin blithely tagged my bag as 'heavy' at 27kg but didn't even hassle me about excess baggage - let alone charge me for it :) Then had the good fortune to be upgraded to business on the London-Singapore flight, and was already on business for the Singapore to Delhi so arrived feeling a bit worse for wear in terms of time adjustment, but not as bad as it could have been. Bag arrived safely, driver from the hotel there to pick me up, all's well!

So to bed at about 12.30am, then up again at 4.45 for a 5.15 pickup to take me to Delhi Station to catch the train to Agra. Interesting. Would probably have paid extra to be in a more comfortable cabin, but it was ok. Just after we left the hotel a little piglet trotted past. Yep, I did say a piglet.

Arrived in Agra at about 8.30, got out of the bedlam they fondly refer to as a carpark then headed for the hotel. Road fairly chaotic, cattle everywhere, horses with carts, tuktuks, bike rickshaws and people on scooters, bikes, you name it.

Car screened before entering, checked underneath with a mirror and in the boot and under the bonnet, then bags scanned on the way in. Rested until the afternoon then off to see Agra Fort. Very lovely, especially with all the red sandstone. Walked all around with the tour guide explaining all about the palace. Big pack of monkeys near the entrance to the fort had a major domestic dispute, much to the amusement of all there, resulting in the large male (and yes, he was QUITE large...LOL) climbing up a tree, angrily shaking it and glaring down at the younger monkeys. Very amusing, although one of the little ones was shaking.....

Way back fairly uneventful except saw a camel on the side of the road in amongst some cattle, dressed up and loaded up, and a guy on a bike with a little trailer with a water tank on the back. Other than that just lots of people, dirt, rubbish and life!

Early night tonight after a delicious meal in the restaurant - very indian, very yummy! Pick up at 5.15am I think to go to the Tak Mahal at dawn.

Must show the driver how to focus my camera - he took rather a good shot of me with the Taj in the background - except it is in focus and I am not....

Too tired to blog!

OK this is just an internim blog because a few funny things happened and I wanted to get them down before I forgot.

Today we'd booked a trip to go to Pisa, San Gimignano and Siena. We're waiting to be picked up at 7.30am downstairs when this guy pulled his car up on the street and asked if the scooter in front of us was ours. We said no, and so as he obviously ewanted the parking spot, he picked it up and moved it back abit so he had more room. Then he did the most pathetic attempt at parallel parking, which resulted in him scrunching the scooter between his bumper and that of the car behind him! SO he stormed out of the car, picked up the scooter and dragged it about 10 m down the road and continued with his efforts backing into the parking spot. CRUNCH into the car behind him... then we left. We've seen quite a bit of this bumper parking here in Florence - despite people largely driving tiny cars!


So Pisa this morning - first we saw this dog - there were three daschunds - but this one had the weirdest bright blue eyes! It wouldn't stand still for me to take a proper photo!

Second - gotta love these shorts - how classy are they? I thought the ones with Davids's willy on them were the ultimate in class but these ones go one better I think!Now the third thing. We're in San Gimignano this afternoon and I spy a Westie strutting down the street. He's a very handsome boy... I thought about pattng him but every time the woman walking him would even slow down a faction he'd be hard at it humping her leg.... LOL Michael and I nearly fell over laughing...but we did make one animal friend today ... this guy...

Pompeii

Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 metres of ash and pumice, and it was lost for over 1,500 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1599.
On the left you can see the entrance to Pompeii - up a steep slope from what was quite near to the sea - so named the Porta Marina. Sailors used to come to Pompeii frequently. The people of Pompeii used to flood the streets to keep the city clean, and the big stones you csn see int he road int he picture to the left is so that people can cross the street without getting their feet wet! They are all evenly spaced so a chariot could go through the gaps!
On the right right is part of the Curia - where the senate met in ancient times.

Below : the first is a bronze statue of Apollo - just imagine him holding a bow... Next to that is one of the many dogs in Pompeii - they are very sweet and there is a program underway to cull the numbers in the most humane way - by people adopting them and offering the dogs homes and love :)

Next - two of the victims ....

Below.. this mosaic is believed to be the earliest "Beware of the dog" door mat!
On the right, part of the public baths, or Terme, in Pompeii. These are beautifully preserved.

Now it is apparent from all the bits and bobs in the Napoli museum, that the Pompeiins were not prudes...

On the ground, embedded in the stone, is a phallic symbol, apparently pointing the way to the brothel area... one of the brothels is very well preserved, and apart from the fact that I find it hard to believe anyone could have sex on stone beds, I guess it all depends on just how long you'd been at sea!

Vesuvio and Pompeii

Ok I am going to try and be a bit better about this seeing as we are in Firenze with free wireless access :)
Tuesday, as I said, we took a couple of trains - first the fast train to Napoli, then into the basement of the station to catch the local train to Sorrento, called the Circumvesuviana - love it! Disembarked at Pompeii and decided that as it was furthest, we would take the bus as far as went up Mt Vesuvius. Of course Vesuvius is still an active volcano, last erupting in 1944. It's main claim to fame, however, is the eruption in 79 AD when it covered Pompeii and Herculaneum.
So we zig zagged up the side of the mountain, stopping about halfway to "admire the view" of Napoli, and of course buy postcards and souveniers. There were a bunch of dogs hanging around, and we had to give our money to one of them, who then took it over to the till...

Anyway we continued up the mountain, up to the 1000m point, at which the bus stopped and let us out in a rather drab parking area.

The rest of the way was on foot. OMG. I looked at it, I started it, I really did not see how I could possibly do this! Michael was forging ahead, however, so I kind of had to.This is what awaited us .....

However 40 mins later we made it to the Caldera - where this view awaited us...


Fabulous and spectacular - no lava of couse but lots of sulpurous clouds smoking away.

Climb down much easier - and then back ont he bus and back to Pompeii.

And that, my children, will have to wait or another day.

After what seems like half a cow for dinner, plus red wine and then cider in the Irish pub on the way home, Michael is snoring gently away and I am fzalling asleep. Nighty night, will try and do some more tomorrow. In the mean time there are tons of photos on Facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=274193&id=532332283&l=9b3255ba3f

for these ones...

xxx Sue

Trying to catch up

The view over the Roman Forum from the Capitoline Hill

It's clearly been a very busy few days.

The weekend was absolutely flat chat, with walking walking walking - all over the Forum, Colosseum, back to the Trevi.. all over the place.


Monday it was off to work for Sue while Michael gadded about Rome. He visited the cats at the Largos Argentinos, went over the Garibaldi bridge onto the Island, visited a heap of churches, the Pantheon, and then popped out to the Vatican to buy tickets, went to the church at Repubblica and then took me out for a romantic Valentine's Day meal... hahahaha


Tuesday I played hookey ... we caught the early train to Napoli, then the Circumvesuviano to Pompeii Scavi, a bus to the parking lot at Vesuvius (1000m above sea level) and then climbed the remaining 283m (was it only that??? rubbish...) to the summit and the mouth of the volcano. I will add pictures. This was not a stroll to the top, this was a frigging climb. I really did not think I would make it - makes the thousand steps look a bit pissy... ;)

Day 1 Rome

Well here we are, 10 hours sleep and I feel human again :0

Quick post before we head out for the day.

VEry tired when we got in last night and fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, with the result that thecabbie ripped us off 50 euros. Gave him a 50 and he held a 10 up and said I had not given him enough - without thinking (tired tired tired) I gave him another 50, but then of course I didn't have any 10s did I? I feel so stupid getting caught like that first day here :(

Ahh well, lesson learnt... off to explore Rome!

Random thoughts on life

Well here I am sitting in the study looking out at a back yard that's pretty well under water. I'm trying to finish a report that I promised I would send off today, then have to finish off another article to send off to Japan, and prepare for a meeting in Sydney on Wednesday. The weather is bloody awful - I have mum's birthday present and want to get it to her, but I don't want to go out in this weather. maybe tomorrow that will be a possibility.

Along with Karen and Stuart, we've bought her a Kindle. I love mine :)

And at the same time I have to start packing for Italy. We leave next Thursday at midnight, and arrive in Rome late afternoon on the Friday. One week in Rome and then 3 weeks travelling north. I can't wait. I am excited to be seeing Rome again, with more time there than I have ever had, and then a leisurely tour through the fabulous cities of the north - Firenze, Venezia, Vicenza, Verona, Milan, and the towns of the Cinque Terra. This will be Michael's first trip to Italy, and he is also looking forward to it, although I suspect we might both be asleep before the plane takes off.

Daisy came in from outside yesterday absolutely filthy. She needed a nail cut so we took her to have a bath and pedicure today. She looks (and smells) gorgeous. Damn. I'm going to miss the little terror so much.

Back to work.