You eat the mushrooms, I'll eat the peppers!

A great travel partner is one who compliments you, between Jim and I at least we eat everything on our plate..... I eat his peppers, he eats my mushrooms!

The trip back to Italy had more adventure than I had planned on. I was scheduled to depart Calgary on the 12th, after 3 hours sitting on the plane at the gate, at midnight, British Airways deceided that the mechanical problems with the brakes couldn't be repaired. They unloaded us and put us up at the airport hotel. April 13th - plane repaired, off to London I go.

We flew RIGHT over that volcano and it looked perfectly fine to me! Thursday morning I head to Gatwick airport at 5:30 am unaware of the hullabaloo awaiting me....... oh my word!

No planes flying! Rebooked for the next day. After re-checking back into my hotel I took the train for a 45 min ride out to the ocean at Brighton. Fun beach town, I wanderd on the boardwalk for miles in the sunshine. Still on a different time zone I was asleep around 6pm!! For the night!! Well, at least till 4:45am when I had to be up to see if the planes were flying. Still a no go and looking like it would clear in a day or two I decieded to reschedule for the Sunday morning flight (I figured I'd fly after all had settled down...... Hahaha) Packed my bags and headed to Bath. Might as well tour while I'm here! I had met a great couple on the plane from Calgary who lived in Bath and had been in Calgary visiting their son. Monika had given me their contact info for when we would be in England in June to look them up....... I was a tad earlier. They graciously put me up in their beautiful 110 year old house. Derek showed me the original title, with the name of the house...... Kelowna!! Yes, Kelowna!! Hahaha I told them on their next trip to Canada they needed to see the beautiful city!

I had a great time temporarily being adopted into the family. They have three grown kids living close by, with famlies, and were in and out of the family home. Plus another house guest, a friend of the youngest daughter, she lived with them during the week to cut down on comute time. With 7 bedrooms there was still loads of room :)

It was a fun time of seeing Bath thru everyday life! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful city! Weather was gorgeous too..... Ash may have been falling, but it wasn't blocking any sun.

By the end of the weekend and still no jets flying in the north I cancelled my ticket and deceided I'd better get back to my honey over land. So, Monday afternoon I took the train back to London (1 1/2 hours) puttered around and found my way to the bus depot. Again, a zoo!! The fast train to Paris is normally around 35 euro , but like flying, best prices are when you book early, last minute tickets where now 179 euros!! Yikes! So, being frugal I reserved a seat on the overnight bus to Paris..... 40 euro. We had a 90 minute ferry ride across the chanel at 1:30 in the morning. It was a nice ship, smaller than BC ferries but with larger open spaces with tables and chairs, a snack bar, and larger regular bar. We arrived in Paris at 7:30 am, I made my way to my down town hotel, a funky little place with friendly staff. My train to Italy wasn't departing till the next morning so Paris was mine for 24 hours. I rode the hop on hop off tour bus for more 7 hours, getting off to have a fun little lunch at a famously old street cafe called Les Duex Magots. Paris is HUGE!! It's a lovely city and so fun to see in person all the famous land marks...... but it's huge! Haha again the sun was out for my little solo adventure.

6:25 am I'm on the train bound for Zurich. It's a slightly longer way to get where I was going but more scenic......thru the Swiss Alps. They were amazing, I thought they looked like our Rocky Mountains but with Shuswap Lake at the base, and beautiful patches of bright green pastures. Little A framed chalets dotted the landscape almost all the way to the top. I was sure I saw Heidi and her grandpa with their sheep! Hahaha

In Zurich I had scheduled a VERY tight connection on to Milan...... 9 minutes!! Fortunately my train was on time and I jumped off one train and hopped on the one across the platform, whew! Made it! Now I could relax. In hind sight booking such short connections is too stressful :)

But aboard after settling my stuff in my seat I made my way to the dinning car. There I sat, eating my wonderful lasagna (almost as good as the one Nella made us Kath!) at a little white linen covered table, looking out at the passing country side, sighing contently. Oh what a marvelous way to travel.....

Once in Milan, I booked another train to journey farther south to Naples. There Jim met me to make the final 70 min leg into Sorrento. No offence to Naples, but with their very high unemployment, crime is quite an issue. And train stations are a favorite hang out for the little thugs! I needed my man by my side! Hahaha I must say, as we headed downstairs around 10pm to catch the train, I was very glad for the foresight to have him meet my train in Naples! When the train pulls into the station and most of those waiting rush to the front car to be close to the contuctor and the remaining 5 or 6 cars are empty ....... You get the picture?

But finally, after 17 hours on the train I am snug back in our little apartment in Sorrento! The next morning when I see our landlady, Anna, I'm greeted with a bear hug and kisses on both cheeks, and a florish of Italian I don't understand!! This is living.....

Sorrento, Italy April 6, 2010

Wednesday April 6, 2010 - SORRENTO ITALY

Well its been a while since I wrote so I thought I better get on it. At this age you dont  know what parts you will forget you just know!

BARB IN CANADA

Barb has been gone back home since March 21st and she is back on April 14th so I am here to defend the Baching system for almost one month. Vie done pretty good to I might add. I have learned with reasonable skill how to shop for groceries! This is not big in itself as I usually help out back home but here - there is no english on the labels so you are left to read the pictures is there are any, use what little Italian you have or ask. As a man I don’t like to ask so I tend to do one of the other two. Most times I get it right and when I don’t its an experiment. I’m big into cooking Minestrone soupa now!

JIM & GROCERIES

All three of the grocery stores that I have found are the same company which is what I would call a Monopoly but thats part of the way here. So threes not a lot of comparison shopping to do when grocery shopping. But.. The prices for the most part as the same as back home and quite a few things especially fresh produce and fruit are cheaper. I have no idea what kind of milk I have been buying/drinking but it tastes good in my cereal and I think Im gaining weight?

JIM & LAUNDRY!

Im doing good at doing laundry with a washer that doesn't seem to understand english or Italian either. Barb was doing it before I left but now its my turn! They don't have dryers in many parts of Europe do to the cost of electricity. After doing it a few times this way - hanging the clothes out to dry like Mom used to do - I sorta like it. Mom would be proud of me I know. Im sure Barb is! Its very fresh when you wear clothes that have dried this way! I just remembered that the month I spent in Malaysia last year I did the same thing there too! Funny thing is; in Cochrane and Calgary its illegal in some communities! Just like keeping your motor homes in the driveway I guess.

Thats something else I noticed here. With traffic laws and some other ones too Im sure they don't seem to enforce them until something happens. Versus our culture where we try to legislate your laundry, your motor-home and your feelings about things and everything else! Weird! 

Some times I think we over do it. Its a free society here until you harm or endanger someone else then its an issue that you will have to deal with. Maybe its not a bad idea if the penalties are enough? It would save on taxes and every one seems to get along fine. Drivers know the rules including the un-written ones and like I say they are not surprised by much of anything and they learn to "anticipate" what may happen so they are safe even though they are sometimes aggressive.

JIM & HIS FREE TIME

Some of you have asked - what do you do all day when Barb isn't there. My answer is simple. I either relax on my deck which I don’t do much of or I awoke which I enjoy a lot. I try to read but within 30 minutes no matter the time of day I seem to fall asleep here?

So my deck on nice days is my new office. Im accomplishing a lot of things that have been on the back burner for 3 even 4 years now! Some things that I found to do will be of great help to my staff and clients and others I just forgot about! I love my work and I love marketing so this is a great time to get caught up and to boot - I find it relaxing! Especially rewarding too when I get something accomplished!

I enjoy working like I say and our Team Office (Real Estate) is still very much open for business, with 2 Agents still at home working. I also do the Administration and Marketing for our Cochrane & Calgary Business Networks. I have delegated some things here and hopefully a couple more. So to say the least Im still working while away!

When its rainy or stormy like it was the last 3-4 days (again) I work inside. There’s nothing to watch on TV as all that we have in english is the BBC News and one can only watch so much of that before falling asleep, getting mad or slitting one’s own throat from depression! Someone said that good news doesn’t sell so don’t expect to see it on TV or the in the papers and they were right. I wonder what would happen if we started a feel good News station online with streaming TV so its like a real TV station - but free?

THE TOURISTS ARE COMING!

I told Barb the other day that when she comes back she is not coming back to the same Sorrento she left. As of a week ago the tour buses started to fill the town up and one cant move either as a pedestrian or in a car. The best way here is to have a scooter. They can get away with anything and it seems like its the law. Stop signs are just a caution sign and the gutter and/or center line (or a little farther over it) are just another lane for scooters.

The best thing I have seen on a scooter is a complete family. Dad driving and then there’s Mom on the back and in between the two somehow were two small children with properly fitted helmets. Just this morning I saw another great example of which vIe seen a few times now and thats well trained dogs sitting on the floor boards of the scooter as it goes down the street with its master!

I’ve been asked by a few of you about exotic cars - “what have I seen?” Well not too much. In the last while I did see one Ferrari, an Audi Super-car and a few Porsche 911’s. Thats about it. They don’t really drive those here and the reason is this. 1. Gas prices and 2. If you saw how many cars are all scraped up (they don’t fix them either Tim) you would be amazed. The tight curves, winding highways and narrow city streets and corners are just some of the reasons. Most people here drive like they are Italian and although scary at times I must say they are good and other than our bus ride one day I have yet to see or be in an accident. Although a few days ago I was almost knocked down by a car whilst crossing in a cross - walk. She wasn’t paying attention, going quite fast and Im just thankful I was. I was watching her eyes and could tell this isn't going to end nice if I don’t take evasive action so I zigged before she had to zag. I don’t like hospitals!

My Landlords are awesome. For that reason alone I wish we could stay here or that they had places to rent everywhere we want to go. They bring us fruit and refreshments on a very regular basis and their whole family is very nice. I will remember these people for a long, long time.

WHERE TO NEXT?

As I noted earlier Barb is back on the 14th as long as there are no stupid airline strikes again. Once she gets back we will be moving on in the next couple of days. I cant remember what day I told the Landlady so Ill have to ask, but I suspect its the 16th we leave? We may not have internet after that for a while depending where we end up.

We still haven’t made our minds up where we are going? I’d like to go to Sicily and thought I would while Barb is gone but haven’t. I’d like to go to Athens or somewhere in Greece too. Barb has an idea we should go to Croatia, Boznia and those areas so I suspect we will maybe do part of Greece and work our way north from there. IM not sure what we will do about the Tuscany area of Italy as we want to go there too before we head for France? Decisions, decisions!

Barb spent Easter at her Moms in Kelowna and our Son Steven and his new lady friend came up from the coast as did Natalie and Neal from Calgary. Part of the reason why Barb was there was to stay with her Mom while her brother was away on a holiday.

I hear the Calgary weather has been pretty good since we left in January - figures. Maybe you should just kick us out of town. Our next adventure; travel North America and Mexico for one year in a motor-home. Still a pipe-dream in the bucket list but who knows. The older we get the more eccentric we get!

Most days here we are 15 to 20 or 22 degrees. If its cloudy it cools off pretty quick due to the ocean winds. If its sunny you would think that its 30 on our deck.

I had a thought the other day about what we were doing. No I wasn’t questioning our sanity, vIe already done that! But here’s the best way I can explain it so far. We’ve been on many holidays over the years and have been blessed to travel so much doing the tourist thing. Although I have to admit I do like that I also like immersing into the culture. Sometimes I find out I’m not ready for it and other times IM more comfortable but either way its a true experience. My theory with this trip is to stay somewhere until the novelty wears off and live with the locals, like a local.

BEWARE - JIM WALKS THE STREETS?

I say this because now as I walk the streets and I do most every day; I realized Im getting to recognize and know people. People at the grocery store, the English Inn, the telephone store (Internet Stick) and so on. Im starting to feel more like a bit of a local, like I live here. Now with all the tourists arriving Im a little erked with the extra traffic and pedestrians that we have to contend with during this tourist season!  Isn't that funny!

Many times I’ve wondered what it would be like to stay somewhere in a residential area and become a local for a little while. Vie wondered about it many times in Mexico and in Europe. Sorrento might be the only time we really get to do this - especially me but Ill take what I can and I’m enjoying the experience - every minute of it!

So as we ponder and wonder over the next week on where to go next; we will let you know once we decide. One of the harder things is Internet connections. So we hope to hook up quickly where we go as it is also our telephone with family etc through the SKYPE.com system. If you don’t have it - get it. Vie had it for a cupel of years now and upgraded so I can call land lines and cell phones too. Its great! Calling computer to computer (Video calls) is free and when I call a number I pay about $9.00 CDN for 3 months use-age.

Well I must decide on which shorts to put on and what to make for lunch as this afternoon looks like a “deck day.” We will talk to you soon. If your on Face Book hook up with us as we are on there every day or two as well.

Ciao

Jim Messner

Sorrento Italy