Vacation!!!
Real beds!! – a real shower and our own bedroom!! – Mamma Italia! – Lu mare, lu sule, l’ientu – cucina della Mamma – beautiful coastlines – internet points – crazy traffic – rustico – pucciette – amandoti at Mongolfiera (avete sentito io in radio?) – panini – beer- foccacia della Mamma – hang over- gelato dal Principe – cornetto con la crema – air conditioning
:D :D
Friday, August 29, 2008
Day 7 - Partiremo insieme silenzio del mattino – Puglia
Since we had some more time and didn’t have to pack the car properly we did our things quietly and relaxed and after we had checked out we decided to stop at Barletta once more, get some groceries and sit in a park where we would have been able to use the wifi. Unfortunately, Chiara managed to slip on the boardwalk and bruise her arm and hip pretty badly so we decided to drive straight to Lecce for our little vacation with Mamma Italia. The bruised arm got better every day but she still has a really bad purple and red bruise on her hip. It takes some pain to be an avventuriera. After about 3 hours or so we arrived at our destination and our vacation began.
Day 6 - Part 2 - Nei tuoi occhi l’universo è sempre più vicino – Barletta
There we met Lamento, Stressalupa, Dany and others and the wait began. As we were there somewhat later than our usual time, it was shorter so less time to be bored. Chiara decided to venture to the bar and get some water but as it turned out it was closed so she decided to walk into the center to find drinks and an atm. She eventually returned with caffe freddo and aqua and after those were consumed panini and beer were bought at the bar, which by now was open again, and the only time we would leave our spot was to give the portable toilets a visit. Our time was spent with taking pictures to bribe Lamento with, some calls from other forumist*, talking about tv shows and cartoons and of course I PUFFI ;P. Oh, Chiara did also almost break Lamento’s eardrums while singing “Ero già qui prima di te. KATTIVO!” The soundcheck was pretty enjoyable and we sang along to the songs the band practiced and eventually we were let in with the usual casino.
We all managed to get into prima fila, however we were very much at the right side of the stage and the stage itself was set up pretty weird so we didn’t have the best spots. Nevertheless, we managed to enjoy ourself and bawl our eyes out during Oh Marinaio, Notti Senza Cuore and Sorridi. Besides Oh Marinaio this time Possiamo Sempre and Alla Fine were added to the scaletta but of course Un’estate Italiana was not pulled out of the setlist much to all of our discontment. We crossed our arms, hid ourselves under our banner and turned the banner around to show our grief. Who knows if it worked… Again at this gig the audience was of the Sei nell’anima/Suicidio d’amore/Un’estate italiana kind but hey as long as we have our fun right? For Thomas we had made a special banner that led to a big smile: ‘Cheers Thomas! (also in august)’. This may sound a bit cryptic, but who knows knows ;)
After the concert we had somewhat of a big scare when we couldn’t find the car keys, but luckily we found them again in a very silly place… We really needed sleep at that point ;) We dropped Centomila at her hotel and said our goodbyes because she’d go back home again and headed for out tent. Looking for the way out of Barletta we bumped into some people we knew, had a quick but very nice drink with them, and then drove back to Bisceglie. On the way to the campsite we decided to get some French fries which we wanted to eat quietly but there was some dude who was on vacation with his parents who (as we assumed) was looking for a wife. He talked to us a bit and once he was on his stretched next to his parents’ camper we headed for the bathrooms to get ready for the night. Due to the weird guy we slept with our tent closed and in the morning it was so hot it felt like we were melting but all in all we got some much deserved sleep.
We all managed to get into prima fila, however we were very much at the right side of the stage and the stage itself was set up pretty weird so we didn’t have the best spots. Nevertheless, we managed to enjoy ourself and bawl our eyes out during Oh Marinaio, Notti Senza Cuore and Sorridi. Besides Oh Marinaio this time Possiamo Sempre and Alla Fine were added to the scaletta but of course Un’estate Italiana was not pulled out of the setlist much to all of our discontment. We crossed our arms, hid ourselves under our banner and turned the banner around to show our grief. Who knows if it worked… Again at this gig the audience was of the Sei nell’anima/Suicidio d’amore/Un’estate italiana kind but hey as long as we have our fun right? For Thomas we had made a special banner that led to a big smile: ‘Cheers Thomas! (also in august)’. This may sound a bit cryptic, but who knows knows ;)
After the concert we had somewhat of a big scare when we couldn’t find the car keys, but luckily we found them again in a very silly place… We really needed sleep at that point ;) We dropped Centomila at her hotel and said our goodbyes because she’d go back home again and headed for out tent. Looking for the way out of Barletta we bumped into some people we knew, had a quick but very nice drink with them, and then drove back to Bisceglie. On the way to the campsite we decided to get some French fries which we wanted to eat quietly but there was some dude who was on vacation with his parents who (as we assumed) was looking for a wife. He talked to us a bit and once he was on his stretched next to his parents’ camper we headed for the bathrooms to get ready for the night. Due to the weird guy we slept with our tent closed and in the morning it was so hot it felt like we were melting but all in all we got some much deserved sleep.
Day 6 - Part 1 - Partiremo insieme nel silenzio del mattino – Campania, Basilicata, Puglia
We decided to leave really early today because we had to leave on the day of the Barletta gig. This meant not a lot of sleep and getting the car packed as quickly as possible. We did manage all of that in a quite reasonable time frame but then discovered that we had to wait for to check-out, which you could normally do from 7am onwards as it said but well, we were in Italy, or southern Italy rather, and everything is different there. So we went to pick up Centomila and then drove back to our camp site where yet again we had to wait for a bit. Eventually we were able to pay and leave Paestum for our next destination Barletta.
It was a long, hot and beautiful drive which took us through some really beautiful landscapes. We encountered eventful and not so eventful roads. For a long part of the drive we just drove and drove through what seemed like the Australian outback and for another part we had an incredible street we had to maneuver our way through. We arrived in Barletta safe, sound and cooked and after some searching around we dropped Centomila of at her hotel and then made our way to the Castello where the gig would be.
It was a long, hot and beautiful drive which took us through some really beautiful landscapes. We encountered eventful and not so eventful roads. For a long part of the drive we just drove and drove through what seemed like the Australian outback and for another part we had an incredible street we had to maneuver our way through. We arrived in Barletta safe, sound and cooked and after some searching around we dropped Centomila of at her hotel and then made our way to the Castello where the gig would be.
Day 5 - Nei tuoi occhi l’universo è sempre più vicino – Paestum
We woke up with that feeling that it was going to be a long day and in this case also a hot day and headed for the showers (with coins). After a close examination of the showers we realized that if you’d put your coin in, a random shower turned itself on. Smart as we are, we figured that shower one and two would turn themselves on. And whadda you know, we were right… As no time limited was indicated we thought we could shower as long as we wanted to but of course as soon as we had undressed and put our shampoo in our hair, the shower was finished. There we went again, towels were put around us and pajamas were put on again to put a new coin in. Chiara gave up and went for the cold shower. Coosje however was not brave enough for the cold shower but was brave enough to take another chance with the hot showers. As everybody would do she put her stuff in shower and put the coin in the machine but… Surprise: shower four started running so she had to pick up all her stuff and run into cabin four and on the way dropped her clothes on the filthy and wet floor. In the meantime Chiara made her way to the cold shower in her pajamas where she waited until one was free. Nothing eventful happened except for the cleaning lady looking at her with an angry face (after Chiara had said buongiorno and smiled at her) when she wanted to walk into the other room to brush her teeth. Maybe she should have brought spaghetti to make friends with the cleaning lady.
As you can see, it takes some effort to get rid of capelli e unghie dal campeggio.
After our daily shower adventure, we finally made our way towards the Templi were a looooooooong and hooooooooooot day would start. Looking around we asked a police officer about the venue were the entrance for parterre would be. He looked at us weirdly and said the gig would be at 10pm and not at 10am and we should enjoy the good Italian food and come back at 7pm. We told him that we need to be in prima fila and that we had to be there this early. Quite rightly, he thought we’re crazy, hahaha. We placed ourselves in front of the cancelli and the long wait in the sun began. After a while Centomila also arrived and some other girls (who we would meet again in Barletta). When the sun became too hot we put up the striscione from the forum up as a tent to protect ourselves at least a little bit. Even with that and with protective cream, Chiara managed to get burned.
Once they started to let us in, as usual there was casino because never knows what they’re doing. So people who arrived around 7pm got in among the first. Although we were not the first to enter, we managed to get in prima fila and in the middle, right under the microphone even. So there we were: Chiara, Coosje, Centomila after having again accomplished our mission. Soon after also stellaguerriera found us and she and her boyfriend stood behind us.
Another wait until the gig started, nice chat with the security inside who was impressed we came all the way from The Netherlands to see Gianna in concert.
We already liked Follonica a lot but in our opinion Paestum was even better and the venue was amazing because they made a sort of amfitheater out of it. Besides, it was next to ruins of antique temples.
The atmosphere was vibrant; however, yet again we had somebody next to us who enjoyed the concert through a camera and a cell phone (la prigione è non potersi chuidere dentro ;) ). All in the all, even though there was a great vibe, the audience was pretty much of the Sei nell’anima/Suicidio d’amore/Un’estate italiana-type ;) Nonetheless, Gianna sang Bobby McGee much to our contentment and as far as we could notice we were among the few that sung along with this wonderful song. Lets hope she’ll surprise us with more of these small pearls during the rest of the tour. We added something to our ‘ti baceremo in Olandese’ banner this time: ‘Se ci canti Avventuriera…ti baceremo in Olandese’. Let’s hope it will work…
Heroic as we are, we managed to not go to the toilet the last few hours before the concert (while we did drink lots of water) and after the concert we ventured into mobile toilets (which were much better than the ones we encountered in Gelsenkirchen but nonetheless they were disgusting). Afterwards we noticed that we should’ve gone to pee because we almost risked a bladder rupture. So, yet again we learned something more: whatever happens do go and empty your bladder once in a while. It took about 24 hours for our bladders to get back into normal size…
As you can see, it takes some effort to get rid of capelli e unghie dal campeggio.
After our daily shower adventure, we finally made our way towards the Templi were a looooooooong and hooooooooooot day would start. Looking around we asked a police officer about the venue were the entrance for parterre would be. He looked at us weirdly and said the gig would be at 10pm and not at 10am and we should enjoy the good Italian food and come back at 7pm. We told him that we need to be in prima fila and that we had to be there this early. Quite rightly, he thought we’re crazy, hahaha. We placed ourselves in front of the cancelli and the long wait in the sun began. After a while Centomila also arrived and some other girls (who we would meet again in Barletta). When the sun became too hot we put up the striscione from the forum up as a tent to protect ourselves at least a little bit. Even with that and with protective cream, Chiara managed to get burned.
Once they started to let us in, as usual there was casino because never knows what they’re doing. So people who arrived around 7pm got in among the first. Although we were not the first to enter, we managed to get in prima fila and in the middle, right under the microphone even. So there we were: Chiara, Coosje, Centomila after having again accomplished our mission. Soon after also stellaguerriera found us and she and her boyfriend stood behind us.
Another wait until the gig started, nice chat with the security inside who was impressed we came all the way from The Netherlands to see Gianna in concert.
We already liked Follonica a lot but in our opinion Paestum was even better and the venue was amazing because they made a sort of amfitheater out of it. Besides, it was next to ruins of antique temples.
The atmosphere was vibrant; however, yet again we had somebody next to us who enjoyed the concert through a camera and a cell phone (la prigione è non potersi chuidere dentro ;) ). All in the all, even though there was a great vibe, the audience was pretty much of the Sei nell’anima/Suicidio d’amore/Un’estate italiana-type ;) Nonetheless, Gianna sang Bobby McGee much to our contentment and as far as we could notice we were among the few that sung along with this wonderful song. Lets hope she’ll surprise us with more of these small pearls during the rest of the tour. We added something to our ‘ti baceremo in Olandese’ banner this time: ‘Se ci canti Avventuriera…ti baceremo in Olandese’. Let’s hope it will work…
Heroic as we are, we managed to not go to the toilet the last few hours before the concert (while we did drink lots of water) and after the concert we ventured into mobile toilets (which were much better than the ones we encountered in Gelsenkirchen but nonetheless they were disgusting). Afterwards we noticed that we should’ve gone to pee because we almost risked a bladder rupture. So, yet again we learned something more: whatever happens do go and empty your bladder once in a while. It took about 24 hours for our bladders to get back into normal size…
Day 4 - Partiremo insieme silenzio del mattino – Toscana, Lazio, Campania
We had planned to leave as early as possible, which we did considering we were not yet experienced on the roaders. Getting our two seconds tent back into travel format was the least of our problems after Coosje found out how to do it. We then had to get the car as close as possible to the tent (we couldn’t leave it at the camp site) and get all of our stuff back into it. Exactly because we had to leave it out on the street we wanted to have our stuff with us and besides we had to repack it, which took us two hours, because now we had to place Centomila somewhere. Lots of walking up and down the stairs carrying stuff which subsequently meant sweating because it is summer and we’re in Italy (and we had just showered… Lesson: first pack the car and then shower) and lots of trying to use every angle that was not filled we managed to pack it so at least somebody would have a place to sit. However nobody was really comfortable.
Chiara went to check out while Coosje did some last small car stuff like getting Belgian Bram (our other navigator besides Gelsomina) in order. As faiths wants it, even that didn’t go completely smooth. The paying and all that did but when the woman asked for the shower chip Chiara had no idea where that was and told her they’d pass when they’d drive out of there. Back at the car, Coosje had no idea either and after contemplating for a long time (one minute) we decided to just go and leave it at that. No way we were going to look for the thing in the car (on arrival in Paestum we would find it hidden somewhere though). We decided we’d call the camp site and ask if we would be able to send it to them and then pay the big sum of 3 euros for our showers via bank transfer. We still haven’t done that.
We quickly went to pick up Centomila and went on our merry and long drive to Paestum during which nothing special happened besides seeing some more of Italy and some avventuriere laughing their asses off as usual because that’s our style. After the long drive, we arrived in Paestum around 7pm and found Centomila’s hotel first and then went to look for our campsite which was not found by Bram, and Gelsomina’s battery was dead (of course she can get her much needed energy otherwise but for some reason or the other we couldn’t find the cable). After a bit of searching we found Villagio Nettuno, our camp site and this time we had a place for our tent where we could’ve put 3 more if we had wanted to and our car was there also. No seaside view but a place under pine trees providing much needed shadow. We set the tent up and this time left everything in the car because we kind of had a feeling we didn’t want to put it all back in again after 2 days. We decided to go and take a well-deserved shower and headed for the bathroom where it turned out (as one would imagine) that we needed yet again something to get the shower working, coins this time. There was a sign “docce fredde” and brave as we are we headed for those and took cold showers. Not really bad because it was hot and humid but as common sense would tell you, getting out of there felt like a shower. However, we were clean…which IS a very relative word by the way.
Picture
All done we decided to walk around the exciting small town of Paestum where for some reason or the other people didn’t look into our eyes but somewhat lower (as would turn out, not only the local guys but also police and security men as we noticed the next day). We walked around a bit and had a look which quickly finished because this part of town basically consisted of one street with several hotels, restaurants and bars. Chiara was really smart at some point while we were waiting for Centomila and taking some more pictures: she deleted every picture and video we had made so far. This, then, is the reason we don’t as many pictures as we had hoped because we now only had Coosje’s cell phone pics for day 1-3.
Pictures
We went to have dinner at “La taverna degli Artisti” which has really good pizza so if you ever find yourself in Paestum try it out. We had beer and pizza and fun. We decided to make it a relatively early night as we would have our second concert the next day and picked up one more beer for on the road and as Centomila headed back for her hotel room we walked back to our camp site. As it was close to sea, we decided it was a nice idea to have a short walk on the beach while we finished our beers. However, we didn’t want to disturb the couples making out and it was really scary because there were cars driving around slowly, of which one stopped next to us and whispered something we didn’t understand. So we decided to just head to our tent and we sat outside for a while. This time we didn’t leave our tent open because there were a lot of bugs crawling around the tent so no fresh breeze waking us up the next morning.
Chiara went to check out while Coosje did some last small car stuff like getting Belgian Bram (our other navigator besides Gelsomina) in order. As faiths wants it, even that didn’t go completely smooth. The paying and all that did but when the woman asked for the shower chip Chiara had no idea where that was and told her they’d pass when they’d drive out of there. Back at the car, Coosje had no idea either and after contemplating for a long time (one minute) we decided to just go and leave it at that. No way we were going to look for the thing in the car (on arrival in Paestum we would find it hidden somewhere though). We decided we’d call the camp site and ask if we would be able to send it to them and then pay the big sum of 3 euros for our showers via bank transfer. We still haven’t done that.
We quickly went to pick up Centomila and went on our merry and long drive to Paestum during which nothing special happened besides seeing some more of Italy and some avventuriere laughing their asses off as usual because that’s our style. After the long drive, we arrived in Paestum around 7pm and found Centomila’s hotel first and then went to look for our campsite which was not found by Bram, and Gelsomina’s battery was dead (of course she can get her much needed energy otherwise but for some reason or the other we couldn’t find the cable). After a bit of searching we found Villagio Nettuno, our camp site and this time we had a place for our tent where we could’ve put 3 more if we had wanted to and our car was there also. No seaside view but a place under pine trees providing much needed shadow. We set the tent up and this time left everything in the car because we kind of had a feeling we didn’t want to put it all back in again after 2 days. We decided to go and take a well-deserved shower and headed for the bathroom where it turned out (as one would imagine) that we needed yet again something to get the shower working, coins this time. There was a sign “docce fredde” and brave as we are we headed for those and took cold showers. Not really bad because it was hot and humid but as common sense would tell you, getting out of there felt like a shower. However, we were clean…which IS a very relative word by the way.
Picture
All done we decided to walk around the exciting small town of Paestum where for some reason or the other people didn’t look into our eyes but somewhat lower (as would turn out, not only the local guys but also police and security men as we noticed the next day). We walked around a bit and had a look which quickly finished because this part of town basically consisted of one street with several hotels, restaurants and bars. Chiara was really smart at some point while we were waiting for Centomila and taking some more pictures: she deleted every picture and video we had made so far. This, then, is the reason we don’t as many pictures as we had hoped because we now only had Coosje’s cell phone pics for day 1-3.
Pictures
We went to have dinner at “La taverna degli Artisti” which has really good pizza so if you ever find yourself in Paestum try it out. We had beer and pizza and fun. We decided to make it a relatively early night as we would have our second concert the next day and picked up one more beer for on the road and as Centomila headed back for her hotel room we walked back to our camp site. As it was close to sea, we decided it was a nice idea to have a short walk on the beach while we finished our beers. However, we didn’t want to disturb the couples making out and it was really scary because there were cars driving around slowly, of which one stopped next to us and whispered something we didn’t understand. So we decided to just head to our tent and we sat outside for a while. This time we didn’t leave our tent open because there were a lot of bugs crawling around the tent so no fresh breeze waking us up the next morning.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Day 3 - Nei tuoi occhi l’universo è sempre più vicino – Follonica
First concert!!!!!!
In the morning we found out that we needed a chip to take shower, which, by the way, was only 3 minutes. Since the reception was still closed, we decided to have a cold shower instead, brave as we are. However, you needed a chip for that too. Grumbling we walked to the reception again where we found somebody. We got our chip with 6 showers on it and ended up taking three that morning already to find out how it worked. We promise we’ll get better at this. After we were ready to go (and made sure our luggage was UNDER instead of on top of our mattress) we went to pick up Centomila and made our way to the venue.
There we sat under a tree for a while but came to the shocking discovery that there were two other fans there already. Obviously we freaked out and moved into the blazing sun in front of the security guard who looked at us and wondered che cazzo stanno facendo. After a while in the heat we got inspired to make our first banner on orange carton which would turn out to be the first of many more to come. Of course first we had to make the most important one, the legendary “Hans ‘Latin Lover’ Maahn”. Then it was time for Berbie (Gianna knows what we mean): “Ehi Berbie, quando ghiociamo a Mosca Cieca)? ;P” Whahaahahahahahaaaaaaa. Then it was time for the mitico GN_Band and that was when: “Rock the Beer & Oranges – GN_Band 4-Ever” was born (check their MySpace). Because we couldn’t stop making banners we made another one because we thought Gianna would sing Avventuriera so we made another with: “Ti baceremo in Olandese”. While waiting we met Bellatrix, Stressalupa and Dani from the forum, took pictures and talked and passed by talking by other fans we knew already. As usual the security had no idea what they were doing and changed the fences around several times, making us lose our pole position.
After a long wait we could finally get in and thanks to Bellatrix got into prima fila. Text messages were sent to communicate the good news to forum and we waited and we waited with an idiota next to us (she later took off her dress and threw it onto the stage and then had to leave in her underwear).
Quite in time the gig started. It was great to see Gianna on stage after a 3 months. She was full of energy and had a big smile most of the time. After a short while we showed her “Berbie” and she threw her head back laughing in the Gianna way. Of course during Latin Lover we get to greet Hans with our traditional banner and victory sign. Later on we held up several times the GN_Band banner and judging from the big smiles they apparently got our joke. We don’t really remember when but at some point we held up “Ti baceremo in olandese” and Gianna smiled and pointed at us.
The crowd gave off a good vibe and we enjoyed ourselves a lot and we heard her sing Sorridi – in the new acoustic version - live for the first time. Although this song is supposed to make you smile we both cried our eyes out. To our disappointment she didn’t sing Avventuriera like in Sarzana but we did get Un’estate italiana…….. As every forumist* knows, Lamento’s and many other forumisti’s “favorite” song ;P.
Afterwards we went to have a drink and a pee at the bar across the street, had a short walk to cool from the concert and drove Centomila back to the hotel and finally crashed into our tent and instead of sleeping because we would have a 6 hour drive to Paestum ahead of us the next day we talked and laughed and eventually did fall asleep happy and content.
In the morning we found out that we needed a chip to take shower, which, by the way, was only 3 minutes. Since the reception was still closed, we decided to have a cold shower instead, brave as we are. However, you needed a chip for that too. Grumbling we walked to the reception again where we found somebody. We got our chip with 6 showers on it and ended up taking three that morning already to find out how it worked. We promise we’ll get better at this. After we were ready to go (and made sure our luggage was UNDER instead of on top of our mattress) we went to pick up Centomila and made our way to the venue.
There we sat under a tree for a while but came to the shocking discovery that there were two other fans there already. Obviously we freaked out and moved into the blazing sun in front of the security guard who looked at us and wondered che cazzo stanno facendo. After a while in the heat we got inspired to make our first banner on orange carton which would turn out to be the first of many more to come. Of course first we had to make the most important one, the legendary “Hans ‘Latin Lover’ Maahn”. Then it was time for Berbie (Gianna knows what we mean): “Ehi Berbie, quando ghiociamo a Mosca Cieca)? ;P” Whahaahahahahahaaaaaaa. Then it was time for the mitico GN_Band and that was when: “Rock the Beer & Oranges – GN_Band 4-Ever” was born (check their MySpace). Because we couldn’t stop making banners we made another one because we thought Gianna would sing Avventuriera so we made another with: “Ti baceremo in Olandese”. While waiting we met Bellatrix, Stressalupa and Dani from the forum, took pictures and talked and passed by talking by other fans we knew already. As usual the security had no idea what they were doing and changed the fences around several times, making us lose our pole position.
After a long wait we could finally get in and thanks to Bellatrix got into prima fila. Text messages were sent to communicate the good news to forum and we waited and we waited with an idiota next to us (she later took off her dress and threw it onto the stage and then had to leave in her underwear).
Quite in time the gig started. It was great to see Gianna on stage after a 3 months. She was full of energy and had a big smile most of the time. After a short while we showed her “Berbie” and she threw her head back laughing in the Gianna way. Of course during Latin Lover we get to greet Hans with our traditional banner and victory sign. Later on we held up several times the GN_Band banner and judging from the big smiles they apparently got our joke. We don’t really remember when but at some point we held up “Ti baceremo in olandese” and Gianna smiled and pointed at us.
The crowd gave off a good vibe and we enjoyed ourselves a lot and we heard her sing Sorridi – in the new acoustic version - live for the first time. Although this song is supposed to make you smile we both cried our eyes out. To our disappointment she didn’t sing Avventuriera like in Sarzana but we did get Un’estate italiana…….. As every forumist* knows, Lamento’s and many other forumisti’s “favorite” song ;P.
Afterwards we went to have a drink and a pee at the bar across the street, had a short walk to cool from the concert and drove Centomila back to the hotel and finally crashed into our tent and instead of sleeping because we would have a 6 hour drive to Paestum ahead of us the next day we talked and laughed and eventually did fall asleep happy and content.
Day 2 - Partiremo insieme nel silenzio del mattino – Toscana
After having had a real bed with real cushions and blankets, something we wouldn’t have for a while, we also had a real breakfast. Although, the eggs didn’t seem so real…we tell you, they were so yellow they hurt your eyes. Really!
Driving off the parking lot of Best Western Gianna Style we had some problems because Belgian Bram sent us all over the parking lot of some shopping mall we finally got onto the superstrada to find our way to our first real destination: Follonica. Again driving and driving and driving… Beautiful drive through the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano and little Italian towns. We stopped for a drink at a local bar and had a nice chat with the lady. Once we were all through the mountains, we had to make our way through what seemed to be every seaside town of Tuscany… Mammia mia… Lots of tourists, lots of sun, lots of smells of food. Later on one stop at a local gas station and almost Follonicaaaaaaaa!
Once checked in, we decided to not use our tenda villa style but the small-in-two-seconds-ready-tendina. Getting out all our stuff out of the car which we had to carry up some stairs in the blazing heat was not the nicest part of our trip. Once that was done and we were surrounded by casino (stuff spread around in and outside our tent) we tried to put together our little table for two, which was a real struggle…after all we were still at the beginning of becoming MacGyverine. After that was done we found that the supposedly super-flash-mechanic-pump Coosje bought, wasn’t so super-flash… So Chiara went to ask at the reception if they knew where to get the mattress filled with air and she was sent to a store which was 50 Italian meters away (so 200 meters for real) and off she went with the air mattress in her arms. After finding the store, Coosje found her sitting on the ground waiting for the mattress to be filled:
After that was done we bought a new pump (which was truly super-flash and noisy but more about that later on) and they happily walked back the 50 Italian meters carrying their big two person air mattress. As you can probably imagine people were looking at us weirdly.
After having discovered that the bathrooms were close (although with some steps to walk up and a fence to climb over) we went to pick up Centomila who was waiting at the station. Unfortunately she had to wait a tad longer because apparently everybody decided to leave the beach when we wanted to get to the station. During the time we had to drive about 5km/h we promoted the concert by having her music on volume 40 and the windows wide open. We took Centomila to her hotel, bought some groceries and drove to the venue to plan our strategy to get into prima fila. Some German family drove by the venue and asked us how late the concert would begin (note, there was nobody else there besides us). We had to deliver the message that the concert would be the next day and they drove there that day for nothing. According to the guy: “Die Gianna Nannini ist ja wirklick großartig” (or something along that line). He also told us to convert his kids to Nanninism but one of the girls just said “Wurscht” and rolled her eyes at her dad. We then decided to go back to the camp site to have a picnick by night because then we were starving. At that time we didn’t know yet that this would be our last healthy meal for a while.
(picture coming)
Later we had a walk on the beach were Chiara tried to walk on water Jezus Style (or was it is Mozes?) inspired by the singing camp site animator:
(picture coming)
After a walk along the boulevard with 2947 other people we took Centomila and we decided to make it an early night because the next day would be our first concert. Unfortunately we found our air mattress completely deflated because we were so smart to put our entire luggage on top of it which caused the closing thingie to pop open. This led us to our next MacGyverine Mission which consisted of getting the mattress inflated without waking up the whole campsite because it was after midnight already. So we found ourselves by the side of the street outside trying to get it inflated while some rowdy youth on the balcony across off the street bothered with their really cool laser lamp. Of course we couldn’t stop laughing and even more so when we discovered the battery of the pump failed. So, we had to get the car close to the mattress to recharge the pump and have it work. You can’t imagine the loudness of this new super-flash-shiny pump: hoover volume 1000% We did eventually manage and then crawled in our tent where came to the discovery that we weren’t really that sleepy anymore. Of course we did fall asleep leaving the tent open so we would wake up with a view of the sea.
Driving off the parking lot of Best Western Gianna Style we had some problems because Belgian Bram sent us all over the parking lot of some shopping mall we finally got onto the superstrada to find our way to our first real destination: Follonica. Again driving and driving and driving… Beautiful drive through the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano and little Italian towns. We stopped for a drink at a local bar and had a nice chat with the lady. Once we were all through the mountains, we had to make our way through what seemed to be every seaside town of Tuscany… Mammia mia… Lots of tourists, lots of sun, lots of smells of food. Later on one stop at a local gas station and almost Follonicaaaaaaaa!
Once checked in, we decided to not use our tenda villa style but the small-in-two-seconds-ready-tendina. Getting out all our stuff out of the car which we had to carry up some stairs in the blazing heat was not the nicest part of our trip. Once that was done and we were surrounded by casino (stuff spread around in and outside our tent) we tried to put together our little table for two, which was a real struggle…after all we were still at the beginning of becoming MacGyverine. After that was done we found that the supposedly super-flash-mechanic-pump Coosje bought, wasn’t so super-flash… So Chiara went to ask at the reception if they knew where to get the mattress filled with air and she was sent to a store which was 50 Italian meters away (so 200 meters for real) and off she went with the air mattress in her arms. After finding the store, Coosje found her sitting on the ground waiting for the mattress to be filled:
After that was done we bought a new pump (which was truly super-flash and noisy but more about that later on) and they happily walked back the 50 Italian meters carrying their big two person air mattress. As you can probably imagine people were looking at us weirdly.
After having discovered that the bathrooms were close (although with some steps to walk up and a fence to climb over) we went to pick up Centomila who was waiting at the station. Unfortunately she had to wait a tad longer because apparently everybody decided to leave the beach when we wanted to get to the station. During the time we had to drive about 5km/h we promoted the concert by having her music on volume 40 and the windows wide open. We took Centomila to her hotel, bought some groceries and drove to the venue to plan our strategy to get into prima fila. Some German family drove by the venue and asked us how late the concert would begin (note, there was nobody else there besides us). We had to deliver the message that the concert would be the next day and they drove there that day for nothing. According to the guy: “Die Gianna Nannini ist ja wirklick großartig” (or something along that line). He also told us to convert his kids to Nanninism but one of the girls just said “Wurscht” and rolled her eyes at her dad. We then decided to go back to the camp site to have a picnick by night because then we were starving. At that time we didn’t know yet that this would be our last healthy meal for a while.
(picture coming)
Later we had a walk on the beach were Chiara tried to walk on water Jezus Style (or was it is Mozes?) inspired by the singing camp site animator:
(picture coming)
After a walk along the boulevard with 2947 other people we took Centomila and we decided to make it an early night because the next day would be our first concert. Unfortunately we found our air mattress completely deflated because we were so smart to put our entire luggage on top of it which caused the closing thingie to pop open. This led us to our next MacGyverine Mission which consisted of getting the mattress inflated without waking up the whole campsite because it was after midnight already. So we found ourselves by the side of the street outside trying to get it inflated while some rowdy youth on the balcony across off the street bothered with their really cool laser lamp. Of course we couldn’t stop laughing and even more so when we discovered the battery of the pump failed. So, we had to get the car close to the mattress to recharge the pump and have it work. You can’t imagine the loudness of this new super-flash-shiny pump: hoover volume 1000% We did eventually manage and then crawled in our tent where came to the discovery that we weren’t really that sleepy anymore. Of course we did fall asleep leaving the tent open so we would wake up with a view of the sea.
Day 1 - Partiremo insieme nel silenzio del mattino - Olanda, Germania, Svizzera, Italia
Around ten am le avventuriere started their trip with one last stop in Aachen to finally hand in Chiara’s thesis (hihi). After two vanilla chai tea lattes we then finally started our trip which for the most part consisted of: driving, driving, driving… 12 hours in a car does things to you… After we finally found a place to sleep in Piacenza, we both dreamt about driving and driving and driving. Oh, and we also had an accident in our dreams. During our trip we had pretty okay weather up to Switzerland were we had RAIN but as soon as we drove into Ticino, Italy came close and the sun came out.
Before:
After:
For the record, we only stopped twice. Twice, we tell you! Well, three times because we also had to stop for gas only once. Switzerland obviously consisted of a lot of tunnels including the Gothard and soon after we entered Italy for some reason we ended up in Milano. Don’t ask, we don’t know ourselves. After calling some hotels in Parma or Piacenza whose numbers didn’t work (go Lonely Planet) we even considered driving through to Follonica and staying up all night to check in at the camping site as soon as they would open. Common sense won and we aimed for Piacenza where we’d drive around to find a hotel. After some driving we ended up at Best Western Gianna Style and as it was already past 11pm we decided to take it and we even got a discount of more than 100 euros because of the night rate.
Before:
After:
For the record, we only stopped twice. Twice, we tell you! Well, three times because we also had to stop for gas only once. Switzerland obviously consisted of a lot of tunnels including the Gothard and soon after we entered Italy for some reason we ended up in Milano. Don’t ask, we don’t know ourselves. After calling some hotels in Parma or Piacenza whose numbers didn’t work (go Lonely Planet) we even considered driving through to Follonica and staying up all night to check in at the camping site as soon as they would open. Common sense won and we aimed for Piacenza where we’d drive around to find a hotel. After some driving we ended up at Best Western Gianna Style and as it was already past 11pm we decided to take it and we even got a discount of more than 100 euros because of the night rate.
Monday, August 25, 2008
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