Concrete Tundra

Snow blows over the concrete tundra

like low lying ghosts from an ancient era.

The sprawl of steel and rigs on the road

surely wasn't what they dreamed long ago. 

It's a crude life for many, a cold one for the rest. 

Dad's gone for a while. Mom's trying her best.

Men here have been wearing flannel and tight jeans

long before this hipster scene. 

'Help Wanted' signs in every window. 

People get high. The taxes are low. 

Forget the formalities just hop in and drive

those jacked up trucks; a source of pride. 

Pump jacks nod their heads in pleasure,

they keep working despite the weather. 

It snows in the fall, and in the spring there's still snow. 

It might snow in the summer for all I know. 

It's something only a Canadian can truly understand;

day to day living in this frozen flat land. 

Paying Dues

I've joked about working up in a camp for a couple of years now, never really sure how serious I was. However, the more money we spent in Europe the more it started looking like the best option, so when Genevieve's parents offered up their basement in Edmonton for a year that was kind of the catalyst. I've never liked Edmonton, I don't enjoy the cold, and working in a camp sounded like hell to me, but the idea of a new challenge after our year in London coupled with the ability to make twice as much money with half as many bills was enough to send us to the frozen north.

I knew a bunch of people who were working or have worked up north and got plenty of advice and companies to try, but when it came to getting a job it ended up being as simple as emailing about a dozen postings I found online and picking the offer I liked best. It's a workers market right now, which was really nice. The idea of working in a uranium mine in the middle of nowhere northern Saskatchewan was scary, but the money was better than anything in Fort McMurray, and it was 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, which is pretty sweet. Turns out I much prefer the 15 degrees it is underground to the -40 it is above, so that was a real bonus I hadn't planned on.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect when I left. The information I was given was pretty well useless. I packed all kinds of winter gear I wasn't sure if I'd need, because I sure as hell didn't want to be unprepared. The address they gave me for the small private hangar near the Edmonton Airport was bogus, so finding that place took some time. That whole first day, flying out of Edmonton on a tiny propeller plane over 2 hours of flat frozen nothingness and landing in this dirty oasis, I was completely out of my element. It was a trip.

It's a little hard to explain what this place is like, I think in a way it's exactly how you would imagine it and completely different at the same time. It's a collage of shitty temporary buildings scattered on the tundra around a couple small towers that stand over shafts that lead to another world half a kilometer down. There's one permanent building where the kitchen, gym, some administrative rooms and some residences for permanent staff are. The rest of the place is a mess of Atco portable modules. The camp I'm in is about 40 years old, was moved here a few years ago and will likely crumble into the ground where it stands. The rooms are dirty, the walls are paper thin and the bathrooms are disgusting. The duct from the furnace goes through every room, so snores, farts and coughs flow freely throughout the place. There's also a lot of pigs here with little respect for the place or other peoples comfort, which can be frustrating. Anyone who has backpacked Europe, it is far worse than any hostel I have ever seen. Far worse.

The people up here are a mix, many seem relatively normal, like I would consider myself. Others seem to be the exact amount of fucked you would expect from a life long camp worker. There are just as many met expectations as there are surprises up here. A surprise I should have expected was the number of natives working here. Probably around a third are Saskatchewan locals from the nearby (1000km radius) area. Makes sense when an employer this size opens up shop, and it's really good to see so many working hard and making a decent living. I just hope anyone whose job affects my safety is here because they're the best at what they do. I also hadn't expected to see so many women, around 1 in 10. There's a lot of work being done here besides the trades underground, if you don't like your office you should see these ones. It'd be a strange place to be a woman. There are a lot of people working here from all over Canada, it's not quite like meeting people from all over the world when traveling, but it has been really cool to learn more about other cities and provinces. Newfie accents are always a treat too.

The food here is alright, I'd heard camp food was pretty good, and I'm told this is some of the best. I wouldn't rave about it, but there's always choice and it's rarely gross. It does take effort to have reasonable portions and some healthy options when you have the choice to eat all the fried unhealthy junk you want every day. The Christmas and New Year's dinners were quite a treat, almost enough to forget where you were for a minute. There's a nice gym that some of the guys play ball hockey in once in a while, which has been a lot of fun. Really puts to shame how rarely we played back home considering here we're working 12 hours every day. It's not easy on the body, but it's good to do something other than work, eat and sleep once in a while.

The first time I was squeezed in the cage with 20 other guys to descend 500m of darkness to the mine is something I won't forget. There's no rails except where you stop, so the cage lowers on cables in silence, swaying side to side, water dripping all around. It's eery. The mine itself is more open than I expected. The passageways are wide enough for full sized scoops to race up and down with buckets of rock and mud. There are many open areas, where I do most of my work, that will house all the various equipment and machinery when the mine is operational. Some of these areas are quite large, it's amazing to think that every bit of rock went up that small shaft, and every piece of equipment came down it. All the heavy machinery and lifts would have to have been taken completely apart and reassembled. There are 2 levels to the mine, and I would guess around 50 km of tunnels. An experienced miner told us it was a small mine in a world sense. I never want to be an experienced miner. It's dark, dirty, noisy, and the air quality isn't too great. Some of these guys are hacking up a lung all the time. I don't want that. When I'm involved in a task it starts to feel like a relatively normal place, but if I go for a walk down a quiet dark corridor with no one around and start thinking about everything in between me and the surface it can be a little scary. For now though, it's interesting to see, and it's damn nice to be warm. It's still cold enough to see my breath, but it's perfect to work in. I still spend around half an hour a day walking between various buildings on the surface, which is plenty. I'm some glad I'm not out working in that. I felt my face and eyes literally freezing on my -49 wind chilled walk last night. Interesting to go through a 90 degree change in about a month, from 45 degrees in Sicily to -45 here.

This is my first industrial job, and the first large company I've worked for. It is a huge difference from the commercial environment I'm used to. There, profit margins are small, and productivity has to be high. Things get done by any means necessary. Here, safety is key. I had 3 days of orientation before even going underground, and everything we do is documented and reviewed and signed off on. Some of it seems like bullshit, some of it seems like good habits to make, all of it is new to me. A big part of my day is spent on paperwork and formalities, things get done much slower here. I'm told the oil industry is the same. I've never worried about my job before, but there are no second chances here. There's too many people for the one's in charge to even know if you're particularly good and worth keeping, so if you make a mistake with a safety rule you're gone. Seen it a few times already.

Staying healthy is going to be difficult here, I've gotten sick the last two times. There's always something going around, and there's so many people living so close together. I also got a couple random nosebleeds last time, apparently they can be caused by cold, dry air. Being from a rainforest I guess my nose wasn't prepared. I gotta say, when somewhere is so cold that your head starts spontaneously bleeding, that might be your body saying 'it's too fucking cold for human beings here!'

There are few good things about being here, and the money is really the only one that matters, especially not spending a dime for two weeks. But the other is the wildlife. I've seen lots of snow grouse, and a few timber wolves, which are massive. Bear season is coming too. My favorite are the foxes though, I've seen them about 10 times now, sometimes 2 of them playing in the snow, other times one will walk within a few feet of me, just checking me out. Fox days are good days. Even the tiny arctic trees are kinda cool, and all the frozen lakes from the plane. I'm patiently waiting to see the northern lights too, been checking the space weather site for solar storms, nothin' yet.

It's funny to work a rotation like this. The couple days leading up to work feel like the ultimate Sunday drag, day 7 is the ultimate hump day, and the days before leaving are like you're going on vacation. It's hard to be up here and working like this, but it's also nice to be able to plan things for the time off without interrupting work or pay. The frustration of something lining up with work (like Tragically Hip tickets we bought months ago) is offset by the joy of something lining up with time at home (like all three Canucks games in Edmonton).

When I say home, I guess I mean Edmonton, but that's another thought.

I am more me

"And the question is, was I more alive then than I am now? 
I happily have to disagree
I laugh more often now, I cry more often now,
I am more me"

I've been having a hard time putting into words how I feel after the year we just had in London. The chorus of this Peter, Bjorn & John song Objects of my Affection has really stood out to me when it comes on my ipod, and I think it sums it up. I knew that moving to London would be a pretty big deal, that we would face some challenges, see some new stuff and have a pretty good time, but I hadn't really anticipated how much it would change me. I kinda feel like I had been living with one eye closed and now all of a sudden it's open and I can see so much more to life than what was in my view before. I don't mean that I've seen so much of the world and how other people live, because I've hardly scratched the surface and haven't even seen anywhere third world. I just mean on a completely personal level I feel like my eyes have been opened up to a multitude of directions to follow.

I think most people know I wasn't ready to leave London, I liked my most recent job and it paid enough to live there comfortably, we were settled in and having a really good time. We were also fortunate enough to not only meet some new people to hang out with, but actually make what I would consider some really great friends that I'm really going to miss. The reasons to come home made sense though, and I really appreciate Genevieve's practicality, and desire to get on with real life. But the decision was not an easy one and I am still struggling with it. It's a strange situation when you live your whole life with one basic path in mind, and then all of a sudden one or two other paths present themselves, and they look pretty good too. There's not enough years in a life to enjoy everything out there, and that sucks.

One of my favourite parts of moving to London was all the challenges it presented, and the satisfaction of conquering them. We are far from coming home with our tails between our legs, we were actually settled in quite nicely. I think the longer we were there, the easier it would have gotten and the harder it would have been to leave, so in that sense I guess I'm glad it was only a year. London is an absolutely amazing, exciting, interesting and vibrant city and I'm so happy to have gotten to know it so well.

I stop short of saying we're lucky to have had the year we just did, as a couple people have said. The only good luck I've ever had was being born in Canada to loving parents, everything after that has been worked for. Nobody helped us get to London, nobody was there to welcome us in or show us around. Everything was done through planning, trial and error, risks and rewards, and I don't give any credit to luck. It was a lot of fucking work.

I think traveling is a lot like having kids, if you wait until you are ready you'll never do it. There's always a reason not to travel, but if you really wanted to you would make it happen. Unless someone else is paying, it's never going to be easy.

Obviously a big reason to head to Alberta is to pay for the last little bit of our trip, and get started on a down payment, but it's also to pay for the next adventure. The travel bug is definitely there and the list of places to see only grows every time you cross one off. London is full of travellers, and no matter where you've been someone has been way more places and they're happy to tell you how amazing they are. I'm just hoping I can handle working up north long enough to bank enough money to have another adventure.

As much as I'm not looking forward to the cold, and I'm not a fan of Edmonton, I'm really looking forward to a new challenge and the opportunities available. I still feel kinda jacked up from our trip and there's no way I'm ready to settle back in to the life I had in Vancouver. I'm a little uncertain if I ever will be, but I've heard that's normal and maybe that will fade. I guess a year in northern Saskatchewan will send me running home a little quicker than a year in London. That being said, it was really great to see all our friends and family, to catch up on the past year of their lives and share some stories. A big thanks to anyone who put us up over those 2 weeks.

If it's not obvious, my emotions have been all over the place the past month. Between leaving our life in London, our amazing trip through Italy, coming home to BC and soon heading up north for a very hard year of work, my head is rattled. I don't know if it'll settle again, and I'm not sure I want it to. I've never been hungrier to succeed, to try new things and to squeeze every bit of life I can out of the years I have. Right now my energy is going to shift towards work, which certainly isn't as fun as traveling, but I am still excited, and I really don't know where it will take me next. I'm far from done exploring though, hopefully Genevieve is too. That's another chorus that's been getting to me the longer we have no clear home, Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeros, "Home is wherever I'm with you"

We're settled into Edmonton now, Genevieve starts work at Breakfast TV tomorrow, and I fly out to Cigar Lake in Saskatchewan on Friday. It's definitely interesting to see the differences between moving to London and moving to another Canadian city. Having our work experience and qualifications mean something is a nice change. City TV basically created a job in Edmonton for Genevieve, and I was actually interviewing multiple job offers the other day. It's no London, and it's cold and snowy, but our bank accounts will appreciate the effort.

A few people have asked if we'll keep this blog going. I think the subject matter would take a serious nosedive if we did, but never say never.

-Justin

Gaining A Whole Year

It's hard to explain how much this past year of gallivanting around the globe has meant to me, and I'm positive this post won't capture what I truly feel about the whole experience, but I thought I would give it a try anyways.

To understand how much I have always wanted to travel, you have to know a little bit about my childhood; Sorry for the backstory and sentimentality about to follow.
I grew up with my Dad, stepmom, and step sister in a loving, hard working family. I never felt that I went without, I did extra curricular activities, and in the summer they would take us to Kelowna or somewhere similar for two weeks to enjoy the sun and a hotel pool. For the rest of the summer I visited my mom on Vancouver Island; swimming in the rivers and ocean, and generally enjoying my young life. It was a great upbringing and more than any girl could ask for. But what really put the travel bug in me, from the time I can remember, is that my step sister would go to far away destinations with her Dad and his family once or twice a year. I remember she often went to Hawaii for Christmas; looking at the pictures, and dreaming about the day I would one day get to do that as well. I wondered what a warm ocean felt like, and remember seeing pictures of geckos and being so fascinated by them. It was hard to see her go to so many places that I never got to, but my parents did a great job of making it seem normal for me, and as I said, it's not like I had a rough life. It was just something that really stuck with me, more than a lot of things did.
When I was 15 my family moved from Prince George to Edmonton, and I struggled to make new friends and fit in. I learned about the Rotary exchange program which places you in another country for a year to go to school and learn about their culture. I filled out all the paperwork and passionately wrote the necessary essay, but when the time came to get the parental signature my Dad wouldn't sign it. I understand his reasons but at the time, being a very hormonal and slightly displaced teenage girl, it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. I really thought it was my chance to finally go somewhere no one in my family had, and I was devastated that I couldn't. Those of you that know me well know I have an absolutely terrible memory. These are some of the very few things I remember vividly from my childhood.

Over the years through out the rest of high school and college I still always thought of traveling. I'd see so many of my friends do it and they said it was so simple once they made the decision to go; but I always had a reason not to. I thought I would go after I graduated from BCIT, but I was offered a great job the day of my graduation, and I intrinsically am far to practical of a person to turn down an opportunity like that. And that was the story up until last year - Other good things always came along and stopped me from planning anything. But part of me knew that this was something I needed to do, and if I didn't I would always dream of the 'what if'.

It's really great to have someone in your life who pushes you to break free of the boundaries you set for yourself. We all have reasons for setting these in the first place; the way you were brought up perhaps, or to protect yourself. But without Justin I can say that it is highly likely I would not have done this trip. And I am so grateful for him. Sometimes you have an idea and a plan, and nothing comes of it - not unlike all the years I dreamed of traveling and it didn't work out. And other times things just start rolling and you can't even pinpoint why this time is different. That's what happened to me last year, and before I knew it I had quit my job and packed my life into a suitcase. Facing the results of this decision now that I am home are a bit daunting, but I will never regret it, and I am an improved person for it. I am more myself now. More of who I always knew I was.

Living in London and traveling was of course amazing. All the sites and touristic things are just as you imagine they will be when you watch travel programs on TV and look at pictures from your friend's vacations. But this past year was so much more than learning how people in the UK live, and getting stamps in a passport. It was about proving I could do all the things I dreamed of, and I could come back home a better version of myself for it. Removing myself from my normal routine and familiar surroundings has taught me what my strengths and weaknesses are, and what I need to do to be a better person.

I hope that I can apply what I have discovered through out the rest of my life. I hope I don't every let myself get consumed by the bubble we so often find ourselves suffocated by. I don't think I need to keep living abroad to remember these lessons, I just think I need to keep the broader perspective I have gained and apply it to wherever I am. I'm very happy to be home and close to those that I love, and I feel privileged to have so many people in my life who care about me as much as I do them.

I look forward to seeing you all before we head to Edmonton for our next year long adventure.

Gen

Beercelona

I spent a month in Barcelona in 2007. It was the first time I'd been overseas, and the week I spent in London on the way home was what sparked my dream to live there later. I was much younger then, and unwisely trusted in other's planning which left me with nowhere to stay when I arrived. Later, some drunken carelessness left me without a wallet, and more importantly, access to any money whatsoever about halfway through my trip. This, coupled with an injury that stopped my skateboarding partway through, left me with a slightly sour taste in my mouth from the trip. I still had a really great time in Barcelona but when I left I felt I had no reason to ever go back.

Well I'm a little older and a little wiser now, and the more places I visited the more I realised just how great Barcelona really is. It's got everything you need, great weather, great beach, great food (and a variety!), as much beer as wine, and countless shops and markets to get everything you need. These were all things I took for granted before, and came to miss when traveling elsewhere. For this reason I knew I had to go back, and I knew Genevieve needed to see Barcelona for herself. We stopped for 6 nights on our way back from Milan to London.

Most of the action is on or near La Ramblas, the main street in the centre of the city where most of the nightlife and touristic crap is. It's also where you get pick pocketed, harassed to buy stuff, and sexually assaulted by scary African prostitutes. So I didn't really care to stay in the thick of things again, and we booked a place a few metro stops away. The hostel was huge, cheap and clean, but the downside was these factors meant it was popular with school trips and the place was full of 15 year old kids and their parent chaperones. Didn't make for a fun or comfortable scene so we didn't spend much time there.

For those who don't know, or care, Barcelona has been a skateboarding mecca for at least a decade. The architecture is very unique, and the ground is smooth as ice, which makes it very appealing for skaters. Cheap beer, sun and a great metro system don't hurt either. When I came 5 years ago that's all I cared about and all I really did. I felt like I was on the tail end of its reign as we got a lot of attitude from locals (fairly so), many spots were falling apart and we actually had our boards confiscated by police. I would never have thought then that in 5 years it would still be so skateboard friendly. Many spots were actually still going strong, as well as lots of new ones, and there were several new parks along the water.

Obviously coming with a girlfriend skateboarding isn't going to be the focus, but in a city like Barcelona and with a girl as cool as Gen I did manage to skate as much as my body would let me. She even did a great job of seeming genuinely interested in getting behind the iphone for a couple clips as I pretended to be 20 again. They don't make many like her. Luckily I don't think any skaters saw us because it's a scene I know I'd laugh at. Second only to dad cam.

The benefit of visiting Barcelona a little older and with Gen was doing the things that didn't cross my mind the last time. The internet at our fingertips helped a lot too. We found a really cool bar with a great Catalan band playing one night and actually ended up buying their CD. We ate at a couple really good Mexican restaurants and found a few great pubs as well. There is no shortage of evening entertainment in Barcelona. One night we came back to the hostel around midnight after a night out and 2 pairs of girls in our room were separately just leaving to go out to a club, I think they got in around 5, which seemed to be quite normal. A bartender we had was Brazilian, but had ended up staying 5 years in Barcelona and described it as never never land, and to grow up she needed to move home. These are all parts of what Barcelona offers that I missed last time while I was pinching pennies and drinking 52 cent bottles of wine in the public plazas.

On the weekend there happened to be a really big Catalan food and drink market in the Gothic quarter called Mercat de Mercats. There were tons of booths set up with local prepared foods, craft beers and wines. We actually went both days, and on the second met a couple Argentinian guys and drank a few bottles of Cava (Catalan sparkling wine) on the steps of the cathedral. That stuff went straight to our heads.

You can't go to Barcelona without noticing the work of Antoni Gaudi. He was a very famous Catalan architect with a really unique style who was commissioned to design and build a number of visually stunning sights in the city, including the most famous Sagrada Familia cathedral. Whether or not you like his style you can't deny how unique and interesting it is. We went to Park Guell, the Sagrada Familia and Casa Mila before checking out Casa Batllo. I ended up paying to go in this one, it was expensive but I am really fascinated by his style and it was an incredible building inside and out. The flowing lines, references to nature and attention to detail is really spectacular. After that visit I was looking up a bit online and found out the following night there was a light show planned on the facade of the building to commemorate 10 years of being open to the public. Needless to say we went (free entertainment) and it was absolutely breathtaking.

We were a little exhausted by this point in our trip, but Barcelona was a perfect city to ease into London. It's still foreign, but much more comfortable and approachable than anywhere in Italy. I have an appreciation for the city after a second visit that I didn't have last time. Barcelona is an amazing place, and after London probably the only city we visited that I really hope to make it back to.

-Justin

The Best and Worst of Italy

Our month long tour of Italy has come to an end. There are a lot of things we will miss, and others not so much. I've put together a list of what we think is the worst and best we have seen in Italy. I'll start with the worst, and end on a more positive note with the best, because it really was an incredible trip and we are so lucky to have experienced it.


The Worst:

No variety in the food. You can only have pizza, pasta or panini for so many meals.

The Siesta. That grocery store you went to yesterday? It's closed from 12:30 - 16:00 so you'll have to find another one, or more likely, just wait.

The driving. See Justin's post dedicated to this.

The inconsistent service of the trains.

Paying for water at every restaurant.

Magna Grecia campsite in Reggio Calabria. Don't ever go there.

One Of Many Bad Toilets In Italy

The toilets.

The unspoken dress code. Tank tops and shorts above your knees are too revealing. Shoulders and knees should be covered, even when it's blazing hot out.

The breakfast. A croissant doesn't cut it. Give me eggs.

Bari.

The poop. There is poop everywhere, especially in the smaller communities.

The massive amount of seeds in every fruit. I guess this could be a good thing if it means it's not genetically modified? But it's a real pisser to eat.

The begging children.

The lack of salad dressing.

View From Our Naples Hostel

The garbage in Naples.

The bells everywhere all the time. Especially the ones at 7am.

The price of gas. About €1.90 on average per litre.

The buses in Rome.

The black flys. We couldn't kill even one of those little bastards.

Trying to find things like a hardware store or somewhere to print something.

Smoking.

Endless Amazing Dolomite Views

The Best:

The Dolomite mountains.

The huge coastline all around the country is unparalleled with anything I can think of.

The weather. Italians seem to think 25 degrees is quite cold.

Ice cold Limoncello.

The preserved history. It's everywhere.

Official Frasassi Photo

Frasassi caves. (Grotte Di Frasassi).

Almost everyone makes an effort to speak English, or uses hand gestures if they can't.

The fresh seafood. After a year in London this was a major treat.

Live Italian bands. We saw one in the bar at our campsite on Lake Como, and one doing Rolling Stones covers at a club in Rome.

The olive, orange, lemon, lime, and pomegranate trees. Don't ever eat an olive fresh off the tree though. Trust me.

Brilliant Water

The pastel coloured houses.

The brilliant colour of the water.

The towns built on steep cliffs.

A Posing Lizard

The lizards everywhere.

The friendly Italians. I've met so many people who when you need a hand with something will go out of their way to help you, and will give you more than you asked for: the man at the supermarket who gave me grapes to eat while helping me look for pesto, the manager of Volta Di Sacco who picked about 6 pomegranates for me when I was just trying to take a picture.

Fruit gelato.

Hearing Italians actually say "Mamma Mia!"

How varied the scenery is from one region to another.

Cheers Over Verona

Olives. The best when you order a drink in the afternoon and they bring you a bowl to snack on for free.

Lake Como.

The various amazing viewpoints over every city.

The snorkeling. The best underwater world we have seen since Hawaii.

Cheap wine. Anywhere from £1-£5 a bottle.

Homemade Arancini

Local specialties: Arancini in Sicily, panzerotti in Milan, cannolo in Taormina, walnut sauce in the Cinque Terre.

The caves everywhere. The coastline is riddled with them.

Looking Up At Saturnia

Saturnia hot springs.  




Home in ten days. Wow that's insane.
Gen

Cinque Terre

A far from secret hidden gem in Italy is a string of 5 coastal villages on the northwest coast called the Cinque Terre. Our friend Tuyet sent us a link to check them out a while back and we haven't stopped hearing about them since.

Basically it's 5 small, colourful villages clinging to the cliffs, and connected by a 10km footpath all along the sea with stunning views the whole way. The route of our trip had us end up here kinda late in the season, and weather here has been hit or miss the whole time I've been looking so that was my main concern.

We decided to stay in the nearby city of La Spezia, as accommodation is a lot more reasonable outside of the tiny and touristy villages. Our hotel was great, not too expensive and right in the heart of the city. We were sent to an amazing seafood restaurant at the marina our first night with high quality catch of the day seafood in a cheap cafeteria style setting. It was an amazing break from pasta.

Last year the Cinque Terre was hit by heavy rain and mudslides devastated a couple of the villages and took out sections of the path. Some remained closed, with lengthy detours up into the hills. Then a couple weeks ago a group of Australian women were injured by some kind of slide, so by the time we got here all the coastal (ie. worthwhile) sections of the path were closed.

We were really looking forward to the hike, but since so much was closed we figured we'd still make the most of it and take trains to each village to explore what we could. On our first day there happened to be another train strike so that was out of the question as well.

We'd seen a few boat tours advertised at the marina and that seemed to be our only chance to see anything. We got one for €18 but for some reason they were only stopping at the last village, Monterosso, that day, as well as Portovenere, the 6th terre you could say. Obviously things weren't going our way here but it was the best we could do.

The weather held out for us and we got a great view of each village from the boat, as well as the beautiful path we should have been hiking. We saw a couple sections that had been washed out last year, and considering tourism is probably the vast majority of the economy in those villages it was strange there were no signs of repair. We overheard a German guy talking to an Italian about the same thing, he was saying in Germany it would get repaired immediately, and he was baffled they hadn't done anything for over a year. It was amusing and refreshing to hear someone from another country confused about how Italy operates.

The next day the trains were running and I was on a mission to see the villages. Unfortunately the weather wasn't having it, and Gen wasn't as keen on my rain soaked adventure so it was a solo mission. I did get about an hour break in the rain in Riomaggiore, but didn't end up stopping in the other 3 I'd missed. What we did see was really beautiful, similar to a lot of other coastal villages we've seen. They do love their clusters of colourful buildings stuck to the cliffs. The hike is something that will have to wait, if they ever get around to fixing the trail.

We're now on the train back to Milan where we fly to Barcelona for 6 nights. Italy has been incredible, and we'll post more on that, but I think we're both looking forward to a change. I can't wait to finally use this skateboard I've been dragging around the cobbled streets of Italy!

-Justin