November 29 Great Barrier Reef

Soon after we checked in at Diving Cairns, we loaded up into a van that brought us to the dock. From there we boarded a boat for a speedy trip to our ship. As we boarded, we were told to take off our shoes and leave them off for the remainder of the time until we set foot on land again. I don’t know about the rest of the group, but the thought of athlete’s foot and fungus immediately came to mind as I set my bare foot on the wet carpet that lined the inside of the boat. After a few steps, feeling the wetness oozing between my toes, I almost regretted coming. But it was too late, we started moving and soon the shore was nowhere in sight.

Soon we came upon the Kangaroo, a much larger ship where we will be spending our next few days. We grabbed our bags and climbed on board. From there we were given the welcoming talk, safety talk, food talk, and schedule talk. So much was going on. After orientation, we went into the main cabin for lunch. The cabin was carpeted, and wet. Eck, I quickly grabbed my portion of pasta and salad so I could sit down and take my feed off that icky floor. I don’t think I’m being too anal; surely no one else enjoys cold, wet, sticky carpet right? After lunch, we were told to get upstairs for our first snorkeling/diving briefing. Jae and I along with two other guys are the only ones snorkeling, everyone else had signed up to get a diving certificate. After the briefing, we went to the lower level to get geared up, meaning squirming into our jelly suits, which are essentially loose fitting lycra jumpsuits that keeps you from turning into a human jellyfish stinger-cushin, putting on our flippers, spitting into our goggles to keep it from fogging up and jumping into the water.

Now, I’ve snorkeled a few times, Hawaii, Caribbeans and my own backyard, the Pacific off the coast of San Diego, and it is never easy. First is the fact of stepping off of something solid and into water that is sometimes 4 feet drop away. Many times, as I stand on the edge of the boat, I briefly wonder, what if I trip on those big flippers and end up falling flat into the water, would that hurt? Second, no matter how warm I believe the water is, I’m always hesitant about voluntarily subjecting myself to such temperature shock. Most times, the water is usually colder than I anticipated, so I suppose that fear is quite valid. My third reason is my dislike of sinking completely into the water, which happens when you step off a boat a few feet up. With all these issues, it’s a wonder I jump at all. Usually, what gets me jumping is the pressure that there are others in line waiting to jump.

All too quick, before I could talk myself out of the first dive, I was standing at the edge of the jumping area. Holding on to my snorkel so that it doesn’t fall off when I hit water, I take one big step forward and into the Great Barrier Reef.

The water was, cool, not too cold, not quite warm. The moment I resurfaced, I took off swimming away from the boat so that other people can jump. Since everyone else had air tanks on, I certaintly don’t want to get hit by by any of them. I looked around for Jae and we took off to the spots where we were told had good marine activity. As we swam to the more shallow spots, the temperature in the water became noticably warm. It’s a strange feeling to swim from a cool area into a warm stream. If you don’t move, you can feel the warm stream flow away. Since I like the warmness, I followed the warm current whereever it went.

The sight underwater is by far the most spectacular that I’ve ever seen. I know that the Great Barrier Reef is famous for it’s beauty, but it is truly best appreciated in real life. There is so much life and colors all around, a true underwater garden. I felt like a minature human swimming in one of those massive saltwater aquariums that CEO’s keep in their offices. What’s truly awesome is when I stuck my ears underwater, I could hear the parrotfish grazing…Parrotfish are these large, rainbow colored fish with big teeth used to find algae on corals. Chomp, chomp, grind, grind, the sounds are actually quite loud. If you watch a large parrotfish, you can actually hear each bite it takes.

We spent almost 2 hours in the water, looking, pointing and trying to take pictures with our digital camera in it’s newly purchased underwater case. I left most of the picture taking to Jae since I couldn’t see the LCD very well due to glare. I don’t know how he manages to get nice pictures, mine tend to be of a fleeing fish’s tail, or part of a coral.

On our second, or was it third dive of the day, we had the most exciting sighting of all, sea turtles!! Dolphins, whales, seals, or sea turtles, I think people always get excited about seeing another air breather among all the ‘water’ breathers in the ocean. It make you feel like one of them, a natural ocean swimmer (as natural as you can get with a jellysuit, flippers, snorkel and life vest).

Yes, back to the sea turtles. We’ve seen sea turtles before, in Maui, we saw one deep in the water, swimming as fast as it could away from us the moment our group saw it. In the Carribbean, a group of sea turtles approached our boat after we were heading back toward shore, curious and wondering if we were going to throw food. But, oh, But This Time, instead of far away or deep in the water, the sea turtle was in the shallow part of the reef, no more than 10 feet away from us! A beautiful green turtle that was about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long. I’m sure it was aware of us, but it paid us no attention as it swam lazily around. Naturally, we followed it, Jae snapping as many pictures as he could. I tried to stay behind the turtle incase it thought I was a threat. Soon, our turtle was joined by another turtle! What a treat this was. For sure the scuba divers were not seeing this. The’re spending most of the time in the flat sandy bottom, learning sign languages, how to breathe, and how to call for help. I thought it was a waste of a trip to the Barrier reef if all you do is learn the basics of how to scuba safely rather than actually out seeing stuff.

We spent about 10 minutes or so with the turtles before they finally got tired of us following them around like the papparazi and swam away in search of food. A bit sad about the end of our encounter, we went back to the boat.

After our last dive, we went back to our rooms to shower. We were told that we should take one shower no longer than 3 minutes per day to conserve the hot water. The boat uses a desailantion system that pumps water from the ocean and desalts them. Yea, unsalted fish pee shower. What’s funny (now), gross (then) is that the water was actually kinda yellow….I discovered this fact when I was soaking our goggles to remove any salt residues. Initially when the water is running, it looks pretty clear, but once it starts to build up in the sink, the color of the water, even in the dim lighting was distinctively yellow…talk about golden showers. No matter, the water was hot and I enjoyed every second of the 180 second shower I got.

After a dinner of pasta and mushrooms, we went to sleep on our 4 inch thick mattress in our way too small cabin feeling slightly grimy still.

I’ve never considered climbing a bridge to be entertaining. Typically, when it comes to cables that hold up bridges I think of engineers or occassionally a disturbed person or two. Today, we did one of the more famous activities in Australia, the Sidney Bridge Walk. Initially we were not going to go because of the cost. But Uncle Barry made reservations for us to go. After a lunch of meat pie, one of our new favorite foods, Mel dropped us off at the bridge.

The first thing they put us through was ‘training’. We were given a jumper, utility belt with cable hooks, cap, hanky (for our sweat), windbreaker (for wind and rain) and headsets. All dressed up looking like one of skyscraper window washers, we then practiced going up and down ladders and walking while hooked up to the cable. We were instructed to go one at a time up and down ladders so that if a person slips, they wouldn’t take the person underneath with them.

Soon we were outside, going towards the bridge. Our guide spoke to us using these nifty little headsets that look like rectangular rubber blocks that sits in front of your ears rather than over them. I think the sound is carried through the skull. Fascinating, I think I need to get one of these, I usually hate wearing headphones, both the inserts and the over ear types b/c they make my ears hurt.

It was late afternoon so the sun wasn’t too hot and the wind was quite calm for being so high, so it was pretty ideal. We walked along narrow metal planks up one side of the bridge, stopped for pictures and then crossed over and walked down the other side. It was actually kinda cool watching all the cars below passing by. Along the way our guide gave a brief history of the bridge and all sorts of nifty tidbits that I don’t remember anymore. But the view at the top was gorgeous. They should have these types of tours for more bridges across the world.

After a long flight halfway across the planet in a cabin with 2 crying toddlers we finally landed in Sydney. Yea! time to discover whether or not the toilet water flushes the other way down the drain.

Jae’s aunt and uncle came to pick us up from the airport. Initially we had a hard time finding them but when I saw uncle Barry, it was unmistakable that he was related to Jae. He looks just like Jae’s dad, maybe a bit darker. Aunt Pearly is bright and cheerful, kinda reminds me of that old cartoon character Rainbow Bright… remember her? the girl with the bright red dress that uses rainbows to fight evil? The only thing I can recall was that she would ride away on her unicorn? on a rainbow at the end of each show.

First things first, as we drove back their house, Jae saw his first GTR…..good, at least we got that taken care of. In fact, GTR’s are everywhere, we must’ve seen at least 3 in the short drive. At the house, we move our stuff upstairs to Jae’s cousin Ed’s room. He reloacted to the guest room so that we could have his bigger room for the week. I thought that was very thoughtful and felt guilty that we kicked him out of his room…in repayment, someday, I shall kick my kid out of his room when Ed comes to visit

The rest of the morning was spent eating breakfast, at last real food and taking a short nap. We were in no hurry to see Australia, for the most part, we’re here to see family. New family, that is for me. The last time I saw them I was still ‘the girlfriend’. Except for Ed, who attended our wedding.

Later in the afternoon, uncle Barry dropped us off in the middle of the city. We wandered around marveling at how Sydney looks just like a midsized downtown in the US. There were skyscrapers, but not overwhelming, there were people, but not too many, it was, as Goldilocks herself would say, just right.

April 1
Going to Venice today. We purchased our Eurostar tickets last night after dinner, by that time all the second class tickets were sold out for the early train, so we had to get first class. 78 euros for two tickets! This had better be an awesome ride!

At least the train left on time this time. The ride was about 3 hours long. First class meant we got an Italian newspaper to share and served juice and bread stick pretzels. The seats were quite comfy and lean back a few inches but it didn’t feel so special to deserve the extra 20 euros.

Venice is….breathtaking.

From the moment I stepped off the train I could see immediately how beautiful and different this city is from any other city in the world. Because of the lack of cars and scooters it’s lik the city was frozen in time. Of course the crowds are everywhere but that’s ok, we’re in Venice! Our hotel was just down the street from the station down a narrow alley.

We dropped off our stuff and went exploring with a map provided by the hotel. It only had the major streets drawn but it was good enough. Afterall, how lost can you get in Venice? For those who like to know exactly where they are at all times, street vendors were selling better, more detailed maps for 2 euros, but if you go further in the city, 1.5 euros.

We explored Venice a bit, taking side streets, narrow alleys, crossing random bridges, and tried to just get as lost as possible. By and by we came upon a small mom and pop restaurant that offered an entrée, wine or water and coffee for 8 euros. Figuring it to be a pretty decent price, we found ourselves a spot outside and ordered our food, pasta, and water. As we ate we watched people go about their daily lives and a few random dogs walking around.

March 30

Today’s a big day, well, for Jae that is. Today’s the day of the car factory tour. And by car factory we mean the factories that make cars for very wealthy individuals. The tour starts at 8:30 so we needed to be in Bologna before that. We woke up at 5 am to catch the early train going towards Milan. Bologna is the first stop in that direction, about half way north. We took the regular train instead of the Eurostar to save some money, the time difference between the two train wasn’t that different anyhow.

Our reserved seating was inside one of the booths. Both of us got window seats sitting across from each other. In the booth were 2 more passengers. One of them was from Sourth Africa and chatted with us the entire way. He was backpacking through Europe for about 2 months. He’s doing it the true backpacker way, with a big rucksack and on a tight budget. He talked to us about his travels through Italy so far, what he did for a living and where to go in South Africa if we were to ever visit.

I found his stories to be quite fascinating, especially ones about his dad. his father, who was Italian was quite adventurous. When his father was young, he traveled all over Europe on a bicycle, unsatisfied with just Europe, he decided to go to Africa. As he made his way down to Africa, he had to trade his bike for a pistol in order to scare away lions at the night. When he reached Africa, he discovered his love for the place, so he flew back to Italy got his stuff and moved to South Africa.

Like his father, our fellow traveler is just as adventurous. He instructs rock climbing on the side, loves to do extreme sports especially ones that involve falling. At age 35 he actually looks closer to 27. For this trip he is going mostly by way of the youth hostels, eating bread and traveling cheap, making the most of his money to see Europe.

His stories made the time pass by quite quickly; soon we were in Bologna and had to part for he was going to Milan.

At 8:30 our tour guide Francesco, met us at the front of the station. He took us to our first stop about 30 minutes away, the Lamborghini factory. Francesco is a pretty cheerful guy, he spoke English quite well since he had lived in Britain for a few years. The van he drove us in was clean and kept nice and cool. Jae immediately took a liking to Francesco. We chatted about motorcycles the whole trip since he was also a rider and a big fan of the Moto GP races. I knew that the day was going to be a lot of fun.

A second couple from Ireland joined us there. They had a rental cal and would be following us for the day. We started the tour in the museum showroom. For the next hour or so the guys drooled over the cars, taking pictures, looking at the rims, and wishing they had a lot more money to be able to afford such a piece of machinery. It was like a kid in a candy store, without any money J

Francesco gave us a brief overview of the history of the cars. Francesco is unique in that he has actually worked in many of the Italian factories, Lamborghini, Pagani, and Ferrari. Having worked on both F1 and production vehicles, his knowledge of these cars is deep and personal. Typically Lamborghini doesn’t give tours to just anyone that shows up, but Francesco has worked it out with them for him to do tours. Following that we went down to the factory floor itself. There we saw ho the cars were hand built from the first step to the end. The car body comes pre painted from another area, but the rest of the assembly is done here. We even saw the production of the ’07 model.

Francesco knew many of the employees there and using that network I think we were able to see a bit more than the average tour. Even for me and the other couple’s wife who aren’t really into cars, the tour was quite interesting. Francesco was quite good in pointing out the interesting events along the path of making a car. I guess you can really appreciate the price you pay for. It was too bad that you can’t take pictures in the factory. I’m sure many guys would appreciate being able to see it, but they will just have to go to Italy and book a tour with MotorStars.

Next on the list is Pagani. This factory is much smaller. They build very few cars each year but the price of one could buy you a very nice home here in the States. They had 2 cars in the showroom and in the factory, about 6 or 7 more most in different stages of development. The owner was actually there today. We saw him working, head under the hood talking to an engineer and pointing to the engine parts. Horacio Pagani himself. Jae was beside himself when we actually got to shake hands with him and have a photo taken. Talk about highlight of an already really great morning!

At around noon we made our way to the Ferrari factory area. The actual factory is off limits except to actual Ferrari owners, but we were able to explore the museum and drive around the factory area. We first stopped for a quick bit to eat at the Ferrari cafeteria. Then we spent a great deal of time in the museum. Francesco knew a lot about the displays and was very informative. He even brought articles and pictures to add to his stories. The guys were captivated.

When we left the museum to for a drive around the factory grounds, we heard the engines of Ferraris. Francesco drove us around to a spot where we were able to see the Ferrari test track. The location was great, right at a corner. We were able to see and take some shots of the Formula 1 cars as they took laps around the track. Highlight of the afternoon!

Back in Bologna, we end our tour at the Ducati factory. The tour was done by the Ducati staff, they do 2 tours daily. We made it just in time for the 4 pm appointment. The tour lasted for about an hour, we were taken around inside the factory to see the bikes being built from stage to stage. The tour ended in the Ducati museum. Afterwards the day ended at the Ducati gift shop where we bought some shirts and the Ducati pup.

Francesco dropped us off at the Bologna train station. We ate dinner at a local restaurant across the street while watching the Italian version of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ before catching our train back to Florence. What a day!

We most definitely had a lot of fun with MotorStars today. Friendly and knowledgeable, I would totally recommend Francesco to be your guide to everything cars and motorcycles in Italy.

March 31

After breakfast at the hotel, we had complementary breakfast but couldn’t take advantage of it the past two days, we headed into town to see the tallest teenager in the world, Michangelo’s David. I had pre purchased tickets from the Accademia website so that we wouldn’t have to wait in line. The reservation is for 8:30 so we hurried over, we were one of the first people in line. When we got there we found out that the staff was having a meeting and won’t be opening the museum until 9:30. Apparently they didn’t mind selling tickets for times before they opened. We waited outside with a bunch of other tourists and tour groups, some with 8:15 reservations.

As we waited, the street vendors came out of nowhere, the men selling posters, the women selling scarves. One of the ladies in a tour group behind us was taking pictures of her group when one of the scarf lady walked up to her and waved her fist at the tourist, she then said something unfriendly things I’m sure. It turns out that another scarf lady was in the midst of the tourists and didn’t appreciate having pictures taken of her illegally selling in the streets. A few minutes later two cops strolled by and the vendors scattered, well, only to return 20 minutes later.

When the museum finally opened, we told the guy at the door that we didn’t bring our reservation email, he went back inside and brought out a list of reservations. He looked for our names, but couldn’t find it. Without the reservation he wouldn’t let us in because we were in t
he reservation line. I suppose we’d have to go back and get it. Heading back, we took our time and went shopping for souvenirs. By the time we came back it was almost 11. The line was gone by then, I guess there wouldn’t have been a need to pre-purchase the tickets after all.

We went up to the counter and the ticket guy told us that our reservation wasn’t valid! Seems like the website that sold the ticket wasn’t legit. It’s a good thing I bought the ticket with American Express, they’re usually really good with getting money back for fraud.

Well we bought the tickets and went on in. The main attraction was the David of course, so when we got in we found some chairs, sat and started at his front for a while and then moved to the back to stare at his rump for another while.

After lunch we wandered around for a bit and ended up at the Dodges Palace. We explored the rooms, admiring painting of people we didn’t know. We then took a short cuppachino break to rest our feet before going into the garden.

The garden was quite vast. I can’t say it was spectacular but it was quite relaxing. We stayed a few hours at the garden, looking at the view, taking pictures and admiring the vastness of this private garden. The view of the city was very nice from here so we decided not to go to Michangelo’s Plaza which would require a bus ride up the hill. Retiring back into the city center, we went looking for dinner.

We ended up at the pasta and pizza chain, Pizzarito. We had eaten here when in Rome and enjoyed the fresh pasta they offered. Since we were starving, we got greedy and ordered 2 pastas and a pizza… ultimately I couldn’t finish my meal and had to take a doggy bag.

We ate breakfast at the hotel today, our hotel offered complementary breakfast but we havn’t been able to take advantage of it the past two days since we had to leave so early.  After a meal of scrambled eggs, bread and some coffee, we headed into town to see the tallest teenager in the world, Michangelo’s David.  I had pre purchased tickets from the Accademia website so that we wouldn’t have to wait in line.  The reservation is for 8:30 so we hurried over, we were one of the first people in line.  When we got there we read on a piece of paper tacked on the door that the staff was having a meeting and won’t be opening the museum until 9:30.  Apparently they didn’t mind selling tickets for times before they opened.  We waited outside with a bunch of other tourists and tour groups, some with 8:15 reservations. As we waited, the street vendors came out of nowhere, the men selling posters, the women selling scarves.  One of the ladies in a tour group behind us was taking pictures of her group when one of the scarf lady walked up to her and waved her fist at the tourist, she then said something unfriendly things I’m sure.  It turns out that another scarf lady was in the midst of the tourists and didn’t appreciate having pictures taken of her illegally selling in the streets.  A few minutes later two cops strolled by and the vendors scattered, well, only to return 20 minutes later.When the museum finally opened, we told the guy at the door that we didn’t bring our reservation email, he went back inside and brought out a list of reservations.  He looked for our names, but couldn’t find it.  Without the reservation he wouldn’t let us in because we were in the reservation line.  I suppose we’d have to go back and get it.  Heading back, we took our time and went shopping for souvenirs.  By the time we came back it was almost 11.  The line was gone by then, I guess there wouldn’t have been a need to pre-purchase the tickets after all. 

We went up to the counter and the ticket guy told us that our reservation wasn’t valid! Seems like the website that sold the ticket wasn’t legit.  It’s a good thing I bought the ticket with American Express, they’re usually really good with getting money back for fraud. 

Well we bought the tickets and went on in.  The main attraction was the David of course, so when we got in we found some chairs, sat and started at his front for a while and then moved to the back to stare at his rump for another while.

After lunch we wandered around for a bit and ended up at the Dodges Palace.  We explored the rooms, admiring painting of people we didn’t know.  We then took a short cuppachino break to rest our feet before going into the garden.

The garden was quite vast.  I can’t say it was spectacular but it was quite relaxing. We stayed a few hours at the garden, looking at the view, taking pictures and admiring the vastness of this private garden.  The view of the city was very nice from here so we decided not to go to Michangelo’s Plaza which would require a bus ride up the hill.  Retiring back into the city center, we went looking for dinner.

We ended up at the pasta and pizza chain, Pizzarito.  We had eaten here when in Rome and enjoyed the fresh pasta they offered.  Since we were starving, we got greedy and ordered 2 pastas and a pizza… ultimately I couldn’t finish my meal and had to take a doggy bag.