Day 9 - CTD 4 - 22/11 - Florence

We woke up bright and early this morning to head into Florence. We had an included tour of some of Florence, so none of us wanted to miss experiencing this beautiful city.

On our way into the city we stopped at this really beautiful location to take a group Contiki photo (we'd have to pay 11 Euros later to get the photo). We all made sure to take advantage of the situation and take our own photos to capture the beautiful view.

We all hopped back onto the bus again and rode down into town for the Contiki included tour. It started off in this leather box making shop, where they explained to us how they made the famous Florence leather boxes. Afterwards they herded us into their gift shop where we could load up on lots of leather goodies =p

While in the shop I saw this sign and couldn't help thinking "SMASH!" For all you non-AIESECers out there, basically this means that you can take the phrase dramatically out of context to mean something ... else =p

Florence is such a beautiful city! Everywhere you look there is something to take a photo of.

The tour took us to heaps of places around town to learn the history behind some important locations. Some of the things we passed included this gate thing where you can put a lock on if you're in a relationship with someone to symbolise you'll be together forever, however every 3 months apparently they cut off all the locks to make room for more hehe. We also visited this metal boar, where if you rub its nose it means you will return again to Florence.

The tour ended in front of the Duomo, which is a really big church in the heart of Florence. The Dome was supposed to be the first built in Europe, and helped inspire Michelango to build what he refers to as a "Sister Dome" in the Vatican.

We climbed up all 450+ steps to get to the top and look at the beautiful view.

The people in the photo with me from left to right are; Dickson, Ian, Silvia, Ruth, Me and Kevin. You feel the burn in your thighs after the walk, but it is really worth it.

We walked the streets a little more and had lunch in a place before going any further.

The conversation topic of "weird and wonderful things that make us unique" arose, which allowed us all the opportunity to display some unusual attributes. No one was too impressed that I could make a face out of my hands =( The true winner of the evening was Silvia who after 10 years of professional gymnastics could do some really ... flexible things with all her limbs!

We then decided we'd visit the "David" in the Accademia! On the way we spotted a shop dedicated on stuff all about me!

Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! ME!

Erm ... Yeah! Sorry for that tangent! Anyway we arrived at the Accademia and went straight to David. It was very very impressive. All of circled the statue for a good ten minutes admiring the detail.

You aren't allowed to take any photos of the statue, and there are guards everywhere, however, I was super sneaky and managed to take this photo through my jacket!

Sure it may be blurry, upside down, and covered by a jacket, but aren't you glad I took the risk to show you guys what the statue is like!!

Afterwards we visited the Leornado Da Vinci museum, which displayed alot of the inventions the man created on paper.

I took the part of narrator through our time in the museum, and read out all the information in my best audio guide voice. I took my role very seriously!

Yes! Very very seriously!

It was around this time that we decided it would be best to head back to the bus. Unfortunately we were running short on time, which lead to another mad dash, through another Italian city! Unfortunately this time we didn't have gelati with us to give us that extra energy we needed. Due to this fact we missed the bus, and had to spend another 40 or so minutes finding a taxi to take us back into town. Needless to say some of the people in the group weren't too happy =p

For dinner that night it was a special Florentine dinner, which Contiki advertised as being full of ambiance! Oprah singers would serenade you, chiante would be overflowing, dancing would take place. All of this was true, except in addition to this, the oprah singers took a special interest in the ladies of the tour.

Nothing like a 40 year old hitting on you to liven up the evening!

The dinner was quite good fun though. Lots of singing and dancing occurred. One thing that did happen that was slightly sad/funny, was that our tour guide Gary asked Marina for a dance. Marina is known for her quick smart ass responses, and this time she didn't hold back. Her response was "OMG! That would be like dancing with my Dad!"

Later Marina could be seen dancing with Contiki buddy Ian...

Gary is the guy on the right hand side watching Marina dancing. If you zoom in on Gary's hand behind the wine bottle, this is what you see...

That's right, our tour guide is slightly psycho! =p

Afterwards we all went into town to rejoin with the other contiki people who didn't go to the optional excursion dinner. We met them at a place called Space Disco Electronica, or something like that.

Once we arrived J.P went straight to the Karaoke stage and ordered the NSync Song "Bye Bye Bye" for some of the guys to sing together. However when the song came on, I ended up taking my time to get to the stage (why rush to embarrass yourself right? =p) and by that time some weird rapper guy had stolen the microphone from JP (who was still by himself) and was doing this really really weird rendition of the song. This ended up being quite entertaining, in a non intentional way, so I wasn't too disappointed.

It's actually quite weird, apparently I'm the third youngest person on the Contiki tour, followed by JP (19) and Katrina (18), and by some weird twist of fate all of us seem to have moments where we display the maturity levels of three year olds. We all became pretty good friends that night, although those two became friends on a different level, if you know what I mean =p

The party went on for ages and ages.

I wasn't the only guy out on the dance floor of course =) The Brazilian guys were out in full force, and I think part of their culture is to be very ... uh ... forward. I had to spend a good portion of the night getting in between distressed woman and horny touchy brazilians. Some part of the night I had to pretend to be with Katrina to get one of the guys to stop proposing marriage ... pretty intense stuff! One of them ended up breaking the necklace Katrina was wearing, which she had borrowed from Shauna (a Canadian on Contiki Tour). Katrina was like "Oh crap! This is Shauna's! I told her specifically I wouldn't break it tonight! What am I going to do!" =( We tried to cheer her up by sending J.P to pick up the scattered pearls.

As the end of the night approached we had to punch in our drink cards and get our coats back ... unfortunately in all of the drunken activity I kindof lost mine. Gary warned us that this results in an 80 Euro fine. So what does one do in this circumstance?

The answer: play the distressed innocent Indian boy card!

I sat down in clear view of the counter, and went through all my belongings with a puzzled yet slightly upset facial expression. I then approached the counter with eyes enlarged, eyelashes flattering, and head slightly tilted to explain the situation in the sweetest voice that could be mustered.

In the end I avoided the fine and got all my last four drinks for free!! Score!! I had a bit to drink and had bought others some as well =p

So we finally left the bar and went back hooooome! Ahhhh another good night.

Even though it looks like a guy is trying to strip me in this photo, I guarantee nothing happened ... not to my memory anyway ... doesn't seem like I can really trust that these days though ...

Anyway! Misssss all of yaaaaaa! Leave comments they warm me up in these cold European nights!!

BBB

Day 8 - CTD 3 - 21/11 - Rome to Florence

Hey Everyone!

So last night was quite a late one. They ended up throwing me into my room at around 3am, waking poor Dickson up. Our tour manager Gary said that we had to get al of our bags onto the bus by 8am, which meant that at around 7:30am I had to wake up and start packing my luggage.

When I woke I noticed that I was still in the same gear from the previous night, and that all my clothes were covered in mud. I was thinking to myself "What the hell was I doing last night!"

Somehow I managed to pack everything into my bag and throw it onto the bus by 8am. I then promptly went back to bed and slept till around 11am. I then caught a bus to meet the rest of the contiki people in Rome so that we could all catch the tour bus to Florence.

While on the bus I was recounted many of the horror stories from the previous night, and spent a large portion of the bus ride sunk in my seat shaking my head slowly =p At least the parts I remember were happy ones hehe.

The bus ride was a pretty uneventful few hours. Gary our Tour Manager took it upon himself to repeat all the logistical crap of the tour one more time. He was seriously talking non stop for around 2 hours. This sent most people to sleep, and amplified the hangovers for those who weren't (which was just me basically =p).

Sorry for the lack of pictures but there really isn't many photos one can take of the inside of a bus! Here is one though of Kevin when he found out that he was in any hardly of my photos from the previous night!

When we arrived in Florence we went and had an included dinner in some Restaurant across the street. It was pretty awful.

One of the funny and somewhat tragic things that also happened is my reputation from the previous night spread across the tour. The four Indian South Africans who thought I was so innocent before now had a completely different impression of me. While in the lobby I picked up an Italian newspaper thinking it was English, and put it back down saying "Ahhh crap, it's in Italian". Then one of the South Africans (Nazier) was like "It doesn't matter what language the newspaper is in David, in your state everything would look foreign." So it begins. The reputation of me being an alcoholic. So sad.

Afterwards we all went out to a bar called "Red Garter" I know I know! Sounds real classy. All of us were there in a big group. We have a bunch of Brazilians on our tour who are really funny, and they took the opportunity to get up on stage and sing "I can't get no Satisfaction!"

It was truly awful =p

In an attempt to escape the singing I went out with the South Africans to find a really cool Gelati place recommended by both the Lonely Planet and Gary, but unfortunately it is closed every Monday ... Pretty random day to be closed =(

So I returned to the bar, empty handed, with no chocolate in my belly. Obviously I was depressed.-But luckily a bus was leaving to return back home, so a bunch of us got together to play poker! Nothing like Gambling to brighten up ones night!

We decided that we'd need something to substitute as chips. Earlier that night in anticipation I'd pinched a few handfuls of toothpicks from the dinner venue, so it was decided that we would use that. We tried to send one of our Contiki buddies Ruth down to the bar to gather more toothpicks. However she returned empty handed, claiming the lady at the bar was quite evil. So we decided we'd send pretty boy J.P down to the counter to show some leg and work his charms, however even he returned empty handed claiming the bar lady was a lesbian. We improvised and split the toothpicks as a way of getting around this.

The poker game was vicious! With many people loosing their money in blazes of glory! However somehow I managed to stick it out to the 2am mark where we decided to call it a night.

I was close to bust at least 5 times, but using carefully thought out strategies, involving massive amounts of luck, I emerged victorious!! (Ok maybe not victorious, but still existent at least hehe). There were many times throughout the night where people would scream "Why won't you just die!!"

Ahhh feel the love!

Stay tuned for more updates! Miss all of ya back home!

BBB

Day 7 - CTD 2 - 20/11 - Rome

Ciao Everyone!

Did you guys know that ciao means both Hi and Bye in Italian?! It's such an awesome word! I was walking around going "Ciao!"to all the shop keepers today!

Anyway! Today was one of the first contiki events. There was an optional excursion to the Colosseum and Roman Forum. An optional excursion is something that contiki gets you to pay above what you paid for before. Dickson and I paid for it because we thought it would be a good way to see these particular sights and mingle with some of our tour mates in the process.

This is our guide, and as you can see she was a little cold ... so was I! Even though it looks like the middle of summer in some of our landscape photos, it is pretty freakin cold. Luckily since I'm in Europe I occasionally burst into bouts of happiness and end up running around in circles ... this warms me up.

Also in the above photo (from left to right) is Marina, Samir (one of the 4 South Africans), and Ian. I'm going over their names so some day in the future when I look back on this I can go ... "Ohhh yeah!"

Ian is also a South African, and so he has one of those funky accents. The first time I met him had been the previous night on the walking tour. I was running around from person to person, trying to get to know as many people as possible. I briefly bumped into him and when he introduced himself, I swear he said his name was "Yen"or "Jen". Since I know Jens, I just assumed it was Jens without the "s". But things get worse! Because not only did I call him Jen for the rest of the day, whenever someone else called him Ian I would pull them aside and go "Noooooo!! It's Jen!!!"

Anyway small tangent. The tour guide didn't take us inside the Colosseum because contiki is cheap, so after walking the circumference of the building we went into the Roman Forum next door.

It was pretty cool seeing the different layers of Rome as it progressed through its evolution.

Our walking tour finished outside a beautiful building.

Unfortunately I've totally forgotten what it's called and what it's significance is. However I do remember it was really tall, the view from the top was amazing, and half way up the stairs there were guys with really big guns guarding something!

How historic and educational!

Afterwards a big group of us decided we'd walk back towards the Colosseum and have a look inside. On the way there we passed many of those small little stands selling donuts. Once again I ran around to each of the stalls, hand pressed against the display case, drooling. My actions prompted some of the other people with me to purchase some of them ... turns out that apparently they weren't that good =p I received a little bit of blame for my crap intuition about food, but honestly they looked soooo guuuuuud!

I had a banana instead =p

Afterwards on the way to the colosseum, we were graced by the presence of one of the most impressive gladiators in Rome.

Rome is full of guys just like this. Who pose in a photo with you and then beg for a tip afterwards. Some of them don't even tell you it costs anything before hand, then after you take the photo they chase you down and harass you. Evil bastards!

We finally reached the Colosseum and went inside.

It felt amazing to finally be inside the building!! They have been doing some work inside the colosseum and have partially recreated some of the floor to simulate what gladiators would have been fighting on. The other people in the photo are Ian and Katrina.

We then decided to walk to the Circus Maximus. This is the place in Rome where all the chariot races etc were held. Our guide said that it was three times the size of the Colosseum. Once we got there we found that it was now a really big park. There were people walking their dogs and kids running around playing. No chariots =( Still it was pretty cool to think just how much things can change given a few thousand years!

Our big group then stopped off to have lunch at this Italian restaurant near a metro stop.

We guessed that our food had been sitting in a freezer for the past few days, and was heated before given to us. But other than that it was a good meal! =) Ian received his meal after all of us had finished, but when he tried to complain and get his meal for free the Italian people just shouted something like "My Restaurant! My Rules!" We left quickly =p

Some of the other guys on the tour hadn't had the opportunity to go inside the Pantheon yet (because it was closed last night during the contiki walking tour). Because of that we decided to hop onto the metro and head into the centre of town.

We spent ages trying to get from the metro stop to the Pantheon as we stopped off to get snacks, use ATMs etc. Alot of us had to use the bathroom and so we stopped off at a local Burger King. When we arrived at the mens' bathroom we found that it consisted only of two toilets, both of which were occupied. Three of the guys in the group decided we'd que up, but while waiting we heard many disturbing sounds, which prompted us to reconsider our decision.

When we arrived at the Pantheon we scattered to nearby restaurants to find bathrooms that were hopefully clean and quiet. I was the first to get out, and so I was instructed to wait for the bathroom people and the pantheon people outside a gelati shop.

Mmmmm Gelati. I couldn't resist for long.

So a whole bunch of us ended up buying Gelati from this once place, which took up a bunch of time. Unfortunately we needed to be across town to meet up with the rest of the Contiki Tour at a particular time. Our tour manager Gary emphasized how important it was to be prompt, otherwise the bus would leave without us!

This lead to a mad dash across Rome, while eating Gelati! Of course I had to capture such a moment on camera!

That is a spoon coming out of my mouth by the way, my tongue is not transparent! Katrina is the other person in this photo, an Australian from Brisbane. She and I like quite a few of the same things, including Gelati!

We managed to make it to the bus on time! Hooray! So once we arrived back at the hotel we had a discussion on what exactly we should do tonight.

Alot of mixed reactions. Some wanted to stay in, some wanted to go out, someone wanted to bring alcohol in etc etc. Then someone showed us a flyer for a pub crawl that was going on tonight. To participate you had to meet at the spanish steps at 11pm!

Sounded pretty interesting ... But alot of people weren't too keen. So instead we decided we'd go out to dinner at an Irish Bar (I know I know! So Italian!).

As you may notice by Dickson's red face, there was a little bit of alcohol involved! We decided to have a shot before dinner came, and another shot afterwards.

Including all of the above alcohol, Katrina and I decided that we'd party the night together, and be shot buddies. So shot for shot we'd match each other for the rest of the night!

To bless the start of such an important relationship we created a special sort of shot. Being from the south pacific both of us love our tomato sauce. So we created the KTSTSS. The Kraft Tomato Sauce Tequila Shot Shot!

You might not be able to see it clearly, but basically what we did is we substituted the salt with tomato sauce! It was actually really good =p I would prefer doing all my shots like this hehe.

Before leaving the bar I suggested that we have another shot. Katrina was a little concerned quoting the phrase "One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor!" I then suggested that maybe we try and prove that expression wrong ... not the smartest thing I agree, but I had three shots so far, plus an RTD, so I'm allowed my dumbass moments. Needless to say we had another shot before leaving =p

Dickson and a few others decided to call it a night, however I wasn't going to bed anytime soon!

The rest of the night was a bit of an interesting blur hehe.

We decided that we should go and join the pub crawl, but by the time we reached the spanish steps it was too late! They'd left without us.

So we then went around trying to find the group. We visited quite a few pubs along the way, and had a few more shots. We finally decided to call the number on the pub crawl flyer and received some directions to the current location of the crawl.

We then got really lost and kept wandering around. This doesn't mean to say that we weren't having fun in the process! Also don't worry that I'm not in the photo! I was the one taking it!

Somewhere along the line Katrina and I decided that we should follow the arrows since we were so lost, as the night progressed the arrow somehow morphed into an all powerful being that must be obeyed! So to get us to go in a particular direction someone would have to become a human arrow =p I know it sounds weird now, but it was funny at the time!! =) If an arrow was to guide us, you can understand why we were looking quite distressed at the following sign!

Somehow, by some massive fluke we managed to find the bar where the pub crawl was at. Ian was the person who guided us there, so he likes to take the credit, however I attribute true success to the arrow.

Once we arrived at the pub we paid 10 euros, got a free shot and a free t-shirt! Yay! Clothes!

The rest of the night was a bit of an embarrassing blur! But there were body shots (not by me!), lots of dancing, arrow following, and paranoia.

The pub crawl ended the night at this boat thing, where we received another free shot. For some reason I was really paranoid about everyone's safety so I didn't drink my shot. After about 5 minutes I stopped being paranoid though and had some more to drink!

I think this photo pretty much sums up the rest of the night. Not because Katrina and I are having fun, but because neither of us can remember this photo being taken, and pretty much neither of us can remember what happened the rest of the night =)

Don't worry! Katrina and I are just good friends all you dodgy blog readers! However apparently during the night some Argentina guys were hitting on her, and they tried to take me out of the picture! (the story goes that they picked me up, but the other contiki people came to the rescue) Fun Stuff!

Anyway the hangover will be another blog post! Stay tuned for more embarrassing moments! Although I have to admit it was so much fun getting slightly wasted in Rome! Just slightly!

BBB

Day 6 - CTD 1 - 19/11 - Rome

Hey Everyone! New Terminology in the title! CTD1 means Contiki Tour Day 1 =)

So today was scheduled as the first day of the Contiki Tour. The itinerary for the day was "Do your own thing and meet us at 6pm" which kindof means "We'll make it look like we're doing something today so it looks like the tour is better value for money, but really ... it's not!"

Dickson and I woke up early in the morning and hopped onto the hotel's complementary bus. Basically we did this because we no longer had the Italian speaking South African to help us navigate the Italian public transport =p

On the bus ride in we met two more Contiki people. One of them was Karina and the other was Kevin. (I'm saying names which probably don't mean anything to you right now, but they play bigger roles in the future!)

We all decided to be friendly and travel with each other for the rest of the day! So you may see pictures of them soon!

We weren't really a 100% sure what to do, so we decided we'd see some of the major Roman sights. Which included ... that's right ... wait for it ... hmm you can probably already see the picture ...

I was sooooo excited when I saw it! I was running around like a little kid taking even more photos than usual!

It was such a beautiful day as well, looks like we were there in the middle of summer!

Anyway, I'll stop with the hyper talk! We decided we wouldn't go in, because tomorrow Contiki was taking us here. So instead we took some photos of other pretty historical stuff.

Here is the Arch of Constantine ... with me!

The Roman Forum ... with me!

OK OK! I'll stop talking about me! =p

As we were walking around there would constantly be these little carts selling these massive sugar donut things. I got a reputation for running around to the different carts getting price checks ... turns out that fruit obsession didn't last very long =p

In addition to this one cool thing we spotted while looking for a lunch spot was this:

A petrol station Italian style! No room for Wild Bean Cafe here!

Somewhere around here we stopped off at lunch. Kevin who works on a cruise ship has a reputation for having "two hollow legs", meaning he can eat alot. He was impressed when I somehow managed to finish two main sized dishes. Naturally, of course, I whined about feeling sick 5 minutes later, but even then the locals could hear the screams of a little indian boy craving chocolate when our group passed a desert bar!

We went to the Trevi Fountain, which is this place where you throw in three coins and make a wish.

Of course I selflessly used my one and only wish requesting that all of you guys be here in Europe with me ... not on the Kit Kat bar I was eating 2 minutes later ... yeah ...

We set course for the next attraction - The Pantheon - but on the way I saw this and couldn't resist pulling out the camera!

See! My nose is not that big damnit!!

We finally arrived at the Pantheon.

The building is soooo beautiful. We just stood there looking up with our mouths open for ages.

Wow this is a long day! So much to type!

We did a bit more walking and as we walked Kevin and I realized we basically had no pants/shoes suitable for going out at night. So utilizing my powers of persuasion I managed to get Kevin to go clothes shopping with me (something he apparently hasn't done for many many months). We went to this place called the 15 Euro shop. Guess how much my pants and shoes cost? That's right! 15 Euros each!

What about Kevin's pants? That's right! You guessed it! 25 Euros! I tell you, an innocent smile goes a long way!

We all really needed to go to the bathroom so we hopped into the nearest bar pretending to be interested in their food products. Of course this meant the perfect opportunity for a group shot!

You guys must be getting bored by now! I'll pick up the pace a bit!

So we finally got back to the hotel, and got introduced to our Tour Manager Gary. He went through alot of stuff with us (and I mean ALOT). The detail he went into about logistical stuff literally put a whole bunch of us to sleep (and would for many future days on the tour! But that can wait till another blog update).

Afterwards the whole tour went on a walking tour of three sites (Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Steps). All of which we'd seen earlier on our trip. Because of this I took the opportunity to mingle with many of the other guests on the trip.

Once we arrived back home some of us took it upon ourselves to throw a little celebration for a certain birthday boy on the trip. His name is J.P from Sydney Australia and he just turned 19.

Anyone who has seen me drink knows how much I love the hard stuff, so I bought the little guy a round of tequila ... I think it was tequila anyway =p

So we spent the rest of the night taking a few more shots, playing a few card tricks and learning how to play poker! A good intro for the contiki trip believe me!

Ahhh! Finally the end of the longest update ever! Stay tuned for more!

BBB

Day 5 - 18/11 - Rome

We woke up today pretty excited since we were in Rome!!

*Que David screaming girlishly*

While having our beautiful breakfast in the hotel lobby we met up with four South Africans who would be joining us tomorrow on the contiki tour as well. One of them had actually majored in Italian so we tried to bum her knowledge to get ourselves familiar with the public transport system.

While on the train we spotted this sign...

This sparked an intense discussion on what we thought was better. To have the train door slam on our arm, our bum or our crotch? Hmmm...

We then jumped off the train, left the South Africans, and started to look around for the Vatican. While running around we randomly bumped into one of Dickson's friends from Medical School... Of all the places to bump into each other! What a small world!

After a few minutes we found the Vatican!!

How cool is that view! We were technically no longer in Italy, we were in the world's smallest independent state. So I get to say yay I'm in another country!

The Vatican is amazing. It is so well preserved, and there is so much history behind every nook and cranny, that I'm sure you could spend a lifetime learning all of its secrets.

We tagged along with a free guide who took us around St Peter's Basilica ...

... and the Vatican museum.

I seriously can't describe just how impressive both these places are. The architects created some amazing effects in the basilica to make the building appear smaller than it actually is. The museum apparently takes 8 hours to walk through without even looking at any of the art, and if you spend a minute at each item on display you will be in the museum for something like 11 years.

Pretty crazy.

Also went inside the Sistine Chapel. We were told that you weren't allowed to take any flash photographs inside the building, so I put my camera on no-flash. When I entered it was pretty ridiculous the amount of flashes that were going off. The guards were being really lazy. I was going around "tsk tsk"ing people, while taking my own photographs. It turns out that apparently you're not allowed to take any photos, even the type that I was taking with no flash. I found this out when a guard came over to me and said something in Italian while "tsk tsk"ing. So sad. But at least I got this photo!

By the end of the tour we were starving! It took a couple of hours to go through all of the above, with no warning that there were no lunch breaks!

As you can imagine I was distraught!

However we went down some side streets and found a nice little Italian restaraunt. I had Pizza in Italy!! Hooorraaaaah!!

But the best part about the meal was not the pizza (in Italy they make their pizza's pretty plain), it was this amazing fruit salad.

I know, I know! You're probably all saying "Fruit?? What have you done with the real David!". But honestly it was sooooo good! This caused my first foodgasm of the trip! I will make sure to update you on every meal that qualified to be the mother of my first child.

Afterwards we cruised the streets a bit more and stopped in on some of Rome's other attractions, such as the Spanish Steps. But by night time we were pretty tired, since we'd basically been walking the whole day!

Ow my feet!

Anyway! Contiki tour starts tomorrow! I'll keep you updated .... OK so maybe I'm slack =p

BBB

Slackness

Hey Everyone!!

I'm so sorry about being so crap at updating my blog over these past couple of weeks!

It's been a struggle to find the time to update stuff with the schedule of the contiki tour. We always seem to be doing something!! =) But hey at least I'm doing it now!

I'm going to be writing all of the previous posts in a tense that would seem as if I hadn't been a lazy bum and was updating everything promptly! Hopefully I don't miss out on all of the BBB-moments that happened because of my ageing memory =)

The updates are starting from Rome in 18th November!

BBB