Lago di Como

On our second full day in Italy, Rick and Mary Jo took us to Lake Como.  We went to an area where you can take a ferry between the towns of Bellagio, Verenna and Menaggio which are all pictureque and charming spots.  We explored all three towns throughout the day and there are way too many pictures to post but here are a few!

View from on the lake

Jeremy being a tourist on the ferry in his Hawaiian shirt.

Little touches like this stone archway and beautiful flowers and flowering trees added to the overall beauty of the area.

I made this one extra large so you can see the picture of George Clooney on the left.  You can actually take a "George Tour".  We opted out of this tour.

Wandering through the narrow streets with Rick and Mary Jo.

Cobblestone lanes everywhere you look!

I thought this demonstrated a look of contentment.  Hard not to be content in this setting!

If you look closely, you can see that my earring is a blue cat.  It has a little blue stone for an eye.  We found it at a market in one of the towns, and Jeremy absolutely insisted that I had to have it.  It was a bargain at 1 Euro.  Of course I had to put them on right away, and drama ensued!  One of the cats was fine, but the other cat was improperly positioned so no matter what ear I put it in, the silver backing was facing outward instead of the blue side with the face.  Uh oh!  Mary Jo accompanied me back to the seller, who unfortunately had gone to the bathroom and had someone minding her stall.  Cue three different ladies (including the seller who eventually returned) fiddling with this cat earring with special little tools to try and turn it the right way!  All the while trying to communicate in English and Italian. I'm sure the lady was regretting her one Euro sale, but eventually the cat was fixed!

We had proper Italian pizza from one of Rick and Mary Jo's favourite places.  This pizza was called the "Bum Bum" which elicited mature giggling and elbowing...and then we of course had to order it.

Another lovely day in Northern Italy....writing about it makes me want to go back immediately, particularly as I am in Clare at the moment cooped up trying to write my narrative review and it is cold and rainy!  The weather here will improve soon enough and I'll be complaining about how hot it is!  True Canadian, never satisfied with the weather!

What else?  Jeremy and I have barely seen each other in the last couple of weeks!  He has been working very hard and has done some hospital on call shifts.  I spent a weekend in Adelaide because I had signed up for "Operation Blackhawk", a military inspired obstacle course...basically you spend 3 hours running around, climbing over obstacles, plunging into muddy, freezing, disgusting water, climbing up and sliding down mud hills, etc etc etc.  It was an interesting experience but probably not one I need to repeat!  We missed each other the next weekend as well as I went to Melbourne for 5 days for a conference (Ok, 3 days conference, 2 days fun).  I was really hoping Jeremy could meet me in Melbourne for the weekend as it's my favourite city in Australia to visit and we always have an amazing time...alas, he had an appointment on the Saturday and was on call the Sunday so it wasn't to be.  My two closest Melbourne friends were also out of town for the weekend (arghhh!!) with one of them heading to Darwin for a course and the other one coming back to Adelaide for a wedding!   I was able to catch up with both of the 'away' friends earlier during the week so even though it was quick, I at least got to seem them.  They are both awesome people and they both offered me their homes and cars for the weekend even though they were away...spoiled for choice!  I stayed at Claire's house in Toorak, which is a fancy Melbourne suburb, and decided on her place due to proximity to the city and the fact that she has a cat!  Hehe.  I decided against using anyone's car in Melbourne as I am not familiar with it at all, it's big and scary, and hook turns are completely baffling to me.

Aside: here is a description of a hook turn.  Still confused?  So am I.  Instead of moving to the right hand lane to turn right, you move to the left lane and stop (with your right indicator on) when you're almost half way across the intersection in the cross street. As your lights turn red and the lights in the cross street turn green, the vehicles that have queued for the hook turn complete their turns by crossing ahead of the vehicles that were stopped in that street. 

Despite eschewing driving, I was able to get around quite easily by tram, another benefit of staying at Claire's/in Toorak.  My Melbourne activities consisted of: the conference (which was actually really good/interesting), going to a CAT CAFE (one of my dreams), breakfast with Claire (best one of the year), wandering around the Melbourne CBD with Maria on a Thursday night (and accidentally finding all sorts of interesting laneway places), walking around the neighbourhood of Toorak and taking myself out for brunch, meeting a uni speechie friend for Mexican tapas at the trendy Mamasita and also checking out Madame Brussels (a garden themed cocktail bar) and catching up with our friend Adrian for dinner and exploring the wild and wacky side of Melbourne (e.g. a lab themed place where you get drinks in syringes, "Zootopia" complete with face painting, drummers, and contortionists). 

I arrived back in Adelaide last Sunday night and had a Flinders tutorial Monday morning.  Following this, I drove straight to Clare so I could finally spend some time with Jeremy and focus on my research without all the distractions of Adelaide!