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Well the holiday is over and it's back to work again…blah. Corsica was awesome. After a looooong cold winter, 10 days of 30 degrees was the perfect start to what we hope is a hot summer this year.
Kai and I left Switzerland in our hot little hire car I fondly named 'Jenny'…god knows why…first name that popped into my head. 8 hours later and after a few arguments with our pommy accented GPS, we made it alive to Livorno in Italy, having had to learn how to drive like the Italians…no rules, just go with the flow….at speed :-P Livorno was a hole…luckily it was only a stopover for a night before squeezing onto the ferry to Corsica.
Anyhoo, bright and early the next morning we headed to the port to board the ferry with a million other cars/motorbikes and holiday goers….after first navigating the streets of Livorno once again, squeezing through streets that were meant for only one-way traffic, but had parked cars on either side of the road so that we had to pull our side mirrors in just to make it through the streets without scratching the car! The ferry across took 5 hours, but was really relaxing and a good excuse to just 'do nothing' and take in the scenery :-)
Ok, so Corsica….I could totally go on about it forever! I want to go back this instant! It is my absolute favourite place on this earth now! It has everything! From beautiful long sandy beaches and crystal clear water, to rolling and often rocky mountains running down the middle and west coast of the island….and not to forget the flowing rivers, waterfalls and cute little towns nestled in the mountains, and the occasional town literally overhanging incredible cliff faces that overlook the ocean.
We have missed summer, and so we decided to spend our first taste of summer the best way we know how…in caravan parks on the beach! Just like home :-)...only French speaking (thank god for Kai's great grasp of the language) and Italian influenced (relaxed, with no sense of time) within the towns.
The caravan parks we stayed at were just outside of the major towns, so we were able to enjoy the surrounding vineyards and beaches without being too close to any busy centres. We stayed in bungalows, due to our lack of tent materials, that were literally on the beach and overlooking the ocean. Our favourite place was our bungalow in Porto Vecchio that was on the beach with only about 10 metres of sand between us and the water……….take me back!!!!!!!!!!!!! And because we were there in the last week of May (just before high season), it wasn't that busy, so we didn't have to share the beaches with the masses.
We spent the week pretty much sprawled on the beaches or exploring the mountain towns and surviving the winding mountain roads with nothing separating the side of the car/road and the several hundred metre sheer drop down to the bottom of the valley, but 30cm of dirt and an occasional low stone wall filled with holes from previous "accidents". The drives through the mountains were amazing and I would do them again in a heartbeat….a little hesitant tho going back on some of the roads that we aptly named 'suicide road' as Corsicans seem to think that overtaking on blind corners, at speed, with cliff faces only inches away is ok.
Anyway, this is getting long so I'll quickly finish up….. at the end of an amazing and relaxing week, we jumped on the ferry to Nice where we started our 7 hour jdrive back to Zurich….I would go so far as to say that the drive from Nice to Switzerland is the best, most amazing and diverse drive ever! (featuring cute little Mediterranean Italian towns nestled in valleys overlooking the sea, long Tuscan rolling hills and paddocks, and then the amazing green Swiss mountains, rivers and lakes). I would have enjoyed the drive more however, but as we were flying back amongst Italian drivers to get to zurich in time to return the car, (which Kai did very safely :-) ), I occasionally had to check that I could still feel my left side to make sure i wasn't experiencing a heart attack :-P.......And even though I fell in love with Corsica, and associate Zurich with work now (blah), driving into Switzerland still took my breath away……
Ok, so I'll let the photos do their best at justifying my babble….keep in mind though that pictures are only about 1 millionth as good as the real thing :-)
Oh yeah, and I will upload the US Virgin Islands and Salzburg photos soon too :-) Promise :-)
I hope your winter back at home is not too uncomfortable and that you get some decent rain soon!!!
Only 6 months left now until we get to come and play with you all! Too exciting!!!!!!!!!!
Miss you all sooo muchl!! And love you all heeeaps.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
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