We had the dreaded task of walking uphill to the church/town square to return our rented hiking boots, however. What was most dreadful about it was me having to stuff my poor feet back INTO those heavy things that morning (my sandals were left at the shop in exchange for the boots). Could almost hear my feet screaming ‘NOooooo!!!’. Well, I survived.. so never mind enough complaining.

Took a few photos along the way:

Look! It’s Francesca driving the Casa Del Sole taxi.. 😀

“Aperto” means “open” in Italian.

Joyce and I kept going on about how all the flowers on the island were just so PERFECT and VIBRANT. Many a time we had to touch and feel them just to be absolutely sure that they were real. Yup, all real flora there!

Couldn’t help but wander into one of the many souvenir/craft shops near the church square. The souvenirs on the island were tasteful and largely handmade by artists, unlike in big cities like Rome or Paris or Barcelona etc etc, where the souvenirs are tacky, plasticky, and overpriced.

I got myself a volcano magnet and a wall hook with a sailboat on it.

When I was in Rovinj, Croatia (oops, I haven’t written anything about this.. yet) two weeks prior to this trip, there were a few shops that sold handmade wooden boats too! I had gotten one there so I stopped myself from adding to the collection.. wasn’t too hard, as the prices here were much higher than in Croatia.

Lunch was at a place called Luciano’s – a tip from a local woman we asked.

We sat on a big balcony with a great view of the sea (of course). Joyce decided to do a photoshoot with our mice, her other toys, my ring, and.. half-eaten bread??!

The plan after lunch was to take the loooooonggg walk back to the beach that we were on the day before.

This proved to be quite challenging..because of how HOT it was that day. I think we distracted ourselves by taking lots of pictures.

This, by the way, is not Joyce simply taking a close-up photograph of a cactus. It’s her taking a picture of her PET GOLFBALL, WILSON, carefully placed in a little nook in the cactus plant.

Apparently, I was touching leaves and flowers a lot…. see, I had to check that they were real! Or maybe not.. cos these were quite obviously not plastic….

Joyce captured me in one of my ‘zones’.. (crazy zone, that is). I was somehow so fascinated by this man painting a little red star on his boat. He was delicately peeling off the tape he used as a stencil.. one by one..slowly. I watched for so long that by the time he finished, I clapped for him. I might have even said ‘yay!’.

This gave me the opportunity to get to know my new friend, so we started talking and guess what! He had one of those little buggies and so gave us a lift to the beach that we were MELTING towards. His name was Stefano and he had previously lived in Melbourne, too. I was like, “OH I miss that gelato shop on Lygon Street!”, to which he replied, “Yes Lygon Street… IL DOLCE FREDDO!“. Hehe.

We buried Maurice (Joyce’s mouse) and Goliath (my mouse) in the sand for fun.

Joyce tried to find Wilson a girlfriend.. also known as the most symmetrically round black pebble you could find on the beach = IMPOSSIBLE! So poor Wilson remained a bachelor throughout the trip.. oh well!

Strolling back to find food, we met a man called Frank who runs a small tour company from one of the colourful booths seen near the pier. As you can see, it was called ‘Frank International’. They were doing boat tours  for €15 that evening, at sunset, where you’d go round the other side of the island and watch the volcano hopefully erupt.

Having two hours to kill, we planted ourselves at what we thought was the most lively bar/cafe on the strip – Fronte Del Porto.

They played a really diverse range of music.. so sometimes I’d be happily bopping to something.. and then the next moment I’d be silently wishing my ears didn’t work (like when they played that super, super annoying Gotye song that I’d always hated from the beginning).

As the sun went down the sky turned a magnificent lilac shade and the water was so still it was GLIMMERING. Like a big flat mirror in the shade of lilac. At one point it was difficult to tell where the line between the sea and the sky was. Seemed like both were melting into each other.. like a painting!

Thought this photo was funny because of the family so obviously staring at me getting my photo taken next to a tiny yellow taxi with its nonchalant driver in it.

Boat Trip

I was super excited about the boat trip because it meant getting closer to that MIRROR-WATER. Just look!

By ‘look’ I mean look many times.. (lots of pics to follow). It’s just one of those things you repeatedly take pictures of because you keep trying to capture the beauty on camera even though you know you.. can’t. Anyhow I think these are some great shots.. ha ha

It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Just so beautifully calm.

We got permission from Frank to go for a quick swim.. the other passengers thought we were mad. But it was so much fun!

We’d already seen the volcanic eruptions during the hike the day before so didn’t pay much attention to the volcano this time. Well I didn’t anyway.

Once back on shore I treated myself to more pasta.. and peach juice! One my favourite things about Europe is the fruit juices. I’m not confined to apple/orange and can instead have pear, peach, or strawberry (my top 3 in random order).

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It was this volcano climb that really made me want to go to Stromboli when Ana was talking about it.. but unfortunately Joyce didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it at first :p

But I was sure she would enjoy the REWARD at the END so I simply said to her, “You can thank me LATER” as she buried her head into her arms and actually TOOK A NAP while waiting for the guide at the square!

Since we were ill-equipped (somehow we had the ridiculous idea that we’d just waltz up this volcano in our colourful clothes and a tote bag (joyce)/sandals (me)), we each spent about €10 extra to hire proper hiking shoes, one backpack (we already had one between us), headlamps, and we were given helmets too. Each person was advised to bring a jacket, food and 1.5 litres of water…. yup, those bags were HEAVY.

At 6.30pm, we were off!

Five minutes in….. and I was sweating like MAD. There were so many steep steps to climb, in 35 degree heat, and for a brief moment I did think ‘why.. why did I do this to myself..’.

I was sweating so much that I had to use my H&M scarf as a sweat towel..

At least, the views along the way were all breathtaking. Though it was hard to concentrate on your footing while trying to take in the scenery AND take pictures at the same time.

Rest stops were once every 30 minutes and never long enough. It takes an estimated 2.5 hours to get to the top (but I think it took slightly longer.. really).

The sea and the sky was so beautiful to look at a we ascended higher and higher up the volcano. Also, when we were about halfway up the sun was no longer directly upon us = the difficulty of the climb was suddenly reduced by half! It was such a relief.

The line between the sky and the sea was a creamy orange blur.. and as the sun sank even deeper into the horizon, the colours became more and more spectacular to watch. It was just SO AMAZING!

Me eating an APPLE at the halfway point.

It was a challenge not to look like absolute shit on that volcano! I mean.. come on. Sweaty matted hair + red face.. haha.

The main reason why I thought this climb was rather tough was because of the terrain.. I’ve never hiked up a volcano before. It was so sandy! Imagine walking on a sandy beach, but going uphill. With every step I took my chunky hiking boot just SANK halfway back downwards.

We became quite good at taking 2-second-pictures (so as to not get left behind by the group/hold people up!)

Hmm.. just realised the photos are quite repetitive. But it was hard not to want to document the sky every time we got to higher ground :p

I still remember how relieved we both felt when planting our bums on the black sand to rest our super-sore legs!

Another group of people going up nearby.

While watching them, I remarked to Joyce that they looked like ants.. or rather, slaves (I was picturing donkeys carrying wood up a mountain, like in Disney’s Small One)..

As we got closer to the top, we were able to see puffs of smoke emerging from the other side of the volcano, where the active craters were.

The pinkest hiker.

Here’s a short video I took while struggling up the volcano. Have to just say it was quite an achievement to get this video as it was so steep and we were all in single-file, no stopping. Had to reach behind my back, unzip it, pull out my camera, turn it on and switch to video mode, and record the bloody thing all whilst taking care not to trip over and keep up the pace!

And a few moments later…………….

WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT

I felt so goddamn good about myself (at this point I didn’t know about how shitty the descent was going to be yet..) and was just so HAPPY to be up there. Standing on top of a mountain. A VOLCANO.

I WAS STANDING ON A VOLCANO!

It was quite dark by the time we were up there, so excuse the poor quality of photos.

Jacket by H&M
Neon shorts by Topshop

Haha, never thought I’d be writing about what I wore on a volcano ;p

After having a quick bite (I think we had those mini chocolate croissants), everyone lined up on the edge of the mountain overlooking the two active craters.. and waited. We were all just staring so intently as though WILLING it to erupt.

There was even a girl next to us who kept talking to herself, going, “ok just one more eruption.. please.. yes.. just one more..come on” when we were waiting for one last KABOOM before starting the descent.

We were lucky and managed to see at least four eruptions (I lost count.. too excited).

Was so AWED. FREAKING AMAZING.
The sound each time was so powerful. A huge ROAR from the core of the earth.

We spent almost an hour standing, waiting, watching the incredible natural fireworks in front of us. That’s it! They’re Earth’s fireworks!

Even now looking back at these photos, the whole experience seems surreal.

Standing there, I looked up into the sky and said my thanks to the stars to express gratitude for how lucky I was to have that opportunity. For my sight, for my mobility, for good health, and of course for the means to take myself to such a beautiful place.

(thanks Joyce for the above pic!)

Now I’ll write a short note about the descent, which took about an hour and a half.

We were all given masks to put on our face because we would use a different trail going down where it was very sandy and incredibly dusty as people’s footsteps unsettled the ground. Actually, ‘incredibly dusty’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.. it was more like being in ‘The Fog’ but with dust. The sand was soft and so walking down was hard on the knees after a while.

We all walked in a single file in pitch darkness using our headlamps. The WORST thing was getting a bazillion small rocks and stones trapped inside our shoes and not being able to get them out until the next rest stop! We also got erm.. detached from the rest of the group towards the end as Joyce needed to empty her shoe (otherwise I think she might have died).. it was rather scary trying to find our way back to the square ourselves (because it was just SO DARK and a bit creepy) but we made it – sweaty, dirty, and completely knackered. Our feet were battered and bruised.

Treated ourselves to a big oily pizza and more Spritz for me, at a restaurant in town.

If only we didn’t have another 1+km to walk to get to our room after. But after climbing a volcano, that was super easy-peasy..

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