Why do I write?

This is my last post at Wanderlust. I have moved all of my past posts to my new website at gemtherese.com. Come join me there!

There are many facets of this blog and the posts I share. I think and hope that it is that reason that you, the reader, are here and find it profitable and interesting to read and follow.

But why do I write? Where do posts come from and why do I share them? I have been thinking these questions in the lead up to launching my new site as I feel it is important to have purpose and reason in as many things as you can. So here is an insight -

To start, I believe that the point of knowledge is to share it. Maybe it is for this reason that I am terrible at keeping secrets and telling lies. Now, the knowledge I share is not ground breaking stuff, it is my personal knowledge of travel and in particular the European destinations that I have visited and loved. But none the less, I feel there is no point (or almost no point) to having this knowledge of destinations if I don't share it! This of course relates directly to the reason why I work for a tour company. I want EVERYONE to know these cities and their delights. Part of my way of doing this is to share them in my writing.

Often writing is my way of solidifying memories. Special moments that would otherwise merge in with any of the other special moments I have had the pleasure to experience and share with others. Keeping a blog is the modern day keeping a journal, with less tear stained pages and stapled in concert tickets. I love to look back over what I have written about past trips in the same way that I would pick up an old diary and flip through the pages to experience a flicker of past experiences.

I also firmly believe that it is only part of the experience to live it in the moment. Another half of the experience I would argue comes from afterwards and what you do with the experience. For me to internalise and make sense and learn from what I do, I write about it. I understand more about the world from analysing it afterwards than I would from just experiencing it and leaving that experience to stay stagnate in one moment of my life.

Simple lessons are learned this way. For instance. If I missed a flight. If I look back at it and see that I was late by only half an hour and that it took me that long to pack my bag that morning, I would learn to pack my bag the night before, or to leave more time in the morning. If it had happened and I had thought no more of it and left that experience at that. Nothing would be learnt.

The reassessment theory can also apply to gaining deeper understandings of ourselves. Writing things down helps me to put things things next to each other and see patterns. In my article about being a 'travel expert' (tongue in cheek) it was through juxtaposing several of my experiences that I was able to see the common tie that they had in my reaction and so I realised in a more definite way, one of my personality traits.

Thank you to everyone who is reading this, I love to share and I hope that my new platform at gemtherese.com will make it even more pleasant for you to experience.

Stay eager and travel light.

Gemma

A day in Trieste

"Those people look extremely cold for such a sunny day" I said from the safety of the car as we drove in to Trieste last saturday. The car display said it was 15 degrees outside, which is warm compared to what it has been lately so I was confused why the people outside weren't taking off their layers to enjoy the sunshine.
"It's colder outside than you think" Stefano told me, "It's the wind that has everybody wrapped up". When we stepped out of the car he was right. The wind was fresh and bracing and whipped straight down the collar of my jacket forcing me to zip it tight around my neck immediately. Trieste, it turns out, is Italy's 'Windy city' with gusts getting as fast as 200km an hour on occasion and some sort of breeze a constant feature. "This is a normal day" I was told as I struggled to keep my hair out of my face.

At the port

The infrastructure of the city has been built to cope with these winds. Garbage bins have special holders to keep them in place whilst waiting for collection and chains are on many street corners for people to hold on to when the strongest winds come through. On the plus side, the wind blows the clouds away and so they are often blessed with clear skies and sunshine.
We were in Trieste to catch up with family. Both parents of the family I am living with grew up in Trieste and Maria-Sole still has family there.

The city is on a sliver of land between Slovenia and the sea, it is only 5km from the Slovenian border to the north and east and both parents remember when they were children, ducking over the border to where things like petrol and toys were cheaper.

We had a roast lunch at Nonna's before heading in to the town for a tour of the sites with the cousins, Aunt and Uncle. We started at the harbor, the most important part of the town. Trieste came about because it was a good location for a trading port, in fact, Trieste basically means 'Market Place'. From the port we could see the whole city. It rises very steeply up hills dotted with dark evergreens, looking very 'Dalmatic' with orange terracotta tiled roofs and cream walls featuring on most of the houses. From the port you can also see across the bay to Miramare, the castle built in the 1850's at a most scenic point, its white walls and tower standing out against the blue of the sea and, as I would notice later, picking up the colours of the sunset in a glorious way.

Piazza Unita d'Italia

We meandered in to what is probably Trieste's main attraction 'Piazza Untia d'Italia', a beautiful piazza surrounded on 3 sides by government buildings and the the 4th side open to the sea. We took a coffee in the piazza in a cafe that boasted 67 different types of coffee. Trieste is known for it's coffee, the port was owned by the Austro- Hungarian empire at the time that the coffee craze hit Europe. The Viennese became crazy for their caffeine hit and coffee beans became one of Trieste's biggest imports. It is still a major city for those interested in the bean and its produce but we had just a taste, and I have to agree with the rest, it was a damn good coffee.

Our espresso came with a chocolate shot!

Fueled, we began to walk the streets. Up and up we went until we reached the very peak of the city and the St Justus Cathedral. The first religious site was built here in the 6th century but the current structure dates back to the 9th century. Next to the cathedral are ruins of an old fortress where we found young scouts playing games amongst hundreds of years of debris.

St Justus Cathedral

By far the oldest thing we saw however was the Arch of Riccardo, built in 33BC it now extends out of the wall of a house like a ghostly arm but once it was one of the entry ways to the city. It is a truly strange sight and I would love to meet whoever decided that they would just build a house on top of it...

Arco di Riccardo

We stopped at a divergence of paths and I was asked if I would now rather visit the amphitheater or a church. Stefano said I had already seen the Colosseum and so this amphitheater would be nothing and so we went to the church. I should have mentioned how many churches I have been to. This was just another one. On our drive out of the city I exclaimed suddenly in amazement because we had just driven past the amphitheater and it was nothing like the Colosseum and looked amazing. I laughed at Stefano saying that you know Italians have too much history when they start discounting amazing sites like that.

We finished the day at the event we had come for. Nonno's 81st birthday. After lots of good food (I ate raw minced horse meat on a sort of poppadum and it was great!), punch and trying to understand the conversations around me, it was time to drive home.

From the piazza, looking out to the sea.

 Trieste was beautiful! I have since found out that Lonely planet listed it as the worlds most underrated travel destination in 2012 and I had certainly never heard of it before, but would go again. There is much more to discover as well as a lively cafe and bar scene I am told. Check it out for somewhere different to see in Italy.

St Justus Cathedral

St Justus Cathedral

St Justus Cathedral

St Justus Cathedral

St Justus Cathedral

Dream Destinations for 2015

Looking back over last year's wish list of destinations I have been pleased to see that I managed to achieve visiting many of the places I wanted to see. Poland, Dubrovnik, more of Italy and all of the counties in the Red Star Special.

Some still remain to be discovered and of course more have been added to my list. Lets have a look at my list of dream destinations for 2015.

Romania
This was on last years list but with no real ideas, more just the feeling that I would like it. Now I know more. I want to see the wild landscape, discover fairytale castles and visit friends. All of these ideas were helped by looking at friends photos this year which had me wishing I could have joined!

Budapest
This one will be the easiest to tick off. I may have (nothing is definite until it is happening with Topdeck) the camping trip that stays 2 nights in Budapest this year. It is a short amount of time, especially with having to actually work at the same time but I am hoping just to discover a little more of this city.

Iceland
Iceland has been on my wishlist for so long it is kind of stupid that I havn't been yet! This year though Dad and I have plans (nothing booked yet) to finally visit to see the Aurora Borealis. Lots of research is going into it at the moment, so I will keep you updated!

Portugal
This is another country that was on my list last year. I was again, so close to going this year but paths took me in other directions. The calls of the sand, sun, good food and colour are getting stronger though.

Wales
Lately I have been getting very interested in Wales. It is such a beautiful and calm looking little country. I specifically want to go to see its nature and go on walks that end in a little pub by the sea for a pie and cider chase up.

Turkey
Turkey has so much to offer. From food. history. architecture, culture and scenery I think that I would need to go for at least 2 weeks to look around at all this country has to offer.

Where else should I be dreaming of going?

Where am I?

Italy, that great love of mine.

My travel bug first began when I was 15 and decided that I wanted to go to Italy on an exchange program. My mother was all for most of this plan but suggested that perhaps I would prefer to go Ireland where we had friends and where I could speak the language. I gave in to her logic and put off my ideas of vespas and pizza for a while.

My first year out of university, having already visited Italy twice on short occasions, I knew that I wanted to go back to it's engaging shores. I decided that I would work, at a hotel, a bar, wherever they would take me and attend Italian classes at the same time. And then there was widespread economic trouble throughout Europe and I thought that it would not be such a great time to go over looking for a job...

It was not too long after when I gained my job with Topdeck. I was thrilled. I didn't even know yet that I would end up spending almost half my time within Italy's boarders. With Topdeck alone I have spent about 6 months over the last 2 years in Italy and learning and seeing all I can in in the major cities. However fun spending all my time in tourist cities and with English speakers is, I was still longing for a glimpse of that real Italian living. Somewhere quiet, somewhere unknown.

Welcome to Monfumo. In the province of Treviso, in the region of Veneto, in Italy. Lets go through that the other way around. Italy you know. Veneto is the region up in the very top right-hand corner. It's capital is Venice and other big cities in the region are Verona and Padova. Veneto is split in to seven provinces. The province of Treviso is just above Venice and Monfumo is in the top left hand corner of that (are you following?)

Monfumo

This town is tiny. The population is about 2,000 people and the centre of town consists of a church, post office, primary school, library, bank and 2 restaurants. That's it.

One of Monfumo's Restaurants

But it is beautiful. As part of the Veneto region it was privy to much of the wealth that came out of the republic of Venice for 1,000 year (ending in the 1700's) and that fact is mirrored in the many villa's that dot the landscape and the many great names of art and music that come from this region. It was also one of the worst hit areas of Italy during the world wars. So close to the boarder of Austria it was the front line of combat between those two countries.

The foothills that I live in rise beautifully and suddenly out of the flat plains around. They look like  waves lapping at the foot of the dolomites. Each of these hills are deeply wooded, some are topped by ruins of churches or castles and they plunge suddenly and deeply in to green valleys cut out over years by the streams that still run through them.

Walking in these woods in the month of February (after a warm winter) already brings sights of wildflowers peeking their heads out. Most common at the moment is the primrose and the snowdrop but there are signs of the violets, wild strawberries and others that are still to come.

Many of the valleys are agricultural land. There isn't much of Italy that is truly wild, they have been here too long and have to many people for anywhere to be undiscovered. Some valleys are lined with orderly grape vines, trimmed to perfection and seemingly up kept totally by hand. One day I saw a farmer training the vines to the wire using switches of supple twigs, his secateurs securely stored in a cow horn strapped to his hips.

I've watched the land around us change. From the most colourful autumn that I have ever seen. The reds and oranges blazed and swarmed over the hills, when the leaves fell it was the ground around the trees that became fiery and alive. In the winter I have woken to swirling mists in the valleys and brilliantly clear days. Each drive to school was exciting to see how the mountains would be changed today. One morning purple, one morning pinks and oranges, one morning the snow had crept all the way down to just 200 meters above the school and every day after it retreated just a little further up, creating contrasts with the dark woods. And now as I have said, spring is coming. Birds are out, we have lots of little wren/finch type of birds as well as birds of prey, I'm not sure if they are hawks or falcons. I saw my first squirrel in the garden and have been told that deer will be visible from my bedroom window when it is warmer and they return to the valleys.

At night I still find this area amazing. The stars are not the brightest I've seen but they are definitely the brightest I have seen in years (brightest awards go to Fiji and the Australian outback, hard to beat). One night when we went out for dinner and had a different view I exclaimed how low the constellations were at exactly the same moment that I realised that they were in fact the lights from houses dotted up the side of the mountain. They merged in to the stars so seamlessly that I was fooled for a second.

Something that I have realised from being in such a constantly changing landscape is that it doesn't feel like staying still. When every drive to school pickups seems like a new discovery of the mountains and every morning the view from my window is different how can you get bored? And whilst it is easier in a place like this it got me thinking that if we took the time each day to notice something new about our drive to work or the change in the colour of the sun bouncing off buildings, your everyday world can become infinitely more interesting and less like being stuck in one place. Make every day a discovery.