VIETNAM
I arrived at midnight to a quiet, calm Hanoi and awakened the next morning to chaos. Streets overrun with motorbikes (which made crossing the street a death defying act), the never ending sound of horns plucking at every nerve and merchants demanding your attention every 5 seconds as you maneuver your way through the cluttered sidewalks.
It was day one of my 7 week tour throughout SE Asia and 9 strangers were about to enter my life, 6 of whom would be there for the next 47 days....Russ (our tour leader), Kelly, Kym, John, Dotty and Sharna. Three others...Mary, Trish and James travelled with us for a short time, making the total 10 including me. Several new faces would come and go during the remainder of our tour adding to the memories of our adventure.
Four hours outside the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, we enjoyed a serene 2 days floating amongst the towering limestone islands that rise from Halong Bay. Twenty million years in the making, these monolithic towers took our breath away. One in particular, Bo Hon Island, was home to an enormous cave called Sung Sot Cave. We climbed 50 stone steps and inside we found a cavern large enough to hold thousands of people. We spent over an hour wandering amongst the many tourists enjoying the beauty of this caves stalagmites and stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
It was a wonderful two days as we drifted along enjoying beautiful scenery, delicious meals and the company of 9 people who were quickly becoming friends as we laughed the evening away during a charades game John and Kym introduced us to.
All in all, I visited 65 cities in 13 countries!
I guess I had it in my mind that it was much taller. I remember seeing it from a distance back in 2008 and it looked much taller at that time. Still, it was interesting to see it and we got silly like all the other tourists and
took those typical pictures where you hold your hand up as if to stop it from toppling over.
once the day was over we went back to the car, but not before stopping and buying a couple of fake Prada purses!
we ended up in La Spezia.
We stopped at a restaurant half way through the walk and enjoyed a lovely meal before moving on to the town. It was exactly what I had imagined!
Once we returned to Portovenere, we left for Pisa and spent the evening there.
I took Philip and his son to my favourite shop there where the owner makes custom Venetian masks. I fell in love with one 3 years ago and never bought it because it was quite expensive but I swore if I ever came back I would buy one and I did! It's absolutely stunning...way out of my budget but I'm sure I will enjoy seeing it hang on my wall for years to come.
It worked! She was covered in them!
In the afternoon we boarded a ferry and made our way to Murano too see some glass making factories. Turns out they aren't open in the summer.
Most of the glass making is done in the winter during the low season to sell in the high season of summer.
We picked the smallest and the cheapest but there was no room for all of our luggage so had to move up to the next size which still was quite a tight fit for all 3 suitcases but we managed to make it work. 
It's such a beautiful place and we drove through some of the small towns before arriving in Sorrento where we had a late dinner and tried to figure out where we should stay for the night. After a couple of stops, we found a hotel with an available room. It was 10 at night and we were lucky to actually found one during the height of their season. This is what happens when you don't plan out your trip but I love not knowing what I'm doing from one day to the next but wasn't so sure Philip and Tristan liked travelling this way. It might be stressful to the average person.
Today, the 5th, we drove around the Amalfi Coast visiting such towns as Portofino, Amalfi and Ravello. I just love this coastline with all the homes built up on the sides of the mountain.
We stopped and took pictures of the beautiful scenery before deciding to follow a tourist bus and see where it takes us. Well, it took us up a mountain and across it and down it to the other side. What a beautiful drive. I felt like I was in some lush tropical forest. It was so green and so lush and beautiful. 
We only visited the outside for today. It was a nice, hot sunny day and the guys were in awe of how beautiful it was.
Absolutley stunning church!
It's a popular place and filled with lots of tourists but I managed to get some good photos despite that.
It really doesn't look like much from the outside, except maybe the columns, and I'm sure Philip and his son Tristan were wondering why I was making a big deal of the place....but once you enter the Pantheon it takes your breath away.
It's quite an architectural feat, considering it was built 2000 years ago, long before modern machinery.
I still remember the first time I saw it. It was breathtaking and I knew he would be taken aback by it also. We turned that corner and I'm sure I heard him gasp at it's beauty. We spend some time there checking it out. A lot of it was closed to the public but we still enjoyed it just the same. The pic just doesn't do it justice, in person it's quite beautiful.
Here I am with one of the guards.
Even though I have seen it before, I was still in awe of it. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the area and taking lots of pictures.
It was a long way out but an interesting trip. At one time there were 5000 people buried under this church and we paid to take a tour of this. The catacombs were quite interesting but we weren't allowed to take pictures and of course I did. I just can't visit a place and not take pictures. 
I managed to sneak a couple in but because it was very poorly lit, only one turned out halfway decent. We then spent some time in the church above and on the grounds before returning to our hotel.
Along the way we stopped to visit many ruins and a couple of churches before arriving at the base of the area where Acropolis is. It was quite a hike and quite a bit of work to find it as we came in from a different angle than I did last time I was here, so I wasn't exactly sure where we were going. Eventually we made it the the stairs which take us up to the Acropolis. 
It was another hot day, just like all the days have been during our visit to Greece and I think it was especially hot in the Acropolis. I'm guessing it hit 40 degrees up there. We spent a lot of time wandering the area and taking in its beauty. 
At one point the heat was getting to me and I took shelter in some shade I found. My face was beat red and I'm sure if I had of stayed in the sun much longer, heat stroke would have started to set in. 
After a needed rest in the shade, and a lot of liquids, I was ready to get back to my touring the site.
There were only 14 of the 104 columns left but it was still nice to see.
It turns out this wasn't such a great idea, at least not to the female guard who came running to us, waving her hands and telling us we are NOT ALLOWED to put on the helmut and take pictures. Since I'm not one for following rules, (hence all the photos I took inside castles when I wasn't allowed to) we just snuck around to the other side and quickly took some pics while she wasn't looking.
