Europe Trip: Viareggio & Pisa

Although we had our own toilet, sink & kitchen - we still had a shared bathroom (shower). We were given 4 tokens for the 2 of us for 2 days, that means 1 each per day. We got into these tiny cubicles and pushed the token into a little meter box - the water came surging out, and after about 1 minute (as soon as I put the soap all over my body) the water cut out!! The shower was over!

Today is our `weekend' of this holiday--we had a really relaxing day, just taking our time without rushing to any tourist sights. We had a nice walk on the Italian beach in the morning - not very clean and felt quite coarse compared to Australian beaches and there were no sanitary facilities such as showers, toilets or even a tap to rinse off the sand from your feet. But, there was a beauty to it that you don't get in Australia, and that is the mountains in the background. The whole back drop to these beaches is a beautiful snow capped mountain range that towers over the coast.

But there were a lot of private beaches with chairs and tables all lined up and fenced off - that must be a typical resort to Italian people. These fenced off private beaches have all their own facilities including showers etc and they have table service out to the chairs on the beach - but all that comes at a price! The water was very nice and clear - looked good enough to swim in - but Brad was disappointed that there was no surf.

Then we took a drive to the nearby resort town of Viareggio (which we promptly nicknamed Viagra!!).  It was a pretty cute town with very few overseas tourist - it was very much an Italian seaside resort town. We had a wander around the huge street clothing market they have on Thursdays - stalls everywhere, trucks full of stuff, people bartering - it was great. I bought a beautiful silk scarf (white) and a blue & white sun hat. Brad was more interested in the trucks that carried and displayed all the clothes, they had these really cool roofs that were completed automated. Press a button and the whole stall unfolded from the roof of the van giving a canopy for protection for the wind and rain, and also walls, shelves, places to display merchandise etc - very cool.

After lunch of crepes and pizza we drove back into Pisa and found a lot more tourists there than we had seen the evening before. I found out of all the tourists group, the Chinese ones were the most different. Groups from most nationalities were made mostly of oldies (50+) retirees etc. Chinese groups were made up mostly of men aged under 40. I guess there are number of reasons for this phenomena, 1) older people in China have not been exposed to the Western Culture too much, therefore they know too little and are not too interested anyway. 2) people who are on a business trip often have a little bit of free time and pop into a tourist place for `happy snaps'. These Chinese men are usually in suits and really look different to the average tourist in their relaxed, comfortable clothes. 3) ordinary Chinese are still quite poor compared to their western counter parts and they cannot afford to have a holiday in Europe which is such an expensive place - group tours are often more cost effective.

As we drove back to the campsite I enjoyed playing spot the hookers on the side of the highway - they all stood off the side of the road in the shade in their provocative short skirts and revealing tops. They all had a scooter or car parked by their space. Each one had their own territory - I wonder if they had to lease it from someone?

That night was Brads turn to cook. He did a stir fry beef and mushrooms, and we drank the local wine they had given us at check it, it was a pretty good cab sav, we drank it all and fell deep asleep.

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