Grumpy old people.

Okay before I start, I realise this may seem a bit of a lame thing to blog about but this is something that seriously gets to me, and I really don’t understand it at all. This most definitely isn’t a hate on adults, nor am I having a whinge about not being accepted; I’m just saying that it’s unjust and really silly.

 

K cool I’ll start now.

 

So I can make assumptions about why it is, but I don’t really know much about why a lot of older people will look at me and my friends, or other groups of people my age and immediately assume that we’re all a bunch of reckless, disrespectful teenagers who don’t give, a toss about anything… but all I know is that no matter who they are, or what age a person is, I will always give them the time of day and try to treat them with the most respect that I can. I’m always up for a conversation with anyone given that the topic is friendly and/or interesting… it’s either that or I instantly assume that they are boring and bitter just because they’re ‘old’. What? Since when did age suggest you’re boring and bitter? I certainly hope I won’t be. None of the adults in my family are. Why should you be? I can’t understand why one would fill their life with all that anger. Why? Aren’t we taught to not judge books by their covers? Pretty sure we are. It’s quite hypocritical actually because we’re constantly being reminded of these ‘lessons’ from when we were younger but then these older people just completely let it pass them by.

 

Now here’s a photo of my beautiful mapinga (Rotuman for grandma). She’s so lovely, she doesn’t hold any of these assumptions about my friends and I. She’s always up for a chat and a laugh with us… Awww I miss her 🙂 Won’t see her until January!

 

 

K bye guuuuuuys thanks for listening xo

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Ibiza: All day, and all night.

Okaaaay so I haven’t written my aforementioned “Italy and its Beautiful Everything” blog yet… or anything on England  but I’m under strict instructions to write about Ibiza “before the buzz wears off” or before I sleep. Well, I haven’t slept yet and the buzz is nowhere near gone so here we go. Today has been a long day of transit from Ibiza to Valencia after what has quite literally a week of no sleep. I’m really tired and I might employ a large amount of fowl language as a result (perhaps it will add to the authenticity of the blog post) but if you’re a family member or friend who has preconceived me to be some angel who never swears it’s probably best you stop reading now, I’d prefer you to think that of me, so yeah please stop if you like good girl Marley.

 

 

……………..

 

 

Gone? Aight.

 

I am, so delirious.. Enjoy!

 

 

Day 1:

 

We arrived by ferry from Mallorca at 11 am and spent quite an amount of time looking for our hotel near the port only to realise that it was over the mountain and we had to catch a taxi. The directions we had didn’t detail terrain. That was a great start. It was really hot. We finally got to the hotel and it was seriously, right on the beach. Luscious. Yeah. The apartment was really nice. Quite spacious and we had a balcony that overlooked the pool and a view of the ocean. Check it!

 

 

Livin’ it? Yeah, kinda… It was pretty luscious. I’m averaging about 5 euros a day on food to pay for nice beds. Mind you I barely gave the apartment the time of day because I just wanted to be on the beach, the water looked, and was, so beautiful! I’ve embraced the ‘European’ swimming costume. Yay! Tits out for the boys! … No. No. No no… none of that. Absolutely nothing to do with that.. I’m part islander so I’m naturally quite tanned and since I don’t go topless at beaches in Australia, the girls don’t get much sun… I’m sick of having fluorescent boobs basically and I thought Ibiza seemed an appropriate place to begin the decrease in the comparative colour scheme of my tan. They’re still really white. Yeah…

 

Kay anyway drinking time! Millie and I bought a few red bulls, 1 litre of white rum for 4 euros, a litre of sangria for 2 euros (don’t ever do that, ever) and some pineapple juice to start the night! Aaaat 4 pm. We had another 9 hours until we intended to get to the club. 9 hours of drinking is never a bad idea and always fun, right? Right. Right… Um well yes when you’re in Ibiza. Kay the club! We decided to go to Space as it was the cheaper of the super popular clubs to go to (€35 entry fee)… it was really fun, the DJs got better as the morning (it was the AM after all) continued. There were all these fancy dressed dancers on stilts and at one point a sheet was pulled over the whole crowd so we were all sort of in this cubby house dance room tent thing… and the dry ice machines! They filled the room frequently… That was pretty cool. Okay so at about 4:30 am our little group split in half, Ricky and I stayed on dancing until closing (6 am) and the others went to sleep. The stumble home was interesting. All the cruise ships in the port were lit up and looked really beautiful against the lightening sky… and when we’d walk passed them, we realised that bushes were being utilised as early morning post-club-pick-up bedrooms.

 

Let’s pretend that sunrise marks the end of day 1 and the start of day 2… even though no sleep had been had.

 

 

Day 2:

 

Well Marley thought it’d be a nice idea to watch the sunrise. Turns out it most definitely was. It was beautiful. I found myself a nice little place to sit at the end of some rocks coming out from the beach. A lady and her two dogs walked to where I was also and she asked me in Spanish if I spoke Spanish… I said I didn’t, but it didn’t matter to her. She shrugged her shoulders, said something that I’m assuming was along the lines of “Oh, that’s okay” and she sat down on a rock next to me, lit up a cigarette and watched the sunrise with me. It was really nice actually. It didn’t matter that we didn’t speak the same language, we were both there just to watch the sunrise and it was nice to share it with someone I guess. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Here’s a nice little photo I took of her and her puppies:

 

 

For the rest of the day I just lazed on the beach. It was pretty great. Then in the evening Millie and I went on a dinner date and watched the season finale of Offspring BEST EPISODE EVER OMG I cried so much. We had decided that because of our exhaustion and budget that we wouldn’t go clubbing this night (…worst idea ever) so we went out and bought snacks and planned to watch “Despicable Me”… buuuuut then we bumped into an Aussie named Rob who insisted we went and drank with him and his mates Chris and Mark. So we did, and after a few laughs and much effort they succeeded in convincing us to go to the club Amnesia for €45 to see Above and Beyond do a set…good job sleeping and not spending money, Marley… anyway it was very much worth it. Did I mention I still hadn’t slept? I was running on my 40th hour by this point. Who’s a tank? Marley’s a tank. This club was ridiculous. That’s the only word I have for it. It was huge. It was as if someone had gutted a factory and then turned it into a party building. I thought the night before was pretty neat… This was just stupidly amazing. Just… look at it:

 

 

Yeah… and by the time we left Amnesia I had been awake for a solid 50 hours… and for a short vegan… it was a bit… well… stupid.

 

I’ll be healthy next… year.

 

Sorry mum… sorry dad. But let’s be honest here, I’m an angel compared to you guys in your teens. Don’t try to deny it… Love you…

 

 

Day 3:

 

On 2 hours sleep, checked out. Beach. 30 minute taxi to the port, 5 hour ferry to Denia, 3 hour bus to Valencia, 1 hour walk to find our hostel.

 

It was really funny walking around the ferry, everyone on it was so out of it. There were people sleeping everywhere! ❤ Ibiza. People just can’t handle no sleep like I can.

 

Alright now you know how much fun I had and how much my body hates me. I’d like to think you had a few laughs throughout, but statistics prove that I’m not actually that funny and I’m guessing that a lot of you stopped reading this about 8 paragraphs ago… in which case I’m talking to no one…

 

Awwww yay I didn’t use any fowl language! Okay I NEED TO SLEEP. MY GOD. GOODNIGHT.

 

OH WAIT! Before I forget, Nicole bought me a pair of underwear… because i’m collecting underwear… y’know, instead magnets, tea towels and tee-shirts from places I visit… Check out my Ibiza ones!!! I don’t think you guys will be able to handle this jelly.

 

 

Sorry it’s backwards I don’t know how to fix that and I’m too tired to try and work it out. And you can’t see the heart! It’s meant to say “I ❤ this fucking island”.

 

Yep. That just happened. Marley’s underwear is on the internet now. Please don’t judge me. While we’re here though, these are my Spain ones, I bought them in Barcelona right after Spain thrashed Italy in the Euro 2012 Final:

 

 

Yeah… Kay bye!

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Costa Favolosa!

My friends and I booked an overnight ferry to Mallorca from Valencia, we were getting ready for a pretty uncomfortable night and not expecting to sleep at all. We were so wrong. Turned out, we had our own cabin with actual beds in it, a nice little window looking out to sea and our own bathroom. It was pretty great. We’d been roughing it for quite some time. Also, upon boarding we found out that there was a dance party on the top deck. Open air, floating night club? Yes please. So we toddled on down to the duty free store and bought some (revolting) €5.60 wine that had no brand name to get started. It was… so much fun, and so far from what we expected. Still didn’t get any sleep, that bit was expected. But we’ve all day to rest up before hittin’ up Tito’s. So, yes,  the purpose of this post is to talk about a cruise I went on about two months ago. The ferry reminded me of it…

 

Okay! Here we go.

 

My mum and I went on a cruise with Costa (and LOL no it did not sink. Assholes. Stop trying to freak me out). It was pretty incredible. Not going to lie. Details? Details…

 

With no idea what to expect of the week we boarded the Costa Favolosa in Venice early so we could get settled in, have a few drinks and chill out before departure. The ship was so decadent, it was unbelievable. A little over the top actually, it had a bit of a 70’s disco vibe… everywhere. Nonetheless it was still beautiful and the over-the-top decoration made it all that much more fun. Oh! Just quickly. Have to talk about the drinks deal that was basically irresistible: €20 a day for unlimited drinks. We were all over that, I mean… when on the Costa Favolosa? Right? Absolutely going to take advantage of the booklet of yummy cocktails. Let’s play favourites! My favourites were the Black Russian (that’s um… well, extremely potent) and Between The Sheets. So yummy. Actually, haha, brief detour. My friend Toby was learning how to make cocktails last month and I excitedly asked him to learn how to make a Between The Sheets. A quick video tutorial revealed that it is made up of triple sec, brandy, rum and a squeeze of lemon juice. Tobes said, “Mm, no wonder it’s your favourite drink” and then followed the sheer realisation that I’m too good at drinking alcohol and I should stop before I damage something.. BUT GUYS, €20 a day for unlimited cocktails… for a week. Mate. Yes please.

 

… Back on track.

 

After checking the ship out,we unpacked, ‘freshened up’, and went to start taking advantage of our unlimited drinks deal. Aaaaaand then at about 5 pm, after a few cocktails, we found out that we had to attend the emergency drill run though. Before I explain what happened at the drill, I should explain first that mum and I get the giggles often and pretty much anything can set us off. When it starts, it really just doesn’t stop. Okay so mum didn’t want to go to the drill and kept whinging about having to attend this drill and trying to reason with me why she shouldn’t have to attend, and I’d be telling her to “be quiet and listen, people are staring”. Mum and I are a little bit like Eddie and Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous. I’m always trying to keep her ‘in line’ (even though I don’t really need to, love you mum) and I tell my family off for drinking too much and smoking. Ergo, I’m Saffy. Mum’s episode of complaining re-enforced her similarities with Eddie and it set me off. I couldn’t stop laughing. If you’re familiar with us or at least Absolutely Fabulous you should probably be able to understand where this giggle fit came from.

 

So here we are, looking like turtles with these HUMONGOUS life jackets on, a little drunk, surrounded by many other passengers and being instructed on what to do if the bloody ship starts to sink (in like, 7 different languages might I add) and trying immensely to hold our laughter in. What happens when you’ve got the giggles and you’re not meant to? You laugh more. Yeah. Okay so everyone was ordered in rows of four according to height, I’m a short ass so I was second in line behind a particularly short woman and my mum was behind me. A crew member was standing every say, seven rows of people, showing us what to do in the case of emergency. There was one action in particular that by the 6th time made the lady in front of me start laughing –  a wave motion with your hand (like a wave in water) and then… errrrm imagine making a firework with your hand. Now by this point, mum and I had composed ourselves and had stopped laughing so much. But when the lady in front of me laughed just a little, we absolutely lost it again couldn’t stop. There was just no hope. The laughter was not going away now. We ended up distracting the crew member in front of us… and he started laughing too. Attempting to keep a straight face, he shook his head disapprovingly at me, trying to get me to shut up… I tried… to compose myself. It didn’t work. So I lifted my shoulders and tried to hide my face inside the huge mammoth life jacket I was wearing. Little did I realise that because I was laughing so much my life jacket was ‘trembling’ and it was even more obvious. I felt pretty bad actually the crew member (I should probably put a name to the character. His name is Mattia.) we distracted probably could have gotten into some sort of trouble for joking around when explaining what to do in order to stay alive if the ship is sinking. Oops. But it’s okay we made friends with him later, see… laughter is friendly! Not at all potentially life threatening…  Nope.

 

Y’all just got about two paragraphs of laughter detail. I hope you enjoyed that.

 

We went and relaxed by the pool and had a couple more cocktails as the ship sailed out of Venice. Dinner! Everyone on the ship were assigned an eating time and place which is where and when we’d have dinner every night. We got to dins early and it turned out we’d been seated with an Aussie family! Alison and Bill and their two daughters Ariel and Brandi-Chanel who are 11 and 13, (their nickname as a family is ABBA). We became quite close with them and I spent a lot of time with the girls, they were really lovely and a lot of fun. I enjoyed being a kid again (and by ‘again’ I mean the first time in about 2 months – nannying is my primary job in Australia so I spend a lot of time with kids, like, 6 days a week. And haha, being 19 years old really means nothing anyway). Meeting people while travelling is quite possibly the best aspect of it all. I saw ABBA (remember, not the band) again in Barcelona and that was so so lovely. Sometimes you just come across people who really leave their mark and you become so close. I made quite a few friends on the ship, and some that I will see again at some point this year throughout Europe which is so lovely.

 

Here’s a cute little photo of our dinner table and our waiters, we all had a few laughs.

 

 

I spent so long describing our first afternoon because it really set the tone of the entire week. So much laughter. Most days i went to a yoga or meditation class, so great! I ended up making friends with the instructor, Tania, who was also another lovely person I met. Ah, man! So many lovely people. I really use that work too often. I guess I just… I just love everything. We met lots of friendly, interesting people and saw so many incredible places! The ship docked in Katakolon (Greece), Izmir & Istanbul (Turkey) and Dubrovnik (Croatia). Istanbul was definitely my favourite. Izmir close up behind! Turkey’s unlike anywhere I’ve visited. I can’t quite explain why but there was quite a vibe, and a very rich culture. Unfortunately I felt like Dubrovnik was literally just a tourist town and, even though it was absolutely beautiful, I found it hard to really feel much of a culture there. Every single store had a sign outside that read ‘Good souvenirs to take home’. Every store. It was nuts. It was a shame really. I had the same vibe in Katakolon to be totally honest… that might’ve had something to do with the fact that there were some protests going on and we couldn’t visit Olympia. Again, also a shame… but hey, I can say I’ve been to Greece and Croatia now. And they were both really beautiful, they were, just not extremely raw I guess. I’d still love to visit both properly, and actually see the countries… But that’s for another trip. The main experience of the week was the ship. Every night was themed, there were shows, dance lessons, organised events and the best part was that most people actually got involved and embraced the fun on the ship. Plenty of different bars to try out, a nightclub… a huge theatre, a casino, a 4D cinema, a gym, a water slide. Yes, a water slide. I think there were about 4 pools and plenty of spas… And so much more. A floating microcosm with something for everyone. Being under the stars, surrounded by the ocean each night was just amazing. 7 nights wasn’t enough really… but still it felt like so much longer than it actually was.

 

Errrrm yes that was, I’m sure, the longest post I’ve ever written. Well done if you made it this far! Here’s a photo of the  ship:

 

 

Ridiculous, right? Here’s the sunset:

 

 

Beautiful, right? Here’s what I did everyday:

 

 

Hate me now? Yeah… I guess i should stop. Kay bye!

 

But just quickly… Hahaaaaaaaaaa ❤

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ciao! xo

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Reading that makes your knees weak.

This is a little excerpt from Rilke’s “Requiem For A Friend”. A close friend of mine read it to me a while ago, I think it’s worth sharing.

I like it a lot.

Enjoy.

 

“For this is wrong, if anything is wrong:
Not to enlarge the freedom of a love
With all the inner freedom one can summon.
We need, in love, to practice only this;
Letting each other go.
For holding on comes easily;
We do not need to learn it.”

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What I don’t understand about airports. Or rather, the people in them.

Two things.

Firstly, the way some women get all doll’d up for long flights. Mate. By the time you get off that 10+ hour flight, your hair is not going to look like it did when you made it all pretty. And even though it’s caked on, your make up will be gone. Sorry. Also. Your mini dress is completely impractical (all the time).  And your platform stiletto heels are stupid.. on a plane.  No one has balance at the best of times with no shoes on a flight. AND ALSO, YOUR PERFUME, has no place on this plane. Lady, we’re in a confined space. Nobody, really, wants to be inhaling your Brittany Spears CircusFantasyNo.5 for hours upon hours. No. Lay off the 10 squirts of perfume. Please. Just… please.

The second thing that I don’t understand is why everyone gets up super quickly as soon someone stands up at the boarding gate… and then stand in line for 45 minutes. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. Dude. No matter what we’re all still going to be leaving at the same time. You racing to the front of the line is pointless. The only difference is that you’ll be sitting, waiting in a plane as opposed to at the gate. Okay so right now I’m sitting in Fiumicino Airport in Rome waiting to board. About 30 minutes ago everyone stood up, and the line has moved about a metre, at most. All the while I’ve been sitting here thinking, and typing this entry… and they’ve all just been standing still. They’re all stressed out and complaining about the time. I don’t understand it – if you get up and you’re the last in line. Sit the fuck down. Wait for everyone else to get on the plane, or at least for the line to become very, very small, and then get up. No difference to the departure time will be made. You’ll still be on the plane at the same time as you would have been if you stood in line for 45 minutes. Chill out man. Stop being so impatient I will slap you! Damn.

Okie I’m done, I put an un-related pretty picture at the beginning in an attempt to lessen the bitterness of this post, it’s of Mt. Vesuvias from Sorrento, Italy. Here’s another one, this one was taken at sunrise in Venice, Italy.

Next travel blog will be all about Italy and its beautiful… everything. Ciao!

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India, sort of… finally.

I’ve been struggling to write about my experience of India, as I find that it is an immensely diverse and culturally rich country… and to put it all into words just feels next to impossible for me.

It’s as if, while in India, I’d been split in half and each of these halves are battling the other on whether or not India is a place where you really want to be. My appreciation of the bright and colourful culture of India was tainted by the boasting poverty and pollution. I was divided into two halves, each just as significant as the other.

The first half – the more, I suppose, realistic or even negative half of me – was paying keen attention to the disparity among the wealth – the rich gangster types in their AU$200,000 Audi 4WDs cruising leisurely passed the animal cruelty and poverty; Camels with nose piercings and the graphic road side slaughtering of caged hens and women asleep on the sidewalk cradling their babies. I was tugged at and begged for money by children as young as four in the middle of the night, in fact, if we walked past children and they didn’t beg us for money, their mothers would yell at them until they did… Then there is the rubbish. There is rubbish everywhere. I met a girl in Rishikesh, her name’s Kesa, and we spoke about how even though we ourselves put our rubbish in the bin we can’t guarantee it will actually be taken care of properly. For instance, the cleaner from the hotel I stayed at in Rishikesh emptied the contents of the bin from my room onto the hill beneath our room, which leads down into the Ganga. Which is, quite uniquely, crystal clear there, as it is right beneath the source. It was quite sad to see really, and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, because the Ganga is so scared to, and loved by, the locals of most India… yet its surroundings aren’t being properly looked after, or kept clean. In Varanasi, the Ganga is filthy… so polluted, it was crazy. I loved Varanasi, it was such an incredible place to visit, but I  really hope that the Ganga in Rishikesh stays as beautiful and clear as it is now… and never ends up like it is in Varanasi.

Now, the more romantic, positive half! So much colour! So much love and spirit. What I love the most about India was how strong and rich the culture is. I felt that in a lot of waysThe beauty, the bright colours, the friendliness. Honestly I cannot put it into words. So I’ll cop out on this one, and try something new.

So, here are some photographs that we took in India, I’ll add more if I feel it fit, and I might take some down if I feel like it. In any case, hopefully these photos can offer some sort of insight into how much I loved India for its colour, culture, beauty and diversity. India totally different from any other place I’ve so far visited. This inner conflict, in a way, made it all so much more interesting. For good and bad reasons… it was confusing, but it was exciting… and it was aggravating, but it was so enlightening. This visit really set me up for the rest of my travels, helped me gain a lot of perspective… and in some way, realise my place in the world. How lucky I am to be travelling, and how exciting the world really is.

Aight photo time!

Aaaaand I miss my mum…

I hope all this nonsense… sort of… makes sense. Okay bye!

Marley xo

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