There weren’t actually any goats, although if you want to assume I’m talking about my brother, that works too.

There weren’t any notes either, I just wanted something to rhyme with boat.

Yeah…

Anyway- the day after whatever day I left off at, involved a boat; some of our friends had a 36 foot monohull, that we took through Sydney harbour, inspecting expensive houses and monuments:

We went out of the heads for about 30 seconds, turned around and came back to eat lunch.

Fast forward to Christmas, because that’s the only significant event I can remember, and while I expect no one wants me to simply state all of my presents I do have to thank and comment on my present from my Nana- tickets to see the ATP (association of tennis professionals) cup.

We ate lunch at the apartment we are staying in, cooking tasty ham and…

More ham I suppose.

On Boxing Day we went on a long walk, known as the Bondi to Manly walk- we didn’t do the entire thing of course, but did a portion- 15 kilometres, joined by Liam, our Irish cousin we met on the other side of he globe in Sicily.

It’s been quite smoky lately, courtesy of the fires raging around the state, we didn’t notice it in Brisbane, partially because we experienced some particularly heavily rain that resulted in the downfall😅 of our street.

However, when driving to Sydney, we drove past acres and acres of burnt out forest and even what may have been the start of another- a burning car that was slowing spreading to the dry grass along the side of the road…

Tasty food, great scenery, and lots of activities, all for the price of about 5!

Suffice to say it’s rather expensive.

Could just be Italy…

I’m still not completely used to reality yet…

But the differences in prices are probably why Sydney looks like this:

And Italy looks like this:

Possibly not the best photo meant to denote the wealth of the Italians, but their economy really is just dying, so you get my point.

We drove here, our plane budget being somewhat depleted, but since we live in Brisbane, it was a relatively easy trip, as we took it slowly over a few days. We stopped at a few, relatively uninteresting hotels- that being said, one had a tennis court, which automatically gives it another one or two stars in my opinion.

Since the main point of this trip was to visit family, we are currently staying in an apartment adjacent to my Nana.

She is a very smart person.

Because she follows this blog.

Like you should if you aren’t already.

I strongly to desire to gain more followers than my brother.

On a completely relevant note I had some very tasty pork ribs that night.

Nearly as good as the lunch I had the day after, cooked my my other grandmother, whom I call ‘Tutu,’ as she is Hawaiian, which included beef, chicken, rice, and an excellent (let it be known that this has been and will ever be the only time I have used such a word to describe such a food:) salad!

Also the first time in history that I have willingly eaten salad for seconds too, and seeing as I eat seconds from almost all available meals, this is no small feat.

It was somehow moulded in to a jelly, actually containing lime jelly, as well as pineapple, cheese, and of course, salad, and it somehow worked, and it was delicious.

Now let’s finish on a high note

Coming next time: I’m not sure yet…

A working anchor, an idyllic beach, and a beach ping pong game- I now redirect you to the title because I don’t like repetition…

The two bays between Bastia and Porto Veccio were both like that, and I filled my hours with much swimming and running after Kians miss-hits.

Porto Veccio was very crowded, had dodgy wifi, and great sights.

It is one of the major town in Corsica, so naturally, we rented a car and drove as far away as possible.

Cue the rest of the drive

And cue the next few nights

(Because I’m doing this blog over a 3 week time span- I can’t remember that far🤨)

Would you look at that we’re back in Bonifacio!

It’s Kians birthday, still can’t really remember that far, but I got him a Corsican multitool and a Porsche…

(He probably wants me to mention that it was a model he had to build and paint himself just so I don’t seem like that amazing of a brother)

But I am.

So there!

There were several nights in between Bonifacio and the start and end city- Propriano, and we had to make use of them.

We swam, swung, and ate lots of food, blissfully, until we sailed nostalgically, back in to the marina.

As in the peninsula at the top of Corsica (duh, what did you think I meant…)

We decided to make good use of the wifi in Saint Florent, staying up late while my parents watched polyphonic choruses and stuff (by the way, I received multiple, save me messages from my Dad during it)

We went on a long dingy ride up the river for a while and looked at boats, and spent most of the rest of the day relaxing…

Luckily, the faulty wind dissipated while we were there, so we had a nice peaceful trip around the peninsula, staying a night at a town called Centuri, which smelled like sulphur, and ate a pretty average skewer (which wouldn’t have been average before this holiday).

We left Centuri for a large town called Bastia (where we first arrived in Corsica), the following day.

Or the water is rising, both seem rather appropriate- unfortunately.

I left off in Calvi, however most of my memories of the place were abandoned at the chaos that followed…

We rented a car, at least, and ventured up to the mountains, through a few little villages, and ate food.

I didn’t get much sleep that night. There was a wooden boat next door (or boat), and for some reason a lot of current was getting in the marina to it was being tossed very loudly everywhere.

By the morning the boat had two snapped ropes and a broken cleat!

We left the marina to a storm, although we couldn’t see it over the wall, it seemed that outside was rather rough. Not to bad at first, but after a bit, we had to put another reef in the sail…

I was stuck driving, because the self-proclaimed second best (Kian), was to scared to come out.

We had to turn directly upwind while doing it, we needed life jackets and to clip on to the boat, and we needed to get the reef on lest risking the mast falling down. So I had to drive upwind (in the opposite direction to our destination) in 6m waves and 35knot winds. The boat rocked to much, at one moment, the first metre of the boat was completely submerged, and in others, at a 65 degree angle pointing up…

Some of the roofs even fell down with the repetitive impact of hitting waves (hence the title).

By the way- we all lived, and we were richly rewarded with good wifi when we reached the next place; Saint Florent (pronounced: san floran).

Along the coast, we found this cute little bay filled with mooring buoys, where we stayed for two nights.

This was the type of place where there’s 8 restaurants for every 10 buildings, and those restaurants regularly had cows walking through them…

Pretty big tourist attraction for something that’s surrounded on three sides by mountains and one by water.

Naturally, though, we attempted to scale these mountains.

I think my Dad said ‘ok, we’re just about at the top’ five times before we arrived. We kept getting to the top of one peak, seeing another, and going after that…

The walk down was also pretty long, along the road and a further path.

All in all, about 16 kilometres.

The wind was starting to pick up in the next few days, in one anchorage, by miracle the anchor went in first try, and we trespassed visited (technically no one owned them), some ruins of a mine, and I climbed this tall tower. There were ladders in this one, although no one wanted to guess the age…

Now we’re in this place called Calvi

As soon as we arrive in Corsica, we see clouds- something I haven’t seen in any quantity for months.

After two days in calm anchorages, we arrived in the capital of Corsica (again), Ajaccio.

We only stayed one night, it was confusing, because every sort of adaptor for power and water is completely different, at least the quality of paths is a lot better.

In the harbour, we encountered a world famous boat, the Maltese Falcon, by miracle, and took lots of photos.

It uses square sails, but the mast actually rotates for ideal wind!

The next morning (I had to use something other than the next day), we picked up a few of our friends from Singapore, who moved to Switzerland when we left for Australia, and left with them.

I’d originally made plans to hide up the mast because my parents were planning to embarrass us, but before Ajaccio I hurt my toe and couldn’t.

I managed to swim though, and we spent most of our days swinging, playing chess, and just talking.

With them, we climbed up a few towers and lighthouses (even with the French quality of paths we still managed to end up in the middle of a bunch of bushes and spiky plants while climbing up to a tower.

The French towers are a lot better maintained, so I felt more comfortable climbing up the wall and in to the tower even if no one else could.

After dropping them back off in some other bay (I had to wake up at 5, but I went back to sleep), we left there and proceeded on along Corsica.