Okay, here's the holiday photos. This will be half-narration and half-photos, just because I feel like it. Photos with random commentary, and commentary with random photos. *shrug*
Starting from the Friday before we left, because there's a couple of "ph34r teh cuteness" photos I have to show you... we went to take our kittens to one of my cousins' place, because they're still too small to sleep outside alone and no neighbours could take care of them. It was the place we got them from in the first place, so no risks they ran away. While there, we were told that another of my cousin's cats (lots of cats there) had just had kittens two days earlier. Therefore, I present to you two-day-old kittens with their mom and without their mom. You may go "aww" now. ;)
The next day, Saturday, we left home really early (5am, after waking up at 4am). Keep in mind that my parents and brother were in bed by 10pm or so at the latest, and I got to sleep well after midnight. Guess who was the less sleepy person at the end of the day? *raises hand and grins* It all has to do with my ability to sleep in just about every situation, provided that I have a semi-confortable place to sit. Therefore, I slept through most of the car trip (until 10am or so), while my parents were keeping themselves awake with coffee and the smell of coffee was keeping my brother awake (sigh. 16 and already a coffee addict. where's the world going?).
Anyway. We got to Elba earlier than we were supposed to, because there was no traffic at all (\o/) so we got to the port earlier than we'd expected (\o/) so we were able to take an earlier ferryboat.
We even had time to visit an ancient Etruscan necropolis before taking the ferryboat. So, you can have a look at the outside of an Etruscan tomb, the inside of said tomb (looking outwards), the inside of another (different) tomb, and the entrance corridor to said different tomb (if it looks small, it's because it was small - you had to crawl to get through).
One curiosity: each tomb, when it was found, was buried under literally tons of Etruscan "industrial refuse", bits and pieces of iron that the Etruscans weren't able to melt. You can find them all over the Etruscan necropolis and all over Elba. (Maybe all ancient people should've done that. Instant souvenirs, and no need to steal stones from old buildings and the like!)
Elba has been an iron mining place for ages, too. There's even a place called "Punta Calamita" (Magnet Point) because of all the iron that could be found there. (The photo's an old mining complex you can see from the sea.)
Elba as a whole is rather beautiful. The place we were staying at was really beautiful (here's two shots of the place, an old well and an arch with flowers)... we had the beach practically on our doorstep, and we did basically nothing but stay on the beach. (Who knew that being lazy and doing absolutely nothing all day could be so relaxing? Heh.) Oh, and we had cats to cuddle, too. You see, there were two cats there (one female, one male) who, not being stupid, decided that cuddling up to tourists and getting hugged and fed by them was not a bad way to make a living. ;)
So... this was the horizon of our holiday. ;)
We went swimming and stuff too, long walks on the beach, took photos, picked up pretty pebbles and those rounded glass fragments you can find on beaches. In the evenings, we went to the pizza place next to the seaside, where there was "entertainment" (if you call loud music entertainment). A couple evenings there was "live music" - three guys singing on top of MIDIs and pretending to play their instruments. They weren't bad singers though. And of course my mom went and convinced them to let me sing a few songs... ¬¬ notably, "My heart will go on" by Celine Dion. Which I hadn't heard in years, let alone ever sung... but I'm told I did decently. Meh.
But anyway...
Obligatory Photos Of The Sea, Sky And Assorted Miscellaneous Things:
(for lack of better definitions) A wave, the sea, the afternoon sun reflecting on the sea, the sea and sky from the ferryboat, sunlight reflecting on the water, sea water, the sea, with a few boats and sunlight reflecting on it, a seagull in flight, blue sea water, the water at sunset, sunset, sunset again, sunlight reflecting on water (slightly blurred... not my fault, the boat I was on kept moving!), some clouds, and the sun behind some clouds.
