とうとう18週目に突入だ。あと2週間でちょうど半分までこぎつけたことになる。お腹が少し膨らんできて、先週末のイタリアへのショートブレイク中も、Jason、私の写真を撮った後に「じゃあ、赤ちゃんも｣と言って、お腹にカメラの焦点をあてたりしてはしゃいでいた・・・。今日は会社でやはり Danny が「お腹膨らんできたんじゃないか」と触っていたぞ。
先週末、おいしいパスタを食べるために行ったイタリア小旅行のミッションは失敗に終わった。パスタは一回しか食べられなかったのだ…。
まあ、それはともかく、ちょっとした気分転換にはなった。私たちの行ったブリンディシ周辺エリアは、日中は３０度以上になる、まさしく未開のリゾート地だった。海岸沿いには海水浴場や砂浜が並び、岩場の下は、海底洞窟だったり、とにかく、海岸線に人々がたむろしていた。最近 RyanAir が Bari と Brindisi に就航して、英国からの旅行者も増えたみたいだが、夏の気候と海の美しさに比べてリゾートホテルなどはほとんどない。それの方がいいけど。それから、英語を話せる人があまりいなかった。
初日は夜の９時頃に到着し、レンタカーで宿泊予定のホテルに向かった。英国とは逆の右側通行。その上、Jasonは普段は車を運転しないのに、左ハンドルのマニュアルカーなもんだから、空港を出てすぐのラウンドアバウトなんて、いったいどっちに周っていいのか助手席に座っているだけで混乱して吐き気がしそうだった。日はとっくに暮れていて外は真っ暗で、きちんとした地図もない。道路標識の町の名前だけが頼りだから、さすがの地図読みが得意な私さえも、目的地に着けないんじゃないかとはらはらした。Jason は意外にも、５０キロ近く空港から離れた、丘の上にあるそのホテルをあまり問題もなく探し当てた。ちょっと見直したわ。
まあ、彼の運転、独りよがりの運転だから（ごめん！）、スピード、急ブレーキ、路肩の草木にはぶつかるしで、こわくてひやひやする。その緊張と飛行機の疲れで、気分が悪くなり、夕飯はせっかくボンゴレがメニューに見えはしたが、シンプルなポモドーロとバジルのソースにせざるを得なかった。結果的には、ほとんど真夜中にあわてて食べたこのパスタがイタリアで食べた唯一のパスタとなってしまったのだが…。
夜でもさほど気温は低くなく、レストランの中庭で食べていた私たちはとにかくところかまわず飛び込んでくる大きなバッタに驚かされ続けた。道を歩いていても、そこいらにバッタがいて、そばによると飛び上がってくる。あー、怖かった。意外なことに蚊はいない。ホテルからレストランまでの１０分ほど、道沿いの家では、真夜中に近いのに、ベランダにテーブルを出して、家族や友達と食事をしながら歓談しているイタリア人たち。やはり暖かい気候に住むと、生活がおおらかでうらやましい。面白いことに、ベランダ、家の外にテレビがあるうちがたくさんあった。蚊があまりいなくて、外は涼しいから、そんな文化なのだろう。
翌日はちょっとドライブした後、ビーチタオルを Ostuni のマーケットで購入した。イタリア語はできないから、フランス語で数を言ってみたり（思惑通り似ていたようだ）してディスカウントを試みもした。結局５ユーロの定価。さあ、ビーチへと、車のエンジンをかける。あれ、止まっちゃう。おかしい。どうやら、エンジンが壊れたらしい。前に借りた人がディーゼル車と知らずに普通のガソリンを入れたんじゃないかって Jason は言っていた。たまたまとあるカフェの前に停めていたので、レッカーが来るまで、そこのカフェでコーラを飲みながら待つと、中学生ぐらいの男の子とお父さんがペアでレッカー車に乗ってやってきた。子供のほうは片言の英語で通訳兼、レッカーに車を乗せる運転までする。そして、そのレッカー車の狭い２人がけの助手席に、子供と私たちが詰め込まれた。私はほとんど左腰だけがいすに触っている状態で３０分ぐらいかけて空港のレンタカーオフィスへ。あまりの姿勢に、お腹の赤ちゃんもびっくりだろう。まあ、なかなか面白い体験だったが。
その後砂浜に寝そべったり、海に入ったり、ロスした時間を取り戻せた。お昼は海の近くのカフェで、魚のグリルを食べた。Jason の飲んでいたレモネードが結構フレッシュ系でおいしかったので、それ以来はまってレモネードばかり頼んだが、イタリアのレモネードはなかなかだった。帰りがけにショッピングモールを発見し、睡魔に襲われていたはずの私がいきなり意識を取り戻す。あるお店では、めがねがフレームとレンズで７０ヨーロ。安いから作ろうと思ったが月曜日までかかると言われて断念。大量にパスタを買い込んで満足することにした。
夕飯はどうにかおいしいボンゴレが食べたいと、ホテルの近くのもう一軒のレストランに行った。メニューもなく、英語を話せない年季の入ったウエイターに乗せられ、アンティパストとパスタ（残念ながらボンゴレはなかったが）を頼んだ。ところがアンティバスト、結構な大きさのお皿に１０枚分ぐらいでてきて、とても２人には多すぎる。ほかのテーブルを見渡すと、大食漢のイタリア人ですら、４人で一人前だ。やられたー、これだけで２０ヨーロぐらいとられるんじゃかなわないと思った私は、「ぼられたくない」精神がシンガポール時代以来久々に頭をもたげ、ウエイターを呼んでメインを全部キャンセルしてしまった。ホテルに戻り、バーのバルコニーで一杯のみながら、ウエディングレセプションの生バンドの音楽と、ゲストたちのイタリア美男美女を鑑賞しながらリラックスして一日を終える。
翌日は、近所にある洞窟、結局秋吉台と一緒だろうということで入らなかったが、と、このあたりの特徴的な円錐形の屋根の家の集落で観光地になっているところへまず行く。日本人留学生をホームステイでとったことがあるおみやげ物屋のおばさんと会話が弾み、と、言っても彼女のイタリア語と身振りをフランス語や英語の似た単語で解釈しただけだけど、素敵な小さなテーブルクロスを購入。こんな辺鄙なところにも日本人が留学に来るのね。
その後また浜辺でボーっとする予定だったが、Jason が Lecce に行くと言い出し、車で向かう。夕飯はおいしいパスタのレストランに連れて行くから、ピザ食べようよ、お腹すいた、という言葉に乗せられ、またもやパスタにありつけず。ま、ピザおいしかったけど。その後、さらに南下して、イタリアのブーツのかかとの部分に到達。海底洞窟があるような小さなマリーナだったが、まぶしい青さの海と空が地中海の魅力を十分にかもし出していた。そして海岸沿いに北上して戻る。所々、しばらくぼーっとしてみたいような岩場や砂浜があった。海岸沿いのがけの上はそこら中が、古い住居か砲台か防御壁の後が廃墟になっていた。ギリシャかなんかの時代の名残か？後で調べよう。
結局夕食にはありつけなかった。レストランはどこも７時半過ぎにならないと開かないからだ。まあ、しょうがない。ロンドンに帰ってから Olivo にでも行くか。さて、きょうわかったことは、妊婦には長時間のドライブはきついってこと。ずっと同じ姿勢で座っているのがまずつらい。その上、シートベルトがお腹に食い込むんじゃないかって、ずっと、手でシートベルトを少しひっぱっているもんだから、楽じゃない。ドライブの最後の２，３時間は、 Jason には悪いけど車の後部座席に横になっていた。でも、そうすると、道路のでこぼこがお腹に直に響いてこれもあまりいいとは思えなかったが…。
I'm in the 18th week now. In 2 weeks, I will be in the middle of the way.
I can see a small bump and when we were in Italy last weekend, after
taking Jason and my photos taking turn, 'It's baby's turn.' We joked
and focused on my bump. This morning, Danny also said, 'You have a
bump now!' and he touched it!
The mission of having nice Italian pasta failed. I had only one
chance to eat pasta...
Anyway, it was a nice short break, the place we flew to is called Brindisi and temperature goes over 30 C during days this time a year. Not many tourists yet but it has got beautiful beaches, caves, rocks and sea and has got lots of potential to be a big resort area. At the moment, there are not many resorts hotels and only a few people speak English. Ryan Air has started to operate to the region, Brindisi and Bari, and it seems that there are quite a lots of tourists from the U.K.
We arrived in Brindisi after 9 pm. We rented a car and Jason needed to drive to the hotel 50 km away. In addition to the fact that Jason does not usually drive in England, it's a manual operating car and he had to drive on the right hand side. Soon after we were off the airport, there were a couple of roundabouts... even though I was not the one who was driving, I felt really confused to which way we should turn or we should stop or go ahead.... I felt even sick. It was really dark outside and we had only a rough map. I am usually quite good in directions but I felt we could not find the hotel. We were just looking at road signs to head for the hopefully right destination. Well, surprisingly, Jason found the hotel. I was quite impressed by his ability as I had given up looking for it well before.
Jason always drives as if he was the only passenger (sorry, J!). Very quick, sudden break, hitting tree branches alongside the roads. I always feel very nervous. Because of the nervousness in the car and also the airplane journey, I felt a bit sick and I did not feel like having my favourite Vongole spaghetti for dinner. It was on the menu but I did not choose it! How unusual! I chose quite simple pasta with tomato and basil source instead. Well, we ended up having only one pasta meal during our holiday and this was the fist and last chance....
It's very pleasant temperature over there. Quite hot but not so humid. Unlike in the most of the tropical climate, I did not see any mesquites at night. That's why lots of houses have a big veranda in their garden and having dinner with their family or friends till very late. Many of them even have a TV set outside. There are loads of big grasshoppers, though. They scared us a lot while we were having dinner in a restaurant garden.
Next morning, we went to a market in Ostoni to buy a beach towel. I do not speak Italian but I reckoned that it's similar to French. I tried to get a discount in French but well, probably I was not good enough to ask for a discount. I bought one for 5 Euro. Then to set for a nice beach, we jumped into the car and Jason ignited the engine. But.... it would not start. The car did not want to move at all! It's broken....... We tried to start the car several times in vain and called for help. Luckily we parked the car just in front of a cafe and we decided to have some cold drink while waiting for a tow truck coming. A tow driver and his son arrived in 30 minutes as promised. The boy steered the car to help his dad to put it on the truck. The boy was about 15 years old and he also acted as a translator to us. After the broken car was mounted, we had to squeeze into the front seat with the boy. It was so narrow and I was barely sitting. Only one side of my bottom was touching the seat and we had to put up with the it for about half an hour till we were sent back to the airport. My baby must have been surprised! It was quite an unusual funny experience, though.
After we got our new car, we went to the beach nearby and made up for our lost time. We had a nice grilled fish at a very homely cafe on the beach. The lemonade Jason ordered was very good. I ordered lemonade since every time we needed some drinks. In the evening, we found a big shopping mall. I wanted to have a pair of glasses and it cost only 70 Euro! Unfortunately, we must have stayed one day longer to have them done. I bought plenty of pasta instead to satisfy myself.
We went to another restaurant near to our hotel for our last dinner. There was a patio with an outdoor dance floor. A waiter who only spoke Italian came to take our orders. He suggested us having antipasto but it turned out to be huge volume. One portion is about 10 plates of antipasto and it was too much. Looking around, even for the big appetite Italians, one portion for 4 people. I suddenly felt that we were going to ripped off, and my experienced Singaporean mentality came up naturally. I cancelled all our mains. We left after having antipasto only. We then went back to the hotel and sat for a while in the balcony having some drinks watching the wedding guests in the patio walking and chatting around the nicely lit swimming pool. Italian ladies and men are well dressed and nice looking!
In the following morning, we went to a place with some famous caves. We didn't get in as we assumed it's similar to the one in Akiyoshidai. We then headed for the village of the houses with stony convex roof. I popped in one of the souvenir shops and talked to the woman who was selling her hand made table clothes etc. She told us that she used to have a Japanese student staying with her. She spoke only Italian but we somehow managed to understand her as a couple of words are similar to French or English.
We were going to go to the beach again but Jason decided to drive to Lecce, much south of Brindisi town. The place looked much more typical European town with a main quiet square surrounded by cafes. I did not want to eat pizza for lunch, while Jason wanted, as I wanted to eat Italian pasta. But he persuaded me that he would take me to a nice restaurant for dinner and. We decided to have a quick lunch in a modern cafe. Well, pizza was really tasty. We then decided to go the southern part of the peninsula. It must be the heel of the Italian boot? The weather had been miserable but by the time we got to the port town, the sky was so blue and sea was beautiful. It's the beauty of Mediterranean. There were loads of ruins along side the cost. They must be some remaining from the Roman or the Greek era. I have to check it later.
We didn't have any dinner. The restaurants in that area open at 7.30, which was too late for us. Anyway. What I found during this holiday is that it's quite tough for the pregnant women to sit in a car for a long hours. First of all, we can not move much and it's quite tiring to sit in the same posture for a long time. Secondly, especially for me, I was holding the seat belt all the time to avoid it pressing my tummy too hard and I could never got relaxed in the car. In the last couple of hours of driving, I was lying down in the back seat as I had had enough. It was not so good as well though because the vibration from the bumpy roads directly hit my tummy....
1 comment:
My photos are here: http://www.jasonrumney.net/Brindisi/>
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