With a long weekend at the beginning of May, Lis and I decided that we definately had to get out of London. We decided to fly into Brindisi, because Ryanair were having cheap flights again and we decided if it was in Italy it had to be decent. After a quick look at what there was to do in Brindisi the day before we left we discovered that the lonely planet says "the only reason to go to Brindisi is to get the ferry to Greece or Turkey" (uh oh!) so after reading that we thought we were in for a fairly quiet and boring weekend. Were we wrong though........... Firstly things started off great when we got on the plane and got emergency exit seats and... a brand new Ryanair plane! I know it doesn't sound too exciting but for anyone who has flown with Ryanair and knows how little space you get in the normal seats this was very exciting to us, well ok mainly to Lis, I was just laughing at how she kept saying we were in first class. We arrived in Brindisi Saturday night about 9:30pm, jumped in a taxi. We showed him the youth hostel name and he freaked us out when we thought he said "Bari" and laughed. (Bari is another city in southern italy - at least an hour away). So Lis and I are in this taxi and I'm going to her, did you book us into a hostel in Bari? when lo and behold, we arrive at the hostel - a whole 2 minutes away from the airport! Then the driver whom we couldn't understand was saying one six zero so we thought oh excellent only one euro sixty cents, so passed him over one euro sixty to which we got a look of disgust and him saying no no no one six one six, ohhhh ok 16 euros, deary me, we were so so ripped off - 16 euros for a 2 minute trip but anyway that's the way it goes - we weren't going to argue with him since he knew so little English. Anyway, checked in to be shown to our room and got our next suprise. We had booked a four bed dorm and what did we get taken to a sixteen bed dorm, mmmm ok. Turns out that the others in the room also thought they were getting a 4 bed dorm too!. As soon as we arrived we started chatting to Marie a Canadian who lives in London, and Carol and her daughter Simone, South Africans who also live in London. Had a quiet one that night and headed off to bed with the music blarring out in the bar, managed to get to sleep but woke up everytime someone came into the room. Ahhhh the things you do/put up with when you're travelling. Woke up on the Sunday dreaming of what kind of lovely European breaky we were going to get only to find that it was a piece of cake, yep that's it, no coffee, juice or even cornflakes ohhhhh dear. Anyway just another funny thing for Lis and I to laugh over. That morning we headed for the beach In Brindisi, it was an ok beach (definately not a tourist/Australian/Greek beach that's for sure) with clear blue water and the sun was shining so we were happy. We were with about 10 other people from the hostel so it was nice to just sit, relax and chat to them for the morning. That afternoon Carol who had hired a car nicely offered to take us for a drive as they were heading out of Brindisi to discover what was down south of Brindisi. Carol and her car was our saviour for the weekend since besides the beach there was nothing to do in Brindisi. So Sunday we headed for Leece, it was nice there but very very quiet since we arrived in siesta time. Had a late lunch and some gelati as we strolled the streets then went driving a little further south, stopped at a beach for a break and then headed back to Brindisi. We went into Brindisi with Carol and Simone for dinner and then wandered the streets, discovering that yes, the Lonely Planet was correct - the only decent thing here is the ferry terminal. Went back to the hostel and crashed out. Luckily, our dorm only had 6 of us in it that night so got a decent night's sleep. Monday Carol offered to take us siteseeing again. She was such a legend and we got to see so much of Southern Italy that we would never have seen without her. She was glad for the adult company and her daughter Simone who is a gorgeous 10 year old was glad to have some girls to laugh and muck around with which Lis and I enjoyed. So Monday we headed North of Brindisi, turns out North is much nice that the south of Brindisi, we visited Ostini which was a gorgeous place similar to Mykonos (Greek Islands - I'm sounding like quite the traveller again aren't I?). In fact it was probably nicer because it wasn't touristy, and had character with the paint peeling from the walls and the uneven streets. (As opposed to Mykonos that just looked perfect) We then headed to Eranta where there are some Roman ruins and checked them out, passing some cute little towns and what we referred to as "Smurf" houses. Cute. At the ruins, we visited the museum also, much to Simone's dismay, she hates museums apparently as all ten year olds probably do. Lis also wasn't that interested but didn't say anything as she answered Simone's request to stay in the car with " you better be joking". After the ruins we headed to some amazing caves called the Castellan Grotte (like the Jenolan caves. By that time we were running out of time to get back to Brindisi but wanted to go in so we ended up on an Italian tour, full of what felt like hundreds of school kids (there were really about 30 or so) for the 45 minute walk through the caves. The four of us and a german couple were at the back and the guide kept giving us dirty looks like we were the troublemakers - not the children. Funny. Great caves though. That was our last stop before we had to head back to Brindisi to get the plane home. Carol and Simone were also on our flight back to London so we got a lift to the airport from them and chatted to them before getting on the plane. Lis and I arrived back in Clapham at nearly 2am and congratulated ourselves on the good time we had on what could have been a very dull and borning weekend away. Have to also mention Mauritzio who was the owner of the Hostel we were staying in, he was so so so friendly, a little too friendly actually wanting to hit on everything in a skirt as Italian men do. He had quite a thing for Carol which was very amusing and liked to tell Lis and I that we were unsociable cause we didn't stay up and get drunk with him!!!! mmm yeah he was not our 'type' that's for sure. Another amusing thing that springs to mind from the weekend was Lis and I decided to teach Simone 'Aussie' he he he he she's going to be going back to School saying to the kids "howzit goin?, have you got a sanga for lunch" she found it very very funny and actually did the Aussie accent quite well. So all in all it was a great weekend and we were very very fortunate to meet Carol and Simone who were happy for us to tag along with them. We're hoping to catch up with Carol soon for a drink as both Lis and I had a good time with her. Thanks for a brilliant weekend Lis! Can't wait for Scandinavia!