W/ my girls :)
Dave and I finally arrived in Johannesburg at about 9.30am Friday...went through customs and I finally got a stamp in my passport!! We've been to 4 different countries in 3 1/2 weeks and this is my first stamp!! Hooray!! We got our bags and made our way out, a porter asked where we were going and grabbed some random guy who was apparently a cab driver...perhaps not the safest idea. But he took us to the hotel and Chris and the girls. (Who I grew up with since forever!) met us there. The hotel is unbelievably amazing!! Its a 10000 star hotel with a pool, library, computers....its great! Dave and I have a twin room which is also luxurious, the shower is massive and soooo good, I showered for like 30mins last night! The beds are super soft, there are robes, the towels are as big as blankets, there's a TV, DVD player and free DVD's to watch!! What more can you ask for?! We arranged to meet back with everyone around 2pm once my parent had arrived. Dave and I unpacked and then went to sit at a table in the pool haha and we read for a while. Everyone came down around 2, mum and dad arrived...we had a couple of drinks, then wandered around the plaza that our hotel is in and grabbed a snack. Hung out for a while, went back to the hotel. At 6.30 we met up again and Ilene -a friend of Chris' who booked this trip for us- came and met up with us to give us the maps. We went to dinner at a restaraunt called Moyo which had some delicious food, I had a great steak stuffed with mozzarella and spinach with a delicious sauce, couscous and some veggies...everyone enjoyed the food. A group of guys came around singing and another group with drums, then there was a woman who was painting flowers and patterns on peoples faces..it was fun and the food was good. There was some pretty funny conversation such as Sara saying that she would only eat the dark spots of a giraffe...you can't eat giraffe...and we talked a lot about stuff that happened when we were growing up. We're getting old! Went back to the hotel and pretty much just crawled into the amazing beds and passed out!!
Today Dave and I slept until 10.15 then met mum dad laura and sara downstairs at 10.30, got a cab and the 6 of us went to the Apartheid museum, its new and really good, there's a lot of photography, videos and audio clips. It was interesting to learn about and shocking to think that the Apartheid only ended 15 years ago. From there we went to a mall which was kind of fancy...ate some lunch and wandered around for a little before heading back to the hotel.
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Forgot...
Forgot to say that in the Matta-Clark exhibit there were free pieces of his art, one of his pieces was a wall of individual prints on newspaper and there were stacks of them for us!! Sweet!!
Also this day 9/28 is world tourism day and people were handing out free flowers!! So of course I got some :). Good day for free stuff!
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Madrid
Dave and I are currently sitting in the airport in Athens waiting for our flight to Johannesburg (after a brief escapade downton) and there is a group of African women singing and its beeeaauuutifullll!
Last time I wrote in here properly was in Sevilla- that was our last day there, we wandered around that night, went to bed and took a train the next morning to Madrid. It took about 2 1/2 hours so it wasn't bad at all. Madrid was cool...another big city though. We got there, checked into our hostel- Cat's www.catshostel.com , it was pretty sweet, its new and the architecture is super cool. Its a remodelled 18th century palace!!
We went out to the Prado Museum- Goya, Boticelli... which was good but still not as enjoyable as Picasso! After that we went to Retiro Park which was pretty, we sat and read in the sun for a while before walking back through Plaza Mayora and Puerto del Sol but there's a lot of construction so it maybe was as great as it should be. At the hostel we met a father and son Cleatus and Nathaniel from M.N. Nathaniel graduated from Madison this spring also- small world. We drank in the bar downstairs for a while 3euros for a litre of beer!!! Ridiculous!!! Cleatus and Nathaniel joined us and we met some English girls who were planning to go out so we asked them to tell us when thhey were leaving so we could go to. We went to El Son, an awesome local bar where EVERYONE was dancing, Salsa etc, it was sooo much fun, locals were grabbing us and dancing with us/teaching us to dance but they didn't like that we were wearing Reefs/flip flops so we explained that carrying heals around for 4 months in a backpack isn't really something we're willing to do! haha. Soo much fun, we danced from about 1am to 5am!! Crazy!! Met a couple of locals, talked to them for a while but they didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish so yeah that was fun...met a guy from NY, Patrick...an artist...talked to him for a while. A band showed up at 3.30am haha clearly the party was only just begining then!! It was great, definitely one of my favorite nights out on this trip, possibly ever! Soo much fun!!
We arranged with Nathaniel and his dad to meet them at 9.30am to go to a temple built by the Egyptians (we didn't even know it existed!) Getting up 4 hours after going to bed was a little rough haha but we made it. Went to the Temple of Debob which was originally built in S. Egypt, it was rescued from the dam in 1968 and moved to Madrid as a token of gratitude for aiding in saving Abu Simbel (I'm copying this out of the little guide, but it doesn't tell me who he was..google him?! Haha) it was kind of cool, and we wouldn't have known about it if Cleatus hadn't have told us... After that we wandered over to the Palace which is huuuugeeee, we were going to go in but decided against it due to lack of sleep, need to see the Modern Art museum - Reina Sofia, and lack of 100% interest in the palace. Sooooo we took the metro to the Reina Sofia, split from the guys and went in. There is a temporary photography exhibition- Gordon Matta-Clark which was really good. He buys houses or buildings and basically cuts shapes out of floors and walls etc and photographs them...kind of sounds weird but its really cool. He took 1 house, put it up on jacks, sliced it down the middle, then took the jacks out from under 1 side so it was split at an angle...who thinks of this stuff?! And there was video to show it- which he includes as art. "He showed how politics and criticism are inseparable from art even redefined modernity, a redefinition that implied evaluating architecture, cities and urban development as aesthetic experiences that are flexible and shared but in no way controlled"- from the leaflet. That took a while then we had 2 more floors to walk aound....ouch...but it was modern art so it was more fun? Ha, it wasn't bad at all. But after that we went home to take a nap haha...went out later and bought dinner...a yogurt and some candy- healthy!! Met up with Patrick from the night before, had a couple of drinks and hung out with him for a while. Passed out until our idiot room mate turned on the light at like 4am becuase he needed to see...lame excuse ha. But he was pretty ignorant, we already didn't like him, and this didn't help.
This morning we got up and checked out of the hostel, took the train to the airport, a plane to Athens!! Again! Went downtown and got gyros and frape's (as predicted), got on the metro back to the airport after paying 10euros, but 3 stops away from the airport the train stopped..."End of the line". Shit!! Why does that keep happening?! It doesn't close until midnight!! It was 9.30!!! So we went to find the bus, were told that the bus to the airport doesn't stop at this station so we had to get back on the metro in the direction we came from and get a bus from another station...more money...sweet!
Finally made it back to the airport, checked in- without luggage since its already checked, so that was weird but nice! Now we're waiting to board the plane!
This concludes the first portion of our trip- the Mediterranean in 25 days: some great new friends, some shady hostels, some great hostels, and a lot of Euro's poorer! Overall a great time! My city ranking is 1.Athens tied w/ Santorini- the whole Island and experience 2. Florence, 3. Nice 4. Madrid, 5. Barcelona, 6. Sevilla, 7. Rome. (Monaco and the Vatican City not included).
Tune in for news from S.Africa....
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Athens part 3!!
Ok I know I haven't blogged Madrid yet but I thought I'd take a minute to inform you that Erin and I are back in Athens...for the third time. Hahaha. Our flight from Madrid to Johannesburg connects through Athens and we have a frikkin 7 hour layover!! Since we are experts at the metro system and the city we decided to flee the confines of the smokey airport- which I appreciate perhaps more than Dave because I sat there for 6 hours waiting for her to arrive...(see blog from day 1 of our trip). So we're heading into Plaka for a Frape with Baileys haha hooray! And perhaps gyros!
I'll blog Madrid soon...stay tuned, definitely had one of the best nights out on this trip so far!
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Sevilla
The overnight train was pretty sweet, someone even came in and woke us up!! Haha.
We got lost looking for our hostel- go figure...that seems to be standard. We eventually found it and were locked out behind a gate which has subsequently locked us in and out every time since. None of the staff speak English and require you to fill out a form which is in Spanish so yeah that was a pretty sweet start to Sevilla, and It gets better- she showed us to our room and there's 1 double bed, we definitely booked 2 twins but she doesn't understand us so we're sleeping together which is fine.
After all of this we went out to explore...found downtown but bc it was Sunday everything was closed. We went to Alcazar which is a palace of sorts and I guess is still functional...got in free thanks to our student cards- hooray! It was pretty cool, it has Muslim influenece so the architecture and art work is amazing. In the middle there is a commom courtyard which has access to all parts of the palace, it has a long pool down the middle and it took me a while to figure out if it was a pond or a dirty lap pool. Pond it was. After this we went to the cathedral of Sevilla, they're pretty much next to each other. This was free too- cheap day so far :). This place was beautiful too, the gothic center altar is all gold, its amazing!! It is also home to Christopher Columbus' ashes (or remains?) In a small box in a tomb caried by 4 soldiers. After this we wandered around some more and went back to our fort knox hostel...waited to be let in again and proceded to take a 3 hour nap haha. Woke up and went to a local coffee shop, drank coffee and people watched for a while. Went home and back to sleep!! Travelling is tiring!! We slept late this morning- until about 11!! Unheard of on this trip! Got up, showered in the shower that only has 1/2 a door- sweet! And ventured out for the day... I bought a pair of jeans and a shirt from Mango, so those will be helpful as the weather cools off..although the past 2 days have been warm and sunny.
We went to the bull fighting arena and took a tour and went through the museum...it was pretty cool, its 240 years old and only 3 fighters (I can't think of their real name) have been killed there...there are fights every sunday from april until october. Dave and I were going to go to one last night but I don't think I would have been able to watch it.
We grabbed some lunch at a little local place and then we split up for the afternoon to do whatever we want. Sooooo I'm sitting in a plaza by the cathedral writing this and watching some crazy lady scream at tourists in Spanish....smart. There are also a lot of horse and carts here and the horses are in a lot betteer shape than they were in the last few cities so that's good to see.
Ok well I'm gonna go find some gelato or something :)
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I fed onion to the pigeons
Haha, its true...I got a donner kebab and forgot to ask for no onions so then I was just throwing them on the ground and pigeons were eating them hahaha that must have sucked but they didn't stop...
Last night we went to go out to dinner with our new room mates but 2 of them- from Florida- were soooo obnoxious and annoying that Dave and I split from the group and went to a little local place and ate for 4euros! Sweet! Wandered around, I bought a cute ceramic fish necklace, then we headed back. Hung out for a while and started drinking then went to meet up with the boys we keep seeing everywhere. Went to one of the 10 stages for the music festival, it was really fun, everyone was dancing and having a great time. We left there and went to a couple of the other stages but they weren't as cool. Stopped by the Australian pub we seem to be regulars at, got a cider- also a regular thing now I guess :). Met 3 Aussies and hung out with them for a while, they were pretty funny...went to a club but the line was really long and the cover charge was 10euros so we left there and wandered around...nothing very exciting, didn't find anywhere else to hang out, they went to the clubs but Dave and I went home.
Today we checked out of our shady hostel and put our stuff in a locker at the train station. Frikkin rained all day!! I guess when I think of a holidy I always assume warm weather, clearly that isn't the case...its late September in Europe...
So anyways today we went to the Picasso museum and I really enjoyed it, it was great. Picasso enoyed pigeons too, he even painted them!
After that we went to the chocolate museum which was kind of cool, lots of big chocolate figures etc, even a Finding Nemo one!!! :)
We got some lunch and were pretty much homeless for the rest of the day. Now we're on an overnight train in a tiny little 4 bed cabin...Dave and I have the top 2 bunks...there are straps so you don't fall out of bed hahaha I hope the driver isn't too crazy. We arrive in Seville at 8.40 tomorrow morning- pretty sweet!
Ooook goodnight.
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Small world
I think I wrote it on here but I'm going to repeat and then add to the story...in Athens we met guys on the bus to the airport, flew with them to Rome, then ran into them randomly in Florence, then tonight- in Barcelona- we ran into them again!! How crazy is that?! We didn't even know they were coming to Spain. Sooo we're finally going to hang out with them, it seems like its meant to be.
Ok well I'm going to go get ready and make an effort to remember tonight.
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Barcelonaaaaaa
Yesterday we ventured out into Barcelona...bought a train ticket that lets
us take 10 trips and we can both use it...worked out alot cheaper. We went
to the Sagrada Familia Temple which is a work in process, started by Gaudi.
It was amazing, the architecture and design is unbelievable, its based on a
forest so the pllars are like trees and the canopy and decorated etc. It
was great, i loved it!! then we went Park Guell which is also crazy cool!!
After that we went back downtown and wandered around for a while, went to
the Block of Discord which has Gaudi's house , also unbelievably crazy
looking! We decided that we should maybe do some shopping haha its been 3 weeks since we were home and shopping so it was time ha. I really splurged and bought a pair of capris on sale for 8euros. Big deal.
We came home via a grocery store where we bought a bottle of vodka and some coke...bring on the good times :). We stopped on the way back and got a cider at a little Irish pub along the way, watched England lose to France and then went home.
Hung out in the hostel, our room mate had her laptop stolen so we basically made sure everything was locked up...whoever stole it broke the locker so if they wanted to do it again they could I guess. Don't know who it was obviously but we have a sketchy room mate...who knows.
Anyways, we drank in the hostel for a while with people who came here with us from Nice, then we went out to the bars. Met some people, a couple of guys from Sweden, and to be completely honest I don't remember the night and I didn't take pictures which is weird.
Today we got up and took the train the the olympic stadium ('92) which was almost as empty as Athens but it was kind of cool. From there we walked around, towards the port, saw Chris'/XL Video's stage crew for George Michael's opening concert of his new tour, went to the train station and booked beds on the overnight train to Seville tomorrow night. Wandered around some more, went to an internet place and booked Hostel Florida (ha) in Seville, came back to our hostel, we have new room mates- obnoxious Americans from Florida.
This city is soooo frickin loud its unbelievable, there's tons of construction all over the place and its just sooo loud.
I need a nap.
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Our bus driver ...
Thought he was Jacques Villneuve...flew around ther bends, over the edge of cliffs as if he were driving a race car!! Psycho!! People were flying everywhere, no joke!...This was on the way home from Monaco, once we finally found the stupid bus.
New friends at The Zoo- Nicole and Dani from Oregon, Adam and Prince- I dunno his real name, from Australia, Alex and Mike from Canada- Alex is on the Canadian National Squash team ha, I thought that's pretty cool.
We had tons of fun, we played drinking games all night and got pretty wasted. Except 1 guy ruined it- Chuck from New Foundland, decided to play drinking games with red wine and chugged 3 bottles. Sick. He was yelling soo loud and not only were we technically in a chapel but the bed rooms aren't far away and we kept getting told to be quiet. Dave told him to use his "indoor voice, the 12 inch voice" and then she promplty translated that into metric and said "well, your 10cm voice" Haha so that was pretty amusing. This dude was sooo obnoxious he ruined my night. Then he disappeared and everything was good again. Went back to the Zoo to go to bed but alex mike and 3 other guys were goofing off quoting Ali G and his Kazakstan thing which was frikkin hilarious mainly b.c that's what Andish and Jeff were quoting/talking about in Santorini. So we pretty much woke up the non-cool people in the zoo but since we out numbered them and we of course were way cooler we didn't care. Eventually we shut up and passed out.
Monaco was cool, I guess I didn't really know what to expect, its pretty, there are some fancy cars- mainly Ferraris and I saw 1 Bentley but really not as mainy as I would have thought. There's a huge yacht show over the weekend so they were setting up for that- these yachts were like 1/2 a mile long, 1 of them had 2 jet skis, 2 little speed boats and a HELICOPTER on the back!!! What the hell?! So we drooled over those for a while and then started to wander in the direction of the bus. This turned into quite an adventure...in the morning we paid 4euro for an all day unlimited bus pass, but when we got on the 2nd bus to go to Monaco the stupid driver made us pay another 1,30 for another ticket, apparently the pass doesn't work to go to Monaco!! Clearly the rich people need to rob me of my 1,30 so I can walk on their sidewalks or something?! Monaco is 2 bus stops from the beach we went to the day before and the pass works to go to the beach, so yeah if you figure that one out let me know. Sooo we started to walk towards Cap D'Ail which is the beach we were at- we figured we'd save the 1,30 from the stupid Monaco part of the ride and then we'd useour pass on the 2 buses home. Big mistake. We walked for ages -without a map- and asked countless cops and guards etc where to go. We ended up walking around this path right on the edge of the land so we had amazing views. However this landed us in a massive multi story parking lot, it was really strange. There we found a map, asked for help- good job I paid attention in my 6 years of French class, I can say 3 things, ok maybe more than that but not a lot. Anyways after walking in circles in this random building we figure out that its the Oceanographic Museum haha, we ask for an exit and get sent to an elevator, walk in and the only but is "start" hahahaha start what?! Is this up or down?! Haha we were cracking up it was.so funny!! We pushed start and went up...to...? The museum. We got out of there and ended up in front of some Prince's palace!! Ha! Who knows?! We asked a guard for directions and he sent us down a path that pretty much took us back to where we started. Yes, that's right, we walked in a circle. But now we were armed with maps! They didn't get ud very far either, but 2 cops later we found a bus stop and just paid the frikkin 1,30euros. At one of the stops along the way we ran into New York- I dunno his name, he's in the zoo with us, and we also ran into Adam and Mike. Took the bus to the transfer, stopped at a market to get some food for cheap and then went home.
This hostel is super cool because the bar is downstairs and its far from town to everyone hangs out down there...soo that's what we did, again. We played drinking games, hung out, talked, messed around etc. Then this duder walked in- black hair, tattoos, and I dunno but he looked famous...Dave said no but others agreed with me. Eventually Adam started talking to him and he came and joined our group, his name is Joseph and he's in the band Lady Sinatra, they're based in LA, he's the singer...I told you he was famous!! Haha ok so maybe not famous yet but soon? The band is on myspace for those of you who have that. Anyways, we partied and it was another long night of fun :)
Wednesday we got up, ate another of the 11 kinds of cereal, got a ride to the bus stop during which we got a lecture about the pick pockets in Barcelona...if I come accross one I'm going to punch him.
Umm got on a train, passed out, woke up and the seat numbers had switched- no joke, they were electronic on little screens!! We sat in 82 and 88 and then it was 12 and 18...what the hell!! So we kept sitting there then other people got on and we were aparently in their seats...French people are not the most polite so we moved and I was psyched because our new seats were facing the direction we were going, then after this stop we changed direction so we were backwards again grrr! Oh and I had to kick some kids out of my new seat, they clearly didn't have tickets! Anyways, I passed out again and when I woke up we got off the train in Marseille- 3 1/2 hours later. Had a 2 1/2 hour layover there so I ventured out and found a grocery store...bread cheese ham and water, voila! Lunch! And dinner... Sat around for a while, paid to use the bathroom damn it!! Got on another train, fell asleep, ate, played cards and arrived in Barcelona 4 hours later. Wandered around like lost little souls, found the metro, rode our 3rd and 4th trains of the day, found the hostel...
Its not nearly as nice as the last couple but it will do. Had to rent sheets- soo annoying!! We wandered around a little last night but pretty much just came home and went to bed!
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11 different cereals to choose from!!
This new hostel is pretty sweet- while breakfast isn't quite as good as our last place, its still pretty good!! And I guess its a top ranked hostel- I recomend it- Villa Saint Exupery.
We arrived at about 8 last night, took a bus, climbed a huge hill- with our packs of course- and finally found our hostel. Its a cute, pretty big place, it used to be a monastery!! The bar is in the chapel...ironic. We are in a 25 bed dorm, we have nicknamed "the zoo", everyone here is pretty cool, we met 2 girls from Sweden, 2 from Oregon, 3 Aussies, 2 Candians...I think that's it so far. We learned a new drinking game called Dice, we're going to play tonight. Ummm, oh yeah, beer is cheaper than water!! Haha.
This morning we got up, went to breakfast, the Swedish girls were getting ready to leave so we made plans to meet them in Barcelona this weekend- apparently there's a huge music festival there Fri-Mon so that should be sweet. Then we ventured out, down the massive hill, to find the bus to the beach...after 2 buses and a pretty long walk down a cliff we found the beach! Plaga Mala. Its a tiny little cove surrounded by cliffs with massive houses which look like they could fall off the cliff any minute. Dave and I swam out to a floating platform and hung out there for a while...Wisco we thought about you and it was about 7.15am your time- how was practice?? hahahaha. 1 star day today??
So here we are chillin on a beach, its nice not to be walking around looking at stuff all day, sometimes you need to just sit. Although its pebbly so we asked how much beach loungers were and the dude said 14euro!! We paid 2.50 in Santorini!! No way!! But at least our hostel gave us clean beach towels to use free of charge.
Tomorrow we may venture into Monaco where all the rich people like Bono and the rest of U2 live since no one has to pay taxes there.
Alright well I'm gonna nap...on the beach...in the S. Of France :) happy Monday!
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I can see the sea!!
We're rolling into Nice at sunset and its beautiful!!!
And we just called the hostel (after trying 5 different numbers), they have tons of beds and will come pick us up!! How sweet is that?!
Hooray France!!
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Ciao Italia
The original plan was to go to La Spezia/Cinque Terre after Florence and before Nice. This is not happening. In fact we are on the train and just stopped in La Spezia but did not get off as there are no beds in any hostels. Sweet. I was so psyched to go there but we couldn't make it work. We already stayed in Florence longer than planned and there are no beds there either so staying another night was not an option. So we're on our way to Nice which should also be beautiful and we found a sweet hostel there to stay at which has beds...25 bed dorms to be exact haha, possibly another 'dungeon' for any of you who were in Santorini.
Getting on a train this morning was a pain, we went to make reservations and the dude was less that helpful, went to get on the train and there weren't seats, he didnt make reservations for us...got back in line, found another train to take, needed to make reservations for the 2nd and 3rd parts, que'ed up again, finally got reservations and made it onto a train 2 hours after we arrived there. I'm hoping the travelling process is going to get easier as we go!! Or at least that people will be friendlier and more helpful.
The man next to me on the train is a huge lumberjack type guy either German or Austrian, wearing hiking boots and short shorts, has hiking poles sticking out of his roll-along bag...he's mildly amusing.
The weather seems to be clearing up, we just passed a beach and there were people on it so it must be somewhat warm although its not very sunny.
Hopefully Nice will be a little cheaper than Italy was, our hostel is going to be so that's a start, but everything in Italy was about twice what we paid for it in Greece! Crazy expensive!
Alright well my next report will be from Nice, unless I get bored again along the way.
P.s. Wisco I'm proud of you for loading the 8's up high w/out me..hope Milwaukee was fun although I heard rumours...
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Rainy days...
It's days like today that I just wanna sput on sweats, curl up in a blanket and lay on the couch all day...so I kind of did that, in a "I'm in Florence and don't have sweats" kind of way... I sat in the plaza for a while and then realized I had left my keys to the hostel on my bed..sweet. Walked home, got my keys. Decided I'd walk over the Arno and see if I could find a coffee shop to hang out in for a while. There were a few but I ended up grabbing a slice of pizza and then went back to the plaza by a dude playing his guitar and read for a while there. Saw a little kid experience his first puddle which was super cute- he ran over in sandle/shoe type things but was wearing socks, he ran through the puddle and then stopped and looked at his feet as if he couldn't figure out how they got wet! It was soo cute, kids are sooo innocent...anyways, I got cold, so I went home. Dave came home a little later and we just hung out and did nothing. If only I had a pair of sweats with me damn it!! Eventually decided we should go grab some dinner (another day with all 3 meals!! This hostel is good for me!) Melissa (our new friend) came with us and we went to a 'spagheteria' haha which was reallllly good. Came home, met a new room mate, Lauren, and started to play cards, decided we'd be better off at a bar so went to the Irish one down the street again. Ran into a guy there who I met when I was doing laundry yesterday, and saw him at this bar again last night ha, he's stalking me?! Got some cider and played cards...2 old Italian dudes were fasinated by our game and came over to watch- it wasn't anything amazing, but we explained the game to them and they watched for a while. Bought a couple of rounds, hung out for a while and came home. Apparently I attract old men- yesterday Dave and I were walking home and this 60 year old man says "ciao bella!!" Which is standard but when I didn't really say anything back he started to follow us-sweet!! He was singing and talking the whole time, the he turned up a street and invited us to go with him...haha in his dreams! But seriously, why old men?!
I forgot to mention earlier that the dude on the bunk below me growls in his sleep hahaha no joke, growls!! Everytime I moved and the bed creaked he growled!! This led to a pretty shitty night sleep, he's not home yet but I hope he doesn't growl tonight!!
I also had some crazy dreams last night- 1 was that it was raining and I was pissed because I couldn't get a cool pic of the Duomo- which was true. The next was that I found a duck and took it home hahahaha- not true as of yet, maybe tomorrow?! And the last was that I met a super cool, hot guy- also not true today.
Maybe tomorrow...
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Why do Asians always hold up the peace sign in photos?
I'm currently sitting in Piazza della Signoria, by the replica statue of David...beat that!! Ha.
Its raining today- again- which kind of sucks but its kind of nice too, although the millions of umbrellas are lethal.
Yesterdat Dave and I walked accross the Arno to Piazzale Michelangelo, hiked up to an amazing view of the city, then went further to Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte- a beautiful little church at the top of a hill...more amazing views, and very peaceful. We hung out up there for a while then headed back down into town. We met up with Patrick- a guy we ran into the night before, then grabbed some lunch. The 3 of us then went to the Uffizi Gallery (where I once again got a discount for being English!! Hooray!! Dave wasn't happy!) The gallery actually isn't that big which is good because I lose attention pretty fast. We saw The Birth of Venus which is pretty much all I wanted to see...its beautiful!
After that Dave and I walked through the market and headed back to the hostel. I switched rooms- into the same one as Dave, then took a nap :) naps are good! Woke up and did some laundry while Dave went back to where we were earlier in the day to see the sunset. Last night we hung out for a while and then decided to go to the bar down the street for some ciders...went out after that but weren't out too long, it was dead, no one was out!! Strange.
This morning we woke up to another amazing breakfast made by Clara, including a delicious lemon cake!! She rocks!! This hostel is by far the best ever!! We're going to have high expectations now! After eating, we went back to bed for a while...we decided to stay here another night because the hostels in Cinque Terre are all booked. So today we're just chillin. Dave is going to the Academia Gallery but I'm just going to hang out arund town for a while. Maybe we'll have a wild night out tonight?
PEACE! Haha.
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Food!!
I just realized that I ate all 3 meals today!! That's sooo exciting!!! Hahaha
Now I'm drinking cider at some "irish" bar in Florence!!
How was Bucky Days, Wisco???
Muhahahahahaha
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Firenze!
Bongiorno!! The other day I forgot to mention that Dave and I climbed the 550 stairs to the top of St. Peters. It was an amazing view!!! (And a workout!). It was great. I forgot something else too but I can't remember that right now either haha.
So yesterday we arived in Florence a little later then we had planned but it wasn't a big deal since we didn't have to pay for a reservation and it was nice to sit and chill for a while. We didn't make a reservation in a hostel but had a list of ones to go to...this didn't work...we walked around for ages and everything was booked..mwe finally got a list from the Info center, met an Aussie guy there in the same situation as us so he came along too and we went to the closest hostel on the list- booked. The next 1 had 1 bed so wee let the Aussie dude take it and the guy there said to try upstairs. Went upstairs and she had 2 beds left in this beautiful hostel, she showed us the rooms before we even said yes and she was just pretty much great!! This place is luxury!! Albergo Paola...I recomend it to everyone!! Its super clean, really bright and colorful and it smells amazing! There are huge closet lockers for everyone and then a small bedside locker too!! Everyone gets a key to the front door, the entry door to the hostel and the door to their room and lockers!
Anyways, yesterday after we got here we went and wandered around town, then Anneka's friend Jocelyn called so we met with her and went to get tickets to Uffitzi Gallery but we couldn't so we are going to have to go and wait in line today...We split from Jocelyn but arranged a tome to meet her later, wandered around some more, went back to the hostel, got changed and walked over to Jocelyn's place. Went to eat dinner then bought a couple of beers and went back to her place. Hung out for a while then went out to the bars. We had tons of fun at a couple of different bars, I think I only took 1 picture though which is weird for me, but oh well. It poured with rain the entire night so the walk home was not fun and my clothes are still soaked. Jocelyn is going to Cinque Terre today until Sunday so we're hopefully going to meet up with her there...good times.
Alright well I'm going to go see if Dave is awake (we're in seperate rooms..although maybe ill be able to switch now).
Ciao ciao.
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On the move..
Last night our 8 room mates couldn't have been much louder, I dunno why they couldn't go into the common room and be loud there...the hostel pretty much sucked in general, only 1 of the 3 showers worked, the stove didn't work, there was water leaking all over the place. So we were pretty happy to get out of there...
We're on the train to Florence, its pretty dull outside today but the countryside is pretty. Its relaxing to be sitting doing nothing, I finished "My Friend Leonard" by James Frey- its a sequel-kind of- to "A Million Little Pieces" which I read last week and I highly recomend (why can't I spell that?!) so you should read them both! They're pretty quick, easy, page turners and you'll laugh and cry...what more can you ask for?!
So now I'm finally going to start "East of Eden" by Steinbeck...hopefully that will take a while because I don't have anymore to read after that!! And book stores are dangerous, I can spend hours in them.
Its hard to believe we've only been gone 10 days, it feels like at least a month! Does The Vatican City count as another country on our list since its its own state??
Ciao
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Gelato w/ the Pope!!
Forgot to mention yesterday that Dave was mad because she isn't English- she didn't get the EU discount at the Colloseum! Haha.
Woke up this morning feeling like crap, caught a cold or something. Also, our room smelled rancid, turns out it was leaking something disgusting all over the floor...I couldn't smell it ha but the other 7 people were almost throwing up! Gross, everyone packed their stuff and took off ASAP. Dave and I walked over to another hostel we had found the day before, booked beds, dumped our stuff and took the train to the Vatican City. It was amazingly beautiful...I don't really do religion as you all should know, but this was pretty cool. Do you think the Pope ever lays out/tans in his gardens? Haha.
Also went to the Sistine Chapel-our student card finally saved us some money, hooray! The chapel was beautiful, but I probably would have appreciated it more if I had an Art History degree or something like that, but it was great.
We left there and walked accross the river saw the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and a bunch of other things along the way.
We've walked pretty much the whole city and its time to get out...tomorrow we're heading to Florence.
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Rome Tuesday!
Looking back we should have stayed in Santorini Sunday night and most of Monday and then back to Athens, but oh well.
Also, there were soo many police around yesterday and the aussie girls pointed out it was 9/11 so that makes sense...pretty much lost track of date and time :)
Anyways,
Dave and I got up reaaallly early Tuesday, took a cab to the bus station and then a bus to the airport...on the bus we met 3 guys from CA who were also going on the flight to Rome. So we talked to them, checked in and all that junk, no security really, well there was but it wasn't a big deal like in the states- hooray.
The flight was only 2 hours and we got fed!! Yay!! We arrived, met up with the boys again, got our bags, found the train and took it to Termini- the main station in Rome. Then we followed, well showed the boys the way to their hostel, they were pretty useless with direction. We were going to try and stay there- Yellow- because several people had reccomended it to us butttt it was full! Boo! So Dave and I wandered around and found another hostel, its not that nice, but it will do for tonight. We found a new hostel for tomorrow night but we might try and leave here tomorrow night...hmm.
Today we went to the Colloseum and wandered around the city, tonight we went to the Spanish steps and around some more of the city so tomorrow we only have the Vatican to do...Rome in a day and a half, we're pro's now!! Haha
Its actually pretty difficult changing cities, we just got comfortable in Athens, and knew our way around, and now we're in a different country and another crazy city! But at least the maps here are up to date, unlike the 200 year old maps of Athens- someone should get on that and re-map Athens!!!
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Santorini Saturday, Sunday and Athens Monday!!
Saturday we got up and caught the bus to Perissa which is on the other/east coast of the island. The beach is pretty much right at the bus stop so we hopped off, and voila, we were on the beach! We paid for beach beds since we only had tiny hotel towels (which were large in comparison to the chammies we brought with us! ). The sand here is black from the volcano so its pretty but really hot! The water is really really clear, you can see everything!! We met a group of guys in the water....ok so maybe they were the reason we went into the water :) anyways, 2 Aussies: Aidan and Matt and then Jeff from Montreal...we talked for them for, well, hours. Dave and the Aussie boys swam out to the end of the cliff, climbed up and stylishly jumped off! Jeff and I stayed on the beach, and according to him we made out the whole time, but he must have been dreaming! He wanted to party, I told him the bars were by our hostel and that he was welcome to stay with us.... Dave and the Aussies came back about an hour later and we sat around for a while then the boys left to go back to their hostel. Jeff strategically stole Dave's watch so that we would stay at the beach until he came back, "in less than an hour". 2 hours later the wanderer returned and came sauntering down the beach, laid down on a beach chair and fell asleep. The Aussies came back and decided that they wanted to come party with us too...5 of us, 2 small beds...ok. We arranged to meet them at the bus stop by our place at 8.30 and Dave and I headed back. I showered and started to pack my stuff away, then we went to the bus stop to meet the boys...they didn't show up at 8.30 on that bus, or 9.00 ... Dave left me there and went home to shower, when she came back they still weren't there...at 9.30- an hour late, they finally showed up "we missed the bus, thanks for waiting, we brought friends!!" So now there's 9 of us- the family, Dave and I are the newest members- hooray for lots of friends- other than the boys from the beach there was Amanda and Carter from California, and Sarah and Christina from Australia. We took the boys stuff back to our place and then went to the supermarket to buy alcohol etc...we emerged half an hour later with 3 bottles of vodka, several cartons of juice, a couple of bags of chips, 2 sticks of bread, some. Taramasalata (mum, I finally ate it, its pretty good), Tzatziki (sp?) And something else. Good and ready for a night of partying! We sat out by the pool, ate, drank, Spilled, laughed, got marker/sharpie tattoos from Jeff- super cool!, and just had a lot of fun...we were just about to pack it all away and go to the bars when. French dude walked out from his room in his orange and pink pajamas, hahaha, and said "I think now is a good time for you to go to bars" haha so we agreed, apologized, cleaned up and took off.
1st stop was Murphys which was the Irish bar that ripped us off the night before...we got beer for 5euro and danced for a while. I walked outside for some air and I found a little kiosk store that sold cans of beer for 1,50 so of course I got beer there and drank it in the street...I ran into Carter and Amanda and she went and told the rest of the group about the cheap beer while Carter and I bought more beer. The whole group came out and we partied in the street for a while, well it wasn't even a street, more like an alleyway, lots of fun!! We went to another bar where ladies got a free drink so that was super sweet...after that we headed back to our place and the bus stop along the way- Amanda, Carter, Sarah and Christina yook a taxi home and then the Aussie boys, Jeff, Davies and I went back to our place...woke up in the morning and had to check out, the Aussie boys disappeared and aparently got on a ferry and took it to another island. Then Jeff Dave and I took the bus back to Perissi and met up with the rest of the group on the beach again! We hung out there all day then showered secretly at our new family's hostel! Got some more bread and dip haha and took a taxi to the port. Sarah and Christina flipped a coin which decided that they would go to Athens so they caught the overnight ferry back with Dave and I...the ferry was freeeeziiiingggg!! We wore sooo many clothes and were sooo cold! We arrived in the morning, walked back to our original hostel, checked in and got a rooom really fast because the woman at the desk recognized me ha! Then all 4 of us passed out and slept for 4 hours, it was pretty funny because we didn't realize we were that tired. Then Dave and I got up and took the train to the Athens Olympic site. It was completely desserted which was kind of surprising but I giuess makes sense. So we wandered around there for a while took some pretty amusing pictures on the diving blocks of the pool and some other stuff. Then went to Plaka, got a coffee...with Baileys of course ;) then went back and met the girls at the hostel. Hung out for a while, then Christina realized that her shirt was missing from the balcony (the 6th floor) so she ran down and was trying to find it in the trees...some local guy came over and pointed it out to her, someone gave her a broom and she got it down. Of course Dave Sarah and I just watched from the balcony :) After the drama we took the train to Plaka for some dinner, we ran into some local dude who asked what we were looking for so we told him and he took us to his favorite restaraunt. One of the waiters grabbed my hand and pretty much dragged me to a table, it was kind of amusing...we sat, ordered etc, we had finished eating and were waiting for the bill when the waiter came back and said "I'm your grandfather and I take care of you, I only have sons, no girls!" So we kind of just sat there, what do you say? Then he came back with a plate of fruit (which we hadn't ordered) so we thanked him and ate it...then we were sitting, waiting, laughing and he came over with a huge plate of melon, cut a piece, Sarah said jokingly "what's he gonna do?! Feed it to us?!" and he proceded to used my fork to feed watermelon to Sarah, it was so funny! Oh, and during our rediculously long dinner we saw a dude from Australian Idol, apparently he got 10th and also got caught with Paris Hilton- the girls filled Dave and I in on all the gossip...
We headed home after a pretty amusing evening, Dave and packed our stuff ready to leave in the morning and we finally crawled into bed around 1am.
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Santorini...time to party :)
Friday night Dave and I had a couple of drinks in our room before heading out to the bars down the street...Dave got the first rounf of drinks but couldn't hear the bartender when he said how much, she handed him a 10euro note and he looked at her like she was stupid and asked for 5 more Euro!!! 15Euro for 2 drinks?! So she turned around and said "we're going to finish the bottle (of vodka) at our place!" So we drank our expensicve drinks and wwent home to the vodka! Went back out to the bars...met some people from all over the place, it was fun...dunno when we got home- bars are open until like 6am or something...
To be continued...
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Ha!
I wanted to take this opportunity to let everyone know that Dave and I are currently laying on a beautiful black sand beach surrounded by cliffs!!
...Nursing hangovers :)
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Our first boat and car rides and first octopi!!
Erin and I woke up wayyyy early this morning, 5.30am!! Sick!! Pam- our room mate at the new hostel- did I ell you about her?? I dunno, she's pretty cool, quit her job on corporate banking to travel...pretty sweet!! Anyways, we all got up early as we were all taking the same ferry. We got dressed and walked to the train station, took it to Pireaus where we boarded our ferry- our first boat ride of the trip!!! And now that I think about it, there prolly won't be very many boats involved in this trip. Anyways, the ferry departed at 7.30am, it stopped at a couple of the other Greek Islands on the way to the last stop, Santorini, which is where Dave and I were heading. Pam disembarked at around noon, when we stopped at Paros...dave and I continued sitting in the same seat for another 3 hours after those 5...yes, an 8 hour ferry ride! There were several families with young kids on the ferry, one of which was just not at all cute- do all parents think there kids are cute? Even if they are ugly? Just wondering...
If you think the smoking is bad in America you should come to Europe and sit inside a ferry full of Greeks chain smoking for 8 hours. As you can imagine, it was quite the experience!! It was a choice between sitting inside and getting lung cancer or sitting outside in the Mediteranean sun for 8 hours and get skin cancer. We decided inside today and outside tomorrow on the beach...figured we'd balance it out a little.
Dave taught me 2 new card games today and I beat her at both of them :)
We arrived safely, Dave pointed out this island type thing which I told her looked like a pile of poop..we later found out that its a volcano hahaha. The dude from our hotel- yes, hotel, not hostel, no typo here- picked us up at the port in a van- hooray!! First car ride!! And he pointed some stuff out to us on the drive to the hotel- such as the volcanic pile of poop. The hotel is quaint, cute, and it has a pool and free internet!! Air conditioning, a TV, mini closet and mini fridge all in the room!!! We have only stayed in 2 hostels so far and I know that we will have a lot of hostelling to deal with, but I appreciate this hotel fully!! And its the same prioce as the hostel we were in last night but 100 times better!! We are staying her 2 nights so we will make the most of it for sure!!
Once we had settled in, we wandered around to see where things are...everything is super cute and the views are amazing, there a crazy houses and restaraunts perched on the edge of the cliffs, its really pretty. We saw our first octopi being hung out to dry on clothes lines!
I think I've yet to mention that the Greeks prefer to use their car horns than their brakes...they don't slow down for anything- not cars, people, donkeys, nothing! They just honk! I wonder if Greeks go deaf earlier, on average than other populations because of the excessive honking? Someone should do a study on that. And they drive like psychos, there are millions of mopeds and motorcyles all over the road! And they just honk, honk, hoooonkkkkk!
Anyways, dave and I grabbed a gyro for dinner- yummy! Then bought some stuff at the supermarket where I used a 50 euro note to pay for a 5euro charge...the chick handed me 25euro change and I was standing there checking it when she said "what's your problem?!" In some glorious form of English, to which I replied, "you owe me 20 more Euro" yeah she wasn't too happy about that and I wish I had been able to say it in Greek damn it!!
Oh, we also got another coffee with Baileys..Starbucks should start serving this, its soooo good!! Yes I realize that would not only be drinking and driving, but also drinking at work...but I'm sure that already happens, as does drunk driving.
Well speaking drinking, dave and I are going to have a couple of drinks and go to the bars.
Will report about that tomorrow, have a goodnight everyone!
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Less miles walked
But still several hundred...maybe even thousands!
Last night I forgot to mention a few things: while in the Acropolis we saw the Church of the Apostles and there was a bell with its string tied sso that you couldn't ring it...well Dave dared me to and, well I mayhave given it a quick 'ding'...and yes, wehave pictures. Also- that the French dude, Matt was apparently a Regional Champion in rowing in Marseille...or at least that's what we think we understood. Also they both invited Dave and I to stay with them when wwe got through the S. Of France in a couple of weeks, so that's pretty cool. AND the cowboy hat came out and is featured in pictures!
This morning we slept late- after a late night w/ the Frenchies. Then we checked out of the hostel and took the metro to Plaka to our new hostel. We had to wait a little for our room to be cleaned so we talked to the lady in the travel center of the hostel- we booked a 3 day, 2 night trip to Santorini which is cheaper than another trip we were looking at and this is more days...hooray. Oh! AND we have our own room in a hotel so we won't have to carry everything important with us all the time and we can take our clothes out of oiu backpacks! Ok I realize that we are only a couple of days into our trip but there are just some things that take a while to get used to. Anyways, we got our room and compared to the 1st hostel (which was 1/2 the price of this one) this room is TINY, we have bunk beds and 1 other roommate who we have yet to meet. But, this hostel is in a great location and I guess that's what matters- I can say that now while I still have money, let's hope I don't regret it later.
Soooo Dave and I walked to Monstiraki and wandered around the market and stores for a while. Taz! We saw a sticker in the back window of a car that had a picture of the original Taz and a caption: "V.I.P on board!!" So naturally we thought of you, and we took a picture. Then came back to the hostel and sat down for a while before going to the Parliment Building to see the changing of the guard. This was pretty cool, they wear a red beret type hat with what kind of looks like a side pony tail of stringy hair hanging down to their waists. There shirt is a tan color and I'd kind of a dress with a belt...although short enough to be a miniskirt. Then they have cream colored wool tights which must be rediculously hot to wear. Their shoes are clogs and have a big pom-pom on the toes! They carry a rifle and have a knife on their belt. Don't worry, I ran up and got a picture with one In case my description is not good enough! After this Dave and I went for a walk around the National Garden....we didn't get very far before deciding to sit for a while. So we sat and before long an old dude sat on the bench opposite us on the other side of the path, and let's just say that he should have been arrested- I'm going to leave out the details.
Moving right along- Davies and I left ASAP and walked, yes, more walking, to the staium where the marathon ended in the 2004 Olympics. Then we wandered around an old part of town which was nice to see. We made our way back towards the hostel and are currently sitting enjoying a Nescafe frape w/ Kahlua- who would have thought that instant coffee could taste so good?! Hahaa-in a cute coffee shop courtyard.
Soon we are going to go shower and go eat our first meal of the day- see dad, none of that 40dollars a day!! :)
I have finished my delicious coffee but it is worrying me because the foam is begining to solidify in the glass...I can only imagine what it is doing to my stomach.
And with that I'm going to go shower andf get ready for the evening. Our ferry to Santorini leaves at 7am tomorrow which means that we have to get up at 5.30-ouch! So, unfortunately tonight may not be quite as exciting as we had hoped.
The cowboy hat has not made an appearance today, although it did ride along on the back of my pack through the train station...
Ok goodbye!
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Ist real day in Athens!!
Last night davies and I went to bed around 9.30 b.c we were sooo tired. About half an hour later our 2 other room mates showed up...I opened the door and it was a girl and a guy and they are French!! And he speaks some English but she doesn't really so I try and explain to them that we only have 1 key and that if we leave then it needs to be given to thje front desk...it wasn't easy since we were exhausted and were trying to work through a language barrier...we finally figure it out and they ask us if we are going out...no! I'm in bed!! So we go back to bed and they are ridiculously loud and get ready for I dunno how long but dave and I were having conversations about them in our sleep...later I went to the bathroom and when I come back Davies is certain that I let Matt in abd that he left Nina somewhere on her own...this isn't the case...they didn't come home until like 4am. Anyways, Dave and I got up early today to conquer The Acropolis, and conquer it we did!!! It was really interesting and soooo old!! Haha it took about 4-5 hours, that place is huge!! We asked a guide where the Temple of Zeus was and she stuck her arm out and said "straight ahead, straight, straight ahead" so we went straight and didn't find it b.c Dave made us turn left and walk up 8500 stairs to where we had been earlier...we give up on Zeus and after walking aimlessly to dead ends, we finally find it (and Hadrians Arch). B.c we weren't looking for it. But they were both really cool. Soo lots of walking and lots of sun and surprisingly several wrong turns. I did however meet a nice man, Alex I took a picture with him so that you can see how good looking he is...then I found out his whole name: Alexander the Great hahahah, his decapitated head from a statue was on display!
After walking around for hours and hours, we decided to continue walking around and we went to Plaka- anoother region of Athens. We found a new hostel here in a lively area so booked that for tomorrow night. After walking about 850000000miles we went back to our hostel and hung out for a while...I found a sweet cowboy hat that someone was throwing out, so that is coming on the trip now...look for it in pics (which won't be posted for a while). Dave taught me a new card game and after I beat her at that she taught me another 'james bond' and ibeat her at that so we gave up on cards and went to Monastiraki. We walked another 850000 miles and finally chose a restaraunt where I got a Greek salad which was delicious and an amazing iced coffee w. Baileys, it was amazing!! Then we came home and Nina and Matt were here so we sat on th balcony and talked about whatever- we worked with the language barrier, I remembered maybe 1/1000000th of the 6 years of French that I took (oh, Bruni, I took 3 years of Russian when I was in high school in England). We talked about some really random stuff and laughed A LOT. So that's about all...tomorrow we are moving to a new location and we are going to figure out a trip to Santorini for a couple of days...
Gooodnight!!
P.s Bruni, there are lots of Hookah stores around here, but uh I'm only travelling with a backpack, otherwise I'd bring one back for you :)
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I made it!!
I am currently in Athens airport, hooray!! My flight from FL to NY was great, it had little TVs in the seat in front which was a touch screen and you could also listen to newly released albums on...pretty sweet. Although we did get stern warnings from the aie stewardess "please touch the screens lightly, do not punch them as there is someone's head on the other side" are you kidding?! And whoever designed the inside of this plane should be informed that it looks like somoeone threw up Skittles and maybe that isn't really the color environment people wanna be in when they are flying haha But all in all things were going well until I got to NY... this is where the problem arose- Davies' plane had to detour b.c the bathrooms broke or something. So that put her to arrive in NY at 5.37pm and our flight from NY to Athens was set to leave at 5.20pm...17mins, you'd think that they'd wait, but no, my flight wouldn't wait for Davies and the other people from her flight, even though my plane didn't end up taking off until 6.25pm- rediculous!!! I thought about creating a scene so that my plane would wait but I didn't feel like getting arrested. So dave missed the flight and I flew to Athens by myself, great start to the trip! Davies got on another flight out of NY last night but it had a layover in Paris, so here I am sitting in Athens waiting for Davies! Although one upside was that I had mine and Dave's seat for the 10 hour flight :) and I read all of "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey and its an AMAZING book!! I couldn't put it down and then i didn't want it to end. But now I'm going to start "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck recomended by Taz :)
Ok well I'm gonna keep people watching and reading at the same time...maybe ill pick up some Greek, some of the lettersd are the same as Russian- is Greek cyrillic too? Maybe that's a dumb question but I don't care, I've been awake for way too long.
Ok, well ill let you know when Dave gets here, hope y'all had a great Labor Day
Byebyebye
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I made it!
I am currently in Athens airport, hooray!! My flight from FL to NY was great, it had little TVs in the seat in front which was a touch screen and you could also listen to newly released albums on...pretty sweet. Although we did get stern warnings from the aie stewardess "please touch the screens lightly, do not punch them as there is someone's head on the other side" are you kidding?! And whoever designed the inside of this plane should be informed that it looks like somoeone threw up Skittles and maybe that isn't really the color environment people wanna be in when they are flying haha But all in all things were going well until I got to NY... this is where the problem arose- Davies' plane had to detour b.c the bathrooms broke or something. So that put her to arrive in NY at 5.37pm and our flight from NY to Athens was set to leave at 5.20pm...17mins, you'd think that they'd wait, but no, my flight wouldn't wait for Davies and the other people from her flight, even though my plane didn't end up taking off until 6.25pm- rediculous!!! I thought about creating a scene so that my plane would wait but I didn't feel like getting arrested. So dave missed the flight and I flew to Athens by myself, great start to the trip! Davies got on another flight out of NY last night but it had a layover in Paris, so here I am sitting in Athens waiting for Davies! Although one upside was that I had mine and Dave's seat for the 10 hour flight :) and I read all of "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey and its an AMAZING book!! I couldn't put it down and then i didn't want it to end. But now I'm going to start "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck recomended by Taz :)
Ok well I'm gonna keep people watching and reading at the same time...maybe ill pick up some Greek, some of the lettersd are the same as Russian- is Greek cyrillic too? Maybe that's a dumb question but I don't care, I've been awake for way too long.
Ok, well ill let you know when Dave gets here, hope y'all had a great Labor Day
Byebyebye
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my last night in a good bed!
This pic was from a fancy dinner last night...our friend, the waiter, had the kitchen make it for me, I thought it was super cute, not to mention
delicious!hooray the e-mail thingy worked!! so now I can e-mail updates w/out paying to use an internet cafe etc!
anyways, tonight is my last night in the US! today was kind of stressful, trying to get everything finished up- which of course, it isn't... but i have my day pack/carry on packed and ready to go, and i just need to make a decision on some clothes- whether to take them or not...its kind of hard to pack for 4 months, 10 countries, and 3 different seasons! but I at least nothing will be as cold as Wisconsin!! I survived walking in 32* water barefoot, so I can survive anything!! or at least this is what I'm telling myself! haha.
ok I really need to go to bed b/c I havent been sleeping well due to excitement, and tomorrow is a hugely massive day for which I will need lots of energy!!
Happy Labor day everyone, don't work too hard, and to those whom it applies, get excited for school to start!! haahahaha, and crew!!!
g'night friends!
Testing the email function
Ok so I'm sending this from my Blueberry to see if I can e-mail a blog post...
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funny quotes
I thought i'd put up one of my fav. pics from Hawaii...this is my friend Crush!! (you all should know about my love for 'Finding Nemo') clearly this was one of the highlights of my trip to Hawaii- the turtles just chill at this one beach up on the North Shore...sooo cool!!
Yesterday my dad and I were sitting outside at Starbucks, and this guy and his 2 kids- a boy maybe like 8, and a girl around 4 or 5, park and walk in...they all look cute and friendly, smile, say hi etc... they go in, get coffee, my dad and I are just sitting there talking, then the little girl throws the door open (in a cute 5 year old way) with her dad following and her brother (who looks like he's bored of his sister and her tantrums) ...the little girl yells "well i dont like you anymore!! i just really don't like you anymore" my dad and I laugh and look at the dad, who kind of puts his hands in the air as if to say 'uhhh i dunno?' but very calmy says "well thats ok honey because i have enough love for the both of us" and she says again "well i still dont like you anymore"...who would have thought Starbucks could have such an affect on a 5 year old?! haha maybe she got denied when she asked for a skim venti caramel macchiato? but anyways, i thought it was cute and really pretty funny.
the next funny quote, was also from a little girl who just started elementary school, so i dunno how old that makes her? but anyways, her name is Ruby and she's super cute and really smart; her dad, Lyle, is a friend of ours who we've known since we moved here, told us the story: "so my mom came over for dinner last night and shes very religious and likes to say Grace before a meal etc but Ruby didn't really want to, she's very liberal...doesnt do religious stuff...so when my mom said to her "Ruby, howcome you don't want to thank Jesus for this lovely meal?" Ruby replied "Grandma, he's your friend. Why don't you thank him." " hahaha, smart kid!
and now from young to old-
tonight my parents and i went to dinner w/ my dad's ex business partner, Brian and his wife, Susan...we were eating dessert and Brian stole the best truffle from Susan's plate when she wasn't looking, when she realized she was eating it, she said "go on then, eat it, and i hope you choke on it, i've got good life insurance on you!!" hahaha, they've been married for i dunno, somewhere around 35 years, clearly a very loving relationship. :)
many of you- specifically rowers- know my love/appreciation for ducks, and today was great!! hahaha, i went to the bank- a different one than the one i thought was being robbed- and right by the front door a mommy duck has nested- in the mulch, so not even off the ground!- and she has 2 baby bright yellow chicks and another egg yet to hatch, it was soooo cute. the staff at the bank have given her feed and put a bowl of water there for them, its sooo cute!! its just kind of surprising that no raccoons etc would get to her, but i guess all ducks nest on the ground so i dunno how that works really? but yeah, it was cute!
soooo tomorrow-Sunday- is my last full day in the states!! craaazy!! I packed my backpack today and it surprisingly is not full and only weighs about 25 pounds! so that gives me plenty of room for souveneirs! hooray! haha riiiight, thats if i wanna carry them around for months! we'll see.
I missed the Badger game tonight and since I never really cared about football I didn't think it would be a big deal, but for some reason it kind of is. This was my last chance to watch a game until next season at the earliest, how crazy is that? I think its not so much the football, as it is being a Badger...while I'll always be a Badger, I'll never be the Badger that I used to be, and thats pretty sad. Graduating and moving on with life is pretty sweet, I mean I'm leaving in
less that 48 hours to go on a trip around the world, which I don't even know when it will end- and thats super cool! But at the same time I miss being w/ all of my friends, team mates and fellow Badgers- on all levels- up in Madtown. Sooo to all of you who are still there, have fun for me, drink some cheap beer from a house on Breese, or the frat would be even better, and enjoy the Badgers- all of them!
