Southern Italy

An 8 am departure after our night in the tents to travel down the coast towards Sorrento.  We stopped at Pompeii along the way.  The city of Pompeii was covered by volcanic ash in 79 AD so quickly that most people could not get out of the city before it killed them.  It also preserved the city for thousands of years so, when they uncovered it in recent times, we were able to see almost exactly how it was back then.  We walked through the streets and saw the gladiator training areas, the theater, storefronts, bakeries, brothels, pipes and water systems, as well as houses that included original decorations.  When they were excavating the city, they started to come across bodies in the ash, so they decided that when they found this, they would fill it in with plaster to get a cast of the bodies.  These casts were so detailed, you could see the clothes and belts these people were wearing, and the one of the dog (so sad!), you could see it’s collar.  These people were trying to take cover as their last living action, you can tell because of how their bodies are positioned.    The thing that amazed me most about being there is that there is a huge city right next to it.  Our tour guide was telling us it’s where he lives, and how dangerous it is because Mount Vesuvius is still active and can erupt any minute, and if it dose, and that ash cloud comes again, it would kill most of the people in the city below because they wouldn’t have enough time to escape.  I can’t believe people still live there!

A bit further down the coast before arriving at Sorrento, our home for 2 nights, and we’re in tents again!  It’s going to be a bit annoying to charge my camera, sitting next to it at any plug I can find, but I’m going to need to because we don’t have any power points again.  We were warned that Southern Italy does things on it’s own time, so getting the bus into town that night was not as reliable as other cities.  The city is adorable, as we have drinks and hang out on the Napoli Bay for a bit, before heading to dinner and then out for a few drinks.

The following day, we took a boat ride to the Island of Capri.  This was no boat ride down the Lewes canal.  I think it was worse than the ferry ride to Santorini, but I made it!!  The plan was to stop at the Blue Grotto along the way.  This is a similar idea to the Blue Cave we went in in Croatia.  The limestone walls of the cave (that is only accessible through a super small entrance from the sea) reflects the light for an amazingly, beautiful sight.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to access it, because the swells in the water were too big to get inside.  I knew that would be the case 5 minutes into the trip!!

We got to the island, and took a convertible taxi ride to the Antecapri and then rode what is essentially a single-seat ski lift to the very top of the mountain.  Again, amazing views on the way up and in every direction!!  On the way back down, we did a lot of window shopping in Antecapri, and Capri after a short bus ride through roads that were so narrow and literally on the edge of a cliff!  Capri is an island where many of the rich and famous people go.  There were lots of expensive shops, and fancy things.  Pictures outside of the restaurants with famous people and the owners of the shops.  We then took the walking path back down to the beach to soak in the amazing water views with all the big fancy yachts.  We spent the rest of afternoon on the beach.  Another rocky one, but the water was as blue and beautiful as ever!!  The boat ride back was better than the one there, things on the water had calmed down a bit.  We had dinner that night at the restaurant that was at our camp site.  It had AMAZING views of Napoli Bay as the sun set over it.  There was even fireworks going off once it got dark.  An early night for all.

The next day we left early so that we could ride down the Amalfi Coast before the narrow roads on the cliff's edge (again!) got too crowded.  Our guide compared the Amalfi coast to Australia's Great Ocean Road.  I've been on both, and bottom line is they're both beautiful!  We went through towns that have pirate's legends connected with them, stopped at a family's fresh fruit stand (best peach I EVER ate)  Everything in Italy is so fresh!!  We stopped in Amalfi in the morning, got cappuccino and pastries from a bakery, checked out the shops and the church, then went for a boat ride, where we were able to see the Amalfi coast from the waters.  It was a bit overcast this day (later to find out possibly caused by some volcanic activity around the corner in Sicily that day).  Despite the unusually not beautiful weather, I decided to go for a swim off the boat.  Ended up climbing up on some sharp rock formations and jumping 20 meters off into the water (totally wouldn't have done it if I wasn't so close to the end of my trip).  We then continued on the coast a bit further to Ravello for another yummy Italian meal, and more amazing views. and gardens.

Due to a road being closed, we had to spend an extra hour on the windy Amalfi coast, which, despite it's beauty, I was not very happy with, but once we were on the highway I began to feel much better.  We finally back to Rome, only a couple hours later than originally scheduled due to our detour.  PS, there is no way in the world that I would EVER drive in Italy.  These roads are RIDICULOUS!!!!  Saw a woman in tears at one point when she held up our bus for about 10 minutes trying to get by her on the narrow ways

And....we did it again!!

Not checking the ticket for our exact flight time, we got to the Athens airport about 5 hours before our flight.  Oops!!  Sally needs to be in charge of this information from now on (good thing this was my last flight before heading home) Sally forgave us since we were able to locate a McDonald’s in the airport.  And, we made our flight, so that helped too.  Better too early than too late!

We made it to Rome with all of our baggage, so life is good.  We checked into Camping Roma at a late enough hour that it was already dark out.  We obviously went for the cheapest place for the night…the tents, thinking this was a great idea.  After struggling a bit in the darkness, we finally found the lights inside, and 3 beds awaited us, but that was about it.  No power point to charge our cameras, and walls that were made of a canvas material.  Perfect for eavesdropping on those around you.  Not so perfect for when you’re trying to sleep, and people in your surrounding tents are singing and chatting, or people are rolling their suitcases on the cobblestone path outside at all hours of the night. 

Athens Take 2

OK, so our final ferry ride was much better than the last one (we also took it easy the night before which helped things out heaps)  And, just our luck, the taxi driver’s were on strike when we arrived at the Athens port.  So, in true backpacker’s style, public transportation it was!  Of course there was a bit of wandering around the streets being sent in opposite directions with our huge packs on before we found out actual place but we made it! And, what’s even better is that what was described as “12 person mixed dorm" (aka 12 beds with boys and girls), was actually our own mini apartment, complete with living room, kitchenette, balcony, 3 beds and…AIRCON!!  Glorious!!  Since we were there around 6 and didn’t even have the entire next day, we decided to venture out and see some sites before settling in.  We went to the Acropolis Museum, which has a lot of statues and artifacts from the actual Acropolis.  It’s also designed identical to the Parthenon, so you can get a feel of how it would have been walking around when the entire structure was in its whole.  It also had amazing views of the Parthenon, as well as the city of Athens around it, which included other ancient buildings and landmarks.

After enjoying our cool rooms, we had an early morning ahead of us if we wanted to get in everything we wanted to do.  Even though we were one of the first ones heading up the hills of the Acropolis, it was still scorching hot!  We made our way up the hills and when we walked through the gate into the Acropolis, the sight literally took my breath away.  These buildings are ginormous! It just blows my mind that they are so big, beautiful, and old.  I think that many people have lost their imagination and creative thinking with all the technology that is available to us today, but people hundreds of years ago had to figure out how they could develop the big and beautiful buildings they wanted to, without the use of machinery or modern tools.  We spent some time checking out the buildings, and the city around us, and sweating at the top.  I got in trouble taking a picture of Ed with the buildings; they even made me delete it!  But, I had some others still! :)

We then made our way to Hadrian’s Arch, separating the Roman city from the Greek city, a temple, and the Olympic stadium from the first modern Olympics before making it to the tomb of the unknown soldier to watch the changing of the guards.  It was right on a square where pigeons gathered and people were standing there selling you bird seed so that the pigeons would come sit on you.  No thank you!!!!  We saw the soldiers in their traditional outfits, and watched the ceremony of them changing and felt bad for them in the scorching heat!  A little cruise through the shops before heading back for our bags and plane to Italy!

This day helped Athens to redeem itself for me.  If you ever go, I wouldn’t recommend staying down by the port (unless you have an early ferry!) and sticking close to the Acropolis and surrounding area instead.  I wish I got to tour the 2000 Olympic stadiums (since we know I LOVE the Olympics) but I guess I’ll have to leave that for next time! J

6 weeks down...

I wish 6 weeks during the school year could go as fast as the 6 weeks I just had!

We spent the last 3 nights in Ios at another camp site.  This was was high class compared to the one we stayed in in Mykonos.  Our bungalow had a fan!!!  I don't know what I'm going to do with myself once I get air conditioning.  Probably freeze to death! Ios is nice, it finally has beaches with real sand!  There's not much on this island besides bars, so we sat mainly sat by the pool most of the day, and headed out at night (or the wee hours of the morning).  A lot of Aussies work on the island, I find it quite ironic that I'm in Greece and surrounded by Australians.  I think I've probably learned more about their culture now than I did when I was studying there. 

We're leaving today on a ferry for Athens.  Spending one night there, speed touring tomorrow, as our plane leaves Athens around 6 pm.  Some girls from my Croatia cruise I ran into at Mykonos and was telling me that she got into Athens the day after me, and wasn't able to leave the airport because the taxi drivers were on strike and she wouldn't be able to get back in to catch her next flight out.  We also got word in Santorini that the Ferry boats were striking and causing peoples ferry's to be super late.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly for us over the next 36 hours while we're still in Greece.

Our next stop (and my final) is Italy.  We're taking a 3-day tour of the western coast, then a couple days in Rome (not enough time I'm sure!)  Then, finally home again August 3rd!  See everyone soon!

in LOVE with Santorini

So yesterday we arrived and didn't do too much.  Layed by the pool most of the day, walked down to the shops that are by our place, saw the beach with the black volcanic ash shore.  It was nice.

Today, I believe, has topped the Lycian Trail in Turkey as my favorite day so far.  We wanted to rent vehicles for the day so we could explore the island.  After seeing tons of people with road rash up and down their arms and legs and hearing scooter stories, we decided that 4 wheels were better than 2, and went for the ATVs.  It was the best 25 euro I spent so far!  Don't worry Mom, I wore my helmet all day :).  The first thing we did was dropoff our laundry.  Yes, I've only done proper laundry twice since I've been away, things are beyond dirty at this point; but like I've said, our standards are lower when you're living out of the one bag on your back.  My beach towel is as stiff as a board with all the salt that it has soaked up from weeks of swimming, but I still have a shirt to put on my back every day, so life is good. 

Then we headed up to Pirgos.  The highest point on the island that you can see the entire thing from, as well as the volcano next to it and other nearby islands.  It was a bit scary climbing up (well putzing really on my little 50 cc's ) while on the edge of a cliff and busses passing by, but we made it to the top for some great views!  We then headed to the capital of the island, Fira, for some sight seeing and some shopping.  It was PACKED with tourists, and made me glad to be on the quite side of the island. 

My father has spoiled me with nice jewelry for too long!!  I'm blaming today's shopping spree on you, Dad!  I broke the budget big time and bought myself a nice necklace.  I figure that my favorite piece of jewelry is the cameo that Boppa bought for Nana when he was in Italy during his service, that my dad had turned into necklaces for me, my mom, sister, aunts and niece.  So maybe my jewelry will last longer than me and still be loved, too.

We then cruised around the island a bit more, taking in the beautiful views.  We headed to the Red Beach, and a lighthouse with amazing views on the east side of the island.  After a bit more riding around, and some lounging by the pool, we had dinner with a view and watched the beautiful sunset.  Meg told me before I left, make sure you don't miss sunset, it's an event! And she was right!  We all agreed that today was a GREAT day.  And tomorrow we're touring from 10a-10p, so it's bound to be another great one, too.  Especially now with clean clothes :).

"Athens is ugly"

This is what I texted Marnie from the next bed in our hotel room when we got there.  Before I left, Meg told me that Athen's was not going to be my favorite spot, and she was right.  To give it some credit, I have only seen the city through a bus window from the airport to the port, but there's lots of a graffiti, and trash everywhere.  Big buildings that aren't nice to look at, and then the occasional pretty church. We'll do some more touristy things once we're done in the Greek Islands in Athens, so I hope that will make my opinion of it better.

The girls had quite the eventful traveling day trying to get to Athens, with a layover, a late plane, super long lines, and nearly missing their connecting.  Mine was a direct flight, quite peaceful, and it wasn't on a budget airline, so I even got a free drink and snack, leg room, and the ability to recline.  It was a great flight!!  Trying to find our hotel, with an address written in English, and all street signs written in Greek was a bit of a challenge.  After walking around with our giant packs for 45 minutes, we decided to just get a cab.  It took a couple cab drivers before they also knew where our hotel was, and he literally drove us about 4 blocks, but it was worth the 5 euro, especially since it was getting dark.

In the morning we caught our ferry to Mykonos.  Mykonos puts Dewey Beach to shame as a party town. It's insane, and we were staying at Paradise Beach, in the center of it all, with people coming and going at every hour.  3 nights there was more than enough.  I think I'm getting too old for this!  The bathrooms and showers were shared, and disgusting to say the least.  Oh, and I left one of my shower shoes in Croatia, so my Rainbows would just get wet!  We stayed in bungalows that had no AC, but did have electricity. I think my room is also located inside a mosquito's nest.  I am COVERED in bug bites and they are not fun!!

It took about a month, but I finally ran into someone I knew!!  I was eating breakfast on the beach one morning, people watching.  And I see someone with a Delaware Basketball t-shirt on.  I could hardly believe it!!  Then I realized I recognized him, and looked to the girl behind him and saw that it was a girl that was in my major at school.  They were on their honeymoon and only in town for the day.  Small world!!!

The islands are more like the Greece you picture.  The little white houses with blue shutters and doors.  They remind me of Nana and Boppa's house.  The streets are narrow and people are riding little scooters through them.  We arrived in Santorini this morning after a not so fun boat ride.  The little boy in front of us didn't find it fun either.  Thank god for an iPod today!  Santorini is a quite little island with black volcanic ash beaches.  Our place is beautiful!  We're laying by the pool and relaxing now and are going to do some exploring over the next couple of days.

I'm on a boat

The Croatian Cruise has come to an end.  I was able to do a bit of sight-seeing, and we have an extra night in Dubrovnik now before we're off to the Greek Islands.  I didn't keep the best journal while I was here, in spite of having nothing but free time, but here are some highlights.

As an overview, I am (again) the only American.  I think I'll be eligible for my Australian passport here soon!  All Aussies, a few Kiwi's, and a guy from Switzerland (Casper-hah).  The bed is barely big enough for my 5 foot 6 inches, and the entire room, with the Wash Closet is about the size of my master bath at home, a bit smaller, actually.  The bathroom smells so badly, that there are no words for it.  The showerhead is removable and located directly in between the sink and the toilet, with less than a foot of space between.  Airflow is minimal, so we keep our door open everynight.  And somehow, we were lucky enough to always be in the position at port to allow the first rays of sunshine (and heat) to entire our room first.  But, apparently it's worse in the cabins underneath the deck.  Most of the people staying there, bring all of their things out at night and find space to sleep on rafts, etc throughout the deck.  Less than ideal living conditions, especially compared to some of the boats we walked through at the ports, but our boat (Ika) had a lot of character, and it makes for good stories. :)  Every morning, we set sail from one island to the next, stopping a few times in the middle of the open waters to swim.  Not a whole lot of productivity going on.  Laziness breeds laziness, I suppose that's why my journal wasn't done.  And doing nothing all day made me a bit tired, but it was great.

Through the cruise we docked at the cities of Split, Omis, Bvac, Mokorska, Vis, Kazula, Mijet, Dubrovnik 

7/9 Day 1: Split-Omis-Pucsica

Our boat had to wait a while for a woman.  Her first flight ended up being late, and she missed all of her connectings which was in no way convienent, and her luggage was lost to top it all off.  But, she was not too upset about it, happens that her family is Croatian, spoke the language, making things, I'm sure, much less stressful than they could have been.  Stopped briefly at Omis then an overnight in Pucsica. Quaint and quiet little island.  They get the stones for building the White House from here.  At least that's what I understood our tour guide to say.  A little drinking Uno on Marnie's boat, the Plomin, and a bar for a bit, but a pretty quiet night all together.

7/10 Day 2: Pucsica-Makarska

It's tough sleeping in the cramped quarters, but I didn't mind it too much, getting up in time for breakfast, and sitting in the front of the boat in the sun, with the breeze of the boat in the water before it got too hot.  Met up with Marnie, Sally, her sister Rachael, and her bf Chris for a little seafood dinner, then headed back to my boat for Happy Hour.  Rave in a Cave was the main attraction here.  I found it a bit over-rated, but the concept was cool.  A cave from an old war site was turned into a bar.

7/11 Day 3: Makarska-Hvar

Hvar is the island of Lavendar (Thought of you Meg and Nicole and wishing we saw the Lavendar fields!!).  It's also one of the top 10 islands in the world.  There's a fortress there that I hiked up to that had  AMAZING views of the city.  At one point (Ican't remember the dates, but my dad always said they weren't that important anyhow) it was used to protect the citizens from attacks on their city.  It was the only part of the city to survive.  Unfortunately, a few years after that, the gun powder room of the castle was struck by lightening, and it was destroyed.  What luck!!  It had GREAT views, and a museum of the jail in the castle and things found from nearby shipwrecks.  I also met a couple there from DC, so chatted with them for a bit.  It was well worth the sweaty hike up the mountain, and the slippery slope in my thread bare sandals on the way down.  Dinner and out with my boat.


7/12 Day 4: Hvar-Vis

Stopped for a swim stop and a day trip today.  We were ferried across to the island to check out the Blue Cave.  About that, people in Croatia apparently don't believe in lines or any sort of fair system to do things so despite waiting in a blob for over an hour in the hot sun, with no regards as to who got their or bout their tickets first or anything.  After over an hour in the hot sun with no shade of pushing and fighting and trying to get on a boat into the Blue Cave, we decided to turn our tickets in and call it a day. The first mate on our boat, Igor (yes-the name is great!), was going to just take us back to the boat in the dingy. He decided first that we would try to go in ourselves, with success. Getting into the cave required good timing, making sure the tide was low enough for our boat to fit under, as well as all of us ducking so that we didn't get hit by the rocks on the way in. Once we were in, we were put to work, unlike the others in the guided boats (good thing I've had practice on The Storm Runner). We had to make sure our little dingy, with intertube sides, didn't hit the rocks in the cave, and had to navigate the narrow ways with the other bigger boats.  Igor decided to do some donuts in the cave, but got yelled at to turn off his motor inside, so he gave 2 of us oars and put us to work (good thing I've had practice canoeing down the Brandywine)!  It was beautiful inside the cave.  Darkness everywhere, as you would imagine a cave to be, with unreal light coming from the bottom to show off the beautiful blue of the water inside, my pictures don't do it justice. I'm glad we went in, and I really liked doing it with Igor and the other 3 girls, made for more of an adveture. :)

Heaps of shipwrecks (6 I think) in the port of Vis and the town is adorable, with quaint little streets that aren't big enough for cars.  And houses that are plain in color, but then brightened up with their vibrant shutters and doors, my favorite!  Loved it!  A quiet night on the boat that night, sitting on the deck and chatting with everyone.  It even got a little chilly.

7/13 Vis-Korcula

This is where the explorer Marco Polo was from, so almost everything here is all about him.  It's apparently famous for it's pizza (a lot of Italian influence here).  After dinner, we climbed to the top of a castel tower (had to climb up a proper ladder, I have no idea how the waiter's get drinks up there!) to watch the sunset.  It was a bit scary b/c there wasn't any railing really around the top, and it dropped down to the rocks below, but everyone was fine, and the view and sunset were great!  Went to Dos Locos after sunset (NOT the one on the Avenue, but it did make me thing ok home), along with every other boat in the port it seemed.  The place was PACKED with Aussies, but it was a good time still.

7/14 Korcula- Mljet

We woke up this morning with the news that 20 people died in Croatia yesterday due to the intense heat, so I kept mostly to the shade.  We made it to our destination, home to a National Park.  We walked around inside, not as much as I would have liked bc no one else wanted to hire a bike with me, but it was still really nice.  There's two lakes inside, that used to be fresh water, but then they built a canal from them to the sea, so now they're super salty like all their other water.  There was a small canal connecting the two lakes with a current that you could ride between, and was quite fun!  We also caught a ferry boat across the big lake to check out the church that was there.  Another quiet town, and a night hanging around on the boat. 

7/15 Mljet-Dubrovnik

Got a bit of a history lesson here.  I won't bore you with the details, you can do your own research, but at one point I heard "Croatia finally got their shit together and became their own nation", it made me laugh.  I think that's the first for any history lesson I've heard.  We were a bit off the beaten path so had to catch a bus to Old Town.  Old town has lots of shops, markets, restaurants, etc.  It's VERY hot inside because it's surrounded by walls, allowin no breeze to get in.  The walls, and some buildings at one point in time were destroyed by earth quakes and had to be rebuilt.  Some were also destroyed in the wars.  We went to a War Photograph museum that was incredible, for lack of a better word.  It's not a great word , in the sense that incredible makes me think of good things, and the pictures and this war was anything but good.  The thing that really hit home the most was that the war took place during my lifetime.  And the years they gave us in the description of these pictures were the years I was growing up, graduating high school, and living and nice safe life in smalltown USA.  Whereas, Igor (our first mate and a year older than I am) is telling us stories about how his family had to go into hiding for as long as 6 months at a time.  And he used to collect things and hide them under his bed, he told me the yellow granades were his favorite.  It's so scary to think about

We then walked the 2 km (I swear it was longer!) in the heat on top of the wall, around the town with increadible views of the city and the sea.  I was sweating from every pore by the end of our walk, but I'm glad that we did it!  Had a final dinner with the boat, then headed out with them.  Had some bucket drinks that I think the Rudder needs to catch on to, and one final night on the boat!!

7/16 Reunited with my Aussie crew, that were on the other Busabout boat the whole time.  One more night in Dubrovnik with them in a cute little apartment just outside Old Town with them.  Walked around town a bit more.  Saw some weddings going on, they came out into the streets for singing, dancing and drinking after the ceremony.  It looked like such fun!!  Tomorrow we're off to the Greek Islands!!