The Travels

I realize the point of a blog is to regularly update to keep people informed, but instead I thought it would be more fun if I did one big SUPER POST to catch up at the end of my travels. So if any of you are still very curious about what we did, here it is!

ATHENS, August 30 – September 2
On September 2nd, we flew into Athens. We got into our hostel, Athens Backpackers, around 10pm. Here we encountered the first, but certainly not the last, big group of Australians.

After seeing the Acropolis from the rooftop bar, we found a nearby restaurant called “Smile.” The owner sat a table away smoking her cigarette and chatting with us while we had pita kebab, musaka, and kalamari. The highlight of the evening was when an old greek man, claiming to be her nephew, snapped and danced around the restaurant before riding his motorcycle inside to put it away for the night.

The rest of Athens included beaches (using the mini towel I packed as a beach towel was quite a challenge), ruins, and a long dinner at the Plaka.

SYROS, September 2-4
Two lessons we learned on our ferry ride to Syros:
1. Sitting behind the section of rail where the car ramp folds up in front of does not provide a nice view.
2. If you sit out on the deck packed with smokers and grease smells from Goody’s, you will get sick and/or ashed on.

Any troubles on the ferry were forgotten once we arrived at Kosmos, the hotel run by Mary and Tony, family friends of Dan. We also got to meet Franco (“Frankie Boy”) Dan’s award winning donkey that lives in a field across the street from Kosmos.

Tony took us to rent scooters, and it was a rough start. (I had a bit of a run in with a stone wall at Syros, and later fell over in an intersection in front of another oncoming bike) The house we were staying in provided a gorgeous view of the island, but also included many windy, winding mountain roads that forced me to be scooter savvy very quickly. On our second night ride, singing any song I could remember enough lyrics to loudly remedied the feeling of impending doom I had with each sharp turn. After I accepted being the slow one out of the three of us, I could appreciate the view and actually became fond of our scooter rides.

Our last night in Syros, we watched the sunset from a mountaintop restaurant. The waiter (the only other person with adult braces I’ve seen in Europe) brought us complimentary Ouzo and ice cream and the end of our meal. The night finished perfectly with a second dinner of Ouzo and Octopus with Tony and Mary. (and plenty of “yamas!” the Greek “cheers!”)

Seeing the sun rise over the ocean from just outside our room is one of my most beautiful memories of the trip, and a perfect end to our time in Syros. Tony came to pick up our backpacks and we took one last ride down the mountain. Luckily, I missed a turn on the way back so I didn’t see the dramatic end (Dan slide braking between two cars) to Charlie and Dan’s last race.

Tony and Mary gave us Syros shot glasses and bouquets of Kosmos flowers before we left. Their overwhelming hospitality (our last night they told me I should stay and be their daughter) made Syros a very special place. Mary told us that now we are traveling, but someday we must come to Syros and vacation. Syros is a favorite place of this trip, and I hope that someday I will be able to come back and spend more time there.

MYKONOS, September 4-5
The ferry ride to Mykonos was much more pleasant, since we learned to sit away from smokers and fast food. Although Mykonos is known as an exapensive party island (I heard it described as a floating San Francisco) we had a relaxing day on the beach and in the pool of our place. The T.V. in our room presented Smurfs in Greek, and the first English news we had seen since we left. An English infomercial also incited the ongoing discussion of women and body shapers.

NAPLES, September 5-6
Our stay in Naples was brief, but we stayed in the Hostel of the Sun, which was our favorite of the trip. The night we were there, they had free pasta and wine for all the guests. We also experienced our first actual Italian pizza in Naples. After a travel book warned, “do not leave your belongings out in the open in a car or they will get stolen. This goes double for Italy, triple for Naples,” we were happy to leave with all of our things still with us.

SORRENTO, AMALFI, POSITANO, September 6-7
On a crowded street, a little girl ran into me and I responded, “scuzi!” but it looked much more like I arm checked her. This marks the birth of the “scuzi arm,” a term we used often in crowded Italian situations.

On the way to Amalfi, I was amazed at our giant bus’ ability to wind around mountain roads that I wouldn’t attempt on a scooter. Sometimes, when it seemed only space for one car, two buses would pass each other.
In Amalfi, I enjoyed “COOKIES” gelato (Dan and my favorite kind) while we overheard some entertaining American couples discuss their espresso. “That’s the smallest coffee I’ve ever seen.” “Well, honey, it’s a shot of espresso.” “A shot? More like a Mormon shot.”

We were only able to see Positano from the bus window, since the buses became more and more crowded as the day went on. We could best describe our fellow tourists as aggressive, pushy, British zombies as they all heaped up against the sides of the buses chanting, “Positaaaaaano, does this go to Positaaaano?” It was definitely a time for the scuzi arm.

It rained in Sorrento, so we spent the night playing cards in our hostel, Mami Camilla, and enjoying a four-course dinner cooked by the people there. Mami Camilla runs a world-renown cooking school where students from all over come for externships. Our room was mostly cooking students from Chicago, so we felt a lot like we were crashing in someone else’s dorm.

POMPEII, September 7-8
Once we got to Pompeii, we spent a good chunk of time wandering around with our backpacks trying to find our hostel. We were misdirected by the tourism office, and then told by a travel agency “go to this church- here, they will tell you how to get there.” Our mystical hostel-locating journey finally ended with an old man at a newsstand telling us the final location. This hostel didn’t have co-ed rooms, so I ended up having a 12-bed suite all to myself.

We spent a gorgeous afternoon wandering around the ruins of Pompeii. They were out of audio guides, so we became information scavengers-hanging around various English speaking tour groups gleaning whatever information we could as we pretended to take a photo or look the other way.

ROME, September 8-10
The aggressive, threateningly youthful nature of the Yellow Hostel made us all smile. Some excerpts from the paper we got with our keys are “Free Internet? Fuck Yeah!” and “If Mr. T and David Hasselhof got into a tag team battle with Chuck Norris and McGyver, then made up for it after an embarrassing night fueled by alcohol – their offspring, would be this shot.” (A description of the Yellow Bar’s signature shot, the Chuck Norris round house kick to the face, available at a “fucking awesome price.”)

Rome is where I really began to notice what I believe is travel-induced narcolepsy. Whenever I sat down in one place too long, whether it be on a plane, train bus, or in a bar watching football, I would fall asleep. This-along with a terrible sense of direction, are just some of the reasons I was glad not to travel alone.

The first highlight of Rome was the crypt of the Cappucians, a five room crypt that is decorated with lamps and wall hangings made out of the skeletons of over 4,000 people. Despite the beautiful monuments we saw, some of our favorite sights involved the people there. We saw a couple, both dressed in all white and approximately 18 years old, groping each other at the Trevi fountain. The place was packed, and unsuspecting tourists were sitting next to them getting pictures with the fountain as the guy mounted the girl, pretending to describe the fountain to her for a more stealthy groping experience.

Despite multiple warning about gangs of child thieves at the Termini train station, it only provided us with free mini Coke Light (Diet Coke) cans and the sight of a middle aged, heavyset woman nonchalantly wandering in sans any pants or underwear. We were all grateful we saw her, and just as grateful we only saw her backside.

Our last day in Rome, we took a tour of the Vatican. The Sistene Chapel was full of guards sternly commanding, “no cameras! shhhhh” and people trying to sneak flash pictures in a dim room and not shushing. The most breathtaking part of the Vatican was St. Peter’s Basilica, especially Michelangelo’s Pieta.

VENICE, September 10-13
On the train to Venice, Charlie and I taught Dan how to play the card game Oh Hell and eventually ended up playing with a very nice Romanian around our age. She was a an Aveda hairdresser and off to visit a friend.

We arrived in Venice at night, which made the place all that more mystical when we wandered through the streets. It was slightly spooky, but we joked that, considering the setting, it would be more likely for us to get mugged by a gang of old timey pirates than anything else. The bizarre atmosphere of Venice continued when we found Clara, who led us to the Residenza Maddelena.

When I picture Clara, all I can see is a cloud of curly brown hair, large glasses, and scurrying. The hostel was also memorable. There were little notes everywhere, including, “open gently” on the shower curtain and “please close” on the inside of the toilet lid. Our breakfast snack was a pre-wrapped ten to a pack pastry with something that tried its best to be apple filling and three mini mugs of coffee. The doilies on the pink night tables and Dan’s child sized teddy bear blanket made it feel as if we were staying in a grandmother’s house that had triplet girls stay in our room many years ago.

Venice also had things to offer outside the wondrous Residenza Maddelena. We happened to be in town the same night Ennio Marriconi, a composer of famous music for western films, was having an outdoor concert. So, as we leaned against the outside gates (we were too cheap to buy real tickets) we were engulfed with epic western music in San Marco’s Square.

Our trip to the glass blowing island of Murano gave us a chance to ride a waterbus, aka vaporetto. The hard knock life of the vaporetto includes crowds, slow transit, and being judged by the high brows willing to drop 80-100 euro for a gondola or water taxi. Luckily, my favorite part of the Murano, a glass blowing demonstration in which the guide explained, “the little man is the master” was free.

FLORENCE, September 13-15
Florence was chocked full of museums, and within the first few hours we were there we got to see Michelangelo’s David, my favorite sight in the city. A close second would be the topless street fight we walked by on the way to the Uffizi the next day. We aren’t sure if the woman’s shirt was ripped off in the fight, or if she took it off for more effective fighting. However, we do know that the Florence never moves with more alacrity than when responding to a topless fight.

PISA, LEVANTO, CINQUE TERRE September 15-17
We spent about a half hour in Pisa looking at people pretending to hold up the tower before heading for the beaches of Levanto. Tired of using mini towels for beach blankets, Dan decided the blanket in our room was also giant beach towel. So begins the legend of moldy blanket.

The next day, we took a gorgeous hike between the towns of Cinque Terre. This was definitely the sweatiest day of the trip, and I think I may have climbed more stairs here than in my life thus far. However, any soreness was well worth the view. Plus, this is where I encountered the prize winning bathrooms my mom warned me about: two footrests and a hole.

NICE, September 17-19
The first full day in Nice we had a few train issues, landing us in at a train station that we think might double as purgatory. After we found our way, we had our last beach day of the trip in Cannes. This was the most beautiful beach we visited, and also had some super tan old people to make me feel better about my powder skin. That night, we went to Monaco to feel really poor and ogle at yachts with helicopters on them.

ARLES, September 19-20
Arles, (after spelling it out to the ticket person at the train station we found out its pronounced ARCGHKH-la) was quaint and lovely. In contrast to the general feel of the town, it is home to the most post cards featuring boobs I have ever seen. We joked about the art direction behind the classy, “boobs wearing mini sunglasses” postcard photograph.

PARIS, September 20-25
Paris was amazing, and too much to describe. Some of the highlights were:
-Watching Rugby on a big screen in front of Hotel Deville.
- Our tour-guide Andy. After making us play the name game, he slowly walked in front of a car trying to run a red and flipped them off, and yelled things at the gypsies like, “Diablo! Diablo! The Gypsies have rabies here!”
- The museums (the best of the entire trip, and so plentiful it was a bit tiring)
- Throwing the Frisbee with what we believe to be a French white supremacist in front of the Eifel Tower (Frisbee brings all people together)
- Our hostel floor that we made seem like a sandy beach with all the cookie and chocolate chip muffin crumbs we covered it with (favorite thing said in the hostel room: “watch out for that muffin chunk.”)