The Ancient city of Athens

J So on our first day in Athens we decided to find the Olympic Stadium, we walked past the Temple of Zeus and Hadrians Arch, and found the stadium, which was only three blocks from our hostel! Talk about awesome location. We took some pictures, did some silly poses (pretending to run) and slowly made our way back.

We had been told by the dude at the hostels reception that it was Aussie night, at first we thought it was some type of theme night but we soon learned that it was Australias independence day and by 8pm the party had filled the first floor and was overflowing onto the street. As we attempted to move about we saw dozens of english speaking people of all ages, it seemed there were people from all over the city just stopping by, most of them were Aussies! Many of them however were locals that just saw a big party and wanted to join in, of course the cheap beer and free meat pies meant those who made it in the door stayed a few hours.

We didn't stay long however as I was still recovering from a head cold and wasn't in the mood to bump elbows with dozens of people. So we headed off to a nearby internet cafe. We found that the payphones in Greece were easy to use with our calling card, but despite that the prices we were getting from the HI calling card were just terrible, and we made a decision that night to start using Skype. The only problem of course with Skype is that it required an internet connection, luckily we found an affordable Cafe and bought a Skype account. Five minutes later we were calling home. After a few hours of surfng and talking with family we headed back to the hostel. We had hoped there was room for us on the bus tour to Delphi, which left at 6:30am. Unfortunately we discovered it was full, so we decided we would spend the next day exploring the sights of Athen.

The next morning it was bright and sunny, we rose early and had breakfast quickly, and soon were on our way toward the Acropolis (which means high point of the city). As we approached the small wooden booth the lady shocked us with the broken english phrase "free today". We nearly fell down the hill in shock at our luck, even the last time we thought we were getting in free to a site we ended up paying (Verona on January 6th). So we spent the next 5 hours taking pictures and exploring the ancient ruins. The weather held up and we enjoyed temperatures in the high teens as we ran around attempting to see all the sights, as we found out later, while we enjoyed the warmth, our friends and family back home in E town were suffering temperatures below the -20°C mark, and the deep freeze hadn't even started.

So we saw the Acropolis (which included the Panthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, Odeum of Herodes Atticus, Theatre of Dionysus) the Athenian Agora, the Roman Agora, and finally the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We stopped at Crepes of the World for lunch and had.. baguettes! lol Later that evening we bought some postcards and stopped at a pharmacy to buy some more medication. Although the head cold I had been suffering was almost gone I had lost most of the hearing in my right ear and after a week started to worry it wouldn't come back. The lady in the white coat gave me a nasal spray which I added to my collection of Greek medications I was on.

The next day as we had seen all the archelogical sights we had planned on seeing we headed out too see a few museums, however like previous attempts we ended up only seeing one. Luckily we chose the famed National Archaeological Museum of Athens to start our day. Our guide book led us to believe it was open to 7:30pm, which it may have been had it been summer, but for some reason (like most of the sights in Greece) it closed quite early due to it being low season.
We enjoyed the museum, which had many sculptures of stone and bronze, some of which had been found on the bottom of the sea floor, being lost centuries ago due to shipwrecks. At one point we followed a school group that had a guide speaking in English, we kept a distance and looked at other artifacts all the while listening intently as he explained the significance of a pair of gold mugs. We were pleased that most displays had english explanations (as well as Greek), and allowed us to take pictures (no flash of course). After leaving we decided that the musem ranked as one of our favorite, although the food in the cafeteria cost a small fortune.

Later that evening we cooked some dinner at the Hostel and after writing on some postcards we returned to the lounge area were we met some other backpackers and chatted until bedtime.

M Our group in the lounge area was composed of an Irishman, a Kiwi couple, an Aussie, and an American guy. The American was funny. He was living in Germany and studying German. After a lengthy discussion regarding the importance of learning languages he expressed guilt over only knowing English. I replied that after traveling Europe, and experiencing so many languages, you can't hope to learn them all, but at least you should know the basics, such as "efcharisto" (ef-hah-ree-STO). To which he replied "what does that mean?". I laughed and said "thank you, in Greek".

Another day in Athens, and I was starting to come down with the cold that Jes was slowly getting rid of, so we took it easy. We went walking around looking at a few ruins. We decided that it would be good to find a computer shop to buy a Skype compatible phone, Jes convinced me that it would be more hygenic but the main reason was not all computers have headsets.

We looked around at a few places, and with the help of the very friendly Greeks pointing us the right way found the place and bought one. By this time though it was mid afternoon and my cold was comming on strong. So we went to our favorite place, the internet cafe! I relaxed (half out of it), barley paying attention to what Jes was doing on the computer as he booked a hostel in Bangkok and did some research on a possible rondeveau with my sister in Japan. Then we went back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit, after dinner we ventured out for a walk around the acropolis at night, only part of the walk was lit, so we strolled back after taking some pictures, and headed to bed.

Our next day we were up early and ready to go to Delpi on the 10:30am bus.

J We left the hostel at 9:30am, giving ourselves plenty of time (so we thought) to get to the bus station and catch the 10:30am bus towards Delphi. We got to the bus stop that our map indicated would take us to the bus station and started to wait. It then dawned on us we didn't have a bus ticket, so I left Michelle to babysit the bags and ran off in search of a Tabacco shop or other small convinence store that might sell them. A minute later I was back at the stop, with a story, as the owner of the small stall up the street liked my travel hat (that has pins from most of the countries we have visited) and as I attempted to buy bus tickets from him, he attempted to buy my hat off me. lol

So we waited, and waited, and waited. Almost an hour had gone by and still no bus #24. We had seen it go by on the other side of the street, but we assumed that it was headed toward another bus station, on a different route. The bus stop we were at indicated that the bus did stop on our side of the street, but it had been 50 minutes and no bus. So we decided to ask the locals for help, Michelle talked to a few ladies in the travel agency beside us, with no luck. I asked the elderly gentlemen who was waiting at the stop and he indicated we should go across the street! So we waited for a break in traffic and headed across the 6 lanes of traffic (3 each way). We had just got to the other side of the street when sure enough, the #24 pulled up on the other side we had been waiting at! Frustrated, we decided to return to the proper side of the street, knowing we had definately missed our 10:30 bus anyway. To our amazement not 5 minutes after the first bus had left, another #24 pulled up and we jumped on.

I asked the bus driver "Terminal B", but he was completely clueless as to what I was communicating, or so I thought. We watched as the bus winded around the busy streets when suddenly at a stop the driver gave a yell to us and pointed at the open door, we snatched up our bags and shouted thank you (in Greek) as we jumped off. Again we were lost though as there was no indication of a bus terminal and the feeling of nausea started to creep over me when the elderly gentlemen on the sidewalk pointed around the corner. We gave him a head nod and followed the finger around the corner, there was the bus station.

After buying our tickets for the 1:00pm bus to Delphi we grabbed some seats at a local pub/Cafe and had a cold drink as we passed the time. The owner had a small song bird in a cage outside and it entertained us while we sewed on a few Canadian flags that had been sitting in our bags since we left in September. The sun was out in force again and we basked in it, the two hours flew by and before we knew it we were on a winding mountain road, heading toward Delphi.

Patras, Olympia and Nafplion with a head cold

M So we arrive in Patras at 5:45am. It is dark, the tourist information is closed, we don't have a place to stay (even if we did we could not check in until the afternoon anyways), and the place looks mostly deserted. Decided to head to the train station and see if there was a train going somewhere we wanted to go. Both of us were so tired we sat at the train station arguing over what our options were and trying to read the screen which was in Greek, but luckily did flip to English letters. Jes was just starting to get a head cold so was even more out of it. We decided to try going to the hostel that was mentioned in our guide book.

The first Greeks we met were 2 teenage guys who were sitting outside at a bench, yes at 6:30 am and Jes thought as we approached they might just decide to rob us. On the contrary they asked "American?". We said "no, Canadian", and they responded "Welcome to Greek". They were the first of many friendly Greeks we were to meet that day. We wandered, and ended up again in a not-so-nice part of town. Then we saw it.. a total God sent.. nope not the hostel, but an internet cafe open 24hrs. We spent the next 4 hours in there having a coffee, using the internet, and Jes met a guy who played WOW. They hit it off really well, and shared how the game sucks up time in thier lives. By the time we left our new friend gave us a ride in his car to the hostel, which would have been quite a walk.

This hostel was the worst hostel we have stayed in yet. Sure it was only 10 euro each, making it one of the cheapest, but the bedding looked dirty (so we paid extra for clean sheets), the bunk beds looked like they were out of the 60's, the owner smelled of alcohol, there was no hot water, it was so cold I slept with my hoodie on with the hood up, and the showers well, let's just say I refused to take one. Oh and did I mention the mold all over the celling? Anyways, it was good that Jes and I were the only one's in our 6 bed room, as his head cold was getting worse and he would have kept our roommates up all night coughing and blowing his nose.

After having a nap we ventured out to see some of Patras, which is really a nice city. We saw a huge Greek Orthodox church which was beautiful, and enjoyed a slow stroll along the beach. We ate some slovaki and got a few groceries, but by 8pm Jes was so sick and weak that he needed to go to bed. So back to the hostel, and I spent the evening reading, planning, and making us sandwiches for the next day.

The next morning we were on a train to Olympia. Again we did not have a place to stay, and we were just going to wing it. This seems to be a common theme lately, but we are finding a real lack of hostels in Greece anywhere outside of Athens. But what did we find when we got off the train? Four backpackers with Canadian flags on their packs. They pointed us in the direction of the hotel that they had found for a decent price. Speaking of seeing other Canadians, we have a test, as we have actually run into Americans who claim to be Canadians while traveling! We ask the "Canadians" if they know what a toque, chesterfield and inukshuk are. We have not met an American yet who knows any of these things.

So we found the hotel, which turns out would have been easy, as Olympia, the home of the first Olympics is nothing but a small tourist town, and at this time of year is a bit of a ghost town. After ditching our bags we were off to see the famous archaeological site of the origional Olympics. It was neat, but to be honest there is not much left after being rampaged back in the 400's when it was destroyed by order of the emperor, and afterward struck by 2 earthquakes. After taking our time strolling around the site, it was off to the museum, only to find it closed at 3pm. Darn off-season-traveling. So we took it slow as Jes was getting worse by the hour coughing none stop and blowing his nose constantly. After a rest at the hotel we went out for dinner. On our way home we met a Greek taxi driver who talked to us for about an hour on the street. He was so dramatic with his hand guestures it made us giggle as we reminised about him later. Then it was bed time for us at about 9:30pm.

The next morning we went to the museum of the history of the Olympic games. It was very interesting. First though we stopped by a pharmacy to get Jes some stronger drugs as what we brought with us was not doing the job.

J We left Olympia and started our journey east, which ended up taking a lot longer then we had hoped. Some of the trains in Greece simply were not operating at this time of year, that meant the only way we were going to see some of the other major towns in the Peloponnese area was by bus. So after waiting almost two hours we were on the next train back to Patras, from there north-east towards Corinth, and finally after a short bus ride we arrived in the small but touristy town of Nafplion. We had met 2 Americans on the train and enjoyed their company as we searched for our hotel. It was another night of not much sleep with my cold, but the new drugs seem to help slightly.

Our first day in Nafplio(n) we did almost nothing, and spent a good portion of the day resting. We spent some time at the local internet cafe, (our favorite thing to do in Greece apparently), went for a short walk, and then I passed out in the hotel room while Mich went in search of the laundramat. She found one fortunately, but not after spending 20 Euros to get there (Taxi) and on two loads of laundry. For some crazy reason the only laundry facilites all seemed to be dry cleaners, which of course aren't cheap even at home. Later we walked the quiet streets of the town, stared up at the eluminated fortress on the hill above us, and then had great dinner out.
During the course of the day I watched about 3-4 hours of CNN, needless to say I'm all educated on the US economic situation, and the situation in Gaza where the Egyptian border was breached. lol

M We decided to forgo our plans to visit 2 nearby towns due to Jesse's cold which was getting better, slowly. We strolled down a beautiful walkway beside the water, lined with numerous cacti. Jesse tried to sample a cactus fruit, but ended up with tiny prickels in his hand. lol We then took a taxi up to the fortress which was 999 steps to the top, and Jes wasn't up for that. We explored the ruins for a couple hours, took some pictures, bought a book, and had a light picnic lunch. Then we took the 999 stairs down, with a few stops on the way to rest. Then after stopping to grab the ipod we headed back to the internet cafe (again) to upload pictures. We went out again, this time at a less fancy, cheaper dinner, then headed for bed.

Tomorrow it's off to Athens!

More Pics added! Check the last few posts for updates!

Coming soon: Our adventures continue in Greece. Patras, Olympia, Nafplion, Athens, Delphi, and more.

Pompeii and a Ferry ride to Greece

J We said goodbye to the beautiful city of Rome, which we were finally getting comfortable in, and headed off toward Pompei, via Naples. We stored our luggage at the train station, and once again were shocked at the prices, €3.50 per piece of luggage, for up to 5 hours, nothing (it seemed) had been cheap in Italy. We got to Pompeii by noon, but unfortunately had to be back at the train station by 3:00 to catch a train back in time for the 4:16 train to Bari, the other trains got in much later at night and we figured it would be smart to not get in later then 8pm if we had to hunt for accomodations.

Pompeii was amazing, we had no idea that it was as big of a site as it was. The buildings were incredible, the colors and art that were used to decorate walls, the architecture, and to think this was a civilization that came to a sudden halt nearly two millenia ago, 79 AD. It was awesome walking among the ruins, which because of the preservation looked unlike all the other ruins we had seen so far. Alas three hours wasn't enough time but we had to be on our way, so we ran back to the train station. We arrived at 3:10 and found we had just missed our train to Naples Central station! The next train left at 3:48 and would probably mean we would miss our connection at Naples. So in true amazing race style, we looked at departures and found a train that left at 3:18 that stopped at several places in Naples, but not at the central station, so we asked the guy at the station if it would be possible to go from one of these other stations to central station on foot, by taxi, etc. At first he told us about 3:48 train, but after explaining again our situation he thought about it and informed us that indeed the central station had an underground section with a different name, and the train that left momentairly would take us straight there!

We thanked him and started running outside, the train was arriving but at the next platform. They do not allow you to cross tracks in most stations, so we had to go through the underpass to get to platform 2, we ran downstairs as the train came to a squeeling halt, we made it up the other side and just as the whistle was blown to signal the train was leaving we jumped on (almost simultaneously). An old man who had taken interest in our folley ran along behind us and gave us the name of the station we were to get off at, after the train had left we were both amazed at his generousity, but more at the fact he kept up with us as he was outside the train seconds after we jumped on and turned around (and he was old). Michelle suggested he may have been an angel, I thought he was after my wallet, although he never was close enough to have had the chance, and of course he spoke english, bizzare.

We did catch the 4:16 train to Bari, and arrived just after 8pm. Once there we wondered around for over an hour looking for a place to sleep, we found several budget hotels, not cheap compared to hostels mind you. We even found a decent looking 4 star hotel that apparently was full, that or the lady at reception didn't like the look of two backpackers coming into her fancy hotel. lol

So after haggling at some hotels (yes hotels are open for barganing when you travel during the low season) and finally finding a place that offered breakfast and looked half decent, we settled down for the night. It cost €60 I believe, but that seemed to be the going rate. I didn't sleep well that night, as the head cold I had started getting the night before was full blown by that point. The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast, got some instructions as to where the ferry departed from and took off at 9am, as we wanted an hour to find the ferry and were told to be there two hours prior to departure.

We walked along the fenced in area before the port, and after 10 minutes came to a brown sign with directions. The sign had the word "Porto" with a picture of the boat, pointing in the opposite direction that we had just walked. We turned around, and walked for 15 minutes, until we came to some type of parkade that connected with the port, we attempted to walk through it but were turned around by the Parking lot attendent (mafia). He informed us that Superfast ferries were in fact, at the port, which was in the opposite direction. Very frustrated at this point, we headed back again, past the brown sign, and eventually found an entrance to the port.

We saw many ferrys and started towards them, not wanted to be lost again for another hour, Michelle shocked me by walking up to these two intimidating policemen and asked them if they knew were Superfast ferries were located, the police officer complied and gave us exact directions "blue palace" pointing with his finger. We got to the office, and despite not having reservations we got on the Ferry with plenty of time before departure. In fact, even with 24 beds in both the female and male dorms aboard, we were the only two staying in them. So Michelle stayed beside me in one of the tiny beds. Headroom was none-existant. Still we throughly enjoyed the ferry, which felt like a cruise as we had never been on such a big boat before. The meals (which were reasonably priced for Europe) were awesome, and we soaked in some sun, read our guidebook, and explored the ship. The trip would have been so much better had the hot tub on the upper deck been functioning, but other then crazy canadians who would want to be outside in a hot tub in +10°C weather!?


The next morning, an hour ahead of what we thought was arrival time (thanks to gaining an hour which we were unaware of) we arrived in Patras, Greece. We didn't get a lot of sleep, and one of the ship crewmen woke us at 4:30am, although it was really 5:30am. So at about 5:45am local time we departed the ship, into Patras, which was really dark, and we once again, had nowhere to stay.

Rome!

M We were a little nervous coming into Rome as we had been warned numerous times about the pick-pockets, and our guide book said not to walk alone around the train station at night. But we found our hostel which was right by the train station with ease. We got in just after dark, and we decided why not start our time in Rome by seeing the Coliseum at night! We got a map and headed out, and it wasn't long before we found ourselves lost in a bad part of town and facing a locked gate (as the Roman Forum, which was between us and the Coliseum is locked up with a huge gate at night). After 10 minutes of walking quickly and staying in any lit area we could, we got back to the main street. We stopped and had a WAY overpriced pizza (charged by weight we found out) as a late dinner. Jes wasn't thrilled, but we were happy to just sit down in a well lit place. Then we decided to just head home.

By looking on our map Jes decided to take a little short cut, (bad idea). When we got to our road we looked down the creepy side street and decided to walk up a block and then over. It was not long before we were completely lost again. The thing with Rome is they like to avoid putting street signs anywhere. The few they have I think were put up during the Roman Era and are half faded away. We were wishing we had our dog repellent on us, but this was one time we did not. We were heading towards a hotel to ask directions when we found the train station. We now knew how to get home, but realized why our guide book had warned us about the area. There was an incredible number of homeless people, as well as men just standing around doing nothing. Was it ever a relief to be back in our hostel safe and sound!

J As Michelle said, we had a rough first night in Rome. The hostel looked safe enough, big spacious dorm room, comfy beds, what more could we ask for? We found out shortly, one of the 4 other roomies we had started to snore, so loudly that it woke everyone up. A few of us pondered proper etiquette in this situation, had someone known the perpetrator personally they may have hit him with a pillow (as Michelle often does to me, when I do snore, occasionally). After listening to the incredible noise I thought it might be funny to take an audio recording to remember the moment.

Anyway, this went on for hours, after 4 hours of sleep or so I was awake and there was no going back to sleep (even with earplugs in). So instead of suffocating the stranger, I chose to simply leave the room, I found myself sitting at the computer working on the blog and reading the news. Michelle joined me shortly, and we attempted to go back to sleep, but the snoring continued until daybreak.

Later that morning after showering and grabbing some grub at the hostel we headed out to explore in daylight. The area around the train station was a little more tame, although there was crap everywhere, we hoped it was dog poo, but had our doubts. After the disaster of attempting to see the Coliseum the night before we decided to return as we were excited about seeing the famed structure. We bought a 3 day metro pass (Let's Go did not mention any Rome card, nor did we see any advertisements) which after discovering the layout of the city was a mistake. We did however enjoy taking the metro as often as we did as our legs were sore from the hiking we had done in Cinque Terre. We found the colossal structure with ease (right out the doors of the metro station) and walked around it in awe. We had seen a Roman arena before in Verona, but the Coliseum seemed bigger, older, and simply more impressive. Plus it came with real Roman gladiators around the entrance attempting to pose with us for photos (tip expected of course).

The first good choice we made in Rome was avoiding the constant offers for tours and waiting in line for 20 minutes to get into the Coliseum. Sure enough for €3.5 a person we got a tour by a real Archaeologist, which we throughly enjoyed. Afterward we wondered the nearby streets looking for a lunch deal which we finally found (if you can call anything in Italy a deal). Two plates of pasta and a Sprite which we shared for €10, not bad. We walked outside to find it raining. We found the shade of a tree just outside, but after 15 minutes we decided to brave the weather and continue our tour of the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill area, although looking back we should have went back for our umbrellas.

The rain did not let up and we quickly toured the area while hiding under our the hoods of our 3in1 jackets. Although water-resistant we soon became soaked. We did get some pictures of the area and ruins but regretted choosing to see Palatine Hill when we did. We headed back to the hostel to derobe and get dry.

We grabbed some groceries but being too lazy to cook we decided to wait for the hostels free pasta dinner, which ended up getting canceled (imagine 20 hungry young adults being told at 7:30 at night there is no food coming). We had a very nice stir-fry that made our neighbors jealous, but later made friends and spent the night chatting with them and drinking the better half of a bottle of Chianti (our last one in Italy I might add).

M The next day we joined our new friend, Helen, and went off to the Vatican. At least the majority of the Vatican's sights were inside, as it looked gloomy out again. Of course we headed straight for the Sistine Chapel, which took a really long time to get to. Not because there was a line up, absolutely no line up at all which is the only advantage of traveling at this time of year, but because they make you go through huge halls of other awesome artwork first. Helen was very knowledgeable about Italian art and taught us about what we were seeing. The majority of it was biblical, so we were able to tell her about the stories the pictures were displaying. We made a good team.

From the museum we went to St. Peter's Basilica and saw the square in front of it that is always on TV when the Pope comes out. The Basilica was of course huge and impressive, although I am really big-catholic-churched out. We then went down to the crypt beneath the church where all the old Pope's are, there were many people outside Pope John Paul II's grave crying and mourning.

When we were done at the Vatican it was just starting to get dark so we decided to get a picture of the Coliseum at night, and Helen had not seen it yet. We again braved the rain which was mostly just a drizzle, but were able to get some good shots. That night we stayed up chatting with our roommates, luckily the snoring guy had left and we were all happy to get a good nights sleep.

The next day was a day of exploring. We started with the Spanish steps first, and right as we arrived the rain started again (sigh). In front of the steps was a fountain in the shape of a boat, cool. The huge obelisk at the top was completely under construction, although there was a tarp with a picture of it over top. Traveling at this time of year we also see many things under construction. To escape the rain we ducked into a cafe for a latte macchiato and pastry, which we ate standing at the bar (as it costs double if you sit at a table). Italian cafe's are funny like that, as are the people. You see Italians come in, order their espresso, drink it in 2-3 gulps at the bar and they are on their way. There's not "going out for coffee" and lingering for hours.

After warming up it was off to Trevi fountain which was amazing, but it started to dump rain on us so hard even with our umbrellas we had to take cover in the nearest place, which just happened to be the golden arches of a McDonald's. lol Once it let up a bit we went to the Pantheon which was really magnificent. Then we walked around and ended up in an area that had a great view of the Forum and took some more pictures.

We then took a tram until it stopped, forcing us get off. Like is common in Rome we were right beside a bunch of ruins. We were looking at them and saw one cat after another. Jesse joked "this looks like a cat sanctuary". Then we saw the sign that stated in English "Cat Sanctuary, archaeological tours daily at 4pm". We looked at our watch and it was exactly 4pm. We took the short tour of the ruins, which is where Julius Cesar was killed. But what was more interesting is this cat sanctuary. Started 12 years ago by 2 Italian ladies who noticed many cats hanging out in the ruins as a natural sanctuary. Many were very sick and there were many dead cats and skeletons around. They moved in, illegally as it was technically on the grounds of the ruins, but 12 years later they are still there having transformed two small dirt caves beside the ruins. They promote spading and nudering of cats, as well as maintaing the ruins and several feeding stations. Then teaming up with a vet they began to get the cat population fixed. They clip the right ear of each cat done so they know if it is a new cat or not.

For some reason most Italians do not spade or nuder their animals as the vets do not encourage it (as it cuts down on their business I guess) and people think its a mean thing to do. This organization does a lot to promote it, as there are street cats everywhere in Rome. Oh it's illegal to abandon an animal in Italy, but it happens often. People often abandon them in ruins as they act as natural shelters from cars, noise, etc. Now that people know about the place they get about 3 cats a week either dropped off, or who wander in. They currently have 250-300 cats living in the site, and closer to 400 in summer. They quarantine them, vaccinate them, spade or nuder them and then let them go, but the cats can choose to stay or go. They have a nursery for their special needs cats who would not survive out out on their own, and often volunteers come and play with these cats.

Jesse fell in love with a 6 month old kitten who was blind. If we were not in Italy I am sure he would have brought him home. After prying Jes off the blind kitten it was off to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a t-shirt. Jes' foot was bugging him all day, in-fact we both had been having weak ankles since our hiking in Cinque Terre. After stepping off the metro though something happened to his foot and he could barely walk on it. He slowly limped to the Hard Rock, and I ended up getting a shirt instead of him. I was questioning if he really hurt his foot or not when he suggested eating dinner at the hard rock. We did end up eating there, and unfortunately his foot did not get better. It was very nice to be there, it felt like home again, toilets with seats and toilet paper, which seem to be hard to find in Italy, people speaking English, all English music, and most of all American sized portions and food. Our nachos were huge!

We got talking with our waiter, Monir, who was from Bangladesh, and found that his sister lives in Lethbridge, Alberta. As soon as we told him we were from Edmonton he said "the capital city of Alberta" and our jaws dropped. lol He plans to visit her in May/June of this year, and after exchanging email we offered to be his tour guide if he ever came to Edmonton (or his sister). We enjoyed chatting with him although we monopolized his time that evening, he even gave us a discount on our meal (as he could tell we were trying not to spend too much). So after a good 3 hours talking and enjoying our surroundings we headed home to bed. Back at the hostel we again stayed up late (till 2am) talking with our roommates, Helen, two other Aussies and an American.

Our last day in Rome we spent seeing anything we missed, and this time the sun came out between the clouds. What a difference it made! We saw many more fountains, ate more gelato, and biscotti from an amazing little biscotti/cookie bakery we had found thanks to our guide book. We had been told by others in our hostel of a hill that has a great place to take a picture of the city. We found it on the map and started out. As we walked down the road that leads to this hill we found that the road was far below the hill with a huge wall on one side of the road and we could see the hill up above. Very frustrating at the huge detour we took, with Jesse limping all the way, but we made it to the top eventually. The view was amazing, but even cooler was that a movie was being filmed there! There were all these cars out of the 60's and people in the appropriate clothes to match. We saw them shoot one scene then we went on our way.

We have had the worst luck with phone cards! We could not get ours to work while on the pay phone which was costing us 10 euro cents per min, so we decided to just go to a call center. The plan was to book a ferry going to Greece for the next day. After no luck at the call center as the first ferry place was closed and the second didn't speak English. We looked on-line, after about 2 hours of rearranging our plans we decided that we would stop go to Pompei the next day then head to Bari, the port city. We had to find a place to stay once we arrived as we could not find anything on-line. The following day we would hope to get on a ferry to Greece.

Tired and frustrated we went back, ate dinner, packed our things and went to bed early (0pm). A good start we thought, but only to have new roommates come in very loud at 2am turning on the light, then on top of that one of them snored! Not again! Yep. Jes again spend about two hours on the computer as he could not sleep. Even with ear plugs in I could not sleep either but was too tired to get up. We were off early in the morning and ready to take turns sleeping on the train. lol

Jesse's most overused phrase this week: "when in Rome!"

Cinque Terre - A little piece of paradise

J As we got off the train at RioMaggiore we turned around to find outselves staring at the Mediterranean ocean to our right, and green hills to our left. It was a beautiful day and we didn't waste it, we dumped our packs at the hotel and went hiking! Cinque Terre or Five Terraces is a beautiful area right beside the ocean, the little towns are now part of a national park (since 1999) and are connected by vineyards. We walked on the nicely paved path from Riomaggiore to Manarola, from there had to take a small green bus to the top of the hill as the path from Manarola to Corniglia was washed out just the day earlier (while we were being washed out in Siena). So we were off hiking the vineyards between the two small towns.

As the area is a national park it was fairly well maintained although we often had to carefully lower ourselves down embankments or watch our footing, but because of the way the hill had been flattened for maximum vineyard area it was never more then a 3 meter fall that we had to worry about. Several times we thought we had walked off the trail as the vegitation started to set in, but then moments later we would see the red and white symbol of the park on the side of a tree or rock letting us know we were still on our way. Although we had been sightseeing and walking a lot in recent months, we throughly enjoyed an actual hike!

We finally arrived in Corniglia and after exploring the town we waited at the nearby train station and watched the sun go down on the ocean. We took a train at that point to Monterosso, and walked along the beautiful beach, which for some reason was empty! Silly italians think 10°C in winter is cold I guess. We had dinner at a little tavern back in Riomaggiore where we treated ourselves to a bottle of wine and fresh seafood! The small cove with rowboats pulled up on shore, an old man fishing, and the town of Riomaggiore hugging the cliff walls around it was picturesque.

The next day we explored the town of Vernazza and Monterosso, enjoyed a latte macchiato and a tea while looking out over the ocean from the balcony. Then we jumped on a train and headed for Rome! So our time in Cinque Terre was short, sadly, but it was refreshing to see nature and enjoy the sunlight in such surroundings, we promised ourselves we would return again, maybe during spring or fall to enjoy slightly warmer weather and more time to leisurely hike the other trails surrounding the 5 perfect little Italian towns by the sea.

Florence or Firenze

J Our time in Firenze (as it is called in Italiano) seemed short, as we remembered once we got there that we were a day-trip away from Pisa, Siena, and of course Cinque Terre. More on those adventures later.

The bad weather we had in Venice followed us south unfortunately, and more then one day we got home wet, and grumpy. We did however get right into all the sights, this being the only major advantage of traveling at this time of year as many places do not offer a seasonal discount, the big money in summer they make means they can survive less tourists in winter. Alas hearing from others about summer lineups made us less upset about the lack of sunlight.

The accomodation selection was once again scarce, so for the price of a dorm we got a nice double bed just 3 blocks from the train station. We also met two Aussie girls at our hostel who kept us company and made the long evenings enjoyable. They introduced us to an Italian red wine called Chianti which we have bought twice now, a very good wine and at least half the price you would pay for it at home. The evening of our first day we ventured into the Accademia, which is home to Michelangelo's masterpiece David. A marble statue 25 feet tall, which after we stared up at for 30 minutes, was still impressive. Proportions (his hands for example) were so accurate despite the large size of the statue, and the details of the muscle, bone, veins, it was certainly the most impressive sculpture we had ever seen. No pics of the authentic one inside (none allowed) but there was a replica outside, who would have known.

The next day, after sleeping in (the double bed wasn't actually two singles pushed together for the first time in how long, it may have been a queen actually), so after we crawled out of bed we went exploring. We found the Duomo (a large church) which was very impressive from the outside, a little less inside, but amazingly free to see. Then we marvelled at the Bronze doors to the baptistry next door, nicknamed the gates of paradise.

We walked north from there and came to the famed bridge of Florence, Ponte Vecchio. It's interesting to see the different colored houses that seem to sprout out of the bridge, although it was certainly a first (the design) it was after all, just a bridge. Then as we walked up close we discovered why it had been referred to us the most precious jewel of Florence.. the shops! Jewelry shops to be exact, lining both sides of the bridge, and of course we didn't go into one of them, after all Michelle had just got a lovely pair of earrings for Christmas, and wearing sparkly things when travelling the world is just asking for trouble.

The next day we looked at some sculptures, many interesting buildings, and decided to save some money by not going into any art museums (such as the famous Uffizi). Now you may think we're crazy (I know at least one person at home, our friend the art-history major does), but believe me Allison, we've seen a lot of art in the last 3.5 months. So after snapping a few pictures, getting lost, and hiking around the city we went in search for a bookstore. We purchased a brand new travel book, Lonely Planets' Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & the Greater Mekong 1st Edition! It wasn't cheap, more expensive then I had thought now that I've searched chapters online, but it was in an Italian bookstore (not yet translated I assume), so we were very happy to have found it, espeically since Michelle has been aching to plan the next leg of our adventure.

We cooked dinner that night, spent some time looking up flights on the internet, and dove into our new book. Then we got an email from Julie (Michelle's sister) suggesting we find our way to Japan for the end of March, as they had just booked a flight after finding a seat-sale! So we've since been making plans and dicussing if we are going to meet with her and Cory. More on that in a future post. For now we are looking at all the details.

Our hostel friends Erin and Brooke convinced us to stop by Siena, and since we had so many Eurail days left on our pass we decided to attempt to see Pisa and Siena in one day, which was easy enough, it just meant getting up at 7am, which after sleeping in until 9am for the last 3 wasn't a problem. Unfortunately in the morning it was so windy in Pisa.. that the tower in Pisa actually fell over! The pictures I took of it falling are simply incredible, and I think I'll print them and sell them on ebay. Actually the tower didn't fall over but it may have leaned a bit more by the end of the day. So we took a half dozen pictures of the leaning tower of Pisa, the usual with Mich pretending to hold the tower up, us in front of it tilting our heads to watch it, etc. Then we said "no gratzie" to a staggering €15 entrance to be able to climb the tower, ran back to the train station and headed for Siena.

Siena was beautiful, but we could barley see it from the shelter of our umbrellas as the rain just poured down. We took some photos, got lost on a few buses, and took the long way to get to the town centre, then we found Siena's own Duomo, which was much more impressive inside then the one in Florence (although mucher smaller and less impressive on the outside), but there was a fee to enter, which of course goes against our policy of paying to see a church, so we smiled and went on our way. The town centre and buildings were beautiful though, and despite the weather we enjoyed our short time there, and got some great pictures. Then, soaked, we stumbled our way back to Florence, put on some dry clothes, and made dinner while chatting with people at the hostel.

Our last day in Florence wasn't terribly exciting, we visited the Museum of the History of Science which unfortunately was half closed due to renovations, the worse part was it had closed down just 3 days earlier. The first floor which we missed is home to Galileos instruments and information on astronomy. A temporary exhibit on bicycles was Michelles favorite part, mine was of course.. astronomy, and the funniest thing was the sign outside which stated the museum's first floor was closed from January 1-11, we assumed this meant the 11th day of the month, but after speaking with the ticket agent we were informed it would be closed until some time in 2009, luckily we entered and inquired as we visited on the 10th and had been pondering returning the next morning before we left town.

We enjoyed some authentic Italian food at lunch (bruschetta and tortellini) and returned to a few more of the architectual sights the city had to offer as we had a break in the rain. It's so much more enjoyable to take pictures without juggling an umbrella!

The next morning we got up early, and headed west to the coastal area known as cinque terre or five terraces. The train ride had beautiful views of the mountainous area, but we were completely blown away as we stepped off the train into the little town of Rio Maggiore. That however, is another post away.

Michelle's most overused phrase this week: "bonjorno principesa!" lol

New Pictures Added!

The Arena in Verona, Italy

Venice, an island, a Labrinyth, a city of water.

M So we got on our night train and were sharing a cabin with 2 men from Bosnia., they were nice guys. Our common language?...Spanish. Yep our little pathetic Spanish, and their little Spanish, but combined with lots of pointing and guestures we did just fine. We were able to talk a little about their families etc. I was on a top bunk, and was scared all night that I was going to fall off, so I did not get much sleep, but we did arrive safely in Venice without being gassed or mugged, etc.

After arriving and getting lost (a theme for our time in Venice) trying to find our hostel, we decided to walk around the city and look at the sites. It rained all day, but we love Venice. The water is not exactly clean, but not as bad as I remember it from my half day stop here 10 years ago. I think they must have done something to clean it up. We got SO lost. Venice is like a big labrinyth.

One of my favorite parts other than the amazing architecture and canals, was feeding the pigeons. We will try to get some pictures up here on the blog to show all of you. There are so many pigeons in the main square, and people selling bird feed for 1 euro. Those birds are crazy. I could stay there all day just watching people laughing and screaming as they hold out thier hands and the birds attack. It was SO funny to watch how people react.

We warmed up at a resturaunt for lunch and had authentic Italian pizza, mmmmm. It was an early night to bed as we were very tired from our lack of sleep on the train.

January 6 is a big day for many countries in Europe, as it is the day that they celebrate the 3 wise men coming to bring gifts to Jesus and this is when the kids get gifts. We saw in a travel magazine that in Verona there is a huge mascarade type festival. So we got tickets to Verona which is only 1hr from Venice. It was the start of many things to go wrong. First of all it cost us 27 Euros for the tickets. We were told it should be about 6 Euros each, which is what we payed from Verona to get home. The only thing we can figure is that the price was so high because we paid at a machine rather than waiting in line to talk to a teller.

Anyways, once we arrived we went to the tourist office and asked when things were going on. She said nothing was happening. I asked "isn't there a parade or something"? She said "well, yeah there is a small one at 5pm but it's not much". So we got on a bus that our guide book said went to the center of town. After riding for one hour we finally asked the bus driver by pointing on the map. He was very frustrated with us dumb tourists and said we were on the wrong bus. So 1 hour later we were in front of Castel Vechhio. It was the first Sunday of the month, which (according to our map from the tourist office) meant it was free to enter, but when we went in they said that because it was a holiday it was not free. Grrrrr.

Oh well, we paid anyways, and it was a really cool Castel. Then we ate lunch and went to the center, only to find out by looking at the posters (that were everywhere) that the big parade/mascarade was at 11am and we missed it. Thanks to the lady at the tourist office.
However, there was something else at 5:30 so we planned to come back. We then saw where Juliette's balcony is. I guess Shakespeare's famous play was written about the families in Verona. There is a tunnel to the courtyard with the balcany, where hundreds of couples have written their names in a pledge of love. So of course we did too! Yes it was very romantic/cheesy.

We walked around the city afterwards, and saw the huge arena (smaller version of the coliseum in Rome). Very very cool. It was huge, made me think of what things in Greece looked like in the past. Then at 5pm we went to the center and found hundreds of people gathered. At 5:30 there was a play of the wise men bringing baby Jesus gifts. Although I suffer from short person syndrome so I could not see, Jes gave me the play by play. Then everyone turned their attention to a huge witch in the center of the square. She was as tall as the buildings. The MC got the kids yelling at the witch putting thier hands out towards her. Then the music started and they burned the huge witch. The heat was amazing from the fire. It was a neat experiance, we would have like to understand the significance as it was all done in Italian. Afterwards we walked around experiencing the party (which was mostly for children) and finally headed home to Venice and our hostel.

The next day we took advantage of the first city that FINALLY gave us a discount for being young (under 30), without being a student. So we bought a 3 day pass for the busses and water busses. The water busses are a great way to see Venice, with the locals. The gondola rides are extremely over priced. We went to the island of Murano to see all the famous glass work which was neat. Then just spent some more time walking around. Just as it was getting dark we decided to take water bus number 41 as it goes all around Venice. It was like a romantic moon lite boat ride with chocolate. Sure we were on the public transit, but we were the only people sitting outside, and we were eating the last of our toblerone from Switzerland. This was great for the first hour, then we realised that the 41 also went around another island, so we were on the bus for over 2 hours! We were more than ready to get off and go home to make dinner by the end of the ride.

We made friends with a guy from our hostel and stayed up until midnight talking to him. He is a computer geek, so Jes and him hit it off right away. The next day, our last day in Venice. We saw the sun for the first time in days. It was beautiful, and got to 8 degrees (although it was very humid).

We went to a museum/palace/prison and walked around for a few hours. Neat, but we were glad we got in for half price with our discount card. We then went to the cemetery, which is an island by itself. The grounds we beautiful. Back on the main part of Venice we went in search of a bathroom. We found a cafe, but they did not have one. Most resturaunts were closed for Siesta, or that's what we called it as most of them close at about 3pm and open again at 5 or 6pm. The public bathroom, which was suppose to be free with our discount card would not accept the card and wanted 1 Euro, which Jes was not going to pay, then we finally saw it... the golden arches! Yep a MacDonald's with free bathrooms.

We try not to go to too many MacDonald's, but sometimes it's just the best option. We sat there enjoying a snack and people watched for the better part of an hour, tt was very enjoyable. Then we walked around some more and did some grocery shopping before heading home.

Tomorrow we are off to Florence. Jes is again spending the evening talking with Martin, the guy from our hostel, who is from Uruguay. It may be a late night again, but that is fine as we enjoy meeting fellow travellers.

Caio from Venice Italy.

Our short time in France, Marseille

M We took a TGV, high speed train to Marsielle and wow are they fast! We spent 3 days in Marsielle, it was great to not have to wear a hat and gloves, although it was extremely windy outside, and far from warm. So windy in fact, that the boat tour to the Isle of D'if was not running the entire time we were there. :( This island is where the famous story of The Count of Monty Cristo took place, we did get to see the island from afar though, after a short trip to the top of a hill/mountain.

the church itself, you can see all the surroundingMarseille is a wonderful place to just walk around. There is the old port full of fishing and sail boats as well as cruise ships, churchs, and other great European arcitecture. We climbed to the top of some ancient castle (Fort Saint-Nicolas) and of course Notre Dame de la Garde, a beautiful church on top of a huge hill/mountain that has a statue of Mary and baby Jesus, which looks gold, probably plated gold Jesse tells me. The view from the site is more impressive then mountains around Marsielle, the port, and the edges of the city with everything in-between. It was nice to be in a country where I understood some of the language, although I realized that my high-school French classes were a long time ago, and my French needed a lot of work.

J We also enjoyed visiting Vielle Charite which was an impressive building built for beggers as they were too many of them hanging out at churchs. It now houses a few mesuems which had some interesting artifacts, African and Mediterranian art, masks, oh and a huge section devoted to Egyption artifacts, almost as impressive as the museum in Berlin. We were told after taking about 50 pictures "no fotos", so we agreed and laughed at the fact they didn't bother to put up a sign. Luckily they didn't confiscate my amatuer photos (we've heard from Julie and Cory that some places in Rome will do that if you dare take pictures).

Warning, incoming rant...
As I write this, I've been thinking about the whole "no photo" phenomenon. My best guess is that most places don't want you to take pictures because they hope to sell you postcards in their gift shops at the end of the museum. I realize the need to stop people from using flashes as it bleaches over time, but when they forbid you from taking amatuer photos with no flash, it angers me. Especially when I pay so much to enter a building, not to mention I have a terrible memory so the need to have something to look back on is more important for me then some people.

Recently in a building we entered we ran into some stone columns that were 400-700 years old, of course as soon as I got ready to take a picture I was told "no photos". Even if I had used a flash (and yes some people don't understand enough about how to use their cameras to disable a flash, in which case they shouldn't be allowed to operate a camera in my opinion) on these crumbling stone columns which barely had its original structure in-tact, there was no paint left to bleach.

In closing, I laugh at these museum people who think that they can control the "no foto" situation by posting people in every room to guard those would-be photo takers because in a few years the cameras we carry are going to be so small, so inconspicious, that everyone will be recording (digitally) everywhere they go. Plus it frustrates me to no end when I obey the rules and then the guy behind me sneaks photos all the way along. Oh well, mental photos last, for awhile anyway.

M So back to what we did in Marseille. We did go into another Jewish memorial museum, but it was all in French. We have noticed that in France most things are in just French compared to most European countries which have at least English and often other languages. Due to the constant rain and/or extreme wind we did spend some time in the mall warming up and looking around. We followed a walking path on the map which was very difficult, but brought us to many really cool buildings. One evening we bought some French wine (for 3 Euros) and a baggette and had a nice French meal.

We had planned to stay for a fourth night, when we went to the train station to get our tickets for the train the next day. We were surprised to find that the only train going to Venice was an overnight train that went daily. We were very lucky that our hostel let us cancel that night and we quickly packed up our things and got ready to go. The train was actually more expensive than most hostels that we have stayed in ($105 for couchette), and that is with the Eurorail pass discount. We have heard we need to pay extra for overnight trains, but wow it was a lot. We were also worried as we have been warned never to take an over night train in Italy due to high crime rates, but we had no choice. We will pray and see what happens.