Quick update

Hey all!

I have no internet which is why I haven't posted since Santorini! I'm currently running out of internet cafe time but I wanted to let you all know that I'm alive and well, enjoying the beaches of Mykenos. I will try to get back here tomorrow when I have money to buy more time and give you the full run down. And I'll try to post pictures as soon as I can but it might not be until next week.

If you are reading this, thanks for sticking with me through all the long breaks and technical difficulties. I promise more in the near future.

-Amy

Riding a Donkey May Equal Glory but It Is Not Glamorous...

   Reaching the end of our fourth full day in Santorini! Everyone seems to think we're nuts for staying on one island for a week but I am feeling really good about that choice right now. Packing up and ferrying to another island sounds far less appealing than hanging out at the beach or scootering through little blue-and-white towns.
   Tuesday we went to Fira, the main town on Santorini. Not much to do but it was fun to check out the shops and we finally found falaffel gyros which we had been searching for. After a few hours of aimless wandering we headed back to the hostel for some relaxing and some delicious food from the restaurant conveniently located directly across the street. A bunch of people from our hostel were hanging out on the patio, talking and playing games when we got done eating so I hung out for a few hours.
   Yesterday, Michelle and I went on a tour with three other girls in our dorm room. We stared by taking a boat to a volcano and hiking up to the crater. It wasn't a bad hike but between the heat and thinner air at the altitude we were at were all pretty winded. There was a beautiful view though, and the crater was pretty cool even if it wasn't full of bubbling lava like I hoped. Once we got back down, the boat took us to a hot springs for a quick swim. The springs were more "warmish and full of red mud" than "hot" but it was nice. Next up was Thirassia, a smaller island very close to Santorini. There wasn't much to do there, just some small rocky beaches in between restaurants and a mountainous path up to some more white and blue buildings, but they gave us three hours for some reason. We ended up taking donkey rides to the top of the mountain. I have pretty mixed feelings about this particular experience. On one hand, the top of the mountain was beautiful with great views, it would have been a rough walk, and was sort of funny because the donkets kept charging around with everyone trying desperately not to fall off or get scraped along the walls. On the other hand, the donkey man kept screaming at everyone and donkeys are gross. Plus, in spite of their grossness I felt bad for the poor donkeys. It was definitely a memorable experience though and I'm glad we did it!
   After a swim and another boat ride, we reached Oia, the last stop on our tour where the best view of the sunset is supposed to be. The was another mountainous path to take but we sucked it up this time and walked. It would have been OK except the heat was insane and by the time we reached the town we were all drenched in sweat and striped down to the least clothing we could wear without being totally scandalous. Luckily we were still in our swimsuits. We were rewarded for our efforts with a beautiful sunset which we watched while perched on a white wall overlooking part of the town and the water. Sometimes I think my life is actually a movie (both the awesome parts and the bad). This was one of the awesome times. I'm pretty sure the movie was called Sisterhood of the Traveling Ragamuffins. Rent it, it's great. Anyway, we got the tour bus home and had bakery snacks and a couple of beers before crashing. Pretty great day.
   Today was also good but much more relaxing. We slept in and had breakfast (I ate a nectarine and yogurt with my potato-filled pastry because I'm healthy like that) and set off for the beach. We bought frappes at one of beach bars which meant that we got access to their comfy beach chairs and pool. We read and talked and swam in the perfectly clear sea water. We also went in the pool, hoping to rinse off the salt but it was a salt pool. It had jets though so it was still good! I left around five when i was starting to feel hungry. After a pastry break, I headed to the shower which lead to the distressing realization that I was massively sunburnt. Nothing blistering or anything, just a lot of it everywhere. This was extra upsetting since I've been comforting  myself about the fact that I have not managed much of a tan with the fact that I have gone two and a half months without any sunburns beyond a little pinkness here and there. Now I have to comfort myself for being sunburnt by telling myself that at least it will help even out the farmers tan I was developing on my legs (not that it was really much of a tan). Clearly I am a huge optimist in the face of adversity. (I'm kidding, of course, I know I have it good! Don't yell at me for being ungrateful!)
Have to go freshen up before heading to the beach bars! If this makes you jealous you can think about the fact that this includes using a bathroom with salty sulfur water and no soap. See how this optimism game works?

Ferries, trains, and many, many buses.

  I know, I know, it's been a while. So without further excuses, here's the rundown.
SORRENTO
  We spent four nights in Sorrento on the Amalfi coast. It's a really cute town and we stayed in a campsite with a beach and a pool. It was a nice site but our cabin didn't have screens in the windows so we had to get creative to keep the mosquitos out. We ended up with loads of bug spray, citronella candles in the windows, and a mosquito coil on the table outside (we tried it in the window for a night and almost suffocated on all the smoke). After settling in we took a bus to the rest of the Amalfi coast. It was beautiful but terrifying trip. The road weaves a log the edge of the mountain and I spent the whole time convinced that the bus wouldn't be able to turn enough and we would shoot off into the Mediterranean. The plan was to go to Amalfi and then work our way back to Positano which is supposed to be really cool. We had a great lunch in Amalfi and wanderd around a bit before getting on the bus. Unfortunately it wasn't a bus that stopped in Positano but we were too tired to get off and figure out what bus would. Especially since the bus situation in Amalfi consisted of about ten buses without signs for where they were going and bus drivers who refused to be even remotely helpful.
  Day three in Sorrento, we took the train to Pompeii. It was super hot and crowded but still worth seeing. I went with my dad before but it was fun to go again and see new things like the brothel and the stadium. Crazy that people used to live here and now its this maze of ruins that mostly look the same. I kept wondering how people found there way around when it was a real city. Probably looked very different.
  We spent our last day in Sorrento by the pool, with a break to run some errands. We checked out the beach on our first day but it was basically just very crowded rock and they didn't make you pay for the beach chairs at the pool so we stayed there. There will be plenty of beaches here in Greece. It was a nice day and a good way to rest before our crazy trip the Greece.
OUR CRAZY TRIP TO GREECE
  We got up to head to Greece when it was still dark out. We took a bus to the station, a train back to Naples, another train to Caserta, and yet another train to Bari. It was only about 2 when we took the bus to the port so we spent the majority of our day hanging out there before getting on the boat three hours early to claim prime deck space. Luckily we made some friends (a couple from California, two guys from New Zealond, and a Canadian girl) so we had someone to hang out with while we camped out on deck feeling like Leonardo di Caprio in Titanic. We played cards and had some wine before sleeping outside on the metal deck. It was shockingly comfortable and I slept really well but woke up pretty early. When we got off we took a bus through the ferry company. It was only two hours but somehow it felt more grueling than the ferry. We found our hostel (OK but not the greatest, we are staying elsewhere when we return) and grabbed some food (crepes and my first official Greek salad) and then crashed.</p>
SANTORINI
  We woke up extra early to catch our ferry to Santorini. On the bus to the port I put my backpack on the floor and and sat down with my duffel. Some guy picked it up and walked off the bus with it. Luckily I saw and ran to the door and yelled the first thing that popped into my head which was "That's my bag!" a bunch of times. I must have looked really pissed and scary or maybe he just didn't want to run with a heavy bag and a crazy girl yelling at him, because he put it down and left and I retrieved it. Yay! Nothing valuable inside so he would have got nothing and I would have zero clothes. That's a lose/lose sir.
  The ferry was nauseating but uneventful. We had to buy first class cause they were out of ecomony. The ony difference seemed to be that first class was less crowded and had waiters.
  Santorini is really pretty. Our hostel is very basic but the people are fun and we went to some beach bars last night which was fun. We did some beach laying today. The beach has black sand and is really nice. We plan on mostly hanging out and eating delicious food from the 24 hr bakery down the road but we also want to rent scooters and go cliff diving and check out the the other towns. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories soon!

Rome and Naples

I know you're probably tired of the excuses, but the internet on this thing is completely broken so I am entirely at the mercy of hostel computers. Which you often have to pay for. Technology gets a lot more complicated on the road.

Anyway, I never updated you about Rome or Naples so here it is.

We got in from Perugia in the early evening and, for once, found our hostel with no issues. It turned out to be an apartment that the guy had just turned into a hostel (is that even legal?). Hostel pros: free nightly dinner! Hostel cons: too small, gross bathrooms, lockout from 11 to 4 meaning we weren't allowed home during the hottest part if the day.

Our first night we went to an Irish pub with some guys from Belfast who were staying at the hostel. The pub featured expensive drinks and dreadful karaoke but it was still a nice night, especially the walk home which included wandering past the Colluseum and the Roman forum. Makes night walks at home seem so very lame.

We spent our first full day checking out the big sights. We started at Trevi fountain then went to the Pantheon, the Vatican, and the Spanish steps. We didn't go in the Vatican museum or St. Peter's because it was really hot and the line was huge. I know, we are bad tourists. But we saw the piazza. So that counts for something right? The next day we did a church tour of Rome. This mostly meant that we popped into a bunch of cathedrals and took blurry pictures. We did get to see Santa Teresa in Ecstasy, a famous sculpture, and Santa Maria Maggiore, my favorite cathedral/basillica so that was cool. As we got hotter ad more tired and discovered that 4 was a long way off, we decided a nice air conditioned movie theater was exactly what we needed. Unfortunately, everything in Italy is closed in August, including most theaters. No movies for us, but it did give us something to do while we waited ti be let back in.

That night, our last in Rome, we passed on hostel dinner and headed to a restaurant that my family and I frequented when we were here in December. It was really different because it was much more crowded than it had been during the winter but the food was still delicious! We didn't have Enrico, our lovely waiter from before, but the one we had was great and gave us extra wine, extra tiramisu, and free limoncello because we moved tables to let a big group sit. Thanks mom and dad for our first real meal in Italy!

We headed to Naples the next day. Not much to tell since, despite our best intentions to check out Capri, we ended up spending most of the time eating pizza and gelato and wandering until we were too hot and then going to the hostel and watching Prison Break (which is awesome). Then we headed to Sorrento for a few days of beaches and ancient ruins. No internet here, we are at an internet cafe, so more when we reach Greece!

Me and the Colleseum

The you-are-too-naked-to-enter-this-church police. Seriously, their whole job is to make you buy wrap things if they think you're clothes are inappropriate. Luckily we came prepared with exra shirts.

Both of us in front of St. Peter's

Trevi Fountain

Packing. This picture makes me look really deformed. I promise I havenot become more deformed since leaving the states.

Perugia

Greetings from Rome! We got in yesterday but more on that later. For the moment I have to update you on our post-Florence trip to Perugia (or the country farmhouse outside of Perugia that we never left to be more specific). We originally planned to go to Cinque Terra, a series of five towns on the coast that are supposed to be beautiful. Everything affordable was booked though, so we decided to go to Perugia and stay in a farmhouse hostel that we looked into work-staying at a couple months before the trip. We took the train on Saturday and,, as per usual, got lost. In our defense, we were put at a disadvantage by a bus driver who insisted we get off early, presumably because he just didn't want to go any further, and a sign that had been turned to point in the wrong direction. The whole thing was made worse by the insanely hot Italian sun and our new duffelbags which we hadn't learned to pack properly and were super heavy. Finally, with the help of the world's most amazing person (a little Italian lady who spoke zero English but realized our desperation when we asked for directions and offered to give us a ride because she is a saint) we made it to the hostel.

We decided to stay an extra day, partially because we were enjoying the relaxation and the company and partly because Monday was a holiday and everyone said that it would be really hard to get anywhere. Instead of ever actually going to Perugia or any of the neighboring sights, we basically sat around the pool and played poker and drank wine with the other guests and the staff who were doing work-stays. We even got delicious free pizza one night made by the hostel owner's mom. In short, it was heaven.

Tuesday brought us here to Rome. On the train we ran into Jenna, a friend we met in Madrid almost two months ago and didn't even know was in Italy. Small world and all that. Today we did some sight-seeing but more on that later, when I post pictures from Rome!

Ciao!

View from our hostel

Farmhouse grounds

Our pool. Sight of the majority of our time in Perugia.

It's easier to post pictures separately...

Not THE statue of David but A statue of David so that counts, right? (please say yes, its 10 euro to see the real one!)

A view of the coty, river, and mountains.

The Duomo (in Milan). So many pidgeons!

Ponte Vecchio, the most famous bridge in Florence. The windows that run along the top was a private passage that the Medici's had made in case they needed to escape from the city. Now it is a museum that costs 80 euro to get into.

Street artist doing an amazing copy of Girl with a Pearl Earring in paint and chalk.

View of the city from the roof of our hostel.

Florence's Duomo (I think every big city has their own, it really just means cathedral). When it was being constructed they couldn't figure out how to support the dome because it was so tall. Finally, the architect figured out how to make a self-supporting dome by putting a smaller, support dome within the main one.



Me on the Ponte Vecchio



Worst Vegetarian Ever

Greetings from Florence!

I realize that, once again, I have been neglecting my blog. Sorry! We've been in Italy since Sunday. We flew into Milan where we wandering around in the rain having failed to book a hostel or form any sort of plan whatsoever. We are awful backpackers. Eventually we found a jank-but-pretending-to-be-nice hotel that gave us a room for 35 euro each. Not ideal but it was nice to have space to ourselves!

We tried to hang out in Milan the next day but after a bad start in which it took us ages to find food and water, we ended up snapping a few quick pictures of the Duomo and then hopping a train to Florence. Florence is lovely. We've been taking it pretty easy, mostly eating and walking around. We did go on a free tour that covered a lot of the architecture from the Medici area. I'll post some pictures later.

Near our hostel, there is a big market that sells tons of leather goods along with the usual fake jewelry and souvenirs. After an agonizing search for the best price with decent quality, Michelle and I both caved to our craving for leather duffelbags. Pricey but we got a pretty good deal and, as I keep telling myself, they'll be great as carry-on and weekend bags even when get back. I also picked up a new small, cross body purse yesterday (when I discovered that mine was breaking) as well as a couple of gifts. Not bad for three days although I should probably cool it on the shopping for a bit!

Wednesday we met up with Amy and Dan, the Aussie couple we met in Barcelona, and went to a festival for St. Lorenzo, who is an important saint in the area where we are staying. It was good to catch up with Amy and Dan and the festival was fun. Along with some live music, it included free watermelon, yogurt, and pasta. The pasta had meat in it so Michelle, being a proper vegetarian, gave hers away. After 12 seconds of deliberation I decided that if I picked around the big pieces, the little ones that stuck to the noodles didn't count. To solidify my title as worst vegetarian in the world, I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara on Thursday which turned out to be pasta with ham or something instead of tomato like I thought. There wasn't much I could do so I figured, as my mo (or someone) says, might as well get hung for the the sheep as the lamb (or something) and I ate it (I did avoid the big bits of meat again). So that was a failure.

Last night we hit up an American bar with all of the people who were staying in our dorm. It was a little too club-y with a bunch of creeps but a bunch of us staked out the hall between the two rooms of the bar and spent basically the entire night dancing around and cheering for all the people who came through the hall. People either thought it was great and danced with us or looked terrified. One Australian girl liked us so much she treated us to a long speech about how Canadians are much better than Americans. It was really awkward. I think she thought we were all Canadian but when she tried to introduce a friend to "the Canadians" I told her I was American. That was even more awkward.

We leave for Perugia tomorrow. Florence has been really fun and I can't wait to check out a smaller, less touristy town! Ciao!