Vancouver, Canada

Europe is over for now. It was a very good flight and the landing was probably one of my best ever. Sarah, Laura, and Eric were at the airport when I finally got out; finding my bag took longer than customs which was a relief. The flight was actually 25 minutes fast, but we were 45 minutes late taking off.
Anyway, home safe!
Tara

Homeward Bound

Okay, actually still in Liverpool, but I'm not going to bother with another update until I'm in Vancouver, or bored in the airport and loaded with cash, soooo, Vancouver!
Went to a cool art exhibit on the beach today after talking to these ladies in my room last night. Took way too many pictures of it so I will go into more detail once those are viewable.
That's about it.
Cheers!

3/6 DAYS!!! I mean... Liverpool

Hiya!
Wales was great and I just spent the day in art and Beatlemania! Didn't even leave Albert Dock because I was too busy with the Beatles Story and Tate Liverpool. Tomorrow I will hit up the Cavern (look it up!) and find other things that aren't shopping because my bag is full!
Cheers

Conwy

I am now in North Wales after leaving Mom at the airport this morning. A lot easier this time, when I knew I would see her in 10 days, rather than the last time when it was 4.5 months! We played cards for a while before I left because she was nervous about not getting to the airport in time and so we left our B&B at 6:30 this morning and arrived at the airport with 2 hours to spare, before the 3 hour checkin.
I got here okay, although I must note that when the hostel directions said uphill from the station, they meant UP... and up and up and up! But it's a nice place so far so we'll see how the next few days go.
Mom is up in the air and on her way home so those of you waiting for her will see her tomorrow :D
I need to find the library tomorrow because the internet at the hostel is exhorbitant. Tata for now!

Shakespeare and Beatrix

We have toured around Stratford-upon-Avon and been inside Shakespeare's childhood home. And today we are going to spend some time in Beatrix Potter's house and the gallery that holds all her original paintings for books such as Peter Rabbit. Also included in our Lake District tour will be Wordsworth's house and school. We will see how we make out, but the weather is beautiful here today which is awesome. It did take us almost 4 hours to get here from Stratford yesterday, in the dark, but we made it fine and didn't get very lost at all!
Will be home soon,
Cheers!

More London and Bath

5 minutes, here we go.
In London, we went to see Les Miserables on Thursday and then, since it was playing next door, we went to see a production of MacBeth on Friday... because it was starring PATRICK STEWART!!! That's right, first the Queen and now Patrick Stewart. Mom and I really liked London. And we saw a lot of other things on those days, including climbing up to the top of the dome in St Paul's Cathedral. Well, I went to the top, and she got almost there before she couldn't go any farther because of the height and the creepy staircase.
After a slightly confusing drive toward Bath, and turning around only once, we did make it to both Avebury and Stonehenge which were very much worth the confusion. And today, in Bath, we went on a most excellent free walking tour, toured around the old Roman Baths, bought some CDs for the car, and went to the new Millenium Bath Spa which opened only last year due to some technical difficulties. The spa was a two hour session in one of their two, hot spring fed pools as well as the scented steam rooms. You can imagine how much fun and relaxation we had.
Okay, 50 seconds.
Cheers!

London so far...

Surprised Mom, she cried good tears. SAW THE QUEEN!!!
Yesterday, after going on the bus tour, stopping at the Tower of London, taking a boat on the Themes tour, going pee in the Tate Modern (we looked around today), we were making our way back to a tube station after being on the London Eye and I stopped on a corner to retie my shoe. Suddenly, a police motor bike dude pulled up into the middle of the intersection and started blowing his whistle for all the cars to stop. Wondering what the hell was up, as my nosy mother and I are prone to do, we waited on the corner to see. After another police bike dude, Mom had just said that "someone important is going to go by," when, sure has poop, the Queen is escorted by in her nice black car! We were so excited and flabbergasted. In fact, Mom was so excited that, even though she literally had her camera in her hand due to previous picture taking, it never occurred to her to lift it up and take a picture, or a video. But that's okay, because it is burned quite well into our memories :D.
Today, we went to Westminster Abbey, but there was some kind of meeting and they were running late opening the doors so we left in order to get good spots to watch the changing of the guard, a goal we were quite able to achieve. We then proceeded to find lunch before making our way to St. Paul's Cathedral, which we were also unable to go into because they closed early for some unexplained reason today. So, we walked across the Millenium Bridge and proceeded to have a tour through the Globe Theatre and then wandered through the Tate Modern. Now, productions of the Globe finished Sunday, as in the Sunday that just happened, so you can imagine my disappointment, but oh well. After the Tate, we went over to the National Gallery because it is open later on Wednesdays; however, due to some kind of strike there at the moment, half the galleries I wanted to see were not open.
So, as you can see, our luck was not quite with us today. But, we've seen so much that it doesn't matter anyway, lol. Going to go eat and sleep now.
Cheers!

All the Way to London

I've been bad and ignoring the blog again. Let's see, what have I been doing? I walked around parts of Edinburgh and saw some things, like I said I would. I met some cool people and some crazy people (literally something wrong crazy!) in the hostel there. Got down to York and proceeded to break my camera in YorkMinster, but it's okay, I've solved that problem already. I also went on a day trip to Scarborough yesterday and toured through their castle and walked along the beach in my barefeet. It really isn't until you are kept away from the ocean that you begin to crave it. Although, I often find that a river quells my oceanic desire...
I'm already in London and in a few short hours I will be surprising Mom at the airport. I had decided not to meet her out there because it was too expensive to go there and back, but I realized that I was being stupid because, you see, my rail pass covers the train that goes out there. Silly Dani! Also, I can write this here now because she is on the plane, at the moment, and will not see this until later. I have it all figured out :D
Okay. Going to go give my mother a heart attack now.
Cheers!

Inverness

Got up to Inverness on Sunday after a few bus rides that took longer than expected. A mixture of full buses and road work ended up being fine in the end, though the hostel reception guy teased me for being 2 hours later than I said I would be...
Was up way to early the next morning and literally wandered aimlessly around town until I found the Visitor Centre so I could find out what tours were running. Wasn't actually that hard to find cause they have those sign posts around town with stuff pointing in the different directions: bus station, tourist information, train station, etc. Found a tour once they opened and got to go over to Loch Ness, even rode on a boat on the Loch up to Urquhart Castle, and also went up to Culloden Battle Field. Up at the Loch, I did not see Nessie, but I did tour around an exhibition that showed us all just how impossible it is for her to exist and how to fake all the photos that have been taken of her. Quite interesting.
Into Edinburgh now and I'll be here for two days exploring some castles and museums.
Cheers!

Ayr

Since I've been in Scotland, I have been to Glasgow for a day, wandered around Ayr town, been to Burns Cottage and the Tam O'Shanter Experience, and yesterday, Pat and I drove up to Stirling Castle and Argyll House. And then last night we went to The Eagle (a pub) to see a boy, Robbie, play in his two man band called 50/50. He's the son of a friend of John's. It was good music, all covers, which is good since we all knew the words and I have had a most excellent time so far. This morning I am hopping onto a bus (actually, 3 buses) and headed up to Inverness to see if I can get a picture of Nessie.
Perhaps I will be more descriptive and less list-y next time,
Cheers!

Scotland

Technically, I'll mention a bit more about Dublin first. I didn't really get up to much, just spent my days looking around and reading in parks (that's a good thing, by the way). I did make it to see the Book of Kells and the impressive Long Room at Trinity College and I also walked along the Liffey to the salt water, or at least as far as the path would let me.
My flight last night has to be the shortest flight ever! Like, shorter than CR to Van. Maybe not, but it felt like it. I spent more time in the airport than in the air! Stu's mom (Pat) was waiting there for me on the other end and got me back to the house. We talked for a while, and I met his dad (John), and then I went to bed. In a bedroom all for me, in a bed where there was no one sleeping above or below me! After months of hostels, this is more exciting then you might think.
Today I lazed around and had some tea with Stu's brother's (Scott) girlfriend (Emma) and by the time his mom popped back in for lunch I figured I should probably get outside and do something, especially since it is such a beautiful day. I caught the bus into town and wandered around for a few hours, but in doing so realized both that the house is not far from town, and town is not very big, so I just walked back and hopped onto the internet for a quick update. I'm going to go see if Pat would like some help in the kitchen...
Cheers!

Dublin

I was going to write a few days ago, but I looked and realized that I had written as many times in September already as I had in total in August, so I took a break. Anyway, on my last day in Galway I took a tour to see the Burren (ice age rocky mountains) and the Cliffs of Moher, where every year a few people die because they are blown off the edge. Basically, there's close to the edge and then there are signs you're not supposed to walk past, and if it's really windy, don't walk past the signs and you're good. There was a play being put on in Galway by the Druid company that I really wanted to see - Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night - which I thought I was going to miss because it didn't start until the day that I left. However, during a quiet moment on the tour I read the brochure again and realized that the play was showing previews leading up and the last one was that night and so when I stopped by the theatre after my tour there was only one ticket left - one ticket for the one me. And it was an awesome play! And I'm so glad I got a chance to see it.
My first few days in Dublin were pretty chill, just kind of wandered around and looked at some stuff. I haven't ventured too far North of the Liffey yet, but I'm still here for a while, so that's okay. I did get my ass up to the Guinnes Storehouse today and went through the self-guided tour and got my free pint and picked up a few things.
Here still until late Tuesday, so we'll see what I get up to, and then I head off to Scotland :D. The Aussie girls in my room invited me downstairs for a drink tonight, and downstairs is just the tv/games/drinking room so I've got to stop at the store on my way back and pick up some boozes.
Cheers!

More Galway

So, my statement about just needing to sleep apparently could not be met at the one-night-last-minute hostel. First, the beds were all wood bunk beds with slats underneath, which isn't a problem when it's a mattress, but when you're "sleeping" on a foam, you definitely notice it. However, I was exhausted and fell right asleep and slept for about 4 hours straight before this alarm started going off down the street. Kind of like a car alarm, but it kept going off all night. It would be going for anywhere from 30-60 minutes and then it would get turned off and that would last for around 10 before it would start again. Luckily, the laundry in the sink went a lot better then expected as I picked quick drying underoos for the next day and so at least the night wasn't a complete waste... And then, as soon as I could check into my much nicer hostel yesterday, I did proper laundry and feel much better today.
Went for a nice walk yesterday around the beach in Claddagh, kind of like a district of Galway, and this walk including a walk out on the causeway to Mutton Island. How could I resist something called Mutton? I mean, come on! There was a gate just before I got to the island, though, so I didn't actually get there, but it was quite the straight, windy adventure. Other than that, I looked around the downtown area, bought some (ie. too much) stuff, did laundry and slept, which felt very good.
Not sure what today will be as this isn't the kind of place that has things to see in town, it's all about the day trips. Since I'm here for one more full day, I'm giving myself more time to decide which one to do since they aren't cheap. Originally, the plan was a day to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, but I'm starting to think that the Cliffs of Moher are maybe an option. We'll see.
Oh, and I haven't changed the time setting on this thing since it would change all my entries, but I am actually posting one hour earlier then it says, in case it matters...
Cheers!

Travelling to Galway

When I woke up this morning at 6 to get ready and walk to the bus stop which would then take me to the train, I figured that 2 hours more sleep and less hassle was totally worth the money to just take the bus to Galway and forget the train.
So I pretty much have done nothing all day other then walk between buses and eat. Oh, and when websites said that the good Galway hostels were fully booked, they weren't lying! I checked two places and booked the second for the next three nights, but for tonight I'm at this outer-town, definitely more shabby location because it's the only one not full. Apparently they book up every Friday and Saturday night. Meh, just need to sleep right. I mean, technically, I need to shower and use other facilities in the washroom as well, and that looked kind of scary, so who knows. The other problem is that I am out of certain clean things to wear, and the laundromat closed a half hour after I arrived (ie. not enough time to wash anything) so it looks like I'm going to have to use the dirty sink for laundry tonight and wear some wet clothes in the morning! I bet you can tell that I am totally stoked for that... right.
More updates to come,
Cheers!

Dingle

Took the train/bus combo out to Dingle town on the Dingle Peninsula yesterday and spent the afternoon restocking my food supply and chilling out on a grass covered seawalk type thing. When I first arrived, I hadn't yet called the hostel that I was looking to stay at from my guidebook, but there was a guy with a van -belonging to a different hostel- picking up other girls off the bus so I asked how far it was and if there was room and hopped in the van. Forgot to ask about the price, but it turned out good so that was cool and I "booked" two nights.
I spent today wandering around the town and then I walked East and past the lighthouse. Dingle town is on a bay and the path led out of the bay to where it meets the rest of the ocean. Very beautiful and I highly recommend coming here some time. Just kind of taking things easy, probably hitch a ride back to the hostel with the van as it picks people up off the bus every two hours.
I'm currently trying to figure out how to get to Galway tomorrow on the train because this is apparently a foreign concept in Ireland. It's possible, but it's going to take all day and three or four stops. The bus, on the other hand is only two switches and 5 rather then 10 hours travel time. The deciding factor is going to be the cost since the train is pretty much free at this point and the bus would be €22. Meh...
That's all for now really. Okay, bye.

Irish Ferries

Met a Canadian guy on my way onto the ferry and we hung out for the 18.5 hour ride...
We played cards, and talked about travelling. At one point, we wanted to see how long we could go without checking the time, but there was a theatre on the boat so we needed to see if we'd missed the good movies so we didn't actually last very long. Then he went exploring and found out that the bar had a live music playing (two guys playing covers) so we went up for that. Had a guiness at the bar, but the ferry people water it down so that was ferry disappointing I must say. I didn't stay long at the bar because Jon (the Canadian) had me set an alarm for 5 because he thought it would be cool to watch the sunrise over the ocean.
So I was up before 5 and figured it wouldn't have started yet and let him sleep a little longer, but we eventually got up and took our blankets upstairs to stare out a window - it was too cold outside. We were there for an hour and the sunrise was very pretty. I took two pictures of the sunrise, and three of Jon sleeping through the sunrise. Seriously! He thought it was such a great idea and literally sat down and went back to sleep. It was hilarious though because he would wake up every once in a while and want to know where the sun was. Technically, we went back downstairs before we actually saw the sun cause it was hiding behind some clouds, but I saw it go from dark to light outside and there were the appropriate pretty colours and that was all that I needed.
Got on a bus to Cork after the ferry and now I'm ready for some pub food and Guinness.
Write again soon!

Bayeux

So, Mont-Saint-Michel was visually stunning, and a man at my hostel in Pontorson had recommended taking the audio-guide, which I did, and it was very informative. Made the visit to the abbey more interesting then just looking at the stuff, especially since the brochure for it was so uninformative.
I did decide today not to try for Juno Beach since it was looking very difficult to do and I didn't really have the energy for it. So I stayed here in town and went to see the tapestry and the cathedral here. And now, I'm going to go read in a park. Last night, I got in pretty early and so I ended up watching Indiana Jones: the Temple of Doom in French because it was there at the hostel and no one was using the television. Basically, it was getting dark and cold outside, but it was too early to go to bed. People ended up stopping and watching parts of it with me, so that was cool. Trying to get the tv to work was another issue as there was a major power button on the side that made the rest of it work. Never would have figured it out if one of the young guys who worked there hadn't stumbled across me trying to figure out the controller so I had some good luck there.
Tomorrow I head to Ireland and I arrive on the morning of the 11th. Basically, all the accomodations in Waterford, where I had originally thought to stay, are super expensive so I think I might head straight to Cork and stay there for a few nights instead. We'll see. For those of you checking, I won't be online for a few days since I'll be on a train, ferry, or bus for pretty much two days.
Okay, I'm off to find something to do!
Aurevoir!

The Loire Castles

Actually, I'm pretty sure the tour dude yesterday said something about the ones we saw not being in the Loire Valley, but that's not really the point, is it?
So, as well as two fancy castles, Cheverny and Chambord, we drove by what locals call "the Love Temple." It's not a temple though, it's a manufacturing plant belonging to a pharmaceutical company named Pfizer. Half the workers do research and half of them make the product and one of the Pfizer products is "the love pill for men," better known as Viagra. The tour guide though he was pretty funny. And he was very French, and by that I mean that he was very frank when discussing the love affairs and murders that happened at the castles. His terminology was very un-business-like, for example, "caught with his trousers down," and I though that was very amusing since there was an old lady and a couple of Japanese tourists with us.
Today, I got up with the intention of going for a bike ride, but by the time I got to the rental place and saw the prices, I wasn't so sure any more. So, I went to the Royal Castle of Amboise which was down the street while I considered my options. I knew that there was a free train (because of my Eurail Pass) available in the afternoon, but what would I do until then? There was nothing I particularly needed to do for a few hours, so I figured that biking to Chenonceau would fill the time if nothing else. And now my butt hurts and I need to stretch my legs and shower, cause it was quite hilly. They have this bike route that is actually longer (13 km) then the car route (10-11 km, two different signs saying different things confused me on that one), and I am hoping it's because of some mountain in the way or something that I took the 13 km route, cause if it's because my route (ie. the bike route) was just more pretty... well, whatever, I did it anyway.
After I had seen the spectacular Chenonceau Chateau, I had another decision. Do I bike back, or wait for two hours and catch the train, which is totally do-able with my bike. There were two reasons I rode back: taking the train would make me return the bike late, which I didn't think was a good idea; what would I do for two hours? so once again, I was faced with the same issue as this morning, really. I thought a lot on my bike ride. Normally, when I bike somewhere, I listen to music, but I was on these thin country roads so I needed to be able to hear if there were cars behind me. It was a good trip and it kept me busy so it served it's purpose. I don't know if I'll rent another bike tomorrow to see a good sunset though like I was going to. Something tells me that my legs are going to be pretty tired after that.
Okay, off to see Mont-Saint-Michel tomorrow or the next day.
Aurevoir!

Amboise

I only just arrived here today and will be staying for the next two days to see the castles here in the East part of the Loire Valley. I think that I may book into a tour tomorrow to see Chambord and Cheverny with a few other quick stops, just so that it's easy because I would otherwise have to take a train to Blois tomorrow before finding out if other options are available. Then on Thursday I think I may rent a bike and cycle to Chenonceau(x) (the town is with an x, the castle without and x). I could still take a train, but biking isn't very far and they recommend it, kind of, on the map so I thought it could be fun! We'll see how the weather holds up though, it's pretty windy so far.
Already today, after I checked into my excitingly super cheap hostel, I went and checked out Clois Luce. That's the chateau/large house that da Vinci spent his last years and days designing and painting things. It was expectedly awesome, I must say! There was the place itself, and then there were models of his inventions in the house as well as funtioning in the garden. I took a bunch of pictures of myself playing with the stuff, turning wheels and such. The first one I got into was the model of a tank and I wasn't expecting it to do much but it was super exciting when it started to turn! Anyway, as you can tell, I was thoroughly entertained this evening.
I spent the last two days getting to and hanging out in Perigueux. I had gone in order to see the Lascaux caves, but I don't have a car, so that didn't work out. I spent the day wandering around the town on these mapped out tours they had at the tourist information. There was ancient roman stuff and renaissance stuff. It was pretty cool, but there was enough of it that I eventually just skipped the end and cut straight to the giant church that I knew I wanted to see. Oh, and because I had no where in particular to go, I refused to get out of bed before 9:30 just because I could. I was up long before that, but read in bed because lying in bed is something that I haven't been able to do in a long time.
I've been on for a while though, trying to figure out some logistical stuff and so I think I should probably go eat or something. It is definitely a cool little place here!
Aurevoir!

Carcassonne

I arrived yesterday and walked from the train station to the hostel which was up in La Cite (ie. the castle!) because it was only about 30 minutes. Once you approach the castle, though, it's uphill which I didn't mind, but every once else kept giving me "you're crazy!" stares, which I can only assume is because of the backpack. Made it fine, whatever. I got to the hostel and set up some laundry before heading out to find out how I go about seeing the Cathar Castles. Apparently, because it's a Saturday today and it's September now, I don't see the castles. Tours are not available on this day at this time of year and there is no public transportation that would get me both there and back. I was a little upset since I could have moved on if I hadn't paid for my bed, but today is turning out fine anyway. I have already been to the markets and scored some produce as well as some material. You see, I had been considering buying a blanket for park-reading purposes as well as keeping me warm when there aren't enough blankets, but the material only cost me 2 euro for 2 yards which was a pretty sweet deal, I must say!
And now, for more about Nice. I splurged and had a fantastic meal with wine at a restaurant recommended to me by Donna and Stan (thank you again!) and it was sooooo good! Earlier in the day, I started by seeing two museums with modern and contemporary art, which I enjoyed very much, and I walked around town for a bit before getting down to the water. I walked along the walkway (funny that) and went into the Negresco Hotel (very fancy on the inside with some art and a stunning chandelier!) before sitting down to watch the ocean and the people. Before finding a seat, I saw a man with a beautiful big dog with a muzzle hanging from it's neck and I saw him make this huge dog get under the bench before sitting down on it himself, so I took a picture since the dog looked uncomfortable. This ended up being the first available bench (facing the other way) and the man proceeded to ask me, once I had sat down, if I wanted him to take my picture, since he had seen me taking pictures. After talking for a while, I agreed, and he proceeded to talk to my for the rest of the evening until I left for dinner (this is quite the span of time). His name is William and he is from Scotland (!). His friend, who joined us late, is named André and he is French. The dog is Flloyd (yes, with two Ls) and Flloyd was under the bench because the (bad-names) french president has made it a law that dogs over a certain size may only be in public if they are muzzled, harnessed, and still, in touristy places, only at certain hours of the day. So Flloyd was hiding. William pretty much told me his life story, which is quite sad, and he also told me I am pretty (two strange men in 4 days), but says that it is because I have a good heart and not because he wants anything (?). He was actually quite a funny guy and I really enjoyed talking to him and André, who were both very opinionated (not always well opinioned), especially about the current French government. Oh, André did explain to me the difference between Québec and Paris french which is that we all speak the french of Louis XIV (the king who sent the people), which is very old and peasant-like because Paris has had so much time to evolve since then. At least that's what André says.
I have more stories about these three for when I get home, but I can't tell all my stories here or else I will have nothing to say when I get back!
Aurevoir...

Nice and Ferries

So I'm in Nice and ready to set out exploring. First, I must update as it appears I am a little slow with the internets...
The ferry thing is not as sucky as I though as when I went to book, it turns out there ARE more sailings, just from a different place which is actually closer to where I will be in France at the time. So I am not leaving France until September 10th, giving me a little bit of leeway so that I don't go crazy trying to see everything. The updated plan includes seeing Carcasonne and the Cathar ruins, Lascaux II, the castles in the Loire valley, Mont-Saint-Michem, the Bayeux tapestry and, hopefully, Juno Beach on my way out of the country.
So there we go. Antibes was lovely, but the Picasso Museum was closed so I just chilled out around town.
Oh, and my roommates both snored, so that sucked. But tonight, I am alone and prepared for some good sleepy time.
Aurevoir!

Antibes

I know, I know, I'm moving too fast... but that's how it goes. I actually checked the schedule last night for the ferry from France to Ireland and it turns out that my options are very limited and since I was already hoping to spend more time then I had planned in Ireland, I am moving faster through France then I had thought I would. I'm going to still see the things I had wanted to, I'm just going to spend less time in parks, especially since my conversation and card partner is no longer available anyway. So I will, in theory, be on a ferry to Ireland on the evening of September 8th.
I was going to stay here two nights and just do a day trip to Nice tomorrow, but the place was only available for the one night so I've booked a nice little B&B in Nice for tomorrow night. Turned out to be a cheaper place anyway, but that's okay cause Antibes is pretty cool!
I should get going to explore the town and find some food.
Aurevoir!

Avignon

My basic purpose is just to let you all know that I couldn't avoid Oliver last night and while his creepy-ness did not lessen, I got through the night perfectly fine. He didn't try anything and I was perfectly safe, although he did knock at my door once I was in bed because he couldn't sleep and wanted to hang out. I feigned asleep-ness and told him, through the door, to go away .
Got to Avignon fine and walked around all night and now I am hungry.
Aurevoir
p.s. I would like to point out to people like Mom, who clearly read too fast, that if you read the last post, that says two hundred and fifty, not twenty five... lol

Paris - Strasbourg

So we spent a week in Paris and saw lots and lots of stuff and I still need to go back! We spent and entire day in the Louvre, went to the Orsay one evening, a few smaller galleries, a day in Versailles, wandered around the Champs-Elysees. Our last day was going to be killer but we vetoed that in exchange for some chilling out time but still managed to get to La Defense and bqck to the Eiffel Tower again for the night lights. I really had an amazing time and we were too busy to find internet often enough. Plus the keyboards seriously hindered my efficiency and after getting a few e-mail replies out, my time was up! The internet here that I have found in Strasbourg is much more reasonable and I have done some much needed catching up. Really though, the funniest story happend to me today, after Eric left (a sad occasion) and I arrived in Strasbourg.
I had to take a TGV train here, but the supplement was only 3 euro so that wasn't bad, plus I got here by 11 in the morning since I just got up when Eric had to in order to catch his flight. The hostel I wanted to stay at (no reservations) was full but the guy tried to help me out by calling around but everyone else's reception was closed for mid-day. So, I wandered around town and saw some cool old houses and churches and realized that I was pretty much done here so I was going to get on another train to Loire. I decided to wait until I knew if I had a place to stay and the reception at the hostel there was still closed for another hour so I decided (still with the decisions!) to wait at the train station and call again. But, the train wasn't going to be until after 5 and I would have arrived really late, and the guidebook said the hostel didn't like phone reservations so I came back into town and ended up at a slightly expensive hotel, just in comparison to what we usually try for.
As I got into my room, the guy from down the hall called for my attention. He wanted to borrow money because his bank won't let him get any until the 30th. However, we couldn't figure out how he would get it back to me (darn!) because I don't have an address or a phone, and he is going to India after this while I am going South, so we vetoed that plan. At this point he invited me to India, and I declined because I had "told my friend I would go with him," ... "and is this friend better looking than me?" he says... uhhhh, we laughed ('cause he's really not so much). He left and I started tearing up (because I miss Eric and everybody, I know, it's sad...) but then he thought of something so knocked on the door and saw that I was crying and tried to console me and say that it's ok cause I'll see everybody again soon and he has been travelling for 15 years and has had to leave lots of friends and doesn't see them and everything will be all right. After I took a nap he was downstairs so I talked to him again and he claims to have had 250 girlfriends that he has had to leave (but says he wasn't trying to brag) and he told me he really thinks I'm pretty and kept saying my name. He's mid-thirties, France-born Italian and he's kinda creepy cause he is so hard core, seriously. Dude just met me. It's funny though, and I'm supposed to meet him for a drink later at the hotel but we'll see. Other personal details he informed me of included that his parents don't support his job-less travelling, that he is returning to India to be a photographer as he has been on hiatus due to a depression induced stay in a mental hospital. I think there was more in there too, but I'm starting to forget some due to the sheer amount of information I was given. He knows that I am from Victoria, that my name is Danielle, and that my boyfriend returned home this morning but I will see him again in two months. Those are the details he managed to ask for while telling me his life story. I think he is lonely.
Well, aurevoir for now. I am off to Avignon and the Cote d'Azure tomorrow!

Belgium

So the Belgians love beer and chocolate and so do we! We actually start our day with a waffle usually, but beer and chocolate are not far behind. Throw in some flemish fries in there and you´ve got most of what we eat in a day.
Realized that I had kind of disappeared from the blog for a while there but we´ve just been chilling out and taking it easy. Meeting some nice people while we sit in parks and wander around small cities, preparing ourselves for the craziness that will be Paris really. After Italy, we were so tired and needed time to rest so we are currently resting before entering into the same kind of touristy, museumy atmosphere once again. Brussels and Bruges are both very beautiful places, but I have no idea what the art looks like (other than similar to that of the Netherlands...) but I know how much I LOVE gaufres de liege which are very thick and doughy and sweet. That´s pretty much it but I´m sure more will arise once we arrive in France.
Oh, I had wanted to mention how lovely it was to arrive in Brussels and suddenly understand the strange language everyone was speaking (French!), but as soon as we got to Bruges, they all speak Flemish. Although, they are taught English and French at school so we´re doing okay anyway :D
Aurevoir!

Amsterdam - so far

Been to most of the museums we want to go to here. And the red light district for a bit, and wandered around. Maybe two more if we get bored. Which we will because we left a lot of time in Amsterdam. It's really not that much time though compared to other places, it's about the same. Whatever. Maybe we'll go on a day trip to the Hague.
There's construction and renovations every where we go. They have to do it and stuff but there hasn't been a single place we've been that isn't touched somewhere by either scaffolding or half a museum being closed. The museum bit makes it so we spend less time there though, which works to our favour as we usually spend way too much time in them and when they are half closed they display what they think is the best. I just hope they aren't hiding anything that I might have liked
Okay... going to go find something to do.

Munich - The Train

So I was going to write about the drinking team in the beer gardens (Scott and Dave, we are so starting something cause it is awesome!), but I could write about the "Disney Castle" or even the Nutella that exploded in my purse (grr). I think, however, that I will tell our story of running over the train tracks.
It was one of those kinds of moments that makes me really sad that it was so exciting that I forgot to take out my camera (ie. no picture). In order to get to the castles, Füssen, we tranferred trains both ways in a place called Buchloe. On the way back, our train arrived around 8:17 and the next train left at 8:21. The sign in Buchloe said that it left from the same track that we arrived at which is confusing: why did we get off the train then? Some of us, seeing as it was 8:20 jumped back onto the train, including two people with bikes. The train started to move, but it was going the wrong way and we all freaked out and tried to open the doors to jump off before it started moving too fast (we were still at the station at this point basically). However, they lock the doors once it's moving so we started to settle down a bit figuring that we would just get off at the next town and come back from there. But then the train stopped. 100 metres from the station and we were sitting there on the tracks with the doors locked. Even if we'd wanted to we couldn't jump off the stopped train and run illegally across the tracks and back to the station. There was a train sitting right next to us on a different set of tracks. It was stopped and clearly meant to move into the same track number we had been on, and then it changed it's direction sign and said that it was bound for München which confirmed that it was in fact the train we were meant to be on. There was a driver in the front of it who did notice that we were waving at him and since our train was pretty much shut down for the night, meaning that no one should be on it, he called over (sounding quite stressed about it) and the driver at the front of our train (many, many cars from where we were) unlocked the doors and so we all jumped out and got helped onto the other train. Trains are very high when you are not at the station, reminiscent of me hopping up into Laura's truck, but worse.
The good thing was that we got to pick our seats on the train. But I guess we had all just missed the conneciton or something (which is stupid because that's all these two trains really do is ship people between Munich and the castles) so we sat at the station in Buchloe until the next leaving time which was 8:55. All around not too bad but we were exhausted from the early morning and the late night (giggly roommates) and walking to the sommerrodelbahn - which was cheaper than the first one I went on - so when we got back to Munich we found some street food, cause it was cheap, checked the internet, and went to bed.
Today we chilled in the Englischer Garten and watched some river surfers which was pretty sweet and now Eric wants to go on a road trip to Tofino when he gets back but before class starts (anyone wanting to go is now warned!).
I think that's enough for now. It's raining again so we're going to finish up and run back to the hostel.
Auf Wiedesehen.

Rain

We only left the hostel today to get food and cheap internet cause it is Campbell-River-raining here in Salzburg. It started yesterday while I was in the hostel waiting for Eric to return from a mountain hike that I didn't mention until I knew he was home safe cause I was worried and didn't want anyone else to worry in case I mentioned it and then didn't get back online to post about his safe-ness. Anyway, it was thundering and lightning and he did end up stuck in the rain but he'd seen it coming and rushed down the mountain and so it was mostly just while walking between the villages back to the bus stop that he got completely soaked. Oh, and it's been a while since he climbed around like that so he's pretty sore today, silly boy. We were going to go check out some ice caves today but we didn't want to take a tour cause it's expensive and then we didn't feel like dealing with the weather once we woke up so we played cards with this brother and sister we met from calgary and then the four of us left for, like I said, food and internet.
This isn't the first rain we've encountered or anything. It rained a bit in Rome, again while we were on trains a few times, and it rained one night in Prague. But this is the first time that we've actually had a yucky day due to rain. That's why it was post-worthy.
I did go on the Sound of Music tour yesterday while Eric was mountain-ing and it was pretty cool. One of the non-Sound stops we made was at this summer slide thing which was awesome. It's like the tubes at Mt. Washington to get up (sit on slide, attach to thing that pulls) and then some guy helps at the top to get us situated in the half-tube on our sleds. There was a brake pole and I have to admit that the second half of the ride would have been better if I hadn't got scared around one corner and braked too much... but it was still awesome.
We're going to Munich tomorrow and that should be good. We've decided to stay there longer and go straight to Amsterdam after that, so those of you who are following where I said we might be can make that adjustment, lol.
Having fun!
Auf Wiedesehen

Salzburg

Pretty easy going day today. Woke up, dealt with crazy roommates, packed up, breakfasted, dealt with crazy keyboards that switch the z and y as well as other stupid ideas, sent parcel, got on train, very easily found hostel and went for dinner after a very hot shower. They play the Sound of Music here every night at 8 pm so it is currently running in the background.
Had a real craving for my home peeps today and it´s making me pretty bummed out. Can´t decide if I want that to go away or not cause if it goes away and I´m not bummed out then I stop missing family and friends. Oh well, this stuff works itself out.
Went and saw the Danube river yesterday in Vienna and played with a friendly swan that wiggled it´s bum when it got close. The night before we had went to the fair and I went of the swing ride that goes up really high. Every thing else was too expensive, except the candy, I got some candy. I didn´t realize how my fear of heights had developed since the last time I was at a fair and I must say that I was kind of freaking out a bit. It was fun!
Going to go to bed now, maybe journal a bit about stuff I´m doing rather than just crazy dreams I´m having, lol.
Auf Wiedesehen

Vienna

Not so keen on some of the art we saw at the MuMOK today. On the first of 9 floors was Viennese art from the 40-60s ish that were all trying to make people think and go against current politics and stuff so it was all really, really disturbing. Seriously. I was exhausted and it just made me cry. I don't like "art" that makes me that upset. Whatever.
We're trying to plan a bike ride along the Danube and I must say that I am pretty excited. The actual process of renting a bike and taking it on a train is probably going to make me angry and I told Eric he had to figure it out because I only care about seeing the river and the bike ride is just a bonus. We'll see what happens.
I very much enjoyed the Belvedere yesterday which is the Austrian Gallery. That place actually had art. All 19th and early 20th century art by Austrian artists and people they liked :D
Going to bed now though because we were up really late last night talking to the new girl in our fabulous room and then the other guy didn't come back until it was light out so the rest of us were up relatively early. I think everyone went clubbing after getting drunk at the hostel bar so I'm pretty sure there were a lot of hungover people who missed breakfast today... silly people.
Hope you're all having a good time, I know we are :D
Ciao (cause I can't spell goodbye in German yet!)

Prague #2 - the Lost Postcards

Prague has been wonderful. We ran into Eric's English tutor from high school and her husband who was Kathleen's high school English teacher (Ruth and Trevor) and we ended up meeting them for dinner and had a really good time.
It's been pretty relaxed here as we don't have anything really that we have to see so we kind of wander around stopping when we feel like it. Although, this morning we have to go to the castle before we catch the train to Vienna because of a mix up in communication and not leaving enough time yesterday.
Anyway, MomDad, Sarah, and Megan were meant to be getting postcards from here (I wasn't here long enough to buy or fill out more...) but at some point after writing on them, stamping them, and writing the address', I put them down and can't find them. Perhaps some nice store clerk looked at them and put them in the mail, but you three (four?) will have to let me know on that one 'cause I'm not that hopeful.
Gotta get going, Ciao

Prague, Trains, and Harry Potter!

First things first. We were stuck in a train station. Italy had know a month in advance that they would be striking on the night of my comfy night train to Prague and yet no one told us until we asked 5 minutes before it left. Which was also 15 minutes before the ticket desk closed which there was naturally a long line for because there were a lot of angry people. Now, we could have stood all night on a different train that left 5 hours later at 1:30 am from the next station, but we wanted a refund for the part of the ticket that we had bought and didn't want to fight Czech train people for it. So, we caught the train to the next station and Eric slept while I stayed up reading cause it was too bright and noisy (and it was HARRY POTTER!). In the morning, at 5:30 the unhelpful Italian man behind the desk told us that he couldn't help us because we had bought the ticket elsewhere. So I cried and we caught a train back to Venice and returned our ticket and got a new one - a process that wasn't easy since that lady was even less helpful, but we figured it all out. Whatever. Talked to a nice guy on the train to Vienna and then switched trains for Prague. What was supposed to be a night train leaving at 9 pm arriving at 11 am turned into staying up all night arriving at 11 pm that night... I was tired :D
So, I bought Harry on the afternoon it came out since we walked past a store and it was done before we got to Vienna. Good times. It was good, won't go into detail though for those who haven't finished. Then tonight we found a cinema and it played in English with subtitles so we got to watch the new movie. It was also good, plus it's been long enough since I read the book that I can't quite place my finger on a lot of the stuff they omitted which made it better I think.
Prague has been good. We went to the Jewish quarter to day and learned lots of stuff. Although, it was pretty sad so we're going to go look at some art tomorrow.
I should get to bed. Ciao (don't know by in Czech so I won't even try)

Verona

I must say that the day trip from Venice was very nice. Getting there took forever, but it was a nice break from the moistness. Here in Venice, due to the water I assume, it is always moist. You walk off the hot train and the moist-ness start sticking to your body. I mean, it is hot as well, so let's mix some sweat in there, but even when it's not that hot... it is still moist.
I had invested €2 in a fan back outside the Vatican Museum and it has definitely come in handy here. You know when you wet your finger before checking the direction of the wind because it feels more, works the same with the moistness.
There is a very impatient boy waiting for the inter-webs.
Verona was also lovely because of the scenery and lack of big things to see. We did go check out "Juliet's Window" though, which isn't even where the possibly-based-on-real-life-Juliet could have been... but it looks kind of right so tourist go there and Verona puts it on postcards.
Ciao

Venice

It is beautiful but I am not a big fan of humidity and it is ridiculous here. We're going to Murano tomorrow, but the rumour is that it is too hot for anyone to be blowing so, while we will get cool glass, we will not get to see any being made... oh well...
We got to see some good modern art at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery which was pretty cool although I do not appreciate video art that has a naked guy filling his orifices with petroleum jelly while hanging from a harness in an attempt to seal off his hermetic energy or some sort of craziness like that. It was a month long exhibit, this petroleum jelly guy and some fat corner guy, who like to tape themselves creating the art cause it's the process and ... blah blah blah, didn't like it...
Yup, it's hot here so we're going to go get on a boat to take us down the stagnant water to St. Mark's Square, which we've already seen at night, but we have these boat passes we need to use so we figured we would go again.
Oh, Lake Como was pretty cool but everything was pretty much closed on Sundays and we were only there for the one day. Plus, it wasn't kayak rental season in the town we were in. It was nice to relax.
More to say once we've seen some more stuff. Ciao

Menaggio - Lake Como

Ahhhh, free internet. So far, every time we're in a tourist information place they charge the most ridiculous prices, but this place offers 30 minutes free for all visitors and I am using it. We had a great time in Cinque Terre. Did the hike on our first day there in about the recommended time. Went swimming in the ocean, not at the beach but at a place where you can jump in off the rocks and just swim, or float and I loved it. I miss the ocean, and here (no matter what silly Americans say) it is warmer then at home because the top is heated by the really warm sun...
The hostel we were at was pretty cool because it was more like apartments with a bunch of beds in them so we were in a five bed room and there was also a two bed room and we all shared a common area and a kitchen. Basically, Cinque Terre is about the hikes and there really isn't much to do at night except watch the sunset so we would all hang out together and we met some guys, Chris and John, from Philly, and Andrew from Sydney, Australia who were in our room with us the first night and then the Americans left and some girls, Mia and Estrid, from Denmark joined us and some guys from Melbourne, Australia, were in the other room and we think that their names were Al and Time (or something like that) and you single ladies would definitely have been fans of Al...
Our second day there, by the way, we didn't go anywhere until noon and then we kind of just found something to eat in one town and I went swimming again in another so it was a pretty chill day.
The travelling to get to Lake Como was quite the day since we tried to get a train to Genova, but the train we wanted to catch didn't go far enough so we backtracked to La Spezia and then caught a three hour train straight to Milan (after waiting for two hours) and then we ran for another train to Como - there were some late-twenties, swiss guys in the cabin with us, but the better looking one had a ring - and then we had to get on a bus up to Menaggio. The bus was late to begin with, and then we caught stuck for half an hour behind an accident. A car had run into a motorcycle and while all the cars and bikes took turns passing by the accident, all the buses had to wait for the ambulance to get the motorcyclist and the police to move the vehicles before they could pass, maybe because it was on a bit of a corner, I'm not sure. Point is, we waited in the hot bus for an extra half hour.
There's some sort of motorcycle thing going on today which is pretty cool. Lots of old Motto Guzzi bikes parked out in the piazza with a bunch of old guys ooo-ing and ahh-ing. Took some photos. Sorry, by they way that there are no Italy photos yet but it is seriously more dificult to do here so those who are complaining will just have to wait.
Oh, and ELTON JOHN was fantastic as expected. He is such a cool old guy. Cool outfit, diamond initials in his purple tinted sunglasses... it was quite the show.
3 minutes left, gotta go again.

Cinque Terre - I am Fine

Internet= ridiculous prices, therefore, e-mails, pictures, and blogs will be sent/posted as soon as we find something reasonable. Until then, I am safe and having fun and I don't know how long it will be cause we're staying in remote places so you'll just have to be patient and trust my survival skills. Off to Lake Como tomorrow.

Sunflowers (i.e. Tuscany, i.e. Lucca #3)

There are fields of sunflowers.
When I think Tuscany, I think of good wine, cyprus trees, rolling hills with fields on them (for real), corn, wheat, hay, more trees. I had forgotten about the sunflowers. But then, as our train from Rome to Siena, and later the train from Siena to Florence, was whisking us through Tuscany, we kept riding by fields of sunflowers and it was beautiful.
So, naturally, my mission in Siena - other than eating at an amazing restaurant - was to find a postcard of sunflowers because there was no way that my camera could take the perfect shot through a dirty train window. And I found this postcard almost as soon as I decided that it was worth a €0.50 postcard rather than the cheapest €0.30 that was my other choice; there were also some €1 postcards but they looked like the €0.30 postcards, but were closer to a touristy area and were, therefore, a rip off.
Oh, and no one is getting this postcard because it is for me. It is mine, all mine. Maybe I'll show you when I get home.

The Accordion (i.e. Lucca #2)

Eric wants to learn the accordion. For serious. I vetoed that. Are you kidding me. I already knew that, although sometimes it sounds interesting, I do not like the accordion that much - if at all. After spending two or more weeks in Italy, I know that I do not want someone learning the accordion where I will have to be present during practice. I seriously don't like it when people who, in theory, know what they are doing play the things. It's not necessarily the music they play, it's the sound of it.
Today, for example, while I was writing in the piazza, it turns out that I had sat down beside this duo, and accordion and a keyboard-wind-instrument-majiggy (you can read what it says, spell it out, leave me alone). I came quickly to the conclusion that they either only knew 4-5 songs, or they believed, somehow, that these were the songs that people liked to hear. I literally (not figuratively) heard one song at least 5 times. I started to count once it because obvious enough to write about it in my journal (as well as here). My theory was further demonstrated as, after lunch, we walked back toward our B&B and in the piazza where ELTON JOHN will be performing, these guys were playing for some poor people trying to eat. Actually, only the accordion player was playing at the time because the other guy was going around with his hat. The point, really, is that it was most definitely a song I had heard played many times this morning.
Whatever.
Eric is so not learning the accordion!

Elton John (i.e. Lucca #1)

So there is this music festical in Lucca every summer (www.summer-festival.com) and we just happened to decide to come here for the beginning. Last night (our first night), John Legend was playing. Oh, by the way, this is in the piazza next to piazza we're staying in which is about a half a block away. Tonight, ELTON JOHN is playing. And I am going. Just me, Eric didn't want to spend the money, but I didn't care cause it's ELTON JOHN. As you can tell I am pretty stoked, and there is still 3.5 hours to wait :D Oh, and Lucca is beautiful and there is stuff to do here either than sit in piazzas writing in my journal, but I didn't feel like it. We went for a walk earlier to find lunch, but either than that it has been a chill day which is awesome. Had my first Italian lasagna for lunch today and it was pretty darn good for simple grub.
I have decided to break this post up into parts because I felt like it so read on...

Florence (ahh, fixed)

Won't let me title it (bastard application) but I'm in Florence and will fix that another time.
Florence is, in a way, more relaxed then Rome still. Just the atmosphere of the people. However, we are staying around the sites and the train station and there is this market by us, so there are crazy hawkers like you've never seen and they exhaust me because I do really want the soft leather briefcase/messenger bag that the nice lady claims that her husband makes, but I don't particularly have the energy to haggle the price down to something reasonable, even if that is still way more than I should be spending.
I did buy myself a pair of berkenstock sandals though. They have more styles than orginally and they are a pair of thongs that I am going to become quite partial to. They were also more than I should be spending, but my feet are tired of socks, as I had a slight suspicion they might become, but my $3 Superstore flip-flops start to dig into the side of my foot, although the rest of my foot felt better... whatever, it's a long story.
The train ride to Siena (a day trip between Rome and Florence) was beautiful, although it would have been much better in a car or something cause trains keep moving. And Siena was pleasant but I wasn't feeling well although the place we went for lunch was to die for. First great meal we've really had in Italy. So far, the food was not quite comparing to Greece. We also had awesome vegetable soup today in Florence.
So the Uffizzi and Accademia, although what they are known for was awesome, were a bit of a disappointment. Had to make reservations so there was no crazy line and so they both cost a ridiculous amount. Whatever. More tomorrow I hope. Gotta go

Rome for Real

Ok, seriously. We did so much on our first day here that we kind of petered out fast. So, the Coloseum, Roman Forum, Capital Hill Museum in one day. The second day was out to Vatican city and stuff, but by the time we wanted to climb to the top of the dome, the line was super huge so we decided to come back another day. Then yesterday, we pretty much decided to take it easy cause the National Museum lady was a cow, so we left and went to the Villa Borghese (land-park area) and chilled until our reservations at 3 for the Borghese Gallery which was pretty good art (sculptures by Bernini and other paintings). While there, I saw an ad thing for other galleries so today we went to one part of the National Gallery (everything here has 2-6 locations...). And it was good! I've decided that I really like paintings etc by da Cortona, and Bernini was a pretty cool guy. There was some good stuff by Caravaggio there as well. We actually got in free because of some holiday-kind-of-celebration-thing which was cool because the palace it was in was under construction so not all the art was out, but we basically saw what we went for. There was a ceiling frescoe there by da Cortona and, while the Sistine Chapel is impressive in size and stuff, I honestly liked this stuff better.
Funny story this morning. So, we decided to go back to St Peter's to climb the dome, knowing that we'd have to go early, but we were tired and didn't leave until after 9:30 or something ridiculous (Eric's fault) and by the time we got there (decided to try any way), I remembered that there was a viewing with the Pope at 11 this morning and what time was it? 10:45... so while there was no line to climb the dome, the line to get into St. Peter's (securtiy bull-crap)curved through the zig-zag set up and was already past the entrance to the piazza and working it's way back towards the building... so we didn't go. Oh well.
Gonna do a day trip tomorrow in Siena on the way to Florence. We made reservations to see the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence (highly recommended, skipping lines is cool) and I wrote down the reservation number and the times we go in... but I forgot to actually write down the days. I'm pretty sure which days, but we need to call them tomorrow and check cause, ya, pretty sure we need to be in one of them the next day.
Oh, celebrated Canada Day with pasta and wine. Eric had pizza. Technically, it's cheaper, but I seriously needed something other than pizza cause he orders it everyday. Seriously.
And, check out the comments on my Naples day. Any one read that? pretty sure it's spam, whoever Ricardo or whatever is, lol.

Rome

Rome is awesome... I have two minutes, come back tomorrow... Internet harder to find here then you'd think.
Been to lots of things: Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Monument thingy, Capital Hill, Borhese Museum... ok, time's up and Eric is distracting me

Naples to Rome

We're leaving Naples as soon as we've packed (and Eric has woken up). Yesterday we went to Pompeii in the morning, and then got back on the train to Sorrento and took a bus along the Amalfi coast. It was beyond beautiful, it blew me away. I tried to take some pictures, but I was on a bus so we'll see. We were the first people on the bus though, so we were in the first seats, opposite the driver which were the best seats! Didn't spend much time actually in Amalfi cause it was really about seeing the coast. When we did get back on a bus though, it went all the way to Napoli (yay!) and because they stop in all the little towns on the way, it actually took a different route and it was almost better views on the parts we hadn't already seen. We sat on the same side of the bus, letting other people see the view, and then we ended up on the perfect side of the bus just before Sorrento on the new part of the drive.
Anyway, it was a long day and there was this organized show-everybody-the-dance-clubs thing at our hostel, but we were too tired so we just had some pizza at the best place ever and came back. Pretty much fell asleep in from of Scarface (I wanted Ocean's Twelve, but somebody already had it going) and then went to bed. There was no one around, and I don't even know when the rest of our roommates came back last night. I assume they had tons of fun!
Don't know what the deal is with internets in Roma, we will see...

Naples day 2

Today we did se the National Archaelogical Museum in Naples. It has all of the stuff grom Naples and Ercolano (Herculaneum) and we wanted to see it before we go tomorrow so that we had already seen the stuff from the houses before we see the ruins.
I was going to say something funny that I saw, but I forgot...
We went for gelato at the oldest gelateria in Naples this afternoon at a place called Polo Nord and it was amazingly good.
This morning, we left early for the museum and turned the long way because in theory it would be easier once we found the main road. Then I remembered that last night (when I was exhausted), I had given my money belt to Eric while I showered and after we stayed up talking to some other people he handed it to me and I tucked it into my pillow case while I slept. But I forgot this morning and thought that he had locked it up so didn't put it on this morning. And then I remembered that it was in my pillow case after we had left so we had to come back. We ended up taking a more direct route to the museum the second try, which was good. But we walked to far on Via Toledo (the main road) so we turned around again and finally foudn the museum.
Once there, the plan was to buy these special cards that saves us money, but they didn't have the three day one we wanted, and after Eric ran around to a few other places and came back we realized that if we just paid regular for the museum, we could buy a one day tomorrow and be fine. Whatever.
Okay, going to go chill out with other people watching movies and stuff.

Naples

I have returned to a place with funny keyboards. It's qwery, but the extra things are all over the place and not all discoverable by the shift key. Weird combinations of ctrl-alt are also necessary.
Just a quick update. From Napflio we took daytrips to Mycenae (Mykenas) which is where Agamemnon's tomb and stuff is and it was seriously neato (that's right, neat-o) and we also went to Epidaurus, a really big Greek theatre that is still able to be used.
The trip from Napflio, oh let me tell you, was a doozy. Eric's alarm went off at 4:30 so he could shower and then we packed and left by 5:30, although we had to convince the night guy that we did need to pay. We caught a 6:00 bus from Napflio to the Corinth Isthmus (?) to catch another bus at 7:30 to Patra -- that bus was half an hour late...
We got to Patra around 9:30 and the train station was right by the bus station, to validate our passes, and the ferry office that we wanted to be on was on the other side of the bus station. Now, the ferry wasn't until 6 pm, but we couldn't reserve without e-mailing a credit card number because of the passes, and we are determined not to e-mail anyone a credit card number.
Anyway, so we chilled out at this restaurant/cafe reading guide books the whole time and the food there was good so that was cool. I pretty much slept the entire time on the ferry (15.5 hours) but it was that kind of sleep that only last for a maximum of 1.5 hours at a time because the ferry is so shaky, usually less time between wake up points. Moral of the story is that the sleep sucked!
It was another 1.5 hour train ride and 4.5 hour bus ride from Bari to Napflio, but we made it here! We met a bunch of people staying at the same place as us so we caught the bus over together and it was a crazy bus situation with people shoving to get on. And we witnessed our first pick-pocket. We all knew he was there and could feel him reaching in pockets (not mine!) so we had our hands on our wallets etc. but even still he managed to still this one swedish girls's cd player, the bastard. But all important things were safe in the long run, and Eric and I still have everything.
I'm going to get ready for today, but the internet here is free, just hard to get to cause of the other people, hence why i'm on at 7 in the morning.

Napflio

So we just booked some more stuff and Italy is ready to go!
Eric figured out how to make it so that this stupid site was in English again. It's a matter of remember more than the basic alpha, beta from math class (I also remember sigma!). We've actually had more issues with that than I thought since, personally, it turns out we learn all lower case and most directional signs like to be all in capitals.
Some other Greek eccentricities for you: 1) very few washroom toilets keep the flusher in the same place. There have been buttons in the middle, buttons in the wall, a switch you have to turn back off or it keeps running, buttons on the floor, and one that I had to pull from the water thingy in the ceiling (gravity and all that)... 2) Shopkeepers don't stay inside their shops. It is often more hot in the shop, and it is boring, and you can't yell at people in the street from the inside. 3) Many shop-men fling these beads around their fingers. You would expect them to be rosaries, but there's not cross/jesus and the beads are too colourful. But it makes this really cool noise and you know they are there for sure. 3) Music ranges from traditional Greek, to modern Greek, to old school pop (like "the right stuff" and george michael etc.), to the random modern pop (i have heard JT, new Maroon 5, and Rihanna-Umbrella). It must be said, the stuff I recognize comes out of cars driving by and coffee shops playing music channels. 4) Greek day-time comedy shows aren't funny. There is a strange obsession with hairy men dressing as women which is weird, and the acting is beyond horrible really. Very stage-y which is not what TV is for.
I had more eccentricities but I can't remember them all right now so I will right more of them later.
The sunset was beautiful as sunsets are but I actually like the one better last night behind the Peloponesian mountains (don't actually know which mountains). It was nice being out at night though. Sadly, I had only kind of seen one sunset until that point cause I'm always asleep, lol. The night was cool with all the restaurants and people out. The shops are almost more lively because it's actually cool enough to think straight.
Yesterday was a long-ish day. We got a ride from the hotel at 10 and waited at the terminal for our 11:30 ferry that was at least a half hour late. The ferry was marked seating and the most comfortable so far. It was also the most expensive, costing as much as the three other ferries we've been on combined. But it was a catamaran and was worth it. The other ferry only saved 20 euro and would have taken 10 hours instead of 4.5. We arrived into Athens around 4:45-5 ish and made our way to the metro. Once off the metro, Eric asked all the gum-stand guys for directions to a city bus that would get us to 'Terminal A' (it's bus 51 by the way) and at Terminal A is the intercity bus station and we were on a 19:00 bus to Napflio and at our hotel by 21:30 :D
Okay, we should do something else... I'm attempting to upload some pictures quickly here so we'll see how that goes.

Santorini

Okay. Let's try this again. This computer still sucks, but whatever (it's an hour behind, but not really, it's confusing). So basically, I had gone off about how the ATV was fun. 12 hours or so on the road is a long time though. Not that we were driving the entire time, but definitely for most of it. I reapplied sunscreen 3 times and still managed to get burned by the end of the day. Most of that has cleared up, and it's definitely not as bad as my shoulder from the last time, but we're cool.
Hung around Fira town yesterday and checked out a few little museums. They were pretty good. We've decided that we like the smaller ones better because there is less pressure to see everything...
Yesterday, when I wrote about the walk that we went on today, I said that we would see if I still loved Eric by the end. Ya, it was hard. What was supposed to be a nice walk to Oia (eee-ya) turned into a 4 hour uphill climb (except when we were walking down, lol). It was hot, and I had on long sleeves so I wouldn't get burned, and it was hot. Beautiful, mind you, but after the first 2 hours the trail got thin and the edges were drop offs so I stopped paying attention. By the end, I even cried a little I was so frustrated with walking uphill. You see, when it was only going to take 2-3 hours, we would have been there before the sun got too high, but that didn't really work out. The real issue wasn't that it was hard really, cause if I'd been prepared for a serious hike, I would have been expecting it. But that, unexpected, was not fun, and this is not about not fun. It's okay though, I still love him and now I feel bad because he feels horrible cause I cried and stuff. It happens.
I am currently constantly saving drafts in case this thing screws up again, but the real issue is that it has decided to be in Greek, where every other time it remains in my default language of English. So, even if I save drafts, I can't figure out how to find them later :p
Eric is behind me looking up class stuff cause we've come to the realization that we are three hours from land when his sign up time is. There's a long wait between the ferry and the train though, so we'll find some internet during the wait and get him all set for the fall.
OOOO, story! At the restaurant on our first night here, this scandinavian couple came in. Now, I still can't decide if the tanning made her look older, but even so, she was in her later 30's (and looked older). And she got off the back of the scooter and was wearing this short black skirt and a wrap top, the kind that comes right under the breasteses, that someone would normally wear something underneath of unless on the beach... And she wasn't wearing a bra. And they were clearly fake due to a mixture of her size, their size, the no bra, and the age...
While we were eating, I couldn't help staring since she was across from me and her hard nipple was looking a little bumpy for a nipple. I realized she had a piercing. At her age, with fake boobs, and no bra... (she was also pierced in "normal" places, like, belly, nose, ears, you know...)
Well. Naturally running out of time. I will let you all know if the sunsets on Santorini are all they're cracked up to be :D
Cheers

Grr

Just wrote a long post but the internet is stupid and crashed and even though I'd copied what I wrote, it didn't hold on to it. But I'm tired of the internet right now so I'll try again tomorrow or something...

Naxos

Now we're on the next island of our adventure and we've already been to the sites in the main town. We're chilling in an internet cafe cause it's cool. Tomorrow, we're going to rent an atv for 12 euro to see the rest of the island. So, the trip to Delos, I totally reapplied sunscreen in the museum but it was either not soon enough or the hike up the mountain officially sweated it off cause my shoulders are burnt and the one still hurts cause it's kind of bad. The day after Delos we spent on the beach (more man photos!) but the hike through town and to the port with my bag on my burn was pretty painful. Oh well, we're having a great time.
The food here is soooo good. And I'm not even talking Greek food, cause sometimes we just get tired of bread and fruit and cheese so we order the cheapest thing on a menu which is always pasta. But the sauces are amazingly fantastic so it is always satisfying and worth it.
On beach day, I refused to get out of bed until 12 cause I could and it was hot. We just read and hung around. Eric slept more and we eventually showered and went down to the beach. We were on the bed thingys for a long time before someone mentioned something about paying and we saw the collector guy about 50 feet away and decided to find a different part of the beach. We're bad people, but oh well.
Ok, we're going out for dinner tonight, but I will write again soon.
p.s. Mom, stop checking this every day, I don't even see a computer that often, let alone have time to write on one. I love you!

Mykonos

We spent Tuesday up on the Acropolis. Well, not the whole day, but the ticket got us into a few things so we spent the day going to those... and then we went back to the hostel, met two new people, showered and took a nap, lol...
We made it to Mykonos on the ferry fine. It was a beautiful ferry ride so that was awesome and then the dude from Mykonos Camping picked us up from the port and we took another nap when we got there (p.s. no nap today so that I can actually sleep through the night...) and spent some time in the water which is amazing as expected and then did laundry. woohoo, you all know how excited I was about that... from now on, we do it everyday or so instead of every three-four days cause that was hard.
This morning we walked to Mykonos town which took an hour, so I was tired and thirsty. Then we made our way through town and down to the harbour to catch the Excursion to Delos. We spent three hours on the island looking at all the ruins and Eric wanted to walk up the steps (there are photos! coming later) to the Temple of Zeus and Athena which was exhausting, so I was tired and thirsty.
He made it up to me with an AMAZING lunch when we got back to Mykonos. I had the risotto with mussels and the sauce alone was fantastic, and Eric's lamb in filo pastry thing was equally as delicious. Took pictures of the waiters for the ladies cause they were dark and handsome Greek men.... but you'll have to wait of course cause I don't quite have enough photos to make a CD worth it.
Found this hole in the wall internet place and we're going to do some bookings... check back soon :D

Greece

So, we naturally get lost everytime we try to find our hostel. And by lost, I mean that half the signs are in English which throws us off when it's not.
We got into the hostel at 12:30 this morning and some of the guys in our room left at 5:30 so when we woke up the second time at 9:50, it didn't seem too weird. I had literally crawled into bed with all of my clothes on and only took off enough to fall asleep cause I had no idea who would be there when I woke up... I must say, 30+ hours with little sleep accumulates a lot of grime and sleepiness, ugh, lol
Today, once we got going we walked until we found this site which turned out to be Hadrian's Arch. From there we scoped out the map and decided to take the Metro to the National Archaeology Museum which was good. Allan was right, the Metro is a mini museum with different artifacts that they found while digging, and it was only .8 euros each way.
We were seriously in the musem from 1pm, when it opened, until 5:30 or something and seriously, we stopped reading the signs cause after the first few galleries (when we left for lunch and came back) we realized just how long reading everything would take so we only stopped for ones that looked particularly interesting...
The funiest part of the museum - that's right... funny - was when we walked past this couple, maybe our age or a little younger, and this guy was explaining to the girl what foreskin is because, of course, most of the statues were created before circumcision was popular and although most of them were defaced and missing their penis' (penises? peni?) there was enough to confuse the young thing - "like, why do they look different?" - not really, but it's still funny...
So... Eric is currently booking our ferries for the islands and just walked into the room 'cause he had forgotten how to spell my last name.... seriously? whatever, he's just tired, silly boy :p
Talked to a nice lady at the Museum today from NewYork, and met one of our roommates tonight when we got home and she's from, guess where... Vancouver, Canada... small world...
Well, this small world girl is going to go chill and go to bed cause jet lag sucks man...

Creation

I needed to create my blog so that it is ready to use once I'm away on my travels. I will be posting updates here of what I've been up to based on entries in my journal, assuming I remember to keep that updated, or else I guess I'll just wing it. We'll see
I may be sending mass e-mails too, but if I'm strapped for time then I'll probably just do this since it's easier (I think...).
Not sure where pictures will be posted yet, maybe here, but it depends how long they take to load...
No more updates until closer to leaving time, June 9th, so if you've found this, don't start checking back until then :D
cheers