mini-update

Hello everyone! We just wanted to give you a little update that we only have 5 weeks left of traveling before we come back to the USA. We have been traveling for 11 weeks currently and while our slacker blog doesn't reflect all of the places we have been, I thought I would give you a run-down in the meantime. Since Rome, we spent about another week in Northern Italy headed up to Germany for 9 days and then to the Roskilde music festival in Denmark where we stayed for 8 nights with Gena and Merlin. Since then we went to Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and now we are currently in Belgium, eating our weight in waffles and chocolate and beer, staying with a couple that is German-French/Belgium Brussels native. The next five weeks consist of us conquering France, Spain, Portugal and a mini-stay in Dublin, Ireland before heading back to the London for a few days to enjoy the Notting Hill carnival and say good-bye to our friends.

We just wanted to let you know what we have been doing apart from the time lapse that is our blog. We will finish this blog though so keep checking up on us.

Can't wait to see everyone in five weeks.

When in Rome... (do as the tourists do)

We arrived in Ancona 2hrs later than expected. For some reason crossing time zones on a ferry makes it very complicated to get an accurate schedule. We caught the bus to the Train station and got some Tofu stir-fry from a Chinese restaurant (the first non-Greek food we've eaten in awhile) before heading on the train towards our next destination.
We arrived in Rome just in time for 6:00 rush hour on the metro, so we just headed straight for our campsite. We decided the best (and cheapest) way to stay in Rome was at Tiber Camping. It is on the outskirts of the city, the last metro stop, 20 minutes from the center. The campsite was cute. It had a pool, a mini market, and a bar and restaurant. We stayed in a "Bungalow" which was really a small mobile trailer with 2 beds and no A/C but it was private and had a lock on the door.


We set our things down and headed straight for the market for a cold beer and ordered a pizza from the restaurant. The European cup was on so we sat down for a while and watched. In the restaurant we met a guy who is from Flagler Beach, which is very close to St. Augustine. We didn't know any of the same people, but it was strange to meet some one that lives so close to my hometown, in a foreign country.

The next morning we tried to get a head start and wake up early, so we could make the most of Rome. We tried to beat the tourists to the Coliseum, but when we got there the line to get in was already two hours long. We decided not to go inside. Many people told us it looks just the same inside as it does out. Plus, there are no signs to explain what anything is, so you have to pay the extra 20€ to get a guided tour.



After doing a little research, we did get to learn a little bit about this amazing building:
Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It remained in use for nearly 500 years with the last recorded games being held there as late as the 6th century. As well as the traditional gladiatorial games, many other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building eventually ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such varied purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry and a Christian shrine.
Although it is now in a ruined condition due to damage caused by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum has long been seen as an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome.







After taking a few photos we opted to explore other parts of the city.


Ruins...




Government Building


gladiators making photos for money

Over the next few hours we hit all of the famous sites, starting with the Pantheon, meaning "Temple of all the gods" which is a building which was originally built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome.


Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Christian church. The Pantheon is currently the oldest standing domed structure in Rome (125 AD) It is really cool because it has an opening at the top that is never shut, so even if it rains to this day it will rain into the building. The circular opening at the top was used as a sundial and was one of the first calendars.




spanish steps (not sure what is so impressive about them)


Ttrevi fountain


It is good luck to throw in a coin...




Piazza Navona where the they would stage mini naval battles and flood the entire Piazza to recreate them. There is also a statue in the center that has the four then-known continents as four different men, europe asia africa and the new world.

unfortunately it was under renovations




After an exhausting day of sightseeing, we strolled through Via Borghesa, the large park in the city center, before heading back to the campgrounds.

There, we relaxed by the pool with a beer and then headed to dinner. The food at the Camp restaurant was surprisingly delicious. We got bruscetta, homemade tortellini with chicory cream sauce and a pitcher of Sangria. At the bar we watched a little more Eurocup. It was nice because the metro stopped running at 11pm so everyone who was at the campgrounds all hung out at the one bar all night.

June 14: Vatican City

This morning we slept in and got some cold pizza from the market for breakfast. It was only €0.50 and way better than dry cereal bars. Since we ended up seeing almost all of the ancient sights the day before, we figured that we could just take it slow today and visit just the Vatican. It's a good thing we did because the Vatican museum was massive! It was so ornate with so many murals, tapestries and sculptures. We overheard a guide saying that if you spent only 5 seconds looking at each thing in the museum, it would take over 12 years for you to see everything!
Inside the museum:












At the end of the museum you reach the Sistine Chapel. It is indescribable to see something that famous and inspiring in real life.


But there were a few annoyances:
1. no one is allowed to take photos
2. you had to remain completely silent while inside the chapel
3. men in suits (who worked there I hope) kept yelling "no photos! keep moving! no talking! silence!" kind of ruined the awe (and the silence) slightly...

Next we planned on going into St. Peter's Basilica, which has the largest dome of all the churches in Europe and is supposed to have an amazing view if the city. We waited in line for about half an hour, just for the security guards to tell us that we were not modestly dressed enough to be allowed inside! We had heard of this rule, no bare sholders and no bellies showing, however I was wearing a rather modest jean skirt and kelly had jean shorts on. We tried to argue with security, but they pointed to a sign which showed a stick figure with a dress that was supposed to be below the knees. So we left, slightly defeated, and headed home to get some laundry done. (but not before taking some pictures of the outside...




The next day was our last day in Rome, we had to pack up and head out. But first we stopped for lunch. It was an amazing find: An African restaurant in the middle of the city center. We got cold draft beer and food just like the Ethiopian food we had in London. Plus it was huge! One dish was more than enough for both of us. It was a nice break in the midst of pasta and pizza coma we were putting ourselves in. Now we were ready to move on to Florence!

PS- my (Ellie's) foot is OK. It was looking pretty swollen but has healed nicely so far.
This is what it looked like in Italy...

<3 Ellie

Santorini

When we arrived in Santorini, we got off the ferry and found George from Pension George where we staying in Kartados, a small authentic bit of Santorini located 10 minutes away from Fira, the main town of Santorini. It’s funny because I think we thought before we came to the Greek islands that they were going to be a lot like Key West with only one town on them but Santorini is pretty big and has a couple of different little towns on in it. To get from the port, George drove us in his van up the incredibly narrow, hairpin turns on the mountain.

(driving away from our ferry)

I don’t think I had ever been on a road that tight and scary. Once we arrived at Penison George and we met Helen, George’s English wife who runs the pension, we knew we were in good hands. Helen said she met George on vacation from England and never went back. They have two daughters who are teens who grew up on Santorini. Our room was again, 35 euro and amazing. It overlooked the property pool with a nice balcony and a huge loft bed with a kitchen and a tv.





We knew we were getting too used to luxury but we were so happy to relax a little while in Greece. We swam for a little while in the pool, while meeting a couple from Canada and a family from Northern England who were also vacationing there.


The outside of our room!

We went to the market and bought supplies for our kitchen and made some pasta for dinner before I fell asleep at the ridiculously early hour of eight.


The next morning, after some eggs for breakfast, we walked into Fira and made a reservation for a boat trip the next morning.



Wildflowers!


Beautiful view from the port of Fira.


Fira, little houses clutters on the caldera.

We window-shopped and looked around, watched people ride on donkeys up from the old port to the stop of Fira.





Santorini is built on a caldera and is extremely high off the water at points so people often take donkeys from top to bottom, well tourists do mostly. It is pretty sad for the donkeys it seems. After enough whining to each other about the sad state of the donkeys, we knew it was beach time. The bus schedule was complicated and expensive so for the same price we decided to rent an ATV(four-wheeler) with helmets to get us the 30 minutes to the beaches.


It was very scary at first since most cars and semi-trucks just pass you and the 4-wheeler must be driven on the main road which often includes sharp turns. I(Kelly) was petrified for my life and made Ellie drive and held on so tight and was praying to who knows what, but I relaxed a little halfway through and enjoyed it because we got to see the countryside of the island, including the wine roads and the small authentic villages and little churches.


It’s so nice to go wherever you feel like going and whenever. We started at the black sand beach of Perivolos which is black because of the volcanic activity on Santorini. Santorini is actually an archipelago of islands in the Aegean Sea. Santorini, itself is what remains after an enormous volcanic explosion, destroying the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island, and leading to the creation of the current geological caldera. The black sand was gorgeous but really hot because of it’s dark color.



The cliffs were beautiful and the water really refreshing. We laid on the beach eating some snacks we brought with us, telling lots of Thai men and cd-hawkers that we weren’t interested in the fine art of massage and that we couldn’t understand the cds because they were in Greek so they should leave us alone. Aside from that, it was gorgeous. We decided to check out the red sand beach next. We rode our ATV, stopping a lot for photos.

Once we got to the red sand beach,



we realized we had to hike down a mountain to get to the sand and umbrellas and felt that in flip-flops that was a bit too complicated so we headed home. We went for a swim, ate dinner and then took our 4-wheeler to Oia which is the northern tip of Santorini, famous for it’s sunsets. We took this beautiful coastal road there which was flat with little traffic and just vineyards and cattle.

It was a gorgeous moment to be flying through some Greek countryside on an adventurous motor vehicle with our helmets on. Once we made it to Oia, it was packed similar to Mallory Square in Key West.

Walking to the sunset in Oia.

The sunset was worth it though as it was almost neon pink and unblocked by the clouds.



Getting home was a little scary on our 4-wheeler as we had to take the mountain roads in the dark with huge trucks coming around turns and passing us. We honked the horn every single time we came around a tight turn, holding our breath that we would make it back to Pension George with no head on collisions, which we thankfully did.

The next morning, we awoke and returned our vehicle and headed for Fira where our boat trip was taking off. Ellie slipped on some marble and scraped a huge chunk of her foot off and that was when we realized that perhaps we should have worn sneakers for this boat trip, rather than flip-flops.


This was confirmed when we got to Nea Kameni and had to climb up tons of rock paths to see the volcanos.



The volcanic material which formed Nea Kameni.
The volcano last erupted in Nea Kameni in the 50’s but is set to erupt at any time. The volcano is over 3000 years old. It didn’t look like what you see in textbooks but was just a crater full of rocks.



Ellie sitting on top of a volcano.

Our guide did tell us to hold our hands over the earth in one spot about 2-3 inches
deep and the spot was scorching hot on the surface from all of the heat being generated below. Our guide said that magma was only 3 km below us. After the volcano, we went for a swim around Nea Kameni in the sulfur hot springs.



Sulfur is not the nicest smelling water to swim in but it was fairly warm, although not so hot like you would imagine it. A lot more mild than what came to mind. We met two couples who were traveling separately but both happen to be from Florida as well. Gainesville and Destin. We chatted with them for awhile before out boat pulled into Thirasia island where you had the choice to stay on the bottom for lunch or climb 500 steps to see traditional Manolos.

The zig-zags is where we had to walk up.

Thirasia

The view from Manolos

So this group of donkeys was coming up the narrow path with little concept of my personal space, almost knocking me down a 500 foot cliff. Notice my face.
Well, we decided to climb the marble steps in flip-flops to Manolos where once we arrived at the top, we realized it was so traditional that there was nothing but houses to see in the scorching heat so we came back down and ate a rather disappointing tomato ball lunch at a trap called Capt. Johnny’s before taking the boat back to the harbor where our trip concluded. We said good-bye to our fellow Floridians and went home to finish off some Greek salad we had made and left in the fridge and watching bad tv before drifting off.

The way to the port to catch our ferry.
The next morning, we went to this amazing restaurant next to our hotel where we ate stuffed grape leaves and then headed to the port to catch our ferry back to Athens to catch the train in the morning back to Patras and then the other ferry back to Ancona. We slept at Evangelo’s apartment for 4 hours before having to wake up and travel for 48 hours straight. It was the longest we had to travel yet and we were sad to say good-bye to the amazing vegetarian food that Greece had offered but we knew that on the other sad awaited Rome and some really good red wine.

Paros!

June 5th- We took a ferry to Paros, thankfully getting a free upgrade to airplane seats once onboard since the deck seats we paid for were indoors and next to the heaviest smokers I have ever met in my life. My lungs would have failed if I had to sit next to them for longer than 5 minutes. That is one strange thing about Greece is that the smoke is so heavy and there are no bans at all on smoking anywhere. It feels very Eastern European in that sense. Our ferry ride was only a few hours before we arrived at the port of Parikia in Paros.


A windmill in Parikia

Waiting for the bus to Naoussa with our oversized backpacks.

On the drive to Naoussa

We were staying on the north end of the island of Paros in a town called Naoussa.

Parikia seemed to be more tourist-oriented so once we got the bus to Naoussa we felt so lucky to be staying in this tiny little village with cute restaurants and fancy bars for going out at night and a beautiful white sand beach. We were staying at a guesthouse run by a lovely woman named Athina who came to pick us up from the center of town once the bus dropped us off. When we saw our room, we were really happy because we had a sea-view penthouse with a kitchen and two big beds for only 35 euros total.


The Greek islands are so cheap in June because most tourists don’t arrive until July and August so you pay almost next to nothing. It was amazing and cheaper than any of the hostels. We were also right on the beach just about 100 steps climb.


The view from our little porch.

We quickly changed into our bathing suits, wandered a little around town and ate an equally amazing lunch as the day before in the centre of town before going to the beach. Naoussa was so nice with it’s traditional blue and white Cycladic domed architecture.

The centre of town was a little maze of shops and restaurants all set on narrow lanes where you follow your nose to the next amazing Greek smell. We ate a really nice lunch.

The beach was beautiful and really quiet. It was funny because spray-painted on a rock next to the beach someone wrote “ Screw Barbie” which made me feel a little better about my huge lunch and my bikini.



After laying out for awhile and swimming in the very clear and warm water, Ellie went to the store to stock up the kitchen and the fridge with goodies for dinner and beer and sodas for after the beach.

Some octopus(plural) hanging from a line in a walkway behind a restaurant

That night, We cooked dinner and watched the sunset from our balcony which was the highest balcony in Naoussa it seemed.



Naoussa at night from our balcony
Then we went out for a dessert crepe which was chocolate and one of the most amazing crepes ever with bitter and sweet chocolate and whipped cream. It was quiet and right next to the water. On the way back up the steep hill to the hotel, we heard a cowbell and realized that above our hotel was some sort of field with cows or goats or some other farm animal in the dark. It was surprising and we ran inside not sure of what would be wearing a bell on a cliff.

The next day, we woke up early and enjoyed breakfast on our balcony before we headed to the beach for the second day.





Another sunset before dinner


Before dinner

That night we had an amazing meal of stuffed peppers, greek salad and more eggplant salad as well as some Greek beer. It was right on the water with all of the little boats and other people dining around the ocean. Everything was lit up and it was so perfect. Naoussa is quickly becoming an island known for it’s good nightlife scene and in the summer the trendy bars lining the ocean must get jam packed but after dinner we wandered around a bit looking at them and for the time being they were quiet with locals enjoying a quiet night out. The next morning, we awoke sad to say good-bye to our little apartment overlooking the ocean as we headed for Santorini.

Yassou Athens!

On June 3rd, we arrived in Patras, Greece, forgetting that we were changing time zones and we missed our train. We waited at the train station and had our first authentic Greek tzatiki with bread and we were in heaven. It was so much better than any we had in the states. Once we got on the train, we had to switch to a bus because of rail repairs and then finally back on the train. All of this after a 22 hour ferry, needless to say we were exhausted but we were finally in Athens, Greece.

Our host was Evangelos, a born and bred Greek guy who is 23 and attending university in Athens. His family is from a small town in Northern Greece, near Turkey. He met us at the metro station and walked us to his family’s apartment where he lives in central Athens.

The minute we walked in, he showed us our own bedroom and told us that he had two other couchsurfers staying as well. Gabriella is from Mexico and this other guy from Argentina whose name we have forgotten. He immediately told us that he was making us a Frappe which is a very Greek coffee drink that takes an hour to drink and that we were not supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet because in Greece, the plumbing is so small and temperamental that not even toilet paper fits in the pipes. That took some adjusting on our part as we are used to just throwing our paper in the bowl. The frappe was really excellent and then Evangelos friend popped over with some spinach pies that his grandmother had just made fresh. Spinach pies are a traditional Greek dish and Evangelos gave us a whole plate of them for dinner and gave us this feta cheese dip called Katiki which pretty much made me want to move to Greece immediately. After our dinner, he let us try ouzo which is a liquer that tastes like licorice that is made in Greece. Our evening of educating us on Greek cuisine was not drawing to an end anytime soon though because we all met up with Gabriella and Argentinean guy at this really beautiful little street that has the hippest little bars where everyone perches outside on pillows and drinks fancy cocktails. As we came up from the metro though, the acropolis was looming on it’s massive perch above the city, all lit up and stunning. We were in shock at how gorgeous this ancient ruin was and thrilled at how lucky we were to be in Athens. We all found a good bar and ordered this special mulled Greek wine with cinnamon and were soon joined by more of Evangelos friends. The bar was beautiful with big cushions and twinkly lights.




We sat around chatting about Greece and where we should go, as well as Gabriella’s experience living in Slovenia and being a traveler from Mexico which is one country we don’t meet fellow travelers from too often.

Ellie and Gabriella
We got a cab home since the Metro was closed and we were shocked when our cab pulled over and picked another girl up while we were already in it.

The next morning we awoke to fresh Mugatsa which is a Greek cream pastry with powdered sugar that you purchase by the kilo. It was so so good and I am still dreaming about it now as I write. We decided to walk from Evangelos to the acropolis so we could see Athens and on the way we found a camera store where Ellie got a new lens for her camera which was wonderful because it will restore the blog to it’s original quality. We walked for ages through most of the important neighborhoods of Athens including Ommonia and the Plaka.

On our walk, we passed the Greek Archeaology museum

We finally arrived at the Athenian acropolis along with the hundreds of other tourists. The Acropolis hill (acro - edge, polis - city), so called the "Sacred Rock" of Athens, is the most important site of the city and constitutes one of the most recognizable monuments of the world. It is the most significant reference point of ancient Greek culture, as well as the symbol of the city of Athens itself as it represent the apogee of artistic development in the 5th century BC. During Perikles' Golden Age, ancient Greek civilization was represented in an ideal way on the hill and some of the architectural masterpieces of the period were erected on its ground.

The Propylaea are the monumental entrances to the sacred area dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of the city. Built by the architect Mnesicles with Pentelic marble, their design was avant-garde. To the south-west of the Propylaea, on a rampart protecting the main entrance to the Acropolis, is the Ionian temple of Apteros Nike, which is now being restored.

The first habitation remains on the Acropolis date from the Neolithic period. Over the centuries, the rocky hill was continuously used either as a cult place or as a residential area or both. The inscriptions on the numerous and precious offerings to the sanctuary of Athena (marble korai, bronze and clay statuettes and vases) indicate that the cult of the city's patron goddess was established as early as the Archaic period (650-480 B.C.).


We decided against a tour guide and just walked around ourselves. It is hard to believe that we were standing on something so old and ancient and such a huge part of history. It almost seemed fairy tale. We could hardly believe that something this old still existed. At the same time, it was a little disappointing because many of the temples and statues were under construction and were being renovated during our visit. Here are a ton of photos from our visit to the acropolis.




On the way into the grounds of the acropolis

The acropolis museum


Climbing to the acropolis

The view of Athens from the top




the old amphitheatre

The entrance


the parthenon under scaffolding



Ruins from above

We almost got kicked out of the museum for this photo.

The Acropolis museum

In our guidebook, we read about a vegetarian Greek restaurant but when we attempted to find it, it had been closed down so we ate at the Plaka along with the tons of other tourists but we were not at all disappointed by our first real meal in Greece. We had tzatiki, eggplant salad and greek salad along with tons of bread and it was delicious.


Right next to our table, a grape tree.

After lunch, we were supposed to meet up with Thelma, another girl from couchsurfing but she lost her phone so we never met up with her and instead opted for a nap after our long hot day battling with hordes of tourists. After the nap and a shower we headed back towards to the acropolis because I wanted to see the city lit up one last time before leaving by ferry to the Cyclades islands the next day. We got a one euro vegetarian pita on the street and a soda, admiring the quick pace of Athens.
Cool grafitti.
We luckily found a street party with a dj that was celebrating the opening of a new clothing store that had such amazing style. What was more amazing though was that everything was free. All of the drinks and snacks and music and it was so much fun to be at something where we were the only ones who didn’t speak Greek. Athenian women are very glamorous and well put together, very similar to women from Miami with expensive clothes and always high heels. After a few drinks, we went back to Evangelos neighborhood to chat with Gabriella and say good-bye to them both over a drink at a bar around the corner.

The next morning at 5, we took a taxi to the port to purchase our ferry ticket to Paros, ready for some beaches and more Greek salad. We loved Athens and after it getting a bad rep from many other travelers that we met along the way, we were pleased to find out they were wrong in our opinions. It wasn't that dirty or that scary and everyone was friendly. I guess it goes to say that not everyone has the same tastes so we should learn to take other traveler's opinions of places with a grain of salt(I now feel like a grandma for using that metaphor.)

No Spaghetti Bolognese for us.

From Salzburg, we took a train to Bologna and met two really nice Canadian girls and chatted with them the entire time about our trips, as well as tried to avoid this creepy old man who looked like a rat and kept slobbering on himself and staring at us. We pretty much spent all day on the train to get to Bologna, Italy, including a change in Venice. We met a couple from Tasmania, Australia who were in their 80’s and doing an 8 week backpacking trip around Europe. They were pretty inspiring as it’s nice to see such older people being so adventurous regardless of the limitations that their age may bring them. Once we arrived in Bologna, Anthony, our host met us at the train station to walk us back to his flat, a few minutes away. Anthony is from France, but moved to Italy to perfect his Italian. He is a social worker and lives with 4 other room mates, 3 from Italy and one from Romania. His girl room mate Lorenza gave up her room for us and slept on the couch which was really nice.

Lorenza's room with a little balcony

When we got there, Anthony and the roommates cooked us a really nice pesto pasta with bread and Nikolai, the Romanian room mate set out Romanian cheese that his mom sends him, which was really interesting and not as salty as most other Eastern European cheese. We all chatted and had a 2.5 hour dinner as we tried to talk in a mix of broken Italian and really slow English. It was exciting though to learn about the Italian government and about the activism scene in Bologna. Anthony and Lorenza had a day trip planned to another part of Italy the next day and invited us to come along but we declined as we wanted to explore Bologna.

We woke up, took showers and headed out into the city, stopping for a really nice pizza lunch with a liter of house red wine before exploring the main piazza and it’s towers and churches.








Bologna is a nice mix of modern and traditional with decent shopping housed in ancient buildings under huge porticos. The most beautiful thing were the porticos, huge arched roofing over the wide marble sidewalks.


They had them on every street and they were gorgeous. We also stopped and checked out the University of Bologna which is the oldest university in the whole world. It was Sunday so we couldn’t take a proper tour but we did walk in a little to check it out. Walking is pretty much what we did all day, stopping for a really delicious gelato at this cute gelateria. We spent two hours in the grocery store as well, trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. We were mystified at the pasta aisle as it was the largest pasta aisle I have ever seen in my life. We came to the conclusion that Italians really only eat Italian food as there was no variety whatsoever in anything but pasta or bread or cheese. We found one euro bottles of wine and headed home to cook our pasta and get to bed early as we had to catch an early train to Ancona. Bologna was a decent city with good cheap food. I was wearing a tank top though and let me tell you that I have never had so much unwanted male attention in my life to the point where I was joking with Ellie that the next time we go outside, I need to wear a burka.

The next morning we woke up and caught our train to Ancona without any hitches and then had to take a bus to the ferry terminal to book our 22 hour ferry to Patras, Greece. We met two Icelandic boys along the way whose original plans were to go to Croatia but the ferry wasn’t running so they came with us to Greece.

The four of us all bought food and beer and wine for the long 22 hour journey and as we set sail out of Ancona, we said good-bye to Italy but just temporarily, as we would be back within 10 days.