We'll be coming 'round the World, when we come...

Make the hop!

2009-03-31T05:12:00.004+01:00

We are occupying a new space now!

Pleaseeee check us out at:

http://www.kellyandellie.wordpress.com

(Mom, click the link above!!!!!)

For the newest and most up to date posts.

Time flies faster than me slipping on a pickle.

2009-01-27T03:01:00.010Z

The plans are becoming concrete. We officially leave on a transatlantic cruise on May 4th, 2009. It takes nearly 13 days and stops in the ports of Bermuda, Spain, Portugal and France before reaching England. All places we are happy to revisit with my mom in tow who has never been to any of these places.

From England, we will take my mom to Amsterdam for a long weekend and then she will fly home to Key West and we will fly back to good old favorite London to spend some pub time with our best friends. After London, we will fly to Turkey (Istanbul and from there Cappadoccia) and then on to Moscow where we will take the Trans-Mongolian railway through Siberia and stopping off in small Russian villages and Mongolia before reaching Beijing, China.

From Beijing we will travel to Shanghai to catch a ferry to Japan and then back. After China and Japan, we will travel on to SE Asia including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos and potentially heading all the way down to Singapore where we will catch a flight to Perth, Australia and explore a little of the West coast before settling down in our new home of Melbourne.

We are beyond excited....

In the meantime, we have been working a lot, doing mundane serving work and answering annoying tourist questions. We have been attempting to save every little penny we can get but as of the last few weeks been a little more frivolous than we should be. We have an appointment to begin getting some shots for Asia and have been researching like crazy.

We have actually gone ahead and planned to meet Cory and Lauren in St. Augustine for the Harvest of Hope Fest where we will camp, drink beer, eat veggie dogs, listen to good music, catch up and celebrate my early birthday! This will take place the first weekend of March. We are also trying to fit in a trip to Brooklyn before we depart in May.

In April, we are thrilled that Gena is coming down for a whole month and Ellie's family are coming for a long weekend and Cory for a weekend.

It's nuts that all of that is just two months away and that we leave in less than 100 days!!!

In past news, we took part in Rachel and Ian's wedding in December which was an honor and a really good time. I enjoyed seeing Benji and Lauren and sharing a massive suite with them. Good Luck to Rachel and Ian whom we love sooo soooo much.

You can choose whoever you like....

2008-11-25T01:59:00.004Z

Obama baby!!!

Here is a little funny picture from Smathers in Key West on the election day:

Yes, this is Mccain and someone has thrown his massive leftover from Fantasy Fest paper mache head into the ocean before he ever lost.

And this is me with my sign, urging people to get out and vote for the best candidate.

And as I rolled silverware that night at Caroline's, the first biracial man to ever make it on the ballot had won. When his family took the stage, the tears streamed down my face. Amazement at the history that was being created right before my eyes.

Now let's hope he makes smart choices in leading our nation and let's hope that he takes a hard look at the civil rights fights that are currently taking place in America today, ie gay marriage.

Enough about politics!

Back Home!

2008-10-22T01:26:00.003+01:00

We arrived to the US, New York City to be exact, on August 27th where my(Kelly's) mom and brother were at the gate awaiting our arrival. We had booked an apartment for 3 nights in East Village to do some shopping, unwinding and eating. It was so nice all of being together again. We also saw Lauren in Brooklyn, where she is planning her next move. The NYC trip was a nice transition back into the US lifestyle after 10 months abroad.

Me with my mom and brother Joe in NYC!

While bored on long train rides, we often calculated some stats about our trip.
Here are some of them:

Time gone from US total: 9 months and 20 days approx.

Countries visited: 20

Languages: 18

Currencies: 11

*Sleeping Arrangements*

Beds/Places we have slept while traveling: 53 different spots

CS Hosts/Friends in other countries we have stayed with: 23

Hostels: 12

Boat: 1 for a week(Croatia)

Campsites: 3

Budget Hotels: 8

Overnight trains taken: 3

Overnight Ferries taken: 2

Sleeping in Airport: 1

Camper Van: 1
*Locations*
Farthest South: Santorini, Greece

Farthest West: Lisbon, Portugal

Farthest North: Bergen, Norway

Farthest East: Santorini, Greece

*Bodies of Water*

Seas/Oceans we have seen: Baltic, North, Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean, Atlantic, Mediterrean

Time Zones: 3

Methods of Transportation: 9

Unesco World Heritage Sites visited: 29

*Update- We are now both back in Key West, Fl, living with Kel's mom, waitressing on Duval Street and preparing for Fantasy Fest to make some money. Ellie lived in St. Augustine for a month to spend time with her family before we made a Florida road trip together and ended up back on the island.

Ellie with Papa Chuck

Ellie enjoyed getting to be part of regular life like hanging out with her little sister and getting to go to her track meets.

Ellie with Rachel, our engaged friend who's wedding we will be in in December. It was so nice to see our friends on the road trip.

This is Sophia, Kelly's baby niece who she hasn't seen in 10 months. Sophia has really grown into a cute little toddler now.

Our daily life in Key West consists of swimming in pools, riding our bikes, working very hard, drinking beer, going to Drag Queen bingo and eyeing the map feverishly to plan our next trip.

Swimming at the Southnermost House in Key West.

With Gena and Merlin on their visit to this side of the ocean!

Back home with our drag queens where we belong for now.

Keep checking back for more details as we plan to drive across the US and fly to Hawaii and move to Melbourne, Australia next May with a one year work visa and travel Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan and take the trans-siberian train through Siberia to Moscow, flying home 15 months later from Europe.

Thanks to everyone who has kept up faithfully with this blog and to everyone who supported us while we lived out this dream adventure. Let us know what you think and remember keep checking back as we will sporadically post blurbs and some photos of our island life. We miss Europe every day and everyone we met who made this trip a living dream. Until next time on the Kelly and Ellie show....

Last Stop: Dublin!

2008-10-22T00:58:00.003+01:00

From San Sebastian, we took a train to Biarritz, France which only took about 1/2 hour. We waited around that airport for a long time, eating our last pain au chocolate before boarding. Once, we arrived in Dublin, we got on a bus, heading to Vinnie's house who allowed us to surf his couch. It felt so weird to be in an English speaking country again after 4 months. I kept having the instinct to speak bad Spanish to everyone and said Si instead of yes more than a few times that afternoon. Once we met Vinnie, we knew we were going to have a great time in Dublin.

Vinnie is a little older, maybe in his 50's was our guess. He had such a great sense of humor and was such a typical Irish fellow that we instantly felt at ease.

We ordered in take-out and he picked up some beers and we spent the evening in, staying up until 4 in the morning, laughing with Vinnie and telling him our tales about Fantasy Fest and key West and he told us a lot about Dublin since he lived in the same neighborhood since he was a kid. The next day, Vinnie had to pull himself out of bed to get to work and we slept in, did some laundry and walked around Dublin, taking in the major sites like Dublin castle and the Temple Bar area.

Walking around Temple Bar

The colorful Dublin Castle.

We checked out the Irish film institute and had an Irish pint at a little pub.

That evening, Vinnie had said he would take us on a little excursion to Howth, a fishing village right outside of Dublin.

It was a beautiful drive and we all went out to dinner to a very fancy seafood restaurant. Vinnie was so kind to us that he offered to pay for our incredibly expensive meal and we had such a gorgeous dinner with a nice bottle of wine. We laughed throughout dinner and Vinnie told us more about himself. He runs the main internet company used in Dublin and he also owns a beer distribution company that distributes beer to all of the main music festivals throughout Europe. He is such a great guy that we felt like we had known him forever. Celebrating our last night of traveling with a fancy dinner and good company will be something we always remember. After dinner, we went out for a small pint since we were all stuffed and then came home and went to bed. Vinnie drove us to the airport the next day and we very sorry to have to say good-bye to Uncle Vinnie, but he did promise us to visit for Fantasy Fest sometime in the future.

We flew on August 23rd to London and enjoyed our last weekend there. We went to Borough Market, Edinboro castle, out for Vietnamese and did some last minute shopping and tying loose ends together. We then went to Northampton to get our stuff from Gena and Merlin and visit with them. Gena came back into London the next day with us and helped us bring our stuff on the bus. We had thai food and some beers before saying good-bye to Merlin and Gena and crying hysterically.

We were very overwhelmed and entirely unprepared to be heading back to the US the next day. After 4 months of traveling and 6 months of being official Londoners, we couldn't believe the adventure was ending. I kept thinking back to when this was all just a silly idea or plan that we never thought we could pull off and at the end of the year, we did everything we had come to Europe for and so much more. Flying out from Heathrow the next afternoon was so sad, but regardless of our anxiety about leaving the UK, we were excited to see our family on the other side of the ocean in NYC.

Lisbon and San Sebastian!

2008-10-22T00:35:00.003+01:00

We took a night train to Lisbon from Madrid and arrived very early in the morning and were in a dangerous looking neighborhood until we finally just jumped in a cab after stubbornly looking for our guesthouse for a 1/2 hour. Once there, the guesthouse was nice and we had our own room which was great. We took a nap and then set out to see all Lisbon had to offer. We headed to Barrio Alto and had some drinks in this cute bar where the lamps were made out of bok choy and they played cheesy 60's porn on the wall.

We ate some Indian food and after a few drinks returned home.

Beautiful tile work on the front.
The next few days were filled with taking a day trip to Cascais to go to the beach, visiting the oceanarium that we had heard was first-class and one of the largest in the world, relaxing in our guest house room and going out for a few drinks with a couple we met at the guesthouse.

The metro stations were awesome and each had really cool artwork. This is the metro stop for the oceanarium.

This is a freaky sculpture of this fake kid near the oceanarium.

We were obsessed with this sun fish at the oceanarium.

I loved this volcano sculpture that erupted every five minutes.

Cascais

This man had a dog that sang along with him. It was incredible and so cute.

Oh yes, the pastries in Portugal are so amazing. Some of the best pastries ever!

Lisbon had great fashion, great night-life and a great underground music scene. Portugal was beautiful and the tiled fronts of buildings were different, giving the whole city an artsy feeling.

They also have these awesome trams that take you up the steep hills in Lisbon and really cool lifts everywhere.

One of the lifts.
We will definitely see more of it next time, including Porto and some other Southern towns.

*Sorry if our pictures seem a little lackluster or infrequent for this post and the last but this was in our last 10 days of backpacking and we were exhausted and just wanted to soak things up rather than photograph them all the time.

From Portugal, we headed to San Sebastian.

The ride between Lisbon and San Sebastian.
San Seb was going to be our last stop on the continent of Europe. We planned it this way so that way we could lay around on the beach, drinking sangria with any money we had left before flying to Ireland for a few days and then back to England. San Sebastian had the best surfing beaches ever. The waves were massive and the beaches so blue. The waves must have been about 8 ft. We met Jack, a Londoner and we hung around with him for the majority of our stay.

The view from the beach at night

The beach!

Church near our hostel

We drank a lot of tinto veranas (lemonade and red wine) and went to the beach every day.

Andalusia!

2008-10-21T23:55:00.003+01:00

From Valencia, we headed to Granada and after a long day of train rides, ended up in Granada with elusive directions to the Rambutan hostel. We couldn't find the bus we needed and were so exhausted so we decided to just grab a cab to take us and once we were dropped off, we were still confused about where we needed to be but eventually after climbing and walking around the Albazin district, we stumbled upon our hostel. Rambutan is so much more than a hostel though. It's a lot more like a home. People who stay there sometimes get roped into staying in Granada forever because Rambutan is so awesome and the people so fun with such good parties. Rambutan even gives you the option of sleeping on their roof for only 10 euros a night and the location is amazing since the whole house overlooks the Alhambra. We knew we were going to be obsessed with this quirky place and quickly canceled our hostel stay in Sevilla to stay in Granada an extra night.

Our view from Rambutan

Our time in Granada was great because we quickly made friends with all the kids staying at Rambutan and after partying together that night at Rambutan, we all went in search of this river that someone had heard someone else saying who had heard someone else saying that it existed. We took a bus to this other small town near Granada and set off on our walk through the desert and climbed down a near death experience of a hill to get to this tiny little stream until we found the river.
We also got to try authentic churros for breakfast and an authentic tortilla espanol bocadilla.

A house in the small town.

This crazy little guy who was so excited for us to tell ask him about his donkey whose name was Chico apparently. Then I asked the man what his name was and he looked at me like he was so surprised that I wanted to know, like he's use to people only wanting to know about his donkey and he says, "Mi Nombre is Jose" like duh! everyone's name is Jose.It was so funny.

The beautiful desert

All of us, Rambutan kids next to the freezing cold stream

Jumping into the river

Can you spot the bull sculpture? In Spain, these bull sculptures are everywhere.
It was such a good day though. We also stopped and got our tapas and sangria at a little bar after swimming. The beautiful thing about Granada is the whole time we were there we never paid to eat because every time you order a drink, even a soda or juice, you get a free tapa. The tapas are pretty big and you never know what you are going to get. The more drinks you buy from one place, the better the tapas gets. So the element of surprise is excellent and so is the free factor.

After swimming, we also went to see this famous grafitti artist's house. The artist is known as El Nino and the art around his block was so good.

El Nino!

The Alhambra at night from Rambutan

The rest of our days in Rambutan were spent partying around the hostel, walking around town doing some souvenir shopping for our families and hitting a club at night and walking around the Albazin.

The other cool thing we did was go to a water park one afternoon and it was so much fun because it's basically in the desert as well so while you should be sweating, you are nice and chill on a water slide. It was a very authentic experience as well to be at a Spanish theme park with a whole bunch of families and kids from our hostel.

On our last day, we finally went to to see the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a moorish palace and one of the wonders of the world. Once the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court, the Alhambra is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions exhibiting the country's most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th century and later interventions in buildings and gardens that marked its image as it can be seen today. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1527. You basically have to wake up at 4 in the morning to get in line to see it though considering it was tourist season. It was really beautiful though and the Islamic architecture was so unique to any we had previously seen in Europe.

At the Alhambra

An example of the tile work throughout.

After the Alhambra and a nap, we bid Granada good-bye and it was for sure one of our favorite places. I think we are both interested in taking Spanish courses and working at the Rambutan for a summer in the future sometime because both Granada and Rambutan made such an impression on us and on our trip in general.

Our next stop in Andalusia was Sevilla.

En route to Sevilla!
We were only going to be in Sevilla for one night though because of our extension in Granada. We both knew that we wanted to walk around and then take in a Flamenco dance later in the evening because Sevilla is the birthplace of Flamenco. Apparently, my brother claims that my family is from Sevilla as well so that was exciting. Sevilla is super beautiful. We took a bus ride around town and saw such gorgeous architecture.

Mass at night!

After making dinner in the hostel, we gathered a bunch of people from the hostel and went to check out an authentic Flamenco dance. It was so unique. The dancer looks almost possessed and sad when she dances. The throaty music was really different as well.

It was something that was so moving to see and the dancer's face has stuck with me for so long. She was so sorrowful and serious.

From Sevilla, we headed to Madrid for two nights where we really enjoyed the neighborhood our hostel was in.

This incredibly cool/freaky sculpture in the Madrid train station.

Ellie in the hostel in Madrid

The mascot of Madrid is this bear.

Madrid was much cooler than the negaive reviews it had received from our fellow travelers along the way. The neighborhood we stayed in was very hipster oriented with cute boutiques and salons and really good restaurants. I wish we could have spent longer in Madrid but since it was August, most things were closed for holidays.

Catalunya y Valenciana

2008-10-19T17:07:00.008+01:00

Spain! I had been waiting for get to Spain forever. Ellie and I pull into Barcelona after a whole day of train rides from France. We arrive at our hostel, find out how truly miserable it is(the worst hostel we have ever stayed in) and immediately made a run for tapas and sangria. We found our favorite sangria bar and ordered a pitcher and it was some of the best sangria I have ever had. We were finally in Spain!

A short-list of our complaints about our hostel:
-they wouldn't give us sheets, we got into an altercation about this
-Ellie's top bunk bed was rotting through and she fell through and a wooden plank broke on my head
-There is no A/C in Spain in summer but there was also no fan or window so we slept only an hour at a time having to take cold showers all night
-There were no refunds and no receipts given
-Breakfast sucked and was all gone by 9am.

Aside from that Barcelona was pretty awesome. We saw La Sagrada Familia, some cool houses also done by Gaudi, and my favorite Gaudi piece which is Parc Guell.

Sagrada Família
Originally designed by Antoni Gaudí (1852 – 1926), who worked on the project for over 40 years, devoting the last 15 years of his life entirely to the endeavor, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

The Casa Batlló

Hospital Sant Pau
This hospital, near from the Sagrada Familia temple, was built by Domènech i Montaner between 1901 and 1930. In spite of it's an interesting touristic spot in town it still runing as an hospital today. The different pavillions are decorated with mosaics depicting mythological characters and some Catalonian history episodes.

Park Guell

A huge city park designed by Gaudi and one of our favorite spots in Barcelona.

This is the longest park bench in the world. It goes all the way around this open space and is made out of a beautiful mosaic of tiles.

The view from the highest point in Barcelona.

We went to the beach pretty much every day to beat the vicious Barcelona sun and every night we went to our favorite Sangria bar and had our pitcher of sangria.

There were a lot of cool sculptures all over.

Our last night of Barcelona was really memorable because we went to a restaurant which specializes in Spanish cheeses which is a dream of mine. The whole restaurant is based around cheese and we got a really great bottle of wine and a cheese board and some delicious pasta and seafood. It was fancy but amazing. Afterwards, we went to this great art opening in some one's house where they had free drinks and everyone kept speaking Catalan to us. It was a really great night. Barcelona is pretty cool and we walked the whole city.

It was a little weird though how the neighborhoods that were considered off the beaten path were still very much on the beaten path with tourists. I think Barcelona in the summer had more tourists than any place we had been so far. The Gaudi art work and the Catalan language gave it a really good feeling despite the hoards of big family, Southern talking, picture-snapping Americans.

====================================================

After Barcelona, we met up with Moon Sook in Valencia which is the last time we will get to see her on our travels. Valencia was really good. Hardly, any tourists and beautiful architecture and of course, it's the home of paella. Paella is traditionally from Valencia and began when farmers used to take a big skillet of rice and meat to the fields with them to eat all day. Ellie and I arrived one night earlier than Moon. Our host canceled on us at the last minute so we got a 4* hotel room through lastminute.com for cheaper than a hostel.

We were loving the AC and relaxed for a bit before we walked around the city and went for some paella in the main square. It was pretty good and interesting to try something that is world-renowned in it's place of origin.

Seafood Paella

Afterwards, we came home early to prepare to meet up with Moon in the morning. The next morning we met up with Moon and we walked around Valencia

We ended up going to the beautiful white-sand beaches during the afternoon siesta that the Spanish businesses take from about 2-5. The beaches in Valencia were even more beautiful than those in Barcelona and the waves were great.

It was a Friday night so we all went our later for tapas and made a great Valencia bar hop. Valencia had some of the best night life and it was so friendly and hip.

We really enjoyed ourselves and were sad to leave Valencia the next day.

France = Friends!

2008-10-16T20:16:00.002+01:00

When we got to Lyon, we met Gaelle, our best London friend. Gaelle, was the girl who spoke barely any English in our Camden hostel room that first night in London. We became fast friends and her English got really good. She left London, a little bit before us, because she got a job at a PR company in Lyon, France. We were so happy to see her again after 3 months! She met us in the main square after work and we walked with her to her cute flat where we would be staying in her roommates room who was out of town.

Gaelle's place
We went for a beer at a cute little bar near Gaelle's house and then we went for dinner at this place that had amazing cheese flat breads. Probably one of the most amazing meals ever. Thus far, France had proved to be as delicious as everyone had claimed it would. Gaelle bought our meal for us which was so sweet of her and then we went for ice cream and a climb to the top of a big hill to look over the whole city, lit up. Lyon was very cute and even had a mini eiffel tower. There was a lot of cool grafitti and cute little stores. We didn't take as many photos as we should have because we were so busy catching up with Gaelle. The next day, Gaelle left for work and Ellie and I went to a gigantic public park that had a zoo as well. It was pretty cool and free which is excellent.

That night, Gaelle and her friend Fanny came over after work and we ate a quiche that Gaelle had made which was phenomenal. We drank some beer and headed to see CocoRosie in concert. Ellie and I had previously saw cocorosie at Roskilde but loved the performance so much so we told Gaelle we would see them again.

It was an amazing experience because the venue was an old amphitheatre that was ancient and just like ruins. It was stunning to be honest. It was on the highest point of the city and overlooked the whole glittering skyline. Cocorosie gave a great show again and afterwards, we attempted to go back to Gaelle's but we had locked ourselves out so we slept at Fanny's until we could figure it out. We just hung around Fanny's the next day until they got off work and we got ourselves unlocked. We decided to treat ourselves to a really fancy restaurant and it was so worth it.

Gaelle had chicken lollipops with three different chocolate style sauces.

Ellie's salmon cone

My gazpachos and bruschetta

I had three different gazpachos, almond crusted fish in white chocolate sauce and prawns in a strawberry champagne sauce. I also had a cheese plate for dessert!
It was a delicious and very innovative display of food.

After dinner walking it off!

The next day we just hung around a coffee shop, catching up on the internet and went to a house party with Gaelle and her boyfriend after work. It was really fun because after the party we just rented those free city bikes and rode the bikes home to Gaelle's since the transportation had stopped. It was awesome to just zip through the tiny French streets by bike.

We were sad to say good-bye to Gaelle but she was leaving for a work trip to Morocco so we had to go. We both really miss her and hope she will come visit us sometime in the states.

The next day, we left for Marseille. We were meeting up with Moon and staying at her couchsurfing hosts home who was leaving out of town. When we arrived, Moon told us the sad news that she had been robbed and her passport was stolen by some thugs so we wanted to cheer her up. We dropped our stuff at Sasha's amazingly good-looking warehouse conversion flat.

We then walked to the beach and found a little local spot where only a handful of French people were swimming and we jumped in and watched the sunset with a bottle of wine. It was a really gorgeous evening. Since Sasha was leaving, we decided to cook a big feast at his house and have a girls night in.

We walked all the way back from the beach, taking in Marseille's beauty at night. We then had a huge feast before falling asleep. We had to be on a train to Barcelona though at 7 so I awoke and watched the sunrise from Sasha's balcony and the quiet was really nice.

Marseille felt a lot more Middle Eastern than any place we had been and it was nice to have some diversity and a change from picture perfect Western Europe.

Paris Cheese

2008-10-16T19:25:00.002+01:00

We arrived in Paris in the late afternoon, after being delayed and missing our initial train. Eleonore and Moon Sook, our good friends from London were waiting for us a Eleonore's apartment in the Riquet area of Paris. We were going to have a little apartment party so we could meet Eleonore's friends from Paris. If you have been following this blog, we met Eleonore on a horse back riding weekend in Wales and Moon Sook was my London co-worker at LSBU. I introduced them both and we all became great friends. Eleonore was studying in London when I met her but she lives in Paris full-time and now she is doing an internship there.

Eleonore on the left and her two best friends from Paris

Eleonore had tons of wine and snacks and we got to meet her friends before we made an attempt to go out in the rain to a bar that we were denied access to because two of Eleonore's guy friends were underdressed. So we ended up at a pub, late into the night, drinking away and then came back to Eleonore's and a bunch of us passed out to sleep. The next morning, we woke up late and went to the grocery store and Eleonore bought us all the most amazing breakfast spread. We got to try real Frnech cheese finally and it was better than I even expected.

Moon waiting for our breakfast to be done.

(This pretty much made my day. It's French sugar company called Daddy!)

We had a feast on her balcony before we headed out to see the Marais district, walking around and eating ice cream and we walked to Notre Dame which was beautiful. The Marais district is the gay district and it is so cute. It is also the trendy fashion district. While we were visiting it, we came across a designer wedding dress store. They let us in to look around and the dresses made American dresses look dowdy and square. These dresses were works of arts and if I could afford the price tag, I would never get married in anything else.

Us on the River Seine! Ellie, behind the camera as per usual.

A street performer

Ellie at Notre Dame

We came back to Eleonore's apartment and made a feast for dinner with some left-overs and guacamole and then sat next to the river, enjoying our picnic with all of the other young people. Eleonore's neighborhood is really cool and very up and coming. Every evening in the summer the whole river is just lined with beautiful groups of friends, enjoying wine and each other's company. We sat around until late evening before it started to rain and we came back to Eleonore's. The next day, we went to brunch at this amazing Parisian cafe in the Marais.

The food was honestly unbelieveable. It was such an authentic experience enjoying brunch at this great little (and expensive!) place with other Parisian people. It was something I will never forget. The baguette's and hot tea, my amazing gourmet breakfast.

Afterwards, we walked around Montemartre, enjoying the view. I ordered a coke at a bar where we stopped to rest and paid 7 euros for it, which was pretty much an $11.00 usd bottle of coke. Only in Paris! We also just spent the day walking through all sorts of places.

The view from Montemartre

Eleonore and I, in front of the Museum of Modern Art

Ellie, in front of this amazingly cute fountain near the museum

Sitting on some Parisian stairs, notice the bird! Weird photo.

Right across the street from Eleonore's apartment in the summer, they have misters and trampolines and paddle boats.

Afterwards, we headed back to Eleonore's to have another picnic by the river.

What a little French girl.

That night we went to the Eiffel tower, with a few bottles of red wine and just sat below it, like all the tourists, enjoying the ambience and the iconic tower.

The tower was blue and yellow because France was the head of the European union at the time. It's so funny how many men walk around this area and try to sell you a bottle of wine because it seems like a tragedy to be sitting under the eiffel tower without one. We had to beg Eleonore to come with us since she is all too familiar with Paris and it's tourism. It's sort of like someone having to twist my arm to go sit with them next to the Southernmost Point or something. She actually admittedly did end up enjoying herself. We almost got locked in the underground though which was a little scary and men kept hitting on Moon Sook throughout our whole Parisian adventure, trying to sing Japanese songs to her and saying "Arigato" even though she is from South Korea. It was rather annoying actually.

We hung out the following day and Moon made us Korean food and we went across the street and ate a creme brulee. Otherwise we just lay around, napping and relaxing. That night, we went back to Marais for one final time and had falafel.

Korean food

The next day, we said good-bye to both of them, as Moon Sook was staying in Paris for a while longer and we went on one of those free walking tours so we could see all of the tourist sites that we couldn't miss on our first visit to Paris.

The Louvre

The tour was good but we had to cut out early to catch our train to Lyon, France to go visit our other London friend, Gaelle! Overall, we enjoyed Paris and it was a lot different than we thought. It was romantic, expensive, dirty, tasty and slow all in one. I think the more time you spend in Paris the better because walking around the different neighborhoods and just relaxing is the most important thing when visiting.

Belgium = mussels, batman, and beer

2008-10-14T20:16:00.004+01:00

Upon arriving in Brussels we got off at the wrong train station and dropped our stuff off at the lockers in the station and just walked into the city. We walked through a shady part of town that we were fairly unimpressed with before arriving into the center which we ended up being also unimpressed with. We saw Mannequin Pis which was unimpressive and tried Belgium chocoloate which was actually much better than any other chocolate ever.

Mannequin pis.

We were starving so attempted to get lunch at a very overpriced Ethiopian restaurant where the server was so rude and disgusted by our lack of French that she made me cry. The food was good even though the lunch was ruined. We then tried to go to the public library to kill some time and use the internet but they laughed in our faces saying that internet was only for citizens and then we didn't really know what to do aside from eating chocolate samples at all the shops along the way. We laid in the grass next to a church and then decided to walk to the main park in Brussels.

It was pretty but as we were relaxing, we got flashed by a man in the bushes. It was really creepy and disgusting.

A couchsurfing member named Nil met up with us to show us around Brussels a little bit. He took us to the center square where we got our Belgian waffles and he waited for us to be true tourists as he told us that no real citizen of Belgium has ever even had a Belgium waffle and they were a foreign conspiracy similar to the Sound of Music in Salzburg.

The main square

We then went to a cute area finally and had a belgium beer with Nil. Afterwards he cooked us some vegetarian food at his place before we grabbed the bus and bags from the train station to get to Kenny and Agne's place. We had a few beers with them and chatted for awhile. They are a really cute couple who bought an old building with their friends and are each renovating a different floor. They were really cool people to talk too. We said good-bye to Agnes because she was taking the train to France in the morning and then WALKING back to Brussels over the weekend.

The next day, Ellie woke up deadly sick and puking so we laid around enjoying the quiet house to ourselves and not very motivated to see any more of boring Brussels. After resting and Ellie feeling better, we decided we needed a day off from traveling and we needed an American day so we went to see the Batman movie at the movie theaters where you have to pay to go to the toilet during the movie! Even after you've already paid for your ticket and everything. Afterwards, we had pizza hut and then went back to Kenny's. Ellie was still pretty sick so she went to bed early and Kenny and I stayed up talking alot about life in Belgium and politics between the Flemish and French in Belgium.

Kenny, telling me a funny story about the Notting Hill Carnival where he bought these bunny ears and parents thought he was a pedophile but he really wanted them because his friends band is called something like Killer Rabbits.

We were all too happy to leave Brussels the next day, both knowing that it was the worst place we had visited so far in terms of unique sites and things to do.

We took off to Bruges and were picked up by one of the facilitators of the couchsurfing website named Martine. She is a very famous member who has been on television and everything trying to promote the objective of couchsurfing. When we arrived, there was another guy also staying with Martine from Quebec. We all went to the grocery store where we got the makings for a very typical Belgian meal. We got pommes frites, mussels, and salad. We also got avocados to make guacamole as an appetizer and some Belgian beer. I had never had mussels before but with the aioli Martine had, they were delicious. I couldn't believe I was eating them! After dinner, we were entertaining the idea of going to the Ghent festival in Ghent which is a 24 hour party with live music and plays, but Martine promised a tour of Brugge and good ice cream so we piled in her car. She gave us a really awesome walking tour of Bruges, showing us all of the sites and the Belfry tower.

At sunset. This spot is the most photographed spot in all of Bruges.

Chocolate!

boobies!

Martine, Quebec boy(whose name we can't remember) and I in front of the Belfry tower.

Who knows what this man is but he IS made out of chocolate!

Bruges by moonlight was so romantic and medieval. We all got ice cream and then went to this little cellar bar off some alley that Martine knew for a list of 100 Belgian beers. It was great.

We went home afterwards. The next day, we dropped our bags off to the train station and then walked into town, enjoying the cute architecture of the little homes and the windmills around the perimeter canal.

Bruges was beautiful and as Martine felt passionately enough to tell us, the movie In Bruges with Colin Farrell is a rip-off and a poor representation of Bruges.

Land of Windmills, Tulips, and Red Lights

2008-10-14T04:27:00.004+01:00

Finally arriving in Amsterdam, we were pretty exhausted since we arrived after midnight but our spunky Irish ex-pat host, Clair met us at the train station. She brought along her friend, Sharon and we all threw back a few pints at their favorite pub with our huge packs in the corner of the crowded Friday night bar before Sharon left us and we headed back to Clair's.
The next morning, Clair made a huge breakfast spread before we set out to check out the Saturday market in her neighborhood. Clair lived in an excellent location in the Prinsengracht neighborhood and she lived right across the street from the Anne Frank house.

Me holding fresh mint for mint tea

The market was so cute and Ellie found a great pair of vintage sunglasses and I tried some amazing goat cheese.

Ellie showing off her new glasses!

Clair took us to a restaurant that makes the thickest best apple pie I have ever had in my whole life and we had mint tea to go along with it.

Kelly and Sharon and the apple pie!

Clair, our host and Shaun an ex-pat from D.C.

The weather was a little rainy so we hung out at the restaurant and Clair's friends Sharon and Shaun met us and we chatted for awhile before we all went walking through the 9 streets shopping district. We stopped in a restaurant and had some lunch and I found a vintage children's store and bought a gorgeous dress for Sophia, my niece.

Vintage swim hats!

Amsterdam has a sunglass museum!

After shopping we split up with Clair and her friends and walked into the center of town.

We were curious to check out the Red Light District since it's so infamous. It was pretty tame because it was in the afternoon but we got the picture. The prostitutes are actually government controlled and each rent out their little window per shift. It was not very women-friendly but the whole thing was really interesting. I thought it would have made me sadder but since it's government controlled, there are less diseases and less pimps apparently.
On our way back to Clair's we stopped by the Anne Frank house since the line was short and we got to experience it. This was one of the experiences that we both most wanted to have. It was a little disappointing though because it was so crowded and this one American woman was letting her child pound on the artifacts and scream and act crazy and the disrespect for Frank's were really driving me crazy. To see the house though, was so crazy because you read her diary as a child and you never think you will be standing in the site it actually happened. It was so different than I expected.

This is the Anne Frank house. It looks really modern.

We went home after that and ordered pizza with Clair and watched a movie and fell asleep from our busy day. the next day we woke up and paid a visit to the FOAM photography museum where we saw an excellent exhibit from a Dutch photographer where he took beautiful photos of his family in black and white. We grabbed some lunch at Maoz, our favorite London falafel place and we checked out the floating flower market where Ellie purchased some tulip bulbs for her mom. We rented bikes near Prinsengracht and checked out the Homomonument, recognizing all of the gays and lesbians that were affected by Nazi power. We were most impressed with riding our bikes and checking out the beautiful homes in Amsterdam and the beautiful canals. Peoples homes in Amsterdam are stunning because they have huge windows on the ground level like shop fronts and never feel the need to put any curtains up. You can literally peer into people's lives.

The houses are gorgeous and so is the architecture. That is something we never heard of when Amsterdam was described to us. Everyone just glorifies the red light district, the parties and the legalization of marijuana, but not the beauty of Amsterdam.

We had heard about a brewery a little outside of town and we decided to ride our bikes to it for an afternoon pint. The brewery was really cool though because it was inside a windmill. The beer was delicious and we were super excited about seeing our first windmill.

After our pint, we met up with Clair and Shaun and had a snack at a cafe before trying to catch a gig in a really cool venue but finding out the show was sold out. We just continued to ride our bikes through town, checking out the hip neighborhoods and appreciating the quiet of a Sunday night.

We also figured we might check out the happenings of the red light district at night. That area and all of Amsterdam is actually really gorgeous after dark.

Ellie at the beginning of the red light district.

Just outside the red light district.

Notice all the red lights. Those are the windows the prostitutes stand in.

Clair had to go to work the next day so we got up when she did and left with her. Our initial plan was to ride our bikes into the country but the weather was horrible so we found a little coffee shop and just drank tea, trying to map out an alternate plan. We decided to go to this famous Dutch pancake place for lunch and it was so delicious. They offer their version of pancakes from around the world and we had a Greenland one with nuts, onions and spinach. We also had a dessert crepe with sugar and lime which is traditional. It was such a nice meal to make us feel better about the weather and the fact that we had collided into each other and almost killed ourselves on our bikes moments before.

The Dutch do love their bikes though. Check out this bike parking garage!

After lunch, we decided that riding in the rain was dangerous due to our accident and returned out bikes and headed to the library which was the best library I have ever been in. It looked like Ikea had decorated it and on the top floor you had a whole view of Amsterdam and they had a whole-foods style food court.

Next door was the Nemo, the children's science museum. It was a really cool building.
We shared an ultra spicy stir-fry and tried a raspberry wheat beer before walking back to Clair's and hanging out with her and Sharon at a local tapsas restaurant in Prinsengracht. We were really sad to leave Amsterdam and I think I honestly felt similar remorse leaving as we had when we left Berlin. Amsterdam was some place I could envision living happily. We were on to Belgium though and knew we would not be disappointed because I like nothing more than BELGIUM WHEAT BEER, BELGIUM WAFFLES AND BELGIUM CHOCOLATE!

Bergen, Norway!

2008-10-03T21:52:00.009+01:00

After a long overnight train ride to Oslo (that we illegally climbed on without a reservation), we boarded our next train to Bergen where we took one of the most scenic train routes recommended in the world through the width of Norway. It was gorgeous. We were so high up and sometimes we looked outside the train windows and white snow was right next to the tracks.

We were riding through snow covered mountains that had waterfalls that were so tall. It was such a nice ride and we enjoyed very minute.

Upon arriving in Bergen, Svein our 70-year old host picked us up from the train station and after a brusque introduction in heavy Norwegian, he informed us we were picking up his house-keeper Fatmata, from Liberia who lives with him now to help with Mary, his wife who has Alzheimer's. We first stopped by the grocery store where he informed Ellie that since we are vegetarians that we would be doing all of the cooking which was fine, but then Svein informed us that we would be making cauliflower soup that evening. Both of us looked frightened at each other since I can't cook and even though, Ellie is close to culinary genius, she has never made cauliflower stew. He then informed us our stew would need to serve 12 people! He told us to get whatever groceries we needed for our 3 night stay in Bergen and told us that we should make a different meal for everyone the next evening as well. We decided on vegetarian chili and rice and Svein was kind enough to buy all of the groceries for our stay.
Svein then drove us to his private island right outside of Bergen where he had grown up since he was teenager. His sons also live on the beautiful piece of property but he told us that he never gets to see them that often because they are so busy. His home was cozy and he had a beautiful glass dining room upstairs with a stunning view of Norway's natural beauty along with a pool inside of a bubble to retain heat. His place was pretty amazing.

We quickly looked up cauliflower stew recipes on google(thank god for wireless) and then went for a swim in the bubble pool. It was warm but not that warm considering that Norway is so far north and was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit in July.
Ellie began working on the stew, and later on that evening we were joined by our friend Leover and Bernadette, the Australian couple who we had previously surfed with in Denmark. We were so happy to see them again and it made the situation of staying in Svein's odd house a little less awkward.

Svein is a very unique individual who really likes things done his way and it was so nice to laugh a little with Leover and Bernadette. We also met a couchsurfer from Latvia who was staying with us.; It was really cool to enjoy a family style dinner with people from so many different places. We had almost every continent. Fatmata and her daughter, Josephine who was visiting from Northern Norway but who was born in Liberia also joined us. So we had Liberia, Australia, Latvia, America, Norway and the Phillipines because Leo is from there originally. And of course, Ellie's soup was amazing as per usual.

The next day, Svein awoke us with our first taste of Norwegian salmon for breakfast! Salmon in Norway is so fresh that it makes American lox look as ridiculous as American cheese. Svein was feeling a little stressed out because he was having a party the next day so he wasn't planning on going into town. The bus was a little confusing and too far a walk in the crappy rain weather so we went for a canoe ride around Svein's lake and island and checked out the other houses in Bergen.

one minute it was pouring on our heads and the next it was sunny. It continued on like this for awhile. When we got back we all ate some lunch and met Fatmata's granddaughter named Precious who was 3.

She was staying in our room so we played awhile with her and took a swim with her in the bubble pool. Ellie began her chili and we had another nice family meal but this time we had a couple from Prague staying in Svein's caravan so they joined us.

Relaxing in the living room

It was really nice taking a break from sightseeing and just relaxing on Svein's island. The next day was party day though and Svein was having 40 senior citizens come to his tea party and guess who was making the tea? Yes, Ellie made about 40 gallons of coffee while I went to the grocery with Bernadette and Svein to pick out snacks. The party was kind of boring to be honest and a little weird because none of us spoke Norwegian and Svein made the Czech couple perform a song in Czech.

he was very shy and nervous about singing

Everyone HAD to chip in. Leover cutting a traditional Norwegian cake that tasted much better than it looked...

We were getting a little stir-crazy on Svein's island by that evening and he was driving us a little nuts so we excited to pack up and have him drop us off the next morning in Bergen to go on a fjord boat trip with Bernadette and Leo.
We took our own quick tour of the town:

We walked around the historic fish market of Bergen, looking at the whale and reindeer meat for sale before getting on the fjord boat to head out to Osterfjorden.

Osterfjorden is a very narrow fjord close to Bergen.

The trip was 4 hours and was really interesting to see the fjord. The only downfall is that Osterfjorden is not one of the most dramatic fjords in the world.

After our trip, we both realized how much we wanted to explore Norway better taken advantage of the fjords and the far frozen tundra of Lapland in Northern Norway. It will probably be a very long time before that ever happens though because after the boat trip we tried to grab a quick lunch with Bern and Leo and realized that a pizza costs 56.00 us dollars. A burger at T.G.I Friday's was equivalent to 60.00 usd. We were disgusted and ended up eating a weird sub in some shopping center food court and Burger King french fries. I guess staying at Svein's was wonderful because he paid for our food the whole time and we didn't even change our money into Norwegian currency ever. Norway is so rich because it has the 2nd most oil in the world after Saudi Arabia, just a little fact.

We retraced our steps back to Oslo, where we slept in the airport overnight while waiting for our plane to Copenhagen where we would take a train to Amsterdam. Overall, a 24 hour travel day but we couldn't wait to unwind in Holland!

SWEET SWEDEN

2008-09-19T22:58:00.000+01:00

We leave Copenhagen and Thorbjorn's without ever even meeting him and board a train to Malmo, Sweden which is only a 1/2 hour ride from Denmark. Finally, we were in Sweden, home of innovative design companies like Ikea and H&M and beautiful people.
Once we arrived, we took a city bus to our host's flat. Emma lived just a little outside of the center and she greeted us just before she was heading off for work. Emma works at an elderly center and organizes band shows in Malmo's hardcore and punk music scenes on the side. She was jetting off to work with the promise of chatting over dinner when she returned at night but she did tell us about her favorite falafel place to eat lunch at, so we headed there and got falafel and ate it at a little green space. The falafel was pretty cheap considering that Sweden is one of the most expensive places being a Scandinavian country.

We spent some time wondering around the city center.

We walked to Malmo's beach afterwards and while the weather was sunny, it wasn't particularly hot and the ocean was freezing, so we refrained from taking a swim but enjoyed watching all of the dogs with their owners playing fetch in the surf.

Check out that cool building. It looks like it is rotating.

Afterwards, we took the city bus back to Emma's apartment and Ellie went to the grocery and made veggie sandwiches for all three of us and we all chatted about Emma's upcoming NYC trip and then we watched Secretary and went to bed.

Emma

Emma's house

The next day we awoke and left very early for Uppsala, Sweden. Emma's place was really cool and so was she and maybe we didn't get to see enough of Malmo, but it wasn't super exciting.
In Uppsala, our plan was to see Ellie's friend Alex whom she hasn't seen in over 5 years. Alex was an exchange student at Ellie's high school and they were good friends and on sports teams together. It was a very long 6 hour train ride to Uppsala. Alex's dad owns a Thai restaurant where Alex also works so we went there and she treated us to a nice lunch before she led us on a sightseeing walk around Uppsala which is mostly a university town which Alex attends. Uppsala was pleasantly pretty with a big pink castle and Scandinavia's largest cathedral.

After walking around with Alex and her sister, we stopped for an iced coffee downtown and sat outside enjoying the nice weather and catching up. Because it was summer the town was pretty dead. Apparently, Uppsala does receive a lot of Russian tourists for some reasons that Alex couldn't quite conclude. After our coffee, we went to the grocery to get makings for a BBQ on Alex's beautiful balcony in her posh apartment.

Alex on her balcony

ellie on alex's balcony

Alex is the one on the right

Alex invited her sister and another friend over and we had the most amazing dinner with really fancy champagne and funny conversation and Alex bought everything which was so kind of her. She also let us do our laundry and we slept really great in gorgeous apartment. The next day she dropped us off at the train station so we could head south for Stockholm.

Once in Stockholm we stored our packs in lockers and headed off on foot to check out the city. I had read that the neighborhood dubbed "SOFO" was supposedly the coolest area with great vintage shops and hip cafes. As soon as we arrived though after walking forever to get there, it started pouring so we had a coffee at a place that handed out blankets to kill some time. We found the cutest street on our way to the Metro to get to our hosts house right outside of Stockholm. Our hosts were a couple called Carolina and Magnus, both who work for progressive politics in Sweden. They met us at the train station and fed us some of the left-overs from their yummy vegan dinner.

Then since it was Friday, we all got ready and decided to drive into Stockholm to get a drink. Stockholm at night was beautiful and they gave us a little tour, pointing out good nightlife and cool buildings to us. We went to Sofo again and most of the bars they wanted to show us were a little too crowded so we went to this bar that is famous for making all of their drinks with garlic so we tried a draft beer that had garlic pressed into it! It actually wasn't that terrible but it wasn't good for the breath. We then went to a typical Swedish bar and had a Swedish beer while they filled us in on politics in Sweden (which are pretty refreshingly liberal). Afterwards, we went home.
When we awoke, Ellie made banana pancakes and they set out a big spread and we all had brunch together on the porch. Then we caught a train to the port in Stockholm to get a ferry to one of the islands on the archipelago.

a view of Stockholm from the boat

The islands we went to are known as the "feather islands", Fjäderholmarna. It was pretty lucky because the ferry ticket man never asked us for our tickets so we got away with a free ride there and back. The island was really pretty. There were cute craft stores and a beach and a rocky little mountain that you could climb to the top and watch the scenery from.

There were a few restaurants on the island that served fresh fish like salmon and herring. We stopped for an ice cream before boarding the ferry again.

Afterwards, we checked out the posh area of Stockholm before heading back to our favorite restaurant for a really nice Indian dinner.

The next day was our last day in Sweden and Caro and Magnus were heading to a friend's country house for a get together so they wished us well and we relaxed all day, using the ability to have a whole house to ourselves to get some planning done for the rest of our trip before departing to the train station to catch our overnight train to Oslo.

Copenhagen: recovering from Roskilde

2008-09-19T18:47:00.004+01:00

July 7
After saying goodbye to our friends, we removed our luggage from the lockers and caught a bus towards our couch-surfing host's flat. We got there and met an Australian guy (not our host) who recently moved from Norway where he worked for six months. He was friendly and explained that he rents out the other room from the host, Thorbjorn. And that an Austalian couple have been staying there and will be coming home late. We went to the grocery store and got some spaghetti and breakfast foods. We spent the night in, recovering from our crazy week of camping.

July 8
When we woke up the Australian couple was there. We made breakfast and talked with them. We found out that we all have been traveling about the same amount of time and the same places. Then we discovered that we would also be staying in the same Couchsurfing host's house in Bergen, Norway.
They were leaving that morning, heading towards Oslo, Norway. So, while they packed, we headed out to explore Copenhagen. There was a lot we wanted to see, but it was raining, so we were a little limited. We decided it was a good day to go to Christiana, a part of Copenhagen that is completely a free state. It is very hippie-ish and because it does not abide by the same laws as the rest of Denmark, people can sell and smoke marijuana openly, but there are certain streets where there are signs that read: "NO PHOTOS" because it is incriminating to take photos of who is buying and selling drugs. The houses are all uniquely painted and there is a huge art community.

We went to a famous open air Jazz cafe (which was beautiful, but had a NO PHOTOS policy) and got an organic honey beer and listened to the jazz for a little while. We also heard that Christiana had the best falafels in Copenhagen, so we had to try one on the way out.

That day we also checked out the picturesque harbor.

When it started to rain too hard for us to be walking around, we ducked into the public library, which had free internet. We spent a few hours there, planning more of our trip and avoiding the rain.

That night, we went back to the flat and made some stir-fry. Some new girls were staying at the couchsurfing flat. There was one girl from Vietnam and two from Brooklyn and us all staying in a one bedroom apartment. It was a little tight, but we all had our own mattresses, so we didn't mind. It was really strange, because we never met Thorbjorn, our host, the whole time we stayed there. We went to bed fairly early, because we had another early morning ahead of us. We were on our way to Malmo, Sweden the next day, and even though it is only an hour away, we were only going to stay one night, and wanted to get in as much as possible.

Roskilde Festival

2008-09-16T05:18:00.005+01:00

June 29, 2008: Germany to Denmark

So, we left Hamburg at a ridiculously early hour to take a train to Copenhagen, Denmark. The one interesting part of that ride was that you must cross over a body of water to get into Denmark. The two car train actually pulled into a loading dock of a ferry and we had to get off the train and stay on the above decks for about half an hour, while the ferry took our us (and our train) into Denmark. Then we hopped back into our train car, the train drove out of the ferry and we were back on the tracks.

Gena, Merlin and Matt all met us at the station. In case you don't know, they are some of our best friends from the UK (and Gena is Kelly's best friend from Key West who lives in Europe: Refer to Blog Archives November through March) They all flew in from England to meet us and go to the festival.

We all caught a train from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, to the small town of Roskilde. That is where the Roskilde Music Festival was being held. We were really excited to be there because we were about half way through with our four month trip and this festival gave us 8 days of staying in one place, a break from sightseeing and tourist attractions, and a chance to catch up with our friends, not to mention some amazing bands were going to be performing.

Gena, Merlin and Kelly sitting at the station, waiting for the train

All three of our friends had been to the festival, 2 years before, so when we got to the front gates, they knew just where to go to find the cleanest and nicest part of the camping area (which also happened to be a very very long walk with all of our gear)
The camping area had only opened at 7am that day, but by 3:00pm it had already turned into a miniature city of tents and plastic gazebos. This year, they expected between 60-100,000 people to be there!

yep, those are all tents behind me!

This is how it works: There are 8 nights of camping, and events are going on all week long, like movie screenings, dance parties, and art happenings. The music doesn't start until the fifth day, but then it is nonstop from 11am until 3 or 4 in the morning. The festival is held on acres and acres of fields, which basically turn into a temporary town, offering several grocery and supply stores, food from all over the world, and even free internet.

While Manly Matt and Merlin set up our tents (Merlin was kind enough to bring one for us!) Gena, Kelly and I (yes Ellie is writing this one, just so you don't think Kelly is starting to talk in 3rd person) we went to the camp store to buy supplies like a gazebo to sit under, a tarp to sit on, some rubber rain boots (just in case. It's been called the muddiest festival in Europe) and, of course, a case of beer (sorry, this entry might contain even more drinking than previous posts)

Gena and Ellie with her new rubber boots

merlin and gena's tent

the tent merlin let us borrow

our finished campsite!

Matt starting off the afternoon with his first beer shotgun

Kelly and Matt

Ellie

The first night, we hung out in our great little campsite and got dinner at the closest stand, which was pizza and hamburgers. Kelly and I got really excited because the hamburger stand sold really cheap vegetarian burgers, but were really disappointed when we found out why they were so much cheaper than the real stuff. Their idea of a vegetarian burger was a bun with lettuce, a slice of tomato, and a slice of cucumber. We took it back because we thought maybe they forgot the veggie patty, but actually they had never even heard of a veggie patty. So we dropped it and got a cheese pizza instead. We all went to bed early, around 10:30. The weird part about Scandinavia is that it is so far north, that during the summer it is only dark for a few hours each night. It was still bright out when we fell asleep. The sun dips below the horizon around 11 or 12:00 and then pops right back up around 3 or 4am!

this is around 11:30pm!

Over the next few days we had a lot of fun not doing much.

We made a big trip into the actual town of Roskilde to go to the grocery store to get breakfast and lunch supplies cheaper than at the festival site and some spirits, particularly this bottle of tequila that came with a hat on the lid. (which I think is the main reason we selected it)

kelly wore it the remainder of the festival...

We met our neighboring campers from Norway and some locals from Denmark on the other side. Most people we met were surprised we had heard about the festival, even though it is the second largest in Europe. Most of the kids there were from Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and even Iceland, but they all speak perfect Englsih and we had no problems starting conversations. There were a few guys staying near us that had American sounding accents, but they were actually from the Bahamas. We walked around and saw a lot of people had been naming their campsites, so we somehow came up with one for ours: CAMP DANDELION
Luckily we were able to maintain a clean camp the whole time. Some people trashed their campsites in the first couple days.

ours

not ours (thankfully)

The whole experience was really cool. We ate some great food while we were there, like amazing vegetarian chili, african food, and super falafels. We swam in a near by lake (which did underwater music sessions) and we bathed outdoors (with swim suits on) with our seaweed shampoo in a bar and Gena and Merlin's cooking pot to pour the icy water over our heads.

There were these weird trough things which we could get fresh, drinkable water to wash our hands and brush our teeth. Also, the only toilets were portable ones, which were surprisingly not too bad. There was almost always toilet paper and hand sanitizer and some one came in and washed and emptied them each morning. That still didn't stop most guys (and some girls) from using the more convenient option, the fence.

We also found out that if we returned any empty beer cans that we would get a small refund of about 1 Danish Kroner per can (it takes about 5 DKK to equal 1 USD)so not only did we save all of our cans, but we went around with a bag and collected a couple hundred more that were discarded all over the ground. When we cashed in, we got a large enough refund to buy a case of 24 beers plus a few pints.

doing some collecting

The day before the music started, Jemma arrives (Matt, Merlin and Gena's other roommate from university) We were excited to welcome another friend to Camp Dandelion.

On July 3rd, the music started, so a whole new section of the festival grounds opened up, with 8 stages, all different sizes. There were over 80 acts that were going to be showing, and obviously, there was no way we were going to see them all. Since we had time to look at our program of events, we were able to narrow down which bands to see and make a game plan to make the most out of the music.

A lot of the times, we would all split up to see different bands, and then reconvene to see a concert together. Over all we saw about 20 concerts in those 4 days. I'll give you the highlights:

this is the Orange stage, the largest one with the most high profile acts

this is the arena, probably the 2nd largest venue

The Gossip: An amazing show with a lot of energy. During the last song, Beth Ditto the lead singer, came into the crowd and grabbed my face and sang directly at me!

Kings of Leon

CocoRosie: two sisters with beautiful voices, and an ridiculously good beatboxer

Likke Li: a singer from Sweden who had such a fun show

Chemical Brothers: we saw these DJs on one of the latest nights we stayed out, they performed on the main stage (which was HUGE) and had an incredible visual display.

Jay Z: one of the funnest concerts, because we all knew all the songs from growing up with him on the radio. Plus, we waited in line and were able to get to the very front, right next to the stage. It was kind of surreal.

We also saw performers like Gnarles Barkley, Band of Horses, Duffy, Kate Nash, Goldfrapp, The Dø (a Norwegian band I love) and others.

We still had some time for a little down time, too, while the music was playing. Believe it or not. We played some giant Jenga and hung out in the posh Jack Daniels designated relaxing area.

At the end, we never ended up needing our rain boots. It never got rainy except for the final concert, Jay Z, where it poured! We were so far north, but for the most part, it was hot and dry and felt just like summer anywhere else.

the aftermath as people began to leave on the last morning

On our last day, we packed up our tents and we all took the train back to Copenhagen. Our friends had a few hours before catching their flight back to the UK, so we did a little window shopping, ate a nice proper meal and ended up having hot chocolate at a cafe that gave you pillows and blankets and overlooked a square where a live jazz band was performing. We said our goodbyes as they headed for the airport, and we headed just a few blocks away to stay with a new couchsurfing host for a few days in Copenhagen.

I ♥ Berlin!

2008-09-12T16:24:00.007+01:00

Our next stop in Germany was Berlin.

Our hostel there was amazing! It was themed the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe." After dropping off our stuff we went straight out to this burrito place called Dolores that was recommended in our Let's Go book. The burritos were huge and tasted just like home (you'd be surprised about the lack of Mexican food in Europe) That night we relaxed in the common area/bar of the hostel and enjoyed some free wifi.
The next morning, we set out by foot towards a neighborhood called Kreuzburg, which is pretty hip, with tons of vintage stores and cut vegetarian cafes. Along the way, we passed Checkpoint Charlie. That's the area where you had to go threw to get from East Berlin to West Berlin during the cold war.

When we got to Kreuzburg we found another recommended place called "Yellow Sunshine". It's got over 25 types of burgers and all are vegetarian. (Fake fish, fake chicken, hawaiin buger with fake ham and real pineapple) and surprisingly it was amazing! I know we talk a lot about food, but Berlin by far had the best and cheapest vegetarian food, which was very exciting for us to be able to eat all kinds of things we have been missing from the US (but even better!)

Later that day we had planned on doing the Free Bike Tour that is offered in Berlin, but it started to rain just as we were heading towards the meeting point. So, instead, we just walked around Mitte, the neighborhood our hostel was in. There were tons of Middle Eastern, Indian, and Asian restaurants with people lounging outside. We also came across this amazing establishment called Tacheles. It used to be a department store before WWII and during the cold war it was filled with squatters and anti-establishment anarchists. All 6 floors are filled with graffiti and Tacheles now houses a self-organized collective of artists, as well as a few bars and a night club.

a funny interactive art piece

Back at the hostel, we met a girl named Nina who was staying in the 7 person dorm with us. She was a 25 year old cryptographer from Sweden, but looked like she was about 15. She was very sweet and we all went out to dinner at an Indian place right around the corner from our hostel. After dinner we thought we would check out the mayhem that is the European Cup semi-finals. That night the game was Germany v. Turkey and this was especially important because not only did it determine who went to the finals but Berlin also happens to have a huge Turkish population (largest Turkish community outside of Turkey!) So we tried to go to the Gates of the city where the huge official FanZone was set up. But they weren't letting anyone else in, because instead of the estimated 500,000 fans, over one million showed up in just that one area. Plus, every cafe, bar, restaurant, and even some shops were packed because they were showing the game too. These people are serious about their football!

this was as close as we could get.

Berlin's mascot is the bear doing this thing...

We went back to the Kreuzburg neighborhood, which is where a good portion of the Turkish people live. It was an interesting place to be because one side of the street had German flags up and people on the other side were waving Turkish flags. We picked a random pub and watched the end of the game over a pint. Germany won at the last minute. There was dancing in the street, singing, and lots of broken bottles, but no violence. Before heading home, we walked with Nina over a big bridge to take a look at the famous molecule man statue, which wasn't so impressive at night and too far away.

The next morning, we made sure to wake up early enough to catch the first bike tour of the day. It was a lot of fun, biking is definitely the best way to see the city.

Here's some photos of what we saw:

The Old Synagogue

(which is actually the newly remodeled version, but with the cool original roof thingies that survived WWII)

This one is hard to make out, but it is a memorial for the book burnings that happened in Berlin while Hitler was in power. It is a large room just filled with empty bookshelves underground in the middle of the square where the biggest burning actually happened, but you can walk right over it and miss it completely.

Remnants of the Berlin Wall

Memorial to Fallen Jews

The artist that created this memorial has refused to give an explanation of what these sculptures represent, leaving it open for everyone to interpret. You can walk between each piece. The ground slopes and none of the pieces are symmetrical. Some say it looks like coffins, or a city, or a concentration camp...

Richstag

This is still the building where the German government convenes. In 1999, the glass dome on top was added, and you can actually go up to the top for free and it looks down on parliament as it is in session. Apparently, this was done, so when ever the elected officials would look up, they would see who was really in charge, because the people of Germany could be up there watching down on them.

Museum Island

They even took us to Hitler's Bunker, where he killed himself. Which is actually just covered up by a parking lot to an apartment complex. There is no sign or marker because they didn't want any Neo-Nazis to create a shrine or make pilgrimage to see it.

After the tour we went to a place called Dada Falafel in our neighborhood (Maybe one of the BEST Falafels ever!) and then took the S-Bahn (like the subway, but overground) to the East Side Gallery, which is a long stretch of the Berlin wall that is still up and has amazing paintings and murals all over it. it's a 1.3km long section of the wall that is an international memorial for freedom. The only thing that was a little sad was that people had tagged ugly graffiti signatures on top of the beautiful art work.

At a break in the the wall, there was a little man-made beach complete with a beach bar, volley ball nets, a skate park, lounge chairs, and reggae music. We had a corona and enjoyed the view over the river.

Then we wandered around the Friedrichshain area, which was really artsy. (there were so many cool neighborhoods in Berlin!)

graffiti art everywhere!

We came across a really cute hair salon with cheap hair cuts, stylish stylists and good music, so Ellie decided to get her hair cut there.
On the way home, we ran into some other people staying at the hostel and we all went to Tacheles together for a few drinks.

just one of the small pieces of art in Tacheles back yard...

The next day, we relaxed at the hostel and got some laundry done. In the afternoon, we went to the Hamburger museum, which was a modern art museum and had absolutely nothing to do with beef.
Across the street from the museum, there was a giant sand sculpture competition!

And we came across a street festival with bands and crafts booths. When we asked what the occasion was, we were told "just because." Apparently Berliners like their street parties.

At the end of the day we ended up back at Kreuzburg, one of our favourite neighborhoods, where we hopped round to tons of funky little bars. We ended up at one called Luzia, which was playing oldies and had an amazing atmosphere and tons of hip young people.

The following morning, we checked out of the hostel and went to grab some lunch back at Dolores, the burrito place, before heading to Hamburg. There was another huge event going on this day too (it felt like every day was a different celebration in Berlin) this one was the Pride parade. During the summer, each city in Europe celebrates gay pride on a different day. It was very colorful and a lot of fun to see all kinds of people in the parade.

After we watched most of it, (there were over 50 floats!) we ran to the train station to jump on the train to Hamburg, where we were only staying for a one night stop over towards Denmark. Within a few hours, Gabi, our couchsurfing.com host, and her friend, Megan, met us at the Hamburg train station. We quickly dropped off our backpacks so they could show us their city before night fall. Both the girls were from the states, so it was really cool to get to talk to some one who lives in Europe who we can really relate to. Unfortunately we didn't grab our camera on the way out the door, so we didn't take one single photo in Hamburg. But, we did learn this little known fact: Hamburg has more canals and bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined!
Well, we needed to get some groceries before heading into the expensive Scandinavian country of Denmark, and Gabi informed us that the only grocery store open after 7pm is in the red light district, so we made our way over there. Apparently, there is one street that no women are allowed to go down (or the prostitutes will beat you up) and this is even enforced by the cops (mostly for your own protection!) Anyway, we got our groceries and got out, seeing a few stag and hen (bachelor and bachelorette) parties heading towards that area on our way out.
After doing a quick freshening up at Gabi's apartment, she took us back out to meet some of her friends who are also involved in couchsurfing. We had a drink or two and ended up at an amazing baked potato store. But didn't stay out too long, because we had a 5am train to catch to be able to meet Gena and Merlin in Copenhagen the next afternoon. Even though we spent a total of about 12 hours in Hamburg, we had some great conversations and got a very positive feel for the city.

Land of Beer

2008-08-05T11:23:00.002+01:00

June 21st was summer solstice and it felt like the longest day of the year. We were attempting to head to Munich, Germany from Cinque Terre, Italy. It was the longest train journey yet. We had to switch 5 times, at one point having to get on a bus to cross back into Austria to catch another train due to engineering work. We had to change from Cinque Terre at La Spezia, Milan, Verona, and a few other Italian cities. We left the house at 9:30 am and arrived in Munich just after 1 am. When we arrived in Munich, we went to Jeanette’s house, our German couchsurfing host. She left her key on top of a phone booth outside of her flat for us because she was already out for the night. We put our things down and then a guy came into the flat and he was Murat from Istanbul who was also Jeanette’s guest. He was really kind and we walked around the neighborhood, trying to see if some street fair was still happening but it was over so we went back to her flat and had our first German beer before getting to bed.

Jeanette's little apartment that was mostly ours during our stay.

In the morning, we decided to take advantage of the free tour that is offered in some of the cities in Western Europe. We had taken them before in London and Edinburgh so we knew it was a great way to learn about the city and it’s history.

The Glockenspiel

The Glockenspiel up close. It dances and tells the same story everyday at 11 am.

A May Pole. Every city has one and if someone's may pole is stolen by another town the people who stole it get a party before giving it back.

Little Red Riding Hood

The synagogue in Munich which has been threatened many times by Neo-Nazi groups.

After the tour was over out the university that Sophie Scholl and the White Rose resistance attended during the Nazi occupation. We wanted to see the memorial for her and her brother at the university.

The Sophie Scholl memorial and is just tiles in the pavement of the leaflets of the White Rose.

Sophie Scholl was a schoolgirl who worked with the White Roses, anti-nazi group and she was distributing illegal flyers around campus and had some left-over so she pushed the whole stack over the railing and sent them flying down the stairs. She and her brother were caught for their crime and beheaded. Munich has so much World War II history and has very subtle monuments all around the cities commemorating the brave people who stood up against the nazi’s.
We went to the Modern Art museum of Munich which was really a really nice change from all of the Italian art.

There is a BMW underneath this ice and we all had to wear blankets to go into the freezing exhibit.

All at the museum

After, we were starving so we got some really good pad thai before heading to the world’s most famous/largest beer hall called Hofbrauhaus.

The Hofbrauhaus has quite a history. Hitler spent much of his time organizing the Nazi party here.

The blue and white Bavarian flags were painted over with swastikas during World War II at the request of Hitler and have been painted over since again.
We each had 1 liter of beer in the huge traditional glasses.

An employee wearing traditional outfit and selling pretzels.
Some German men were singing traditional beer songs and one came over and kissed Ellie on the cheek, telling her something in German. Before we could chat with the German Casanova, we realized we were late for the train to the suburbs to see Jeanette’s choir concert. At the train station, we met Yann her boyfriend and her friend. At the concert, we met her mother and then finally we met Jeanette. The choir concert was cool. They sang some German songs and some American classics like “ Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.” Afterwards, her mom drove us in a camper van home, which was a little scary because we were on a major highway and her mom wasn’t completely sure how to use a manual. It was a bit of a “Little Miss Sunshine” moment. Once we made it back to Munich, we went with Jeanette and Yann to an Italian bar to watch the semi-final of the European cup between Spain and Italy. We finally got back to her flat around midnight where we met some Belgian backpackers who would be taking Murat’s place since he had gone back Istanbul. They had been hitchhiking and sleeping in forests so they were pretty interesting. They seemed grateful for a shower and a bed.
The next day we decided to relax. We walked to an amazing little brunch buffet that was vegetarian. After we stuffed ourselves, we headed for famous Englisher Garten. The park is huge with a river that runs through the middle. Many people swim and some even sunbathe completely nude in the park. Mostly old men though. At the beginning of the river, there are some rapids where people can actually surf on the river by just jumping in.

It is created because of a pipe underneath the river and is therefore pretty dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. It was so cool to see people surfing a river though. Just as we were about to get settled at the park, it started to thunderstorm. We were so sad but we waited it out under a tree and it stopped luckily. Once the sun came out, we jumped in the freezing cold river and swam along and then spent the remainder of the day sunning ourselves on the bank watching the naked people.

Notice the naked man to the right!
Later we walked around the huge park which is larger than central park and eventually made our way to the beer garden section. There was a huge Japanese garden and tons of people sitting on the picnic tables, drinking liters of beer and eating massive pretzels. So we decided to do the same.

After spending all day at the gardens, Jeanette asked if we wanted to go to the Munich film festival. When we got there we fond out that almost all the films were either in German or another foreign language but with German subtitles. Luckily, we came across one Brazilian film which had English subtitles and was called “ Still Orangutuans.” The film was really good and we were happy we came along. After the film we said good-bye to Jeanette as she went to her boyfriend’s and packed up to head to Berlin the next day.

Hiking the Cinque Terre

2008-08-05T10:32:00.003+01:00

June 18th-
We caught the train from Lucca to La Spezia before catching a bus to Biassa which is this tiny little mountain town a bus ride out of the Cinque Terre.

Biassa in the evening

Biassa in the morning with the fog rolling in.

After checking into the hostel, we went to the only little restaurant that exists in the town and had the best pizza we have had yet in Italy. It was a tomato/garlic pizza with no cheese and I also had a calzone the size of my head with gorgonzola, fontina, parm and mozzerella cheeses. The food was so good and I tried to tell the woman in my broken Italian and she just laughed and smiled at me. On the way home from the restaurant, we encountered a group of neighborhood kids who were about 8-10 and were so excited to speak English with us. They kept telling us how old they were and as we walked away the little boys screamed, “ I love youuuuu baby.” Obviously something they had heard in the movies.

We slept great and woke early to catch the 9:50 to Riomaggiore where we would base ourselves while in Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre( 5 lands) is composed of 5 villages that sit by the sea and are famous for their man-made vineyards and land. Between the five villages there are hiking trails that connect each village to each other and the hike between all the villages in 5 hours total. The hikes vary in difficulty and scenery with some that are flat near the ocean and some that are high in the mountains that resemble tropical rainforest scenery. We were staying in Riomaggiore, the first village along the hike. In the old days, there were only the trails connecting the villages but now there is also a train service that connects the villages to each other.

When we arrived at Riomaggiore, we walk down the steep main street (by main I mean the only street) towards our hostel. When we got to the office, we quickly followed the owner to a private apartment in an alley filled with other flats. It was amazing that we paid a hostel price and got our own place for just 20 euros each. It was a really nice surprise. We quickly changed into our hiking clothes, got some amazing focaccia which is one thing that the Liguria region which is the northern coastal region where Cinque Terre is located, is famous for. It was amazing. We split an onion, a veggie one and a pesto one(another thing Liguria is famous for).

Then we took the train to Monterosso, the farthest village from Riomaggiore, to begin our hike over there as we knew if was the most difficult trek and we wanted to get it over with. All of the villages are really quaint but Monterosso is the most touristic while Corniglia is the least as it is not on the ocean like the other 4.

Monterosso's beach.

Church in Vernazza.

We stopped and checked out each village and got water along the way. The trek was pretty intense and challenging at some points with the sun beating down on us but we finished in 5 hours around 7:30 at night.

Ellie overlooking the man-made vineyards.

Walking the narrow paths.

Closing in on Vernazza in the distance, our first town on the walk from Monterosso.

Vernazza!

Corniglia! The third village.

Scary bridge that actually swings back and forth.

Manarola, the town closest to Riomaggiore.

The last and easiest walk, the Via D'Amore(the tunnel of love). Notice the locks next to the little bench that I am sitting on. Couples come and put a lock together to signify their devotion or something.

We got some home-made gnocchi and some home-made pesto sauce and made pesto gnocchi along with a caprese salad and fell asleep early, exhausted from the hike.

The next day we wanted to take it easy so we woke up and had more foccacia and headed to Monterosso to go to the beach. Monterosso has the biggest sand beach but little beaches can be found after climbing on all the islands and every island has a pier to swim off of.

On the beach in Monterosso.

We stayed in Monterosso for awhile but got tired of all the tourists so we went to Manarola, the village closest to Riomaggiore. It was so good. We had a private little cove all to ourselves with just a few other people swimming there.

Kelly swimming in the water in the cove all alone.

There were caves and rocks and the water was so blue. Many kids jumped from the rocks 30 feet above into the water. The rocks even created a small waterfall. We spent the rest of the day there before getting a gelato and heading home to buy more gnocchi and special walnut sauce for dinner. We went out for a walk after dinner and sat on some cliffs watching the sunset, thinking that Cinque Terre was the most beautiful place we had been yet. We found a little bar that seemed to be suspended above the ocean and there was a guy playing beautiful Italian music on his guitar in a style that was similar to Santana except Italian and he was being recorded for his new CD. The bar was outside under the stars and you could hear the ocean hitting the cliffs below. We knew that the next day we were going to say good-bye to Italy and it was a perfect ending.

Tuscan Sun

2008-08-04T21:35:00.000+01:00

We got into Florence around 5:00 rather than 3:30 as we were originally expecting, but since it’s summer we still had enough daylight to explore and walk around after checking into our budget hotel. It worked out cheaper to get a private room in Florence than for us both to stay in the hostel. Florence and Rome were next to impossible to find couchsurfing hosts as the people in these places in Italy each get asked at least 10 times a day by different people wanting to surf their couches. We walked around Florence that evening and saw the famous Duomo, but it was closed so we couldn’t go in but figured we would go in the morning.

The good Luck pig. Everyone rubs its nose for good luck.

A wine shop in Italy!

Done by a street artist with chalk on the sidewalk

We just walked around a lot and enjoyed having some strolls in Italy’s cobbled streets at dusk. We got some dinner at a pretty crap restaurant but which was really cheap. The thing with the food in Italy is that it can be really amazing but you are going to pay an arm and a leg for it in most cities. We checked out a bar underneath our hotel and when the owner paid our bar tab we knew we should probably go beause things would only get uncomfortable from there.
The next morning we awoke early and got ready for the bike tour that we scheduled through the Chianti region of Tuscany. David, our tour guide was supposed to pick us up from the Vespucchi bridge and while we waited there, we met a group of Southern Americans. Two women who were best friends and one of their children and his wife were set to take the bike tour with us but instead of coming back to Florence they were going to ride all the way to Siena on a 3-day tour that would cover 50 miles. It was pretty funny because only one of the women wanted to do this bike ride and everyone else in their group was begrudgingly coming along for the ride so to say. They kept joking that they were going to do our tour which was only 12 miles which was a breeze in comparison. They had no experience on bikes and David wouldn’t be leading them any day except for today. The other days he just drops their luggage off at their hotels and they met him their by bike. They were really funny from the start. We also met James from South Korea who was studying in Cardiff, Wales who would also be on our tour. David, our tour guide is from Colorado and moved to Florence 20 years ago after college and never looked back. He now leads these bike tours through wine country. Once we were picked up, he drove us to the place where he keeps the bikes in the country and we all got suited with a bike and headed off into the Tuscan countryside.

Our first stop was a villa that is also a winery. It had olive trees to make olive oil and Sangiovese grapes for Chianti wine all spread out over 300 acres of land.

On the way to the winery, we saw the owners mini-ponies and also spotted some wild boar tracks.

There were also cherry trees where we could pick out our own cherries to eat.

Once inside the winery we learned about the fermentation process that takes about 30 days, then they separate the seeds and skins and put the juice into French Oak barrels (each which cost about 650 pounds and can only be used three times.) They are left there for 8 months(or 12 if it is their reserve wine they are making).

Ellie with the expensive French barrels

Then they are bottled and stored for 3 months before being shipped around the world. 31% of the wine they ship goes to the USA, 26% goes to Italy and the rest goes other places around the world. Each bottle retails for about $40.00-60.00. I asked when they stopped the process of mushing the grapes with their feet and they told me that no Italian has any recollection of anyone ever mushing grapes with their feet and that maybe it is urban legend. The Italians are, in fact, very repulsed by this idea.

After our tour, we went back to the villa for our tasting which is now a 5 star hotel with rooms ranging from 1,500-3,000 euros a night ( which is between 2, 225 -3,750 USD a night). It was such a beautiful place. There we had samples of the Chianti Classico and the Chianti reserve, as well as olive oil with Italian bread. The olive oil was some of the best olive oil I have ever tasted in my entire life. It was so fresh, it was amazing.

at the villa

From the villa, we rode about 3 miles before stopping for lunch in the little village of Casciano where we had a traditional Italian meal with a big jug of red wine and the most amazing panna-cotta and pecorino cheese(from the Tuscan region) for dessert.

We said good-bye to our Southern friends who were continuing on their own from there on out and we continued up some hills and into the beautiful countryside which is covered in vineyards.

(a little scary to see some crosses at the most dangerous part of the ride)

Our ride was really tough at some points, going up hills but when it was over, it was totally worth it. I think that the bike ride was one of our best experiences in Italy so far.

After the tour, David dropped us and James off at the Piazza del Michelangelo so we could see the view and walk back to our hotel. We walked with James and admired the Ponte Vecchio bridge along the way before saying good-bye to him.

The next morning, we packed up and left our luggage at the counter and headed off to see the Duomo. The Duomo may have been the prettiest church we had seen yet, in my opinion.

After touring that, we got some sandwiches from this tiny little deli with some of the best ingredients. We got a sandwich that had fresh eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto that the little old man made for us right there. It was one of our best culinary experience in Italy so far. We ate them on the train as we headed to Lucca that afternoon.

==================

Lucca, was a place suggested to us by Merlin who had done a tour of Italy and really loved it. When we arrived at the train station, we caught a cab to the hostel because we had heard it was a far walk and we didn’t have a map. Once we arrived at the hostel, the only one in Lucca, it was really beautiful and old with about 10 different wings. We were showed to our room and met one girl from Sweden who was laying in her bed reading a book and two really sweet girls from England. We both went into the bathroom to fix our hair and Ellie locked the door for some reason, excited about the old lock and key and lo and behold, we got locked in. The key wouldn’t fit back in and we were completely stuck. We started to yell to our roommates who said they would go get someone to help us out. Well, we waited for about 45 minutes and no one ever came. I spotted a girl with a purple shirt and said “ Hello! You in the purple, we’re really stuck in here, help us please.” She said that someone else already went and frustrated we tried one more time and it worked! So free of the bathroom, we met Erica, the girl in the purple shirt who is from NYC but is taking a break from her high power job at Nickelodeon to figure out what she wants to do with her life and if she should continue with her wedding invitation business that she runs on the side for celebrities. She was very modest about all of this and we had to drag it out of her pretty much. After chatting for awhile, Ellie and I set out to walk around the town and Lucca was pretty charming. Far less tourists, tons of bikes and cute little modern art shops which were surprising in antique Italy. The city is one of the last walled cities left in Italy and the intact walls are gorgeous and give you an amazing view of the city that locals take advantage of in the afternoon to ride their bikes and rollerblade around.

view from the hostel room

We went back to the hostel to freshen up and ended up getting into an amazing conversation with all of the girls in our dorm, including one 50 year old woman who is German by birth but has lived in South Africa for the last 15 years and her visa has just run out and she is expected to go back to Germany after all of this time. She was really upset and she and Erica kept trying to encourage each other. The conversation was so good that we skipped dinner completely.
The next day we walked around the walls in the morning and met Erica for lunch at a little restaurant that was a “local favorite” according to our book. After lunch, we packed up and left Lucca heading for Cinque Terre.

mini-update

2008-07-23T10:27:00.003+01:00

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)

2008-07-16T14:06:00.001+01:00

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

2008-07-15T23:13:00.004+01:00

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!

2008-07-15T15:53:00.003+01:00

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!

2008-07-13T14:20:00.002+01:00

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.)