Jul 2007

Sorry about the cliffhanger ending to the last blog entry but as I was writing it the cafe closed and I figured I might as well post what I had so far. I know its no "who shot JR" but maybe some people are intrigued as to what happened. After climbing to the top of the mountain I look down at my fuel gauge and see that I am pegged on E. Neal rides into the closest town to see if they have a gas station, they do not. Neither do any of the other towns close by. In fact, the nearest gas station is good 12km away. We decided to start that way and see how far we can get and if necessary have Neal ride into town and hope that he can buy a gas can and get back to me. Luck and geography were on our side however and since usually when you go up a mountain you have to come back down. That is exactly what I did. I was able to turn the bike off and just coast the whole way down into the gas station. It turned out to be one of the nicest parts of the ride. That was about as much excitement as we could take for one day and we had to get the bikes back but it was probably the best 20 euros we have spent.

That was our last day in Greece and then we flew to Munich, Germany. Munich is a great city with tons to see and do. It has great museums, huge beer gardens, the best parks in Europe, and cheap accommodations. So we will probably be here a while. The other topic I wanted to address was when we are returning to the States. We looked into coming back a little earlier than originally planned. We wanted some time to relax from our vacation before school started and to in general get things taken care of at home. We were not able to change our date of our flight though. Even though we were suppose to be able to change with only a $25 fee and on short notice. That turned out to not be true. We could change the date but everything was full. There were no flights from Iceland to JFK available all of August with our booking class. Not only that but we can´t even upgrade the ticket to get on the flights that do have seats. We would have to buy totally new tickets. Its fine there are plenty of things to do still in Europe but I guess let this serve as a cautionary note to anyone that your travel agent is probably going to tell you only the good things. Make sure you do some homework of your own too. I guess when they said the date could be changed and availability wouldn´t be an issue they really meant it can be changed as long as you don´t want to fly in August and availability will be an issue. I never was very good at reading between the lines I guess. Oh well, see everyone in September.

Since the last post all of our time has been spent in Greece, three nights in Athens and then five nights in Chiana, Crete. Athens was fine and all. The acropolis was cool and really old but Neal and I will remember mostly for having cheap food and being ridiculously hot. I have never spent three hotter nights in my life. I was drinking about four liters of water a day. The other major accomplishment of mine, in Athens was reading Harry Potter. I was able to secure a copy and I read it in two days. It was time well spent. I don't care where you are in the world a new Harry Potter book should be your number one priority. I have more to say about Athens but it will have to wait because the best stories are from Crete.

I do not even know how to being with Crete. We went there rather randomly because it was the first ferry we could get out of Athens and we said, why not. It has been some of the best days of the trip and I cannot even being to relate all of them here. So I just tell one for now. Today was our last day in Crete and we decided to rent scooters. What could be more fun, or dangerous than Neal and I on scooters. The first snag, however was that you need a motorcycle endorsement to get anything larger then 50cc. This is a problem because you aren't allowed to take the 50cc scooters more than 25 km away from the rental place. We of course wanted to take them all over the island. After exploring all possibilities we decided to rent the 50cc scooters and ignore the 25km rule. After all we were leaving the country the next day.

We went out in the morning and just drove down the road a ways and picked a little village back away from the coast to try and get to first, in order to get our feet wet on the bikes. Now Crete was formed by the European and African plates colliding and pushing the earth’s crust upwards. This means that it is very mountainous and as soon as you get away from the coast it is hilly. We spent about two hours just cursing around the hills, up and down, around curves. It was a lot of fun. Then we went down into Chaina, the main city for lunch. City driving on a scooter in Europe is an experience I will not soon forget. There are no lanes, stop sings mean slow down a little, and if you aren't weaving in and out of cars on your scooter people look at you funny. Once we escaped Chaina and got some food we decided to head out along the coast out to beach we saw on our map. It looked like a nice long ride and was only slightly out of our range. 40 km is kinda close to 25 right? The coast was gorgeous and we followed the rode along and then up a hill and could see out over the whole bay and city. I am sure the beach would have been amazing however about half way there the road went from being paved, to dirt and rather large rocks. If we had paid more attention to our map we would have know this as yellow lines indicate unpaved roads. We then decided if we couldn’t head out to beach we would o up into the mountains. Neal took the opportunity to fill up his tank while I had about 3/4 left and did not. This decision will come into play later. We went about 50 km up into the mountains. It was the best part of the whole day and a highlight of the trip. The scenery was some of the best I have ever seen. It rivals that out in the Rockies. The rode wound back and forth up the mountain and when we got to the top we able to look out over the valley and where we had been about an hour earlier. It was at this point that we found out why the only want you go 25km away, and it involves a lack of gas stations. To be continued.

Again, I must apologize for not updating sooner and the lack of pictures but Italy leaves you no time for those sorts of things. Also, Neal is experiencing some difficulties with is camera so the pictures will have to be delayed again. Instead you will just have to read my beautiful and delightful prose and imagine all that is Italy. After Rome we went up to Frienze (Florence) and stayed there for four days. We took day trips out of Frienze to Cinque Terre and Venice. The Cinque Terre national park was a 12km hike along the most gorgeous stretch of coast I have ever been on. Along the way, there are five little towns that up until the 1940's were accessible only by boat and today can really only be reached by train. This gives them the frozen in time sort of appearance that even with all the tourists is extremely charming and fun. We spent a night in Corniglia which is the smallest of the towns and in the evening is almost devoid of everyone but locals. I could have probably stayed there for a week if there weren't thousands of other things to see. Then it was over to Venice for the day. We didn't do any of the sites but instead just wandered around. We would pick a place out on the map and try to get there. It is a lot more challenging then it sounds but it is the best way to see the city. On our last day in Florence we wanted to get in and see the David. We had a train to Perugia at 1pm. We got up and were in line by 9:00am but to no avail. We waited for about three hours and got crapped on by pigeons. Oh well, you cannot with them all.

We spent two nights in Perugia. Or should I say we spent two nights near Perugia because our guesthouse with a pool and kitchen only a 1km from the city center turned out to not have the kitchen available and be a km from the center of one of Perugia's suburbs. Even the taxi driver got lost trying to find it. We spent a half day in Assisi and then spent the rest of the day and night at the Umbria Jazz festival. This is a huge two week festival in Perugia and features a bunch of free concerts, carnival food, and lots of beer. The concerts were fun, especially Funk Off who put on a great high energy show. We stayed out there until about 1:00am and it was still packed when we left. A word of advice if you are ever in Perugia don't use the bus system. You will get pickpocketed, lost, and sick to your stomach from the smell. The taxi drivers may be crazy but they get you where you need to go.

It was then south to Sorrento, on the Bay of Naples. We went out to the Isle of Capri and did some hiking and then laying out on the beach. We also spent a day in Pompeii. It was all very interesting and gorgeous. The best part was the hostel we were in had a kitchen and a lemon orchard out back. All three nights we ate extremely well and then relaxed and chatted with other guests until the wee hours of the morning. A couple of girls from Canada even helped us cook one evening and took part in our feast. It is probably the best we have eaten all trip. Colin, Liz, and Jerome headed back to Rome after three nights in Sorrento to catch their plane. Neal and I made our way by bus to Bari to get a ferry to Greece. That is where the next update will be from. Ciao.

Its has been a while since the last update mainly because we have been on the go the whole time. We had just gotten into Madrid when I wrote the last post. Since then Aaron has headed home, Neal and I took a train from Madrid to Rome ( it took about 33 hours), and we have met up with Colin, Liz, and Jerome in Italy.

We did make it to the bullfight in Madrid which was well worth the five euro. There were three matadors and they fought two bulls a piece. There are plenty of pictures but I don't have the camera with me at the moment to upload them so you'll just have to wait. Let's just say that I wouldn't be near any of those bulls and they run straight at it and stab it with a sword. Also of note was the fact that not only was there beer vendors walking the stands but also scotch and cigar vendors. The Palacio Real in Madrid was also worth a visit and it includes the armory. We got audio guides which were very informative, too informative actually. I now know more about the armory of Charles V then any one person should. Our last day in Spain was spent in Toledo and most of that was spent napping in a park. We didn't feel like spending the eight euro to see the cathedral and had only got about four hours of sleep the night before due the heat and drunk people in the street.

It was then off to Italy and Rome. The train ride involved two late night passport checks and a seat (mine) that didn't recline all the way. We made it and it was worth it. In the last three days we have seen the Vatican, Sistine chapel, the Colosseum, the roman forum, catacombs, art by Raphael and Michelangelo, had some great food and ice cream and hung out with an Australian who kicked our ass in pool and caused us to drink way too much wine. I wish that my writing skills were better because I cannot even begin to describe the amazing history that Rome has. It has been the best place we have been too so far. It lives up to all its billing. For having studied this buildings, places, paintings, and events for years now to see them is an unbelievably fulling experience. Also the no one has been pick pocketed, the locals are very friendly and helpful, and the gypsies haven't thrown any babies at us. So we were worried for nothing. Tomorrow its off to Florence for a few days. Hopefully I can get some pictures up then.