Ireland, Scotland…in Skye… oh my

Shannon VS Flying:

take off’s : 7     landings : 7   good!

Luggage picked up after flying: 5

Luggage lost: 1

luggage taken by mistake: 1

luggage returned after being lost or stolen : 2

YEP … it’s true. This is the second time my luggage did not greet me after getting off the plane. First in Athens, Now in Edinburgh. But this time it wasn’t the airline… it was some stupid traveller who can’t distinguish sizes or colour.

Oh well, at least he returned it.. ANYWAYS…

I figured I should update you fine folk as I haven’t done so in quite a while and unfortunately I don’t have time to upload any more pictures… sorry…. it will have to wait till I get back:)

SO… IRELAND… SOOOOO GREEN!! Like a rich vibrant beautiful green that I can’t even do justice… so I won’t…   but it is really no wonder whey they have so many folk tales from that country. It is riddled with green fields and forests with moss blanketing the knotted tree branches. It is absolutely gorgeous and does have a mystical feel. The people were great. David (Jen’s cousin’s cousin from Ireland… confusing but I met him and his mates ages ago) took me to the ‘Brazen Head’ which is the oldest pub in Dublin and we also went to the ‘Cobblestone’ where they have an entire corner designated to local musicians. So the locals come in and just JAM with Irish tunes. It was wonderful. I also saw the book of Kells and the Dublin Castle.

Then I did the Paddywagon 6 day southern Ireland tour. It was also awesome. I can’t even remember all the places we stopped… there were sooo many. SO MUCH HISTORY THERE> But I Honestly can say that the green of ireland is alike no other.  WE went to the Cliffs of Moher (for those of you Princess Bride fans… it is the ‘cliffs of insanity’) And we went to the Ring of Kerri-all around the peninsulas. There was this one place that blew my mind it was so gorgeous …. I think it is called ‘ladies view’… it is popular because the ladies in waiting would go there for vacation… hence the name… but if next to royalty think it is beautiful… it must be… or something haha… OK IT WAS JUST ACCEPT IT OK?!

We also went to this little town that is known as the place you go to when you want to hide out. Charile Chaplin, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise are three of many famous hiders.

I kissed the Blarney stone and now am very eloquent in speech… yeppers! and it felt like kissing a dead fish.. and YES I do make a habit of kissing dead fish… lay off lol

umm we went to a whiskey and Guinness distillery/brewery… I tried this PURE whisky… like before they distill it… PURE ALCOHOL… so pure it is clear like water… wow that cleared my … entire body. HARSH.  We partied with locals which was very fun. They have such a dry sense of humour… it was great.

GOD I can’t even remember all we did… got to see some bogs and burn some peat moss… (what they use instead of firewood to heat their homes… smells rather nice actually)

SOOO Ireland is DEFINITELY a place I will return to! OOOHHH and I crossed the River Shannon… YAY!

NOOOWWWW I am in Scotland. I stayed with Laura’s sister Veronica in Edinburgh for  a few days before this bus tour. SHE IS SOOOO AWESOME! Made me feel sooo VERY at home and welcome. AND it was like a bonus that it was her because she and Laura are soooo much alike… I just wanted to hug her constantly. haha

In Edinburgh I saw the Edinburgh Castle and the National Museum of Scotland but I mainly wandered the town. It is such a beautiful city with all the Gothic architecture… MY FAVORITE!!!Sooo gorgeous… everywhere you looked had a hint of Gothic style. I could see where JK Rowling got her inspiration for Harry Potter. There are schools there that really do look like castles. …

anyways…

I am currently on my ‘haggis tour’ of Scotland and am in Skye today. Yesterday we saw the William Wallace monument and many many beautiful rolling mountainous regions- many glens and lochs…. Though not as green as Ireland, still quite amazingly gorgeous…OH GOD especially how the water seems to trickle down the rolling mountainsides into the rivers and lakes. WOW! We hiked a bit yesterday and today which is a nice change from being on the bus…

anyways… I love you all and am looking forwards to seeing your lovely faces soon!!!

Kisses and Hugs!

cheers!!

Maren my princess

Sooo I just got into Dublin… a couple hours ago… It is nice to be in an english speaking courntry… HOWEVER I was just in Germany, Munster and Berlin… My friend from highschool was INCREDIBLE… such a sweetheart and an amazing hostess. She made the rest of my German experience a comfortable and FUN one.

Munster is a gorgeous city. REALLY one of my fav. places as far as the small town feel goes. We did a road-trip to Berlin with her friend Ruth… also a wonderful person. God it was great, both of them have such a fantastically dry sence of humour… SO MUCH FUN. There we got to see some Caspar David Friedrich… WOW OK so for those of you who don’t know…he is my all time FAVORITE artist…I almost had a heart attack… It was sooo awesome to see his art in PERSON. WOW… I lost my breath.  We also went to the Jewish Museum wich was really really cool too. It was good for me because I didn’t know much about them and their hardships before wwII… wow… the artists of the building and exhibits really knew how to get to you. They would actually make you FEEL the pain or sorrow or hardship etc… it was a good and hard experience.

We did some walking around….. but it was FREAKING COLD so it was a QUICK walk… oooh and we ate WAY TOOO MUCH CHOCOLATE mmmmmmm

On the way back we went to a thermal bath…or termal bad… or somethign… but it was like a spa… wow soooo cool, it was all salt water and had a bunch of diff. pools and hottubs… one pool had music underwater and another had a current that went in a circle and another had these super powerful hoses that massages your back and one of the hot tubs were full of iron and …something …it was yellow but good for your skin.

AND I went to the zoo with Maren’s boyfriend Christov  (also sooo nice…and I am probably butchering his name) but we got to see penguins and I got to feed them and I let them bite my map…I was going to pet it…but I saw what it did to my map and decided against it. We also saw a baby Lion cub… awwwww…. it was good times!!!

 Anywhoo, I am now in Dublin, plan to check out some sights here and on Friday I take a bus tour of Southern Ireland… then Edinburgh where I will be staying with Laura’s sister (aaahhh) and another bus tour and then England and then HOME!!!!!…well kinda home… first I stop off in toronto for a couple days.. haha

Miss all of you and love u

Shannon

Shannon Hasselhoff

The Germans love me like they love David Hasselhoff. I don’t know why but I have been hit-on and stared at more here than Greece, Italy, France and Holland combined. haha someone please tell me what it is… what do I have that David Hasselhoff shares??? and is THAT a compliment… comparing me with David… hmmm

 ANYWAYS…. the y and z’s here are in opposite places, so I am sorry if I have a few mixed in this blog. I am currently wasting time here in the internet ctr while I wait for my flight to munster.

Sooo Munich… is beautiful and full of history. I love it here! Yesterday I went to the  Schloss Neuschwanstein castle (“disney castle”) and it was incredible. What also blew me away was the countryside on the way out here… WOW it is gorgeous here. Honestly, the initial reason I came to Germany was to see Caspar David Friedrich’s art…  and I saw his inspiration. The landscape is …. wow…. sooooo green and has a mystical feel… colours of green that I can’t even explain…it almost glows.

The castle also was a sight to see… sooooooo coooooollll!!! YOU TOTALLY can see where Walt Disney got his inspiration. Even inside the castle there were hints of him…. Like the chandeliers, they looked EXACTLY like the crowns in Disney’s cartoon version of Robin Hood and there is a music hall that has a backdrop of a woodland setting… EXACTLY the kind of background for disney’s movies like Snow White, and Bambi etc… King Ludwig II had QUITE the imagination… actually, he was fond of opium… apparantly haha.

Anywhoo… needless to say, yesterday was quite the day for beauty. The day before I went on this awesome walking tour around Munich and learned a LOT about the city and its history. I am loving Germany and the sights here. It is clean and the people are REALLY nice… well, so far anyways. I am still meeting soooo many amazing people and learning a lot… I am really looking forwards to seeing Maren (highschool friend from Munster) and seeing Berlin and some of Caspar’s art.

 still missing you all and wish I could share this experience with all of you.

xoxo

baguettes, croissants and crepes OH MY

GOD I absolutely LOVED Paris. I ate a nutella and banana crepe every day mmmm. they sell them on the streets like hot dogs!!

There is sooo much to see and do there. The night I got there I met some other travellers who invited me to see the Eiffel Tower  and Moulin Rouge with them in the moonlight. It was sooo amazing. Moulin Rouge was less exciting than I had expected. I thought it would be much bigger and more lights. I thought that it was a district or town not just a small place like a restaurant with a big windmill in front. I am sure it is quite a show to see inside… but I am too poor for that! The eiffel tower was gorgeous and at exactly 11pm it has a seizure of twinkling lights. It was very  cool! the next day I went to Versailles. The palace was closed but everything else was open. I really just wanted to see the Palace from the outside anyways …and the garden. So on a beautiful parisian day (not sure if that makes a difference…haha) we rented bikes and biked the gardens. They go on forever with with a series of ponds, fountains, and arrangements of flowers and trees. If you go further beyond the main gardens, you move into the french countryside, where there are farms with horses, cows, sheeps adn colourful falling leaves. We even saw these cute little kids playing in the leaves. Once they notice our attention, they slowly made their way towards us and threw leaves at us… man that was cute! The next day (oct 16) I met another girl (our ‘group’ just kept getting bigger and bigger…. and such a fantastic group of people too!)

We went to the Eiffel Tower to see it during the day and walked to the ‘Arc De Triomphe’ . It was the perfect time to go too becauase there was a military marching band and soldiers, people had flowers for some memorial service under the Arch.  It was just about the most perfect thing to see there… considering what is represents. Then we went up the arch FOR FREE!!! apparantly ‘artists’ get up for free…

The next day Katie (my new travel buddy from new york) and I went to the Musee d’orsay where we saw AMAZING artwork. It was sooo crazy to be standing in front of so many masterpieces. To be able to see Monet, Manet, Degas and Van Gogh’s actual brush strokes!!! I cant even describe how I felt. … speaking of which, after the musee d’orsay we went to the Cathedral of Noter Dame… HONESTLY the MOST beautiful cathedral I have seen. I LOVE gothic architecture, adn this place was… breathtaking… As I walked inside, I noticed that there was a mass going on. So to the beautiful tunes of the choir and looking down the candle lit building, I walked down the isles, seeing some of the most beautiful stained glass work I had ever seen… I lost it!! I really think it was the music that did me in… Again, good timing eh? That night we all decided to go out for dinner and some parisian karaoke haha (of course we sang in english) GOD IT WAS A BLAST!!

On my last day in Paris, I spent four hours at the Louvre (again, same responce as the musee d’orsey) and sat on the hill in Montmartre in front of the, yet again, beautiful Sacre Coeur cathedral. Although not gothic, this Palace-looking white cathedral was quite gorgeous. I had a blast just soaking in the parisian culture.
So… I was supposed to stay in Paris for a few more days… and meet Katie in Munich where we will see the Schloss Neuschwanstein castle ( the castle that Walt Disney based all his castles on) but I had seen almost everything in Paris that i wanted to see ( I could spend weeks there and not see everything… really) so I jumped on the train with Katie to Amsterdam.

SSSOOOO here we are, I am in Amsterdam. I got here yesterday and went to a museum called Rijksmuseum. and it has about 200 Northern European pieces which isnot bery much, ,, but it made fro the BEST organized gallery I have ever been to. And every piece has a full description of what it is and includes little factsSO GREAT TO HAVE. I wish every gallery was like that. They also had these gigantic doll houses that look like actual houses..with litle dolls inside. The rooms were incredible inside. … anyways after that i went over to the Hinaken Brewery adn we did the tour and got a bunch of beer for free. GOd that was a blast… and we got to see what a beer bottle sees and the process it goes through as a beer bottle… haha was a virtual fun time. After that we went to a ‘coffee shop’ the same on e that is in ocean’s 11… and there was a cat that lived there that was TOTALLY high… it was pretty funny. And then the RED LIGHT DISTRICT BABY!!! HAHa but yet again, it was not what I expected. I imagined it to be much dirtier and have ugly fat ranchy women down a smokey street…with horney men all around…but it had many curious tourists walking down this beautiful clear street with a canal inbetween the two sides of the street. and the women were very ‘hott’ and made up. Like a playboy mag. Actually…it was kind of like Broadway in New York where you have shows on Broadway which are well funded and produce a lot of money… and the off Broadway shows are less funded and produce less money, they aren’t necessarily worse shows…just not as spectacular looking… haha the ladies on the side streets were fat and ugly…low budget… haha
Anyways…today I am taking a well -diserved restful day and tomorrow I will see the Anne Frank House and Katie and I will be off on an overnight train to Munich. YAYAYAYYA LOOOVEE EEETTT

well I am running out of time and will have to post this tomorrow… sorry for the spelling or typo’s … no time to edit…. baaahh

well I love and miss you all!!!

France … to start

OK… so here I am in France…. Ted and I parted ways, he went back to Athens to visit with his parents for two weeks and I am continuing on with my eurotrip…

 WOW it is hard travelling on your own. I never thought it would be this hard… but it is amazing how much easier it is to be with someone, even just for them to say ‘yeh, that sounds good!’ But I am learning and getting better every day.  But I do really miss home and my friends and family and I REALLY miss Ted too… it is weird to be with someone for a month STRAIGHT and then NOTHING… but I will live haha

Sooooo… Nice… Nice is .. haha nice … ok I am sooo done with this joke. But it really is ok. The thing is I should have started my trip the other way around because as far as beach towns go… Santorini is better than … well… anything haha. So I walked around Nice and saw what it had to offer… and it is really not a bad city, but it is just the same as anything I have seen so far in Greece and Italy… but Greece and Italy had much more charm.
I wanted to travel through Provence a bit more… esp go to Axe en Provence but the fates have kept me in Nice and I will go straight up to Paris on Sunday.

Yesterday I walked up this big hill in Nice and that was pretty cool. I met someone in my hostel, so he kept me company as we wandered. The Hill was quite beautiful… it used to be a castle… well there was one at the top.. but it was torn down. Now there is a gorgeous waterfall there and a lot of trees and the view is gorgeous from the top… THAT is where Nice looks great…Especially when you are looking down at the water and beach.

Today I went to Monaco. There is an aquarium there, apparently it is the best in the world… It was made by a former prince of Monaco… quite a while ago. He was quite the Sea man… It is sick to think about how many fish and sharks and whales he hunted… and how many he captured for this aquarium… but it is really nice when you don’t think of that… They had a sea turtle… WOW THAT WAS COOL… And I saw a fish that was huge and made the exact face I make when I am pretending to be a fish. *funny mostly just to Ted*. 

 Other than that… I walked by the Palace and the guard was doing his march… seemed funny that he was alone… not so protected if you ask me haha. But it was neat to see.  And again Monaco is a very nice city… right on the ocean so it makes for beautiful pictures. There are many rich people there and YES oh yes… many nice cars… mmmhmmm I TOTALLY fell upon a Ferarri dealership…. wow IT WAS SOOOOO NICE… I WANT ONE!!! I am not a big ‘car girl’ but I would LOVE one of those!!! wow

Anywhoo… Sunday I will be in Paris and then Germany. I will try to keep you updated as much as possible… it is much harder not having Ted’s computer at hand.

 Again love you all and miss you.

Italy… Finito!

Well, OK SOOO … ROME…  Well our first day in Rome was a bit hectic, you know: not having a place to stay, (we had a place to stay the three following nights, just not the first) wandering around lost-ish in the train station trying to find the Tourist Information centre only to find out we were in the wrong train station all together (the tourist info. Ctr was at the station downtown) soo we finally went to the right train station (a couple stops on the metro) aaaaanndd we were lost again. We asked two officials where the Tourist information office was and they told us ‘platform 24’ …we went to platform 24 each time and STILL couldn’t find it. THEN, as I am sitting on my bag with my head in my hands and arms on my legs and Ted, slouched, READY to give up or scream… an angel appeared with a name tag that says “tourist information”. So he asked “can I help you find anything…like a hostle perhaps?” WOO HOO!!!!  YES YES YES… so he called around, then said he was going to talk to his co-worker. When he came back, he informed us that all of their hostel contacts are full. BAAAAHHH so he told us to check with the Tourist Information desk and they might have more contacts there. Again, he sent us off to platform 24 and we STILL couldn’t find it… I was beginning to think that I had to run through the wall between platform 24 and 25 so I could find this magical ‘tourist land’.   Or perhaps this was all just a big Roman joke on tourists….Aaaanndd  I wasn’t too far from the foremost thought. You see, I decided to walk through these random, unlabeled sliding doors from platform 24 that lead me to another room that led to another door and ALAS, the tourist information desk. So the result, after aaaaaalll that: they were unable to help us… so we built up a bit more energy and walked outside and found an internet café. YAY hostleworld.com came to our rescue and we found a place to stay. So after a nice long nap we ventured off to the Pantheon.
            HOLY CRAP I WAS IN THE PANTHEON!!! IT WAS SSOOOO COOL! Apparently it is one of the best preserved ancient sites because it was turned into a basilica (from a pagan temple for ‘all gods’) when people complained that they were afraid of getting possessed by demons while walking by it. Sssoooo POOF it became a basilica and thus was ridded of all its ‘evil’ spirits… … …whatever…

Anyways… it was really cool, for those of you who don’t know what it is, it is the dome basilica with the hole in the top (the only light source), an architectural brilliance really. We also sat on the Spanish steps where the ‘pretty people’ used to go to get ‘noticed’ and become artist’s models.  And no, sadly I was not ‘found’ in beauty and glory…nowadays it is just a cool hang out and a place to meet for the ‘pub crawl’ (an actual event that we ALMOST did) and a good place for people to sell stupid dollar store style items.

            The next day we saw the Colosseum and went up the Palatine Hill and wandered the ancient forum. The colosseum was really  cool, although a lot of it has collapsed (earthquake) there is still a LOT of it remaining… the coolest part is the underground maze it’s the series of corridors leading to the stage of the colosseum that they used to guide the animals used in the fights. CRAZY to actually be there and imagine the death matches they had. NUTSO! And sad too. Palatine Hill was pretty neat too… and had a good view. It is pretty much where Rome was founded ( one of the seven hills) where the emperors built their palaces. Our guide gave us a tour of where some of the rooms were in one of the palaces like the bath house: the men from ancient times would go to these ‘bath houses’ (just like a spa) and they would sit after a long days work of around six hours (finished by NOON) in the baths and chat. Other things they did were in rooms like the banquet hall where they would lie in a mountain of pillows and a huge mound of food in front of them and  GORGE… then their tummies would get sore so they would use the feather by their pillow to tickle the back of their throats and VOMIT in the bucket beside them and REPEAT. Mmmmm the origin of bulimia. And as for the Ancient forum… it was pretty cool… my footsies were getting pretty tired though so we blew through it… we got a good look of it while on palatine hill. We saw Cesar’s grave and some giant church (not much remains… mainly just a wall) that Michelangelo used to sit in and gaze at the city as he contemplated his art. And also some other church with it’s original bronze doors… the doors have no stairs leading to it though haha there is a reason but I can’t remember why…oops… meh

            The following day we went to Vatican city. COOL!!! OH MY GOD!!! I WAS IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL!!!! It was sooo… indescribable … just to even THINK of how many years he spent upside-down, holding a candle while painting that masterpiece…WOW (it was four years btw) and then to follow it up with the last judgment …another SEVEN years… I’d go mental!

SSSOoooo I took some illegal picture lol. DON’T WORRY I didn’t use flash. The rest of the Vatican museum was pretty cool too… but let’s face it… I wasn’t thinking of much more than the Sistine chapel. After that we went to Saint Peter’s Basilica. HHHUUUUGGGGEEEEE and the artwork in there was also amazing and what blew my mind even more was THEY WERE ALL MOSIACS!! (see my photo’s…if I ever get to putting descriptions… I took a close-up of a foot to show the mosaic) and of course Mikey’s Pieta was incredibly detailed and beautiful. We also go to see the altar under which St. Peter is believed to be buried.

            Unfortunately, Popey was not around(he was at his vacation house)and apparently the next morning he did come home to make a speech from his window DAMN  missed him by a day. I’ll catch him next time. But there are these cool white columns in St. Peter’s Square that are in three rows… if you stand on this white circle in the square, all the columns line up and look like it’s one row of columns… ok so it doesn’t sound cool but it was a neat architectural touch.

            The next day we went to the Mamertine prison where St. Peter and St. Paul were held in captivity by the Romans. From there they were led to be executed (martyred). It was ssooo tiny and only one small hole of light (well now there are more holes and light.)

            As for Rome in general… COOL sights… but busy & dirty city.

THEN FLORENCE aaaaahhhhhh ssssoooo NICE!!! I LOVE IT. It reminded me a lot of Venice with all its narrow cobblestone streets and small-town feel. We went to the Academia Gallery where we saw Michelangelo’s David. HUGE!!! And sooo … wow… HUGE haha. Really though, it was incredible. Little tid-bit: David was made disproportionately. His legs are not proportionate to his torso… lower body is smaller. This was because Michelangelo knew people would be looking up at it and by making David gradually get bigger, it’d appear proportionate to the viewer below him. Neat eh?

            The next day we went to the Uffizi where I finally got to see Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’… WOW  oh that alone made my trip. It is one of my favorite paintings of all time and I got to see it up close. SO close I saw his brush strokes. Oh man I wish I could go back again  and see it after taking a day to absorb it. Baah

            Obviously there are many more wonderful things we did and saw in Florence like standing on the hill across the lake and seeing the whole town or the little mask-making store we walked into while they were making some masks and the guitar bar we went to for some drinks … and I loved to just walk around and wander… such a beautiful city…even their clay-shingled roofs were gorgeous. Our hostel ‘Albergo Paola’ was AWESOME… Clara, the ‘hostess with the mostess’ she was sssssoooooo awesome. Sweet yet ballsey, young and fun. She would make us breakfast and sometimes dinner… CLEAN and pretty…everything was Ikea haha and we met some really great people in our dorm room too! So needless to say, it made our trip even more unforgettable.

            Anywhoo, I am currently writing this as we are on our way to the cinque terra  and hope to find a place to send it (I’m on Ted’s lap top… I may end up getting him to send it when he gets back to Athens). I am really excited for the rest of the trip but will be sad to see Ted go and to be alone. But I am sure I’ll be a bit excited for the independence.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!… well most of you anyways haha

xoxo

Venice ….aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh BRAVO!!!!

            OK soooo take anything I have seen so far and times it by ten! VENICE IS … WOW…

Really, I can’t even explain it. It’s not only the beauty of the city but the art that literally MAKES the city. There are galleries everywhere, but that is not where the ‘fine arts’ are… just look at the ceiling of almost every building you walk into…it’s BEAUTIFUL. The buildings are so full of character and they seem to be in their original architectural form (well most of the buildings at least) and most of the architectural style is Gothic… MY FAVOURITE!!!… they say that Venice is the best preserved big city in Europe…and it is over 1500 years old! There is music playing on gondolas and in some of the squares …last night we went to a classical concert where they played the 4seasons by Vivaldi and some Mozart and … something else I can’t remember haha. But it was fantastic.  Almost every store you go into you can buy masques or marionettes or statues and drawings of Commedia dell’Arte characters… it is just RICH with all art! I really wish I could have come here during ‘Carnevale’ where people dress up in costume and wear masks …I have seen pictures…looks AMAZING….

            Honestly, Foolish Wit gang, I SINCERELY think you all should come here… I keep finding myself thinking of each and every one of you guys and saying “ooohh god I wish—- was here… she/he’d LOVE this…” makes me miss you all the more.

This city was created on a lagoon and that means that there are NO vehicles ANYWHERE… there are boats of all sorts (the ‘buses’ are boats called vaporetto)…even the taxis are boats… Venice is constructed of hundreds of islands that are all connected by little foot bridges…soooo beautiful! So the MOST fun thing to do here is simply walk around and get lost…you eventually find yourself at a main sight or landmark anyways so it’s not so bad. Yesterday we also went to Doge’s Palace…which was CRAZY…it’s full of art and was the seat of the Venetian government and was the home of the Duke and it is attached to the prison by the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ called so because of all the prisoners that were sentenced to prison (actual dungeons) and had to cross that bridge and see Venice for their last time. It was SSSOOOO COOL to actually walk through it.… there are even writings, carvings and drawings  on the walls of the prison cells from past prisoners (many of naked women but at a grade five caliber of sketch haha).

            Anyways… Saint Mark’s Square is where all the pigeons are… man it was SO much fun just to buy some corn and feed them… they sit on your shoulders and head… it’s kinda gross to think about, but FUN and it’s neat when they sit on your shoulder and you can hear them talk… it’s quite cute actually.

            What else can I say…. I LOVE this city. I think THIS would be a neat place to get a summer job. AND THE LANGUAGE … it’s so beautiful! I want to learn Italian now. The people here are quite nice, like when we got here two days ago at midnight and some stranger asked where we were trying to go (in VERY broken English) and motioned ‘where are you sleeping’ and I told him and he took us there. I thought ‘hmm perhaps this guy is trying to lead us to some dark alley, note to self-don’t follow down dark places’ or  that he WOULD show us the way and then demand payment or something… but nope… he was just a nice guy trying to help-out some tired lost souls. Unfortunately, due to the language barrier, he did not lead us to the right hotel…so I went back to the directions I had originally written down, got on a bus and asked the bus driver to tell us when we were at our stop, to which he agreed… then, after about eight min of driving, he pulled a u-turn and started going back the way he came…the only other man on the bus asked what he was doing and the bus driver said that he forgot to tell us when to get off… the next thing we knew he took us DIRECTLY in front of our hotel… SO NICE!!!

            Oh and Gelati…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… and MOM you would LOVE the baking here… the biscuits are AMAZING as are the cookies and bread… I can’t stop eating them and they are so cheap!

            Anyways, tonight we are going on a ‘couchette’ (night train you sleep on) to Rome… so hopefully it will be as beautiful and fantastical as Venice.

Greece part TWO

Vacation points: OK.  So…  Since I last wrote we have seen and done so much more.  We didn’t do much more in Santorini but sight-see and we went to another beach called Perissa… also beautiful.  Then on Sunday, we came back and were home by about 1:30 am.  On the Monday we slept-in a bit and Ted’s sister & cousin (Margarita and Robin) and I went to the market (like a flee market with many touristy shops).  It’s called Monastiraki… it was good times.  Then on Tuesday (Sept 11) we went to the Acropolis with Robin and Tony.  It was quite amazing.  My highlight of that would have had to have been The Theatre of Dionysus.  Holy Shit.  Just to think of how many plays were put on there thousands of years ago.  It blew my mind.  I got to sit in the house where ancient Greeks sat before.  It is in pretty decent shape, considering its age,  and it’s just beautiful.  Not all of the seats have been excavated, but the majority have been including the Royal chairs (more like thrones – but I was not allowed to sit on it, unless I wanted to be ‘whistled’ at in reprimand. The Parthenon was not what I expected – a bit of a disappointment if you ask me, as it is completely covered in bars and scaffolding.  The Temple of Athena Nike was completely hidden… by bars and material – another restoration eye-sore.  And to top it all off, the Acropolis Museum was under renovation.  PAH!  Oh well… Next time.  We also got to see (from above) the Theatre of Herodes Atticus which is also in the Acropolis grounds.  This is an ancient theatre (161 AD)  that is still used today – It is just Beautiful and ­HUGE. After all that, Ted and I split off from Robin and Tony and we went to Monastiraki – again (where I bought some replicas of statues) and then we went to the Ancient Agora which was quite well restored, less busy than the acropolis and had one of the best preserved temples: ‘Temple of Hephaistos’ which was amazing. We saw some ancient bath houses which I pretended to take a shower in…yah yah I am a loser… but it was NUTSO seeing all of these ancient structures. Ooohh and there were a couple tortoises crawling around the ground…SO CUTE! 

Then we ventured off to the National Archaeological Museum where we saw artifacts that dated over 4000 years ago…again… BLEW my mind. This is where I got yelled at for ‘mocking’ the statue of Poseidon-which I wasn’t MOCKING it… I was just trying to give a picture of a statue some ‘life’…pshaw!

But none the less it was amazing being able to stand next to these gorgeous statues, vases and artifacts… I almost lost my breath when I stood by the HUGE vase ‘the mourning of the dead’ it was one of the first things I saw in the museum and I learned about it in my history of European art class.

Anyways, that was a long day.

On Thursday Sept 13^th we went to Delphi. … Again… BREATHTAKING! The view in the mountains was indescribable. Delphi is almost the top of a mountain so you can see pretty far. Ancient Delphi is so well restored and quite well excavated. Ancient Delphi was not only believed to be the ‘cneter of the earth’ but it is also the ‘oracle city’ where people would travel for miles to see how a war was going to end or what their tactical move should be or even to tell them of prophesies. There are two temples there-one to Apollo and another one for Athena. There is another ancient agora(which basically means ‘marketplace’) there are many statues and treasuries (small temple like buildings where they kept their ‘dedications’ like a bank or a vault) –but none of these are actual structures… just a build-up of rocks in  formation…it’s actually a bit depressing to think about…I mean if people would have kept good care of them and oh I don’t know if they DIDN’T steal the stone blocks to build their houses and who knows what useless structures… but that’s life eh? I guess ‘finders keepers’ was also practiced over a thousand years ago.

ANYWAYS, what did seem to ‘keep’ were actually my highlights… again… the stadium and the theatre. It was amazing how well the sound traveled on that stage (I got to stand on this one) I mean you always her about how good the acoustics were in those ancient theatres…but REALLY they were amazing! I guess it helps when you can build the ‘house’ INTO the mountain, creating a semi-circle around the stage…it’s like the house is the stage’s own speaker. Half of the stadium’s seats are also built INTO the mountain… obviously this is the half that preserved with the protection of the mountain on its side. But the parallel side of seats collapsed. The stadium itself (where the athletes were) is in REALLY good shape. You can even see and TOUCH the original marble start and finish lines. WOW! We actually got to walk on it. CRAZY! It just blows my mind…to think of how many athletes that competed on that very same ground. Never mind the stadium… EVERYWHERE… as you are walking from ancient structure to structure, you are walking on the little pieces of clay that came from who knows what structure or artifact from thousands of years ago that was not able to stay in one piece. And you also are walking on the SAME marble floors that they had originally laid (carefully though, as they are quite slippery) and to think of the time that THEY put into those floors…some of them are even in patterns: black marble, 2 white and one red..repeat… haaaa so cool!. I am putting a lot of exclamation marks aren’t I? haha WELL I MEAN IT!!!!!!!! Anyways, it’s just neat to think that you are using the floor for the exact same purpose they were thousands of years ago. Ok I’m a geek… but I’m a geek enjoying herself with the history she steps on.

Anyways, we also went to the museum in Delphi…more artifacts…more blowing of my mind.

This Tuesday we will be flying to Italy where we will enjoy yet another culture and all they have to offer.

MORE things I have noticed about Greeks and the Greece:

-you can’t flush your TP down the toilette, you have to put it in the garbage beside the toilette-no matter what ‘state’ it’s in.

-Stores close in the middle of the day so the workers can nap- every 2^nd day they reopen in the evening.

-Hospitality is great here. People are almost in competition with each other for their hospitality “eat more, here have this… Eat eat!!, want some wine? *pour pour pour* try this, you’ll like it *plop on your plate*” haha it’s nice to be fed while you are traveling though.

-Where in Canada people will show off by pumping the bass in their car, here they pump the actual tunes… you can hear every word they say from a block away (well not necessarily understand every word but hear…depending on the language)

-Politics are HARD CORE here- it is mandatory to vote and you are chosen (like jury duty) to work at the poles on voting day (this happened to Ted’s sister Margarita)

-You buy your ticket for the bus at a corner store or ‘periptero’ (little shack that sells gum, water, pop, beer, snacks etc on the sidewalk) and then once you get onto the bus (via one of THREE doors) you have to punch the card into a box that prints on it and you have to keep your ticket. If you don’t keep it and the do happen to do a random check for everyone’s ticket…you pay a hefty fine…but I haven’t seen any ‘checks’ yet.

-Instead of saying ‘no’ or knodding your head ‘no’ …SOMETIMES they will knod their head up and raise their eyebrows- easily mistaken for a lazy ‘yes’… well easily mistaken by ME haha

-Speaking of LAZY-the people working at grocery stores…or almost EVERY store for that matter, sit on chairs, lean on the counter AS they ring your items through, while YOU bag it.

- in Winnipeg, when someone dies on or near a road, a memorial wreath is placed at the side of the road….in Greece they place a miniature replica of a church (ted calls it a micro-chapel). Now, I know it’s not meant to be ‘cute’ BUT THEY ARE…they are like little doll churches for Barbies. (they even have a glass front door so you can put the candle and picture inside.)

Holy @#*$! I’m in Greece!!!

Ok, so here is a run-down so far… On my way here I apparantly had only a stand-by ticket from montreal to munich even though ted had his assigned ticket and we bought them at the same time (stupid travel cuts) this also caused problems in the Germany-Greece flight… not to mention how they lost my luggage…but all is well, I got here in one piece and my luggage came …eventually.

The next day we took a ferry to Santorini… WOW it is beautiful here!  We have done so much the first day we walked around Fira (main town on the island) the next day we went to the volcano and hiked around it, then the boat took us around to the smaller volcano and swam in the hot spring…CRAZY!!! the water here is so hard to describe… but it is the colour of thier flag… BLUE BLUE BLUE and is quite warm for the ocean. Then on the way back up (to get to the port you have to descend a cliff by either walking down the stairs or taking a cable car or a donkey… the way down we took the car) but on the way up we took a DONKEY… oh my GOD it was the MOST fun I have had in a LLLOOONNNGGG time… they were so funny! mine kept cutting every other donkey off and Ted’s decided to go back down the hill half way through(one of the donkey men had to come and yell at it… he said to the donkey “i’m going to kill you, you idiot, go to hell …. “etc… oh man it wAS FUNNY.
anyways, the next two days we went to beaches and at night we shopped, ate and just wandered. OH and we had breakfast at this place called ‘momma’s’ … SHE is a character… she has a caution sign outside that says “sex bomb inside” and she YELLS at you when you come in “HHEEEYYYY SAYY HIII TO MAMMA!!!” in her very cute rhaspy greek accent… she compliments you like she is insulting you ‘watt dewww yew want? SEX BOMB!!” … we took a picture with her and instead of the classic or traditional ‘cheeze’ she said ’savfe sex!’ oh and btw she is about 65. Ha!
Today we are taking the Ferry back to Athens.
but here are some observations I have made so far about Greece and the people here”
-it’s WINDY (well at least in santorini) every 2nd day…today is a windy day
-it is BEAUTIFUL!!! the architecture (churches, houses-are more like short appartments), coloursetc; vegetation-pom trees, amazingly colourful flowers, … ;topography-wow wow wow the water is … breathtaking… the sunsets are the ‘most beautiful in the world’ or so they say… I dont know about the world but they are incredible, mountains surrounding everything, rocks, volcanoes, … ahhh
-Water, to buy is CHEAP… they have a ’standard’ amount of about 80 cents for 1.5euro.
-BEER is bought in ANY store and is 60cent euro to one euro for a KING CAN
-People are LOUD… just like mamma… they are complimenting you yet acting as if they are insulting you
-traffic is quite different than what we are used to… there doesn’t seem to be any real rules. it just seems like a general code of conduct that you are born with. and the traffic flows FAST!. The streets are incredible narrow but they manage to fit a parked car and cars driving in both directions and a padestrian… mind you you are inches away from getting skimmed.
-it is ssssoooooo dry here, you hang your laundry and like 20 min later it is dry (btw they all hang their clothes to dry) You ALWAYS have to have water with you. and constantly have to keep yourself moisturized.
-coffee is expensive and noone seems to know what a mocha is?!?!-might as well drink beer
-every day seems to be a holiday for the locals (the church bells are always ringing)
-the streets are very sloaped… great ass work out though-thank goodness for biking, everyone else is SORE… but my ass is fine!
-did I mention how breathtaking the view is?
-Gyro’s are cheaper than coffee and fill you at 1.20euro and they have tasty french fries in htem
-people hang their octipus outside their stores and restaurants …eww…yet tasty
-BATHROOMS the toilets don’t flush well, you have to put your toilette paper in the garbage…I keep forgetting, oops!… there doesn’t seem to be mant bathTUBs… and the shower area is not inclosed (no walls) it’s just a little curb-like tile box about four inches high and the shower head is hand held… oh and the water is almost ALWAYS cold, which isnt that bad since it is so hot here.
-sky is almost always blue with no clouds
-doors and gates are the only colour accent(usually blue or red), the houses and buildings are white, cream or peachy…the domes are blue

-cats and dogs are everywhere EVERYWHERE..not for pets, just stray and are harmless…
-you have to watch yourself at stores, the clerks are often trying to short change you

thats about it…

well i will keep you updated and send pics soon

love you all

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