Last Day!!!

This is our last day in Greece! I cannot stress enough how glad we are to have ended the trip here, it is definitely in the top two of our favorite places from the trip. The other one? Well you'll just have to wait until we're back and ask us in person to prove we have an IRL friendship.

We saw the ancient sites yesterday, except for the Temple of Zeus, which we are going to see today after the Museum of Musical Instruments and before we visit the Greek Communist Headquarters (KKE). The Acropolis definitely didn't have as big of a punch as the Colosseum, but it was still very interesting. They're in the process of rebuilding/restructuring most of the sites, including the Parthenon, and in all of the places that new marble has replaced a "stolen artifact" (eh hem the Brits), they've put little blue squares about the size of name tag stickers to mark the spot and remind us of how incomplete of a picture we're seeing. Some walls are almost entirely covered in blue stickers, not to mention to empty rooms left in museums ready to be filled with returned "stolen items." The tension is thick, but it makes it that much more interesting.

There was a riot in Syndagma square yesterday, but it's probably more accurate to describe it as a passionate protest/demonstration. Yesterday was The Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of Pontic. I've got to say, the traditional Greek music they blast from the booths is pretty effective... before I even knew what going on, I started feeling really sad. I noticed the music and Jack and I turned around to discover all of the pictures and literature, and people of course. Again, a lot of tension here.

The third night in the dungeon was okay. We got four stinky Irish roommates, and aside from lack of deodorant and the overuse of body spray, they were pretty nice. We also got four additional roommates, 2 girls from California, and an Korean couple that immigrated to Montreal (most confusing French accent I've ever heard). The couple seemed a bit creeped out with us as we have been sleeping almost every time they come home (morning, siesta nap and night)and Jack has been constantly eyeing their cool travel gadgets. Seems we could stand to learn to make better first impressions.

Tomorrow we have a long day of travel, so this may be the last post before we come home. I'll add pictures tonight when I log in from our computer.

3 Days In the Dungeon

We arrived in Athens last night around 11:30pm. We missed the last metro to our hostel and had to haggle with cab drivers at the port offering prices double that of the listed fares. We got to the hostel and checked into what the receptionist described as the dungeon. It's really a basement which holds 10 beds, but since it has no windows, it's not considered to be desirable and is thus called the dungeon. I hope the receptionist continues to try and talk people out of the dungeon for the remainder of our stay because it's dark and quiet and we only have one roommate. :)

Greek Tragedy

My fake Dolce&Gabbana sunglasses broke after just 2 days, and then got covered in beeswax.
RIP.

Mykonos

We arrived in Mykonos safely, in the middle of a heat wave, and once I changed into a beautiful turquoise mumu (just for you, Drew), we started having so much fun.

I'm so glad we followed the advice I got from a Greek man I met on our last day in Rome: don't book anything before you get to Greece. We got off the boat and walked into a swarm of local women offering rooms to rent out of their houses. The first woman to approach us tried to muster all of her motherly charm, cooing us with sweet English phrases only to snap in Greek at the other women around her, competing for business and shouting out cheaper prices to us. We did not settle with the Greek mama, but instead with a woman named Maria who strongly resembles Marissa Tomei.

Now, sit down if you're not sitting already because you will not believe what I'm about to tell you. We rented an ATV and rode all around the island. That's right, WE. Do you have any idea how dangerous those things are?! Maybe it was peer pressure, or maybe I'm embracing adventure, but I have to admit, it was pretty fun, definitely more so on the second day when we had helmets.

The beaches are beautiful, but that's to be expected. I'll keep this post short and try uploading a video I took while on the ATV. Tomorrow we're off to Delos island, just 10 minutes away to look at the archeological sites they have there.

OH!! And I almost forgot! I've met some nice Greek kitties finally! The first nice encounter was at the port, but the cat had a tape worm hanging out of its butt, so that was disappointing. However, the cats that hang out at the restaurants are well groomed and quite social. One even licked tomato sauce off my finger! I almost died. For the most part though, the wild kitties that walk amongst the wild chickens, roosters, ducks, goats and sheep are pretty skittish. I think it has something to do with the confused roosters that crow all day and all night, disrupting their cat naps and making them grumpy.

Greece Lightning (title at Jack's insistence)

Our last stop in Italy was a small coastal town called Ancona. It was nice enough- fresh fish restaurants and boutique shopping (participated in neither) -but we were only there for one night. The boat ride (22 hours!) from Ancona to Patras, Greece was not what we expected. For starters, the boat was quite fancy. There were two restaurants, one for sit down service and the other for students, I mean a la carte. Beyond the restaurants was the Acrobats Disco, although we fell asleep too early to check that out. On the 10th level there was a pool and a giant litter box for the animals housed up there (mostly dogs, Jack saw one unhappy kitty), placed in close enough proximity to the pool that I had to wonder if they've ever had some “misunderstandings” with children or maybe even adults who happen to love playing in sandboxes.

Most of the men hung out at the casino (including Jack who gambled 50 cents in the casino and won 4 euros!) which doubled as the TV lounge. They watched passionate Italian soap operas at first which switched to passionate Greek soap operas at some point during the night. I think there were about 10 bars on board, and while that may seem excessive, we figured out that each bar served a separate purpose. For example, you might go to the casino bar to buy a wi-fi card but to the disco bar to buy a bus ticket. This was only slightly confusing.

We landed in Patras and took a 3 hour bus ride to Pireaus where we had a 6 hour lay over before boarding a 6 hour boat ride to Heraklion, Crete. We explored the city a bit, which was nothing special but did open my eyes to a couple of things. 1. Dolce & Gabbana is huge in Greece. Whether knock offs or the real thing, it's everywhere and on everyone, including infants. 2. Jewelry featuring The Blue Eye is very important and also found everywhere. The explanation we got from a Turkish street vendor is that “the blue eye keeps the devil eyes out.” Not sure if that was supposed to be the devil's eye/s, but decided not to get picky over grammar as I was just happy to find someone who spoke English.

The wild dogs in Pireaus are very street smart. We saw a sleeping pack of dogs wake up when they heard the rival bark of another dog across the street. The dogs were sleeping in a median on a very busy street but when the light turned red, they went into the street to bark at the other dog until the light turned green, at which point they went back to the median and resumed their naps. One of these dogs had puppies somewhere, evidenced by her teats which resembled black stretchy cow utters or even rubber gloves. I found them to be so fascinating, but Jack wouldn't take the picture because he thought it was too depressing.

We chose to upgrade to a cabin on the Pireaus-Heraklion (overnight) boat ride, which turned out to be a great idea because like Italian schedules, Greek schedules are also “flexible”, meaning the boat ride was closer to 9 hours. We arrived in Heraklion at 5 am, took a 3 hour bus ride to Rehthymno and then an hour bus ride to Plakias (with a David Sedaris look-alike bus driver). About 50 ft from the bus stop, we found a woman named Aleka (who is also the town hair dresser) and rented an apartment from her for 30 euros a night. We were settled in and at the beach by noon. So, after all of this travel, I'm sure you can see why we haven't blogged in a while.

Plakias was very nice, “a lot like Catalina if you sub the buffalo for goats”-Jack, with not much to do but hike and hang out at the beach, which is exactly what we needed. Who knew we were such country bumpkins? Plakias is a popular German tourist spot (we figured this out given the 3 languages featured on the menu: Greek, German, English and also the abundance of German tourists) so I'm sure it's crowded during the summer, but this time of year worked out great. All of the town dogs walk around as they please, wearing The Blue Eye on their collars. Clearly, they know what's going on.

One of the restaurant owners owned a goose, cat and a sweet blond dog (who befriended us over the course of the week)- all of whom hung out together under a tree outside the restaurant until they got hot or bored, at which point they would circle one another in and out of the restaurant. As mentioned, the dog was sweet but the cat and goose were another story. I have not met one nice kitty in Greece, just a bunch of teases who roll around like they want a chin scratch, change their minds when you get close and then scream. We saw the goose chase several patrons out of the restaurant as well, hissing and holding it's neck down low, swaying from side to side. Amazingly, the restaurant was always somewhat busy, so maybe hissing geese and screaming cats are endearing to German tourists?

We were too scared to eat at the goose/cat/dog restaurant so we tried a place called Souvlaki House on the third night. When we ordered wine to go with our food, the waitress/owner/cook/Greek Mama lifted her eyebrows and grinned, clarifying our request with the question “You want ½ liter of wiiiiiiiine?” We didn't know if maybe this was inappropriate but answered again that yes we did. The mystery behind her tone was revealed when she returned with a pitcher of homemade wine and 2 shot glasses. Yes, shot glasses. Two shots into the meal, I was drunk and passed out immediately upon returning home.

We took a bus from Plakias back to Rehthymno (David Sedaris bus driver again), where we are currently waiting to catch another bus back to Heraklion, where we will catch a boat to either Mykonos or Santorini. The buses are inexpensive but a pretty reliable source of car sickness. The good news, and final note of this blog, is that coke (a-cola not the amphetamine) is cheap in Greece at 60 cents a can, providing relief from a number of maladies including car sickness, mood swings, headaches and devil eyes.

Roma

8 days in Rome, mama mia! Our first four days were spent doing Rick Steves' suggested walking tours and visiting all of the ruins including a site that has been turned into a cat sanctuary! :)

We checked out of our apartment and into the Walter Guest House on the fifth day, and it was the worst hostel we've seen so far. Yes, Hollis, you could say it was a hostile indeed. To sum things up, it was unsafe and we checked out two days early, the desk manager telling me “you women cry about everything” and yelling “fucking Americans” as he literally slammed the door in our faces.

We found another hostel that was safe and checked in for our remaining 2 nights. We were getting ready for bed at the same time as one of our roommates, an older woman from Serbia who just had the best day- spotting both Tom Hanks and the Pope! (Not together, of course.) We talked for a bit before she urged us to get to bed early, before the other roommate got home. She told us his snore was so disruptive, it was impossible to fall asleep once he got started.

That night was sleepless and this man's snoring could not be stopped. Seriously, neither of us had ever heard anything like it. It was otherworldly. After having been physically shaken myself at the last hostel, I was reluctant to touch him and shake his shoulder a bit to stop his snoring. So, when it got really loud, we jostled the metal ladder attached to his bunk bed, and that slight noise stopped the snoring for about ½ hour ...before starting right back up again.

The following morning after my shower, I came back into the room and met Sam, our middle-aged Korean roomate who had been snoring so violently the night before. He looked a little distressed and after a quick hello, asked me “Did you have trouble sleeping last night?” I laughed and answered yes. Still distressed, he asked “Did you hear any noises?” I told him it was actually his snoring that kept me awake and that I did not hear any other noises. Something seemed to click with him and he asked “Did you move my ladder?” I answered yes and he informed me that he has a problem of rolling off the bed in his sleep and when he heard the sound of the ladder, he woke up startled, thinking he was falling from the top bunk, unable to see what had moved the bed without his glasses. In a thick, south Korean accent, he told me “For me, it was like nightmare.” How could I be upset with him after that?

Jack was in the shower for all of this, and in case you don't already know, Jack takes a LONG time to groom, so Sam and I had a long time to chit-chat. He told me he's a Religious Studies professor on sabatical and that he's traveling alone, lonely, especially during meals. He dropped several hints that he was ready to change his plans for the day in order to hang out with us, and so, what choice did I have? I broke down and invited him to join us for the free hostel breakfast and then along to Vatican City, even though he went the day before.

We got to the Vatican Museum early and the line was very long. Sam had an unexpected surge of independence and decided he did not want to wait in the line again. He left to go see the Colloseum- but not before inviting us to meet him back at the hostel for dinner of course. Four hours later, we walked out of the Vatican Museum only to hear “Jack! Jack!” and met, you guessed it, dear Sam waiting for us on the steps just outside St.Peter's basilica. He confessed that he didn't want to be alone again, and that no, he hadn't been waiting very long at all.

Even though he was slightly annoying, he was very sweet and a great resource of information as we were visiting religious sites that day (“See that key he's holding? He thinks it will get him into heaven. Ha!”). We went through the St. Sebastian catacombs and Sam took us out to a fancy Chinese restaurant (cheapest food in Rome, hands down). During dinner, he explained that Koreans are the most skilled at using chopsticks and shared the secret behind the long legs of the Westerners (answer: we lack the super long intestines that Asians have, enabiling our legs “to grow so long.” His words, not mine.). Later that night, we took him out to do some non-church stuff because he told us he hadn't done that at all over the course of his two month trip. After Sam threw his coin in the Trevi fountain, we took him to have his first-ever gelato.We stayed out so late with him that the metro stopped running and we had to walk across town to get back to the hostel, Sam walking right behind us like that dog back in Pompeii, peppering the conversation with questions such as “Do we turn here?” and “Should I cross now, too?”

We had another sleepless, snore-filled night, dozing off at some point in the early morning only to be woken by Sam at 6 am asking, “Are we waking up now?” We were sad to leave him behind (well, Jack was anyway), especially since we had to skip breakfast in order to make it to the Borghese Gallery at 8:30. We said our goodbyes and exchanged e-mail addresses, leaving him with the Rick Steves Italy book he so coveted the day before, hoping he would enjoy the presence of another long-legged Westerner, if only in book form.

From Sara With Love

Jack swears this song has been haunting him throughout Europe.
And it has.
Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7RKM32CvIc

Napoli, oh me, oh my.

Napoli has come and gone, and while we were not blown away with the city itself -unless of course you count the literal trash-filled wind storms- it has been a lot of fun and we've met some interesting people, mostly Australian.

I'll start with the city. It feels like a hybrid of NY and Madrid, although we've been told Mumbai and Madrid is probably more accurate. It is busy, densely populated, moped crazed and pretty dirty. I am not exagerrating when I say the drivers are absolutely terrifying and every walk feels like being on a date with danger. We're told there is a very corrupt side to Napoli, but we have found the people to be very nice and besides, we have focused most of our energy on pizza. Although I've been warned countless times that Italian men will try and grab my bum, it has yet to happen, and while I'm not exactly complaining, I am starting to feel a little left out.

Our hostel is great! It's run by an Australian woman who has a live-in cat, Simon, and two dogs. It took a while for Simon to warm to me but today he sought refuge from the vacuum cleaner and sat on my bed for 10 minutes. Sorry to brag, but I'm feeling pretty special. All of the other guests are Australian or French and we had one fun night out with the Australians who took us to a bar that doubles as a book store during the day. No one drinks IN the bars here, they just take their drinks into the alley, talk and dodge cars. Very fun.

We went to the Archeological Museum on Saturday, and while the building itself is in pretty terrible condition, the Pompeian artifacts are amazing and we had a great time. Since admission was free, we splurged and got an entertaining albeit inaccurate audioguide. I think we both appreciated the relaxed approach to the museum, which went well with the humorous, somewhat raunchy roman art and sculpture. I won't elaborate too much, but we were not aware of the "Secret Room" in the museum that consists of artwork taken from Pompeian brothels, and were happy to discover it on the way out as it made for a humorous exit.

We took a bus up to Mt. Vesuvius on Sunday and then did the short hike around the crater. It was harder than we thought it would be but worth it. The view of the city below was quite nice, despite the clouds and a bit of rain. Our bus driver was late to pick us up (and also illegaly smoked in the bus, yuck) so we were not able to explore the Pompeian ruins on the way back.

We went back today and had the best time, despite horrible weather and a curse that left me partially eyelashless. It was extremely hot yesterday and seemed like it would be today, so we took all of our laundry to be washed, including our jackets. We had mild weather for most of the day, except the wind which caused multiple flashings on my part and ash to fly into our eyes. I'm pretty sure I picked up an ancient Roman curse because after we left the Temple of Apollo, a huge chunk of ash managed to get through my glasses and inside my eyelid. I washed my eye out with water only to discover I had rubbed off half of the eyelashes on my left eye. Spooky and uncomfortable- I swear I now feel an occasional draught blow through the empty spaces.

We realized the audio guide was complete crap soon after we started walking through the city and were lucky enough to meet up with a wild dog who would not leave our sides and ended up leading us to some interesting sites. We named her Regina Latrat and she followed us the entire time, even after it started pouring rain and we got lost in the vineyards. I was sad to leave her behind at the end of the day. We saw another wild dog on the way out and I was strangely pleased to realize that not only do wild dogs inhabit this amazing archeological site, but also take advantage of Roman engineering as our guide dog regularly stopped at the fountains were Pompeians would have gathered water as well. We had to race to the exit in order to turn in our audioguides by 7pm, but that doesn't mean there wasn't time to stop and help a docent practice English questions such as "Is she your girlfriend?" and "Are we alone?"

The rain got progressively worse on the walk from the train station to our hostel, and the cheap umbrella I bought in Barcelona basically folded in on itself. I can only imagine how we looked, a hooded Jack taking super long strides to avoid the puddles while I practically did a crab shuffle to keep up, using one hand to hold down the excess fabric of my dress and the other to battle with the world's worst umbrella. We grabbed a pizza each, made it back to the hostel, drank homemade wine one of the French tourists brought, and well, here I am. I'm going to trap Simon in our room and call it a night. Our next stop is Rome, so we'll update then.

Love,
Cyn

Venice

We only spent a day in Venice, so this will be a short post.
We stayed at a hotel just outside of Venice called Villa Dori, which was cheaper than some of the hostels we've stayed in so far. The young man who checked us in was a HUGE help and pretty much customized a map for us pointing out his favorite and cheapest places, including a sandwich shop that sold basic meat sandwiches for .80 euros each (I did not have one) and an excellent chocolate store that had treats such as balsamic vinegar-flavored dark chocolate. For the record, that particular flavor was very good, probably one of the best pieces of chocolate I've ever had.

We are finding that some things are consistent throughout Italy, such as passionate graffiti and dressing in all purple. Jack's sense of direction kicked in unexpectedly while in Venice, which was nice as I was at a loss reading the map. We experienced high pressure sales tactics when we left San Marcos and went to Murano, which is really just a bunch of houses and glass shops. Most of the glass items were gaudy but the smaller pieces were interesting, such as the model of a full symphony orchestra featured in a display window (picture included). We saw the typical Venetian scenes and I was particularly impressed with the gondoliers who were able to multitask and chat on their cellphones while working. We skipped the basilica and opted for a few smaller exhibits such as The Inventions of Da Vinci and the Vivaldi Violins, which is exactly what it sounds like: a small museum of violins, violin cousins and a continuous Vivaldi soundtrack.

The one mistake we made in Venice was buying the all day bus/ferry pass, which everyone recommended. There is no system of checking tickets and it was a complete waste of 32 euros. Overall, we both really enjoyed the city and for the most part, were able to avoid the more costly side of visiting such an expensive city.

Italy Day 5 or 6... it's hard to keep track.

Things started off with a bang when we arrived in Torino, Italy a few nights ago. Sacha got the email detailing our train arrival time about 2 days after we settled in with her (and Galo), so needless to say, there was some confusion when our cab dropped us off at their apartment. It was raining pretty hard that evening and we were unsure if the buzzer worked or if anyone was home, so Jack decided to walk around the neighborhood to see if there was a dry place to wait. I stayed behind with the bags and was invited inside their neighbor's apartment by a real Italian hunk, an offer I declined by the way. When Jack returned, he informed me the only place still open was a bar called "The Texas Ranger"... so we kept ringing the buzzer. Long story short, Sacha woke up and answered the door, we settled in, and nothing of note happened until 2 days later when we experienced our first bit of of anti-American sentiment in a bar called "Cafe des Artes." It was so scary! However mean the woman who expressed this was, I have no regrets as I got to pet her four month old Border Collie puppies while she affected an English accent and yelled at me about Bush for a few minutes.

I was surprised to see dogs in a bar, but even more surprised to see a dog in a nightclub later that evening. It doesn't seem like this is exclusive to Tornio either, which makes me very happy and may turn me into a lush, you never know. Our days with Sacha and Galo were spent eating, eating, eating and wine tasting. Oh, and to bring things full circle, the Barilla pasta theme song has been stuck in my head since day 2 of Italy because it turns out the hunky neighbor spends the afternoons singing old Italian songs to the plants on his balcony. Galo seemed really annoyed by this guy, but in the neighbor's defense, he had the most amazing garden in their neighborhood.

Monoprix

We found the french equivalent of Longs, it's called Monoprix. It's huge and smells slightly fishy and would bring Blair to tears with its random, enormous, bizarre selection of items. I tried to take a picture but the security guard yelled at me. Sorry.

Nice Day 2

Well, we're back to our old ways. We took a nap yesterday after the Chagall museum (wonderful cat experience included!) and woke up for dinner right before midnight. Lucky for us, there is an inexpensive Italian restaurant across the street from our hotel that is open late, so we were able to order a pizza and a cheese plate for Jack. They had a large t.v. in the restaurant and we watched the French version of "Cheaters" for a while, but that ended once the older staff came out of the back and saw what the young staff was up to. They switched the t.v. off and put on a mixed cd of artists such as Boys II Men which was entertaining, Celine Dion which was funny, and Dr. Dre which just made me homesick.

It was overcast today so when we woke up at noon we packed some lunch, went to the beach and played with rocks. The beach was filled with teenagers making out and old men sun bathing- needless to say, the people watching was pretty good. The best was probably watching a girl try to maneuver through the rocks in heels, which was only funny until I realized she did this better than I was able to in flat boots. I tested the water- it was cold- with what was surprisingly NOT the palest foot on the beach and we walked along the rocks for as long as we could. The beach is coated in a fine white dust so by the end of the walk my boots looked like relics from an old western movie, and I must say, I am happy with the results.

We saw some weird street performers on our walk home through Old Town Nice: two Native American musical trios competing for viewers on opposite corners of the street, an "acrobat" who looked JUST like a Finnish Brad Pitt and of course, more crazy street dancers. Our favorite dancer was a guy who was more than likely very stoned, dancing to music I would describe as "spaceship-acid-trance." [Video included in this blog] He was really getting into his moves on a bench where five or six kids were having a conversation and it should be noted that not once did they stop their conversation to acknowledge his presence. That may have been more impressive than the dancing. It seems random, public dancing and an open love of Orangina is equally strong in Nice as it is in Paris.

We're checking out tomorrow, taking a train to Monaco to go to the Jacques-Cousteau aquarium and to visit the site of Grace Kelly's death, and then hopping on a night train to Torino, Italy where we'll be staying with Sacha and Galo for about a week. Here's hoping we will actually make our connecting train this time and will not have to repeat our experience of sleeping in the Marseille train "station" (it consisted of a roof and two walls- technically outdoors in my book) amongst gypsies and a homeless or two.

A quick thought regarding mannequins.

While in Spain mannequins were often no where to be found (their bodies/heads replaced by magazine cut-outs stuffed into outfits), in France they lack heads but have decorative nipples.

Nice

Everyone can stop worrying now. I have confirmed that scrunchies are still popular in the south of France.

Real Paris

So I guess I should mention that we did not in fact go to Disneyland Paris. But we had you guys going, right? We had a great time and it was filled mostly with things we cannot do at home.

We had a pretty steady diet of at least three baguettes a day. Cynthia seemed to get sick of this towards the third day, but I still have my eye out for bakeries as we walk down the road. It's nice having the price of baguettes fixed by the government. There was also a cheese shop about half a block from the apartment.

We saw the Eiffel Tower at a pretty excellent time of evening, got there when it was light out and walked around as night fell and saw the tower light up and do its little light show. The view, however, was much better from Sacre Coeur which was about a seven minute walk from our apartment. It was there that we were treated to our first French mime sighting. We also did Notre Dame and Ile St. Louis (don't worry, we got gelato).

On a side note: I am not sure what it is about the French that makes them want to dance around in crowded public areas with their headphones on. But we saw an old man doing this below the Eiffel Tower and then a young guy (who did a considerable more number of flips and had his shirt off) in front of the Louvre.

As for museums: We did not see all of the Louvre, we stuck mostly to the Italian paintings, which took a good three hours as it was. The D'Orsay had some interesting exhibits, one on early photography focusing on Italian peasants, and one on shadow theater at Le Chat Noir full of set pieces other zinc cut outs from many of the plays. The Pompadou had a Kandinski exhibit while we were there, not to mention a pretty good street show in front of the museum (Cynthia missed it because she was getting post cards). I have to say what I found more interesting than most of the museums were the buildings themselves.

We are now in Nice, after a pretty awful night in a train station. Our flight was delayed and so we missed the last train to Nice where our hotel is. We couldn't get a room in the hotels nearby because of the soccer match (sorry, football match) so we tried to sleep on the benches of the station. But we eventually made it here. We are going to go check out the Chagall museum in a bit.

Disneyland Paris

We were both getting a bit homesick and so we decided it was a good idea to make the trip to Disneyland Paris. I know what you all are thinking and the answer is yes, they have crepe stands instead of churro stands. It was great seeing all the usual things with slight French twists; several of the characters that walk around had big French mustaches and wore berets. You could also buy berets that had mouse ears on them, Cynthia got them but I thought that was going a bit too far. Well, I must sign off, we are off to have dinner at McDonalds.

Paris

Need I say more?

Love,
Cyn

Bye Bye Barcelona

Barcelona is now behind us and that is both good and bad.

The food in Spain was excellent for the most part, the exception being one place that was recommended by an old man at our Barcelona Hostel. Culinary highlights of Spain included a tapas bar called "Casa de Abuella" in Madrid where we had excellent garlic prawns, bread and shots of spicy wine for under 8 euros- a bit strange but open at 11:30pm so, me gusta :). The waiters at Grandma's house were surly which, as I later found out, is to be expected of Spanish waiters as they are usually old and underpaid. The other notable restaurant in Madrid was "Casa Mingo Sidar." It's a 100+ year old cider house near the Royal Palace, with young and old waiters (more friendly than at Grandma's House), and following in the Spanish style of meat + bread + alcohol= meal, we were served an ENTIRE roasted chicken, two pieces of bread and shots of incredibly good cider. We tried to order a bottle but that was lost in translation and instead were served numerous shots. There was a sign inside the restaurant that said "No Cantar" and after Jack pointed that out, I realized that was why the waiters would not stop whistling... they found a loophole!

Our roommate hotel in barcelona was very, very nice. Clean, organized and quiet. We were pretty close to the port and La Rambla so we were able to walk everywhere except the last day when we took the metro up to Guell Park. The street performers were gimmicky on La Rmabla, which is not to say I wasn't mesmerized by them- I was, but the real jewels were in the metro and in Guell Park. One guy in particular was playing a steel drum type of instrument that was unlike anything I've ever heard- a bit spooky but beautiful as well. Guell park was the perfect setting for this guy as we both had a similar impression of Gaudi architecture. It was raining on and off but still beautiful and definitely worth the intense hike/never ending stair climbing. Oh, and there was a nice, semi-feral kitty (who was very fond of Jack) that greeted us at the top of the stairs so that made for a well rounded, excellent experience.

Other highlights included the Picasso museum, the chocolate museum (tickets were a bar of chocolate) and this great vegan restaurant we found called Juice Jones. The chef is from India and makes both Catalunyan and Indian food as well as a variety of fresh juices, hence the name, well the juice part anyway. I don't know who this Jones guy is. We shared the "thali" plate of the day which was served raw and cold, with a small glass of wine (not spicy this time). Most importantly, it was the first non-meat meal of our Spain endeavor, so we were very glad to put our scurvy worries to rest.

Barcelona was so upbeat, it definitely felt like more of an active city than Madrid, which Jack and I decided felt like plaza after plaza (pronounced "platha after platha"), where cars and pedestrians amazingly navigate the streets as a single entity almost. One thing is for sure, the prostitutes are a lot more subtle in Barcelona. I was fascinated by the prostitutes in Madrid who looked like men and hung out in the entry ways of sex shops and other businesses along main streets like Calle Mayor, because they were almost threatening in their sollicitous stares and THEY LOOKED LIKE MEN! But I was intrgued by the prostitutes in Barcelona who advertise discreetly by sticking a manequinne's leg out of the window. So much to ponder!

We ended our stay in Spain with a lost hotel reservation and decided to embrace adventure and spend the night in the airport. We were not as prepared as some other travellers who laid out sleeping bags and were snoring at some point, but we snuck in a few hours of sleep and do not wish to repeat the experience :) We've made it to Paris safely and LOVE our apartment. So far, we've been taking advantage of the goverment regulated price of plain baguettes (about 80 cents) and made a huge, much needed pasta dinner. We've more or less relaxed today, catching up on lost sleep and icing my ankle I sprained in Barcelona right before we left. We'll update with a shorter post soon. :)
Love,
Cynthia

Madrid

Madrid is a weird, weird place. But I´m not complaining because it is the first place I´ve seen a cat in almost 2 weeks!
There are so many strange street "performers"- I use that term very loosely- everywhere. The only ones who qualify as performers are the musicians who have been pretty good for the most part, even with the cheesy, repeating back tracks that seem to accompany them everywhere. Maybe it´s just me, but I can only hear Pachelbel´s Cannon so many times. Down the street from our hostel, we have a classical violinist, a harpist and an African Drummer. On the metro ride from the airport to our hostel a really great guitar player serenaded our caboose with a popular Spanish song to which the young kids were singing along. I was SO sad when we saw a lady setting up her portable microphone just as we stepped off the train.
We got lost for about 2 hours when we got off the metro. It turns out our hostel was relocated to another part of town, but no one bothered to communicate this to us or to the tourist ambassadors at the airport. So we wandered around, and I finally stopped in the street to sit and cry for a bit. Jack spotted a Best Western and we were finally able to sort things out there.
Our hostel was not as dirty as the generator but was also not very secure. Our doors did not lock nor did our lockers. We did however luck out with the only room with a private shower. The price we paid for this was the roomates we had on the second night, two bratty American girls who came home very drunk at 3 am, one of whom burped and vomited in her sleep and later snored too violently for any sober person to sleep.
We did meet some helpful, normal, nice people at this hostel, or as they call it in Spain "Roommate Hotel." A British guy gave us a great website for cheap bus travel throughout Spain as an alternative to the trains. This was helpful as London was so expensive and we are trying to even things out here.
The Meseu de Prado is HUGE and we didn´t quite finish the whole thing. We visited the Classical Sculptures which I thought had much better Roman sculpture than the British Museum and saw the two Goyas we were anticipating. We then cut over to the Royal Botanical Gardens, where we strolled around for a few hours and I was able to pet and sort of hold a kitty who lived near the Olive Trees :) :) :)
Most of the time spent in Madrid was done walking and people watching. There is always something happening, and as we´re approaching Easter weekend, we saw an elaborate procession in front of the Palaccio Real, complete with praying men in robes and crucified, gold Jesus, being carried by the crowd. The Palace itself is overwhelmingly huge but I was happy to see later that evening that the palace fountain now serves as a wading pool for local dogs who come to run around and play.
Sorry for the super long post, I´m trying to make up for a few days of unpredictable travel and internet connection. We´re in Barcelona now, we arrived last night after a 7 hour bus ride during which we were pulled over by the Policia! Our Spanish isn´t too great so I´m not sure exactly what happened, but in the end, our bus driver came back in the bus and we were on our way again. Oh how I would appreciate a universal language like music or math or even karate right now.
Adios,
Cyn

RYAN AIR

It´s true that Ryan Air makes you pay for everything! Along with $5 bags of chips we were also offered Christian Dior, Armani Diamond and Jennifer Lopez Perfumes as well as Armani coats. Hearing this offered in broken English just makes it that much better.
As for the flight itself, it was fine. I accidently packed my books so I had to rely on countless games of hangman with Jack for entertainment, which of course, did not end well as I´m too competitive to play games and Jack always leaves out letters that have already been guessed. I ended up sharing a racy book with the old English woman sitting next to me, (although she didn´t know this) but had to stop when lines like "...the next hour: sex, sex, sex..." did not let up and I was blushing/laughing too hard.

George Green Farm

We spent our last night in England on a small, 300 year old farm in the countryside. It is no longer a working farm, but the owners still keep farm animals such as a few sheep, a horse, rabbits, and a Shetland Pony (which at first, I thought was a giant donkey with a very swollen stomach). They also had about 10 eggs in an incubator, ready to hatch on Easter- how quaint! I became fast friends with the resident dog, a border collie named Poppy, and spent quite a while searching for the infamous Thomas, the fat, white house cat. Doug and Marie (the owners) speculated that Thomas was out "mousing" and that I'd have better luck finding him in the morning. At first I thought they were bragging, but indeed, I saw a complete mouse skeleton in the grass on the walk over to the pub for dinner (this was a short walk as the pub is next door). Our dinner was more entertaining than satisfying. The 400 year old pub was filled with local old men trying to one-up each other with tidbits of foreign knowledge (ex: "Did you know it is illegal to drive your kid to school in the states? It's true. They are required to take the yellow school bus."). We sat next to a giant painting of George Harrison titled "The George" and tried to enjoy our gigantic portions of fish and chips, but were a little worn out on greasy pub food at that point. Cuisine was definitely not a highlight of England. Fashion on the other hand, was!
1/3 of the Londoners we saw echoed the same "hipster" fashion we're used to in the US (tight black pants, messy hair, rebellious leather jackets and Ray-Ban sunglasses). For this, I was grateful because a few of the days were very warm and leggings were completely appropriate (Bill's favorite, I know). I would describe the next third as a black cloud, boring and basic. And the last third, my favorite, included the expected "Euro-terrible chic" ensembles that are at least ten years behind and often, monochromatic in color from head to toe. This last group encompassed all ages, ethnicities (including gypsies!) and color schemes: head to toe pink, green, orange, and yes, even yellow. Pictures of these will definitely follow.
We're going to go explore Madrid now and worry about uploading pictures later. So far our time here has been spent listening to excellent musicians in the metro station, getting lost for well over 2 hours followed by a mini-tantrum, and finding an excellent, cheap place to eat called "Istanbul."
Adios.

Leaving London

We are getting ready to leave London. We went to the Tate Modern yesterday which Jack and I both really loved. It was a bit exhausting to do it one day however. We crossed the bridge to visit St. Paul's but were not permitted to enter as it was Sunday and we are not catholic.**Correction: Anglican, thanks Bill. Now I feel even worse for the woman wearing that butch priest getup.**
Jack is FIRED as the Time Master as we woke up this morning at 3:30 instead of 6:30 and had three hours to kill before breakfast or anything else opened. Looking back, I should have known because I had the showers to myself. Looks like I'll be buying a watch first thing in Madrid. This morning, we made a second stop at the British Museum and visited the Ancient Egypt and Greece exhibits- so glad we went back!!
We're getting ready to take a 2 hour train ride to our next stop (last stop in England), the George Green Farm, hair dryer included :) I'm REALLY hoping to see a British kitty while we're there but I'll settle for a baby goat or lamb.
Love,
Cynthia

Camden Town

So, I take it back about looking forward to leaving the expensive area of our last hostel. When we got to The Generator yesterday, the alley was blocked off by a huge group (maybe 40) of arguing Italians. That was the best part. Upon entering the building, we were surrounded by neon blue lights and the smell of the Chuck-e-Cheese ball pit. If you are unfamiliar with this smell, count yourself lucky.
The receptionist was a young German girl who was either very tired or very drunk. She gave us our room information and encouraged us to visit parts of the hostel called "The Fuel Stop" and "The Turbine." To make a long story short, our room smells like cheap men's body spray (think AXE) and again, the ball pit (no pun intended). The ladies bathroom is on the other side of the wall and what must be the world's oldest hand dryer is mounted to the wall we share. Every time a person washes her hands, we hear a sudden jolt of noise which sounds like the combination of a vacuum, a spaceship, and a construction zone. Lucky for us, the people around here don't seem to wash their hands too often.
We decided to skip our afternoon naps and only come back to sleep when it was absolutely necessary. When we returned in the evening, we discovered that "The Fuel Stop" is only the cafeteria in the morning, but doubles as an ALL NIGHT CLUB at night, and we could feel/hear those glorious disco beats all the way in our room on the 5th floor. We were not able to sleep so we went down stairs to watch people dance. That was pretty entertaining.
Disgusting hostel aside, we are having a lot of fun. We went to the |British museum yesterday and saw the Ancient Rome and Clocks and Watches exhibits. The air conditioning was broken for the ancient exhibits so we chose Rome over Greece. I've been dropping hints to Jack that we should go visit Amy Winehouse's house as she lives in Camden. Apparently kids drop by her stoop and talk to her through the intercom all the time. We'll see.
Pictures of The Generator/Camden Town to come later this evening after we charge the computer.
Cynthia

Moving Out

We are getting ready to leave South Kensington to go to our next hostel, THE GENERATOR, which still sounds intimidating to me. While staying in this ritzy neighborhood has been comfortable, we're looking forward to finding cheaper food elsewhere.

Yesterday we completed the ENTIRE Natural History museum- it took us around 7 hours. The highlight was watching/listening to a mother teach her 6 year old daughter about reproduction (picture of this above, click to enlarge) and hearing the little girl call the sperm "naughty...they're always trying to get away" in her adorable British accent.

After our terrible breakfast at the hostel this morning (no exaggeration, I promise) we took a walk through Hyde Park and saw the Kensington gardens, some terrifyingly HUGE, hissing swans and ended up at a farmer's market in Notting Hill [I was a little disappointed not to run into Hugh Grant]. This seems to be the best system as I think we're set with food for 2 days for about $18 US.

We'll try to blog again tonight, maybe with picture's from the Fitzroy tavern, a "writers and artists bar" located in a basement. Spooky.
<3
Cyn

Roommates

We finally met our roommates this morning as they came in much later last night and we woke up much earlier this morning ( yes, I said I woke up early). Their names are Anna and Sonya and they are from Germany and Austria. Sonya has a good three inches on Jack and she's been nice about closing the window for me so I don't have to climb onto the bunk bed. I'll try to get a picture of her soon, but I have to be careful not to come off as creepy. So far, I've only come off as clumsy as I fell down the stairs this morning on our way to breakfast, dressed in my best Amelia Earhart get up.
Oh well, we're off to find Prince William.
Love,
Cyn

Some serious jet lag

Well we made it into London and into our hostel just fine. Our sleep schedules however are paying the price dearly. We tried to go to the Natural History museum but we only made it through the dinosaur wing before they closed. We decided it would be best if we just ate and headed back. We had some okay Thai food, scoped out some other places to eat for tomorrow and walked back. It was about 7pm here when we passed out, Cynthia is still passed out.

I was going to post some pictures, but this site is giving me a hard time. Maybe tomorrow.

Jack

Setting Up

Hold your horses for a real post. We haven't even left yet!