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.