Feb 2009

Hi Everyone!

Carnivale in Venice was AMAZING!! It was coincidence that we were there for the first day and it couldn't have worked out better. We saw the flying of the Angel in St. Mark's Square. I've got video so you can all see when I get home but basically they lowered someone dressed as an angel on a cable from this tower in the middle of the square. It was the coolest thing! Everyone was dressed up in masks and there was balloons and confetti.... the coolest experience ever! We went on a gondola ride and Jill got a lesson in being a gondolear from our driver Alessandro (who is Mr. May in the Venetian Gondola Calendar..... not even kidding).

All in all it was the best time! I wish I had time to elaborate but my internet time is running out.... I'll try to elaborate soon!

Hi Everyone!

Well, it has been a crazy week! It took a 15 hour ferry and a 5 hour train/bus ride but we got to Athens on Wednesday. We met this girl Amanda from Arizona along the way, who was just finishing up her travels and getting ready to head back to Doha, Arabia for school. She is studying Arabic and advised us never to go there lol. We all were heading to the same place, Athens Backpackers, so we buddied up. When we got to the hostel, we immediately fell in with our roommate Matt, and Aussie who is studying law in Graz, Austria. Unfortunately, Amanda had to leave the next day so we headed to the Acropolis (basically our back yard) and got some Gyros (the first of MANY). The Acropolis at night is truly something to see!

Once Amanda left we became a tripod. We stayed in Athens until Friday and explored the city. We had a picnic at the Acropolis (Angela - I have some sand from there for your Mom) and we met up with Jill's friend Alex who lives in Athens with her husband. We also shopped the Plaka and basically got to know every Gyro stand and side street in and around the Acropolis. Anyone who wants to go, just let me know!

On Friday the three of us took a 6 hour ferry to Santorini. I wish I could get photos uploaded because it was absolutely gorgeous!!! We rented quads and explored the island. There was rain, hail and finally sunshine before we got to Oia, which is where you will find all the white and blue houses on the hills that Santorini is known for. I'm not going to lie, driving on the cliffs was hella scary in the dark but getting to see the sunset in Oia was well worth it. The rest of our time in Santorini was filled with wine, gyros and Matt and I getting caught in a down pour.

We stayed in Santorini for 2 days and returned to Athens via ferry on Sunday. Jill managed to leave her daypack in Santorini somewhere but her passport and train pass were on her so all in all it wasn't such a disaster. We stayed in Athens for one more day before leaving for Patras, Greece. We were expecting to take a ferry to Bari, Italy from Patras but there was a ferry strike so we had to go further north on the Italian coast to Ancona, which was 6 hours longer than it took to Bari (21 hours on the ferry total). We finally made it to Roma yesterday though! Today we saw the Trevi Fountain and tomorrow we'll be going to the Coliseum and the Vatican before departing for a no name town in southern Italy where we'll stay on a farm for two days and learn how to cook Italian food, speak some Italian, go horse back riding, tour a cheese-making shop and drink LOTS of vino! I'll do my best to post an update when I get back to Roma after our farm experience!

Just a quick update because I love our lives - motorbikes in the cliffs of Santorini in a hail storm. :o)

Hi everyone,

It's been a long three days of travel (with the exception of Carnivale in Venice) but we'll be do king in Greece very soon! We're very excited, not only to be in Greece finally but to also be hours away from a shower and clean clothes!!!!

I've been trying to get photos uploaded but it's not working unfortunately. I'm going to try one more thing but if that doesn't work I'm sure what I'll do.... I'll keep you posted though and I'll do a full post about the past few days soon.

Hi everyone! Tonight we're staying at the Salzburg Youth & Family Guesthouse in Salzburg, Austria. We've had a rough few days but I think we're over the worst of it. The day we arrived in Cologne Jill came down with a bad cough and head cold. She basically was a I zombie for the next couple days (when she was actually awake that is). It also turned bitterly cold in Cologne that day so rather than risk Jill getting any sicker we decided to head on to Berlin. It wasn't a complete loss though. We did get to see the Dom, or cathedral, and we have an open invitation for a proper tour from our new friend Ben.
Once in Berlin, we got settled at the St. Christopher's Inn. Jill still had what can only be called the modern plague so it was a very low key night. In the morning we took a bus tour of Berlin and saw the Jewish Memorial, the Brandenburg Gate, the remnants of the Berlin Wall, the CheckPoint Charlie Memorial and countless palaces, state ho uses and cathedrals. The architecture of the city was both beautiful and sad. A lot of the buildings still show damage from WWII and what wasn't damaged by war has been tagged with spray paint.

After leaving Berlin on Thursday we headed to Innsbruck, Austria. Jill was starting to feel better and I was just coming down with a head cold. The train ride took 8 hours all together but we met two really nice girls on our connection from Munich. One of the girls, Linda, is from Florida and working as an au pair in Munich. She and her friend gave us some tips on Austria and since Linda previously lived on Italy she gave us insights on what Italian cities to add to our lists.

We spent the night in Innsbruck and watched Austrian soap operas I'm the morning which we made up our own story lines for. For example:

"You can't marry her! I'm pregnant with our love child!"

After we checked out of the hotel we headed to Garmisch, Germany. It was snowing and the train ride through the mountains was really peaceful and pretty. You could see people cross country skiing along the train route in the valleys. Garmisch itself was really quaint, definitely the leiderhozen Germany you expect to see as a tourist. The murals on the buildings depicted fairy tales and biblical scenes. It was defintely like out of Hansel and Grettle.

While in Garmisch we attempted to go to the summit of the Zukspitze however due to weather conditions they weren't doing and trips to the top. I should definitely get credit for trying though! I took pictures at the base to prove we were there LOL.

And basically that is what has been happening the past few days! We're in Salzburg now, and are planning on exploring Vienna tomorrow. Italy is up next though so I'll write again once we're there. Oh, and I promise to get some more pictures and hopefully video up tomorrow morning!