Last stop: Barcelona. By this point in the trip, we're so used to traveling, we don't even think about it anymore... we just pack, travel, check into our hostel, and start walking around whichever city we happen to be in.
Walking around Barcelona has been quite a treat. With Gaudi architecture everywhere, and amazinggggg food, we've fallen in love with Spain. Our first night featured the best sangria we've ever had and tons of tapas. We managed to squeeze in all of the major sights such as the Sagrada Famiglia (crazy... looks like a big sand castle), a flamenco show, and a day at the beach, minus some old women topless jumping around-- that we could've done without, still part of the experience nonetheless.
Tonight was our last night, we just got done packing and it didn't even really hit us that we were packing to go home.. it felt like our usual night before travel day.. except tomorrow we have to travel back to the United States.
Spain was a great last stop during our crazy month of travel and while on one hand we're ready to be back, on the other hand we wish we could stay and travel for another month. Too bad our bank accounts don't feel the same way that we do. Look forward to a few more blogs summing our trip and our backpacking experiences...
Adios amigos!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Croatia: most beautiful place ever
To keep things short, let's just say that the ferry to Croatia from Italy was built at the same time as the Titanic but was not nearly as nice. But well worth the slats of wood we had the pleasure of sleeping on... and we ended up in Croatia, which wasn't so bad.
Dubrovnik, which is where we are here, was a couple of the best days of our trip. We laid on the beach all day and spent time in the old walled city, which was awesome. We're in the airport on our way to Barcelona, so we only have 4 minutes of internet... but on the way to the airport, the guy who was driving us told us about the war... since he lived it. Needless to say, we were completely stunned to hear it from a native's perspective, and all of it happened in our lifetime.
Sometimes hearing it from their perspective is hard, but extremely eyeopening...
Time is up- we loved it here, and we only have one more stop!! Espana here we come...
Kathryn and Silvana
Dubrovnik, which is where we are here, was a couple of the best days of our trip. We laid on the beach all day and spent time in the old walled city, which was awesome. We're in the airport on our way to Barcelona, so we only have 4 minutes of internet... but on the way to the airport, the guy who was driving us told us about the war... since he lived it. Needless to say, we were completely stunned to hear it from a native's perspective, and all of it happened in our lifetime.
Sometimes hearing it from their perspective is hard, but extremely eyeopening...
Time is up- we loved it here, and we only have one more stop!! Espana here we come...
Kathryn and Silvana
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
It's our last day in Rome... and we're sad to see it go but pumped for Croatia! Yesterday we took the train to Naples and a ferry to Capri. It really is as gorgeous as everyone says, basically what you'd picture paradise as being. But we were pretty upset that the Blue Grotto wasn't open, and we're not sure why a cave would be closed because, well, it's a cave... but we made the best of it and hung around on the beach and by the marina. On the train back to Rome which we barely made of course, the lights went off randomly and didn't come back on for around 20 minutes while these super creepy Italian guys in the cabin next to us kept standing in the hallway and looking into our room... anyway so Kathryn pulled the curtains shut and then they opened our door and basically we thought we were gonna get raped.
Last night we met up with some of our friends from UF who happened to be in Rome and went out to a club... one of the ones we used to go to alot last summer while we were studying abroad here, so that was super fun. Also super expensive to get drinks- like 5 euro for a beer... we love Gainesville.
We walked home as the sun was rising, and now that we're functioning on a couple of hours of sleep we're off to our next adventure! Less than a week left...
Last night we met up with some of our friends from UF who happened to be in Rome and went out to a club... one of the ones we used to go to alot last summer while we were studying abroad here, so that was super fun. Also super expensive to get drinks- like 5 euro for a beer... we love Gainesville.
We walked home as the sun was rising, and now that we're functioning on a couple of hours of sleep we're off to our next adventure! Less than a week left...
Monday, June 2, 2008
ROMA!
Just a quick update before dinner... we avoided near disaster in Greece before we left for Italy. We finally ran into our first traveling snafu of the whole trip- worst part was... it wasn't even our fault!
We checked out the National Archaeological Museum and the ancient agora and headed off to the train station for our train that was to leave at 12:38 according to our Eurail timetable. We get to the station at 12, check the departure board and realize that the train doesn't leave until 1, so we get some food, settle in at the platform and wait for our train... 1 comes and goes, and the sign which previously had our train written on it had mysteriously changed... so Kathryn went to ask one of the ticket/info people what was up and she comes back and says that the train wasn't coming and that it doesn't come again until 3... which would make it too late for us to take because our ferry was to leave at 6 and it takes about 4 1/2 hours to get to the port from Athens. SO we talked to the guy and asked what was up and with all of the empathy he could muster up, which was literally nothing, he said "oh yeah, there's construction going on so the times have changed" which prompted us to naturally say "well, why didn't you change the board (too logical)" which he came back with "we just didn't." WELL thanks for the detailed and brilliant explanation but now we're totallyyyy screwed. Point is we had to shell out 150 euro for a 2 1/2 hour taxi ride (which turned out nicely actually) and we made it to our ferry! Crisis averted but with no help by anyone in Athens, shocking. Makes for a good story- and the Acropolis & ruins were worth it- I was in heaven. The ferry wasn't bad at all, we got to Bari earlier than expected so we just hung around. This 94 year old Italian lady decided she'd sit in the same booth with us at McDonald's (the only place open on a Sunday) so I talked to her in Italian for a little, I think she just wanted company. Also there was a crazy lady in the bathroom putting on makeup for 2 hours.. just saying.
We got into Rome at 6:30, I roamed around Termini for an hour trying to find someone to tell me where our hotel was, it was like a scavenger hunt- except not as fun! We made it to the hotel, and went out to dinner... pizza & pasta of course. Loving the food, obviously!
Today I hung out around Rome, walked downtown and went to all of my favorite places from last summer... Kathryn took the train to Florence and hung out there for a few hours. It rained today which is super strange... it rained one day the entire 6 weeks I was here last year, so that made it kinda crappy but it didn't even matter because, well, at least we're in Italy.
PS I don't know why guys in Europe find it acceptable to make cat calls etc, but... it's weird.
We're going to Capri in the morning- can't wait!!! We'll blog in a few days!
Silvana (and Kathryn- in absentia)
We checked out the National Archaeological Museum and the ancient agora and headed off to the train station for our train that was to leave at 12:38 according to our Eurail timetable. We get to the station at 12, check the departure board and realize that the train doesn't leave until 1, so we get some food, settle in at the platform and wait for our train... 1 comes and goes, and the sign which previously had our train written on it had mysteriously changed... so Kathryn went to ask one of the ticket/info people what was up and she comes back and says that the train wasn't coming and that it doesn't come again until 3... which would make it too late for us to take because our ferry was to leave at 6 and it takes about 4 1/2 hours to get to the port from Athens. SO we talked to the guy and asked what was up and with all of the empathy he could muster up, which was literally nothing, he said "oh yeah, there's construction going on so the times have changed" which prompted us to naturally say "well, why didn't you change the board (too logical)" which he came back with "we just didn't." WELL thanks for the detailed and brilliant explanation but now we're totallyyyy screwed. Point is we had to shell out 150 euro for a 2 1/2 hour taxi ride (which turned out nicely actually) and we made it to our ferry! Crisis averted but with no help by anyone in Athens, shocking. Makes for a good story- and the Acropolis & ruins were worth it- I was in heaven. The ferry wasn't bad at all, we got to Bari earlier than expected so we just hung around. This 94 year old Italian lady decided she'd sit in the same booth with us at McDonald's (the only place open on a Sunday) so I talked to her in Italian for a little, I think she just wanted company. Also there was a crazy lady in the bathroom putting on makeup for 2 hours.. just saying.
We got into Rome at 6:30, I roamed around Termini for an hour trying to find someone to tell me where our hotel was, it was like a scavenger hunt- except not as fun! We made it to the hotel, and went out to dinner... pizza & pasta of course. Loving the food, obviously!
Today I hung out around Rome, walked downtown and went to all of my favorite places from last summer... Kathryn took the train to Florence and hung out there for a few hours. It rained today which is super strange... it rained one day the entire 6 weeks I was here last year, so that made it kinda crappy but it didn't even matter because, well, at least we're in Italy.
PS I don't know why guys in Europe find it acceptable to make cat calls etc, but... it's weird.
We're going to Capri in the morning- can't wait!!! We'll blog in a few days!
Silvana (and Kathryn- in absentia)
Friday, May 30, 2008
Hello yes please
After an 8-hour ferry through the Mediterranean, we arrived at the port in Santorini- probably one of the most beautiful places on earth. After being herded off the ferry, we were accosted by old Greek men trying to give us rides and places to stay on the island... after walking around aimlessly we found a random charter bus that would take us into town. Then when we got into town, we walked around even more aimlessly hauling all of our things, got lost like 20 times, and finally made it to our hostel. In the end it was completely worth it. Our hostel looked out over the sea, and was an easy walk to great restaurants and shops. We started our stay on the islands with a traditional greek meal and a sunset that nearly moved us to tears. We bought a zephyrhills-style bottle of wine, since we didn't have a bottle opener, and drank on our balcony, while some guy screamed greek music on his balcony nearby..
The next day we carted ourselves off to the beach in another "charter" bus, but literally there were about 40 more people on the bus than there should've been... and everyone smells lovely. But the beach made up for everything 50-fold. We went to a black sand beach, and were amazed at how clear the water was. We pretty much just layed out all day and swam.. then it got REALLY fun.
Earlier in the day we had seen some people jumping off the cliffs at the far end of the beach and being me and Kathryn, we HAD to join in. We first tried to figure out how to get up ourselves, but only attempted to climb a "cliff" like 5 feet above sea level. That was before a couple of Aussies, one of whom was a mountain climbing instructor, swam out and helped us free climb up a face of a cliff. This was after I got stabbed in the foot by a sea urchin. So we're climbing up a cliff in our bathing suits and bare feet in Greece with 2 Australian guys... doesn't get much better than that. We made it to the top of the cliff, took in the views, and after finally getting up the courage to do it, we jumped. It was something that we'll never forget.
We wished we could've spent more time in Santorini, it was amazing.. but it was back to Athens...........
Here's where it gets interesting.
The ferry ride back was quite the journey. I was seasick and about to barf the entire time, so I had to sit on the top deck where it was pouring and probably 10 degrees. Kathryn, who woke up with a sinus infection, was sitting below blowing her nose to no end and holding her face. THEN we finally make it to Athens about 2 hours after we were supposed to... check into our hotel which is right next to a CLASSY strip club and turns out......... A/C... not working. So we figured we'd solve the problem by opening the doors and windows... but no such luck- considering our room was facing the combination of I-95, I-75 and the LA Freeway, without any speed limits. So after going down to the front desk and trying to communicate what the problem was with the front desk manager, he comes up to our room with us and pushes a bunch of buttons, and says "please now it will be cold, 10 minutes." Foolishly we believe him, mistake number 1. After 45 minutes of us sitting there staring at each other, we realize the air just isn't going to get any cooler. So we open the doors and attempt to fall asleep listening to semis and motorcycles going 120 mph and beeping their horns simultaneously. I decided I'd rather blow my eardrums listening to Bleeding Love on my iPod, and Kathryn had her noise cancelling headphones on, to no avail. Somehow we get a few hours of sleep and walk down this morning. A new lady was on staff, and we tried to once again explain that our air wasn't working... so she tells us to meet the housekeeper upstairs and she would help us. I think they thought that we just didn't know how to work it... to the housekeeper spends 30 minutes pushing buttons and looking around, doesn't speak A word of english and keeps talking to us, so THEN we go downstairs again after she randomly leaves and doesn't come back. After this time we finally get a room change after we'd already asked like 5 times. At the time, we wanted to kill ourselves, but now we're laughing hysterically... only in Athens.
We go to the pharmacy after hunting down a bus ticket and Kathryn asks for Sudafed, and the pharmacist tells her it doesn't exist in Greece... so she gave her a prescription antibiotic instead. For 2 euro. WAY easier than the states.
Now we're off to the Acropolis- FINALLY. Hopefully the sea urchin barbs won't hurt too badly on the hike up, but we're not letting anything stop us now. We're on a mission: see the Acropolis and get the hell out of Athens.
Oh by the way, one more funny story. We were eating at a cafe outside, and this guy who was nearly comatose comes up to us with a pair of "Ray Ban" sunglasses to try to sell them to us. Kathryn keeps saying no while I take the logical approach and try to calmly explain that Kathryn already has sunglasses, so why would she need another pair? That didn't work... but he DID whip out a lighter and proceeded to try to light the glasses on fire in an apparent attempt to prove that they REALLY WERE fireproof. Needless to say we didn't fall for it.. but I was curious as to why you'd need fireproof sunglasses. Point is, even though sometimes everything doesn't go according to plan, it still makes for the best memories... we'll write again when we get to Rome- peaceee.
The next day we carted ourselves off to the beach in another "charter" bus, but literally there were about 40 more people on the bus than there should've been... and everyone smells lovely. But the beach made up for everything 50-fold. We went to a black sand beach, and were amazed at how clear the water was. We pretty much just layed out all day and swam.. then it got REALLY fun.
Earlier in the day we had seen some people jumping off the cliffs at the far end of the beach and being me and Kathryn, we HAD to join in. We first tried to figure out how to get up ourselves, but only attempted to climb a "cliff" like 5 feet above sea level. That was before a couple of Aussies, one of whom was a mountain climbing instructor, swam out and helped us free climb up a face of a cliff. This was after I got stabbed in the foot by a sea urchin. So we're climbing up a cliff in our bathing suits and bare feet in Greece with 2 Australian guys... doesn't get much better than that. We made it to the top of the cliff, took in the views, and after finally getting up the courage to do it, we jumped. It was something that we'll never forget.
We wished we could've spent more time in Santorini, it was amazing.. but it was back to Athens...........
Here's where it gets interesting.
The ferry ride back was quite the journey. I was seasick and about to barf the entire time, so I had to sit on the top deck where it was pouring and probably 10 degrees. Kathryn, who woke up with a sinus infection, was sitting below blowing her nose to no end and holding her face. THEN we finally make it to Athens about 2 hours after we were supposed to... check into our hotel which is right next to a CLASSY strip club and turns out......... A/C... not working. So we figured we'd solve the problem by opening the doors and windows... but no such luck- considering our room was facing the combination of I-95, I-75 and the LA Freeway, without any speed limits. So after going down to the front desk and trying to communicate what the problem was with the front desk manager, he comes up to our room with us and pushes a bunch of buttons, and says "please now it will be cold, 10 minutes." Foolishly we believe him, mistake number 1. After 45 minutes of us sitting there staring at each other, we realize the air just isn't going to get any cooler. So we open the doors and attempt to fall asleep listening to semis and motorcycles going 120 mph and beeping their horns simultaneously. I decided I'd rather blow my eardrums listening to Bleeding Love on my iPod, and Kathryn had her noise cancelling headphones on, to no avail. Somehow we get a few hours of sleep and walk down this morning. A new lady was on staff, and we tried to once again explain that our air wasn't working... so she tells us to meet the housekeeper upstairs and she would help us. I think they thought that we just didn't know how to work it... to the housekeeper spends 30 minutes pushing buttons and looking around, doesn't speak A word of english and keeps talking to us, so THEN we go downstairs again after she randomly leaves and doesn't come back. After this time we finally get a room change after we'd already asked like 5 times. At the time, we wanted to kill ourselves, but now we're laughing hysterically... only in Athens.
We go to the pharmacy after hunting down a bus ticket and Kathryn asks for Sudafed, and the pharmacist tells her it doesn't exist in Greece... so she gave her a prescription antibiotic instead. For 2 euro. WAY easier than the states.
Now we're off to the Acropolis- FINALLY. Hopefully the sea urchin barbs won't hurt too badly on the hike up, but we're not letting anything stop us now. We're on a mission: see the Acropolis and get the hell out of Athens.
Oh by the way, one more funny story. We were eating at a cafe outside, and this guy who was nearly comatose comes up to us with a pair of "Ray Ban" sunglasses to try to sell them to us. Kathryn keeps saying no while I take the logical approach and try to calmly explain that Kathryn already has sunglasses, so why would she need another pair? That didn't work... but he DID whip out a lighter and proceeded to try to light the glasses on fire in an apparent attempt to prove that they REALLY WERE fireproof. Needless to say we didn't fall for it.. but I was curious as to why you'd need fireproof sunglasses. Point is, even though sometimes everything doesn't go according to plan, it still makes for the best memories... we'll write again when we get to Rome- peaceee.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Hellas yeah
So apparently the Gator Nation really is everywhere... at our hostel bar last night we ran into a group of Gator guys traveling together sooo that was cool. Our roomies were nice and the room decent. We had a nice stay and took off early this morning for Athens.
We got to Athens around 3pm and were a little shocked by what the city is really like. It's strange to be walking around a sketchy place and then stumble upon ancient ruins pretty much everywhere. Let's just say we're excited for Santorini tomorrow but we're looking forward to coming back to Athens to see the classical things... ie the Acropolis and museums. I was super excited to see like, a column, and Kathryn was REALLY excited to have greek salad, a gyro, and even baklava! The food... amazing. We were surprised that they didn't have kalamata olives in the salads- Panera needs to step up their game.
I guess the confusing part about Athens is that there's no real "metropolis"... it's kind of just a bunch of run down buildings surrounding 5,000 year old monuments. A TLC show should come and do an extreme makeover or clean sweep or something. The hostel is fine... for the night... we might die from mold and mildew but I guess that's part of the whole experience (ps we're not complaining... so shut the hell up.)
We have to wake up super early for the ferry in the morning so we'll try to post one day in the islands if we're not too busy laying out on the beach in the Mediterranean!
Love Silvana and Kathryn
We got to Athens around 3pm and were a little shocked by what the city is really like. It's strange to be walking around a sketchy place and then stumble upon ancient ruins pretty much everywhere. Let's just say we're excited for Santorini tomorrow but we're looking forward to coming back to Athens to see the classical things... ie the Acropolis and museums. I was super excited to see like, a column, and Kathryn was REALLY excited to have greek salad, a gyro, and even baklava! The food... amazing. We were surprised that they didn't have kalamata olives in the salads- Panera needs to step up their game.
I guess the confusing part about Athens is that there's no real "metropolis"... it's kind of just a bunch of run down buildings surrounding 5,000 year old monuments. A TLC show should come and do an extreme makeover or clean sweep or something. The hostel is fine... for the night... we might die from mold and mildew but I guess that's part of the whole experience (ps we're not complaining... so shut the hell up.)
We have to wake up super early for the ferry in the morning so we'll try to post one day in the islands if we're not too busy laying out on the beach in the Mediterranean!
Love Silvana and Kathryn
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Last time on the blog.....
We had just made it into Salzburg. One word: beautiful. It is also the town that "The Sound of Music" was filmed in, and we are obsessed with that movie. The alps are amazing and Salzburg is an awesome town. Our hostel was nice, they had breakfast in the morning and played The Sound of Music every day, so it gets an "A" in our book.
Our first day in the Burg, we did a lot of walking. We went to the Mirabell Gardens, where they sing "Do, re, mi" in the movie and walked around. Then we actually did a hike up a mountain to see an amazing view of the city and castle.
The best part of Salzburg was the Sound of Music tour we did Saturday morning. We went all over Salzburg and saw different places the where scenes of the movie were shot. We got to see the gazebo, the trees the kids climbed, the church they got married in and a bunch of other places. We got to drive into the mountains outside of Salzburg and the views were amazing. Silvana and I sang along with the tour leader to a few songs from the movie--we would have made our mothers proud.
We really wished we had had more time in Salzburg because we realized that there is so much to do there, but we had already made reservations for the night in Vienna, so we hauled our stuff to the train station and boarded a train for Vienna.
Surprisingly, our trip to Vienna went very smoothly and we had our own cabin on the train--awesome.
So far Vienna has been nice. We have only gotten lost once, and that one time was not for very long. Tomorrow we leave for Greece, and we could not be more ready for some sunshine!
Our first day in the Burg, we did a lot of walking. We went to the Mirabell Gardens, where they sing "Do, re, mi" in the movie and walked around. Then we actually did a hike up a mountain to see an amazing view of the city and castle.
The best part of Salzburg was the Sound of Music tour we did Saturday morning. We went all over Salzburg and saw different places the where scenes of the movie were shot. We got to see the gazebo, the trees the kids climbed, the church they got married in and a bunch of other places. We got to drive into the mountains outside of Salzburg and the views were amazing. Silvana and I sang along with the tour leader to a few songs from the movie--we would have made our mothers proud.
We really wished we had had more time in Salzburg because we realized that there is so much to do there, but we had already made reservations for the night in Vienna, so we hauled our stuff to the train station and boarded a train for Vienna.
Surprisingly, our trip to Vienna went very smoothly and we had our own cabin on the train--awesome.
So far Vienna has been nice. We have only gotten lost once, and that one time was not for very long. Tomorrow we leave for Greece, and we could not be more ready for some sunshine!
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