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)
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