Whatever I was looking for in Greece I definitly found it in Meteora! Lets just say I came for two nights and stayed 6 (but I do have a problem with leaving places...good thing I dont really plan ahead)... O.k so I will attempt to describe Meteora. It's in a region of Greece called Thessaly (mainland Greece about 5 hours North of Athens), and for whatever reason that geology cant really explain, it's home to massive monumental limestone rock towers that literally jut out of an otherwise normal looking valley. If you havent googled Meteora images do that now because I really cant describe them!!! They literally look like they were just randomly placed here by god or a tornado or some other catostrophic event. So basically what happend is in 60AD (approx)when Christians were being persecuted in Greece, the rocks caves became sort of a safe-haven, hiding spot for the criminal hermits. The caves themselves are a whole other story...the rocks are covered in them. They look like someone took a spoon and dug out little scoops everywhere. Eventually the Christians began building monartaries on top of the rock towers for protection and to be closer to god (of course). Now there are stairs (alot of stairs) that climb up to the towers but before if you wanted to enter you would climb inside a net and they would haul you up (for half an hour, spinning thousands of feet in the air). There was 21 monastaries at one time, but you can only visit 6 of them now...and those 6 are less like monastaries and more like monastary museums for tourists. But regarless beautiful and incredibly spiritual. On a side note...some of the monastaries weren't built ontop of rocks but inside them. You look at a flat rock face and there is a monastary in there just as flat as the rock surface. It looks like the rock is hugging it...but really its just been built inside a large cave opening. Crazy!!! The first thing you read when entering Meteora is "YOU ARE ENTERING A HOLY PLACE" and man does it feel like it. I would challenge anyone to sit there (it feels like on top of the world) and not feel at least the smallest tug of spirituality. Its impossible, the place is so alive with it.
On my first night here I met George, the hotel managers son. Turned out to be good luck for me because he has personally invested in being my personal tour guide over the past four days! I have seen the most amazing things. The sunset from the highest peak of Meteora, the tiny town of Kalistraki, eaten grandmas home made spinach and berry pies. Yesterday his grandma gave me a cooking lesson: on the menu was greek stuffed peppers. She explained everything to me in Greek...I tried to write down what she was doing (and help) and the end result was the most amazing stuffed peppers I have ever tried. I will attempt to make them again in Canada but no garantees that they will be nearly so tasty! Yesterday I also went to a Mountain region, a two hour car ride away from Kalampaka (the town Im staying in). It actually kind of looked like Canada...it was incredibly isolated, in the mountains (the temperature dropped 20 degrees) with the most beautiful beautiful torquoise lakes. It was so far from anything else...you could yell into the mountains and hear your voice echo for 6 seconds after. Also there were animals everywhere! fox, wild pigs, turtles, horses, sheep and goats...man I love the goats! I was standing on a hill, when up comes about 30 goats all bahhing their little hearts out AND being followed by a little old man goat herder. He had the walking stick and bell and all. It was incredible. So needless to say this place also stole my heart a little bit. On the way home I had the best meal of my life. The restaurant was just picnic tables on a wooden platform built over a river in the middle of no where. When you ordered your fish (and you had to order fish because thats all they serve) they go down to the river and literally FISH out your lunch. Then they gut it, grill it up for you and serve it whole, eyeballs and everything, with olive oil and oregano. It was quite the experience....I named my fish Ted.
The other thing I really have to comment on is Greek culture...it is my big fat Greek wedding X 10000000000. I was talking to a local the other night about Greek weddings and he asked if I'd seen the movie, I said yes...and he replied with "take that movie times it by 100 and your still no where close to how crazy Greek weddings are". He had been to one the night before...800 people and a party that went until 11:00 am the next day! The people here are in no rush to do anything...the men sit outside their stores all day, coffee in one had and cigarette in the other, The women wear long skirts and cross themselves everytime they see me wearing short shorts. They ALL cross themselves when they find out that I'm travelling on my own. haha its hilarious. Its just not somethig thats done in Greek society...first of all people dont take off for 5 months to begin with and furthermore young women should never travel on their own. The result of this? A huge group of men and women who feel its their personal responsibility to take care of me! My hotel manager actually asked me to come check in at night so he knows I'm home safe. Moreso its nice to have people here to talk with. If I feel like conversation I can wonder down to the kabob place to have a chat with the old man there, to my favorite restaurant where I know the two owners and their two-year old twins, or the hotel where I play backgammon with George or his dad (yes I have learned how to play backgammon). The conversation is great too...I feel like I know the entire course of Greek history, mostly focused on the bad blood between Turkey. The Greeks really get into a rage when I say thats where I'm going next! But most of the time I like just being on my own. I've done a lot of mountain climbing (todays hike was exhausting...two hours of straight up), reading, writing, singing alone on mountain tops, sitting in caves during thunderstorms and taking an obscene amount of pictures. Its really lovely and I cant seem to make myself leave!!!
Well this is probably long-winded enough for one day...sorry...I'm actually amazed that anyone other then my mom bothers to read them :)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
On my own again (sang to the tune of "on the road again")
So I'm on my own again...Carolyn caught a ferry to Athens two days ago (to fly home) and I caught one to another Greek island, Naxos. Needless to say it was a very teary goodbye!!! I think I cried (not tear trickling but actual crying) for the first half hour of my ferry. Once I started it just didnt seem to stop...I got hit by my first real wave of homesickness then too (but it passed thankfully!). Our last week in Santorini SPED by. We did a lot of exploring the island on Atvs, sunset watching and donkey riding. We also hiked up Santorini's active volcano and swam in the hotsprings that were lukewarm at best and stank like rotting eggs, not the most pleasant experience. Riding a donkey up a hill was however worth every penny! For whatever reason my donkey had a real competitive streak and every time it was passed be another donkey it would literally run until it was in the lead again. I should mention that it didnt seem to care whatsoever about its driver during these moments and would plow my legs into the walls or other donkeys.
Naxos is a very picturesque island. It is also entirely Dutch and German. I would bet money that I am the only Canadian here. It has beautiful white sand beaches, really shallow and really blue lukewarm water and very friendly people. But after three days here I'm ready to leave...its a little boring in all honesty. Other then go to the beach or spend a ridiculous amount on boat tours there is really nothing else to do. I've been trying to take advantage of the slow pace and relax but I've had just about enough beach bumming after Santorini. Today I went to the beach, sat in the shade and read my book for about 5 hours...I wont go to the beach if I cant find a nice shady spot to sit in...lying in the sun just doesn't interest me anymore! Plus...this really is the worst time to be here. All the Greek people are out-numbered by European vacationers and you really dont see ANY Greek culture. Just Euro culture with Greek buildings on a Greek island. I chose to come to the Greek islands to recharge and take a break from the crazy whirlwind that is backpacking but...I feel like I've done that now. Plus the first week of August I will be on another Greek island (Kiffalonia) with Ben and his friends Stef and Con. So all this contributes to my decision to head into mainland Greece for the next week. Its more then a little impractical (money and time wise) but I want to see Moteora and some other smaller Greek towns, which according to all the Greek people I've met is much more the "real" Greece. I also have a new mission (given to me by these two awesome American friends we made in Santorini) and that is to crash a Greek wedding. Haha I will keep you updated on how that goes!
On another note...I have successfully completed the two requirements of "Julia traveling on her own" 1. To get utterly and hopelessly lost for a significant period of time and 2. Have dinner with a very nice middle aged man. I didn't really realize how bad my sense of direction was before traveling. Yesterday I decided to take a quick walk before breakfast...aand found my way back 2.5 hours later. It's embarrassing how lost I was! Maps don't even help me thats how bad I am. I need my navigator (aka Carolyn) back! As for the dinner...every time I go for dinner on my own I end up in a conversation with someone (usually older men since they seem to be the only ones who go for dinner on their own). Last night I met Yannis, a Greek highschool teacher who actually used to teach in Montreal. We had a really interesting conversation about Greek words (how every scientific word has a greek orgin: My big fat greek wedding anyone?) and about the differences between Greek and Canadian school systems.
So! Tomorrow I am back to Athens and then to mainland Greece...I will let you know how it goes! Miss you all...sorry that these blogs aren't more personal but its challenging to keep everyone updated. xox
Naxos is a very picturesque island. It is also entirely Dutch and German. I would bet money that I am the only Canadian here. It has beautiful white sand beaches, really shallow and really blue lukewarm water and very friendly people. But after three days here I'm ready to leave...its a little boring in all honesty. Other then go to the beach or spend a ridiculous amount on boat tours there is really nothing else to do. I've been trying to take advantage of the slow pace and relax but I've had just about enough beach bumming after Santorini. Today I went to the beach, sat in the shade and read my book for about 5 hours...I wont go to the beach if I cant find a nice shady spot to sit in...lying in the sun just doesn't interest me anymore! Plus...this really is the worst time to be here. All the Greek people are out-numbered by European vacationers and you really dont see ANY Greek culture. Just Euro culture with Greek buildings on a Greek island. I chose to come to the Greek islands to recharge and take a break from the crazy whirlwind that is backpacking but...I feel like I've done that now. Plus the first week of August I will be on another Greek island (Kiffalonia) with Ben and his friends Stef and Con. So all this contributes to my decision to head into mainland Greece for the next week. Its more then a little impractical (money and time wise) but I want to see Moteora and some other smaller Greek towns, which according to all the Greek people I've met is much more the "real" Greece. I also have a new mission (given to me by these two awesome American friends we made in Santorini) and that is to crash a Greek wedding. Haha I will keep you updated on how that goes!
On another note...I have successfully completed the two requirements of "Julia traveling on her own" 1. To get utterly and hopelessly lost for a significant period of time and 2. Have dinner with a very nice middle aged man. I didn't really realize how bad my sense of direction was before traveling. Yesterday I decided to take a quick walk before breakfast...aand found my way back 2.5 hours later. It's embarrassing how lost I was! Maps don't even help me thats how bad I am. I need my navigator (aka Carolyn) back! As for the dinner...every time I go for dinner on my own I end up in a conversation with someone (usually older men since they seem to be the only ones who go for dinner on their own). Last night I met Yannis, a Greek highschool teacher who actually used to teach in Montreal. We had a really interesting conversation about Greek words (how every scientific word has a greek orgin: My big fat greek wedding anyone?) and about the differences between Greek and Canadian school systems.
So! Tomorrow I am back to Athens and then to mainland Greece...I will let you know how it goes! Miss you all...sorry that these blogs aren't more personal but its challenging to keep everyone updated. xox
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Opa! Welcome to Greece
It took us two over night ferries, one very long train ride and a two-night stay in Athens but we made it to Santorini! Our travells were fairly eventful, both good and bad. On the first overnight ferry from Italy to Greece, we decided to splurge the extra 10 Euros for what they call "airplane seats". They are exactly what they sound like...a room full of airplane seats with a little more the usual space. Well by the time we made it back to our airplane seats there was some old man snoozing away in mine, so being the friendly citizen I am I decided to just camp out on the floor anyways. When I woke this man had gotten off his chair, snuggled up to me and was snoring in my face. He was louder then the ferry horns I swear to god. Needless to say...I spent the entire night poking him in the back until he stopped snoring long enough for me to sleep (which wasnt a lot). Im pretty sure he hated me but I wasnt really the biggest fan of him either. Anyway we eventually landed at 11:30 after about 2 hours of sleep and got on a 5 hour train to Athens. The only interesting thing about the trains was that these HUGE june beetle looking things kept hitting the open windows and flying inside the compartment. A few of them landed on some Asian toursits which was hilarious!They almost tried to jump from the train.
When we eventually got to Athens we hit a bit of a brick wall...we were supposed to be staying with two of Bens friends but they didnt answer the phone! So we were stuck in the train station, with no idea where we were or where we were going. That was one of those "you should have planned this better" moments. This was where we met the first of many amazingly nice greek people. According to greek people, we've just been lucky because most people (greek people) are not that nice, especially for foreign people. But we were blown away with greek hospitality...including... Amazing greek women number
1. Lady on the train who offered to help us find our stop and explained how Athens transport system works. Amazing Greek women number...
2. This lady at the train station who not only helped us work the greek pay phone card BUT stayed and called with us (helped us leave a message in greek) and gave us her cell phone number in case we didnt get through to our friends.
3. Asked a women where a payphone was, and not only did she help us search but when we couldnt find one, went into a store and asked the manager if we could use his phone. Last was...
4. A women who saw us waiting outside the train station with our packs on, stopped and asked if she could give us a lift somewhere.
We eventually got through to Stef and Con and made it out to their house. Talking about amazing greek people...I cant even begin to describe how wonderful these boys were to us. They cooked us food, bought us drinks, gave us their room, helped us organize our travel plans and ferries, plus took us out and showed us around Athens. We spent two days with them and loved it. One of the nicest things was taking a break from feeling like the tourist. We didnt even bother going to see the acropolis or the parthenon and I couldnt have cared less. Instead we drank warm wine with honey and warm liquor with honey, ate amazing greek food, learned some greek words (the most important being Malaka:wanker), listened to greek hiphop and watched the sunrise from a beach bar at 6:30 in the morning. First and only time I think I will be kicked out of a club at closing: 8:30am. Also I have to go on a little tangent about greek food here....its delicious. Feta soaked in olive oil and oregano, fried eggplant, calamari, octopus in vinigar, fried cheese, greek salad...all washed down with ouzo. Stef and Con swear that greek oilve oil is the best in the world and that Italian olive oil is actually Greek anyways. So far I agree. I could drink bottles of it. But then again anything other then pasta and pizza is tasting pretty amazing right now. Oh to eat meat and veggies again! Dont get me wrong...they had meat and veggies in italy but they were always twice the cost of pizza and pasta.
O.k so onto Santorini! We took another 12 hour night ferry to get here...and thought we would be smart this time by buying "deck" tickets (then our plan was to sleep on the floor in the airplane carrier room. However, deck on this ferry ment "deck" as in outdoor deck. It wasnt too bad until a wind kicked up at 3:30 in the morning. I think I put on every piece of clothing I owned...which wasnt much consider I dont even have long pants. All the other back packers out there had hardcore sleeping bags and tents...and then there was Carolyn and I wrapped up in our little sheets. Un-prepared to say the least! I think I got 20 minutes of sleep but saw a beautiful sunrise and finished an entire novel. Santorni itself is beautiful. We are paying 10 Euro a night to stay in the "holiday beach resort" and it literally is a beach resort. Theres a beautiful pool, gardens and beach bar. Plus they decided to upgrade us to a privet room for free! That means for the first time in 2 months Im not sharing a room with at least 6 other individules. The room is pretty average but for us it feels like pure luxery. We have our own shower (although its only 50cm across) and its clean enough that we dont need to wear flipflips. Plus new towels every day and they make the beds. unreal. The resort is on Perissa beach, which is the famous black sand beach...and the sand is actually black. It gets so hot that if you stand on it with bare feet your skin will blister. Its really busy too...the whole thing is lined with lawn chairs and umbrellas that you pay 7 Euros to rent for the day.
Yesterday we rented an ATV and explored the entire island...which was very impressive. We went all the way up to Oia, which has the most dramatic sunsets and scenery. This place perfectly embodies the white washed, blue topped image that people have of the greek islands. It was almost surreal to look at. We also drove along wine roads past a super windy beach called paradise beach, went to the bigger town of Fira and checked out the red and white sand beaches. Theres a ton more to tell but Im getting tired of typing and Carolyn is getting impatient for dinner! She says shes not but she is :)
Oh important other note! We sang kareoke last night...famous rendition of our Greece lightening days. Lets just say we should let memories be memories BUT we got a free pina colada!
When we eventually got to Athens we hit a bit of a brick wall...we were supposed to be staying with two of Bens friends but they didnt answer the phone! So we were stuck in the train station, with no idea where we were or where we were going. That was one of those "you should have planned this better" moments. This was where we met the first of many amazingly nice greek people. According to greek people, we've just been lucky because most people (greek people) are not that nice, especially for foreign people. But we were blown away with greek hospitality...including... Amazing greek women number
1. Lady on the train who offered to help us find our stop and explained how Athens transport system works. Amazing Greek women number...
2. This lady at the train station who not only helped us work the greek pay phone card BUT stayed and called with us (helped us leave a message in greek) and gave us her cell phone number in case we didnt get through to our friends.
3. Asked a women where a payphone was, and not only did she help us search but when we couldnt find one, went into a store and asked the manager if we could use his phone. Last was...
4. A women who saw us waiting outside the train station with our packs on, stopped and asked if she could give us a lift somewhere.
We eventually got through to Stef and Con and made it out to their house. Talking about amazing greek people...I cant even begin to describe how wonderful these boys were to us. They cooked us food, bought us drinks, gave us their room, helped us organize our travel plans and ferries, plus took us out and showed us around Athens. We spent two days with them and loved it. One of the nicest things was taking a break from feeling like the tourist. We didnt even bother going to see the acropolis or the parthenon and I couldnt have cared less. Instead we drank warm wine with honey and warm liquor with honey, ate amazing greek food, learned some greek words (the most important being Malaka:wanker), listened to greek hiphop and watched the sunrise from a beach bar at 6:30 in the morning. First and only time I think I will be kicked out of a club at closing: 8:30am. Also I have to go on a little tangent about greek food here....its delicious. Feta soaked in olive oil and oregano, fried eggplant, calamari, octopus in vinigar, fried cheese, greek salad...all washed down with ouzo. Stef and Con swear that greek oilve oil is the best in the world and that Italian olive oil is actually Greek anyways. So far I agree. I could drink bottles of it. But then again anything other then pasta and pizza is tasting pretty amazing right now. Oh to eat meat and veggies again! Dont get me wrong...they had meat and veggies in italy but they were always twice the cost of pizza and pasta.
O.k so onto Santorini! We took another 12 hour night ferry to get here...and thought we would be smart this time by buying "deck" tickets (then our plan was to sleep on the floor in the airplane carrier room. However, deck on this ferry ment "deck" as in outdoor deck. It wasnt too bad until a wind kicked up at 3:30 in the morning. I think I put on every piece of clothing I owned...which wasnt much consider I dont even have long pants. All the other back packers out there had hardcore sleeping bags and tents...and then there was Carolyn and I wrapped up in our little sheets. Un-prepared to say the least! I think I got 20 minutes of sleep but saw a beautiful sunrise and finished an entire novel. Santorni itself is beautiful. We are paying 10 Euro a night to stay in the "holiday beach resort" and it literally is a beach resort. Theres a beautiful pool, gardens and beach bar. Plus they decided to upgrade us to a privet room for free! That means for the first time in 2 months Im not sharing a room with at least 6 other individules. The room is pretty average but for us it feels like pure luxery. We have our own shower (although its only 50cm across) and its clean enough that we dont need to wear flipflips. Plus new towels every day and they make the beds. unreal. The resort is on Perissa beach, which is the famous black sand beach...and the sand is actually black. It gets so hot that if you stand on it with bare feet your skin will blister. Its really busy too...the whole thing is lined with lawn chairs and umbrellas that you pay 7 Euros to rent for the day.
Yesterday we rented an ATV and explored the entire island...which was very impressive. We went all the way up to Oia, which has the most dramatic sunsets and scenery. This place perfectly embodies the white washed, blue topped image that people have of the greek islands. It was almost surreal to look at. We also drove along wine roads past a super windy beach called paradise beach, went to the bigger town of Fira and checked out the red and white sand beaches. Theres a ton more to tell but Im getting tired of typing and Carolyn is getting impatient for dinner! She says shes not but she is :)
Oh important other note! We sang kareoke last night...famous rendition of our Greece lightening days. Lets just say we should let memories be memories BUT we got a free pina colada!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Oh island life
Just got back from Ischia...a beautiful island in the South of Italy, just by Naples. To put it lightly it was a little piece of heaven on earth. Its an old volcanic island with one tall peak, covered in thick, green forests and surrounded by white, sand beaches and clear water. Not to mention that the towns had tons of small city character and hotsprings...lots and lots of hotsprings. Our days there went something like this...
day one - arrive at noon, check in and spend the rest of the day lying on the beach and swimming in the sea. The water was warmer then bath water! It almost wasnt refreashing to go in. The beach itself was beautiful but it was incredibly overcrowded with Italians from Naples. This was pretty entertaining, it almost started to become normal that men wear nut huggers and women wear dental floss bottoms. I took a few pictures and 5 minutes later an Italian man came up to me and started demanding "Did you take a picture of me???" I said no no just of the beach but he keep asking and asking...until finally his friend clarified with "WILL you take a picture of me"! haha so I took some pictures and his email address to send them to him.
day two - hiked up to the tallest point on the Island. It took about 1 hour of uphill hiking....we had a lot of those "this better be worth it" moments...which it was. The top was the most beautiful view I have ever seen...beat Mt. Vesuvius and cinque terre believe it or not. You actually stand on this rock outcrop where you were above everything else. Its a 360 degree view of greenery, towns, twisted roads and ocean. Stunning! It was so high up that your actually standing in the clouds.
day three - We spoiled ourselves and went to the town spa. 13 different pools of different temperatures...some in caves, some hot cold, some aromatherapy and reflexology...not to mention gardens and a privet beach. We met some Australian friends there that bought us lunch and helped us drink three bottles of wine!
day four - Natural hotsprings. This goes right to the top of my "coolest things I have seen or done" list. This boiling, and I mean actually physically boiling, water seeps out of the rocks right at the oceans edge. You hike down this steep hill, down a cliff and then at the bottom people have created these inlet pools where the hot water mixes with the saltwater = hotspring pools. The water can actually get so hot that it blisters your skin...in a tiny pool of just hotspring water one guy was hardboiling eggs. How rediculous and amazing is that? We hung out and soaked there all morning.
We met some really great people there AND ate some amazing cheap Italian food. Im pretty sure life doesnt get better then island life. Now were back in Naples for the night and EXHAUSTED! haha travelling and relaxing takes a lot out of you. Although Carolyn and I sat down today to do some calculations and figure we walk or hike at least 7k a day. No wonder my feet always hurt. Tomorrow we catch an early train tp Bari (on the other side of the boot) and then take an overnight ferry to Patras (Greece!) From there we have no idea what were doing...but assuming that we need to take a bus to Athens and then another ferry to Santorini. So after the next two days of solid travelling I believe I will be sending my next update from Greece! Although I havent even left Italy Im already sad about the idea. Its safe to say I fell in love with it. After some careful consideration I also may have to retract my previous statement about Italian men. During the past three days they have ALL met and exceeded the stereotype. In Naples watching an outdoor dance show a group if Italian POLICE officers put on the romeo charm with..."you have such beautiful feet, such beautiful eyelashes, I could get lost in your eyes and please be my american dream" etc etc complete with dramatic gestures. We were like "shouldnt you be doing your job of crowd control and not harassing young canadians?" It was all in good fun but I couldnt keep it together when one of them said "I could bathe in your beauty" I told him he was full of shit (which he didnt understand) until we re-phrased it as "you are a producer of shit". Hilarious! Although he didnt think so.
ok so Im off...Wish Carolyn and I luck in not strangling each other in the next 72 hours! Ciao for now!
day one - arrive at noon, check in and spend the rest of the day lying on the beach and swimming in the sea. The water was warmer then bath water! It almost wasnt refreashing to go in. The beach itself was beautiful but it was incredibly overcrowded with Italians from Naples. This was pretty entertaining, it almost started to become normal that men wear nut huggers and women wear dental floss bottoms. I took a few pictures and 5 minutes later an Italian man came up to me and started demanding "Did you take a picture of me???" I said no no just of the beach but he keep asking and asking...until finally his friend clarified with "WILL you take a picture of me"! haha so I took some pictures and his email address to send them to him.
day two - hiked up to the tallest point on the Island. It took about 1 hour of uphill hiking....we had a lot of those "this better be worth it" moments...which it was. The top was the most beautiful view I have ever seen...beat Mt. Vesuvius and cinque terre believe it or not. You actually stand on this rock outcrop where you were above everything else. Its a 360 degree view of greenery, towns, twisted roads and ocean. Stunning! It was so high up that your actually standing in the clouds.
day three - We spoiled ourselves and went to the town spa. 13 different pools of different temperatures...some in caves, some hot cold, some aromatherapy and reflexology...not to mention gardens and a privet beach. We met some Australian friends there that bought us lunch and helped us drink three bottles of wine!
day four - Natural hotsprings. This goes right to the top of my "coolest things I have seen or done" list. This boiling, and I mean actually physically boiling, water seeps out of the rocks right at the oceans edge. You hike down this steep hill, down a cliff and then at the bottom people have created these inlet pools where the hot water mixes with the saltwater = hotspring pools. The water can actually get so hot that it blisters your skin...in a tiny pool of just hotspring water one guy was hardboiling eggs. How rediculous and amazing is that? We hung out and soaked there all morning.
We met some really great people there AND ate some amazing cheap Italian food. Im pretty sure life doesnt get better then island life. Now were back in Naples for the night and EXHAUSTED! haha travelling and relaxing takes a lot out of you. Although Carolyn and I sat down today to do some calculations and figure we walk or hike at least 7k a day. No wonder my feet always hurt. Tomorrow we catch an early train tp Bari (on the other side of the boot) and then take an overnight ferry to Patras (Greece!) From there we have no idea what were doing...but assuming that we need to take a bus to Athens and then another ferry to Santorini. So after the next two days of solid travelling I believe I will be sending my next update from Greece! Although I havent even left Italy Im already sad about the idea. Its safe to say I fell in love with it. After some careful consideration I also may have to retract my previous statement about Italian men. During the past three days they have ALL met and exceeded the stereotype. In Naples watching an outdoor dance show a group if Italian POLICE officers put on the romeo charm with..."you have such beautiful feet, such beautiful eyelashes, I could get lost in your eyes and please be my american dream" etc etc complete with dramatic gestures. We were like "shouldnt you be doing your job of crowd control and not harassing young canadians?" It was all in good fun but I couldnt keep it together when one of them said "I could bathe in your beauty" I told him he was full of shit (which he didnt understand) until we re-phrased it as "you are a producer of shit". Hilarious! Although he didnt think so.
ok so Im off...Wish Carolyn and I luck in not strangling each other in the next 72 hours! Ciao for now!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
I heart Naples
Done with Rome and onto Naples! I have to say...even though we did some really neat things...saw some amazing history and culture, I didnt fall in love with Rome. It was a great city though, beutiful but huge and hot and I think I would need a lot more time there to really appreciate it. Naples on the other hand is huge, messy, crowded, crazy, totally over-run and over populated, really dirty and everything that people have said that it would be. It was love at first sight for me. Traffic is the nost INCREDIBLE thing I have ever seen...and I have seen some pretty bad traffic in Mexico etc. There are scooters everywhere and they squeeze through traffic anywhere they can fit, going up onto sidwalks, ripping through red lights etc. We saw one man on a scooter with a 6 month baby on his knee...neither one of them wearing a helmet...and another women driving with two kids behind her, two infront and a dog sitting at her feet! Seriously who needs a family SUV when you have a tiny scooter that can fit 6. You wont get anywhere walking unless your seriously ballsy. You basically have to walk out into the most rediculous traffic with confidence and just hope (or pray) that the cars will stop. They usually do, or they sweerve around you. Our first night here we walked into the OldTown section to just stroll and explore, which was amazing. For the first time since in a long time, we walked for almost two hours without seeing a single other tourist. There were just Italian people doing their own buisness, playing soccer in squares, washing streets, having coffee, yelling at each other...all with cigarettes having out the corner of their mouths. I just love how all the buildings are crammed together, with churches squeezed between...it just feels so much more real and authentic. I went for a solo walk through the streets to take some pictures but I ended up putting my camera away after 5 minutes for two reasons...1. With my big camera in a poor area I felt like I was screaming 'Im a wealthy tourist!!! please Mug Me' and 2. I felt like an intruder...like it was rude to take pictures of these people who were just living their lives. Despite Naples bad reputation...we havent once felt like its dangerous walking around here (we havent even bothered putting our money belts on)
YESTERDAY! We travelled to Pompeii to see the ruins and then hiked up Mt. Vesuvius (the volcanoe that did Pompeii in). The ruins were neat but much bigger then I was expecting..it was quite the treck around. I think I liked hiking up Vesuvius more. It gives you a beautiful beautiful view of all of Naples and the Almalfi coast...although none of my pictures turned out because of the smog from Naples. TODAY! We did a tour of the underground tunnels in Naples. It was incredible...basically Naples is three cities ontop of each other. Way back, people werent allowed to build outside the city walls so eventually the buildings begin to be stacked up...we went through a trap doorin the bottom of someones house...into the old greek and roman theatre. These people literally build an entire neighborhood ontop of these ancient buildings. You can see old pillars built INTO the walls of normal apartments! So after we saw the theatre...we walked 40m underground into the old aqueducts that were turned into bomb sheltars during world war 2. Very cold and very neat!
Final monumental moment of Naples...the PIZZA. We went to 'the best pizza place in Naples' today for lunch...and it lived up to my expectations. For 7 Euro you get the LARGEST most AMAZING pizza imaginable. It was literally hanging off the sides of this huge plate and they serve it to you burning hot and uncut, so its this messy production of trying to cut it and not burn your mouth and stuff your face ALL at the same time. Brief side note speaking of expectations...Italian men have so far not lived up to their reputation of being dirty cat calling pricks. Actually in comparision to Spanish men they are perfect perfect gentlemen plus very lovely to look at...
YESTERDAY! We travelled to Pompeii to see the ruins and then hiked up Mt. Vesuvius (the volcanoe that did Pompeii in). The ruins were neat but much bigger then I was expecting..it was quite the treck around. I think I liked hiking up Vesuvius more. It gives you a beautiful beautiful view of all of Naples and the Almalfi coast...although none of my pictures turned out because of the smog from Naples. TODAY! We did a tour of the underground tunnels in Naples. It was incredible...basically Naples is three cities ontop of each other. Way back, people werent allowed to build outside the city walls so eventually the buildings begin to be stacked up...we went through a trap doorin the bottom of someones house...into the old greek and roman theatre. These people literally build an entire neighborhood ontop of these ancient buildings. You can see old pillars built INTO the walls of normal apartments! So after we saw the theatre...we walked 40m underground into the old aqueducts that were turned into bomb sheltars during world war 2. Very cold and very neat!
Final monumental moment of Naples...the PIZZA. We went to 'the best pizza place in Naples' today for lunch...and it lived up to my expectations. For 7 Euro you get the LARGEST most AMAZING pizza imaginable. It was literally hanging off the sides of this huge plate and they serve it to you burning hot and uncut, so its this messy production of trying to cut it and not burn your mouth and stuff your face ALL at the same time. Brief side note speaking of expectations...Italian men have so far not lived up to their reputation of being dirty cat calling pricks. Actually in comparision to Spanish men they are perfect perfect gentlemen plus very lovely to look at...
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
hot hot hot!
Its smokin hot here. I take it back when I said I had never sweated as much as I did in Cinque Terre...Rome is hotter. Even the locals are complaining about the heat! This is our third full day here, and so far we've checked out the Vatican, the Colloseum, Palentine Hill and the Roman Forum (and almost died from heat stroke several times). Today the Spanish Steps, Trivie fountain and Pantheon are on the agenda, along with some shopping and aimless strolling. Our first two nights here we stayed in the Roma Camping Village, but yesterday we moved into more downtown Rome with a couch surfing host Biagio. Its a great setup...we have our own room in a beautiful beautiful apartment and Biagio cooks dinner for us in the evenings! Tonight hes making us his speciality...some kind of Italian stuffed fish. This morning I woke up (early because the sun was burning my legs off already at 8:00), walked to the open market and bought eggs, fruit and pasteries for breakfast. I actually managed to do everything without using any English or having to ask if they speak English! I am by no means saying my Italian is very good (since Ive basically only mastered the numbers, please, thank you, yes, no, I understand and I dont speak italian) but you can pick up a lot with gestures, and I love the feeling of being surrounded by Italian people rather then packs of tourists.
Going to the Vatican the other day was quite the experience...it was a religious holiday so the Musuem and Sistine Chapel was closed, but we went to St. Peters Basillica (the most impressive church in Italy), where the pope was doing a ceremony. It was really quite incredible...9:00 in the morning and there are hundreds and hundreds of people sitting outside in the square watching the Pope on giant TV screens and listening to the music coming from the church. Gave us goosebumps actually, although I thought it was strange to see the Pope on giant hi-tech TV screens. Anyway, so were sitting there hanging out when all of a sudden people start running to one side of the square. Carolyn and I had no idea what was going on but decided to run anyways! In recent experience whenever crowds run, theres usually a reason (going to miss the train etc) so its generally better to join. I dont know how well it worked in this case buuut...they were letting just some people into the church where the pope was. So we got our elbows up and made it in (it was hilarious to see nuns literally pushing each other out of the way to get inside). Inside though you couldnt see the pope at all, and it was just over crowded with dumbstruck looking tourists. Made me feel a little claustrophobic so I left. Carolyn though snuck by the guards and managed to snag a picture of the pope (even though he looks so tiny you can hardly see him).
Yesterday we went to visit Ben's Nonna...which ended up being quite the treck because we got very lost, but really fun once we made it there, AND we got stuck in the tiny tiny elevator at our apartment. We actually had to call the elevator guys but it unstuck itself after about 15 minutes. Then we got into a fight with Biagios Italian grandma...she wouldnt let us out of the elevator, but I was freaking out at this point and wanted to be the furthest possible from that elevator. But Italian grandmas are persistent and when she started yelling at me in Italian and pointing her finger into my chest I relented and got back on the elevator.
Ok so 3 more days in Rome and then were off to Naples!
Going to the Vatican the other day was quite the experience...it was a religious holiday so the Musuem and Sistine Chapel was closed, but we went to St. Peters Basillica (the most impressive church in Italy), where the pope was doing a ceremony. It was really quite incredible...9:00 in the morning and there are hundreds and hundreds of people sitting outside in the square watching the Pope on giant TV screens and listening to the music coming from the church. Gave us goosebumps actually, although I thought it was strange to see the Pope on giant hi-tech TV screens. Anyway, so were sitting there hanging out when all of a sudden people start running to one side of the square. Carolyn and I had no idea what was going on but decided to run anyways! In recent experience whenever crowds run, theres usually a reason (going to miss the train etc) so its generally better to join. I dont know how well it worked in this case buuut...they were letting just some people into the church where the pope was. So we got our elbows up and made it in (it was hilarious to see nuns literally pushing each other out of the way to get inside). Inside though you couldnt see the pope at all, and it was just over crowded with dumbstruck looking tourists. Made me feel a little claustrophobic so I left. Carolyn though snuck by the guards and managed to snag a picture of the pope (even though he looks so tiny you can hardly see him).
Yesterday we went to visit Ben's Nonna...which ended up being quite the treck because we got very lost, but really fun once we made it there, AND we got stuck in the tiny tiny elevator at our apartment. We actually had to call the elevator guys but it unstuck itself after about 15 minutes. Then we got into a fight with Biagios Italian grandma...she wouldnt let us out of the elevator, but I was freaking out at this point and wanted to be the furthest possible from that elevator. But Italian grandmas are persistent and when she started yelling at me in Italian and pointing her finger into my chest I relented and got back on the elevator.
Ok so 3 more days in Rome and then were off to Naples!
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