Alright, I have a lot to catch up on. Italy kind of sucks. Well, I guess that's not fair. I had a lot of fun while I was there, and there was some wonderful scenery on the train. But I would be fine never going back there on vacation again. Maybe to learn Italian or something. It’s just really dirty. Venice was fun, but Italy in general is pretty blegh. [what? Blegh isn’t a word? It should be…]. Romereally sucked. Although it was fun to see some of the sites. And I did have an Italian lover downstairs. … I’m glad we left when we did. His friend from the restaurant came and asked if we wanted to have drinks with them after they got off work; shame we had an early train. Yeah that conversation would have been interesting, considering the fact that he spoke like 20 words of English. He was one beautiful Roman, though. So after Rome, we took a train to Brindisi (um, pretty sure they have siesta there), and the place was pretty sketchy, and the roads were completely abandoned, with a few super-friendly people from Nigeria walking around. We did have some really good bruschetta and paninis. Like the best food we’d had in a looong time (Rome thinks they’re so cool with their tiny servings and outdated pastries and hours of waiting… but they’re NOT!).
Oh! I should mention that Vatican City is great. St. Peter’s Basilica is quite spectacular. I paid a few euros to go to the top and walk around the dome (I chose not to take the elevator to save myself 2 euros and be [adventurous?]. holy hundreds of steps!), and that was really cool. There are tons of these pictures made entirely of little tiny tiles, and paintings all over, on the ceiling and all… and the Sistine Chapel… Okay, I half hated it because there were TONS of people in there, and it took forever—forever—walking through the Musei Vatican—up and down, around, straight, through fifty rooms, back up… goodness gracious. The parat in the center with God and Adam touching fingers, The Creation of Adam … it’s really beautiful. I couldn’t stop looking at it. [inserted note: I just finished East of Eden, and … wow, what a novel. Really incredible, and I love the parallels to be found]
So. Back to Brindisi. Great food, abandoned streets, lots of very polite people from Africa, crazy-driving Italians (taxi driver), you know. Same ole same ole. Took an overnight ferry to Patras. So, there were something like 10 passengers, and all the other people were truck drivers and merchant marines. It was so fun! They were all really nice. Got to Patras in the morning, met a very nice Greek woman who helped us get to Piraeus. We took a train (after having a mini-church, complete with everything except the sacrament :P) to some random village where we had to get on a shuttle bus to another place where we caught a train toward Athens, which luckily, continued on to Piraeus. Oh, while in that random village, there was an earthquake. That was cool. Love earthquakes.
In Piraeus, we stayed at Anita’s Hotel, and our room was bright pink, with giant pink flowers on the wall, pink shades, bedcovers and stools. Really crazy. We watched this TV show that was pretty fair (CSI kind of style), but at the end the main character’s husband died—for NO reason whatsoever. It was completely unnecessary to the plot, and they hadn’t even developed his character that much (or their relationship), so instead of being sad, it was just startling. Debbie and I just burst out laughing.
Next morning, we took a ferry to SANTORINI! Where we are right now. It’s amazing. The sea just fades into the sky and it’s like a dream. It’s windy and sunny, and the smooth white hosues are sprinkled or grouped throughout the grassy landscape… there are vineyards and orchards and flowers all over the place. The view from Fira of the volcano island in the ocean is spectacular. The locals just farm or run their little businesses with a friendly, relaxed attitude. Santorini is really a very enjoyable place to be, and is lovely.
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02h15
Deb and I have been sitting on our beds for hours after a hard day of fourwheeling and napping, and she’s reading aloud Confessions of a Shopaholic. It’s delightful. Deb should read books aloud as a career. She’s bloody brilliant. We’re ridiculous.
“The truth is… I’m being stalked. By a man named… Derek Smythe.”
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20 May
We were going to finish Confessions, but apparently we were laughing really loud, and the walls are very thin, and at 4:15 this Asian girl finally knocked on our door and said, “can you please lower your voices? I really cannot sleep.” And we felt so bad, and we already felt guilty because that book just does that to you, so we felt awful and went to bed.
This morning, they came in to clean, and I was hanging some laundry, and Deb was reading, so we were both on the balcony, and the door was banging from the wind, so the guy looked at me and made a “I’m going to close this, okay?” face, and I nodded, and then… they finished cleaning, and left. … WITHOUT unlocking the balcony door!!! We thought they were going to come back but they never did!! We were so sad and miserable, knocking on the door, calling out, “help!” and in desperation trying to figure out escape routes, but no ledge was big enough to scoot along, and every distance below threatened a broken leg. It was hopeless. We could even see through the balcony door that they had left the door of our room open. Finally (it felt like an hour later), a large Greek woman, a confused Asian, and another woman were outside—we scrambled—“help! Can someone please come up here and open our door??” The large Greek woman didn’t get it and, annoyingly, ignored us and just kept saying, “telephone, telephone.” We’re like, “if we could freaking get to a telephone we wouldn’t be locked out here, genius.” and desperately “just-come-upstairs-and-open-our-door!!!” (if you want to get the expression right, try saying it within .05 seconds in a slightly maniacal tone). Finally the Asian guy realized and tried to get the woman to help us… holy miscommunication. So the other woman came up and started laughing when she saw us stuck out on the balcony and let us in… oh my gosh. I can’t believe they locked us out there. That little snotface! I’m going to get him.
Okay, “Not the Same” by Ben Folds is …. a great song.
“Coffee, tea, wine—PLEASE!!!” –Poppy
22 May 2009
It’s our last night in Santorini. Yesterday we rode the four-wheeler to Fira and parked it, and then walked down through some old-town-style shopping places toward the old port. We then decided to ride the rest of the way… on donkey. Awesome. Foot travelers would be advised never to use this path. I’ll never forget the man who was clearly disgusted and terrified by donkeys, shoving the poor thing away from its blundering path straight toward him. What a classic expression. The man leading our string of donkeys was portly and silly, with a striped blue and white shirt, and a little beret.
We then boarded a faux-traditional ship, which took us to the volcano island off of Santorini. We hiked to the top (difficult on crumbly volcanic rock), had a look (what a view of Thira!), and came back down to swim in the hot (lukewarm) springs. We had to jump off the boat to swim over to the springs. All in all, quite enjoyable. We returned and took a cable car back up, getting a marvelous view of the other islands and the other side of Fira/Thira with its little white houses clinging to the side of the oceanview cliffs. We ate the (seriously) most amazing gyros ever for lunch. Our room has a little fridge and sink, so we’ve been having a lot of meals here—it’s cheaper that way; although Greece is definitely the cheapest place we’ve stayed so far. 5 nights here = 1 night in Rome (I told you they have big heads), and this place is way nicer (what an understatement).
Today we finally went to the beach! We’ve been along the coast and had all the views, but we finally went to the beach to be at the beach. It was one of the black beaches, and it was amazing. It was all rock, no sand, and it was radiating heat (it’s so windy here that it hasn’t really been warm enough to go to the beach). The water is so clear; it’s unbelievable—clear as a swimming pool—and the water isn’t very cold. It’s hard to get out because the rocks just crumble under you—nothing is packed very tight.Then we laid out and got dry in the sun… ahhh… best feeling in the world. I’ve been reading East of Eden. I love John Steinbeck. I got a good deal of it in, laying out there. Sigh.
I’m dying to watch a movie. Our TV has like 4 Greek stations. Today I listened to a whole MGMT album at an internet café, and some others. I miss my iPod too. Just 5 more days left of our trip. Goodness!
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[from church in Athens] –haha they played “Come, Come Ye Saints” so fast, it was crazy. And then after the closing prayer they always play one verse again, so the pianist played the verse again and then ended it with a “duh DUH!” (octaves)… it was so chipper and out of place… haha hilarious.
We were talking about the distance of temples, and the closest one to Athens is in Germany, or Switzerland. Isn’t that crazy? I am amazed at the sacrifices that people make to get to the temple, and it’s only an hour away for me. At least they’re building one in Rome. I love going to church at these little branches. The people are so faithful and friendly, and there is lots of translation, and we get to wear the little devices so we can understand, and we all just sit in the little room, learning together… love it. It’s an amazing relief to see the little plaque “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” especially after you’ve been searching for a long time. The branch here was only a couple of minutes from our hostel! And right in the middle of all the Athens sites.
We went up to the Acropolis (short walk from the hostel), and there were just fields of trees in a dry field… olive trees, I think. Kind of felt like California a little bit… Quicksilver area, where I go running sometimes—or those hills behind Blossom Hill, right in the middle of summer when all the grass is dead. Love home. We were trying to spend as little money that day as possible, but we knew it was our only chance to see the Acropolis. When we got to the entrance gate, they told us it would be €12, and that we could get the tickets behind us at the other window. We started to leave, but turned back to ask, “Oh, and where is Mars Hill?” and the lady there said, “it’s down there, but come in here free.” We were like, “huh?” and she said again, “come in free.” We still don’t know why she let us in free—just a Sunday miracle, I think. Spent under €15 that day—only for food. It was incredible to see all those buildings… I mean, it seemed incredibly out of reach to me, and Deb agrees. I never thought I’d be in that part of the world, let alone standing in front of the Parthenon… It was *there* but I couldn’t see myself there, not really. There’s this strange feeling that comes while you’re up there… like you could close your eyes and just see ancient Greece, right in front of you, and on Mars Hill, Paul giving a sermon, on rough rock that is now smooth where so many have walked. There really is quite a remarkable feeling that comes when you walk in such a historical place. And… what beautiful architecture. I am in awe.
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27 May 2009
We’re on the Aer Lingus plane to Heathrow, where we’re catching a flight to San Francisco. Our trip is finished! 2 days ago we went from Manchester (there you are, love) to Dublin, and yesterday we visited Cork. We kind of stayed in the city center for most of the day, but then we walked out to a more residential area as well. Ireland is so dang lovely. They have steps up to paths to the houses (I don’t think anyone uses them, though—garages on the other side) that are completely overgrown with baby tears and all kinds of other beautiful ground coverings and flowers.
When we got back from Cork we went and saw Star Trek. We hadn’t seen a movie in so long, and we decided in Santorini that we’d see one as soon as we got back to Dublin. It was great! So we’re headed home now; we’ve been talking a few days now about how great it will be to use hairdryers and curling irons, wear something outside our backpack-wardrobe and actually look cute for the first time in a month. It’ll be nice to be home. We are saving the last Lion for when we fly into San Francisco. Wow. I have a newfound fearlessness in me. I have new muscles and stories to tell.
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