Day 29 - Madrid

Since we had a hotel with super cold air and were able to basically black it out, we decided to go ahead and sleep in again.  Actually, I don't know if it was so much a decision as it just happened.  Either way, it was at least 11am before we woke up.  We joked that we are acting like traveling recluses, which really serves no purpose.  Can you imagine one though?  A person that pays thousands of dollars to go to another place and then just stays in 24 hours a day?  That would be a little weird, huh?

Anyway, after a breakfast of peanut butter & bread, trail mix, and melba toast, we headed out to get a few things done.  First things first, get bull fighting tickets!  So, we grabbed a quick metro (and by quick I mean 3 transfers and 30 minutes) to the other side of town.  We were pretty sure that tickets were going to be cheap, and sure enough, they were 5 Euro a piece.  I was thinking like an American sports fan and assuming that we were going to have nose bleed tickets, but later we found out that they were really, really good.

After grabbing the tickets, we headed to the train station so we could go ahead and book our travels for the next few days.  A quick update... at this point Josh and I are headed to Barcelona and then on to Italy.  Blake is headed to Barcelona with us for a few days, and then back to Madrid to fly home.  So, we had to get various train tickets to and from Madrid, Barcelona, and Milan for the three of us.  After 2 hours of waiting (yes I said 2 hours) we finally got the tickets we needed.  At this point, though, we missed the free walking tour that we planned on going on.  It's actually the same free walking tour company that we used in Amsterdam.  Anyway, we missed that because of the psycho train station line, so we decided to go take a look at the botanical gardens.  

The price for admission was 1 Euro which was way to steep for me.  Josh and Blake payed up though, and I walked around town trying to find a phone card.  An hour later we met up and headed back over to the sandwich place.  I am sure at this point you are realizing that once we find a place, we stick with it.  Not super adventurous, but very reliable.  Anyway, we headed over and were happy to see that the beers were 50 cents.  We each had a hand full of those, a few sandos, and headed out around 7pm.  The bull fight was at 8pm...

...Oh the bull fight.  Quite possibly the coolest and most horrible, bloody thing I have ever witnessed.  I will quickly describe the process without getting too graphic.  Just keep in mind that there is A LOT of blood...

  

1. 2 dudes come out on horses in goofy clothes and start the process formally

2. The matadors all strut around and act like they are the next big thing

3. A bull runs out and the matador and his 3 helpers all dodge it with their pink cape things.

4. Two dudes on horses come out and the bull charges one of them.  At this point the dude on the horse has a huge spear and stabs the bull in the back.  This happens twice.

5. The horses take off and then the matadors helpers (who are dressed similarly to the matador) stab the bulls in the back with these smaller spears.  

6. The matador grabs his sword and a big red cape and puts on a show, dodging the bull and getting really close to being gored.  All this time the matador is just strutting around, acting like he is the most bad ass thing in the world.

7. The matador faces the bull and stabs the bull right in the back of the neck.  If all goes well, he kills it with one stab.  If not, it's pretty gross, but they just keep stabbing it until it dies.

8. One of the helpers stabs it in the face to make sure it's dead.  The bull twitches and dies.

9. 3 horses come out and hook up to the bull and drag it out of the ring while the grounds crew covers up the bloody sand like nothing ever happened.

10. Repeat steps 1 through 9 five more times.

After this we were hungry for some ice cream, so we grabbed some at McDonalds and headed back to the hotel for a night of gory bull dreams.

Day 28 - Madrid

As I said in the blog entry before, we went to bed, and never woke up again last night.  All in all, I know that I slept at least 14 hours or so.  I know Blake and Josh both went to sleep at different times than me, but I think they were both pretty close to that number.  Anyway, it was a great night of just catching up on some much needed sleep.

By the time we were up and actually ready to go, it was about noon... maybe 1, but who's counting?  Anyway, we were up and ready to see the city.  So, the first stop on our agenda was to hit the royal palace.  As far as my opinion is concerned, it really is a must see.  There are multiple really cool things, but my favorite was the Royal Armory.  They have so much armor, horse armor, weapons, and cool stuff on display.  Definitely worth the price of admission, just for those couple of rooms.  Also in the palace is the Royal Pharmacy where blown glass and porcelain containers adorn the walls to make a super nice Walgreens.  But seriously, it was cool.  Finally the Palace itself is awesome.  All the rooms in the entire place are different, so every 30-40 meters you get a totally different feel.  It's really quite incredible and over the top.

After the plaza, we were hungry and luckily stumbled upon this great sandwich place.  It's a place that serves 100 different mini sandwiches for 1.20 Euro a piece.  So, you get 4-6 sandwiches and it comes with potato chips.  They have everything from Omelette to Chicken to Anchovy.  Everything we got was super good, and it was nice to have an affordable meal fill us up.  You know, as Americans we have to be full.

Ok, after awesome sandwich place we headed to the modern art museum which is filled with tons of cool art including works from Picasso and Salvador Dali.  It was a great little museum made even greater with free admission after 3pm on Saturdays!

After the museum we stopped by Ben & Jerry's to get our American ice cream fix for the week.  I had a cookie sundae with my favorite ice cream ever, cinnamon w/ oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough.  It's seriously the best stuff ever.  If you can ever find it at a grocery store (which you barely ever can), buy it immediately.   After ice cream dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some stuff done.  Oh, I forgot to mention... by this point we have decided to stay an extra day in Madrid because we realized there is a bull fight at the the third largest and "most important bullfighting ring in the world" the next day.  So, we headed back, got some stuff done, watched a little billiards, and hit the sack.

Back Home Early - Update on Final Posts

Hello everyone.

I am sorry it has taken me a few days to post since the last one. I know I said that it would be coming quickly, and they would have... the problem is that my small bag was stolen at the train station in Barcelona. While we were waiting for a train, someone came by and swiped it. So I lost most of my valuables. In particular, I was robbed of my passport, eurail pass, money, credit cards, camera, ipod, and a few books. This all happened a few days ago on July 17th. Today is the 19th and I am back home in Dallas.

Josh and I both decided to started making arrangements for our return and as I write right now (around 3pm CST on sunday afternoon), he is still on his way home. Hopefully there won't be too much of a delay for him.

I am still so thankful for the opportunity to travel such a cool land. I was in Europe just over a month, and I feel like I learned so much about myself and so much about other cultures. It was an opportunity to learn and grow spiritually as well. I was able to get to spend a lot of alone time with God which was really nice and really refreshing... I am not going to go in to a ton of detail, as I will expand on my final thoughts when I post my last blog after I get everything else from the last 4 days or so logged.

I do actually have some blogs already written on my computer for the days following Pamplona and I will post those just as soon as I get my computer. I will post just as soon as possible. Keep checking back as I plan on posting the rest soon. Also, pictures from the rest of the trip will be coming soon as well!

Day 27 - Pamplona/Madrid

Quick Note:  I am going to be posting material for the past 5-6 days pretty quickly.  Sorry for the delay.  Anyway, just keep in mind that there are going to be multiple posts as a time.  There are 2 this time, so scroll down...  more to come very soon.

We woke up at 7am or so.  I should say actually that Josh woke up blake and I at 7am or so.  Blake and I begged to stay asleep for a few minutes and then realized that we were going to miss seeing the run, and that's something we wouldn't get to see again soon.  So, we all got up and took off up the hill again to the center of the city, where we hoped to get a good spot on the fence...

We arrived up near the run around 7:30 or so, after a slower than usual hike (the night before on the grass didn't treat us very kind) and found that it was going to be pretty difficult to find a spot on the fence.  Everyone gets there pretty early, so when we rolled up about 30 minutes before, we were pretty much out of luck.  

I did, however, manage to force myself up on to a very small open section of the fence, and Josh threw his camera up to me.  I got a few pretty good shots, and got to see first hand exactly what we did.  All I have to say is that we are idiots.  I know it's one of those things you have to do before you die if you get the chance, but it's just insanity.  A bunch of dumb human beings running down a narrow alley away from bulls that want to put a horn right through your stomach.  Really, isn't it dumb?  Anyway, it was awesome to see it first hand, and I am sure Josh will have photos up soon displaying my excellent photographic skills.

After we watched, it was time to head back to the car, return it, and head to Madrid.  We did just that, and jumped on the train about 11am or so...

3 or 4 hours later (can't really remember at this point), we were in Madrid, and so freaking tired.  Oh, by the way... at this point we haven't showered in 3 days and we are still wearing the same clothes we started with in Pamplona, red sashes and all.  Anyway, we arrived ready to just find some internet and get a hostel.  After about an hour of internet cafe time/wandering the streets time, we checked in to the Castilla Hostel II, right off the main center of town, Plaza del Sol.

We thought we were going to head out that night, but instead we all just fell asleep around 6pm or so, and never woke back up...

Day 26 - Pamplona (2 of 2)

Picking up where I left off...

We left the ring around 9:00am and were super tired.  We had only about 2 hours of sleep the night before, and were ready to just chill out.  The only problem is that we didn't have a car, were super hungry, and wanted to see Pamplona.  So, instead of crashing all together we just drove around the city and saw Pamplona by car.

We headed out to the north part of the city and ended up at a random grocery store.  There, we grabbed food for lunch and drinks for the night.  Bring cheap backpackers, we decided that we should go ahead and buy drinks.  Really it's what everyone does though.  Basically at night everyone just has their stash of drinks and carries it around the city.  They partying takes place in the streets for the most part, so it's kinda dumb not to buy your own stuff...

So, Josh and I bought 2 big 2 liters of coke and a bottle of rum, and Blake bought some random juices and vodka.  Turns out Josh and I made a good decision in comparison to Blake.  But we all had drinks for later in the night.

We headed next to the center of town to just walk around and chill.  We ended up finding these huge mats (kinda like the ones from elementary school gym class) in the middle of this little park area.  We crashed on those for about 3 hours or so, and it turned out to be an incredible nap.  Once we woke up it was time to head back to the car and eat some peanut butter and bread with chocolate cookies for dessert.  We had to get something in our systems, because we knew it was going to be a long night.

9pm... we headed up the hill to the city with out big bottles of drinks.  We figured it was just going to be a mad house, and that it was.  There are literally people everywhere wearing the exact same thing just partying in the streets.  This whole thing keeps up all night long, until about 3 or 4 in the morning at least.  Even then, though, it doesn't really completely die down until about 5 or 6.  We chose to just hang in the plaza in the center of the city and people watch.  

We started wandering around a little later and ran in to some Aussies that were staying in the same parking lot as us.  We ended up wandering around the city aimlessly for hours with them, hoping to find a "concert" we were sure existed somewhere in the city.  Sadly enough, we didn't find it.  Not sure if that had anything to do with the fact that we didn't really know what was going on...

Anyway, we crashed around 3 or 4 in the morning.  Josh decided to go to the car, and Blake and I ended up on a random patch of grass outside the city.  About 5am we both woke up freezing cold, and headed back to the car to sleep.  The next morning we would wake up and go watch the run, and see exactly what we had gotten ourselves in to the day before...

Day 25 - Montpellier/Barcelona/Pamplona

Blake has to be frustrated at this point.  He thought we were going to show up yesterday morning.  Who knows, maybe he is pumped to get some time to himself in Barcelona.  All I know, is that I want to just get there at this point...  

...So, it turned out that the 7:20am train we thought we would get on was fully booked (this was a train that required a reservation).  We actually woke up at 5:30am to get over to the station, only to find out that this was the case.  The other option... an 11:45am departure that would require 1 change in Port-Bou, then on to Barcelona arriving at 6:45pm.  Right now, I am writing from the train to Port-Bou.  If all goes as planned, we will be in Barcelona in 5 hours or so. I will write more later tonight hopefully...

...We arrived in Barcelona on time, and found Blake fairly easily.  We then had to make a decision on how to get to Pamplona.  Since it was going to be really difficult to find a train, and expensive for Blake to ride one, we visited the rental car place.  They told us that we could get a car for 2 days for about 150 Euros.  So, almost without hesitation we went for it.  It would be our transportation and hotel for the next 2 nights, so we actually were getting off pretty cheap.

We jumped in the car around 8 o'clock and took off to Pamplona.  Everything was cool until we got to the first toll road stop.  The guy at the rental car place told us that it would be free, but it definitely was not.  We probably spent at least 30 Euro just getting to Pamplona.  Thank goodness we decided to take the car one way!  On the way, we grabbed weird gas station food and then headed to the center of Pamplona.  The whole drive was around 4 hours or so.

Once we got in, we decided to just find a place to park, and then a place to buy our gear for the run.  If you aren't familiar with what people wear, it's white pants and shirt and then a red scarf and sash worn like a belt.  Anyway, we parked in a garage around 1:00am and then found a stand selling some stuff.  When we were driving in to town, the place was still jumping!  People party all night long here!  More on that in the next blog though...  Ok, so we found a place to buy our stuff, wandered around for a little bit and then grabbed the car.  We headed out to a random parking lot and all took our places in the car for a big night's sleep.  Bedtime (or I guess I should say Cartime) = 3:30am.

Day 24 - Milan/Bern/Geneve/Lyon/Arles/Montpellier

2 posts at the same time again... sorry. 

Yes, we went to all of those places today.  

You know, it was all going very smoothly, and we thought we couldn't be touched.  Every train we wanted had open seats, and they all were running on time.  I guess all it takes is one Italian rail strike to make us feel like a couple of amateur travelers.  So I will take it from the top and give you the quick rundown of why we went to 6 cities in 3 different countries today.

It started off pretty nicely actually.  We got to the train station in time to board the train for Bern.  Once in route, we confirmed with the train attendant that we could, in fact, take a night train from Bern to Barcelona.  So, we thought we would spend a day in Bern and see an extra city that wasn't on our original itinerary.  

Once we got to Bern, though, it was a much different story.  The ticket guy told us that the night trains only run on Mon, Wed, Fri (it's Tuesday) and that even if we wanted to take a night train it was going to be $150 USD even with our eurail passes.  So, we decided to take option 2 - free trains with tons of stops. Basically we would have to make a bunch of stops and switch trains 3 times.  This would only get us as far as Montpellier for the day, though.  We would need to grab the 7:20am train from Montpellier to Barcelona the next morning...

We decided this was our only option, so we got on the first train to Geneve around 2:00pm.  After making stops in Geneve, Lyon, and Arles we ended up in Montpellier at 9:10pm.  We found a quick, reasonably priced hotel (with free WIFI), headed out for a bite (which ended up being a nutella crepe for Josh and fries and a coke for me), and came back to the hotel.   We watched CNN for a while and read some information on the internet about the running of the bulls and then crashed around 1:00am after a long day of traveling.  Hopefully soon, we will actually be back on schedule. 

Day 23 - Athens/Milan

We arrived at the Athens airport around midnight, so that's where I will pick up...

After a 6 hour boat ride, a 30 minute walk to the metro/buses, and the hour bus ride over to the airport, we were getting pretty tired... I guess I should start by telling you that we decided to just stay in the airport since we only had 9 hours from the time we arrived until check-in...  Ok, so the athens airport is pretty much your typical airport, except it's extremely clean.  I am not sure if they remodeled it for the 2004 olympics and have just done a great job of keeping it up or what, but it's really clean and really nice.  The only problem with airports, however, is that they don't have beds.  So, for the first 30 minutes or so we hunted for a spot to sleep.  Finally we found a pace upstairs near the airport chapel away from all the noise, and decided that the cool tile floors would suffice for one night.

We all did different things...  

Josh went to sleep and watched the bags.  Blake used the free internet to get some stuff done.  I couldn't sleep, so I made a hodgepodge of phone calls to my parents, my sister Emily (sorry Barrett, I didn't have your number on me), David, and Matt (my best friend from college).  Around 3 o'clock when I finally got tired, I headed up to the sleeping spot we had picked out.  I fell asleep in about 2 seconds, and the next thing I knew (about an hour later), airport staff was waking all of us up.  In addition to us, there were at least 20 other people or so that were also told to "get up".  So, it's 4 in the morning and we are still super tired, with 5 hours before check-in.  Long story short, we ended up in 2 different restaurants and finally out in to the main airport terminal area... we slept awkwardly in all these places.  I would say that I got about 1 hour of actual sleep.  Josh and Blake fared a little better.

Finally... 9:10 am rolled around and we are able to check in.  The whole process was pretty seamless until we got to Milan...

We arrived at the Milan Malpensa airport which is northwest of city center.  Since Blake doesn't have Eurail, so he had to book a flight to our next destination, Barcelona.  He booked on another airline, though, so he had to get over to another airport.  Either way, all of us had to get to central station, so we made our way over to the train terminal at the airport.  This is where we found out that the Italian rail system was on strike for the day... Are you kidding me???  Alright, so all we have to do is get back to central station.  We grabbed a direct bus (5 Euro each) and headed that way, only to find out that all the trains out of the city were also on strike.  

We couldn't find wireless internet, so we headed in to an overprices internet cafe.  Here, we found out that to fly it would be super expensive.  So, we just check email and headed back over across the street to the train station.  Blake took off on a bus for his flight and Josh and I just stood in seperate ticket lines, hoping to get a good answer as to what we should do...  After standing in 4 different lines and talking to a bunch of idiots, we were no further along than when we started.  We kept getting pushed over to information, and those guys were the worst of all.  I seriously wanted to reach through the glass and choke one of the dudes.  Anyway, information told us to head outside because there was a bus headed for Barcelona as a replacement.  Perfect right?  Well, not if the guy tells you to go to one spot and the bus goes to another!  So, we missed the bus (freaking information guy!) and the train was canceled...

...after another hour or so of asking around and reading our eurail timetable, we found out that we could connect in Bern, Switzerland the next day and then take a night train from Bern to Barcelona.  So, with no other options, we found a somewhat affordable hotel near the train station, hit the internet cafe again to email Blake the updates, grabbed gelato for dinner, and crashed.

Day 22 - Paros/Athens

Once again, 2 posts at once.  Day 21 & 22 have been posted at the same time, so scroll on down...

Around 9am we woke up and took off to board a boat to Paros.  Paros isn't quite as large as Naxos, but it's also one of the larger islands.  It is actually made up of two different islands, Paros and Antiparos.  Antiparos is just a few minutes away by boat, and is where a lot of celebrities big wigs have homes and also is home to some really exclusive hotels and beaches that must be booked months in advance. 

Since we had hotels on the other two islands, Paros was a little bit different experience.  We actually didn't even go to Antiparos.  I guess I just wanted to share that information because I thought it was a cool side note.  We got to the port and had a decision to make.  We knew we were only going to be on the island for 6 hours or so.  We were either going to just stay in town and chill, find a beach and maybe swim, or try again to rent 4-wheelers from someone who doesn't care about minor details like having a drivers license. 

We decided to take a small boat over to a beach called Krios.  It's a little beach but not crowded at all.  We then had to decide whether we were going to succumb to the temptation of getting in the water.  It was so hot outside and the water is so cold and refreshing, so it was hard not to get in, but we didn't.  The only reason this was even a decision is because we knew that we were going to be spending the next 6 hours on a boat back to Athens, and then spending the night in Athens Airport (I will explain this in my next post).  So, we just found a cool little restaurant on the water, had a few beers (Heineken and Mythos, which is a greek beer) and huge slice of watermelon and just camped out for 3 hours or so.  It turned out to be a great decision.

After the beach, we grabbed a quick ferry back to the main port in Paros, and found an awesome bakery, where we grabbed what would be dinner on the boat later.  I got a piece of chocolate cake and a ham & cheese pie (can you tell I love ham & cheese yet?), Josh got the best baklava any of us have ever tasted & some cheese bread, and Blake got a veggie sandwich that is bigger than my head (which is saying something, because I have a massive head).  With an hour or so to kill we decided to grab a waffle complete with chocolate sauce, fresh banana, vanilla ice cream, and fresh whipped cream.  It was incredible.  After the sugar rush, we boarded the boat and headed back to Athens...

...Once we arrived, it was just late enough to miss the metro - awesome.  So, we grabbed the 24hr bus and took the 1 hour+ ride to the Athens Airport, on a hot, muggy bus (I think this was a foreshadowing of the next 24 hours or so)  Once here, it was time to find a place to sleep.  I will cut it short here because the next day is absolutely exhausting, and I will need to discuss sleeping in the airport, the flight back to Milan, and the Italian rail strike that almost made me lose my mind...

Day 21 - Naxos

Naxos is the second island on our little Greek island hopping adventure.  I am writing on the boat to Nexos actually, listening to Shane Barnard - "Prodigal Me".  It's by far my favorite song of his.  I feel like I really identify with it.  Check it out if you have never heard it.

This part of the trip has proven so far to be a vacation inside a vacation.  Sometimes, while backpacking, it gets really tiring.  The hostels have been pretty clean so far, but just the constant moving around and having to wear shower shoes and all the other little things that go along with hosteling can wear on you.  So, this leg of the journey has been perfect, as we have been able to just chill out and lay on the beach or by the pool and have some relaxing time.  Today should be more of the same, as our hotel is on the beach this time!  I will write more later tonight...

...Ok, so now I am sitting on the plane leaving Greece, and headed back to Milan.  I didn't have time to write in Naxos.  I will be writing the next two entries at the same time, so they will be in past tense.  I am not really sure why that is relevant, or why you need to know that.  It helps me when writing I guess.

Back to Naxos...  It was amazing.  The largest of the three islands we visited, and the most family friendly for sure.  It was different than Santorini, as are most of the other islands, because all the buildings and structures sit lower on the hill.  In Santorini, the buildings all sit up top.  So, when we pulled in to the port, it was a different look since the city was right there.  We were greeted by a mob of people trying to get us to stay in their apartments, homes, condos, etc. - super annoying.  More of a rant on that in my next entry.

Our goal for the day was to rent some mopeds or 4-wheelers and take them around the island.  When we got the the place we found out that they needed drivers licenses for each vehicle.  Since Blake was the only one who actually brought his license, that plan was shot.  I guess I didn't think I would need the Texas drivers license in Europe, but I guess I was wrong.  So, we just grabbed some lunch at a little place nearby, and then took the bus to our hotel.  I had a ham, cheese, and tomato croissant with a latte.  Josh did a cheese omelet.  Blake had a crepe with chicken and veggies. 

This hotel might have trumped the last one, which means it was greatness.  It sat right on the beach.  All we had to do was cross a little street and we were 10 meters from the water.  Since we had no mode of transportation, we decided to just grab a few beach chairs and chill for the rest of the day... Sometimes it's hard for me to just sit and relax, because I always have a million things on my mind, and today was one of those days, so I went and bought some snorkel gear.  Only problem - it was youth size.  I had to put it on the largest setting to get it to fit, but once I did, I spent the next hour or so in the crystal blue water.  I really can't explain how clear and beautiful the water is.  And to top it off, we were on a white sandy beach.  Really amazing stuff!  While I did that, Josh and Blake just chilled out in some chairs that we somehow didn't end up paying for.

After a good 5 hours or so just chilling on the beach, we headed back to town for dinner.  This night was a bit of a gamble.  We saw in the lonely planet guide that the hot spot in town was a mexican place - Tex-Mex to be exact.  In some places in the US, Mexican food is risky.  So, Mexican food in Greece... probably the worst idea ever...  Turned out to be a great gamble though!  The place was really great.  I mean, it's no Pappasito's or La Fogata (my San Antonio people know what I am talking about) but it was really good.  Very fresh and very light, which you normally don't expect in a Tex-Mex place.  Actually, that's really why we eat Mexican food isn't it?  Because it's the greasiest, most horribly delicious option.  Anyway, I had chicken fajitas, Blake had a burrito, and Josh opted for the veggie version of fajitas which basically used refried beans instead of meat. 

After dinner we headed to the center of town to use someone's internet connection and grab some gelato.  The place is called Waffle House.  It doesn't have bright yellow and black with old ladies shouting "smothered and covered", but it did have an amazing home made waffle cone with really great ice cream!  I had strawberry cheesecake, and it was very solid.  By the way, sorry if you don't like all the food talk.  It's one of my passions so you have to deal with it.  

That's it for this day.  Paros is the next island...

Day 20 - Santorini

Two blogs posted at the same time again.  Start with Day 19...

The overnight boat ride is where I believe I left off on my last post.....  We pulled out on time and headed out for the 11 hour trip...  I will back up just for a second.  We had an option when dealing with Marios to get a sleeper, or just a seat on the boat.  The difference was about 22 Euro, which is about $35.  So, being the cheap backpackers we are (who go shopping in Milan), we decided to just get the seat.  I am not sure if I would have done it any differently, but it was not the most pleasant experience.  Imagine an airplane seat (with maybe just a little more leg room), all lights on, the TV blaring the whole night, and the only laying down option being a dirty floor.  That's what we were up against.  I tried the seat but just could not get comfortable.  So, I grabbed my sleep sack and hit the cement floor.  Blake did the same.  Josh decided to stick with the seat, and as he explained later, he was "in about 100 different positions in a span of 7 hours or so".

11 hours later... very little sleep and super hungry we pulled in to Santorini.  By the way, it's the 4th of July for those of you not keeping track - God Bless America!

Breakfast was a quick stop at a little place in the port.  Blake and I did the "special omelet" which was cheese, ham and bacon (not sure what's so special there and I probably don't want to know).  Josh did a banana crepe with Nutella.  It was all surprisingly excellent.

Ok, to the good stuff... All I can really say is that Santorini is unreal.  It's picture perfect.  Super white buildings accented with bright, vibrant colors.  Then behind the buildings is a backdrop of bright blue water.  I really can't describe how beautiful it is, so you will just have to take a trip here if you have not been.  I will let you all stay in my vacation home here, which I will be buying just as soon as I can sell enough coffee to do so.  

Our activities for the day consisted of walking through the narrow streets of the city, and then heading off on a 15 minute bus ride to one of the black sand beaches (we chose ???). We soaked up some cosmic rays, and just chilled out for a few hours on the beach.  We headed back to the hotel, chilled by the pool, changed clothes and headed off the the northernmost part of the island, ???.  Here is where the sunset is at it's prime.  Around 8:30 we watched the most incredible sunset I have ever seen (over a beer of course) from a random perch above one of the many unique, small hotels.  No fireworks though... I guess they don't care too much about our independence.  Pictures of this will be posted in the gallery, so please check them out.  There will be a good collection of green doors in this gallery also.  I am not sure if I have talked about this yet, but we are taking pictures of every green door we see this whole trip.  Green Door Coffee opens soon!!!

Sorry to ramble on this post, but it was such a great day...  I will wrap it up.  We finished the day with a good, hearty dinner.  Hamburger stuffed with Cheese and a side of fries for me.  Blake and Josh both had pasta.  Heiniken was the beer of choice for this meal.  After spending 30 mintues trying to find a cab, we finally got back to the hotel, opened up all the doors and windows, and crashed hard.  

Day 19 - Athens

4:15 comes fast in the morning.  Especially when you don't get to sleep until 12:00 or so.  I honestly hate waking up that early.  For some reason it just throws me off completely for the next half day or so.  I guess my body is so used to getting a somewhat normal amount of sleep.  It probably sounds like I am whining, and I may be just a little, but it's so freaking early.  

By 4:45 we were off to the airport.  What a process this easyJet airline is!  First we had to check in.  Then we had to go drop our bags.  Then we had to go to another window and pay for the bags we dropped off (15 Euro each).  Then we went back over to the original counter to pick up our boarding passes.  Such a run-around.  I am not sure why they do it that way, but whatever.  

9:50am or so... We arrive in to Athens and find Blake waiting on us right outside customs.  Real quick, for those of you that don't know Blake - He is our extremely fun, random, super cool, ADD (way more than me) friend.  We were in the same class at Baylor, and he is one of mine and Josh's best friends.  I lived with him for our last semester - yes, I was a 5th year, no big deal.  So, with our new travel friend in tow, we headed out to find the only thing we really cared to see in the city - The Parthenon.  

Friends and family of all 3 of us told us that really we should focus more on the islands and just see the Parthenon and be done with Athens.  So, that's exactly what we did today.  Before we headed up, though, we had to plan the rest of Greece.  To make a long story short, we found a random local travel agent named Marios.  Not a mis-spelling.  It's Mario with an S.  Anyway, Marios (who was quite the Greek character I might add) hooked us up with a 3 island tour over the next 4 days.  With hotels, boat rides, trams, etc we are doing the whole thing for around 150 Euro a piece.  This is pretty good considering we have hotels on the beach and all the transportation taken care of.  We will see how the hotels turn out, but right now I am actually writing from the boat on the way to Santorini and so far so good.

Our schedule over the next few days will take us through Santorini, Nexos, and Paros.  Should be a good time.  I am most excited about Santorini.  From what I hear, it's absolutley amazing.  

Sorry... I almost forgot.  We saw the Parthenon, and it was awesome.  Totally surreal to actually be in such a famous place high above the city. That's about it for now.  We are going to be sleeping overnight, and then arriving in to Santorini in the morning around 8am.  It's an 11 hour trip.  Dinner tonight is PB and bread.  We might get crazy and mix in some Nutella, who knows!  

Day 17 - Budapest

Note:  I have posted 2 blog entries at the same time again.  Read Day 16 first...

Right now, I am sitting... or I guess I should say laying on a train.  We are taking a night train from Vienna to Milan, so we can get to Athens.  Why?  Well, the only night train to Milan that is close to Budapest is from Vienna.  And, the cheapest airfare we could find is on EasyJet.  This flies out of Milan to Athens.  So, this explains our crazy roundabout way of getting to Greece.  Don't worry though... this isn't the most out of the way we are going.  Soon, we will travel from Greece to Spain and then back to Italy.  I will explain more when that time comes, but it's basically so we can run with the bulls in Pamplona.  Sorry, back to the task at hand...

We spent the morning in Buda.  Yesterday we were in Pest.  Honestly, we only spent a few hours in Budapest today, because we had to grab a train to Vienna.  Today is pretty much just a travel day.  Ok, honestly this morning was just hot and boring.  It might sound like Budapest kinda sucks, but it's pretty cool.  We just don't have enough time to figure it all out.  Also, we really wanted to go to one of the baths (kinda like hot springs) but there was no time for that either.

I will just skip to the train ride.  After another grocery store lunch (yogurt, banana, potato chips, twix - the usual suspects) we got to the Budapest train station just in time to miss our train to Vienna.  I shouted an obscenity and then we waited 2 more hours.  We made it to Vienna just in time for a ginormous slice of pizza and then boarded the 13 hour train to Milan.  We are in a sleeper car, but not like the more private one before.  This one is made for 4 people.  So far it is the two of us, and one other girl from Serbia.  Her name is Bilja.  I just asked her how to spell it, and she spelled it in German, so the spelling is an educated guess.  By the way, I feel pretty stupid because we asked her how many languages she spoke and it added up to over 10.  

Anyway, we have spent the last 2 hours or so talking about politics (George Bush & Hillary v. Obama), architecture & urban design (she is getting her PhD in architecture), and business (she wants to be a famous artist and sell her stuff all over the world).  Needless to say, it's been fun getting to know someone different.  We literally spent an hour with a map of Europe and just talked about which countries hate each other and why.  We also discussed religion, entrepreneurship, and where babies come from.

Alright, bed time.  I am going to finish up a movie and get some sleep.  I am watching "This is England".  It's an independent film I downloaded on iTunes yesterday.  Hopefully it lives up to the recommendations.  Peace!

Day 16 - Vienna/Budapest

There hasn't been much luck when it comes to easily finding out lodging every day.  And there has been just as little luck finding our way from each hostel back to the train station, metro, etc.  Vienna was different though!  When we arrived, we had a sign pointing us right to our hostel.  When we left, we figured out that our hostel was about 50 meters from the train station we were departing from.  It was really great considering we were running right up against the wire as usual.  So, we boarded the train and took off with a good amount of time to spare.  

After about 3 hours, we were in Budapest.  This city is much different than the others.  It is the furthest east we will be going, and also is the most diverse culture... which brings me to my next point.  Honestly, the culture here was pretty boring and somewhat cold.  Everyone from tram operators to waitstaff at restaurants treated us like stupid Americans.  They didn't even try to speak our language.  How dare they!  We are Americans!

Anyway, the day was filled mostly with roaming around the city.  We saw some baths, ate more pizza, saw a few cool buildings and monuments, at at the grocery store for dinner, and finished the night posting pictures... which was a much needed activity.  Other than that, not too much to keep going on about, so I will cut this one short.  

Pictures!!!

Alright, the time has finally come...  We are starting the process of posting pictures.  As soon as I get my camera working, I will post some videos and different things I have done. We are working backwards, so please keep checking back as photos from the beginning of our trip will be coming soon.  After we get all caught up over the next few days, it will stay current. 

The majority of our photos will be Josh's work, and can be found here: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/josh.hargrave.608

Also, the link can be found in the future on the right hand side of the page.  Just click PHOTO GALLERY.

Enjoy!

Hello to Josh's blog followers...

I just want to say a quick hello to all of Josh's friends and family who are following our journey over these couple months.  I have been blogging daily, and will continue to do so up until our return to the States.  Josh will also be posting from time to time.

The reason we are combining the blog is because Josh is going to focus on pictures, and I am going to focus on writing (and Josh really hates blogging).  It just works out better this way.  So, please follow along.  If you want to catch up, just start at the beginning of my blog.  That is where Josh left off!  

Day 15 - Prague/Vienna

I usually just wait until the end of the day to blog, but I have a 4 hour train ride to Vienna today and I chugged 2 cups of coffee before I left, so I thought I would spend a few minutes doing some mid-day writing.  Right now, I am riding through the Czech countryside.  Right now it's fairly flat, and we are right beside what looks like cornfields.  I might be a total idiot, but that's what it looks like.  Looks like I am driving up I-35 in the middle of Kansas or Nebraska.  Makes me miss good ol' midwest, USA... but that's another blog altogether.

Anyway, today is going to be a great day for a few reasons.  First of all, it started off great with a hearty breakfast at our last hours in Sir Toby's Hostel.  They have the best breakfast I have encountered so far.  It cost 100 Crowns which right now is about $6.50 USD.  They had organic, fair trade coffee, fresh pancakes, scrambled eggs, homemade granola, and all sorts of breads and cereal.  It was really a great breakfast, and it's all you can eat.  I had a pancake, some eggs, granola w/ yogurt, and 2 cups of coffee.  Josh had a similar spread, but chose hot tea.

The other reason it's going to be a great day is because today is the Euro 2008 final in Vienna, and that's exactly where we are headed.  In a matter of hours, we are going to be right in the middle of the chaos.  I can't wait to watch the game with hundreds of thousands of people.  It is going to be so fun!  Can't wait!  Alright, well that's about it for now.  I will write more later tonight after the game...

... I am writing again from the train.  This time we are on the way to Budapest.  I would have finished the blog at the end of the night last night, but it ended up being a little later than I thought, and I was also pretty tired.  Alright, so we got in to Vienna, and were pleasantly surprised to see a sign for our hostel right outside the train station.  We stayed at Westend City Hostel, which was very centrally located between the train station and FanZone, where we headed to watch the game.  After a quick check-in, it was about 4:30pm or so and time to start heading toward the main area where everyone was hanging out and getting ready to watch the game.  By getting ready to watch the game I mean people were drinking lots of beer.  We decided that it would be a good idea to just grab a few beers at the mini-market before we headed in to the FanZone, and drink them on the streets (We weren't breaking any laws because it's legal to do this in Austria).  It was a good idea too, because in the mini-market they are about 1.50 Euro.  In the FanZone, they are 4.50 Euro.  So, we grabbed a quick bite (McDonalds for me and Pizza for Josh), had a couple of drinks, and headed in to the craziness.  The place was getting full hours before the game, and they had everything from games to music to food and drink.  It was a great scene with all the Spanish and German fans being cordial for the most part.

The game started around 8:45 and lasted about 2 hours.  I really loved just being in the middle of all the fans and experiencing true passion for sports.  You don't see it as much in the States, and I can't really put my finger on why.  It might just be the fact that it's so many people with so much passion for their country, paired with so much passion for the sport.  Anyway, it was really a cool event.  If you didn't watch, Spain won 1-0.  Josh and I then had to do the walk of shame back to the hostel, as we had decided before the game to buy German flags and wear them around as we rooted for Germany.  Bad decision I guess.

After a quick stop for pizza (yes, that's 2 times for Josh in about 6 hours if you are keeping score at home) we headed back the the hostel, and found that our room was about 100 degrees.  So, we went down to the lobby, grabbed a fan, and made the best of it.  Just for the record, falling asleep sweating is not the greatest feeling in the world.  

Day 14 - Prague/Kutna Hora

A quick note... please read the blog right before this one.  I have posted 2 at the same time.  So, read Day 12 before Day 13...

If you aren't careful, it's easy to just spend your time in the city everywhere you go.  I think my favorite thing about traveling to new places is getting outside the city and exploring the culture and landscape a little more...  Which is exactly what we decided to do on this day.  After a quick check with the front desk of Sir Toby's Hostel, we decided to go to a little town about an hour south of Prague called Kutna Hora.  The main reason we decided to go there is because it houses a very unique and totally random Bone Church.  What is a bone church, you might ask.  Well, I haven't ever been to any others, but this one is a church surrounded by a graveyard, which houses bones of 40,000 different human beings.  Everything in this church that isn't wall is human bones.  For example, the center of the church has a chandelier which is made up of every bone in the human body.  Obviously, the fixture uses multiple bones of the same type, but the cool part is that it uses every bone in the human body... and it's a chandelier.  Pretty interesting stuff.  I would recommend it to anyone traveling to Prague for a few days.  

I would not, however, recommend spending a lot of time in the town.  We walked around for a few hours, thinking we might stumble upon something cool and we ended up just getting tired and bored.  For example, we sat on this bench for about 30 minutes or so, throwing rocks at a dead bird.  Then, when that got old, we noticed that there was an ice cream cone next to the bird.  Josh decided that the bird would look much cooler with a waffle cone on it's head, so he made sure that happened.  Then we threw a few more rocks at it....

We got back to the train station just in time to jump on the train before it took off back to Prague.  Just in the nick in fact.... anyway, we must have boarded the wrong train, because we stopped every 5 minutes or so.  It took an hour to get to Kutna Hora, and about 2 1/2 to get back to Prague.  Not sure what we did but that tested my patience a little bit.  Luckily the iPod was charged enough to get me all the way back... that reminds me.  One thing I have been doing on this trip is just listening to my iPod randomly.  Right now I have 2416 songs on it, and I just am hitting random whenever I get on a train.  Obviously I will skip songs, but it's been really nice to just have anything pop up.  I may sound super dorky right now talking about this, but it's something I have been doing a lot and I really like it.  I think I will keep it up.  Right now I am listening to "Lovers Side of Town" by Joe Purdy.  Another quick note.  If you haven't ever listened to Joe Purdy, do it as quickly as possible.  My friend Laurel introduced me to him a little over a year ago, and I have been hooked ever since.  Great chill music.

Ok, what a rambler I am...  After we got back, I grabbed a quick shower and we headed over for a late dinner at the pizzeria next door.  Turns out that we had one of the best pizzas I have ever had.  Since Josh is veg these days, we split a cheese pizza.  It had mozzarella, gorgonzola, parmesan, and one other.  It was really incredible.  Top 5 pizzas I have ever had.  Maybe top 3.

After dinner, we headed back and talked with some friends we made a few days earlier in the hostel kitchen.  They are from Santa Barbara.  The connection there is my sister who goes to Westmont.  Turns out, this guy is the son of the chaplain at Westmont.  Once I get around a phone, I am going to call Emily and tell her about it.  Another Santa Barbara connection is my dear friend Cara Sanders.  They didn't know her, but I thought I would give her a shout out... we talked to them and another random Aussie named Dan for a while, then headed down the the little downstairs pub with Dan to grab a bedtime brew.  We sat down and then were joined soon by a group of other cool people.  Some from Australia, some from the UK, and then a few others from the States.  I talked to a girl from Kentucky for a while named Christina.  She was a very naturally pretty girl.  She graduated from St. Louis University, and now lives in Austin in the Winter, Chicago in the Summer, and takes a month off during Christmas.  How great is that?  Anyway, we talked for a while and then I headed off to bed without getting any of her info.  Mistake?  Possibly...  

Day 13 - Prague

Our hostel in Prague was Sir Toby's Hostel.  It was definitely the best one I have stayed in, and I think Josh would agree that it was pretty solid.  The place is 4 stories tall, and also has a basement which serves at the breakfast area in the morning and the bar at night.  The next floors are all different types of rooms.  Some are 8-10 bed rooms, and others are as small as 2-5.  For those of you that aren't familiar with Hosteling, it's basically whatever you want to spend for convenience and comfort.  So, if you are a light sleeper and just want a night by yourself or with one other person, normally you can get a 2 bed room.  I really prefer staying in something larger though.  First of all it's cheaper.  Secondly, it's just a lot more fun to hang out in a room with other new and different people...  If this trip has taught me anything so far, it's that I want to continue to grow and appreciate new people, ideas, and cultures.  I think that back in the Texas Bible Belt, it's easy to get used to being "normal" or being around people that are "normal".  This trip makes me want to step outside that box even more than I already do when I get back.  

Alright, so back to Prague.  We woke up around 10am or so, wandered over to the local supermarket and grabbed some random breakfast foods.  I had a banana (like I do pretty much every day), an apple, a small loaf of bread, and a breakfast bar.  Josh did basically the same thing.  I think he might have gone crazy and grabbed some yogurt.  After breakfast we headed off to the Prague Castle.  On our way we wandered through the cool medieval streets (all uphill).  It is really cool to be able to wander through a city that has been, for the most part, completely preserved though the years.  It's just a different feel when you can be in a place where all of the buildings are still in tact, and the history is so preserved.   Ok, the Prague Castle is really a sight.  It sits up above the main part of the city, and is so intricate.  I wont bore you with the details, but just know that it's pretty incredible.  Once I get my dang camera connected somehow, I will upload pictures of it.  Another option that will be coming very soon will be a site that Josh is going to upload all his pictures to.  Once it is set up (hopefully soon) I will direct everyone toward it.  Sorry, I am getting off track.  Prague Castle houses one of the coolest churches I have ever seen.  The architecture is incredible, but the inside is what is amazing.  The stained glass is just really amazing.  Again, pictures will be available soon.

After Prague Castle, we resorted to doing what we are really starting to do best... wandering.  We covered most of the main part of the city during the next 3-4 hours.  Let's see... I am trying to think of something exciting for this day, but honestly it was just sightseeing.  Kinda boring honestly.  I will just skip to dinner, which was easily one of the best parts of the day.  We wanted to grab a good meal since we have been eating randomly for the past while.  So, we thought the best option would be to find some internet and look up a good place online (because we have the computer now!).  Turns out the only place we could find with free wifi was the local KFC... that's right, Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Not a cool coffee shop or cafe.  Thanks America.  Anyway, we looked up some places on Frommers and found an Italian place pretty near by.  It turned out to be a really excellent decision.  This place was great, and now rivals the Vietnamese in Berlin as the best meal so far.  For me - 4 cheese penne pasta with chicken.  For Josh - spinach and cheese ravioli.  We paired that up with a few Pilsner Urquels each, and it was a great meal.  Then we waited an hour for the check.  Freaking Italians...

Day 12 - Berlin/Prague

So I said in my last post that it was the last full day in Berlin.  Actually, we ended up staying a little longer than we thought today.  I mentioned that we were waiting on the computer, and that it had, in fact, arrived.  The only problem is that they didn't drop it off.  They kept it at the main post office in Berlin because there is a tax on incoming goods.  It's an EU tax they use to make sure people aren't shipping in goods for cheap.  So, in an effort to completely plagiarize another person's blog, I am going to give you the story how Stephanie told it...

"However, the morning they left we went to pick up their laptop.  Ryan had it shipped here because they realized as they went that for what they were doing, it was needed.  It came, but because the value was written as $2000 they wouldn't deliver it (due to the 20% tax that the EU puts on all such shipped items).  I had warned them ahead of time about this, but somewhere in the chaos of it all, the message was lost.  So the German Post was definitely holding the computer hostage.

It just happened to be about an hour away from where we live by public transport, which wouldn't have been so annoying if we hadn't made the trip 1 1/2 times due to my failure to accurately read the hours of operation on the postal slip.  So, yesterday morning we began our second trip there, to find out that the U4 had been shut down and was not running past Schoneburg, and so we had to go back the way we came, catch another line, and head a different direction to end up at the same point.  I got out my phone and alerted the GPS to our whereabouts, except that I am not really good with maps or directions, so I walked us in circles.  Every time I asked anyone where we should go, they directed me through the park, including the man at the city hall with the bushiest eyebrows I had ever seen and a fantastic collection of ear and nose hair - as well as the transvestite who thought I was hitting on her man when I asked for directions, so she sent me the opposite direction that we were supposed to go (once again, through the park.)  Thankfully, Ryan was smarter than all of that and said, "Hey Steph, I think it's this building behind us."

So we get in and register to wait.  That's right, register to wait.  Then we waited.  Then they called us up and told us that the tax would be 250 Euros.  Josh maintained stunning composure the entire time (this is true to character as my cousin Jessie likes to refer to Josh as the most peaceful person she has ever met), but I could see Ryan starting to calculate the extravagant cost of convenience.  Ryan and Josh then did what they do best, discuss why it will work out and why even if the worst case scenario happens, everything will be OK... They call our number, 63.  That's when it started.  I explained that they were backpacking, had the computer shipped, it was obviously not worth $2000 but as Americans we write this kind of stuff for insurance purposes.  They then told me that this was stupid and they should have known EU tax laws before they shipped, and that the American system is stupid.  I then explained to them that as stupid as it is, that was no less the case and that it made little logical sense for two guys backpacking through Europe to send for their laptop to pay $400 in tax on it so that they didn't have to go to an internet cafe and so on and so forth.  After a lot of back and forth, they charged the minimum tax (47.25 Euros) and we were on our way.  Let me just say I was dealing with the two most patient men I have ever encountered in my life, and I was grateful."

So, that's the story of the shipped computer.  This story and many other great little excerpts can be found at cricketjohnson.blogspot.com 

The rest of the day consisted of jelly donuts for lunch, a 4 hour train ride to Prague, peanuts for dinner, and our first night's stay at Sir Toby's Hostel in Prague.  I will talk more about the hostel in the next post.  I think this is long enough.