ok so. the big dump is here

7/10/07: travel day!

We got up in time for one more awesome 4 euro breakfast before getting on the bus, which is good considering how long the day ahead would be. As we have come to expect, an easy, pleasant ride on the bus, though because of watching scrubs on the bus I now want to watch the show from the beginning. We got to our intermediate stop, St Johann, early, and the hostel there used to give us this big breakfast,but laws have changed, so we get no breakfast but still have to stop for an hour,and it was raining. We got to Venice around 6pm, got some food at the store a the campsite, and made dinner. Drank 2 24oz italian beers and a bottle of fizzy pink wine along with our crostinis, salami, and cheese. Yum. We even were able to drink wine without a screwtop, thanks to the swiss army knife Brett got in Lautrbrunnen!

7/11/07- Venice


We set the alarm to get up in time for the 9am shuttle into Venice, but when we heard the rain on the roof at 7:45, we decided to sleep in. Happily, when we woke up jus after 10, it had stopped raining. We missed the 11 am shuttle by 6 min, which was a bummer because the noon bus was really packed. It took about 30 min to get into Venice proper, and when we got there a girl from our Busabout bus the day before attached herself to us, so we had a tagalong. Venice is an incredibly charming city when you get away from the main tourist areas like Piazza San Marco. We didn't even bother with a map, just navigated by signs pointing out major sights. It's quite fun to wander around in the little teeny streets and look in all the shop windows at all the masks and stuff. There are no cars in Venice proper, and they think that bicycles are for children, so it's very quiet inside the city, no fucking mopeds. It's all very pedestrianized. There are tons of little bridges over small canals, plus the huge Rialto bridge, which is just swarmed with tourists. We got a little frustrated trying to get back to the shuttle, because we kept hitting alleys that dead-ended at the grand canal. However, I made good use of our map and found our way back. Got some great pictures, to be uploaded probably in Munich.

when we got back we bought 4 more huge Italian beers, two bottles of wine, and food for dinner. We played drinking blackjack, ate blue cheese, talked with the busabout driver, and then went to the campsite bar with the Bad-luck couple. Had to retreat to the cabin when the mosquitoes started eating me alive. Good thing, too, because I had a vicious headache in the morning.

7/12/07- Venice
Today we slept in and decided not to go into Venice proper. I just coudn't justify the 4€ and the crowds. Plus the canals reek. We went to the campsite pool and lounged around for 4 hours, did laundry, and I got to talk to my dad for 45min, though I did get eaten alive from the knees down again. Went to bed early after finally trying the a/c and finding that it in fact works.

7/13/07-crazy insane travel day

Well, the short bus ride to Ancona was nice, with some lovely ocean views following a surprisingly long stretch of cornfields. Brett surprised me with ice cream while we were waiting for the ferry in Ancona- said I looked cute and cute girls get ice cream. He's so sweet.

Being on this trip makes me wonder why so few Americans travel in Europe. Tons of Aussies do, though, and Kiwis and Canadians a good bit as well. I wrote a whole bunch in my journal about this, but it would take a long time to type.

I wrote a whole crapload in my journal on the ferry, but suffice to say it was uncomfortable and interminable, followed by 6 hours of waiting in Split, where we apparently chose to sit in 'homeless people central' by the looks of things.

7/14/07-Split
We were supposed to be belowdecks on the boat, but we got upgraded to a top deck cabin, with our own bathroom and shower. It's the traditional trick shower you find on all boats, but it's ours!

The boat is a fairly large boat with an entirely Croatian crew, and the provided lunches are really big and good. Soup, some sort of salad, meat and veggies. Fruit for dessert. After lunch we got under way, and Brett and I went up to the top deck to sunbathe. It's quite hot up there, but occasionally a breeze popped up to cool us off. Then we stopped along the coast, and we all jumped off the boat into the Adriatic! I'm rather proud to have been the second person to leap from the railings, and the first girl to do so by a hefty 6 or 7 person margin. I rock. The water was perfectly clear, and a perfect balance of warm enough to wallow in but cool enough to be refreshing. We treaded (trod?) water for 30min, then hopped back on the boat to laze in the sun for a few more hours.

The coastal views are fantastic. They're unassuming, but its all spectacular white cliffs, mountains all befurred with pine trees and shrubs, like a chia pet gone horribly awry. All along the ridges, there are lines of white-walled houses with red roofs and arched collonade facades. The contrast of the deep blue ocean and the olive, tan, and white of the coastline is quite arresting.

We pulled into Makarska, our stop for the night, and after a fun struggle with our recalcitrant shower (aka sink, since it's one of those boat showers where the faucet is the shower head and the entire bathroom is the stall) Brett and I set off for beers. Dinner at the same place we had beer with the combined groups from both busabout boats. It was ok, but not especially impressive. They did have cherry brandy though which was pretty good. Then we got gelato for the equivalent of $1. I guess I paid in dignity, though. I didn't want to just assume that the gelato guy spoke english, so I asked him, and he said, in perfect english, "no, I only speak Croatian." Jerkass.

7/15/07- Croatia
Got up in perfect time for breakfast, where Brett tried the spreadable meat paste, which smelled like cat food but apparently tasted pretty good. When we stopped for a swim break I once again proved how hard I rock by being the only girl to jump from the very top deck of the boat. We swam for a long time in water that so clear that you could see the bottom many many feet below us, then went to Mljet, where we traipsed to the national park (90kuna each! Pricey park!) where we ditched the group and swam in the huge saltwater lake for a couple hours. Walking in the park involved a thick, intense scent of pine resin, and the sawing insects so loud it seemed like saws. These insects were so loud that as we sailed you could hear them from the islands, way out where we were in the channels. When we came back to the boat we got lost 8 boats deep, because ours had moved to another stack. They don't dock in separate slips here, they just dock 8 boats right alongside each other and you hop through all of them to get to your particular boat.

We learned some Croatian, after which time they started bringing us free Croatian snacks. We had pizza and lasagna for dinner, a few beers, then tried to go to sleep. Between the insane heat of our room and the raucous Aussie party on deck, that proved a bit difficult.

7/16/07- Croatia

happy birthday to Josh!! I tried to figure out how to call, but I couldn't figure it out, so I emailed. The loud drunk people from last night left a huge mess on the upper deck, and the poor crew guy had to clean it up.

This Croatia cruise is like a vacation within a vacation! It's the best gift I've ever gotten. Tonight Brett tried to order an amaretto and the crew guy told him it was a woman's drink and gave him slivovic instead!

We docked in Dubrovnik tonight, and instead of wedging ourselves into a packed bus with everyone else, we walked to the Old City. It wasn't very far but it was swelteringly hot. Really really hot. Unbelievably hot. W walked around in the old town for a while, and while it's really crowded with tourist shops and stuff, I've been told the coral jewelry in Korcula, where we are staying tomorrow night, is awesome, so I'm holding out. After fortifying ourselves with some really good ice cream (mine was cinnamon and , tasted like a churro) we braved walking the old city walls. If anything, it was hotter on the walls than down in the city streets. My only consolation was that every single person was just drenched with sweat, just like me. The views were pretty sweet, though, especially of the town. After the walls, we walked past the boat and to the supermarket and then back to the boat. I sluiced off with a cold shower, then we spent the rest of the night drinking on the boat, playing cards, chatting with the crew, and chatting with other passengers as they passed through.

7/17/07- Croatia

today we woke up in the nick of time for breakfast, and as we stopped for our swim break, just as the engine cut, we saw a billowing cloud of toilet paper, and, I assume, sewage, bloom out the side of the boat. Apparently they "accidentally" jettisoned the tanks. Eeew. We made them move before we got into the water.

Bought some earrings in Korcula, after a stop in Tristenek, a teeny tiny fishing village. The captain's dinner was quite good, especially the spaghetti carbonara, and the whole fish has inspired Brett and now he wants to cook whole fish. We drank on the boat, then a big group of us went for late night pizza. The pizza here is seriously some of the tastiest pizza I've had anywhere.

7/18/07- Croatia

I fell down the stairs last night, and managed to give myself a truly spectacular bruise on my ass. Luckily it's high enough that a) it doesn't hurt to sit, and b)I can show it off. Our swim break was several hours long, so we hopped in and out of the water several times, then cruised into Hvar. It was hotter than satan's panties again, but we still walked around, had fucking amazing nutella ice cream, then went back to the boat to try to cool off. We had a picnic with the group tonight, where Brett's swiss army knife was in high demand. We had salami, a local goat cheese, and bread and calimocho. Why does it seem like I've described that meal before? Hmmmm.

We passed on $20 cocktails to chill on the boat, then during the dance mix of that traditional zorba the greek song, Julan and the chef lady start clapping and yelling, and all of a sudden we're doing a circle dance like we did at Petru's wedding, where the old man told Brett that you knew it was a good dance if the women's breasts were jiggling.
When we went to bed it was so hot in the room that I just soaked the front of my shirt with water, and got up several times during the night to repeat. Brett ended up getting up in the middle of the night to take a cold shower. It did actually seem to keep us a bit cooler.

7/19/07- Croatia

woke up sweaty with the sun blazing into the cabin at 7:15, had bre kasta

, and found out one of the passengers had been arrested last night because an ATM ate his card and he yelled and screamed and broke some advertising or something. He got a 9000 kuna fine - that's like $1800!!
When we had our swim break in Bol, the current was so strong that I was a little concerned about getting back to the ladder! Brett and I got some cool burst shots of us jumping off the boat, though. It was a long, hot day with no hint of breeze to keep me from melting at all. When we got into Omis, we walked around in the heat anyway, but man. We walked up this huge tower on the towering shoulder of the mountains that jut up just past the coast, a journey full of steep, high, slippery Croatian stone, and so steep at the top that you had to climb a ladder up the last bit. Oh, and the stone here is the stone they used to build the white house. Went to a place called Barboli's for excellent pizza and beers, then went to bed early, since our room wasn't too unbearably hot.

7/20/07- Croatia

aside from 4 drunk Frenchmen who jumped into the harbor singing, yelling, and giggling like dolphins, best night of sleep so far. In fact, wonder of wonders, there was a breeze this morning! About half our boat went rafting this morning, so we didn't get underway until 1 or 2. My massive bruise continues to evolve and get uglier. When we got into Split we had to say goodbye to Colin, the Tazzie we met on board, because he had a ferry that night back to Ancona and then another to Greece - 40 hours of ferries there. Also we had to say goodbye to Liz and Dan, the only other Americans on board, because they had a flight back to Michigan. Sad. We had dinner and drinks with most of the group, including flaming shots in a god-sent air-conditioned bar.

7/21/07- Croatia

I got up and slept out on deck three separate times last night. I think it was my worst night of sleep yet. Then we left the boat to take up residence in the same park where we waited for the cruise to start, only this time we were waiting for checkin at our hotel. The room was quite nice, and blessedly air-conditioned, so mostly we hid out in there, took a nap, venturing out only for food and to act on our decision to slash Nice to 1 night and extend our stay in Lauterbrunnen to 7 nights. Happily, I received emails back both from the hostel in Nice where we were canceling and Camping Jungfrau, confirming our respective cancellations and bookings, including that they had managed, as requested, to switch our many-layered booking in Lauterbrunnen to one private room the whole stay. yay!!! I'm really excited about spending lots of time there again. I snagged an abandoned copy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter from the boat, having finished the Margaret Atwood and Jose Saramago books, and am already halfway through it. It's really good.

7/22/07-Insane crazy travel day(s)
The one bad thing about this pension is the lack of hot water in which to shower. Yipes! Checked out as late as possible, and have been drifting about ever since, killing time in Diocletian's Palace, which is the really cool retirement palace of Roman emporer Diocletian, who holds the record as emporer who killed and harrassed the most christians. He was poisoned, along with. is wife and children, about 5 years after moving in. Now, the palace is a working ruin, with tourist shops, sighs, pensions, restaurants, bars, and residences inside its walls. I was decared UNESCO protected i n he early 19070's, which is quite early. Our ferry leaves at 10pm, so we'll probably go down to go through customs around 6. Last time we were able to snag a table and seats because we were so early, and besides, we'll be waiting no matter where we aer. The only good thing is that we dropped off our big bags in lockers storage last night, so we've just had day backs to carry around in the heat today.

We got our passports stamped again! Yay! Got on the ferry after two huge beers in plastic bottles. We played rummy to 1000 points, then settled down to sleep. I wish we had drunk a whole lot of beer the first time, because we both slept for about 6 hours.

7/23/07- more travel day
Got off the ferry just fine around 9 am, then hung out in the port authority building eating crackers and cheese and playing rummy. When we were finally done waiting there and at the train station, our cheerful blue bus pulled up and Harriet was squealing and waving hello wildly.

The bus was PACKED and this group of four Aussie girls refused to give up the rows that each girl had to herself. Bitches. Luckily someone else was nice and moved so that we could get seats.

At the campground we got all checked in, worked out Harriet booking our Lauterbrunnen to Munich sector, since, having traveled it once the system won't let us do it online ourselves, and then we went to the supermarket to get food, beer, and wine. It was an early night, cuz we were beat.

7/24/07- Rome
We got up early today to get a head start on Rome. We got into the city after successfully navigating both the bus and metro system, something that always makes me feel very self-sufficient. The Colosseum is really RIGHT THERE when you come out of the metro station, and we got there right around 8:30, so while it was hot and crowded, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The Colosseum is really massive and impressive, but whether it's having seen too many pictures of it or too many digital reproductions, I mostly left with the impression that it was big and old.
On the way to the Pantheon, we made a wrong turn and stumbled into the ruins of the Roman Forum. It was incredible. Just a big valley, maybe 2 football fields wide and 3-4 long, with foundations, toppled walls, columns, and monuments scattered about, punctuated by incongruously standing sets of 6 columns and a bit of roof, or a piece of a carving, or a nearly intact temple. Very surreal, and I found it almost as affecting, and in much the same way, as Stonehege was.
Then we went through another victory arch (I think this one was Titus'), checked out the Caesar monument, which is the very clear basis for Caesar's Palace in Vegas, and went to the Pantheon.
It sucks that the Pantheon has been taken over and Christianized, but it's still a pretty powerful place, and the dome is dizzying optically, with the hole in the center to steady you. Supposedly it's there so that the rain can wash the temple clean, but I don't know if nowadays they cover the hole in bad weather.
After that we tried to go see the Trevi Fountain, but it was being cleaned, so it was dry and had men with scrub-brooms scrambling about inside. It looked a bit like I imagine those cleaner fish in whales' mouths might look. Our luck must have completely run out by then, because our last stop of the day was the Spanish steps, which were totally pointless and totally disappointing.
Then we made our way back through public transportation, which included an interesting scene on the bus. Some asshole Italian brought a massive group of teenagers on the bus, so it was totally crammed, and there were two backpackers loaded down with gear, front and back. Incidentally, this is my worst nightmare, carrying full day and real pack, on bus or metro, it's totally packed and you're completely huge and unwieldy, AND it's about 1000°. Awful. Anyway, the girl catches a guy with his hand in her front pack, yells something Aussie-ish like "OI!" and at the next stop he and his 4 accomplices get off, one of whom shoves the guy backpacker, knocking him back into some old man who'd been glaring at me, I think for daring to hang on using the same bar as him. The old guy shoves the backpacker, who tries to explain what happened. Then the old guy's wife shoves the backpacker, and then the old couple gets off at the next stop. Fucking Italy, man. Directly after this, Brett and I wen to the grocery, and though we literally had half our groceries on the belt, some bitch swoops in and plops her stuff down in front of ours on the belt.
In the afternoon we drank a lot, splashed around in the pool a bit, and on the 3rd try I finally got in touch with my mom, chatted for a while, and figured out which saint medallion to get grandma at the Vatican tomorrow.

7/25/07-Rome

we got up early again to take the 8am shuttle to the Vatican, which was a bit of an oversold kerfuffle, but we got there, and that's what matters. The line for the Sistine Chapel was super long, so we started at St. Peter's Basilica. The obelisk outside is from Heliopolis in Egypt, too. St. Peter's Basilica is MASSIVE. Watching girls get turned away for inapropriate dress, I was very glad to ahve ilstened to advice, because I wore long capris, and brought a T-shirt to pull over my tank top, and I was fine. The basilica is a perfect example of the ridiculous opulence and wealth of the Catholic church. I don't understand how people can be spiritually moved by it, but hey.

We got in line for the Sistine chapel, but after maybe 2 minutes we admitted to each other that we weren't THAT interested in the first place, much less to wait 4 hours for something that I at least am in large part seeing so people don't give me shit for skipping the Sistine chapel. Besides, I was grouchy because the Pope is supposed to come out and wave on Wednesdays, but he's on holiday, so I missed it. He looks like the emperor from Star Wars anyway. The old Pope was probaly just as much of a dick as this one, but at least he LOOKED nice and benevolent.

Turns out, it took us over 5 minutes to VERY briskly walk past the rest of the line for the chapel, so good call on our part. That's at least a half mile! We lounged at the pool, and are just relaxing until we leave for Florence tomorrow. Maybe Florence and Cinque Terre will change my opinion, but so far, I am not a fan of Italy. I wouldn't come back here again for vacation. Spain is still my favorite country by far.

7/26/07-travel day to Florence
Not much to say about today, except that we traveled on a quite full coach to florence with one of the dreaded 1 1/2 hour useless stops in Orvieto. The campsite was okay, but their store was terrible and the kitchen facilities even worse. Brett walked really far in the heat to get us food. We were only in Florence for like 18 hours, so there's not much to say about it.

7/27/07-travel day to Cinque Terre
Hopped on the bus for a 4 hour bus ride to Cinque Terre, though it was actually only 2 hours or so, since we spent close to 2 hours in Pisa. It was a long stop, but it was really cool to see the famous leaning tower. I always thought it was alone but there are some really cool buildings nearby it as well.

We got on the correct local train from La Spezia, where we were dropped off, to Riomaggiore, the village we staed in. We also overheard some dumb Aussie girls talking about how they can't wait to go home so that they can wear high heels. Wow.

Our hostel is quite nice, with free laundry, kitchen, ensuite bathroom, and only 5 beds in the room. We met Nina and Allen, two extremely nice Canadians, and, strangely enough, our other roommate went to RB.

They all came later, though. We just dropped off our stuff and took the train to Monterossa, the farthest of the 5 villages, and hiked the Lover's Lane trail back to Riomaggiore. Whoever named it Lover's Lane had a lofty idea of love, because you have to really love each other to still be exchanging sappy sentiments after 12km of foot-high stairs and grueling heat. My entire back, most of my front, and the entirety of the back of my shorts were soaked. Yum. Still, it was a gorgeous hike with stunning coastal views that reminded me of the northern california coast. You hiked through vineyards and people's backyard gardens full of basil and tomatoes and squash and such. Very nice. Cooked dinner and drank a bunch while chatting politics, language, and Chinese-Taiwanese relations with the Canadians.

7/28/07-Cinque Terre
Didn't do much today, just walked around Riomaggiore, ate gelati, and hung out. Cooked again, and hung out with the Canadians, went to bed early.

7/29/07-travel day to Nice
Got up in plenty of time for the train to La Spezia, despite some dumb girls who tried to tell me that the train timetable said certain trains were the only ones running on Sundays. In fact, the timetable said which trains were extra on Sundays, ie in addition to the regular trains scheduled. But then, these girls have 8-bedroom houses at home and got their 5-month trip entirely paid for as 18th birthday presents. So.

We got to Nice just fine, and it's been interesting just how comfortable I feel being back in France, even if it's just for a night. I guess it makes ssense, but even Brett said he felt really comfortable. And! We were getting settled ino our dorm when something really cool happened. We had both taken top bunks (mine in the narrow edge of the roof slant. I literally had a maximum of 3feet clearance on the tall side, with less than a foot on the short side), and there was one bunk that looked sort of made, but also sort of rumpled. The cleaning lady came in and demanded in french who was there, and I responded that I didn't know, but that I didn't think anyone was. Then she asked me something too fast for me to catch, so I asked her to slow down. She had asked when we arrived, so I told her 5 minutes ago. It was so cool, because not only did she not automatically switch to english when she heard me speak, but I carried out a useful conversation that I had no opportunity to rehearse! I felt very accomplished.
We got canned pasta, canned pears and peaches, and hot pockets for dinner, along with two bottles of local rose. Speaking of wine, I now have ammunition against anyone who gives me shit about putting ice in my wine, because I saw a group of 6 or 7 french people calmly putting ice in their wine. Voila! Instant justification.

After a quick shower (also cold, since otherwise the shower tried to scald me occasionally), we went to bed.

7/30/07-Travel day
Well, the day started so-so, and had it's ups and downs all day long. We began with a guy still drunk from last night running to catch the bus as his friend ran up and down the aisle screaming at the driver to stop and pick him up. They got him on board, but he was still so out of it that he couldn't even find his passport. Less than 5 minutes later, the driver rolled into the bumper of a car at a stop sign, so we had to stop and exchange info, etc.

Luckily, shortly afterward, we stopped in Eze for the only onus stop I've really enjoyed so far. We took a tour of the Fragonard perfume factory, tested some perfumes, and Brett got me this awesome perfume (real parfum, not eau de toilett) that smells a lot like strawberries. He also got one for himself that is awesome, a mandarin spicy scent. Yum. Mine's called 'juste un baiser' or 'just a kiss' and his is called 'diamant.' I told him that I'd turn him into an effeminate frenchman yet.
However, things took a turn for the worse several hours later, when the bus broke down on the freeway. We only narrowly avoided being towed and ticketed by the incredibly over-zealous Italian police. I think they're just mad that they have pansy-ish fuschia stripes on their pants. Anyway, thanks to a passenger who spoke Italian, 200€ to get us off the road, and a fortuitously passing empty Contiki bus, we were on our way again after oly 2-3 hours on the side of the road. When I say passing I mean that the bus was about 200 km away when we called. But at least we are back on the road, and should be only about 3 hours late getting in.

Sigh. Anyway, yesterday was 8 weeks away, with only 5 more to go. We also found out Kudra is staying with Ann for the rest of the summer because the backyard is getting done! That's super incredibly awesome! I'm really excited to see what it looks like when it's all finished!