EuroTrip

Hello all. We survived driving in Greece and had a great time. Now we are ready to head back to the States. I will upload the Greece blogs after we return. Unfortunately it is going to take us two days to get back. Seems there was a change in our flight schedule but we were never notified from cheaptickets.com where we bought the tickets or from British Airways. We tried to call Cheaptickets.com but got a call center in India that was unconcerned with our problems. So finally British Airways rescheudled our flight but we have to spend half the day waiting at Heathrow, then fly to Phili where we need to spend the night at our own expense, then fly to Dallas the next afternoon. What a hassle but at least we have plenty of time to spare. I really just want to be home for Thanksgiving and I think we will make that. Anyway as long as all this works out we will be home just a day later than planned. It will probably take a couple days to get my phone turned on and other errands taken care of. After that we hope to get in touch with everyone and start catching up on emails and gallery pictures.
Marcel

From the moment we flew into Athens we realized that this was a huge city, 3.7 million to be exact. The airport was very nice and most signs were in Greek and English. The Greek language is very different from any other in Europe because they use the Greek Alphabet. Some letters are the same as in A pronounced like a in father. Some look the same as in B but are pronounced like v in vine. Then there are the other letters which are Greek to me. Sometimes the English translations are difficult to understand too. Things like menus and even formal signage such as exhibits in museums might have English translations spelled just like they sound. You might see something like chiken sandwitch I guess we can't really complain because if it was only in Greek nobody would understand it at all except the Greeks. We didn't worry about it much though, so far we have managed just fine everywhere else in Europe. Just for a little fun here is an example of Greek letters in upper case, and in lower case, not necessarily in the correct order though.

αβψδεφγηιξκλμνοπ;ρστθωςχυζ

ΑΒΨΔΕΦΓΗΙΞΚΛΜΝΟΠ;ΡΣ

For a few euros we took the airport shuttle into town where they dropped us off at Syntagma Square. From there it was about a 20 minute walk to our hotel. We walked down one of the main shopping strips that looked to be designed for pedestrians only, although an occasional scooter or delivery truck would part the crowds of people. When we arrived at our hotel (the Cecil) we walked through the dense cigarette smoke to get our hotel keys and headed up another one of those old fashioned elevators with no door on it. Our room was ok but the view was great. We had a room that was built on the roof, surely an add-on. We actually had to walk out onto the roof, and then enter into our room which was like a separate building built on top of the roof. From the rooftop we could see the city and Acropolis! We had to ask the lobby to turn on the hot water in the morning but other than that and the cloud of cigarette smoke in the lobby we enjoyed our stay there.

Just the walk to the hotel made us eager to explore Athens. Many of the books and websites say people only come here for one night on the way to the islands and again on the way back home. I know it's a large polluted city, but it's also one of the great cities in the world with an even greater history. Walking around it was immediately apparent that Athens was much different from the rest of Europe. It has a market feel to it like you would expect to find in third world countries, but its modern at the same time. I suppose the city had an extreme makeover before the Olympics so what we were seeing was much nicer than you would have seen a few years ago. One major improvement is the subway system which has also cut down on pollution and traffic a bit. We never rode the subway since the Plaka area we were staying in had more than enough to keep us occupied. There were seemingly endless side streets of market type of shops and cafes. People everywhere were super friendly and welcoming. One girl was so friendly she even approached me and asked if I wanted to "make sex" Charlotte who was walking behind me was not impressed. She was however impressed with all the shopping that you could do here. We decided we would buy two suitcases in the market and fill them up with goodies to take back home. Previously we had bought little souvenirs but hadn't really been able to shop too much because obviously it's expensive to ship things back. Now we had a green light to shop since we could carry an extra two suitcases back. We went overboard but hey it's our first EuroTrip so why not.

There are two things that really stick out to me about Greece. Turns out most Greeks are very conservative, and they love cats. The girl that wanted to "make sex" was probably an isolated incident, or maybe she just really liked me In any case most people here seem to be very religious. The Greek Orthodox Church is a big deal here with something like over 90% of people claiming to be Greek Orthodox. Most people seem to be very honest too. Theft is more likely to occur from other tourists or immigrants than local Greeks. Greece is one of the few places in Europe that doesn't have late night smut on the TV, or sex stores cluttering up the touristy areas. I guess they still have them but not nearly as common as other countries in Europe.

What is cluttering up the tourist areas and every other area for that matter is cats. Cats are everywhere They are like roaches in Florida, dogs in the Philippines, or Americans in Italy It's not uncommon to see 10 cats lazing around someone's front porch. In many poorer countries animal control is a problem resulting in half starved and sometimes diseased animals running around town. But here the cats all seemed fat and happy. Most are still strays but people feed them anyway. Greeks do love cats and think it is taboo to neuter them. End result- CATopia. There are stray dogs too but not as many as you would see in third world countries. The dogs are kind of looked at like homeless bums. People feel sorry for them but don't pay much attention to them. Cats on the other hand are like the Greek man's best friend. I found it fascinating that they were all over the acropolis, at the beach, on the islands, around restaurants, and usually with a bowl of food or water nearby. It's a good thing the Greeks like cats so much otherwise I'd be worried if that really was chicken every time I ate a Gyro.

Speaking of Gyros the Greek food was really good I don't think anything can compare to real Italian food in Italy but after a month of that we were ready for a change, and what a change it was. Olives are a big deal here. They cook everything in olive oil and if that isn't enough you can order just a plate of olives. Fortunately Charlotte likes olive oil even though she doesn't like olives. One of our favorite dishes was the Greek salad. It commonly goes with any meal like a caesar salad would in the states. It usually consist of little tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, olives, feta cheese, and of course all soaked in olive oil. No lettuce in case you were wondering. Surprisingly it is quite filling. The main courses are usually some kind of grilled meat on skewers or gyros of some sort. Seafood is popular too, especially dried octopus. Like most of the other Mediterranean places the beer was just ok, nothing special. I tried several including Alfa, Mythos, and the Peoymniakh Bio beer from Crete which was actually really good. That last beer was not a typical beer in Greece. We found it at Eden the outstanding Vegetarian restaurant in town. There we were able to try a couple of traditional beef dishes that they made vegetarian style.

Between shopping and eating we did manage to do a little sight seeing but not nearly as much as we hoped to. We visited the National Gardens, parliament, saw a demonstration in Syntagma Square and spent lots of time walking around lovely Plaka. We also got the four day pass at the Acropolis to see all the major sights there. Some of the ruins looked very ruined, but others like the Acropolis and Agora were still nicely preserved. The entire site of all the ruins was quite large leaving you thinking about millennia gone by. I couldn't help but ponder the need for man to build and conquer all, even thousands of years ago. The only difference today is that we have much more technology and know-how to do so. I wonder how long our planet will sustain man's hunger to devour and conquer

We were in Athens for a split total of 7 days; 3 at the beginning and 4 at the end of our stay. The first part of our stay was hectic as we were trying to make last minute plans in Greece. The second part of the stay was time to wind down but we couldn't help to overanalyze what we were going to do when we got back; something we didn't think much about until we arrived in Greece. The reality of the end was looming over us. We were losing motivation, and in a way ready to be back home. We really loved all the places we saw and things we did in Europe. Europe has been our home for the last 4 months- a very large home with small accommodations. They say home is where the heart is. With the holidays coming around and the weather turning cold our hearts are yearning for the good ol USA. I wonder if we would feel the same way if we knew there was another 4 months to our trip, or if we left two months earlier. I guess it doesn't matter because the end is near so now all we can do is look back and think about what a long strange trip it's been

Marcel

For the last segment of our trip we were in Greece for 18 days. That is more vacation than some people take in an entire year but for us it seemed too little time for everything we wanted to do this ancient country. From the beginning we thought it was a grand idea to come here last, which would be at the tail end of the season when the weather should still be good and the tourists thin. We found this had its advantages, but more disadvantages. Its ok in Athens but the islands are mostly shut down by November which is what we really wanted to see, or at least what I wanted to see. There was still an option to go to Crete and Sartonini, two islands far south enough to have good weather and partial operations going. We had it all planned out for a week with a tour operator recommended by our hotel. We would take the 4 hour super fast ferry to the largest Greek island Crete for five days where we would have the use of a rental car, then take a ferry to Santorini island for three days, then fly back to Athens where we would pick up another rental car to go to Nafplion in the Peloponese on our own for a few days. Sounded great but it was very expensive, and Charlotte didn't like the idea of a 4 hour ferry ride. I didn't like the idea of flying in another one of those little propeller planes but I figure you gotta do what you gotta do. As we were contemplating what to do in a local coffee shop some really cold weather moved into Athens which turned us off to the idea of the islands. They would likely just as cold and breezy, not exactly the island vacation we had in mind. So our next option was to go to Istanbul Turkey for a week. I didn't want to leave Greece right after we got here since it was fast becoming one of my favorite destinations but Athens wasn't enough to keep us occupied for nearly three weeks. Turkey would be a good secondary option for a week or so. It would be the first Muslim country we had ever been to and a totally different culture from the rest of Europe. We booked the tickets on Expedia but it rejected our request saying that due to airline restrictions they could not book an E-ticket and we needed to provide an address for them to send the tickets. Obviously there was not time to have the tickets shipped, not that we had an address anyway. We tried several flights all with the same results. Once again we were spending more time planning than actually enjoying our vacation. So it was down to that, the last option which I had in the back of my mind all this time. To rent a car for a couple weeks to drive down to the Peloponnese and Delphi.

Getting the rental car was easy and surprisingly cheap. The cost ended up being something like 35 euros per day with unlimited mileage. Our hotel receptionist in Athens called the car rental place and just like that we had a car delivered to the hotel the next morning.

Around Athens it's not too hard to navigate because most signs are in English and Greek. I'm sure much of that is because of the heavy tourism and the recent hosting of the Olympics. Even down in the rural Peloponese there were many signs translated in English, but not all. Additionally many times the English spellings of cities and other items would not always be the same. For example Nafplio could also be Nafplion. Piraeus could be spelled Pieraias. Eventually we got used to seeing the Greek names of cities so we could recognize either one.

There are no signs for the highways here just signs pointing to the different directions of cities. So if you are looking for highway 5 you're not gonna find it. Just keep driving until you come to a fork in the road that has a sign pointing left or right to Nafplio or whatever city you are looking for. Unfortunately there seems to be 10 different side roads to get to the same place so you might end up going down a 1-lane (and I mean 1 lane only) road through an orange grove to reach your destination if you aren't careful. To add to those difficulties both of my compasses were way off. They had been reliable when negotiating maps in the rest of Europe, but here they said we were going north the whole time we were driving to Nafplio, which was south. Maybe there is some kind of magnetic interference in that area We even missed the famous Corinth canal that we drove right over without knowing. We were probably to busy trying to figure out why we were driving north from Athens to the Peloponnese.

We did finally manage to arrive in Naplion without incident. We survived the 5 way stop in Nafplion with no stop signs, lights or any other method of order. I just paused at the intersection then pushed the gas pedal and hoped everyone would get out of my way; they did. We stayed 3 nights in Nafplio, the original capital of modern Greece. It wasn't quite as fairy tale nice as we had imagined, but nice enough for a couple nights. We planned one daytrip for the Mycean ruins but they closed at 2:30 just as we arrived. We were bummed to miss that but took the extra time to explore the Nafplio castle and go to both beaches. The old town was quite charming too. We ate at another traditional place where they had a very diverse menu but the waiter/cook seemed to only be interested in serving what they were cooking that day. Of the few selections he offered we picked the bean soup and roasted pork which both turned out to be pretty darn good.

While I really liked the freedom of driving, at first I wasn't sure the Peloponese was a good trade off for the beautiful Greek Islands. We picked up a lonely planet Peloponnese guide in Nafplio for a ridiculous 33 euros. I figured it would be worth it even though it cost more than recommended sticker price and more than the much larger Greece guide. I was reading the book that last night in Nafplio and discovered that Greece has the highest fatality rate of auto accidents in all of Europe. Over 2000 deaths a year occur with the greatest cause of accidents being overtaking (passing). It's true that if you aren't going twice the speed limit someone is going to try passing you. It doesn't matter if there is oncoming traffic or a blind curve they just do it anyway. In many cases the oncoming traffic is forced to move to the shoulder to prevent a head-on collision. As for rules and regulations there are lane stripes on the major roads, but most roads are not major here, especially in the Peloponese where we spent most of our time with the rental car. When there are stripes they are simply "suggestions" and most people don't heed the suggestion. We noticed right away that people just drive in the middle of the road moving somewhat over to their side of the road when a car is coming the other way. It's as if they are scared of going off the side of the road, but in the process nearly push you over the other side. Driving over here is much like evolution, only the strong survive and it's every man, woman, scooter and pedestrian for themselves.

When we left Nafplion we drove northeast to see the magnificent Epidavros theater which is still in use today. Somehow we followed the signs and ended up in a small town on the coast where a smaller ancient theater is. From the start it didn't seem right. There was an small home right next to the small fenced in theatre but the sign confirmed that it was the ancient theater of Epidavros. I knew it wasn't the same one on the postcard though so we took some pictures and drove up the small dirt road through some orange groves to the top of the hill until the road got so rough we couldn't drive further. We got out and walked until we could see the sea. I thought maybe the theater is a smaller version and the larger one was at the end of this road, but there was nothing. Then I heard a sheepherder coming along the path so we scampered back to the car and took off. On the way back we met a British couple we met told us the big theater is inland somewhere else but also called the theater of Epidavros. With their brief directions in mind we backtracked and followed another sign which led us to the other side of town. Once again we had to park and follow an orange grove path which somehow led us to that same old theater, but from the other side Frustrated we consulted our gigantic Peloponnese map which was big enough to gift wrap our Hyundai rental car. We figured out the big theater was nearly halfway back to Nafplio so we backtracked and finally managed to find the place. It was worth the extra effort. Charlotte isn't a big fan of history but even she was really impressed with this 4th century BC theater that holds 14,000 spectators. The acoustics at this UNESCO world heritage site were awesome indeed. If you stand in the middle of the theater you can say something and hear it come back to you tenfold. The nearby ruins were impressive too.

After a couple hours we moved on from there to drive around the cliffy coastal highway of the Argolis peninsula. Many sections of it reminded me of the Pacific Coast highway, maybe even more beautiful. Olive and orange trees filled the valleys while the coastal views were out of this world. We stopped in the town of Galatas to get a glimpse of the island Poros which is more what we had expected Nafplion to look like. The Mediterranean square whitewashed homes were all clustered along the hillside. We were surprised at how close this island was to the mainland. It seemed like you could practically swim over to it. According to history most of the islands were left untouched during the many wars and invasions of Greece. Therefore they have a totally different look and culture. As appealing as Poros was it was now late afternoon so we continued the coastal drive around the tip and southern edge of the Argolis peninsula where we got a great view of Hydra.

If we only saw one of the Saronic Gulf islands we wanted it to be Hydra, also spelled Idra and pronounced ee-drah. The tourist office in Nafplio suggested staying at the town of Ermioni on the southern side of the peninsula. Whats in Ermioni you ask, well not much but it's a good base for exploring Hydra and Spetses islands. We pulled into the 3000 population town after dark just to be greeted by dozens of locals staring at us like we had arrived in a UFO. We surely seemed to be the only tourists in town. But that meant we were able to get the cheapest hotel of our entire eurotrip Unfortunately the room was ice cold at night since the temps were now near freezing after dark. I asked the hotel owner if they had heat and he said, "next month". I was thinking to myself how foolish of me, why would they turn the heat on now, its only November If you think it doesn't get cold in Greece consider this, Athens is on the 38th parallel just like Telluride Colorado. And they even have ski resorts as far south as the Peloponnese.

We never really did much in Ermioni except have a couple good meals at the oldest working Tavern in Greece, unfortunately I forgot the name. For one meal Charlotte had roasted pork with potatoes and I had the traditional pita. For the other meal we ordered a Greek Pizza. It was a brick oven roasted pizza with all the typical ingredients of a Greek salad in addition to regular pizza stuff. We both agreed that it is the best pizza we've had in all of Europe, and we've had lots of good pizza over here.

After we warmed up enough to get out of bed in the mornings we caught a ferry to Hydra island. Its one of the Saronic Gulf islands easily accessible from Athens but just a hop away from Ermioni. Finally we found what we were looking for, a real Greek island. Its not Myconos or Santorini but still pretty cool for us. We had a very nice lunch near the harbor consisting of a Greek Sandwich which is basically Greek salad on a toasted multigrain bun, and Charlotte had French Fries with bacon and cheese on top. The plate of fries seemed big enough to feed an army, and in fact there was an army of flies! We had to cover our food with napkins and quickly uncover it every time we took a bite while shooing off the files with our free hand. Fortunately the excellent Greek coffee I had here gave me ample energy to do all this multitasking. After that energetic lunch we enjoyed a day of walking up and down the narrow alleyways of the old neighborhoods. There were no cars or motorcycles here making it a real pleasure to explore on foot. Donkeys seem to be the main means of transportation if you are too lazy to walk. The houses are mostly whitewashed Mediterranean style. Just like everywhere else in Greece the place was full of cats. The locals must really like the cats here but they seemed to be fatter than some of the city cats we have seen running around. After visiting Hydra we really want to come back to Greece in the future to see more of the islands.

The next day we made a trip to another Saronic gulf island, Spetses island. They supposedly specialize in ship building. We had to drive over to Porto Heli and then take a short ferry over to Spetses for .80 cents each. From the main harbor we walked to the old harbor to see all the nice boats that were docked and a few that were being built. We walked up the hill to the old lighthouse and down to the isolated rocky beach for some real peace and quiet on our own private beach. Lunch at a local Taverna topped off a good day, but overall we thought Hydra was a much nicer place to visit.

When we checked out of Ermioni it was almost noon. Sure is hard to get out of bed when there is no heat in your room. Our plan was to drive to Monemvasia and stop along the way to enjoy the sites. The guy at the hotel informed us that it is about a 5 hour drive so we knew we were at that point that we would be pushing it to make it there by dark even if we didn't stop. The distance isn't really that far but the roads are all two lane windy roads that seem to go every direction except straight. We had to go back north to Epidavros then southwest to Napflion before heading south to Leonido, then southwest to Vlahiotis, then southeast again to Monemvasia. The coast between Nafplio and Leonido was even more beautiful than we had experienced up the Argolis peninsula. Between Leonido and Vlahiotis we drove through the Parnon mountains and Badron Gorge which was lovely with fall colors turning. It really reminded us of Colorado until we pulled into the small town of Kosmas perched on the side of a mountain. It was a really unique looking place with a local charm. I wish we could have stayed longer but we didn't want to drive on these desolate and dangerous roads after dark if we could help it so we kept on truckin. We finally reached Monemvasia in 6 hours, just after dark.

Most of the tourists spots in Greece shut down November 1st which caused gave us some breathing room but also caused quite a few problems for us too. Monemvasia is one place that is seems to be popular year round especially on the weekends. Fortunately we arrived on a Monday and were able to get a hotel right on the island, or rock as some call it. It is actually a huge rock island that was connected to the mainland by a natural causeway that was destroyed in AD 375. Now there is a bridge that allows you to drive onto the island. We got a hotel on the west side right across from the mainland town of Gythio. It would have been nice to be right in the Monemvasia old town but our hotel was perched on the side of the mountain with a porch that had an outstanding view of the water. In fact the hotel room goes for something like 200 euros per night but we got it for a fraction of that price since it was a week day during low season. The hotel was so nice we really could have just stayed there all week and never left. We did venture out to the old town to check out the shops that were still open and eat a nice traditional lunch of Greek salad and roasted pork with French fries and Hercules ketchup. I also tried another Greek coffee but this time it wasn't so great. Something like drinking liquid chalk After lunch we walked up to the top of the rock to see the ancient ruins of civilizations past. They were very well preserved and it was quite a nice hike with great views of the coastline. We wrapped up our stay with another dinner in Gythio (across from Monemvasia) where we tried stuffed shrimp with tomato sauce and fried red peppers stuffed with cheese, definitely not your typical processed jalapeno poppers you get at Fridays.

We hated to leave the beautiful city of Monemvasia but it was time to move on so we checked out of our dream hotel and moved on towards Olympia. We stopped on the way to Mystras where we each took a very short while to explore the nicely preserved Byzantine ruins and church. It was quite different from many of the other ruins we had seen around Greece. We were determined to make it to Olympia before dark so we could enjoy the scenic drive so we moved on but DOH I locked the keys in the car Wouldn't you know it, they didn't give us a second key so we were SOL This has happened to us before with rental cars and now we were in Sparta Greece with no clue what to do. The ruins were closing in less than half an hour and we were way up on a mountain out of town with no cash. I asked the guy at the ticket counter and he called the local locksmith to come out. Amazingly enough he was there in about 20 minutes and only took 1 minute to open the door. So much for the security on that car. He was nice enough to agree to follow us down the hill into town where I accessed an ATM and paid him a reasonable 25 euros. Whew, that was a relief. I really thought we were going to be stuck in that town until the next day.

Glad to be on our way we continued over the Taygetos mountains and down to Kalamata where the famous olives are from. The mountain drive took longer than we had expected but the gorgeous scenery and hairpin turns made it all worthwhile. We even saw a wild mountain goat up close on the side of the road, and no it wasn't road kill. We would have stopped in Kalamata but there just wasn't time after our car key incident so we headed straight up to Olympia. On the way we enjoyed some more scenic drives though the countryside and along the shoreline. We briefly stopped at a west coast beach to enjoy the sunset before reaching Olympia just after dark. Being out of season there was no problem getting a hotel. We found one run by an Aussie family. It was nice to talk with someone that uses English as their first language. After checking in we had time to walk around town and eat a typical Greek meal before crashing out.

The next day we were able to get a complimentary late checkout so we could leave our bags in the hotel while visiting the Olympic ruins. This was great because after seeing that blacksmith guy get into our rental car in less than a minute with the slim jim I sure didn't want to leave all our stuff in the car unattended. One guide book said about driving in Europe never leave your valuables in the car, and that goes double if you are in Italy, and triple in Naples. I guess it was only a single warning for Greece but we hadn't gone this far to get ripped off now.

At the Olympic ruins we went to the museum to see all of the statues and other artifacts they had preserved there. Most of the captions were in Greek and English like everywhere else. The ruins were a short walk in the park from the museum. Even though we were early there were already a few tour bus groups crowding up the place. We just worked our way around them to get some great photos and practice runs on the ancient Olympian track. As is typical of Greek ruins they were very old and ruined, but still the whole UNESCO world heritage site was very well maintained and quite impressive.

Before we left I knew I had to check the oil. The check engine light had been on since we left Ermioni. The car was just over 60,000 kilometers so I figured it was the typical check engine warning light that comes on around that time. However just before we got to Olympia the car was running a bit loud and rough. So I checked the oil and it was bone dry Just what we needed a burned up engine on our rental car. There was no auto parts store in this small town so I stopped at a shell gas station. There was an older guy working there who helped us. I said I need to buy some oil. He just pointed at the car hood and motioned for me to open it. I just wanted to buy the oil but everything in Greece is full service at gas stations so I popped the hood. He checked the oil and stated the obvious that I need oil. He put 2 quarts in and then took me inside where he proceeded to charge me 11 euros. I couldn't believe the tourist price he pulled on me. I should have verified this beforehand but I figured how bad can it be, and besides that he didn't speak very good English, or so it seemed. I suppose it wasn't that bad but really a couple quarts of oil should be less than 5 euros even with full service. 5 euros isn't much I just hate getting taken advantage of or ripped off in any way. Why can't people just be honest

I soon forgot about the oil guy squeezing a few extra euros out of us when we passed by an old UFO on the side of the road. Yes its true, an old UFO just like the one I saw in the Carolina outer banks with my dad on a previous road trip. I was so amazed to see this, surely it was a sign of cosmic good things to come. We took some pictures and moved on to Patras. We planned to cross the Corinthian gulf on the new bridge built just in time for the 2004 Olympics. Prior to that you had to take a ferry or drive all the way to Corinth to cross. The bridge was very impressive. So much so that we drove down to the harbor to take some pictures and marvel at the modern architectural wonder. Little did I know that getting back on the road to take us over the bridge would consume nearly an hour. There was no simple way to get back on the highway so we went round and round in circles and drove miles before we finally figured out a way to get back on the highway and take the exit again for the bridge. We were frustrated after that debacle but were soon soothed by the beautiful views along the northern coast of the gulf. We stopped for a lunch at Goodies before driving all the way to Delphi. Delphi really only has two main roads in town, east and west. Somehow we got stuck on the one-way westbound road and had to make a tight U-turn. Once back on track we easily spotted all four of the hotels that we had scribbled down from the frommers Greece guide we borrowed in the Olympia hotel. Our overpriced Peloponese guide we bought in Napflion was handy but Delphi was on the mainland so it just wasn't covered in our book or our Athens guide. We should have bought the Greece guide instead but it was too late for that now. It turned out that all of the hotels we wrote down were closed for the season. We found the only parking spot along the main street and prepared to walk around to check prices on the few that were still open. A guy immediately popped out of the hotel in front of our parking spot and said "need a room, I have here". I waited in the car while Charlotte ignored him and went down to check prices at other hotels. They weren't bad but not great either. So we decided to give the guy in front of our parking space a chance. At least wouldn't have far to walk. His rates turned out to be reasonable and the hotel room had a spectacular view from the balcony that overlooked the valley and gulf. We'll take it I said, he said "I thought you would". That night we went to the internet cafe where we had another Greek pizza that was good but not up to par with the one in Ermioni.

The next day we went to the ruins of Delphi which I was really looking forward to. This is where leaders of ancient Greece went to seek the advice of the Oracle. Kind of like the Oracle in the Matrix only thousands of years ago, still just as magical. There was another museum and the site was well maintained just like Olympia. It was a nice day of sightseeing. We rounded it off with a dinner at one of the famous restaurants here, again the name escapes me. I was brave enough to give the rabbit stew a try. I expected a stew with pieces of rabbit meat but got a plate that had an entire rabbit roasted in a plate of stew. Not quite what I had in mind but still good nonetheless. The meat was a bit dark and gamey but I figured in a highly recommended restaurant that the rabbit should be good. Even if it was from around there we were way out in the country so its not like your getting a city rabbit caught in someone's backyard, which is what scared me off from trying it elsewhere in Europe. I think the waitress was disappointed that I didn't clean the rabbit skeleton clean but I still ate my fair share of it, and Charlotte tried some too. Overall the stew was great, the rabbit was...interesting.

The last day of our car rental was quite an adventure. From Delphi we drove for a few hours back to Athens in heavy traffic that included lots of semis on narrow winding roads in the mountains. There were no passing lanes or opportunities to pass but people were passing anyway, usually on blind curves. It was a stressful drive but we finally made it back to the outskirts of town.

When we got the car 11 days earlier they had delivered it to our hotel. That was great, however they requested that we return the car to their office on the other side of town and gave me some very brief directions. He said follow the signs to Piraeus (the port area) and then look for the name of a certain road which I couldn't remember over a week later. It all sounded great at the time but when the time came to take the car back we were totally screwed up. We took the highway as he suggested and then took the first exit to Piraeus, except it was spelled different with a couple letters off. We found this was common in Greece with the English spellings of city names so we didn't worry too much about it. The real problem was that it was just an alternate business route to Pireaus and not the best exit to take. We ended up driving through Friday rush hour traffic all over town. Many intersections don't have stop signs on any corner so it is unclear if you are supposed to stop, go, or just slow down. If you stop someone will likely lay on the horn. If you don't stop someone coming the other way will likely honk at you. Adding to the confusion is the mobs of pedestrians running across the streets and scooters that are zipping in between cars on both sides, and even on the sidewalks. By the time we got to Pireaus my patience was really wearing thin. All the signs were in Greek, unlike the downtown area that was fairly easy to navigate. Even if we could find the street we were looking for we probably wouldn't be able to understand the sign. It's not like French or Spanish where it is just spelled and said different than we are used to, Greek is in completely different characters so it just looks, Greek.

Finally we decided to just find a main road and follow it in the direction we thought was right. We kept going with the traffic and had no idea where we were at. Finally in frustration I said ok lets just go down here and turn around. We turned and found ourselves in a really ghetto area that looked like South Dallas. The traffic was thick and I couldn't find an easy way to get back to the main road. After circling around and nearly running over a few drug dealers Charlotte said enthusiastically said "I think we are in Omonia Square". I was actually glad when we were able to verify that was the case because it meant we were closeby our hotel. According to our guidebook it really is the worst area in Athens but happens to be just outside of the Plaka area which is the downtown area we stayed in, and where all the tourist stuff is at. In any case from Omonia Sqaure we could navigate the downtown Athens map to find our way back to the hotel. After some more expletives and a few more close calls with scooters we finally found our hotel. I double-parked (like everyone else does) to drop Charlotte off so she could call the car rental place. They agreed to pick up the car at our hotel for no extra cost. It took us about half an hour more to find a legal parking space on a side street, but finally after driving all day in stressful traffic we were able to relax :yawn:

After not being behind the wheel of a car for over 4 months it felt good to have the freedom to drive. We especially felt accomplished for pulling this U.S. style road trip off in rural Greece where the alphabet is different and the driving is the worst in Europe. We were both thankful for a successful road trip and now ready to enjoy our last few days in Athens before heading back to the wild west

Rome is one crazy hectic place which is why some people don’t like it too much, but there are tons of things to see in this ancient/modernized city. You can see ancient remains of one of the greatest civilizations in earth’s history all around town. Just be careful while you are admiring the sites or one of the millions of scooters zipping by could make you a part of the history.

Italy is not a very tourist friendly place to visit. The people here know tourism is a big industry and take full advantage of it. It seems a nonstop flood of Catholic visitors and other tourists means the whole city can really stick it to tourists and not worry about whether or not you come back a second time. The fact that the whole place is a rip-off can damper your stay if you let it, but most people here are friendly and just act as if that is the way it is. So you can accept it and enjoy your stay or let it get you down and not enjoy it. On a positive note Italy recently passed a law banning smoking indoors. That means that you can actually eat your dinner without being assaulted by cigarette smoke from all directions. Over 30% of the population here still smokes, but it’s a start.

As I’ve talked about before hotels can be hard to find here, and overpriced. We had a harder time finding a hotel in Rome than any other destination of our trip. We did find a great website that helped us with our research for hotels, www.tripadvisor.com They post unedited reviews of hotels from their users. This was very helpful to us since our other favorite hotel site www.hostelworld.com only posts ratings and seems to delete negative comments like the ones we made about our Spain hotels. Most hotels in Rome under 150 euros had less than 60% ratings in hostelworld, which is not a good sign. Typically if it’s not 80% or above there are serious problems with the place so we consulted tripadvisor for more details. We found almost all of the hotels under 150 euros had horrible reviews. We don’t require much but we don’t want to be forced to pay cash again, or relocated upon arrival which is what many of the complaints included. One guy said this about the so called Pink Floyd Hotel- “The only thing Pink Floyd about this hotel is that it would take an acid trip of Roger Waters proportions to enjoy your stay here”. We finally did find a place at Hotel Aberdeen. They even gave us the special Rick Steves rate for 130 euros which was still one of the most expensive hotels of our stay, but well worth it. It was a 3 star hotel that was actually worthy of the rating unlike some of these places in Italy. Everyone there was super nice; the place was clean, and in a good location. We can’t say this about many hotels we’ve stayed in but the Aberdeen gets our stamp of approval.

Once in Rome we still had the dilemma of how to visit Pompeii. I was ok with skipping Naples but not Pompeii which I desperately wanted to see, even if for only a couple hours. We explored all options including the expensive train ride (Eurail pass is now expired) where you have to catch the local subway in the seedy Naples train station, or taking the overpriced shuttle. In the end we ended up booking another package tour that goes through Naples then to Pompeii for a few hours. It was expensive but really a nice change of pace since we are getting too worn out at this point to do something like this on our own. Just about any way you look at it the ride from Rome to Pompeii is 3 hours one way, quite a long day. On the bus tour, we did drive through Naples, and even stopped briefly. I can see why the guide books warn you about that place. One guidebook we have says this about driving in Europe “never leave any valuables in the car and that goes double in Italy, triple in Naples”. The Naples streets are full of scooters zipping in and out of traffic and people double parked all over the main road. There is no law or concern about anything there. The scooters in Rome are crazy enough, but Naples is just pure madness. Actually watching the scooters was the best sight in Naples. The coast is pretty and looks attractive, if not for the pollution. We drove by the major sites and I can say that there are much better places to spend your time than taking a chance on getting pick pocketed or mugged in a city that doesn’t take care of their internal problems. I was glad we didn’t try to stay there.

We had lunch in Pompeii with a nice couple from Oklahoma who was on the tour with us. They seemed to like the package tours which we found a bit strange since we actually do our best to avoid them except in rare cases like this where it is just the easiest way to go. It seems like the package tours try to see way too much in too little time and sometimes you end up just driving by the sites as they tell you about them, never really getting to soak anything in. On the positive side you can usually skip the lines and get into busy places quick and do see the major highlights that you might otherwise miss. Additionally you probably learn more from listening to the guides. Our guide for this tour was great. She was really enthusiastic and funny. The only thing we didn’t like is that it was a combo Spanish/English tour so she would say everything in English and then again in Spanish which got annoying after a while. Once we got inside Pompeii we only had 2.5 hours to visit the place which is way too little time. It is a very large site which could easily take a few days to thoroughly explore. I think a full 8 hour day would be about enough time to do it right for most people, but 2.5 hour just doesn’t cut it. After standing in the same spot for the first 20 minutes listening to another guide talk in English and then Spanish about the history and other stuff I can read about anytime Charlotte and I escaped from the tour. We covered a lot of ground and saw probably 4 times as much as we would have with the tour. Unfortunately our map was in Italian so we couldn’t find the famous Brothel that everyone wants to see, but did see all the other highlights. I’d like to come back to Italy some day to see Pompeii again in more detail, and maybe visit Capri, Sicily, and Sardinia.

After that exhausting day trip we were slow to get going the next couple days in Rome but did manage to see most of the major sites. The Coliseum was another amazing place to visit. We avoided the rip off group tour from the guys outside and took the cheaper legitimate one that is offered by the site. It got us past the long line for only a few euros more. The guide book we have actually said to skip the barren inside and spend more time elsewhere. The books are usually right, but not this time. The inside was incredible. Granted it is only the skeleton of the original stadium I was still amazed by it. We walked past the Roman Forum ruins that night but regrettably never got to see those up close or the Palatine with the limited time we had. We did however make it most of the major piazzas like Navona. Also saw the Spanish steps, the amazing Pantheon, and the beautiful Trevi fountain. The last day we even took the hop on and off bus tour to make sure we made it to the odd sites we had missed like the Bocca della verita; a huge circle stone face with an open mouth said to bite the hand of thieves.

Due to lack of planning we spent two days going to Vatican City. We actually rode the thief infested public bus 64, notorious for pickpockets to get there. We really didn’t want to ride it but the walk was too far to be reasonable so I twisted up my front pocket where my wallet was making it impossible to reach in and grab, then put everything else in my money-belt. With our packs strapped to our chests we crammed on the bus past the gypsy looking lady at the entryway and managed to make it to the Sovereign country of Vatican City without incident. Yes it is supposedly its own country with a postal system, police force, and even a radio station. -By the way we have found out that Monaco is also a sovereign country too, according to Prince Albert of Monaco anyway. - In Vatican City the first day we waded through the crowds of tourists, nuns and priests to see the incredibly huge church of St Peter, the largest in the world for many years. Strangely enough there were people lining up for the confession booths while hundreds of tourists were sight seeing all around. Unfortunately the famous Vatican museum closes at 3:30 so we had to come back the next day to see that. It was worth the trip which we made this time on the hop on and off bus. The Vatican museum has amazing art works in addition to the whole place being an art work within itself. The walls and ceilings were painted by the likes of Michelangelo, Raphael and other famous painters. It was quite a maze through amazing halls and rooms before we reached the Sistine Chapel where you see the beautiful artwork of Michelangelo including the last judgment and creation of Adam. I can’t say enough about this museum, it was simply amazing.

Other things we did were visit the Hard Rock café, twice. The first time was an hour and half wait so we had to come back. It was the regular cool place with the same old regular food they have at every location. The food there is really getting old but still was a nice change from the everyday Italian, especially in Rome where it is surprisingly not that good. Most places we ate at had low quality food served up directly for tourists. In fact we’ve had good Italian food all over Europe except in Rome where a couple meals were ordinary and the rest were downright bad; hard to do with Italian. We were determined to get a good meal here and went out of way to make it to a Lonely planet recommended tratoria but they were closed when we got there. They seem to do the siesta hours in Italy just like in Spain. So we came back at the opening time of 7:30 and found the place already half full. We walked in and the guy just gave us the European sign language for closed or full by waving his hands and arms sideways. I had my heart set on that pumpkin filled ravioli but they seemed determined to turn us away. Several other tourists came up and had the same result even though there were several empty tables waiting to be used. We came back half and hour later and the tables were still empty. One local couple spoke to a couple exiting and we saw them obviously saying something to the effect that it was full. They looked disappointed just as we were but walked in anyway to talk with the owner. After a kiss kiss on the cheek and some Italian conversation they got a table. This really made us mad so we went next door to eat at a Japanese place which served up some great Tempura, probably the best meal we had in Rome.

I can see now why people say you can never have enough time in Rome. Yes it is a hectic and busy place where you have to constantly watch your back when crossing the street, and back pocket when on public transit, (that includes walking down the street). But if you are prepared and ready to put the effort forth to find and see the sites this great city has to offer you will be rewarded with volumes of history.

We took a flight out of Rome to Athens for the last 2.5 weeks of our trip. We plan to explore another ancient/modern city Athens, rent a car for 10 days to check out the Peloponnese peninsula (now an island), and hopefully hop on a ferry to see a couple Greek islands. We will be arriving back in the states on November 15th if all goes as planned. I probably won’t update the blog or galleries anymore until that time so we can focus all our efforts on interpreting this strange Greek alphabet.

Marcel

It seems the longer I wait to write the blog for a city we had a hard time in, the more positive my words become. The negative experiences really stand out at first while you are experiencing them first hand. Especially after you have been traveling for months and getting a little weary from all the hassles that come with long term travel. A week or so after you leave a destination the negative experiences really fade away seeming more like comical mishaps that just added to your cultural experience. I’m writing this blog nearly two weeks after we left Florence. I wanted to stay current and tried to write during the train ride out but the only thing that I could type about was our lame hotel that really caused us some grief while we were there. But the truth is, now that we are over that frustration the positive memories of Florence outshine anything negative that happened there. Going back and looking at all the beautiful pictures from that city help bring back memories of unbelievable sights that we appreciate more now than when we were seeing them. Strange how that happens sometimes.

We have heard from several people that Florence is nicer than Rome so we decided no less than 5 nights would suffice. We might have stayed even longer but we wanted to leave on the last day of our rail pass to get the most use out of it. We originally planned to only make one daytrip to Pisa while in Florence. When some nice people we met in Nice told us about a chocolate festival in Perugia that was going on during our stay in Florence we decided we would make that a priority too.

The city of Florence is a sight to see in itself. The city is so beautiful you can take picture perferct postcard shot on just about any street you walk down. There are several unique piazzas (plazas) to see. Another interesting thing is that there are so many vendors everywhere in the streets. The whole place is like one big flea market. There is a row specifically for the flea market which goes on everyday. The usual suspects are there selling fuccis and folexes. We preferred the vendors on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge that have been there for centuries selling jewelry and other classy items. Of course we couldn’t afford to buy anything but walking over the centuries old bridge to see the shops and views of the city was amazing enough.

Florence is home to the world famous Uffizi museum. It is supposedly ranks up there with the Louvre. There is also a lesser famous museum the Academia that happens to have one very famous statue of David by Michealangelo. We wanted to see both of course but reservations were required unless you wanted to wait in line for half a day to get in. Our hotel was able to get us reservations for both but on two different days. Our first day was mostly wasted moving since our hotel relocated us the first night and other hotel problems I don’t want to conjure up memories of so we basically had to choose between the two museums or cancel a daytrip. We decided the Uffizi had more to offer and we’d settle for seeing some of the many David replicas around town in the Piazzas. The Uffizi was indeed a great museum. We breezed through most of what they had but didn’t really have time to do the lesser works justice. Still I enjoyed studying the beautiful Birth of Venus painting and some of the famous works by Michealangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and others. Much of the artwork was Italian religious paintings similar to the Spanish paintings, but much better in my opinion.

You’ve probably heard of Tuscany before and associate it with good food or wine, and with good reason. Florence is in the heart of the Tuscany region so the food here is outstanding. Everyplace we ate at was outstanding, except one touristy place that obviously wasn’t far enough off the beaten path. The first night we ate at a traditional restaurant recommended by a local. It was by far the best restaurant experience we have had in Europe. Not only was the food outstanding but the people and ambience of the place was unbelievable. If you have ever eaten at Magic Time Machine you know that everyone wears a different costume and tries their best to play on that theme to make your dining experience magical. Here the theme is strictly authentic Italian attitude. One of the waiters scooted in between Charlotte and I to hang out and eventually take our order. The waiters seemed to rub shoulders with everyone in the small, crowded, and noisy place in between shouting Italian orders back and forth and tossing things across the room. The whole restaurant was an organized chaos. I suspect the staff was all drinking wine with the rest of us as they always seemed to bring the food out to the wrong table on the first attempt, or maybe they just did it as a joke. It was hard to tell with those guys since they were having as much fun as the guests. It was completely different from the typical American dinner where you have your own private booth and only interface with one waiter during the course of dinner. I’d say it was more like eating at a home-style Italian dinner party with everyone having bellies full of wine.

While none of the other places we ate at matched the atmosphere of that Osteria (Typically a family-owned small restaurant) we did find more good food. The Tuscan house wine, which is sometimes cheaper than bottled water, can be very delightful in the classier places. Charlotte seemed to really like the Penne Arrabiata which is penne pasta in very spicy tomato sauce. She also took a liking to the traditional desert Tiramisu. I rather enjoyed the Tuscan Wild boar and noodles I had one night, and a huge puffy calzone during our visit to Pisa; maybe the best calzone I’ve ever had.

One of our planned daytrips was Pisa which I’m very glad we made the effort to see. It was about an hour train ride each way from Florence, then a half hour walk to the famous leaning tower. We took our time getting to the tower area to eat lunch and take in the other sites. When we rounded the corner and saw the leaning tower down the street it was like the scene out of Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston sees the Statue of Liberty on the Beach. It just looked that surreal. The tower really is quite impressive and has an unbelievable lean. We were both so fascinated by it we spent the rest of the day in this area. There was much more to see here too with many monuments in the immediate area along with the usual flood of vendors selling cheesy tower souvenirs. Yes we couldn’t resist, Charlotte bought a Pisa lamp and I got the leaning shot glass. Charlotte wasn’t too keen on going up the tower but I really wanted to check it out. So I paid the 15 euros and got an appointment for an hour later to walk up to the top. Only 30 people are allowed to go up at a time or it might fall over, seriously. This was another big highlight of our vacation for me. Seeing the tower is one thing, but going up it is really something else. The view at the top is amazing, but the real attraction is just walking up the crooked tower. You can really see the lean by looking at the floor and the horizon together. You can also see how old this tower is by looking at the marble steps which are worn down in the two middle spots where people have trudged their feet up and down for centuries. Other than going up the tower the best entertainment is watching all the tourists (us included) taking their leaning tower photos. Everybody does it, you have to! Some try to hold it up, others try to push it down, but everyone does some ridiculous pose with the tower. One middle aged Asian guy tried about 20 poses with the tower. We couldn’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm and even caught him on video.

Unfortunately our other daytrip to Perugia didn’t work out. We had planned all week to make it a priority and even canceled seeing the statue of David to make it there. We got up late on that last day in Florence so we skipped lunch and ran to the train station to catch the 12:00 train. When we got on it was full to the rim, even in first class. There were no seats, we were hungry, and we found out it’s a 2+ hour ride each way. Charlotte was a bit stressed and didn’t want to deal with the situation so we got off. I figured we could take the next train but we found out that wasn’t until after 2:00. By then it wouldn’t be worth going because you still had to take a bus into town once you got there. That meant we wouldn’t reach the festival until almost 5:00 and still have a long ride to get back home. We were really bummed but sometimes things don’t work out the way you want when you travel.

Having said that, it’s impossible to pre-plan your entire itinerary for a 4-month trip so you have to expect these things to happen and adjust accordingly. We left the itinerary very open for the last month of the trip because we had no idea if we would even stick to any of the pre-planned ideas by this point in time. That actually worked against us. Things went very well when we stuck to the plan, and not so well when we didn’t. We never researched much on the last two countries of our trip Italy or Greece and figured we’d do it along the way. Surprisingly you have very little free time on a vacation like this. Getting back to your hotel early to read up or surf the internet to research and book your next destination is not an ideal situation.

Hotels are hard to find in Italy and outrageously overpriced. We wasted hours on the internet in Florence trying to find a hotel in Rome. Our open itinerary left too much room for us to flip-flop about what to do next. We considered staying in Naples so we could make daytrips to Capri and Pompeii but all of the outrageous travel warnings scared us off. Several places we have gone to on this trip have supposedly been pickpocket havens like Barcelona or places that we didn’t know what to expect like Budapest, but we still went. Naples however is the only place we wanted to go, but didn’t. Every source we referred to dedicated 2/3 of their text to warnings of theft and mafia, then the other 1/3 to what you can see there. The unemployment rate is something like 30% so nothing good can come out of that. We considered Sorrento but it was too far and difficult to get to. Then we wanted to go to Rome for 10 days and make day trips from there but we couldn’t find a hotel for the first couple nights, and the nights we could book turned out to be one of the priciest in Europe for us. In the end we ended up only booking 5 nights in Rome and the two in Sienna prior to visiting to Rome. It was the only compromise we could get to work, even in the low season.

Siena as it turns out was a brilliant choice. We only found out about it after arriving in Florence since it was listed as a popular daytrip in Tuscany. We thought if it’s that nice then we can just stay there and check it out. I’m glad we did. The city is one of the many small fortress looking towns on a hill. We stayed just outside of the walls but had a grand view of the entire city out our hotel window. The Il Campo piazza was one of the nicest we have seen in Europe. It’s shaped like a shell with beautiful buildings on each side and punctuated with a huge clock tower. The interior of the nearby Duomo is like an art museum. It’s a very hilly town but we managed to see just about everything there during our two day stay. I don’t think we would have wanted to stay longer, but the time we spent there was a nice change from the bigger cities.

After some of our experiences in Italy so far I can see why so many people do package tours in Italy. Nothing comes easy in this country, not even crossing the road. Kamikaze scooters are everywhere zipping in and out of traffic and people. They aren’t the only ones to watch out for. We nearly got creamed by a public bus that flew around the corner parting a group of tourist midway into crossing the road. We were at the front of that group that was crossing on the green walk signal (usually there aren’t any signals at all). The bus flew around the corner at full speed and didn’t even slow down. We jumped back barely avoiding the bus. The bus driver never flinched. No horn, no brake, just full speed ahead. You really have to watch yourself here.

An odd thing I’ve been thinking about is why we can’t just spell the names of cities in English the same way they do in the original language. Sometimes it’s not possible such as in Greek where letters are all different, but in most cases it’s unnecessary for the change. As a traveler it’s hard to not naturally think the locals are the ones who are spelling it different just to be difficult, but we are the ones who are calling it something different from the original. It’s their town and language to begin with so for example if we change the name of Firenze to Florence then that’s on us. How do you even get the name Florence from Firenze anyway? I mean wouldn’t it just make everything easier if we can all call it Firenze? It’s not too big of a difference usually, but some places like Vienna which is spelled Wien locally are totally different. In Austria they speak German, and English is a Germanic based language very similar to German but still we have to spell and say Wien as Vienna in English which is completely different. It can really be confusing when you are trying to find a place like that in the rail schedule and it’s located under a different letter of the alphabet than you are expecting.

Surviving Italy so far we were ready to take on busy Rome (or Roma if you’re Italian), and test ourselves against the notorious pickpockets and gypsies of the south. With our train pass now expired we paid for our tickets to Rome. We met a nice retired couple on the train ride. It turns out they are snowbirds (part time residents) in my home town Vero Beach, Florida. They are Italian originally and said they always come to Italy as it is the flower of Europe. We mostly talked to the guy while his wife was talking with a Canadian couple across the way. This older guy was really interesting with his many stories and ideas. He really talked up the little Tuscan towns that they like to visit while avoiding the larger towns. The conversation really got me thinking. It didn’t occur to us before but this beautiful Tuscany region would be a great place to explore by car so you could get to those little towns. There are so many little villages and towns that each have their own charm. We’ve seen many of the major cities in Europe, but the countryside which we’ve only gotten a glimpse of is an entirely different side of this continent. Ideas are already coming to mind for our next EuroTrip...

Marcel

We stayed in Paris for 9 days and saw some of the French side of Switzerland in Geneva but really missed the rest of France. So it was well worth it for us to backtrack a little bit to make the effort to see the French Riviera before heading back to Italy. We were delightfully surprised at just how NICE Nice is. Nice pronounced like neese rhyming with geese is one of my favorite places of the whole trip. If I had to describe it in one sentence I’d say it’s a combination of Miami Beach (Florida) culture and Santa Barbara (California) scenery.

If you’ve read through my previous longwinded blogs you know we had quite an adventure getting here but once we got settled into the Hotel Felix we felt right at home. The room wasn’t anything great but was a great price and had a balcony overlooking a hip happening Pedestrian Street full of restaurants and shops. Sitting on the balcony was like having the best seat in a local cafe. Just having the window open to hear the sounds of people dining, walking by, shopping, street musicians, and scooters zipping past added to the ambience of the place. If you get tired of that the beach is only 1 block away.

Speaking of scooters we really got to see them in action here. I’ve heard so much about the scooter purse snatchers and always wondered how to they get that close to people to do that sort of thing. I fully expected to see that happen in Spain but other than the occasional scooter flying down a pedestrian sidewalk there wasn’t much of that going on there. It was a different story in Nice. The scooters were everywhere! Narrow alleys, fully packed pedestrian walking strips, open parks, sidewalks, you name it. There was no place safe from the scooters. If you are in their way they just continuously rev up the engine until you move, and even when you aren’t in the way they rev up the engine when they go past you as if to say stay out of my way or I will run you over with my little scooter. Even in the narrow cobblestone old town streets which you would think should be zoned pedestrian only there are scooters flying past you. And just like everywhere in Europe pedestrians don’t seem to have the right of way. Sometimes vehicles even go down these narrow streets forcing you to cling to the wall like Spiderman to save yourself from being squished. If you don’t get squished there then you have to make sure you don’t get squashed trying to cross the road where they usually don’t have walk signals. Instead there are just white stripes to say it’s a pedestrian crosswalk. You are suppose to just cross and the traffic yields to you, but usually they don’t. And if it’s a 4 lane road or more with lots of traffic that can make things really interesting. If there does happen to be a crosswalk sign you still need to look both ways twice because not everyone seems to pay attention to the traffic signals, especially scooters. Just like my brother in law Eric said about traffic signals and signs in the Philippines, they are only suggestions.

I guess the scooter thieves operate in pairs with the person riding on the back doing the purse snatching, but we didn’t witness anything like that, and obviously didn’t make ourselves a target for such an outrageous crime. We did however see a scooter accident right on the main street going along the beach. It was just starting to get dark so I was taking pictures of the sunset. Charlotte said “did you see that”! I did see a commotion out of the corner of my eye and quickly turned my attention to the street. Apparently a scooter had rear ended a van but there wasn’t really any damage. The scooter then pulled up next to the van and the guy on the scooter started yelling at the van driver. Quickly the scooter guy and his girlfriend who was riding on the back got off the scooter in the middle of rush hour traffic in a 4 lane road and continued yelling at the van guy who was trying to open his door. The scooter guy was pushing the door as if to not let him out, then he and his girlfriend started hitting the window. Shockingly the scooter guy hit the window so hard it shattered all over the place I couldn’t believe it. The tempers were flaring and now the van guy who looked to be Indian came out. He was speaking English and the scooter guy was speaking French. They kept yelling back and forth as traffic went by until the Indian guy got really mad and pushed the parked scooter down to the ground. Now the scooter was on its side in the middle of the traffic filled road, and the van window was smashed. As far as I could tell there was no damage before the argument. It didn’t take long for the cops to show up and start sorting things out. I tried to take a few pictures and some video but it was starting to get dark and it took me too long to get the video out, but I do have some footage that might pop up on the travel videos after we get back stateside.

The scooter incident was crazy but that is kind of how this place is. The French people are very expressive and can be hot tempered, but usually are just friendly. Besides the people the city is what was so interesting about this place. The whole French Riviera is beautiful with the Alps falling into the Mediterranean Sea. There are plenty of other places to visit along here too. The two I most wanted to see were the principality of Monaco and Cannes. The day I went to Cannes Charlotte called in sick. Actually I think she just wanted to go shopping, so I went by myself. Cannes is famous for the international film festival they hold every year in May and for being a vacation spot for celebrities. I didn’t see any celebs but did see some snobby rich people walking their miniature dogs, another car accident (only saw the aftereffect) beautiful beaches, kiteboarders, charming old town, and had the best panini sandwich yet.

Charlotte did join me for the Monaco day trip which was unbelievable. The city itself is like a fairytale, trying to be its own country but not quite. We still aren’t sure what the actual status is of this little principality town but it is quite a bit different from the surrounding areas. It’s very clean, structured, and well maintained. Seems like there are cops on every corner, and no trash anywhere. Even the traffic seems to flow like it is suppose to unlike many other places in Europe. We got the day bus pass since it’s a very hilly town. In the old town area we saw the palace and walked down the scooter free alleys to browse the souvenir shops and eat lunch. Later we went to the Monte Carlo casino but didn’t go in since it costs 10 euros and you can’t get in with backpacks anyway. The outside was attractive enough to make the trip worthwhile. The beach was really lovely too. I can see why people would go there for a romantic getaway.

Even with those two daytrips we managed to see a lot of Nice during our 5 day stay there. The beach was beautiful and strangely enough had pebbles instead of sand on the shores. One private beach did have sand but it looked like it was imported. There are lots of churches and a chateau on top of a hill overlooking the ocean. We walked up to the top but they were just closing so I only had time to take some pictures which came out great. We had one of our best dinners yet at Le Quebec just outside our hotel room. Charlotte had roasted pork in honey BBQ sauce while I had pork strips boiled in maple syrup and white beans France has close ties to Belgium too so the oh so good Belgian beer like Leffe is available at the local corner store.

I also got my first dive in Europe done here. It was really cold but the water was super clear and beautiful. I dove with a cool dude from London that was originally from NY, and the dive guide who was a really cool and funny French girl. There wasn’t really much to see underwater like there is in the tropics. It was as many people have described it, an underwater desert. There were lots of little fish and some bigger ones but not more than 1 foot in length. Supposedly the Mediterranean has been so fished out over the years that there just isn’t much marine life left. The bottom was mostly rocks and grass. However we did see one really big octopus hiding in the rocks. Despite the lack of sealife I was really glad to get a dive in over here. Hopefully I can do a couple more in Greece.

Our next stop if Florence Italy for 5 nights, or you can call it Firenzie if you want to be understood by the locals. Firenzie as we like to call it is in the Tuscany region which has great wine, sights, and a little town called Pisa nearby. Should be more good times...

Marcel

It seems the tail end of our trip is turning out to be as exciting as the first segment. We started our trip to Nice with another adventure on the railways. We decided to pay for reservations to Nice from Milan so we could get on the direct train with no changes, saving 2 hours of riding time in the process. It was only 6 euros so well worth it IMHO. In the morning we were glad we had the reservations because the train was packed. I couldn’t believe the crowd waiting to get on the train. Once everyone was aboard the musical chairs started. We had some confusion ourselves since our cabin had a sign on it saying it was reserved for the conductors. We thought oh no not again. This happened before when they gave us reservations in the first class quad seats the conductors claim as their section to sit in during downtime. Seems to be a France thing, in other countries conductors are busy working instead of using up the first class seats that passengers would otherwise be sitting in. And unlike in the States where the customer is always first here they kick you out and just relocate you to the nearest available seat. We were too busy worrying about getting relocated to pay much attention to all the commotion going on around us.

The time for departure came and went but the train never moved. The conductor came by with a goodies cart speaking something in Italian, then started pointing to the reservation sign. So I showed him our ticket which he responded to by speaking more Italian and making gestures that we didn’t understand. Finally he just shook his head and moved on. After he left another guy that was sitting in our cabin said that we might have some problems with our seat once we get past Genoa. He mentioned that there was a strange route after Genoa but didn’t say much more about it. Still worried about the seat assignments I asked him if we would need to move and he said no we should be ok where we were at. I figured once we got to France the conductors would want us to move out of their favorite spot, but by then we would almost be in Nice anyway.

There were six seats in our cabin. The cabins are great if you can have them all to yourself because it is more private and enclosed. But when someone else sits in there it is kind of like sitting next to someone you don’t know on an airplane. Three things can happen. You have an uncomfortable silence, make a new friend(s), or have to put up with a difficult person. We had 4 people sitting in the cabin with us so that was a bit cramped for us. They were all ok except for one guy who kept clearing his throat about every 10 seconds. The loud Italian conversations that went on and on became annoying after a while too. Eventually 3 of the 4 guys got off after the first hour, leaving only one strange character sitting next to me. When we arrived near Genoa he asked me what station we were in, and if it was necessary to change trains in order to get to a certain town that I had never heard of. I was baffled about why he was asking me as if I was supposed to know. I didn’t know so he asked one of the conductors and she set him straight.

Once that guy got off the train we were finally alone in the cabin. We passed Genoa and started to go alongside the beautiful Mediterranean coast. As we were admiring the view a jolly fellow popped into our cabin and said “do you speak English”? Yes we replied. “Oh good” he said. “So do you know where we change trains to get to Nice”? Change I said, no we have reservations and are going to Nice on this train so we shouldn’t need to change at all. “Oh” he said, “you haven’t heard about the bomb”? BOMB!!!!!!!! No I haven’t. Then our new friend proceeded to tell us they found a bomb on the tracks somewhere between Genoa and Nice so our train was being rerouted. Suddenly a million thoughts flooded my mind. All the strange happenings added up now. The musical chairs this morning, the guy asking me where to change trains, and we didn’t get kicked out the conductors seats probably because they had other issues to deal with on this day.

Our new friend finished his story and finally introduced himself saying he was from Seattle. Seattle wow, we hope to move there when we get back I said. We struck up conversation and tried to interpret to the Italian announcements that came on once in a while. A few conductors came by and gave us different versions of the story about how we have to get off the train at one stop, change, go to another stop, take a bus, then get on another local to make it to Nice. Each conductor that came by had a different route they suggested to us which just added to the confusion.

Finally the train came to a halt at the Taggia Arma station. We followed the masses off the train since it was the last stop for that train. We all sat there along with the hundred or more stranded passengers just waiting, unclear of what to do next. When our old train abruptly departed in the same direction we just came from we knew for sure that we were in fact going to have to take an alternate route. This is when we met a few other people; an older couple that sounded like they were from England, and a couple girls from Shanghai China. The girls asked the Seattle guy where he was from and he said “Seattle”. They said “oh, Sleepless in Seattle” then started giggling. “Oh you look like Tom Hanks” they added. And actually he does. Then Tom as we started calling him proceeded to tell us a story about when he was at the airport during the filming of Sleepless in Seattle and people kept saying “look that’s him”. Finally he realized what happened when he saw Meg Ryan walking through the terminal.

Tom turned out to be a good director of the situation just like his counterpart is of movies. He was on a 3 week tour of Europe by himself and seemed to have endless amounts of energy. He was always laughing, smiling, and joking in spite of the situation we were in. After being in London the day of the underground bombings I was a little more worried than happy. Finally a train came and took us to another city where we had to get off again to wait for another train. With Tom’s assistance and a few others we all figured out which train to catch next. After half an hour wait we got on a slow local train going through multiple tunnels towards Nice.

Tom chatted with everyone while Charlotte and I talked to the girls from Shanghai for a while. They were amazed that we were traveling for 4 months and just quit our jobs in order to do it. We gave our usual spiel about you gotta do what you gotta do in order to do what you wanna do. After the Monaco stop the train got too crowded to even talk so we turned to the beautiful coastal views once again. Cliffs, clear blue and green waters, and lovely looking houses filled our vision. By the time we got to Nice the train was fully packed with people even standing in the doorway. That local train probably isn’t normally that crowded but with all the stranded passengers from our train things were really tight. Getting off the train was a challenge as I had to lug my big backpack through the crowd. Tom announced to everyone on the train that we were leaving now so there would be plenty of seats available. Once we were off the train we all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

I said a silent prayer of thanks for making it alive. It was a bit nerve racking after we found out about the bomb even though everyone else apparently knew about it before the train even departed Milan. Adding to the stress of the situation was the fact that the train changed directions in Genoa so from that point we were in the front car which would have surely been the worse hit by a bomb on the tracks. But all that was over now that we were in Nice on solid ground. Unfortunately the delay meant that it was now dark and we still had to walk to our hotel through a city known to have pickpockets and shady characters lingering around. Nevertheless my worries swirled into various inward thoughts about many other things. The most prominent being you just never know when your time is gonna come.

Why did I title my blog that you might ask. Well because Milan, is appropriately called MilaNO in Italian. I emphasize the NO because no it’s not that glitzy, glamorous, and fashionable as its reputation might lead you to believe as we did. Also because if you want to see DaVinci’s Last Supper painting (one of the most famous in the world) then NO you can’t unless you have reservations a week or more in advance. What kind of museum requires reservations We were really bummed to miss that painting which would have been the highlight of our stay in Milan. To further our disappointment we found the city just isn’t that pleasant either. It’s more a business city than anything else. There are some nice sites like the Arch and Duomo Cathedral but for the most part Milan is not a very pleasant city to sight-see in. This city could be so much nicer if they took care of some of the basics that most cities do like pick up the litter that is all over the place, remove graffiti (a problem all over Europe), wash down some of the buildings that are charcoal looking from pollution, and so on. Unfortunately MilaNOs are more concerned about how fashionable they look themselves, and which trendy bar or restaurant they can visit to escape the dirty city streets for a while

Other than the Last Supper there was only one other site we really wanted to see in Milan, the ICE BAR. We found out about this frozen bar in Stockholm after we left. We researched it on the web and found they have two other locations, one of which is in Milan; although Stockholm is a more appropriate setting. After quite a long walk out of the city center we found it in this seedy looking residential area. We arrived around 5pm to find they were closed. There was someone there however. She gave us the lowdown saying that it opens at 6:30-midnight and cost 17 euros each to get in. We peeked inside to see a really cool looking bar and tables all made out of ice. It was designed by the ice hotel people from Sweden. The only disappointing thing was the residential area it was located in was not close to public transport, and not a good place to be walking around in the dark after having a few drinks. Additionally it was very small, around 300 square feet. We figured for the price it would cost to get in and have a couple drinks that it wasn’t worth making a second trip during business hours, so we moved on.

We were starting to wonder why we even came to Milan instead of spending another 3 days in Venice when we remembered there is a beautiful lake 30 miles to the north called Lake Como. The town of Como at the southern tip of Lake Como is only a 40 minute train ride. We went up there for the last day to enjoy what some people say is one of the most beautiful lakes in Europe. The weather was gloomy on the day we went but the lake was still beautiful, just as we had expected. The fall colors added to the beauty of the city. The town of Como was nice too. We walked around some shops and had another good Italian lunch. Believe it or not we are getting sick of Italian food even though it is always good.

Besides our trip to Como we had some extra time to kill in Milan and figured it was a good time to catch up on email. We booked the hotel because they advertised wireless internet and free use of the business center. It turns out the wireless was not free like it is in many budget hotels. The “free” business center was a little office space near the hotel desk that was a computer with internet access, but you had to pay to use it. So what is free about that? Maybe it’s free to sit in the chair? We knew that was sooo lame of the hotel, but as always in Europe customer service is a low priority. In Europe the customer is always wrong! We ended up shelling out some euros for a wireless connection that was only good for 2 hours. They had photocopy our passport just to let us use it, then dial into a cell phone to give us an access code. What is up with all that ridiculousness? Other than the internet fiasco the hotel turned out to be a quite classy, but as we have learned about nicer hotels your accommodations may be more pleasant but overall you get less for your money. Our favorite hotel is still the Hotel Darcet in Paris. It was cheap and small but had free wireless, simple but good breakfast, good location, and the people were all very helpful and friendly. Those are the important things to us, not how many cable TV channels there are or what the thread count is on the sheets

One good thing I can say about Milan is the restaurant, café, and bar scene is great. We didn’t really go into any bars but walking by them you can see they are really decked out with all kinds of themes and décor. I guess the locals eat out a lot because there was lots of variety in restaurants with many price ranges. We dined in one Italian restaurant Osteria Del Lazaretto which was oddly enough run by an Asian family. The food was reasonable and quite delicious. The ambience was rustic looking with things like wine barrels as the table stands. I had my potato cheese pastas and spicy spaghetti while Charlotte had seafood spaghetti. Another great find was this Brazil/Eritrea restaurant. Tem would be glad to hear I tried the Eritrean food which was great. It kind of reminded me of Indian food, very spicy and darn good. Charlotte tried the Brazilian dish which was a little milder and also very good

I wouldn’t say we had a bad time here, just a little disappointed that it wasn’t what we had expected :yawn: I suppose any place following Venice is going to be a little bit of a letdown so maybe our judgment isn’t entirely fair. In any case we are headed back to France one more time to see Nice and the French Riviera. We’re looking forward to seeing a different side of France, and from what I hear some really NICE beaches

Marcel

From Vienna to Venice we are really living it up for the last leg of our trip. When we arrived in Venice it was like being transported into a different place and time. This is the Europe we’ve been looking for the whole trip. Venice is really such a magical place it almost felt like we were at Disneyworld or some other Fantastic theme park. The crowds of tourists might have contributed to that theme park feeling a bit too; I can’t imagine what it would be like in peak season.

Our hotel was near the Grand Canal and the train station making it a convenient location. Location is something very important for rail travelers. Especially in this city where we saw dozens of people lugging around suitcases all over the island trying to get to their hotels. We had a 10 minute walk from the train station and that was that. Then we got a transport pass for Vaporettos on the Grand Canal to get us to the sights faster. Vaporettos are large ferry type of boats they use in place of a metro system. Obviously a metro is just not possible here, but they do a good job of making it seem like one. They even go as far as making the map look like a metro layout. If you don’t want to take the Vaporettos you can easily spend all day just walking around the island since it isn’t that big and every street is interesting.

We got a feel for the local culture, language, and food during our stay. The language sounds just like it does on TV. Think Sopranos speaking Spanish and you’ve got Italian. Seems they really like emphasizing the vowels. So Italiano sounds like ItAlIAnO. The food is great, but a little pricey if you eat at a restaurant. We went to one very charming family style restaurant that claimed their food is home cooked. It was home cooked indeed as the kitchen was smaller than our kitchen at home. The restaurant was very small too with only about 5 tables. When we ordered there was no menu, she just said this is our food for today. We didn’t really like the choices so she said just tell me what you want and we will cook it. I asked for spaghetti with tomato sauce and Charlotte asked for the tortellini with mushroom tomato sauce. The waitress/chef then asked spicy or no, and if we wanted cheese. We both said spicy and with cheese. Both meals turned out to be tortellini noodles but that was ok since the food was great. Unfortunately the pricetag was a bit shocking for lunch. The food was 13 euros each which we expected but the 12 ounce sodas were 3.40 each, plus a 5 dollar cover charge just to eat in the restaurant, then a 15% service charge on top of all that! So if you think about they added a 15% service charge to the 5 dollar cover charge too which is like putting tax on tax! That kind of dampens the romantic atmosphere of the restaurant but what else can you expect from a touristy place like this? In fact it’s so touristy you can practically watch the money fly out of your wallet.

Another tourist trap are the Gondola boat rides. Our guide books said everything they could short of just telling you not to do it. We got the message and just said no. The Gondolas are those romantic looking canoes with the guys in the prison striped shirts using the long paddles to take you on the scenic routes through the narrow canals while you get drunk on cheap champagne. Was that a run-on sentence or did it just sound like one? Anyway the going rate is 63 euros per hour but according to our guide books tourists always end up paying twice as much or getting less time for the money, so we decided to avoid the scam altogether. Besides the Vaporettos have just as good scenery and are much faster.

We noticed there are quite a few African immigrants here. Makes sense given the proximity of that continent. Many of them are trying to sell things on the street to make a living, especially purses. We thought it was funny that they set up their goods right in front of the real Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores. Charlotte made the mistake of asking one of the purse guys how much a Fucci (fake Gucci) was. The price started at 65 euros, and then suddenly dropped to 40 when she started walking away. Then he chased her down the street saying 25, ok 20 euros, take the purse. I felt bad since she never intended to buy it, but was just curious to see how much they jacked up the price for tourists. Seems they will take advantage of you if they can, just like anyplace else.

There were many other things we wanted to do but wandering around all the streets and unique stores took up most of our time in Venice. We managed to stumble upon the store where Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast of “Eyes Wide Shut” got their masks for the movie. In San Marcos Piazza we had fun with the pigeons that flock to the tourists in hopes of getting some crumbs. Some vendors sell bird food to people who don’t mind getting swarmed by the birds. They are so crazed over this food that they will even land all over your arms and shoulders if they think you might have something for them. One landed on my shoulder and kept cooing in my ear. The last night there we skipped the cheaper take away pizza and splurged for another nice dinner out in a romantic Italian restaurant. This time we expected the cover charge so it wasn’t such a letdown. A very good bottle of Chardonnay complemented our delicious meals of Minestrone and Gnocchi which is potato dumplings in tomato sauce.

There is a ton of history in this city that may not be around much longer if the oceans keep rising at their current rate. They say NY, LA, and London could be underwater in the next 50 years at the current rate of glacier melting. If that is true then Venice will be gone much sooner. In fact while we were there it rained non stop for about 24 hours at one point raising the water levels of the canals and flooding some of the streets. We had to walk over makeshift wooden bridges in San Marcos piazza to avoid the standing water. I guess tomorrows are never guaranteed which is a very good reason to live everyday like it could be your last. I’d say for the last few months we have done just that

Ciao, Marcel

Vienna, Austria is famous for sausages, snitzel, coffee shops, classical music, Sigmund Freud, and sometimes called the Paris of the east. They would also like you to know that there are no kangaroos in Austria. Our guide book says if NY is called the big apple then Vienna should be called the wedding cake. I couldn’t agree more In fact some if not all of the buildings here look like they could be decoration on top of a wedding cake. The architecture is in a classical style giving the whole city a 5-star feel. Vienna really surprised us by becoming one of our favorite places in Europe. Romance fills the air in this extraordinarily beautiful and fun city, and the people are just as classy as the place

Most Viennese speak a fair amount of English along with German, or at least a dialect of it. They kind of sound like that famous bodybuilder, movie star, politician, drumroll….AAAAAArnold Swartzenager Yep he is from Austria too. Not from Vienna however, but from somewhere around the second largest town in Austria called Graz. We’ll have to visit there on our next EuroTrip.

Our Vienna hotel was the same price as Budapest 60 euros per night (cheap in Europe) but 100% nicer. We didn’t expect much when we saw they had low ratings on hostelworld.com but all turned out well. I guess they were pushy about paying with cash and not using credit card but we stood our ground and paid by credit as they told us by email that we could. Yes we had to email them to get reservations, no automation for some places over here, but that is the way it is. Anyway our location was right on MariahilferstraBe where there were tons of stores and restaurants along with a supercool internet café that had seats looking like something out of star trek.

While in Vienna we went to several of the famous cafes which were surprisingly different. One place called Central Café had a guy playing classical and jazz music on the piano right next to us, very nice. Another place we ate called Landtmans was a favorite of old Sigmund Freud himself. They were all nice experiences and a great way to soak up the local culture. One evening we saw a Mozart concert in an Opera House which was a first for us but definitely another highlight of our trip. I rode the supposedly most famous ferris wheel in the world the Riesenrad. Constructed in 1887 and 220 feet tall it is a sight to see and ride. We hit the Naschmarkt on Saturday for a different kind of cultural experience. Finally we visited the Sigmund Freud Museum, located in his old home.

While in Vienna we got the Vienna card which gives you public transportation for 3 days and discounts at certain places. We got our money's worth on the discounts and especially on the public transport system although they never once checked our passes. Seems transport is on the honesty system here which shows how sophisticated this city is. With unlimited public transportation on trams buses and metro we were able to save our walking energy for exploring the areas and sites we wanted to see; rather than wasting time and energy walking back and forth across town.

We did take one daytrip out of Vienna to visit Bratislava. That city is actually in another country Slovakia, which is not covered by the Eurail pass. However it is just over the border of Austria so we only had to pay an additional 5 euros each for the roundtrip tickets. The train ride was an hour on a slow train but well worth it. We found Bratislava very different from any place we had been. It is after all former U.S.S.R just like Hungary. It was also part of Czechoslovakia before they split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia recently. The old town area was really charming just like you would expect to see in old Europe We walked up to the castle and enjoyed some local food and beer in the old town. The local beer was actually from the Czech Republic called the original Budwieser. All of you fellow beer connoisseurs will be happy to know it is not the unoriginal Budweiser found in the U.S, and much much better. It actually tastes like Becks, one of my favorites. The people here are a little different from Austria and speak another language Slovak. Everyone we met here was very friendly and surprisingly quite a few people we met spoke English, not everyone does though.

Of course as always we did have a couple unfortunate incidents during our Vienna stay, which always seem to happen to us Both were out of the ordinary too. I was taking pictures at dusk in this park just off our main street while Charlotte was sitting on a park bench resting. I heard her calling my name and turned around to see this guy right next too her speaking very aggressively and close to her She was walking towards me and I said HEY, then the guy just turned around and walked off. I wasn’t sure what happened at first until she told me about it. Apparently he came up to her and sat right next to her on the bench, I mean right next to her with no space to spare. Charlotte was looking at the map which gave her away as a tourist so he said “can I help you?” She said no and got up to walk away. Then he started swearing at her and calling her some nasty names. She said she was sure he had nothing but bad intentions towards her and who knows what they could have been. I was shocked that this happened right behind my back when I wasn’t paying attention, and it happened so fast. Fortunately I was nearby, and the guy left as quickly as he showed up. We also forgot about this almost as quickly as it happened too. We both believe that this kind of thing could happen anywhere in the world, but is very uncharacteristic of this city in particular so we didn’t let it bother us.

The other incident was just a dumb tourist screwup that has probably happened to everyone at least once in their life at some point. As we were walking down the street I was watching this guy parallel park in a really tight spot. I just knew he was going to back into this car, and sure enough he did. As soon as he did I said Oops and turned around to look in front of me, only to slam into a signpost myself I banged my head on the post right at the end of my eyebrow, and the family jewels got dinged too. Fortunately for the car the guy backed into there was little damage, but I wasn’t so lucky. I was dazed and confused along with feeling embarrassed. I immediately ducked into a nearby residential building to get my bearings. Once the pain subsided a little I rubbed my forehead and found blood on my hands. Charlotte was shocked to find my eyebrow grossly swollen up and bloody. What a mess! It didn’t stop bleeding for about 20 minutes. Charlotte got a small container of ice cream so I could put that against the wound to stop the swelling. There were no bathrooms around as usual so we used some mineral water to wash it up. Soon afterward we were doing the tourist thing again, although I had a really bad headache for the next two days. That night I went around looking like I just got out of a boxing match. Luckily the wound healed quickly and the swelling was gone after a couple days.

Somehow during our stay I kept thinking we were in Germany because Austria is so much like Germany. In Budapest I was completely confused and had to think to remember where we were when I woke up in the morning. They say when you travel to so many places in Europe that eventually you start to get confused thinking things like the leaning tower of Pisa is in Paris, and Venice is in Austria. Well that’s close but it’s Vienna in Austria, and Venice in Italy; which is coming up for us next. As for Vienna there is one thing I can sure say about it, I’lllllll BE BACK!

Marcel