Thursday Shmursday

So this was my travel blog, but I feel like keeping it up for a while. I'mmmm baaaack!

I saw this idea on a blog called The Daybook (http://tandsdaybook.blogspot.com/) and I thought it was hilarious, and I wanted to put a spin on it. She calls is Awkward Awesome Thursday, but I didn't want to plagiarize too badly.

Awkward:

• When you meet someone, and you say 'oh, nice to meet you!' And they say, um...we've already met. And you say 'oh right ha ha...I TOTALLY remember...when you really don't. Can I just say how many times this happens to me? I have the worst memory.
• When you introduce your dog to your friends, and he isn't as cute as you know he should be, or he humps them.
• Yelling at people from your car, and then you realize that your window was down and they probably heard you call them bad names.
• Falling down in public. I did it at the Vatican this past summer, and I'm sure I'll do it sometime this winter in the snow.
• Someone telling you a story, of which you've already know the details from your great stalking skills on Facebook, but you have to pretend that you haven't heard because you don't want your friends to think your a creeepeeer.

Awesome:

• The last day of 2010 is tomorrow!
• Guy Atchley, a local news anchor in Tucson, teaches yoga at the place I want to start taking yoga at. (Every time my boyfriend and I watch tv and a commercial with Guy Atchley comes on, we say Shut UP Guy Atchley.)
• Online shopping for all black clothes for AVEDA!! (sidenote: I asked my mom what she thought about me getting some thigh high boots, and she said I would probably look like an elf-prostitute.)

So I graduated college. Yay! I don't feel any different. In fact, I feel a little sad because I'm going to miss the college experience! I don't feel like I'm old enough to be a college graduate, but I gotta put my big girl pants on and get shit done. I've got so much free time, and I've done absolutely nothing so far! This is the first time in my life that I have no more school to do. So you want to know what I'm going to do? Go back to school. I've been accepted into the Aveda Institute of cosmetology. It starts in March, and I'm very excited. Just don't tell my grandma. It already aggravates her that I'm not dating a Jewish guy.

Said un-Jew and family and me!

I had a great Christmas, I've been up in Flagstaff since the 19th, and my godmother Kim and my cousin Ariel came into town, along with Nick. I got some great presents, including a Coach wristlet and BALLROOM dancing lessons from Nick. Good job snuggle buns. It has been hard to be here, with my dad gone, and I don't really know how to deal with it. But I won't dwell on that.

The Girls at our fifth annual Christmas party!

Anyway, right now we in Flagstaff are stuck in the middle of a snowstorm, and the 17 is closed in and out. I couldn't get away even if I tried! I'll leave you with this picture of the lighthouse on Westcliff in Santa Cruz. Wish it was sunny and not -5000 degrees!

Johnny Cash - 'Hurt"

Almost home!

So since my last blog, we've just been relaxing. Its been wonderful here! Yesterday we spent the day at the beach, and then took a nap and got ready to watch the Germany vs. Spain World Cup match. Normally I don't watch soccer…or any other sport for that matter, but Kendra, Kelly and Farrah were really excited for the Germans to play, because they love Germany and Kendra has family there. It was crazy seeing the game here though, because there were actual Germans and Spanish. They had flags and everything. Germany lost, and so the girls were upset. At one point, Kendra's sunglasses fell off of her head, and somehow when I went to pick them up, my shoe fell off, and when I sat back up, I said "Where's my shoe?" and looked down, and Kendra had it on her foot. We laughed about that for a good ten minutes.

Sadly since yesterday I've not been feeling good. I've got a lot of snot! And I think I might have a fever. But at least its at the end of the trip, and not the beginning. I can't wait to come home! Traveling has been great, but there are so many things that I'm looking forward to! So many things.

Today we said goodbye to the girls. So this morning we came downstairs to meet them and saw that they were about to leave because they had to leave earlier than we had thought, and so they left us a very cute note, but luckily we saw them in time. They are traveling back to Germany, and Fran and I are staying here in the Cinque Terre for one more night before starting the trek back home. Tomorrow I probably won't have time to write, because we are leaving here pretty early, on the train back to Rome, which will take about four hours. And then another train to the airport. Our flight leaves at 9.30 pm, and then we have a 14 hour layover in Dublin, then a five hour layover in Chicago before heading to Phoenix. And theeeen we get to drive for an hour and a half to Tucson!! Its gonna be like 28 hours of traveling, but at least we get a day back.

And I realize that I'm not taking very many photos here. When I'm sick I don't even want to move! So I had Fran take one of me in the marina by the beach.

And of this cute cat in a flower box.

Ok, so I finally made it to an area where I could get wifi for my laptop. Otherwise I would have been continuously blogging, and they would have been in order. But I accidentally started these backwards, so the first post under this one is when we first made it to Rome, and then the last new post is from yesterday. Sorry its so confusing! I didn't have time to fix it, because the internet here is super expensive!!

Love!

Rome! And the Colosseum. June 1-2

We left our hotel in Athens for the airport at 9 am. We took the metro straight to the airport, which was about a 45 minute ride. We said our goodbyes to Erica and Katie, who also left at the same time, and then waited at our gate for around two hours, because our flight didn't leave until 1.30, and there was barely a security line.

I took a dramamine, and so I have basically no memory of the flight, haha, except for waking up facing the strange guy next to me with my mouth wide open. I'm pretty sure him and his friends were laughing at the way I was sleeping.

When we got to Rome, we took the train to Termini station. We met this really nice Romanian woman who has been living outside of Florence for the past 12 years, and her daughter. She took our map of Rome and circled all of the places that we should visit, and then gave us her phone number when we got off the train, saying that we should call her if we had any questions or if we were going to Florence (which we might). It sounded like she would show us around the town!

Our hostel is a five minute walk down Via Carlo Cattaneo, and we found it after a few minutes of walking around and asking people for directions. Normally I get really flustered when I don't know exactly where I'm going, but since I've been here and in Greece, I've been trying to just go with the flow more. Everything works out in the end!

We got all checked in, and I asked if my friends Kendra, Kelly and Farrah had arrived yet. We've been planning on meeting up here in Italy for at least three months, and I've been super excited to see them! Turns out, they accidentally made reservations at the other Hostel Alessandro, which is about 15 minutes away on the other side of the train station. So Fran and I booked it over to the other hostel and met up with them! Both our hostels had a free pasta dinner, and so we decided to meet up after and get gelato. We invited some of the people in our hostel to come with us, but only one Canadian guy came with us.

We all went out for gelato, and then Brendan the Canadian saw some other girls he knew who were walking to the Trevi Fountain and asked us to go with them. It took forever to get there, mainly because we had no idea where we were going, but it was totally worth it. The crowd was large for 10 pm, but it was beautiful!!!

After we made it back we were so exhausted. And of course everyone else in our hostel room was already asleep, which makes getting ready for bed harder because you have to be quiet and do things in the dark.

This morning we woke up at 7.30 to meet up with the girls and walk to the Colosseum, which is probably a 20 minute walk from the hostel. It was amazing. Its really hard to describe it and how huge it really is, because you can't even get the scope of it in pictures.

I really wish they offered more Roman history classes at school, because everyone kept asking me questions since I'm the history buff and anthro major. But I have no idea about a lot of Roman history. I need to take more classes!!!

We bought a tour thingy when we got there, which cost 20 euro (normal ticket entrance without a tour is 12) but we didn't feel like the guy was telling us relevant information and we decided to leave the tour and walk around on our own. He kept talking about random people choking animals with their bare hands in the arena and odd (and I feel not true) facts. He also said that they never actually re-created sea battles in the Colosseum, which I've heard they really did.

After we left, we went across the street to an overpriced place to eat, which had decent food. Then we tried to go to the Forum and around Palantine Hill, but for some reason we couldn't actually find the entrance, so we gave up and are now having a siesta in the hostel.

I'm not sure that Rome is what I expected. In my head I kept repeating that part in Count of Monte Cristo, when Count Mondego's son is begging him to let him and his friends go to Rome for Carnivale, and when he finally agrees, the son runs out into the hall and yells "Rome!" And then they cut to the streets of Rome in the late 1700's during Carnivale. I think that's what I was expecting.

Fran, me, Kendra, Kelly and Farrah in front of the Trevi Fountain.

Me and Fran in front of Trevi Fountain.

The Colosseum!
The underground part of the Colosseum, which would have been originally covered by a wood floor.
Kendra me and Fran in the Colosseum.

The Vatican June 3

We woke up at around 7 to go to the Vatican. We took the metro to the stop nearest Vatican City, and walked the rest of the way. We got stopped by another guy trying to promote guided tours, and since the line was already so long at 9ish am (about 2 hours long if I had to guess), we decided to take the guy up on his offer. Of course we got 'a special discount' of 35 euros, which included entrance and guide fees.

Our guide was AWESOME!!! His name was Jay, and he really knew not only his Vatican history and facts, but information about everything else. He was originally from the United States so he was easy to understand, and had gotten either his masters or doctorate. At first we thought he was really nerdy, but as the tour went on we were amazed. If you ever get a Vatican tour, try and get this guy. We even got his email in case we want him to guide us through the catacombs later in the week.

The tour was about three hours long, and we started out in the Vatican Museum, which was full of beautiful paintings and statues. We saw a few by Raphael, Michelangelo, and da Vinci. You know, no big deal.

We went through the Sistine Chapel, which was incredible, and a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. You are strictly forbidden to take pictures within the Sistine Chapel, but I did. I know, that's really bad, and if I had been caught (which I almost was) you would have your camera confiscated and probably be kicked out. But luckily no one really saw me, and I got a couple of good pictures. I held the camera down my my waist and took them without looking.

The tour ended right before we went into St. Peter's Basilica, and believe it or not I was sad it was over! We went inside and saw Michelangelo's Pieta. I learned that apart from the United States, it has never traveled anywhere in the world. And as a thank you to the Vatican, the US donated a heavy bulletproof glass to protect it. Apparently in the 1970's, a psychotic 'artist' attacked the statue with a hammer, screaming "I am Jesus and this is not my mother!" He broke off Mary's nose, left arm, some of her robe, and part of her face. At his trial, he declared that he was the messiah. The tour guide says that there is a youtube video of it.

We didn't spend much time in the Basilica, because it was HUGE! We were told it is the largest Christian church in the world, apart from one in the Ivory Coast which wasn't acknowledged by the pope for a while anyway, and even then its only a few meters larger. Oh, and outside of the Basilica, I definitely tripped up the marble stairs. Again. But it wasn't my fault! I saw a monk that distracted me from concentrating on the stairs…he was wearing Teva's and sunglasses with his monk's robe.

We said goodbye to Kendra, Kelly and Farrah then and Fran and I continued on under the Basilica to the tombs of the popes. We weren't allowed to take photos here either, and I didn't want to be disrespectful because they were actual tombs. I saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II, which was the last pope for those of you who didn't know, and there were still notes and flowers. Its obvious that he was a very beloved leader.

We stopped by a souvenir shop and also the Vatican Book store, where we got a few gifts. AKA finally got your Vulgate Nick!!!

We left the Vatican at around two, and I grabbed pizza before getting back on the metro. Our hostel is basically on the other side of Rome than the Vatican, and so it would have taken forever to walk there. The rest of the day we just rested at our hostel, watching a little bit of Lord of the Rings on my computer. Tonight we're making dinner with Kendra, Kelly and Farrah, and taking it easy again tonight.

Next we're going to Pompeii!!

By Raphael.
Also by Raphael. Its a huge painting! At least 12 feet high.

The School of Athens.

Sictine Chapel ceiling. Sorry they're blurry! I had to be quick or I would be in serious trouble by the guards.

Michelangelo's Pieta
Me inside of St. Peter's Basilica.

And outside of the Basilica.

Pompeii June 4

Pompeii was amazing! Kendra, Kelly, Farrah and I got on a 7.10 train to Napoli (Naples) and then transferred to another smaller train directly to Pompeii. We weren't sure exactly where the site was in relation to the train station, so we booked a tour of the site right away and stopped to grab lunch. The tour was alright, but I don't think he showed us anything that we couldn't figure out on our own with a map, and for some reason he really liked to point out the erotic paintings and anything that had any relation to sex. "Sexy time!"

I had no idea that the site was going to be so large! Apparently its around 5 square miles, and we walked around what felt like all of it. Only something like 30% has been excavated, which is really amazing because what has been excavated is huge.

Although visiting Pompeii was great, it took all day and I was exhausted when we got back at around 6 pm. The girls and I got pizza, and convinced Fran and I to leave Rome and go to Cinque Terre, which is about four hours north of Rome and on the coast. We cancelled the rest of our reservation in Rome (luckily I got the cancellation policy for 2 extra euros!) and booked a hotel in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre (there are five small towns, the big thing is to hike in between them along the coast).

A perfectly preserved mosaic dedicated to Venus.

Me and Farrah. See how much further that street goes back behind us?

Me in the entrance to some baths.
A bunch of plaster molds were made of the bodies that were captured by ash and gasses from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre 6-5

So we hopped on the 8 am train. I really think four days in Rome was totally enough. The sites were amazing, and the Vatican as well, but the modern city of Rome is dirty, smelly, and kinda sucks your soul out. I suggest staying in another city and taking a couple of day trips into Rome.

As soon as we got here we felt better, even though there are thousands of stairs everywhere, and the little village is on a hill. Which meant carrying my suitcase vertically for about a mile. Well not really, but it felt like it since my luggage weighs a ton.

But our hotel is pretty nice, Fran and I actually have our own room and bathroom, so its a wonderful change from the hostel in Rome, and only 10 euro more a night. Totally worth it to be 10 minutes from the beach in a super cute and quiet beach town.

Today we got in and went directly to the beach, after a short nap. The beach here isn't sandy, but super rocky. We didn't mind, we were just glad to be near the ocean again. There are lots of tourists here, and I noticed that most of them are from some English speaking country--America, England, Canada, Australia. Although the town doesn't feel touristy, because there aren't very many shops and only a few pizza places.

Last Day in Athens

Today was our last full day in Greece. Its hard to believe that we've been here for three weeks already! The time flew by but at the same time each day was so long and took forever.

Today was free, and so me and some girls did even more shopping! We stopped at our normal 2 euro gyro place :) for lunch, and then just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We had a nice dinner planned at a taverna for us by the women at HERC, who are the same people that planned out all the details of our trip.

Dinner was nice, I got my 3000th dish of chicken souvlaki, with ice cream for dessert. I was planning on getting one last chocolate banana crepe, but after dinner I was too stuffed. I might get one in the morning before we leave for Rome.

After dinner we did a sort of its-the-last-day/dinner-so-we-should-take-a-lot-of-pictures type thing.

Me and Lauren.

Cuz we're the four best friends that anyone could have!

We are really cute!
Me and Katie got matching dresses!

The whole group on the last night.

Me and Fran in our Rome dresses. That is, our dresses that we bought to wear in Rome but decided to wear in Athens.

We were trying to eskimo kiss with our half Jew noses.

A really cool bar that we passed by!

Aaaand me Fran and Erica in the elevator going back to our rooms.

I'm a little sad, just because I've come to know these people, and they've shared everything with me for the past three weeks. Also because everyone else is going home! I really do miss everything at home, both in Tucson and Flagstaff. Its amazing that I get to travel all around and see all of these things that I've wanted to see with more to come starting tomorrow, but its so hard being away from everyone and everything that I love. I kind of wish that all of these places and people can be mixed into one place, but I also can't wait to come home!

Delos and back to Athens

So today I took zero pictures. I got super seasick, and kinda just sat around. But I'll tell you from the beginning of the day. Or, the end of last night...

Because we've been traveling for three weeks and washing our clothes in sinks with only a little bit of detergent each time, our clothes reek. Totally disgusting, the kind of smell that makes you feel dirty. So when we got into our hotel in Mykonos, and I saw that they had washing machines, I NEEDED to use it. They weren't washers for the hotel guests, but I asked an incredibly nice woman named Penelope if there was any way Fran and I could use them to wash our clothes, and she obliged.

Let me tell you, I have never been more excited to use a washing machine before in my life--we did that jumping squealing thing that girls do when they are excited.

So we did two loads of wash and hung them out on the upstairs terrace (because up there it won't look like a gypsy camp?) and woke up early this morning at 6.30 to pack them up. My clothes smell so good!!!

After breakfast, we headed out on a small ferry to the island of Delos. Because it was a small boat, I think I felt every single rocking motion it made, but because the trip was so short I couldn't take dramamine. So I felt horrible, and me and my friend Jessica sat at the small coffee shop on the island. I wish I had seen more of it :(

By the way, I'm sure that it sounds like I'm having a horrible time because of all the complaining. But I'm not! I guess I'm just not as well prepared as I want to be, or maybe the trip is going differently than if I had planned it.

So we got back on the same ferry back to Mykonos, where believe it or not I was yelled at again by the hotel guy. This time it was for trying to carry my suitcase by myself. But he wasn't even there when I left my room! He yelled at me when I reached the bottom of the stairs. My apologies?

The boat ride back to Athens was 5 1/2 hours long, but this time it was great because the ferry wasn't as full this time, and we got to sit in nice seats on the inside of the boat. When we got to Piraeus Port, a bus picked us up and took us back to the hotel that we stayed at in the beginning of our trip. As soon as we got close, we felt a little like we were coming home, because it was finally somewhere familiar.

We got 2 euro gyros and Häagen-Dazs ice cream for dessert, which I've been wanting since we were last in Athens. Tonight we're going to sleep early, and tomorrow I think we're doing the last of our Greek souvenir shopping.

Mykonos!

Yesterday we left Naxos for Mykonos. The ferry wasn't too long, it was an hour ride to Paros where we had an hour and a half before our next ferry to Mykonos. Once we got there, we walked forever (not really, it only felt like it because we had to carry our luggage in the heat for about twenty minutes) to our hotel, which like in Naxos is right by the port and the water.

As soon as we got into our hotel we changed into our swim suits and hopped on a bus to go to Paradise Beach. Apparently Mykonos is a huge party island. And a huge gay island. Lots and lots of parties and gay men.

There was a dance party on the beach, but I fell asleep.

This is just about the only picture that was taken on my camera yesterday! Sorry!

We went to dinner at a nice place, but I made the mistake of petting one of the stray cats, because it jumped into my lap while I was eating. Gross!

Today we had a free day. We were supposed to go to the island of Delos, which is about half an hour away, but the island which is not inhabited, is closed on Mondays. So we went to the beach again! We decided to go to a different beach, I can't remember the name of it though.

Natalie, me and Lauren in front of the hotel.

A little restaraunt that had the prettiest overhanging flowers and matching pink chairs. I wish we ate here!

Me at the beach we went to today.

We got ripped off by a restaurant with beach chairs, something about not having to pay for the chairs if you ate at the restaurant, but it was a load of crap. Four gay men sat next to us, and I helped them haggle for a fake Lois Vuiton bag! We made friends with Franz, Christian, Maurice, and Ralf from Austria. Maurice did our hair.

We then hopped on the bus back, and got yelled at for a good 15 minutes by the bus driver because we had sandy feet. Sandy feet at the beach. Oh, I also got yelled at yesterday for hanging my wet clothes out of my window to dry. The hotel owner said it looked like a gypsy camp. Oh, and he also yelled at us because we forgot to turn off the air conditioning when we left the room. I don't recommend to Hotel Leftaris in Mykonos.

Anyway, we stopped at some places on the way back to our hotel. Mykonos is so picturesque, I would love to come back here some time!

Some of the girls walking through the windy little streets.

These are everywhere in Greece! They are 'evil eyes' and they are supposed to ward away evil spirits.

Old Port of Mykonos at dusk.

You can't see them from here, but there are six windmills like these on a hill overlooking the Old Port. One of the tops collapsed, so technically there are five, but they are a really well known site here.

And to end the night, a man and his pelican.

Naxos Day 2

Definition

By Mayo Clinic staff

Hypoglycemia is a condition characterized by an abnormally low level of blood sugar (glucose), your body's main energy source.

Hypoglycemia is commonly associated with diabetes. However, a variety of conditions, many of them rare, can cause low blood sugar in people without diabetes. Like fever, hypoglycemia isn't a disease itself — it's an indicator of a health problem.

Immediate treatment of hypoglycemia involves quick steps to get your blood sugar level back into a normal range, either with high-sugar foods or medications. Long-term treatment requires identifying and treating the underlying cause of hypoglycemia.

So. It turns out I am super hypoglycemic. When I was younger, and my dad and I would spend the day down in Santa Cruz, he would get low blood sugary. I had no idea what that meant of course, and I had no way of knowing. We would have to either get food immediately or drive back home, without music or talking. I didn't understand it then, but now I totally do.

I can only describe it like this. It's like when I don't have enough food with enough sugars getting to my body, and I'm spending hours upon hours waling around in the hot sun, my body shuts down. I get really weak and cranky. It's almost like an addict suffering withdrawals: the physical side effects are horrible.

I would have been fine today, except no one told me that we would be waking up, getting the same crappy breakfast that we've been getting here the whole time, and then driving, hiking, and baking in the sun for 5 straight hours, with no rest stops for food or bathroom. I'm not stupid, I know how to pack healthy snacks and water. But not when I have no idea what we're doing.

Not that I mean to complain or anything. I just need people to understand how I'm feeling when I get like this.

At the first site, there was almost nothing left, and what was left had been reconstructed. It was the Temple of Dionysus.

This was the whole 'site.' Seriously.

What is this, Holland or something?

The second site was a Temple to Demeter.

The third site was an ancient quarry, where there were remains of a large unfinished koros. I didn't take any pictures because by this time I was dead on my feet.

Sorry I don't really have anything to say about these sites! I didn't learn very much today.

The second half of the day was pretty nice. We went back to the beach that we were at yesterday, and I fell asleep about five minutes after we got there. I woke up like an hour later in a pile of drool and a slight sunburn. There was a Mexican food place right on the beach! The owners are Greek and Canadian, and I guess that equals a Mexican food place on the beach in Naxos! I got chimichangas! The waiters were Australian and we met a man from England. And I accidentally started talking like him.

English man: "I had wanted to hire a scooter."

Rachel "Oh yeah we wanted to do that!"

Erica: "Do what?"

Rachel: "Hire a scooter…. I mean rent a quad."