Andrea is an amazing girl. She's patient with me. She's extremely generous and thoughtful. She's intelligent - a perfect mixture of nerdy, dorky, geeky, and just plain smart. She's fantastically beautiful, but it's hard to catch on camera unless she's unaware that her picture is being taken. She's got a great sense of humor. She's a bit crazy, but so am I... we like to keep things interesting. I am automatically happy when I am around her, and her smile seems to brighten a few shades when she's around me. We have excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills - we often revert to a primitive system of grunts and noises when people aren't around. She can handle (just barely) the massive amount of affection I give her. After a year, I feel I know all of her quirks and she's aware of all of mine. And after a year, I can count the number of arguments we've had on the hand of a bad shop teacher.
To make our anniversary special I decided to cook her a nice dinner at home from scratch. I asked her what she wanted. She said, "fettuccine alfredo with garlic bread." I asked her what she wanted for dessert and she replied, "chocolate strawberry cheesecake." I told her that I was going to cook us dinner from scratch and she said both of those recipes were difficult and I told her, "I like a challenge!" So, I cooked us dinner. Everything was fantastic! Apparently, I am a really good cook! After dinner, we exchanged anniversary gifts.
She had gotten me a very nice telescope! I told her a long time ago that I've always wanted one. I even took her to an event that happens every Friday at Mansfield Dam called the "Austin Dam Astronomers". But for whatever reason, I just never bought one for myself. She remembered this and did all the research and found a very nice one for me!
I have been very happy in this relationship. I couldn't imagine anyone more suitable for me. I love Andrea very, very much. She knows this. I knew I was going to marry her. In fact, I had told her that I was going to marry her. We had discussed the all the important issues: living together (my house or hers?), future children (they're gonna be really hairy), finances (who gets to be the lucky one who stays home to raise the kids and doesn't have to work?), etc. These discussions were exciting! Only one more thing had to be done...
Yesterday evening, after dinner, I gave Andrea a ring. It had been in plain view in the display cabinet with my rock collection throughout dinner. After she gave me my gift, I got up, opened the ring box, and turned on one of the cabinet lights to light it up. She got up, walked over to it and asked, "Is that for THIS finger!?" "Yup", I replied and smiled. I asked her to marry me, and she said yes!
I'm engaged!
(You can see pictures of the ring if you follow the link at the top right to my Flickr account.)
Fudge Bombstik
Andrea loves me. One of the reasons she loves me: I introduced her to the Fudge Bombstik made by Blue Bell. It's a bullet-shaped popsicle that contains chocolate and banana ice cream. It's awesome... Just like Andrea.
I will write about Iceland soon. I'm lazy. Keep checkin' back.
I will write about Iceland soon. I'm lazy. Keep checkin' back.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh was very green, cold, and wet... I learned a Gaelic word: dreich. It's like a combination of dreary and bleak. Edinburgh is dreich, but I liked it. After getting off the plane, I took a bus into town, got off at the wrong stop and wandered around trying to find the right stop. I was meeting my friend Meredith. I finally found her, and we went back to her "flat". In the following days, I got to hear lots of the Scottish dialect: "pants" means underwear, "up the duff" means pregnant, a "bird" is a chick (as in woman), "slaint" means cheers or salut, and "cheers" means thank you or goodbye. "Take away" means to go (as in fast food to go), "pudding" is dessert, and "tea" is dinner, et cetera.
It was my good fortune that the entire month of August was a city-wide festival in Edinburgh called "The Fringe". My favorite part of it was the arts and crafts. We wandered through a bunch of arts and crafts tents set up in a graveyard and I saw all kinds of amazing woodwork, jewelry, glass, and clothing. Everything was very intricate and seemed very high quality. The Scots appear to take a lot of pride in their work.
Apparently, one of the more popular cuisines in Scotland is Indian food. I don't blame them. Haggis is nasty. I tried it while I was here, and it was better than the haggis I had at my friend Jeremy's "Burns Supper", but it was still haggis. On a partially related note, they have plenty of American cuisine as well: Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc. I generally don't like American cuisine, because it's all cheap meat and molested vegetables and no spice. I smiled a little bit when I walked by a McDonald's that had a window smashed in. I smiled more when I walked by a Starbucks that had workmen out front replacing ALL of the windows because they had been completely demolished by a baseball bat (or more likely a golf club, since this is Scotland). Apparently the Scots don't like shitty capitalist establishments either.
I went on a bike tour of Edinburgh. Andrea and I had planned on going on a bike tour of Munich when we were there, but it was rained out. The tour through Edinburgh was led by a guy named Adrian, and it was pretty interesting. I heard stories about several of the pubs that were named after people that were executed. Read more about Maggie Dickson's, Deacon Brodie's Tavern, and The Last Drop. I drank some Irn Bru, the national Scottish soda - it's kinda like watered down Big Red. And I learned why there were bars over several graves. And also why several windows were bricked up on all the old buildings. Very informative and non-fatal despite the crazy wrong-side-of-the-road traffic.
I also visited the Edinburgh Castle, which was awesome. There was a Prisoners of War exhibit where they held various prisoners including early American "rebels". But even more interesting were the Honours of Scotland (a.k.a. the crown jewels!) Interesting history and very shiny - my kinda exhibit. Another nice bonus was the firing of the cannon. According to tradition, they fire a cannon from the castle at exactly 1 P.M. every day except Sunday so that the ships in the bay can set their clocks. Talk about tickets to the gun show, heh.
After going to the castle, I went to the National Gallery of Scotland. Maybe I was just delirious, but I think this was the best art gallery I've been to on this entire trip. It was a reasonable size - I was able to see the entire gallery in one trip (most galleries are so huge that you end up getting numb to the art and leave because of hunger or boredom.) There were some incredible paintings - the Scottish artists were surprisingly good! I was particularly impressed by some unknown painter called the "Master of Embroidered Foliage". I wasn't able to find any particularly high-resolution images of the piece I saw, but it was amazing - it looked like he used a needle instead of a paintbrush because the detail was so fine. Also noteworthy was the art of William Dyce and Sir Joseph Noel Paton.
And I'll leave you with that. I need to upload some pictures and then I'm going to bed.
It was my good fortune that the entire month of August was a city-wide festival in Edinburgh called "The Fringe". My favorite part of it was the arts and crafts. We wandered through a bunch of arts and crafts tents set up in a graveyard and I saw all kinds of amazing woodwork, jewelry, glass, and clothing. Everything was very intricate and seemed very high quality. The Scots appear to take a lot of pride in their work.
Apparently, one of the more popular cuisines in Scotland is Indian food. I don't blame them. Haggis is nasty. I tried it while I was here, and it was better than the haggis I had at my friend Jeremy's "Burns Supper", but it was still haggis. On a partially related note, they have plenty of American cuisine as well: Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc. I generally don't like American cuisine, because it's all cheap meat and molested vegetables and no spice. I smiled a little bit when I walked by a McDonald's that had a window smashed in. I smiled more when I walked by a Starbucks that had workmen out front replacing ALL of the windows because they had been completely demolished by a baseball bat (or more likely a golf club, since this is Scotland). Apparently the Scots don't like shitty capitalist establishments either.
I went on a bike tour of Edinburgh. Andrea and I had planned on going on a bike tour of Munich when we were there, but it was rained out. The tour through Edinburgh was led by a guy named Adrian, and it was pretty interesting. I heard stories about several of the pubs that were named after people that were executed. Read more about Maggie Dickson's, Deacon Brodie's Tavern, and The Last Drop. I drank some Irn Bru, the national Scottish soda - it's kinda like watered down Big Red. And I learned why there were bars over several graves. And also why several windows were bricked up on all the old buildings. Very informative and non-fatal despite the crazy wrong-side-of-the-road traffic.
I also visited the Edinburgh Castle, which was awesome. There was a Prisoners of War exhibit where they held various prisoners including early American "rebels". But even more interesting were the Honours of Scotland (a.k.a. the crown jewels!) Interesting history and very shiny - my kinda exhibit. Another nice bonus was the firing of the cannon. According to tradition, they fire a cannon from the castle at exactly 1 P.M. every day except Sunday so that the ships in the bay can set their clocks. Talk about tickets to the gun show, heh.
After going to the castle, I went to the National Gallery of Scotland. Maybe I was just delirious, but I think this was the best art gallery I've been to on this entire trip. It was a reasonable size - I was able to see the entire gallery in one trip (most galleries are so huge that you end up getting numb to the art and leave because of hunger or boredom.) There were some incredible paintings - the Scottish artists were surprisingly good! I was particularly impressed by some unknown painter called the "Master of Embroidered Foliage". I wasn't able to find any particularly high-resolution images of the piece I saw, but it was amazing - it looked like he used a needle instead of a paintbrush because the detail was so fine. Also noteworthy was the art of William Dyce and Sir Joseph Noel Paton.
And I'll leave you with that. I need to upload some pictures and then I'm going to bed.
Andrea left...
Andrea is gone. Colon open-parenthesis. I hung out with her in the airport as long as I could... We wandered around, ate some sandwiches, and tried to find a ticket for me to Edinburgh. We checked information and found that there were only two airlines flying to Edinburgh: Air France and British Airways. We walked to the Air France desk and inquired about the price of a ticket, leaving today, for Edinburgh. Eight hundred something euros. Wait? What?! Yeah, EIGHT HUNDRED euros! Hahahahahahaha-NO. I asked about standby. She replied, "This doesn't exist." I asked for anything cheaper, and she just looked sort of embarrassed and smiled at the ridiculousness of their price. So that was one airline down... We went to British Airways and they had a flight leaving at 15:00 for a very reasonable (by comparison anyway) 150ish euros. That's a lot cheaper and faster than a train would have been, so I took it. I asked them about standby too, but they also didn't offer that as an option... I got my ticket and then escorted Andrea to security. I'm an idiot. I stood there and watched her slowly weaving through the line to the security gate. As I watched I got more and more depressed. I should have just said goodbye, kissed her, and walked away, but instead of walking away, I stood there watching...
Paris
We took a train from Frankfurt to Paris. We missed our scheduled one of course, but a helpful customer service guy rerouted us through a different city. The train ride wasn't much as far as scenery, so we entertained ourselves by playing chess on my Macbook and then taking a series of terrible photos using Photo Booth. You can enjoy those on my Flickr site (see the link in the upper right). I've been uploading lots of short video clips to YouTube as well - mostly panoramic shots of various places.
The French have been described as rude and particularly unfriendly towards people who don't speak their language. This is a fairly old stereotype I believe. In our experience so far, it's completely wrong. Everyone we have met has been friendly and helpful - even ridiculously helpful. In one case, we asked the receptionist at our hotel if he had a corkscrew. He spent a few minutes searching, got up from his desk, went to the bar, came back, made a phone call, continued looking through his desk while talking on the phone, and then hung up and informed me that he was sorry, he didn't have one, but his associate at a nearby hotel did! So, I thanked him and walked over to the other hotel down the street to open a 3 euro bottle of wine. Awesome.
The traffic here is surprisingly light - not that many cars on the roads. The weather has been hit or miss - drizzly and cloudy with occasional sun. We have walked and walked and walked all over this city. Crashing out at the hotel by 6pm local time has been the norm the last few days.
Today we caught the Eiffel Tower during some sunshine. It was amazing! It was also more stairs than anywhere else previously on this trip, but the weather was cool (even cold near the top) so it wasn't bad. The tower itself is a fantastic sight to behold. To think that it was built only as a monument - it serves no real purpose - is amazing. The Statue of Liberty that they gave us is nothing compared to what they've built for themselves.
We checked out The Louvre today. I say "checked out", because we were only there for an hour or two. We got there just before closing and we we're kind of museumed out anyway, so we just checked out the sculpture section and a lot of the renaissance art. It was interesting and I wish we could have stayed longer, but our energy levels were dwindling... The Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo were swarmed with tourists. Honestly, there were many far greater works of art to be seen. Those two just have names that people recognize, so they go straight to them and ignore everything else... I personally liked Giuseppe Arcimboldi/Arcimboldo's work.
The French have been described as rude and particularly unfriendly towards people who don't speak their language. This is a fairly old stereotype I believe. In our experience so far, it's completely wrong. Everyone we have met has been friendly and helpful - even ridiculously helpful. In one case, we asked the receptionist at our hotel if he had a corkscrew. He spent a few minutes searching, got up from his desk, went to the bar, came back, made a phone call, continued looking through his desk while talking on the phone, and then hung up and informed me that he was sorry, he didn't have one, but his associate at a nearby hotel did! So, I thanked him and walked over to the other hotel down the street to open a 3 euro bottle of wine. Awesome.
The traffic here is surprisingly light - not that many cars on the roads. The weather has been hit or miss - drizzly and cloudy with occasional sun. We have walked and walked and walked all over this city. Crashing out at the hotel by 6pm local time has been the norm the last few days.
Today we caught the Eiffel Tower during some sunshine. It was amazing! It was also more stairs than anywhere else previously on this trip, but the weather was cool (even cold near the top) so it wasn't bad. The tower itself is a fantastic sight to behold. To think that it was built only as a monument - it serves no real purpose - is amazing. The Statue of Liberty that they gave us is nothing compared to what they've built for themselves.
We checked out The Louvre today. I say "checked out", because we were only there for an hour or two. We got there just before closing and we we're kind of museumed out anyway, so we just checked out the sculpture section and a lot of the renaissance art. It was interesting and I wish we could have stayed longer, but our energy levels were dwindling... The Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo were swarmed with tourists. Honestly, there were many far greater works of art to be seen. Those two just have names that people recognize, so they go straight to them and ignore everything else... I personally liked Giuseppe Arcimboldi/Arcimboldo's work.
Elf
My phrasebook has German numbers in it. Eine, zwie, drei, etc. The word for "eleven" in German is "elf". Andrea knows a little German, so I asked her smartassedly, "if eleven is 'elf', how do you say 'elf' in German?" She paused for a moment. Her eyes shifted up while she accessed her mental translation dictionary, and then she replied, "Eleven." I don't think she even smiled at her own joke...
Day Somethingorother: Apathy
I've decided that daily blogging isn't such a good idea. You just wanna know the good stuff, you don't wanna know everything.
In Germany I watched Night Rider. It was in German. It was followed by Bay Watch... in German. The Hasslehof thing is true.
In Europe, men like tiny dogs and speedos. Ridiculous.
I discovered a beer called Franziskaner Weissbier - it's good! A beer that is good! This is the first time I really enjoyed a beer.
In Germany, we gained back whatever weight we may have lost. They eat like crazy people here. Very good food though. Worth it.
I got all my pictures online finally. I got all my videos online as well. I'm caught up. I'm not blogging everyday obvously, but I will continue to keep track of interesting things and update when I can.
I have to go now, because I promised Andrea I would let her chew on my fingers if she would quit chewing on my laptop screen. She is teething.
In Germany I watched Night Rider. It was in German. It was followed by Bay Watch... in German. The Hasslehof thing is true.
In Europe, men like tiny dogs and speedos. Ridiculous.
I discovered a beer called Franziskaner Weissbier - it's good! A beer that is good! This is the first time I really enjoyed a beer.
In Germany, we gained back whatever weight we may have lost. They eat like crazy people here. Very good food though. Worth it.
I got all my pictures online finally. I got all my videos online as well. I'm caught up. I'm not blogging everyday obvously, but I will continue to keep track of interesting things and update when I can.
I have to go now, because I promised Andrea I would let her chew on my fingers if she would quit chewing on my laptop screen. She is teething.
Picture Update
I gotta go explore Munich right now, but I will get all my pictures and movies up before we go to Frankfurt. Have patience. I'm sure you're all waiting on the edges of your seats. Ha.
Hope you are all doing well.
Hope you are all doing well.
Day 21: Florence
We spent the day hanging out with Stover today. I'm still amazed that I ran into someone I know in the streets of Florence... Inconceivable! We went to some church that we thought was the Duomo and paid an entrance fee to get in. Then wandered around and found the real Duomo and didn't have to pay to get in - go figure. We waited in a long, long line. Italy has many long, long lines. Patience. Personally, I think the fake Duomo was cooler than the real one, except for the cupola. The cupola of the real Duomo was amazing and horrific! The entire dome was painted with a scene of heaven and hell. In hell, demons eat you and stab you in the ass and crotch with flaming torches. It's not pleasant. The artwork depicting the unpleasantness was amazing though. At the very top of the cupola we were once again able to walk around the outside of the dome. The view was amazing. You are going to get bored of the word "amazing" while reading my blog. That's fine. They say pictures say a thousand words, so I took lots of pictures of the amazing view so you don't have to rely on my sad, inept writing to describe what I saw...
Day 20: Florence
Florence was a lesson in patience. Despite all our planning, we accidentally got on the slow train from Roma Termini to Firenze S.M.N. We got on a train labelled "express", but go figure, apparently things labeled "express" or "direct" are in fact not express or direct - they stop at every little town along the way. So, the alleged 2 hour trip to Florence was actually more like 4 hours. Once we go to Florence, we decided to get in line at the Ufizi Museum. We didn't have reservations, so we just had to wait in line. The line took about 3 hours to get through. In the process, we met a nice couple from N.Y.C., chatted it up for a while, sent the dude from the N.Y.C. couple to get some beers, and then drank. Once we got in, we saw about a million paintings of Kate Blanchett. Just kidding. The art was quite impressive - we saw the Birth of Venus among other things. I can't think of any of the names of the other paintings, but they were very, very beautiful. I never considered myself a fan of Renaissance art before, but this museum has made me change my mind.
After the museum, we had dinner in a nearby plaza. By coincidence, we sat right next to some people that had been in the Ufizi line with us. Then, we had some gelato - very tasty. Then, by much, much, MUCH greater freakish coincidence, I was stopped in the street by Mark Stover! !! !!!!!!!!! ! !! I was just walking down the street with the sun in my eyes, eating gelato with Andrea and this dude walked right up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. At first I thought it was someone trying to sell me something, but they usually don't physically touch you. Andrea thought it was a pickpocket, because she's paranoid. But it was Mark - my ex-coworker at Winternals! Insane. Earlier in the week I had chatted with Anthony (another ex-coworker), and Anthony had said I should try to get in touch with Mark because he was somewhere in Europe, but he thought he was Ampsterdam or something. We weren't heading that direction, so I didn't bother... But apparently Mark had decided to go to Rome and then Florence and then somehow he just bumped into us on the street in Florence! Amazing! Ridiculous! We chatted for a little bit and decided to hang out tomorrow. The rest of the way home I just kept laughing to myself at how amazing it was that I randomly ran into someone I knew in the streets of Florence...
After the museum, we had dinner in a nearby plaza. By coincidence, we sat right next to some people that had been in the Ufizi line with us. Then, we had some gelato - very tasty. Then, by much, much, MUCH greater freakish coincidence, I was stopped in the street by Mark Stover! !! !!!!!!!!! ! !! I was just walking down the street with the sun in my eyes, eating gelato with Andrea and this dude walked right up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. At first I thought it was someone trying to sell me something, but they usually don't physically touch you. Andrea thought it was a pickpocket, because she's paranoid. But it was Mark - my ex-coworker at Winternals! Insane. Earlier in the week I had chatted with Anthony (another ex-coworker), and Anthony had said I should try to get in touch with Mark because he was somewhere in Europe, but he thought he was Ampsterdam or something. We weren't heading that direction, so I didn't bother... But apparently Mark had decided to go to Rome and then Florence and then somehow he just bumped into us on the street in Florence! Amazing! Ridiculous! We chatted for a little bit and decided to hang out tomorrow. The rest of the way home I just kept laughing to myself at how amazing it was that I randomly ran into someone I knew in the streets of Florence...
Day 19: Rome
It's so bizarre to see how the ancient cultures interacted with each other! Throughout Rome we have seen bits of Egypt and Greece. There are several Egyptian obelisks around the city. There are Roman or Greek statues containing sphinxes and pharaohs. And there's this huge transition period that occurred when the Christians took over. Almost everything in Rome has been converted to churches. The obelisks all have metal caps on the top with crosses even though you can still see the Egyptian hieroglyphs up the sides of them. There are temples to Greek gods, built using the old architectural styles, that have been converted to churches. Christian frescos and biblical figures are all over the formerly pagan temples - it's funny.
We saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel today. The entire place was covered from floor to ceiling with paintings and sculptures. I can't believe that out of all of that, the only thing people think of when you say "Sistine Chapel" is that one painting of the dude touching the other dude's finger. The chapel was HUGE! It was completely covered with paintings. That one scene was just a tiny piece of the whole picture!
There was an enormous collection of statues on the way to the Sistine Chapel. One section had very lifelike sculptures of animals. Another section contained busts of famous emperors. And throughout the walk were giant stone bathtubs, Roman gods, and other interesting things. Amazing stuff. The amount of highly-skilled man-hours that went into this museum is astounding! From the building itself to the floor-to-ceiling painting, to the vast collection of sculptures - the Vatican Museum's density of awesomeness-per-square-meter was very, very high!
Anyway, you can read more about this day on Andrea's blog as well. I think we're gonna start switching off days blogging. Or something.
We saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel today. The entire place was covered from floor to ceiling with paintings and sculptures. I can't believe that out of all of that, the only thing people think of when you say "Sistine Chapel" is that one painting of the dude touching the other dude's finger. The chapel was HUGE! It was completely covered with paintings. That one scene was just a tiny piece of the whole picture!
There was an enormous collection of statues on the way to the Sistine Chapel. One section had very lifelike sculptures of animals. Another section contained busts of famous emperors. And throughout the walk were giant stone bathtubs, Roman gods, and other interesting things. Amazing stuff. The amount of highly-skilled man-hours that went into this museum is astounding! From the building itself to the floor-to-ceiling painting, to the vast collection of sculptures - the Vatican Museum's density of awesomeness-per-square-meter was very, very high!
Anyway, you can read more about this day on Andrea's blog as well. I think we're gonna start switching off days blogging. Or something.
Day 18: Rome
I got nothing. The bits of my brain that produce blogs are worn out. I started to write, but it was the same stuff that Andrea already said on her blog, so I will once again suggest that you go check out her blog. I will post more pictures though...
Day 16: Santorini to Rome
I flew from Santorini to Athens to Rome today. Upon arrival I was personally greeted by the Pope and we went back to his place and partied and drank screwdrivers.
That would be awesome.
Upon arrival I barely missed the train to town, so I had to sit and wait for half an hour. I got on the train and ended up talking to a Libyan guy for the entire trip - he was cool. I don't really know what relations the U.S. has with Libya, but I think it's one of the no-no countries, right? Well, regardless, he was very friendly and enjoyed talking about his country and his travels.
I found the train that goes to my hotel fairly easily despite the maze under Roma Termini rail station. The bed and breakfast, Roman and Italian B&B is the name I believe, is AWESOME! Very nice room, big shower, wireless Internet, and very secure (three keys: one to get into the building, one to get into the flat, and one to get into the room in the flat. And I have yet to meet a single unfriendly person. The receptionist at the B&B was very nice, the lady in the pizzeria downstairs gave me a free fried mozzarella and rice ball thing - it was good - and all the random people I've had to interact with have been courteous and helpful.
I basically did nothing today. I haven't seen any sites. All I did was arrive, eat, get on the Internet, and go shopping. I felt like pampering myself with real shampoo + conditioner and real bath gel stuff and real bath scrubby thingies. I haven't felt clean until today. Hotel soap and shampoo sucks. I bought some toenail clippers to clip my wicked-long toenails too! It was like walking around with swords sticking out of my feet - which would be awesome if I was kickboxer, but not so awesome for an ordinary bum such as myself.
Then I ate again, just for the hell of it, and finally came back to the hotel to post all these lovely blogs and photos. I chatted with a few you online too. Its nice to hear from my friends. I'm RIDICUDONKULOUSLY excited about Andrea's arrival tomorrow morning!!! I will probably spend all day squeezing her to death until her cute little head just pops right off.
I hope she's wise enough to wear some kind of armor underneath her shirt. Or maybe she'll have a taser - that might save her.
That would be awesome.
Upon arrival I barely missed the train to town, so I had to sit and wait for half an hour. I got on the train and ended up talking to a Libyan guy for the entire trip - he was cool. I don't really know what relations the U.S. has with Libya, but I think it's one of the no-no countries, right? Well, regardless, he was very friendly and enjoyed talking about his country and his travels.
I found the train that goes to my hotel fairly easily despite the maze under Roma Termini rail station. The bed and breakfast, Roman and Italian B&B is the name I believe, is AWESOME! Very nice room, big shower, wireless Internet, and very secure (three keys: one to get into the building, one to get into the flat, and one to get into the room in the flat. And I have yet to meet a single unfriendly person. The receptionist at the B&B was very nice, the lady in the pizzeria downstairs gave me a free fried mozzarella and rice ball thing - it was good - and all the random people I've had to interact with have been courteous and helpful.
I basically did nothing today. I haven't seen any sites. All I did was arrive, eat, get on the Internet, and go shopping. I felt like pampering myself with real shampoo + conditioner and real bath gel stuff and real bath scrubby thingies. I haven't felt clean until today. Hotel soap and shampoo sucks. I bought some toenail clippers to clip my wicked-long toenails too! It was like walking around with swords sticking out of my feet - which would be awesome if I was kickboxer, but not so awesome for an ordinary bum such as myself.
Then I ate again, just for the hell of it, and finally came back to the hotel to post all these lovely blogs and photos. I chatted with a few you online too. Its nice to hear from my friends. I'm RIDICUDONKULOUSLY excited about Andrea's arrival tomorrow morning!!! I will probably spend all day squeezing her to death until her cute little head just pops right off.
I hope she's wise enough to wear some kind of armor underneath her shirt. Or maybe she'll have a taser - that might save her.
Day 15: Santorini
I went to the red beach today. Something I read about Santorini mentioned that there's a black beach, a red beach, and a white beach.
The black beach was the first beach I discovered, because it's the big one that stretches all along the coast of Perissa. The black beach, as it's name suggests, is black. The beach consists of ground up bits of black lava rock - my feet as as smooth as a baby's ass after walking up and down it so much. The beach is lined with shops, restaurants, and bars. I believe this is one of the larger, more popular beaches. It's a cool beach.
The red beach is accessible by car or by boat. I took a ferry to the red beach from the black beach for 14 euro (round trip). It took a good 15 or 20 minutes to get there. The red beach is red - it consists of ground up red lava rock. It's much smaller than the black beach, and it has nothing near it. When I first arrived there, it was nearly empty. There was a path on either side of the beach. Both of them required a hike up the steep cliffs. I believe one led to a parking area. The other one led across a field and eventually to another even smaller beach called Kamassa or something like that. There was a small family restaurant on that beach. I had some lunch there, laid in the sun for a little while, and then walked back to the red beach. When I got back, it was packed! I sat around and played with rocks while I waited for the boat to come back. Too much sun tires me out.
The white beach is, so I'm told, accessible only by boat. I never made it there. I imagine it's made up of white lava rock... Just a guess.
When I finally got back to town, I went home, showered, and took a nap. I woke up from the nap completely fucked! Naps usually do that to me - I sleep for a few hours and when I wake up I feel like I've only had a few hours of sleep - it's awful. I groggily wandered out the door in search of food and something to do... I ended up hanging out with David at Soul Bar and getting pretty drunk. 1.50 euro pints - not bad. The island life has been nice, but it's time to continue my travels...
The black beach was the first beach I discovered, because it's the big one that stretches all along the coast of Perissa. The black beach, as it's name suggests, is black. The beach consists of ground up bits of black lava rock - my feet as as smooth as a baby's ass after walking up and down it so much. The beach is lined with shops, restaurants, and bars. I believe this is one of the larger, more popular beaches. It's a cool beach.
The red beach is accessible by car or by boat. I took a ferry to the red beach from the black beach for 14 euro (round trip). It took a good 15 or 20 minutes to get there. The red beach is red - it consists of ground up red lava rock. It's much smaller than the black beach, and it has nothing near it. When I first arrived there, it was nearly empty. There was a path on either side of the beach. Both of them required a hike up the steep cliffs. I believe one led to a parking area. The other one led across a field and eventually to another even smaller beach called Kamassa or something like that. There was a small family restaurant on that beach. I had some lunch there, laid in the sun for a little while, and then walked back to the red beach. When I got back, it was packed! I sat around and played with rocks while I waited for the boat to come back. Too much sun tires me out.
The white beach is, so I'm told, accessible only by boat. I never made it there. I imagine it's made up of white lava rock... Just a guess.
When I finally got back to town, I went home, showered, and took a nap. I woke up from the nap completely fucked! Naps usually do that to me - I sleep for a few hours and when I wake up I feel like I've only had a few hours of sleep - it's awful. I groggily wandered out the door in search of food and something to do... I ended up hanging out with David at Soul Bar and getting pretty drunk. 1.50 euro pints - not bad. The island life has been nice, but it's time to continue my travels...
Day 14: Santorini
Today was a full day. I booked a tour of Santorini for 20 euro. Basically, I got a bus ride to the port on the other side of the island, then I took a boat to the volcano caldera, the hot springs, Thirasia, and finally I was dropped off to see the sunset in Oia. I missed my tour bus back to Perissa, so I ended up taking the local bus instead. I was fucked over by an Asian couple though. I was supposed to get off the bus at Fira and transfer to another bus. So, the bus stopped and this couple got off, and I got off, and I expected everyone to get off behind me, but then the doors to the bus closed and it left, and there I was standing in the middle of nowhere, not Fira. I walked to a local shop and asked, "Fira?" "No, Fira is down the road." "How do I get there? Is there another bus in half an hour or something?" "Half hour, 2 hours, who knows, it's only 30 minutes by foot." So, I started walking to Fira. It was actually kinda nice, because the moon was full, the stars were out, and there was a cool breeze. After getting to Fira, I caught the transfer bus to Perissa and made it home before midnight. There was supposed to be some big, happening full moon party tonight at the Beach Bar, so I went to that, but I couldn't find anyone I knew there, so I left. I am worn out. I'll have to sleep in and maybe just chill on the beach some more tomorrow, heh. This place is so much better than a big city right now.
Day 13: Santorini
I basically lived the island life today. It was very laid back. I woke up. I went to the beach. I wandered as far in both directions as my tired feet could carry me. I went back to the hotel. I rested. I saw a church halfway up the mountain, so I decided to try to hike up to it. I got high up on the mountain, but could not find the path that led to the church - it's a very sneaky church. So, I gave up because it was hot. Then I went back down to town and grabbed my computer and spend several hours wandering the streets looking for wireless Internet access. In the process I found a tasty bakery run by a nice, old Greek lady. I asked her about wireless Internet access, but she didn't know anything about it - so I bought a pineapple pie thingy from her and ate it. It was good. Then I finally ended up going to the end of town to plug my computer into the network of a local Internet cafe. After screwing around on the net for a bit, I went back to the hotel, dropped off the computer, and went back to the beach... My tan is coming along nicely.
Day 12: Athens. No, wait, Santorini!
I went to the National Museum of Archeology in Athens this morning. I saw a statue of a siren, which was cool. And I saw a statue of Pan. And I saw a lot of statues of naked men and a few statues of naked women. Ancient cultures are all about being naked - that's what I've learned on this trip. I also saw the famous Mask of Agememnon - there are actually a half dozen or so death masks: the famous one, one of some guy with a big smile and a round head, and a few cool ones with unibrows. The museum was pretty interesting, but I didn't really have that much time to waste, because I found another interesting side trip...
Santorini. I found this island because the Hosteling International website only lists hostels in three cities in Greece: Athens, Corfu, and Santorini. I went to wikitravel to check out Santorini and it looked awesome: nice beaches, good hiking trails, and an active volcano! Rock on! So, I booked a flight and a room for 4 days. I will get back to Athens just in time to catch my flight to Rome to meet my Sweetie!!! I got on the plane, flew for half an hour, and now I'm here on an island in Greece and it's already SO much nicer than being in the city. The sound of the ocean is constant, the moon is almost full, and I was invited to drink some beers on the beach by some Austrailians. I had a fantastic evening just hanging out on the beach at night, talking about random stuff, mostly about how I keep paying too much for everything. People were setting of fireworks on the beach, and the nearby club was playing some pretty good music. My new friends are astounded every time I mention a price to them because they're paying less than half of what I pay for most everything: transportation, lodging, booze, etc. I need to work on traveling more cheaply. Anyway, it was a very nice evening. After I started to get tired, I bid them goodnight and took a short walk on the moonlit beach - unlike most people I don't like long walks on the beach, just short ones. Heh.
I am once again cut off from the world. I have no telephone in my room, nor do I have Internet access. Lame. I will figure it out tomorrow after I work on my tan, hehe.
Santorini. I found this island because the Hosteling International website only lists hostels in three cities in Greece: Athens, Corfu, and Santorini. I went to wikitravel to check out Santorini and it looked awesome: nice beaches, good hiking trails, and an active volcano! Rock on! So, I booked a flight and a room for 4 days. I will get back to Athens just in time to catch my flight to Rome to meet my Sweetie!!! I got on the plane, flew for half an hour, and now I'm here on an island in Greece and it's already SO much nicer than being in the city. The sound of the ocean is constant, the moon is almost full, and I was invited to drink some beers on the beach by some Austrailians. I had a fantastic evening just hanging out on the beach at night, talking about random stuff, mostly about how I keep paying too much for everything. People were setting of fireworks on the beach, and the nearby club was playing some pretty good music. My new friends are astounded every time I mention a price to them because they're paying less than half of what I pay for most everything: transportation, lodging, booze, etc. I need to work on traveling more cheaply. Anyway, it was a very nice evening. After I started to get tired, I bid them goodnight and took a short walk on the moonlit beach - unlike most people I don't like long walks on the beach, just short ones. Heh.
I am once again cut off from the world. I have no telephone in my room, nor do I have Internet access. Lame. I will figure it out tomorrow after I work on my tan, hehe.
Day 11: Istanbul and back to Athens
Today was my last day in Istanbul. A coworker of Andrea's recommended several things to do in Istanbul, one of which was to visit an area called Taksim and have some profiterol at the Ince bakery. So, I used Istanbul's train system for the first time this morning. There were not a lot of options. Basically, you just pay 1.30 lira for a token to get on a train or bus - no transfers, no weekly or monthly passes - I appreciated the simplicity of it.
I was on the train for a while. It stopped frequently and announced the station names. Then it stopped and there was a bunch of gibberish, which usually means that the train has reached it's last top. It's funny because all the locals get off the damn train and all the tourists just sit there and start to look worried. Some guys near me asked, "Taksim?", and I said, "I hope so, I don't know." Apparently it wasn't. We had to transfer to a different train. So, I was walking behind these guys and they were trying to go through the transfer without a token, I pointed and said "jeton" (the Turkish word for token) - the token office was just around the corner. We all went over there and I asked one of them where he was from. "Iraq!", he answered enthusiastically. Then he asked me where I was from... I told him that I was sorry to say that I was from America, and I looked down in shame and said I'm sorry several more times... His smile disappeared and he paused and then just patted me on the shoulder and said, "good day to you", and he and his posse walked off. I felt miserable and angry at my country... Even moreso because I just read that book about how America intentionally exploits other countries by offering to help them upgrade their infrastructure and loaning them tons of money that is used to pay American companies to do work in these foreign countries - basically, we loan them money to pay our companies and then they have to pay us back the money that they already paid our companies. Then the companies build WAY more than the countries need, and the country gets into debt so deep that it can't pay us back. And we use that to put them in a vulnerable position to make them do us favors when the time is right. Or something like that. The point being, my country is a dick.
So, I moped around Taksim and found the bakery. Profiterol is basically chocolate covered, creamy, something-or-other. It was good, but it didn't help my mood that much. I got out of Taksim and took a bus to Ortokoy. I was the only passenger on the bus at first, so the bus driver waved for me to sit up front and then said random stuff in Turkish about things we were passing. I understood not a word, but I saw the sights. Ortokoy, from my experience, was basically a small part of Istanbul on the Bosphorus straight. I took a scenic walk across a plaza by the ocean. It was filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, and it featured a mini-bazaar and a large mosque. I drank some iced tea and then got up and sat on a bench by the mosque while the call to prayer was going out - very peaceful.
After that I got back on the bus, missed my stop, rode it around for an hour, hoping it would come back to that stop, but instead I ended up at the bus depot. The driver didn't speak English, but I managed to communicate that I needed to get to Kabatash, and he indicated that I should join him and other bus drivers and have some tea. Ha! So, I hung out with a bunch of bus drivers and drank tea. Apparently one of them was interested in learning English, so we went over my Turkish phrasebook together and I ended up giving it to him.
I finally got back to my hostel and then took a train to the airport instead of waiting for my stupid "shuttle" that I didn't trust to arrive on time. I got to the airport several hours before my flight and I decided to grow a pair of balls and ask for some of my money back from the "shuttle" service that scammed me when I arrived. For a moment, the manager gave me some crap about how his driver was already in that part of town and I should have called to cancel, and no, he wasn't giving me any refund. So, I told him that his man had pulled me across the airport and told me that no train existed that could take me into town, which was a blatant lie, and that I didn't care where his damn driver was (I doubted he even had a driver on the way). Apparently that was sufficient conversation on the topic, so he gave me 20 euro back out of the original 45. I know most of you would have argued to get even more back, or probably wouldn't have gotten into this situation in the first place, but hopefully you can appreciate how I was actually able to demand my money back. That's a big deal for me. I am not a demanding person.
By the way, Istanbul rules - their airport has free wireless Internet. Fuck all the airports that charge for wireless access! Yay Istanbul!
So, I browsed the net for awhile, took my flight back to Athens, got a hotel room from the agency at the airport, and then missed the last train into town... There were only 4 people waiting around for the train (the rest must have been smart enough to figure out that no more trains were coming). Me, two possibly French people that wouldn't stop making out, and a German lady named Eva. After figuring out that a train wasn't coming and discovering that we were both going to within blocks of each other, we decided to travel together. We took the bus to Syndagma Square and then just walked the rest of the way. I offered to walk her to her hostel, because the area is kind of sketchy, even moreso at night. There are no women out, just a bunch of men, a bunch of skater punk kids, and a bunch of little booths that sell a wide variety of porn magazines and DVDs in addition to drinks and snacks. When we got to her hostel, all her friend were waiting on the steps and they all cheered. She is part of some troup of poi performers - they are in town for a juggling convention. Bizarre. I hung out with them for a little bit and then found my way to my hotel.
I attempted to call Andrea before bed, but had more problems. It's remarkable how important communication is and how we take it for granted. I accidentally threw away the calling card access number for Greece (it was written down on a piece of paper with a bunch of other crap). It wouldn't have worked anyway because the phone in the hotel room was pulse dial, not tone dial, and there didn't appear to be any switch to change it. I was once again without Internet or phone... very frustrating.
I was on the train for a while. It stopped frequently and announced the station names. Then it stopped and there was a bunch of gibberish, which usually means that the train has reached it's last top. It's funny because all the locals get off the damn train and all the tourists just sit there and start to look worried. Some guys near me asked, "Taksim?", and I said, "I hope so, I don't know." Apparently it wasn't. We had to transfer to a different train. So, I was walking behind these guys and they were trying to go through the transfer without a token, I pointed and said "jeton" (the Turkish word for token) - the token office was just around the corner. We all went over there and I asked one of them where he was from. "Iraq!", he answered enthusiastically. Then he asked me where I was from... I told him that I was sorry to say that I was from America, and I looked down in shame and said I'm sorry several more times... His smile disappeared and he paused and then just patted me on the shoulder and said, "good day to you", and he and his posse walked off. I felt miserable and angry at my country... Even moreso because I just read that book about how America intentionally exploits other countries by offering to help them upgrade their infrastructure and loaning them tons of money that is used to pay American companies to do work in these foreign countries - basically, we loan them money to pay our companies and then they have to pay us back the money that they already paid our companies. Then the companies build WAY more than the countries need, and the country gets into debt so deep that it can't pay us back. And we use that to put them in a vulnerable position to make them do us favors when the time is right. Or something like that. The point being, my country is a dick.
So, I moped around Taksim and found the bakery. Profiterol is basically chocolate covered, creamy, something-or-other. It was good, but it didn't help my mood that much. I got out of Taksim and took a bus to Ortokoy. I was the only passenger on the bus at first, so the bus driver waved for me to sit up front and then said random stuff in Turkish about things we were passing. I understood not a word, but I saw the sights. Ortokoy, from my experience, was basically a small part of Istanbul on the Bosphorus straight. I took a scenic walk across a plaza by the ocean. It was filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, and it featured a mini-bazaar and a large mosque. I drank some iced tea and then got up and sat on a bench by the mosque while the call to prayer was going out - very peaceful.
After that I got back on the bus, missed my stop, rode it around for an hour, hoping it would come back to that stop, but instead I ended up at the bus depot. The driver didn't speak English, but I managed to communicate that I needed to get to Kabatash, and he indicated that I should join him and other bus drivers and have some tea. Ha! So, I hung out with a bunch of bus drivers and drank tea. Apparently one of them was interested in learning English, so we went over my Turkish phrasebook together and I ended up giving it to him.
I finally got back to my hostel and then took a train to the airport instead of waiting for my stupid "shuttle" that I didn't trust to arrive on time. I got to the airport several hours before my flight and I decided to grow a pair of balls and ask for some of my money back from the "shuttle" service that scammed me when I arrived. For a moment, the manager gave me some crap about how his driver was already in that part of town and I should have called to cancel, and no, he wasn't giving me any refund. So, I told him that his man had pulled me across the airport and told me that no train existed that could take me into town, which was a blatant lie, and that I didn't care where his damn driver was (I doubted he even had a driver on the way). Apparently that was sufficient conversation on the topic, so he gave me 20 euro back out of the original 45. I know most of you would have argued to get even more back, or probably wouldn't have gotten into this situation in the first place, but hopefully you can appreciate how I was actually able to demand my money back. That's a big deal for me. I am not a demanding person.
By the way, Istanbul rules - their airport has free wireless Internet. Fuck all the airports that charge for wireless access! Yay Istanbul!
So, I browsed the net for awhile, took my flight back to Athens, got a hotel room from the agency at the airport, and then missed the last train into town... There were only 4 people waiting around for the train (the rest must have been smart enough to figure out that no more trains were coming). Me, two possibly French people that wouldn't stop making out, and a German lady named Eva. After figuring out that a train wasn't coming and discovering that we were both going to within blocks of each other, we decided to travel together. We took the bus to Syndagma Square and then just walked the rest of the way. I offered to walk her to her hostel, because the area is kind of sketchy, even moreso at night. There are no women out, just a bunch of men, a bunch of skater punk kids, and a bunch of little booths that sell a wide variety of porn magazines and DVDs in addition to drinks and snacks. When we got to her hostel, all her friend were waiting on the steps and they all cheered. She is part of some troup of poi performers - they are in town for a juggling convention. Bizarre. I hung out with them for a little bit and then found my way to my hotel.
I attempted to call Andrea before bed, but had more problems. It's remarkable how important communication is and how we take it for granted. I accidentally threw away the calling card access number for Greece (it was written down on a piece of paper with a bunch of other crap). It wouldn't have worked anyway because the phone in the hotel room was pulse dial, not tone dial, and there didn't appear to be any switch to change it. I was once again without Internet or phone... very frustrating.
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