Photo Story

Our extremely friendly and not at all freaky friends from Rome. We love you guys!
THE COLISEUM!!!!!OOOOOO!!!!
We only spent a day in Venice (and it wasnt even a full day) but it was beautiful...and here is a bridge we saw! enjoy!
This is Theresa in her makeshift Ferry bed. Surprisingly comfy!
This is chelsea, lounging on our lovely bed on the Ferry that we took from greece to venice. Two days on the deck of the ship in pool chairs. Cant get much classier than that!

Internet? What Internet?

Hello all,
So chelsea and i wrote a post this morning all about our time in paris, and our new travel buddies and getting to Amsterdam. Unfortunatly the internet at the hostel we are staying at is crap, and so it was all erased. Niether chelsea or I have the energy to write a whole new one so we are saving it for a rainy day in london (where we will be very soon).
I will breifly update our trip though. We went to Paris with two girls we met in Rome. Stayed there for a few nights saw the Eiffel Tower...yeah yeah. It was amazing and Chelsea and I will definitly be going back on this trip. Then the four of us got on a train and now here we are, Amsterdam.
We will try to upload pictures and add some more posts soon, hopefully there is reliable internet in our future.
T

When In Rome

Chelsea and Theresa speaking. Theres no way in hell that I could properly express the last fifty or so hours spent in the wonderful, entrancing, lively city of Rome. I say hours instead of days because when in Rome, days blur into nights blur into mornings blur into afternoons until you dont even know what day of the week it is, all you know is that some how, you ended up staring up at the huge, magnificent, Coliseum for the third or fourth time since you have been here. There comes a point in your travels when one stops and just has to say "Im in Rome. To hell with sleep"
So...my birthday. It just so happens that we end up at Hostel Ivanhoe where from the very first glance at my passport, Jeff (the reception master) was determined to give me the best birthday celebration that ever was, coupled with the fact that neither theresa or I had ever even been to a hostel before. Yes it was a good night coming. Theresa was planning to make me a pasta dinner so we went to the market and got the fixins. We come back and Jeff takes over and makes us the best damn birthday meal I've ever had! (sorry mom, but its true) Fresh salad, huge freakin avacado, you get the picture. Theresa took me outside to get some fresh air and on our way back up we ran into Jeff. He covered my eyes and led me into a room full of about thirty people shouting Happy Birthday at me while I blew out the candles on yet another chocolate cake, and we passed out punch.
There is no way we can possibly relate back all the things that happened that night, but we can try, every single person we met was amazing and determined to give chelsea a good birthday, no a great birthday, no the best damn birthday she's ever had. Success!
We will try to paint a clear picture for you.....
Its around midnight, apparently the night is still young as we rally the troops to go out on the town. We stumble down the cobbled street outside of the hostel only to get pelted by tomatoes and bags of water...? Which we were told is common here. After making a very noisy and some what quick gettaway we find all thirty of us (maybe a couple got lost on the way) at an Irish pub. The night was just begining. The next few hours were spent taking crazy pictures (some of which include a few people jumping into a fountain) getting questioned by some cops ("oh yeah they went left i think" works great in that situation) roaming the city for another pub, all the time our numbers dwindeling, till about six of us found ourselves standing at the Roman coliseum at three in the morning. A perfect way to end the perfect birthday.
I would say that we got plenty of rest and spent the next day recovering and sight seeing but that would be a lie. I think that we were just so happy to be in the presence of people who are so full of life that the party just kept going and going. We might leave Rome tomorrow, we might not. But what I can say is that hostel ivanhoe is not some where that you should go if you are looking for a quiet relaxing vacation. And we love it for that.
If any of you who were there that night are reading this, thank you for making it such an amazing night!
That is all for now, but pictures from the last week or so are on their way! So hold on to your hats ladies and gents, the fun is about to begin!
tandc

Venice. The Pit Stop.

Our stay in the beautiful city built on water was a short but sweet one. We were there a total of ten hours which were spent roaming the streets, markets and bridges. We ran into Lenny and Carol a few times (small city!) and had to say good bye everytime, just to see them again in an hour or so. We contimplated staying the night but it was way too expensive, so we bought train tickets to Rome on a whim! The train was to leave at 11:30 pm, and as we were walking down the street we ran into Lenny and Carol again, turns out they had planned a birthday celebration for me and they were hoping to find us before we left. So the night was spent eating chocolate cake (they had candles and all!) and drinking champagne. It was more than we could have hoped for. We said goodbye (if you are reading this, you made our night! Thanks!) and hurried to catch the train. We were hoping to get at least a few hours of shut eye but ended up making even more friends in our compartment. We met a guy named Jose who didnt speak very good english but he spoke italian and spanish so we spent the evening drinking wine (out of plasic cups and water bottles, classy). When two more italian guys joined us the rest of the conversations were disjointed translations, Jose translating italian into spanish and theresa translating spanish into english. its interesting how, even if you cant communicate with words very well, you can still make amazing friends just for a night. On. To. Rome!

Feeling tired? Have some Raki! Hungry? Have some Raki! Don't like Raki? Have some Raki! Yamas!

The title pretty much says it all. We made it to crete, met some wonderful people, saw some beautiful sights and enjoyed the sun and sand as long as we could.
First day we arrived in Iraklio at five in the morning, it was peaceful and serene, because everyone was asleep. We had to kill five hours before we could use internet or go to the hostel. So we found refuge in a starbucks (which i hate to admit but thank god for it) and had the biggest cup of coffee we could buy. We planned on going to zaros to stay with vivi, and her dutch friend Erwin who was also in iraklio rescued us and we rode with him to zaros. We had our first taste of snails and liver, lots of Raki (which people on crete drink like water) and the best meal of our trip so far. Vivi is an amazing cook and has a sweet little tavern which we spent the evening at.
After Zaros we went to Chania for a few nights, hanging out with a group of people in the building next to us playing music and snacking all night. (and of course there was Raki).
Thats the jist of Crete.
Forty some odd hours later, after taking a bus to a port, then a ferry to yet another port, then a metro to a train, which took us to a bus, which in turn took us to another train, where we waited for twelve hours to take a thirty some odd hour ferry to venice. Ahh the joys of travel.
In the Ferry waiting station, we met a family who was waiting for the same ferry. Carol, Lenny, Ryan, and Lilly. They are from Florida and on the last leg of their trip. We spent the majority of our wait time sharing travel stories ( i think we've almost got them convinced to go to burning man! If your reading this guys you have to go!) it made the wait much more bearable. We finally got on the ferry and said GOODBYE to Greece! And hello Italy.

We All Have Salt Beards

So the plan was to leave Milos on the 26th. Our Ferry left at 5:25 in the morning we left our room at 5:20. We ran with our backpacks and all, to the dock (which in our defense was only a five minute walk away from our room) just in time...to watch it sailing away. So what do you do at 5:30 in the morning with all your belonging, a loaf of bread, some yogurt (which we were planning on eating in the comfort of the Ferry) and a very small carton of orange juice? Well, we sat on the bench in the port watching people waking up and feeling very sorry for ourselves. It wasn't so bad except the next Ferry didn't leave for two days. But two more days on a small greek island really isn't the end of the world.


Since we had two extra days we decided to find a part of the island called Parafragas. Supposedly a very beautiful part of the island. But the bus driver had other plans for us. He stopped at a bus stop miles from any town pointed at the side of the road and said "papfragas". So we got out, and found nothing.
All we wanted was a beach, so we gave up on finding Papfragas and hiked into a deserted little town with a quiet little beach and finally went swimming!
Then, because the next bus that came through the middle of no where didn't come for over an hour, we walked to Pollonia the nearest town with food and a place to stay. (Which took us at least an hour-and lots of hills, not to mention all of the chafing)

We found a nice german couple who rented us a room for cheap and we explored the town of Pollonia for two days, then we made sure to catch the early bus and be the first in line for our Ferry to Crete on Monday.

A FEW PICTURES FROM OUR TRIP SO FAR! AND A POST SOMEHWERE IN THERE!