Catch Us If You Can...

To all our Amazing Peeps:

We felt like we cheated you on our last blog (sorry), so now we would like to bring you up to speed and of course there is no way to fill in all the details, but we will make an honest effort. Also, we want to give you a little reminder to make sure you notice the Photobucket link on the column to your right. This link will give you all the photo pleasure you could possibly handle. It should be self explanatory as to how it is organized (just look for the region categories on the left and travel with us from there).

Ready, Set, Here We Go... (make sure you have some time, this one is long. sorry ;-)

ITALY

Our last post left us in Roma, grand, impressive, exhausting Roma. One of the highlights of our visit was the Vativan and the Vatican Museums. We are sure that everyone visits these two extraordinary sites, but we our experience was a bit unique. We went on the first Sunday of the month which grants free admission to the Museums. We arrived at 6:30am and were number 80 in line. By the time the museum opened at 9:00am the line wrapped all along the Vatican City wall. In estimation maybe a little over a thousand people were in the queue. Four hours later (!!!) when we left, a peek at the line showed there were thousands more still waiting to get in. The Sistine Chapel was PHENOMENAL and truly aweing. Along with Raphael's work, the museums were well worth the wait and the time spent!
In our memory, Rome is filled with tourist sites, but even more so with the experience of food and especially pizza. We just couldn't escape it, we had pizza every day, and if I remember correctly, Calina convinced us to have gelato everyday as well. (He lies, he wanted it too!) Back to the pizza: Here you go Karla, props to you!, they cut it with scissors and charge by the wait. Sorry for making fun of you when you cut it all those years ago.
Oh, and the weather was crazy while we were there. Stormy every night with thunder and lightning, but excuciatingly hot during the day. We couldn't fill up our water bottles enough with the tons of public fountains they have in the city.

So we escaped to Napoli, well really Portici which is just outside of Napoli to the Southeast. We stayed at the cool Fabric Hostel & Nightclub, definitely reccommendable if you swing by here ever. The Hostel used to be a fabric factory that then was restored into the hostel with an adjacent club that is open to the public in the winter and only the hostel guests in the summer. Napoli itself is not one of those pretty cities that you find all over Europe, with like clean beaches, nice building fronts or even streets (yes Adam and Sheri, you told us so), but we had to come for the "Best Pizza in the World"! Yes, we sought it out. Books told us about it, locals directed us to it, everyone knows where it is. It is even in Eat, Pray, Love, thanks for the book Karla, it was great. So when we arrived at Pizzeria Michele we were crushed! They were digging out their pizza oven for remodeling. Tear. Closed. No Pizza.
We daytripped to Pompei and saw the excavations of the ancient city covered by volcanic ash. We also saw the Amalfi Coast which lent us beautiful beaches and escape from the heat. Hey California why don't you have wine shops that sell local wine by the liter for a buck? There was this super place next to the hostel that just had vats with wine flowing into bottles for all to drink for so CHEAP! Yeah, do it, it is good.

Artistic Florence, goldmine of Renaissance Art. As soon as we arrived the skyline took us over. We camped on the hillside overlooking the city near the Piazza Michaelangelo. Our tent was surrounded by olive trees and the sunset skyline was just steps away and breathtaking! The city filled us with culture and more pizza and wine. The David towered over us at the Academie. Unbelieveable that Michaelangelo carved him freehand. He was... uhhh... jaw to the floor amazing. Sorry no cameras were allowed. We also took in the Duomo and the Uffizi Gallery. Calina dusted her shoulders off and unleashed her Art knowledge on little Nathaniel. Leonardo da Vinci this and Leonardo that, it was so cool. She is gonna be the best teacher ever! So after the custom personal guided tour of the Uffizi, which we were awesomely brilliant tourists and arrived early enough to be second in line there (High Five!), we daytripped to Pisa and Siena. Not much other than the ancient horse race track and the leaning tower plaza and stuff. But we got cool pics and had gelato. Whoo Hoo! Nathaniel's idea. Afterall, we cannot afford to go to the nicest restaurants in every city to compare cuisines, but GELATO, this we can do!


Romantic Venice. Camping again put us outside the island city but within easy reach by bus or train. We met a great couple at the campsite, Hugh and Vicky from Wales, that were great company while we all took in the sites of Venice. Venice was a strangely magical combination of canals, bridges, and gray skies. While we walked through the plaza in front of San Marco a hail storm suddenly rained down on us. We stood in shock and watched as our summer day turned into winter at full force. Nonetheless, Nathaniel took it all in and went and played in the hailstorm, inspiration due to the one and only "Karla the Hurricane Runner". Walking back to the train station we realized that sandals were not the greatest of footwear choices as all four of us inspected the muck on our feet and every chance we got were glad to wash tem off. Pigeons + Rain = Shitty Feet. How is that math for ya?

CROATIA

So looking at a map of Europe will give anyone the idea that it is quite simple to travel from Venice, Italy to Rijeka, Croatia. Go, look. Well, turns out that it really isn't that easy unless you have a car. The one train we could catch was full, which left us with the option everyone pointed us to, go all the way around through Austria and Slovenia and the Croatian capital Zagreb. A 10:00am departure from Venice landed us in Rijeka at 7:00am the next morning. We realized Rijeka is not the most attractive place to be, so we decided to plan the next couple weeks of our travel plans while we waited for a 7:30pm train outta there.

A train, to a desolate mountain town at midnight, got us to another train at 1:30am which arrived in Zadar the next morning at 8:00am. While in Zadar we saw the Sea Organ, which is probably the coolest thing that side of the Adriatic Sea. Really, it was rad! The city made a cool tourist attraction out of the seaside steps on the end of the peninsula where old town Zadar is. The steps formed a natural sea organ by letting waves push air through the different shaped piping at unique intervals. With each gentle wave a longer note is held while stronger higher waves would cause louder shorter notes. We enjoyed the sea's symphony while sunset gazing. Check out the video on our Photobucket: Sea Organ Video. We left the next day by train to get to Split, our launchpad for a Croatian island.

The island of Vis was quiet, beautiful, and had amazingly clear water. Vis was probably the most special little getaway for us on our trip. It felt like a vacation from our vacation. Only a handful of people actually lived on the island and the tourists were not overwhelming. The restaurants were not too many and the always seemed to be comfortably busy. We stayed in a small room that was directly overlooking the tiny marina. A short walk took us to amazing isolated beach coves. Three nights here wasn't enough. One of the roomkeepers even sent us away with homemade Croatian foccacia for our lunch when we checked out. All together great.

Our next destination was a totally last minute surprise. We left Split on a bus for Dubrovnik, but a phone call to Ante and his friend Ivan shortened our route and brought us to Ploce. But Ploce is not where we stayed, we stayed in Bacina. Bacina is where Ivan lives with his family, Ivana and Luca. They are the cutest family ever, we had the best time staying with them. Thank you both for letting us share in your family and farming your potatoes! Bacina is a little mountain paradise close to the sea. We farmed potatoes, picked wild blackberries and figs, rowed around on a lake, saw WWII bunkers on the hills, and had the ABSOLUTE BEST home cooked Croatian meals ever. You are truly a great chef, Ivan. We cannot wait to visit again and also see pictures of Luca as he grows up.




Since we could not go to Croatia and not see Dubrovnik, we went for one day. It is a beautiful walled in city on the coast. We walked around, had gelato, and ate pizza. The next day brought an adventure of traveling we will never forget.

We were on an extreme marathon of travel with only one actual day stay in one place over four days. Unbelievable how exhausting just being on a train, bus, or ferry can be for long stretches. But that was us. We left Dubrovnik on a bus for Split at 9:30 in the morning which then connected us to a train to Zagreb 4 hours later. Once we got to Zagreb we had a little over an hour wait and we would be on a crazy night train to Venice. We ended up jumping this train because we could not get a reservation which we attempted to do for about a week before. So on this Midnight train the aisles were filled with backpackers trying to sleep. It was so packed that the Passport Control officers could barely pass through the cars in order to check the passengers. Then, the train did not keep schedule and was half an hour late to Venice, so we missed our connections to Ancona. We paid 20 euros to catch a faster train so we could catch our ferry to Greece on time. We ended up running to the ferry from the bus stop just barely making the departure. The ferry was a 21 hour trip through the Adriatic that put us in Patras, Greece the next day, where we had to catch two 2 hour trains to Athens where we finally had a hostel to stay in for 1 night.

Wow!

GREECE

Athens was a one night stay that let us see the Acropolis, eat a greek gyro, and play Big 2 with Scott. Scott is a cool Canadian guy that was a new hire at the hostel we stayed at. Athens was a nice break from travelling, but we were excited to get to the Greek Isles for real relaxation.

The Greek Islands are all so different but all equally enjoy in the same incredible food, beach life, and architectural design. We loved each one.
Naxos is a giant island, the biggest of the Cyclades. We had a great time chilling on the beaches, renting a scooter, and we even found a karaoke bar.
Ios is truly a party island. From our hostel it was a 5 minute walk to all the bars and nightlife. We pretty much stayed at the pool soaking up the sun and cocktails at our friendly bar with our new Aussie friends George, Dee, Kali, and Ez. So Ios, was pool-bar-pool-club-pool-bed.
On Thira (Santorini) we saw beautiful views of sunsets, the volcano, and a panoramic vista on the back of quads! With our Aussie friends that happened to be on the same islands, at the same time, and at the same hostels, we jumped on a trio of quads and tore the island up. Early the second morning the two of us took the 4-wheeler out and made a sweet video up through a ravine from the beach. As fun as it was, it was also a romantic spot to take nice walks along the black-sand beaches and sunset from the peaks.
Crete was the last of our island adventures in the Mediterranean. Valerie, you rock! Our week in Crete was awesome. We had a fabulous hotel with a space to ourselves where we could hang at the pool, cook dinners, and enjoy cocktails on our patio. The hotel was in a small "village" called Platanes, just outside of Rethymno. Relaxation at its finest found us here.

FRANCE

Fast forward through another travel extravaganza of ferries, trains and buses and we were placed in St. Tropez, France. The French Riviera is a beautiful collection of beaches, mountains, and money. The glitz and glamour blinded us stiff while we walked through the streets of St. Tropez. The multi-million dollar yachts towered over us in the marina while the couture shops scared us back to our room each day. The hotel stay was another comfortable week of seclusion and relaxation. We did daytrip to Nice, Cannes, and the magnificent Monte Carlo Casino, in Monaco. The whole of the French Riviera was glamorous and our last bit of summer.

Winter smacked us in the face as soon as we trotted off to Burgundy, France. We took a TGV train to Beaune which puts us in the heart of the Bourgogne wine region. We are staying with Sebastian, who we found on CouchSurfing, and are enjoying escargots a la bourgogne, beautiful wines, and the old city architecture. Sebastian's flat is right in the heart of the city and keeps us well within the excellent patisseries. Yesterday, we experienced the greatest wine tasting experience we have yet to come across. At the Patriarche Pere et Fils we paid 10 euros for a free pour degustation of over a dozen wines both red and white while touring the expansive caves that tunnel throughout the city of Beaune. At every turn there is stacks of wine and barrels as far as the light allows to see. Today we will enjoy the sights of the village of Meursault and have a tour of a winery there by one of Sebastian's friends, Estelle. We will let you know what we think...

(told you it was long!)

Gap Filler

Here we are in sundrowning Rome and cannot get a grasp on how to enjoy it. We are captivated by the history, amazed by the grandness, and exhausted by the limitless amount of walking needed to see this whole city. It is Hot!

Well, where have we been? Our loved ones all circle our thoughts while we adventure through this foreign land and try to figure out how to relay our love as frequent as possible but it is difficult to power through city after city and land hostels/hotels/couchsurfing hosts, plan our sightseeing tours, and figure out how to fit in computer time. Here we are calling folks on skype and blogging simultaneously, trying to make the most of our SUPER EXPENSIVE Euros (we know we know, you all told us so).

We miss you.

Last night it hit me (Nathaniel), I miss the food back home. I know you all probably have a bone to pick with that statement, but it is true and probably not in the sense that you think. I miss KNOWING where the food is. Calina agrees with me. It is one thing to know that you are in a place that invented Margherita, Caprese, and Roma tomatoes for goodness asake, but to not know where to find the best Bolognese, Canalloni (last night's sucked!), or the regional wine that will knock our socks off for a reasonable price. I mean where is the knowledge that bring's you to Felipe's in LA for the best french dip in the world, The Habit for a double bacon BBQ burger right before that Tuesday shift, or Shogun for the biggest sushi pieces you have ever seen. We miss that.

We are tourists. Plain and simple, the fact has hit us... no, it has smacked us with the cray Roman traffic buses with a freakin Portuguese driver on the autobahn. The food is elusive sometimes, but at other times we are totally fortunate to stay with someone in Alba, Italy that has his mother prepare homemade raviolis for him to eat later and then share with us in an incredible meal at his house. Do yourself a favor and find Tuma formaggio and eat it with marmalade all over the top of it, we mean cover it and devour it. Peach marmalade if available.

So, where have we been? We first left you with an idea of Spain, then took you through our window view of Portugal. But did you see the running of the bulls in Pamplona? No. We hardly did either. It was so fast and we were running for our lives whether in front or behind the bulls, which means Calina met a friend, Tony, and they ran behind the bulls together with hundreds of others while Nathaniel ran in front of them with the hundreds of idiots. We both still had fun.

We then went to one of our favorite spots so far, Bordeaux, France. We drank wine, ate cheese, and missed our trains, a couple times. It was great. But the best part was the chocolate consumption and the Dune Pyla. We stayed with a wonderful French girl, Manue and her flatmates and met her sweet friends. We picnicked on La Garonne, went to the beach and played frisebee on a huge sand dune, and saw some beautiful Cathedrals and stuff. We loved it.

Following the wine and picnic adventures, we took in a castle and fireworks with some heavy partying on Bastille day. We stayed in Carcassonne, France. Look it up! It is awesome. They have this giant castle that has been restored over time and every Bastille Day they have the most impressive firework display we have seen yet. They even reenact the burning of the castle back in old times, we forget the dates, sorry.

Wow, it is really difficult to recall this massive adventure so far.

It was back to Spain, but just for an exhale. We made it to Barcelona (Barthalona for those who speak catalan) for a day or two and even took in the beach at Matarò. The sites were unbelieveable, and the tapas were at their best at the tascas. Jose and Esther were our hosts in Matarò and they were probably the funkiest peeps we met on the trip so far. They had a unique style all their own and felt like they were movie stars. Oh, and it was hot!

From Barcelona, we headed to Alba, italy, but little did we know how big a task this would be. We traveled nearly 26 hours straight through France and the Northwest of Italy to get to Alba. We love our eurail pass, but sometimes it just takes a little more creativity and patience to really take advantage of it. We found ourselves swept through some of the more beautiful parts of the Alps and found some places we definitely want to return to. We skipped over some big cities just to get to this small city in the heart of the Piemonte region. But, alas it was well worth it and met one of the more eccentric hosts on the EuroTrip '08 so far. He was a spur of the moment host recommended by someone else and was so crazy and funny all at the same time creating a very memorable experience in Alba. Come on, he was a professional clown! (that one goes out to you Karla).

We ventured on to Verona (the home of Romeo and Juliet), and an REM concert we took in, saw their houses and tomb and the nearby lake. We called it an unplanned joy and got back on track. Oh, but first we must mention that the REM concert was in a Roman Arena. What up?! Yeah, you wish you were there. It was sweet, because we were the only ones standing for the first 10 songs, until the band (Michael Stype) pointed out that all the Italians were sitting and they had every right to enjoy themselves and stand up while they played. Damn right!Some guy asked us to sit down 2 minutes before, so we said Vanncculo! and made our way to the top of the stands to dance our heart out or stand in peace, whatever pleased us.

Is there more?

Oh yes! The Cinque Terre. This deserves a post of its own, it was definitely our destination of choice. For now we will say it was divine. 5 towns built on the mountainside coast in the Italian Riviera. We will divulge later.

Calina says ''Good, the end for tonight.'' More to come with pictures soon. In the next week. We promise. but don't hold us to it. But, we promise.

Love, love.

One Month In

So it has been one month since we first left Sunny California for the European Continent. I had to write something. There was not gonna be any way that I would let this noteworthy timestamp go unnoticed.

It has also been a little longer than I had hoped for our blog to go untouched. This trip is filled with new and wonderful experiences every day. We wake up to a sunrise unlike any other, find ourselves in a flurry of train hopping and bus catching, and then indulge in local drink and fare. It is an endless amount of vacation fun and folly.

Just the other day we missed a train for the second consecutive day, eliminating wine tasting dreams and Medieval Castle touring hopes. But not to worry, this whole stinking place is filled with all of that 100 times over. We will see numerous castles from plenty of time periods, taste a great many wines (like the Penedes today), and miss many more trains that would have led to a great number of side excursions. Oh, will this EURail pass do us wonders and carry us through the most untouched and tread upon paths of Europe.

We are just about to leave Mataro, Spain. It is a town just about 30 minutes north of Barcelona along the coast. The beaches are nothing remarkable, but the warm air and smaller city feel give us plenty to smile about. We feel that this has been our relaxation after the past couple weeks of intensity. Everything from quick daytrips into Granada, Fiesta de San Fermin, French Follied Bordeaux and even the Bastille Day celebration in Carcassonne. Seagrass, don't worry we partied like it was our day off too!

So we will leave you with what our travels have left us... some great photos and more to look forward to.

Photos from Granada to Bordeaux

The Trip so Far

So in Jolly June 2008, we boarded a plane with Europe in its sights. We set out on our 5 month adventure through all the countries we could possibly get to.

Our first destination was Madrid, Spain. Shortly before we left, we found a couple to stay with on couchsurfing.com. (If you haven't already, check it out. Look us up under "Nathaniel Calina") Ranpal & Wil were awesome hosts and we had a fun time checking out Madrid. We had our first experience with Sangria and Tapas and checked out the Museums. We also realized that Spain was gonna be HOT!

Out of Madrid, we day tripped to Toledo. We took a quick half hour train and were in a medieval city. Our calves got quite an exercise due to those brilliant medieval minds that put their cities on top of hills. However, it was beautiful, fun getting lost in the small winding streets, and it was hot.

We enjoyed the rest of our stay with Ranpal & Wil chilling in their lovely home in the hills of Valdemorillo. We BBQ'd and swam in their refreshing pool. Then we said goodbye to the beautiful sunsets and company and headed to Bilbao.

In Bilbao, it was not hot!! In fact it was cold and cloudy, what the hell! We thought we were headed to the beautiful beaches of the north, we were mislead. But our last day there we did find a beach and it got sunny. In order to get there though it took a 1 hour metro, a half hour walk, and some sore sandaled feet. We were happy to bask in the Basque Country. In the days before, we visited the Guggenheim, drank wine from our travel wine glasses (thanks Kerry!!), and fought our way to our room on the fourth floor in a pension with no lift everyday. And the Spanish are clever in not counting the ground floor as the first floor, so it was actually five flights of stairs. We got our exercise!

Then it was off to Santiago de Compostela to meet the peregrinos, or pilgrims. From Bilbao we thought it would be a good idea to spend our 11 hours traveling by bus at night. We left at 1:45am to arrive in Santiago at 1:00pm. Whoa, that was intense! But what made it even better was when Nathaniel's suitcase decided to die in Bilbao. It was tired of traveling. While we were "dragging" our suitcases to the bus stop, we discovered this thing called a taxi.

In Santiago de Compostela the Cathedral is large and beautiful, the peregrinos are plenty, and the nightlife is exciting. It happens to be a university town and has a familiarly named USC, the University of Santiago de Compostela. Our host Marcos took us out for a night of raciones y cocteles, but we can't show you any photos of him because we forgot our camera the first night and we never saw him again the rest of our stay in his home. Bizarre, we know. (Above is a photo of the creek we could see from the window of Marcos' house)

Oh, and Nathaniel did get a new suitcase, the wheels are great. We dumped the other one, and he cried.

We also caught the Fiesta Barrio de San Pedro which was a lot like a hippie punk concert with cheap beer.


We were ready to leave Santiago de Compostela we took a bus south to Porto, Portugal, yes where they make port wine! We stayed with this lovely young man named Diogo. He took it upon himself to be a true tour guide and show us the city, some art galleries, and great seaside restaurants. He also took us port tasting. We went on a tour of the cellar at Croft and got some free glasses of port.

The art scene was awesome! We went to a Contemporary Art Museum and saw a lot of pieces we did not understand and some really cool garden exhibits as well. The small galleries were our favorite part with a ton of random work that was quite impressive. Diogo even used his local skills to get us into this private viewing of a few sculpture pieces in a posh sushi restaurant. Oh and we also had this really awesome dinner at this restaurant, Boa Nova Tea House and Restaurant, that sat on the cliffs. The food was wonderful, especially our Parrillada de Mariscos which was big enough for 4. We had some white Douro wine and the view was very impressive. All in all, Porto was pleasantly wonderful.



After Porto we were really getting antsy for the beach. We had only been to one beach so far and it is summer. From Porto we skipped over Lisbon and enjoyed the view of the Portuguese countryside all the way to Portimao. Here in southern Portugal is where tourism booms in the summer.
The beaches are incredible and the food is not half bad. We spent our 4 days chilling at the beach and soaking up the sun. The beaches were incredible and Calina was finally happy, especially because she was able to whip out the new bikini she bought in Bilbao.

It is all sparkly and gold and stuff. Our host Ruben took us and his other guest Anna from Poland to eat grilled sardines, their specialty. They tasted delicious, but their little bones were a pain in the ass.

We even compared the beaches to those in Lagos on our daytrip there. The wind was furious but the beaches were just as nice as Portimao. We both agreed that Portimao should get more tourism. However, we did find our own private beach in Lagos--->. Nathaniel also got a chance to jump off some rad rocks into the water. It was pretty sweet.

Then came sunny and sensual Seville. We were so tired and hot when we finally arrived that the first thing we did was go down to the local bar and have a cerveza. This city is full of passion and beauty. It is probably the most well kept and decorated city that we have visited thus far. We stayed just a few nights and were being hosted by Anna (not the same Anna from Poland) and her family. Nathaniel felt like cooking for them the first night we stayed. Calina helped put together this pizza with figs, gorgonzola, pears and prosciutto. Yummy!
Anna and her husband Juan told us about their free city bike system which we took full advantage of and saw the beautiful sights Seville had to offer. We saw the Alcazar, the Plaza de Espana (which we think should be a Las Vegas themed Hotel), and Flamenco within the Santa Cruz district. We also had a great dinner of tapas and the best Sangria we ever had! Thanks Sheri and Adam!

The last day we stayed in Seville we actually day tripped out to Granada. This made for a long long long day. The bus trip was 3 hours there and 3 hours back. We went to see The Alhambra. Wow, what a palace! After seeing this beautiful Muslim built palace on a hill we were palaced out. It was huge! So we took a break from the heat and found some shade, and yes, even in a national monument Spain sells beer! We then took in as much more of the palace as we could and we had just enough time to squeeze in a caipirinha and a mojito in the city before getting on our return bus to Seville.













So Seville and Granada were wonderful. We had a great time traveling Spain and Portugal since we left Madrid, but we were scheduled to go right back through it on our way to Pamplona. We had purchased two bilhettes for Madrid from Seville at 10:00am. It would be about a 6 hour trip and would arrive around 4:00pm. The bus was the best bus we had been on and actually one of the cheapest. There was tons of room, it was brand new, and it wasn't crowded. Of course, two hours into our journey the bus had pulled over and we thought it was for a possible driver change, but it was in fact a bus breakdown. Fortunately there was a restaurant across the road which we made good use of. We arrived in Madrid at 9:00pm. What a crazy day, but in Spain the sun doesn't set until 10:30 so there was plenty of light yet.

Next, it is on to Pamplona where the bulls will be running, Bordeaux where the wine will be flowing, and the Mediterranean beaches where Calina will be tanning. For now we'll say Adios, Adieu, Ciao, and we will keep you posted...

Welcome to Our Blog!

As we move through our trip we have decided that blogging might be the best format. It was recommended to us from a few people, but we were unsure how, so we found this friendly spot and are trying it out. Feel free to leave comments as much as you like, we would love to hear from all of you. See you in the next country...