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!)