thanks to mary's (and everyone else's) prayers, i made it back to paris in one piece, on time, with all my bags. woohoo! i had a few close calls, but the trains were on adjoining platforms, so i hopped off one and onto the other. i am a bit parched and hungry, so off i go to find some yummy french food (crepes, anyone?) before heading off to meet my friend lizzy, whom i am staying with tonight. yay for friends!
i am thankful the trains are done, and not excited to sit on a plane for 10 hours tomorrow (paris to philly, philly to norfolk). i am very excited to see everyone, and excited to be off again in another week to see my sister and my TX/OK friends. i am not so much looking forward to being in one place again. the travel bug has bitten me bad. anyone want to backpack africa? asia?
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
i'm still alive
woohoo, this is an amazing country. and unfortunately, the exclamation point on this keyboard doesn't work. grrr.
so yeah, just imagine that i am very very excited when writing this, and then you'll understand i wish i could put exclamation marks on just about every sentence.
i don't really know where to begin, and i will be home soon, so i don't even want to write that much. getting lazy, i suppose.
so i met my group here in marrakesh, and they are all great. quite a mix, really, except with names: dianne, diana, laura, laurie, linda, leigh, and leonie were the girls. the guys at least were alan, jeff, josh, ben, and craig was our leader. good times.
we headed off for the high atlas mountains the first day and stayed in a gite, a mountain home/inn. amazing food. we went on a walk of the village the first day and did a hike up to a mountain pass with amazing views into the next valley. i rode a mule, too. woohoo. after the hike, we girls headed for the traditional hammam, the bathhouse. 2 local girls scrubbed us down in a sauna of a bucket shower room and we all relaxed and enjoyed the experience. we slept out on the terrace with 3 thick, wool blankets each under teh stars. they were amazing. i saw several shooting stars and just enjoyed the quiet of the village.
next we went to another small berber village in a valley. there wasn't much to do there except eat an awesome traditional berber lunch with our hands and enjoy the end of ramadan with the locals. special cookies. woohoo. we went for a walk over to the next village and a guide showed us the school house and the jewish cemetary there. more awesome views of the rugged mountains and the green valleys. we also sat by the pool and enjoyed each other's company.
then we headed for the coast, essaouira. it was raining when we arrived but cleared up for some beautiful weather, even if the seas were still really rough. no fishing boats went out the 3 days/2 nights we were there. the town is all whitewashed, except for teh shutters and doors, which are painted bright blue, supposedly to keep the flies out. so beautiful. more great food and even better shopping. we went to a bar one night to hear a local band play a certain kind of music that i don't remember right now. it was amazing, i even bought their cd. it kind of reminds me of burlap to cashmere meets irish music meets african music, and add a flute. good times.
now i am back in marrakesh, where i started the tour. we headed for el-fna square teh first night and took in the craziness. snake charmers, millions of stands selling dates, other dried fruits, spices, fresh squeezed orange juice, boiled snails, goat's heads, women walking around doing henna art, a "fish for a coke bottle" game, tons of food stands with picnic tables, teeth pullers, herbalists, and who knows what else. craziness. we grabbed a picnic table and ordered tapas, basically, of shrip, calamari, salads, french fries, grilled eggplant, cokes, kebabs of mixed meat and beef, bread, chili sauce-more of tomato soup- and grilled bell peppers. all for 40 dirham, about 5 bucks each. not too shabby.
yesterday we hit the souqs, the markets. we wandered the touristy area as well as teh back streets where teh locals did their shopping. metal workers, spices, fish, tapestries, scarves, thuya wood, pottery, carpets, tons of shoes, linen clothes, and silver for blocks and blocks of covered winding alleys. so fun. then we had the afternoon to ourselves, and since it was raining, we just grabbed lunch and headed back for the hotel.
at the start of the trip, we all drew names out of a hat to buy a tacky gift for one another that couldn't be over 25 dirhams, about 3 dollars. the person who could find teh tackiest gift would win a prize. we exchanged them last night before heading out to dinner, and the gift i received was the winner: a pair of used, dirty women's shoes, purchased for 10DH. the guy who got them for me actually purchased a nicer gift in essaouira, but left it there, and felt so bad that he gave me such a bad gift that he gave me his prize: a bar of argon oil and olive oil soap. we had stopped at a coop on the road where women are given jobs to make teh argon oil products taht are supposedly some of the best in the world, in terms of skin care. it was pretty neat, but out of my price range. so i got a bar of soap for free. woohoo.
so now i will take the overnight train back to tangier, take a ferry back to spain in teh morning, pick up the stuff i left there, catch a train back to madrid, catch the overnight train from madrid to somewhere in southern france, the tgv to paris and arrive about 2pm tuesday before my 11am flight out of paris on wed. bring it on, baby.
so yeah, just imagine that i am very very excited when writing this, and then you'll understand i wish i could put exclamation marks on just about every sentence.
i don't really know where to begin, and i will be home soon, so i don't even want to write that much. getting lazy, i suppose.
so i met my group here in marrakesh, and they are all great. quite a mix, really, except with names: dianne, diana, laura, laurie, linda, leigh, and leonie were the girls. the guys at least were alan, jeff, josh, ben, and craig was our leader. good times.
we headed off for the high atlas mountains the first day and stayed in a gite, a mountain home/inn. amazing food. we went on a walk of the village the first day and did a hike up to a mountain pass with amazing views into the next valley. i rode a mule, too. woohoo. after the hike, we girls headed for the traditional hammam, the bathhouse. 2 local girls scrubbed us down in a sauna of a bucket shower room and we all relaxed and enjoyed the experience. we slept out on the terrace with 3 thick, wool blankets each under teh stars. they were amazing. i saw several shooting stars and just enjoyed the quiet of the village.
next we went to another small berber village in a valley. there wasn't much to do there except eat an awesome traditional berber lunch with our hands and enjoy the end of ramadan with the locals. special cookies. woohoo. we went for a walk over to the next village and a guide showed us the school house and the jewish cemetary there. more awesome views of the rugged mountains and the green valleys. we also sat by the pool and enjoyed each other's company.
then we headed for the coast, essaouira. it was raining when we arrived but cleared up for some beautiful weather, even if the seas were still really rough. no fishing boats went out the 3 days/2 nights we were there. the town is all whitewashed, except for teh shutters and doors, which are painted bright blue, supposedly to keep the flies out. so beautiful. more great food and even better shopping. we went to a bar one night to hear a local band play a certain kind of music that i don't remember right now. it was amazing, i even bought their cd. it kind of reminds me of burlap to cashmere meets irish music meets african music, and add a flute. good times.
now i am back in marrakesh, where i started the tour. we headed for el-fna square teh first night and took in the craziness. snake charmers, millions of stands selling dates, other dried fruits, spices, fresh squeezed orange juice, boiled snails, goat's heads, women walking around doing henna art, a "fish for a coke bottle" game, tons of food stands with picnic tables, teeth pullers, herbalists, and who knows what else. craziness. we grabbed a picnic table and ordered tapas, basically, of shrip, calamari, salads, french fries, grilled eggplant, cokes, kebabs of mixed meat and beef, bread, chili sauce-more of tomato soup- and grilled bell peppers. all for 40 dirham, about 5 bucks each. not too shabby.
yesterday we hit the souqs, the markets. we wandered the touristy area as well as teh back streets where teh locals did their shopping. metal workers, spices, fish, tapestries, scarves, thuya wood, pottery, carpets, tons of shoes, linen clothes, and silver for blocks and blocks of covered winding alleys. so fun. then we had the afternoon to ourselves, and since it was raining, we just grabbed lunch and headed back for the hotel.
at the start of the trip, we all drew names out of a hat to buy a tacky gift for one another that couldn't be over 25 dirhams, about 3 dollars. the person who could find teh tackiest gift would win a prize. we exchanged them last night before heading out to dinner, and the gift i received was the winner: a pair of used, dirty women's shoes, purchased for 10DH. the guy who got them for me actually purchased a nicer gift in essaouira, but left it there, and felt so bad that he gave me such a bad gift that he gave me his prize: a bar of argon oil and olive oil soap. we had stopped at a coop on the road where women are given jobs to make teh argon oil products taht are supposedly some of the best in the world, in terms of skin care. it was pretty neat, but out of my price range. so i got a bar of soap for free. woohoo.
so now i will take the overnight train back to tangier, take a ferry back to spain in teh morning, pick up the stuff i left there, catch a train back to madrid, catch the overnight train from madrid to somewhere in southern france, the tgv to paris and arrive about 2pm tuesday before my 11am flight out of paris on wed. bring it on, baby.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
i'm in AFRICA!!!
woohoo!!!
so i headed for the 3pm boat across the strait of gibraltar, and for some reason, the security guards never showed up to let us thru security. at about 4pm, the ferry crew was like, just get on the boat. so we left an hour late, and apparently the winds were stronger than usual cos it took 3hrs to cross, which put us in morocco about 5pm (2hr time change). and i do mean "us": i met 2 girls and a guy that are studying in florence, italy, and weree on the same ferry as me. so i hung out with them and it was so great. it turned out they, too, were taking the overnight train from tangier to marrakesh, so we all had to get to the train station together. it was so great to not be on my own for all that!! we also met a group of 19 from london, and their leader is a great guy. he has been to morocco 14 times, so he knows all teh inside scoop and totally helped us out (where to get/change money, how much a taxi should cost, how the system works in general). their whole group was also taking the overnight train to marrakesh! fortunately for them, they reserved couchettes on the train in advance. by the time we got tehre, only seats were available. on this train, there was one car of couchettes (beds), one car of first class seeats (6 to a cabin) and 7 or so of 2nd class seaats (8 to a cabin). so the 4 of us made it to the train station, bought our tickets, had some dinner, played some cards, and made teh mad dash for the train 45 min before it was supposed to leave! i still haven't figured out why everyone wanted to get on the train so early... to get a seat in a compartment with their friends? i dunno.
so anyway, it was a looong night on the train. just about every stop the train made, teh conductor would turn the light on and ask to see our tickets. again. which are on the heat-sensitive paper that receipts are printed on, folded up in my pocket. that thing was pretty trasshed by the end of the night! toward dawn, enough people had gotten on and off the train that i had a little more room to myself, so i was able to sleep better. i do think i slept better than i think i did. when we arrived in marrakesh, the brit leader was so great and told us about the hotel his group is staying at, and even had his guy call and make a reservattion there for the other 3. (i am meeting my tour group this afternoon aat our hotel, elsewhere). so he has been so kind and good to us! so i immediately bought my ticket back to tangier for next weekend, to ensure that i get a couchette! good times. we took a taxi to the hotel, left our bags in their room, and headed out for the souks, the different markets, basically.
we were walking around, wanting generally to see the tanneries, when this guy says, "you want to see the tanneries?" so gordon is like, yeah! and starts following him. all 3 of us girls are giving each other looks like, what the heck is he getting us into? one girl was really pretty worried, one pretty blase about everything, and i'm trying to be wise, but just go with the flow. he leads us very far away and then knocks on a door ina very foul smellling neighborhood. another guy greets us and hands us several stalks of mint. he shows us around teh tannery, to the differnt very foul smelling vats of pidgeon poo, flour mixtures, and all sorts of things that i can't begin to recall or describe. he says that this is an arabic tannery, and they don't like thier picture being taken, and that they only work with goats hides, of which there is a nice big pile by the gate. yum.
so then he leads us around the corner of the neighborhood to another house, leads us up to the roof, and tells us all the same things, just pointing at the differnt vats from above. he says this is a berber tannery, so they don't mind their photo being taken, and they work with camels hids and cows hides. then he leadds us downstairs to a small little shop where another guy starts to work his magic in selling us his leather goods. he said during the day he worked at teh tannery, at night he made the shoes and purses we saw there in teh shop. so gordon buys a pair of shoes, and one of the girls gets a tiny little pair for her cousin. he then is a little upset that we don't buy anything else, and wants teh girl's watch in exchange for the little shoes, "for his wife, up in the mounttains". he then sees teh 2 caribiners on my bag and wants one. well, one is just about to break and i was just thinking this morning that it probably won't see american soil again (like a lot of my stuff), so i was happy to give it to him. the other caribiner is actually a lock, so there is no way i was gonna take that off to even show him!
after we leave his shop, the first "guide" corners us and demands money. we knew he was going to, barter with him a little, and then finally pay him 20 dirhams each, about 2.20 american. not too bad for 45 min of entertainment.
after we got back to the hotel, i pulled out the lonely planet and started reading about teh tanneries here. it says exactly what we just experienced... the tanneries here in marrakesh are hard to get to, so find a "guide" and tip him when his tour is over, especially if you don't buy anything in the shops that he might ge t acommission on. and the mint is for the weak foreigners to smell as they walk by the acrid vats, as kind of an air freshener. which is exactly what i did. good times.
so that is my first morning in africa. woohoo!!
so i headed for the 3pm boat across the strait of gibraltar, and for some reason, the security guards never showed up to let us thru security. at about 4pm, the ferry crew was like, just get on the boat. so we left an hour late, and apparently the winds were stronger than usual cos it took 3hrs to cross, which put us in morocco about 5pm (2hr time change). and i do mean "us": i met 2 girls and a guy that are studying in florence, italy, and weree on the same ferry as me. so i hung out with them and it was so great. it turned out they, too, were taking the overnight train from tangier to marrakesh, so we all had to get to the train station together. it was so great to not be on my own for all that!! we also met a group of 19 from london, and their leader is a great guy. he has been to morocco 14 times, so he knows all teh inside scoop and totally helped us out (where to get/change money, how much a taxi should cost, how the system works in general). their whole group was also taking the overnight train to marrakesh! fortunately for them, they reserved couchettes on the train in advance. by the time we got tehre, only seats were available. on this train, there was one car of couchettes (beds), one car of first class seeats (6 to a cabin) and 7 or so of 2nd class seaats (8 to a cabin). so the 4 of us made it to the train station, bought our tickets, had some dinner, played some cards, and made teh mad dash for the train 45 min before it was supposed to leave! i still haven't figured out why everyone wanted to get on the train so early... to get a seat in a compartment with their friends? i dunno.
so anyway, it was a looong night on the train. just about every stop the train made, teh conductor would turn the light on and ask to see our tickets. again. which are on the heat-sensitive paper that receipts are printed on, folded up in my pocket. that thing was pretty trasshed by the end of the night! toward dawn, enough people had gotten on and off the train that i had a little more room to myself, so i was able to sleep better. i do think i slept better than i think i did. when we arrived in marrakesh, the brit leader was so great and told us about the hotel his group is staying at, and even had his guy call and make a reservattion there for the other 3. (i am meeting my tour group this afternoon aat our hotel, elsewhere). so he has been so kind and good to us! so i immediately bought my ticket back to tangier for next weekend, to ensure that i get a couchette! good times. we took a taxi to the hotel, left our bags in their room, and headed out for the souks, the different markets, basically.
we were walking around, wanting generally to see the tanneries, when this guy says, "you want to see the tanneries?" so gordon is like, yeah! and starts following him. all 3 of us girls are giving each other looks like, what the heck is he getting us into? one girl was really pretty worried, one pretty blase about everything, and i'm trying to be wise, but just go with the flow. he leads us very far away and then knocks on a door ina very foul smellling neighborhood. another guy greets us and hands us several stalks of mint. he shows us around teh tannery, to the differnt very foul smelling vats of pidgeon poo, flour mixtures, and all sorts of things that i can't begin to recall or describe. he says that this is an arabic tannery, and they don't like thier picture being taken, and that they only work with goats hides, of which there is a nice big pile by the gate. yum.
so then he leads us around the corner of the neighborhood to another house, leads us up to the roof, and tells us all the same things, just pointing at the differnt vats from above. he says this is a berber tannery, so they don't mind their photo being taken, and they work with camels hids and cows hides. then he leadds us downstairs to a small little shop where another guy starts to work his magic in selling us his leather goods. he said during the day he worked at teh tannery, at night he made the shoes and purses we saw there in teh shop. so gordon buys a pair of shoes, and one of the girls gets a tiny little pair for her cousin. he then is a little upset that we don't buy anything else, and wants teh girl's watch in exchange for the little shoes, "for his wife, up in the mounttains". he then sees teh 2 caribiners on my bag and wants one. well, one is just about to break and i was just thinking this morning that it probably won't see american soil again (like a lot of my stuff), so i was happy to give it to him. the other caribiner is actually a lock, so there is no way i was gonna take that off to even show him!
after we leave his shop, the first "guide" corners us and demands money. we knew he was going to, barter with him a little, and then finally pay him 20 dirhams each, about 2.20 american. not too bad for 45 min of entertainment.
after we got back to the hotel, i pulled out the lonely planet and started reading about teh tanneries here. it says exactly what we just experienced... the tanneries here in marrakesh are hard to get to, so find a "guide" and tip him when his tour is over, especially if you don't buy anything in the shops that he might ge t acommission on. and the mint is for the weak foreigners to smell as they walk by the acrid vats, as kind of an air freshener. which is exactly what i did. good times.
so that is my first morning in africa. woohoo!!
Friday, October 20, 2006
off to morocco
so i am sitting in the ferry terminal, waiting for my boat to morocco. please pray for me! i´m pretty nervous, and i am already weary of everyone around, thinking they are just here to rip me off or steal my stuff. obviously i do need to be careful, aware, and wise, but this is just plain paranoia. argh! pray that i will really enjoy my trip and not just be anxious, especially the first day, since i don´t meet my tour group until tomorrow afternoon. and pray for travel mercies in general...
so i took the overnight train from madrid to algeciras yesterday... and the line from cordoba to algeciras was broken, perhaps from the tons of rain we´ve gotten. anyway, they made us all get off at 445am in cordoba and put us on a bus. not quite the same as a bed on a train. but we did make it to algeciras, about 3 hrs late. good thing i didn´t realy have any plans! so i went to gibraltar in the afternoon. but it rained, and i was tired, adn the cable car to the top wasn´t working, so i just sat in the botanic gardens and read a bit. not too shabby, but i certainly dídn´t realy "experience" gibraltar. oh, well.
oh, and i´m going to oklahoma-texas a week after i get back, for about a week, for rachel´s wedding. woohoo!! see you ou/hgm/tx folk soon! anyone want to take me to the okc airport at 5am tues, nov 14? or want to give me a place to stay during that weekend?
so i took the overnight train from madrid to algeciras yesterday... and the line from cordoba to algeciras was broken, perhaps from the tons of rain we´ve gotten. anyway, they made us all get off at 445am in cordoba and put us on a bus. not quite the same as a bed on a train. but we did make it to algeciras, about 3 hrs late. good thing i didn´t realy have any plans! so i went to gibraltar in the afternoon. but it rained, and i was tired, adn the cable car to the top wasn´t working, so i just sat in the botanic gardens and read a bit. not too shabby, but i certainly dídn´t realy "experience" gibraltar. oh, well.
oh, and i´m going to oklahoma-texas a week after i get back, for about a week, for rachel´s wedding. woohoo!! see you ou/hgm/tx folk soon! anyone want to take me to the okc airport at 5am tues, nov 14? or want to give me a place to stay during that weekend?
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
so.
on this street, there are 3 starbucks within a 10 minute walk. this cafe, zahara, has another location 3 blocks away, where the internet prices are 3 times as high. there are also lots of theaters... movie theaters and musicals, too. for example, the producers is playing across the street from my hostel. which is on the 3rd floor of a building that has a starbucks on the ground floor. but it´s sweet.
i´m tired of madrid. i went to the prado museum this morning, mainly bc i thought it was 3 euro (not the 6 it is) and because it was raining. there is not much to do in madrid when it rains except shop and see art museums. i´m museumed out. but it did quit raining, which is very good, but i am still tired from walking all over town and am not inclined at the moment to walk even more. and i am sick of spending money, so shopping is out. and i have already checked out of the hostel, and my train isn´t until 11pm, so i have about another 7 hours to kill. hmmmm.
at some point i´ll have to splurge and get chocolate con churros. A. MAZE. ING.
so i´m a tad bored and a little more than a tad tired, which suppose will make for good sleeping on the train. maybe i´ll curl up in one of the 3 starbucks for a while with my latest donald miller book. or maybe i´ll crash the big bookstore and sit on the floor and read one of their books. for 5 hours. or maybe not.
so can you tell i´m a little out of it? it´s pretty hot in here, too, which i guess is a good contrast to the 50 degrees it is outside. and i´m just babbling.
(2 min pause) i can´t think of anything else. which is kind of frustrating, cos all day long i think of stuff that would be good to write about, and of course, as everyone knows, as soon as i sit down at the computer it all goes out of my head.
maybe the chocolate (hot pudding basically) with curros would be good now, as a late afternoon snack. hmmm...
i´m tired of madrid. i went to the prado museum this morning, mainly bc i thought it was 3 euro (not the 6 it is) and because it was raining. there is not much to do in madrid when it rains except shop and see art museums. i´m museumed out. but it did quit raining, which is very good, but i am still tired from walking all over town and am not inclined at the moment to walk even more. and i am sick of spending money, so shopping is out. and i have already checked out of the hostel, and my train isn´t until 11pm, so i have about another 7 hours to kill. hmmmm.
at some point i´ll have to splurge and get chocolate con churros. A. MAZE. ING.
so i´m a tad bored and a little more than a tad tired, which suppose will make for good sleeping on the train. maybe i´ll curl up in one of the 3 starbucks for a while with my latest donald miller book. or maybe i´ll crash the big bookstore and sit on the floor and read one of their books. for 5 hours. or maybe not.
so can you tell i´m a little out of it? it´s pretty hot in here, too, which i guess is a good contrast to the 50 degrees it is outside. and i´m just babbling.
(2 min pause) i can´t think of anything else. which is kind of frustrating, cos all day long i think of stuff that would be good to write about, and of course, as everyone knows, as soon as i sit down at the computer it all goes out of my head.
maybe the chocolate (hot pudding basically) with curros would be good now, as a late afternoon snack. hmmm...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
i always wait too long to write on this.
i only have 11:35 left on internet now, and i´m sorry this entry will be short. cos i know you all love me and love trudging thru my awfully long posts every time i write them. :-D
so had an interesting time on the overnight train to barcelona, didn´t realize it was a holiday weekend and got really frustrated when the trains i wanted to take were all full. so i hung out an extra day in barcelona, which was good. met a guy in my hostel that i had actually already conversed with, momentarily, in an internet cafe in milan. neither one of us could get it to work, so we helped each other out. and when he saw me in barcelona, was like, you look familiar... and we figured it out. that is the 4th time i have run into someone i just met twice. good times. small world, for travellers, at least.
so barcelona was more fun than i expected. really, i just hadn´t done my homework and didn´t know what to expect. then on to salamanca to see joanna. so fun. that girl is fun, even tho we´ve only conversed twice in teh past 5 years. yeah, really. it was fun to be shown around a city by a local who knows the fun things, like that there is an astronaut sculpted in the doorway of the old church. for serious, yo.
now i am in madrid. and it is raining. and cold. and i don´t know what to do here, except see museums, and i am museumed out. but this is the first hostel with a free use kitchen in a long time, so i was quite glad and cooked myself some eggs for dinner. yum. and a lot cheaper than burger king.
so i was thinking...
the human eye is amazing. i get so frustrated with my camera all the time cos it can´t capture what i am seeing the way i am seeing it. God did a really good job with our eyes. able to focus on contrasting lights near each other, able to focus on multiple distances instantaneously, able to filter out reflections in train windows to see what is really outside. sweetness.
i really like knowing spanish. i was so SO rproud of myself when i checked into my hostel tonight and the guy talked to me in spanish, not english, tho he knows both, and i was able to understand everything he said. i think. i definitely got the main idea of what he said and his instructions about where stuff is in teh hostel and how barcelona has a problem with pickpockets and madrid is just as bad. i was so excited. i certainly can´t speak as much as i understand, and i only understand if people speak slowly, but i love it. it is so nice, a nice change from pretty much every other european country.
so maybe i will learn more spanish. or maybe i only like spanish because i am able to communicate in another language, and it isn´t spanish that i like. i hope i will have opportunity and reason to learn more languages. and i hope i have as easy a time with them i as i have had with spanish. not likely, tho.
i like you all. please email me. :-D i miss you and want to know what is going on with you, too, while i am gone. please? pretty please with a cherry on top? thanks! (omg, pix pls, thx!)
so had an interesting time on the overnight train to barcelona, didn´t realize it was a holiday weekend and got really frustrated when the trains i wanted to take were all full. so i hung out an extra day in barcelona, which was good. met a guy in my hostel that i had actually already conversed with, momentarily, in an internet cafe in milan. neither one of us could get it to work, so we helped each other out. and when he saw me in barcelona, was like, you look familiar... and we figured it out. that is the 4th time i have run into someone i just met twice. good times. small world, for travellers, at least.
so barcelona was more fun than i expected. really, i just hadn´t done my homework and didn´t know what to expect. then on to salamanca to see joanna. so fun. that girl is fun, even tho we´ve only conversed twice in teh past 5 years. yeah, really. it was fun to be shown around a city by a local who knows the fun things, like that there is an astronaut sculpted in the doorway of the old church. for serious, yo.
now i am in madrid. and it is raining. and cold. and i don´t know what to do here, except see museums, and i am museumed out. but this is the first hostel with a free use kitchen in a long time, so i was quite glad and cooked myself some eggs for dinner. yum. and a lot cheaper than burger king.
so i was thinking...
the human eye is amazing. i get so frustrated with my camera all the time cos it can´t capture what i am seeing the way i am seeing it. God did a really good job with our eyes. able to focus on contrasting lights near each other, able to focus on multiple distances instantaneously, able to filter out reflections in train windows to see what is really outside. sweetness.
i really like knowing spanish. i was so SO rproud of myself when i checked into my hostel tonight and the guy talked to me in spanish, not english, tho he knows both, and i was able to understand everything he said. i think. i definitely got the main idea of what he said and his instructions about where stuff is in teh hostel and how barcelona has a problem with pickpockets and madrid is just as bad. i was so excited. i certainly can´t speak as much as i understand, and i only understand if people speak slowly, but i love it. it is so nice, a nice change from pretty much every other european country.
so maybe i will learn more spanish. or maybe i only like spanish because i am able to communicate in another language, and it isn´t spanish that i like. i hope i will have opportunity and reason to learn more languages. and i hope i have as easy a time with them i as i have had with spanish. not likely, tho.
i like you all. please email me. :-D i miss you and want to know what is going on with you, too, while i am gone. please? pretty please with a cherry on top? thanks! (omg, pix pls, thx!)
Friday, October 13, 2006
ciao, italia!
i am rather sad to say that. i will miss italy. i cant believe i have been here 2 and a half weeks! as i write this, dusk is falling on the smoggy city of milan. it makes for interesting lighting. there are mcdonalds everywhere. i can see 2 right now. soon i will be on a train for 13 hours to barcelona. part of me is looking forward to a new adventure and speaking a language i know a bit of, but part of me doesnt want to travel anymore. here in italy, i have been staying at least 2 nights almost everywhere, usually 3. so it will be a little more difficult to have one night on teh train, one in barcelona, 2 in salamanca, 1 in madrid, 1 on the train, and who knows for morocco? i havent gotten that far yet. rather, i am waiting to hear on a few things, and i will be on a tour, so i am happy to let them decide those things. i dont even want to think about it. after the tour, i should have 2 nights on a train and 1 in paris before heading home nov 1. oh, how time flies!
hates, loves, and likes:
so, i hate when the handrail on escalators moves faster than the steps do.
i like walking around supermarkets and markets of new cities and countries. i like hearing 2 and 3 year olds learn how to talk in their languages. it is so cute!! i like the idea of hospitality, welcoming people and helping them out. i am not so good at it when it comes to my own house. i love travelling. it really is a bed of roses, thorns adn all.
thinking:
i am thinking abuot teaching english overseas for a year or so, maybe in asia (dad, maybe you were right). someone mentioned it to me as i sat waiting for a train in the cinque terre, and i thought, "why not?" i am thinking of working holiday retail when i get back, maybe bath and body works or something. my friend and former roommate (and closest friend in boot camp) is getting married in oklahoma on nov 8, and i am thinking of flying out for the wedding. i am thinking about urbana. maybe i will go, maybe i wont. i am thinking life really is a lot simpler than i have made it to be for so many years.
cinque terre:
freaking amazing. i actually think the amalfi coast is more beautiful and dramatic, but the cinque terre seems more accessible, bc of the many hiking paths. and the towns are closer together, so it is perfect hiking for me. cliffs over the sea, mountains, desert climate on teh sunny side, rainforest on the dark side. so interesting to walk from one into the other. terraced vineyards, lemon groves, and olive groves on most visible slopes. the birthplace of pesto. warm, very salty seas that are perfect for a quick swim with the fishes after a long hike. just fabulous. i even stayed an extra day. i was supposed to have 2 nights, then go up to the lake district (lake como, lake maggiore), but decided to stay and do mre hiking. an aussie couple that i made friends with did teh same, only i didnt know it, so i was quite suprised to run into them! they were great fun to hang out with and a fun reminder of my semester in oz.
milan:
oh, it was so good to see annesa. we were friends when she came to OU to study for a year, my last year there. she is a student here in milan, so i stayed with her for almost 3 days. it was nice to slow down a bit and not rush around seeing tourist sights. and of course, it was fun to hang out with authentic italians. the first night, she took me to meet a friend of hers at a buffet-bar. its a pretty sweet setup, you buy a drink, then you get all the food you want. during happy hour, which wasnt over by the time we left at 930pm, that is. yum. i went to the duomo yesterday. the interior seems to me just like any other old, opulent roman catholic churh in italy. bu the exterior, and more specifically the roof.... ooh la la! it has a million spires on it, adn they let you up there to walk around. it is so amazing! loved it. after annesa got back from class, she took me to the castle. pretty sweet, a medeival castle in the middle of town. we also were shopping for birthday gifts for 2 of her friends. later that night, another of her friends picked us up and we went out to a suburb, to the house of the birthday girl, and had a small dinner party with the other birthday boy. they have all been friends for years, and it was fun to watch them interact and tease one another. i could tell that they were really good friends and really enjoyed each others company. they did speak in italian all night, and about every 15 min or so, someone would translate a few lines, or just tell me what they are talking about. so i did get bored pretty fast. i could pick out their conversation topic every now and then with my limited spanish, but still. i fell asleep on the way home. it didnt help that it was 1am. ah, well. so today i went to the teatro della scala, the opera house. it was beautiful. the outside wasnt much, except that it is italys first opera house, and mozart came and wrote operas for that building. theere were 6 levels of box seating as well as floor seats. there was also a museum next door that had portraits of the major actors and actresses and singers and composers for centuries. mom would have appreciated it more than i, but i did enjoy it. just stickig my head in the actual theater made it worth it.
so i am getting more excited about morocco, now that it is fast approaching. i would like to buy a guide book, but the ones i have found in english (lonely planet, rough guide) are ridiculously expensive. perhaps i should forgo it, or maybe i should have just bought one in the US. i am hoping to find one more moderately priced in spain. ah, espagna...
off to my forever long train ride i go!
hates, loves, and likes:
so, i hate when the handrail on escalators moves faster than the steps do.
i like walking around supermarkets and markets of new cities and countries. i like hearing 2 and 3 year olds learn how to talk in their languages. it is so cute!! i like the idea of hospitality, welcoming people and helping them out. i am not so good at it when it comes to my own house. i love travelling. it really is a bed of roses, thorns adn all.
thinking:
i am thinking abuot teaching english overseas for a year or so, maybe in asia (dad, maybe you were right). someone mentioned it to me as i sat waiting for a train in the cinque terre, and i thought, "why not?" i am thinking of working holiday retail when i get back, maybe bath and body works or something. my friend and former roommate (and closest friend in boot camp) is getting married in oklahoma on nov 8, and i am thinking of flying out for the wedding. i am thinking about urbana. maybe i will go, maybe i wont. i am thinking life really is a lot simpler than i have made it to be for so many years.
cinque terre:
freaking amazing. i actually think the amalfi coast is more beautiful and dramatic, but the cinque terre seems more accessible, bc of the many hiking paths. and the towns are closer together, so it is perfect hiking for me. cliffs over the sea, mountains, desert climate on teh sunny side, rainforest on the dark side. so interesting to walk from one into the other. terraced vineyards, lemon groves, and olive groves on most visible slopes. the birthplace of pesto. warm, very salty seas that are perfect for a quick swim with the fishes after a long hike. just fabulous. i even stayed an extra day. i was supposed to have 2 nights, then go up to the lake district (lake como, lake maggiore), but decided to stay and do mre hiking. an aussie couple that i made friends with did teh same, only i didnt know it, so i was quite suprised to run into them! they were great fun to hang out with and a fun reminder of my semester in oz.
milan:
oh, it was so good to see annesa. we were friends when she came to OU to study for a year, my last year there. she is a student here in milan, so i stayed with her for almost 3 days. it was nice to slow down a bit and not rush around seeing tourist sights. and of course, it was fun to hang out with authentic italians. the first night, she took me to meet a friend of hers at a buffet-bar. its a pretty sweet setup, you buy a drink, then you get all the food you want. during happy hour, which wasnt over by the time we left at 930pm, that is. yum. i went to the duomo yesterday. the interior seems to me just like any other old, opulent roman catholic churh in italy. bu the exterior, and more specifically the roof.... ooh la la! it has a million spires on it, adn they let you up there to walk around. it is so amazing! loved it. after annesa got back from class, she took me to the castle. pretty sweet, a medeival castle in the middle of town. we also were shopping for birthday gifts for 2 of her friends. later that night, another of her friends picked us up and we went out to a suburb, to the house of the birthday girl, and had a small dinner party with the other birthday boy. they have all been friends for years, and it was fun to watch them interact and tease one another. i could tell that they were really good friends and really enjoyed each others company. they did speak in italian all night, and about every 15 min or so, someone would translate a few lines, or just tell me what they are talking about. so i did get bored pretty fast. i could pick out their conversation topic every now and then with my limited spanish, but still. i fell asleep on the way home. it didnt help that it was 1am. ah, well. so today i went to the teatro della scala, the opera house. it was beautiful. the outside wasnt much, except that it is italys first opera house, and mozart came and wrote operas for that building. theere were 6 levels of box seating as well as floor seats. there was also a museum next door that had portraits of the major actors and actresses and singers and composers for centuries. mom would have appreciated it more than i, but i did enjoy it. just stickig my head in the actual theater made it worth it.
so i am getting more excited about morocco, now that it is fast approaching. i would like to buy a guide book, but the ones i have found in english (lonely planet, rough guide) are ridiculously expensive. perhaps i should forgo it, or maybe i should have just bought one in the US. i am hoping to find one more moderately priced in spain. ah, espagna...
off to my forever long train ride i go!
Saturday, October 07, 2006
books. for thething3
1. changed your life; bruchko, by bruce olsen
2. read more than once; night of the twisters, by ivy ruckman. that could be 1 as well.
3. want on a deserted island; the Bible
4. made you laugh (giggle); pretty much everything. i laugh out loud at a lot of silly things. but one i laughed a lot at would be the princess bride.
5. if youve seen the movie, the book is hillarious; the princess bride. so great. (thanks megan)
6. made you cry; er, um...again, several books... im gonna go with an isobel kuhn book here, in the arena
7. wish had been written; um, right now, a cheap travel guide to morocco for just the places i am visiting.
8. wish had never been written; er, uh... dunno probably gonna go with the grapes of wrath, cos i had to read it in high school and it was so hard to get thru! but that is more i wish i hadnt had to read it, not that it was never written.
9. currently reading; a john grisham... the client, i think it is. and searching for God knows what.
10. fact or fiction; both. i agree with thething3
11. awesome book that is empowering me; well, the spiritual secret of hudson taylor was pretty stinking awesome, but i think i need to reread it.
12. meaning to read; the section in my lets go europe on a budget book about barcelona, so i can book accomodation there.
12.
2. read more than once; night of the twisters, by ivy ruckman. that could be 1 as well.
3. want on a deserted island; the Bible
4. made you laugh (giggle); pretty much everything. i laugh out loud at a lot of silly things. but one i laughed a lot at would be the princess bride.
5. if youve seen the movie, the book is hillarious; the princess bride. so great. (thanks megan)
6. made you cry; er, um...again, several books... im gonna go with an isobel kuhn book here, in the arena
7. wish had been written; um, right now, a cheap travel guide to morocco for just the places i am visiting.
8. wish had never been written; er, uh... dunno probably gonna go with the grapes of wrath, cos i had to read it in high school and it was so hard to get thru! but that is more i wish i hadnt had to read it, not that it was never written.
9. currently reading; a john grisham... the client, i think it is. and searching for God knows what.
10. fact or fiction; both. i agree with thething3
11. awesome book that is empowering me; well, the spiritual secret of hudson taylor was pretty stinking awesome, but i think i need to reread it.
12. meaning to read; the section in my lets go europe on a budget book about barcelona, so i can book accomodation there.
12.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
friends. are. great. (for mda)
but its true! i hung out yesterday with the same kiwi and another american, and it was so great. i just loved having someone to laugh with about our ridiculous predicaments and slightly erring decisions that dont quite end up the way we want. and of course, in chasing sunsets.
so we headed out yesterday at about 9am, straight for the bus terminal and got on the right bus for pompei scavi, the ruins of pompeii. peter hadnt slept well, so he assigned me the task of determining where to get off and took a nap. so daniel and i chit-chatted our way across town and by the shadow of vesuvius. there werent too many other tourists on the bus, as it was a regional transit bus, and they all got off in one area of hotels and such. i looked around, but didnt see any big signs saying this was our stop, nor did it look like there were any ruins anywhere. so we stayed on. and stayed on. about an hour later, peter wakes up and is like, uh, we have been on this bus too long. where are we? well, i stopped yapping away to daniel long enough to realize we are the only ones on the bus by this point, and we have long since passed vesuvius and have seen nothing but city for the past hour. so, peter, the great guy that he is who doesnt speak but a few words of italian, goes and asks the bus driver, who doesnt speak but a few more words of english, about where we should get off. he points backwards and makes motions that mean to say, "a long way back was pompei scavi". so peter asks about what bus we can take to get back there, and the bus driver comes back to us in our seats (the bus is still running, in stopped traffic, with no driver behind the wheel) and says that he will turn around soon and go back himself, he just will stop to get a coffee and smoke a cigarette.
sure enough, about 3 blocks later, he turns around and parks the bus and comes to talk to us again. he keeps motioning that we should get coffee, and peter is like, i am not leaving this bus! then the driver says we need to get new tickets. well, we purposely had bought 3 zone (downtown to pompei) daily tickets, which are good for the bus, train, metro and trams in the naples area. we keep trying to explain to him that we already have tickets and try to show them to him, but he is still saying we need to buy more tickets. eventually he gives up and invites us to have a cup of coffee with him. so we follow him off the bus down the street to a coffee shop. and we have no idea where we are, just in some city south of naples and pompei. before all this happened, daniel had said that he had to pee pretty bad, so as we walk to the cafe, he is looking for a toilet anywhere. he sticks his head into the back room of the cafe, and the bus driver comes up and starts joking with him, then goes in the room, and daniel follows him. but the bus driver holds up his hand in a "stop!" motion and goes in and shuts the door to the restroom. so daniel backs up, a bit bewildered and a little desperate, and waits his turn. good times.
so we are hanging out on the patio for the driver to finish his coffee (which is espresso in a tiny little mug that looks more like a shot glass). when he does, we walk right by a peach orchard back to the bus, and the driver keeps joking about us stealing a peach. or something. so peter pulls his out that he bought at the supermarket the day before to eat for lunch, and is rather confused, and tries telling the bus driver that he already has one, he doesnt need another. i am just laughing at this whole exchange, glad he isnt trying to joke with me cos i would freeze up and freak out about not knowing italiano. so i am happy he is joking with peter and making peter confused. he then starts saying that pompei is not far, we should walk. i immediately know he is just kidding, but peter kind of plays along and is like, "really? how far? should we just walk? is it not far?" but again, i am just laughing at how we got ourselves into this predicament, not knowing where we are, not really being able to communicate well with anyone (daniels italian is even worse than peters, and mine, too). then i remember that I got us here, by not getting off the bus at the right place, and laugh even more. so we get on the bus, and a few other women get on, too, and we take off. they and the bus driver are talking loudly and very animatedly (is that a word?!) for a while. well, the whole trip! i love that about italians... side note: when i was on the train from rome to naples, i was in a cabin with 5 italians, and they didnt know each other and were all in a big, heated discussion over the different types of trains and how fast tehy are and how much they cost. for an hour. in america, we wouldnt even talk to one another, much less argue with a stranger! again, i just laughed as i watched them all. ok, back to my story. the bus driver also points to us and i realize he is laughing about us to them, how stupid we are not to get off at the right place. well, one woman gets off the bus while it is stopped in traffic, runs across the street to the equivalent of 7-11, buys 2 bus tickets and jumps back on. when she sticks her tickets into the machine to validate them, i realize they have a big "4" on them... as in, 4 zone tickets. ours are only 3 zone. so THAT is why the bus driver was saying we needed another ticket! so, we are glad that he gave up and let us keep our 3 zone. we go along for a half an hour thru more city, and peter is like, wow, i really slept through a lot! then one of the women leans over and tells us where to get off, and we are thankful. yeah, it is the same place with all the hotels all the other tourists got off at earlier. still, i dont see a sign that this is the right stop or anything, i just see an old wall off to the right, thru a park, that happens to be the ruins. so, we get off and walk that direction, having finally made it to pompei scavi, spending and extra hour and a half to get there!
so up to this point, i failed to mention that it is raining, and our plan was, from pompei scavi, to catch a bus up vesuvius to near the summit, walk around the crater for a few hours, then come back down, see the ruins, and come home, making it a long day. and at this point, since it is 1130 and we heard the busses only run in the morning to vesuvius, we decide to just see teh ruins first and play it by ear abour vesuvius. peter pulls out his raincoat, and daniel and i are both cursing ourselves that we didnt bring out raincoats, having listened to the weather forecast instead, which called for sun. those darn meteorologists dont know anything! so we are standing under the tent of a vendor, wet, im a little cold (having worn shorts for the first time on this trip), and we see people selling umbrellas and head for them. they are also selling ponchos, so i opt for one of those, adn we head into pompei.
ok, let me tell you, this place is AMAZING. i cannot believe how much work must have gone into excavating a WHOLE CITY, digging it out of ash, finding stuff all over the place, including everything that would make daily life in a roman city. wow. and teh place is HUGE! and it, much to your dismay, i am sure, doesnt look anything like "escape from pompeii" at busch gardens. anyway, we figure out where we are on the map, wander around with our guide book, and see as much as we can in 3 hours. i cannot believe how many frescoes survived 2000 years. they are just amazing, with beautiful detail. i dont think they have done any reconstruction, except to replace, perhaps, what was already there. that is to say that they just added roofs, they didnt reconstruct anything else, saying this is what it would have looked like. they have redone some of the vegetation, but that is about it. so that was really cool, looking at teh gardens of houses, thinking, this is really what it looked like! my favorite place had tons of frescoes and 2 huge long fish ponds in the garden. no fish in there now, tho. we walked thru the arena, the equivalent to the ymca (recreation area for young men), up and down the streets, in a few houses, by the "fast food" restaurants of the day, the bakers-millers, thru the brothel, by another rich guys house, by the city baths (the ceilings there survived with amazing reliefs), and finally out thru the forum with temples and government buildings galore. so amazing. peter kept exclaiming that he had never taken so many pictures and was scolding himself for being so snap happy. he still doesnt have anything on me, as i took more than 60 pics on the bus from amalfi to positano the day before, and he just laughed at me.
so while we were there, it had quit raining, but we are a little to beat to try to find a nonexistant bus up to vesuvius, still hidden in clouds, so we make for the train station and head back to naples. daniel says he would love a coffee, so we decided to head thru the historic center of the city, by the duomo (taking pictures teh whole way), and to the main street of the city to find a good cafe to sit and chill at. so we just wander for a while, and it was so cool. we had gone to the historic center the past 2 nights for pizza, but it looked SO different during the day. tons of people walking, kids riding bikes, madness all around. adn the napolis (napolitans? napolians?) drive CRAZY. red lights really are suggestions, as are one-ways. craziness. thru small alleys, too. anyway, it was great fun. we find a gelateria and lick and slurp our gelato as we wander past more than 5 churches and down the main street. it is about 6pm now, we find a cafe, daniel knocks back his coffee at the counter, and we head for the castle to take sunset pics. well, from there, we realize we are on a bay and head for the sunset (with the AMAZING clouds), and daniel tells us about this waterfront walk that has amazing views. we we wind our way thru the city, and the road we are on goes thru a tunnel under the city, with no sidewalk. so there is an elevator and stairs up, to teh top of the hill the road cuts under, so we take that up, trying to head west. when we got to teh top, we were blown away. it was a huge plaza with a huge government building in a semicircle with big white columns all the way around, and kids playing soccer around the graffitied statues. with a perfectly blue sky and pink clouds. so amazing, and certainly not what we expected.
after snapping a million more pictures, we continued our chase for teh sunset, and the road we were on came to a bridge, about 4 stories above another road, that was a pedestrian mall with a million people shopping and eating at cafes. with laundry hanging on all teh balconies of apartments above. with the amazing sky of sunset. we again took a million pictures, and i climbed up a little to get a better view. an italian walked by, and said there was a staircase down to it. what?! oh, geez, so we raced down and followed the road west. so amazing and again, not what we were expecting! so then we followed it, realizing the sun was setting faster than we could get to the water. we continued following it to where we thought we needed to be, and ended at a park with the city aquarium. on the other side, alas, was teh waterfront. the sun had set behind the peninsula, but there were tons of lights on the hill and the clouds were still amazing behind them. and we took a million pictures, exclaiming all night at how amazing the sunset was. then we turned around and saw teh moon rising over another castle-island. another million pictures, and my camera battry was on its last legs, and my spare was dead, too. so we just sat there, enjoying it all, and eventually wandered back to the hostel, exclaiming at the clarity of the water, even in the port, and the guys planned to go back tonite. but i am headed for roma.
if you actually read all this, you are an amazing friend. ciao!!
so we headed out yesterday at about 9am, straight for the bus terminal and got on the right bus for pompei scavi, the ruins of pompeii. peter hadnt slept well, so he assigned me the task of determining where to get off and took a nap. so daniel and i chit-chatted our way across town and by the shadow of vesuvius. there werent too many other tourists on the bus, as it was a regional transit bus, and they all got off in one area of hotels and such. i looked around, but didnt see any big signs saying this was our stop, nor did it look like there were any ruins anywhere. so we stayed on. and stayed on. about an hour later, peter wakes up and is like, uh, we have been on this bus too long. where are we? well, i stopped yapping away to daniel long enough to realize we are the only ones on the bus by this point, and we have long since passed vesuvius and have seen nothing but city for the past hour. so, peter, the great guy that he is who doesnt speak but a few words of italian, goes and asks the bus driver, who doesnt speak but a few more words of english, about where we should get off. he points backwards and makes motions that mean to say, "a long way back was pompei scavi". so peter asks about what bus we can take to get back there, and the bus driver comes back to us in our seats (the bus is still running, in stopped traffic, with no driver behind the wheel) and says that he will turn around soon and go back himself, he just will stop to get a coffee and smoke a cigarette.
sure enough, about 3 blocks later, he turns around and parks the bus and comes to talk to us again. he keeps motioning that we should get coffee, and peter is like, i am not leaving this bus! then the driver says we need to get new tickets. well, we purposely had bought 3 zone (downtown to pompei) daily tickets, which are good for the bus, train, metro and trams in the naples area. we keep trying to explain to him that we already have tickets and try to show them to him, but he is still saying we need to buy more tickets. eventually he gives up and invites us to have a cup of coffee with him. so we follow him off the bus down the street to a coffee shop. and we have no idea where we are, just in some city south of naples and pompei. before all this happened, daniel had said that he had to pee pretty bad, so as we walk to the cafe, he is looking for a toilet anywhere. he sticks his head into the back room of the cafe, and the bus driver comes up and starts joking with him, then goes in the room, and daniel follows him. but the bus driver holds up his hand in a "stop!" motion and goes in and shuts the door to the restroom. so daniel backs up, a bit bewildered and a little desperate, and waits his turn. good times.
so we are hanging out on the patio for the driver to finish his coffee (which is espresso in a tiny little mug that looks more like a shot glass). when he does, we walk right by a peach orchard back to the bus, and the driver keeps joking about us stealing a peach. or something. so peter pulls his out that he bought at the supermarket the day before to eat for lunch, and is rather confused, and tries telling the bus driver that he already has one, he doesnt need another. i am just laughing at this whole exchange, glad he isnt trying to joke with me cos i would freeze up and freak out about not knowing italiano. so i am happy he is joking with peter and making peter confused. he then starts saying that pompei is not far, we should walk. i immediately know he is just kidding, but peter kind of plays along and is like, "really? how far? should we just walk? is it not far?" but again, i am just laughing at how we got ourselves into this predicament, not knowing where we are, not really being able to communicate well with anyone (daniels italian is even worse than peters, and mine, too). then i remember that I got us here, by not getting off the bus at the right place, and laugh even more. so we get on the bus, and a few other women get on, too, and we take off. they and the bus driver are talking loudly and very animatedly (is that a word?!) for a while. well, the whole trip! i love that about italians... side note: when i was on the train from rome to naples, i was in a cabin with 5 italians, and they didnt know each other and were all in a big, heated discussion over the different types of trains and how fast tehy are and how much they cost. for an hour. in america, we wouldnt even talk to one another, much less argue with a stranger! again, i just laughed as i watched them all. ok, back to my story. the bus driver also points to us and i realize he is laughing about us to them, how stupid we are not to get off at the right place. well, one woman gets off the bus while it is stopped in traffic, runs across the street to the equivalent of 7-11, buys 2 bus tickets and jumps back on. when she sticks her tickets into the machine to validate them, i realize they have a big "4" on them... as in, 4 zone tickets. ours are only 3 zone. so THAT is why the bus driver was saying we needed another ticket! so, we are glad that he gave up and let us keep our 3 zone. we go along for a half an hour thru more city, and peter is like, wow, i really slept through a lot! then one of the women leans over and tells us where to get off, and we are thankful. yeah, it is the same place with all the hotels all the other tourists got off at earlier. still, i dont see a sign that this is the right stop or anything, i just see an old wall off to the right, thru a park, that happens to be the ruins. so, we get off and walk that direction, having finally made it to pompei scavi, spending and extra hour and a half to get there!
so up to this point, i failed to mention that it is raining, and our plan was, from pompei scavi, to catch a bus up vesuvius to near the summit, walk around the crater for a few hours, then come back down, see the ruins, and come home, making it a long day. and at this point, since it is 1130 and we heard the busses only run in the morning to vesuvius, we decide to just see teh ruins first and play it by ear abour vesuvius. peter pulls out his raincoat, and daniel and i are both cursing ourselves that we didnt bring out raincoats, having listened to the weather forecast instead, which called for sun. those darn meteorologists dont know anything! so we are standing under the tent of a vendor, wet, im a little cold (having worn shorts for the first time on this trip), and we see people selling umbrellas and head for them. they are also selling ponchos, so i opt for one of those, adn we head into pompei.
ok, let me tell you, this place is AMAZING. i cannot believe how much work must have gone into excavating a WHOLE CITY, digging it out of ash, finding stuff all over the place, including everything that would make daily life in a roman city. wow. and teh place is HUGE! and it, much to your dismay, i am sure, doesnt look anything like "escape from pompeii" at busch gardens. anyway, we figure out where we are on the map, wander around with our guide book, and see as much as we can in 3 hours. i cannot believe how many frescoes survived 2000 years. they are just amazing, with beautiful detail. i dont think they have done any reconstruction, except to replace, perhaps, what was already there. that is to say that they just added roofs, they didnt reconstruct anything else, saying this is what it would have looked like. they have redone some of the vegetation, but that is about it. so that was really cool, looking at teh gardens of houses, thinking, this is really what it looked like! my favorite place had tons of frescoes and 2 huge long fish ponds in the garden. no fish in there now, tho. we walked thru the arena, the equivalent to the ymca (recreation area for young men), up and down the streets, in a few houses, by the "fast food" restaurants of the day, the bakers-millers, thru the brothel, by another rich guys house, by the city baths (the ceilings there survived with amazing reliefs), and finally out thru the forum with temples and government buildings galore. so amazing. peter kept exclaiming that he had never taken so many pictures and was scolding himself for being so snap happy. he still doesnt have anything on me, as i took more than 60 pics on the bus from amalfi to positano the day before, and he just laughed at me.
so while we were there, it had quit raining, but we are a little to beat to try to find a nonexistant bus up to vesuvius, still hidden in clouds, so we make for the train station and head back to naples. daniel says he would love a coffee, so we decided to head thru the historic center of the city, by the duomo (taking pictures teh whole way), and to the main street of the city to find a good cafe to sit and chill at. so we just wander for a while, and it was so cool. we had gone to the historic center the past 2 nights for pizza, but it looked SO different during the day. tons of people walking, kids riding bikes, madness all around. adn the napolis (napolitans? napolians?) drive CRAZY. red lights really are suggestions, as are one-ways. craziness. thru small alleys, too. anyway, it was great fun. we find a gelateria and lick and slurp our gelato as we wander past more than 5 churches and down the main street. it is about 6pm now, we find a cafe, daniel knocks back his coffee at the counter, and we head for the castle to take sunset pics. well, from there, we realize we are on a bay and head for the sunset (with the AMAZING clouds), and daniel tells us about this waterfront walk that has amazing views. we we wind our way thru the city, and the road we are on goes thru a tunnel under the city, with no sidewalk. so there is an elevator and stairs up, to teh top of the hill the road cuts under, so we take that up, trying to head west. when we got to teh top, we were blown away. it was a huge plaza with a huge government building in a semicircle with big white columns all the way around, and kids playing soccer around the graffitied statues. with a perfectly blue sky and pink clouds. so amazing, and certainly not what we expected.
after snapping a million more pictures, we continued our chase for teh sunset, and the road we were on came to a bridge, about 4 stories above another road, that was a pedestrian mall with a million people shopping and eating at cafes. with laundry hanging on all teh balconies of apartments above. with the amazing sky of sunset. we again took a million pictures, and i climbed up a little to get a better view. an italian walked by, and said there was a staircase down to it. what?! oh, geez, so we raced down and followed the road west. so amazing and again, not what we were expecting! so then we followed it, realizing the sun was setting faster than we could get to the water. we continued following it to where we thought we needed to be, and ended at a park with the city aquarium. on the other side, alas, was teh waterfront. the sun had set behind the peninsula, but there were tons of lights on the hill and the clouds were still amazing behind them. and we took a million pictures, exclaiming all night at how amazing the sunset was. then we turned around and saw teh moon rising over another castle-island. another million pictures, and my camera battry was on its last legs, and my spare was dead, too. so we just sat there, enjoying it all, and eventually wandered back to the hostel, exclaiming at the clarity of the water, even in the port, and the guys planned to go back tonite. but i am headed for roma.
if you actually read all this, you are an amazing friend. ciao!!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
doing awesome.
yeah... doing incredibly awesome. i prayed for a friend here in italy, and got one! i met a friend here in my hostel in naples who wanted to do the same thing as me, so off we went!
so today we headed for the amalfi coast. SO AMAZING. i usually just buy one postcard of everywhere i go, to keep costs down as well as the weight of my bag. well, let me tell you, this place was so amazing that i bought a whole book. yes, it is that good.
so we took the boat-ferry to amalfi from naples, about 2.5 hrs, and then hung around amalfi a bit. tehy have a pretty cool duomo there, apparently where st andrew is buried? so pretty cool. and the whole town is built on a hillside, so the streets are alleyways/stairs leading up the mountainside. so we wound our ways up, then back down again adn caught a bus to positano. seen the movie "under the tuscan sun"? she goes to positano to meet her guy friend... so amazing. we liked positano even better than amalfi. there was a woman selling real lemon slushes on the corner (with the seeds still in it! yum!), so we bought some and wandered down the hill to the beach. we watched a few fishermen dive into the aquamarine waves to bring their boats into shore, and took pictures of the lighthouse with waves crashing on the breakwaters. so amazing. it did rain on us some, but it helped to cool things off, so we werent too put off. then back on the bus to sorrento. the bus ride was erally part of the amzing part of the day... winding roads along the side of the mountains that just drop off onto cliffs in the deep blue waters. can i say how amazing it was? so then back on the train back to napoli, with a cheap, amazing pizza dinner with 5 other single travellers - 2 americans, 2 aussies, a kiwi and a brazilian. sweetness. gelati on the way home, and now a quiet evening watching oceans 12. what a perfect day.
so today we headed for the amalfi coast. SO AMAZING. i usually just buy one postcard of everywhere i go, to keep costs down as well as the weight of my bag. well, let me tell you, this place was so amazing that i bought a whole book. yes, it is that good.
so we took the boat-ferry to amalfi from naples, about 2.5 hrs, and then hung around amalfi a bit. tehy have a pretty cool duomo there, apparently where st andrew is buried? so pretty cool. and the whole town is built on a hillside, so the streets are alleyways/stairs leading up the mountainside. so we wound our ways up, then back down again adn caught a bus to positano. seen the movie "under the tuscan sun"? she goes to positano to meet her guy friend... so amazing. we liked positano even better than amalfi. there was a woman selling real lemon slushes on the corner (with the seeds still in it! yum!), so we bought some and wandered down the hill to the beach. we watched a few fishermen dive into the aquamarine waves to bring their boats into shore, and took pictures of the lighthouse with waves crashing on the breakwaters. so amazing. it did rain on us some, but it helped to cool things off, so we werent too put off. then back on the bus to sorrento. the bus ride was erally part of the amzing part of the day... winding roads along the side of the mountains that just drop off onto cliffs in the deep blue waters. can i say how amazing it was? so then back on the train back to napoli, with a cheap, amazing pizza dinner with 5 other single travellers - 2 americans, 2 aussies, a kiwi and a brazilian. sweetness. gelati on the way home, and now a quiet evening watching oceans 12. what a perfect day.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
doing much better...
after a pretty rough yesterday morning, i was able to take a nap, get some food in me (it is AMAZING how much good some grub can do me!), and headed back out into roma. i had fewer expectations and was rewarded with some suprises and more peace. i enjoyed the majority of my afternoon and was able to just hang out some, which i needed.
today i did decide to go back to the vatican, which was pretty darn amazing. i had no idea how big the vatican museums were, but they were HUGE. and the sistine chapel was less chapel-like than i expected... more like a big open room with lots of paintings. but beautiful, nonetheless. i think the part i liked the best was that the bottom 1/3 of the walls were paintings of tapestries! like it looked like big, beautiful bedspreads were hung on the walls. and it was painted to look like that! they did a pretty good job... making folds and shadows where you would expect them. pretty cool. and funny to me!
so now i leave for napoli. in the next few days: pompeii (like BG! only REAL!), herculaneum, hiking mt vesuvius (if i have the energy, hopefully at least the rim of the volcano), the bus to the amalfi coast (positano, sorrento, amalfi...) and perhaps even a trip over to the isle of capri. but most of all, PIZZA! the birthplace of it all. yum!!
thanks again for your prayers. i am so thankful to have friends and family like you all. and thanks for your emails (dad, mom, chelle, kpc folk...)
today i did decide to go back to the vatican, which was pretty darn amazing. i had no idea how big the vatican museums were, but they were HUGE. and the sistine chapel was less chapel-like than i expected... more like a big open room with lots of paintings. but beautiful, nonetheless. i think the part i liked the best was that the bottom 1/3 of the walls were paintings of tapestries! like it looked like big, beautiful bedspreads were hung on the walls. and it was painted to look like that! they did a pretty good job... making folds and shadows where you would expect them. pretty cool. and funny to me!
so now i leave for napoli. in the next few days: pompeii (like BG! only REAL!), herculaneum, hiking mt vesuvius (if i have the energy, hopefully at least the rim of the volcano), the bus to the amalfi coast (positano, sorrento, amalfi...) and perhaps even a trip over to the isle of capri. but most of all, PIZZA! the birthplace of it all. yum!!
thanks again for your prayers. i am so thankful to have friends and family like you all. and thanks for your emails (dad, mom, chelle, kpc folk...)
Monday, October 02, 2006
hrmmm... not as fun as i was hoping...
so i am here in rome, and i am a little bored. not to mention lonely again. it is one thing to stand in line for 45 min for a ride at busch gardens, you have your friends there to chat with. it is something else to stand in line for over 2 hrs (10 city blocks long) to see the vatican museums, which i don't care all that much about, all by myself. so i didn't.
i did want to at least go in the courtyard and see st peter's basilica, and as i was trying to find the end of the line, a guy came up to me and said "hi". and i cautiously said hi, back. and he was like, "do you remember me? we met on the train to venice." he took his sunglasses off, and i did recognize him, tho not from the train to venice. so, he took me to his spot in line, with several others, whom i did recognize, and they invited me to join them in line. so i did. i cut in line. they had already been waiting 20 min and were an older (60-70s) american group that was friendly to chat with, so i was quite glad. i had been praying for a friend in rome, and here is this group that i met a week ago! i still haven't quite placed them. i think i was going to verona when i met them, and they were continuing on to venice. i think, i dunno.
well the sad part of the story comes at security. it's almost as bad as an airport. and i forgot that i had my swiss army knife in my bag. yeah... so they wanted me to throw it out, and i was like, i got that in switzerland, had my initials put on it, there is no way i am throwing it out! so i left, instead. and sat down and cried. and had to figure out a way to break my 50 euro note so i could buy a subway ticket back to my hostel. the little things get me, ya know?
so now, here i am, in "splashnet", where they do my laundry while i sit here on the internet. not a bad system. and i got a discount from my hostel, even better.
i am still feeling lethargic and tired, i guess from being sick. i still have a bit of a cold, unfortunately. so i went to bed early last nite, but missed out on the fun on the rooftop terrace. hopefully tonite there will be more fun up there, and i will feel up to joining them! in the meantime, the guy that runs the "splashnet" is fun to chat with.
ciao.
i did want to at least go in the courtyard and see st peter's basilica, and as i was trying to find the end of the line, a guy came up to me and said "hi". and i cautiously said hi, back. and he was like, "do you remember me? we met on the train to venice." he took his sunglasses off, and i did recognize him, tho not from the train to venice. so, he took me to his spot in line, with several others, whom i did recognize, and they invited me to join them in line. so i did. i cut in line. they had already been waiting 20 min and were an older (60-70s) american group that was friendly to chat with, so i was quite glad. i had been praying for a friend in rome, and here is this group that i met a week ago! i still haven't quite placed them. i think i was going to verona when i met them, and they were continuing on to venice. i think, i dunno.
well the sad part of the story comes at security. it's almost as bad as an airport. and i forgot that i had my swiss army knife in my bag. yeah... so they wanted me to throw it out, and i was like, i got that in switzerland, had my initials put on it, there is no way i am throwing it out! so i left, instead. and sat down and cried. and had to figure out a way to break my 50 euro note so i could buy a subway ticket back to my hostel. the little things get me, ya know?
so now, here i am, in "splashnet", where they do my laundry while i sit here on the internet. not a bad system. and i got a discount from my hostel, even better.
i am still feeling lethargic and tired, i guess from being sick. i still have a bit of a cold, unfortunately. so i went to bed early last nite, but missed out on the fun on the rooftop terrace. hopefully tonite there will be more fun up there, and i will feel up to joining them! in the meantime, the guy that runs the "splashnet" is fun to chat with.
ciao.
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