A hop skip and jump...

We arrived in Corfu, Greece Wednesday morning after two train rides, an all night ferry and another two hour ferry to the island. The town is literally shut down since tourist season is over. Some of the local markets open up for an hour or two at random times during the day and there is one restaurant open as well, during random parts of the day.

It's beautiful here, however I have to say the Amalfi coast doesn't quite compare for me. We did a hike yesterday through up the mountain since they weren't renting kayaks out due to poor conditions. We hiked, well more like climbed to the top of this mountain, making our own path and me in flip flops of course! Since we made our own path through the brush and trees we all got some pretty narly scratches from these thorn bushes. The view was amazing at the top and worth the climb. Mark, a guy from Australia we met on the ferry, and Nells (from Maine), Jeremy and Kyle from California who are staying at our hostel and four stray dogs that decided to taga long with us were all on this little excursion. Mark and I didn't quite make it to the top but stayed back on a ledge because we decided it was too dangerous to continue. We had two of the four dogs sitting with us and one, that was a dalmation, decided that my lap was the best seat. It was a good few hours time to waste hiking through the Corfu terrain and kept us busy. We also swam in the Ionian Sea at the end of it all. It was quite cold, but refreshing and it is unbelievable how clear and blue the water is here. I love it! Only wish the waves were better and that I had my bodyboard to surf it a bit. Body surfing will have to do for now!

Halloween "party" tonight at the hostel (whatever that means) and off to Athens tomorrow sometime. And I have to say, hostel living has not been too shabby so far on our trip. We have definitely lucked out!

The 2000 step natural stair master

The title explains it all! We have been in the Amalfi coast for the past week, when we had only planned to be here two nights. It has been amazing though. It is so beautiful here and we have been able to see more places than we wouldn't have been able to if we had stuck to our original plan. The town is great and the locals are nice, they've even shown us around quite a bit. We have taken some 2000 stairs down to the actual town of Amalfi, and then back up again (not a very good idea by the way! haha), another 1700 steps down after a three hour hike to a town called Positano. Let's just say that my legs are feeling it after all those steps. Apparantly, we also have to take all the other stairs up that we see when we are exploring around.

It's been great though. The views here are amazing and the girls won't let me live down our dinner with some of the locals when we first arrived in town about eating. While we were at dinner everyone had eaten everything and I was still left with mounds of food on my plate. They were all making me laugh and our friends Antonio, Amelio, and (another) Antonio were all yelling EAT! EAT! at me in Italian and I could not stop laughing...to the point of tears. All this to say, Lara and Erica now say it to me every time we have a meal together.

I am also referred to as Britney Spears and/or Rhianna, and we are the "crazy american girls," because we walk everywhere (no matter if its 2000 stairs up and down, or a 7k walk to Positano). We are off to Greece tomorrow (I am pretty sure). It will take us about two days of travel by train and ferry. Our friend Tonja, who is staying in the hostel with us, just came from Greece and had a few suggestions for us. She is traveling on her own for 6 1/2 months! It's so crazy, but she had some great stories for us. I could never travel for that long on my own at all.

I am starting to miss home, friends, and familiarity, but this has definitely been the trip of a lifetime! I just realize I am such a home body and family and friends are so important to me! I can't wait to get home and show everyone some of the places we have been and share some more of the stories. Love from Italy!

Quick update from Agerola

Hello from Agerola, Italy! We have spent the last few days in this quaint little town near the Amalfi coast on the west side of Italy, also near the beautiful Island of Capri. We are having such a great time and there are so many stories to share but clearly not enough time to write them all and not enough words to describe some of the amazing places we've seen so far. When we first headed here from Naples, a nice woman named Carla gave us a ride to a town near Agerola called Pimonte. She hardly spoke any English. She took us to her house/hotel that her family runs to have her son take us the last few miles to where we would be staying. Their family was so nice and her son Antonio speaks very good English so he was able to better communicate with us.

We also got to tag along with a Dutch tour group to Capri which is an amazing island off the coast from Sorrento. We took a boat tour around the entire island and saw a place called the Blue Grotto. It's a small cave that you take a little boat into and the reflection from the sun outside on the water makes the water a beautiful blue color that illuminates the entire cave. It was amazing! Lara also got made fun of by the boat tour guide for taking so many pictures, but it was all in good fun.

I'll have to leave you with that for now... I do not have much time on the internet where we are staying so I will try to fill you all in more as soon as possible. The people here are so nice it is unbelievable. They love Americans (and other tourists in general) and have been showing us around the area, spots that we would not have known about on our own. I wish you all could be here to see it too.

Another (better) update coming soon! Stay tuned...

Four People in an Elevator Meant for Two

Here's a little story for you all:
Well after a two and a half train ride from Rome to Naples, two taxi drivers who probably ripped us off and some delicious pizza from the pizza capital of the world (Naples invented pizza) we were ready to settle into a hostel. The first hostel we went to had one bed left and the three of us would not fit. Luckily there was another hostel with open beds right across the street (the nice italian boy at the front desk called over for us to double check). We were also lucky because Naples is a very unsafe city to be walking around at night, let alone to mention carrying around large travel backpacks. At the first hostel we rode the elevator up to the 7th floor for 5 cents and barely fit. When we walked across to the second hostel we met an Italian guy from Pompei at the door and he ended up in the other elevator with us three girls and our backpacks. Antoher 5 cents and a minute later all four of us climbed out of an elevator probably no bigger than 2ft by 3ft or so. It gave us all a good laugh and this guy from Pompei had told us how he studied in New Castle\Manchester UK and did archaeology and used to give night tours for the actual ancient city of Pompei, which we visited today.

Pompei was a cool city. If you don't know the story I HIGHLY SUGGEST you get the quick recap on Wikipedia. It's a good one! :-) The very basic description is that Mt Vesuvius erupted very unexpectedly and quickly so the town was completely taken over and trashed from the eruption. Now it is a site you can go and see its ruins and the things that they have excavated. Going there I thought it would be a small town that was quick to walk through, but to my surprise it was a very large and thriving city at one time, which makes more sense now that I've seen it. It was so cool to think that people actually lived there and what made it even more real was seeing a cast they did of how they found some of the preserved bodies and animals while excavating many years later. We got some cool pics of the ruins as well as some funny ones with us girls being silly. We also got some whistles and kissing noises by the locals selling things outside the Pompei ruins in the "new" city. It was uncomfortable but it's a lot better when you don't acknowledge it! We just kept walking and figuring out how to get back to Naples.

Tomorrow we are off to the Amalfi coast of Italy and then we are figuring out how to get to Greece from there. I have experienced more public transportation in the few days of being Italy than I have in my whole life, now I highly support public transportation and wish that California had a better system. It's cheap and gets you to where you need to be! We should be in Greece by middle of next week, which is where we will spending most of our time. I cannot believe I have only been here 4 full days and that I will be spending almost two weeks in Greece!

I am still trying to find a good way to upload some pictures. I really wish everyone could see what we have been doing. Better yet, if everyone was here to see the things we have been doing, because words and pictures do not capture the essence of many of these places... and the stories are a lot funnier in person I'm sure! ;-)

As a side note... my first hostel experience has not been so bad. However it is one of the nicer ones and you can't beat free internet access and delicious continental breakfast of coffee (have to have the coffee...itàs great here and doesn't leave the weird coffee taste in your mouth all day), cereal, croissant, and juice! However, I may have broken my straightening iron by using it in the outlet even with a converter. I am hoping this is not so, but again this is just a side note! Ciao!

Roma!

As most of you could have guessed...I am loving Rome so far and we have only been here two full days. The city smells of gas fumes, cigarettes, and once in a while a whiff of sewer type smell comes your way. But I enjoy Rome's imperfections. It's a nice change from the perfectly cleaned and groomed streets of Orange County. The roads and sidewalks are cobblestone laid bricks, the river is a weird green color, and we are the only people in this city who believe in wearing flip flops! The architecture is breathtaking and my feet ache from all the walking we've done, but I feel accomplished. Crazy men come up to us and try to hand us roses but then they want money... we just say no and keep walking! And Mike I am definitely winning at yelling so far on this trip and Lara says she misses you. But no Italian stallions yet who like surfing so I will let you know about that when it happens! haha 

It has definitely been an eventful two days, but we are having so much fun! We are staying here in Rome with, my friend's little brother, Tim and his roommates who have been such amazing hosts. They've had excellent suggestions on places to see while we have been here and took us to one of their favorite pubs last night for dinner. We're navigating around the city well with our handy maps (such a tourist thing to do!), but I feel I know my way around now with all the walking we've been doing and things look pretty familiar already. I feel like I've been here for weeks, not two days! Yesterday was full of sightseeing as soon as we all got off our planes and met up, so by the end of the day as you could imagine we were all exhausted. We went to the Vatican City and walked around for a bit but decided to go back today to go inside St Peters Basilica and the Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel). We also saw the Colosseum by night which was really amazing. We walked all over teh city yesterday and ate some amazing pizza and such as well.

The sleeping arrangements at Tim's place are interesting, since three of shared the full sized pull out couch. It was an interesting night between the bed sinking all of us towards the middle and the sweet techno jams we were hearing from some sort of disco club that is directly below the apartment that the boys informed us on. Apparently they like to crank up the music into the wee hours of the morning. In fact, it is playing downstairs as I sit here right now! It's all good though, I just laugh about it!

Today was full of walking and more sightseeing. I love that everything is pretty much within walking distance. Granted we probably walked around 10 miles today alone but it doesn't feel like it because everything is absolutely amazing and so worth the walk. We figure you have to experience the city as if you actually lived here, and what fun would it be to take a taxi everywhere we went? However we did take one tonight and they are crazy drivers here, it was quite the experience and we kept laughing when the driver would speed up and cut in and out of traffic. It's not that bad though because everyone drives crazy so they all drive crazy together which ends up working out. Lara did almost get run over by a vespa last night though on our way back from the Colosseum. As long as you pay attention your fine. haha. Anyhow, this morning we got a late start to the day but it was great sleeping in since we had such a long day yesterday. We grabbed a cup of coffee, of course ;-), and headed to Vatican City. We started at St Peter's Basilica church and the actual chapel is unbelievable. I cannot even describe the detail that goes into it because the words would ruin it and the pictures don't do it justice. There is a dome inside that you can pay 5 euro to climb up to the top and look over the city...500 steps or so is what we climbed up. We tried counting but we lost count somewhere around 400. It was so worth the climb. You could see a 360 degree view of the city and the weather was a perfect day to be there! After we spent a few hours in the Basilica we headed around the corner to the Sistine Chapel and Museum. You walk through a museum with amazing statues and paintings that Rome has acquired over the years. There were hallways of old tapestries that were so detailed it was crazy making it smell like an library with a ton of old books (if that makes any sense!). Once you've walked through the museum part then you head into the actual Sistine Chapel. You're not allowed to take pictures but pictures would ruin the moments that you spend in there. I was left speechless standing there admiring the intricate detailing that went into that. Michael Angelo is an artistic genius if you ask me. I could not believe I was standing there, it felt so fake, like a dream. I just kept saying to myself, "I am in THE actual Sistine Chapel. Again there are not words to describe those moments sitting there looking at this huge Chapel. It's crazy though, in all the time we spent in this "religious" place, it felt empty of faith. So many people just come to see this place, but not necessarily for religious purposes. I had to question my own motives for being there, which weren't for religious reasons. I was there just like everyone else, to see this historical place. It is a place inspired by God and works of the bible, but it doesn't necessarily feel like God is in that place because it's so "touristy."

We did a few more things this evening: stopped by the Trevi fountain and made a visit to the gelato shop, went into the Pantheon, and then headed towards the Piazza de Spagna where the famous Spanish steps are. It was another eventful day but everything is so amazing in this city. It's crazy to think of how much history is here and how unworthy I feel to be here at times. Rome is a beautiful place and I would love to bring people back in order to see the things I've been able to see these past two days! Also, I've had the pleasure of being run over by a crazy man pushing his wife in a wheelchair outside St Peters Basilica and a stroller in the hallway on our way into the Sistine Chapel. We have a count going as to how many thing I can get run over by while we're in Rome. So far just the two, but I have high hopes for maybe a bike or moped! ;-)

Tomorrow afternoon we may be off to Naples and Pompei, but with no set plans we are living in the moment! Such an amazing feeling to be able to not have set plans and see what we want to while we're here. Lara and Erica are amazing travel buddies thus far and we are having a lot of laughs. I will try to post pictures as soon as I can if possible.

Ciao!

Mixed Emotions

I am off to travel through Europe for the next month and I seem to have an overflow of emotions at the moment (though I won't share most of them since there is still much to do for preparation). This is something that I have wanted to do for such a long time and the time has finally come. I must get up in about 4 hours in order to leave for the airport to board my flight. 

My nerves aren't that calm right now, and I swear anyone within a foot of me could feel the butterflies in my stomach. I am so excited for this opportunity to experience something that will be so new to me. I'm not one who would usually purchase a plane ticket to Rome on a spur of the moment kind of thing and not have much of a plan upon arrival, but somehow this time was different and I was convinced. God has lined everything up perfectly for me to go and who knows exactly where he sends me. While I have a general idea of the places I might see, I really won't know till I get there. I am going to a place where I don't really fit in, to a place that is different, to a place outside of my comfort. I look forward to the journey, but between you and me, I am a little scared!

<3