Greece and we are HOME!

Hello all,
Most likely this is the last post for our blog. I have been excited to hear from so many of you that have followed us :)
From Olympia it took a full day to travel to Athens via bus and then ferry to Aegina Island, I think the closest island to Athens' port. Being the only people at our Olympia Hotel, one of the owners helped us out so much by calling around to many many hotels we found online listed to be on this island. We were realizing how shut down Greece was in the winter, but it didn't fully set in until after calling at least 8 hotels on the island and they were all shut down! Finally in another town (not the main port town) the hotel owner found a place open for 35 Euros a night. Maybe the fact that everything was shut down should have been a warning for us, but we really wanted to see a Greek Island. So Tuesday, after leaving Olympia at 8:30 am on the bus and taking a ferry from Piraeus Port in Athens at 4:15, we got to our island closer to 6pm. On arrival we did not know where the bus station was and were tired enough to just get a taxi to get us right to our place around the island. The island is only really like 11 km across but it took the taxi almost 30 minutes (guess the main road is closed) and we were so thankful once we actually got to our rooms and a real shower!!
We stayed for two nights, again being the only guests :) I am pretty positive we were the only tourists in town, which was one main strip of street. I can see how in the summer it is beautiful- the sun, clear blue ocean, lots of shopping and restaurants, pools and music clubs... However the only places in operation in our two days were the two mini markets, a bakery, a few "American fast food" places at night for take out (no commercialized places, but we could have gotten a sandwich or ice cream to go), a bar/ cafe, and Gilly's- a restaurant owned by a retired English couple. Tuesday we had not eaten more than snacks all day and decided to check out Gilly's. The couple were so sweet and had homemade English dishes (two or three choices, whatever she was cooking that night). We were the only people there for a little while, and then suddenly all these English speakers started pouring in. We had come on BINGO night! English residents came to hang out and play here sometimes and were all very welcoming (after the questions of "Why did you come here, NOW???")We put in our two euros for cards- different than we usually played in US- and played a few games. I even won 5 euros for a "line", or 5 numbers in a row.
Wednesday it was nice enough we lay out on the rocks some (beach pretty dirty) and soak up the sun like lizards. Back to Gilly's that night for dinner and when asking them the best way to get back to port on Thursday to go back to Athens, they offered to take us!!
Loving the people, we catch a ride Thursday just in time for our 1:00 ferry to Athens. (If you are ever in Agia Marina on Aegina Island, go to Gilly's restaurant and say hi!!) They gave us recommendations on where to stay in Athens, close to the port, and how to get to the airport Friday morning.

That afternoon we made it up to see the Acropolis- probably the most amazing was the view from the top! I think we liked Athens more than expected because we heard so many bad things about the place, it was nice cause everything was open!! Some Christmas decorations were up and people were out just hanging out. Lots of time spent just walking around, enjoying a comfortable 60 degree day... Found a restaurant for some Greek food again finally- and since it was Thanksgiving and turkey is virtually impossible to find cooked, we found one package of turkey lunch meat in a store. Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday morning, after some difficulty with the bus that never came, we took the metro to the airport. Leaving a morning in the 50's, we arrive in Frankfurt to 0 degrees C!!! We found the coolest hostel ever, check out 5 Elements Hostel in Frankfurt if you are there. Then took a train to Heidleberg, town about 1-2 (depending on the train you find...) hours south. Didn't know it before we went, but they have a renown Christmas market that was so so cute! It was the perfect last afternoon in Europe, walking around a German Christmas market on pedestrian only cobblestone streets with Christmas music, lots of really good homemade food and crafts... Even though it was still literally freezing, we saw the castle there, tried warm spiced wine, looked in all the Christmas stores and decorations and just enjoyed really like 5 hours there!
Back to Frankfurt to wake up at 3:30 am, flew to Amsterdam, went through lots of security checks, and flew for ten hours to Portland! We arrived about noon on Saturday, in time to get back to Forest Grove before the Civil War kick off. Josh made it to Corvallis by the second quarter I think, and I stuck to the couch with my parents. Sadly it was a pretty bad game, but we are glad we are home safely after an amazing amazing trip!

Cinque Terre 2 AND Rome

We are realizing time is running out to post while we are over here, so this may be shorter. We did stay an extra night in Cinque Terre and the weather was beautiful! On Sunday, when we hiked them all, we actually went swimming and could lay out comfortably on the rocks in the sun to dry! We stood out as Americans, or at least tourists, because our swim suits covered so much!! As in Josh had board shorts instead of underwear (ie whitie tighties) like all the good old men out there and I had a regular 2 piece instead of bra/ underwear. It was so cute seeing the little ones running around naked, without a care!
Only bummer was that sunset was 5 pm, so we had to make sure to leave Monterosso (town number 5) by 3:30 or 4 to make it back to Vernazza by dark. If you go, definately check out pizza and the place by the water. You cant miss it, just follow the main road to the water and it is on your left. There are three tables, but best to take it take out and eat outside. One night we did meet a family of 4 there (but dad was taking a break in the room) who had been traveling around Europe together since June. The son was 8th grade, daughter 4th grade and from Nevada City, CA. They will fly home in December after 6 months! I was most impressed by how excited the kids were to tell us what they saw, learned, and want to do at school when they get back.
ROME:
Tuesday morning we took the train down to Rome. We had written down a possible place to stay (for the most part we stopped booking ahead of time in case things dont work out so we dont waste money/ have flexiablity to change). Arriving in Tremini station it was a comfortable day out and within 5 minutes we found the hostel and got a room! If you are there, check out the Travelers Hostel, closest metro is Tremini. It is clean- they make you leave between 11-2 to clean all the rooms/ kitchen/ bathrooms- with two free computers to use, 2 kitchens, free breakfast AND dinner! There are some huge perks to traveling in the off season- the crowds are a lot smaller, don't need to plan ahead as much due to less tourists, and free hostel dinners/ other perks sometimes. One of our roommates from Portugal (from a city there where Port wine is from actually!) said he waited for 6 hours in line to see the Sistine Chapel in July. We were able to walk through the museum maze right to it. Tuesday nights they had pizza, as much as you want til its gone, then every other night we could go to the restaurant next door for a bowl of pasta and glass of wine for free!

This gave us more money and freedom for things like an Ancient Rome tour and a Rome Pass. The Rome Pass was a suggestion by someone in the hostel, costs 20 Euro, and gives you first two admissions for free plus discounts on other things around the city, and free transportation via buses and metro for three days. This got us into the Colusseum + Forum and then to the ancient port town Ostia Antica. It didn't work for the Vatican because its not in Rome. On Wednesday we decided on a 3 hour walking tour to understand a little more about what we were looking at. We ended up getting an unemployed archeologist (kind of ironic) as a tourguide, and she did a really good job of pointing out the important things and painting a picutre of how things used to be (and had recreation pictures to show us). By the time the tour was over it was starting to get dark, at around 5, and we started walking towards the river since we hadnt been there yet. There were SOOO many birds in the trees by the river, you could tell who was local because they had umbrellas not for the rain, but to avoid getting pooped on. Luckily when we hit the river we stumbled into Castel Sant Angelo, which looks really cool at night. After taking a couple pictures we looked to our left and saw the night view of St. Peter's Basilica, another amazing view at night. We strolled over there and got a feel for where we were headed in the morning, then headed back to the hostel for another free dinner. The next day was ALL Vatican city, which is pretty much explained above. St. Peter's Basilica is one of the most amazing structures we have ever seen, just the amount of detail on every square foot of that place looks like it would take a month to mold and construct.
The next day...or two...was pretty much taken up by traveling to greece. Starting off, the train that we needed to take to get to the ferry was full in second class, so after an hour of effort the guy getting us our tickets was able to pull some strings and upgrade us to first class. The train ran about a 45 minutes late and it was a little bit of a rush to find and get to the ferry, which was scheduled to leave at 8pm and arrive at noon the next day. A word of caution with the taking the "free" ferry as a perk of having eurail, normally that free ticket only gets you on the boat and only allows you space outside. If the ferry were full we would have had to find a spot to crash outside, something they forget to mention even when you buy the ticket. This was explained to us after a bit of confusion when we asked where we could put our bags and we were pointed into a room of seats and were told it would be ok because it is too cold outside...could've been a bad one. Regardless, we got on and got going and met some americans from north carolina and georgia, which was a good thing as for the security of our stuff because the area we were in had a bunch of gypsy's. To make matters a little worse, we basically went through a storm, making the boat jump around just as much as the miss sarah on a rough day, and also making us extremely late to get into Patras. When we decided to get up and walk around after getting through the rough part of the storm, we saw that the boat was trashed, water and broken dishes everywhere inside, one semi being transported tipped over and bent a railing on the back deck, pretty much this was a boat that was not prepared for any kind of weather. Needless to say, the weather delayed us by about 5 or 6 hours, putting us into Patras well past dark and not giving us time to get to Olympia that night as planned. By the way, NEVER take a superfast ferry, it was not their fault that it was delayed, but they have something against feeding you, keeping you informed on whats going on, and customer service in general. The people on board made every effort to ignore any eye contact in case you may have a question and were in no way willing to help with making a contact to a hotel or suggestions on bus schedules or places to stay or anything of the sort because of the long delay. Enough venting on those people. To make things better, when we arrived into Patras, it was too late to catch a bus, and every hotel in town was 100% booked because of some event running that day. Luckily there were a few beds in a hostel, it was only 12 euro for the night and only semi sketchy. The next day we got an early bus to Olympia and that is where we are today...a little rainy but really nice people, a great hostel with a warm shower, and plenty of sites and history to check out. On the schedule for today is the original Olympic stadium and the temple of Zues!

Cinque Terre

The most beautiful place!!! Sunny days, cool and quiet nights, lots of hiking and our first real gelato. Needless to say, we ended up staying an extra night here making 3 total in the fourth town, Vernazza. It is definitely the off season because very few tourists and at least 1/2 of the town was closed up, but so much nicer that way!
We got there from Lucca Saturday night and just walking down the main road (the only real road although no cars are allowed) that leads from train station at the top to the water harbor at the bottom we found a place to stay. There are no major hotels in the cities but people rent out individual rooms. Because it is in such an inlet on the coast, sunset was at 5pm making for an early night. Most of the town closes down so we settled on a pesto pizza- Pesto originated here!- and a bottle of wine, sitting outside. This became the standard for every other night and we have successfully eaten pizza at least once a day for a week or so straight :)
Early nights helps to get up early, with the church bells ringing VERY loudly every hour. This was Sunday and the day we were going to hike between all five of the towns, about 9km total. Starting out at about 10:30 finally (sun still isn't up until almost 8 too...) We got to Corniglia little over an hour later, warm and tired. Realizing later that the hike between Monterosso (town 5) and Vernazza (4) is hardest, but Vernazza to Cornigilia (3) is a close second. The views around every corner though are mind blowing and take away the tiredness of hundreds of worn down rocky steps.
We have to wrap it up tonight, we leave Rome tomorrow for Bari and then an overnight ferry to Patras, Greece. We put up some photos on facebook and will finish Cinque Terre/ all the rest soon... I hope.

Lucca

We have been without internet for quite a while and have since traveled from Barcelona (leaving at 8pm on a bus, arriving in Milan at 10am) then another train to Lucca (11am-3:30pm) arriving on Friday Nov. 14th. The train went well- we didn't have to get off for customs this time, but were woken up at 5am by the French customs on our train. Apparently when you ride through France they need to check you out... Our passports got checked before boarding in Barcelona, then on the train, then when we got off right away in Milan. I can honestly say I have not been more thankful to look like an unsuspecting American student with a US passport. They gave a lot of people a really hard time. I guess lots of Africans come in through Spain and Portugal illegally, so anyone who looked like they could be from South were checked every time, often not sounding polite and not making any effort to communicate in any kind of common or native language regardless of paperwork...kinda sad. Anyways, we arrived in Lucca at 3:30 as planned to a familiar face, my old soccer teammate from high school Marco. He had reserved a B&B place for us (A friend of his from school ran the place), and it was a great experience for our first B&B on this trip. We took a quick shower to spray off the stink of an extremely long train ride and were quickly ready to get our first taste of Italy. Marco and his girlfriend Laura were really excited to show us around and give us a typical taste of Lucca, as there were many things that can only be found in Lucca. We started with some Focaccia and it may be one of the first things on the list to figure out how to make when we get home...the best breadsticks you will ever have is the only way I can explain them. We walked around the city center while we snacked on the bread, Marco was a great tour guide mixing a little town history and jokes about tourists like us in the summer time. The next walk was around the ancient city walls that have been around since midevil times as protection from rivaling cities. They were actually really neat (even for being just walls) and really well preserved, a definite trademark of the city. After a quick candy stop- staying with people turns into trying even more of the local cuisine= to eating A LOT. We went out to Marco's house to say hi to mom and check out his pad. Then he drove us out to Pisa for a quick look at the leaning tower. It's still hanging in there although hard to understand how even after reading all the signs.
That night they took us out to the "Local food" restaurant. Turns out his mom is the doctor of the owner so the restaurant wanted us to have a good impression of Lucca food. This was done by instead of just an appetizer, we each got the mixed appetizer plate. On each we had lots of types of bruchetta, polenta, olives, slices of meat, fritatta, and of course a bread basket with olive oil. Then came the traditional soup of Lucca, 5 different varieties of like a thick almost nutty grainy tasting soup. Really hard to describe and we wrote the names down, but don't have them here.
In all the types they said to put in olive oil and pepper before eating.
THEN the second course, which we wisely choose to just get 2 of and split with the four of us. We had lamb ribs I think with potatoes. With all this we are drinking of course, Lucca area wine. After all of this Marco insisted they always have dessert to settle the stomach! They each got one while Josh and I settled on splitting the best Tiramisu ever. At the end, a shot of lemoncello (or limoncino in some areas) to further top it all off... what a night.
The next day was beautiful, sunny and we visited Marcos house again- also huge and amazing. His mom cooked us a pasta lunch before Marco's soccer game and our train ride. Our train took us to La Spezia, the main town outside of Cinque Terre villages.

Another day in Barcelona

Hola!
We decided to stay an extra night in Barcelona once we found out the train schedule to Milan, Italy runs every other night! Therefore instead of leaving last night we added on a hostel night here and take the train Thursday night. This place is hard to beat as far as hostels go; near a metro station, very clean, super nice other travelers (people in our 10 bunk room range from New Zealand, Canada, the US, Taiwan...), free computer use, a TV room with couches, a kitchen and free breakfast! Breakfast is pretty standard but Josh was stoked that they broke out of the international brand of cereal found at every hostel- cornflakes- and also have like puffed corn cereal, real variety. Ive been doing the white toast/ nutella combination which is taking the place of peanut butter over here.
Rain came in today but still managed to find la Sagrada Familia and a few other Gaudi places. Although neither of us are incredibly into fancy architecture, still walking around this town is amazing. All the buildings are beautiful and most places seem very clean for such a huge city. Yesterday we found an amazing, HUGE market called La Boqueria off of La Rambla that is our new favorite place to look and get food. They have all the freshest- as in the seafood is climbing off the table- meat, seafood, veggies, fruit, bread, and chocolate stands ever. We got two large boxes of pastas, bag of dried fruit and nuts, and wine for about 13 euros total. Plus they have fresh things of natural fruit juice for 1 euro each, and 2 for 1 by this afternoon cause they had to get rid of the rest. Once we can get the pictures loaded you can see the huge slabs of pigs legs hanging off the stands, hearts, livers, everything you could use and eat is there.
Tonight were going to a Barcelona FC game at 9pm with a few people from the hostel. They are playing a 2nd tier team so it wont be as huge, but 20 Euros for a good ticket in the largest stadium in Europe- we are pretty excited.
Supposed to clear up tomorrow and I think we will take a day trip to a smaller coast town. By 8pm tomorrow night we get on the train (47 Euros each to just reserve a inclining seat!) and ride straight until 10am Friday when we get to Milan. From there, taking a train to Lucca where we meet Joshs friend from high school, Marco, for the night.
We will probably post again from Italy- hopefully with pictures.

Encontramos el sol (We found the sun!): Barcelona

We made it to Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain, at 6:30 last night after a LONG day on train. We did start some pretty good card games of Speed and War on the train though, resulting in the first every draw tie of Speed for either of us.
They speak Catalan, a mixture of Spanish and French, here but understand Spanish (including my American/ mexican Spanish) most of the time. After we found our hostel last night, near a metro station but out of downtown, we found the famous street, Las Ramblas. There is something for everyone there as far as we could tell. Didn't go back in the day light today but found dinner and our first glass of Sangria there last night. It was fun to see the street with the lights, shopping and restaurants but it is definately a tourist place. We were always greeted in English and menus were in English before any other language everywhere.
Today is turned into a BEAUTIFUL day, in the mid 60's and sunny - finally!! We found a place on the end of a metro line Josh heard about from a friends blog. It is the highest point of the city, the peak of Tibidabo, 512 m (1,680 ft) high. You can get off the metro, take a tram to the top of the city then a Funicular railway to the top (a tram going up the hill). BUT we hoofed it up the whole way, at times blazing our own trail. It was a perfect day, even going up in a tank top and Josh in shorts!! At the top it turns out is an AMAZING view of the city as well as a huge amusement park. Cool to see, but almost a let down with the commercial atmosphere. Since we are here during low season though, this was shut down so there were very few people around. At the top we found a little restaurant off the main attraction area that was finally very Spanish. The lady running the show only spoke Spanish, took our order then went in the back and made it all herself!! All at a very resonable price and Josh got to try the traditional Paella. This is served hot in a skillet with rice, veggies, shrimp and calamari.
This afternoon was spent finding the Olympic village and walking barefoot in the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea!! A beautiful comfertable night, we even saw our first nudist on the beach.

An early night here, the computers cant load pictures from my camera so hopefully soon enough we will catch up on those. A few more days in Barcelona and hopefully a night train to northern italy by wednesday.

Bordeaux

Well thanks to Martin and his family I dont think any trip to Europe will be complete (or acceptable haha) without a trip to Bordeaux. It was a perfect mix of getting a BIG taste of culture, staying busy, getting good rest, and being able to relax like it was home all at the same time. We arrived at lunch time on day 1 and had lunch with Juliet, Martin, and Jacqueline (who was affectionately called grandma or Jacquet). We got our first glimpse of typical french food when martin ordered raw beef and made us try a bite. It was good but we were glad to have chicken and fill our stomachs with something familiar. It was sunny and nice to just hang outside and feel some sun. Went back to the house later and continued to just talk, everything took effort and a lot of simplification of french and english phrases, but it got easier as time went on. Martin wanted to take me to meet some of his friends and play a quick game of soccer, so we did that for an hour and a half or so while christa got lost running around the area. After we just went back and showered and I drove Juliets car (french are scary drivers) downtown to see what it looked like in the evening. Martin had his girlfriend meet up with us while we were there (Mom I approve) and we spent an hour or so just cruising and having Martin be our tour guide. We headed back for some dinner and an early bed time. Of course being the day before the election the dinner conversation was politics, but after a couple glasses of wine the excitement went down a little and it was easy to get some solid shuteye.
Day 2 was a day that Juliete and Jacqueline planned to take us to Cap Ferret and show us the houses they are building along with thier favorite place to vacation in the summer. We woke up to election news...looked like a landslide...some were happy, some were sad. Glad for the majority of that hype and politics in the media junk to be over. The drive to Cap Ferret was a short hour and really nice. Cap Ferret is situated on a small peninsula just west of Bordeaux. It was a little foggy and chilly but very easy to picture how nice it would be with people and a little warm sun. We got to see the houses that Juliet and her family were building and they are AWSOME. They gave us an invite to come back in the summer any time, after seeing it we are gonna have to take them up on the offer some day. Oysters were on the menu for lunch, interesting food, you squirt a little lemon on them and see if they move a tiny bit. If they move then they are good to go and you can eat them, if not then they are no good. They werent bad besides the occasional piece of sand you would grind on, a true sign that it is fresh. Christa and I explored around the town while the others had thier house meeting, then met up later to head back to Bordeaux. Just before we left Juliet took us to a small bakery and had us eat some Canele (i think the spelling is not right) which are really good pasteries, and really hard to explain the taste, you just need to try. Nothing much more exciting for the rest of the evening...besides for Jacqueline driving, pretty good adrenaline rush from the back seat, I can see why Martin wont ride with her haha.
Day 3 Juliet took us to Pauillac to visit the family winery, Lynch-Bages. The country is GORGEOUS with grapes as far as the eye can see, with a Chateau scattered every few kilometers. We got to tour the winery, both old and new, and we were then given a lesson in how to wine taste CORRECTLY. It was all amazing and topped by a visit to the gift shop for a souvenir, meeting the main man John-Michel, and enjoying lunch with the family. Juliet took us to another winery to see how others do it (and wine taste again) while she went to visit her grandfather. It is really sad that I dont remember the second one off the top of my head, but google image Pauillac wine and the first big castle to show up is the one we visited...pretty amazing.
Day 4 was spent just checking out the town during the daylight and doing a little shopping. Not much super exciting, just looking. The exciting part of the day was when Joel (Martins dad) came to pick us up and go out to dinner. He took us to a great place where they just put a half of a huge block of cheese on the table with a heating lamp on it to make it melt. We were given potatoes and ham, then just would put our plate under the block of cheese and just let it melt all over our ham and potatoes. It was REALLY good. We ate until it hurt wich called for an early night to bed.
Day 5 we made breakfast so they could get a taste of "typical" american food, bacon, cheese, and mushroom omlettes were on the menu. It was a good breakfast for Martins afternoon rugby game. The morning was spent digesting breakfast and planning the next couple weeks of our trip. At around 12 it was time to say bye and thanks to Jacqueline, and at 3 Joel picked us up to head to Martins Rugby game. Martin had a really good game, and we were given compliments saying we need to come and cook breakfast more often for good luck. I think the game score was something like 25-0. Directly after we went to the Bordeaux soccer stadium to watch a game. We had awsome seats and it was great weather. The section reserved for the serious Bordeaux supporters puts any college student section I ever seen to shame. They never sat down and they never stopped singing...and I give them style points for lighting up some flares during the game, they were awesome. The Keeper had a collision with the opposing teams striker (foot to head) in the first half and he was knocked out cold! The striker didnt get a red card and I was honestly concerned for officials life, I have never heard a crowd boo like that. The keeper that replaced him was only 18 and started with an amazing save! We finally got to see our first European goal in the second half, hard to find the words to explain the amount of energy that pumped into the crowd as fast as it happened. The game was soon over, final score 2-0, we stuck around and had a couple drinks in the clubhouse, watched the players exit, then headed home. We said our goodbyes and gave our thanks to Joel, then headed to bed so we could catch an early train to Barcelona. Next morning came pretty fast for everyone and Juliet gave us a ride down to the trainstation (Martin wasnt feeling very good so he stayed home...hope you feel better and Ann too!). Juliet walked us all the way into the train and showed us our seats before it was time for a long hug, some last minute pieces of advice, lots of thanks, and an open invitation to come back (preferrebly soon and in the summer haha). 10 hours later we are in Barcelona and in the warm SUN! more updates soon to come