Sailing in Greece!

Wednesday 7/6 -

Today we drove several hours to catch our overnight ferry to Greece! Upon arriving at the Port to catch our ferry, I was pleasantly surprised to find that our accommodations were much nicer than I imagined. I thought it was going to be a dodgy, (yet another word I have picked up from the Aussies) run down boat but it was more like a cruise liner. Once we left the port, we ate dinner then several of us separated into groups and some played poker while the rest of us played UNO. It was fun! Our ferry was supposed to leave at 8pm but Alan warned us that Greek time tables were usually never on time so we shouldn't expect to leave or arrive on time. We ended up leaving at 9:30pm and since we were scheduled to arrive at 6:30am we all expected to get some extra sleep (you know, because we left an hour and a half late) but boy were we surprised when we received a 4am wake up call telling us we had 40 minutes to get ready before we arrived at our destination.

7/7- 7/9

Once we disembarked in Greece we drove along the beautiful waterside for roughly 20 minutes until we arrived into a small fishing village to collect our yachts that we were to live on for the next three days. To make a long story short, it took us about 5 hours to get oriented with our new floating homes and to finally set sail. Our boat's name was Sparti! She was a nice little boat but the quarters were extremely tight. Sparti was about 12 meters long (not sure what that conversion is in feet. As a side note, everyone tells me everything in meters, kilometers, and celsius here and it is always so confusing!)



Our boat mates were assigned by grouping together people who have sailed before with those who hadn't so I ended up on a boat with people I didn't know very well. We set sail and arrived in another small fishing village that night and got some down time to hang out before our authentic Greek dinner. Amanda and I played frisbee by the beach with some of the guys before dinner and it was such a nice change of pace from the long, hectic days we had been used to. Look at some of the views from our boat!





Thursday night we had a pirate themed party and learned a few traditional Greek dances. However, because of our early start that morning most of us were in bed extremely early. Friday we set sail for a new island and spent all day on the water. We each had specific assigned jobs around the boat in order to sail. Sparti actually broke down on us Friday evening just outside of our port and we ended up having to get towed in. We thought for a bit that we were going to be stuck but our skipper, Ash, happens to be an engineer for the Australian Navy and was able to fix it! Thanks goodness for her! :)

Sailing was pretty amazing but now that it is over I can say that I am glad that I did it, it was a lot of fun, but I am happy to be back on land. Sailing is quite a bit of work and being on a boat day and night with the sun beating down on you with barely any shade or AC is a bit tough. Anyway, we arrived in _______ and it was paradise! It was everything we all expected Greece to be. It was a resort with watersides and a pool that overlooked the Ionian Sea and we spent the rest of Friday afternoon and evening soaking up the best of a small Greek town.














The resort that we had access to is where we ate dinner and spent the remainder of Friday evening. They were launching their night club and it was the grand opening so we were told we were in for a special treat. It was really fun except for the fact that Greeks don't start partying until about 1am and finish until 7am. Our boats were docked right at the bottom of the hill where the music was blasting and I wasn't able to sleep until it went off at 7am and once the sun heats up our boats any chance of sleeping is out so I had roughly 30 min to an hour of sleep last night! Oh well... I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I get home! Here's some pics from last night at the grand opening.









Today (Saturday) was our last day at sea. We were meant to have a sailing race today against each other but there was hardly any wind so we actually did not sail at all which suited me just fine because we didn't have to mess with the sails and I got to sleep on the boat! We stopped several times to play in the water and enjoy our last day on the water and it was so amazing! I've never been swimming in such clear, blue water. We were swimming where we were 60 meters from the bottom and I swear you could see straight down! We were even far enough out that I saw a Carnival cruise ship. Here are some pictures from today.









We are getting ready for dinner in a few moments and the plan is to spend the night here in port tonight and drive to Athens in the morning. It is supposed to take the majority of the day so we have to leave first thing in the morning. I never thought I would be so excited about spending an entire day on Dora! Actually, we all are! Haha! Our agenda once we arrive in Athens is to stay for one night and then we are off to Mykonos in the morning for two more days of lounging and relaxing on the beautiful beaches of Greece!

I will catch up with you all again soon! I love you!

-Lindsay

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Greek Islands

My favorite two cities so far!

I'm so excited to share with you my adventures in the last two cities we have been in (by the way, this is probably going to be a long entry because I feel like I have so much to say)!

Monday, July 4th-

The first of my two new favorite cities is a small little Italian town that we briefly visited on our way to Rome, called Orvieto. We were told that Orvieto was a quintessential Italian town where we would find Italian women walking back from the bakery with their fresh bread and pastries in the morning, Italian men sitting on the stoops outside of their shops talking and laughing, and overall just an amazing little town that is an unknown jewel to most tourists. Boyyyyyy all of that was so true! I thought I loved Pisa but Orvieto blew it out of the water. First we took the Funicolare (pronounced Finacular) which is a mix between a train and an elevator up to find this wonderful city perched atop beautiful rolling hills. Below is a side view of the Funicolare, the view on our way up, and the view from the top.









Next, we walked through the town trying to soak up as much as we could in a short period of time. For the most part, our group found the city cute but was satisfied with the hour stop that we had in Orvieto. Amanda and I both agree that we could've easily spent a few days there. We both seem to agree that we enjoy the larger cities but more often than not prefer the peaceful serenity of the smaller cities we have encountered so far.





Last, we visited a beautiful church. I have already forgotten the official name of it but it is affectionately nicknamed the zebra church. Look how stunning it is! This was our last official tour day with Andrea and Christina (the sisters from NY that Amanda and I have been living with for the past two weeks) and I am really sad to say goodbye to them. Below is a pic of the three of us on the stairs of the church.





Later in the afternoon we made our way into the capital of Italy. The beautiful, amazing, wonderful... Rome (or Roma as it is known in Italian). I took one step into the city and it was love at first sight. Seriously, Rome is spectacular! It has fountains everywhere that are hooked into 2,000 year old aqueducts that offer free flowing, pure, deliciously cold water.


It has some of the best shopping in the world, or at least so far that I've seen in Europe (and no, I didn't buy anything). Plus, the overall feel of Rome is warm and inviting and has that "Italy" feel that I have found missing from other places. Up until Pisa, Orvieto, and Rome I had been more or less disappointed in Italy. Maybe my expectations we too high to begin with but now I am pleased to say I loved Italy and am leaving on a high note!

Anyway, this afternoon Alan took us on about a 4 hour walking tour all over Rome. We saw the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the ancient Roman ruins, the Trevia fountain (not sure if that is the correct spelling but legend has it if you drop two coins into the fountain you will have safe travels back to Rome and will be lucky in love), the north wall of Hadrian's temple, and so much more. It was great to have a cities history and architecture jump out and touch me so much! I definitely want to come back to Rome one day.











All of this of course was just the first half of Monday, 7/4/2011. As I said before, there are only 6 Americans on tour so naturally we all wanted to celebrate our nation's independence but 7/4 also marked the last night on tour for 10 of our fellow tour mates so we decided to throw a bon voyage/ 4th of July party at our campsite. It was great fun! I had gotten some terrifying news earlier in the day about a family member and did not feel up to the festivities (who by the way sounds like he is doing much better thanks to God's love and will) but as I said a prayer, heard from my family, and was comforted by new and old friends, I decided to try and enjoy the night as best I could. I'm really glad I ended up joining in... we even sang "I'm proud to be an American" to all the Aussies. It was funny!


Tuesday, July 5th-

Today we were up bright and early to go into Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) to do a tour of the Vatican Museum. We paid extra to get into the museum an hour before the public and to have a local tour guide tell us all about what we were looking at. I must say, having someone passionate about art and history walk you through and explain what in the world you are looking at makes the experience ten times better! Everything we saw is stunning even if you don't know what you are looking at but you can certainly appreciate it more when someone is telling you about it. We spent about 3 hours inside the Vatican museum and St Peter's Basilica and I would venture to say it was the coolest part of my entire trip so far. The Sistine Chapel was almost breathtaking! Our tour guide went into all the specific details about the type of paint and logistics of what Michelangelo did so it only made the ceiling that much more impressive and beautiful. I took many pictures inside of the museum but the Sistine Chapel is copyrighted so photos are not allowed. In fact, you can't even talk in there! The whole experience was so neat just to be walking the halls and being inside of churches where so many Popes and famous artists have been. Here are a few photos from the museum and inside Saint Peter's Basilica.


















Amanda and I finished our afternoon by having a late lunch right outside the Pantheon. It was amazing!


Once we were finished, we grabbed some gelato (yummy Italian ice cream), hopped on the metro, and headed back to camp. Now we are back in our room preparing to leave for Greece tomorrow!!!! Yay! My long awaited adventure is finally here. We are only allowed to bring the bare minimum with us for our sailing adventure. PS- we stopped off in a local supermarket for some supplies for the next few days and sunscreen was €15 which is roughly $23! I was outraged! Anyway, we set sail the day after tomorrow and will be sailing our own yachts through the Mediterranean for three days. Needless to say, I won't have any Internet for at least the next 4 days so I will get back with you when I can.

I love you so much!

-Lindsay

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Orvieto and Rome, Italy

Under the Tuscan sun!

Saturday, July 2

On our way from Venice to Florence we made a quick pit stop in Pisa so that we could visit the famous leaning tower. Pisa was quite the quaint, cute little town. Believe it or not, it was actually the first city that measured up to my preconceived notions and felt like "Italy" to me. For this reason, I was sad we weren't able to stay longer than about 45 minutes. I wanted to stay and soak up the offerings of such a wonderful city!

The town itself is small and filled with cute, cottage type houses and alive with vibrant flowers and gardens. The local restaurants and people seemed just how I pictured an Italian town in my head so it was neat to see in real life. Of course the only reason tourists visit this little town though is to see the leaning tower of Pisa. Alan told us that engineers have been trying everything to find a way to keep the tower from leaning any further but have yet to have any luck. They actually even closed it for about 20 years or so and up until about a month and a half ago it had scaffolding everywhere as they were working on it but they just removed it so we were lucky to see it naturally. I thought it would be best to try and push it over further but the engineering of it seemed to hold up better than expected!


Once we left Pisa we made our way into Florence where we met our tour guide for the afternoon, Andrea. Alan says that the Italians are very specific about tour guides in Florence (stemming from the Mafia still being very prevalent in this city) so they do not allow non Italian tour guides to work in their city. We spent nearly two hours walking the city and seeing all the main cites. It was beautiful! I can honestly say I couldn't understand much of what Andrea was saying so I didn't learn much about Florence's history but all the statues, architecture, and the overall feel of it was stunning.








We saw the funniest mime performing on the streets and stood and watched for several minutes. I have come across so many street performers in my short time in Europe that are very talented but this guy proved to be the most amusing. He probably had a crowd of nearly 300 people watching his act.

After our tour was over we met up with Alan again at one of the local leather stores to watch a leather demonstration. They spent about 20 minutes with us showing us the proper way to distinguish real leather from fakes and informing us of all the potential ways that street dealers would try and sell tourists fake leather as real leather. I'm not sure if you know but one of the many goods Italy is known for is their high quality genuine leather. I actually found the demonstration quite interesting as well as informing...of course afterward we were offered a 10% discount in the store since we could be guaranteed they only sold genuine leather!

Sunday, July 3

Today was our free day to explore Florence. I opted not to go into the city and decided to instead stay at our campsite/resort and relax. Our campsite is nearly 30 minutes outside of Florence, deep in the Tuscan hills, and it is wonderful!!!! As I imagined, being on tour is awesome and exhausting all at the same time. I love getting to see so much in a short amount of time but I was growing a bit tired of the hustle and bustle of being a tourist (you know, being herded around like cattle), the schedules, and being around a large group of people 24/7 so I just wanted to stay behind and enjoy some me time. Let me just tell you... I had the most amazing day! I slept it until 10am (which is late compared the the 6am starts I have had everyday since the tour began), got some laundry done, went for a run, and relaxed all afternoon by the pool. Look a some if the shots of Tuscany that I got on my run!











I was already thrilled with my decision to stay behind (about 8 other people stayed as well) since I had such a wonderful day but I was even more pleased with my choice when the group returned and many people informed me that they too wished they would have stayed behind. They said the lines for every museum were anywhere between 1-3 hours long and that a lot of the local restaurants and stores were closed because it was Sunday.

I now feel COMPLETELY recharged and ready for our next adventure! Tomorrow we are off to see Rome and I'm super excited! Tomorrow is also the two week mark on my journey and the fourth of July! I hope you all have (or I should say had since I won't be able to post this until tomorrow) a wonderful 4th. I love you all and miss you all so much!

Here is the link toview pics!
https://picasaweb.google.com/118224782848888880659/PisaAndFlorence?authkey=Gv1sRgCPzZv4zJr5i8Lg

Love,

Lindsay

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Pisa and Florence, Italy

Ciao Bella!

Wed 6/30-

Today Alan surprised us with a brief stop in Verona, Italy so we could visit Juliet's balcony. On the bus to set the mood we all took turns playing our iPods and dedicating songs to loved ones, telling stories of how we met our loved ones, and filling in small cut out paper hearts to leave behind at Juliet's wall. This was really neat for me because I had seen the movie Letters to Juliet (and loved it) so I not only recognized the site from the movie but got to stand where it was filmed. Plus, on the way there we learned the whole story of how this balcony inspired Shakespeare when writing Romeo and Juliet. Thousands of people actually come to write all over the wall just outside her balcony, leave love letters, and stand at Juliet's statue (legend has it if you touch her right breast you will be lucky in love).








After leaving Verona we made our way to our campsite just outside of Venice. To celebrate Leisha's birthday (one of the girls in our tour group), we were given another surprise which was a big giant foam party! We played silly card games, jumped and played in the pool and were sprayed with foam every few minutes. It was great fun and yet again we crossed paths with two other top deck tours so we had the opportunity to mingle as a group but also meet new, fellow travelers. As you can see below, we had a blast!








Thurs 7/1-

It was quite the adventure getting to and from Venice. This city built on water requires buses, monorails, and skilled navigation to access. After what felt like a lifetime of waiting, we finally arrived into Venice. Unfortunately, at first, I felt a rush of disappointment. The city just seemed dingy, run down, and awfully smelly... But as I walked the streets and took everything in I started really appreciating how amazing it is that there is an entire city built atop water!

Our first stop in Venice was to embark on a traditional gondola ride! Yay! I couldn't wait to get there. We learned that gondolas are a dying tradition in Venice and are now almost exclusively used for tourists. Additionally, we learned gondoliers can only practice their craft if it is taught to them and passed down from their fathers. I thought this was a very interesting fact. Our gondolier was quite the quintessential "Italian stallion"! Oh, and Amanda and I got the lovers seat in the back of the gondola, haha. It was perfecto!






After the gondola ride Alan took us to a blown glass demonstration! To me, this was almost the highlight of Venice. We watched a master (this is what skilled blown glass artists are referred to) make a horse in a matter of minutes and it was truly fascinating. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there but still, for the record, it was phenomenal and I highly recommend it if you can every see it.

The true highlight of my time in Venice wasn't the art, the city, the architecture, or the gondola ride... It was our dining experience. Alan suggested that in order to truly get to know Venice, we needed to lose ourselves in the city and wander down streets away from the tourist areas. Being that we only had a few hours, we opted to skip the attractions and do just that. We stumbled across a little bistro that had a completely Italian menu, did not cater to tourists, and had the most amazing food ever! Our server was amazing. He brought us free spritzers, shrimp samplers, and gave us food suggestions. The language barrier was difficult but he spoke some English so we got by. At the end of the meal we praised his fantastic service and he relayed that this was their usual behavior as service was the absolute most important thing to him. Amanda and I got the ravioli which is what he suggested was the best thing on the menu. We were not disappointed in the least!


After our meal we walked the streets of Venice listening and absorbing the wonderful sounds of all the Italians around us. We truly got lost in the city. No seriously, it took us forever to figure out how to navigate back to where we were to meet our group. The locals actually draw arrows pointing in the wrong direction on the street signs so that you head away from the tourist attractions and towards their shops. We ended up jumping on the Vaporetto, which is the local boat transport, and rode for about 45 minutes through the city (yes, we were really far away) to our destination... enjoying all the sites of Venice along the way! All in all, it was a wonderful day.








Tomorrow morning we are off bright and early headed in Florence!

I don't have enough time to upload pics tonight but I will try and do it from our next stop. Here is the link to pics:
https://picasaweb.google.com/118224782848888880659/VeronaVenice?authkey=Gv1sRgCJGuyNydloS3wQE


Ciao!

-Lindsay

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Verona and Venice, Italy