Hey Guess What??!! We actually have photos posted for you to see!!
The link is: http://community.webshots.com/user/charjoy04
Have fun, leave some comments for us!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Goodbye to you all
Today was a day of sadness, sorrow and mourning. Not only because we all woke up feeling about 10 or 15 pounds heavier but because we now had to go home, weigh ourselves and face the facts. Oh and did we mention that this was our last day in Europe? It started at 6 a.m. The train station was across from our hotel and we walked over, lugging our bags one last time. For this, we were rejoicing. We caught the ½ hour train ride to the airport and once there, grabbed one last cappuccino and croissant. Amanda’s flight was leaving about an hour before ours so we said a tearful goodbye (just kidding about the tearful part), took a last group photo and waved until we couldn’t see her anymore. We tried to document the breaking off of Amanda but were sternly forbidden by a security officer. So we can’t show you a picture of her leaving. Actually we can’t show you any pictures. But I guess you’ve figured that out by now. Our flight was 40 minutes late leaving and by this time we had been at the airport for 4 hours and were more than ready to leave so we could…..sit for 11 hours in the plane!!!! YAY!!!!! The flight back was with United, rather than Lufthansa and although we were not as fond of it, we still got heated baby wipes. LeAnne was ecstatic. After an exhausting ride with little sleep we were unable to land in Washington D.C. on schedule and had to circle the airport for more than an hour due to snow on the runway. By the time we were allowed to get off the plane it was 4:30 and we had exactly 7 minutes to catch our connection to LA. But first we were required to claim our bags, stand in the customs line, and recheck our bags. Needless to say, we did not make our connection. Now what? The airport was packed with a crazy mess of people whose flights had been canceled or delayed because of the weather. We wondered if Washington D.C should have been in our itinerary as it looked like we would be staying for a few days. We asked a United ticket agent what we should do and she told us the gate number of the next plane to LA. We rushed halfway across the airport and found them already boarding. Thankfully, we were able to get on standby and saw a few of our fellow Rome airplane buddies as well. Since they were already boarding we figured we didn’t have time for a much needed Starbucks. Unfortunately, once we got on, it didn’t leave for another hour and a half as they had to de-ice the plane and clear the runway again. BUT….. We learned some exciting news!!! A stewardess kindly came up to Char and Nat and shared some interesting information. A certain Mr. Ben Affleck was on our flight!!!!!!!!!! He was in first class though, so we planned and plotted ways to get up there. But there were no empty seats next to him and we were strictly forbidden to use the restrooms up there so we never caught a glimpse. We got into LA and met Grandpa and Grandma Weaver who showered us with delicious food and had kindly brought Char’s car so we could go straight to Natalie’s house. Thank you G’pa and G’ma Weaver!!!!!!!!!! It took 1 ½ to get to Nat’s house where her mom and sis had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for us. After all the talking and catching up we finally crashed after being awake for more than 30 hours.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. We couldn’t have done it without you and appreciate it more than you realize. We also enjoyed reading your comments to us and are glad you liked the blogs.
To all the wonderful people who we stayed with: Escuain Family, Debu Family, Pauline Newbold: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! The times with you were some of the highlights of our trip.
Hopefully by Wednesday the photos will be online for your veiwing pleasure. Please check back for the link.
Farewell, dear fans. It has been a pleasure.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. We couldn’t have done it without you and appreciate it more than you realize. We also enjoyed reading your comments to us and are glad you liked the blogs.
To all the wonderful people who we stayed with: Escuain Family, Debu Family, Pauline Newbold: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! The times with you were some of the highlights of our trip.
Hopefully by Wednesday the photos will be online for your veiwing pleasure. Please check back for the link.
Farewell, dear fans. It has been a pleasure.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
When in Rome...
Wednesday, January 16th
We woke up early again this morning. I'm getting really tired of this early stuff, I'll tell you. This is supposed to be a holiday!! That means sleeping in. Not getting up at 6 am to make a 7 am water bus ride. But we didn't want to miss our ride so we snuck some breakfast from the breakfast bar that didn't open for another hour and a half and headed out, through the pigeonless St. Mark's Square! This isn't fair, even the pigeons get to sleep in. There is something seriously wrong with the world. We made it to the station nice and early and even had time to grab a cappuccino. As I'm sure you all realize now, this means standing at a counter and having it served to you in a cute china cup. None of this fast food "take away" coffee, we uncooth Americans are so in love with. And let me tell you, this coffee is amazing. Take every opportunity to try it.
Our train ride was about 4 1/2 hours long so LeAnne used the time to order another cappuccino in the dining car. When we got off the train it actually took us about 5 minutes to get to our Hotel!! Imagine!! When we got there, the lady kind of gave us a flashback of our hostel in Madrid but ended up being fairly nice. We dropped everything and ran out to see Rome. First stop: Colosseum!! To get there we had to take the metro which is the worst one yet. Everything here is dirty and covered with graffiti. There are only 2 metro lines which doesn't even begin to cover the city and they are jammed with people. Thankfully the Colosseum is right off of one of the few stops. We took lots of photos and goofed off by jumping off the stairs and laughing at Amanda trying to teach Nat how to do a cartwheel. I think by this time we are a little sight-seeing weary but it was still pretty cool. We were too late to go in and it would cost 11 EUR anyway so we decided to move on. The Sistine Chapel was on our list but since no one wanted to spend money to get inside, we realized there was no point in going. Instead, we shopped along the streets picking up last minute gifts and dodging raindrops. After a bit it really started to pour but we were so close to the Fontona di Trevi (I hope I spelled that right) that we kept going. It was well worth it. I don't know much about the history of it but legend has it that if you toss a coin into it, it will guarentee your return to Rome. So we faithfully tossed our last pennies in (*sniff*) and dared each other to jump in. The fountain is absolutely beautiful with a large pool and lots of statues, etc. among the waterfalls. Since Amanda's and LeAnne's boots were totally soaked and each step they took felt pretty squishy, we headed back to get dry before finding some dinner. There's a cute little cafe across the street from our hotel that we decided to try out. We thought we were getting pretty European savvy so when the bread came out we told the waiter that we didn't want it. He informed us that we could either take the bread or be charged a cover charge that would equal the price of bread. What a rip off!! We took the bread and made up for it by asking for butter and then oil and vinegar to dip it in. Our food was delicious and we had our last cappucino and then headed out to this internet cafe where we sit posting our life story for you all to enjoy. We're freezing cold when we could be home in our hotel and all cozy and warm in our pajamas. Hope we at least get some comments for all our efforts.
We woke up early again this morning. I'm getting really tired of this early stuff, I'll tell you. This is supposed to be a holiday!! That means sleeping in. Not getting up at 6 am to make a 7 am water bus ride. But we didn't want to miss our ride so we snuck some breakfast from the breakfast bar that didn't open for another hour and a half and headed out, through the pigeonless St. Mark's Square! This isn't fair, even the pigeons get to sleep in. There is something seriously wrong with the world. We made it to the station nice and early and even had time to grab a cappuccino. As I'm sure you all realize now, this means standing at a counter and having it served to you in a cute china cup. None of this fast food "take away" coffee, we uncooth Americans are so in love with. And let me tell you, this coffee is amazing. Take every opportunity to try it.
Our train ride was about 4 1/2 hours long so LeAnne used the time to order another cappuccino in the dining car. When we got off the train it actually took us about 5 minutes to get to our Hotel!! Imagine!! When we got there, the lady kind of gave us a flashback of our hostel in Madrid but ended up being fairly nice. We dropped everything and ran out to see Rome. First stop: Colosseum!! To get there we had to take the metro which is the worst one yet. Everything here is dirty and covered with graffiti. There are only 2 metro lines which doesn't even begin to cover the city and they are jammed with people. Thankfully the Colosseum is right off of one of the few stops. We took lots of photos and goofed off by jumping off the stairs and laughing at Amanda trying to teach Nat how to do a cartwheel. I think by this time we are a little sight-seeing weary but it was still pretty cool. We were too late to go in and it would cost 11 EUR anyway so we decided to move on. The Sistine Chapel was on our list but since no one wanted to spend money to get inside, we realized there was no point in going. Instead, we shopped along the streets picking up last minute gifts and dodging raindrops. After a bit it really started to pour but we were so close to the Fontona di Trevi (I hope I spelled that right) that we kept going. It was well worth it. I don't know much about the history of it but legend has it that if you toss a coin into it, it will guarentee your return to Rome. So we faithfully tossed our last pennies in (*sniff*) and dared each other to jump in. The fountain is absolutely beautiful with a large pool and lots of statues, etc. among the waterfalls. Since Amanda's and LeAnne's boots were totally soaked and each step they took felt pretty squishy, we headed back to get dry before finding some dinner. There's a cute little cafe across the street from our hotel that we decided to try out. We thought we were getting pretty European savvy so when the bread came out we told the waiter that we didn't want it. He informed us that we could either take the bread or be charged a cover charge that would equal the price of bread. What a rip off!! We took the bread and made up for it by asking for butter and then oil and vinegar to dip it in. Our food was delicious and we had our last cappucino and then headed out to this internet cafe where we sit posting our life story for you all to enjoy. We're freezing cold when we could be home in our hotel and all cozy and warm in our pajamas. Hope we at least get some comments for all our efforts.
Venice!!!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
This will just be a quick blog to fill you in on Venice!! It was FABULOUS!! Imagine a whole city on top of water; instead of sidewalks you have little waterways to navigate a canoe thru!! Our train left at 9:05 and everyone hated Char for turning on the light and making them get up. Seriously people! This is not Greece! We only have one day to see Venice and do not want to miss this train!!! So after some free vending machine type muffins and powdered coffee to go from the Hotel (hey at least it was free, which is becoming more and more important!!) We snored our way to Venice. Once there, we got to take a waterbus to St. Mark's Square where our Hotel was!! AHHHHHH this is sooooooooo cool!!!! Imagine taking a waterbus everywhere????!!! The Italian man who had the prestigious job of tying and untying the rope to the pier at every stop was quite taken with LeAnne who smiled and nodded at everything he said. Poor guy, he was pretty sad we weren't staying longer. St. Mark's Square is famous for all the pigeons it attracts (and also all the pigeon waste they bring with them) so after we clawed our way thru the birds and asked for directions several times, we found our cute little hotel up a bunch of stairs with no elevator. Poor Nat with the suitcase. So we deposited our stuff and took a vote to get food since we were all hungry and grumpy. On the way, LeAnne tried to buy an Italian sweatshirt at a little stand and asked if they took credit cards since she hadn't had a chance to get more cash out. She also tried to wrangle a deal out of him (5 EUR less) and was informed that he knew of another store that would give her a discount, but NOT him!! After asking where she was from, he gave her this pearl of wisdom, '' Venice is not like Canada. In Venice, if you do not have money you do not buy. In Canada, if you do not have money, you buy anyway. Not good.'' He clearly did not want her business so we moved on. His loss!! We had asked the hotel owner if he could recommend a good spot and he had given us a brochure that advertised every kind of food you could want plus 10% off if you showed them the brochure. As soon as we entered, we could tell we didn't want to be there. Tacky paper party decor covered the ceilings and the menu looked expensive. We sat down anyway and each ordered one of the cheaper things on the menu, a pizza. Nat decided she wanted some more gnocchi like we'd had the last night so she asked for that. When we got the bill, it was more than our hotel bill!!! It included a ''cover charge'' (what in the world is that???!!), a big tip that we were required to pay and a 5 EUR charge for each coke. Everyone was pretty disgruntled, especially since we had passed by so many cute little cafes. Yet ANOTHER rip off to the poor little American and Canadian girls!! We shopped for quite awhile; almost every shop is a glass shop. Their hand made Murano glass is very well known and popular so if any of you receive it as gifts, just a hint: be sure to ooh and ahh alot. :) We finished off the night with gelato and coffee by the water before heading back to the hotel. We are truly in love with Venice.
This will just be a quick blog to fill you in on Venice!! It was FABULOUS!! Imagine a whole city on top of water; instead of sidewalks you have little waterways to navigate a canoe thru!! Our train left at 9:05 and everyone hated Char for turning on the light and making them get up. Seriously people! This is not Greece! We only have one day to see Venice and do not want to miss this train!!! So after some free vending machine type muffins and powdered coffee to go from the Hotel (hey at least it was free, which is becoming more and more important!!) We snored our way to Venice. Once there, we got to take a waterbus to St. Mark's Square where our Hotel was!! AHHHHHH this is sooooooooo cool!!!! Imagine taking a waterbus everywhere????!!! The Italian man who had the prestigious job of tying and untying the rope to the pier at every stop was quite taken with LeAnne who smiled and nodded at everything he said. Poor guy, he was pretty sad we weren't staying longer. St. Mark's Square is famous for all the pigeons it attracts (and also all the pigeon waste they bring with them) so after we clawed our way thru the birds and asked for directions several times, we found our cute little hotel up a bunch of stairs with no elevator. Poor Nat with the suitcase. So we deposited our stuff and took a vote to get food since we were all hungry and grumpy. On the way, LeAnne tried to buy an Italian sweatshirt at a little stand and asked if they took credit cards since she hadn't had a chance to get more cash out. She also tried to wrangle a deal out of him (5 EUR less) and was informed that he knew of another store that would give her a discount, but NOT him!! After asking where she was from, he gave her this pearl of wisdom, '' Venice is not like Canada. In Venice, if you do not have money you do not buy. In Canada, if you do not have money, you buy anyway. Not good.'' He clearly did not want her business so we moved on. His loss!! We had asked the hotel owner if he could recommend a good spot and he had given us a brochure that advertised every kind of food you could want plus 10% off if you showed them the brochure. As soon as we entered, we could tell we didn't want to be there. Tacky paper party decor covered the ceilings and the menu looked expensive. We sat down anyway and each ordered one of the cheaper things on the menu, a pizza. Nat decided she wanted some more gnocchi like we'd had the last night so she asked for that. When we got the bill, it was more than our hotel bill!!! It included a ''cover charge'' (what in the world is that???!!), a big tip that we were required to pay and a 5 EUR charge for each coke. Everyone was pretty disgruntled, especially since we had passed by so many cute little cafes. Yet ANOTHER rip off to the poor little American and Canadian girls!! We shopped for quite awhile; almost every shop is a glass shop. Their hand made Murano glass is very well known and popular so if any of you receive it as gifts, just a hint: be sure to ooh and ahh alot. :) We finished off the night with gelato and coffee by the water before heading back to the hotel. We are truly in love with Venice.
Leaving Athens and on to Milan!!!!!
Monday, January 14th
We woke up to horrible pouring rain on our final day in Athens. Torrential downpours, with cats and dogs and easily just as wet as any Pacific Northwestern city. So we agreed to catch a cab to the metro station. We're only about a 10 minute walk away but that's more than enough time to make us miserably wet for the rest of the day. Once that was settled and the water mopped off up from the window that was left partially open, we polished off the last of the chocolate covered Belgian waffles that we were saving to take home. Sorry folks! They were delicious and so was the coffee that LeAnne made that no one appreciated. As we were getting ready to leave, the rain suddenly stopped! We were very thankful to be able to save a couple of euros so we took off for the metro station on foot. In Athens, you need to have a special ticket to go to and from the airport because for some reason the regular metro day pass isn't good enough. We only found this out the day before by reading the ultra-fine print on the windows of our metro. This was good because otherwise if you get caught you will have to pay a huge fine, or in our case since we don't have the money, be stranded in a Greek jail. Ha just kidding. But not about the fine part. Some poor Chinese girl didn't realize this apparently and got slapped with a big fin. We were sitting pretty close to her and could hear her pleading with the train guy to give her a break. She was an exchange student from Austria and had all her luggage stolen in Barcelona, including passport and money. She had about 15 euros left in her hand and was just trying to make it back. Unfortunately the train guy didn't give her a break. We felt sorry for her because this could easily have happened to any one of us. Barcelona is not a great place to be in terms of pickpocketing. Several of us had noticed zippers open on our bags after riding in metros and a couple of us had even felt hands in our pockets or purses. This is also where we think Natalie's wallet was lost/stolen. Amanda gave the Chinese girl a bit of cash and we all promised to pray for her on her trip back to Austria, that she would be able to get back into the country without her passport etc. We made it to the train station without any difficulties and spotted a Greek McDonalds! Natalie went for the Greek salad and the rest of us indulged in Big Macs and fries. There is a reason one of us is skinny. Amazingly enough, all our luggage was within the weight limits this time. We were over by a couple of kilos on our previous flight but the check in person had kindly given us a break. Our flight was pretty uneventful. Amanda stole the seat next to the cute guy and Char had to sit by the old man but that was the extent of it.
Once we arrived in Milan, we had to take a 45 minute bus ride from the airport to the central train station. Apparently our hoel was about 300 metres from the station, according to our ever trusty directions. We unfortunately left our tape measures and compasses at home. After walking about 1000 metres, we realized that we were pretty much going in a circle. So we asked directions from a Chinese guy who pretended he couldn't speak English, from an Italian who pretended we weren't even talking and from a store owner who spoke English and gave us very helpful instructions. "Go either right or left, and that's where it is." Why thank you! How come we didn't figure that out?? Finally someone gave us proper directions which confirmed that we were already on the righ track. This was good since it was dark, still pouring rain and we were carrying big backpacks weighing well over 50 lbs each as well as a couple of smaller carry on bags. Not that we were having any problems with the weight. TAKE THAT, certain persons wo shall remain nameless, that think girls can't carry that much! In the words of Natalie, Boom Yakka Shah! We found our hotel about 2 minutes later. It was called simply, The Best. It was pretty good and they recommended a great Italian restaurant down the street. The desk clerk even called ahead for us and the maitre'd was waiting on the street for our arrival! No red carpet, sorry, but everything else was pretty fabulous! We had a dashing Italian waiter, who was a major flirt. Did we mention that he was 50 and slightly balding? He piled food onto our table, stuff that we didn't order and we only hoped the bill wasn't going to have any crazy surprises for us. He got a little grossed out by Amanda's request for fetticine wih grilled chicken and white sauce. Evidently they have some Jewish background an mixing milk with meat is not a good thing. Ha actually we don't know. We all ordered different things and split them. We had Chicken Fetticine, Spaghetti with meat sauce, Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella and Gnocci with blue cheese. Dessert included fresh apricot tart, fruit and cream cups and white chocolate mousse cream puffs. He even gave us a couple for free! Our waiter has the same phone as Amanda and wanted her to bluetooth her ringtone to him. She couldn't figure it out in Italian but managed to set his background as our photo! As we asked for our bill, he brought us even more food! Some Italian fried puff pastry that was very good. We all agreed that this was probably the best meal of our trip and definitely one we had been looking forward to for a long time. So we went back to the hotel and rested our very full bellies.
Char and LeAnne
We woke up to horrible pouring rain on our final day in Athens. Torrential downpours, with cats and dogs and easily just as wet as any Pacific Northwestern city. So we agreed to catch a cab to the metro station. We're only about a 10 minute walk away but that's more than enough time to make us miserably wet for the rest of the day. Once that was settled and the water mopped off up from the window that was left partially open, we polished off the last of the chocolate covered Belgian waffles that we were saving to take home. Sorry folks! They were delicious and so was the coffee that LeAnne made that no one appreciated. As we were getting ready to leave, the rain suddenly stopped! We were very thankful to be able to save a couple of euros so we took off for the metro station on foot. In Athens, you need to have a special ticket to go to and from the airport because for some reason the regular metro day pass isn't good enough. We only found this out the day before by reading the ultra-fine print on the windows of our metro. This was good because otherwise if you get caught you will have to pay a huge fine, or in our case since we don't have the money, be stranded in a Greek jail. Ha just kidding. But not about the fine part. Some poor Chinese girl didn't realize this apparently and got slapped with a big fin. We were sitting pretty close to her and could hear her pleading with the train guy to give her a break. She was an exchange student from Austria and had all her luggage stolen in Barcelona, including passport and money. She had about 15 euros left in her hand and was just trying to make it back. Unfortunately the train guy didn't give her a break. We felt sorry for her because this could easily have happened to any one of us. Barcelona is not a great place to be in terms of pickpocketing. Several of us had noticed zippers open on our bags after riding in metros and a couple of us had even felt hands in our pockets or purses. This is also where we think Natalie's wallet was lost/stolen. Amanda gave the Chinese girl a bit of cash and we all promised to pray for her on her trip back to Austria, that she would be able to get back into the country without her passport etc. We made it to the train station without any difficulties and spotted a Greek McDonalds! Natalie went for the Greek salad and the rest of us indulged in Big Macs and fries. There is a reason one of us is skinny. Amazingly enough, all our luggage was within the weight limits this time. We were over by a couple of kilos on our previous flight but the check in person had kindly given us a break. Our flight was pretty uneventful. Amanda stole the seat next to the cute guy and Char had to sit by the old man but that was the extent of it.
Once we arrived in Milan, we had to take a 45 minute bus ride from the airport to the central train station. Apparently our hoel was about 300 metres from the station, according to our ever trusty directions. We unfortunately left our tape measures and compasses at home. After walking about 1000 metres, we realized that we were pretty much going in a circle. So we asked directions from a Chinese guy who pretended he couldn't speak English, from an Italian who pretended we weren't even talking and from a store owner who spoke English and gave us very helpful instructions. "Go either right or left, and that's where it is." Why thank you! How come we didn't figure that out?? Finally someone gave us proper directions which confirmed that we were already on the righ track. This was good since it was dark, still pouring rain and we were carrying big backpacks weighing well over 50 lbs each as well as a couple of smaller carry on bags. Not that we were having any problems with the weight. TAKE THAT, certain persons wo shall remain nameless, that think girls can't carry that much! In the words of Natalie, Boom Yakka Shah! We found our hotel about 2 minutes later. It was called simply, The Best. It was pretty good and they recommended a great Italian restaurant down the street. The desk clerk even called ahead for us and the maitre'd was waiting on the street for our arrival! No red carpet, sorry, but everything else was pretty fabulous! We had a dashing Italian waiter, who was a major flirt. Did we mention that he was 50 and slightly balding? He piled food onto our table, stuff that we didn't order and we only hoped the bill wasn't going to have any crazy surprises for us. He got a little grossed out by Amanda's request for fetticine wih grilled chicken and white sauce. Evidently they have some Jewish background an mixing milk with meat is not a good thing. Ha actually we don't know. We all ordered different things and split them. We had Chicken Fetticine, Spaghetti with meat sauce, Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella and Gnocci with blue cheese. Dessert included fresh apricot tart, fruit and cream cups and white chocolate mousse cream puffs. He even gave us a couple for free! Our waiter has the same phone as Amanda and wanted her to bluetooth her ringtone to him. She couldn't figure it out in Italian but managed to set his background as our photo! As we asked for our bill, he brought us even more food! Some Italian fried puff pastry that was very good. We all agreed that this was probably the best meal of our trip and definitely one we had been looking forward to for a long time. So we went back to the hotel and rested our very full bellies.
Char and LeAnne
Sunday, January 13, 2008
We promised each other that today we would actually get up at a good time so we could see some of the sights...but that didn't exactly happen. We felt bad that we were missing meeting so we decided to hit Mars Hill where Paul preached to the Athenians. LeAnne and Char pulled out the Bible once they had climbed to the top of the rock and read Paul’s speech in Acts 17 out loud to Nat and Amanda (and any men of Athens nearby). We drew lots of weird stares but that could be cause we are loud Americans. Mars Hill is actually the rock Areopagos that looks over the Agora. The Agora is an ancient marketplace that was the heart of the city for 1,200 years, founded in the 6th century BC. This is where Socrates addressed his public, where democracy was born and where Paul preached, as mentioned earlier. We also visited the GIANT flea market in the area that is more like a sidewalk sale. We saw Gucci bags and Louis Vuitton belts…all for the low, low price of $20!!!!! Must not be real???!! We got a chance to see the Acropolis and Parthenon up close today as well as our first Greek Starbucks. (We never fail to find them). The ruins are AMAZING, huge and lots of solid marble everywhere. Some of the ruins are being taken down to be restored and built up again because of the erosion. There was also a giant amphitheatre in the area. We noticed an exceeding amount of bright blue sweatshirts from Land’s End…AMERICANS!!! But we were good girls and didn’t talk to any strangers, although Amanda did get pretty excited when she saw a Denver Bronco’s jacket later on that day. The top of the Acropolis has fabulous views and we were dying to get a glimpse of the little village again. Those Greek postcards you see?? They really are true!! The village of white houses is just too cute. We ordered take out gyros for lunch for only 1.70 EUR and went on our way to see…THE BEACH!! After all, this is what Greece is really about. So, confident in our map reading skills, we stepped onto the train to take the last stop which we were sure took us to the coast. Well, it did, sort of. If you happen to like looking at container ships, this is the place for you. It was the town Piraeus, the major port city and nowhere near the cute little beaches in the postcards. We had been advised earlier to take a tram from Piraeus so we asked for directions, got lost, came back, asked for directions again, didn’t believe the person knew what they were talking about, asked for more directions, got on the tram again and found ourselves heading back to the city after riding along the coast for just a short while. We were on a whole different tramline that wasn’t even on the map. Since it was already getting dark and we had wasted so much time looking already, we just took it all the way back to the flea market stop which had now turned into a ghost town. We had dinner at a place that specialized in live Greek music. Too bad they didn’t specialize in good food. There was just one other group there, guess we should have taken the hint. Always eat where the locals eat, even if it’s noisy!!! During dinner, the kitchen flooded into the dining room and soaked LeAnne’s coat. They tried to serve us bread and butter but we refused to eat it cause we had found out the night before that they charge you 1.50 EUR each for the bread if you touch it, even though you may never have asked for it!! So that got sent back. We then wandered all over town looking for an Internet café and finally got directed to one that was actually open. YAY!!!
Char and LeAnne
Char and LeAnne
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Athens: Day 2
Today was a no alarm day. We slept in until one in the afternoon. We went to check out the Acropolis but it was closing so the lady told us to come back tomorrow and it would be free! Great idea, we're pretty much all about free stuff at this point. So we decided to explore the area a little bit and this is where we found true Greek housing! It is beautiful and so quaint. The little village clinging to the side of the Acropolis is called Anafiotika and is considered Athens’s loveliest and quirkiest neighborhood. Its created island style, filled with various dome-topped blue and white houses in a maze of tiny passage ways. We had a blast exploring the place and of course took lots of photos. We then meandered down some of the nearby streets of Plaka, stopping in at various tourist shops for many souvenirs. It was then that we discovered a cute little candle-lit restaurant. We decided we'd love to have dinner there and ended up being the only ones in the entire place because most Greek people eat later. Because of this, our waiter was very attentive. He pretty much watch us the entire time from a corner of the room which was a little disturbing at first until we realized he was trying to time the courses properly. He wouldn't bring our salads until we finished our bread and then didn't bring the main course until we were done with the salad. Everything was delicious and we shared a lamb-and-potato dish as well as some penne pasta, greek salad and bread with oil and olives.
Char
Char
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