Greek gods and carpet salesmen

So much happens in a few days, then I sit down to write about it so my mother can relax and I feel like I end up writing a book and boring everyone. Then again, no one is making you read this, so *shrugs*. So we arrived in Athens on the 26th, beautiful bright skies, old ruins in the middle of a curious city, street markets, pushy salesmen, soulvaki. We arrived at the airport, took the subway to a random stop, and happened to end up in a street market area. I bought a sarong because "they can do everything." Sarongs make great skirts, dresses, pants, scarves, bags, towels, blankets... ya get the point. And all this for bout 10 dollars US. Anyways, after food and a bit of wandering, we made our way to the hostel and spent the evening recuperating and figuring out the next few steps. The next day we visited most of the ruins in the city, including the acropolis that was right next to our hostel, Hadrian's library, and Zeus's Temple. There were a couple of really neat statues in the Ancient Agora, men/mermen with tree/snake designs on the base. And these dated to before Christianity in Greece. The sight from the top of the hill was almost as phenomenal as the ruins themselves. Tuesday after making plans to head to Turkey at midnight that night, we took a day tour to Sounion, the site of the Temple of Poseidon. The view of the ocean was one of the best I've ever had the luck to witness. I enjoy taking candid pictures of people I don't know, just interesting shots. So here's one of my favorites. I love the silhouette in this pic, the posture, the view... We returned to Athens and caught the train to Istanbul at midnight. Not nearly as nice or fast as the high speed trains in France, but not nearly as pricey either. I figure that's a fair trade off, specially since I'm on a budget here. The ride is supposed to take bout 20 hours.

Well, 36 hours later we arrive in Istanbul. We spent 16 hours on a train, just to get to the border station 2 hours late for our connecting train. They only have 2 trains a day through there, so we had to wait about 9 ours for our next one. So from 5pM til 3AM, we got to sit in an empty train station in the middle of no where. I'm not kidding here, i thought Bozeman was the middle of nowhere (least after six years), and definitely though Sunburst and especially Kevin was the middle of no where... no, i was wrong. This was a train station, and a police station. That's it. Couple other run-down falling-apart buildings, a telephone, not even a drinking fountain. We had a couple books all of which I've already read, and my computer, but no internet and no movies or anything to watch. We did have company though, we couldn't get a size comparison here, because when we set a coin down next to him he wandered off, but trust me when i say this thing, leg span included was bout the size of the palm of my hand. Poor Joey was going nuts over this thing, i thought he was friendly. Anyways. Train finally arrives, and they take our passports, tell us to get on the train, but don't give them back right away. That had us spooked. I guess they were filling out paperwork with them, but I don't like it being out of my sight. But all was well and I feel asleep with my first good view of the stars in weeks as we rolled past the border (damn city lights).

We arrived in Istanbul, found the hostel and headed straight out to see the sights since Joey was on his last 24 hours of his trip. We paid the 10E fee to see the inside of the Aya Sofia, an old church that was renovated to a mosque in the 1600s (i think.. don't quote me on the dates). It was interesting, you could even see where they had painted over crosses on the ceiling with geometric designs. And the whole place was beautiful in its simplicity of design. At first glance it seems like so much, but in reality its all simple patterns, symmetrical designs... Much of the walls were decorated by taking large pieces of stone (granite?) and splitting it, then putting the two halves side by side so the grains in the stone were symmetrical (think wood grain on doors). Across the courtyard from the Aya Sofia is the Blue Mosque. The Aya Sofia has become a museum, so while beautiful, it's lost some of its... hmm the only word i can think of isn't even English, and I've never heard it used this way but some of you will get it. Zanchen. A term i picked up from Aikido, meaning a sort of presence. The mosque, however, had prayer music playing, you were asked to remove your shoes and cover your hair (women for the hair), and it was very real. I'm not really religious, but I have great respect for it, and I was awed by the interior of the mosque. I didn't take any pictures of the interior, but here's a night shot.

So one last comment before I do something productive (some Arabic practice perhaps?). I also was offered a job helping a local businessman swindle tourists out of their money in exchange for carpets. I was very tempted, considering not only the money but how fun it would be to be able to say I'd sold Turkish carpets for a living. However, I'm turning down the offer, not only because I don't plan to stay in Turkey very long, but also because the gentlemen in question
is about the sleaziest man I think I've ever met. Oh well, still a story. I'm changing hostels tomorrow, going to spend some time in another part of Istanbul, and figure things out more from there. With the recent events in Syria, my plans may be changing a bit, or rather they already have since I was planning to leave for Syria by tomorrow or the next day, and that isn't looking reasonable.

Hope no one fell asleep reading this. I'll try to write more often and shorter. <3 all

All road lead to Rome... then Naples... then Athens...

Well sort of. I guess we flew to Athens, so that doesn't quite count as roads, but you could get here by road... just takes a long time. We took a train from Avignon to Toulon, then a ferry to Civitavicchi, and a bus to Rome. We only had a day in Rome, and pretty much just got to see the Coliseum and have a real Italian dinner (Manicotti of course, which by the way is not actually available in Italy, but a very similar dish called Cannelloni is... found that out after bypassing like 10 restaurants.) I've got pictures, but again, can't get my own computer online to upload them. Naples (Napoli) was interesting, dirty, but the hostel was great. The biggest annoyance with that town was that on the train, there was so much graffiti that you couldn't see what stop you were at because it had literally been painted over. But Pompeii was interesting... wandering a dead city. They actually have a few of the bodies on display, bones covered in ash. Almost surreal. And yes, danny, it did make me feel even more like Bones to be looking at them.

We flew from Napoli to Athens this morning, was nice and simple. From what I've seen, airport security is nothing here; amazing what happens when you don't set out to make half the world despise you as a country. The flight was short, and not as expensive as it could have been. Even found English books in the airport (going nuts for reading material at the moment), but they wanted 12E for paperbacks... not even quality prints. There's supposed to be some English bookstores here, checking that out tomorrow. Well, thats bout it. I'll post pictures soon.

Decadence and distance

Five countries and twelve cities, chocolate covered waffles, good 4 Euro/bottle wine, lots of cheese, and amazing ice cream. Decadence and distance. I'm currently in Avignon, southern France. We've spent the last couple days here, mostly just relaxing. I met up with a research contact yesterday for a few hours, but other than that, just walking, shopping (well looking at least), and enjoying a really neat little town. Little by comparison to Paris at least. Well I should probably backtrack since I haven't posted in a while.

We did leave London on the 15th, overnight bus by ferry across the channel. We arrived in Amsterdam on the 16th, found a hostel, and wandered alot that day. Spent the entire next day wandering the city, its beautiful, and admiring the million bikes. None of them are too nice in and of themselves, but there are so many of them, it was nice for a change. I also bought a coat, paid about $70 for it, but its nice, warm, lots of pockets, long. The zipper isn't so good, but it has buttons too, so yes mom, I'm warm enough. Hostels were expensive the next night, because it was friday, and we were leaving on a 7 AM bus to Paris anyway, so we wandered the city all night. Unlike Galway, it was a bit more late night friendly, we drank tea in a little diner, had ice cream in a main square around midnight, sat in a Burger King for a few hours, and found a place selling waffles covered in chocolate, and various other wonderful sugary treats.

Bus the next day took us to Paris (the 18th) and we made our way to the hostel we'd reserved, Friends Hostel. When we arrived we were told they'd had a shower broken and the room had flooded and they hadn't gotten around to notifying us. So we were sent back across town to a place he had called ahead to, asked if it would cost more, he said "its a hostel." It was almost double the cost, 16E vs 28E, but the 28 was worth it. It didn't have a kitchen we could use, or internet, and not the most comfortable beds, but it was about 3 blocks from the Louvre. When we went back to Friends Hostel the next night for the second night we'd reserved there, we had to argue with the receptionist just to get the beds at the price we'd reserved, and couldn't get our deposit back for the lost night. Service was horrible at that place, though arguing with that jackass was kinda fun. I just kept telling him I'd pay 28E and no more. Eventually he wrote up the reciept and that was that. Eiffle Tower was amazing; we went up at night, beautiful view. They had it lit up blue, and on the hour it flashes with white lights. Notre Dame was beautiful as well, lots of stained glass, and unlike many places we've gone they didn't charge for entry to the cathedral.

We found out, the hard way, that getting out of Paris is a pain. There is no useful bus system in France, trains are expensive. We ended up taking the train from Paris to Avignon for about $105 each. Granted, it made the 450 mile trip take only 3 hours, but still a good chunk of change. We bought tickets for 6AM, and spent the night prior to leaving without a hostel again in Paris. Laid out my tarp on the grass of the Louvre and relaxed there a bit, dozed. Wandered the city some more, but not much was open, and what was open late (like 3 AM) was expensive restaurants. We went back to the Louvre and slept on the steps out of the wind for a couple hours then caught our train to Avignon.

Avignon, back to present day, is wonderful. The majority of the city is surrounded by a 700 year old city wall that dates back to the Paupacy being housed here in the Popes Palace, which is still standing and is apparently a bit of a tourist attraction. I think the city is about the size of Bozeman, makes me feel a bit at home. I really like this town. Small streets, lots of shops, with decent prices for a change, though there's nothing I really need to buy here. However, the french don't apparently know the concept of deli meat or peanut butter, which makes non-cooking meals from the store hard. We actually ate lunch at McDonalds today, but European fast food chains are actually fairly healthy, and taste like real food.

I'm still waiting on the package my sister sent to London, it hasn't arrived there yet, but when it does they have agreed to mail it on for me. Thankfully there was nothing there I absolutely needed for this part of the trip, the main thing is the water sterilizer pen, which I couldn't get here, and want for the later part of my travels when I'm not in modern cities as much. Getting water here is easy, tap water has been drinkable. I have been stuck wearing the same pair of pants and leggings for almost three weeks now, but I'll live. They got washed once... o.0 The rest I've just been washing in the sink as I go.

We are planning on heading to Italy tomorrow, though I'm still trying to figure out how exactly. It appears that traveling by train is the only reasonable option around here but expensive, that or ferry, but the ferry is like three towns away and we can't figure out how to get there, with no bus system and the trains don't run short trips like that. We are planning to be in Istanbul, Turkey, by the 29th, thats the plan. Staying at "Istanbul Hostel" there for a couple days, then Joey head back home to Boston on the 31st from there, and the real part of my trip starts. Well, I should get back to trying to do some work, still have papers to get published from my old job, and I need to take advantage of the internet while I have it. Wasn't expecting it to be so rare. The hostel in Turkey has internet, so worst case, thats the next time I'll be online much. I'll post pictures soon, haven't looked through them much yet, but I have tons. And we haven't even downloaded Joey's yet. Or the ones from the little point and shoot I found on the floor after the concert in Boston, but we don't have an adapter for that one. Takes good pictures though considering it got pretty stomped. Ok, back to work. :) Paz.

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time....

Dublin --> Kilkenny --> Cork --> Galway.

So we left Dublin on the bus for Kilkenny, arrived around 3PM. Wandered the town a while looking for a hostel, since we hadn't booked in advance. I liked Kilkenny better, smaller Irish town, more welcoming, cleaner. We stayed in the "Kilkenny Tourish Hostel," cooked our own dinner of eggs with cheese, bread, and salsa, and had an identical breakfast the next morning before setting out to see some of the sites. We didn't make it to Dunmore caves, still haven't remembered to pick up a travel alarm, so we settled for a tour of Kilkenny Castle (the picture in the last post) and wandered the church for which the town was named. The church is also home to the tombs of a few of the castles previous owners, the Butler family. Interestingly, one of the Butler lords is shown on the carving over his tomb (think Egyptian sarcophagus style) with his dog at his feet. The castle grounds were beautiful, having been developed about two hundred years ago by the lord and his son, using his daughter-in-law's riches to plant imported trees.

We left Kilkenny for Cork to see Blarney Castle (the home of the Blarney stone), again by bus. Stayed at a hostel there called Kinlay House, and took a bus to Blarney Castle the next day. Blarney was beautiful, not only the castle but the grounds around it. The castle itself is one of the younger ones we've seen, only 560 years old, and thus in better shape than many of them. You can actually climb the very narrow winding staircase to the top, where the Blarney stone itself has become a tourist attraction akin to a roller coaster ride, complete with photographer and pictures to be purchased at the gift shop. I was a bit depressed by this, and the apparently common and overwhelming need for man to make himself immortal by carving AB + CD on every inch of reachable wall. But the rest of the scenery more than made up for it, including this shot from the top of the castle. Ireland, in general, is so green, but this shot was exceptional.

From Cork we planned to take the latest bus possible and sleep on it, getting to Galway in the morning and saving the cost of a Hostel. However, the latest bus left Cork at 6PM and arrived in Galway around 10PM. We wandered a bit, vaguely considering getting a hostel, but the night was nice, and we had multiple layers of clothing. Eventually we did check a few hostels, but all were booked, and we resorted to spending the evening in the park, drinking hot drinks from the late night convienience shops. We managed to seek shelter inside a small late night restaurant for a couple hours, but most of the night was spent walking, or sitting and talking in the park. Even with the cost of warm drinks, we still saved probably $30 we'd have spent on the hostel for only a few hours of sleep. We took a day bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher the next morning, where the "cliffs of insanity" scene of Princess Bride was filmed, walked through one of the only caves open to the public, and were given a beautiful view of the coast on the ride back.

We returned from the cliffs just in time to catch the last bus from Galway back to Dublin, a four hour ride, arriving at the airport around 11PM. Our flight to London, however, didn't leave until 6:25AM this morning. So after a few restless hours in the airport, we passed out cold for the hour flight to London, then continued our trend of having to walk aimlessly trying to find our hostel. We wandered the wrong way multiple times, though London is far easier to navigate than Ireland, I blame it on the weariness. Ireland the streets are rarely labeled, and each street is only about 3 blocks long, numbered 1-99, then the next street. So you can't navigate by cross streets. We checked into the hostel around 2 and have been playing catch up, badly needed showers, naps, food (chicken curry), and internet time to email and plan the next step. We have bus tickets for the chunnel to Amsterdam on Wednesday night, arriving on Thursday morning. So far, so good. No major problems, though we're both looking to get a bit warmer clothes, maybe a real coat, and possibly sleeping bags, though we are heading south soon and hopefully into warmer nights in case we end up spending a night outside again. If we'd had bags already, I'd have loved to have just skipped the return ride from the cliffs and slept there. But alas.

Castles and Churches

Something inspiring about 800 year old castles. Gives me hope, even while the city around the castle is drowning in grafitti, garbage, and greed. Dublin was somewhat disappointing in itself, just another city and a dirty one at that. The hostel was nice though, Avalon house. But by this morning we were dying to get out of the city so we walked to the bus station and bought tickets to Kilkenny, a smaller city about 2 hours away. Perfect little Irish town, small old buildings clustered together, every other one a pub, with random shops scattered in between. Holistic medicine seems fairly common in Ireland, with herbal medicine, chinese health, and aromatherapy shops as common almost as common as the pubs. What they don't seem to have around here is any kind of outdoor equipment store, sportsmans, bob wards, REI type thing. I'm probably going to have to resort to my sister shipping me stuff from her local REI to pick up the few things I didn't get before I left. I did find the pants I want here, but at more than triple the price they are in CO.

So the vague plan for tomorrow is to rent a couple bikes and ride around the countryside. The Dunmore caves are nearby. Not allowed to take pictures inside though apparently. Spend the rest of the day site seeing, then catch a train to somewhere else tomorrow night, sleep a few hours on the train, and go from there. I know I need to post pictures with me in them at some point, but for now this is the best I got. Do have one of me standing on the wall around the castle grounds, but its on Joey's camera. I'll get it later. Paz

Trees and sky

Three flights down, 4 to go. ~10 hours of sleep in 3 days. But I've managed to find a couple of lattes, trees, and sky. So far so good.

Salt Lake to see my soon-to-be god daughter, and my skittish "neice" Naula (150lb mastiff afraid of her own nose). Then a roudy day in Co. Springs with my sister, her bratty husband, and adorable children. I only threw in the bratty part because he's reading over my shoulder.

Boston tomorrow, Rise Against Monday, Ireland Wednesday.