Our last day in Athens was another laid back affair. Our one mission for the day was to make it up Lykkavittos, a steep hill that juts out in the middle of the city. That was much easier to find than the Archaeological Museum yesterday since you can pretty much see the hill from wherever you are in the city and once you are near it all you have to do is make sure you continue to increase your elevation. All the food has not been good to us this last two weeks so we were pretty worn out on the top. No worries though, we just sat and enjoyed the view while poking around in the cacti and giant aloe vera plants.

Me and my pigeon

On the way back down, among the giant aloe

The people we met at the hostel that night were annoying us so we took off to find a nice dinner for Jenna's last night in town. The place we sat at was smack in the middle of the Plaka but had good food and live music to complement our cynical conversation of everything that annoyed us most about Americans and tourists in general. We got lost on our way back to the hostel, quite the accomplishment considering all we have to do is follow the pedestrian path and keep the Acropolis on our right. Jenna went to bed and Seth and I sat on a bench in front of the Acropolis and talked about traveling and how awesome it is.

Some cool graffiti

Now I'm in a bus headed to Thessaloniki , the first leg of my long backtracking journey through the Balkans. Jenna is off back home and Seth and I will be catching the morning train to Skopje tomorrow. I'm already trying to pick out the meals I want to eat while I'm in Skopje, delicious things that I can't get anywhere else... or at least not for this cheap!

I think I'm going to go insane... "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight" is playing on repeat in our bus and I'm about ready to jump out and thumb it the rest of the way to Thessaloniki.

A blur of tractors that are blocking the main highway of Greece and the border crossings

Seth finally made it down to Thessaloniki on Tuesday, but he missed all the sun and brought the clouds and rain with him. While waiting for him in the hotel lobby I was reading the little Greek phrasebook he had lent us so that I'd finally be able to make sense of the Greek letters around me and at least be able to pronounce things correctly, even if I didn't know what they meant! So while we walked around in the rain looking for things to occupy our time I practiced reading signs and advertisements under my breath and quizzed myself on the basics of counting to ten and simple phrases. It's not so hard to learn the basics of a new language when you're stuck in the middle of it.

In the end we turned to eating and drinking to occupy the many hours before our night bus to Athens. I tried anchovies for the first time at the Ozoria we stopped at, and though they looked and tasted like the bait we use on the charter boats, it wasn't all that bad. One of the ribs splintered off into the roof of my mouth though and I complained about it for the rest of the night much to my companions' annoyance. The grilled feta with tomato was fantastic though so I'm adding that to my list of dishes to attempt.

We were lured into this one Gelateri again so that Seth could get his pistachio gelato and cappuccino. After staring transfixed at all the cute little cakes and puddings on display in the counter, I sucked it up and choose a heart-shaped cake covered in chocolate. I got it mostly because it was cute but my gosh it was delicious too. Unfortunately I think the old women next to us thought it was funny that I was eating a heart-shaped cake by myself because they burst out laughing for no reason and started chatting to us in Greek. Even when they knew we didn't understand them, they kept laughing and talking to us... and all I could do is shrug and continue eating my delicious little cake.

The delicious little cake

We meandered to the bus station and found out that we had another two hours to wait for our bus, a bus trip that was going to take more than twice as long as usual due to the farmer strikes and all the tractors blocking the highway. Seth decided that he needed to drink even more, to ensure that he slept the whole bus ride, and I figured that was probably a pretty good idea so we drank Amstel and some type of brandy while watching the fashion channel on the TV in the station. I did sleep pretty well and when I woke up to the sun shining on the outskirts of Athens I was in a great mood.

Seth "preparing" for the night bus

Our hostel was nearby and run by a very energetic Welshman who pointed us towards free breakfast, eggs and toast with the essential Nutella spread. That helped get us out of the zombie night-bus mode so we headed out to the Acropolis and Parthenon. It ended up being a mere block from our hostel, easily seen from the roof but even more impressive from the street. It was such a beautiful sunny day with the white marble absolutely shining on the background of blue. I felt so laid back just staring out over Athens, in no hurry to do anything but pet the street dog that was sleeping precariously on the Acropolis wall.

At the Acropolis, view from some rock that was important

That night we went out with new friends from the hostel, all Americans. We got gyros from a place down the street from the hostel then sat and played card games at a bar drinking Mythos, one of the Greek national beers. It was one of those nice bubble moments when you can forget you are in another country.

One of the guys had to buy a balloon from a street vendor when he lost

The next night was significantly better in my opinion because after a long day of walking there is nothing better than sitting down to a gigantic dinner and a glass or two of Retsina. We went to a restaurant with a set menu where we could choose dishes from a tray of 18 different ones presented to us by our waiter. Mmmm, I really enjoyed this meal, though the sarmi--rice and meat wrapped in grape leaves--was not as good as when we ate it in the village. It is hard to top that meal at the village though so I'll try to not compare it to anything I eat in the future.

We had no trouble with our train from Skopje to Thessaloniki yesterday. It was great to be on the rail again and back to traveling. Jenna and I had no trouble at all finding Hotel Rex and after we checked into our room we went for a nighttime walk through the city. Without a map or guidebook we didn't want to wander off into side streets but we did manage to walk right down to the water. Nighttime meant we couldn't see much of the view, but the clubs were in full swing and it was nice to just stretch our legs after the train.

The great thing about Jenna and I is that we tend to sleep-in the exact same amount. Today we woke up around 11:30 or so and throwing open the curtains revealed a perfectly blue sky. We left wearing only hoodies for the first time and stopped in a cafe for cappuccinos--yes we're addicted. It kind of sucks being back on the euro but luckily Greece isn't terribly expensive. After the caffeine found its way into our system, we continued towards the quay. Lunch was spent at Goody's, a Greek fast-food restaurant. Luckily for our sake part of the menu was written in English, those bits jumping out from the Greek letters that really look like gibberish.

Me in front of the Quay

Goody's was part of our plan formulated from the night before, and so was the gelato that we ate next. Walking down the quay in the bright sunlight while eating a delicious gelato cone--that I ordered using one of the few Greek words I know: "socalata"-- is one of the peaks of this trip so far. The weather was just so much more beautiful than it has been, and so much more than I could hope for January. Successfully navigating Thessaloniki and the Greek language barrier also helped, as did the guy that we met while sitting near the White Tower. Jena and I had been basking there for awhile when this guy drives up on his motorcycle, parks it and sits down next to us for awhile. We struck up a conversation with him and made our first Greek friend. We took photos together and got his number before he took off. I'm sure Seth will do a whole big-brother routine when he finds out, but Jena and I enjoyed the whole situation thoroughly.

Getting his phone number (Jena was being sneaky with the camera)

Jena and Michael and Michael's bike!

After Michael left, we continued down the quay for about an hour and a half stopping now and then to pet a dog or sit by some unsuccessful fishermen. The people watching was excellent and of course the weather held all day long so we stayed on the quay until the sun went down, a sunset accompanied by guitar and flute played by some hippie-looking teenagers on the bench next to us. Finally with darkness upon us we headed back to the hotel, loaded down with snacks from the grocery store (mini chocolate filled croissants!). Our feet were feeling the day-long walk, so it took us a bit to get the motivation for dinner. Walking the opposite direction, towards the train station, we found a little restaurant with a husband-wife staff serving gyros. Mmmmm, the pita thing was seasoned so nicely and... it was just so yum. I wasn't even that hungry but I ate all of it, of course.

We were being sooo lazy yesterday... just left Seth's long enough to get cheese boorek and bread. I was pretty proud of ordering it on my own, even if Seth had written it out phonetically on a slip of paper for me. Mmmm, burek is one of the things I will miss most about Macedonia. It is this fried pastry thing with a feta-type cheese in the middle, all crispy and dripping with grease. You can get one of them for forty denari, about a dollar, and of course it is a portion that will easily substitute for a proper healthy meal.

It was lovely just lounging around Seth's and the internet cafe downstairs that is always buzzing with serious gamers. We were just recooping and retreating into an Americana bubble is nice when you've been traveling in foreign countries a lot. I called my mom and sister on Skype which was great despite the fact that the audio connection kept getting overwhelmed with static and I had to tell my stories by half-yelling at the computer in English, attracting the attention of many of the other people in the cafe. Still, it's amazing to be able to talk to people back home "face to face" while in another country.

After my two hour internet ticket ran out Seth came back from dinner with both his friend Erik and plans for the evening. Now imagine you've been invited to a birthday party for someone you don't know, and you don't know any of the other guests at the party except for the people you came with. A little awkward right? Now imagine that everyone is speaking another language and that was our Saturday night. Erik's friend was having her birthday party and we were invited along by proxy. I probably would have been a little apprehensive, but Erik is such an excitable guy and his happy mood was pretty infectious so I just went with the flow. The nice thing about being the only ones at a party not speaking the native language is that you attract attention and soon all the Americans, myself included, were off chatting with new friends interested in why we were in Macedonia. The girl I was talking to was planning on going to New York this summer for work and to improve her English. When talking about the differences between our two countries we got on the subject of public displays of affection and the openness of Macedonians, probably because of the couples that were passionately kissing each other in the middle of the room. We agreed that Americans are too "cold" and need to show a bit more love. She was a psychology major and so advised me that "you need to hug your parents and your siblings and your friends at least twenty times a day, twenty times to keep them healthy". So whoever might read this: give at least five hugs today. Who knows, maybe more hugs is all this unhappy world needs.

The party was such a fun time, primarily because of the friendly people but also because all the music they were playing was really great nineties music, the kind that has been forgotten by most. I still can't believe how willingly many people will open up to us foreigners, it just blows me away every time.

Jena and I with new friends!

I'm now on a train heading to Thessolaniki, Greece with Jena. We've got the compartment to ourselves and successfully passed through the border control so now we're just chilling out for the next couple hours. We're actually very lucky to be in Greece now. For the past five days the farmers of Greece have staged a nationwide strike, driving and parking their tractors to block the border crossings and the major highway between Thessolaniki and Athens. The borders of both Macedonia and Bulgaria had been shut down during that time leaving us in an awkward position without a way into Greece. Luckily the tractors were not able to block the trains--the police told them the rails are electrified, which may or may not be true--and the Macedonia border was opened up again just today.

Me and the city/lake of Ohrid

This guy was filling up plastic bottles with holy water from the lake (it had been blessed by a priest earlier for the cross-throwing) but his hat had just been blown off by a gust of wind when I took this photo

We thought we'd get breakfast but the owner of our hotel stopped us and invited us into his home for hot rakija--traditional Macedonian homemade liquor with honey--and Turkish coffee. His English is not so good and Seth's Macedonian is at about the same level which led to a broken conversation about what we were doing here. They walked us down to the Ohrid lakeside where this annual cross-throwing event is held, another sort of festival type thing, small town and very cool to be a part of. Coffees and sightseeing around the top of Ohrid dominated the rest of our day. It turns out that this beautiful church I had been oogling in my Lonely Planet guide to the world is right over the hill from where we are staying. Seeing it both during the day and later at night was truly a whole new experience. Its hitting close to home now how special this trip really is.

This is the beautiful church on the cliffside, a photo does not do it justice... this place was magical

Seth at the church, equally beautiful at night

Sitting and finishing off our bottle of white wine by the lake was not enough to end the evening so Seth's second night of "arranged" fireworks did the trick, in addition to the shooting star I saw while laying down lakeside by myself.

I woke up late again and took my first shower at Seth's since his electricity got fixed. Hurray for non-candlelit bathrooms! I made an omelet while Seth was at church and then he, Jenna and I took a bus to Ohrid. It wasn't a spectacular journey since the sun went down and we couldn't see any of the scenery, and of course the views of Ohrid were a mystery as well once we were dropped off. Jen and I ordered coffees by ourselves (no help from Seth!) while Seth went and found a room for us. Dinner was spent with Chris, a travel guide writer doing the Macedonian bit for Lonely Planet, and his wife. Conversation was lovely as was the food, starting with an enormous pile of toasted, spiced bread and cheese and ending with a bowl of pork and brown sauce that was very delicious but oh-so-filling that I couldn't finish the last couple pieces. We said our good-byes to Chris and his wife, thanking him for all the valuable travel advice and went back to our room. A hilarious Canadian movie about search and rescue dogs was on, so we watched that and then fell asleep.

Mmm, so after watching Titanic for a while on my laptop I went to bed and when I woke up things just weren't as fun as they were before. I couldn't unlatch my compartment door when we were crossing the first border out of Italy at around 4:30 am and with four or five border patrol officers all giving instructions in some unknown language when you are still half-asleep, it can get a little stressful. Luckily I got it open before they were too irked and I was able to go back to sleep again.

The morning was fine too, until it came to figuring out how to continue my journey to Belgrade when my ticket only went to a small town nearby. That town came and went and still no one was coming up to me. It was lucky that they took so long to ask me about my ticket because they ended up taking 8 out of the 12 euro I had on me... and those extra stops in between just might have pushed me into offering either pounds or US dollars to make up for the difference. With my way to Belgrade bought and paid for, all I had to do was stare out the window at the snowy fields of Serbia and hand over my passport to be stamped whenever an officer knocked on the compartment door. It was easy to get used to the system.

In Belgrade I nervously walked over to the tourist information center to ask about train tickets. The man that helped me was surprisingly nice about everything and I was able to buy a ticket to Skopje on a train that left in one hour. An hour in Belgrade doesn't allow you to do much, but I found some drinking water and people watched for awhile outside of the train station before getting on the train at 2pm. It was quite crowded when I got on so I found a middle seat to squeeze into in one compartment and got help from a gentleman to lift my backpack into the overhead rack. I only got a few words out to the five others in the compartment, just something to convey that I only spoke English. I just read Trainspotting and occasionally looked up at the others but obviously did not understand what was going on. I also lent one of my pens to the girl across from me for her Sudoku puzzles and ate a bit of chocolate that was offered to me, both interactions making me proud of myself for being able to handle the language barrier. When the sun went down though, our unheated compartment got quite cold and, when combined with two people smoking, pretty miserable for me so I left to find another one. I squeezed myself into another middle seat and got help again with my backpack. This gentleman spoke a little English so I had a broken conversation with him throughout the next few hours about his dreams to live in southern Canada and how bad Serbian trains were. Right before he left he rummaged a bar of Czech chocolate out of his bag, so of course I returned his generosity with a package of Austrian chocolate wafer cookies. He left with his sons and waved goodbye on the platform, leaving me with an extremely high opinion of Serbians.

Feeling kind of empty and sad that my new friends left me with another four to five hours of train ride to look forward to, I was surprised by four more people filling up the compartment. The first was a younger guy that spoke some English and told me he was a train operator. His friend followed him in and they waved in a couple of girls, one of which sat next to me. She ended up being fantastically interesting and also extremely good at speaking English. Her name was Jelena and had been at school with her sister, the other girl in the compartment, Jolena but they were both headed home. Jelena was so friendly and excited to be speaking English so we had a very high-energy discussion about Scottish/English accents and actors we loved and, this was the best, the Twilight book series. Jelena squeezed a bit of the ending of the fourth book out of me, then explained that the fourth hadn't been translated into Serbian yet so she was going to have a friend buy it in English for her so she wouldn't have to wait. I was sorry to see her and her sister off a few stations down the line, but once again the compartment was filled with three more Serbian girls that the two guys waved in.

Me and my new friends from Serbia in our cozy train compartment

They liked taking photos so I've got a lot on my camera... the guy in the middle was the only one that spoke any English so he was my interpreter

These girls didn't speak English so I was only given a line or two of English every once in awhile from the train operator. Still, they included me as best they could and we ended up having quite a good time together. I found it very entertaining watching the two guys flirt with the girls and their reactions to it. At one point I got to show off all my pictures from Alaska to them which was fun. I started to drop off after the second breakdown of the train and ended up just listening to their conversation, not understanding anything of course. I knew I didn't want to fall asleep and wake up in Greece, kilometers and kilometers away from Skopje, so I held on to consciousness even after the compartment emptied at the border crossing. To stay awake I just listened to my iPod and sang along to Beatles and Jason Mraz songs out loud, sitting by myself. A couple German backpackers stopped by and asked if I knew how long it was to Skopje, so I had other people looking out for the right stop too. I walked a little ways from the train and started thinking about my next move, get denari and a taxi, when I looked up and saw Seth. I ran up and gave him a big hug which knocked him back a little since the weight of my backpack gave me quite a lot of momentum. It was such a relief to see a familiar face after more than 24 hours in a train with completely unfamiliar language surrounding me. We walked a ways and got a taxi to his flat where I met his sister Jenna and my bed, the fold out couch.

Oh it was lovely to sleep in something that wasn't moving and it wasn't until around noon that I woke up to the smell of Turkish coffee. That stuff is strong and I'm certain I'll never be able to drink a normal cup of coffee again. We had a relaxing day of walking around the city and up to the castle that overlooks the Macedonian part of town. We ate lunch in the Albanian part of town, a plate of really delicious sausage type things with freshly baked bread and all the fixings. Coffee was next at a place called Cafe Roma where I had two delicious Macchiatos while watching three small gypsy children terrorize the people passing by. They would surround one or two people and just jump at them, pulling their purses and jacket pockets even while being shoved away. I'll probably have nightmares about gypsy children for awhile after this.

Back at home Seth made a plate of cheese, olives and bread which we munched on while drinking Rakaja and talking to Seth's friend Cole. Cole is from Iowa but he's been in Macedonia for four months and now teaches English to business people. We went out to a wine bar together and enjoyed several bottles of red wine as the place filled up with smoke and people. Part way into the evening the table behind us was filled with Americans and we all just couldn't stop listening to them and laughing. Apparently Seth and Cole had never seen other Americans at this bar before and it was rather unnerving to have them lean over and talk to us in English.

Macedonian words I've learned so far:
Thank you - Fallah
Cheers - Lise Strabe
No problem - Ne ma problem

Seth's other two friends, Mema and Leon, joined us during the last bottle. They convinced us all to go to Club Havana where a band was going to be playing live rock music. The band was actually quite a good cover band and it was really fun to be singing along to the Friends theme song, Kings of Leon and Incubus with a club packed with Macedonians. My eyes were red from the smoke by the end of the night and it was nice to escape to some fresh air. It's something I probably never appreciated enough before, but after staying in a country that loves to smoke I will probably never take fresh air for granted again.

Me by the Rialto Bridge saying good-bye to Venice for the time being

Christi and I make great wanderers. We didn't mind that it took us three hours to complete our mission to go to the bus station and check on tickets to the San Marco airport for Christi. We didn't care because we got to visit our friend in the clothes shop who recognized us from the window and waved us in. We got to casually stroll into a bakery and order a few of whatever delicious pastries just came out on a tray from the kitchen. We got to sit and chat about stamps to a British man who was mailing a post card. Case in point, wandering is awesome.

We even wandered off the street to find a place to eat dinner and ended up at a completely empty restaurant. We were the only ones there the whole time and unfortunately that meant the waiter just sat at another table nearby, just waiting to see if we needed any bread or another fork. The food was, surprise surprise, delicious. We found out that our favorite salad of tomatoes and mozzarella is called a Caprease salad and it isn't a good idea to pour oil directly on bread when you don't have a plate to dip in. The famous Spritz cocktail is also not that great and I'd highly recommend Bellini over that Italian drink any day.

So after a very wet walk through Venice on this rainy night, I am now in a dimly lit train compartment with my damp clothes hanging up around me and swaying erratically to the bumps. I knew this was going to be a bit different than our train from Vienna to Venice right from the first very high and difficult step onto the rusty ladder into the train. First of all, the light inside here is flickering away at its last few hours of life while the sparse curtains are finding it difficult to block the fluorescents of the hallway outside. The floor is unpainted wood and there doesn't seem to be much hope for an outlet. I was about to give it up as a much less appealing ride than my last night train (especially with the absence of a cool traveling companion like Christi) when the conductor handed me a little gift bag with a Christmas tree on one side and "WE WISH YOU A PLEASANT JOURNEY!" in some quite fascinating language on the other side, complete with the English translation. Honestly, this writing looks like you'd be able to understand it perfectly if you looked at it in a mirror while upside-down, so neat! Anyways, of course I was excited to get a present from my conductor so I opened it to find a tiny bar of soap in a plastic container, a washcloth in a hygienically sealed bag and the most hilarious pair of slippers. They are white and made out of the same materials that are used in those little airline pillows. Also, they are five sizes too big. I've already grown fond of them though.

Ouch! I just stood up to hang up my scarf that had fallen down and the train decided that now would be a great time to stop. I couldn't help falling into the side of the compartment and landed on my arm right on this little bit of metal completely missing the hefty amount of soft cushioning. Grr. I guess its been awhile since I've had a bruise though with no rugby. Must change that when I *hopefully* visit Banta in Germany.

So I guess I've got this compartment all to myself tonight as the conductor only brought in one set of bedding. I'm just sitting here drinking my little bottle of wine and listening to the raindrops on the roof. I think I'll complete the moment by playing some Beatles and maybe a bit of Fratellis. Woohoo, party in compartment 6! Luckily I can sing in here, these songs are much too catchy.

Bist du depot! The lights just all went out and we've stopped somewhere that is clearly not a station. My goodness, I hate when that happens because it reminds me of the part in Harry Potter when the Hogwarts Express stops and the dementors get on the train.

Gosh, sitting here in this darkness makes me miss Christi. We had a great two and a half weeks of traveling together and I'm glad we'll be able to sit and reminisce about it in Homer. And of course we'll have to invite our new friends for an Alaskan experience to equal the great Euro-experience we were treated to. Maybe I'll do a sweet song and dance for the people at the next station, just for you Christi. Good times my friend, good times. :)

Wowzer, there are mirrors on the underside of the top bunks so while laying on the bottom bunks it looks like they are on the ceiling. How very kinky, and of course the Mika song that just came on my shuffle is oh so appropriate.

And now this MGMT song is reminding me of my lovely friends in Aberdeen so this is just a little shout out to Wavell House. Love you guy and I wish I could be there to help Lindsay dye hair. Ben--I rocked the blue hair for awhile and totally loved it, hope you love it too!

Cappuccinos, that's how this day started. We weren't satisfied by the quite strong coffee of the hostel-provided breakfast so we went off in search of a typical Italian cafe. What we found was lovely because not a single English speaking person walked in the entire time we were there. The coffee too was great, as were the creme filled croissants. We continued along the way towards Rialto Bridge, just stopping in any store that caught our eye. In an interesting clothes shop we stopped for twenty minutes to chat with a girl that worked there who liked to travel and had a lot to talk about, in a good way. She gave us recommendations for restaurants which we didn't end up using, but it was lovely to chat with her and reinforced my belief that people are nice everywhere in the world.

Lunch was spent on a statue in one of the numerous squares in Venice, chasing pigeons away from our delicious focaccia and olives. When we gave up and started throwing crisps for their enjoyment, an old Italian woman came over and explained with Italian (that we didn't understand) and hand/sign language that we must crush up the crisps into tiny pieces for the sake of the pigeons health. She then demonstrated with her own bread stuff, then smiled and walked off with many pigeons trailing after her in a hopeful manner. Shrugging we left in search of more pigeons and found both pigeons and more people that liked to feed pigeons. A couple of guys were trying to get pigeons to land on their feet while doing a handstand so we tried to help them out with that. The Polizia came and told us in a bored voice to stop feeding the pigeons, so we stopped until they meandered far enough away and then continued discretely.

Once the fun of pigeons was exhausted for yet another day, we went to a store and bought a couple bottles of wine and brought them back to the hostel. Mmm, wine with the provided dinner of pasta was very good, and made even better by good conversation with a couple of new guys from Argentina, Lucas and Mario. With the addition of another guy from Chile, Andres, we set out to find a bar. It wasn't really that hard to find one, but walking through some of those skinny and deserted alleys was a bit unnerving. Not really knowing what to order at the bar, Christi and I got pints of Guinness. Of course the bars close early here too so after that one drink we meandered back to our hostel, said goodnight to the guys and fell into our beds.

Christi and I with our Guinness glasses

In the bar with our fellow hostel-ers from Argentina

Now we are here on these lovely orange couches getting ready to go out and get another cappuccino. I'll be leaving tonight on a train towards Belgrade and Christi leaves tomorrow for home.

Oh blissful sleep uninterrupted by cranky train conductors, how I missed thee!

The nap before dinner was divine and I nearly slept right through dinner. Yawning and stretching we joined the rest of the hostel-ers at the table, yet I'm sorry to say we were a pretty poor addition to the conversation. Once the pesto-pasta-parmesan was placed in front of me all my available attention went straight to that. It was delicious though and once full, I was very close to following the rest of them straight back to bed.

I'm glad I didn't because the night was beautiful and clear and walking along the canals and through the nearly empty streets was so romantic in a way. It was a very different Venice. We sat down at a restaurant by the Rialto bridge and ordered glasses of white wine and shared a tiramisu. There was certainly no better way to spend that night. Even navigating the twisty and deceiving streets back to our hostel was quite easy and falling into bed for the second time that day was the perfect end to our first day.

Our hostel in Venice... yes we had a chandelier in our bedroom!

Woke up early enough to take a shower before breakfast... probably isn't that hard since this laid back hostel serves breakfast at ten. Mmm, they served slices of blood oranges today which I've never had before. They were delicious. Now I'm just on another bright orange comfy couch staring out the big floor to ceiling windows at the buildings and canal out there. It reminds me of Barra de Navidad, Mexico for some reason, maybe just the crumbly buildings and bright towels hanging on the clotheslines.

For our last day in Vienna we first started with the typical coffee (topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings) and a tasty cookie. Then we went across town to Julia's friends place and ate a hodge-podge breakfast including hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes with mozzarella, guacamole and a very strong garlic spread. I tried a little bit of it all and it was all very good, even better as a combination. Our mission for the day was to see Beethoven's grave which was in the middle of this very cold, very damp and misty graveyard holding more than 3 million former Viennese residents. He was surrounded by the graves of Brahms, Schubert and Mozart (even though the body isn't actually there). Since I had matches from the wine house we went to the night before, we lit one of the candles that was there... then I moved it far away from the others just in case it burnt all the way down and the pine cone/needle stand burst into flame. I didn't want to be responsible for burning down one of the most amazing composer's gravestones.

We did walk further into the graveyard towards the end that had been damaged by World War II bombing but it was just too cold out to have any interest. We ran for our tram and decided to call it a day. We had been so lucky with gorgeous sunny weather up until then and we'd just rather remember Vienna that way instead of freezing inside some monument or another. Dinner was a casual affair and packing went smoothly so before we knew it, it was 7:15 and Julia was leading us out of the apartment and to the correct train station. It was sad to leave Julia, but having her visit in Scotland and visiting her in Austria has made it quite obvious how small the world really is. I'm confident I'll be back in Vienna again soon and this time I'll know to get off at Friedensbrucke on the green line and take the 33 or 5 for two stops. Learning cities--and having friends to visit in them--is so lovely!

The thrill of being on our own in a foreign country returned once we lost sight of Julia, but of course she had gone over which stop we were to get out at and then described how to get to the Westbahnhof train station already. We had been following two guys with large backpacks similar to ours until they turned around and asked us, in very American voices, if we knew where the train station was. How disappointing, but we pointed them in the right direction and got there fine on our own. The train compartments were just like in Harry Potter! Of course this was a night train though, so the seats also converted into beds, and we were going to Venice not Hogwarts... but the excited was there nonetheless! Christi and I had the place to ourselves for around four hours in which we watched movies for awhile then turned on music and started dancing for the amusement of anyone that might be watching from the blur of the outside scenery. After awhile we switched to calmer music and caught up on anything and everything going on in our lives which is when another woman joined our compartment. At that point we decided to call it a night and crawled into the top bunks. I didn't sleep so well because I was the lightest sleeper in the compartment and so kept getting woken up by the conductor knocking on our door for various reasons--mostly to do with the woman who joined us since she was getting off at an earlier station. I think I'll be better at sleeping on my next night train since I know what to expect now, but despite the lack of sleep I still had a great time. Breakfast was a couple of rolls and a not-so-good cup of coffee, far outstripped by the beautiful sunrise we watched whilst munching.

Venice montage; click to enlarge

The first view of Venice from the train was amazing. It felt and looked like we were just floating over the ocean, passing boats and little greenery-filled islands. As we exited the station we were greeted with such a typical Venetian scene, canal and all. Walking through the streets on our way to the hostel was a treat as we were rewarded with cute little bridges, statues and picturesque crumbling buildings around every corner. I couldn't help taking pictures of most everything. Making it to the hostel was lovely though because the down jacket I was wearing--necessary in Vienna-- combined with lots of walking and Venice temperatures was causing me to overheat. Our hostel is beautiful and seems to have once been a museum of some kind. It has high ceilings with very lovely sculpture on the walls and a wall of windows overlooking a side canal, complete with balcony. We were cooked a breakfast (our second one!) and ate with the rest of the hostel occupants then set out to explore.

Following graffiti signs always leads to an adventure

With a goal of getting the very easy and obvious Venetian activities out of the way first, we set off towards San Marcus Square. There are so many neat shops in Venice and with all those distractions we were already hungry again by the time we got there so we darted down a side street and found a pizza place. The food there was delicious, but they had this one song on repeat the whole time we were there and I thought I was going to go crazy. The waiter was also tall and intimidating and to top it off, he started humming and singing to the annoying song that was playing.

Just a guy helping his friend put stockings on a mannequin, nothing to see here

Stuffed again and happily fighting off a food coma, we walked 'round with all the other tourists in the bright sun. The Bridge of Sighs had been completely covered in some weird blue scaffolding/advertisement and the Basilica was big, gold and quiet... but of course the Square did not disappoint. We ended up getting gelato in cones which soon attracted the attention of many pigeons. Soon they were flapping around us which was fun... until one of them landed right on my gelato!!! I waved my arms around but he left two little pigeon toe-prints in my Tiramisu gelato and of course I wasn't going to brave the germs of foreign birds (no bird flu!) so I allowed the other pigeons to decimate the rest of the cone. One of them wrestled most of it away from me and I dropped the last bit on the ground and once the swarm subsided there was nothing left except a little smear of melted gelato. It was quite hilarious though and I'm glad I had a good San Marcus pigeon experience.

I'm in the hostel now on a big comfy orange couch and wondering how it is possible that I only arrived in Venice this morning. I'm off to take a nap now since Christi and I are going to go out later.

Our first real morning in Vienna! We got up at NINE, ooooOOooh! Yeah, I know, big accomplishment but with late nights while on holiday it is hard to be motivated in the morning. This morning we had the flea market and the city center of Vienna calling to us though, so off we went on the buses/trams/trains. Vienna's public transportation is lovely because you buy a ticket for the whole day and you have unlimited use of all buses, trams and trains--which is great when you get distracted from counting and accidentally get off at the wrong stop and have to backtrack. The market was really fun and once again I was wishing for a bigger backpack to take it all with me. Poking around all the neat old stuff I found a cool alarm clock that looked nautical and had a good heavy weight to it. It's one of those kinds that you have to wind manually too! Christi found a very beautiful pendant that looked quite old.

In front of a cool building that you can't really see well

Oh wait, there it is!

After cappuccinos and some Austrian chocolate cake, Julia cut us loose again in the middle of the city and we were left to wander in search of entertainment. It wasn't hard to find and we spent the day poking around expensive shops like Burberry and wondering why someone would spend 18,000 euro on a mustard-colored alligator skin bag, but getting chills just holding it. We also watched some street performers for awhile because their slow motion dancing and fighting made us laugh. It was a great place to people watch, but the cold quickly sunk in and we escaped it by ducking into a restaurant Julia had pointed out. It seemed very fancy with waiters in full suits complete with smug expressions. The food was good though and we enjoyed tomato and mozzarella salads, something that I must try to make when I have a kitchen again. It is fun to find new foods to add to my experimentation to-do list, especially delicious and simple ones.

Today was our day (Christi and I). We were sent off with directions again and left on our own to do what we wished in Vienna. What we wished to do ended up being staring at our favorite animals at the zoo. The pandas were first and we watched this small one munch at bamboo for probably twenty minutes straight (nom nom nom). The tigers are always my favorite but at this zoo especially because they had baby tigers! Aww, so cute I just wanted to squeeze them!

Just me taking a picture of le tigres

The best part was actually in the rain forest building because in the canopy area a bat had grabbed hold of a branch and fallen asleep about two feet from the railing and well within reach. Oh the urge to reach out and touch it was incredible because the vein-y wings were such an interesting texture... but we kept our hands to ourselves. That didn't stop us from sitting there and watching it for another twenty minutes, entertained because every now and then it would twitch a wing back or poke his little eyes out to look at us.

Tigers! My favorite!

Nom nom nom, bamboo!

The sun was going down on our day though and we still had to see the Schonbrunn palace. It seemed nearby but looks can be deceiving. Since the palace was so big and the area in front of it so flat it felt like we'd never make it there. It kept getting colder and colder and I felt like I should start running towards it before I turned into a Popsicle-type statue, just another addition to the decor of the gardens. The palace tour was worth it though simply for the ballroom where I spun around and tried to imagine what it would be like to dance in such a place. Also, one of the rooms was where Mozart's very first concert was given. Neat-O yeah? I got shivers just thinking about it while I was in there.

Christi in front of Schonbrunn, I wanted to show how yellow the palace was against that bright blue sky!

In any case we earned the delicious dinner that Heidi served to us once we navigated our way back home. After dinner we headed to a wine house and drank wine with Heidi, Gustav and Julia for quite awhile. It is a nice concept, going to a place and just ordering wine. Almost like the night equivalent of a coffee shop. Maybe it could catch on in Homer?

Sleeping in is lovely. I'm glad Julia and her mom held off waking us up until around noon or one. We wandered around shops looking at neat stuff and I bought a leather wallet that was just too cute to pass up (it's lined with bright blue corduroy!). When we were too cold and too tired to wander anymore we popped into a restaurant for the essential wienerschnitzel experience. I believe it tasted like a giant chicken nugget, but that's just me. After that Julia was off to a French class so her mom took us to a neat bead shop where I bought some earrings, then it was off home so that we could get ready for the concert. Christi and I made it to the Koncerthausse all by ourselves, yet we looked out of place since we didn't have expensive fur coats. Still we could appreciate the beauty of the hall and the music in any state of dress and it was very nice to just sit and soak in a bit of culture. The night went well, we got back without a single hitch and fell asleep quite instantly.

Woke up early again today but at least I was mostly packed except for my missing black jacket - which turned up in the end. Our last Irish breakfast was just as delicious as before and I know I'm going to start making it in New Zealand and even when I finally return home. Toast and sausages and black pudding and rashers and coffee, mmm. I don't have much to say about actually leaving Ireland because it all went so smoothly. We left appropriately early, there were no problems with baggage or the flight and even Customs in Vienna was just a brief check of the passports and a big stamp. It was very eerie and I suppose I just expected something bad would happen with meeting up with my friend Julia. But nothing did! Christi and I got the right train and met Julia right on the platform and she navigated our way through trains and trams to her house where her mother had a delicious ham and noodle casserole type dish ready for us. Julia's house is amazing, it honestly fits her so well. There are a bunch of her paintings on the walls and so many old, antique things on shelves and against the walls all over the place. Also, her mom has a black and white thing so nearly everything from the dishes to the floors to the plethora of clocks on the kitchen wall are all done up in black and white. It's great to be here in Vienna and I'm not at all bothered by the German; I think Paris prepared me for these non-English speaking places. It is odd to hear Julia because she hardly spoke German while in Homer and now she is all the time!

Gill, Christi and I are still together, and we decided to take a trip up to Belfast to visit Gill's cousin Nikola. Getting up early was never our favorite activity, but at 9:15 we sleepily boarded the bus and were on our way. The bus dropped us off in the center of the city and right next to a stop for the open-top bus tours so we hopped on that for a bit of sightseeing. Wow, there's a whole lot that happened in Belfast that I was unaware of until the tour. Of course I knew about the Titanic being built there, but I didn't know it was the birthplace of CS Lewis, or that Van Morrison was in a band there. We also got to see a lot of the key places from the whole car bombings and such, including some great politically charged murals. I suppose the bullet holes in a school that could still be seen clearly from the road were the most poignant for me... imagining gun shots ringing out and not feeling safe even in your own school. But Belfast itself seems far past those events now, so we got off the tour and headed to meet up with Nikola and her boyfriend Matt. Once together we went to the cinema to watch a film (they pronounce it "fil-lem", two syllables) and eat popcorn and Malteasers mixed up together, a Belfast delicacy apparently. We watched Austrailia which I thought was quite good considering I was close to tears at least four times. I blame it on the adorable little boy with his big puppy-dog eyes. It actually got me really excited about going to Australia on my way to New Zealand and I'm so glad I added that bit onto my trip. I'd love to learn more about Aboriginals and their customs, they seem fascinating!


Stuffed with popcorn and chocolate, we walked back to Nikola's flat stopping at a Tesco's on the way to buy some cheap wine. Her flatmates were really nice and welcming and all set to make a night out of it. It took us so long to actually leave the flat because we were enjoying just sitting around and drinking so much. I love when good conversation just keeps flowing amongst new acquaintances. There really isn't anything better! We eventually got out to the bar for a few pints and some snooker pool at a place with good atmosphere and good numbers for a Monday night.

The visitors: Gill, Christi and I

Bars close so early though! It wasn't long before we were kicked out and in search of late night snacks. Thankfully fish and chip shops are plentiful at these hours and I got to munch on battered sausages and chips while discussing Doctor Who with Jamie, who in fact has facial expressions that are very similar to David Tennant's, on our walk back to the flat. The night was concluded with a rousing sing-a-long directed by Connor, Matt's roommate, heavy on the Beatles and Incubus and other songs that sound great when you belt them out while drinking--but probably only to you.

I asked Jamie to do his best Doctor Who impression and I think he did a good job
(You can click on the picture to make it bigger)

Today we just woke up and went straight to lunch and vintage 2nd hand store shopping. I didn't buy anything--even though I wanted everything--but I did try on a hilarious dress with poofy sleeves. Once it was on I actually started to like it quite a bit more so I kind of wish I hadn't pulled it off the rack, but at least you can be amused by this silly picture.