Santorini. Volcanic Land of Cliff Towns And Donkey Taxis

Now, we are on our way to Athens, to catch a flight to our final destination, Croatia. As our ferry plugs along northward, let's catch you up on Santorini. Santorini is a beautiful horseshoe shaped island with a live volcano (called the caldera) in the center. It is made of pumice from the recorded eruptions that have altered the landscape. We even got to see photos from its last eruption in the 1950's. We stayed in Fira, a town carved into the rocky mountainside that  struts out of the ocean. All the homes and businesses are stacked above one another and interconnected by mazes of concrete steps. This Island is really  Known for its blue domed churches you may have seen in pictures. We had a magnificent view from our room, towering over the port. From our room, the port could be reached by descending 550 stairs. You also had the option to take a cable car ride down, or ride your own personal donkey for 5 euros. We walked down the seemingly endless staircase and took an excursion on an old wooden galleon type ship to march around on (the caldera) volcano. The volcano was cool, we saw the craters from the past eruptions and even some live vents that still pump steam out at 100 degrees C. Nearby there is a natural hot spring in a cove that makes the ocean water feel like a warm bath. Diving off the ship and swimming around was refreshing surrounded by such a surreal landscape. We returned that evening up the mountain to our rooms by donkey. The Donkeys were awesome! Ours were really well behaved, they just kept on clomping up the steps toward home, but others had rowdy biting donkeys that did not listen well. Aside from mine taking a break to eat some plants overhanging the path, he gets five stars. Sarah's Donkey was faster and figured it was a race. Even though I got on first, she soon passed me on an inside turn and kept me in her donkey's dust. Our dinners here were amazing, with prawns the size of bananas and a Greek dish called moussaka. It's kind of like lasagna with potatoes instead of noodles. Baked fresh and golden crispy on top, its delicious! We spent the evenings in a local bar called two brothers. An awesome little club with a balcony, great martinis, shiesha pipes, and popcorn. We took in the nightlife as the whole room grooved and thumped to current american hits and Michael Jacksons's most famous anthems. This place really had a pulse all it's own. See you again Greece, it was a pleasure... Next Steps, Dock Ferri Catch Plane Catch other plane Find a place to call home in Dubrovnik Croatia... Starting a whole new chapter Eurotrippin, Pat and Sarah

Chania, Crete, Greece

We planned to see as many greek islands as possible, and then that number quickly corrected itself to two. All the ferries off of Crete for the next five days were booked. So on Saturday we will boat across to Santorini for a couple days before shipping off to Croatia. Chania has been kind to us. Great weather, beautiful beaches, markets, and balcony afternoons. It's 10:49 a.m. here, and we're sitting on our balcony watching the festivities as the Olympic Torch is coming through town! The harbor is packed with school children and the locals have gathered on all the rooftops. Any minute now we should get a look at the flames to start the games! And here they are! The torch is being ran down a thin winding road circling the harbor, with a procession of police cars and olympic sponsored Bmw's; Even the coastguard is making an appearance. Wow, like we said, Chania has been kind to us. Our last three days have been great, a little slower paced than the first two weeks but we're still putting the miles on. We hiked through the Samarian Gorge, A 17 km rocky trail that starts on a mountain top, weaves down the cliff side with multiple river crossings made of old driftwood and fallen boulders. Sarah was the only one who managed to stay dry on this one. A tippy stone got the best of me. Once we made it through the gorge we were led to a tiny village only accessed by boat, our way home. They DID have a seat for us. So we waited for the ferry to depart, we soaked up he tiny town decorated with tiny shops, and an amazing beach of tiny black pea sized pebbles (not actually sand). We quickly found a spot on the beach and sat back with the waves crashing on our feet. We didn't bring our swim suits but maybe no one here knows joe boxer doesn't make swim wear. I'm going for it... One of our most amazing dinners came on the dimly lit pathways near our room. We met a restaurant owner as we explored the streets of old Chania, (the part of town surrounded by a stonewall) He invited us in, and I asked him for his recommendation from the menu. He pointed at a casserole dish, baked in an antique clay pot. When we opened the lid we were blown away by a huge serving of beef, pork, chicken, vegetables, veal, and local cheeses. This is flavor country. This lamp lit roofless dining lounge is reason enough to return... Crete is a pretty big island, renting a scooter really helped expand our adventure footprint. We hit up the coast in search of our own beach to spend the afternoon. Traffic here is a little different. To help the flow, bikes don't wait in line at lights! They swoop between cars and vans to the front of the line. And take off first on the green. Lane markings also seem optional, dipping in and out however you see fit is the norm. Sarah was the most brave, I would have not got on the back of the scooter with me! But she let me ride it back to he hotel alone and figured since I arrived alive we stood a chance on the coast;) next stop. Santorini. Stay tuned, Pat and Sarah

It's All Greek to Me! Bed wetters, thieves, and con artist scoundrels...

This chapter begins in the Rome Train Station. What was to be a relaxing train ride turned Into an episode of "The Amazing Race." we had plans to catch a ferry in Bari to head across to Patras, "Greece" but as luck would have it our intended train sold out as we stood in line to get tickets. The next train available would leave us with under an our to get to the ferries. (which we learned from online forums were well over an hours journey by foot. Not to mention standing in line for tickets, passing security, not getting lost and rolling the dice on a delay free departure from Rome. There was hope, but we needed the stars to align. Sarah figured we could save some time by buying advance ferry tickets, this proved to be a good plan but our tickets didn't actually say which port we left from (there were two.) Upon arriving in Bari we quickly made friends with the first man to say Taxi and found our way to the correct port as he recognized our ferry line from our tickets and knew it was pier 7(yeah, a little lucky we know.) We made it safely and on time onto our correct ferry to begin the first 16 hour leg of our 24 hour journey. As I write this we are on a bus toward Athens, where we will try and connect with another ferry to take us to Any of the Greek Islands. We will let the schedules for the ferris choose where we go as they all look beautiful and choosing can be so hard:)  10 hours ago we thought we might not make it this far in a single day. We sailed the high seas in a cramped deck with what appeared to be a motley crew of homeless pirates, riding in the stench of their urine soaked clothes and rumbles of their never ending snores. Sleep was hard to come by as our bags never seemed safe within the reach of three scruffy men who "accidentally mishandled" baggage that was not theirs, and left with bags from time to time to return empty-handed. We finally made it ashore in Patras, belongings in tow, where we were welcomed (or not so welcomed) by four different men with cars soliciting themselves as cabs. They all offered to drive us to Athens for 250 euros, and indicated that since it was a Sunday, and an election day, No busses were running and a cab was our only hope. Quickly recognizing this as a high pressure used car sales tactic, we told them we would consider it over lunch and began walking toward the heart of downtown which to our pleasure was only 1 km away, not the 7km the "cabbies" had warned us of. We managed to find some helpful english speaking shopkeepers downtown that gave us train times as well as directions to the station. We have successfully avoided our first really deep tourist trap. Even a girl working for the ferris warned us of the "cancelled" busses and directed us to the mob of "cabbies." Now we're on a bus and we think we're going to Athens! Next post, some small Greek island... Update:  It's now 10:52 pm, local Greek time. We're on yet another ferry. We haven't seen a bed or a shower in well over 30 hours. We won't be arriving in Crete for another ten, but once we arrive,  a 3 hour bus should have us in the oasis of Chania. (but nothing is booked and Sarah is grouchy.) I have been reminding her this is a considerable improvement over the cardboard box that nearly became a reality in florence! On ferries, cabins are 10 times the price of a chair, so needless to say our broke asses are in deck chairs our way to Crete. Not a small island, but our last cabbie dropped us off in front of this ship. Our only common words were "super fast ferries." This is the ferry company that we get a deal with because of our  Eurail pass we purchased! New plan, enjoy crete for 2 or 3 days, hit up a Greek island or two, maybe Santorini and then return to Athens on the 14th for our flight to  Update: Monday, 11:00 am. This is heaven. 46 hours later and we are here. We made our way through Chania and found an immaculate top floor, two level apartment room overlooking the bustling harbor with a.c. and a private patio. I think we have the nicest place in town and it's under budget! Although we both made it from Rome to Crete for under 150 euro, our recommendation is FLY!  Pat and Sarah

When in Rome...

Our stop in Rome was Short, but we saw what we came for. We have been turning down offers of guided tours and promises of short lines in exchange for our cold hard cash, after we realized most of the people you walk through these sights with are on tours and, and you hear some great information from ther guides as you go. We managed to hit up the hot spots in late evenings when the lines were scarce,doing our sightseeing on foot as we explored this great city. It isn't a bad idea based on the size of the beers here to get a little exercise! Really, everywhere you turn here you are surrounded by ancient ruins. You can hardly find a boring route to travel. And keeping our destinations flexible as we have, "All roads will get you there." The remains of brick structures still lie on the corners of soccer fields and metro station entrances. It was truly a grand feeling walking through what was undeniably the center of the world in another lifetime. The Colloseum was our favorite, perhaps because it was the most vivid in our minds going in. We learned on our visit that it is largely in ruins not only due to nature, but different kings had built other structures borrowing from its materials after the games had fallen out of favor with the public. Other sights we visited during our nomadic treks were, Vatican museum, The Panthanon, Trevi Fountain, Roman forum, The Palentine, and we took in another traveling Dali exhibition! Next stop, Greece, somewhere!

Florence (part deux) only far more Italian sounding!!!

Second times a charm? Well for us it was. It was kind of nice returning to Florence, we had a good idea where to go as our two nights would be spent at the same hotel we used on our first botched adventure:) We called ahead and were told we could check in early; a very welcome surprise. After ditching our packs, (which seem to be getting heavier by the day) we really started to take in the sights. The most impressive moments came in some of the museums, as we got first had tours of the statue "David" by Michael Angelo. To my disappointment not a Ninja Turtle, and the birth of Venus by the hand of Bocelli. David was truly impressive! Leading up to his were some of Michael Angelo's incomplete works. They really looked like figures trying to escape the marble! A chest, arm, and face would be clearly visible, but the remainder of the figure was still encased, not yet created, lurking within the raw earthy marble stone. Kind of like Han solo in The Karbonite. Pretty cool huh? I never noticed a small tree stump behind David's right leg before, but we were told that the statue was far too heavy to bear it's own weight on David's legs alone, and this reinforcement was added by the artist to ensure it's stability as the marble was also flawed. Michael Angelo was not the original artist to select the marble, but chose to take on the project to prove he could make a masterpiece of anything. (according to our tour guide, I haven't googled that part yet.) Right now we are on a fancy speedy train, zipping first class across rivers, through, tunnels, and across green pastures with the mountains in view. Next stop, Rome! To "do as the Romans do!" Stay Tuned, Pat and Sarah

The Heights of Cinque Terre

Cinque terre, A large part of us selecting Pisa was its close proximity to Cinque Terre. This was a Must See for us in Italy. Known for its amazing oceanic views and vast hiking trails between the five small seaside towns. We were almost chased home by heavy rain and winds when we arrived, but we fired on our raincoats both days and headed up into the hills anyhow. As it turned out, our luck seems to have turned for the better.  Both days the storms broke and the sun burnt off most of the clouds by midday. We came prepared for the tourist friendly paths that followed the coast, but we're forced up high into the mountainside hiking trails to reach the next towns as the main paths were closed due to landslides. We were grateful, it was like our own private adventure. Across snail inhabited tired stone bridges(Sarah made a friend, eek), below outstretched branches of ancient trees, across vineyards and tiptoeing the outskirts of local patios. A very welcome change the elbow bumping of the tourist boulevards promoted in our pamphlet.The sights we saw and the perspectives we had of the towns were  unforgettable.  Not as unforgettable as a townsperson carrying a severed cow head in a clear freezer bag as we witnessed, but still, very unforgettable.We also came across some strange rails along the hillsides that almost looked like an irrigation system, but as we trekked on we later learned it was actually a trolly track for a  mini farm train. Crazy, this thing went down cliffs you would not want to shimmy down even on your butt. It basically looked like a rail mounted shopping cart! We finished off our final day in Pisa/cinque Terra with a seaside dinner as the ocean crashed against the beach below us. These towns were magnificent, the locals were friendly, what a way of life they have preserved. Next stops, Florence and Rome Pat and Sarah

Saved by the Leaning Tower

Pisa, Well, the wake up and wing it plan brought us to Pisa. Away from the craziness of Florence and down the street from the leaning tower, which by the way, was mindblowing. We caught our first glimpse of the tower as we strolled down the street, lined with dudes selling fake rolexes. It seems each town has its own select line of fake merchandise; Venice was purses; Florence was sunglasses; cinque terra umbrellas! The tower was clearly in view, just as leaning as you imagine, but the real beauty and surprises came when we climbed it. After walking through a courtyard of the greenest grass we had ever seen, littered with couples of all ages making out it broad daylight, we headed up a tight corridor of dimly lit spiral stairs. It played a real trick on your senses because everything looks level inside since you cant see out, but your balance is off as you climb and feel yourself falling towards,the inner and outer walls. The stairs have huge pits worn into them from what must have been the millions of travelling sneakers and boots before ours. The rewarding view of Pisa was breathtaking, as our photos will show. Dinners and drinks were also great, we really enjoyed the pizza here, with one shop in particular. A quaint little patio next to the street, with small, medium, and large beers. Large being 1L. NICE. We got the same server both nights, the guy you imagine when you think of an Italian restaurant. He spoke English as best as he could and ended every sentence with "oh-key-hay?" (ok) it was awesome. Sarah wanted to take him home. And keep him.  Stay tuned, Pat and Sarah