climBing!

Yesterday I went with Azzurra, Alessandro and Francesco into the hills outside of Bologna to go-if you can believe it-rock climbing! At first I was just going to get out of the house because I was really bored...but then I ended up climbing as well. First off I got to ride on a motorino again (which is always thrilling), then we picked up the car and drove 30 mins outside of Bologna, and finally hiked up to this spot where there was quite the community of rock climbers! They boys all went first and then it was Azzurra's turn. Poor thing had never done it before so she was really scared. She got only about a quarter of the way up, decided she couldn't do it, and made Ale let her down, despite all our attempts to coax her into continuing up! Then it was my turn. Thankfully I've done it before, at the Rockanasium or whatever it's called in Davis, and so at least I understand how it works. It was relatively hard and I got stuck several times, but Francesco was really encouraging and wouldn't let me give up. I had to stop to rest a couple times on little ledges but I loved it because once I got above the trees I could see into this gorgeous, peaceful valley behind me that had little patches of crops with the sun setting behind it. I kept going even though I thought my arms were going to fall off and finally I made it to the top! The best part of course is coming down because I could belay back and it felt like I was flying! I think everyone was a little shocked that I'd actually made it all the way up, hehe...the one who wasn't even sure she wanted to do it! Afterwards Azzurra and I waited for the others in the hammock, chatting some more about the differences between our languages. It was really a lovely afternoon and I think I convinced Francesco to take us back again when we return from Calabria!

Italy with Julia

Bologna...
...was a nice rest stop in between Greece and our Italy trips. That night we ordered pizza and watched the Italy-France Euro Cup game with my roommates...and we won! Forza Italia! Forza Azzurri!

The next day was Julia's 21st birthday! We spent the day exploring Bologna, went out to a nice Bolognese dinner and then for gelato at my favorite place, which I'm pretty sure is her new favorite place as well!

Quintessential Neptune Fountain photo

Verona...
...was so picturesque! Once we arrived, we headed straight for the grocery store where we bought bread, cheese, salami and fruit to have a picnic in the piazza. It was a nice day and we had fun munching, talking, and people watching.

Next up, of course, was Rick Steve's self-guided tour of Verona!

Piazza Erbe

Me and my homeboy, Dante

Torre dei Lamberti

Ponte Pietra

Roman Arena

Hallway of love proclamations on the way to "Juliet's balcony"

Cinque Terre...
...was like a dream! Five small towns built into the cliffs on the Italian Riviera. We visited 3 of them, staying in the first (Riomaggiore) and making our way up either by hiking or training. We started with the lover's trail to go to town # 2 (Manarola) which ended up being our favorite.

The highlight of the whole trip was the Vineyard walk (Rick Steves suggested) that we took in Mararola. It was just lovely, since the town was basically built in a valley surrounded by huge hills of vineyards. We had the most spectacular views and were at peace separate from the other tourists.

Julia jumping out of a bush after becoming one with nature

Manarola, buried in vineyards

The too-lovely and thus fake-looking photo

View from the park on the cliff

Photo for mom...some people have so much they have to cut back. I guess it's time to move to Cinque Terre.

Cute old ladies getting some fresh air

Since we were staying in an apartment, we decided to buy food and make it ourselves. The region of Liguria is famous for its pesto, so we bought fresh pasta, pesto rosso, amazing veggies, and of course, in tribute to our vineyard walk, white wine produced in the region. We had such a nice evening finally getting to shower, stuffing ourselves full of delicious food, and chatting (which we do a lot of). By the end of it we decided against going out because we were too full and tired...so instead we went to bed early!

The next day we went to Vernazza but both decided we preferred Manarola. We hadn't come prepared for swimming and regretted it later because it was so hot and the water looked so inviting! We had a delicious seafood meal before heading back to collect our things. On the way to the station we saw this...

...and I just had to share it with you all. I suppose some things are universal, eh? Anyways so it's about now that our day starts to get interesting. Cinque Terre is not very well connected to the rest of Italy because it's tucked away in this little corner off the main routes. This means it takes forever and you have to take slow, unreliable trains to get there. Two minutes before our 6 pm train was due to arrive, it popped up on the screen that it was over an hour late. This meant we would automatically miss our next two connections. So we had to take a completely different train, two hours later, at 8. It was cool, though. We sat in the shade next to the cute old men from the town and played cards and ate M&Ms.

The terribly wonderful Italian men...

...and some Italian women to balance them.

While on that train, we stopped in the middle of nowhere for a good 20 minutes, thus ensuring we would miss our next connection in Viareggio. We decide to just get to Florence, hoping there would be more options, or at least a bigger station. We get there around 11 and it turns out there's nothing reliable to Bologna until 4:30 in the morning. We don't want to get a room, so we go to McDonalds for a most nutritious meal (I think Julia enjoyed it a little too much) and a bathroom and end up staying there for 3 hours. Where the hell else could we go?


Around 230 we head back to the station only to find out it's closed. So we chill outside next to the few normal people, the homeless men and the carabinieri (a form of police) for the next 2 hours until the station opens, we can get on our train, and we finally make it back to Bologna at 630 am. What a night!

and back to Bologna...
...thank God! We ended up having a very sluggish day (partially due to the extreme heat that has just swallowed Bologna) which only picked up around 6 when we went for gelato in the park and reminisced about high school for hours. We picked up pizza on the way home so we could eat it during the Italy-Spain game. It was tied all the way through so we went into overtime and then into goal kicks. In the end, Spain won and everyone's spirits were quite crushed. Julia and I wrapped up the evening by watching When Harry Met Sally.

On Julia's last day, since she was leaving that night for Milan, we didn't have a lot of time to do anything huge, so we decided to challenge the heat and hike up to San Luca. The views from the top are phenomenal and we were quite proud of ourselves for making it up there! That afternoon we took it easy, eating, packing, and watching a movie, and then it was time to send her off to Milan! She had quite a trip ahead of her, with another overnight in an airport and something like 27 connections, but she made it home just fine.

Now I'm just kind of chillin, trying to get some things in order, not melt, and prepare for my final trip down to Calabria, this time with all the girls. We're going to stay in Federica's beach house for a week!

Mykonos? MykoYES!

Ok guys so I don't have time to write the whole blog because Julia and I are out and about each day...but I wanted to show you all the pictures from our day in Milan and week in Mykonos, Greece! Basically, it was spectacular! I'll fill in the blanks as I have the time...

Duomo - Milano

In my opinion, and that of many others, Milano is not anything to brag about as far as beauty, culture and history go. Sure it has a beautiful duomo and lots of fancy shops, but it's ugly and cold (personality-wise). That being said, we had a fabulous time there. We got lucky with the restaurants we picked, especially the pizzeria we chose for dinner. The waiters were really cute and flirtatious and by the end of the meal we had been introduced to each one. The main two were Constantino and Vincenzo, the latter of whom kept coming around to kiss each of our hands again and again without saying a word. It was great...we had lots of fun planning alternate evenings out with the Italian waiters that would surely rival the night we instead had ahead of us: sleeping in the Milan Malpensa airport...

...which was fine. Quite uncomfortable and I don't think you could call what we got sleep, but we made our flight just fine the next morning and were on our way to Mykonos! Andreas, our hostel-owner, is a very sweet Greek man who picked us up at the airport and gave us a small introduction to the town. Here's our street:

And our lovely room, which had clean sheets and towels each day:

We had originally been planning to fly into Mykonos, spend a couple days/nights, and then ferry over to Athens for one night, and finally return to Mykonos. It ended up proving too expensive/stressful, so we ditched the idea and went straight for the beach. Every day we pretty much woke up, went to the beach, swam, ate Greek salads and ice cream bars, laid out in the sun reading, came home, cleaned up, and went out to dinner and/or dancing. Not a bad life, eh? Here's all the beach pics:






The weather was absolutely perfect...we couldn't have asked for any better. This prompted us to spend more time at the beach than I think any of us expected we would! Our favorite of the ones we visited was Platis Gialos, a calmer, more relaxing alternative to the youthful and overly-stimulating Paradise Beach. The water was crystal clear and one day there were even waves and we so we had a lot of fun playing in the water. Did I mention Mykonos is famous for its nude beaches? That was a fun experience...not that I partook, but darn did it look enticing! On our way back to the hostel we'd often stop by the famous windmills with some wine and nuts as our aperitif and watch the sun set over the water.


On this particular sunset we had a couple run-ins with some Greeks. The first was with Yanez (named after the original Yanez, who you'll meet later), the stray dog, that really took to Brittany (which is what Yanez 1 and 2 had in common), and the second was with some male Greek youth. The were playing soccer in the square and ended up kicking the ball straight into Julia's face. While she was reeling, we were laughing, and they thought it was a fun new game to try to pelt the foreign girls with the balls. So we ended up screaming and running down the path back home while attempting to dodge their advances! Phew!

One day we decided to attempt some culture by hoping over to the nearby Delos island which is full of ancient Greek ruins. I wasn't completely impressed just because it was super hot and I've seen way cooler Greek ruins before, but we still had a good time. There was this kind of strange Athenian man who tried to befriend us with the oh so original pick up line, "so where are you girls from?" We quickly ditched him in search of the ancient lion statues but later, when we ran into him again, he said in such a funny English accent, "Are you enjoying your excursion?" I am so going to miss English-as-a-second-language experiences! Such as when Andreas said to us, "I hope you enjoy your sour" instead of "shower", or "let's meet tomorrow so we can talk in the face" instead of "in person". Oh, it makes for good laughs. And it's okay because there have been plenty of occasions when I've said stupid sounding things in Italian and been laughed at.

What a cutie!

Mykonos town is such a cute place. The buildings are all white-washed with blue accents just as you imagine they would be. The town maintains a very authentic feel despite the overload of tourists trying to get in on a piece of the magic. We were nestled nicely between the "bus station", the windmills, and Little Venice, scattered through which are lots of cute shops and eateries. Our favorite place ended up being Niko's cafe where we got delicious entrees including lamb and fish for quite cheap. We also found a cute sandwich cafe where we had a really sweet waiter who came by and asked, "Are your snacks nice?" Also, you can't go to Greece and not eat a gyro which is so good with all the red onion and Greek yogurt sauce they put on it!

Brittany and I sampling the local brew, Mythos

"Sexy" pose...why do I always come out mad?

Serpent tongue!

"You just touched a seemingly cute guy's butt and when he turned around you found out he was gay...GO!"

Mykonos is to Greece as Ibiza is to Spain. It is known the world over as a party island, with some of the best clubs around. The awesome thing about it though is that we could decide to be where the party's at, or we could decide to stay in town and have a peaceful dinner. We went out a couple nights, once to Paradise Club and once to a disco called Scandinavian Bar. I shall start with Paradise Club and do my best to adequately describe this night that will go down in history for all three of us!

The club itself was really cool: outdoors, beach-side, world-renowned dj, pool. We had many encounters with different guys, seeing as the proportions were 3 guys for every 1 girl (at least!). Outside, a man from L.A. who reminded us far too much of Dennis (Brittany's step-dad) engaged us in conversation for awhile. Almost immediately after we had started dancing we each had found "our guy" for the evening...Julia, a sweet Albanian guy who danced and spun her all night...Brittany, a hot Greek boy named Yanez (!)...and me, an Albanian living in Lake Como named Alberto with whom I got to speak Italian! They actually all knew each other in some way, too. There was lots of dancing and, shall I say, flirting, throughout the night. All the guys were good at what they did and so it was fun to hear all their lines and see right through the smokescreen. We had so much fun though because none of them were creepers and we were always in control of the situation. Julia and I started thinking it might be a good time to get going around 3 but Brittany didn't want to leave yet. She appealed to us with this line: "But he's Greeeeek!" What could we say? She was right. It was a culturally enriching experience, hehe.

Once outside the club, while trying to secure a ride on the shuttle bus back to town, we're talking with Alberto and suddenly these two Aussie guys, Kyle and Sam, come up and start talking to us. They were so funny! One had fallen asleep on the beach and missed the entire party. The blond one randomly showed us these pictures of them making really impressive ridiculous faces (as you have seen we are fans of, as well) and the other said sarcastically, "I'm really glad you showed the girls those pictures, because I was afraid it'd be awkward." We had lots of laughs in that hour outside the club. Finally we're able to get on the shuttle and we're realizing that a very good proportion of the dozen people on it are people that had made our evening very enjoyable: Alberto, Sam, Kyle...other than the girls' other guys, the only one missing was Brittany's step-dad, Julia and I said to each other in the back of the shuttle. Two minutes later who turns around and says hello? Twin Dennis! I have never felt more like my life is a movie. We really had the most incredible time that night...didn't go to bed 'till the sun came up! We have no pictures of it...but we kind of like it better that way.

A couple nights later we ended up at Scandinavian bar after gyros and beers on the peer. The dj was awesome, playing song after song of our favorite songs! There was this creepy Italian guy that tried to dance with Brittany who I attempted to fend off. He appealed that he's a masseur at this one beach we should come to the following day. When he thought I didn't believe him he stared massaging Brittany's hand and it was hilarious and really quite over the top. Finally I told him that was enough--go away! We also met some more great Aussies - we're starting to think maybe Australia should be the next big trip! - who we danced around for half the night. We just let loose and danced like crazy people. It was a blast:


We spent our last evening shopping around town, watching the sunset, and coming full circle by eating dinner at Niko's again. Favorite joke from the night:
K: "I want a beer, man...I want a beerman...hmmm"
J: "Oh, I get it, it's like, a person."
(followed by lots of mocking Julia about chickens crossing the road and the obviousness of jokes)

Here's lots of pics from our last night:







On one of our walks around town we saw a shirt in a window that said, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to Mykonos" and considered for a moment having it printed on matching airbrushed tees so as to commemorate the trip in a mode of pure irony.

The next morning it came time to fly back to Italy...I have to put in a pic of the baby on the plane, because (s)he was just lovely and played with us the entire flight (and yes I did tell the mother her baby boy is the cutest thing only to find out it's a girl-damn romance languages and their insistence on masc/fem words):

We had to say good-bye to Brittany at the airport, who was off to collect her stuff in England before flying to North Carolina for a visit with her Dad and then finally back to California. It was hard saying good-bye to her, knowing that our frolics through Europe were coming to an end (at least for now). But the three of us can't stop thinking and reminiscing about Greece because we really had the most spectacular trip together...if I ever get the chance to go to Greece again...my answer will most definitely be mykoYES!