back in london...have i been here before???

ok...just left rob and his family in barnstaple, devon. so disappointed to leave but this means i only have two more days until im home! yay! the rest of my stay in devon was awesome. we partied for rob's birthday with all his mates(happy 22nd rob!). toured the countryside extensively...its so gorgeous and green. the weather reminded me of home, making me a little homesick. and rob's family was amazing. took care of me like my own family would and i cant wait to go back and visit. i am now addicted to cream tea...yummy! and also anything blackcurrant flavoured.

had my one last day in london(i think ive said that before) and went back to notting hill to get my final patch for my backpack(picked you up one too carolyn...not the mind the gap one but still a good one). then went to the british museum to see all the things that we should have seen along the way. ie. frienze's from the parthenon, greek and roman statues, weapons of early europeans, etc. it was way interesting but got hard to look at after a couple hours since there was just sooo much of it. went into the reading room and took a test on my knowledge of greek gods and godesses...not too great but im not inept either. although i think carolyn would have kicked butt at that game.

now im just worrying about getting home tomorrow as all the uk airports are tightening security measures and delaying flights by about 6 or 7 hours after a terror threat has come in. go london police though...they thwarted it with 21 arrests last night. darn...this might mean that i cant work on sunday....boo-urns...hehehehe(evil laugh).

alrighty...i hope to see you all very soon! white rock here i come! yay!
dani

devon countryside

well...i wasnt going to post about devon until i was done here but seeing as the girls have already posted...im feeling a little guilty.

alright so ive been in devon for almost a week now and it is lovely. rob's family is great(they feel just like my own family in some ways). they have taken me to the beach twice(where all our stuff was washed away while we played american football), shopping around town(for rob's bday present), to the movies(pirates of the carribean 2...strange but ok) and everywhere in between. as i am sure you have read in carolyn and lauren's blogs, though, the highlight was the Big Sheep...a theme park based on sheep! lol! complete with sheep racing(they even had little toy sheep as jockeys on the real sheep...velcroed on!). im enjoying myself so much im thinking of skipping ireland in favour of staying a few extra days here. well...that's all for now. im going back to relaxing and reading my book.

ps. a message to the ADU...all is lost...rob kicked my butt at bowling. in my defence it just wasnt the same without you guys!

re-londoning

well....arrived in london again...still love the city. next to vancouver...pretty much like my favourite place on earth. carolyn and i are going to buy a flat together. in notting hill(cause we can totally afford it too!).

met up with al and a bunch of his friends at his hostel for cheap drinks. coolest people ever! and it was great to see al again. had such a good time.

didnt get a lot of time to spend in london though...as we are off to devon to meet rob!

Go Italia!

alright....so i suck at this blog thing. too much going on for me to actually stop and post about it.

NAPLES
well....naples was not the cleanest city ive ever been in. but we stayed outside the city....closer to pompeii. speaking of....pompeii was really cool. the weather was scortching but none of us realized that pompeii is an entire city! we thought that only part of the ruins were preserved but it is huge! we saw the bakery, the brothel, the gardens, the villa de misteri and so much more even though we only did the 2 hour tour and there was definately a 6 hour tour! anyway, that was the only reason we went to naples so that was pretty much all we saw except for the train station.

ROMA
un-freakin-believable! the colloseum was amazing! so much history and i am so glad we got the tour because it wasnt just a building...we learned about all the little details and saw a picture of what it was like when it was built...wow. then we saw the roman forum...pretty neat and the spanish steps(the site of our pub crawl...featuring the coolest t-shirts ever!) and the parthenon and trevi fountain and probably more that i am missing.

the vatican city we decided counts as another country on our list....cause it is! and how cool was it! the basillica was gorgeous and the sistine chapel was cool...but to tell you the truth both carolyn and i favoured the hall of maps to the chapel! lol!

CODROIPO
this is where we stayed with lauren's family. they were awesoe! took me to the doctor and bought me medicine cause i had a cold for 10 days....its almost gone now! they took us to the mountains (saw the freakin ALPS! and the dolomites). took us for lunch and to an outdoor concert. cooked us wonderful homemade italian dishes and took super care of all of us sickies(at this point...yes...we were all sick!).

VENICE
saw st. mark's square and the basillica. went down the canal grande in a ferry boat along with a rick steves self-guided tour. other than that...not much to see in venice. but it was a beautiful city. this was also our last stop in italy...so sad. last new country to see. next is london again.

oh the travelling

well, i never thought i would be happy to be out of greece! its a very nice place to visit but we stayed a little too long...the three of us have gotten so used to being super active every day that the laying-on-the-beach-doing-nothing-all-day-life did not agree with us.

athens to naples was the hardest leg i think we will ever do. started at the train station in athens...couldnt find the right train...then a man working for the station told us which one to get on...super nice of him, right? except it was goin the wrong way! by fluke got the right train with minimal switching, then had to take another train from corinth the rest of the way to patra(the port we needed). small, overcrowded train where lauren and i literally got attacked by giant flying beetles bigger than my thumb! GROSS!

our ferry was actually the bright spot of the trip. a luxury ferry with air seats(which are basically like first class airline seats). complete with a pool, sauna, sports lounge and sit-down meal service(which we were obviously too cheap to use...self-service all the way). not too bad a sleep either and the ferry only got in about an hour late.

then it was onto the train from bari to naples...not bad but we had a little girl next to us that was into throwing tantrums. this train was also late arriving...and we almost missed our connection(seriously considered whether we should just stay on the first train and go straight through to rome with no stop in naples cause we were so late). made it on the connection with seconds to spare! then a mini train in sketchy naples to the outskirts(much more safe-looking) where we are staying.

that concludes the 36.5 hr trip! we survived! a little worse for wear, but all in all, still in one peice.

today is pompeii. talk to you all soon

IT"S ALL GREEK TO ME!

oh...i am sooo funny!

here we are in athens...its a pretty nice city. i am not sure why everyone has seemed to bash it a little...it has more greenery than all the islands combined! lol!

saw the acropolis today...i was blown away...especially by the museum...standing next to a work of art that is thousands of years old is very humbling. carolyn loved it of course(very into greek mythology) and she was our defacto tour guide(did an excellent job as well!). then we went to the temple of zeus olympius. not much left of it but there was a fallen column that was pretty cool...you dont really realize how much work goes into it until you see all the parts!

anyway...that was our one day in athens...have to go now...leaving for italy in the afternoon tomorrow and we wont arrive until the next evening...must mentally prepare somehow...yoga or meditation or shooting myself...we'll see which one wins out!

post again soon!
dani

greek island hopping!

hello all!

wow! does time fly...i cant believe we are 3/4 of the way done our trip!

here are the details since turkey...

SAMOS
started the greek isles on samos...not by choice because we could not get anywhere else until the next morning...but it turned out to be very nice! only got about 18 hours on the island but it was worth it...very much what you think of when you imagine greece. met two americans and two canadians who were heading in our direction and stayed with them for the next island.

NAXOS
well, our guide books refered to this as the most lush and green of all the islands by far...i think someone should by the lonely planet people a COLOR WHEEL! brown is not green....and this place was definately brown! thats ok though because they had some very nice beaches and if you hunted some very private beaches...which was nice to get away from the touristy areas. rented a scooter for the day and did the island...didnt take long cause it wasnt a big island. also watched the world cup finale on naxos...crazy time...go italy!(thats for laurens family!)

IOS
next was ios. havent been to a place remotely like this so far. not sure they allowed people under the age of 30 within a hundred yards of this island. such a party island! the first night was great! the streets of the main town are super twisty and easy to get lost in but have a million little clubs with great happy hour prices! of course we started the night with the two-fer club! and ended it with the best dance club on the island! also...i think someone should let the greeks in on what an irish pub is supposed to be...more than lots of drunk people is required to call it irish! lol!

SANTORINI
got tired of ios pretty quick...felt out of place with the non-backpacker variety so we pushed in a new island...beautiful and definately greener than naxos! took a cruise around the island today and to the little islands around with the hot springs and hiked to the top of the volcano...amazing! leaving tomorrow for athens.

well, gotta go....talk to you all soon.