Arrived safely home in Aix Saturday midday in time to hit the markets; needless to say I bought nothing because I am very good at persuading myself I don't need it( thanks for instilling something good in me mom!). Sunday I relaxed and did laundry!!! Walked around town since it was warm and cloudless for once, and a french couple stopped and asked me for directions. I felt so sorry for them because they were completely headed in the wrong direction. So I began explaining to them how to get to their destination and I could see it dawn on their faces that this girl doesn't speak french as her native language and yet she is telling us how to get around. I guess it's the little things in life that make your days!
Yesturday I proceded to eat dinner with Jess as I have every Monday for the past 2 months! And we were able to persuade Andy to watch Garden State with us. Today I did homework while laying at the park with friends. And it is starting to dawn on me that I will be leaving them and this wonderful place in less than 3 weeks. And although I am sad, I am very glad and grateful for my parents to allow me such a wonderful opportunity. Although I think mom might have liked it if I called home a little more often! At least I can go home saying I can hold conversations in french, and I feel at ease when traveling even in places such as greece, because I was able to speak to people in English and French even when both was our second language. The barriers just seem to keep getting smaller!
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Lake Bled
After arriving in Lake Bled we had to search for our hostel. It would have been easy but I guess we got off at the first stop and should have stayed on for the second one. In the hostel we met up with an Australian girl named Cynthia who was in the hostel from the night before. We all decided to walk around the lake and then climb to the castel. It looked like it would rain but it held out till the next day. Had a traditional slovenian meal of roast beef and potatoes. And the meal came with a wonderful garlic bread. In the morning it poured down while we ate breakfast at the hostel. Eileigh and I decided to leave and bid Cynthia good bye and headed for the train station. With the map we had we got completely lost and saw the train pulling away from the station. So we headed to the bus station and happened to run into Cynthia again and she decided to come with us since she needed to leave at 5am the next day and didn't want to miss it either. So we finally arrived late afternoon in Trieste and then took a night train to Florence. Got to Livorno, Italy and took a ferry to Corsica. The weather was beautiful and we found the cheapest room yet! Spent the next day around the old port and we saw the movie The Ring 2 in French! Still scary. The night ferry to Toulon friday night and we were home and shopping at our own market Saturday morning! A wonderful trip, but too many night ferries, buses, trains!!!
Ljubljana, Slovenja
Took a ferry from Igomenitsa to Ancona, Italy and Jess and Andy headed for Venice and Eileigh and I went to Trieste. In the morning we headed for the Slovenian border, but it is difficult to cross, so we had to walk across. We felt like refugees. But I did get my passport stamped by Italians and 20 meters later, by Slovenians! Made our way through town to the tran station but the only train to Ljubljana(the capital) was at 19:48. The friendly lady at the station called the bus station and told us that she would drive us to the bus because it was leaving in 4 minutes and it took that long to drive there. So we made the bus and had found the hostel celica(nicest one i have ever been in) by the time the train would have left! The next day we explored the old center, the castel. It is amazing how quickly the architecture changes. Then bought fruit, bread and cheese with kumin in it for our bus ride to Lake Bled. It started raining as we were leaving, what good luck!
Meteora at our fingertips!
after leaving beautiful Skopelos, we headed to Meteora, in central Greece. The man at Hotel Sydney said we needed at least 2 days to be able to see the monasteries on the cliffs, and he was right. We climbed up the cliffs and saw 3 monasteries and 2 convents. They are eastern orthodox and so the art work in them is very different. In fact, they had a chapel in the Great Metamorphasis Monastery that had saints with their heads cut off. They had sun discs and there was blood jutting from their throats. Eileigh and I had a hard time of not laughing, since Monte Python seems to be the film we are quoting on the trip!!! It was quite a hike from each one but teh view was worht it. At each one women are required to wear a skirt, but since it is so windy up there we just wore the ones provided-felt like in the Sound of Music. Luckily the weather was great and we didn't have to rush. I made us take this picture on top of this lookout rock, but poor andy is afraid of heights!
Skopelos Island
The next morning we took a ferry out to Skopelos Island and when we arrived an older man came right up to us and asked if we needed a room. His hotel was only 50 meters away and we could see the port and all the sun rising in the morning! We walked around town and ate dinner at one of the few places open. I ordered a portion of chicken, and recieved a whole one! It was so delicious but I didn't need to eat until lunch the next day. The island is being completely redone for the summer time and we are the only touriste in town. We try what little greek we know and everyone laughs, I feel like the talk of the town, but I don't mind at all! We found an internet cafe and Andy and I play chess, and I am imroving! The next day we spend the morning at a beach on the other side of the island. A bus drops us off. There is no one else here and we dip into the ocean which is so cold that I lose all feeling, until Jessica points out that there are jelly fish. So i guess we aren't totally alone!!! Not sure when the bus comes back we decide to walk to the nearest town. Once there they tell us it is another hour wait, so we continue to walk. But we are tired from being in the sun all afternoon, and after about 4km we find a random bus stop and sit and wait. The bus arrived 20 minutes later, so it worked out well. We ate dinner at the other local spot in town and I tried octopus pasta. It was good, but I don't fancy the suckers still been on:) So many cute shops with tunics and sandals, but they were mostly remodeling for the summer so we didn't have luck with purchasing.
Acropolys
We took a morning train to Milan and flew to Athenes, Greece. On the way to the ancient city we passed the changing of the guards. The uniforms have been the same for centuries and are very decorative. Spent the morning exploring at the Acropolys and many of the temples that lie in ruins below it. It is so amazing that the Greeks built these huge temples on these cliffs with the wind wiping all around. But when you are up there you feel as though you are in a different world! After exploring the ruins we went back through the markets and had lunch at a cafe- you can't beat a Greek Salad with feta cheese! There are so many cats in this country, they just lay around you while you are eating hoping that you drop something. So of course, Eileigh and I dropped some bread crumbs! Only having 2 days in this city made it hard to want to leave, especially when there are 200 bus lines and we couldn't figure it out! We missed our bus to Delphi, but not discouraged. We just headed to Volos which is a beautiful port town and a lovely lady in the bakery taught us how to say thank you in greek: apheristou( a fer e sto)! And it is here where we ate tonnes of baklava!! i found out that if you eat local honey then your allergies won't bother you!
Monday, April 11, 2005
went to a bar til 2 am to eat and listen to techno! then overnighted it in genoa train station with jess, andy, eileigh and a guy from penn named nat. hoped 6 am train to milano and flew to athenes. sunday we went to the acropolis and agora ruins, plus we hit the markets! a little confusing with transport b/c there are 200 bus lines in athenes, but the people here are great!! they speak english and tonnes of people stopped to ask us where we needed to go and would take us there. can't get enough souklavi and baklava!! the greeks know how to eat well! and the city is beautiful. now headed for volos and take a ferry to islands in the agean sea!
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
wine tour
For the weekend of April 2-3rd we went to the Camargue with our program. We saw bulls up close, some flamingos and I went on a jeep safari! It was a little windy but I loved it. It felt like I was back at home, except there were marshes everywhere. We had a 5 couse dinner on Saturday night and it lasted til 2am. There were 3 men playing guitars and singing spanish songs! Sunday we went to the town of St. Maries de la Mer. It is on the sea. Went to church and discovered the Pope had died, so that was a sad. Then we had free time at the medieval town of Aigues-Mortes. The afternoon was filled with a salt manufacturer tour(the land used to make the salt is as big as the city of Paris)and they also grow wine here so we had a taste! If the picture isn't too dark, you can see how big the oak barrels were!
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