Bahamas Shenanigans

Just returned from a long weekend in the Bahamas, visiting my fabulous friend Mike. He did such a great job playing host, because from what I do remember, I had the best time ever. Everything else is kind of a blur. This I also blame on Mike, who fed me alcohol like it was his job. That said, here are some highlights from an awesome weekend:

~The welcome drink lasted from 3pm Thursday night until sometime Friday morning. Like I said, fuzzy.

~I climbed over a railing and below a deck to retrieve my fallen purse. Twice. Even though it hadn't fallen that far down. But I remember I had a fun time climbing that railing!

~Got some pre-Sydney ocean training in, all 500m of it. But hey, that's better than nothin'!

~The beach. The sand. The warm clear blue water. Drool.

~Swimming with an actual swimmer and talking shop. Fishies!

~Hot weather. I nearly melted when I got off the plane in Nassau and it was glorious!

~Humidity. It curled my hair so I didn't have to!

~Not having to wear real shoes. Or even shoes at all if I wanted.

~The food: conch fritters, conch salad, lots of conch. Conch fritters at fish fry.

~Talking about anything and everything that popped in my head, no censoring needed. ~Drinking Kaliks and Anejo & gingers.

~The best cold cheese stick I've ever had - perfect hangover food!

~Waking up to the sound of the waves.

~Meeting new people and bonding with Mike. And now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation! Two thumbs up (that left one is behind the delicious Miami Vice daiquiri Mike ordered for me) for Mike and the Bahamas! Thanks for the best time this girl's had in a while. You know my door is always open and the couch/floor/available sleep space is always yours.

Killarney to Killorglin - Cycling in Ireland

We had our first Irish breakfast this morning at our B&B: oj, toast, brown break, fried egg, sausage, bacon (of the canadian variety I think), and lots of coffeeeee. Mmmmmm. So we dressed out in our bike gear, loaded down with the stuff we thought we might need throughout the day, and took off. Irish Cycle Hire has people that will come and pick up our luggage and transport it to our next B&B, pretty convenient that.

Photo: Dad and I had to adapt to riding on the wrong side of the road PDQ so, you know, we wouldn't get run over or anything

Our first destination was the Gap of Dunloe, basically a very skinny road cutting between two mountains, which we could have explored on foot, on our bikes, or by pony cart, but Dad thought the weather might close in and so we pushed on. Not really a hard ride at all, skipped through a couple little villages, and found our way to our B&B (outside of town, again) in Killorglin. Cute little place, famous for the Puck Fair it holds every August 10-12, where they capture a wild goat, bring it to town, crown it king of the festivities, and party down for 48 straight. My kind of people.

Photo, right: the town of Killorglin

Photo, below: road sign in Ballykissane. My interpretation is "don't drive your car off a giant square into the wavy lines below - its a big drop!"

Dad and I arrived kind of early in the day, and saw on the map a road labeled "to Ballykissane", which if you have ever heard of the show Ballykissangel, that's the place that it gets its name and is slightly based off of (maybe). Up a hill, down a hill, down some country lanes, all the way to the river, and back again. Found the "Ballykissane Monument", but don't know what it was for since it was in Gaelic, so we went down a road that thought led back to town, and by some chance happened to be right. That never happens.

Then we went down to a restaurant near the water where they served some awesome fish, and had some beer. Not much going on in these little places, especially today, which was a semi-final all-gaelic football game between Kerry and Cork, so everyone and their goat was inside watching the game while we were out riding around and enjoying the sunshine.

Photo, right: every day should end with a pint of beer. And yes, I tried Guiness, but I'm an ale and lager girl myself, so after my obligatory stout, I stuck to the Harp. Mmmmm.

Counting the Fourty Shades of Green in Ireland, by Bike!

Dad and I are off on a trip to ride our bikes around the Dingle Penninsula in Ireland, kind of a dream for us.

So, guess what greets Dad and I as we exit the airport in Shannon - a good old Irish rain. Not a rain really, just a heavy drizzle. Thus we are baptized into Ireland. A two hour busride, a little confused wandering to find Irish Cycle Hire, and a cab ride later, we arrive at our B&B.

Photo: Ross Castle

Per my travel philosophy of not succumbing to the exhaustion that threatens to overwhelm after an overnight transatlantic flight, Dad and I collect our bikes and set off for our first adventure. Not too far out of town is Killarney National Park, an 11,000 acre swath of forests and lakes and aminals (no, I did not misspell that) and paths and some historical stuff too. We went to check out Ross Castle, a ruin of a tower standing on the edge of one of the lakes.

Photo: magical forest in Killarney National Park

We saw signs pointing off in different directions with intriguing names like "Governor's Rock" and "Library Point", so we took off on our bikes into the forest proper. And a magical forest it was, all mossy with ferns and crazy trees, it was a very wild-feeling place, could very easily understand why the Druids and Celts felt there was a spiritual presence in Ireland, and especially here.

One particular path, towards Library Point, took us through pedal-deep water puddles (apparently it rains here a bit), and of course I couldn't keep my balance while trying to pedal slow so I didn't splash myself (the photo says it all). Yup, soaked my shoes clear though. Wouldn't really matter in the end though, because on our way back to the B&B it started misting, then drizzling, then outright raining, and we could not escape a thorough soaking even though we were riding under trees. Well shit. It was a very pretty ride, even when it was raining! Got lost on the way back, of course, and so arrived back at the B&B absolutely drenched, really you could say we swam our bikes back. Nothing a shower couldn't fix though!

Who doesn't love New York?

Our day started late as we subwayed it down to the Staten Island Ferry to fulfill our Americanly duty and gawk at the Stat(ue) of Lib(erty) and Ellis Island, which I am wondering if that's where my babushka (gradmother) and co. went when they came to America in 1950. Sad that I can't ask Babushka herself.

The Staten Island Ferry was free! Yeah, rockin the free stuff!! Stat of Lib was cool, but I have to say that since I've seen it so many times in movies and the media, it didn't have that awe effect on me. Plus, there's one just like it in Paris that you can actually walk right up to, which I have, so I've seen it much closer.

Photo: lower east side of Manhattan as seen from the ferry.

Post-ferry, we subwayed it back up town to 72nd street and went over to Strawberry Fields (popular hang out of this band, don't know if anyone's heard of them, the Beatles) and saw the IMAGINE mosaic in the concrete covered in flowers. Very cool. 

That's it for my New York City adventure.  Clearly I need to come back!

A Sox Fan in Yankeeland

We subwayed up to the Bronx to check and see if we could scalp some tickets to the Yankees game against the Royals. No one wanted to sell us some cheap tickets, it being the last year for the Yanks in their current stadium, and maybe the fact that I was wearing my Schilling Red Sox tshirt also deterred the scalpers from selling us anything under $100.

So we walked around the stadium, took some pictures, and only got heckled 6 times, and even got a couple Sox cheers. Glad we didn't actually go to the game though, not sure I would have made it out alive!

Hopped on the subway, intending to get off near the Brooklyn Bridge, and ended up going way far into Brooklyn itself. Slightly sketchy! The five minutes we spent above ground was really enough for me.

Backtracked, trekked down through Chinatown, and finally found our way down near the Brooklyn Bridge, absolutely beautiful in a structual way. There is currently an art installation of six waterfalls all along the East River, with one right under one of the piers of the bridge. Kind of a random thing to do, but they were all up and down where we were, and really added something else to the whole skyline of Brooklyn.

Wandered along the waterfront down to the pier, got some beers, sat by the water and just enjoyed the sunset. After the sun went down, they lit up the waterfalls!
 

Photo: graffitti down by the Brooklyn Bridge. Originial, right?

Central Park, Balloon Animals, and Mickey Mantle

Stopped by Dunkin on our way to Central Park for some nourishment, and I ended up getting the magical iced coffee that refused to mix with the 6 or so packets of sugar that I dumped in. Absolutely diabolical in the way that the two substances refused to combine to form a lovely refreshing drink. Enough to make a girl go nuts.

It was a lovely day for a stroll through Central Park, high clouds overhead making the light and shadows dance through the trees. Except for the damn runners that think they have complete jurisdiction over the paths and trails, I swear its like if you're anywhere near their orbit, watch out because you are about to get run over by their grunty sweaty mess. Whole packs of them, like schools of fish, would take over the paths, heaven help you if you get in their way. Had to walk in the opposite direction from the runners just so you could see them coming and avoid them. And, oh lord, if you decide to stop and admire the scenery, you are the cause of a 10-runner pile-up, no question.

So after being nearly pancaked by runners and successfully making it to the other side of Central Park, we turned right down 5th Avenue, where it was a damn good thing I didn't have any cash on me, because if I had, well it would be gone now. There were sooo many artists and photographers with tables set up, nicely cheap too. I still have two days to find my way back down there to rectify my lack of NYC art though, that's what I keep telling myself. :)

Worked our way down to the Met(ropolitan Museum of Art), where we got in free thanks to R's cousin's pass, and saved ourselves $40 in admissions. Yay free! We were there to see the new Superhero exhibit, which showcased the costumes worn by the actors in the recent superhero movies, along with some high fashion pieces inspired by the sh's, and some very interesting commentary about the different aspects of sh's and what they stand for, etc etc.

Saw the Dark Knight Batman cozzie, Chris Reeves' Superman, Wonder Woman, the IronMan suit from the 2008 movie, Spiderman both good and bad, and the appliques they put on Rebecca Romijn-Stamos when she played Mystique in XMen. Very cool stuff and slightly nerdy with the commentary that was basically analyzing differnt aspects of superheroes, like super powers vs. super suits and gadgets. Right up my alley. :)

 

Got a nip of wine at the bar to wind down from the nerdiness, thanks Mom and Dad Epstein! Went up to the rooftop garden to check out the huge acid-green metallic balloon-animal dog sculpture (photo) and some awesome views of the city and Central Park. After the Met, walked down to the end of Central Park to the Plaza hotel, where we thought we could use the bathroom in superior luxury, but the place ended up being such a rabbit warren of hallways and stairs (and no huge lobby that they always show in the movies!), that we left disappointed and found our way around the block to the Mickey Mantle sports bar for some lunch and more beer! Mmmm beer. 

p.s. how bout that Phelps guy? :) Pretty effing amazing.

New York City (uh huh!), Center of the Universe

My Floyd girls Lara and Jackie will recognize that title from their first winter guard show with me, and as well as any hardcore fans of RENT from the song "Santa Fe". Girls, thought of you on my flight here, miss you crazy!

After last night's late night, Rebekah and I didn't make it out of the apartment until 1:30 in the afternoon. We had wanted to take a tour of the UN headquarters, but once we got there, we found out that all the tours for the day were already sold out. Moral of the story for anyone trying to take a tour of the UN: get there early, like before 9am, so you know you get tickets!

Consolation prize: the bookstore and coffee shop were open!! So of course, being the nerds about international stuff that we are, R and I got stuck in the bookstore for like an hour, looking at all the stuff about poverty, sustainable development, the Millenium Development Goals, the environment, economic policy, etc etc. I ended up getting three books that I couldn't live without, and she got four. 

Anyway, we explored what we could, saw a video on the history of UN Peacekeeping missions around the world. There was an exhibit of children's art from around the world, and I found the Azerbaijan artwork and took an appropriate picture. (Having a slight crisis of the future over the whole peace corps thing) On our way across town (on foot!), we saw the Build-A-Bear store, and stopped to check out all the extremely cute stuff. Bought Aussie t-shirts for me and KK's bears. :)

After that, being quite thirsty, we hoofed it up to Fifth Avenue and stopped in for happy hour at TGIFridays then proceeded to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), because on Friday nights its free and we wanted to check out the Dali exhibit. (Regularly, tickets are $16 for students, that's like 2.5 beers! Crazy!) Dali was, in my mind, brilliant and definitely on acid or some other equally hallucinogenic.  Saw the photography floor on the way out, basically a quick run through because there was about 10 minutes to go through it before the thing closed, but saw enough to be satisfied with my free museum trip.

Photo: Rebekah and R2 waiting out the rain outside of TGIFridays.

Now, just to make sure that NYC is one of the most ecletic cities in the world, they install art pieces like the one on the left. I mean, who wouldn't call a white plaster fountain of a crying Hello Kitty art? It's not random at all! It really does scream "capitalism capital of the world", though.

 

New York Crazy Puppets Irish River

Soooo did I do something to anger the travel gods? I know I've complained about the inordinate amount screaming children that seem to follow me around as I wander this great earth, but really, this is just taking it too far. On my flight to New York this morning, which they almost didn't want to let me on because I had bought my ticket so far in advance that it had to be "revalidated", there was a little girl in front and to the right of me that, and I am not even exagerating here, screamed in that super annoying way of small children for the entire effing flight.

Her mother kept talking to her, note I said talking and not scolding or yelling back or smacking her like she should have been, but said little girl would not be quiet. So, plane and/or travel gods: please please please stop tormenting me! I would like to get to Ireland next week without wanting to kill someone!

In other news - New york is.... interesting.... flashy.... narcissitic..... touristy..... ethnic..... slightly sketchy..... and all around crazy. I am definitely a Boston girl, but New York has its own thing goin on, and I can appreciate the good parts of it all. Today Rebekah and Rebecca took me down to a restaurant on the river for lunch (photo: the Hudson river), very nice, and we walked along the river on the way back, so I didn't really get a dose of the nuttiness until we got off the subway right smack in the middle of Times Square later in the evening.

Oh my god I about had an epileptic seizure with all the flashy lights and tv screens and general in-your-face-ness. Pushed through it all to get down to where our theatre was, and found, of all things, an Irish Bar! And since we had time and needed some liquid refreshment before our show, of course we stopped in for a pint. They had Sam Adams Summer Ale, all time fave beer!! So of course after a summer completely without it, I have to take advantage of when the stuff is actually on tap!

We went to see Avenue Q, which is basically Sesame Street (puppets and all) for adults. There was a song about the internet, in which a big furry monster kept jumping in and finishing the others' lines with "for porn". So a line would go something like "you can search with google...for porn!" only way funnier than that. And then there the puppets got it on, which was hilarious considering these puppets only had top halfs, no legs or anything below the waist, so just imagine that one for a sec.  Now that you have that picture in your head, go buy yourself some tickets to this show, because it is that funny!

 

Nominations for the Best of the Seester Adventure

For the last entry, KK and I have come up with superlatives for our trip:

• best MEAL ever: mussels and black squid risotto at Kamenice, Dubrovnik
• best HOSTEL ever: Villa Veselova, Ljubljana
• best GUY ever: Yanni at the Jazz Bar in Bled, aka our chauffeur, luggage porter, landlord and travel agent
• best DRINK ever: "making love" (for 2!) at the Mexican restaurant in Ljubljana best NIGHT ever: my birthday in Ljubljana ;)
• best ADVENTURE ever: canyoning in Bled
• best DAY ever: horseback riding with Matt and Amy at Bohinj
• best CRAZY IDEA ever: kayaking around an island on our own, Dubrovnik
• best BAR ever: George Best Bar, Bled
• best SNACK ever: wafers, Slovenia
• best JOKE ever: that its possible to leave Bled
• best RELAXING ACTIVITY ever: going to the baths in Budapest
• best FRIENDS ever: Matt and Amy, the other half of the Awesome Foursome best BIRTHDAY PRESENT ever: bottle of Hungarain wine from a hostelmate 
• best DRINKING BUDDIES ever: Belgians
• best SHOPPING: street market, Ljubljana
• best FRUIT ever: bananas in Bled
• best GUIDE ever: Gregor, horseback riding, Bled
• best MUSIC ever: Fiori Musicale, Dubrovnik best VIEW ever: from the tower of Dubrovnik's walls
• best MISADVENTURE ever: going to the movies in Split
• best TOURISTY thing ever: boat trip to the islands in Croatia

thus ends my travelblog for now, join me in a few weeks as I take on a bicycle trip around the Dingle Penninsula with Dad, and then hop over to London and Edinburg for a week!

Some Americans in Paris

Ah Paris. City of Lights. France, country of wine. Had forgotten how much I loved Paris, only took a few hours one night to renew the love affair. When can we go back? After navigating the metro to our shoebox of a hotel, we got cute and went out to Ile de la Cite, so I could show KK some of the sites. Got in the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame in one swoop! Walked a bit around that fabulous city of cities, and stopped at a cafe on the banks of the Seine for some wine and crepes. Yummmm. We read a book called "Without Reservations", where this woman takes off to live in Paris for a year, and chronicles her internal journey, and we have decided that we want to be her. But not just with Paris, everywhere. Wanderers. With no money. :) Anyway, Paris was beautful and hopping and fun, just the way its supposed to be, and we both cried a little bit inside at it being our last night in Europe together for a while, and now we just don't want to leave. Serious sad face.

Better Oppressors: Turks or Hapsburgs?

For the Hungarians, the answer is the Turks, because they did not forcably convert the people they conquered, and they imported wonderful things like baths and hygiene. Whereas those crazy inbreeding Hapsburgs were oppressive Catholics that were afraid of water.

We finally made it out of Bled. The train trip to Budapest started off well enough, sharing one leg with our favourite Aussies and their leftover booze, which we all finished off mixed with some ridiculously expensive train Cokes. But two train connections later, we're on our last leg of the journey, only to find we're sharing our train cabin with an Iraqi, whose way of informing us who he was, was,"Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussien!" pointing to himself, and then waving as if he is not personally Saddam Hussiem, but indeed similar. He laughed when he found out we were American. Yeah, I wasn't freaked out at all after that one. As we were waiting to get off the train, some Nederlanders we met informed us that there were Gypsies on the train that were stealing things.  Exit, stage left!

We finally arrived in Budapest at 11:30 at night, and let’s just say that was not the best thing to do, since there were many slightly scary characters around the train station. Luckily we met a nice lawyer lady named Olga from Moldova, who called us a cab and stayed with us til it came.

The next day, there was a festival of some kind on the bridge in front of the castle, so we did a little shopping at the vendors and listened to the music, and bought this pastry thing that was roasted on a grill with vanilla sugar on the outside, shaped like someone's calf. I know cannibalism is wrong but this was one yummy leg! We went up the castle which was more of a small town on top of the hill, when they turned on the lights and it was absolutely beautiful at night fell. It reminded me of Rome, how they both get lit up at night.The only bad thing about this place is that the men all wear speedos, and large Hungarian men just don't need to be doing that. Oh well.

Who would think that something named the House of TERROR would turn out to be one of the highlights of the trip? It was all about how the Hungarians survived the double reigns of terror under Nazism and then Communism. There was one room that was lined with wood panelling, and had plasma TVs hung at head height at even intervals down the length of the room. They showed testimonials by survivors of Nazi and Soviet atrocities, and then all the same time ended and cut to a video loop that made it look like you were inside a train car looking out at the country side beyond, on your way to some god-forsaken back-of-beyond labor camp or worse. Gave me the chills. They had Nazi and Soviet uniforms on display as well. Turns out the Hungarians were pretty stomped on as a people. Another thing our history books forgot to tell us!

Today we "took the waters" down at one of the many public baths. This one, can't spell the name for the life of me because Hungarian is the craziest language I've ever encountered, is the nicest one, housed in a Baroque style complex with huge pools to splash around in. The whole thing was surprisingly easy to figure out too, for us foreigners. We spent all of our time in the hot pool, which was much better than your normal hot tub. This thing was ginormous enough to do laps in, had fun spouts and jets, and steps all around to kick back on.

We took ourselves back to the Hilton and resigned ourselves to watching BBC World news all night, because it was the only thing of any interest in English besides MTV, and we have suffered enough of that for 8 lifetimes. The Hilton is nice, great beds and lots of space and all, but we do miss having people around at the hostels, and being more in the middle of the action. And of couse we miss the Aussies! Off to Paris tomorrow on a 14 hour layover before heading home.

Stuck In The Black Hole of Backpackers!

So we tried to leave today, but we just couldnt do it! We got up a decent time, I ran off to go check out the castle, and Matt and KK went on a quick hike up to the gorge nearby. What they hadnt been told was how long it would take to get there! I got back by 11, when we were gonna meet to catch the bus to the train station, and met Amy here, but no KK or Matt. Waited around past noon, still no KK and Matt. WTF. Got a call from Matt who said we could catch the 1251 bus, could we bring their stuff to the bus station and they would meet us there? So Amy and I conned the hostel guy into driving all of our crap to the bus station, and still no KK and Matt. While we were waiting, I literally ran down around the lake to get money at the casino, and ran back. Got some funny looks, whats this crazy American girl doing running like a chicken with its head cut off? I ran because I only had a few miutes until the bus was supposed to leave. But when I got back, still no Matt and KK. More waiting, bought some bananas (yay fruit!!) and water for breakfast (a meal!) and waited more. Then a bus tried to run me and Amy and all our stuff over as it backed into its parking space. We had to bail out over a railing and dump our crap. Still no Matt and KK. Finally, at like 1 they came up, looking thunderous. Apparently 200 meters in Slovenian can mean all different distances, anywhere from 200 m to 2 km. Sufice it to say that it took Matt and KK a lot longer than previously thought to get back to Bled, even though they had been power walking the whole damn hike. By this time the bus has come and gone, and it really wouldnt make sense to try and catch the next one, because the trains wouldnt work out right to get us where we needed to go, so we decided to stay another night. Matt and Amy went down to Gregors office, and he got us the apartment we had stayed in the night before again! After all that hassle of buses and running and calling each other, its a big joke that we will just never be able to leave this place! So after reclaiming our apt, we went down to the lake for a swim, which was pretty damn cold, until you went numb all over, and then it was nice. Apparently there is some thermal action under the lake, we kept finding warm pockets of water and just following them as they moved. The water was sooo clear you could see your feet 2m down and the fishes around you. Such a great place to find yourself swimming. Bought some pasta and pesto at the market, and made use of our kitchen on the cheap, and broke into a bottle of wine. Then spent the night at Best bar again. weeee

Icelandic Horses...in Slovenia

Yesterday we decided to stay another day in Bled because our friends Matt and Amy had planned to go horseback riding, and being horse people, we invited ourselves along. Our driver, Gregor, coolest guy ever, took us to this ranch within a national park, so you know its got to be beautiful there, and we rode Icelandic horses, which are smallllll. My head was at least a foot higher than the horses shoulder, and thats freaky when you are used to horses that are so tall you can barely hoist yourself up onto their backs. Pretty sure my legs dangled down below the horses belly. Oh well, it was loads of fun, rode around Lake Bohinj (Boh-heen) and through an old traditional village that looked like a mix of German alpine houses with some Slavic touches. Could live here forever. Amy had a horse that just didnt want to cooperate and kept stopping to have a snack. Craziest part was when the horses themselves decided that we were going to stop for a drink in the river, and proceeded to take us all down the bank of it to the water and then splash as if they were children. Coooollllld water. Happy to report that I was not sore at all from our two hour ride, must have been that training mom and I did in Santa Fe. ;) Gregor took us for a great local lunch, I had sausage and cabbage, mmmm. Best sausage ever. And of course afterward he took us to see this waterfall, the source of Lake Bohinj, which involved 553 steps. Took loads of breaks to catch our break and stop our lunches from revisiting us. It was definitel worth it though, the view was magical, you could see the whole valley, like a giant hand had just carved it out of the rock. Next stop, a gondola ride to the top of a neighboring mountain to get a real mountain top view. Then, down to the lake for "swimming", which ended up being Matt and Gregor jumping in the ridiculously cold water and us girls just standing in the shallows. No way in hell I was gonna get in the water, it came straight from snow and glacier melt! On the way bakc we took a higher route than before and got stuck in a traffic jam as a herd of cows wandered across the road. Then, since we had extended our stay by a night, and the hostel we had been staying at was full, they found us accomodations nearby, which turned out to be an apartment for the four of us, total luxury! A great jacuzzi shower, a kitchen, and a TV! No internet though, have to come up here to the bar to do the emailing and blogging. Even got porter service for our bags. So, another night down at Best Bar, at which we are really becoming locals. I played some foosball with this Irish kid who lives here with his dad, it was awesome. The plan is to leave tomorrow and go our separate ways.

Back to Bled

So today we travelled back to Bled, albeit at different times. I hung around the Ljubljana hostel for a few hours to get some nap time in and see Jaymz off, and Kk went early to meet up with our friends. It was a dreary rainy day, good day to be relocating. Havent really eaten anything since lunch yesterday, I guess its a return to the one meal a day diet. Got a slice of pizza as I was running onto the bus, and a toasted sandwich at the bar in Bled, and besides liquid refreshment, thats about it. No wonder Im wasting away. Got to Bled, looked confused for about 5 minutes while I tried to figure out what direction I had to hike to get to the hostel, then finally found my way there. Met up with KK, Matt and Amy, and we went down to a cafe by the lake for some coffee, which I desperately needed. In the past two nights, Ive had about 5 hours of sleep total. Even the nap wasnt really restful. The scenery by the cafe was so gorgeous that we sat there for a few hours, chatting it up. Then after a quick change into warmer clothes, we relocated to the George Best bar (irish football player) where we discovered the delicious beer called Lashko. mmmm. Basically spent the rest of the night there, talking to all the people from our hostel that had come. Found a cute little kitten on the way home, named him Dooey (for Doofus, if you know anything about my animal naming scheme). Best thing about today:being in such a beautiful place.

Water Water Everywhere!

Yesterday we went canyoning in Bled, and it was amaaazing. Canyoning, def: hiking up to the top of a mountain in super thick wetsuits in order to descend said mountain by way of ziplines, repelling down waterfalls, sliding down natural waterslides on your butt, jumping into pools of icy cold glacier melt water, and hiking through alpine rain forest. It was so great, check out pictures at http://www.label.si/v3/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=38&page=inline&gid=8&limit=1 As for Bled, KK and I thought it was so beautiful that we decided to meet up with some friends there today and spend the night there. Its just gorgeous, an alpine lake with an island in the middle that has a church on it, like something out of a fairytale. p.s. saying goodbye is never fun...

My 25th Birthday - Fun By The Slice

Best. Birthday. Ever. Random people at a hostel are so willing to help you celebrate your birthday because it gives everyone a great excuse to go out and party together. One of my roommates gave me a bottle of Hungarian wine, and some Belgian guys poured me a vodka coke, and I finished it all before we all went out for dinner. Lets just say I had a designated person to keep me upright, wink wink nudge nudge. So, dinner, dancing, didnt get to bed til 4amish. And thats all I am divulging. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Love from Slovenia!

Slovenia!

Well, what can I say, Rick Steves was right again! Ljubljana is sooo....fantastic. Its better than cute, better than quaint, its so much more. Its a small city, and the buildings aren't more than 4 or so stories high, and its on a river and the weather is beautiful, not really hot at all. We are just basking in the fabulousness. We've already bought some locally made jewelry and some cute magnets (don't worry, we got you a great one, Mom!) at the market. We also found the produce market and bought a half cantaloupe. Fruit!! Its amazing how much a strict diet of pizza and pastries will make you miss real fruit. And we are gonna eat at a mexican place tonight, yum. Tomorrow we'll check out the castle. And its my birthday! So there will be alcohol, lots of it. And hopefully some Slovenian food. Then I will somehow rouse myself out of bed on Sunday morning because we are being picked up (no crazy bus confusion for us this time!) to go canyoning! Once we experience it, we will tell you what it is. :) Alrighty, off to eat the melon, mmmmm....

Mishaps into Adventures

Last day in Croatia, sad face. Love this country. Seriously, skip Western Europe, all of it, and just come to Croatia. The people are soooo nice, everyone we have met has been so lovely, and the weather is great, and its just a beautiful place. And there is plenty of pizza. It was so nice to just bomb around for a week in Dubrovnik. Our day in Split turned out to be an interesting one. We didnt feel like doing the touristy stuff, what little there was, or going to the beach, since my legs were still ablaze from our previous encounters with the sun, so we were kind of at a loss. We got nice pastries for breakfastlunch (Aunt Val would be proud!), and then were quite at a loss for what to do. So we sat and had a cold coke and some ice cream, every good travellers fall back. After our sugar revival, we started talking about books, fantasy books to be exact. And I dont quite remember how we got on the topic, but we decided that after all the books we have read (somewhere in the hundreds!), we could write one together. So thats what we started doing, right there, on the Riva (a long strolling street on the waterfront), working out our characters and plot. We had also decided that we wanted to see a movie. So we asked the hostel man, and he gave us directions to the mall where the new movie theaters were. We were desperate for some mundaneness, so we set off on an adventure. Turned out to be closer than we thought, only about 20 minutes walking. After some serious escalator riding, we found the theater, and to our immense delight, found that the movies were indeed in English, with Croatian subtitles, which we could ignore. So what did we do? Bought two tickets for Sex In the City, of course! And spent the time in between in a bookstore (where else would the two Hoey girls go?) and writing down our book ideas. Movie was fabulous, exactly the escape from travelling that we needed. Walked home in the dark, oh no! not in the dark, by ourselves!, and were happy with our non-touristy day.

Croatia, Check

Well we are out of Dubrovnik, sad. We did go kayaking on our last day there, but ended up missing the tour we had reserved due to faulty bus info, and were an hour late. Soooo we just rented a kayak from the restaurant on the beach where we were and did the thing ourselves, and saved $100. Yay! It was tons of fun, except at the end the waves were getting slightly scary, good thing we were already headed for home. We went all the way around the island that sits across the bay from Dubrovnik, and stopped there to jump off all the fun high rocks and swim. Great fun, except I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs, and now they glow. They could power a small city for a month. Today we are in Split, and we are not very impressed with it. Diocletian built a palace here like 2000 years ago, and the city is pretty much built into it, so you can see the parts of it that have survived, but other than that there is the beach and day trips to other islands, but we are mostly beached out. Especially since daylight sets my legs on fire. I might self combust if i stay out too long. So tomorrow we are taking the train up to Ljubljana (Slovenia), and we will stay there through my birthday. Not much else to report. C, Over and out.

The City of 1,000 Steps and Cats

We have moved! Now we are steps away from the Old City in a super cute little room that overlooks (if we were tall enough to see out of the window) a little cove near the fort. The best part is that we don't have to take the bus anymore and don't have to walk up a million steps each night! I know that sounds lazy, but you would say the same thing if you saw the amount of steps we've been hiking here lately. Buns of steel sisters.

The little old lady that rents our new rooms reminds us of Grandma Anna, a little slavic babushka, she kept calling us "dvoi druzii", which means two friends. Then she brought us glasses of Tang, like we were campers. So adorable!

Yesterday we went to the perfect place to have a drink, located actually outside the city walls on the rocks with water lapping up below you. You look out on the sea and the island that sits across the water from Dubrovnik, which we are going to kayak to tomorrow. The gelato and pizza have followed us here to Dubrovnik from Rome, but at least there are some interesting varieties of pizza here, like Fruitte di Mare, with whole (complete with shells and eyes!) prawns on them. And gelato is always good.

But yesterday we found a bakery with some fabulous homemade cupcakes, as in, not from a box, with some kind of filling...must go back.

There are a million cats here. We made friends with a little white kitty down near the rocks yesterday and named him Sea Pickle. It's like any Med town I guess, lots of cats running around to keep the rats at bay, multiplying because no one really takes responsibility for them. Only here a lot of them are so skinny and hungry-looking, I just want to buy a big crate of cat food and collect all the cats in the city, pied-piper style, neuter them all and feed them til they're happy. And then make people take care of them, grr.

Dubrovnik - The Pearl of the Adriatic

Well, that journey from Rome to Croatia was interesting, to say the least. First, a three hour train ride. Then, figure out the buses in Bari (still in Italy!) to get to the port (photo at left - KK is happy to be on the bus finally). Next, figure out how to get on ferry...that took some serious charade-playing!

While waiting in line, the sign for the ferry did not inspire much confidence in the boat's ability to make it to its destination, see why below! Finally on the ferry, and our best option for comfortable space are these slightly padded chairs that are reclined almost 45 degrees. Doesn't sound too bad does it? No, not until you wake up every 15 minutes to shift position cause the chair is hitting all kinds of pressure points. Really, it would have been much better if we'd been drunk. Anyway, needless to say, we didn't get the best sleep last night.

But we finally made it to Dubrovnik and it is beauuuuuuutiful. I'm not sure that we will be coming back to the States. From the balcony of our guesthouse, which turned out to be kind of in the boonies, you can see the port and all the little boats bobbing on the azure blue water. Of course, in order to get to said view and corresponding balcony in guesthouse, we have to walk up the world's longest staircase. Times 2.

Photo, left: hoofing it up the countlessly unending stairs to our guesthouse

The old city is inside the old city walls, and its basically just a huge castle complex, only my perfect fairy tale! And it has lots of beaches. And lots of shopping and seafood. We are happy as the clams we just ate. :)

Photo, right: the view from our balcony!

KK and I have gone to two different beaches, explored the finer points of the Dubrovnik bus system (imperative since we are lodged like 2 miles away from the Old Town and part of the on-foot journey includes a million stairs, and since we have figured out the bus, we only have to take 750,000 stairs!), eaten some meat! (eating in itself is victory for us, when we spent the first two days only eating once a day), found a lovely bakery that makes donuts with nutella inside, had way too much gelato, and walked around the gorgeous Old Town. Oh and sweated out about half our weight, only to drink it back in water from the fountains here.

Today we went on a boat trip to three different islands outside of Dubrovnik. The first two were tiny quiet little places, and I'm pretty sure the only reason we went there was because the excursion company had a contract with the tourist board of those islands to bring in business. Good thing we only had 45 minutes on each of those places. Then they fed us lunch on board the boat of grilled whole fish and zucchini...soooo good.

The last island was pretty great, had a nice sand beach (a luxury to have sand here!), so KK and I swam and laid out, and then spent a good hour searching for rock-skipping stones in the water. While we were sifting through the rocks we started finding sea glass, so we converted our search and managed to find a good handful of it, which we will find a crafty use for when we get home.

We reapplied SPF 50 today, twice, and I still managed to turn a little medium rare on my back. But it's not bad at all, and we have the remedy back at our place. Our plan for this 4th of July is to enjoy a picnic out on our terrace, we bought a bottle of Croatian wine last night, and some fruit today, and we are about to pick up some bread, cheese and ham. Yum! Oh, and KK and I have managed to find every Irish pub within range of our radar so far...one in Rome and two here. Cheap beer, too bad the Croatian beer tastes like Bud Light, all kinds of watered down. Sticking to the Irish Harp until I find a better substitute elsewhere. It will be a happy search, if we ever make it out of Croatia.  Not likely at this point....

Rome is Stillll Mellllting

This shouldn't surprise anyone, but uh, its freakin hot. Not, "we can deal with it if we wear comfortable clothes and sunscreen and drink water" hot, but "you are dripping sweat and feel so disgusting no matter how many showers you take hot.

So KK and I have developed a strategy: stay inside during the day or go where we know it will be cool.

Yesterday we went down the Appian Way, the ancient road out of Rome, to the catacombs of San Calixtos. It was delightfully cold down there, it made us so happy that we never wanted to leave. Unfortunately we had to. But while we were down there we learned that not even little KK would fit into those slots where they put the dead bodies - apparently early Christians were tiny little people because they did not have proper nutrition. Oh well, we tried. We thought maybe we could camoflage ourselves into the niches and get to stay down there longer that way, but no such luck.

My review of the Archeobus? Meh. Take it or leave it, really. And on a hot day, definitely leave it, because it is an open-top bus, with no bottom level, leaving you exposed to the sun for the duration. The commentary isn't that great, and they don't go around as often as the (much cheaper) local buses. So my advice would be to see that attractions you want to see on your own time, and take the local bus out to one of the catacombs on your own.

After a nap and a rinse, we went out to dinner with some of KKs friends from her program to watch the Euro Cup finals, which Spain won. The bar we were at wasn't very lively, but there was beer and cheap food, and it was air conditioned, so we were happy.

One thing about the food here though: to all you people who are like, "its Italy, how can the food be bad?", oh my friend, it CAN be bad! Not all Italians learned at their momma's hip the secrets to making that perfectly seasoned tomato sauce. Or they are trying their hand at some American or other foreign foods, and utterly miss the mark. If you want good food, (a) go where you see locals, or (b) use the 2 up and 2 over rule: from any popular tourist attraction, go two blocks up and two blocks over, into the neighborhood, and you can usually find some much tastier, and maybe cheaper!, food.

Today is our last day, and we really have nothing to do. We have done all the sights that we are willing to drag ourselves to (no more old piles o rock!) and are sick of pizza. Tomorrow we leave for Croatia!!!

Rome is Melting

Oh. My. God. It. Is. Sooooooo. Hot.

Thank goodness KK and I have done this city already. We don't have to feel guilty about spending the better part of the day inside. We walked around a bit downtown yesterday, got some lovely gelato and sat at the Piazza Navona and watched the people and talked. Three different guys came up to us, trying to "use our finger", i.e. so he could braid a friendship bracelet using our finger as its anchor point, tie it around our wrist and charge us 5 euro. They all had the same schtick: after we said no repeatedly, they would ask us "meow?", making fun of us I guess, and then KK and I would say (in unison, inevitably), "we are not cats!", and then they would be like "calm down, relax", but at least they would leave us alone. Annoying buggers.

After some more walking, we found the Abbey Theatre Irish pub, which had AIR CONDITIONING, so of course we had to stop in for a pint. I had some Harp - I've put myself in training for Ireland's beer. So that was nice and cool and cave-like.

Some more walking later, and we finally decided to eat dinner, circa 10 pm, like the Romans do. I had a salad!! And wine! A BIG glass of wine. Like a fishbowl big. And I drank it all - mommy taught me to never waste. I think I was leaning on KK a bit after that, weaving down the street. Somehow we were at the exact opposite end of the city from our lodgings, and getting back was a bit tricky, because it was night bus time, which are different from the day buses, so eventually we found a bus that went to Termini, the train station, and got on. KK caught a cab home, and walked very fast back to my hostel. End of Saturday.

Currently, we are both hanging out here at my hostel because it is hot as.....fill in blank. We have tickets to hop on the Archeobus at 3pm, so go see some catacombs (underground, cool places!). Then who knows. More air conditioned pub? Who knew an Irish pub would be our favorite place so far in Rome. Like I said, I'm glad that we have seen it all before so we dont have to worry about fighting the crowds and the heat to do something like the Colosseum. 

Another Pile o' Rocks in Rome

Soooo, what did I say yesterday? That I wouldn't go see another pile o' rocks? And what did I do today, just to drive myself crazy? Went to see a pile o' rocks, of course! Complete with church, another one of my "don't want to go into another one!" things. So I got two in one - piles o rocks and a church. Which had no redeeming value except that it was out of the sun.

Moral of the story: if you're in Rome, skip Diocletian's Baths, unless you are a really big bath nut. You will see plenty of things like the baths in other places, you don't need to bore yourself witless by adding this to the itinerary. Ignore what the guidebooks say.

It's 90 degrees here. HOT. I don't need hot water for my shower, even if they did have it. Give me a coooold shower and I'm happy. I have a "frozen water" guy that I go to every morning now, these are smart people - they freeze and sell full plastic water bottles, and they're the only people in the city I've seen that do this. I will happily give my left arm for cold water at this point, sawed off with a blunt spoon, its that hot. Seriously, whoever thought backpacking through Rome in July was a good idea should, well, go backpacking in Rome in July - with no shower!

Today KK came!!! Too bad I got myself all turned around on the metro and was 30 minutes late in meeting her. But I finally found her hotel and the only logical thing to do at that point was to sit in hotel and enjoy the AC, which they claim was on, but I am not so sure - I am still sweating, ew. And I found ants crawling on me while I was laying on her bed. Now we are out cruising the city. YAY KK!!!!

We did the only sane thing travelers can do when its this hot: get gelato and sit in a piazza to watch people. Piazza Navona is perfect for this, because it has fountains at either end, and sitting by one gives you the illusion of it being slightly cooler there. And gelato never tasted so good! Really should learn what all the flavors mean, since they are listed in Italian...on second thought, maybe not, I could be eating something like worm flavor!

All the artists were out on the piazza tonight, making for a festive air as the tourists wandered among them and some got taken for ride. Do they really think this is original art? I mean, did they not just see it in a souvenir shop on the other side of the piazza? No? Ok, well enjoy. I guess if you like it, buy it. Meanwhile, I will continue to feed my two gelato a day habit, mmm stracciatella....

Getting out of Rome - Ostia Antica

On my own in Rome, what to do, what to do?  I've already seen most of the city on our last trip here last winter, so I decided to get out of town to a place called Ostia Antica, which was the port for Rome back in ancient times, and was preserved by the mud that silted up the Tiber River. One of my guide books compared it to Pompeii, but I think the only thing to two places have in common is that they are super old.

Pompeii was so much more interesting than Ostia. Pompeii had actual buildings, and you could tell what they were - Ostia had half-buildings that used to be warehouses (photo at right). So uninteresting that your eyes just slide right over them. I don't understand how some archeologists can get some excited when they dig things like Ostia up, it's so repititious and mundane. Hmm, kind of like everyday life.

Photo, below: mosaic on a bath floor. Ok, this is cool, but there's only so many ancient mosaics you can see before your eyes cross permanently!

However, for a day to get out of the city, Ostia wasn't too bad. Quiet, birds and flowers, old piles o' rock. The biggest triumph of it all was taking the metro to the regional train all by myself, and back again.

Ok, one cool thing was all the graffitti on the trains. And for that matter, in every public space. But really, graffitti artists here take their work seriously, and they turn out some pretty amazing stuff, very colorful and original. I can see why the authorities don't clean it off the trains - they look so much better with the paint on them!

Photo, right: awesome graffitti on the trains