Happy Birthday Amelia

Happy 18th birthday kiddo, Im proud of you and hopefully I figure out the phone so I can call later. Go smoke a pack of cigarettes. JK mom.

Siena So Far

I have been in Siena for three days now and it is amazing. I have an apartment with Hanks, Nicolas, who is from Oregon, and Brian who is from Oregon. The only other guy on the trip is Steven and he is living with a host family. Our apartment is cool, we have a big 15 foot door that automatically opens when we use are magnet card. Our rooms are on the second floor, where we have a kitchen and a bathroom, no common room but Nicolas and my room is pretty large so we can hang out in there. Nicolas taught us how to play the Korean jacks game called Kongi, which I have struggled with. We had our orientations, which were very boring but it was ok because I just doodle anyway. We got walked around town so we saw Il Campo, which is the main gathering space next to the town hall. We went in to the town hall and saw all the beautiful artwork in there, which are one of the first example of secular works to be depicted in an administrative building. Siena used to be one of the powers of Italy, but when the black plague worked its way through Europe, around 90 percent of the population died as opposed to 50 in most other places. It was because Siena had such a great drinking water system that the rats that carried the plague swam in and got everyone infected. We then toured Il Duomo which is the Senese cathedral, which was also noted for its secular art right where the Cardinal would make his entrance. Then we got served our gigantic three course meal, which started with prosciutto and salami with toasted bread with a oil and mushroom combination, then a pasta dish, which was ravioli with cheese inside, then the meat dish which was pork wrapped in bacon with a crust of bread, absolutely amazing. Then for dessert we had a tort with raspberry sauce. I didnt have to eat for the rest of the day. We were introduced to the cooking class, which will end up being 250 Euro but it will definitely be worth it, since we are learning how to make pasta and all sorts of dishes. I have been spending a lot of start up money recently and I feel terrible but once all the preliminary stuff is over it should be fine. Hopefully I will be able to get Skype running soon, but since we dont have wireless in our apartment yet I cannot. Cant wait to talk to everyone.

Travelling

Athens metro is nice. My flight was a little delayed, but it was fine and I got on the bus to the central station in Milan. The ride there sucked because the little Italian kid behind me wouldn’t stop yelling and his parents wouldn’t say anything and I was about to be that American. I missed my first train so I had to sit there for three hours, which sucked because it was cold but I read one of the books that Uncle Mike gave me. I went from Milan to Verona, no Montagues or Capulets, then got a connector to Florence. This ride was interesting because I was in a cabin car with five Italians, who talked for the entire time, even though it was from 3 AM til 7 AM. I didn’t mind that much and apparently they thought that I was Italian or something because they decided to ask me a question in the middle of their conversation and I’m sure my face just went duhhhhhh. They didn’t speak much English or Spanish so I was SOL. We communicated that I was tall and where I was going, but that’s about it. I could understand a lot of what they were talking about but definitely couldn’t contribute. They were talking about the regional differences in dialects which was interesting, because sometimes someone would use a word and the other wouldn’t know what it meant. Then I got to Florence and got my connector to Siena and slept the whole way. I took the bus to my hotel and it is amazing. The streets are so narrow and the buildings are pretty tall so it feels very crowded. I met some girls from the program and we went to breakfast, then walked around for a while, so the Campo and Il Duomo. I decided to come back and take a nap before we were all supposed to meet at four.

Athens

Today wasn’t very eventful, I slept in for the first time and went and got a gyro. The guy at the shop knows me now. They are only a Euro seventy so definitely worth it. I talked to Galen today for a while and he gets to go visit CERN, which makes me very jealous. I talked to an Aussie couple today who had there boat ride to Mykonos cancelled and they did not get a refund from the boat company or the very expensive hotel they had booked. They decided to stay in the Student and Traveller’s Inn again and try again the next day. Cassie left and Oz took her to the airport. When he got back we went to the Hill of the Muses, and it was so windy that I got wind burn on my face. We randomly ran into some people that Galen and Oz had met before so we walked with them to the original 1896 Olympic Stadium. We went back to the courtyard with some Mythos and the Aussie couple and some other Anglicans were already pretty deep into the sauce. They were loud and hilarious and entertaining to watch. There was a lady that was probably about forty that decided to climb up a pole and hang upside down by only her feet, pretty impressive. The next morning we went and got some delicious crepes and hung around until I had to leave, then Oz and the Eau Claire girls escorted me to the Metro.

Second Day on Hydra

We woke up early and it was a great day. Went and got an Omelette, which was the size of a dinner plate and stacked high. We walked around to the shops so that we could see if there were any presents to be found. We hung out on the beaches, which are actually made of cement and built into the side of the mountain like terraces. We took another Flying Cat back, this trip was not bad at all. We tried to get into the Athen’s backpackers but it was full so they suggested Student and Traveller’s Inn, which turned out to be pretty cool. We got there and got the last five beds in the dungeon, which I think might have actually have been a dungeon at some point. Oz’s buddy Galen came late that night, he’s a nuclear engineering major at Madison. There was a big open air courtyard at this place, so we deicded to get some Mythos and hang out with all of the people there. We met some girls from Michigan and a couple from Eau Claire and played some King’s. We took a walk around the perimeter of the Acropolis, because it is closed at night. I did almost bribe a guard to let us in for 50 Euro though, which would have been sweet.

First day on Hydra

We woke up early to walk to the port, which was about 2 miles away from our hotel/apartment deal. We took a Flying Dolphin this time, which was not even close to as bad as the last one, much to our relief. We got to Hydra and realized that it was just as beautiful as Poros, but an entirely different type of beautiful. Hydra is built on a mountainside and the houses are a lot older than on Poros. It is the traditional white buildings with blue trim and narrow streets. Every person we talked to told us that when we got there we had to ride the donkeys up the mountain, because they do not have cars on Hydra. There is one Garbage truck. There was a gathering of gentlemen who were peddling donkey rides at the port so we decided to take one right after we bartered for a hotel. We asked the ass man how long the ride was and he said fitee minutes, which we all took as fifty, but naturally it was only 15 minutes for ten Euro. Damn. Fun ride though. We stopped at a bakery after and had some great ham and cheese sandwich things. We decided to take a walk to see some of the views that Hydra has to offer. Hydra is much bigger than Poros, so we thought we would walk around only part of it. The problem was, the trail is not marked, so we walked for two and half hours and we got to a gate that said we couldn’t go any farther. Bennet was feeling really ill so we just decided to walk back, dejected and very tired. There were some beautiful views, but we saw the same view for like an hour because we had to make our way up a steep hill. We got back and the weather had cleared up quite a bit, so Cassie, Oz, and I decided to check out the other side of the island. We made it about a quarter of a mile and sat down and waited for the sunset, which was kind of disappointing, but fun to relax and watch and polish off a bottle of wine. Then we went to Lulu’s where I had the best Carbonara I’ve ever had, I’m pretty sure the guy used a whole stick of butter in it. That’s ok, we walked like 10 miles that day. After that we just went and chilled on the dock and talked for a while, and polished off another bottle of wine.

Second day on Poros

It’s been a while. The second day on Poros was amazing. We got up early and rented four-wheelers for the day. We zipped around all of the island that was paved. It is kind of mountainous so we had to do a lot of switchbacks and stuff. Bennet and I continued our domestic partnership since Jessman and Heather left and its only us and Oz and Cassie, and for whatever reason they always do things together. Heather barely made her boat, the gate was raising when she got there. Lucky. The first really cool thing that we saw was a monastery that was tucked into the side of the mountain. We wanted to go inside, but it was siesta hours so we could not. Our hotel was on the south side of the island so when we got to the north side of the island we were confronted with an absolutely amazing view. It was too gorgeous to describe with words or to portray with pictures, so you’ll have to go for yourself. We made our way down to the rocky beach, and I decided I wanted to do some climbing. Not like straight up but we made our way around the cliff and there was a group of Parisian students that were hanging out on a big rock about 25 feet above the water. A few of them jumped off and I enjoy a good rush, so I did and it was amazing, Oz got a good pic. We jetted back up the mountain and explored Poseidon’s Sanctuary, which was kind of disappointing, but we got some good senior pics in. We returned our four wheelers, and the lady that worked at the shop had lived in America before and she decided she wanted to talk to us for an hour straight about a lot of things. She was really interesting but she repeated herself a lot. She made fun of emo people, so that was funny. She talked a lot about how she wanted to kick her kids out of the house at 18, but that is against the grain in Greece and she says she gets a lot of flak for it from her neighbors. We left the conversation and walked by a soccer game to get some food for the night. We got a new wine from our neighbors and it was even better than the night before. Another early night.

Second Day on Poros

We woke up early today and decided we were going to 4-wheel around the island, we went and got them and then I decided to check out the Internet cafe. More to come later.

Ride from Hell and the First Day on Poros.

We woke up late. We pretty much had to sprint out of our place and go run to the hostel to check out, then hail cabs and we barely made it on time to catch the hydrofoil to Poros, which was about an hour away by these speedboats. We got on the boat and it seemed pretty cool, I bought a meat thing that was pretty good, which I would regreat later. The boat started to go, and everytime it hit a wave, it was like we hit a jump. We got the willies everytime and me and Heather and Jess were enjoying it, but we looked over and Bennett sprinted back to the bathroom area. Since it was Oz's 21st the night before he was not in great shape and this ride was probably the worst thing that he could have done besides taking the tilt-a-whirl to Poros. He also went towards the back. Cassie said she didn't feel well at all, so I decided that we were going to play Survivor to see who would not throw up. It was honestly like torture, getting the willies every five minutes for like 30 seconds in a row. We could not do anything about it. People all over the boat were throwing up and I thought the old man next to us was going to die. Jessman folded first and went to the back, so it was only me and Heather left. Heather said she didn't feel well so I decided that I won and went to the back to check on the guys. Jess and Bennett were just standing and Oz was sitting on the steps. We hung out back there the whole time, with lots of people coming back to throw up, it was so bizarre. We were so relieved to get off the damn boat. It was raining when we got to Poros, so we ate a little cafe. It was actually Oz's birthday so Cassie got him a really good chocolate souffle. The rain let up so we decided to walk around. THis island is exactly what you think about when you think of Greek islands. Absolutely gorgeous. It was raining but that did not hamper our spirits or our view. We went and got ingredients to cook with and on the way back got gelato. We got back to the room and cooked our meal of rice, greens, sausage, pineapple curry and garlic. One of the better meals I've had. The people across from us make their own wine, so we bought some from them and it was good, very earthy but good. We just relaxed for that night and hung around our room, talking about funny stories from high school and drinking wine. Great day.

Second Day in Athens

We woke up and everyone was excited to go see the Acropolis and other sites. We checked out of the main hostel and stored our stuff there because we decided to upgrade to a flat for only a few Euro more. We went to the Acropolis again and it was crazy packed, the day was a little overcast so it wasn't quite as cool as the day before. We saw everything again and had lunch at the same cafe I had eaten at the day before. After exploring the city some more we tried to figure out what we were going to do for the next few days, because we wanted to head to the Islands. Since Jess and Heather, who wasn't even here yet had to leave soon we decided that we would stay at the close islands and not head out to Santorini which is very far away. We went to a travel agent and he was a jerk so we looked around for more. The lady at the tourist information site was awesome so she convinced us to go to Poros, Hydra, and Egina. We went and booked our stay with a guy that was also awesome and knew people on every island and got us some great deals. We got a ferry over and a hotel to stay at for the night for only 35 Euro. We decided that we had had enough of eating out so we were going to cook that night in our flat. We went and picked up a bunch of supplies and made a good pasta dish and had local wine with it. I also found a new drink that I enjoy that I think is Greek, it might not be but I haven't seen it in the states. It's called Gordon's Space and it tastes like Mike's Hard Lemonade. After dinner we went to our old hostel for a while and then our bartender took us to another place where he knew the people. It was pretty far away so we took cabs. Our cabdriver was awesome and I asked him a ton of questions about Greek. He explained the Greek-Turkey rivalry, why all British people are the thieves of history, and the belief system of the Greek Orthodox, so it was a good ride. We got to the bar, and the next day was Oz's birthday, so we bought him drinks. I met some really cool girls from Latvia and we talked a lot about American music and life in Latvia, which, thanks to playing dumb games on the internt, I knew where it was, so I made a good first impression. They did not know where Minnesota was so I was a little mad. When we left the bar, we decided we didn't want to take a cab and we were going to walk. It was fun, but it took a long time because we were probably four miles away. It's a good thing that you can see the Acropolis from everywhere so we just followed it, much like moths going to a light, which I'm sure is what we looked like. We walked back with some girls from Austria, and we talked about school in each place and tons of other things. It is awesome to here so many different perspectives on living from people my age. We got back to the hotel at like 3:30AM and we realized that we had to wake up in like 4 hours because we had to get to the port to catch a ferry. We got to bed quickly.

Rest of the First day of Greece

After I found the internet cafe and watched the strike., I had some exciting times. Since I had plenty of time I decided to just walk and see what I could see. I walked through the steets and came upon some archaelogical sites. The first one, which I could go into for free because I am a student , so I'm glad I packed my student ID card, was Hadrian's Library, which was pretty amazing to look at. Cool columns. The Acropolis was visible from here so it was almost overwhelming. After the library I walked past a little idyllic cafe, so I thought I would sit down and have a beer and soak in the city a little. The guy gave me a Mythos, which is the local lager, which was delicious, even if it was two in the afternoon. I found this and the Roman Agora before I climbed up to the Acropolis. I got up to the Acropolis a little late in the day so there were very few people there. It was awesome to be able to just check everything out without crowds of people there. I went down the other side of the mountain because I could still not find where I had to stay that night because no one I talked to knew where Makri Street was. I got down and the street was right there so I checked in my hostel. I was the first one there out of our group, so I decided to talk to some people. I met these girls and asked them where they were from and one of them was good friends with Oz's girlfriend Cassie, who would be there a few hours later. After saying "What a small world" a few times, we talked to some other people. The next people we talked to went to Hawaii Pacific where I played last year for bball. I met a cool guy named Allen that I hung out with for the afternoon, we found a good Gyro shop with the girls for dinner, and then went back to the hostel. THe hostel had a bar in it, so we started to have some drinks when it opened at six. Oz and Jessman made it there at like 10 so I was very excited to see them. We went to a bar with the rest of people in the hostel and it was cool because the hostel bartender knew the people and got us some great deals on drinks. Because of the strike that day, it was hard to get to our place from the airport so Cassie and Bennett got in very late and we were all just relaxing back at the hostel when they came in. Great first day.

Milan and First Day in Greece

I have found a internet shop right next to a smut store so I thought I would update before I forgot anything. After Philadelphia, I had a long plane ride to Milan, I can never sleep on planes because I have a terrible time equalizing my ears. I got to Milan and stored my big checked bag so all I have to carry around for the week in Greece is my backpack. Once arriving in Milan I realized that I shouldn't have left 12 hours between my flights. After cursing my idiocy I bought a ticket into Milan, which actually took about an hour to get into town, so that wasted some time. Once I got there, I was frustrated out of my mind with the impossibility of finding my way around. I realize that Milan was not built so that I could get to where I needed to go, but there was no tourist info area (so I thought) and the streets are not labeled conventionally(American conventions of course). The Stazione Central was a great big building with cool artwork and a cascading train update board. I finally stopped walking around the Stazione after about an hour and purchasing a map that I couldn't even read. I finally found the unmarked tourist info area and went inside and the man inside was great and he gave me a map and drew all the directions I would need and where I should go see. Promptly throwing out my old map, I took off towards Il Duomo. Since I had plenty of time, I decided that I did not want to take the Metro bus to Il Duomo, which was about 2 miles away. I am very glad that I did not, because walking through this part of Milan was gorgeous and relaxing. I stopped at the classiest McDonalds I have ever seen, it had all gold lettering and was inside a really nice station, I forget the name, but I will remember it once I have everything on hand. I stepped out of the other side of the station and saw Il Duomo. I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped. I have never seen architecture like this before, it was absolutely amazing. It is covered with thousands of spires and the front doors are probably 30 feet high. I was taking pictures from the mall in front of it and a guy puts some corn in my hand and a flock of pigeons flies at me and covers me and he takes my camera and starts snapping pictures. I brushed them off and got my camera back and he tries to tell me that it was 20 Euro for the service he provided me. We (I) decided that .50 Euro would be better and I went inside. I'm sure I will top this on my stay in Europe, but Il Duomo is the most beautiful building I have ever seen. I could not believe all of the stained glass, and statues, and paintings that were all in one place. I took pictures because I can't even describe it right now. I went downstairs and saw the resting place of a 16th century cardinal. I left and was amazed for a while. I walked back to the bus and it was only 3 pm, I still had 2 and a half hours before I could even check-in for my plane. I got back on the bus, and I just crashed. I slept the whole way back, then woke up and slept in the airport. I got my ticket and then got on the plane and came to Greece. Once in Greece I had to find my hostel, which was actually a decent hotel. It had TV and my own bathroom so I was happy. I woke up this morning after having slept for the first time since I left Carleton and I felt great. I have been walking around downtown Athens all day and there is a strike going on so none of the buses are running. I hope Oz can get into Athens. I ate at a small Gyro place and it was absolutely delicious. Those are all the updates for now. Everyone should message me on facebook with your numbers because I forgot to write them down and I want to call people, while I have downtime.

Illadelph

I have made it Philadelphia. They have a program where college kids get free wireless so I thought I'd take advantage since I have a 3 hour layover here before flying to Milan. The flight over was really bumpy and it was a tiny plane so it wasn't that great. Since I got maybe a half hour of sleep last night, I just knocked out for the whole ride. The Philadelpha airport is pretty cool, it has some cool art.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not sure, this place is staffed by about 30 of the guys from My New Haircut, which is pretty fun to walk around and see that these people are actually real.

Well, I'm going to get some Hibachi now. Peace

The Worst Day Ever

It's been a long day. Of course the only time that I lose my wallet is the Friday before I go to Italy. I didn't want to report the wallet missing yet, so I didn't do anything Saturday, in case it turned up. By today, today being Sunday to me, as I am up late packing, I needed to figure out what I was going to do because my Driver's License, Credit Card, and Check Card were all in there. My Grandma called a bunch of people and found out that there was a Wells Fargo that is open on a Sunday, but it was in Chaska. I finished moving out of my house at Carleton and started to drive to Chaska. I got to the stop light and my car sputters out. I figured I just didn't warm it up enough. It sputters out next to QB club and I was freaking out because I didn't think that I would be able to get to Chaska. Thankfully the Eckhoffs came to my rescue. Annie came and picked me up and Ellen let me use their car to go to Chaska and then the mall to pick up some last minute things. Since the rest of my family is in Mexico, I was in a pretty bad mood today. It's all over though, and I got to hang out with Herm, Karnick, and Tommy tonight, so that was cool. Tomorrow I will be flying to Milan Malpensa, then to Athens Greece, I need to figure out which Hostel to go to in Greece or I am in trouble because I will not have met up with Oz and them.