Mykanos

This was the one place that we didn’t have a tour arranged. We were only there a couple hours but it was fun. We went into town and the flood of people made me want to get away from the flow of traffic, so we went up. We went up the side and found a windmill and a wine pressing vat. The vat had been used that year and the leftovers were fermenting a bit so the smell was a little ripe.

Before I got off the boat I had talked to one of the workers about the place and she said that you could get gyros for 2.50€. So we found a small hole-in-the-wall place that had no tourists eating there and ordered. It was yummy. The gyro and a soda was 4€ which was the cheapest meal we found off the ship. I also found some Greek chocolate which was yummy. After dinner we watched the sunset, getting some great photos, and my friend went back to the ship. I wandered my way back and I’m sure I gave some people some laughs. I was on the main tourist street and I went into a store, looked around and then walked out. Well, I turned the wrong direction and then had to turn around again to head back to the boat. It wouldn’t have been so bad but I did this 4 or 5 times within a block area. I finally made my way back to the shuttle to go back to the boat.
The blue doors are to keep the 'evil eye' away from the members of the house. Basically, it is to keep bad things from happening to people in the household, like when we knock on wood.

This is where some people smashed grapes. It was very obvious from the smell that this had happened a while ago

Looking out over the town. Pretty I thought.

Santorini

This is where we went on the volcano hiking excursion. We took a tender to the island of Santorini and then a local boat to the volcano island. (Visiting Sitka every summer as a kid I always wanted to go on a tender and on this trip I figured out 2 things. The first thing was that if I ever owned/operated a tender I would name it the Chicken Tender. The other thing is that I get sea sick on tenders and that they were not as fun as they would have been when I was a kid.) It was fun to get away from the large masses of people and do some hiking. I think I only saw 2 plants on the whole island but it was still fun. After that we went to the main island and we had about 45 minutes or so there before we had to be back for the tender back to the boat. We took the cable car up to the top of the island and walked around for a little bit. Then we saw that the line for the cable car down was REALLY long so we, well I decided, to walk it. It was 588 steps down but these aren’t nice steps. These are wide steps that are being shared with donkeys and there ‘exhaust.’ This poop made it really slippery and about half-way down my legs decided that this was really stupid. We made it down, with our legs still attached, and got back on the boat. The elevators were so crowded that we had to walk up the 8 flights of stairs to get to lunch. Oh my body felt it the next day.

The stairs with the donkeys, and if you look really close, you can see the poop.

Budda in Greece! I thought this was funny on the volcano island.

Das boat. If you have x-ray vision you can see my room, I had an inside cabin. The yellow stacks are the logo of Coasta Cruise and go back to when the company started by selling/transporting olive oil. They kept the stacks that color to remember. Also, to keep with the olive oil theme they use A TON of it on board on pasta, pizza, veggies, and anything else you can imagine.

The volcano island that I hiked. Small with no vegetation but wonderful examples of sulfur in it natural form (yes this is the nerdy chemist!).

A day at sea

Our day at sea was fine. It was our chance to sleep in and that was nice. The ship had lots of activities going on so if you were bored it was your own fault. The food onboard was great. (Who knew that the Italian cruise company makes really good pasta?!) The only problem that I had with the food, especially at dinner, was that I didn’t know what it was, but, I wasn’t the only one. One of the dinners on board my friend and I were trying to place this other passenger’s accent. It was difficult but we finally decided he had to have spent a lot of time in Tennessee, and we were right!

I also did arts and crafts on the ship. These were only for adults, and some of the people were real overachievers. Globs of paint suddenly took the form of a floral display. This one gentleman in particular could make anything but that’s ok, none of the other knew how to knit!

The walled city of Urbino

So the first stop was to the town of Ancona. My friend and I took a tour to the walled city of Urbino, and 1.5 hours each way. It was an interesting drive. We got away from the tourist part of town and got to see some of the country side. It was a very nice change. The town was very pretty and we went into the castle and then to a viewing platform to get panoramic shots of the city.

I realized that I don’t know much about Italian history. I don’t know anything after the Romans (and I don’t know that well either) but it was interesting to learn about some of it. I didn’t realize how powerful the city of Venice was in its heyday.

Venice really doesn't have any cars!

Ok, I have known for years that Venice doesn’t have any roads in the city it is all canals. I knew this, but really, the only motorized form of transportation for the city are the motor boats. It was weird to not see a car for a few days. Also another form of protection for the city was that there isn’t a straight street anywhere.

So maybe I should start telling you what happened from the beginning. I arrived, with my friend, in Venice at about 2 in the afternoon after flying all night. We didn’t get a lot of sleep but we were functioning. The hotel we stayed at was right off of St. Marcos Square so we just had to get there. So, we got on the water bus, at 13€ each, and started the bus ride through the city. It was a great way to get there because of the route it took and I learned something, I get seasick on small boats. (Not a good thing to find out when confronted with no cars!) So we made it to St. Mark’s square and then proceeded to try and find the hotel. The first problem was that I didn’t know exactly where it was and after walking around for a bit we found it. By the way, St. Mark’s square is crazy busy at any time of day, well, at 730 am it was fine.

So, by the time we got there is was about 5 or so in the evening and we thought it might be best to look for dinner. We wanted pizza. So we asked the front desk where THEY would go for pizza not where the tourists go. We walked that way and crossed the Rialto Bridge. This is one of the major bridges across the Grand Canal and I didn’t realize it was a big deal until I saw all the postcards of it later. We looked for a place and we found a place right on the Grand Canal for pizza. I had ham(J) and mushrooms on mine and it tastes better if you fold it in half. The pizza is a very thin crust and I would have taken a picture of it but then I would have had to stop eating it.

So after our expensive dinner, my portion was about 16€ or $24, we went walking in town. And then it got dark so we figured we should figure out where we were. Finding ourselves on the map took about 10 minutes. Then we walked back to the hotel. It wasn’t very far but since the streets are rather confusing it took about an hour and a half to find our way back. We also found out that businesses close at about 730pm on a Friday night. (There aren’t many locals left in Venice so people leave the town to go home.) We got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and crashed into bed so we could have the fullest day possible the next morning.

The next morning we got up, got European breakfast, and started walking around the city. Took lots and lots of pictures and then found a yarn shop (YAY!) and then went back to the restaurant for another pizza. We got back to our hotel about 1:30 pm, got the bags, and then went to get the boat to take us to the boat.

It was very easy to get on the boat, we dropped out bags off, got our boarding number and waited until with was called. We had to go through about 4,000 security checks before we got on the boat but it worked out ok. Our cabin was much larger than I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t large but we had room for our suitcases, carry-ons, and all the other stuff we carry around. I was pleasantly pleased with the size, especially for the price we paid. The ship was big and confusing. I finally figured out my way around the 6th day which didn’t do me a whole lot of good.

I don't know what this building is, but it was a pretty picture that I took from the cruise ship as we left Venice.

The tide was a little high the day our cruise left which meant that seating at some cafes was limited.

These carts are how things are transported throughout Venice, talk about some strong arms!

Rialto Bridge, with really good pizza off to the left with the red awning.

St. Mark's Square is a major tourist destination in the city, hence all the people.

Mid-October Update

So, pictures of my last trip are being close to getting done. I just need to go through and actually write the blog entries and pick the pictures that are best.

It has been 3 work weeks since I've been back and I'm ready for Christmas. Mostly, I'm ready to see my family and this week has been difficult. I know that I only have 2 months and 1 day to wait and then I'll be on my way to the States but it seems like a long time.

Work has been busy in the last 3 weeks. I've been grading a mountain of papers, prepping labs, and trying to get unused glassware ready to move to the other building. The last thing hasn't happened but I have great hopes that today it will start. We, as in Chemistry people, want to have the extras moved out of our current location by the time I leave for Christmas Break.

I've been knitting in the last few weeks. I'm trying to get Mom's blanket done BEFORE I get home, we will see if that happens. It is a simple pattern but small needles and skinny yarn make for a LONG project. Only 3 more balls of yarn to knit into it and then it is done. I'm also making another hat for my brother-in-law. I'm using some yarn that I bought in Italy that is different shades of green. I must say, that it is very manly so I hope he likes it.

I am trying to do my budget for the next year so I'm trying to pick out the places that I want to visit next summer. I am leaning toward visiting Austria, Hungary, and Estonia. I am not certain that I'll pick those yet, too many choices and not enough vacation time or vacation budget.

Hope all is going well with you!

The Darn Pink Shirt

So I have one pink shirt that I bought years ago at Old Navy. Now, I bought it, even though it has pink on it, because it has brown around the collar. I take it on trips with me that way if I need more space I can throw the shirt out and not throw out a shirt I like. This is a great thought but the shirt ALWAYS makes it back! One of my friends thought that I should throw the shirt overboard on my last trip but I decided to see how many places the shirt can go. So far the shirt has gone, and been worn in, the following countries:
1) Qatar
2) US
3) Finland
4) Germany
5) Estonia
6) Latvia
7) Lithuania
8) Poland
9) Italy
10) Greece
11) Croatia
12) United Arab Emirates
13) Czech Republic (I think)


Italy

Greece
Croatia

Not too bad for a shirt that I really don’t like very much. I don’t remember if I took it on the trip to Czech Republic last year, but I’m pretty sure it went. I wonder how many countries it can go to before it gets thrown away in favor of yarn?