GREECE!

Well, hello-hello!!!!  So in a nutshell, Greece was amazing and spectacular and awesome!  There, think that about sums up our trip...ill post some pics later....!  .................. JUST KIDDING! (I mean, that is all true, but I will tell you more about it!)
 

We're on a boat! ..Any guesses where its headed..?  :)

We got into Patras - one of Greeks port cities - on the afternoon of the 20th.  It was so amazing to think that we went to sleep in Italy, and woke up in Greece....strange!  For me, Greece felt like a completely different world than the rest of Europe (or what we had seen of Europe, so far).  I think that was due to the fact that it took us 15 hours to get there, which is a HUGE amount of time in Europe, but also because of the language...!  We were completely blown away by all the Greek words and what they might mean... we couldn't even begin to guess the meanings of signs, or even town names! For example, this: Ολυμπία means Olympia...but if you spell it in all caps, this: ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑ means OLYMPIA...just so crazy! Anyways, back to our story!  

e disembarked (nice word, eh? ) and, after dodging many a semi - they were also trying to get off the ferry - we made it to the port office... We had totally no idea where to go, or how to make it to our first hostel in Olympia... it was awesome!  We ended finding some tracks and followed them to the train station!  Unfortunately, it was a sunday, so there were absolutely no trains headed in that direction...bummer!  It turned out okay, because God provided us with a bus station of friendly people and a bus that was leaving straight to Pyrgos...literally, we had maybe two minutes from the time we got into the station and bought the tickets, to when the bus left!  It definitely had our hearts pumping!  We took another bus from Pyrgos to Olympia and ...wow!  Olympia was totally not how we expected it!  It was this tiny town with one main road and, we think, maybe tenish cross roads...!  I at least was expecting it to be a few hundred thousand, or something around there...boy, was I wrong!  It was definitely a tourist-focused city (or should I say town :) ) with at least two hotels per block!




We didn't do too much that night...mostly just checked in to our hotel, walked around town for a bit, tried the worlds tartest orange :) and went to bed!  We were so tired from the boat ride and Italy, that we actually went to bed beofre the sun went down!  Almost unheard of, in my life!  haha! We woke up to the biggest breakfast the two of us have ever had to eat!  A loaf of bread, cereals, eggs, cheese, ham, juice, coffee, tea, more bread!  the list went on!  The food just kept coming to the table, so we just kept eating! I don't think I was hungry for the rest of the day!  :) haha!    

We then went to tour Ancient Olympia!  Incredible!  We walked through the gate and it was like we were discovering the site for the first time...! The ruins were just kinda chillin' amongst the flowers, trees and nature! There wasn't a lot of reconstruction done on the site, so, while it was sometimes hard to picture which building was which, it was awesome to use our imaginations and picture how it could have been. 


Ancient Olympia is famous for the Temple of Zeus (for all you Walt Disney fans and such, it is the temple in which Hercules talked with Zeus) and the start of the Olympic games... It was incredible! We were walking the paths once walked by those who trained and built one of the worlds greatest events! We even went to the first olympic field and ran....okay, pretended to run, cause neither of us really likes to run!  haha!  Yep, it was awesome! 


 Then we went to the museum where they held all the artifacts found at the site, and I got to see my first legit set of armour!  It's okay to be jealous :P haha!  But, ya, it was cool to see!  


Here were some of our favorite places in Ancient Olympia! :)

More of Ancient Olympia.

This is the place where they light the torch every Olympics.

The entry-way into the first Olympic Stadium! :)

World's Greatest Javelin thrower. (..in Anna's words..) Its so fast you can't even see it!

On your mark.. get set.. GO! :) Except.. we didn't actually run, because running is lame.

The Olympic Stadium, at the base of Mount Kronio.

We then boarded a train to Pyrgos and from there caught a bus to Athens (the most expensive bus ride ever.....! :) ) Got to Athens in the dark....two girls, no map, almost no money, stuck in the middle of Greece's biggest city....what an adventure!  WE walked around a lot, until we came across a place where the people could speak english...turns out we weren't too far from our hostel, but far enough that we needed a taxi... a nice old man even went and hailed it for us!  It was just like in New York City - stick your hand, and one will come!  Awesome....!  Since the next day was gonna be full, we went to bed...falling asleep to some greek cartoons (aka...Sponge Bob Square Pants...classic).  Athens is a huge city with intersections that don't make any sense!  As we were walking towards the metro the next day, we became so glad for the map the hostel provided for us!  Seriously, you'd come to a corner, and there would be at least 5 roads branching off of it....they didn't even use traffic circles!  It was fun to watch people try and drive! Our first stop was the Parliament Buildings of Athens... mostly because there was a HUGE garden right next to it....it was seriously an oasis!  Lush trees, birds (mostly pidgeons :) ), flowers! We also made it to some random ponds...one pond was FILLED with turtles....everytime you looked into the pool, you would see turtles you didn't see before - I'd wager a guess and say there were at least 30 in there...!!!
We also came across a random animal zoo thing...not quite sure what to call it, but there were different cages filled with either chickens, ducks, goats, peacocks, bunnies, parrots, pidgeons...just so random, but so awesome! 

Turtles! :) How many can YOU spot? :)

We also got to watch the changing of the guard in front of the Athens Parliament buildings. They are guarding the Tomb  of the Unknown Soldier, a tomb dedicated to all the unnamed soldiers who died in war.

D and I also got to feed some pidgeons, and these pigeons were not shy!  They came right onto us and were resting on our arms and shoulders to make it to the food!  What a weird experience! So, this is D feeding the birds.. It was crazy! :)

An ancient amphiteater.. Huge, and so beautiful.
  We then arrived at the ACROPOLIS!!!!!! (or as I accidentally called it...the Apocalypse....haha...ooops!) It was awesome! We toured the grounds at the base of the mountain first, and I got to chill on a seat of the ancient theatre! Definitely something I've dreamed of doing since elementary!  Incredible!  

We then arrived at the ACROPOLIS!!!!!! (or as I accidentally called it...the Apocalypse....haha...ooops!) It was awesome! 
 The Acropolis had me awe-struck! Just this building on the top of a mountain...like, how did they make it?  How did it remain standing, when a lot of the other ruins have fallen down? I had to walk around it very slowly to take it all in!  And while there were workers working on reconstructing the building, I was able to see past it all and not let the sounds of hammers, chisels or the odd jack hammer ruin my moment!  I love Greece! We eventually made it down the mountain and ate lunch among trees, basking in sun and listening to some buskers play...also awesome! :)

The view from the top of the Apocolypse. ..I mean, Acropolis.. :) What you see down there is the Theater of Olympia, I think. As we made the hike up the hill and looked around us, we saw many ancient ruins or walkways just strewn in among the city.  It's kinda cool just how much of Ancient Greece they have tried to keep alive, while still remaining in the 21st century! 
So, this is the view from the top of the Apocolypse. ..I mean, Acropolis.. :) What you see down there is the Theater of Olympia, I think. 

   We had no plans for the rest of the day, so we just wandered and viewed Greek life...At one point in time, we saw some buskers who consisted of: guitarists, violins, a stand up bass, a tambourine and a clarinet!  Hahaha!  Yep....So awesome!  We also came across another ancient sitem which was another temple for Zeus!  There were about 16 columns left standing, and one of them had fallen over in perfect...ness...!  haha!  I don't know how to describe that, but I'll put a picture up! 
The ruins of the Temple of Zeus in Athens. :) Pretty epic with the hawk in the picture, too, eh? :)

Us and the Greek flag! (This one's for you, Daddy Larry.)   :)

For supper, we decided to go Greek and have gyros!  Which is like an offical donair...!  mmmm....so delicious!  The next day we had to head back to Patras, to make it to our ferry, which would take us back to Italy!  Unfortunately, the trains drivers were on strike, so we had to the bus, and then went we went to get our tickets for the ferry, we learned that the Sea Men, were also on a 24 hour strike....so instead of leaving Greece at 6 pm, we had to wait until 1 am.... which meant we had a lot of time to waste!  It ended up being one of my favourite days in Greece...we chilled with the locals in a park, found some random carnival by the docks, so watched that and posed with some carnival statues and paraphinalea (no idea how to spell that :) ) and just sat on some rocks, while watching the sunset and skipping rocks....D was incredible at skipping (at least 4 in choppy waves), I was pretty consistent (just one big splash!)!  It was fun! We had our last official greek meal of souvlake, greek salad and gyros!   

Trying on some carnival gear in Patras, Greece. The carnival that was coming to town is called "Farmville". ..We thought it was funny. :)

Then boarded the ship back to Italy!  It took us 17 and a half hours to make it back because we were sailing in the middle of a storm....that was a completely new adventure for me, and I found out that I do get a little seasick, but not as much as another girl on the boat, who was constantly in and out of the bathroom...I felt so sorry and sad for her and was glad when the boat finally docked!

Well, D and I are off on another adventure today to Brugge and Gent, so I'm gonna stop writing now!  haha!  I hope all is well with everyone who reads this, and I want to thank you all for your prayers!  God be with you!

Anna 

The latest leg of our jouney!!

Well, well, well. :) It HAS been a wonderful couple of weeks, thats for sure. Sorry for the temporary disappearance of the blog.. We're still not entirely sure what happened. But it was fairly easy to get back, so that was nice.

Later that night, after saying goodbye to newfound friends Vickie and Kevin, we took validated our Eurail Global 2 Month Continous Pass, :) and experienced our first European train, an overnight train to Rome, then catching another one up to La Spezia. This first experience of being on an overnight train was very.. interesting. Definately not the best way to get a really comfortable nights rest.. :) But its cheap! And thats what we are ALL about. (Or trying to be.) :) We eventually made it up to La Spezia, and then on to a tiny little village called Riomaggiore, part of an area called Cinque Terre... MMM.. My new favorite place in the world!! I fell quite in love. Even if it did rain for much of our time there. It was beautiful. 'Cinque Terre' means 'five lands', and thats exactly what it was. Well, more like 5 little villages, but they were very separate and different! Riomaggiore is the southernmost of these towns, (they are all on the northwest coast of Italy, just south of Genova) and this is where we had a hostel for 2 nights. It was SO beautiful. I want to come back in the summer/later spring. :) We made it to each of the 5 towns on our second day there, and during the first 2 or 3, it was really fun! But then, it started pouring, and all we felt like doing was going back to our hostel and being warm.. :( But we had to see the rest of the little villages! So we did. We were freezing by the time we got back, but we huddled underneath our blankets and watching some Scots play snooker on TV. :) I now know how to play snooker! We bought some pasta and cheeze to cook up in our little kitchenette area for supper. :) MMm. Then, in the morning, we left for Pisa! The tower is beautiful!! ..However that is ALL there is to see in Pisa. :) So we spent about 2 hours there, taking tourist picture of us chopping, kicking, punching, poking, leaning on, and blowing over the tower. :) We did everything we could think of, and got close to a million pictures, I would say. :) Haha, maybe not quite, but LOTS. We hopped back on our train, and headed down to Rome, where we fairly easily found our hostel we had booked for the night. We got free pasta and wine, :) and bunkered down in a beautiful, modern, VERY bright green room to get lots of sleep for the busy, busy day we had ahead of us. The next day, our train was scheduled to leave at 2:30 pm for Bari, on the East Coast, to catch the ferry for Patra, Greece. So.. that meant we had the morning, basically, to see all the sites of Rome. ..NOT enough time. But, we did what we could! We woke up early for our big day, and headed first to the Colloseum. WOW. This is an incredible place. Just, all the HISTORY that happened here. It is mind-blowing to think, actually. I was walking where people walked thousands of years ago. Where gladiators walked!! It was incredible. We got an English Tour for €4 extra, so that was very nice. From there, we hustled to Palatine Hill, which was right across from the Coloseum. The ticket we got at the Coloseum was valid for the Coloseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. So we figured, why not?! :) So, we ran through them.. :) Snapped a few pictures, then had to hurry off.. I would have LOVED to stay for longer!! But now I know where I can come back and, at a more leisurely pace, enjoy the sights. :) So, we then caught the train onto our next stop, Saint Peter's Square and Basillica. This was quite beautiful as well. Wow. How did people make stuff like this back in those days?! It blows my mind. :) We had to stand in line for maybe 20 minutes, all the while thinking, "Is it worth it, to 'waste' time standing in line..?" ..But it was so worth it. That church is.. HUGE. And quite incredible. The shock and awe factor made the place so quiet inside, even with hundreds of people in there. Incredible. A holy hush.. It was so cool. :) Then, from there, we hustled over to the Vatican! Mostly just to say we have seen the great walled city-state. At 110 acres, its the world's smallest State. Huh. So, we saw the Vatican, (we didn't have the time or € to go in the place.. :( It is really too bad. Someday.. ) Then, we rushed off to the train station to head to Bari, to catch the ferry to Greece! 
And I believe Anna is going to tell y'all about Greece. It was pretty incredible as well!! :) 
(Hoping to put up some pictures soon..)
Signing off,
Demara. :)

The ledgendary "Venice at night"
 shot.. SO beautiful!
Anyways, on Feburary 14, 2011, we flew from Frankfurt Hahn Airport (which is NOwhere near Frankfurt.. hm.) into Treviso, Italy. From there we caught a 40-minute bus ride into the glorious city of Venice!! The bus dropped us at Piazzala Roma, the center of town. And from there we followed the instructions given to us by the hostel we booked. We found our way without getting lost once, to the amazement of the other guests at the hostel. :) We are just amazing, I suppose. :) 

The view from our hostel balcony, to the left.  :)
When the man who checked us in first heard that we were from Canada, he yelled to the back, "We've got more Canadians!!", and this bouncy, blonde young woman came running from the back. :) She was fun to get to know. Her name is Vickie, and she is from Calgary!! AND she is a member of the Alliance Church, and she went to Ambrose in Calgary, where my brother-in-law's sister is attending! Small world. :) It was wonderful to spend some time with her. It was not hard to get conversation going, thats for sure. It was so fun to be able to talk to someone about Canada! She saw we were wearing flip-flips, and she loved it. :)

..and to the right. Awesome, eh?

Well... Anna enjoys it, anyways. :)

..Venice.. :)

Our first Italian breakfast..!! WOW. Their hot chocolate is.. incredible. :)

The next day, our first full day in Venice, we decided to try to make our way to the islands surrounding Venice. When we told Vickie, she mentioned that she had been thinking about trying to do that as well, so her and another guy, a Californian named Kevin, came with us on our Island Hopping Adventure! It was SO fun. We had terrible luck with catching the right ferries on time and such.. but it all added to the adventure, I suppose.! (Earlier on our trip, when I lost my luggage, I made up this word, "apota". Its an acronym that stands for "all part of the adventure". :) Its become my mantra for when things go wrong. :) Kinda like "hakuna matata".. ANYways.)

The OCEAN!  :)

San Marco Basillica. SO awesome.

 There are two Islands that stood out to me the most. One was called Burano, and its famous for its lace. And you could definately tell! They were selling it everywhere!! And it has BEAUTIFUL pastel houses, so colorful and lovely. Took lots of pictures here. :) And every single one looks like a postcard. :) The other Island I loved was called Murano, and it is famous for its glass-work. I have been looking forward for SO long to come to this Island!! My mom once bought a beautiful glass ring from a shop in Eastend, and on the back was inscribed 'Murano'. So I researched it, and found that it was made on this Island! Ever since, I have wanted to go! And now I have!! And I was thinking of my mom the entire time. Its beautiful. :)

mmMMMmm.. BURANO. Our favorite island to walk around on. SO beautiful and so small!!

The leaning tower of.. Burano. :)

Our friends!

More pictures of the beautiful Burano.

Again, quite happy to be here.. :)

MOM! This one is for you. (These are almost look-alikes of the ring she got in Eastend. Except these ones are on the island of Murano!)

More glass-work that I just thought was awesome. :)

Walking the streets of Riomaggiore. It was beautiful. And raining!

The OCEAN! (..I took a LOT of pictures of the ocean.. Be glad they are not all on here..)  :)

MMmm.. So beautiful. This is also Riomaggiore.

The view from our hostel window.

uh.. Riding the camel/cow/dog.... and Anna was definately more happy about it than it was.. :) It looks so.. unimpressed.

the.. OCEAN! :) Its so incredible. So unending!!

|Look.. this time I'm touching the ocean! :)

The shoreline was so cool, and the waves going in and out sounded AWESOME, with all the rocks tumbling over themselves. :)

The village of Vernazza. Also quite lovely. :)

Huh.. This is the way, we think, they get fruit from the orchards down from the hills. It looks so SKETCHY. :) I would love to be the driver for this little rollercoaster down the side of the mountain. :)

Using her super Ninja skills to destroy the Leaning Tower of Pisa.. Anna, thats a BAD activity.  But it was a fun photo to shoot! :)

The classic.. hold-up-the-tower pose. :)

The Coloseum! It was so cool.

Anna's artsy shot of the magnificent Coloseum. Beauty. :)

St. Peter's Square. (And thats Anna in the middle there, if you were wondering..)  :)

The columns around the outside of the square.

The Vatican!

MMMMM... GELATO. 
:)