ITALY and Spain

ok, so about the experience in Athens,...

Our ferry back from Ios to Athens was slightly less than comftorable. We got stuck on the smokers deck and you would think that wouldn´t be a problem considering you are in the middle of an ocean that is just flowing with fresh air... but the glass protective windows did a phenominal (that ones for you leenis) job at keeping all of that out and all of the stagnant smokey air in! we spent about 8 hours of inhaling regurgitated smoke... excellent. oh also, there was nowhere to sit, so we slept on the metal floor!! we laughed it off as we have all of our lowpoints only to arrive at the next, creepier one!!

We got off the ferry tired and swollen with smoke and were approached by a cab driver that somehow talked us into getting into his cab and going to a hotel, that i am actually very surprised actually exists. It was in an extremely sketch neighborhood (dad, close your ears...we are fine!) . The taxi driver walked us into this place that i think had been vacant for some years and translated for us that we needed a room to a lady that didn´t speak a word of english... not a single word of english. she gave us our key and jenny and i took the lift up (you know the kind where you close the door and then watch the wall slide past as you go up-only room for 2- hope took the stairs!!) and walked to our room that was stagnant with stale smokey air... haha! just our luck. She said something while pointing at the Air conditioner... 20 minutes later after trying to get it to work, we figured she had said that it was broken. Shortly after that came a knock at the door!

The lady walked in and asked us for ¨the other key¨ via body language of course... it took a while, but we finally got it accross to her that she had only given us one key... she thought for a moment and then looked like she may have come to a sudden realization. She signaled that the taxi driver must have snuck the other room key in his pocket... she shrugged as if to say öh well¨ and left the room. We sat there in silence just staring at each other absolutely shocked at the situation we were in... we packed our packs against the door...created as many obsticles as we could. pulled the pepper spray out and stayed awake for a good while before we allowed ourselves to doze off... one thing i have learned about myself on this trip is that i don´t wake up for ANYTHING... alarms, loud people... we were a bit afraid that it would remain true for people breaking and entering, so we thought we would give me as much time and noise as we could so that i could be alert should that taxi driver decide to use that key that he stole and enter our room. at one point (aparently...i was told this in the morning, i didn´t wake up- of course) the girls heard something were straight up in bed, pepper spray in hand, and light on in no time at all!!

We made it though the night and left as early as we possibly could... pretty scary experience...glad to say its behind us!! that may explain the earlier comment about Athens.

Moving on... we got escorted out of the Vatican by security!!

Thats right, less than a week after getting kicked out of the parthenon, we got escorted out of the Vatican... we accidentally left through a door that should have a huge sign above it ÿou cant return if you go out this door¨ and had to go all the way around only to be told that we had to buy another ticket... we put up a bit of a fight that ended in security taking us out of there... no worries we went calmly and enjoyed a nice meal at a chinese restaurant just up the way!!

One thing i have learned is that Europeans love to say impossible¨ - even if it is unaplicable if they don´t want you to do something or they don´t allow it, they say impossible... its getting a little old...

Next we headed to Sienna for the Polio...It was absolutely incredible. The Polio is a famous horse race in Sienna Italy. The city itself is gorgeous...very old it is walled an almost entirely brick and stone! It is divided up into 14 sections of the city...10 of which compete in the race... there is so much history behind each one- rivals and allies!! anyways, it is held in the town center which is tiny. It is a ring surrounded by buildings- a clock tower, homes, restaurants. It is huge- almost bigger than soccer to these people. I loved it because it wasn´t a tourist attraction. The center was packed to the brim with locals who were so invested in a particular horse. The actual race is three times around this tiny little ring- takes a total of about 2 minutes. We stood to keep our spot by the fence for a good 5 hours and it was absolutely worth it. The teams of doctors and paramedics setting up raised our anticipation a bit. Because the ring is so small often times the horses slip around the corners and they have been know to jump into the crowd. Before the race began there was a huge parade with the horse and the jockie... the sections of town would follow their horse all the way through!! IT was so exciting.. the porkypine won!! the celebration was huge- fights broke out, people charged the horse screaming and crying!! INSANE! the section of town that wins gets to fly their flag in Sienna the rest of their year until the next Polio!! I am so glad we got to go!

Next we headed for the Chinque Terre which is the 5 cities on the western Italian Coast that you can hike. It was gorgeous. WE stayed in Riomaggore, the first of the five and enjoyed just wandering around and exploring the first night.

We spent the 4th of July hiking the cities... stopping for the national anthem with some americans we passed going the opposite direction. We stopped to swim in the ocean that was awesome. One night we got dressed up and went out to a nice dinner... when i say dressed up, i mean we showered and put on the only clean clothing we may have left (now none- laundry here is rediculous, so we just dont do it...haha) and when i say nice dinner... i mean we didn´t eat 5 euro spagetti!! we watched a lady get serenaided (no idea how to spell that... this spanish spell check isn´t really helping either) It was awesome. We went on the walk of love which was absolutely beautiful. it is along the coastal cliff overlooking the Italian ocean side!! Breathtaking!

Another wrong train... that was fun- about 4 hours in the wrong direction. Well we brought in on ourselves... we were going to try to take a ferry from a port city near rome to Barcelona instead of going through nice, france- as to avoid a 12 hour train ride. We got to the ferry and realized there was no way we could afford it, so we turned around and went back the way we came adding 4 hours onto the 12 that we were trying to avoid... haha- seriously i have loved the slip ups though, and i am so thankful to be with girls that embrace them and laugh at them as we go. we had a couple seconds to mourn. sat outside the ferry port that we had just ran a mile to in the humidity of about 1000 with our packs, and then picked ourselves up and walked back to the train station!!! We spent more time in Pisa than we had anticipated.

Originally we had planned to not go to pisa at all, not because we didn´t want to, but because it was simply öut of the way¨- it turns out we went twice!! - the 2 huge mistakes we´ve made via the rail system has landed us directly in front of the leaning tower... no worries we took the traditional photos that no one expects you to take in front of a tower that looks like it may fall over!!

We also were not planning on seeing Nice... haha!! stayed there!- it was very beautiful!

We are currently in Barcelona and leaving tonight for Pomplona... The running of the bulls, here we come!! we talked to a girl just last night that got ran over... she was fine...dont worry!! JEnny and I have already been routing an escape plan should Hope decide she wants to pet the nice little bull... we are all really excited!!

Barcelona was good!! The transportation system... not good! apparently France and Spain has completely separated their train systems, so if you want to go anywhere, you have to be in the country to make a reservation. So basically if you want to go to France from Barcelona, you have to make reservations in France. - which makes it hard if you are in Barcelona. So you have to stand in a line for about 5 hours to get out. We went to the station every day that we were here to try and figure it out, and gave up- we are taking a bus tonight to Pomplona at 11! We camped (we actually have camped a lot) and it was right on the beach which was so fun.

We bought these cheap little blow up mats and tried to learn how to surf on them, not very successful, and father, you will be very dissappointed to hear that i was not diligent in my sunscreen application and we are all paying the consequences.. we are very burned- a good 45 pound backpack on top of a sunburn will remind you to wear that sunscreen if the face peel doesn´t do the trick (for the Humphries clan!!!)

These past weeks have been amazing!! full of adventure and memories. Im sure that the rest of Spain and Switzerland will be just as crazy!!! Cant believe we only have two weeks left!