Way to wake up

I kinds thought they were lying to me when I checked in last night,
but the view is incredible. The only remaining 7th wonder of the world
is just outside my window.

THREE Months

countries 22

places i stayed 37 

trains 8

flights 16

Skobelj 1

Gelato in the Rain

It has pretty much rained the entire time I have been in Venice. Rain is one thing, but cold rain is another. And flooding makes the whole situation worse. None of that has stopped me from eating incredible gelato until tonight when the places closed early to try to raise their stuff away from the potential harm of the water. The wole situation felt all too familiar to me, but was also so different. The flood here is only because of high tide. The people know exactly how high the water is going to get and at what time it is going to get there. 

This flood is a perfect example of one of the many reasons I don't think Venice is a real city. Everything here is based off of tourism.  The only people that legit live here are the old people. It is  like Disney World, Las Vegas, and a retirement community all rolled into one. There is no movie theatre here. There is nothing that real cities have. I havent even seen a grocery. 

What is does have is some of the most unique and beautiful buildings and settings I have ever seen. Coming here is almsot like looking back in time because this was once a real city. It was once a great city, and looking at what once made it a great city is what makes it so cool to come here now. 

Speaking of going back in time, I went to Montenegro with my mom and Aunt Joanie to find this village where Skobeljs live. Everything in Igalo, the town we went to, was old. It was not a good old though. It was a 60s, 70s, and 80s communist old. The cars were all crap, which was really weird because the terrain was pretty severe. We went to this hotel in the middle of Igalo because we knew that a Cognevich owned it, and his family lived in the same place as the Skobeljs. The guy, George, and his wife were extremly nice, but only his wife spoke English. Luckily our driver was able to translate for us and we could communicate with George some.

George led us up what seemed like the highest mountain around. The road was more like a trail, but the driver was determined to make it up there. Eventually the car over heated leaving us to walk the rest of the way while it cooled down. Once we finally made it to tiny village we were welcomed by some very angry dogs. I ran, but George showed up and calmed the dogs and walked us into the village where we met this large Cognevich guy who wanted us to take shots with him. They told us there was no Skobeljs still living there, but we met or at least saw one lade who they told us was a Skobelj on the way out.

Old town Dubrovnik was also like going back in time, but the views around the city are really what made it so awesome. The coastline with the mountains and blue water was incredible and made Dubrovnik one of my favorite cities. However, I'm too tired to write anymore right now.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Barcelona, and then down to Seville on Thursday.

PICTURES

The weather is terrible in Rome today, so I uploaded pictures to Facebook. There are captions on nearly every picture.

Pictures from Tokyo, Hong Kong, South Africa, London, Paris

Pictures from Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Munich, Vienna, Athens, Rome

NYT

the new york times has an article in today's paper about hostels in europe and how they are getting so much better. the 1st one they talk about is the one i liked so much in london. i stayed at the one they talk about in berlin too, and i'm at the one they list for rome.

would have been nice to have this a month ago.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/travel/19hostels.html?8dpc

good & bad, but way more good

Today is day 77 of being away from home. I'm in Rome now, and I think Italy is my 17th country. 

Going to Athens and seeing the Acropolis and Parthenon was a dream come true. Unfortunately, I never really thought about what the rest of Athens would be like. Nor did I bother to think about the fact that Greek Orthodox Easter is a week after Easter for everyone else, so while I did a good job planning ahead for normal Easter, Greek Easter messed up my plans for Greece. Worse things can happen than experiencing Good Friday two weeks in row.

The Acropolis and Parthenon turned out to be the only things I was really interested in in Athens. From the top of the Acropolis, I could see all of the other sights, and there was really no need to walk all around them when I already had such an awesome view. Luckily I stumbled upon a guided tour group and jumped in (at the rather steep price of 15 euro), but the tour guide explained what everything was.

I was hoping to go to a Greek island for two nights, but because of Easter and the mass exodus the Athenians particpate in there were no tickets left on the ferries to Mykonos or Sandorini that worked for me to go. I did go to Aegina, a closer island, for one day. By the fast ferry, it only took 40 minutes to get there. 

What made Athens so awesome though was the hostel I stayed at. There was this intensely social atmosphere that other hostels haven't had. All the hostels have been decently social, but I think this one socially overdrive because Athens was so dead because everything in Athens goes Easter crazy and either closes or does something special (or just becuase the city is so boring). I met so many people that were really awesome. After being alone for so long it was weird to be with so many people. While I was there, I never ate a meal alone. People would just come into the common area before going to eat or do anything really and ask if anyone wanted to join. 

There were tons of Americans at the hostel too. It was nice to not be overrun by Canadians. Many Americans studying abroad are on spring break right now, so they are traveling through Europe. These are mostly the people I hung out with. I hung out with 3 of the same people all 3 nights in Athens, but many other were coming and going. It is so weird to become friends with someone for such a short period of time. You do things with them like you do normal friends, but you only know for like 72 hours. Facebook friend requests were flying like crazy in that place.

The island I went to was not the greatest of Greek Islands, but was probbaly so cool becuase I went with someone from the hostel. We ran into eachother on the subway on the way out there, and decided to go together. (Before we went we actually poured some banana juice all over the entrance to the bar where he was scammed 90 euro the night before.) On the island we rented a fourwheeler and rode around. Motorbikes are more common, but I don't think they are nearly as safe. The day before a girl staying at our hostel was in an accident and got all scraped up. We rode the fourwheeler all over part of the island and found a beech. Nick went swimming, and I slept. My last night in Vienna and my nights in in Athens have been catching up to me,  and sleeping during the day has become common. I guess not sleeping at night will do that.

Right after I checked into  my hostel in Rome today, I asked for the information to use the WIFI, and the guy explained to me that it wasn't free. However, the website I used to book the hostel made it sound like it was, so I told him that. He was really mean to me in response. I went to another hostel nearby. It looked cooler and has free WIFI. I checked in there, and went back to the other place to tell the guy offf. Surprisinly, I was nice to him though. He was still pretty mean. He is going to be really pissed when my credit card company stops the payment on the transactions.

I have had two awesome Italian meals already and am looking forward to more to come. But I what I'm really looking forward to is my mom's arrival in Rome on Monday morning. 

airport

I love free wifi at airports. Really I like it anywhere, but it is really nice when it is somewhere that I have to wait for two hours and have nothing else to do. I have been traveling by train lately, so it has been almost a month since I have flown. That isn't really that long, but considering how often I was flying before it kinda seems like a very long time. 

The Vienna airport is very weird. Each gate has its own security checkpoint. People are lined up forever to go through security and bored the plane so I feel like I should too. I hate lines though. I really hate lines that are pointless like this one since we are all going to the same place and nothing is going to happen until everyone gets through anyway. 

Vienna was a cool city to visit, but I'm glad I only had one full day here. None of the museums really interested me, but the city itself is really pretty. There are 3 major palaces here. One is pretty cool. The other two are kinda lackluster. However, after visiting Versailles, no palaces can really compare. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the Acropolis later today. I have wanted to see it since I studied about it with Greek mythology in 6th grade. 

Now, I'm going to get in line with the other ducks.