The one you’ve been waiting for…

So…

We’re engaged!!!! YAYYYYYYY!!!

Here is the story in all its glory:

We are in Barcelona and we have been looking forward to this city since we first got to Europe. We decided to leave Spain as our last hurrah and planned to loosen the budget a little and have some fun as we traveled through 6 different cities. Barcelona is our last stop before heading to France for a friends wedding and then to Florida. The whole time we have been in Spain I have been bugging Ben that I want to see a flamenco show, which is a type of Spanish dancing, but it just never seemed to work out, i.e. we missed them because we were to lazy or it was to hot out. He did some research and found that there was a Flemenco show playing in Barcelona at the Palau de la Musica Catalunya which is a really famous theatre in Barcelona. It’s similar to Guadi work but not done by Guadi. The show was amazing and afterwards we found a small restaurant where we ordered the best Paella ever and ok sangria (!), but it was a really cute little place. From there we went and had some of the best mojitos we’ve had in a while, I didn’t know it at the time but Ben was stocking up on his liquid courage!! It turned out to be a great segway moment because I started reflecting on how far we’ve come and how crazy it is that we have travelled for almost a year. Ben and Shannon, who would have thought.

Sensing his cue, he paid the bill and we started walking around.

His plan had been to then walk to a nearby cathedral that we had read was supposed to be all lit up at night and be really pretty but when we got there the square was pretty much deserted and the there were no lights on. It was apparently undergoing a little restoration. So Bens sweating bullets and I’m completely clueless, he suggests some more walking, I say sure. We walk a little ways and run into some giant fountains (this is not hard to do in Europe as their truly is a fountain on every corner!), but Ben now tells me he had seen them earlier and it was his plan B location. We took some pictures in front of one fountain and then Ben said “How about I take your picture in front of the other fountain?” at this point I can tell something is up because he is rooting around in his bag like crazy (later I learned he had hidden the ring in a sock in a pillow case! Just in case I looked in it at any point in the night) , trying to hide it from me of course. So I say “the fountains look exactly alike?” I was obviously being very helpful. So he finally pulls out the ring and says “well lets open this instead” drops to a knee and asks me to marry him. Of course I say YES!!! Then we cry and hug and kiss. There were some english speaking people standing by the fountains near us and they were clapping and they took a few pictures for us. Which was amazing.

From there we were totally giddy and kind of like “well now what do we do?”, so we walked around the park area and when we returned to the fountains, maybe 5-10 mins later they had been shut off!!! Perfect timing Ben!! Then we hoped on the metro back to our hostel (how romantic!) and started calling people.

One question people keep asking: YES, HE CARRIED THE RING WITH HIM FOR 11 MONTHS!!!! It feels really special to have something that has traveled with us this whole time.

So now we are engaged and are going to take our time. We figure once you’re married, you’re married why not be engaged for a little while. Not to mention we will be homeless, jobless and Ben will be starting school again.

Thank you for all your well wishes!! We look forward to seeing you all back in the states, we arrive in Seattle on Nov 2.

Ahh Italy

We were lucky enough to have Ben’s sister, Jennifer, visit us in Italy. We met up with her and her friend Jessica in Rome to start our Italy adventure.

To get to Italy we took an overnight ferry from Croatia to Bari Italy…if you’ve been following along we have ALREADY done this but coming from Greece. The second time around was equally as fun, sleeping on the ground jockeying for pillow space and playing footsies with numerous Croatians. Once in Bari we headed for the train station, waited in line and then proceeded to get into a yelling match with the ticket seller who refused to answer any questions and would only give us one option for train tickets – a really expensive one at that. After buying the really expensive tickets I fumed off to the information office to find someone to complain to, LOUDLY. We were then told that there was a bus to Rome for half of what we paid for the train. So, still fuming, we were escorted by a railway information guy to the same guy we bought our tickets from and were given a refund. We quickly caught the bus and the sweet feeling of redemption stayed with us all the way to Rome.

First stop: ROME

Ben and I had both already been to Rome before so we spent a lot of time trying to find cheap beer and pizza while J&J (Jennifer and Jessica) toured the Vatican and the Coloseum. But you are allowed to go inside St Peters Basilica and stand outside the Coloseum for free, which fit perfectly in our budget. We also enjoyed Trevi fountain and the Pantheon – also free!

Second stop: FLORENCE

Since all four of us were sharing a room to be as economical as possible J&J would have to lug our bags AND their bags into reception while they checked in. So much for packing light.
We enjoyed all the tourist spots in Florence, the Statue of David and the giant Duomo, were among the best. On our third day there we rented a car,  the Panda Fiat (!!!) and explored Tuscany. Ben and I highly enjoyed this as it was probably the third time we’ve been in a car, with less then 20 people, the entire year! We stopped in a town called Sienna explored it a bit, eating lunch in the coolest butcher shop/sandwich store. Then we hit up a few wineries!! We learned Chianti 101, which included descriptions of the different blends of grapes and quality distinctions that you can find in this area. It was a lot of fun and we all went home with a few bottles of wine, and besides Jennifer (the driver) a bit of a wine buzz.

In Florence we also found the best Trattoria in all of Italy – in our opinions of course. A “Trattoria” is supposed to be less expensive then a restaurant but not a self-service style cafeteria, which they also have. The Chianti glasses were huge and the pizzas, pastas and risotto were amazing!

Third stop: Venice

People aren’t lying when they say that Venice is beautiful. It really is just like a fairy tale. You don’t even have to do that much in the city but simply walk around and take in the beautiful scenery. Of course if you are willing and able to fork over the 80 Euros for a 40 min gondola ride, you should, because you are in Venice. So we did, and it was amazing. We brought a bottle of wine with us and enjoyed the scenery from the canals.

Fourth (and final) stop: Milan

No offense to Milan, but there really isn’t a whole lot to do there. There is another Duomo, which is apparently the second largest church in Europe, and there is a lot of shopping. But by this point we were all a bit shopped out so Milan’s charms may have been lost on us. However we did take an amazing day trip out to Lake Como to hopefully catch a glimpse of George Clooney and see for ourselves Europes deepest lake.

We took a ferry from Como to nearly the opposite side of the lake to a town called Bellagio. It’s a nice way to tour the area because it takes roughly an hour. In the town we walked the small streets and enjoyed the beautiful views.

The next day we left J&J and headed to the Milan airport to take a flight to Madrid and then another flight to Granada.

On a somewhat random ending note we did see a pizza vending machine at the Milan airport. Five euros and you got a hot steaming cheese pizza. Only in Italy.

HELLO

We owe you all an update.

We know.

But we are enjoying our last month of Europe eating tapas and paella, taking siestas and drinking endless amounts of Sangria.

And the internet is not the fastest here and you know how we are with slow internet.

We are both reading a new book called “The Motion of the Ocean”, its about a couple that sails around the world. (thanks Jennifer for hurrying up and reading it so we could snag it!) There is a quote at the beginning that hit a cord with both of us:

” I used to think that going to the jungle made my life and adventure. However, after years of unusual work in exotic place, I realize that it is not how far off I go or how deep into the forest I walk that gives my life meaning. I see that living life fully is what makes life – anyones life, no matter where they do or do not go – and adventure.” – Maria Fadiman (National Geographic Emerging Explorer)

Post more soon….

Budapest and Croatia with my mom!

As promised another “periodic” post is here. From Amsterdam we took an overnight bus – 22 hours to Budapest, which was a little rough, I’m not going to lie. Our stamina for extremely long travel days is starting to wane.

However we were excited to get to Budapest because my mom was meeting us there!! She had booked an apartment for us all to stay in that had an actual clothes washer, stove and oven!! We were pretty excited. We didn’t have to share a bathroom with 19 strangers! It was also in a very convenient location near the train station, a little bit of a seedy area but the inside had been totally Ikea’d out and the bathroom gave off only the faintest smell of mold.

We arrived early at the place, passed out for a few hours and then went to the grocery store, as she was not arriving until later that night. When she finally got there it was really great to see her and we stayed up talking for quite awhile. I also feverishly read all the gossip magazines she brought (what is happening to Jon and Kate! And K-Fed has really packed on the pounds), ate a few too many reses peanut butter cups, and daydreamed about eating the four boxes of Mac and Cheese she brought us.

We woke up the next morning and started exploring the city. From our apartment you can walk to just about everything in the city in at least 40 mins. We started at Andrassy square – or Heroes square, which is the start of the main street on the Pest side of town and just walked all the way down it.

We passed many museums – one documenting all the “terror” that happened during the communist era (we skipped it), we also passed the Opera house, walked through “Fashion street” were the typical Zara and H&M were and ended up on the water. From there we crossed the chain bridge to the Buda side and took the elevator up to the top of the hill. The views of the city and the Danube River are amazing up there.

That night we went to dinner at what is called the “most popular” restaurant in Budapest – and it did not disappoint. If you are ever there we recommend Menza, and their garlic soup with Hungarian fried bread.

The next day we went to the main market, pigged out on Hungarian fried bread (again) – which is sort of like an unsweet elephant ear slathered in cream cheese and shredded white cheese. A huge gut bomb, but sooooo worth it. We bought some paprika at the market, which Hungary is known for, they had several kinds, and then we got some chicken at the market and made paprika baked chicken stuffed with garlic. It was AMAZING.

After returning from the market we went to the Szechenyi hot springs. Hungary is known for its hot springs and has many facilities in Budapest; this is one of the most famous. Follow the link to see pictures of the place cause I obviously didn’t bring my camera. Basically you spend about $15 to get access to all the pools and saunas and there are tons of them. They all vary in sizes and temperatures. There is even a “wave pool” and an ice-cold pool that you go in after using the sauna. The pools are an important part of the Hungarian health care system and are often subscribed to patients who then get reduced entrance fees to visit the facilities – sounds like a good idea to me.

The following day we took a public transportation adventure (including a bus and an old tram) to the outskirts of town to visit Monument Park. Right after the communist era ended most of the eastern block countries destroyed the many many monuments celebrating communism that were erected during that time period. Living up to its true quirky nature Budapest decided to keep all of its statues and put them in a park. It’s pretty crazy to see all the giant statues praising Lennon and Stalin. There is also a replica of the boots of Stalin that were all that remained from a when a mob pulled down the rest of the statue – apparently it was over 60 meters high and took several hours to dismantle. The empty boots became a symbol for the end of communism for many people.

That night we went to a really cool bar called Szimpla. It looks like they raided a flea market and put all the furniture into an abandoned building that had just been bombed (it really could have been, you just never know). The atmosphere is really laid back and the drinks are pretty affordable. You have to get there early if you want a seat in the old bathtubs or in one of the cars. When we were there the power suddenly went out, which lent to the atmosphere even more.

The following day we went up to the castle hill and explored around but it was pouring rain outside so we ducked inside a restaurant to try some Hungarian goulash. We turned in early, as we had to leave the apartment the next day at 4AM, yikes!!

(Shout out to Ben’s cousins Erik and Lisa for some great tips about exploring Budapest. Thanks guys!)

Our landlord came to get the keys and was wary that the public transportation would even be running that early so he ended up giving us a ride to the train station!

The final destination was Dubrovnik Croatia but we had to take a train to Zagreb (Croatia’s capital) switch trains to go to Split, stay a night in Split and then take a 5-hour bus to Dubrovnik. The little that we saw of Split makes us want to go back. It had a lively atmosphere and we had dinner at the coolest restaurant, Buffet Fife. Highly recommended. The train rides there were really pretty as Croatia is a very lush green country. The bus ride followed the water so that wasn’t too bad a view either.

Once in Dubrovnik we took a taxi to another apartment my mom had rented for us to stay in – which was awesome. The next day we headed to the old town to walk the city walls and explore a bit. The views were amazing and the entire Old city was really interesting and fun to walk around in.

It was ridiculously hot though so we headed back to the apartment got our suits on and headed to the beach for a refreshing dip. The beach is only a 5 min walk from our apartment and we would pass many bars and restaurants to sit at and people watch. The beach is a rocky, but the water is clear blue and actually pretty warm. Its always fun when you can take a dip in the Mediterranean. The rest of the time my mom was here we went to the beach, and walked around a bit. We also went to the fish market and bought whole fish to cook stuffed with garlic and lemon. Mainly we relaxed and caught up.

Now we are leaving the comfort of the apartment and heading to a campsite out of town. We’ll stay here for another 6 days and then off to Italy!

We are still alive

We know what your thinking – “are they still alive and when are they going to update this blog”?  Well we apologize for the delay but its been a busy month so get ready for a few posts over the next few days to bring you up to speed.

When we last left you we were trying to clean the mold off our backpacks in Amsterdam.

After cleaning off the mold (which was a sucess) we hoped on a train to the town of Hoorn which is about 30 minutes north of Amsterdam.  We had contacted a local farm ahead of time to work on for two weeks.  As usual we were a little nervous about getting started because you never know what its going to be like until you get there.  Thankfully our host Arie greeted us at the train station with a big smile and turned out to be a really nice guy.  Once we arrived we new things were looking good because the grounds were gorgeous.  The farm consisted of a green house, two huge vegetable gardens, a fruit orchard, horses, chickens, hay fields, and one dog named Kai.  The owners of the farm were not just one family but actually a cooperative of people living on the farm.  The main building had about 6 small apartments in it and each of those people pay a portion of the mortgage.  Most of the people who lived there were over 50 except for one young family.  In total there were about 14 people living there but we only ever saw about 8-10 at any one time.  This style of living is not common for the Netherlands but seemed to work great for everyone on the farm.

After meeting a few people we found a bed to sleep in and got ready for dinner.  Wow what a spread!  One thing about this group is that they know how to cook.  Shannon and I felt like we were on an episode of Top Chef.  For dinner they would literally go out to the garden or green house and just pick what they wanted.  Usually someone would have picked blackberries or peaches earlier to make some kind of desert.  Some local wine always seemed to show up on the dinner table as well.  After eating sandwiches in a tent for a week we felt like we had gone to heaven lol!

Most of our tasks on the farm involved work in the orchard.  We did anything from clear out the weeds from bases of every tree in the orchard, pick fruit, and the glamorous work of fertilizing (meaning “spread chicken shit”) the trees.  Thankfully not all the work was in the orchard because it was either hot or wet from rain out there.  I (me Ben) got to drive a huge tractor in a hay field to thrash the hay!  It was awesome.  Except for the fact that the machine partially broke while I was driving it and then later Shannon had to sit on the tractor while we got the hay ready for bailing so a huge chunk of metal did not fly in the bailer.  She literally stared at the ground for 2 hours looking for a piece of metal in a hay field lol.  We felt like a real farmers, Farmer Ben and Farmer Shannon.  We also did some work in the garden or took the riding lawn mower out for a spin to cut the grass.  We know what your thinking this sounds all terrible and back breaking.  Well it was a little except for the fact that we worked our own schedule, we would break whenever we were tired, get to make fabulous lunches using all there fresh veggies, we even got to pick eggs straight from the chicken coop.  If we wanted to get away from work we borrowed a bicycle and went for a ride in the country side.  We felt like we were in some Rick Steve’s travel episode on PBS!

Before Cleaning:

After Cleaning:

One other thing that helped make our experience so fun was the people who owned the farm.  Everyone was always looking out to make sure we were comfortable or had everything we needed.  One time Shannon and I went to the store to buy Peanut Butter and Crackers for a snack and Arie, one of our hosts, got so concerned because he wanted to buy us anything we wanted to eat or drink.  He kept saying “please please write it down and I will get it, you don’t have to spend your money on it.” Sounds good to me!

Our main go to person on the farm was Jan (pronounced Yawn).  We ended up becoming good friends with everyone on the farm but I think we got the closest with Jan.  How do I describe Jan??  Well if you can picture a 60 year old mad scientist with a smile that felt like your Grandpa you got it him pictured pretty good.  He would usually give us our jobs for the day and if we ever had questions we would usually go to him.  But you had to be careful when asking questions because he would always rope you into some other job.  He had alot going on in that head of his!  It was a wonder anything ever got finished with how many things he was doing.  One time I (Ben again) went to ask him where a wire cutter was and the next thing I know I am tinting a bedroom window and helping reinstall it back into the wall.  I felt so bad for Shannon because she would be out weeding or working in the orchard in the heat while I am in a cool room working on a window with Jan or riding a lawn mower with a cool breeze in my face.  Points for Shannon for doing a lot of hard work while I worked with Jan on many many projects.

Here is a picture of Jan:

Jan had the funniest sense of humor as well.  It was like working with your grandpa who could teach you a million things or humble you with one sentence to the next.  He even showed me up when putting some new posts in the ground and stacking bricks.  Jan and everyone else on the farm really made the stay for us.

After two weeks of working and eating like kings we had to leave the farm.  Arie gave us a nice present of some fresh jam he had made to take with us on our next destination.  The coolest part was the jam was made from local berries we had picked. Yea thats right we eat homemade jam everyday!

Before we departed our hosts had one requirement and it was to cook dinner for them one night with dishes that were inspired from our home.  We knew since we got to the farm that we would have to make something but we had no clue what to make.  The first thing we thought of was Salmon on the BBQ but that went out the door when someone else BBQ fish literally two days before we would cook.  So we ended up just cooking all the things we had been craving the whole trip.  Our dinner menu consisted of a baked mac and cheese with bacon in it, a fresh salad from the garden, potatoes from the garden with a yogurt sauce with garlic in it, and last but not least for desert we made peanut butter cookies with a chocolate chunk in the middle.  I have to say the dinner tasted awesome and I have to give alot of credit to Shannon as she did so much in the kitchen while I ran around pulling things from the garden, cleaning, and cooking potatoes.  The only draw back to the meal was it was very heavy but hey we’re American and why not give them a taste of home haha.  Big portions and heavy food oh man it was good.

We left the farm the day before Bens 27th birthday (author switch here….this is Shannon now) and partied hardy in Amsterdam. We even splurged on an actual hotel room to celebrate the day and not have to deal with disgusting mold.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Budapest with my mom!

On to the farm

Just a quick update as we’re not sure what the internet access will be like on the farm we are heading to this afternoon.

We really don’t have a lot to report as all we’ve been doing is camping. The most exciting part of our day was usually deciding if we want to spend the 80 cents to take a shower or not, that was right up there with the 2.5 hour walk we had to take to get into the city center to save 5 Euros. Sweet!

However we will leave you with one story to give you a glimpse into our little lives…

The last couple of days its been pretty crazy weather, pouring down rain at night and then super hot during the day. Usually when we get back to our tent by the end of the day its pretty smelly and humid, inside the tent! We woke up this morning, our 7th night of camping and began to pack up our stuff that was strewn about. I went to go move my backpack out of the corner it was wedged into and as I lifted it up I realized that almost the entire bottom of it was covered in white disgusting MOLD. Ben’s was as well. So we did the only thing we could think of – squirted Purel hand sanitizer all over it and rubbed it off with extra toilet paper. The bottle does say it kills 99% of germs instantly, and it smells of lavendar and chamonile! Problem solved. Hmmm apparently we just slept 7 days in a giant blue petri dish. Think of the bacteria we could have grown if we would have actually tried! Once we won the mold battle we took down the tent in pouring rain.

I’m sure we’ll have more stories from the farm, stay tuned.

The Mother of all posts

We met a big group of Ben’s friends in Athens and then made our way to Patras Greece, where Helen is from and where the actual wedding would be. On our first night in Patra Helen’s family hosted a big dinner for everyone at their restaurant in the city center. The food was great (lots of cheese and pasta!) and there was traditional dancing and a “making the bed” ritual. There was a table set up in the middle of the room, made like a bed, all the unmarried ladies in the room had to stand around the bed and try and block Ian from messing up the bed. If we successfully blocked him three times their first baby would be a boy. At least this is how I remember it! Someone correct me if I am wrong. As you can see below I was taking it pretty seriously. People also threw money on the bed for good luck and afterwards the grandmothers in the family sung some traditional wedding songs. That night the “sunrise club” was formed as the majority of the group stayed out until the sun came up the next morning. This tradition continued for the next 5 nights. Yikes!

The next day the wedding was held at a local Christian Orthodox church. The church was tiny, standing room only, but it was beautiful – religious paintings everywhere and a huge chandelier, the pictures don’t really do it justice. The ceremony was obviously all in Greek but it was interesting to see some of the different traditions and how it varied from other weddings we’ve been to.

From the church we headed back to the hotel where the reception was set up right in front of the beach, Helen and Loaf entered with the sun setting – it was perfect. Our group was put in the very back table, but Hurricane Frat cannot be silenced and we quickly made our way to the dance floor and filled up on Mythos beer and Amstel light.

The next day the entire wedding group headed to a small island called Zakynthos, about an hour ferry ride from Patra. The island has a reputation of being a party island – and rightfully so. On the cab ride to our hotel we passed dance club after dance club with a few gyro stands and strip clubs mixed in. The sunrise club was in heaven as most people didn’t venture out until after midnight and things didn’t really get started until 1 or 2 AM. It was not unusual to be walking on the strip at 10 or 11 AM and see people stumbeling around shirtless, shoeless, or both, searching for their hotel.

We stayed a few nights on the island and then left with Jacin, one of Ben’s friends who would travel with us until July 5th. He flew out of Paris so we had a lot of ground to cover in very few days! From Zakynthos we went back to Patra, took a ferry to Bari Italy then another train to Naples Italy. Once we arrived and found our hostel we were greeted with a free pasta dinner! Only in Italy. We also went to the best pizza restaurant ever – Da Michelle, we waited for almost 2 hours. Once inside you can chose from Marinara,  Margerhita or double Margerhita. It’s been open since 1870 and they have pizza making down. A full pizza costs only 4 Euros and takes less then 15 mins to make since the crust is so thin. Luckily it was local custom to order your own pizza – which we would have done anyway, but we did it without feeling like fat Americans.

While we were in Naples we took a train to Pompeii, which is the most well known town that Mount Vesuvius covered when it erupted in AD 79. When the volcano erupted the town was preserved and is now considered one of the richest archeological spots in Italy, if not the world. At its height Pompeii was a resort town for wealthy Romans, until it was covered in 18 feet of volcanic ash. At that time in history it was customary for towns to be perpetually be built upon each other as empires changed, rivers dried up, wars were fought, etc, which can make it hard to excavate the area because of the many different layers. Pompeii was frozen in time like no other village was. The place is huge and you could spend hours exploring it. One of the coolest things is that they were able to pour plaster into the human molds that were created by the volcanic ash.

From Naples we had originally planned to head to Nice, France but because the Tour De France was beginning the hostel rates were really high. Luckily there were three of us and we were able to get a ridiculous deal on a hotel in Monaco! There were at least 3 different bike teams staying at our hotel and there were paparazzi everywhere! We were able to take a bus from uber expensive Monaco to Nice for just one Euro. In Nice we went to the beach and also bought lots of fruit and sandwich fixings at the farmers market. If you have never been to Nice, or thought of going, we would highly reccomend it. There is a lot to see and do in the area and the town has a really laid back feel to it. They also have a great modern art museum that we got into for free – and free is always more fun. We did spend some time in Monaco and saw a lot of “high class call girls”, which is their more P.C. label. We also gambled at the Monte Carlo casino – so what if it was only with 5 Euros!

From Nice we took an overnight train to Paris and were again able to stay in a hotel not a hostel. Our first day there we walked to Notre Dame, visited the Louvre, went to the Arc de Triomphe and hit the Eifelle tower – all in one day. Our feet were aching!! The next day Jacin went to Versaille and Ben and I went to the Grand Palace museum to see a special Andy Warhol exhibit. That night all three of us went on a river cruise and got to see the Eifel tower lit up in all its glory. We also gorged ourselves on chocolate crepes and cheap sandwiches from the supermarket next door.

We said goodbye to Jacin, he flew out the next morning and we hopped a quick bus to Belgium. Once in Brussels we took a short train to Brugges, you may be familiar with the recent Colin Farrel movie “Stuck in Brugge”. We decided to go there first because even though it’s a super touristy town the hostel rates were much cheaper then those in Brussels, so it was an easy decision. We ended up really liking the town, its very “cute” and there is good food on every corner. We splurged a little and ate our way through the town snacking on chocolate (shaped like naked ladies), french fries (technically fries originated from Belgium, so there are frie stands on every corner), waffles, mussels, all you can eat ribs, giant mugs of hot chocolate and of course, BEER! We would recommend going there, but you really only need a day to explore the entire city.

We are now back in Brussels and will be heading to Amsterdam in two days. There we will camp and stay in one place for a while! We did 5 countries in 12 days, which, if you read this blog regularly, should know is about a million times faster then we normally move. We have a farm lined up near Amsterdam that we will be working on for about two weeks, so we can save some money and stay put!

We’ll post more from Amsterdam.

Quick update

So sorry for the extreme tardiness…

We have had a crazy couple of weeks and have not had ANY time to write a post.

We’re headed to Paris now and I doubt we will find more time to post there either…! Look for a thorough post after July 5th.

CLARIFICATION POST

Ben and I are NOT the ones getting married in Greece!!

I re-read our last post and can see how that could have come across. We have friends getting married in Greece.

Sorry for the possible confusion!

(thanks Diana for alerting me to the snaffu)

Back to your normally scheduled programming…

Greek Island Patmos

Hello again,

We left the island of Kos and took a short 2.5 hour ferry ride to Patmos. Patmos is a very small island that is one of the biggest religious tourist attractions in all of Europe – this we found out AFTER we got there. Apparently John the Evangelist wrote the book of Revelations on this island. So there are churches on every corner a giant monastery and a guarded cave, which is believed to have been the place where he actually wrote the book.

I was a bit nervous on the boat because we did not arrive on the island until after 11PM and we had not booked anything for that first night. Usually we do this when we arrive in a place in the early morning or afternoon but after 10PM I start to think I’m going to be sleeping on a park bench. But, thankfully, much like when we arrived on Kos we were greeted at the port with at least 10 eager property owners trying to rent us a room. A tall, very Greek man, named Stefano, pulled us aside and offered us a studio for 35 Euros….we were paying 20 on Kos, so this would not work. We told him we would stay one night for 20 Euros and then we would camp at the nearby site. Once we told him we were planning on staying on the island for a total of 5 nights he offered us the unit for 18 Euros a night!! 35 to 18, sheesh. He told us that was almost exactly what the camping would cost, we checked it out the next day and he was right. When we were checking in he said “you like beer”, and its almost midnight by this point, we looked at each other and said “uhh yeah”, he quickly produced two ice cold cans of Heineken and a 4 pack of Amstel tall cans. He said part of the price included free beer! The next morning he gave us a ride to the cheaper grocery store and we stocked up on all the food and water we would need for the next five days. I won’t even say how much feta we ate over the next few days.

The island is beautiful, we’re noticing a theme with these islands. There are small beaches all over the and the water is crystal clear and a great temperature. We also took the local bus up to the famous monestary for the incredible views of the rest of the town.

We are now in Athens staying in a hostel in one of the shadiest areas we’ve ever been in. Last night at dinner we constantly saw groups of armed cops, in vests, walking briskly from one street to the next. We practically ran back to our hostel due to the sketchiness. The wedding is on Saturday and we are the official welcoming committee as Ben’s friends slowly arrive.

Post more later!