languages

So.. before I had logged in, Blogger was in German. Once I had logged in, it was in French. Go figure?

I'm in Geneva right now. Arrived here on Monday, and spent the last couple days hanging out with John Beach, who was the Trin chaplain in my first few years, and Stephen, who was in a few of my classes in first and second years. It's amazing to not be in a hostel, even if only briefly. I went on a tour of the Palais des Nations at the UN today, which was alright, but not entirely worth the price. The land it is on used to be owned by a rich Genevan family, but was given to the town to be used by the League of Nations, under 3 conditions. First, the guy's grave has to stay on site. Second, there has to be peacocks living on the grounds. The guide was telling us that there was a conference recently where a peacock was stuck in a tree outside the room, and was loud enough that they had to put things on hold in the meeting until they got it down! The third condition is that the grounds have to remain open to the public. Security concerns forced them to close the ground to the public a few years ago, which is too bad. Apparently somewhere on them, there is a monument to the space race that the USSR donated, which I would have loved to see. Ah well.

I put some pics of Athens up on Facebook, for those of you who are members to that site. I know there is a way to share the photos with people who have not joined facebook, but I can't figure out how to do it. Does anybody out there know?

Tomorrow I am moving on to Zurich, for one night, and then to Munich.

more italy, and in to france

Hello!

So after leaving Florence, I made a day stop in Pisa - essential for any physics nerd. It really does lean quite substantially! But it`s really only a day stop - not tons to see. Then continued to what was probably the most beautiful stop yet. I haven`t decided yet if it beats out crete. And that was the Cinque Terre. WOW. Stunning. I did most of the hike, all in the pouring rain, with a girl from London. We missed out on one small section between Riomaggiore and Manarola, since by that point in the day, they had closed the trail because of the rain. 15 minutes and I would have had fulfillment. Ah well. The towns are so amazing, but I have a lack of pictures again because of the rain. Next time...

From there I went on to Nice, where I stayed the past couple nights. Had a low-key time there - visited the Marc Chagall gallery and walked along the waterfront. It was nice to have a calm couple days! I also really enjoyed Chagall`s work. He paints Old Testament scenes in very vivid colours. So interesting to look at - you would never see all the little things in the painting. He`s also a surrealist, and they had a special exhibit on with some of his more fantastical works. Half men half beast, violins that are part animal, carnival scenes... brilliant.

I am now in Avignon, at a strange keyboard where I can`t find all the punctuation marks, or if I can, I can`t figure out how to type them. Went to The bridge (as in, the one from the song) today, and wandered around. Tomorrow will bring the Papal Palace, and much thinking about schisms.

a familiar face!

This is just going to be a short post to say that I am excited today because I will be seeing somebody I know! I know it's only been a few weeks since I left (wow... that long already) but me being who I am, I find this whole transient thing kinda strange. But today, I'm having coffee with Luke's sister Rachel. Yay!

Thanks for all the comments everybody has been leaving. I really appreciate hearing what's going on back home, and hearing familiar voices following my trip.

a change

I think fall has hit Italy. The past couple days have been cold! Only 4 days ago, I was in Rome, too warm in long pants and a t-shirt. Today, I was too cold in shirt plus sweater plus raincoat. Methinks that maybe my strategy of seeing a city by wandering around and getting a feel for it might not last too much longer! Maybe it will warm up later in the week - this could put a damper on hiking in the Cinque Terre. The weather has not put a damper on gelato, though. mmm tasty. Today I had oreo and hazelnut as my two flavours. No, I don't have it every day!

Today I stood in line for an hour to see the statue of David. It's actually quite impressive, since it's much bigger than I thought it would be. And it is extremely detailed. Everything from veins in his arms to the tendon that goes along the back of the knee was there. I decided not to stand in line for a couple more hours to go to the gallery that has Birth of Venus (and other works) in it. That'll be for next time!

Venice

Spent the past couple nights in Venice. Yes, it is that cool. I was only there for one full day, but that was okay. I took in St. Mark's first thing in the morning. There were signs all over the place saying no pictures, so me being the obedient tourist that I am, left my camera in my bag when leaving the bag at the bag-check. Well in I go, and there every tourist is, taking pictures. oi. That made me wish I had taken the camera, since visually, I found it much more stunning than St. Peter's. I think it's the Eastern elements mixed in. Gold mosaics, icons, etc. But they keep you between two velvet ropes, and you move along at the speed of everyone else, and then you're out again. So as an attraction, it wasn't as fun as St. Peter's, where you could wander and look at stuff. After the church, I visited the Doge's Palace museum also in the square. From there I just wandered and looked at boats. And took lots of canal pictures. I made my way over across the Grand Canal and saw the Peggy Guggenheim collection in what used to be her house. I felt a bit out of place among all these rich-looking tourists saying things about the pieces of art defying explanation, but it was neat all the same. I did not ride in a gondola, since they are very expensive, but I did take the water bus a couple of times. I think it would make a good 2nd career for any of the PIII drivers. At each stop, they bring the boat in and slow down, but only come within 3 or so feet of the dock. Then one of the crew loops a rope around a post on the dock, and haphazardly cleats it once or twice. The driver then puts the boat back in gear, and the tension on the rope brings the boat in to the dock with a crash. So they don't actually have to land the boat very well. They missed a couple times and were too far out for this rope trick to work, and had to line up and try again. Boys, your technique is way better! The place I stayed was a bit dingy and had bugs. And was expensive, but that seems to be typical of Venice.

Today I took the train to Florence. I have to venture out and find some dinner, since I'm quite hungry. Coming to a new city every couple days is weird since you have to orient yourself very quickly to find things like food and whatnot. The hostel is neat. On the walls in the hallways people can write messages, their names, quotes, whatever they want. The room I'm in is quite big, although the bunk beds are such that you really really can't sit on the bottom one - even worse in that department than the Pam Am beds! So far Vanessa is 2 for 2 on recommendations (I will eat more gelatto in your honour to celebrate).

As for pictures.... I will likely have upwards of 5 gigs of them by the time I get home, so be careful what you wish for in wanting to see them! I will try to post some soon. Some internet places charge you extra for plugging in a camera, and the computers at the hostel here say you can't plug any hardware in to them at all, so it's a bit dicey trying to put them up. That and since this website was first in greek and now in italian, I don't know how to do it! They may have to wait until I am in France and can read the French instructions.

Crete and Rome

I have been abandoning my audience. I'm sorry! The computers at the hostel aren't working, so it's a little harder, and a little more expensive, to find internet access. This hostel I'm at now is great, though. It has free brekkie and free dinner, and the room I'm in is huge. Yay to Vanessa for the recommendation!

So. first of all, Crete was amazing. I've never seen anything like it. The colour of the water is astounding. So blue, so different. We visited a number of small towns along the southern shore in our kayaks (shouts out to Rachel, Barbara, Rose, and Dave). Some of them are only accessible by the ferry that travels along the coast. White buildings, feta cheese, backgammon and rakki (traditional Crete after-dinner liquor that comes to your table. 40%. tastes like a mix of kerosene and bad scotch. don't ask). We had 2 full days of hiking, 2 full ones of kayaking, and two other days with short amounts of paddling. Me being me, I would have loved a purely kayaking trip! I may have even been slightly converted from canoeing! Shocking, I know. You can have a lot more fun in a kayak. The trip was making me want to learn more and get more technical about it. More of a challenge, yadda yadda yadda. The hiking was out to get me. My prairie legs were very sore with the whole mountain thing. I don't do uphill very well! Thankfully our longest day was extremely downhill. But yeah. Tons of amazing photos came out of that week. Mostly Rose's, but she's going to share. I'm very thankful for that!

I love Crete. I think I could have stayed there the rest of my trip. Except that there's so much more out there to see, so on I go.

I'm now in Rome. I got here on Sunday, after flying Chania to Athens and Athens to Rome. I really like this city! I spent Monday in the Vatican, seeing St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican museums. Long day, but wow. Let me tell you. Absolutely breath-taking. I took 200 pictures over the course of the day. Yesterday I wandered around and just went in and saw a bunch of churches that I passed. Today was ruins. Colosseum, Roman Forum, etc. The Colosseum is one of those places that you have to go see, but is kind of under-whelming when paired with its 11 euro admission charge. But included in that ticket is the Palatine Hill portion of the Roman Forum, which I liked quite a lot. Rome is a busy and loud city. Like Athens, in that respect. Street parking is a loose concept, in a way. There's one corner near our hostel that looks more like a parking lot than a street. I feel sorry for the people who are stuck because of others double-parking!

Rome, in points
-red, yellow, and green for pedestrian lights
-tourists, tourists, tourists
-I already know more Italian than Greek
-church after church after church, and all of them so amazing
-why I love being a part of a liturgical tradition: the idea that I can walk in to a church in Rome, hear part of a mass (albeit an RC mass) being sung, and know the words (this actually happened! it was Ubi Caritas.. and I probably spelled that wrong)
-gelatti and pizza. how long can a person survive on only those two things? heh... I had to go out and specifically get salad today. oh, how I miss Greek food.

I've met lots of people, but with the exception of the GAP group, it's a bit weird since you see them for a day or two and then either you or they move on. I suppose you get used to it. But it's making me look forward to Geneva, Gottingen, London, and all the family around England.

I'm off to Venice in the morning. I'm still in awe over how cool this all is.

This keyboard has symbols in weird places. It's taking a very long time to write this.

I'm off to Crete for the week. This is the GAP Adventures part of my trip - the week of kayaking and hiking. It's going to be fun. I'm not sure if I'll have access to internet. If not, the next time you'll hear from me will be next Sunday when I get to Rome.

stereotypical

You may be noticing that I'm blogging a lot. I'm taking advantage of the fact that this hostel has free internet! I won't always be so lucky.

Today was my day of seeing the stereotypical stuff. I did the Acropolis and the other things included in its ticket. I did take lots of pictures. (Matthew... milk van? what?) One of the sites, the theatre of Dionysus, I found completely by accident while lost. I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to find it. I was very glad I did! Many of the seats are still in place, as is the main stage. The Ancient Agora was also very interesting - probably my favourite. Roman Agora not so much - since you've already paid for it, it's alright, but I wouldn't go if I had to pay for it on its own.

On being lost - have resigned myself to the fact that streets in Athens make no sense. I had a Winnie the Pooh -like moment. There's a scene in the movie where Rabbit, Pooh, and Piglet are lost in the woods, and the keep only being able to find this pit. Pooh recommends that if they look for the pit, they might find home. The Acropolis was kind of like that for me today. It's very easy to get turned around here, and it seemed like everything led back to it.

Accessibility-wise, I give my day a 2.5 out of 5. The Acropolis itself had signs for a non-stair entrance, but all that depends on how you feel about steep, slippery marble. The other sites were alright. Ancient Agora was fairly up and down, the Temple of Zeus was flat, etc. I was originally thinking a rating of 3, but the streets killed it. "Street" is a very loose term - narrow, steep alley with occasional stairs? So when you mix that with the illogicality (is that a word?) of their road systems, could make for some interesting times.

public transportation: things that look like buses on street car lines. Things that look like buses that actually are buses. things that look like subway on street car lines. an actual subway.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to the Archeological museum.

Athens

Today, this website is in English!

Hello from Athens, loyal readers.

I haven't been having a busy day. I didn't sleep well last night, plus this jet lag thing is still messing with me. By 8:30 enough people had been up and moving around in our room that I was fully awake. I decided that I didn't want to do the whole Acropolis thing today, since I wanted to enjoy it and not be a zombie. So I had a leisurly brekkie, and then went off in search of a little museum about traditional Greek instruments. It was pretty cool. They made guitars with turtle shells as the large part. They had a few violin-like instruments on display, with very ornately carved heads. One had a full bull's head, and another had a human face, and the tongue was one of the pegs that adjusted the tension on one of the strings! That amused me. They also had some tambourine-like drums, that seemed very similar to native Cdn ones. They also had sheep-stomach bagpipes. Bagpipes were introduced to Greece from Asia, in about the 2nd century.

After the museum, I went walking down a street that seemed to be like a combination of Kensington Market and Yonge. Yonge for the suitcases on the sidewalk, stores expanding their displays outward, and Kensingston for the little markets. I bought some fruit and some bread.

After aimlessly wandering for a while, I went back closer to the hostel and walked through the National Gardens. Lots of twisting and turning paths. Trees, benches.. it was nice! But humid. It's 27 degrees here today.

Random things I noticed:
-bus crossed with streetcar: proper tires, no tracks, but runs on wires and must follow them
-at least three of those music-making carts that people associate with a monkey turning the crank
-every "street," no matter how small, has a name and is on the map. So if you need the 3rd on the right, count every possible turn-off you pass! In trying to find the music museum I ended up somewhere that I wasn't sure how I ended up there.

I'm wishing I knew a little more Greek than I do. I saw this beautiful building with a mural of the pantheon, statues, etc, but couldn't figure out what the building actually was. Oh well.

I am in Athens! Nothing eventful happened on the many flights. I watched a terrible movie on the Toronto-Heathrow leg called "Sunshine."

Stopped off in Toronto for a few hours and saw a bunch of people there. What a great way to start! Calming, in a way, since these are very familiar people.

Half of this website is now in Greek, so I'm guessing at which buttons to push. I'm so exhausted (as you may have noticed, since this post makes no sense). I'm going to go sleep, but I wanted you all to know I made it here. As did my backpack - no problems on that front. yay!

up, up, and away...

and we're off....