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.