Firenze

So Monday I went to Siena for the day. Whenever I said I was going to Florence to Italians they were unimpressed but everyone perked up when Siena was mentioned so my expectations were pretty high. The city didn't let me down, it is exactly how you imagine a little Italian town will be, all curving narrow streets and tall shuttered buildings. The Cathedral was beautiful, the Palazzo was impressive and Piazza del Campo was very pretty, although I had great trouble imagining a horse race there! It was an overcast day but didn't make good it's threat of rain so I quite enjoyed my wander around the little town. Lunch was foccacia and a lot of pastries. Patisseries here (here being Greece and Italy thus far) sell things with a price per kg so it ends up being really affordable to buy two or three little pastries! And super yummy. I mostly just wandered for the four hours I was there, it was a pleasant place to wander.


That night I was so tired from my back to back expeditions that I just read and wrote letters in my room. I was invited out by another guy in the hostel but decided I was too wiped, luckily didn't feel guilty because the other girl in my dorm made the same decision, we spent the evening on our beds doing solitary activities but feeling vaguely social.


Tuesday I decided to explore Florence and headed early to the Uffizi Gallery to join a reasonably long queue and suddenly get every "organised by Italians" joke I've ever heard. Despite supposedly opening at 8.15 no one got in before 8.45, not even the people who had pre-booked tickets and were in the short queue (not me, €3? Ha!) So then we were warned we would have to give up all our bottles and knives (among other things) but maybe the two cancel eachother out because I got to keep both my swiss army knife and my drink bottle. Once I was in it was pretty amazing though! I'm very tempted to go back to study art history now!


There is a lot of religious art from the 13th-16th centuries with Boticelli, Titian, Leonardo and Raphael among the most famous examples there. I was blown away by everything. I have done one art history paper and some reading, but my knowledge of pre-1700s in pretty much nil, and this changed every preconceived notion I've ever had. So that was a good experience! Boticelli's Birth of Venus is there so if you wanted a visual of something cool I saw, that's one for you.


After that I headed accross the Ponte Vecchio, a really old bridge with jewellery shops along it, for the Church of the Santo Spirito. A really beautiful church, I was impressed. I think it might be my favourite church I've seen because it wasn't as ornate as most of the ones in Naples and Rome. It had big paintings on the walls and then quite plain pillars and design, it combined the ornate and the simple to be very graceful. And I gave them some money for being free, it seems strange how many churches charge for entry.


As I left there it had started raining, as it had been threatening all day. I bought an umbrella on the street, and I bargained the price down. I had seen the day before, when it wasn't raining, €3 umbrellas on a street stall and when a guy on the corner chased me (I was ducking from overhang to overhang) and said €5 I just said no without thinking and he said four and then three, so I said yes to three figuring that was a standard mark up instead of a desperate-tourist markup! So I got my umbrella, thankfully since later it was raining so hard I'd have paid €10 for it! I decided that today was a day to sit in a cafe and read so I headed for a bookshop mentioned in Lonely Planet. I'm reading Dante's Divine Comedy and loving it, but I need to intersperce the cantos with something a bit different. I took in a paperback to exchange and ended up getting two books for €2.50, hurrah.


The bookshop is right behind the Duomo so I decided to duck into the Cathedral to check it out and found one of the nicest cathedrals I've been in, very open and airy, it felt lighter than usual. And they had actualy candles to light which I did. Although personally my beliefs don't really extend to an afterlife I like the idea and the action of lighting a candle for those who have passed on but every church I have been to seems to have replaced these with electric candles so you make a donation and flick a swith as your offering! Not exactly the romantic feeling of lighting a candle from another flame and leaving it to burn itself out. So it was nice to find an old-fashioned candle tree. Below the cathedral there are the foundations of an even older church too so that was another interesting sight.

I thought I'd head to a cafe near the hostel but managed to get myself 100% lost! I took a wrong turn right at the start and walked for half an hour before arriving at exactly the place I left from - I still don't understand how that happened, lost I get, but in a big circle? Anyway then I found the right street but missed my turn and fell off the map, headed in the right general direction and got tired so I ducked into a little non-touristy cafe for a latte and chocolate croissant to finish my journal (I was a week behind yesterday and now I'm all up to date!) Turned out I had come in another wee circle around my hostel and with a little help from the cafe owner I found my way to Via Nazionale.

This morning I headed to the Galleria d'Academia to see the most famous David - he was indeed impressive. The Gallery in general wasn't as good as Uffizi, but there was a really interesting musical instruments museum and a lot of great religious art too. Interesting to note that while faces and clothing seemed to come easily to most of these artists babies were definitely a difficult point! Most of them looked more like freaky blobs of flech than actual offspring of a human, and since they were meant to be baby Jesus I don't think that's the look they wanted. I really want to learn more saint iconography now, I've figured out Catharine and her wheel, Sebastion and his arrows, and Julian always has a red cape and a sword so I think he's the patron saint of Super Heroes! But lots of them have books and hats and stuff that obviously means something, but I don't know what.

After that I headed up to piazzale Michelangelo which is meant to have amazing views of the city, and it does. I ate my lunch up there and enjoyed the pretty city. Then I climbed even higher to the Church of Saint Miniato (I think) and saw even more pretty city and landscape, Tuscany is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've been, it looks just like a watercolour. It was neat climbing the hill because it was exactly 1pm and the bells were ringing as a climbed, it seemed like they were for me especially.

Then I just wandered the streets, explored markety areas and ate gelato. Now I'm going to find some dinner and think about packing my stuff up. Tomorrow I head to Bologna! I'm excited, I intend to day trip out to Ravenna and maybe Ferarra (there might be more r's in that). I'm staying five nights there too because I was going to stay more in Venice but it turns out that off-season Venice and Verona get even more hellishly expensive because the youth hostels close! How mean is that? So instead I'll have two nights in Venice and a day in Verona before I go to Lyon to see Laura! Yay!

Shoes.

So Thursday I chilled out a bit, literally since it rained lightly, but also in the relaxing kind of way. I headed off at about 12 and wound my way to Campo del Fiori and through the Jewish district both of which were really pretty and worth a look. Then on the the Protestant Cemetery to pay tribute to Keats, Shelley, Goethe and lots of cats! There's a sort of cat shelter thing run by volunteers in the cemetery so there are a lot of cats about. It's kind of nice, they're very quiet and there's a poem by the gate about the guardians of the souls. Then back to the hostel, so only three hours of wandering instead of my standard eight! More relaxing, read my book, went to the supermarket, cooked some dinner... That was it for me!

Friday I got up early and headed to Tivoli to see Hadrian's Villa! The bus took longer than I expected and by the end I was busting so instead of getting off the bus at the Villa Adriana stop I stayed on until the terminal assuming there would be a loo there. Not only was I wrong, but turns out the terminal is in central Tivoli - on top of a hill. I ducked into some kind of official building (Uffizio di Tribunale Tivoli?) for their facilities before having to figure out how to make my way to the bottom of the hill to find Hadrian's holiday hot spot. I didn't want to follow the motorway because it had no path and wasn't very pretty so I just found a road that headed downwards and kept walking... and walking. I considered turning back but when turning around requires steep uphill it's not much of a bet which I'll choose! It all worked out anyway, turned out the reason there was no traffic was the big guard rail that ran along the main road and across the end of my path. So I jumped the rail and found myself in the right area! Twenty minutes of sign following and I had found the villa, paid the exorbitant fee and found myself in a lovely green park. I followed various signs and discovered that that Hadrian wasn't so dumb. The whole area was lush and beautiful, and very peaceful. It must have been a lovely retreat from the city then, and it was definitely a nice escape from Italian traffic!

Of course getting home was a mission, but I found the right stop with my limited Italian (or complete lack) and a nice Italian man who realised I didn't speak any Italian but kept talking for another five minutes sold me a ticket! So I found myself on the right bus and got back to Rome in time to cook myself the rest of my pasta and repack my bags! I'm getting really good at packing, it's still annoying but now I've got it done in no time at all. I'm thinking I need to buy something really annoying and bulky to challenge myself, like maybe Spanish boots...

Saturday I wanted to find this cool sounding market with lots of food and clothes which I had marked on the map, and I did find a big space which seemed ideal for holding a market, but sadly no actual market was found. Oh well, next time! So I just meandered again, one of my favourite activities and this time strangely found myself exactly back at Termini, really near my hostel! So I went to the supermarket, bought some lunch, ate some lunch, collected my bags and headed for Florence! Very excited.

Found my hostel almost easily and settled in before going for a walk to find a cash machine which would except my sad foreign ATM. Actually it wasn't that difficult, it's just that Italy is full of reginal banks (Bank of Tuscany, Bank of Naples...) and lots of them don't take Plus cards. No stress because the big ones all do and BNL came through for me, handily placed near a gelato place!

So that was yesterday. Today I headed for Pisa to confirm that the tower of is still leaning. It is. I almost skipped it actually but the train was free on my Eurail pass so I though I might as well. The thing is I've seen lots of cool old towers which are still upright, and that seems somewhat more impressive than one which is tipping. Still, it does lean which is something of a novelty. I didn't climb it because a) it leans, not a trait I generally look for in climbable architecture and b) it costs €16 to climb it which is what I'm paying for a bed each night, I just don't approve of that kind of scale. I did however get a lovely photo of me in front of it which will go up on Flickr if/when it starts working!

Tomorrow is Monday and everything in Florence is closed so I'm going to do back to back day trips and visit Siena. My hostel doesn't have free internet this time (so sad) but I've made sure my one in Bologna does because I'm a communication junky.

Oh and I've compiled a list of tacky Pope souvenirs. I think the winner is the pill box with the Pope shaking hands with a Cardinal, both in big hats. Runners up include magnets, badges, collector cards, calendars and full A2 posters. Honorary mentions are the Catholic Priest calendar (check out Flickr) and the Vatican shot glasses; due to their lack of Pope they couldn't win the grand prize but they should really have had their own category!

I guess that's it for now... I'll update again in a couple of days!

Roman Holiday

Let's see... Naples seems so long ago! Monday I had a really nice lazy day, usually I'm up and out early so this time I stayed in bed, missed breakfast, ate pastry, watched TV (So You Think You Can Dance and Sex and the City), read a book (Conn Iguldon, Emperor series, not too bad), ate lunch with the hostel owners' family and caught a train to Rome!

My hostel is nice, free internet (always a bonus), easy to find and I met two English guys in my dorm who were going for a night walk to take in the lit up sights so I tagged along. It was nice, although also strange because I didn't have any kind of map in my head so I just got led in circles, pretty circles, until we got back magically to the dorm! I saw the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps so my sightseeing got an early start!

The next morning I started early and headed to the Roman Forum, in a round about kind of way since despite the map in my hand I struggled. I made it anyway and was unpleasantly surprised to find that it was no longer free before being pleasantly surprised to find out that for €12 I could go to the Forum and Palatine Hill and the Colosseum, so that's what I did. I wandered the Forum/Palatine area for three hours, I could definitely have done more but I was suddenly starving so I had to head out and find some food! Then on to the Colosseum - wow! It does take some imagination, since people in the middle ages decided to steal the marble so they could build the other monuments I would visit along my way. Still, it is huge and impressive. I could just picture Russell Crowe marching down the tunnel to his victory. There was an exhibition on art which has been taken from and then returned to Italy which was interesting. Napoleon liked to keep stuff, like souvenirs I guess "Oh yes, I just picked that 2000 year old statue up while I was in Rome. It brings out the feather in my hat, don't you think?" One interesting thing was that Italy also returned stuff to Egypt, Lybia and Ethiopia in the spirit of giving back.

So that was another hour or so, then I traversed all the same sights I had seen the night before, but in the day time - Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Wedding Cake (officially known as the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II but called the wedding cake by locals due to it's extraordinary resemblance to an over decorated white cake.) And then the Pantheon - wow. I can't imagine that it is as old as it is! Apparently they can't really figure out how it was built considering the technology they had available at the time. I mostly stood staring at the ceiling, and had a quick visit to Raphael's tomb. Really amazing.

After that I got gelatto. Here starts an eloquent wax on the most amazing gelatto skip it if you really don't care about my ice cream obsession! Now ususally I'm not a fan of chocolate ice cream. Don't have a clue why, love chocolate, love ice cream but chocolate ice cream kind of glugs in my throat and sticks and I just don't enjoy it as much as other flavours. But if a sign says Dark Chocolate then who says no? Oh. My. God. Has anyone other than Mum and Peg tried Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate icing? Peggy and I use to sneak spoonfuls when we thought Mum didn't know (which of course she did.) This was just like that but cold. It was like eating magic. I might go back for more today!

After that I just walked around for a few hours looking on the map to see if I was near anything worth a visit and then walking in vaguely that direction. I saw a lot of piazzas, a few palazzos and I found one museum which I didn't end up going in but which had these intriguing stair up the side, with no signs or rope to keep me out, so I found a nice garden with a fountain and statue and an exit right beside the Quattro Fontane (four fountains.) Rome is amazing, the only downside being that there is way way way too much to see and remember! The main things will stand out but I just know that I'll go back through my pictures and say "Well it's definitely a fountain, but which one?" It's easy to see all the sights because they really are quite close together but to remember them all I think will be the greater challenge.

So that was Tuesday and Tuesdays my hostel has a free pizza and beer night (a major reason I chose this one!) So the English guys, Shane and Sam, and I went early so we could eat more than our fair share of what was very good pizza and not horrible beer. After dinner we went to Trastevere, an area on the other side of the river, for a drink and found a really lovely bar where they let us bargain over the price of the wine and gave us free nibbles! So we shared a bottle of wine and played trumps. A really nice night. Because I travel alone I don't often get to do things like that, especially since the metro stops running at 11.30pm so we walked back to the hostel, about half an hour so not a long walk but not something I could do alone! So going out for a glass of wine was a highlight of the day - along with everything else I did.

Wednesday I woke up early despite the late-ish night out and I headed to the Vatican to get my Pope on... Although actually I didn't see the Pope. I might have been able to, Wednesday at 10 he does his audience with the public but you're supposed to book in advance (short queue) or else wait until they know how many spare seats there are (really long queue). I didn't realise at the time but I probably could have caught a glimpse by walking to the end of the piazza where there's a wide open bit. Couldn't have gotten in or close since the Swiss guards who protect him are everywhere, but I'd at least have seen the blur of a big hat. Instead I went to the Museum, that was exciting. Really cool, quite the museum! They've set up a clever one-way system of seeing stuff where you can either skip straight to the big stuff (Sistine Chapel) or meander through the different rooms of exhibitions. I meandered of course, how else would I have seen Laocoon and His Sons? It's such an impressive statue, and you can definitely see the inspiration to Bernini and others. I'll be honest, I sort of ignored the map room and the tapestry room - sometimes you find there's just too much to see and have to prioritise! I saw the Stanze of Raphael and had my picture taken in front of the School of Athens (well, part of it, crowds wouldn't allow for me with all the cool guys, but I got Plato and Aristotle so that'll do.) His paintings are truly amazing, I eavesdropped on a tour group and found out that the first (less impressive) room had been done by his students, then walked around to be amazed by the Deliverance of Saint Peter which is really beautiful. And St Peter has the face of the Pope! Not the new Pope of course, the Pope of the time.

So then through the Borgia Apartments which is all modern religious art where I got mad at all the people who ignored Rodin's The Thinker, just because you came to see Raphael and Michelangelo doesn't mean you can't show some respect... Then I proceeded to glance carelessly at almost everything else in the rooms because I couldn't take it all in.

The Sistine Chapel was very impressive, but also smaller than I expected and the Creation is way more complex than implied by that God touching Adam clip that you always see. I spent a long time wandering around the room (slowly pushing through crowds of people, for a smallish room they sure do push it full) and wondering why God wasn't offended by Adam's complete nudity, but my shoulders would have been too much for him. Wait, that sounds way too flippant - the paintings, skill and scale are awe-inspiring and impressive. I think part of the problem is that I personally find that kind of set up overwhelming, there is just too much too look at. I do better when I can just look one on one with a painting in a frame because I know the boundaries of the painting and can really develop an opinion. I think to really appreciate the Sistine Chapel I would have needed a few hours, a guide book and no crowds. Instead I had about half an hour before I couldn't take in any more and before the endless push of people drove me out, so while it was an experience I wouldn't trade, I will continue my Sistine experience with a good library book when I get home!

After that there isn't much museum, I stopped in to the Carriage Pavilion to see the ridiculously ornate methods of transport which the various heads of the church have had over the centuries before leaving the museum for the basilica. St Peter's Basilica is beautiful, another overwhelming building, and full of amazing architecture and sculpture. I have to say I was blown away my Michelangelo's Pieta. It is right by one of the entrances but I went in the other door so it was one of the last things I saw and after so many impressive sculptures of saints and popes and angels it could have been a let down, except it is genius, true genius. I stood in front of it for a long time just looking at Mary's face and at the limbs and drapery. There is such a delicacy to it that is lacking from anything else I had seen in the Basilica. It's not about strength or holiness, or even piety, it's about sorrow and it inspired more emotion that the rest of the basilica put together.

Enough flowery stuff for you? After that I climbed the dome (about 500 steps all together) to look out over all of Rome - so amazing! Like being on top of the world, which I would have been if I could have climbed in 1600 years ago (you know, before it was built.) I took photos all around and then spent ages trying to figure out if the Pope lived in that pink castley looking one or the white central mansion or the greyish one with the fountain. I still don't know, but it was fun wondering if the Pope owns jeans and whether he's a boxers or briefs man.

Climbed down all those stairs and headed around the waterfront past the Castel Sant' Angelo and the Palazzo di Giustizia, across the river to the Ara Pacis, which I viewed through the window of the museum because I couldn't be bothered paying to go into another museum, I still got a pretty good look at it, very clean glass! Then up to the Piazza del Popolo which was really beautiful. I was exhausted so I sat on the steps of the fountain and read my book for a while, nice to chill out in such a setting! And then I made my way back to the hostel. I started to write this then actually but I was so completely wiped that I ended up saving it with brief notes about my day after one paragraph and going to make dinner. A couple card games and some book and it was an early night for me.

So today I slept in a bit and read a bit. I've picked up Dante's Divine Comedy as my souvenir of Italy so it's fun to read an Italian book in Italy. Now I'm emailing you before heading out to see the Protestant Cemetery (where Goethe, Keats and Shelley are spending their decomposition) and maybe the market. And maybe lunch near Campo del Fiori because it's meant to be pretty and cheap food from carts. Mmm pizza. Also I want to eat gelatto on the Spanish Steps so that I can be like Audrey Hepburn in just one more imperceptible way! Wish me luck!

Old stuff and a lot of ice cream

Today I headed to Pompeii and after running for the train (in jandals, not pretty) I made it by 10.30 and was amazed at how big it is! I spent three hours wandering around in a kind of headspin. It's really strange, it is ruins but parts are also so incredibly well preserved that you can imagine people living and walking there quite clearly. I had trouble standing the casts of the people who were dying, they're quite detailed because the ash preserved folds of fabric, and grimaces of pain. I did go to the brothel and I have to say I hope they had mattresses because beds literally made of concrete don't seem very conducive to those kind of relations! I couldn't describe everything I saw, I just spent 3 hours exploring and gazing and trying to avoid other people (not very successfully.)

After Pompeii I headed for Sorrento, it's on the same train track so it was easy. It's a really pretty town and I had a big walk through the little streets. I bought gelato when I arrived (nutella and cherry... mmmm) and walked around the port for a bit. Then I headed to the shopping streets and bought another gelato (bounty bar and 'amore eterno' which was mixed berry.) Yeah... I ate a lot of cold sugar today. It was really really good. And the town was pretty too.

On the bus back from Sorrento I did sleep a bit (I can sleep anywhere) but I also spent a lot of time trying to judge whether the person sitting across from me was a man or a woman. It was very difficult. Face and body would have been undeniably male, but 'he' was wearing a pink wool cowlneck sweater and matching pink hat. Then he started ranting to a girl next to him and the voice was definitely male. It was intriguing. Then I slept some more, until the girl next to me nudged me in case I was going to miss my stop, which I hadn't (it's the second to last stop so it wasn't too likely.)

Then what? Hostel, book, pasta, hair cut. Yeah. There's a hairdresser here who does cuts for €15 so I took advantage, she's making her living my doing cuts and colour for people in the hostel and my hair was pretty annoying! I'll take a picture and post it soon so you can all admire my new look (much like the old look but shorter.) So now bed and tomorrow Roma!

Naples or When To Start Writing Your Obituary

Well 36 hours of travel later... Yeah. That was fun.

Actually it was fun! I settled into my seat and in my row were two Canadian girls (patterns are emerging in my trip... how many pairs of Canadians can I meet? Is there a limit?) and nearby were three American girls who had made the ferry ride the other way a week earlier so they were our resident experts. It was really nice! Shannon and Joanna (the Canadians) and I hung out the whole time, ate spaghetti for dinner and talked about Greece and travelling. The ferry is about 15 hours so there was a lot of talk and a bit of sleep, one of those meetings that wouldn't have happened if I had taken tonight's ferry. When we got to Bari we had 4 hours until our train so we went to McDonalds (it's okay, I didn't eat the food so my rule stands, although I did buy a bottle of water, maybe that counts?)

I swapped books with the last Canadians and had two really horrible historical novels to get through. Truly horrible. One was described on the back as "misery lit" which was a bad sign right away. They both fit that description - how many bad things could happen to a woman between 1900 and 1940? They overlapped with dead parents, abusive guardians, unmarried motherhood and the inevitable rescue being marriage. I read them anyway. Can you believe I gave away Hunchback of Notre Dame for those? Oh well, there's a book swap here so I imagine I'll take advantage of that, and leave behind the one of those books that I kept. Someone else can enjoy the story inspired by Catherine Cookson's mother.

Whenever I told people (especially girls) that I was going to Naples they had some sort of horrible story to tell me about muggings and pickpockets and the Mafia. I wasn't too concerned about the last one, but I met three girls who were so put off by some stories they'd heard that they cancelled their trip to Naples and headed straight to Rome. So I was mildly concerned. Not overwhelmingly so, but enough to wonder whether I should splurge on a taxi and whether I should have bought groceries to make my own dinner. Realistically I travelled alone through Stone Town, Athens and Istanbul so I didn't think it could be too much worse! But I got here safely, and found the hostel without too much bother (okay so the instructions were horrific but once I found the right street it was easy, so I just approached people on the street with "Scuzi? Where?" and the accompanying pointing at the name on my page. Easy as pie!

When I got in the reception guy was out for five minutes but I could not wait to shower so I dumped my stuff in reception (way security concious me) and went to shower. It was magical, except the smallest shower I have ever ever seen, let alone been in. I ended up leaving all my clothes outside (with my wallet and passport - again with the good security) and then heading into the toilet in my towel with my stuff to get dry and dressed! I can't imagine the fun someone bigger than me would have had! Then I checked in and went to find a pizza place called Da Michele, familiar to all those who read Eat, Pray, Love because a group I met on the bus invited me to meet them. Sadly I was half an hour late and had missed them, and the queue was massive so instead I got a sandwich from a deli and wandered the streets. Yeah. I wandered the streets of the most dangerous city in Italy (alleged) after dark on my own. Sorry Mum. But look, I'm fine! People are so dramatic! I didn't feel unsafe at all, though I did keep a hand on my purse at all times. After my sandwich I found gelato (of course) and so I had nutella gelato and vanilla gelato and I'm going back tomorrow for lemon and raspberry! The man wouldn't let me have nutella and lemo together, he said it wouldn't work. I trusted him. So within two hours of Naples I had not had pizza, but I had eaten gelato! It worked for me.

I got back around 8.30 (I've been told that after 9.30 is when it gets a bit dodge) and got chatting to a Kiwi girl in my dorm! It was exciting, there aren't many New Zealanders around. I didn't have to explain where Christchurch was or what Whitcoulls sells (stores here are mostly just books or stationery or DVDs, selling all those is weird apparently.) She left for Rome today but we overlap by a day so might catch up for a walk or coffee or something. I may be travelling alone, but I do appear to be collecting people in Rome this week!

So I got up around 7.30, ate my free breakfast (sub-standard, but apparently standard or better than standard for Itally, they should learn from Istanbul!) I pulled out my map and the hostel owner showed me a good walking route to see the best sites of the city. His English isn't great but we communicated fine, when I got back he made his wife check that I was okay so I guess he's self-concious about his language skills. His English is a lot better than my Italian! Although I learned the word rotto today, broken.

I headed to the Archaeological Museum first because I read that it was kind of disorganised and I though I wouldn't have the energy for it later in the day. It was interesting, really good exhibits in some places and then just old stuff hanging on the wall in other areas! I probably saw some very interesting and important things but I don't know what! They did have a weird let's-educate-kids thing which was conversations between a fictional family. There was a boy who has a lisp, a talking mouse and a ten year old girl who fell in love with an eleven year old boy who lived in the museum. I think I missed some of the story but it didn't make sense at any point.

I need to adjust my head a bit now that I'm in Italy because I kept seeing things from the 1600s and thinking "400 years? That's nothing, if it were dog years I might be impressed!" Greece is just so unbelievably old that I've lost perspective on the rest. So I didn't enjoy the painted ceilings as much as I probably should have but I got big thrills from the mosaics because I saw the Alexander Mosaic! You don't seem excited enough. I saw the ALEXANDER MOSAIC!!!! Yeah, it was a big moment for me!

And the mosaics room is right next to the Gabinetto Segretto (Secret Cabinet) which is wehere they hide all the dirty stuff! Wow is my education complete now... Those Romans (and Greeks and Etruscans) were not prudes. I had a funn moment towards the end of the room when I read the sign first and it said "Goose, hen and duck adorning a herm in the shape of a cock." You are all thinking what I was thinking but it was, in fact, a rooster shaped herm. Yeah. Tricky people, first they show you a room full of frescoes with the kama sutra on them and then they call you dirty minded when poultry aren't your first thought! Ha, turns out those frescoes were really practical. Lots of the prostitutes (pornai in Greek, my etymology lesson for the day) were slaves and lots of the clients were foreign traders so there were frequent language issues, hence the need for visual aids! You just point at what you want, much like me ordering stuff at the patisserie except with more nudity.

After the museum it was time to wander churches for about 2 hours. It was neat, I was surprised at how different they all were. There were the hugely ornate and the really plain and all between too. And a wedding in the Duomo so I felt totally intrusive, I slipped in with a tour group (speaking German so I'm glad they didn't need a password) but it did seem kind of rude. Good reason not to have your wedding in one of the city's biggest tourist draws though. They do love their saints here, each church and area and probably family has their own and for the first two at least you can buy souvenirs of all kinds! I wandered along to the waterfront and saw the Castel d'something, the Palazzo Reale and the Teatro di San Carlo but I didn't go in to any of them because it costs money and I just couldn't be bothered really, I'd just spent a long time looking at the insides of interesting buildings and I was enjoying the sun and the outsides of interesting buildings. I did go to the Teatro museum which was free and saw lots of pretty costumes, now I want to see every ballet ever, starting with Romeo and Juliet in Lyon!

I headed up the hill on the Furniculare (?) and went to Castel Sant'Elmo which is on top of a hill and has a really great view of the city. It was neat, I took the lift up but found a long pathway down so I walked through under the castle and came out at the back so I could walk around the building and get a good look.

That was pretty much it for me, I was tired so I went to the grocery store and headed to the hostel. This hostel has a full kitchen so I made myself some pasta, it was quite exciting to cook for the first time in five weeks! And that's it. Hope life's good with you, it is with me!

Oh how could I forget? I had pizza for lunch, nice and simple and very good, and gelato in the afternoon so with my self-made pasta I'm as Italian as high fashion!

Olympia and beyond...

I am sitting in a very noisy internet cafe in Patra! It's a gaming place so it's dark and noisy, and because it's Greece also smoky, interesting but not really easy to think here so if things seem disjointed that'll be why!

My last night in Nafplio was really lovely. I wandered back from the internet cafe and had a wee rest before heading downstairs to eat my dinner. As I was finishing George (the hostel owner) asked me if I would like to join his sons for dinner or a drink at the tavern where I had eaten the night before. I'll admit my first instinct was to say no but I decided that it would be nice to have company so I tagged along. Kostos and Orestes are 39 and 42 with at least four kids between them but I could never tell which belonged to whom! Orestes is named after one of my favourite Greek heroes but I didn't tell him that (it'd be like meeting a Robin and saying "Oh cool, I love Robin Hood!) They ordered heaps of starters and despite being really full I tried a lot of different things including a couple kinds of cheese, something spinachy and a fried something, maybe falafel? It was all really good but I ended up feeling pretty sick from eating too much! It was nice to chat with them too, we discussed smoking and drinking laws in Greece, Europe and NZ, as well as standard small talk about my trip and their lives. It was really nice, it's a pity George doesn't have a third (rather younger) son!

I left Nafplio Tuesday morning. My hostel owner's timetable said there was a bus to Tripoli at 10am, and then I could get a direct bus from Tripoli to Olympia, easy as pie. Ha! Turns out they no longer run that 10am bus, only one at 8.30am and 4.30pm. Quick thinker me, I caught the 10am to Corinth, the midday to Pyrgos and the 4pm to Olympia... long way around but not too difficult! It all went according to plan that way so I arrived in Olympia at 4.30 and headed to my youth hostel. In Pyrgos I met two Canadian sisters (from BC) who have been travelling for four months and are in Greece as their last stop before heading back home so we decided to meet up the next morning to wander Ancient Olympia. Nice for me to not be alone, and I think nice for them to have a new person to talk to!

Ancient Olympia was really cool, crazy to think that 2000 years ago they were competing naked for laurel wreaths... It was neat to have people to go "Ooh look at that" with too! I saw various temples, the old game ground, Nero's house (so called because he stayed there for a short time) which was in pretty good condition, lots of mosaics and about 40 tour buses. They drive me mental! They all just descend on exactly where you want to be and have no courtesy. I cannot imagine Olympia in the high season, supersaturated. I imagine noone can move and they all just buy postcards and pretend they could see the sites! Which are of course well worth seeing. Olympia was beautiful, and the bookstore/art gallery owner offered me a job so I might just be taking Greek lessons next year. He was really sweet, gave me a discount on a book I was buying, a Greek author in English, because I studied Philosophy and worked in a bookstore! Then I read that book in one night (The Mermaid Madonna, really wonderful) and went back to buy another by the same author and got invited to drink wine that evening!

The Canadian girls and I went out for dinner that night to a taverna which had been recommended to us. Lovely meal, I had fish which I haven't had in ages so it was nice. We had a little wine (red wine served cold, weird) and then they gave us a nice sweet plate at the end of slice apple with honey and cinnamon, delicious. After that we said our goodbyes and I headed to the bookstore for about an hour to drink red wine and watch the football (Greece vs Switzerland.) It was really nice, he has this gorgeous store with enough touristy stuff to make his living off tour groups but it's obvious he's in it for the love of art and books! I got the grand tour and immediately wanted to stay forever, unfortunately not currently possible. I did stay a little too long it turned out, I got back to my hostel at about 10.29 for my 10.30 curfew and found the door already locked! Just as I was deciding whether to try to scale the balcony or go and beg a couch from the bookshop guy (can you believe I never got his name?) the little old man opened the door for me and scolded me for not coming a few minutes early! Rightly so actually, I got too caught up in the conversation!

I caught the bus to Pyrgos this morning and then on to Patra where I arrived at about 1.30pm. Now my original plan was to have one full day in Patra and get the ferry to Bari tomorrow night, but when I found the youth hostel it's reception was closed until 4pm and the whole place was full of men, not a single girl to be seen, which I just thought was strange. I've met at least as many women travelling as men so when I saw about 15 guys milling around it made me a bit uncomfortable (whether with reason or not) and I suddenly thought "Well, I could go to Italy now..." There's nothing in Patra which especially drew me, although it was highly recommended by a Greek woman in a hostel so probably there's good stuff to see. So I'm waiting the hour until my ferry leaves for Bari by updating you all. Just think, in 24 hours I'll be in my hostel in Naples and probably in Pompeii the day after that!

I've absolutely loved Greece, but I'm also so excited about the next adventure! Pizza, Leonardo, Leaning Towers and the Pope here I come!

Peloponnese

Let's see... Friday I was up at 5.30 for my 6am taxifor my 7am ferry, all generally uneventful. Well, I did overpay the taxi by accident but it wasn't too big a deal because I saved myself about 20 euro on the ferry ticket. There was a couple from NZ in my hostel in Istanbul who mentioned that if you're in the economy section then they don't check tickets so you can buy a ticket to the first port and hang out on the boat until the last stop so I paid 16.80 instead of 34.50. It worked a treat and I arrived in Piraeus without arrest or confrontation! Then the metro and bus to the bus station and a bus to Nafplio, where I am now!


The bus station was funny actually, it was full of men in uniform. Well, not full enough for it to be a group moving somewhere but there were police outside, Navy and Airforce inside... I think they had to wait for the Army and Firefighters before the strip show could begin!


Ok, on the weird keyboard front, this one is totally normal and acts exactly as expected... EXCEPT whenever I hit the apostrophe it jumps up a line so whatever follows the apostrophe ends up in the middle of the line above! It's crazy, but in a kind of fun way. Quirky, I like it.


Anyway, Saturday I got up reasonably early and headed out for an adventure. I just wandered around. It's a really pretty town, at least, Old Town is. I'm not a far walk away from Old Town so I spent most of the time wandering that way. I had moussaka for lunch! It's the traditional Greek dish with layers of eggplant and mince. It was so filling, I didn't have to eat for a long while after that but I'm not sure I'll be adding it to my daily diet soon!


The two main visitor attractions of Nafplio are the Palamidi Fortress and the Museum, but sadly the museum was closed and the Fortress is a 40 minute drive away! It's strange because you can see the fortress from the town, it looks the same distance as the Acropolis, which is walking distance. Turns out there's so access from the city side of the hill, you have to go all the way around the hill and up the other side! And there isn't a bus... how's that for tourist planning? So I just enjoyed my day in Nafplio, it is very pretty!

My hostel is awesome, the Hotel Economou. The owners are an old couple, George and Katarina. Katarina I think is a little OCD, she tidies the rooms every day, which embarasses me so I always leave it quite neat. Apparently my neat and her neat don't match - I come back to find everything lined up square or piled biggest to smallest in little pyramids! It's cute. And George makes me a cup of coffee every morning and is always checking that I'm okay. They're really sweet. And they have a Dulux puppy! I'm sure the breed has a name but it's like the Dulux dog, he's really sweet, only four months old.


Yesterday I went out to Mycenae, or Mikines as the Greeks would say, and was pretty well amazed! I walked through a 3000 year old gate and if Homer was right (and if I had to put my faith somewhere it might well be Homer) then Agamemnon walked out that gate to go fight the Trojans! And then back in to be murdered by Klytemnestra. She's definitely my favourite victim/villain from Greek legend, and I saw her tomb. Ok, the tomb which has been named the Tomb of Klytemnestra, but hey, it's like being told Elvis once at at this restaurant, you don't question it, you just believe it because you want to! Anyway, I spent over an hour exploring the ruins, trying to avoid tour groups, and then about an hour in the museum. I did visit the museum shop too which was a bit sad really, you can buy all these cheap looking copies of Greek artworks.

I had an hour to spare before the bus home so I decided to go for a walk, I found a nice looking path and wandered along it before I reached a main road and turned around to head back. Suddenly I discovered that my nice clear path looked neither of those things the other direction! I had been daydreaming a little (of course, it is me!) and I didn't really know where I'd gone, there were a few possibilities so of course I picked the wrong one! I wandered aimlessly for a while before acknowledging I was lost and deciding I should probably think practically about this. Also I seemed to be wandering someone's farm, lots of olive trees in neat rows. I figured I had mostly come down on my walk and that Mycenae is on top of a hill so up was the way to go. Yay for first practical solution, enter first practical problem: no path leading up. I was glad I decided to wear trousers since I ended up clambering straight up a hill, over little stone walls and through bushes. It was pretty funny! I ended up finding a little church on top of a hill, very Sound of Music, and I could see Mycenae from where I was so I followed a new path (this one with gravel, much more trustworthy) and ended up in the parking lot where the bus stop was, with twenty minutes to spare before my bus. Yet another brilliantly executed adventure.

Sigh... I was going to add photos for you all but no such luck, computer won't read camera. It'll have to be from Patra towards the end of the week.

Yesterday was Sunday and what that means that I didn't know is that no one who sells bread is open. No really, I have this massive collection of spreads so I can make sandwiches, but I need bread! So I wandered for about an hour trying to find any, all to no avail. I ate out a record three times in one day. Lunch was a "cheese pie" which was basically a spiral of pasty full of feta, I put sliced tomato on top and it was very nice, dinner was at a taverna where I had chicken souvlaki, pretty tasty.

So today I decided to go to Epidavros, it's the other common day trip from Nafplio and it has an ancient theatre and a shrine and a little museum... perfect! I knew where and when to catch the bus and was standing there on time. Sadly not a perfectly executed adventure. When the bus was late I asked a girl about the bus to Epidavros and she said "five minutes". Up pulled a bus and she pointed at it so I got on, said to the money taking man "Epidavros?" He took my money and I took my seat. I soon figured out something was a little off since we were going away from the sign I'd seen pointing towards Epidavros, but two people had heard my question and got me on this bus - could they be wrong? Well yes. Say you didn't really listen to someone because you figured you already knew where they were going then maybe you wouldn't hear the Epid- part and you might direct them to Agros, a nearby town. Yup, that's where I ended up!

It's not so bad, Agros has an ancient theatre, an ancient agora and a castle. I didn't make it to the castle, but the theatre and agora were very cool, plus a Roman fountain that Hadrian built (he was my favourite Golden Age emperor) so I had plenty of fun exploring the wrong town! Also I'd seen a little clothing store on the bus from Athens which I thought looked good so I was a bit bad and went shopping. Oh, and I wanted a sweet something (refined sugar and I have always been close but lately we've become pretty inseparable) so I wandered around to find a bakery and finally found a patisserie, I picked a croissanty thing which looked sweet enough but had no sign and discovered it was full of nutella! It was a magical moment for me.

So that's been my exciting five days... Off to Olympia tomorrow for two nights and then Patra. I probably won't bother interneting in Olympia so you've got a break from me for a couple days :)

Santorini

Hey all, I imagine this will be reasonably short since I haven't really done much in the last couple days. Left Thessaloniki at 11pm and arrived in Athens at 5.30am, at the port which was handy for the 7.30 ferry I was catching!

So eight hours later I arrived on Santorini and was collected by John of Katarina and John Hostel, the hostel in Perissa I'd been recommended. Perissa is home to the black sand beaches so by 4.30 I was on a beach! It was beautiful, and strange to walk into the water and change from sand to rock! Slippery but fun! The water was cold, the sun was hot, perfection :)

Quiet night, I just ate dinner and read outside till it got cold. Nothing extraordinary but it felt nice and holiday-ish. The only other person in my dorm is a Czech guy, Mark, who is on his annual holiday so we went to a nearby bar for a drink and met Gina, from Romania, who is working here for a while. It was a nice night and I was in bed by 10.

So Wednesday I decided to explore. I was going to hire a scooter (it's so the done thing) but on my license I could only get a quad-bike and it would cost 21 euros (lame) so I decided public transport would do just fine leaving me with an extra 15.60 to spend. I took the bus to Fira, the capital and wandered around for a few hours. I walked down the 588 steps to the port and then road a donkey back up! I can't put photos on this computer but soon I will post a picture of me on a 'donkey' and I want honest opinions about whether I actually road a donkey. I saw plenty of donkeys in Tanzania and this seemed very tall and smooth. There were definitely a few horses which had had their manes trimmed to pretend to be donkeys but I think maybe I had a non-reproducing hybrid: a mule. Still, it was fun, even if my touristy experience may be a fake! There was an American girl who was sort of freaking out so I felt pretty good about my lack of panic, not that it was exactly a panic-inducing ride. You're not in any kind of control, the donkeys just push past each other and follow the path up so it could be a bit nerve-racking but nothing extraordinary! I wandered some more, ate ice cream, checked out the museum and the cathedral (but rather underwhelming) and decided to move on.

I got the bus to Oia (said Ee-a) at about 3pm because I'd heard that was the place to be for the sunset. It's a beautiful town, the epitome of Santorini! When you see pictures of Santorini with the white houses and blue roofs then it's probably there. I spent a few hours exploring and got a souvlaki for dinner before heading out with all the other tourists to watch the sunset! I met Dimitri, a nice Athenian man, who was visiting his friend and we chatted about how safety in Athens has gotten so bad in the last ten years, among other things. The sunset was pretty impressive but not as good as in Tanzania I think, still took a few hundred pictures. Bus back to Perissa and another drink with my international friends!

So now it's Thursday, I've done some laundry (a very necessary task) and chatted to you all and now I'm going to go for a walk on the beach and get some groceries and buy my ferry ticket! So that's it, Nafplio next which is meant to be the prettiest town in Greece! There's some stiff competition there but I'm determined to be an unbiased judge.

Thessaloniki

Hello from Thessaloniki (Not Thessaly as I kept saying by accident for about a week...). When I told Greek people and other tourists I was spending two days in Thessaloniki most people asked why, apparently it's not so much the tourist hub, but actually I've really enjoyed it! It's a nice city and reasonably easy to find your way around.

Let's see... Saturday night I took myself out for dinner, nothing expensive but it was a nice meal. I asked for them to recommend a good local dish so I got Alanazik Kebab, some kind of spicy meat in a yoghurt and something sauce, very yummy. And the bread they serve is really crazy, it's bigger than a rugby ball (really) and completely empty! It's sort of like a bread shaped cracker but not that crunchy... tasted good anyway. I like ordering local dishes when I can, and laughed when the American behind me ordered chicken schnitzel and chips. Why bother eating at a Turkish restaurant?

Actually I had one scary experience that afternoon (before dinner) which I had been told is really common but which I still didn't expect. I had walked somewhere to see something (I forget what now) and on my way back I realised I was being followed. Seriously. He wasn't exactly subtle, stopping when I stopped, crossing when I crossed. At one point I went into a shop and he waited at the corner which I would have to pass. But I kept my cool, I went into a travel agent with three burly guys working there and asked if I could wait five minutes. I sat for a bit and then one of the guys wanted me to point out the stalker, possibly so he could say something, but the guy must have moved on within a couple minutes of me stopping. Ha... I wouldn't have minded seeing him get told off by the big travel guy!

Anyway, after dinner that I head for the bus station to get my ticket and settle in etc. My bus wasn't until 10 but I didn't want to be travelling on public transport too late so I headed out around 7.30. And discovered that Karma is still cheering for my team... I had carefully put aside the 35 euros that it cost to get from Thessaloniki to Istanbul, then I got to the bus terminal and was told that inexplicably the student fare from Istanbul to Thessaloniki is 38 euros. I had 2.7 euros in coins... they don't take coins. So I pulled out the 5YTL which I had saved to buy myself a bus station snack - problem: 5YTL is not quite 3 euro, but they took it anyway! So then I found myself sitting in the bus station with 2.70 euros and 40 YTL cents in my purse hoping for no sudden tax! But it was all good, I went snack free but I had made myself a sandwich for the but so I didn't really need any extras. Bus was fine, customs was even worse than the first time around! an hour and a half! I really don't know why it's that complicated. It was kinda funny, I'd gone back onto the bus to lie back down, thankfully hadn't taken off my shoes again, when I got called back out. A policewoman was pointing at my bag and asked "Do you have anything to declare?" I said no, she asked "No alcohol or cigarettes?" I said no again, she said ok, I got back on the bus. Maybe I didn't look suspicious :)

So I arrive bright and early in Thessaloniki (7.30am) with no money whatsoever and a dead cellphone so first mission is to find an ATM and then phone credit - both easily achieved. I had to catch a bus and meet the guy who runs the hostel to get a key, hence the necessity of the phone. Turns out I could have caught bus 2, but I didn't know that so instead I walked for fifteen minutes to find a stop for bus 31, the one I'd written down to catch. It went to the same place, no problem, it just would have been more convenient to catch #2. The hostel I'm in is cool, it only opened on Friday! Basically it's a brother and sister running it, he's a dedicated backpacker who realised there was nothing appropriate in Thessaloniki and decided to open one! I think they must have already had an apartment or something because of the way he phrased it so they converted the apartment into one four bed dorm and one twin room! It has a kitchen and a TV so it's great! When I arrived the three other people were still asleep so I "quietly" (nothing is quiet if you have stuff in plastic bags in your luggage, even if you don't need to open those bags, they just make noise all the time) got ready to go out and see the sites!

I looked at the map and figured out my route and then took a wrong turn right at the start so it was an adventure day instead of a plan day, but that's all good! Instead of the museums I found about a million Byzantine churches. Ok, maybe 8? It is a lot of churches. The Rotunda was cool, besides being big and old and round it had kittens! Yeah... Yesterday I took more pictures of kittens than of old stuff. Well, there were a few pictures of kittens playing in old stuff! There are so many cats around that usually I admire but I don't take pictures because I figure when I'm looking through my holiday snaps I'll think "Oh great, another cat, why?" but I indulged just this once. You'll understand when you see the pictures!

I did find the Museum of Archaeology, which happened to be free! Cool. It was a good museum, saw some really amazing gold things from 300BC or so, really complex designs and beautiful workmanship, I was hugely impressed. And I think if the world economy collapses then Thessaloniki's going to be well looted!

I was pretty exhausted so I headed back and bought some bread for lunch (I have a wee collection of spreads so I just stock up on brown bread when I need it) and then wandered around the block a bit before deciding that there was no one to tell on me for watching TV. Yeah, it turns out if you go so long without TV (I did watch a bit in Stone Town, but I've been pretty much TV-less for 10 weeks) then it's seriously hypnotic. I don't really know what I watched, some Friends, some Oprah, which was half dubbed and half subtitled so I only know some of the story, and a Michael Douglas movie where he and Eva Longoria have to save the president. I also got some Goody's. It's this Greek McDonalds rip off and I decided in Athens that I would have to try it sometime, it was pretty good. I have a rule about no McD's, Starbucks etc. Basically anywhere I could eat or shop at home is off limits because what's the point? I think this place was better than McDonalds but I haven't got a recent comparison. Anyway... fast food and TV. That was my night :)

So today I went on the museum tour and failed! Turns out they're all closed on Mondays! Whoops. Oh well, I had fun anyway. I headed towards the 1euro hot dog stand I'd seen (story to some) and passed a place with 3euro trousers! One of my pairs of trousers are pretty much destroyed. They're kinda gross and ripping, I shouldn't still be wearing them but replacing them seems dumb and they do still work as clothing. So when I found pants in a light material but which seemed pretty good I got them. That's $NZ6! Pretty cool.

The hot dog place... When I passed through here on my way to Istanbul I had a mission of a time to find the bus station and a girl from the hot dog place and her friend (Russian girl, Nikki, who I mentioned before) helped me big time. So I brought them a box of Turkish Delight as a thank you (when Karma is yours you don't mess with it, plus I really wanted to thank them!) I gave it to her and she was quite pleased. I ordered my hot dog and water, and she wouldn't let me pay! So how's that for a good day, free lunch! It was awesome!

Then I went and bought groceries. There's one major change I've made on my trip, spotting a grocery store brings so much more excitement than a shoe store! No really, I'm mostly self-catering (bread, fruit, water... that's my diet) so a grocery store is big news! And then I went on an internet hunt - major effort required, hope you appreciate it! I ended up in a gaming place so there are people shooting stuff around me and dance music playing. It's interesting.

So Greek people they love their cigarettes and sex shops, hate street signs. My lungs are working overtime to process oxygen and I've doubled all my asthma meds, smoking sucks. Apparently Greece has double the average European cigarette consumption! And there are sex shops everywhere. Not subtley or anything all with big neon signs, erotic cinemas on main roads with big movie posters. Because if you didn't live walking distance to a sex shop then what would you do? But knowing which street you're on... that's unnecessary.

Yeah. Tonight to Santorini via Athens, 6 hour bus, 8 hour ferry. I'll talk to you all in a couple days!

Konstantinopolis

So day two was just as good as day one. I got up early, although I woke up later than usual. Got a full ten hours sleep! Yay!

Yesterday I wanted to go to the Basilica Cistern but the queue was quite long so I decided to head back early this morning. Plan effectively executed, I got there five minutes after they opened and there were only about ten other people there. It was amazing, of all the places I've been it seemed the holiest, and it's not at all religious! Basically it's a really big hole in the ground which was going to act as a water reserve in case of siege. It is a huge underground room with lots of pillars, including lots decorated and two Medusa carvings which were probably stolen from another site. I found all that especially interesting because all of it was intended to be underwater! Why decorate pillars no one is meant to see? Because we can, and because 1000 years later people will surely appreciate it.

Then I went to the National Museum of Archaeology. Their Ancient Orient section was one of the best museum displays I've ever been to. They had excavated an old fortress and has found lots of reliefs on the path in, so they sort of rebuilt the path as much as possible, lots of displays like that that weren't as isolated from time and plae. No glass or rope either. I really liked it. The classical section was interesting too, lots of sarcophogi! And because I started the day early it wasn't too busy, although in the Byzantine section I got stuck behind four Americans walking slowly and saying things like "Oh my gosh, wouldja look at that?" and "Tiberius, but I thought he was Roman?" (Well of course he was, the whole section was about when Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern ROMAN empire... yeah I get frustrated with people who don't read signs. It wouldn't matter if they didn't always have to talk loudly as well.) Anyway, the museum as a whole was one of the best I've been to and I really really wanted a book to take away with me for pictures and information but the only one they put out is hard cover and 80 lira (NZ$88) so I pouted and bought myself a pashmina instead (15YTL).

It's nice to have a currency that's similar to NZ for once, but I have started referring to it in my head as the yertle because the way it's written is YTL. It stands for something Turkish Lira. Or Yertle if your read too much Dr Seuss as a child.

After that I went to the Blue Mosque which was amazing, really huge and beautifully decorated. I eavesdropped on a tour guide and heard a funny story. The mosque has 6 minarets, which is rare, usually they have four. So after people guessing for a while the guide says, you'll never guess because it was a mistake. Turns out the sultan wanted golden minarets but the word gold sounds like the word six so he got six instead! This would have been bad news because Mecca had six and no mosque should compete with Mecca, but luckily Mecca added one so instead of being blasphemous the Sultan had one more thing to brag about over his weekly poker game.

Then this afternoon I went to the Grand Bazaar! The oldest mall in the world, of course I couldn't miss it. Pretty amazing, lots of winding alleys and paths, beautiful arches and painted ceilings. The sellers are very insistent, I told them all I was broke (true, although a few had visa signs... very bad idea) and they would say "Money doesn't matter, look look, you take my card?" I'm not sure what they thought I would do instead of money, I was a bit afraid to ask :P I practised my home mall voice "Just looking thanks" and got the reply "You wanna just look in my shop?" - it's hard to type intonation but let's just say when he said just look it didn't sound like that's what he meant! It was really fun, although the leather street almost made me cry. Nowhere that smells that good can fit my budget, and none of the stores had that magic visa sign (yes, I looked) but oh it was beautiful. I found this brown knee length jacket with a belt and buckle on the sleeves... Yeah. I don't think this is the trip which is going to make me less materialistic or stop shopping. After I decided to head back to the hostel it took me half an hour just to find my way out of the bazaar, but I had a nice walk homewards. I like day two in any city because I sort of know my way around the area I'm staying, it's nice to feel familiar.

I'm really really enjoying Istanbul, I went walking around 7 last night because I was tired but wanted to stay awake until a respectable hour. It was all still very lit up, lots of people around and all the shops were still open. It was really beautiful, I think I'll do it again tonight and remember my camera this time. My hostel is in the centre of Sultanahmet so I can see the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia from the roof and there are lots of shops and restaurants around. Also there are lots of cats! They're everywhere, and most look pretty healthy so I'd say garbage disposal is low and rat population is high. I'm not silly enough to pet them or anything but it's kind of nice to have so many hanging around, like pets of the city!

I have to say Turkish men are the best/worst. Not as sleazy as the Greeks in Athens, but still pretty bad. They manage to mostly sound humourous, or occasionally charming, but it can still get pretty annoying. The bartender upstairs told me he'd carry me to bed if I fell asleep, which was mostly just funny. The best one yesterday was when a guy I was about to pass said "Oh there you are, you're late!" and I looked at my watch because I am so regularly late to things that I just assume it's true! Then I realise and laugh and keep walking while he calls out "Hey wait, wait miss!" I also got "Cookie girl! Cookie girl!" while I was (you guessed it) eating a cookie. I imagine it will all go to my head, but as soon as I pass a window after my 10 hour bus ride the swelling should go right down.

Oh and Istanbul has the best street food snack! Corn on the cob. Only 1YTL (ha, you're all thinking it too now aren't you!) and you get a really yummy steamed corn cob. Totally rocked my lunch hour.

That's it for me, I've got another day tomorrow to explore before I head back to Thessaloniki tomorrow night so I'll update you from there I guess!

If only I had a date ın Constantınople...

Because I´m ın Istanbul! Ok, thıs keyboard has all the symbols ın the wrong places and even though I can see the real apostrophe I cannot make ıt work so we shall have to put up wıth weırd ones or even none. Also there are two i keys. one wıth the dot (i) and one wıthout (ı) but the one without ıs ın the normal spot and as you can see I sort of swıtch between them. And there ıs a ç where the stop should be and a ö ınstead of a , so be patıent and enjoy spottıng my mıstakes (I´m thınkıng of a couple specifıc people here... you know who you are)

I´ve had numerous requests for more photos so I am goıng to enormous effort to make some kınd of onlıne album thıng, ıf ıt works you wıll be the fırst to know!

So I have had all sorts of adventures sınce I last wrote! Monday evening I got chattıng to some gırls from Canada and Sweden and we all went out to dınner together. It was a nıce nıght, ıncludıng me givıng my address and phone number, and Mum´s emaıl address, to them all because they may well be ın NZ ın December! So we headed back to the hostel and Kıt, Trısh )Canadıan gırls) and I ended up playıng euchre wıth a random guy, Sımon, as our fourth. Trısh went up to her dorm to use the phone and suddenly Kıt and I found ourselves ın the most ridşculous religious debate you can imagıne! He started out abusıng Islam so harshly that I had to defend ıt, and along the wıdely varied path of our conversatıon he expressed views such as:
-The Catholıc Church is not sexıst at all because it belıeves in the visitation of the Holy Mother, showıng that a woman has power.
-It ıs worse for a Chrıstıan to kıll a Christıan than a non-Chrıstıan
-Homosexuality is dısgusting, he has no problem with a man loving a man but why do they have to do THAT to eachother (actually quıte an entertainıng part because we actually wanted his views on the concept and all he would dwell on was the act.)
Anyway, I´m sure you can all ımagıne that I rıpped hım to shreds. When he contradıcted himself (God knows all so we have no choices, people who are not Chrıstian have chosen that) and I poınted ıt out he saıd You´ve been waıtıng all nıght to accuse me of that! And I thought well what exactly dıd Phılosophy major mean to you?

After that he was terrıbly offended and went to bed, I thınk he was dısappoınted he hadnt managed to save my soul, poor man.Maybe next tıme. So we played Scum wıth some Dutch boys and drank a bıt of ouzo. I am not an anıseed fan but it got better after a whıle, or I lost my taste buds.

Up early the next mornıng to just explore and run errands, nothıng hugely excıtıng but it was nice to see some of the city. I watched the Changıng of the Guard at Syntagma Sq. You know the Monty Python Mınıstry of Silly Walks routıne... I am pretty sure thıs was ınspiratıon! YouTube it and see the glorıous weırdness! Then I just wandered some more before headıng back to the hostel and out again for groceries. Made a couple sandwıches for my long bus ride and spent ages fıgurıng out how to get to Santorini! I was in a dorm with a really lovely Greek lady who works at the unıversity so I spent about an hour talking to her about where to go ın the Peloponnese and now I have vague plans for what I will see there too!

Wednesday is the day of real adventure. My braın let me down completely (twıce) but karma was completely on my sıde this time! I wanted to get the mıdday bus to Thessaloniki, leavıng from Kıfıssus statıon. On the metro there was a stop labelled Kifissia. I assumed they were the same. Dumb right. Well, not so dumb, I dıd ask a guard at the station if this was the rıght train but he was probably just smiling and nodding. So I got all the way to Kıfıssıa and asked how to get to the bus statıon. She poınted atthe traın going where I had just been! Gah! So I went a few stops before pulling out my phone to call hte station. Turns out the stop where I asked the guard ıf thıs was the rıght traın I should have left and caught a bus! Luckily for me karma had my back. I had left pretty early anyway and when I got to the rıght place the bus had just pulled up! Another fıve mınutes and I would have mıssed it. Made ıt to the statıon at 11.35 and caught the rıght bus!

Sıx hours later she arrıves ın Thessaloniki... Or does she: The bus pulled ın to a nıce statıon and most people got off so I got off, grabbed my bag and started wandering around. Suddenly I realised the bus was still half full and asked the baggage guy so fast that he looked like I had exploded hıs mınd whether thıs was Thessaloniki and where I was meant to go. After repeatıng myself slowly and showıng him my ticket he stepped ın front of the pulling away bus so I could get back on and go another half an hour to the central station! I must have been good recently because we are not done tryıng to mess up yet. No one could tell me where to go for my Istanbul bus - turns out they mıs-translated it on the website so the Greek name was not actually what was written on my page. I asked at thıs completely random hotdog stand and a girl actually called her boyfrıend to ask if he knew the street, then walked me to the station! Lovely gırl from Russia, I guess she knew what ıt ıs like to have no ıdea what you are doing in a foreign city!

So I made it on to the bus and nine hours later arrived in Istanbul. With a long stop to process passports at about 3am - fun. It was 7am when we got here and I managed to change some money and follow the instructions to get all the way to my hostel by about 8.30! Very cool. So I got organised and had a cup of tea and was off to see stuff! There is so much to see, but I have three full days so there ıs enough tıme. Today I went to the Istanbul Modern. Yes, I came to one of the oldest cities in the world and went to look at modern art, but Thursday is free entry! Can´t say no to that! Weırdly they took my swiss army knife off me at the start and I retrieved it as I left, but I´m not sure what threat they thought I posed. Then I went up Galata tower for a spectacular view, explored the local area and ate street food whıle I walked back to Sultanahmet. Saw the Blue Mosque and walked through the Otopark. Tomorrow is the Basilica Cistern, the Museum of Archaeology and the Grand Bazaar! I´m excıted, ıt ıs so beautıful here and easy to explore.

And bid news on the photo front, I think I have a flıckr account you can all look at! Try this
http://flickr.com/photos/31050258@N04/. And if that doesnt work then my screen name is Catıe Travels and my sign in name is catıenobes so it should be fındable. Only about 25 photos so far but I wıll see about addıng more as I go. There´s a monthly limit whıch I´m 60% through so only a few more in the next few weeks.

Another long one for you today, but ıt has been an eventful week! Free internet here again so if you do emaıl etc I will probably actually reply! Hope karma is on your side, and if not then stop being so bad!