long travels deserve relaxing days

Don't try traveling overland to Greece from Croatia... it's loooong.

We went from Sarajevo to Belgrade, Serbia. That was overnight train #1. We arrived around 6 AM and spend all day in the city. Shopping, reading, eating, sleeping in the park, wandering, eating popcorn from street vendors. I was kinda of sick from something bad I ate in Sarajevo two days before. But we did buy an amazing amount of groceries with our remaining Serbian dinars for something around the price of 9€. It was just as many groceries as I normally bought in Italia for around 30€.

Overnight train #2 turned into all day train. We arrived in Skopje, Macedonia about 3 hours late... so instead of arriving in Thessaloniki at 1 in the afternoon, we arrived around 5 and also lost an hour due to the time change. Next, 5 hour train to Athens. Thankfully that one was only about a half hour late. Get into our room after midnight and find Gabe passed out.

The next few days the wandered the city and saw the sites. Too many tourists and a stifling hot city. The Acropolis was ridiculously crowded and I was still feeling sick from something I ate a few days before. Thought I was gonna puke on masses of tourists/ancient ruins. Made it out without doing that one. I dunno which would have been better in retrospect.

Finally the 3 of us got away on an overnight ferry to Santorini. Now it has been nothing but beaches and cruising around the island on 4-wheelers. The caldera is amazingly beautiful and last night we did what everyone told us we had to do... watch the sunset for Oia (Ia). I thought it was overrated and would've been happier all the way on the other side of the island without the masses of people clambering for the best view. Otherwise I took in a lot of sun, snorkeled and saw some cool fish, and ate some amazing foods... and drank a lot of Mythos.

Gabe left this morning. Now Ashly and I are onto Crete this evening and soon across the water to Asia... well actually just Turkey but technically everything on the east side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul is Asia.

il grande viaggio dell'europa del sud-est

I just realized yesterday that school is finished in 2 short weeks. I can't believe it. The time has flown by. But lately I've been spending countless hours planning my immense and intense summer vacation through South Eastern Europe. Click on the map to follow our route.

I am unbelievably excited for the beautiful places I will see... more than any city, church, mosque, monument, museum, ruin, statue, or archaeological site, I am thrilled for the amazing beauty of the places I will be experiencing. Oh yeah, and of course the local food, wine and beer as well. I have big plans for activities outdoors in the mountains and rivers or on the beaches and in the ocean. I will let you in on the adventures once they happen.

But before I get ahead of myself, I have a spectacular 10 days planned in Sardegna with Nick and Kris in the beginning of June. Andiamo ragazzi!!!