good ol' toledo

home, safe, and slept after being awake a good 42 hours. still feeling strange and out my my element when i suppose i should feel in my element. back to work tomorrow and everything will be as it always is.

until next time.

here we go

leaving frederiques house for the airport now. will be home in less than 24 hours.

walked a ton today and sweated like crazy. it was one of the best days ive had. we explored many areas of paris and i really wanted to go walk next to the water again, so we did, and it made me very happy. i even remembered some things from last year and it was pretty cool to be able to have paris feel familiar and have memories here.

farewell from paris, i will be home soon!

love always,
adrienne

strasbourg and paris

just wanted to say that we had a good time in strasbourg and im glad we added it into our trip. the first day there we just wandered around for a long while. it was nice because its quite smaller that where we are used to being. it felt like a cozy little city. yes, still a city yet it didnt feel like one. we found a few fun stores and wandered into them and got some good tea and coffee. there are lots of canals there too so we were constantly around water again. of course we wandered around the old town a bit, something almost every city in europe seems to have. its just like a part of the city where the older-style buildings have been preserved and it just looks quite quaint. it felt really good in that part of strasbourg too, i really enjoyed being there. if felt homey. the second day we had there was the day of the music festival that takes places throughout all of france. it started slow and got busy fast. there were tons of bands playing all over the whole little city. each of the bigger sets were only 30 minutes and there were probably ten sets per "stage." and there were many stages. plus all the people randomly set up everywhere. we saw young kids playing too. we hung out around one band playing classic rock songs. its funny to hear sweet home alabama with a french accent, haha. but it was really fun. actually, that bands music was spot on, the singing was the only slightly odd part, other than that it was well done. it was fun to just happen to be there while that was going on, and knowing that the entire country was filled with people doing the same thing. it was good to share something thats such a celebration and special to that county. i know we have music festivals at home, but it was just interesting to me that it was country-wide. the people we couchsurfed with there were really nice and we actually had our own room because one roommate had finished school and went home. we were very welcome there and it just felt good to have some space.

here in paris we are staying with frederique and shes a nice woman as well. we have own own room and shower, we are quite spoiled! couchsurfing we typically expect to really just be on the couch but this has been nice. we slept late today and werent in anyones way. we have a key in and out and just come and go as we please. yesterday we wandered some parts of paris weve never been and i felt like i was ina different city. weve never stayed in or been around this end of the city so its fun and new even though weve been in paris twice before now. we are forever discovering new things. we went to the pompidou museum and actually just spent time in the bookstore and boutique. its a pretty amazing building. its really fun and almost feels like cosi or something, haha. for the most part weve just been happy wandering around new parts of paris (new to us) and eating japanese food. haha, i know, its probably a sin to eat japanese food while in paris but it was so darn good! hahaha. shh, dont tell!

okay, well i must sleep now, its midnight. this is our last nite here. tomorrow we head to the airport at midnight (catching the last metro train) and our flight leaves at 6am. weve got one short flight to frankfurt and then an 8-9 hour flight to detroit so we will sleep on there. ill try and write tomorrow before we head to the airport.

much love,
adri

back at the beginning

weve made it back to paris. about to sleep. will write more soon. :-)

sava

our last day in santorini i got a very good feeling about the people living there. we were eating in a small restaurant - if you could call it that. we had eaten there twice before. there are only ten tables, half outside half inside. the same man - sava - takes your order and cooks your meal for you. the place is called savas and its more like being in someones house. sava is an old man. the only others we saw were an old woman, a middle aged woman, and a young girl of maybe 13. our last day the girl helped bring out food and take orders. it seemed like that would almost be part of your chores if you lived there. i mean, rather than thinking of it as putting a kid to work in any way, it was just what you did. she came back with her friends, helped a little, and then im sure took off again. everyone on the island knew one another it seemed. people were always waving and honking at passersby on the streets. once a small boy brought some sort of note to sava and ran off again. it was just a cute little community. i was trying to imagine what it would be like to grow up there and it made me smile. it seemed very homey - the whole island. the amount of tourists would make me crazy, but other than that, it seemed it would be interesting to grow up there. there would always groups of kids on bikes riding around and hanging out. anyway, savas was a nice place. when we went to leave and wait to be picked up (the people who owned where we were staying said they would pick us up at savas and take us to the airport - i think they have a deal or something because they knew wed eat there) sava made us sit back down. he didnt want us to wait out front, he told us just to stay there. then when the guy picking us up almost missed us sava clapped a few times loudly and the guy stopped. it was an all-over good experience. :-)

24 hours

weve been moving for the last 24 hours and awake for pretty much the last 36. its been exhausting but not as bad as id imagined. not going to write too much now although i have lots to say about or last day in greece. nothing too exciting happened but i just observed the people a lot and got a good feeling from it all. we just reached strasbourg (you can see it in the map ive got up there). we are staying with a couchsurfer named henri-christian and his roommate youssef. there is another girl surfing their couch who is from california and apparently a couple canadians are coming through tomorrow. apparently their couch is quite popular! anyway, they seem like great people and im glad to be here. our eurail pass didnt cover all our trips and so we spent a handful on train tics today but having a free place to sleep makes up for it. its a small college town in the alsace and lorraine region. anyway, ima get off here and will write a bit more soon.

love you all!

adri

sunshine

hello again!

well, we are nearing the end of our time here in santorini. the second day that we went to the beach it was wonderful and gorgeous. the water is clear. seriously, i get in and look and down and can see to the bottom. i can see all the little fishies and the rocks. its pretty crazy. we paid a little bit of money to use the chair/umbrella sets they have all over out there. kamari is the big beach and that is where we went the first three days. the food here has been pretty dang yummy here - mostly shish kabab stuff. weve also been eating greek salads every day. i like everything but the feta! anyway, yesterday we waited forever for a certain bus and it never came so we ended up at a beach near kamari but on the other side of this big mountain. the black beach there was actually sand which was nice, but it felt bad because we wasted so much time waiting for that dang bus! well, today we got a moto. no, an atv, not a moto. and we drove ourselves everywhere. we went around the whole island. we went to the northern part that apparently you can see a great sunset at nite but we didnt stay for it. and then we went through the main town, fira, and then we went down to the southern part and went to the red beach there. it was pretty amazing. not anything like any other beach ive seen. it was just kind of cut out of this red mountain. we had to work to get to it - a very small hike, but it was pretty cool. much more secluded than any of the others. no stores of shops or anything - all there is room for is the beach. it was pretty awesome to just drive the atv around and be on our own - so much more convenient and fun than those unreliable buses. plus we could stop when we wanted and we got some amazing views. seriously, it was just crazy. its funny, but the atv only really lets us go 25 mph. seems a little faster than that sometimes when you are on the edge of a mountain on a small road and out in the open air. its pretty dang sweet. anyhow, the first full day we spent at kamari we swam out to come conveniently places rocks - it was a big pile really. then we came back and read a big and then went back out. it was just a good day. we also ate at a place down there and watched the sweden/spain football (soccer!) game.

...if i could do it again id budget in a lot more time in these islands. it would be a different kind of trip to have any kind of focus here rather than how the majority has been... but its nice, just so relaxing. and having our own room and and bathroom in a place feels so free! haha.

tomorrow nite we will fly 45 minutes to athens. then we are staying the nite in the airport and our next flight is at 2 in the afternoon the next day and takes us back to zurich. then a couple trains to strasbourg. its going to be a long 24 hours. ahh!

black beach

just wanted to say that we are still heeere.

went down to the beach yesterday and the water felt pretty warm once you got it, haha. it was a "black beach.." which we found really means rocks, heh. wasnt too bad, but id rather have sand any day!

the architecture here is pretty crazy. i enjoy it. its so different from anything youd find anywhere in the states.

weve spent the mornings sleeping very late and the nights out on our balcony. its quite nice! im not thinking fondly of going back to the mainland after being here! haha. not that there is anything bad about that... but we are just so lazy here. its pretty wonderful to lay around half the day. we picked up a couple books at the port in athens so weve got new reading material and have spent a bit of time lying around reading as well.

santorini

well, weve made it to santorini!

the ferry ride was actually pretty dang awesome. we had our own little room that was much bigger than expected. i guess its good to expect little. had two little beds, a desk, and a bathroom with a shower. it was more like a shower with a toilet. the shower wasnt closed off in any way. its hard to explain, haha. either way, we didnt use the shower. but yea... we got to the port about 3 hours before go time because we had to pick up our tickets. we were allowed to board then so we did. we just hung out on the very large ferry for those three hours and chatted. we went out to the deck when we started moving. it was awesome because it was at night and you could see all the lights on the mainland and around us on other land... it was hard to tell what was what because it was so dark. it was windy and felt wonderful on the deck. we headed to bed. it was quite vibrate-y but we both slept really well. we were so comfortable in that room, it was the most space weve ever had of our own. it was mostly quiet and we never had to worry about roommates or drunk people waking us up. we wished we could have stayed on the boat longer! oh yea, we ate some food on the boat before bed as well, some meatballs with rice and then strawberries. i thought they would way overprice it but it really wasnt expensive at all. we woke up a little earlier than needed and went straight outside. the sun had jsut come up and it was beautiful and sunny and we were passing all sorts of islands small and large. some with a couple small buildings. we went and each got a hardboiled egg and some bread and got ready to leave. it was pretty sweet to see the island while we were approaching it. its a pretty awesome place. the guy from the place we booked picked us right up and drove us up to where we are staying. we have a private room with our own bathroom and fridge and everything. its pretty freaking sweet. we actually havent seen another person where we are at. its a little weird but nice to know ill be able to sleep all night. we just took a nap and ventured out. we dont have the internet but found this little cafe so i probably wont be writing too incredibly much. not sure what else to say... its nice because although there are tourists, its not very touristy. the people seem very kind and its like we are in someones village. its a small place, i think the island is about 5 miles across. ...im going to miss the ferry! i really wish we were taking one back... though it would be a little hassle to get from the port to the airport. a was weary about the ferry and i know not everyone has good experiences but maybe because it was a bigger one or maybe because it was a night one, who knows, but it was very very nice!

toilets

i just went to the bathroom in a toilet that has a sign on it saying "dont put any paper in the toilet!" ... yes, meaning toilet paper. eww! just toss is it in the garbage next to it... how weird did that feel? strange. the pipes are often too small in old cities like this.

also, often its a game to figure out how to flush. sometimes a thing to step on with your foot, but most often a couple buttons on the top of the back of the toilet. one if you go number one and another button for if you go number two. if not on the toilet, these same buttons are on the wall behind the toilet. sometimes a pully thing or a lever of sorts found somewhere on the pipes that go up the wall. never anything like ones at home (little lever) or the public ones at home (hit it with your foot). iiiinteresting. haha.

sleepy ferry time?

i guess we will see how well sleeping on a ferry goes overnight tonite. at least weve got beds of some sort. im not even going to venture to think of what a "bed" consists of on a cheap ferry, haha.

yesterday we went to acropolis, where the parthenon is. i actually never knew how high up it was, kinda crazy. it was what it was... cant come to athens and not check it out no matter how touristy it may be... on the way up there were a lot of little cafes and restaurants that actually look really nice but they become quite annoying when every old man who owns each one starts yelling at you to sit down and telling you they have "snacks" and coffee and whatever. every one. it was so annoying. theyd just start walking next to you for a minute and try and convince you to sit down. we were hungry but we kind of have a deal with ourselves that we will never stop and eat at a place when someone comes up and starts talking to us trying to convince us to come in. even when we stop and look at a menu posted outside (this happened a lot of barcelona), they come right up to you and try and get you to sit down and wont even let us look over the menu. this is when we leave! anyway, around where we are staying there are some great places to sit and eat or get coffee. the people are all really nice. however, a couple of times we have had kids come up to us trying to tell us lighters or keychains. its sad. usually its just adults selling random shit, or rather adults plain begging for money. this time their parents sent them out so it was kind of weird. it was just sad, like i said. and i dont know how these restaurants let people walk in and try and sell the people eating there stuff. people always coming up with roses and other shit... its just annoying. anyway... while trying to find our way up to acropolis we ended up in what felt like wandering through behind houses or something. i cant even describe it because its nothing like anything at home. its up a mountain and just little paths and stairs between buildings that are close together. it was kind of cool. definitely didnt feel like anywhere else weve been, which is nice because sometimes cities start to look the same to me in a lot of ways. we grabbed some food to eat and watched the greece/sweden game last nite too so that was fun. we ended up in this nice restaurant/coffee place where it seemed all the middle aged and older men went to watch the game. it was fun though because it felt like we were really in the culture and around the people.

okay, must go. got to check out and then wander for the day. ferry leaves tonite. :-)

update and observations

hellooooo

we are in athens! woo. headed to zurich airport this morning, and now we are at our hostel here. if feels so weird to be in a hostel after a week without staying in them. this one is pretty small and has no kitchen, but hey, we are only here two nites so its no big deal. we actually just went down the street and ate some very yummy gyro-type stuff. freakin delicious. its so strange to be in greece. the language is so far from anything i know. it makes me realize that, although i know absolutely no french, comparatively, i can understand quite a bit of french. did that make sense? at least everywhere else weve been the alphabet is mostly the same and we can read things and pronounce them somewhat even if we dont understand, and often words are shared within the languages. with the greek, well, its just all lost. i dont even know how to say "yes" and "no." will have to consult the book weve got for the basics like that. im pretty excited to be here and feel loads better at the moment. i dont even feel tired and wish it were earlier so i could go out and do something. there is lots to see in athens but weve only budgeted in two days because there were so many other places we wanted to spend a bit of time.

a couple things ive noticed... in every country, i feel i am the only girl who wears a tee shirt or a hoodie. seriously. i pay close attention to this every time we get on a subway. never once have i seen another girl wearing a tee shirt. i think once i saw someone in a hoodie and im sure they were a tourist. its interesting. all women dress well. im sure at home they may wear whatever, but no one leaves home looking the least bit sloppy. i remember feeling like a slob or a scrub last year, and the feeling hasnt changed. i own decent clothes but generally that stuff isnt able to keep up for wearing days at a time. tee shirts are easiest with you only have a small bit of room and dont do laundry too often. but yea... its strange. everyone gets dressed in the morning, haha. thierry said something about a 24 hour carry-out place and how it was funny bc the ppl who lived near it could just stop there in their pjs whenever. i thought it was a pretty funny observation because at home i go to 7-11 or kroger in my pjs and dont think about it. and a good majority of the people i went to college with didnt bother to get dressed in the morning either (include me sometimes!). it sure id different. and speaking of the hours places are open, i know ive mentioned it before, but its so odd to have places be closed on sunday and closed early other days. just about no where was open in zurich yesterday. weirds be out every time. i just feel so lost. i get mad when i want to go to barnes and noble and realize it is sunday and closes at 9 instead of 11... when in geneva the bookstore closed at 7 on normal days and im not sure that it was even open on sundays, id guess not. its just a different way of doing things and would take some getting used to. another interesting thing to note is that eva longoria is the face of magnum ice cream bars throughout europe! hahaha. its funny, because ive heard of celebrities doing advertisements for odd products in other countries that they wouldnt ever do in the US because it would look bad or tarnish their reputation or whatever the reason... but i started seeing her all over in barcelona and then again in nice. these pictures of her eating a magnum "temptation" ice cream bar with a seductive look on her face. its pretty hilarious actually.

okay, must be going. will update again before we head to the island. :-)

euro 08

weve spent the last couples days wandering zurich with thierry as our "tour guide," heh. its been nice to have someone else with us. its also good because usually we have no idea where to eat or where to go and there are always a million restaurants and cafes. now we are taken to all his favorite spots and its nice to have some direction. last nite we watched the first two games of the euro meet 08 and had a good time. by the lake is packed with people and food stands with beer and brats. there is a large screen outside for watching the game as well. (oh yea, and czech republic won over switzerland 1-0, and portugal won over turkey, 2-0).

i am getting a burnt out a little prematurely on this nomadic way of life but i think once we get to greece itll feel good to be somewhere new and in a country ive never been. our plane leaves tomorrow at 1 and is about 4 and a half hours i think. itll feel odd to get a plane that isnt going home while we are away.

i want the hot weather that is at home right now!

zurich

have arrived in zurich. :-)

geneva

sooo we did end up in geneva at the end of it all. we had been trying to find someone to couchsurf with and couldnt... and there are no hostels available in most of switzerland because of the euro cup thing that is held in switzerland and austria this month. well, we were going to go straight to zurich and then realized we couldnt check in to the place we had booked after ten oclock and we wouldnt arrive til late. so the night before we left nice we realized we were going to be stranded somewhere the next nite and werent sure where we would be sleeping. well, luckily a guy on couchsurfing, titus, answered my request right before we left nice. so we got very lucky and ended up in geneva the night before last at about 830pm. took the bus over here to this apartment titus shares with two others and have slept here the last two nites. for those of you who dont know about couchsurfing, that is exactly what it is. you can send requests to others on the site to surf their couch and you can host people on your own couch. its free of charge and just a sort of favor among travelers and provides a unique experience to actually stay with and interact with someone who lives in that country/city, rather than only the other foreigners at the hostels. it has been a great experience! we are actually staying with a woman who is 55 on our last two nites in europe in paris before we fly home so that should be fun too. (sorry mama, didnt wanna tell you about all this and worry you before hand, but now that weve done it, you shouldnt worry!).

yesterday we spend the entire day wandering geneva. titus' roommate was super nice (he had to run off to meet someone) and she showed us what direction to take ourselves in. we ended up wandering in a part by the river and then into the city. in rained a bit but it didnt phase us. at the end of the nite we made our way to the lake and wandered a bit by there. it was just a wonderful day, despite the weather, because we just spent the whole time wandering aimlessly.

our last day in nice was gorgeous. if youve all read haiks blog than you know that. we laid on the beach, got only a very little burn, dont worry, and went swimming. the waves were insane! we tried to get in the water and got floored. we ended up on our asses pushed to the shore in an instant. we got in a second time and made it past where the waves turn over. then its fun to face the shore so you just get lifted up when they start to come and dont know its coming. well, haik got taken to shore pretty quickly and i stayed out. then one big on came and threw me under. right after i got to the air another came over me and then a third threw me further towards shore. then i ran like hell outta there, haha. it probably looked like nothing but it felt crazy and i didnt go back in after that! hahaha. we dried in the sun and went back to the hostel and ate.

tonite we are heading to zurich and are staying with a fella there we know.

... we are halfway through. where is the time going?!

a rambling of sorts

hrm, lets see what has happened since i last wrote...

the day before last we wandered toward the beach. it was the bluest more beautiful water i have ever seen in my life! i was truly amazed! we sad by the water but it was a little chilly out. we didnt do much more than that and wandered through the little old town and got some coffee. actually, while on the beach we found yet another armenian! it is so funny when that happens because we end up kind of eyeing them, questioning whether they are or not, and then there is eye contact made too many times until someone just gives in and starts talking. haha, its always a funny interaction. the guy was in a speedo and squatted down in front of us to chat. ahhh, so strange. we ate dinner here again that night, this time is was pork ribs and potato wedges and salad. all very good and fresh. ahh, its been a luxury buying a hot and wonderful dinner here for cheap.

yesterday we wandered back down to the beach with the plan of swimming. the weather said it wouldnt rain and should be nice out. we neglected to think too hard about that the weather said wind. wow, was there wind. we didnt stick around the beach for too long. literally felt as though we were going to be blown over when standing. the waves were crazy though and i wanted to be in them. it is funny because when we are wandering in town we always take care to look both ways before crossing the streets when the streets are always one way. it was the same in barcelona. it seems everywhere we go the streets are all one way. it makes me crazy enough for them to be one way only downtown at home! for them all to be one way would make me nuts. only when driving though... being pedestrians it only makes it easier. though we feel silly everytime we look both ways... but it just doesnt feel safe not to.

weve met lots of people here, but it seems most everyone is canadian, almost everyone else is american, and then a good number of australians as well. backpacking is really not such a novel idea at all, there are so many people here! and it is odd to me the crowd we encounter sometimes - people who are only looking to be drunk every night. i dont quite understand traveling all this way to do the same thing they probably do every night at home. sometimes i am confused why they are here and they seem oblivious to all the culture and interesting things around you to take in. just an observation... not meant to judge but it just makes me curious all the same. like the pub crawls you will find in every large city - a cheap way for american tourists to get drunk quick in bars that are set up just for that... i just dont understand it. i wouldnt want to hop from bar to bar with lots of other americans when i am in a city ive never seen with so many other people to meet and so much else going on in it.

yesterday was sunday and all the stores were closed. it weirds me out everytime. at home stores often close a little early - early being 9 oclock - on sundays. but here, everything is just closed. and by here i mean all the cities we visit. its so strange because i am not used to it. i remember once we had a hard time finding food because we didnt factor in that it was sunday and nothing would be open.

i dont think we are going to be stopping in geneva any longer, unfortunately, but tomoro we will head to zurich. we will be there for almost a week. then we head to greece. i am excited to be on the island of santorini and just relax. it should, and will hopefully, be warm. we will swim and sleep. i am looking forward to doing nothing, haha.

much love,
adrienne