Ko Phangan

Monsoon season has had its effect on our travels. The weather has been cooler but the sun has been out less. With that said, it has been a little hard to find things to do that are fun that don't cost money. Fortunately we have found some great little restaurants that show movies throughout the day. We travelled over here with the Canadian girls we met at Ko Tao. We went to the half moon party our second night here. Apparently if you have travelled anywhere through southeast asia you have at least heard of the full moon party if not been to it. Everytime there is a full moon there is the giant party on the beach with flame throwers and bands and all kinds of good stuff. Andrea and I had planned to be ehre for the full moon party but because of the weather decided to head over early with the Daphne and Marla (the Canadians) and go to the half moon party instead. I thought there was going tro be this big meaning behind why they have this party every full moon, but it turns out that some guy who apparently was pretty populr around here had a birthday party however many years ago and it was so much fun they decided to just have a big party every full moon, and now every half moon probably to bring in even more money to the island. The half moon aprty was back in the woods and it was nuts! There were guys doing florescent paint tattoos and these dj boothes that looked like they were in the trees. It was soooo much fun but with that said we spent most of the next day in our room recovering. Our friends left yesterday and since the weather was cloudy we decided tor ent a jeep ($15 for 3 hours - I love this place!) and cruise around the island. I had to drive since Andrea can't drive a standard and I'm not gonna lie I was a little nervous at first since not only are there massive mountain hills that we have to drive on to get in and uot of our beach area, bt they drive on the opposite side of the road and the drivers seat is where our passengers seat is. I got the hang of it pretty fast and we cruised all over the island. It is much bigger than I realized. We were back in this woodsy area with just a dirt rouad and Eric Clapton Tears in Heaven came on the radio. It was so random. Then last night we met up witha guy we are rooming with and played cards till around 1am and watche dold episodes of Friends at one of the restaurants. Today Andrea and I went on an elephant trek. I would like to say that enjoyed it, but I really didn't. It ended up just making me really sad fro the elephants. I will spare the details in case Kristen reads this (she is about as much of an animal lover as I am, if not more), but I left wondering if there was anythign I could do to help protect these animals from having to live in the conditions they currently are. Enough about that. I think we are goign to see a Thai boxing match tonight and head back up to Bangkok tomorrow to get our visas for Cambodia.

Ko Tao

As if Bangkok wasn't amazing enoug, we have found ourselves this nice little island down in central Thailand and are finding it very hard to ever think about leaving. It's the smallest of the three islands in the Gulf of Thailand. Pleas edon't be turned off by the word "gulf" here either. This is no Gulf of Mexico. It's a really big scuba diving site as it is cheaper to get your scuba license here than just about anywhere else in the world. Andrea and I met some really cool girls from Canada thata re staying in the hut next to ours and we have been bumming around the island with them for the past 4 or 5 days - however long we have been here. It's REALLY easy to lose track of the date and day of the week here. We rented mopeds the other day and cruised the island for different beaches and today we went scuba diving. I was a little terrified at first but I can say now that if the opportunity ever arises again for me to scuba dive and I can afford it I am going. It was hands down one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We went on 2 dives today and swam abuot 12 meters deep and were surrounded by the most beautiful coral and exotic fish I have ever seen. Mush cooler than going to the aquarium!! We have been staying in these little one room huts right on the beach for $6 a night. We are so close in fact that we are havinga hard time getting to sleep at night becasue the waves are right outside our window - I know, please feel sorry for me, right?

And can I talk about the food? I was nervous about this part of the trip because as you proabably know I can eat pasta like it's nobody's business, but I'm not really into asian food. Well, I have had a few lates of thai food that I have enjoyed but there is by far the biggest selection of deliciousness I have seen on this entire trip. The town itself is really small and there aren't really too many cars on the island so everyone either walks or takes their little motorbikes everywhere so everything is basically about a 2 minute walk from our hut. There is no grocery store but two, count em two seven elevens. I know, go figure. The other night we had this appetizers taht was avocado mixed with grilled shrimp, pesto and parmesean cheese. Then tonight we went to this little restaurant right by our hut and had a massive $4 bbq dinner and watched Superbad on pillows basically overlooking the beach and the sunset. IT"S AMAZING!!!! Anyone who loes the beach needs to come here. Enoough rubbing it in your face for now. We are headed to Ko Phanang tomorrow for the full moon party and eventaully will make it back north to Cambodia and Vietnam, which we have heard from everyone is equally amazing. Please enjoy the photos from the view of our hut.

Bangkok or bust!

We left Athens in a bit of a hurry. As I may or may have not mentioned earlier, we met this really cool guy, Sam, that was the night shift guy at the hostel we stayed at in Athens. Well, when we found out we were getting our luggage back from the airline (they left our luggage in Milan, did I mention that??) we were so excited that we decided to go have some drinks and brought Sam along since the reason he was working there was because he showed up basically with no money and the guy that ran the hostel gave him a job so he could eventually meet up with his dad who was travelling through Italy. Sam was great but not the most responsible. He apparently had fallen asleep at the desk the night before, kept the music up too loud and was drinking on the job. He was fired from the front desk position but was being moved to bartender, but still was able to make some extra money doing peoples laundry (2 euros per load). Sam, is 24, and grew up on a vineyard outside Melbourne. He was such a cool guy - or so we thought. So anyway, after taking him out for some drinks to celebrate the impending arrival of our luggage we returned to the hostel. We decided that we wanted to start fresh in Southeast Asia - new plan, new outlook, clean clothes. Sam had about ten euros to his name so we thought we would give him our laundry to do and we'd get clean clothes and he would make some more money. We gave him everything around 11pm (he had to work the night shift one last time to train the new guy so he was up all night mind you). Our flight left at 3pm the next day so we had to be at the airport by 1pm since it was an international flight. Around 11am we go down to get out laundry. It wasn't ready. 11:30- it wasn't ready. Finally at noon we went down and demanded our laundry. We received a trashbag filled with sopping wet clothes. Now Sam "claimed" that he put the laundry in the dryer at 3am and checked it again at 6am and it wasn't dry. Andrea and I both knew he was full of shit. He forgot about it and now we had to travel LATE to the airport with wet clothes in our bags. The only reason I tell you this is because it seems no matter what we do the odds are always working against us.
Enough about laundry. We made the flight fine and Gulf Air which I was a little nervous to fly turned out to be the nicest flight I have ever taken. We arrived in Bahrain around 9pm. It was so surreal. Most of the women were wearing the long black robes, some of which even had everything covered but their eyes, which was kind of freaky. A lot of the men were walking around in the white robes with briefcases. There was a Lamborgini for sale at Duty Free. It was all pretty crazy. And of course, in true form, Andrea and I hear "last call for flight 150 to Bangkok" so we are literally running through the airport to the gate so we don't miss our flight. We get there and everyone had just started to line up so we were fine, but still - so embarassing. The flight from Bahrain was fine, but I sat in front of this guy that looked just like Sadam - and I'm not just saying that because of the middle eastern thing. It could have been his twin. He kept hitting the back of my seat and I wanted to turn around and punch him in the face. That would have been just like me though (the american, always turning to violence) so I refrained, turned around and gave him a really mean look and changed seats. I sure showed him.
We are now in Bangkok at this really nice hotel, suggested to us by some friends we met in Cinque Terre. We have been ordering room service and had a massage yesterday. Food is like $3 a plate and the one hour massage was only $10. It was a little awkward though because it was a tradistional thai massage and I didn't really know what that consisted of, but at one point this tiny woman stands on the back of my thighs, bends my knees up and pulls my arms back. It felt like some sort of Cirque Du Soliel act. Nice, but I had a hard time not laughing at some moments.
So...so far, so good. Will let you know what happens once we finally make a plan on where to go and what to do next.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

If I told you the stories of what has happened in the last few days I honestly don't know that you would believe me. Siena was great. We found this nice little wine tasting bar in the center of town that was more wine AND tasting than wine tasting. Every time we ordered a glass of wine we received a plate of appertivo (appetizers), but I'm not talking potato skins and fried cheese. We had prosciutto and bruschetta (both of which I know I just spelled wrong) plus endless amounts of cheese and pasta. After one night in Siena we headed to Cinque Terre. I can't even tell you how amazing this place is - you have to see for yourself. So go there, along with EVERY other American tourist in Italy. That was actually the only thing I didn't like about the place. All the Americans!! I guess I can't really complain since I was one of them. We lucked out and had some really amazing roommates. One guy, Damien, was from Melbourne and travelling on his own for a few weeks until he began a tour in Egypt and then Israel. The other two people in our room was actually a couple who got engaged earlier in the night. It was so exciting to hear about how Ben and planned everything for Kim. He apparently hid the ring in this disgustingly huge watch that he bought specifically for that purpose and she complained the entire time about how big, ugly and obnoxious the ring was...little did she know. It was fun to be a part of that moment. Andrea and I took the 12k hike from Riomaggorie to Montorosso. It was uphill the entire hike and was by far the most exercise I had had the whole trip so I guess I didn't really mind the sweat. But just when I couldn't take anymore I heard Celine Dion. Where was it coming from??? This guy had made this little hut out of the side of his land that we were hiking though (most of the hiking was through the middle of peoples vineyards and farmland so we weren't trespassing) and was selling fresh lemonade, limoncello, and wine from his vineyard. All for one euro. It was sooo awesome and completely unexpected!!! We spent the next to days lounging on the beach with our roommates. We made dinner the last night in and drank one euro boxed wine. It was great!
We decided since we were having such a great time that we didn't want to go to Lake Como so we used the train ticket we bought to go from Lake Como to Venice instead for our trip from Cinque Terre to Venice. It was kind of stressful since we had the completely wrong ticket and had to look like we weren't breaking the law for about 4 hours. Italy tends to run on its own time, not the time that trains and busses are scheduled for so it was kind of a nightmare of a journey aside from the wrong ticket. Our second train was an hour late arriving so we missed all 4 trains after that. Then when we FINALLY arrived in Venice, we missed the last bus to the campsite, the train had stopped running and information was about to close. After a 20 minnute conversation in broken english we were finally given the number to the campsite so we could figure out how to get there. After about 12 hours of travelling we arrived at the campsite in time for a few drinks.
We headed into Venice the next day. Venice is a beautiful city. There were so many canals and even more dirty flying rats...I mean pigeons. Seriously though it was really pretty. There were lots of glass and masquarade shops. Kind of a weird combo but...
The next day I took a train to Florence where I met up with a someone special I had met on my tour. We had an amazing night and had a Floretine steak by candlelight. It wsa amazing, he was amazing and I am only sad that we only got to see each other for that one last night. The next day I got up and did yet another 12 hour hike up to Milan to meet Andrea so we could fly to Athens. We got to the airport in Athens and OF COURSE our luggage didn't make it. I was practically in tears. I was so exhausted from the day - mentally and emationally and this was the last thing I wanted to deal with. We had travelled in this order: bus, train, bus, flight, bus, train - all in and around 14 hours. We spent all day today trying to figure out what to do if our luggage didnt show up since not only did we not have our stuff, but I broke the cardinal rule of travelling and left my ticket to Bangkok in my bag. Luckily enough we got back to the hostel and our bags were there. YAY! So, after all that we are off to Bangkok tomorrow. We booked a really nice hotel at a whopping $77 a night. After all we have been through in the past week we felt we needed a nice place to relax for a few days before hitting the hard road. We will be in Southeast Asia for about 6 weeks before I head home and Andrea goes back to Spain. I can't believe this trip is half way over. I can't believe the amount of fun and the adventures I have had and I can't wait what's to come!

ITALY!!

Hi All!
Andrea and I are backpacking through Italy roght now. On the itinerary as of now is Rome, which we just left, now we are in Siena. Tomorrw we are going to Cinque Terre for two nights, then Lake Como for two nights. After that is Venice, then Florence. We are trying to figure out the cheapest way to get to Greece since it is very erxpensive, which of course we did not expect. Hope all is well. I will write more as things progress, just wanted to give you all an idea as to where we were.

MORE PICS...

The End and Beginning

So the tour is over and I am soooo sad, yet happy because Andrea is here now and we leave for our part of the journey tomorrow. Last I left you I was in Nice, France. Wow, that seems like forever ago. Let me start off by saying that Eastern Europe is far too underrated. I had an AMAZING time there! The last night in Nice we drove up to monaco and went to the casino. Vegas it was not. It was kind of boring. There was no music and the casino we went to was pretty low key, no clubs, no free drinks. I did splurge and get two Jack and cokes at $25 a pop. Of wait, maybe that's where all my money went. But honestly when will I ever have the opportunity to do that again. We did get a chance to stop along the way and take some pictures over looking the med. sea.

Florence

After Nice we went to Florence, Italy. What I remember most about Florence was the crowdedness of it. It was like Disneyland on a Saturday in the middle of summer. I felt like we were cattle being moved around from one sight to another. It was a really cool city, but the group I was with didn't feel like waiting in line for 4 hours to see the statue of the David so we took some pics of an "exact replica" in the middle of the city and went to find a park to lay in. We tried to enter a private park because you guessed it- there was a line to get into the botanical gardesn (apparently the only patch of grass in all of Florence), but there was a guy at the entrance that could tell I was american and asked where I was from and I said Texas he goes "Ahh, Chuck Norris!" I guess that's better than what I usually get which is "Ahh, Bush." Then witha disapproving head shake.

Rome

Rome was full of history. After going there and taking like 4 different tours I have become increasingly interested in the history of the Roman Empire. For example, apparently in the Colusseum, there was like a program everyday of the battles that would take place. Different random animals in the morning (polar bear vs lion), people vs animals for the matinee and then the big show of gladiator vs gladiator. Then there is something where the king put either a thumbs up or down which would determine if the gladiator would live or die and if he was to die then he had to lay in the middle of the colusseum and SMILE right before he was to bge stabbed to death with a trident sword. I mean you can't make this stuff up. Well, I guess you could but it apparently happened. I won't get into the other stuff, but lets just say those Romans were f-ing crazy!

Venice

Venice was cool, but Andrea and I are going back there in a few days so I will write more about it then. We did have a nice little toga party though at the campsite we stayed in. I will try to add some pics of that.

Now it starts to get a little blurry. No, not from drinking, but the first part of the trip seemed to last longer because we still hadn't really gotten the hang of things yet and didn't know each other too well, but the second part flew by.

Pag Island, Croatia

GO TO CROATIA!!!! It's a beautiful place. The water looks like the caribbean and it's SUPER cheap. If you are planning on buying a place overseas, buy a place on Pag or Rab Island. We were there for three days which was a nice change. The first day we took a boat to Rab Island. I don't remember too much about the walking tour we took becasue we were all just so excited to be at the beach. Some of the guys and I gathered money from everyone (100 kuna each, which I think equals about $10, and went to the market to get beer for everyone. We ended up with about 5 cases of beer and money left over. There was a pier we all jumped off of and swam around in the freezing cold water. It was so much fun. The next day we rented bikes and rode to another beach on Pag Island and laid out all day. I got a sunburn so I was HAPPY!!!!

Lubuljana, Slovenia

We only spent one night here, which definitely was not enough. It was such a cool little city, the capital I think. There was a university there and tons of restaurants that all had outside seating next to the river the flowed through town. We had a "traditional" Slovenian dinner there. I went for the pork, but one of the guys ventured out and had the stallion steak. That's right you read that correctly - stallion steak. I tried snails in Paris, but there is no way in hell you could get me to eat black beauty. No way, not going to happen. Matt said it was good but the texture was a little off. No thank you.

Prague, Czech Republic

The one thing I remember well about Prague was the amazing Italian restaurant we stumbled upon on our last night there. I know Italian food, go figure, but it was phenomenal! There is a clock there that has the astrological signs on it and apparently does this really cool little show. I guess we missed it, but the story behind the clock seems far more interesting. So apperntly this artist guy was commissioned to make this clock and the people liked it so much that they didn't want the guy to leave and go do make something just as cool somewhere else so they blinded him so he couldn't make anything. Nuts, huh?

Mathausen, Germany

This was just a stop on our way to Berlin. It was a "work camp" used during WWII by the Germans. It was called a work camp because they didn't actaully have the gas chambers there but they literally worked people to death. It housed I think mostly political prisoners but also Jews and apparently handicapped people, which I didn't know about. It was hard to visit, but I'm glad I did. I learned more about the Holocaust in the few days I spent in Germany than I did in high school and college.

Berlin, Germany

Hands down one of my favorite cities. It's full of young people and not at all what I expected. They are all very aware of what happened and don't try to hide anything. They want to educate everyone on what happened so it doesn't happen again. We took a walking tour and were in this weird grass parking lot for about 20 minutes with the guide going on and on about Hitler and this bunker he stayed in before he killed himslef towards the end of the war then he says that we are standing right where the bunker was underground. There wasn't a sign, a marker or anything. There also isn't a grave for Hilter becuase they didn't want the weirdos out using it as a shrine or something. Also the Berlin Wall was not at all what i expected. I guess i thought iot was this heavy duty wall, but it wasn't. It was just "heaps" as my new Aussie friends like to say, of these very thin concrete slabs. I also became very interested in the whole situation that lead to the Berlin wall being built and why it stood for as long as I did. I will definitely be buying lots of history books when i get home!

Amsterdam

Wow! I don't even know what to say except Vegas has NOTHING on Amsterdam. everything that people love about Vegas is actually legal and fully embraced in Amsterdam. I won;t get into the specifics, I'll just say that a great time was had, I would love to go back to explore the city more, but my goodness that place is NUTS!