Santorini

I got back to Athens today from 3 days of being in paradise. I was on the island of Santorini. It is a Greek isle just above Crete. The ferry ride was 9 hours. It sucked. But luckily it was beautiful when I got there so I went right to the beach. It is low season there so there were hardly anyone there. It was good just to relax. The next day a few friends and I went 4 wheeling around the island. You can get completely around the island in only a few hours. Yesterday we went scuba diving. It was heaps of fun. I wanted to do another dive but my ears were kind of bothering me. Im staying here in Athens for tonight and then heading to Frankfurt tomorrow for the night. I will be leaving Europe on Friday. Im sad to go. Its been a great time and I have met tons of nice people. Here are some pics of Santorini.

Update

Well I did a little too much drinking last night and slept through my alarm so I missed my ferry this morning. That was 29 Euros down the drain. Im leaving tomorrow and I WONT be drinking tonight.

Athens

This is the second attempt at posting. My time ran out before I could save it about 1 minute ago. Lets see if I can remember what I said. I got to Athens 3 nights ago. So far its been a great time. I have done a lot of drinking and not much sleeping. It helps to be in a great hostel with lots of cool, chill people. The first day I went to the Acropolis. Wow! The Greeks were amazing architects. I also saw a lot of different sites around it but I dont recall the names. Yesterday I spent most of the day trying to figure out the next leg of my trip. Tomorrow I am going to the Greek island of Santarini. I might stay there until Thursday or else go to a different one. Either way my flight leaves Athens on the 28th. I have decided to come home earlier than I wanted. My cash flow is getting a little low and I dont want to go home completely broke. I also have decided to come back to Amsterdam in March and I purchased my tickets and lodging already. If I hadnt done that I could have stayed at least another 2 weeks. I have posted pictures of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. This could be my last post because I am not sure if the islands have internet access or not. If I dont post again thanks for everyone that has followed along. Cheers!

Berlin Pics

When In Amsterdam, Do As The Dutch Do!

I don't need to tell most people what makes Amsterdam so unique. But for those of you who don't know I will give you the two post popular selling points. First it is legal to buy and smoke marijuana. There are cafes called "coffee shops". Second they have the Red Light District where prositution is legal. Of course I didn't partake in either of those two vices. It was crazy walking down roads and alleys and see women in bathing suits just standing in a window wanting you to comeover and "talk" to them. These ladies were nothing special. Amsterdam is the bike capital of the world. EVERYONE rides bikes. They all ride old grannie bikes because if you have anything fancier it will be stolen in short time. Every year over 7000 bikes are stolen. I loved Amsterdam's architecture. It was exactly what I pictured. I have posted a few pics of the city. We spent a day in a half in Amsterdam because the hostel we stayed at was about 45 miles away in a beach town called Noordwjk. On Saturday our hostel had a Last Supper theme party. Good times thats for sure. Tomorrow Im off for Athens. Sunny weather and beautiful beaches and girls! It doesn't get much better than that. Cheers.

Berlin

Berlin was way better than Prague. We were there from the 12-14. The city has so much history. We arrived late at night on the 12th so we just went to bed. Nothing around our hostel was open. We stayed in East Berlin. The next day we must have walked 20 miles. We were walking from 9-9 pretty much. The highlights of the day were the surving parts of the Berlin Wall and the Holocaust memorial. There is also a gate that crosses one of the mail roads. That was cool. You will probably recognize it from old filmage during WWII. We also saw Checkpoint Charlie which was the entrance point between the US and Soviet controlled portions of Berlin after the war. All in all I would go back to Berlin. You could spend days there and still not see everything. I'm in Amsterdam now. I am leaving to go back to Berlin tomorrow morning and staying there one night and then flying to Athens on Tuesday. KC left today. He is staying in Dublin tonight and leaving for St. Louis tomorrow. I will post some pics of Berlin and Amsterdam Tuesday or Wednesday.

Prague

There is not much things I can say about Prague. We were only there for a night and a day. It was a dissapointment really. I was hoping for a little more. There were a few underlying factors that might have jaded my opinion. First I had been sick for 2 days prior. Today is the first day were I felt pretty good. But I feel a sort throat coming on so I bought some multi vitamin pills. If tomorrow is the same I will by some medicine. Second I was limping all day yesterday. I think I mildly pulled my left calf. Other than that the city was very dirty and there didn't seem like there was much to do besides get drunk. Since my stomach wasn't all there I couldn't drink any beer. None the less the architecture was great. Oh also the first night we stayed KC woke up to a couple having sex in our room. I heard them come in but I didn't hear anything else. Last night we mistakenly got a later train than we wanted so we were at the train station for 4 hours. Lets just say that if you want any drugs while in Prague go to the train station. I won't go into detail about the exacts but there was some shady things going down. Anyway I happen to take some nice pictures for everyone to enjoy. There would have to be a good reason for me to go back to Prague or maybe if it were free. I almost forget one of the coolest things there were all of these Ferraris. There must have been 15 of them.

Goodbye Slovenia

Tomorrow we are leaving for Prague. My time here in Slovenia has been amazing. The only bad thing I can say is that you do not drink a lot of their beer. IT WILL give you a hangover in the morning. I know from experience. The last couple of days have been eventful. On Wednesday we drove about 90 min away to a valley. We biked about 10 kilometers and hiked up to this waterfall for a picnic. The pictures are from the waterfall. Last night we went to a rest stop, I guess is what you would call it, and played frisbee, rocked out to our instruments, and got drunk. It was a good time. So far Slovenia has been everything I have hoped for and more. If they had a bluegrass music scene I would be here in a heartbeat. The other picture is of the day we went to an old mercury mine in Idriaj.

Slovenia Part 2

The last three days here in Slovenia have been amazing. On Saturday we went to Slovenia's only national park. It was awesome. We did a little cave exploring and hiking. The first set of pictures are from there. I loved the cave. Yesterday we went to the capital of Slovenia, Ljubjana. We just walked around the city center and visited a castle. Today was one of the best days so far. The morning didn't start out so well because of some news but the rest of the day was great. First we went to a castle that was built into the mountain. Underneath there are miles and miles of caves. The castle dates back to 1300s. After that we went to the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. We went to the Skocjanske caves. WOW! They don't allow pictures so here is a link to some. I'm really thinking about getting into some sort of career involving caves. That is if I ever have a career again. The power behind them are amazing. I couldn't believe my eyes. Tomorrow we are heading to the northeast part of Slovenia for a few days. We decided to leave on Saturday. Next stop is Prague, then Berlin, then Amsterdam. KC is leaving the 19th of September. I haven't decided where to go next. It is going to be either Athens or Barcelona.
Skocjanske Caves

Slovenia Part 1

We arrived to Slovenia on Thursday night. KC's friend Tajeda picked us up along with her friend Julie in Mestre, Italy. Yesterday they took us around Slovenia to do some sightseeing. For those of you who don't know where Slovenia is, it is to the right of Italy, below Austria and above Croatia. It reminds me of Colorado but more trees. I loved every minute yesterday. It was the best day I have had so far in Europe. We went to Slovenia's only national park. We did a little cave exploring while we were there. I really enjoyed that and I hope to do it more in the future. That is were most of these pictures were taken. The pictures of the mountains are the Julian Alps. Last night we went to a music gathering with a bunch of their friends. KC got to show off his skills. I was surprised at how well he played. Im actually proud of the way he played and the fact he didn't make us look like idiots. If you enjoy mountains and come to Europe I would suggest you stop here. You won't be dissapointed.

Jim Morrison

We had to check out The Lizard Kings grave before we left Paris. It wasnt anything special. Here are a few pics.

Italy

We got to Italy on Tuesday night. The airport was Venice-Treviso which is in Treviso about 19 km north. We decided to stay there instead of heading right to Venice. That was a good idea. Rather than a hostel we stayed at a bed and breakfast. This place was great and cheap. The couple that ran it were really nice AND they spoke English. I have a few pics of it on here. We were going to stay there last night but they didnt have room. That was a good thing becauase they had an apartment in Venice we could stay at. It was only 50 Euros too. Venice is great. The buildings are really amazing. The only bad thing is there isnt much of a nightlife and its got to be the easiest city to get lost in. Everything looks exactly the same. We walked around last night for about 3 hours trying to find this one bar. When we get there it sucked. Oh well I guess. Tonight we are heading to Slovenia. KC knows a girl there and her and her friend are driving here to pick us up. I cant wait to see some mountains!! I am glad to be on the water here in Venice again. Ciao Oh and we went to Jim Morrisons grave too.