I am a wizard! And other adventures in Sorrento

From Florence we headed towards our last stop in Italy. Our stay in Sorrento was short and we soon regretted allotting too little time to the beautiful coastal town. In addition to the charm of the city, our hostel was amazing, thanks to the reccomendation of a few Delta Gammas back home. The hostel's top floor terrace possessed one of the best views in Sorrento, a great restaurant, and very comfortable lounge chairs!


The first night there we explored the downtown area, and then returned to the hostel to grab dinner. We soon made many friends at the hostel's restaurant and made plans to join one of our new friends in the trek to Pompeii the next morning. Holding true to our promise, the next morning we woke up early and met our friend for a quick breakfast and then trip to Pompeii. We were all amazed at the ancient city's ruins. The city still possessed much of its artwork on the walls, while the layout of the city and its homes were also rival with present day city layouts. By the time we were done exploring Pompeii, we where glad that our new friend had pushed us to get to the cite early. As we made our way to the exit, loads of tourists started pushing their way in.
After lunch we returned to our hostel to book a ferry to Croatia for the following day. Here Melissa was greeted by her new number one fan. The owner of the hostel was a younger gentleman, who happened to take a huge liking to Melissa. Although Melissa was definitely not interested, I benefited greatly and did not mind all of the freebies. However, karma would catch up eventually, as I later found I also had a new admirer that worked at the hostel... That night we ventured out to a notoriously great seafood restaurant, recommended to us by some locals. We sat on the restaurant's back terrace, that overlooked the ocean and sunset (the picture for this post was our view from our table), shared a wonderful meal together, and headed back. After dinner, we remembered that it was in fact a Saturday, not to mention our last night in Sorrento, so we decided to go out with some of our new found friends (not our admirers). For a decent fee, the hostel provided a shuttle to take and pick up guests from the downtown bar area. We danced the night away and had a great night. When we returned to the hostel we both ran back to our rooms, hoping to avoid our friends that worked there, however Mel was not as lucky as I. Mel's friend intercepted her run for it long enough to get a hug, and a sneaky kiss on the cheek. Luckily Mel was able to soon say her goodbyes and join me for a good night sleep. The next morning would mark the start of yet another adventure as we headed out early to catch the ferry in Bari towards Croatia.

*Side Note: Please note the name of this blog post. A few days after arriving in Croatia, I received a friend request and message from my Sorrento admirer. Which means that there is probably not much confidentiality in Italian hostels, seeing as my last name and email that I use on facebook are different than the ones I use for our hostel reservations.
The message from him read: "I found you!!"
I replied, "Yes you did!"
He then replied, "I'm a wizard!"
I hope this gives all of our readers some insight into why we had to run for it!

A Taste of Tuscany

After gladly leaving Pisa, we were immediately in a good mood upon arrival in Florence. Not only was it easy to find our hostel, but the hostel was big and clean and they spoke good English! We checked into our room (which had a personal shower and a blow dryer!) and then headed out for some dinner. We found a great pizza place nearby then headed up to the rooftop terrace of our hostel to see the breathtaking view and watch the sunset with a glass of wine. We called it an early night because we had a big day of sightseeing ahead of us.

We awoke early to have some breakfast before the bus for our tour left at 8 am. We discovered this great cafe nearby that had great breakfast sandwiches and arrived back at our hostel just in time to board the bus. The night before, when signing up for the tour, we told Stephano, our guide, that we may be a bit tired at 8 am and he informed us that it would be okay because it was an hour drive to our first destination. Therefore, armed with our ipods we prepared ourselves for a nice morning nap. WRONG. Immediately, Melissa was called out by Stephano on the microphone so everyone could witness her getting a few Zs in the backrow. Needless to say, we remained awake for the remainder of the trip.

(Stephano was a lively tour guide who loved his microphone. He also continued to tell jokes the whole time but proceeded to laugh at them before he even said the punch line. Stephano also looked like he just rolled out of bed which added to the entertainment. )

Our first stop was in San Gimignano, the famous walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, where we had free time to wander through the narrow and characteristic streets and check out the local shops selling the delicacies of Tuscany. And of course we had to stop at the world champion gelato place: Pluripremiata Gelateria. There we experienced gelato flavors like no other including raspberry/rosemary and blackberry/lavender. Delicious!

The second stop was at a local winery located in a stunning area of the Tuscan countryside well known for the production of the D.O.C.G Vernaccia white wine. It faces the famous towers of San Gimignano and surrounded by rolling hills, vines and olive grooves. Here we learned about the production of wine and olive oil from the wine maker, tasted some of the best wines produced in the Chianti region and enjoyed a home style lunch based on local Tuscan ingredients. The lunch was a little disappointing as we were expecting hearty dishes of pasta and tomatoes, etc but received a few crackers with some spreads on it and some bread mixed in a bowl with tomato sauce. It did provide us though with the opportuniy to bond with the new friends we had made though: 2 girls from Texas and 3 boys from LA.

After lunch we stopped in a second winery, 20 minutes from Siena, for a chianti wine sampling. This was a brief stop but was a great location in the Chianti area to admire the walls of Monteriggioni, one of the most preserved medieval towns of Tuscany, and help ourselves to the remaining bottle of wine from the tasting with our new friends. :)

Last but not least we headed to the historic city of Siena where we were amazed by the architectural styles of the Cathedral and the Palazzo Comunale in Piazza del Campo, the stage of the famous Palio horse race held twice a year.

As soon as we got back from the long day of sight seeing, the boys invited us to watch the sunset with them at Piazza Michaelangelo. We grabbed a bottle of wine and headed out for the 40 minute walk to the Piazza that culminated in a steep staircase. It was such a breathtaking view! Probably a hundred people joined us on the stairs that overlooked Florence and its major attractions. This is a sight that pictures will barely do justice for it really is a different sun in Florence.

We continued our night at the hostel bar where we danced at what seemed to be a middle school dance party. Not only did we feel old, but also felt like we were chaperoning. Nevertheless, it was a great day seeing the sights and meeting new people.

Following an exhausting day, we decided to listen to our bodies and take a day to relax. We curled up with our books and had much needed down time in this whirlwind of backpacking we have been doing.

Day 3 in Florence brought us David. After searching the city for a place that made omlets, we stood in line for 2 hours because we didnt make reservations for the Accedamia museum. Michaelangelo's David was worth the wait. It lived up to the hype more than most of the other art pieces we have seen. And we learned that the David was created to show David after his defeat of Goliath! Who knew it was the same person!

After realizing that it would be impossible to see the Birth of Venus at the Uffizi Museum since reservations had to be made at least a month in advance, we ended our evening climbing up to the Piazza once more to watch the sunset.

Day 4 was very stormy. The thunder and lightening storms seem to be following us wherever we go! We got trapped in a cafe nearby (our favorite restaurant of the trip) for about an hour as the streets practically flooded from the water. As soon as it calmed, we rushed back to our room to throw on our rain jackets and hopefully beat the crowds as we climbed the Duomo. We were lucky the clouds had cleared so we were able to witness the incredible view!

Overall, we had a great experience in Florence and recommend it to all! It was both relaxing and filled with sightseeing. The locals were very kind and the food was great. Our next stop from Florence was Sorrento and we were excited to see this beautiful beach town!

Ciao for now.

We are still trying to figure out how to upload pictures without a computer! Stay posted.

And then there were two...

After wishing Angela good bye in Rome, the two of us headed up north towards Venice. Upon our arrival to the romantic city, we were greeted with a flash storm of rain. Fully loaded with our backpacks, we decided to book it as soon as we got off of the water bus (public transportation on the canals, so cool!). About an hour later, and with the help of some very nice locals, a very wet Melissa and I checked into our bed and breakfast.

Although a little weary and very wet, the Four Seasons B&B provided a great break from the hostels we have come accustom to. Our couple suite would prove to be the first reminder that we were in fact staying in a very romantic destination spot for couples. After unpacking and drying off we wasted no time in venturing out to explore Venice. The city was beautiful and of course full of many great smelling restaurants that called to our stomachs. Our next destination in the city was found much more easily, a famous joint among locals in the heart of Venice (recommended to us by Rick Steves of course). Everything was made from scratch and after devouring a very delicious meal we ventured out again to explore the manyturns, canals, and dead ends of Venice.

That night we headed in early to get ready for a busy day of sight seeing and late day travel to Pisa. The next day we woke up early, checked out (leaving our bags at the B & B), and headed towards the Piazza San Marco. The piazza is surrounded by almost all of the touristy sights one must hit up before leaving Venice. Here we saw the Bascilica of San Marco and the Dodge's Palace. Next door to these very history-filled buildings were both the Procuratie Vecchie (Old Law Courts) and Procuratie Nuove (New Law Courts). The famous Piazza San Marco square reminded us that although the city was amazing to visit it would not be our first choice to live. Venice as well as Italian law dictate that no remodeling as well as reconstruction is to be allowed in the city. This is great for us, because the city is left in its almost medieval state. However, locals are often times left with basements filled with water, and in the worst cases, totally abandoned buildings due to these policies.
After seeing the sights and walking around the city for half the day we found a great restaurant (perfect for people watching), where we grabbed a bottle of wine and chocolate mousse and wasted time until our train to Pisa.

When we had booked our train to Pisa we had wanted to spend as much time as we could in Venice. Naturally we booked a late train that didn't arrive into Pisa until around 11 PM. As soon as we arrived in Pisa, however, we realized that this was probably not a good idea.

The hostel we had booked in Pisa had bragged that it was within walking distance of the train station, offered free breakfast, and happened to have the highest ratings of any hostel in the area. Reviews of the hostel raved that "Carlos" the manager did a great job of taking care of hisguests and providing a fun and safe atmosphere. Therefore, upon our arrival in Pisa, equipped with walking directions to the hostel, we left the train station. We immediately couldn't find the first turn and the train station's surrounding area consisted of a very unsafe looking crowd, so we headed for the nearest cafe to ask or call our hostel for better directions.

After calling the hostel, Carlos said he would meet us at the cafe in 5 minutes on a silver "moto-bike". Before Carlos arrived a large man, with a long pony tail, who happened to speak verylittle English pulled up and got out of his car to talk to us. The man explained that he had come to pick us up and take us to the hostel. However, upon questioning him, we found that not only was he not driving a silver moto-bike, but that he also did not know our names or the name of the hostel that we had booked. Needless to say that we decided to wait longer for the real Carlos to arrive.

A few minutes later, wearing tight flare jeans, a tight belly-showing T-shirt, and equipped with better and longer hair than Mel or I, Carlos arrived on his silver bike. Carlos soon explainedthat something had happened to the beds that we had reserved (it sounded like bed bugs) andthat we were to stay at his friend hostel who was still standing near us on the sidewalk. He promised that his friend's hostel was actually much better than his, and that we would get a very good discount.

With little other options and very reluctantly, we put our bags into the other man's trunk and hopped in the back seat. On the way to the hostel, we planned our escape in case the situation (if possible) got anymore sketchy (we decided on rolling out of the moving car). Carlos' friend kept referring to his hostel as his house and we further discussed other escape plans in the backseat. Soon we pulled up to a building and walked far behind our host up a fewflights of stairs. His "house" was actually a very small bed and breakfast, which was actually probably his house at one point. The place consisted of one long hallway, one bathroom, one kitchen, many locked doors, and no other people. He unlocked our room, revealing that we had bunk mates, a TV (that we later found was just for looks), and best of all two beds for us. After finding that with the "special discount" we did not get breakfast and after of course paying with cash, the man left us.

Needless to say, WE LIVED! Otherwise this blog post would not have been written or posted. Later in the night other guests trickled in, and we found that the very same situation had happened to a very nice German couple that was also sharing our room. The next day we took a picture next to the leaning tour of Pisa on the way to the train station and PEACED OUT, our next stop being Florence.

When in Rome...

Upon arriving in Rome, we were instantly comforted knowing that we had air conditioning in our hostel after hearing all of the horror stories of the unbearable heat that this Italian city had recently been experiencing. We stayed at a place right near the train station called Legends Hostel. On the plus side- it was very easy to navigate to from the central station; however on the down side, the free pasta and pizza parties they advertised were incredibly disappointing! We never thought it was possible to mess up pasta, especially in Italy, but what we received was a mixture of carrot and pea baby food, and Chef Boyardee. Nevertheless, it was free so we couldn't complain too much!

The first day, we got up early to see Vatican City. The line was deceivingly long and before we knew it we were (modestly dressed of course) inside of this incredible structure called St. Peter's Basilica. We were shocked when we were able to tour the burial place of the late Popes- including seeing Pope John Paul II, our most recently deceased Pope of the Catholic Church. St. Peter's was breathtaking. After touring the church, we headed to the Vatican Museum to catch a glimpse of the Sistine Chapel. Upon entering, one almost got dizzy looking up at the incredible artwork that lined the walled and ceiling of the chapel- and to think that Michaelangelo was on his back the whole time while he painted it is even more awing to think about!

That evening, we decided to take advantage of the cool night air, and toured the city at night ending up at the Trevi Fountain. A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Additionally, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance. Needless to say, Christian and Melissa threw in two coins while Angela threw in one. :)

The following day, we visited the old ruins of the city. We saw Palantine Hill, were many affluent Romans had their houses during the Republican Period. After giving ourselves a tour of the area (including making up stories as we went along of what they did in certain rooms), we saw the Roman Forum and finally the famous Colosseum, considered one of the greatest works of Roman Architecture and Roman Engineering. The Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles and was capable of holding between 40 - 75,000 people (which is more than Autzen Stadium!). It was crazy to see that they were still excavating this magnificent area of Roman history.


Angela left early the next morning while Christian and Melissa hopped on a train to Venice for the Night. We were sad to see her go but excited for our next adventure :)!

The Riviera

The last two stops we have had, reminded us that we were indeed on a vacation. The three days we had in Nice were relaxing and spent under the sun. We arrived early evening to our hostel, Villa Saint Exupery, which is supposed to be one of the nicest hostels in Europe. We went downstairs to this converted monastery to have dinner in the hostel bar and settled in to our room. Melissa's three friends from California, Mike, Pat and Danny, would be arriving later that evening so we hung out for a bit in the room until they arrived. When the boys came in exhausted after a long day of traveling due to a delayed flight (looks like we aren't the only ones that have trouble in Europe!), we decided to go downstairs to have one of their dollar beers before we called it a night.

The next morning, Melissa cooked a breakfast of eggs for everyone, which was a great change from the usual toast and cereal (with warm milk) that we have gotten so accustomed to. Afterwards, we got on the train to check out the French Riviera's beaches. We first went to a beach in Nice called Villefranche, which happened to be only one train stop down the line. We laid in the sun, swam in the refreshing water, and compared stories of our travels thus far. After a few hours, we decided to get back onto the train and head a little bit farther down the coast line to Monacco. We were welcomed by giant yachts, ashton martins, and, you guessed it, gelato. We enjoyed the pebble beaches that these two locations had to offer and for the first time in a few weeks we finally found refuge from the heat. Upon returning back to our hostel, we decided to utilize the hostel kitchen and cook our own meal. We picked up the necessities at the local supermarket and ended up with a plethora of pasta with chicken, tomatoes and mushrooms as well as a salad with all the fixings. It felt like a feast for kings and we had so much left over that we decided to leave it in the fridge to eat for the following day as well.

It was obligatory that we discover the famous nightlife that Nice is known for. We headed downtown to check out some of the local bars. The first bar we went to Wayne's Bar, was jam packed and only the brave entered the dance floor as one was instantly drenched due to the body heat upon entry. After a drink we decided to venture a little more and ended up at this underground dance club which was just what we were looking for. We salsa-ed to remixes of American music and jumped to techno. After finally finding a taxi to take us back to the hostel, we retired very quickly to our beds after an exhausting day.

Sunday brought us to another beach. We had heard of this amazing beach with caves and rocks to jump off so we packed our towels and Tupperware of pasta and set out to discover it. After a few wrong turns we found it and enjoyed another long day at the beach. We concluded our time in Nice with a quiet evening of reading in our hostel room before getting up early to catch our train in the morning. We said farewell to the boys at the train station and headed off on our four hour journey to Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre was awesome! This collection of five beach towns on the Italian Riviera provided us with another relaxing break from the sight seeing. The weather was more mild than we have been experiencing in this unbearable heat wave and the sea was great to dip in after our long four hour hike through the towns.

After arriving Monday afternoon, we decided that we would save the hike for the following morning. Therefore, we took our time to check into our private flat right in the center of downtown and walked around the cute town of Monterosso. We stumbled upon this great restaurant right on the water and decided to have a nice sit-down dinner as the sun set. We ordered our caprese salad to start and a bottle of white wine and then had some of the best, if not the best, food of our trip to date. The seafood was fresh, the tomatoes ripe, and the wine was perfect to wash it all down with. We went to bed very early that evening to get ready for the day we had ahead of us.

Tuesday morning we took the train to Riomaggiore- the first town. We had an easy and relatively flat hike to Manarola then hiked some mountainous terrain culminating in 382 stairs up to the third town of Vernazza. After a gelato and foccacia break at Batti Batti's, we decided to take the train instead of hiking to our home base of Monterosso (also the last town). The hike provided us with the opportunity to see the candy-color painted houses stacked atop of each other of the cliffs overlooking the sea, the rolling hills of green valleys and vineyards, the crashing of the crystal blue water onto the shores and not to mention exercise. We retired our day at the beaches of Monterosso and headed to an "American Restaurant" for some sandwiches and cheeseburgers while jamming to old-school music like Nirvana and Little Bow Wow.

Now we head to Rome for some busy days of sight-seeing before Angela flies home to the states and Christian and Melissa continue their journey to Venice. We can't wait to see all that this historic city has to offer!

Interlaken!

We arrived in Interlaken at 2pm and checked into our hostel. The hostel we stayed in, Backpackers Villa, was probably our favorite hostel because of the cooler temperatures, amazing breakfast, and lockers in the room. Upon arriving we noticed all of the brochures and the two T.V. screens advertising the options for outdoor adventures. The possibilities were endless! Since we only had the rest of the day there and the next whole day we wanted to sign up for some activities right away. The helpful receptionist at our hostel was able to book canyoning for Melissa and Angela and they would be picked up at 3:30. Unfortunately Christian had a bad experience one time and did not end up coming with us.

The van picked us up and we headed up the road to get suited up. Before we knew it we were in full wetsuits with socks and shoes, life jackets, and helmets. The van drove us up the hill in our gear and once we parked we had a 15 minute walk to the starting point. We didn't really know what to expect but we were excited! Canyoning consisted of sliding down rocks, repelling, zip lining, jumping off rocks, and floating downstream feet first. We had a blast and our only regret was not doing the more challenging canyoning excursion.

That night we went to get some fondue at the restaurant down the street from our hostel and it was really good but very expensive! We had intended on sharing one order of fondue but there was a little confusion and we got charged for three. We learn quickly and we will never do that again! After dinner we walked over to a hostel known as Balmers. They were having a beach bash but we were too tired to stay because of our long day of traveling and canyoning. We were also booked to go skydiving and we were planning on being picked up at 8:30am the next day.

When we woke up the next morning we looked outside and came to the sad realization that rain and clouds would not make for a pleasant skydive. We had to cancel and rebooked for the following morning. Later that day we went to the train station and tried to find a train to Nice that would leave sometime after our skydiving would be over. We could find nothing and once again we realized that we were not going to be able to skydive. We were all pretty bummed about it but a little McDonalds put a smile on our face and we decided to try to book something fun for that afternoon. We went and talked to Caterine our favorite receptionist and we decided that the closest we could get to skydiving would be paragliding or hang gliding. She called around and was able to get us in at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Once again the van came to pick us up and take us over to get the hiking boots we needed which they told us were for ankle support. We put on our boots and they took us up to a ridge in the mountains where we would be taking off. Our pilots gave us the rundown of how it would work. We put on our harness and when they told us to go we ran down the hill and as the wind caught the chute we were lifted off of the ground and flying through the air! The view was magnificent and we had about 15 minutes in the air. We even got to steer for a bit! Towards the end of flight our pilots tried to make our stomachs turn by doing some fast turns and flips and we all enjoyed that. We were all very happy that we got to do something fun before our time in Interlaken was up. That night we went to dinner and headed back to our hostel to get packed up for another early train to Nice.

We miss you all!

Christian, Angela and Melissa

Our Bittersweet Time in Munich

We are on our way to Switzerland after spending one day in Munich. It was unfortunate that we did not have more time there but due to a storm in western Germany we had a hell of time trying to get there. A tree fell on the tracks and lightning caused electrical problems as well. 60 miles into our trip the train terminated at some po-dunk little town called Emmrich. They told us to get off the train if we wanted to get on a bus and that is only information we had. There we waited for two hours for these buses that were overcrowded to take us an hour down the road to the next train station. Thank goodness we met some SAE's from Nebraska on our way because when we got to that next station there hadn't been trains in or out of there in four hours. We didn't think we would get to Frankfurt let alone Munich! Some how we got on the metro to the next town then on a train that was headed to Munich. We got in at 3am and had left Amsterdam at 10:30 am. We made the best of the situation and took over one of the cars to have our own mini-party. We checked into our hostel which is called Wombats and it was right next to the train station and we were very excited to have a bigger room.

First thing in the morning we went to Dachau the first concentration camp. We walked through the barracks and did an audio tour. It was incredible to hear the survivors talk about their memories and their own personal experiences. The camp was designed to hold 6,000 people - by 1944 there were over 36,000 squeezed into the camp. After visiting Dachau we went to this great little sushi place where you could get one piece for one Euro of nigiri. Then we went to this square called Marienplatz and did a little shopping to lift our spirits. We then took a train to the English Gardens. It was magnificent! It is the largest public park in the world and there are huge grass fields where you can horseback ride and have pickup soccer games. We saw the Chinese tower and stumbled into a beer garden. There are hundreds of people at picnic tables with their own food, huge mugs of beer and gigantic pretzels. It was such a fun atmosphere! We got some ice cream and shared a pretzel. It was an awesome day in Munich and somewhat bittersweet because our time there was wonderful but it was such a short trip.

Interlaken should be amazing. We are thinking about skydiving over the Swiss Alps, renting vespas or bikes, going swimming and possibly doing some other outdoor adventures. Canyon jumping anyone?

Stay posted for our stories from Switzerland!