July 20

We woke up after another hot night in Athens at 7:00 am. Luckily the fans kept working all night, so we were able to stay asleep for the majority of the night. We were so excited to get out of Athens that we were literally walking down the street toward the train station less than fifteen minutes after we woke up. I believe this was the first time that I didn’t have to tell Ben more than once to get up. Actually, I didn’t even have to tell him once. He just heard me sit up in bed, rolled over, and said “I hate the sound of you getting up because I know you’re going to make me get up.”

On the walk to the train station, I picked up the croissant thing I had picked out the night before. I found out it was filled with a type of spinach dip which turned out to be pretty good. It was also quite hysterical watching the guy trying to explain spinach in broken English. I understood him right away, but was so enthralled with making sure the guy picked out the right one that I didn’t have time to tell Ben what he said. The guy started singing the Popeye the Sailor Man theme song as part of his description of spinach. I guess you just had to be there.

Once we got to our train to take us down to the port, it surprisingly didn’t take us that long to figure out the Greek that told us which train we needed to take. We made it to the port in no time at all. Once we got there, however, it was a struggle to find a place to buy tickets. We went to a place right in the train station, but we moved on hoping we could find cheaper prices elsewhere. It turned out that all the companies had the same prices so it didn’t really matter. However, before we knew this key information, we shopped around at all the kiosks around the port. Somehow, most weren’t open. We thought we got a discount with a certain ferry company so we went into their ticket office to ask. They told us that they don’t sell tickets there, even though there was a big sign when you walked in that said “TICKETS”. She told us where to go and I told her that we just passed by there and they weren’t open. She turned to ask her co-worker something in Greek and turned back to me and told me that they were open. Dealing with Athenians; just one more reason why we were happy to be getting out of Athens.

Once we finally got our tickets and boarded the ferry, we were soon in a much better mood. We needed this vacation pretty badly after a strenuous trip through Spain, France, Italy, across the Adriatic Sea, and through Greece. We were looking forward to becoming beach bums for a couple days on some Greek island we have never heard of. The island is called Aegina I guess. The ferry ride was gorgeous. The water was sparkling blue, there were green islands all over, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Aegina was very similar. We could see the beach from the port and the view was amazing. We are surrounded by islands and the water is crystal clear. We ended up walking right into the water as soon as we got to the beach. We stayed in the water for quite some time. We tried to keep under the water to shield ourselves from the sun a bit, but it didn’t work all that well. We would have put sunscreen on, but the cheapest we could find was for 14.50 Euros (about 20 USD) for a small tube that probably wouldn’t even last us the day. We decided we would rather wear a snow suit to the beach. We ended up working pretty hard to stay out of the sun after we got burnt a little bit during our first swim. We knew that too much sun could make our trip miserable for the next few days. We actually wore our shirts into the water the next couple times we went out. We actually saw a guy with a net and a harpoon gun swimming around. He ended up getting two fish, a crab, and an octopus. He spent a couple minutes slamming the octopus against a rock. That was probably the most interesting thing we witnessed all day.

After sitting under a shade tree for quite a few hours while waiting for the sun to go down, I went and snapped off a few photos of the sun setting before starting to figure out where we were going to sleep. We knew it would be outside, but had no clue after that. I ended up finding a piece of plywood and a small piece of cardboard I may have stole from a bum. I’m not positive someone had claimed it, but it was left unattended and we all know a bum would never leave his stuff unattended. Ben found another piece and we spread them out under a shade tree on the beach. I think our beds here are better than the ones we had in the hostel. At least nobody is going to come in and wake us up to make the other beds. The only problem I see right now is the battle we are having with the bugs. They seem to be winning. Since they are attracted to the light of the laptop, it is time to go to bed.

July 21

We woke up under our shade tree when the sun came up. We went to bed when the sun went down. In between those two things, we really didn’t do much. We went to the market for food twice and we went into the water a couple times. The only thing that was a constant was our struggle to stay cool and to stay out of the sun. We wanted to go into the water more often, but we had to wear our shirts and ball caps in to keep the sun off us. We also had face away from the sun and pull our collars up to shade our necks. This turned into such a hassle that we didn’t spend too much time in the water. We tried not to leave our shade tree, but there were holes in the leaves that led to a lot of moving around on our part to dodge the sun. When we did have to go out to brave the heat, our feet got burned on the asphalt and sand. Since my sandals broke the day earlier, my feet got beaten up pretty badly. All in all, though, it was a great day. We did absolutely nothing, which was kind of boring, but at the same time, it was extremely relaxing and exactly what we needed. If there’s anything that you can probably take away from previous blog posts, it’s that traveling like we had been doing is hard work. Even the days we spend riding the trains for ten-plus hours have taken a toll on us. An uneventful day was just what the doctor ordered.

However, there was a slight emotional toll taken on both of us during this day. Because there was nothing to do, we got enthralled in a number of conversations covering topics ranging from completely pointless to extremely deep. The one that seemed to keep popping up was what we wanted to do when we got back. After Ben made me describe what the perfect first day back would be like in my mind, I began to realize the things I miss and crave the most. Some of these things include my bed, grandma’s cooking, playing guitar (all my calluses are gone already), ice cream, a Chinese buffet, a root beer, and relaxing with friends and family. Now that I have these things installed into my mind, I am excited to heat up the traveling again to get my mind off it.

July 22

We woke up this morning to the sound of a backhoe tearing down some trees only a dozen feet away from us or so. I felt like we had better pack up quickly because they didn’t seem like they were excited about stopping if we were in the path of destruction. We were up and going momentarily. We took a quick pit stop in the bathroom to water up for the day and then headed toward the dock to get the first ticket out of that place. Since we hadn’t even looked at a clock in two days, we had no idea what time it was. I found my watch stashed deep in my bag and I knew we were going to be able to catch the 7:55 am ferry which was the first one leaving for the day. We ended up getting back to Athens at about 8:15 am. We then waited for an hour to catch the next train to Patras. Four hours later, we were walking toward the ferry office in Patras to see if we could exchange our tickets to leave a day earlier. After finding out that it was almost a kilometer away, I thought our chances of being able to pull off the switch wasn’t even worth the walk. However, I had already talked Ben into making the walk, so we were going to battle the Greek sun once more. Once we found the ferry office, I was giddy to find out that we could exchange our tickets for no extra cost. We now had a place to sleep on the overnight ferry back to Brindisi, Italy and a fresh day to follow to go north toward Venice. Before we were able to snag this express escape route, we were planning to somehow stumble upon another beach to sleep on. As it worked out though, we were able to exchange our tickets and walk back and board the ship immediately. After we boarded, we sat down and ate our lunch we had picked up at a grocery store on the way to the port. Surprisingly, ham, bread, and water still doesn’t taste that bad.

On the ship, we realized that there was hardly anybody onboard this time. It seemed like we had the ship to ourselves. We went and staked out our spot on the floor of the room that we now know we are allowed into. We are sailing on the exact same ship that we crossed the Adriatic on the first time, and I have my exact same spot on the floor.

I nearly forgot to mention the significance of this day. July 22 marks the exact midway point of our trip. It seems like we are already coming down the homestretch based on what we have accomplished thus far, but now I realized that we have another thirty-one days to go yet. The other significance of the day is that we are only one week away from being able to relax at Mark’s apartment in Reutlingen, Germany. We have been looking forward to July 29 since we left Tiff’s. Our trip turned out to be seemingly broken down into three major sections. We had three weeks before we got to stay at Tiff’s, now we are in the middle of the three weeks between Tiff’s and our stay at Mark’s, and then we will have roughly three weeks after that until we leave. If it weren’t for these goals for a respite the two months might be a little overbearing.

It is almost 9:00 pm aboard the ship here. We gain an hour due to a time zone change tonight, but 10:00 pm is still sounding pretty late to me. I think I am going to hit the sack (or the floor I should say) and wake up in Italy in a ten hours or so.

July 23

We woke up on our ferry just as we were pulling into port at about 8:00 am. We got packed and walked to the exit of the ferry just as they were putting the ramp down for the foot passengers. We got off the boat to the memory of Italian heat. It didn’t take long to remember that Greece isn’t much warmer that Italy. We were roasting within minutes. We got our free shuttle ride back to the main square in Brindisi and headed toward the train station. We stopped at our familiar grocery store to get a stockpile of food. We found a tremendous deal on an Italian version of Swiss cake rolls, so we bought four big ones. Later on the train, we found out why they were so cheap. They taste like some sort of chemical that is not meant to be eaten. We haven’t decided if we are going to try to eat the rest or not, but I am still hauling them around just in case.

Once we paid for our groceries and got to the train station, we found that the next train to Bologna didn’t leave for another two hours. We were able to pass the time relatively easily as two hours of waiting seems like fifteen minutes these days. Once we boarded the train, we found that the coaches were designed in a cabin-style format with six seats in a cabin. Ben and I had our own cabin, so we were living luxuriously…for the first two hours at least. Then our trip took an awful turn for the worse. Two cranky Italians (Ben named them Mr. and Mrs. Mussolini) came into our cabin and kicked us out of our window seats quite rudely. They started yelling at us in Italian even after we put on an obvious display that we didn’t speak Italian. At one point during their rant, I actually said, “Yeah, we still don’t speak Italian!” We were able to understand pretty easily that they were upset that we had our shoes off and that they thought our feet stunk. We played ignorant for a while, but then they tried opening our cabin door to try to air it out or something. This was a bad idea since it was about 100° F in the walkway and our air conditioner was keeping our room bearable. They didn’t comprehend that 100° F temperatures will create more of a stink than a couple of bare feet. However, needless to say, they learned that lesson the hard way when I finally let them keep the door open. This result came after about a five minute fight where the door must have opened and closed at least ten times. It wasn’t long before everyone in our room was drenched with sweat. Because our air conditioner was working so hard to battle the never ending flow of heat, it ended up quitting all together shortly after. The end result was that we ended up riding the rest of our nine and a half hour train ride to Bologna wallowing in our own perspiration. The only joy that came from the ride was a conversation about how everything is better in America. Basically, we were bashing Mr. and Mrs. Mussolini and their country behind their backs right in front of them thanks to a little thing we call the language barrier. We could tell they had been bashing us to a few others who had wanted to sit in our cabin by their hand gestures. They even went and got a crew member to complain about the supposed stench and the air conditioner. He basically laughed at them and made Ben put his socks away that he had lain across the rack to air out. After that, Mr. and Mrs. Mussolini hardly spoke to us or each other the rest of the trip. Meanwhile, Ben and I passed the time by trying to recall the rosters of various sports teams throughout the years. I must say I was quite impressed when he rattled off the entire roster of the back to back Stanley Cup champion Red Wings of 1998-1999. At one point though, I had to use the restroom, so I got up to find one. I ended up walking the entire length of the train checking all fifteen or so bathrooms before discovering that not one was supplied with toilet paper or hand towels. This wasn’t a problem as long as I could hold it for another five hours. Based on this train ride and our other previous trips through Italy, we have come to the conclusion that the myth about the quality of Italian trains has utterly and ridiculously expired. We figured that these trains probably were top notch when Benito Mussolini himself had them built in 1944. Not to worry though, two more Italian trains is all we were going to have to deal with for the rest of our lives (hopefully).
After our never ending train ride finally let us off in Bologna, we had an hour to find food and water before the last train for Venice left for the night. We ended up finding a place that served authentic Italian pizza, so we split one. It came with one small bottle of water as well, which we split. The concept of a complimentary glass of water hasn’t caught on here yet apparently. The pizza was okay, but we both agreed that we would rather have Karp’s (or I guess I should say The Rocket’s).

Next it was off to find our train. We were required to pay to use the bathrooms again at the station, so we refused as usual. The day I pay to do my business is the day I move to the backwoods somewhere in Canada. We were/are to have nothing of the sort. We were luck enough, however, to stumble upon the rare sight of a public drinking fountain within the station. We filled our bottles, chugged a bunch of water, and then filled our bottles again. Seven hours of sweating can have that effect on a body. We then went and found our train and are currently headed to Venice. It looks like we have put ourselves in the familiar position of arriving in strange city at night without a place to sleep. The only catch this time is that everything is surrounded by water in this city. Finding a park to sleep in might be a little bit more of a challenge. We will cross that bridge when we get to it though.

It’s days like these that make you appreciate home. It’s ironic to think that at the start of the trip over a month ago, I had more of an open mind about culture than I do now. I was always the one defending others’ customs and traditions even if they were different from ours. Now I just feel like telling Italians how stupidly and inefficiently they operate. Previously, I would have said that America isn’t better than any other culture, we are just different. Now I exclaim, “America is better than everybody else and that’s just the way it is!“ Maybe these cruel feelings will wear off once the water kicks in, but for now, GOD BLESS THE USA! Right now, I am going to see if we are lucky enough to be blessed with toilet paper on this train.

July 24

We ended up finding a nice spot to sleep right next to the train station. It was on a back area that seemed to hold no purpose except to pamper weary backpackers. The air felt almost misty because of the extreme humidity in Venice. Luckily, it also cooled down quite a bit during the night time hours, so our sleep was pretty comfortable. I slept soundly until Ben woke me up at 6:15 am. He couldn’t sleep anymore so he wanted to get up and get going. Though ambitious, this turned out to be a futile effort because nothing opened until 9:00 am the earliest. We basically spent the entire morning waiting around for everything to open. We were able to take in a couple fantastic views of the Venetian canals, however. Finally, the grocery store opened and everybody rushed in buy their groceries. You would think that with that many people wanting to get into the market that they would think about opening up a little earlier. Anyway, we made it through the store a picked up a healthy amount of food. As we were approaching the check out counter, we even found a bag of eight croissants for only 0.38 Euro. We went through the check out and were happy to see that we kept our total bill under 10.00 Euros. As we were walking back to see if the glass store was open, I was checking the bill to figure out who owed what. I saw something for 2.39 Euros that I didn’t recognize. It turned out to be our 0.38 Euro croissants, or what we thought were 0.38 Euro croissants. If it weren’t for those things, our bill would have been remarkably under budget.

After we went to the glass shops to find that they were still closed, we sat down on one of Venice’s thousands of steps to enjoy breakfast. Finally, we saw that one shop had opened. We had seen some of the prices from the shop in the train station the day before and had hoped that the other shops would be cheaper. However, it was the opposite that held true. We ended up going back to the train station to buy our stuff. Ben bought a variety of things for gifts and favors and I may or may not have bought something for my mom. Ben ended up shipping all of his purchases back to the States (as well as a few pieces of each of our wardrobe that have become more burdensome than useful). I decided I could haul my purchase around for a month or so without breaking it. Only time will tell if this was a wise decision or not.

After a tedious stint in two post offices to get Ben’s stuff shipped, we headed back to the train station to see how quickly and cost-efficiently we could get to Switzerland. They tried telling us that we would have to pay 36.00 Euros to get to Bern, but we told him of the quote of 5.00 Euro we had gotten previously from the lady in the booth next door. He was adamant about his price, so we interrupted the other lady and had her tell him what the deal was. He wasn’t very happy with us or the whole situation, but we ended up getting tickets for 5.00 Euro to Geneva, so that was going to have to be good enough. Unfortunately, we still had a four hour wait until our train left. We spent this time doing a variety of things including searching for public water, napping, and sunbathing on the train platform. During my search for water, I had to walk all over the train station before I found a free public restroom in the back corner of the station’s restaurant. After I got back, Ben realized that there was a public fountain on the other side of one of the pillars mere yards away. At least I found something to pass my time for a half hour or so.

A couple hours into our seven hour train ride to Geneva, we stopped in Milan. This was a relief because most of the people in the train got off, leaving us a little more leg room. A few hours later, we started running into the Alps. The views from the train made the last couple hours fly by. Unfortunately, it was too hard to get a picture through the window of the train, so very few turned out at all. We did ride around a huge lake on the border of Italy and Switzerland that had a jaw-dropping view and Lake Geneva was very pretty as well, even though it was dark by the time we got there. In Geneva, we had nothing to do but find a place to sleep until we could catch a morning train to Bern, Switzerland’s capitol. When we stepped of the train, there was a detailed map directly in front of us. We saw that there was a nice park only a couple blocks away. When we got there, we remembered what we had been missing through our travels around Southern Europe. This park had all kinds of great sleeping places, balconies in case of rain, and a free water fountain. We staked out our place, and passed out from exhaustion nearly immediately. It is getting to the point now where I fantasize about a nice grassy park to sleep in rather than an actual bed. This was to be our fifth night in a row not spent in a bed.