I really slacked there at the end

I can't believe I never finished writing my blog.

After Lisbon I continued on to London. It had met someone from London at my hostel in Lisbon and we were on the same flight. We were able to travel to the airport together, sit next to each other and kill time in the airport together. Plus I got to listen to his lovely accent and get advice about London.

After landing in London I navigated the airport and onto the Gatwick Express and then through the Tube to my hostel. It was very late at this point but I got a little turned around coming out of the tube station. Fortunately my friend Bobby from Venice was staying at the same hostel I was heading to so he helped me out. When I finally got to the hostel they told me the had no hot water but I was too exhausted and just plain happy to be there that I didn't change hostels. Bobby had waited for me to arrive and we headed out to dinner at Greek restaurant down the street.

The next morning Bobby and I got up and went across the street to the British Museum. The hostel was in a fantastic location. Most of the museums in London are free so we were able to pop in and visit a couple rooms. Then we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral where Bobby was supposed to be a family friend. Unfortunately the Cathedral closed just before we go there. From there Bobby and I separated and I continued down to the Tower of London. I spent a good portion of the day at the Tower of London. They have Beefeaters who give free tours of the area. I also took a free tour in the Tower and got to see some of the crown jewels.

From there I continued across the Tower Bridge (which many people mistakenly call the London Bridge) and crossed the Thames. I walked along the Thames to the Westminster Bridge and then back to the hostel were I was pretty much beat.

The next day I walked along Oxford Street which has a lot of nice shopping through Hyde Park and then down to Buckingham Palace where I stumbled upon the Changing of the Guard. I didn't plan to attend the Changing of the Guard I just got lucky. Then I walked through St. James Park and stopped at the Cafe for lunch. I continued down to the Thames and to the London Eye but it was so expensive (about $30USD) so I didn't go on.

Of course there were a lot of other little sights that I saw but I waited way to long to write this blog!

That night I had a hard time sleeping and ended up leaving the hostel ridiculously early. I figured I was awake anyway I might as well get a move on and at least be sitting in the airport where I could have some light as opposed to a 12 person dorm room. I was flying out of the London City Airport which is mostly short flights and lots of business travelers but also the closest airport.

I got to the airport so early they couldn't even check me in. But I enjoyed sitting at the cafe with a latte and a book so it was ok.

click HERE for pictures of London

Finally I landed in Rome and hurried through the airport to meet DADDY! He had landed a while before me so he was waiting at baggage claim. From there we took a very crammed bus into the city (standing room only). We stopped by the hotel my family had stayed at and picked up some paintings they bought in Venice. We also had a nice lunch and then got back on a train and headed to Naples. In a few short hours we were in Naples. Our hotel was close enough that we walked and got to see the wonder that is Naples...and by wonder i mean pit. But i didn't care I was just happy to be in a real hotel room...with hot water! After a dinner near by I was off to sleep.

Early the next morning we headed to Sala Consilina by car. The drive took about 2 to 2 1/2 hours but it was a nice drive and we got to pass Vesuvius and see osme of the countryside. In Sala Consilina we stopped by the equivalent of the Town Hall and requested information of our family. And then we tried to find relatives my dad's cousin (?) Maria has visited about 20 years ago. I think we had to ask about half the town before we found them. But we did! We knocked on the door and this little old couple got up from their chairs in front of their wood burning stove and greeted us. I'm not sure i ever adequately explained exactly who we were or why we were there. But they could not have been more welcoming. They showed us everything! All their pictures, the views out of every window, where they store their tomatoes. They wanted to cook us a full lunch at 11am!

After a while we had to leave and stopped by the Town Hall once more to find that they had found my great grandfathers birth certificate! We also got to get a copy to bring home...

From there we traveled back to Naples...stopped at a rest stop...which usually isn't blog worthy but I feel the need to mention how amazing the food looked in this random rest stop...i've never seen anything like it and I doubt i will...at least not in the States.

Click HERE for pictures of Sala Consilina

Finally we were back in Naples and went right to the Port where we took a hydrofoil to Ischia. Once there we took a taxi to our hotel...which was amazing! Our room was huge and the hotel had a beautiful pool, a breakwater with lounge chairs and umbrellas and an lagoon. That night we mostly walked around. They were celebrating the feast of their patron saint. Everything was lit up, and there were tons of people on the street. Unfortunately I was exhausted and went to sleep very early and somehow managed to sleep through what was supposed to be a very amazing, very expensive fireworks display.

The next day we rented a scooter and drove the scooter around the one road which circumnavigates the island (about 34 km i believe). We took the scooter a high up as we could go and then climbed up Mount Epomeo the rest of the way. At the top was the remnants of a monetary built into the side of the mountain and a great restaurant...not to mention some amazing views. From there we went to the Castle. I had really enjoyed the Castle when I went over spring break but after seeing the views from the top of the island the views I had loved from the Castle now paled in comparison.

That night we were supposed to meet up with Marianna and Franco but somehow managed to miss them. A slight miscommunication with where we were going to meet. And because of some confusion with my cellphone I no longer had their cell phone number, only the house.

Our final day in Ischia consisted of a lot of relaxing. We spent most of the day lying by the lagoon and it was beautiful. That night we did meet up with Marianna and Franco for drinks and watched the sunset and walked around Forio (i think).

Another great trip to Ischia!

Click HERE for pictures of Ischia

From Ischia we took the hydrofoil back to Naples and the bus to the airport. Then we flew to Catania and picked up our car and drove to Taormina. We were actually staying just outside of Taormina but spent the whole day there the next day. It's a very cute little town. On our last day we had a very late flight out of Catania so we had to drive back. We decided to take the scenic route and drove around Mount Etna. It was beautiful! We stopped at a beautiful cemetery and through a number of cute villages. I wish we had stopped at more villages because we ended up getting to the airport so early! We had hours to kill! But i was so mentally and physically drained at this point that I didn't mind sitting.

Click HERE for pictures of Sicily

We flew back to rome and spent the night at a hotel near the airport. I had such a difficult time sleeping that night. I couldn't believe after something like 4 1/2 or 5 months I was going to be returning home. That caused all kind of emotions...excitement to see my family, trepidation about reassimilating, and kind of homesick for Venice.

Finally (after some excitement and bumping into a friend from high school) I was headed home!

Pictures

Click HERE for pictures of Lisbon


Click HERE for pictures of London
(probably more coming)

London

I was going to write out a nice long post about London...but i'm exhausted...it's been a busy day...and i've already told Jenny and my mom all about my dad, so rather than retype it for a third time i'm just going to copy and paste the convo i had with my mom...maybe add to it tomorrow...

[17:52:23] allison.rotolo says: i went out to dinner last night with bobby which was really nice...greek food of all things and thena ctually managed to sleep until 6 ish and then on and off until 8
[17:52:55] allison.rotolo says: then i met bobby for breakfast at the hostel and then we went to the internet place and then the british museum, which is literally right across the street from my hostel
[17:53:08] allison.rotolo says: we walked around there for an hour...which you can do because it's free (thank god because nothing else is)
[17:53:40] allison.rotolo says: after the Museum I walked with bobby the St. Paul cathedral where he was going to meet a friend for lunch before leaving for York and iw as goin gto go in to the cathedral...but itw as closed
[17:54:29] allison.rotolo says: then i kept walking to the tower of london and paid out the wahzoo (to the tune of 30USD) but i got a tour of the grounds and of the armory and then walked around on my own for a bit including seeing the royal jewels
[17:55:11] allison.rotolo says: then over the tower bridge to the other side of the thames and i walked back stopping briefly at the globe theater which i couldn\'t go in because of dress rehearsals and then back over the waterloo bridge through the theater district back to the internet place

and from my convo with Jenny...my plan for tomorrow:
Summerlily9: tomorrow i think i'm going to walk through hyde park a bit and then down to buckingham palace/westminster abby probably starting off walkig along new oxford street which is what bobby suggested
Summerlily9: and going to trafalgar sq...which i just read in the newspaper they're going to cover in grass some time this week i think

Lisbon Day 2

So yesterday I woke up at a reasonable time, 8ish I think. I had a nice long breakfast, which is amazing here, they cook eggs to order and deliver it to the table and wash your dishes afterwards...which at €20 a night hostel is pretty darn nice. After breakfast I started walking, just kind of headed in one direction and decided to walk until I no longer saw anything interesting. I ended up on this hill that had an amazing view of Lisbon and it was quite a nice walk. After the walk I headed back to the hostel...that doesn~t sound like a did much but it was a 3 hour walk or so. I headed back to the area where my hostel is and walked around there and grabbed a sandwhich for lunch. It sounds like i~ve taken Lisbon pretty easy, which I guess I have...i have catching up on sleep to do still and I wasn~t feeling quite so well, but I plan on hitting the ground running when I get to London. Fortunately I won~t have any time changes to deal with. Coming from Greece to Lisbon was a bigger adjustment then i thought it would be, coupled with my lack of sleep to begin with. But I had a great time in Lisbon. I was packing up because I leave this afternoon and i noticed some rocks on my white pants. I actually thought they were pretty cool though...they were from a volcano and how many people can find volcanic rock in their shoes and luggage...

I miss everyone, I^m so looking forward to London actually but I kind of can~t help but wish these next three days to fly by because I\ll get to see my dad after london...it was the same with Palermo during my second break, it was hard for Palermo to live up to how amazing the rest of the trip was and i knew as soon as palermo was over I would get to see my family. I^m sure London will be better than palermo though, mostly because there will actually be things I want to go see...

Lisbon

So it's the end of my first day in Lisbon. I arrived last night and the trip from the airport was pretty but I pretty much fell asleep right afterwards. This morning I got up really early, 7:30am, I was still a little jetlagged because Lisbon is 2 hours behind Greece. I did a walking tour that one of the tour book suggested only it was the most confusing walking tour ever, either the names of the streets weren't on the map or they weren't on the streets and I ended up making it to the big sights but not all of the littler ones that seemed interesting.
I walked around a castle for a little bit, it was a very interesting and beautiful castle but the courtyards were filled with a market and they were playing pop music which kind of ruined the castely vibe. After the castle i went to the cathedral which had a very interesting excavation in the cloister of roman and Muslim ruins. After walking around for a while I made it back to the main square and hoped on another tram to Belem. I grabbed a kebab for lunch and then went to a monastery. It was gorgeous...I walked around the cloister for a while and watched a beautiful wedding from the upper choir. After the monastery I went to a pasticeria (or the Portuguese equivalent) for famous tarts...and they definately lived up to their reputation.
After that I returned to the hostel and just vegged for the rest of the afternoon. I haven't gotten much sleep, this hostel is nice, comfortable and clean but a little noisy so i didn't fall asleep until much later than i intended and then woke up earlier.
More walking tomorrow!

Santorini

So I got to Santorini at 8pmish on Monday and was picked up at the airport and taken to my hotel. The hotel was ok, pretty basic but kind smelled stuffy...I walked around for a while and then went to sleep really early and slept all through the night. I got up at 10am and then proceeded to walk more, and walk and walk and walk took a really nice walk along the caldera, which, from my understanding, is essentially the rim of the island where the island ends now because of the most recent volcano (which was not that recent). It's a beautiful walk but very touristy, more than I realized it would be. After the walk I went to my hostels sister hotel and used there pool. That night I just walked around again and grabbed a gryos for dinner.
On Tuesday I went to the internet cafe for a bit and caught up with the family and then went to a real cafe for coffee. Afterwards I wandered around until it was time to head down to the old port and out to hike around the volcano. Trying to be adventurous I thought i would take a donkey down instead of the gondola. The donkey was not as much fun as it looks in the movies, mine kept slipping and you're pitched downward the whole time so i held on for dear life and didn't really get to look around much. I feel like it might have been better going uphill but I correctly predicted that I would be too tired after the volcano excursion. We took a boat out to the volcano and had a while to walk around, it was a nice walk, but not what I was expecting, i guess i dont know all the much about volcanos but it was essentially rock and grass...no pit of boiling lava...after the volcano we had the option to go to the hot springs, originally i intended to go in, but I was rather chilly sitting out on the deck of the boat and then i found out you had to jump into cold water to swim to the hot springs, and then back through the cold water when it was time to come back and then ride back to the port, wet in the wind...so i decided against it, i think i made the right choice, those who went in said the hot springs weren't that hot anyway. That night I went out to dinner and watched the sunset. It was amazing, the colors were so vivid and constantly changing...and ive seen some nice sunsets in my day.
Today I woke up decently early...and then took a taxi to the airport, i got to the hostel and then just walked around for a bit, grabbed lunch and now i've been hanging out in the garden taking advantage of the free wireless internet. Tomorrow I'll check out at like 10ish and walk around for a bit, grab a spinach pie (which are amazing) and coffee and then a gyros before heading back to the airport and off to lisbon (via milan).

Athens/Santorini pictures

I finally got to a hostel where I have wireless internet so I was able to update pictures
For pictures of Athens click HERE!

For pictures of Santorini click HERE!

I'm back in Athens for the night and I leave for Lisbon tomorrow, then London and then meeting Dad back in Italy...