Just left the Moore Theatre and I am thoroughly impressed. The man is a genious. The music was absolutely beautiful as was the theatre itself. I’m so happy that I actually got to see andrew bird live. If you haven’t heard of him then you need to pick up one of his albums and I’m sure you’ll be addicted. The way he records, layers, and sings on stage was baffling. And the passion put into the live show makes it better than the albums themselves. And so begins the week of concerts. Tomorrow going to see ra ra riot. Should be a good time. Seattle you are treating me well. Until the next exciting episode… or I have nothing else to do but blog on my phone. This is sharkfin signing out.

-D.

Totally just downloaded the wordpress app.

So I got tired of the whole dark blog thing, it felt…. well dark and uninviting. And that’s not me I’m basically an open book. The theme may change soon I’m not actually set on using this one. I just couldn’t stand it being totally black, we’ll see what happens. I would dl the css and shit like that but to be honest it’s only a blog and I’m totally way too (emphasis on the oo’s) lazy to do that. 

So what’s new with me. For starters I’m in Seattle, and I’d have to say I’m having a really great time. I love my work, and all the people I’m surrounded by. The one thing I wish I had a little more time for was working on my capstone but hopefully I get that going in a little bit just looking for some motivation. Feel like I’m at a standstill with it because I know what I want to do and I presented it to the faculty almost 2 months ago and to be honest its my capstone and I wanna do my thing. Presented my concept to frog as well and they all seem pretty touched. I’m happy that after all these years of being in remission I’m finally at a place in my life where I can try and help other families who have children with cancer. Was weird to present as well because to be honest I’ve never really been that emotional about what I went through as a kid, never really saw it as anything negative. I mean I got to play gradius for hours on end and my parents spoiled me and I thought scars were cool. 

I think the difference in this presentation was that I was really trying to sell the story of why I wanted to do it, and instead the faculty really just wanted to see research. So for this presentation I dug up some pictures of me in the hospital with my dad and it’s honestly the first time I felt sad about it. To think what my parents had to go through, I don’t know if I could do the same for my child. I’m afraid I’d just break down. It’s hard to believe that they knew I might not live for long yet they kept a smile on their face whenever they were around me. Thats strength and love and I don’t think I’ve ever really appreciated it until I put those images on a projector. 

I felt so emotionally detached from that period of time and practicing that presentation I got choked up. I love my parents and I appreciate everything they do for me. Even if we don’t agree on everything or we get into arguments, we’ll always be there for each other and I’ll never forget that. So yeah I definitely feel the need to put more time into my capstone, and I’m excited to as well.

Sorry to be so mopy so I’ll change on to better things. Bought myself an iphone, and I have to say it practically shits all over any other phone in the market right now. And if you think it doesn’t, well basically you’re wrong. I feel sorry for you. It’s definitely a game changer, and I feel like its my favorite purchase I’ve ever made. Having one now I feel like I was obliviously satisfied with a retarded cousin of a phone for so long. Hmm there’s probably an app for blogging and if there’s not there should be one, would really keep me more motivated to  keep this thing updated instead of letting it rot and completely be forgotten about only to be updated once every three months. I mean how else am I going to keep my 3 or 4 recurring visitors happy. I know you’re out there…. not sure why but I know you are, and to my lovely fans I don’t know who you are but wordpress says they keep visiting I’ll try hard to keep updated this time. Well maybe not hard but I’ll try…. or I’ll remember to try …. or maybe I’ll update in another three months haha we’ll see. 

Hmm some other news, Adream had a baby and it’s super cute! Totally excited for her and if you’d like to see pics I can forward the email to you. And Yanling is coming to Seattle! Apparently she comes alot for meetings so Paul and I are gonna go get dinner and chat with her. All and all things seem to be going good. 

So keep coming back for the next exciting entry in the life of the one, the only, D.

Peace out playa’s (wait does playa’s get an apostrophe?) oh well its a blog and I don’t care haha.

I’ve been pretty lazy at updating the blog, but in all fairness I’m done traveling….. maybe I should change the name? 

First things first. I love American burgers. The first thing I did when I got back was to grill out unfortunately the weather wasn’t friendly so I had to eat inside but you can see the meat-fest that did occur on my return to America.

weather not so great

yes I ate all that meat

I told everyone I was craving a meat-fest and I got it. Also that hamburger was literally like an inch thick. Man did I feel like a real American after that meal. Haha

Also I just wanted to throw out a thanks to everyone who helped me on my trip. Mandy and Joe for their kindness. Helen and Matt for helping setting up and getting me in contact with the rest of their family. The Pats for letting me stay with them. My mom for not freaking out too much when I told her I was doing this. Sheena for letting me stay with her in Italy. Vivien for letting us stay at her house outside of Rome and picking us up in the middle of the city at midnight. 

Now for some recent updates.

School……………. eh. Finally feel like I’m getting some grounding for my capstone, really have my topic nailed down and research is definitely making progress, but presentations are supposed to be next week and I’m not to sure what there is to critique. Hopefully that all gets solidified with this weeks meetings. Also Wes and I are working on a TSA project together and I must say it looks pretty good (I’m not full of myself at all).

Human sexuality = not what I heard about it. From what everyone told me human sexuality class was supposed to be fun, supposed to see some porn, some funny stuff, some gross stuff, and above all its supposed to be a piece of cake. Instead somehow the class I took was not fun, no porn, annoying frat boys in the back, not a piece of cake, and boring. I def feel like I got gipped.

Also got a job in seattle for the winter so looks like I’m heading out there, should be pretty fun. Def looking forward to it. Also to celebrate I bought myself a t.v. which basically means my wallet is hurting just a little bit. I can’t believe how much money I’ve spent in the past 6 months but it was all worth it.

This past weekend was the halloween party,  got dressed up and partied like it was 2008! I went as a cowboy, unfortunately I didn’t get drunk but I feel like thats a lot better than two weeks ago when I was so drunk I couldn’t even walk myself, and woke up in Matt’s bathroom thinking I was sleeping in my bed.

I'd have to say I pretty much make the best cowboy ever

I love that trev is wearing a costume for kids

Last night got to see the next President of The United States speak and it was a huge cluster fuck. Waited in line for about a half an hour. It was pretty ridiculous the line literally wrapped and snaked around the entire campus. Also hate to say it but I definitely feel like seeing him on t.v. is better. I mean its pretty cool to say you saw him in person, but on t.v. you can make out all his expressions and there’s no echoing of the speakers, not to mention you don’t have to wait 20 minutes in a mob to get out of the stadium.

hope and change

And finally tomorrow morning I’m going to cast my vote and then tomorrow night hangin out with the guys and hopefully watching Obama win the election. If he wins there will be drinking in celebration, and if he loses I just might cry and drink away my sorrows. We’ll know tomorrow, I mean who would really want the possibility of Sarah Palin being the president. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrzXLYA_e6E 

thats some scary shit!

please please don’t let it happen

just wanted to let everyone know i got back home safe and sound, will be updating in a couple days with a real american cookout on sunday!

Well its been an exciting week but I’m back in Thetford now. Doing a bit of work I’m supposed to do for this travel quarter, hopefully I can get it done. We’ll see. Flying back home friday, see everyone in a bit.

-d.

Last entry……maybe? Not to sure, I can’t promise anything. This evening I hop on a train to Prague and arrive at 11 tomorrow. Then I’m in berlin for 2 days, then amsterdam for a day and brussels for a day. Anyways, this weekend Sheena and I went to naples. To be honest my opinion of naples is that its a gross rotting city. Its literally a pile of steaming crap. Broken glass all over the streets, poop etc. Not cool. The train station even worse. To get a sense of how shitty naples is, I didn’t take one picture. Not one. In fairness tho the hostel was pretty slick. There was a cool common room and our room had a tv dvd player and ac. So we borrowed gladiator from the common room and relaxed and watched it. Then we went to dinner and got some pizza at this little place that was pretty nice, it def made up for the pizza we had earlier in the afternoon there which they warmed up in a god damn microwave…psst.

The next day we went to pompeii. Definitely worth it. absolutely amazing. Wish I could write more but I have to go meet sheena for lunch and I’m still packing just wanted to let everyone know what was going on.

Maybe If i get a chance in the next two weeks I’ll fill in the gaps with real descriptions or you might just have to see me in person and ask. oh forgot to mention on the way to naples we stopped in rome again and saw the vatican museums + the sistene chapel.

-D.

Well its been a while. Last weekend Sheena and I were invited to stay at her friends place just outside of rome. Sheena decided to be nice and pack for us….. lets just say this weekend i’m packing again. She literally packed her life away, we were gone for two days and it weighed more than my backpack for 3 months. Thats all I’m saying.

Saturday we went to the beach all day with her friend Vi. It was pretty nice, except at the end of the day i looked like neopolatin ice cream, a strip of dark, one of red and one light. Yes I burnt and I burnt bad. It’s crazy. Sheena burnt less than I did. She did put on sunblock twice though. I’ve never needed sunblock in my life, so i guess things are bout to change, now I’m a bit worried to go to the beach without it.

Next day we did a quick tour of rome, the colosseum, the forum, st. peters/vatican city – the museum, the fountain di trevi. The sites in rome were really pretty, but it was a really rushed day cus we didn’t have much time. Also if you ever decide to see the colosseum just so you know it pretty much looks the same from anywhere inside no joke, but still a cool experience. This weekend we go back to see the vatican museum with the sisteen chapel and then to pompeii.

Also went to milan the other day….. to be honest milan is my least favorite place so far. The duomo absolutely beautiful, best gothic cathedral i’ve seen. The Last Supper by da vinci pretty cool. In fact I was really lucky to see it. Usually you have to make reservations 2 weeks in advance. I mean cus that just makes sense right? But some lady was gonna go with friends but they couldnt make it so she was selling 3 tickets for 8 euro each (it usually costs 6.50) so not a bad deal at all. The size of it is really crazy, textbooks make it look so small but its an entire wall. I know I know (didn’t you ever take the time to read the dimensions in the book? answer: nope. The only thing is I feel bad for the guy who did the opposite wall, cus people pretty much just ignore his work, but I mean you only have 15 minutes so I can understand. I wonder what he was thinking while Da Vinci was painting his wall “hmm i wonder what he’s doin over there, psst he’s not even applying the paint right!” But seriously other than that not much to do for such a big city(unless you’re gonna shop, but unfortunately I don’t have the money for luxuries such as prada unless its from the guy selling it behind the castle for 10 euro, ps i heard he’s legit haha), and its def a tad more confusing than most of the other large cities.

Unfortunately this may be my last post as I dont know what the internet situation is going to be. Monday I go to prague then berlin for two days, then amsterdam, then brussels, then back to london. This was a last minute decision but I’m glad I’m going to those places cus I have no idea when i’ll get the opportunity again.

Also got some progress done on my travel project. I think I have the design down its all about just tightening it up right now, and I have a couple ideas on how to take care of some of the inconsistencies, then I have to create…. damn production sucks, lets hope I have time for it….

One last note I really have a hankerin for a huge grillout, sausages, hamburgers corn on the cob, beers, they just don’t do meat in italy like we do in the states, and I really need a cookout right now, really been craving it for a while.  hint hint mom

I know I said I would update 2 days ago but…. well….. ok i’m lazy. I know I’ve kept everyone waiting for the climactic ending to the saga of sheena’s week off so I hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 1: Firenze (Florence) / ass backwards museum

We arrived in Florence on Friday morning. As always the first thing to do is to make it to the hostel so you have a base of operations, aka a place to throw your crap while you walk around. Being the king of directions as I am we had no problem making it. On our way there we passed the massive duomo, its absolutely impossible to not stop in your tracks when you first see it and look up at its glorious beauty. Also just a point of interest, its absolutely impossible to get a really good picture of the duomo unless you get one from above because of how closely surrounded it is by other buildings.

We walked past the duomo and the ponte vecchio, and made it to our hostel right across from the Palazzo pitti. Was totally shocked that it was actually there, seemed awfully close to the hostel. We made our way up the apartment building and to our surprise our hostel was more a hotel than anything. We were given a room to ourselves a queen bed a bathroom with a shower, cabinets and drawers. It was pretty sweet. Definitely the best deal I’ve ever gotten. Sheena was so enthralled with it she took a massive amount of pictures. I decided that I was going to unpack our bag on the bed. Oh no, can’t do that, Sheena has to take 12 more pictures of the bed, so I have to hide all our belongings from view haha. 

We went back to the duomo, once again amazed by the size and beauty of it…. that was before we went in. So you would think that the beauty of the outside would be matched by the inside, apparently not. I think all the effort went to the outside because the inside was def bare bones, very disappointing. We then decided to go into the baptistery which is right in front of the cathedral. It costs 3 euro to get in, not bad at all and inside the entire dome is a golden byzantine mosaic. Really pretty and made up for the duomo being basically empty. Yeah massive byzantine jesus was very impressive, also I don’t think you’ve made it as a church until you have your giant byzantine jesus, it seems every big church here in italy has one. 

Next we made our way to the Piazza della Signoria, where florence’s multitude of statues are on display, the more famous ones being replicas (originals are in museums… where you can’t take pictures). Some of these include Michelangelo’s David and the Rape of the Sabine Women.

After our time in the piazza, we grabbed a bite to eat and checked out the ponte vecchio. Its a pretty cool bridge the most interesting part being that stores were built on the bridge and are partially held up by pieces of wood. The funniest thing being that all these stores that look like they could fall into the river at any point are jewelry stores. I’m joking they don’t really feel like they’re gonna fall over but it is really funny to see the pieces of wood for support. 

From Ponte Vecchio we decided to go to the galleria del accademia which houses the real David along with some incomplete Michelangelo sculptures. The real David was really impressive, even more so than seeing the copy in the Piazza. It’s housed under a dome built specifically for it as well as behind glass that comes up to the base of the statue. Its really inspiring and we sat there and just looked at it for at least 15 – 20 minutes. The other nice thing to see were the incomplete statues of marble he had worked on. They were all in various stages some had most of it sculpted without smoothing while others had maybe a torso and an arm. Really cool to see. I was def disappointed that we couldn’t take pictures, but oh well. Other than that there’s not much to be seen in the museum so really you’re just paying 10 euro to see the David. Was it worth it? Definitely. Do I feel like they’re trying to scam you a bit? Definitely. they know you’ll pay and you do. Also I love that you can’t take pictures but they can sell you a postcard of it and the other overpriced mumbo jumbo crap they have in they’re store. To be honest though it is a lot nicer to be able to appreciate the work without feeling like your in a pool of paparazzi like when you see the mona lisa.

After that we called it a day and went back to our luxurious hostel. Next morning we got up at 7:30 so that we could make it to the Uffizi (home to the birth of venus) when it opened at 8:15 without the long wait. Now heres where the bitching begins so if you don’t wanna hear it don’t read. 

Walking to the Uffizi I’m booking it knowing that the line has to have already started. Florence at this point is practically empty so we stop and take pictures on the Ponte Vecchio, knowing late it will be crammed full of tourists, and by crammed full I mean you can’t walk without tripping over someone, its even more crowded than florence was and florence is full of little streets. Sheena of course makes the comment that its so early no one will be there. Oh how wrong she is and how i knew it. We show up and of course the line is started. Its 8:10 at this point. We’re probably lucky guests number 200 so were about half the length of the building from the entrance. 8:15 rolls around doors open… or do they. No movement. 8:20 and the line starts to move ok were gonna get in until suddenly after moving about 5 feet we stop. The line’s halted. Whats going on. Oh thats right you can reserve tickets so you don’t have to wait in line. What does this mean? It means that for 4 dollars the day of or before you reserve a time to enter the museum. What does this do. This stops the regular line to allow the reservation people in. No it wouldn’t make sense to have 2 doors one for reservations one for the regular line. So every 10-25 minutes the real line moves about 5 feet. Ridiculous. You know how the louvre works. The most famous museum in the world? You know how that works, you walk right in. The line moves swiftly. Everybody’s happy. I don’t understand this museum at all. It’s absolutely ass backwards the way the line works. It took us til about 9:15 to get in. At this point you go through security which consists of 1 security guard and 1 metal detector, now I understand why its so slow because a museum which brings alot of visitors decides hey we only need on entrance and one detector why should we accommodate for all the visitors we have? They’re gonna come anyways whatever. Ridic. The museum itself was nice so at this point the bitchings over. But for real the Louvre you just walk right in, come on now, get your shit together Uffizi. Also I don’t wanna hear any oh you should have reserved then. Fuck that I’m not paying an extra 4 euro to get into a museum.

The Museum was actually very nice, it was great to see the birth of venus and some Caravaggio raphael and other renaissance paintings. One of the more interesting works was an unfinished painting by Da Vinci. It was still in its pencilling in phase so no paint had been applied yet, its always cool to see stuff people were working on but didn’t complete. I really liked the museum though. It was probably the best experience I had in Florence. Also just so everyone knows. The Birth of Venus, not as bright as you think, theres def some levels adjustment being done in photoshop in those art history books, still a great piece tho. It’s another museum that I wish allowed photographs.

Here’s some pictures of Sheena and I on the Ponte Vecchio in the morning.

Chapter 2: Pisa

If you’ve made it this far then I have to commend you. I shall now present you with the tale of a little city called Pisa. 

We arrived in Pisa later that afternoon. After reading up on it we realized we wouldn’t need more than a few hours to actually see everything the city had to offer. We arrived at the small train station and started making our way to the famed leaning tower. After walking 5 minutes from the train station we come to the realization that its a ghost town. There is literally no one on the street other than tourists sprinkled in small clusters all walking towards the same thing. It was a vast difference between the streets of florence. Also pisa seemed dirt cheap…… my kind of town. On our way we found a gelateria and got 3 scoops for 2 euro, the cheapest I’ve seen in italy. It seems the only things open were gelateria’s and a few cafes. I can’t blame the place for being dead though. It was the holiday and I’m sure no one wants to spend they’re holiday with a tourist attraction in their backyard. Anyways after walking through the ghost town we see the tower. 

It was def a sight to see. Well worth the trip. Sheena was dead-set on climbing it as well until we were told the price. 15 euro. What does 15 euro buy you? 30 minutes in the tower that includes the climb up and down. We kindly declined they’re offer, figuring all we would be able to see from the top was the dead city of pisa. Not to mention the eiffel tower cost 9 euro. I don’t know whats up with italy sometimes. To be honest I’m not disappointed at all that I didn’t climb it and I know Sheena’s not either. I might have paid it had it not have been for the time constraint. Of course we did our holding up of the tower pictures. Then we paid to get into the cathedral. Amazing. Absolutely beautiful inside. Probably the most impressive Cathedral I’ve been in. 

yeah it's leaning

the entire complex

inside the cathedral

After that we kinda walked around the site, looked at some touristy shops, and headed back. On our way to the train station, we each got a huge slice of pizza for 1.50 each. Um absolutely great. It was so tasty I contemplated going back for another piece. It was really odd that good food was within walking distance from the tower, seeing as your always warned not to eat around tourist spots. It was really good, and pisa was a really fun afternoon trip, but I wouldn’t recommend staying there for an entire day. I don’t know what you would do. Total time in pisa: 4 hours, just the perfect amount.

Chapter 3: Rimini

Our last day on Sheena’s holiday we went and chilled at the beach in rimini. The beach was quite different than what you would expect. The beaches here are privatized so for the most part you pay whoever owns the part you wanna chill on. Very interesting. Also each plot of the beach has a number and a design reminiscent of the entrance to some sort of carnival. The poster for rimini should give you an idea of what I mean

It was a pretty relaxing end to an adventurous week. 

And that is that. Sorry for making you wait so long, I hope it was worth the wait. This weekend we’re off to Rome I’m sure I’ll have some stories when I come back (I’m sure one of them will be about sheena packing on saturday morning instead of friday night). Also I know i don’t have any photos of Greece up yet but they’re coming just be patient. I’m not gonna make any promises on when they’ll be up because that just means you’ll be disappointed when they’re not there that day. I hope you’ve enjoyed story time today, until next time you’ll just have to get your thrills somewhere else.

-D.

I think we got a long one here, so grab a beer, put on your reading glasses and get comfortable. Last Saturday morning woke up bright and early, I had packed everything the night before so there wasn’t too much to do except grab the bags and go. Sheena and I headed off and caught our train to Ancona without a hitch. As always Sheena passed out a good 15 minutes after being on the train and I tried my hardest to stay awake. Arrived in Ancona and bought some food outside the ferry terminal, even though we had packed enough food for two days. I figured it would be our last chance for real food before we got on the boat. We checked in and were told that we had to walk over to one of the numbered ports, which sounded alot easier than it was. Apparently the port doesn’t really care too much for pedestrians as there is only one walkway, and by walkway I mean a white striped line wide enough for one person that cars and semi’s speed through without taking any glance around to see if anyone could possibly be in their way. 

After avoiding getting run over we came upon our port number and sitting there was what looked like a cruise ship. The ship apparently holds over 1000 people has multiple bars, a club (pretty laughable as its really only a circle in the bar with purple lights that maybe fits 10 people and plays some pretty old hits and by old i mean like what would have been playing in clubs in the early 90’s…), a buffet restaurant, a sit down restaurant, a pool, and a bunch of rooms. Luckily enough for us we hadn’t booked a room so we got to sleep on the luxuriously comfortable deck. Oh yes we slept on the deck, we weren’t about to pay another 100 euro each to sleep in a bed. 

Even though we had to sleep on the deck it was actually a pretty nice ride, the sea was beautiful and the half jar of nutella I ate was delicious. Oh yeah nutella is def my new thing, its so good and I don’t care how ridiculous I look eating it out of a jar with just my finger. The next day we made it to Athens after a short stop in the shit hole of a town called Patras. Athens is amazing. It’s a much more modern city than I thought it would be. The metro system has a massive amount of subways, buses, trams, taxis etc, in fact it felt very similar to how barcelona was with ancient ruins scattered around the city. 

We made our way to our hostel (only 5 minutes from the acropolis) and then went on our search for some food. I was adamant that we had to find some gyros to eat, and that was all I was gonna eat while I was in greece. The first place we happened upon seemed a bit pricey 8 euro for a gyro, from what I had read online they should only cost about 3, so I decided that we would keep hunting for them until we found some at a reasonable price. A half hour later we still had no luck, Sheena’s stomach was rumbling and I was forced into going into the expensive gyro place. The woman spoke broken english to us and almost seemed offended when we didn’t order what she had suggested to us. We ended up with a plate of gyros each which is a pita layed flat with pork or chicken on top of it with tomatoes, onions, and, tziki sauce.  To be honest it wasn’t that great. After leaving the restaurant we spotted people walking around with regular looking gyros rolled up and eating. I still couldn’t figure out where people were getting these. 

Next day I was still craving for a real greek gyro experience, but we went and did the acropolis first as we knew it would get jam packed in the afternoon. We made it to the base of the acropolis and bought our tickets for 6 euro each. To our surprise this ticket not only got us into the acropolis but all the other major sites in athens. So for 6 euro as a student you get to go to the acropolis, the temple of the olympian zeus, the roman agora, the ancient agora, and the theater of Dionysus. It was a pretty sweet deal. The one thing about seeing the ruins though is expectations. Everyone has this picture of things still looking in pretty decent shape, at least thats the image I had in my head that while things would be weathered they would still be a decent amount there, but they’re called ruins for a reason. Some of the descriptions are pretty funny, you’ll see half of one column and the descriptor board will say something to the sort of temple of ares. In honesty though everything we did see was truely amazing and I’m really happy we went. The Parthenon was beautiful, the agora was amazing, the height of the remaining columns of the temple of zeus was really cool and the shadows created by it had a weird crazy effect on the columns and I can only imagine the effect it would have had if all 100 or so were there. 

After wandering through the acropolis I finally found what I was looking for… real gyros! OH they were worth the wait. I think we really just didn’t understand what we were looking for before. Basically almost every other restaurant will have a take away window by the counter where the cooks sit behind and the waiters grab food. A pita gyro from any of these places costs about 1.70 and it fills you up. Funnily Greek gyros are a bit different than what I was expecting. They are actually made with either pork or chicken (chicken is usually  a little more expensive). It’s on a pita thats been grilled, stuffed with the meat, onions, tomatoes, tziki, and fries. Yes they put fries in theirs. I have to say the best pita gyro I ate was the last, absolutely amazing, just perfect, flavorful deliciousness, the best gyro I’ve had in my life.

The rest of the day was filled with seeing the other sites i mentioned previously, the agoras and the temple of zeus. That night we went up to the tallest part of Athens which houses just enough room for a small restaurant and a church. There we saw the sun set on Athens and it was really pretty and relaxing. The funniest part about that “mountain” is that the restaurant is really nice and has amazing views of the city but all the people that come up mob around the edges where there are tables and start taking pictures rendering that part of the restaurant useless. I also pointed up to Sheena because I wanted to go up to the top with the church and the guy thought I was asking for a table haha. 

The next day since we had seen all the sites in Athens we decided to just relax. We walked around the open markets where Sheena picked up a few souvenirs then after that we went to “The Mall” yes its called The Mall. On our train ride there we also got to see the 2004 Olympic complex which was really cool. Now I have yet to see a real mall in Europe so I was shocked when I walked in and it was bigger and nicer than any mall I’ve seen before. We walked around for a bit and then went and saw The Dark Knight. I can’t believe I had to wait so long to see but it was definitely worth it. Great movie. Heath Ledger totally stole the show with his performance and made the movie what it was. Also I got free huge popcorn and huge soda at the theater because I didn’t have cash to pay for it and they didn’t take credit card so they gave it to me for free. The weird part was they took credit card for the tickets but not the refreshments.

After the movie we ate at a place called goody’s which was actually pretty good just got a sandwich and fries and a soda plus once again things turned in our favor when we weren’t charged the real price and got our food on the cheap. 

Next day it was time to head back to Bologna so we took the train to Patras where we explored the city for a while. Interestingly we saw a large group of people jumping the fences at the port. Apparently these are immigrants from other countries who have stowed away from Africa and the east to Greece and are now trying to get into Italy. It was weird actually seeing it in person, I don’t think I’ll go into discussion here as I don’t know enough about the situation to make any comments but it was just crazy to see.

Also we ordered some hamburgers in Patras which was really weird because they give you a plate with two hamburgers with cheese and bacon on it and then fries on the plate and some small pieces of pita, and lettuce and tomatoes, no bun. You eat with a fork and knife and layer the stuff on your fork it was pretty fun and good to eat.

We hopped on the ferry home later that day and made our way home. That was athens. Friday and Saturday we went to florence and pisa. I’ll update with those hopefully tomorrow, I’m just a bit worn out from recounting athens. It was a great week though and I would def do it again.

I’ll be adding pics to this post later today so check back soon.

-D.