Lonely Soldier

After a glorious week in Paris (thinking about grad school there) enjoying the marvelous hospitality shown to us by Saki (deserves a medal), I embarked at the last minute to Amsterdam. Here I am. By myself, but still managing to have a good time. Showed up at 9:00 PM on Thursday night with no hostel reservations due to changed plans and managed to find a decent little landing spot for the weekend. But wow, what a city! Everyone has been so friendly and I've made a few friends when I have ventured out by my lonesome at night. It definitely helped to find a shisha bar (yes, shisha) the first night because at least that is one thing here that I know my way around! Hit up the two main museums yesterday and LOVED the Van Gogh museum! Gonna try to see some windmills today. Fighting off the cold that Jenna had so naps are also pretty clutch. Excited to see Josine tomorrow night before I head back on Monday to Boston- a little earlier than initially planned, but I was getting a little stressed thinking about all I had to do before I head to Tunisia! All so exciting right now!

Nomading

Trip continues. Trip continues to rock my world.
Macedonia: First impressions- little skeptical. Second impressions- i'm in love. Lake Ohrid was literally made by angels who wanted a sweet vacation spot, the food was amazing, everything was cheap and the @ers there knew how to play both tour guide and party guide. We had a blast there and I'd love to go back sometime and maybe see another American metal band play by the lake to a crowd of 100 dressed in black. Skopje was also amazing thanks to the wonderful Darko. We unfortunately had less time there than we expected, but Darko made sure that we got the most out of it including an amazing picnic with home made food by some cliffs and water, a night out on the town that impressed all of our extreme partying minds and a night in his family's cottage up in the mountain. Excellent.
Getting from Macedonia to Italy was just short of a marathon, although all went smoothly. Rome has been amazing. Much better than my previous memories of the city. It's been great spending time with my parents and our good family friends (who are here), eating good food and seeing the sights. Even had my first date ever here! When in Rome.. Tuscany is up next for a few days with mi family relaxing by a beach and drinking a lot of wine. Darn.

Neverending Adventures

The adventure has been in swing for about 2 weeks and yes, this is my first post. When Adam asked me why I hadn't written anything yet, i replied that I shouldn't have to because I'm on vacation. To which he astutely pointed out that that is all the more reason for me to blog- touche douchenation, touche. The trip has been amazing with only minor glitches which is a huge relief. We have done the Greek Isles and Athens, Istanbul and Ephesus (Turkey). I think the most common phrase out of my mouth has been, "oh my god, that's amazing!" It's probably gotten pretty irritating for everyone else. Sad part- Katie and Kate left our small entourage this morning and are heading back to the real world. They will be sorely missed from the group and I was particularly sad to say bye because there is no telling when I'll seem them again.. sad. Okay, well some highlights so far so this can be sort of brief:
1. Top experience was outside of Kusadasi when our Turkish friend from the cruise and our bus driver took us outside of the well worn tourist path to a small village that is called a 'cherry village.' It was the cutest little village and our taxi driver pulled over to buy us a huge bag of cherries- yum! Even more yum was the meal that we pulled over and had at a small restaurant (more of a home). Not a word of english was understood there (about time!) and the food was literally sent down from heaven. Literally. Jenna might have been making a lot of happy noises. Our tummies were very full afterwards, but very happy.
2. Athens: before leaving, I had heard a lot of not good things about Athens. "it's dirty, it smells, it's too crowded, blah blah blah." Well by golly, I loved that city! Maybe something has changed since the advice givers have been, but I thought the people were friendly, the streets were clean, the shopping was great and the food was amazing. And it's not too shabby having the Acropolis in view at most times. I also LOVED the botanical gardens there- i was like a little kid running around the pretty paths and through the little zoo!
3. Santorini: Sadly, we spent little time actually in the city, but that is because we were to busy hiking up an active volcano to put our hands in side a hole to feel the hot lava from way below the surface. We also sailed to a little cove where we jumped off a pretty sailboat and swam to hot springs where we slung mud all over each other. Sweet.
4. Istanbul: A lot of sweet things! Turkish bath was awesome, buying gifts at the bazaar, mastering the tram, our convenient/cheap hostel, an amazing dinner with good friends and a super fun night out on the town in Taksim.

Adam just yelled at me to say this is too long. Make up your mind buddy! Time to go venture out for our last day in Istanbul. TOnite, we leave on a bus for Macedonia with a stop in Bulgaria. Good times are promised as we'll be staying with Darko in Skopje and other @ers in Ohrid.
P.S. I was finally 'officially' matched and will be leaving on July 23rd for a year in Tunis, Tunisia. Excitement is high although the thought of only having 18 days between the end of this adventure and the beginning of the next big one is a tad daunting! Keep living the dream everyone!