Athens

One night in Athens there was a partial lunar eclipse. For the occasion, people were allowed up on the acropolis after midnight. The regular hours of visiting the acropolis ended before sunrise normally, so I was extremely happy for this special occasion. It was thanks to my friends Lena and Lisa that I have pictures from this event because I went up camera-less. They even let me take many of the pictures.

For my last sight-seeing day in Athens, I went to both Olympic stadiums, the 1896 one and the 2004 one. The 1896 one was impressive but it was a quick visit. You weren't allowed inside so there wasn't much more to do than to take a few pictures and walk by. 1896 was the first time the ancient games had been revived, so it was the first year of the modern Olympics.

The most recent Olympic games held in Athens were outside of the city's center. I took the metro out there and I didn't know what to expect. I had heard you weren't allowed inside there either so I thought I would be taking pictures through a fence. However, you just aren't allowed in the actual stadium or event centers, entry into the sports complex was permitted. It was like walking in a park. Every building was a site to see, and despite lack of recent upkeep it was still very pretty.

And last, a few pictures from other spots in Athens.

The temple of Olympian Zeus

Pompeii

Pompeii had a lot of stray dogs.

Rome

I think I'm just going to do pictures for awhile. I have some good stories, but I am so far behind... I will tell my new ice cream story when I catch up a bit.

Blog update

Florence and venice need work, other than that it's pretty updated. I am hoping this post will make it easier to catch up on all the cities I've been to recently without having to scroll through everything. Oh, and I wanted to tell an ice cream story from my time at the Minnemas in addition to all the city sight-seeing updates.

Starting with Saturday, the 12th of July I was in Antwerp Saturday and Sunday. Monday night I spent in Lucerne, Switzerland. On Tuesday, I traveled to Italy to spend two nights in the lake town Como. From there I went to a large harbor city Genova. After a quick early morning train ride, I arrived in the Cinque Terre on Saturday, the 19th.

Not far south from the Cinque Terre is Pisa, so I spent a couple nights there. Florence was the next big stop. After that well-planned route I decided I needed to go back up north to see a few cities and I loved Verona. And just going a little west I arrived in Venice on Saturday, the 26th.

Currently I am in Siena, and it is Wednesday!

Venice

Venice

Verona

Verona was wonderful! I wish I had more pictures of the beautiful city, but I only took a couple and they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

The first day there I wasted so much time getting to my hostel because I kept doing Sudoku puzzles. When I finally arrived to my hostel to my surprise they had a piano. That night I played until midnight and I had a bunch of people in the room joining in on the fun. Many of them knew some of the songs I was playing so they were singing along. We happily sang through three verses of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and then we stumbled through the fourth, and then I attempted the fifth. I guess there are sixteen total, but I'm sure that many would've worn out the song. They also knew a little Regina Spektor and ever since I have had Fidelity stuck in my head. Which is much better than having the new Coldplay song stuck in my head because that was there for a long time!

One girl asked if I could play Fur Elise. I used to always tell people no and that I never liked that song. However, it gets harder as the years go by to say that to people who really do love that song. And after a few years, I started to learn how to play it unwillingly. So I played what I could for her and then she wanted me to teach it to her. The funny thing is she didn't even speak English. Her friend translated for her that she wanted me to teach it to her. We tried playing it anyway.

The next day I received word that the opera that night was Bizet's Carmen. I had to go! I love Bizet's Carmen and the ticket prices were pretty cheap, €22.50, not bad. It was such a lovely evening! Upon entrance to the amphitheatre there are candles you can take so you can join in the tradition. Since 1908 (I think was the year) it has been tradition to light candles during the first act. The picture actually came out a lot brighter than it really looked that night. It was cool to see the many candles. The music was wonderful.

Juliet's balcony. I don't know if that means it was used in a movie or what... (After a comment I thought I would research the balcony.) Just so you know, I wasn't questioning who Juliet was, but I was questioning if in fact she is a fictional character then what is the purpose of saying this house and balcony belonged to her. It seems that the suspicion arosed over the years that the house belonged to the Capulets because of the owners many years ago that were named Capella. Suspicion turned into belief of many after the 1930's when the house was renovated and a balcony was added. Here is where I found some of the info on it: the Casa di Giulietta.

Florence

I took a lot of pictures of the sunsets in Florence... way too many.

florence