December 19th, 2004

Hey, so now it's December 19th... HOLY! It's almost Christmas!! Yes!!

Well, things have been interesting at home, but I won't talk about that now... I'll talk about Greece again! So, the dogs... oh yes, that dog was ok. The car just tapped him and then he ran back over to us and kept following us. Sheesh.

While in Santorini we stayed at one of the only places open, called Stelio's Place... it was run by Stelio and his wife, Eva who were both lovely people. Our second day there we rented a car!! They only had standards but we were up to the challenge. I drove but it really stressed me out, since I'm not so hot at standards but luckily the roads weren't very busy. The island is so small that you can drive the whole length of it in less than an hour, so we drove to all the main villages and through some smaller ones. Santorini is an island right by a volcano island so Santorini was all black and red rocks, with black and red sand beaches which was really interesting! The whole island is like a big rock and all the villages just sit on top of the rock, most of them right on the edge of a cliff. The houses are all interesting shapes surrounded by little stairwells and walkways. And they're mostly painted white and a lot of the churches have blue domes on top! It was really cool.

At nighttime, since the island was so quiet that time of year, we had nothing to do so we'd just go to bed. Well, eat dinner out and then be followed home by all of our stray dog friends. And then go to bed!
We left Santorini and went back to our little hotel in Athens. I think we spent two nights there and it was pretty fun. They were really nice to us there... the bartender, Murphy, cooked all of our food and they even left us in charge once. Steph and I worked reception and Ern worked the bar. It was good times there.

While in Athens we went to the Acropolis one day and saw all the ancient ruins, including the Parthenon. Steph got in trouble there... she decided to take a rock, from the trillions of pieces of rocks on the ground, to give to her dad BUT a security guard caught her and made Steph give it to her. Haha... what a hoodlum. Ern got in trouble for something too that day... oh yeah, we went to the National Archeological Museum and Ern got in trouble for touching the glass. Haha... suckers. I got in trouble too though... for robbing someone. JUST KIDDING! For touching the glass too... they were pretty uptight at the museum. It closed early, so we had to leave anyway. Phhhffff.

Finally, we left Athens and flew to Berlin! That was exciting... by that point I was ridiculously excited to come home. Plus, every morning someone would be excited about Christmas and we'd all get excited. Oh boy... I love Christmas!

We got into Berlin pretty late at night so we tried to get to a hostel, but of course we had a hard time getting to any. So, we decided to go to a hostel type place kind of near by. We tried to walk, but got lost and scared. So, we took a taxi. The next day we moved to another hostel and ate falafel’s down the road! I think falafel’s have been one of the highlights of my whole trip. Maybe of my life.

That night though was AWFUL! We had a mixed dorm at our hostel and there were two, big Australian guys in our room who snored ALL night! It wasn't even snoring... it was more like dying. It was the most terrible noise we had ever heard. But, finally it was morning and they left AND WE went on a walking tour of Berlin! It was very fun, but cold! We saw lots of cool things... including some of the Berlin Wall!

Also, in Berlin we went to a few Christmas markets which was AWESOME! Ohhh, Christmas in Berlin! Steph and I ate a huge cookie ball with chocolate on it at one of the markets... it was delicious.

Finally, I left the girls after two days in Berlin and caught a flight to London. I met a friend on the plane... his name was Ritchie. He was a contortionist! I'd never met a contortionist before! And then in the airport, when I was buying a bus ticket, Ritchie pointed out Prodigy walking by! I thought that was pretty cool. That is now my main claim to fame, other than I know a contortionist. YES!

So, I spent a night alone in London and then caught a flight home the next day. It was the most exciting day! The flight home had FREE FOOD! And lots of it! It was fantastic.

Now I think the girls are in England. This is what I think they've been up to... I'll make it up a little bit. I know they flew out of Berlin to Nice, France. They went to Monaco and went into the casino and gambled away all of their money. They met a girl named Buffy who stole all their food and then they high tailed it out of there and went to Cinque Terre, in Italy where Ern got married. From Italy they flew to London and caught a bus to go see Anna Mitten, someone that Ern knows who owns a hostel near Stonehenge. I bet that's what they've been up to. They come home on the 21st and I'm going to go meet them at the airport! If you'd like to come too, you should! We could all go! And you could buy us all ice cream.

Well, I guess that's it for me. I hope everyone has a very, Merry Christmas! Thanks for reading about our trip!