All By Myself...

Bonjourno everyone!  I wrote this post while sitting on a train last night and am just gonna post my travels until that point, because it's long enough as is.  I meant to post something days ago, but the hostel I was staying at the past few nights didn't have free wifi.  Anyway, I have a lot to tell, but I'll try to keep it short.  I spent a full day Wednesday exploring the parts of Florence I didn't visit four years ago (I know, poor me having been to Florence twice in four years and having to seek out new sites).  My favorite spot by far was the Piazza de Michelangelo.  It was quite the trek uphill with heaps of stairs, but nothing I'm not used to and the view was totally worth it!  The plaza is located on the opposite side of the river than all of the main sites in Florence and situated in the perfect location to look over the whole city in all of its glory.  The views were simply breathtaking!  Of course, after one picture from the Plaza, my camera died:(  Also, in the very center of the plaza is a replica of The David.  Up some more stairs, and you can reach two beautiful churches.  One had an all marble facade and giant marble columns supporting the beautifully painted ceilings.   After descending the endless flights of stairs and crossing the river, I took the long way home and napped to complete my sleep recovery from the night train two nights previously.   Later that evening, I met up with an Australian and three girls from Santa Barbara.  We stayed out in the courtyard till late and then eventually head out to a dance club.  It was quite the experience and let's just leave it at that.  The next morning we all went on the walking tour the hostel offered for FREE!!!!!  It covered the main sites and the tour guide was excellent!   After the tour, the train whisked me off to my next location, Ancona.  Ancona's a port city on the east coast with a lot of ferries going out to Croatia.  The city itself is not very nice, but I was aching something fierce for a beach, and a beach I found!  Friday morning, I embarked on my quest for the ocean.  You wouldn't think it would be that hard, considering I was in a port city, but it proved to be quite the walk.  I got completely disoriented, even with map in hand.  The Italians seem not to think it important to label their streets but once every three miles.  I was a determined young lady, so after two hours, and two stops for directions, I found the beach!  And oh what a coast it was.  To get down to the beach, I had to walk down numorous flights of white stone stairs all descending from a humongous monument standing at the cliff's edge.  The water was crystal clear, the beaches were made of white smooth stones, and there were little houses built into the cliff side.  It's hard to explain, but I took lots of pictures.  I definitely stood out with my lighter than chocolate colored skin, and as they say, when in Rome...So I roasted in the sun (with sunscreen of course) for a few hours and I would say I'm one shade closer to being Italian.  The walk back was long and hot, but I made it back before sun down, which was imperative considering the neighborhood my hostel was in.  I went to bed shortly after getting back, but not before I did a little last minute planning for my next destination.  Based solely on last minute hostel availability and my one requirement that my next stop must be on the coast, I decided on Salerno.  Salerno is on the west coast of Italy, south of Rome and in the same region as Amalfi, Pompeii, and Naples.  Salerno turned out to be a great location, offering tons to do near by.  Sunday approached, and I caught the earliest ferry I could to Amalfi (traveling alone has made me resort back to the olden days when people planned their days around when the sun was up.  I'm up around 7 and back by 7:30, before nightfall).  This was by far the most beautiful ferry ride I've ever taken!  The 35 minute ride was chalk full of views of the famed rugged Amalfi coast with all of its cute little villages.  After a little exploration of Amalfi, I started my long and treacherous route to Praiano.   The Amalfi coast technically covers the coast from Positano in the north 17 kilometers down to Amalfi in the south.  Praiano is about halfway between the two.  I assumed there would be numerous walking accommodations (sidewalks, shoulders, paths, etc.) alongside the cliff edge road that runs between all the coastal towns.  You know what they say about assumptions.  But I braved the narrow, trafficked road in the mid day sun determined to to find the two most famous geological features along the Amalfi coast, the Emerald Grotto and the Furore Fjord.  A few kilometers and a few scares later, and I happened upon the grotto. I somehow got lumped along with an Irish tour group on the boat excursion, but not to my dismay.  They were loud, welcoming, and most were afraid of the boat, which made for a fun ride.  I felt very at home.  I said my goodbyes with some longing as they boarded their deluxe air conditioned bus and I continued on my way to the fjord.  A couple of kilometers later, and there I was.  Not a minute after I arrived at the fjord's beach, the "beach manager" (yeah right, I think he was just a waiter at the beach's restaurant) greeted me and gave me a lounge chair on the house, along with a glass of wine and a cappacino a little later.  Being an American girl alone in Italy is not all that bad (as long as it's in broad daylight).  I lay on the beautiful beach for a few hours before deciding I best get going if I wanted to get back to Salerno before dark.   I continued in the northern direction for a few more kilometers before I happened upon the little town of Praiano and its bus stop.  Not knowing I had to have a bus ticket, I boarded with money in hand.  The bus driver scoffed, but let me on anyway (best free bus ride ever!)   I had now scene one of the most infamously beautiful coast lines by ferry, on foot, and by bus.  I caught a second bus to Salerno, showered, and crashed.  The next day was Monday, and I was planning on meeting Jess later that night in Brindisi, but I couldn't leave the Salerno area without visiting the most famous archeological sites in the world, Pompeii.  Pompeii was absolutely incredible, but after about 1 1/2 hours with tired feet and the sun beating down on your slightly burned shoulders, grandeur palaces of centuries ago turn into crumbling brick after crumbling brick.  I was out of there by one, caught the short train back to Salerno, gathered my stuff back at the hostel, and caught my long train to Brindisi.   Sorry this post was so long, but this past week was crammed with amazing sites and amazing people!  I didn't mention them in my blog, but I met countless people along the road that have helped me with directions, travel suggestions, train schedules, or just lent a friendly ear to a girl who loves to talk.  A wise man once said that the only adventures worth experiencing are the ones that scare the bejeezus out of you at first, or something like that.  As much as I've enjoyed this week on my own, I'm really looking forward to spending more than two nights in one place, eating at least two meals a day, and having someone to fully communicate with. I'll update you soon on how my work is going in Brindisi!

Ciao!

Katie

The hills are alive...

Long time, no blog everyone.  I'm glad you all are enjoying my blog and I REALLY appreciate all the emails you are sending me.  Especially after a day like today, it's good to have them in my inbox.  But forget today, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...I left off with me just arriving at our Hostel in Salzburg on Friday evening.  Jess and I enjoyed a scrumptious dinner followed by a little tumble off the curb (on Jess's part) and then an early bed time.  Jess was a real trouper the next day, Saturday, and still toured the sites with me ALL day.  After scouting out a good bakery, we brought our bread and yogurt to the Mirabell Gardens (http://www.visit-salzburg.net/sights/mirabellgarden.htm) to eat.  I'm going to try this whole link thing so you guys can read a bit more about the sites I visit if you want, but I don't have to bore you with details.  Let me just say it was the most beautiful site to have breakfast!  Also, a scene from "Do Re Mi" was filmed there!  By the way, our entire trip to Salzburg was very much Sound of Music themed, in case you couldn't tell already.  After the gardens, we crossed the bridge right in front of Mozart's birthplace (click here to listen to some Mozart while you read, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZD9nt_wsY0) to get to the "old town".  This was basically the cutest little town ever.  There were no cars, lots of horse drawn buggies, and a huge market selling fresh fruit, veggies, and of course, hot dogs!  There were also a lot of beautiful churches, one being St. Francis (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/austria/salzburg-franziskanerkirche-franciscan-church.htm). The building itself was a tad more spectacular than the one in Raleigh, but I'm sure the parishioners aren't half as good haha.  We navigated through the narrow cobbled alleys to get to the main attraction of town, the Hohensalzburg fortress (http://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/hohensalzburg/).  This was my first castle/fortress in my life and it fulfilled all my expectations!  There were cannons, watch towers,  and even a torture chamber with some torture devices on display!  We also went on a little audio tour and found out the "Salz" in Salzburg means salt and apparently salt mining was very important to the formation of this little town. After the fortress, which took a great while to get through, we headed right next store to the Nonnburg Abbey (http://www.visit-salzburg.net/sights/nonnberg.htm, where Frouline Marie attended. Starving, Jess and I trecked back down the mountain to gets some lunch in the fresh market.  On our way to the market, we stumbled across the magnificent graveyard the escape scene in TSOM was filmed.  What a lovely surprise for us!  Sandwiches in hand, we headed back to the Mirabell gardens to eat and while doing so, met the most wonderful lady who enlightened us a little about Austria, jazz, and classical music. We then stumbled across a baroque fair in a public park not far from the gardens. Salzburg had a slight obsession for Mozart, which Jess and I gladly would have traded for an obsession with The Sound of Music.  Despite my love for music, this fair didn't hold our interest long, and we hiked the way back to our hostel.  We met up with our roommates (a girl from Australia and one from Wales) for dinner and stayed up late talking about the differences among our countries. I'll spare you that discussion.  Anyway, the next day we rented bikes and biked to both the Von Trapp house (Schloss Leopoldskron http://www.schloss-leopoldskron.com/en/) and Hellbrun pallace.  These sites were a few kilometers (so European, I know!) outside of Salzburg, but they were SO worth the bike ride!  We naturally got turned around a few times, but when you're traveling, it's not getting lost, it's discovering new parts of the world. I HIGHLY recommend you just go to the link about Hellbrun pallace, http://www.hellbrunn.at/hellbrunn/english/start/index.asp.  It was just WAY too cool to descripe via blog post.  The trick fountains are the main attraction for most visitors, but for Jess and I, the Gazebo from the "16 going on 17" scene was a close second.  This palace had huge gardens surrounding every side, with carp filling the crystal clear waters.  It was really something to see.   Our train departed at 4 that day, so we returned our bikes and headed to the train station for our next town, Balzano.

We arrived in Balzano, Italy  at around 10:30 Sunday night and checked in to our hostel to find that we were rooming with a 50 year old cycling couple from holland.  One word for that: interesting.  I was awoken by him adjusting the blinds in his next to nothing underwear.  But they were both very nice, and that's what counts I guess.  After a good nights sleep and the complimentary breakfast (which we turned into breakfast and lunch), we headed out to explore the town.  This town was also very cute, but a little more modern with a very nice shopping area.  I got the impression that only wealthy people lived in Bolzano.  Jess and I fit right in with our sneakers and t-shirts. Though we did put our scrub clothes to work by hiking up a small mountain to get to one of the many castles in the area.  We then walked along the river for a bit and then retired to our hostel to eat some lunch and regroup.  We both booked our train tickets to our next locales for later on that night while we were back near the station.  Gelato sounded like a nice reward for all of our walking, so gelato we ate in the beautiful park right on the river bank.  We read for a few hours in the park before dinner, which we actually sat down for and had someone serve us.  Dinner was great, our first taste of Italian pizza on this trip, and knowing that we had a lot of time to kill (our train was at 1:09 AM), we lingered.  We then grabbed a drink with one of the guys in our hostel and discovered the little town of Bolzano had quite the night life.  At around 12:15, we headed back to the hostel, packed up and boarded our train.  It was PACKED!!!!!!!!  I managed to get a seat, but it did no good with the sleeping situation.  There were too many legs in one small space, too much noise, and too bright of lights to even dream of sleep  Jess was out in the aisle leaning on her bag, and needless to say, no sleep was had by any. The train did however get us to Florence, where we went our separate ways, Jess to Chinque Terra and me to Perugia.  I arrived in Perugia at around 9:30 AM with an unwanted parasite.  This Italian man sat next to me on the empty train and would not stop talking to me, even with my nose in my book!  I managed to shake him off in Perugia by shuffling to the lady's room and hiding out there for a good 15 minutes.  Mission accomplished.  I still had the problem of being in a big city with no hostel booked.  I went to information to ask about hostels.  No one spoke English.  They pointed me to the bus tickets booth...where no one spoke English.  There was literally NO ONE at the train station that spoke English.  I was down and out, but then spotted those famous golden arches glowing straight ahead.  I crossed the street to the McDonalds, and low and behold, the woman taking my order spoke English.  She pointed me to an internet cafe where I searched for an available hostel.  No luck at all.  Considering my very negative opinion of the customer service and tourist accommodations of the town after the first five minutes being there, I just decided to go elsewhere.  I checked availability for hostels in pretty much every town in Italy, and decided to hop a short train back to Florence, where at least I knew I liked the town.  Of course, the train I took ended up going the really long way to Florence, so it took me more than twice as long to get from Perugia to Florence than it did to get from Florence to Perugia.  Oh, and the twists keep coming.  The train ended up arriving at the station on the opposite side of town from the main station, which I was sure to get a hostel close to.  I walked about a mile at 1:30 in the afternoon with all of my stuff to get to the hostel.  But I'm here, and everything was worth it!  The hostel is amazing!  There's free wi-fi everywhere, a restaurant attached, people who speak english, and most amazingly and importantly, AC in my room!!!!!!!  I'm so exhausted from all the traveling and no sleep last night, so I'm off to find some food and then bed.  Thanks for all your well wishes again!  They really got me through a rough day today.

Cheers,

Katie

Blame it on the rain...

Greetings from Salzburg all!  Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I was busy hoping and praying for better weather in Verditz, which finally came today...when we left Verditz.  Anyway, Jess and I did manage to get out of the hotel for a bit each day this week. After wandering Villach on Monday, clouds settled in to stay for a while and a chilling cold front swept through Verditz.  Tuesday,  we did some blueberry and raspberry picking from the wild bushes growing along the path up the mountain.  We've been putting them in our yogurt, granola, icecream, breadpudding, and whatever else we could.  The berries were small, but had a mighty good flavor.  Wednesday, we were hopeful enough about the weather to go down to the lake.  The sun shone for approximately 10 minutes before gray rain clouds blocked the rays.  The rain came about 30 minutes after that.  We made our way back up to the hotel and hitched a ride with Alicia and Glenda, who were coming back from the grocery store.  The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and playing cards.  The afternoon of our last full day in the BML, Thursday, was spent hiking up the mountain to try and catch some better views than Saturday. It was a success!!!  No rain and we hiked a little further up in order to get some better views of the Alps in Northern Italy!  I also ran into the coolest looking house cat I've ever seen.  I'm convinced it's part ocelot or some other mountain cat.  I've posted pics of it, so if you have some input, I'd love to hear.  Paul and Alicia served us a wonderful dinner on our last night of homemade tomato soup, chicken schnitzel, Austrian fries, and a salad.  The dinner was topped off with some bread pudding Glenda made, with a little help from Jess and I. 

Today, we awoke to the first sun we've had in a while.  The chores were done efficiently and expertly.  After making 7-10 beds and sweeping/mopping the entire first floor of a hotel every day for a week, you get pretty darn good at it.  Regular chores should be a cinch.  We had some champagne, said our goodbyes and then were driven to the train station.  Our train compartment was jammed full and hot, but the scenery was beautiful because the tracks went straight through the Alps.  Our hostel is just a short walk from the train station and now here we sit. We were sad to leave all the wonderful people we met at the blue mountain hotel, but we are also very excited to start on our new adventure.  Tomorrow, we plan to visit all the Sound of Music sights, so get ready for some amazing pics!

Cheers,

Katie

Rodelbahn and Villach pics

So why don't we slide...

Another two days have passed, and although nothing super exciting has happened, at every turn, the scenery never ceases to amaze me.  It's hard to describe in words, or even show in pictures, how beautiful it is up on the mountain top.  All the doors and windows are always open to let in the fresh, crisp mountain breeze cool us down while we clean. Yesterday, after the chores were complete, we headed down the mountain and happened across the infamous (in our hotel anyway) rodelbahn.  In English, that's a really big slide down a mountain.  It was the most exciting thing we've found on our hikes yet.  We paid our 5 euros, hopped in the bobsled type carts, and flew down the mountain to the bottom, where Afritz and an ATM awaited.  The slide was super long and definitely a true Austrian experience.  Once we reached the bottom, Afritz was about a ten minute walk and the ATM, 20 minutes more.  We walked back, then caught the chair lift halfway up to BML.  We hiked the rest, which was straight up and steep.  My thighs are currently screaming at me to stop all this exercise haha.  We shared a nice dinner of grilled chicken marinated in beer, potatoes with onions, and a fabulous salad.   The American couple cooked for all of the workers and the owners. It's down to just the seven of us, but it's very cozy.   We finished the ironing and then went downstairs to look at more pictures with Glenda and Steve.  Jess also shared our pictures with them.  Per usual, Jess and I were pooped by 10 and headed up to bed.  We decided to take it easy today, but an opportunity presented itself we couldn't turn down.  After breakfast, chores, and lunch with Paul and Alicia, Paul offered to drive us to Villach.  He had some grocery shopping to do for a couple of hours and thought we would enjoy looking around while he was shopping.  We graciously accepted, hopped in the land cruiser and headed for Villach, the town the train took us to originally.  It's only a twenty minute drive, but a treat all the same.  We walked around for two hours gazing at the intricate churches, the open market, and all of the towns people doing their back to school shopping.  Our favorite part of Villach was the old town, where no cars were allowed and the streets were cobbled with cute little shops on either side. The market was huge and sold all types of things from pastries to sweater vests.  We headed back up to the BML with more gorgeous scenery all around us.  We did a little vacuuming and then headed up to our room for a short, but absolutely wonderful nap.  Now, here we are at the bar eating our delicious, nothing like totinos or even digiorno, frozen pizza.  We got to add all the extra vegatable toppings we wanted and I think I over did it.  That's so unlike me.  Anyway, I'm signing out for now, but please comment or email me (hmptnkt@gmail.com) if you want to know something I haven't included in my blog (the temperature, climate, language, what I'm eating for breakfast, etc).  I'm trying my best not to overload the blog with details.  More pictures coming soon to a blog near you! 

Cheers,
Katie

More Pictures!