In Rome

So a lot has happened since the last blog post. A lot. Too much to really type right now, but the main message is we're having a quite memorable experience, and we are safe and happy and God has really been looking after us. So thanks for all the prayers. =)

Right now I am in an internet shop in Rome, Italy (or I should say Roma). I really don't understand why names of cities change from language to language. I mean, it's a proper noun, right? Why do locals say Roma or Munchen and we say Rome and Munich? If anyone has some light to shed on this it'd be much appreciated. Anyways, yesterday morning we left Athens and traveled by train to Patras, got on the ferry in Patras and sailed overnight from Patras, Greece to Ancona, Italy. From Ancona we hopped on a train to Rome, dropped our stuff off at our Rome hostel, enjoyed a warm meal of pasta at a recommended restaurant, and then came here to blog a bit.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me catch you up a bit. The last time I wrote I was in Salzburg, Austria, writing about the previous couple of days in Prague. I didn't get too much posted during that internet time because the guy working behind the front desk kept talking to me, oh joy. Our entire conversation was in German so it was a bit distracting since I had to think extra hard, but with him flirting and me trying to finish the conversation politely and get back to blogging, I wasn't very successful in writing very much. Since then it's been tough to find time to write much. From Austria we went to Venice for two nights. Venice was quite charming. As you might recall, Brugges in Belgium was an incredibly charming, old, quaint city, but it felt almost too cute. Venice has a lot of the same incredible charm but it actually feels lived in. Laundry hangs out of windows and on lines across narrow alleys, children play football (soccer) in cement courtyards between buildings, and the paint is chipping and corners of buildings are crumbling a bit. It definitely feels alive. We spent most of the time there wandering the streets with no plan, simply getting lost, eating lots of gelato, and sitting on the sunny patches of pavement along canals whenever we pleased. It was the best weather we'd had the whole trip (sunny and warm enough to go out in short sleeves) but we were amazed to see all the locals still in their winter coats and scarves.

From Venice we traveled on a ferry for over 30 hours to the port of Patras, where we stayed the night in a creepy hostel that reminded me very much of one of the dirtier hotels I stayed at in India. But it was late and we needed a place to stay, and we were out at 5 am to catch our train to Athens. Athens was different from what I expected. With the exception of the rocky uprise in the center of the city with the Acropolis, the entire city, as far as you can see, is composed of white or off white apartment-like buildings in the rough, square, ugly style of 60s architecture. There really aren't any very modern buildings of metal or glass. When you first get off the train or subway in Athens, you think you must just be in the bad, shady part of the city... but then you realize that the entire city is like that. The people were very friendly though, especially the train conductors who would always come back to check on us and make sure we got off at the rights stops. We wouldn't have gotten very far without them. And my semester in Greek at ILC sort of paid off--I was at least able to read the alphabet, which helped in some cases where everything was in the Greek letters. Thanks Prof. Sippert.

We spent three nights in Athens. On the third day we took a day trip to a city further up along the coast with the hope of spending time at the beach, but like the rest of our trip, it was cloudy and rainy and too cold for swimming. Instead we walked along the coast and then found an adorable restaurant for late lunch/early supper. Actually, that was kind of funny. We walked in to what looked like a clean, little restaurant, and found a couple people, the owners, sitting around a table having a meal. We just sort of hovered there, looking at each other, until eventually we hesitantly moved toward a table to sit down. Eventually one of the younger women came over and spoke in slow English, "Would you like to eat?" Was this not a restaurant or something? We were suddenly nervous that we had walked into someone's private house or something, but there were several empty tables around us with napkins and salt and pepper shakers, so it must be a restaurant.
"Um, yes?" was our answer.
Then an older man came over and began speaking to her in Greek. She waited and then turned to us, "The boss say he cook for you meat or fish and potatoes and salad and bread for 12€."
We said that sounded good and she and another women went into the kitchen in the next room and began to cook for us. They brought us coca cola in bottles and fresh bread, as well as a large bowl of Greek salad (amazing!), followed later by a platter of sliced, fried potatoes and finally by three huge cuts of pork. One of the best meals I've ever had.

And so now that pretty much catches you up to today. We'll be in Rome all day tomorrow and Thursday until the evening, when we're catching a night train to Paris, and then a train from Paris to London to Winchester, trying to make it to Winchester by 5 pm on Friday. Fun fun. I am so incredibly excited to be back in England though. First of all, because I like England, and also, I'm excited to have a room to myself again and I place for my stuff, and the idea of being in a place where people all speak the same language as you is almost impossible to comprehend right now. Yay.

Well, sorry for the long absense in posts. Thanks for any emails, comments, and prayers. I know some people have emailed me and I haven't replied--so sorry. I'm just a little behind and promise to try to catch up as soon as I'm back in Winchester on a more regular schedule. =)