Family and Friends Forever

I was finally reunited with my parents and sisters late Monday night, in Heraklion airport on the island if Crete in the country of Greece. It's been a long 5 months not seeing them and not talking to them very often. It was a great feeling getting greeted in a city by familiar faces. When I finally saw them it seemed like a beat hadn't been skipped. 

We caught a cab, dad directing the cab driver how to pack his car, and off we took to the resort. It was a gorgeous view if the ocean as we were propped up on the hill over looking Hersonissos. We talked for a few hours, mostly me telling stories about travels and different experiences I have gained. They were all very tired from traveling all day so we all went to bed about 2am.

We woke in the morning much earlier then I wanted they all still had her lag. We caught the resort bus into Hersonissos and walked around the town going into different shops walking along the beach and eating a a little restaurant we a me across. After eating we went to a fish spa where fish eat the dead skin off your feet. Dads fish seemed to be the most hungry but we all say there for a half hour getting our feet eatin off by fish. It felt like bubbles coming up underneath your feet but some of the fish did seen to get overly aggressive and want to eat more then just the dead skin. We continued the journey around the small town before making our way to te local super market to get some groceries for the next few days. We headed back to the resort and hung by the pool and relaxed as everyone was still tired.That night I made the backpacker mix up, Cheap noodles,sauce, veggies(onion peppers, tomatoes) and unknown meat total meal costing about $7.50. I cooked for the fam that evening and the only person that really liked it was dad. I'm not sure if they would survive backpacking. We took in a round of mini golf at the most horiphic course known to man kind. Were still not sure who won. We went to bed after the intense round of competition.

The following day we rented a car and we all were amuo about 7am to drive to the west end of Crete. We stopped along the way many times taking in the picturesque views and the small quaint towns. We finally got to chania were we saw many old ruins, the port, and many locals going about there everyday tasks. After a few hours we left and headed to imbros gorge. This gorge along the southern end of Crete had immensely deep gorges and extremely thin walkways. There were goats running up and down te cliffs like it were a field of alfalfa. The trail was extremely rocky we all were nervous about spraining an ankle, but we learned quickly from kaci that our ankle has a brain of it's own and we need to train it to bend only the correct way. We had a ton of laughs and we talked the entire 8km hike to the bottom. It took about 2 hours and we got to the bottom expecting a taxi and the lady said it was closed. So she phones a friend and a pickup showed up. We all hopped in the back and took the ride in the back end to our vehicle. The view out the back of the truck was amazing looking out over the Mediterranean Sea on a mountain of 2000meters tall. The mountains are extremely steep and end at the ocean it's an amazing view. The driver was passing other cars on narrow windy roads while smoking a joint. Glad were still alive after that experience haha. We got to our car and headed back towards the resort, dad got extremely tired while he was driving and soon after I found myself driving the family back to the resort. 

We slept in the next day making a breakfast Pie and decided on taking our adventures east. We headed up to Lesithi plataeu winding up the extremely steep mountain like a snake with all the switch backs and narrow roads. On the plateau we saw many old windmills used for water accumulation from the 1500's. the biggest town on the plateau was 700 people. Each small town had old men sitting in the street BS'ing watching tourists drive by. Waving with excitement at each tourist that waved in there direction. We left the plataeu to head in a deep decent towards Agio Nicklaus where we saw some of the city and we each had a gyro to expand our cultural take in. We then dashed north to Spinalonga which was a small island off of the mainland and was used as a military fortress in the 1500's and as a leper colony in the early 1900's many of the old buildings were still there and it was great to see the history that had unfolded on the island for a thousand years. We went back to the resort as it had a hamam. It was not a hamam so we swam in the pool and played tag, Marco Polo, and had swimming competitions. It was hilarious and it was just us 5 acting like we were all children. We then sat in the sauna while dad told us old wrestling stories from high school and college about cutting Weight. Another end to a fantastic day with the family.

We slept in again the next morning but with an eye in the prize, prize being a good snorkeling spot. We went off to mononafti which was just west of Heraklion. The beach was full of small rocks but the water was extremely clear and could see 20-30m deep no problem. We went snorkeling and ended up much further from shore then we anticipated and were dealing with large waves and decided to turn around before anything got to nutty. We relaxed in the sun then made our way to the beach next door. Danica and I went on a title adventure over some cliffs and talked the family into following us. The water was so clear you couldn't tell how deep it was. We had to climb down the rock face and jump into the water. It took some coaxing to get dad to follow, I mean he's been doing it to us kids for our entire lives I guess it's our turn now. But it was amazing and we saw slot of marine life and a sweet sand dollar. Mom and Kc watched from the cliff edge. We finished the snorkeling journey and headed back into town to get changed and go into malia that night for some dinner. We chatted with some locals and headed off to the local spot. It took a bit tofind but we were greeted with smiles and laughs and the cool even took us into the kitchen to show is what was on the menu for dinner that night. We all ordered something different and shared and bellies got full. At the end of each dinner they serve you alcohol called raki, this is there local drink and it tastes terrible. It has to be an squired taste but if you don't drink it they think you did not like the food. So each meal we had to take these shots making faces of complete agony. Culture.  We walked around mailia and stalida that night and got lost driving home but finally made our way back to the resort. 

Saturday was only a short day on Crete as we had a flight out in the early evening. We went to the palace of konossos from 1900bc a lot of old ruins and other things from 4000 years ago bit you can only look at stacked stones for so long we all decided. We went into Heraklion and walked around had more gyros and ventured to the airport. 

Off we go to Rhodes for a week. It's great being able to travel as a family like this. Were able to build stories with eachother and memories that last forever.    

I feel like I'm eating and living like a king, Not sharing a room with 20 people everynight and a garanteed two hearty meals each day. Its a nice feeling :)

Many beautiful coast lines

Getting our toes munched

Many beautiful sunsets

One of the many towns

An old ruin

Port 

Dad is the king of our household

Danica in a fantastic pose

Follow the leader through the gorge

Goat reaching for it

A little hut along the way

In the back of the truck cruisin 

View headed to the plateau 

Ocean in the distance

Flock of flowers

Plateau 

Spinalonga island

Wind clearly blows here

The fortress and leper colony

Love birds

Checking the sights 

The villages in the olive valley

 Greece glory

Snorkeling day

Look at that beauty.(far left) 

Told you it was crystal blue

Palace of konossos

Some old big pots

Been a great few days already. Can't wait for more. This is the panorama to get our whole family in the shot. I swear I don't look like that normally.

London Strike

The trip from Paris to London was one that I have never experienced. I booked a bus the bus was scheduled to take 7 hours. We went through customs to enter the UK then we drove the bus on the ferry. I had no idea what to do, so I got off the bus with everyone else and made my way into the ferry for the hour ferry ride across the English Channel. It was a cool view and nice to change up the travel and not am just be sitting in a bus. I have never been on a cruise shop but I would imagine it would be like this. A bunch of kids running around, expensive food, and gambling machines everywhere. I laid out in a chair and hung out stretching my legs as I still had another 3 hours of bus travel. The coast line was extremely rugged, and got me excited to see what The UK had in store for me. 

I got to London with my hostel quite north of the city but it was the cheapest one. The beds were stacked 3 high and there were 15 people in the room. Everyone in the hostel seemed to be either working in the city or looking for a job, so it was hard to connect with some of them. That night I tried to sort some things for my visa to go to brazil as I had plans on going to the brazillian consulate in the morning. Crashed early 

The morning came and everyone was up with the birds to go to work so I decided I may as well do something useful as well so I cruised down got some breakfast, a piece of toast (not really breakfast but it was free) and headed into London. There was a union strike for the underground(metro) going on. There are 2 unions running the metro so some lines were running fine while others where completely chaotic. The city was in a mess as the strike went on for 3 days. People were missing work, people were late for work, it showed how dependent they were on this public transport system. As an American I have rarely experienced public transit and take it for granted just beig able to get up and go whenever I want with my own vehicle. It took me a while to get into the city as there were lines to get on the metros, and people were shoving and pushing to get on them. I was in much less of a rush so I kinda just let them push me into the metro haha. I landed at Oxford circus station, one lady fainted while many others were getting close, and I happily Gave up my spot in the metro to go walking through the city and to find the brazillian consulate. 

I found the consulate and went in to ask some questions about getting the visa. They were super helpful in telling me everything is on the Internet go look for your answers there. So after 1 minute I walked out with no answers. I decided since I spent that much time getting into the city I may as well walk around and check it out. 

Most museums and sights are free but if they aren't they will drain your wallet quick. So I scoped some of the free ones and ended up at the British museum. This place was ginormous and had 100+ rooms. I ended up seeing some old Egyptian ruins, currency's from around the world, and what I thought the most interesting was the Rosetta Stone. This stone was the first language translation to understand the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone included 3 languages, the top was ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, middle was demotic script, and the bottom was Ancient Greek. It presents essentially the same script and provides te key to modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone was created in 196BC but discovered in 1799 and stolen and placed in te British museum in 1802 and been there ever since.

Enough about some stone, that changed history. I got bored looking at a bunch of things I didn't know what I was looking at, so I continued walking around, getting lost and hopped on to the metro to go back to my hostel to look at the interweb and figure out what exactly I had to take to the brazillian consulate at 1 the next day.

I finished with all the brazillian stuff just in time to watch the semifinal match of champions league fùtbol, bayern munich vs Real Madrid, bad effort by bayern and Real Madrid moved on to the finals.

I had to deal with the metros again the next morning, and got to the consulate just before 1. There was a large line but it went quick. I had to talk to one of the employees, and I had forgot my bank statement. But I sweet talked him and gave him my sob story and got my passport in  line to get my visa for brazil. It was suppose to take 7 business days to process. 

I hurried up to catch onto a free walking tour and we saw the buckingham palace, many other palaces, a lot of statues, changing of the gaurds, and some other stuff. Literally there is something on every corner in London that has some sort of significance. I met juaqin(Argentina) and after the tour continued walking around the city and then went to his hostel to watch the other semifinal champions League game Chelsea vs. atletico Madrid. Madrid won so it will be the first time in champions league history that two teams from the same city plays eachother in the championship. That game is on may 24th. 

We then went out with his hostel to a live music venue and met some friends and I went back to my hostel by city bus cause the metro was closed. 

The following day it was pouting rain and was hard to get motivated to go walking around the city but I went to see Big Ben( the famous clock), which is in Victoria tower (named in 2012) and then went to south bank and walked along the river. It was windy and rainy so I walked until I was annoyed then made my way into the soho district. It's a famous district in London, but it was full of sex shops, bars and little food shops. Didn't spend a whole lot of time here except I found chipotle, so I snagged a burrito. Paris chipotle was better but it was still magnificent. Recently my diets bet a little cadiwampus in that one day I will just eat cookies that I buy for $2 the next day I spoil myself and eat a burrito or something a bit more nutritional. So I've been spending around £4 a day on food. Max. Which is about $8 dollars a day but in London this is extremely cheap. Trust me. That night I went back to the hostel to try and figure out places to stay in rio for Brady and I and crashed early to catch the bus in the morning to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Some mummies in the British museum

A real live dead mummy

Rosetta Stone 

Egyptian section of the museum

The famous telephone booth

And buses and cabs

Buckingham palace where the queen lives

Another look, supposedly this road is an emergency plane takeoff if the queen is endangered

To the left you can see a blew rooster. Modern art. 

A guard

Big Ben (clock) and Victoria tower

Westminster Abby where all the royal weddings have been taking place for hundreds of years

The London eye (ferris wheel) 

The underground strike I had to deal with on both London visits

Another palace of some sort

Friday morning I rushed off to Victoria coach station to catch my 10hour bus to Edinburgh. (Pronounced edinbura, was corrected many times). At this point in my travels 10 hours does not seem long and sitting in a bus or train is a weekly thing. You get to sleep, right in a journal and right these blog posts as well as think about all the things in your brain that you haven't had time to think about the previous few days. It's a good catch up period.

 I slept for probably 4 hours and then enjoyed looking into the green glow of northern United Kingdom. The fields are vast and the ocean bright blue, with many yellow fields of canola flower inbetween. There were also many old castles along the way. And little walls maybe 3 feet tall separating farmers fields. We also crossed Hadrians wall which seperated Scotland and England  that the Romans built way back in the day. Similar to the Great Wall of china but on a much smaller scale. 

I arrived in Edinburgh at about 7 pm and made my way to my hostel and noticing quickly how beautiful the city was. All buildings in old brick build and everything manicured perfectly. At my hostel a met an old war vet that was in his late 70's also backpacking and I told him I was from South Dakota and he said he has an old friend from the service that lives there and comes every year to go pheasant hunting there. Again with the small world thing, it's unbelievable. 

Anyway I contacted my friend jack (Australia) who I had met in Lisbon and he told me to head down to a bar called Raeburn as him and his roommate Ollie (professional rugby player also from ausi) were having a couple beers with Ollie's  dad. As a reminder I had only talked to jack for about 30 minutes in Lisbon and now I'm visiting him in Edinburgh. We sat and chatted and had some beers, then we went to their apartment so they could show me there spot and drink a few beers they had at home. We went to a few more bars and they showed me a few things of the city on our walk. We stayed out late and had a fun night before I made my way home to the other side of Edinburgh. They city was small enough everything was walkable which was very convenient.

The following morning I went up to Edinburgh castle, and caught a free walking tour. We saw many of the old sights in the city and even saw the coffee shop JK Rowling wrote Harry potter and we also went into a cemetary where Rowling got many character names for her books, such as Tom riddle (voldemort), professor McGonnigal, etc. they also showed us a school that was based on the houses in hog warts in that each wing of the school had different mascots. 

During the tour I met Parker who attends wake forest in US, and we made our way up to Carlton hill and saw a few more sights but also a view of the city. What a beautiful city. 

I headed back to the hostel to get in contact(need wifi) with Liam who I also Metin Lisbon and jack for the evening plan. I headed over to jack and Ollie's and we ate pizza and played a couple games, then headed to the Raeburn and many of Ollie's team members were there. We then headed off to Opel a club that we had VIP spots for. And we danced the night away and met a bunch if new people. Before long we were getting kicked out because it had closed. 

Sunday morning came quick as jack had invited Liam and myself to come to a rugby tournament we hopped on the team bus and road the hour to Earlston. It was called the earlston 7's (town name and 7 vs7 rugby rather then 15 vs 15 which is normal) there were 16 teams and the town of 1500 had about 3000 people at the event. Jacks team won the first game so Liam and I went and hiked up a hill nearby to get a view of the town then we went into town and did a pub crawl. They had 3 pubs in the town and everyone was packed. The town was so excited for the tournament of the day. 

We met a load of people and then there was a huge dance at the end, similar to that like after a rodeo in the Midwest. We hoped back on the bus and sang and cheered on the way home. We got back to town and met up with Ollie and their other 2 mates and went up town to keep the good vibes going. It was A fantastic cultural experience that will be in my memory forever. 

The next day I wondered around and went and just chilled in a nearby park and the weather was fairly decent then met up with Liam, Ollie, and jack and we watched movies and ordered pizza because we were all so exhausted from the previous day. That night Liam invited me to stay at his cousins house across town, we went to sleep early and it was nice to actually be in a real bed in my own room. 

We got up Tuesday morning and went to hike up Arthur's seat, a hill in Edinburgh where you can view the entire city. It was a great hike and nice to get out and get some exercise. We found a good pulled pork joint and continued to walk around the city getting lost and seeing the sights. We noticed that many barber shops do hot shaves so we decided we should get one, but in our efforts to find the right one we found a golf course. The links golf  course is one of the oldest in the world, and is free to the public. It is a chip and putt golf course with no tee box, or run ways just 36 greens. We made a bet on the round and I let him win. We went back to his cousins and ate the left over pizza and ate some ice cream that I had to buy cause if the lost round. We watched a movie and hung out. We had to get up in the morning early so he could catch his plane to Madrid and my bus back to London. Another 10 hours to see the natural beauty. 

Bus ride photos 

Edinburgh castle 

St Mary's cathedral

Not sure what this one is

School jk Rowling used as a model for hog warts

Tom Riddel actually grave stone not voldemorts 

Some sight idk what it's called! 

At the earlston 7.

 Look down on the town and Liam 

Party after the tournament 

View from Arthur's seat

Liam and myself

One of the many city parks

Out on the course with Arthur's seat In the background

I got to London late night and had to take the underground to a new hostel about 40 min to the spot. Supposedly east London is the sketchier part of London (where my hostel was) but I never really felt unsafe at all however I was by far the minority walking there each time going to my hostel. I went to bed when I arrived and slept on a pile of springs that they called a bed. 

The next morning I headed to another hostel where I was to meet Ally who I had met in Barcelona. We cruised around the city seeing many of the sights I had already seenas well as platform 9 3/4, the Tate modern museum, and also making our way to the Burrough markets. These markets had almost everything including many different food options. It was dinner time so I was wandering around trying to find what place I could get the most bang for my buck. This guy said he would sell me a burger for £3 (originally £5) and I belted  back and said a double for £3 we met at 3.50£. As he was making it we had some small talk and I walked out of the shop with a takeaway box with 3 more patties and 3 sausage links. I think the bartering helped me get the most bang for my buck. 

We went back to ally's hostel and met a bunch of other kids and we all started playing some games and making small talk. At about 11 I started to try and plan my venture home as the underground closes at 1230 and so I would need to take multiple buses to get home. I met to British guys Pete and Kieran and they said they had a 4 bed dorm and there were only 2 them two in it. They invited me to stay In the room with them and that is where I slept that night. Very random but an extreme act of kindness. 

The following morning I went to the brazillian consulate to pick up my visa and am now allowed to go to brazil!! Booyah

I met up with ally in the afternoon and we went to Hyde park and walked around the city again. That night we had plans to go on a pub crawl. So we went back to her hostel and I talked to Kieran and Pete and they said I could stay again. We all headed out on the pub crawl and I met Las(Copenhagen) and we followed the leaders to 5 pubs and ending at kokos a famous club in London. It was a great night with new friends. 

The following morning I decided I should probably go back to my hostel after not being there for 2 days. And so I showered for the first time in 4 days and got my life back together. 

Late in the afternoon after cleaning up and getting organized again, I headed back into London to go to primerose hill to look out on London. I though walked towards Camden town and ended up in the stable markets. This place was full of vintage clothes, food, and crazy looking people. It was completely packed and it was one of the craziest markets I have been to. Really glad I stumbled acrossed it.

 I was suppose to meet an old friend Parker who also attended at montana state but now is studying in London and so I went and saw tower bridge and met him at a restuarant called founders arm. It was great to see an old friend and catch up on our lives. The metro was closed when I tried to catch it. So I had to figure out how to get home. It took a few passer bys to help me and a little trial and error.

Sunday I woke up and headed into London for one last time. I went and bought a book, grabbed a pair of shorts for Greece, went to the marble arch and swung by the national science museum. The children exhibits are still my favorite but now I can atleast understand most of what they are showing/doing because of my engineering degree.

I went to Hyde park read a few pages in my new book and then walked to get one last chipotle burrito (the previous day I only are cookies) before I leave the city. 

Off to hogwarts I go

Gardens outside buckingham palace

View of Big Ben from the river 

Some of the Tate modern pieces

Modern art!

A slit in a piece of canvas. Super artsy

Checking just how cool it can get

Hyde park

London arch

Regents park

From primerose hill

London had some of the best parks in all of Europe.

Stable markets

Tower bridge

Look over the river

Marble arch

London and Edinburgh were both fantastic meeting up with old friends while making new ones. It's amazing how helpful and friendly people can be with only talking to them for 20 minutes. That is one thing that I want to work on. I want to be there for people more often.

The next stop is Greece on Monday as I am meeting my two sisters and fantastic parents. It's been 5 months since I have seen them the longest it's been in my entire life. I will be with them for a month and we will be traveling around Greece and turkey. It will be a great experience for them and a great adventure for our family. Hopefully I can shed some of my travel knowledge on them.