Naples, Amalfi and Pompei: Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful

Our 2.5 days in Napoli have come to an end. It's been a very busy few days, my eyes are exhausted from all we've seen.  Naples is a great, gorgeous city full of character..it has a much grittier feel than any other place we've been yet. Although it is beautiful, it brings me a sadness that I can't quite put my finger on. The building walls are all covered in graffiti (which is often more beautiful than not), there are slum houses tucked in every corner.  We,ve seen so many stray animals. Dogs laying in the street, seven or eight kittens playing together near a dumpster.

Our first night we ate Napoleon pizza (duh) from what the hostel receptionist said is the 2nd best pizza in the whole city.  We wandered around, pointing out the differences that stuck out to us about Naples.  Yesterday we got up early and caught the bus (literally--I hurdled a chain link fence to catch it as it was pulling away) to the Amalfi Coast, a little tourist town at the boot of Italy. From there we went to another tiny coastal city, Positano, and from there another, Solerno. Though fighting back throwing up all over the bus with the hairpin turns up and down different mountains for the rest of the day, we saw many beautiful things. Lemon groves, green grape vines, and purple petunias dot the mountainside out one window while the other side is the sea for as far as you can see. Tiny socks and patterned pajamas hang from clotheslines on balconies. 

At Amalfi, we swam in water so clear I could see my toes while I was neck-deep!!!! It was a pebbly beach,  not a sandy beach, but we layed in the pebbles long enough to get a sunburn anyhow. We mosied our way to the next city, which was full of all kinds of shops to step into. We took our time, stopping for cappucinos and to pick out some treasures for a few of you lucky readers. Eventually we ended at Solerno, where we got 3 bottles of wine for 12 euro (you know me, the ultimate bargain shopper) from a little shop where the owners make it on their farm.  We had a dinner which wasn't so great (hate that). After a long day in the sun, we returned to our hostel and layed around.

This morning was another early day, this time headed first for Mt. Vesuvius! We took another crazy hairpin almost-vomiting-everywhere bus ride  750 km up the mountain, and hiked the rest! What a sight. I am so drawn to the mountains--I think spending the summer in the Colorado Rockies every year since I was seven might have something to do with it--they leave me humbled and speechless.  And this one left me out of breath after hiking uphill so long. :) We sat at the edge of the crater and ate cherry tomatoes and cashews. It was perfect.

After the bus ride back down, we headed to the ruins of Pompeii. So freaking cool. I haven't really had time to process it yet, so I have nothing poignant to say, except that a) I'm uncomfortable making a spectacle out of tragedy, and b) antiquity is way cooler than modern times. They put much more thought and effort into their cities than we do now--literally a city that is also an art museum.

This is the most exhausted I've been yet--one day walking probably 6 or 7 miles in the sand and sun, and  climbing a mountain and trekking through an ancient city the next. We will sleep well tonight, and tomorrow morning we leave for Rome.

love,
Katie


Hi all,

Katie gave a nice full description of the last couple of days so I'll just fill in with my own thoughts.

We arrived in Naples on Thursday, and I immediately knew I liked it better than Bologna. While Bologna was breathtaking, it was too compact for me, and I ended up feeling claustrophobic and bored after two days. Naples is so different! There are car horns constantly blaring, people yelling, talking, walking, and scootering at all hours of the day and night. Katie saw life in Bologna, I see it in Naples. I can't deny the grittiness Katie speaks of, but that's one of the things I've loved about visiting this city; I feel at home in the grittiness and roughness we've seen.

It is sad though, to see slum housing next to hotels, and more stray kittens and dogs than I've ever seen (if only Feline Friends could come to Naples). Despite this, the people seem happy and kind. Today I saw a police officer buy a bottle of water for a homeless man sleeping outside of the train station-  a small effort, but one we do not see in the United States.

As Katie said, we went to Amalfi, Postiano and Solerno yesterday. It was beautiful, but very touristy. The beaches were dark and dirty, but the water was wonderful. We each stuck our heads in the water to get salty hair and shopped  at EVERY SINGLE ceramic store we saw. They make beautiful hand-painted ceramics here, and it was difficult to not spend all our money in the tiny shops.

Today we climbed Mt. Vesuvius, which was a beautiful journey to make. It felt wonderful to work our legs on the climb up, and then take a snack break at the top and look out beyond the water and town below. After a quick lunch we walked through the ruins. The experience really cannot be put into words yet; it was amazing (an insultingly inadequate word to use) to walk through ruins so old, through a city that has experienced so much and is still standing.

After our walk we bought a bag of oranges and a cup of freshly made orange juice, which was a delicious way to end the day. I'm zonked and am grateful for the rest we will be given tomorrow on the train.

See you in Rome
love,
Karen

Naples: Beautiful Pizza

Hi guys,
Thought I'd do another quick update since yesterday's was pretty lame. We arrived in Naples this afternoon after a 7 hour train ride. The train ride down was beautiful. Lots of vineyards and moutains, and when we got closer to Naples we were riding along the coastline-- gorgeous!
Last night after we updated we walked down to the city center of Bologna for one last time, had a very light dinner and then tried our first gelato. I hate to admit this, but neither of us were as impressed as we were anticipating with the gelato. Katie got pistacchio and dark chocolate, and I had dark chocolate with biscotti flavor. After hearing everyone rave about gelato, we were both anticipating heaven on earth, and it didn't live up to that.
After gelato we walked back over to Armundo's restaurant to say goodbye. It's a beautiful thing to make a connection with someone half a world away. He was the best part of Bologna for both of us, if for no other reason than we had a great night of laughing and talking to him. It's wonderful to think that language barriers can't stop 3 people from having a wonderful night out in Bologna.
 We began walking back through the town, talking and not paying much attention to the streets we were walking down or the direction we were going. We had a map with us, but neither of us had looked at it yet. We turned down a street, stopped, and wondered why we had chosen that street to walk down, so we took out our map to figure out where we were. Turns out we were just down the street from our hotel! It was actually a really beautiful experience, and it felt like the universe was really working for us since neither of us had made a conscious decision to turn, and neither of us knew where we were going. (I apologize, this is a very poorly written entry, the hostel is distracting me.)
we continued walking down the street when 2 men stopped us and asked us for directions in Italian. We answered back (in Italian) that we did not speak Italian well, and they asked (in English) if we spoke English. Turns out these guys were two missionaries from Arizona, working with the Mormon church in Bologna for 2 years. We stood talking to them for a few minutes, before separating. Both Katie and I wished we had been able to talk to them more; these guys had been our first connection with the United States since we began our trip, and it felt nice to carry on a conversation easily. I also found it beautiful that we were able to make a connection with these 2 Americans in Bologna for no other reason than they were fellow Americans. I do not believe we would have been peers if we had met in America, and our different lifestyles and interests would have made us unlikely friends, but in Bologna we were able to connect, talk, and laugh. Tomorrow we head to Pompei for the day, and the day after we are spending the day at the Amalfi Coast. The pizza here is wonderful, as is the wine, and it's so warm and beautiful.
We bought postcards today, so for those of you expecting them, watch your mail in the next couple of weeks!
love love love you all and miss you!
Karen

Hello from Naples!
I am having a love affair with Italy so far. I left a little piece of my heart in Bologna, amongst the tightly knit cobblestone streets filled with Italians in love. Everywhere I looked was something that brought a smile to my face. We had amazingly good karma, and for that I am grateful. We almost didnt have a hostel, but instead we managed to snag a gorgeous B&B for the same price. We met an amazing man, a gorgeous and smart and funny man who romanced us and whom I will not soon forget. I am very much looking forward to more moments like we had in Bologna, such as those with the Mormons and with Armundo.

In one day, we will see Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. In two, days I GET TO SWIM IN WATER ON THE ITALIAN COAST. In three, we head to Roma.

I am a very content and endlessly grateful lady.

xoxo,
Katie

Karen 5 Katie 17

Bologna: Beautiful men, beautiful men BEAUTIFUL MEN

We're alive! After Munich we headed to Salzburg for 2 perfect days. We ate 2 meals of curry, I tried a tofu schnitzel (as awful as it sounds), CLIMBED AN ALP (!!!!!!), rode a tandem bike through the city (laughed our butts off at first as we tried to figure out how to steer and pedal the thing. A group of people on their lunch break stood and watched/laughed at us as we screamed and laughed and kept falling over), got very little sleep due to a snoring girl in the hostel both nights, and went on a salt mine tour (it was actually a Bavarian Mountain/ Salt Mine tour, so we rode up a mountain in one of those huge tour buses--I almost cried from the heights and Katie almost puked from the driving). The tour was cool, we saw the hill where Julie Andrews sings The Hills Are Alive, as well as the Eagles Nest from a distance. Once we made it to the salt mine we had to put on some (super cute) heavy-duty overalls and took a cart 600 meters into the mountain. We got to ride down 2 slides in the moutain and taste some saltwater that comes from a lake in the moutain. Pretty cool! Except most of the other people on the tour were French and SO RUDE. Katie and I were looking at some information on a touchscreen when a group of French women came over, stood next to Katie and then kinda shoved her out of the way and changed the language from English to French. So that was great.

We are now in Bologna, leaving for Napoli tomorrow. Bologna has been beautiful (the train ride from Salzburg to Naples was breathtaking); it has much more character than Salzburg and the people are very friendly. Last night we walked around the town (it's much easier to get lost here than in the other two cities we've been in) before sitting down for our first Italian meal. We had intended to get a small meal, but the menu was overwhelming and wonderful. We ended up getting bruschetta, eggplant parm, and spaghetti with tomatoes and basil. Plus a bottle of wine. IT WAS SO GOOD. Katie had a hankering for tiramisu, so after that enormous dinner we walked to another restaurant down the street for wine and dessert (vino y dolce ?). Our waiter, Armundo, was wonderful and invited us to a bar down the street after he got off work. We did, because he is the most beautiful thing either of us has ever laid eyes on, and had a wonderful time.

This morning we had to switch hotels, which ended up being an ordeal as our reservation for the second hotel was lost along the way and they didn't have a room for us. However, the wonderful woman running the hotel worked something out and had another room for us at another hotel reserved for the same price. It's about 7 now. We are going to have a cappuccino and maybe some gelato.

Tomorrow we're off to Naples! Hopefully we'll have internet there and can update more regularly.
Love you, Karen


Theyàre kicking us out of the internet cafe because they are closing, update when I can-- hi everyone, thinking of you and we love you :) Katie

Karen 5 Katie 16

Oktoberfest: Beautiful men, hard benches

Hi readers!

Katie´s showering so I thought I'd make a quick update. 

Yesterday morning we went out to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. It was moving, intense, draining, and a thousand other adjectives that still cannot adequately describe it. Because the camp was destroyed after the war, the memorial rebuilt many of the buildings, including a barrack and the crematorium (crematory?). It was sickening, and we had a hard time staying for a long time. In the barracks they had rebuilt bunks, and a sign hung that said the camp was built for 2,000 people by the end of the war over 200,000 were held there. 

Katie had her own reaction to the sight, which I'll let her tell you about, but I experienced emotions and thoughts I wasn't expecting. I couldn't help but wonder if memorials like Dachau's were necessary. Walking through the camp, watching people take pictures in front of the barracks, smiling and laughing, throwing rocks at each other, I got angry. I asked Katie this question and I'll throw it out to you... do we need memorials like that to learn history? No doubt, World War Two felt more real to me than any book ever could, and I remember more facts than I ever have from a history book(indeed, there is something unforgettable about looking at a picture that shows prisoners working in the same spot you're standing), but it seems that people have begun glamorizing memorials like Dachau. I started getting angry that people travel long distances in order to take pictures of this place of terror and horror, and then I realized I was one of those people. I just couldn't help but wonder if concentration camp memorials have been so glamorized that the history is ignored or forgotten along the way. Do people who visit these places go home to their families and tell them the facts they learned or do they show them the pictures of the place with no explanation? 

Anyway, after Dachau we had cappuccinos and snacks at a cute little cafe in the city of Dachau, where Katie accidentally ordered a quiche with tuna (so it's taken us 2 days to fall off the vegan wagon in Germany...oops). After snacks we decided to head over to Oktoberfest for a beer. Once on the S-Bahn, all we had to do was follow the sea of lederhosen to find the fest (for the record, Katie totally lost that bet... we stuck out because we weren't wearing dirndls! There are some funny pictures of Katie, in her flower dress, walking in a huge crowd of lederhosen and dirndls). We wandered for a while, and then Katie overheard two guys speaking English and suggested we follow them (she insists it was because they were speaking English, and not because they were cute and had handlebar mustaches), so we wandered into the Lowenbrau tent....WOW!! It was so overwhelming and exciting. The minute we walked in the band started playing some song that got all the Germans on the tables, raising their glasses and singing along. We walked around for a while, taking it all in and laughing at the happy Germans with their beers (I felt right at home), before sitting at an empty table and ordering 2 pints of Lowenbrau's Oktoberfest bier. Once seated, I texted my mom to tell her we had made it to Oktoberfest and which tent we had chosen, and a few minutes later I got a text back saying that was the same tent she, my dad, and their two friends had been in 25(ish) years ago when the four of them took a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest! What a wonderful, beautiful coincidence (synchronicity seems to be the word of the trip).

I LOVED Oktoberfest. Something about the happy, drunk Germans just feels home to me :)

After Oktoberfest we walked back to the market and picked up some vegetables, bread, and goat cheese (like I said, we're awful vegans in Germany) and brought them home to make dinner.

I've fallen in love with Munich. 3 days has not been enough for me to see everything I want to see and get a feel for the city like I wish I could. The Germans are such a friendly people and they have welcomed us into their country so warmly. I am excited to be on our way to Salzburg tomorrow, but Munich will be in my heart forever, and this will not be my last trip to the city (and I'd love to be back at Oktoberfest sometime soon too).

I'll let Katie update about today!
love you!
Karen


Our time in Munich has already come to an end! I can't believe it. To sum up yesterday:
1. Dachau. I am a changed woman; I will leave it at that.
2. Sometimes tuna looks like tomatoes?
3. I'm pretty sure the hummus we bought at the market had espresso in it. Even if it didn't, Karen and I laid in bed giggling over nothing for an hour before getting sleepy. Jet lag is a b-word!!!!
4. Oktoberfest = Wrigleyville in Lederhosen.

We slept in semi late today and woke up with hopes of finding a flea market. We had intended to go to Neuschwanstein Castle (google it; it's awesome) but since neither of us are Miss Moneybags, and it was going to cost us about 100€ EACH, we decided to skip it this time.  We got slightly mixed up on our way to the market and ended up in a beautiful park -- similar to a state park.  I had my first Bavarian Bretzel and we sat in some brilliant green grass and had ourselves a little picnic. It was lovely, and neither of us were too bummed that we missed the flea market! We ended up where we were supposed to be.  After that, we took the train to the Starnberg See, which was a gorgeous walk with mountains in the distance, sailboats floating in the water, and swans!!!! swimming near the docks. We had an afternoon pick-me-up cappuccino and wandered through a few seaside shops. I couldn‘t fight my Aquarian ways and had to take a dip in the water. You do not know how alive you are until you are neck-deep in 50 degree water. It was awesome!

We just got back from dinner at a Thai restaurant. Eating Thai food in Germany? We got turned around on our walk to a vegan restaurant downtown (they had soy weinerschnitzel) and after a few too many creepy streets, wandered into the warm Thai restaurant. It was delicious, and now we are happy at home drinking our bedtime tea.

See you in Austria.
xoxo Katie

Karen: 1.5     Katie: 7

Germany: Beautiful men, hard beds.

We made it!  After a long flight and a mini melt down at the Madrid airport (WE ONLY HAVE 25 MINUTES TO GET TO OUR FLIGHT AND THE WALK TO THE TERMINAL IS 26 MINUTES???) ....we made it!

We´re staying with a very nice man, reminding us a bit of Fred J, and his lovely puppy Sheila.  His home is fifteen minutes outside of the city and overlooks a farm.  We have a terrace, a giant computer screen, and a rock-hard bed. We are very, very, happy.

Yesterday, we walked around in the Center Square for a few hours, more like zombies than like young women excited to be in a new place. We were starving and couldn´t find much except expensive meat-centered menus. We made a poor choice and ate at a place with a tiny, probably spoiled salad bar...both of us were really miserable and on the verge of crying from exhaustion, but once we realized the other one was feeling the exact same way, we felt better. We then stopped at an adorable little cafe and had coffee and spaghetti with arugula pesto. Now were talking!!!  After some good food and a caffeine burst, we had some energy and continued walking. We wandered into a beautiful market with stands of fresh fruit, vegetables, olives, fresh bread (are you thinking Katie´s heaven? Me too) and we were very happy.

A strange and wonderful thing happened at this market: As I stood admiring some mushrooms, I noticed a man looking at me from behind his sunglasses for a moment more than I was comfortable with. A second later, he removed his sunglasses and said to me, "Are you from Chicago? I know you from somewhere." I was shocked and told him yes, and it turns out he works at Karyn's Raw restaurant and has been to the juice bar I work at.  We spoke for a minute, in awe of this unlikely meeting, and I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about synchronicities, feeling blessed, and feeling aware and grateful of the strange workings of the universe.  We are where we need to be.

Today, we are going on a walk in an English garden, and then taking a bus to Dachau, a concentration camp north of the City Center.  After that, we will unwind with a beer at Oktoberfest.

An amusing anecdote: Karen and I, though trying to be graceful, struggled with our huge backpacks while getting off of the crowded train.  As I stepped off, I said to Karen, "Alright, first thing first: learn how to say excuse me." And from behind us came a sympathetic burst of laughter from a train car full of lederhosen-clad Bavarian men.

Auf Wiedersehen!
Katie


Hey guys!

Katie covered the basics of yesterday and today so I'll just fill in with some details.

Our plane took off at 4:40, but since we made it through security without a problem, we had about an hour to kill before boarding. So what are two twentysomethings stuck in an airport for an hour before embarking on the best month of our lives supposed to do? We drank wine, of course! Wolfgang Puck was kind enough to open a restaurant in Ohare so we weren't stuck in some cheesy airport bar; however, the glasses of wine were $9 EACH!

Once on the plane, Katie fulfilled her promise to me and passed out immediately, waking only for dinner and breakfast. I, on the other hand, with my nerves and excitement, spent the 8 hour flight from Chicago to Madrid watching one of the X-Men and listening to the women behind us talk all night. I am not sure how many of you know this about me, but I'm a nervous flier, just right before take-off and landing. Iberia, the airline company we were flying with, hooks up a camera stationed on the tail of the airplane, and streams video of the take-off and landing. So we were able to watch both live...which was an awful experience for me. However, our neighbor on the plane made it much better by exclaiming, right before landing, "I've never seen a plane try to land at this angle!" EXCUSE ME...WHAT?? I gave Katie what I'm sure was the most terrified look ever and closed my eyes until we were safely on the ground again.

As Katie said, the Madrid airport was terrible. By far the most awful airport experience I've had, but we arrived around dawn, so to see the sun rise above the mountains after a night of no sleep was a beautiful and fulfilling experience.

I will preface this next story by saying Katie and I made a bet that everyone in Munich would be wearing lederhosen and dirndl. She didn't think most "real Germans" would be, however the Munich airport proved her wrong. Before even leaving the airport we saw 4 people walking around in traditional German garb, and before we got off the UBahn most of the train was filled with lederhosen-clad men.

Right now we're having raspberries and strawberries we bought at the market yesterday, drinking some tea, trying to figure out how to work the espresso machine (and the German keyboard), and talking about poop. Normal start of the day for us. How are you guys?!

Miss you. Love you.
Karen

2 Days

We leave in 2 days!!! Time to pack...