Wednesday April 27th - "Wear whatever smells the least like old mans asshole"

Standard morning of hostel breakfast and a little laundry in the sink, with shampoo as a substitute for detergent - the lifestyle of a champion. I guess you can get used to anything, standards of cleanliness are definitely relative.

We took a waterbus to Saint Marks Square and stood in line for the basilica. Jenny couldn't go in because she is wearing shorts like an idiot, but Kel took a quick peek around at the ornate gold painted interior. We strolled around the famous square constantly dodging in fear of the gross pigeons dive bombing around us. Despite bird mania Saint Marks is a really amazing square, and it's vastness is a stark contrast in this city full of tiny winding alleys and canals.

After sufficient people watching, souvenir browsing, and bird dodging, we hopped on a waterbus to Burano, a nearby island famous for lace, seafood and it's colorfully painted buildings.

Just as we started to wonder why the heck we were on an hour long water bus, we pulled up to Burano. It was love at first sight (thanks for the recommendation Jill Puckett!). Every home is brightly colored, with clothes line drying, blooming flower boxes, and beaded doors. Kelly decided if she could make this her own island with everyone she loves in the bright quiet streets and homes, it would be perfect. There is almost a weird truman show-ness to the quaint oddity of the island. Known for their lace, we shopped all around for lace presents and more Murano glass knickknacks. Grocery store lunch and sunshine added to the perfect afternoon. As evening approached we hopped on a packed water bus back to Venice, where we sat on the floor with the little girls at their mothers feet (being grown up is over-rated). Back to the mainland (island?) we threw off jackets and set off to get cheap vino before happy hour ended. Our glass blowing friend in Murano explained that Venice is not a place of much nightlife, which was good for us since we had work to do. After a couple glasses of red and a some veggies it was back to casa Andre to get ripped off for Internet usage. It's time to book a flight home. In hopes of exploring every option to find our cheapest deal, we curled up at the computer prepared for a stressful couple hours...it's now or never.

Saint Marks Square in the morning

Burano Streets :)

It's a colorful life

Tuesday April 26th - What a cheap bastard, eh?

After a little Venitian canal-side stroll and some leather shopping and souvenir browsing, we took a boat to the island of Murano sans our Canada squad as they were doing laundry and most likely sleeping the day away. Murano is known for it's glass blowing, which initially began in Venice before the trade was moved to this specific island due to it's dangerous nature as a serious fire hazard. We saw a guy blowing glass in a factory and then browsed packed glass shop after glass shop until everything looked the same. After a cafe linner we were just about to hop on a boat to Burano (another nearby island) when Kel spotted a huge chandelier hanging from a high ceiling down a long corridor. Walking down it we found ourselves in a huuge glass factory where Kelly asked an employee about tour times. This employee turned out to be the owner and master designer and he told us they were closed (when has that ever stopped us?)...so long story short, they let us in and had us try blowing our own glass creations!!

... yayy for free awesome experiences! The manager (a suave well-dressed Venetian man) sat with us and explained all of the various ways the glass is made - we have a whole new appreciation for anything glass blown! This is not a simple art form. He gave us a tour of the galleries and explained glass blowing trends through different decades. Blowing our own glass in Murano was one of the highlights of Venice, although our creations were less than impressive and the manager laughed at us and told Jenny her glass bubble looked like a giant condom (see picture). No time for Burano after this amazing twist in Murano so we boated back to our hotel. The ever so handy Facebook put us in touch with our Canadian friends, who were leaving that night on a late ferry to Germany (boo).

The three of them met us at our hostel (way to get the kids together Taite) and we strolled around and sat on some steps while they negotiated with street salesmen for pervy lighters. Haggling is one of Simons favorite activities, and he is no quitter...keep up the good work bro. The 5 of us recapped all our crazy encounters and decided there shall be more to come someday.

We said our goodbyes as they got on the train (our babies are all grown up! juuust kidding boys you can totally pass for 20 haha). So strange that we had come across these perfect strangers by chance in Rome, coincidentally come across them in Corfu, Greece for a weekend, and then amazingly spotted them in a bustling crowd in Venice. Clearly they are stalkers but we like them anyway :)

We had falafels (big surprise) as our very late night dinner as we wandered around talking about how much we love Venice. This city lived up to our expectation, and they were highhhh expectations. It has a magical element unlike anywhere else. Note to selves: plan romantic weekend with studly husbands here sans the kids circa 20 years...or just with each other if we have given up on normal life by then and remain nomads.

Bueno Notte bellas! (what? kelly never said she passed italian...)

Murano

Sticks of glass used for designing

Round one: Kel shows mad skills

(this is the owner guiding us through)

Note Jens giant glass condom creation...talent

GLASS everywhere! Good thing we didn't cart around the backpacks here...

Monday April 25th - The end of a bromance

As we regained our land legs, our new crew split up with plans to meet in Accademia around 1 at the raging pub. Everyone headed off on buses to hostels or hotels as we wandered aimlessly in circles, homeless yet again. No wifi to be found we popped into Casa Sant Andre right off of the Grand Canal. We had researched Venice hostels and knew one thing- they are expensive. We wanted to be in the city so we settled for a room out of our frugal budgets. Paninis and coffee settled us as we waited for our room, eager to wash the ferry floor off of ourselves. Timing was never our thing and before we knew it was 2 o'clock. Our map made the walk to Accademia seem easy enough so off we went for afternoon beers with the boys. Umm, not so much. Venetian streets are actually elaborate, small mazes of bridges and alley ways. About 45 minutes later we stumbled into a piazza and saw the bar. It was empty, as we expected, so we asked if a group of American boys had come through- to which we found out we had missed them by about 10 minutes. We scanned the area with open eyes & ears but knew the odds were unlikely to find them. Ok we admit it, we had a moment of gloominess as we tried to accept never seeing these travel buddies again. It was like camp had unexpectedly ended!! We would have been more bummed but we were to busy being completely obsessed with Venice. This city is unreal! As we winded about the maze in hopes of working our way to San Marco, crowds of people surrounded us on the narrow, water lined sidewalks. Suddenly as we approached a bridge, Jenny loudly squealed "BEN!". Believe it or not, there were Ben, Taite and Simon standing right in front of us.
We were apparently destined to enjoy Venice with our temporary little bros as we had randomly bumped into them once again, a crazy coincidence in a city made of mazes and moats and full of bustling people. This was run-in #3 so we just allowed what the universe obviously had in store for us. The boys wanted to take a gondola ride together so we quickly fed ourselves so that Jenny would be pleasant company on our ride. Our gondalier had been doing this for 37 years and we learned it is a very exclusive job with extensive training and specialized schools. Simon says only 3 are accepted a year! Sleepy Ben and Taite split up with Simon who wanted to find a museum. We said they could power nap at our hostel before meeting up with the Prague crew in Saint Marks Square at 6:30. The nap didnt go so well since we just spent the hour or 2 being lost.

We were nearly an hour late to Saint Marks but the few others that were there told us most of the group had never shown up. It was a sad ending to their bromance. Hungry again, the 5 of us scanned menu prices only to realize Saint Marks isn't really a backpack friendly budget place to dine. Nonetheless, one waiter lured us in with free garlic bread and we laughed over our over-priced dinner. This square is amazing... lively, bustling, beautiful and unique. Windows appear to be candle lit to the top floor, and the basilica Dome and bell tower glow, towering over us. There are live classical and jazz bands across the court from one and other, where hundreds of outdoor tables sit full of listening crowds, sipping their vino. There's definitely an element of magic to this spot. You're left wanting more... (preferably when you have a fuller wallet and a jacket :).

Taite's internal compass somehow got us home, which is right by the bus station to get themselves home, conveniently enough! Good chats and full bellies, it was time for everyone to sleep in a real bed. We said goodnight to these silly boys with plans for more fun tomorrow!

Groggy backpackers after a long 25 hours at sea


Bridges bridges everywhere


One of the most beautiful cities possible


Simon, Ben, our gondalier, Taite, us :)

April 19th - April24th: I don't know if I can get down with your burrito

We are on vacation from backpacking in Corfu, Greece! We are having an amazing time lying on the gorgeous beach by our crazy huge mountain top party hostel, The Pink Palace. We walked into the hostel bar on our first night here for a beer and Jen spotted a guy who looked exactly like Ben (the Canadian 18 year old backpacker who we met on the random pub crawl in Rome - he and his friend Taite hung out with us and Ashley and Jack a little that night). Strange lookalike turned out to be even stranger, it actually was Ben! We exchanged super weirded out looks and then saw Taite and their third buddy, Simon. They were accompanied by Jordan, a sweet 20 year old studying in Athens who was pretty headstrong about fighting the cultural norm and distinguishing himself as different. The 4 of them had befriended one hell of an "athlete" lacrosse loving Logan, who turned out to love Dutch cougars even more...a scaring discovery by Kelly Puckett. One beer turned into several and we talked about the strange workings of the universe that would bring us to the same island in Greece to the famous hostel here at the same time when we had never discussed this plan with each other. These guys are great fun and we immediately formed a brother/sisterly bond with them and have been hanging out over egg breakfasts and at the bars here...they sleep all day, which we can't hate on them for since we are usually dozing in and out on the beach. We also met a big group of kids studying in Prague...as college graduates we are clearly a few years too old for this place, but the Dutch Logan-loving cougar had us beat by a few decades. Prague kids turned into buddies one day while poolside so our group of vacation buddies grew with the addition of Dan, Ian, Greg, James and there 4 other friends. Chaos hit the Pink Palace on Friday with the arrival of a 700 person spring break tour. Our palace was overrun with 20 year old messes that brought us back to our spring break memories, and lack thereof. If you can't beat them, join them, was the general attitude of the prior palace occupants, so relaxing vacation became more of a party pit stop. One of the best days was when we rented four wheelers from our hostel with Ben, Taite, Simon and Jordan and whizzed off down the windy Greek roads to Corfu Town to get a little feel for the island outside of our party confine. Free wheeling along cliff roads looking down at the beautiful beach and Adriatic Sea below the green mountainside thick with tall pointy pines made for amazing views. We caught parades as part of Corfu's famous Easter festival...which were pretty much one morbid marching band after the next, but an interesting change of pace nonetheless.
Swimming in the sea here was freezing but so clear it felt like you had been dropped into a glass of drinking water. Looking down at not only your toes but every individual grain of sand on the sea floor it seemed like you were looking down through a sheet of glass. 
A toga party was Saturday nights big attraction and hundreds of Pink Palce residents attempted to make decent and sturdy togas out of the shiny pink satin sheets that were mandatory to attend. We helped our temporary little brothers tie their togas the best we could and headed to the huge paladium nightclub here. In case you haven't pieced this one together, this hostel is ENORMOUS and reminicent of a summer camp for drunken 20 year olds. The toga party was part rave and part tradition as  a traditional Greek dance performance turned into the staff setting the dance floor on fire as a man lifted a flaming table with his mouth. Then hundreds of ceramic plates were carried out, stack after stack and smashed on the head of every guest followed by a shot of Ouzo from the bottle while the Greek music blared and ceramic shards flew everywhere....Greek traditions are weird. The madness was swept up as quickly as it had begun and the smoke filled toga rave continued all night. This was convenient for us and our Canadian and Prague friends as we were all taking an early morning ferry to Venice which meant we needed to be on a bus departing the palace at 5:45am. No sense in going to bed first we reasoned, as this was a 23 hour ferry ride and embarking well rested would make us some bored bunnies. After nearly missing our bus, perhaps due to Jenny's inability to get her life together, we were finally on our way. Help got us up and moving, the perks of befriending the hostel staff over a political discussion that day at lunch. Big shout out to our buddy to Armondo, who Kelly said she would see in 5... Not so much. You are a gem for the personal wakeup and help dear! 

We had all been seriously Pink Palaced and were ready for a  slice of reality and a return to Italia. A ferry floor had never seemed such a comfortable place to sleep as it did to our group of 11 that morning. Partied as we were, we were no strangers to the danger of travel so we all secured our belongings, hiding our purses and lining our bags up behind our heads. Everyone lay guarding their things and we all fell asleep on our bags, drifting in and out of sleep, but apparently were no match for the agile robbers aboard as we woke up to find 3 members of our squad (including yours truly, Kelly) had been robbed of their most valuable belongings. This was a crime that no one could wrap there heads around, including head of security when he saw the precision with which it had been executed by someone who would have had to make his was through our crowd of people silently. Hours 4-23 were now a giant game of clue and with knots in our stomachs we kept a hand on every bag at all times. We wish the agile robber had had it in his heart to leave Kelly her camera card containing every picture she has taken on our travels for the last 2 months. Losing your possessions out of carelessness is hard, but theft out of a hidden purse behind a 40lbs  backpack with 3 people sleeping practically on top of it...that's a loss that's hard to swallow. 

So now Kelly is phoneless (our only lifelines to the real world), and camera-less. Which, if you know Kelly, you know her camera and pictures are her most valuable and personal belonging since she was in middle school. When you are far from home and have one backpack, it seems to amplify this loss. Kelly of course will always feel sick about her pictures and the phone is just more or less a pain in the ass. It's strange to be electronic-less for these last couple of weeks, and probably not a bad lesson. Frustration, sadness, anger, confusion... The list of feelings goes on especially after so much good luck and 3 months of being so careful. But the reality is we have had nothing but great fortune (knock on wood) our whole trip, healthy bodies and once in a lifetime experiences. Being with a group was a crucial aid to staying positive all day on our ferry and then we are in Venice. It makes it hard to complain... As the expression goes, shit happens. Kelly feels positive and isn't going to waste time being anything but grateful to be back in Italia :) 

We all took turns eating, napping, and being general bums on our long adventure. As a group, we came to a general consensus that selling deck seats on a 25 hour janky ferry is cruel and unusual punishment. Thank goodness we had a squad to stay distracted. Ian had a laptop, so we piled around it an watched hours on end of the Amc show "breaking bad", as our butts went numb. Bored eating got the best of us and ice cream Sunday's made for perfect midnight snacks. Finally the group fell tired again, and decided to get a few more hours of shuteye. Well as best we could... Kelly & Greg undoubtedly had slept with one eye open. 

Venice scenery surrounded us all we pulled up to port the next morning. We couldn't wait to be off this boat and bid farewell to our lost belongings and sketchy neighbors. We were in Venice! Venice! Words can't describe our excitement, so we won't bother trying... 

Tuesday April 19: "I mean, this is the best pre-packaged toast I've tried"

We start waking up here in Sorrento about 6am to loud church bells that we remain unsure about... Church or rude alarm? After that its a series of loud gals and door slams. So when our alarms went off around 8 we were already awake. We must have our minds in the right place, because we got right up and set out for a jog. After a quick shower, we moved quickly through free breakfast and checkout. Greece? Venice? Decisions decisions. Were having trouble figuring out our ferry to Greece. We decided we need a few Samara kind of days before finishing up, so were hoping to make it to an island in Greece by tomorrow. There we have some serious goals: bake in the sun, sleep in the sun, explore grecian island life and re-center/refocus/regroup. And maybe wash some socks, panties and shirts. Not that we smell or anything....
So we skipped town towards Napoli... That's Naples for y'all American folk. On the way we jumped off the train in Pompeii, curious about the ruins. We wanted to see te froZen people but not enough to pay and wait in line. So we took it in from a distance, compared my Vesuvius to arenal, and re-boarded our train. We had about an hour and a half to kill in Naples, and the one thing that's a must do is eat pizza (where it was created)! Jenny had done some research and we mapped our way to what was reviewed as the oldest and best pizza. There were tons of people waiting outside to get in... The city has pizza rules, thats right, rules. Here's the guidelines for Napoli pizza:

We decided to ask for ours to go and when Jenny ordered one margarita (the only other option is maranara) the friends chefs thought she was one crazy Americana. We walked back to the train station in anticipation and they were right. One was a bad idea. This was the best pizza imaginable, and we can't explain why. It was unlike anything else. We enjoyed our halves and dreamed avout more as we waited for our train.
We had 2 trains to catch to Bari (the port town and homeland to THE Shea Donovan-there's billboards of him all over, your people send their love dear). Obviously, Jenny passed out while Kelly watched the gorgeous Italian scenery pass by as er iTunes played the perfect soundtrack. Today we are feeling great about our decision to go home and know it's the right time. We passed a ton of windmills and as U2 serenaded Kelly there seemed to be signs and symbolism coming at us the whole day. Now let's just hope we can find a boat to Greece...
Success! We made it to Bari with approximately 30 minutes to find the port, figure out a ferry, book and board. We did it! We would be in Ingomenutsa by 6am.
We boarded expecting a shnazzy ferry like our first to holland. Ehh not so much. No Internet or cool spots. We sat in a movie theatre meets airplane type of room with a bunch of strangers and our backpacks. Salad and fries for dinner and, as always, stole some bread for breaky!We watched Erin brokevich (yay for no dubbing) and then spread out across seats in hope of sleeping a bit...
Doze on and off... On and off... I think were somewhere in Greece by now...

Monday, April 18-- The uncurable travel bug

This day was for centering, reflection, and planning forwards. We have had so many ideas and plans and uncertainties rattleing around in our heads and we needed to get some calm. We are really conflicted as we approach the end of the route we had in mind. We both encounter homesickness in fleeting moments, whether it's as silly as missing our blowdryer and straightener or as deep as longing to see a person that we miss. We are really fortunate to be able to talk about these things with one another and be each others support system. The internal conflict comes into play when homesickness meets desire to nomad. We are obsessed with Italy and typically totally absorbed in the present, hence our usual lack of planning! We are soaking up every moment of where ee are but we have a seerious case of the travel bug, there are endless places we want to go. We are fearful that some of these are now or never. It seems unlikely we will retire our pencil skirts and disregard work emails in future years to be dirty hippies living out of a backpack with no plan and few commitments. We want to see Morocco, we have both dreamed for years of a trip to Africa to volunteer, Kelly longs to travel Oceania and Jenny is dying to go to Thailand. The thought of time in a disciplined Ashram strikes our fancy, and so does some time in China. We don't have the money for these right now, and we both have people and upcoming events at home that we are ready to get back to. We decided Almafi was the place to go to mellow our conflicted souls. The Almafi Coast is amazing and the most celebrated in Italy (although we still hold Cinque Terre as an untouchable number 1 in our hearts) and we intended to find and hike Sentiero degli Dei (Path of the Gods) a well famous 6 hour mountain hike. Yea we are just as surprised as you that a long hike appeals to us more than cafe chilling or window shopping...our inner dirty hippies must be really thriving. After an insanely long windy bus ride from Sorrento along the edge of the cliff (think the crazy mountain top toads on which James Bonds high speed chases occur in Austin Martin convertibles) we arrived in Almafi. Wrong place for our path we learned but awesome seaside village surrounded by cliffs with aqua water. We ate crepes in an Italian cafe where the smiley server pridefully told us about the greatness of Almafi and gave us his address so we could write to him when we wanted to return, gotta love those Italian men!
We have come to terms with the fact that this trip will not cure our travel bug, and that's okay.
As much as we feel we need to go everywhere right now, if we hold ourselves to everything we have learned on this trip then we know our travel adventures are far from over. The challenge will be coming home to a society that prizes work and "adulthood" over all else.
After a long chat about home and travels and life, We hopped on a bus back towards Sorrento. We decided this was a good place to map out the last leg of our trip. After some down time and a quick jog for Jenny, we grabbed a salad in the restaurant of our hostel and camped out at the computers. We looked at going to Africa, asia, etc etc. But the reality is, we need a planning break! Despite our lack of planning style, when you're backpacking with no set plan, the reality is you plan everyday. Plan plan plan. Our brains (and bank accounts) need a holiday. So together we decided when were done with Europe, as our rail pass expires, it's time to go home. And time to get excited for it! So... I guess you could say that's the plan :) bed time... Tomorrow were going to.....???

Sunday, April 17- Do you want a bite of my cheese and lettuce sandwich?

This morning we enjoyed the quiet solitary environment of our B&B, and not being
in a mad rush to check out for once. We took nice long showers and repacked our
bags (which are considerably heavier after some impulse gift and souvenir
shopping...guess we should have see this one coming) and did travel research. We
were Romed out so it was on to the next. We were having a hard time making
decisions so we just got on a train to Naples, not the safest place we have
heard, but the Almalfi Coast is supposedly one of the most beautiful in Europe and
we could see the frozen ruins of Pompeii as well as Mt Vesuvius.
Heading this way we could take a train to a nice hostel that Sam (our friend
from Florence) recommended to us in Sorrento.

Sketchball city is what we will call Napoli, although we only saw the view of
the city from our train, and the train station as we connected onto a heavily
graffitied train to go to Sorrento. We arrived at our hostel with some directional guidance from a Polish guy who was also staying there. We dropped off our belongings and headed out for dinner, a delicious and filling roast vegetable dish, before going home for a decently early night.