Rome & Athens

It's been a while since we have had access to internet, so we've got a lot of ground to cover as we have been very busy in the meantime!

We are currently on the beautiful greek island of Santorini but before we get to that we'll summarize all that we saw as we ate our way through Rome, Italy.

After almost missing our third train leg of the day, we arrived in Rome around 7pm and our hostel/hotel was just a short walk from the Termini or Termy as I (Jenna) refered to it the entire time we were in Rome untill Ty finally deceided the joke was over and he corrected me. Our hostel was much more like a hotel, the room was huge, we had our own tv and sink and the bathroom was just down the hall. We also ventured out for food and our first taste of gelato, it was love at first bite and the addiction was instant. Ty got banana and nutellla and I got two different kinds of nutella...amazing!!

All of our days in Rome were jam packed with tons of walking and sightseeing, along with lots and lots of delicious food!
Day 1: We started off at the spanish steps, we then walked down to the trevi fountain and threw our coins in. We then walked to the Pantheon, and were amazed, as it is still standing at over 2,000 years old. We then stopped for our first italian pizza, Ty tried anchovies and deceided he does not like them and we had to pay a sitting fee. We then got more gelato and when I sat down to eat mine, the woman very sternly told me that sitting is a service, it was from here on we knew sitting in italy costs money. We then treked to the Colosseum. It was amazing, we walked all around and took it all in. We then tried to visit the Roman Forum but it was too late, it had closed. We then walked all the way back to our hotel and after some relaxing went out for a later dinner. We had our first pasta in italy and were both thoroughly satisfied along with some more gelato for dessert.

Day 2: We woke up and headed straight to the Roman Forum to pick up where we left off the day before. There was SO much to see and take in it was overwhelming and unbelievable. We spent a good couple hours just roaming through and then went to our first italian pizzeria. Basically these are just pizza counters and they sell the pizza slices based on their weight. We agreed that it was some of the best pizza we had ever had and so cheap. Since the weather was so nice in we could just eat outside while sitting right near the ruins. We then walked all the way to the Vatican City (and we may have gotten more gelato along the way... tiramisu, creme caramel and even just plain vanilla...so good.)
We walked into the main square of the Vatican staring directly at St Peter's Basilica, we cannot even begin to put into waords how incredible the Vatican City is and even our pictures won't do it justice. After going through security to enter we browsed through the entire Basilica including the basement which housed the tombs of past popes. We then deceided to work off all the gelato we'd been eating and climb to the top of the capsula for 5euros. The climb started out innocently enough, just a lot of winding stairs. We reached what I thought was the top and it allowed us to walk along the interior of church, giving us a bird's eye view of the basilica. We them noticed a tiny very narrow stairway with an arrow and deceided to keep going. After about 5 different narrow, winding, sometimes so thin you had to walk sideways and even one spiral staircase so steep and narrow there was a rope to aid you as you climbed. Ty thought it reminded him of the scene in willy wonka and the chocolate factory when the room keeps getting smaller as they walk. Once we reaced the top we then could go outisde and take in the most incredible view of Rome. We were essentially at the very top of Basilica it was breathtaking.
We walked in the direction of our hostel, grabbed some more pizza for dinner and stumbled upon a movie theatre on our way home. Lucky for us they were playing the Wolfman in english. After the movie we walked back to our hostel and went to bed, as we were extremely tired from our long day of walking.

Day 3: Although we had seen the St Peter's Basilica, we had not yet seen the Vatican Museum. We decided to walk to the Museum in the morning. The museum was HUGE, almost overwhelming to a fault. But the highlight expectedly was the Sistine Chapel at the end, containing some amazing frescoes by Michelangelo. The rest of the day we strolled around Rome, walked into some stores, and of course ate some more pizza and gelato.

The next morning we got up bright and early to catch a train to the airport to catch our 10:00 flight to Greece.

The Start of Greece
After checking into our hostel we decided to immediately meet with a travel agent to plan our trip to the islands of Greece. After meeting some not-so-friendly travel agents we stumbled upon Marios, and elder Greek gentleman who was more than willing to help us out. We spent an hour and a half with him and booked all of our ferries and hotels. Our itinerary for the islands includes Santorini for 4 nights, and Naxos for 3 nights. We then went and did laundry and decided to head to the pub for happy hour.

Just Jennas luck.....it was karaoke night. By 10 o clock, everyone was feeling good, the bar was packed, and lots of people wanted to sing. Early on, two American guys decided to dedicate a song to Team USA hockey. We of course were not thrilled, so Jenna decided to sing one of her personal favorites, "That Dont Impress Me Much" by Shania Twain, conviently a Canadian artist. She dedicated the song to Team USA Hockey and everyone in the bar got a kick out of it as there were many fellow Canadians. Soon after the bartender asked Jenna to join him in singing "Man! I feel like a Woman!" apparently he was a big Shania fan too. We also met a couple from Edmonton who we chatted with majority of the night, Scott and Christine. Jen and Christine formed a mnusical duo and signed themselves up for various songs with the stage name Jenstine. Hits included Sweet Caroline and The Sign by Ace of Base. Needless to say a great time was had by all. We stayed till close and headed back to our hostel.

The next morning wehad breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to do some sightseeing. We went to the temple of Zeus first and then the Acropolis. It was incredible, we spent a good 2 and a half hours treking to the top and taking it all in. We then met Scott and Christine and explored a local market together, we also grabbed some beers and coffee and sat in view of the acropolis. We then went back to the hostel to freshen up and headed back to the pub for happy hour. After some drinks the four of us headed for dinner around 9pm. Christine found us a great Greek resturant and we sat outside. We had greek salads and house wine to start, the boys ordered mousaka (greek shepards pie) and the girls chicken souvlaki and then ice-cream for dessert. After dinner we headed back to our hostel as we had to get up at 5:30am to catch our ferry the next morning.

Which brings us to our current location of Santorini, we had an amazing first day, but we are all out of internet time for now, so stay tuned and we'll write about our island adventures shortly!