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Published: August 27th 2005
We have finally arrived at the ocean, actually about a week ago. Today we arrived in Naxos, Greece, one of the Greek Islands in the Cyclade Island Group. Even though it is our first night here, we think this destination has topped the charts so far. The greek food is great, so of course we have been eating authentic Greek Gyros, and now because they are truely authentic since we are in Greece, Justin pretty much refuses to eat anything but the Gyros...they are tasty! We have found a studio apartment on the beach, which is very spacious and cheaply priced because i think we are finally out of the tourist season in Europe, which drops the prices down significantly.
To get to Naxos was quite a journey, but a very nice one. We had to take a 19 hour ferry ride across the Adriatic Sea, however, the ferry looked just like a cruise ship, it had 3 restaurants, 3 bars, a dance floor, movies and news available, internet and much more. It was comfortable and fun. Then we took another ferry from Athens out to the island.
I think the last time we wrote we were in Florence, so I'll do a quick recap of what we've been up to since then. After Florence we headed to Rome and stayed there a quick 2 nights. The full day we had there was basically spent walking around and taking in all of the great architecture and of course more Gelati ice cream. The two major sites we saw in Rome were of course the Colosseum and the Vatican City. Both absolutely amazing places. One of the cool things we saw at the Vatican City was the area that holds Pope John Paul II and all of the other Pope's tombs as well. The tombs are located underneath the main church in Vatican City. After viewing the tombs, we went upstairs to the church which was huge, I mean really big! The ceiling was this massive dome with great detail. Along the side walls of the church were 12 foot statues that actually looked small compared to the size of the church. The Pope also spoke (only through speakers, no we did not see him), and blessed the crowd of people visiting the Vatican that day. Next we made our way over to the Colosseum and saw some very cool old ruins on our way. We went inside the Colosseum and tagged along with an English tour you were supposed to pay for, but we didn't so we had to keep our distance but we were able to learn quite a bit. An interesting tidbit: They used to drench the poor souls that got thrown into the ring with the scent of a female lion and the lions they sent in were male lions ready to mate, during this period they become very aggressive, so you can just about imagine what they did to humans.
Then we met Justin's friend Sander at the Rome train station and headed to Ancona, Italy where we took a 9-hour ferry that crossed the Adriatic Sea to Split, Croatia. We spent 3 nights in Split and stayed at a room that a family rented out in the summer. They were very nice and talked your ear off at every opportunity they had. So we found ourselves planning our getaway many times when we left the room so we wouldn't get "engaged" in a lengthy conversation, which usually ended with the family insisting that we stay longer. Split is a major city and port in Croatia. The beaches are mainly white pebble, but the ocean is gorgeous with many shades of blue, so of course we hit up the beach for most of our time in Split. Tourism is a new industry in Croatia because not more than 10 years ago no one could go there to visit, so we feel pretty lucky that we are able to travel here. The people here seem to be extremely nice.
We then took another ferry, just a short one to Hvar Island. We arrived in Stari Grad, a town on the island and found accommodation in Hvar Town, where we stayed for 4 nights in this very nice apartment with a fantastic view of the ocean and the many islands near Hvar. Our time in Hvar mainly consisted of lounging at the beach and working on our "Adriatic Bronze" Also in Hvar Town there is a port where these rich people with awesome half-million dollar boats dock for the night. It was real fun to watch the sunset and see these nice boats all over the harbor area.
That's about it for now. We are in Naxos for 8 or 9 nights and then we leave Europe for Africa on Sept. 5. Until then we plan to perfect our "Adriatic Bronze"
By the way, in our picture gallery there are 7 different galleries, each has several pictures for a total of 50. Just click on one of the 7 pictures (galleries) and it will bring up the other pictures in that gallery.
Hope to hear from you all soon, Take Care
Beth and Justin
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Nancy R.
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THANKS
Hi Beth! I just want to thank you and Justin for having us on your mailing list. Your trip this far has been so exciting to read about and of course I LOVE the pictures! God Bless!