Dad is right

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I made it to the crazy land of Eastern Europe. It's EXACTLY the way its portrayed in Eurotrip. Except that's completely untrue and this place is just about as expensive (many things cost more) as Western Europe. It took me about 20 hours to get to Dubrovnik, Croatia and its beaaaautiful! I took a bus down the Dalmatian coast and it wasn't like anything I've seen before. There were smallish mountains covered in green green pine trees next to the torquise blue clear sea. I always associate that kind of water with white sand beaches and that kind of tree with dark blue lakes or the gray, hostile-looking Pacific ocean. Weird to see it together like that. Walking around Dubrovnik makes me happy. I don't know why. I'm pretty glad that I've finally left Western Europe.

The entire time I was in Italy I was diseased. It started the night before I left Spain...the itchy skin. The itchy skin turned into a red painful rash and the red painful rash turned into burning fluid-filled blisters which turned into MORE fluid-filled blisters. on my ass. Shingles. Who gets shingles at my age?!? It was horrible! I don't wish shingles on anyone. So much pain and discomfort! The shingles totally impeded me on my trip to the Cinque Terre. I was supposed to go hiking and swimming and all that sort of thing but the doctor told me not to sweat and to stay out of the sun... Everyone says you HAVE to go to the Cinque Terre, but I didn't really like it that much. Maybe it was because we stayed in the largest of the five villages which was basically a touristy resort town but I found the place to be far too busy and not at all like the secret treasure everyone describes. Or maybe it was the shingles. Either way, I'm the only person I've met who didn't love the Cinque Terre.

Claire and I went back to Rome (she met me in the Cinque Terre) where we hung out for several days. I healed up quite a bit and we did dirty things to the Roman Forum. I really do love Rome. It's so ridiculous being there. We'd drive around and be like look! it's the Coloseum! and Claire's Roman friends would just be like meh. I'm so glad that I got to just hang around and do not much because now my back is almost back to normal!!! I may have accidentally formated my memory card while there though...I have no more pictures of Spain, Portugal, or Scotland. Dad says I'd lose my head if it were't attached. I'm not even going to begin to list the things that I've lost since March. Speaking of which, woah! I've been gone since March! Nearly six months now.

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Photos

Dubrovnik
City walls

Dubrovnik
scars of war (mismatched roof tiles)

Lokrum Island
off of Dubrovnik

Ship into the sun
Dubrovnik city walls

Placa
Main street in Dubrovnik, really shiny.

Cinque Terre
train tunnel

Cinque Terre
Riomaggiore

Comments

[Thomas Gray]

sound medical advice, even though i'm not a doctor
If you have shingles, you should get the new shingles vaccine because it supposedly works really well and protects you from the horribly bad things shingles can cause such as paralysis.