Map of Lima Locations

View Lima Locations in a larger map

I'll update this as I visit new locations!
Here's a link: http://bit.ly/LimaMap

Pura Vida! Our trip to Costa Rica

After a long year of full-time grad school and working 40+ hours/week, I needed a vacation! Gonzalo and I discovered a cheap flight to San Jose, Costa Rica and decided to go for 6 days, 5 nights. We stayed in San Jose the first two nights, near the Arenal Volcano the next two nights, and again in San Jose the last night.

We are very fortunate that we speak Spanish, because I think that made our trip a lot more smooth and we got a lot of great advice from local people. Our fitst night, we walked to the closest grocery store to our hostel and saw a few things we hadn't seen before, especially in the produce section. We asked a fellow customer what some things were and she showed us a bunch of yummy fruits. We also saw a pastry in the bakery with a filling we had never heard of, and the baker walked us over to the produce section and showed us what it was! Additionally, whenever we asked for directions, recommendations for restaurants or routes to take, we got more information than we were even asking for. Pura Vida indeed! (pura vida = pure life, or something like 'pure living')

We ended up renting a car for two days, which was totally worth it. It was a Daihatsu, a brand we'd never heard of, but after the trip and the crazy roads we sometimes found ourselves on, we were wondering how to buy stock in it! There was plenty of room for two and it was a manual transmission and 4-wheel drive, which was absolutely necessary more than once.



The highlights of our trip were ziplining, visiting the Arenal Volcano, and driving around Laguna Arenal. We didn't get a chance to visit either coast this trip, but we've already made up our minds to return to Costa Rica. The Caribbean/Gulf coast is supposed to be great for ecotourism, with the Tortuguero national park (tortuga=turtle). The Pacific coast is the more touristy coast with the nicest beaches and surfing. That's where my sister and her fiancee are staying on their honeymoon in September - we're so jealous!!

Las Palmas Restaurant in San Jose, Costa Rica

We ate at a second Peruvian restaurant in San Jose on our last night there. It was far worse quality-wise than Machu Picchu. It was more expensive (it cost $40 US!) and the food just wasn't as good.

I had a large vegetable soup that was way too salty and a fresh limeade. The limeade was really delicious, but so were all the fresh juices we had had in Costa Rica to that point. Gonzalo had some fish and it was ok. When we asked how they made their ceviche, they said they made it with vinegar (not fresh lime juice). EW! Obviously we did not order it.

If you're looking for Peruvian food in San Jose, Machu Picchu, despite the super-dorky name, is your best bet. Read my review of it here.

Impressions from San Jose, Costa Rica

We flew from Ft. Lauderdale to San Jose. When we arrived, we went through immigration and customs with no problems, and we noticed that the airport was pretty small. It was pretty easy to get a taxi to San Jose from the airport, but we chose to get on one of the local city busses. It was scorching hot outside while we waited, but paying $1 was obviously cheaper than $15! We did get a few looks from local people in work uniforms, but we expected that.

For the three nights total we were in San Jose, we didn't end up doing much in the city. We were only there for two half-days and one full day, in which we went to our ziplining tour. We ate at two Peruvian restaurants and one Costa Rican restaurant, and made our own food in the hostel kitchen twice, one time accompanied by a very annoying guy who was still drunk from the night before...

We ended up walking around the city center a bit at night (which started aroun 6pm when it started to get dark). We visited a cute curio market where I bought some earrings. Instead of a cab back to the hostel one night, we decided to take the city bus, which ended up taking forever to even come! We got a lot of quality people-watching time in though :-)

It says "change the world"

Our last night in San Jose, we stayed in a hostel in the red-light district. We learned more about the area from a guy that drove us back from the car rental place to the city. You can read more about that here. Gonzalo was nervous to walk seven blocks from our hostel to Las Palmas, a Peruvian restaurant. It ended up being ok, but it was definitely a part of town where tourists weren't out bustling around after dark.

Overall, San Jose was not our favorite part of the trip, especially due to the rush-hour traffic we got stuck in more than once (one time while Gonzalo was driving). San Jose is probably worth at least a day, especially to check out the museums, which I heard were nice. We'll have to confirm that on our next trip to Costa Rica!

San Jose's Red Light District

In Costa Rica, sex work has been legalized. This has been a draw for biological and trans women from all over Latin America to find work and be able to send money home to their families. We first noticed that we were in such an area when we walked from our hostel to a restaurant seven blocks away and saw a lot of scantily-clad women (some who were VERY tall) on corners and waving at passing cars. It was confirmed when we talked to a guy who drove us back from the car rental place near the airport.

We had to turn our rental car back in at the airport on our last night, and when we were asking how to get to the bus stop, our agent told us that if we could wait a few minutes, we could ride back to San Jose with his buddy who was parked nearby and heading back to the city. What luck! In the car on the way back, we told him where were staying and he informed us that that was that 'zona roja'. Gonzalo said 'I thought so - there were a lot of women on the streets' and the guy said 'uh, those aren't women'. Naturally this interested me as someone who works in the field of HIV prevention. He told us that sex work is legal in Costa Rica and that there are a ton of immigrants trying to make a living.

My next questions were about how the industry works - do the sex workers have to register with someone? do they have regular health screenings? are they protected under the law? are their earnings taxed? are there alternatives to this industry - enough other kinds of jobs for women? He didn't know any more details, but now I want to go learn more about this. Does anybody know where I can get reliable info in English or Spanish? Thanks.

Hydroelectric Dams, Wind Farms, and Volcanoes - oh my!

Only two of the over one hundred wind turbines

The Laguna Arenal was originaly made because the Costa Rican government made a dam to produce electricity for the country. We drove over the dam on our Sunday drive around the lake. There's also a wind farm near the lake, on one of the highest sets of hills off the lake. It's apparently one of the windiest places in the world! When we were there, almost all of the over 100 turbines were all going strong. We could see some turbines from across the lake, but we decided to drive off the main highway and up into the mountains to check out the turbines.

The bridge that went over the dam

This road was not as bad as the road to Venado - it was a dirt road, not a rocky road. Once we started ascending, we noticed that there were at least four areas where there were turbines, not just the one or two we could see from across the lake. It was so pretty up there! And of course windy :-) I got out of the car and climbed up a dirt cliff (yes, in a dress...) to get a better view for a video and I was almost blown over! Guess that's why they put the turbines there, eh? We could hear them humming while they rotated. When I was on that cliff, I could turn 360 degrees and see wind turbines all around. It was crazy to think about how much electricity was being generated within this few miles - the turbines, the dam - I was surprised they didn't have some way to harness the volcano's power too! Or at least solar panels, but it's a rugged terrain, so it might not be as efficeint as the turbines.

The whole time we were up there, we kept thinking how great this was and how we wish that Michigan could get with it and start manufacturing these turbines - and perhaps using them if possible. At one point, I was also thinking about the four natural elements and how this area has all of them. Fire = volcano, water = lake, wind = turbines, eart = mountains. It seems like this place would be sacred to some people if it existed as such for a longer time. The volcano hasn't been active very long, and the dam and turbines are relatively new compared to how long people have been living in the area!

Driving around Laguna Arenal, Costa Rica

We drove our car around the lake the entire day on Sunday. We took the main highway (one lane each direction, so more of a country road) almost all the way around. We couldn't finish because the road was destroyed by the last eruption (1968) and still hadn't been fixed! Our original plan was to drive toward a couple touristy areas the guidebook suggested, try to check out the caves at Venado, then finish driving around the lake. Almost none of this happened, but we ended up having a great day anyway!



We headed to Venado, which was up in the mountains surrounding the lake, to check out the caves. Venado was 17 km away from the main highway, up the craziest road I have ever been on in my life. We took 1.5 hrs to go about 3 km toward Venado and 3 km back - I couldn't believe it! The road was not paved and had huge holes and rocks on the entire thing. The trip was super bouncy and all Gonzalo and I could do was laugh about how crazy it was! We stayed in mostly first gear the entrie time, only going into second a couple times and once into third gear on the plateau of the hill (but the road was still rocky and holey). We ended up giving up and not visiting the caves. The drive back down was easier, and super beautiful with great panoramic vistas of the lake and volcano. It seemed really a lot like Alpine lakes from pictures, just with tropical foliage.



We stopped at an art gallery with lots of cute things, and the owner was a German woman who had lived there for years. Gonzalo slyly mentioned that I spoke German, so I ended up talking to the lady a bit about our trip in German. I kept getting things confused with Spanish, though, because I had been speaking Spanish for four days by then! At least she said I have a good accent (though I'm sure I pronounced a few things with a Spanish accent which was weird when I thought about it).

One of the coolest things about our ring-around-the-lake was the wind farm. You can read more about that here. When we were about 2/3 around the lake, we stopped to chat with a street vendor selling curios (I got a blue, sparkly wrap around skirt!). He was the one that informed us that we couldn't go the entire way around, but suggested we go down to a hotel right on the lake and go swimming. We ended up going there and I took a quick dip in the bay, but the water wasn't as clear as I'm used to, so I got a little unsure and got out after a few minutes (how embarrassing!) We ended up eating at that hotel too, fresh fish from the lake! Yum!

La Choza de Laurel Restaurant in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Gonzalo and I ate in this restaurant TWICE while we were visiting the Arenal Volcano because it was that good. They serve traditional Costa Rican food, but you can also find foods from other places if you're sick of Costa Rican food.

Gonzalo ordered the squid both nights, and it was very tasty. I ordered the typical plate of Choza de Laurel one night and fish the other night. The meals were served on a plank of wood that was covered with a fresh banana tree leaf. We both ordered fresh juices both times and they were amazing, just like every juice we had in Costa Rica. We had mango, papaya, and pineapple mixed various ways in our four total drinks. We were so full after our dinner each day that we couldn't even order dessert!

Please visit their website to see their full menu. If you're going to La Fortuna or to visit the Arenal Volcano, you must eat here at least once. It's awesome!

http://www.lachozadelaurel.com/ (there's an English option, look for it)

Arenal Observatory Lodge near La Fortuna, Costa Rica

View from the lodge's balcony

We spent two days near the Arenal Volcano and Laguna Arenal at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, near La Fortuna. We had originally planned on taking a long-distance bus from San Jose for 3.5 hours to La Fortuna, then taking a taxi from the city to the Lodge. Fortunately, we met the French family while ziplining and they were also heading to La Fortuna the same day as us and offered us a ride! We couldn't believe our luck! It turns out that it is about $20 to take a cab one-way from the Lodge to the city, so when we arrived and checked in, we found a car rental place that offered to drive the car out to us at no extra cost. It was absolutely worth it, especially since our second day in the area was spent driving around the lake and we obviously couldn't have done that without a vehicle!

The Lodge is a hotel that was formerly the Smithsonian research site to study the volcano. It's on the other side of a river from the volcano, so if there were a sudden eruption, it would take a while for flowing lava to get there (flying debris and poison gasses, on the other hand, would be immediately dangerous). We took the recommendation of a friend who had stayed there a few days for her honeymoon, and we were SO glad we did! We got the cheapest room in the whole place, in a small building removed from the main lodge with 5 rooms and a shared bathroom w/2 baths and 3 sinks. We couldn't believe our luck - we were the only ones there the first night and our room was in the most beautiful location! When sitting on our bed, we could look out one windown and see the volcano and turn our heads and see almost the entire lake. We could hear the rocks falling down the volcano, and we could view them better at night, when they were orange balls rolling down in the dark. There was also a ton of great birds around our room, and we spent our first afternoon birdwatching from the porch since it was raining.

Dinner was a buffet and was $18, so we decided to eat in La Fortuna both nights. We found a great restaurant and we loved it! Breakfast was included though, and it was also buffet style. Fresh tropical fruit, queso fresco (mmm... the kind that makes your teeth squeak), fresh juices, fried plantains... mmm! Another great thing about the lodge is all the walking paths on site that are free. The restaurant overlooked the volcano and lake as well, and the balcony/deck outside was a nice place to just watch the lava rocks fall down the mountain.


Breakfast at the lodge - yum!

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica

The Arenal Volcano is an active volcano after erupting the last time in 1968. We stayed almost two miles away, and we had great views of the volcano from our room and the restaurant in the lodge. The first time we heard lava rocks falling down the side of the volcano, we were sitting on the porch in the rain and we thought it might be thunder! It sounded a bit like thunder, but definitely like large rocks rolling down a rocky hill.



When we were driving up to the volcano, we came from La Fortuna and had to drive around the volcano to get to the Arenal Observatory Lodge, where we were staying. We saw some places where the vegetation had been burned away by lava and some areas where there were still trees growing.



Some of the best viewing was at night, because the lava rocks that were falling down were burning orange and sparks would fly off when they crashed into the ground on each bounce. It was pretty cool to see. During the day, we could see smoke puffs each time the rocks bounced, and it looked a little like stair steps sometimes. It was very difficult to get pictures, but it was so cool to just sit there and watch it.

Ziplining Outside San Jose, Costa Rica

On our second day in Costa Rica, we took a tour with La Carpintera outside the city to go ziplining. It was more expensive that we would have liked at $75 US per person, but we did end up having fun and meeting a great French family that took us with them the following day to La Fortuna to see the Arenal Volcano.

A big, air-conditioned van picked us up right from our hostel and drove us to the Carpintera lodge. The only people on the trip were us and the French family (father Boris, mother Isabel and daughter Ilona). When we arrived, we got in a mammoth of a suburban-style 4-wheel drive vehicle to drive up the mountain so we could zipline down. The road was mostly gravel but smooth, and we only had to stop once to remove a huge fallen branch from the road!



When we got to the top, Dani and Alex helped us all gear up with harnesses similar to those I've used for rock climbing. Ilona, who was only 6, wouldn't be going on her own, but would take turns going with Dani and Alex. We also had a right-hand glove with a thick leather hand brake on it so we could slow down at the end of each cable before hitting the trees.



We did maybe 7 cables and one really long one - maybe 500 meters? It was starting to rain by the time we got to that one, so they told us to start braking 1/4 of the way into the ride! You can imagine how much faster you'd go if it's wet and slippery :-) We had a lot of great views of the capitol, San Jose, on our rides.



Afterward, we got to eat a traditional Costa Rican lunch with the French family, of whom only Boris spoke any English or Spanish. The lunch at the restaurant there was good, especially the fried plantains and fresh pineapple juice!

Machu Picchu Restaurant in San Jose, Costa Rica

On our first night in San Jose, we asked at our hostel where we could get some good food nearby. The owner asked us a few things about ourselves and discovered that Gonzalo is from Peru, so he suggested a great Peruvian restaurant a few blocks away. Machu Picchu gets its name from Peru's most well-known tourist destination, the centuries-old Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. Gonzalo and I went there when we visited Cuzco in 2004.

The food at Machu Picchu was excellent! Gonzalo ordered Lomo Saltado (or Salteado), a beef tenderloin stir-fry with marinated beef, red onions, tomatoes, fresh cilantro and fried yellow potatoes, served with white rice. Almost all Peruvian dishes are served with plain white rice and potatoes - potatoes have different flavors in Peru and are used for their flavor, not as a main starch. The beef had a great flavor and the vegetables were cooked perfectly. It also came with a spicy sauce - so spicy that we started coughing if we tasted too much!

I ordered ceviche and a seafood soup. The soup came with scallops, shrimp, crab (a WHOLE small crab!), fish, and oysters. It had a great tomato-vinegar flavor and the seafood tasted great. The ceviche tasted old, not like it was freshly marinated. We both ordered fresh juices and they were amazing. I hadn't had guanabana before, so I decided to try it. It was a creamy white drink that tasted tropical and slightly like banana.

The total bill was more expensive than we were expecting (around $30 US) but worth it.

Inauguration concert

it's so crazy here! can't move at all... trying to upload pics but blogger won't let me :-(

Last leg of my European tour...

Hello everyone,
I´m back in Germany now, until Wednesday when I fly back to the US!! I hope to send an email in the next week about my escapades in the UK and back here... I think I´m going out with Carina, my cousin (who´s also 23) tonight :-) I know I´m going to have a great time back here in Germany, though, because the first things I did upon returning were 1. eat yummy breakfast 2. sleep 3. eat TACOS!!!!!!!!!!! (my favorite food!) It´s been a great day so far :-D

I´m thinking of you and will see a large portion of you soon!
~Carrie

Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury, oh my!

Stonehenge was pretty cool today, and so was Salisbury (oldest Gothic cathedral in the UK) and Bath (where there are Roman baths on a natural hot spring). I almost missed the trip, though, because I didn't get very good directions to where the pickup point was and had to pay £7 to take a taxi to the next pickup point since I was too late to the one I was supposed to be at! That's like $14! WAY too much >:O Oh, well, at least I got to go on the trip!

In the UK now!

Hi everyone!

London! I really like London! I like it so much that I think I need to live there at some point for a couple months, at least. The city is really diverse, and every single person I talked to - met on the street, asked questions in underground stations or at Camden Market, other random people - was very nice and helpful. There's just too much stuff to see and do there to only have spent a couple days; however, it's just too darn expensive to spend more than a couple days there on my current budget. I did make the best of my time, though, because many things are free and the day ticket to the underground was economical for how much I used it each day!

I first arrived in the middle of the night, around 3:00 am, so I just checked in and went straight to bed, careful to be quiet so as not to disturb the other 7 people staying in my room. This ended up being somewhat in vain, though, because a few short hours later, two girls got up around 6:30 and decided to do their packing when everyone was trying to sleep... the crunching of bags and loud talking signified that they did not care (maybe they didn't notice?) about the other sleeping souls in the room... and I even had a dream about telling them off after they had woken me up! Needless to say, I was very tired when I woke up the next morning, but that was a moot point because of my shower. Now, I understand that not everyone in the world even gets a shower, let alone a warm shower, but I am spoiled and have gotten quite used to hot showers (not warm, HOT). So, this shower (maybe 5 deg Celcius?) was enough to give me some kind of shock and wake me right up! It worked and kept me up the rest of the day.

I went to Kensington Palace and the park and took a long walk around London today. It was really nice, despite the drizzle!

Funny Story from Rome

Hello everyone!
after a relaxing week in Florence, I'm flying to London tonight. I really liked the campground I stayed in this week, even though it rained all last night and yesterday. It was actually good, because it cooled the temperature down a little! Since I had been wanting to spend a week on the beaches in Greece, doing very little other than reading, I wasn't super excited about being in Florence, which is surrounded by mountains and had no beaches :-( I ended up walking around the city a little each day (except the first day, when I was catching up on sleep that I missed out on because of the overnight train!). I was feeling pretty introverted this week, and was not really in the mood to fight tourists, so I tried to avoid the touristy areas as much as possible... which means that I didn't do much touristy stuff. I did a lot of people watching and talking to people at the campground, though, and read a lot. I'm excited to be heading to London tonight and know I'll have a good time there. I think the weather is much better for me, even though it could rain every day, because it won't be so hot. Look for an email this weekend talking about what I experienced in London!

I will leave you with a funny story, though. As I was looking through my journal a couple nights ago, I realized that I didn't tell you the story of my friend Gregore Gabriel (or was it Gabriel Gregore?). When I was in Rome with Ellen and Frederick, we had one very funny night. First, we went to a small, less touristy part of town called Trastevere (I think that's how you spell it) to eat dinner. We found a very cute restaurant in a little alley and ordered some delicious red wine of the house and pizza (we were trying to be really 'Italian', I suppose...). The food was really good and filling, and we decided to walk around a little bit to work off the food, then find a pub and have one last beer before catching the last bus back to the city center and the place where we were staying. Well, things do not always cooperate with your plan (especially on this trip!)... While walking along the main road in Trastevere on the way to the bus stop, Frederick was stopped by a guy who looked our age and was standing next to a car that had its hood (bonnet) up. Ellen and I had been lagging behind, talking about something, and when we caught up, we realized that this guy knew no English and Frederick knew no Italian, but they were talking to each other just fine. By the smell of things, the car had simply overheated, so Ellen and I tried talking to this guy in broken Italian (Ellen had learned Italian for a year in high school) and Spanish. He told us his name was Gregore or Gabriel (I really am not sure which was his first name, or if he had two first names or what) and that that day 'yo e amore mio kaputt'. Ellen and I figured that he had broken up with his girlfriend that day, which was just fantastic, because here he was with a broken down car. Ellen and I tried a few times to stop people on the street and ask them if they spoke English and Italian so they could translate what we were trying to say to Gregore. Nobody ended up being helpful, so we eventually just went into the restaurant that was right next to where the car was parked (that was seemingly full of ROMANS that Gregore could have asked for help, who spoke ITALIAN... guess it wasn't that obvious to him though!) and asked for some water to put in the car. We filled the tank for water (which was fun to find, because it was written in German on the cap, and the only book of car instructions in the car was about the air conditioning, which was in Italian and German) with the water from the restaurant, but unfortunately heard it all dripping out pretty quickly under the car. Well, Gregore wanted to see it closer, so he whips out his lighter and gets on his hands and knees to look under the car with an OPEN FLAME. Ellen and I ran for cover while Frederick kept telling him, 'no fire! no fire near car!'. It was freaking hilarious (in retrospect, because at the time, we really thought he was going to somehow blow up his car)! Finally we convinced Gregore to park his car on the side of the road near where we were and just come back and get it the next day.

You may think this story is over, but no, ladies and gentlemen - it is just beginning....

So Gregore wants to thank us for helping him (did we even really help him that much? I guess!) so we walk along the road and we all sit down for a beer. It was actually pretty cool to be carrying on a conversation with Gregore in broken Italian, Spanish and English, with the random German word. As it turns out, Gregore's girlfriend is German, and had come to Rome for a couple days to visit before they were to fly to France for a month the following day. Sadly, Gregore broke up with her (at least that's what we think happened, he kept saying 'culpe mio', which is similar to Spanish) and she wouldn't answer the phone when he called her like every 10 minutes. After the first beer, Ellen and Frederick decide to buy another round, so we sit there for a little while longer and talk some more. Gregore decides we should see the beach, which isn't that far from where we were (apparently...). I was like 'how do we get there? there's no more busses' to which Gregore said that he'll drive his broken down car after two large beers. Riiiiight... Ellen and Frederick were like 'it's an adventure!' whereas I was like 'broken car + 2 large beers = I don't see us coming out of this alive!' So, we get in the car, which had cooled off by then, and drive in the direction away from the city center, where we were staying. After about 5 minutes, the car overheats again and we have to pull over. We're in the middle of this residential district, far away from central Rome, with a broken down car. Gregore is surprisingly still in a good mood, despite this possibly being the worst day of his life, and decides to open the trunk (boot) of the car and get out the beach umbrella and towels for him and Frederick to bask under the artificial lights in the parking lot. Ellen took some pictures, then Gregore decided he wanted to get some more beer. Well, by this point, it was like 3:00 am, I was tired and not in the mood for more beer, but what else could we do? We walked along the road and found a shop open (which I think must have been a miracle of this bizarre night, because things just aren't open that late in Italy!) and bought some beers. We walked a little along the road until we found a park and stopped there to drink the beers. Yum... When nobody was looking, I 'accidentally' knocked over my beer and kept 'clumsily' not being able to pick it up until all the beer was gone... It was all very cute and romantic for the four of us to be sitting on this park bench, facing the fountain. Ellen and Frederick were talking and somewhat cuddling, and I was on the other end of the bench, with Gregore. It was funny to try to talk, but I kept asking questions about what happened with his girlfriend and talking as much as I possibly could about Gonzalo, just in case Gregore needed to be reminded every two minutes that I have a boyfriend. At one point, Gregore told me I should be going to France with him the next day, and that he'd pay for everything. I refused a few times, but we were interrupted by Ellen deciding that she needed a bath or was hot (or something) because she got up and started walking around in the fountain. Frederick got up and started doing it too, and everyone was done with their beer, so we decided to leave the park and get our butts back to the city center. We found a taxi sitting by the side of the road and went back to the main train station to say goodbye to Gregore and walk to the place we were staying that night. We later compared stories and realized that Gregore was supposed to meet his girlfriend at the train station at 5:00 am, which we think is why he didn't want to go home to sleep or anything, just go to the beach and party all night.

So, I guess I should wrap it up about the Gregore story now. It was hilarious while it was happening, and still ridiculous when I think about it in retrospect. It was just one of those random things that you can't explain and never can expect... I hope that doesn't happen too many more times on this trip! Between the Gregore and the missing the ferry to Greece events, I don't think I need any more drama on this trip!

Here's hoping I make it to my youth hostel (backpackers) in London ok tonight and have a relatively uneventful trip to the UK!
Cheers,
~Carrie

Drama in Italy

Hello everyone,
So. It was bound to happen... something went wrong in my trip :-( I'm lucky in a number of ways, though, so I'm in a good mood and thankful that I have food to eat and books to read!

Yesterday, I left from Rome to take a train to the other coast of Italy, to the city of Bari, where I would catch a ferry to Greece. My train unfortunately hit a person when we were about 10 minutes from Bari, and we had to wait 2 hours before a judge came to allow the train to move again. Finally we moved and arrived in Bari, though it was 8:40 and the ferry left at 8:00. While on the train, I started talking to the three girls sitting next to me. They were on vacation from Portugal and were trying to catch the same ferry as I. We stuck together when we arrived in the Bari train station and eventually shared a cab to the port since the bus to the port would have taken 20 minutes longer. I unfortunately had no cash at that time, because the train I was on was nicer than the ones covered by my Eurail pass, so I had to pay the only 20 Euro I had for the stupid supplement instead of the supplement for my ferry ride. Lucia, Susanna, and Maria Joao paid and told me not to worry about paying them back (see? people are good!). We got to the ferry port and learned that the ferry had just left, after waiting until 8:30, because the train had called ahead to have the ferry wait. Which means we were just a few minutes too late! It didn't matter anyway, though, because the ferry was full, as is tonight's ferry, and we found out that we can't get reservations anyway. So. They went back to sleep in the train station, and I was standing there outside the ferry ticket office, when I heard these two girls talking in US-ian English (their names are Alyssa and Melissa - yes, seriously). I asked them where they were going, and they said a hotel and asked if I wanted to share a cab and the room to make it cheaper for us all (they had been on the killer train, too). We asked the taxi driver, in broken Italian, English and Spanish, to take us to a cheap hotel, which he did and didn't overcharge us for the trip, either! The hotel was very nice for being so cheap, and we immediately dropped our bags and raced for some food. We were luck and found the best restaurant I've seen here (their house bread was AWESOME!), and they kept giving us free water and bread, which we eventually took home with us (I actually have some of the bread right next to me right now, to go with my peanut butter and water - it's a good lunch!). I slept well and today came to the internet cafe to check finances and to see what my Greece/Italy options were. After that, I had to check out of the hotel at 10:00, and when I was checking out, met this Austrailian couple (Michelle and Franz) who were trying to go to Greece from Croatia, but had to come to Bari first. We traipsed around Bari all morning, and finally they figured out a way to get to Greece and now I'm alone in an internet cafe again, figuring out my next week, and letting you all know I'm ok and going to be well-fed.

My new plans are to use my Eurail pass to travel around Italy, based in Florence. I'll be at the Plus Camping Michelangelo hostel (yes, tents, but they're like cabin-tents, not just pitch-a-tent-on-the-ground tents). Their phone number is 39(0)556811977 and email is michelangelo@ecvacanze.it if you need to contact them to contact me. My cell phone is still working (Shoshana just called me while I was writing this!), so you can call that if need be. So. Tonight it's off to Florence (Kathryn - we only missed each other by a couple days!) and maybe a day trip to Pisa or something. Maybe I'll learn more Italian by the time I leave - yea!

I fly to London from Rome on Friday the 12, to arrive in London around midnight. I'll email sometime in the next week and definetly after I arrive in London. Please don't worry about me - my lack of shyness should help me in not being alone in dangerous situations, and I can hang out with tourists that speak English, German, and Spanish, so my options are very wide!

I miss you!
-Carrie

Ciao Roma!

Hello everyone!
I've only been in Rome for a day and a half, but have been lucky to have seen a lot already. I like how this city is actually smaller than meets the eye, so you can walk everywhere! I'm here with my friend Ellen and her boyfriend, which has been really nice so far. I think it's good to ease into this trip with some friends before I traipse off to Greece. Yesterday, before they arrived, I had already met three people who had given me tips on tours to take in Rome and offered to help me get around Athens... you know I'm not shy, so guess who initiated the conversations? ;-) That's why you love me!

The unfortunate thing here is that I don't know Italian. I really dislike not knowing the language of the people I'm trying to communicate with, even if they know English, so this has been frustrating for me. Fortunately, Spanish and Italian are close enough that I can speak Spanish with an Italian pronunciation and get by. I've also picked up some phrases and such, and have found a knack for picking the English-speakers out of a crowd...

Today was taken up by a sight-seeing bus ride all over the city, where we could jump off and on as much as we like, and yesterday we walked to the Coliseum. Tonight we're eating at an Ethiopian restaurant near where we're staying (we heard it has good vegetarian and is very cheap!) and tomorrow we'll be visiting Vatican City all day. Thursday, we might visit museums all day; there's a Botero exhibit and an exhibit about the Forbidden City in China that both interest Ellen, Frederick and me, so Thursday might be the most comfortable day as we'll be inside out of this immense heat all day :-) I'll email again sometime from Greece (I hope) to let you know I'm ok and loving the Greek food... because I know I will be!!

I miss you!
-Carrie

In Germany now!

Guten Tag!
Well, I finally left South Africa and now am in Europe. Right now, I’m visiting Bettina, a relative of mine from the town my family came from near Frankfurt (and the keyboard is different, so I apologize in advance if I misspell things, especially things with z and y, because they’re switched from what I’m used to!). Tomorrow, I’ll be flying to Rome to meet my friend Ellen (for those of you who remember her from LHS!) for a few days. I’ll then be going to Athens, an as-yet-undetermined island near Athens, London, and Edinburgh until 20 August, when I return to Bettina and the land of beer, bratwurst, and the Rheingans family :-)

I fly back to the US on 24 August, leaving Frankfurt around 1700 and arriving in Detroit around 2300 that same day (flying through Washington DC, Dulles). Those of you who need more details than that will be getting a separate email later (dad, Gonzalo, Shoshana). Other than that, I hope to email a couple more times before I return to the US, though they might not be the monsters I’ve been sending from SA! I’m very excited about the next three weeks, and am looking forward to a different kind of independence.

I miss you and wish I could be visiting all of you in your various corners of the world!

Love,
-Carrie

PS: If anyone has extra cash laying around and wants to deposit it into my bank account, please email me for the details and I will gladly give them? eating on this trip will be a nice treat!!