What's to Come

I know, I know, everyone has been telling me. Worst blogger ever. I have a really good excuse though - I've been so busy traveling and gathering material for my blog that I just haven't had time to sit down and write one! (Did anybody buy that??) To prove my point, I'm currently sitting in the bus station in Zagreb, Croatia. My bus to Split, which will also serve as my bed for the evening, leaves at 12:30 so I have a little bit of time to kill. I can't post a proper blog with photos since I don't have them with me, but I figured I'd at least post a reader's digest version of what I've been doing for the past month. As soon as I'm back in Bologna, I'll write a detailed blog about each place, photos included. For now, I'll start at the beginning of May, right after Kat and I got back from Puglia.

May 9, Kat and I left for Morocco. Visited Fez, stayed in a cave house in Bhalil for a night, visited an authentic Hammam (possibly too authentic - you will all love the Hamman story), ate incredibly delicious home-cooked Moroccan food, rode camels into the desert, dune-surfed, ate more amazing Moroccan food and slept in a tent, then headed to Marrakech where we spent most of our time recovering from the various ailments that we'd picked up on the way to Marrakech (including but not limited to sunburns, bug bites, skin rashes, muscle aches, stomach problems). Got sand in my point-and-shoot digital camera which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because since then I've started using my SLR full-time. Marrakech was incredible, gorgeous but overwhelming, filled with palaces and snake charmers and vendors selling everything you can imagine. After a few days in Marrakech and 6 total days in Morocco, we went to Barcelona. It was my third visit and absolutely amazing. Highlights included more Gaudi, a street festival involving fire-breathing demons (somewhat reminiscent of Italy's Krampus), and breathtaking views from a castle above the city. We decided that Barcelona just wasn't beautiful enough for us, though, so we went to Sardegna. AKA, beautiful Italian island in the Mediterranean. Not bad! I evened out my existing Moroccan sunburn on one of the most beautiful and secluded beaches I've ever seen, and Kat and I had a great time wandering the city of Cagliari.

After 12 days of traveling, we came back to Bologna on May 21. Got home just in time to meet two friends of mine from high school who came to visit. Actually, that's not even true, I wasn't on time - I got home about 6 hours after they got to my apartment! Anyway, had a great time hanging out with them while trying to study for my sociolinguistics exam on May 27 and pack for my next trip (also on May 27). Immediately after the exam, ran to the train station, caught a train and then a bus and then a flight to Berlin!

Thus began trip number 2 which has (so far) been quite the whirlwind. In Berlin, I stayed with a friend of Ryan's - Sonya, a wonderful girl from California who showed me all the best places in the city, and fed me all the best food. (Be prepared for many, many food stories when I write the detailed story about Berlin.) On my second day in Berlin, I was reunited with one of my very best friends from Berkeley - Joy! We spent 6 beautiful, art and music and food-filled days in Berlin before catching a ride to Gottigen with yet another Berkeley friend. Patricia is actually German but studied in Berkeley last year so we count her as part-Californian. We met up with even more Berkeley friends in Gottingen and then somewhat sadly took off for Munich. By "took off" I mean caught a ride with a crazy girl who was a little too excited by the German Autobahn's "no speed limit" policy - more to come on that later. This is when things got a little crazy. Explored the city, stayed with German twins Tom and Jerry, slept in a hammock, drank too much (or maybe just the right amount of) German beer. To be more specific, the pope's favorite German beer. Munich was too big and too metropolitan for me. Next stop was Heidelberg, small university town reached by early-morning train. 5 hour train ride, 5 transfers, 1 hangover. Heidelberg is definitely worth the trouble. Ate delicious indian food, watched fireworks, waited around at the train station McDonald's for our 2 AM bus to the airport. Slept a little in McDonalds, about as well as you'd expect to sleep in a McDonalds. Bus to the airport - arrive at 4, flight doesn't leave until 10:30. Slept a little in the busy airport terminal, about as well as you'd expect to sleep in a busy airport terminal. Flight to Osijek, (or what Ryanair likes to call "Osijek", actually about a 30 minutes drive from Osijek), 30 minute shuttle ride to Osijek, 5 hour bus to Zagreb. Are you tired yet? Spent the rest of the day wandering around Zagreb, got lost on the trams, ate great Croatian pizza which was weird but delicious, almost got lost again on the trams, made it back to the bus station, wrote hurried blog to appease whiny friends and family members, and now we're back to the present. In an hour, I'll be spending my second night in a row on a bus. I am so, so exhausted, unshowered, sore, and I've been wearing the same pair of jeans since May 27th because it was too cold in Germany to wear any of the other clothes I packed! I'm still in good spirits though, and tomorrow morning we'll get into Split around 6AM and take another bus to a nearby town where we found a cheap, sea-side hostel. The plan is to spend at least 6 uninterrupted days island-hopping and lying on the beach.

I'll be back in Bologna on the 15th and I would promise to be a better blogger but that just might not happen. I'm hoping to move out of my apartment and start WWOOFing on July 1 (and somewhere in there I have to find time for my last exam) so there won't be a lot of down time. Hopefully this messy, hurried blog post is enough for now. Love you guys!