yesterday · is · history

Hello lovely livejournal world. I regret not being able to update thus far, but free time for interneting has been scarce.

Our time along the mediterranean has been quite an adventure, to say the least.
We started out hanging out with some crazy anarcho commies in Athens, made our way along the gorgeous coasts of Greece, crossed into the unpaved roads of Albania, where we nearly died on a mountain after bikes broke down and water ran out and the sun torched us while women dressed in the medieval style riding side saddle on donkeys stared at us as if we were aliens.
From there, ferry to Italy, then ferry to Montenegro, a land that smells like shit and is full of naked old men and lots and lots of raki. We made our way along the tiny country's mountains, steeper and rockier and more intimidating than any I've ever seen.
Then on to Croatia, a lovely place in some regards, others not. A train through more mountains took us the city of Sarajevo, where we spent five days drinking turkish coffee and listening to calls to prayer in apartments littered with bullet holes all over the outsides. Then to Mostar in Hercegovina, where we stayed on a lovely hippie farm sort of thing with some very nice people and very nice kittens and saw some sweet fire dancing and gyspy music.
Back to Croatia - a ferry from Split took us to Italy, where we first stayed at Dan's aunt's place in Umbertide, outside Perugia. A lovely villa upon a hillside. Met Dan's little bro and baby cousin - very cute.
From there to the wonderfully ridiculous city of Rome. I've never seen so many fountains, piazzas, statues etc crowded into such an area. We stayed with a the parents of a friend of Jeph. A very sweet lady named Miriam and her husband, Franco, a director for the World Bank and central manager of the Bank of Italy. Their apartment was more like a penthouse. They invitied us to come with them to their place in Tuscany - a lovely place on a unique land formation overlooking the sea. The fed us very well and enoyment was had by all parties involved.
Our present location is Pisa. Soon we'll be on a train to Genova, from where we will catch a ferry to Barcelona. We were planning on going up to Venice and biking west from there, but since we are so very far behind and short on time, and, being the intrepid explorers that we are, we've decided to skip it in favor of having time to hopefully go to Morocco.

Obviously, so much more has happened than I can even begin to describe here, but the clock is saying I have to go, go, go again. Later, y'all.