My Gay Soul Mate..

To sum up everywhere I have been and everything I have seen in the past month is, well, gonna be almost impossible. LEt me give you a quick run down. ..
Stuttgart, Germany was awesome. I had some traditional German food (warm potatoe salad, saurkraut, and this ravioli type thing filled with meet and topped with gravy and onions!) YUM! Then I got into Milan and had my first pasta dish in Italy. Homemade bread and noodles= yum yum in your tum. Wine is the cheapest thing you can get in Italy. Everything else is outrageously expensive. Like WHOA! I met my sister and her boyfriend Logan at our hotel. It was so nice to see family, even though its only been a month since I saw her.
So Milan wasn't that amazing so the next day we headed to Cinque Terre. there was a train strike, which is sorta 3rd world, but hey... delayed us a bit but we made it. Celebrated finally arriving in Cinque with some beers on the peer. The next night we hiked to the neighboring town, Corniglia and ate some amazing pesto pizza and of course finished that off with gelato. Pretty sure I have gained back all the weight I lost in Iceland because of the wonderous supply of Gelato we ate.
From there, we headed to Florence or Firenze as they say.. . .made a day trip to the leaning tower. It's still leaning! And checked out the amazing duomo in Florence. Hiked to the top of the city for the sunset. Bellisimo!
Then off to the small Tuscan town of Siena. Had the best salami sandwich ever. Then down to the Amalfi Coast, to Positano. Logan and I went out and danced the night away one night. The city was hanging on to the cliffs overlooking the sea. Finally made it to Rome where it was scorching hot and uncomfortable, especially carrying a freaking heavy backpack around in the 104 degree heat. Not cool. The bed and breakfast we stayed in was run by this old lady who didnt speak English, but she DID smoke inside. SICK. My sister and I spoke spanish to her and she understood us... as its pretty similar to Italian.
I was really scared, for some reason, to leave my sister. I got comfortable with her and Logan and then had to change back to being alone. Luckily, I met some Finnish girls from the smokey B&B and they were going to meet their couchsurfing host the next day and they invited me to go with. I had nothing else to do... so we went to meet the guy. He was super nice. We went back to his house, he made us pasta, and then he drove me to the train station.
I took an overnight train from Rome to Bari. I didnt reserve a seat so I ended up not HAVING A SEAT for my 15 hour train ride. Luckily I met this nice italian girl who loved that I was from Cali and she showed me the ropes. I might have slept an hour, but while we were waiting.. we met another local italian guy who was super cute. His name was ARNALDI! Like the restaurant in SB! haha.. He was awesome and we all chatted till the sun came up.
The girl saw me off the train, kissed both cheeks and told me if I come back, that I could stay with her. From there, me and a couple other Americans made it to the ferry station, met some more Finnish people (a bro and sis), booked our ferry for that evening, and went to sleep in the ferry terminal. We waited 8 hours for the ferry to come and off we went. We ended up sleeping in the stairwell... luckily my back does better on hard surfaces@! Its allll part of the experience...
I kept seeing this guy on the ferry.. I thought he was italian, so I spoke a couple of spanish words to him and he understood...He kept winking and waving at me, so finally I talked to him. He was from Spain. AND GAY! But we hit it off nonetheless. I love him. His boyfriend is cute too.
Yes, my gay soul mate.
We rode the train from Patras, Greece to Athens. And he told me about his family and Sevilla (where he lives). I was surpised at how much Spanish I pulled out!
But then we got lost in the train transfers but luckily I got his email .. and he is heading to Santorini where I am going this evening, so hopefully I will run into him. I miss him already.
Yesterday, the Finnish bro and sis and I explored Athens. Everyone is SOOOOOOOOOOOO much nicer here than in Italy. The Italians need to get some lessons from Alivia on customer service, I tell ya.
We met this old man working in this leather shop.. his parents started the business and handed it down to him. His mom gave birth to him in the store. He let me take his photo. :)
He loved that I wanted to photo him. So cute. Then this other man who was selling clothes, talked to me about religion. And how religion made all good things viewed as "sins".. and how most bad things were created by humans... cigarettes, AIDS, and cancer. He said God may have many different names but religion is there, for him, to make you feel high and enlightened. Interesting guy.
This morning I met Teri, this Greek guy who showed me to the post office and internet cafe then kissed my cheeks goodbye. He said "see you at 4, I will make you dinner."
Then it's off to Santorini for a few days ... then TURK TURK to meet Genevieve and Ego in Bodrum. From there, who knows... All I know is that I have to make it to Amsterdam on the 24th of August to fly to Kenya.
Oh life.

To be continued ... :)

I want to live in a castle.

Scotland was absolutely gorgeous. I finally felt better and left my friend Fran's bedroom.. wandered around Edinburgh, then took a 3 day tour of the Highlands. Pretty sure I know more about Scotland's bloody history than America's now so if anyone has any questions...
I drank some Scottish whisky, got eaten alive by these wierd bugs called "miggies," romanticized about the many castles spread throughout the land, and joked a lot with my thick accented Scottish tour guide.
I made it back down to London for a few days. Almost got arrested by a policeman for tapping him on the shoulder, then my credit card and debit card were both rejected when I was trying to buy groceries but don't fret. I pulled a Renee Piercy and made friends when I was checking out. The lady ended up paying for my groceries, invited me over to her house for tea the next day, and we went on a long walk to the Tower Bridge. She had alcohol on her breath when I got to her house. It was noon. I think she was lonely. But it was a nice visit, I got free groceries out of it, and made a new friend.
This morning I had to run to my train, and barely made it. The only reason I knew we were in France when we got onto main land (and not in the tunnel) was because the cars were actually driving on the right side of the road. First thing I saw when I got into the train station in Paris... Haagen Daaz stand. I definitely thought for a second, "did I get to Germany a day early." OK maybe not, but it was bizarre. No one really speaks English here, which surprises me. Even the young people I ask for directions. But whatever, I guess they don't need to know it.
I saw good ol' Mona, in the Leuvre. She's pretty cool, just chillin, gettin her pic taken, you know. And the Eiffel Tower was breathtaking. I went to the top, and was reminded I am slightly scared of heights. But it was a great view.
Tomorrow I leave for Sttutgart, Germany then onto Milan to meet my sister.
Can't wait to see her face.

<3