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Palermo Day 2

We spent the day walking around and hanging out on the boat. Not much to see in Palermo, either that or we just weren't as interested. Food was mediocre at best. Thank goodness or the boat because it was certainly our highlight. I didn't mention yesterday when we landed in Catania(took a bus to Palermo) that I saw my first active volcano! Did some quick research and Greek mythology designates the Catania volcano as a place where Zeus punished/imprisoned Typhus. Kind of interesting. I didn't see any lava, but lots of steam coming it of that mountain. Very cool.

Now we are off to Athens, the last stop before home. We're hoping to benefit from their economic troubles right now as we've heard that citizens there have cash withdrawal limits and tourism has been affected. Two more days on this amazing trip.(ok I'm homesick like crazy but really need to see the Acropolis first)

Athens Day 2

After sleeping for 13 hours we got ready for an unplanned day. The news was filled with Greek bank closings and the troubles people in Athens faced($withdrawls were capped to 60euro a day) and the big decision to stay with the euro and be forced into compliance in a payment plan for their debt or return to Greece's own monetary amount. We decided to ride the train to Piraeus and see what kind of boat ride we could finagle. We found out when we went to the metro that the government had stopped charging fare. It had cost $6 euro to get to the hotel and now we wouldnt have to pay again for transportation anywhere. We arrived in Piraeus and eventually bought ferry tickets to Aegina. The ride was 45min each way. We were able to walk around the dock and beach areas of the island and have lunch before our return to Athens. Overall I think the islands

have more to see and do, we just didn't have that kind of timeline or enthusiasm left. Tomorrow we leave at 1pm to return to the states. It's time to come home(:

Venice Day 2

We spent the second day in Venice doing more exploring. We walked around the whole island... Well we tried to, again it was incredibly difficult to navigate in terms of finding places on the map that Elvis has indicated were good or cheap(non touristy.) Venice is pretty awesome, I would highly recommend it for anyone that likes to walk around and just look at mismatched buildings, water, and odd shaped pasta in store fronts. It started raining around dinner time, the first rain we saw the entire trip.

Venice day 1

Trina, Aaron and I arrived to Venice late morning on Friday. After taking a water taxi(hour and a half ride) to the island, we were met by Elvis(lol) the cousin of Lorenzo(the guy I had set up our apartment with. The apartment was nice(had to fit 5 of us again because Libby was arriving at 6, her friend Lesli at midnight.) After Meeting Libby at the dock we explored near our apartment. Venice is like being a mouse in a maze. We even had a map, but the map doesn't quite represent all of the winding narrow streets and it's easy to get turned around.  I was apprehensive whether I was going to like Venice, but as soon as I saw all the water and realized it didn't smell like I imagined it would, I loved it.

Palermo Day 1

We were at the airport to Palermo at 5am, after the hour and a half boat ride and getting up five people... We were tired. But Aaron, Trina, Libby and I finally got to our boat, yes, BOAT late afternoon. I'm not a fan of Palermo, but being in the Marina, sleeping in a boat, is pretty much the most awesome thing. As I type this, everyone is still asleep(ok it's really Palermo Day 2 right now) and the hatch above me is open. My sleeping area is not Jay-sized. I can barely fully extend diagonal. But, it's the most relaxed I've been the whole trip. I think we plan on hanging out on this boat the whole day.

Malta

We arrived in Malta in the early hours Thursday morning. Our hotel was right on Mellieha beach. We had planned to do a boat tour right away, but Trina insisted we fix my phone so we got a taxi to Sliema. No luck with the phone(glad would take a week to be ordered,) so we ended up walking around town for a few hours. We were able to see the capital city from a distance. We returned to the hotel and Trina and I decided to adventure to the islands via ferry.