We said goodbye to the relatives with tearful embraces, boarded a ferry in Brindisi and headed to Greece.  There we were scheduled to meet up with friends from Boston.  Before entering these weeks of our trip, Annie and I were a little apprehensive about how dramatic our shift in travel style would be.  As expected going from the coast of Africa to Europe, and to emphasize the fact Roma, was shock enough to our senses and our wallets, but to add to it a vacation style travel plan was going from 0 to 100 mph on the racetrack of luxury.  Hey, you gotta roll with it, right?

Greece is in financial crisis, but their tourism industry seems to be doing alright and everything is so damn expensive...so what gives, where's all that cash going Grecia!?  We did the "Greece in a week" iterineray with JD and Jenn...Athens, Santorini, Crete, Delphi and Athens again.  Wow, that shit is beautiful and friggin' old.  On crete we walked through Knossos, center of the Minoan civilization dating back to 6000 BC or before..... yeah, that there be one of the oldest civiliations known to man. Crazy.  And yes of course there was classical period of ancient Greece, with the likes of the Acropolis' Parthenon and Delphi's Sanctuary of Apollo and Athena... gulp.  It felt like these guys were doing things before Christ was born that folks in central Africa have yet to figure out (or afford).  Hm, strange how civiliations progress at such amazingly different paces.


The week went by too quickly.  We laughed... a lot, drank, ate, played lots of cards, relaxed and just caught up on all things back home Boston. It was great and really good to see and spend time with familiar faces that we hadn't seen in a while.  Although we all agreed that it didn't feel like 8 months had gone by....

So after a short delay on their return flight (some bs about volcanic ash in the atmosphere or sumthin?!) Jenn and Johnny were off and Annie and I were headed towards Italy again. This time north, to pick up my parents for a week in northern Croatia.  We had a one night stopover in a Greek hilltown, beautiful spring meadows anchored sweeping mountains dotted with sheep (I didn't think Greece looked like this) then we got on a two night, thirty-six hour ferry ride to Trieste.  We got deck tickets which means pulling out our sleeping pads and sleeping bags and searching the ship for a quiet place to cleep.  First night OK, second night... BRUTAL (for me atleast) due to a nice mix of a gently rocking boat and two liters of squeeze bottle vino rosso.  Ugh.


It was great to see the parental units, obviously there was lots of anticipation and a tear was shed on arrival.  8 months is a long time not to see people that you love - so darn it, make it a point to visit your loved ones!  We jumped in the car and headed to our base for the week, Rovinj, Croatia, just over the Italian, then Slovenian boarder in the peninusla of Istria.  I recommend this place bar none as a week or longer destination.  Rovinj itself is a charming town, centered around an old city, which was once an island, but has now been connected.  Istria is famous seafood, wine, blue water coasts, a fairland type interior with hilltop towns scattered about and truffles.  Is this paradise?  Pretty close.  Much like our time in Greece this week was magic.  We enjoyed all that Rovinj had to offer, we spent some time inland, had to sober up at the end of the week and get stitches due to all of the laughing.  We had a great time and most importantly to me it got my folks out to see another part of the world.  My hope is that this trend for them of exploring new  continues... and that Cancun, becomes less frequented.



Our 20 European vacation came to a close at the first of May.  Our time reminded us of the great life and community we had before we left and what we'll come back to later this year.  We saw some amazing things, but most importantly we spent quality time with some of our closest people in beautiful parts of the world.

We landed in Europe just over a month ago, haven't had more than 2 days to ourselves and it's been great.  After two days in Roma, awh Rome you hold a special place in my heart, we headed south to meet "The Relatives"... in Puglia region.  We spent a week meeting, greeting, eating, kissing (as part of the greeting that is), drinking, eating, eating and being merry with the most gracious family in the World - seriously, we feel like the luckiest people in the world to know, let along be realted to the Caliandro's and Rendini's of Casallini, Italia.  More on them and our time there later.

We then ferried over to Greece to meet friends from Boston - Johnny Divincenzo and Jenn "You" Nunes.  We spent the next week bouncing around the Greek isles...you heard me, just bouncing around the Greek f-ing isles.  We hit Santorini and Crete, combined with some time in Athens and then a side trip to Delphi ... wow - how old is this stuff?  And how delicious is their ho-hum day-to-day food?.. olives, feta, oil, gyros, moussaka.  We sadly said goodbye to JD and Jenn after a great week and were on our own.  For a couple days at least... we headed to the interior to the mountains for a day in Kalabrita - felt more like Tyrol austria - lush green rolling hills, rocky outcroppings, sheep, hearty farmers and husky waitresses.... the good life.


It was short lived as we had plans to meet my folks in Northern Italy, before heading to the Istrian peninsula of Croatia for a week.  Another ferry ride (I think we'd be able to navigate the Adriatic with a spoon, some tinfoil, the wind and the stars at this point) had us in Venice, hopped a train to Trieste and picked the folks up.  We spent a great week with my favorite parents (I mean people) based out of Rovingo, Croatia.  Have you been?  Go!  It's beautiful, old, on the water, near mountains, has great wine, olive oil, fresh seafood, and is supposedly the world's capital of truffles - but my view may be skewed by the company we kept.  More and more and more to write...but now again Annie and I sit here... after dropping of my folks at the airport this AM, on our own.  We're used to it, but it's been different this past month... so now we have to getting planning again!  Doesn't take us too long...

We're now trying to piece together a 25 day itinerary, since at the end of May we're scheduled to meet Annie's aunt and uncle back in venice... so for starters ...we've just booked travel to vienna to catch a band from the Boston we like and to check out one of the most ornate cities in the world, sooooo that should be nice..then we THINK we'll do 10 days of wwoofing (farming) in northern Italia and 15 days of hiking/biking from the Dolomites down to venice... that's the current plan, but hey...who knows.  what do you think?