I really liked Barcelona. Of all the cities I traveled to on this trip, Barcelona had the most parks within the downtown area. Even most streets were lined with trees, which provide much-needed shade from the Mediterranean sun.

Highlights:

Segrada Familia Church

This Gaudi-designed churn is quite incredible. I had heard from someone that it is not worth the wait in line and the entrance fee but I definitely disagree. Construction started in 1882 and it’s no where near done, although it was labeled a basilica by the Catholic church in 2010. I think when I was in Barcelona there were either 5 or 7 construction cranes on the top of the structure. The exterior of the building is dark and gothic. I was surprised to see that the inside of the church is bright and light colored. There is a lot of stained glass of all different colors that project colorful images all over the inside of the church.

Parque Guell

Our hostel was near this park. Another Gaudi creation and it afforded a great view of the city with the sea on the horizon. Great place to have a beer or two.

La Rambla

The main street in Barcelona, also home to one of the few Starbucks I found in Europe! I couldn’t resist the urget to get a vanilla iced soy chai tea; yum. Unfortunately, the only Starbucks in Copenhagen is at the airport (there are 3 at the rather small airport) and the drink just mentioned is 10 bucks instead of 5 like in the states. Ouch. Back to Barcelona… My favorite part of La Rambla is the market to the west of the street. Similar to Pike Place market, minus all the flowers and with numerous of small vendors selling fruits, veggies, nuts and some crazy-looking seafood. Back out on the street, I got a stein-like glass of Sangria with fresh fruit floating in it- really good.

The Olympic Park and Nearby Castle

The Olympic Park was underwhelming but there was a really cool castle on the top of the hill that is free to get into. From the top of the hill you get a great 360 degree view over the whole city. The surrounding part would be a great place to go for runs if I was staying in barcelona for longer. On the back side of the castle there is a funny driving course with every sign and type of intersection imaginable, only on a small scale. I wonder if it was a driving instruction course for motorcycles, as cars surely wouldn’t fit on the miniature roads.

Beaches

Barcelona has great beaches. Nice sand, right downtown, topless women and immigrants to give 5 euro massages right on the beach and sell 1 euro bottles of water.

Traveling from Cinque Terre to Nice was the biggest contrast in locations I experienced on my trip. I went from a pure, natural national park to an artificial tourist attraction that felt like France’s version of Vegas. There are enormous, extravagant hotels and casinos that are lit up at night everywhere you look. Luckily, I was in Nice during France’s holiday, which was quite impressive. Every night I was there, I was an incredible fire works show over the Mediterranean. The first night I was there the main boulevard that parallels the sea was shut down for pedestrians. There were numerous free concerts along the street that lasted well past midnight, which even the families with little kids stayed out to see.

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

This peninsula between Nice and Monaco is far and away the wealthiest place I have ever been. It puts Hunts Point to shame in terms of incredible homes and class. I took a city bus from Nice to the east and walked around the entire peninsula. Every other car was either a Ferrari, Bugatti, Rolls Royce or Maserati. I think the people driving S classes were embarrassed. All the houses on the point (the ones I could see from the road) were villa-like mansions. There was a fair amount of new construction and each new home was being built with a yellow tower crane! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single family home being built that needed a yellow crane to complete construction. My favorite part of the peninsula was sitting at the end of the marina and watching at all the mega yachts. I love seeing slideshows of these class of boats on the internet and this was the first time I’ve seen them in real life. They were close enough that I could see the crew preparing the yachts for use by their owners by getting out the jet skis, ski boats, etc from inside the yacht.

Cannes, Antibes

On my second day in Nice I took the train southwest to Cannes and Antibes. First impression: the trains are no where near as tourist-friendly as they are in Italy. The electronic ticket machines are only in French, only accept coins. The problem is the station doesn’t have a coin machine and the cafe in the station won’t give out enough coins in change to buy a ticket. And for those of us without a credit card with a chip in it, this is a problem. Cannes was similar to Nice- lots of money, people trying to be something they weren’t, etc. I did enjoy walking the docks and seeing some of the yachts parked in the harbor. The most impressive boat there was a massive sail boat that must have been at least 200 feet long. I laid on the beach, walked around and headed back up to Antibes via train. Antibes was a much smaller town, a big relief to me. It has a very large harbor with lots of fishing boats and a few mega yachts wer parked just off shore the day I was there. There is a cool covered outdoor art bazar with lots of pretty weird art next to the Picasso museum. I think it said Picasso lived there at one point. I considered going in the museum, mostly because Picasso and I share the same birthday (which, by the way, is coming up in 2 weeks from tomorrow (today now) wahoo), but it was getting late so I took a rain check and hopped back on the train to Nice.

Monaco

For my last day in Nice, I really wanted to go to Monaco. I have heard a lot about it and always imagined an amazing place so I flagged it as a city I thought I should see. For some reason I imagined it much flatter than it is. It extends from the water’s edge pretty steeply up into hills. I met two people at the bus stop in Nice waiting to go to Monaco. They both had the same agenda I had so we decided to spend the day traveling together. The bus from Nice goes way up into the hills to a small, old village. We stopped at the village, took some pictures, then took a hiking train down the hill to the train station. From there we caught a train a couple stops to the East to Monaco. After seeing Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat a couple days earlier, Monaco was quite underwhelming. It looked like a pretty standard urban area. We walked down to Hotel Monte Carlo as all tourists do, and to our surprise we were able to go inside. We had heard that the dress code is pants and a collared shirt but all three of us wore shorts and t-shirts- no problem. After the casino we walked around, went down to the harbor, and decided we had seen enough of Monaco. We made our way back to the station and took the train one stop to the west. We got off, crossed the tracks, and walked along a path next to the sea to the west for about half a mile to an awesome, rather secluded beach. From this beach, you can swim out about 1/8 of a mile to the west of the bay where there is a cave you can swim into! It was far and away the highlight of our day. Check out the pictures and if you go to Nice or Monaco, definitely check this out. As a bonus, there are plenty of topless swimmers. After our swim, it was back to Nice, dinner, another firework display, then I caught my bus to Barcelona after looking for the bus stop for upwards of an hour.

https://www.facebook.com/curtisjhowell?sk=photos

Before I set out on my trip, I heard from many people that Venice is very tourist-heavy and there is not much to do there so I did not have high expectations. I normally prefer more natural places that are important for reasons other than just entertainment. However, I stayed in a great hostel with nice people that ran it and met some fun people so I ended up having a great time! The hostel was only 5 minutes from the main train station so it was easily accessible but not near the main attractions.

When I arrived on the 7^th, I needed to do my laundry. There was a local laundry mat so I took my dirty laundry there. It cost around 20 USD to do a load of laundry. Ouch. That night I decided to eat dinner at the hostel. The girlfriend of the hostel manager makes dinner every night for 5 euros and it’s a good place to meet other people staying in the hostel so I went for it. Food wasn’t too great but I met some nice people and we all walked outside for about half an hour.

In the morning after a nice breakfast at the hostel, 5 of us from the hostel decided to go on a walking tour with the manager and his girlfriend. It’s a free tour and tips are greatly accepted. They knew some interesting facts about Venice and were a lot of fun. We walked by a shop that takes old 1.5L water bottles, washes them, then sells wine in them. It had at least 15 varieties of wine and we decided to try it out. In Europe it is ok to drink alcohol in public. We drank wine out of plastic water bottles walking down the streets of Venice- pretty strange experience!

All the streets are very skinny and there are no cars. There are all types of boats in the canals. Some of us were speculating whether couriers delivered packages via the streets or the canals. About five minutes later we saw a boat with UPS painted on the rutter.

The main square of Venice is very old and has lots of designer stores. The hostel manager told us that one of the columns facing the water on the government mansion on the corner of the main square is closer to the edge than the rest. If you look at the spacing between the columns and the foundation you can see it’s true. This signified the pole that criminals would be tied to and punished with lashings. He also told us that it is not possible walk on the ledge between the column and the water with toes facing the water and not holding the column. I tried and failed. If you are ever in Venice, give it a shot.

We learned that Venetian cuisine is heavy on seafood so a few of us decided to go out to eat and try some local food. I got a mixed grilled seafood plate. The fish was OK and the waitress was quite rude.

I am quite sure Cinque Terre is the most naturally beautiful place I’ve ever been. It was definitely my favorite place on my trip so far. If you are not familiar with it, Cinque Terre is 5 small Italian towns on the Mediterranean and they are connected by hiking trails. Most tourists only hike on the trail that links the 5 cities near the sea, but there are many more trails up in the hills that are amazing. Several of them wind through vineyards and all have awesome views of the hills, cities and sea.

The first night I stayed in Riomaggiore, the first town from the east. After I checked into the hostel I met someone from Philadelphia and we decided to go for a hike. We hiked to Manarola and then all the way up the hill to the park boundary, then back to Riomaggiore. The Cinque Terre national park is surrounded by an electric fence to keep the wild boars out so we purposely chose trails within the park as we were unsure whether the wild boars like to eat grapes or humans. At the top of the park we found a few summer homes with amazing views. We talked to a lady that lived in one and she told us they though the original structure was medieval and was built to watch for African pirates. We sampled a couple grapes as we walked through the vineyards and they were all really good! We found some interesting vines that had both red and green grapes in the same bunch.

The next two nights I slept in Corniglia, the middle town, so I decided it would be fun to hike with my backpack instead of taking the train. Unfortunately, the coastal trail between Manarola and Corniglia (2^nd and 3^rd towns) was closed indefinitely due to a landslide. So I had to hike via one of the inland trails which was quite a workout with my pack. I locked my backpack up at my hostel and decided to continue along the trail to Vernazza and Monterosso, the 4^th and 5^th towns.

The last day I started from Corniglia and hiked to Vernazza via the coastal trail, then took an inland trail to Monterosso. Once I got to Monterosso I decided to continue hiking along the coast to Sant’ Antoni (or Antonio, I went swimming with my map in my pocket so it’s pretty hard to read). From this point, I could see an amazing view of all 5 cities.

After both full days of hiking, I ended in Monterosso and went swimming. Monterosso is the most touristy and largest cities of the Cinque terre and has 2 large beaches. Most of the beach is covered with beach chairs and sun umbrellas for which you have to pay to use but I found the free beaches to be just fine. The sea in Monterosso is very salty, similarly to how it was in Greece, so I was very buoyant and swimming was easy. However, the water was much colder than in Greece. Focaccia bread is very popular in Cinque Terre. In Monterosso, there was always a very long line coming out of the focaccia bakery. They served it with various toppings, such as olives or pesto. I tried it with olives and it was very good.

Food

One day for lunch I ate a Cinque Terre specialty pizza called frutti di mare, or fruit of the sea. This was the best pizza I have ever had and included clams, mussels, calamari and shrimp. I decided to de-shell the animals and empty the meat onto the pizza and it turned out nicely.

For my last night in Cinque Terre, I met up with someone I live with and 2 girls he is traveling with. It was a coincidence that we both ended up in Cinque Terre at the same time and our reunion can be attributed to none other than Facebook. We met in Monterosso and went to a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves. We got the dish that Rick recommends, a seafood stew with many types of creatures including shrimp, mussels, clams, squid, mini lobsters and some other animals I didn’t recognize. It comes in an enormous bowl in the middle of the table. As Mr. Steves suggested, the stew and a plate of pasta is plenty of food for four.

Also called out in the Rick Steves Italy guidebook was a winery in the town where I stayed, Corniglia. A local 3 Euro glass of wine is served in a purin, which aerates the wine to give it more kick. I didn’t get a video but I’ll be happy to demonstrate the technique if anyone is interested. It’s a little messy at first but I started to get the hang of it toward the end of my glass of wine. A purin will most definitely be on my list of items to acquire when I return to the states.

On my last day, a forest fire (vineyard fire?) lit somewhere in the hills between Riomaggiore and Manarola. I first noticed it when I was past Monterosso and was first a bit concerned that I wouldn’t’ be able to get back to Corniglia if it spread quickly but luckily the Italian fire fighters got the fire under control. Because the hills are so steep and there are not many roads, They fought the fire with a seaplane that scooped up water from the sea and dumped it on the fire. I’ve seen pictures of these planes but I’ve never seen one in action. It was pretty impressive. They also had a helicopter that was dangling a bucket on a cable to do the same thing but the airplane was much more effective. By the next morning, there was no more smoke and the plane was not dumping water on the hills so I assume they put out the fire. Hopefully the grape farmers have insurance, as it seems like a fire could wipe out a livelihood pretty quickly because most of the vines are quite thick, so I assume they have been in the ground for a long time.

Florence is the first city I have visited that is inland. It is set up in some green mountains that make the views very nice. Life seems to be a bit slower here than in Rome and there is much more natural beauty. There were many street performers in Florence. I saw musicians, painters and artists drawing caricatures. The best street performer I saw was a mime. He was advertising for his show and passed out fliers to the hundreds of people who were watching after his performance. Good way to advertise! He was working a busy corner of the main square, where many people were walking. One of his tricks was to walk up behind a random woman passing by, pick her up, and hand her to some random guy. “Happy birthday!” he would yell as he handed her off. Sometimes he would walk very close behind people, mocking them. He was good at hiding when they would turn around to see what the commotion was about. The person would then continue walking, the mime kept mocking! He had white face paint on that came off very easily. He would walk up to a random person, surprise them, then give them kisses on both cheeks, which would leave the kissee’s face bright white from the face paint. I’ve never seen anyone do something so outrageous in public in the U.S. I think it would be awesome but I’m not sure it would be accepted as well as it was here in Europe, as he was pretty obtrusive to random, unwilling people.

Food

I had a very different food experience than in Rome. 2 types of food businesses here- pizzerias and gellaterias, and both are excellent! And they are everywhere. I tried some chianti wine- very good. The gelatti was amazing and the 2 pizzas I had were very good.

Boboli Gaardens

The Boboli garden is a nice park with a good view of the city. It was too expensive for what it provided but was  a good experience nonetheless. The gardens are divided up with paths and hedges so there are many private spaces. I went to the park on a sunny day, found a patch of grass for myself and took a nap. It was a nice way to start the day for sure.

Duomo

The Duomo is a HUGE church. It dwarfs the rest of the city. I decided to climb the bell tower, which is sever hundred steps and provides a nice view of the city. For me, the church did not look very big until I saw people at the top. It has an enormous dome that people can climb to the top of. I thought it was more expensive than it was- they try hard to upsell you- so I decided to climb the bell tower instead.

Michelangelo’s David

I went and saw this sculpture at a museum but visitors are not allowed to take photos. In addition to the David, there were many sculptures buy Michelangelo and other sculptors, and paintings that look like they belong in churches. Most of the paintings were pulled from monasteries and convents when Tuscany was invaded and the new government outlawed these religious venues.

Water machine

Florence had the coolest (eh?) public water fountain to fill up water bottles! It has regular and sparkling water in the main square, all for free. This saved me at least 10 bucks in buying bottled water and Sprite over the course of 36 hours. At first I did not know it had sparkling water. It has two spigots and I happened to fill up with the sparkling (frizzante) spigot the first time. The water tasted funny! And all the sudden my water bottle started leaking. It was the water escaping from the pressure of the sparkling water. Pretty cool.

Train mishap

Rome to Florence was the first train leg of my trip. I couldn’t figure out what train to get on at first because on the board at the station they show the final destination. My train was going on from Florence to Milan, so the board read Milan. Luckily they have people at the station in Rome to help people like me. I found my train and found my car. The train tickets have assigned seating so my next step was to find my seat. It looked like the overhead storage was filling up and there was space as I stepped in the car so I put my backpack up in the storage rack. Then I walked down the car and found my seat was at the opposite end and there was overhead storage above my seat. I thought it would be better to be close to my backpack so I wanted to move it closer. There were many people standing and getting settled in the isle between my bag and me so I thought I would go around the outside of the car to get back to the other side. Right as I stepped out, the train doors closed. I pushed the button on the outside of the car, nothing happened. At this point I realized the train was leaving, I was not on it, but my backpack was. Someone who had a Trenitalia (the train company) shirt on said something frantic and pointed to the other end of the train. I assumed it meant run so I started running in my flip flops with my wallet, phone, camera and computer in tow. About 8 or 10 cars down there was still a car with a door open so I hopped inside. The man who worked for the Trenitalia and was standing outside the open door said something to the tune of “why would you do this?” Now I know to check the time before I hop off the train. I didn’t bother moving my bag after all that; I was just happy I was on the train with my backpack.

Athens

I received the same scam in Athens 3 times from 3 different people. I told the story to someone last night and he said it was so obvious it was a scam but the imposters were pretty convincing so my bad story telling can be to blame. In all of these scams, the bad people start out very friendly and try to relate to my life by saying they have been to the states, have a relative in the states, etc.

The first time I was scammed in Athens, I was walking down a main road by myself around midnight. The road had many nice shops and there were plenty of people there at night so I felt safe. A man came up to me and asked what time it was. I looked and gave him an answer. He went on to introduce himself and tell me he was travelling from a Greek island by himself. When I told him I was going back to my hotel he was offended, as Greeks stay out late and so should I! He asked me about 3 times if I wanted to get a beer at a pub with him and I said no thanks each time. Some more talking and I agreed to grab a drink; it couldn’t hurt. We walked down one of the main roads in downtown Athens. And further and further and further. I kept asking how far his pub was, skeptical that he was telling the truth. Finally we came to a boarded-up store front and he claimed his pub had closed. He then tried to convince me to go to a strip club. My best guess is that these scammers get some $crilla if they bring strangers into a strip club. So I went back home and went to sleep.

2 more times the following day 2 older men started talking to me and kindly offered to show me a local bar with “music from around the world”.

Also in Athens, I think I observed a pick pocket at work. I was riding the subway to the airport on my way out and about 20 feet from me at one of the stops there was a lot of yelling and pushing between an older man and someone in his 20s. The transit security got them both off the train and I speculate that one was trying to get something out of the other’s pocket.

Rome

I was walking up a nice pedestrian-only alley on the way to the Coliseum and I came to a road so I pulled out my map to see which way to go. It was a quiet street and a man who was coming up the road in his car pulled over to the side of the road and told me the Coliseum was to the left (correctly assuming where I was trying to go). Then he proceeded to ask me where I was from and we chatted about what we both did. He claimed he was a “manager” for Armani and was going to be in Austin,Texas in a few months for a trade show. Then he told me he had some samples I could have if I promised not to sell them. He had a leather jacket with fringe that looked like something a cowboy might wear. He asked if I had a girlfriend, I told him yes, and he pulled out a large white purse. He went on to show me that he was running low on gas- he probably had a quarter of a tank left- and that he needed some cash because his credit card was broken. He took out a credit card that was absolutely trashed. It was bent in about 8 different places at different angles. Knowing how hard it is to break a credit card in half when they are expired, I knew this was not accident. I told him thanks, gave him a smile and walked off. He sped away.

Total scam count: 4

Athens- 3

Crete- 0

Rome- 1

Florence- 0

I will update this post as more scams occur

Rome was fantastic. I loved the architecture, history and culture. It was much more refined than Athens. Athens reminds me of a Latin American or Caribbean city where many of the stucco condos are falling apart. In Rome, everything is very nice and well kept. I think the most amazing part of Rome for me is that even more so than Athens, the Romans live their everyday lives around all the historical sites and ruins in the city. Rome is much more expensive than Athens. Beverages from street kiosks were three to four times as expensive. 4 Euros (around 6 bucks) for a Sprite that is smaller than a Bottle of pop in the States- wowsers. I found the best places to get beverages on the go were grocery stores and mini marts.

Coliseum

Pretty neat. I didn’t go inside because the line was very long and I didn’t have much time. My favorite part was there were Indians selling hats and Chinese junk (just as I have found in Athens and Crete). Apparently they are not supposed to be there because there was a police car chasing them around. The police would spot one, drive pretty fast toward him (and the area was pretty crowded with ppl) and the Indian would pick up his good and run! I watched this for at least 10 minutes. It was a hoot!

Vatican City

Very impressive. If you have not been, you should go. The history and scale of the buildings blew my mind. I went in the afternoon around 2 or 3. No line for the Basilica. I walked around the outside of Vatican City to check it out, not knowing what was back there. Found the Vatican museum, again no line. There is amazing art in there from many periods including sculptures, paintings and tapestries. Apparently you aren’t supposed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel because after I took one, a guard grabbed me by the shirt and told me to leave. But I still got my picture!

The Yellow hostel

I stayed in an awesome hostel! It’s called The Yellow. Definitely recommend for any young people traveling to Rome. It’s in a good location a few blocks from the train station. I arrived in the evening, maybe around 9:00. I found a sign for the hostel on the side of the building but there was a restaurant or bar under the sign and there were 50 people outside and inside. Walked past all the commotion and couldn’t find the entrance to the hostel. Someone who was outside in the crowd asked me if I was looking for the checking desk, I told him I was, and he showed me inside. Turns out the hostel has its own bar in the ground floor! When you check in, they even give you a token for a free drink. Pretty good way to meet people from around the world! Lots of Aussies in Rome (and Florence).

Food

The food I ate in Rome was rather underwhelming. When you get pizza from a pizzeria (not a restaurant), it is cold, then they warm it up in a toaster oven if you want it to go. And it wasn’t all that great. But to be fair, I didn’t eat at a restaurant. I found the gelatti I tried (and I tried a few places that looked decent) to be not so great as well.

I had planned to go to the Greek island of Ios but by the time I tried to get a ferry ticket, it was too late. If I were to do my trip again, I would book as much of my lodging and transportation in advance as possible. My idea was to be more flexible with my plans by not booking everything in advance. But as it turns out, the good hostels fill up so I am now booking my lodging 1-2 weeks in advance. So the flexibility is lost. Oh well.

The travel agent recommended I go to Crete when we found out I couldn’t go to Ios. I think it was a good recommendation! Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and its main city is the 4^th largest (by population I guess?) in all of Greece.

Inside the ferry- looks like a Las Vegas hotel!

The ferries from Athens are incredible! 9 decks, multiple restaurants, a swimming pool (I’m writing this next to the swimming pool on my return trip), etc. It’s a cruise ship with capacity for cars on the bottom decks. There are even 3 floors of staterooms, all for a 6 ½ hour trip. The company has 2 of these boats that are identical and each makes 2 trips every day.

The main street in Irakleio runs perpendicular to the sea and cars are not allowed. In Greece, anywhere you can ride a motorcycle it is OK so there was some motorcycle traffic but mainly foot. I stayed at the El Greco hotel, which is around 4 blocks up the main foot street. It was fancier than I needed but it was only around 10 bucks more than the alternative hostel, in a better location and the travel agent recommended it so I went for it. At both hotels I’ve stayed so far, each room is opened with a metal key. When you leave the hotel, you leave the key at the front desk. When you return, just tell the receptionist your room number and she’ll give you your key back. I was always a little worried about the security of the system but no theft so far.

I wanted to go to Ios to lounge on the beach, so I decided to take the same approach in Crete. The first day I went to a beach 3 miles west of the main town, the second a beach 6 miles east. Both beaches were nice and had a fair number of people doing the same thing I was. The water is very warm! Like Hawaii or maybe even a tad warmer. I was able to float on my back, which has never been possible as far as I can remember. Maybe there is a high salt content in the water?

I ate at two local restaurants in Crete. Both gave me fresh fruit for dessert “on the house” including watermelon, cherries and cantaloupe. Don’t know if this is a Crete thing or what but it was nice!

One of the restaurants I visited was called the Fish Tavern. They had calamari as an entrée. Forrest introduced me to calamari 2 summers ago and ever since I have really liked it, but I’ve never seen it as an entrée- only as an appetizer. I got 2 grilled calamari and they were whole. The rings and tentacles make so much more sense now! I never really understood what part of the animal I was eating. I was going to get a Greek salad but I saw for the same price they had a crab salad. I was expecting a green salad with crab on top but instead got a bowl of the kind of crab salad you would normally put on a sandwich. Oh well. The calamari was really good! It tasted fresh; I’m guessing they pull it out of the Mediterranean. Definitely the best calamari I’ve ever had.

Ouza ingredients

The second restaurant was in a city park on the road the parallels the sea on the water side. There is a large shelter (roof only, no walls) and 4 restaurants share the space. The actual restaurants are across the street but no one was eating in there. The waiters have to run the food across the busy street and dodge the car and motorcycles- pretty crazy! I saw a couple of close calls. For dinner I got a Greek salad (decided not to be adventurous with my salad choice after the previous night) and the mixed seafood plate so I could try some different things. Unfortunately the seafood plate was fried but oh well. It had calamari, muscles, shrimp, 2 filets (I forgot what types those were) and anchovies. It was fun- I don’t think I’ve ever had anchovies before. I had to peel the meat off the skeleton. Everything was good! I decided to order Ouza because I had read that is a traditional Greek drink. It comes as 40% alcohol that you mix at the table with water and ice. A couple cubes of ice, fill the glass 25-30% with ouza and fill er up with water. It didn’t have much flavor, I don’t know what I can relate it to. Then for my complimentary dessert along with my fruit, the waiter brought some hard alcohol that he said is made with the byproducts of making wine. He warned me that it would make me dizzy after confirm that I wasn’t driving home, but I can’t say I felt any dizziness. After dinner I walked down the street to check out the night life but at midnight, it was still pretty dead. I don’t know if the party was just starting or if it was an off night. Based on the bars preparing they venues, looked like they expected customers later. People stay out late in Greece! When I left the restaurant around 11:45, it was still full and there were families with little kids eating at that time of night. I wonder what time people in Greece typically start work and if all the people out late at night are vacationers. My guess is no.

I didn’t mention it in my post about Athens, but on every corner in both Athens and Crete, there is a kiosk and an Indian selling junk from China. The Indians either sell sun umbrellas, little r/c cars, light up sticks the size of a straw that they shoot up into the air at night, sunglasses, fake designer purses or rubber balls that make a design when you throw them at something (they have small 1x8s to show you). Most sell the rubber balls. I never saw anyone buy one but they are always out throwing their balls at the boards. It cracks me up every time! The kiosks are like miniature versions of a 7Eleven. They always have cokes, candy, etc. They’re everywhere and the locals buy from these little stands. When I had to call my bank in the U.S., I had to go to a kiosk and but a calling card to stick in the pay phone- the phones themselves don’t take your money like in the states. Next stop, Rome!