Greece and Athens were awesome. The landscape and water were just what you would expect. Surprisingly Athens was quite a clean city, which was not what I expected. I had heard what a chaotic place it was but after Naples and Milan it was quite pleasant. The Parthenon and Acropolis were both great, as were the other sites around the Athens area. The sculptures in Athens were excellent much more detailed and expressive than the ones seen in the museums of Italy. We enjoyed the ferry rides back and forth from Greece as well. Both rides were overnight and were 15-20 hours but a nice change from the typical running around we usually are up to. The food was expensive but we packed lots to offset the cost.
Venice was awesome! It was exactly what you expect it to be. It is a labyrinth of small narrow alleys, lots of different squares, and waterways with boats floating along all over the place. We spent our time in Venice just walking around and checking out shops and sights. We had seen so many museums and churches we were happy just to take it easy window shopping. Probably the best part other than just being there, is when I paid a Euro for some corn to feed the pigeons. It was awesome, I would put a little food on my hand and they would land all over me. It was kinda gross, cause they are pigeons but we were both laughing so hard. Melanie could hardly take any pictures.
Our train ride to Vienna wasn't the best we spent 4 of the 7 hours without a seat as we had to get on without a reservation and the train was full. We had a seat for a while but had to get out when we found out we couldn't sit there with the pass we have. Austria has been good though, it is very clean but colder than we are used to. It was 16 Celsius and we were nearly freezing. We went to the Zoo yesterday for a change, and it was great. The Vienna Zoo is the oldest zoo in the world and has everything. We saw Pandas, Elephants, Giraffes, Koalas, and a whole assortment of Monkeys and Penguins. There was even a bat cave which was awesome, it was freaky having so many fly all around you. I was proud of Melanie, she actually came into the cave (with a bit of coaxing). It was a great time and we spent 5 hours there. Today we walked around in the cold rain just looking and at the local cathedral and Hapsburg palaces. It would have been more enjoyable without the rain. Luckily the hostel we are staying in has a kitchen so we were able ti enjoy a good homey dish of fried potatoes and hot dogs. You would be surprised the things you miss when they aren´t around.
Off to Budapest tomorrow, our most easterly stop. Looking forward to the differences it will have from other countries we have been to . Not sure what exactly the things we will be up to but it should be fun.
A couple of pics of me with the Venetian pigeons
