We arrived in Athens early in the day and made our way to our hotel, which was fairly standard except that the front desk controlled the A/C in our room, which was odd. We got some 'authentic' Greek food - read: Gyros and started for the Acropolis. We were actually on the wrong side to get to the entrance, so once we figured it out, we made it to the entrance.

Being a complete idiot, I knew the Acropolis had the Parthenon and the temple of Nike, but didn't realize there's a lot of stuff there. It was unbelievably hot (I'd guess at least 100) and there's no shade anywhere. There is a nice breeze occasionally because you're above pretty much all of Athens. I don't know what it is about giant old buildings and me, but I was amazed. Stupefied. Just the scale of the Parthenon is unbelievable. I've seen a million pictures of the thing, but nothing can capture how incredible it is. If it was built two weeks ago, it would be incredible. The fact that it was built around 490 BC boggles my mind. The rest of the site is quite impressive as well. If you're ever near there, go see it.

We met up with the rest of our posse throughout the afternoon, which included Sean, Seth, and Brian I. I was designated Brian II for unknown reasons. We walked around for a bit and then hit the roof-top bar for drinks and the sunset. (see pics) From there it was off to a really excellent dinner including the requisite Ouzo. We hit several other bars in the area that night, and found that there doesn't seem to be an open container law (as with most other places). Yea.

The next day the rest of the crew hit the Acropolis while Sara worked and I tooled around running errands. We were debating when to head out, and reached consensus just in time. We were on a 2:40 flight to Rhodes. We got a bus at 1:15. The Athens airport is about 45-50 minutes by express bus. Yea. A mad dash later and we made the flight with a few minutes to spare and we were on our way to Rhodes.

Rhodes is quite large and on the other side of the Aegean. How Greece ended up with it stupefies me. We stayed in Rhodes town where we toured the Old City that night and made plans to go scuba diving the next day. Chalk up another one on the 'Stuff Brian's never done before' tote board.

The next morning we cruised down to the dock to meet Nick, our Aussie dive master and get going. We set off for the harbor we would be diving in and I got the crash course in how to scuba dive. The rest of my crew is certified, but they seemed to be paying attention anyway. After learning a few hand signals and how to equalize my ears, apparently I was ready to strap a giant tank on my back and put my life into the hands of (very nice) total strangers. The real divers went first, so I hung out and looked around the harbor and sunned. When it came time to suit up, I was a little nervous but thought I had a handle on things. Once I had the tank and whatnot on, it's really not that weird. The hardest part for me was to 'breathe normally' because, well, I never think about breathing, but now it was all I was thinking about. We eventually dove down to about 8 meters (~24 ft.) and fed some fish and checked out the sea life. Got this cool picture demonstrating that I need a hair cut and that I needed a donut. The other group went out when I came up and I went back out when they came back. Went down to about 10 meters in another direction. I think I got the basic hang of things and even learned (on a semi-emergency basis) how to clear my mask of water. Wish I had learned that when I was 10.

We headed back for port, where the Colossus of Rhodes was rumored to have been built. There's some argument over where it actually was or if it ever was, but one thing is for certain. In the episode of Ducktales where they travel back in time, it was standing on some huge cliff. There was no such cliff anywhere on the island. Damn you Ducktales. There are two stone goats marking where its feet may have been.

We took off to get dinner (obligatory delicious Greek food) at an ocean-side restaurant, where we spotted a diving platform about 100 yards off shore. It was a high-dive built of concrete with smaller platforms and the main one to jump/dive off. After dinner Brian I said he was going, and after some goading and peer pressure, Seth and I both joined. It wasn't the tallest thing I've ever jumped off, but it was a little intimidating. It's definitely the tallest thing I've ever dove off. After several dives/jumps, we swam back in and headed home. We have video, which I'll try to post.

That night we went to several bars, picked up pictures from our dive, and met Nick and his sister at a heavy metal bar. It was surreal. After staying out way too late, we made a bee-line for our fairy, which was my own personal test in holding myself together. (Note to self: Do not go out until 4am and expect to enjoy a boat at 8:30.)

We landed on the island of Kos, where we were meeting our boat we had rented for the week. It was a 47 ft. sailboat which slept 10. We had seen pictures, but that was about it. We made it down to the marina and found that a) we had a boat b) it looked really cool and c) we couldn't get on yet, as it was being cleaned. We toured around Kos for a bit and then met our cook, who introduced herself as 'Helen' but in reality was named Elaina. She helped us shop and get supplies. Later in the day we met Andreas, who in reality was named Andreas, but in double reality was most likely the inspiration for the show MacGuyver. With that we set sail...

A couple of Sara's friends had outlined a good route to take and sights to see, so I buckled down for a good old fashioned road trip. It turns out Romania (the part we would see) is pretty small, so my visions of eight hour drives were a bit skewed. A couple hours later we arrived in Sinaia, home of two castles that have to be seen to be believed. After driving around aimlessly for a while and asking directions with mixed results, we stumbled onto the hotel we were looking for. It was a cool little place, and the guy hooked us up with a good room for not too much dough. We had a nice big balcony and outside the bathroom was a waterfall. Not kidding. Check the pics. We hung that night and afternoon in Sinaia, where we befriended some wine and a waiter who was able to call us a cab due to the ridiculous thunderstorm that opened up during dinner. Sara gave him about a dollar in Romanian money (8,000,000,000 or so old Lei) and you'd have thought he won the lottery.

We finally made it to the castles the next day, where we wished for some good old fashioned American signs and lines. There was a bit of a mob hanging around outside the door to the castle, where the sign said to wait before being invited in. They give tours in a million languages, but you have to have somewhere between 15 and 30 people before you get a tour. We had 6 english speakers who we found by asking 'English? English?' to everyone hanging around. The Germans and Italians were representing, and by representing I mean they were yelling the loudest when the door keeper (similar to the one in the Wizard of Oz) appeared. We finally ended up with a mixed group of English sort-of speakers about 45 minutes later. It was well worth the wait. Sadly no pictures, but the castle is 160 rooms, of which we saw about 20. There were the obligatory secret passages, fake bookcases, suits of armor, and all the other castle mainstays. There was a smaller castle near there built for the king's daughter in law who didn't like the main castle. I've since tried this tactic with my parents and got nowhere. The smaller castle was impressive in its own right, but in a more modern way.

We bid Sinaia adieu and headed toward Brasov, the "Prague of Romania". On the way we stopped to see Dracula's castle, which has little or nothing to do with Dracula, but was a cool castle nonetheless. Again, some more signs showing the way would have been helpful, but so it goes. The castle was the most tourist-laden area we saw in Romania, so after a quick drive-through, we were off again. We rolled back to Brashov, which is a neat little town, and on its way to being even cooler. There's a couple of main streets and a large square along with a nice assortment of bars and restaurants. There are a few interesting sights to see including the synagogue and a couple huge churches, one of which has the largest bell in Romania. We ended up staying in a hostel with Sara in a room with 5 other people and me on a matress in the hallway. It was more of a landing really, but it was super cheap and we needed to sleep somewhere. Hostel people are fun. The next morning we hiked up to the top of a mountain you can also access by cable car. It took us about an hour of steady switchback hiking. We thought we were making good time only to be passed by a dog and a 50 year old guy running up the trail. The view was worth it. We rode the cable car back down and watched the operator pocket our fares.

From Brasov we went northwest toward Sighisoara. We missed a turn somewhere and had to take a 'secondary' road to get back where we needed to be. The condition of the secondary road can only be described as post-apocolyptic. Picture car-eating potholes, huge piles of dung, and sections just completely missing. The Subaru made it through with no problem. I don't think I say the same for the Smart car that was in front of us.

Sighisoara brought a meet-up with a Friend of a Friend (FoF) of Sara's named Pujo and his cousin Alex. He gave us the best tour we've ever gotten and found us one of the best places we've stayed. It was ours for the bargain price of 1,000,000 old lei, aka 100 new lei, aka about $36. The town was also the birth place of Vlad Dracul, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Count Dracula. A good time (and Romanian brandy) was had by all. It was truly amazing to hear about living under and the the fall of Communism from eye witnesses.

Next up was a trip to Sibiu, a beautifully restored town to the southwest. We met up with another of Sara's friends for a traditional Romanian meal and drinks. We found our way around town earlier in the day to one of the sketchier places we stayed and then took in the sights (as well as a couple of outdoor cafes. Note to the US - please get more of these.)

From there we took the Transfagarasian road through the Transylvanian Alps. We had been warned that everyone who ever drives it dies. It wasn't so bad in reality, but it did rise something like 2500 meters in a little over 20 kilometers. We dropped about 12 degrees Celsius on the way up. The peak and the lake at the top was fogged in, but after driving through a small tunnel to the south side, it was beautiful and amazing. Check the pics.

We finally made it to Bucharest, where I wisely spent some hard-earned hotel points on the Marriott. We paid more to park the car than I did to stay in the hostel. We toured Bucharest, including marveling at the People's Palace. It was built to be the largest building in the world, but they didn't plan correctly and it's thus second to the Pentagon. While a marvel to behold, It's a little sad since it was, and continues to be, a huge drain on Romanians to build and maintain it. Rooms with 19m ceilings are flanked by hallways with 25ft. pocket doors. There's a fair bit of green space in Bucharest, and the old areas are making something of a comeback. The fingerprints of Ciecescu are all over the place, including a full size Arc de Triomphe in the northern part of town. We also met up with some additional FoFs for a great meal and more Romanian perspective. From there it was on to Greece...

We arrived at the crack of dawn, aka 8-30 (sorry for the additional keyboard troubles), so there weren't rooms available yet due to the old women that own them not calling in. Let's take a break to review a few key facts about Hvar - there are three main towns, all about 15k away from each other, with each a 45 minute bus ride from the other. There are things to see in each city and they apparently all have their own character. We would be there 24 hours. Throw into the mix the fact that some friends of Sara's that we'd seen in Morocco were in the furthest town away.

So we did what anybody would do - we rented a car. A convertible Rover 2 door, to be more specific. It was old, it was beat, and it redefined the term "cowl shake". Think wet noodle with half the noodle missing. As VP of transportation and the only member of our merry band that can drive stick, I loved it. We took the long, old road over to the furthest town, which was awesome for me because with a manual transmission, driving anything on the ascending, descending, twisting roads was a good time. I tried to block out the huge dropoffs on the side of the road. Guard rails haven't yet made it there.

We made it to Jelsa, where Sara's friends were staying and actually ran into them walking down the sidewalk near their hotel. Obviously it\s not a huge place. We hung out on their beach for a while (think stones and concrete slab, but nice) and then went back into town for lunch.

We piled in the car to drive to the next town, Stari Grad, which is interesting in its own right. Very local and very mellow. We happened upon a woman selling wine out of her courtyard/living room. It was decent stuff, so we bought some. Just the right amount of anti-freeze. I think some people bought some souvenirs.

Back to Jelsa to drop off the girls and we had called the room place in Hvar town, who told us we had a room. Said our goodbyes and took another "spirited" drive, this time on the new road to Hvar. We got the room info after some confusion (oh - the people who called! right, right, the people who called.) We returned the car and then lugged our stuff about a half mile and up a ton of stairs to "meet the woman in front of the school". We found what looked like a school and a woman appeared like Batman out of nowhere. She beckoned us on, and like a couple climbers and a sherpa, we made it to her house. As we're about to go in, we notice the house is completely dark. She started gesticulating wildly about a fire and it seemed like an electrical fire. At this point Sara and I shoot looks of total terror to each other, because we've just figured out why this room is only 30 Euro while most rooms in town are 60-70 and up. The woman picks up on this, and looks like she's going to cry, so we go in and check it out. Sure enough, there are candles lighting everything, and the room was amazing - private bathroom, new, huge terrace, etc. We figure it's late and this is it, so agree to it. About 5 minutes after paying the woman, the lights come on. No joke. They stayed on the rest of the night. I was afraid to sneeze for most of the night. We finally figured out that a house nearby had had a fire and that had affected several houses in the area.

We checked out Hvar town at night, which is quite the spectacle of jet setters, or in this case, yacht setters. There were a couple boats docked that were drawing crowds just sitting there. It was bizarre. A few drinks and we were back to our fully lit bargain pad. The next day we set out back for Split.

Once back in Split sans ferry incidents, we made the decision to hit another town further up the coast but very close to the airport. We boarded a local bus (think communist-era old-school) and headed over there. Sara found us a very cheap but very, very small room which had AC and a TV, so we pretended we were back in the states and watched CNN drone on about Israel for 30 minutes. Another decent dinner and drinks and it was an early night.
We hopped a 7am flight with a double connection through Zagreb, Croatia and Vienna on our way to Bucharest, Romania...

After asking everyone at the terminal which boat was the right one to get to Korcula, the island we were heading to, we finally figured out that it was the giant one at the end of the dock. After hustling there, we thought there would be a ticket window. There was no such thing. So we asked a guy on the boat if we could buy a ticket on board. (The boat was 2 minutes to departure at this point.) He said no, but if we gave him our passports, he would let us on and we could take care of it when we got off. He had a uniform, it was early, and I'm not terribly bright, so we did just that. After 3.5 hours on the ferry (and some dolphin watching to boot), we started to get off when we heard one announcement in Croatia and "Mr. Hendrix to the xlsjlkcsldkj." So we went down to where I thought the crew offices were, and sure enough, after asking an older guy in a uniform, he ducks into an office and comes back with the passports. We try to ask how to pay, etc., but he gives us the universal sign for "Don't worry about it. It's taken care of." We quickly sprinted off the boat and onto a van to get to the other side of the island.

Korcula is a beautiful little island and Korcula town is a pretty mellow little town with the requisite old city and lots of crazy stairways and alleys. We found a really sweet apartment for more than we should have paid and set up camp. We hit a wrap stand for lunch because after days and days of italian and seafood, we were at the end of the rope. We also set up wind surfing lessons with a kid who could have easily passed for a California surfer dude stoner. Turns out he speaks 4 languages, went to the UN school in NYC, and is going to school in Vermont (Marlboro, I think) next year. Appearences and all that...

For the next couple days we chilled out, hung at the pebbly beaches, rented a scooter and explored the island a bit, I went biking, and we learned (a little bit) how to windsurf. It's actually a lot easier to get going than I thought. There's some decent night life in Korcula, most of which occurs around Fresh, the wrap stand. Those guys are geniuses.

We cut out of Korcula after another near ferry miss and headed for Hvar, island of the jet setters...

We hit the old city, which is completely contained in a fortress. It had been shelled within the past couple of decades, but it was almost completely restored. We grabbed lunch and headed for the top of the walls to walk around the city. I took about 50 pics because the view into town as well as out to sea were amazing. It's about a 2km walk around, so we took our time and enjoyed the sights. The rest of the afternoon we tooled around town checking out various churches and other sights. We made plans and bought tickets to go see some chamber music as part of their summer fesitval. We had an awesome seafood dinner of stuff that seemed like it jumped out of the water and onto the plate. We arrived for the concert a bit underdressed to find they were holding it in one of the most amazing courtyards I could imagine. There were general admission tickets available, which meant sitting on a giant stone staircase or up in some arches above the musicians. The music was incredible, and the acoustics were fantastic. With only about 200 people in attendance, it was a very cool sight.

We had made plans to go sea kayaking the next day, and I should have thought about it a bit more when I woke up to say 'wow, there are white caps out there'. So it was a no-go. Instead we wandered down to the ferry dock and hopped a boat to Lupon, one of three islands in the Elephitine set. (Not sure about the Elephitine thing). We hiked across the island (about 2k) to go to a sand beach, which is rare in Croatia. We sat down and it started raining - hard. So we packed up and headed back to the bay where the ferry dropped us and had lunch. We hung out on the pebbly beach all afternoon and hopped the boat back to Dubrovnik. We met up with our housemate, a very cool Aussie, and got dinner and drinks and listened to some jazz outside until late. After some confusion and a missed bus the next morning, we headed north for Split, a larger city about 5 hours up the coast by bus.

Second, the entire place is a post card. I stopped taking pictures at one point because the captions would have been "amazingly cool city block in Prague III", etc.

Third, there"s a lot to see in Prague, so it can be a little overwhelming in that respect.

Fourth, it"s a pretty touristy city, which is good because most everyone speaks either French or English and there"s lots of good food, but bad because touristy means lots of tourists. (And I realize that I"m part of the problem.)

We found a semi-decent pension (similar to a real hotel, but not as nice) near the old square, in walking distance to everything. So far the easiest thing to do when travelling is to find a place when you get there. This flies directly in the face of everything that my Hendrix blood stands for, but after doing it for a while it only gives me slight heart palpatations. We found a cool little Cuban place where we sat outside, I ordered a steak wrapped in bacon, and we drank mojitos and toasted Seth, master of the mojito.

The next day we started where everyone on Earth (and most of them were there when we were) starts - Prague castle. After going in where everyone else comes out, we finally figured it out and did a self-guided audio tour. Neither of us could stomach a tour group or guide. We saw the changing of the guard at noon and then the Cathedral as well as several of the other parts of the castle. After a while we were on total overload because there"s so much packed into the place. We got lunch at a Cantina (imported from somewhere) after discovering the Sushi place was closed for renovations (not kidding). We made another trip back to the castle to finish it off and headed back to town.

The next couple of days included walking all around the city to see some other sites, including a really cool set of buildings that make up the Jewish quarter. We had the obligatory lunches in cafes, and the requisite beers in pubs, bars, cafes, bagel shops, and everywhere else they could fit a cash register. It was strange to go from Morocco, where alcohol is by far the most expensive thing you can buy, to Prague, where a large beer costs less than a Coke (and it"s served colder). We took in some live music at a couple jazz clubs a couple of nights as well. On our last night we made the "seemed like a good idea at the time" decision to go to a giant club. Packing and our 5am taxi the next morning were probably the low point of the trip so far, but when you end up in Dubrovnik Croatia by 10am, life ain"t so bad...

(In case you"re wondering why I"m using the double quote instead of a single apostrophe, it"s because I"m in Croatia and the keyboard is crap.)

From Casa we rented a Fiat and drove down to Marakesh. It wasn't quite as cool as they made it seem in Indiana Jones, but what is? We were able to find a really cool place that actually had A/C, so sleeping was nice and cozy. The main square is filled every night with bands, vendors selling everything and anything, and the biggest food court in the world. Granted most of the food is the same, but it's still pretty damn impressive. There's also a medina with a more chill vibe than either Casa or Rabbat's. They also tended to have more handmade goods, especially leather, there. Handmade where, I don't know. We spent the next day in Marakesh as well, checking out an incredibly old palace as well as a newer but still old palace (both names escape me, but I"m sure Wikipedia knows. Both were awe-inspiring to say the least. The idea of having a 90 meter pool 800 years ago boggles my mind. We spent the afternoon at the pool because we were in Africa and it was Africa hot.

The next day we drove a couple hours to Esouira right on the coast. It's a fishing port, and previously a military fort. We bunked down in a very cool little Riad, which is a house with an open area in the middle. Since it rarley rains, it provides tons of use and helps keep things cool. I took a bunch of pics. It also included a sweet little roof deck with beautiful views of the rest of town including the fort walls, ocean, and the other white-washed roof decks. We had an excellent Tajine lunch at an outdoor cafe and then took a walk around town and an obligatory stop in the medina. One of the vendors was creating sculpture made purely from scarp metal. One particularly cool one was made entirely of bike parts. Things like deraileur cages were put to amazing use. Wish I could have bought one, but getting things back to the States is an adventure at best. We managed to secure some bohemia-style beers and enjoy them on the roof. We went out for dinner, hung out a bit more, and hit the hay.

The next morning we piled into the car for a 5 hour drive back to Casa. It was incredibly hot and drivers and driving there is beyond nuts. I thought we were going to die (and I really mean that) twice. Situations like oncoming cars in both lanes and people on scooters in the breakdown lane tend to thin my joie de vive. But we made it back.
After that it was an early night and the next morning it was on to Prague...

We hit a Tex Mex place for dinner with a group of Moroccans, which in conjunction with the random music I've been hearing everywhere put my irony sensors on overload. We were in a cab with a cabbie who could sing most of 'Hotel California', but didn't understand a word of English. But we had a good singalong. Dinner was around midnight, which just starts to mess with your mind after a while.

After that we rolled to a huge club in the middle of nowhere. Two things stood out: 1) Moroccans at the club were quite concerned with their appearance. Lots of designer jeans and trendy-ish haircuts. Also quite a few guys who seemed to be working on eating disorders. 2) House music is probably popular because it's the same everywhere. I don't really care for it, but there you are. Oh, and I was informed that a lot of the women at this club were prostitutes, as if I didn't have the whole 'doesn't speak my language' thing working against me. So a good game of 'Spot the Hooker' was started. It's tougher than it seems.

Everything in Morocco is cheap except for alcohol. And you can't get bacon anywhere.
Anyway... we headed up to the Mid-Atlas mountains with a friend of Sara's, and stayed at his place for a while. We ate incredibly well, hiked into the plateau-filled desert, shot guns, and went off-roading. I'll post the pics at some point. I'd like to thank Nintendo for my excellent showing with the clay pigeons and shot gun. We got back to Casablanca on Tuesday morning and took off again from there. More to come.

After clearing customs (easy for an American) and buying a train ticket (deuxieme class is 2nd class, right? not 12th?), I hit Casablanca. We immediately turned around and headed to Rabbat, about an hour train ride up the coast. Rabbat, the capital, had some amazing sights. I went to my first Medina, which is like an open market. They sell pretty much everything and anything. Fresh (and I do mean fresh) meat, spices, knock off soccer jerseys, etc. We went up to an old walled city overlooking the ocean, then walked down to the ocean and watched a bunch of kids play soccer as the sun went down. We wanted to eat around 8pm, but apparently no one here eats until at least 10pm. We ate anyway because we had a train to catch. We topped the night off with some really small beers.
Today we hit several open air markets, which were very cool yet a little scary. They're dark, sort of dank, and filled with more people selling anything you could ever want. I got a belt, but was tempted by a Ferrari shirt written in Arabic. Haggling is expected, so it's pretty entertaining. And it's all in French, so thanks Madame Braun.
We finished the afternoon off with a visit to a Hammam, which is sort of a spa/steam room. You sit in the steam and then they take this sand-paper type mit and scrape off all your dead skin. Then they rinse you off and give you a massage. It sounds sort of weird, but it was awesome. So relaxing, and my skin is super soft. We're heading back to Rabbat and onto the High Atlas mountains this weekend.

Things I've learned:
-Annoying kids are everywhere. It's not just a US thing. And bad parents are everywhere as well. I wish people would stop yelling at their kids to shut up and that they're stupid. (That was mostly in the US, obviously.)
-If you need any movie ever made (including ones currently in theaters), they're available in Casa.
-The quality of the knock-off goods is pretty good, although there are some things like the wrong players on soccer jerseys that give it away.
-The class disparity here is quite obvious. There are a few neighborhoods of large houses behind larger walls, and there are people with nothing.
-Moroccans don't consider themselves part of Africa. They've applied to the EU several times.

Think that's it for now. Not too many pics because taking people's picture is sketchy.