I knew a man once who said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."

friends, countrymen, lend me your ears...
So said Marc antony at the end of Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR. Today, we saw not only, the burnging place of Caesar's body, but his house, his nephew's palace, the senate house of ancient Rome, and the very spot where Russell Crowe began that muscular slick-haired Roman butt kicker we all know and love (see the title of this blog).
We started the day at our new hostel--Happy Days Roma. I was skeptical at first, mostly because they charge for breakfast and don't lock their doors, but this place rocks. Molly and I finished off the oatmeal we've been carrying around for two weeks--complete with a few cookies that we found in the kitchen...goood. After breakfast, we took our time getting ready and then headed out into Rome. Our hostel is right on the wall of the Vatican, so of course, we payed old Benedict a visit at the local starbucks...just kidding. Actually, we headed to the colloseum and its surrounding ancient neighborhood across the Tibre river. We purchased the 11 euro pass that gives you entrance into the Colloseum, Palatine Hill, and the old Roman Forum, and had a ball strolling on the same ''basalt stones on which Augustus once walked on his way to the senate'' (according to my book). Starting with Palatine hill, the ancient Pennsylvania Avenue for the emporers of Rome, we were able to see the home of Augustus (which was standing when Christ was born...''I wonder if he saw the star''...we asked). It still had the marble floors and a fresco on the wall, although we also saw some coke bottles and cig butts that I doubt were as old. Behind the palace, we got to see the Circus Maximus--ancient and private chariot track for the emporer's viewing pleasure. We finished off the Palatial neighborhood by checking out the extra-ancient huts of Romulus (supposedly). Remembered as the barbarian child who was raised by a she-wolf with his brother Remus, who grew up to capture the Sabine women and impregnate them, and who eventually founded Rome (which bears his name) with the subsequent babies, Romulus was a cool guy and his huts were a pretty surreal thing to take in. From the hill we made our way into the Roman Forum.
Think Times Square, except with mosaics instead of neon Sean jean ads and columns instead of giant plasma screens. Basically, the forum was the center of life in Rome, and although it seemed small to Molly and me, it was a far-cry from the mud-with-thatched-roof huts the rest of the world was living in at the time. We saw the arch of Titus (erected to honor Titus' defeat of the Jews around the time of the macabees), the oldest bronze door still swinging on its ancient hinges, the spot where they burned Julius Caesar's body (et tu brute?) and the home of the Vestal Virgins (the ancient nuns who kept Rome's eternal flame going...and were chaste or else). Finally, we made our way to the Colloseum where the magic really happened long ago. On the way there, we had our first taste of Roman gelato (Ben=chocolate and coffee, Molly=banana and chocolate) it was great...but not compared to what came later. At the colloseum, we were happy to find out that we could get in very quickly--since we'd already bought a ticket--and that they no longer killed christians there. We toured the place, saw the cages where they kept the lions tigers and bears, saw the cages where they kept the martyrs, saw the booths where important people sat, and finally, saw the cages where they kept the gladiators before they fought. Some pretty cool statues depicted the different kinds of gladiators, and the place was just tough in every way. Soon we headed back to happy days and stopped at a grocery store for some foodstuffs. After we'd loaded up on pasta and nutella (this godly spread that europe loves), we came back and made dinner. after dinner, we went and found an even better gelato stand right on the wall of the vatican (i think the cream has holy water in it) and enjoyed every bite. We've just come back to the hostel...where one of the workers (a peruvian in a cowboy hat name julio caesar..no joke) just handed everyone in the room a heavenly mixture he's calling sangria and some bruscetta or something...i'm not so sure, but when in Rome as they say. Cheers.
ciaou bellas.
ben&molly
ps...pray for me, julio has already hit on molly more than once...i may have to pull a brutus later.

quote for the day
if you are at Rome, live in the Roman style. if you are elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere. --st. ambrose

Journey

We left Athens yesterday around 11 am with smiling faces not only because we had our 4 person room to ourselves but also because we got an interesting discount on the room. We made our way to the ferry port by means of one very congested train to Kiato (1 hr 30 min, i sat on the steps & Ben stood the entire time) and and one very long train to Patras. We casually made our way to the ticket booth, purchased our tickets, then headed for a late lunch/our only meal for the day. We ate at Chick n Chicken, Ben got a burger but it was really a gyro, i got pasta but it was really quiche. We hopped on the ferry at 4.30 and proceeded to play card games until the boat left at 6. We were approached by new travelers who had many questions for us. We read books, watched shows on our ipods, watched movies in silence b/c they would not turn on the sound, and ate icecream for dinner mainly b/c it was the cheapest thing on the menu. Sleeping on a ferry is always an expoerience b/c there is not a spot for us to sleep except on the floor. My head was next to this German guys head the whole night and Ben's head was coincidentally next to what we thought to be a homeless man except he had a 2 liter of coke that he drank standing up over ben the entire night. My german sleeping buddy was very similar to our Asian roommate from paris. YES! He screamed bloody murder in his sleep. I never jumped so high when i heard him continually scream like he was being beheaded. The icing on the cake was when he screamed it startled his girlfriend so much that she screamed this awkward loud panicky shrill. When that happened Ben leaped out of his sleeping bag with his boxerbriefs on, scrathing his head, freaking out, and completely confused (it was 4 am who could blame him), i decided to scream back at them in hopes to wake them up so they would stop. And then, we couldnt help but remember and imitate the Asian shrieker. After the rough sleep we arrived in Bari Itlay where we decided to once again walk with our giant packs on to the train station in hopes to save 3£. Well you all know how that worked out, we walked for 2 miles and then decided we were lost so we took the bus anyway. We got to the train station late and had to take the 3.15 train to the Roma station. After a 6 hour train ride we made it to ROME!!! Our hostel is on the 5th floor of what looks like a giant business building. We are eating popcorn. Did we ever mention how much we love you all? Well we love you.
Molly&Ben

Quote for the day:

Popcorn is the sentimental good-time Charlie of American foods.--Patricia Linden

Submerged Underwater Breathing Apparatus

hi,

coming to you after a blazing hot day here in Athens. As usual, we started with a breakfast that left us with nothing to report, except saying goodbye to our redhead neighbor (she left us a very sweet note later) and complaining about Ollie, who I introduced yesterday. Although he had a very fetching Australian accent, a neat straw hat, and some rad high tops from the 80s, Ollie became my worst enemy last night and I'm not ashamed to say I dreamed (when I finally made it to sleep) of Ollying a skateboard on his head. He started his slumber by falling asleep before everyone (fully clothed I might add) and doing that grunt/snore that sounds more like farting than breathing. As our lights went off he looked me straight in the eye, turned over, and plunged into a hurtling locamotive of yawping sleep screaming with nose stuck in the air like a beaver looking for bacon. After I could take no more, I sat straight up in bed and did what my dad always did when I fell asleep in church--I stared at him with a dirty look until the force of my eyes woke him up. he looked at me for a second time and guess what happened? he took off his shirt...weird. Next, he started that pass-gas-breathing again and immediately started talking in his sleep--"um'' "oooaaaawwwwtttthhhhg" "notshleeepwingyit" "I hate you and want you never to sleep again"--well not that last one. At this point I was reeling mad, so I got off my squeaky bunk and went to sit in the bathroom for a while...the blessed quiet dark bathroom. Ollie apparently had to use it, because he proceeded to knock on my door, and then left the room when I ignored him. I was able to find some earplugs before he came back, and although I could still hear a faint bee-buzzing snore (which I'm sure was really grizzly in heat)--I eventually drifted off. Ollie was gone before we got up.

Now guess what we did today? SCUBA. In his last message, my dad said "have fun in the mecca of SCUBA" and he couldn't have been closer...but not for the reasons you think. To be honest, I expected to see Poseidon's long discarded pitchfork thing, or a mermaid tail or something, but what we got instead, was a lesson from the world's best divers, a day at a real blue lagoon, and some new friends (pictured above...the cool one is NIKO). We arrived at our scuba shop to a warm welcome by the mrs. clause of the operation (see mr. clause in the picture), and then proceeded to try on our gear (with much fumbling thanks to Ollie...god bless him). Our wetsuits had hoods! that was new. Next, we hopped into an old RAV4 and rode for about 45 minutes to the lagoon you see above, and were treated with some frappe (frozen coffee drink) and strawberry freezy things. After our dive master Stavros arrived--who along with everyone else besides the shop girl, spoke absolutely no English, we put on our gear and jumped in. After a two year dry season, we had a bit of nervousness (esecially in the mask department) and as it turns out, Mrs. Clause had given us a few funky presents for the trip (including a broken fin strap for Molly and two right boots for me). We got over our issues (which weren't issues at all when faced with the beautiful ocean) and began our descent (with many OK signs...a universal code). The water was deliciously cold, and as we reached the bottom, we found lots of colorful fish, a black hole of a cave (that stavros had to drag us out of), and Molly got to feed fish with the insides of one of those spiky urchin things that one of the boys had cut open! After we came up, we were treated to more frappe and another ride back to the shop where they thanked us for coming and made sure to give us stickers and the like. We walked home, had a nice discussion on the way about how to grow as a person, and then made our way back to Monastaraki where we changed and headed for dinner. Which was, some crepes (mine filled with ham, gouda cheese, cottage cheese, and french fries...Molly's with tomato, sour cream, green peppers, gouda, and ham...mmmm). tightly full, we wobbled back to the hostel and I really couldn't tell you what we've done since then. You know when you drive somewhere and arrive but don't remember ever turning or stopping for traffic? The last bit has been like that. Love.

Ben&Molly

Quote for the day:

Relax man--Niko

hella as the greek say

Well,
My belly is full of gyro (a delicacy Adam has been raving about for decades) which we found at a little shop in monastariki square here in Athens. We've eaten there two nights in a row, simply because the gyros are only 2 euros, they don't make us buy a drink, and they allow us to sit on the steps outside to eat meaning we don't have to tip a waiter...awesome. By the way, sorry about the promising we'd write everyday while in Athens...and then not doing that, we found out that you only get one hour for free hear at the hostel and then it's 2 euro (that's another gyro), so we waited until someone new was working the desk (a squirrely Swedish boy in tight blue shorts) and insisted that I hadn't yet used my computer time (aren't you all proud of our morals?). I doubt it. Anyway, yesterday started as any other--with an amazing free breakfast of toast with jam and butter and cappucino with two spoonfulls of sugar (sounds like a Mary Poppings song). We decided to try and see everything in Athens soon thereafter, and started by climbing the hill to Athens' most famous landmark: the Accropolis. following our climb--which included wading through a crowd of old people on a Royal Caribbean excursion (who knew they'd extended the Caribbean to include Greece?)--we reached Accropolis hill where we found out that it costs 12 euro per person to see some scraped up old columns complete with the crains and scaffolding they are currently using to aid in restoration of the old relic. Guess what we did? We climbed a nearby hill and pretended that Zeus really lived in the temple...so obviously mere mortals would never be allowed inside and we weren't missing much. We both wondered how buildings that were around before Jesus could have one day assigned a viewing price of 12 euros in the first place, and then we left the hill with of feeling of blah. We continued from there, down into our home-base neighborhood of Monastiriki. reknown as the trendiest district of Athens we wanted to see what its twisty streets had to offer, and ventured down one that looked particularly overwhelming and shop-infested. we saw a lot of Greek flags for sale, some statues of hercules and his boyfriends, and several evil eye bracelets, but the best handmade craft that we came upon was a nice little ice cream shop. I got dark chocolate and molly got chocolate with cookies. yummy lunch indeed. Tired out by now, we headed back to the hostel to refill our water bottles and chill for a little bit, which ended in us decided how and where to set up a trip to Aeginas today. After our break, we decided to go out to a garden--about 10 metro stops away (we know we're nuts) and it turned out to be one of the best memories of the trip for me. I got inspired while drinking a coke and came up with some great ideas for writing in the future...Molly and I talked about them, and what we've learned about God and the meaning of the word "home" (particularly that it MUST include good plentiful food) for about two hours. The night ended with our first taste of the wonderful Greek gyro. Today started with breakfast, which we shared with our roomate--a red-haired 50something who has literally been everywhere in the world. She goes by Nev, has three kids, is from New Zealand, loves rugby, I could go on...she's cool basically. next we headed to Piraeus port, where we caught the 10 oclock ferry to Aegina--the closest Greek isle to Athens. Lovely in every way, Aegina met us with its white walled red roofed houses, its fishing boats (complete with men mending nets), and its wonderful beaches surrounded by mountains. One of those beaches became our home for the day, where we hung outside a bungalo cafe and rented two chairs and an umbrella for 7 euro...for the whole day! We swam in crystaline water, we avoided sunburn at all costs, we read wonderful books, we laughed at people who walked by, and finally seccumbed to ice cream,that ended up being pretty cheap if not the most nutritious lunch. We came back to Athens around 7, changed clothes, filled our bottles, met our new roomy Ollie (that's all i know), and went straight back to the gyro shop for more goodies. Now we are sitting at the computer and all around us, Greek dancers in funny masks and robes are speaking french through a cheerleader megaphone while girating on the floor to funny Greek music. Maybe I'm just tired but that doesn't seem normal. I mean literally they are wearing white wigs, grey robes, Wizard of Oz shoes, and they are slow-motion breakdancing. pray for us. We love you all. off to post pics.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:

So I start trudgin' down that mountain trail with full pack on my back and think from the thap and steady whap of my shoes on stone and ground that all I need in this world to keep me going is my feet. --Jack Kerouac Desolation Angels

Greece Lightning

hello world
from the oldest nation in the world (sort of), we are very happy to say that we are perfectly able to communicate for the next few days. we weren't able to scuba dive for our anniversary today, as we'd planned, because they aren't taking anyone out this week until saturday...good news though, we'll still be here and are already signed up to go! so we modified our plans a bit and took the metro (we snuck on haha) to pitraeus station and searched for a ferry that would take us to the only close Grecian island for a day at the beach. Come to find out, the ferry costs a bit of money, and as it was already 1 oclock in the afternoon, we settled for searching out the only beach Athens must have. In order to get there, we tried communicating with several Athenians including but not limited to: our receptionist here at the hostel (a snobby Englishman), the chain-smoking mole-faced lady at the ferry office (who said she spoke English but only knew the word no apparently), an old man at a bus stop (who kept saying "you want swimming?" with a smile and a breast-stroke motion in the air), and a teenager (who was a bit more clever, but wouldn't take his ipod headphones out and ended up confusing us all the more because he couldn't hear). Finally, we managed to get on a bus labeled 904 (the old man's suggestion) and talked the driver into taking us to the beach by saying "sea" repetitively for at least 5 minutes. After we found the "sea" and jumped off the crowded bus, we found the beach to be a collection of rocks with boys in speedos diving headfirst into some very questionably choppy waves. Nervous about breaking our necks with the speedo boys, we decided to walk for a little while and eventually came to a moderately sandy stretch that suited us pretty well. As you might see in the pictures, Molly and I both ended up pretty sunburned, so the day was a hit afterall. We layed on the sand/rock beach tanning, writing, and listening to this new girl we found on itunes before we leaft--jessica leah mayfield. It was a great anniversary all in all, highlighted by the wonderful dinner we managed to cook ourselves at the end. We left the beach to find the ingredients for our dinner at a very greek supermarket--full of dangling octopus tentacles and strange cheese--but eventually found some pasta and salmon that molly cooked up quite nicely. We were able to eat on our porch...that's right we have a porch with a view of the acropolis from our room...and it was unbelievable. My favorite parts were when we went back and forth with 10 things I love about you and dancing in our room (I bet your minds are in the gutter but they shouldn't be it was just plain fun). Now we're alone in the basement on a very nice computer that is all in Greek, and I will be trying to decipher the funny fraternity looking symbols well enough to load some pictures. We love you all. Cheers.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day
Its all Greek to me. --anonymous confused person

2 years of BLISS

hello sweet people,
Hey its molly here just writing a little post. We are in BEAUTIFUL GREECE (athens) and celebrating our 2 year anniversary!! Ben is making a couple of local phone calls trying to set up a scuba diving excursion. Our hostel is the most amazing place i have ever stayed in. our room is huge, it had a private bathroom, two french doors that open up to a big porch that over looks the city and you can see the Acropolis (with couches and a table), we are on the 5th floor with a kitchen in the room, it is quiet, and our bed rocks! We already love Greece and we haven't even fully experienced it yet. We have already been helped by multiple friendly people that have led us in the right direction. We ate cheesy eggs, toast, and cappucino for breakfast (FOR FREE). Did i mention how stinkin' beautiful our room is and that i am obsessed with my husband of 2 years? Ok well i could on for a lifetime about how happy i am but you would probably stop following this blog so i will stop. Thanks for supporting us and loving us unconditionally!
LOVE LOVE LOVE
MOLLY&BENJI

p.s. we will write another post giving the details of our day..so no quote for now!

Long is the only word for the last few days

Hey Americans!
It has been a very long few days of traveling in countries that do not speak English. We miss all of your redneck little voices badly. I think we left off in Amsterdam where we sat typing as quickly as we could because the Middle eastern men who owned the place were freaking us out. From there, we made our way to the train station and worked out a place on the five oclock train to Milan. We were forced to pay 40euro (oh the pain!) for a sleeper compartment--because the seats were all taken--but it turned out being a blessing in disguise because we slept well. The ride took about 14 hours and we not too miserable except for the fact that we got through most of our wonderful books (twilight-breaking dawn, and harry potter 4 haha) and sweated a little. Things only started getting sticky when we were woken up at 130 in the morning by German police yelling at our bunkmate to come with them. We found out later that he was later arrested for trying to jump the border and they were pretty happy to have found him. A big danka to them from us! Our two other roomates were an old man with alzheimer's who kept asking if we'd seen his ticket and a very hairy German cyclist. All was well until we were woken up for the final time by italian border patrol yelling "GIVE ME YOUR MARIJUANA!". Scared out of our daylights, we fumbled out of bed and were barely able to talk him into turning around so Molly could put her pants back on. They checked everyones' bags and we were finally set loose into Milan--not too much worse for the wear.
Day 2: Milan is a big boring place--at least on Sundays. We walked out of the train station with the fact that we didn't catch our next train until 9 oclock that night weighing heavily on our minds. We sat down at a curb in front of mCdonalds hoping for a place to spend some of the day and the janitor who was washing the curb started yelling at us to get up...he proceeded to spray my backpack with his hose. We spent the rest of the day sitting in similar spots and walking aimlessly. At one point we find a nice little Italian park where we sat and watched some people playing soccer almost all day. We finished the day waiting for our trains and I spoke in broken Italian (who knew) with a funny old man who kept meowing like a cat and telling us to eat spaghetti in Rome.
Day 3: We spent the night sitting in seats that we didn't have to pay for ( thank you Eurail pass!) and decided they would be pretty uncomfortable until we realized they slid down into beds! The night went well except that every hour on the hour someone came in demanding our tickets. "TICKETS PLEASE!" We arrived in Brindisi Italy and scurried around town hoping to find the ferry office that would give us the free ferry passes we had heard about...but it didn't--they flat out refused. So, we went to another Italian town that was rumored to have a ferry to Greece, Bari italy, and we got a little luckier. In Bari, we found that ferry tickets to Greece haven't been free to Eurail passholders for over three years, and that the book I've been consulting at every corner hasn't been updated since 1979..yikes. Anyway, we found tickets for 32 euro..not bad...and boarded the ferry that lasted until 12noon today. Before we boarded we had some awesome pizza and the best ice cream i've ever tasted by the way.
Day 4: Today, we arrived in Greece, having found a spot to sleep inside the ferry illegally (we were supposed to be on the rainy outdoor deck), last night. After we arrived, we made one of Molly's longterm dreams come true by taking a bus to a cute little beach that you will see in our pictures if this computer cooperates. We love you all, sorry this is so rushed, our train is in 20 minutes!
Ben&Molly

Quote for the day"
I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.--the white rabbit--alice in wonderland