It's all Greek to me...

When we last left our hero, the sun was rising on another day, with dreams of volcanic cities and Jedi's returning flowing through his head. Here's what actually happened. I'm using the Let's Go 2006 guide book as my permanent traveling companion. I went to Caserta to see the waterfall (Dave, I believe it is in the Ewok scene, at the early stages of the party, perhaps when the X-Wings are flying overhead with the fireworks, but potentially with written over with the newscenes after the re-releases and you may have to go back to the originals to see it, but it's ok because the palace in front of the gardens are also the setting for Amadala's palace so it's cool anyway), but the palace and gardens were closed on Tuesday. Let's Go said they were open Tuesday-Sunday, which is odd. So I didn't see them. I trained back to Naples and hopped a train for Pompeii. Go there at 6:00, which is fine because Let's Go says they close the excavation at 7:30. Walk to the entrance, get there at 6:05. Last tickets are sold at 6:00. No go on the Pompeii. So, a defeated tourist returned to the Hostel in Naples. I met traveler from Norway, and we went to a bar to celebrate my country's independance as well as watch the Italy-Germany game. Italy won, and there were fireworks on the 4th of July :) How classic. The city erupted with horns, sirens, people flying flags from houses, cars, and mopeds. I loved it. We wandered the choas until late in the morning and eventually packed our bags and went our seperate ways. I headed for Brindisi, and was fortunate enough to get a 4 hour layover in Caserta. So I did get to see the Palace, the Gardens, and the waterfall. Famous. Nabbed the train to Brindisi, slept most of the way. In Bari, I woke up and started talking to this Italian lady sitting across from me. She's from Brindisi and is meeting her boyfriend at the station. She offers to drive me to the hostel, and I accept. Her boyfriend is a windsurfer, and gives me his cell # in case the wind is up tomorrow (which it wasn't). They take me around town, show me the port, the beach, take me to the supermarket and drop me at the hostel. Right on Italy! We part ways, and I check in and rack out after dinner. In the morning, I meet two Irish gals over breakfast who are also going to Athens. After our individual tours of Chaotic touring, we all just realax at this super cool hostel all day, lounging in the sun, in the inflatable kiddy pool out back, journal, read, Sudoku, and the like. Around 5, we all get a ride from the hostel owner down to the port and get on a 16 hour ferry from Brindisi to Patras. Slept well, sunned on the deck, and relaxed a bit on the way. Got in, got to the train station, and took the train to Athens. I got in to my hostel, met a couple from Kansas City and a gal from France, who were my roommates last night, and crashed. Today, I'm off to see the Parthenon, Acropolis and other Atheny sights. Dang these things get long. Congrats to those who made it this far. Your intrepid reading skills are masterful and should be rewarded. I'm giving Ron a run for his money...

And they were never to be heard from again.