The Unexpected Dangers of Travelling

These are our lists of dos and don'ts that we've learned so far in our travels (in the short two weeks that it has been):

DON'T
... try and fill an empty fuel bottle by punching a hole with a six inch nail into a virgin canister of propane, because it will (a) spew noxious toxic fumes straight up into the air and poison the whole campsite; (b) increase the flammability of your already fire-prone tent; (c) possibly knock you out; and (d) turn the cannister and all touching it (including fingers and other body parts) the temperature of liquid nitrogen. We repeat, do not do this (yes, we were not acting in a reasonably prudent manner, trying to do creative problem solving IS NOT always advisable if you do not understand chemistry, as we learned during our last night in Naxos).

DO
... engage in lively conversations about slang in other anglophonic places. Food is either "gorgeous," "nice," or "brilliant." The word "fanny" should NEVER be used to describe your bum (when in the company of Aussies). "Pulling" and "Snogging" are much more colourful ways to describe kissing. "You're a really pretty flower, would you like a piece of my root?" (you can guess, another way to say it is "up to your nuts in guts," a vulgar phrase but...)

DON'T
... give a lift to a British chick when there's already two on the moped, miss your turn, and try to pull a U in sand on an unlit road. You might be swindled out of many euros for breaking the headlight of said moped (even though all damage was supposedly covered under the insurance policy previously purchased).

DO
... rent mountain bikes on mountainous Greek islands even if the never-ending hills induce fits of nausea.

DON'T
... sleep on rocky beaches without a thermarest or bothering to check it out in the daylight first, as you may be assailed by (not to mentioned pissed on by) mad dogs in the night, and find yourself rolling in piles of garbage which possible may consist of other noxious matter in the morning- you are constantly reminded of this by the smell that festers in your sleeping bag for days (speaking of which, we forgot to air out those bags... oops).


Ok, so that is a little idea of what we've learned these last few days, ha ha ha. Yes, unfortunately they are all based on "reality." Right now we are in Selcuk, Turkey, and have been here for two days. Prior to this we spent 5 days in Naxos and one day in Samos, Greece. Samos is where we had the fun adventure with rocky beaches and mad dogs in the night... but at least we were accompanied in our travails by two Aussie gentlemen. Besides, everyone has got to sleep on a beach in Greece at least once in their life. However, we do recommend choosing a sandy and slightly more "comfortable" beach. Samos is really beautiful- green and mountainous. We only spent the day there, but left with a great impression.

From Samos we took the evening ferry to Kusadasi, Turkey where we were picked up at the port by a lovely Turkish/Aussie fellow named Harry who proceeded to drive us at breakneck speed (which Catherine loved of course) to the nearby town of Selcuk. We are currently staying here at the ANZ (Australia New Zealand) Guesthouse, which we definitely recommend for anyone who finds themselves in this neck of the woods. It's only 11 million lira a night! Don't be alarmed- that equals approximately 8 US dollars. Yesterday we checked out the ruins at Ephesus. They definitely should have been on the list as one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Alas, only the Temple of Artemis is, but it is only a hole in the ground now. It seems to be that way with many of the wonders of the ancient world.... typical.

Today we went to Pamukkule, which is approximately three hours to the east of here. It is a geological phenomenon where calcium oxide cascades down cliffs and creates white terraced waterfalls, with pools of aquamarine springs. The water is tepid and the bottoms of the pools are mushy like clay in some places and outside the pools like pumice. The curvatures and ripples in the calcium is reminiscent of large mammary glands. The "thermal pools" are rather disappointing (especially the bit about swimming amongst ruins- all lies we say!). The commercialization of the site is unfortunately destroying the natural beauty of the place. Hotels rob the water so that it is now controlled by a rotating mechanized system whereby the water is channeled to certain areas of the cliffs, while others are left dry. We were all rather depressed by the rampant environmental destruction of such a unique geological wonder. Human presence in the area is pervasice, and has been for centuries. The former city of Hieropolis sits in a mass of crumbled ruins above the cliffs, just behind a large restaurant and swimming pool. The ampitheater is spectacular though, and we think rivals those at Ephesus.

We are hitting the frogger (i.e. Aussie for moving on) tomorrow morning for the north. We'll be headed towards Bergama (former Pergamon) and Ayvalik. We're prepared to be disappointed by the ruins at Troy the following day, but it is a necessary visit (we must say that we are rather excited to see the probably cheesy, but undoubtedly amusing, life size model of the Trojan Horse though).

Written by Catherine and Cara

Just wanted to write a quick note that we're in Selcuk, Turkey right now. Turkey is a fabulous country! Not much time to update everyone on anything right at the moment (it's after midnight and we've got an early morning bus to Pumakkale tomorrow), but Cat and I hope to give a full-on update of our adventures tomorrow. We've been travelling hard and vacationing hard for the last few days, which has led us to neglect email and the blog. sorry to all!

A shout out from two moped mamas in Naxos, Greece! Yes, you may guess that we did the moped thing yesterday- rented a bike and drove all around the island for 10 hours. We were hysterically laughing at the end of the day because we managed to tip over the bike twice. One was one of those stupid "I'm standing here and the bike is just too much, so it will fall" time, and another was a late night return from the bar, three people smashed on the bike, spin-out on the sand. Oh yes. We are good motorbike drivers. But the best time was when Catherine decided to become some sort of speed demon on a back dirt road and accelerate over a ditch, thus practically flipping Cara off the back of the bike. Cara did, however, use her miraculous skills to hang onto the bike with her feet while the rest of her was hanging off the back. Do not be alaramed family members- we drove over many treacherous cliff-hanging roads but are perfectly fine. So we saw fabulous vistas, blue waters, white villages tucked away in hillsides, quaint Greek churches, and many "Venetian Castles" that weren't actually castles. We had the requisite running out of gas experience (the gas gauge didn't work) but we were aided by some incredibly wonderful locals, and made our way back to our campsite at the end of the day.

The campsite- we have renamed it the "tent lot," or perhaps, more aptly, the "sardine lot." The differece between greek and american camping is quite enormous- no vast expanses of wilderness and lovely private plots. Rather, it's tent stacked upon tents in a very, small, yet civilized, area. In fact, this is the general European idea of campiing... it has it's own merits of course, and in fact, our small campground is starting to grow on us. You see, we haven't left yet....

The day before yesterday- the first day on the island (Friday- we're a bit confused on the days...)- we sat on the beach all day. and swam. lovely. Oh, and we met these two British girls- Libby and Nikki- who are great fun and even better conversationalists. Today we plan to do the same. After all, how much activitiy (i.e. mopeding) can one experience while on the Greek islands? It's really all about the beach and relaxation. And we need to make up a bit for the loads of cash we spent yesterday.

Yesterday we experience "cock" for the first time. Now, you people with dirty minds, this isn't what you think- it is an island delicacy. It's actually a sumptuously roasted rooster on a plate prepared with a tomato/feta/onion spaghetti. mmmm, yummy yummy. Cat has only really had one good experience with feta on this island- she thinks the rest of it tastes as if it were a smelly goat. Cara, on the other hand, who could be called a feta afficionado, thinks all the feta is rather gorgeous (a new phrase that we are picking up from our British friends).

That's all folks-
Catherine and Cara

The "real" start to our "Vagabonding al Mundo" trip started officially on Tuesday night. We said adieu to my sister and headed for London Luton to catch an overnight flight to Athens. We were off to a good start, what with Cat having a nasty rash of bug bites all over her body (sketchy London hotel?) and dwindling time to make it to catch our flight.... alas, instead of jetting across Europe on Tuesday night we spent it on the floor at the airport. Yup, we missed our flight. A first for me, as many of you might guess. However, I wasn't really too upset because we weren't charged for transferring to the noon flight the next day and it gave us time to sort through all of our stuff and redistribute the travel mess between ourselves. We spent a good couple of hours spreading our crap across the airport floor and pouring shampoos and lotions from one bottle into another. Ah, the excitement of unpacking and repacking in the airport at 1am to the sonorous accompaniment of gurgling snores from another weary traveller.

We pulled into Athens around 7pm yesterday. Caught the bus into town and stumbled out with our packs, hoping to see a glaring sign shouting out, "Hostel! Come sleep here!" Of course this was not the case. So we walked around for about ten minutes before we came across the Hotel Metropolis and settled for spending 45 euros for the night. At least there was air conditioning and it was right next to the Plaka. Greeks are night people, so it didn't matter that we weren't settled and ready to seek out some dinner until after 9pm. In fact, I remembered from my last visit in Greece that many of the Greeks do not take their nightly meal until around 11pm. It some ways, it is the most extreme of the Mediterranean countries!! And of course, Greek food is marvelous. We were lucky to stumble upon a tiny Taverna run by a man by the name of Makie. It was bit away from the normal tourist throng, and in fact, when we arrived the only other guests were a young Greek man and woman (Alexandros and Irene), as well as Makie of course. Makie was a small, grisled man with longish wiry hair, a penchant for beautiful women and midnight philosophising, and definite cloud of alcohol about him. Alexis and Irene informed us that it was quite unfortunate that we couldn't speak Greek because Makie was one of those interesting old men, with such an amusing turn of phrase, that they came to the restaurant for drinks, but most of all just to enjoy listening to and conversing with him. Indeed, as the night drew on, more Greeks slowly trickled in until the rickety old tables beneath the trailing Klimatis echoed with laughter and camraderie long into the night. Not only that, but food was amazing. Of course, I love greek food. After Thai, it's probably my next favorite. So I enjoy every chance I get to taste local Greek fare, and there, we enjoyed one of the best Greek salad's I've ever had, as well fried zucchini, and bread with Tzatziki (one of my favorites!).

Today we did the typical Athens tourist thing. Which means we spent many hours wandering around the Akropolis. And it was HOT. So we tried to intersperse moments in the shadows of the sparselly scattered vegetation with climbing up and down stairs and gazing at the remnants of the Athens city-state of ancient times. You might guess, but pretty much everything was under scaffolding because of the upcoming Olympics. In fact, the whole of Athens is undergoing a facelift in preparation for the Games. That, and the introduction of the Euro, and the resultant soaring prices, make the Greece of 2003 quite a bit different form the Greece of 1999 that I last saw. It really is making strides to catch up to the rest of Western Europe. In fact, the hoards of tourists probably make it one of the more expensive places to visit in Europe these days.

Tonight we are off to Naxos. We catch a ferry from Piraeus at 10pm and will arrive in Naxos at 5am. Plans are fuzzy,so we'll let you know what happens next....

- written by Cara

London for a few days. Met Cat at the airport yesterday after a somewhat eventful day full or airports and airplanes. It started in the Berlin airport when a bum-sort sitting next to me in the waiting lounge, emanating alcohol out of every pore of his body, decided to piss his pants all over the chair and floor. Then a German guard came over and yelled at him with very exciting German brusqueness and kicked him back out onto the street. Then I got to London, where I was supposed to meet Cat outside customs. Turns out I came in at a totally different terminal and had to truck all the way over to her terminal, where I wandered around trying to find her until I heard my name echoing over the loudspeaker. So we found eachother, alas, and all is great now. Of course, it was fabulous to see Cat again. And the three of us are hanging out in expensive London for the next few days. Apparently, Lukasz is here too, so hopefully we can set up a rendezvous sometime.

We're in Riga, Latvia this morning. Two night trains in a row- the first from Warsaw to Vilnius, and then from Vilnius to Riga last night- and we've decided to splurge and stay the night in Riga. We rolled in at 6:30 this morning, heaved our heavy packs onto our backs, and went out in search of a hotel. Walked about a kilometer until be found the Hotel Viktorija, which has "unrenovated rooms" for about $20 a night. Not quite sure what the "unrenovated" will mean, but we decided that it was worth it, and dropped our bags. Slouched on the couch in the lobby for awhile watching BBC, before we headed out for some breakfast and a bit of email. We can officially check in at noon, so until then we're just biding our time before we can take a long shower and wash the travel grime away.

A note on Lithuania- although I was only there for a brief time, I had an extremely favorable impression of the country and believe it is one of the most interesting places to visit in Europe. We were in Vilnius and Trakai. Vilnius is the capital, and still has a very small and friendly atmosphere. Cobblestone streets, churches, and castles create a unique flavor of both Eastern Europe and Scandinavia rolled together. Trakai was my favorite place though. It is a small city squeezed between lakes. from the bus station you walk north along a strip of land that eventually leads to a bridge over the lake onto an island where a beautiful medieval castle sits. The town is full of colorful houses and shops. The waterfront is lined with cafes, and sailboats and paddle boats ply the waters.

Our plan is to spend today in Riga, and then spend a day each on the Latvian and Lithuanian coast before catching a ferry back to Germany.

Where to start.... that's the hardest thing about writing in the blog while travelling. I can't write everyday and there is so much to say, but then when I sit down to write it I seem to forget it all. So I will back up and try to go in chronological order from when I last wrote, which was at the bus station in Warsaw.

We ended up taking a taxi to Dominika's relative's house. We had the address and the taxi man pulled up outside a nice, but empty-looking building. We were standing outside the gate, staring up, trying to figure out if that was the the place when Dominika and her cousin, Iszydora (no clue if that is spelled right), strolled down the path. So at least we had taken the taxi to the right place. Immediately, Dominika's family welcomed us in and took us to the kitchen to have Polish compote, a drink that is made of a mixture of whatever fruits are in season. Then, Iszydora gave us homemade pyrogies for lunch, which were soooo good as well. Beats the frozen stuff we have in the US anyday.

We had the whole afternoon before us and Dominika and her mom and relatives had some errands to run. So Colleen decided that she wanted me to dye her hair while they were all running around. We spent the afternoon in the courtyard behind the house trying to give her highlights with dye that turned out to be totally crappy and a waste of money. We even ended up babysitting the nieces for a bit. They were totally cute and spoke only Polish of course, so mostly we just pushed them on the swings and played with hoola hoops.

The next day- Tuesday- (I'll call it Day 1) was the beginning of the pilgrimage. We had to wake up at something like 5am. We piled into the big van that Dominika's uncle would drive while we walked the pilgrimage and drove to the center of town where a huge crowd of pilgrims had gathered outside the cathedral to hear morning mass. The pilgrimage began in the center of town where people filed out in their respective groups. It was all color-coded. We were members of the Green Group, which was somehow affiliated with the Salvatorian Priests. Let me comment here that priests in Poland are sooooo hot. I can't believe how different it is from the US. There are so mnay young and energetic priests here. OUr green group even had the "hippy priest" who wore a bandanna and played the guitar and everything. Also, most of the priests wore the long, black robes for the whole march. There were even a bunch of monks. I can't imagine how they marched along in those robes because it was soooo hot all the time.

There was also a huge contingent of military personnel from Poland and Germany doing the pilgrimage. They were decked out in their military finery and singing their church songs like the rest of 'em- although I must say that they added a great energetic and military songish version of these religious canticles to the pilgrimage. My favorite was the Polish soccer cry that had been converted to a cry for "Jesus!"

So we started on our way with the Green Group. It was really fun to begin with. We marched out of Warsaw in a huge parade and everywhere we went people on the streets waved and shouted out "God bless!" (in Polish of course). Groups walked in a big smooshed crowd together. I'm not sure how many people were in each group- a few hundred probably. I think there were 4000 people total in our pilgrimage. Each group also had rigged up a speaker system where down the left side of the group 4 or 5 5 people would walk with a tall speaker mounted on their back and rope extension cord that ran from one to the next. It is hard to describe, but maybe you can imagine the walk group: probably 7 or so abreast and then maybe 100 people long, a rope with speakers intersperesed running along the left side. People with flourescent jackets ran up and down the left side shouting for us to "move up," "go faster," etc. This is where it started to turn into too much of military march. These guys that regulated the movement of the group also felt it necessary to inform us a million times that we could not wear sleeveless shirts, that we had to go faster, be quiet, etc, etc.... Being American, the rules started to drive us crazy (America is a comparatively rule-free society and the structure can drive us independent spirits batty at times). I think it might have been better if we knew what to expect and had been prepared for such stringent rules. However, I somehow had it in my head that the pilgrimage would not be so structured, but rather a large group of interesting people walking freely in a giant wave down the pilgrimage path and the goal of higher spiritual attainment... I was approaching it more as a huge hike across rural Poland, where I could commune with the beautiful countryside and enjoy the company of my friends. Not the right attitude for this particular pilgrimage.

The first day was great though. Everything was still novel, and I revelled in the new and exciting experience. We walked in incremental spurts- normally anywhere between 5 to 10 kilometers at a time, and then we would rest for a bit and enjoy the incredible hospitatlity of the locals. That first day, the people of Warsaw and the surrounding area came out in droves to line the roadsides, push pastries, sandwiches, compote, and apples into our hands, and cheer us on our way. Our feet weren't tired yet, and the energy and brilliance of the day and the people in our company pushed us forward and filled our day with laughter and excitement. We met a great Aussie guy, Daniel, who had decided that he wanted to experience the pilgrimage, although he could only spare one day to walk. It was fun, and he was great company. Granted, by the end of the day we were groaning about the tiredness of our feet and wanting to crawl into our tent and never emerge again.

We camped with the medical group rather than the green group because Iszydora scammed the pilgrimage and pretended to be a doctor. She was trained as a nurse, so it wasn't actually too far from the truth. And she did her part by helping to pop some pretty nasty blisters, and wrapping our tired feet. Every night there was a mass and "appel"- which is singing good night songs to Mary. I'm not a big one for going to mass all the time as all of you know (and you're probably wondering why exactly I wanted to do this pilgrimage anyway- NO, I have not become a fanatic Catholic. Rather the opposite in fact). The Appel was fun and interesting though, as it was a Polish tradition I think and everyone is such a warm community singing together.

Day 2 started on tired feet and a hot sun rising over the countryside. Daniel was gone, unfortunately, so our small English-speaking contingent had shrunk even smaller. Rather self-consciously, I made sure to wear a t-shirt and abide by the Pilgrimage rules. So we started walking, and walking, and walking some more. Even though it was only the second day, things started to blend together into a slow monotony already. At one point, the soft, melodic drone of Polish prayer almost put me to sleep on my feet. Colleen started pondering whether we should find ourselves some caffeine pills in order to keep going. Day 2, however, was interrupted by a really interesting visit, mid-morning to the church of St Maximilian- I'm not sure all of you know who he is, but he was a really amazing man- a priest- who volunteered to give his life in the place of another at one of the Concentration Camps during World War II. So it was great to see where he came from. There was also a wedding- two couples from the pilgrimage shared a beautiful wedding with everyone there. Afterwards we paraded through the streets and Colleen busted up to the front of the line where she walked pretty much right next to the bride. I was amazed because the bride walked a loooong way in her dress and high heeled shoes! Our feet were aching in tennis shoes, how could she do it?!

The afternoon of Day 2 found Colleen, Mike, and I alone as Dominika and Iszydora were too exhuasted and in pain to continue forward. So the three of us attached ourselves to the military group and learned some rousing military hymns. We also managed to detatch ourselves for much of the walk and walk along between the groups. This was soooo much better because we could actually talk and we weren't being barked at all the time by the people that ran up and down the side and regulated the progress of the group. We could go off into the trees to pee without worrying about being left behind the forward surge of the group. Ahh, the freedom. The unfortunate part of this particular afternoon was that, although we were told to march with the military people (we always kept them in sight) they didn't actually end up at the medical camp, but only in the vicinity. So we were rather lost for where to go. We dragged our way across a long, hot stretch of road through the middle of a flat and never-ending hay field. The asphalt had literally melted under our feet and squelched and yelped as we repeatedly lifted our feet from its sticky grasp. Just when we thought we couldn't bear it a moment longer, we rounded the bend and saw a field full of supine and khaki-clad bodies. Break! Thank God! We lowered our aching bones onto the pointy stubs of the hayfield, mindless of the discomfort, and downed a whole bottle of water. One last leg to go before we could collapse for the night. Forced to our feet, and hobbling around like 80 year old grannies, we pushed forward. Military chants of "Jesus" sustained us for awhile, but not before long I began to feel like my legs were turning to cement and then shattering and crumbling away from the knee down. I could feel the asphalt reverberating up through the sole of my feet and into my shins. We walked past a building that looked suspiciously like a monastery, with a few of the medical-type vans parked out front. We didn't see anyone, however, and I thought, "this must be the medical camp," but they told us to go with the military group, so onwards we went. Only to end up in a giant military camp where we looked enviously at their set-up- large tents, portable showers, chefs, and tables laid out with tablecloths.... they had it good!! We were roughing it with a tent and our soup, open-faced sandwiches, and forest toilets, and here they were livin the good life! Not that I mind roughing it or can complain- as we were with the medical group, we still had it much better than the other pilgrims. Anyway, we saw no one upon arriving at the military camp, and decided we must have passed the medical camp afterall, and had to turn around and add a couple additional kilometers to our trek. Needless to say, all I wanted was a bed that night.

Day 3 arose much the same as the previous day. Again, I was criticized multiple times for my sleeveless shirt (I must insert here that scores of Polish pilgrims also broke the sleeve length rule, although our American tanks were perhaps more scanty than their's). Everything else was filthy dirty so I donned a shirt that a nice lady willingly offered. And we set out on the march again. We had a few delays int he camp that morning though, so we started half an hour behind everyone else. I didn't mind because I much preferred walking without the group. The three of us, plus Dominika, Iszydora, and Dorothy (the cutest, sweetest little Polish girl who was part of our group) all walked together. Pradoxically, our energy was high so we spent the first two hours of the day belting out church songs, christmas songs, chitty chitty bang bang, whatever we could think of that would spice up the walk a bit. What else to say about the day? We walked, and walked some more... my feet were better than Day 2 (I had prophesied a Bell Curve of Pain, which seemed to be coming to pass), although Colleen and Dominika reached the peak of pain and blisters on Day 3. We had lunch in a field- there was no soup left in the mad rush for lunch, so we found a few limp open-faced sandwiches of pickles and eggs, but otherwise just tried to rehydrate ourselves.

We dragged ourselves through the heat of the afternoon again in a cloud of Polish hymns and rosaries.

Washed our feet.

Put up the tent.

Took a crap in the forest.

Went to sleep.

Day 4. Same, same. We tried to get a head start on the pilgrimage, but went down the wrong road and had to take the long way round to meet up with the rest of the pilgrims. I didn't mind as a I greatly enjoyed walking separate from the groups and actually having the chance to soak in the beauty of the countryside. quaint little farmhouses and fields of green and gold stretching to the horizon. Cows mooing in the distance, and colorful rags tied to celbrate our coming fluttering on fences. However, we were starting to get a reputation for being rule-breakers and this had to end. We received the death sentence that from then on we had to respect the sanctity of the goup and walk the rest of the time with everyone else. Of course, I understand the purpose of it all- safety and accountability and such. But it all became more and more like a forced march and the rules, rules, rules (as well as our increasing feeling of isolation and being a burden, rather than a welcome contingent of the group) led us to decide that it was time to leave the pilgrimage. We had had a wonderful and very interesting 4 days, but it was unlikely that the next 6 days would bring anything new or lessen our feelings that we didn't belong there. Maybe it's just that none of us were religious enough to endure "the suffering" that brings on the spiritual enlightenment of the pilgrimage. Our intentions weren't there- we didn't want it enough to endure 10 days of sameness and drudgery and isolation. Maybe it was mostly that we couldn't speak Polish and always felt on the outside and too needy on our hosts. I don't know exactly. Anyway, we were led to pack up our bags and take a bus back to Warsaw on the eve of Day 4. A rather rushed goodbye- I was sad not to be able to spend much quality time with Dominika, although the pilgrimage probably wasn't the best place for that anyway- and we were off.

And here we are today in Warsaw. Spent a comfortable night in the hostel last night. Took a looooong shower this morning to scrub myself free of the filth. We're headed for Lithuania tonight.

Colleen and I were a bit disgruntled and snappish this morning after an overnight bus ride from Prague to Warsaw. The Eurolines bus was quite nice, but we still didn't manage to get much sleep. We're in Warsaw now at the bus station, just hanging out until around noon in case Dominika is able to come meet us. If she isn't here by noon we will find our way to her house. I know her flight arrived at 9:30, and we kind of just missed eachother with the emails, but anyway, it'll work out either way. And then it appears that the pilgrimage is off to a start at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Colleen and I will be cavorting with the cows of rural Poland for the next two weeks, so don't expect to hear anything from us. Judging by the extreme heat of the last few days in Czech, this may turn out to be a hellishly hot walk across the country. I wouldn't mind a few rain showers to be interspersed with the merciless sun....

I believe Kutna Hora is one of the more obscure, yet most interesting places a person can visit in Europe. It's a small town about an hour outside of Prague. What is so fascinating about the place is the BONE CHURCH. Yeah, that's right, there's a church that is practically constructed from human bones. I say "practically" because the walls aren't actually made out of bones- in fact, it looks rather like a normal church from the outside- but the whole inside is rather ornately, or garishly (however you see fit to describe it), decorated with the bones from 40,000 humans. You walk in and the first thing you see is skulls everywhere. Skulls and femurs are strung together and hang like streamers from the ceiling, massive pyramids constructed from densely stacked white bones sit in all corners of the church, and in the center hangs the pride of the church- and enormous, intricate chandelier constructed from bones of every part of the human body. I kept thinking that this should be the site of a third Tomb Raider movie, if, and when, that comes into being. It's really an incredible place to see!! What happened was that for some reason I can't quite remember the graveyard of the church became known as an especially holy site and wealthy people from all over wanted to be buried there. But it was already chock full of human bodies, so they had to do something with the bones. They hired a Czech woodcarver to exercise his artistic skills and put those bones to use by decorating the church- this was in 1870. Rather morbid perhaps, but I must commend the creativity of the endeavor!!

Africa is behind me and the rest of my trip looms close. I am with Colleen in Prague right now. We had a great reunion- haven't seen eachother in over a year! It's nice to be back in Europe for awhile. I really do love this continent- the old, beautiful architecture of the cities, camping and getting away from the backpacker crowd (mostly only Europeans camp), the sun (it is hot and it feels like summer!), and Colleen of course. I'm not going to write much now because Colleen wrote a big, long account of what we've been doing here in Prague. So I'll send you to her blog for the most recent update: www.colleenbean.blogspot.com

To everyone in Kampala, I miss you tons already!