Roma

One thing I decided before going on our vacation was that I wanted to stay in good areas, I didn’t care if we were in a scummy hostel or hotel but I really wanted to be able to walk out the door in to a part of town that I wanted to be in and not have to spend half the day getting from place to place on bus or train. I think this was one of the smartest moves we made, particularly in Rome.

Of course that was a great idea until we couldn’t find the place. See historic Rome is made up of all these really narrow cobbled streets, a lot of them don’t have roads signs and if they do – they are written in Italian (duh). You would think this would be o.k. except that our handy map was written in English, great except the two don’t match so some guess work is required to figure out if they match.

Eventually we found the place which was nice enough, then immediately set off walking around the historic part of Rome. Fountains, statues and old churches appeared around every corner. The buildings themselves were all so old and created an atmosphere of their own, if you were lucky you got to see an old lady dressed all in black hanging laundry out the window and yelling at someone, or no-one. Random signs of former architecture were scattered around as well reminding you just how old the city is.

After a bit of further wanderings we found our way to Piazza Navona with its illaberate fountains, beautiful buildings, street performers, dozens of artists working and selling direct from their “office” and decided it would be time to try our first sip of Italian coffee. When in Rome…. (at last I can use that phrase literally) have a cappuccino and a tasty tomato and basil bruschetta .

Wandering a few minutes further we come across the Trevi Fountain

After a very pleasant dinner in one of the side streets served by a waiter whose english was limited but singing was excellent and eating the flattest yet tastiest lasagna  we kept on wandering and before too long found our way to this familiar gem. (I love these photos, they feel dramatic to me)

All this in our first day and just from wandering around, Rome was surpassing my expectations already.What I expected to be a bit of a box ticking exercise became a real pleasure.

First full day in Rome we got up early and walked to the Vatican. There were a few things that hit me just by being in this place. The first was how elaborate everything was there, just over the top flashy often at the cost of other (e.g. the Colosseum was plundered so they could build a new building) and the irony of them supposedly submitting to a God who encourages humility. Then the completely contrary view of being incredibly impressed with the skill of the artists and the details that were put in to everything.

I actually quite enjoyed walking among the tombs of the popes where you can read about them and the causes they were passionate about. So were passionate about discipline, others about the poor, others about unifying the church – I found it quite interesting.

The art was of course spectacular. Pretty much the whole place is painted floor to ceiling, and not just with your typical house paint but with um, well I don’t know what kind of paint, but I know that it was painted by some of the genuine greats. Particularly impressive was the Rapheal room and of course Michelangelo knows a thing or two as well. One of my favourites though was this tapestry, I just love the way Jesus is coming out of the tomb with people falling all around him and he is just kinda standing there waving like “hey guys what’s up?”.

It was all very impressive with an undertone of being a little well sickening. The undertones were well outweighed, especially when you hear that most of the artists were just wanting to use their gifts for God in some way.

All this walking was making me tired so we adapted a european tradition which I could well get used to – the siesta! I’m a big fan. Wake up early do your stuff, late lunch, siesta, chill out, late dinner, chill out and go to bed late.

Next day was time for a visit to Colosseum in the day time (after our night visit). Again, we got there early and picked up our audio guide tour which we found very informative both here and at the Vatican.

I found this building fascinating and couldn’t decide whether I really wanted to be there back when it was operating, or whether it was the most horrible thing I have ever heard. There was some quite amazing things that went on there, one of the things I was most impressed by was that in ancient Rome they had about 150 public holidays every year.

I left here wanting to watch Gladiator and a few other movies all over again. It really would have been amazing to be there and it is a place I totally recommend going to, but make sure you either get a guide or use the audio guide as meaningless rocks become interesting historical artifacts.

Rome was my favorite city. I loved the vibe of the place, all the small streets with restaurants and cafes just buzzing with life (and great food). It was a place I could happily spend more time just sitting back and soaking in the atmosphere.

Pictures are up

Our holiday snaps have made their way to Picasa

http://picasaweb.google.com/michaelstormer/Europe#

Climbing in Kalymnos

Well I knew the time would come eventually when I would regret not keeping a journal, my mother always told me it was a good idea to keep a holiday journal but did I listen? No of course not, now I have to try to remember stuff…..

Fortunately when it comes to something like climbing in Kalymnos, stuff is quite memorable. Tufas and stalactites are enough to jog the memory.

Kalymnos is basically an island formed from limestone. I don’t know much about how it came to be as it is, but the island continues to form each day with obvious drips coming from seemingly dry solid rock and it is these drips which eventually form the features that make the climbing here so amazing. Limestone is one of the best rock types to climb on, and this place has more of it than you can dream of.

The thing that makes climbing on limestone so much fun (apart from the fact it is strong and stable) is that it is really grippy. All of the features give you plenty to do with your hands, but the rock face is so rough that you don’t need to worry about your feet too much – just put them in to the wall and they will stay. The downside is that it is really rough on your hands, but they harden up in no time.

It was quite easy to find the crags as all the entrances are marked from the road with a white concrete block that has a blue roof on it, the marker tells you which way to go and how far it is so you just scooter on up there and start walking the rest of the way. The other interesting thing was that at the base of the walls the route name is painted on to the rock so there is no guess work required.

While we were there we ticked up the sectors:

Odyssey – modeled here by Ryan

Arhi – Proudly conquered by me

Kasteli – With Ryan making a move for the camera

Vathis – Unfortunately we didn’t take our camera, but if you look in the middle of this picture you will see a shallow cave leading in to the water. We were climbing there – deep water soloing, no ropes if you fall you get wet.

This is a pretty cool video of the place we were. They guy is doing a much harder route that we were, but Ryan did get to the top of quite a difficult section.

Ghost Kitchen – As shown by Ryan and Nick

Grande Grotta – Climbers don’t do this area justice

To be honest we were climbing off to the right of Grande Grotta where it is a bit less overhanging, though after we left Ryan climbed DNA which goes about 1/2 way up the cave.

The guide book there is excellent and has a grading system that give 1, 2 or 3 stars then for a really good route it gives you a musical note, I think because it is so good it makes you want to sing. We spent our time mainly on 3 stars and musical routes as there was more than enough of them to keep us busy.

My favorite route was at Ghost Kitchen, called Resista 6c (11a) and it was the most fun climbing I have ever done. There is something wonderful about doing a climb when everything clicks, your breathing is in time with your movement and it all just flows and seems effortless. This route was one of those that I looked at afterward and even though it was hard by my standards it felt easy.

Some cool things about climbing there was the way everything is set up. The island lives off climbers and they are appreciated there, the place just seems to understand climbers even though very few of the locals climb. They have things so well set up, everything is bolted so no need for trad gear and even the anchors at the top are fixed – like this:

Anyway, I could go on forever but bottom line is I can’t imagine finding a better climbing destination than this. It is a climbing lifestyle that I could happily spend a long time chilling out with. Actually I figured out that we could live there for a year in a hotel and eating out every night for roughly $20,000 Canadian.

I loved it a lot, it was my favorite part of the trip.

Kalymnos – The Island

Well I am stuck in a cafe waiting for my photos to be backed up on to a handy little thumb drive, so while that slow process takes place I might as well begin the blogging process again. There has been so much happening that this blog is going to turn in to my on line journal and hopefully it will be interesting reading for you as well as a reminder for me.

First up Kalymnos: This place I think has to be broken down in to 2 entries, one about the island itself and the other about the climbing.

The Island of Kalymnos is not like anywhere else I have been. It is small with barren landscape, very few trees and very little evidence of any attempt to change that.

During our time there we rented scooters and a smile came across our faces anytime we knew we were going to get the opportunity to get on them, 5 minute walks turned in to 2 minute scooter rides, but fortunately 2 hour walks turned in to 10 minute scooter rides. I think Ryan was most excited of all by the scooters and he seemed to look forward to the end of anything because it meant getting back on the scooter. We went right the way around the island a few times and though watches were discarded I would estimate about 2 hours to ride around the whole thing.

One of the things that hit me over and over was the smell of the place. All over the island grow wild herbs, rosemary and thyme seemed the most common but i’m sure that an expert could name a bunch of others. It was so pleasant when we were walking to a climbing spot to get wafts of fresh herbs hitting us.

They plants are also special because the island is covered with bees which feed off them, and particularly of the thyme. That gives the honey there an amazing taste which the local make good use of, especially in my favorite creation – honey balls They are like little doughnut dumpling type things deep fried till crispy then covered in honey (special Kalymnos thyme honey) and sprinkled with cinnamon – delicious.

On the subject of food they do a good job of that too. The local specialty is of course fish, but if you’re not in to that (i’m not) then they have a great variety of other Greek dishes which I enjoyed, particularly Mousaka and Dolmates. Mousaka is a lasagna type thing with more layers of potato and some other stuff, Dolmates are stuffed vine leaves – I don’t know what they were stuffed with but they were good. Delicious Calamari stuffed with feta too:

The water was colder than I expected for swimming, but it was as clear as I have seen and gave a great view from any point on the island. When it ot hot climbing, a beautiful swim wasn’t far away.

Getting things done here is near impossible. We wanted to go on a sailing boat on these cool old pirate ships which they have. You see then anchored in the harbour, go and talk to a guy on them and he will say something like, yeah just come back here tomorrow and we’ll take you. Ask what time and he will just shrug and say around 10, so we how up at 10 and no-one will be there, wait around talk to a few people and find out they only o when enough people have booked. Try to book and they tell you that not enough people have booked so they are not taking reservations……..???????

There is so much I want to say about this place, but my backup has finished as I only remembered to bring one memory card with me so I shall leave this here. I expect these entries to be quite fluid as I remember things and add to them or re-word them.

One thing I will say and leave as a final comment is that flying out of Kalymnos felt so wrong. I had a real struggle convincing myself that it was time to leave, every part of me wanted to stay I didn’t care that we were going to more exciting travel, I just wanted to stay there and I still want to be back there.

Loved it, really loved it.

So many activities

Wow I don’t want to leave this Kalymnos, I have been trying to figure it out and I think that Kirsty and I could live in a hotel and eat out every meal and live here for a year on less than $20,000 CAD. And I love the lifestyle, every one is so relaxed.

I guess a rundown on our trip to date is in order.

We started what seems to be months ago with flying into London. We had about 5 hours to kill between flights so we expected just to sit around the airport in wait mode, but after talking to someone we realised we could get into London town I’m a few minutes by train, so off we went. Big Bem, Westminster Abbey etc. It looks pretty much exactly like the pictures but being there was cool.

On to Athens. That is a crazy city, we stated in the historic area which I think was called the placta area. The streets were classic photo-book Europe with white wall or colourful buildings lining really narrow streets filled with the hustle of scooters and road side markets.

We arrived at our hostel quite late when the streets were dead, it was a shock to wake up in the morning to the business and to look up the street to see the Parthenon sitting on a hill so close.

We walked our feet off that day, around the Parthenon including the acropolis and all the way around the old town. I can’t really describe the feeling of being in these places, I am no historian but having seen pictures forever, actually being there and being able to look past the busloads of tourists to see how magnificent these ruins are and to imagine the majesty of how they must have been before they were destroyed is an awesome experience.

At this point i have to apologize for misspellings or poor sentence structure. I am posting this from my iPod, so 1 finger typing and a sentence is larger than a screen.

Athens is a surprising city. Everyone there seems to smoke and smoking seems to be allowed everywhere. The people talk at a million miles per hour even in English (which is very widely spoken), and everyone seems very proud to be Greek and from Athens. I really enjoyed it.

The highlight for me was walking to the top of a hill (where we were greeted by a cable car which came up the other side of the hill) and having dinner as we watched the sun go down over the city with the sea in the distance. It was a woderful end to a magical first day.

Kalymnos is next, but that deserves an entry or 2 of it’s own. It is possible this entry doesn’t make sense, I will check it when I get to a full screen sometime

It’s Time

today we leave on our European trip. Everything is in place, we have a friend looking after our apartment for us, Kirsty got all the important work done, I don’t have much work at the moment anyway, the runway is clear and ready for takeoff.

So here is a rough iteneray we are going for:

Vancouver – London – Athens. Athens for 2 nights seeing the sights.

Athens – Kalymnos (Greek island close to Turkey). 8 nights climbing, swimming, divinghttp://picasaweb.google.com/aristheodoropoulos/KalymnosClimbing#

Kalymnos to Italy. Rome, Cinque Terre, Venice, Tuscany (Florence and Sienna), Amalfi Coast, Bari

Italy to Croatia. Dubrovnik, Brac Island, Split/Zadar, Plitvic.

Croatia to France. Paris, then probably a wine region somewhere

France to London. See some sights, catch up with some friends etc.

google these places and see how much fun we are going to have . There is still so much that we would like to do but will have to put them on hold for another time.

I’m not sure what our computer access is going to be like, or more to the point what our desire to spend time on a computer will be like; but when I feel the need I will update this. Otherwise, see you in July

Guilt Free Chocolate . . . maybe

Part of being a Christian and generally a good person is to be selfless with our finances. I have been feeling that call more often lately as I see people struggle with the economy and I am in the fortunate position to go on an extended overseas vacation.

I have heard and heard of sermons in the past which call us to watch our money so closely that we are even aware of what we are doing when buying a chocolate bar and thinking about how else that money could be used. I don’t really agree with that logic as I think it puts far too much focus on the money itself rather than the attitude behind it, but for those who do and want a little excuse – I have found this website:

http://www.thebicyclefactory.ca/Landing.aspx

It is from Cadbury chocolates. When you buy one of their bars you can log in, enter the code on the bar and they will donate bike parts towards African villages; 100 bars and someone will get a new bike. I encourage you not to eat 100 bars, but even if 10 of you have 10 bars over the course of a few months…

The flipside to this argument is that I have heard rumours of Cadbury using slave labour to harvest the cocoa beans required for chocolate. So maybe it’s not guilt free, but if you’re going to eat it anyway you might as well help someone.

Happy Mothers Birthday

My parents are here at the moment which is lovely because this past weekend we got to celebrate my mothers birthday on Friday, then on Sunday it was Mothers day.

The birthday involved dinner at a favourite restaurant with a friend that I grew up with who now lives here. followed by Mum winning at poker:

For mothers Day we rented a boat and went to a spot that I had been to before but Kirsty hadn’t. I was excited to show off the area to Mum, Dad and Kirsty and very excited to get behind the wheel of a boat again – I think they suit me.

Me and Ma – I love you Mum, you’re the best.

The lovely Granite Falls:

Lots more pictures of a great place and a great day are (or will be soon) on the picassa site. (Click on our pics on the side)

Secrets

I had a pop-up add for this come up on my screen:

How To Keep A Man In Love - CatchHimAndKeepHim.com - Learn The “Secret Psychology” To Getting A Man Hooked For Good

I hate stuff like this, it actually sums up the people that I find the most annoying and obnoxious in the whole world. Wanna know the secret? Just be nice, be fun, be patient, share a similar life view and stop trying to manipulate him!

By the way if anyone clicks on this link I can tell and I can find out who you are and I will think less of you!

Queen

When I was growing up, I was a big fan of Queen – I listened to their albums over and over and felt real sadness and loss when Freddy Mercury died. I remember feeling this way, despite feeling very awkward about liking a gay musician (that just wasn’t done in my school).

Over the years Queen and I have grown apart, but occasionally I hear one of their songs when my ipod is on shuffle and the amaze me. Their composition is incredible, the way they assemble a song from start to finish was and still is mind blowing. The thing that consistently impresses me the most though is Freddy Mercury himself, I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say he had one of the greatest voices the world has seen.

When the Ben Harper newsletter sent out his remake of “Under Pressure” today I was quite excited to hear it and I love the way he makes it sound (that is Ben Harperish), but it reminded me again of how good Freddy is. To see Ben struggling to reach the notes that Freddy makes sound so easy, although it is hard to know for sure because Ben Harpers voice always sounds kinda strained (it is sort of his style).

These days I would choose to listen to the Ben Harper version every time, but Queen and particularly Freddy continue to impress me.

I also strongly recommend flicking around youtube listening to as many Ben Harper tracks as you can. He does so many cool covers including some great Led Zep stuff, some old soul remakes, a couple of Prince songs and of course his own stuff is pretty cool too (Better Way live is awesome).