These boots were made for walkin

Wow, I didnt realize that I hadnt updated my blog in such a long time. Tonight is our last night in Greece as we take a ferry from the west coast to the east coast of Italy. From there we hope to catch a train to Milan or some place and then on to Paris, where our trip began.

But as for the past couple days since my last entry, well...its been a while.

We went to Crete for a day and one too many. We met a guy from Texas that looks like Matthew McConouhay (spelling, but who cares anyway). It was good talkin to him. He's been to a lot of places and had some pretty good stories. One that I remember was one he actually overheard from someone else. The basics of it was that a comet supposidly predicted thousands of years ago is going to just miss earth and scare everyone into socialism and its going to end capitalism. Funny, huh? After that story, we went to go see Batman with him too. I hope you guys have checked out the new pics I've posted b/c I put up some of the theatre we went it. Its a really nice place. Only downside is that they only show movies at night and they have intermissions, which was actually a little cool.

Then we went to Santorini, which used to be a volcanoe until it exploded. It left black beaches which we laid out on for a day, making ourselves even darker. Then we rode around on the island on a Moped, sometimes on the road, other time into bushes with huge thorns. I have the scars to prove it...ok ok, i used to at least, but it never felt good.

Then it was on to the island of Mykonos. WE stayed at this little party resort/hostel. Not our cup of tea but the beach was nice. It was pebble like most of the other ones we've been to, which I think I now prefer. They dont give you that nasty sandy feel and its much cleaner too. There we think we say Jaleel White driving on a moped too, ya know...Eurkel from Family Matters. Good times.

Now we're back in Athens getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. Today I had my last meal at the Greek fast food resteraunt called Goody's. Its the bomb!! Their Power burger is soo good. By far better than In-n-out, trust me. And we've also been talking to these Finish (Finland) girls all day too. They're blonde and really cool. They've helped pass the time. Really sarcastic too.

Anyway, hope everyone is doin alright. I know Mom is the only still reading this thing huh? hah, its alright though. I love you Mom! I cant wait to eat your cookin' again :)

Alright, laterrr

our second to last day in Athens, we rode the new tram to the beach.

already burned in Nice, France which turned to my normal Mexican brown, I wasnt too worried about getting burned again. pretty hard to do that when it looks like i took a trip to africa and not europe.

but...I didnt want to get my shorts all salted up from the ocean so on the way there i picked up a 10 euro pair of swim trunks - yellow with gray and blue stripes on the side. i really wanted to get speedos since thats what they mostly wear here in europe, but i thought that since the islands we are going to are filled with americans, i better not. these trunks were almost speedos though. lets just say they're not board shorts. i actually posted a picture in my yahoo photos for all of those who want a good laugh.

but anyway, the one place we didnt get burned at in France was our thighs. so, like a couple europeans, we rolled 'em up and let the sun beat 'em down.

me and chris figured out that you dont really know how much you're getting burned until a couple hours after you get home from the beach. this theory proved to be true, because on our walk home, we knew we were burned. not too bad though, which i am happy about.

it wouldnt be so bad really if we didnt have to pay 2 euro a person to turn on the air conditioner in our room. these people are really stingy w/ their a/c. most places dont have them. but me and chris have been burnin up this past week b/c there isnt even a breeze that comes through the windows, and a cool room would be nice for the night, but its not gonnna happen. oh well, we'll be alright, right???

well, i'm sad that you guys didnt get to experience the beautiful Athenian beach and the old leathery old men in speedos, and i know yall will appreciate i left them out of any photos i took.

ok, well its time to go. tomorrow night we leave for Crete.

Yeah, its been a while since I've said anything. Forgive me.

I dont even really remember everything thats been going on since the last time I've posted.

We've had one roommate from Scotland, and me him and chris talked about the European Union for over an hour. I know yall would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. So much college graduate wisdom comin from that conversation.

then we got another japanese roommate. Those kind of people are so nice. they are also the littlest people too. they like to laugh at anything you say and also nod and laugh whenever they talk to you too. meeting foreigners on this trip has been great; truly one of the highlights.

We went to ancient Corinth the other day. Pretty cool stuff. ride there was good. when we got on the train to go, there was this really old man barely over five foot with a cane and hunched over to the point where he could barely look up, and he just was taking this swift little steps just kinda pushin his way through people. it was really funny.

people in greece are actually really nice. the first or second night we were here me and chris split up on our way home, and when i asked a man who didnt know much english where this one place was, he actually walked me down a block and a half to point me in the right direction. and this was after midnight too.

oh....and i have all these videos that i have been sending to mom and dad that i've been taking while i have been here. i know my trip is almost over, but if anyone wants to be included in the official jessie matlock mailing list, just give me your email address if i dont have it, and youll get this totally free offer...right after you pay a 5 dollar registration fee.

today was Chris' birthday. 23! he's an old man. he didnt eat the whole day either until just a little while ago when we had his birthday meal. we both got country sausage w/ fries. he got a greek salad, and we both got some greek coffee which is actually pretty good.

umm...

yeah!

athens is great so far. in a few days we head to the islands to partay, i mean, relax. jk...they are supposed to be really beautiful though. those are really gonna be great.

ok, i've run out of things to say. mainly b/c i'm a man of few words.

asta

If you're interested, I labeled most of my Italy photos so yall know what they are

Just a quick update on things...

Yesterday was our first day in Greece. We got off the ferry and found a fastfood place to eat called Caspers, yeah, the friendly ghost. We got to eeros, or however you spell it, with a coke and it was like a little over 4 euro. By far our cheapest meal that gave us the most. It was the first time in a month that we ate and were actually full when we got done eating. It was good too! Then we got two again in Athens and that was only a little over three euro. Then some dude from this area came up and talked us and gave us his little worldview on things and told us how it was different from america. It was pretty interesting to hear.

Anyway, thats all. Today we saw most of the really historic stuff that you all know about thats in Athens. Old stuff.

Ok, talk to yall again soon.

So I met this really cool guy the other day named Rudy. He is finishing up law school in Memphis and is taking the bar exam in a few weeks. He told me this crazy story thats been happening to him lately. He had a job with this good law firm in Memphis but they ended merging with this big time firm and now he is out of a job. Then he almost got a few other jobs and those fell through. The latest one fell through in a really shady way. They gave him the job, and he found out through one of his clients that he no longer had a job, crazy huh? He was so mad he didnt hear from his boss first that he stormed down there to yell and all that but the security wouldnt let himm in, so he just left, went home and fell asleep on the couch after crying and all that stuff. He woke up to the policemen knocking on his door because they say he is the leading suspect for burning down a building, the building of the firm that he just lost his job from. you can guess why they think its him, but of course its not. now he is on the move in Europe...

ok, so maybe he isnt really on the move in, Europe...
ok, and so may be Rudy isnt really real either...

I started reading about Rudy Baylor in the John Grisham book called the Rainmaker the other day. It was left by another traveler and I read the first 17 chapters. The rule with that though is, if you get a book another traveler left, you have to leave one. the only problem is the only other book i have is my little Gideon bible. I was thinking...ya know, a novel would be something nice to have on a 30 plus train and ferry trip that i am gonna take tomorrow morning, but i didnt wanna be without my bible for two weeks. i figured walking in the spirit is a little more important, i am so holy arent i? right up there with the pope. I guess the vatican area is rubbing off on me.

Oh well, hopefully the next hostel will have another cool book. i havent ever reallly read a novel on my own, sad huh, but i really liked it, at least this one.

anyway, next time i write i will be in greece on the last leg of our trip.

peace out my mis holy santos

Ok, well, I am at this little internet cafe right down the street from the Sistine chapel right?

Not that that has much to do with anything, other than the connection is slow, and when I just went to publish my blog entry I just wrote everyone, the internet timed out and the entire entry is gone.

I thought about not writing anything and just waiting for next time I got on here to write, but since I am in Italy, and Musilini did it for the people, I will do it for the people. That made no sense, but neither does a lot of stuff they do here...Oh, except for their genius invetions, which I dont htink I have mentioned on here yet.

The toilets in the hostel we are staying at right now has weight on the back of the seat, so when you stand up, it raises up. No putting up and down the seat, it does it for you. There would be one less dilemma in America if we adpoted that thing.

Another thing is the pedal to turn water faucets on and off and to flush the toilet. I dont know why Americans dont have these installed in their housess, I know I will.

But anyway...Peters Basiillica the other day was probabaly the most impressive thing on this entire trip. Today we saw the Pope at a Snack Bar getting Gellati. Got his autogra...ok, we really just saw him blessing the crowd. Even though I dont believe in his position and all, it was still quite an experience.

Ok, Sistine chapel, the forum, and collesum are still to come.

Thanks for reading and yalls comments, I appreciate em.

Hi from Florence everyone.

We are in our five city in four days. Milan, Venice, Genova, Pisa, Florence. So, we have been on the train for a good while. Before we were taking trips at night to save on hostel costs, but our last couple trips have been during the day which I like a lot. The scenery is a lot like Texas, except that they have hills, so needless to say, its beautiful. Traveling by train also kind of reminds me of traveling from LA to San Diego because there are always signs of civilization. Today, for about five minutes was the first time we saw nothing but terrain. But the part about seeing the Italian country side is the wild flowers they have. They have a few of these yellow patches of flowers and these really beautiful red ones. I wanna find out what they are called, and Mom, we are gonna get some and put them in our new yard...yeah?? I took some pictures of them, or at least ones that look like them, that were inside the city limits of Milan. Those probably will not be up though for a few more days. I am just now finishing up loading all my France photos today, so check it out.

But if you havent yet, traveling by train is fun, as long as nobody is sitting in front of you and you dont really have to sleep on it. But yeah...

And for some reason it seems like there is a lot more graffiti here in Europe. We thought it might be just becuase its really urban and all, but I dont think thats it. Its all over the place, no matter where you go. Chris doesnt think any of it is really good. He says, if they are gonna put somethin up there, they should impress him. Well, right after he said that, we saw some pretty impressive stuff, I thought at least. But its weird that even though these people who graffiti are on the other side of the world from the US, they have the same handwriting and everything. I know i am not a specialist on the art of tagging, but i dont see any small different nuances. Its as if they all went to the same art tagging school or something. And whats even weirder is that they all do it well. Where did such criminals get such talent? Anyway...

We also saw the leaning tower of Pisa today, which was pretty cool because it came out of nowhere. We came walking around the corner, and bam, there it was. Just leanin. Its crazy how much its leaning and yet it hasnt fallen over. But, for about five seconds i held it up and i also fell with it...in the pictures, coming soon as well. Then we had Pisa pizza on a side street from the tower. me and chris had a really nice time as black men came to sell us sun glasses and jewelry. actually, i did buy a pair of Foakleys for 5 euro. Not back considering his first offer was 25.

Well, me and chris are off to get some Italian chicks, i mean, check into our hostel.

oh, and here is a link to his running blog. But you arent allowed to read his more than mine or else.

http://chrisloll.blogspot.com

bye people

real quick update on things...

we took a night train to venice the other day and had a room that sat six people total. at first it was just us and some chick from seattle, she was cool, and then this italian couple came on, and i think the guy got mad at me cuz i buried my head in my lap and laughed after i said something and i think he thought it was directed at him. he began talking to me and all i said was, "i dont speak french"...but i said it in french, and he was speakin in italian, so i think there was a problem. i ended up just ignoring him and drank my nast sugar water. then that dude went to sleep and he snored soo loud. with that and the awkwardness of the seats, we didnt fall asleep until a couple hours before we arrived.

big surprise when we got there though, as i walked out the train station i heard someone call my name. it was suzie zimmer from school. her and some other people I knew from Masters were traveling as well. crazy times because thats the second time i have met someone i knew. the first was on the plan ride to germany from houston when i saw dexter the soccer play.

venice was pretty cool though. i really like it a lot actually. getting around there is pretty much impossible though if yo uhave an exact place you want to be. it is made up of canals, as all you know, and all the streets are basically alley ways. those alley ways basically made up a huge maze which got us lost, again. but let me warn any of you who are thinking of traveling to europe too...you will get lost too. think its impossible not too. everyone here says they get lost all the time too, so its not just us. but i think for the most part we do a pretty good job getting around.

but we just got into milan last night. i wouldnt even say most these italians look italian. they do, but i guess they arent as dark as i thought they would be. and havent really seen too many good lookin italians either. i guess i have to wait until rome.

anyway, my time is up, ciao

Yesterday was our last day with our new friends, Jobe (Joseph Bennett), Lori, Lydia, and Stephanie. Lori and Stephanie were together and are from Maine, Jobe is from Norman OK, and Lydia is from Minnesota. They are really cool people. We went into town and basically just walked around. On the way back I got chewed out by the bus driver because I guess he thought I was trying to get on w/o paying, which was stupid because I was standing there paying him (he just wasnt sure if i gave the right amount i guess), while half the people on the bus went right behind me and didnt even attempt to pay. Whatever I guess.

But we went to the beach yesterday and we all got burned. chris just payed 9 euros for some medicine b/c he's got a little outbreak on his leg from the sunburn on his halfburned calf. So all we are doing today is staying at the hostel recovering from our burns and resting because last night him and I stayed up all night w/ Steph and Lori until they left this morning. The funny thing is, I'm not even tired. I slept for about three hours this morning but I'm still doin okay.

Well, not much to say for now. later.

Theres not really much to say about today, but i am at the hostel and there is nothing else to do.

we tried going to Cannes which is just about thirty minutes away, but the trains are on strike today, so we trired taking the bus, but it was gonna take too long just to lay in the sun, so we just decided to stay on the rocky beach here. Sandy beaches in Cannes would have been nice but this one did juts as well, i guess. we layaed out for about three hourss whils chris built a rockyy fortresst that included a place to worsship andmake sacrifices and also a wall. it was funny. then we just left because we all got roasted. i am pretty red but it doesnt hurt, so i think i will be okay.

more useless info...i had chilli and a bread stick for dinner tongiht. this hostel is spretty nice compared to the other ones, sos i hear. we haave a kitchen, free internet, and they haave cheap "drinks" that i dont tdrink. so i jut gottaa makae sure that i dont set my standrds too high for the resst we are gonna stay in because i have hearad some baad stories.

i just wannaa say thanaks for the comments too. yallg et to hear from me through t hiss but its also reallyyg ood to hear from the other side every o nce and a while. let me know whats goin on with yall.

later everyone

ok, so its been a while since i've done this. the main reason is because i dont have much time to do much else besides check my mail because internet at this hostel is free and people are always in line waiting to get on. anyway, i'm here now and i'm somewhat gonna take my time. you're supposed to be on here for twenty minutes but most people could care less and just sit there forever.

anyway...i'm here in Nice, France now. On the way here we took a nigh train that had six beds in each room. five out of the six people in there spoke english so it was a good time. we had good conversation and all, so.

then it took us forever to find our hostel because the directions were so bad. basically what we did was go north and hope we found it. I dont know how, but we did. The Lord was gracious, cuz i felt hopeless.

but we have had a lot of fun ever since we got here though. we've already met some cool people and we went out with them today to Monnoco which i guess is kind of like D.C., in a way. Its in France but it's its own country. It was really rich looking. We went inside one casino that was free and some of the people went to a castel while the others just chilled at the bottom of the stairs chattin. oh, and yesterday me and chris went to the beach which has no sand. they are rocks about the size of your fist, but are smooth, so laying down on the "beach" didnt hurt too bad.

thats about it really i guess. but the people we have met are cool and somewhat crazy. one couple has been traveling for ten weeks and plans to do it for 9 months total. another couple has been traveling for a year and seven days. so if yall thought 6 weeks was long, think again. anyway, 6 weeks seems longer and longer to me. i miss everyone. its fun here, but i still cant wait to get back.

Well, yesterday we travelled through many train systems, bus routes(and not necessarily by bus) and backwoods to get to the Chateau of Versaille, my other favorite place so far to go along with the pantheon. Thinking this would be a repeat day of useless travel because it took us so long to find our way, we strolled up to the place hoping it would still be open, and thank the Lord, it was. We walked through the talk black and gold tipped metal gated fence that is lined throughout all of important places in Paris and up to the building itself on the uneven cobble stone ground. The building itself looked for the most part like other historical buildings we have seen, so we went straight to garden behind and to the right side of the place. Got a picture of that and then went to directly behind the place and got one of the coolest views I have seen since being here. The backyard went down into a valley where there was a long lake where people could pay 8 euros to row a boat in it. People were all around jogging and riding bikes too, so I guess they use it as a park too.

Oh, and a highlight that happened in the white lines up there that I left out was something that happened on the train on the way there. Its kind of a short story but still kinda good I think. Me and Mei were waiting on a train to get to versaille so when it came, we got on, even though we weren’t 100 percent sure it was going where we wanted it to take us. We get on and it unusually slowly pulls out and then finally stops. The conductor says something in French that of course we cant understand and then turns off the lights. So we are sitting there trapped, not knowing what to do. Then some guy goes walking by the train, ends up being the conductor and he takes us to another station he was going to anyway. It ended up being ok, but it worried us a little bit for a while.

The restaurant we went to for lunch said the people there spoke English, which was a lie; kind of. Our waiter understood when I said menu and omlet and that’s about it. Then half the food on their menu wasn’t available. For dinner we ate at a fast good place, but I cant remember its name, but it was good.

Then at midnight we hung out at the internet café talking to the owner and this guy we met a couple days ago that doesn’t have a job. The owner is from Cameroon and is now setting up a business in Dallas and our friend says he doesn’t have a job because he is lazy. But he is really into American pop culture. He is really into g-unit if any of you know what that is.

Anyway, Mei says I have written too much, and I probably have, so I will sign off for now.

Well, today all we basically did was get lost and walk around a whole lot. Our first stop was to the train station to reserve our seat for our trip to Nice on sunday. It took a while because we couldn’t figure out where in the station we were supposed to do that, plus nobody really spoke any English either.

Then we were planning on going to some cemetery. It must be famous for something; for what I don’t know, but I guess chris wouldn’t take there unless it was. Anyway, it took us forever to find it and when we did it was closed. Then we tried going to the river and got lost going there. I am not even sure if we were in paris at that point. I finally overheard someone speaking English and asked the, for directions. They were truly God sent. So yeah, today was just full of nothing except for walking around in paris. Don’t you wish you were here walking and seeing nothing?

anyway, my online time is almost up. in case you missed the one i did earlier today, scroll down

...seems so far away
now i need a place to hide away
oh yesterday came suddenly

Yesterday was our most productive day based off of the amount of things we saw. We saw the notre dame cathedral, some other museum, and some huge beautiful garden. They are all famous so forgive me for not knowing what they are called, but im sure you all will know once you see them in the pictures. Oh yeah, we also saw the pantheon, which has been my favorite thing so far…it’s the roman style building that had the tombs of famous people in them.

We also ate in our first real French place yeserday. I had this dish that had bread on the bottom with cheese and chicken on top. They brought our tap Water in a wine glass bottle too. We ate outside which isn’t a hassle at all because the weather is so nice. It could be a little hotter but since there are so many buildings it provides shade everywhere you go.

Other than eating at that restaurant I have been eating a lot of fruit bread and cheese. Its not too bad but I think im going to start spending a little more money on food. When I go to the grocery store I pretty much use up all the French vocabulary I have: mersi and bonjur: thank you and goodbye. Its been good enough for now. I think the French people have been pretty patient with me as well, and I think that’s because we try and use French. Yesterday our waitress helped me with the language after I botched it trying to say “can I have” such and such.

So I have been grateful; the Lord really has ganted us favor with the people so far. Oh except for one incedent when I was walking down the street and bumped shoulders with someone. I didn’t say anything, and I probably should have becuasue chris said the guy clinched his fist like he was about to punch me. I know one thing, he better be glad he didn’t.

That’s all for now I guess. Mom, I am glad to hear dominic is there. Give him my love until I can give it to him and tell aaron I said hey.

Christy…what can I say??? J
Bye yall