We are backkkkkkk!!

Hello Friends and Family-

In case you were wondering we are alive and well and in Italy. Sorry for the delay in writing but we have been on the go with little access to wireless internet (they have not even heard of it in Greece?)

So where have we been since you last heard from us?

July 20th - Slovania

July 21 - drove from Slovania to Croatia - via Trieste Italy and almost via Istanmbul? A story for another time.......

July 22 and 23rd - Rieka, Split and Dubrovenik

July 24th - Ferry from Croatia to Corfu, spent the day touring Corfu

July 25th - arrived on the mainland of Greece and drove to Halkithiki in Northern Greece to meet up with the Sagans.

July 26 - 31st - Nikiti with the Sagans.....

August 1st - 5th - Athens, Greece with our cousins the Paterakis Family!

August 6th - 11th - The island of Kos. Greecenwith our cousins and their friends. Had fun at a German wedding with a Greek Band - another story for later... Amber joined up with us on the 9th as well and is now officially part of the Baratta Adventure tour!

August 12 - 14th - The island of Rhodos where we were greeted at the boat by our new friends that we met camping in Berlin. Stella and Zissis and their daughter Penelope! We ended up camping on their property in Rhodos. They showed us all the sites, places where no one has ever been and we could have never found on our own!

August 15th - 20th - The island of Crete. Had a wonderful time touring the entire island - highlights include Sitia by accident - story for later, St. Nicholas, Vie, Kato Zakros, Rethymo, Plakias, and Xania...Last night arrived in a small village near Kissimos where they were having a "fish festival" ending up dancing with the locals for the evening!!

August 21st - Boat to Pelaponese - camped in Kalamata, went to Olympia via Vlahosopoli - near Kiparisia - John Vlahos' village.

August 22nd - arrived in Italy via overnight ship. Went to see the Grotto de Castellano - caves near Bari and ended up in a cool town called Lecce for the evening.

August 23 - drove to Sorrento, Italy.

August 23 - 28th - Stayed in Sorrento, toured Pompai, Naples, Capri and the Amalfi Coast. Drove though Paestum- home of the ancient Greeks and Buffalo Mozzerella - the food is GOOOOD in Italy!

Currently in Cosenza - a town in Callabria. We are meeting up with Joe's cousins later today and will go to the village where Joe's grandmother comes from...

We are having fun and miss everyone.

Will now try to post some pictured.

Love to All,

Joe, Sandy, Sarina and Amber

Rookie mistakes in Scandinavia at or around the solstice

1) Forgetting to put sun screen on at 9 pm and getting crisped.
2) Telling your daughter she has to go to bed as soon as it gets dark (sunset at approximately 11:30 and it never gets dark; just dims a bit for a few hours)
3) Forgetting to set your alarm clock to get up for the sunset.
4) Reminding yourself that it doesn’t get dark and you should go to bed.
5) Being awed by the fjords while driving and forgetting that occasional there is another car in the oncoming direction.
6) Listening to the very stern navigation lady (Gertrude (nomenclature courtesy of Sarina)) on the GPS system and not remembering that much of the highway system in Scandinavia consists of ferry’s. This can be troublesome when Gertrude demands “make left NOW and proceed to indicated route” particularly if indicated route is onto the ferry which has not yet arrived.
7) Forgetting to put on sunglasses when you leave a fancy (read dark) restaurant after dinner (read wine).

some surreal moments in music

Trip Quips

Most surreal music moments

1) Meatloaf playing as the background muzak at a low keyed non touristy hotel pool in northern Greece.
2) Waking up to Zorba the Greek blaring over the ship’s speakers on an over night ferry from Bari, Italy to Greece
3) Serenaded by the Russian army band posers in front of the hermitage museum. Such music classics as “home on the range” ;”Yankee doodle dandy”; America the beautiful” etc
4) Russian marching band playing Sousa marches as we had are passports inspected in St. Petersburg”
5) Star Spangled Banner being played before touring Chatherine the Great’s digs. (I’m sure you get the idea….think I liked things better before détente got started).
6) Having an old Pontiac pull up next to me on the cobbled streets of mid-evil Talen, Estonia blaring the thumping rap of Vanilla Ice (subwoofer hanging out of the back of the car window. Comforting to know that misguided rebellious taste is not uniquely American. Bad taste unites nations….think john Lennon could have (or may have) written a song something like that…imagine it.
7) Speaking of Lennon….the graffiti wall under the Charles bridge that spontaneously appeared and continued to reappear after Lennon’s assassination as a tribute. This is the bridge that connects the medieval town of Prague to the castle. Not to worry, newly found capitalism immediately sprouted café’s and souvenir shops to pluck any remaining sheckles a tourist may have.
8) After viewing a “once in a lifetime performance” (or death performance as it is the final resting place of the former king) of Vivaldi’s four seasons, Pachabel’s cannon in D, a Mozart ditty at St. Georges Basilica at the awe inspiring castle (check facts) watching the musicians literally scatter to run throughout the town to meet up with other musicians at various venues. Learning later that many of them make more as street performers during the day doing your classic in a cup rendition of classical top 40.
9) On the streets of Vienna watching a woman literally roll up a piano wearing a formal gown plopping down and whipping off Rachmonanov (sp) and others.
10) Woman playing classical clarinet in the middle of one of Vienna’s squares with a boom box playing the orchestral accompaniment.
11) Rendition of toccata and fugue in a fabulous church and Gdansk on an organ(s) remastered in the 1800s with organs pipes and connections from centuries earlier. Trumpet players and angels appeared from the organ pipes as dictated by the composers.
12) Alleged authentic gypsy musicians playing Cher (Gypsies, tramps and thieves) in a sit down eatery in Budapest. Several of the patrons bestowed gifts of coinage presumably for lessons. Food aside: when waiter questioned as to the non existence of paprika in a “traditional authentic meal” the response was that most (read American) do not like spicy food but would get me a side of the house paprika sauce. (this falls into the category of never trust your guide books too much).
13) Mozart and Washington seem to be kindred spirits. They both seemed to have slept and thrived in many places. Washington got his likeness on the dollar bill while Mozart is hawked by every choclatier this side of Salzburg.
14) Watching classically trained Russian musicians play the ever timeless Abba on traditional instruments on the pedestrian promenades in Bergen. Noting you could buy a Russian/abba cd for 40 bucks….capitalism has spread.
15) Running into a rock and roll festival in Stravanger under the bright sunlight at 10 pm.
16) Walking through a seemingly empty fishing village in southern Crete at about midnight and running into a Greek lounge act playing the Greek dentist song, “fillings, nothing more than fillings….”
17) Walking through Sorrento after a long day in Naples and finding a street Brazilian mariachi group singing Righteous Brothers “you’ve lost that loving feeling”…possibly breaking the world acoustic trauma record in sheer numbers of available patronage to offend.
18) Looking for a place to sleep before our morning ferry ride out of Crete to the Peloponnese ...found a small fishing village having a town festival… greek dancing and fish bbq on their pier….needless to say we never did find a place to sleep that night.

Some Photos from the trip

Some photos from the trip.

Pompai Italy 8/24/05 

Caves in Italy 8/22/05 

Ancient Olympia, 8/21/2005 

Ancient Olympia, August 21st 2005 

Joe at the museum in Olmpia 

A traveling shoe store on the road near Olympia 

Sarina reading to her friend on the ship - 8/20/05 

Sarina and her new friend on the boat going from Crete to Kalamata on the mainland. 

The people we met at the festival own this boat called the Sun and they take people on tours around Crete. 

Sarina at the festival - it was past midnight at this point but the town was still hopping! 

At the festival on our last night in Crete 

Sarina in Crete 

In front of our hotel in Plakias Crete 

Sarina and Joe at Knossos Crete 

Sarina going to the bathroom in a modern facilty in Crete. 

Joe and Sarina on the overnight ship from Rhodes to Crete catching up on their reading of guidebooks.... 

From the boat arriving to Crete 8/15/05 

Sarina at our hotel in Sitia Crete 

Sitia Crete 8/15/05 

This is a real picture taken near Agios Nikolaos in Crete 

A road sign in Crete? 

Amber and Joe with Zissis in the background entering the 100 yard tunnel that is in the water. Ask Amber to tell you the story of how she almost lost her shoe.... 

Sarina and Penelope 8/14/05 

Rhodes 

Rhodes