people

Wow - so many new friends made at the Pink Palace in Agios Gordios, Curfo, Greece!
     The week started with a roomate Lisa, who knows my roommate's fiancee, lives in Acton, Massachusetts, went to Cornell, and has the same birthday as me! We hit it off immediately and even though she only stayed a short time with me there, I felt like I had known her for years. She was resting from climbing Mt. Olympus and was returning on to the US after long travels in Europe.
     Brendan, Justin, and Luke, all from Australia, were passing through Greece on their way to work for a year or two in London, England, as well as in Sweden. I learned a lot from them about Brisbane, Australian politics, attitudes about Americans there, and got some travel hints from them that I will definitely use on my trip down under! We kayaked together along the western coast of Corfu to the bat cave, big cave/little cave, and found a remote sandy beach where we all made a bonfire and had a great beach day before our harsh kayak back to Goat island and the palace. We had plates smashed on our heads and witnessed ture Greek dancing (and too much Ouzo!) and all wore Pink Togas for a cool toga party.
      Amber&Brian joined the party at the Pink Palace and I spent a lot of time with them the rest of my vacation there. They were travelling for 2 months after quitting their jobs in Telluride, Colorado, and were almost going home. We rented a car together and drove around the Island one day, and had the BEST Calamari lunch ever! We were invited into the kitchen of the taverna owners and they showed us the food they were preparing, and we must have said "yes" a little too many times because we ended up getting ALL of the fish they were preparing, plus greek salad and tzaiki and much bread. First course - salad, tzakiki&bread, second course - little white lobsters, third course - sooo much tender grilled calamari we were stuffed. And then they brought out more fish!! Mmmm! We spent a great beach day and attended the sunset events, dinner events, Ouzo circle events, and berakfast events together. I was sad to leave but promised to visit them in Colorado or Seattle (if they move therE) sometime soon!

Roz, Emily, and Gaby, three solo travellers that met one another along their journeys in Verona and Venice before coming to Padova. I recognized Roz from the one night and morning we spent in a hostel in Menton!! We had dinner together (pizza, again) and went to Venice together by bus-train the next day so I could have an orientation to the city before dumping my car off there. Roz, from Minnesota, Emily from Seattle, and Gaby from Cape Town South Africa had a good day getting to Venice and then to Murano, where all of the glass blowing displays were closed for the weekend. Much fun together though!

Margaret and her son Edward, from England, also stayed in the hostel in Frejus. We talked each night about the day's travels and went to dinner at a spectacular French food place in St Maxime on my last night there (I had pizza with Creme, onions, bacon, and cheese.... mmmm, and my first creme caramel). We played Cosmic Wimpout together with Alf one night and traded stories about how life is in England and America compared to France. Wonderful folk!

Alf and Mary from Scotland, night watchmen of the hostel at Frejus, France. Mary was down visiting for a weekly vacation and Alf stays there for a month each year to close up at night. They gave me their used Scottish newspapers to read! Wow, what dreary weather in Scotland in October! They were very helpful since they had been coming to Frejus for years!

Tamara from Australia, met in a hostel in Menton France. We travelled together for a day trip to Eze perfume factory and St Paul de Vence, and along the coast through Cagnes su Mer and Nice and returned to Eze for a picnic dinner in the hills. We had the best dinner of her trip the next night in Menton, moules (mussles) in a huge ceramic boat plate with pommes frites! She was going on to London to work as well after traveling. I think we stayed together in Menton for 5 days!

Rebecca in Lake Como from Australia, we toured together for a day, took a boat ride to Bellagio and had dinner with 2 guys from the Netherlands and 1 from L.A. She was with me fo rmy first car experience in Europe and my first hostel experience! Made it nice! Rebecca was going on to work in London after her travels.

In Munichen, my friend Michael's flatmate, Claudia, who has shared her world with me more than I could ask! We swapped music, sports in America (I think she and most of the people at the Olympicpark Schminnenhalle in Munich were amyazed at the water weight belt I use for water aerobics!), stories of family, friends, and men. She took me on her day off to a nearby town, lake, castle, and Kloster, and shared so much while Michael was working. I am deeply in debt to her for making my stay in Munich terrific!

In Zurich, a young man in the Swiss army who stayed at the same pension that I did, asked about my trip and did not feel it was safe for me to travel alone now in the world.

Jody, the homeless gas station attendant I met in Venice Beach was very polite while conversing and reminded me how lucky I am to have friends all around the country that I still keep in touch with and can visit and stay. I forgot I was lucky.

Annie, recently 5 years old and very much a part of Aunt Robbie and Ann's life! I got to see her perform with her Pre-school class on video before I met her in real life and be part of the first time she ever went in to the ocean water! We played in the water in Manhattan Beach and buired our feet in the sand when the waves came. I think Annie reminded me that life's leaps and bounds start with small steps.

The guy in th epharmacy in Placerville who started talking to me while waiting for a prescription. Turns out he was the metal shop worker in the early days of semiconductors who ground the first GaAs disk that ever existed. An engineer asked him if he could polish/grind some glass and gave him the dimensions, and he said yes. After a few hours he called the engineer back with the completed project - it worked! It turns out it was the only one that existed at the time in the whole world, and was good enough to be used in a lens on the Magellan flyby. Neat. This guy had his great nephew with him who didn't know what the Magellan was or how important his uncle had been in his day. He knew that he loved planes though and had a large collection of them throughout his house. I asked him about flying and got a few good book recommendations from him.