Well here it is the mother of all blogs! Our trip through Greece and the rest of Europe was very nice. The roads were nice (when I say nice I mean of course paved and minimal potholes) and the landscape was breathtaking. The border crossing was not difficult just annoying. When we crossed into "Borderland" after going though Turkish customs we saw armed guards on each side-kind of scary...Well when we arrived on Greece's side we went to the customs as usual and waited in the fairly short line. When we got to the front we were asked if we had a green card (European insurance) we said no as we could not get it in Turkey. The guard told us to go to the Turkish border to go get it. We thought "what the heck?" and asked if we could get the insurance here in Greece. Of course he said no, so we went back and surprised the bored Turkish guards. After half an hour my dad was able to get the green card. I had to wait in the parking lot in "Borderland" as the Turkish customs had already cleared the car. We then headed back to try and get into Greece for the second time. When we got to the guard-a different one then before-we were not even asked for the green card. We entered Greece with just quick passport checks and car registration checks. We were done in about 5 minutes.Greece was beautiful our coastal drive was a good choice-we drove along the coast of the Aegean Sea. When we entered Greece, we received a text message welcoming us. We thought this was amazing and continued into Greece happily. Towards the end of the day we reached Thessaloniki-the second biggest city in Greece, after Athens-we decided to continue on towards Macedonia and find a hotel on the way. As we left Thess. we saw a bunch of hotel signs so we headed towards them. After a while a sign with the hotel names would come up with an arrow pointing us onward. After 10 minutes we were thoroughly confused. We could not see any hotels and the stupid sign just kept asking us to go further away from the main road. We eventually found Hotel Prestige. It was very nice and not expensive. After checking in we went into the small town to find some dinner. When we got out of our car in the town almost everyone stared at us. It was kind of embarrassing but I guess we were the only tourists for a while-or maybe it was Suzi that they were wondering about... At dinner we learned that the Greeks do not like Macedonia, because of their name. Macedonian is a Greek name so people will think that Macedonia was Greek. We were surprised that this was the reason for the Greek/Macedonian hostility, but what can you do? We left for Macedonia the next morning, the birthplace of Alexander the Great. We tried to figure out which town he was born in but could not find it in our Lonely Planet Guide. We passed the armed guards at the Greek border and entered into Macedonia easy enough. Macedonia was a beautiful. There were green hills and mountains. We thought we were definitely in Europe. We drove through Macedonia very fast and before we knew it we were in Serbia. For the first time we were asked to open our car at the border. The Serbian border patrol agent asked us to open the trunk and asked us what various items were. After she was satisfied she let us go. The Serbian landscape was mostly farms. Dad loved it. The drive was nice and interesting weaving through mountains and going over bridges. But soon we came to a stop on a bridge in the middle of the Serbian wilderness. The cars in front of us were not moving and we couldn’t see anything so we put the windows down and turned off the car. There was a nice breeze so consequently dad fell asleep. I saw some people walking towards the front of the line of cars, and after 10 minutes or so they started to come back. Dad woke up and asked me to ask them what they saw. I asked a man from the Netherlands and he said he saw just two cones blocking the road and that no one at the front of the line knew what was going on. He said they thought it was either a bike race or an accident, but most likely an accident because they said they saw smoke in the distance. I asked if he knew another way on a side road and he said he was going to check his map and if he found one we were allowed to follow him. He left us saying “Who knows? This is Serbia” We laughed and checked our own maps to see and side roads-none. But earlier we saw cars in our line turn around and then later we would see lines of cars go on the small road going underneath the bridge we were on. Soon enough we turned around and followed the guy from the Netherlands to the road under the bridge. The road was small and took us through a small village. We could see the main road in the distance and was hoping that this road would take us back to the motorway. At the beginning of our little adventure there was an entire line of cars following us after the village there was just us and the Netherlands guy. We could see the motorway and there were cars driving on it-so that means that the traffic cleared up-We felt really bad that we hadn’t waited. But after a wrong turn we made it onto the motorway bid farewell to our temporary guide and continued our journey through Europe. We made it to Belgrade-the capital of Serbia-by late afternoon. We began looking for a hotel on the motorway so we wouldn’t have to go inside the city and risk getting lost. But we didn’t find any and before we knew it we saw the “you are now leaving Belgrade” sign. So we continued on-as we could not do a u-turn. We eventually made it to a town named Ruma and followed the hotel signs to a small gas station, were we asked for directions. The woman pointed us to the restaurant across the street, so we headed over there and asked the manager for a room and he said he had some available. He said he had a room for $100, but we asked if he had a cheaper room and he did so we told him we would take it. He showed us the room and where we can park Suzi. While I parked Suzi, dad talked to the manager about our trip and he was very impressed. We put our bags into our room and went downstairs to the restaurant, were there was music and people having a good time, to have a drink. We already had sandwiches with us in the room-we had bought them from the gas station. While we were sitting and enjoying the live music dad asked me to get the camera and video tape everything, so I headed out to get it. When I came back a waiter gave us bread and plates. I asked dad if he order anything and he said he hadn’t. We shrugged it off and ate the delicious bread, and then the waiter came and told us to try Serbian homemade soup. It was very good too. Then came a yummy salad. Then after that came a dish with beef, pork, and chicken pieces. We asked the waiter what was up and he said that we had to try it. The food was delicious as was everything before. We couldn’t finish it-there was just so much food! Eventually the waiter took our plates away and gave us each two crepes for dessert. They were also very good-especially the chocolate one! ;) During all of this they kept giving dad refills of his beers and I had water. We asked the manager how much for this dinner and he said that it was free! We told him that we had to pay for it, but he just told us to go to sleep and we would discuss payment in the morning. So reluctantly we went upstairs and went to sleep feeling very grateful. The next morning we packed and went downstairs. The manager said we needed to have breakfast before we could leave. So we ate a very good ham and cheese omelets. We then asked how much to pay and he said the entire thing-even the room-was free!! He wouldn’t take our money and gave me a small gift-I have yet to open it-but I think it is a small crest for the restaurant. Before we left, we left a little more then $100 on the table. We left Serbia that morning in very high spirits. So we continued west towards Croatia, then Slovenia. The Croatian border was easy-we were not asked to open up our car. While in Croatia we changed plans and decided we should go to Vienna-we were originally planning not to go there, but go through the tip of Austria to get to Germany. So we at a intersection we went north so we would only go through the smallest part of Slovenia and have a straight road to Vienna. We paid tolls on the roads-which we ok, but there were roads so who am I to complain? We reached Slovenia early and went through the border-easy. Towards the Slovenian and Austrian border there was a toll and we had to pay 15 Euros! We were not even in Slovenia long enough to get that high of a toll! It was insane. But we paid and headed into Austria.The Austrian border was very nice. There was a border agent standing looking at passports. We drove up and he asked us where we are going and asked why we haven’t gone to Italy. The guard was Italian. We said we had already been and loved it and he smiled and let us go. That had to be one of the nicest border crossings we had. As soon as we entered Austria we saw the famously, beautiful Austrian countryside. It was so amazingly, beautiful. Pictures are not enough to capture the full effect. Another good thing about Austria was that our Tom-tom worked in Austria. So we put in a hostel we found in Lonely Planet in the Tom-tom and let it guide us. It was nice not having to navigate. Vienna was beautiful as well. It didn’t have the bad, ugly power plants like Russian cities. We went to the hostel and found that it was completely full, so the receptionist gave my dad another address for another hostel. So we went there and there was room so we decided to stay there. It was nice enough. We asked the receptionist how to get to the downtown city and what there was to see. He answered with his Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger-like accent. I couldn’t help but laugh on the inside. I know my American-ness is showing! ;) We took the Subway which was not too far from the hotel and went to the downtown Vienna. We saw a very beautiful church-I don’t remember the name :( But the outside was burnt and the inside was very beautiful. The stone on the inside was highlighted with purple light. After that we decided to go see the Opera house. We walked for a while and came to the Opera house. It was nice and very fancy on the inside. We decided to head back to the walkway were there were restaurants and shops. From there we ate at a sports type grill/bar. I think there was a famous Austrian footballer sitting behind me because people kept taking his picture and asking for autographs…We talked to an Austrian couple who sat next to us and they told us that there’s a big football game tonight-Russia vs. Netherlands. They told us that we could go to the main viewing area, but there is a lot of security and that we are not allowed to take anything inside the viewing area. So instead we should go to the biggest coffee shop in the world and watch from there. So we went in search for it. On the way I asked for directions from these 2 men-who turned out to be American and they had just graduated high school. They didn’t know but I was glad at least to meet some other Americans in a long while. We continued our search and ended up all the way to the main viewing area, so we turned around and saw a big raised platform with coffee pictures around it. So we went up there and found a seat and watched the match. The food and coffee was very expensive so we didn’t eat or drink much. When half time came up we decided we should head back to the subway, because it was getting dark and finding our way back to the hostel would be difficult in the dark. As we headed down the main walkway we saw a temporary bar in the middle of the road and a TV with people watching the game. We ended up watching the rest of the game there. We stood in the back for the rest of the game. There was a big Russian guy there and he bought a big bottle of Absolute Vodka so the people around him. It was a 40 Euro bottle of Vodka. He drank so much but didn’t care-as long as Russia won the game. Well they did and he was so happy. That was my first time seeing this type of excitement. It was crazy! But it was a good game. The next morning we headed towards Prague-it was a straight road. Unfortunately, Tom-tom did not work in the Czech Republic… On the way to Prague we went to a small town, Kutna Hora, and went to the Chruch of Bones. This is the craziest, creepiest church you will ever see. There were 40,000 people’s bones in this small church. The church was built on a graveyard. So it had the full creepiness effect. But it was cool nonetheless. I think that if you go to the Czech Republic you should definitely go to Kutna Hora and see the Church of Bones! After that we headed on a small road to Prague. On the way we saw a restaurant with a full parking lot and decided to eat there for lunch. The food was delicious! It was Italian food and we could see why there were so many people at this restaurant. We took the leftovers with us and headed into Prague. We stopped at hotels on the way into the city and the prices were not very nice. We decided to just sightsee, and if we found a good hotel then we would stay. Prague is a pretty city, but crazily overpriced. We bought two small bottles of water and they were 8 dollars. We walked around and saw the various things to see. It was ok, I didn’t really like Prague. There were so many tourists, and nothing really to see. I think people just go to Prague to just say they have been to Prague. I don’t think many people know the history of Prague and go to appreciate the beauty of Prague. After a couple of hours sightseeing we headed back to Suzi and left Prague. We decided to stay in a hotel outside of town. We asked at a gas station if there were any hotels nearby and she said there was. She gave us the address and we headed out to find it. It was far off the main road but we found it eventually. It was nice enough and we were the only guests. We ate our leftovers for dinner and went to sleep. The next morning we talked to the owner and showed him our website and he read about our trip. He was amazed and after he showed us his land that the hotel was on. There were places were the water came up from the ground, and there was an abandon horse stable as well. His land was very big and beautiful. We headed into Germany that day and on the way to Nuremburg changed directions and headed south to Munich. Luckily Tom-tom was working and redirected us in a flash. I was driving and was not pleased at having to go back the way we came to go further away from London. But we made it to Munich and had lunch at a beer garden. Dad had beer and I had lemonade/Sprite, along with two plates full of sausages. Lunch was good and after we walked around the main square. It reminded me of St. Mark’s Square in Venice. After I was finished videotaping I looked around and didn’t see my dad anywhere. I looked around and around and thought that maybe he headed towards the car, so I headed that way too. Halfway there I realized that my dad wouldn’t go to the car like that, so I went back to the plaza and stood in the spot where I lost him and figured he would eventually come back to find me. I was right of course! ;) He came up and asked where I went to and I asked him the same question. Glad we had found each other again we went around the plaza and dad showed me a place where they had a Turkish flag sticker. We needed one for Suzi so we decided to buy it. Then we took some more pictures and went back to the car to continue our journey. We drove and drove, but eventually ended up in traffic. Perhaps one of the worst. We thought Germany didn’t have traffic problems but sadly it does. We were stuck in traffic for about 2 hours and had to take a detour through a small town to get back onto the main road. The Tom-tom was freaking out because we were going in the wrong direction. We eventually made it back onto the main road again and after a while we decided to stop at the next hotel. We found a nice place with a food court and everything. We got our room-which was all green, and went next door to the food court to eat at the Burger King which was the only thing open. We then went back to the hotel and fell asleep. The next day we decided to go to Bruges, Belgium. So we put it into our Tom-tom and headed off. We drove most of the day to reach the border. The Belgium border was nothing, so that was easy. Outside of Brussels is the small, but famous town of Waterloo. Waterloo is a nice little town with plenty of farms and greenery. We took a tour around the battlefield. The farms that were the headquarters for each side were still there as well as their farmlands. The coolest thing we saw was the sunken roads. It was creepy and very dark-even though it was mid afternoon. There were tree roots all around us and the trees created a canopy-so the sun was blocked out. And the line of trees was very thick. It was totally SWEET!... but creepy at the same time. Especially when the guide told you how many people died on that road. Another weird thing was that the fields where the final battle between Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington took place were all farms, and a lot of people died there. But these farms are still producing plenty of crops-which are pretty gross, if you think about it. We then passed Brussels, and kept going to Bruges and smaller but better town then Brussels. We found a Bed and Breakfast, highly recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, and put in that address. Bruges is a town that still has small streets made of cobblestones and castle like structures. It is the middle ages town. We loved it as soon as we arrived. We made it to the B&B and we were provided a nice room. We then went to town to eat dinner. We ate at a nice modern place recommended by the owner of the B&B. Dad had cranberry beer and I had coffee. The cranberry beer was good. :D After dinner we walked around the town plaza and made back to the B&B to go to sleep. We decided the next day to do some sightseeing until noon and then head to Dunkerque, France to take a ferry to Dover. While we were packing the car, a man asked me if we were really driving around the world and I said yes. He said that was amazing and what our plans were for today. I said told him and he said he could gives us a tour of Bruges. The owner of the B&B was his friend so we decided that he seemed nice enough and decided to go with him for a tour of the town. His name is Roland De Pauw and he is one of the nicest people we have met. He gave us a very nice tour of town and showed us everything we wanted to see. He also knew the background of many of the buildings. It was very informative. We saw the blood of Jesus and the only statue of Michangolo’s to leave Italy. After the tour, we took pictures with Roland and said goodbye and headed to Dunkerque, France to catch the ferry. The ferry was at 2 so we left at 12 to reach there at 1 pm. We planned everything perfectly and entered France trough the nonexistantent border and made it to Dunkerque with time to spare. We admired the way the British had the ferry loaded. It was so efficient and easy. The ferry was also very nice-like a mini cruise ship. We had some of our money converted to pounds. We went on the ferry and took the hour and half ride to Dover. After Suzi was unloaded we were in England! We drove on the left side of the road, with the signs on the road reminding us and the Tom Tom saying it too, we were sure to be ok. We put in my uncle’s address and headed towards his house that would be our home for the next two weeks. The traffic in London is horrible-there are so many people and cars and not enough road for both. Dad made me drive up to the house. I was scared, London driving is crazy!! But we made it with no problems. We were greeted by my cousin, my aunt and my grandma. My grandma was so happy we made it there ok, we all got a little teary eyed. But I was glad to be home. !! On July 1 we took Suzi to Southampton and dropped her off, so she could get shipped to New York. We then spent another 2 weeks with our family. We had seen everyone. It was soon time to leave London and head back to America. My uncle dropped us off at the Subway and we took it straight to Terminal 1. We had 4 bags plus two backpacks. It was not fun. My dad and I had standby tickets, so we checked in our bags and went through security and headed towards the gate. When they called the standby people up we went and stood in line. When we were about to get our seat numbers, the people at the desk announced that there was trouble with the plane. So they stopped boarding and made everyone wait. We waited for an hour and the flight was already late and finally they decided to move everyone back to the main lobby area of the airport. When we got there it said our flight was canceled. Pissed that they didn’t tell us we waited with the mob of people at the counter and they finally said that we would have to recollect our bags and take a bus to a hotel and they would reschedule us for tomorrow’s flight. But tomorrows was full, so I don’t know how they were going to do that. So to get back to our bags we had to go through customs-even though we didn’t go anywhere. We then waited an hour for the bags at the bag pickup area. And then went outside in the rain to catch the bus to the hotel. We didn’t know what to do. My mom and sister were going to meet us in New York for the weekend, but we don’t know when we would get to New York, hopefully tomorrow we would. The next morning at 6 am we arrived at Heathrow and went to the check-in counter to see if there were any available seats, but of course the check-in counter was not open yet so we sat down and thought of some more ideas on what we could do. While I watched the bags, Dad went to look for the ticketing counter to see if they could help us instead. He came back and we both went to wait for it to open in the next 2 hours. There we met Kellie, Emily and Michael who were having the same problem we were: since the 5 of us were nonrevenue passengers we had to ask the airline people to help us find another flight. When the office opened we stood in line and the people at the desk said we would have to wait until all the customers had been serviced. Which we agreed, since the 5 of us were employees-including my dad and I, my mom is an employee. It took an hour or two for the line to quiet down so we went up to the desk and asked if they could help us. The manager told us flat out that they would not help us at all. We all began to get worried and angry. How can they refuse to give us service? We had left them alone when there were customers, but now they were refusing to help us…I was pissed! We regrouped at the bench next to the ticket counter and began thinking of a new strategy to make them help us. We met another employee with his family from Boston. He really needed to get home because his mother in law had run out of her diabetes medicine. We all decided to switch off going up to the counter whenever there were not any customers. Meanwhile my dad and Michael decided to go to Gatwick and see if we could go to America from there. So they went to ask the Taxi the price while my dad called the Gatwick ticket counter to see if they could help us. When they came back the news was not good. The price was $150 going and coming, and the time it would take was 4 hours total. So by then all the flights would gone. So we decided to take our chances with Heathrow. After another hour and half, I decided to go up to the ticket counter. I am generally a nice person and do not like to yell or shout at people, but my patience and cool were further gone then it had during the entire trip. I have never yelled at anyone like that in my life. I just yelled and argued at the people at the counter. Most of the people behind the counter were just staring at me dumbfounded, and no one wanted to help me or answer my questions. Finally the manager came up and asked me to leave before she called security. So I left too mad and annoyed that they could continue to treat us like this. Besides I don’t think I should get in even more trouble. I went back to our small group of stranded Americans. After that we decided to send some people to the information desk to see if we could talk to someone higher up then the current manager. Emily and I went. We made it to the information desk and asked for the airline’s manager number and told them the reason behind it. The woman said “Pathetic” We both agreed. After our call (Emily was very persuasive) the manager said she would meet us. We went back upstairs to wait for her to come get all of us. It was past 12:30 so we missed the half empty flight to New York. After 10-20 minutes the manager-the same one we had all been yelling at came and we said we knew exactly how to do it and it would not take very long. So she finally agreed to help us. So she and another girl behind the counter helped us. My dad and I got our tickets for another flight, so we and Kellie, Emily and Michael headed to terminal three for our flights. Outside we took pictures and said goodbye to them as well as the family from Boston. Then my dad and I headed to the check-in counter to see if we could get on the next flight to New York. We had to wait at the ticket counter before we could go inside the gate area. We waited until there were ten minutes before the flight. Then we were called, so we gave the woman at the counter our bags and hurried upstairs to go through security and get to the gate before the plane left. Impossible you say! Well, yeah it kind of was. So my dad and I ran through the airport and got to security which took forever. We then ran through the shopping areas and headed for the gate areas. Why do airports have to have so many stores? Like people didn’t shop enough in the city? When we got closer to the gate area there was a guy with a walkie talkie, he asked which gate we were going to so we told him and he said he would call and ask them to hold the flight. We made it to the gate right as they were closing it. They checked our tickets and let us in. My dad and I were so glad to have made it. So we strapped ourselves in and waited for the flight to land. After we landed we went through customs and headed to the baggage claim to get our bags. Our bags didn’t come till the end-we were worried that they didn’t get a chance to put them on the plane. But they came eventually and we headed outside to catch a cab. We shared a taxi with young woman who lived in New York, when we got to her place she said she would pay the whole thing for us and we would just have to pay from her apartment to the hotel. That was extremely nice of her. When we got to the hotel, we could hardly contain our excitement. My mom and sister had flown in the day before to see us. When we got to the room there they were along with my cousin who lives in New York. I was so happy to see them all. We spent the weekend with them sightseeing. The day they left we went to New Jersey. Suzi would arrive in New Jersey the next day and then customs would take another day. That day we stayed in the hotel room, my dad wasn’t feeling too good. He slept the whole day. I was bored out of my wits, but I contented myself with watching the last episode of Lost-it was good! The next day we walked around the small downtown area. And we went to customs to see if we needed to do anything to get Suzi. We had dinner that night and completely forgot about the huge American portions. The next day we got a call and they said Suzi was ready so we went to customs with all the paperwork and from there we went to the dock. Our taxi guy got lost on the way and we had to use our Tom Tom to help him out. We went to the offices of the shipping company and did paperwork and paid some payments. Then we went to look for Suzi. She was in the back blocked by all these cars. One of the dock guys came with keys to get Suzi out. Then after we got Suzi we drove off happy to be back on the road for our last leg of the trip. We went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and then headed out. On the way to Phoenix we stopped in Kentucky to visit my dad’s friend. The rest of the trip west was pretty uneventful. When we got to Phoenix we had to find our new house, as my mom and sister moved during our trip. My dad and I had seen it before we left and went there a couple of times so it wasn’t too difficult. But we made it home. It was so weird being at home. I felt very happy to be home and accomplished for being able to finish this trip. Being home is awesome!
August 21 I went down to Tucson with Suzi to move in as well as get Suzi fixed. Her engine light was still showing, and she needed a good service. My best friend and roommate followed me to the Suzuki dealership and we left Suzi in the capable hands of Phil. (He was the one who sold us Suzi.) The next day I got a call from Phil that Suzi was ready. So my friend dropped me off at the dealership. As I was talking to Phil about the stuff he had fixed on Suzi, I was getting out my credit card to pay. He said “don’t worry about it, it’s on us”, I stood there dumbfounded. He said “you drove around the world, the least we can do is change the oil”, I thanked him many times. I was so happy. That was one of the nicest things to do! So I want to give a BIG thanks to Phil and all the guys at Suzuki in Tucson! My dad and I cannot thank you enough for helping us with this trip!!
-Ami