Day 44 – Tuesday January 18th 2011 (Igoumenitsa, Greece – Patra, Greece - KIATON, Greece – Athens, Greece)

Another transit day! Not much to say, I spent a lot of time updating my journal and editing photos and trying to get my butt to Athens! I met a Korean (Chobra) guy who was also staying in Athens on the way and we hung out the whole day on the trains. We talked about culture and I ate the best Cesar salad I’ve ever had. The trains and busses literally took all day though and so that was a pain. Eventually we got to the Hostel and I took advantage of the night by sleeping through it.

Day 43 – Monday January 17th 2011 (Brindisi, Italy)

Transit day! I woke up to a beautiful morning in Brindisi Italy! I was pretty excited to get out of Italy actually and finally experience another country where (Hopefully) I won’t have to pay to go to the bathroom. I went out and met a gorgeous farmers market where I bought some fresh apples and oranges and other nice things for pennies. Then I went out in search for internet so I could finish sending my postcards. Oh yeah, I had written 17 postcards in the last few days. I’m excited for everyone to get them and tell me about it. I literally walked to 5 different internet points and libraries and all of them turned me down even the last one but I begged and so the lady let me use a computer for email only. I got what I needed and sent my postcards and then I went through the usual rat race to get onto my ferry (getting tickets, buying cheap food for the trip, finding the bus, security, etc.) but I made it! That’s about it for this day…

Day 42 – Sunday January 16th 2011 (Napoli, Italy - Brindisi, Italy)

Most of the day was spent traveling on the train and bus from Napoli to Brindisi. When I arrived at Brindisi most things were closed considering it was Sunday and so I walked around for a few hours and then ate a falafel and then got a room at a one star hotel. The cheapest in the whole city, I checked. It was actually really nice and it had a great shower but no internet. I slept like a small baby.

Day 41 – Saturday January 15th 2011 (Palermo, Italy – Napoli, Italy)

Transit day! The train between Palermo and Napoli is really interesting. It has to go on a massive ferry because Sicily is an island. It was really weird watching them drive the train onto the ferry and all the cars separating and then coming back together. I was amazed. I was also exhausted so I slept quite a bit on the train.

Day 40 – Friday January 14th 2011 (Palermo, Italy)

I arrived in Palermo at about 730 am and I was so exhausted that I just walked straight to the Hostel and dropped my bags off. I was about ready to take a nap but I wanted to check my emails first because I hadn’t been able to for about a week. The Tunisian government and the lack of anywhere to get internet made it impossible to communicate with my family.
It was a good thing I checked my email too because I soon realized that my parents thought I was dead! They had been trying to contact me for ages because they somehow found out about the riots in Tunisia. They had sent my picture out to all the Hostels in Tunisia, Italy and Greece and they had been talking with the US embassy, the ferry service and the police. I was worried because I read in an email that my Dad was thinking about flying to Tunisia to look for me. So I called him right away even though it was 3 am his time. He picked up and he explained that they had found out that I had checked out of the Hostel on the 9th and then every communication from me stopped. No emails, to photo posts, to replies to texts or phone calls, no usage of my credit cards or anything and so they thought I had been kidnapped or killed. Nope. I was fine; I had just been using couch surfing I told them. They had actually found that out about a day earlier and they were significantly less worried. After I talked to my parents I took a nap and then I went out for food. I met these cool musicians who invited me to play some music on the street with them so I did that for a while and then we listened to this polish guy play blues guitar while we ate kababs together. My new friends, Frenccenzo and Anna were from the US and Spain and so I loved them right away. They also gave me great travel tips and a list of active couch surfers in the places I was going. After a long while talking I went up to bed and slept the night away.

Day 39 – Thursday January 13th 2011 (Tunis, Tunisia)

The next morning was kinda crazy cuz I knew I was leaving today. It was actually really sad and I thought about just staying so I could hang out more. I had a schedule to keep though and so I packed up and left Connie a note and took off. I had some time before my ferry so I just kinda hung out for a while and saw the military getting more mobilized. Over the next three or four days there were tanks and tear gas often left its residue in the air. The President left the country and the rioters torn down his posters that were all over the city and hopefully gained the economic freedoms they were protesting for. The rioters did do a lot of stealing and more people died. I was pretty worried about Connie and Lina over the next few days but they survived. My ferry was delayed until 930 pm so I had to hang out and take my time going through security. After a while I was able to get onto the ferry and just relax. The revolution was over. For me at least.

Day 38 – Wednesday January 12th 2011 (Kirowan, Tunisia)

The next morning at 730 I was super exhausted Lina and Connie gave me a spare key and let me sleep in a bit which was nice. I left for Kirowan at about 9am and got there around 11. I was still kinda tired but it was interesting visiting the 4th holiest city in Islam. I walked in and out of it 4 times because apparently if you visit Kirowan 4 times it’s just like going to Mecca. I also toured through the mosques and the city a bit but I wasn’t feeling it completely because I was kinda wanting to find some riots. I went home after a few hours and found a completely different city. All the shops and the Medina and everything were closed. The secret police were pestering me to no end and there were military everywhere. They had blocked off all the government buildings with barbed wire and they were breaking up any gatherings of groups of any kind. The schools and all the stores had been closed for a couple days now. There wasn’t much to do but to walk around looking for protestors or “manifestations” as they say in French, but I kept on getting hassled by secret police who wanted my camera. Eventually I gave up and went back to the apartment where I found Lina and Connie. There wasn’t much to do other than talk and watch another movie so that’s what we did. We picked a movie called Howl about the poet Allen Ginsburg. It was nice because we were able to talk about loads of things afterward. Connie and I stayed up again just lying there and talking for ages, eventually we slept like snoring turtles.