Here it is, Jay!!!

Hello to anyone still reading this blog! I am sorry that it took me so long to finish documenting my trip, but the end of school and then coming home to the US really took up a lot of my time! I am so happy to be home! I finally arrived in Minot on June 16th. It seems like it was just yesterday. Time goes too quickly! Before I tell you more about home, I will finish up my Greece adventure.

When I left off, I had just come back from Santorini and was looking forward to the visit of my Mom and Grandma. I was wrapped up in saying goodbye to some of my friends leaving early and trying to finish up school when they finally arrived. They had the same trouble I did at London’s Gatwick airport so they were late and missed a whole day in Greece. In the end, it did not matter. Seeing them for the first time in months made everything worth it! I picked them up at the airport and got them to their hotel: The Holiday Inn Thessaloniki. They got about 4-5 hours of sleep before I woke them up the next morning to start showing them around Thessaloniki.

We went everywhere from the open market to Aristotle Square to campus. I took them to my neighborhood and my apartment later. They thought my apartment would be bigger, so did I!! That evening we went to our favorite taverna for dinner. I think that the owner knew that we had special guests along because it was the best taverna dinner we ever had. We had pastitiso, souvlaki and tzatziki! The food was the best it had ever been and the whole evening turned out perfect. It was a great last visit to the taverna. I already miss it!!

After dinner, we all went our separate ways and went to sleep. We had to get up the next morning and leave for Thassos Island! It is the northern most Greek island and happened to only be about 2 hours away from Thessaloniki. We took a bus and then a ferry to get to the island. When we arrived, Grandma can tell you how pleasant the wait for a cab was. We were stuck waiting with a very loud Greek woman who really made our day. She was just a treat to be around, especially when she stole our cab. I believe Grandma was not so impressed with her. She actually said, “If that woman tries to take our cab, I will wrestle her to the ground.” She got the cab and Grandma did no wrestling. I was disappointed. My money was on Grandma!

We finally got a cab and arrived at our hotel. We decided to immediately change and get to the beach. Mom and I got changed and then it was Grandma’s turn. As you can probably guess, this is where the problems started happening! Our bathroom door did not shut correctly and Grandma pushed it shut as hard as she could. She changed and when it was time to come out of the bathroom, she discovered that she had in fact locked herself inside! Well, thirty minutes and four hotel staff later Grandma was free! I personally was laughing the whole time. Grandma may have felt differently!

We finally made it to the beach without Grandma locking herself in anymore rooms! It was a beautiful day and we found a great spot. We ordered some drinks and took in the Greek sunshine. It would have been a perfect day except for all the bees! They were swarming us and our drinks! It was awful. Thank goodness Mom is not afraid of them, so she protected Grandma and I as we pretty much freaked out when they got close! She is a superwoman!
After the beach, we walked through the touristy area of Thassos City. I wish I would have had more money because they had amazing jewelry everywhere! It was all beautiful! After a lot of window shopping, we went and sat by the hotel pool. After we enjoyed a little bit more time in the sun, we got ready for dinner. We changed clothes and walked along the water until we found a place we wanted to eat. As we were walking, Mom saw a bunch of tables with red table clothes that really caught her eye. She picked a good one! The staff was so nice and the food was great! Grandma decided she wanted to try the Greek liquor called Ouzo. She ordered a glass and shared a sip with Mom. They both really enjoyed the flavor. It tastes a lot like black licorice. Before we knew it, our server brought out three shots on the house! There is nothing like taking Ouzo shots with your Mom and Grandma in Greece. Another moment I will never forget on my journey!

After dinner we did a little more shopping and then stopped for ice cream. We sat along the water and enjoyed the evening. It was a lovely night, but eventually we had to get some sleep. We woke up at about 10am the next morning and started getting ready to go to the beach again. We needed to check out of the hotel before we left and Grandma ran back into the room for one minute while we were waiting. All of a sudden Mom and I looked at each other because we heard someone yelling “Tracey,” down the hall. After some investigation, we realized that Grandma had once more locked herself inside our room. The lock jammed and she could not get out! We had to call the hotel staff again to free Grandma. She obviously can not be left alone!

We soaked in the sun for a couple more hours and then made our way back to ferry. After the ferry, we had to take a cab back to the bus station. I was so tired, I started dozing off in the front seat, but Grandma and Mom were terrified of our cab driver. He was a pretty crazy driver, but I had just grown accustomed to the Greek way of driving. They are insane drivers! After our cab ride, we had to wait at the bus station for our bus back to Thessaloniki. Before we got on the bus, we thought it was a good idea to use the bathroom. The bathrooms were another thing I had become familiar with, but Mom and Grandma could not believe it! The bus station bathrooms were nothing more than a hole in the ground!! Mom decided not to use them, but Grandma had an interesting experience with them! Let’s just say she ended up with washed feet!

When we got back to Thessaloniki, we decided that we should try something new for dinner. We skipped the Greek food and went to an Indian restaurant that my friends and I had just discovered. It was Mom’s first taste of Indian food and only my second. We all loved our dinner and had a wonderful meal in this little hole in the wall restaurant. Our time was cut short when one of my roommates called and said that he was leaving for Athens in 20 minutes and I had to say my good-byes. I ran the 4 blocks to my apartment and told Demetri good-bye. I was very sad to see him leave us, but he gave me his backgammon board as a memento. I have it in my living room right now, waiting to find someone to play me!

The next day we woke up and just enjoyed the city. We met the girls at our favorite Sunday afternoon gyro place, “The Best.” It is literally called “The Best.” We went there every Sunday, and this was to be our last visit. It was fun to bring Mom and Grandma to see the places that we had come to love! After lunch we had to say good-bye to the first girl, Brandy. The girls finally had to split up. When all the tears were done, I took Mom and Grandma to the city’s most famous church, St. Demetrius. It was more beautiful that day than it had ever been. There was a Greek Orthodox baptism going on when we visited. It was interesting to see how the Greeks performed baptisms. They actually dunk the child’s whole body into the water. They even have professional photographers present. It was a very cool thing to see.

After the church, we walked down to the harbor and walked along until we found a place to sit and relax. We got some coffee and dessert and just enjoyed their last day in Thessaloniki. We bought some souvenirs and then headed back to my apartment for a while. We decided to go up to the old city and have a nice dinner on their last night. We met the rest of the girls at a café that looked out over the whole city. It was beautiful. When dinner was over we walked downtown and had crepes. I had waited the whole semester to try a crepe and it was worth it! Mom and I shared a peanut butter and chocolate crepe. It was delicious! I am almost glad I waited. If I would have tried one earlier, I probably would have eaten one everyday. I said good-bye to Mom and Grandma for the night and the girls and I walked down to the water. There was a street market open full of fake designer glasses, purses and jewelry. I was glad I did not have any money with me; I did not need one more purse to take home.

I went back to my apartment and finished up packing. I had to move to a different apartment building for my last 3 days in Greece. I woke up early in the morning and had to say my good-bye to Kara. It was tough but we did it! After that I met Mom and Grandma at the Holiday Inn to have breakfast. Then we walked downtown to finish up some shopping that needed to get done! They were forcing me to pick out clothes at my favorite store! It was brutal but I managed to pick out a great dress and shirt. They are so mean!! We made it back to the hotel and it was finally time to say good-bye. It was hard to say bye to them even though I knew I would be seeing them in a few days. I had just been so homesick that those 4 days seemed like 4 weeks! It was hard, but I left them at the Holiday Inn and returned to my apartment for the last time. I was packed and ready to move to my temporary apartment.

While Sarah and I were waiting for our ride across town, we went to get some lunch down the street. I usually would have left my phone at the apartment, but I brought it with me this time. I am glad that I did! Kara called me from the airport. Olympic Airways had messed up her flights and she had to stay one more night. That was alright with Sarah and me because we were not ready to say bye to her yet! We spent one more night together in Thess and then Kara had to leave. After she left in the morning, Sarah and I spent her last day wandering around downtown. It was our favorite part of the city and she wanted to see it one last time! When we got back to the new apartment, we walked to Goody’s for dinner. Goody’s is Greece’s most popular fast food restaurant. We usually skipped the veggie burgers and octopus and had club sandwiches. They were my favorite. Maybe because it was a little taste of home! Sarah and I watched a movie and then went to bed. She had to leave early in the morning and I had one day left.
I woke up to help Sarah into a cab and then I got up to spend my last day in Greece. I took a bus downtown and walked through the streets by myself. I tried my best to see everything and remember everything all in one day! I went to my favorite places and into my favorite stores. I ate my favorite foods and tried to think of my favorite memories from Greece. I climbed up to the old city and wrote in my journal. It was a very emotional visit to the old city. I was there alone and it was sad. I was thinking about how much I loved Greece and how much I was going to miss Greece. I thought about the people I had met and how much they all meant to me. It was tough. I knew I had to leave sometime, and when the random Greek man would not stop bothering me about American basketball, I knew it was time. I took the long way back to my apartment and watched movies until I could actually fall asleep.

I woke up early in the morning and got all my things together and called a taxi. I arrived at the airport very early for my flight! I just could not wait to start my journey back to North Dakota!! My flight to London went very well and I found my hotel room with no problem. I settled in and had afternoon tea in my room. I just relaxed and tried to get some rest before the rest of my trip home. I went to the hotel restaurant and ate a nice dinner by myself and then spent the rest of my night watching the crazy English television. I went to bed early and got up early to make my flight back to the US! I showed up early for that flight too! I did not want to risk missing anything! My 7 hour flight to Cleveland went much faster than I expected and before I knew it, I was back in AMERICA!! I called home immediately! I could not contain my excitement! Everyone around me was speaking English! It was a great feeling!

I went straight to my gate and waited for my next flight! Before I knew it, I was in Minneapolis! I found my way to baggage claim and met my cousin Jen! She was picking me up and taking me to the train station. We had time to kill so she took me out to eat before I had to catch my train. We went to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner. I had missed Mexican food like crazy while I was gone, so that was a great meal to come home too! We hung out at her apartment until it was time to get to the train station. I showed up a little late, which actually turned out to be good luck. The top level of the train was filled so I was forced to sit on the bottom. It is usually reserved for elderly and handicapped passengers. I had a whole huge row to myself! I slept almost the whole way back to Minot!

By the time the conductor announced that Minot was about 10 minutes away, I was already standing at the door! I could not wait to jump off the train and see my family and friends! As we were pulling into the station, I caught a glimpse of balloons attached to a car. I knew that was my family waiting for me! Finally seeing them again was one of the best feelings I have ever had! It was amazing! I had missed them all so much!! I was finally home! The stress of traveling and missing home was gone! I was in Minot! After my mini-homecoming party, we went out for breakfast. I had also missed American breakfast!! We did not have much time because Mom, Grandma, Janie and I had to drive to Mandan for my new cousin’s bridal shower! I was tired, but it was so nice to be around my family, and people who spoke English again!

So, that brings me to the present. I am home! I have been back in America for about one month now and it has been great! There are times when I think about Greece and get really sad, but overall, I am happy to be home! I am back at work, which is wonderful! I am not used to feeling broke, so that was really hard after coming back to North Dakota. I have seen all my friends again and am getting back into my old routine. I have talked to most of my roommates from Greece, but not enough! I miss them so much! It is crazy to think that there are people in the world you never know exist, and once you meet them, you could not imagine your life without them! My friendships are one of best things that I took from Greece. It was one of the most amazing times in my life and I will never forget it! Thanks Greece for all the memories!

I would just like to thank everyone for your support while I was away! It was so nice to know that there were people at home thinking about me and missing me! I was certainly thinking about all of you! I would also like to dedicate this blog to my most loyal reader: my uncle Jay! He woke up every morning at 5am and checked my website! Thank you Jay for being so interested in my travels! (You do not need to keep reminding me to write this with early morning phone calls anymore!) And thank you again to everyone who kept up with my journey! I am glad that I could share it with you! As they say in Greece, “Jia Sas!”

Amazing!

Hello!! Surprisingly I am already making another entry! I got home from the island of Santorini on Monday, and I could not wait to tell everyone about my trip! It was everything I imagined, and much more!

We left on the train from Thessaloniki to Athens at about 11:40pm on Wednesday night. We spent the extra money and purchased tickets for the sleeper cars. I am so glad we did that! Sarah and I quickly made ourselves comfortable and fell right to sleep! Before we knew it, we were finishing our 6 hour train ride and it was time to get across Athens to the port.

We knew which metro lines to use before we left, so that was a huge help. We only had about an hour to make it across the city and catch our ferry! We made it to the port in no time and got right on our Blue Star Ferry! The ferry was about 7 hours long so we decided to pay a little extra money again to buy the nicer seats. We were seated in airplane size seats in a very nice lounge with a television. Of course they only played Greek tv, but it was still nice to see a tv! If we had not bought those seats, we would have been stuck out on the deck the whole time! They were worth it!

We finally got into the port of Santorini and it was beautiful! I could not believe that I was actually in Santorini! We got off the ferry and were trying to figure out how to find our hotel when I saw a man holding a sign that said "Welcome to Santorini, Ashley Lawson." It was a pretty funny sight, and the man brought us straight to our hotel. We checked in and went right down the street to rent a car!

The car only cost us about 50 euro each to rent for the whole time we were in Santorini, and it felt so good to drive again! I have really missed it! Driving in Greece was definitely an experience, though. Sarah pointed out that in America, what we would consider a one-way street, in Greece they have two-way traffic and cars parked on the side! It was scary, but we both survived and left the car in perfect shape! I have some video of the scary roads if anyone is interested in seeing it when I get home!!

We were staying down in the southern part of the island called Perissa Beach. The two touristy places are called Fira, in the middle of the island, and Oia, on the northern part of the island. We were very happy to have the car when we figured out how far the cities were from our hotel. The first night we drove up to Fira to meet our roommate Kara and her brother who happened to be in Santorini at the same time! We picked them up and decided to drive up to Oia for dinner. Oia is famous for its amazing sunsets, so we picked a nice place with a great view of the sunset. Of course, it was cloudy that night and there was no sunset. That did not matter, though. We still had a great time and enjoyed walking around Oia after dinner. We dropped Kara and David off at their hotel, and headed back to Perissa. We were very tired, and knew we had to get up early the next day so we went right to sleep.

We got up early and met Kara and David at their hotel for breakfast. Sarah and I ate quickly that morning because we had a tour planned to visit Santorini's active volcano and swim in the hot springs! At 11am we got on a pirate ship looking vessel and headed towards the port on the volcano. It was a climb to get up to the top, but it was worth it! On the way up, we saw hot gas coming out of the rocks and our guide explained that there was molten lava about 2 km below our feet! After we climbed back down the volcano, it was time to go to the hot springs!

Our guide explained that we would have to jump off the boat into freezing water and swim over to the hot springs since the water was to shallow. Sarah and I were the last ones to jump into the water and it was just as cold as he explained. I jumped in and it took my breath away! Eventually, we made it to the hot springs and found out they were really more lukewarm springs. But it was still very cool. It started raining lightly while we were swimming, and when we looked up, there was a herd of wild goats climbing the volcano walls just above us. It was one of those moments when I really had to look around and ask myself, "Who am I right now?" It was crazy!

After we changed and warmed up from the swim, we had to figure out a way to get back up to the town of Fira from the port. We could take the cable car like we took down, walk up a steep path that was slippery from donkey's climbing it all day, or we could actually get on those donkeys and ride up. We decided that when in Santorini, do like they do. We chose the donkeys! I got on first and my donkey just started walking. It did not wait for anyone else so I was riding by myself for half of the trip. People were walking down the path and looking at me like I was crazy! Then Sarah's donkey finally caught up and started to walk ahead of mine. My donkey was not having it! Every time another donkey tried to pass him, he would cut them off and walk a little faster. Of course, I would end up on the only donkey that liked racing!

We finally made it to the top and decided to grab some food. We ate at the Greek fast food chain, Goody's. Then we decided to find the red beach. We drove to the other side of the island and found it pretty easily. It was beautiful! To get to the beach, you had to climb over some huge rocks and then climb back down them! It was so cool! It was one of my favorite places in Santorini! The weather was not that great, so there were just a few people there. We spent about an hour looking at everything and having a great time! I loved it! We finally decided to leave and try get back up to Oia before the sunset!

Sarah drove us across the island again to Oia. The sunset was beautiful!! It was not as spectacular as always, but it was great for us! The clouds deterred most of the tourists, and we got to enjoy a peaceful sunset! We could take as many pictures as we wanted without worrying about being in someone else's way! It was great! Afterwards, we walked around Oia and ate some dinner. We went home early that night, as well. We had another early morning planned!

We woke up and drove back up to Oia. We wanted to get pictures of the Santorini architecture during the day. We spent about an hour just walking around and taking in the beautiful white buildings with blue doors. They are everywhere and they are amazing! It was just as I had imagined. According to a rumor that I heard somewhere, the doors are all painted blue for good luck! This is what they look like in Myconos, too! Just gorgeous!!

We drove back down to Perissa Beach after Oia. We finally had great weather for the beach! We got there and it was just as great as everything else! This beach was made of black sand which made it really hot! We layed out all afternoon! The water was pretty cold still, so we did not spend much time swimming. I finally have a little bit of a tan that has stuck. I suspect that it will be gone before I come home!

The weather was amazing that day, and we decided to try our luck one more time with the Oia sunset. This time it was not so peaceful. It was packed!! Any place that had a view of the water and the sunset was full! We found a rock to sit on and tried to make the most of this third night. The sunset really was beautiful and worth seeing all three days! I am really glad that we tried our luck everyday that we were there.

After the sunset, we went home to get some rest. We had to leave the next afternoon and knew that our travel home was not going to be easy. We woke up the next morning and squeezed in a few more hours of shopping before we caught our ferry. I finally finished all of my souvenir shopping, and I am very excited to get that out of the way! It can be a little stressful at times! But I managed to break up the souvenir shopping with a few purchases for myself!!

We finally had to say bye to Santorini and catch our ferry at 3:30pm. It was another 7 hour ferry in the nice seats, so we knew what to expect. This time they played movies on the tv. However, they had Greek subtitles and they did not turn up the English loud enough to hear. Oh well, it made the time go fast! When we pulled into Athens, we tried to take the metro back to the train station, but we were too late and it was closed for the night. We caught a taxi and discovered that the train station was also closed! We had to sit outside of the other Greek fast food restaurant all night. We looked like bums. There was a security guard walking around to make sure no one slept! It was pretty interesting. The station finally opened and we were able to sleep a little on benches before the ticket window opened. We tried to catch the 7am train, but it was full so we had to wait until 9:30 and had to buy the last 1st class seats available! We tried to sleep a little bit more, but it did not work. Finally our train arrived and we started the last part of our journey!

We pulled into Thessaloniki at about 3:30 later that day. It took us a full 24 hours to get from Santorini to Thess. It was a long day, but we survived! Santorini was soo worth the travel time! I am so happy that I got to visit the island. I hope to make it back there someday! Hopefully, someday soon! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! I suggest taking a trip to Santorini for your next vacation!!

Now I am just trying to make it through my last two days of school! I only have 3 classes left! Two on Thursday and one on Friday! I am so excited to be done with this semester! Next week I only have three finals and then on Wednesday, Mom and Grandma will be here! I can not believe that they are only one week away! I can not stop thinking about how excited I am! I am trying to focus my thoughts on them coming instead of getting home. North Dakota is still two weeks away and I will drive myself completely nuts if I keep thinking about it! I am just so excited to be home! I was just reading an old post I made about how the next 3 months were going to fly by. I was right! I can not believe that it has been almost 4 1/2 months since I left Minot! Where did my time go??

I am going to be uploading some pictures hopefully tonight. I know I say that alot, but I am really going to try! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and I will see you in two short weeks!!! I can't wait!!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough...except for Mt. Olympus...

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer at home! It is getting very warm in Thessaloniki now! Luckily, we do not have air conditioning so we can get the full experience of living in a Greek apartment! Oh well, I only have about two more weeks in Thess. I have very mixed feeling about this! I can not wait to come home, but I know I will miss everyone here, and I will miss Greece like crazy! In the meantime, I will enjoy the last weeks that I have to the fullest! I have been busy since I last logged on. You have a lot to hear!!

The weekend after my friend Mitch left was our ACT sport tournament. Schools came from all over to participate in our tournament. I would have to say that Athens was a better host than we were. They had food for all of the athletes and water at every event. ACT had no food for the athletes unless they paid, and they sometimes had water at our games. Besides that, the tournament went well. Of course my volleyball team did not win one match. Not one game. Not anything! We decided to keep the streak of losing going into the last games! We still got a medal though! That bronze medal will go nicely with all of my outfits at home! I did have somewhat better luck on the beach volleyball team I played on. We at least one a part of one game. In the end we lost to another ACT team to take fourth in the entire competition. We did not care though, we had a great time!

After I recovered from the weekend, I had to get ready to do some actual school work. I know what you are thinking, "You mean they actually make you work at this school?" Yes, they unfortunately make us do some work. I had two seven page papers due on the 18th. It was a stressful week, especially since I could not find the motivation to finish them! I worked hard on Wednesday and Thursday, and turned them in on Friday afternoon. I emailed them to my instructor just in time to take part in the study abroad beach volleyball tournament!

My partner was going to be Paula, my roommate. But she had to leave the campus early, and I was stuck without a partner. Someone else was actually in the same situation, so we decided to partner up. Being that her name was Ashley as well, we cleverly called our team "Team Ashley." The name must have been lucky because we actually won the tournament! We played against six teams and somehow came out on top! It was satisfying to actually win some kind of sporting event while at ACT since I had a pretty impressive losing record. There was not much time to celebrate though, we were off to Mount Olympus the next morning.

We woke up early and caught the bus at 10am. We drove only about an hour or so to a small village and picked up lunch before our adventure. The bus dropped us off at the base of the mountain where we met up with our guides. We had to hike up to the refuge we would be staying the night at, so we had to get going. I was excited for the hike, since everyone we had asked said it was easy. I must tell you, they were wrong! Everyone was out of breath within the first five minutes! I was very surprised by the difficulty of the walk up the mountain! I stayed strong in the middle group. We would stop about every half an hour and rest for about 3 minutes. Then we would have to continue to make it to the refuge by nightfall. My group finally arrived and we were shown our room at the refuge.

Our room consisted of 15 beds shoved next to each other. It looked like one huge mattress. I was alright with the beds since we had no heat. We had a fireplace, but of course, it was not going. The rest of our night was spent in the lodge playing games and drinking tea. It was a nice relaxing evening before we tried to hike to the summit. We all went to bed early considering they turned out all the lights at 10:30. I am not sure if I can even remember the last time I went to bed at 10:30. As I predicted, I could not sleep. It was so cold and I only had one blanket. After I piled on many layers of clothes, I actually fell asleep. Before I knew it, the lights had turned on. It was 6am and time to get up to start the day. It was surprisingly not difficult to wake up that early. Maybe it was the mountain air that got us all moving.

We went into the lodge to eat breakfast, and to our dismay, it started pouring! The guides could not decide if we should climb up or not, but to make a long story short, I bought a huge poncho and tall socks and we started heading up the mountain! It was not an easy walk at all. The clouds were so thick, it was hard to see the rest of the group. We thought the rain was bad, and then when we got high enough into the clouds, it started to hail. It was so heavy that I could not hear anyone over the sound of the hail falling on my poncho. It was hitting our faces and making it hard to walk because it was slippery! Finally, the guides decided it was too dangerous to continue and we turned back. On the way down, I lost my footing for one second and literally almost fell off Mount Olympus. Let's just say after that, I watched my footing very carefully!

When we got to the lodge, we were all soaked. The bus was not expecting us at the base until 3:30 so we had to sit around in the lodge for a few hours. Many of us used this time to try dry out our clothes. It did not work. Most everyone had wet clothes for the remainder of the trip. We finally started walking down the hill that took us two hours and forty-five minutes to climb. It was alot easier on the way down. It did cause my knees to hurt, but I decided that was better than hail in my face.

Overall, I loved the whole weekend. I never once regretted going on the trip! Even when the hail was hitting my face, I was soaked, and almost fell off the mountain, I was having a great time! It was an experience I will never forget! Much like this whole trip to Greece! On the bus ride home, in a bus that did not have working breaks by the way and we had to go down the mountain as the driver went about 5 miles and hour through the twisty roads, I made a decision. My newest life goal is to return to Greece and climb Mount Olympus. I did not get the chance this trip, but the next one, Zeus better watch out because I am making it to the top!

I am back at home now and getting ready to start saying good-bye. My roommate Paula is leaving this Friday and others start leaving in a little over a week. I am getting nervous to start saying farewell to these people that have become some of my best friends! It will be hard to leave them! It will be made easier knowing that I am coming home to wonderful people that I could not live without either! I can not wait to see everyone!

I leave tomorrow for the island of Santorini and I am very excited!! It has been a dream of mine to visit this island for years and I am actually going to see it in less than 48 hours! I am a very lucky young woman! I think that everyday as I live in Greece and experience this life! To make matter even better, it is only two weeks now until I see my mom and grandma! I can not describe how excited I am to see them! It will be wonderful! Not only for me to see them, but them to see Thessaloniki and see how I have been living for the past 4 months!

I will leave you with this story. Yesterday I was walking to the bus, and a pigeon decided to use my hair as a bathroom. Yea, you read it right. Apparently it is good luck to have a pigeon confuse you with the W.C., but as of now, I still have not seen that good luck! Maybe tomorrow!

I miss you all and it is not long now until I see you!! Have a great day!!

P.S. The spring break pictures are up finally, and I will try to add some more when I get home from Santorini. I can not make any promises though. You might have to wait until I get home to see the rest, but maybe I can find the time!! We'll see!! Bye!!!

Took me long enough!

Hey everyone!! I hope everything back in USA is going well! Sorry that it has taken me so long to write another entry! I have been pretty busy since getting back from spring break! I have a few trips to tell you about since then...

The first trip was Athens! It was a school trip for all the study abroad students! We took a bus ride to Athens and we ended up staying in an amazing hotel! It was 4 stars and a great change from our apartments! Kara and I were roommates and loved having all the extra space! We had a great view from our balcony, as well. It looked right over the Aegean Sea and the city of Athens! Our first night was spent going out to eat with some school friends. We walked around the city for a short time and then headed back to our hotel for a good night sleep.

We woke up early the next morning and headed straight for the Acropolis! It was awesome! Seeing the Parthenon and the whole Acropolis was cooler than I imagined it to be! We had learned about many of the sights in my art history class, and it was so cool to be able to see what I had learned about. We had a guided tour and then we had our own time to explore the whole place. It was fun to take our time and really take in what we were looking at! It was sad to see all the damage that has been done to the Parthenon in the past many years. Mostly from the British man who basically took most of the amazing part of the Parthenon and moved them all to England. There are very few of the original sculptures and reliefs left on the actual sight. However, even without them, the Acropolis was amazing!

After we left there we took a short city tour and were dropped off in one of the major tourist areas of the city. It was about lunch time and while we were looking for an authentic Greek taverna, we stumbled on a Subway! It seemed like a mirage, but it was real! We almost ran into the store and ordered our subs as fast as we could! The Parthenon and Subway in one day..probably one of my greatest thus far!!! Ha Ha! Later that night the school took us out to an actual Greek restaurant that was not the greatest, but the night got better when me and three friends found a local club to visit. They loved Americans and we were not charged a cover charge, and as soon as we walked in, the bouncer made the DJ play only American music. Not that we wanted all American music, but it was still funny!

The next morning, the school took us to an ancient Greek restaurant. All of the items we were served were made from ancient Greek recipes. Also, we were only allowed the utensils that were used in ancient times, which meant no forks at all. It was an interesting meal, and actually pretty tasty. After that, we got on the bus and headed back for Thessaloniki. It was a fun weekend, but we were all excited to get back home to Thess! Then I only had 4 days to wait until we left for Myconos!

We did not leave until almost 10pm on Friday the 27th for Myconos. The bus ride was awful! We were forced to stop every hour so the chain smokers on the trip could get out and smoke! It was very annoying, especially for a non-smoker who had to wait on the bus! We finally made it to Athens 8 hours later and boarded a ferry to Myconos! The weather was partly sunny and very windy which made the ferry very shaky. I was very happy to get off on the island of Myconos! It was beautiful! White washed buildings with blue doors and blue shutters. We could not sit on the beach that night, so we went to a nearby taverna and then got ready to join the rest of the group at a club. Myconos is known for its clubs and this one lived up to our expectations! It was very very fun!

The next morning we woke up and decided to rent a car! It was Brandy's birthday and all she wanted to do was lay on the beach. So as soon as we got our car, we headed straight to the beach and did not leave for hours! When we finally left the beach, we found the touristy part of the the island and looked around. We found a great little taverna and ate right next to the water. We watched the sun set while we were eating. It was the perfect place for Brandy to celebrate her birthday! We went home and took a short nap and tried to watch some American TV! (We do that whenever we get the chance!) Then we went out to another club called "Space." It seemed to be full of young kids, we had to stay on the sides to stay out of their way. It was still a fun club and a once in a lifetime experience!

Our last day of Myconos was spent laying on the beach Super Paradise and relaxing! It was so nice to nap on the beach and just enjoy the day without having to run around the island and try to see all the sights, if there are any besides the beautiful scenery where we were hanging out! That night we did the same thing, just relaxed! It was a perfect end to our Myconos adventure! We had to board the ferry the next afternoon and then take the bus home...ew! We had nicer seats on the return ferry, and we watched movies the whole ride home on the bus so it seemed to go much faster, even though we boarded the ferry at 2pm and did not return home until 6am!

I had one day of rest, and then my friend Mitch Field arrived from home! It was sooo amazing to spend time with someone from home! I have missed home so much and having Mitch here has been so much fun! Since he arrived last week, I have been trying to be a good host and show him the best parts of Thessaloniki! We have done so much walking I felt like I did when I first arrived! We walked up to the top of the city and then down to the water! We walked over to the end of downtown and all the way back! I have been having a great time! Mitch is meeting all of my roommates and they seem to love him as much as I do!

We all even went to the beach this last weekend. We went to Hanioti on the peninsula of Kassandra in Halkidiki. It was beautiful. The sun could have stayed out longer instead of being in the clouds, but we still had a great time! Mitch got the chance to take some pictures and we all got the chance to lay out and relax! We also got the chance to look around the little town that our beach was in. It was really fun! Mitch has to leave tonight, but hopefully the rest of us can make it back there before we leave! I am sad to see Mitch leave! I wish he was here for another whole week!!

Speaking of leaving, I only have 36 days left in Greece! It seems like a joke that I have only about a month! These past three months have been the shortest of my life. I only have 14 school days left before the end of my semester abroad! I have a volleyball tournament this weekend and then next weekend I climb Mount Olympus. When I get home from Olympus, I leave for the island of Santorini in 3 days! After Santorini, I only have 7 days until my Mom and Grandma come to visit! Then I am done. I leave for home! I can not believe it! Home seems soo close and so far away all at the same time!! It will be here too soon I am sure!!

Well, that is it for now! I am still very sorry about the photos. The Internet in my apartment has not been working very well lately and it takes hours for photos to load. I will keep trying though! Thanks for sticking with this blog through my trip! I will write again soon! Have a great day everyone!!

Quick Note..

Hey everybody! I hope you are all doing well! I leave for a school trip to Athens in the morning but I just wanted to apologize for being so slow on uploading my pictures! I promise you they will be up next week! It is strange how time gets away from me here in Greece!

You will see all my pictures soon! Thanks for being so patient and keeping up with my blog! Have a great weekend!!

Warning: This is REALLY long!!

Hello everyone! I have finally had a few days to reflect on my spring break trip! I saw so many things in such a little amount of time, it took some reflection to really appreciate everything that I saw in the last couple of weeks! I am going to try to keep it short, but I want to share of my favorite parts of each day. I will start with Rome and then go from there...

We left in the afternoon from Thessaloniki to make it to Rome. When we got there, we found our hostel with no problem. It was after we checked in that we found the problem. Kara and I had to share our room first with two Canadian boys, whom we never met, and then some Malaysian business man. It was maybe the most random thing of our lives.

After we settled in, we went right to the Trevi Fountain. It was beautiful! I never expected the fountain to be that amazing! As soon as we got there, it started pouring rain! We bought some umbrellas and just stood in awe of our first monument on the trip. After many minutes, we decided to get something to eat. We found a cute local place and sat down for the first of many heavy, but awesome, Italian meals. I had spaghetti and loved it. When dinner was done, we enjoyed some gelato. Equally as awesome! We finished our dessert and made our way to the Spanish Steps. They were so pretty at night! We sat and relaxed a little before our long walk home. When Kara and I got there, our Canadian roommates were asleep and that marked the first really awkward moment of the trip!! It did not matter though, we were so tired we fell right to sleep, which was a reoccurring theme all trip!

The next morning, we woke up early and headed straight for Vatican City! We made it there pretty early and lines were not too bad. We stood in line for about 20 minutes until I spoke to someone who told us the Sistine Chapel line was twice as large as ours. We skipped out of our line and headed for the long one. TWO HOURS LATER, we finally made it to the Vatican Museum. We walked through what seemed like miles of beautiful art on the walls, on display, and on ceilings until we reached what we had been waiting for: The Sistine Chapel! We walked in and our breath was literally taken away. It was one of the most amazing sights I have, and will probably ever see. It was so large and beautiful. Explaining it would do it no justice! I just wanted to lie on the floor and look at the ceiling forever! Of course I could not, we had to leave to get to St. Peter’s Basilica. It was so huge! I did not expect anything we saw on this trip to be so big! My favorite part of the Basilica was the sculpture done by Michelangelo called “Pieta.” It was of Mary holding Jesus after his crucifixion. It was very moving.

After the Basilica, we made our way to Colosseum!! I could not believe we were actually standing inside of it! It seemed like a dream. We rented some audio guides and walked around listening to information about the construction and games among other things. I feel like we walked around it about a million times. It was just so amazing! They believe it was large enough to fit about 70 thousand people in there! The most interesting thing I heard while there was about one of the uses of the monument. At one time, there was a huge whale built in the middle and when its mouth was opened, about 50 bears came out and were all hunted down for the audience’s viewing pleasure. Is that not absurd?? I thought so! We wanted to see it at night as well, so while we were waiting we had another nice Italian meal. I probably could eat Italian food for the rest of my life!! We went back and saw the Colosseum at night and it was just as beautiful. We made that visit short since it was getting late and we had a big day the next day.

We woke up early again and made our way to the Pantheon. The word “Pantheon” means “all gods.” It was a place that was used to worship all the gods. Again, it was huge! I knew the size of all these places, but once you are standing besides them, or inside them, everything you thought is thrown out the window. After seeing the Pantheon, we had to walk by the Trevi Fountain once more before we got to the metro station. It was even more amazing in the day light! Eventually we made it to our train and before we knew it, we were in Florence for the next part of our trip!

We wasted no time when we arrived. We walked straight to the Gallerie Accademie where Michelangelo’s famous sculpture “David” is on display. The line was much to long so we made reservations to see it the next day. We were not too disappointed though, we had made plans to attend a pub crawl that evening and we were all pretty excited. We grabbed something to eat and headed back to the hostel to prepare for the night! By the way, the hostel was much nicer than our Rome hostel. We were actually all in the same room! Anyways, when we got to the meeting place for the pub crawl, it was only four of us and some random other 3 Americans. They were pretty loud and annoying, you know, my favorite kind of people. Luckily, they were too drunk to keep up with the rest of us and had to leave the pub crawl early. We visited 3 Florence pubs and finally ended up at some club. It was hilarious! We all went our separate ways: Fredo stuck by the bar and kept an eye on us girls. He did not want to dance since he thought all the females were under 18. Kara was dancing with some Polish guy across the club, Sarah found her way to almost every thuggish man in the place, and I was off somewhere battle dancing some Italian man. It was truly a once in a lifetime, random night! I loved it!

When we woke up the next morning, we went straight to the gallery. We went in and unlike the Sistine Chapel, we turned one corner and there was “David.” The sculpture looked so real that you thought he could move at any moment. I had no idea he was so tall, about 17 feet tall to be exact. (Weird I did not realize he was so big..that seems to be a theme.) I took a secret picture of him just to show how large he was. I do not think we would even come close to his waist. We left and grabbed a quick lunch and did some more sightseeing and shopping. Then Alexa and I decided to go to another gallery. Florence is the birthplace of the Renaissance so I was excited to see this art work. My two favorite pieces were by Botticelli, “Birth of Venus” and “Primavera.” Look them up, they are amazing! After the art, we decided it was time to get some gelato. We went to the Gelateria de Neri. I can not even describe how good it was. I have not had gelato since because nothing will be as good as this! We walked around a little bit more and then called it a night.

We woke up really early the next morning to climb to the top of the Santa Maria del Fiore. This gorgeous cathedral has a tower that is open to climb. There are 412 steps and we climbed them all at 8 in the morning. It was actually good we went that early since the stairway is really built for one person going one way. Not many people going up and down all day! Besides the tiny stairway, the view was amazing! We could see the whole city and the countryside. Climbing the stairs was definitely worth it!! We finally made our way down and had lunch at the best bakery in the world. We ate pizza and then had some amazing desserts. I had a pineapple fruit tart. I will probably never find anything that was that good! (I just realized how intense I am about the food part of this trip..ha ha ha!!) We left Alexa in Florence to continue her trip and we made our way to the train station. We were on our way to Venice!

When we arrived, we needed to figure out a way to make it to our hotel. Did I mention it was about 30 minutes outside of the city? We made it out to the middle of nowhere, and to our Holiday Inn Express! We were soo happy! It had a huge bathroom and a working tv. Keep in mind that even though we were on spring break, having a tv was great. We have not watched tv in about 2 months. So, even though it was in Italian, we loved it! After we settled in and watched a few videos on MTV Italy, we made it back into the city. We walked out the door of the train station and we were starring right at the Grand Canal!! I could not believe what I was seeing. You hear about Venice being all water, but I do not think you believe it until you actually see boats, gondolas and water buses traveling all over on canals. It was awesome! We walked aimlessly through the few streets along the canals until we found a local pizza place. We ate huge pizzas and walked some more. We went back to the hotel and watched a few more videos before bed.

We did not wake up so early on this day, but we did wake up early enough to catch our free breakfast. When you are a college student traveling out of a backpack, nothing sounds as good as a free meal! We went into Venice and the first thing we did was buy a water bus pass. We just got on and rode it until we felt like getting off somewhere. Us girls met Fredo at the Rialto and we all decided it was time for our gondola ride! We found a great/cute gondolier and we all had to pay 20 euro for the 25 minute ride. Maybe the best 20 euro I have ever spent, except for the pub crawl. (Did I mention we got free t-shirts on that pub crawl? Ha ha) Anyways, the gondola ride took us all over the city. We saw where the movie “The Italian Job” was filmed and also where Marco Polo lived. When it was over, Fredo took us to St. Marco’s square where he had been all morning..feeding the pigeons. You could buy a bag of corn for 1 euro and feed the hundreds of pigeons. Everyone did it, even me. My travel companions enjoyed it more than I. One time, feeding one pigeon, was good enough for me. After I was done, the girls and I caught a water bus out to the island of Lido and ended up renting a bike thing. It looked like a Flintstones golf cart. There was room for two people in the front and two in the back. We only had three, so that's all the pedal power we had. We rode around the island laughing the whole time! The looks that we got from everyone were priceless!

We thought that the bikes were going to be the most random part of the day until we took the train back to our hotel. Across the street there was a mini-carnival! It was still open when we got home and the first thing we did was brought our stuff inside and ran outside to the bumper cars! We bought our tickets and picked our favorite cars. It was going to be just us three girls until some 5 year old Italian boy came out of no where and got into a car of his own. When we started, I do not think I could have laughed any harder. It was hilarious. Riding bumper cars with a 5 year old Italian boy in Venice? Who am I?

We checked out of the hotel the next day and spent the whole next day relaxing in Venice. We sat by the canals and bridges and just soaked up the sun and the beauty of Venice! It was one of the greatest parts of the trip! We finally had to tear ourselves away from the sun and get on a bus to the airport. We had some delays and almost missed our plane to Paris! We were within 10 minutes of the check-in desk closing! It was time to board and before we knew it, we were in the strangest airplane of our lives. We took RyanAir which is a discount airline. They squish people in the planes and fly in and out of old airports outside of the cities they fly to. Our seats would not even recline. There was no extra room. Our knees touched the seat in front of us no matter how we sat. Then they charged us for soda and gave us the smallest Pepsi can I have ever seen in my life! Aside from no room, the flight went well and before I knew it we were in Paris!! I was finally in Paris!!

It was about midnight, so we went right to our hotel when we finally got into the city. When we got into the cab, I could tell the driver where we were going in French! It was a great feeling to use the language I had been learning for so long! Our hotel was in the neighborhood of the Moulin Rouge, which is not the best neighborhood, so we were happy when our hotel was nice on the inside! We went right to sleep and woke up early the next morning to see the Notre Dame. Before getting there, we stopped to have breakfast at a local café. It was great! I had wonderful bread with apples in it and cafe au lait (coffee with milk). We made it to the church and it was beautiful inside. We hurried through it because I had to go meet Katelin Dailey under the Eiffel Tower at noon! It was not until we got home that we realized we had missed the most beautiful part of the Notre Dame, the side with the all the flying buttresses and what not. We were pretty impressed with ourselves.

We made it to the Eiffel Tower and I was searching through the mobs of people waiting to get to the top, and all of a sudden I saw Katelin coming towards me! I started tearing up when I saw her! It was a great moment! We talked for a while and then decided to meet later at the Arc de Triomphe for dinner. Then my roommates and I finally got on the elevator to the top! It was an amazing view! You could see the whole city of Paris! I loved it! I was a little scared looking straight down, but it was worth a little worry to be on the top of the Eiffel Tower. When we headed back down, before we made our way to the Arc, we stopped for fries. Yes, you guessed it, French fries! Maybe it was being in France under the Eiffel Tower, but they were the best fries I ever had!

We met Katelin and her mother, Paulette, at the Arc and made our way down the most famous street in Paris: The Champs Elysees! I remember singing a silly song about the street in high school French class and now I was walking down it! We did a little window shopping and ended up taking a metro to the Latin Quarter for dinner. We stopped at a pub for a happy hour drink and finally ended up at a popular local restaurant. I had some onion soup and filet mignon and it was one of the best meals I will probably ever have. (No offense Mom or Grandma, but it was good!) I said good-bye to my Minot friends and the girls and I made our way back to the creepy part of town, back to our hotel.

We woke up early again and started on our way out to the Palace of Versailles. It was the palace that Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette lived in, before they had their heads chopped off! It was a beautiful day and we finally got our tickets and headed into the gardens. We could not believe what we saw! Even though it was too early for flowers to be blooming and the fountains to be going, the whole place was amazing! I never imagined it to be as big as it is! We went to Marie-Antoinette’s quarters first and looked around her whole place. She had a bigger piece of land to herself than most farms in ND! We leisurely walked around her gardens and enjoyed the scenery. Then we went back up to the palace. The two hour line had disappeared by then and we walked right in. The palace was covered in gold and amazing art work! My favorite part was the opera house! It was gorgeous! People these days have their own theater room, Louis had his own Opera House!! We also saw the famous Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end WWI.

After we left the palace, we made our way back into Paris and Kara and I went straight to the Louvre. We knew it was free for students after 6pm on Fridays so we waited until then. The Louvre is so large it would take days to see everything, so we picked out our favorites and found those. We went to the Mona Lisa first. She was a lot smaller than I expected. That was the only thing on this trip that was smaller than I expected! We saw the famous sculpture of Venus de Milo and we went to see the Code of Hammerabi. We saw another Michelangelo sculpture and made our way out of the Louvre. We then went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night as well! It was just as amazing at night! I loved the lights and the light show. As tacky as the light show might be to the residents of Paris, I loved it! We ate some fruit tarts and just enjoyed the evening looking at the tower.

We finally pulled ourselves away and went back to the hotel. Kara and I had to pack since we were leaving at about 4:30am to make our flight. We slept for only 2 hours and then went to the airport. We had a layover in Stuggart, Germany on our way home and we took advantage of it! It was around lunch time, so we enjoyed some weinerschnitzel and beer. A short flight later, we were back in Thessaloniki! It felt so good to be back to a place that was familiar! We unpacked and relaxed the rest of the day!

The next day was Easter and Brandy and her boyfriend came back to Thessaloniki in time to enjoy the holiday with us as well. We all made a little something for Easter dinner and it was much better than I expected it to be. I was very homesick the night before thinking about how Easter just was not going to be the same, but my company made the holiday really great!

Since then, we have been sleeping late and just enjoying our break from school! It is almost time to go back, and we are ready! The weather has been amazing since we have been back, and we can also not wait to hit some beaches in the last few weeks of our stay here in Greece!

Well, that is it! Sorry that this entry was soooo long! I hope you enjoyed my stories and pictures of my travels! I will be adding the rest of the photos tonight! I hope you all have a great weekend, and it is only 2 more months until I see you all! Until my next blog..take care!

Busy, busy, busy...

Hello everyone! I just wanted you all to know that I already typed this whole blog out, and it did not save it! So this one will probably be short and sweet.

This past weekend I was in Athens for a volleyball tournament! It was really fun! If you do not count my team losing every game we played, it was a good weekend! The only team that brought home metals, was the girls soccer team. They took second, out of two teams! The boys basketball team should have taken the gold, but they had some very unfair refs! That was probably the most disappointing loss of the weekend. Besides the sports, I went out one night while we were there! We first went downtown to the Parliament building and saw the Parthenon from afar. It is amazing no matter what distance you see it from! We got home at about 6am, and I had to catch the bus at 9:30. It was tough, but I made it through the game. The only thing that was missing were my knee pads. I will need to buy some since I still have huge bruises all over my knees!

Right before I left on the Athens trip, I did one of the most impulsive things of my life: I booked a trip to Santorini with my roommate Alfredo. We booked flights and our hostel in one hour. Now we are changing everything! We have more people coming with so we changed the hostel, and now we decided to take a train and ferry. It will take much longer, but we will save alot of money! We are going the last weekend in May and I can not wait! It seems like it will never come, but I should be staying busy, especially starting next week!

Spring break is in one week from tomorrow! We are flying to Rome to see the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, and the Spanish Steps. Then we are off to Florence to see the famous sculpture of David and eat some world famous gelato. If you are not sure what gelato is, it is like ice cream but much better! After Florence, we are off to Venice to take as many gondola rides as possible! From Venice, we fly to Paris! I can not wait to see everything there!! The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, the Champs Elysses, and the Louvre. After Paris, we fly back to Thessaloniki to spend Easter in Greece. We will still have another week to spend exploring whatever we want! Its going to be a crazy two weeks.

I posted some new pictures for you to look at today! I hope you like them! I am slowly collecting pictures from other people so they will probably be in random order. Sorry for the confusion! But enjoy them like I do! Have a great week, and I will tell you all about my trip when I get back! Bye!