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!!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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!!!
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!!!
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
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!!
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!!
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