The Athenian Way

Breakfast came a bit too soon for us Monday morning, especially after a day on board the ferry from hell. We enjoyed the usual toast and jam and tea and honey at the hotel and were off to see the one city we came to see- Athens.

Our stay in the city thus far hasn't been so pleasant and honestly the city hasn't lived up to what we've heard it would be, but on our journey through the ancient sites today we hoped that it could change our minds.

Kaitlyn and I traveled to the Acropolis where we started our 5 1/2 hour walk through the city. We climbed up to the top and managed to get to the site by opening (8am). We beat the crowds and toured the ruins without having to wait for people to move out of our pictures. It was fantastic! The ruins were definitely ruins though the Parthenon was neat and a few temples around it were beautiful to look at, especially because they were perched on top of the highest point in Athens. At one point I looked out and felt like an ancient Athenian politician looking out at his city and all his people below him. It was a pretty sick feeling.

The sun started to get hot at about 9am and we were feeling it as we climbed up on the rock of the Acropolis. Here we could look up at the Parthenon. It was a great view and we could see the crowds of people flocking to the site, so we decided to move on through to Agora. In the Agora, which is adjacent to the Acropolis, we saw more ruins and some churches and beautifully preserved Temples. We walked for hours and ended up hitting a little part of the residential neighborhoods that happened to have ruins scattered about as well.

My stomach started growling and it was time for some lunch, so we stopped after finishing the sites of Agora and the Acropolis and went to this restaurant on the way to the Temple of Zeus. The food was delicious and had the usual meats, but also rice and potatoes and vegetable skewers. I was full and ready to take on the rest of the sites.

We ventured through the small streets and made it to the Plaka, the oldest neighborhood in Athens. It was beautiful and the small alley ways gave it a special character. We shopped around and followed the other tourists' paths through the city and ended up in an outdoor mall-like scene with stores everywhere. Temptation lurked in every store entrance, but we breezed on by and made our way to the hotel to rest up with a nice siesta and to head back out for dinner.

Now dinner was very cool. We stopped at a Quikk Pita place in Plaka and ate vegetable pitas with a special sauce on the side. The menu had so many cheap items on it and a lot of it was vegetarian friendly. What a great light dinner! Off to the outdoor musical festival down the road and a quick stop at a bar to try some of the classic Grecian ouzo. It was definitely stronger than I expected. The licorice flavor was so potent and I could barely take more than three sips before having to drink some water to cool down my mouth. It sure went down warm and smooth, but not to the effect that it made it enjoyable for me :/.

The night came to a close with after more music and celebrations- just because. Off to Italia tomorrow!

Do we really have to leave?

It was our last day in Santorini and there was no reason for us to leave except there was a ferry leaving at 4pm and tickets that had our names on them. Looking back we probably should have spent more time touring the islands, but overall we are happy to have stopped in Santorini for the time we did. It was back to the big city...but first we took in every last ounce of the island beauty and fun that surrounded us, especially in the town center of Fira.

I had a vegetarian gyro for lunch and enjoyed the lightness of the pita bread and the tzatziki sauce. I got it from the place we ate at the first place because I knew I couldn't go wrong. When my stomach was full, we took a few hours to walk around the shops and cobblestone roads up and down hills and along the coast to see the water below. It was a great morning to just relax and enjoy the sites, but to watch out for the donkey poo that was left behind on some roads. The city has such a life to it though it is so small and compact.

The day was unfortunately ending for us and the time had come for us to board the ferry. Let's just sum up the whole eight hours on the ferry as being so bad that now exactly 25 hours after being on the boat, I am still rocking back and forth and my brain hasn't gone back to normal. I thought my sea bands would help, but apparently the force of the water was too strong. I should thank the god Poseidon for that one...yea I'm corny. Anyway, they don't like to serve vegetarian friendly food on the ship, so I basically starved the whole way but saved my stomach a little by eating greasing chips- yum.

We docked at midnight in Athens and couldn't think of anything better to do than pass out.

The good thing about the ferry ride was that we always manage to meet new people so we met a family from Ohio and chatted with them for awhile. There were a lot of people on the ship though and things got a bit rowdy. Drunken people came on board and whipped out cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, beer and olives and just started playing cards and eating. that was precisely the time we decided to move our seats, but what I should have done was sat right on next to them and mooched off of their food- it looked so fresh and delicious! They just didn't like so fresh and delicious- hence the reason why I stayed away. ;)

Burn Baby Burn

Day Two in Santorini consisted of a very relaxed morning and it felt so good to not have to rush off to anywhere. We ate a personal breakfast served by the Villa owner and her two kids. They were so cute and watched us eat most of the time, but we didn't mind all that much because I'm sure we acted a bit weird to them.

Today was beach day, so we hopped on a bus and headed out to Kamari Beach, which was a 20 minute drive from the main town center. The sand was unbelievable! It was black and wasn't even sand- the coast was filled with pebbles and rocks and the water was crystal clear to the point where if you swam out, you could still see straight down. Of course I didn't find that out because I didn't go far into the water, but that's what I was told. Swimming, as some of you know from last summer's experience in Cinque Terre, doesn't work out for me all that much so I stayed away from it and hung by the coast with the little kids. We spent a good three hours on the beach just laying out and enjoying the beautiful scenery, except for of course the topless old women who were completely disgusting. I could not believe my eyes. The courage these women must have to just walk around topless while sitting right next to their husbands and their kids! What is the deal with that? I think it's completely unnecessary and should be prohibited. Who wants to go to the beach and watch a half naked woman wandering about just letting it all hang out. Nope, definitely not me. So once my eyes stopped feeling sick from all the polluted sites, I concentrated on getting some lunch.

The lunch I conjured up and went on a long journey to find ended up being so delicious and so unique. I ordered a Sunshine Salad from the Sunshine Bar and Restaurant. It had oranges, bananas, lettuce and avocado on it. I mixed in oil and they gave me orange dressing on the side that complimented the fruit so well and gave it a tangy flavor. Once I brought it back on the beach I added my own almond and cashew mix to get my protein and ate it with fresh fried potatoes to be my starch. It was a perfectly balanced meal to enjoy while sitting back on the beach.

Once I finished eating, I went back into the sun full force and had no idea that it would be my biggest regret of the day. I sat too long in the midday Santorini sun and ended up frying up my body. I got so burnt up on my stomach and my thighs that I saw it instantly. I was feeling sick and so sun exhausted that I drank two bottles of water in less than 10 minutes and avoided touching any part of my body. I have never gotten this much sunburn in my life, so I didn't expect my skin to start burning today. Well it did and now I have to deal with the consequences.

Once my skin cooled off and I got a jacket to wear to quell the chills I got from the sunburn, we headed back out to OIA to see the sunset yet again. It was attempt two and this time I had good feelings. We arrived at the coast and sat on the edge of a cliff to peer over and watch the sunset. It took about an hour to set and I took a picture of it setting every 10 minutes. It was absolutely breathtaking and so incredible to see. The night was just beginning and this was the perfect way to start it off.

Dinner was next on the agenda and we ate at some tropical place with trees and outdoor wooden seating. It had a simple menu and the option I went for was the spaghetti primavera. It had eggplant, zucchini, and capers in a light tomato sauce. It was a good choice, but the flavor wasn't really there. I ate most of it but have decided to leave the spaghettis and pastas to the Italians :)For dessert though- Santorini topped the list. We each ordered our own crepes and mine was filled with dark chocolate, bananas and strawberries- the gooey chocolate dripped all over the fruit to make a great combo and a great after dinner treat! I wanted more!

The nightlife in Santorini was fantastic and there was a big young crowd walking along all the shops and eateries that were still open until after 12. Clubs were packed and music was heard all throughout the city center. It was definitely something to experience.

OFF to Paradise...

After an early morning wake up call and an 8 hour ferry ride, we landed on the island of Santorini.

The ferry ride was extremely long and sitting on the outside deck was definitely worth getting windblown and frizzy hair! The water was absolutely gorgeous and the bluest blue. The variety of people on the ferry was great as well. There were people from all over the world and most of them were traveling with us to Santorini while some were getting off at other island stops that we made along the way. We managed to sleep a bit on the table that we sat at outside, but then the noise from the people and the smell of cigarette smoke woke us up after an hour and a half.

It felt good to get some rest, but the trip felt longer now. Off we sailed to paradise and when we finally made it to shore and had survived the ride, we were talking to a family from Sweden about politics and vegetarianism and the oil spill that was going on. It was one of the most intelligent conversations I’ve had this whole vacation! They helped get us through the final two hours and we couldn’t have been more grateful.

When we got to port, we had to run down and get our luggage from the luggage room and because the escalators weren’t working, I was forced to carry a 50 + pound bag down the steps along with another 35+ pound bag. Very difficult and I must say that I didn’t care about the line of people that I was holding up trying to manage carrying two heavy bags down. It was ridiculous how NOONE offered to help. NOONE- are you serious? Are people really that selfish?

Anyway I managed with help from my traveling buddy and we rushed out of the boat and got a ride to our hotel form a mini charter bus. When we rode along the high mountain range, my ears of course popped but we got a beautiful view of the water and the volcano island that was across from Santorini. It felt so great to finally make land fall! We were so excited to be somewhere other than Athens and in the big city environment.

We got to the hotel and lugged our luggage to our first floor room over and through coble stone streets. The hotel owner was immensely helpful and she couldn’t have been sweeter. She got us glasses of water and she pulled out a map to help us figure out what we want to do this weekend. We already knew that we would take it easy and travel the man town square of Fira, which was steps away, first and foremost. So we got ready and headed into town to get food.

What was horrible about the ship is that it didn’t have any food for me to eat! Even the pizza had pieces of ham and bacon on top and there were only burgers and chicken sandwiches. I was disappointed, but the falafel I had in town made up for it. W ate beautiful pita sandwiches stuffed with falafel, cucumber, onion, tomato and the famous tzatziki sauce. I got a large falafel because I was just that hungry. I savoured every bite of the warm pita and there were fries placed inside so I dipped them in the tzatziki sauce as I bit into the falafel patties that were delicious. I very much enjoyed it!

Now that our stomachs were full, we headed toward the bus station and got the bus to OIA (pronounced ee-ya). We did some major shopping in this small town on the island of Santorini. The stores lined the small, narrow cobblestone alleyways and people flooded them nonstop. Everywhere you walked into town there was a beautiful view of the sun and that’s exactly what 99% of the people go to Oia to see- the sunset. We walked along the coastline until we found our own special spot to sit and watch the sun as it set, however the sky was very foggy and the sunset was not so pretty. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow night. We made our way back to the bus station and waited a good half hour for the bus to come to take us back to Fira.

One thing I will say about traveling is that it can be very frustrating in terms of dealing with people and the transportation lines. So far we haven’t had much trouble with it, but people make it so difficult to enjoy traveling and getting from place to place because they will push and shove and push some more without any remorse to get their spots on a bus, train, plane, etc. There’s no end to it and ultimately you end up doing it yourself. So when I feel a push and a shove coming on from the old, European ladies behind and on the sides of me while getting on the bus, I put up my arms and create a blockade with my body. I almost get into the full stance that I would if I was boxing out in basketball. It’s pretty funny and Kait loves to make fun of me for it, but honestly, it’s what gets seats on every bus ride. No standing for me! I work for my sitting privilege and those old ladies will not push their way through me!

Today’s word:

Learning to say OIA and making sure not to pronounce it oy-ya. Though everyone says it in his or her own special way.

C.H.A.T Tours

It's the way to go. Let me tell you. Three day tours are pretty incredible when you are on a tight schedule for seeing another country. The past three days have been filled with a lot of walking, basking in the heat waved country and eating a lot of delicious food! Greece is one of the top countries on my list for vegetarians. I have been eating so many vegetables like eggplant, brussel sprouts, potatoes, zucchini and more, as well as rice dishes and for pescetarians there is plenty of flavorful fish dishes. A vegetarian dream. I haven't gone hungry yet!

Now for the day by day extravaganza...

Day ONE:

A fairly early morning start with a prompt pick up from our hotel and a drive around the city to pick up people here and there. Then we were off with our new tour guide to drive along the Peloponnese coast. We made many stops to beautiful small towns and villages and drove up thousands of feet alongside mountains. My ears were popping continuously but it didn't matter because once you looked out of the window to see the spectacular views below, popped ears were not a problem anymore. We drove and stopped, drove and stopped and our tour guide explained everything about all that we saw. She was incredible and so knowledgeable it was almost scary. There were only 10 of us on the tour so it was personalized a lot of the time.

Speaking about the people on the tour with us: there were the honeymooners who were really cute and nice people to chat with, there was the family with young teens and experience with Greece and the language and such and there was the single traveler who came all the way from Australia and had plans to travel from Greece to the middle east and back home. Then there was us- me and my friend Kaitlyn who were the young American girls who did their own thing and played it cool throughout the trip- at least we thought we did. I'm sure I was known as the girl who was always hungry as I always wanted to cut out early and break for lunch, but hey I'm a small girl who needs to refuel at least every hour- totally kidding...at least every two hours ;)

So we made our way along the Peloponnese coast and got lunch. I was able to order a beautiful vegetable dish including potatoes, eggplant and stuffed tomatoes. The stuffed tomatoes here are like a delicacy! They are filled with rice, olive oil and sometimes even pine nuts. SO tasty! After lunch, we drove on down to Olympia that was a long three hours after our lunch stop and I got to sleep off the lunch and listen to my mp3 player along the way. Colbie Caillat and Taylor Swift along with Jason Mraz got me through that ride...

We ended up at this hotel about five minutes from Olympia's center and were served fresh grapefruit, cherry and orange juices upon arrival. It was a first class hotel that had been included in the tour cost and a hotel that was top of the line in service, cleanliness, location and food! We were amazing at the marble in the rooms and the buffet dinner they served...

This was exactly what I needed: brussel sprouts, potatoes, rice, whole wheat bread and the classic Greek salad with cucumbers and tomatoes. I stuffed up on dinner and fit in some watermelon for dessert :)

The night ended and it was an early morning start once again tomorrow.

Day TWO:

....side note- I just let two French people use my computer and they xed out of my writing so now I must write day two all over again. oy geez...that's what happens when you are nice.

OK- so let's try this again. Briefly.

We started out ubber early to beat the heat on day too because it was going up to 38 degrees- which in Fahrenheit is about 100+...we got out to the site of Olympia and saw a bunch of ruins and temples and training houses where Greek men spent most of their time training for the Olympic tournaments. We visited the famous Olympic stadium and got to stand on the very starting line ancient Greeks did before they took off on their races. It was a great site to visit but the bugs kept attacking everyone in the group and we were swatting them away every few minutes. The tour guide explained every little ruin that we passed and she was so drained by the end that she let us have some free time and went for an espresso with the bus drive- this was a normal thing. Kait and I wandered some more and took a bunch of pictures, but made our final stop the WC, which stands for Wash Closet. We didn't know this up until now because we were ashamed to ask but what the heck! It didn't make sense to us but you know the Greeks (just kidding).

The archeological museum for Olympia was huge and the tour guide managed to take us into each and every room in an hour. She yet again explained everything and competed with the loud tours that were taking place all over. It was insane!

(p.s. I think another French couple is cursing me off from being on the computer- if they only knew what I just did to help their people!!!)

Back to Olympia...we got through the museum- better yet- survived the museum because not only was a hungry, but I was also very tired and bored with the stuff after the first 20 minutes. We walked down a cute path and over a foot bridge to see frogs hopping along in the stream below and to stop at a restaurant that was strategically placed right outside of the site. I ordered "briam," which is a dish of zucchini and potatoes. It was like a ratatouille! It was delicious and the vegetables melted in your mouth along with the tomato sauce they were stewed in. YUM!
After the lunch, we headed to a shop next door and then off to Delphi.

I thought the drive around the mountains to get to Olympia were rough, but this was even worse! My ears were popping like popcorn and we rode through old towns and villages that were along the sea coast. We got to touch sand and water! Super cool...when we made our way up to the mountain at which Delphi stood, we passed through the oldest olive tree grove that is now actually protected by UNESCO. The trees were between 300 and some even 700 years old!

We rode up, up, up and made it to our hotel that was the sister hotel to the one we stayed at last night. What was even more incredible was that this hotel was even nicer- is that even possible?? It sure was.

We got dinner which consisted of potatoes, rice dishes, traditional Greek dishes and the buffet went on and on. The potatoes had just the right amount of salt and oil on them to keep you going back for me. It was all delicious! We ate up and got stuffed, so we decided to walk around outside to get a great look at the mountainous view. It was as if we were looking down on a painting. Breathtaking.

The night ended with yet another football match of the World Cup and a restless night of trying to fall asleep....

Day THREE:

We woke, fairly early and were off to a quick breakfast. We were still tired and didn't get much sleep so we were looking forward to a long bus ride, but that didn't happen. The site was about five minutes away and we walked and walked in the heat. The sites of Delphi were scattered, so we visited the first part and then walked up to a higher point on the mountain to reach the Temple of Apollo and some other stadiums and activity sites that were used by priests and people who honored the gods. It was HOT- yea like ridiculous. We roasted on the way up and roasted on the way down...the sites were gorgeous but the stories of the Oracle and the way the people visited the site for answers from the gods were even better! I was soooo enveloped in all the tour guide had to say- and yes, it was a lot.

We visited the museum, but thank goodness it wasn't as big as yesterday's so we got out in about 40 minutes. She got into some arguments with the other Greek tour guides and it was pretty funny to watch three Greek tour guides arguing in Greek about who was going to show their group the ancient Greek hymns first...priceless.

Lunch was next! We went to this "taverna" down the road and ate up some food. I got the classic stuffed tomato dish that was made with the usual rice, oil and pine nuts. They were incredible and I cleaned up the plate. We headed back on the bus and were on our way back to Athens.

The tour was over and to finish up we tipped our driver and the guide and were on our way on another bus to be stuck in traffic and with a crazy tour guide that told us just about every single thought that came into her head- and they weren't always intelligent ones. what a wifty guide- poor people that had to be with her the whole day...:) Anywho she did a fantastic job getting us home and updating us on the football game that GREECE eventually won! It was the first game in forever that they've won pretty much and it was time for everyone to celebrate!

Back to our first hotel we went and spent time munching on the organic snacks that I brought along...yummy...an early morning is staring us down as is the METRO strike. Our plans had to be switched around a bit, but we are ready to take on another trip and more days of eating this food WOW!

Words of the tour:

geia su- hello
neh- yes

Arrivederci Philadelphia!

Off I flew into the night sky with only one destination in mind: ATHENS. I boarded the flight first class with no idea how it would be...pretty sweet actually- what made the ride even better was the person I had sitting next to me...Bill AKA Vasilius. Such a sick name for an incredible man.

He and I hit it off from the start I guess you could say even if he was over 60. At first he spoke to Greek to me because he could've sworn I was Greek but when I told him Italian things were a bit different, but for the best. He told me stories about his children: daughter, who I apparently reminded him of time and time again and who was an ambassador in Austria and a son who worked in Paolo Alto, California. We told each other stories and he was impressed with me and my crazy quick college life and hopes and dreams. He serenaded me with a lot of Italian songs and made sure to remind me that I look like his daughter and acted just like her. Though the beginning of the flight I was wondering if what he was sayin was actually true, I started to believe it the more and more he told me and the more and more he taught me about what to do and what not to do in Greece. He was like an angel sent to me on this flight to a foreign country I had been so worried to visit. There was no way I would ever forget him and I'm sure he'll never forget me, especially because I was now his "little rascal" as he called me. I hope he made it home to Argos OK and is enjoying his two bottles of whisky he purchased in flight- one being a bottle of Bailey's to put in his coffee every once and awhile as he walked to the beach and enjoyed the summer life. Must be nice...oh Greece.

Arrivederci Philadelphia comes from good ol Bill who asked me what everyone says when you leave Rome and we said together: Arrivederci Roma! So when we took off we said Arrivederci Philadelphia...he got me through the take off because I would have flipped out otherwise haha! Oh airplanes...

Day One in Greece was interesting. Greekness all over: people, food, language,etc. Awesome. The people speak English almost better than I do! The hotel I'm staying in is quite nice- rooftop dining and mini pool to lounge in but with this 90 degree weather I don't really know if I'd want to go on the roof and have the sun beat down and burn me head to toe...at least not right now. I ate dolmades- stuffed grape leaves and ate a yummy tuna fish pizza as fast as possible to satisfy my grumbling stomach. The first class food didn't do the job and with applesauce and craisins for breakfast- it was expected. The waiter though I was either Greek or Spanish but definitely not Italian. I just spoke Italian to trick him and he believed I was from Italy the whole time- oh yea working the European flair :)

A walk around the neighborhood was a must so I scouted out internet cafes, coffee shops, calling card centers and the bancomat. I am in need of a major nap though, so enough walking in the heat and it's time to sleep already!

Italia vs Parguay today--- nap before game time!

Greek word of the day (and probably for the trip): KALIMERA= GOOD MORNING.

Starting a new chapter

One week before I leave for my trip and I've already started crying about how much I'll miss everything- or I guess in this case everyone. Every day that passes I get more anxious about leaving and more nervous as to what is to come. I don't know if spending time with my boyfriend made things hurt more or gave me reassurance that everything will be OK and we'll pick up where we left off once I return. All I know is that when we said goodbye at the train station there were tears in my eyes and a yearning to run after the train. It felt like I had just swallowed a golf ball and was left choking on it as the man I love sped away on a train in the opposite direction with no one around to help me. Sounds horrible right? Well it was horrible. I waited around for my train and mentally prepared myself for time at home with my family and time preparing for my trip.

Graduating from college was a huge step toward the next part of my life, but now this trip will take me even further. I am sad to be leaving, but honestly I couldn't ask for a better opportunity to do as I please for the next month and a half in Europe. I'll be able to travel, to see the places I've only dreamed of and to eat amazing foods! I am most excited about the latter two because I have been wanting to go to Greece ever since I learned about Ancient Greek history and culture in high school. I can't wait to be standing near the ancient ruins and laying on the beaches of Santorini! But that's only part one. Part two of the trip is going to encompass the ancient ruins of ROME! I will be returning to Italy once again and will travel from the north to the south to the middle and all around.

If I had three wishes for this trip they'd be:
1. I could bring my family and friends along with me to enjoy the vacation time, especially my family because they need a break more than I do.
2. I will meet incredible people and make connections that will help me succeed further in my life and future career.
3. I experience the things that I've always dreamed of plus more and that everything is filled with fun and safety and happy memories are made.

Let's see if the genie is on my side.