I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I feel like I need to include everything I am about to say. My trip to Greece was probably one of the most eventful weekends of my life. When I say eventful it's hard to say whether it's eventful in a good or bad way... so I'll let you be the judge of that. We started our travels Wednesday night catching the bus from Sevilla at 6pm and getting into Madrid around midnight. We stayed the night in the airport to catch a plane out to Amsterdam at 6am. During our overnight stay we met some guys who were on the same flight as us and connecting to Turkey. It was really fun getting to know them! I think one of my favorite parts about studying abroad so far has been the people I've met and the things I've learned from them. This overnight stay went by relatively fast with the company of the guys. When the desk's opened we went to check-in. Whatever third party program they booked their flight through had made and canceled their flights 7 times (thankfully not charging their cards), but needless to say they had no flight. I later learned that they went around to all of the airline companies looking for a flight to Turkey and finally got on Turkish Airlines for 450 euro... no big deal, ha! (please keep this story in the back of your mind as you hear about my adventures to.. and in Greece) So our first flight went fine... minus being delayed due to weather. Towards the end of the flight the stewardess came onto the intercom saying if you had a flight leaving before 9:25 you needed to go straight to KLM's help desk so they could find you another flight... ours left at 9:25. We called the stewardess over and first response was yes, you are going to miss your flight... but I refused to accept this answer. Missing our flight meant missing our ferry meant screwing up our entire vacation! So, I asked another lady. Again, she confirmed that we were indeed going to miss it though we could run and try. We were towards the back of the plane and if you've ever flown in a plane you know it takes 5 years to deload a plane. So, I asked the lady if we could be moved to the front of the plane so we could bust a move and (hopefully) catch our flight. She asked another lady who allowed us to move up to the front. As soon as we landed we ran through 90 gates! We were dropped off at D89 and had to get to C4... this definitely showed me just how out of shape I really am these days, ha! But, we decided it was everyone for herself so whoever was the fastest could hold the plane for the others. You know in movies when the character is going to miss a flight and has to run through the airport as the bystanders stop and stare? Yes, well that was us! Fortunately, all I could think about was making the flight so I didn't give it much thought as to how ridiculous I looked. I was the first one to arrive and we all made it. So we were good... minus my luggage. I had checked my bag. Upon arrival in Athens I went straight to the lost baggage counter. The man was shocked that I knew my baggage didn't make it before I even went to look for it... I should have told him I was a psychic. Anyway, he set it up to be flown to Santorini that night where I could pick it up and gave me a "survival kit." After using this kit, whoever came up with the small list of things to put in this kit should be given a gold star... it was about as perfect of a survival kit as you can get! Next we had to get on the bus to get to the ferry. We asked a man and he told us which bus. We walked outside and saw the bus he had told us (or so we thought/heard). As I was thinking about the bus number I had a bit of doubt and pulled out my book where i had written down the bus number we needed and sure enough, it was the wrong bus. So, next stop we disembarked and waited for the right one. The stop we were at was rather weird as the bus would stop at another stop about 100 feet away, leave, drive around then come back to our stop... it made absolutely no sense, but after running to the street to stop it (again, making a fool of ourselves) a man tried telling us that it was coming back.... this was our first encounter with the language barrier. We were eventually able to communicate through hand motions... at least there is one way of communication that's universal! Sure enough the bus came back and we finally got on the right bus headed towards the port. Unfortunately this bus ride was really long... leaving us with virtually no time to make it to the port to catch our ferry. When we arrived at the port, we discovered how absolutely enormous the port was and I realized that I hadn't a clue where we were supposed to pick up our tickets. Everyone (I mean everyone) got off of the bus at some random spot. For whatever reason we decided we shouldn't get off. We went to the bus driver and tried asking where we should get off, but his English was limited. We ended up staying on until the very end. We got off, scrambled to find someone to point us in the right direction and ran to the building we were told to go to. For having horrible luck with timing, we had the absolute best luck with being in the right place. We got off the bus right where we needed to be. Got our tickets, and literally sprinted to the ferry. The lady at the ticket booth was not impressed with our late arrival and told us, with a slight stern voice, to run. With 5 minutes to find the ticket window and get to the ferry, it felt like we had ran a marathon by the end of this small adventure. The ferry ride was a 7 hour ordeal. For the first bit we hung out, got on the Internet, explored the boat a bit, ate delicious hamburgers (I'm not sure what sauce they put on it, but it was one of the best burgers I have ever had) and eventually made some Greek friends. It started with Nikos, who decided to give me his number... then proceed to walk back and forth on the boat passing us every time. Eventually I decided to go talk to him. Unfortunately his English was VERY limited, so the conversation was rather short. Later he decided to bring a friend along who was fluent in English to translate for him. His friend, Mike, looked rather annoyed at first to be the translator, but as the conversation progressed it turned into a conversation between the 3 of us and Mike rather than Nikos. Mike was so much fun to talk to! He was on a five day break from Army training so he was decked out in his army outfit and held a straight face 95% of the time. But, this made him that much more amusing. He would crack a joke in all seriousness and just stare, until we caught on. He was great. He also loves to cook so we had him give us a Greek recipe that I can't wait to try out when I get home! Later into our conversation Mike introduced us to his new puppy who couldn't have been more then a few days old. It was the cutest thing ever. Mike hadn't named it yet, so we (or more so Julie) came up with Charlie. We decided we needed to give him a good American name so Mike would always remember his favorite Americans!
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| Julie Kelsey and I with Mike and Charlie! |
Upon arrival in Santorini we were picked up by our hostel and taken to the hostel. It was late at night so we called it a day. The next morning we went to inquire about renting mopeds. The lady said she would call the man and he'd be there soon. We were hungry so we set off for the supermarket. By the time we were finished there it was pouring outside. As you may remember, I had no suitcase meaning I had no umbrella. Kelsey had forgotten hers at the hostel so we had one between the 3 of us, which is virtually impossible to work out. I decided to run a head and focus on getting back to the hostel. As is my luck, we got lost on the way home as it continued to pour., I got too far ahead at one point and lost Kelsey and Julie which is when my nerves started boiling a bit. Greece does not have a drainage system so the roads quickly turned into rivers. By the time we found each other and made it back to the hostel my sweatshirt was dripping, my hair looked like I had just gotten out of the shower and my socks were soaked from the water seeping in through my boots... I was miserable! I had nothing to change into. Kelsey let me borrow a pair of leggings which I changed into, left on my t-shirt (compliments of the survival kit) and went without socks in my boots figuring if I put another pair on they'd just get soaked. The rental man picked us up to take us to his office to rent the mopeds... or more so car. At first Kelsey was reluctant because she had her mind set on mopeds even though in all reality this wasn't logical due to the weather and Julie was very reluctant to rent a car as she was worried about if we got in a wreck. In the end I finally rationalized with everyone and we got a car. I was stoked! It was manual (cheaper to rent) and I got to drive.. finally! All day Friday we drove around the island exploring every corner possible. We went up north to Oia, drove around the city then found a little cove that was absolutely gorgeous!
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| The little cove we found. Sadly enough I don't remember the name |
After that we found a beach. It might as well have been our private beach for the day... NO one was out, but I suppose you can't expect much in February while it's raining! We got lots of pictures on the beach though. After that somehow we found our way up to the very top of the island. It was so cold up there with all of the wind! (please keep in mind I am only in a t-shirt leggings and boots in the middle of February!) Looking to our right we couldn't see anything because of the cloud's, but to the left we could see everything. The view was amazing! We were getting back in the car when we noticed the cloud's had quickly moved out of the way so we were able to see everything! After that we headed back down, parked the car in a little town and explored. Walking around the little town was like walking in a dream. It was exactly what you would expect to see in Greece. (Think, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants). I got some really neat pictures from walking around! (check out my facebook).
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| Santorini is known for the blue domes in this pic.! |
The rest of the day we spent driving around the rest of the island checking it all out. Around one we went to the airport to pick up my suitcase... and it was closed. An airport, closed! Unbelievable, so we continued our exploring and came back when they opened back up for the afternoon around 5:30. After a little confusion, I was informed that my suitcase had been flown in through the other airline (there are only two that fly into this airport) and of course my suitcase was flown in on the airline that is only open in the morning. Yet another night without a suitcase, talk about living with the bare minimums. We headed back to take a quick nap that turned into a two hour endeavor. By the time we woke up the supermarket was closed so we went into the city to find a restaurant for some food. Before leaving the hostel we went to ask the lady about check-out. She gave me back my passport at this time so when we got in the car to drive into town I just set it in my lap... and forgot about it. We found a little hole in the wall where we all got soulaki (amaaazingness in a pita!) for 2 euros!! It was amazing. Walking back to the car Kelsey saw my PASSPORT on the GROUND!! If I had never believed in guardian angels before I definitely would have after this little incident. I freaked! It was also soaked from the rain, but the makers of our passports are pretty smart as my passport looks perfectly new now. =) We attempted to find a bar to hang out with some locals, but nothing was open... I mean nothing. So we headed back to get a full nights rest. The next morning we had to check out of the hostel, return the car and I had to go pick up my suitcase. After all of this we went into Fira (the islands capital) to walk around. Again, it was pretty dead. We explored though and found some little stores to browse in. We also ran into some donkeys! (which apparently are known for on this island though none of us knew that haha). After we felt we had seen enough we headed back to our hostel to get a ride to the ferry. Unfortunately we still had 2 to 3 hours to kill. We walked as slow as we possibly could. We passed a little bakery got a snack. I got this rolled up ham, cheese and peppers roll I guess you could call it. It was amazing! Heaven in my mouth! If it hadn't filled me up I could have gotten another one. We all loved what we got. We eventually made it back to the hostel with about an hour to kill, so we popped a squat and chatted. When we got to the port we went in the gate area to wait for the ferry. Inside there was a stray dog wandering around begging for food and attention from everyone. It was so cute, sad, but cute. I suppose I forgot to mention that there are stray cats and dogs ALL OVER GREECE! It is absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, the ferry ride back was not nearly as exciting as the ferry ride to the port. The boat was extremely rocky and kids were getting sick left a right. I thought it was amusing trying to walk around looking like a complete drunk falling all over the place, but I'd say a majority of the passengers were not enjoying the ride. Once we got back to Athens it was around midnight and we hadn't a clue where we were going. We ended up asking five people where the metro was. Everyone said the same direction, but we didn't see it because it was in a building with no signs saying "metro!" It was not a typical looking metro station. Once on the metro we thought it was a straight shot... of course with our luck it wasn't. I know previously I said I felt I had dominated the metro system, but Greece is an exception. Some how a guy on the metro realized we hadn't a clue where we were going and with about the 5 English words he knew got us where we needed to go (might I add this required switching metros twice). I swear God sent this man to us because we would have slept in that metro if it hadn't been for him! Anyway, we finally got to the hostel and got to bed. Before we passed out we made a plan for Sunday so we could get everything in. The list was ridiculously long so we planned on leaving the hostel around 9 in the morning. So, 9am rolls around and we set out to see Athens. We saw the Roman Agora, the Acropolis (and everything on top of the Acropolis), the Theatre of Dionyssos, the Acropolis Museum, the Ancient Agora (though we didn't get to go into it), the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the original Olympic Stadium (not in said order).
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| In front of the Parthenon |
The whole day was a lot of walking to see old pieces of stone/marble. Don't get my wrong, I'm glad we walked around and saw everything, but I never feel the need to return (I'm noticing an odd trend here...). Anyway, at one point we had some random dog following us around. We decided to give him a name, Trucker. He sat outside of the Olympic Stadium while we toured it and waited on us. It was rather amusing. It was supposed to rain all day, but the weather held up for us and it was just a bit chilly all day. We conquered Athens in less then a day. We had a lot of time to kill by the end of the day. We picked a restaurant for dinner and ended up hanging out there for 3 hours. Again, the food was amazing! Julie and I split a massive plate of different types of meat. We couldn't finish the plate there was so much, and it was 7,50 euro for each of us. After we decided we had taken up enough of the restaurants time we went to find a bar to get a drink at to kill some more time. The only bar we could find open (no thanks to it being Sunday night) was an Irish Pub. We walked in and I felt like I was in America... which is not the point of those bars, ha. I actually wrote a paper for my International Management class about the exporting of Irish Pubs so it was kind of cool going into one. After a drink there we decided to make our way back to the hostel to pick up our bags and head to the airport where we spent the night, caught our flight and made it home... this time without any difficulties. It was probably one of the longest weekends of my life, but I'm glad I went (as are Julie and Kelsey). I had always wanted to see Greece and even though it was one hell of a trek, it was definitely all worth it.
