Lagos, what you always want to see, but never do!

This past weekend my program took us on our last excursion to Lagos, Portugal.  As some of you may have seen from my facebook album name, I have found my honeymoon destination!  Lagos was absolutely gorgeous.  It looked like places you see in pictures, but never actually see in person.  When we first got to Lagos CEA took us to some natural park (I think?) where we got an amazing view of the coastline.  Words do not describe what I saw in Lagos, so I will post a few extra pictures.  The rest of our time we spent at the beach.  The first beach we went to we basically had to ourselves.  It was pretty chilly with a constant breeze, but the sun was shining so it wasn’t terrible.  The second day CEA took us to another beach called Dona Ana.  The beach we went to on Friday was nice, but it was nothing like what we saw when we first got to Lagos. 

Dona Ana on the other hand was exactly what we saw.  It was absolutely picturesque.  Some of you who know me very well (or have just been to the beach with me) know I’m very timid about getting into the ocean because usually it’s freezing.  I’m not sure what convinced me, but I got into the ocean both days even though the water was ridiculously cold!  At Dona Ana we swam/walked out to a rock that was sticking up out of the water.  The swim/walk was rather painful with the rocks under us, but we eventually made it out to the rock and got some pictures.  The whole day we spent laying out on the beach.  It was great finally getting to relax and enjoy nice weather.  A lot of the people in my program extended their stay with a program called Discover Sevilla, but Julie Kelsey and I decided we didn’t want to pay what they were charging and went home Saturday night with our program. 

  The next day we went to a beach about an hour away from Sevilla in Huelva called Matalascana.  I’m not sure what all I have said in my blog thus far (I have a horrible memory!) but, the day I got back from Paris I met Kelsey at a park in our neighborhood area to hang out and we ended up meeting a group of Spanish guys.  One of them got our numbers to hang out later.  It took him two weeks, but he eventually text me and we’ve hung out since.  We asked him to get some friends together to go to the beach with us on Sunday so we met him and his friend Antonio at Matalascana.  (He had asked more, but the other backed out unfortunately, but their loss!)  Again, we spent the entire day out on the beach.  By now I’m sure you’re wanting to ask if I got any sun… possibly a little burn and unfortunately the answer is yes even though I was a nazi about sunscreen!  Julie and Kelsey were both calling me a mom about the sunscreen, but I took that name with pride personally.  I felt like I was constantly smothering myself in sunscreen yet I still managed to get a little burnt.  The sun here is brutal; I’m not sure how people survive here on an annual basis!  This past weekend was very relaxing which was definitely needed, especially with my first Spring Break coming up here in a few days!

Heather's first time in Spain!

Two weekends ago Heather came to visit me in Sevilla!  I got to be tour guide for the weekend, which ended up being incredibly tiring!  She got here Friday afternoon with her friend, Blair.  Overall I thought the weekend went well if you exclude my lack of knowledge of Spanish words for foods.  But, in my defense, I am in a homestay where I get 3 meals a day 7 days a week.  I never eat out so I never learn the Spanish words for the different foods.  I took them to Plaza de Espana where we got a little row boat to row around, the Cathedral along with climbing up the Giralda, the Alcazar, my homestay so they could see my home and meet my Spanish family, we walked along the river where we got churros at a churros stand and got a drink at a little bar stand.  It was good seeing Heather again and it was exciting for me to get to show someone my home for the semester! 

Gaudi

A couple weekends ago Julie and I made it up to Barcelona.  As some of you may know I’ve been to Barcelona once before with my parents and younger sister, Dinora.  But, our visit last time was very short and did not consist of much site seeing.  We left early Saturday morning for Barcelona because on Friday our program took us to Ronda which ended up being a sub-par trip to a tiny town in southern Spain.  The entire time all I could think about what how I could’ve been in Barcelona if I had known how boring it was going to be.  The tour we went on was long and treacherous.  There’s a huge gorge in the city which is supposed to be the main point of interest, but our tour didn’t bother going down to get a good view of it.  Oh well, such is life.  So Julie and I got to Barcelona before noon and we wanted to drop our stuff off at our friend Jim’s place before we went out into the city.  Of course, me with my wonderful memory and all forgot to write down the directions I got to get to his apartment.  Jim’s phone was off (we later learned it had taken a swim in the Mediterranean the night before and was broken) so I made a few calls and finally got a hold of my friend Todd to get into my facebook for the directions.  After dropping our stuff off we headed out with Jim, our tour guide.  We went down part of Las Ramblas then headed towards the beach.  The marina and beach were gorgeous!  First impression of Barcelona made me wish I had studied there rather than Sevilla.  (don’t get me wrong, I love Sevilla, but Barcelona is amazing!)   

Parc Guell with one of Gaudi's animals

Anyway, we ended up running into some people we had met in Granada a few weekends before and went to Parc Guell with them which is a park in the middle of an unfinished Gaudi housing area.  I loved the park.  Julie and I got a lot of cute pictures around the park and one of the girls we were with pointed out an area that was used for the finale fashion show for America’s Next Top Model!   After seeing the park we headed back to Jim’s to cook dinner and rest a bit.  That night we went to watch the magic fountains (fountain show), but were too late and ended up walking into the old bull-fighting ring (now a mall ever since bull-fighting has been banned in Barcelona).   That night we went out to Razzmatazz, which is supposedly the biggest club in Europe (so I was told…).  It was cool, but all of the room looked identical save the music and it was like a maze trying to get from room to room.  It got to be really annoying trying to find new music!  The next day Julie and I decided to go out alone.  Jim was nice to have along with us, but he was the world worst tour guide! (no offense to the kid) But, he didn’t know what or where anything was, he was more along for the ride.  Basically, mine and Julie’s touring style is much different than his.     

In front of Sagrada Familia

Sunday we set out to see Sagrada Familia, the unfinished church designed by Gaudi.  According to Rick Steve’s it isn’t expected to be completed for another quarter of a century!  We wanted to go in, but when we got there it wasn’t open yet so we set out to see Casa Mila and once we got back they were closing.  Casa Mila is another one of Gaudi’s buildings (this one is finished, haha!)  I loved the house, but I think the highlight of the visit inside was the roof where we finally got to see what Rick Steve’s put on the front of his Spain book.  I got the same picture he did, unfortunately there is a gate in my version and not in his (I’m going to call photoshop on his part).  After Casa Mila we went to go see Casa Batllo though we only saw the outside, yet another work of Gaudi.  After going back to Sagrada Familia and discovering we weren’t going to be able to go in we decided to head back to Las Ramblas and walk the entire street.  We started at Placa de Catalunya and slowly made our way down towards the Columbus Monument.   We stopped in all of the little shops to do some tourist shopping.  The workers were so obnoxious!  I couldn’t pick up one thing without be swarmed by workers trying to make a bargain with me.  One place I found a really cute crescent and picked it up to look at it.  When the guy came up to bargain (or so we thought) we asked how much it was and he told us the price was on the back.  We then tried to bargain with him and he said no, so then I put it back because I wasn’t’ interested in paying the labeled price and he freaked out on us!  We had been talking Spanish to him, but he went off about how you can’t pick up things and not buy them and that we were typical Americans blah, blah.  I just raised my eyebrows and starred at him in utter surprise at how he was talking to us. 

The same picture Rick has on the front of his book!

I was dumbfounded!  All of the other workers may have been annoying, but they weren’t rude.  After he went off on us we just walked out.  I looked in every other store I went in, but couldn’t find another crescent, which was really sad, but there was no way I was going to go back and buy something from that man.  I ended up getting a little Sadraga Familia magnet with the Gaudi pattern of the colorful mosaic art.  We ate dinner in a little plaza a few blocks off of Las Ramblas, which was good.  Once we reached the end of Las Ramblas we roamed around the streets and chatted just killing time.  It was too late to really go see anything, but we didn’t feel like going back to the apartment to sit around.  At one point we were sitting and chatting somewhere on Las Ramblas and this creepy man snuck up behind us (shirt unbuttoned with his belly hanging out) leaned over between us and just starred at us.  Julie noticed first and hit me in the arm.  I turned towards her and saw him and freaked!  We both jumped up and ran off.  When I turned around to make sure he wasn’t following us he was just standing there laughing at us.  He was such a creeper! But thankfully didn’t give us anymore trouble.  We ended up getting a bottle of Cava (apparently a Barcelona drink, but it ended up just being Champagne?) and walking down Rambla de Mar.  Our flight left really early Monday morning because we had to get back for classes on Monday so we took about an hour long nap then headed to the airport.  Over all consensus, I absolutely loved Barcelona.  I wish we had had more time there/I wish we had time to go back, but unfortunately we don’t.  I am glad we decided to go though as it was one of our last minute trips we booked.  Definitely one of my favorite places I’ve been to yet!

Maybe my next language will be French

HA! What a joke, if I could ever get Spanish down I'd be content with the rest of my life.  But, I did go to Paris and I loved the language, almost as much as I loved the city, but not nearly as much as I loved visiting Heather! (an old roommate and good friend of mine).  As much as I love everyone here in Sevilla, especially my closest friends, I must say it was a great breather getting away from everything for a weekend and seeing a familiar face from home.  I left Friday morning as the plane ticket was cheaper and I didn't want to be traveling the night of St. Paddy's Day! (more about that night later).  Anyway, so it was a VERY early morning after a very late night unfortunately.  When I got to the bus stop I waited around for about 45minutes.  People started taking taxi's because they were worried they were going to miss their flight, but I decided to stick it out for another 10 minutes or so.  At that point I had started talking to people around me and met a guy, Lucas, who was on the same flight as me to Paris so, he became my travel buddy.  The bus eventually came, basically the one we were supposed to catch just decided not to show up.  Once we got to the airport we had to skip the line to get our boarding pass stamped and skip the entire security line.  Yes, I was very embarrassed, but desperate calls for desperate measures.  We made the flight, but if we hadn't skipped those lines we definitely wouldn't have.  We got to Paris and took the bus in.  Lucas had a friend there he was meeting up with and they were going to get food first so I decided to join them before I made my way to the embassy to meet Heather.  Turned out we walked to get food in the direction I needed to go so instead of taking the metro to the embassy I decided to walk the rest of the way.  (Living over here has made walking far distances much more doable... 20-30 minute walk? no big deal).  Anyway, I got to the embassy and had a huge process of getting in.  Heather had put me on the list to go in so they had to check that with my passport, do some other business that took a good 5-10 minutes, check my bag, take all of my electronics (including headphones), take my bag, give me a visitors tag, and who knows what else.  It was insane!  But, good to know they’re taking several precautions at the US embassy in France.  Heather showed me around the embassy and took me to the ease where they have American food products you can’t get over here.  I wanted so many things, but I wasn’t going to be able to bring them home so I only got some reece cups for my house mom and brownie mix to make later that night.  Heather got off of work shortly after I arrived so I waited for her to go to her place.  That night two of her friends came over and we made pancakes and potatoes for dinner along with the brownies (very healthy right? Haha).  It was yummy though!  For the rest of the night we just hung out with her friends and went to bed.  The next day we slept in a bit then got up to go around the city! Our first stop was right around the corner from her street to see my first view of the Eiffel Tower, or full view because you could see the top of it from her street.  After that we headed to Notre Dame.   

In front of Notre Dame

The church was so nice!  We went inside and walked around.  I hate to say this, but at this point I can’t really remember what all we saw inside.  After the church we went to a little bookstore nearby called Shakespeare and Company.  All of its books were in English.  It reminded me of a little bookstore you would see in a movie (I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been used for a movie before honestly).  Anyway, we ended up spending almost 2 hours in there I believe?  It was packed with books!  The stairs going to the second floor had books stacked a good 10 books high on each step.  Upstairs there was a little hole with a typewriter open to anyone who wanted to write something.  The back room is where we spent most of our time.  It was a great setting for photos and we ended up going crazy!  It was so much fun though, and I ended up using one of the pictures for one of my photography projects.  After we made our way out of the bookstore we went in search of a restaurant for lunch.  As most people say and have heard, the French people are not friendly people, especially to Americans.  But, I must say I was able to avoid all of these unfriendly Parisians.  The waiter we had at this restaurant was very friendly and talked to Heather in French.  After lunch we did some shopping then headed to the church of the Miraculous Medal.  It was pretty amazing going to this church.  We got there when one of the daily prayers were going on and were able to sit through it.  The body of St. Catherine Laboure, who Mary appeared to, to make the Miraculous Medal is incorruptable.  It was insane being able to see her body!  Unfortunately the shop was closed when we got there so we had to go back the next day so I could buy one of the medals.  After the church we walked down one of the main stretches in Paris, Avenue des Champs-Elysees.   We did some shopping and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe.  We ate dinner on Avenue des Champs-Elysees, and again had a very friendly waiter.  When he asked what I wanted to eat I just looked at Heather so she could order for me.  He asked her if I did not talk and she laughed and said not French, but English and Spanish.  The rest of the night he talked Spanish to me, which was so cute!  After dinner we went to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle at Trocadero which was amazing!  I got some pretty pictures of this, but couldn’t figure out where or if I have a video on my camera so I wasn’t able to get a video of it.  The next day we slept in later than planned and weren’t able to go to Versailles (which was the original plan), but instead went to Parc du Champ de Mars, which is the park that leads up to the Eiffel Tower.  

Heather and I in Parc du Champ de Mars

Of course, I got some more pictures of the Eiffel Tower and was able to see it close up this time.  After this Heather had to go tutor so I went to the Louve on my own.  The museum was pretty cool.  I’m not one much for museums or art, but I went through Rick Steve’s walking tour and felt I got a good overview of all of the important pieces in the Louve, including the Mona Lisa.  Unfortunately, the Mona Lisa was rather underwhelming.  The piece itself is very small and to emphasize this, the museum decided to put a massive piece of art on the opposite side of the Mona Lisa, ha.  Heather and I met up afterwards where I got Angelina’s hot chocolate (so good!) and headed back to the church of the Miraculous Medal so I could get myself one.  We then headed to the Artists Square in Paris.  We went to Basilique du Sacre-Coeur church then walked around the Artist’s District.  This area was so cute!  Probably one of my favorite areas I saw in Paris.  Because it was close by we went and saw Moulin Rouge then headed back to the Eiffel Tower to go up it.  Going up was really fun!  The line took 5 years, but we eventually made it up.  It also was freeeezing at the top, but I got some cool pictures while I was up there.  After this we called it a night.  The next day we got breakfast at Laduree and I headed to the airport to go back to Sevilla.  The trip was so much fun.  I loved Paris and will most definitely make it back at some point in my life! 

Granada to Cadiz

This last weekend (the first weekend in March) my program took us to Granada for a night.  I had heard so many positive things about Granada so I was really excited about this excursion!  We left early Friday morning.  On our way to Granada it started snowing!!  Uh yes, you read that correctly.. snowing!!  The road was covered for part of the drive.  I was not impressed to say the least.  Once we got into Granada though it was only raining (I suppose you could say fortunately), but I didn't bring my umbrella... of course.  The buses dropped us off in some random place so we could walk through the Jewish Quarters.  This led up to the best view of La Alhambra in Granada, but because it was all cloudy it really wasn't that great of a view.  Apparently when it's nice out the Sierra Nevada Mountains loom behind La Alhambra and it's an amazing view. 

Our view of La Alhambra

After this we walked to our hotel where the buses were with our stuff and checked in.  Four-star hotel!  Loved it.  Kelsey Julie and I were together.  We had a little living room area and then a bedroom and a bathroom... with a shower that actually had a door!  That was exciting.  Kelsey has a friend from school studying in Granada so we met up with him, Andy and their other friend from school, Jim, who is studying in Barcelona but was visiting Granada as well.  Andy took us up to the same view CEA had taken us to, but this time it was a bit clearer weather though we still weren't able to see the mountains unfortunately.  After that we shopped around in the little shops.  The shopping area was so cute and had so much!  I bought quite a bit there, but the prices were better then they are in Seville so I figured it was worth it.  After we did some shopping Andy took us to a teteria where he is a regular and we got tea and crepes.  I've grown a tolerance for fruit flavored hot tea with loads of sugar.  I figure ya gotta start somewhere!  We also smoked hooka which was rather amusing.  We attempted (though failed every time) to get at least three of us to blow the smoke out through our noses and throw up horns to look like bulls.  We finally gave up after a few tries.  (p.s. mom and dad: hooka is not bad for you like regular smoking and it's totally legal...promise! love you guys =) ) Anyway,  After this we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out for the night.  In Granada when you order a drink you get free tapas, so when we met back up with Andy and Jim we went bar hopping for dinner.  Some of Andy's friends joined us for the night as well.  I met a guy who is from El Paso who knows some people I know from TCU... it's crazy how small this world is sometimes!  After a few bars we went to a club for the rest of the night and didn't call it a night until around 4:30am, ha!  I would say the next morning was a nightmare trying to get out of bed, but it wasn't.  We got a complimentary buffet breakfast which I was stoked for.  Before we did anything else we went to eat so we didn't have to deal with the crowds from the rest of our program.  (By the time I was finished and going back up to get ready people were waiting for tables.)  Saturday we had a tour of La Alhambra. 

In one of the gardens at La Alhambra

The tour was nice, but in all honesty it reminded me of a larger version of the Alcazar in Sevilla.  The only thing that I thought was really cool was the room where Queen Isabel gave Christopher Columbus permission to sail to America, that was pretty awesome!  But, besides from that it was a nice tour though I don't feel the need to go back through.  My camera died half way through the tour which was really depressing so my album on facebook is slacking.  Once we finished the tour we got on the buses and headed back to Sevilla.  Upon our arrival in Sevilla (almost) everyone got on another bus through a program called Discover Sevilla to head to Cadiz for Carnaval, the third biggest carnival in the world!  Everyone dresses up for Carnaval so my friends and I were m&m's.  Before you jump to conclusions, the costumes came out really well!  I taped m's on everyone's solid colored tops and we wore white gloves like the cartoon m&m's wear.  Naturally I was the orange m&m =).  I had to buy a top for it so I figured I should buy a top I know I'll use later and what better color then orange?  Unfortunately I forgot my small camera so I wasn't able to take any pictures, but my friends got some pictures.  I tried getting a picture from one of my friends to post on here, but wasn't able to.  If I figure it out later I'll add one.  Anyway, we got to Cadiz around 11pm.  The streets were packed, it was absolutely insane!  We just walked, or rather pushed our way, around the streets all night and met a bunch of people, especially Spaniards.  One group of guys we talked to for awhile were dressed up as football players.  One of the boys decided I was his girlfriend and was going around calling me so, ha!  They were amusing to say the least.  Two girls they knew came over and talked with us as well.  We later ran into Drew and Todd, two guys we hang out with a lot in Sevilla and on the bus I met a guy studying in Greece who was visiting his friend from home who was studying in Sevilla (in my program).  We met quite a few other Spaniards, but they were brief meetings, can't say I'm able to remember all of them.  The night was crazy and long, but loads of fun!  It was one hell of an experience that I'll never forget, that's for sure!

Greece, the country with incomplete building

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! 

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! 

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).  

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).  

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.

Holy Toledo! (and Madrid)

In front of Palacio Real

Sorry for the delay in this post!  I got back from Madrid late Sunday night and left for Greece Wednesday night and the time in between that I spent recovering/getting ready to leave again.  Anyway, more on Greece in the next blog.  So, two weekends ago Kelsey Julie and I made last minute (and when I say last minute I mean we decided to go about 5 hours before me left... I'd say that's about as last minute as you can get) plans to go to Madrid for the weekend.  Took the overnight bus Thursday night and had all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Friday we started out at the Palacio Real (aka: Royal Palace).  After a bit of miss communication and waiting an hour and a half (for no reason, due to the miss communication) we took a self-guided tour (or not so much "tour") through the Palace.  The place was gorgeous!  The only thing I didn't like about it was that there was not much furniture or artifacts of any kind inside.  The walls, ceilings and portraits were nice though.  After the Palace we headed over to Plaza de Mayor, which reminded me a lot of a Plaza in Venice (can't remember the name).  Anyway, we got lunch here, which was delicious and decently priced.  I got a huge chicken with fries for 6 euro I believe?  I was pretty proud for finding this because Madrid is expensive!  After lunch we made our way over to Real Jardin Botanico (aka: the Botanical Gardens).  It was really nice inside, but you could tell it's a lot prettier in the summer when everything has bloomed.  We got some cute pictures while we were in there though and I got some close ups of the flowers that were there.  After the gardens we found our way to Parque del Buen Retiro.  According to the map there was supposed to be a lake somewhere around there, but we weren't able to find it before we had a unfortunate run-in with some teenage scums.  I won't go into detail with this because it is not the highlight of the weekend (more like the absolute downer of the weekend), but they did not get me personally, and we'll leave it at that.  Once we recuperated from that run-in we did some shopping and made our way to Reina Sofia, a modern art museum.  By this time, it was pretty late and we were exhausted.  We went around the museum for about 30 minutes until we called it quits.  Got some dinner and headed back to the hostel to sleep.  The next day we decided we had had enough of Madrid and made plans for Toledo. 

In front of the bridge connecting the two sides of Toledo 

Toledo was much better than Madrid.  We had a lot of trouble finding things because the map Rick supplied us with was relatively vague, but we eventually found our way around the town.  We walked along the city walls, went to the Santa Cruz Museum, saw the Cathedral from the outside (we were feeling too cheap at the time to pay for the entrance fee), saw the Mosque (again, from the outside) and found the escalators.  Unfortunately, us being as bright as we are, walked up the to top of the escalators to ride them down... not our brightest moment, but it was good exercise climbing to the top.  After this we headed back to Madrid so we could get into the Prado Museum during the free hours and before it closed.  This was the only place we went to that I had wished we had had more time for, but on the flip side we did get in for free! Again, after a long day of touring we were exhausted and headed back to the hostel to get a good nights rest.  Sunday morning we went to the local Flea Market, which was huge!  And definitely one of my favorite parts about Madrid.  We got there right around when the stands were opening up so we were able to avoid the massive crowds for a good portion of it.  I got a really pretty Arabic tapestry I'm excited to use in my apartment semester!  All in all, I'm glad I went to Madrid, but what I've been telling everyone that has asked... I never feel the need to return.