I apologize for my rather long break away from my blog. These last few weeks have been absolutely crazy, where do I begin? Ah yes, spring break.
This was the most incredible, inspiring, breathtaking spring break any one in the world could ask for. Once again, I am the luckiest girl in the world. Let me take you through the days:
Athens: After a very long day of traveling, we arrive in beautiful beautiful Athens. Our hotel has a view of the Acropolis, and we sat on the roof and watched the sunset over the Parthenon and kept screaming "OH MY GOSH ATHENS!!!!" The next day we traveled around town. We managed to visit the acropolis and the many stadiums and temples, scale a fence, save a turtle hiding in a cave, visit the Parthenon, take grace lessons from Caryatids, picnic on a fallen roman column, visit the Acropolis Museum and soak up all the ancient magic, and eat the most delicious Mousaka, Stuffed Vine Leaves, and Spinach Pie in the world.
Santorini: 3 hours of sleep and seven hours on a ferry later, we arrive in Paradise, also known as Oia, Santorini. Here we managed to make friends with a pack of dogs, rent a car and share a few seemingly near-death experiences on the cliffs of Santorini (ok... not quite near-death, we were being a little dramatic), climb a mountain that connects Oia to Fira, visit Red Beach and have it entirely to ourselves*, visit the artifact museum (guess who saw samples of Linear A!) and make an incredibly long-lasting relationship with our hotel owners Panos and Stavros. If anyone ever goes to Santorini, please look up "Oia Sunset" hotel, I have never felt more welcome and taken care of in my entire study abroad travel experience, and hugging Panos good-bye may or may not have brought a tear to all of our eyes. Santorini was pure magic.
*History Lesson!!: Santorini is an island in Greece known for its white houses with blue roofs. It is shaped like a doughnut with a, now inactive, volcano in the middle, meaning the entire island is almost completely covered with lava remains. Red beach is a great example of this where the red is rock that cooled and the beach sand is entirely black.
Syros: DETOUR! In Santorini, Panos called the ferry to check the time and we realized that our ferry to Mykonos was CANCELLED (bum bum bahhh). Panos being the wonderful man that he is, we nicknamed him Poseidon at this point, called various ferries and inns and scheduled us a lovely detour to the island Syros as a pitstop for a night before proceeding to Mykonos. Syros is a much lesser known island in Greece that is not at all touristic (meaning barely any English). We stayed in "new city" Plakia, and the next morning climbed about 10000 stairs to new city and found the most breathtaking view. The combination of the sun and the wind and the old widow kissing us all and saying "I Love Americans!" filled our hearts, we were actually a little disappointed to leave. (Not to mention the couple we stayed with were the sweetest people I've ever met, even if our entire conversations were a mixture of miming and "Efarstopoli!")
Mykonos: After finally arriving in Mykonos, we were welcomed by cooler-than expected weather and an abandoned city. We figured Mykonos was going to be our beach and party destination, and although we tried our hardest to pretend like it wasn't freezing, we didn't do too much of either. It rained the morning we left as we were eating breakfast, but it stopped and everything turned green and the sun was shining on the ocean (which was walking distance to our apartments) and it was a perfect goodbye. Mykonos, we forgive you.
Fake Athens/Varkiza: My friend Leah did an amazing job finding us the perfect R&R spot for our last night in Greece. We found a little shake that had the most incredible Gyros for 2 Euros and a lovely veggie stand where we piled up on snacks before retiring to our incredibly large, decorated, and colorful bachelor(ette) pad.
Istanbul: Istanbul was a very interesting experience. It wasn't quite as magical as Greece was, but the things we saw were just so incredible. We went to the Topkaki palace, checked out "new city", at the most delicious Bhaklavah I could even imagine, drank gallons of turkish tea, visited the Aya Sofya (so incredible. I can see why it's a seven wonder of the world), and the Blue Mosque which was so lavish and impressive we just stood there with our mouths hanging open trying to take in all the colors and the mosaics. The most yummus hummus I could ask for, and we managed to become pros at haggling at both the spice and the jewelry bazaars (gifts for everyone!).
More to continue later...
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