santorini sunsets

I left on Wednesday, May 2 for the Greek island of Santorini.

Colleen and I had to take a separate flight from the others because of a scheduling error. We left Thessaloniki around 6:30 pm and arrived in Athens at 8 after a half hour long flight. We waited around, chatting and catching up until the others, Steph, Sarom, Katina, Kelsey, and Steph's BF Justin (who is visiting from the US). They all arrived at 12:30. We waited for them with a sign that said: "Mah Biddies" outside the exit area for an hour and they didn't show. Colleen and I were worried but we figured that maybeeee they exited in a different area. We fell asleep on some black leather couches outside a coffee shop and had an uneasy sleep until 5 am. We woke up at 5 am dazed and confused and woozy on Benedryll to make the uncomfortable sleep easier. We found everyone else upstairs sleeping on some chairs and we woke them up and headed to our gate for another half hour flight.

We were picked up from the Santorini gate as the sun was rising over the sea, true natural beauty. Stelios from our hotel, Stelio's Place, picked us up in a big van and took us along the winding road to the other side of the island where our hotel was located. Since check-in wasn't until 11 am we lounged and slept, somewhat peacefully, in the lounge chairs by the pool. We checked in at 11, threw on bathing suits, and headed to the black sand beach which was less than a 60 second walk from our hotel. The black sand was beautiful, but extra-hot and wasn't smooth like sand, but more like small stones that hurt to walk on. We headed straight for some umbrellaed lounge chairs and ordered strawberry daiquiris and margaritas. They were damn expensive, 7 euro each, but it was made with a basket of real strawberries and it was a real treat. She brought out free vodka and strawberry juice shots for us as well. It was nice to have a little "warm-up" to our jam backed trip. After laying there for an hour we took a 3 minute walk to an ATV rental place and paid 6 euros each to rent ATVs for the entire day.

I think I was the only one who had ever ATV'd before, so everyone else was super duper excited whereas I was excited, but not nearly at their level. Sarom and I drove together and it was great to explore the island with the wind blowing through our hair. We drove to a little outcropping and took some photos and then we headed to the red sand beach.

The red sand beach was quite the hike to get to. A group of elderly Americans stopped us on our hike and said: "You shouldn't be doing this, you're wearing flip flops and skirts." But we did it. Oh yes we did. Again, the sand was more like pebbles but it was gorgeous and we hung around there for a little bit, snapping pictures and looking at pretty rocks and stones.

Once we got bored of the red sand beach, we took our ATV's over to "The lighthouse" which is on the absolute tip of the crescent moon shaped island. We hiked down the rocks and sat by the sea, pensively and passively thinking and enjoying the natural beauty. We watched the sun set over the water and we were all taken aback by it's beauty.

We were all starving so we headed to a restaurant and ordered ridiculously expensive food that wasn't all that great, but they served tomato balls and cucumber balls which have quickly become everyone's favorite appetizer, excluding tzatziki of course!

We headed back to our hotel after dinner and showered and crashed at 9:30 at night, we were all far too exhausted to resist sleep any longer.

The next day we woke up around 9 and headed off to an "all day tour of the island." We took a boat with about 60-70 other people and we traveled to the island's volcano and summitted it! The tour guide was an incredible man who spoke greek, dutch, english, german, italian, french, and spanish! He's an artist as well as a tour guide as well. He was born in Amsterdam and both of his parents are italian so he grew up speaking dutch and italian and he picked up all the other languages "by luck" he says. The volcano wasn't that pretty, but the view from the top was. It's cool because it's an active volcano and scientists predict that there's a 90% chance it'll erupt over the next 20 years. Yikes!

After the volcano hike, we drove to the natural hot springs and a lot of people dove in and enjoyed them. Me, Katina, and Steph stayed back on the boat because we weren't in the mood to get muddy for only a 20 minute stop & swim. So after that, we drove to a mini-island and rode donkey's to the top of the island. Finally, I got to ride a donkey! It was a bump-bump-bumpy ride and I wasn't expecting to be thrashed around so much. I felt like kind of a jerk because the donkey was obviously struggling to get up the steep, steep mountain (as were all of the other donkey's too! I'm not making a comment on my weight, just on the difficulty of climbing a mountain with a person on your back!). We all felt guilty for putting the donkey's through so much stress and strain but it was an experience. And you can't go to Greece and NOT ride a donkey, you know?

We ate lunch at the top of the mountain. We ate on the outdoor deck that overlooked the sea, and again, we were stunned by the beauty of the world. The waiter asked me what I studied in college and I said art and he told me I should paint him. How "Sisterhood of the Travling Pants" finding a Greek guy to paint (Santorini is even where the "Greece" part of the movie was filmed!) Anyways, it was a joke. Lunch was decent but horribly overpriced. That's what happens when you're the only restaurant on top of a tiny Greek island mountain that only houses around 70 people, you can charge whatever the hell you want. Tourists WILL eat your food.

Once we were done with lunch, we heaved ourselves down the mountain and it was quite the trek down. We were very grateful for those donkey's getting us up there. We took the boat to the island of Oia which just may be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever, ever seen. When you think of Greece, this is the island you picture. Blue and white houses sprinkle the cliff sides and the streets were all classy, small, clean, and pretty. Oia was the manifestation of beauty itself.

We did a little shopping and grabbed slouvlalki and watched the sunset over the water from the Oia Castle. Before the sunset, we saw two things that were extrordinarily surprising.

1. I went to pet a cat near the edge of the castle and was joined by a Japanese guy with a bag full of cat treats and a little feather-cat-toy. I said to him: "wow you must really love cats." He said: "No, I actually don't like them at all. I'm here as part of the team filming a documentary on cats." SAY WHAT?! In Japan, there's this one photographer that takes pictures of cats and they are apparently really successful in Japan so he's here photographing cats. They just came from Istanbul and are heading off to Italy in a week doing nothing but photographing cats. Cool but really strange.

2. A man fell off the edge of the castle and fell 80 feet. I didn't see the fall but I saw the aftermath. I saw his friends and a handful of other concerned individuals rush down the steps to his aid. I watched him get carried up the steps and I saw his blood stains on the path to the bus area. Luckily he was alright, just concussed and bloody and with a broken nose. It's a miracle he didn't die or wasn't more seriously injured. It was a real and true miracle.

After all that drama we watched the sun peacefully slip under the sea. I know these photos don't do it an ounce of justice, but here they are nonetheless.

The next day we woke up casually and had a greek yogurt and fruit breakfast and was carted off to the airport by Stelios for our flight to Mykonos.

host family dinner

This happened before spring break, and I really meant to blog about it but I just didn't find the time. It was right after Jenna left and I was so set on blogging about my wonderful weekend with her that I spaced on mentioning my host family dinner. Anyways, through my school, ACT, we had the option to sign up for a "host family dinner" at one of the ACT faculty's house. The idea of it was to get an authentic feel for Greek home cooking and for a Greek's home in general. The ever-so-amazing Efi requested that Lawrence (LA), Gogos, and I attend dinner at her home. Efi is the study abroad coordinator at ACT and we all call her "Big Mama" because she's like a mother to us study abroaders. She's positively amazing and has a huge heart of gold!

My host family dinner was absolutely incredible. Getting to visit a Greek family's home, full of hospitality and warmth, greatly contributed to my study abroad experience. The food was prepared with love and tasted more authentic and delicious than any other meal I've had in Greece. Efi spent 2 whole days cooking for us and the care she took preparing it was tangible. Not only did my host family have a beautiful home, but they had beautiful hearts. I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to spend an evening with a Greek family, enjoying laughter, warmth, and true Greek "philo-xenia."

Efi prepared a multiple course meal and piled our plates high with food. When we asked for seconds she filled our entire plate up again. It was like Thanksgiving but 20x more difficult because the food was thick, hardy, and heavy. No mashed potatoes or stuffing to lessen the load. It was all heavy beef and eggplant, tzatziki, two salads, bead, cabbage/carrot dish, etc, etc. I have seriously never ever EVER eaten that much food in my life. After I was stuffed PAST the brim, she served us ice cream and cream-puff pastries from her favorite restaurant in town. Efi's daughter Athena and her husband joined us for dinner as well. After ice cream and pastries they all took us out for coffee. Oh dear mother of god. I have never been that full in my entire life. Seriously.

beach weekend in Halkidiki

This weekend I ventured to Halkidiki with a handful of other ACT students. There was 11 of us staying at Alex Dimi-Simeo's beach house. Alex is Greek and is an ACT student. He leads the volleyball team and is dating Molly, an American girl in my program. We caught the 10 am bus up to Halkidiki on Saturday morning and passed out on the bus. It's only an hour bus ride and a round trip ticket costs 15 euros. So we got a 1 hour nap on the bus and then Alex picked us up from the bus stop. There was 7 of us that took the bus and 4 people had driven up with Alex the night before, so we joined the rest of the group at Alex's place. Unfortunately, it started raining as soon as we arrived at the grocery store to pick up some snacks and drinks so we spent the entire day playing drinking games and "spinning yarns" (telling stories). We took a 3 hour community nap from 4-7 and it was the best thing ever. We all crashed all over the house, on couches, futons, beds, any where and everywhere. Usually, I'm a terrible, terrible napper, but I just felt so drained and I put my head phones in with some Florence + the Machine and I was good to go. I know I didn't get any deep sleep but it felt good to drift in and out of sleep for a few hours. I was content with my good music and my couch cushions on the ground. Once we woke up we all were hungry and we went out to dinner at the Italian restuarant. Since tourist season hasn't officially started yet, there is only 2 restaurants open in the entire town: a gyro restaurant and an Italian restaurant. Since we had gyros for lunch we opted for the Italian. It took us over 2 hours to be served because they were so short staffed but my creamy gnocchi was delicious. We were all super hungry so as soon as they brought our food we scarfed it down. We went back to Alex's and played "Dare or Dare" and "Up and Down the River" and "Cheers Governor!" It was a night filled with laughter and silliness.


The next day we woke up at 11 and headed straight to the beach. It was a beautiful 80 degree day full of sunshine and a light breeze. The water is a beautiful aquamarine and teal color that gets darker and darker as it approaches the horizon. It's the Aegean Sea and it's actually salt water. The water was still really cold but we all ventured in to it periodically throughout the day. We stayed on the beach from 11 to 5:30 only leaving it once to pick up a pork souvlaki. I was smart and lathered up on sunscreen and spent all 6.5 hours laying on a beach chair. I had my headphones plugged in and was content to just lay and bask in the Greek sunshine. I'm not usually such a vegetable at the beach. I usually get antsy after laying there and doing nothing for over half an hour, but not today. I have no idea why I was so exhausted and content to just lay there lackadaisically in the sun, but I was. And it was the perfect day for it.

from budapest, with love.

Oh Budapest, what a wonderful, wonderful city you are.

We got off of the plane and stumbled to our hostel. We all were exhausted and tired and we had to take a train then walk 15 minutes to our hostel and heave our heavy bags up four flights of stares. And here's the catch-- we're at the wrong hostel. We were at Carpe Noctem not Carpe Noctem Vitae. Whoops. So we had to turn right around and carry our heavy bags DOWN four flights of stairs and then walk another 10 minutes. Joy. When we found our actual hostel, a lingerie store is directly in front of it. We were a little weirded out but as soon as we rode the elevator to the "pent-house" top-floor, to where our hostel was located, we felt like we were entering a home. Carpe Noctem Vitae is the best hostel I've ever been to and probably will ever go to in my life. It was so chill, relaxed, laid-back. I felt like I was home. There is graffiti art covering the walls and comfy couches everywhere. People are chilling on the roof-deck, playing guitar and sipping beers. There's people playing darts and video-games and just napping on bean-bags. The people who work there are all bare-foot and wearing beachy attire. The people who all work there are travelers as well. They all loved Budapest so much they couldn't leave it. And that's why they work there, because they simply can't leave. I felt like I was home. I felt warm, safe, happy. It was the best feeling in the world. We checked in and got settled in our 15 person room, which was empty of bodies at the time but stuff was strewn everywhere. So we set our stuff down and headed out to a burrito restaurant we passed on our walk.

Our burritos were all incredible. I was such a happy, happy camper eating mexican food. Wow,  I forgot how much I missed it. The guy ahead of me was extremely attractive so I made a comment about how excited I was for a burrito. We got to talking for a bit and he asked me where I was staying, he noticed my wristband (the hostel's all give you wristbands so you remember the address of the hostel and the key-code password to get in) and he laughed and held up his own wrist. We were staying at the same hostel. Little did I know that not only was he staying in the same hostel but the same room as me. He was leaving that morning though, at 4 am for his flight. His name is Dylan and he's from South America, near Johannesburg. But right now he's teaching Athletics in the UK. Talk about a guy, right?

Anyways, we happily at our burritos and then headed back to the hostel to rest, shower, and recoop. We went out that night with our hostel. Carpe Noctem Vitae is one of the 5 biggest party hostels in Budapest. When we decided to stay there weeks ago, I was grumpy. I imagined a party-hostel to be a bunch of fist-pumping tool bags who just want to get shit-faced and party 24/7. Little did I know it would be this chill, relaxed fun place. I'm so happy we decided to stay here. Anyways, we went to a little bar called Morrison's where we ordered mixed drinks and sang Karaoke and danced. The bar was beneath ground level and had 4 different areas, one for the bar itself, one for Karaoke, one for dancing, and one for standing/chilling. We grabbed a table with our new friends from our room: LAD, Trevor, and Chris and a bunch of other people joined in on our table fun. It was awesome. Everyone I met was friendly and happy and I enjoyed the conversation thoroughly. We ordered mixed drinks which was such a wonderful change of pace. We've mainly been sticking to beers because it's so much cheaper. A beer in Greece is around 2-3 euros but a mixed drink is between 8-12 euros.  Here, in Budapest, it was happy-hour so all mixed drinks was the equivalent of 2-3 euros. Heavens to Betsy was that such a treat! We drank Mai Tai's and Mojitos and we all were content. Dylan was there and we ended up chatting quite a bit. I ordered Kelsey and I a "Jellyfish" drink, not realizing it was going to be the single most disgusting drink in the world. Ughh. But other than the Jellyfish, everything was delicious and it was a WONDERFUL night.

In the morning, we woke up around 9 because everyone in the room was talking. That was a bummer. We all showered and got ready for the day and headed out. LAD, Trevor, and Chris all joined us for round number two of burritos. It's crazy that LAD is named LAD, since It's my initials too. His name isn't actually LAD, it's Leighton Allen something-starting-with-a-D. Anyways, pretty cool. Those three guys are all from the East coast and are living in Brussels working on perfecting a business plan for a healthy-fast-food-esque-asian-restaurant. They're all in their early twenties and they are absolutely, positively hilarious. It is so wonderful to have them join us for the afternoon because their sense of humor is greatly greatly appreciated. Since I've been around the same four people for almost 2 weeks now, any body new added to the group is a treat. I love the four people I'm traveling with, not many complaints there, but anyone new truly is a treat. Anyways, we ended up splitting up from LAD, Trevor, and Chris and they headed off to the Budapest bathes and we went to House of Terror. The House of Terror is a museum that memorializes the victims of the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes in Hungary during the 20th Century. The actual house itself is where the torture chambers were located as well as the headquarters of both dictatorial regimes. The museum was very artistically displayed and was beautiful and terrifying to walk through. However, not much of the museum was in English so I didn't feel that I was able to get the "full-effect" of it. However, looking at the torture chambers was truly terrifying. Each chamber got worse and worse as you walked on. There was rooms with no light at all, rooms that were the sizes of closets with nails in the walls, rooms with 3 inches of water covering the floor, rooms with ceilings so low you could only be on all-fours. Now that was terrifying.

Once we were all finished up at the House of Terror, we headed over to Heroes Square to check out the monument there and then we went off to the Budapest Baths. 

The Budapest was nothing like the Turkish Baths. There was no sauna, no massage, no anything like it. The Budapest bath was simply a warm pool where people were sitting in and around. Personally, I thought it was a waste of time and money but the water was warm and it was sunny so I couldn't complain too badly. I just think I wasn't quite ready to be in a swim suit yet. After eat-eat-eating all spring break long I'm not feeling all that great about my body. But, I know I shouldn't be overly concerned with that but I'm a 21 year old girl! Of course that's a concern of mine. Anyways, we laid in the water and by it for a few hours and then headed back to the hostel.

We ate dinner at the hostel because we were eating "family-style" that night. One of the staff was preparing dinner and we all were chipping in a bit of cash (about 3 euro) and we all were sharing a meal together. How cute is that?!? Hawaii, the name of one of the staff, was making dinner and she was preparing chili over rice. It was a little bland but overall, delicious. Home-cookin? Haven't had that in awhile. 

Tonight is the booze cruise night. We all had signed up for it and we were pumped. We started the night off at a bar so we could order inexpensive drinks and start the night a little earlier than the boat was prepared to take off. Kelsey, Steph, and I all ordered only 1 drink: A shot of Golden Tequlia. Tequila and I are not friends. We don't even make eye contact. I'm not a fan at all. However, this was the best shot of Tequila I had ever taken in my life. You wanna know why? Throw away your salt and limes my friends, and pick up an orange and a dash of cinnamon. Now that's the way to take a Tequila shot.

LAD, Trevor, Chris and Me!

Walking to the boat was about a 10 minute walk and I walked with Hawaii and basically asked her about her life story. She said she was traveling europe alone and randomly selected Budapest off of a recommendation from someone she met on her travels. Once she arrived at Carpe Noctem Vitae, she knew she just couldn't leave it. She cancelled her next flight and asked to stay and work there and they accepted her. She's a fiery red head and has some sass to her. She's wearing a cow-girl hat and her attitude on her sleeve. She's not a bitch by any means, she's hilarious and chill and a great human being all around. It was a great walk and a great conversation.

So we all piled onto the boat and grabbed our bottles of cheap champagne. The boat passed all the major sites so we got to cheers our individual bottles of champagne to each site as we passed it. I met a few guys from Spain, a few from New Zealand, and a few from Australia. How awesome to meet people from all over the world and to get to talk easily and fluently with them with absolutely no language barrier? It was awesome. The sites were beautiful and I enjoyed being on the water with great people.

The next day the boys split off from the girls because they were too tired and wanted to to hang back at the hostel. We went to a little open air market and we ate some potato pancakes, sausage, and treats. We bought a few souvenirs and enjoyed the sunshine. We went for a walk along the water and took a few pictures. We found some steps and sat out in the sun for awhile. You know how much we love steps!

We then walked back towards the center and passed a Rickshaw driver who asked us if we wanted a tour. Normally, I would have ignored him and walked right ahead but Kelsey stopped and asked: How much? He said 20 euros she said, how about 15? And he said: sure. So we went for an hour long Rickshaw ride. Ben, the Rickshaw driver, was the greatest. He was in his early 20s and spoke English incredibly well. He was very knowledgable about the city and showed us Parliament, St. Stephan's Basilica, and other great buildings. I was so happy to be riding in a Rickshaw with Kels and Steph and the wind in my hair. I was just simply happy.

When we went back to the hostel, we grabbed the guys up and went off to a "traditional hungarian meal" at a restaurant that the hostel strongly recommended. It was an artsy, comfortable restaurant with low lighting and books lining the walls. I loved it. I had mint lemonade and beef goulash. The goulash was a little salty and nothing special really, but it was "traditional." So I gave it a go.

The guys went out with the hostel again to the bars but Kelsey, Steph, and I decided to stay in and catch up on some sleep. We were having to wake up around 8 to catch our flight and we are all worn down. Everyone didn't head out until around midnight so we all sat on the bean bags and chatted with fellow hostel stayers. I chilled out on the roof-top-deck for awhile with a handful of guys. Guys from America, from New Zealand, from Liverpool, from Australia, from Italy. I was the only girl out there so naturally, all attention was diverted towards me. The all asked me where I was from, where I was studying, why I picked Greece, what I was studying, etc. It was fun to get to tell my story and then to listen to theres. We all were sipping wine and beer and enjoying a beautiful sunset. One guy was playing guitar and they all tried to convince me to sing for them. Well, that was sooo not happening. But we talked and talked and I loved it. What a cool thing, to be in a foreign place amongst new friends, content and happy.

We caught our plane with no problems other than our bags being 5 kilos too heavy so we had to super-duper-cram our carry-ons. We headed back to Thessaloniki and were all sad to be leaving Budapest but so happy to be returning to Thess. When we landed and grabbed a cab, I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy to be back home. It was an amazing journey, a complete and total whirlwind. 5 countries in 15 days. That's a whirlwind trip for you. Not only did I learn about other cultures and other cities, but I learned about myself. I can feel myself changing, growing, shifting. It's a wonderful thing to have your eyes and heart opened in such a way.

I was ecstatic to have had such adventures galavanting all over Europe with great friends, but I was exhausted and ready for my own room, my own shower, and for a chicken souvlaki. The minute Kels and I set our bags down we headed out to get a chicken souvlaki. Here's our happy pictures of being home.