Gondola ride in Venice
Venice
Venice
Jill in Venice, Italy
Duomo (Florence, Italy)
Florence
Florence
Andi and me, in Florence
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Florence and Venice, Italy
Gondola ride in VeniceVenice
Venice
Jill in Venice, ItalyDuomo (Florence, Italy)
FlorenceFlorence
Andi and me, in Florence
Friday, May 22, 2009
Day 7, 8: Ferry from Corfu to Italy, Pompeii, and Rome
Pompeii!
On the ferry from Corfu to another port city in Greece, to catch our overnight ferry to Italy (with Andi).
Monday, May 18, 2009
Delphi, an Overnight Ferry, and Corfu: Days 3, 4
At the current moment, I'm recovering via Internet therapy in my hotel's lobby (free wi-fi, FINALLY) from my rather disorienting, yet very needed, nighttime nap (it's 10 pm here). When my roommates left, they took our only key to the room, which also powers the electricity in our room. Ergo, I would have been in the dark for a very long time had I not escaped to my current locale. Soooo I guess I'll update this little old blog.
Yesterday, we drove three hours from Athens to Delphi (pictures below -- sadly, I am discovering that no pictures do justice to the things I'm seeing here). We had a very enthusiastic tour guide, Penny. All I could feel the entirety of my time there was a sort of silent reverence for all those who had walked on the same steps long, long, longggg before (really, though, long ago). A history like Delphi's echoes in a way that really amplifies the beauty of the natural scenery.
After visiting Delphi, we drove an hour to a restaurant on the beach, and after eating (most of us got Greek salads, but the olives, alas, were not pitted), we trekked down to the beach for some much needed relaxation. All of the beaches here have not sand, but pebbles; and, once we got over how painful it was to walk on them, we sat ourselves along the shoreline. Funnily enough, the boys were the first to go in the [cold] water, and one of them stepped on a sea urchin. I'm still kind of laughing about that.
After the beach, we drove another hour to the port city from which our overnight ferry to Corfu departed. Unfortunately, we had to sit for four and a half hours waiting until we were able to board, and one of the girls got locked in the bathroom. To be honest, at this point, we were all extremely exhausted from traveling (and climbing up the Greek mountain that was Delphi), and we all were a bit cranky. I too was so exhausted to the point of delirium, and the overnight ferry proved to be a rather traumatic experience for me, due to the lack of spoken English amongst the ferry staff (aka, I was trying to get an extra key to my room, asked 5 people, no one understood me, they all started yelling at me in Greek, I started bawling because it was 12 am, a woman working happened to walk by and luckily speak English, she comforted me and then proceeded to ask me what my horoscope was as she handed me the holy key to my ferry room...AKA, closet [...apparently, Libras are sentimental -- who knew that about me?!?]).
We had to wake up at 6 am to exit the ferry, after which we drove about 30 minutes to our hotel on Corfu. Our hotel is all pink. The mosquitoes are really bad here, but that's the only thing. We took an island cruise this afternoon (it was six hours long, and I still feel like I'm on a boat), and neither words nor pictures can describe the scenery we saw.
I'm sitting here with my Fanta, talking on Skype with the girl that I met on my flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, missing loved ones, and basking in this once in a lifetime experience.
Love to all.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Athens, Greece: Days 1, 2
After three hours of a strenuous search for Internet with my newfound trip compadre, Claire, we finally settled in a surprisingly high-tech Internet Cafe in the Plaka District of Athens, Greece. (We had an interesting time attempting to adjust the language settings on our computers from Greek to English.) However, the efforts were worth the wait; after walking 45 minutes to find this place, and after uploading (very slowly) all of our photos from the trip, we're finally able to share what a great time we've been having with our family and friends.
This trip has been smooth sailing since the start. My flight from St. Louis to Chicago was uneventful, and my three-hour layover in Chicago went by quickly and painlessly. Even more painless was my nine-hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany; I was seated next to another girl my age, Alyssa, who attends Indiana University, also studies Arabic, and also had a layover in Frankfurt until her final flight to Austria. We spent the entire flight sharing music, comparing lives, and expressing excitement for our trips ahead. We napped for the last 4 hours of the flight, and felt very rested upon landing in Frankfurt at 9:55 am. Once in the airport, we rushed through Customs, and eagerly sat down at a cafe and ordered beer (got to love the European drinking age). Since we had both not eaten in quite awhile, we left the the cafe rather "buzzed" off of one Radler. (Pathetic).
My flight left soon after hers, and once at my gate, I met up with people from my trip and was comforted to know I wouldn't be a loner trying to find the entire group upon the arrival in Athens. I slept the entirety of the four-hour flight from Frankfurt to Athens, which shocked me greatly, but left me completely free from any sort of jet lag, since we arrive in Athens at 5:30 pm. After all gathering (and freshening up, considerably), we boarded a bus that drove us 30 minutes to our hotel in downtown Athens. Our hotel (the view from its terrace is below) is located right at the foot of the Acropolis.
During our first night, we had a quick logistical meeting and the proceeded to walk as a group into Plaka district, an area with many cute cafes, restaurants, and boutiques. We were all in great spirits, and everyone seemed eager to get along, which was a relief (you never know what's going to happen when you throw 35 virtual strangers together in a foreign country). I quickly made friends, most notably with Jacqueline and Claire, and we walked around for two hours, befriending one of the many local stray dogs that wouldn't stop following us for the entirety of our time walking (we named it "Gyro", after the Greek food Jacqueline accidentally dropped, which initiated the dog's affection with our group).
We were all tired from traveling and walking, so after going back to the hotel, a group of about fifteen of us sat on the hotel's terrace, drinking cheap wine we had landed for 4.50 Euros (split amongst all of us). After about an hour of socializing, I went back to my room, in which I'm rooming with two sisters from Texas named Melissa and Christina (pictured below).
This morning (day 2 in Athens), we were supposed to receive a 7:45am wake-up call; but, alas, this did not occur for any of us, and we all woke up in a rushed panic in order to make our mandatory 8:45 am meeting time. After meeting, we walked to the Acropolis, at which we spent two hours and took many pictures. The views from the Acropolis were absolutely stunning; we also witnessed a man stealing another woman's backpack and wallet (a big reality check for all of us, who then proceeded to carry our backpacks on the front of our bodies, increasing our American tourist image, to the dismay of our Grecian tour guide).
After visiting the Acropolis, we went to the Olympic Stadium (pictures below), as well as The Academy, the Greek University, and the giant library adjacent to both of these (which contains over 2000 original Antiquity manuscripts). We then walked even further downtown, into a nice shopping district, and then through a two-mile long flea market. When it was time to leave, we had already walked around for 6 straight hours; unfortunately, it took a small group of us yet another hour to find our way back to our hotel, and this involved me and another tour-member trying to communicate with the Greek Police, unsuccessfully. When we actually made it back to the hotel, everyone just wanted to sleep. Of course, I didn't want to sleep, so that's how I ended up here, in the Internet Cafe.
That's all for now. I'm having an amazing time, and we leave early in the morning for the island of Corfu, at which we will have two free days to romp about the beach. After that, we are traveling to Italy, and after that, we will be white water rafting in Austria. I feel very blessed to have all of these opportunities, and I am cherishing every moment of them (probably a little too much).
I love and miss all of you.
The Academy in downtown Athens, Greece. The two statues in front are of Socrates and Plato.
Jacqueline and me in front of the Acropolis.
This trip has been smooth sailing since the start. My flight from St. Louis to Chicago was uneventful, and my three-hour layover in Chicago went by quickly and painlessly. Even more painless was my nine-hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany; I was seated next to another girl my age, Alyssa, who attends Indiana University, also studies Arabic, and also had a layover in Frankfurt until her final flight to Austria. We spent the entire flight sharing music, comparing lives, and expressing excitement for our trips ahead. We napped for the last 4 hours of the flight, and felt very rested upon landing in Frankfurt at 9:55 am. Once in the airport, we rushed through Customs, and eagerly sat down at a cafe and ordered beer (got to love the European drinking age). Since we had both not eaten in quite awhile, we left the the cafe rather "buzzed" off of one Radler. (Pathetic).
My flight left soon after hers, and once at my gate, I met up with people from my trip and was comforted to know I wouldn't be a loner trying to find the entire group upon the arrival in Athens. I slept the entirety of the four-hour flight from Frankfurt to Athens, which shocked me greatly, but left me completely free from any sort of jet lag, since we arrive in Athens at 5:30 pm. After all gathering (and freshening up, considerably), we boarded a bus that drove us 30 minutes to our hotel in downtown Athens. Our hotel (the view from its terrace is below) is located right at the foot of the Acropolis.
During our first night, we had a quick logistical meeting and the proceeded to walk as a group into Plaka district, an area with many cute cafes, restaurants, and boutiques. We were all in great spirits, and everyone seemed eager to get along, which was a relief (you never know what's going to happen when you throw 35 virtual strangers together in a foreign country). I quickly made friends, most notably with Jacqueline and Claire, and we walked around for two hours, befriending one of the many local stray dogs that wouldn't stop following us for the entirety of our time walking (we named it "Gyro", after the Greek food Jacqueline accidentally dropped, which initiated the dog's affection with our group).
We were all tired from traveling and walking, so after going back to the hotel, a group of about fifteen of us sat on the hotel's terrace, drinking cheap wine we had landed for 4.50 Euros (split amongst all of us). After about an hour of socializing, I went back to my room, in which I'm rooming with two sisters from Texas named Melissa and Christina (pictured below).
This morning (day 2 in Athens), we were supposed to receive a 7:45am wake-up call; but, alas, this did not occur for any of us, and we all woke up in a rushed panic in order to make our mandatory 8:45 am meeting time. After meeting, we walked to the Acropolis, at which we spent two hours and took many pictures. The views from the Acropolis were absolutely stunning; we also witnessed a man stealing another woman's backpack and wallet (a big reality check for all of us, who then proceeded to carry our backpacks on the front of our bodies, increasing our American tourist image, to the dismay of our Grecian tour guide).
After visiting the Acropolis, we went to the Olympic Stadium (pictures below), as well as The Academy, the Greek University, and the giant library adjacent to both of these (which contains over 2000 original Antiquity manuscripts). We then walked even further downtown, into a nice shopping district, and then through a two-mile long flea market. When it was time to leave, we had already walked around for 6 straight hours; unfortunately, it took a small group of us yet another hour to find our way back to our hotel, and this involved me and another tour-member trying to communicate with the Greek Police, unsuccessfully. When we actually made it back to the hotel, everyone just wanted to sleep. Of course, I didn't want to sleep, so that's how I ended up here, in the Internet Cafe.
That's all for now. I'm having an amazing time, and we leave early in the morning for the island of Corfu, at which we will have two free days to romp about the beach. After that, we are traveling to Italy, and after that, we will be white water rafting in Austria. I feel very blessed to have all of these opportunities, and I am cherishing every moment of them (probably a little too much).
I love and miss all of you.
The Academy in downtown Athens, Greece. The two statues in front are of Socrates and Plato.
Claire, Jacqueline, and me in front of the Olympic Stadium.
Jacqueline and me in front of the Acropolis.
A beautiful view from the front of the Acropolis.
Another view from the Acropolis.
Jacqueline and I being ourselves...at the Acropolis.
Bryan, Jacqueline, Me, and Andi in front of the Acropolis.
A view from a hill next to the Acropolis, properly deemed the "best view of Athens." None of these pictures do it justice, however.
Me, being American, at the Acropolis.
This is our hotel's terrace. Absolutely surreal.
Our whole group on the first night in Plaka.
Claire, Melissa, Jacqueline, Christina, Me, Alana, and Kelsey during the first night in Plaka.
Another view from the Acropolis.
Jacqueline and I being ourselves...at the Acropolis.
Bryan, Jacqueline, Me, and Andi in front of the Acropolis.
A view from a hill next to the Acropolis, properly deemed the "best view of Athens." None of these pictures do it justice, however.
Me, being American, at the Acropolis.
This is our hotel's terrace. Absolutely surreal. 
Our whole group on the first night in Plaka.
Claire, Melissa, Jacqueline, Christina, Me, Alana, and Kelsey during the first night in Plaka.
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