Santorini!

After we spent 2 days in Athens we made our way to Santorini by ferry, it was a 5 hour ride. There were so many strange people on the ferry and the smells weren't too pleasant either while we were trying to get some sleep. One nice thing though was watching the sunset on the back of the boat. We were so sick of traveling once we got to Santorini, but thankfully our hostel owner was waiting for us at the port, that was so sweet of him because it was midnight! He took the 3 of us in his van and we trekked our way up the cliffs of Santorini to our hostel, Villa Manos. The view was so cool, even at night, we couldn't wait to wake up in the morning. When we arrived to Villa Manos we were greeted by Poppy, the other owner, it was a family owned hostel. She was so stereotypical Greek; she had long black hair, tan, of course, and welcomed us like we were family, they even gave us all a glass of red Santorini Wine. They also told us all about the things we could do in Santorini, we were too excited! As they took us to our room, the told us we were being upgraded to a nicer room with a balcony...they just kept surprising us! We went to bed happy that night :)







Our first morning in Santorini started out with breakfast at the hostel, which consisted of eggs, coffee, OJ, toast, and fried cucumber. It was delicious, but not sure it was worth 5 Euros. After breakfast we decided to lay out by the pool at the hostel for a few hours, great start to an awesome vacation. After laying out for a while we were all getting hungry so we decided to go to Perissa Beach which was one of the black beaches in Santorini. There were a ton of little cafes lining the beach, so we picked one and ate a small lunch with a cocktail, then walked along the black sand beach and took pictures.

We then made our way back to the hostel to get ready for the night. Once we were ready and looking pretty, we went to Fira, it was the main city in Santorini, because it has the best view of the Caldera (the volcano and water along the coast). We went to a restaurant that Poppy recommended to us, it was an outside restaurant, it was nice to sit outside in the cool summer air. We ordered a bottle of wine and stuffed fried tomato fritters to start. We all decided to get traditional Greek dishes. I ordered meatballs with spicey sauce and rice, Kelly ordered a whole fish (which she had to clean), and Shane ordered Chicken Souvlaki. It was really funny because when the waiter (Claudio) came with our food he asked Kelly if she could clean her fish alone, but she answered yes she could, although extremely hesitant, Claudio then sensed her unsureness and taught her how to clean the fish, thank god he helped or she would have eaten some nasty stuff that she shouldn't have. Claudio even had Kelly eat the fish eyes! It was so cool seeing how you clean the fish before eating it. We finished our amazing meal and then went to the pub called Murphy's, named after me of course ;) We had a great time there, there were also a ton of Americans there. After the pub we took a taxi home to Villa Manos.

The next day we decided to lay out again for a few hours and then we decided to rent four wheelers to take around the island. It was definitely the best day we had in Santorini! We took the fourwheelers from the north part of the island, to the southern part of the island, Santorini is shaped like a crescent so it was a lot of area to cover in just one day. It was so nice being able to drive again! Especially since it has been since last August that I have driven! We pretty much saw all of the island on the four wheelers. We made a wrong turn on the last part of our journey, we meant to go see the light house on the southern tip of the island but somehow ended up on this huge cliff overlooking the entire island! We weren't upset with it though, it was the best view ever and the sun was beginning to go down. It was the best day ever, and you will get a better idea of how it was through the videos I took...they are a ton better, it's hard to explain everything that I saw that day, it was beautiful.

Athens!!!

Kelly and I with our Mythos...the popular Greek beer
Acropolis at night
Fried eggplant and delicious Pitas!
One of my many Chicken Souvlaki meals!
Crowded street with all of the Greek Restaurants
First night in Athens!
There were really no rules on the road...weird. So packed all the time! I don't know how people drive here!
Sick huge steriod pidgeon courting another pidgeon! Gross!
Fish Market!
Kelly and I at the Square before going up to the Acropolis! (you can see the Acropolis in the background)

We had a week long break during the first week of June so my friends Kelly, Shane and I decided to go to Greece! It was the one trip I knew I had to do! I have been wanting to go to Greece for years after seeing the pictures of the different islands and of course I wanted to see the Parthenon in Athens. We set out on June 1st at about 7 pm to get to Stuttgart because our plane left from the Stuttgart Airport at like 6 am, so we would have to be traveling all night/day long, it was such a long trip to get to Athens, but we finally got there! We found our hostel once we got in and we all took a long nap. That night we asked the people at the hostel where would be a good place to eat some traditional Greek food? They told us to walk down to where the Acropolis is and there was a long street of all Greek Restaurants, but before we left for dinner we had to get our free
'welcome drink' that the hostel offered us, it was Ouzo, if you have ever had Ouzo, it is really strong and not too good, it tastes like black licorice; similar to Jaegermeister, ew! But we didn't care, we were on vacation in GREECE!
We finally made it to Athens! In the airport
On the plane going to Athens....we look pretty scrubby.

We finally got down to all of the restaurants, and it was hard to choose one because they all looked the same and all of the waiters were heckeling us to come to THEIR restaurant. We finally picked one and we all ordered Chicken Souvlaki, it was soo delicious, it was basically marinated chicken on a kebab with fresh pita bread, and for an appetizer we tried fried eggplant with tomatoes, it was my first time trying eggplant, I didn't like it that much, but you have to try everything once! After dinner we just walked around a little bit and took some pictures of the Parthenon at night, it was gorgeous. We then went back to our hostel and had a few beers and went to bed.

On Wednesday we woke up an hour late for the hostel free breakfast, because I forgot to switch my clock an hour ahead since we were in a different time zone! We all got ready and headed down to the Acropolis to climb it and see the Parthenon; just a side note, the weather was about 85-90 degrees and we had to climb this massive hill to get to the Parthenon, easy to say I was sweating my ass off. While we were walking up our mouths were hitting the floor the entire time, the view was amazing and we could hardly believe that we were in Greece!! We stopped and took a ton of pictures, by the end of the Athens trip I had a 2GB memory card full of pictures and videos...haha. I take so many pictures, I bet I probably have about 5,000 pictures from this year already. Ok back to Greece, we walked all the way up to the Parthenon and it was breathtaking, we also hadn't realized how HUGE Athens as a city was, it stretched farther than we could see. Also another side note, we asked a lot of Greeks what we should see in Athens and all of them said the only cool thing there was the Parthenon, and they were definitely right. Athens as a city was one of the dirtiest cities I had ever been to, and the people there were beyond creepy, the men would not stop whistling, winking, or yelling things at Kelly and I, it really got on our nerves, but the area by the Acropolis was amazing and very clean, probably because it is so touristy. Another really weird thing about Athens is the amount of stray cats and dogs that roam the streets, it was horrible, they were everywhere!! And there were also waaaay too many pidgeons for my liking, any of my friends that know me, know that I hate birds and especially pidgeons, I don't know how many times I have been pooped on by them.

The walk to the Acropolis was really strange, because it didn't make me feel like I was in Greece, there were so many homeless people, trash everywhere, various disgusting smells, and weird people, I thought Athens was definitely a place you only need to spend about 1-2 days exploring. One cool thing though besides the Parthenon were all of the Food Markets; we got a lot of fruit at one market, and we also stumbled across a fish market, I actually went into it while Kelly and Shane waited, there were sooo many fresh fish in there, including octopus, squid, shark, and lots of other weird things. Athens and Greece in general has a very nice seafood selection since they are right on the Aegean Sea.Kelly and I with a huge Gladiator shoe
Us at a cool theater, they still use it for concerts
Me on the steps up to the Parthenon!
The PARTHENON! we were going crazy at this point
me in front of the Parthenon
Kelly, Shane and I in front of the Parthenon
Of course this wouldn't be complete without a happy jumping picture!
Us and the view of Athens, you can also see a little bit of the Aegean Sea far in the distance
JUMP!


THIS IS SPARTA!!! (reference to the movie 300...if you haven't seen it, then this picture is probably pretty dumb.)
ruins...
beautiful Parthenon
self timer
ME !
Us!
The view of the Acropolis from the huge rock we sat on
Kelly and I
Lunch on our last day in Athens

After we got done soaking up all of the history and the views on the Acropolis we went and climbed this huge rock overlooking Athens and the Acropolis, it was nice just to sit and relax and take it all in. I think that was one of my favorite moments from the trip, and I also LOVED all of the Greek food that I tried. The next day we didn't do a whole lot around Athens because we had to leave that night at 7 for Santorini, we took a ferry to get there. During the day we just shopped around for souvenirs and ate lunch, it was a nice relaxing day to end our Athens stay.

I hope you guys love all of the pictures and videos that I took. I made a conscious effort to take more videos because they are pretty fun to see, sometimes better than pictures. Anyway I love all of you and I will be home in about a month! How crazy is that to say?! I still can hardly believe I have been gone for a year! Right now we are about 3 weeks until the semester is over and I have so much to do before I'm done! Ugh it's extremely stressful, but I know it will all get done, it always does. I can't wait for the 4th of July next weekend, we are planning on having a cookout by the lake here, unfortunately I'm sure there won't be fireworks, but we will have fun! Hope you guys are doing great, miss you and love you ALL!

Tschuess!

21st Birthday and happenings during the month of MAY!

Hey so I definitely did not get to totally update my blog yet because I have been busy with presentations and writing a paper for my European Union class. I leave tomorrow for GREECE!!! I am sooo incredibly excited for it, it is the one trip that I HAD to do here, I have wanted to go to Greece for so long! My friends Kelly and Shane are going with me, we are going to Athens first for a couple days, and then taking a 5 hour ferry to Santorini. We will be gone until June 9th! I have that paper due June 9th, so that's why I have been busy writing that, ugh. It's really weird getting used to having school during the summer, definitely not something I want to do again! Anyway I thought I would at least delay the rest of my blogs to tell what has been going on during the month of May.
The month started out with my 21st Birthday cookout! Of course I had to dress up in my new dress from H&M, gosh I am going to miss that store when I get home...the closest one is in Chicago. My friends and I had a cookout by the lake/pond that is right behind my apartment, it was an awesome day too, well until it started raining right as we were packing everything up. Everyone my age usually goes all out for their 21st, but since I have been able to drink since I got to Germany, it really wasn't as big of a deal as it is for everyone else back in the states. We had a great time though. We cooked a ton of Kebabs and corn and had lots of yummy desserts! I was happy to have people come and help me celebrate since I didn't have my family there this year. Anyways here are some pictures from my 21st Birthday!















HAHA, lots of jumping pictures :) It was a really fun day!

The rest of May has kind of been a blur...I haven't done too much, just been hanging outside a lot since the weather has been in the 70s and 80s :) I have been pretty busy with school, presentations, and papers to write. I also have been anxiously waiting for this Greece trip the whole month! Laying on a beach and doing all kinds of fun summer stuff for a week, who wouldn't be excited for that!! I need my vitamin D :) It was way too long of a winter. Anyway I will definitely make sure I get this blog totally updated when I return from Greece, I know I will want all of these blogs for years to come! I hope everyone is doing great back at home...it is sooo crazy for me to think I only have 2 months left here from today! So surreal, it seems like yesterday that I hopped on that plane in Moline and jetted off to Germany! It has been the best experience of my life, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love you all so much and I hope you guys still read this blog and at least look at pics!!! Miss you guys a ton!

Auf Wiedersehen!