Home Again

So ends the greatest spring break of my entire life.

Lydia and I got up at 7 Friday to meet Erika and Kelsey in the Villa Manos parking lot. The four of us drove to the red beach (which was only about ten minutes from where Bethany and I almost drove over a cliff looking for the beach Wednesday) and parked in a church parking lot near the entrance to the trail down to the beach.

The trail was much longer and more treacherous than we had anticipated. There was a lot of sliding down gravel hills and climbing over potentially loose boulders.

Beware of falling rocks and abrupt drops into the
Aegean Sea.

Kelsey, who had decided to wear flip-flops, opted out of the whole thing about halfway down the cliff. Lydia, Erika and I, continued slowly on until we made it to the red beach.

When we got to the beach, the three of us sat in the lava rocks for a while and just watched the waves rolling in. Then we explored.

There were four doors resting along the beach and built into the side of the cliff. I went up to the first door to test if it was open (it wasn't) and to peek in through the broken window.

There was a dwelling inside the mountain.

Exterior.

Interior.

I was very excited by this and called Erika and Lydia over to investigate while I ran down the beach looking in each of the other doors. In addition to this room, I found a kitchen with a countertop, sink, table, shelves, and refrigerator, and a storage room of some sort. The fourth door had planked over windows so I could not see inside.

I also found a house around the bend of the cliff, out of sight from where we had originally been sitting on the beach.

The house was rectangular and half carved into the mountain/half built up with cinderblocks. There were stairs leading to the roof, which I climbed, and found there was an entrance to the house from the roof as well as from the beach. Both doors were locked, however, so I crossed the roof to stairs on the other side of the house, climbed down, and found myself in a little garden. Behind the garden, a boat sat covered for the winter and an outhouse stood just beyond that.

On the side of the house facing the garden, I found a door covered with Greek writing. If you can read this, let me know, because I'm very curious about these beach dwellings.

Erika and Lydia didn't join me in exploring this building. Instead, they sat on the beach and waited patiently until it was time for us to get Kelsey and make our way back to Fira. Their loss.

In Fira, Kelsey and Erika showed us their hotel room (nicer than ours, but ours had a better location), then Lydia and I shared a chocolate strawberry crepe for breakfast at a little crepe stand across from where we rented the quads. We returned the quads after breakfast, then sat in the main square until our four roommates arrived.

The six of us walked down the donkey trail from the other day to the port below. There we found a ship docked and ready to take us on the volcano tour we booked earlier in the week.

The cruise to the volcano was short, but lots of fun. The ride was beautiful and we got to go up to the top deck of the ship and take photos. When we docked at the volcano, the ship captain helped us ashore and told us to be back on the boat in an hour.

I felt like we were on the moon. Everything in front of us was hills and craters of red and black volcanic rock. We just started walking, climbing up hills and sliding down into gullies, being careful not to fall over the edge of anything because there would be no getting out once one of us was down a volcano hole.

After an hour, the ship blew its horn and we all scrambled back down through the ashes to the port.

The next stop on the tour was at the volcanic hot springs about ten minutes cruise from the volcano. Here we were given half an hour to either lounge on the boat and enjoy the day, or jump into the icy water to swim twenty meters to the hot springs.

I chose to stay on the boat, laying on the bow listening to the waves and seagulls while I soaked up some sun.

The other girls chose to jump in and swim for it.

I watched Lydia, Bethany, Caitlin, Kate, Jess, and an assortment of Asian tourists (everyone on the cruise except us and a couple who looked and sounded like Kitty and Red Forman was Asian) flail around in the water with their teeth chattering until they were out of sight around the bend, then I laid back and read "Bridget Jones's Diary."

The boat honked again just as I neared the end of a chapter and everyone who had gone swimming returned.

"How was it?" I asked as the other girls were pulled into the boat by one of the tour guides. I heard "miserable" and "never again" muttered while everyone glared at me and shivered as I handed each of my friends her towel.

I loved the ride home. I sat on the prow of the boat with my feet hanging out over the water. It was chilly, but not nearly as bad for me (the only dry one) as for my friends who huddled together on a bench behind me, picking gunk off of their bathing suits and complaining about how disgusting the hot springs had been. They were all covered in mud and slime and Bethany broke a comb trying to untangle her hair.

I don't feel like I missed out on anything at all.

When we got to shore, we spent some time shopping, then walked home in time for the sunset. I read on the deck while my roommates showered. Lydia was the first ready, so she and I went to Poppy's office to order room service baklava for everyone's dessert. Lydia and I both ordered dinner as well (moussaka for me, some vegetarian dish with vine leaves for Lydia).

The food arrived quickly and was delicious. We spent the rest of the evening talking and packing before another early bedtime.

Saturday morning, we met Vangelis in the parking lot at 7:30 for a ride to the airport. He packed all of our things in his van, then shook our hands and wished us a safe flight before leaving us at the tiny airport's main door.

It took us about half an hour to get through security since their was only one man working in the entire airport (remember how I said the Santorini airport is essentially one room?). Luckily, we were on the only flight leaving that morning, so there was no rush and we were about ten feet away from our departure gate.

The flight back to Athens was smooth and took less time than going through security. We had a five hour layover in the Athens airport, so we looked around at the shops, ate lunch, then played Simon Says and Never Have I Ever outside in the parking lot until our next flight (we got a lot of very strange looks...).

From Athens, we went to Zurich, Switzerland to catch a connecting flight to Firenze. I feel like I belong in Switzerland.

Standing in line for the ladies' room, I noticed that five of the other women in line were taller than I was and the only two women shorter were other Americans.

Walking from the W.C. back to our gate, I noticed that I was surrounded by people my height or taller. All of the men were taller than I was. Most of the women were taller than I was. I felt like an average height. There were women in heels who towered over me, walking with men who were still taller than the women. I turned to Lydia (who is just about my height) as we walked through a souvenir shop.

"I never want to leave," I told her. "These are our people."

Lydia laughed. She spent a weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland in February and so had already had one of these awakenings.

The entire time we were in the airport, I kept looking at the women's pants and shoes. They all had feet my size! Or bigger! They all had legs as long as mine! Many of them had longer legs! I could buy shoes here with no problem! I could find jeans that cover my ankles without digging through every pair in the store for something marked "long" or "tall."

I looked at the men, too. They were all definitely over six feet tall. No exception (except for tourists). If I lived in Switzerland, I could meet a guy taller than me who isn't a basketball player. Success! We could buy shoes together in the normal part of a store and live happily ever after.

I am moving to Switzerland.

Sadly, not yet though. We touched down in Firenze around 8 p.m. then took a taxi home. After unpacking, Bethany and I both went right to bed. This morning, we slept in and went grocery shopping, and have just been hanging out this afternoon. Erika still isn't home since she's taking boats and buses back from Greece rather than a plane. Apparently, she won't be home until midnight. Good thing we didn't do that. Also, there's laundry hanging on every available surface of the house since Bethany and I both washed a week and a half's worth of clothes today. I wish we had a dryer. Study abroad problems.

So that's it. That was my Grecian adventure. No riots (except for the one James went to our last night in Athens); just lots of sun, fun, friends, photos, gyros, and ouzo, and the greatest week of my life.

Donkey Trails

This morning, we got up bright and early to ride donkeys down a hill.

That wasn't quite our original plan. The actual plan was just to ride donkeys somewhere. We thought that somewhere might be somewhere that felt safe, like along the sea or on a level path.

Instead, Bethany, Lydia, Kate, Jess, and I rode donkeys down steep stairs leading from the top of a cliff down into the sea.

This was all Lydia's idea. Lydia has been going on about riding donkeys since we left Athens, and all of us but Caitlin gave in and agreed to this plan.

The five of us rode our quads into Fira this morning and found a stable Lydia saw yesterday. The stable was more of a lean-to at the top of some stairs where about fifteen donkeys and two very weathered old men dressed kind of like donkeys were milling around on the steps. We approached the two men and their herd and Lydia asked how much it would be for a ride.

"Five Euro down, fifteen up," answered one of the Old Men of the Sea.

Our group stepped aside to discuss this. Poppy had warned us not to ride a donkey down anything because they slip easily down things like stairs leading into the sea. But Lydia really wanted to ride donkeys and we didn't know where else to go for that and we didn't want to pay the ten extra Euro just to go up the stairs.

We returned to Santiago and his brother and Lydia told them we wanted one ride down the hill for each of us.

"Five Euro," Santiago repeated, holding out his hand for all of our money.

Things got uncomfortable after that (because they weren't before...). As soon as we were all paid for, Santiago literally grabbed Bethany and threw her up onto the nearest donkey. Next he came toward me and I jumped up onto the next closest donkey to avoid the old guy getting too close. Right behind me, Kate scrambled onto her donkey as Santiago patted Bethany's donkey and the whole herd started stumbling down the stairs. I turned to make sure Kate was seated; she was already white and clinging to her donkey with a panicked look in her eyes. She mouthed "I'm scared" to me and looked about to cry.

As we rounded the first bend, I heard Bethany - who has to make friends with everyone we meet - asking Santiago what her donkey's name was.

"Maria," I heard him answer after a pause of about a minute.

"What about that donkey?" Bethany asked, pointing at the white donkey I was riding.

"Maria," Santiago answered after another long pause.

"Oh, so they're both named Maria?" Bethany asked.

Santiago didn't answer again. In fact, he said nothing else to us the entire way down the hill, nor when we got to the bottom. "Maria" was the last we heard from him.

Bethany turned to look at me with a slightly alarmed look on her face.

"Do you really think these donkeys have names?" I asked her. "I bet you any money he's going to eat Maria as soon as we leave."

I heard Kate laugh and/or sob behind me and turned to look at her.

"Amy, keep telling jokes. I want to forget where I am right now."

So that was the beginning of one of the stranger experiences of my life. I talked about eating donkeys while we bounced and slipped our way to the bottom of the stairs. The whole thing only lasted about twenty minutes, but I lost all grasp of time as I focused on keeping Kate from losing her mind. Despite the fact that my donkey almost face-planted once or twice and fell on its ass three times and I had to side-saddle at one point to avoid Bethany's donkey pooping on my leg, I started to kind of enjoy the ride. We were overlooking one of the most beautiful settings I've ever seen, it was an adrenaline rush and I felt safer as we went further on and no one fell into the water or under trampling hooves.

Me and Bethany on the way down.

Kate holding it together.

We finally got to the bottom of the cliff and another paddock. Santiago said nothing, but motioned us to jump down, then he led all the donkeys into their pen and went inside a little hutch. He didn't come out again.

The three of us waited for Jess and Lydia who were coming down with the second man and another group of donkeys. They too were ushered unceremoniously from their steeds when they got to us and Santiago the Second followed Santiago the First into the shed.

We were left with nowhere to go but up. It was now very hot and we had to walk up stairs that had taken us twenty minutes to ride down. This sucked. When I finally got to the top of the hill after a very long time, I was dripping sweat and panting. The five of us sat about ten feet from the donkeys that had been left behind at the top of the hill in the only shady spot we could find and didn't speak until we had all caught our breath and were ready to move on.

We got lunch at a cute little restaurant where we could sit and eat on an outdoor terrace hanging over the street. I ordered moussaka and, in doing so, discovered one of my new favorite foods. It will be my mission when I get back to the States to find somewhere in Pittsburgh that serves good moussaka.

After lunch, we met the rest of the girls for another afternoon of four-wheeling. Erika, Yelena and Kelsey rented quads this morning, so we could all drive around together, calling ourselves the "Santorini Saints" gang and posing for gang photos on a scenic overlook. Real tough.

We ended the day in Oia, where we shopped for souvenirs (I bought some earrings made with lava rocks), walked around the neighborhoods, befriended stray dogs and cats, saw a windmill, and stayed to watch what we were promised would be the most beautiful sunset in all of Greece.

This is pretty good.

After that, we found another restaurant where we could eat on a terrace overlooking the sea. Because Bus2Alps was in the area with about 200 college students in tow, the restaurant was filled and the poor couple working the restaurant (that's right; our waiter and his wife were the only two people working in a restaurant about the size of a typical Eat 'n Park) ran around in an obvious state of panic the whole evening.

They were very nice about the whole situation though. The husband read us the entire menu (not necessary since it was in English), then got very stressed out when half our group tried to order Greek omelets ("We don't serve eggs for dinner!"), even though he had recommended them ("I think you should come back tomorrow to eat breakfast"). Everything worked out though and I ended up with a phenomenal vine leaves lasagna (the house special) and a glass of the famous local Vin Santo dessert wine (not as good as the raisin wine I had in Cinque Terre, but still excellent).

Once we had all finished, we tried to order baklava for dessert, but our waiter wouldn't have it. Instead, he brought us fresh-out-of-the-oven brownies and told us not to pay because they were on the house. The brownies were delicious and made me realize just how much I miss American desserts (Italians always ruin chocolate cake).

We just got home from dinner a little bit ago and I am exhausted. As soon as I can get in the bathroom, I'm taking a shower and going right to bed. Lydia and I are planning to get up early tomorrow to watch the sunrise and try to find that red beach before meeting the rest of our group in Fira for a boat tour.

I can't believe we only have one day left of spring break. This week is going by far too fast.

Four Wheeling

Today we rented quads. I have a feeling this will have been the best decision of the entire trip.

Santorini might be an island, but it's too big to walk and our hostel - though very. very nice - is off a highway and not close to anything.

Poppy, the lovely woman who runs this place, and her husband Vangelis made us coffee this morning when we stopped in the main office to ask about renting quads for the day. As we drank our coffee outside in the garden, Poppy made a few phone calls and arranged for the manager of a local vehicle rental company to pick us up from Villa Manos and drive us to his shop.

The two guys at the rental place were very nice, recommending things to see and do this week while they fitted all six of us for helmets and had us fill out the paperwork for renting three of the quads.

A brief driving lesson lasting all of two minutes and we were good to go for the afternoon.

We spent the rest of the day zooming around the island (Bethany driving our quad while I rode behind), stopping when we saw something interesting, and off-roading wherever we thought we could chance it. If you ever go to Santorini yourself, keep in mind that this is the way to travel.

Me driving out of Fira.

Our first stop was back at the beach we went to yesterday just to make sure we could read the map and get our bearings properly. Then we rode off in search of a restaurant in Fira recommended to us by the woman Bethany and I met on the plane to Athens.

Fira was up a very high, winding pathway with a gorgeous ocean view. In this case, getting there was more than half the fun. When we got to Fira, we stopped in a grocery store to ask directions to the restaurant, only to find that it's closed weekdays. Instead, the cashier and her only customer consulted and sent us down the road to Mythos Taverna, which they said was the best of the few open restaurants in the area.

Mythos was fantastic. I love everything about the food I've had in Greece. We ordered a plate of tomato balls (again recommended by our friend from the plane) to split among the six of us. They were interesting, but in a good way. I feel like they may have just been mushed up tomatoes fried with various seasonings. They had a very strong tomato taste and were crunchy and delicious. Our main course was gyros again, followed by halva for dessert.

When our waiter first brought out the halva, I had no idea what it was. I had to Google it when we got home because when we asked the name of the dessert, the waiter just kept repeating that it was traditional.

It was served in a brick and looked somewhat like a used bar of yellowing soap, topped with cinnamon. The consistency was strange as well. As much as we poked at it, it kept springing back into its original shape. We couldn't really chew it, but it dissolved in our mouths into a bunch of little beads. It had a flavor that reminded me of pound cake, honey, lemons, and oranges all at once, and - once I got more used to the consistency - I decided that I liked it.

Not everyone shared my opinion of this unidentified dessert. We were split right down the middle with who enjoyed it and who hated it. Oh well. More for those of us who enjoyed it (or were at least intrigued enough not to hate it).

After lunch, we went looking for a red beach that we thought was nearby. We found only one sign pointing in the direction of the beach, and it lead down a dirt trail.

Since we had our quads, we followed the trail - me driving this time and Bethany riding - until I suddenly found myself caught in a little ravine that had sprung out of nowhere in the middle of the increasingly steep and dangerous hill. Our quad lurched to the side and turned quickly toward the edge of the cliff. I stood up and put all my weight into holding onto the break lever, and we stopped about a foot short of going over the edge.

Bethany and I had been last in our little caravan, and by the time we got off the quad and pulled it back into the road, we realized no one had seen us nearly die. The four other girls had gone on without us.

We got everything together and made it around the next bend when we saw Caitlin and Lydia driving toward us. The road ahead was getting too dangerous to continue, so the pair of them and Kate and Jess were turning around.

Once we were all turned around and back on the main road, we stopped to check the map again and try to find out where we had gone wrong in searching for the red beach. We couldn't figure it out, so instead we made a new plan: to find a lighthouse.

Surprisingly, this was much easier than finding a marked beach. Not only did we find a lovely lighthouse and spend the next hour or two climbing the rocks all around it, but we also ran into Melanie and Simone from our St. Patty's Day adventure in Athens and spent some time catching up with them.

We continued riding around until dinnertime, when we went back to Villa Manos to eat. After dinner, Caitlin, Lydia and I drove to Hotel Antonia in Fira to pick up Erika, Yelena and Kelsey, who arrived today with Bus2Alps. Since they were tired from traveling and we were tired from riding all day, the nine of us hung out by the pool and just talked until we couldn't stay awake much longer and took the other girls back to their hotel with plans to meet up again in the morning.

Athens to Santorini

Our last day in Athens ended almost as perfectly as the rest of the weekend went.

Bethany, Lydia and I went into the Temple of the Olympian Zeus to see the ancient pillars up close. Today was one of the most beautiful days I could ever possibly imagine. We took no less than 200 photos (in reality, it was less than that, but maybe not much less) around the temple, including this one.

We also took some nice photos, too. But this is the best picture ever created. Be jealous. And note the logo on the side of the spaceship. I'm hoping this will allow us to comp some free tickets from Lufthansa (If you know anyone with inside Lufthansa connections, give him/her the URL for this blog NOW! Thanks!).

We wanted to make it back to Fresko for Greek yogurt (I got yogurt with wild honey and walnuts there yesterday and it was delicious) before our flight, but we ended up not having time after all of the photos and the fraternizing with packs of wild dogs.

*Wild dogs roam everywhere in Athens in slightly menacing packs, but all of the ones we encountered were very friendly, including the one Kate named Balto, who followed us from our apartment to the restaurant last night, then waited outside to walk us home and the blind bug-eyed one that Bethany petted but the rest of us were too afraid to touch. We knew the blind one was blind because kept tripped over curbs and walking into things, like phone poles and oncoming traffic.

The three of us met the other half of our group back at Athens Studios at 11:30 to collect our bags and go to the airport, where we had a flight to Santorini at 2.

Even though the flight to Santorini was barely half an hour, we flew Lufthansa, so we flew in style. We were greeted on the flight by two smiling hostesses handing out individually wrapped gumdrops. Halfway through the flight we got free pop and pretzels. It was a lovely experience.

Landing in Santorini was much different than landing in Athens. The airport is one room and has one runway.

After we picked up our luggage, we went out to the curb, where a man holding a "Villa Manos" (the hostel we are currently staying in) sign greeted us and directed us to the Villa Manos bus.

He was very nice, like just about everyone we've encountered in Greece, offering to carry our bags and loading the van for us. The ride to our hostel was only about 15 minutes and seemed faster as we drove along gorgeous beachfronts.

Once we got to the hostel, unpacked and checked in, our first plan of action was to lay out by this pool.

We did this until we were hungry for dinner, so we went for a walk to scope the place out, then did some grocery shopping. Then it was sandwiches for dinner (we have no appliances for cooking in this new hostel) and watching "Hercules" before bed.

(By the way, this "apartment" is tiny. The first room has a double bed and the second room has four beds wall to wall, a four-person table, a tiny desk and chair, and a refrigerator - all about three inches from each other. But at least you can't beat the view.)

This morning we slept in, then caught the 11 a.m. bus to one of the black sand beaches. That was interesting. The "city bus" was a tour bus with cushioned seats and televisions, but the guy taking everyone's money was crazy. When we tried to ask if we were on the right bus, he started repeatedly yelling that the fare was 1.60 Euro. We ended up just paying and having to trust that we were heading in the right direction.

Eventually the bus came to a halt in a neighborhood with no beach in sight (this was about two minutes at after the driver stopped at a convenience store to get a sandwich).

"Get out! Everyone out!" barked the ticket man. We made the mistake of questioning whether we were in the right place, and he gestured us off the bus, still yelling.

Clueless as to where we were, we began wandering around and luckily found the beach within about five minutes, since there was no one around to ask directions.

Once settled on the beach, we laid around all day reading and listening to music. Santorini, we've discovered, is completely dead outside of tourist season, so our group made up more than half the beach-going population.

After a few hours, we left the beach in search of lunch, and found excellent and cheap gyros in the only restaurant that seemed to be open. Then we shopped (there seem to be more boutiques open than restaurants) for another few hours, got ice cream, and took the bus home (well, we took it past home, since the driver was totally oblivious to our standing in the aisle saying, "Hey! We needed to get off there!")

No sooner had we got into our room, than the woman who runs Villa Manos knocked on the door leading out to the pool.

"I have a surprise for you in my office, if you are all here," she told us.

Curious, we dropped off our things from the beach and followed her.

The surprise turned out to be a home cooked meal of pasta, bean salad and fresh bread. The food was delicious and we were thrilled to have it.

Now that we are all fed and the sun has set, we'll be sticking to our room for the rest of the evening. It's too chilly right now to sit outside and we all have blogs to catch up with anyhow. We're currently planning renting Vespas or quads for tomorrow to see the island. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much to see. Since the tourist season here doesn't officially begin until the end of April, nothing is open and there's almost no one around. The place is a ghost town. It's a little bit depressing, I think. Looks like we won't be making friends like we did in Athens.

But there are six of us on a beautiful island in Greece. How hard can it be to find something to do?

Where are all the riots?

I don't know if this weekend could have been much more perfect.

After dinner last night, we met James and his new friends Claude (from Portland, Oregon) and Melanie and Simone (a French-Canadian couple) at the sports bar downstairs. The bar was getting crowded, so we made the executive decision to follow James to a bar called "The James Joyce," which we had seen earlier in the day. 

Unfortunately, James' sense of direction isn't as good at night and/or after a few drinks because he lead us all over Athens. We were actually circling the Acropolis looking for this place, until we caught a promising glimmer of green and yellow lights coming from down a street.

The James Joyce was hopping. Our group immediately got split up in the overwhelming crowd. Everyone and everything was green and two guys on stage were playing some kind of weird Irish music. Eventually we got our group back together with everyone but Simone, who had told us he needed to say good-bye to "some people" before running off into the mob. Melanie told us she would stay and look for him and the rest of us moved on.

We found a restaurant that was a lot more calm and decided to hang out there for a little while. It didn't take long though for us all to realize just how tired we were, so we made our way back home; getting lost again but not minding since it was such a beautiful night.

This morning we met James and Claude at the Fish Cafe, then did our own tour of Athens. We went into the Acropolis since it's free Sundays and around some of the other ancient temples.

The Acropolis is amazing (I mean, it is the Acropolis). We saw the Parthenon, of course, and the Erechtheion, and they were beautiful. I feel like the ruins here are a lot similar to the ruins in Rome and I think that unfortunately diminished some of the awe factor here, but it was still incredible to walk around these ancient buildings. Also, the view from the top of the Acropolis is breathtaking. We spent most of our time up there just sitting and watching all of Athens spread out below us (and posing for about 200 photos).

Me, Lydia, Caitlin, James, and Claude in front
of the Parthenon.

After the Acropolis, we went back to the lookout hill we visited on our tour and laid around talking and enjoying another beautiful view and perfect weather before moving on to get lunch (gyros again) and do some shopping in Syntagma Square.

The Square was packed and we ended up getting split into three groups within the crowd. Bethany and I gave up trying to find everyone and began making our way home, hoping to find at least part of the group there.

We ran into Jess, Kate and Claude near the Acropolis Museum and Caitlin, Lydia and James back at our apartment, where Claude left us to go meet a group from his hostel.

James left a little before dinner, this time for good since he was heading to a soccer match, then returning to England on a late plane tonight. We said our good-byes, then the six of us girls went out in search of dinner.

We ended up wandering until we found a promising-looking restaurant called Plakiotissa Taverna Mezedopolio (say that ten times fast). I liked it because everything in the restaurant - from the furniture to the walls to the chandeliers - was green. A little old man brought us bread, olive oil and vinegar, and water with our menus while the two-man band tuned up. We were the only people in the restaurant until our food arrived, so we were slightly concerned, but this turned out to be one of the best decisions of our time in Athens.

The band struck up an upbeat tune in Greek (this is the first place I've been in Europe where they listen to their own music and not music from the States) and soon our waiter was out clapping his hands and singing along while we followed his lead and clapped along with him.

The staff were all in a great mood and made us feel like guests of honor when they brought out our dinners (rice and meatballs for me). They continued serenading us throughout dinner with a mixture of Greek music, American oldies and Beatles tunes.

Once our plates were cleared away, the manager asked which of us was the best singer. We pointed to Jess since used to sing in a chorus. She protested, but between us, the band and the manager, she ended up standing with the band and singing through "Let It Be" with them.

After that, the manager called the rest of us up and taught us how to dance. We did some sort of Greek circle dance that involved sidestepping and kicking and it was tons of fun! After we thought we had the hang of it, the manager stepped out to let the six of us dance on our own while he stood back and clapped in time.

Once we had the circle dance semi-mastered, the manager pulled out a chair and set it in the center of our circle. He had Caitlin stand on it and told her to dance while we all danced around her. At first she wasn't sure what to do, so the manager called a guy who I'm going to assume was the dishwasher out of the back of the restaurant and this guy showed us how to dance.

Caitlin tried to copy him, but he was really into it, with a lot of hip-shaking and jumping around. Caitlin tried her best but ended up inventing her own dance on the chair.

Caitlin, Kate, me, Kostos, Bethany, Jess, and Lydia
with the band.

We danced with the manager and the younger guy and sang along to the songs we knew from the band until all the other guests had left. It was nearly midnight when we left and at least Lydia and I plan on getting up early tomorrow to fit in a bit more sightseeing before we have to be at the airport at noon for our flight to Santorini.

Today was such a full day, I can't wait to crawl into bed. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight than I did last night. It was cold and loud in our room because we accidentally left a window open... Won't be doing that again. 

The Road to Athens

Spring Break 2012: Florence Edition is well underway. I'm currently in Athens with Bethany, Lydia, Caitlin, Jess, and Kate and this is already THE GREATEST SPRING BREAK EVER. Life itself may never get better than this, and I'm kind of okay with that.

Bethany, Lydia, Jess, and I left the Firenze Airport yesterday morning on a 9:20 flight to Frankfurt. Unlike on our flight to Madrid, we had no problem getting through security and to Frankfurt. We had an hour at the Frankfurt airport to get to our gate (MUCH easier than when we went through Frankfurt in January to get to Florence), and let me just say, if you ever need to fly in Europe, fly with Lufthansa. Not only was our flight easy, but it was enjoyable. The two flight attendants were so kind and obviously loving their job. When you asked for a drink, they said "Absolutely!" with genuine delight, as if they could imagine no greater joy than serving food on an airplane. They asked several times if we were enjoying our flight and if there was anything they could do to improve our trip. We got a meal (beef stew, a roll and a chocolate bar) and it was all tasty, quality food.

As if this wasn't already far more than we could have hoped, Bethany and I sat next to the sweetest little old Athenian woman. She was on her way home from a business trip in Germany and we passed a lot of time on the plane getting suggestions on where to go and what to do in Athens and Santorini from this woman. She was also very interested in hearing about our study abroad experience. When we got off the plane in Athens, Mrs. G (no matter how many times she said her name, Bethany and I still couldn't get it) shook both mine and Bethany's hands and wished us a lovely stay in Greece.

From the airport, we had a half hour metro ride to the stop closest to our apartment in Athens Studios(we rented a cheap apartment for the weekend, figuring it would be safer with all of the riots that we have yet to see). The apartment is literally three minutes past the metro stop, so it was easy to find.

By the time we got to the apartment (where we met Caitlin and Kate who flew from Rome), it was just past 6 p.m. Greek time (they're an hour ahead of Florence) and we were all exhausted from getting up earlier and travelling. We checked out the apartment (it's bigger and more modern than mine in Firenze) and caught up with Cait and Kate, who arrived in Athens about three hours before the rest of us.

Once we were all rested up, the six of us went downstairs for dinner at Fish Cafe, the restaurant owned by our apartment complex. It was DELICIOUS. I got fish and chips with Greek yogurt and strawberries for dessert. We were all really happy with our meals.

We went to bed early in order to be rested for breakfast and a walking tour today. Fish Cafe offers free breakfast for residents and this breakfast was better than most of the breakfasts I've paid for in Europe so far. We got two fresh-baked rolls with butter and jam and a hardboiled egg. The rolls were so warm and tasty, and very filling, which was great since we had a long day of walking ahead of us.

The walking tour left from Athens Backpackers, a tour company owned by Athens Studios and located about a five minute walk from our apartment. It was only 6 Euros for a nearly five hour tour. And the tour couldn't have been any better.

Our guide (once again, I couldn't understand his name, which I felt really bad about, but Greek is ridiculous) was really awesome and the people in our group were good as well. The guide made us all go around in a circle and say our names and where we were from. There was a good mix, with people from France, Argentina, South Africa, and James from England. James immediately jumped in with the six of us as the only as native English speakers. I'll get to him in a bit.

We saw everything on this tour. We went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch, the Acropolis, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an Islamic temple, the Olympic Stadium and Olympic training center, the House of Parliament, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a flea market, and several look-out points. The six of us and James even ate some of the "oranges" growing in trees lining the streets.

"And don't eat the oranges, because they aren't oranges," our guide said as everyone turned to watch the seven of us stuffing our faces with the sour/grapefruit-like fruits. Oh well. At least we weren't all dumb Americans for once.

Everywhere we went, our guide gave us an entertaining and thorough explanation. He was very funny and seemed to know everything about everything. We quickly compared him to a Greek Fabrizio/Rocky; incredibly friendly and a walking encyclopedia. In between locations, he suggested other places to visit in Athens and Santorini and asked us questions about study abroad. He also teased James a lot about being British, since there's apparently a large rivalry between England and Greece. The Greeks feel like the English have stolen a lot of historical artifacts from them, but it seems to be a good-natured rivalry.

We had a break around noon to get lunch (I had a really good gyro from a stand near the flea market), then finished the tour around 3:00. At the Odeon, our last stop on the tour, an angry older woman came out of nowhere and started barking things at our tour guide. He answered and she would start again. Finally, she calmed down and walked away. We all looked expectantly at the guide, but he told us he would explain after the tour.

So we waited patiently for him to give the last ten minutes or so of his speech, then - as the group began to split up to go our separate ways - Bethany asked again what the woman had said. Everyone stopped what they were doing and came back to hear the response.

"She was asking if I had a permit to give you a tour," our guide said.

He then explained that he never went to tour-guide school to become a licensed guide, so he told the woman that he was a professor - not a lie since he told us at the began of the tour that he's a was a history teacher up until two years ago when he became a guide - and that we were his students.

We asked if he's ever been asked that before. He told us he has a few times, but the Backpackers company has the capacity to intervene if he ever has a real problem.

"All of these registered tour guides are 60-something women who don't get enough sex, so they're out here to bother everyone else."

We all burst out laughing at this.

"I probably shouldn't say that," he added. "But I know it's true."

We talked more about tour school and about his teaching job. He taught at University of Kent in England, but quit because he said the English students are disrespectful and not very serious about their studies.

James kind of grinned at this and kicked the ground, but did admit that students in England "are a lot more cheeky" than students he's encountered in his travels to other countries. He said he already knew English kids have a very bad reputation.

The six of us, on the other hand, were excited to hear "Kent" and "University" in the same context and announced that we kind of go to Kent University. This rang a bell with our guide and James, who both made comments along the lines of "Oh, yeah, I did know there was another Kent in Amerirker."

When we got back to our starting point, the six of us said good-bye and left to return to our apartment. James - who we knew came to Greece by himself for holiday - seemed very reluctant to part ways and watched us leave with this kind of lost puppy look on his face.

We walked a little bit away and consulted as a group whether to invite him to come with us. Deciding it was okay, I called him over.

He was obviously very excited about us inviting him to hang out, and as the afternoon went on, we realized we made a great decision in inviting him along. We agreed to meet him at Fish Cafe in half an hour to take our own tour of Athens.

Caitlin, Lydia and I were the only three who weren't too tired to walk some more, so we met James at the appointed time and started walking without any particular location in mind. James was about as lost as we were since he only got here Wednesday, but since none of us had anywhere to be, we were content just wandering.

We roamed around for about an hour, looking at various sights and discussing the differences between America, England and Greece. We talked about our semester in Italy and about all of the places James has been in Europe.

Eventually, we stumbled accidentally upon a coffee shop James went to Thursday morning and we stopped for Greek coffee. James said it had an acquired taste since it is very sweet, but Lydia and I loved it immediately. We sat outside on a main road and watched the crowd (the street was so crowded) and talked more about school. James is a journalism major as well, so we had a good long discussion on grammar and differences between British and American English and stories we've written for school newspapers and otherwise.

When the sun began to set, we got up and made our way back to our apartment. James was eager to get back for a rugby match which they are currently showing in the sports bar next door to Athens Studios. So we left him at the bar and went next door to Fish Cafe for burgers. I had a Hawaiian burger and it was by far the best hamburger I've had since leaving the States; although that's not saying much, considering I've only had two other burgers on this trip - one at McDonald's and one completely raw one at the ClubHouse in Florence.

Currently, I'm digesting this excellent meal and waiting for my hair to dry a bit before going out tonight. I just got a much-needed shower since we're supposed to meet James at the bar when his match is over.

Needless to say, it's been an amazing day. I had so much fun and I don't know how it could have been much better. I am SO happy right now; I'm never going to want to go home.

I'm glad all the naysayers who said we'd die in Athens didn't dissuade us from coming here, because the city is gorgeous, the people are the nicest I've met to date in Europe, the weather is perfect, and I am seriously loving life right now. I can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of this week and, of course, to tell you all about it.

Happy St. Patty's Day!