After returning from Barcelona, I met up with my friend Whitney and she and I went to Santorini for two days. It was short, but it was amazing! We left on Tuesday evening and arrived in Santorini around 2 in the morning. We hadn't arranged a place to stay for Tuesday night, so after we got to the port we found a place and bargained the price to something we felt was reasonable. We stayed in Fira for the night and in the morning rented an ATV for the next two days. We then began the adventure of finding the hotel [View Full Entry]

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With the semester officially over, many of the people in my program headed out to do some traveling before returning home. Three of my friends (Hilary, Tori, and Maya) and I went to Barcelona together for three days. Hilary and I left for the airport around midnight. Our flight left Athens around 3am and we finally got to the hostel in Barcelona around 6:30 or 7. The hostel people were very nice and let us hang out (and sleep) in the lounge while we waited for Hilary and Maya to wake up. Once we were all conscious and ready to go, [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately, it is true that the music was created by my singing. We all know how terrible that can be... Anyway, I took my last exam of the semester on Monday morning (I think it went alright!) and only had a paper left to worry about. So I said 'you can wait' to the paper and scampered off to Meteora with Camille. We left early on Tuesday morning, though the tickets I bought (which were supposed to be for Tuesday) were actually for Wednesday. They told us we would have to stand if there weren't enough seats and that we would [View Full Entry]

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Well, the end of my semester abroad is rapidly approaching. Camille came in to visit me on Sunday evening. We went to a taverna for dinner with some of my friends. I am really going to miss tavernas. I think they should be as popular in the states as they are in Greece because they are wonderful! What will I do without my regular supply of delicious and amazing Greek food???? Anyway, on Monday Camille joined my archaeology class for a tour of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the surrounding area. My second class of the day was canceled, so [View Full Entry]

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Last night, one of my roommates convinced me to come out with her and a couple of her friends. It was the first time I really have gone out all semester. It isn't exactly easy to do so in Athens (or Greece in general). First there is the time thing. Don't get me wrong, I love staying up late. But even for me it can be difficult to wait until midnight or 1am before even leaving the apartment. At that point I like to be cozily awake doing something in my pjs (unless I am already out and about). Then there [View Full Entry]

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After an exhilarating and tiring four days in Egypt, Sarah and I spent a day back in Athens, mostly regrouping, and then headed out to Crete for the remainder of spring break! We arrived in Crete around 6am and waited at a passenger's center (nice building with a little shop and chairs) for about an hour when we decided we would be likely to find a bus. Our first destination was Rethymno, a little over an hour bus ride from Heraklion. We found the town without problem and got ourselves checked into the hostel. After freshening up a bit, we went [View Full Entry]

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While in Egypt, we took a day trip out of Cairo to explore Alexandria. We hit all five of the big sites: the Roman amphitheater (which we really just glanced at), the pillar of Pompey, the catacombs, the library, and the citadel. The citadel was a pretty ridiculous experience. The museum of the citadel had nothing to do with the fortress and instead was filled with life-sized dioramas of sea life. It was, however, pretty neat to stand in the belly of a whale. I had never before seen a whale skeleton (at least not that I can recollect). The library [View Full Entry]

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On our second day in Egypt we went to see the PYRAMIDS! I still can't believe I was in Egypt. Anyway, we took a tour through our hostel where we had a private driver take us to all the sites. We started by going to the Pyramids of Giza, then we to Dahshur and finally to Saqqara. At Giza we took a camel ride around the pyramids. We stopped at multiple excellent photo places and took a good number of entertaining pictures of ourselves in front of the Pyramids! Our tour guide let both Sarah and I drive the camels for [View Full Entry]

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We embarked on our Egyptian journey on Thursday around 9pm when we left for the airport. We made it there with plenty of time to catch our plane. The hostel people were supposed to pick us up from the airport, so we figured we would have no problems. Unfortunately, upon arrival we did not see anyone from our hostel. Turns out the email I sent in reply to when we got in did not go through. Sarah and I ended up taking a taxi. Finally, at about 4am, after 8 hours of traveling (there was a time change), we made it [View Full Entry]

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Happy Passover! I managed to find a Passover Seder held by the Chabbad of Greece in Athens. It turned out that a decent number of CYA students were heading to the Seder, so I walked over with three other girls. We weren't entirely sure of where we were going. When we stopped at the metro station to look at the map, a family from the States asked us if we were going to the Seder. We replied in the affirmative and they joined us in the search for the right hotel. It took a little bit of time, but we didn't [View Full Entry]

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