Mikaela
Greco-Roman Joined: September 7th 2008
Logged in: December 23rd 2008
Logged in: December 23rd 2008
Travel Blog Posts
Well, the traveling the world part of my life is done for now… I sit here in the London Heathrow airport and think of all of the places I have been, and all of the things I have done in these last 3+ months. I have climbed the largest gorge in Europe, hiked a volcano, seen a collaboration of ancient ruins, seen a show in London, and been inside some of the world’s finest museums. Life is good, and I have two very special people to thank for these wonderful opportunities…my parents. Without their support, NONE of these experiences would have been possible. After another short 2 day trip to London, I already miss the 30 people that I experienced these events with. At our goodbye dinner, we went around and shared funny stories, told Mike ... read more
Assisi
Time is winding down… These past few weeks have been arguably the most fun that I have had this entire trip. Because we are all fairly traveled out, I love just being in Rome with my roommates. We do fun things such as decorating for Christmas, story time (every night haha), and family dinners every few nights or so. Our apartment has kind of become the hangout place, which is nice and convenient for us! One of my roommates, Kalene, and I took a daytrip to Assisi about a week ago. Assisi is a beautiful town that has a medieval feel to it; its on a hill and all the buildings are made out of white/pinkish brick. We saw the tomb of St. Francis, St. Francis Basilica, along with several other beautiful churches. We took a ... read more
Pompeii
Rome, Italy is a one-of-a-kind city. This week has had some interesting elements to it. 1. The president of Saint John's, Dan Whalen, flew over to treat us to dinner and answer questions concerning our visa crisis. I think I explained it a little, but overall we were not issued student visas. Therefore, after 90 days we are illegal over here in Europe. Because many people on my trip traveled before, their 90 days is coming up this week. People were given the chance to risk it, or go home. Two people on my trip have decided to leave early, which is so, so unfortunate. I have decided, along with my fellow traveler in the same situation, to come home early as well. There are huge consequences, and no way of of knowing if we will ... read more
Venice
After getting to Rome, we had about a week off. This was an awesome way to get accustomed to this new, overwhelming city. After a few days of that, we headed to Venice for a few days. Venice was absolutely amazing. Despite what I had heard from many sources, it is not overrated at all. The buildings were old, and I really felt like I had stepped back in time Highlights in Venice include: -Buying a day water taxi ticket, and really seeing the city from the water. -Going to Murano and Burano, two islands where glass-blowing happens. We watched demonstrations, and got some beautiful jewelry. -Wonderful shopping! -Going to St. Mark’s square - Going to the Jewish Ghetto After that weekend we came back and started classes this week. Then this weekend I went with ... read more
St. Peter's Square
When in Rome I wake up every morning, look outside my 6th story bedroom window and see the walls of Vatican City. I walk outside down my street, walk 3 blocks, and I enter Vatican City. Being a newly confirmed Catholic, this is very cool. I can go and stroll in St. Peter’s square whenever. No big. I love Rome! I have 5 new fabulous roommates with who I share laughs, tears, and many, many adventures. My roommates in Athens were okay, but I click much, much better with the girls I live with now. Rome does presents a few challenges that we did not find in Athens. For instance, we do not all live within 5 minutes of each other. My apartment is about 20 minutes from all of the guys in our group, but ... read more
group dinner
The time has come. Saturday means goodbye to Athens, and hello to Rome! I am going to miss Athens terribly. However, I think we have seen the highlights of Greece and are ready to see what Italy has to offer us! We have started to plan our side trips in Italy. We only have a few free weekends in Italy, so we are trying to strategize and rank. As of now, top contenders include a weekend trip up to Lake Como and Cinque Terre, a wine tasting weekend in Tuscany, and perhaps Sicily as well. We really need to do this planning now, because the internet situation in Rome is a lot sketchier than it is here! This past week has meant finals, however we were done by Wednesday! One final, art history, gave me a ... read more
the Parthenon
They say that time flies when you're having fun! Boy does it ever, as we are winding down our time here in Athens. I leave for Rome this Saturday, which is less than a week away! I cannot believe it. Some of my friends and I were reminiscing back to the first day when we all got here. We emerged from the metro stations looking like lost little dogs. That was the day that my friend Erin and I took a taxi ride for SEVENTEEN EURO when we should have paid TWO. We were so mad at the time after we realized that we had been jipped, but today we just laugh at how inexperienced we were with taxis and really everything here in Athens. Then, we felt like tourists. Today, I almost feel like a ... read more
Corinth
Alright, Weekend 5 we took a trip to many historical sites in the Peloponnese. Like usual, it was all 30 of us, plus our directors, plus our art history teacher. First stop: Corinth. The ancient city of Corinth dates back to 5000 BC or earlier, and The Apostle Paul visited Corinth and wrote letters from there! (Think the bible...The Corinthians) There, we saw the Temple of Apollo, which is a central landmark in Corinth. It dates back to 550 BC. We saw a sweet canal here too. Second stop: Mycenae. We had seen many Mycenaean palaces, so it was cool to actually go to Mycenae, which used to be a large and powerful kingdom in Ancient Greece, and during excavations the believed death mask of Agamemnon (ruler of Mycenae) was found and put in a museum. ... read more
Hotel Melina
Hello loved ones and friends, Well, once again I find myself far, far behind on this blog. It's procrastination at its best, people. Now I am going to tell you about the best weekend we have had yet in Greece. Santorini Island...for all of you who might not know what I am talking about, think the place where they filmed Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Mamma Mia. We actually think we found the house where the Sisterhood was filmed. No big deal. Actually, we were freaking out, we were so excited. I think the guys were a little embarrassed to be with us...but i think deep down they were just as excited :) This place was beautiful, let me tell you! We took a 9 hour ferry ride to get there. 26 of us went, ... read more
gorge
Alright, I am super behind on this, because we have been on the go! Anyway, on our last day in Crete, I hiked the Samarian Gorge. This is the largest Gorge in Europe, and it was definitely one of the best days yet in Greece. This was going to be a close call, because we had to make our boat at 8pm. Our hotel receptionist told us there was NO WAY this could be done, but we decided that we still needed to go and we took the chance. There were 5 guys and 4 girls in our group who decided to do the Gorge. We split up though (The guys were extremely concerned we would slow them down...lame). We woke up around 5am and caught a bus up the mountain. This took an hour or ... read more
