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Athens
First Night Hey Everyone!
It’s been a while since my last blog and I have so much to write about. This is going to take a while to write about everything so I am going to break it up in little chapters by place. I left Paris early Monday morning for a 3 hour flight to Athens. After getting to the airport we took the bus into town, but stupid me of course wrote down every hostel address except for the first one in Athens, aka the most important one to know. Have no fear; it only took about an hour of wandering around and asking at least 10 people to figure out where we were going. But wow Greece! Greece is unlike any other place I've ever been too. Athens is a big city, but it’s still developing. About 90%!o(MISSING)f the city seems to be what would be considered the slums in the U.S. What is really nice is that the majority of people speak English, so that is a really big help. I still find myself feeling the urge to speak French to a stranger when I try to ask for directions. It’s really funny actually and I feel
like such a foreigner not knowing the language, it’s weird but Paris is like home now, I am used to navigating that big city and this one has just thrown me for a loop. What is funny is that many people have come up to me and tried to speak Greek to me, I feel like such I tourist, I don't even know how to say I don't speak Greek, but I think they usually figure it out when
I get a confused look on my face, shrug my shoulders, and say I'm sorry...
So after navigating our way through the sketchy part of town to our hostel which was cute but by no means a five star hotel we dropped off our bags down our bags and headed to Likavitos hill to try and catch a great view of the sunset, unfortunately after climbing what seemed like 20 million stairs we couldn't find the rest of the way up so we decided to give into temptation and take the rail car all the way to the top. It wouldn't be worth the 6 euro normally but we couldn't find the path to the top and we were trying
to make it in time for the sunset which we didn’t end up getting to see, but the view was still worth it anyway. It was absolutely breathtaking. We had a view of the whole city and everything was beginning to be lit up for the night and they lit up the Acropolis. It was just one of those moments where I just had to stop and soak in the fact that I was in Greece and I realized how lucky I am to have the chance to go there. There were a lot of moments like that on the trip, but the vacation was too short. No matter how hard I tried to really appreciate where I was and to just take in the moment I still wish I could go back and see more, two weeks just went so fast.
The next day Jasmin and I headed out at the crack of dawn to catch the ferry to Santorini from Piraeus port. It was an 8 hour boat ride so we decided to pay the extra 5 euro for an airplane type seat rather than be stuck in the common areas with little seating. It was definitely
worth it for that little bit of comfort. The ship was huge, almost cruise ship size. I, of course, having motion sickness problems, could not really enjoy the ride and it seemed that the rocking of the ship only got worse the further we went. We did make stops at several islands so it was cool to see what the other Mykonos islands looked like.
It was quite as high cliff up from the port and then back down the hill to our hotel but luckily our hostel picked us up. Santorini is nothing but cliffs to the sea, (check out the pictures) and that’s what makes it beautiful. Our hostel was more like a hotel, we got our own private room and bathroom, there was a pool, and a pool bar, it was so cute and really nice for how little we paid. We stayed at Annie Studios which is located right along the beach in Perissa, about a 20 min drive from the Fira, the capital of Santorini. We grabbed some delicious Greek gyros and then went and rented a 4 wheeler to drive around the island. We first went to the red beach, where what do
you know? It’s red! They’re really isn’t much of a beach there, but it did remind me of red rocks back home a little bit, but a deeper red. Then we drove up to Akrotiki where the lighthouse is. It was so weird on the drive up there, we didn’t see anyone along the road, there are tons of little houses with no one living in them, but I suppose that they are filled in summer. We explored a little bit and found a really cool cave by the lighthouse. The rock on the walls was so soft that someone had made a little window in the side of the cave looking out to the sea, and they probably just used their hands, that’s how crumbly the rock was. We had a great view of the sunset from the lighthouse, but it was really windy, I thought I was going to get blown away. After that we headed back to civilization and got a bite to eat in Emporio before heading back to the hostel and calling it a night.
The next day we woke up early and drove up to Fira, the main city of Santorini. We were
able to do some souvenir shopping before we went to Oia, the town at the northern tip of the island. Oia was so beautiful. When you see Santorini in the movies it is most likely Fira or Oia that you see with the picturesque white houses with blue roofs hanging over a cliff jetting over the sea. It was beautiful and so calm. We got lunch in Oia and I tried some house wine for 90 cents. I should have known from the price that it was not a good choice. It smelled like paint thinner and tasted even worse. I couldn’t force myself to drink more than a sip of it. You live and you learn (not to buy cheap wine). We drove back to Fira and actually found the really pretty part of the town that is a little off to the side of the main port area. We climbed down all these little staircases in between these beautiful hotels and homes. If you vacation in Santorini, you should reserve a hotel in Fira, I bet it would make you feel like you are living the life of luxury. We stayed in Fira for hours just looking at
the beautiful view until the sun started setting and we had to return the ATV. It was indescribable.
The next day we spent the morning and early afternoon lounging around the beach before we had to catch our ferry back to Athens. Stupid me didn’t bring sunscreen to Europe, just a few hours in the sun and I was so burned. I am still peeling over 3 weeks later. Overall Santorini was a great way to start my spring break; I wish I could have spent more time there.
It is taking me a while to catch up on all that I have done, but my goal is to be all caught up on updating my blog by the end of this weekend, wish me luck!
Katie
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