Barcelona and Athens

---

After getting home today from Athens, I have officially finished my last traveling trip in Europe. I can't believe it but the study abroad trip is slowly coming to an end. We have less than two weeks left and I can't believe that I have been to 9 different countries and 17 different cities in 4 months. AMAZING!

Anyway, I will start from the begining of my week long break- Barcelona, Spain.
To get to Spain we had to take a 15 hour train ride, which wasn't so bad, but we didn't have one of those sleeper car beds but instead we had a chair that kind of reclined but the problem was, was that the leg part just went 1/3 of the way in the air so it made your feet dangle over the edge and eventually go numb. It was an OK trip, but I didn't get much sleep.
We arrived in Barcelona early Saturday morning. We were tired, but we decided to put our stuff down in the hostel and go walk around to see some of the sites. We had lunch in a cool little smoothie cafe where we sat at this bar that faced the street and we got to people watch while we ate. We had planned on using this part of our trip as a "beach vacation" but we wanted to see the cool sites that Barcelona had to offer before we headed to the beach. So we walked down to Las Ramblas which is where a bunch of locals dress up as statues and crazy characters (usually at night) and there are all sorts of cool restraunts and shops lining the street. We just kind of looked around quickly because we knew we were going to go back, and then we went down by the marina and looked at some of the street venders stuff. Then we headed on a long walk to the Arc de Triumph and then to La Sagrada Familia. It was very pretty, but since it was designed and created by Gaudi, and he died before it was complete, they are always working to finish it's construction. So it was neat, but the scaffolding all around the exterior made it a little less beautiful than I imagined. After taking some pictures and walking around it, we headed over to some shops near by. Our last stop was to check out the beach to see what to expect for tomorrow. We spent about an hour laying on the beach in our jeans and t-shirts just burning up because the weather was so warm. So, after a little while at the beach we headed back to our hostel and grabbed some dinner near there and decided to head back out to Las Ramblas and walked looking at the street vendors and then headed back to our hostel. We were all tired so we stayed in our room and played Yatzee and cards and called it an early night.
The next morning we woke up and headed to the beach. The weather was gorgeous and the sun was bright and warm. We spent all day there just hanging out and listening to the locals come around and ask "message-hey" (aka massages) and "bira (beer), cocca cola" trying to sell drinks to the crowded group of people laying out on the beach. We also noticed that unlike the states, the women and men were not so modest with their swimming appareal or lack there of. But either way, we had a fun relaxing time, ate some lunch in a place on the beach and hung out until about 6 pm. We grabbed some dinner and had to head to the train station to catch our next 15 hour train ride back to Lugano since we would be flying out of Milan on Tuesday.


We spent Monday night back at the Montarina and woke up early Tuesday to catch a shuttle to Milan to catch our flight to Athens. We had a nice 3 hour flight, and got to Athens around late afternoon. (I was suprised at how "dirty" it looked when we got there. We were told by some people that the Greek attitude is kind of to take advantage of the things they have and sort of mistreat them and let them become dirty until someone else decides they are worth something and then the Greeks clean them up and take care of it- that might explain why the city looked somewhat rundown - but it was still cool.) We had about an hour metro ride to our hostel but once we checked in we set our stuff down and went exploring. We were pretty far out from the "tourist" area of athens but we found a really cheap and delicious place called Pita Pan that sold great Giros and Soulvaki (we ended up eating there 3 of the 4 nights we were in Athens). We went to the grocery store to grad some food since we knew we would be there for 4 nights, and then by that time it was late and so we went back, and hung out and met our roomate for the night. He was a man named Vladimir from Prague who was in his late 30's or early 40's and he was very nice and spoke English, but we were very caught off gaurd when he came out of the bathroom to get into bed and all he was wearing was a t-shirt and a pair of whitey tighties. I guess he felt comfortable enough with us - I must admit I was not comfortable with him!! When we all first saw him walk out we couldn't help but lay in our beds and giggle a little, but about 20 minutes later, I still hadn't fallen asleep and I couldn't help but I just started laughing out loud just thinking about what had just happened. Immature I know! The culture gap was very apparent at that time.

So anyway, the next morning we woke up and decided to do all of the Acropolis, so we headed there and wow! What a site and what history! The ruins were gorgeous and the weather at the top was HOT! It sits high above the rest of the city, so we had quite a little hike to get up there but it was so worth it. It was hard to believe the columns and pieces we were looking at were so old and had so much history. We got to see the Parthanon and the Propylaea and Erechtheum and the Temple of Athena. After spending some time there we walked down into town and spent a while going in and out of all the local shops. They had a lot of neat stuff it was nice to see the locals and also hear English from the tourists there.

On Thursday we decided we would use that day to head to the beach. It was very interesting to say the least. We were told about this one beach that was supposed to be the nicest beach and not dirty but when we got there it was basically all rocks and no sand. One of the locals on the beach tried to speak broken English to us and tell us that this wasn't the good beach because of the rocks so we needed to go down further to the place for swimming. So we thought he meant walk to the other side of the marina when in fact he just meant walk about 10 more feet to this small 10 foot long patch of random sand. It was quiet the experience. We spent about 2 hours outside in the sun and then the weather all the sudden got very cold so we packed up our things and took the 45 min tram ride back to our hostel. That night we decided to go see a movie that we heard was in English. We tried to see "Horton Hears A Hoo" but the lady at the front forgot to mention to us that it was dubbed over in Greek. So after 30 seconds into the movie we got up and asked for a refund, she appologized for not mentioning that this one wasn't in English and told us to come back later to watch "In Bruge" which was in English with Greek subtitles. So, we went back and saw the movie later that night- which was good but the ending leaves you hanging.

The next morning just Allie and I decided to go to the Olympic Stadium. When we got there the man at the front told us it was closed but if we went to the next security guard he would tell us how to get inside. So we were a little confused since it was "closed" and there were absolutely no people on the whole site, but we went anyway. He told us how to get inside and when we got to the front a woman inside started speaking to me in Greek and I told her I didn't understand and she just laughed and said "5 minutes" so Allie and I took off. We spent about 10 minutes inside looking at the huge stadium and taking pictures. After that, we decided that we would just wander around looking at the facility. We ended up stumbling upon an open door that lead us inside to the indoor swimming pool, and after a little more snooping around I found a door that actually led us to the ground floor of the pool and even inside the locker rooms. We never were really sure if we were supposed to be there or not, but no one said anything to us or kicked us out so we kept exploring. We stumbled upon open gates that lead us to the outdoor pool and the diving platforms and we stuck our feet in the water. We had a great time, and I'm still not sure exactly whether or not we were allowed to be there or not, but we probably had a more personal tour of the place then most people did. So, after the Olympic Stadium we headed back to the tram to see if we could find another beach. We hopped off at a nice looking beach that had pebbles instead of rocks. It was cooler on that day so we only stayed about an hour and a half and decided we would head back to the area where we were yesterday at the shops near the Acropolis. We shopped around there for a while and then ended up eating an amazing dinner at this authentic Greek restraunt. I got a salad and a pita with 2 "sausages" and Allie got spicy cheese and the same pita and sausages, it was delicious. By this time it was getting late so we walked home and grabbed some ice cream on the way for dessert.

Today, we woke up and had to head to the airport to catch our flight home. We had a GREAT week and I'm sad to say that that was my last trip, but I'm also excited that I had a chance to see two more amazing cities before I leave.



So, in reflecting on my time here, I just thought I'd leave you with a few little things I've learned...

First off, I have seen some of the world at age 21 that I never dreamed I would see in my life time. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have this opportunity to see the world and I just want to say, if any of you ever have a chance to travel to Europe or another country, I HIGHLY recommend taking that opportunity to see anything and everything you can, because there are parts of this world that will take your breath away- it shows you that there is a God, because no human being could ever create something this magnificent. The world is a beautiful place, explore it when you can.

Secondly, people are inherently kind, they will help you if they can. Don't be afraid to ask someone for help and more importantly don't be afraid to go out of your way to help someone else. Some of the greatest memories I have of Europe are from the people I've met and the kindness they have shown to me. \

Third, be open to new experiences. Sometimes it's hard to not get annoyed when someone is different or the culture is strange. Instead of spending your time complaining about the body odor of the man in front of you or how you don't know what you're eating. Try the meat, you never know, you might actually enjoy it. Duck isn't so bad after all.

Be patient. It is a virtue you know? It's hard to be patient and it's even harder when you're traveling. Things will always go wrong and people will always upset you. Instead of making comments to the foreigners who cut you in line for the museum or the people who run into you in a crowd, laugh about it and let it roll off your back. Life is better when people are patient.

And last but not least, always pack less than you want to. You will never wear all 4 pairs of shoes, or those cute earings that go with that one special shirt you brought along that you probably won't wear either. Pick a color scheme and stick with it- pack everything to match that color and pack LIGHT. No need to carry weigh yourself down with useless luggage you'll probably never use.


Oh, and one last thing I almost forgot.....SKYDIVE. do it!!! it's so worth it!! =)

---