Ok, so Greece. Amazing. Only, amazing times infinity. I can't even begin to describe. It was quite possibly, the best week of my life. Everything about Greece was fabulous. The food, the weather, the beaches, the people, the view, everything.
[sunset in Naxos}
For starters, we flew into Athens and rode their immaculate metro system (it puts the Roman metro to SHAME) into the heart of the city, arrived around 3, went to our hostel and then exploring. It was to late to actually go to the Acropolis, but we did get to see it from a distance, and also the Parthenon. Both were really cool to see and I hope to go back someday and see them for real. It started hailing on us, and a nice restraunt owner offered us shelter and free water (this is a huge deal, water is NEVER free in Europe) under his umbrellas. We ended up staying and eating there, and I discovered that real Greek salads do not actually have any lettuce in them. Its cucumber, tomato, onion, bell pepper, olive, and feta. And since I don't really like cucumbers, tomatos, bell peppers, or Greek olives (they are crazy salty), I just ate the feta and onion. Still, it was delicious. Then we got free dessert, which was the first thing we got free in Greece. After that, we got something free every day, sometimes multiple somethings. The man also taught us how to say thank you, and it wont let me type in Greek on this thing, so just know that it is a lot longer and more complicated than saying "Grazie." We realized that the language barrier might be more of a problem there than in Italy. However, lucky for us, almost everyone we met could speak English. And, everyone we met was soo nice. They would ask where we from, why we were in Greece, where else we had been and whether or not we liked it so far. Italians are nice, but these people were unbelievable. So accomadating and helpful, it was wonderful.
Anyways, the next day we got on the ferry (which was ENORMOUS) for four hours and spent the next 3 nights in Mykonos, which, of course, was amazing. Someone met us at the port, and drove us to the hotel, which was at the top of a hill overlooking the ocean and looked just like the buildings you see in pictures..the white square buildings with blue shutters. So so pretty. And they had a glass of wine waiting for all of us, which was really cool. Since there is still a week or two before tourist season really starts, there was hardly anyone else on the island, tourist wise. I really liked that, even though there were not many stores and restraunts open, it was nice to be away from the crazy crowdness of Rome. And we always managed to find somewhere to eat some delicious Greek food, so I was happy. There, we mainly hung out around the town, wandered around and watched the gorgeous sunsets. One day we did go down to the Paradise City. Haha, one of the beaches there is called Paradise. It was nice because no one else was there, except for people cleaning up the shops and stuff, getting ready for tourist season. The last night in Mykonos, we went to a local restraunt, where we were the only girls and the only people under 50. We met this guy who had a horse and offers horseback rides and scuba diving lessons during tourist season. He had dinner with us and got all his friends at the restraunt to teach us how to "oompa" dance aka traditional Greek dancing. It was sooo funny. We pushed all the tables against the walls and blasted Greek music and danced with these old men for like, 3 hours. And the owners gave us all at least 6 free shots. The alcohol was pretty gross, Ouzo and Ursus. Ouzo tastes like good and plenty and Ursus tastes like Dimeatapp. It was fabulous.
Next, we went to Naxos, where there was more stuff open, but still not a lot of people. More good food, wandering around, beach laying, and sunset watching went on. Some random man bought us free wine one night and the next, we got free shots again at a Tex Mex restraunt we accidently went to. I say accidently because of course, we wanted to eat Greek food and not Tex Mex while in Greece, but we didn't realize what it was until we got the menus. But the food turned out to be really really good, so all was not lost. They had a like, a resident salsa dancer there from Brazil, and he wanted us to dance with him. I got up and looked like an idiot for a little while, and then he got all 6 of us to do the rumba with him. It was really really funny. Esp since we were the only people dancing in this bar and our audience was pretty much all middle aged men and women, who were either laughing at us or ignoring us. Our hotel there was really nice (and had the comfiest beds) and was up on a hill as well, and you could see straight across to the Arch of Apollo, which was gorgeous. The family that owned the restraunt was so nice and was always willing to help us figure out where we were going and offer suggestions on what to do. In fact, I left a necklace and my watch there, and the owner met me at the port on our way back to Athens to give it back to me! And he said, "ok my lady," which I thought was soo funny. Anyways, we went to the beach there as well, and one of the days it was soo pretty and we could actually get in the water. However, the next day was really cold and windy and we were informed by our taxi driver that there was an eclipse while we were there. So, we didn't get a whole lot of sun that day.
Next, Santorini. Gorgeous, of course. The weather was perfect and we stayed in a really really nice hotel. It was in the capital, Fira and was like a 5 minute walk into town. It was a little strange though because apparently all Greek high schoolers take a 5 day vacation at the end of March, so there were about 1000 of them staying at our hotel as well. Other than the stares and boys winking us, it was fine. Our room had a loft and you could walk out on the roof...so we would walk out and wave to all the teenagers down below. The first night we had an amazing dinner and when we went out that night, there were actually other people besides just the six of us at the bars and clubs. Not very many, but still, it was exciting to actually see other people out and about. The next day we rented a car instead of trying to take taxis to the beach and that turned out to be the smartest thing we had done. We got 2 since all 6 of us couldn't fit in one and I was captain of car 2 (I was the only one who had brought their license). I got to DRIVE around Santorini and visit black and red sand beaches. It was so amazing. I was an excellent driver and did not get us lost, or in any accidents. Not that there was a lot of traffic, but whatever. And, the one of the best parts of the whole trip was driving around, listening to the radio and having "Heaven is a Place on Earth" (my favorite song EVER) come on!!! Greek radio is crazy, but I never would have thought I would hear the best song in the world on it! Anyways, that night we drove to Oia, which is in the north and has the best place to watch the sunset. It was really really pretty, but all the highschoolers decided to come as well, so we didn't really get to watch in peace since they were all crazy loud. But it was funny to see all the girls giving us evil looks and the boys checking us out. Also, it was interesting to see the differences between Greek and Italian teenagers. The Greeks seem less into fashion, but they are both all about smoking, PDA, big sunglasses, and being as loud as possible. It was just funny to watch. Anyways, our ferry ride back to Athens was 8 hours, but it was ok because it was gorgeous weather and we got to watch the sunset on the boat.
There is so much more I could write about, but this is already long enough. It was such an amazing experience. Everything about the week was fabulous and I really really hope I can go back one day. And the best part of it all, I got to come home to ROME, where the weather is finally starting to get nice and is after all, ROME. So I can't complain. Assissi on Friday and France next weekend! Ciao ciao!
Oh, check out the rest of the pics on snapfish.com... :)
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