Anywho, my friend Elizabeth arrived a little over two weeks ago. [Oh, and by the way, Eurovision was just as good as it promised to be. As it was the final, 25 countries competed to have the title of best song in Europe. While my personal favorite was Sakis Rouvis from Greece, Norway ended up taking home the coveted prize. And when I say coveted prize, I mean... title for the cheesiest pop song in the land. Way to go Norway!] We have been having an absolute blast. Elizabeth is a friend from studying in London two years ago. She lives in Illinois, and I am so lucky that she was able to come over yonder! As soon as she got here I ditched my big backpack in a storage locker and we were on a flight to Venice. After aimlessly walking around at midnight (no streets = no taxis) for an hour or so we finally found our hostel. It was very nice - much more like a real hotel (!). The next day we explored the city. While it is extremely beautiful, Venice is not my favorite city. I could not believe the number of tourist shops and items of every kind for sale. It was really distracting. After two and half hours of frantically trying to find the right dock (a story I will not bore you with. But I will tell you that a watertaxi ride of approximately 100 yards is 40 Euro. 40 EURO.) we finally get to our ferry. Our 36 hour ferry! 36 hours is a long time - truly - a time that we filled mostly with reading. And discussing other passengers. Like the two Croatians that shared our cabin, Anita and Mathos. They were... interesting.
SO, we made it to Patras, Greece. From there we had a four hour train and were then finally in ATHENS! I had been warned against the city - many people had told me that it was dirty and way too busy - so I think that helped me appreciate it in my own way. Elizabeth and I thought it was great! It is in fact a bit dirty, but the combination of old and new is mesmerizing, and I really, REALLY like Greek people. They are funny and welcoming. We hit up most of the classic sites (Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Theatre of Dionysis, site of the first modern day Olympics) and made sure to take advantage of siesta and have a freddo cappucino - iced - just as the rest of the city does. We also went to an outdoor theatre that had an amazing view of the Acropolis lit up at night, and the site of the 2004 Olympics. The hostel we stayed at was really fun, and I met a girl there who is an art history major at Notre Dame and is moving to Berlin for the same reason as me (language for grad school)! She's only going to be there a month, but I'm still excited.
After four Athens-filled days we took another (8 hours this time) ferry to the island of Santorini. Quite literally, the most beautiful place I have ever been. We stayed at an incredibly cheap hostel that ended up being a gorgeous villa, with an amazing view. We rented an ATV to explore. I was scared out of my wits at first - Liz and I figured we were going 40 at our fastest - but I think it was one of the best things I've ever done. We were there a total of two full days. The second day we took the ATV to the northern tip of Oia to watch the sunset. The entire place was like a fairy tale, with the white houses and deep blue water that are envisioned when thinking of Grecian Islands. We were clearly not disappointed.
Our amazing hotel, Stavros Villas:
We then took the ferry back to Athens for our morning flight to London. I am so lucky to have been able to go to Greece. It's a place that Elizabeth had always wanted to go, and one that I would surely never say no to, so I sort of went along for the ride. I will never, ever forget the places we were able to visit, the people we met, or the 52 total hours on a ferry.
OPA!
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