Greece: The Land of Everything Blue, White, and Ancient

So my trip to Greece is definitely my favorite trip so far. I was with a great group of girls and everything went well. No missed flights or other disappointments :D

I left last Friday and we flew into Athens. On the flight there we sat next to a language professor and she gave us a quick lesson on basic Greek. That was lots of fun. Coming out of the plane we knew how to say, "hello", "thank you", and "my name is ______". We hadn't really realized that not only do they speak Greek in Greece, but they write with the Greek alphabet too. This presents a problem when you have a map in lower-case letters and the street signs are in upper-case. Have you ever thought how different upper and lower case letters are? Or how difficult it is to ask questions about where you are when you haven't a clue how to pronounce anything? But, between the 4 of us we pulled together all of the mathematical equations and sorority/ fraternity names that we knew and by the end of the trip, we were pros at the alphabet (I mean, we could somewhat sound things out). It was a feat.

The first night we wandered around the area of Athens called Plaka. It contains the oldest flea market in the world so that was fun window shopping there for a while. We also ate some true Greek appetizers that were delicious. Greek food is much more flavorful than Spanish food and they have all of the black olives while Spain has the green olives. I'm definitely more a fan of the green than black after being in Spain this semester. But everything we had was delicious. One of the things we had was Mousaka (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Moose Caca). It was kind of like meatloaf in pie crust. Delicious!

The next morning we went to the island of Andros (early! We left the hostel at 5am). We chose this island in the beginning because the ferry was the cheapest and we found a really good deal on a hostel. We didn't really know what to expect, but when we arrived at the port and then took a bus to our "Villa" we realized how lucky we were. For under $20 a night we had a little studio apartment with a balcony, full kitchen, and a private beach across the street.

We all just stood there in the room when the owner walked us up in awe. Way better than we were expecting! Best shower I've taken all semester! As we talked to the owner, she told us that cars were really easy to rent and would only be like $7 each for a whole day. Since it was only about 10am at this point, we went to figure it out. Unfortunately, you had to be 23 and the oldest of us had just turned 22. So close. But we still had an amazing time!

We were in the town of Batsi which is exactly what you see in pictures of the Greek islands: white houses with bright blue detailing.

And the water was SOOOO blue and SOOOO clear. You could see down all the way no matter how hi you are. The weirdest thing was that the boats looked like they were floating. Now yes, I know that all boats float, but these boats looked like there wasn't anything under them. That's how clear the water was. Awesome. Unfortunately, the water was ice cold. I'm talking I ran in to my waist and by the time I ran out my legs were tingling and numb. But the sand was hot from the sun so we sat on the beach the rest of the day. It was so nice.

The next day we decided to go for a walk down the road. There are little beaches all around the island that are like little coves surrounded by cliffs and rocks. We walked along and saw this beach that we wanted to get to but couldn't because the stairs down were all gated off and impossible to climb over.

So we kept going to the next beach where we found a paddle boat with the oars. PERFECT! We could get to our little beach! So we hid all of our stuff in the bushes and ventured out on the Aegean Sea.

There were 4 of us in this little paddle boat that was probably made for 2 people but we just straddled each other and made it work. It was comical to say the least. Not to mention that we were probably above the weight limit and every once in a while the ice cold water lapped over the edge surprising us all. Luckily there weren't many other people on the island... especially the beaches. We pretty much had the island to ourselves (Apparently people like to come when the water is a bit warmer. I don't really blame them). So we paddled over to the beach, stayed there for a while sunning ourselves like turtles on a big slab of rock, and then returned the boat to where we found it. Awesome!

The last full day, Monday, we took a bus to another city on the island that is the capital. It was also a picturesque little white and blue Greek town on a bay.




It was a bit chilly that day so we were glad we had the time to walk around. We saw an island (more like a big rock) that we wanted to get to, but didn't know how. As we walked around we realized that there was a bridge to it. Now this bridge was more like an ancient arch of rock.

My friend Katrina was determined to get across so she braved this bridge. All of us were a bit leery thinking she would make it collapse. But she got to the top and started jumping on it to prove it was sturdy. So we followed. Katrina and Melinda were the mountain goats because they just ran across these rocks and up the hills and everything. Chelsea and I were the mountain monkeys crawling on all fours :D. But we all made it and finished our little adventure.


The whole time we were there we took full advantage of our little kitchen making pasta and french toast and everything. We had to be resourceful though because we only had a large pot. We had a packet of alfredo mix for one meal and thought it would be amazing with some broccoli. So, we steamed broccoli as we cooked the noodles using the wire dish drying rack. Very resourceful this group of girls I was with. It was also funny being somewhere where none of us had a clue what anything said. We were at the grocery store and saw something that looked like one of those no bake cookies and cream cheesecake mixes, but there was no way for us to know. So we asked the cash register clerk what we needed and how to make it. Everyone in Greece knows a little bit of basic English, so it was hilarious as he read it and we guessed what he was trying to say until we figured it out. Fun times!

Tuesday we returned to Athens and were worn out by the time we got back. We crashed at the hostel so that we could set out bright and early on Wednesday to see the Acropolis and all of the ancient sites in Athens before our flight. We went to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon
the Temple of Zeus

and all of the ruins in the ancient Agora and on the hill. We climbed the Aereopagos where Paul gave a speech to the Athenians. That was really cool. It's just this big slab of marble that has an awesome view of Athens.


It was a great trip and I had a ton of fun!

I'll add pictures to this ASAP when I have time. It takes forever for them to load up on here. I'm off to eat dinner.

Love you all and can't wait to see everyone when I get back!!!!

Semana Santa= Holy Week

So this is late, but it’s been crazy around here lately. I only have 4 more weeks before the semester is done and I go off to my 2 weeks in Italy. However, in those 4 weeks I only have 6 more days of classes, 3 finals and this coming week in Greece. Time is running out and lots of planning for the trips. But, it’s been awesome!

I never put anything up here about Semana Santa because I just haven’t had time, but I feel like it deserves a spot on here. After all, Sevilla is known to have the biggest Semana Santa celebration world wide. This includes “pasos” which are parades through the city. Each Catholic church in the Sevilla area has statues of Jesus and usually a virgin (a Spanish Catholic thing I think… it seems to be a whole other classification of saints but I’m not really sure). Some of them are from the 11th century so there is a lot of history built in. These statue/float type things are carried by 30 men who walk it through the parade. There are also “nazarinos” which are dressed like members of the KKK (no joke) and walk as part of the parade. Some of them carry candles and others crosses. And there are also bands in the parades to. The music is very Spanish… brass… kind of flamenco-ish if that means anything to you. The parades go from the church, to the Cathedral in the center of Sevilla, and then back to the church. Each day throughout the week there are probably 5-10 maybe more “pasos”. The fun of it is to go and stake out a good spot to see each of the parades. You go ahead of the statue floats and then wait and wait until it gets there and then you figure out which paso you should go to next. It’s odd. I didn’t really understand it at first but the more of them I saw, the more interesting it got. It’s not really like anything I’ve seen before but it was definitley interesting.

And then on Easter Sunday, Maria Louisa and Miguel took us to a suburb of Sevilla (not really suburban at all, more like a little town out in the country) and they had a neat picnic and pasos of their own. Spaniards know how to do the picnics though. There were families who brought a folding table, 2 coolers and everything on a dolley. I thought it was funny. On top of that, people just shared all of their food. You came with your cooler or whatever with food and then you could just walk around and eat everyone elses stuff. At first I felt really stupid, but everyone was doing it. The just handed out all of the food they had brought. There were also men singing in circles with guitars and people dancing Sevillanos in their flamenco dresses and everything. It was very interesting.

Over all, Easter was just like a big party rather than anything about Jesus or the resurrection. I went to the big service at the Cathedral. It was at midnight on Saturday and it was really interesting as well. It was a candle light service so everyone had candles and it was super traditional. A good amount of it was in Latin (And I thought it was going to be difficult to understand because it would be in Spanish lol). Nothing about the resurrection was said until the last 15 minutes of the service though and I found that quite odd. That is also when the organ started and that was really neat. In the largest gothic cathedral in the world you can just imagine how it sounded.

PICTURES
The paso of the virgin. This was of the one closest to our house.

This is the Christ figure that was in the same paso. Throughout the week, they kind of tell the Passion story. This was from a paso on Friday.

This is how many people came to Sevilla. It was packed with people. This is a street and you can see the Nazarinos' hats. There were hundreds of them.

Full picture of the Nazarinos

This is all of us at the picnic thing in the pueblo on Easter Sunday. Miguel is on the right with the glasses and Maria Louisa is on the left.

This is what the picnic was like. People all dressed up and on horses. So much fun.

Finally here are pictures from Scotland!!!


The climb up the hill in Edinburgh.


Edinburgh Castle


The pier town that we ate lunch at in Edinburgh.


The Tartan of the MacLeans.


I just liked this picture... it's in Edinburgh.


On the grounds of Duart Castle. It was raining... yes I'm wearing a poncho.


Signing the book of the pilgrim MacLeans.


On the ferry on the way to Mull... That is Duart castle in the background.


That was the third try to get that picture... they started chasing me and I kept getting scared.

The Motherland- the joys of travel

Let’s talk about how amazing Scotland is. I’m pretty much in love with it and am definitely going back eventually. The people were sooo friendly. Bus drivers would ask us where we were trying to go and give us directions, people brought us hot cocoa when we were sitting on a pier waiting for our bus, we were treated to dinner by the other couple that was staying in our bed and breakfast, and so much more. We were completely welcomed and helped out in every way possible it seemed. We aren’t sure if this is because it was just a shock being in an English speaking country again where we understand everyone (almost everyone lol… those accents are tough sometimes :D).

And yes, I realized how used to speaking Spanish to everyone I am. The first time we got on a bus I told the driver “hasta luego” and then realized that I was being ridiculous haha. I got a strange look.

But, let’s start from the beginning of the trip. Last Saturday morning I left my house in Sevilla with my friend Irene at 430 so we could get to the airport in time for our flight. We had a connection in Palma de Mallorca (one of the most popular tourist locations in the Mediterranean for the beaches). It was gorgeous even though we saw it from a plane and the airport. We waited there for about 6 hours and were ready to board our flight that would take us to Edinburgh. However, as we walked up to board they wouldn’t let us because we didn’t have some kind of special stamp that apparently you only need if you are leaving Spain on a student visa (the same thing happened to a couple other girls from my program too... not very clear in the directions). Suddenly we had 5 minutes to run through the airport and security, find a little office, get our ticket stamped, and run back to board the plane. (By the way, I’m wearing a boot now because my foot was becoming ridiculous and no, this was not an excuse to anyone at the airport to help me at all.) So we ran and ran and ran, sweating and wheezing the entire way. (I haven’t actually ran in a long time thanks to the foot… it was sad lol.) And let me just say that this airport is huge. It’s random and on an island, but there are 4 terminals and of course we were on the one farthest from the office. Finally, after asking numerous people where we were going, my zipper coming open and half of my stuff falling out of my backpack, and whacking a random guy with my water bottle that was tied to my bag (I got the death stare… no language barriers in that), we got the stamp and returned to our terminal only to see the arm just beginning to detach from our plane. We were seriously 2 minutes late after all of that. Let me just say we were more than a little upset. We were on an ISLAND lol. The flight was with a cheap, not highly respected company and they had absolutely no customer service. There had been one sentence saying to have our visa checked by security, but still I don’t understand how we were supposed to know we needed it stamped at their office and not just saying as we went through security we would need to show them our visa. We were not alone in this misunderstanding though. There was a Korean girl who is also studying in Spain who missed the flight for the same reason. The three of us bonded together and tried to figure everything out. RyanAir told us to walk around asking all of the other kiosks if they had flights to Scotland that night. The other girls story is worse than ours because she had left her bag with the flight attendants and when we came back it was no where to be found (we still don’t know what happened to it… they were so unhelpful and we looked everywhere with her). So she was there with her passport and that was it. No phone, no money, no friends, only her passport and ticket stub that was worthless now. So the whole situation was redeemed a little bit in the fact that we could help her get to where she needed to go (her Spanish is not very good yet and her English wasn’t much better). We got a flight in to Glasgow later that day and then took a bus the rest of the way so that we finally got to Edinburgh at around midnight (instead of 2 pm). In the process we had gone through security so many times (each time the thing dinging on me of course lol) that the guards asked us what was going on, why we’d been running and if we had gotten a different flight. Comical to say the least.

In Edinburgh we crashed at Irene’s friends flat (she is going to school in Edinburgh). It had been too long of a day to go out and try and do anything. We were just happy that we had gotten there Saturday! Sunday we explored Edinburgh a bit. We hiked up Calton hill which we thought was Arthur’s seat, the highest point in Edinburgh but there were still some great views, walked up and down the Royal Mile and saw the castle. Then we had some time to kill and started talking to some people at a bus stop who told us which bus we should take to go up to a little fishing village and eat dinner there on the water. (side note: Edinburgh has the best and most organized bus system of any city I’ve been in so far… and yes they are double deckers like in England.) So, we went and it was a precious little part of town and we ate looking out across the “firth” to absolute gorgeousness. Later that night we went to a tour of Mary King’s Close which is a tour of the underground city of Edinburgh. Back in the day they built on top of a whole bunch of the city instead of destroying it. So now the Royal mile is actually over old houses and buildings. They just opened it up for tours and stuff about 5 years ago. And finally on our way home from that we stopped in a pub that had live music and that was fun. All I’m saying is that anyone can dance like the Scottish dance… I wouldn’t ever feel stupid :D.

Monday we headed towards Oban and the Isle of Mull. The bus trip was completely worth the 4.5 hour ride just to see the country side. Constant mountain/ hills covered with waterfalls, castles, and sheep. Hard to describe but I completely, 100% think that everyone needs to go. We got our ferry tickets across to Mull and tried to put together our plans for the following couple days. The trip on the ferry was absolutely gorgeous as well. Think of those inspirational posters that say stuff like strength and courage that they always have in schools but in real life. When we got to Mull, we realized that the website had lied (or just been conveniently vague) and the buses stopped running at about 6 pm. Therefore, our days were not going to be as full as we had intended them to be. So we rearranged our plans to work with the bus schedules and were going to rent bikes one of the days. We walked around a bit (took a random train thing that’s like a carnaval ride for 5 year olds because we didn’t realize what we were doing lol), had a run in with a sheep, and met quite a few really nice people that we continued to bump into throughout the couple days we were there. We rode the bus back to Tobermory (a precious little harbor town) and got to our bed and breakfast. The owner was precious and there was a couple staying upstairs too that offered us drinks and food and everything. So the first day, we didn’t see as much as we’d wanted but it was fine because we had plans for the next two days set.

So Tuesday began with an AMAZING breakfast… I mean, compare anything with a piece of toast with oil and a cup of coffee and its going to win, but it was delicious. It ended up being really cold so our bike plan fell through (a constant drizzle really makes the cold cut through you) and we decided to take the bus to see Iona (a little island off of Mull). The drive was supposed to be gorgeous. We got half way (to where we had to switch buses) and found out that the busses weren’t going to Iona that day because the ferry wasn’t working because of the weather. As Irene said, “The spirit is willing but the buses are weak.” So, we ended up going to Duart castle (yes, this is the MacLean clan castle). And that was awesome. I signed the book of MacLeans that have gone and visited and it was really neat. I got some awesome pictures. After that we went on a hike (we had a whole bunch of time to kill because the bus wasn’t going back to Tobermory where our B&B was for a few hours) But I’m so glad we did because again… it was gorgeous. We were soaked by the end of the day, but completely worth it. We went back to our place, microwaved a frozen pizza and some popcorn (hadn’t had popcorn since we’d been here) and called it a night after watching some Scottish TV (random fact: Did you know that they still wear the grey curly wigs in the courts in Britain? Think George Washington wig on normal modern people… funny!).

Wednesday morning we didn’t have time (actually the bus schedule was just crappy) so we didn’t have time to get to Iona and back before the ferry we needed to catch our bus back to Edinburgh, so we went on an early ferry and looked around Oban (the harbor that is on the mainland side). We ate some fish and chips (I’m officially a fan of haddock), drank an Irn bru (the signature soda of Scotland apparently… kind of like the Ale8 of Scotland for you Asbury people), and some Sticky Toffee Pudding (I’m looking for a recipe because it was sooo delicious). We were told we had to try those things before leaving. Haggis was also on that list, but we weren’t quite brave enough lol.

We got back to Edinburgh Wednesday night and then left Thursday morning again for Sevilla without anymore plane issues. All week we had been a little bit obsessive compulsive about times of everything.

It was one of those trips that was a learning experience throughout the whole thing. I felt like we had done our research and the websites made it sound like our plans were going to work but just had bad luck with how it turned out in the end. It was one frustrating thing after another but we were in Scotland and that was AMAZING. The fact that we didn’t get to do as much as we wanted to makes me want to go back and do it again the right way. My advice would be for anyone planning to go to Scotland… rent a car and have no plans (or loose ones). Just drive and see where you end up. And don’t rely on buses on the Isle of Mull because while the drivers are super nice, it’s just a very slow paced place.

I'll put up pictures later... It was gorgeous!!! Love you all!!

Last minute planning

I'm finally done with exams and that is a HUGE relief! I can't believe that I only have one more set of exams to go before the semester is over.

All week I have been making last minute plans and getting everything ready for SCOTLAND.

We are leaving tomorrow bright and early (our flight leaves at 6:30am eek!) We're hoping that the rain holds off while we're there. I know that's a lot of wishful thinking, but we're hoping to bike around while were on the Isle of Mull. (We have ponchos to look like true tourists :D)

I've been trying to upload a video this week of my house but it won't let me. Unfortunately I don't have any people who know much about computers around to help me. I'll keep working on it though once I get back though.

Semana Santa (Holy Week)is HUGE here in Sevilla (the biggest in all of Europe apparenlty). It's all anyone talks about. I'm going to be back in Sevilla on Thursday (jueves santo) to see the biggest pass of the week. Apparently the whole city stays up all night. Lots of the cathedrals have either huge virgin statues or huge Jesus statues and they are carried by 30 men from their church to the main Cathedral of Sevilla and back to their church again. It's like every church has it's own mini parade with all of the people dressed up like their in the KKK. I'll put up pictures once I see it. I've seen movies and pictures, but I'll get some up here so you can enjoy the festivities :D.

Also, in anticipation of Semana Santa, they just opened the metro (they've been building it forever) and its the talk of the town. It's free today and yesterday so everyone is lining up to give it a try. My senora went yesterday and was so excited about it. Especially because it goes under the Guadalquivir River (5 seconds... she told us all about it). Super cool. haha

I hope you all are doing well. I'll be sure to give you another update once I get back!