Thanks!
Thessaloniki #1
Thessaloniki #2
Old woman #1
Old woman #2
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Santorini/Thira
Whew, ok, I might have to finish this one later, but Santorini was, of course, gorgeous and just like people imagine...lots of white-washed buildings down the mountainside and lots of lovely views. We rented ATVs and explored the island and this was SO much FUN! Definitely a great way to see Santorini and its island loveliness. Just a couple pictures and then I am out for now. Mom comes to visit on Friday! :)
Crete
After London, I got to meet up with my friend Marta in Athens, and then had some time to recoup and relax and get some stuff done back in Thess for the rest of the week before meeting up with the group that had been in Egypt the previous week. We met up on the island of Crete, the biggest of the Greek islands (I think. Is Rhodes bigger?). We had a lot of fun going to the beach a lot and rock-jumping.
The city of Chania was nice and picture-esque. Easter in Greece was a week later than other Easter's this year, so we stayed up for the midnight celebrations in the center...slightly dissappointed to hear afterwards that they weren't doing fireworks this year, so it was just the candlelight part after the whole ceremony they have. My friend Kostis also lives very close to where we were staying in Chania, so we went over to his house one night and he showed us all his chickens and pidgeon-eagles and orange trees and stuff. And he played guitar and sang songs for us. That was lovely.
His mom showed us the Easter tradition of the red eggs and how you play a game where you try to crack the other person's without breaking yours. Oh, funny night.
Oh, and there were lots of sheep and chickens near our hotel on the walk to the beach! hehe
Oh, and the other city of Heraklion was cool too. Blue, blue water and big splashy waves. :) 
On to the UK...
So I left Athens a little earlier than everyone else and headed to London to meet up with my dear friend Emily who I went to school with in California! We explored London a bit, ate some fish and chips, and then headed to the lovely Republic of Ireland. We stayed in Dublin and got to experience the Wicklow area a little further south where movies like P.S. I Love You and Braveheart were filmed. The tour guide fell in love with Emily and it was quite a lovely time
Then we headed up to the gloomy city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, not to be confused with the Republic of Ireland. It is actually a different country and part of the UK, but still part of the same land mass/island thing as the other Ireland. Maybe it was just because it is less touristy, but the people there seemed very Irish, more so than in Dublin. We saw lots of REALLY red-haired people and often we had a hard time understanding what they were saying, despite it being English. C.S. Lewis is from Belfast, and I don't know, I feel like I get some of his writing better now that I've been there. It's just so gloomy-ish, but that's not exactly the right word either...
From Belfast we arrived in Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-bur-ah...I didn't know either), Scotland, as our final destination. It is a really cool city. I didn't really know anything about it or Scotland before I went, but I like it. The buildings are all stony and old, which doesn't sound attractive when I say it like that, but actually it is pretty pretty. There's a big impressive castle towards the center of the city that we were too cheap to actually go all the way inside, but it was cool nonetheless. We also got to see some Scottish countryside...the tour guide wasn't quite as charming this time, but we saw the Scottish Highlands including some pretty sweet glens (a valley, with cool mountains) and the famous Loch Ness. We passed lots of lochs...I think it just means lake. We passed lots of lakes. We parted ways again in London, but it was so nice to catch up again and explore foreign lands together!
April travels...
The month of April I had class a total of 6 days. Yep, in Greece, they like their holidays. Easter merits a whole 2 weeks out of school, throw in a couple days excused for a study abroad trip to Athens, and the week before Easter break I took off early ( most of my classes ended up being canceled anyway!) to meet up with a friend in London. And then right when we get back, no classes on Friday because it's May Day!
So the beginning of my April travels took place in Athens with all the rest of the study abroad students at our school...around 80ish of us I believe. We got to see the Parthenon on the Acropolis and everything. Athens is big and spread out because no tall buildings are allowed to make sure that the Acropolis can always be seen. That's what I heard at least. I believe it. There really are no skyscrapers.
Wow, look at all those buildings in the background. Lots. All over.
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