BUT, I never finished telling you about the rest of my trip! So a few more pictures to help sum up the end:
After my last post, Mom came to visit me in Thessaloniki! We mostly hung around Thessaloniki, and I got to show her some of my favorite things, but we also went to the nearby city of Kavala to check it out and get away from the city for a bit. It’s a cute little city on the water, just about 1.5 or 2 hours away from Thessaloniki. I'm glad Mom was able to visit!
The next weekend, our school had a trip planned to hike up Mt. Olympus, supposed home of the ancient gods.
The first day was super hot and sweaty and fairly intense. We spent a chilly night at the refuge, before heading for the summit the next morning.
The second day was less distance, but steeper and more "dangerous" seeming, and more fun. We trekked through snow and loose rocks up the sides of the mountain, as vegetation began to disappear and the temperature dropped.
After what seemed like forever up a long stretch straight up, we were almost there. A couple more scary snow crossings and we were at the top of Skala, one of the peaks!
Towards the end of classes, as most people were leaving very soon, everyone tried to make it out to the beaches as much as possible. Halkidiki is an area near Thessaloniki which has 3 peninsulas (or fingers, or legs, as they are referred) stretching out into the Aegean, which are known for the lovely beaches they offer. My favorite was when we went camping on the second finger, on a beach called Kalamitsi. It was great and included a lovely beach bonfire complete with Reese’s s'mores (if I have never told you about Reese's s'mores yet, ask me!). Loved it, and the beach was absolutely beautiful, and quite possibly my favorite of any I’ve ever been to! (pictures to come, they are still on my camera :( but there are some pretty sweet ones with STARS. i love that my camera can catch stars, it's one of my favorite things about it!)
Then lots of last goodbye nights commenced and lots of people left, yet a few of us still remained. I had made my flight for two weeks later than we were kicked out of the apartments, in hopes of finding other travel opportunities. Didn’t end up going to Italy or Spain, which was the tentative plan for a little while, but it was a good little extra time, crashing in Kate and Ali's room, with trips to Turkey and Bulgaria and a random beach trip with feta lady squeezed in there.
The lady I always bought feta cheese from at the big Saturday market, Liza, invited me to join her and a friend going to the beach one holiday weekend! So I met them there and it was a funny, fun little beach trip. :)
My friend Ashley (who I am now rooming with) was in Turkey in June, and I planned a trip to visit! She was in Bursa, Turkey, just south of Istanbul across the Marmara Sea (I believe the Marmara…). So I took an overnight train to Istanbul (accidentally, but enjoyably, a sleeper car), met up with different friend from my study abroad program who was in Istanbul with her dad, visiting after classes, from whom I received a mini tour of Istanbul.
The next morning I took a ferry to Bursa and eventually met up with Ashley, stayed with her and her team for 4 days, and then headed back for Istanbul and Thessaloniki. So much fun! Bursa is known for its silk, and was originally part of the Silk Road, I believe, and so had a PLETHORA of beautiful silk scarves for Ashley and I to decide on while shopping at the silk market. (pictures to come...also still on my camera...running out of room on my computer!)Right after Turkey, I headed for Bulgaria for the second time. This time to the closer city of Blagoevgrad, to meet up with a friend I hadn’t seen in 8 years! We had spent 2 months together in Africa the summer of 2001. Krista had been serving in the Peace Corps in Bulgaria for the past 2 years and randomly one day on facebook noticed I was in Greece. “Hey, are you in Greece? I’m in Bulgaria! Want to meet up?” So I spent the day at a water park and movie theater in Bulgaria, eating chili and cornbread with pouring rain by night, and we reminisced with our memories o f eight years past.
I was the last of my study abroad friends to leave, so when I got back from Bulgaria everyone had gone and I stayed with Alan and Whitney, whom I had met at church. I enjoyed their family, finished packing up, met up with Sofia for coffee, went to the mall for the first time, and then it was time to go.
Some flight confusion greeted us at the airport, due to the snow in London in February, but Alan helped to resolve it with his fantastic Greek skills and I caught the next flight to Athens. Bought some halva (hall-VAH, a Greek sweet made from sesame seeds) at the airport with the last of my euro change (which ended up mystifying EVERY single one of the security check camera people), barely made the flight out of London due to delays, but was surprised to find that my seat was located in the FIRST CLASS section. I have no pictures, but seriously I had my own little booth with a seat that reclined completely flat so that I could sleep, got some awesome food, and it was just amazing. Wow. Welp, that's all! Goodbye Europe!Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, at the end of spring break, that I went bungee jumping in the Corinth Canal! Yep. I would rather skydive too, yes, but the opportunity was there, so yes, of course I went for it. I guess it is one of the top 10 or something best places to bungee jump, and 3rd highest location in the world. They did it on Amazing Race one time. It was pretty sweet!
