Shelby and I were ready to go to Greece! We met at the train station in Rome to catch a bus to Ancona, Italy. Since the name of our travel agency was bus2alps, I knew that we would be on busses often on this trip, but I wasn't prepared for how long we would be traveling on boats and ferries. It was about a 4 1/2 hour bus ride from Rome to the port of Ancona. Then, at 4:30 PM, we boarded a ferry that we would be on for 15 hours! Luckily, we had booked a cabin on the ferry, which was actually nice. It had several restaurants, an outdoor cafe, and even its own dance club, which played horrible music. I had my first taste of a Greek lamb gyro while on the boat, and it was sooooo good. After the ferry staff repeatedly pounded on our door to let us know we had arrived on the mainland of Greece, we docked and got off the boat. We tried to run to catch our ferry to the island of Corfu, but didn't make it on the 8:30 AM ferry, so we grabbed breakfast- hard-boiled egg, toast with jelly, coffe, and orange juice (which is better than the Italian breakfast- all they eat is meat and cheese in the morning usually). It was time to get on another ferry for 1 1/2 hours and we would finally arrive on Corfu, our first destination of the week.
On the island of Corfu is one of "Europe's Famous Hostels", the Pink Palace. And yes, everything and I mean basically everything, is PINK at the Pink Palace. I was in my glory. :) After figuring out the rooming situation, Shelby and I would be staying with another girl that goes to AUR, Allie. We didn't know her before we came on the trip, but she was willing to split up from her friends, so we were excited to make some new friends. Sunday afternoon we laid on the beach and I started reading "The Time Traveler's Wife." I'm still only halfway through the book, but I recommend it to anyone looking for a good book. Plus I can't wait to see the movie when I get back to the States. The beach was rockier than I imagined- not the white sand I pictured in my head. But the water was beautiful blue and clear and almost as pretty as Capri. I still think I like Capri better than the islands of Greece that I saw over fall break. I wish we could have visited Santorini or the other islands, but it takes too much time to get there by boat and is obviously too expensive to fly there. The weather was a little cloudy, so we ended our beach lounging a little early to grab another gyro, with chicken instead. Since dinner was included with our trip, we decided to take advantage of Happy Hour and I tried the Pink Palace's Pink Panther cocktail that was of course- PINK! They fed us a delicious meal of soup, traditional Greek salad, and then green beans, mashed potatoes, and chicken. Another good meal and I was ready to shake it on the dance floor. :)
On Monday, we woke up early to sign up for the activities offered at our hostel. We really wanted to go on the Booze Cruise, the Pink Palace's pink boat with Captain Oz, where they take us cliff jumping, swimming in a bat cave, to a private beach, and a tour of the island of Corfu, along with some shots of ouzo. LOL Unfortunately, we didn't make the cutoff to sign up, so we decided to go on a kayak safari instead, which included lunch anyways, so it was a good deal.
After a little struggle getting past the waves to get into the kayak, I was ready for some paddling in the ocean and the sun was shining more than on Sunday, so I was ready to get my tan on too! Our guide, Mike, who was Australian, took us cliff jumping as well, so that was really fun. Shelby didn't want to cliff jump, so I jumped out of the kayak and climbed up with several other people. From below in the water, the rock didn't look that high, but once I climbed to the top, my legs were shaking. Count to 1, 2, 3 and off I jumped. It was the most exhilirating, adrenaline pumping thing I've done in a really long time and it was so much fun to try something new!! The water was cold though and I was a little bit freezing until the sun dried me off. Our next stop on our kayak safari was a smaller island near Corfu. We climbed to the top to eat our lunches and saw some amazing views of the water and the coastline of Corfu. Like I said, this island reminded me of Capri, but I thought Capri was somewhat prettier. There was a small chapel on top of the island and also a bell tower. Supposedly, if you ring the bell once, you wish for love, twice for family, three times for money, and four is for an unknown wish. Mike told us that 25 years ago, a college guy rang the bell once and that night, he met a girl and they fell in love and eventually married. They visited the Pink Palace and the bell tower on their wedding anniversary. I rang the bell just once- wishing for love. We'll see if that wish comes true while I'm studying abroad. We could have gone snorkeling after walking around the island, but instead we decided to paddle back to the hostel because we were both getting cold from being wet. So we paddled back, but to our dismay, a wave decided to creep up on us as we were nearing the shore and flipped over our kayak. Neither of us were injured, but I lost my towel and my favorite white cami from American Eagle and Shelby lost her jean shorts, which had 20 euro in the pockets. So our docking ashore was a failure. :( But it was fun during the kayak safari, so I won't complain too much.
Now it was time to get ready for our pink toga party!! :) I was excited- again, they fed us a delicious dinner with soup, Greek salad, and meat and potatoes. And then we got to see a traditional Greek dance show. The Greek men were really good at the dancing, and the one even balanced a table in his mouth while he was dancing!! There were plates smashing everywhere and they even lit a ring on the floor on fire. It was cool to experience this part of Greek culture. Then, they started giving out shots of ouzo and breaking plates on people's heads. I was close enough that I had a plate broken on my head, and it was an experience. It didn't really hurt, just felt like someone bumped me in the head. We had fun dancing the rest of the night away.
The next morning, Tuesday, we woke up in enough time to make the cutoff to sign up for the Booze Cruise, though I was a little hungover from the toga party, so I was hoping I wouldn't get sea sick or have a headache all day. I didn't go cliff jumping this time, because the water was much colder and I had lost my towel the day before, so I was content with staying on the boat and watching other people jump. It was fun to watch and I couldn't believe I had done the same thing the day before. The bat cave was really dark and I didn't swim inside there either, but everyone said it was pitch black, but they didn't see any bats. The private beach that they showed up was absolutely beautiful. It was less rocky than the beach that was close to the hostel. It was almost like a little cove, so there were gigantic rocks surrounding the beach and the water was crystal clear. It was nice to soak up the sun and get off the boat for a bit. I had to take some Dramamine from the captain because I just couldn't take the boat rocking. Ugh, just thinking of it reminds me of rocking back and forth, back and forth. But it was really fun and we took full advantage of the Pink Palace's jacuzzi when we were back on land!!! It warmed us right up and then it was time to pack our things and move on. After dinner, we caught a bus that would take us back to the port of Corfu. From there, we took a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride and then hopped back on the bus to drive overnight to Athens. I told you I was on boats and busses for long periods of time during this trip!!!!
Athens is an important city in history, but I would not say it's my favorite international city. It's very dirty, and our tour guide said that they cleaned up the city when they hosted the 2004 Olympic Games there, but since then, it's kind of falling apart again. It's very dirty and doesn't have the charm that Rome does. Since it was one of Greece's independence days, we got into all the tourist spots for free- pretty sweet deal. We went to the Acropolis, where the Parthenon stands, which is the huge temple to the Greek goddess Athena. The view of the city from atop the Acropolis is pretty amazing, and the city looks bigger than Rome, but I don't know for a fact which city is technically bigger. After the Acropolis, we walked to the Temple of Zeus; only 16 pillars remain of the temple and one of them was knocked down in the 1800s. We also walked by the Olympic Stadium, built in 1896, when the Olympic Games were revived. These were some interesting sites, and after our walking tour, we decided to grab lunch. Of course, I had another gyro and Shelby had a Greek salad. We walked around a little bit and then decided to go to the Poet Sandalmaker. This Greek family has been making sandals and writing poetry for 3 generations now. The Beatles, Jackie O, Barbara Streisand, and other celebrities have gone to the Poet Sandalmaker to buy their custom-made leather sandals. I bought a pair for 27 euro and know it will be a souvenir I'll remember forever! We also indulged and went to the Starbucks in Athens, since we don't have one in Rome. My chai tea latte was so delicious and tasted good on a cool autumn day. On Wednesday night, we had a traditional Greek dinner with lots of Greek appetizers, including tzatziki, Greek salad, and other good food. For my main dish, I tried moussaka, which a lasagna-style Greek dish, except instead of pasta, they use eggplant and it is so delicious. I was so full from the appetizers that I couldn't eat the whole piece, but it was good anyway. We went to a night club called Spirit after dinner and danced the night away again.
On Thursday, we woke up kinda early, at 9:45 AM to catch a ferry to go to the island of Aegina. The ferry to Aegina would take about 1 hour and 10 minutes, not too bad, and then we would see a Greek island like we imagined. When we docked, it wasn't exactly the picture I had in mind- there still weren't lots of white houses with pretty blue roofs, but the town on the island seemed cozy and had more of a charm to it than Corfu or Athens. We decided to rent ATVs, but they call them quads over in Greece. After lots of waiting and making sure there were enough scooters and quads for everyone, Shelby and I decided to ride on the same quad, and she would drive. I know, even though I'm from Elk County, I've never driven a 4-wheeler by myself, it's embarrassing I know, but I didn't want my first time driving one to be in a foreign country, so I let Shelby drive. We saw some amazing views on our ride around the island. We drove along the coastline next to the crystal clear water. The beaches in Aegina were rocky as well. We climbed so many mountains and drove near cliffs and huge rock formations to see the beautiful landscape of the island. It was so cool and I only have a couple pictures of it because my camera battery died. :( But it was a sight I will never forget, standing on one of the highest points of the island, atop a mountain and overlooking the island and all the surrounding water- it was breathtaking!!!
Thursday night, we just kind of relaxed and enjoyed our hostel. We had a long day of traveling ahead of us the next day, and we wanted to be rested, plus I had come down with a little cough, so I didn't want to be run down. On Friday morning, we caught a bus that took us 3 1/2 hours north to catch our ferry. This time, we would be on the ferry for a little over 20 hours! We had a cabin again this time, and so we had a room to store our luggage and rest in a bed if we wanted to. Many rounds of card games later and lots of rest in the cabin and we had landed in Ancona on Saturday afternoon around 1 PM. After docking, all the students from Rome on the trip- 15 of us who have bonded and become closer just by traveling so far together- climb onto yepp- you guessed it- another BUS....this one would take us right to Termini Station in Rome, where we began our trip a week before. The bus ride took about 4 1/2 hours, with one pit stop to eat a light dinner. Even though it was Halloween, I still had that persistent cough and my nose was a little stuffy, I knew I just needed some rest. Shelby and I decided to just go back to our apartment and relax on All Hallow's Eve. Plus, neither of us had a costume. I guess people dress up in Italy, but it's not like the children go trick-or-treating back in the States. Some grocery stores had Halloween candy and many store fronts were decorated with black and orange when we got back to Rome. I was lucky and got to talk to my parents on Skype when I returned to my apartment on Saturday. Since daylight savings time had already happened in Europe, I was only 5 hours ahead instead of the regular 6 hour time difference. I hadn't talked to her in over a week, and it was the longest we hadn't communicated with each other. We had e-mailed once, but that was it! Obviously, we both survived and know that it's OK if we don't talk every single day.
Sunday was a day of unpacking, more relaxing, and doing some Italian homework. Shelby's mom was now in Rome for a 10-day visit, so they stopped by the apartment and I met her mom. Also, I went to the basilica of San Clemente, near the Colosseum. This church has a really interesting history. There is the church that is at street level, built in the 15th century, which is beautiful and has lots of frescoes and side chapels with beautiful paintings and an apse mosaic that is very ornate (you can tell I had to visit this church as an independent assignment for my Art of Rome class!). But underneath the ground level church is another basilica that still stands. The whole church is underground and it's amazing. It's made out of brick and tufo, which is another white stone, so the facade isn't necessarily beautiful, but it's amazing that it's still standing and intact after so many years- it's believed to be from the 3rd or 4th century AD. There are still some original frescoes on the wall as well as pagan artwork when the basilica was used not as a Christian church but as a temple for pagan gods. Then, underneath that basilica is a portion of what's believed to be part of the Roman mint. So I was walking down on what would have been the street level in ancient times where they made the money and curreny of Rome. I thought that was so fascinating. Also, at the same level as the mint underground was a traditional small Roman house. The house had been built near a natural Roman spring and the spring water is still running to this day. That was probably one of the coolest parts about the whole visit to the basilica- I think the sound of running water is really soothing to me, probably why I like fountains so much!
On Sunday night, my roommate, Liz, invited me to go this free organ concert with her. It was near Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Museum, which is only about a half hour bus ride from our apartment. I figured I would try something new, and the organ music was really pretty! The Renaissance church we were in was beautiful too, and it was peaceful just to sit and admire the church and the music. We went for dinner afterwards with Justin, Liz's friend who also decided to come to the concert with us. I tried spaghetti carbonara, which is spaghetti with a bacon and egg sauce. At first, I was skeptical- that didn't sound all that appetizing to me. But Liz assured me it was to die for, so I ordered it! I also ordered some minestrone soup for my sore throat and "la zuppa" was steaming and delicious. After my first bite of spaghetti carbonara, I was hooked- it really was delicious! Of course, we had to treat ourselves to gelato after a night like that. We went to the organic gelato place and I had blueberry and peach gelato- so good! Well, I have to go to class soon. Until next time, ciao!
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