4/29
Greece at last…but first two finals! I had my Culture of Spain final at 9am. It was relatively easy, except for my unfortunate block on one of the answers. Oh well! After the exam I hurried home to finish my packing and then study, study, study for my Islam test. We had to take our Islam test at 4:30 with the class earlier to make our bus. Everything went well and then we were on our way!
As you may know, getting back from Greece was a little bit dramatic, so naturally getting there came along with some stress as well.
First of all, we did not pre-order our ferry tickets from Athens to Mykonos because we were under the impression after talking to the woman running our hostel that we shouldn’t have to. But then we realize we probably should. Turns out though you can only order tickets up to four days in advance and we were looking with 3 days to the arrival date. Eek. I called up a travel service and we were able to get that all figured out. Next, we had been planning on taking our Islam test at our normal time at 6:30 and leaving on a 12:30 bus to Madrid. We would arrive at the airport at around 6am with an hour to our flight. Which is generally enough time when you print your boarding passes ahead of time. WELL, because of the volcano for some reason EasyJet decided that we could not print boarding passes for flights during April and they decided to close the check in counter an hour before the flight rather than 40 minutes. This mean we had to change our bus tickets and take our test earlier. This cut out a good 2 hours of needed studying. But we made it, took the 7pm bus and were able to “sleep” at the Madrid airport. Joy. I put sleep in quotations because none of us actually slept except for Kelly who has the superpower of being able to sleep anywhere.
Airport floor in Madrid :)
4/30
Flight from Madrid to Milan. RUN in Milan airport to try to get to our next flight which we did not have much time for. Make it. Relieved. It’s delayed by 45 minutes. Frustrated. Flight from Milan to Athens. Freezing on flights. EasyJet prefers customers frozen. Get to Athens. Taxi to Rafina port for our ferry. Buy delicious crepes, seriously feta cheese is my favorite thing right now. Then 3 hour ferry to Mykonos island. Wait for Mina, from Mina Studios where we were staying, to pick us up.
9:00pm: SETTLED IN OUR AWESOME APARTMENT STYLE STUDIO.
Turned out Mina is amazing. Such a fun lady and we adopted her as our Greek Mama.
The Five of us and Mina!
She told us about the best places to go to meet the boys and about a place called Jacuzzi where there was a “sexy program.” Apparently a body builder gets in a hot tub along with a woman (? Not sure) and they dance…at the end of it everyone is in this hot tub. As appealing, and disturbing, as it sounded we chose to pass on that. But she shared with us all the other great places to eat and beaches to visit. That night we were all pretty exhausted so Mair, Justine, and I walked down a beach to a mini market and bought some dinner. Then we slept.
5/1 MAY 1st! This semester has gone by so fast.
We woke up, got our bathing suits on and sunbathed at a nice secluded little beach until 4pm. It was a little windy this first day. But we still managed to get some sun. And Katherine managed to be INSANE and jump in the freezing water.
At 4 we went back home to shower, eat lunch, and we may or may not have been able to watch an episode of FRIENDS in English. MaryPat was FINALLY able to make her box of Mac and Cheese that her mother brought for her and she has consequently taken with on every trip. Unfortunately none of the places we stayed a kitchen until Mina Studios!
Before we left for the night, I thought it would be a good idea to buy some Ouzo liquor that is Greek liquor. It sounded appealing. It’s a clear liquid and when you add water it becomes a milky color.
We were eager to try it. But it tastes exactly like licorice. So we were forcing ourselves to drink this awful thing that tasted like the rejected Jelly Beans from Easter.
After we got ready to go out to dinner, we went to talk with Mina to get some advice on where to eat.
After talking for a bit (Mina was almost going to come out with us!) instead of us calling for a taxi, Mina’s husband, Kosmos, offered to drive us! This was so nice of him. So he drove us and showed us a beautiful view of the city.
Then he took us over to where we could find a nice restaurant. We went to a place suggested by Mina and ordered some interesting food. Well, I did anyway. I ordered octopus. I’ve never had that before. And I thought it was alright, but the Greek Salad I had before that was much better. It ended up being a pretty expensive meal for something with little sucker thingies.
During dinner our waiter, Christos, ended up joining us and then talking us to a bar/disco called Mykonos. Throughout the night during almost every song the DJ would add "MYKONOOOOOS.” So now that is how we pronounce Mykonos. This place was fun with good music (DMX! Heck yes.) BUT turns out of all the places we’ve been in Europe Greek men are the most PERSISTANT and in my opinion kind of creepy. The not-so-subtle grabbing of a friend away from a boy usually tells him she does NOT want to dance with you. Here, it apparently meant grab onto her arm and put yourself between the two of us to dance. Fun. Salvation came in the form of American boys. We ended up meeting some to dance with us/ block us from the “pulpos” as we say in Spain. One was from Palatine and the other dated a girl I knew at U of I. I think that the world really can be quite small. We came home around 3am and went to bed.
5/2
Sunday we went to a different beach. This one was about 3 seconds away from our place. The sand was soft and beautiful. The water was sparkling clean and turquoise blue. You could see your feet on the bottom of the water so clearly. As a plus, Sunday was extremely hot. It was a perfect day. We were able to sit on some lounge chairs for free in front of the restaurant. Laying out had never been so comfortable before.
Beautiful Water!
Katherine and I shared a delicious strawberry daiquiri. Everyone decided they wanted a margarita. So we attempted to order a pitcher of margaritas. The waiter did not get the concept and brought us out a shaker of margarita shots. It wasn’t quite what we wanted. Who takes shots at the beach? But we didn’t want to waste the money. Still felt a little foolish. BUT it helped me when Kelly and I played paddle ball. I was much more willing to jump into the water to retrieve a rough hit. I still need work, but this vacation increased my paddle ball ability. I can’t wait to continue my perfection this summer with Kelita.
After paddle ball I jumped in the water and swam for a bit. It was so wonderful. The water felt great. I have never swam (Word is telling me the word is “swum” that doesn’t sound right…) in such beautiful water before. I don’t think I can fully express how lovely this place is.
For lunch Kelly and I split a margherita pizza that was DELICIOUS and we sunbathed some more. We reapplied our sunscreen though, don’t worry. I’m not gonna say that it completely worked. MP, Kelly, and I still managed to look like lobsters at times. At 6pm we left and got ready to see the sunset in Little Venice. We went by these windmills and it was just lovely. We were able to take some gorgeous pictures.
MaryPat and I
After the sunset we shopped a little bit and then went home to make some dinner and hang out. (Katherine made pasta and it was delicious. I love being friends with an Italian.)
5/3
Monday we had to leave Mykonos to head over to Athens. So we went to the beach until 1:30pm, checked out and said goodbye to Mina. Then we took a 6 hour ferry back to Athens. The ferry didn’t seem like it took too long. We attempted to sleep, but of course Kelly was able to pass right out and Justine took Dramamine so she also slept. But Mair, Katherine, and I talked. And as Katherine tried to sleep a Greek man with hair about 4 inches long sticking straight up on his head (clearly taking fashion advice from a porcupine) came up to Mair to tell her that Katherine was beautiful when she slept. And as this is such a normal thing to be told MaryPat knew exactly how to respond. So that was fun. To pass the last hour of the ride we all talked while I attempted to sketch everyone on my little notepad. But I think I’ll leave portraits to the professionals.
When we arrived in Athens we took a taxi ride with a taxi driver that looked like he had catarax…I felt real safe. But he was fine. We eventually found our place and ended up having a great hostel. The place was large and there was a nice shower and a kitchen and a flat screen T.V. We were really looking forward to our two nights there...alas, fate did not have that in her plans.
That first night we were exhausted and decided to stay in and go to bed. We figured we would have the next night to go out. (Notice the foreshadowing. It’s so good that I should probably a Creative Writing major…)
5/4
We woke up early, grabbed breakfast (provided by our hostel), and went to the Acropolis. It was really cool to be near something so historic. There was a protest going on when we got there.
Apparently the protesters broke in, so we were able to get in for free. We spent a couple of ours walking around, taking in the view, and taking pictures. It was a lovely morning.
Me and the Parthenon
But my battery died and Katherine’s memory card ran out. So we decided to return to our hostel for a moment. Good thing. Katherine’s mom had put her on the U.S. Embassy email list in Greece. Katherine had just received an email telling us about a General Strike (meaning everything, public transportation, air traffic control, shops) were shutting down the 5th and the 6th. And our flight was leaving the 5th. Realizing we would end up being stuck in Greece for much longer than those two days, we immediately went into emergency mode. We packed up everything, went to a travel agency and booked the first flight out of there we could. We were so lucky to find one that would get us to Milan on time for our next flight. So we flew from Athens to Milan that night. Otherwise our other option would have been to take a 3 hour bus to a port, to get on a 13 hour ferry to arrive near Rome and then either fly to Milan or take a train. Needless to say that sounded about as appealing as the 13 year old boys hitting on us at the Acropolis.
We hurried to get to the airport in time. We attempted to take a taxi. APPARENTLY the taxi drivers in Greece are very rude. We attempted to hail about 15 cabs. Most of them would look at us and keep driving. Two stopped to tell us that yes they do drive to the airport, but no they would not take us and drive off. SO we took the metro and made it with plenty of time.
After dealing with rude person after rude person we were barely containing our building anger. But as the Metro station this huge jerk pushed passed me and through the five of us even though there was ample space. He was being a jerk just to be a jerk because he could tell we were in a hurry. So I’m moving away trying to hurry and all of a sudden I hear “ASSHOLE” from the most unlikely source—MaryPat! The guy was one. And we were tired. MaryPat said maybe it wasn’t the best way to handle it, but at the time it made us all laugh a little and relieved some of our anger to hear her call him out. We got on that Metro and thus started a very long journey home.
The airline we had to take was Olympic. And Olympic airline is a REAL airline. It cost 160 euro (ouch), but they served us dinner and gave us free drinks 3 times! It was so crazy. Eventually we landed in Milan, figured out we could change our flight to an earlier time. Our flight from Milan to Madrid was originally at 8pm the next day, but they had a 7am available. Thank goodness! Justine was also able to take an earlier flight to Rome so she could meet up with her family sooner and go to a public viewing of the Pope!
5/5
And here is where we learned about Kelly’s personal “kryptonite.” She can sleep anywhere we were so sure. Turns out if it’s cold, Kelly’s superpower does not work. Even when she drapes MaryPat over her legs for warmth. It was a long night. Especially because MaryPat and I thought that this couple near us, who were watching something on their laptop, were watching The Sound of Music over and over again. Turns out it was a child’s game along the wall of the airport that was playing the music. MaryPat tried to unplug it. I think that The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music may forever set me on edge.
This is what happens when you are lacking sleep, have been traveling for hours, and have a cool camera...
Eventually we got on our flight and made it back to Madrid. From there we still had to get on the metro over to the bus station. Five hours on the bus and we were in Granada! Then the worst part of the journey is the 20 minute bus ride back to the city center. You get to Granada and all you want is to climb into bed!
It ended up being a blessing that we came in a day earlier because we originally would have been arriving at 6am the next day. Kelly and Katherine both had finals that day.
Wednesday night, sleep claimed me and I rested up for my final week in Granada.
¡Qué triste!
I love your life. Wish I could have been there with you!!
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