Greece

Hello Again!

So I know it has definitely been awhile since my last entry. This is mostly due to the fact that I am know updating the trips that I took after my study abroad program had ended and I did about 3 weeks of traveling around Europe! Greece was my first stop on this trip, and because I had limited internet access during this 3 week trip, I am now updating these travels after I have returned back to the states. So, after school had ended, I had one last weekend in Torino which was a lot of fun. The highlight of this weekend was probably when nearly everyone in our study abroad group went out to the best club in Torino, Cacau, and we all had one last party together. It was so much fun and it was great to party with everyone for one last time before we all went our separate ways. It was really strange, because these were the people that I hung out with the most during the time I had been abroad, and now all of a sudden, they were leaving. It was crazy. So after this last weekend, I ended up flying from Milan to Athens to begin my new journey. To be honest, I was pretty sad once the plane took off, knowing that I was going to be away from Italy for about 3 weeks, not even wanting to know how it's going to feel when I go back to the states. When I got to Athens I quickly took the metro into the city, and met up with my buddy, Max. I spent pretty much the whole week in Greece with Max and he got there a couple days before me so he gave me a brief description of his time in the city so far, which I must say was unfortunately depressing. He had some interesting stories about his time in Athens so far, and to be honest, the city was pretty depressing. Outside the amazing Acropolis and a few other touristy sections of the city, it was pretty run down. I have never seen so much graffiti in my life. There were also a large amount of beggars and even children playing accordians begging for money.

The coolest thing we saw in the city that day was the first thing we saw, the changing of the guard in front of "The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" at a parliament building. They were donig the most bizzare marching and put on a really interesting show. I got a picture with one and you'll be able to see that they wore some pretty elaborate clothing.  I was not extremely impressed by Athens my first day there, but fortunately the rest of the trip made up for it. We spent a few hours in Athens before making a last minute decision to get on a ferry to Santorini, One of the more famous and popular islands in the Cyclades. So we hopped on the ferry and we were on our way to Santorini. It was a REALLY nice ferry haha and it was about a 5 and a half hour trip to get there. It was pretty nice actually and I enjoyed the ride there. When we finally got to the island it was probably around midnight and we were bombarded by people with hostels who wanted us to book a room with them. This being a last minute decision to come here, we quickly found a deal in the biggest city on the island, Thira. We got a ride there and I was very impressed with the room situation. Since it was still low season, the islands really weren't that crowded so it was pretty nice and we got our own room. We then went out to the town that night to see if there was any night life but it was pretty much dead. The next day, we decided to rent atv's, and we negotiated a decent price to keep them overnight until the next morning. So we spent the entire next day, riding around the island and seeing all of the incredible sights that Santorini had to offer. I was truly blown away to say the least, and this really marked the beginning of my time in the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my entire life, the Cyclades. It's really difficult to describe all of the places we went to on these atv's and how amazing each place was, but I can say that we went all around the island on these things and it was so much fun. That evening, we went to Oia, where there is supposedly one of the best sunsets in the world, so I guess we had to go see it. We got there in the evening and walked around the town for a bit. This was probably my favorite place on the whole island and when that sun came down, it was incredible. The way the light would reflect off of the stacked, blue topped structures, was like a dream, just as the sun came down beneath the middle of two erected mountains on a nearby island. It was insane, and I could not believe that I got the chance to see that.

We rode the atv's back to the hostel that night, which was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Cruising around the cliff side turns on the rode underneath a full moon seeing the outlined ridge of a nearby mountain under the glow was absolutely incredible, and followed up the world famous sunset quite well. It was a great ending to an awesome day, and the next day we took the atv's out for one last ride and turned them in. We then had to figure out what we were going to do next and where we were going to go, since this whole trip had no plans and everything we did was improvised (which in my opinion is the best way to have a trip). So our last minute decision was to go to Ios, a smaller island about 20 miles north of Santorini. So we hopped on a ferry and got to Ios. We were tracked down again by someone with a hostel/bed and breakfast, got a good deal, and stayed at a really nice place with our own room and bathroom again. Ios is smaller and only has one small town. We were able to check that out pretty quickly which was really cool. We then went down to the main beach (1 of 45 beaches apparently) and we met a pretty cool guy who was living in Switzerland and was staying in Ios for 11 days, saying it is the "party island" of the Cyclades. We did not know this, thinking Mykonos was the "party island" of the Cyclades and which was too expensive to go to since we of course looked that one up already. But apparently the greeks come to Ios to party so it must be pretty good. Anyways, we hung out with him for a bit and pretty much relaxed until the evening came and we went to check out the nightlife.

So we went to the "Fun Bar" first which was cool and pretty layed back and then we went to the heart of the town where all of the bars and clubs were. Since the island is pretty small, so are the bars and clubs, but there sure are a good amount of them in that small area. We went to a place called "Flames" which was pretty cool, but it was really the only place with people dancing and partying, and since it was low season there wasn't much going on other than the party at this place. So we were there for a bit, and it was pretty fun but there wasn't much else to do after that so we just returned to our hostel and got ready for one of the best days of my trip so far that next day. The next day, we decided to rent atv's here as well, since they are the best, and most fun way to get around the islands. Once we got the atv's we decided to ride north of the island, where supposedly Homer's tomb was located, with breathtaking views of the islands along the way. It was so cool to ride around the island and when we got to the tomb, I really could not believe that I was there. It was pretty incredible, but there it was, the famous poet's tomb, crazy. After that we proceeded to ride around the rest of the island, stopping at a few beaches that pretty much had nobody there because of the low season. One of my favorite places during the ride on this island was a tiny group of old ruins and buildings called Paleokastro. This place sat at the end of a really cool pathway on the point of this cliff with an insane view of the islands and the sea. I think this place, and this view, and this overall moment was where things finally started to sink in. It blew me away more than anything. I don't think I have ever felt so amazed in my life, and to be honest, it was hard to say anything. It was incredible. After that we saw a couple more beaches and then we booked it back to the rental place on time and before we ran out of gas haha.

We went as fast as those little 50cc quads could go and fortunately we made it. After we returned them we got some dinner (gyros of course, which are similar to kebab) and I was pretty tired so I decided to go to sleep. Max still wanted to go out so he did for a while and then we both woke up for the next day of our time in the islands. The next day was quite rainy and we had to get back to Athens so Max could catch his flight out and I had plans to see the Acropolis. So we decided to catch a later ferry waiting in the cold rain as we had already checked out of our hostel. When the ferry came we were ready to head back to Athens. By the way, Ios was a great island but that town was insanely small! Every time we walked through it we saw the exact same people in the same places hanging out! It was kind of strange, and I don't know if I could have spent 11 days there like the guy we met there did, but it sure was an incredible place to see. So we ended up taking the ferry back to Athens and when we got there we settled into our hostel and we went out to check out the nightlife for a bit. We briefly went into a club where a lot of students studying abroad there were partying but I was way too tired to go out that night. The next day Max had to wake up pretty early to go to Paris so he took off and I had the day to myself as my flight to Berlin wasn't until the following day. So I decided to spend my day visiting the Acropolis and seeing what other sites Athens had to offer. I saw a lot of stuff this day, first, the Acropolis was pretty incredible. It offered views of the entire city and the to see the Parthenon was also amazing. After visiting the Acropolis museum shortly after, it really was incredible to learn about how much that structure has really been through, after all, it was constructed in 438 BC! After checking that out for awhile I walked around the Agora which is basically the Roman Forum of Athens.

There were a lot of ruins in this area and in a way I think it did remind me of Rome. After that I checked out the Panathinaiko stadium in Athens and it was pretty huge. It was used in 1896 when  it hosted the first modern Olympic Games. It was really neat to see that. After that I spent the rest of my evening walking around the central part of the city. It was really nice just to walk around and listen to the live Greek music playing in some of the restaurants. Also, when I went to sit down and have dinner, I noticed that there were hundreds of people getting on bikes for what looked like some kind of race or something. It was pretty late for a race and I asked what was going on and I guess every Friday night people gather in this part of the city to just ride bikes everywhere. It seemed a little strange but I thought it was pretty cool. After walking around a bit more I headed back to my hostel and got ready for my last day in Athens. My flight to Berlin was in the evening so I was still able to spend a bit more time in Athens. I spent most of the time checking out where they had the more recent 2004 Summer Olympic Games. This was a much bigger complex than the older stadium and the stadium for these Olympic Games was quite impressive. It was a little surprising to see how deserted it was at the time I visited there but I'm they still use the main stadium for some events. The Olympic pool still looked like it was being used so it was cool to see that. After checking out these last sites in Athens I headed back on the metro to the airport and basically just hung out there until it was ready for me to take my next part of my trip to Berlin! At the end of this trip, I realized just how awesome of a place Greece was. There are so many incredible things to see, and although Athens wasn't the nicest place to be, especially outside the touristy areas, it still had a lot to offer and the islands were absolutely incredible. I highly recommend going there as I would with pretty much anywhere I have gone so far and this was definitely a trip I will never forget. So until Berlin...

Ciao!