Santorini, Athens, a pretty cool week!

It may sound cheesy and a bit childish but ever since I saw ¨Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants¨ and ¨Mama Mia¨ I have made it a goal to travel to the beautiful Greek Islands. So for Semana Santa, Kelsey, Amanda G and I booked our Easter break vacation to both Santorini (a Greek Island) and Athens (a pretty important city in Greece). We left just a wee bit early on Thursday April 14th and finally made it to the wonderful Greek island of Santorini around 8 pm later that night. We stayed at a lovely hostel, called Stelio´s Place and Perissa Beach and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Santorini! The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day, hopped on the island bus and travelled to Fira, the main town on the island. There we walked around the narrow, curved and whitewashed town becoming completely enchanted by the steep cliffs and majestic blue sea. I think I took about 1000 pictures that day, and said ¨Oh gosh this is too pretty¨ about 2000 times. Later that day we jumped back on the island bus and ventured to Oia, another smaller town on the island. From here we saw perhaps the most gorgeous sunset, as there was nothing blocking your view of the sun dipping into the Mediterranean sea besides the gorgeous white houses and blue roofed churches. The next day we biked to a different part of the island, which was a much more difficult adventure than we planned, due to the unexpected hilliness of the roads…but needless to say we did make it to our destination. The other day and a half were filled with walks along the beach, laying out by the pool and simply soaking up the Greek island life and indulging in the amazing Greek cuisine!

On April 18th, we climbed on a huge boat heading towards the mainland to the historical city of Athens. We arrived late at night, so we took a cab to our hostel and quickly curled up under the covers. We awoke the next morning bright and early, and walked up to the Acropolis. This ancient and world famous monument literally means ¨high city¨ in Greek, and is built on a hill that looks over all of Athens and the surrounding mountains and towns. The Acropolis has quite an extensive history that I don´t have room to explain here, so Google ¨Acropolis¨ if you are in need of a good distraction or reading material. The other days in Greece consisted in walking around the city and coming across some ancient ruins ever few meters, a temple dedicated to Zeus or the original Olympic stadium. It was fun to just walk around the city, as it is quite different from anywhere else I have travelled. Since Greece is further east in Europe, it has a lot of influence from Turkey and other Middle Eastern/Asian Countries. However at the same time it is quite touristy and has a definite Mediterranean feel. So since I love learning about societies and different countries, the mix of cultures in Greece was very cool. On April 21st, we were all sad to depart the ancient country of Greece but excited for our adventures ahead. Amanda and Kelsey travelled to Lisbon, Portugal while I trekked to Belfast, Northern Ireland for a family wedding, once again stay tuned for that blog!

Hello beautiful coast!

Blue, blue sky!

We made it!

What a wonderful view to eat a Gyro…

A pretty cool Greek Island, if you ask me!

A greek chruch!

So pretty!

I miss it already…

Its just magical…

I must admit my camera makes us look tanner than we actually are….sorry Kelsey

Nothing in my way…

Before our adventures…

Grrr….yes we can conquer those Santorini cliffs…at least if we walk our bikes up them!

Just a little sleepy!

Our matching bags!

The ¨red beach¨ take a look at the sand!

The ¨black beach¨…take a look at the sand! This was steps away from our beds!

our hostel….very nice and excellent price!

The boat back to Athens…8 hours later…we arrive on the mainland!

Some old rocks, ya know…

The view of Athens walking up to the Acropolis

A cool view of Athens!

We are almost there! To the Acropolis!

We made it!

I think this is kinda famous, right?

Trying to be creative and artsy….

Two greek goddesses

I must admit I was scared a few times this was going to fall on me…

The changing guards ceremony…a must see

I couldn´t even hold the straight face for a second…how do they do it?

The Temple of Zeus

Zeus the dog…Kelsey thought that all the stray dogs in Athens (that followed us everywhere) were the greek god´s spirits…I think she might be correct.

Dream goal-To win the olympic gold in a running race.

actual life-I had to redo the ¨mile test¨ in 6th grade because I was too slow.

I try…

A final sunset, with our final day in Athens…

¡Adios!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 25th, 2011 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Santorini, Athens, a pretty cool week!”

1. Kelsey says:

   April 26, 2011 at 8:26 am

   AMAZING PICTURES AND CAPTIONS!! Great blog – love how your personality shines through!!!

2. Sheridannnnn says:

   April 29, 2011 at 5:29 pm

   Beautiful!!
   I’m a little jealous of your adventures. I’m glad that the picture of “me” made it onto your blog- I’m so honored… especially that Facebook tagged me as a tall male guard.