So after our adventures in ATV helmets, we fell asleep and it was the first day all trip that we didn't set an alarm. That means that we didn't wake up till well after 9 and our ATVs were due back at the place by 10. Cue 3 girls running around thier hotel room trying to look kind of presentable, but then realizing that it was raining, saying "screw it" and then throwing on their rain gear (yup, Dad, I remembered it this time), and going outside. During our getting ready freak-out, it had stopped raining and when we got out to our ATVs Kayla and Sienna's seats were SOAKED while mine was nice and dry. Why you ask? I lucked out and got the one with nylon fabric covering the seat instead of plastic so it let all the water run threw. I was the only one with a dry butt that day and it was lovely. So we drove into town, got praised by the ATV man for our confidence and then he drove us back to the hotel.
We ate another breakfast of crackers and plum jelly and then caught the bus down to Kamari for some more exploring. However good our intentions were for adventuring, everything was closed for some reason. It was a Thursday morning, so I'm not sure why. So we found a grocery store that was open and bought food for the next day and then sat on the bench like hobos. We wandered around and found a couple of little shops that were open and bought some postcards (Rachel Heinze, Kara Ehlert, and NeeNee and Papa: check your mailboxes in about a week). Then we said goodbye to the black sand beach and caught the bus back to our hotel.
When we got there, Mrs. Poppi told us that our ferry had gotten delayed a half hour so our shuttle wouldn't be leaving for a while. Since we'd already checked out of our room, we sat in this little staff berak room for an hour (it had decided to rain again) until we left. Mr. and Mrs. Poppi drove us down to the port and then we finally realized how twisty turnny that hill is -- and how tall the island is! Thank the Lord Baby Jesus we had someone to drive us. We got to see our ferry come in and then run like mad people to get on.
We were in cheapo class and the chairs weren't that comfortable. That should have been my first clue that this ride was going to be the least fun of them all. We learned that the reason our boat was delayed was because of high winds and high winds lead to high waves and high waves lead to one nauseated Rachel. Not fun. I journaled for a while but then focusing on little letters and drawing became too much for my head and stomach so I tried to sleep, but contrary to m natural tendencies, I couldn't. By this time we had been on the boat for 3 1/2 hours and were looking at another 5 in the same chairs. Yuck. Kayla was getting bored so we played some card games. FYI, don't play Egyption Rat Screw with Kayla. She will always win. Once we stopped playing cards I got even more sea-sick and Kayla decided that the best thing to do would be to buy some Ouzo and drink it. So we played categories for a good 2 hours and surprisingly the Ouzo made the nausea go away! I'll keep that in mind for my future sea voyages. Another thing to keep in mind, after spending a week staright with the same 3 people, they know everything about you. Don't play Never Have I Ever. It is a very bad idea.
We finally got into Piraus (Athen's port) and it was 11:40. The last metro train runs at midnight and we were on the other side of the port. A couple more people from our trip were on the same ferry and they had ALL of thier luggage, so there were 10 girls with massive bags running to the metro station and trying to get on this last train. We made it but the big question was whether or not we would be able to catch our transfer to another line in time. Otherwise we'd be hoofin' it.
So we got to this station that started with an M and we're running to get to the next train we had to catch. Remember when I said that the other girls had ALL their luggage. Yup, that means they thought they didn't have to run and the train would wait for them. This is not the CSBSJU Link bus! It's public transport! They won't wait for you! We had security gaurds telling us that we needed to run if we wanted to catch this train, but Luggange McSlowpeople didn't think that was true. We legitimatly ran on the train and 3 seconds later the doors closed. Too close for comfort and too close for my politeness filter at this point.
So right now I would have given my last bar of chocolate to get in to my own apartment, but the thing is that school isn't open at 1am on a Thursday, shocking right? So Kayla, Sienna and I were stranded looking for a place to sleep. Don't freak out Mom, I didn't sleep on a bench covered by newspapers, the girls we were with already had a roommate in thier apartment, so we crashed on their extra beds/couch. Thankfully Elaine had picked up our keys for us because the next day was a national holiday so everything was closed, but we picked them up from her and moved in! Yay!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Anybody There?
So I just enabled a commenting function thing on here in an effort to make this more of a dialogue and to make me feel less like I'm talking to a brick wall. So leave your comments, questions, and snide comments below!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Santorini Day 2: Badass
So the next morning we work up and went down to the reception desk to talk to Mrs. Poppi about renting ATVs for the day. They have some special deal with the ATV people, so the guy came to pick us up and brought us in to town. The guy who owned the shop asked us if we had ridden ATVs before and non of us had (although Kayla lied and said she had). Then he gave us this look that said "Oh crap. I do not want to give these girls my vehicles." I think he may have felt bad for us because when he was teaching us how to drive them he kept saying, "don't fret, you're strong women, you can do anything." So we gained his seal of approval and then drove off.
We needed to find an internet cafe and an ATM, so we went up on the main road and pulled down this side street to park. Kayla was bringing up the back and didn't see us pull over to park so she kept driving down the street. It was a one way so by the time she realized we had stopped she couldn't just come back up and rejoin us. Sienna was freaking out because Kayla was all alone and hadn't really been navigating so she was the least likely to know where she was going. Sienna and I walked up and down the main street hoping to see her and flag her down, but no luck. Then we waited by the ATVs hoping she would come back. No luck. Then we decided to drive down to the gas station where we had been earlier and see if she was there. No luck. Then we decided to go back to the place we parked and wait it out and we turned the corner and there she was! Hallelujah! So we made it to the ATM and got some computer access after 45 minutes of searching and then headed down to see the red sand beaches in Akrotiri.
It was quite a drive to get down there and a little scary since we were on the roads with all the other drivers and had no idea where we were going. Good thing there are only about 10 roads in Santorini or we would have been SOL. It was really fun to drive the ATVs though. I forgot how much I like to drive. And we felt super badass and powerful driving them; like we could take on anything. We didn't get lost on the way down there, but we did have to ask for more specific directions one we got into the town. Then we got there and it was super rocky, not at all like a beach. Some guy that was there saw that we were looking super confused and disappointed and told us that actually you have to hike up a little path and then you get to the beach part. We made our way around and then saw the actual beach. It was so red! so red! We ate our sandwiches on teh beach and then decided to head back up the island since it was going to be about and hour and a half drive on the ATVs and it was already pushing 2pm.
On our way back, we got to experience all that is crazy greek driving. It's not nearly the level that the Italians were at, but still nuts. We had people zooming all around us and honking and waving. Sometimes they were being flirty, but other times they were just frusterated by how slow we were driving. One took a particular affection to Kayla and decided to show it by kicking his legs out of his moped and laughing.
We got to Oia around 4. The drive to get there was beautiful! We took little roads near the coast line so we got to see all the fields and terrain. I had this picture in my head of what Santorini was like, little white houses with domed roofs and blue doors all built into the cliff. There are pockets of Santorini that look like that, but most of the island looks a lot like Arizona. It's desolate and rocky with no green grass insight. The cliffs are a brown-red color with prarie-like grasses growing on them and there are huge expanses between towns.
Oia is one of the paces that looks straight out of Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. Houses are the stereotypical whitewashed concrete and they are packed onto this cliff. There is literally no private space. From where we were sitting looking out at the water, I could clearly see into multiple family's homes. This would have been perfect if I was still in my Harriet the Spy phase of life, but since I left my notebook and toolbelt at home... But really, everyone has to be in everyone else's business all the time. There is just no other place to go.
We climbed around a bit and did some shopping. There was this little dog that climbed up on one of the houses to take a nap and enjoy the scenery. Gutsy dog, we were really high up!
We were going to find a place to eat dinner and watch the sunset, but the only place we could find with a sunset view was a bajillion dollars a plate. Figures. So we climbed around in the neighborhood. On our adventure, we ran into Jacquie and her mom and grandma. Jacquie cam with us and climbed up this old fort looking thing to watch teh sunset while her mom and gma rested. There were some really interesting people up on top of that fort. Lots of tourists and lots of crazies.
We had heard that the sunset in Oia was supposed to be the most beautiful in all of Europe, that why we hauled our butts all the way out there. It was just our luck that as the sun was setting a band of clouds decided to set itself right at the horizon. So the sun set into that insead of actually going down and turning pretty colors. Kind of really disappointing. But still nice.
Once the sunset ended with its lackluster finale, we were starving. We contemlated finding a place in Oia for dinner, but it was getting dark quick and we (I) thought it might be better to start our drive while there ws still some light in the sky to help us since we still didn't really know where we were going. It got dark really quick and we ended up going a different way, not on the calm little country roads, but on the main highway between Oia and Fira. In the dark. Not fun. We had to make a turn in this little town and as we were sitting at the stop sign, what crossed front of us, a giant parade of donkeys! Sienna just turned around and started laughing.
We finally got to Fira and wandered around trying to decide on a restaurant. We were all feeling super apathetic and none of us were willing to make a decision about where to eat. Flash forward 45 minutes and we're still wandering. We narrowed it down to two and were running back and forth looking at menus and trying to decide. It was a slow night in Fira so the restaurant guys were trying so hard to get us to eat there. We were persuaded by stuffed peppers and free sangria. Yum..... We took a picture at the table and the guy at the restaurant across the street tried to get in it. Our waiter joked that he'd take another with this guy in it if he paid our tab. We were so close to a free dinner, but this guy "forgot his visa card". Dang it.
After dinner we wandered around and found this delicious bakery place. Sienna was off looking at earrings while Kayla and I were gawking at all the goodies. The bakery lady noticed how much we were staring and started talking to us. She didn't have to work too hard because after she said caramel, cake, and pastry puff we were sold. THIS CAKE WAS DELICIOUS. I would actually consider buying a round trip ferry ticket and enduring the 6 hour ride just to get another piece.
We hopped back on our ATVs and rode back to the hotel. We had delusions of going out and finding our Kostases, but after taking a look in the mirror and seeing our windblown hair and faces and realizing how tired we were, we just decided to play games in our room. Kayla taught us one where you write down random words/people/inside jokes on paper and then pick one, but it on your forhead (so you can't see your own, but you can see everyone else's) and then try to get the other people to say what's on thier head using one word clues. Rule #1: you can't tak off your helmet. It was helpful for keeping the paper on our heads and surpirsingly comfy to sleep in :)
We needed to find an internet cafe and an ATM, so we went up on the main road and pulled down this side street to park. Kayla was bringing up the back and didn't see us pull over to park so she kept driving down the street. It was a one way so by the time she realized we had stopped she couldn't just come back up and rejoin us. Sienna was freaking out because Kayla was all alone and hadn't really been navigating so she was the least likely to know where she was going. Sienna and I walked up and down the main street hoping to see her and flag her down, but no luck. Then we waited by the ATVs hoping she would come back. No luck. Then we decided to drive down to the gas station where we had been earlier and see if she was there. No luck. Then we decided to go back to the place we parked and wait it out and we turned the corner and there she was! Hallelujah! So we made it to the ATM and got some computer access after 45 minutes of searching and then headed down to see the red sand beaches in Akrotiri.
It was quite a drive to get down there and a little scary since we were on the roads with all the other drivers and had no idea where we were going. Good thing there are only about 10 roads in Santorini or we would have been SOL. It was really fun to drive the ATVs though. I forgot how much I like to drive. And we felt super badass and powerful driving them; like we could take on anything. We didn't get lost on the way down there, but we did have to ask for more specific directions one we got into the town. Then we got there and it was super rocky, not at all like a beach. Some guy that was there saw that we were looking super confused and disappointed and told us that actually you have to hike up a little path and then you get to the beach part. We made our way around and then saw the actual beach. It was so red! so red! We ate our sandwiches on teh beach and then decided to head back up the island since it was going to be about and hour and a half drive on the ATVs and it was already pushing 2pm.
On our way back, we got to experience all that is crazy greek driving. It's not nearly the level that the Italians were at, but still nuts. We had people zooming all around us and honking and waving. Sometimes they were being flirty, but other times they were just frusterated by how slow we were driving. One took a particular affection to Kayla and decided to show it by kicking his legs out of his moped and laughing.
We got to Oia around 4. The drive to get there was beautiful! We took little roads near the coast line so we got to see all the fields and terrain. I had this picture in my head of what Santorini was like, little white houses with domed roofs and blue doors all built into the cliff. There are pockets of Santorini that look like that, but most of the island looks a lot like Arizona. It's desolate and rocky with no green grass insight. The cliffs are a brown-red color with prarie-like grasses growing on them and there are huge expanses between towns.
Oia is one of the paces that looks straight out of Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. Houses are the stereotypical whitewashed concrete and they are packed onto this cliff. There is literally no private space. From where we were sitting looking out at the water, I could clearly see into multiple family's homes. This would have been perfect if I was still in my Harriet the Spy phase of life, but since I left my notebook and toolbelt at home... But really, everyone has to be in everyone else's business all the time. There is just no other place to go.
We climbed around a bit and did some shopping. There was this little dog that climbed up on one of the houses to take a nap and enjoy the scenery. Gutsy dog, we were really high up!
We were going to find a place to eat dinner and watch the sunset, but the only place we could find with a sunset view was a bajillion dollars a plate. Figures. So we climbed around in the neighborhood. On our adventure, we ran into Jacquie and her mom and grandma. Jacquie cam with us and climbed up this old fort looking thing to watch teh sunset while her mom and gma rested. There were some really interesting people up on top of that fort. Lots of tourists and lots of crazies.
We had heard that the sunset in Oia was supposed to be the most beautiful in all of Europe, that why we hauled our butts all the way out there. It was just our luck that as the sun was setting a band of clouds decided to set itself right at the horizon. So the sun set into that insead of actually going down and turning pretty colors. Kind of really disappointing. But still nice.
Once the sunset ended with its lackluster finale, we were starving. We contemlated finding a place in Oia for dinner, but it was getting dark quick and we (I) thought it might be better to start our drive while there ws still some light in the sky to help us since we still didn't really know where we were going. It got dark really quick and we ended up going a different way, not on the calm little country roads, but on the main highway between Oia and Fira. In the dark. Not fun. We had to make a turn in this little town and as we were sitting at the stop sign, what crossed front of us, a giant parade of donkeys! Sienna just turned around and started laughing.
We finally got to Fira and wandered around trying to decide on a restaurant. We were all feeling super apathetic and none of us were willing to make a decision about where to eat. Flash forward 45 minutes and we're still wandering. We narrowed it down to two and were running back and forth looking at menus and trying to decide. It was a slow night in Fira so the restaurant guys were trying so hard to get us to eat there. We were persuaded by stuffed peppers and free sangria. Yum..... We took a picture at the table and the guy at the restaurant across the street tried to get in it. Our waiter joked that he'd take another with this guy in it if he paid our tab. We were so close to a free dinner, but this guy "forgot his visa card". Dang it.
After dinner we wandered around and found this delicious bakery place. Sienna was off looking at earrings while Kayla and I were gawking at all the goodies. The bakery lady noticed how much we were staring and started talking to us. She didn't have to work too hard because after she said caramel, cake, and pastry puff we were sold. THIS CAKE WAS DELICIOUS. I would actually consider buying a round trip ferry ticket and enduring the 6 hour ride just to get another piece.
We hopped back on our ATVs and rode back to the hotel. We had delusions of going out and finding our Kostases, but after taking a look in the mirror and seeing our windblown hair and faces and realizing how tired we were, we just decided to play games in our room. Kayla taught us one where you write down random words/people/inside jokes on paper and then pick one, but it on your forhead (so you can't see your own, but you can see everyone else's) and then try to get the other people to say what's on thier head using one word clues. Rule #1: you can't tak off your helmet. It was helpful for keeping the paper on our heads and surpirsingly comfy to sleep in :)
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Santorini Day 1: Donkey Butt
We got in to Santorini at around 10pm on Sunnday night and Poppi, the owner of the hotel we were staying at, came and picked us up from the port. Such a sweet man. He's probably pushing 55, but loves to wear bleached, tight, expensive jeans. It was a good thing he came to get us, because the ride back to the hotel took about a half hour and was all up the side of this swirly, twirly mountian. Our room was super nice! We had our own kitchen and a really nice, hot shower. This was a blessing since none of us had showered since we left Rome. We went right to sleep that night, but then got up bright and early the next morning for some adventuring.
Poppi gave us the bus schedule and we rode down to Kamari where the black sand beach is. It looks a lot like Lake Superior stone; smooth, dark basalt. We journaled there for a couple of hours and then caught the bus up to Fira, the capital. We found some kebaps for lunch and the waiter there was really nice and talked to us for a while. After leaving, we were on a mission to find donkeys. We needed to ride the donkeys. We would have ridden the donkeys up someone's driveway if it meant we could ride donkeys. We finally found them, after asking for directions a billion times, not by virtue of good directions, but rather our keen senses of smell :)
This donkey ride was not the peaceful, idyllic ride I had in mind. Rather, it was terrifying. Kind of like the Wild Thing at Valley Fair. The donkey men gypped us out of 5euro by saying that we couldn't walk down then ride the donkeys up, so we aggreed to ride them down and up. This hill is steep. You don't realize how steep until you're pitched forward on a donkey who's running down. The donkeys in our train were tied together and poor Sienna, her donkey was at the back and older and slower than the rest, but since he was chained to my speed demon, he had to keep up and was slipping down the steps. I was at the front of the pack and all I could hear the whole was down was Kayla laughing out of sheer terror and Sienna making this high pitched whiney sound. We got some good video with audio to prove it :)
So about half way down the leader donkey man heard Kayla and Sienna freaking out and turned around to ask if we wanted to turn around and go up. They were more than relieved to do so. I was a little bummed and wanted to ride all the way down. So donkey man unhooked the donkeys so they weren't tied together anymore and they started running up the hill! Literally sprinting. Kicking donkey butt and taking names. My donkey was checking other donkeys into the wall and running so hard to get up that hill. I like to imagine he was just really competitive, which I can respect.
After our terror of a donkey experience, we wandered around Fira some more until we found this little place that had a terrace overlooking the caldera. So we went up and ordered a pizza to share with the intention of sitting there and watching the sunset. We failed to notice that it was only 4 when we ordered and sunset isn't until 6:30, so by the time we were done eating, there was a good hour plus to wait until the sunset and we felt too awkward to continue sitting at this restaurant without ordering anything else, so we left to wander again.
We ended up finding a grocery store where we bought some greek appertif and found a little spot on the side of the cliff to watch the sunset. There was this little ledge there and I was trying to hoist myself up on it when I felt something wet on my hand. I looked down to see this yellow puddle (which Kayla convinced me was cat pee) and I tried my darndest to wipe it off on the wall, but it was still gross. I didn't use that hand for the rest of the night and probably would have sold my left kidney for a wet wipe. We passed the time by playing Hot Seat and then watched the sun set over the little islands.
We went to find the bus stop and got on. We told the driver that we needed to get off at this little, obscure stop, but, of course, he forgot and we ended up having to ride all the way to Kamari at the south end of the island and then come back up towards Fira. We were wiped by the end of that and had no energy left to go look for Kostas, so we all took hot showers (we were still erally smelly) and went to sleep.
Poppi gave us the bus schedule and we rode down to Kamari where the black sand beach is. It looks a lot like Lake Superior stone; smooth, dark basalt. We journaled there for a couple of hours and then caught the bus up to Fira, the capital. We found some kebaps for lunch and the waiter there was really nice and talked to us for a while. After leaving, we were on a mission to find donkeys. We needed to ride the donkeys. We would have ridden the donkeys up someone's driveway if it meant we could ride donkeys. We finally found them, after asking for directions a billion times, not by virtue of good directions, but rather our keen senses of smell :)
This donkey ride was not the peaceful, idyllic ride I had in mind. Rather, it was terrifying. Kind of like the Wild Thing at Valley Fair. The donkey men gypped us out of 5euro by saying that we couldn't walk down then ride the donkeys up, so we aggreed to ride them down and up. This hill is steep. You don't realize how steep until you're pitched forward on a donkey who's running down. The donkeys in our train were tied together and poor Sienna, her donkey was at the back and older and slower than the rest, but since he was chained to my speed demon, he had to keep up and was slipping down the steps. I was at the front of the pack and all I could hear the whole was down was Kayla laughing out of sheer terror and Sienna making this high pitched whiney sound. We got some good video with audio to prove it :)
So about half way down the leader donkey man heard Kayla and Sienna freaking out and turned around to ask if we wanted to turn around and go up. They were more than relieved to do so. I was a little bummed and wanted to ride all the way down. So donkey man unhooked the donkeys so they weren't tied together anymore and they started running up the hill! Literally sprinting. Kicking donkey butt and taking names. My donkey was checking other donkeys into the wall and running so hard to get up that hill. I like to imagine he was just really competitive, which I can respect.
After our terror of a donkey experience, we wandered around Fira some more until we found this little place that had a terrace overlooking the caldera. So we went up and ordered a pizza to share with the intention of sitting there and watching the sunset. We failed to notice that it was only 4 when we ordered and sunset isn't until 6:30, so by the time we were done eating, there was a good hour plus to wait until the sunset and we felt too awkward to continue sitting at this restaurant without ordering anything else, so we left to wander again.
We ended up finding a grocery store where we bought some greek appertif and found a little spot on the side of the cliff to watch the sunset. There was this little ledge there and I was trying to hoist myself up on it when I felt something wet on my hand. I looked down to see this yellow puddle (which Kayla convinced me was cat pee) and I tried my darndest to wipe it off on the wall, but it was still gross. I didn't use that hand for the rest of the night and probably would have sold my left kidney for a wet wipe. We passed the time by playing Hot Seat and then watched the sun set over the little islands.
We went to find the bus stop and got on. We told the driver that we needed to get off at this little, obscure stop, but, of course, he forgot and we ended up having to ride all the way to Kamari at the south end of the island and then come back up towards Fira. We were wiped by the end of that and had no energy left to go look for Kostas, so we all took hot showers (we were still erally smelly) and went to sleep.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Crete: The land of stray dogs
So after our ride on the boat to beat all boats, we were in Crete! Let me rephrase, we were in Crete and it was 6:30 in the morning. Thus, all 3 of us were super groggy and disorientated. We had directions to the hostel we were staying at, but the reception desk didn't open until 7, but we decided to stsart wandering in that direction anyway. We got to watch the sun come up over the harbor and the old Venetian port that's there. We decided that we like to get places in the dark becasue then everything looks more mysterious and exciting!
We got to our hostel and checked in, but our room still had people in it so we couldn't actually get in until 11. So the super cute guy at the desk gave us a little map of Iraklio and we found this little park to hang out in for the morning. We still had some bread and jelly left over from the day before so we ate that for breakfast while we worked on our visual journals.
For those of you I haven't told about this, our director Elaine gave us ths really cool project for our trip. Instead of keeping a traditional write-all-your-feelings journal while abraod, we're doing visual journals. That means that we collect and keep bus tickets, admission tickets, napkins, leaves, brochures, etc... etc.. from the place we go and the experiences that we have and then paste them in and do some short, reflective writings. It's supposed to help us process the experience and leave us with a more tactile way to remember our time abroad. I LOVE IT! I'll be showing everyone when I get back :)
While we were journaling, we got a good cross section of the people of Crete. A gypsy woman hasseled Kayla and Sienna for money (I was climbing on the jungle-gym at the time) and then some creepy dude came over and asked us if we spoke english....in those situations, I'm deaf. It's just easier that way. A little later some musician guys came over and played some songs for us and pointed us in the direction of the grocery store where we bought, what else, bread, jelly, and crackers. And a little meat and cheese too. I don't think I spent more than 30euro on food the entire week!
We went down to the water's edge too and were sitting there when this stray dog came up and started licking my face and wanting to play. We named him Todd and he was just hanging out with us while we talked. He looked so sad when we got up to go that we decided to give his a piece of our bread, but he sniffed it and then thought himself too good to eat it so he decided to eat the bench instead. He legit started gnawing on the seat of teh wooden bench. Stupid dog! I grabbed his collar and pulled him away, but he went right back at it, so we walked awaym but he started following! He followed us all the way across the main street, through a couple neighborhoods and back to that park where he found a friend and then ran away. We saw him later taking a nap in the grass with his buddy :)
We got into our room and then talked to the guy at the desk about things to do. We had wanted to hike the Samarian gorge, but because of some heavy rains a week ealier, it closed early for the season. None of us really wanted to do other hiking if we couldn't go there, so we spent the day exploring the markets and shops in Iraklio. We saw a bunch of butcher shops that hadd all this gross meat. There were actually bunnies in one of the cases that still had thier furry tails attached! Then we saw a guy wheeling a shopping cart down the street filled with whole lamb. Ickkkkyyy!
We stopped for gyros and honey balls (dough puffs covered in honey and sesame seeds :) for dinner and then went back to the hotel to journal some more. I fell asleep at 10 and didn't wake up until 9 the next morning. Finals and traveling really takes it out of you!
The next morning we thought we should see some actual Cretian stuff, so we went to the Palace of Knossos. It's an ancient Minoan palace from about 1500BC. Unfortunately it's mostly reconstruction work, but the foundations of the buildings are original so it was at least cool to see how big it was! We got a little bored there, but still had time to wander before the bus came so we decided to speak in accents for the rest of the day :)
After that we wandered around a little more and went back down to the water where we saw these grey birds with one big, white bird. We watched them for a while and picked what one we wanted to be and acted out what they were doing :) We grabbed our bags from the hotel and then on our way down the street, we decided that we need a picture with Hot Hotel Man and went back. He seemed a little confused and didn't realize that there were two flashes on Sienna's camera so he looks really pissed in the picture, but the story was worth the awkwardness! Then we had to catch our ferry to, drum roll please........, SANTORINI!!!! yay!
We got to our hostel and checked in, but our room still had people in it so we couldn't actually get in until 11. So the super cute guy at the desk gave us a little map of Iraklio and we found this little park to hang out in for the morning. We still had some bread and jelly left over from the day before so we ate that for breakfast while we worked on our visual journals.
For those of you I haven't told about this, our director Elaine gave us ths really cool project for our trip. Instead of keeping a traditional write-all-your-feelings journal while abraod, we're doing visual journals. That means that we collect and keep bus tickets, admission tickets, napkins, leaves, brochures, etc... etc.. from the place we go and the experiences that we have and then paste them in and do some short, reflective writings. It's supposed to help us process the experience and leave us with a more tactile way to remember our time abroad. I LOVE IT! I'll be showing everyone when I get back :)
While we were journaling, we got a good cross section of the people of Crete. A gypsy woman hasseled Kayla and Sienna for money (I was climbing on the jungle-gym at the time) and then some creepy dude came over and asked us if we spoke english....in those situations, I'm deaf. It's just easier that way. A little later some musician guys came over and played some songs for us and pointed us in the direction of the grocery store where we bought, what else, bread, jelly, and crackers. And a little meat and cheese too. I don't think I spent more than 30euro on food the entire week!
We went down to the water's edge too and were sitting there when this stray dog came up and started licking my face and wanting to play. We named him Todd and he was just hanging out with us while we talked. He looked so sad when we got up to go that we decided to give his a piece of our bread, but he sniffed it and then thought himself too good to eat it so he decided to eat the bench instead. He legit started gnawing on the seat of teh wooden bench. Stupid dog! I grabbed his collar and pulled him away, but he went right back at it, so we walked awaym but he started following! He followed us all the way across the main street, through a couple neighborhoods and back to that park where he found a friend and then ran away. We saw him later taking a nap in the grass with his buddy :)
We got into our room and then talked to the guy at the desk about things to do. We had wanted to hike the Samarian gorge, but because of some heavy rains a week ealier, it closed early for the season. None of us really wanted to do other hiking if we couldn't go there, so we spent the day exploring the markets and shops in Iraklio. We saw a bunch of butcher shops that hadd all this gross meat. There were actually bunnies in one of the cases that still had thier furry tails attached! Then we saw a guy wheeling a shopping cart down the street filled with whole lamb. Ickkkkyyy!
We stopped for gyros and honey balls (dough puffs covered in honey and sesame seeds :) for dinner and then went back to the hotel to journal some more. I fell asleep at 10 and didn't wake up until 9 the next morning. Finals and traveling really takes it out of you!
The next morning we thought we should see some actual Cretian stuff, so we went to the Palace of Knossos. It's an ancient Minoan palace from about 1500BC. Unfortunately it's mostly reconstruction work, but the foundations of the buildings are original so it was at least cool to see how big it was! We got a little bored there, but still had time to wander before the bus came so we decided to speak in accents for the rest of the day :)
After that we wandered around a little more and went back down to the water where we saw these grey birds with one big, white bird. We watched them for a while and picked what one we wanted to be and acted out what they were doing :) We grabbed our bags from the hotel and then on our way down the street, we decided that we need a picture with Hot Hotel Man and went back. He seemed a little confused and didn't realize that there were two flashes on Sienna's camera so he looks really pissed in the picture, but the story was worth the awkwardness! Then we had to catch our ferry to, drum roll please........, SANTORINI!!!! yay!
I NEED A NEW NAME!
Since I am no longer in Rome, the title of my blog seems a little out of place. I do, however, really like the syllabically balanced aliteration. If you have any suggestions for a new, and awesome, title, please send them to me via email at r1peterson@csbsju.edu. Thanks!
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