Spring Break and other thoughts

Spring Break was a WHIRLWIND. It was completely just unreal and beautiful and amazing. We spent 9 days on 3 different islands and soaked up a lot of sun.

MILOS
We went there first for 4 days and this place was just gorgeous. I didn't have any expectations for Milos because it was small and not as popular as some of the other Cyclades. All the hotels were white with blue shutters and we had our own little suite with a balcony. They SAID their hotel was 90m from the port and the water...they lied. We later find out that all of our hotels lied haha ESPECIALLY the one in santorini. So we rented a little car and drove around the island exploring different beaches and caves. The island was tiny and you could go from coast to coast in 15 minutes. The water was incredible! It was so clear and blue and you could go swimming because the water was pretty calm and you could still see your toes eve when you were waist deep in the water. We went to this one beach and the water was literally turquoise. I feel so lucky to have been to these places. The weather was great, the sand was fine, and there was no one else on the beach except us 4. The last night Jess and I went to Plaka and climbed to the church on the highest hilltop to watch the sunset. It was soo windy but so beautiful. The view was breathtaking.


Paros
Paros was a bit of a disappointment. I mean, we didn't do much because the weather wasn't too good the first da we were there. We took a bus through the island and ended up in Golden Beach. One of the beachside restaurants reoepened for the first day for the season and their patio area was right on the sand and we relaxed in the evening sun eating a Greek Salad with some Giant Beans.



Santorini
Santorini was beautiful. Of course. Our ferry there got delayed so we didn't get in until late Friday afternoon. First impression: wow there are alot of cliffs and windy roads you have to drive to get to the top of that cliff. We made it to our hotel, which was on Perissa beach (the opposite side of the island from where the port was). Right outside our hotel was the black sand of the beach with little umbrella huts. We signed up for a boat tour for the next day. I also had the best dinner that night! We made friends with the restaurant owners (a couple by the name of Liza and Kosta). We practiced our Greek with them and they were all very impressed haha. Liza is actually an American who met Kosta and they dated and did the long distance relationship over the phone while she learned Greek over audio cassettes. Eventually she moved to Grece I guess and they opened up their restaurant NTOMATINI. We had the best zucchini rissoles (fried zucchini deliciousness) and pasta.

The next day we got up to take our boat tour. We rode a traditional sailboat to the volcano and we hiked up that. It was pretty cool seeing as how this volcano sand half of the island when it erupted thousands of years ago. This is also the place that the lost city of Atlantis is said to be. We spend about an hour on the volcano, got back on the boat and went to the hot springs by the volcano! They were NOT hot. The boat couldn't get too close to the hot springs because there were too many rocks in the shallow water by the shore so we had to jump off the boat and swim to the springs. It was a COLD jump and the water wasn't too warm (who knows why) but it's supposed to get pretty hot in the summer. The water was orange from all the sulfur from the volcano. The swim back to the boat was pretty bad because the water felt so cold in contrast to the warm water from the springs. We climbed back aboard and sailed to Fira, this old little town with traditional houses. We climbed up a huge cliff of just switchback roads and enjoyed a light lunch at a cafe built right at the edge of the cliff overlooking the water. On our way day me Jess and Bella almost got trampled to death by donkeys. They have donkeys that you can ride up and they were coming back down and their owners couldn't control them and we could hear them running down the path getting faster and closer so we ran down that path in about 5 minutes. The same path that took us about 20 minutes to climb up. After Fira we sailed to Oia to watch the sunset. This time we took donkeys up and dear god I thought I was going to die. After I got on my donkey, he just decided to take off and not wait for the others. It was so scary at first because I thought I was going to fall off as he made his way up the stairs of the cliff. The only image in my head was of Lena falling off her donkey in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I could feel tears forming in my eyes from sheer terror. He was walking so close to the edge too I thought he was suicidal. Then bella's donkey walked along side me and my donkey was a little guy and bella's was bigger and mine just kept trying to race with bella's up the hill. It was scary at first but pretty cool. the beginning was harder because it was a lot steeper so the donkeys had to work harder. I feel really bad for them because they get treated so badly and I would hate to have to carry people up and down the same cliff everyday for the rest of my life. We found a nice little restaurant that overlooked the water to ready ourselves for the sunset. Oia was simply breathtaking. It's everything I ever imagined it to be. The stark white houses contrasted against the blue shudders and domes and blue blue water. I thought I was dreaming. The sunset was gorgeous. The orange and pink that the sun reflected into the sky and off the white houses. It is something I will never forget.






We made it home Sunday night after 7 hours on a ferry. And now I'm sitting back at school typing this. There are only 3 weeks left in this program and it felt like just yesterday that I was panicking about coming here and leaving home for so long. I've grown to love Athens and Greece and just the Greek culture, but I think when the time comes I will be ready to come home to the good ole US of A. It's hard because I want to go home to see my parents and friends but I don't want to leave Athens because I don't know when I will come back again and even if I do it won't be the same. I feel like another chapter in my life is closing. I've had the great chance to meet a group of wonderful people that are now some really close friends, that I otherwise probably would not have met.
I'm ready to go home, but I am definitely going to enjoy and make the most of my last 3 weeks here. Appreciate the city and stay in Athens for the weekend and not travel anywhere.