Balkan Spring Break - PART III, the finale

Euro Spring Break PART III

And welcome to the third and final installment of my Balkan Tour J

Once again … for those of you just checking in with this weird blog thing you keep get notifications for, I went on a three week through the Balkans on my Easter vacation. Started in Bosnia and Herzegovina and made it all the way to Santorini! This is Part III of the three installments of the journey...!

Let the adventure continue on from Montenegro and Macedonia!

A whole blog dedicated to Greece J

Greece -- April 25- May 2

      The trek from Skopje to Athens seemed to be pretty easy, and it was, but it was a 12 hour trek. We took a lovely bus in the evening to Thessaloniki, in north Greece, and arrived later at night at that bus/train station. Keep in mind at this point it is just the three of us – Calvin, Ashley, and I. We had about two hours in this bus/train station until our train came to take us to Athens. We haven’t had the opportunity to use a lot of trains in our past Balkan countries so we were all a little ready to use some trains, since one generally thinks of a better travel experience on a European train. This was not the case on this train! This train was full to the brim with people in the night to arrive in Athens very early – we were almost not one of them when the desk lady told us we would be standing the whole time! Thankfully she was able to spare 3 seats for 3 tired travelers but I wouldn’t even call these seats! We didn’t think that people would actually follow their seat numbers, but they did and we had to change out sitting with all our bags about 5 different times! Ha! We ended up in a very uncomfortable 6 person car with a man with his shoes off, a judgmental woman who laughed at us being American, and a young man blaring gospel music from his ear buds. We didn’t get any sleep!!

            We finally rolled into Athens around 5am and got a bit lost finding our hostel but when it was found we enjoyed a nice nap. The hostel we stayed at was the perfect location and it was actually the first hostel established in Athens – so that was cool (Students and Travellers Inn). I’m sure everyone knows a bit about Athens but for the sake of routine I’ll tell you more about it and why we had to make a stop here. Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece and has a recorded history of around 3,400 years! This city is referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy from its cultural and political achievements. Athens is of course home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery – with dozens of other very well-known landmarks to keep the average tourist busy for weeks! Today, Athens is a huge and modern city as the centrum for a lot - from everything to the cultural and economics of the country. With my Belgian high school, we took our senior spring break trip to Crete – the largest Greek island, known for its Mycenaean civilization ruins. So, on some level I had known what to expect and having heard many friends tell stories of their adventures in Athens. I had heard everything from it’s a tourist trap, it’s just like Rome with ruins everywhere, to it being the best city to ever visit! I was intrigued to experience the city for myself J

            After our nap we set out on the town! Calvin only was spending one night in Athens (while Ash and I were going to spend 2 nights) since he was flying back to Graz - so our first day was extra jammed packed so he could see as much as he could! The first bit of the day was spent wandering around and just embracing cheap euro coffees and soaking in some sun – finally! We hiked up the Acropolis and it was pretty freaking awesome. (The city of Athens also is so great in that all these exhibits are free if you are a student within the EU – we got in everywhere for free! It was heaven!) Acropolis is the ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city and has several ancient buildings of architectural and historic significance – I knew this by everyone taking pictures of these buildings! The most famous would be the Parthenon. I studied these all in class but this is about all the knowledge I have on them – because let’s be real, just saying you hiked up the Acropolis of Athens is cool in itself and just standing there embracing it all was pretty much all you can do. I even met the women’s head basketball coach at St Louis University from Madison, Wisconsin at the top! The world is seriously so small when you travel. I love it. We played the “do you know” game, talked about Arkansas’s new head coach, Bilema, from Wisconsin, and then talked about how great St. Louis was. Loved it!

After this, we climbed down and went to the first Olympic Stadium – Panathenaic Stadium is the special name for it where it hosted the first Olympic Games in 1896 where every male runner ran nude! It’s the only major stadium in the world built entirely of white marble and is one of the oldest in the world (duh, it’s Greece). After this we enjoyed gyros, the Old Bazaar, more cheap coffee, unknowingly walked through the National Botanical Gardens, saw tons more ruins and well-known classical landmarks. It was pretty awesome. Something really came over me after this day at how old it all was and definitely put things in perspective for me – more than Rome was ever able to do. I think I preferred this city to Rome by far. I would much rather roam the streets of Athens and be amazed at how a whole city is left in ruins for millions of years and yet a new, modern city has almost been built around it and still calling back to the greatness of one civilization to ignite their own. I loved the paradox of Athens and was happy to have another day to spend with her.

            The next day was without Calvin and it was kind of weird for Ashley and me to not have the boys! At one point, we almost were like, “We should walk back down, I’m sure the boys are getting annoyed with how long we are taking.” It was weird! We missed them! We had no schedule or anything we really wanted to do so it was spent just meandering around. We were exhausted as well at this point. We did make it to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens which houses some of the most important artifacts from many different time periods and around Greece. It was in a different part of Athens than where we had been in yesterday so it was nice to see the more industrial, big-city part of Athens. It was all a lot for Ash and I though, and unfortunately we didn’t spend too much time there but did appreciate what we did see!

The afternoon was spent making friends in the hostel, nap taking, and more wandering. At sunset we took a hike up Mount Lycabettus. This is a Cretaceous limestone hill and the highest point in the city that surrounds it. Pine trees cover the base and at the top there is a beautiful Chapel, modern theater, and a pricey restaurant. Funny story : being that Ash and I have hiked some mountains in Austria that the Austrians call hills and it takes us twice as long to get up them as the average Austrian, when the Greeks were looking at us concerned before we went up and telling us to take the cable car we were very scared! Apparently, we had been learning how to efficiently climb hills/mountains from Austrians because it only took us about 15 minutes to get up! We were proud and laughed at the different perceptions each country had. Right when we get to the top, with a half hour before the sun sets, it starts pouring!! Thankfully, it cleared up and we had a beautiful sunset to watch.

After this downpour, we showered and then met up with one of my friends I made while I studied in Belgium, Constantin! He is half Belge and half Greek and he attends the University of Athens. I hadn’t seen him in 3 years and I was so happy to meet up with him, even if just for drinks J I brought Ashley along and he brought his friend along and we rode the metro to the base of the Acropolis and then took an elevator all the way to the top of this building to an outside bar. It was heaven. Every rooftop was full of people drinking and being merry with the Acropolis lit up in the background to go perfectly with our 9 euro cocktails and talk from the good times spent in Belgium. I couldn’t have asked for a better night out with good friends new and old all together in one place for a split second in time. Even splurging on the 9 euro cocktails were worth it!

The next morning we woke up super early to catch the first metro – along with a cute older couple - to get on our ferry to Santorini! This ferry was amazing. I’m talking, you would think you were on a mini cruise ship it was so nice. It had movie theaters, decks, fast food restaurants, real restaurants, cafes, etc. Ash and I were so happy! Unfortunately, I thought it would be smart to take a Benadryl to help me sleep the day away at 7am and I was a zombie the entire time. It was raining also so the view could have been better for Grecian standards – but we were completely happy with the pictures we took and the many islands we passed by! 8 hours later – we finally arrived in Santorini and met up with Gina and Lisa J It was so nice to be back with them and to be just girls! The boys were great – but it was time for some girl’s time in Santorini!

Santorini is one of Greek’s island’s in the southern Aegean Sea about 120 miles from the mainland – and seems even farther when you take a slow moving ferry! It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago and it forms the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands. Santorini is a result of repeated sequences of shield volcano construction. When one thinks of Santorini, the view of the water is normally from very high up and far away since the inner coast around the caldera is more than a 300 meter drop at its highest and has many layers of solidified lava. The main towns of Santorini are built on the crests for their amazing views. Other islands in the area might have more beaches while Santorini only really has a few and the sand is black from the volcanoes.

We spent a night in Perissa where Gina and Lisa has been staying earlier that week. Perissa is the port town of Santorini and known for its amazing black sand beaches. After one night, we went to another part that was called Fira. Fira is the modern capital of Santorini and is the stereotypical city of white-washed houses build on the edge of the coast with hints of blue from churches and the water making you realize you might be in heaven. Y’all – the “hostel” we stayed at that cost 8 euro a night was EPIC. Anyone going to Santorini must stay at Villa Manos and become best friends with Poppy and all her excellence. It was a private four bedroom with a bathroom and wonderful balcony. Oh, and an incredible pool! We were so happy we ended our adventure here because if we started here we would have been very critical of all the other places we stayed at that were less nice or more money!

The Santorini Ladies spent the days wandering the lovely island, exploring Fira, eating the finest Greek cuisine, drinking fancy drinks, riding mules up sides of mountains, getting fish pedicures, making friends with locals, sunset gazing at Oia and some small swimming in the Adriatic J It was a wonderful, relaxing stay in Santorini and I can’t wait to return one day!

The return flight home, thankfully was directly to Vienna from Santorini and Ashley and I were happy to be in our own beds Thursday night the 2^nd of May J

It was a wonderful three weeks spent with friends and traveling our hearts out at a reduced price! I wouldn’t have changed anything and hope to return to those cities that made me smile and laugh with appreciation. Thank you my faithful followers for sticking it out until now and those who just tuned in!

To more adventures to come!