hot rocks and hotter ferry rides

Hello! I’m writing this from our ferry ride from Naxos to Piraeus. I’m beginning to dread these boat rides, because they are so long and hot. We travel on these huge ships for like 6 hours, packed in with a billion other people, and there’s very little breeze. It suuucks. But anyways. We went to Santorini from Monday until yesterday and it was great. The island is one big mountain so you have to ride a bus/car up these tiny winding roads. Which when you have 13 people packed into a tiny 8 person van its so scary. I felt like Santorini was geographically one of the prettiest places we’ve been to so far, but architecturally it really wasn’t anything special. I only saw a few of the blue domed buildings that it’s known for. I felt like Athens and Mykonos had more beautiful buildings and places. But. We went to the red sand and black sand beaches on Santorini and they were so awesome. Well except that there was no sand at those beaches just red and black rocks, which get sooooo hot. For the red beach we had to hike over part of the mountain to get to it, but it was so worth it. The hills and cliffs were stained with red rocks everywhere, and there was actual sand on one section of the beach, and it was black! It was very cool. On our last night in Santorini we all ate at this restaurant and had probably the best food we’ve had in all of Greece. I had a cuttlefish dish that was served over rice with tomatoes and onions, and some of the other dishes were, a salad with a piece of grilled cheese and a sundried tomato dressing, linguini in a cream sauce with zucchini, mint, and soft goat cheese, some sort of veal dish, some baked eggplants stuffed with peppers and feta, and lots more. So good. Also, Santorini had a little stand where you could get falafel gyros (and regular ones) that were the best ever. Overall, it was a good trip. I’m looking forward to getting to Siphnos tomorrow and seeing what that city is like. I'll post some more pictures when I'm on a faster internet connection tonight.

Bus drive up the hill

View out the window

Black Sand Beach

It moved...

Red Sand Beach

Naxos Pitchers.

Greek Salad

Octopus on vinegar
The beach where we swim on Naxos

Greek sweet bread

a long overdue update.

I apologize for my lack of posts. We’ve just been so busy everyday and we have limited internet access. I’m in Naxos now which is an Island in the Aegean Sea. We were in Athens until the 1st, and then Myknonos until the 3rd. In 3 more days we get to go to Santorini, which I’m superrrr excited about. Ok, so, here’s what we did in Athens:

The first day we went on a walking tour of our neighborhood in the city. We saw the Temple of the Olympian Zeus, a very old church in Athens, saw the changing of the guards at the Parliment, and much more. Our hotel was in the best spot because we were situated among all the ruins and the modern city. Plus we had a perfect view of the Acropolis from our balcony which was amazing. We spent the next few days going to classes and on small excursions with the group. We went to the National Archeological Museum which was very cool. Although me and a few others got lost trying to find it. That happened quite a few times, even with my keen sense of direction. ha. When we went to the Acropolis everyone was supposed to meet outside the entrance to the Theater of Dyonisus, and me and a few other ende up on the completely wrong side of the mountain. Which meant we had to walk all the way down, around, and back up. We had a map and directions and everything and I feel like we would have been fine, except we can't read any of the street signs because none are in English. Oh well. Our detour allowed us to find one of the great little resteraunts that we ate in later that week.

The food. sooo good. I found that the restaurants in Athens and Mykonos were very touristy with high prices and mostly the same selection. However, if you dug deep enough you could find the good, family owned authentic Greek resteraunts. One night in Athens we were wandering the meat market looking for a place that sold seafood (not realizing that all the fresh fish was gone after lunch time) and we came upon a little place with just one person eating inside. I knew it was going to be good when the man working inside was offended when a person I was with asked the prices of the food right away. He said, "Where are you from? How can you ask the price of food before you've even seen it or tasted it? Are you crazy?" So he took us back to the kitchen and we got to look at all the food that had been prepared and try different dishes. I ended up ordering this plate of vegetables that was so good. And a Greek salad. which i don't think ill ever get tired of. Its a tomato, cucumber, and green pepper mix with some olives, a huge chunk of feta cheese on top, and an olive oil and vinegar dressing. Its just the best. We found a great place last night to eat here on Naxos as well. for 12 euro we got a huge plate of sardines, calamari, shrimp, tzatziki, and french fries. Also we ordered octopus on vinegar which is so delicious. I tried it early that day in this small restaurant in the middle of the mountains that we stopped at during our bus tour. It was a little place owned by the old man and women and they gave our bus driver and tour guide a plate of meatballs, a type of goat cheese, and the octopus tentacles while our group bought waters and sodas. Our tour guide let me try the cheese and the tentacles- the cheese was a little bit too sour for my taste but the octopus was so good. I could eat it everyday.

The beaches here. are great. In Athens we took a train and a metro to get to one that was 45 minutes away. That one wasn't the greatest because it was a little too rocky, but it was still fun trying to navigate the metro system when none of us can read or speak any Greek. We went to a beach yesterday here on Naxos and it was the best by far. The water was completely clear and blue, and it was so salty that you could float without even trying.

I have to go to class now, but I will post again with pictures and more of what we've been doingggg.


-Abigail Marie.