Fall Break: Greece, the country that stole my heart!

After spending some time in Barcelona, me and my four girl friends headed over to Athens.  When I decided that I wanted to study abroad last year I said over and over again that I wanted to go to Greece while I was abroad.  I wasn't even going to let the state of their economy keep me from going there.  I don't really know what it was about Greece that always made me want to go, but it was something, and I'm so glad I went.  We woke up early again and left Barcelona.  The flight wasn't bad at all and I was beyond happy when we landed.  Although it was pouring when we got there I wasn't letting the rain bring me down at all.  We took the metro and got to our hostel and immediately went back out to get some Greek food.  I've never had Greek food before, so I was completely new to everything.  My first meal, I fell in love.  I had a Gyro, which is obviously well known as being Greek.  It was amazing.  I can't even explain it!  My mouth waters just thinking about it.  I also tried tzasiki, which is a cucumber yogurt dipping sauce.  It sounds disgusting but it was amazing.  The restaurant had an amazing feel and we had a great time.  We also go Greek desserts, baklava and kantafi, which were both really good!!  The wait staff were so nice to us and we all had a great time laughing and eating amazing Greek food.  After dinner we headed back to the hostel to sit at the rooftop bar where we overlooked the Acropolis and the Parthenon!  I couldn't believe the view when we got up there, it made everything hit me all over again that I was finally in Greece!  It was an amazing first half of a day in Athens and I was totally looking forward to the rest of our trip.

Gyro!

Tzasiki!

Kantafi

Baklava

The next day we woke up and went to adventure around the area that our hostel was in.  There was a really cool market that we had passed when we first got there so we decided to go back and check that out.  It was such a cool market with so many souvenir stores and authentic Greek things.  I got a really pretty Greek ring and a leather wallet which were both really great purchases for me! Around lunch time we went and got some more amazing Greek food.  I was literally a kid in a candy store when it came to meals, because I just loved the gyros and tzasiki!  After that we went back to our hostel so we could meet up with the rest of our friends that were coming that day!  When everyone got there we were all so excited to see each other.  We went back out to adventure a bit and got a big family dinner!  That night we went back to the rooftop bar and hung out with everyone.  The bar ended up being a great place for us throughout the trip.

Our view of the Acropolis!

The next day we all got up and made our way to the top of the acropolis.  That was such an amazing sight.  It didn't take long to get to the top which was good and when we finally got to the top we saw an amazing view of Athens.  After spending some time at the top of the Acropolis and taking our fair share of pictures, we headed back down the mountain, got some lunch and headed to the first Olympic Stadium!  That was really cool as well!  There weren't that many people there so we were able to fool around and have fun while we were in the stadium.  Me and two of my friends even had our own mini olympic games! After the stadium we hung around in Athens a bit then went and got dinner and headed back to the hostel.

The whole group!

Olympic Stadium!

Friday was our last day in Athens and our entire break too, and thank god, it was the best day by far.  Our hostel offered day cruises to a Greek island, which we had known about before we left, so we decided to book it.  We woke up Friday morning and headed to the boat.  When we got there it was so cool.  We knew we were going to have a great day.  The day was amazing we all laid out on the top of the boat, talked to the people who owned the boat and just hung out in the sun.  I don't think we could've asked for anything more.  When we got closer to the island the people running the boat put the anchor down and let everyone jump into the sea.  I stayed on the boat but it was so much fun to watch all my friends jump in and have such a good time.  After a while we went to the island for some lunch and got to walk around and sit on the beach a bit.  We got back on the boat after about an hour and headed back to Athens.  On our way back everyone was relaxing and we got to see the sun set over the water.  It was gorgeous.  It made me fall in love with Greece even more than I already was.  When we got back to land we made our way back to the center of Athens and got some dinner and went back to the hostel to pack up and get ready to head back to London the next day.

Sunset!

I'm forever grateful that I got to go to Greece when I had the chance, but I'm definitely making a promise to myself that I will go back.  Everything about it was amazing to me.  The food, the people, the atmosphere, everything!  I know that there is a lot of negative things going on behind the scenes in Greece, and unfortunately I did see a little bit of it, but I don't think that that will ever take away from the amazing time that I had!

When we got back to London it was absolutely freezing and it made me miss Greece immediately.  I've got about six more weeks here with two more trips and a visit from my family to look forward to! It's starting to get really bittersweet knowing that my semester abroad is going to start winding down.  I can definitely say that I'm finally at the stage where I don't want to go home!  Luckily, I still have more time! :)

Fall Break: Barcelona!!

Well, it's been quite a while since I've written anything on my blog.  Since my last trip to Ireland, I've stayed put in London for a bit.  Two weeks ago we had midterms at school which was a little tough for me since my home school doesn't really do midterm exams.  Hopefully I did pretty well on them though! Thankfully my long week of work was ended with a reward of a full ten day vacation!! Very early Friday morning me and four other girls got up and headed to the airport for a flight to Barcelona, our first stop on our fall break!  When we got to Barcelona and finally made it to our hostel, we went out for lunch and got our first pitcher of sangria! After, we wandered around Barcelona for a bit, seeing the little shops and even the beach! I can't even explain how excited I was to see a beach, it's been forever!! Later that night we decided to go out for a nice quiet dinner and then headed back to the hostel to get a good night's sleep.

Our Sangria!

The next morning we woke up and went sight seeing around Barcelona.  Our first stop was to the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudi, which is still unfinished to this day.  This church was incredible.  The outside reminded me of a really crazy sand castle.  The carving into the outside was beyond anything that I have ever seen!  There were a bunch of towers that were apart of the church, so we decided to go to the top of one of the towers and look over Barcelona.  It was an incredible view, although it was kind of cloudy out so we couldn't see everything.  Once we got back to the bottom of the towers we were able to see the rest of the church.  Just like the outside, the inside looked incredible. I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but afterward looking at them, I realized there was no way I could capture exactly what the church really looked like.  After spending some time in the church we made our way to Park Guell with many buildings and structures also designed by Gaudi.  This place was really cool as well.  The buildings reminded me of something that should be in a Dr. Suess book!  From the top of this park, again we got to see a really cool view of Barcelona!  After a full day of sight seeing we went back to the hostel to get ready and go out to dinner.

The Sagrada Familia

Park Guell

The next day we decided to do a little shopping.  Within walking distance there was a road called La Rambla.  On the weekends there is a huge art market there which we were dying to go to.  It was so pretty to see everything at each station and to see what people make.  Everything was unique and nothing was ever a repeat of something that I had already seen.  I was excited we were able to go to this because I was able to pick up some good souvenirs! :) There were many restaurants on this street so, we just decided to pop into one.  We ordered some authentic tapas, which to be honest, I was completely worried about.  I'm a pretty picky eater in general, so being in Spain made eating kind of hard.  But, to my surprise the tapas were amazing!  After lunch we ventured to go to the top of Castell de Montjuic.  To get there we had to take the metro, then a funnicular and then a cable car to get all the way to the top!  When we got there though the wait was worth while.  The castle was beautiful and the scenery was just as great.  The sky was clear so we had an incredible view of Barcelona from the top of the world! On the other side, we got to see the beach and the beautiful water! Seeing the water and how beautiful it was out, we were dying to go to the beach so we headed back to the hostel, grabbed some dinner and intended on going to the beach, until it started pouring, thunder & lightning.

Our yummy tapas!

At the top of the Castle!

The next day we did even more sight seeing.  We went to the cathedral, Basilica de Barcelona.  Since I went to Italy in the summer, I've definitely seen my fair share of cathedrals and churches, but this one was like nothing I have ever seen.  It was incredible!! Everything that I had seen in Barcelona whether it was a church or a building the detail that was taken to make each of these things was incredible! After looking around the cathedral a bit, we decided to go to a flea market that we had heard about a few days before.  Once we got there, though we realized it was not what we were expecting.  Our next stop was going to be at the top of Mount Tibidabo.  Unfortunately after an incredibly long time of trying to get there we realized it was way out of our reach and instead, decided to take pictures from a far.  After that, because the sun was finally shining we decided to go to the beach! We picked up a few bottles of wine, got a blanket and headed to the sand and waves!  After some time on the beach we had a quick dinner, went back to the hostel and packed up for Athens the next day!

The Cathedral!

Mount Tibidabo

 <3

Barcelona was a beautiful city and a really fun time.  I'm not sure it's top on my list of places I've ever been, but it's a really cool feeling saying that I've been to Spain and I've seen so much there!