Pynx, Areiopagus, Agora day trip!

The Pynx, Areiopagus and the Agora are all places within walking distance of where we live. So this was a trip where we all met at school in the morning and walked to these places. It was a beautiful warm day... November 6th!

The Pynx is known as the birthplace of Democracy. This is where the first government meetings were held, laws were passed and many things were discussed. They had an amazing view of the city during all of their meetings.


While visiting the Pynx, Micah was constantly crouching down to the ground and drawing things in the dirt and was always blowing his nose with his gross purple hankie... sick... AND he definitely put a rock in his mouth and also was eating dirt... I mean come on? What 22 year old seriously eats dirt and puts rocks in his mouth? I'm pretty sure he might actually be 3 years old... WEIRD!!!

The Areiopagus is the hill of Aries and it is where the council of Elders met. And another interesting fact is that Saint Peter preached here.
The Agora is a shopping area and just on the edge of the Agora is the Temple of Hephaestos. It was very interesting to hear all of the history that happened within the Agora and try to imagine all of the people moving around in the hustle and bustle of their everyday life.

Last Stop in Italy... ROME!

We got to Rome on Friday afternoon and it was fairly sunny weather and a bit warmer than Florence. Our hostel was very close to the train station which was great. We were in a 8 room mixed dorm which meant we had boys and girls. Our room was fairly nice with a bathroom in our room which was great. All of the people in our room were nice. All from the states, Canada, or Australia. Each night we had people move in and people move out so it was quite fun to meet all the different people. There was even a bar downstairs with free pizza every night!

After we were settled into our hostel we decided we should walk around a bit before Whitney's birthday celebration later that night. We went and found the Trevi fountain which I found out you are supposed to throw a coin over your shoulder and it means you will always come back to Rome which of course I threw a coin over my shoulder. There were a lot of people there but everyone was really nice and we got people to take our pictures.
After walking around for a bit we got ready and headed out to meet Hana and Whitney for Whitney's Birthday dinner. We went to this great pizza place and then had gelato. We made sure to get Whitney a crown and birthday candles. After gelato we went to a bar and got her lots of free drinks and her and Hana even did body shots which was absolutely hilarious but I am not allowed to post pictures of this event. HAHA! :)
The next day we knew we had to get a lot of site seeing done before the evening as it was HALLOWEEN! :) So off we went seeing many sites. One of which was the Colosseum! We went there when the sun was starting to go down so it was absolutely gorgeous. It was amazing to imagine all of the things that have gone on in that place. We would have gone into the forum but by the time we realized the ticket for the Colosseum was the same for the forum it was too late to go in but walking around the outside I still saw a lot of it so I figured it was good enough. We headed back to our hostel and started getting ready for Halloween. We talked to a bunch of people in our hostel and found out most people wanted to go on a pubcrawl. So we decided to join the crowd! We met two girls from Texas named Holly and Kat and we dressed up in Togas with them! It was a lot of fun! We had to run with 16 of us all the way to the metro station and then through the metro station get on the metro and off the metro and to the Spanish steps where we were greeted by a mass of people. We estimated it to be about 350 all together which was the biggest turn out they've ever had. They split us into three groups and off we went. The first place we went was a cave bar which they provided us with free pizza, unlimited beer for an hour and free t-shirts! It was really fun! We went to another place after that was an irish pub which was much more crowded and not as fun and somehow I managed to spill an entire drink into Betsy's purse which we were sharing for the night and all over myself. I was soaked but laughed it off and ended up partying the night away anyway. It was a night to remember and I had a great time! The morning after Halloween Betsy and I had planned on going to a hillside town called Orvieto. It was a cute town much like Fiesole with all the trees changing colors and all the rolling hills. We saw a cathedral that was black and white striped marble which was amazing to see. And we also had a great lunch at this very authentic Italian restaurant with fresh Italian Pasta! It was delicious! We definitely enjoyed our day up there! The train rides there weren't that great but it was definitely worth it. That night we ended up hanging out with all the other people in our room playing card games and talking all night in our room after of course getting our free pizza from the hostel. It was a really fun night!
The last day of our site seeing we went to see the Vatican with all of the new friends we made in our room, which included 3 Australians and 3 Canadian boys. It was an interesting day seeing as the boys got extremely annoying because they didn't care one bit where they were and just made stupid comments all day. But I on the other hand really really enjoyed seeing the Vatican and thought it was very interesting. After we did the Vatican we had lunch and then saw more sites including the Spanish Steps which is the last photo!
After seeing that much of Rome in 4 days I was very ready to head back to Athens but of course the next morning after waking up bright and early to get on our plane it was delayed 2.5 hours... it was awful. I will never again fly easyjet. They don't let you carry on two bags like normal airlines and the one carry on you do get has to be super small. RIDICULOUS! I hate that airline. We FINALLY made it back to our apartments around something like 6:30pm and I was more than happy to be back but it was one of the best trips of my life!

2nd Stop in Italy... FLORENCE!

Florence was absolutely amazing! By far my favorite place in Italy and possibly my favorite place in the world. We arrived in the afternoon and off we went to our hostel. It was called Plus Florence and was absolutely amazing. We were on the Plus Girls floor which meant we had an all girls room, the halls were pink, our rooms were pink and purple, we had hair dryers and towels included which was great. Our hostel even had a pool, a bar, restaurant, and computer lab. Once we had got into our hotel off we went to go exploring and find food. We walked around for a while did some shopping in San Lorenzo shopping center which was so great! They had tons of leather goods, scarves, souvenirs, and such. I ended up buying a couple scarves and even a cream colored peacoat which I absolutely love! After we did some shopping and had more fabulous Italian pizza we walked around for a bit more and ran into our friends Hana and Whitney from the study abroad program. So we decided to make plans to meet up with them later. We spent a bit more time in our hostel after that and then headed out to a music bar with the girls and their host. It was a bit loud in the music bar so somewhat hard to talk but the music was great and of course the wine was too.


The next morning we got on a bus and headed up to Fiesole, a hillside town on the edge of Florence. It was amazing! All of the trees were turning colors and it was a nice warm day. We walked around the town which was so cute and then went on a hike and saw beautiful views. We had a great time laughing and talking along the way and taking some amazing pictures as well. After our hike we went back to the little town and had great pizza at a little restaurant close to the bus stop and after lunch got on a bus and headed back into Florence. We went to see Accademia which is the museum where the real David sculpture is and there was also this great photography exhibit they had which was modern and I absolutely loved it. That evening we walked around a bit more and then just hung out in our hostel had dinner and drank cheap boxed wine all night.

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed out to climb the Duomo which was completely worth it but super hard. I got dizzy at points because of the spiral staircases and it was a tight walk up and a long walk up considering it was 468 stairs up and then all the way back down. It was rough but we made it and the view was great. We took lots of pictures and then headed back down. Off we went to get gelato and head to the Uffizi, which is one of the biggest museums I've ever been in and I'm not quite sure if the 10 euro we paid was worth it because it was a lot of the same stuff and not much of anything that was exciting. After that we went to the science museum which was pretty cool seeing some of the science artifacts and what not. Then off to the Ponte Vecchio bridge which was really beautiful. We took lots of pictures and walked over it then walked up to the hillside and sat up there to watch the sunset and again drink our lovely boxed wine. We got some amazing photos and had a ton of fun just chatting and people watching. Once we had finished up there we figured we'd head back and find dinner, unfortunately the oil shoppe where we wanted to eat was closed so we found another place where I had the best walnut and cream sauce pasta! On our walk back I had to pee so bad that I ended up running inside a hospital and the lady looked at me like I was crazy but I just ran in and found the bathroom and ran right back out. It was quite humorous but at least I made it! :) After our dinner we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a bit before Elise had to get on a train home and I ended up falling asleep and staying asleep all night. Luckily I got lots of sleep but didn't get a chance to go out that night. The next morning Betsy and I packed up our stuff and headed out to walk around the shops for a bit before we caught our train to Rome!

Florence was by far my favorite city. I had a great time there drinking wine and enjoying the fall weather. The changing colors of the trees and the rolling hills along with fabulous food made this city amazing. I am sure I will go back someday and hopefully many more times!

1st Stop in Italy... VENICE!

Our first place we stayed in Italy was Venice... besides our 5 our layover in Naples. The first picture is the hostel we stayed at called a Venice Fish. It was decent. We met some cool people there and we had hot showers but it wasn't the cleanest of all hostels and it was pretty cold but it was a decent price and we were only there for 2 nights so it worked!
For Venice we got in somewhat late on Sunday night and basically got to our hostel settled in had a quick dinner then off we went to sleep. The next day we knew we had a lot to do and not a lot of time. We walked through the town and bought 24 hour waterbus tickets and had coffee at a little cafe. Then we caught the waterbus to Murano which is the glass capitol of the world. It was really cool seeing all the different blown glass sculptures and shops. We had lunch out there and the plates were even made of blue blown glass. And of course our lunch was GREAT!

On our way back from Murano we were riding the waterbus it decided to do a U-turn and during this U-turn the water from the poo filled canal came up and completely drenched my legs... it was DISGUSTING!!! I was freaking out... And the worst part about it is that I was inside the waterbus and the water literally B-lined into the waterbus and drenched me... the POO WATER DRENCHED ME! It was disgusting... all over my legs and I was wearing sandals so it was under my feet and everything!! SO SICK! I was very upset but luckily Betsy had some sanitation wipes and wiped me down and then even though I was wet we didn't have much time to get to Saint Marks Square before the church closed. So we ran our little butts off and and made it to Saint Mark's before it closed. The church there was absolutely beautiful I had never seen a church with so much detail before. And we climbed to the top and took beautiful pictures while the sun was starting to set. After we did the church and the square we decided to get a gondola ride. They all said it was 100 euro but we refused to pay that much so we were going to leave and luckily a really awesome gondola man came over and told us he would give it to us for 20 a piece so 60 total. It was great! He took us around all these canals and everything which was great especially at sunset I got some great pictures!




After our gondola ride we decided to head back... we planned to pick up some wine on the way and then head back to our hostel for our free pasta dinner and then go out with the people in our hostel. After we bought the small individual wine twist off bottles. They were hard to open and in Betsy's attempt to open her bottle it snapped in half and sliced her hand. She was bleeding a lot and she thought she might need stitches so we decided to head back to the hostel, clean her cut, and figure out if she needed stitches or not. Once back at the hostel we figured that she needed stitches and we should find the hospital. Once we found it on the map we headed off... Betsy holding her hand above her head and clamping it as tight as possible. It took what seemed like forever to find the hospital in the confusing streets of venice following signs and trying to pass people along the way. We finally found what looked like a church but said it was a hospital and went inside. The open room that we walked into was fairly dark and there were some women in a cubicle just off to the right so we ran over to them saying emergency, help... and they just shouted something in Italian and pointed down this deserted hallway... we were very confused but decided to head down the hallway and try to figure out where to go we tried to follow signs but they were all in italian... we eventually ran into this couple which the man ended up leading us the right way... but the entire way to the emergency room... the whole hospital was like a deserted church... it was sketchy for sure... We finally got there and they had us fill out a form with barely any of her information... name, street adress (no state or city), phone number, birthdate and nationality... it was so strange... he took a look at her hand cleaned it and gave her gauze and told us to sit and wait. We asked how long and he replied... We hope... so we sat for about 45 min which wasn't bad and she was called back and we were not allowed to go back with her. While in the waiting room with Elise we saw people being pushed on gurneys, a woman with a broken nose not being helped, a older italian woman yelling in italian and other such things but it was not busy like a normal hospital would be... Anyway Betsy later tells us that the doctor kept telling her to tell him things in Italian and of course she doesn't speak Italian and he ended up stitching her up with 4 stitches and the man that was cutting the stitches was even talking on his phone... so weird... they gave her a tetanus shot and then showed her the papers... the papers said 25 euro so she tried to pay him and he said no its closed and so she said I'll pay outside and he said no its closed so she asked what she should do and he said maybe something will show up in your country and we left! Guaranteed nothing will show up considering they don't even know what state or city she lives in. Anyway after that adventure we went for a couple drinks with the people in our hostel and went to sleep and woke up early for our train to Florence the next morning!

All in all Venice was cold and smelly but I'm glad I went it was something I'm glad I saw and it was quite the adventure as well!

Day Trip to Southern Mainland Greece

This trip was back on October 22nd, the day before we were to head off for fall break. So after long days of studying and writing papers for midterms we were off for the day. It was a fairly nice day out a bit chilly but other than that great. The night before we had gone out for Tabby's 21st Birthday so some of us were not feeling that up to a day of site seeing but we slept on the bus and were feeling better by the time we got through some of the sites. We saw Amphiareion, Brauron, and Sounion. They were all pretty cool but Sounion was my favorite which included the temple of Poseidon.