Greece! Our final trip while abroad. What a perfect place to get some of the sun that London is notorious for lacking. We knew that after a long year of studying and exams, Greece's beaches would be a relaxing end to our stay. So off we went to Athens!
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| A little graffiti we found on our plane, poking fun at Ryanair's infamous bad service and hidden expenses |
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| An elephant cloud! |
The flight to Greece was insanely beautiful. Basically, all of Greece was beautiful. As soon as we made it off the metro and into the center of Athens where our hostel was, we looked up and saw the Parthenon just a few minutes walk away. At first, I thought it must have been some other tourist attraction, since I couldn't believe we had such a cheap hostel so close to everything we were there to see.
While walking around, trying to find our hostel, we met a super sweet Australian girl named Bethany. After getting settled in our room, we all went to dinner, enjoying the delicious but super cheap food in a market nearby. Once it got late, we went up to the roof top of our hostel and had an amazing view of Athens.
The next day the three of us joined one of the free walking tours offered daily. We had originally planned to take a bus tour, but once we got to Athens, we realized it was truly a walking city.
One of my favorite things about Greece is that there are dogs EVERYWHERE. Our tour guide told us that many years ago, in preparation for the Olympics, all the stray animals were rounded up and given their shots and other things by vets, and released back outside. The people in Greece don't mind the dogs, and will put out food and water for them. Because of this, all of the dogs were pretty calm and friendly, even when being harassed by these dog paparazzi.
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| Olympic Stadium |
Halfway through our tour, this little guy decided to join us! He stayed with us for almost all of the rest of the way, walking along and seeming to listen to the tour. Our guide said this dog does this almost everyday.
Finally, we made it to the Parthenon.
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| Even the trashcans were going with the theme |
The next day, Jackie and I headed off on a ferry to go to the island Aegina. Everyone told us that if we were going to Greece, we HAD to go to an Island. They were right.
Once we made it to Aegina, we took a bus to the other side of the island where our hostel was. Once we got there, one of the daughters from the family owned hostel picked us up and drove us over. The family was so kind and welcoming, and stressed that if we ever needed a ride or anything else, they would help us out.
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| Jackie being excited we had our own private room |
Since we were only on the island for one night, we headed straight to the beach. To get from the hostel to the beach, we had to take a little hike through a forest for about 20 minutes until we hit the main road. On one of these trips, we met a friendly dog we named Howard, who led us along the trail a few times, always looking back to make sure we were right behind him.
After a full day of swimming in the sea, reading books on the beach, and tanning, we went to a close by restaurant, and were joined by a little gang of cats. The restaurant owners didn't love it, but we sure did. The food in Greece was consistently amazing and cheap. Definitely the perfect place for students on a budget!
On our last walk back through the forest, Howard wasn't anywhere to be found, but a new dog, Greg, must have heard from Howard he wouldn't be there, and decided to take over the duty of tour guide. We got about half-way to the hostel before a car drove down the road, pulled up next to us, and the man driving started to speak to us in Greek. Once he realized we weren't understanding, he said "Is this dog following you?" To which we replied "No! He's leading us to the hostel!" To our surprise, the driver said "It's my dog!" with a smile, and asked us where he could find the dog later. Sadly, Greg ran along with his owner, so we made the rest of the journey by ourselves.
The next morning we had one last dip in the sea before going back to the port on the other side of the island to catch our ferry back to Athens, but not before I had some octopus for lunch.
We spent the night back at our hostel in Athens, and flew back to London the next morning. As if that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, just a few hours after landing in London, we headed to Camden to see Mac DeMarco play. It was an awesome end to one of our last weekends in London, even though I stepped in puke.
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Wow! That's it! You've officially made it to the end of the blog. I had so much fun making it, and I'm so glad I was able to share all our photos and stories with friends and family while across the pond. I also loved obsessively checking the stats, and seeing where our visitors were reading from! Here's a little break down of all that goodness:
So with that, I just have one last treat for you. Here's a little film I put together of all the random video clips I captured whenever I remembered I had the video function on my camera. It's in no means a complete documentary of our travels, but it makes me smile every time I watch it, and I hope you enjoy it to! Big thanks to everyone who read the blog!! You rock!!!
