Corfu

This past weekend fourteen of us took a bus and a ferry to the island of Corfu, which is located on the northwestern coast of Greece. Because there were so many of us, the hostel that we had booked (the Pink Palace) sent us a private bus that took us straight to the hostel, which was much easier than figuring out the Greek bus and ferry system on our own. We left Thursday night and arrived at the hostel at 5am on Friday. We slept until about 9am, and then we immediately hit the beach. Our hostel was a five minute walk from the beach, and the weather was perfect- around 75 degrees. We decided after laying in the sun for a while it was warm enough to go swimming. That may have been a stretch but we still spent about 20 minutes in the water despite a little cold induced numbness.

After spending most of the afternoon on the beach, we headed back to the hostel. Some of us went on a walk to explore our area of the island. We walked up the mountain and looked down on the beaches. After that we went back to the hostel and ate dinner and met some of the other people staying there. The Pink Palace is a top rated European hostel that attracts a lot of Americans studying abroad. It was kind of cool to meet Americans that were also traveling. That night the hostel had a toga party, so we all dressed up in pink satin togas.

The next morning we woke up early and signed up for the ATV safari. A guide took us around the island, and we stopped at lookout points on mountains and on beaches. The views were breathtaking, and we got to see a lot of the island.

 After a long day of ATVing I fell asleep pretty early. The next day a group of students came with a travel company from Florence, and we spent the day hanging out with them on the beach. All in all it was a really fun weekend. We got back to Thessaloniki early Monday morning, so I'm still catching up on sleep. This upcoming weekend is Athens so I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about!

Cyprus

Sorry, I haven't updated my blog in a while! I haven't been traveling much this month, I've been staying in Thessaloniki to see the city and try to save a little money. Two weeks ago Madeline, Carla and I went to Cyprus, a country that is half Greek and half Turkish. It has a pretty interesting history, as it has been occupied by the Brits, the Italians and now the Turks have taken over half of it. The population was very diverse, and there were many indicators of previous occupations. For example, in Cyprus you drive on the left side of the road. Combining the Greek driving style (think fast and furious) and left side driving, we decided against renting a car right off the bat. We took a taxi to the Sandy Beach Hotel and immediately started to walk around. The hotel is about 10 minutes outside of Larnaca and right on the beach.

After checking out the hotel and the beach there we headed to downtown Larnaca, where we walked down the boardwalk, checked out the docks and did a little shopping downtown.

We went to a taverna and had some Cypriot food, which wasn't really that different from the food that we have in Greece, so it was very good. While we were there we tried to find some Lebanese food, because apparently a lot of Lebanese fled to Cyprus during the civil war. Apparently they have all returned to Lebanon since then because we couldn't find a single Lebanese restaurant. My goal is to find one while I'm in Europe but I'm not having much luck so far. Turkey may have been the closest that I'll get. I didn't even realize how close I was to Lebanon while I was in Cyrpus! Here's a map-

The first night we went to bed at around 10. We decided that for our weekend in Cyprus we wanted to sleep a lot, have long days of sightseeing and we didn't want to go out late or be tired during the day. We woke up at 8 the next morning, had a great breakfast at the hotel and headed to Agia Napa, a small coastal town about half an hour from Larnaca. We rented some bikes and headed through the town. The man who rented the bikes to us was really helpful and gave us map, circling the places that he recommended that we bike to. We started off by going through Agia Napa, where we saw the beaches and the pier. The big tourist season in Cyprus doesn't start until early April, so all of the places that we went were reopening in preparation for the busy season. Things were still very calm though and not too touristy, which was nice. We then accidentally got on the "European Long Distance" bike path, which was really bumpy and long. On our way we saw some gorgeous sea caves and more beautiful beaches.

This last picture is for my dad, I thought he would like it. The man on the left is repainting the "yellow submarine." He was very apologetic that they weren't open for tours yet, but he told us to come back the next day, which we decided against. Our final destination on the bike tour was Cape Greco, which was absolutely gorgeous. After hanging out on the cape for a little while we headed back, making our total biking distance around 11 miles. Combined with the 70degree weather and the warm sun, I definitely worked up a sweat and a sunburn.

We got some milkshakes and headed back to the hotel after our long day of bike riding. We went to a fish taverna for dinner, went bowling, and then went to bed early again.

The next morning we woke up early again and headed to Nicosia, the capital of Cyrpus. The city is divided by the Greek and Turkish border, and you can see parts of it that were at one point a war zone and haven't been rebuilt. It was a really interesting place- we were walking down a pretty touristy road that was lined with places like Starbucks and KFC, then all of a sudden we were in a UN peace zone and customs was right there. Unfortunately I had left my passport in the hotel, but Madeline and Carla went through to the Turkish side. They said it was really similar to Istanbul, and it was very strange to feel like they had entered a different country while never leaving the island.

After our day in Nicosia, we headed back to Larnaca where people were celebrating Carnival. We went downtown and ate an Indian restaurant on the waterfront, where we sat for a few hours and watched people go by in their costumes. The next morning we had an early flight home. It was a really fun weekend altogether and I really enjoyed myself.

This past weekend I tried to see more parts of Thessaloniki that I hadn't seen yet. My roommate and I went to the archaeological museum yesterday, which was pretty interesting. There aren't many exhibits open right now, so I'll have to go back soon. I also went to see some documentaries because there is an international film festival in town right now. The first one that we saw was a little bit strange and I didn't really like it much. The second was amazing- it's a Romanian film called The World According to Ion B. It's about a homeless artist who is discovered by a gallery owner. He is an alcoholic and has a very quirky personality. The film maker was actually at the showing so we got to ask him questions after. I think the film is online, and you can watch it on the website. I recommend it, its really fascinating.

Next weekend I'm hoping to go to Corfu- we're trying to get a group together right now. After Corfu, the school is taking us to Athens for the weekend. The weekend after that I'm going to Rhodes, and the weekend after that is spring break! My plans for spring break include the Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, the Amalfi Coast (including Naples!) and Morocco. I've been closely watching the news because there has been so much unrest in the middle east lately. Luckily Morocco hasn't really been affected at this point other than some small protests. The trip that I will be on is for students and led by a US based company so it should be safe. Once the traveling picks up I will try really hard to blog more often!

I'm sorry this entry is so long! I miss and love all of you at home!

Ioannina and Meteora

This past weekend I went on a school led trip to the towns of Ioannina and Meteora. We left early Saturday morning and took a bus for about 4 hours to get to Ioannina. The art history teacher from ACT was our tour guide, and she led told us all about Ioannina. It is historically a college town, and like many Greek towns has bounced between Greek and Turkish rule. The city was absolutely gorgeous- its surrounded by mountains and is located on a large lake that has an island in the middle. We went on a tour of the old Turkish castle and then we got crepes in the city. We took the bus to the caves, where we took a tour. I've seen a good amount of caves before so I didn't find that part of the trip as interesting. After the cave tour we checked into our hotel, and then went back into Ioannina for dinner.

The next day we woke up and took the bus to Kalambaka, which is the city at the foot of the rocks where the monasteries are located. The first monastery that we visited was actually a nunnery, and it was relatively easy to get to. Before the early 90s, none of the monasteries were accessible to the modern world but they build roads and bridges because they wanted to make money off of tourism. We got to tour the nunnery, which is filled with Byzantine style artwork. The entire place was destroyed during WW2 unfortunately so all the artwork was redone. Here are some pictures-

The second monastery that we went to was far more secluded. There was a bridge built to the base of it but we climbed multiple staircases to reach the top. Because it was so secluded, very little of it was damaged by the war and it was much older than the first one. Monks had to use a pulley system with a net attached to reach the monastery, which wasn't the most reliable method of transportation. They had a saying that if the rope broke, it was God's will. While they relied on that system to reach the outside world, they were very self reliant. They grew a lot of their own food and even made their own wine. The view from the second monastery was especially breathtaking-

After touring the monasteries we headed back to Thessaloniki. These past few weeks at school have been pretty busy, mostly with getting the paperwork through to get our residence permits. Because we are overstaying our 90 day visas we needed to get permits allowing us to stay in the Schengen region for a year. Needless to say, this process was expensive, time consuming and extremely frustrating. We were tested for TB, had to open Greek bank accounts and deposit money into them, sign up for Greek health insurance and go to the municipality to put our paperwork through. Every step of the way was stalled by strikes, long lines and miscommunications. The worst part is that we will probably never even see these permits, because it takes the government a long time to process the paperwork and we will be out of the country by the time that they are done. As frustrating as the process was, I've really learned to go with the flow of things and not be too consumed by it. I'm just glad that the whole thing is over and I have my temporary residence permit.
This past weekend I went to Cyprus, and I'll update on that trip soon!