Spring Break: part 2

Upon my arrival in Athens I was stuck with excitement. Greece has been one of the places I have wanted to go to since I can remember. I couldn't believe that I was actually there. Ever since my dad told me some of his stories about the Greek Islands I knew I had to get there while I was still young ;) We were in Athens for a total of two days; the first day and our last day, the rest of our Greece trip was spent in Santorini and Mykonos. My favorite you ask? Well, I'd have to say Santorini. You probably know Santorini because of the famous blue and white houses draped over the side of a volcanic mountain. It was serene, beautiful and filled with happy people. The experience there was amazing even our hostel was amazing. It was actually more like a bed & breakfast. My friends and I were the only people staying there except for the owners of course. The hostel itself was painted bright hues of purple which stood out from the white houses that surrounded us. We spent a day on the beach which was really nice and relaxing except that the sand is volcanic sand meaning its black and prickly which doesn't add up well with bare feet. We also couldn't walk in to the water without yelping because of the amount of rocks, but if we just laid there it was marvelous.
Oia is the part of Santorini that has those houses, that is also the area where you can ride donkeys up and down the huge steep mountain. Allie and Rob did it as Debbie and I stood from the top taking creepy photos of them. The bad part about the islands was that it was so windy that it became difficult to wear any of our warm weather clothes we brought with us. We learned to deal by layering with everything we brought.
Mykonos was extremely commercialized the first thing we saw was a Starbucks disguised as a traditional Greek home. We stayed at a campground called Paradise Beach which to our surprise wasn't a gay resort that the Athenians told us about. Our rooms were concrete huts that you could picture in a Discovery Channel special about an indigenous species from thousands of years ago. Debbie and I had our own little roommates; 2 snails, millions of ants and some mosquitos that left me with 14 mosquito bites. I named one of the snails GusGus from Cinderella but the other one wasn't as exciting so I didn't name it. Talene, Caitlin, Debbie and I ventured off our last night there to find the wind mills according to a Londonite, George he told us that windmills used to power everything on the island (I'm not sure if that is still true). We stumbled upon this really cute restaurant right against the sea and when Tal and I went to take pictures to our surprise the windmills were right there! It was a coincidence but perfect because we didn't think we were going to find them. The waiters at the restaurant were very nice; one was talking about Chicago calling it the "town of wind", he was close. When we returned to Athens we of course saw the Acropolis which was how I pictured it. To this day my favorite historical site/building is the Pantheon in Rome.
Athens reminded me of China Town in Manhattan because of the amount of fake merchandise you can buy it was almost ridiculous. I wasn't expecting that at all. Athens seemed a little dirty and the people weren't as nice as everywhere else I had been, but I still enjoyed it. I also realized that the gyros in Greece were the same thing as what you'd find in a traditional greek restaurant in NY (I wasn't as gyro-crazy as my friends). While in Athens we went on this tourist train that brought us through the city, we were being presented to the world is what it felt like because we would drive down allies that were lined with restaurants and everyone in Athens. Moral of the story don't go on the trollies unless you are prepared to turn red, laugh a lot and feel completely embarrassed.
This is the Acropolis!!

Overall this Spring Break definitely tops all the other ones I've had, but next year who knows where I'll go :) I'm so glad to have enjoyed both Spain and Greece, I want to go back to both to explore more parts of them but that will have to be for another time. I only have 3 weeks left in Paris, and most likely the next two weekends I will be traveling again so I have even less time in Paris then I thought. I want to go to the YSL exhibit at the Petit Palais which is supposed to be incredible, but I have to hurry because I think it is done soon! I definitely want to do the cliche picnic in the parks with a bottle of wine in one hand and a baguette in the other, but I might save that for when my cousin comes in a couple weeks!!
With Love.