Greetings from Greece!

Just spent my last 4 days in Greece! The first day we walked to the metro which was 25 minutes from the ship. We took the subway into Athens and just walked around a little bit and did some shopping. Had lunch at a random restaurant and it was pretty delicious. (Didn’t get a gyro though) After a few hours of exploring the city, we came back to the boat, grabbed some bottles of wine, and chilled on the beach for the evening. It was really relaxing and I liked not being surrounded by a ton of people. Some of the group went off into Athens again to meet someone’s friend from college that is studying abroad here.

The next day we had a late start and went into Athens again. Visited the acropolis and some of the other exciting sites of Athens. It was super hot and sunny, so we called it a semi early day and came back to the boat. Nap time! Then we did the same deal and grabbed wine and chilled at the beach. Another relaxing night in Piraeus!

Yesterday we got a speed ferry to Aegina, one of the islands that is close by (35 minutes by boat) and walked 3 ½ miles to the nice beach (we were told it was the nicest by someone on the dock). The beach was beautiful, but the very long walk in the hot sun wasn’t so fantastic! It was definitely an experience though. I think each of us drank about 2 gallons of water each in the 5 hours we were on the island. The beach was definitely worth it though. The beach part was somewhat sandy and somewhat pebbly, but once you got into the water, it was completely sand. It was sooo nice! We haven’t had a sand beach since Spain!! All of the other ones were stone. Definitely have many many cuts on the bottoms of my feet from said beaches. This one was really nice though and it was pretty shallow once you were out pretty far. The water was crystal clear and you could see down to your feet when you were really deep! It was really fun watching the fish swimming around. We took taxis back to the port to see the most beautiful sunset before getting back in our ferry and heading to the mainland.

Today we went back into Athens and I just exchanged a purse and grabbed a magnet. Everyone else visited the acropolis museum. I wasn’t really looking forward to that, so I just went off and had some alone time. This city felt really safe, so I was OK. (and I’m writing this so clearly I’m still alive) On the metro on the way back, this greek woman asked me about my waterbottle (SAS bottle) on a bench. She just started asking me in Greek! I was sooo confused. I guess I might blend in a little? That happened to me once or twice in Croatia too where they said hello to me in Croatian instead of in English which was really nice.

We leave for Turkey tonight. I’m really excited about it and ready to do some research about some of the things I want to do and the things that I am doing (sufi dervish ceremony!). Turkey is going to be a lot different than any of the other countries we have visited. I’m just excited to get away from the Euro!! Alright, time to study for the 2 exams and write the paper that I have due tomorrow!