Santorini!

This past weekend, I went to Santorini with my friends Jamie and Diana. It was kind of a last minute trip when we decided to go so when we booked our flights, we did not end up together. Jamie and Diana left late Thursday night and had a 7 hour layover in Athens getting them to the island at about 6:30 am. I left early Friday morning and got to Santorini at about 2pm. The place we stayed was a family run villa close to the Thira, the capital. They were absolutely amazing, so nice and helpful with whatever we needed. We got picked up and dropped off at the airport and they made us breakfast each morning. When I met up with them on Friday we were all pretty exhausted from traveling and the weather wasn't great. We crashed in the room for a short siesta and then took a walk into town to find some dinner. Our host gave us a suggestion and then even drove us there!

On Saturday, we booked an excursion through the hostel. It was only 35 EUR and included a bus tour of the island with a few stops, then a boat cruise to the volcano, swimming in the hot springs, and sunset viewing from the tip of the island. It was absolutely the best thing we could have done. In one day we did basically everything there was to do on the island. Here's the readers digest list of what that all involved.

1. visited three high points on the island
2. hiked to the top of an active volcano
3. swam in the hot springs of that volcano
4. rode a donkey from the water to a village at the top of the cliffs
5. climbed 288 steps to the place where all the post card shots are taken from to watch the sunset

I could go into more detail but this would be a very long post. So instead I'll let you take a look at my pictures and let them do the talking. Here are few teasers and then the link to the rest of them on facebook. (you don't need a profile to see them)



Me at our first high point.



Looking back at the town from the boat.



Jamie, Diana, and me on the volcano.



Looking out on the water.



The sunset.

For the full album go here!

Catch up!

Alright, enough with the slacking off. Here's a quick catch up on what I planned on posting last week before time got away from me.

The last day of orientation, ACT provided us with a short day trip to Vergina. Vergina is a small town about an hour outside of Thessaloniki. It is historically significant because it is where they believed the ancient capital of Macedon, Aigia, was located. Archaeologists have been interested in the areas since the late 1800’s and finally in 1977 the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovered burial chambers under the “Great Tumulus”. Currently there is a very cool museum built on top of the site to display the several tombs of the Kings of Macedon. You enter what looks like a hill and go underground to see the fully intact tomb of Philip II (father of Alexander the Great) and Alexander IV (son of Alexander the Great and Roxana). There are other artifacts and ruins that were found in the other tombs, most of which had been looted. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside so if you'd like to know what these amazing artifacts look like feel free to Google it! Or you can just take a quick trip to Greece and see them for yourself :)

As far as the rest of my classes go, I'm taking a politics class focused on the European Union. It’s a class that is mixed with local Greek students as well as study abroad students which has so far made for interesting discussions. We're learning a great deal about the creation of the EU and how it performs in current affairs. My fourth and final class is Art History, specifically late modern art. I'm not sure how this is going to work seeing as I don't know much about early modern art. In fact all I really know about art has come from Allie talking to me at countless museums. Yet, the professor is amazing and promises that we will all have a new found appreciation for modern art by the end of the semester. I'm sure Allie would love if I could appreciate art the way she does, I however will not be making such strong promises. I will simply give it a chance and see what happens.

The Museum in Vergina, really looks like you walk into a hill.

The Bissell Library, one of our two buildings.

One of the views form ACT.

Hitting the books...

The last part of our orientation included a half day trip to Vergina, the burial site of the kings of Macedon. Once I get the pictures up on my computer I'll add a post about that experience. Today was the first day of classes at ACT. Since the school is not near our dorms they provide a bus for us once in the morning before the first class, and back again after the last class. Its rather convenient because the ride is only 20 minutes; the problem is that the last class gets out at 8 and my classes end at 3 or 5 each day. So, with a few other students, today I experienced taking the city bus home. Three different buses and 45 minutes later we were finally at the bottom of our street and only a short walk away from home.

Despite the transportation issues, the school is great. My first class was Greek 101. Seeing as the language is so different from English we started at the very beginning and learned the alphabet, or at least attempted to. I'm seeing lots of flash cards in my near future. It is going to be a challenging class but very rewarding when I can finally go out in the city and have some comprehension of what I'm hearing and seeing. I was talking to the tour guide that we had in Athens about it because he has been living in Greece for about 4 years now and still taking language classes. He said that the easiest part would be learning to read and write it once you memorize the alphabet. Speaking it is an entirely different battle. My goal is to be able to carry on a short conversation with a local by the end of the three months. Maybe it will just be ordering at a restaurant or buying a bus ticket at the train station, I would still feel accomplished.

My second class today was History of Ancient Greece. This one I am very excited for because I really have never learned much about the Greeks. Most world history classes cover it in the broad sense and there is never enough time to really focus on it. All the ruins and historical sites I am seeing on my travels around the country will mean so much more knowing the stories and legends behind them.

In other news, I made it onto the trip to Mount Olympus for next weekend with my roommate Jamie. Next Saturday we will be hiking up to visit the ancient Gods, I'll try and put in a good word for you all. :) Also, we booked a weekend trip to the Greek island of Santorini to leave on this coming Friday! I'm very excited for that even after the trouble it took to book it. I'm going with Jamie and our friend Diana who lives downstairs. Jamie is from Florida and goes to USF, Diana is from Springfield, MA and goes to BC. We are going to stay at a beautiful looking hostel right near Thira. They offer island excursions and will even pick us up from the airport, what more could we ask for? We get there at about 1pm on Friday and don't leave till Sunday night to have as much time on the Island as possible. Another student who lives in our building went to the island before coming to school and has given us a list of places we should get to, not sure if we have time to get to them all but I plan on trying.

Sunsets and Churches

Our first day of orientation was today, and the first time that we were able to get up to the school and see the campus. It is about a 20 minuet drive from where our dorms are and is more on the edge of the city. It is a beautiful campus and has some great views of the city. It is a rather small college but it is part of Anatolia College which includes a middle school and high school as well. Most of our classes will be in two buildings on the north side of campus. The student affairs office has several trips planned throughout the semester that I am hoping to get to take. It is limited to the number of students that can go but I’m going to try and get to at least one. One of the first trips is to climb Mount Olympus which is on the top of my list. If I can’t go with the school hopefully I can go at some point with other students here.

The city is beautiful. There are nice shops and restaurants along the streets and right next to them are ancient ruins. The mix of the modern and the historical is really amazing and something that I’m not used to in Boston. Boston has a lot of history but it does not go back nearly as far as it does here. The culture is so rich here and you can see it in everything. I went for a walk today with my roommate Jamie, and a few other girls. There is this old castle up on the hill behind us that we can see from our windows. At night when it gets lit up it is really beautiful and we keep saying we need to figure out how to get there. We asked around and were told that we can take a bus to it, so we tried that tonight.

We took what we thought was the bus we needed but turns out it wasn’t. It didn’t matter though because the sun was setting and we were too preoccupied with the views the city below us. We stopped and took pictures the whole way down constantly amazed at each turn of the road. Since we live down closer to the center of the city it has been hard to tell how big it really is, but on top of the hill you could see how far it stretches. We walked by this gorgeous church right on the side of the hill and watched the sun set behind it. Some nice Greek travelers walked by and we exchanged group pictures. It is definitely a spot I will be coming back to during the semester, a nice get away when you need to relax and just take it all in.

down to the water

Since we have a few days to just explore the city, we've spent most of our time walking down to the boardwalk by the water. It is huge, with lots of shops lining the street and a really nice bike path too. If only we had our bikes. Here are a few pictures of the area.

I'm here!

Isn't technology amazing?! I can be thousands of miles away but still talk to someone as if they are sitting next to me. Better yet I can keep a journal online to share with family and friends so that you can keep up with me on my travels this semester.

If you don't already know I'll be spending this semester in Thessaloniki, Greece in the northern part of the country. Its right on the water and is the 2nd largest city. I'm taking some gen ed and elective classes and of course enjoying all Greece has to offer. The city is beautiful, very much the Boston of Greece. There are fewer people than Athens and a lot of college age kids. At the same time there is a lot of history to the city, modern stores build right around ancient ruins, and some of the oldest churches in Greece.

On September 5th I flew in to Florence, Italy with Allison where we spent 2 days exploring before taking a train to Rome. We spent a full day in Rome and did everything but the Vatican City. From there we took an over night train to Bari on the coast of Italy to take a ferry over to Greece. We were able to spend a day in Bari and experienced what a small city was like in Italy, very nice and even had some cool museums and parks to visit. We landed in Patras and took a bus and a train to get to Athens. In Athens we took a great walking tour with the hostel we were staying at and got to see all the big sights and get a small history lesson. The next day Allie left to go back to work (unfortunately) and I left to travel north to my school. I've added a few pictures from that trip at the end of this post. It was a really exciting trip and a great start to the semester for me.

Classes won't start till the 21st, so I still have time to settle in and explore the city. We have orientation this week and a required trip to a TBD location. All the study abroad students are housed together so we are already making friends and working together to get acquainted with the country and especially the language. So far we know about 3 words, but its a start.

FYI, random fact, in Greece they do drive on the same side of the road as us. I know someone had asked me about that before and I wasn't sure.


In Florence on the bridge.



At the Colosseum in Rome.


In front of the first modern Olympic stadium in Athens.


Allie at the Parthenon on the acropolis.