I’m rather alarmed to announce that this past Thursday was the 5-week mark for how long I’ve been in Europe, and I’ll be the first to admit that have absolutely no idea how 5 weeks could’ve possible passed so quickly. It feels like I spent so many months just preparing to go abroad; between deciding on a country, a school, applying, waiting for an acceptance letter, going through pre-departure orientation and paperwork, applying for my Italian visa, booking flights, choosing classes…the steps to get here seemed endless. Now I’m not only finally here in Italy but I’ve been in classes for 3 weeks, my parents arrive in 2 weeks, and I have nearly every weekend through when I leave to go home in December planned with travel or the arrival of family and friends. Throughout the many months of preparation to go abroad, the very thought of living in another country for 4 whole months seemed like an eternity. Even a couple of weeks ago, school had just started and the idea of living here in Rome until Christmas and being in class for a whole semester rather than a 10-week quarter at DU made it feel like I’d be here forever. But between my 3-day school weeks packed full of classes, homework, and soccer practice – and my weekends that are spent travelling to the far reaches of Italy – time is moving faster than ever and I seem to find myself searching for a pause button in a desperate attempt to stop time just long enough for me to reflect on the experiences I’ve had thus far.
Now that I’ve gained some sense of direction for the sprawling city of Rome and figured out where I live in relation to major landmarks, etc. I’m becoming more and more comfortable with spending my time between classes wandering the city. Without a lot of homework (at least not in relation to being a biology major at DU…) I have far more spare time than I seem to know what to do with. So during breaks between my classes I tend to stop at one of the two open-air markets to get some fruit and then off I go – I just pick a direction and start walking. I can only do this for a couple of hours because by that time it’s the siesta part of the afternoon and everything closes, but it’s forced me to learn the city better and has allowed me to discover tons of interesting sites, potential running paths, stores, markets, and of course – gelato shops. The rest of my school week, although I’m not sure I can even call it that since it’s only 3 days long, is consumed by soccer practice and spending time with friends. My friends and I have started taking turns cooking dinners for each other in our apartments, so we usually gather at someone’s place 2-3 nights per week and enjoy attempting random Italian recipes – knowing that if it doesn’t turn out we can always resort to eating gelato for dinner ☺ Soccer is still in Italian and thus incredibly disorienting, but overall it is going really well as I’ve been named one of our two starting offensive players and am looking forward to our playing in a tournament of Roman Universities in a couple of weeks.
My first couple of weekends in Rome have been…incredible. I wasn’t expecting to get to do as much travelling as I have been with school starting, but it’s been really easy to do homework during the week or on the train, etc. so each weekend I’ve been able to jet off to some party of Italy. Our first weekend, some friends and I took a day-trip to Naples, about a 2-hour train ride south of Rome and the birthplace of pizza! Let’s just say that when guidebooks suggest you do a day-trip to Naples rather than sleep there, I’d listen to them. Naples was…definitely just as dirty and seemingly just as crime-filled as all of the books make it out to be. Given that I spent the day there with 3 friends from NYC/New Jersey (they’re a little more street savvy than those of us who grew up in suburbia), I felt pretty safe ☺ Haha. Given the amount of sketchy characters roaming the streets and the trash blowing around my feet, we had an excellent day. Our first stop (this shouldn’t be a surprise to those of you who know how food-motivated I am ☺..) was a pizzeria. Not just any pizzeria, Pizzeria Michaela – made famous not only by Rick Steves but by the author of my new favorite book - Eat, Pray, Love. After navigating to the pizzeria only to find that there was a mob of hungry Italians winding down the street just waiting for enough tables to clear for them to even get into the restaurant, we knew that it was going to be some good pizza. And sure enough, we were not disappointed. They only served three types of pizza – marinara, margherita, and magherita with extra buffalo mozzarella cheese – plus beer or coke. Oh and they expect each customer to consume an entire pizza individually, a task that seemed daunting only until we tasted the pizza and realized that there was no way anyone could only eat a slice or two. After stuffing ourselves with the most amazing bubbly-cheesy-deliciousness of my life, we saw the sites of Naples including an ancient castle complete with a mote, the port, etc. The next two days we spent back in Rome with some friends from the DU Bologna program touring the Vatican and attending Rome’s end-of-summer festival called Bianca Notte (or “the white night), in which all of the city’s main sites and attractions stay open and lit-up all night.
Last weekend I went with a fairly large group of AUR students to the Cinque Terre – 5 Mediterranean hill towns along Italy’s northwest coast. We got to spend 3 full days there and it was so nice to be out of the chaos of Rome! I didn’t have to worry about being hit by cars, mopeds, or buses – and I could lay out on the rocks along the water and enjoy being able to see the stars for the first time in weeks. My friends and I found a man listed in Rick Steve’s Italy guidebook who rents out private rooms and got a pretty good deal on a studio apartment complete with a nice kitchen and bathroom for the 2 nights we were there. We stayed in the 4th northern-most town, Vernazza, and after hiking the coastal trail between all 5 of the towns on Saturday, we decided that Vernazza was our favorite. I’ve been to the Cinque Terre once before with my family and absolutely loved it then too. This time was quite different being there without parents and making my own hotel and train arrangements – but we had so much fun. Our first day there was a little on the cool side so we spent the day getting acquainted with Vernazza, eating the best seafood I’ve ever had at a restaurant perched on a cliff about 100 feet above the water, stargazing, and playing cards. As I mentioned before, Saturday we took a boat from Vernazza to the southern-most town (Riomaggiore) and hiked north through all 5 towns, stopping to look around each town, swim, etc. When Sunday rolled around and it was time to head back to Rome, I was definitely not ready to leave the tranquility and the beauty of the Cinque Terre – but that’ll just give me a reason to go back! ☺
This weekend was pretty low-key, a nice change from the hectic-nature that travelling each weekend brings. Yesterday I went on a day-trip with my study abroad program (ISA) on one of their planned excursions to the Tuscan town, Assisi. I really appreciated being able to just go hop on a bus and not do any of the planning or arrangements myself. We went on an organized tour of 4 churches that included a narrative of Saint Francis of Assisi’s life and got to explore the medieval streets during our free time. As one point I was in a shop buying some pretty cool souvenirs made out of wood from the local olive trees and actually ran into my friends from the DU-Bologna program, including a girl on my lacrosse team who I didn’t even realize was studying in Italy, who happened to be in Assisi on a 3-day trip around Tuscany with their school! It was really nice to see some familiar faces and was definitely one of those experiences that opens your eyes as to how small the world can feel, even when you’re wandering a medieval Italian town thousands of miles from home! Surprisingly the bus ride to and from Assisi was one of my favorite parts of the trip – it was really interesting to see the landscape transform from the cramped buildings and bustling traffic of Rome to the hilly/mountainous countryside dotted with rivers and vineyards.
I guess between my enjoyment of bus rides through the countryside and stargazing in the Cinque Terre, I might conclude that the chaos of Rome is more than I’m used to living in the suburbs of Minnesota or the more suburban reaches of Denver. Even today I went for a run through the larger park near my apartment and after discovering some new trails that headed out away from the city traffic noise, I got so excited to see what it looked like and to get away from the noise that I ended up running 8 miles - - something not too difficult compared to a full-length, full-field soccer game, but the longest distance I’ve run just for the heck of running in a loooong time.
This weekend has been one of ethnic experiences. My friends and I are finally getting a little tired of eating pasta and/or pizza nearly everyday and have been immensely craving other food groups. So Thursday night I went out to eat with my roommate, Elsa, at a Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood and it was SO good to have some chicken and rice that had other flavors besides marinara or pesto ☺ Then…I guess I must have been really sick of pasta…because Friday night a group of us ventured over to the Vatican to a Mexican restaurant recommended by our study abroad director and gorged ourselves on guacamole and fajitas – something I’ve been greatly missing since living in Denver where it feels like half the restaurants are Mexican food. Aaand to conclude my ethnic weekend, my friends and I ate at a Thai restaurant that all students at our school seem to rave about, and boy were they right. Not only were our meals ridiculously cheap and so delicious, but the owner loves students from AUR and gave us 5 appetizers, 2 desserts, and 4 bottles of wine (yes, 4 bottles – for 6 people) - - for FREE. I was just in awe the whole time. It was all so delicious and for some reason the wine tasted so much better knowing I wasn’t paying for it, haha. Anyway, needless to say it was a really fun night filled with teaching our Thai servers English words that they asked us about and assuring them we’d return shortly with more friends eager to eat.
Before my run this morning, Ally and I got up earrrrrly and took the bus to the Porta Portese flea market, a famous Sundays-only market in Rome. It was definitely an experience to watch the frantic Italians violently sorting through the endless rows of tables full of stuff and the vendors singing and bartering. We were pretty overwhelmed by all of it but we had a blast and I came out with a pair of shoes and two scarves for a total of 10 euros, not bad! Now I’m off to do a little homework (shocking, I know ☺) as I eagerly await our 3-day ISA excursion to Sorrento and the island Capri next weekend and the arrival of my parents in less than 2 weeks!!!! Hope all is well at home and/or if you’re reading this from your own foreign adventure!
Diana
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
So this is culture shock?
I’ve been in Rome for over 2 weeks now and am finally getting a feel for being back in the swing of classes, but even with the gradual establishment of a sense of regularity this experience continues to throw out some curve balls especially in aspects of my life that I've always seen as so stabilizing. Before I left, DU study abroad orientation warned us that there would be phases of adjustment to life abroad. The phases were something like this...
1. Excitement - i.e. you're SO excited to have finally arrived that you hardly have time to think about anything but the beginning of this new chapter in your life
2. Culture Shock - after settling in, the initial excitement begins to fade and you become easily overwhelmed by the many, many unfamiliar aspects of your new life
3. Establishment of a Comfortable and Regular Lifestyle - culture shock wears off, you settle into your new European rhythm...there's more stages that I can't remember but it goes something like that....
Anyway, despite my denial that it would ever happen to me seeing as I've handled changes like leaving for college in Colorado, etc. pretty well, I've decided the culture shock has finally come and is (I think?) starting to fade...between my new living arrangement, school, soccer, and constantly traveling on the weekends - I'm immersing myself more and more into Italian culture than I'd ever anticipated, and while it can be overwhelming at times - I'm learning to love every minute of this roller coaster!
Besides being in another country, experiencing another culture, etc. this semester should be quite the adjustment for me. Why you ask? Well first of all it’s a 14-week semester, not a 10-week quarter like DU uses. I’ll have to get used to the classes that I’m taking far more than at DU where if you don’t like a class it’s over quicker than you can comprehend. That adjustment should be an interesting one seeing as I (a DU biology major) am not taking ANY science classes this semester, not even anything that resembles science. That was made possible by the fact that: 1. I came into DU with enough AP credits that I’m ahead of my class to begin with, 2. It’s difficult to find a study abroad program with a good science program (unless you go to Australia, which is too Americanized for me to “culture” myself there), and 3. This schedule came out of my attempts to take advantage of Rome as my classroom and make myself a little bit more well-rounded in the process. So after a little adjustment, here’s what my schedule looks like for the semester:
Monday: Art of Rome (on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
Tuesday: Italian Sketchbook (on-site) 9-1
Wednesday: War and Peace in Rome (partially on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
And while Monday-Wednesday may look incomplete, I’m please to announce that that’s my schedule! Not bad, eh? I’ve been REALLY pleased with my on-site classes too. It’s such an amazing experience to be able to sit on the steps of the Colosseum while my professor lectures, or to sit on a bench overlooking the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum drawing and sipping coffee for 3 hours - - who knew some people called this school?! Needless to say, it’s been a drastic change from my usual organic chemistry labs and biology lectures. I think the change has been an easy one due to the lower workload and the fact that I get to sit outside right in front of the ruins that I’ve only ever seen in textbooks and learn about them, but I’m surprised to say it’s also been a little bit difficult. While I love not being overwhelmed with science classes, this is also way out of my element. I mean I’m in drawing?! There’s no objective way to grade that, thus us science-type personalities may become easily distraught, haha. So while it’s been a good change and one that is sure to make me a well-rounded academic, my artsy class load has definitely thrown me a curve ball and has added another “culture-shock” type element to deal with and adjust to.
At the beginning of the first school week I signed up for a few activities and can now say that I’m becoming very involved in my school. I’m officially playing soccer for the AUR She-Wolves in addition to being in the “culture club” which does excursions around Italy, yoga, and attending weekly Italian cooking classes - - sooo I’d say I’m keeping busy!
Soccer is a pretty unique experience, which is weird for me to even think much less say since I’ve played it for SO long and have always found it to be a stably scheduled part of my life no matter when or where life has taken me. Italians call soccer calico, but what my team plays isn’t actually normal soccer, it’s called calcetto – or a small field, 5-on-5 game that has some weird rules that our coach who only speaks Italian is trying to teach us in preparation for strict Italian-only-speaking referees. Having an Italian-speaking coach has definitely been eye opening; in fact…I honestly think I’ve learned more Italian at soccer practice than in my Italian class. Between the Italian coach, the new rules, and new teammates – soccer has taken some adjustment but I really think it’s enhancing my cultural immersion and has allowed me to meet a lot of new people, including a lot of the resident (4-year) students at AUR.
That’s about all I can stay awake to coherently write for now…I just got home a couple of hours ago from a 3 day hike through the Cinque Terre (5 hill towns on the Mediterranean that are about a 4 hour train ride north of Rome), so I’m a little wiped out. But there’s tons more to come, so stay tuned ☺
Love you all!
~Diana
1. Excitement - i.e. you're SO excited to have finally arrived that you hardly have time to think about anything but the beginning of this new chapter in your life
2. Culture Shock - after settling in, the initial excitement begins to fade and you become easily overwhelmed by the many, many unfamiliar aspects of your new life
3. Establishment of a Comfortable and Regular Lifestyle - culture shock wears off, you settle into your new European rhythm...there's more stages that I can't remember but it goes something like that....
Anyway, despite my denial that it would ever happen to me seeing as I've handled changes like leaving for college in Colorado, etc. pretty well, I've decided the culture shock has finally come and is (I think?) starting to fade...between my new living arrangement, school, soccer, and constantly traveling on the weekends - I'm immersing myself more and more into Italian culture than I'd ever anticipated, and while it can be overwhelming at times - I'm learning to love every minute of this roller coaster!
Besides being in another country, experiencing another culture, etc. this semester should be quite the adjustment for me. Why you ask? Well first of all it’s a 14-week semester, not a 10-week quarter like DU uses. I’ll have to get used to the classes that I’m taking far more than at DU where if you don’t like a class it’s over quicker than you can comprehend. That adjustment should be an interesting one seeing as I (a DU biology major) am not taking ANY science classes this semester, not even anything that resembles science. That was made possible by the fact that: 1. I came into DU with enough AP credits that I’m ahead of my class to begin with, 2. It’s difficult to find a study abroad program with a good science program (unless you go to Australia, which is too Americanized for me to “culture” myself there), and 3. This schedule came out of my attempts to take advantage of Rome as my classroom and make myself a little bit more well-rounded in the process. So after a little adjustment, here’s what my schedule looks like for the semester:
Monday: Art of Rome (on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
Tuesday: Italian Sketchbook (on-site) 9-1
Wednesday: War and Peace in Rome (partially on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
And while Monday-Wednesday may look incomplete, I’m please to announce that that’s my schedule! Not bad, eh? I’ve been REALLY pleased with my on-site classes too. It’s such an amazing experience to be able to sit on the steps of the Colosseum while my professor lectures, or to sit on a bench overlooking the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum drawing and sipping coffee for 3 hours - - who knew some people called this school?! Needless to say, it’s been a drastic change from my usual organic chemistry labs and biology lectures. I think the change has been an easy one due to the lower workload and the fact that I get to sit outside right in front of the ruins that I’ve only ever seen in textbooks and learn about them, but I’m surprised to say it’s also been a little bit difficult. While I love not being overwhelmed with science classes, this is also way out of my element. I mean I’m in drawing?! There’s no objective way to grade that, thus us science-type personalities may become easily distraught, haha. So while it’s been a good change and one that is sure to make me a well-rounded academic, my artsy class load has definitely thrown me a curve ball and has added another “culture-shock” type element to deal with and adjust to.
At the beginning of the first school week I signed up for a few activities and can now say that I’m becoming very involved in my school. I’m officially playing soccer for the AUR She-Wolves in addition to being in the “culture club” which does excursions around Italy, yoga, and attending weekly Italian cooking classes - - sooo I’d say I’m keeping busy!
Soccer is a pretty unique experience, which is weird for me to even think much less say since I’ve played it for SO long and have always found it to be a stably scheduled part of my life no matter when or where life has taken me. Italians call soccer calico, but what my team plays isn’t actually normal soccer, it’s called calcetto – or a small field, 5-on-5 game that has some weird rules that our coach who only speaks Italian is trying to teach us in preparation for strict Italian-only-speaking referees. Having an Italian-speaking coach has definitely been eye opening; in fact…I honestly think I’ve learned more Italian at soccer practice than in my Italian class. Between the Italian coach, the new rules, and new teammates – soccer has taken some adjustment but I really think it’s enhancing my cultural immersion and has allowed me to meet a lot of new people, including a lot of the resident (4-year) students at AUR.
That’s about all I can stay awake to coherently write for now…I just got home a couple of hours ago from a 3 day hike through the Cinque Terre (5 hill towns on the Mediterranean that are about a 4 hour train ride north of Rome), so I’m a little wiped out. But there’s tons more to come, so stay tuned ☺
Love you all!
~Diana
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Una Bella Città! (a beautiful city!)
Both AUR (The American University of Rome) and ISA (International Studies Abroad – and the organization that I’m in Rome through) orientations kept me pretty busy last week. After move-in day an AUR professor led us on a much-anticipated tour of the Arches of Constantine and the Coliseum, followed by the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon. Needless to say it was a long couple of days of walking across Rome in the 95-degree sunshine. Thursday evening ISA held a “welcome dinner” for all of its students at a restaurant located in the Travestere neighborhood of Rome. On the way to the restaurant they took us around on a brief bus tour of Rome, pointing out the best views (I live on the highest hill in Rome in the neighborhood Gianicolo), parks, etc. After a traditional Italian 3 hour meal consisting of 6 courses (bruschetta, pasta, risotto, meat and potatoes, salad and bread, gelato…sooo much yet SO good!), our ISA advisors gave us each a map and sent us on our way…i.e. they were making us find our own way home, a task that can be daunting in a city like Rome! So my friends and I wandered away from the restaurant deciding that we’d take a little time to enjoy exploring the area before venturing home - - but the next thing we knew it was past midnight (when the buses stop their regular routes) and our map was useless. So, we figured it couldn’t possibly be that hard to just walk home, I mean there were a few landmarks that we recognized, and off we went. Just a little pointer for large European cities: never assume anything will be easy, go smoothly, or as planned. This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the course of my first week in Rome, thus making patience and humoring the situation key responses to such unpredictable situations. As my friends and I wandered around Travestere in search of the hill that’s home to our apartments, we assumed finding the highest hill in Rome would be easy - - you know, just look for the tallest point and walk towards it…nope, not so easy. In fact, sadly it took us about an hour to even figure out that we were on the opposite side of the Tiber River from where we live. After making that shocking discovery, finding a bridge to cross (which appeared to have some sort of drunken rave going on making the bridge packed full of people and a little difficult to cross efficiently), and squinting our eyes in the dark in search of the supposedly easily spotted hill - - we eventually found a map at a bus stop (who knew bus stops all had maps…?!) that indeed: 1. Pointed us in the right direction, and 2. Kindly informed us that we’d walked in an unnecessarily large loop and were actually quite close to home when we’d left the restaurant to begin with…whooops. Either way, we thoroughly enjoyed our 2.5 hour trek home (it walked off the 6 course dinner anyway) as we giggled our way into our apartments just after 2 a.m. I will say that that walk not only oriented me more as to where my apartment is in relation to the rest of the city’s sites (it’s much more orienting to walk rather than be in a taxi or on a bus), but it also made me realize that while I should be alert for petty theft and all that, to me Rome feels like a safe city at night. Me friends and I were 100% comfortable wandering the city and never really felt like we were lost, we just sort of assumed we’d find our way and in the meantime we could enjoy the beauty that is the Eternal City at night.
Orientation ended on Friday giving us freedom to spend the weekend exploring the city and getting settled with our new friends before classes started on Monday. Saturday was a pretty average day of grocery shopping, getting settled in the apartment, and sleeping in after spending Friday night cooking hand-made pizza (SO good!) at my friend’s apartment. I did spend Saturday afternoon playing some much-awaited Italian soccer with my friend Matt (who goes to John Cabot, another American school in Rome) at a local park before going to Campo di Fiori, a popular square filled with American bars, with a bunch of DU kids as well as new friends I’d met during orientation. Our night in Campo was a fun one, I was so intrigued by how Rome becomes so alive at night (partially due to it being so hot during the day…) and how that’s so encouraged by having pedestrian-friendly squares for people to sit and talk in so conveniently. Sunday some friends and me made the trek to the Roman beaches surrounding the town Ostica Antica where we indeed found masses of American kids from our school soaking up some sun (or clouds seeing as it was cloudy, but still hot) before classes began. The beaches were pretty crowded seeing as they’re just a tram stop from the city, and most wanted to charge money for umbrellas or chairs, but we had a blast! This part of the Mediterranean is very different from Greece. The water’s not as clear, but also not as still, in fact this part of Italy had some huge waves for us to enjoy – the opposite of Greece where the water hardly seemed to move. After the beach, Elsa and I ran back to our apartment to get in a quick shower before making the surprisingly short walk to my friend’s Matt and Nick’s (both go to John Cabot) apartment for Matt’s birthday dinner. We spent Matt’s dinner going to a somewhat pricey, but well known and liked by locals, restaurant in Travestere where we indulged in endless bread and bruschetta, calamari, and a bunch of different kinds of pasta, followed by a trip to the local gelato shop - - making that probably my 5th consecutive day of eating gelato in Rome…☺ So, things are going great here in Italia! I’m eating like a king (or queen?) and hoping you’ll all still love me if I return to America a little more obese than when I left…Actually I really don’t anticipate that happening at all…I walk like 10 miles a day here…half of which is uphill - - so bring on the gelato!! I’ve been SO happy to be able to instant message, email, and skype with so many of you – it makes me feel very loved and allows me to comfortably enjoy my time here without missing home too much. I’m off to AUR soccer try-outs now (wish me luck!), so I’ll let you know how that goes and will write more shortly on my first week of classes!!
Love you all!
Diana
Orientation ended on Friday giving us freedom to spend the weekend exploring the city and getting settled with our new friends before classes started on Monday. Saturday was a pretty average day of grocery shopping, getting settled in the apartment, and sleeping in after spending Friday night cooking hand-made pizza (SO good!) at my friend’s apartment. I did spend Saturday afternoon playing some much-awaited Italian soccer with my friend Matt (who goes to John Cabot, another American school in Rome) at a local park before going to Campo di Fiori, a popular square filled with American bars, with a bunch of DU kids as well as new friends I’d met during orientation. Our night in Campo was a fun one, I was so intrigued by how Rome becomes so alive at night (partially due to it being so hot during the day…) and how that’s so encouraged by having pedestrian-friendly squares for people to sit and talk in so conveniently. Sunday some friends and me made the trek to the Roman beaches surrounding the town Ostica Antica where we indeed found masses of American kids from our school soaking up some sun (or clouds seeing as it was cloudy, but still hot) before classes began. The beaches were pretty crowded seeing as they’re just a tram stop from the city, and most wanted to charge money for umbrellas or chairs, but we had a blast! This part of the Mediterranean is very different from Greece. The water’s not as clear, but also not as still, in fact this part of Italy had some huge waves for us to enjoy – the opposite of Greece where the water hardly seemed to move. After the beach, Elsa and I ran back to our apartment to get in a quick shower before making the surprisingly short walk to my friend’s Matt and Nick’s (both go to John Cabot) apartment for Matt’s birthday dinner. We spent Matt’s dinner going to a somewhat pricey, but well known and liked by locals, restaurant in Travestere where we indulged in endless bread and bruschetta, calamari, and a bunch of different kinds of pasta, followed by a trip to the local gelato shop - - making that probably my 5th consecutive day of eating gelato in Rome…☺ So, things are going great here in Italia! I’m eating like a king (or queen?) and hoping you’ll all still love me if I return to America a little more obese than when I left…Actually I really don’t anticipate that happening at all…I walk like 10 miles a day here…half of which is uphill - - so bring on the gelato!! I’ve been SO happy to be able to instant message, email, and skype with so many of you – it makes me feel very loved and allows me to comfortably enjoy my time here without missing home too much. I’m off to AUR soccer try-outs now (wish me luck!), so I’ll let you know how that goes and will write more shortly on my first week of classes!!
Love you all!
Diana
Monday, September 8, 2008
Sono finalmente in Roma! (I’m finally in Rome!)
My friends (Tyler, Elsa, and Ally) and I have finally concluded our travels through Greece and are starting to get settled in our apartments in Rome where we’ll be living until Christmas time. Now that we’re in Rome, we’ve noticed just how much our experiences in Greece taught us and adapted us to European lifestyles. Between sleeping in the hallway of a ferry on Saturday night and being kicked awake by a security guard (whoops) at 4:30 a.m. while tryyyying to sleep in the Athens airport on Sunday night, we had a rough couple of nights getting here. But like all of the other obstacles we encountered on our travels throughout Greece, we figured it our, made it work, and had a blast in the process. Our arrival in Rome was, like most of our arrivals to new places in Greece, characterized by the fact that we had nowhere to stay once we were here. Luckily this time we arrived mid-day and had time to deal with issues such as that the cab drivers did not know of the hotel we requested, couldn’t find our school’s campus (American University of Rome), and only actually found it once I pointed out that we were stopped right next to it…Anyway, we ended up in a hotel really close to our school our first night in Rome where we showered, napped, ate, and did some much needed laundry in attempts to feel remotely rejuvenated for AUR orientation.
Tuesday morning Elsa and I were picked up at the hotel and brought to our new apartment in the Travestere area of Rome where we met our two new roommates, Jessica and Tracy. The 4 of us spent the majority of Tuesday running around our HUGE Roman apartment in euphoria as we discovered its many unexpected amenities; wireless internet, 2 HUGE balconies, one off the also GIANT living room (complete with fancy chandelier) and one connecting the two bedrooms, more storage than we could possibly need including a storage closet about the size of a 3rd bedroom containing a spare mattress for visitors (such as my sister, Lucy!), kitchen, and a bathroom with an uncommonly large European shower. Needless to say we were already quite excited about our living situation, especially once we found out that we live about a 2 minute walk from the AUR campus compared to most of our friends from DU studying here who live a 10-15 minute walk at the closest and some are even so much as a 15 bus ride, so I guess you could say my luck continues!
Tuesday evening, Elsa and I took our first run in the park (Villa Scialla) near our apartment. This park is…incredible. It’s built within the ancient Roman city walls and has AMAZING panoramic views of the Rome skyline complete with the Colosseum, etc. The paths go from winding under vine-covered arches, to up and down hills, into a wooded forest, past fountains and palm trees and picnicking Italian families - - It’s all that I could’ve hoped for as far as a place to exercise safely in Rome and more. So needless to say, first impressions of my home for the next 4 months…not too shabby, I mean I guess I can get used to this lifestyle ☺
More to come on AUR Orientation Week shortly! Also, in case some of you hadn’t noticed, I’ve added links on the left-hand column of my blog to my photo albums for Greece and Rome thus far. I’ll write more when I can, stay tuned ☺
Diana
xoxo
Tuesday morning Elsa and I were picked up at the hotel and brought to our new apartment in the Travestere area of Rome where we met our two new roommates, Jessica and Tracy. The 4 of us spent the majority of Tuesday running around our HUGE Roman apartment in euphoria as we discovered its many unexpected amenities; wireless internet, 2 HUGE balconies, one off the also GIANT living room (complete with fancy chandelier) and one connecting the two bedrooms, more storage than we could possibly need including a storage closet about the size of a 3rd bedroom containing a spare mattress for visitors (such as my sister, Lucy!), kitchen, and a bathroom with an uncommonly large European shower. Needless to say we were already quite excited about our living situation, especially once we found out that we live about a 2 minute walk from the AUR campus compared to most of our friends from DU studying here who live a 10-15 minute walk at the closest and some are even so much as a 15 bus ride, so I guess you could say my luck continues!
Tuesday evening, Elsa and I took our first run in the park (Villa Scialla) near our apartment. This park is…incredible. It’s built within the ancient Roman city walls and has AMAZING panoramic views of the Rome skyline complete with the Colosseum, etc. The paths go from winding under vine-covered arches, to up and down hills, into a wooded forest, past fountains and palm trees and picnicking Italian families - - It’s all that I could’ve hoped for as far as a place to exercise safely in Rome and more. So needless to say, first impressions of my home for the next 4 months…not too shabby, I mean I guess I can get used to this lifestyle ☺
More to come on AUR Orientation Week shortly! Also, in case some of you hadn’t noticed, I’ve added links on the left-hand column of my blog to my photo albums for Greece and Rome thus far. I’ll write more when I can, stay tuned ☺
Diana
xoxo
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Spontaneity = My New Middle Name
Last time you all heard from me I was on a ferry en route to Crete, a brief island hop as a means to get to our final Greek destination of Santorini – a location known by Greeks to be “the party island.” But before I even get to our adventures on “the party island,” I must enlighten you all to how we got there in the first place – an adventure in itself to say the least.
Our decision to go to Crete as a means of getting to Santorini turned out to be a good one. Essentially, from Kythira we had 2 choices: the first was going back to the Athens port (Pireaus), spending the night there, and hoping they had a direct ferry to Santorini the next day (knowledge of the transportation here seems to be somewhat of a wild goose chase with everyone you ask giving you a different story about when/where buses or ferries go, etc.). Our second option was going from Kythira to the Kissamo port on Crete (the biggest of the Greek islands and known for its distinct Turkish/Greek culture mix), then somehow getting to the Iraklia port which just happens to be about 150 miles east down the coast from Kissamo. So, with a fear of taking the ferry back to Athens, finding out that there weren’t ferries the day we needed one to Santorini, and thus being stuck in Athens for the duration of our trip – we chose the Crete option instead, our logic being that if the worst happened and we couldn’t get to the Iraklia port and/or they too didn’t actually have a ferry to Santorini that day, we’d at least be on a new Greek island rather than back in Athens. (I’m trying to make this brief for the sake of all you readers, but this process really was a novel in itself, so bear with me ☺)
So, off we went to Crete – once again hopping on a ferry with zero knowledge of exactly what would happen when we got off. We arrived at the Kissamo port, late again around 11 p.m., and after talking to an informative taxi driver found out that the actual town of Kissamo was not only about a 4 mile hike away (which we immediately recognized as a bad idea (don’t worry Dad ☺) seeing as it was dark and the roads are about half as wide as they should be to accommodate European drivers), but the town only has 4 hotels – of course all of which were full on the night of a late-night ferry arrival. So…with the help of my new bible (a.k.a. the Lonely Planet guide to Mediterranean Europe), we had the taxi driver take us to the next major town, Hania, on what can only be described as a makes-you-want-to-dig-your-finger-nails-into-your-own-thighs-for-fear-of-either-hitting-a-moped-or-being-hit-by-a-bus-while-passing-a-moped kind of taxi ride. Upon our arrival in Hania, we began searching for a hotel listed in my guidebook, only to find ourselves completely disoriented by the Greek street names and somehow wandering an extremely busy touristy area in a daze. Well, evidently our lost-and-confused-and-desperate-for-sleep-must-be-Americans-gaze was quite obvious because we were quickly approached by a middle-aged woman asking us (in English, a sure sign they know you’re an obvious American) if we needed a room because she (once again, here’s our unbelievable luck) happened to own a hostel?! So sure enough, we followed her into her hostel and immediately accepted the quiet, well-ventilated, 4-bed room complete with our own bathroom and 2 giant fans that she offered us. Not only did this kind woman practically scrape us up off the street and give us beds and a shower, but she then showed us around the corner to her favorite gelato shop where we gorged ourselves on 3-flavor cones until we’d been comforted enough to fall asleep immediately. The next morning we easily found the bus station where they (our luck, once again) indeed had buses departing for Iraklia every half hour. So off we went on a 2.5 hour bus ride along the coast, which turned out to be an amazingly beautiful way to see the incredible scenery of Crete - mountains on the right, Mediterranean Sea on the left, I was so torn as to which way to turn my head ☺. When we got to Iraklia, the first two people we talked to about a ferry to Santorini seemed to respond with “Santorini, today?! Oh no, not possible.” But sure enough, our persistence paid off and we found that there was 1 ferry leaving for Santorini that afternoon! Ecstatic with the knowledge that we were actually going to make it to Santorini after all (at one point, a seemingly 50/50 chance of success), we booked our tickets.
Our ferry to Santorini was about an hour late in its departure (Europe is definitely going to teach me patience…), thus getting us to the island around 10 p.m. After some more confusion with the transportation, we hopped on a bus (for a rather terrifying ride up the switch-backs of Santorini) that was supposed to take us to our destination town of Perissa, where our hostel was waiting for us to check-in by 11. However, our bus made an unexpected stop in Fira, which is apparently in the opposite direction of Perissa, where we found out that to get to Perissa we’d have to switch to a bus that wouldn’t depart until 11:30, that’s precisely 30 minutes after check-in closes at the hostel for those of you not paying attention to the novel at this point…So, we ended up taking a taxi and arriving in Perissa around 10:56, at this point twitching from some combination of excitement that we had actually made it and jitters from another exciting taxi ride (seriously though, better than most American roller coasters). After a long journey, we treated ourselves to some snacks and drinks on the porch of our hostel where we got to know the others staying with us – 1 girl from Ireland, her 2 friends from England, and 1 friend from Canada (all of whom roomed with us), plus a conglomeration of others including some from Australia, Belgium, some Argentineans who roomed with us our second night, and Peter – a must-be-40-year-old hippy who does odd jobs for the hostel in exchange for living there and getting intoxicated quite regularly while meeting the new hostel-ers each night. Although I can’t give a good impression of Peter justice, a conversation with him generally goes something like this:
Peter: (with a googly-eyed expression)“Where are you from?”
Diana: “the US”
Peter: “You’re American?! I love America. I love you. Do you love me? No really, do you love me?”
Diana (with dumbfounded look) “Of course I love you Peter.”
Peter: “Do you really mean that?”
Diana: “Yes…I mean it.”
Peter: “Okay good. Do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No, sorry. I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “You don’t smoke?! But do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No…I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “Yeah I know, but do you have some cigarettes?” - - shortly after, gets distracted and walks into the street while breaking into song…Like I said, that may not do his character justice, but I tried ☺
The next morning we got up early to catch a bus to the port for the full-day sailboat tour we’d booked at check-in. The tour was a little tourist-y, but worth every second. We saw so much of Santorini’s geographical wonders that there’s no way we could’ve seen otherwise, including:
1. A stop for a 1.5 hour hike up and around the Caldera (volcano island), an active volcano that once erupted thus forming what is now known as Santorini and leaving only 5% of its population at the time alive!
2. Swimming at a natural hot springs (Lamatica Nepa) that was located in a rock cove of a small island off the mainland of Santorini. The sailboat couldn’t get up to shore because of the shallow waters so we had to jump out and swim about 50 meters each way – kind of a funny experience to watch all the members of our boat just abandon ship off the side and “swim” (more like thrashing for some) to the hot springs to enjoy the hot (or more like bath-temperature) water with a surrounding mud bath which quickly became a mud fight for those of us uninterested in therapeutically rolling around in it☺
3. Lunch on the island Thirasia at an AMAZING seafood restaurant right on the water where I enjoyed my first Swordfish Souvlaki (kabob)
4. Our last stop was to watch the world-famous Santorini sunset in the northernmost town, Oia (where the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants takes place…). The actual town of Oia is set at the top of a verrry steep, rocky hill which we could either walk the 300 and some steeeep steps or be transported, indeed in Greek tradition, by donkeys! Since we had a couple of hours to enjoy the scenery before the actual sunset we chose to walk thus sparing the poor donkeys as well as avoiding paying the 5 euro/person for a donkey…however, no one warned us that we would be left clinging onto stone walls of the switch-backs on the verge of tumbling down that very steep, rocky hill as we were nearly trampled by herds of donkeys…which we found to be astoundingly speedy as they practically sprinted by us, who knew?! So as we giggled our exhausted selves up the hill narrowly avoiding death-by-donkey in addition to the unexpected risk of death-by-overexposure-to-donkey-droppings, we concluded that evidently donkeys enjoy some good old fashioned hard labor ☺ After some eagerly awaited picture taking from the top, we did a little shopping with two British boys (Mitch and Dan) from our tour and then found a restaurant that was literally perched on the cliffs overlooking the town and the Sea where we thoroughly enjoyed some well-earned drinks and desserts and took some time to remove the donkey droppings from our sandals…
PS – I triiied to get some pictures of the donkeys but very quickly decided that you can all picture a Greek donkey in your heads instead of my risking my life for one ☺
Our last day in Santorini started off as a relaxing one and concluded with our frantic decision to get on an overnight ferry back to Athens. In the morning Elsa, Tyler, and I woke up and immediately went and asked our hostel about possible snorkeling tours, only to find out that the company they work with had 1 tour leaving that morning but it was already full (Ally chose to go relax on the beach that day). But the incredibly nice hostel lady then told us of another dive shop located down the beach only a few blocks from where we were staying. Sooo after running back to our room, frantically stripping and throwing on our swimming suits, we ran down the road to the beach only to arrive at the Mediterranean Dive Shop just as the van for their snorkel tour was backing down the driveway! We quickly asked them if they could take and after 3 minutes of handing over money, signing our lives away on some liability waiver, and trying on wet suits – we were on our way riding in the back of a truck with the snorkel and scuba dive guides.
The snorkeling trip was…one of the best days of our travels in Greece, hands down. Our tour was very small (10 people, 2 guides) and personable. I can now say I’ve snorkeled Hawaii, the Florida Keys, Australia, and Greece and between the 4 Greece was the most unique. Unlike the rainbows of colorful fish of Florida, the sea turtles of Hawaii, and the never-ending forests of colorful coral of the Great Barrier Reef, my snorkeling in Greece was in caves, yes caves! The rocky coast of Santorini makes for some uniquely carved caves and canyons that house jellies and other anemones on their walls. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about which safe water movement in the caves, as well as which jellies could be touched, which ones flowered, etc. Although my favorite part was snorkeling out of the caves and back into the open water because I got to watch as the pitched black waters below me became illuminated with the nearing sunlight, it was SO pretty! The tour took us to two caved areas and one cove full of coral where I saw a baby octopus! Snorkeling in the Mediterranean Sea was also an interesting experience because of the saltiness of the water. With waters more salty than anywhere I’ve ever been plus the use of a wet suite, I was SO buoyant. I could just bob there in the water completely motionless but not sinking, not even a little. One of our guides was just incredible, his knowledge and humor made the day even better. He’d spray us with the motor of the boat as he’d get the boat with it’s rear facing us then gun the engine thus drenching us with its back spray, he even brought me and Elsa each a shell from his scuba dive that day!
After the snorkel tour we concluded our time by doing some shopping where I got some BEAUTIFUL paintings of Santorini done by local artists, probably too many, but I couldn’t resist. That evening became another one of our frantic decisions to jump on a ferry as we found out that the only ferry leaving Santorini that would get us back to Athens early enough to get our luggage out of the storage center before it closed aaaand get to the airport before the Metro stopped running - - left about an hour after our inquiry about ferry schedules! Whooops. Sooo after some VERY quick showers and extremely frantic packing we made it to the ferry port 15 minutes prior to its departure (they recommend you arrive 1 hour early…). Our overnight ferry was another unexpected adventure in itself. Within the first hour we were kicked out of the seats we’d selected because for the first ferry ride since being in Greece, the tickets had assigned seat numbers - - where were ours you ask? We were assigned to the deck, yes outside, for our 10 hour overnight ferry. Rather than sleeping in the freezing cold salty spray of the Mediterranean, Ally and I curled up in a hallway just outside the women’s bathroom where women would stare at us and talk about us in other languages while we slept…something that made me suddenly very aware of being watched while I slept. The others (Elsa and Tyler) chose to sleep on a luggage rack, less space but also less foreigners pointing and staring…☺ One LONG night of no sleep later, we arrived in Athens around 5 a.m. where, after becoming completely disoriented by the fact that the ferry dropped us off on the opposite corner of the port than we’d left from, we spent the day drinking too much coffee and lounging in the passenger’s center at the Athens port after retrieving our stored luggage. On our way to the Athen’s airport (our home for the night before our flight to Rome), we stopped at our restaurant to enjoy one last Greek meal with a view of the Acropolis and some free yogurt and honey.
Hope you enjoyed the novel! Love,
Diana
Our decision to go to Crete as a means of getting to Santorini turned out to be a good one. Essentially, from Kythira we had 2 choices: the first was going back to the Athens port (Pireaus), spending the night there, and hoping they had a direct ferry to Santorini the next day (knowledge of the transportation here seems to be somewhat of a wild goose chase with everyone you ask giving you a different story about when/where buses or ferries go, etc.). Our second option was going from Kythira to the Kissamo port on Crete (the biggest of the Greek islands and known for its distinct Turkish/Greek culture mix), then somehow getting to the Iraklia port which just happens to be about 150 miles east down the coast from Kissamo. So, with a fear of taking the ferry back to Athens, finding out that there weren’t ferries the day we needed one to Santorini, and thus being stuck in Athens for the duration of our trip – we chose the Crete option instead, our logic being that if the worst happened and we couldn’t get to the Iraklia port and/or they too didn’t actually have a ferry to Santorini that day, we’d at least be on a new Greek island rather than back in Athens. (I’m trying to make this brief for the sake of all you readers, but this process really was a novel in itself, so bear with me ☺)
So, off we went to Crete – once again hopping on a ferry with zero knowledge of exactly what would happen when we got off. We arrived at the Kissamo port, late again around 11 p.m., and after talking to an informative taxi driver found out that the actual town of Kissamo was not only about a 4 mile hike away (which we immediately recognized as a bad idea (don’t worry Dad ☺) seeing as it was dark and the roads are about half as wide as they should be to accommodate European drivers), but the town only has 4 hotels – of course all of which were full on the night of a late-night ferry arrival. So…with the help of my new bible (a.k.a. the Lonely Planet guide to Mediterranean Europe), we had the taxi driver take us to the next major town, Hania, on what can only be described as a makes-you-want-to-dig-your-finger-nails-into-your-own-thighs-for-fear-of-either-hitting-a-moped-or-being-hit-by-a-bus-while-passing-a-moped kind of taxi ride. Upon our arrival in Hania, we began searching for a hotel listed in my guidebook, only to find ourselves completely disoriented by the Greek street names and somehow wandering an extremely busy touristy area in a daze. Well, evidently our lost-and-confused-and-desperate-for-sleep-must-be-Americans-gaze was quite obvious because we were quickly approached by a middle-aged woman asking us (in English, a sure sign they know you’re an obvious American) if we needed a room because she (once again, here’s our unbelievable luck) happened to own a hostel?! So sure enough, we followed her into her hostel and immediately accepted the quiet, well-ventilated, 4-bed room complete with our own bathroom and 2 giant fans that she offered us. Not only did this kind woman practically scrape us up off the street and give us beds and a shower, but she then showed us around the corner to her favorite gelato shop where we gorged ourselves on 3-flavor cones until we’d been comforted enough to fall asleep immediately. The next morning we easily found the bus station where they (our luck, once again) indeed had buses departing for Iraklia every half hour. So off we went on a 2.5 hour bus ride along the coast, which turned out to be an amazingly beautiful way to see the incredible scenery of Crete - mountains on the right, Mediterranean Sea on the left, I was so torn as to which way to turn my head ☺. When we got to Iraklia, the first two people we talked to about a ferry to Santorini seemed to respond with “Santorini, today?! Oh no, not possible.” But sure enough, our persistence paid off and we found that there was 1 ferry leaving for Santorini that afternoon! Ecstatic with the knowledge that we were actually going to make it to Santorini after all (at one point, a seemingly 50/50 chance of success), we booked our tickets.
Our ferry to Santorini was about an hour late in its departure (Europe is definitely going to teach me patience…), thus getting us to the island around 10 p.m. After some more confusion with the transportation, we hopped on a bus (for a rather terrifying ride up the switch-backs of Santorini) that was supposed to take us to our destination town of Perissa, where our hostel was waiting for us to check-in by 11. However, our bus made an unexpected stop in Fira, which is apparently in the opposite direction of Perissa, where we found out that to get to Perissa we’d have to switch to a bus that wouldn’t depart until 11:30, that’s precisely 30 minutes after check-in closes at the hostel for those of you not paying attention to the novel at this point…So, we ended up taking a taxi and arriving in Perissa around 10:56, at this point twitching from some combination of excitement that we had actually made it and jitters from another exciting taxi ride (seriously though, better than most American roller coasters). After a long journey, we treated ourselves to some snacks and drinks on the porch of our hostel where we got to know the others staying with us – 1 girl from Ireland, her 2 friends from England, and 1 friend from Canada (all of whom roomed with us), plus a conglomeration of others including some from Australia, Belgium, some Argentineans who roomed with us our second night, and Peter – a must-be-40-year-old hippy who does odd jobs for the hostel in exchange for living there and getting intoxicated quite regularly while meeting the new hostel-ers each night. Although I can’t give a good impression of Peter justice, a conversation with him generally goes something like this:
Peter: (with a googly-eyed expression)“Where are you from?”
Diana: “the US”
Peter: “You’re American?! I love America. I love you. Do you love me? No really, do you love me?”
Diana (with dumbfounded look) “Of course I love you Peter.”
Peter: “Do you really mean that?”
Diana: “Yes…I mean it.”
Peter: “Okay good. Do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No, sorry. I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “You don’t smoke?! But do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No…I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “Yeah I know, but do you have some cigarettes?” - - shortly after, gets distracted and walks into the street while breaking into song…Like I said, that may not do his character justice, but I tried ☺
The next morning we got up early to catch a bus to the port for the full-day sailboat tour we’d booked at check-in. The tour was a little tourist-y, but worth every second. We saw so much of Santorini’s geographical wonders that there’s no way we could’ve seen otherwise, including:
1. A stop for a 1.5 hour hike up and around the Caldera (volcano island), an active volcano that once erupted thus forming what is now known as Santorini and leaving only 5% of its population at the time alive!
2. Swimming at a natural hot springs (Lamatica Nepa) that was located in a rock cove of a small island off the mainland of Santorini. The sailboat couldn’t get up to shore because of the shallow waters so we had to jump out and swim about 50 meters each way – kind of a funny experience to watch all the members of our boat just abandon ship off the side and “swim” (more like thrashing for some) to the hot springs to enjoy the hot (or more like bath-temperature) water with a surrounding mud bath which quickly became a mud fight for those of us uninterested in therapeutically rolling around in it☺
3. Lunch on the island Thirasia at an AMAZING seafood restaurant right on the water where I enjoyed my first Swordfish Souvlaki (kabob)
4. Our last stop was to watch the world-famous Santorini sunset in the northernmost town, Oia (where the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants takes place…). The actual town of Oia is set at the top of a verrry steep, rocky hill which we could either walk the 300 and some steeeep steps or be transported, indeed in Greek tradition, by donkeys! Since we had a couple of hours to enjoy the scenery before the actual sunset we chose to walk thus sparing the poor donkeys as well as avoiding paying the 5 euro/person for a donkey…however, no one warned us that we would be left clinging onto stone walls of the switch-backs on the verge of tumbling down that very steep, rocky hill as we were nearly trampled by herds of donkeys…which we found to be astoundingly speedy as they practically sprinted by us, who knew?! So as we giggled our exhausted selves up the hill narrowly avoiding death-by-donkey in addition to the unexpected risk of death-by-overexposure-to-donkey-droppings, we concluded that evidently donkeys enjoy some good old fashioned hard labor ☺ After some eagerly awaited picture taking from the top, we did a little shopping with two British boys (Mitch and Dan) from our tour and then found a restaurant that was literally perched on the cliffs overlooking the town and the Sea where we thoroughly enjoyed some well-earned drinks and desserts and took some time to remove the donkey droppings from our sandals…
PS – I triiied to get some pictures of the donkeys but very quickly decided that you can all picture a Greek donkey in your heads instead of my risking my life for one ☺
Our last day in Santorini started off as a relaxing one and concluded with our frantic decision to get on an overnight ferry back to Athens. In the morning Elsa, Tyler, and I woke up and immediately went and asked our hostel about possible snorkeling tours, only to find out that the company they work with had 1 tour leaving that morning but it was already full (Ally chose to go relax on the beach that day). But the incredibly nice hostel lady then told us of another dive shop located down the beach only a few blocks from where we were staying. Sooo after running back to our room, frantically stripping and throwing on our swimming suits, we ran down the road to the beach only to arrive at the Mediterranean Dive Shop just as the van for their snorkel tour was backing down the driveway! We quickly asked them if they could take and after 3 minutes of handing over money, signing our lives away on some liability waiver, and trying on wet suits – we were on our way riding in the back of a truck with the snorkel and scuba dive guides.
The snorkeling trip was…one of the best days of our travels in Greece, hands down. Our tour was very small (10 people, 2 guides) and personable. I can now say I’ve snorkeled Hawaii, the Florida Keys, Australia, and Greece and between the 4 Greece was the most unique. Unlike the rainbows of colorful fish of Florida, the sea turtles of Hawaii, and the never-ending forests of colorful coral of the Great Barrier Reef, my snorkeling in Greece was in caves, yes caves! The rocky coast of Santorini makes for some uniquely carved caves and canyons that house jellies and other anemones on their walls. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about which safe water movement in the caves, as well as which jellies could be touched, which ones flowered, etc. Although my favorite part was snorkeling out of the caves and back into the open water because I got to watch as the pitched black waters below me became illuminated with the nearing sunlight, it was SO pretty! The tour took us to two caved areas and one cove full of coral where I saw a baby octopus! Snorkeling in the Mediterranean Sea was also an interesting experience because of the saltiness of the water. With waters more salty than anywhere I’ve ever been plus the use of a wet suite, I was SO buoyant. I could just bob there in the water completely motionless but not sinking, not even a little. One of our guides was just incredible, his knowledge and humor made the day even better. He’d spray us with the motor of the boat as he’d get the boat with it’s rear facing us then gun the engine thus drenching us with its back spray, he even brought me and Elsa each a shell from his scuba dive that day!
After the snorkel tour we concluded our time by doing some shopping where I got some BEAUTIFUL paintings of Santorini done by local artists, probably too many, but I couldn’t resist. That evening became another one of our frantic decisions to jump on a ferry as we found out that the only ferry leaving Santorini that would get us back to Athens early enough to get our luggage out of the storage center before it closed aaaand get to the airport before the Metro stopped running - - left about an hour after our inquiry about ferry schedules! Whooops. Sooo after some VERY quick showers and extremely frantic packing we made it to the ferry port 15 minutes prior to its departure (they recommend you arrive 1 hour early…). Our overnight ferry was another unexpected adventure in itself. Within the first hour we were kicked out of the seats we’d selected because for the first ferry ride since being in Greece, the tickets had assigned seat numbers - - where were ours you ask? We were assigned to the deck, yes outside, for our 10 hour overnight ferry. Rather than sleeping in the freezing cold salty spray of the Mediterranean, Ally and I curled up in a hallway just outside the women’s bathroom where women would stare at us and talk about us in other languages while we slept…something that made me suddenly very aware of being watched while I slept. The others (Elsa and Tyler) chose to sleep on a luggage rack, less space but also less foreigners pointing and staring…☺ One LONG night of no sleep later, we arrived in Athens around 5 a.m. where, after becoming completely disoriented by the fact that the ferry dropped us off on the opposite corner of the port than we’d left from, we spent the day drinking too much coffee and lounging in the passenger’s center at the Athens port after retrieving our stored luggage. On our way to the Athen’s airport (our home for the night before our flight to Rome), we stopped at our restaurant to enjoy one last Greek meal with a view of the Acropolis and some free yogurt and honey.
Hope you enjoyed the novel! Love,
Diana
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