SPRING BREAK: Greece

Hello to all! I'm finally updating my blog about my Spring Break! About time right?

 

Since our trip was with Bus2Alps all we had to do was show up Friday morning around 9am at termini station in Rome and rode a bus to acacoa and then got on a cruise ship to overnight cruise to Greece! The cruise was pretty cool and all considering it was a ferry. It has two bars and a discoteca. We upgraded to cabins instead of the airplane style seating so we could have a nice night of sleep. In the discoteca there were 13 year old greek/italian men hitting on all of the college girls, can you say awkward? AND I ran into a group of people from Clemson who know Brooke! Such a small world!

We woke up in Greece and immediately made our way to Corfu island and to the pink palace!

Such a fun place :) we went out on the beach for a while and by sundown when everyone was showering I somehow magically ended up at happy hour with the Australian and New Zealanders. And I met Trent who wanted to call Neal and tell him he was taking me home with him and marrying me. But he said since I was from the south he had to ask for my dads permission first, sweet guy. And then there was Jamie.. Oh what a smooth talker Jamie is. Haha that night we had a yoga party which was quite an eventful time-including lots of ouzo and plate smashing (I ended up with a knot on my head, go figure). By the end of the night I ended up with blood all over my toga cause Jamie got a bloody nose. Second one of the day I might add. No worries ladies and gents, the night ended with "no tom foolery I promise".

The next day we went on an atv safari around corfu...and thank goodness I grew up in the South and know how to drive a 4 wheeler.. because no offense but some of the Northerners had ZERO idea what they were doing. Not even 100 yards away from the Pink Palace a girl ran into the guardrail and had to ride the rest of the way with the guide. Then there was the girl in front of me. So I was keeping my distance because I just knew there was going to be a problem, but Kris being the crazy man that he is.. decided he was going to go around me. Ultimately it ended up in a girl driving her atv off of a cliff. Thank goodness she was smart enough to know to jump off.. don't worry, she's perfectly fine.. the ATV..not so much.

That night we all hung out at happy hour again & then had a marvelous greek dinner and then had to hop on the bus to take an overnight ferry/bus ride to Athens! Worst bus ride ever. I sat in the very front behind he bus driver who had his window open the whole night and it was probably 2 degrees outside. So sleeping for me was very minimal. We went over a bridge that looked a lot like the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, made me miss home a little.

Once we go to Athens we went on a walking tour and saw the oldest Olympic Stadium, the Parliament, the really funny looking guards with balls on their feet, the Parthenon, Athena's temple and a bunch of other things. It's definitely not the magnificent Greece everyone thinks of, but it's still a really cool city! Everyone is unbelievably nice and the gyros are to die for. It was such a nice change eating meat instead of stinkin carbs all the time! I bought some greek sandals from a nice little man and some jewelry for some family and friends. Then we went out to this amazing dinner for 15 euro: fried cheese, breads, calamari, some other things i dont remember, and veal. DELICIOUS. Oh and I forgot to mention: unlimited wine. So much unlimited wine that out of the 140 of us one guy got so drunk he threw up on the table, passed out, hit his head on his plate which broke and food flew everywhere.. and he had to go to the hospital to get stitches.. interesting huh? Then we went to my first ever hookah bar, because that was one of the only things open at 10pm. And the Clemson people decided to play big booty in the bar? Very interesting.


The next day we went to a beach in Athens and spent the day there, finally some more relaxing in the sun! The water was unfortunately freezing so I didn't go in. I met some nice friends that go to Northeastern and on the tram back to Athens we witness someone stealing an old mans bag, it was soooo sad.

Then we go to Santorini! YAY! There I saw red sand beaches, black sand beaches, cute little towns, the mamma mia house, the sisterhood of the traveling pants house, the famous windmills and unbelievable sunsets. In Oia, we met the man who owns the hotel in the windmill.. I was kind of climbin the the scaffolding.. he didn't like it very much. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride a donkey, so I'll probably be going back.

Ireland, Europe's Version of Southern Hospitality

Dubh Linn Gardens

Ireland was such an amazing place to go. Seriously, I want to move there. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was so unbelievably nice.. it was kind of like being in the South again (no offense to all my Northern friends). Quite a nice change from how rude some of the Romans can be at times.

Probably the main reason Ireland was so great is because I had to plan absolutely none of it  thanks to Bus2Alps! My friend Julia and I booked it as a last minute trip to get away from the bizarre snow in Rome and it couldn't have been any easier. All we had to do was find a cheap flight, courtesy of the oh so lovely Ryan Air and hop on. Friday morning we had a tour of the City of Dublin through New Europe Tours which is a company Bus2Alps uses on the majority of their trips. Robbie was our tour guide and he was seriously the best tour guide I think I've ever had.. and after being here for two months, I've had a lot. He showed us different churches, the Dublin Castle, Dubh Linn gardens, medieval walls, Vicking remains, ha-penny bridge and my favorite, Trinity College. Mainly my favorite because Robbie did a great job and sold me on Ireland and now I want to move there for my MBA. They have a bell tower in the middle of the campus and rumor has it if you walk underneath it and the bells rings, you're a virgin. Needless to say, not a soul walked underneath that bell tower. The library at Trinity was used in Harry Potter.. so you know I was beyond obsessed.. I would just go there to pretend I was studying at Hogwarts (nerdy I know). On the tour Julia and I had our first ever Irish coffees, so yummy and just what we needed on a chilly morning!

Bus2Alps group at Guinness

That afternoon our Bus2Alps leader, Lauren, took us to the Guinness Storehouse and we toured the brewery. By the way guys, if you haven't had Guinness.. you should try it-you'll never drink cheap beer again! The brewery was seven floors and described all the processes in making the beer and on the top floor they have the Gravity bar where you can see all of Dublin. It's a pretty neat view, something I would definitely check out if you get the chance to travel there. That night we went out on the pub crawl. We started at like 4 pubs and eventually we got to O'neills where we ended up staying instead of continuing on the tour because they had an awesome band called the Galway Guards. Of course all of us Bus2Alp-ers (yep, I just created a new word) became friends with the band and hung out with them afterwards. The guy in the band who made all the crazy girls from England move because they kept hitting me while they were attempting to dance, gave me one of their cds.

Us with the band

Saturday we took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. The cliffs are absolutely breathtaking. I also have never experience such a difference in weather in such a short amount of time. It was beautiful and sunny, then ridiculously windy and then we got hailed on.. all within two hours. The pictures describe it better than I can:

This explains the wind..

B-E-A-UTIFUL

Julia proposed.. like in the movie Leap Year hahah

Then we went to Galway and walked around. It's a cute little city and has really nice people. I bought my claddagh ring there. It's a ring that the Irish wear that can either symbolize you're taken or that you're single depending upon which way you turn the heart. Us Americans can't figure out which way to turn ours.. too many complicated relationships?

After we got back to Dublin, Julia and I went out with Lewis, a friend from home, for a few drinks. He showed us around to some of his favorite pubs in Dublin, they were pretty neat. It was SO nice being able to see Lew after not seeing him since summer. So we caught up on everyone we know and just talked about life and whatnot.

Then Lewis had to go home cause he had work in the AM so Julia and I ventured around Dublin by ourselves hopping in and out of different pubs that our Bus2Alps guide recommended for us to go to. It was so nice to have her as a reference since she's traveled there so many times, she really knew her stuff!

Sunday, we went shopping. 

Overall Ireland was great, It made me really excited to go on my next Bus2Alps trip-Island hopping for Spring Break in Greece! If any of you don't have spring break plans yet, you should definitely hop on that trip. They plan everything for you and include all the best attractions in your destination, so you basically don't have to do anything but show up, how nice is that? I'm probably looking forward to the booze cruise the most-lovely beaches and cliff jumping while sipping on Greek beer... but then again there's biking around the beautiful Island of Santorini.. who wouldn't want that?