TravelStream™ news feed for member aal11 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/aal11 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:31:21 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227634920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227634920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227634920/tpod.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:31:21 -0500 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Istanbul, Turkey

So this weekend i was in a place that i never thought i would go in my entire life.  Who goes to Turkey? Seriously?  I guess thats one of the perks of not being in one of the main European cities.  We have the ability to go to places like Turkey and Bulgaria and Egypt and other strange places over here that people in London and France wouldn't think of traveling to.  Not that i went to Bulgaria or Egypt, but a bunch of my friends have.  
  Anyway, the school organized a trip to Turkey for us this weekend.  The bus ride there was somewhere between 9 and 12 hours long, i think i stopped keeping track of time after about 2 hours.  It was a little bit rough, but we took it though the night so most people just slept.  When we got to the border we all had to get out to get our passports stamped and all that fun stuff and it was like -5 Celsius outside which i was NOT prepared for.  For those of you who forgot 7th grade science 0 C is freezing temp so it was pretty cold.  A few hours later we arrived at our hotel and they took us on a walking tour right away. Not the best idea cause we were all exhausted, but i guess if they let us go to our rooms we would have never came back.  Istanbul is really cool.  I wouldn't say beautiful cause its pretty dirty, but the Mosques they have are some of the most incredible structures i have ever seen.  The Blue Mosque was massive and we kept saying they looked like they were straight out of star wars.  Maybe some of the writers were muslim and they designed the set after some of the historical mosques?  who knows?    We actually got to go inside the Blue Mosque for one of the daily prayers. It's really kinda cool because the call for prayer is heard all over the entire city and people from all over just start filling into the mosque.  When we went in we had to take off our shoes and all the women had to cover their heads. There was an open area of carpet where we were not allowed, but we were allowed to stand around it and watch them pray.  The men go to the front of the church to the window facing Mecca, and the women have to pray behind a screen in the back of the church.  I don't really know why, but thats the way it is over there i guess.  We also got to go inside the Aya Sofia which is the most historical landmark in Istanbul.   It was build in the Byzantine era and was one of the largest cathedrals ever build for thousands of years.  It stood as a church until Constantinople was taken over by the Turks and was ordered to be converted into a Mosque when the city became Istanbul.  Little history lesson for you there.  It was really cool being there because it was like all of my AP Euro classes coming to life.  Thanks Mr. Dent!  It is now a museum with the carpets removed and the inside being preserved.  After sight seeing, me and my other girlfriends i was with went to a traditional Turkish bath.  It was quite an experience and if you are curious about it i will have to tell you on your own time.  Lets just say it was interesting, but afterwords i felt like a new person.  I have never felt more clean in my life.  That all I'm gonna say about that. 

The second day in Istanbul we went to the Grand Bazaar.  It might have been one of the most ridiculous places ever.  It was basically like this GIANT maze with halls and halls of scarfs and jewelry, and carpets, and lanterns and anything else you could possible think of.  I was pretty overwhelmed.  It is also the bartering capital of the universe.  I don't think i have ever been more harassed in my entire life. There we so many places to go and it was so easy to get lost.  The people give you cards so you can find your way back to how you got in.   We were with a group of at least 70 people and we only ran in to 2 or 3 the entire time we were in there.  That is how massive it is.  My friend Kathryn and I just walked around, told people we were sisters and we were from New York, or where ever they guessed.  Most of them just said "California??"  and we just smiled and nodded.  That night we went to dinner in the down town shopping district called Taksim.  It was also pretty crazy.  It was freezing and raining and there were still people EVERYWHERE.  It was a really fun weekend.  Istanbul is really an interesting city and I just think it is so cool that I can say that I have been there.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1222716600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1222716600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1222716600/tpod.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:11:39 -0500 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Aegina, Saronic Gulf Islands, Greece

Our second day in Agistri was a lot of fun!  We wanted to rent mopeds but i guess you need a licensee for that. Lame. We rented mountain bikes instead for 5 Euro for the entire day!  We wanted to ride all the way around the island, check out the other beaches and take some nice pictures.  They didn't have a map for us and a guy at the hotel assured us the island was too small to get lost on.  What he didn't tell us was that we would have a lot of up hill treks.
We rode through Scala, the area where our hotel was.  It was a cute little neighborhood with lots of taverns and cute little houses and studios.  We also rode by a little elementary school which i was kind of surprised to see!  Then we got out to the country roads and had some hard times getting up all the hills.  We finally came to a little side path with a sign pointing towards a beach and it was ALL down hill so we obviously took it.  What we didn't think about was that we would have to get back up.  It turned out to be a GORGEOUS beach that we hung out at for a bit.   Then we had to WALK our bikes up a dirt path that winded all the way up the mountain.  It took us all the way to the top.  I really don't think we could have gotten higher up.  After about an hour of walking our bikes up hill we stopped for some pictures of the amazing view.  I guess it was kinda worth it.  Then we found a REAL road that took us to another town called Limonera where we stopped for lunch.  
We did some exploring around there and found a diver man who was going spear fishing in the sea.  I was fascinated and kept asking him random questions.  He had this really cool wet suit on that was like camouflage for the water.  We watched him set up and then send him off with a friendly wave.  He was fishing for sea bass and grouper.  He also had a little bouey with a flag on it that floated behind him so he won't get hit by a boat.
After some more exploring and some wrong turns that led us uphill again we decided we would make our way back to the hotel.  Of course it wasn't that easy.  As we were about to make or final up hill ride to get to the downhill road that would take us home Jared's chain on his bike broke in half.  We sat there for a while trying to fix it.  Megan and Shira walked down to the taverns where we had lunch to call the guy we rented from and they ended up brining us a whole new bike.  After winding up one more hill we had a nice long ride down hill back to Scala.  It was a LOT of fun.  The long day of biking really took a lot out of us so of COURSE we took a nice little siesta before dinner.  We ate at another taverna with cats and then hung out in the hotel for a while and went to bed.


Our last day in Agistri was a little chilly for beaching so we went to the place where we did Kareokee and had some waffles for breakfast.  It is really a dessert there but we convinced them that it was necessary for us to have them for breakfast.  Me being the boring person that i am just wanted butter and maple syrup on it.  To make it easy i asked for it all on the side.  When they brought it out they gave me the butter but didn't have syrup.  I asked the girl who brought the food out if i could get some maple syrup (which WAS on the menu).  She seemed to know what i was talking about until she came out with more butter.  Then i pointed to Megans waffle that had syrup and walnuts on it and said "no syrup" like that.  2 minutes later she brought me a plate of walnuts.  Of course our english speaking server was MIA so this girl was all i had.  So i just smiled and said "thank you."  I did eventually get some syrup but the waffle was mostly gone and what remained was cold.  So it wasnt quite the waffle experience that i had hoped for.  
After breakfast we walked down to the port and took the ferry back to Athens.  It arrived around 3 and our train home wasn't until midnight so we had lots of time to go exploring in Athens.  I was really excited because we got to spend the day with Danika, my friend from Albion who i missed a lot.  Her place in Athens was really nice and her roomates seemed like a lot of fun.  She took us to the market in Monastiraki, then we walked through the Queen's gardens to the President of Greece's house.  There were these really cool guards outside that do this funny dance looking think.  Dano said she gets to walk by them everyday and she thinks they know who she is cause she said hi and smiles everyday but of course they cant speak or look at her.  We kept walking and got to see the original olympic stadium which just happend to be right by Danika's school!   Yeah she gets to see that everyday.  There was also a really amazing view of the Acroplis.  It was so funny just walking through the city and in between buildings you can just look up "oh hey there's the Acroplis"  thats fine.  It was a fun day and I really didn't want to get back on the train for 7 hours.  All 5 of us got to sit together this time though so that was good.  It is just really hard to get comfortable in those little rooms.  Overall it was am excellent weekend and I am SO glad we took advantage of going to the islands while we could.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227110520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227110520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227110520/tpod.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:53:41 -0500 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Our next day in Italy was just as amazing as the first if not better!  We got up and went to the train station to get our ticket to Florence.  While we were waiting for our train i had the best croissant of my LIFE!  We slept on the train and arrived in beautiful Florence around 1pm.  We checked into our hostel which we thought was a bit sketchy at first but ended up being really cute!  The guy working it was really funny. He had a Japanese/Italian accent and was just really funny.   Danica and I wasted no time getting out into the city!  We went and saw the GIGANTIC and incredible Duomo in the center of Florence.  It was ridiculous.  The painting on the inside was just as intricate as the carvings on the outside.  While wandering around there we ran into some guys riding segways that turned out to be from Brooklyn and were in the Army, stationed in Italy and were visiting florence for the weekend!  They gave us some recommendations of things to do and see. They also let us ride their segway's that they rented for the day!   We ending up finding the market and shopping there for a few hours.  They had a lot of cute scarfs and TONS of italian leather.  I did some gift shopping there ;) We walked around a little more and saw the sights.  On our way home we stopped at the museum where the original David stands on display and ended up getting in for FREE.  its usually 12 Euro so that was a nice deal.  It was like a special exhibit of just the Michelangelo works.  As we walked up to David we saw the 4 slaves that were carved out of stone and left incomplete.  Well some people think that he did it in purpose to make it look like the slaves were emerging from the stone, but who knows.  David was INCREDIBLE. I had no idea how huge the actual statue really was.  We walked in about 10 circles around him taking it all in, along with the fact that we were seeing this for FREE!  I don't even understand...Michelangelo is ridiculous.  Like the Sistine Chapel AND this??? Seriously, who is he?

The next day we planned on going to Venice, but there was a minor change in plans so we went to Pisa instead.  It was adorable.  We walked down this road through the city and saw some more scarfs and things to buy.  Its all so tempting.  We finally made it to the tower and i didnt know how to react.  Its just one of those things that you don't think you will ever see, and the fact that this was a random side trip, i just thought it was funny, i guess.  It is also funny that someone's stupid mistake is now this huge tourist attraction.  We took more than enough pictures of the crooked building including the typical "look at me i'm holding it up" pictures.  Then we went to a little ristorante and i had the BEST pizza of my life in Pisa.   After Pisa, we took the long train back to Rome, i slept pretty much the whole time.  Back in Rome, Mark and his roommate took us out to a cute little place near them that had some really good wine!  Then we went back to their apartment and watched Home Alone and fell asleep.  Danica and I had an early flight home to catch.
So, i pretty much need to go back to Italy sometime, and hopefully see Venice and some other places.  It is a beautiful country and i can't wait to go back :) 
CIAO!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227106680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227106680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1227106680/tpod.html Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:00:09 -0500 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Rome, Italy, Attica, Greece

CIAO!
OK so I am home from one of the most wonderful trips ever! Italy is probably the most beautiful country in the world!  Everything is either really cute and Italian or GIANT and remarkable.  My friend Danica VanHorn and i went just the 2 of us.  My friend Mark from Albion was kind enough to let us stay with him the nights we were in Rome.  Lets just talk about Rome.  I couldn't even believe where i was.  We had to keep reminding ourselves.  We got an early start on Friday morning after arriving Thursday night.  We started off with a nice little walk through the VATICAN CITY.  It was simply amazing.  All the art, all the paintings, the sculptures, not to mention the Sistine Chapel. I couldn't believe where i was standing.  I looked straight up to see the incredibly detailed artwork that COVERS the entire chapel.  Every square inch is seriously painted with the most detail i have ever seen in my life.  I got yelled at for taking pictures and told i had no respect. I was like if i didn't have respect i wouldn't be taking pictures to remember this moment!!!  
After that we started making our way to the Colosseum, which by the way is nowhere NEAR the Vatican.  We just wanted to make sure we hit all the important things first!  We took a train to the stop and then walked through the streets of Rome where there was some sort of protest with thousands of students crowding the streets and yelling.  Apparently it was for some reform at the University? Who knows, they were crazy.  We finally came around a corner and saw the Colosseum.  Again, couldn't believe what i was looking at.  Its all very hard to take in, in one day.  We got some pizza at a little pizzeria and sat by the window looking out at the Colosseum.   It was so cool.  After we finished eating we went inside and reinacted scenes from Gladiator and Jumper because we thought we were funny.  While we were in there we actually ran into Mark and some of his roommates as well as my friends Dani, Lindsey and Callie that were visiting from Ireland for the weekend as well.  It was funny to have so many Albion people together in ROME. After walking around inside, the boys took us on a mini tour of the rest of the area.  We walked through the real Roman Forum (we have one in Thessaloniki too haha) and past this incredible buildings that was build in honor of the last Emperor of the city.    It was massive and amazing.  Then we walked into town to see the beautiful Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps.  They were both beautiful,  just like everything else in the city.  Danica and i went out on our own litle romantic dinner and had the best gnocchi and fettucini EVER at this cute little restaurant!  After all those adventures we went back to the apartment and crashed to rest up for our day in Florence! 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1226531640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1226531640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1226531640/tpod.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:08:29 -0500 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Athens, Attica, Greece

ACT organized a trip for everyone to Athens last weekend!  It was a lot of fun.  Well, it was fun once we got there.  It was a 6 hour bus ride and i felt like i was in middle school the way they were talking to us.  They seriously treat us like children sometimes and i want to just remind them that we are all living in another country on our own, i think we can handle a bus ride, thanks.  ANYWHO, we got there on friday night after wasting the day on a bus.  We had dinner at the hotel and then took the tram into the city.  We got off at Syntagma which is like the main center in the city.  We met up with Danika and tried meeting up with some other ACT people but they were too hard to find.  Instead she took us to this adorable little irish pub called James Joyce and we met a bartender that was half Greek but from Australia.  
The next day was our touristy day.  We got up and did a bus tour of the city.  We stopped at the olympic stadium which was the first modern day olympic stadium.  Then we drove past the temple of Zeus, and some other important structures as we made our way to the Acropolis!  The Acropolis was so cool!  We walked up and there was the parthenon, just standing there in front of us.  The only turn off was the scaffolding that covered and entire side of it, but besides that it was amazing to see up close and personal.  We stayed up there for quite some time and my friends and i occupied ourselves with a photo-shoot at the acropolis.  After that, we walked down to the old Ancient Agora that had a lot of old statues and structures from a long time ago.    After walking around there, we went to lunch at a great tavern that had great gyros.  Then we had the rest of the day to shop and do what ever.  Megan, Kathryn and I decided to be american and go to the Hard Rock Cafe!  It was SOOO good.  After that we went back to James Joyce because we had such a good time there the night before and it was PACKED.  There was a man from london playing his first gig there and he was GREAT.  He played songs my the monkees, queen, aaba, and a whole bunch of other sing-a-longs that i was proud to know all of them :) Then we met up with some of Danikas friends in the Athens program at a club down the street.
Sunday we were supposed to go see the changing of the guards outside of the parliament but there was a marathon and all the roads were closed so we didnt make it in time.  A couple girls from my group actually ran in it too!  They did the 10K. We were all very proud of them.  Since we missed that, the group split up.  Some of us went to the archeological museum and the rest of us went back to the market to do some more shopping.    My friends and I went to starbucks because we were still feeling american.  This starbucks was so cool though! It had an entire bookstore in the bottom of the building it was in.  We sat there looking at american newspapers and magazines for about an hour because they were too expensive to buy.  Then we met up with the rest of the group for lunch before the long bus ride home.
Overall it was a pretty great trip!  Athens is such a cool city but it was nice to be back home in Thessaloniki! 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1225998300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1225998300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1225998300/tpod.html Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:45:52 -0500 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Meteora, Thessaly, Greece

OK I'm still catching up on my adventures!  Last weekend I went on a trip with the school to Meteora Rock Monasteries. It is probably one of the coolest most beautiful places ever!  We drove for about 3 hours to a city called Trikala. Trikala is in the region of Thessaly which is part of the prominent agriculture region of the country.  We ate lunch there and got to walk around for a while.  It was really cute and it had lots of nice cafe's.  Then we drove for another 20-30 minutes and arrived in Meteora.  Pulling up to to the village was incredible.  We could see the sun setting behind the amazing rock formations, but of COURSE my camera died before we made it there :(  Don't worry i'll find some pictures so you can see how cool it is.  The rocks are shaped in a way that could be only formed by water, so basically thousands of years ago, this was all under water.  My hotel room had a really cool view of the rocks.  When we woke up the next morning, the first thing we did was go and look outside and the incredible view.  After breakfast at the hotel we took the bus up to the monasteries that are actually built into the rocks.  The first monastery we went to was an all women's monastery St. Stefanos, with cute little nuns running around.  All the girls had to wear these special wraps over our pants because you are not supposed to be able to see our legs.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  It was really funny because they had a museum inside that was under surveillance and there was a nun watchings all the mini TV's.  It was just funny to see the little short lady scoping out the tourists.  On our way to the main monastery we stopped for some AMAZING picture opportunities and OH WAIT my camera battery as dead.  So i just jumped in other peoples pictures instead.  The main monastery was called Grand Meteoron and we had to walk down some stairs and then up a bunch more to get up to it.  It was literally built into the rocks.  They also had this funny zip line thing that went across for some of the handicap monks and priests to get into the monastery.  It was kind of funny to see.  After the monasteries we went back to the village for lunch and made our long journey home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1225992420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1225992420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1225992420/tpod.html Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:04:47 -0500 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Thessaloniki, Macedonia Region, Greece

WOW! I am way behind on updating my traveling adventures!  It is MIDTERM time here in Thessaloniki which seems to be adding a lot of unnecessary stress to my life. Last week, October 24 my wonderful parents came to visit me in Thessaloniki!   I was so excited to take them around to all of my favorite places.  The first night they came we we just went out to my favorite gyro place which turned out to be a hit.  They really are fabulous.  Anyway, the next day we did some touring of the city, went to some places i had not been yet and some that i had.  We went in the Museum at the White Tower and it was really cool! I didn't expect it to be so cool inside!! They had all these different displays about the history of the city and of the tower.  For dinner i took them to my favorite tavern that i go to with all of my friends that has the best chicken souvlaki and some of our favorite servers.
On Sunday morning, my dad rented a car and we drove to the city of Volos.  It was about 2.5 hours a way. On the way there we drove by olympus which was exciting to see again!  Volos was pretty cool, we found a yummy pizza place for dinner because lets face it, Greece knows how to do pizza.  On Monday we took the ferry boat out to Skiathos, one of the islands where Mamma Mia was filmed.  Most if it was done on Skopelos, but the cast stayed on Skiathos and did some filming there.  On the ferry ride there as we were pulling out of Volos, we were followed by a bunch of dolphins out of the bay! It was really exciting. I love dolphins.   They were so cute!  Skiathos was beautiful!  We got a nice little taxi tour of the island.  He took us to the top of the island to get a nice view of the city.  We also went to some monasteries and some nice beaches.  There was also a cute little shopping street where we took pictures because most things were closed for the season.  If you ever want to travel to a Greek island make sure you go in the summer. That is tourist season and the best time to go.  By october many of the people in the villages on the islands go back to the mainland for the winter months.  I slept the whole ferry ride home.
Tuesday was OXI day.  This was the day that Greece said NO, oxi (pronounced oh-hee) to Mussolini when he wanted to send Italian troops to Greece which ultimately prevented them for entering WWII altogether.  There was a cute parade on the shore of Volos with people dressed up in uniform from the 40's as well as current Greek soldiers.  It was really cool to watch.  After the parade we started making our way back to Thessaloniki.  We stopped in Lichtohoro, the base of Olympus, for some dinner and i got to see the mountain one more time.  It is still REALLY cool to think that i did that. Still unreal. 
Wednesday we did some more walking and shopping in the city. My mom and i found some cute scarfs at shop near where i live.  We really cant get enough scarfs.  I think i get at least one a week. haha.  We had a late lunch and did dinner on our own cause i had to get ready for school on thursday.  After school on theursday I met up with my parents in Aristotle Square, where there hotel is and pretty much the main part of town, and we went back to my favorite tavern.   Afterall, we do go there every thursday.  My friends Veronica, Joana, Kathryn and Heather came and met up with us later.  It was so fun having them there to meet my parents :) After they went to bed my friends and i stayed and listened to some music, drank some wine and went home.  In the morning i met up with my parents for breakfast on the roof of their hotel.  It was quite tastey.  Then we had to say goodbye.  I was so happy that they got to come and see what its like here.  It really is hard to explain.  Now they know I am all setteled in and having a great time! :)
Thanks for coming mom and dad! I LOVE YOU!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1224499620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1224499620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1224499620/tpod.html Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:48:12 -0400 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Mt Olympus, Macedonia Region, Greece

I have never been more proud of my self.  This weekend I actually climbed Mt Olympus, except we didn't use the word climb, we conquered Mt Olympus, all 2918 meters of it.  It still doesn't sound real to say.  I remember thinking about it before I left. How COOL would it be to climb Mt. Olympus, but i didn't think it was realistic. I mean, it IS an actually MOUNTAIN and all.  A group from my school went a few weeks ago and I didn't sign up in time but I wasn't about to let that stop me.  I thought that if some of those kids could do it then i should have no problem.  I talked to Stepan, who coordinates all the school trips and activities, to see if this was even possible to plan on my own.  He gave me all the information and i jumped into it.  I told Danika about everything and she was in, and i convinced my friend Heather to come along to.  How many people can say they climbed Mt Olympus, right?   Friday night Danika came up from Athens for the night and Saturday morning we were off to Olympus.  We took the bus to the small town of Lichtohoro at the bottom of the mountain and then had to take a cab to Prionia which is where you start your climb.  Pulling in to Lichtohoro was just incredible.  We could see the mountain through breaks in the clouds and could barely see the summit.  The cab ride up was pretty amazing too.    We drove through the winding roads at the base of the mountain and i just stared up as we got closer.  I couldn't believe this actually worked out and we were actually doing this.  As soon as we got there we threw our jackets on and began our hike.  About 10 minutes into it we realized that this was not going to be just a walk in the park.  Walking constantly up hill is not the easiest thing ever, along with the occasional tall step and large roots coming out of the ground.  The beginning of the path was just beautiful though.  We saw trees with changing leaves and were excited by the smell of fall!  After about an hour and a half the dirt paths started turning into rocky steps that continued to wind up the mountain.  We took a lot of breaks for photos and to give our legs a rest.  After what seemed like forever we finally made it to the refuge.  I think i almost cried i was so relieved.  It took us about 3 hours of up hill hiking to finally arrive at our stop for the night.  We sat out side and stretched. Once we stopped moving we realized how cold it actually was up there.  

We arrived at about 530 and were already ready to go to bed.  We had some food and some hot chocolate and were ready to call it a night.  We ended up going to bed at about 8 because we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore and there was nothing else to do.  We brought cards that we weren't allowed to play in the refuge cause it was considered gambling.  You couldn't take your shoes to your room with you and you weren't allowed to put your backpack on your bed.  They had so many rules it was ridiculous.  They also had no heat except for the two common areas with fireplaces, the rooms that we slept in were just cold.  I seriously felt like i was climbing everest, like when they stop for the night and sleep in those tents just trying to stay warm.  I slept with 3 blankets on top of me.  
I slept like a baby for 11 hours until we got up at 7 to go the rest of the way up.  It was going to be about 2-3 more hours to the top, but on a much steeper and rockier and colder path than yesterday.  We had breakfast at the refuge and then hit the ground running.  I, for some reason had a lot more energy and motivation the second day.  They first day I kinda stayed in the back but the second day i was determined and on a mission.  We left our backpacks at the refuge to make it a little bit easier.    Going up was kind of scary because we kept wondering how we were going to get back down.  My team was losing motivation but i wasn't about to let that stop us for making it to the top.  We had worked so hard and made it so far to stop.  Going to the summit was out of the question because it was only for experienced climbers.  We finally made it to a peak and were satisfied with that.  One of the guides walking by told us that there was some bad weather coming in and we should start making our way down soon so we ended our journey there.  It was the most spectacular view.    It was hard to believe that we were standing on the "Throne of Zeus" as they called it.  I was just picturing the God's and Goddesses from Hercules standing at the top.  It was seriously unreal.  After taking it all in Heather, Danika and I concluded that this was the hardest thing we had ever done.  We decided that we wanted to do this on our own so it was self inflicted and all we had was each other to stay motivated.  It was really a test of ourselves and sitting there at the top made it all worth it in the end.

Going down was not as easy as you'd think it would be.  From the top it was all very steep and we took our time traveling back to the refuge.  We stopped for a snack and bought our T-shirts and then headed back down.  It took us a little under 2 hours to make it the rest of the way down.  My legs were just dying. I don't think they will ever be the same.    When we finally made it back to Prionia we had a hard time believing we actually did it.  It was unreal to look up at the mountain and think that just a few hours ago we were sitting up there making video diaries.  This was seriously an experience i will remember for the rest of my life.  I am proud saying that I am proud of myself because it was the hardest thing I have ever done, but the most rewarding too.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1223728140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1223728140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aal11/1/1223728140/tpod.html Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:14:17 -0400 Allie in Thessaloniki

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Thessaloniki, Macedonia Region, Greece

HI everyone!  Wow it has been quite some time since I have updated you on my life!  The last 2 weeks have been pretty laid back.  I have just been enjoying my life here in the city.  I have definitely gotten a lot more settled in and am feeling really comfortable in the city.  We have found our favorite taverns where the people remember us and know our names as well as some of the bar owners.  I feel less like a visitor in a strange place and more like a "local"  It is also getting a lot easier to communicate with people without language barrier issues.  I try to speak Greek as much as l can.  It helps when you are learning a language to be able to go out and use it right away.  Its kind of exciting too!   I get really excited when i can understand people and respond and they know what I'm saying too! Last weekend my friend Shira and i went to the Saturday Market that we found out is actually everyday!  They have all sorts of fresh meat and veggies and fruit and TONS of souvenir stuff, cheap shoes and boots, purses, scarfs, you name it.  Its there.  Shira and i bought some fresh Pita and got some Τζατζικι (tzatziki) to go with it!  I kind of have an obsession with it.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, they put it on just about everything here.  Its a "yogurt" base with like garlic and cucumber in it.  They serve it all over and its just amazing.   We walked down to the park by the White Tower right on the water and ran into my roomate Megan and bf Jared.  We sat there looking out at the water and watched everyone walking by.  It was adorable.  This place really is amazing.  It still is hard to believe I'm here though.  We saw some fishermen and people driving carriages.  There is also a Reggae Boat that cruises around the bay and comes every hour and a half to pick people up!  It looked like a lot of fun so Megan Jared and I came back later and cruised around and saw the city at night from the water.  It was beautiful.  Other than that I have just been enjoying my time here in the city doing some shopping, going to school and all that fun stuff.  I have 3 quizzes and an exam this week in my classes.  It feels like we have done nothing so far and then all of a sudden these pop out of no where.  I am here again this weekend just organizing my life, studying, and trying to plan my trips for the rest of my stay here!  Danika and I are planning on conquring Mt Olympus next weekend so that should be really exciting!!  I can't wait! Hope all is well in the states!  Miss everyone lots!
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Agistri, Saronic Gulf Islands, Greece

Ok so i have some catching up to do!  I had my first week of class but i decided it was unnecessary to tell you about every single day.  My first week went really well.  I dropped my monday wednesday class because i didn't have the prerequisite classes for it that they told me i need to have taken.  The good news is i now only have Tuesday and Thursday classes which gives me long weekends to travel which is JUST what i did this weekend!  A few of my friends and i decided we wanted to take advantage of one of the few warm weekends we have left by visiting an island.  Most of the greek islands close down in october and everyone comes back to the mainland for winter.  Its like birds migrating south...except its people.  ANYWAY, Thursday night my roommate Megan, her boyfriend Jared, and our other friends Shira, Erin and I took the 7 hour train ride down to Athens and then took a one hour ferry to the TINY island if Agistri.  The ferry ride was JUST beautiful.  We drove past a bunch of other islands with cute little villages going up the sides of the mountains.  When we arrived in Agistri we couldn't have been happier with our choice of island.  As we were walking to our resort we passed a cute little mosque with the blue roof and i just stopped and looked at it.  It was just like in all of the pictures ive seen!   Then we looked out at the amazingly blue water, checked into our rooms and headed straight to the beach. After lunch we did some exploring around the island.  Its only 8km around so we got to see most of it.  We walked up hills and through little streets with adorable little white houses with blue shutters and blue doors that just rest on the sides of the cliffs.  I felt like i was walking through the set of Mamma Mia.  Seriously.  It wasnt even real.   After exploring we took a little siesta because we were exhausted from all the traveling and the unintentional hiking up cliffs that we did on our little expedition.  We went to a cute little taverna for dinner and shared some snacks with the cats.  There were cats all over this island and they just come and sit next to you and look up at you with big adorable cat eyes and i just couldn't help it.  My friends were calling me crazy cat lady because i kept naming the cats and then would yell at them for fighting with each other and threaten not to give them bread.  There was this cute tiny cat that i named Miko cause he kinda looked like the raccoon from Pochahontas.  When we were exploring the island we found this little bar that was having kareokee for the last time of the year so we thought it would be fun to check that out.  We wanted to see if they sang American songs or what.  We didnt know but we decided it would be entertaining.  It turned out to be all old people from the UK and they were pretty entertaining.  Jared sang a few times and Megan and I sang together once.  It was pretty fun but we were all tired from a long day and went back to the resort and went to bed.
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