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Europe Trip 2017

June - August 2017
A 70-day adventure by celiajohnston Read more
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  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    Day 1

    Day 1: Athens, Greece

    June 21, 2017 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Today I learned a few things:

    1. It's hard to find your way around Athens
    2. Bird poop can sting
    3. You can really see Athens in one day
    4. Don't put Euros in the same pocket that you will pull out your cell phone of on numerous occasions throughout the day
    5. Air Transat flight attendants are super friendly while people in Athens don't have much patience

    After sleeping only three hours on the flight, getting lost twice walking to my room (due to hardly any street signs and incorrect directions), having a bird poop on me, getting yelled at or ignored by at least 5 people (but also helped by 2), losing ten euros (not so bad) and finally getting to my room to spend ten minutes trying (unsuccessfully) to open the door, I met Daniel and Jennifer. Thanks to them for saving my back (literally) and opening the door to the apartment that we're sharing. Turns out they're from Montreal too and they offered for me to join them tomorrow so I'll be third wheeling on their day to the beach and market (they are so nice). On another positive note, I ate my first authentic gyros pita tonight (it did not disappoint) and the Airbnb is actually really nice!    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    2
    Day 2

    Day 2: Athens, Greece

    June 22, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Vougliameni beach is really nice. Daniel, Jennifer and I took the bus there and we weren't disappointed. As they brought goggles, we were able to see hundreds of fish that were swimming with us! And the water was beautiful.

    Afterwards, we went to the market and bought some fresh strawberries and cherries, had fresh orange juice, and bought some souvenirs. We were supposed to eat them tonight, but we got back too late as we went to meet Zoe and Alex at the bus stop for 11:30 p.m. Turns out they got off at midnight and they walked right past without me even noticing. We took a taxi back at 12:30 a.m. (or shall I say the third taxi) and ended up getting there at the same time so it worked out. When it came to getting a taxi, the first two preferred Greek fares than listening to us telling them where we had to go (oh well).

    Before we went to the bus stop, we went to a mall which has a lot of the same stores we have back home: Tommy Hilfiger, H&M, Zara, Claire's and more. The mall was super modern (unlike the rest of Athens) and it was a nice change! We also went to a nice restaurant near the Acropolis for dinner and Daniel got hussled by a ten year old. He came up offering flowers with puppy dog eyes so Daniel asked him for one, which was three Euros, and gave him five Euros expecting to get change. The kid smiled, said no change, threw down an extra flower and left. It was actually really funny and I got a nice flower out of it (thanks kid).

    Now my buddies have arrived and can't wait to see the Acropolis tomorrow. Sad to see Daniel and Jennifer go, but I'm happy I got to meet them and I'm so grateful for their kindness. Wishing them a safe flight home!    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    1
    Day 3

    Day 3: Athens, Greece

    June 23, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    The best two words to describe today: 38 degrees.

    We died of heat, but at least the sights were worth it. We visited the Acropolis and the views of Athens were incredible. Afterwards, we were so hot that we decided to head to Glyfadas beach. It was so nice, however it ended up taking 2 hours to get back as it's impossible to hail a taxi here! We had to use our map and walk an hour to the metro and then metro the rest of the way back. Turned out to be quite the adventure!

    After we got back and showered, we ended up heading out at 10 pm for supper and went to Smiles. We had the best Greek salad, feta, spanakopita, Greek yoghurt and more and it was one of the best and cheapest meals that we ate in Athens.

    While this might be it for Athens, were headed off to Mykonos tomorrow and we're pretty excited (except for the fact that we have to get up at 5:30) 💃    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    Day 4

    Day 4: Mykonos, Greece

    June 24, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today started with a rush of adrenaline.

    We made our ferry to Mykonos with 3 minutes to spare and that's not even an overexageration. The guy sent us to the wrong side of the port and we had to run with our backpacks to make it on time. The good point about the ferry ride was that we were supposed to sit in economy in the cafeteria, but we ended up getting some seats inside and having a nice nap. Zoe and Alex also let me practice my French braids.

    When we arrived in Mykonos, we certainly put our seat belts on. The driver would race down one ways and when we would come face to face with another car or if the car in front was going to slow for him, he'd yell "Malaka! Malaka!" which means "Move fat boy move" according to him. They are psycho, but they sure can drive. When we finally made it to our hostel, or shall I say bunker, we settled in and went to the beach.

    To end off the evening, we had some good food, drinks and conversation with Ohio-ins and Massachusetts-ins. I also managed to lose a contact, a pill and bent my converter charger all in the same night, but at least the beach is beautiful. :)    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    4
    Day 5

    Day 5: Mykonos, Greece

    June 25, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today was beach day.

    We hit the beach and pool for the most part of the day. The beach is really nice and it was really really hot. We all got slightly burnt, but not too bad, and we are slightly scarred by the image of old men swimming and sun tanning naked.

    The best part of the day was really the evening. We took a bus to the old port of Mykonos and it was really nice! We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant which was amazing. We then walked around and walked in a bunch of little stores and ended up getting lost with all the little streets and missing our 11:15 p.m. bus, but it didn't end up so bad as we just went to get ice cream (which was really good) before catching the next at 12:15 a.m. I didn't get any good pictures of the alleys with all the shops, but I don't think any picture could have really shown just how nice it was.

    Even though Mykonos is really nice, we look forward to heading to Santorini! We're not allowed to eat food other than that purchased from the hostel (which is expensive) and we only have one plug. So we either have to sacrifice the fan or sacrifice charging our phones... Lol

    Also! Two quick tips for Greece: (1) The bread they put on the table is not free (they will charge you about two euros per person to eat it) and (2) If the bread is free, there is most likely a service fee that will be added on your bill that includes letting you use their utensils and eat their bread.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    1
    Day 6

    Day 6: Santorini, Greece

    June 26, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Santorini is my new favourite place.

    After checking out from our hostel and heading to the ferry (which was a really nice ferry and we had a table all to ourselves), we arrived in Santorini just in time for lunch. Some girls were so excited to leave Mykonos that they checked out and when we were on our way to the port, they realized that they checked out a day early and had to head back. We all had a pretty good laugh about it.

    After arriving to our hostel, we checked in and sat in the pool for a bit. We met two really nice Canadians from Toronto, two girls from Scotland and two girls from California. So cool to meet people from all over! Afterwards we went to find a place to eat and we fell in love with the city. The views are incredible, the food is amazing and this hostel is certainly better than the last (especially the WiFi) and we are right in the city centre! We also have a fridge and access to a kitchen so we got to go buy our own food at the supermarket.

    I've only been here a few hours and Santorini is exactly what I pictured Greece to look like. Highly recommend it. :)    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    111
    Day 7

    Day 7: Santorini, Greece

    June 27, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Already a week since I left Montreal!

    The boat cruise we went on today was so good. It brought us to hike an active, yet dormant volcano, Nea Kameni, to the hot springs and then the island of Thirassa. To get to our boat, we had to walk down about 400 steps and past the donkeys. There must have been at least 50 of them and they'd walk right for us so we had to almost put ourselves up on the walls along the side so they wouldn't step on our feet.

    When we got to the top of the volcano, the view was incredible and we got to put our hands over one of the active sulfur vents (it was pretty hot). The hot springs weren't very hot, only a difference of 7 degrees, but when you swam back towards the boat, it felt like the water was freezing. The water was also brown. When we got to Thirassa, we had a nice lunch and relaxed. We were supposed to take the 300 steps up to the village, but they advised against it as it was really hot.

    At night, we went to have dinner by the sunset in Fira and it was incredible (as is everything in Santorini). If only this platform would let me post more than 6 pictures per post... To end off the night, we went dancing with about ten people from our hostel and it was the perfect ending to the perfect day.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    21
    Day 8

    Day 8: Santorini, Greece

    June 28, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today we drove around the island with ATVs. We drove from Fira to the Red Beach (Akrotiri) for a few hours and then drove to Oia to go to Amoudi Bay and see the sunset.

    On the way back from Oia, we didn't realize and took another way back so we were driving along a cliff in the dark for the majority of the drive with many impatient people passing us any chance they got, even other ATVs! Turns out ours were quite slow...

    Amoudi Bay made it all worth it. We did some "cliff" jumping (it was really a platform) and we did a bit of rock climbing. It was so much fun and the view was worth it too. Thank god for Alex's googling magic. Red Beach was really nice too. There was a vendor so we got some fresh fruit and we took it easy for a few hours.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    1
    Day 9

    Day 9: Santorini/Piraeus, Greece

    June 29, 2017 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    We slept in this morning and packed up all our stuff to check out of our hostel in Santorini. It's bittersweet, but next stop is Italy which is exciting!

    Before we caught the bus to the port, we made ourselves some pasta for lunch and sandwiches and cut up veggies for the 8 hour ferry. It didn't feel like 8 hours at all as it was super comfy.

    Now we're all settled in Piraeus to then wake up and travel to Italy tomorrow.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017
    1
    Day 10

    Day 10: Adriatic Sea

    June 30, 2017, Ionian Sea ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    I don't even know how we made it, but we did.

    The time to the bus station to catch our bus to Patras at 2 o'clock was 45 minutes so we left at 12:20 to be safe. We ended up getting lost as Google directed us to a bus stop that didn't exist. After spending too much time looking and asking a local who didn't know where it was either, we decided to run to the metro and take that instead.

    We ended up getting to the bus station at exactly 2 o'clock, but the bus was full so we had to wait to take the 3 o'clock one. The ride to Patras is 2.5-3 hours and our ferry was at 6 to go to Italy... We ended up getting to Patras at 5:40, jumping in a taxi, telling him to step on it, and making our ferry with five minutes to spare. We've never been so happy, sweaty and hungry.

    At least before we left our Airbnb, we had made sandwiches and pasta to eat on the ferry as it's 16 hours long to go to Bari, Italy. Our host for the Airbnb was super friendly and we were able to do all our laundry and use her kitchen to make all our food. We also lost one of our three musketeers today as Alex headed back to Israel this morning.    Read more

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