Ferry to Samos

On the second day of our Adventures here in Greece we spent the morning taking the metro to tour downtown Athens-which is filled with tourists. We saw some ancient excavation sites and plenty of gift shops. Then we had Greek food for lunch before our trip home. On our trip home, the bus that we took went a very long and unnerving route-which lasted about 50 minutes. Eventually, we got back to our apartments and got ready to leave on the ferry for Samos, and island off the coast of Greece. We got on the ferry expecting a great American cruise line vibe. We instead got the decommissioned-fishing-boat-with-cabins vibe. It was a little weird to see passengers without cabin tickets pulling out blankets to sleep on the floors of the boat, but apparently that is normal here.

The views of the crystal blue water and the beautiful sun set over the Aegean sea were breathtaking.  We sailed by many island that were all very mountainous, creating a wonderful scene. The sunset on the horizon of the sea capped off a great day. Sleeping on the boat was a little uncomfortable, the boat shook a lot and made strange noises-but  I still managed 10 hours.

The next day (today) we arose and left the boat after a Greek history lesson by the Dr. Kaplans. We took a bus ride on very narrow mountainous road to visit a ancient tunnel that was made by the people of Samos. It was very cool to see all of history at that location-even if it made me claustrophobic. By the way, our bus driver was a beast, his driving skills with a massive bus on sharp turns on tiny roads were impeccable. We then visited a small town on the coast and look at a church that was being restored. Surrounding the church were a lot of ruins that were just chilling on the wayside. As an interesting aside, the Greeks seem to neglect a lot of their ruins, with many of them just sitting buy the side of the road of walkway. The church was very beautiful, as was the surrounding view of the coast and the water.

After a visit to a winery and a delicious lunch, we stopped at another church on the coast and saw all of the decorations inside. It was very ornately laid out and designed, with countless portraits of the saints and church leaders present.

We finally made it to our hotel, which is wonderful. After a dip in the pool and a great dinner I am now here writing this blog. Tomorrow will hold countless experience when we visit the island of Patmos! More to come!

Jetlag

The View Over the Atlantic at Dawn

The past 48 hours have been a blur. We left the Jacksonville airport at 1 P.M. Eastern time and arrived at Charlotte international airport at 3:30 P.M.  In Charlotte we took the liberty to find some food before our flight left for Frankfurt, Germany-but due to an early boarding call I was "forced" to eat my meal on the plane. This worked out well for me, because it held me over until dinner was served.

A healthy last American meal

Maneuvering this little box was a lot harder that your may think-
especially with my carry-on, backpack, and passport in hand.

With a 8 hour flight ahead of me the next item on the agenda was
keeping myself occupied. This was pretty easy, because United Airways has an on-demand media setup for each seat in coach.
I was able to chose form 40 movies and 20 TV shows. I ended up
watching 2 movies: X-Men: First Class and Date Night. They were both very entertaining and took up about half of my flight.

The airline also served dinner at around 8 P.M. which was very simple but satisfying (mostly just because of my hunger).

The last couple of hours of the trans-Atlantic flight went by fairly quickly. Cloud cover blocked the view of the British Isles as we soared over head, but once we made landfall in France we had a little better view of the landscape. The land in Europe is dotted with big windmills and a lot of green farmland, especially in Germany.

When we arrived in Frankfurt we realized how large this German
Airport truly was. We had to take a tram to get to a secondary portion of the airport where our connecting flight was. The airport smelled a lot like cigarette smoke, and was filled with little glass smoking rooms for passengers to get their fix before flying out.

The security agents in Frankfurt seemed a little clueless and ended up pulling aside a couple of people from our group for various reasons before letting us pass through.

After about a solid 30 minutes of travel time, we arrived at our connecting flight's gate. This was the flight that  would take us from Frankfurt to Athens. When we boarded this flight it was roughly 9:30 A.M. local time and 2:30 A.M. Eastern time. So I was obviously exhausted on this flight-having not slept at all on our overnight transatlantic flight.  Luckily, after getting breakfast I was able to sleep for half of our 2 hour flight to Athens. As a side note, the airline that we took from Frankfurt to Athens was call Lufthansa, a German company, that took very good care of us.

Destination: Reached

At 1:11 P.M. local time ( 4 AM Eastern) we touched down in Athens. This was the conclusion of 15 hours of travel and a 7 hour time change.

The Athenian airport was very busy, with many scrambling to claim their baggage and acquire transportation.

I was surprised by how much English was used in all of the advertisements, and how many American companies are represented here in Greece.

The Athenian Airport

Baggage claim was nerve-racking since we had 3 connecting flights but proved ultimately successful.
Our group was now ready to move toward the bus!









The bus ride was about 20 minutes long and took us through some of the countryside. There were a lot of abandoned, smaller building on the side of the road-most likely a result of the economic crisis here in Greece. Regardless, the breathtaking mountain landscape in quite a sight to be seen.

The landscape and climate here compared well to the Los Angles Valley-minus the pollution.

Alright, we finally arrive at our dorms at around 2:30. We were greeted and showed around by our very nice RAs. Both of them were very fluent in English.

Very large balcony with a great view

Another great view

The evening was finished off with a very nice, family style Greek dinner. An interesting aspect of Greek restaurants is that they do not split checks. Its up tot the people in the group to divide up the money evenly. This definitely will take some getting used too. Also, the Greek night life is very loud and crowded and usually gets started pretty late. This is a little out of my comfort zone but I am sure I will soon get used to the culture. The travel was a success, now onto the rest of our agenda.

Four Hours Till Launch

This is my first overseas adventure. I am both very excited and very nervous. In several hours I will be on a transcontinental flight, which, to me, seems like a miracle. This whole experience that is now so surreal will soon be real. I am ready to soak up every simple  moment, every glimpse of beauty, every piece of knowledge. I'm truly expanding my horizons, and I couldn't be happier.

Stay Tuned.

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome! This is the blog I will be using while I am on my 6-week study abroad to Athens, Greece. I will be keeping it updated with lots of pictures and stories, as well as with special articles when I feel inspired. Enjoy!