GREECE

I can’t believe we have already been to 4 ports and have only 3 left! Time is just flying by now. We are now in Varna, Bulgaria, but we can’t get off the ship until tomorrow morning because we have classes today. We left Athens, Greece two days ago, and sailed past Istanbul, Turkey last night and onto Bulgaria. Istanbul was absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait until we get to go there in a few days. Its so hard to pick a favorite place, because each one is just so different and amazing.

Before I keep talking about how excited I am for these last 3 ports, I will tell you about Greece! We were there for 4 nights and 5 days, and it was so much fun. The first day, we went into the center of Athens to see all of the historical places. I spent the morning at the Acropolis and got some great pictures at the Parthenon. It was so interesting to see all of these sites that have been around for thousands of years. Hard to believe they are still standing, but, I saw it with my own eyes so I know its true! After the Acropolis, we went down the hill to the Theatre of Dionysus. That’s the theatre where “theatre was born.” It was pretty cool to think that the ancient Greeks would sit in the very stands we sat in, and watch performances by famous Greek tragedy writers. After that, we went on to find some lunch, hoping to have a traditional Greek meal. We found a great restaurant where I tried Soulvaki for the first time, and fell in love with it! In case you aren’t familiar with Greek food, Soulvaki is mean (either chicken, pork, or lamb) on skewers, served on a pita with taztiki and vegetables. Since I am a little bit picky when it comes to trying new foods, I was a little worried about ordering this, but I was so glad I did! We ended up eating Soulvaki for almost every single meal we had in Greece. After lunch, we walked to the Acropolis Museum, which was really amazing. They had all of the statues that had been taken off of the Parthenon over the years, as well as many other Ancient artifacts. The museum is really cool because when your standing inside, the floor is clear glass and you can see excavations going on below you.

Oh and how could I forget, while we were at the museum, we noticed that there were a ton of security guards. At first we thought maybe it was normal, but there were just so many that I began to wonder why they were all there. Well, sure enough, a very important person was coming to the museum that day: America’s own Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Not that I am her biggest fan, but it was still very cool that she was going to be in the very same museum as I was. We ended up leaving about 20 minutes before she arrived because we had to catch a bus back to the ship, but many other Semester at Sea students decided to stay, and got to shake her hand.

The night, we found a nice restaurant right on the water, where we had dinner. After we met up with a few other friends and went to this fun bar/lounge place where I had a delicious coffee drink. It was funny to see, but there were just as many people in the bar drinking frozen frappaccino type drinks as people drinking alcohol! Very interesting! We decided to call it an early night and headed back to the ship after having coffee.

We had to wake up very early the next morning to catch our ferry to the island Mykonos. It was a 3 ½ hour ferry ride, and let me tell you, the ferries were not what I expected! In my mind, a ferry is a small boat where you sit outside on benches. I was very wrong, and I am grateful for that, because 3 ½ hours is a long time to sit outside in the middle of the ocean. Instead, the ferry was almost the size of the MV Explorer! We had really comfortable seats indoors with air-conditioning and TV. It was actually a very pleasant ride! Once we arrived in Mykonos, we wandered around until we found out where our hotel was. We were pleasantly surprised to find our hotel was very nice, and overlooked the ocean and had a beautiful infinity pool we could relax in. We spent the day swimming and enjoying the amazing view, and then headed into town to find a place to eat dinner. As we were just arriving in Mykonos town, all of the lights on the entire island went out! We were literally in complete darkness! It was so scary for a minute, but then a few places got light back, so we were not in complete darkness anymore. But most of the island was still dark! We found a restaurant that had electricity still, and decided to eat there. As we were eating, the rest of the lights finally came back on, and we were amazed to see how lovely the town was. Everything was just as you would imagine Greece to be: little white buildings with bright blue roofs and doors. So adorable! We had a great dinner and I got to try Greek yogurt (which I didn’t think I liked) for the first tiem in actual Greece, and I found out that I loved it! They put honey on it, and it was like eating dessert; so delicious. After dinner, we walked around town and found the area where all of the nightlife was. We ran into several other Semester at Sea people before heading back to our own hotel to get some sleep.

The next morning, we woke up and had a delicious breakfast that the hotel provided. Then, we decided to head into town to ship around a little and find the famous Paradise Beach. It took us quite some time to get to the beach because we kept getting lost, but we had a great time regardless. We ran into a few friends from the ship, Erik and Sirkan, and went to Paradise Beach with them. There was a really fun beach club there that is world famous, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the beach!

We were so sad to leave Mykonos the following morning. The island was beautiful and I could have easily spent a few more nights there. We hopped back on the ferry around 12 pm, and sailed back to the mainland. We were all worn out from Mykonos, so naps were not an option, but a need! After sleeping for a few hours, we headed into town to go to a Karaoke bar. Pretty much every Semester at Sea student was there, and we spent the night singing songs and dancing. It was so much fun!

The last morning in Greece, we were too tired to do much of anything since we had stayed out until nearly sunrise! We all slept in, and then went to buy a few souvenirs and stock up on snacks for the ship. We left the port at 8 pm that evening, and set sail for Bulgaria.

Overall, Greece was wonderful! I really just didn’t know what to expect from it. My only preconceptions about Greece were what I have seen in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! Greece definitely met all of my expectations though! Lets hope Bulgaria will do the same, although I really don’t have any expectations for Varna because I just don’t know much about it! I’ll be sure to update you all soon on Varna!