Friday April 30th...
Packed up the place. It wasn't too bad. Packing to come here was worse because you have to select what you want to take...here...I just had to find a way to get all my stuff in my 2 suitcases. In the beginning, my mom shipped over a big backpack that I was going to use as a carry on while travelling. However, this backpack was SO big that it didn't even count as a carry on...so I didn't even use it once the entire semester. The plan was to ship it back....so I am walking to Mailboxes Etc to ship it back...and as I am walking down Sardenya, I see a ton of police cars, sirens, and a taped off area. I didn't know what had happened, but it was right next to Mailboxes Etc so I passed the scene....unforunately there was a body covered by a sheet on the ground. Somebody had jumped off their terrace and committed suicide. That was when I realized that life is so different for each person. While I was complaining about packing up my things after studying in Europe for 4 months, somebody else was contemplating the purpose and meaning and value of their life. I was so deeply upset by this entire incident. I feel so helpless when something like that happens, and after working for a suicide hotline in high school, I always wanted to try to help people who felt there was no other way out...but this one I couldn't control even if I had been walking by 15 minutes earlier. Life is so fragile....and I have always believed in living each day as it was your last....and this was a swift reminder to keep living that way.
When I got to the store...had the two people help me with my bag...only to find out it would cost me 270 euros...at the cheapest price...to ship this backpack to the US. So obviously I didn't pay for it....and the mystery of what I am going to do with this backpack will be figured out when I return to Barcelona on Friday. The rest of the day, I packed, hung out with my roommates and later headed over to Peters. That night, I ended up finding a great deal to go back to Naples and Capri for the last two days of my travelling here...I immeadiately jumped on the opportunity and could not be more excited! This entire trip...that is the one place I have been DYING to go back to...and I am now going!! Even though I'll be solo. I will still have a great time.
That night, as our last night all together in Barca, we went to the Lost bar. Yep, the only bar with a Lost theme is in Barcelona....it is called Bharma. It was extremely well decorated and there were Lost episodes playing in the bar. The best part...Dharma beer. I still took a bottle for a souvenir. Then we headed back to good old Patagonia bar so I could have one last little brain shot. Since we frequented this bar often, the guys who work there know us...and they realized that this was our last night there. So we got some free drinks and it was a lot of fun! After that, went back to the apartment for my last night in Castillejos. Beth and I had a flight earlier in the morning to Santorini.
Saturday May 1....
We get to the airport with plenty of time and wait in a long line to check our bags. Once we finally get to the front, I find out that my one suitcase was 34 kilograms...amost 70 pounds. The airline only allowed 20 kilograms...unless I wanted to pay 12 euros PER kilo...outrageous. So I quickly dumped anything heavy that I didn't need in the trash....panicing and about to throw up from the stress. I finally got my bag down to 23 kilos...and they didn't charge me. Phew! It was sooooo stressful. I always knew that I was going to store my other suitcase and backpack in this area of the airport....but now I was barely about to make boarding my flight. The man told me I wouldn't ahve time to store my bags...but what else was I supposed to do with them? Throw them out? He made no sense. So I bolted to store my bags...which of course took longer than necessary...but I ran up to security...they let me through and I made our flight in plenty of time.
We had a layover in Athens where Beth and I met up with Natina who had like a bajillion hour layover there. We just all hung out in the airport eating oreos and watching the Hills. Beth and I flew to Santorini a little bit before Natina, and made it on that plane. No one was on it. Had a whole row to myself except they wouldn't let me put my feet up. Lame. The flight was only 35 minutes so it went really fast. When we got to the airpot, we met the shuttle and he drove us back to our place. On the way, we passed Santo Wines...a winery Mom and I visited 3 years ago during our time in Santorini. Good times! He also showed us where as 24 hour bakery is....WHAT AN AMAZING IDEA! Maybe I will keep that in mind for my bakery one day.
That night, while waiting for Natina to get in town...Beth and I walked down the rode from our hotel to a little restaurant called Grandma's Recipes. They had HUGe 1 foot gyros for an amazing price. We had a great time just enjoying people watching and relaxing after a long day of travelling and a long week of finals and work. We met Natina back at the hotel and we all went to bed...we were absolutely exhausted.
Sunday May 2....
We woke up to go lay out on the beach. The beach we were off of was a black sand beach...and it was amazingly hot. It felt like you were walking on hot coals. Whenever I have seen people do that on TV, I thought...there is no way I could ever do that....but honestly....I think I could now. You could literally see the heat rising from the sand. It was still gorgeous though. We ate and laid out on the beach in front of this restaurant Yazz will amazing 4 euro greek salads...completely authentic and delicious. We laid out all day and then went to go buy some authentic greek wine. It was disgusting...not at all how I remembered from the winery Mom and I had gone to....this wine tasted like cleaning solution...so we called it Pine Sol all night. The boys got to the hotel, we all got ready and then went back to Grandma's Recipes for another dinner. Afterwards, we went to this place called the Beach Club and the DJ was spinning the tunes like crazy! I was a dancing queen...enjoying every song to the max...even if that meant dancing by myself. After awhile, we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
Monday May 3...
Woke up again pretty early to go lay out on the black sand beach. Enjoyed another great Greek salad at Yazz, and around 2, we headed back to the hotel to go rent ATVs and explore the island. We rode out to Fira....walked around for awhile. We sat at this great bar on top of the entire island and had amazing milk shakes. We went in and out of some stores, found another great gyro place. bought some souvenirs, took some breathtaking pictures, and explored in general. Then we decided to go back to our ATVs and ride to Oia. On the way, we stopped at this mountain, where Matt climbed up the entire thing...and it was literally ginormous. Natina and I had no desire at all to climb...so we just watched from the bottom. Eventually we made it back to Oia where Peter was on a mission to find this ceramic store his mom had been to the summer before. After searching for awhile, we could not find it anywhere. We were getting rather hopeless, but as we turned the corner, we found it! The ceramics were beautiful and we ended up finding two amazing dishes. The man who worked at the store was so nice, and he was very patient with us as we kept changing our minds. Then we went over to the cliff area where we watched the sunset. I purchased a Greek coffee...which was sooo strong I thought I was going to go into coffee bean comatose. It was an amazing sunset...there were lots of people everywhere, but we watched the whole thing and it was amazing. On our walk back to the ATVs, I also found the restaurant where mom and I shared 3 desserts for our lunch that day. We didn't have time to eat there before it was getting too dark, and we had at least an hour on the ATVs to get back to our hotel.
The ride back was a little frightening. It was completley dark and there were lots of buses on the windy curvy rodes. We did make it back in one piece even though we practically froze. We ended up going to eat at this great restaurant called Atlas...I had a pineapple burger that took my breath away and Peter and I split saganaki....a traditional greek appetizer....fried cheese...not like a mozzarella stick...it was actually better! We just went back to the hotel and hung out and went to bed. We had to wake up and go on the ferry in the morning to Mykonos.
Tuesday May 4....
Woke up, packed...then headed over to the port to catch our ferry. The ferry was 2 hours...and 4 of us ended up sitting next to each other. i finished reading Chelsea Handler's HILARIOUSSSS book, "Are you there vodka? it's me chelsea." Now Beth is reading it...it is so funny. The ferry went by pretty quickly...only 2 hours...not bad. Once we got to mykonos, we took a cab to our hotel where we were staying on Ornos beach. It was beautiuful...but since it wasn't high season...it was pretty dead. Still completely enjoyable! We decided to just walk around and get some snacks for the next few days...we went to a restaurant called Taki's and got some more delicious gyros...which if I didn't mention before...i am now obsessed with! SO YUMMY. Then Beth, Natina, Pete and I went into town. We just walked around all the cute streets that wind in and out, admiring all the classic white and blue houses and buildings. It really is dream like. We found a smoothie palce and sat down for awhile. Then we did some more souvenir shopping...finding a cute little jewlery store. Then we made it to the port area, mailed postcards and got some gelato. Lemon pie. It was amazing. Then as we were watching the sunset, we saw a HUGE pink pelican...yeah it was pink. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. And it was this man's pet. Like it followed him and would stand right by his side. So funny. We watched the sunset then went back to the hotel.
Since some of us weren't hungry, some of us stayed back while others went to dinner. We just hung out and rested after a busy day. That night, we went into town and went to two different clubs that were literally right across the street from each other. So if one started playing bad music, we would walk across the street to the other one, and then back and forth and back and forth. My favorite was Mykonos Bar with an awesome DJ. We had a ton of fun that night. On the way back to hotel, I was craving a nutella banana crepe and found a little place still open....although it was 5 euros...it was the BEST nutella banana crepe I have had in europe. I wanted another one.
Wednesday May 5....
Woke up early and was the first one on the beach. There was a place next to our hotel on the beach and we sat out in their chairs since our hotels chairs weren't ready yet. there was hardly anyone staying there. We just spent the day laying out...grabbed a sandwich at the bakery up the road...which had no condiments. I went to the market next door and they had French's mustard! I hadn't seen it all semester...and of all places...Mykonos Greece is where I found it. Then Pete and I watched the latest episode of Lost...amazing. I cried. LIterally. Then we all went and had some drinks on the beach as the sun set. That night, we went to dinner right next to our hotel at Ithaki which was the most international restaurant I have ever been to. They literally had every kind of food...but Pete and I got pesto pasta and caprese pizza. It was an amazing meal....minus my falling in love with a stray cat that I wanted to take home. But I didn't. Went to bed earlyyyyy.
Thursday May 6....
Woke up to go to the beach. Well all the cabs were missing in action, so we went to get breakfast...had a greek omlette...so great. Then finally after waiting for cabs for around 30 minutes, we were able to go to Paradise beach...another place Mom and I had gone to three years ago. This time....there was NO ONE there though. When mom and i went in july of 2007...we could barely find anywhere to sit! Peter, Steven and I all split a huge pitcher of Pina Coladas...which was delicious. We also had a great lunch....cucumber and tomato salad. Around 5:30 we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Finally headed to town and went to a great meal right on the water. It was our last meal with all 6 of us together....Natina and Steven were leaving early in the morning and we were all heading to Scotland. So we reflected on what an incredible semester we had shared and tried to figure out the next time we would all be reunited...hopefully Halloween weekend in Madison this year. We just enjoyed each others company and soaked in every minute. Then we went back to pack and hang out.
Friday May 7....
finished packing in the morning....realized taht I had my mom send my package to Athens instead of Mykonos...freaked out...got to the airport on time. Took a flight to London Gatwick...almost a 4 hour flight...ick.
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