Italy and Greece

The last few days have been so fun and exciting, and we have seen so many things...

ITALY

:::VENICE:::

I met with Jami and Kelly from Georgetown in Barcelona, and then we flew to Venice. It was a very beautiful city... the pictures can explain more than my words...

:::Grand Canal:::

:::Gondola:::

:::On our Gondola ride:::

:::ROME:::

After an overnight train ride, we arrived in Rome and were able to see all of the big attractions - Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevy fountain, Spanish stairs, Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. We walked a lot, and I really enjoyed Rome! 

:::Getting ready to go on the night train to Rome:::

:::Colosseum:::

:::Inside the Colosseum:::

:::Outside of St. Peter's Basilica:::

:::Inside St. Peter's Basilica:::

:::Spanish stairs - of course we had to go after a whole semester in Spain!:::

:::Gelato break!:::

:::Trevy fountain:::

:::Pantheon:::

:::Athens:::

We met back up with Vanessa on our last night in Rome, and we all flew to Athens. We arrived late in the day, so we hit up the coffee shop for some caffeine before calling it an early night. We woke up early the next morning, and it was raining and kind of dreary, but we still made it to the Olympic Village (which is dilapidated and is in need of some major attention and help... but it was still neat to see!) and the Acropolis (Parthenon, old Greek ruins, etc.) 

:::Olympic park in Athens:::

:::Parthenon:::

:::Aegina:::

The day before Kelly and Jami flew home, we all went to a Greek island about an hour and a half away from Athens - called Aegina. It was a very beautiful island, and we were so glad that the weather cleared up and was so nice for their last day in Europe.

:::On the boat on the way to Aegina:::

:::On the island:::

:::Santorini:::

The next day Vanessa and I got back on a 7 hour ferry to Santorini - another Greek island. This is also where one of my favorite movies - Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - was filmed. It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!! The pictures cannot even begin to show how beautiful it truly was. You could stand in the road at places and look to the left and right and see the sea. It was also a good break after living in hostels. We splurged and stayed in a hotel/apartment which was really nice. Everyone on the island was very nice and helpful, and we got to do many interesting things!!!!!!! 

:::Our hotel:::

:::The back porch of our hotel:::

:::Oia, Santorini:::

:::View from the top of the volcano:::

:::Riding a "taxi"... aka a donkey:::

:::What all of the beautiful buildings look like... white and blue... everyone loves UK colors!!! :) :::

:::The magical sunset in Oia:::

:::Red Beach:::

Now we are off to Romania, Austria, Poland, Barcelona, flight to Amsterdam, Detroit, Nashville, meet mommy and daddy!!!!!!!!! and back to Mayfield!!!! See you all soon!

The Netherlands and Germany

Right now, I am just waiting to go on the next part of my adventure. I recently finished my last days in Barcelona. The first day back was Sant Jordi - kind of like Valentine's day, but the men give the women a rose and women give men books. It was absolute madness on Las Ramblas because there were so many people out going to buy flowers and books. I was not happy to leave this city for good. It has been my home for 4 months now and I was sad to have to tell Bibi and my roommate, Hannah, goodbye. I have mixed emotions because I am sad that the semester is over, but I am excited about the next 20 days of traveling and excited that in 20 days I will get to see my family! … and then it is on to the next chapter of my life… getting ready for medical school (MCAT studying,

 MCAT, research at the National Institutes of Health and filling out a billion and a half medical school applications!)

So anyways, the last few days Vanessa and I have been in Amsterdam (aka Holland, The Netherlands) and Frankfurt and Köln (Cologne), Germany, and now I am sitting in a café about 5 minutes from the airport waiting on two of my friends from Georgetown so that we can go to Venice and Rome, and then meet back up with Vanessa to go to Greece.

Amsterdam 

Amsterdam was very different than I thought it would be, and it gets the Most Non-Judgmental City Award. It was even explained to us that the city is not “liberal” as everyone says, rather, they let people express themselves and do not judge. Because of this, there are some crazy things going on in Amsterdam, but it also just makes it a very interesting city. While there we went to the Anne Frank House which was very interesting and educational, but also sad to see where the people in the book were cooped up for 2 years. After going there, I know that Auschwitz is going to be terribly depressing when we finally get there. We also went on a 4 hour bike tour through the countryside. This was funny, if only you could have been here, because I have not been on a bike in who knows how long – it has been years and years – but luckily I did not crash or get hit by a car. The city is absolutely packed with bikers (more than I have seen in my entire life combined), people walking and cars, so riding a bike can be dangerous if you don’t watch out! We got to see one of the few remaining family-run businesses that make wooden clogs and cheese, and we saw a working windmill.

:::All of the bikes on one of the streets:::

:::Anne Frank House:::

:::With all of the wooden shoes:::

Germany

Firstly, it has to be explained that we all have a “Stupid mistake budget” while here in Europe because when traveling and not knowing the languages you are bound to make dumb mistakes that you end up paying for. We booked a ticket to Frankfurt, only to find out that there is nothing to do in Frankfurt (Mistake #1) so we booked a train to Köln (Cologne) which was beautiful! We got to see the Rhein river and the most beautiful cathedral that we have seen so far (as the story goes, this is the cathedral that holds the bones of the three wisemen). We also had a fun time in the interactive Olympic museum (designed for 10 year olds, but V and I had a blast anyways!) where we got to sit in a Bobsled (which was exciting, considering we had just watched Cool Runnings two nights before). Then we traveled 6 hours to Hahn (Mistake #2) for our flights before realizing upon arrival that we could have just traveled for 2 hours total.. so we felt dumb, but at least we got where we needed to go!

:::The Cathedral that wins the award for the best cathedral:::

:::Playing in a bobsled:::