All Good Things Must Come To An End

October 11-12, 2014

Athens, Greece
All Good Things Must Come To An End

We woke up early on Saturday to make our way to the BEACH. This wasn't planned before the trip, just a happy last minute addition when we realized it was only 30 minutes away. We took the metro into town, and got yummy pastries for breakfast, which was technically the only strictly Greek food we ate. We ate our pastries as we made our way to the tram to finish the journey to the beach.The tram was the longest part of the journey, but we began to get more and more excited as we got closer to the shoreline.

The beach was absolutely beautiful! The only sad part was that we didn't bring swimsuits. When we first got there it felt slightly too chilly to swim, but by midday all I wanted to do was jump in the water! I managed to refrain from doing so though, since I didn't want to be wet all day. Lol. The beach made for a perfect photo shoot, and after we felt we had taken enough pictures, we decided it was time for lunch.

We decided to have lunch on the beach so we could admire the fantastic view. We even talked another group into taking our picture, despite the fact they didn't speak English... I've gotten very good at acting out what I want people to do. haha. We also found the slight mistakes of translation in the menu quite amusing. Technically I had a "clab sandwich with potatatoes." Really it was a club sandwich with french fries, so they were pretty close.

After our bellies were full we took the tram back into Athens and started our trek to the Ancient Agora. We knew the general area it was in but just roamed that area until we finally found it. The Agora would have been the center of political and public life in Athens when it was built. It was a large open area surrounded by buildings of various functions. The Temple of Hephaestus was one of the best preserved structures we saw. Hephaestus was the god of metal working and craftsmanship. His temple was located on the top of a large hill, which we saw from the Acropolis the day before.

Temple of Hephaestus as seen from the Acropolis

Temple of Hephaestus

 Temple of Hephaestus as seen from the Stoa of Attalos

The Stoa of Attalos houses the Museum of the Ancient Agora, it was rebuilt in the 1950s, approximately 1700 years after it was destroyed. The museum includes clay, bronze and glass objects, sculptures, coins and inscriptions from the 7th to the 5th century BC, as well as pottery of the Byzantine period and the Turkish conquest. Our favorite part about the museum was the sculptures labeled "probably aphrodite" or something similar. Basically to us it meant, "We don't actually know who this is. But it's a girl. So let's say Aphrodite."

Not far from the Ancient Agora there was a street market going on. Local artists and venders had booths set up along the sides of a pedestrian road. We spent so much time there, there were so many beautiful things to look at. Some of them were pretty similar, but we still managed to spend over an hour going up and down the road looking at the booths. I thought I got away without buying something, but then we went back to the beginning so Brittany could get a necklace she had seen before. On the way I saw this beautiful necklace and decided it was too cute to pass up! I love it, I think it suits me quite well!

When we finally got away from all the tempting jewelry and art at the market we headed to a gelato shop for dinner. Yes, I said for dinner. I never said we ate healthy in Greece, lol. While it wasn't the most healthy, it was delicious.


After dinner we had extra time before we had to get back to the hotel, so we decided to do a little more shopping. I kept seeing beautiful art prints all day that I wanted, but for €15-20 they were too much for me. Then I finally found a beautiful one for only €3! I was so excited!

Since it was time to head back to the hotel, our shopping had to end. We didn't have to wait very long for the taxi that took us from the hotel to airport. Luckily this driver, was not as scary of a driver as the one who picked us up the first night! When we got to the airport we began my first attempt at sleeping in an airport. While it wasn't my favorite thing in the world to do, I did get a pretty good amount of sleep!

Greece was an amazing trip that wasn't in my original plans, I think that made it even better for me. I will definitely go back to Greece in the future, even though I got a pretty good feel for Athens, there are so many beautiful coastal cities I would love to visit! Greece has definitely been one of the best trips so far, and one I will never forget!

It's All Greek to Me

October 9-10, 2014
Athens, Greece
The Beginning

Let me tell you, I had never heard the saying "It's all Greek to me" before this trip. Brittany, Megan, and David made sure I knew it before we left though. It was their favorite saying. I think they're just glad they could actually use it literally. Because, seriously, the only people that can say they didn't understand what some was because it was "all Greek" and mean it would have to be in Greece. AND WE DID THAT.

Greece has been my favorite trip since my time at Harlaxton. Not only did we see incredible historical monuments, but most of it was FREE. You can't get any better than free.
The start of the trip was a little bumpy. In order to get to Greece at a decent(ish) hour I had to take one for the team and skip my gender womens study class. Don't worry everyone, I was able to make up what I missed the class period before. Thursday morning we had a school visit in my education class. Then I had my honors tutorial for my research paper, and ate lunch before we had to go outside and wait for the train. It was at this point that the sky decided it wanted to empty itself of rain. So I decided I wasn't waiting outside without a coat. which was a very good decision considering our taxi was roughly 15-20 minutes late picking us up from the manor. The taxi got stuck in traffic, which was not okay with our nerves. We were beginning to panic by about 1:00 since our train was supposed to leave at 1:18 and the taxi still hadn't picked us up. When the taxi finally arrived, even the driver realized how late we were and was speeding to get us there on time. The perfect ending would be that we got there at 1:18. But we didn't. We were late, arriving at about 1:20. BUT SO WAS THE TRAIN. Learning the fact that our train was delayed until 1:26 was the beginning of a great trip. We were so relieved to realize our trip wasn't ruined befoee it even began. But next time we know to allow an additional 20 minutes in our schedule just in case.

The train ride was quite uneventful. We just had a few transfers before we arrived at the London Stansted Airport. Once at the airport we had to wait for about an hour before we could go to our assigned gate. But once we got there we didn't have to wait long before we were able to begin boarding. Once again we got super lucky... We printed our boarding passes at home and neglected to notice that we were supposed to get our passport checked before we made it to the gate. The attendant was kind enough to overlook our ignorance and checked our passports for us anyway.
The flight was also uneventful. I slept a whole lot. I'm very good at sleeping, and I'm very proud of that, it will continue to serve me well throughout this semester. :)

When we arrived at the Athens airport, our taxi driver was waiting to drive us to the Minoa Hotel. It was about a 30 minute, drive so we arrived at midnight (10 pm in England, 4 pm back home.) I was very pleasantly surprised by our hotel. Especially considering how inexpensive it was. When you walked inside, the interior decoration was gorgeous. The staff was warm and welcoming (despite the lateness of our arrival) and the room was very satisfactory. We had a four person "family room". Since we arrived so late we pretty much went straight to bed.

We woke up pretty early on Friday. We found our way to the metro and took it as close as we could get to the Acropolis. We went to purchase our tickets and were ecstatic to find we got in free since we were students in the UK! YAY! Saving money is always awesome, and even better when you weren't expecting it!

We had to walk up a steep hill before we made it to main part of the acropolis, where the Parthenon is located. It was a little crowded when we got there, so luckily we found out the best place to take pictures was around the back. They were doing preservation construction on the Parthenon which was slightly disappointing because they had taken parts down in order to reconstruct it so we couldn't get the full effect of how awesome it was. The noise of the power tools was slightly disappointing as well. Regardless of these small complaints, I loved the opportunity to see it. You could see most of the city from the Acropolis and just a glimpse of the shoreline as well.

Afterwards, we went to the Acropolis museum for breakfast. Breakfast was delicious, especially the part where I put my bread into Megan's syrup from her French toast. It was perfect.  After we were done eating we went through the Acropolis Museum which basically there were a lot of ancient Greek artifacts, which we weren't allowed to take pictures of. :(

When we left the museum we stopped and got gelato before we headed to the temple of Olympian Zeus and saw Hadrian's arch.

Hadrian's Arch

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

When we left the temple of Olympian Zeus we kind of knew how to get to the Panhellenic Olympic Stadium with directions but we still managed to get lost. We thought we were going in the right direction but Google maps isn't the most descriptive source for directions. We always manage to find where we're going after we get lost though, and eventually found the stadium.

It was a good thing we found it, because the Olympic Stadium was our favorite and we spent a lot of time there. Much to the annoyance of another tourist, we took a lot of pictures in front of the winner's block. We determined I would be in first place since I'm the only one that enjoys running, or more like I jumped into first place and no one stopped me.

We took pictures of each of us individually, so by the time it got to David's turn,  the tourist lady was speaking to her husband saying that we were taking too long. We weren't actually taking that long, so we didn't let her ruin the fun and finished taking our pictures before we decided to climb up all of the steps to the top of the stadium. It was such a beautiful view from the top. And of course we took a lot more pictures up there as well. After climbing back to the bottom of the stadium we went and looked at a small collection about the history of the Olympic torches. After that we decided we should take pictures of us on the track. I showed Britney, Megan, and David the proper way to begin a race.

After that we decided we should actually do a race. We had to rig my camera so that it would be able to video us without one of us holding it. With the help of a phone and a wallet for support, we were able to get it pointed in the right direction and we started our race.

  

After leaving the Olympic Stadium we went to the National Garden which surprisingly was pretty disappointing. I love gardens but there were not many flowers, it was mainly other types of vegetation.

After walking around the park for a while we decided that we should go eat dinner. We got some really good pasta and we were so hungry we ate our humongous plates of food.

We didn't really know what else to do that night so we decided to go to the Acropolis for the third time that day and take pictures as the sun was setting. This was a great idea and we got some of my favorite pictures at that time. The Parthenon is even more amazing when the sun is setting behind it. Plus silhouette pictures are always pretty cool.

The Acropolis was the last stop for the night and we took the metro back to the hotel. All in all, I'd say we had a pretty wonderful first day in Greece.

Stay tuned for the last two days of our Greek adventure, hopefully coming soon! (Unfortunately I am incredibly behind on blog posts, as is quite obvious!)

London Round Two: Museums and Shopping!!!

September 25-28, 2014

London, England

Saturday September 27, 2014
The Saturday of the trip, I got to go to museums, I was so excited! I didn't get to go to as many as I wanted, but I liked a majority of the ones I did see. I started out with the Photographer's Gallery. The gallery was showing a collection of Early Color Photography in Russia, which was very interesting to me. It featured a lot of methods that I was unfamiliar with. Hopefully I will have time to research those and learn a little bit more about them soon.

After leaving the Photographer's Gallery I got to go to the Tate Britain, which was my favorite museum of the day. It's not quite up to par with the National Gallery, but it was well worth a visit. There weren't really any artists there (that I got to see, I was semi-rushed) that were hugely popular. They did have a Late Turner exhibition, but I didn't make it to see that.

We had a small break for lunch at an "Americanized" pub called Maxwell's in Covent Garden before finishing our day at Museums. Tori wanted to see what we called the "gross museum." It was a museum of medical things- body parts and animals in jars. David and I sat on a couch and attempted to block everything around us out as we waited for Tori. When games on our phone weren't working to distract us well enough, we contemplated things like meditation until Tori was finally done and we were able to escape. Not surprising, I don't recommend this museum to anyone. 

The Tate Modern was next on our list, and surprisingly, I also don't recommend the Tate Modern. I much preferred the Tate Britain. You have to be really in to the abstract to enjoy Tate Modern. I'd say the best thing about Tate Modern was actually the walk there. We got to pass by St. Paul's museum and then walk over the Millennium bridge.

View from Millennium Bridge

View of St.Paul's Cathedral and Millennium 

Bridge from the Tate Modern

Another view of the Millennium Bridge from Tate Modern

Unfortunately the Tate Modern was the last museum we got to see since most museums close at 6 on Saturdays. But that just means we have a valid reason for a London Trip number 3 sometime in the future. :)

Sunday September 28, 2014

Sunday competes with Friday in awesomeness, but doesn't quite catch up. We started out the day exploring Hyde Park. Every inch of Hyde park is beautiful, and there are a LOT of inches in Hyde Park. The park covers 350 acres, or 625 acres if you're including Kensington Gardens. 







We began by walking to Kensington Palace, which really isn't that impressive. Maybe if we'd gone in we would've been more impressed.

 

Next we passed the Royal Albert Hall. I'm sure the concerts and other events put on here are incredible. The building sure is! 

Everywhere we went in Hyde Park was beautiful, we walked for a couple of hours and I still could have walked around, admiring the beauty for a couple hours more.

Peter Pan Statue

Can you tell I busted my butt right before this picture?

It was pretty embarrassing...

After enjoying the sights in Hyde Park, we headed into town for some shopping. H&M, Primark, and Forever 21 were my favorites. But it was crazy busy everywhere we went! Oxford Street is very very popular on the weekends.

Brittany, Megan and I may need to take another suitcase back to America with us to make up for all the clothes and presents we bought at Primark. 

London Round Two: Day One

September 25-28, 2014

London, England

Thursday was a very busy day for me! Not only did I have class all morning, but then I had to revise my Honors Research Proposal BEFORE leaving for London. Luckily I got done quickly and had plenty of time to pack before we had to leave.

We took a train to London and basically I slept the whole time. I have no problem falling asleep, basically anywhere, and that has come in handy during our travels. I thoroughly enjoyed my nap, maybe a little too much. I laid my hands down on the table in front of my seat then laid my head on my hands. When I woke up there was a lovely imprint of my ring on my forehead.

When we got off the train at King's Cross we had a short tube ride to our hostel. We're going to pretend we didn't completely walk past the hostel and have to turn because that's embarrassing. But we did eventually find the correct hostel and for the price we paid, it was pretty nice! We were supposed to have a roommate Thursday night but we never saw her. Except for like 10 seconds in the middle of the night. My dear buddies however, I heard from a lot. They stayed up talking, way later than I did and teased me for it in the morning. All I can say is I like my sleep, a whole lot.

After breakfast at the hostel (toast & cereal) we headed to the tube to ride as close to Buckingham Palace as we could get and walked the rest of the way there. In a twist of events Brittany and I made it on the first tube and the doors shut on everyone else. It was slightly comical since we were only going one stop and it didn't actually affect us that much. We found each other eventually and made our way to the Palace. 

Buckingham Palace was beyond comical. We got there about two hours early to claim our spots near the gate. Megan and I were stationed perpendicular to the gate so we could see the guards when they exited. David, Tori, and Brittany were parallel to the gate so they could see the Changing of Guard in action. Each group got pictures, so basically we got the best of both worlds.

David wasn't very excited about

how crowded it was.

 It was a really good thing we got there so early because it got really crowded really quick. The cops had their hands full with keeping people from pushing their way into the crowds of people.

Honestly, Megan and I were kind of bored at first because we couldn't see much. So instead we started people watching. This is where the comedy comes in.

This cop was very helpful to everyone. Which is why someone tried to distract him while her friend tried to get to the gate to take a picture. It was funny watching them try so hard only for him to figure it out and shoo them away.

She was adorable and feisty. She liked to yell at people for trying to stop beside the "lovely people that had been waiting for ages." We were some of those lovely people so we appreciated her yelling at people to keep moving greatly.

Finally the guards came out of the gate and we had a great view! The guy playing the trumpet on the far right in the picture is Megan's best friend. They exchanged winks but she refused to blow him a kiss, which I thought would've been hilarious. Instead we resorted to just making goofy faces at all of them.

Get ready for the best part of the trip:

I was a bit hesitant to do the studio tour at first because it was so expensive (by my standards at least) but I am so glad I did it! The tour started with a short video and opened to the doors of Hogwarts, literally. The screen came up and that was the first thing you could see, it was spectacular. Through the doors you enter into the Great Hall. Although it's missing the famous ceiling, it was still incredible!

You continue on through the tour and look at different parts of the set, too numerous to name here. There were rooms and rooms full of props and costumes, you really have to see it to believe it. If you even slightly admire Harry Potter you would LOVE this tour. After going through the first half of the tour you have the opportunity to try butterbeer. At first I was like yea, this is good. Then it had a weird after taste. But the cream on top was always delicious. You could also see the Knight Bus, Privet Drive, and the Potter's home at this point.

The second half of the tour was the most impressive for me. There was a walk through of Diagon Alley and then a model of Hogwarts Castle. It was beyond amazing!

Let's be honest, I would totally

be Gryffindor.

I'm also a descendant of the

Potter family.

For anyone going to London I definitely recommend these two experiences. They were a great beginning to our second trip to London! Stay tuned for more to come about our last two days there.