DAY ELEVEN: HYDRA [PRONOUNCED LIKE HEDRA]

HYDRA

Waking up at 7:15 AM may seem like no big deal, but I could barely get out of my bed. We had to be down to breakfast by 7:30 AM, so after I trudged around my room for a bit, I quickly ran downstairs. At 8:00 the bus came to pick us up to take us to the port area. The bus ride was only an hour and a half, but I slept the whole entire way. When we got to the port, people dispersed getting coffee and ice cream. I just sat at a table and slept some more. We finally loaded onto the ferry that would take us to the beautiful island of Hydra. It was only a 20 minute ride, but it felt way longer than that to me. Right when we got to the island, we were given an assignment to take portraits of people for 2 hours. 

Before we even began though, Madd's hat blew into the water. hahha for about 15 minutes we tried to figure out how to get it until we finally got the nerve to ask some guy to get it. SHe got it back..no worries. I walked around with Rachel and Erin trying to quickly finish the assignment. 

Finally we just sat down and took pictures of people as they passed by. While we were sitting, the prettiest puppy cae over and attempted to sit on Rachel’s lap—it was pretty big. It would not get off no matter what, but it was the moist precious puppy I have ever seen, besides my dogs of course. It was ideal to ask the person permission before taking their picture, but considering all of the interesting people did not speak English, I would just quickly snap a picture of them and then run away. Don’t worry, I did not get yelled at or anything!! 


After we finished our assignment, Rach, Erin, and I went shopping naturally and bought some shirts and souvenirs. I bought by far the coolest converses I have ever seen…they are made of leather and were just the craziest things ever!! After the 2 hours were up, the group met up at 1 PM for lunch where I had a yummy chicken suvlaki. I was sitting next to Caro and Dena who fyi do not like cats at all. Ironically, cats kept coming over and sitting right next to them and would go under the table to. While I was laughing at all of this, they were over there freaking out. 

BEST LUNCH EVER. The waiter was even more hilarious because he at first was like to my friends “I like her” pointing to me. Then he asked to see my eyes and was like “wow.” He was just having some fun and joking, but it was soo funny at the time. Right after lunch, we all walked over to cliff point where some people jumped off this puny cliff, swam or laid out. 

You can obviously guess what I did: lay out. We were out there from 2-5:45 PM and it was by far the most relaxing afternoon I have had. When 5:45 came around, we all left and I quickly got my ice cream and caught up with them. The ferry came at 6:20ish and it was awful. I felt like I was in an airplane with horrible turbulence. After those 20 minutes passed, we loaded onto the bus and took off back to the hotel. I forgot to mention earlier that the bus ride was extremely winding because we had to go around mountains. I do not get motion sickness usually, but I did get annoyed because when I lay down and attempted to sleep, I would keep sliding back and forth. At least I did not feel sick like some of the other girls. We finally got back at 8:25 PM and went straight to dinner. Through out this whole trip, we had never eaten at the same place twice, until tonight. I did not complain, however, since the restaurant was delicious. 

I had some pasta with tomato sauce, zucchini balls [best things ever] and some cheesecake. No complaints here. We returned to the hotel at around 10ish where we once again blogged and uploaded some photos. Straight after that, I went upstairs, showered and went to bed by 11:30 PM. SOOOO TIRED. Well tomorrow should be the chillest day of the trip considering it is our last day : ( Unfortunately, I will be seeing Houston soon. 

most precious cat with her kitten 

they had sooo many donkeys there

  

DAY TEN: I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE DOING THIS

Waking up from the best sleep I have had this whole trip, Rach and I ran downstairs to eat some breakfast at 8 AM. I still was not feeling very well, so I did not eat anything. WORST IDEA EVER. At around 9 AM, we headed out towards the hill/mountain type thing. I had been dreading this since the night before and it did not really help that my stomach was throbbing this morning. As soon as we got there, I looked up and could not even see the top. Just to let you know, this hill/mountain is about 1,000 steps. Great. The walk up was nowhere as horrible as I thought and it was way better than Cinque Terre. For starters, it took the fast walkers 20 minutes to get to the top and the slow pokes [including myself] 30 minutes. 

 It was definitely worth it though as soon as I got up there and saw the view. It was absolutely stunning and you could practically see the whole town. We went exploring around the palace area for about an hour and a half. I sometime just explored by myself, but I ran away from this certain spot when bugs attacked me. I caught up with Ellie and she took us to the most dangerous dungeon of this place apparently. 


 Along with the prison cell being cramped, there were no windows of any sort. I felt claustrophobic the moment I stepped in there!! At around 10:30ish we headed down and it literally took us 10-15 minutes to reach the bottom. It was a pretty quick hike even though I felt like I was going to be sick. We returned to the hotel to relax and soak in our sweat for about an hour. Yuck. Once again, we split into groups and went our separate ways for lunch. Clairé, Madds, Rach, Holly, Erin, and I went to this cute restaurant where we could see the water. I felt Italian today so I ordered some spaghetti and it was the best decision I could have made. SO GOOD. It got even better when the waiter brought out some watermelon!! YUM. 




We went exploring/shopping for a bit and I got some gelato [not as good as Italy though, but it still tasted wonderful]. We returned to the hotel at 2 PM where we gathered some things and then went to the beach. Let me just say I LOVE THE BEACH!! For one thing, I can actually see what is in the water and it is blue, not brown. 


 We tanned/swam for over 2 hours and it was the best time I have had in Nafplio so far. I had been looking forward to going to the beach for sooooo long!! Don’t get me wrong, hiking up to the castle was a blast, but tanning/swimming was sooo much fun in a whole different way. We got back to the hotel around 5ish where they gave us about 30 minutes to do whatever. Rach and I took a shower since we were covered in sweat and saltwater. What a great mixture. We then came to the lobby where all of us just worked on our computers again just uploading photos and editing our blogs. 


 




After we finished all of this computer work, we departed for dinner and ate at his little restaurant where I had some more spaghetti. Surprise. Carolyn and David gave us an assignment where we had to take some pictures with some different ISOs. Piece of cake. After I breezed through the assignment, I took some pictures of the beautiful sunset and watched as the sun drifted away. 







It could not have been a prettier site. I walked around with Rach, Erin, Ellie, and Abbs for a bit, and eventually we ended up back at the central square where we watched the kids play soccer. We returned to the hotel at 9:30 PM and guess what. We actually get to go to bed early for a change. You know I have to get some beauty sleep if I am going to another island tomorrow. : ) PEACE AND BLESSINGS












MORE PICTURES FROM HIKING. YEAH. 

DAY NINE: WHAT A LONG DAY

So I usually set three alarms in the morning because I usually ignore the first two. Well as usual I turned off the first two alarms and slept until I heard the third alarm. I guess I did not hear my third alarm because at 7:45 AM, Dena was shaking me to get up and we had to be packed and down at breakfast by 8 AM. What a great start to my day. Like yesterday, I had my usually piece of pound cake, a jello shot—just jello guys—yogurt with honey, and tea. Everytime I drink tea, I have to act like Mia from the Princess Diaries when she drinks it: she licks her spoon and hits the spoon against the tea cup numerous times. EVERYTIME. After my last breakfast at Athens Center Square Hotel, I ran upstairs to take my luggage down to the lobby. I darted to my room as fast as possible so I could get the elevator. I did. We all waited in the lobby until 8:50 AM and then departed. We headed out on a 2.5 hour drive to Napflio. FINALLY. We arrived at Hotel Napflia at around 12ish and pretty much just chilled out trying to unpack and uploaded our pictures until 1 PM. Right after that we left to go get a bite to eat down the street. The restaurant we ate at was extremely colorful and the food was delicious. I had some bread, and this cheese pasta type thing. I was not too hungry so I felt kind of bad when I had this huge platter in front of me and I had barely touched it. We were supposed to have gone hiking right after lunch, but we dodged that bullet and instead wondered around the town.

 I headed back to the hotel with a couple of people to get some things when Clairé ate it on a nail. NOT EVEN KIDDING. Her sandal split at the top and her knee was gashed in with some rocks. She is such a trooper and did not even break out a tear. No worries though, she is doing perfectly fine and it is like it did not even happen. Love you Clarié!! After that slight delay, I finally got to my hotel room, but I never left. I had initially planned to go exploring, but I just sat in my bed for like 2 hours with Rachel snoring and twitching on the other side. Hahha love that girl!! We then uploaded some pictures onto our computer for a while and worked on our book. Afterwards, we split into small groups to go to dinner. I just had two pieces of bread and some watermelon…I was not feeling very well. We all met up at 9 PM and headed to the show. 

Before we even began our walk though, we just had to take pictures of this random castle in the middle of the ocean. Very random. We had to walk through this square center type area and there were soooo many kids just playing around. The nightlife at Napflio is extremely fun and lively. We finally got to our show and watched some men do this wirling dervish type thing. I was a little confused, but I think they were worshipping Ala. 

 I was not really sure what was happening, but this religious dance was extremely new to me and slightly strange. After the show, we returned to the hotel where Carolyn and David critiqued some of our photos, giving us some pointers. Directly after that, we watched a video with all of our clips that we made for Caro’s birthday combined. It was hysterical. 

so precious.

sassy.

I quickly went upstairs after they dismissed us and plopped into bed. I was soooo tired!! Tomorrow will be fun…sweating in the morning on our hike, then beach in the afternoon!! I can not wait!!

  

DAY EIGHT: WHY AM I SO TIRED?

I woke up from the best sleep I have had this whole trip at around 8:30 AM, while Dena—the cool cat she is—woke up at 7:45 AM. We had breakfast downstairs at around 8:45 AM and I had a terrific cup of tea, a piece of pound cake, yogurt with honey, and a jello shot [do not worry, it was just jello]. Not the most nutritious breakfast, but it was absolutely delicious and got me full!! After breakfast, we returned to our rooms where we stayed there for about an hour trying to catch up on blogs and upload our photos. 

We left the hotel at around 11 AM where on our way we saw a riot in the street. No worries though, it was a peaceful protest, but it was still interesting to see these Greeks stomping in the streets. As we continued our walk, we headed to one of the most famous archeological museums in the world. It was extremely interesting and I loved seeing all of this ancient history. 

 After about 45 minutes at the museum, we walked around until we found a lunch place. I had a chicken gyro, again, and some coke. Nothing special. We were there literally for 20 minutes before we took off again to another museum. 


We were supposed to see this photograph museum type thing, but it was closed so we just looked at all of the early Greek artifacts. The jewelry caught my eye and I think I stared at it for 10 minutes, not even kidding. We left at 3:15 PM and on our way back to the hotel, we stopped to watch the changing of the guards. Apparently it is a tradition here in Athens and they do this every single day. 


   
 These two guards do this strange dance stepping thing and then stand there for like an hour. It was soo funny when we got to go take pictures with them because they have to stand perfectly still and can not alter their facial expressions—a serious, but solemn face. While I was taking pictures, some random guy came up to me and poured bird food in my hand. Suddenly all of these pigeons flew onto my hand without any warning. I like did not even know what to do, but I like tossed them off and ran away----it scared me soooo bad. After watching this for a bit, we left and continued home, but we did not make it there before stopping for some ice cream in honor of Caro’s birthday!! It was just what I needed on this extremely hot day. We finally returned to our hotel where they gave us a 2 hour break to catch up on blogging and relax [mainly napping]. We were all soooo exhausted and needed to build up some energy for the remainder of the day and the trip!! After our wonderful break, we took off to do some more damage at the shops and I bought some more bracelets, a shirt, and a hat for my daddy!! We then left for dinner at this delicious restaurant in honor of our last night in Athens and of course to celebrate the great Caro’s birthday!! Sadly, Rachel could not join us because she was sick : ( but I am positive she will feel loads better when she lays out on the beach in Nafplio. Dinner was soooo good; I had a bite of fried cheese, some dorado, some of Madd’s spaghetti, and well pretty much bites of everyone’s dinner. For dessert, we all had juicy and nutritious watermelon while Caro had a brownie!! After dinner, we split into two groups and pretty much went up to random strangers asking them to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Caro in the video camera and asking them crazy questions about when they were 16. 


 Caroline has absolutely no idea what is in store for her when she sees our group’s video. It is absolutely hilarious, plus as eighteen year olds, Madds, Clairé, and I gave some words of wisdom!! We returned to our hotel and pretty much packed up and went straight to bed. I am still up blogging, but whatever hahha. Finally, the thing I have been waiting for since 
I have arrived to Greece has come: NAFPLIO, WATCH OUT CUZ HERE I COME!!








MORE PICTURES OF COURSE!!