Beaches and climbing Mount Doom (otherwise known as Mt. Zeus)

When I last wrote, I said that we were going to get bikes and head to the beach. Well, jet-lag hit us all and a quick nap ended up being a 4-5 hour nap... and we slept through dinner...again.  Vowing not to take naps the rest of the week, we went out to the tavernas at the port and caught the last half of the Germany-Italy game and tried Citron cocktails, which is a local spirit of the island.  I still don't enjoy alcohol all that much, but it was a nice experience.  Plus, it's always fun to watch "football" with a European crowd.

 The next morning, we decided to spend the whole day at the beach.  Reportedly, the best beaches on Naxos are the ones just after St. George's beach (next to Naxos Town where we are staying).  They are a bit too far to walk, so we rented bikes. First we had a delicious breakfast with Greek Coffee (my breakfast was fresh bread and jam... I love Greece for simply serving bread for breakfast. I'm a fan!)

We got down to the beach pretty early, and hardly anyone was there, which was nice.  Kelly and I jumped into the beautiful water and just stood there for a little while before going swimming.  I absolutely love the sea water here -- it is so many vivid shades of blue and perfectly clear.  It surprises me every time.  After swimming and laying in the sun a while, we grabbed lunch at a beachside taverna.  We each had a salad, and agreed that fruits and veggies just taste better here (the peaches are ridiculous).  After that, we got on our bikes and headed to yet another beautiful beach, where we tried real Greek yogurt and explored some more. Real Greek yogurt is incredibly fluffy -- not like what you get in stores at home.

 

We decided to walk along the beach to see what we could see and ended up having a nice adventure. We walked along some rocks, and over a rock divider between beaches.  Then, we discovered the nudist beach...which was interesting.  It was more family-oriented further down the beach, and Kelly and I went swimming again.  The water is basically like a pool -- very little waves -- so Sharon and I skipped rocks for a while.  We leisurely meandered back to our bikes and headed home for a delicious dinner by the sea at the Grotta.  We had a hilarious waiter who suggested delicious things and kept making sure we were eating everything. Kelly had a type of sausage, Sharon had a Naxian dish (which was like lasagna? so. good.) and I had a lamb and beef kebab. Our waiter also gave us extra watermelon and the end, which was the perfect ending to a glorious meal.  

The water is incredible here

On our way over the rocks

This morning, we slept in a little and then caught the bus to Filoti.  Our catching the bus became quite the ordeal, as people kept telling us the bus stop was in a different place and when Kelly asked the bus driver if his bus was going to Filoti (pointing to bus -- Filoti?), he looked at her puzzled and passionately spoke to the other Naxians getting on the bus for a good minute, before he said that we should get on the bus (or I think he said that? People speak Greek so fast...when we clearly have  no idea what they are saying.  However, old Greek ladies are kind of the best when they do that... and are usually helpful).  We got on the bus, and got out at Filoti, with the intention of climbing Mount Zeus (or Zas as it is called in Greek).  It is supposedly where Zeus grew up and the highest point in the Cyclades.  Well, it was not clear how to get from Filoti to Mt. Zeus, so we asked someone in a Bakery.  "You should take a car and then walk" "....errr, we don't have a car..." "You should take a car."  Basically, we walked a very long time to finally get to the beginning of the mountain, which looked like this by the way;

Yes, it is that giant mountain in the background.

Luckily, the weather has been amazing so far -- hot, but windy, so it was not unbearable.  We reached the Aries springs (natural springs and clean drinking water) and headed up, with the intention of reaching the Cave of Zas, before hiking to the summit.  The guidebooks said it was a steep hike...that does not begin to cover it. We felt like we were in Lord of the Rings, hiking across middle earth on our way to Mount Doom.  It was unreal...and incredibly difficult.  Here's what we were climbing up:

First we had a medieval looking path...

...and then we didn't!

We took many water breaks, made a ton of LOTR jokes, and sung a lot of epic music to get us through.  The Cave of Zas actually looked like the mines of Moria and was just as scary (and rather anticlimatic), so we only peaked in and moved on.  We also saw a ton of goats on our way up (and not-so-silently cursed them for their mountain climbing ability).  We basically climbed up the face of the mountain. I didn't think we'd make it to the top, but we did! And it was beautiful.  

Goats

Absurdly amazing view

...And the sign on our way down saying that you should be an expert hiker in order to climb to the summit. So...that happened.

...but then we had to walk down.  Luckily there was an easier path down (which you can apparently also take up???), but once we reached the bottom, we still had to walk back to Filoti, which took about an hour in the hot hot sun.  By the time we got into town, we were exhausted, dirty, and tired of the sun.  Our bus was a half an hour late, but we finally got back and ate FOOD! Sharon and I inhaled our Gyros and then the three of us went down to the port and got beautiful icy drinks.  Mine was a double shot of espresso over chocolate ice cream with more chocolate, whipped cream and cookies on top.  It. was. perfect. 

Feeling much better, we ventured over to Pension Irene II (we are at Pension Irene I) and swam in the pool, which was glorious.  Side note: Irene (who runs Pension Irene) is an older Greek lady who doesn't speak English, but is incredibly nice and speaks Greek very fast at us and gives us popsicles... she is great.  Her son speaks English very fast at us and has helped us figure out Naxos.  They have been wonderful.  After we swam, we headed back down to the port to watch the sunset.  We got there just in time to see the sun going down and it was glorious.  We soaked up our last evening at the port and then came back to our room and went in the hot tub, which was perfect after the longest hike of our lives. 

Tomorrow we're going to explore the northern point of the island before we head to Mykonos for the night.  After that, we're heading to Florence, Italy (so excited) and I will probably be without wifi for a while, so be prepared for many posts once we get to Vienna!  Ciao!

Travels and Island Life

Well, after almost three days of traveling, we finally made it to Naxos! Quick recap of our travel days: long plane flight to London (I read Peter and the Starcatchers, watched the descendants and fast forwarded through warhorse and sharon had fun adventures in business class thanks to her sister's miles), we had a layover in the labyrinth that is Heathrow (where Sharon and I got iced tea and pancakes from starbucks), had a three hour flight to athens and an hour bussr ride to Piraeus. We passed out, and then woke up at 5am to catch our ferry to Naxos. We grabbed some delicious breads for breakfast (i had a flaky cheese pastry which was DELICIOUS and a latte). The ferry ride was mostly pleasant -- we arrived early enough to get seats inside at the front, which was great until the sun started blaring down at us, making our area incredibly hot. Five hours later, we arrived in Naxos. Basically, the island is everything we could have hoped for and more. We're staying at a small pensione, and a representative from the pensione picked us up from the ferry and we had a nice chat with him, and another greek guy staying at the pension's other location. I am quickly learning that Grecian people speak Greek fast and English just as fast, with an accent -- we've been doing a lot of nodding and smiling. However, he did inform us that they were playing Mamma Mia at the cinema that evening. That is the moment we knew we were in the right place. Basically, Mamma Mia is one of the main reasons we started this trip in Greece....soooooo that was an amazing coincidence.

Our room is perfect and charming, with a little balcony and a comically small shower. We set our stuff down and went to the town center to get our first pitas! They were SO GOOD. Then, we ventured down to the beautiful beach, where families were playing and it wasn't at all overcrowded. We walked along all of St. Georges' beach and back. We came back to our room and intended to rest for a moment and ten go out to dinner, but we ended up falling asleep around 6pm and not really waking up until 12:30am. It was actually so nice to catch up on sleep (less nice to miss dinner).

This morning we woke up early and went to a bakery to grab breakfast. Sharon and Kelly had chocolate croissants and I had delicious cheesy pie-like-pastry. I love flaky bread with cheese. Oh my goodness. Sharon and I decided to try Greek coffee (although the man who sold it to us was like "are you sure??"). It was actually quite delightful -- it had a very warm and full flavor. We took our coffee down to the port and just sat and watched the town wake up. Much to our delight, an adorable dog came over and sat with us for a while. We decided to hike up to the Portara, which is the ruins of the door to an unfinished temple. The views were breathtaking and we reflected how surreal it was that we were in Greece. The winds were pretty intense and we wandered off the hill and up to the Kastro (or the castle). We walked through small, quiet winding streets in an effort to get to the top. One lady came out of her door and spoke rapid greek at us (which we clearly didn't understand... We're really trying to pick up some key phrases, but also scared to use them?) and she attempted to direct us to the Kastro ("kastro?? Kastro??"). It was pretty hilarious, and with much pointing and pantomime, she actually set us on the right path! We walked through incredibly old streets and buildings, until we finally reached the catholic church and remains of a tower. Wr wandered a bit more and took another route down from the Kastro. People were beginning their day at this point, so we walked through the maze of streets as pretty noticeable outsiders. Although, that's kind of the best thing about this island - it's not completely overrun with tourism. Kids run around, and it has a kind of small-town feel to it -- like everyone knows everyone else. After the Kastro, we meandered down to the pebbled beach and up to the Grotta for more intense winds and beautiful views. Then we shopped i n the old market street, and came back to the square for an incredible lunch. Kelly and I split these amazing spinach cheese pies (flaky bread...so good) ad then I had lemon chicken that was incredibly flavorful, while sharon had tomato sauce covered beef, and kelly had stuffed zucchini. Now we're resting in our room, before we rent bikes and explore the two beaches that our guidebooks say are the best on the island. I can't wait to swim in the warm ocean! So happy to be here!

At the airport!

We're on our way! And still kind of in disbelief!

Adventures in Packing

I've been home for one week and I have accomplished many things! I have done all my laundry, hung up all of the clothes I own, gone through all of my apartment stuff, selected and packed things to ship to New York and gathered and packed everything for Europe. Whew! I still have many things to do before I leave tomorrow at 3:40pm for Heathrow and then Athens, but I thought I'd share my packing progress.  I know it's not the most thrilling of topics, but packing has made up the entirety of my life this past week. 

First -- Books! Books were the hardest, as I have a great many of them, and I'm fairly attached to all of them..... I limited myself as much as a I could 

Then..... everything else: 

Bandit was a huge help

Space Bags are my new best friend

All prepped to ship to NYC!

 

And then the Europe Packing:
I am basically taking a backpack, because we are moving around so much (pack light pack light pack light).  However, my trip IS seven weeks. . . and I know I'm going to end up buying a few things for the new apartment. . . so I'm stuffing a duffel bag at the bottom of my backpack.  I'm hoping I won't have to take it out until the end of July, but we'll see.

Step One

Step Two

Packed and Ready to Adventure!

Now it's time to triple check that I have everything, finish writing thank-you cards, take care of tons of Columbia paperwork and clean off my desk (ha).  Next time I'll be blogging, I'll be in Greece! AH! This whole experience is completely surreal.  Ciao!

Graduation Etcetera

Well, I am now a college graduate! Graduation weekend was a little crazy: I had two shifts at work, graduation itself, I moved out of my apartment, partied with my roommates, partied with my family, and made Father's day breakfast. So basically. . . I'm exhausted.

 Now I have less than one week to get all ready for Europe AND pack up everything to ship to New York AND see everyone I can.   I'm a little nervous that I'm going to get all of this done, because on Monday, my room looked like this:

The entirety of my apartment (minus four boxes) in my room at home

Basically, I need to pack up books, dvds, kitchen stuff and everything else that I can't carry on/ check on the airplane.  Plus, I need to go through all of my clothes and decide what to take, what to give away, and what to store.  So. . . I'm a little overwhelmed.  I've lived in my apartment for two years, so I have a good amount of . . . everything (especially books), so figuring out what to take, what to leave and what to give away is rather difficult.  I've grown pretty fond of my things and it's incredibly overwhelming to pick and chose between everything and pack my life into boxes.  My life into boxes. That is a terrifying prospect.  I definitely want to put it off and breathe for a little bit (and maybe get used to the fact that I'm graduating and moving away), but that isn't exactly happening.  Today I figured out books and DVDs (for the most part). I'm currently organizing my books by size so that they can fit into boxes in the most efficient way possible.  Thrilling, right? I'm hoping by tomorrow I'll have books and kitchen stuff done, and maybe I can start my laundry! It's going to be a jam-packed few days.  There will be coffee . . . lots of coffee. . .

Growing up (maybe, perhaps?)

       Welcome!  A week from today, I graduate from College.  Normally the question is, "What do I do now?"  Fortunately, I know the answer to that question: In less than three weeks I will be traveling Europe with some of my best friends and then I am moving to New York for graduate school.  My future is (somewhat) assured for the next three years, which is more than many people can say right now.  I am both incredibly grateful and beyond excited, but I also know that there will be a whole lot of change coming at me over the next few months.  Thus, I have created this blog.  This blog is a space to keep everyone updated on my journey -- through Europe, through moving across the country, through becoming a quasi-adult (or something) -- I can let my friends and family know what is going on, and  maybe make some sense of my surreal life.
                    Let's do this, world.