Travel Buddies!

As our backpacking came to an end, I reflected on the wonderful person I got to spend the last 3 weeks with, Leigh. I don't know if just anybody could handle me while traveling for that long... it takes some special skills! :) She is a part of my family, and I am so thankful that we both were surprisingly put in Bradford, England at the same time! A friendship that will continue hopefully forever!
When I was tired, she energized me, and when she was sick I tried my best to comfort her... I had a great time Leigh and look forward to our next adventure! Love you Leggi!

Athens, Greece

 Much of this leg of our trip was a repeat of my Euro-trip of 2007. We took the same ferry from Italy (One of the worst experiences of my life, done 3 times now.) to Greece. We made it to Petras, and took a bus to Athens. Our hostel was really close to the Acropolis, but on the opposite side of where I had previously stayed. 
Before we had really seen much of Athens, we were already out on a day trip to the Temple of Poseiden.
 I couldn't remember exactly how long it took by bus to get to this place, but the guy running out hostel said that it only took a little over an hour... Boy was he wrong! After an hour and half on the bus, we asked the driver and he said 2 1/2 hours! Argh... It ended up being close to three hours I think! Oh well! The Temple of Poseidon is one of the most complete ancient Greek structures an the setting is extremely cool! The temple is on the top of a hill that overlooks the sea. We ate something because we were quite grumpy after our bus travel, and I ate the most amazing spaghetti carbonara! That perked me right up!

Last time I was there in 2007, I made my travel buddy Michelle climb down the side of the cliff with me so that we could get to the water. It was dangerous and a struggle to get back up. We thought at that time the beach that is below the temple was a private beach. I'm glad and a little embarrassed to report that it is NOT a private beach and we were able to rent some beach chairs and enjoy the weather. This beach was amazing! My avid beach goer, Leigh thought so as well! The water was so calm and clear, and you looked back behind you and you see the Temple of Poseidon! Think of all the history that took place in that exact spot! Amazing! It was one of the those moments when you look around in "awe". I have those moments most of the time in nature, but this was remarkable with the history aspect. I forgot to mention in the Santorini blog that I got a horrible tan line on my legs from riding on the 4-wheeler. Unfortunately after many other beach days, this tan line was still very much there...

We did end up spending some time in Athens as well. On our last morning we went to the top of the Acropolis. Well, we both didn't go at the same time. We purchased some yummy slushies before trying to get into the Acropolis... That was a fail! They should have told us when we purchased these extremely expensive slushiness that we couldn't take them with us. Soooo... Leigh went inside while i guarded the slushes. When she came back, we switched  and I went in. I remember that back in the day when I was there that I was annoyed by all of the reconstruction going on and all of the scaffolding that are in my photos. Apparently 30 years ago they did something that they thought was preserving the structures, but instead it has made preservation a much bigger and continuous process. 

My favorite part of the Acropolis is the Porch of Maidens. I feel like this is the most complete, and it's actually really cool. I remember studying this during my years of art history and year ago really wanted to see it. I would have never thought that I would see it twice by the time I'm 27!

The food in Athens was amazing as well. We went to a Greek tapas restaurant, which was perfect for us because we could try many different things. They were all good!
We randomly ran into an outdoor theater that just so happened to be at the base of the Acropolis. They were playing the move, "Mud", which starts stars Matthew McConaughey and features Reese Witherspoon. Neither of us had seen it, so we decided that this would be such a cool new way of watching a movie! It was fabulous! The movie was good, the weather was great. You looked over to the left and could stare at the lit up Acropolis. AND- They even had an intermission for stacks and such!

Overall, I was disappointed at the state of Athens. It was obvious that there wasn't a lot of pride in this country at the moment. Most spaces were graffiti and the only shops that did not have graffiti on the windows were the ones that covered their windows at night with metal. We drove past official Olympic buildings from the 2004 Olympics that were completely trashed. It is such a shame to see this! I could tell a difference from the last time that I was in Athens, and that wasn't a good thing!

Santorini, Greece

We had some issues trying to figure out where we wanted to go when it came to the Greek Islands. We knew we wanted to go to Santorini, but also to Patmos. Patmos is the island where John the Apostle was banished and then wrote the Book of Revelation. Unfortunately, when it came down to it, we didn't have time to do both. If you are going to travel the Greek Islands, you need at least 2 full weeks. This is because you have to coordinate ferry trips, and some only go to certain islands a few times a week. We still had a great time at Santorini. Santorini is the island that at the old port, vehicles could not go down to the water, so donkeys would carry the people up. I feel so sorry for these animals because those cliffs were very steep! Santorini Island is also known for it's white buildings with blue roofs. 

We decided to not pre-book a hostel/ hotel room. We had read that you could get off the ferry and that there would be people waiting to sell us their rooms. "They" weren't lying! There were a ton of people who were trying to fill their last rooms with people getting off the ferries! We ended up getting a discount with a really great room and the second night stayed at an even better place in the "beach view" hotel. 
Santorini has a white sand beach, red sand beach, and a black sand beach all on one side of the island. For someone who collects sand from different place, this is considered- JACKPOT!
Above is one of the beaches that we went to. It was a red beach, that was comprised of volcanic rock that had broken up into pieces. It may look beautiful, but it was absolutely MISERABLE there! The wind was so great, that it was whipping the sand onto us. It was so painful! Our towels were flying... Blah Blah Blah... we didn't stay very long...
Next we tried to go to a black sand beach. It was the same! The wind was just whipping the sand up onto us. Leigh, my Florida gal/ regular beach goer, was pretty much irate! By our third beach we realized that if you pay the couple Euros to get a beach chair you are saved from the sand! What a relief! We wanted some sun before heading back to sunless England and Abby's wedding!

On of the coolest parts of Santorini Island was that we were able to rent an ATV or 4-wheeler as we would call it. It was a little scary because we shared the road with semis, buses, cars, mopeds, and other ATV's- all driven by people from other countries with diverse driving laws...
We had a bit of a fiasco trying to get a working 4 wheeler. The first two we had, left us stranded. Luckily we got the phone number of the guys who rented it to us so that we could call them later to go for drinks- I don't think that they were happy that we called them only to come save us and fix our 4 wheeler! ha ha!

We finally got one that didn't die on us while going up or down a hill, and we were able to cruise around the island with ease! It would have been difficult to travel around the island without any vehicle...There were different villages and beaches scattered around the island that were known for different things. The photo below is actually taken at on of our hotel rooms. We had a great view! And it was cheaper than a lot of the accommodation that we had had up to this point as well!

One thing that we were instructed to do was to go to the village of Oia at sunset. Apparently, it is "the place" to see the sun set. And apparently, everyone who comes to Santorini is told the same thing. And apparently, everyone decides to listen to this advice. It was a mad house there! Everyone is trying to get to the edge of the village through walkways to get the best view of the sunset. SOOOOO many people were there trying to take pictures. I of course got annoyed because people were taking pictures of the sun and zooming into the sun and taking the picture! Who does that??? You could do that anywhere! Most people weren't even trying to get the other buildings and houses that are unique to Santorini in the photo... grrr...
I also lost my other half in the madness. I wanted to get to the tip of the island to take a picture looking back on the city in the sunset lighting, and one second Leigh is behind me, and the next second she is gone! I walked back and forth through the walkways of Santorini to our 4 wheeler at least 4 times! After 1 hour of walking through crowds of people, we finally found each other. It was like the movies!- such a relief! I was tired and hungry! Our night didn't get any better though...
We got to our 4 wheeler, tried to turn on the lights and..... nothing.
The only lights that we had were our running lights. We didn't know what to do, so I ended up driving us back to our room, which was a good 4-5 miles away. And not a regular 4-5 miles, it was a straight down cliff on one side of the road. I tried my best to follow someone with lights pretty closely, so I would know the turns. I kept my cool...I don't know how! Of all the things we did on this trip, I would have to say that this was the most dangerous...for sure! 
We made it back though safe and sound. 

While in Greece we noticed that all of the animals that we saw there were the laziest animals we have ever seen. Every animal that we saw (which were a lot) were always sleeping! This cat was propped up against a wall and didn't flinch while we were photographing it. Another thing that stood out was the bougainvillia bushes and trees, were absolutely incredible! This theme was throughout Croatia and Greece. Above is one of the most impressive trees that I saw during our travels...

Below is a view of the full moon on Santorini!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

We left Split, Croatia to head down the coast to Dubrovnik. We knew that we needed to get a ferry from Dubrovnik over to Bari, Italy before we could get another ferry over to Petras, Greece. As we were driving, we didn't realize what was happening, but along the way, our bus was stopped multiple times and our passport was checked. (If only it had been stamped...) After further thinking and inspection of a map, we realized that we went through about 11 miles of Bosnia! So add that country to the list.... ahaha!
We decided to go to Dubrovnik without any hotel/or hostel plans, and were greeted right off the bus, with an offer to stay in a room for a very good price. We went with our gut and were driven to an awesome house high up on the hill that had a great view of the city. The house also had a veranda that was covered in green grapes. It was a very easy bus to get to the old city center of Dubrovnik, which we did after we settled our stuff. Dubrovnik was an incredible city and I really loved the old part. It was surrounded by a wall and then all of the buildings were built up to this wall in all directions. So...lots of steps, but also a lot to look at. There were many shops and restaurants there. We got some ice cream and went around the city wall and found locals of all ages enjoying the weather and activities. The younger kinds were playing soccer with some older kids. The teenagers were playing that foot volleyball/tennis game. Some boys were playing cards. Older men, were watching and taking in the sun. Some were swimming laps. It was a great laid back atmosphere! It was as though we had stumbled over the locals hangout place.- Always a good thing! While walking around Leigh and I also both got necklaces of our names that were made of the spot out of wire. A guy bent our names in wire in just a mere minute! It was incredible!
Another thing that stood out in the city were the signs that were hung around on the walls that showed where and how many times that area of the city was bombed in 1991. I was in disbelief that anyone, no matter the circumstance could bomb such a historic and beautiful city. It was even on the UNESCO World Heritage Site! I couldn't tell any difference now over 20 years later, but the fact that this happened in my lifetime was startling!

 Our house that we stayed at had a roof that we went on to enjoy the sunset. Leigh and I had a lot of fun making mustaches out of our hair...don't ask! We had been traveling for a while at this point, so we were tired, and had a lot of sun! :)

Split, Croatia

 
We made it to Split, Croatia and knew that we had a hostel booked that was close to the historic center. We had no idea that it would be IN the historic city center. It was the perfect location! I guess, I should clarify...we didn't stay in a "hostel" per say. It was actually an old woman's apartment. She sorted through our information while sitting on the window in her pajamas, and a cigarette propped out the window. What a fun first Croatian experience! She told us to start walking up the spiral steps... So we started walking.... We could hear her saying, "Keep Going! Keep Going!" Finally after 5 flights and some makeshift stairs we made it to our room/apartment. It was in what we would call the attic with a separate kitchen, but still had many windows to look out of. We had a great view of the tops of the roofs and the rest of the city. It was just as I had imagined it!
We made it to the coast, so of course we really just wanted to relax and go to THE BEACH! After asking around we were told of a good beach with not as many people. It was a beautiful pebble beach a few kilometers from the city center. The water looks nice and refreshing but be prepared- it is extremely freezing! It took a lot of baby steps to get all the way in! 
After a beach day we walked around a bit, ate another amazing meal- goulash, and I climbed the tower that you see. It was a challenge because about half way up the stair turn into metal grated steps and those who know me, know that this is usually a challenge for me. I wouldn't say that I am scared of heights, but get me these stairs and my stomach gets a bit qweezy! Worst part: Leigh didn't go with me! ahahah! Anyways, I made it and it was an awesome view of the port city. 
Side note: I somehow managed to get a ton of mosquito bites on the back sides of my arms. It was really weird, and they stayed with me for the next 2 weeks. :(

This was the view from our window of our second hostel. Yup, that right. We were moved again to a different hostel than the one that we booked online. Luckily, it was again in the middle of the historic city center. 

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

We took a train from Budapest to Zagreb, Croatia. Along the way we passed a really beautiful lake that appeared to be a really popular vacation spot. We had many hours to kill on this train so Leigh and I took quite a few "selfie" pictures on my ipad mini.  Midway through what we thought was one straight train ride, we were told to get off of the train. Obviously we had hit the border of Croatia. After we showed officials from both countries our passports, we were moved onto select train cars that would continue to Zagreb. All seats were taken and only standing room was available. So we stood with our bags in the middle of the aisle. Luckily we had these windows open to stick our heads out and watch the view. It actually was a memorable experience. I put on some comforting music and watched the Croatian sun set with the wind in my hair... Ahhhhh.... Sometimes when you spend a lot of time seeing the things that man created, it always refreshing to see what God created............ When we got to Zagreb, we still weren't in the hostel we booked online, but we got a free taxi to the hostel they moved us to.

  

Our goal was to get to the coast of Croatia. The hostel had a really good deal that a minivan would take us to Split, Croatia, but also drop us off at the Plitvice lakes for 4 hours along the way. We were really wanting to see these lakes anyways, so it worked out perfectly for us. 

We had a really interesting van ride. Leigh and I sat up front and played "zlte auto" with the driver. He also added "policija" to the game and when we saw the police we were to yell that. It didn't help him, because he still got a ticket... Not for speeding, but for now wearing a seat belt. 

At Plitvice lakes, we walked around on paths and walkways. They even had a ferry to take you from one side of the lake to the other. The water was ridiculously clear. BEAUTIFUL. My complaint was that there was too many people to really enjoy the beauty.