The Birth of Ginger Cheeks... Photo Dump of Greece and Vienna

Goal: write this blog update about the vacation before I land in Iasi. Reasoning: I am going to be too tired this week to write it, and it will undoubtedly be pushed off to the last minute.

I'm scheduled to land back in Iasi at 1:30 AM after flying Vienna--> Rome--> Iasi. So here comes the update of the vacation of a lifetime.


We boarded our plane to Athens from Bucharest, and I lucked out with my seat. I was placed between two interesting characters. As we took off, I became acquainted with the one on my right. A man in his 40s or 50s, who began to twitch violently as we started to lift off from the runway. You know those moments when you're just taking off and it feels like the plane is dropping a bit? Every time that happened, he jerked in his seat. I thought at first that he was asleep and the flying was causing him to twitch. But as we hit turbulence on our way up it just got worse. Every bump or dropping sensation, he jerked his arms, leaned forward, grabbed at the seat in front of him. It took everything in me not to laugh/state when I realized he was just terrified. The man on my left stared at him openly and with a rather rude face. He didn't look too kindly on my face that was pained as I held back the tears of laughter I was dying to release.


Finally the man on my right turned to me and said through a thick accent, "I have a fear for flying!" We talked for a while after that, turns out he was from Syria. He was such a nice man, but any bit of turbulence and he was lost. At one point he jerked so violently that he elbowed me in the side of my rib cage, hard! It hurt for the rest of the flight, but he didn't even notice haha. He was either hugging the seat in front of him or leaning over the arm rest to the point where he was almost cuddling with me. It didn't help that the descent into Athens was the bumpiest ride I've ever had on a plane. At one point he looked to me in panic asking, "what's happening??" So that was my first adventure.


Athens was not what I imagined. Walking down the streets was like a normal city. Graffiti EVERYWHERE though, more than the other cities I've seen while being over here. Some of it was pretty impressive.

The colorful metro

We weren't really sure what to expect when we got there, with the whole financial crisis and Greece potentially leaving the euro zone thing. The only visual signs we had of the crisis were lines at ATMs and graffiti/posters advocating for the "yes" or "no" vote all over the city. To say we lucked out is an understatement; we were blessed. Our time there was absolutely wonderful. Exhibit A-- we step off the bus in Syntagma and are discussing how to find out hostel. A man walking by overhears and stops to tell us exactly how to get where we need to go. So kind!

Best part of the financial crisis (for us)? Public transportation in Athens was free! They wanted to relieve the burden on people who commute to work since the banks weren't reopened and the ATM withdrawals were limited. So we took advantage of that and became metro masters. We took it everywhere! It was pretty amazing.

Gelato

Our first day in Athens was on Independence Day back home. And what better way to celebrate America than... -- the Acropolis in Greece!! Oh man, did I dork out. My thought process was basically..."WOW look at those Corinthian columns! Oooh acanthus leaves at the top! AHH the Porch of Maidens!! The caryatids are so pretty! Wow, check out then coffering on ceiling over here." Luckily another girl in my group had taken the same humanities class at BYU, so we could make use of random facts in casual conversation like, "It's interesting how you can hardly see the effects of them manipulating optics by creating the Parthenon with slightly curved lines rather than straight ones."

Parthenon at sunset

Basically, it was amazing. It felt really strange, though, walking through a normal city and then all of a sudden being in front of an ancient piece of architecture. It just felt so randomly placed, but it was also cool seeing the current culture that has just grown up on the same soil as the ancient history everyone has learned about.


On Sunday we visited the temple of Zeus! So cool.  Then we headed to the port to get on our ferry to Santorini. The ferry was HUGE. Basically a mini cruise, except the food wasn't included in the price. It was about a 6 or 7 hour ride, but we had a jolly old time with it. My group of 5 that went to Greece adopted this new card game as our theme for the week almost haha. It was called "Pit," and it is basically an intense version of Go Fish. It was super super fun, but impossible to play quietly, so we got some stares haha. Other than that, the ferry ride consisted of eating, listening to music, chatting, and then watching the gorgeous sunset over the water from up on the deck of the ferry. 

Also, we witnessed history in the making as we watched the Greek vote on whether to accept the EU's financial arrangement for Greece's crisis. The vote was "no," which means Greece may. Be leaving the euro zone... But we got to be there for a lot of that time!

On the port in Santorini, we were met by the Hotel Perissa host, who shuttled us back to the hotel for free. Even at night I could tell how beautiful it was there, winding up the cliffs, lights in the distance of the villages on the edges of the cliffs, and STARS. I hadn't realized how much I've missed them while living in Iasi.


When we got back to the hotel, the owner cut the price we expected to pay for 2 rooms. Online there was only an option for 2 rooms with three beds for the 5 of us. But he switched some this around and didn't charge us as much as originally planned. He was so so nice. And so so Greek. It was really cool seeing how his family was all involved in the business and hearing them speak Greek to each other. It's an interesting language.

View from my room at Hotel Perissa

 The next day was a piece of heaven. We walked the 20 minute walk to the Perivolos black sand beach after breakfast. On the way, I saw a horse tethered in the middle of a field, and I couldn't resist. I walked right on over and whistled to it. He stared at me for a few seconds and then walked right over and nuzzled me while I pet him. He and I became pretty good friends, and I stopped and pet him every time we passed. I secretly was hoping to just steal him and ride off into the sunset.


Anywho, we got to the beach pretty early on and our bare feet soon discovered that renting an umbrella and chairs for the day was the only way to prevent permanent damage to the soles of your feet from the black sand in the heat of the day. Then we just lay out in the sun for hours and hours. We ran into the ocean and it was BEAUTIFUL. The first day on the beach was so so windy, that the heat from the sun felt PERFECT. I cannot stress how wonderful that day was on the beach.


After a while, Sabrina and I decided to go play beach volleyball with a group of random guys nearby. Turns out I am really bad at volleyball, and I always want to use my feet instead.

Sequence of our friendship

Our graceful entrance into the sea

We went to a family owned restaurant for dinner that night that was recommended my our hotel. I got Mousaka, which is a typical Greek food that is layers of potato, vegetables, meat, and then cheese. 'Twas delectable.

"WHAT is THAT?"

"It's mousaka!"

"Moose caca??"

It didn't take long to discover the cost of 6 hours in the sun...unlike some of the naturally tan girls in my group, I canNOT come away just darker. I got burnt. Badly. On mY back, my chest, my bathing suit line all around my bum. And my butt cheeks. My group officially named me "Ginger Cheeks" for the duration of the trip. That's what I get for wearing a swimsuit made in Europe that shows part of my butt that has never before seen the sun.

The burn was so bad by the time I went to bed that even on pain killers and slathering moisturizer all over me, I was waking up all night. It hurt so badly, much deeper than a normal burn. My whole body just ached to the point where I felt nauseous anytime I moved, not to mention touched anything. With some extra strength pain killers multiple times a day, I was able to suck it up enough to still have an awesome time the next few days.

Sorry, but you need to understand my pain.

We took a local bus the next morning to Fira, Santorini's capital. We spent most of the day just exploring up and down the hilly streets and checking out the many shops and views. Then we went to Kamari beach and relaxed there some more. I kept the middle portion of my body out of the sun and tried not to move and just enjoy the beauty around me. Wasn't difficult to do. To get home, we took a boat ride around the bend of the island instead of taking the bus all the way back. We had to walk out into the water to get into the boat, and it was so cool! When we disembarked at Perissa, I had one hand full and thought I could lower myself down into the shallow water with just one hand on the ladder. I thought wrong. In front of a big group of people wait into get on the boat, I swung out and slipped off the ladder and fell with a splash into the water. But with style, so it was okay, right?

 Also, European beaches are weird. Even when it's not a "nude beach," women are often seen topless. Sometimes their husbands are even helping rub tanning oil on their topless wives and you are scarred for life because of what you see.


Walking up and down the boardwalk makes you feel like celebrities, because of all the restaurant hosts calling out to you. They always yell to us saying we are beautiful and trying to convince us to eat with them.

Look closely and you can see that the statue is a man's exposed butt.

That night we hung by the pool at our hotel and played Pit again, to the entertainment of everyone nearby. Some guys even stopped swimming to ask us what we were playing (we kept yelling loudly during the game). It was so nice to just relax and have fun with awesome people in a beautiful place.

Sunset over the pool at Hotel Perissa

Two guys in the room next door to us in the hotel talked to me and Sabrina and invited us to hang out with them. There must have been some miscommunication, because when they realized there were 5 of us later, they bailed. BUT we ended up having the time of our lives and a night none of us will ever forget. We got all dolled up, bought a huge tub of ice cream and ate out of it on the beach in the dark. We played on the edge of the water and walked barefoot on the black sand that was finally cool on our feet! We even went for a night swim.......

The next morning we rented 3 four wheelers and conquered Santorini! We went for a little joyride around the Perissa beach just to celebrate the freedom and get used to the quads. We spent the morning at the beach for our last time and then headed home to the hotel to get all packed up. We wanted to be all ready to go after our final adventure.

We rode our four wheelers all the way to Oia at the other end of the island. We had to travel on the main roads to get there and it was pretty scary sometimes. Beautiful. But scary. After a while of maneuvering through some towns we hit the cliffs. And I mean CLIFFS. We were riding the four wheelers on these windy roads that climbed up and up the most beautiful cliffs overlooking the ocean. I found myself freaking out at this point, because I just felt like my quad wouldn't make the turns. I could easily maneuver my motor scooter on them, but it felt like I wasn't going to make the turns. I have only driven a four wheeler on an open field of a farm, never on a real road going close to 40 km/hr and on the edge of windy cliffs!

Such ignorant bliss before we reached the Cliffs of Insanity

We finally made it, and I survived. Oia was a major tourist hub, especially in the evening, since Oia is famous for the view of the sunset. We explored a bit and had a loverly dinner before finding a place on a wall to sit and eat ice cream while watching the sun set over the water. The view was pretty incredible. Nothing blocked it's view, just the sky, the sun, and the sea meeting gradually in the most beautiful red display I've ever seen. It was the perfect night to end on. Sitting on the wall with some incredible girls, I couldn't help but think of how blessed I am.

And with that, our time in Santorini came to a close. We went to the port and boarded out midnight ferry back to Athens. It was much less comfortable than our first one, unfortunately, so none of us slept much.. And finally it was 5 AM and we were in Athens... And nothing was open.
So we got to pretend we were backpackers for a little bit, and had no home to go to haha. After a while we found a bakery that just opened, so we bummed it off there for a while. We then decided to sit on the sidewalk in a populated street and play Pit some more. Oh man, we were a hit. We had so many old men and women coming up to us and smiling or saying something to us in Greek. Someone told us we were beautiful (funny, given our sleepless, homeless state). Many passing tourists took pictures of us sitting in our little card circle.

We spent the rest of our time before our flight at the Acropolis museum. Incredible. Dorkiness. History. Such wow.

We had booked a super cheap flight from Athens to Bratislava, Slovakia. So then we had to take a bus to Vienna ( about an hour ride). It was beautiful! We passed these huge fields with these large windmills with the sunset for a backdrop. So I can say I've been in Slovakia now, which is cool. By the time we made it to our beautiful hotel in Vienna, we nearly cried she we fell onto the most comfortable beds in the world. 

The complimentary breakfast buffet helped them win my approval as well... I may have abused that. Especially since I went back for seconds... And thirds.

I have a friend from the Philadelphia stake who is doing a study abroad with BYU in Vienna. She just so happens to be named Hannah! Well, lucky for us, she was willing to hang out with us for the day! She became an honorary temporary member of our group and took us all over the city for our first day.


We visited Stephansdom, this church that she practices the organ at, Mozart's house, the Schönbrun palace, and just the beauty of Vienna. Oh, and for lunch? I GOT SPAGETTI EIS. Unless you were in my German class, you can't understand the emotions I felt. I al,last cried in excitement when I realized I could get it there. It was beautiful and delicious. I can tell my German teacher I finally made it.

Schoenbrunn Palace

Lizzie McGuire would be proud.

Gardens at Schoenbrunn

Reenacting the statues. Nailed it.

Once again, nailed it.

Cliche jumping picture in the Schoenbrunn courtyard

TELL FRAU TONEATTO THAT I MADE IT.

Spagetti Eis melting as I take pictures...

Another variation

It was really exciting being in Austria for a little, since I have rarely had an opportunity to use German outside of school. I never thought I would actually end up in a German speaking country, even though I always wanted to.

We crashed the local YSA waffle night with Hannah for dinner, so we were feeling pretty healthy and satisfied with the day. Vienna was a VERY different vacation style vacation than Greece, but still so incredible!


The next day we met up with Hannah again and headed to the Prater, this huge park with an amusement park in it. It was so fun to even just walk around in and see people from all over the world. We rode this HUGE swings ride and got an amazing view of the city. I almost threw up beforehand because it looked so scary to me. But it was so worth it. Later I befriended a pony. They told me I was too big to ride it though. Sadness.
We had the LONGEST bumper cars round and few of us made it out unscathed. It was pretty violent and bouncy haha.

I love horses, in case you haven't noticed. 

The rest of the day was spent looking at local stores on some of the Vienna streets. Did I mention I LOVE thrift shops? This one shop in particular, I found a Dirndl that fit me perfectly! For only 29 euro! Oh and they had vintage Star Wars rings. No biggie.

Fun with two Hannah's in the same city.

Dirndl!

That night we got all fancy and went out to dinner before our Mozart concert. Hannah had recommended this place called Vapiano's, and it did NOT disappoint. It was basically an Italian food chipotle. In the sense that they cook it in front of you when you tell them what you want. Then they hand it to you and you go sit down. It was so good and such a fun environment!
The concert was in the Vienna state opera house, so it was beautiful and impressive in the architecture alone. I loved the music, even though the orchestra was pretty goofy looking since they were dressed in wig and costume (we had selected a pretty tourist-y concert haha). But it was beautiful and such a fun experience.

Weirding out my personal chef.

George Washington and Pocahontas. (I think he is supposed to be Mozart?)

View from our balcony...

View of us in the balcony.

Selfie with the grandmas that we will someday become.

Oh and then there was the drunk guy who came up to me and talked to me in German in McDonald's.
And I had a classy moment where I sneezed so hard in our apartment bathroom that I head butted the door I was shutting and fell on the wet bathroom floor as a result... Good times.


On Sunday we went to the international ward (English speaking, yay!). It was SO uplifting. And the people there were so cute! I loved it and love seeing how there are so many strong members in the far places of the world.


Well we just landed. The only other thing I have to add is the fact that in our flight to Rome from Vienna, I sneezed so hard that I head butted the chair in front of me, and two attractive Italian boys laughed at me.
But on our flight from Vienna to Iasi, they upgraded some of us to first class, and I had a dance party to the music on my iPod, because we were in class 1, and I'm classy.

I have been incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to go to all of these amazing places and experience so many unique experiences. But I am starting to get to the point where I am ready to go home. I love what I am doing here, and I am not ready to say goodbye to some of my children at the orphanage, but I also am just exhausted. But this is an experience I can never forget, so I am going to take the good with the bad and remember how lucky I am.

Stay Classy, America.

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