Vienna!: Opa!! (Griechenland!)

Yeia sou!

That's Greek for "hello," but I had to look it up on the internet because I still don't know any Greek except for "thank you!" But I just got back from Greece last night after a week of amazing sites and INCREDIBLE food. On Saturday morning, Carrie, Katie, Ian, and I took a train from Vienna to Budapest and spent the day walking around Budapest. We decided to walk to a synagogue because the synagogue in Budapest is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world. The bad part is that we got to the door and couldn't get in because of Rosh Hashanah services going on. So we went to get some traditional Hungarian food and realized that we had no Hufrus, the Hungarian currency. To get us even more frazzled, it had started to downpour right when we left the train station. So after walking for about 45 minutes and getting completely soaked, we decided to take a bus tour of the city since we wanted to see as much as possible in one day. Once we saw that the bus tour was an open-air bus that gave us ponchos and would not actually keep us dry, we realized that Budapest was going to be a wet day and we decided to laugh about it and work the ponchos! The bus tour ended up being really incredible and we got to see so many beautiful churches and buildings. After the tour, we went to a delicious restaurant that accepted Visa cards since we had no money. I got an amazing chicken sandwich that came with salad and tomatoes and fresh mozerella...so good! After lunch we went to the Saint Michael church, which is one of the most beautiful churches in the city. We saw a wedding going on and it was absolutely incredible! By the time we had eaten and walked around a little bit more, we had to head to the airport to catch our flight to Corfu.

the 2nd largest synagogue in the world

the 4 of us in front of a view of the city...it was really dreary but it was much more beautiful than the pictures show!

in front of the Saint Michael church

my chicken sandwich!!

On Saturday night, we got to Corfu and someone from our hostel picked us up and brought us to Sunrock Hostel. It was completely dark, so we had no idea what Corfu looked like at all. After showering in the hole in the ground that they used as a shower, I went straight to bed after a long day. I woke up the next morning to one of the most incredible views I have ever seen. Our hostel was right on the ocean with rocks and islands everywhere. We got breakfast and dinner for free, so I had french toast every morning while looking at the ocean. On Sunday, we hiked "up the hill" to a bus to take us from our hostel into Corfu town. "Up the hill" turned out to be basically climbing Mount Everest, but it was compensated by the incredible views the whole walk up. Corfu town was amazing too...cute little shops everywhere and an old fort that had one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. After going to the main museum and exploring the town, we ate at a restaurant in the middle of the town square where I had my first encounter with real saganaki...no words can describe the deliciousness. The cheese was absolutely incredible. They don't serve it with any kind of bread, but the cheese is so amazing that I had no problem eating it plain. After lunch, we went back to the hostel to watch the sun set on the beach. After sunset, everybody in the hostel eats together. Each dinner includes a Greek salad and a main dish. Even though it was hostel food, I have never had a better salad or chicken in my life. All of the food was indescribably delicious...I have been so spoiled! After dinner, we just hung out at the hostel and looked at the ocean.

view from the patio of our hostel

view from the fort in Corfu town

a small street in Corfu town...we loved the Greek flags!

Sunset...so pretty!

On Monday, we spent the entire day on the beach at our hostel. We got to take a boat ride with a guide who showed us a couple of nude beaches, a beautiful private beach, and a really cool cave. I even got to drive the boat for a little bit! The boat ride was probably my favorite part of my whole trip. After the boat ride, we got another delicious lunch, laid out some more, watched the sun set, and ate yet another incredible dinner at the hostel. (This time a Greek salad and a cheesy pasta.) After a lazy but beautiful day, we sat on the porch again for the night and tried the homemade Greek wine that the hostel had...very delicious! (Two ladies staying in the hostel heard us talking about how little money we all had and they bought us each a glass of wine...so nice!)

the hidden beach our guide showed us

The water was CRYSTAL clear! And the beach was all small stones, no sand.

Katie, Carrie, and Ian at sunset

On Tuesday, we had our usual breakfast, packed our backpacks, and headed into Pelekas town to look around for a couple of hours. We saw a really neat Greek church, which looked much different than the churches in Vienna and Budapest. Then we ate at a restaurant where the saganaki was feta...very interesting! I am definitely a saganaki conoisseur by now. After exploring for a couple hours, we went back into Corfu town (this time getting a van up the "hill") and caught the night bus to Athens. We stopped at a cheap bakery and a couple rest stops while we were on the bus, so we had things to munch on, but it was pretty difficult to sleep. The plan was for the bus to ride all night and get to Athens around 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, so it is not difficult to imagine our surprise and panic when the bus pulled in at 4:00 in the morning and we had no place to stay and no idea where we were going. We decided to take a taxi to our hostel, but our taxi got lost. It was amazing though because when we got lost, we were at the bottom of a hill that had a beautiful view of the Acropolis all lit up!! But one we finally got to our hostel, the workers said they had no rooms available until 10:00 in the morning and nowhere that we could sleep. They handed us a map of the city and said see you in 6 hours. We headed to Syntagma Square and slept for about an hour like homeless people until we decided that we might as well watch the sun rise over the Acropolis if we were going to be awake for sunrise. We headed over there and slept on a rock for a few hours until the sun rose, then slept again until 10:00 and went to our hostel to sleep for a few hours.

a street in Pelekas town

the restaurant in Pelekas

the Acropolis at night

our homeless crew...we were even followed by a stray dog!

After our adventurous homeless night and morning, we stopped for a delicious 2-Euro gyro (they always put french fries on them in Greece...so good!) and then went to the Acropolis Museum and the National Archeological Museum. Both places were really cool and told us a lot about the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Once we finished at the museums, we took a bus tour around the city to see everything in a nutshell. (We are all big fans of bus tours by now!) The weather was so beautiful and everything was so ancient and amazing and we could not have asked for a better first day in Athens. After exploring, we went out to a dinner of chicken and potatoes (YUM!) and then went shopping at all the vendors along the streets. We were still pretty exhausted, so we went to bed pretty early.

the cheap gyro place (chicken gyro for me!)

the very first Olympic stadium

the Parliament building (love the Greek flags!)

On Thursday, we got up really early and went to the Acropolis and the Parthenon. I was glad we went to the museums the day before because I knew what I was looking at a little better. There were so many neat things to see and the top of the hill had a beautiful panoramic view of Athens. After that, we hiked up another hill to some ruins that none of us knew what it was, but it was really neat looking! That's part of the cool part of Athens, everywhere you go there is some sort of cool ancient ruin. After the hike, we had more 2-Euro gyros and chicken souvlaki sandwiches with french fries (soooo good) and we went to the Agora, which has a museum and the most well-preserved ancient Greek temple. The last part of our ruin exploring was Arch of Hadrian and Zeus's Temple, which were both really cool and right by our hostel. They are also right by the National Gardens, so we walked around there for a while before we went back to get ready for dinner. We decided that we wanted to splurge and have one nice dinner for our last night in Greece, so we went to this little place that we had seen the night before that had lights and music. I had one last saganaki, but it was definitely the best of the trip! After dinner, we went to a performance of traditional Greek dancing that had live music and really cool costumes. It was really different than any other kind of cultural dancing I had seen, but very neat. After the performance, Carrie, Ian, and I went out to a street of clubs in Athens and met some other Americans who were studying abroad in Athens. They took us to a couple of really cool places...going out in Greece may even be more fun than Vienna! (Close call though!) Everywhere had really cool lights and music and we got free water and a bowl of bugels, barbeque potato chips, and egg rolls (a very eclectic combination of food for one bowl of snacks).

a ruin by the Acropolis

view of Athens from the top of our hike

my yummy chicken souvlaki sandwich

Carrie and I at our splurge dinner

my last saganaki! (with a lemon on it)

traditional Greek dancing and costumes

the musicians at the Greek dancing

On Friday, we took the train out to the 2004 Olympic Stadium before our flight back to Vienna. The whole village was totally deserted, but it was still really cool looking. None of us could believe how poorly it was kept, but I'm sure it was beautiful when it was brand new. We saw all kinds of pools and the outside of the main stadium, which were both really neat. After exploring the old village for awhile, we found a mall by the train station and had one last gyros sandwich. Then we went to the airport and came home. On the plane home, we were served a huge dinner of Greek salad, cheese, orzo, beef, crackers, bread, and some kind of Greek pepper with sour cream. It was the perfect way to end the trip. We all had an AMAZING time in Greece, but it felt so nice to get back to Vienna. It was nice to hear the somewhat-familiar German as opposed to the completely foreign Hungarian and Greek. Needless to say last night was an early night for me! Anyways, I know this was a long post but Greece was all I could have asked for. Miss you all lots and hope everything is going well! Auf Wiedersehen!!