~Greece~
So, Greece.  Both Marielle and I have always had a little crush on greek culture and the whole idea of going to Greece was kind of ridiculously awesome.  At first when we were looking at flights we saw how expensive they were, got scared, and decided that we probably wouldn't make it to there.  But as time passed we started to really think about our study abroad mentality, we are living in Europe, Greece is gonna be awesome, one of our friends Katie was studying in Athens, and what are we going to spend our money on that's better than a trip to Greece!  After discussing our potential trip with some more financially experienced adults we decided to go for it!!  When Marielle and I were booking the flight we were literally holding hands and freaking out because we were so nervous about it.  Obviously our decision was a good one :)

We arrived in Greece mid-day and met up with our friend Katie.  Athens is an absolutely massive city but Katie lives in such a prime spot, literally in the shadows of the Parthenon!  Everything in Athens that is worth seeing is around a 15 minute walk from her apartment, so we were pretty excited to be in such a great location. The first day we just explored, Katie showed us all the cool little areas of the city. 

We went to the Parlament building and watched the changing of the guards which happens every hour. These guys had some interesting little uniforms, complete with pom-poms on the toes of the shoes.  They did their little walk dance and switched places.

Something that was extremely anticipated about Greece was the delicious food!  Marielle and I have developed such an addiction to food during our travels, that it's almost a problem.  I didn't realize trying all the different types of food would be such a huge part of my travels but it's one of the best parts haha :) We went to a restaurant with a view of the Acropolis and got Moussaka, Tziki, and a stuffed tomato and pepper. Delish! Since I worked at a greek diner I had an idea of a lot of traditional greek foods, so when I got there I had a list of all the things I wanted to try in Greece.  

Acropolis lit up int he background. 

That night we hung out with some of Katie's friends and walked around Athens more, the city was COVERED in graffiti, which by now everyone has probably realized I'm very into.  Here's Katie and Marielle in front of some weird ass graffiti character.  

The next day was ACROPOLIS DAY! Yes, the Acropolis, probably one of the most awesome remaining ruins in all of greek history.  Right below the Acropolis is the Acropolis museum, build to replicate the same structure as the Parthenon, the museum is filled with artifacts from the Acropolis as well as pieces of the buildings.  We spent the whole morning in the museum reading about typical greek artwork and sculptures, the history of the Acropolis, and the restoration project.  They are currently in the process of restoring the buildings, which is pretty impressive but at the same time seems kind of fake.  But when I think about it, almost all of the historical stuff you see in Europe has been in some way restored.

After the museum Marielle and I went on the hunt for some delicious gyros! 

As we headed back towards the Acropolis Marielle and I decided to take a random turn rather then going up the main path, we felt like seeing some more of Athens.  It ended up being the best random turn I've taken on my trip!  All of a sudden the buildings turned into these white clay houses with an amazing view of the city.  We just kept walking closer and closer towards the Acropolis without really knowing if we could get there from where we were.  The streets got really narrow and windy and the houses started to merge in the hillside.  It felt really authentic and was super greek and beautiful! 

A pretty house covered in greenery! 

Cool little tins that someone used as plant holders outside of their house.  

We popped out right by the entrance of the acropolis and then climbed up this rock that had an awesome view.  Here's Marielle taking it all in hah.  P.S. Later in the trip we climbed up that hill in the distance. 

Finally we decided to go to the main event, we climbed up the stairs and got to the old entrance of the Acropolis.  In the picture on the left you can see the Temple of Athena Nike which is where people would worship Athena, the goddess of victory in war and wisdom.  To the right are stacks of column tops, since they are in the process of restoration there were areas roped off full of different pieces of the structure. 

The entrance into the Acropolis

Everywhere in Athens you can see stray dogs, but the city regulates and treats them so they are all healthy.  A lot of them are actually quite fat because restaurants feed them scraps.  The dogs were awesome though, at night when we were walking around they would just come over and hang out and when we moved to another area they would follow us.  It's like they just wanted to chill with some people.  Also some of Katie's friends were telling us that the dogs know who the sketchy people are in the city.  They told us one time they got jumped while 2 dogs were with them and the dogs started barking and fended off two of the guys who attacked them.  They are like protectors of the city.  Here is a dog just living it up on the Parthenon. 

Another building on the acropolis is the Erechthelon, which is another temple that was thought to be build in honor of king Erechtheus, a great ruler of Athens who was mentioned in the Iliad.  The most distinguishing thing about this temple is Porch of the Caryatids, which is a porch that has 6 maidens as the columns. It was beautiful.   

The Parthenon! The main event! The temple of all templesss! I took a Greek Civilizations class my freshman year of college and I learned a lot about the Parthenon.  Mostly about the structural components, there were so many amazing carvings and stories depicted on this temple, so impressive.  Also originally there was a massive sculpture of Athena in the center of the temple, but their aren't any remains of her left.  We learned in the museum that a lot of the different carvings and sculptures were either smashed by people of different religions or stolen by thieves.  Regardless the museum did have a hand here and a horse head there that they use with new moldings to recreate what used to be on this amazing temple.  After the reconstruction is over it should look the way it originally did during its hay day!  Marielle and I stood in the shadow of this building and just thought about all of the history and awesomeness that occurred there. We loved it!!

After our long stay on the Acropolis we sat at the entrance to just take in the view of Athens, marvel in the ruins around us, and of course people watch.  I took this picture on self timer to remember the moment, as you can see Marielle's watch is coincidently reflecting the sun, I think it's a sign from the greek gods. 

I thought this graffiti was awesome and just so greek!!

Speaking of greek, here is some spanakopita!! It's a spinach and feta cheese pie, I had two of these puppies while I was in Greece. They're the best.s

The next day in Greece was probably one of my favorite days during my entire study abroad semester.  Since we had 4 days in Greece, Katie suggested that we go to a nearby island called Agena. She had gone there once and suggested that we go and rent a four wheeler and drive around the island, an hour and a half later a nice greek man was teaching me how to start one up.  Just thinking about it again makes me excited. To get from one side of the island to the other on the four wheeler took about half an hour so the island isn't too big. The guy at the rental place gave us a map and circled some interesting things on the island we could go see including some ruins and churches.  Marielle and I started off driving along the beaches, it was so amazing.  Once again I found myself in such a surreal situation, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  Later we found ourselves going up and down hills and valleys with horses watching us from the side of the road.  Beautiful, just...beautiful. 

Obviously throughout this entire semester I've been hanging out with Marielle.  We met freshman year and though we were always friends we never got to bond in the way we have abroad.  She's the shit.  She has my name but mixed up, she likes the things I do, it's like an ongoing joke between us that we are just too coincidently similar.  It's almost annoying, but what's actually annoying is when we are together and introduce ourselves to someone new "hi i'm arielle" "hi i'm marielle".  It's not cool.  But she has been an amazing travel companion and I'm really glad that I got to become so close to such a great person.  SHOUT OUT TO MAH GIRL MARIELLE!  Above you can see our marriage photo.  

Just a view of what we were driving around, took this on the four wheeler. 

A temple on the island, apparently this temple was made for a god that only people on Agena worshiped. Pretty cool. 

The view from the temple, focus your attention on my greek sandals.  I bought them in Athens and I love them! 

We then decided to head to the beach.  We figured it would be nice to pick up a couple of beers, so when we pulled over at a little store and went in we were excited to discover that it was a fantastic little greek bakery.  Super authentic.  We went with baklava, the obvious choice, grabbed some beer and then headed to the beach.  Beach, Beers, and Baklava!  Oh and let me tell you, this was probably the most amazing baklava, maybe dessert in general, that I have ever had.  Marielle and I were losing our shit over it haha.  Unfortunately the water was way to cold to go in but it was nice to have a little warm beach time. 

Cruising through the island. 

What also made the day so amazing was that we had great weather for it!  Greece was probably the first place that we had genuinely good weather for the entire time we visited, a nice change. 

After our little adventure around the island we headed back to get the last ferry to Athens.  The port was also so beautiful, the water was so blue and the other islands all hazy in the distance was stunning.  

Sunset on the ferry. 

Our last day we did some exploring around the city, Katie took us to some cool look out spots.  First we went to the hill that I mentioned earlier, we climbed to the top where there was a cute little greek church and once again an awesome view of the city.  While I was in Athens I kept seeing people with iced coffee looking things, turns out the are Frappes, and I loved them.  I am officially a coffee addict, so I had to try the local favorite coffee, and then continued to get one every day I was in Athens.  There's a picture of the frappe on the right.  

Church above, view below

Marielle and Katie

It was such a warm and sunny day that we decided to take a walk in the big city park, they had this pond that was filled with turtles climbing all over each other.  Cute little dudes.  

Ruins, ruins everywhere! Athens is one of those places that is so old and full of history that almost everywhere there are ruins.  In my greek class I learned that there are probably tones of undiscovered ruins in Athens that archeologists can't get to because the modern day city is build over them.  It wasn't uncommon for stores to have glass floors with some ruins of an old wall or whatnot underneath. 

Some more impressive ruins in the city.  

We then went to another awesome look out spot, we basically spent the day going to all the highest points in Athens and just enjoying the sun.  

Katie :) it was so awesome to visit her!  I'm really glad that we made it out to Athens because the whole trip was so amazing.  Both Marielle and I were very reluctant to leave.  Athens is also the only place that I visited that I really allowed myself to buy cool souvenirs, I was too money conscious during the other trips to blow money on a lot of nice things.  But since Athens was my last trip and they had so much cool stuff I splurged a little. 

We ened out trip with one last yummy dinner, we got all kinds of dishes and shared them but here is a picture of some baked feta cheese.  It was really hard leaving Athens, not only because it was such an amazing city but also because it was my last trip abroad.  When I look back at all of the places we visited, I really can't believe it. In total I went to 11 different countries, which is incredible!  I cannot believe I was given the opportunity to do something so amazing, and when I think of doing it all independently I can't help but be a little proud... old, but proud :)  It's kind of crazy to think about going back to the United States and not traveling so much. I'm a little nervous that I'm going to get bored because I've been so spoiled here, but I'll just have to make due in Amherst.