HELLOOOOO!!!
Sorry for the delay in posting, I'm alive and well and have been back in Prague for 5days now. I've been putting off blogging because everytime i think about it words escape me from describing the two weeks of travels. Generally, the trip was much harder than I thought it would be and I was incredibly happy to return to Prague. The overall experience of being with the same small group of people for so long was really hard for me, and I am learning a lot about patience and about myself in general.
Ok Quick overview of each city:
[italy]
Venice: I loved the city and thought it was really beautiful. Our presentation went well and I ended up learning a lot about Venetian art and culture. I spent a lot of time with Elise and Garrett here and we ate tons of gelato and pizza. We also managed to find a place that sold wine in plastic bottles for like 3 euros and we spent our last night sitting by the grand canal with a bottle of our own.
Florence: I didn't like the city itself at all, it seemed dull and lifeless, but redeeming factor was the museums were awesome. seeing michelangelo's David in person was incredible-- the work is absoulte perfection. I snuck a photo, even though I wasn't supposed to.
Also, Botticelli's Birth of Venus was stunning. I stood in front of it for so long trying to take in it's beauty. This work was held in the Uffizi where works of Da Vinci were also held, which was also incredible to see.
Also, I managed to somehow get talk my way into free cappucino for me and a free glass of wine for garrett after having a brief conversation with a man that owned a cafe--- and let me tell you, it was delicious!
Rome: very big city, much larger than I thought it would be. The trevie fountain was probably my favorite part-- i loved people watching there and seeing everyone follow the tradition of throwing three coins over their shoulders into the fountian.
Also, it was really cool to learn more about the coloseum-- i had no idea they used to flood the inside of it and use it to re-enact naval battles! and people were actually killed! craziness! and all to distract the public from the fact that the government could not feed them... how lovely.
[greece]Athens: Totally not what I expected. Kind of a let down to be honest, but being on top of mars hill was awesome, and by far my favorite part.
I went there every day I was in athens and just watched the city below and thought about the philosophers such as socrates gathering there and then Paul preaching from there. On my last day in Greece I met a Christian Missionary, Couy on top of Mars hill and talked to him for a long time. He is riding his horse all over Europe talking to people and normally if i heard about this guy I would think be was insane but he was really adorable and had a thick southern accent (he was from new mexico) and just kept saying "aw yeah man, Jesus is awesome!" It was really funny and interesting to talk to him about how he just rides his horse wherever he wants and has all these cops yell at him-- it's a pretty interesting method of attracting people to you in order to preach haha.
Also, the hostel we stayed in was really cute except... me and another girl Brookelynn got stuck with what we endearingly called "the hobbit hole." No kidding, the ceiling was like 2 inches above my head and it was probably constructed for midgets. The first night we were so exhausted from traveling and everyone's drama that we went crazy and made up an elaborate story about the hobbit hole being previously inhabited by smurfs and laughed about it so much.. until we had to go to sleep in this tiny little cave... and we definitely slept with the light on cause it was creepy. oh man, it was great.
Corinth: Not much in this place at all except for a small area of ruins we visited, but it was interesting to read the story of Paul traveling to Corinth and being judged while standing next to the actual spot it occurred. It was also cool to see the Corinithian canal--
Sounio: Probably my favorite place in greece that we visited. The temple of Posiden was at the top of this mountain that overlooked the beautiful water, a perfect location for the god of the sea. Even though the idea of the temple was kind of intimidating, it was incredibly calming to visit.
After we walked around the ruins we ate at this restaraunt near the water and I had some amazing Calamari and then we went swimming in the Aegan sea! Probably my favorite part of this whole two week excursion was swimming out in the clear water where we found a cave. The ground had a bunch of sea urchints on it so we had to navigate around them to get inside, and once we did it was amazing to see the coral and Sea Aneminies. There was a spot where part of the cave was carved out and sunlight was streaming through the rocks-- it was absolutely beautiful and i wished i had a waterproof camera so bad!
Delphi: really cute, quiet mountain town. I met an adorable old man here who was one of the security guys at the temple of Athena. He said a few words to me in broken english and once I responded he proceeded to tell me many detailed stories in Greek. It was hillarious. He also picked up his cat and made it dance for me while he hummed a song. He was such a cute man and we seriously communicated even with the language barrier. Then a little German man who was also a tourist came and talked with us and the Greek man gave us both olive leaves-- which are a sign of peace and friendship. It was so sweet!
I learned a lot about the Oracle of Delphi and ancient Greek religion, and the ruins here were probably my favorite of the ones we've visited.
Notable things I learned on this trip:
- Everyone feels sorry for Americans. As soon as most people found out I was from the states they either shouted "obama!" or something about the economy such as my favorite, "your economy go down down down, for you everything is 50% off in my store!" it was pretty funny.
- A lot of people have a really strange idea of what it means to 'look like an American'. A lot of people thought i was italian and that some of the girls I was with were Swedish or German, but they wouldnt believe we were from the U.S. I guess they didn't get the memo that the states were founded by european immigrants and have one of the most diverse societies?
- I like trains a lot
- The Euro sucks
- Prostitution is legal in Greece
- A LOT of greek men have unibrows
- Lime gelato is freaking amazing and I cen't believe I've been missing it all my life
