(Me in front of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece)
(Erik, Kelly, me, and Andrew at the acropolis looking down on Athens)
(View from our terrace at sunrise in Mykonos)
(My delicious brunch food)
(Allison, Ally, Me, Kelly, Jenny, Pauline, and Andrew out on the terrace)
(Sarah and I on the terrace)
(Sunset from our terrace)
(In Mykonos Town)
(In Myknonos Town)It's been awhile since my last entry and a lot has happened. I've been everywhere. Before I left Germany for the holiday, I visited the East Side Gallery, Alexanderplatz again, the Reichstag at night, and had a day trip to Hamburg.
The East Side Gallery is a cool chunk of the Berlin Wall which is still standing in its original location; it's about a mile long stretch. In 1990 over a 100 artists from around the world were asked to paint portions of the wall. Over the years it's been graffitied and erroded from the weather. Now there's an effort to restore it to it's 1990 state. The artists have been invited back to repaint their narrative murals on a newly cleaned and restored surface. Personally I think the graffiti adds something to it, making it more authentic and Berlin-esque.
I returned to Alexanderplatz to observe how people interacted with a temporary installation celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. I took lots of photos and am hopefully working it into my class project.
The Reichstag is the parliamentary building. There was an architectural competition a few years ago to restore it and make it into a more "transparent" building open to the public and preventing too many governmental secrets. Therefore an architect named Norman Foster designed a glass cupola with a reflective spiral in the middle. Pathways wind up the dome and people can walk up while looking into the mirrors and down on the political sessions. A group of us went at night and it was pretty amazing. The views from the top were also pretty incredible.
The following day we had a class trip to the harbor-city of Hamburg, Germany. It was a few hours by train. There we met with a tour guide who showed us Hafen City which is a new city center being designed and built up along the river. It was pretty interesting but it was extremely hot and started pouring on us.
NOW HERE'S THE GOOD PART....The next day a group of 9 of us (Ally, Sarah, Allison, Jenny, Pauline, Erik, Andrew, Kelly, and I) headed to Athens, Greece. We were there Wednesday through Friday and then Monday night-Tuesday afternoon. Athens is definitely on the bottom of my list as far as cities go. The city itself was pretty dirty, semi-unsafe, full of stray dogs, congestion, and ironically really terrible architecture. Don't get me wrong, the acropolis was amazing! I couldn't believe I was standing in front of the Parthenon! From the B.C. era! The origin of architecture! I couldn't even grasp these concepts. It was just unreal and definitely worth seeing. You've got to go super early in the morning though otherwise it's flooded with seas of tourists and you can't even get a decent photo.
Another plus to Athens was the pub crawl. That was a blast. We ended up with a bunch of other Americans from Tennessee, went to some cool clubs, and ended the night (morning) with some salsa dancing at a cool club.
Friday night through Monday morning was spent on Mykonos, a Greek Island. That was fantastic! I did NOT want to leave. It was full of beautiful beaches, turquoise and blue water matching the blue and white buildings, hilly winding roads, and AMAZING Greek food. We stayed at a place called Hotel Deliades on Ornos Bay and it was super classy. The buildings were stacked like adobe-houses. We had three rooms and could walk on the roof-tops to each other's balconies. We had gorgeous views of the water on both sides and the mountains ahead of us. The hotel had an amazing brunch every morning. I was in heaven every morning with my plate of Greek yogurt with peaches, fresh watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, local fresh goat cheese, croisants, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.
The first night we were on the island we met up with my friend Tania from study abroad last summer. Coincidentally she was at the same place and the same time! We met for drinks and headed to the most famous club there called Space Club. It was absolutely insane. It was all techno music and every ten minutes the DJ would scream Mykonos, blow a train-like horn, and all the bartenders would get up on the bar and throw napkins. They also gave out whistles to everyone. Honest-to-God, my ears were still ringing 2 days later. Good for dancing, bad for the hearing. We got back to the beach around 5 am, jumped in the Aegian Sea, lounged, then I went up to my terrace, watched the sun-rise turning the buildings on the mountain golden, taking photos, and just soaking it all in. We napped and spent the rest of the day at the beach and pool. Tough life. We went out again that night after enjoying another jam-session on our terrace while watching the sun set. It's one of my best memories of the trip.
The next day we took a water-taxi to another beach called Super Paradise Beach. The water-taxi was a lot of fun and a good way to see different coastal areas of the island. Super Paradise Beach was beautiful. The water was definitely a lot colder and there were a lot of crazy young spring-breakers. We swam out to some rocks, climbed up them and enjoyed the view. We had some of the best Greek food that night - chicken souvlaki, tatziki, sagnaki, gyros, local olive oil and bread, greek salads...yummmmm. I've never had better food on a vacation. Hands down best food. That night we headed down to the beach with the guitar. We lounged on chairs staring at the stars, the ocean, and the twinkling lights of the boats and buildings in the mountains. It was the perfect end to our Mykonos adventures. I don't remember the last time I was so happy and relaxed. Life just seemed to good to be true.
The next day was a little chaotic. None of us wanted to leave..and we almost didn't! Ah! Our shuttle to the ferry port was running a little late and there were two similar ferries at the port. However one of them was leaving. The walking bridges were up and the drawbridge and beginning to rise. Before we knew it our drivers and the ferry people were screaming at us in Greek and yanked us on board the departing ferry. Turns out it was the wrong one. We had to get off at the next island and wait for our ferry which was luckily taking a similar route. Ha!
We made it back to Athens in one piece and then left the following afternoon - today. Our flight was uneventful and we arrived back in Berlin around 8:30pm. It was honestly one of the best trips of my life and I definitely want to go back. I would skip Athens and head to the islands, especially Santorini. I hear it's beautiful and quite romantic. It really was the time of my life and worth every penny.
I wish you were all there to experience it with me. Hope you all get to go there at some point it life. It's just breathtaking. Miss you all. <3>
