Well this is my last posting. I'm HOME...haha and it took a couple of mishaps to get here. Basically the night before my departure me and chelsea headed out of the hostel and to the airport only to find that somewhere along the way between walking, taking a taxi, and taking a bus my passport had gone missing! WORST THING POSSIBLE. But for some reason I was actually really calm about the whole situation. I feel like I was so blessed to have such an amazing trip that maybe I needed a mishap to make it feel real. So there I was kind of shocked standing in the airport with chelsea with absolutely no possibility of being able to board my flight! This turned into quite the ordeal. First I had to go to the police and get a police report about my lost/stolen passport. Then I had to talk to the check in lady and the ticket sales and get myself on the next flight possible which happened to be the next day and then I had to trek it down to the embassy. After saying a weary goodbye to chelsea I realized that I was on my own and would have to figure things out for myself. So I figured out the bus that would drop me off and I headed down to the embassy. The embassy was really cool and exactly like the movies. It was basically this HUGE brick building surrounded on all sides by towering gates that were being watched carefully by the greek guards. After walking up to practically every single gate I finally found the one entrance that actually took in people haha. I was frisked and had my bag checked and had to take out all electronics and have my bag checked again and then go through a dectector before I could finally enter the actual building. When I walked in I was shocked to see a waiting room full of about 1oo people, how was i possibly going to get through it in time???? Fortunately because I am an american citizen I was quickly directed to a side room where I was relieved to find about five people in line. It was here that I explained my situation, gave my police report, filled out some paper work and took new passport pictures. It was actually all very simple and within two hours I had a brand new passport. Although I had remained calm throughout this whole situation my parents back home where suffering from insomnia,high blood pressure and I'm sure increased heart palpitations after I told them about my little discovery. I felt so bad for causing them so much worry but at the same time it was really hard for me to grasp the part that made this such a BIG deal. Things like this happen, and the world keeps moving, everything will eventually work out with patience. So for the rest of the day I was patient. I waited,hoping that they could get me on the second flight from heathrow to denver. It was out of my hands and all I could do was hope that my karma points had been tallying up enough to get me home. I rested up ate food and tried my best to relax until it was time to go back to the airport. I arrived at the airport around 6ish and went to the ticket counter in hopes that maybe one person had cancelled their flight and that I would have two boarding passes in my hand....no such luck. Unfortunately they still could not confirm a seat for me so I would be left to check again in Heathrow for the possibility of a miracle. I slept quite soundly through my flight from Athens to Heathrow and awoke right before the plane landed. I had to go through customs, where my new passport was scrutinized for a couple of minutes before they would let me collect my bag. Finally I was reaching the ticket counter, I was soo nervous! What if there wasn't any room? Where would I stay? What would I tell my parents?? I quickly explained my situation and was greeted with the sympathy of the BA lady. She immediately made a few phone calls and within minutes I had a shiny white boarding pass in my hand!!!! AHHH SUCCESS I was so relieved and so thankful and couldn't believe my luck!!! 9 hours later I was greeted by my father outside of the International Arrivals with my backpack on and a smile on my face full of relief to be standing on solid ground in the beautiful state of Colorado. I had made it.

Coming back home has been surreal. Walking through my front door I realized that my trip had come to an end I was home. Only hours ago I had been thousands of miles away in a beautiful country that housed me for six weeks, gave me wonderful friends, and left me with adventures that I will always cherish. Its weird adjusting back to reality. For the past month and a half me and Chelsea had been living in our own world. Doing exactly what we wanted when we wanted. Being completely in charge of our own destiny, we had the ability to do exactly as we pleased with nothing holding us back. People have asked me about my trip and when I try to explain I simply can't. Chelsea and I had a unique greek experience, I will never be able to do justice in explaining just exactly what we underwent during our travels. It was unique to our personalities and was a perfect fit for the type of travelers we wanted to be. To all the other backpackers we were the young crazy girls who had lived on hippie commune, had made life long friends with our village boys, and somehow managed to roam around Greece without any serious complications. We were some of the youngest travelers at the hostels and that made me feel soooo HAPPY.

On this trip I experienced a type of independence and freedom that made me feel like I could do anything. This trip has been the most liberating experience I could have ever hoped for and I am so thankful. I learned that I could count on myself to solve my mistakes and that I could be independent of others. My heart and soul felt complete on this trip, I felt like I wasn't missing out on anything and I was sooooo incredibly happy. Having to worry about basic things like where we were going to eat, or where we were going to sleep made me feel SO ALIVE. I was so aware of that fact that I was LIVING MY LIFE and that I was in charge of ME. I've learned on this trip that I want my life to be full of this type of sponaneity and this type of adventure. I want my life to always be this FULL OF LIFE. This is my promise to myself, that my adventures don't stop here, my growth will not stop here, and my energy will continue to excel me into new places and new levels.

I would also like to mention that CHELSEA was the best travel partner I could have everrrr asked for!!! Chelsea understands me and I understand her and that is a unique relationship that we have that allows us to be the best travel buddies EVER. I am going to miss you soo much this summer but I can't wait for our next expeditions (because there will be many). I am so glad we were freshman year roommates because without her this trip would have been very different. I am so glad that we have become friends and I am soo glad that we went on this trip together!!! I LOVE YOU BOO. I am so lucky to have met you!!

Someone I met on this trip told me that I have a dreamers mentality. Which basically means I have kind of a delusional reality. I HOPE I always have this mentality in fact I LOVE this mentality. I think its because of this mentality that my dream came true and I traveled the beautiful country of GREECE.

I HOPE that everyone does something like this....its good for your soul!

Last but not least I would like to revisit my thanks. There aren't enough thank you's in the world to commend how perfectly this trip fell into place. With the help of amazing parents, and new found friends this trip was made into an amazing experience. Like i've mentioned before people really do make the place. TO EVERYONE I met on this trip, whether you were a fellow backpacker, a cohort at the sunshine house, a Bourtzi boy, or someone from the hostel it is because of you that my trip was so INCREDIBLE. I am so lucky to have met all of you and to have shared those experiences with all of you. You are wonderful and you gave me the time of my life!

PARENTS I LOVE YOUUUUU thank you for putting up with the stress of having a crazy traveling 19 year old daughter roam the land of GREECE. You let my dreams come true!

with LOVE and THANKS

JESSICA

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

5th night seeing the sunrise!!! we went to a really cool club called cavo paradiso and actually ran into people that we had met the night before! the DJ was really good and it was another successful night in Mykonos!

We leave on Tuesday and I come home tuesday night. Its a little bitter sweet because I have honestly had the time of my life here. I am happy to go home but sad to leave this amazing adventure behind.

See you on Tuesday

Jess

WE are in MYKONOS!!!! ahhhhh so MYKONOS is crazyyyyy

Pretty much we arrived yesterday to our hostel around 2ish in the afternoon and passed out in our rooms for the majority of the day. Can i mention that our room is basically a tool shed split in half painted in all white with creepy mental instituition-esque beds haha ahh o well I guess it does the job. After catching up on some sleep we ate, went into town and went on an epic quest for an atm. We then came back slept some more and woke up to our alarm at 2 in the morning....the perfect time to begin the night! We headed down to club paradise where a DJ named Ministry of Sound was performing. Ahhhh the club was sooo much fun. It was huge, and outdoors and there was this huge pool, and me and chelsea danced on a platform all night. It was soo much fun. And they played our favorite song called deep fear by sidekick! We danced until dawn making that our fourth day seeing the sun rise. We have also yet to take a a real shower since santorini so thats kind of gross but whatever we are backpackers so it doesn't matter haha.

I don't really know what else to say about Mykonos its just basically another huge party island!!!!Today I think we are going to do some actual sight seeing and go see the famous windmills and the classy pelicans.

Tonight there is another club called cavo paradiso that we plan on going to and I am soooo excited!!!

ahhh well my time is about to run out!

Oh my goodness.....IOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ahhh haha I don't even know what to say anymore. pretty much two nights ago after we left our hottie boys at the beach we came back and had this really long relax session in our room in preparation for the night festivities. After that we got something to eat and then went to this place called sunrise. Basically its a hotel that has a bar type thing on the top and its where everyone hangs out before the bars open. Well we met up with our hottie model friends when we got there and headed to the bars/clubs around 2. We then danced at every single place we could find and stayed out until 8 in the morning. We then came back and slept until four and headed down to the beach....yes i live the life haha. At the beach we thought it would be a good idea to take a shower in the ocean and that is exactly what we did. We have yet to have a real shower on this island, ah well we don't smell too bad.

Last night we met up with our new zealand friend and his friend and pretty much repeated the same sequence of events but this time we went to bed early....around 6 in order to get some sleep before the ferry we need to catch at 12:30 to mykonos!!!!!! We were going to go to bed earlier but then they kept playing such good music that we just had to stay! Ahhh oh and we also met up with our model hottie friends again. Pretty much it was a good night but now I am exhausted and kind of getting sick.

Alright well I have to go, we are about to catch the shuttle to the port!!!

ahhh I almost forgot to mention that I was proposed to by this Irish guy that was obsessed with me haha. He claims that we are going to go to paris in 2015 and will be wedded in 2016 he even wrote me a love note in chelseas book. ahh it was really funny.

CIAO

Jessica

AHHH IOS haha I don't even know what to say...

pretty much it is one of the biggest party islands in the world haha and that kind of describes it

The deal here is that during the day everyone heads down to the beach and recovers from the previous night. There is a place called farout camping down there and they let everyone use their pool and bar etc so everyone, and I mean everyone on the island goes there during the day! So yesterday we decided to head down after we got in and go for a swim! the water here is sooo warm and it was so relaxing! after swimming for a bit we headed over to the bar and got some fancy girl cocktails and we started talking to this guy. As it turns out he is from littleton colorado and he went to school in arapaho!! haha ahh its a small world. Anyways him and his friend are soooo extremely ATTRACTIVE omg they could seriously be on those bag covers for abercrombie. haha and they are 26 and really nice and they kind of have adopted us as their friends. SUCCESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS They are seriously like the poster boys for hot but whatever no bigs. So we hung out with them for a little and it turns out that they are staying at our hostel. So last night we met up with them at the bar and they bought us some beers and we began the night with welcome shots! From then on its kind of a haze we went to tons of different bars and partied until dawn ahhhh amazing!!! then we went to bed and woke up at around 2 haha the life.

Today we ran into our new hottie friends and we went down to the beach with them and they bought us beach chairs and we basically just hung around until six. Can I just say that me and chelsea feel like our game levels have skyrocketed???? For reals us and model boys

I almost forgot to mention that last night we went and ate at this asian place called Ali Babas and they served the most delicous pad thai it was seriously soooo gooood!!!!and after we got free jello shots!!

I would like to mention that me and chelsea have been super careful and watching out for eachother. And our model boys have been watching our backs too! haha sooo yup thats probably whats going to be going down the next two nights and then we are off to mykonos and even bigger party island that is like world renowned for its DJs....ahhhhhh yes!

SANTORINI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahhh IT IS sooo absolutely amazing here!

Chelsea and I left Crete two nights ago and boarded a 6 pm ferry to the most beautiful place in the world. As it turns out three people that we had worked with at the sunshine house were also on the ferry haha so it was like one big Sunshine House reunion! When we arrived in Santorini it was really dark and we weren't really sure how to get to our hostel (which by the way is only 7 euros a night). Luckily there was a shuttle waiting to take us back to the hostel almost immediately after we got off the ferry. As usual everything was carefree. The night we arrived we ended up going down to the near by blacksand beach and hungout with a couple of people from the hostel and just relaxed and played music.

The next day was a HUGE day. In the morning we decided to rent atvs and explore the island with two other people from the hostel. It was sooo much fun!!! ATVS are honestly so much fun!!!! The only uncool part was that we had to wear these dorky helmets. Chelseas helmet was honestly a close resemblence to that of the rider in the movie seabiscut and it constantly was slipping off of her head. As it turns out I am an awful ATV driver and when given control I go about twenty miles per hour haha and almost manage to run us into a car. Fortunately Chelsea is actually very talented at manuevering these little things and was happy to drive me around. ahh I almost forgot about halfway through the day we were driving along the coastline and I had the bright idea of turning chelseas sarong into a cape!!! ahh so just imagine chelsea driving this badass atv with a seabiscut helmet and me sitting behind her with a cape flying in the wind! haha We decided that when our adventure becomes the movie this will be the opening scene.

The first place that we went to was a light house at one end of the island. It was soo beautiful and there were stunning views of the caldera everywhere we looked. Chelsea and I even managed to get in some action shots of us balanced precariously on the cliffs edge (no need to worry we were perfectly safe...). After monkeying around and taking in sights that I couldn't even really see because they looked completely unreal we drove down to the red sand beach. The red sand beach was exactly that, it was a beach with red sand haha. It was really cool and actually was a result of the huge volcano that resulted in the formation of the caldera. We waddled around for a while and after a refreshing dip we headed down to Fira.

Fira is a very cute little bouncy town right in the middle of the island. We kind of just went where our friends led us because one of them had been there the day before so we basically just did some shopping and ate a Gyro (AHH i'm so sick of those) and kind of just poked around. My favorite part of the day was when we went into Oia. Oia is one of the most stunning places I have ever in my entire life had the priveledge to go to. IT looks like a magical cliffside town full of white and blue and pink and yellow stucco houses stacked on top of eachother in the most precarious fashion. It is the weirdest little town but also one of the most beautiful little towns in the ENTIRE WORLD. In Fira me and chelsea kind of felt like we were being held back by the other two people that we were with so when we arrived in Oia we decided to split up. Oia is simply magical, it measured up to all my expectations and more. We walked around and stumbled down the cobble stoned steps that winded through the cliffside neighborhood. IT was so hard for my eyes to grasp just what they were seeing because what I was perceiving in my mind seemed absolutely unbelievable. This has always been my dream to explore these streets and see the town of Oia and to actually be standing there was an amazing feeling and made me feel so unbelievebly happy and lucky. I'm pretty sure the entire time I just kept saying "OH MY GOODNESS!" over and over again.



A it turns out we ran into five people from the Sunshine House who were now staying in Oia. Three of them happen to be street performers and we watched them sing for money while we were there. Its so weird to run into people that we know from other islands when we have only been in Greece for about 5 weeks it made me realize just how small of a world it is.

While we were in Oia we felt love sick for all of the couples that we were watching. ahh it was kind of depressing... but it was nice to see people being so romantic. Oia is definitely one of the most romantic places everrrr.

Anyways we wandered through for a couple of hours and decided to peruse one of the many fancy jewelry shops. We started talking to the owner and explained that we were poor backpackers and just wanted to look at the jewelery haha. He ended up being really nice and ended up letting us try on 48,000 dollar rings! Ahh it was actually quite ironic because we are like dirt poor backpackers and we wearing the most expensive jewerly in the store.

We felt luxurious in Oia and while waiting for the sun to set we decided to share a chocolate souffle that cost more then one night in our hostel. Ah well it was delicious and in this quaint little shop that overlooked the caldera. Can I just say that the caldera is absolutley magnificent????? It is the most mind boggling sight ever and its absolutely impossible to get sick of seeing it. I think the caldera is probably one of the things I love most about Santorini. After our souffle we headed down to the main look out area and watched the infamous Santorini Sunset. Once again it was too beautiful words. Just imagine a sprawling caldera,white stucco houses hanging onto the cliffs edge, and the beautiful colors of the sun setting all in one view. It was amazing.
I should also mention that at this point my camera decided to stop working and after years of anticipation of being in this place I couldn't snap a single picture of the beautiful view. haha I guess thats life. We then headed back on our ATV and ended up going out to some bar places with people from the hostel. It was definitely a jampacked absolutely wonderfully amazing day.

Today was an entirely new adventure! ahh OMG today was possibly even more amazing then the day before! Today Chelsea and I decided to rent the ATVs on go explore the island on our own. We headed into Fira and bought some fruit and cheese (this served as both breakfast and lunch) and then proceeded to wander through Fira again. WE actually found this whole other side that we hadn't seen before and it too was amazing. It was the side of Fira that dangled over the edge and was very similar to the unsettling amazing view in Oia. Anyways it was in Fira that we decided we MUST RIDE DONKEYS!!!! haha this whole Donkey adventure was quite the chaotic event. First we had to walk down like seven million steps to get to the bottom of the port.when we got down there we were abrupty shoved towards some donkeys, paid five euros, and began what I was imagining to be a peaceful journey up to the town. I was COMPLETELY WRONG. Just imagine like twenty people, on these chaotic donkeys that were all racing eachother up the cliffside. These donkeys were all running into eachother and stepping on eachother and it was seriously like the funniest thing I have ever done. Everyone on the donkeys was laughing soo hard, and I wish that this whole situation could have been tapped because it was so hilarous. I of course was given the smallest donkey of the bunch, this resulted in me taking quite a beating from all the other burly donkeys. We didn't even have like a guide person, we were basically just on our own. Luckily we all made it up alive and in one peice.

After that adventure we poked around fira some more and then headed back to Oia. My camera started working again today which meant i could take thousands of pictures of what I was seeing. We walked around, observed more romantic couples and just kind of explored for a couple of hours. At one point Chelsea and I sat at this nice little spot in the middle of all the comotion and just took in where we were and why we were there. We then decided to treat ourselves to a FANCY meal that overlooked the caldera while the sunset. It was kind of foggy but still absolutely beautiful and my food was delicious! AFter feeling slightly guilty about the splurge we decided to head back and get some crepes in Perissa (the place that we are staying)

Tomorrow we leave for IOS!!! ahh one of the most infamous party islands in the world!!! yayayyyyyyyy

I am having a WONDERFUL TIME HERE!! and I am sooo happy!!! I come home in about a week and it feels so weird to think that this trip is almost ever. Its been so perfect and so amazing and I couldn't of asked for anything more

HOPE all is well

LOVE YOU

Jessica

I feel like everytime I write in this blog I am always saying that I am in some new even more beautiful place then the last. Haha well its always true. I never suspect that an even more gorgeous place is around the bend....but as usual it always is and I should stop being so suprised.

Today we went to Preveli THE MOST AMAZING STUPENDOUS BEAUTIFUL STUNNING GORGEOUS beach I have ever BEEN to. We got up a little early today and took the bus into Preveli where we were faced with an arduous hike down this cliffside until finally we reached a stunningly blue and clear beach. Suprisingly there weren't that many tourists there which made for a wonderfully uncrowded day. Preveli in part is spectacular because it is where a freshwater river runs into the ocean. The water was so clear and so warm and so salty that you can actually float without moving a muscle. Me and chelsea swam around for a long time, and then I got a little tired and went back to shore. I then read a little of my book and decided to sun tan a little (ahh did i mention I have a heat rash on my back???, I think its getting better though so no worries). anyways as I'm laying on the beach I look up and see someone who looks oddly familiar. Sure enough it is our hippie friend TIM who we met at the sunshine house. He is this german guy who is bike riding all the way to India, and he literally has dreads down to his knees. Anyways once the realization sets in I quickly get up and make a dramatic run towards him, frantically shouting his name. He saw me, and I think he was a little shocked anyways we hugged and it was so good to see him again! As it turns out he is living just a little ways up the mountain with some of his friends where apparently all they do is hang around and play music till their hearts content. Well anyways he is actually going to santorini tomorrow too, so we are going to go on the same ferry as him! haha ahh my life.

The day in Preveli was amazing and now I am back at the hostel where as usual everyone is out on the patio enjoying eachothers company. It is a wonderful place here and I will be so sad to leave tomorrow.

Next time i write Hopefully I will be In Santorini!!!!

Last night was SOOOOO much fun!!! ahhh okay so basically everyone from the hostel went out to dinner together and then hung out together for the entire night

After dinner we all went to a next door bar where two guys from the hostel played and they were absolutely amazing!!! They played for like an hour and then after that other people from the hostel got up and played too. INCLUDING CHELSEA ahhh it was so much fun I even sang with her a little. Gahh she did really good and sang a couple of songs to a bar full of drunkies it was sooo much fun. Haha she decided her pinnacle of life has been completed I think she can die happy. Anyways she sang and a couple of other guys from the hostel also got up and sang. One was from Louisianna and he played amazing guitar, and the two guys from denmark had incredible voices. So we stayed there for a little bit and then around 1ish we headed down to a little club like a minute away. That was sooo funnn ahh. Everyone was dancing and they played really good music, they even played two shakira songs!!! haha I danced my heart out till 430ish in the morning and then we walked back. We all stayed outside and talked for a little and before I knew it the sun was rising. I took that as a sign that i should probably get some shut-eye , so after a long night of singing, drinking, dancing, and having fun I called it a night and went to bed!

Today we are probably going to go to a beach called Prevoli. We heard it is one of the most scenic beaches on the island so we are excited to check it out!

AHH we are in the wonderful town of Plakias!!!! Plakias is seriously one of the most picturesque little beach towns I have ever had the privilege of visiting. Its a tiny little town full of lively little restaurants and brilliantly pristine beaches. Upon arrival me and Chelsea just felt a wave of happiness. We left our things at the hostel without a care in the world and went down to the beach ASAP the water is way colder then on the other side of the island but it is definitely worth it because the town is less touristy.

Last night we went to a Taverna with a bunch of guys from the hostel and once again me and chelsea were the only girls. It was a fun night and we ended up splitting three delicous plates. WE then came back here and relaxed outside with some wine until four in the morning.

Today one of our hostel friends took us down to a secluded little beach called one rock beach. Once again the views were incredible and I felt like i was in paradise. It has definitely been an amazing move to these new beaches. I even managed to get in a cliff jump while we were down at the beach, it was only slightly terrifying.

Alright well my time is almost up.....GREECE IS AMAZINGGGGG

Ciao

Jessica

So pretty much my time here and Greece has flown by. It seems like I was just landing in Athens wide eyed and excited to be in another country. I have now been here for approximately 1 month and it has been insaneeeee. 4 weeks have just flown by and it feels so weird to know that I have been traveling for so long. So many things have happened...even some that are secret and they have all been so worthwhile. It's exciting to know that all of our planning, and hours spent slaving away at jobs have paid off in such a remarkable way.

The past couple days in Rethymno have been kind of a blur. After hiking the Samaria Gorge we decided that night we would go to bed and sleep until we couldn't sleep anymore. The past couple of weeks have taken a real toll on our bodies: averaging in around three hours of sleep and eating cookies and gyros as a meal resulted in our bodies telling us it was time to rest and time to eat....so as a result we slept in until 1:30 in the afternoon haha. After that we went down to the beach with two guys from the hostel only to discover that the waves were huge and scary!!! I am not the best swimmer and was a little scared to enter the ocean, but the water looked soo refreshing that I couldn't resist. Chelsea, a guy from our hostel and I braved the waters and swam far out so as to avoid where the waves were breaking. Apparently on shore, 2 or 3 lifeguards were beckoning us in because it was too dangerous for us to be out there. It was only after about ten minutes that we realized this little predicament and began to swim back in. Luckily we made it back alive...but just barely haha. I found this whole situation quite terrifying and exausting but the reward was heaven....lying on the beach and taking a nap.

Then those two guys left and me and Chelsea a heart o heart for like two hours it was a very nice end to the day. After that we decided we would let ourselves indulge a little and feast. Chelsea and I have gone so many days hungry that we have forgotten what its like to be full haha. So we decided to go to this cute little restaurant situation in the heart of an alley way and feast to our hearts content. We each had two sprites (I now consistently crave these every day) and then we ordered an appetizer of shrimp in some type of tomato yummy sauce, then we shared Mosaka and a margherita pizza....yummy. After this the owners decided it would be a lovely idea to place shots on our table. At this point I was full, and didn't want to end the meal choking down yet another shot of Reike so instead I politely poured it in my Sprite cup when no one was looking (be proud parents). After this lovely meal I got some gelato!!! ahhh my favorite!WE then went back to the hostel relaxed a bit and went to bed.

Today we checked out of our hostel and are heading down to another one opposite from where we are in a town called Plakias. Its a town near other things that we've been wanting to do so we decided it was best to make the move. There is another cheap youth hostel (about nine euros a night) down there and we are hoping they have some room. I'm sure all will work out as it always does in the end.

Now that our temporary burn out has ceased we are ready to party it up in a couple of days during our island hopping adventure!!!!

Once again I hope all is going well back in the States. I miss you!!!!!

Jessica

P.S. we called our friend Alex from the island of evia yesterday...and it was so good to talk to him.. haha our other friend George has also kept in contact and has even left worried messages on my facebook checking up on us to make sure we are okay.

Soooo pretty much the Samaria Gorge was insanely gorgeous (haha that sounds funny). Anyways there is honestly no way to describe how beautiful of a hike it was. It was 18 kilometers and took about sixish hours to hike and it was definitely worth it! We befriended this girl named Amy (she is a 23 year old from Texas and she is from our hostel) anyways she joined us for the EPIC hike haha. She ended up being a wonderful hiking partner and we all had pretty good conversation for the hike. The hike itself wasn't too difficult just a lot of rocks, down hill slope, and super LONG. its actually the biggest gorge in all of europe! It was soo beautiful, with sheer cliffsides, a meandering river running along the bottom, and just a beautiful landscape in general. If anyone ever goes to Crete you must hike the Gorge!!! I took plenty of pictures so upon my arrival I will show them all so everyone knows just how beautiful it was. That pretty much took up the entire day.

The day consisted of waking up at 6 getting catching the bus to Chania at 7, catching yet another bus to the gorge, walking the beautiful gorge for several hours, enjoying a lovely icecream cone, taking a ferry to some small beautiful little beach town, catching two more buses and finally arriving back at the hostel around 8:30 haha. IT was magnificent (gahh i need more adjectives)

Ahh I almost forgot to mention the busride to the Gorge was terrifying! It was basically this huge bus, and as we were winding up the steep mountain side it would take these really sharp turns and it looked like our bus was going to tumble over the cliff side. Every turn me and Chelsea were consistently letting out squeals of fear, luckily we managed to make it up in one peice! haha well thats all for now.

I feel like i have so much more to say about the Gorge because it was such an amazing experience but there really isn't a way to word what it was like.

Did I mention that on this entire trip me and chelsea have been the babies? haha this results in recieving wisdom from practically every individual we meet. I guess that means we are going to be pretty wise upon our arrival in the States. haha

HUGS and KISSES

Jessie

Quote of the Day from the guys we met on the ferry

"Are there many lakes in LA?" (Vangelis)

"No why?" US

"Well why are they called the LA Lakers then?" (Vangelis)

Other quote of the day courtesy of Chelsea

"Isn't Crete like the first place or something???"

AHHH CRETEEEE IS AMAZING!!!!!

I think this is by far my favorite place that we've been to yet, it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Ferry ride over to crete, however was not as amazing and wonderful. haha. Naturally Chelsea and I had to by the cheapest ticket (30 euros) for an overnight ferry. This proved to secure us two solidly built wooden benches on the top deck (not enclosed) haha. That was an interesting night. First of all the ferry was huge! Chelsea and I were really excited to be on a ferry, making the time pass fairly fast. WE even made friends!!! We were situated right in front of a group of guys, and eventually we ended up talking to them for hours. They happened to be policemen in Athens and were going to Crete for holidays (did I mention all Greek policemen are extremely attractive and young? haha) Anyways we hung out with them and then had a restless cold and very uncomfortable two hours of sleep. haha O and my mother warned me of the rift raft on the top deck.....haha me and chelsea were the RIFF RAFF. . We landed in the town of Chania at about 6:30 in the morning with absolutely NO plans. Haha we departed off the ferry, said goodbye to our new friends, and then just kind of stood around with absolutely no idea about what we should do. WE had looked up a couple of hostels before and decided our best bet would be to try the one in Rethymnon (a name I find extremely difficult to pronounce).

We took an hour long busride through this absolutely gorgeous island and made it to Rethymnon. WE got off the bus and it literally took us like an hour to find the hostel. Luckily they had plenty of room and were happy to let us stay. The hostel is really cute and in a really convenient location. It kind of looks like a jungle Bungalow and we are sleeping in mixed rooms (dont freak out mom!). So after checking in we slept for like 5 hours and then headed down to the beach with three other people from our hostel. The water was sooo calm and warm as bath water, it was absolutely wonderful and just what we needed to feel rejuvenated. The city of Rethymnon is soooo cute it runs along the beach and is basically this cute little cobblestoned picturesque looking place. So after the beach we decided we deserved at least one real meal (my dinner the previous night had been cookies and sprite) so I ordered spaghettie carbonera and chelsea ordered a club sandwich. I was soooo starving that I was the first to finish!!! Becase we are Americans the waiter thought that it was absolutely necessary to treat us to several free shots, haha of course we couldn't refuse. After dinner we got Gelato and then got ready and headed down to a local disco club called Metropolis, they played the best music and we danced our hearts away for the entire night!!!!

Today we decided to take a day trip into Iraklio and went and saw the temple of Knossos. It was really interesting and managed to captivate our interest for approximately one hour. haha It really was cool and we heard that it is one of the better preserved Palaces around that we could visit. There were reconstructed frescoes everywhere and luckily there weren't very many tourists! Now we are back, and we are going to make our dinner with some eggs and cheese and rice that we bought at the market. Tomorrow we plan on doing a 5 hour hike through the Samaria Gorge!!! AHHHH i'm sooooo excited! It is supposed to be amazing and it is the longest Gorge in Europe.

HOPE ALL IS WELL

LOVE YOUUUUUU

Jessie

P.S. All my friends on the Island of Evia we miss youuuuuuu sooo much!!! and talk about you all the time to everyone we meet!

ALRIGHT, haha ahh that has become my new catchphrase. Anyways we are writing one last blog before we depart for CRETE!!! ahhhh our ferry leaves at 9 at night and we arrrive early in the morning and I can't wait!! As much as I love the city of Athens, we have pretty much exhausted all sites/districts/things to do and we are definitely ready to be back in gear.

Yesterday we went into the mysterious Exarhia. WE had asked several people about the district of Exarhia and they pretty much all said the same thing....ANARCHISTS!!! haha this proved to be such an intriguing concept that we decided it was pertinent that we pay a visit! We were expecting to see anarachy running amuck through the streets but there was nothing of the sort. In fact it was just like a really bohemian relaxed area. It actually reminded me a tad bit of boulder haha. We spent hours looking for anarchists but all we found were alternative people with a lot of peircings drinking coffee haha. None the less it proved for an interesting day, and I even bought a shirt! ohhh we even ran into our friend Barnsey (who works at athens backpackers) and he hung out with us for a while.

ahh I almost forgot taking the metro to Exarhia ended up turning into a silly situation. So me and chelsea are walking down the escalator to catch the metro when we hear the train pulling up. So we both decide to book it down the escalator in hopes of catching the train. Chelsea is ahead of me and as we both get of the escalators we have to round a corner. We can see the train, and I am running really fast but i'm wearing rubber flipflops with absolutely no traction and I kind of like fishtale around the bend and almost eat it. Anyways to make a long story short Chelsea just barely manages to get on the train, and I watch the doors close. In panic we bang on opposite sides of the glass this just makes the situation even more hilarous and eventually I have to give up go sit down next to these two asian girls who had just witnessed the entire thing and wait for the next train. haha it was soo funny

When we got back we paid a visit to the Hostel because we are addicted to Athens Backpackers haha and they let us help them out in exchange for drinks on the rooftop bar haha. So we hung out there for like an hour and helped them set up the bar and then we headed back to Ana's and ate a lovely dinner with her. Later on in the night we went back to the rooftop bar and actually ran into someone that we had met our first nights in Athens. Around 10ish we headed to James Joyce, a local bar, and watched the soccer game with Barnsey and some other people from the hostel. WE then got the drunk munchies and marched right into a pastry shop and ordered two delicious looking brownie cake things and ate them in Monastiraki square, they were so delicious!!! After that we headed back to Ana's and called it a night

WE are now embarking on the next part of our adventure and I am sooooo EXCITED!!!!!! wish us luck on the beautiful island of CRETE!!!

HOPE the states are well.

LOVE YOU

Alrightyyyy welll

HELLOOOOOO

Ahhh so going off of my last blog. We did end up going up that hill that I was talking about and the view was unreal. The actual hike up there was pretty brutal. It was like 2 in the afternoon so the sun was still strong, and we were tired due to lack of sleep, this resulted in dramatic noises, and phrases like "WHY GOD am i doing this??" haha after walking up stone step after stone step after stone step we finally managed to make it to the top. Luckily it was worth the sweat because at the top you could see the entire sprawling city of Athens. The view went as far out as the ocean and the city limits looked endless. While we were up there we also had a friendly conversation with a flight attendant lady from canada! haha random I know. after that we were exhausted and ended up coming back to the hostel where we relentlessly annoyed the hostel staff. We were both so tired that instead of joining the festivities on the roof top bar we decided to go down to where the couches were and played cards. There we befriended a fellow backpacker. He was really nice, and he had just finished his graduate degree from Notre Dame. Well we all got to talking and we decided that it was necessary that we find a pool (because the days here in athens have been notoriously HOT). So Chelsea and I and our new friend went in search for a fancy hotel. We managed to find one and successfully sneak into their pool for a quick dip! haha after that we decided to show our friend (Brian) around because he had just arrived that night and was leaving the next day for an island. We walked around Plaka and then went up to the acropolis at night. It was such a nice laid back evening! P.S. Athens Backpackers hostel let us sleep on the couches for free haha.

The next day we decided to hop around on the metro only to find ourselves lost and confused. IT is soooo extremely HOT here that we decided the best option of the day would be to go get coffee like all the locals do. So we found a fancy outdoor venue and drank our freddochinos as slow as possible (for some reason all the greeks take like hours to drink coffee). There we befriended a friendly character named Pierre. This Pierre fellow was straight out of a book. He was an older man maybe in his mid 60's and from what I understood he was french but has been on assignment as a journalist in Greece for the past two years. Most of the time I couldn't understand what he was telling us because he mumbled a lot haha. Anyways he was this classy guy who was just sitting alone at a table near us, and every once in a while he would stare down the pigeons near by and try and feed them crumbs from his hand. HAHA not joking he could have been a leading character in some fancy french movie. Before he left he stopped by our table (they were really close to eachother) and left us his business card and told us to call him if we wanted to meet up for coffee.) His business card was this snazzy little peice that had his two initials and his last name on one side with Journaliste written under it in scrawling letters. The back had his number haha ahh this was so random. But don't worry parents we have no intentions of meeting up so don't freak!

After this little expedition we headed back to our hostel to grab our things and head to Ana's. Ana is this very nice girl that we befriended on the island of Evia. She goes to University in Athens and happens to live quite close to our hostel. Anyways she has exams this week so me and chelsea have pretty much been on our own. This works out fine for us, we are just happy to have a place to stay!! So after arriving at her place we ended up going out ot Monastiraki and headed to a bar, because we can here!!! haha We felt all snazzy sitting at a bar ordering a beer haha. After that we walked around and headed back for the night.

The next day I woke up early and decided to go get coffee and go read in the National gardens. Then I met up with Chelsea and Anna and her other friend and we all went to the beach!! The beach was kind of weird but it felt sooo good to be in the water, because the heat here is like death!!! After the beach we came back showered up and went in to monastiraki and got hair wraps!!!! Then we decided to do our own version of the pub crawl and instead went on a convenience store crawl. This consisted of us going up to several convenience stores and buying a beer haha. Along the way we met someone who just graduated from CU!! That was the weirdest coincidence haha. He was really cool though and he told us we were very boulder haha. Our night ended with a nice scoop of gelato and then sleep!!!

Today we are going to go into Exarhia which is supposedly where all the alternative/anarchist people live! haha YES

Tomorrow we leave for Crete, so wish us luck!!!

CIAO

Athens backpackers has been soo much fun the night before last we went on the bar crawl and stayed out till 4 in the morning it was so exciting to mingle with other backpackers. Chelsea whipped out her guitar skills and there was a beautiful moment where everyone was singing to wonderwall.

Anyways the next day I dragged chelsea to the National Archaeology Museum and I LOVED it. I like to think I helped enlighten chelsea with a little bit of culture haha. The Museum was really cool, and I actually got to see a lot of artifacts in person that had studied in my Art history class. After that we got creeped on by a guy who was selling purses and got lost trying to get back to the metro. The day wasn't too eventful we just came back and checked in to our real rooms and took showers!!!!! The people at the front desk like us so much now that they even gave us discounts on our rooms haha.

Ahh Last night there was another bar crawl that left at twelve but we decided to stay and hang out on the rooftop with two of the owners of the hostel. It was such a fun night and everyone was just relaxing and playing guitar. Considering i don't play i managed to fit in some of my singing skills haha. IT was sooo wonderful and such a beautiful night to be outside. Today we were really tired and have kind of gotten a late start to our day, we might walk to a hill that overlooks the city but we aren't really sure yet.

EVERYTHING is soooo wonderful here and I'm sooo happy to be a traveler! Chelsea and I are having a blast and meeting a lot of interesting people

Miss you all back at home, hope you all are enjoying the beautiful beautiful summertime~!!

LOVE YOUUUUUU

Well today we left town that we had been staying in and it was so sad!! We have made so many amazing friends their that it felt like we were leaving our home. This morning we left the Sunshine house and then went fishing with our friend George!!! He is honestly the most genuinely nice person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Ever since we met him he has made us feel at home in this wonderful town by the beach. He has cooked for us several meals (considering the sunshine house never feeds us) and has made sure that we have seen everything possible. Anyways he took us fishing, which was a first for me, and we had a blast! Although we didn't catch anything it still was a funny random experience to take with me. He then took us to his home and fed us some traditional greek food that I can't even pronounce, but it was delicous!

The day before was our day off and George took us to go get coffee at Azuls (which is also the local bar). Greeks are big on coffee here and a morning without coffee is considered sinful, haha. so we enjoyed a taste cafe with George and Pavlos and proceeded with the rest of our day. This consisted of George cooking for us yet another meal, and then going into Lampsakos. In Lampsakos we bought poster board and construction paper and made everyone thank you. cards! After that we went back to FOODBREAK one last time and worked on our cards awkwardly while all the local village boys watched haha. Pavlos (who works at food break) was so sweet and brought us out a chocolate crepe (our favorite!). After that we headed to Azuls had some strawberry girly alcoholic drinks, which were sooo yummy and then headed back to the sunshine house for one last night!

Ahh I almost forgot, the day before that another George took us to this fancy classy bar place in Halkida. Me and chelsea felt all legit and like fancy young adults. haha IT was classy for reals!!!! It was beautiful and right on the water and me and Chelsea where like the babies sitting at the bar.

The villagers in the Lampsakos Bourdgi area have been so kind to us and we have managed to make many friends. A couple of our new guy friends throughought the past two days have even become almost paternal in their care for our safety. We have recieved several talks about being smart, not too trustworthy, and taking care of ourselves and they too have warned us about greek men haha. They even want us to keep them updated so that they know that we are safe! haha Mom and Dad, we have people in Evia keeping track of our safety as well!! haha

Leaving today made me realize that the people really make a place. To all my friends on the Island of Evia I miss you already!!!!!

As of now our plans are kind of up in the air. When we arrived back in Athens today we had absolutely no idea where we were going to stay. Luckily things have a way of working out for us, and we have now acquired a couch at Athens Backpackers (the hostel that we stayed at in the beginning of our trip.) HAHAHAHA ahhhh yup thats right we are sleeping on a random couch in Athens and living the real life of backpackers. Our life has become liberating in the way that we never know whats going to happen. anyways we hope to stay their a couple of nights and then with our new friend Anna who we met on the WONDERFUL Island of Evia!!! It gets a little hazy from there and we might possibly go to another farm in crete, we will keep you updated.

Haha life here is absolutely wonderful and I couldn't be any happier with the way things have been turning out. These past two weeks have flown by and I have the feeling that i first had when I landed. It's weird that a third of my trip is over, but exciting to know that the rest of my time here is full of even more adventures!!!


LOVE YOU GUYS hope all is well back in the states.

to see Chelsea's blog go to Chelseaontheroad.blogspot.com!!!

AHH so right now we are at our friend Georges house and he has kindly let us use his internet. So pretty much these last couple of days have consisted of going to foodbreak as usual and going to the beach (a favorite past time of mine as of now). The water here is so clear that you can see absolutely everything. Last night our new friends also took us to the Turkish Fortress at night so that we could see all of Halkida lit up with its various coffee shops lining the promenade. Yesterday we also met our friend Alex's cousin who is 17 and we were introduced to all of her friends (one of them happened to speak english very well and she managed to help the conversation along). While we were sitting their they noticed the french braid in my hair: this observation was followed by me becoming their hairstylist for an hour and braiding all of their hair haha. Today our other friend George (we have many georges haha) and our other friend Pavlos took us to a wonderful restaurant by the water where we ate delicous clams and mussels and octopus and bread and delicious sauces it was sooo good, and i was so full by the time we had finished. Along with this delicious greek meal the other day at our other friend Georges house (see i told you there were many!!!) his mother made us yummy lamb and salad and pita! it was soo good and so nice to eat with a greek family. the locals around this area are probably the nicest people I have ever met and I will be so sad to leave all of them!

O did i mention that i have been riding on the back of motorcycles for the past week?? Unfortunately this scares me a little bit and results in me shouting over and over again to my driver, "I DONT WANT TO HAVE A DEATH BOX" A death box is what i call the little churches that line the road commemorating those who have died in car/motorcycle accidents. haha oo and My friend Alex gave me a lesson in driving his motorbike the other day haha I'm a REALLY good driver, i think i made him nervous.

We have been here for so long that all of my days are beginning to blend together. We manage to do so many things in one day that I can't even keep the days straight. this results in short posts because i simply can no longer remember what I have been doing.

The views here remain as breathtaking as usual, the people here are still exceptionally friendly, and we find ourselves happier every day.

I'm running out of time to write because we are keeping one of the Many Georges waiting. Hope this fulfills your daily appetite for my blog haha MISS YOU

γειά σας (This means Geia Sas!!!) in other words goodbye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. sorry for the awful grammar on my blogs I simply don't have time to fix it!!!

AHHHH Lampsakos is the best little town in Evia. It is so wonderful here and we have managed to make some very nice thoughtful friends. Usually our day consists of working at the Sunshine House early in the morning and then hanging out with our new friends late into the night. Our friends are practically all guys who all love to give us rides on their motorbikes haha. This makes for interesting adventures that otherwise could not be accomplished on foot. We met our new found friends at the friendly eatery across the street called Food Break. Chelsea and I are addicted to their delicous crepes and manage to sneak one in everytime we go there. If anyone were to walk by while we were there I'm sure we look quite out of place. The scene usually is as follows: me and chelsea (the two stray americans) surrounded by a hoard of close to 15 guys haha. They are all so nice and friendly and we have also managed to befriend two girls their names are Fotini and Anna. (Fotini is like our mother here always looking out for us).

With our new friends we have gone into Halkida, visited the local beaches watched movies, gone to the bars and eaten delicous food. The local beaches are well kept and our friends Alex Nicco and Mike took us to a secret one that no one else knows about. Unfortunately it was here that me and chelsea recieved serious foot wounds, mine was treated by the beloved tobacco. Rolling your own cigarettes is a common commodity around these parts and is also quite handy when healing a shallow wound. The two bars that we have been two both line the beach one is Azuls, and i can't remember the name of the other. Me and chelsea have found that we are usually the most excited to drink at the bars because for everyone else it is a usual past time. Last night our friend Fotini took us to her friends house George and he made us delicious sea clams complete with some type of sauce, and he caught them himself. He also grilled some seasoned chicken, and some type of bread with cheese. Did I mention how nice everyone is here?? Everyone welcomes us and takes us in, and treats us like long lost friends. Now when we walk through Lampsakos we actually have people that we recognize!!! ahh it is so wonderful here and I don't want to leave.

Unfortunately planes have changed with the Sunshine House and instead of staying there for four weeks we are onlystaying for two and then we are going back to Athens for a couple of nights and then of to Crete for one more week at an organic farm. From there we will depart to Santorini, Ios and Mykonos, and then come home. We have becomed so accustomed to living in Lampsakos now that its starting to feel like home. Well hope all is well back in the States can't wait to see you all!!!!

We are back at the internet cafe!!!! okay so after I last wrote we ended up going back to the Promenade and walking around again, we then kind of made friends with these two guys that spoke only greek. All in all it was really funny and somehow they got across that there was an Ouzo party around the bend. It turns out that they were lying and they just wanted us to hangaround the bar place that they worked at. So we ended up leaving them and proceeded to walk along the promenade. After passing a couple restaurants I stop and hear a familiar song. its the YMCA!!!!! haha but not the american YMCA it was like a cover of the real one, but with this lady singing it all sexual and seductive at like this hip bar, where i'm pretty sure all the locals had no idea what they were listening to. ahhh it was so funny me and chelsea were hysterically laughing in the middle of all these people and i'm pretty sure everyone was staring at us.

After that we found this fast food greek place that was really good. I had a gyro thing that was delicioussss and we ended up befriending the girl behind the counter her name was Fifi and she actually spoke pretty good english. The rest of our dinner was slightly unconcomfortable with four guys sitting next to us, mesmerized by the blonde of chelseas hair. Haha it attracts a lot of attention but helps us out, so I don't complain.

The next day was only slightly grueling at the Sunshine House and we managed to escape to the beach near Azuls. WE walked around the beach and went to a convenience store were i proceeded to buy a HUGE candy bar (because all they feed us here is some organic leaves with oil basically and the occasional bread and eggs). We sat in front of Azuls on the brink of the water and watched the sunset over the mountains it was soooooo BEAUTIFUL~!!! and i took some really good pictures!!! so I was very excited.

yesterday we learned how to make real flour! WE basically had to put wheat through this electronic grinder and then had to sift out all the bad stuff and Wala pure ORGANIC flour. Haha everything here is organic, and its all a little to natural for my little american sugarcraving body. Fortunately the flour making was actually kind of fun and made for an interesting day. Unfortunately tim left yesterday too so that was a little sad. After that we went to a local hangout joint across the street where we made friends with some guys who speak a little english and are going to take us to Azuls tonight!!!!! yaya!!!! we finally have friends on this little island! oooo and this place across the street has gelato!!!!!! so now my life here is pretty much set. O we also did some Yoga which was kind of weird and kind of weirded me out. We like did these weird chants, and channeled our inner selves and some other stuff that i didn't really understand. Takis kept telling us to close our mind to the outside world which i found impossible to do haha o well. Anyways everyone was really into it and we did this thing called fire breathing which i found near impossible. It was still a good workout none the less. alrighty well thats all for now, i keep forgetting to bring that thing to download pictures with but when i remember i willllll!!!!! but ONly some haha. okay well LOVE YOU

o and did i mention that the area where we live if only slightly mispronounced actually means penis in greek? haha ahhh it would, this means that we have to be extra careful when talking to the taxi drivers. yup interesting tidbit for you

HELLOOOOO, okay so we managed to find another internet place today!

Haha so after I wrote yesterday we rode our bikes back to the Sunshine House through the little town of Basilico and ended up befriending two boys around the age of fourteen who were also on their bikes. I forget their names but they were very friendly and we ended up kind of being creepers and following them around haha because we didn't want to go back to the Sunshine House. Anyways we bike around with them and end up meeting their friends who looked pretty confused by the fact that they had picked up some stray americans. Anyways we end up outside of a very scenic little church a couple of blocks away from the Sunshine House and befriend an old women whose name is Olga and who happens to speak English. She helps us communicate with our new friends and acts as a very decent translator. After that we ventured back and learned some life lessons from our friend Tim.

Today was yet another exciting day!!! WE had a day OFF which meant we could do whatever we wanted. We started the day off by taking a bus into Halkida where we then kind of ventured around and checked everything out. On our way to the bus ride a very attractive Greek teen shouted out of his car GIRLS!! GOODMORNING GIRLS!!The bus ride was free courtesy of the bus driver and it was exciting because we couldn't wait to explore. Anyways we walk around for a little and I eat a delicous hot chocolate crossiant. Chelsea buys a pin for her bag that says " I have AIDS, do you want some?" all in GREEK of course. haha We then walk along the Promenade which basically is like this boardwalk area that runs along the aegean sea. It is so beautiful and lined with trees and little cafe shops. We stop at one and decide to enjoy a drink. It is very classy place, and we sit in the outside shaded area. We saw a couple of characters while we were there including, what looked to be a couple of middle-aged men from the Greek mafia, some attractive young guys who were totally creepin!!!, and then this very serious-looking old man. We didn't know what to order so we asked the waiter for a menu, only to find out that it was completely in Greek (they don't get very many foreigners). Anways we manage to point out what we want by spastically waving at the drink that the girl has next to us, which ended up being soooo good, it was kind of like a chocolate cappuchinoish milkshake! After that we decided to walk over the Old Bridge and go to a Turkish Fortress. GEtting there consisted of following some shady directions from our guidebook and walking up thousands of steps. At the top it was beautiful and we had an amazing view of Halkida. It was really hot so we were all sweaty and gross at this point but none the less guys kept creepin. We went back down and got our picture taken by this older guy who insisted that we should later meet him for coffee. O we also saw some crazies jump off of the old bridge into the bay below. And this group of three other guys approached us and we had an interesting conversation that got the point across that we were American and going on holiday in Halkida. After we walk back over the main bridge we go back to the restaurant that we had our drinks in and I somehow manage to lock myself into the bathroom with no visible way out. I am rattling the door so hard that a woman hears me on the other side and begins to yell in Greek. I don't know what she is saying and begin to shout back in english. Finally she begins to say "Wait! wait" and I do, I then found out that she grabbed one of the guys that worked there and made him let me out. It all caused quite the scene, and was sooo embarassing, haha but he got me out so all was well. Then we proceeded to go see a church only to find that it was closed for siesta time (basically there is a four hour time period in the afternoon where all the stores close). from there we decide to hop in a cab with yet another friendly cab driver who takes us to the bus station so we can catch a bus to Eretria, a beautiful beach oasis. when we got to the ticket booth in the bus station we befriend a woman at the desk, her name is Dmetria and she speaks very good english. She helps us figure out where to wait for our bus, and tells us that she will hook us up with some Greek guys. haha She also gives us some good advice about where to go, and tells us to come visit her anytime YAYYYY we have made friends in Halkida! haha.

The bus ride to Eretria is fun, and we manage to practice some phrases from Chelsea's greek translator book. We arrive in Eretria which is a small place and not full of any foreign tourists (it is more a place for Greek tourists to go). Anyways we arrive and meet the friendly owner of one of the local touristy shops who generously gives us free magnets. After that we head to the beach and the view is SOOOOO AMAZING!!!!!! We walk around and swam in the perfectly clear water. WE managed to find like this floating peace of plastic that was the size of the mattress so we float around on that, in honestly one of the most beautiful beaches ever. It was warm and sunny and beautiful out, eventually we get tired and after about an hour and a half we journey back to the bus station to come into Halkida. On the way back some very old greek men stop us and try to get us to drink coffee with them in their shack thing by the beach (SKETCH, and we say no thanks and kind of giggle awkwardly and then keep walking). Then we walk by some outdoor tavernas where a whole group of men begin to talk to us. WE keep walking but then one of them comes up to us, clearly pleased that we are American and begins to say, "COME IN!!! For the beatiful americans we will give you desert or a drink.": Haha after hearing the word dessert we are enticed and go to sit down. The man seats us at a special seat with a beach view and proceeds to give us some bottled water. He chats away friendly and his friends join in occasionally, they are clearly all excited that the Americans took their bait and sat down. IT was SAFE so once again parents don't freak haha we were in public no where scary. They then serve us the icecream specials, and one of the old men grabs two little flower pot things from the other tables and puts them on ours haha. And then another guy comes and pours us shots and insist that we drink. WE take that as our sign to leave and we turn down the shots and instead distract them by taking a few pictures with them and then leave. It was really funny and the icecream was delicious. After that we waited for the bus into Halkida and here we are. I absolutely love Halkida and find the city so cute and very quaint. I can't wait to see the rest of the places we will explore later in our trip.

OOOO I almost forgot, our cab driver on the way to the internet cafe, was once again extremely attractive, and he gave us his number haha, i forget his name but he wore aviators so it doesn't matter. So thats about it!!!!!!!! O and everyone here can't believe that we are american (I think that is why we are getting so much attention. Not many western tourists venture here, so we feel like we are seeing the real GREECE. It is so wonderful to mix touring with traveling.

I must go my time is about to run out. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

AHHH I'm finally back!!! Okay say let me tell you about the last few days. So after my last post we actually ended up being exhausted so we decided to pack and then grab a quick bite to eat at the corner market. We then checked out of the hostel around 8ish at night and then proceeded on what we thought would be a simple journey to Halkida. Haha, that was our first very wrong assumption. After calling the Sunshine House they told us that all we would have to do to get to their place would be take the train out of Larissa Train Station into Halkida and then catch a cab, sound simple? Haha, ummm not quite. First we had to take the metro from the acropolis station two stations over to the train station. That was actually really exciting because we were so happy to be on the move again and traveling! We arrive at the train station which is completely deserted and find all of the ticket booths are closed. We kind of stand there awkwardly while we try to figure things out when a policemen and his cohorts approach seeing if we need any help. We ask him where to find tickets, he then proceeds to tell us that the train station is on strike today and we will have to find another way. Me and Chelsea look at eachother and laugh because we see the hilarity in the fact that the train would go on strike the one day that we need to use it. Luckily the policemen in Greece are really friendly and end up being really helpful. In fact they kind of argue amongst themselves deciding what our best option is. Did I mention that a lot of the Greek policemen are young and reallllly attractive? So they finally decide that we should probably take a taxi to the bus station and one of them writes the address for our cab driver. Once we get in the cab we find that our driver once again speaks practically no ENGLISH. haha this results in another hilarious cab ride where our conversation covers the following topics: the fact that we only know one Greek person in America, the fact that Obama is good with a thumbs up sign, and that we aren't from Philadelphia. We arrive at the bus station and go up to the ticket window where yet another confusing conversation arrises in a mixture of english in greek. This conversation starts when the ticket man realizes that we are from america and begins to say DANGER DANGER. Not knowing what he's talking about, we look at eachother confused. Some how the message gets across that he's talking about the swine flu, o the stigma that comes with being an American. After waiting for about ten minutes at the bus station we board the bus, and ride for about an hour until we reach the city of Halkida.

After looking for yet another taxi we realize that it is going to be a little more difficult then it was in Athens seeing that not many greek people in these parts know very much english. We have the Sunshine house address written down, and after showing it to several drivers, one finally takes us in. After getting in the cab we are then joined by another girl, and a guy. The ride to the Sunshine House then takes another confusing turn. Hardly anyone speaks any English and at this point Chelsea and I know a total of three or four greek words. This results in our taxi driver becoming more aggravated by the minute after he realizes that he has no idea where the Sunshine House is. Chelsea and I giggle everytime he asks us a question because we don't know what else to do, he keeps trying to talk to us as though eventually we will just magically know what he is saying, and the girl next to us keeps rereading the address. Finally we end up on the correct dark scary alleyway but can't find the House for the life of us. AT this point it is about 11 at night and the driver is about ready to just kick us out of his cab and leave. Finally we decide to just call the Sunshine House (the obvious answer to our problem) and put Takis(the man that we are staying with) on the phone. Finally we find the right area and the taxi driver drops us off.

It is then that we hear the heavily accented voice of a man through a iron gate. He confirms that we are the people staying at his house and greets us around the side. The man that greets us is the owner. He is basically a thai massage yoga master who is famous in Thailand. He has a regal quality about him and when he greets us he gives us a kiss on each cheek he then leads us into his abode. This is Takis. He is a very nice man and shows us our room. The place that we are staying at is as hippie as it can get. There are om signs everywhere books on spirituality fill the library, and hammocks are hanging in the trees. We are also introduced to another volunteer named Tim. Tim is my favorite! He is a 26 year old from Germany and he has dreadlocks down to his hips. He is so funny and so nice, and when we first started getting to know him he told us that we are very giggly happy girls. haha pretty much describes us. We have now spent about 2 full days there and have worked HARD!!! Our first day of work we awoke to Tim who woke us up by whisteling and saying good morning repeatedly in his german accent(he's kind of like our personal alarm clock). He then made us organic oatmeal which was delicious!! We ate that outside and then got to work weeding the garden. After weeding for a couple of hours we had a breaktime where we ate another organic meal prepared by Takis. It was then that we got to know Tim, and proceeded to friendly joke with him throughout the day. After that we had a break where we ended up walking in the opposite direction of the internet cafe and ended up in some random town where we stumbled upon gelato AGAIN! haha it was a really LOOONG walk so we took a taxi back. We got back, sweeped a little, met two new volunteers and made spaghettie for dinner. The next day was super busy because we had to prepare for a group of Japanese people who were coming (they came from the peaceboat its basically a boat that sails around the world learning about peace and meditation etc). We also met two german lesbians who also live in the Sunshine House and met Takis' wife and kids (who are adorable). Anyways then the Japanese people came and took cooking classes and did meditation and we just kind of helped out. O and I made friends with Takis' little girl, she is three and her name is Jaia and currently I am wearing the braclet that she kindly gave to me. After the long day we went into the STEAM BATH which felt sooo goood and then we headed to a beach bar called Azuls.

AZULS!!! Ahhh its like the oasis of all life in this small town. Ahh so we have access to bikes at the Sunshine House, so that is what we took to Azuls. The bike ride was nice and everyone assured us that it would be safe. Of course we ended up taking one wrong turn going in the opposite direction of Azuls haha. Still it was fun because we were biking alongside the beach. Anyways we stop at some type of restaurant and ask for help they lead us in the direction and we take off on our bikes. Like two minutes later one of the guys from the place that we had just stopped at sped ahead of us and told us he would show us Azuls. (He was our age, so no worries and we were on bikes so don't worry about the whole stranger danger situation parents). Haha so he escorted us to Azuls which is this really really pretty beach hang out bar. We met up with a guy and girl who had been giving massages at the Sunshine House and hung out with them and two other volunteers, it was soo fun! We ordered a couple of beers (because we can do that here in Greece!) and stayed until about 1ish and then headed back. That pretty much sums up whats been going on! haha so far its been wonderful and has been going as planned. Unfortunately internet is kind of hard to come by here, so I probably wont be on as often to write. Anyways I am having an amazing time, and can't wait for the next adventure, ISLAND HOPPING!!! Hope all is well.

Jess

I'm backkkkk. Okay so today was yet another amazing day in the beautiful city of Athens. for some reason I couldn't sleep this morning thus I slept a total of four hours again! Although I do think it is catching up to me, because we have managed to do so many things in such a short period of time it is taking a slight toll on my energy. Today we met up with our Canadian friends, and our other Romanian friend and decided to eat a picnic lunch directly in front of the Acropolis. The initial picnic operation began when we went to a small grocery store, hidden on one of the streets and all chipped in to buy bread, a HUGE cucumber, tomatoes, mystery meat, and mayonnaise....that fortunately was the easy part. We then proceeded to make our sandwiches in an assembly line at our friends studio apartment, all was good and fun until Chelsea knocked over all of the sandwiches that had been made resulting in a loss of several tomatoes cucumbers and peices of bread. After this epic sandwich making disaster we salvaged what we could and proceeded to head to the Acropolis!!!

The Acropolis was so exciting!!! It was truly amazing to be staring up at these ancient structures, knowing that they have been in existence for thousands of years. All of us just kind of wandered around taking in the sites and taking pictures that simply can't capture what its like to actually be here. In fact they don't do any justice in showing the time invested in the ancient parthenon, or the unreal views of athens and the ocean seen from the Acropolis. After shuffling around and seeing all we could we left the ancient cites and proceeded to walk to the market. I did pass a large group of policemen and I looked for my beloved Antonio (the policeman who saved my life yesterday) but he was no where to be found.

Being a shopaholic the market was very very dangerous...everything looked so beautiful and exotic I wanted to buy it all!!! seeing as how I came with very limited expenses it was almost torturous having to pass all these things that Icouldn'tbuy. Of course I did manage to get some purchases in haha including a necklace and a scarf and a painting. After walking around for like five hours straight we made our way back to the hostel, and some how found ourselves sitting back at the gelato place (I have nooo idea how that happened, honestly gelato is addicting!!)

Ahh I almost forgot, on our way back to the hostel from the market Chelsea's bra broke right down the front. I think her boobs are GROWING. This resulted in an awkward position where I had to hold chelseas bra together essentially groping her while she pinned it shut with a button from her bag (very resourceful I might add). Mind you this minor drama all occurred in front of the Euro exchange lady, I'm pretty sure she was atleast mildly entertained.

One more thing I must divulge.... WE are no longer staying at Natalies house haha. After months and months of planning to stay there and corresponding with her she canceled last minute and left us stranded. She wrote us an email that basically said she had a family emergency and could no longer take us in. This resulted in a freakout where me and chelsea just stared at eachother for like ten minutes unsure what to do. At this point we thought for sure that we were going to be homeless vagrants wandering the athenian streets for the next month, and had absolutely nooo idea how to tell our parents that we didn't know what we were going to do! Fortunately everything happens for a reason. Within the email that Natalie sent us, she also enclosed the numbers for a place called the Sunshine house. We had heard of the Sunshine House and had actually really wanted to work there so we were sooo excited of the possibility. WE sent them an email basically begging them to take us in, and even offered to sleep in our hammock for the next month if that was the only way we could stay there. Luckily they agreed and actually sound happy to have the extra help. This being said our plans have changed a little and instead of staying in Athens for one more night we are actually going to head to the Sunshine House.

Did I mention that the Sunshine house is a yoga Thai massage place where they encourage volunteers to talk to their plants? Yup, its pretty legit.

okay I'm back but I only have a little bit of time to finish! so after relaxing on the roof top bar, which is pretty much the most amazing place everrr we met a bunch of new people who had just arrived that day. After playing multiple drinking games we headed down to a karaoke bar. Chelsea and I and two canadian girls (who have become our good friends) hopped into a taxi with a slip of paper telling the driver how to get to this mysterious Mikes Karaoke bar. This resulted in all of us shouting the only two words that we know in Greek repeatedly to the bus driver, these words being kalimera and me lene (essentially goodmorning and my name is). A confusing mixture of english and greek ensued as we talked to our friendly cab driver Nicco(I think). The karaoke bar was an Irish pub, full of greeks singing famous american songs which resulted in an odd cultural melting pot of drunken fun (although I didn't drink because I was still recovering from my hangover). after that we went back to the hostel were I got four hours asleep and now Im back and kicking!!! Today we plan on doing an assortment of activites which I will write about later.......

Yours truely,
greek traveler

Finally I have time to write! So as of now I have been in GREECE a total of two nights and its been amazing!!! After the plane landed it felt like finally all of our months of planning and hard work had finally paid off. The night that we arrived we met up with this girl named Oana who just completed her graduate degree at George Washington. We wandered around and found beautiful greek streets lined with restaurants and touristy shops. We managed to find a relatively cheap place (by Greek standards) and I enjoyed my first greek gyro and my first legal beer. After that we went back to our hostel (which is wonderful by the way) and went to the roof top bar. The roof top bar has this amazing view of the acropolis, and the weather was so wonderful. We hung out there for a little and met more people and then proceeded to go on the bar crawl. The bar crawl was so much fun, already a little tipsy I managed to dance the night away in various bars and clubs. I proceeded to drop a glass in one of the bars we went to, and drink several legallllll beers. We managed to get to bed around four and woke up at like 9:30 were we then proceeded to go on a two and a half walking tour around Greece. I can assure you that this was my first and last tour that I will ever go on hungover. The tour was fun none the less and we managed to see the market, a church, parliament, the Temple of Zeus and the acropolis. Fortunatley being hungover in Greece is just about as amazing as everything else is here. After my first public throw up (which was only slightly embarassing) two police men came over to see if I was okay. If I had been in the states I would have most certainly been interrogated and probably taken to detox to wait the day out. Greece however has a slightly different policy, here the policemen ask you if you are okay, and then proceed to call you lady over and over again, while assuring you that they will go and get you a water and orange juice to make you feel better. AHHHHH isn't that wonderful? I then took a long nap, slept off my hangover, ate some gelato, and went back to the rooftop bar... I'm almost out of time, but I will check in back later to write the rest!!!!

"No work or play or world is free. Be what you be Just BE!"
-The Soulsonic Force

Well currently I am sitting in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport about to embark on my adventure to GREECE!!! After months of planning it has finally come down to the beginning of my trip. I can not even begin to describe the amount of adrenaline and excitement pumping through my veins as of today! I have already met up with Chelsea and she is sitting besides me writing in her journal. This morning iI woke up at 5 to get ready, do some last minute stress packing, and take a shower before my trip. We arrived at the airport around 7:20 and managed to get through security successfully. I boarded my flight and it left around 8:50. At the Gate it took several minutes before my boarding group could be checked in because a group of ladies in front of me didn't understand the rule of taking two personal bags. This resulted in a confusing arguement that ended with several peices of luggage being left at the gate, to be checked in with all of the other baggage. I sat next to a guy with awkwardly spiked hair, who managed to wear his sunglasses for the duration of the two hour flight. I took a small nap, and awoke to discover my mouth open, something I didn't find very suprising. Now I am here in Dallas waiting until my flight to LONDON!!!!