The journey there and GREECE

I guess I'll start with the trip there. I ended up staying with Mariely the night before we left as we had to catch a train at 140 in the morning and her house is walking distance to the station. So I lugged my much too heavy duffle bag, loaded with two weeks worth of stuff the three blocks to the station. (By the end of the trip I was regretting not finding a bag with wheels.) the train part went rather smoothly but by now I've taken the train several times so I wasn't expecting any glitches.
And then there was the bus. I don't think I've ever been in a vehicle that long before. We ended up being on the bus for more than 30 hours! It was ridiculous! But so much fun. The kids from the czech republic got on the bus about 6 hours before we did (the kids from Slovakia) and when we were all together there were 42 of us. So it was a very full bus. I'm pretty sure every seat was filled. We loaded onto the bus at 5 in the morning and were set to travel for the next day and a half. It didn't actually turn out to be too bad. I was very proud because I didn't end up getting motion sickness the entire way (one person barfed but they caught it in a bag so it was all good) which is quite a feat considering I almost always get sick in the car. I don't even know what we did to pass all that time but I know I slept a lot adn there were lots of stories shared and lots of things to see out the window.The major issue we had was with the toilets. Having 40 some people trapped in one place makes it almost inevitable that someone has to pee at any given time and as the bathroom on the bus wasn't functioning that made for quite a few pit stops. We had to stop every three hours anyways for the driver (its the law) but when we were driving through Bulgaria and Romania it ended up being extremely difficult to find a bathroom. We would pull into a truckstop and all get out of the bus and line up at the toilet when the owner of the place would run out yelling at us "NO NO. This no public! This no public toilet!". Apparently in Bulgaria and Romania the public isn't allowed to pee. The rotarians ended up having to give the owner a chunk of money to let us in, and this happened on more than one occassion.

When we did finally arrive to Greece I was in awe. It was incredibly beautiful! The landscape is very mountainous and everything was green and lucsious and it was super warm! Plus thirty the first few days! The cities we stopped in were really busy, crowded, and dirty but so cool to see. There were literally rows and rows of apartments built right next to eachother that went on and on for miles. Both Italy and Greece had a very unique feel to them. You could certainly tell you entered the mediterranean. The people in Greece were very welcoming and warm but they definitely like to sell you things. If you sat down in a restaurant they took excellent care of you, making sure you're every need was met.
Our first night in Greece our hotel was on the beach so I got to go swimming in the sea! It was SO COOL! I LOVED IT! All the other exchange students couldn't believe it was my first time swimming in salty water. You really do float more though and it was much saltier than I expected. Even when you licked your lips you got a mouthful of salt.
The next two nights we stayed just outside of Athens and were by the sea again. This time we didn't have a chance to go swimming but we walked along the shore and dipped our feet in. I saw (and touched) sea urchins! And found sea shells! The water was a stunning turquoise. It was so incredible to see how big and vast the water was and to just sit on a giant rock and listen to the waves crashing against it.
We were supposed to go to Athens one of those two days but our trip ended up being cancelled due to riots in the city centre (you probably know the economy failed and so the people are not pleased. And no everything was not really cheap there....). The rotarians decided we wouldn't be going into Athens in the morning and we were all dissappointed and whining about it saying it probably won't be that bad and why can't we go but that evening we were glad we didnt. There ended up being car bombings and gunfire! That shut us up for a while.
In greece we saw Delphi (the ancient centre of the world) which is a city built a LONG time ago by the greeks for the gods. They literally assembled humongous temples and then didn't live in them becuase they believed the gods did. We toured Thessaloniki and beautiful city. We visited a monostary which was literally built into a cliff. I saw monks there and was taken a back by it's beauty. This was definitely one of my favorite sights. We stopped at a canal which was manmade and huge. I have no idea how they built it, especially considering it was constructed in 1890 soemthing so they didn't have machines. We also so an ancient amphitheatre and how it works which was so cool. All the exchange students and I went to the top of the theatre and sat down while the Rotarians stood in the middle of the bottom of it (on the stage) and did different things. It was incredible because it actually works to amplify the sound to this day. Even though they were hundreds of metres from us we could here them clearly; light a match, rip a piece of paper, drop a coin, and sing. Insane!
In the evenings we often had free time to roam the city in groups of four or more. This was probably where some of the most fun was had. We found a little family owned greek restaurant and went there for dinner where we ordered almost all the appetizers to share between us. IT WAS SO GOOD! I was in heaven! We had zatziki and fried bread and stewed grape leaves and goat cheese and mmmmmmmmmmmm I"m gonna miss it all. Then after for dessert we found a cute little bakery type shop and had baklava which was to die for!
Oh yeah and it was funny, the greek and Italian toilets weren't exactly what you could call toilets. They were more like a hole in the ground you could squat over. mmmhhmmmmm. That was a pleasant experience. Or if you were lucky there was actually a toilet there but never a toilet seat. I still don't understand why this is. I mean why install a toilet and not put the seat on it? makes no sense to me......