Our two week spring break started off with a bang in Dublin for
St. Patrick's Day. We were on a Shamrocker Adventure Tour, and honestly, it
could not have been more amazing. We were put in Barnacles Hostel, which is by
far one of the greatest hostels I have ever stayed in. Anyone going to Dublin
should stay here for the location- literally in the heart of Temple Bar, you
could not ask for a better spot. The St. Patrick's Day street party mayhem was
right outside of our window. The rooms were also nice and clean, an added
bonus. The tour organized walking tours and pub crawls, and we had a great few
days meeting people from all around the world. One night we went to a pub
called O'Sheas- some of the most fun I've had lately. The band was simply
incredible. You knew the words to every single song they played, which makes it
so fun for everyone. Everybody can drink, jump to the beat, and scream out the
lyrics to fantastic songs (I, being an avid karaoke fan, was super pleased by
this singalong environment.) St. Patrick's Day was, in short, a hot mess- but a
fun one. For some, the drinking started way too early. I woke up early and put
on my giant green top hat with attached red beard. My real hair and the beard
matched almost too well. One Irish guy even said that if it weren't for the
tacky tourist hat, he'd probably assume I was Irish (my face tattoos and
"Kiss Me, I'm Irish" necklaces probably didn't help the image) The
morning parade was very interesting, but something worth seeing once. We spent
the rest of the day hopping between pubs and parties. Before we knew it, the
day was over.
The next day my friend and I were off to Rome. We told the rest
of our St. Andrews buds goodbye and went to the airport. Rome was literally two
and a half days full of eating the most incredible food. It was my third time
in Rome, and my friend isn't too interested in the stereotypical tourist
activities, so we wandered the streets looking for the best, most authentic
places to eat. I could feel myself getting more bloated by the minute, but who
cares? The pasta carbonara and gelato was well worth it. We were also staying
in the same hostel as a group of nineteen from the St. Andrews' history
society, so it was so fun spending some time with them. I ran into another
friend that was visiting at the same time, it's such a small world. We also had
such fun hostel roommates, two guys and two girls in addition to us, so fun!
On
Friday morning we joined a tour group to head on our Greece Island Hopping adventure.
We were deceived. On the way from Rome to the port we were on a bus with 20
people. We thought, this is awesome! We're all going to get so close and have a
great time together. Um... False. At the port we were joined by over 200 people
from Florence, a bit unexpected. While there were some nice people on the tour,
I have never been more reassured that being abroad is where I should be. Some
of these people were shocking- they didn't understand why Greek people didn't
speak English, and one guy even had a shirt on that said St. Patrick's Day
"The Great American Tradition." Can you not? These people are the
reason that Americans get a bad reputation around the world. I was embarrassed
to be with some of them at points. Also, the tour hires really perky recent
college grads, which is fun until they actually have to do their job and you
realize that they have no qualifications. They had no idea how to easily
transport so many people. To be fair, it wasn't their fault. The company should
have capped the trip at a smaller number. The company also failed to mention a
few minor details like, "You're going to be on an eight hour overnight bus
with no reclining chairs or toilets- have fun!" Griping aside, the trip
was pretty breathtaking. We stayed at the Pink Party Palace in Corfu, which was
wild. It was actually kind of funny, my friend and I kept wondering how long
these girls would stay in denial. It was cold- not beach weather. We wore our
appropriate jackets and pants and watched as these girls froze in their small
bikinis. The party palace offered tons of activities like ATV safari, Corfu
Town day trips, and Booze Cruises- to name a few. We went into Corfu town one
day and had an awesome time. Corfu isn't a huge tourist destination, so it was
awesome to actually be with the locals and experience town. I had a really
great day. The Pink Party Palace also offered a toga party, which was so much
fun. They basically gave us pink bed sheets and were like, "good
luck!" We quickly mastered the toga technique. Everyone went to dinner in
their togas, we had a dance party for a few hours, and then the real party
started. Traditional Greek dancers came in and put on an incredible show.
After, we took shots of pink ouzo and had plates smashed on our heads. It was such
a crazy, unique experience. I'm not sure anything like that will ever happen to
me again. We went to Athens from Corfu and were there for Greek Independence
Day, so a lot of stuff was closed. We did go to the most delicious restaurant
and had incredible food. We thought we wouldn't be hungry for dinner, but we
were back out a few hours later (the diet should start soon) The next morning
we went to Santorini, which is incredible. We went to both the black and red
sand beaches and saw the sunset at Oia (the place with the white buildings and
blue domes) Today we did some more shopping and some more eating. I'm currently
on an overnight ferry back to Athens (again, they forgot to mention this...
Hmm) I'm excited for our last day in Athens, but I'm ready to go back to
school. It's been an exhausting two weeks, it feels like so much longer. I have
an essay due Monday, so I should work on that soon (see, I do schoolwork too!)
That's all for now folks!
*I wrote this the Saturday before leaving on Sunday. The most
notable thing I must mention is that two cab drivers got in a full brawl on the
street over who got to drive us to the airport. We met a taxi driver on
Saturday that was so friendly and asked if he could drive us to the airport. We
agreed, but because of the time difference, he was late. (Daylight saving time
happened over here on Sunday). Anyway, we got in another cab and drove away,
but the cab we called came out of nowhere and cut the other driver off. He made
us get out of the car and was so upset that the "bad boys" had tried
to scam us. It was a wild ending to our trip. I was happy to make it to the
airport alive.
Disclaimer:
not all of this is glamorous. I experienced a hostel mate vomit... A lot. Some
of the literal traveling has been so unbearable we considered going back to St.
Andrews. I'm glad we didn't- we met a few cool people and were able to realize
how awesome we are by meeting some of the other people...
Here’s
the YouTube link to the video I made on Spring Break. It’ll be the best way to
see the pictures of my experience J https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl9pjXhdys4&feature=youtu.be
