Marissa's Adventures Abroad : 2017

Χαίρετε,

Time for part 2 of our Cousin Trip! If you want to refresh your memory on Part 1 (Spain), you can find that here.
After trekking around Madrid and Barcelona the four of us took off to Greece.

I know, I know, I know. This post is very late and it seems like EONS ago I went to Greece.

But, better late than never.

Amanda and I were both involved in Greek Life in college and we felt that going to Greece to get in touch with our sorority roots would be fun. We could see where the ancient beer pong tables first were made. Where the first toga party was held. Maybe walk through the ruins of where the ancient Greek Week games were played. Maybe get to see the Parthenon, where the original formal was held. Get to ask a real Greek boy to a date party.

After a quick 3 hour flight we all piled into a Greek Uber and I thought that this was where my life was going to end. Road signs, street lanes, turn signals, and seatbelts seemed to just be there for funsies. I always thought driving in LA was scary but geez, Athens was on another level.

Because I am a YARHOO we spent the first evening doing laundry at a laundromat. Did I make sure to book an Airbnb with a washer and dryer because we would be halfway through our trip at this point? Yes. Did our Airbnb not end up having a washer or dryer so we spent the entire evening sitting in a laundromat? Also, yes.

#myb

Day 1:

After a week in Españaaaaa, we were more than ready to dive right into the Greek cuisine.

Traditional Greek Coffee

It was SO NASTY

The Greek coffee was gross, but the Greek pies were outstanding.

Yiasemi- On the famous plaka steps. Everything is homemade daily, in the middle of the restaurant by that cute lil Greek lady behind the counter.

Plaka Steps

Our meal was just DIVINE. Now that our bellies were full of delicious pies we headed onward and upward. Up to the tippy top of the Acropolis! We bought the Athens city pass which is a good deal if you plan on visiting a fair amount of historical sites. It's an even better deal if you have a European student ID, because DA PASS IS FREEEEEEEEE.

Our destination

A few historical architecture side notes: The Acropolis is the huge hill in the middle of Athens where the ancient citadel is. A Citadel is like a wee little city where all the important stuff is, up high with tall walls to defend against attacks. The Parthenon is the temple that is in the Acropolis, dedicated to the Goddess, Athena (Athena...Athens...get it? They were big fans of her). The Pantheon is a Roman Temple in Rome, Italy and has nothing to do with Greece except for the fact that the names are very similar and get mixed up a lot.

Thank you to my History of Architecture, Spring 2015 class for engraving these facts into my brain.

If you did not happen to take History of Architecture, I recommend visiting The Acropolis Museum before hiking up the hill. It's only 5 euro and it gives you all the facts about what stuff is old and what stuff is really old.

Theater of Dionysus: Where ancient Beyonce concerts were held

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Started from the bottom now we here

We made it!!!

The Propyla

The Parthenon

If you look closely, towards the bottom at the 7th column from the left, there is a BEAUTIFUL Greek Goddess.

Erechtheion Temple

More Greek Goddesses

Amazing 360 views

Views on views on views

You can see the ocean in the background. Ugh so gorg

After walking back down the Acropolis we decided to look at some more old stuff that is included in our Athens City pass.

Roman Agora

You can see the Acropolis from here. Actually you can see the Acropolis from like errywhere.

Looking at ancient, old stuff in the heat sure makes you HANGRY.

If you remember from my past blogs, Amanda is queen of finding the besssssttttttt places to eat.

Kosta's Souvlaki

Easy, cheap and delicious. 10/10 would recommend. 10/10 would go back. 10/10 still crave.

Oh you know I can't turn down trying boba in other countries.

We were EXHAUSTED from the day and went back to the Airbnb for a wee nap before dinner. Luckily for us, one of the recommended dinner spots Amanda found was underneath our room. Literally walked out the front door and took 3 steps and we were there.

Greek Salad

Fun fact. The Greek salad has no lettuce. It's just straight up cucumber, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, a chunk of cheese, and olives. I deff didn't expect that. But it was DELISH. This place was called Dio Dekares i Oka.

Day 2:

Ok. I had been in Greece far too long to not have any Greek yogurt. Or as the Greeks call it... Yogurt. Amanda made us walk AN HOUR to this place because it was on Bizarre Foods. She hyped it up so much and it deffff lived up to the hype!

Oh it was so divine. So fresh. So yummy

It's called Stani and they had so many good looking treats and pies, but we were on a mission for homemade Greek yogurt, and homemade Greek yogurt is what we got! The yogurt (pictured above) is made from sheep's milk, drizzled with honey and walnuts. A traditional Athenian breakfast!

After breakfast we continued to roam around the city and take in all the sights.

Doing a little Shooooopppinggg

We visited the Temple of Hercules next to take full advantage of our City Pass.

Ohhhhh nooooo. This one fell down

Haleigh, who is all about being in nature and the outdoors (#nerd), found a really pretty park to wander around.

It had only been 24 hours but we were already craving more Souvlaki. Amanda (Queen of Cuisine, the Lady of Lunch, the Goddess of Grub, the Diva of Dinner, the Sovereign of Snacks) found us another great Souvlaki place. (I don't remember the name)

Back at it again with da Souvlaki

And then back to sight seeing

This picture is so much YAS. Marble? YAS. Mint shutters and door? YAS. Pink walls? YASSSSS

We concluded our evening with Greek FroYo with honey and walnuts for dinner at Snoyo.

Nothing crazy but it was walking distance from our place.

That concludes the Athens portion of my blog. So maybe stand up, stretch, go to the bathroom and grab some snacks because up next is...

Mykonossssss

Amanda kept asking what time our WATER TROLLEY to Mykonos was leaving.

Water trolley.

What the FERK is a water trolley.

For someone who's job requires them to be pretty well versed in marine terminology to keep calling the Ferry, the WATER TROLLEY...

And the answer is 7am. AKA the buttcrack of dawn.

All aboard the USS Don't Barf

Haleigh and I were more than prepared for sea sickness. We got our seasick bands. We got our Dramamine. WE CAME PREPARED.

But it was the most chill water trolley ride ever. No one got sea sick. Well, we actually all took a Dramamine pill (JIC), which knocked EVERYONE TF OUT. Didn't realize it was like a sleeping pill and once we got off the boat at 10am, everyone was super loopy.

I managed to find THE MOST AMAZING place to stay in Mykonos, The Mykonos Moussa. Our host, George, picked us up from the water trolley and drove us around the little island showing us this and that, and driving like a maniac but we were used to that #greeklife driving by now.

Our little villa was outstanding.

I mean comeeeee ONNNNNNN

AMIRITE? AM I RIGHT? How gorggggg.

This also ended up being the cheapest place we stayed throughout the whole trip. WOOT WOOT. Ball'n on a budg.

George recommended that we rent a car for the 2 days we were there, so we could explore the whole island. It's not necessary to rent one if you stay right in the center, but we were more on the outskirts. Plus, it was very, very entertaining to watch Amanda try and drive the narrow streets and not kill us all.

S'cute

And we were off to explore!

Literally cats everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

It's so picturesque!

Fun fact brought to you by our new buddy, George: There are over 400 churches and chapels on Mykonos. One for almost every family who lived on the island.

Shopping area

Since our little villa was near the beach, we spent the evening doing a little Mykonos Beach photoshoot before dinner.

The gate that leads down to the beach

Once a dancer, always a dancer. But... the older I get the more this hurts.

Me...

Alexandria...

Amanda...

and then there is Haleigh.

Amanda, still holding on to her title, Queen of Cuisine, found a cutal place called Avli Tou Thodori on the other side of the island.

Off to dinner!

We sat at the couches on the beach...

...and then we got cold so we moved inside.

#free baklava

I don't remember what we had for dinner but I remember these donuts were BOMB

Day 2

Coffee on the terrace

Free breakfast!

The big ring of bread covered in sesame seeds is called Koulouria and it is a typical greek street food.

So we ate outside enjoying the view while doing what we do best... playing cards.

Please note the background music. Playlist by: Haleigh.

The bread didn't hold us over long and we all needed some more Greek yogurt. We drove back to the city center to Cosmo Cafe for some yog and more island exploring.

It wouldn't be a successful trip if I didn't have a Greek Frappe

Now that's some Greek Yogurt. Can I get an AMEN?

Got these pants in Athens. #AladdinChic

We pretty much walked around everywhere the day before so we spent the rest of the afternoon down at the beach.

Dinner was only a 4 minute walk from our villa. Can you tell that we are tired? After two weeks of traveling we just wanted a nice meal and to be in bed early.

But...

They brought us Ouzo shots.

Oh shit they brought another round.

This is Haleigh's party face

Day 3

We're goin goin back back to Athens Athens.

But not before I have pita with assorted dipping sauces

One last photo shoot before we board the water trolley

Socks? Check. Sandals? Check.

Not much happened back in Athens besides eating dinner and passing TF out. But I'm going to share photos of our meal because Amanda, the Diva of Dinner, does it yet again.

This pestoooooo

Omg this salaaaaadddd

This place was called Ergon and it was in the city center of Athens. Yo recommendo.

The next morning we gave our hugs and parted ways. Alexandria was flying to Sacramento. Haleigh was continuing to travel around Europe for another few weeks. Amanda and I were headed back to Madrid for one more night before our flight to LA.

Madrid part 2

Amanda and I booked an Airbnb that was cheap and close to the metro but...we didn't realize that it was up SEVEN flights of stairs with no elevator. And holy shit it was small AF.

This is how you got up to the loft bed.

Although I could have gone to bed right then and there, it was only the afternoon, so we headed back to the market to have an early dinner.

Mercado de San Miguel round dos

Now I am tired. I've been traveling. My feet hurt. I just had two sangrias. I'm getting over a cold. I just want to go back and go to bed.

But...

Amanda done ferked up.

Now I love my sister, don't get me wrong. But she has her moments when she is a total FARTWAD. This YARHOO decided to toss all her clothes into the washer not realizing that there wasn't a dryer. So now we have ALL of her soaking wet clothes with nowhere to dry them. Well, why didn't we just walk to a laundromat? CAUSE, we thought we were so brilliant and spent all of our remaining Euros and coins at the market. Then, why didn't you go to the bank, you ask? LET ME TELL YOU WHY. Because they were closed and I, being tired, didn't feeeeeel like walking down 7 flights of stairs, hauling her wet laundry around trying to find an open laundromat that took a card, to sit there waiting for it to dry, and then walk BACK UP the 7 flights of stairs. I just wanted to lay down, ok!

But, I, being so wise and scrappy found a drying rack and a blowdryer. We were T-minus 8 hours away from our long ass flight home and thought damp clothes wadded up in her suitcase wouldn't be fun to unpack, smell and rewash.

We spent the remainder of the evening blowdrying all of Amanda's clothes 75% of the way dry and praying that they would be fully dry by morning.

Such a dumbarse.

In her defense, she thought it would be smart to do all her laundry there so she didn't have to come home and do it, since she had to go straight back to work the next day. Idea: good. Execution: bad.

The next morning it was all dry!

And back home we went with a suitcase full of dry clothes!

On the flight back we had the entire row to ourselves for the plane ride back! YEEHAWWW. Plenty of room to play cards!

Finishing our trip strong.

I had suchhhh a fab time with my cousins exploring Spain and Greece. We all got so much closer without our parents and grandparents around. I think Spain was my favorite between the two. Mainly because we didn't get invited to one frat party in Greece.