Ciao everyone!
The semester is flying by, but the weekend trips are keeping us on our toes. For our second official travel weekend, my group of friends and I decided to take on Greece. We used Athens as our home base, staying there every night, but our actual days were spent bouncing all over the country. If you haven't noticed a theme with our trips yet, we definitely like to keep our itineraries packed and moving fast.
Arriving in Athens
Our trip kicked off with a brutal 6 AM flight into Athens. Our taxi left at 3:15 AM, and trying to coordinate 23 people on one bus and making sure everyone was up and ready was definitely an experience. We fought off the sleep deprivation by spending our first day roaming the city streets, exploring the local markets, and getting some amazing gyros. By evening, we made our way up to the Acropolis. As a big Percy Jackson fan, this was super cool.
A Day Trip to Santorini
The next morning, it was right back to the airport for another 6 AM flight, which was also brutal, but this time for a day trip to Santorini. We started in Oia, and I can confirm that those perfect, white-and-blue stock photos everyone loves are exactly what it looks like in real life, if not better. From there, we headed to the capital, Fira. We went shopping in some of the markets, but the highlight there was laughing and watching my friends get foot massages from a bunch of tiny fish. We capped off the day trip by hitting the beaches to watch a nice sunset before flying all the way back to Athens that night. It was high-paced travel at its finest. Shoutout to the Tzatziki-flavored chips for being game-changing.
Cruising the Aegean
Our third day was a bit more relaxed but just as eventful, featuring a 10-hour boat cruise to three different islands: Agistri, Metopi, and Aegina. We had a great time enjoying the lunch buffet and drinks on board while taking in the scenery. Agistri had this sick view after a quick hike. It was a big cliff! Aegina completely won us over with its food. They grow the best pistachios I’ve ever had, and they gave us free samples of the pistachio baklava, gelato, and butter. They were all unbelievable. While on the cruise, we actually found some people from the Midwest.. What are the odds!
Heading Home
On our fourth and final morning, we tracked down the absolute best cinnamon buns before packing our bags and catching our flight back to Venice. We were exhausted, as is tradition by now, but entirely grateful. I wouldn't trade these chaotic, fast-paced weekends with this group for anything.
Finals week up next… the end approaching quicker than we want it to.
Grazie,
Srikar