Blogging from the BEACH!

So I have been in the village for a bit now, and I'm really liking it. We got the house set up nicely, and my parents and I are getting along well...and eating very well :)

I have also decided that my next two legs of the trip are probably going to be the Greek Islands and Israel at the end of September and early October...now I have to make the hard decision of which islands :p

My uncle Ange is arriving next monday, and after that we are planning to go to Kavala, which is a big city near us that has the most beautiful sunset (or sunrise, if you are a morning person) in the world. I have been there before, but never for the sunset so that's going to be nice :)

We are also looking to go to Istanbul sometime before we leave this area, because its a relatively cheap and fast train ride to get over to Turkey, and I have had it on my "to travel to list" for a long time :)

I'm going to end this post here, as my damn battery sucks a big one and doesn't last very long anymore :( but I will leave you with a picture of the view!

The Village

So, I arrived in the village a week ago and have gotten nicely settled in now. It’s nice to be able to relax and spread out in the house and sit back. The hostels have been fun, and I can’t wait to get back to it, but I really like the break from everything. I have been to the beach almost every day since I got here and am eating some fantastic food. Fresh watermelon right from the farmers truck, tomatoes and cucumber from the backyard and my favorite – fresh figs from the trees right outside our house!

A few nights ago, My cousin Yannis, his mom Penny, wife Zoe, their son Ted and I went to Keramoti. It’s the beach town about a 15 minute drive from our village of Chrisoupoli and they took me to dinner at a fish restaurant. It was great, the server pretty much stood there and told us what came in from the boats that day. We had Octopus, shrimp, squid, tomato salad, and a few other things. The best part of it all was we were about 25 feet from the ocean.

My parents arrived a few days ago, and we have been resting a lot. Finally got to the beach yesterday for the first time, and now my parents are convinced that we must go every day, no matter the heat (which I have been saying since they got here.) I have gotten accustomed to the heat here because in Barcelona I was swimming in sweat every night as the hostel doesn't have any A/C and the nights were around 30 degrees....it was character building, that's for sure. We just got an internet stick for the rest of the month, and I will be able to post more often with this thing, so it's nice to have an internet connection every day now :)

On the way to the village!

So, just a quick post from the Athens airport as I go to the village! I left Barcelona (even though I didn't really want to - there were almost no good hostels left so I kinda had to!)

I really really loved that city! Wow, its my new favourite city in europe. I took lots and lots of pictures and will hopefully have them up soonish when I get wifi in Chrisoupoli. I've just downloaded Picasa for my laptop, so I think I will be able to play around with that and get some good posts up with pictures. I will update people with more stories and stuff soon, I met some fantastic people in Barcelona and have some great stories to share!

Barcelona :)

So, I arrived in Barcelona last night, and am loving the city. Its beautiful, the food has been great so far and the weather has been fantastic!!! It was 31 degrees today, and luckly very little humidity. I spent the day eating and walking around just seeing some of the sights.

Tomorrow i will be going to the Picasso Museum, and probably taking one of those get on get off busses to see the city a bit better, as its pretty big. The people here are really nice, and most of them speak some english so it makes it a lot easier to communicate...thankfully.

I know people have been asking for pictures...they will be up soon! I have taken over 600 of them so far, so I'm going to have to go through them and put some up soon!

Dublin!

Today was my first full day in Dublin – Its such a fantastic city!!! I did the touristy things like walked down oconnell street, the old Jameson Distillery, and of course, the Guinness tour. I met some guys in the hostel last night, and they all said the Jameson Distillery is better than the Guinness one and I agreed. We had a tour guide on the Jameson tour, and I volunteered for the whisk(e)y tasting at the end. They had Jameson, Jack Daniels (gross stuff) and Johnny Walker Black, and were explaining the differences between the three. I have now developed a taste for Irish whiskey as well as Scotch :p It has a different taste. Scotch is much smokier and Irish whiskey doesn’t have that smoky flavor to it.

So far I’m loving Dublin, the accent is the hardest between British, Scottish and Irish. It can be really harsh and hard to understand, but the people are fantastic and they are really friendly. The hostel is nice, I have some interesting roommates (a 70 year old man who goes to bed at 8:30 pm) and I have met some great people. I chatted up a few American students at the Guinness tour and got to chat baseball with people who understand the sport properly, which was really nice. They were from Connecticut and we could talk about the Yankees, Jays and even a bit of hockey as they both played hockey for their college.

The weather here has been pretty weird. It looks overcast all the time, but it hasn’t rained since I got here. Every once in a while the sun will come out for a bit, but it’s still pretty cold. As I was walking today, I bought a sweater because it got cold by the water and I was going to be out for the rest of the day.

So, when I checked into my hostel yesterday they said I was the 50,000^th person to check in , which gave me a discount of like 5 euros, so I’m pretty happy about that J It’s a nice place, about a 10 minute walk to the main street and there are a bunch of places near by to eat and drink.

Sunday I will be flying to Barcelona for a week or so, which I am excited about! I’m hoping the weather is good, because I am a bit sick of the cold and rain and I want to get to the beach!

Edinburgh!

Ok, quick post before I head off to bed. I am in Edinburgh, Scotland right now, and will be heading off to Dublin tomorrow afternoon. Its been a bit of a whirlwind 2 days in Scotland, but I have been loving it so far. I can't wait until Dublin...it seems like such a cool city, and I have heard some great things about it.

Edinburgh has been fantastic, I spent the day wandering around the city seeing the sights and went to the castle in the afternoon. The view of the city from the castle was fantastic! It was like a 360 degree view of the city from above.

Ok, I'm off to bed, I have to wake up early and finish packing before checkout :)