Day 18 - Grecian Island Cruise - 7.8.12

Sorry today’s post will be brief, but it is again very late here! Today we went on our wonderful cruise to three Greek Islands: Hydra, Poros, and Aegina.

First, we enjoyed an hour and a half cruise to the furthest island of Hydra. We really only had about an hour or so on each, so we just had some time to walk around a little bit, peek into shops, and grab something refreshing to eat or drink. Hydra was probably the most picturesque island that we visited, famous for the white-washed houses overlooking the sapphire blue mediterranean sea. After that, we came closer in to the next island of Poros, where we only had about 45 minutes. They call this island the ice cream island, because you really only have enough time to get some ice cream, and that is exactly what we did. Raspberry sorbet hit the spot. Finally, we went to the final island of our cruise - Aegina. We had the most time on Aegina, and it was very fun. Because of the extra time, a group of people from our group found a close public beach, where we swam. The water was so incredible! For the entire cruise I had been seeing the incredibly blue water, and now I was swimming in it. Somewhere between warm and cold, the currents felt amazing as the water temperature changed as the waves came in, and it felt extremely refreshing. After being in the water for probably an hour or so (playing some games, swimming, and just hanging out) we headed back to the boat for our hour long ride back into the mainland of Greece. This was happily spent sunbathing at the front of the boat, occasionally dozing a little bit as the wind whipped calmly across the boat. 

Once we returned to the hotel, we headed out for our last Greek meal. A Greek favorite, we had to go for another gyro! Gyros include a specially prepared meat, tziziki sauce, pita, tomato, and lettuce. As usual, it was delicious. Definitely a satisfying way to end the trip! Because it was so late, we just headed back to the hotel and now here we are, 18 minutes past 11, and it is definitely time for bed after an exhausting day!

Day 17 - Parthenon, Shopping, and Mopeds - 7.7.12

Today was our first full day in Greece. And, unfortunately, our second to last full day in Greece. And....I know that I say this a lot, but it was incredible! We began the day by enjoying a delicious breakfast, including greek yogurt of course! After our breakfast we walked out of our air conditioned hotel at about eight in the morning, and it was already like an oven outside. However, excited for the day’s adventures, we walked into it and up the steps of the acropolis to behold the Parthenon. We had a great tour guide, who led us through the olive groves and beautiful aged white marble steps up to the Parthenon. Unfortunately, the entire Parthenon is not standing any more because it was bombed by the Persians hundreds of years ago, but now they are working to rebuild and restore it. It was very cool to look up at the powerful columns as well as see all of the hundreds of pieces of it laying around and see the old and the new all in such close proximity. We had some time to stand and gaze in wonder up at the mighty Parthenon, which can be seen everywhere in Athens because it is illegal to build skyscrapers, or any building more than about 10 stories. Interestingly enough, the Parthenon does not look massive when you are standing very close to it. Because everything was built using the golden ratio, it mimics nature and looks natural, which presents it in a way that it never looks overpoweringly huge, except from far away, because it is so gradual and natural.

After enjoying this, we hopped on our bus for a 30 minute guided tour of the city where we got to see a couple of cool sights such as the Temple of Zeus, white marble olympic stadium, tomb of the unknown soldier monument (yes, there is another one in France), and we ended this near the Plaka for us to get lunch and spend our free time. Starving, we headed to the first gyro place we could find. However, it had to be a restaurant so we could get in out of the heat in the air-conditioning! We found a place that was just perfect, and we all ordered pork gyros. We were graciously served a greek salad of tomatoes and cucumbers first, and then enjoyed the most delicious gyros on perfect pitas. It was just what we needed. We left from here to walk around a bit, but some of us wanted to go back to the hotel, so we went back to sit in the air conditioning of the hotel and make a plan. Some people wanted to go shopping, some of us wanted to just hang out at the hotel, and right as we were making plans we ran into Mrs. Libby, who told us that she just had a unique experience - a fish treatment. We thought that this sounded cool, so those of us who wanted to head back out in the six hours of remaining free time. It was definitely an experience. We walked into the spa where they do it, paid for the treatment, and then after washing our feet sat down and placed our feet into fish tanks. As soon as my feet hit the water, a hundred miniature carp with no teeth went to work on my feet and lower legs, sucking off any dead skin to rejuvenate the skin. It was definitely one of the strangest feelings I have ever felt, like lots of tiny bubbles all over my legs. 

After the 30 minute treatment, we walked back into the extreme head of the outside and went back to the hotel to meet up with everybody. Once we were all together (just a small group), we went back down to the Plaka to do some final shopping. We browsed lots of little shops and found some very cool and unique stuff all around the Plaka. However, after a good hour or so of this, it was getting to be too hot again to walk around so we headed back to the hotel to sit on the roof jacuzzi (don’t worry, it’s not hot!) to relax for about an hour before dinner. The water felt great! It was just perfect for getting in out of the heat, and it was perfect before dinner.

From the water, we headed down and met the entire group in the lobby of our hotel to walk to dinner. Tonight’s dinner was very unique! Pork kebabs with rice and potatoes, fantastic tomato, cucumber, and feta salad, finished with some ice cream. It came complete with live music and dancing to watch, which made for an altogether very delicious and fun night!

We still had some free time after doing this, so we decided to do something that some other people had done the night before - rent a “fun bike”. A fun bike is a bike with four wheels, on which four people pedal and it is a fun way to enjoy the city. However, this seemed like a little too much work in the still hot evening, so we each (about 5 of us) rented little electric mopeds on which we toured the city. We were all set for an hour. We drove everywhere! We almost completely circled the Acropolis, went to the Agora, made it back to some highways (which we had to drive on to get back to the Plaka because we were hopelessly lost!). It was another adventure for the day! We got hopelessly lost in Athens for about 45 minutes, and it was so fun! We just explored streets and used the Acropolis as a landmark to find our way back eventually to the stand where we rented them just in time to return them.

Now, after this adventure, we are back in the hotel before our early 6:30 breakfast call tomorrow. The boat ride tomorrow tomorrow will be very fun!

Day 16 - Goodbye to Some, Hello to Greece - 7.6.12

As the alarm buzzed at 2:15 in the morning it was not a welcome sound. I begrudgingly roused myself to take a shower (I know it sounds crazy but it sure did help wake me up!) and throw all of my toiletries in my bag. At 3 our bags were loaded into he coaches and we munched on a very quick breakfast in time for our 3:30 departure. As it could be expected, once on the coaches everyone was completely asleep after sadly waving goodbye to Germany. 

Magically, 2 hours later we were awoken as we pulled into the Frankfurt airport. Everybody going to Greece got off at the first terminal, leaving our big luggage on the coach to stay in Germany while I disembarked with my two carry-ons. In the airport, it was pretty much straight forward. We got our tickets, made a quick Starbucks stop, went through security, and made it to our gate! We only had a couple of minutes to spare at our gate, where I hopped onto the free wifi there to send a couple of last minute emails before leaving Germany. 

Once in the plane, I fell asleep for the first bit of the ride. Once I woke up, I was treated t a snack and beverage as I settled in to read about one hundred pages of my book for school in the fall, which I am getting very close to finishing. Luckily, this helped speed the plane ride along and before I knew it we were descending into Athens! Once we landed, it was a breeze to get to our bus because we had no checked baggage! As we drove to our hotel we got glimpses of the beautiful Athens city, with the massive Acropolis and Parthenon lurking above us. Our hotel is quite nice! I am rooming with different people this time for the next three nights because not everybody is going to Greece! Once we arrived at the hotel, I did a little laundry to get ready for the next three days, and then we immediately went over to the Acropolis museum to see hundreds of statues, ruins, and relics that have been salvaged from the Acropolis. It is all such an impressive sight! After spending about an hour or so in the museum, we left and broke into small groups to walk around the city area near our hotel, which is at the base of the Acropolis and only a few short minutes from the plaka. We explored for about an hour, poking our head into clothing and relic shops, and then it was time to indulge in our first Grecian meal. And I was amazing! Salad with olive oil, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, beef, cheese pie, noodles, more cheese, potatoes, and finished off with some delicious chocolate mousse, it was definitely an impressive and delicious first food experience in Greece. After dinner, we walked as a group to the Plaka, a famous shopping and restaurant district in Athens near our hotel. Although we didn't do any shopping, we bookmarked many spots in our minds and decided that we definitely need to visit them tomorrow afternoon during our free time to pick up some souvenirs. We didn't have a huge amount of time, because we had an early bed check at 9:30 so that we would go to bed a little early because we had so little sleep today. The sleep will definitely be welcome! More Grecian adventures tomorrow...   

Day 15 - Rothenburg and the Final Concert - 7.5.12

Today was a very fun and relaxing day overall. As the tour has continued, we have gotten more and more free time, and tomorrow we probably had the most. We had the entire morning free, and we were told that if we wanted breakfast it was from 7-8 in the morning. After our breakfast, we had until one in the afternoon to do as we pleased. Because we walk liked around the town and walked the wall the night before, we used the time we had in the morning to do some shopping.

First, we stopped at the Christmas village, which is a world famous shop and display. They had some amazing things! Everything from regular Christmas ornaments to intricate nutcrackers, amazing incense smokers and beer steins, it was all amazing! Unfortunately I have no pictures of the store, because for some reason they do. Not allow any pictures inside the Christmas village. After looking and doing some shopping there, we walked down to the revered knife and sword shop just to look around. It was a very cool store, somewhere between awesome and nerd-haven. One person on our tour bought a five foot tall axe/spear thing from it and had it shipped home! We spent a couple minutes here, and after making any purchases we wanted here we continued to wander. As we continued to wander down the street, we were taken by the heat and decided that it was a must for us to stop for some gelato. Everybody that I was with had completed all of their shopping by this point, so we walked further into Rothenburg to visit the famous crime museum. It was very cool! They had a multitude of executioners swords, shame hats, head and hand "violins" that bound the victim, as well as a multitude of other torture devices. After walking through this a museum, it was time for our concert!

We all quickly went back to e hotel to grab our stands and music as well as as change our clothes. After that, hurried to the town square where our last concert was held. It went splendidly! Even though it was entirely too hot and resulted in all of being very sweaty and only a little bit miserable, it was a very fun last concert and the crowd really seemed to enjoy it. They say at there is always such a big crowd in Rothenburg because hundreds of people come at 2 o'clock to see the massive clock tower under which we performed. When the clock finishes its show, everybody hears the band begin to play and simply sits down and listens! As I said, the concert went very well, it as a very fun last time playing together. After we loaded everything and the percussion was packed up, we decided to head out for a couple hours to enjoy the last couple of hours we had free in Rothenburg. After changing, I headed down the street towards the choir and orchestra concert, figuring that I should sit through at least one of their entire concerts. However, of course, to beat the heat we decided that we needed some gelato. Because it was so hot, a creamy flavor just wouldn't do, so I decided to try lemon and cherry, thinking that it would hopefully taste like cherry lemonade. And it did! It was the perfect snack. After this, I walked down to the choir and orchestra concert to see and hear them play their last concert, and it was wonderful! 

Once everyone was done playing, I met up with a couple people from the band and orchestra and we decided to once again walk along the wall around Rothenburg. However, because we had already done this once, we decided to have a little fun. Once it began to get dark, a lot of nooks and crannies on the wall become completely pitch black for a couple feet. We thought this was a perfect opportunity for us to hide in these places to see if people noticed us. Of course, they did. So, we one upped it. I had the fantastic idea that I could get up into the rafters of the roof of the wall and sit there waiting for people. (I in that the ceiling was quite because I always felt like I was going to run into it!) I spent about 30 minutes up in the rafters of the wall, with the rest of the people I was with telling me when people were coming so I would know when to drop my hand down in front of their face to give them a little scare. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of this, because I didn't have my camera with me a the time! Hopefully I can snag the picture off of someone who I was with. 

After this fun aside, we realized that it was about time to head back for our final farewell, which consisted of a 30 minute slideshow of a collection of pictures chronicling our adventures in each city. As this came to a close, it was a bittersweet moment for sure, but all I could think about was how much I had to pack! After saying goodbyes to everyone, I rushed to my room to pack. Packing completed: 11:30 pm. Wake up call: 2:15 am. 

Dachau and Rothenburg

Today we started early again needing to be down to breakfast by 7 so that we could leave Seefeld, Austria at about eight o’clock. It was sad, as it always is when we leave a country, but we were all excited for what lay ahead! Today our day included many many hours of driving, with a stop at Dachau.

We were all excited for Dachau, not in the same way that we were for many of the other places at which we stopped, but because of the eye opening experience it would be. As we pulled up to Dachau, we had absolutely no idea what to expect. As we entered, it was something to behold that we had only, until now, read in history books and seen in documentaries. We walked through the gates, barracks, and gas chambers that were not recreations, not museums, but where it actually happened. It is honestly quite hard to believe. Although Dachau was not as intense of a death camp specifically like Auschwitz, it still was a terrible place and we had the opportunity to experience that first hand. However, it was very unfortunate because we only had about an hour there to see everything, and there is much more there to see than we had time for. To see the entire thing you would probably need five or six hours to see the entire museum, and walk around everywhere. However, in our time we had a chance to walk quickly through the museum as well as walk in some of the barracks, rooms, labs, the gas chambers (labeled as showers), crematorium, and many other horrible sights. It was an extremely eye-opening experience, and I am so glad that we got to go and hope that I can revisit sometime to see even more of everything that they have there.

After leaving Dachau, we made a quick stop for lunch, and then we were on our way for the three or four hour ride from Dachau to Rothenberg. Like every other drive, it was spent sleeping, reading my book for college, as well as playing some scrabble on my iPad. About four hours later, we rolled into Rothenberg. Upon our arrival, we all went to a large room where we had our orientation. Because this town is so old, it actually dates back to the middle ages and the time of the black plague, and the room that we had our orientation in was apparently used to house the dead bodies before being carted away or burned. They told us not to worry, most of the remains are gone by now.

After the orientation, we moved into our hotel, which is nice but unfortunately doesn’t have air conditioning, and it is very hot this time of year! We had some time in our hotel rooms to move our luggage in and get settled just before dinner. For dinner, we enjoyed some delicious soup, followed by a course of some pork, carrots, and fries. After this course, we finished off the meal with some delicious pudding and then called it quits for dinner. 

The coordinators raved about a local tour led by the “night watchman”, a man who impersonates a night watchman from the middle ages. We ran from dinner just in time for the tour to begin at eight, and it was very enjoyable! We were led by a man with long hair, a beard, a leather hat, black robes, a candle lantern, and a long axe/spear. It was very fun and an adventure as we heard all about many historical points and interesting parts of the history of Rothenberg. We got a tour of the beautiful city just as the sun was setting on our part of the country. After the tour ended, we had a little bit of time to explore the city on foot before tomorrow. We decided to leave the shopping up to tomorrow, so we walked along the top of the wall that surrounds Rothenberg. It was a fun adventure, and gave us some beautiful views of the city. After this, we just had time to go back to our room before the bed checks, and honestly that sounded quite nice! 

Now I am just getting ready for bed, as we have our last concert and free day tomorrow. In the background I can barely see and hear some fireworks, must be some local people celebrating the Fourth of July!

Day 13 - Venice!! - 7.3.12

Again, I apologize for the short length of this post but we have to wake up in just 7 hours, and sleep is crucial on this trip!!

Today was very fun, we woke at 4 this morning for a 4:45 breakfast to begin the 5 hour trek to get to Venice for the day. As it can be imagined, we were all out within the first five minutes of the drive and were for pretty much the entire drive to the docks. Once at the docks, we ate a packed lunch and then boarded the boat to travel into Venice. We took the fifteen minute ride into Venice and then all unloaded into this new, colorful, incredibly beautiful place for our tour. We walked over the bridges and through narrow walkways in our tour, learning not so much about the sights but more about the actual history of Venice, which is very interesting. Our tour ended at the glass factory, where we got to see a demonstration and peruse the gallery there. After this, we broke off into individual groups for free time for the rest of our time there, until 4:15 in the afternoon. In this time, we got gelato (I had one scoop of strawberry and one scoop of straccitella) to cool us down in the ninety degree heat. We wandered around a bit after this, seeing the Basilica de San Marco, as well as things such as the Bridge of Sighs. When we returned back to the square, we decided to, despite the price, take a gondola ride. For 20 euros each, we got a 30 minute gondola ride through the canals of Venice, which was a very fun experience. Lots of pretty architecture, and the feel was just fantastic. I could only think of movies such as The Italian Job while we were navigating the canals. 

After this, we decided that we wanted some real Italian pizza, so we sought out a place to get some to go. We had some margherita as well as spicy italian sausage pizza as we walked through Venice, which we found was quite difficult to actually know where you are. The narrow and somewhat organized pathways make it difficult to get your bearings anywhere, so we really had to navigate by “feel”. After pizza, we looked down at our watches and realized that it was time to head back to the meeting point to catch the boat back to the dock where we left the bus. However again, it was so extremely hot and humid, we had to stop again for gelato (who cares, I won’t be in Italy again soon, might as well enjoy the gelato!), this time trying the cherry (which was delicious!). After this gelato stop, as some of the chaperones said is the best way to measure time (in gelato stops), we made our way back to the meeting point to catch the boat back to the bus. Although it was sad, we had to say goodbye to the wonderful city of Venice, only to think of the next time we will visit this place...

Once we arrived home after the five hour bus ride, we were pleasantly surprised to be told that a local brat and sausage stand had stayed open special and late for us after our trip to Venice, so we all piled in line to get our dinner. It was delicious, of course, and now after a good brat and tiring day of heat, gelato, and fun, I can call it quits before tomorrow’s adventures! More tomorrow as we head to Germany...

Day 12 - Innsbruck and Free Time - 7.2.12

Well, sorry this post is going to be short, but I have to wake up at 4 o’clock tomorrow to go to Venice! Today we started the day by traveling a couple of minutes to the city of Innsbruck to visit a couple of sights. We had the chance to walk around and explore by ourselves (in groups, of course!) and see what Innsbruck had to offer. We had a chance to see an olympic training ski jump (we tried to go on, but they couldn’t accommodate a group of 350 all at once! Also none of us brought skis! After seeing this we went to a basilica, which was possibly one of the most beautiful churches we’ve seen so far! It didn’t have the magical stained glass of the Notre Dame, but it did have some amazing gold sculptures lining the entire room and ceiling, it was gorgeous. From here, we went into Old Innsbruck to see the famous Golden Roof, as well as see a room in which Mozart stayed when he wrote much of his music. You can see the street with both of these monuments in the picture. Click on it to get the detail!That was all very cool to see of course! After that we had some time to wander around, which was quite nice to do. I indulged in an Apfelstreusel (an apple pastry with streusel topping), which was a true delicious Austrian delight!

After spending some time in Innsbruck, we headed back up the mountain to Seefeld, where we are staying. Again, we had free time! First we needed to get some lunch, so we visited a revered little place called Mama’s to buy some bratwursts, which were delicious! After having this amazing treat, we walked around to see some of the shops that Seefeld has to offer and picked up a couple of little pieces of memory that will help us remember our wonderful time here. We happened upon the coffee shop at which we stopped last night, and thinking about it some hot coffee sure did sound good after a long day of on and off rain. After our coffee stop we had to hurry back to the hotel in order to be ready for our five o’clock concert! The concert went well, as good as any others, and it rained on and off. However, the people here must be dedicated because they all stayed and enjoyed the concert. Tonight, the choir and orchestra is performing at nine. After the concert we went back to the hotel to eat another delicious Austrian dinner. We had cream of garlic soup, pork with mushroom sauce, rice, broccoli, and a delicious dessert of a peach cobbler-type dessert. 

After dinner, we had the rest of the night free. I met up with some friends that are going to Greece with me from Grand Junction that attend Fruita Monument High School, and we decided to go swimming. Despite the rain, there is an indoor/outdoor swimming pool just a couple of minutes walk from our hotel, so we decided to go and enjoy the pool! After about an hour in the pool, we called it quits and headed back to the hotel to get some rest before our very very early morning tomorrow of 4:00 am. Now off to bed and Italy tomorrow!!