Hello darlings. Sorry, I am a terrible person. Of course, I am back in the United States and enjoying things such as not covering my legs and pork. So mostly I didn't update anymore because the fan in my computer broke and when your laptop will only work for half an hour at a time, it is a little useless to spend it trying to upload pictures that take one hour to load. (As it turns out, it takes significantly less time to upload pictures in the US). Also, I am really lazy.

So anyway, I am now presenting you with the first part of my spring break: Greece.

Greece:
I went to Greece. The plan was that I was going to meet up with some Mohos who were also studying abroad. But about a week before I flew to Greece, we decided to go to Mykonos, one of the islands, and my flight was going to be like a little too late for me to catch the ferry, so I flew to Athens and then flew to Mykonos, like six hours later. My plane got in at like 6 am, so I took a bus into town. As it turns out, it was kind of cute, but also a bad idea because in Greece, stores don't open until noon or something.

So I just wandered the empty streets and window shopped and looked at shoes I couldn't afford anyway. It was really cute because sometimes, some middle aged woman with snazzy shoes would stop and also window shop.

Also, there were a lot of stray dogs all over Athens. Unlike strays in Egypt, Greek strays are really well fed and kind of bum around, sleeping in the shade, eating, and getting petted. Look at this lazy dog. I saw it at the Acropolis and I watched it sleep, get up, and then move somewhere like five feet away to sleep some more. So lazy.

Amanda (studied in Sienna) and Hannah (studied in Athens) outside the "lobby" of our ... cottage or whatever. In Mykonos, our other friend (also named Hannah) found lodging where all of us could stay and pay a fairly cheap price. The room came with a few pull out beds and a kitchen. Mykonos isn't a very big island, and I mean, as an island, practically the whole coast is beaches, but Mina Studio (the hotel or whatever you want to call it) was a two minute walk from a beach and it was fantastic.

Gorgeous. It's kind of depressing how my pictures kind of suck and don't really reflect how beautiful Greece was. The way the sun hit windows and how green it was. I mean, everything is green and beautiful compared to Egypt. And the water was so blue...

Mykonos is considered a huge party island and is really popular... We came off season, because in spring, it's still a little cool, and so everything was pretty empty.

I think it was the next day we decided to go for a walk along the tide pools and to find another beach. There was a beach on Mykonos called Paradise beach, and since that wasn't enough, there was another called Super Paradise. Because Mykonos was that great.


Another empty beach. We ate lunch there. Although we were looking for Paradise, we never found it.

Usually, I don't believe in taking pictures of scenery because they become kind of trite and are never as great as being there, but over spring break, I really got suckered into it.

Mykonos, the town on Mykonos, the island. Shopping, restaurants, expensive things. Oh, and clubs. We went to the club one night and it was ok.

There were little chapels like this all over the place. I thought it was cute because it was really inviting, but also I think it made religion a more personal experience. Also, I love how all the buildings are white with blue or green or red windows.

If I remember correctly (which I probably don't) I think Mykonos was called something akin to "Little Venice" or something because part of it is kind of flooding. Or it's right on the water now. I don't remember.

Ferry from Mykonos back to Athens. We had the misfortune on being on a ferry that picked up a million annoying Greek college students. They were all on the top of the boat, singing, smoking, pounding drums and using fog horns. I don't know what the hell was going on, but I was pretty incredulous that they could keep that shit going for a whole three or so hours.

The next day, everyone else left Greece so I had the day to myself. My plan was to go shopping and then go see the Acropolis. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell my bank that I was going to Greece, so when I bought this bag with my card, they locked my card. Then, I had the hardest time trying to call my bank to get them to unlock the card, so I gave up and spent the whole day at the acropolis. Fortunately, it gets you into like six different monuments, so I managed to keep occupied. Anyway, the Acropolis was pretty nice. It's got a really great view. I think I heard that no buildings are allowed to be built to be taller than the Acropolis, so there are like these islands of tall hills where the buildings just stop.

You have no idea how wonderful trees and grass look when you've just spent three months in the desert watching guys trying to grow grass because it is representative of the wealthy west.

And of course the Parthenon. In the picture that everyone has seen and takes anyway. My picture is different though, because it was under construction and so half of the thing was covered in scaffolding. It was awesome.

To the right is another temple but no one cares about it. It's kind of funny how that works. Anyway, at the end of the day, after doing essentially nothing by myself, I flew back to Egypt and got my card sorted out and packed for the next part of my spring break.