by Chelsea Raubenheimer

My Last Journal Entry: "No words can explain my past 6 weeks. I touched a piece of truth and grew into myself. It was a time in my life where I haven't felt as though I was missing something. What am I supposed to do now? How can I fall back into this life after Greece? Everyday was an adventure, everyday was fresh and exciting. It was perfect. I feel so good now- independent, confident, free, beautiful, whole, real. I followed my dreams and I am so proud of this trip. I love Greece and everyone I met in Greece. Thank you so much for changing my life. The world is full of love and so is my heart."


The tears came as the plane from Athens began to taxi to the runway. I had been surprisingly emotionless the entire day up to departure, but when I felt the wheels start turning I knew it was goodbye. I couldn't stop crying until we were high in the air and the cute fifteen year old Greek kid next to me calmed me down haha. Ug I was a complete mess. It was like a physical pain.

Greece was so good to me and Jessica. It was 6 weeks of perfection- doing exactly what I wanted to do and living freely. Backpacking is more than just seeing the sights, it was about meeting people, making connections, sharing stories, helping each other, feeling the culture, learning about yourselves and others, going where the wind blew. Spending less money on things and more on experiences. Pushing yourself to the edge and forcing yourself to grow. If anything, backpacking opens your mind to the world. I met sooo many people on this trip with completely different lives than anyone I know. It shook me out of my little box and gave me a larger perspective of the world. And that is worth all the money I have.

Above all, on this trip the one thing I learned the most is how much love is in the world. How much love is in people's hearts. We wouldn't have gotten far if it wasn't for the help of others and the pure kindness of the people we met. I am forever in debt to those who helped us, showed us how they lived, treated us so well, and became our close friends. This trip would not be nearly as wonderful if we hadn't met such special people.


So thank you.

Thank you first of all to Natalie Di' Giuseppe. If she hadn't cancelled on us, we would have not had so many wonderful adventures. We wouldn't have been shaken up and forced to plan last minute, figure stuff out, and live as real backpackers. We wouldn't have been at the Sunshine House, or met the Bourtzi boys, or visited the paradise of Crete.
Thank you to all the people we met at the Sunshine House. Your lives are so interesting and we learned so much from you. Ricky and Nasim- you kept us sane.
Thank you to Athens Backpackers. Our home on the road.
Thank you to Crete. A piece of perfection in this chaotic world.
Thank you to all of our fellow backpackers. Instant friends. Everyone we met was great. If we shared an adventure together, a day, or a week- it was the best. I only wish I had longer to be with these people I loved.

Thank you to the BOYS IN BOURTZI. Thank you to FOOD BREAK. You guys really, really have a special place in our hearts. You showed us real Greece and let us share a bit of your life. It was wonderful. I have never met nicer people, honest friends, genuine love. We are coming back in the future!!! Promise. I love everyone in Bourtzi sooo much. You guys deserve the best.

Thank you to my parents!! Thank you for letting me go on this trip, letting me figure it out on my own, letting me stretch my wings and see what I could handle. Letting me follow my dreams!!!! Giving me support and love. And being there when it was hard. I loooove you.


AND ABOVE ALL! THANK YOU TO JESSICA KUTZ!!!!! You are the best traveling partner I could ever ask for. Thank you for sharing this trip with me, being exactly on the same page as me, laughing with me, getting into shenanigans with me, growing with me, being there for me when I was down, and being the greatest frienddddddddddd!! There is no one else in the world I could have imagined going to Greece with. I'm so glad that for years to come we will have these memories to reminise on, laugh about, and shake our heads and say "wow we were crazy". No one will ever understand what Greece means to me except you. No one will ever understand what I mean when I say "the Sunshine House" (haha except maybe Brian). No one will ever understand the love in Bourtzi except you. No one will ever understand Exarhia, Plakias, the Donkey Ride, the Seabiscuit helmet, Horace, Freddoccinos, the Samaria Gorge, Signomee Tombazi?!?, the Abercrombie boys, our half a storage shed, crepes, Efcharisto/Parakalo, fighting about apples, Athens Backpackers, Giannis haha, Food Break... except you! I'm so excited for next year in Boulder and all of our trips to come (Australia, New Zealand, Bali.. 2011?!). I am sooo lucky to have met you!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU WITH ALL OF MY HEART.





And so thats how it ends. With a happy heart :)


"O open road! I say back, I am not afraid to leave you—yet I love you;
You express me better than I can express myself;
You shall be more to me than my poem."
-Song of the Open Road

last night we got up at 3 in the morning to go to the best club in MYKONOSSSSSSSSS!!!!! it was awesomeeeee, we danced to techno until sunrise :)

tomorrow we are taking a ferry back to athens

ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
this adventure is coming to an end

its making me cry just thinking about it....

i dont want to leave this wonderful country.

haha uncle steve pleaseeeee.. i have been doing much more than partying (have you read my past 3 weeks of posts??).. forgive me for having 3 nights of debauchery on greece's top party islands. and anyways did you really expect me to go see ruins for an entire month and a half?????




SOOOOOOOOOO. back to the bloggggggggg...

our last night in IOS was a successssssssssss. we went to sunrise with our model boys and played drinking games with them and some irish men and then decided to go back to the hostel to take a nap until the real partying began. we were asleep for all of ten minutes before our canadian friend, Stefan, and our new zealand friend, Tenzin came banging on our door yelling at us to come out. how could we resist? so the four of us spent the rest of the night going around to all the different bars and danced for hourssssssssss. once again the sun was up when we returned to our abode. we slept for an unbearably short amount of time before we had to get up to catch our ferry to mykonos. we said goodbye to all our friends and then made our way down to the port. we got to mykons in the early afternoon and got the shuttle to PARADISE BEACH RESORT. succccccessssssssss. we are staying at a resort but.. we are staying in like half of a storage shed. it has barely room for two beds. but its all good. we dont need much. the second we hit the bed the both of us passed outtt. we slept for a few hours, got up to eat, went back to bed, and then woke up at 2 am to jessicas alarm ready to start the night haha. we went to the famous PARADISE CLUB where a super good dj was there and danced until morning.. again. it was soooooooo FUN. except we are so gross.. my last real shower was two islands ago.

okay well i have to gooo!!!!!
we are going to explore MYKONOS today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


LOVE

another day in IOSSSSSSSSSSSSSS :)

haha oh dear this island is fun. im pretty sure it was made for all the backpackers in the world to come party on... there really is no other point haha.

last night was another epic oneeee. jessica and i made a rule that we had to stay out until 8 am and WE DID!!! hahah but just barely.. we nearly had to drag ourselves back to the hostel after about 5 million different bars and clubs. the night started at this place called Sunrise where everyone pregames together and then heads out at the sound of a whistle. we met some aussies, some irish men (one who proposed to jessica hahahah- they are getting married in paris in 2015 apparently.. and he carried her from sunrise to the bar on his shoulders ahhhh hahaha) and spent some time with our abercrombie models successssssssss. then the rest of the night involved going on a mission to find crepes, meeting some norwegian kid that was obsessed with the word "dude", dancing on the bar (whoops!) to get free water, having our hottie models protect us from creepers, and dancing a lotttttttttttttt. yea it was goood. hahaha. we started our day today at 4 in the afternoon when we managed to roll out of bed and head down to the beach on the back of these kids' ATVs that we met the night before. YES! i dont remember the last time i showered so jessica and i brought our shampoo down to the beach and swam out far in the ocean and washed our hair in the sea hahahaha. it was so funny and it actually worked pretty well. then we came back, bought our last two ferry tickets, and now we are resting up for another night.

TOMORROW WE ARE GOING TO MYKONOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! THE PINNACLE OF ALL THE GREEK ISLANDS :) KADSJFLKASJDFKLJDSF

hahah ahhh our money supply is dwindling....





only 5 more nights left in this dream.




HOPE ALL IS WELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

IOSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! WE MADE ITTTTTT!!!!
AHHHHHHH so ios is like the number one party island and we are hereeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

the ferry from santorini was pretty brutal. it was a high speed one and the water was pretty rough which resulted in a mild lingering sea sickness. we got picked up from the port by a bus from our hostel and drove about 5 minutes up to a life less town where apparently the party goes down. as we found out today people are usually sleeping all day to rest up for the night. our hostel is so cute, another good one, at the top of the town overlooking the water. jessica and i have our own room which is a succcessssss and the hostel has a pool!!

but anywayssssssssss, last night/this morning was epicccccccccc. after we got off the ferry we headed down to Far Out Beach Club where everyone chills out, recovers from the night before, and tans on the beach. its like spring break madness international style and better. we spent a few hours lounging on the beach and eventually meandered up to the bar for our first Ios drinks. we were a little intimidated by everyone but in the first minute the HOTTESTTTTTT two guys in the worlddddddddddd (like im talking abercrombie model hot) rolled up and started talking to us. they both went to USC and one of them turned out to be from Jessica's home town hahahah. anywayssss it was like instant friendship so we spent the rest of the time at far out chatting with them and 4 other guys from Ireland. yupppppppppp noo bigssss. jessica and i apparently have mad game. the four of us (as in me and jess and the 2 beautiful model boys- like im talking the definition of hot) took the bus back to the hostel at around 6 (they were staying there too- success) and chilled out for a bit. everyone told us the party doesnt really start until 1 am so we had an awkward few hours where we werent really sure what to do. so we ended up going to get some food, meandered around for a bit, went back to the hostel to get ready, and then hit up the hostel bar. everyone got welcome shotsssss and the night begannn!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhh. we spent about an hour or so at the hostel bar with our two HOTTIES and then everyone headed out to the first club. it was crazyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ohhh yesss. so the rest of the night is kind of a blur... many clubs, many bars, lots of drinkss, gooood timessssssss. we even ran into some people from our hostel in santorini hahaah. the sun was up when we made it back to our room and we didnt wake up until 2 in the afternoon. IOSSSSS!

and then todayyyyyyyy jess, me, and the ABERCROMBIE MODELS meandered back down to far out and spent the day lounging at the beach until 6. they love us... and we love them. haha. well anyways we just got back to the hostel and we will probably chill out until the party starts againnnn..... YESSSSSSSSSS.




but dont worry we are being safeeee!!!!!! and our model boys look after us so no worries :)


ps. google image like abercrombie model and thats who we have been hanging out with for the past 2 days. succcesssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OHHHHHHHHH SANTORINIII!!! its a dream land... nothing else can really describe it. it seems as though i just jumped into a painting or something. everything has looked completely fake and i cant really wrap my mind around it. i look but its hard to actually see. difficult predicament haha. but i think everyone should come here one day just to see the sunset in Oia- its like nothing else in this world!!!!!

but anywayssssss.. the past two days have been terrificccc!!! adventures to the max. we rented ATVs for the time here so its been awesomeeeee!! jessica and i just roll around and it takes about one hour to get from one side of the island to the other. jessica prefers the passenger side so i have been the DRIVERRRR successsssssssssss. im buying an ATV one day.

SO...
Day ONE: we got up at around 10 maybe and headed over to the restaurant across the steet from the hostel (where we get a discount) to get some breakfast with our canadian friend. wonderful. then us and one other canadian rented ATVs and began the dayyy. they gave us helmets for the ATV and of course jessica gets this badass one while the guy hands me some helmet that looks exactly like a jockey hat thing and kind of reminds me of Seabiscuit so the rest of the time we called it my Seabiscuit hat hahaah. we started off on one end of the island where there was this beautiful lighthouse on top of the cliff that overlooked the caldera. we took some gnarly pictures on the edge of this rock that looks like we were at the end of the earth and headed back to our ATVs and sped off to the Red Sand Beach. the beach really was red and there were a lot of lava rocks from the volcano. we took a swim in the water and then climbed back up the cliff to continue on. the next stop was Fira (the main town on top of the cliff) where we did some souvenir shopping, ate gyrossss, and meandered through the streets. after a few hours we decided to head off to Oia to see the sunset. We were told the sunsets in Oia were the best that one would ever see so we figured we should check it out. when we got back to the ATV jess had the realization that if we tied my sarong around her neck it would loook like a cape when we went fast hahahah succcessssssssssss. So of course we did that. ahhhhhhhhhhh ahhah so if we wrote a book or made a movie this would be the cover of it.. Just imagine: chelsea and jessica flying through the countryside of santorini on an ATV with my seabiscuit hat and jessicas cape flying behind her hahahahah...... ahhhh ive never laughed so hard. we looked ridiculous and we were rolling down the coast and i thought surely this would be the shot that described our entire trip hahahaah. anywayssssss, we got to Oia a few hours before sunset and of course ran into Ricky and Nasim from the Sunshine House in the first minute. the 3 germans riding their bikes to India were staying with friends at a bookstore in Oia and spent the day playing music and doing live statue for money. haha and actually last night the 5 of them slept in a cave on one end of the island.. ohhhhhhhhhhh the people we know in Santorini. so OIA- what can i say???? it looks fake. its so beautiful. its amazing. its the most romantic place in the world. its everythinggg. just google image it. my words do no justice. its the picture that everyone has in their head when you say "Greece". its just tons of cute little white and blue houses, shops, restaurants stacked on top of each other on the cliff side overlooking the sea and caldera. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh its awesome. we walked around for a bit, took about 2000 pictures, and then jessica and i decided to duck into a cute little coffee shop for desert. we split a chocolate soufle thing and it cost more than our hostel hahaha. oia is like a honeymoon mecca and people there have cashhhh so we were kind of out of place haha.. ahhh but it is worth it. it was so romantic and we saw so many cute couples. anyways at around 8:30 we followed all the other tourists to this little cliffside to watch the sunset. the best one i have seen in my life. the colors.. ahh the colors. i cant really say any more about it haha. once the sun finally hit the water everyone started clapping and we meandered back onto the cobblestoned streets. our friends from the sunshine hosue were performing so we watched them for a bit (playing the standard krishna music we know oh so well haha) and then found ourselves sucked into a jewelry store deciding which engagement ring we would most prefer haha. the guy at the store took pity on our bedraggled looks and decided to make our day by bringing out the most expensive rings for us to try on hahaha. so yes jessica and i each had $48,000 on our hands. i debated for one slight second whether to run and sell the ring to go buy a ballin ATV but decided against it. after about 30 minutes of indulging our romantic girly sides we left to go find our canadians and make the trek back to the hostel. we sped home on scary cliffsides with the cape flying high and made it back for showers and joining some others at the bar. we took it easy though.. IOS is coming :)

Day TWO: another epic one. jessica and i went on our own today on the ATVs and it was awesomeee. we went straight to Fira to explore a little more and see the cliffside. as we were walking we saw a sign that said "Donkeys.. that way". YES must follow signssss, must ride donkeys in santoriniiiiiiii!!! so we walked like down like 5 bazillion steps to the bottom of the cliff to one of the most chaotic scenes i have ever witnessed hahahaha. ahh all i can remember is all these restless donkeys and one indian woman screaming and falling off her donkey while a short greek man tried to left her back onto it. jessica and i were quickly hearded onto our own donkeys and with nothing more than a lift on to the donkey we were thrown into the a mad dash of donkeys to the top of the cliff.. it could have been the funniest thing on this entire trip. hahaha ahhhh just imagine pure chaos, a bunch of astounded tourists, 20 donkeys bookin it up the steps, one girl getting covered in donkey poop, jessica on a little baby horse, my donkey racing another one for first place, 10 of us cracking up, trying to take pictures, running into a group of donkeys going down, ahhhhhh hahahahahha it was the BEST. i was laughing the entire 20 minutes!!! nothing can really describe how funny it was.. i have a video though that ill put up eventually that kind of captures it hahaa. after that jess and i sat on the steps at the top and laughed for a longgg time, headed back to the ATVS, a flew off to Oia again. we walked around more, found a nice path on the cliff and listened to music, and of course ran into sunshine people again. we then decided it was completely necessary to splurge and eat a fancyyyyyyyyyy mealllll in a fancyyy place while the sunset. so we did and it was gooood. hhahahah but we were soo out of place.. i can see the dirt caked into my dress and we were sitting next to people on their honeymoon. ahh success. after that we watched the sunset, flew back to the hostel on our atvs, found a creperie to fufill our addiction (thanks food break), and now we are at this internet cafe!!!!!!

AHHH AND THATS EVERYTHIGN hahahhaa

TOMOROW WE GO TO IOS TO PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOOOOOOOOOOOD TIMESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

WE MADE IT TO SANTORINIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH
hahahaha we lasted our month with no plans and now we can finally relax... the rest of the trip will be a breeeeeeeeeezeeeeeeeeee.

yesterday was a longgg day of travel.. two buses, one ferry, and some little van to get us to the hostel. and on the ferry who else would we run into but of course two other people from the sunshine house haha. and then waiting at the port for tim was another sunshine house person so its a big reunion of all the people we met in our first week and it was all completely unplanned. we got into port at 10 at night to a barely visible cliffside that im sure is going to be magnificent during the day. the hostel is full of fun, crazy people and we are in a mixed dorm right next to a bar so its a succcesssss. last night we went down to the black sand beach with some other backpackers and played guitar and today we are renting ATVs with 2 people from the hostel and riding around the whole islanddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhh YESSSSS. should be legitttttttttttttttttttt.

but YES life is GOOOOOOOOOOD.

:)

hellloooooo!!!
ah okay GRANDMA SANDY- ive been meaning to write about this for the past few weeks but i keep forgetting but anywayyy.. i met a backpacker in Athens who lives in Afton, Virginia!!!! hahaha i thought that was funny.

okay but ahhhhhhhhh TODAYYYY=perfect.
our life certainly must be a movie.
yesterday we managed to do pretty much nothing but chill in our hammock at the hostel and recover so today we were peppy and ready to roll.
we got up in the morning and took the bus with three other kids from the hostel to this little secluded place called Preveli Beach (look it up on google images). another beautiful scene. im running out of adjectives to describe it.. Crete is a very very special place. but anyways its where a fresh water river meets the sea so its so cool.. we got there and walked down about a gazillion steps to get to the beach and finally made it to the sand. the water was crystal clear and perfect and there were a lot of people there lounging on the beach (some naked, some not haha..) we spent the afternoon swimming, tanning, and reading our books. what more could i want? but it gets better. at one point during the day i had swum out to this rock in like a little blue cove and was just dozing off when i hear jessica splashing and swimming towards me yelling. i sat up and she shouted "CHELSEA I FOUND TIM!!!" ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahha so Tim is the dreaded hippie guy riding his bike to India who we met at the SUNSHINE HOUSE!!!! haha he left like a week before us to come down to crete and he has been living in the mountains with some other hippies playing music all day and relaxing. hahaha so i dove off the rock and we found tim swimming naked in the water. he is going to santorini tomorrow on a 6:00 ferry which happens to be exactly the saem thing we are doing so we get to see him again. hahahah ahhhhh full circle. from there he is meeting up with his two friends that are the live statue people and we will be staying in another hostel for 3 nights, then going to Ios and Mykonos. sooooo life is funny. right now we are back at the hostel and we will be here for one more night. tomorrow we will get up and take a bus to Rethymno and then another to Iraklio to catch the ferry. wooooooooooo!!!!

okay well i hope all is welll across the pond.

LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

PLAKIAS IS THE BEST PLACE EVERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
WE LOVE IT HERE.

ahhh okay so now we are in this little beach/moutain town called Plakias in the south of Crete. our hostel is in this cute little olive grove and it has an AMAZING view of the mountains. its beautiful. the fisrt day we got here we trekked down to the beach with some guys from the hostel and spent the afternoon in the crystal blue water. then that night everyone went out to dinner together and just hung out on the beach. soo good. everyone here is awesomeee.

but yesterday was the BEST. a guy from the hostel took jessica and i to this hidden little blue cove with the most amazing water i have ever seen and a wonderful little pebble beach. it could have been the most beautiful place i have ever been. we spent the entire day swimming in the clear water, snorkeling, going through underwater tunnels, and cliff jumping. i stayed there until sunset with people from the hostel and i dont think i could imagine a more perfect day.

butttt IT GOT BETTERRRRRRRR. last night was like the pinnacle of my life hahaha. so after dinner everyone went to this bar to hear some guys from the hostel perform. they were playing guitar and singing and after about an hour they finished their set. then they started recruiting people to come up and play and ahhhh they brought me up thereee. hahahahah soooooo yessss i played guitar and sang in front of the entire bar and it was a successsssssss. jess came up and sang with me at one point and ahhhhhhhhhhhhh hahah. yes. then afterwards everyone went to this club together and spent the rest of the night dancing and laughing and having a good time. PLAKIAS=amazing.

and today we are going to this beach called preveli where a fresh water river meets the sea and its supposed to be sick.

sooooo yesssssssssssssssssssssssss. life is a success.

ahhh its officially been FOUR WEEKS since we left the U.S. We have done soo many amazing things I cant even keep it all together. And TWO MORE WEEKS to goooo!! yesssssss we are finally making it to the infamous islands. everyone we have met on this trip always talks about "the islands, the islands, the islands" so I'm so excited to actually see what its all abouttt!!!

but anywaysssssss we are off to a different part of Crete today called Plakias. our hostel is apparently tucked away in a little olive grove so it should be LEGIT! yesterday we slept until 1:30 in the afternoon... our day in the gorge killed us and we really havent slept in like 2 weeks so it was totally worth it. we rambled out of bed and meandered down to the beach with 2 guys from the hostel and spent the rest of the day there playing in the waves and lounging on the beach. it was niiiice. then last night we treated ourselves to a real meal at a restaurant and i actually felt full!! something i have not felt in a long time haha. afterwards, we got crepes... still not as good as the ones at food break and decided to find a pay phone to call our friends on Evia. it was sooo good to talk to them haha ahhhhhhh we miss them so muchhhh and talking to them made us miss them moreee... its sadddd.

BUTTTTT more adventures lay ahead!! we are loving every minute :)


ohhh and i cant really post any pictures up yet so I think you guys can look up the Somaria Gorge on google images... its really amazing!!!!!!



FUN FACTS ABOUT GREECE:
1. in a majority of the bathrooms we have encountered we have to throw the toilet paper in the trash can, not in the toilet.
2. all the policemen are soooo hottt and young and yes me gusta
3. the "you can cross the road" signals last for a total of like two seconds and they dont really give you a warning like "ohh 10 seconds left" so usually you are left stranded in the middle of the road when it switches back to red and then made to sprint awkwardly to the other side
4. siesta is really really really inconvenient
5. fanny packs are cool




well our bus leaves in 45 minutes, BACK ON THE ROADDD....

TODAYYY WAS THE GREATESTTTTT.

We hiked the Somaria Gorge, the longest gorge in all of Europe, and it was probably one of the best things we have done on this trip so far. We got up super early at 6 am and headed off to the bus station with our new friend Amy--this super cool chick from Austin. We caught a bus to Hania, and another to the town of Omalos (I think) where the trail began. The bus ride to the beginning was terrifyinggggg. We winded up these thin mountain roads with of course no barriers and I was sure that we were going to go off the edge. Jessica and I were in the very front seats and cringed everytime we rounded a bend. But the drive and the scenery were breathtaking. Like honestly I cant even explain it. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever, ever seen. Hugeee green mountains, little white villages, blue sea.. nothing does it justice. So then we got to the start and began the 18km trek into the mountains. We took about 5 bazillion pictures and videos and stopped every so often to explore around and soak it all in. The cliff walls were magnificent and there were wild goats like frolicking about. Ahh i cant even write about it. After a few hours we reached the end and were pretty beat. We got some ice cream at this cafe and followed some random boys to a little beach town tucked away into the hills where we had to catch a ferry (the only way out of the village) to another town down the coast of southern Crete. ahhh soooo cool. from there we caught a bus to some other random village and waited 45 minutes for another bus back to Rethymo.

anywaysss now we are back to the hostel and I'm walking out the door to go to a BEACH PARTY with everyone... AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

ME GUSTA CRETEEEE.


hope all is well.
love love love.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Barack Obama , President!... In our country the black people sell CDs"- Vangelis.
(referring to all the black people that sell those fake purses on the streets hahaha)



CRETE!!! we are hereeeeee and what a wonderful place it is!! so far it's already the place i would recommend the most. but then again ive only been to athens and the island of evia...
anywayssssss.

so on thursday night we took the metro down to the big port in Athens called Piraeus. we spent an hour trying to figure out where to go and eventually we stumbled upon gate 3 and our huge ferry in route to Hania. we climbed on board and found a seat on the top deck. it was about 930 when the ferry departed and we were sooo excited to get moving. slowly it got out to sea and the lights from the port disapeared and everything was dark. it was kind of scary and uncomfortable haha. but then of course we made friends with 5 guys from athens who were going to crete for a week vacation. we spent most of the night joking and laughing and reminiscing about the Bourtzi boys. Eventually they trekked downstairs to get sleep in the lounge while Jessica and I were left on the open roof with the rest of the riff-raff. haha so we locked our bags to our benches and attempted to get a little sleep before we arrived. failllll. Let me describe the scene: hard bench, one sarong for a blanket, howling wind, freezng night air, completely dark outside, sticky sea water blowing around, a stray can getting thrown all over the place, weird people creepin about. ya no sleep happened. after afew hours i awoke from my awkward doze to jessica calling my name and opened my eyes to the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We were coming into port and there were misty mountains all around with the sun barely rising around them.. its so hard to explain how cool it was. we finally docked, got off the boat, and caught a bus into the main town of Hania. From there we were led by a nice old man to the bus station and caught another bus to the town called Rethymno. The bus ride there was more than amazinggg. The scenery here is breath-taking. Green mountains, blue sea, cliffs. AHH CRETE. We might have found paradise.

SO anyways now we are at this awesome hostel that reminds me of some beach bungalow and we couldnt be more pleased. its only 10 dollars a night and everything is perfect.
buttt i cant really write anymore cause jessica is yelling at me so i have to goooo!

i love you all!!!!

everyone should go book a ticket to crete right now

GRREEECEEEEEEEE.

soooo yesterday jess and i had an epic day. we trekked over to the subway station and i heard the train coming so we started running down the stairs to catch it. i flew into the metro just as the doors were closing and i turned around to see where Jess was only to realize she hadnt made it. So separated by the metro doors I motioned to her that we were going two stops and I would wait for her. I flew away as we both were laughing hysterically. I got off at the stop and only had to wait a few minutes before jessica stumbled off on the next train haha. then we asked around for directions and ended up being led to Exharia- the anarchist district! Successsss. It was really hippie and cool and all the university kids were there so it was awesome. And of course, the second we got there we ran into someone we knew.. a guy from the hostel who lives in Exarhia haha so we hung around with him, got lunch, had adventures. after a few hours we got back to the subway and went over to Athens Backpackers to annoy our friends that work there... they recruited us to help set up the roof top bar and rewarded us with free beers so it was all good. we walked back to Ana's apartment, ate some dinner, and then meandered back over to the hostel to hang out on the roof. we saw some guy that we had hung out with two weeks ago from the hostel and he had just gotten back from Turkey and the islands so it was good to see him. we left at around 9 and walked over to Monastiraki to meet up with the guy from the hostel that we were with in Exarhia at a bar to watch a soccer game (England v. Andora). There we saw yet another person we knew that we had met the other night at the same bar haha. After that we decided food was needed so we found a pastry shop and ate some chocolate dessert which was delicious. we took a taxi back to Ana's and went to sleeeeep. so yea jess and i have been tearing up athens.

but today we leave for CRETE!!! we are taking the 9pm overnight ferry and we will be there some time in the morning... NEW ADVENTURESSSSS. yesssss. we are getting restless in Athens.

so thats alll for nowwwwwwwwww.
love you all.


Ps. Sarah Radakovich- YOU ARE THE BEST.

hulllooooooooo.

sorry its been a while.. anywaysss. not much of note has happened in the past few days. just meandering more around athens, making the most of our time here before we get back on the road! right now we are staying at this girls apartment that we met in Evia. she goes to the university here in athens and she invited us to come stay so its GREAT. she has exams this week so its been me and jess pretty much still on our ownnnn.

2 days ago we spent most of the day walking around random neighborhoods that our guide book insisted would be extremely fascinating and trying to find some interesting shops to look at but our guide book lied and everything was closed cause of some national holiday so we figured we minus well do as the greeks do and find a coffee shop to sit at for 3 hours. haha so we trekked over to the fancy part of town where all the little outdoor cafes are and ordered some Freddoccinos (our favorite!!). We then attempted to drink them the way our friends in Evia taught us- very slowlyyyyyyyyyyyy. like one sip every ten minutes. when we used to get coffee with george we would try painfully hard to make them last and when we were done we would look at his drink and see that only 1/3 of it was finished. fail. so anyway as we were sitting there an old fancy man named Pierre started talking to us and telling us how he was a journalist in France and sails around the world in his boat. he then started feeding all the pidgeons and asking us if we were familiar with the elusive white headed pidgeon. we talked to him for atleast 45 minutes and a majority of the time we had no idea what he was talking about which then led jessica and i to break out in a fit of laughter for 10 minutes why Pierre looked as us a tad confused. he then told us that the people in France would be more interested if he wrote an article about the two beautiful girls he met at the cafe than if he wrote about the Greek national elections that happened two days ago. Ohhh Pierre.

that night we went to Monastiraki, the main tourist square, and decided to be classy and go sit at a bar. we ordered drinks and the bartender ended up giving us free shots since we are poor backpackers. it was a succcesss. we walked around a bit and i found my old friend Axtan Beto!!! he was the dreaded hippie guy from mexico selling jewelry who i met in Athens two weeks ago. so we spent half hour catching up in spanish and telling him about our adventures the past two weeks hahha.

umm and then yesterday ana and her friend took us to the beach in athens!! the water was soooo clear and beautiful and refreshing.. it was great. also it was so salty that we were able to float without treading.. legitttt. oh and we also saw our first nude beach-goers hahhah.. it was kind of awkward and their guy friend was filming them too sooo yea i dont even know. hhhha but we tanned all day and as the sun was going down we caught the tram back to town. ana had to study for exams last night so jess and i just went out by ourselves again. we meandered back over to monastiraki, got hair wraps!!! (finally!), creeped by athens backpackers to see if we could see anyone we knew (we are like hostel rats) , and finally decided that instead of a bar crawl we could save money by just going on a "convenient store" crawl. succccesss. after hitting three kiosks we ran into someone with a CU shirt on (go buffs!), talked to him for a bit, and finished the night with crepes and gelato. overall it was a fun night.

today we plan on exploring the area of athens called Exarhia which is apparently like New York City's Soho. everyone said its pretty bohemian and alternative and the anarchists live there. hahaha. and we are probably going to get ferry tickets today too cause we are LEAVING FOR CRETE TOMORROW!!! wahoooooooooo.

anyways, hope all is well in the US!!! 3 more weeks in this beautiful country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




PS: George Kanasaros!!!! I know you are following my blog haha. WE MISS YOU GUYS SO MUCH. tell everyone at food break that we looove them and everyday we are tempted to hop down on the bus to visit. oh and the crepe i got last night wasnt nearly as good as yours.

HELLOOOOO!
I have one minute left on this internet so thispost will beshort.

last night we got downgraded again to the hostel couch haha butttt we ended upgetting it for FREE bcause weve made friends around here. haha. ummm and yesterday we walked up this huge hill in the middle of the hot blazing sun and had a beautiful view of athens.. it was GREAT. and last night we snuck into a hotel pool woith some guy from the hostel... fun!!!!

okay got to gooo.. love youuuu alll!!

once again a wonderfull night in the city of athens!!!
as jessica said earlier- i think im in my element. hostel, backpack, foreign country. everything is perfectttt.

we got upgraded yesterday to a real room and the guys at the front desk like us so much that we got a discount! succccessss. everyone was on the roof top bar last night having fun and at 12 the big group headed out for the bar crawl. jess and i ended up staying behind with 2 guys that work at the hostel and spent the entire night singing and playing guitar on the roof of the hostel overlooking the acropolis. it was awesomeee. one of the guys taught me how to play You can call me Al by Paul Simon and ive gotten pretty good.

anywayssss,

life is full of joy.

ahhhhh its good to be back in backpacker culture. the hostel is so much fun i could stay here forever. last night was the best... we spent a few hours at the roof top bar meeting everyone, drinking, having fun, and then everyone headed downstairs to start the nightly bar crawl with this crazy guy named Barnsey haha. When we were waiting outside this one guy that works at the hostel let me mess around with his guitar and i started to play wonderwall by oasis and a group of atleast 10 travelers outside starting singing at the top of their lungs while i played. everyone was so happy and laughing and having a good time. i was proud that my little guitar skills came in handy haha. anywaysssss, then a big group of like 20 of us headed to the metro and ended up in someplace called Gazi where there were bunches of bars and clubs all along the street. we danced and danced all night long and celebrated our return from eviaaaa. at 4 in the morning we caught a taxi with a guy from the hostel and stumbled back inside for some sleep. jessica and i curled up on the couches on the mezzanine and awoke at 8 am to music and a whole new string of backpackers coming to check in. we spent the next 4 hours laying half asleep while everyone piled their bags around us and left to go explore the city. at 12 we managed to pry ourselves from the couch, got dressed, and headed out.

today jessica insisted that we visit the National Archeological Museum. joy. a guy who works at the hostel invited to take me to the beach with him and his guitar on his motorbike instead but i politely declined in order to spend a ever so thrilling afternoon at the museum with my roommate. we spent a few hours looking at old stuff, and i managed to find the bench where all the other slackers sit who are a tad less intrigued than the rest. magically i managed to finish one section of the museum in 10 minutes and when i went back to find jessica she was still at the very beginning exhibit. we did see some cool statues and eventually we both got hungry and decided to bounce out.

we then went to a cafe, split a sandwich, and headed out to find an ATM. Finally we got to a bank and I put my card into the machine only to have my session "time out" and my debit card get sucked into the wall never to return again. i freaked out, called the number on the side, and was kindly informed that i couldnt get my card back and they could only fed ex a new one to me from america in a week. greattttttttttttt. soooo now im left with some cash and a credit card and wondering what to do. but i cant really do much so i minus well not dwell on it anymore.. something will work out. parents.. any advice?

so we trekked back to the metro only to be followed by some african guy trying to sell purses. we managed to scare him away using our handy dandy phrase book and yelling "feeyete!!" which means go away or something to that extent. we got back to the hostel, ate some ice cream, and now we are at this internet cafeeeeeee.

im thinking a shower is in order...


okay wellll alll is lovelyyyyyyyyyyy in GREECEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chau

"Allons! we must not stop here!
However sweet these laid-up stores—however convenient this dwelling, we cannot remain here;
However shelter’d this port, and however calm these waters, we must not anchor here;
However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us, we are permitted to receive it but a little while." -SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD SO we left Lampsakos/Bourtzi today and I cried. We have met the nicest people here, I can't even explain it. I have learned so much about everything and myself and friendship and love and life during the past two weeks... I will never ever forget all of our wonderful friends and some are even thinking about coming to America which would be amazing!! And all of the guys said that if we get in any trouble during the rest of our stay in Greece they would be there in a second to help us :). So no worries. we have a second home on the island of evia. i will miss it soo much. Anyways, this morning we got up and left the Sunshine House early in the morning and our friend George came and picked us up to go fishing!! It was beautiful but we were unsuccessful in our attempt to conquer the sea. Maybe next time. Then we went back to his house, ate lunch, went to Food Break for our last goodbyes, and caught a bus into Halkida. From Halkida we got a bus to Athens, walked to the train which connected to the metro which we took to "Acropoli". We are getting pretty good at this whole navigation business. The plan was to go to our old hostel and see if they had room and if not just find another one near by. So we got there only to find out they were booked... BUT.. the guy working at the desk said we seemed pretty cool so he offered to let us sleep on the COUCHES in the mezzanine for only 10 dollars a night!! YESSSSSSSSSS. hahahahahhaha. SOOOO NOW we are the legit vagabonds sleeping on the couch and we couldnt be any happier!!!!! LIFE IS GOOD. the plan is to stay here for 2 or 3 nights and then stay with a girl we met in evia at her apartment here in athens for 3 days. after that we are going down to crete to work on another farm and then our island hopping starts on june 20th. amazing. this trip has been more than i could have ever hoped for or even imagined. we are so happy right now and we are about to go eat some sandwich things that the Bourtzi guys bought us for the road. hahaha. yummmmmmm. i think jessicas blog has more detail about what we have done for the past 3 days so go look at that. (jessicawithabackpack.blogspot.com) okayyyy I LOVE YOU ALL. GEIA SAS.

HELLOOOO FROM GREECE!!

Fun facts about Greece:
1. all boys are required to go into the army for one year
2. when people get in car crashes they make little church house things on the side of the road only if someone dies
3. school is free
4. greeks like to drink a lot of coffee
5. a lot of people smoke cigarettes
6. Food Break makes the best crepes
7. everyone we have met here has really funny laughs
8. there is like a pet shop on every corner
9. the light switches are usually on the outside of the room so it gets really confusing when we walk in and look for the light and then realize its not in the room
10. people live with their family for a long time and the whole extended family lives close to each other
11. The boys in Lampsakos love their motorbikes

SOooo short updates:
todayyy was lovelyyyyy. this morning our friend george came and picked us up and we went to the prettiest beach i have ever seeeen. it was the bluest water and there were big mountain hill things all around. successss. and then we came back and our other friend george (#2) and pavlos took us out to lunch where we had traditional seafood. it was yummmmyyyyyy. one of the best meals i think i have ever ate in my entire life.

Lampsakos/Bourtzi is really wonderfullll. we will be sad to leave all of our friends.

ohh and last night our friends Pavlos and Christos took us up to this castle in Halkida that looked over the city with all the lights and it was really beautifullll. me gusta this place.

okay well im tired and we have done so many things i cant write them all down here and george (#1) is sitting here patiently while we use his computer... he wants to go play ping pong so i wont keep him waiting. hahah CHAUUUU.


or should i say GEIA SASSSSSSSSSS! :)

γειά σας <-- compliments of our greek friend.

MAKE FRIENDS WITH MOTORBIKES. CHECK!



Ahhhhh I've fallen in love with Lampsakos and all the people here. Ive never met such nice people and its going to be sad to leave. Jessica and I have found like the village hang out... this place called Food Break where it has pretty much any food you could possibly want and all the guys from Lampsakos/Bourtzi go there every night and hang out. It is right down the road from the Sunshine House so Jess and I have become regulars and we now have our little group of friends :). We are spending less and less time at the Sunshine House because now we go and hang out with everyone from Food Break haha. So we have been getting up early and doing all of our work right away and then leaving for the afternoon to go hang out with everyone. The past few days they have taken us to the beach on their bikes and another night we rented a movie to watch. Last night we went over to our one friends house with a bunch of people and we all sat around and played guitar and sang and ate clams that the guy had caught himself. Successsssss. Ahhh its sooo good.

So anyways we will only be at the Sunshine House for one more week and they we are back on the road. They are getting more wwoofers so we cant stay anymore. Its okay though. We will be going back to Athens for a few days and then taking a ferry down to Crete (!) and working on another farm. From Crete we will be going straght to Santorini.

But for now we are in Lampsakos and we loooove itttttttttttt!!! Actually our friend George is picking us up in a bit and we are going to get coffee in Halkida. life is goooood.

As requested by the mother:



a typical day at the Sunshine House...



wake up at around 9:00 am, get ready, go upstairs in the main kitchen where someone usually has already prepared breakfast, organic oatmeal yummmmmmmm, then eat outside with the other wwoofers, and wait until takis comes and tells us what we have to do for the day.

then we usually work for about 3 or 4 hours doing whatever they say (making flour, cleaning dishes, weeding, cleaning their house, etc.) until someone makes lunch or we go inside to make lunch at about 2. umm then we eat, have like "rest" time where we can bounce off on the bikes to the internet cafe or read or something around, and then we come back around 6 to do a little more yard work and water the grass for like 1 or 2 hours.

after that we can grab something to eat and can pretty much do whatever. there is like a big patio and picnic table outside so everyone just like hangs out and talks. jessica and i have gotten into the habit however of escaping and going to hang out with our new Lampsakos friends that we met at like the village cafe place. hahaha.

we sleep in a little room downstairs in the main house that is pretty cute and its right by the bathroom and like a little library place. we usually eat inside on the floor with all the yoga pillows haha or outside on the patio.

takis and kerys and their kids have their own little house on the property too that is separate from ours so thats where they sleep and the other wwoofers sleep in a little cabin next to the main house and a mongolian like tent thing next to takis's house.

we only have gotten one day off and im not sure when our next one will be ugggg



anywaysssssss last night was soo fun!!!! after we were done watering the lawn, we went and met up with these guys at like the little cafe right down the street (which by the way sells the BEST crepes i have ever eaten in my life.. seriously its like heaven) and then we went to azuls the little beach bar place with four of them and we tried Ouzo!!! its like a greek liquor that everyone must try if they come to greece. kind of gross and tastes like black liquorice. no me gusta. the guys are really nice (not creepy) they are like country greek boys so yea they are cool. and they speak pretty good english. tonight we might be going to a movie with them and then tomorrow night to a dancing bar. successssss. ahhh jess and i are shakin up lampsakos haha. we are such random americans its really funny. oh and we met this girl named Fotini who like takes care of us and keeps all the guys in line like she is their mom its so funny.

AHH GREECE IS GOOD.
its sad to think that its alrready 10 days over.

YAYYY!!! the picture i just put up is from ATHENS!!!!! in front of the PARTHENON!!!!

in the picture is Oana from Romania, Amy and Diana from Canada, and me and Jess.

SUCCCCESSSSSSSSSSSS

ohh hahahha, so jessica is blogging next to me and i totally forgot to talk about the rest of our night in Halkida after my last post.

So after we left the cafe we tried our hand at making some friends in this town. We met two guys that are like professional kayackers and they insisted that we come to an Ouzo party later that night. Ouzo is like greek moonshine. they didnt speak much enlgish and us not so much greek so we kind of scurried away and decided to find other friends haha. then as we were walking down the promenade we passed by the bar that was playing the YMCA out of its speakers. lik not the real YMCA, like the club/sensual/bar version of the YMCA. it was the funniestttttt thing i have ever heard in my life. jessica and i spent five hours like dying of laughter on the sidewalk and everyone was looking at us. like think of the Macarena (a ridioculous song) but made to sound really suave. yea doesnt work haha. so then we kept treking onward and ended up at this Greek fast food place where we got the absoltute best gyros i have ever eaten!!! im not sure if takis would appove though haha. the girl at the check out spoke some english so we ended up making friends with her. her name is FiFi and we plan on visiting her again sooon!! we are getting lonely on our farm haha. halkida was a successssssss.

i think jess wrote more on this so read that.

okay i love you guys!!!

Hellooooooooooo!!!

Quotes of the day:

Me: "Tim, if you were stuck on a desert island what is the one kind of music you would want with you?"
Tim: "Oh probably indian classical music"

Gaia (their daughter): "I want Gogi berries!!!! Give me some Gogi berries!!"
hahaha.. you dont hear that much in america.

Gaia: "can you come here and wipe my bum!"
Nassim: "uhh okay" (gets out toilet paper)
Gaia: "No, in the winter we use that, in the summer we use this (points to her hand)"
hahahahah

Nassim: "what should i do now Takis?"
Takis: "umm go talk to the plants"

ahhhh hahaha this place is so random. so sorry i havnt been back in a while. we have to like trek down these country roads to get to this place. the last few days have been pretty good at the Sunshine House. I can tell you that I am now a professional dish washer haha. lately we have just been cleaning around the house and yard except yesterday was really fun!! we got to make real flour. like we cleaned grains and put them through a grinder adn then sifted out the flour haha. it was funny. oh and the other day we straight up ate like ground. the food in my bowl looked like i could seriously have just taken a bite out of the earth. it was so natural.

the day after our break we went down to the Azuls area (the bar place) and got ice cream and watched the sun set over the water it was super pretty. and yesterday we had yoga class finally! it was really cool and different from any yoga i have ever done. then we went to this little cafe place down the street and met some new friends!!!!! soo we are going to azuls with them tonight which should be FUNN. a good break from work!!

oh another wwoofer is here too! she is from california and has super long dreads and is traveling around for a few months. everyone here is really interesting.


anywayssssssssss. everything is gooood!! like in the farmland is really different. we discovered the other day that there was a flock of sheep behind the house haha.

GREEEEEECEEEEEEEEEE :)

helllooooooo!! back again!! i only have a few minutes left on this internet so ill give you guys some brief updates! SO our day off has been the BEST! we were reminded why we are doing this whole farm business and it has definitely lifted our spirits. we had begun feeling a bit trapped at the Sunshine House. but today was completely worth our time working. and i have never felt so independent in my life!! like seriously already this trip has given jess and i the feeling like we can conquer the world. we can get anywhere with the help of the locals and our guide book and our intuition. its very liberating :).
sooo this morning we got up early, took showers, ate some oatmeal, and heading off to the bus station. we then caught the bus into the capital of Evia called Halkida. the bus driver didnt make us buy tickets so we got a free ride! Success!!! Halkida is a small, beautiful city with mountains all around. its sad that not many people will see it because we loooove it. jess and i bought a croissant and some spinach thing, walked around on the boardwalk ish thing on the water and went to a nice outdoor like bar place and drank coffee chocolate drinks while all the greek hotties checked us out haha. this whole blonde hair thing works out nicely!! we then followed some direction in our guide book up to an old turkish fortress on a hill where the view was amazinggg! jess and i could barely grasp it all in our minds. it was so surreal. then we walked back down, checked out a pretty church in the center of town and decided it was time to find a beach to swim. our guide book suggested a cool place called eretria so we figurred that sounded like a nice place and we should see it! so low and behold there was a taxi stand right next to the church and we managed to spit out in greek that we wanted to go to a bus station. Joey- your language book was so helpful today!!! we have been practicing a bunch of greek phrases and we really need them on this island since not a lot of people speak good english. sooo we got to the station in Halkida and i told the lady that we wanted to get to Eretria in greek and we bought our tickets. a woman from behind the counter heard our english and came up and started speaking to us! she studied in toronto and was back in halkida to work. her name was DiDi and she said we could come visit her anytime and she would hook us up with some greek hotties. Succes!! she then took us behind the counter and showed us to all the other workers haha. our bus came in like half hour and we were off to Eretria!! the ride was really pretty along the water and mountainside and only about 20 minutes long. Our farm is right in between Halkida and Eretria. Sooo then we got off the bus, saw a little souvenir shop across the street and peaked around. the man at the counter was soo nice to us, and we got a picture with him and some free magnets hahah. being foreign is success to the max. haha. then we rambled around this cute little town and came out onto this quiet beach with beautiful water and an awesome view of all the mountains. ahhhhhhh it was so beautiful i cant even describe it. its so weird how not many people will ever see that place but it was perfect. so we changed into our suits and hopped in to our first greek water! we swam for a while, played on this floating raft thing we found, took lots of pictures, and sunbathed. after about an hour and a half we decided to head back to Halkida and get some drinks and sit on the water front. on our walk back we passed this little beach side restaurant with all these old greek men sitting there and enjoying the day. when they saw us they instantly starting talking to us in a mixture of greek/bad english and insisted that we come and sit and make their restaurant beautiful haha. sooo since it really wasnt sketch and they were geniunely nice we decided to sit and they ended up buying us two ice cream sundaes hahaha. then one greek old man came and put two flower vases on our table and we sat there and laughed. one man was originially from crete, the other a real Eretrian native, and the 3 others from somewhere around Greece. after our free ice cream we got more pictures and waved goodbye to our greek friends haha. (parents they didnt roofie our ice cream, and no we didnt accept drinks from them calm). Soo then we got back to the bus station, got a bus back to halkida, and got a taxi right here to this internet cafe!! the taxi driver was really hot so he gave us his numbaaa in case we ever needed a taxi ride again. ballerssssssss. so after this we will probably go see what bar we can find on the water, and get a taxi back to the farm later tonight. we are worried if we get back to soon they will make us do some more labor so the plan is to avoid that if all possible hahaha.

ohh, here is another story. after the internet cafe, we were riding back through the countryside where we live on a little dirt path and two teenage greek boys come riding by us. jessica and i insisted that we had to make friends if we were going to be on this farm for a month so we started shouting at them in english hoping they knew something. one of the boys who was 15 (the other was 12 haha) knew a little bit and we ended up riding our bikes with them and maybe creepishly following them in order to make some friends. then motioned for us to follow them and we ended up in front of a church where their two other little teenage friends came up on there back to see these crazy americans hahaha. they were all looking at each other like "what in the worldddddddddd" hahah we must have been so random in this greek farm land. sitting outside the church were two old greek woman (like something out of a movie) and they heard us saying stufff in english so one came up and started talking to us in english. her name was olga (of course) and she translated for us as we told the little kids that we wanted to be their friends haha. everyone was laughing and it was sooo funny. Sooo now hopefully we will see them around and then came come break us out of the Sunshine House once in a while!

ohh one more. at the internet cafe yesterday i was sitting there and this old greek man came up to me and started petting my head and smiling for like 3 minutes while i was just sitting there like ummmmmmmmm hahaha. and then he saw jess and did the same. they like us americans in lampsakos.

haha oh and on the island of evia this trucks drive around and sell fish and they have these big loudspeakers where they yell for people to come get the fish in a scary greek voice. kind of like the ice cream man but greece style. anyways, when jess and i first heard them we both kind of got freaked out and thought it sounded like nazis like rounding up the jews. so now we call them the jew catchers and they come around like everyday and we heard them in halkida today!! they are looking for us!! hahahaha.

okayyy well hopefully the next few days wont kill us at the sunshine house. today def made us happier.

loveeeee,
chelsea annnnnn

SOOOO we finally made it to this internet cafe!! Wahoooooooooo. Okay so we are at the SUNSHINE HOUSE and it is like the most legit place I have ever been too haha. Anways lets see how did we get here... we checked out of the hostel at around 8 without saying goodbye too all our friends (sad) but thankfully we have this whole thing called facebook now that lets us keep in touch. technology is a success. from there we hopped onto the metro and took the red line to the larissa train station. my backpack kept getting in the way of the other passengers and im sure i smacked this one lady in the face several times haha. when we got to the train station we walked inside only to find several police men and some closed up windows. ummm?? upon further inquiry the police informed us that the train station was on strike for the day (of course) and that we must find another way to Halkida. they then spent five minutes arguing in Greek about the best way for us to get to Evia when finally they came to the agreement that we had to get to the bus station and take a bus into town. so the policeman came outside and helped us hail down a taxi which then took us to the bus station. we got inside and spent 15 minutes begging the man for our tickets as he was informing us about the "danger" that we brought from america- swine flu. hhahaha. we playfully coughed through his little window and he thankfully let go of our now contaminated tickets. some random kid that was observing our struggle helped us find the bus and we left shortly afterwards. the bus ride was an hour long and the sun set on our way there. at the bus station there were several taxis all lined up to take the people who had just arrived. we walked up to one, found out that he spoke no english, and spent another few minutes being passed around to the different taxis as each driver took there hand at speaking english. we finally found one brave soul who insisted that we come with him despite his complete lack of knowledge of the english language so jessica and i hopped in with another girl and guy that were also on our bus. the taxi ride was yet another adventure as jess and i sat helplessly with nothing more than the address of the Sunshine House and the hope that we would magically arrive there at some point. the taxi driver resorted to yelling at us in greek for a majority of the way as jess and i sat unaware of his foreign anger. we continued to sit there and smile and pretend he was making friendly conversation when his real words were probably not so nice haha. he finally gave up and recruited the other girl in the car who spoke a little bit of english to help navigate. soon the car turned down a dark, sketchy dirt road alleyway ish thing and he informed us that this was the end. he got out, took out our backpacks, and got back into the car all the while mumbling in greek under his breath. jess and i scrambed out, a tad confused and a little freaked out. all of a sudden we hear a whisper behind a fence "hey are you the wwoofers!" .. "uhh yea".. "go around the fence". haha so jess and i walked up the road a little bit and a two guys- named Takis and Tim camed to greet us. We walked into their gate and we were at the Sunshine House!! okay let me give you a little description..

So right now there are 10 people at the yoga retreat. Takis and Kerys own the place. Takis is a long haired spiritual like master who is famous in Thailand for his massages, he has been studying nutrition, massage, and yoga for 12 years now and everyday he reads in his house. He is like a master organic chef and he is like super buff and fit. The other day he looked at my tongue and said i had too much "humidity". Kerys is his wife and she is originally from England. Her and Takis met in Thailand where they were both studying yoga and such. They have two kids (3 and 1) named Gaia and Lulu who are reallyyyyy cute!! So then there is Tim, Simona, and Iza. The three of them are from Germany and they have been here since December. They are currently on an epic bike ride to India and they ended up stoping at the Sunshine House for a while. I think they might be leaving in the next week though. Tim has dreads down to his knees and he is sooo funny and nice and always tells me that I should "make yoga". Simona is a character- she is really cute and chipper but her underarms have more hair than any man i have seen haha. oh and she also is one of those live statue people that performs on the streets to make money, while Tim sings. Iza is Simonas lesbian lover who also has dreads and has spent time in Peru. Then there is Alex and this lady named Yorgia or something who are like also Thai massage masters. I dont think they sleep there but they are always around. A day after we arrived, two other wwoofers came too. And they are from Texas!! ahahaha they go to A&M which is really random, Ricky and Nassim. They are 20 years old, Ricky is originally from Mexico and Nassim from Iran, and they are dating. Ummm and then there are a wholeee bunch of kitties!!!!!! They are sooo cute and there is like 10 of them. And there are 2 dogs and then there is me and Jessica. SUCCESS!! The house is allll spiritual and there are Om symbols everywhere, and cool quotes, and hammocks, and tibetan prayer flags, and everything they cook is organic!! we are going to eat soo healthy here. ah there is so much to learn about food and energies and how different things affect your body. we are slackin in america. our room is in the main house and he have bamboo beads to walk through to get into our room haha and its really cute.

the first day Tim woke us up early, made us some oatmeal, and we spent all morning weeding in the garden. death. my legs are still sore. but it was kind of hilarious. they gave us some nearly broken straw hats and we spent a few minutes laughing at how random our life is. ummm then Takis made us a really good lunch and we chilled out on the patio. Jess and I then decided to find this internet cafe but of course managed to go the wrong way and ended up walking an hour down this road and ended up at a gelato place in town and got a taxi back to the house haha. we then swept up a bit, made dinner with the other wwoofers, and played guitar in Takis's house. Yesterday, was very busy. A NGO called the Peace Boat came from Japan so we spent all day preparing for that and helping out during the day, pouring drinks, helping Takis during his cooking class, waiting around during the yoga classes. It was excitingggg. haha. All the Japanese people were really nice and they were very interested in us. We then had like an epic amount of dishes to clear, filled up the kitchen, went in their steam bath (success), and cleaned up. After the Peace Boat left- Jess, me, ricky, nassim, alex, and yorgia headed off the this nice laid back bar on the water called Azuls. Jessica and I rode the bikes and finally made it thanks to the guidance of some greek teens haha.

Today was pretty brutal. We got up and had masses amounts of dishes to clean from yesterday. Takis was gone so we took orders from Kerys the whole day. They send you off to go get things and when you get to where they tell you to go, you spend 20 minutes searching for Object A only to find that no such thing exists in that location, so you go back and tell them you cant find it, they say go look again, we do, no Object A, they come to help you and point out ever so calmly how Object A was in right front of you the whole time uggg. soo we finally escaped today and rode our bikes down to this cafe (in the right direction). Smiles are still on although the work is hard. And we get tomorrow off.

Soooooooooo everything is lovely!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you guyysss and love you very muchhh :)
GREECE IS GREAT

ahhhhhhhhh stranded!!!! a change of plans is in need!! we just got an email from natalie saying that we couldnt come stay with her on the farm any more because of family emergency!! soo we freaked out for a bit but we just got in touch with a yoga retreat/organic farm thats only five minutes away from natalies house that says we can come stay with them!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhh its called the Sunshine House!! you guys can look it up on google just type in sunshine house greece. soooo we are checking out of the hostel one night early and going down to evia by train/bus/taxi later tonight, apparently there is a big group of guests coming in tomorrow for a yoga thing and they need help with that. ULTIMATE SUCCESSSSSS!!!!!!

anywaysssssssssss, today was soo soo fun. we were up early and me, jess, amy, dianna, and oana went up to the acropolis and saw the parthenon!!! it was awesomeeeee. took a bunch of pictures. the view is so cool you can see the ocean and all of the city and yesss. i love it. oh but before that the five of us went to the market and bought some sandwich materials and went back to the candians room to pack a picnic. soo we ate our lunch at the acropolis! such a good idea. and thennn umm we met up with this guy from the hostel named jesse and the 6 of us meandered down to like the flea market area and shopped and checked out everything. i got a few souvenirs but nothing too big. one guy selling like nuts saw me and was like "BLONDIEE!! come here!!!!" and then he let me sample all of his food and gave me like a free candy thing haha. blondes have more fun indeed. ummm and thennnnn we were walking along the street and there was this guy selling really cool necklaces and he was a total hippie with long long dreads andddd of course i end up talking to him and he was from mexico so we were speaking SPANISH and ahhh so he just like sells his jewelry and travels around the world. he was soo cool. hahaha. anyway so when we get back to athens we are probably going to meet up with him somewhere. successss. (calm p-rents). he name was Axkan which is a pretttyyy legit name.

then we rambled back to the hostel, packed a bit, went a chilled out and ate ice cream at this really cool place, and now im here!

so we will probably go get dinner with our friends pretty soon then get ready to roll out of athens. everything has been perfect perfect perfect. and we have been having the best time. i cant even fathom leaving this place.

ohhhhh i forgot to mention, haha so last night on the way to the karaoke bar the guy at the hostel told us to get a taxi so me and jess and the two canadians spent ten minutes hailing down the cab with extreme fervor and when we finally got one we were so excited to get inside that we spent the entire ride in deep, lively conversation with the driver Nicco despite our lack of a common language. we resorted to the two greek words jessica managed to learn before the trip (kalimera and mi lena- good morning and my name is) and he just repeated beautiful over and over. it was hilarious. okay i have to gooo.

ohhhhhh soo jessica has been writing a blog too and she has a little more detail about the past few days so you guys should check out her blog too..

its JESSICAWITHABACKPACK.BLOGSPOT.COM

i rode on the back of a scooter. life goal complete!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhh hahahah.
everyone in the hostel went to a karaoke bar last night and it was super funnnn, we spent most of the night on the roof top bar of the hostel playing games with everyone.
life is SOO GOOD!!!!!!!

Soo we are in ATHENSSSS!!!!! ITS AWESOME and everything has gone greattt so far!
the plane to london was kind of brutal, i had like a half inch of leg room and i managed to contort my body in several different positions to find one worthy of sleep. i ended up flipped upside down with my legs on the tray table.. fail. but it was okay cause they served us WINE on the plane!! we felt pretty legit haha. ohh and a couple months ago i requested a kosher meal on the internet just for kicks so i got a delicious feast specially delivered to me courtesy of the blessed grills of the jewish orthodox association hahaha. so we got to london and that was supper coool. i took my first steps in EUROPE. then we hopped on another flight to athens which took about 4 hours. our backpacks came out pretty quick and we were OFF!!!! i had pretty vague directions to the hostel so the next two hours was like an epic scavenger hunt to find our place haha. so first we caught a bus from the airport into the center of town, on the bus we met the dad of the worlds best break dancer haha so that was cool and the ride was reallly pretttyyy. we were so excited. the police had blocked off the road before we got all the way there so we had to get off early and make our way to a metro station where we went one stop, then got off and found the red line which took us to "Acropoli". we came up from the subway in a little alleyway that looked like something out of a movie it was soo cute. then we spent the next half hour walking back and forth along the streets trying to find athens backpackers! eventually we got there with a little help from some greek storeowners and it was awesome. the guy at the front was a super nice english guy and he helped us check into our room. 3rd floor room 7. we are in there with about 5 other girls and jess and i both have top bunks! we met this romanian girl right away and the three of us went out to get something to eat. all the little streets were soo pretty and lit up with lights and everyone was out walking around and riding their scooters. its like a movie seriously. we found a restaurant and we ordered some beers and gyros. successs to the max. then we came back to the hostel and headed up to the roof top bar with a sick view of the acropolis. it was amazing. we got some drinks and probably like 15 people were up there just hanging out. weve met lots of canadians and there were 2 guys from new zealand and a few americans. at 1130 the bar tender got everyone together and like 10 of us went on a bar crawl through athens until like 4 am hahaha. weve gotten really good friends with the romanian girl and two canadians so we spent the whole night dancing and laughing and talking to everyone. so fun. in the morning we got up, went to a little market to buy bananas and yogurt for breakfast, and then the hostel had like a walking tour of the city so we decided to go on that. at one point we were at this big square and this guy came up to us and gave us bird seed and held us there until about 10 pigeons landed all over us haha and then he insisted that he take our picture for 5 euros but when we declined he turned around and left us hanging with all these pidgeons on us. athens is really beautiful despite what some people might say. i love it. and there are always dogs running around that are really cute. and they dont look sickly like you would think. so then we got back to the hostel, jessica went to sleep (a little burnt out from the night before) and me and those 3 other girls just went out to lunch. i ordered a tomato salad and when they brought it out i discovered that it really was nothing more than a bunch of cut up tomatos with onions on top. exotic. then i walked back to the hostel and that leads me up to here! everything is perfectttt. our hostel is sooo cool and there is like a living room where everyone just hangs out and everyone is trying to make friends and they all have backpacks. once jessica gets up we will probably go check out the flea markets and then see where the day takes us.

love you guyssss!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHH!!! So the day has come. The day I have been waiting for since we bought our plane tickets in December. Our GREECE Adventure!!!! Finally, finally back on the road. The last time I stepped foot on foreign soil was a little more than a year ago when I went to Peru with one of my very best friends, Camila Gaard. On March 15th, 2008 I departed from Houston to venture off to the rough, provocative, amazing continent of South America. Even though I spent only a mere week in Peru it was enough to completely change my life. Dancing to the techno beats of Hernan Cattaneo until 7 am with a Swedish backpacker on my very first night, exploring Lima with Cami and her tios, staying in a beach condo overlooking the Pacific Ocean with surfers and old hippies, riding on the back of a moto through the moon-lit streets and sand dunes, watching the sun set over the harbor every night, drinking fresh papaya juice, speaking spanish (kind of), laughing, experiencing, loving. My first real trip abroad. After I got back I spent nearly everyday thinking of the next time I could experience such freedom and such fullness again. Full of life, living my dream. Doing the one thing that makes me stop and say "oh yeaaa that's why I am alive". Travel. After one summer in Texas and an absolutely amazing freshman year at the University of Colorado in Boulder, I am about to fly off into my dreams again...

For the next 6 weeks I will be in GREECE. I am bringing nothing more than a backpack and a money belt... we are doing this thing on a budget, which makes it all the more exciting! Oh and when I say "we" I am referring to me and Jessica Kutz- my roommate from college. I am a lucky one-- I actually got a roommate that I liked! We have become the best of friends, actually it would be more accurate to describe us as sisters, and somehow we managed to convince our parents to let us go to Europe. This trip is all on our dime; I worked all semester at this coffee shop-ish place at the big student center on campus and Jessica at the Alumni Call Center where she honed her skills as a telemarketer. So with the money we have saved, we deemed it only fitting to spend it all in a foreign country. The first three nights will be spent in Athens in a youth backpackers hostel. We are right next to the Acropolis and we actually have a perfect view of it from the roof-top bar at our hostel (success!). Then for four weeks we will be volunteering on an organic farm on an island called Evia. We are staying with a family in an "old traditional farmhouse" right by the beach and a yoga retreat. Should be picking up some knowledge on self-sustainability, organic farming techniques, and hard work. It will be interesting to see how two college girls who tend to laugh a little too much, have hour long dance parties when studying should be happening, really have no experience with manual labor, and plan to take a million pictures in our fancy new overalls we bought at the thrift store make it for a month doing legit tilling of the land. hahaha. Basically the deal is if we work 5 hours a day during the week we get free room and board. It's certainly going to be an experience like no other. So then after the farm we are spending 10 days island hopping through the Cyclades. We will spend 3 nights each at Santorini, Ios (ultimate party island), and Mykonos. Those ten days we will either be staying in hostels or camping... we brought the hammock too so no worries. The plan is to get super tan, meet a lot of international hotties, dance all night at the discos, ride around on scooters during the day, rent donkeys in Santorini, visit the infamous nude beaches in Mykonos, and enjoy being aliveeeeeee. The last night we are staying in Athens and we have an early morning flight back to the states on June 30th.

It's going to be EPIC.

I'll try to keep up with this whole blog business, but don't be mad if the posts get shorter with more time in between. I'll do my best. I love you guys so so much!!!


AND SO WITH THAT I AM OFF TO EUROPE TO MEET WHO I AM MEANT TO MEET, TO SEE WHAT I AM MEANT TO SEE, TO DO WHAT I AM MEANT TO DO. TO ASSAUGE MY RESTLESS SOUL IF ONLY FOR A SHORT TIME . TO TRAVEL.

"AFOOT and lighthearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune-I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

From this hour, FREEDOM!
From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines."

-Song of the Open Road