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.