OPA!!

After a nine hour flight, and a stop-over in Doha, we made it to Greece! We were all very excited to be in Europe finally. We walked out of the airport to find a man holding a sign that said "Beth Gorman." Beth's parents had arrange for a taxi driver to pick us up at the airport and take us to the apartment in Athens where her parents had been for the last couple days. The taxi driver was great, he actually spoke English!! Plus it was a little chilly that day, which was a nice change from sweaty, sweaty Asia. It was also wonderful not to have to make any decisions about where to go or where to stay for once. We got to the apartment and were all very excited to see Jan and Paul. Having a nice apartment with brie, coffee, and a washer/dryer was also great.
Our first night in Athens we were all exhausted but headed out to have our first authentic Greek meal with Beth's parents. After some mousaka and a few glasses of wine we were all ready for a good nights sleep. The following morning Beth headed out around 6 am for a run, it was all going well until she found herself lost in Athens! Luckily she had her phone with her, unfortunately it died before she found her way home. Without any money for the metro and without any knowledge of the Greek language she felt utterly hopeless, but also found it funny at times. Roughly 6 hours later after her own personal tour of the city she made it "home." Later that day we all headed out for some shopping in Athens with Jan. We were all excited to see H&M and Zara. Beth's feet and legs hurt. That night we all went to see the Acropolis lit up, and had dinner, where we had our first taste of Restina and Ouzo!
The next day Beth went to the airport to get Justin (Justin is Beth's boyfriend) while the other girls wandered around the city. That night we all ate dinner together before heading off to catch a ferry to Crete.
We decided to take an overnight ferry to Crete, which was about 12 hours away. Getting to the port turned out to be much more difficult than we'd imagined, but luckily we made it with some help from a nice Athenian boy. The ferry was huge, we all quickly realized that we were not in Thailand anymore. There was a restaurant, a lounge, a casino; we were starting to think we were on a cruise ship. We arrived in Crete early in the morning and took a bus to Hania. While we waited for the hostels to open we took a look around at the lighthouse and the beautiful Venician-style buildings that make up Hania's harbor. After settling in and some breakfast we took a bus to Platanias, a nearby beach where we spent the day relaxing. We went out for dinner and
Rachel and Molly headed out early in the morning for the Gorge, where they hiked all day long.

That same day Danielle, Justin and Beth spent playing volleyball with the locals, burying Danielle in the sand, and swimming. It was a great day! Justin saw a postcard with a beautiful beach, asked around, found out it was Balos, and decided it was a must-see. We decided to stay a day longer than we'd planned to make our way to Balos. We accidentally wound up on a ferry to Balos with several tour groups. We stopped at Gramvousa Bay and hiked up a steep mountain to a Venetian fortress. Justin lost his sunglasses :(. Then we set off for nearby Balos. The water was crystal clear. It was a bit windy but the view was incredible, surrounded by turquiose waters. A great way to end our stay in Crete.
The next day we spent a few hours on a bus to Iraklion, and then took a ferry to Santorini, which we almost missed. It was a short ferry ride, and once in Santorini Beth and Justin split off from the girls. Sadly we had to part ways for the first time in 3 months as Beth and Justin headed to Fira where they ran into Beth's parents at the bus stop, what a small world!


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