Today was the last and final day. It is sad to think that the trip went by so quick. I love all the girls I am with, and it is sad to think we are parting after 2 amazing weeks together. This trip has been great in many ways. Most obviously it helped to improve my photography by a lot, but it also allowed me to bond with/meet amazing girls that I never would have gotten close to without the trip. At this point I would like to thank my parents for sending me on the trip. Yall are supportive of everything I do, and sending me to Europe was an amazing expirience that I truly cherished.

Now back to my daily life. Today was a late day (9am breakfast!!!) since the agenda basically consisted to getting all of our photos into files and organizing them to turn them in. In case you did not know, this trip is summer school so I have daily assignments and a "final" that I still need to finish, yay fine arts credits! At about 1 though, most people were finished so off to lunch! Unfortunatley, I cannot remember anything about lunch. It is sooo weird I cannot remember where we ate or what I ordered...ooopps.

Next we were allowed an hour of chill time to do whatever we wanted which was awesome. I went with Ellie, and we walked around the town. I probably chould have used that time to take a short nap, but oh well. From there, the two of us went back to the hotel to change into our bathingsuits, and we were off to the beach to meet up with some of the people that had already walked there. I love the water here. Galveston needs to beautify someehow because it just isnt going to cut it when I get back.

From the beach, we came back to the hotel and showered off. The next thing on our agenda was to present our top 10 photos of the trip This is part of our Nat Geo grade. It was really cool seeing everyones pictures, and unique perspective. The whole group then went and got dinner at the town square. We ate outisde and the weather was perfect ( I am not looking forward to Houstons weather). Our little surprise for the night was getting to do night shots. We all set up our tripods and drew pictures using flashlights. the pictures turned out really well!!! I would post some but I already packed my camera, sorry!

Now I am pulling an all nighter since we would have to wake up at 2 anyway to board the bus and get back to Athens. Do not worry though because I plan on sleeping on the bus ride and plane. Can't wait to see everyone, but I am going to miss Greece for sure.

Hydra is a gorgeous island off the coast of Greece. We took a bus ride for an hour and a half to a port, and from there a ferry to the island. An interesting/awesome fact about Hydra is that there are no cars on the islands. Only form of transportation avaliable, donkeys. I really wish we had ridden them, but they were a complete rip off! 10 euros for 10 minutes on gross donkey tnot well taken care of? I do not think so. Instead, Rachel, Stephanie, and I were put on an assignment to go around the island and take portraits of people. It was awkward at first having to ask people to take their photo, especially when they do not speech English that well, but after I got accustomed to talking to people, I really enjoyed the experience. My favorite subjects were a grandpa and his grandson. They were precious together. Look below, I had to upload the photo.

After that assignment, the group went to lunch. It was an awesome resturant because we got to sit outside in really comfy lounge chairs. LOVED IT. Also enjoyed the chicken crepe I got. It was yummy. Maddie and I, the fatties we are, decided to share a vanilla milkshake. That too was very good, and I think Greek icecream is different from US icecream. I like it.

What I thought would be the best part of the day actually did not occur. I was under the impression that we were going to jump off a cliff into the ocean water. Awesome right? Well that was a false statement, and instead we were taken to a cement platform that was a meager 10 feet maximum out of the ocean. Oh and there was no beach on the island, ironically so we tanned on cement platforms!!!! (The beach was on the other side of the island and it was a 30 minutes walk). It was fun nontheless.

Around 5pm, we reboarded the ferry and took it back to the mainland where the half and a half bus ride awaited us. The whole bus ride we talked and shared stories. It was great getting to know some of the girls a little better. We got back to the hotel, but were immediatley told not to go to the rooms and go straight to the harbor for dinner. I was not that hungry so Maddie and I shared (again) pesto pasta. You would think that is not that "adventerous", but pesto in Greece is different. It is more like a mix of pesto and alfredo sauce. Very good. We were allowed to return to the hotel to finish uploading/editting pictures once we were done with dinner. It will be an earlier night, and it is sad to think that tomorrow is the last day.

Today we hiked to the top of a mountain, 999 steep stairs. It was refreshing and tiring, but rewarding at the end because there is an old castle and gorgeous views at the top. Rachel, Maddie, and I all explored the castle together, and in the prison area we found a hole in the wall. Too scared to go by ourselves, the 3 of us got David to explore with us/for us. It was exciting, probably the most exciting thing we have done yet. Eventually, we all walked down and went back to the hotel to cool down and get ready to go to the beach. As you may have guessed, our next stop was the beach. All of the group headed there and it was so nice to swim in the water, lay out, and just relax with all my friends. It was wonderful. The ocean is gorgeously clear and blue. 3 hours of sun later, we ventured back to the hotel and showered off. Dinner was next on our list and again we ate at a place that I cannot pronounce. It was an alright dinner, not my favorite, but on the bright side their bread was really good!! Carolyn and David then told us to seperate into smaller groups and work on getting to know about ISO better. My group was Ellie, Rachel, and Stephanie. We walked down to the harbor at the best time because the sun was starting to set, and we were able to capture the sun setting over a couple of minutes. I am also happy to announce that after the piicture taking, we returned to the hotel and are able to go to bed by 10:30om today. It is amazing.

Packed this morning bright and early (8ish) to leave for Nafplio from Athens, but it felt like so much earlier. I need to go to sleep earlier from now on. After completing my packing, Holly and I left our room and went to breakfast. The whole group promptly left the hotel at 9 to board the bus. 3 hours of sleeping later, we were at our hotel in Napflio. I really love this town. It reminds me of Delphi, but a little larger, by the water, and with more color. Our hotel is even pretty nice which is always a great thing. My new roomates are Caroline and Callie, and we got a room with a great wrap around balcony. Cannot wait to use it!

Basically after we got to the hotel and unpacked, all the girls got their laptops and met in the lobby to finish downloading our photos and editing them. At around 2, we were all famished and headed out to lunch. A short walk down the street, and we came across a really cute resturant. It was decorated really well and cute with a sea theme since it is right across from the harbor.

After lunch, Ellie and I walked around the town shopping and taking pictures. We walked along the harbor which sadly has no beach, but the water was very pretty! The two of us continued to wander around aimlessly not sure where to go. Eventually though, we made our way towards a little park that had an "orange tree". Ellie and I thought it would be fun to pick one off the tree and eat it. Ellie quickly climbed up a fence grabbed one and then handed to me to peel. Not wanting the local people to see us, we tried to be stealthy and hid the orange because we were not sure if they would get mad that we took it. Comically though, a local man, who had been sitting in a car, witnessed the whole thing and rolled down his window. He then proceeded to tell me not the eat the orange thing that was currently sitting in my hand because it was not an orange. Mortified, Ellie and I quickly thanked him and then ran off laughing. It was a great moment.

The two of us then walked around and got ice cream before we had to go back to the hotel. We all had another download/chill period until around 7ish when we got to split up into groups and go to dinner. Holly, Maddie, Claire, and I went to a little cafe near a church where a wedding was going on. It was interesting to see there style of a wedding. Next the group met up and went to an Islamic ritual dance ceremony. It was really different and interesting to see. Finally we arrived back to the hotel around 10:30, but had to critque each others photos. Basically it was a long and tiring day, and I cannot wait to fall asleep. Too tired to upload pictures today, but I will try tomorrow!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY POPPIE! LOVE YOU!

This was yesterday...but I figured it is better to post something then nothing.
Basically yesterday all we did was go to 2 museums (a world famous archeology one and another one that had artifacts of Greece's history that are a little more recent like the 1800s to present), watch the guards change at the government building which was pretty cool, and download pictures/nap time. On a more exciting note, on our way to the first museum we ran into a protest of some sort. It was awesome to see. We had another "scavenger hunt" after dinner last night. Goal: find as many people as we can to say happy birthday to caroline (it was her 16th birthday) and film it. It was a fun activity to wrap up the night. Interesting fact: Greek people are more friendly then Italians.

Today's post is going to be somewhat quick because I am tired and lazy.

1. Ellie and I woke up and then hopped onto a bus for the 3 hour bus ride to Athens. I slept the whole time.

2.We arrived in Athens, and immediatley had issues. It is so crowded that the bus could not stop anywhere for us to get out and unload our luggage. The police started yelling at us and the bus driver, it was crazy and a great way to start off our first day.

3.We all gathered our stuff eventually and went to the Athens Center Square Hotel. It is by far the nicest and most modern of all the places we have stayed. Very nice rooms and best of all, the showers are awesome. In addition to that, Holly and I also managed to fanagle (sp?) becoming room partners.

4.Just a short walk down the street, and we all ate lunch outside at a resturant (Sorry I cannot be more descriptive with the resturants, but they are all written in Greek so I cannot even read the names of them). I ate a chicken gyro. Rachel, Ellie, Caroline, Abby, and I all sat on the bar stools facing the road, and literally the scariest thing happened with a man we like to call Crazy Eyes. He was crazy looking, and I swear to the good lord almighty he started to stalk us. He would circle around the block and then stop in front of our seat and just stare at us for a solid couple of seconds. One time he even stared at me dead in the face adn started saying a bunch of greek crazy talk and pointing to me. I got concerned then because this was his second or third time to pass us by.

5. Luckily we left lunch soon after that, but things did not improve that much. Our large group split into 2 smaller ones. My group was Holly (Hartman), Carly (Cannon), Holly, Ellie, Rachel, Abby, Callie, and myself. We decided to go in a meat market to take pictures. Bad choice. The butchers there are so perverted and gross. Ew. Plus, the market disgusted me as rabbits, lambs, and pigs were skinned and hung by there feet. All of us looked for the quickest way out of there.

6. Our group then went around the city and took pictures and shopped which was much nicer. One of my favorite places was a thrift/antique place. It was 3 floors full of goods that covered every inch of possible space ceilings and walls included. At around 4pm, our group went back to the hotel to meet up with the other one.



The staircase in the thrift shop. It was packed with awesome stuff.



7. As one group, we all went to the Acropolis. The Acropolis is perched on a hill (possibly small mountain top) and has amazing views of the city. It was a pretty building, but it was a shame that they are restoring it because there was a ton of machinery all around the building. Another gross moment occured in my life: a stray dog ran by us carrying a dead kitten in its mouth. A depressing moment for sure.



8. After leaving the Acrop, our leaders surprised us with an hour and a half to shop. I got Jordan a gift so she does not have to worry one bit, and I can promise her it is not just a keychain like she was expecting. ;)

9. Famished from the shopping, walking, and site-seeing, our group headed for dinner. We ate at a very nice greek resturant that played live greek music, and had Greek dancers. It was a lot of fun, and a great dinner. I had spinich crepes which really are just spinich enchiladas. They were good, but made me crave Mexican food.

10. With Dinner in our bellies, we walked back home and went to bed.

I would like the world to know that Delphi is beautiful. It is a little country town, that has stunning views, great resturants, pretty good shopping, lots of cats (whole families of strays), and friendly people, but

enough of that and on to our day.

Ellie and I awoke around 8:30ish, got dressed, and then went down to breakfast. I have never been a greek yogurt fan...but I ate some for breakfast with honey and it was delicious! Our lovely NGSE leaders, Carolyn and David, then allowed us to get in small groups and explore/photograph the village on our own. I went with Holly and Rachel. Together the three of us literally walked the whole village up and down (since it is situated on the side of a mountain). Highlight: finding stray baby kittens, SO CUTE. Next all of us hit the shopping stores, and we all got some cute jewlery and bags among other things.

Precious baby kitties.

The whole group then met back up at the hotel to go over our pictures from the last couple of days, and start sorting them into files that help to organize the photos by compostion. Compostion is the rules of photography such as rule of thirds, leading lines, framing, etc. Do not worry too much if you have no idea what I am talking about, though I recommend you look them up because they really do help.

Again, we were allowed to independently split up into groups and go to lunch. My group consisted of Claire, Stephanie, Holly, Madeline, and Rachel. We all ate at a restuarant that I cannot pronounce the name of, much less read since it was writted in greek letters. We then wandered around town looking for ice cream, and the best we could find was a little stand that had ice cream cones and fudge bars in a freezer. Regardless of the quality, we got some anyway. While eating our ice cream, we explored the town and shopped somemore until around 3pm, which was the time we needed to head back to the hotel.

After all the independent lunch groups regrouped at the hotel, we all walked the short distance to the Delphi museum and the ruins of ancient Delphi. We had a great tour guide, and she explained a lot about Delphi's aka the "navel of the world"'s history. After the tour, we walked the ruins and took more pictures.

Athenian treasury within the ancient city of Delphi

The group then walked back to the modern town of Delphi, and stopped at another resturant, which I cannot pronounce, for dinner. We all ate lots of delicious food. I went out on a limb, and got the Dolmades which are grape leaves that are stuffed with rice and other objects of food. They weren't bad, but I definatley did not find them to be that great. After dinner, we again were set loose to wreck havoc on the town of Delphi by ourselves. Most of us just returned to the hotel to relax though.

While people were exploring, Carolyn and David set up a projector on the terrace or the roof of the hotel. We all gathered on the outdoor chairs that were situated there, and looked at all the pictures we took from the scavenger hunt on our first day in Florence. Along with that, they also brought out 2 cakes for us to celebrate Abby's 16th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY! I forgot to mention that we dressed in bedsheets as togas in order to celebrate with a toga party. Opa! Us girls all snuggles under oour togas and watched Momma Mia off the projector.

I am sad to say that tomorrow we are leaving this beautiful village, and moving ourselves to Athens. Cannot wait for the new adventure to begin!

To start out, I just want to say I had an interesting morning. After staying up blogging and then skyping my family until 3am, I finally decided to go to bed since we were waking up at 4:20am. I headed up the stairs to my room at the hotel to realize that the door to my room was locked, and everyone inside was sleeping. Because I am such a nice person I decided not to wake them up and went to Holly's room where she kindly agreed to share her TWIN szie bed with me for the next hour. It was a little crapped and warm since the AC barely worked, but eventually we managed to fall asleep. When we woke up around 4am, I went to my room to collect my stuff. That's when I realized that my sweet roomates had left the key in the door for me last night so I could get in, but it had been too dark for me to see it. It was pretty funny at the time, probably it had something to do with the hour of sleep I was running off of.

At 4:30am, the group boarded a bus that drove us the 3 hours to the airport in Rome. We went through the baggage claim without an problems, though I am sad to say that the Italians did not once send us through customs so that I could get my passport stamped. Regardless, we all boarded the plane and after a 2 hour nap, I was awoken and we were in Athens, Greece. Literally I am ecstatic to be in Greece. It is a beautiful country, and I cannot wait to explore it in more depth. Gahh I am such a mythology nerd.

 Upon getting our luggage, we found the driver to our bus, and we started the 3 hour drive to Delphi. Fortuantley to pass the time, Ms. Holly Jean Hepper brought along the Lizzie McGuire Movie, and we all watched it on the buses TVs. After the movie was over though, I took another nap, which helped to total my sleep for the day to about 4 hours. I was awoken however to many people talking excitedly. As I looked up groggily, I saw the most amazing views of the Greek valleys. In fact, it had started to rain slightly and a beautiful rainbow formed over the valley. It was gorgeous. Eventually we arrived at Delphi and I am happy to say that the hotel we are in is my favorite so far. It is clean, nice, and the wifi works very wonderfully!!!! Even better: ELLIE HOPPER AND I ARE SHARING A ROOM TOGETHER. We succesfully got the best room, the only one with a huge bathroom,bathtub, and balcony. I love Greece so far.

Our lovely hotel

 In addition to the great hotel, we went to a great dinner. I cannot pronouvnce the name of it since it is writted in Greek, but I can tell that I ordered a more eccentric meal then I normally would have. I am pleased to say that I got the rooster with local pasta, and it was very yummy. At my table, it was Ellie, Callie, Caroline, and myself and together for desert we shared baklava and ice cream. I have decided that baklava is good but extremely sweet and not my favorite. The ice cream was really good! It definatley tasted a little different from bluebells. All of us returned to the hotel and went on the roof to watch the lunar eclipse. It was really cool to watch it happen. Some people took pictures, and I probably should have, but I was having fun helping my fellow photographers and watching the moon change. Tomorrow we get to sleep in til 9! This is great news since we have not slept this late since the first night, and I need it after only receiving 4 hours of sleep today. Good night and as the Greeks would say Adio (bye)!



View from the resturant, and I love the buildings!



Beautiful sky.

Today was the best day I have had yet. No joke. Cinque Terra is one of the most beautiful places I have been too. Cinque Terra in English is roughly translated to Five Villages. This is significant and interesting because Cinque Terra is a section of land along the coast that is comprised of…this should be no surprise…five villages. We started at the village of Monterosso al Mare and hiked all the way to the next village of Vernazza.

Beach at Monterosso al Mare

Before all of this though, we woke up at 7, had breakfast, and then boared our first ever private bus. This was a nice surprise since lately we have been accustomed to boared multiple different public buses and trains to get to our destination. The bus drove us for 2 hours until we reached a train station along the coast. From there we took a quick train ride for 20 minutes to the village of Monterosso. Of course the sea shore was gorgeous. It was ironic because while our group was there, we ran into multiple people that we knew from Houston. 

We then started our hike of 3km (not sure what that is in miles) to the next village. Do not let the fairly short distance fool you though, it was the hardest path they had. At first the hike was normal and not too much of a difficulty, but then we hit the most steep and narrow rock steps I have ever encountered. I was not prepared for this, and the people leading the way thought it would be fun to practically run the steps. I was dying. Luckily the views were gorgeous though, so that helped to make up for the intensity. Eventually we all stopped for a much needed break, and everyone decided the pace needed to slow down. This was a great idea, and the hike was much more enjoyable after that decision was made. I can’t stress this enough when I say the views were AMAZING.



From left: Holly, Callie, Stephanie, Demeris, me, Carolyn, and Ariel after our hike!

 After arriving in Vernazza, we were given our first real freedom. Our leaders allowed us to split up into small groups and find our own places to eat for lunch. Holly, Rachel, Madeline, Stephanie, and I all ate at a cute café right on the edge of the water. After eating, talking, and mainly just relaxing after the hike, us girls all met up with the rest of the group at the beach. All of us swam in the Mediterranean Sea and laid out in the sand. Around 4pm, our day trip came to a close and we all boarded back onto the bus. After a nice nap, we were conveniently dropped off in front of the hotel. I quickly rushed upstairs to take a shower and get the saltwater and sweat from the hike off my body. Once my roomates (Rachel, Dena, and Madeline) and I were all clean and spiffy looking we headed out to dinner and ate at a restaurant along the street somewhere (very descriptive I know). I ordered Spaghetti Scampi and was not prepared to be given shrimp with their heads still on. Besides having to behead the shrimp, my meal was delicious. In addition, since tonight was our final night in Italy, our group decided it was a must to go get gelato and stock up on the extra sugar and calories. Tomorrow we are travelling to Greece and I am ecstatic.

Vernazza