Two weeks before finals, we (MB, Meg and I) went on a Tuscany Bike Tour while Tiff worked on her final paintings. The ride was exhausting at times—we rode 13km around the Tuscan Valley! But, it was one of the best uses of our money while in Florence. The views were breathtaking and the tour guides were a plus. They were two guys from Scotland and a girl from Colorado. They all were highlights of this tour ;) Here is a fun pic of MB and Meg before our ride.
That next week, we had to say goodbye to our friends from the Richmond program. Tiff introduced Kyle Bonney to our group, and he introduced us to his friends. Saying goodbye was sad, but it was sadder to see them say goodbye to each other. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a guy cry….. This was definitely an eye opener for us because we knew our time was ticking away.
Finals week was treacherous. Tiff had her three paintings due, portfolio of prints, 2 written exams and a shoe design class. I had 5 written finals and a 25+ page short story due (all before Wednesday). We made it through the week to Tiffs Birthday that Friday.
She woke up to omelets and chocolate croissants (upon her request) and then we picked up her Bible cover she ordered from our leather friend. We then spent the day getting final gifts that were to overflow our already jam-packed suitcases. For dinner we went to the first place we ate in Firenze and had our “gelato creation” for desert. After that we went for the first time to a discotecca with her friends from class… it was definitely an experience I don’t want to repeat lol.
The next day we left packed for our final night in Florence. We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant at the request of “Fat Joe” who was our usual waiter. We spent the rest of the night hanging out at the Santa Croce Piazza watching the Monks put on a show.
Sunday, we all got up early and said goodbye to our apartment. Tiff and I took a taxi to the train station while Meg, Carolyn, and MB walked. They were leaving their luggage in Florence, but we had to take everything with us to Rome in preparation for our flight home. When we got to our Regional Train there was a US Marine and his grandfather on vacation. They helped Tiff and I get everything on the train. If not for them, we probably wouldn’t have gotten everything on the train on time. The grandfather told us stories as we sat on our 4 hr train ride to Rome. Eventually, we all passed out (not from his stories, but from tiredness) and woke up to beautiful Roma!
Tiff hung around in termini with our big suitcases while we took our luggage that was going to go to Greece with us to the hostel. When I returned, Tiff was crying from a book that she “hates the main character.” I think the character might have grown on her a bit….
We took the rest of our luggage to Josh Wall’s apartment. He is one of Tiff’s friends from Edmond who is a missionary in Rome for the next two years. We spent the day with him and then met up with the rest of the group for dinner.
The next day, Tiff and I eagerly boarded a train to the Fuimicio Airport only to see that we arrived 4 hrs early for our flight. We sat somewhere between the car garage and the terminals for a little rest. Once our flight came on the TV’s, we went to our check-in booth. At the beginning of our line, there was a Spanish lady who was having some trouble with her kids. The mother used a rope to tie all three of her kids by their belt loops to her stroller. The oldest of the three was at the end holding a rolly suitcase. It was very entertaining to watch the three kids get tangled up and then the mother frantically try to control them. Tiff and I agreed that it’s going to be a while until we have kids….
We arrived in Athens with only three hours to make our ferry and the ferry port was 1.5 hrs away by bus. By the time the bus left the airport, Tiff and I grew nervous. Traffic became heavy as we noticed it had already been and hour and a half. After two hours on the bus, we passed a horrible accident which was the obvious cause to the back up. By the time we made it to the port, we had no idea where to go. We had 5 minutes to catch our ferry and once we figured out which one it was—we ran to try and get on. As we got closer, the car bridge was being pulled away and the ferry was already away from the port. We missed it by literally 30 seconds.
Even thought this was a disappointment, it was just the start of our adventure. We wondered around the dying port town hoping to find an internet café. Locals pointed us in different directions which led us back to the Port after about an hour. When we returned, there was a Taxi driver who saw the desperate looks on our faces. He asked us if we needed any help and we explained to him our situation—our overnight ferry left without us and we had to get to Santorini tomorrow which meant that we needed a place to stay and another ferry ticket. He said he could take us to Athens city center to find a hostel, but it would be cheaper to pay for a hotel near the port. It ended up being a lot cheaper, but maybe not our best decision… the Taxi driver then called his friend who came and told us all the info we needed to know. He brought us to the cheapest hotel near the port (which was right across the street) and pointed at the internet café that was in the other section of the port. He obviously did this because he thought we were going to tip him, but our little adventure emptied our pockets. We purchased a hotel room that was two twins in a small room with old Abercrombie photos on the walls. We were thrown off by the “artwork” but the bathroom might have topped off Tiffs anxiety. Our bathroom was a sink, toilet, showerhead and a hole in the floor. I have to say it is a great idea in the architecture of the bathroom, but it was still rather hard to shower and not get the toilet paper wet. We ate McDonalds by the port as we watched sunset before heading back to our hotel… there Tiff was afraid to sleep in her bed and scared of the noises in the hallway but we eventually got an almost good night’s rest.
In the morning we made our ferry, shuttle to our hotel, and then laid in the warm sand on Santoini’s Perissa Beach. The sand is very, very small, smooth black stones… I took a pic because I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry it back to the states.
The next day we laid on the beach all day. Tiff bronzed wonderfully while I got burnt… story of my life. Meg, MB and Carolyn met up with us in Perissa and we ate a traditional Greek Dinner of Gyros Chicken and Greek salads.
Because I was so badly burnt, I went early to the town Fira the next day while the rest of the girls continued to tan. I was able to explore and snap away at the beauties of the Island.
For sunset, they all met up with me and we went to Oia (where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed). Here are some pics of the city (and some of where the movie was shot).
Sunset was beautiful in Oia. We were able to sit at an outdoor bar that overlooked the Aegean Sea onto the setting sun.
The day after that, Tiff and I rented a 4-wheeler and we went to the other points on the Island. We were able to explore almost every attraction the Island had to offer.
This alone was probably the highlight of the semester. No, I take that back… going to Santorini a highlight of my Life!
After a wonderful day exploring, we watched the sunset from another point on the Island. Our meal wasn’t so good, but the view was definitely worth it. Meg said that her new motto was “go Greek when in Greece.”
Tiff and I had a half day left before our ferry back to Athens. She spent the morning on the beach and I walked around taking some more pics. Tiff grabbed a quick salad as we said goodbye to our roommates Meg and Mary Beth. Here Tiff and I surprised them with a Italia coin necklace. It was broken in four pieces creating our own sisterhood.
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