For My Estonian Travels

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Overview of our trip

Since Mike is leaving tomorrow, I decided we will give you our view on the places we have been In Europe, and in Greece using our scale from before, if you don't remember here are the categories again: Expense, Drinkablitity, Food, Girls, People, and Sites.  Each Category is out of 10  for a total of 60.  Here is our totals. 

Madrid-6+7+8+9+6+8=44
Dublin-5+10+7+3+10+6=41
London-4+8+7+10+9+9=47
Paris-6+6+7+10+4+9=42
Cyprus-(Ayia Napa)-7+10+8+8+8+8=49
Rome- ??????? (mike's section but he left)
Mykonos-6+9+8+8+8+7=46
Santorini-6+9+8+9+7+8=47
Excrusion 1-(Cornith, Epidavuvros, Mycynae, Olympia, and Delphi)-6+7+7+7+7+9=43
Excursion 2-(Sparta, Mystras, and Monemvasia)-6+6+7+6+8+9=42
Patras-6+9+8+9+6+3=41
Greece- 6+8+10+10+8+9=51

And the winner is.......... Georgia! just kidding. Greece as a whole.

pictures from Spring break

 Westminster abbey

 Buckingham Palace

 Parliament Building

 Tower Bridge

 London Eye

 London eye and Parliament at night

 Parliament at night

London Eye at night

 Notre Damn

 Lourve

 Mona Lisa

 Arc de Triomphe

 Eiffel Tower

 Mini statue of Liberty (view from tower)

 at Ice cream Place

 tower at night

 Sacre Coeur

 park in Cergy

Notre Damn at night

 Harbor with Finding Nemo boat

 Grecian Beach and Flags

 Nissi Beach

 Nissi Beach

 Nissi Beach

 Nissi Beach

Nissi Beach

Quick over view of Spring Break

Since Mike and I didn't do our original plan of blogging about each place that we went on spring break I am just going to sum them all up into one Post. After Dublin we went to London. We arrived and went to meet up with Mike's friends from College, and went into Hyde Park, drank, and kicked the soccer ball around. At night we went to an Indian place for dinner since we heard that the Indian food was really good in London. It was good, and Spicy.

The next day we did a free walking tour of the city. It took us from wellington park to the Parliament building. We saw, Buckingham palace, the old palace, the horse guard's home(?), Westminster Abby, British Museum and more. It was worth every penny of that free tour. After the tour we meet up with some other friend that Mike and I knew who were also visiting the city. At night we did a pub crawl with the same company that did the walking tour. We went to 5 different bars, and got a free shot and drink specials at everyplace. It was a lot of fun, and I got a 2 pound t shirt out of it, and Kamil got the leader's vest ( he asked for it before me apparently). The next day we saw London Tower, tower bridge, London Bridge, and went up in the London Eye (the Giant Ferris Wheel), and at night went out for a couple of beers with Mike friends again.

That night we had to leave our hostel at 2 am to catch the night bus to catch our bus to the airport which left at 3am. We got at the airport at 4 am to make sure that we had enough time at the airport for our flight at 6am. Needless to say we did not sleep that night, and were up for about 36 hours.

Next was Paris, when we arrived we couldn't check into our hotel when we first got in so we went site seeing. We saw Notre Damn, Lourve,  Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower all in one day. That Night we had the best meal at this place by our hotel, and it was worth every penny of this expensive meal. The next day we slept in till about 1 pm, since we had been up for about 36 hours, then we met my friend Cody who was studying just outside Paris. We saw the bastille, walked around the Siene river, got some delicious Ice Cream, and then saw the Tower at night, to see the light show that it puts on. The next day Mike and Kamil left and I hung around the city during the day before I went to Cody's place for the weekend. I ended up inadvertently going to an outdoor church service on good Friday and seeing the Trinty church. Then I headed out to Cody's place. That weekend we walked around his town of Cergy, and saw a church and a Park. It was nice hanging out with him and his friends for a weekend.

After Paris I headed back to Athens for 3 days before heading to Cyprus and Ayia Napa. Ayia Napa is the top tourist spot in the Middle East! better yet Europe! We went out and they have the best drink deal every. It was buy one drink get 2 free and a shot. SO needless to say, We had a good weekend. Mike and his Cousin Dave came for two night and we went to 2 different Beaches, One being the Best beach in Europe (Nissi Beach) according to Tripadvisor. However when it came time to leave Tyler and I were going to take the bus to the airport like we did there cause it only cost 4 euro instead of 50 by taxi. However, the bus that we needed to take never showed up. So we were forced to take a 50 euro limo taxi to the airport.  But all in all Spring Break was Awesome and a lot of fun.

Ireland

On Thursday, April 14th, we (Mike, Kamil, and I) set out for Ireland. Mike and I had yet to collect a stamp abroad. Our flight took us form Athens to Budapest then to Dublin. When we went to Budapest we got our first STAMP! We were like gitty school girls, screaming, yelling, hollering, jumping up and down, laughing. We get through customs, and decide to get some food. However, Hungary is not on the Euro. We look at their currency and we see two different currencies used in the airport.  As Mike likes to call them Frugaltogals, and Hufflepuffs. The actual currency is called Forint (huf), they put the price as forint, or huf, so u can see our confusion.

 We arrive at our hostel in Dublin, and we had just missed a pub crawl that the hostel was putting on. The first night we went to the Famous Temple Bar. It was awesome, and huge. Every place Dublin seemed that way. It looks small from the outside, but once you enter it, it seemed like 3 times the size that it looked on the out sized.

The next day we went into Dublin and saw all the Important things like the Guinness and Jameson Factory! Then the Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Spire too. The Guinness factory we heard was the most expensive Guinness in Dublin. It was true. It cost 11 euros to get into the factory and then you get one free pint of Guinness, either in how to pour a Guinness or at the Gravity Bar, which is the bar on top of the Guinness factory with a 360 degree of the city. The tour was just a self-guided walking tour, and it wasn't as good as it could have been.

However, we got in for free. We were waiting for Mike's cousin, to meet us at the Guinness factory. And this lady Comes up to us and asked us if we had bought our tickets yet. We said no, and then she hands us 3 tickets, saying that they had gotten extra, and walks away. BEST DAY! Cheapest Guinness in Dublin for US. Score!

The one Cool thing that we learned was that Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for 45 Pounds a year, and they are only in about 250 years in.

After our Guinness tour, we went right to Jameson Factory. This factory was much more informative. We had an actual tour guide. We watched a introductory movie, in which after they picked a a group of people to taste different types of whiskeys. So Naturally all three of us volunteered. However, since we were all sitting together, she said that lets spread it out. So she only gave it to two of us. Unfortunately, I was not chosen.Worst Day! (for me, Mike and Kamil got Picked)

The next day we decided to go to the country side. However, we had not booked in advanced. We arrived early and then had to wait and see if they had room on the bus. We were not the only one's trying to get on the bus. Lucky there was enough room on the bus. We went and saw Wicklow which had some awesome views of lakes and a valley. Then we went to Kilkenny. It had a sweet Castle, and view of a river. It also had three more breweries there; Harp, Smithwicks, and Kilkenny. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to see any of them. Our tour guy told us that the next time you talk to a person that has seen everything and done anything, and has lived life to the fullest, ask them if they have had a Kilkenny in Kilkenny. If they haven't then We had a one up on them.

That night we went out with 2 people we meet in our hostel and watched the 1 of 4 meeting between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. However, it was a great end to our trip in Dublin. Next stop London. 

Spring Break

We will be posting about each location in a separate post. There will be a new post each day this week on a different location. We made up a rating system for each country. There are 6 different categories in that we judged each of the countries.

These categories are:
1) Expense- How expensive it was to buy or go and see things
2) Drinkablitity- Different kind of drinks, locations of places to drink, and if it was good
3) Food- How good is it
4) Girls - How cute they are
5) People- How friendly they are
6) Sites- What there is to see

Mykonos

Last weekend I went to Mykonos, it is a island of the coast of main land Greece. We took a ferry there which took about 5-6 hours. On the way there there was a group of we think high schoolers going to a different island. And about 2 hours into our trip they start yelling, clapping and blowing whistles. I wanted to slap every one of them. It was the most annoying thing in the world to wake up to. Thankfully they got off at the first island.

When we got to the island we were met by our hostel, Mama's Pension. She said that she was waiting for 2 more people, but that we could put our bags in here car. her car was small and could only fit 5 in it. But when the other 2 people had arrived she decided that she would take everyone at once instead of 2 trips. We had the four of us in the back seat and the other two were sitting in shotgun. She was kind enough to drop us off in town after we had put our bags in our room. We rented ATV's for two days. Best Investment Ever! We drove the ATV's Everywhere.

The next day we decided that we were going to drive all over the Island. We went from beach to beach. Ever one was just as nice as the last. Beautiful sand, and even better water, as you can see. My ATV was the ghetto one of the group. My one light has fallen out, and I didn't have any mirrors.

That night we had meet up with some Australians that were on holiday. They had just come out of a club called Down Under. We decided to go back there. The owner saw them coming and they shouted "Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy" and they replied back "Oi Oi Oi". It was Priceless.

The next day we needed to return our ATV's. It was a sad day. We walked around town. On the way back the sun was setting and got many pictures of the sunset.

That night we went to an Irish pub that was just down the hill from where we were staying. Our one friend order a water, and every time we have gone there it was 4 Heineken's. So when the bartender came back he had a shot of Ouzo for him, and wouldn't give him his water till he took the shot. It was a prefect way to end the great weekend. I can't wait till I go back.

Unusual post

There is this musician who went to my high school, he calls himself P. Muna. He is a hip hop/rap artist and  he has some great music. Check him at facebook at  P. Muna or at  youtube at his music video is just one of many! He is going to be in Paris next week and I'm going to try to meet up with him while I'm there.

He is opening for Lupe Fiasco at the Armory in Albany, NY.


PS. Posts about Mykonos and Rome to come ......  Dublin in 1 day 15 hours 15 minutes and 10 seconds.....

Nightly Adventure in Monemvasia

After our delicious dinner on Friday we try to convince our "chaperon" to come out with us that night to one of the clubs that we saw downtown on our walk earlier that day. One Our roommate was still trying to convince her to come out with us. When she was leaning towards a no he became very disappointed and was trying every trick in to book to get her to come out,  even pretending like he was on the verge of tears. It was still a no go.

Naturally, after any tough rejection you drink! Which was our plan anyway but still... We start to pregame and at about midnight we can't stand to me in the room anymore and so after a long debate whether people are coming out or not it ends up just being Kamil (our heart broken roommate), Mike and I. There were a couple people out already and walking around. We ended up meeting up with the people that were out and they said that only one club seemed to be "popping." So we go.

We walk in and the first thing we notice is to old people like 50's, sitting at a table with what looks like to be a waitress and them just looking at the "dance floor"- just an empty space in the bar. The next thing that we notice is that it seems like no one is over the age of 17 and that's being generous. We leave after being in there for all of 20 seconds because we feel like we were in a 15 year old private party. However, we don't wanna go back to the room so we walk around. Everyone else goes back but the three off us. Kamil then convinces us to go back to the club. Mike tells us that he is strictly American and that he knows NO Greek tonight because of the fact that were crashing a 15 year old party.

We go back and go to the far side of the club, and see that there are other people drink, so we decided we'll stay for a beer and see what happens. After one beer, we decided were gonna stay for one more drink. Kamil goes to order us shots of tequila and the bartender gives him glasses of tequila with ice, and then 3 free shots.

No sooner had we taken our shots and had a couple of sips of our drinks we hear the bartender say "Come on Boys", in a Greek accent speaking English with 4 shots of how knows what it was but delicious. He preceded to do that 3 more time. We successfully closed down the bar as we were one of last people to leave. All in all it was a good night. We wrote crash a 15 year old private party on the list of things to do and then immediately crossed it off.

Spata, Mystras, and Monemvasia

This trip started off just like the last excursion. Get there at the time were suppose to be meeting the bus and our coordinator. And neither are there. Wait 10 mins finally our coordinator shows up but still no bus. Another 30 mins later our bus finally shows up. Now were about 40mins behind schedule. We drive about an hour and a 1/2 to our first stop the Corinth Canal which we stopped at last time. Last time we had 15 mins to see the canal, get food and go to the bathroom. This time we have 30mins to do the exact the same stuff, which doesn't make any sense to me. Well we happened to be there for 40 mins, so now were even further behind schedule.

After another 2-21/2 hours we finally make it to Sparta. We arrive about 1:30ish and Mystras the only thing in Sparta to really see closes at 3. by the time were get throw the gate we have less than an hour and a half to explore. Needless to say we didn't get to see everything in the place, which is a let down because it was a cool place. It would have been a great view on a good day, however it was kinda rainy and at the very top you were in a cloud so you couldn't really see that far in front of you.

We were the last people in Mystras that the gate keepers were blowing whistles and threatening to lock us in there. However after a lunch was very good in Sparta, I got a chiken souvlaki with bacon, and yes that is how they spelled chicken, Greeks don't know their English very well. 

After another 2 hours on the bus we reach our hotel in Monemvasia. Our hotel had a great view. It was right on the Sea.

That night we went to an amazing dinner where the restaurant produced their own wine, and it use to produce olive oil. They gave us a free tasting of their wine along with cheese before dinner. Then they
told us about the how olive oil used to be produced. The owner only spoke Greek so we had our coordinator translate what he was saying for us. However, according to my personal translator she was not doing such a good job, and messed but a couple of time. So I'm not sure which one is correct.

 Olive press machines

 Home made wine

Since, this post is getting long I'll save the first night adventures for another post. The next day we went into the Fortress of Monemvasia. It was never taken over by a force. The only reason it fell from the power was from internal problems. We thought it was just gonna be a little fort with some ruins on the top hill. However, when we got through the gate, there was an entire town, with homes, shops, restaurants and of course tons of churches. A lot of the buildings were redone but they were redone in the same style as the buildings in the olden days. It was a really cool place to go and see. Probably one of the best so far.