Greece: 10 days of paradise. I was in Greece having the time of my life from March 29 until April 7 with 5 of my friends. We stayed three nights each on the islands of Santorini and Naxos, and then 3 nights in Athens. We all shared our (1500!) pictures of the trip, and so I'm having a really tough time picking which ones to post. This is going to be a long one...

First Leg: Santorini

We took a 6 a.m. flight from Stuttgart to Athens (after staying up all night), and walked around for 4 hours until we caught our 9 hour ferry to Santorini. We arrived at 2 a.m., a bit delirious but ready for our vacation.
We stayed in 2 rooms that were like little villas. The one I stayed in was on the second floor, so we had a balcony.

This is the crew on our balcony, our first morning there.

From the left: Elliot, Adam, me, Ingvild, Erik, and Marc

The first day we just walked around. We were still pretty beat from, as Adam so cleverly put it, our 'Odyssey' to Greece. haha

This is the biggest town on the island: Fira. I took this from a cafe where we stopped for a drink.

Us at the cafe...

Cliffside hotels. There just aren't words to describe how beautiful everything was, and the pictures truly don't do it justice.




Day 2: ATV's!!!

We rented 4-wheelers to get to a wine vinyard/museum and do some exploring. This was possibly one of the best, most fun days of my life. We just rode around, beach hopping and terrifying the locals. I can't even begin to explain how much fun we had...







Marc, Ingvild, and I with our feet going numb in the very chilly water. None of us were really prepared for how cool it still was in Greece.

Black beaches! Or, as our hotel owner said with his accent "Black bitches." Yeah, we never got tired of that one...

Erik and Marc at the top of a mountain we rode up. What a view!

Last day in Santorini:
We took a boat trip out to the famous volcano- the Caldera. There were also supposed to be hot springs to swim in (which was what we were really excited for). Let me recreate the day for you....

Everything cost more than we thought it would. That's ok- it'll be a cool experience. We freeze our asses off on the boat, however.

Yup, we were a little cold- but, we had hot springs to look forward to! (ha ha, read on)

Then we get to the volcano, which was wicked cool, don't get me wrong. However, the hot springs aren't here, we need to make another stop on the other side.

Awesome picture, though, isn't it? We climbed on the volcano for a little while, excited to depart for the hot springs....
(That's Santorini in the background)

Ok, (finally) leaving for the hot springs. The much anticipated, much sought-after hot springs.

But wait, the boat just stops about 50 feet from the coast. The captain is looking at us. We ask, why have we stopped?

Captain (with crazy Greek accent and hair): "This is where we stop. You jump out and swim to the hot springs."

Us: "Oh! We jump off the boat and swim there??!! Well, how cold is the water right here."

Captain: "Cold."

(Silence and worried glances)

Me: "How cold, exactly."

Captain: "Oh, about 12 or 13 degrees" (Translation: about 55 degrees Farenheit)

Us: "Holy (insert explicative)"

Captain: "Oh, and the springs aren't really that hot yet. They're just warm right now."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

However, and with much credit deserved, Erik, Elliot, and Ingvild jumped in and swam to the 'warm springs.' All of the many Asians on board were ohhhing and ahhhing and capturing the stupid Americans (and 1 Norwegian) for all time on their cameras. Marc, Adam and I just sat on the boat and laughed.
Elliot swimming back...

Ok, moving on...

Second (and in my opinion, the best) leg of our adventure:

After the boat-trip debacle we hopped on a ferry to Naxos...

View from the balcony of our hotel. We only paid 10 euros each per night, and the place was beautiful! Not to mention the fact that we were the first guests of the season, and had the entire hotel to ourselves.

"Man eating aloe vera plant," Erik and I were amazed by the size of these things, and they were everywhere.

Just amazing...
Naxos was a gorgeous island. Thanks to Elliot for capturing this one

Downtown Naxos. There were a bunch of cute shops and cafes

Naxos coast. We rented ATV's again and went exploring- it was the best way to see the islands!

Beach time!! Naxos had gorgeous beaches- this is Marc and Adam in the middle of "Frisbee wars, 2007." The water really was not warm at all, but they were having a great time (and entertaining the locals). It had warmed up quite a bit, though, and we all got some quality sun-time in.

St. Anna's beach. We set up here for awhile

A little further down...

And our last night in Naxos- and the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen.

This is the downtown in the setting sun. There was a little island with ruins on it that you can walk out to (you can see the walkway in the picture).

Ingvild and I in the setting sun

Unbelievable...

The crew

Naxos at night. Again, a huge thanks to Elliot for this one, it's one of my favorites.

Although we were very sad to leave gorgeous Naxos, we had to set out for our last leg..

Athens:

We stayed at an awesome Hostel that was just a big party all the time. The staff and all the people staying there were great, which was helpful as the Acropolis and ruins are pretty much the only big thing to see in the city.

Ruins...

View of the Parthenon from the top of our hostel.

Up at the Acropolis....
This is a view of another temple, and the very crowded city of Athens.

Ancient scaffolding and cranes...

We got some culture and enjoyed some wild nights in Athens. However, all good things must come to an end, and our 10 days of paradise ended too quickly. It was back to Germany and to the beginning of my semester.

One thing is for certain, I will be returning to Greece someday. We had an incredible time and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to go and spend this time with some wonderful friends. Words just can't explain....

My new favorite city: Berlin!!
I took a very spontanious- and solo- trip to Berlin for 3 nights and it was possibly the best trip and the most wonderful city yet. As an avid German history enthusiast I instantly fell in love with Berlin, as it is pretty much the Rome of German history.

I arrived around 4, checked in at the hostel, and then went immediately to the Reichstag. I'm going to restrain the history geek in me right now, or this blog will become way too long. The Reichstag is the parliament building and it's had a rough history...

You can go up to the roof and get some great views of the city. By the time I made it up, however, the sun had set- so no pics, sorry.

The following day I took a train to Potsdam (about 20 minutes away) to see Sans Souci, which was Frederick the Great's summer palace. The grounds are enormous and the landscaping is world famous. And, as Frederick the Great is one of my favorite historical figures, and I've studied him so much, I got a little emotional. Of all the times I've seen pictures of the palace, to actually be standing there was just amazing.

This is a famous view of the palace- if I had been here in warmer weather the terraces up to the palace would be covered in beautiful flowers and plants.

I spent my third day seeing all the sights in East Berlin. The Soviets lucked out in the division of Berlin after WWII and had most of the big historical sites in their sector.

Here's Brandenburg Gate, as viewed from the east. Again, another site with a tumultuous history.





This is a view down Unter den Linden, a famous street that runs through the former East Berlin.
I so want to break out into a full-fledged historical digression right now. Restraining myself, fear not.

Ok, I'm making an exception here. This is Humboldt University and the square in front of it, on the spot where I'm standing, was where the Nazi's organized a mass burning of over 20,000 books in 1933. Works by people like Einstein...

There is now a window in the ground looking into a room with empty bookshelves as a memorial. Also, next to the window is a plaque quoting Heine who said in 1820, "When you start by burning books, you'll end by burning people" His books were among those burned.

The Berliner Cathedral

Checkpoint Charlie: now filled with ridiculous tourist traps like "Snack Point Charlie" in the background.





This is the "Topography of Terror." It's an exhibit on the Holocaust built on all that remains of the foundation of the SS Headquarters that once stood here. The area where the building stood will always be left as rubble. That is all that remains of the Berlin Wall standing over the exhibit, and the building behind that was the Luftwaffe Headquarters- it managed to survive the war even though everything around it was destroyed.

This was a cathedral that Frederick the Great's father had built. All but this piece was destroyed in the war and they opted to leave it as it is. It's an amazing reminder of how new this city actually is...

The Siegessäule- victory column, on former royal hunting grounds

And here are a few pictures from Munich- I went a couple weekends ago to visit my friends that live there. Every time I go to Munich I try to do/see something new, and this time I climbed to the top of Peterskirche and got some wonderful pictures of the city...

The Frauenkirche- a famous church

The Rathaus..

Such a beautiful city!

And on the 29th I'm leaving for 9 days in Greece!!!

February 14-17: Bratislava, Slovakia. The crew: Me, Erik, Avi (of course, my partners in crime), Ingvild, and Adam. The theme: What happens when you combine 5 exchange students with a city where you can buy 5 beers for 4 euros? (Translation: $5) Madness...

Erik and I had wanted to travel east for awhile, and when we found out that we could fly to Bratislava roundtrip for 20 euros, we decided that was our destination. We convinced our friends that it was a fabulous idea, we all packed our 15 kilos, and took off for Slovakia.

I've been asked a few times: "Why Slovakia?"
Answer: It's cheap. Oh yeah, and I've heard Bratislava is a beautiful city.

We spent most of our first day on the castle. It was raining, but the castle was definitely worth it, and it had a great history museum inside (However, I'm pretty sure I was the only one thrilled with the awesome display of armor and weapons from the Thirty Years War)

Since it was raining, and we were desperately in need of sustenance, we decided to seek shelter in this very cool restaurant we found downtown. It was originally a wine cellar...

We sat down at 2:00. By the time we emerged it was dark out and we had consumed a few more beers than we had intended to. In addition, I think I angered the obnoxious Americans who sat down next to us when they asked if the kitchen was slow that night and I burst out laughing. We were the only people in there, how slow could the kitchen be?! What morons.
Anyway, that's our waiter seated at the end, teaching us Slovakian. We were almost fluent by the time we left. haha


Suffice it to say, our long night had only just begun. I think the rest of the pictures from this infamous night in Bratislava are best saved for another time...

Back to the somewhat cultural end of our adventure. The next day was beautiful- I actually saw sun for the first time in about a month- so we walked around the city.

Changing of the guard, Slovakian style

The Slovak Natioanl Theater




The Old Town Hall, and the square where we were almost run down by about 3 thousand Japanese tourists taking pictures of their embassy, which was located to the right:

The "Pink Palace," I think our Norwegian wanted to move in...

Adam standing on the "Man at Work." We weren't sure what the deal was, but I'm fairly certain that this guy gets stepped on a lot in cheesy tourist photos like this one.

The castle from down by the Danube. Yes, I was reunited with the Danube River, which I live next to in Ulm last summer.


As I said, we really lucked out with the weather after that first day. I haven't seen blue sky like this in a loooooong time.

Our last day, killing time in a restaurant before catching our flight home...

This picture is so appropriate: Bratislava, it was fun, but we're outta here.
All in all, I had a fabulous weekend, and yes, Bratislava truly is a beautiful city.