Paris, France

Once again, I am delayed in writing this blog post, but for the second time in a week, I find myself crammed into an airplane seat between my friends. This time we are on our way to Geneva, Switzerland!  Expect a belated update on this trip sometime next week. We have no clue what we are getting into here in Switzerland, so it should make for some entertaining stories. 

As I said last time, Dan, Ross and I traveled to Paris last Thursday night (September 13), arriving in the city around 8 PM.  We had already made plans to meet up with our friend from SLU, Carly, and her friend, Courtney, who are studying abroad in Brussels. It took us longer than expected to get to the hostel and after an extremely uncomfortable encounter with an unfriendly, anti-American, anti-English train ticket salesman and a long and sketchy ride on the metro into the city, we arrived at the Lumiere station and walked through the ghettoish area to St. Christopher's Inn. There, we checked in and reunited with Carly, whom we hadn't seen since last semester at SLU. She is always a blast and her friend Courtney was fun too! Together we figured we would venture down to the Eiffel Tower for our first night in Paris, get some drinks and enjoy the calm night before the masses arrived on Friday. We stopped into a little convenience store to grab some cheap beers and I rediscovered one of my favorite beers of all time - Desperados! I had this for the first time with Bettina in Strasbourg, France then again in St. Martin (a French island).  I am not sure if it is available in the States, but it is flavored with tequila and definitelyworth a try!  Besides, the kind old man at the store rewarded our crappy French with a handful of some good pistachios, which barely made a dent in our debilitating hunger, but helped. We excited the metro at the Tour Eiffel stop and our jaws dropped as we had timed the view perfectly for our first sighting. The Eiffel Tower shimmers and sparkles with lights for the first five minutes of each hour in the evening. We caught it perfectly and were so excited and impressed. The Eiffel tower is the only monument that despite seeing it before, seeing it in popular culture my whole life and even visiting it three times on this last trip, that has never failed to impress me and keep me gazing! Just across the street from the tower on the Seine was a tourist-trappy food vendor with crepes, which we couldn't pass up!  Mine was simply sugar, but others opted for nutella and fruit. Then, we sat beside the river with the Eiffel Tower just behind us, enjoying the evening in Paris.  At this point, Dan and I had to pee so bad, I was looking for any secluded bush or tree that I could hide behind. We had decided to make our way back to the hostel, so as we walked to the metro, we saw a dark, deserted park adjacent to the Eiffel Tower that looked perfect for a bathroom break. As we entered the park, not 20 feet from the sidewalk, we saw some scary, dark figures appear from behind the bushes with what appeared to be very bad intentions. They were approaching us quickly, so we took off running for the sidewalk and just dodged the mugging... or something.  As if our luck hadn't soured enough, the metro had closed (probably while we were trying to get mugged) so we were forced to walk to different stations, take different trains and hike a long way back to the hostel, reviving that hunger that was only temporarily satisfied by the crepes.  We stopped into a to-go restaurant by the hostel to get a croque monsieur and fries - traditional French! We met some "outgoing" girls from Australia back at the hostel, who didn't mind mooching off our fries. Afterwards, we went to sleep for the first time in a hostel, padlocking our valuables and closing the curtains to our private bunks! Haha! 

Reunited with Carly

Shimmering 

On Friday, we had anticipated to meet up with the rest of the huge group heading to Paris from Madrid. They were supposed to arrive relatively early, but after 10:30 rolled around, we decided to make a move and begin exploring the sites, just the five of us. We had to check out of the room and store our bags, since the following nights were booked under separate reservations. Our first stop was the famous Catacombs of Paris.  Back in the 18th century, Parisians were concerned about the health safety of the buried bodies in cemeteries, so all of the graves were exhumed and the bones were stored in the abandoned underground quarry, which can be toured today. It was unreal! The pathways were literally lined with bones, inlaid designed made from skulls and femurs decorated the walls and countless plaques were left to honor the bodies. It was cold, dark and creepy, but totally cool! Upon leaving, we were hungry since the morning's baguettes and nutella didn't hold us over for long. We stopped at another streetside creperie and ordered big, hot chicken and cheese crepes. Finally no ham!  Since we had bought three day unlimited metro passes, we were able to use the system to travel all around the city.  We chose the Notre Dame cathedral as our next stop.  The church was impressive and beautiful.  We took photos outside then toured the inside, which was crowded and anticlimactic.  I actually remember going in there with Dirk and Gayle back in 2006, but didn't realize it until then.  That shows how incredible the inside is.  Haha!  However, I was able to write my name in a huge guest book, documenting my visit to the famous church!  We walked down the Siene afterwards, heading towards the Louvre.  Just on the backside of the museum, we discovered a little farmer's market, where we tried handmade jams, honey, cookies and sorbet.  We walked into the plaza of the Louvre just to sit and take it all in, but planned to return again later.  Having not heard from the others of our group all day, we decided to make our way back to the hostel and look for clues to their whereabouts.  They checked us into our rooms, which ended up being incorrect since the huge, confusing group from SLU literally turned the place upside down.  As a result of the confusion, I was issued keys to both the 5th and the 2nd floors, which gave me access to most of our friends' rooms for the weekend.  That came in handy! We ended up running into the girls we were missing and since it was our friend, Emily's, birthday, they had made plans for dinner and then an evening on the lawns of the Eiffel Tower with wine.  Since the wine started flowing well before then, we ended up taking the recommendation of our friends Carly and Courtney and picked up a few baguettes and brie from a market to make sandwiches with blueberry jam.  The snack was great and filled us all up enough to get to the Eiffel Tower.  By the time we got the big group moving, the metro closed when we were only half way downtown.  We were forced to walk over a mile and a half to the tower to make it there by the last "sparkle" at midnight.  We had some difficulty along the way, as a few people fell down, others had to pee and others had to ditch shoes and clothing.  Despite a hellacious marathon night, we made it to the Eiffel, saw the sparkle, got another delicious crepe and returned to the hostel, while the girls continued on to a nightclub for even more birthday festivities. 

Skulls of the Catacombs

Notre Dame

Courtney, Carly, Ross, Dan and I at the Louvre

Final sparkle of the night!  

On Saturday morning, Dan, Lauren, Ross and I decided to break away from the group to do our own thing, considering the confusion and difficulty of the night before. We planned to go to The Palace of Versailles to start the day then work our way back into Paris. We encountered metro delays and cancellations due to an "accident involving a person". Therefore, we were forced to transfer to several, different stations and metro lines to inch closer and closer to the Chateau. Along the way, we met a very nice older couple from the Boston area who took us under their wing, literally, and helped us make to Versailles with them. Monica the wife, was very international and had worked for the UN, lived in Paris and spoke French, so she managed to get us onto a real train heading to Versailles - for free!  In the town of Versailles, we stopped into another market for baguettes, brie and jam to make the same sandwiches.  Plus, we got half-bottles of white wine for a little picnic outside the palace.  The picnic was great and lifted our spirits after the challenging and time consuming travel.  We had a strange restroom experience there, which repeated itself a couple times in France.  It was a unisex bathroom with both urinals and stalls, so guy are peeing while women are walking behind to get to the stalls or standing besides you to wash their hands.  So funny!!  We managed to get into the palace for free because Lauren and I had copies of our visas, which sufficed for European residency.  We whined to the lady enough for her to just let Dan and Ross follow us in for free.  Big savings!  The palace was as incredible as I remember.  We started in a really cool museum part, which documented the history of the chateau built by Louis XIV to wine-and-dine the French nobility.  We passed trough the lavish rooms, the famous hall of mirrors, as well as the King and Marie Antoinette's bed chambers.  Her room has a secret passage for access to the king's chamber during "riots".  All the rooms had incredible views of the famed Gardens of Versailles.  We couldn't access the gardens for free, but since it is like a huge park with a lake and several things to see, it was worth the money . We got some great views of the palace, then lied in the grass with fruit sorbet until leaving for an evening in Monmarte at the Sacre-Coeur cathedral. This church is situated high on a hill with great views of the city especially at night when it gets dark and the skyline illuminates.  The steps of the church fill up with people eating, drinking and watching Paris come alive.  We got more baguettes and cheese and a couple big bottles of wine. Dan couldn't pass up a fried chicken store so we had some chicken wings too!  Naturally, he knocked over and shattered Lauren's, unopened wine within 5 minutes which caused some tension...  We found our friends on the steps and sat with them for a couple hours watching the street performers and the swarms of people. Afterwards, we walked around the corner for some nice views of the Eiffel tower, then the four of us continued on to explore the area, passing through shops, getting more crepes (Lauren had two), trying the famous macaroons (I did not like it) and finally stopping into a cafe for some beer and a snack. We settled on one with good looking escargot, but when we only ordered 4 beers and one large order of escargot for the table, the unfriendly waitress scoffed at us and left without taking the menus or saying a thing. We talked to the nicer guy who brought our drinks and asked why she seemed unhappy. He told us that usually they are only a "restaurant" at that time and we were ordering more like a "bar", but that it was no problem.  Whatever!  She was mean the whole time and I left her a really nasty look and pissed off "bon soire" as we left, which Dan said definitely sent the message!  haha!  The escargot were some of the best I have ever had (no offense to my Saputo's family)!  They were served in the shell, filled with garlic, parsley butter, along with strong tongs to hold them and extract the meat. Delicious!!  On the way back to the metro, we had an odd encounter with a Venezuelan woman and her daughter who were traveling in Europe.  They found out I spoke Spanish and followed us to the metro and got directions to their hotel.  They asked to take a picture with the four of us and even wrote their names on a piece of paper for me to find them on Facebook! Haha!!  Back at the hostel, we encountered the others and Ross and I went back out with them to a bar nearby for a Desperados before calling it a night. 

PS: I forgot to mention that I am currently writing this post on a train, as we pass through beautiful Switzerland from Geneva to Interlaken for the weekend!  More on that later.  

Palace of Versailles 

Picnic at Versailles 

Ross, Lauren, Dan and I at the Gardens of Versailles

Sacre Coeur, Montmartre 

On the steps of the Sacre Coeur

On our last day, Sunday, we had to hit everything that we had missed the previous days.  We began at the Arc de Triumphe, walked down the Champes Élysées and found a nice cafe for a croissant and coffee.  We continued down the beautiful, most famous street in Paris, all the way to the Louvre.  We had heard it was a holiday in France and that all the museums and sites (including the house of the president, which had a 2 mile line) were free to enter. We were nervous of the Louvre, but it turned out it wasn't free for everyone and we only had to wait 5 minutes to enter.  Once again, we gained free entry with the European visa!  Two for two!  We headed straight for the Mona Lisa, which was honestly anticlimactic.  It is a rather small painting, protected behind thick glass and surrounded by hundreds of pushy, smelly people.  We got in and out of there quickly and moved on to see some other famous paintings, the Sphynx, the underground moats of the original Louvre, the private apartments of Napoleon and the code of Hammurabi. We saw the very famous painting of the Second French Revolution with a topless woman holding a French flag amidst fighting soldiers, which I have since studied in my art history class. Perfect timing!  We left the museum and stopped for lunch at an overpriced cafe along the Seine. I ordered a Croque Madamme with fries and another icy Deaperados. We walked back past to the Notre Dame so Dan and Lauren could place a lock on the lovers' bridge. Their romantic moment was preceded by a big argument, so it was very, very special... Haha!  We ended up running into some of our friends at a cafe adjacent to the church and chatted until Ross and I got ran off by the rude waiter, since we were not eating and must have been taking up too much public space on the sidewalk.  We reunited with the lovebirds and headed to the Pantheon.  This huge church has crypts in the basement, which contain the bodies of famous French people like the philosopher Voltaire, the revolutionist Roussaeu, the famous scientists the Curies and even the man who invented the braille language, Mr. Braille!  We sat on the steps of the church until we were run out of there, then went to the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens until we were forced out of there!  The gardens were great.  We had bought beers and sat in the garden, by the pond, with views of the Eiffel Tower and interesting people. The place closed eventually so we were sent to the streets to track down a place for dinner.  We decided to spend a little more money on a good, traditional French meal that did not consist of baguettes or brie.  The restaurant was great, very fancy with outdoor seating. I ordered a filet with Bordeaux red wine sauce and Lyon style potatoes.  It was great to finally have beef!! I tried to save money by ordering mineral water and not wine, which turned out to be more expensive than a glass of wine.. Ugh!  After the dinner we headed back to the hostel, since the big group from SLU that arrived on Friday were leaving so early on Monday morning that they planned to just sit at the Eiffel Tower until 1AM, then rest at the airport for a couple hours before the flight, instead of paying for another night.  We, on the other hand, didn't fly out until later on Monday, so we planned to hang with them at the tower, then go back for a decent nights sleep in the beds. We viewed the tower from a plaza directly in front of it. We were able to get more crepes, sit on the steps in a big huddle to stay warm and enjoy the last night in Paris. It was a lot of fun!! 

Arc de Triumphe

Mona Lisa

Luxembourg Gardens

Monday morning was not as fun!  We were scheduled to depart Paris at 10:25, so we woke at 8ish and planned to be on the metro and moving by 8:30. There were terrible delays that morning and it took us well over an hour to get to the airport, let alone to get to the ticket counter for boarding passes. When we got up to the agent, she told us the flight had "closed" at 9:40 and it was just after 10 at that time. We were freaked out, but luckily there were two other guys next to us, in our same position.  The agents called the gate, issues our passes and instructed us to RUN to the plane.  We flew through security and hit the jet bridge in a mad dash.  Fortunately, we were not the last ones on the place and no one seemed as frazzled as we were.  The flight went by quickly and we landed back in Madrid for three short nights before leaving again for Switzerland. 

Segunda Semana in Madrid

I am currently sitting on an airplane, between Dan and Ross, as we make our way from Madrid to Paris. This should be a very fun weekend and will hopefully result in some really great stories to share. More on that later. For now, I have a couple hours to pick up where I left off on life in Madrid.



The rest of last weekend was good. It is surprising how quickly we are getting acclimated and comfortable here in Madrid. Not only in the city, with the transportation and food, but also at home with the changes in room temperature, meal size, bed size and the stiffness of our line-dried laundry. On this issue, our culture (along with Downey) wins without a doubt! My underwater could strip paint off of furniture and my jeans could literally be furniture. Ugh...



On Saturday night, we went to Maloney’s, a little bar relatively close to our apartment with all of our friends. FYI a 30-minute walk in Spain is "relatively" close. These are not a Ford Explorer and golf cart kind of people. Maloney’s was a blast. It is a TINY place, like the size of our breezeway and we got there early to establish a spot and add our names to the millions on the walls, which are covered in American license plates. I spotted an Illinois plate and instinctively planted my name just under the "Land of Lincoln" slogan.  The place played really fun music and filled up with people around 2 AM. When we got home, we were greeted by our new host dog, Milou. She is a little, yappy Jack Russell terrier who woke the whole house when we entered. This reminds me to mention the bizarre door to our apartment! The door has four, separate sets of triple deadbolts going up the door jam. With each turn of the key, one of the bolts closes so it takes four turns total to completely lock and unlock the door and doing so sounds like a bank vault being cracked open. Pretty sure a tank could not penetrate this apartment. 



On Sunday, I refused to let Dan and Ross sleep too late, since I feel like we waste too much of the day sleeping. I can't stand that.  We "enjoyed" our skimpy breakfast at home and then headed west down our street to Parque del Oeste, which is supposedly the second most popular green space in Madrid after Retiro. We were still starving by the time we made it to the park, so we stopped into a cafe for a ham sandwich. I really wanted coffee, but I had evidentially missed the cultural coffee cutoff and everyone was drinking beer - so I settled for sangria. Haha! Back to the ham sandwich, the only person I have known to consume more ham than the Spaniards was Pat Neighbors, and even he would have tired of it here. There is ham in EVERYTHING, breakfast empanadas, baguettes, soups, sandwiches and even potato chips.  Good thing we like it, since it is about the only protein we consume in our all-carb, Spanish diet. After lunch, we walked through the park, stopping to check out the Teleférico, cable car, that we intend to ride sometime for great views of the city. We wandered through the rose garden then happened upon Templo de Debod, an Egyptian temple, which was given as a gift to the Spanish by the Egyptian government as a thank you for their archeological help. From the temple, we could see the back of the Royal Palace, so we simply walked the few minutes back to the palace, stopping for gelato (I had chocolate and hazelnut mixed!) and then to see a famous monument in Plaza de America.  On Sunday night, the three of us went to see the infamous La Corrida de Toros, or Bullfight, in Madrid. The bullfight season is from May through October, with fights taking place each Sunday this time of the year. We ended up scalping tickets from an old man on the street for 10€ each, which was really a rip-off, since the face value (which he was hiding) was only 2€. Either way, we got in and were utterly horrified, but still very happy to have the experience. The fight takes place in the historic Las Ventas bullring and is divided into thirds.  I am not certain of all of the specifics, despite having just looked them up, but each third of the ceremony consists of a lot of taunting and what appears to be torture of the bull. Ultimately the bull is stabbed between the shoulders and killed. It seemed gruesome to us, but our host mom assured us it is not that bad for the bull, that they are raised to be strong fighters, and that they would be slaughtered for food if not fought.  Whatever - when in Rome right? Dan did not even know that the skin of the bull was broken, let alone that it was stabbed to death, so he left in shambles. Long story short, we should not believe what we are taught as kids, that bullfighting is simply matadors waving red capes in front of a happy bull!! (Bullfight photos are at the bottom of this post!) That Sunday was my mom's 50th birthday and as much as I regretted not being there, I really got to be when she Skyped me into the garage party with the usual gang in their usual spots. What a blast! 



Rose Garden, Parque del Oest

Templo de Debod

Monday was a great day! My first class of the day at 2:00 was cancelled since the professor was in London, therefore I didn't have class until 3:30 and got to roam around our street with Ross and Dan looking for another good bakery for pastries and coffee in the morning. You would not think to-go coffee would be so difficult to find, but Europeans have a thing about serving food on real china and drinks in real glass. I have to say, I like it, but a simple cup of coffee to take to school must be available somewhere. After my one class of the day, I went with Dan and Lauren to a place in Retiro called The Crystal Palace. This is a cool glass structure, which is supposed to be vert beautiful at sunset.  Well, we kind of missed the sunset so we took a look at the glass building then headed to Gran Via in pursuit of another famous bar called El Tigre which serves massive amounts of Tapas with a 6€ drink, serving as dinner and drinks all in one! We found the place, had a couple beers, four plates full of tapas and left for home content. Then we spotted McDonalds, which we couldn't resist. This was the most beautiful McDonalds I have ever been into and we even told the people. It's in a really old building and adorned with marble and gold. Crazy! Lauren got a cheeseburger and fries (I think that's a secret) and I had to settle for an ice cream cone since they don't have milkshakes. I told them that no real, American McDonalds would not have milkshakes and they laughed, but could probably care less. 



Tuesday night took us back to Maloneys! They had a 10€ bottomless cup special, so everyone from SLU was there. We were old-timers, having already been there on Saturday and already having our names on the wall. Haha!  They played more great music, including Kelci’s favorite "Make it Nasty" and Grease songs. I could not resist sending a few texts home especially after a couple of the free chupitas they were handing out. Lauren and I were dying for a good country song and the best we got was Garth Brooks' Friends in Low Places. I was just fine with me, but I think I was one of maybe two people in the bar who knew every word. The wannabe-karaoke-singer bartender definitely did not! 



Yesterday, Wednesday, was another late start day at 2:00 with my art history class. Ross and I walked to our new standby café, Chocolate y Nata, were we get a great napolitana (chocolate filled croissant) and a café con leche for just 2.50€. After getting ready for class, I stopped into a tiny shop near SLUM that sells sandwiches. They guy, I assume owner, is Chinese and very fanatical - weighing each piece of jamon y queso that he adds to the sandwich. It makes for a perfect, cheap lunch for school. My two classes were just fine and afterwards we went to get a big juicy burger at a place on my street that we had spotted a few days ago, looked up online and had to check out. It was called San Francisco Burger Cafe and had real American style burgers and fries. We are saving the TGI Fridays and Taco Bell for when we need a real big taste of home. The burgers were great and really hit the spot along with a big, icy coca-cola. We went back home, watched the release of the iPhone 5 online and did some homework. We ate dinner at home, meatballs in gravy with pasta salad and lettuce salad, plus a bottle of cheap red wine, which has become a staple at the dinner table. We rested up for our big day today by packing and going to bed relatively early. 

Plaza de Toros Las Ventas, Madrid

Banderillero  

First week in Madrid

First, I want to apologize for the delay in blogging.  I really had no clue how must time it would take to write these very comprehensive posts.  It seems like now that "vacation" has ended and semi-normal life in Madrid has begun, I will be able to publish something every few days or maybe once a week to recap the activities here in Spain.  Besides, I think stories from here can get pretty redundant and the really interesting stuff will occur while traveling outside of Madrid - stay tuned for that!

All in all, week one has been a blast.  Very exhausting, but we have definitely gotten acquainted with life here very quickly.  Last Monday, the day after arrival, was our day of orientation for SLU Madrid.  We all met at the university in the morning and were bussed to a retreat/convention center in the Sierra of Madrid (kind of out in the hills).  We discovered our super-simple commute to school will be extremely convenient.  We can get to and from classes in under 5 minutes, while some people are forced to take the metro and deal with 20+ minute travels.  The biggest thing that we learned the hard way on this first day was the cultural difference in meals.  From the US, we are used to BIG, hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners, plus some hefty snacking in between.  Here in Spain, we are offered ridiculously light breakfasts, consisting of toast or maybe a small bowl of cereal or a croissant and coffee or juice.  This little meal has to hold us over until lunch, which traditionally does not occur until 2:00 PM, and then dinner rolls around at about 9:00 PM.  While I do think we are slowly getting used to the smaller portions and delayed dining schedule, we have had to do a lot of supplementing this past week.  Snacks are the only thing keeping us going!  Orientation was alright, we got some useful tips from our leaders and got to meet up with all of our friends from SLU, as well as meet other people studying at SLU Madrid.  My leader, Claire, originally from St. Louis, has lived in Madrid for two years now and attended SLUM.  Therefore, she has great insight into life here and our difficulties as foreign students.  On Monday night, a big group of us from SLU decided to meet up in La Puerta del Sol, Madrid's city center, to go out and explore the nightlife that we had been hearing of so much.  The plaza is brimming with club promoters, who will beg you to visit their venue, offering free entrance and often some free drinks.  We followed one promoter to a couple bars, then ended up at Dubliner's, which is an infamous hangout among SLU study abroaders.  It is an irish bar that is always packed and supposedly always fun.  We have been there twice this week and have really had a great time.  Another culture shock that was noted in the bars is the obsession with "chupitos" or shots!  We do not really do shots at home (at least not that often) but here in Madrid, everyone does shots, offers shots and hands them out free with drinks.  They slam them down saying, "¡arriba, abajo, al centro, al dentro!"  Our main mode of transportation is the metro in Madrid, which picks us up a couple minutes walk from home and drops us all over the city.  We are getting better and batter at navigating the system.  The downside is that the trains shut down at 1:30AM, which is right when the bars are getting warmed up, so basically you are stranded until 6AM, when it reopens, or you're left to take a cab or walk back home!  We did not get home until around 4AM on Monday night, which seemed to be quite normal... yikes!

Dubliner's: take 1

Tuesday was the first day of class, I had Spanish Literature, then Sociology (Spanish Culture), and finally another Spanish class on the civilization and culture of Spain.  The classes are longer than normal, 1 hour and 15 minutes, which seems like an eternity in the classroom, but since all my classes are only two days a week, I have Fridays off!  That is well worth it. Our class is held in SLU's large building, Padre Rubio Hall, and basically you just move from room to room throughout the day, bouncing around the same building.  It is a lot of fun and kind of like being back in grade school, where you literally see everyone you know all day long.  We were still kind of injured from the wild night before, so after class I swung into to bookstore to pick up my books.  I got out of there for only 80 EUR, much less than I would have paid at home, and then stopped by the store, Carlin, to get school supplies.  It took me forever to find simple, lined notebooks for writing.  Nearly all the notebooks were graph paper - who even uses graph paper?  I napped for a while after returning home and later Ross, our roommate Alex and I went down the street to supplement our dinner that evening.  Since our host mother, Pilar, works during the day and is busy in the evenings, she has hired a Romanian housekeeper, Cosmina, to manage the housework each day and also prepare our meals for the evening.  So, unfortunately, the housekeeper cooks dinner around 1 or 2 PM and we are left to microwave the food around 8 or 9 PM for dinner.  It sucks! but the benefits of living here (ie. location, nice house, etc.) outweigh this flaw.  We ate at a resaturant called 100 Montaditos, which is just up the street from our apartment and has a menu with 100 tiny sandwiches off all different types, for really cheap.  So we each ordered a couple sandwiches, receiving a big jar of beer for 1 euro with the food.  We were now full (enough) and tired, so we headed home and went to bed.

As far as Wednesday and Thursday went, class was just the same, with the addition of two new classes, Art History: Modern Art and Theology: God and Human Experience (this class is 99% St. Louis students, so it will be a lot of fun).  After class on Wednesday, Dan, Lauren, Ross and I hopped on the metro to go explore Sol in the daylight.  I must mention Madrid's excellent metro system that I keep referencing.  I have heard it is literally one of the best around and we are quickly discovering why.  We live just near (a few blocks from) the stop Islas Filipinas "Philippine Islands" haha!  We can begin here and easily travel to Sol and really anywhere in the city with ease.  Once downtown, we were hungry (as usual) and were on the lookout for some good tapas for lunch.  We walked around La Puerta del Sol and wound through a couple side streets and settled on a little tapas place.  The food was alright, tapas are like little appetizers ordered in large quantities with drinks that serve as a whole meal.  We had things like croquettes, spanish omelets, and various other portions of meat and fish.  We all got a big jar of Sangria, which was delicious!  After lunch, we walked to La Plaza Mayor, a famous, square in the heart of Madrid.  Then, we decided to stop for churros and chocolate, a famous Spanish dessert.  I remembered a place that I visited last time I was in Madrid, but had no idea the name or location.  I asked a lady in Plaza Mayor for a churros restaurant and, by chance, she directed us to Chocolateria San Gines, the exact place I was thinking of!  The churros were good and revitalized us for awhile.  Afterwards, we walked to the Royal Palace, Palacio Real, for some views of the outside.  That evening, we met up with our group of friends outside a bar relatively close to our apartments.  The place was called Orange and was being advertised for it's drink specials.  For that reason, there were a couple hundred people waiting outside.  We decided to hop back on the metro and head to Sol, once again.  We followed a promoter to another irish bar for the free shots and champagne.  The girls were dying to go to a large discoteca, The Palace, so we followed them there until we discovered there was a large cover charge for us, so we bailed out and took a cab back home - not until stopping for a slice of pizza near the club!

Churros and Chocolate de San Gines

El Palacio Real - The Royal Palce

Thursday is the new Friday in Madrid.  Since I do not have class on Fridays, it makes for a great Thursday night and wonderfully long weekend.  Class went well on Thursday.  I am hoping that these classes will not require too much busy work, aside from preparing for lecture and studying for exams.  It is appearing that way, but I will keep my fingers crossed.  My two Spanish courses are challenging, since it is really the first time I am fully learning other topics in the Spanish language, like literature and history/civilization.  After class, Dan, Lauren, Ross and I decided to go in search of a local cell phone.  The university sells them, but we were told we could get better rates through other companies.  Right near our apartment was a Vodafone store, so we decided to check it out.  On the way, we ran into a store called "Taste of America," which carries all sorts of imported food from the US, like Aunt Jemima syrup, Ocean Spray jellied cranberries :) and much, much more!  We freaked out, scoured the aisles and definitely plan to return for a little, but expensive, taste of home! The cell phone store was closed in the afternoon, like so much of the city is, we headed down the street to 100 Montaditos for a 1 euro beer while we waited.  After, the store was open and we were able to get tiny, prepaid, flip phones for use in Spain and in Europe to stay in touch with our friends.  That was a must!  After, Ross and I stopped into the grocery store to pick up some snacks and he got a cheap bottle of wine for dinner.  We noticed the eggs and milk are not refrigerated and the seafood section smells so bad, it is hard to walk by!  yuck!  We had intended to go out again with everyone Thursday night and stay in Madrid all weekend to get acclimated, however our plans changed over dinner.  We decided it was silly to waste any time and wanted to get straight to traveling.  Toledo is a small, historic town just outside of Madrid that we were interested in going to, so we puled the trigger and made plans to leave early Friday morning and potentially spend the whole night in Toledo.  Therefore, we did not leave the apartment on Thursday night.  We polished off the wine and went to sleep to rest up for the first day of travel from Madrid.

"Taste of America" - Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker and Hersheys

Our trip to Toledo began at 8AM on Friday.  We got up, choked down our measly piece of toast, grabbed our bags and headed to the metro stop for a rather long ride to the bus station.  We knew the busses left nearly every 30 minutes, so we were hoping to catch one just in time.  We power walked from the metro to the busses and happened to arrive within 5 minutes of one leaving.  We fumbled with an automatic ticket machine and then boarded the bus for Toledo.  It was about an hour ride, so by 10:30AM we were sitting down for breakfast in they city.  Toledo is very old and historic and sits very high up, so we had to tackle a pretty big hill before earning our meal.  We got a map from a tourist center, then began to walk around the city, stopping at each tourist attraction we encountered.  I mentioned that we were considering spending the night.  Therefore, we each had big backpacks filled with clothes for a night's stay, which was terribly hot and annoying after a couple hours of walking.  Our first stop was the Cathedral - a huge Gothic masterpiece in the center of the city.  We had to pay 8 euro for the entrance and were initially turned off by that, however after seeing the inside and all that the place had to offer, we were happy we went inside.  Several people are buried inside the building and if they were bishops, their caps hang from the ceiling above their grave to protect their spirit (I overheard a Spanish tour-guide and got some free info).  We walked from the Cathedral, down to the Jewish district.  Toledo is unique in that at one time, Christians, Jews and Muslims coexisted there and their distinct influences to architecture and the culture of the city are still evident.  We toured the Jewish mosque and then stopped for lunch.  The last major attraction that we toured was The Church of the Jesuits, quite fitting since we attend a Jesuit institution.  The church was very nice, but best of all was its "twin towers" that we could climb for incredible views of the entire city.  We encountered a woman at the top, from New Zealand and chatted with her for awhile (well... I did).  She took a couple pictures of us and we began our marathon walk out of the city.  We decided it was not really place to spend the night and was better suited as a day-trip, since the major attractions are really viewable in a day and as my host mother said, the city lacks "marcha" or liveliness/nightlife.  We, along with our now seemingly 50lb backpacks, scaled the cliff on our way to the train station.  Even though we arrived by bus, we thought we would try the train, either for a ride to another nearby city, or a cheap and efficient means back home.  Unfortunately, the trains from Toledo only travel back to Madrid, so we bought three tickets, had a beer during the wait and enjoyed the 25 minute ride back to Atocha station.

Catedral of Toledo, Spain

View from atop the Twin Towers of the Church of the Jesuits

Photo thanks to the New Zealander 

Once back in the city, we intended to just go back tot he apartment and siesta, however we were at Atocha station, literally across the street from where I stayed last time in Madrid, with Jenna and our classmates, and very close to the famous Parque del Retiro.  Since we had walked so much, we saw no harm in continuing the adventure and hiking through Retiro, stopping for some ice cream near the huge pond and catching a metro ride back home on the other side.  The park was beautiful and filled with people!  Coming from Springfield, I think we are not really "park people" but I can definitely see the attraction here in Spain.  Back home, we rallied again to go out with our friends (who were not exhausted from a full day of walking).  We did the same ole thing, beginning at Dubiners for drinks, then the girls were again dying to go to a club, so we all headed there, with the same horrible outcome. The place, Pacha, was busting at the seams and required an exorbitant cover charge.  Plus, I got screwed into riding in a cab with two girls from SLU that I didn't know and after they bailed, I was stuck with the 8 euro fare.  I can't wait to see those two around Padre Rubio Hall!  Frustrated, we got in cabs and returned to our neck of the woods just to have some friends over for drinks at our place (since mamá was gone for the weekend, haha!).  A very good night's sleep was in store after this exciting week!

Pond of Retiro Park

MADRID, Spain - Day 1

On Sunday, we began our long awaited trek to Madrid.  Embarking on our fifth and sixth, dreaded flights of the week of travel.  Our taxi was arranged by the pretty hotel Greek lady to arrive at 5:30 for transfer to the airport.  As I left the hotel around 5:20 to find a mailbox, the driver was already waiting outside.  I explained to him what I was doing and he offered to quickly run me up the street to the box.  I apprehensively got in the cab alone (fearing possible death), but realized that by killing me he would only loose at hefty taxi fare and gain a handful of personalized postcards.  I concluded I was safe!  Once back, we loaded our bags and took off for the airport.  The airport of Santorini is about the size of Springfield’s, I guess, but has the security of an airport in Auburn… They didn’t even mention my bags being both over-weight and over-sized, nor did the one employee even glance at the screen as my suitcase passed through the x-ray.  One lady even hesitated as she beeped going through the metal detector and he told her to “keep moving.”  Dan said, good thing Al Qaida doesn’t fly from Thira…  This was just the reverse of last Thursday’s travel, with a short 30-minute flight back to Athens, then another pass through stricter, but kinder security there.  We headed to the gate of our Madrid flight, which was due to board at 8:45.  At around 8:50, I glanced at the screen at the gate for the first time and suffered a mini-stroke.  The screen said Agean, while our tickets were labeled Olympic Air, both major airlines in Greece, but definitely not one in the same.  I ran to the counter as people were beginning to line up and could not find our flight information anywhere.  Lauren joined me in the panic and some nice people near us helped us out.  Turns out, we were at the correct gate and the flight was simply operated by Agean.  There was a small Agean number listed in the corner of the boarding pass that I never would have seen.  The gate agent confirmed this and we boarded the flight as my heart rate returned to normal.  I slept on and off throughout the flight and at one point decided to look through my dumb iPhone videos, many of Jenna and Courtney and I at concerts, one of my nana bobbing in the pool and many more of friends at SLU.  I guess I was just going out of my way to evoke some homesickness. Haha!  Afterwards, we got a small breakfast, which was better than anything in the States.  That has become a common occurance here in Europe.  Even on the short flight from Santorini, we received more of a meal than we would have on any American plane.  When the flight landed in Madrid, I stopped to put in my contact and rinse off my face, while we waited for Dan to get off from the very back of the plane.  We headed to baggage claim, picked up our things and were relived that throughout all 6 flights and all the commotion, we successfully ended up in Madrid with all of our luggage!  The three of us left the baggage claim, to find Ross waiting for us.  He had arrived in Madrid earlier, but decided just to wait in the airport in order to go to the host family home together.  We put Lauren into a cab, made sure that her driver knew the address of her home and she was gone!  The three of us piled into a Prius cab and chatted during the rather long ride our apartment, which is located near SLU’s campus, in the northwest area of the city, Paseo de San Francisco de Sales 16.  We nervously pushed the button of apartment 7B and our host mother, Pilar, buzzed us through the entry gate into the courtyard.  From there we had to ring her again for entry into the actual apartment building.  I took the tiny elevator up with all the luggage and Dan and Ross climbed the seven flights of stairs!  Pilar greeted us with a Spanish kiss on each cheek, then sat us in the dining room to chat and get aquainted.  From the bat, she was super-kind, but honestly speaks no English! Therefore, virtually every word out of her mouth has to be translated through me and then shared with Ross and Dan.  It allowed she and I to get rather close, but sort of sucks for the other two since they cannot actually communicate with her.  We found out this is a problem with every person in every household, so it should get better.  The next thing we noticed was that instead of being set up for a three person home, there were four beds, meaning only one thing – we had a random fourth roommate coming!  We were nervous initially, but eventually Dan volunteered to room with him in the slightly better room, while Ross and I would room together in the other, smaller room.  All she knew was that his name was Alex, which really didn’t help much.  We got setup on wifi and began reconnecting with home for really the first time in week.  Afterwards, Pilar left, telling us she was going to meet some friends for “una copa” or a drink.  We decided to head out in search of some food and a drink of our own, but we no more began walking down the street and saw a guy, alone, walking towards the apartment and decided it had to be Alex, our roommate.  Since Pilar was gone, we assumed he would be trapped outside.  We trailed him creepily back to the apartment and followed him up – not sure how he even got in.  Sure enough, it was him and Pilar had known when he would arrive, so we didn’t even need to return.  Either way, we got his story at that point.  He is a student at Loyola Merimount in LA, originally from Chicago area.  His parents are Polish, so he speaks Polish and even has Polish citizenship.  He has been in Europe for a week, alone, with a rail pass, traveling around multiple countries.  Very brave to me!  He speaks Spanish well, despite only taking formal classes in high school.  He said picking up the third language has been much easier and he is even taking a few courses in Spanish.  Pilar asked if we wanted to eat “en casa” our out on our own for dinner.  We decided that since we were already back, we should just take the free meal and maybe go out later.  She prepared a salad with really no dressing but olive oil, some rice, which was very good and some super thin pieces of beef and pork – super thin.  The meal barely put a dent in my stomach, but it was better than nothing.  We planned on going out to meet up with friends, but were so exhausted from all of the travel, that we decided to stay home and rest for the next day’s activities.  We all got to do some skyping.  Dan spoke to his parents and siblings.  I skyped my mom, freshly rolled out of bed, then both of my parents later, then I even got to FaceTime with my Nana and Papa at the hospital.  It was great to see them and my Papa’s awesome recovery!  Ross skyped with Sarah back at SLU and we all got to see and hang out with Sarah, Hannah, Annette, Jane and Wolf.  What a fun first night in Madrid! 

Santorini, Greece - Day 3

On Saturday, we were exhausted once again and had to force ourselves out of bed around 10.  We were not sure where to eat breakfast, but compared to the other close cafés, we really liked the restaurant from the day before.  We walked right in and ordered.  This time I got a waffle with fruit and chocolate and a cappuccino without the heap of whipped cream!  Another great breakfast to start off our second beach day!  I was wearing my favorite Ole Miss tanktop from Jenna and as we were walking up the street, a car passed and yelled “Hotty Toddy.”  I freaked out, turned around and yelled “gosh almighty” as they were clapping in the car!  I could not wait to get on the bus and text Jenna about it!  So awesome!

We had decided to return to the red beach, since we really liked it from the afternoon before.  As we walked down the cliff, we noticed that the beach was packed!  Tons of people had chosen to do the same thing as us, so we stayed for just a bit, dipped in the ocean and boarded the boat for the black beach.  It was much less crowded, so we were able to sprawl out, enjoy the water and even get another snack at the beach restaurant around 4.  We got frappes, which is a traditional Greek coffee drink recommended to us by our favorite Athenian taxi driver, Dimitris, as well as French fries and saganaki, a deep fried piece of feta cheese, which is dipped in tatziki sauce!  It was fantastic!  Walking back to the boat, we passed countless topless women, some that definitely should not have been topless.  Haha!  Dan was shocked.  At one point, Dan had rolled his suit up to imitate the local Speedos and I took a picture, accidentally sniping a topless Italian woman in the background.  I panicked thinking she or her husband would track me down on account of the indiscrete photo… We returned to Akrotiri by boat afterwards, and then to Summer Time for a shower and to prepare for an evening back in Oia.  We dressed up really nice, after learning our lesson last time when we looked like white trash walking down to see the sunset.  As we left the hotel, even the employees commented on our good looks. Haha!  We ended up just missing the bus, so we decided to return to the hotel, restock on some Mythos and walk around until the next bus in 40 minutes.  When we returned and continued talking to the hotel workers, we realized that we would be leaving around 5:30AM the next day, Sunday, and needed to settle our bill right then.  The very kind and very pretty receptionist helped us divide the bill and charge our cards.  Afterwards, we caught the next bus to Oia and pledged to stay together to avoid any drama like last time.  Since we had missed the majority of the sunset on the ride, we just walked around the beautiful streets and meandered in and out of the shops.  We returned to a restaurant that we had eyed the last time and decided to eat there.  This was the best meal of the trip so far.  I ordered chicken in a white, cheese, and cream sauce with a sweet and spicy sauce on top with some rice, potatoes and mineral water.  Dan got meatballs and Lauren chose pork medallions.  It was fantastic.  I completely cleared the plate, which I never do, but it is becoming a habit here in Greece.  Most likely due to a combination of me being completely famished and the food being really, really good!  It was pricier than most meals, but definitely worth it to top off our last night in Greece! 

After dinner, we moseyed back through the tiny streets of Oia, stopping every 15 feet for Dan to take a picture, then returned on the bus to pack and, unfortunately, to set out alarms for 5AM!  I quickly wrote several postcards, since this was my last chance to get them done and mailed form Greece without wasting my postage!  I decided to simply run them to the postbox the next morning, instead of venturing out late at night.  Just as Lauren and I were falling asleep, Dan, who was incessantly fiddling with his Facebook photo uploads, decided to call it a night and piddled around under my bed with all lights blaring, in order to charge his stupid electronics.  Once again shaving valuable minutes off of our much-needed sleep and thus, resuming his bull-in-a-china-shop-ways.  I told him I hope this bull gets slaughtered by a matador in Madrid!! 

Red Beach with a few more people

My two topless, European friends

Oia, Greece

Santorini, Greece - Day 2

After our busy day of traveling and exploring Santorini, our second day was difficult to start.  We did not want to get out of bed, but the island lifestyle coaxed us into getting up and heading out for breakfast.  We had passed a couple nice cafés on our short walks through Thira, so we chose one that looked good and sat down to eat.  This place had a wide variety of crepes and waffles, as well as many other types of breakfast dishes.  I ordered a crepe with chocolate, banana and strawberries (just like in St. Louis) and topped it off with a cappuccino with whipped cream.  The whipped cream was overbearing, but the rest of the food was fantastic!  It definitely set our day in motion.  We had planned to go to the famous black sand beaches of the town called Perissa, so we caught the local bus once again and hitched a ride to the southeastern coast of the island.  We accidentally got off the bus one stop early in the neighboring town of Perivolos, but it is equally as famous and has the same great beach.  The black sand is just as you’d imagine – HOT!  Our feet were burning so bad, we were running and screaming for the water.  Not to mention, the coarse black sand is so rough on the bottoms of your feet.  We were in major pain by the time we got to a stopping point, so we laid out our towels and enjoyed the view and the ocean.  To add to Dan's list of comedic stunts, he did not have a beach towel and had to take a small towel from the hotel to use.  It was closer in size to a hand towel or the small shower mat in hotels. haha!  We stopped into a neighboring bar for a cold mythos, then decided to head back to the bus to switch to another famous beach on the island – well, really a set of beaches.  The next bus was not for another 20 minutes or so, so we stopped into another bar, where Lauren got a daiquiri and I got a piña colada (my go to beach drink).  Dan was too cheap to pay for a beer at this bar, so he walked back down the street for a cheaper one then brought it back.  Embarrassing American!  We got on the next bus that came, which was not heading in the right direction to Akrotiri.  Therefore, we had to exit at a mid-point and change to another bus, destined for the seaside village. The grouchy bus driver let us off the bus at a roadside, concrete bunker “bus stop” and we found ourselves with four other older quirky, American tourists, which made the ridiculously long stop interesting.  We got passed up by two busses, I believe, so we were waiting for close to an hour.  One man, Robert Feld, instantly clicked with Dan due to his nerdy passion for photography, while Lauren and I talked with his wife and her friend, who were both nurses and were asking me a lot about medicine and our educations.  The friend’s husband was a huge hick, who appeared to have no idea where in the world he was as he chewed something in his mouth (like a piece of wood, huge nut or quite possibly his cud) and twirled his walking stick.  Too funny!  As the next bus approached, we all thrust ourselves into the street, preventing it from missing us.  At the town of Akrotiri, there are 3 nearby beaches, the first is red, the second is white and the last one is black.  Only the red beach is accessible on foot (by means of a pretty dangerous cliff-side pathway).  There is a water taxi for 5€ that will take you from beach to beach, which we paid for and went straight to the black beach, the only one with a restaurant.  So you are basically conned into paying the 5€ to survive… either way, the beach was fun and the lunch was decent.  We ordered pork kebobs and mythos.  The black beach has a very cool cave in the rock in the ocean, so we were able to get into the freezing water, swim out to the cave and go through it.  Once we got through, we decided to swim all the way back around to the beach, which proved to be a mistake as the last boat of the day pulled up while we were halfway back to shore.  I swam Olympic style to the shore to grab my things and try to stall the boat a bit, while Dan lifeguarded Lauren on the return.  I was not about to get stranded on a secluded beach.  Somehow Dan and I ended up with some minor cuts and scrapes, we guess from the excitement in the cave.  The boat dropped us at the red beach, where we were able to relax for a bit longer and enjoy the sunset from the seaside.  Afterwards, we took the cliff path back to Akrotiri, and then boarded the bus for Thira.  We showered and dressed to walk around the town and find something cheap for dinner.  I must mention the unbelievable shower in this hotel.  It was a tiny shower, maybe 2x2, with a handheld showerhead and NO curtain.  Basically, it was impossible to keep the floor dry as three people showered in it.  Bending over to wet my hair caused my ass to hang out the other side and drench the floor.  It was a disastrous experience!  Even worse than the Persian bathroom I had with Dirk and Gayle back in 2006.  

We settled on a slightly touristy gyro place in Thira’s town square for our dinner.  We were seated on an upstairs balcony and ordered gyros and Lauren chose a pasta dish.  I asked for a glass of white wine, which was the worst I have ever tasted.  I could not tell if it was bad or simply gross wine, but either way I sent it straight back and the man insisted that I pay for it.  I said whatever and asked for a Mythos.  Long story short, we got the wine taken off the bill, since another lady took our money and we explained the situation.  After that, we headed back to the hotel room to grab a couple of our pre-purchased Mythos and walk around the town.  This was one of the most incredible experiences of the trip.  The cliff-side area of Thira is called the Caldera and it is rumored that the city of Atlantis once existed here!  The views are spectacular and so we continued down windy paths and staircases as long as they would lead us.  After awhile, we stumbled upon a really nice, fancy restaurant that was grilling fresh seafood and had formal waiters.  One waiter, observing our curiosity, invited us in for a special cocktail.  He seated us in a beautiful spot and brought our “cactus juice” drinks, which were made from the same Ouzo liquor that we had in Athens and really did not taste good, but they were strong and free… so we assumed.  Come to find out, we went to leave, expecting to give the friendly man a nice tip for the free drinks, as he hit us with a bill for 36€, equal to around $46!  Shocked, we paid the bill, justified it by the nice views and hilarious experience and moved on down the road, back to the hotel and the beds!  

Black Beach - Perivolos, Greee

Hot black sand and a hand towel...

Our Friends at the Bus Stop

Red Beach

Caldera - Thira, Greece

Santorini, Greece - Day 1

The 3 AM departure for Santorini came terribly quickly. By the time we got back to the room on Wednesday and packed for the next leg of the trip, it was already very late and we debated even sleeping. Despite trying to sleep a bit, I only got a 30 minute power nap before getting up and moving. We had arranged an airport transfer with our cabby and savior from day 1, Dimitris. Just as we were checking out and settling up with the receptionist at the Jason Inn Hotel, he arrived to take us away. Our flight was departing Athens at 5:30, so he had suggested the early transfer to avoid any issues. He was super kind once again.  We told him all about our experience in Athens and were able to get many of our burning questions answered, including the story of the Polytechnic university that we visited, the reason for so much graffiti in Athens and the the purpose of the ugly sidewalk decorations which line every street in the city. We had invented many of our own purposes for these, including a luggage "track", a drainage gutter and even an aid for the blind. He said they are simply decorations installed for the 2004 Olympic Games!! Haha. Lots of wasted time pondering that... Since he believed we had a little extra time, Dimitris then offered to take us to see one sight that we had missed, which he said was best seen at night. He drove us to the top of Lykavittos Hill, the tallest point in Athens, that offered incredible views of the Acropolis and the entire city to the ocean. Since we were only 2 days away from a full moon, the ocean and mountains were beautiful! Seriously, if anyone ever needs a driver in Athens, this is the guy!!  He took us to the airport and left with another very well-deserved tip! I was nervous in the airport because I knew the baggage allowances were not what they were coming over - we were only allowed one carryon of certain dimensions and the weight limits of our bags were less as well. I got lucky again with the lady at the ticket counter. I explained that I simply wanted to check the one bag, despite the fact that my carryon was slightly over-sized. She was friendly and said since the flight was not full, she would allow me to take the bags without issue, but warned me of potential charges when returning. We kept moving right through their super simple security, in which a kind "helper" was there to assist as you clean out your pockets, organize your liquids and prepare for the X-ray. This was a breath of fresh air after the typically awful TSA experiences. This flight turned out to be one of the shortest, but most interesting of our lives 

We were bussed to the plane and had to board directly from the tarmac. It had very high-tech lighting and kind, smiling flight attendants. For some reason (maybe the low altitude) the plane seemed to be flying much faster than normal and the actual flight time was only about 20 minutes. We felt like we were rocketed nearly vertically into the air and descended the same way, much like a NASA launch! The flight attendants had to actually run to serve us drinks and snacks, then came back in about three minutes to collect the trash - I am a slow eater and had just begun to crack open the croissant, but didn't realize we were dropping 20 miles a minute and needed to pick up the pace. What a wild ride!  We laughed the whole way into the airport. Apparently, all of our good luck had run out and our first hours in Santorini were rougher than expected. My luggage was the last bag off the carousel and shot out of the hole in what seemed like 15 minutes after the place completely cleared out - nerve racking. Next, we got gouged by a taxi driver who charged us 17€ to take us to town, when the internet said the fare should be around 7€. As if that wasn't enough, after he took off, we realized the hotel was shut down for the night and anyone inside was clearly sleeping (since it was just 6 AM and keep in mind the work ethic here).  Lauren and I were handeling the situation, as Dan and his camera, Annie, trailed off, carefree as ever, to photograph the sunrise... Finally we got a telephone number to work, an older lady answered, and shortly a younger lady, who had obviously just rolled out of bed, came to put us up in a temporary room to get some sleep. We passed out instantly and slept until 2 PM! We woke to inquire about changing rooms, but discovered in the confusion of the morning, we had actually been placed in the correct room, so our lower level napping quarters became home.  We left to explore the island's Capitol of Thira, stopping at a cliffside cafe for an over-priced lunch, then stopped at a store for some 4-packs of Mythos to stock our hotel fridge.  These four-packs are really closer to 12 packs since the beer is stronger and the cans are enormous! Haha! We headed home, threw on some swim suits and walked up to the rooftop pool to lay and relax. At the recommendation of Sarah Dolan, we motivated our sleepy selves and boarded the bus to Oia (pronounced Eia) for the world-renowned sunset. We arrived and found ourselves in the middle of a tourist frenzy. We made our way to the point in a single-file cattle herd, when Dan could no longer contain his excitement and ran off to break some rules and get the world's best sunset shot. Lauren and I continued down the street to find incredible views of the ocean, the island and the setting sun. It was great! The drama fired back up after the sunset, when the swarms of tourists were corralled back down the hallway-like streets of Oia and Dan was nowhere to be found. After cursing him for a good 45 minutes, he showed up at the  bus stop, where we headed back out to find dinner. We found a great place, with excellent Greek food. I had chicken souvlaki, a skewered chicken dish, that was delicious along with a glass of white wine. Dan and Lauren got different versions of another chicken dish in really tasty sauces. The meal was one of the best yet and really helped improve the mood after Dan's houdini. We caught the returning bus to Thira, had a fun conversation with some girls from Australia in the back of the bus and went to bed straight away.