Adventures Abroad: Spring Break in Greece

For our spring break, a large group of friends from my program went on an organized 10 day trip to Greece! It was incredible. We visiting the island of Corfu, the city of Athens, and lastly the island of Santorini.

Our long journey to Corfu began with a three hour bus ride in the very early morning to the coast of Italy. From there, we boarded a large ferry for our 13 hour journey to Greece. It's hard to describe the boat, but it was sort of like a floating hostel for truckers. Thankfully, our group of 200 college students outweighed the creepiness factor. All of our buses, lots of semi trucks, and cars were parked in the bottom of the boat. The boat had a cafe, some seating areas, a buffet style restaurant, and some other rooms. For 40 euros, we had the option to upgrade to a cabin, which we all did. Since the boat cruised through the night, it was so nice to have even a small bunk bed and bathroom. On the ride, we all sat around and played cards and other games until it was time to go to bed. Early in the morning, we disembarked the ship (which was an extremely long process) and then walked another 15 minutes to a different ferry. The ferry was about two hours, and took us to the island of Corfu. The ride was pleasant, and it was warm enough to sit on the top and enjoy the sun. After we made it to the island, busses from our hostel, the Pink Palace, were waiting to pick us up. The bus ride was another 15 minutes, and then we arrived at our accommodations. It took a very long time to check in, but we were all happy to finally be on Corfu after over 24 hours of traveling. The hostel is located on a hill, and the hike to my room was definitely a workout! The view was beautiful though, and the Pink Palace ended up being more like a one star resort than a hostel. Most of the rooms had two or three beds, a balcony, and a bathroom. Breakfast and dinner were included, and they also had a private beach, bars, kayaks, and ATVs. Since we arrived early in the morning on the first day, we went to the beach right away until dinner. After dinner, the dining room turned into a club with their own DJ and bar. The next day, I signed up for an ATV safari with two of my friends that took us around the entire island for six hours. We went up a mountain to a pretty lookout point for an included picnic, then rode further to a beach where we relaxed for a while, towards the end, we drove our ATVs to a cute cafe for a coffee before going back to the Pink Palace. That night, the hostel hosted a pink toga party. You could rent togas from the hostel for 15 euros, and we all went to dinner in our togas. Halfway through the night, Pink Palace employees came out in traditional Greek outfits and played music, danced, and smashed plates. The next morning, it was rainy and cold, but we still hung out near the beach in the large hangout/beach bar area. That night, after packing and dinner, we left on another long trip to Athens. We took a bus ride to a ferry, which lasted about two hours. After that, we drove for 9 hours through the night and arrived at our hotel in Athens around 5:00 a.m..

Beach on Corfu

View from our ATV picnic

Beach at our hostel

View from outside our rooms at the Pink Palace

After checking into our hostels very early in the morning, we took a short nap before our walking tour of the city. The tour took us to the oldest parts of Athens, although most monuments and streets were closed due to a national holiday. However, because of the holiday, we were able to see the preparations of a parade with huge tanks and soldiers, which was sort of interesting. After the tour, we were dropped off at a restaurant where I got a great Greek salad. For the rest of the day, we shopped around at the flea market, got frozen Greek yogurt, and then went back to the hostel to get ready for a group dinner.

Italian military preparing for the parade

View of the Acropolis

Stadium where the first Olympics were

View of the city

Oldest houses in Athens

Mars Hill, where Paul once stood

The next morning, we woke up very early to take a boat ride to Santorini. Overall, Santorini was my favorite place I visited! It was beautiful. That evening, we checked into our hostel and then walked to a lookout to view the sunset before dinner. After dinner, we all went to an English bar/pub called The Highlander for the night. It was fun hanging out with our big group, and it was relatively close to the hostels which was nice. The next morning, we went to one of the many black beaches of Santorini called Parissa. It was the perfect day! The island just opened for tourists the day before we got there, so the beach was still deserted, but that made it fun and relaxing for a group of 15 girls. There was a cute beach bar/restaurant there as well, and they made amazing salads, wraps, dips, and fun drinks. We spent the day laying out, snacking, reading, and enjoying the sun. We got back in time to go to the town of Oia to watch the sunset. It was about 45 minutes from the town where we were staying, and is where The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 was filmed. It was the quintessential Greek island town, and was gorgeous! That night, we went to a famous gyro stand called Lucky's. I got a shrimp gyro with a side of taziki and pita. It was amazing! That night, we went back to The Highlander. The next morning, we got an early start and went back to the same beach for another amazing day. At 5:00 that night, we left on an overnight boat to go back to Athens. We arrived there at 6:00 a.m., and then went to the acropolis to see the Parthenon and other ancient ruins. After a Starbucks run and one last gyro, we began our 30 hour trek back to Florence!