Kyrenia

Saturday

This morning we went to the Turkish side or the north side of the island.  Since I had recently done it for just a day trip, I remembered how easy it was to get there.  It still surprises me, though.  A group of seven of us picked the bus up near our apartments and we went to the city center.  Then we had to walk down Ledra street to the 'border'.  There you give them your passport and then walk on through.  It doesn't look any different at first, but once you get to Kyrenia it's a whole nother place!  We took a van to Kyrenia, which is the mountainous area on the north side.  It was a gorgeous view the entire time.  Then we got to our hostile, which is located in a harbor, over a restaurant.  It's an amazing location.  We put our stuff into our room (all seven of us had a sleep over) and then went back out to walk around.  Immediately, we passed a tandem paragliding shop!  My friend, Kayla, and I decided to do it about an hour later.  So we were taken up the mountain and each took turns.  It was an awesome experience that I will never forget-even better than a helicopter ride over Venice!  The rest of the day was spent walking around.  At one point we found a ledge to sit on for quite a long time, that overlooked the harbor.  It was gorgeous to watch the sky change.  We had a nice dinner and then went back to the hostel.  We were all planning on watching a movie together until the man in charge of the hostel invited us to hear his friend play authentic Turkish music.  We all went and sat at an outdoor restaurant along the harbor.  It was beautiful music and we all really enjoyed it.

Sunday

This day we got breakfast to go and sat by the water and ate.  Then we went to an old monastery and church with beautiful arches and scenery, overlooking the town.  After that we walked around the small town.  It is definitely a place I would love to go back to.  Then two older friends and I went to find a beach.  It was somewhat unsuccessful, but we did find a waters edge with the Kyrenia castle behind it.  It was yet another beautiful sight to see.  We spent awhile there and then left.  But I am SO excited to return to Kyrenia as much as possible.  Especially when it only takes 3 and a half euro to get there!

Paragliding!

View of the harbor.

Old Monastery/Church

Ayia Napa

It's been a long time since I've updated my blog.  It's hard for me to find things to write about when I'm just living day-to-day life and not traveling.  But hopefully you all will find things interesting either way!  I'm on my third week of classes and enjoying it.  It's still an adjustment to take classes in a foreign country....perspectives are obviously vastly different in many ways.

So this weekend we went to Ayia Napa, which is supposed to be the nicest beach town on the island.  It was gorgeous and a really great place.  The weather was a little cool, which was actually nice because the heat in Cyprus sometimes seems never ending!  The bus ride to Ayia Napa is about an hour, but we took a few detours.  We stopped at a Byzantine church and Famagusta.  Famagusta is a ghost town.  When the Turks invaded Cyprus in 1974, all the people of this town were forced to leave.  It was a very happy town and was running well.  It also attracted many tourists.  Sadly, the people have never been able to go back and have to look at it everyday from their new homes.  It's a sore subject for them.  It was really sad to hear about it.  But it's always interesting to learn more and more about the history of this island.

View of Famagusta

We arrived in Ayia Napa in the late afternoon on Friday.  Wow, it was gorgeous.  We stayed in a beach resort hotel with an amazing pool, that was right on the beach.  That night we went out for karaoke!  It was a lot of fun and the other tourists and locals enjoyed watching us.  Surprisingly, they are not used to Americans coming to Ayia Napa.  Most of the tourists are British.  That seems to be the way most of Cyprus is though.  Saturday we spent all day at the beach.  It was great.  I also rented a four wheeler with my friend and we drove around the town.  We got to see some great views of the sea and the rest of the town.  That was definitely my favorite part of our trip.  That night we went out for seafood meze with our entire group of 20-some people.  The next day we left and came back to a much cooler Cyprus, yay!

View from our balcony at night.

View from balcony during the day

View of coast from four wheeler

Last night we booked our trip to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Germany!  And tonight I will book my flight to Egypt!  I can't wait for more traveling!

The Cyprus Way of Life

Wednesday

This was an uninteresting day because I only had Greek class in the morning and the rest of the day was free.  To be honest, I had a negative feeling all day about where I am.  There really is not much to do here and we're in kind of an isolated location, which is strange to say being that we are right in the city.  I can walk two minutes to the grocery and home goods store, two minutes to the university, and five minutes to just about everything else I need.  That is extremely convenient and so unlike home, but there is still not much to do.  I need to go outside the city limits and more into the old city to explore.  So my new goal is to find cheap transportation, like the bus, to explore this country that I will be calling home for 3 months.  

Thursday

Wednesday I was feeling negative about how vastly different this country is from the states, but today I am feeling blessed and extremely excited, and it's only 11 30am!  I just got back to the apartment from my Social Psychology class.  We were let out an hour early, yet I still took so much away from it.  They say here that Cyprus is unlike any other place and it is so very true.  Yes, I could have gone to Italy or Spain or France and seen beautiful views everyday...but I would not have experienced the culture quite like this.  People drive on the wrong side of the road here, they speak Greek (a very difficult language to learn), they eat very different food, everything is closed on Wednesdays, there are debates about whether Cyprus is part of Europe or part of the Middle East, and most importantly they have a history unlike any country in this entire world.  I have learned about their history more than I care to share but today it really meant something to me.  In my class our professor asked the Cypriots to talk about what it means to be from Cyprus.  The first word someone gave was 'invasion'.  That was amazing to me.  Their history is apart of who they are everyday, in a much broader way than it is for the US or any other country.  They are divided here and still feel the pain of that division and the war and the rape and the take over.  It's so sad but it is also a huge factor that they must deal with everyday.  This was a great country to take Social Psych in and I'm sooooo excited for it.  Yes the university is small and I feel like an outsider...and it's just not what I was hoping for, but I am going to be fully immersed in the culture and learn so much more.  It really will change who I am and change the way I think about the world-it already does.  I cannot wait!!  This is what studying abroad is all about and I am so ready to jump right in!

Espana

Friday

We arrived in Barcelona in the evening and immediately had a 3 hour walking tour.  Barcelona is nowhere near what I was expecting.  It's a huge city the size of Texas and the inhabitants do not consider themselves  part of Spain.  They are actually Catalonians and speak Catalon, a version of Spanish.  Our walking tour was more about architecture, so we visited the Sagrada Familia, a huge church in the city that is very important to it's citizens.  Afterwards, we went looking for food and I had my first authentic Spanish dinner of seafood paella and Sangria.  It was worth every penny.  Yum.

Saturday

We had a free day so I went around the city with a friend.  The first thing we did was a cable car tour, where you get an entire view of Barcelona.  That was great.  It takes you up to the top of a mountain where there is also a castle.  We walked around and looked at the view of the city and the ocean.  Beautiful.  Since Barcelona was not exactly my favorite  city, I just walked around the rest of the day and mentally prepared myself to go back to Cyprus and start classes!!  It was Barcelona day so there was a big celebration at night.  I saw fireworks from my balcony and one of the city's large towers was all lit up.

Sunday

We spent the day on planes, making our way back to Cyprus!  Yay!

Monday

This was my first day of classes!  I only had GLS classes (my program is called Global Learning Semesters and some of our classes are just in their building, not in the university).  My first class was Greek, and in two and a half hours we learned A LOT.  I feel really good about actually learning the native language now!  The big chunk of my day I spent grocery shopping.  I'm finally able to feel at home here now that we aren't traveling anymore and have time to get used to our surroundings.  The local grocery store is just a two minute walk and has a lot of local foods.  It's still somewhat frustrating to not be able to find certain things that I have become accustomed to at home, but I'm ready to embrace the culture!  At night I had my photography class, which I'm very excited for.

Tuesday

Today I had two classes, both in the university.  A lot more people have moved into our apartment complex since school started and we're all excited to meet some locals.  The classes are very different here but I feel like I will be able to make friends in my classes and also learn a lot and participate a lot, despite what I was expecting.  It was great to start classes!  Tomorrow is my first Greek quiz!

Florence

Tuesday

This day we left for Florence via bus.  On the way there we stopped at the leaning tower of Pisa.  It was really cool to see something that I've always heard about like that.  It was a pretty area but very touristy.  Then we got back on the bus and finally arrived in Florence.  We made a stop at a beautiful panoramic view of Florence that was breathtaking.  We arrived at the hotel at night and I met up with Hannah from school, who is studying in Florence.  We went out to dinner and walked around the city to see the Duomo and the many statues and buildings.  It was a great night and I fell in love with the city immediately.

The leaning tower of Pisa (trust me it is leaning).

3 gorgeous views of Florence.

Wednesday

This morning we went to the Uffizi, a famous art museum that houses Michaelangelo's only painting and some of Leonardo DiVinci.  I am not usually interested in art museums but this was so intriguing and our tour guide was excellent.  It was a great museum.  Afterwards, we went to a nice italian restaurant and met up with Hannah again.  We window shopped, a popular thing to do in Florence, and enjoyed all the narrow streets and buildings all around the city.  At night we went to the opera!  It took place in a church and featured a man and woman that alternated and also preformed duets.  It was a beautiful walk and we found a great place to eat dinner underground with great ambiance.  The opera was a great experience!  It was something new for me to do and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thursday

Today we left for Venice.  When we arrived we a took a boat ride to central Venice.  The view looked just like that of the scene from Casino Royale when they are sailing through Venice.  It was so expansive.  Unfortunately, it is very touristy, but it is a beautiful and picturesque place.  While walking around, we stumbled upon a helicopter tour guide and decided to see Venice in a helicopter!  I went with two other friends from my program.  It was definitely the best 40 euro I have and will ever spend.  Even the boat ride to the airport was a great experience.  It's hard to explain the helicopter ride in words, but it was so so amazing.  Venice is not one island, but many.  Like all the other parts of Italy, it was breathtaking.  After all of this we went back to the island and walked around.  The boat ride back to where we are staying at night was very pretty.  Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona, Spain!

I promise to post pictures once I get back to Cyprus in a few days-the internet in the hotels does not work well enough for me to be able to load them.





View of some of Venice from our helicopter ride!

When in Rome

September 20, 2010

Saturday

We went to a beach in Greece via the tram.  It was about an hour long and very uncomfortable.  When we arrived I forgot all of that.  It was by far the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  The water was so incredibly clear and blue, the beach was made of white rocks, and there were beautiful trees everywhere.  I spent all day swimming in the ocean and floating because of the high salt content.  It was a great day.  On the way home we watched the sunrise from the tram.  That night we ate at an authentic greek restaurant that served us meze, meaning an entire meal of greek food.  It was a great way to end our time in Greece.

The first Grecian beach we went to.

Sunday

This was a long day.  We had to wake up at 5am to leave for Rome.  As soon as we arrived we left for the Colosseum.  It was AMAZING.  I was blown away.  Then we went on a 3 hour walking of Rome.  This city completely exceeded my expectations.  I have no words to describe it so I will put up pictures.  I could not believe what I was looking at.  There were ruins surrounding us everywhere we looked.  It was beautiful.

View from the Colosseum

The Colosseum

Overlooking part of Rome (pictures do not do it justice).

Monday

Today we took the metro to the Vatican Museum.  We also saw the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican itself.  It was another beautiful thing to see and very interesting in history.  We leave Rome tomorrow but I wish we weren't.  This city is astounding.  But Florence is next and I am very excited for that city as well!

Athens!

September 17, 2010

Thursday

This was the first day of our ten days in Europe.  We arrived in Athens in the morning and drove to our hotel.  Immediately, I spotted the differences.  Here, they drive on the correct side of the road.  In Cyprus they do not because it is a British colony, and they also used to use pounds rather than euros.  The scenery is very different, too.  There is a lot more foliage here and mountains-it’s beautiful.  The city itself is huge and bustling.  The driving is still pretty crazy and scary at times, but definitely something I will get used to.  After we arrived we walked around the shopping distract, Plaka.  I felt like the quintessential tourist, going in every store and buying postcards and trinkets.  It is strange to say, but it feels much more greek in this city, as opposed to Cyprus.  I’m really enjoying it here.  At night we attempted to make a trip to the temple of Poseidon, using the metro and public bus.  Unfortunately we missed the last bus, but it was nice to get around the city and see things we might have missed.  We went out to dinner in the Plaka on a street with a lot of romantic restaurants.  It was beautiful and had a very European feel.  We even watched street vendors being chased by the police!  Only in Europe. 

Friday

Today was an early morning.  We ate breakfast on the top floor of our hotel where you could look over the entire city of Athens.  It was the most beautiful thing I have seen thus far.  Our program took us to a Greek mythology and history museum that I found very interesting.  It reflected a lot of the things I learned in my Classics course.  After that we went to the Acropolis!  It was beautiful, despite the many stairs we had to walk up.  The view was even more amazing than breakfast.  I really enjoy learning about the history and mythology of this culture.  Afterwards we walked around for awhile.  We even met a man who was very interested in us being American and proceeded to take a picture with me to show his friends that people who have pale skin and red hair truly exist….very bizarre.  But all in all it was a great day.  Walking around Greece is so fascinating.  Tomorrow we’re headed to one of the islands or a beach to relax and enjoy the gorgeous scenery!

View of Athens from the Acropolis