July 17 – Athens to Paros Island
The morning came as a surprise to Natalie, Sophie, and I. We woke up at 5:58, 13 minutes after the time we were supposed to be down in the lobby ready to leave for the ferry. As you can imagine, it was hectic! I rushed and packed the rest of my things up, without brushing my teeth; yuck. Once we all finally got down to the lobby several other groups woke up late too, so that made me feel a little better. The moment we were all gathered we were off on a crazy race to get to the metro station, which made us all pretty upset. I was drenched in sweat and felt disgusting! We got on the subway and that ride was about 30 minutes to the waiting place by the ferry. Finally, we walked onto the ferry, put our bags in a storage area on the boat, and headed up to decently comfortable seats on the 6th floor. Little did we know what was about to happen…
The first pair to be kicked out of their seats was Sophie and Dee, soon followed by Elly and Kristin. I was confused why we kept getting our seats taken, because Ellen said that it was business seating, but once everyone was kicked out of their seats we realized that we had been sitting in the “higher” class area, and business class seating was more towards the front of the ferry. Katie stuck with me and we made our way to the top of the ship, which was open to the beautiful ocean of Greece; it was a great view. Most of us were still tired from the grueling sprint to the ferry earlier that morning, so some dozed off, especially Kristin who I did not even recognize because of the shawl covering her body. After she woke up we decided to go inside the boat and find a good business seat and grab some coffee and a snack. Most of the ATM’s in Greece have failed me miserably, and of course the one on the boat did as well. Kristin, the kind soul she is, took 20 Euros out for me and we got our breakfast/snack, and then headed for the search for seats.
The boat was basically packed, so we did not find open seats; Dee and Sophie found two near, so we just decided to make our own little lounge with plastic chairs behind all of the cushioned ones. Our “VIP” section was by the luggage and an old man sleeping on the floor; it was wonderful. There we enjoyed our breakfast and started journaling about the crazy cab driver from the day before. Dee and Sophie left their chairs, so to avoid creepy comments by a man, we skedaddled to their seats. That is when the motion sickness got to me. I guess when we were inside, Kat made some buddies outside. I heard got guitar lessons from a Greek man singing “Hotel California”. (A Greek rendition). Three motion sickness pills later, we arrived at the dock in Paros Island.
Paros is b-e-a-utiful! Our hotel is absolutely a dream come true. There is an enormous pool that looks over the spectacular Adriatic Sea. The only downfall is the salt water pool, and the rock sand. (Yes, the sand is mostly rocks as big as golf balls). That did not bother me though, because I was soon relaxing on a beach chair tanning in the “close to the equator sun”. It is also breezy here so that balances the brutal heat of the sun. After spending about four hours outside, all of us girls had free time, so I took a nice long nap. Dinner that night was interesting; there was chicken soup and bread that I enjoyed the most. I was shocked when I found out a tiny bottle of pop costs 2.50 hereL. I decided not to try the seaweed wrapped something’s, but I tried the strawberry mousse, which I found out was not strawberry mousse; but rather garlic red spread for bread! The spoonful of that made my tummy hurt, but I had to go to town that night because I felt I might miss out.
Town in Paros is a mixture of child street beggars, creepy old men, henna tattoos, delicious baklava, and ATM’s that work! It was a good time, but as responsible young adults, Kristin, Dee, Sophie, and I decided to go onto the bus 20 minutes early so we did not miss it. Through a series of unfortunate assumptions, Curt, Adam, and Michelle were victims of our over-responsibility. On the ride back Andrea came back and found us and said that everyone was looking for us. Whoops! I apologize profusely. In an attempt to make up for our being too on time, we went straight to our rooms when we returned. We got a great night of sleep!!!
July 18 - Paros Island
My room got up late again today, so we missed breakfast, but Kristin describes it as: The bagels were hard as rocks; the cereal was a wannabe count chocula, and the juice might as well have been squeezed lemons. After I heard this I was happy with not eating breakfast. Then it was off to a beach with sand, which we thought would be a hop skip and a jump, but hours later found out it was longer than anticipated. The drivers in Greece and not concerned with road markings or the edge of cliffs, so I said a few prayers there and back. Once we arrived at “Golden Beach” Kristin and I started the construction of the sand Parliament with Big Ben.
I knew in advance that Parliament in London is not surrounded by an ocean, so Kristin and I put our heads together and built a moat that soon fell so we built a wall that soon crumbled, so we built a moat around the wall that protects the moat of the Parliament castle. It was grueling, but we decided to finally start the construction of our castle, until we saw a clear looking slug, so we did not build any longer, for fear of an insect problem in the castle. We then laid out for about 30 minutes and got hungry so went to a little eating area by the beach. There I had margarita pizza, which is basically cheese pizza with tomatoes on top. Elly and I got fries also but I ate them with salt because the ketchup here tastes funny. The meal was decently satisfying, though Sophie got shrimp that was still in its bodies; eyes and all. After eating we went into the ocean and enjoyed it for about 10 more minutes then went to the bus stop.
The ride back to our hotel made my stomach more upset than ever; the drivers here have a way of making it look like they will drive you into a wall but at the last second turn sharply. I do not like it at all. Happy that I am off the bus and safe, I am now writing this journal entry and am going to end it and take a nap! Good bye!
By Mollie Geske
Northern Lights 16-1