It seems I took way too long to post about my last trip while having the trip of a lifetime in Europe. After Rome we all went to Athens, Greece and then to Santorini, Greece. This is the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most because it was the most relaxed we were going to get prior to going home. We only spent one night and one full day in Athens, but it was good enough. The first night our hostel gave us some suggestions for dinner and they had a discount, which for us college students is amazing. This restaurant was within walking distance from our hostel and super cheap without the discount. We all got an appetizer and an entree along with some wine and in total it was still under 40 euro. :)
The next day we went to the Parthenon and walked around Athens a bit with a tour guide Alex's dad set up for us. He made our time in Athens great and he took us to an amazing restaurant that afternoon. I had seen the Parthenon before, but it was great to see it again. We ended up getting free tickets because the ticket office saw we were studying in Austria which is within the EU. Thank goodness they didn't check to see we were exchange students because that free ticket was awesome. After the restaurant we walked around a thrift shop area for awhile and then headed back to the hostel to retrieve our stuff. That evening around 6pm we were leaving for Santorini via boat. The tour guide made sure we got to the boat dock and made sure we got on the correct boat. We were so lucky to have a guy that nice to show us around on his day off work. He also ended up getting a job with the hostel we were staying at because the employee saw how great he was with us and wanted to see if he could do the same with other guests. The boat to Santorini was about 6 hours and we stayed up for most of it. They served food and we did not have assigned seating, so thank goodness we got their early and got 2 tables for the 6 of us.
Arriving in Santorini was amazing and stressful at the same time. I forgot to charge my phone and forgot to double check where exactly we were staying. So it took us about 20 minutes to find the guy to take us to our hostel in Santorini. The driver seemed irritated because it took us so long to find him, but o well we did find him and everything worked out. At first when we were driving to our hostel we were all a bit freaked out because he stopped at the end of a road and had another guy walk us to our hostel, but then once we saw where we were it was jaw dropping. We were right at the ocean and everything was beautiful. The hostel was perfect and other students were also staying there. We each had enough room, bed wise and we were in heaven!! That night Carly, Jess, Brittany and I went out to get a drink. Brittany and I were the only ones to get a drink, but we still stayed out enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. The next day we decided to go into the town Fira, as we were staying in Perissa. Fira was only about 20 minutes bus ride away and was just amazing! We all had a great time in town. I spent way too much money in Santorini, but it was well worth it. I got a lot of souvenirs there and had the best food I have had in awhile. I miss Greece so much!!!
After going into town we came back to Perissa to go to the beach for a bit. We ended up sitting under these cabanas that were owned by one of the restaurants. The owner came up to us and said we either needed to pay 7 euro or eat, so I made a deal with him that we would come back for dinner if he let us stay. We did end up ordering drinks that day and then we went to dinner later that evening. The food was, of course, delicious and we had a great night. He ended up giving us free ouzo and said we could use his cabanas the next day all day, so of course we took advantage of that. We had lunch and some drinks while sitting on his cabanas the next day and soaked up the sun the entire day. That evening we wanted to go back into Fira to have a nice dinner, which we did and we also wanted to see the sunset. Seeing the sunset was probably one of the most magical things I've seen in a long time. Greece was and will probably be my favorite place to visit. I will keep going back years to come and will always remember our stay in June 2013. I was very sad to leave the next day, but I was also incredibly happy to be going home 4 days after that; a bit bittersweet if you ask me.
This Euro trip was the best thing that ever happened to me and I suggest everyone do something like this. It is life altering and a trip of a lifetime.