Rhodes, GREECE!!! Part 1

Tom’s godparents picked us up from the airport and brought us to the apartment we were staying in. We took a long nap and then were driven to his Godparents’ house for a home cooked Greek meal. It was amazing. I felt so immersed into the Greek culture it was unreal. One of their sons, who is about 12, played us songs on the traditional Greek instrument that looked like a cross between a guitar and a violin. After the meal they did not have enough dessert for all of us so we all walked to their parents house where we ate the most delicious and unusual apple pie.

You can immediately sense a great family foundation and huge culture shock in Rhodes. Everyone we met was overly kind and funny. Nothing was rushed; it is a very relaxing place. We often asked aloud to each other, “Is this real? Is this actually happening right now?” We made our best attempt to get the most out of every minute.


Fun fact about Rhodes is that they receive 325 days of sun a year. Every day there were bright blue skies with no clouds in sight and a nice breeze. Rhodes is a big tourist area in the summer but since we went there off-season, we were the only tourists there. This meant that all those beautiful beaches you see when you do a google image search for Rhodes were empty. Every beach we went to we had all to ourselves.


The town we stayed in was called Trianta. It was a very small, adorable town full of locals. None of us knew any Greek except for Tom who was our savior for the entire trip. There were only about two bars that were open this time of year and only a few restaurants. We walked to the beach on the second day there and saw the bright blue clear water. I had never seen anything like it. I’ve been to the Caribbean and seen beautiful beaches before in St. Thomas and St. Martin, but they don’t even compare to the water in Greece. When we looked out into the ocean we could see Turkey, clear as day. It looked like you could almost swim to it.


At night we would hang out at one of the only bars that was open this time of year called “Debbie’s”. We met Debbie and her daughter, Maria, who was the bartender. It was a sports bar, which meant it was mainly occupied by old men. We could tell that Maria was thrilled to have all eight of us young girls talking to her. She found us all hilarious and entertaining.

London is GIGANTIC

Before I begin recalling my vacation in London, I feel I should explain the large amount of travel planning issues I came across. Three of my friends and I booked flights from Dublin to London to Athens to Rhodes. The plan was to stay in Rhodes for the first seven days, then stay in London for two days on the way back to Dublin. Everything seems fine until the day before we leave for Greece.

I get to class at 9:30am and find out that the Athens’ Airport is having a strike the next day and all flights have been cancelled. This meant that I would either have to cancel my flight to London or stay in London for ten days, which I had no desire to do. We didn’t even know if we were going to get our money back for the flights to and from Greece. Everyone was very stressed and pretty much threw away the entire idea that we would be going to Greece during break.

One of my friends going with me, Tom, had family in Greece that he was going to visit and he was determined to get us to Greece. Tom called three airlines and the hostel we booked in London; five hours of waiting and arguing with people on the phone trying to change plane tickets and booking dates. By 3:00pm our flights were successfully changed so that we would be now staying in London for the first two days and Rhodes for the last seven, which was basically our original plan but flipped around. This meant that we needed to book another hostel for the new days we would be in London. I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried, but trying to find availability in a Hotel or Hostel in London a day before you arrive is not the easiest thing. I searched for hours trying to find a decent place that had room for us. Finally, after trying to figure out our spring break for ten hours, it was done. Everything was planned and we could finally calm down and just hope that anything else wouldn’t go wrong.

The next day we left for the airport for our afternoon flight to London. The flight from Dublin to London is very short, only about an hour, almost too short in my opinion. We found our Hostel fairly easily and checked in to our room. The hostel looked… sketchy and dirty, but we had our own bedroom and were not worried about anyone breaking in. They gave us clean sheets and that was enough to keep us happy.


The next morning we buy tickets for the Big Bus Tour that brings you all around London to all the major tourist attractions like the London Bridge, the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc. We sat on the top of the double decker bus so that we got the best views. We ended up missing the bus that brought us back to our Hostel and had to take the tube, which is their version of the Subway. Although London is such a huge city, it seemed very easy to get anywhere you wanted fairly quickly and easily using the tube.


That night we met up with two fellow classmates who arrived in London that day and went to check out the bar scene. We went into the center of the city and asked someone where a good bar was and they gave us directions to one. Once we walk up to the door we immediately recognize that it is an Irish Pub… in London. It’s funny that we can’t get away from them. We felt right at home and went inside for a few drinks.

The next day we take a walk through Hyde Park, which was right across from our Hostel. It is a huge green park with restaurants and playgrounds and lakes and DOGS. There were so many dogs running around and playing; I could walk around in there all day and never get bored. One particular dog followed us for a short while, with its owners about 20 feet behind us. It was adorable and very well behaved. When it came time that the owners wanted the dog turn off to another path all the did from way behind him was say “turn here” and the dog just knew and went off onto the other path.



Once we reached the end of Hyde Park we went to the Science Museum. We went on a simulation ride where you feel like you are flying to the moon on a spaceship, which was pretty cool. Other than that it does not compare to the Museum of Science in Boston. We spent most of our time in the souvenir shop, which was full of all those really awesome toys we used to play with when we were younger. Our flight to Rhodes left that afternoon and arrived in Rhodes at 7:00am. Basically, it was a long night, but definitely worth it.

My first time horseback riding

Each week in Ireland seems to become more and more exciting. Last Monday I decided to be brave and perform a couple songs at a local pub’s open mic. Everyone there was extremely nice and even cheered my name when I screwed up a song. I believe that Champlain College Dublin is booking a pub for a night so that everyone in the program can come and play music or read poetry or any other talent they wish to display.


The most exciting part of this week was definitely our trip to Glendalough where I got to ride a horse for the first time in my life. Before Friday, I had never even touched a horse and now am so glad that I finally tried horseback riding. The man who worked at the barn lead out four people at a time on an hour trek though windy, muddy, beautiful trails through the woods and hills of Glendalough. My horse’s name was Pluto and was a giant white beast. The feeling you get from riding such a huge, powerful animal is wonderfully exciting. I loved every minute of it.
We all got on our horses and without any instruction of general riding commands, the four of us and our horses started walking single file behind our trek leader. The first few minutes I was terrified and felt that I had absolutely no control over this animal and hoped that he wouldn’t throw me off his back. But after a few instructions on how to direct him and stop him I felt a little better. The trek was beautiful and at times we could overlook large hilly fields and mountains off in the distance lit by the perfectly sunny day.


Without much warning, our trek leader told us we were going to trot and to hold on, and I soon realized why holding on was so important. While trotting down a hill, I got about ten times the amount of adrenaline I usually get from a roller coaster. It was so much fun. At many times we were walking two feet from the edges of grassy cliffs. I remember just praying that Pluto wouldn’t slip or take a step too close to the edge and tumble.

When we got to the point in the trek where we were going through skinny paths in the woods, I saw numerous deer running around. Three deer in particular stood about ten feet away from us as we passed. I remember their faces just staring at us and not being afraid because they figured we were just other animals in the woods. All of us were silent in awe staring back at the deer, trying to soak in every second of this amazing experience. It was a great trip and probably one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’m definitely going to try to ride again once I return home this summer.

Northern Ireland Trip: Day Two

The next day was full of tourist attractions, basically natural environmental beauties that you have to pay to go see. We walked down a windy road from our hostel to Ballintoy Harbor. I was surprised to see a sand beach there surrounded by all these steep chalk cliffs. We all climbed up these grassy rocks that jutted into the ocean and once on top we had a beautiful view of the water and we could see Scotland off in the distance. I remember just being blown away by just how pretty the views were, it seemed too perfect to be real.

Once we were leaving Ballintoy, two of my classmates decided to run full speed toward a sheep field, hurdle the fence, and continued to sprint toward a large flock of sheep screaming “SHEEEEEEEEEP!” This obviously scared the crap out of the sheep and they ran away but it was probably the most amusing thing I witnessed this weekend.

Our next stop was Giant’s Causeway. This is a huge formation of rocks that are all shaped like hexagons or pentagons. It shoots out into the ocean like a jetty and is a lot easier to climb than it looks. The rocks act like stairs since they are all relatively flat on top. After spending an hour or so there we went to Dunluce Castle. We got to see the remnants of this large castle by the ocean. I specifically liked this tower that you could walk up some terrifying stairs to reach the top. I felt like we were in a playground.

The final stop of the trip, excluding dinner at McDonalds, was this rope bridge that was between two cliffs about a hundred feet above the water. It swung and bounced when you walked on it, I loved it. I love roller coasters and am not afraid of heights so I was excited to start hopping down the bridge, making it wobble up and down. You could tell about half of our group loved it and the other half was terrified of walking across it.

It has now been three days since the trip and my legs are still sore from all the walking/hiking but it was definitely worth it. It was definitely the best weekend I’ve had in Ireland since I’ve been here and now I can’t wait for the West Coast trip.

Northern Ireland Trip: Day One

We left at 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning for Belfast on our coach bus, still half asleep and lugging our quickly packed backpacks around. The ride was about an hour and a half and full of gorgeous views of the countryside. I can’t tell you how many sheep I saw this weekend, but it was a lot. Once we got to Belfast we met with our tour guide Nigel who then took us on a historical tour of Belfast and filled us in on a little Northern Ireland history.

After that we drove to the Hostel that we would be staying at for the night, which was in this little town called Ballintoy. The hostel was right next to large fields of sheep and behind the fields was the ocean. We ate dinner at the hostel and then all 23 of us went out to the one of two local pubs in the tiny town. There was live music, which consisted of a man with an electric guitar performing Johnny Cash numbers and other classics. We filled up the entire pub and you could tell the man performing was not expecting such a lively crowd. It was an awesome night and I feel like everyone bonded since it was the first time we were all hanging out together. At some point in the night I was cheered up to the front to sing with a fellow classmate. It was a great night.

It’s the little things…

Walking around Dublin doesn’t really make it seem like I’m in another country. I might as well just be in another state in the US where they talk funny. This is until you really try to live here. There are a bunch of little things that are different enough to make you feel like you’re not anywhere near home anymore. First of all, milk. Their milk comes in one and two liter bottles and is only offered in skim, semi-skim, and whole. I have been dying for some waffles or pancakes with syrup, but I have yet to find them anywhere. When I asked my teacher why they didn’t have this kind of breakfast food he laughed and said, “Well that’s Canadian!” as if it is a crazy thought that I might be able to get some pancakes here. I’ve also noticed how Ireland isn’t really big on re-sealable packaging. Everything from bread to ham goes bad so much faster here because of the poor packaging design. But to make up for this I feel like everything comes in smaller portions. Speaking of ham, they are crazy about ham here. I went into a grocery store and looked in the sandwich meat isle, the entire isle was filled with different varieties of ham. Also, if you get bacon on anything here, its really just ham that’s been cooked in a pan. I ordered a bacon burger at a restaurant and when it came out there was just a huge slice of ham sitting on my burger. Don’t get me wrong, I love ham, it’s just something to get used to. Hmm… what else is different here? Every store seems to open late and close early. You can’t shop after 7:00pm on any day of the week. Oh! They put corn on pizza! Those crazy Irish people…

But! There are some things that I’ve found here that I will definitely miss in the US. Mainly “Curly Wurlys”, which are these wavy caramel bars that are covered in chocolate and also Cadbury Caramel bars, which are like the Cadbury caramel eggs just in bar form. Also, I am an Oreo connoisseur and can tell that the Oreos here are more sugary and therefore, more delicious. Another food item that I’ve become addicted to is Aero Hot Chocolate, which bubbles when you make it. If you couldn’t tell, I love chocolate.

I booked my flight to Rhodes, Greece. It’s a beautiful sandy island that is an hour flight from Athens. On the way back we are going to stop in London and stay for two nights there. I’m so happy that I finally have spring break planned out.

The group Northern Ireland trip is this coming weekend, which I am very excited about. Hopefully I’ll see more farms and sheep!

Fence hopping from Bray to Greystones

The RAs decided to plan a hiking trip this Saturday where we would walk/hike along a cliff side between two coastal towns in Ireland. I’m not very big into hiking or outdoor activities in general but I decided to go just to get away from the city for a day and see the countryside. So twelve of us took a train out to Bray on Saturday morning and made our way along the five-mile path to the next town over, Greystones. Our group split up in the beginning and I ended up in a group of six. Right at the start of the trail there was a sign warning us that the path was closed ahead because of land slippage. Yet, the gate was open and people were going that way, so we decided to ignore the sign and keep going.


The views were beautiful and we could hear the lapping of the waves on the shore. Once we walked about two or three miles we get to another sign saying that the path is closed, but this one was blocked by a gate. So we took a skinny, overgrown path going straight up the mountain rather than along the side of it. It seemed to go up forever until we found a paved road with houses and cars. At this point we knew we were lost. Continuing down the road we could see off in the distance the town of Greystones and just headed in that direction.


I’m not sure how, but we ended up cutting across a farm, hopping over barbed wire fences, and seeing a flock of sheep laying in the sun. We probably walked a mile or two out of our way but the experience was definitely worth it. We celebrated once we finally found the walking path again and made it to Greystones before it got dark. The town of Greystones was so pretty and quaint. I wanted to just stay and live there and take the 30-minute train ride to school everyday. Once we met up with the rest of the group they told us we should have just gone past the closed walkway sign, but I’m really glad we didn’t, it made our story a lot more interesting.