EUROPE

xandrias asked: why are you traveling?

I went traveling in march until June to do my second semester of grade 11 in europe. Now I am making more plans to do more traveling after I graduate.

Sunset hike

The teachers point out where we have to hike to from where we stand below at the beach. I peer up and think to myself, “Meh, looks like a piece of cake. It isn’t that high.” Silly me.

We begin the hike on a twisty road winding up the side of this mountain. The boys are running circles around us as they climb up and over the walls to head straight up instead of on the windy road. We reach what appears, from the beach, to be the top of the mountain only to see a rocky path laid out before me. Joe is saying from the front of the group that we have to hurry or we will miss the sunset. At this point I don’t care about the damn sun, I just want food in my tummy and to sit down.

We continue up the mountain, backpacks heavy and weighing us down, sunlight disappearing, loose gravel, and a straight down cliff on one side of us. Warnings of loose rocks, narrow parts of the path, and tripping hazards are being yelled out by teachers and students. We see our final resting spot up ahead. It is right near the tip of the mountain, overlooking parts of Santorini. 

Joe is standing in front of us giving us the lecture for the evening, but I don’t hear what he is saying for I am watching the sun as it sinks lower in the sky and disappears behind the low clouds. Katie leans towards me and whispers, “When I say remember that time, well this is one of the times I am talking about.”  

I snap back to reality as everyone starts to stand up around me. We have to start heading down the mountain at a quick pace because hiking in the dark is never a good idea. We are racing against the darkness that slowly creeps in, replacing the light. 

Black sand beaches

Mmm Santorini. It was as if I was in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. White buildings, blue skies,.. black beaches? So the beaches were not the ideal white sand with crystal clear waters, but whose complaining, we are in Greece. We take taxis down to the beach everyday and take over an area of a wonderful restaurant (with the greatest cheese pizza). Almost all of our time is spent either in the water (snorkelling without much luck of finding fish) or hitting the books to study for our upcoming exams and book chats. We had songs to write and odysseys to complete! 

Tired students

The ferry ride wasn’t terrible, but it was great either. Our ferry left before dinner and we didn’t arrive in Santorini until 1 or 2 in the morning. It was an unpleasant nap wherever we could find a place to lay our heads. The ferry was full of military men, some very nice, others just creepy. Let’s just say, we weren’t disappointed when we finally arrived in the port. We all learned some valuable lessons from this late night ferry; loading a bus with our luggage late at night doesn’t go over well, people get mighty irritated when you are loud on a bus at 2 in the morning, disorganized teachers and tired students who just want a bed to lay in don’t go together well.