for the love of internet connections

finding an internet connection around here is like trying to find a needle in a haystack! ish...ok so not so much difficulty in Greece as it was in italy. i'm not a particular fan of the "internet cafes" cause they always seem a bit scrupulous unless you find a snazzy one in the city center or near big tourist spots. But since our professors love to place us at these random crazy hotel locations that has not been the case for us. instead, we are left to hunt/find internet connection as we walk towards landmarks etc. i suppose that is the fun of being a foreigner in a foreign country.

to me its says i'm spoiled because i'm used to my hotel locations with easy access internet which is usually free for me because i'm a member of the said hotel's frequent traveler club. with that, i can say i've learned to appreciate the minute things in life...makes me realize just how dependent on technology i am/was.

i've used my "resourceful skills" plenty of times while being here along with my "problem solving skills"...today i performed a surgical procedure on my suitcase because after yesterdays half a mile walk to the ferry ramp on the firey asphalt in Brindisi my wheels had a serious meltdown slash blowout.

after examining said suitcase today (after enduring a grueling trek to get to Athens which i'll discuss in a bit), i realized that my wheels were actually one tough sturdy wheel surrounded by a more flexible softer wheel...maybe that's for airport ramp impact..who knows? needless to say, with my surgical tools in tow (aka my scissors) i removed the excess wheel leaving the smaller wheel. yes i know i probably needed the outer wheel but they were long gone and only causing more damage. my solitary goal is to make it to the airport in Athens...if my luggage can survive that trip and get checked, i'll be in good shape.

so this little trip to Athens i mentioned earlier, not fun at all! grueling and exhausting. my sole comfort was in the fact that i rode this ferry across an extremely large body of water (which those of you who know me well know exactly how mesmirized and fascinated i am by such things). it was beautiful and amazing...but let me back it up a bit.

we started the day by hauling our luggage down four flights of stairs because we lacked elevator access to our part of the hotel! yea...just the beginning. let me remind you that my luggage was over the weight limit and because my dad loves me so much he paid the overrage fee so i didnt have to rearrange stuff. not to mention that i've since aquired many souvenirs and such...

so i haul down my luggage have breakfast by 6:30 am and am boarding the bus by 6:50 am. we get to the train station and have to get on the train and get situated with 30 students and professors all carrying large suitcases. ok so the train we got on had very little luggage space and we were supposed to be on car 8 which the train only had 7 cars. yeah...what the heck? so we spent the first part of the train ride trying to sort it all out. in the end most of us ended up moving to another cart thanks to the conductor! and we finished out the ride in that condition. now imagine having to unload all 30 students and bags and boarding a bus to the ferry station.

we get there and we cant check in until 3 pm and cant board until 4pm. so we eat lunch in the little cafe and wait and wait until finally we start making our way the half mile to the boat. ive got picks which i'll post later. ok so by the time i get to the boat i've lost two tires on my suitcase...we finally get to board and get situated and i was just feeling miserable.

due to several reasons...the first was the grueling travel schedule...the fact i got little sleep the night before and have been eating lots of carbs on account of pizza and pasta. yea...ive tried to eat more protein but italy is not conducive to protein! (for those of you who dont know i have hypoglycemic tendencies). so i.m trying to keep everything in balance and i just felt like my body was giving out on me. so while everyone explored the boat, i took a nap. a very much needed nap. i slept about an hour or so and finally got up and freshed up and joined everyone on the deck. from them on it was peaceful sailing.

i sat on the side of the boat staring out at the water with the cool breeze blowing my hair around and was just in awe. it was beautiful. i got to see the sun set on the horizon of the water and just realized despite the crazy travel to get there...the moment was totally worth it. i.ve been afforded alot of introspective moments on this trip...moments that i hope stretch me as a person and will leave me in a better place than when i started. its been eye opening for certain.

so i headed to bed at a descent hour and got up and was in the shower when i got a knock on the door that we were disembarking on 20 minutes. apparently my professor thought it was 10 am Greek time but in fact was 9 am Greek time. so we thought we had another 1.5 left to get everything together. talk about pandamonium and panic not just in my room but across the rooms we occupied as a group!

some people got showers, others did not. i was one of the lucky ones.

so we walk from the ferry ramp about 200 ft to the train station to wait 2 hrs for our train since we arrived so early. the train gets there and has 4 cars so we had to load everyone and luggage back onto this train. we managed to make it but find out we had to change trains in Kiato. i had looked at the eurail book and new our connection to Athens was scheduled to leave at 12:36.

we arrived at Kiato at 12:30 and had to make it down three flights of stairs and then back up two flights to make it to our train ramp...which i was the first one to arrive at the train and the doors were closing at the five minute mark..meaning we had five minutes to get 30 people and luggage on the train. i've never seen such craziness in all my life. we worked well together as a team...for the most part pulling luggage over and stacking it and tossing it and trying to get everyone on. and with 5 seconds to spare we made it. so we get to Athens and find that we have to walk a block to our hotel...i was so happy to arrive.

we figured out rooming details and headed up stairs to freshen up before meeting with our professors to get an update for the remainder of the week. then a group of us headed into Athens to begin our ritual discovery venture. we found an awesome place to eat a late lunch/early dinner...so i got a gyro with some potatoes and a drink for 5.8 euros. by far one of the cheapest meals i,ve had here....and it was MEAT! lol....anyhow...i think i'm going to like Greece by far! a friend of mine had a salad and i was reminded that yes other people in the world love vegetables...and i got to eat some watermelon so i was at least for a moment in a comfortable place!

we're here for a very very short time. only a few days. tomorrow is the official touring day with tues left for a visit to the beach and wed left to do whatever you wanted to do but didnt get to do the days before.

then come thurs...we depart from the hotel by charter to the airport at 5am. our flight leaves athens to heathrow at 8:15 am. we arrive at 10:10 local time (5 hrs ahead of you) and then depart at heathrow 2:30 pm and arrive at DFW 6:50 pm. depart dfw at 8:35 and be home close to 10 pm. not looking forward to that leg of the trip but getting home will be bittersweet.

hard to believe that a month could go by so quickly! will try to post as many pics as i can before getting home though i need to figure out a new place to post them at. i realize i,ve completely left out what i saw while in Rome but hope to post a blog about the things i saw while travelling home!