The Best Place I Have Been So Far!

I know that it seems like every time that I travel somewhere I come back, write a blog post about it, and call it my "favorite" place so far. Actually when we got back from our trip this weekend I was so excited that I Skyped my parents and was informed of this exact thing by my mother who was hard pressed to believe that Crete was my favorite because I have a hard time not calling everywhere I go my favorite... 

HOWEVER!!!

This past weekend I traveled to Chania, Greece on the island of Crete for 4 days with my roommate Marcus, the girls; Ellie, Erica, Cierra, and Sara, as well as Jerelle and Emily! The eight of us had to spend what was easily my worst night of sleep since I have been in Europe in the Milano train station, but after that slight hick-up we had an absolutely awesome weekend.

This photo was taken before I left for Crete;

Notice not only my pale skin but my excellent household skills; chopping tomatoes, wearing an apron and all!

This is a photo of me taken on the third day in Crete (remember this is 5 days later);

Notice my amazing tan, but almost my exquisite fashion sense!

Not that we have established the fact that I got super dark (yes that photo looks like I am red, but really its just straight DARK now!), but I figure I would talk about some of the really cool things that we did while there.

When we arrived the first day and a half we spent just relaxing on the beach and loving life! The water there was absolutely amazing and SUPER clear. Our hotel was less than a five minute walk from three different beaches! One was amazing for sunrises, but was a tad bit windy, another was what I liked to call "squash ball heaven" where almost every Greek on the beach was in a speedo and paddling balls back and forth with each other! And the third beach was our favorite!!! It was a nice and relaxing beach with some amazing rocks surrounding the cove. It is really hard to describe how beautiful Greece actually was so I apologize but I am going to be using a good bit of photos.

The beach we spent most of our time on.

One of the cool things about the beach was the cliffs that we went hiking on that were off the right side of this beach. It was a connection of 3 or 4 caves as well as straight drop offs right into the water below. One day Jerelle, Marcus, and I took a few hours to go explore the caves and check out what was over there, and we were not disappointed at all. It turned out that we came across some cool caves as well as some small lagoons that housed some pretty warm water!

Headed to the second lagoon from passage between the two.

Exploring the edge of the rocks that separate the ocean and the lagoons.

 We spent a few hours climbing around and checking out the rock ledges that surrounded the beach there, and actually went all the way to the point where the ledge turns and heads back towards shore.

I also got a chance to do a little bit of free climbing. The rocks there had lots of grab holes and decent foot support spots to be able to free climb myself all over the ledges. Although the water wasn't deep, where I was climbing was not high enough to have done any real damage if I had fallen!

It is hard to tell in this photo, but right there I was hanging over that second part of that rock and then directly over the water. The bit of rock that is at the bottom of the photo was actually a separate rock where Marcus shot this photo from.

I was very happy that I had brought my Vibram Five Fingers because if I hadn't I wouldn't have been able to climb on such course rock!

One day we rented bikes and took a really cool biking trip inland and to a really pretty lake positioned just under the mountains. In fact besides the overall beauty of Crete the one thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the island had such big mountains on it! To put it in perspective it was 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit everyday and there was still snow on the mountains. Actually, there was a gorge that I wanted to go hiking in but because the ice was just starting to really melt off the gorge was full of water and closed off! So rather we took the chance to rent bike and it was my favorite thing we did during the trip.

Renting the bikes and heading out for a day on the trails.

The lake ended up being AWESOME! We had a really good lunch there and hung out and just looked over the lake and back at the mountains. The food there was really good and it was a great place to just hang out for about an hour and enjoy the time that we were spending in Greece.

The city itself was a really beautiful place and I was really glad that we were able to spend some time there walking around, the girls went shopping, we explored a castle and the lighthouse, and we had lunch and dinner there two nights. The port itself reminded me a lot of Portofino, but much prettier and a lot warmer! The city itself was much prettier at night

It was an absolute blast and I really enjoyed myself. It was really hard to take photos that showed how amazing the views truly were.Truthfully the one thing that I am starting to recognize more than anything else is that regardless of how many photos I take I can never seem to capture how amazing it truly is, and really the amazing part about studying abroad is the experience of the things you do with the people you do them with because you can't actually capture those inside of photos.

O and I won't even say anything about the sunsets.... I'll just give you a few photos!

Headed to Prague, Czech Republic tomorrow for what will be a 5 day 21st birthday celebration for my roommate Marcus whose birthday is today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAN and I am really fortunate that I got the chance to have you as a roommate and experience some of the things that we have done together!

The People I Met This Semester: Part II

This is the second part of my series on the people that I met this semester. I you haven't seen the first one CLICK HERE, and then come back ;-).

The people that are in this post are people that I may have hung out with a lot at the beginning, a lot at the end, or in general, I just felt like I wish we would have hung out more. I didn't get to know these people as well as I would have liked, but 4 months doesn't give you all of the time in the world.

Carson and Cristina

 This is Carson and Cristina. Matt, Gabe, and I were fortunate to be able to hang out with these two girls because there are two of the nicest people I have ever met! I always enjoyed walking into a room and Cristina just in some ways shouting out my name to say hello. I only wish that we had spent even more time together this semester.

Ryan, Emily, Marina, Aaron, and Steve

This is Ryan, Emily, Marina, Aaron, and Steve. These five were always someone you could count on seeing when you went out. That didn't mean that they were blacked out drunk (some of them don't drink), but rather they loved having a good time, going dancing, and just socializing. Emily: thank you for making me brownies that one time!!!! O and Steve: Don't stop rocking the red pants!

Juliet and Laura

This is Juliet giving Laura her birthday kiss from me! These two girls although very shy and quite, were really quite funny and very enjoyable to hang out with. They definitely make the best Irish potato candy! PS - Laura I know your dad's mustache is EPIC, but by May you will learn to love the beard!

The mid-town girls

 This is Sage, Victoria, Shelbi, Rose, and Chelsey. Matt, Gabe, and I were very lucky to have met these girls at the beginning, however I am a bit sad that our schedules were off and we didn't get to hang out much once school started. Shelbi; I enjoyed the conversation we had on the balcony that one night and Rose; I still think we created the best Italian dialog ever!!

The California Club

This is Max, Lauren, Cody, Jill, Bret, Kara, Mike, Katie, Kira, and Bryce. Although we didn't always hang out that much, I was able to work with a lot of them in school. It was awesome to have some good discussions with these guys about everything from sports to politics and even what life is like in Cali. I know that one of Matt's favorite experiences while here was when he and these girls and some other people went skiing in Switzerland.

Everett, Justin, and Andy

This is Everett, Justin, and Andy. I had cooking class with Everett and Justin, and appreciated the private lessons that Everett would give us during class (he is a great chef!), and Andy may have the best spontaneous humor out of anyone I have ever met. Also, I had an absolute blast hiking the Cinque Terre with Everett; the two of us tore it up.

Timmy, Mike, Breanna, and Bissy

This is Timmy, Cody, Mike, Breanna, Chelsea, and Bissy. Although I didn't get to hang out with them that much they were all really cool people. Timmy and Mike were in a few of my classes and are super cool guys that I enjoyed getting to know. Breanna and Bissy where always nice and genuine to me whenever we saw each other. PS - You killed it last night Bre!

That is enough for this round. As I am writing these I am realizing that there are a lot of people that I have met this semester, and I can't exclude any of them to make this task easier.

To this group of people I want to say thank you for providing me with some really fun memories of mine. I only wish that we would have been able to hang out more because I enjoyed the time that I spent with all of you!