Adventures in Greece

Check staying at one of the world's top party hostels off the bucket list! We stayed at the Pink Palace in Corfu, Greece for a couple of days and it literally felt like adult summer camp. We did activities each day and ate in a big dining hall for breakfast and lunch. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking about how I felt like I was literally at adult sleep away camp!! All the walls were pink and it was making me very, very happy :)

To get there was a struggle.. It included a 4 hour bus ride, a 17 hour ferry ride, and followed up with another ferry ride (only 1.5 hours though!). The ferry was kind of cool though! It was like a mini cruise ship and we had our own little cabin/ rooms that we stayed in. They were SO tiny. The top bunks folded out of the wall and there was literally only enough room to walk to the bed. It was quite the experience.

Once we got to the Pink Palace we found our little room (which was about as clean as you would expect from a party hostel... *shivers of disgust*). Trent, Liv, Kailey and I roomed together and our view was so beautiful!! It looked right out to the water and it was amazing.

Friday night, we hung out on the beach and then we had a pink toga party that night! My first toga party ever was in Greece and it was a pink toga party... woohoo! So we all got our pink togas (which are incredibly hard to actually create) and went to the club on the Pink Palace property and enjoyed ourselves a Greek dance party. Later in the night, the owner of the hostel came out and started smashing plates on peoples' heads. It was quite an experience (that actually kind of hurt!), but was so, so fun!!

Saturday, we went on an ATV safari. Around 50 of us took 4-wheelers out for a 6 hour adventure around the island of Corfu. We went off roading, went to a beach and then went to this cool look out point that made you feel like you were on top of the world it was so high up and beautiful! Off roading was the most intense adrenaline rush of my life (maybe because it was a terrified adrenaline rush, but ya know). Looking back, off roading was really fun because I survived it (ha), but in the moment it was more stressful and scary than anything. Off roading on a bumpy rocky mountain isn't exactly the most relaxing thing you can do... But, once we got to whipping through the streets, it was so fun!!!

 

Sunday, we enjoyed some beach and pool time and then made our forever long adventure back home. It was such a great trip! Lots of delicious food (ugh, I miss gyros) and lots of fun adventures. Definitely a trip that I will never, ever forget (as if I'll forget any of the trips I've been on here ha).

French Riviera

An unforgettable weekend with Trent! We went to Nice, France and then went to Monte Carlo, Monacco for an evening to check out the casino. Nice is so beautiful. It was almost like I wasn't in France (here I was dying for some French onion soup only to learn it's not really a thing there, ugh). It was so, so different from Paris! So tropical and beachy. 

We stayed in a cute, little apartment. (Emphasis on little... It was niiiiice and cozy.) It was in the perfect location, though, so I really can't complain. We were just about a 10 minute walk from the beach and pretty much everything else, so it worked out quite well. 

The first night we were there, we explored the city a little bit. We came across the cutest park that extended for what seemed like miles (that's definitely an exaggeration). It had a little water area where water was shooting out of the ground and then you go up more and theres a grassy area with playgrounds and room to just hang out. Then we grabbed some dinner and went to a cool little pub after called Wayne's. We didn't hit the French going out scene because this place was very American, but it was such a cool place!! The decorations were all vintagey and classic. There was a phone booth above the bar, a traffic light hanging in the middle of the room (which actually lit up based on the bar being "open", "last call", and "closed"), and a plane that "crashed" into the corner of the ceiling. There was a live band playing while we were there, so you know I was all about that. They were actually really, really good, so it made it very enjoyable! 

Saturday, we grabbed lunch, then went to the beach. The beaches are all stones, no sand! Which at first I was kind of bummed about, but then when we were leaving the beach, I realized, "Wow, it's kind of nice not having sand all over everything". Definitely not a beach I would love to be at every single day because it just wasn't the same as a normal beach, but it was amazing nonetheless. Looking out at the water was breathtaking. The water literally just faded into the sky. It was something that I'd never seen before.  After the beach, we went to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner then went home and made dinner. 

Then we were off to Monte Carlo! Monte Carlo Casino is incredibly beautiful. There were a bunch of different rooms/ casinos that you could go in. We went to the free games room first to get warmed up... No luck (no surprise there because it was all slots). Then we headed into the main casino... So. Beautiful. I wish you could take pictures in the actual casino, but I got a picture of the room outside of the casino room and it was so pretty. All in all, we made no money because neither of us ventured beyond the slot machines (ha). Also, because neither of us really knew how to play table games well enough (I, actually, do not have a single clue how to play any table games). 

On Sunday, we were leaving in the middle of the afternoon, so we didn't do a ton, but we climbed up Castle Hill (or something like that, I can't remember what it's called). It was a billion steps (and I developed good ole strep throat over the weekend [shout out Trent for taking care of me :) you're the best] so climbing them was a bit exhausting), but the view at the top was unbelievable. You could see all the way down the coast line of the beach and all the way up into hills and over the whole city. It was so beautiful. Then we got lunch at a yummy beach side restaurant and then went and hung out in the park for our last 10 minutes before we had to leave. 

I wish I was able to spend more time in the French Riviera because there's so many beautiful cities that people have recommended to see in that area. It was a perfect weekend (I feel like I say that every single post I write? Can you tell I'm loving life over here?!)!

Spring Break in Barcelona & Ibiza

9 days in Spain is a trip I never thought I'd get to take. We had Spring Break last week and I spent the week in Barcelona and Ibiza... It was incredible!

We got into Barcelona Friday night and it was absolutely down pouring. After we got to the apartment we were staying in, we had to run around to find somewhere to eat. Of course, none of us prepared for the rain (oops) and so we were running around in the pouring rain trying to find a restaurant. We ended up at a place called Petit Pot minutes before their kitchen closed. Thankfully, they were so so nice and squeezed us in before closing up. The meal was well worth the running in the rain and we got pink lemonades with some Spanish liquor syrup stuff in it (I don't really know what it was, but the waiter swore by it so we all just rolled with it), it was amazing. We went to a fun Irish bar right next to the restaurant called George Payne. Lots of people recommended it to us and we certainly saw why. It was loads of fun and though it wasn't very Spanish-y, it showed us a great time (we went back the next two nights!). 

The next morning, we went to grab brunch at a place called Brunch & Cake. A good word to sum this place up is 'heavenly'. Getting away from the Italian culture of eating just pastries for breakfast was a very refreshing break! As much as I love myself a chocolate croissant, sometimes you just want some eggs and pancakes for breakfast. I got the ricotta pancake which was a pancake covered in loads of fruit and sprinkled with ricotta and it had some sort of syrup on it (not really sure what it was, but it wasn't maple) and their homemade blueberry coconut yogurt (which also came with loads of fruit... yum!). It was incredible. Exactly the break from Italian food that I needed. The rest of the day was followed by lots of exploring (aka walking aimlessly) around the city. We saw La Sagrada Familia and then went to Parc de Ciutadella and found some other cool stuff along the way, then we rounded out the night getting paella. So delicious!! Ha, pretty much the first half of my trip was all about food and I am not the slightest bit upset by that.

Sunday, we went to Barceloneta Beach! On our way there, we stopped and grabbed lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant (authentic, I know hehe) called Rosa Negra, then we took our time walking to the beach. I got a pretty tapesty from 10 euro and then we all just laid out and enjoyed the sun for a couple of hours. There were vendors EVERYWHERE on the beach; one came up to us every couple of minutes selling tapestries or drinks or massages (so weird if you ask me), so that was fairly annoying, but overall great time. Then we went to the aquarium, which is always fun! That night we went for tapas at Bar Lobo... So good! We ordered a bunch of stuff and then ordered it all again because it was so yummy. 

The next day we were up and at 'em because we had to check out of our apartment and move onto the yacht we were staying in. The boat was in Port Olimpico, so it was extremely close to lots of good restaurants and bars/ clubs and also the beach. It was quite an experience staying on a yacht for two nights! Very tight quarters, but nice and cozy nonetheless. The bed cabins had enough room to stand in front of your bed and that was about it for space beside the actual bed itself. It was really awesome though and getting to say I lived on a yacht for three days is pretty awesome:) Then it was fish and chips for dinner at a place called Marina Bay, which was about a 5 minute walk from the boat. That night we went out and adventured to a well known bar called Opium... It was so fun! It had great music, so we danced the night away :) (All fun and games until we get home at 4am and have to be up early the next day... ugh) 

Tuesday, we paid for a skipper to take us out on the yacht. It was sooo beautiful! It was very weird getting to take your "house" out sailing. It was incredibly relaxing and the weather was perfect! It was nice and sunny, but the breeze from sailing was strong so it was a little chilly. Safe to say, sunburn was the outcome of the strong sun and cold breeze, but what are ya gonna do?! (More sunscreen next time!!) 

We adventured to Ibiza on Wednesday! Ibiza is so, so beautiful. We went during off season, so a lot of places were closed still for the winter, but we made due. The nice part about that was that it wasn't crowded anywhere we went! We practically had the beach to ourselves and we were never waiting to sit for dinner. We stayed in San Antonio, in an apartment above Cafe del Mar on the beautiful Sunset Strip (where there's the best view of the sunset on the whole island). The view from our apartment had a perfect view of the water right below the sunset every night, so it definitely lived up to the name. One guy was telling us that during peak season, Sunset Strip gets so packed with people during the sunset that you can't even see the ground! Wednesday night we found a place called Bondi and had dinner there (turned out to be probably our favorite restaurant... I think we were there every single day whether it was for pinxchtas or dinner or smoothies). 

Thursday, we went to the beach in San Antonio. It was another day of strong sun, but just breezy enough that you never got too hot (not too much sunburn this time, though!!). The boys were brave enough to dive into the water, but I was satisfied with just going up to my knee (and I don't know if I even made it in that far), the water was FREEZING. After a relaxing day at the beach (and getting drained of energy from the sun), we headed back to the apartment to get ready for the rest of the night. Trent and I ended up going to grab a drink at Mint Lounge (really cool lounge on Sunset Strip!). Really good drinks, but real expensive (living on that college study abroad budget is a struggle), so we didn't stay too long. Then Thursday night, we got to experience pintxas! Basically, it's a bunch of different restaurants all across San Antonio that have a deal where it's 2.50 euro for a drink and a small appetizer type thing. It was so fun! You go to each place and order one of their few options and then pay and head onto the next one. All the food was AMAZING. There really was not a place that we went to that I thought the food was subpar, I wish I could do it all over again, just to experience the food. 

The next day we took the bus to Ibiza Town and explored around there for the day. Again, not a ton was open, but we found ourselves a cute little tapas restaurant and grabbed a quick lunch. We found a really cool area that was sitting above the city and overlooked the water and the rest of Ibiza Town. It was very old and charming in that part of the city; very cute! 

Saturday, we took the ferry out of Ibiza Town to Formentera. Formentera is an island off of Ibizia that actually can only be accessed from Ibiza, so it was really cool to get to do that. We rented bikes for the day and rode around on the island. We rode to Playa de Illetes (which was the most beautiful beach according to Trip Advisor... Shout out Trent for your dedication to looking everything up on Trip Advisor!) and it absolutely was the most beautiful beach. The water was a bunch of different shades of blue and you could see the other parts of the island in the distance. The ride to the beach was absolutely breathtaking, pictures don't even do it justice. After we got back to Ibiza Town, we were searching for a place for dinner, but our search failed. We ended up at a restaurant called La Bodega and had drinks and a few tapas (we decided tapas restaurants are unavoidable and sometimes you ust want a hearty meal, so that was a little frustrating), but our server was so so nice! He gave us some shots and extra bread for the table, so we were happy customers :) We got back to San Antonio and headed straight to Bondi (naturally) for an actual diner after that. 

Sunday was the unfortunate departure from Ibiza. It really, truly was so beautiful in both cities. They're both definitely at the top of my list of favorite places that I've been this semester. Getting away from school and all the seriousness of life was so refreshing, I'm really struggling to get my head back in the game for school (*insert eye roll emoji here*). I think I could've stayed in Spain forever, to be honest! Definitely a perfect trip that will never ever be forgotten. Great places with great people and loads of delicious food, so there is not one single complaint here :) 

Budapest, Vienna & Salzburg Weekend

3 cities, 2 countries, 72 hours.. It was crazy! Hungary and Austria were two countries I never even thought twice about, especially when it came to travel plans, but when my friend Sara brought up the Budapest, Vienna & Salzburg (and the Sound of Music tour!!) trip, it actually got me really excited. To be honest, I think it was the Sound of Music tour that really sold me on it (and it was totally worth it). Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg were three of the most beautiful cities, though.

Budapest, Hungary. Quite the place. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain all day... Pretty much most of the time we were there. That didn't stop us from touring around though! We took a walking tour of the city with the tour group we were with and it was the perfect way to see the best parts of the city. Then we ended up at the thermal baths, which were so so awesome! It was soo relaxing and so different from anything I've ever been able to do so it was really cool. It was like a giant hot tub, so really there's no complaints there! Later that night, we went to a really cool bar called Szimpla. It was really one of the coolest bars I have ever been to in my life. It was so huge with so many different rooms and they all were decorated soo differently! I wish I took a million pictures, but it was so hard to because it was so dark (look it up if you're interested because it's definitely unlike any bar you've ever been to). Overall, really, really awesome city!! 

Vienna was beautiful! I've really never thought of going there, but I'm so glad I got to experience it! It was another 24 hours in a city which included another walking tour. There's a lot of really cool facts about Vienna and all the architecture is incredible, so the walking tour was perfect to start off our time there. After the tour, we adventured around on our own for a little bit... We made sure we got your classic Austrian food (so delicious) and really just looked around a little bit more. That night we went on a pub crawl through the city which was really awesome. It was really cool getting to see so many different clubs and bars in the city. Definitely a cool experience! 

The next day was my FAVORITE! Salzburg, Austria... So charming and quaint and adorable. And to make it even better... Sound of Music tour!!! I think we spent a total of around 6 or 7 hours in Salzburg; just enough time to wander around a little and to go on the Sound of Music tour. The tour was so fun!! It was so cool seeing all the different scenes and getting some behind the scenes secrets. We saw the house, the water/ backyard, the pavillion, the gardens, the nunnery, I don't even know what else! I loved every single second of it!!! I wish I could relive it over and over. Then we had just enough time to walk around a little bit through the little shopping street that they have. It's so adorable there, I love it! One of my favorite cities so far, for sure. 

Birthday Wine Tour Through Tuscany

Lots of people do wine tours for their 21st birthday... I was lucky enough to be able to do a wine tour through Tuscany. This life I'm living right now still absolutely blows my mind, I really cannot believe I get to do everything I am able to do this semester! We had three stops on the tour: two wineries, Poggio Alloro and Tenuta Torciano, and a medieval city called San Gimignano.

The first winery we learned about the process of how they make wine. It was really interesting! We also got to pet some cows (which was very random, but you know, still exciting). Then we went to San Gimignano which is simply beautiful. We went up to the highest point in the city and it was crazy beautiful. It started absolutely down pouring as soon as we got up there, though, so we only saw it for a few quick moments. Then we went to Tenuta Torciano where we did a big long wine tasting and had lunch. We learned the proper way to "taste" wine and had the most delicious lasagna I've ever eaten in my whole life (sorry Ma). They topped it off with truffle oil and it was soo good, I bought some to bring home. It's been a serious struggle to not open it up and have it on everything I make already, but I just keep telling myself it'll be a good piece of Italy once I'm back in the States :) 

We took lots of pictures from the day, but it was wild and windy so they're all a little funky. Captures the memories perfectly though! A 21st birthday well spent!! 

Poggio Alloro (with San Gimignano in the background!)

San Gimignano 

Tenuta Torciano (and the incredbile lasagna!!!)