A bid thee adieu, Europe, its been a slice

Alright, so yesterday was officially the official last day in Europe. We spent the morning at the beach and the short while i was out there i burned my shoulders pretty good. Personally i blame the salt water, it cant possibly be because i forgot sunscreen... never... Anyhow, we walked downtown to find some salty and sweet food and got the perfect antidote to our cravings. French fries and chocolate milkshakes. Just like in that one episode of Kim Possible, i dipped my fries in the shake and it was so incredibly delicious! I was super tired, but that was probably because i had a touch of heat stroke. Apparently i am extremely irresponsible when it comes to sunshine and heat! But i had an hour nap and then didnt go to bed until 1 am. I would have gone to bed sooner, but the realization that i probably wont see the friends i made from Winnipeg hit me hard. It was very upsetting sitting around all these people that 2 weeks ago were strangers and are now close friends i shared huge life experiences with. We got to the airport at 4 and by 430 am we were through security with 2 hours to burn. I, of course,started listening to music and thinking about everything from this trip. I have done, seen and learned so much! I feel as though i have become a more confident person, but thats what travelling does, isnt it? Our tour director, Colin, was absolutely fantastic! He went out of his way to make sure the trip went well for us, no matter how much it effected him. Because of the strike at the airport, he had to stay with us for an extra day, this meant he never got his day off before his next tour and didnt get to see his significant other. He was so great, even though he didnt looove his job, it was just a job, he worked above and beyond what is expected from him. He will be missed, but i have him on instagram, so that all good. The people ive met on this trip have been extraordinary, ive met people that had personalities i have never encountered before and i guess thats what happens when you step outside the walls of a village of 4,500. I will miss everyone and everything dearly and most certainly will return someday. Good bye Europe, its been a slice.

Athens: the last day... or is it?

Yesterday was our last day in Athens and it began with a tour of the panthagon and a tour of the ruins. It was extremely hot and i made the mistake of forgetting my water bottle and almost dying several times on our walk. Afterwards we were giving 5 hours of freetime in Plaka and i have never felt so creeped out by the people. There was dozens of african men giving away bracelets and making you wishes of good health, which was sweet and all, but they were flirtatious little creeps. Everyone is a flirtatious slime! I have never experienced people trying to sell things by repeating "youre so beautiful" and the Greeks are way to open about their sexuality. I dont give a care about what you think about, just leave me alone. It was gross, but i still like Greece, its a pretty cool place. After 2 hours of waking up and down streets and getting cornered by street vendors we gave up and went to a cafe and ate food so we could use their washroom. We ate sooooo much there that Thomas, Tyra, Kent, Mari and I didnt even eat dinner. We then found out that our 6 am flight was cancelles due to a 24 hour strike in the Athens airport. Today we are getting transfered to a different hotel and flying out tomorrow at some time. Hopefully. So i guess ill see everyone at some point!

Athens: day 1

Today we got to Athens at about lunchtime, checked into our hotel and hit the beach! This time we were ready for the heat and went out into the refreshing water. Except for me. The only problem with this refreshing water was the baby fish swimming everywhere and that creeped me out a ton, way more than it should have. After a few hours and a milkshake run, we were tired of the heat and returned to the hotel. We hid away in the rooms and watched The Shining. It was actually pretty alright, but we never had time to get through it before dinner. After dinner we hungout on the rooftop and visited for what seems like the last time. Tomorrow is our last day on this adventure and it is very sad to be parting with our new friends so soon.

Delphi and Athens

The 18 hour ferry ride to Greece turned out to not be so terrible. I spent most of my time on the sun deck watching the water. I got to see jellyfish and a pod of dolphins! DOLPHINS. We only them coming up for air, but it was still super cool! We got off at around 7 oclock and drove 3 hours to Delphi. We visited the ancient ruins and i thought i was going to die. It is ridiculously warm here and i was in pants and a scarf. If i ever come back here, itll be in february or january. The Greeks are so friendly and smiley and i love them! We got free time to wander around Delphi until the late hours of the evening and got to sleep in before driving another 3 hours this morning to Athens. Its pretty grubby here. Waaaaay to much garbage. Everywhere. But the beach is really nice, so it all evens out in the end!

Sorrento to Greece

Yesterday we took the bus from Rome into Pompeii which was really cool! It is a gigantic acheological dig site and its really amazing how well it was recovered after thousands of years under ash. We visited the old bath house, the forum and a brothel. The structures were very advanced for the time period of the buildings, the steam rooms and fountains were brilliant! After this we took the train to Sorrento, which is a sea side town on a mountain. It looks as though it came right out of Pinterest, its so cute. From there we took the small ferry over to Capri Island, which i have decided is my dream home. The houses are so beautifully coloured, the water is brilliant blue and the forest is so lush and green. We did a boat tour around the island because it was to windy for the boat to make it into the Blue Grotto. I got lemon gelato and sat by the monestary's garden over looking the town and sea. We got back to Sorrento to have dinner at our hotel and a bunch of us played card games until late in our hotel room. This morning we drove 5 hours to get to the ferry. Here is where we had to say good bye to Fabio:'( Fabio was absolutely amazing. He was our bus driver during our stay in Italy and had only been on the job for 2 months. He always put our safety first and dressed very smartly. We gave him a christmas ornament with his name on it in Sorrento and he cried and thanked us all so much. He was upset to be leaving us today and told us that we were his number 1 favorite group he has ever driven. Fabio will be deeply missed by all of us. We are now stuck on an 18 hour ferry ride to Greece and thank the Lord, i have WiFi to get me through it!

Day 2 of Paris and everything in between

I have not been updating in a while because of a mixture of our jam packed schedule, lack of WiFi and sickness. About 4 days ago i started getting a cold and i just cant quite shake it. Anyways, day 2 of Paris was pretty amazing. We went on a guided tour of downtown Paris and visited the Louvre all before dinner. The Louvre has been my favorite museum thus far. It was absolutely fantastic and so well layed out. It made me happy to get to see Mona Lisa and other Renaissance arts. After dinner we took a boat ride down the river Seine and i made new friends. Yes, I, Rayea Johnson, made new friends. They are Thomas and Aiden from Winnipeg whom are also on the tour with us. They are really funny and we spent the whole ride talking about our hometowns and luaghing in the rain. Afterwards we made our way up the Eiffel Tower, but only to the second level, the top was closed due to weather. It was so amazing all lit up and would twinkle on the hour like a diamond for 10 minutes. The view of Paris was breathtakingly incroyable. The next day some of us split from the main tour group and went to the catacombs instead of Versailles. The catacombs were 213 steps to 6 million skeletons underground and quite possibly the spookiest place on earth. I was scared to take pictures with my camera because of the face detector. In the afternoon we went to the train station and waited for our train to Milan. The train had the tiniest rooms that could fit six people and some real weird people. There was one guy that kept staring at everyone and a bunch of drunk people. I couldnt sleep because of the horrible noises and fear of attackers. I found out the next morning that our tour director, Colin, had been robbed by some random on the train. That was bad start to Italy, but it all turned around when our driver arrived. Fabio is amazing and i think he is everyones idol. He wears suits everyday and is our driver our entire time in Italy. Thomas has the biggest man crush on him, but who wouldnt? Hes super chill and dresses very well. We didnt see much of Milan because it was still dark at 5 am but the 5 hour drive through italian countryside to Firenze (Florence) was fantastic. I love the houses and the perfect hills everywhere. Florence was pretty amazing and i went a little wold with the leather... we had a demonstration of how to spot fake and real leather at a leather factory and i then bought the coolest wallet from them. I also bought a red leather jacket from a street vendor and i adore it. The next morning was a slow and chill day on our way to Roma. The coffee here is so good! I dont think ill ever be able to drink coffee in Canada ever again. Italians have got it down! And the gelato is to die for! Roma has been my favorite of the cities so far i believe, its has the most street performers. Street performers are the best part of travelling, they add more life and atmosphere to the world around them. Yesterday was a walk about, getting to know Roma and today we had a guided tour of the Vatican and Colloseum and Forum.  I didnt really enjoy the Vatican all the much. I found it very bland, but that could have been because i was so tired. The afternoon was mostly freetime to explore the city and the only souvenir i got was postcards. But a lot of coffee and gelato was consumed. Tyra and I found a Gelato/Coffee shop with some of the friends we made from Manitoba. The food is so good here and i never want to leave, but tomorrow we are off to Pompeii and the Capri Islands, which will be exciting! Hopefully i dont forget my camera like i did today!

Day 1 of Paris!

The Eurostar was absolutely fantastic and super time efficient! We arrived at the Paris train station by lunchtime and got to go buy food. I was approached by several people and i did a very good job of ignoring them until these women who were 20 something  approached us asking us to sign a petitiom to have more more funding for deaf and austistic children. One of the girls stopped to give her a donation and the 20 somethings ran away when they saw the police. The police approached her and made sure she was okay and hadnt been robbed. She was fine of course. In one of the cafes there was a woman trying to speak to me and beg for my wallet and i instantly replied with, "sorry, i dont speak french." I felt sort of bad because she seemed rather distressed. After this we made pur way to our hotel, its actually small apartments and have the comfiest beds ever! We went to see the Notre Dame and had only 15 minutes to go through before we had to be for dinner. We did it in 7, it was rather impressive! Lots of parts of it were closed, and id love to go back and enjoy it more. Dinner was really good chicken and rice and beans, but the waiter was very unimpressed that we disnt eat every last bite. The Metro is the most intense experience of my life. It is terrifying and exhilirating ant the same time! The doors open and close in 30 seconds and thats all the time available to get 44 tourists on or off. Mari and I's room's window faces out to the other windows of the hotel so she and i have been sticking our heads out and talking to the other tourerers! Thankfully this hotel has free WiFi, so thats a perk! Tomorrow we visit the Louvre, the Seine and the Eiffel Tour, and yes mom, i am using my french to talk to people.
Happy Easter!