Easter at the Vatican

Catherine and I ended up just hanging out after our flight got in that Saturday morning. It was pretty early in the day, around 11:45 am, by the time we got in. As soon as we walked in the door, I got an email from Alex saying that I could pick up my tickets for the Vatican mass for Easter by 12:30 pm today at the North American College. I had no idea where that was, and hurried up and sprinted out the door to try and get our tickets in time. After a hurried metro ride and a transfer, I was outside the Trevi Fountain, running in different directions and trying to dodge the eight trillion tourists that had invaded the city while we'd been away. Finally, I went into the liquor store at the corner of the Trevi Fountain and asked the guy working where it was. After taking a few seconds to make fun of my frazzled-ness, he pointed me in the right direction.

I showed up with 10 minutes to spare. Pretty impressive. I got in the long line forming outside of the office once through the doors, and then a nun came through asking if anyone in the line had reserved their tickets. So I got to skip the line and got my tickets, and on the way out, the nice nuns were giving us all directions on what time to get there (be there by 7 am!) and where to enter, dress code, etc. It would be outside ran or shine, so we had to dress accordingly. Honestly, if it was raining, I really wasn't too keen on going...


I went back to the apartment and hung out with Cath. We went to the grocery store to pick up dinner and snacks for the next week. Of course, Catherine is still the same as when she was six years old, so instead of coming away with the ingredients for the dinner menu we'd planned for the next week, we had a stash of snacks that she thought was ridiculous that I didn't already have. She made me go through the aisles, translating each of the cookie brands and what they were. Finally, we made it out of there. I took her to Stuzziko for a rice ball (suppli) and some good pizza and we headed home. Some of the girls ended up going out that night, but there was no way we were gonna make it to mass if we did that. So instead we hung out and watched a movie and I made us some chicken parm.

Up close!

Bright and early

The next morning we were up before the girls even made it home from the clubs. Catherine made us egg sandwiches and the two of us and Danielle headed out. The metro wasn't packed until we got on the orange line to the Ottaviano stop, and we rushed ahead of everyone. There were already a ton of people in line, and it was barely 7 am! We got a pretty good place though.  While we were waiting, I ran around St. Peter's Square on a hunt for McDonald's coffee and rosaries to get blessed by the pope. While I didn't find the coffee, I managed to bargain for three pretty pearl rosaries, one for me and Catherine, and one for Gramma. When security finally started letting people through over an hour later, we actually got seats. The morning turned out to be really beautiful, and apparently there were over 200,000 people in attendance. We were lucky we had gotten seats so close! The mass was actually pretty long, and at the end, Pope Francis got into his little "Pope Mobile" and rode around the crowd. We were literally so close to him.

My professor and his family were also in attendance at the mass, and his disabled son actually got picked up and kissed by the pope. While he was being picked up, everyone around Mrs. Gondreau and their son were crying, and one woman shouted, "Your son is here to teach the world how to love." The image went viral over the next week, and Professor Gondreau and his wife and family were interviewed by numerous news outlets, including CNN, FOX, and Providence local news. Pretty cool.

FOX: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/03/watch-megyn-kellys-emotional-interview-with-dr-paul-gondreau-dad-of-disabled-boy-embraced-by-pope-francis/

CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57578045/an-american-boys-unforgettable-moment-with-the-pope/

Pope Mobile!

Celebrating Easter with 200,000 other people

After mass, the three of us decided to walk around a little for some gelato. One of my favorite places, Old Bridge, was closed, but we went to Bar Della Palma near the Pantheon, which has 150 flavors. Although a Catholic city, everything in the tourist areas was open and crowded. We ran into some of our friends, and they showed us the image of Gondreau's son being picked up. We hadn't even noticed what was going on on the screens! Finishing up our gelato, we took some pictures by the Pantheon and decided to walk down to the Colosseo metro stop. We realized that the entire street, a main road that's usually pretty full of traffic, was completely shut down leading up to the Colosseum, so everyone could just walk in the road. We took a bunch of pictures at the Colosseum and then headed home.

We were so tired after the past few days that when we got all set up to watch Argo, both of us ended up falling asleep. We woke up around 6 and I started making dinner. I made fettucine alfredo and chicken, and then we both ate our desserts that we had picked out at the Sicilian restaurant the night before. We watched some episodes of shows, and then passed out again. We had an early morning for the Tuscan wine tour the next day!

Spring Break Part II: South of France

We got home from Greece, and without even really a moment to rest, unpacked and re-packed for our next adventure: France. Our flight the next day was around 2 in the afternoon which was nice, giving us some time to catch up on sleep.

We arrived at Termini with plenty of time and got on the Terravision bus on time. Just as everything seemed to be going well for us, our luck changed. Obviously, Terravision was to blame.

I noticed that we were passing Termini for the second, and then third, time, and we were already a half an hour into the ride. We should've almost been to Fiumicino airport! I told Catherine, and then when the bus actually stopped by the side of the road, we knew something was wrong. It turned back on and drove right back up to Termini, where everyone was told that they had to get off. No one knew what was going on, and I was extremely annoyed. I didn't want to miss our flight to Nice!

The workers were so rude. The driver got off and goes, "Not my problem," and started walking back into the station. What we managed to get, after overhearing snippets of conversation, was that there was something wrong with the engine. Alright, I thought. Can't control that. But there had to be some kind of contingency plan in place if this happened, right? I mean, there's over fifty people relying on this to get them to their flights in time. In typical Italian fashion, this was not the case.

We all piled into the Terravision office, asking the woman at the desk what we were supposed to do. In my opinion, it should've been easy. Give us passes to get on the next bus. Of course, this sets back all of the people that were scheduled for that next bus, but that's Terravision's problem. I think they also should have completely refunded our tickets, but they would never have done so. Anyway, the woman at the counter just ignored everyone. When someone demanded her attention, she said, "Well you'll have to buy tickets for the next bus." That's when it hit the fan. People got pissed. I got pissed. And then the woman turned around and stopped answering everyone's questions, which I thought was extremely unjustified, unprofessional, and rude. No one knew what was going on. At one point, she walked out from the counter and went upstairs on the phone. Finally, after ten minutes, she came back down and said, so that barely anyone could hear, "You can get on the next bus." Chaos ensued as everyone tried to get new boarding passes, but luckily I was in front and handed our three old tickets to her first, and so we hurried up and got in line. I already had a million things in my head that I was planning to say as a lodged an email complaint with the company.

We finally got on the bus and arrived at the airport with sparingly little time to get through the passport checks and security. While we were in line, an airport employee came through asking if anyone was going to Nice, and we got to move up in front of the line to get our boarding tickets approved because Ryanair had changed the boarding time to ten minutes earlier. Can they even do that??

We went through security as fast as we could, and the three of us lost each other. I just headed to the gate that was written on my ticket, and found Danielle further up the terminal. We just assumed that Catherine would be up there waiting for us in line at the gate, so we kept walking. When I saw the line that had formed at the gate and with no sight of Catherine anywhere, I started to get a little worried. The line was kind of moving fast as everyone was boarding, and we were near the front. I knew I wasn't going to get on the plane without my sister, and I was freaking out a little. Finally, we saw her running form further down in the terminal, and she shouted, "There you guys are! I was looking everywhere!" She was all freaked out, saying that she couldn't find a screen to find which gate our flight was out of. I was the only one that had it written on my ticket, and Danielle had only walked in the right direction cause she had heard the passport check lady say it out loud. Well, at least she found us.

The plane ride was pretty short. I got a little nervous as the plane was starting to descend because when I looked out the window, it looked like I could literally touch the water. Then the plane hit the ground (from what felt like inches away from the water). The runway literally started at the water's edge. The airport was really pretty with lots of plants and tropical flowers. Outside, the views were amazing, with the hills rising up and lots of little colorful houses perched up overlooking the ocean. The only downside was the weather. It was in the low 50's, cloudy, and a little windy.

We hopped on the bus that takes us straight to Cannes and after an hour, we were dropped off right at the Cannes harbor. It was an easy walk up the street to the apartment that we had rented (for only 45 euros for the whole weekend!) and we were surprised with how nice it was. We dropped off our stuff and decided to walk around and explore a little.

Macaroons

Palais de Festivals

The Carlton Hotel

After finding some croque monsieurs as a snack, we ended up on Rue d'Antibes, a street famous for shopping and food. Of course we stopped into a macaroon place and tried some. I got the dark chocolate one, and it was really good. One macaroon is always enough though- they're too sugary sweet for me. Then we passed Laduree, the famous macaroon place that started in Paris. After walking pretty much the entire length of Rue d'Antibes, we turned right toward the famous avenue La Croisette, which has all of the major designer stores and is bordered by the ocean. We passed every designer store you could think of, all with vacation outfits in their main windows. We ended up outside of the famous Carlton Hotel, and I've since made it a goal to come back and stay there. It was beautiful, and if it had been nice, there would've been lounge chairs and umbrellas stationed on their plot of beach across the street, costing upwards of 70 euros to rent for the day. Finally, we passed the Palais de Cannes, where the International Cannes Film Festival takes place.
We headed back up to the apartment to get dressed for dinner, and by the time we headed back out, it was probably around 9 or so. We walked up this cute little street right by our apartment called Rue du Suquet. It was cobblestoned and peppered with cute tiny restaurants, winding uphill away from the ocean. I realized that it was actually one of the most famous streets in Cannes, well-known for its delicious French cuisine. We checked out a few of the places' menus, and kept walking until we stopped at one place, simply named Le Bistrot du Suquet. While we were perusing the menu, this man came out of the outdoor area of the restaurant and, in English, told us that we had been on his plane to Nice. He said that he recognized us from the scene we had made when we'd finally found Catherine. His partner, at the table, was laughing when he told us they had eavesdropped on our panicked conversation. Then he told us that we had to eat at this restaurant. He told us that the owner was making everything himself and even serving it. We couldn't say no to this man, so they insisted on us taking their table as they had just finished.

Dinner at Le Bistrot De Suquet

We sat down and said goodbye to the couple. The owner, who didn't look much older than us, came out and seemed to excited that we'd sat down at his restaurant. He handed us the menus, and we ordered the pre-planned three course meals. I chose the fish soup and the duck, and Catherine and Danielle both got the white fish, while Danielle got a salad and Catherine got the fish soup, too. The owner didn't speak much English, so me and Danielle tried to piece together our French so that we could understand him.

Best dessert ever

The meal was amazing. He brought out the soup on this wooden boards, with little slices of crispy baguette and cheese. I'd never had duck before, but it was so good. When we were done with that part of the meal, we were already stuffed. But we still had to order dessert, so I got this chocolate thing with cream and sorbet, Catherine ordered the cheese plate and Danielle ordered creme brulee. Mine was definitely the best. I have no idea what it was, but it was like this chocolate circle brownie-thing (but not a brownie because it oozed chocolate!) that was so rich that I had to dip each bite in the sorbet and whipped cream. Best dessert ever.

By the time we finished, we were stuffed and tired from the traveling, the walking, and the food, so we decided not to go out. We headed back to the apartment, where we met up with Danielle's friend, Taylor, who was going to be staying with us for the rest of the trip.

Vintage Dior bottles

The next day, we woke up to the pouring rain. We decided to head to Grasse, where the International Museum of Perfume was. We stopped at this cafe on Rue d'Antibes that we had noticed the day before. I ended up getting a quiche and Catherine got a croque monsieur, and Danielle and Taylor split some salmon sandwich thing. The food was delicious. Me and Catherine even decided to split a chocolate pastry thing for the walk over to the bus.


We trekked over to the bus station, which actually wasn't too far. Cannes is really not that big at all. When we finally figured out what the right bus was, we ended up walking in the wrong direction to the stop, having to circle back around to find it. Luckily, we got seats on the bus, which was about an hour or so up the coast. The ride was actually really cheap- only 1 euro. For how expensive the south of France was, getting around was the most inexpensive compared to other European cities.

Marie Antoinette's travel case

When we got to Grasse, it was still raining, so it was nice to be able to spend a few hours in the museum. We tested out all of the different scents and went through the centuries, seeing how perfume was first used by the Egyptians and then became a sort of status marker. Marie Antoinette's travel case was on display, and we got to see a bunch of vintage bottle from Dior, Chanel and other famous perfume makers. Roses were a large emphasis in the museum, and we got to smell how each different part of the rose smells. A huge population of Grasse contributed to the perfume industry up until very recently, and each hierarchal step in the production of perfume was housed in Grasse, from the owners down to the flower pickers. Perfume dominated the economy in Grasse for a very long time.

When we left the museum, it was still raining. The bus ride home from Grasse seemed longer and more windy this time, and left the four of us feeling a little car sick. We got off the bus in search of a snack, and walked down Rue d'Antibes. We walked into a gelato place, where me and Danielle got the most amazing waffles with dark chocolate and whipped cream. I swear, I dream about them. Catherine obviously got mango gelato.

It was kind of getting a little late by the time we got back to the apartment, and we headed back out shortly after looking up a place to eat. Chez Therese was actually really close to our apartment, and had the most delicious (and biggest portion ever) of French onion soup that I'd ever seen. It was so filling that me and Catherine couldn't even finish it, and we had our main course of roast beef and mashed potatoes still to come! When Catherine didn't even dent her soup, the waiter made her take a picture of the chef. So funny, and it definitely made both of them feel awkward. Danielle tried the escargot, and it was actually good. By the time we got back from the restaurant, we all decided not to go out, and instead walked around the street in front of the harbor, checking out the scenery and the famous theater.

Legendary French onion soup

Escargot

Cath and the chef!

The next morning, I had planned for us to go to Monte Carlo, but the people at the train station were no help whatsoever, so we instead hopped on the 1 euro bus to Nice up the coast.

I'm obsessed. Most beautiful city I've ever been to (actually, tied with Monte Carlo, but we'll get to that...). The bus dropped us off in the middle of a square after we'd drove down the main road of Nice, sandwiched between the ocean and beautiful casinos and hotels. We were hungry, naturally (I mean, food was a common theme of this trip), and the girls stopped in a cafe to grab a snack. We had no idea where we were, but were happy to wander around. I remembered doing a project on Nice in high school, and couldn't believe that I was actually there.

We wandered up the street more, toward old Nice, which was apparently the most beautiful part of the city. The streets were so clean, and the buildings were so open and painted various pastel colors. There were palm trees dotting the sidewalks and outdoor cafes everywhere. For the next few hours, food became, once again a main theme. I stopped in a little outdoor cafe and sampled a croque monsieur, and Catherine tried various pizza things and pastries throughout the early afternoon. We wandered through the shops, and spent a lot of time in a homemade soap store. Everything smelled so good, and they even had cooking spices that you could scoop yourself. Danielle ended up getting some gifts for family from there. We headed out of the old section of town and right own Marche aux Fleurs. This one of the distinct things that I remembered about my Nice project from class, and was kind of surreal actually being there. Although it wasn't out in its full glory because it was the afternoon and it was off-season, it was still really pretty.

Fresh soap!

Finally, we ended up back on the main street of Nice and crossed the street, walking along the ocean. I have never seen water so blue in my life. I didn't understand how it could possibly be that color- it seemed so unnatural. The beach wasn't sandy, but instead was covered in large, light grey pebbles. Surprisingly, it made it even prettier. We sat down on the rocks, trying to get some of the warmth from the sun and these Danish guys came over and took a few pictures for us. By this point, it was about 3 pm. Since we had nothing else to do, we decided to hop on a bus to Monaco.

Marche aux Fleurs

The ride up the cliffs and coast was really cool- and we had the most amazing views of all of the little towns we passed. After about forty minutes, we arrived in Monte Carlo. The first place on my list was obviously the Monte Carlo casino, so I lead everyone up the hill. We wandered through these gardens that were literally meticulous, and ended up at the front of the casino. I have never seen so many ridiculously expensive cars lined up next to each other in my life. In front of this little circle of grass, there were Rolls Royce, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and so many other nice cars with their drivers meandering around, smoking cigarettes and waiting for whoever they were driving around. There was a good number of tourists out front, taking pictures out front and people watching. We couldn't actually go into the casino, because we weren't dressed up enough. Apparently there is a pretty strict dress code. One day...




The setting of the casino was cool, too. It was basically sandwiched with the ocean to its back and the cliffs that rose up in front of it. We walked around the front of it and stepped into a gift shop, where nice pens were sold for 1,200 euros! Yeah, I picked up some postcards...

We walked around the back of the casino to this little balcony area and took some pictures overlooking the ocean, and then walked back down the hill, passing a line of Friday night traffic on our right and the ocean on our left. I swear, not even BMWs made the cut in this line of traffic.

The next place on my list was the Princes' Palace. So I dragged everyone up the street, leading the way up these massive steps that looked like they led up to this random plateau in the middle of the city. When we got to the top, we stopped at the Palace, which actually wasn't even that beautiful; it was the views surrounding it that made it impressive. There was a monk statue at the foot of the stairs that we had just walked up, because the first Grimaldi had captured the castle 700 years ago by disguising himself as a monk. Since then, this palace has been the longest single residence of a royal family in history. In 2002, the Grimaldi family signed an agreement with France that stated that if the Grimaldi ruler were to ever fail in producing dynastic offspring, the monarchy would revert to France.

Grace Kelly's tombstone

My obsession with royalty fueled even more, I made everyone walk to the Cathedral of Monaco so that we could see Princess Grace Kelly's grave. After a brief explanation of who she was, we walked into the church, which was smaller than most cathedrals I'd been into recently but still really pretty. Behind the altar, they had all the tombs marked of all of the royal Grimaldis. Prince Rainer III, Grace Kelly's husband, was right next to hers, and both were covered in flowers.

Outside the Princes' Palace

We finished up there, and still in the area of the palace, we needed another snack. Danielle and I both got some crepes and Taylor and Catherine picked up some other snacks, like the paprika Pringles we'd all become obsessed with. We decided to figure out how to get back to Cannes, and wandered down the staircase after we took a lot of pictures of the view of Monaco from the corner of the Princes' Palace.

Luckily, the city is pretty small so we just followed signs to the train station. Instead of taking the 1 euro bus to Nice and then the two hour bus back to Cannes, we decided to just take the train back directly to Cannes. It ended up being only about 6 euros, and we got into Cannes around 8:30. If we had tried to figure out the buses, we would've ended up getting back after 11 pm. We walked back down to the harbor from the bus station and ate at one of the restaurants across from the harbor. Like usual, it was delicious and we were stuffed.

After dinner, we wandered back up to check out what was going on at the Palais de Festivals. The casino seemed pretty crowded, and there was a club that a bunch of people our age were going into. Since we had to wake up at 5 am, Catherine and I decided not to go out, but Danielle and Taylor ended up going to bar on Le Suquet.

The next morning it was pouring, and the walk to the bus station at 5 am was not fun. Luckily, the bus came at a good time and the ride to the Nice airport was much shorter than usual- including the bus driver stepping out at a random stop for fifteen minutes to smoke during his break. Despite the crummy weather for most of the weekend, I didn't want to leave the French Riveria. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been- with the best food- and it is definitely a place I will be going back to sometime in my life.

Monaco

Spring Break Part I: Greek Adventure

Catherine flew in that Wednesday after the London/Dublin trip to get to Rome before we flew out for Greece on Thursday night. We ended up hanging out and making dinner Wednesday night so that we could wake up early so that Catherine could get some initial Roman sightseeing in.

I got out of art history and met her back at my apartment, and from there we checked out the market at Campo di Fiore, walking around the vendors selling different kinds of pasta and spices and sauces. Then I showed her Piazza Navona and the Pantheon on our way to get really delicious pizza at Largo Argentina. I ordered the pumpkin prosciutto pizza, and she ordered the margherita pizza and we sat on the piazza fences bordering the site of Julius Caesar's murder (now nicknamed "the cat sanctuary"). It was luckily a beautiful day, so we walked all the way to the Colosseo metro stop where she got some pictures and we headed home to make sure we were all packed. We came back to the apartment with a nice little early birthday surprise from Anna, packed with our favorite beer and prosecco and a lot of candy! So nice.

We left for our evening flight and grabbed a bunch of snacks in the airport, including these paprika Pringles that are apparently really popular here. Now we're all obsessed. Thank god we were flying with Alitalia, an actual legitimate airline that assigned seats first and we didn't have to stand in line for an hour reserving our spot.

When we got to Athens, the air was breezy but pretty warm, and we hopped on the bus to the city center. We ended up getting off the bus earlier than anticipated, and had a longer walk than planned because the bus wasn't running the full route for some reason. We also underestimated how long it would take us to get to our hostel, and ended up walking for longer than planned on the unsafe streets in Athens. We managed to stay in brightly lit areas, but all the sudden we decided to hop in a cab, a smart move considering we narrowly escaped a scary encounter with a group of locals who had taken an interest in us and attempted to hassle us as we tried to get in the cab.

By the time we got to the hostel, we were shaken up and scared, and not taking too kindly to the city of Athens. The owner of the hostel was extremely friendly, saying he was glad we made it and he had been waiting up for us. He asked how our trip was and when we casually mentioned our scary encounter, he didn't seem to flustered. I took that to mean that this wasn't a rare occurrence.

We ran into the boys, Mike and Ben, on our way upstairs, where they were lamenting about Mike's lost bag that he had checked in the airport. Thoroughly shaken up, scared, and annoyed with the city of Athens, we made plans to leave at 7 am (although it was already almost 4 am) to see the Acropolis and then leave for Corfu on the 10 am bus.

When we woke up, the boys weren't ready to leave and wanted to sleep more so we ended up leaving them and hopped in a cab (not walking!!) to the Acropolis. The cab ended up being less than a euro each, not because it was close, but because the city is doing so poorly. We trekked up the hill and managed to get the student discounts on tickets (free!) because although some of us didn't have anything but our student visas on us, we did a few pass-backs and the guy hardly checked.

There were stray dogs everywhere, but they were all really calm and just lounging in the sun. The Acropolis had amazing views, and we wandered around the area for a while. Unfortunately, my pictures of the Parthenon don't look as cool because it was under construction so that it wouldn't fall or collapse. It was still awesome, and I couldn't believe that people had been able to build such a gigantic structure so long ago. The top of the hill was kind of flattened, and you could almost picture the action and people that had traversed the Acropolis, the main social point in the city. It's kind of cool to think about what these buildings have witnessed in the centuries that they've been around.

We took a bunch of pictures at the major structures and of the amazing view from the Acropolis of the surrounding city and port. Then we headed back down the hill and hopped in a cab to the bus station. The cab driver was actually really helpful, and told us where to buy our bus tickets to Corfu and drove us to the right entrance. I think he charged us a little more because he gave us a straight price from the beginning, but we had no complaints because, in true Athens-style, it was still dirt cheap.

For a main bus station, the food and snacks were also ridiculously cheap, so we stocked up and headed over to our bus stop. After a little confusion we found the right one and boarded. As we were getting on it, the bus driver commented on Catherine's bag of snacks as she was mid-chew to warn us that there was no eating on the bus, but that they would be stopping multiple times. Yeah right. We sat right down and enjoyed the long ride to Corfu, chomping away on our food when the bus driver wasn't looking. It also happened to be a beautiful day, so the ride along the cliffs and the coast was beautiful, and we got out a few times at the stops to stretch our legs and stand outside for a little.

We had another moment of confusion when we got to the port for the ferry that would take us to Corfu, and weren't even sure if we had to get off the bus or not. Well apparently we did. And we had to buy ferry tickets, but they were only about 5 euros. We got on the ginormous ferry and got a big booth next to the window. We were all exhausted but excited to get to the beach. We all got some wine to pass the time and were entertained by a group of soccer players that were amused that we were American. After about an hour and a half ferry ride, we finally made it to Corfu. When we got off, we were expecting a driver from the Pink Palace to be picking us up, as I'd arranged through email. Since we couldn't find it, we hopped in a cab (hey, it was probably gonna be just as cheap as the Pink Palace shuttle). When we got to the Pink Palace, the woman at the front desk was confused when she saw us getting out of a cab, and told us that they had sent the driver to pick us up. Apparently he had gone to the bus station to wait for us. Well, how we were supposed to know that? We ended up paying the cab the same amount as the shuttle would've cost, so whatever.

The lobby was kind of quiet... the only time it would be quiet for the rest of the weekend. The people who worked there were nice, and as soon as we checked in they brought out a platter of shots. The woman at the front desk even took one. She gave us our keys, and we actually had two separate rooms. Me and Catherine grabbed one, and Alex, Danielle and Katherine were in the one next door. I was surprised at the quality of the rooms. I think that since we were the first ones to check in for the weekend, ahead of the Bus2Alps group that was scheduled to check in the next day, we must've gotten the nicest rooms.

We went back over to the lobby and had a few drinks at the bar, getting to know the bartender Sue pretty well. She was British and very entertaining, but hid her background well from us. I think that's probably where our theory of the Pink Palace workers began; that they were all hiding or running from something in their own countries. We had the dinner that was included in our hotel fees, and it was actually pretty good. They call it "three course", but I'm pretty sure bread doesn't usually count as a course... All in all, the food was decent and we were satisfied. After dinner, we got some more drinks and played some card games and some of the staff joined in with us because it was a relatively slow night. We ended up going to bed between midnight and one.

After a decent night's sleep, we woke up around nine to grab some breakfast. We trekked down the long staircase of stairs that lead to the buildings by the beach. The views were so beautiful and the weather was extremely nice. Breakfast was served on the restaurant on the beach, and was the other meal that was included with our hotel payment. It was pretty decent but basic, eggs, yogurt, toast and coffee. It was so nice sitting outside overlooking the beach with our breakfast, and we took our time and hung out for about an hour. We hauled ourselves back up the huge outdoor staircases to the main lobby just as the Bus2Alps tours were checking in. There was suddenly a massive amount of people there, and we hurried up and grabbed our beach stuff and towels and headed back down to the beach buildings to stake out a good spot for the day.

We decided to stay up on the terrace, in good proximity to the bar, overlooking the ocean, and a few feet above the actual beach in the coveted lounge chairs. The boys finally arrived from Athens that morning, too, and we spent the day having drinks and laying in the sun... perfect day. The lunch options and snacks were all pretty good and not expensive, and a lot of those got passed around. It was awesome. At one point, the area was packed with everyone who had just arrived. They were running the Booze Cruise that day, but we decided not to do it until another day because we literally had the most coveted spots on the deck. Finally, we headed back inside to shower and get dressed, and all seven of us spent the night hanging out with Sue at the bar after having dinner.

The next morning me and Catherine woke up bright and early to try to reserve our spots on the Booze Cruise, but we found out it wasn't going to be running because the water was too choppy. At that point, stories from what actually happened on the outing were kind of weird, so we were relieved not to go and waste money on it. We staked out some places on the actual beach today, as people had annoyingly put stuff on all the lounge chairs on the deck. The beach was nice until we got sick of the rocks, and we headed upstairs to the roof of the beach buildings, where it was much warmer. I didn't end up getting in the ocean, but Ben braved the cold at one point! We spent that day much like the last, from the bar to the lounge chairs.

We headed in to reserve our togas for the "Toga Party" that was happening in the Pink Palace club that night. I was a little iffy on wearing a pink toga all night, but since everyone else (but me and my roommates) seemed to gladly join in, we did, too. Anyway, it was the eve of Catherine and I's 21st birthday. We had to go. When we got down to the club later in the night, literally every single person was wearing a pink satin toga. It was ridiculous, but definitely an interesting atmosphere. Once people got word that it was me and Catherine's birthday at midnight, the drinks didn't stop coming. I'd say we successfully rang in our 21st that night...

The next day, our birthday, was a little rainy and the weather wasn't so great, and considering the night before, the day was low-key. We ended up sitting up at the bar with Sue and she gave me and Catherine birthday shots with candles in them that night, singing us Happy Birthday. Catherine's friends from Leeds got in that night, too, so we all just hung out at the bar and ended up going to bed at a decent hour.

The next morning, me and Catherine woke up early to try to get breakfast in before we left for the airport. The first thing I noticed, when I went to pack up my stuff, was that my shampoo bottles, which had been left on the shelf in the shower, were missing. When me and Catherine realized what happened, we couldn't stop laughing. There's a tiny little window perched where the upper shelf is, and we had left it open, on purpose, to keep getting air through the whole room. It was so tiny that we weren't any one could possibly do anything with it. Well, apparently they could. Someone had definitely stolen my shampoo bottles. Seriously?! Just another reason to distrust this country...

In typical Pink Palace fashion, the beach buildings weren't open. Catherine and I were told by Marteen (one of the staff that got to know us but ended up being kind of weird) that he would let us know when it opened if we stuck around the lobby. Since we already had checked out, we kind of had no choice. While we waited, we eavesdropped on the conversation Sue was having with the other staff. She was all angry because no one had brought her up dinner and her shift was 20 hours straight, that being the only meal she would have. The conversation was interesting to say the least, because it definitely personified the Pink Palace. It was a family-run establishment, but there weren't any rules anywhere. Nothing posted near the hot tubs, no lifeguards on the beach, no one getting cut off at the bar if they were drinking too much at the bar. Greece in general is a very interesting place.

When the girls met us in the lobby (still no breakfast), we all pulled up the reservations of our flight on our emails to make sure we had them. Catherine tried to pull up hers, and handed hers to me when she confused at the email in Italian. Immediately I knew something was wrong from the small Italian I did actually know. When I asked, "Catherine, did you even try to stick this in a translator when you got it?", she shook her head. Basically, her ticket confirmation had not gone through, and it was telling her to try again.

The shuttle to bring us to the airport was literally coming in five minutes, and Catherine still didn't have a plane ticket to get on the plane from Corfu to Athens. Oddly, we both remained calm and I just hurried and bought her the plane ticket in Italian. I thought that the price was going to have jumped to something ridiculous, but when I told her that she just said, "I guess I have no choice." It actually only ended up going up 24 euros, thank god. I hit confirm and we waited nervously for the email to say something like the flight was full or it couldn't confirm her reservation again. Luckily, just as the shuttle was pulling up, she got the email with her ticket. Disaster averted.

With Catherine not being stuck in Greece, we loaded our stuff into the shuttle. Mike was feeling the effects from the night before, and as the boys gobbled up sandwiches at 8 am, they tried to figure out their plans for Barcelona. They were literally not booked for anything, and they were flying from Athens to Barcelona that day. I thought about how panicked I would be if I was flying into another foreign country with no place to stay yet!

I think Danielle literally had to go through every security thing they had at the tiny Corfu airport. She got patted down, got all of her bags opened and sifted through, and then had to throw out a bunch of liquids that she had consistently managed to sneak on the entire semester. Goodbye, face lotion. Once we were all safely through security (after Mike had dropped his ticket, not once but twice, and had it kindly returned to him by staff or another passenger), some of us grabbed some snacks. Catherine and I decided to wait until we got to the airport in Athens where there would probably be better options.

The plane flight from Corfu to Athens on the tiny airplane was pretty much up and down, so we arrived in Athens with the perfect amount of time to spare. We said goodbye to the boys, and like with Catherine's plane ticket, everything worked out for them and they had a great rest of the week in Barcelona.

We grabbed some seats at a cafe once we'd gone through the first (yes, first) security check. I had a chocolate muffin, Catherine opted not for the chips for breakfast (wow!) and got a croissant, and Kath grabbed a blueberry muffin. We had a little entertaining moment when Danielle, thinking that she was about to pour water into her espresso to make it a cafe americano, picked up the oil and as she was about to pour it in, the guy behind the bar stopped her just in time. Hey, it was in Greek.

We picked up some postcards of our favorite city of Athens and waited at the gate, where we ran into Anna and her new fiance! Talk about concidence. The two had been traveling around Greece for that portion of the week as well, we just didn't know that they'd booked our same flight. So with all the roommates, plus sister and fiance in tow, we arrived back in Rome just to unpack and pack again for the next day's flight to the South of France. I was beyond excited for some new French adventures (and the food!).