the day we realized we might never leave greece...

hello dear people!
so much has happened since i was last with internet that i don't even know where to begin!

gemma and i spent our last full day in turkey in the spice bazaar (a very cool place where everyone was trying to sell us everything from t-shirts to spices by the kilo). we then went on a six hour boat ride up and down the bosphorus. the boat ride yielded lots of great photos and was our first time in asia! we met another american staying in the hostel who didn't know much about istanbul and ended up tagging along with us. he didn't know anybody and was grateful to have people to talk to, and it was nice for us to have someone to chat with on the boat ride!

we left istanbul on the fourteenth after a day repacking packs, visiting the grand bazaar (much larger and harder to navigate!) and meeting up with jess in taksim for dinner. we then boarded the friendship express and made our beds in the sleeper car we were staying in. the ride was fine although we were rather harshly woken at both the turkish and greek boarders. the train was late arriving in thessaloniki but we hopped onto the city bus and luckily made it to the bus station where we bought our tickets and boarded the bus to volos with five minutes to spare. once finally in volos (the ride was about two hours) we jumped into a taxi and were able to catch the two o'clock ferry (with fifteen minutes to spare) to alonnisos. we were finally only three hours away from our greek island! needless to say it was a long day but we had luck on our side!

the stay on alonnisos was amazing! we stayed in a great room at a rooms to let place near a beach. luckily because we are here during the "off" season it was super reasonable and fun to be there on our own. we had a lovely little deck with a view of the ocean and were about a minutes walk from the beach. we did a lot of walking and swimming and enjoying nature. gemma and i both sustained sunburns on our first day but were fine from then on! we found a great little market and gyro store (the best kind of sandwich!) and had fun being two of very few tourists!

we left alonnisos by ferry yesterday and made our way to athens. this time the trip only entailed a ferry, bus and taxi ride. we are now in the san remo hostel (the least nice of the places we have stayed so far, but still livable) and spent a nice day wandering around the old part of athens. we visited the parthenon in the acropolis which was breathtaking. we also ate an amazing gyro and enjoyed the weather and the chance to stretch our legs!

tomorrow we head on to our first servas host near delphi. plans have changed a bit seeing as the ferry we had planned to take from greece to italy is actually a 28 hour trip... we have thus decided to fly directly to vienna and will hopefully be able to make a side trip to slovenia later on (a side note: my dear viennese friends and family... i will be calling/emailing soon :D). we are also hoping to pay a visit to france but are still in the planning stage.

i hope you are all doing extremely well! thank you so much for the comments and emails and phone calls! i miss you all and am always glad to hear from you.
stay well
peace
agnes