My trip to Greece and Italy

Entire Gritaly Crew

For my April vacation of my senior year I went to Greece and Italy with my school. It was so amazing and it's going to sound so cliche but it completely changed my life. It was the first time I traveled outside of the US and I couldn't have been happier of how it turned out.

The Roomies! (on the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy)

First of all my three closest friends were on the trip (aka my roomies) Lejla, Kaitlyn and Marisa. My other close friends like Meghan, Felicia, Lauren, Italo, Alicia and Sara went on the trip too. We were all one big family together and with minor problems here and there, we all just had the time of our lives. 

Our tour guide, Jason, was THE BOMB. He was SO cool and funny, I mentioned him and how much he loves us in my first blog post I believe. Long story short, he loves us so much that he's coming all the way from Athens, Greece to visit us in Boston next winter break! 

We started our trip in Athens, Greece. A lot of people didn't like it because it was a city, but I literally LOVED it. I love cities so I don't mind all the buildings. I don't know why but I didn't know there were palm trees in Athens and I was SO excited when I saw them! I guess I'm kind of a weirdo (for many other reasons as well), but I have an obsession with palm trees.

Palm Tree :)

When we got there in Athens it was perfect weather sunny and 70s. It's like mother nature was rooting for us, which never seems to happen, so I was beyond pumped. When we left Greece we found out that it was 50s and raining for the rest of the week, which made us think that the sun shined just for us! We were so lucky because our trip was originally reversed. We were supposed to go to Italy first then go to Greece at the end of the trip, but we changed it because Easter is a major holiday in Greece and everything shuts down, so we switched it but the weather worked out great!

Our first hotel we stayed in Athens was hilarious. We had this tiny room with a bathroom with barely a shower! There was four cots squished together in this tiny room. The food we had at the hotel really wasn't that good, so that was a little disappointment but we were so hungry we didn't even care that much. 

Monastery in Greece

Our first night in Athens my roomies and I stayed up basically all night and just talked about EVERYTHING. This is the time I realized how close we all are. We literally shared everything, even the most private and grossest things we shared. The trip definitely brought us so much closer and I know we will cherish the memories forever and we'll always be friends. 

In Athens we did a lot of shopping and visited the Acropolis and the Parthenon which was amazing. It's so weird to think that the people there just have it there in the center of Athens all the time. It's just sort of chilling up there. 

We only stayed in Athens for two days, and then we made our way to Delphi, Greece. It was so beautiful, I've literally seen nothing like it in my entire life and I was so blown away. I remember I kept saying how lucky we are and how thankful I was to my parents for allowing me on this trip and I was just so happy and grateful. 

We ended up driving in our tour bus, with our bus driver Carmillo who was absolutely adorable and a psycho driver who literally drove the impossible, for at least a quarter of the trip. The thing is I didn't even mind at all because I was so fascinated looking at the scenery we were passing. It was just so breathtaking. 

Delphi, Greece

On our way to Delphi our awesome tour guide Jason put in a little surprise for us. He brought us to this beautiful monastery. It was gorgeous! We were all in love with it and didn't want to leave. It was so peaceful and serene. If it wasn't for Jason we would have never seen that so we were all very grateful for him. 

The history in Delphi is crazy. It is so deep and high up in the mountains it was crazy. The views were ridiculous. Nothing like I've ever seen. It was crazy to think that we were walking the same grounds of ancient civilizations. I learned so much information I just wish I could have retained it all. It was very overwhelming. 

Bus Rides...

We only stayed one day in Delphi and then it was about a six hour drive to the boat that would take us to Italy. The bus rides although incredibly long, might have been one of my favorite parts. Obviously there was not a lot of sleep going on at night so a lot of people slept on the bus rides, including my friend Marisa who literally sleeps all the time. The times that we weren't sleeping were hilarious. Everyone was so overtired that everything was so funny and it was just great.

When we finally got to were the boat was picking us up the boat was late and it was about midnight so we're all tired and freezing (it got quite chilly at night). When we got off our tour bus there was a mob of Greek men who basically jumped us as soon as we got off the bus. It was scary. They were speaking Greek, although I took Greek in high school I had no idea what they were saying. All of our luggage was out in the open so we huddled around it to make sure they didn't steal it. By the time we made it into the waiting area they were locked out. 

As we were waiting, we were sitting in an area right near the windows and doors. The creepy guys were creeping in the windows and pacing back and forth. At one point one of them opened the door that my friend was sitting right in front of, but it was duck taped shut. We were all freaking out until we realized they were laughing at us and were trying to freak us out (it worked). The we noticed that some of them were scaling the building and jumped the barbed wired fences. It was so crazy. Eventually we started having a dance off with them. My friend, Alicia, started to bernie and they thought it was hilarious. They were pretty much harmless but it was still creepy.

When the boat finally arrived we still had to wait for the thousands of people to load on because we just happened to be the last people in line... We were on our way to Italy so there was a bunch of cute Italian boys everywhere. This one GORGEOUS Italian guy came right up to my friends and I and started telling us we were beautiful and what not. Then he asked me to come and party in his room. As much as I wanted to I couldn't because it was a school trip and they could've raped me or something, but they seemed harmless. One of my teachers could speak Italian so she started yelling at him in Italian and told us that we were only sixteen (we're really eighteen but she just wanted him to go away). He was so cute he say "Prov (by 'prov' he meant professor) lady relax we just want to party" in THE cutest accent I have ever heard. My friend Kaitlyn was funny too she was like, "NO, no means no go away" and my teacher said, "VI, VI" which means go away in Italian. So I didn't get to chill with him sadly but I just wish I got a picture with him. Oh well I'll always have the memories. 

Sorrento, Italy

It was an overnight boat and the room was even smaller than the hotel in Athens and we had bunk beds. We weren't allowed to go out of our rooms and explore the ship unfortunately and all the passengers were so loud and crazy it was so hard to sleep. When we woke up we had arrived in Italy! Unfortunately it was raining and cold out, around fifty degrees. We had about a four hour drive to Sorrento, Italy which is where we stayed for the next few days. When we got to Sorrento it was SO beautiful. I think it was my favorite place that we went to and I definitely want to go back.

We stayed in Sorrento the longest out of anywhere. I think it was my favorite place of the trip! I can just remember stepping off the bus for the first time and smelling the most amazing aromas of lavender. It was incredible.

Playing "follow the leader"

The first day we got there we had the day to do whatever we wanted so my friends Marisa, Kaitlyn, Italo and I went to explore the streets of Sorrento. There was a beach by our hotel so we walked down there and it was beautiful. Sorrento was everything I expected an Italian village to look like! I was in love.

Later that night we went to downtown Sorrento. It was amazing. There was this AWESOME gelato shop that we went to like three times. We went shopping and what not and at the train station some Italian guy pinched my ass... Can you say awkward? It was funny though, I was in Italy WHO CARES!

One of my favorite memories of the trip was one of the least expected. It was when we were waiting for our train to get back to our hotel in Sorrento! We were all SO tired so we were literally just going insane, but it was so much fun I can't even explain why. We actually saved a dog that was stuck on a train! We named him Biddyboobear. "Biddy" derives from our hometown's name Peabody pronounced "pea-biddy". It was a fun night that I'll never forget.

Capri, Italy

The next day we took a ferry over to the island of Capri. It was beautiful. Apparently it is a popular spot for celebrities to say, although we didn't see any I could definitely see why. The shopping was ridiculous (even though I couldn't afford anything there haha). And the views were incredible.

"dreaming rock"

We went on a tour around the island on a boat and there was this big rock that was called the wishing rock or the dreaming rock or something and when you go under it and make a wish it will come true! There was also this little cave and inside it was this stuff called blue groto. It was the bluest thing I've ever seen! We didn't get to go inside but we could still see, but next time I go that's definitely on my list of things to do!

Italian pizza, is all I have to say. I'm not exaggerating when I say this, it was the BEST pizza I have every had. Pizza back home is never going to be the same. We went to this place in Capri and it was so good I can't even begin to explain.

That night we went back to Sorrento and went down to watch the sunset. I could've stayed there forever. I couldn't even believe where I was and how lucky I was to be there especially with all of my best friends. It was so amazing.

That next morning we packed up and said goodbye to beautiful Sorrento and made our way to Pompeii. It was crazy! The ancient city was pretty much all there still. It was so insane, there was preserved bodies from when the volcano hit! Literally blew my mind. Oh, and there were these sex menus, which apparently is how fast food menus were invented (haha). My roomies and I bought a magnet each with a different sex position on it. Definitely going to put that in my dorm next year!

Holding our magnets!

That night we went to our last stop to our hotel just outside of Rome. One of my favorite parts of the trip, like I said was when we were super over tired. So we had to stop for dinner at this other hotel and food was supposed to be waiting for us, but apparently they forgot about us, so we ended up waiting for hours! But our tour guide Jason was the best, seriously we wouldn't have gotten anywhere without him.

Finally, we made it to our hotel and it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I was OBSESSED with it. I want to go back and stay there again it was so awesome.

Rome was awesome we saw so much! My favorite was the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain. My roomies and I pretended we were Lizzie McGuire like the movie and sang "Hey Now" and "On An Evening in Roma" the whole time we were there.

There was this street performer who had no tips and seemed to kind of be half-assing it so my friend Kaitlyn jokingly said under her breath, "Wow, he better step it up." On the way back about an hour later we saw him again with a bunch of tips and literally going ALL OUT it was hilarious. I sing kind of ridiculously loud, off key and obnoxiously and he did too, so my friends all wanted me to go sing with him. I wanted to so bad, but I don't speak much Italian so I didn't want to make it seem like I was being disrespectful or anything so I didn't. I wish I had though.

On our last night in Rome my friend Felicia made this speech at dinner and it made me and Kaitlyn cry. I was embarrassed but I couldn't help it. On the bus back to our hotel, each person went around and gave a little thank you speech reminiscing on our favorite memories of the trip. It was super emotional and I cried like a baby once again. Then back at the hotel my friend Lejla and I went up to the top with an amazing view and called it, "our spot". We were up there for hours just talking, looking and crying together. It's a moment I will never forget.

"our spot"

Overall this trip was the best trip I've ever had. I loved Italy so much it inspired me to take Italian in college and I plan to study abroad there my junior year! The connections and memories I made on this trip will last forever. It was all I could've asked for and more.