The girls go to GREECE! Part II - Athens

Santorini was beautiful and we were sad to leave, but we were excited to immerse ourselves in the rich history that awaited us in Athens.

We arrived at our hotel, The Hotel Grande Bretagne, and the history lessons began immediately. The Hotel Grande Bretagne has served as host to countless royalty, politicians, and celebrities. While walking down the hallway we read plaques on the doors, listing the names of the famous people who had stayed in the rooms.

That was great and all but I had been sleeping on hard beds for so long, I was more impressed with having a comfortable bed than I was with who had possibly stayed in our room.

I didn't want to move.

We only had a short time in Athens so we wanted to see as much as we could! We spent our first day walking around the city, going to the Acropolis, and to the Parthenon. 

The Acropolis.

 The Parthenon.

 Mom and I on top of the Acropolis with
the city of Athens in the background.

 One of the guards in front of Greece's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The second day we took a bus to see The Temple of Poseidon and the ancient ruins of The City of Delphi. 

 The Temple of Poseidon. 

 The ruins of the very first olympic stadium, before it was the Olympics, in Delphi.

 Runners gates.

 View of the ruins of the City of Delphi. It was beautiful!

This rock, in ancient Greece, was believed to be the center of the Universe.

People would travel from all over because they believed the Oracle, located
close to the rock, could give them answers to life questions.

We really enjoyed our time in Greece and wish that we would have had more time to spend there. Both Santorini and Athens had so much to offer! Greece is one place we would love to go back to someday. Of all of the places I have been, Greece still remains at the top of my list of places to visit before you die.

Next Destination: ENGLAND!!

The girls go to GREECE! Part I - Santorini

So I've finished my classes in Madrid and traveled around southern Spain with our whole group from my university's study abroad program. I'm back in Madrid and meeting my mom so we can fly to Greece!

I'm going to let you in on a very sensitive moment  in my life.
When I got back to Madrid I called my mom to let her know we were on the bus and pulling up at our hotel . She had booked a room there also, so that we could stay the night there and leave the next morning from the same place to make it easy. So I got off the bus and walked down the sidewalk with our group. I saw my mom and I got all excited because it felt like forever since I'd seen her... she walked right past me!! I grabbed her and she got this weird look on her face and then was like "Oh! I didn't even recognize you!" I'd like to tell you it was because my hair had gotten so long while I was there, and that was part of it, but the real reason.... if you remember from my previous post, I loved Madre's paella. Well... I'll just say maybe I loved it a little too much. I left for Spain a size 0 and by the end of my time there I was a size 4. I know, I know, that's not that big of a deal, except I'm 5'1 and have never been bigger than a size 2. So it was kind of a shock to me already, but the fact that my own mother didn't recognize me! I thought I was going to die! UGH!


Okay on to happier moments. The things I missed the most while I was gone was Milo's sweet tea (if you don't know what that is you're missing out), Little Debbie Nutty Bars and Reese Cups. My mom is so cute and when we got to the hotel room she had brought me, my roommate and 2 of our friends a whole stash of Nutty Bars, Reese Cups and she packed a cooler in her suitcase with little bottles of Milo's sweet tea! WE WERE IN HEAVEN! Not like I needed ANY of it, but at that point I didn't care if I gained 15 more pounds, I was going to enjoy it all! That kept us occupied the rest of the night, as we stuffed ourselves while we told my mom all about our summer!


The next morning we woke up and left for Santorini, Greece! 
It took a full day to travel so when we arrived in Santorini it was dark out and we couldn't see anything. We got to our hotel, had greek chicken and rice delivered to our room, and crashed. 
I woke up the next morning to my mom standing at the window holding the shutters open and gasping for air. All she said was, "You have to come see this". I walked over to the window and stood still and silent in awe...

Our breathtaking view from our window! We stayed at Volcano View Hotel

and I highly recommend staying there!

Our cute little room from outside.

Quick picture before heading out for the day.

Again, I don't remember everything we did, so I'm going to let you enjoy the scenery! Santorini is the most beautiful place I have ever been.

Day 1: We drove around the Island and tried to take it all in. If it's possible for something to be picture perfect, Santorini is.

Our sweet ride :)

PERFECT Greek picture!  

We drove all around the Island the first day and stopped
for lunch. The view was incredible!

The Red Beach

The sunsets were so serene.

Day 2: We rode Donkeys down the mountain to the port, took a boat to the Caldera of Santorini where we hiked the Caldera and went to a natural hot springs (we opted out of swimming), then we took a sunset cruise back to the port.

*Remeber when I said, "When you travel with my mom you WILL do it ALL"?? Believe me yet?

Here are some pictures from our adventurous second day...

I thought this was too funny!

Lord help us! We literally were praying for our lives. The man had the
poor Donkey's running down the mountain and we ALL were screaming
to the top of our lungs, begging him to slow down! He didn't listen.

If you look closely you can see the zig-zag shape of the stairway we came down.

Our boat to the Caldera.

On the boat going to the Caldera.

On top of the Caldera looking back at the island. Wish you could see all the 

white buildings across the rim a little better.

Waiting to get back on the boat for our sunset cruise.

Sunset Cruise. Perfect ending to a perfect stay on a perfect island. 

I WILL GO BACK TO SANTORINI SOMEDAY!

Next Destination: GREECE PART II - ATHENS!

Summer Abroad in SPAIN

Fast forward to the summer of 2006. I had just completed my junior year of college and had been given the opportunity to spend the summer living with a family in Madrid and touring other parts of Spain, through the study abroad program at my university. I didn't know anyone else going on the trip and was a little nervous, to say the least. I cried when my parents dropped me off at the airport and wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into. It was going to be my first time traveling overseas and I was going all by myself. That's what it felt like anyway.
My roommate was going to be a girl I knew of, but I had never actually met her. How did I know of her? Well... I had been set up on a blind date with her brother just a few months before. How did the date go? Not good.

So. I'm going overseas for the first time, I don't know anyone else going, my roommate is the sister of a guy I ditched after a blind date, oh and did I mention I'm going to Spain and I DON'T SPEAK SPANISH!?
Should be fun, right??

My first memory after stepping off the plane in Madrid:
I got in a cab with the girl I was positive hated me, and my new Madre (mother) who I could not even begin to communicate with. We got to our apartment, unloaded our suitcases, put them on the elevator then raced up the stairs so we would be there to get them when they got to our floor. Yes, the elevators in Spain are much smaller than ours. We walked into our apartment, Madre showed us to our room, actually it was more like she shoved us into our room, mumbled something under her breath and shut our door. My roommate and I looked at each other,  eyes wide in shock/confusion, and she said, " I think she said, 'Take a nap.' but I'm not sure". We were exhausted so of course we went straight to sleep, whether that's what she told us to do or not. When we woke up from our nap, there was the most awful smell filling the apartment. We knew exactly what it was. Okay, maybe not exactly, but we knew it was lunch. That was the moment we realized, this had potential to be the longest summer ever, but we were off to a great start!! Or at least I kept telling myself that, anyway.


Most frustrating memory:
The ATM machine ate my debit card. It was going to take a day for my new card to arrive, so my sweet parents wired me some money to get me through. I didn't speak much Spanish, but how hard could it be to ask, "Where is the closest Western Union?"... Really really hard apparently. Even after dragging a classmate along, who spoke fluent Spanish, we could NOT find anyone who knew what Western Union was, much less where there was one. My mom was on the phone with me the whole time (she had never been overseas either) saying, "Just look in the windows at all of the grocery stores, it should be posted in the window". Well... it wasn't, and when she met up with me at the end of the summer, I made sure to walk around with her and point out that I wasn't crazy. Anyway, my debit card arrived the next day - the same day I just happened to walk by a Western Union OFFICE. I could have pitched a temper tantrum in the middle of the side walk. But I didn't... I almost did, but I fought the urge on account of no one would understand me so I would seem even more weird. 


My "I'm obviously not from around here" moment:
In class every day, we started by going around the room and telling everyone, in Spanish, what we had done the day before. I got out my dictionary this particular morning and started searching for the words I would need to complete my sentence. Yes. Sentence. I believe in keeping things short and sweet. Okay obviously you know that's a lie from my blog, but if my blog was in Spanish trust me it would be short and sweet. My sentence about the day before was going to be, "I went to Retiro Park after class and did cheerleading stunts with a friend". It was my turn, I had my sentence ready and was going to read it straight off of my paper. Easy enough. I was so proud when I finished because I didn't make a single mistake. As I looked up and my eyes met my teacher's, I suddenly realized something had gone WAY wrong. She walked over to me, took my dictionary off my desk, walked to the garbage can and tossed it in. She turned back around to me and said (in English, which never happened because once we walked in the door it was Spanish only) "Don't ever use that dictionary again. I'm going to pretend that you did not just tell me you smoked a joint in the park yesterday afternoon, because I'm positive that's not what you meant. Right?"  The whole time she was saying this she was cracking up, and I was turning a million shades of red. The word for stunt listed in my dictionary did indeed mean stunt, just not the kind cheerleaders do. Needless to say, it became the class joke and every day someone would ask if they could stunt with me after class. Good thing I take pride in being able to laugh at myself when I do something stupid. That was the most stupid I felt the whole summer. Maybe ever.


Surprisingly, it ended up being the best summer of my life! I developed life-long friendships, especially with my roommate! The blind date that I was so worried would come back to haunt me was the topic of our entertainment one of the last nights of the trip. We laughed so hard we cried, as I told her about how bad that night was and how worried I had been that she was going to hate me because of it!
I learned so much on this trip, mostly about myself and coping/surviving in a world where I literally felt lost and alone. I honestly don't remember everything I did, everywhere I went, everything I saw, blah blah blah, and I don't want to bore you with more writing since I'm not really sure what else to say. So I will leave you with pictures. Those say more than words anyway, so here you go....

Retiro Park - I spent many afternoons here and loved it!

Christopher Columbus monument in the Plaza de Colòn. 

The Royal Palace in Madrid.

The cross at El Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen).

Plaza de Toros.

We got to see a bull fight!

We had a free weekend to travel anywhere we wanted in Spain.
We flew to Mallorca, an island off of Spain, then took this train down the coast to the beach where we stayed.

Beautiful view from a cave in Mallorca.

Ancient Roman Aqueducts of Segovia.

Madre teaching us how to cook Paella. It was our favorite dish that she made!

The Windmills of La Mancha from Don Quichote.

Monkeys everywhere in Gibraltar, which is a tip of Spain that belongs to Britain.

Toledo.

So many other memories but these were some of my favorites! 


Next Destination: GREECE! :)

HAWAII

So... to catch you up to date, it's 2003, we've been on several a lot more family vacations, and the best news... I've just graduated high school! What's my dream graduation gift? A TRIP TO HAWAII! Here we go…

*Disclaimer: The date on the pictures say that these were taken sometime in 1994. WRONG! This trip was in the summer of 2003, so just ignore the nasty little orange date in the corner of the pictures.*

We flew from Birmingham to San Diego so that we could take a few days to enjoy California before traveling on to Hawaii. California was much more comfortable/enjoyable this time around since we were staying in a hotel instead of our camper from our previous road trip. My dad's cousin, her husband, and their two daughters lived in a suburb of San Diego and we had so much fun visiting with them and sightseeing around San Diego and La Jolla. Honestly, they could have dropped me back off in La Jolla on the way home from Hawaii and left me forever! Breathtaking!!

After a few days in San Diego, we boarded our Hawaiian Airlines plane - destination Oahu! We figured that since we were staying on the famous Waikiki Beach there might be a COUPLE of tourists crowding us while we soaked up our time in relaxing, deserted, dreamy Hawaii. Ha! Right. Tourists were EVERYWHERE! So much for our hopes of not seeing anything but greenery, the beautiful sandy beaches, the cascading waterfalls, the plummeting, mountainous coast lines, each other, and the occasional native or tourist if we just happened to stumble across someone else. What can I say, we dream big!

Oahu was definitely, ummm cozy, but what was even more crowded than the sidewalks, was the water. I would have had a panic attack out of fear that someone was going to surf right on top of my head.

Surfers everywhere!!

There was so much to do and when you travel with my mom, you WILL do it ALL! After our trips I am thankful that she is a crazy tourist, but in the midst of the craziness, I wish she had an off button. Gotta love her.

We took a day to visit Pearl Harbor and learn about the events of that horrific morning of Dec. 7, 1941. What a solemn and blessed experience to be able to stand directly on the site of the sunken USS Arizona, in remembrance of the thousands of innocent lives that were taken so suddenly in that attack.

USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

On a lighter note, the attack (heart attack that is) that almost took my innocent little life, was our hike up the famous volcanic crater, Diamond Head. Many stops were made on that trek and I wasn't sure the view was going to be worth it. IT WAS!!

View from the top of Diamond Head.
Totally worth the near heart attack!

View from inside Diamond Head.

After a few days in Oahu, we took our cozy vacation to the less crowded island of Maui. Ahhhh... THERE is our relaxing, deserted, dreamy Hawaii! Well... that whole relaxing part depends on your definition of relaxation. To our family, relaxing means that we enjoyed driving The Road to Hana, watching the sunrise from the top of an inactive volcano and then biking back down, taking a helicopter tour of the breathtaking scenery, a night at a luau, and most of all taking in all of the beauty that is Hawaii.

The Road to Hana.

Watching the sunrise from the top of an inactive volcano
before our bike ride back down to the bottom.

Enjoying the breathtaking views on a Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tour.
They are the same company that did all of the ariel view filming for Jurassic Park!

The pit at the Old Lahaina Luau.
Old Lahaina Luau is the recipient of several "Best Of" awards.

My mom and I at the Old Lahaina Luau

Now the BEST part!! After we spent several days in Maui, it was time for my dream graduation trip to come to an end. No, that's not the best part... wait for it! We had checked out of our condo and we were on our way to the airport to return the rental car and board the plane headed back home. Now THIS is the best part... somewhere on the midst of all the complaining about going back to the real world, the comments about how much fun we had, and then silence because we were all staring out the window sulking in self-pity... the car turned into a resort, a room was reserved, our flight was rescheduled, and we were unloading the car running to our new home away from home! That's right - WE STAYED!! I don't remember much from those last few, additional days... I think I just laid out in the sun and pinched myself a million times to make sure it wasn't a dream!

Next Destination: SPAIN!

The destinations only get better from here so get ready to take "A Life Hiatus" with me!

How it all started...

I may not look old enough to remember the pre-cellphone, pre-internet, pre-digital camera days, but I am. This first post is going to be a little tough for me as I realize my age because of the simple fact that I will not be able to share any pictures of my early travels with you. And by early, I mean pre-college which isn't exactly early. In the scheme of life I'm young, but in the world of technology I am an old fogy. Alright enough of that. On to the fun stuff!

I honestly don't remember when my love for travel began. It is something that has always felt like a significant part of who I am. Growing up we would take frequent beach trips, always leaving my friends and me heartbroken as I was informed, while climbing into the car from the car rider line, that we were going out of town for the weekend. My response was more often than not, "But mom, I was going to stay with Kaila tonight". I did however grow to love those trips and I miss them terribly today. The beach trips quickly turned into Disney World, a cruise, and a cross country road trip that included every big attraction from Alabama to California and back. And I hadn't even started high school yet!! :)

Let me preface the rest of my blog with this...
I have been blessed with the most amazing parents who are an extraordinary example of how anyone can take what life has given them, learn from it, make the most of it, and with enough hard work and determination, build the life they dream of. Both my mom and dad had less than perfect upbringings. We won't get into that, but just know that they were never given the opportunity to travel. The adventures started when they had my brother and me, so get ready to laugh as we learn about this great big world as a family.

Now, back to the early trips...
Disney World was great! We stayed on Disney property, which we thought meant you had a perfect view of Cinderella's Castle from every window in the hotel. Keep in mind we were living off of cereal in the room for breakfast and picnic lunches we took to the parks, because my wonderful parents spent a little more (well... a lot more according to their checkbook) so that we could have that perfect view. Little did we know, Disney World has it's own Interstate system and we were a good 10 minutes from any of the parks. And yep you guessed it, NO view of ANYTHING that even closely resembled Cinderella's Castle. Oh well. You live and learn. That was the last time Mickey got our lodging money.

Then there's the cruise. Anyone remember "The Big Red Boat"? It was shut down several years after our big adventure due to something about, not being big/safe enough?? Well anyway, as a family that spent a lot of time on a boat (we love the lake), we were ecstatic about our trip on this giant ship with a pool and shows and a casino and a big dining room... you get the picture. We pulled up to the port at Cape Canaveral and couldn't get on the ship quick enough. Fast forward about 24 hours and we were docked in Nassua, Bahamas. We stepped off of the ship, started towards town, looked at the other cruise ships at the port, and quickly realized that "The Big Red Boat" was exactly that - a big boat - not the giant ship we had thought. We suddenly felt like we were cruising the big, open ocean on a pontoon. Ehhhh... you live and learn? Our cruises since then have been somewhat better - as long as you don't count the Disney Cruise we took in the middle of a tropical storm. We never saw the Bahamas because it was so windy that the ship couldn't dock. Oh memories!

And ahhhh yes... a cross country road trip to California. What a happy family we were!! A brand new Suburban (our first NEW car), a camper in tow, a mom, a dad, a son, and a daughter with nothing standing in the way of us and the most exciting month of our lives. Well... nothing except a 2 day trek across Texas (are we there yeeeeeeet?), a ghetto-fabulous, rundown camp ground in Anaheim, CA (It was nice - if you wear horse blinders),  and a broken down Suburban in Lordsburg, NM ("20 miles from water, 2 feet from Hell"... nice little saying from a coffee cup we purchased while stranded). And yes, that broken down Suburban was the brand new one we were so proud of! Oh and we can't forget the good ole "GAWLEEEEE" (my mother's version of "OH WOW!") echoing through the Grand Canyon. At that moment, due to humiliation, I wished that I had fallen into the Rio Grande below.
And if that even began to list the excitement from that trip....

Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

Good news is, from this point on I would consider us to be more "seasoned" travelers. Maybe we're seasoned with expired salt and pepper, but seasoned none the less.

Next destination - Hawaii :)

Join me!

Born and raised in a small town in central Alabama, I began traveling the U.S. with my family at a very young age. By the time I graduated high school I had visited well over half of the 52 states and other jurisdictions, and U.S. territories. In college, I was blessed with the opportunity to study abroad for a summer where I lived with a family in Madrid, Spain. My mom joined me after I completed my studies, and we continued our travels to Greece. When I was presented with the chance to spend 3 weeks backpacking through Europe only 6 months later, I jumped at the opportunity and I continue to embrace every adventure that falls in my path today. With less than 10 states and U.S. territories left on my list and a handful of countries already checked off, my wanderlust grows more intense with every journey.

Please join me on "A Life Hiatus" as I re-live previous travels, embark on new adventures, and dream of future destinations. As Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage". As performers in the production of "Life", we deserve an occasional hiatus.