Our Last Week in Aix

This week is pretty sad since it is filled with all of the “last time that we will ____” events. We had all of the mandatory closing of the bank accounts, visiting the leasing office and the leasing office, and getting properly yanked around by the internet and electric companies, so that wasn’t so great, but at least everything is done and taken care of (and if it’s not, I’m leaving the country!). Wednesday Allie and I went to climb Mont Saint Victoire one more time. A big group of us went one of the first weekends in January, but we didn’t make it to the top. We had underestimated the time required to climb a mountain and had gotten severely lost, so we bailed. Allie and I went back and we made it to the top after only 2 hours rough climbing. It was gorgeous at the top and more of a symbolic victory that we made it up there. Honestly the climb down might have been harder, and I was completely exhausted by the time we made it back home that evening. We had our last dinner with our host ladies that night and invited both of them to come visit in the US and they said that we could come back to France and stay with them anytime. Honestly, these two ladies were a huge redeeming factor for my opinion of the French people.

Thursday the five of us (Chelsey, Leigh, Allie, Marley, and I) went to the Calanques in Cassis with some of our French friends: Thomas, Gary and Leondre. This ended up requiring more hiking than we expected, but after about 45 minutes when we made it to the edge of the cliffs and saw the crystal clear water coming out of the rocks below, it was well worth it. We spent the day swimming and tanning (since this won’t be nearly as easy in Cincinnati!) Allie and I accidentally wandered onto the nude part of the beach, but hey, it’s France. Unfortunately Chelsey really hurt her foot which made it pretty hard to climb back up the way that we came. We spent the night at the Woohoo for our last Trivia Night and actually did quite badly, but it was fun to see everyone. We had to say our first goodbyes to some of our friends that live here and that we won’t be seeing again while we’re here.

Today we had our last final, Anthropology of Provence, and it went fairly well. We were all just so tired of the French university system that we would have done anything to not have to take that test. We all finished pretty early and got out of there! The last time we have to be in the FAC! Tonight we’re having a big dinner with everyone in the program and then Allie and I have to say goodbye to the other girls since they’re leaving tomorrow on a two-week Euro trip.

Maybe we’ll have to get in a fountain tonight… we haven’t done it yet.

We Just Saw the Apocalypse!

This leg of the trip was a bit of a disappointment. We had planned on seeing the famous white and blue buildings that grace the postcards all over Greece, and yet those buildings are only to be found on one of the islands that is about 4 hours ferry ride from Athens. We didn’t make it out to any of the islands- Santorini is the most famous one and it was 75 euro round trip to go there; plus we couldn’t do it in a day and would have had to pay for a hotel for the night. We stayed in Athens, and although we all knew that the Greek economy recently went downhill (to put it politely), we were surprised by the overall poverty of the city. It wasn’t new poverty caused by the state of the economy, but the city is just generally poor. The areas around the main tourist attractions like Acropolis are quite nice, but very small. I didn’t feel like there was an entire street in Athens that was nice from beginning to end.

There is also a very odd ratio of men to women, and I’m guessing it’s about 4:1. This being said, we saw hardly any women the whole time that we were there, and the men are all middle aged, which was weird too. They have no problem being quite vulgar and saying whatever they want to you while you’re passing on the street whether it is daytime or nighttime. Our hotel actually ended up being in a pretty shady area (prostitutes on the street corner, you know), and we didn’t feel safe going out at night at all, so we were always back to the hotel by dark.

On the other hand, the food was really great and extremely cheap. We had gyros for lunch and dinner most days and you could get a gyro and a Coke for 3 euro! Such a steal. The baklava was to die for until we made the mistake of sitting down in the café to order some. The price quadruple and they feel no need to warn you of this, so between the four of us we accidentally spent 43 euro on cake in one sitting. Surprise.

The ruins were nice, but I had imagined them to be bigger. Somehow they look really huge in all the pictures, but in reality it’s a hill above the city with three stone buildings on top (and a million people taking pictures). We did go to the beach one day and it was very nice, we were just there too early. The official tourism season was starting the following week so a lot of the beaches were not open and there was hardly anyone on them. It was still very nice and you know I love a good beach!

I don’t regret going to Athens at all, but my word of advice would be that if you go to Greece, you should just go to the islands. Athens is nice, and perhaps worth a day trip, but not worth staying in and certainly not for four days.

Rome is burning

Next stop of the Spring Break adventure was in Rome. Marley met us there because she had already seen Venice, so now there were four of us. We flew into Rome on Easter, probably the most crowded and busiest day of the year in Rome, so we decided to stay in another camping place that was about 45 minutes outside of the city. It wasn't a bad choice- getting to the city was easy and cheap, it just took time, but we knew that going in. It was more of a minimal cabin than the one we had been in before, but we still had a bathroom in our room so it was acceptable (somehow, all bathrooms and rooming situations get compared to Malta, so this was still an upgrade).

Of course at the same time that we checked in, a group of about 300 thirteen-year old kids checked in at the same time. The walls were so thin that we could hear our neighbors next to us, the neighbors across the street, AND all the random people walking by outside. And being 13, it was still really entertaining for these kids to stay up all night doing absolutely nothing (note, this is also the age of ding-dong-ditching.... great). Somehow, us being so mature and all, we got into a ding-dong ditching competition with the neighbors. It was pretty interesting considering we didn't have doorbells, and there was a point when one of the little creeps actually tried to crawl in our window. We were playing cards and Marley yells out: "THERE IS A CHILD IN OUR WINDOW!!!!" We definitely didn't get a lot of sleep that night.

Rome itself was much more interesting than I thought. I knew there would be ruins, but I didn't realize there would be so many and that the city itself would have so much to offer. We spent one day on the beach (for good reasons, Rome is not famous for its beaches) and then two days in the city. We waited in line 2 1/2 hours to get into the Vatican, saw the Sistine Chapel (Marley missed it- she just thought we were in some random room), and then spent another 45 minutes waiting with huge tour groups of Asians to get into Saint Peter's Basilica.

We made wishes in the Trevi Fountain, saw the Parliament Building, the Colosseum, and the Spanish Steps. We actually saw a man propose to his girlfriend while at the Spanish steps in front of everyone that was there. She said yes and the whole crowd started clapping and cheering for them- literally hundreds of people- it was incredibly cute.

When we left Rome we were happy to get away from the crowds- everything had been a line, but we knew that on Easter weekend it was bound to be that way. I loved the city and we had a really great time. Definitely a good choice for the second leg of our trip.

The Beginning of the End

The semester is almost over! We just got back from our last trip in which we visited Venice, Rome, and Athens. Venice was absolutely fantastic. I have always had an image in mind that the Italians are really awesome people with great food and that Venice seems to be the epicenter of it all. Honestly, the city lived up to my expectations. It was so beautiful and clean- the water wasn't dirty (as I had heard might be the case) and the streets were clean as well. There are no cars in the city, of course, but there really are a million tourists. The most annoying ones are the people that come to Venice with baby strollers. What were they thinking? Did they not know that Venice is a city of small side streets and bridges? We probably walked up and down 2,000 steps a day... and with a stroller? That's just insane; not to mention the traffic jams that creates.

Gondola rides were ridiculously expensive: 125 euro for 45 minutes. So, we didn't take one. The food was very good and generally cheaper than I had expected. Shopping was pretty good too and there was lots to see (masks and the Venetian glass!).

I bought a print from a street painter just off of the Grand Canal who said he had been painting in Venice for 15 years and he thought it was the most beautiful city in the world; I won't dispute that.

All in all we only spent two days in Venice, which was a good amount of time but we could've stayed longer. We had a wonderful time and the people were generally very nice and helpful (not at all like the rumors we had heard about Italians hating Americans). I'll definitley be going back to Venice!!