Athens and Venice!

After Mykanos I took a ferry toAthens. Athens was cool but there was not loads to do. I enjoyed walking around and looking at the ruins. My hostel was so close to the Acroplis and had an amazing view of it from the roof top bar. I just had a few lazy days walking around the area by my hostel and the acroplois called Plaka. It was nice and it was a great hostel where I meet lots of cool people. I got to venice last night at 11. Iflew from athens to milan then took a bus from the airport to the train station and the a train to venice. I have no idea why i did that but it was fine and i got here. Last night as i was coming out of the train station I complelty fell. I had flip flops on and it was raining. I finaly made it to my hostel though and they had saved me some dinner. Today I just walked around and found st. marcs square and the grand canel. I love just walking and finding all the amazing things. It is amazing to stop and think sometimes that I am here. That I am doing excatly what I want to do and that I can do it on my own and love it! I hope you are all great and cant wait to catch up this summer. lots of love Ang

Greek Islands!

I got to Meykanos yesterday and am really enjoying it. It is so beautiful. The weather was nice until about two hours ago when it started to rain and be really windy. Which is why I am in a warm and dry internet cafe. I am planning on getting a four wheeler tomorrow to drive and explore the island on. There are scooters also but I dont want to do that after what happened on my Birthday in Tuscany! Sarah can vounch for me that it would not be a good idea. It is really beutiful and the people are nice the language has not been an issue which I figuered becuase it has so many tourists. There were a few cruise ships here yesterday which made me want to do a cruise becuase they all looked like they were enjoying themseleves and it makes travel easy. But also not want to becuase you only see such a small part of a place. But maybe it would be good to see different places and then you could go back and spend more time there latter on. My hotel is nice a big room with my oen bathroom, but since it is a hotel more then hostel I can not meet people so i will be on my own for these next few days till i am in athens when I can hopefully meet people in the hostel. I hope you are all doing well and can not wait to catch up in person!

Scotland!

This past weekend I went on a three day tour of Loch Ness and Isle of Skye. It was nice to go back to Edinburgh to spend more time and see different things. I took the train up from London it was four hours but such a beautiful ride and very relaxing. When I got to Edinburgh it was wamr and sunny so I checked into my hostel and went and had lunch. It was the same hostel that Sarah and I stayed in for Christmas so it was nice to be somewhere familiar where I new the area. 

    On Friday morning I went and checked in for my tour. I ended up speaking with an Aussie girl who I ended up hanging out with the whole time. We had to sit in the very last row, with every seat taken. It was great though the people that I sat by were great and are who I hung out with for the weekend. There were ten of us that hung out besides myself there were two american girls and all the rest were aussie's.  The tour was beautiful and it was a lot of fun to see the sights and meet and share travel stories. We spent both nights in a hostel in a very small village on loch ness. It was great! the first night a few of us got some crap wine and went and drank it on a dock on loch ness. It was amazing!  Of course I did not see the famous monster, which I do believe is there but sadly it did not happen. We all spent the evening in the bar of our hostel enjoying music by a local and just talking. The aussies I was with kept using different words and I was so confused. I though I new most of the slang having lived with and aussie couple for four months but of course I did not know all of it. So we ended up having a long group talk about the different words. They know all the american slang from all the american tv they get. 

     On Saturday we visited a castle that was cool. But I was really sick that morning from the bus ride. We were on single lane roads that are never straight, I was in the back row and could not see far in front of the bus because of the mist. BUt once I felt better the day was fine. After the castle we went to the isle of skye. It is a small island that has legends about it. One was of a stream that had been blessed to make those who dip their head in even more beautiful. It was raining and windy, but I did it. I have to say i dont think it helped my zit did not disappear as I was hoping. That night we got food from the chip shop and wine from the gas station, I know classy and went back to our hostel. We ended up sitting in our room for about two hours drinking and talking it was a blast to get to know the girls I was in a room with better and share ridicules travel stories. We wneded up being told there was a disco in the village that was just past the chip shop. So 7 of us girls and one guy went to the disco. In side it was pretyt much a pup that had a dance floor and a strob light! It was great fun! It was five local old men and us, but it was fun. We got kicked out at 12:30 which I guess is closing time in the village. We went back to our hostel and hung out for the rest of the night. 

    On Sunday I woke up and my voice was gone. This is the third time since being here that I have lost my voice. It sucks. That day we went by the battle ground where william wallace fought and went back to Edinburgh. A group of us went to dinner and then out to a pup. Cause I could not talk they gave me paper and I had to write down what I wanted to say and then one of the girls read it for me. It was actually fun cause we could look back at it. 

    The next morning four of us meet at Elephant House for coffee which is where J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of Harry Potter and the Sorceress Stone. Then we went and had lunch before I had to catch  the train back to London. It was a great tour because of the people that I meet. Unfortunately I was on the bus more then I would have liked to have been but it was fun still. 

    On Monday I leave for Mekanos, a greek island. From there I will go to Athens, then fly to Milan to catch a train to Venice. Then I fly to Barcelona, Lisbon and Paris. Then take the train to Amsterdam, Berlin, Prauge and meet my cousins Will and Lisa with the daughter Lexi in Krakow then to Warsaw. Then I fly back to london and home to seattle on the 19th of May. It will be a little over a month and I will only have a few days in each city but it is a start to experiencing Europe. 

    I have absolutely loved my time and experiences I have had here. It has been the hardest thing that I have done and am so happy that I did! I dont feel like there is another challange that I could do that would have been more benifitial. I have grown so much as a person and a teacher which is a nice bonus. I am so happy that I did this and am so thankful for the support and some time straight up lecture on sticking with it. I will miss living here and being able to do so much and even just going next door to Many Thanks a little store that I go to. TO be able to walk and take the bus. To hear so many different languages and accents all around. I will miss is so much and know that I will be coming back to london soon. I hope everyone is well and has a great easter. I can not wait to be home for a bit and catch up with everyone! Lots of love Ang!