Sorry to all of you who have been waiting patiently to hear of my Greek Island adventures!
Santorini was amazing but the weather did not like us very much. It was cold, windy, and rainy for the first two days, the last was fairly nice, but we had a good time regardless. One day we sailed out on a pirate-ship (tourist style) to an area where the volcanic rock heats the water and jumped in! It was super cold and our muscles were instantly tense, but we swam to the warmer water and floated around in the sulfur-infested rocks for a little while. Compared to the water by the boat it was warm, but in reality it was the coldest water I have ever swam in ever!! I was happy to finally get out and warm up...but it was worth it!
We left Santorini for Istanbul in a series of two flights by way of Athens. What a culture shock! Turkey is a secular country, but is dominated by the Islam faith, so I was super nervous. But I fell in love with the city instantly when we caught sight of the several million tulips planted all over the city for the annual, nationwide tulip festival! Apparently Turkey is where the tulip reigns...not the Netherlands. We stayed here for a few days, crammed in the major sights with our Turkish tour guide Ahmed, and headed out for a week long tour of the entire (almost) country! It was amazing and exsausting...nearly 8 hours per day on a bus every day! It was SO much fun and we are now back in Istanbul on our last night before our return to Athens and departure for Rome on our own!
I apologize this is so brief and late, the reason is because my computer I am borrowing from the school completely broke, something internally crashed and I have no idea what caused it but I have no computer and have to mooch off my classmates. We all live by our computers so it is difficult to find time for extra things like this! But no worries...I will be home shortly to tell you all about the details in person!
