Greece

Well, I'm finally going to tell you about Greece, I don't know why it took me so long to sit down and write about it...
My trip began in a dark but noisy parking lot in Zagreb at 11 at night. I found my classmates attired in sunglasses, straw hats, floaties and of course good old winter coats. We were originally supposed to leave the next morning for Venice (a few hours in the bus) and take a boat from there to Greece, but something was wrong with the boat, so we had to leave the night before and bus 12 hours to Ancona and catch a boat from there instead.
When I woke up in the morning, I rushed out to the deck of the boat and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with sunshine and an amazing view of the Greek coastline. Then it was off the boat and back on the bus. We drove up and up. We must have gone up pretty far, because the trees were turing orange, and the air was chilly and smelled like the mountains.
Our next stop was Kalampaka, where monastaries perched perilously atop pillar-like cliffs. The first one we stopped at was closed, but we had better luck at the second and were able to go inside.
Early the next morning we re-boarded the bus to go to Delphi, the alleged home of the oracle. We followed a path that wound up the mountainside through the remains of a series of temples, eventually ending at a stadium. The view was amazing, with cliffs all around and olive trees below. After that, we explored the town of Delphi, then it was back on the bus for a 6 hour ride to our hotel outside of Athens.
We spent the next day in Athens, where we saw the Acropolis. It was quite a mob scene of tourists from all over the world. Kelsey and I walked around eavesdropping and trying to identify the different languages. We visited a museum and saw ancient artifacts and statues, then we explored the city. My Croatian classmates complained that it was dirty and smelly, but I thought it was a cool city. I love how there are ancient ruins and beautiful old churches randomly scattered among the modern buildings.
I went swimming that night in the sea. It was a bit chilly, but the water was surprisingly warm. I think Kelsey and I were the only ones all week who went ion the sea. The Croatians said it was dirty. (and they weren't altogether wrong, but I didn't really care) The prevailing sentiment of the week: Greece sucks; we love Croatia! It was really interesting traveling with them. Can you imagine 50 Croatians parading through the streets at two in the morning belting out their Croatian songs?
The next day, we went to Sounion, where according to legend, King Aegeus threw himself into the sea when he say his son's ship returning from battle with a black sail. The wind was blowing so hard but there was a great view.
On our last sight-seeing day in Greece, we traveled around Peloponnese, where we visited an ancient amphitheater with amazing acoustics, Mycenae, and the old capital, Napflio, a picturesque little town with arches and flowers and views of the sea.
The next day we woke up early, drove to the port and boarded our boat. On our drive home through Italy, we stopped to visit the Republic of San Marino, a tiny country built on top of a very steep hill. We arrived back in Zagreb at 1:30 in the morning and I was so happy to see my host family and my bed.