9/15/2014
Last month, I went to visit my
friend Gerlee and her family at their ger in the countryside for 5 days. This
time I boarded the bus alone, hoping I would remember to get off in the right
town. I had never been to her family’s summer location, so I just hoped I would
recognize the town when it came up, which luckily I did and I was greeted by
Gerlee’s smiling face. We walked to her grandma’s house, where once again I was
greeted with smiling faces and ushered into the house to drink ariag.I sat down
with her grandma, brother and uncles to drink airag (fermented mares’ milk) as
we waited for her other family members to join us. Her cousins arrived and we
all piled into the back of her brother’s car and drove to a famous Monastery.
It was gorgeous and huge! The monastery is surrounded by 100stupas. We first
walked through the museum, which housed pictures and relics of Buddhist
History. We then headed outside in the rain to walk around all the buildings.
Each temple was extraordinary. The ceilings and walls were all hand painted and
had images of the Buddhist gods and symbols all over them. There were huge
Buddha statues and paintings inside each temple. The grounds are home to over
1000 images, statues and paintings of Buddha. Each temple was more amazing then
the last.
The
rain finally stopped and we left the monastery grounds to walk back to her
grandma’s house. On the way out, I saw huge eagles perched on stumps. They were
hunting eagles and you could hold one for about 1 USD. I had to do it. I put on
the big glove and held my arm up and the bird flew onto it. It was the coolest
feeling! They are so giant and heavy! We then drove back to her grandma’s house
and went off to the countryside to meet up with her parents and their friends
at their summer ger site. The minute I arrived I was offered more airag and
soup. After we ate, we went to herd the goats and sheep back to the ger. Her younger cousin, who was about 7 years old,
went with us and decided to ride one of the goats. This goat was so friendly
and kept walking right next to us, wanting to be pet. So we picked up the
little boy and he sat on the goat and rode back with us. It was adorable. We
played soccer when we got back to her ger and I milked a horse, which was my
least favorite part of the trip, the horse did not like it and kept trying to
kick me. I let gerlee and her dad milk the rest. After we ate dinner, we went
over to her grandma’s ger and helped her pack for her trip to the host springs.
All the men packed the truck with a small ger that her grandmother would be
staying in for a week at the hot springs. The next morning, we all piled in to
the back of the truck and drove to the hot springs. It was cold outside so her
grandmother gave me a deel to wear.
As the
family set up the ger, Gerlee and I went to the hot springs to bottle mineral
water and to drink some as well. We walked across wood boards over the boiling
hot water to a section of land that had many mineral springs coming out from
the ground. Each little spring was dedicated to a different part of the body.
So there was water to drink if you were having stomach problems, eye issues,
etc. I drank a ton of the stomach water. After walking around the hot springs,
we all jumped back into the truck to go berry and nut picking. It was so much
fun. We hiked a couple mountains until we finally found berries to pick. After
gathering berries in our plastic bottles, we hiked back down the mountain to
eat lunch. Soup cooked on a fire. Once we were finished, we got back into the
truck and drove to another mountain pass which is where we would search for
pine nuts. I had no idea how one gathers nuts, I thought you just picked them
off of bushed like berries, but no…The men climbed the tallest trees and shook
the branches, making the nuts fall to the ground. We all ran around with
cardboard boxes on top of our heads like helmets, trying to gather as many nuts
as possible. I can only imagine what it would like to a foreigner, complete
chaos with children 60 feet in the air, jumping and shaking branches. After
that madness, we drove to a small town to buy more food and drinks.
We parked the
truck in the middle of a field and had a picnic as the sun set. It was freezing
and I thought that we would be going back to the gers to sleep, so I did not
dress properly. Unfortunately, the men drank too much and we were unable to
actually make it home. After a couple minutes of attempting to drive the
country roads, the driver realized he should not be driving. We pulled over and
set up camp in the back of the truck. They laid deels (Mongolian coats) and
blankets on the bed of the truck and tied a tarp over it, which did not keep
any heat in. After about an hour of trying to go to sleep, we all realized it
was way too cold to lay down and sleep. We headed back to town to buy more
drinks and food and decided we would party the night away in the field. We
blared the music from the truck and pranced around the field, dancing and
playing volleyball in front of the headlights of the truck. Here I was
freezing, in a giant deel, dancing my heart out and running around a field. It
so was weird, but so much fun. Finally
at 6am, the driver was good to drive and drove us back to the gers. Gerlee and
I slept the day away in front of a fire, thawing ourselves out from the night
before. It was a night I will never forget.
10/21/2014
Greece
was incredible! I wish Peace Corps Greece existed. I would pick up and move to
Santorini in a heartbeat. Everything I had been craving for the last year and a
half was satisfied. I could write a book about my weeks in Greece, but here I
will just give you the highlights of each place Emily and I traveled to.
First
stop, Athens. The capital of Greece and a gorgeous little city, made up of
brick streets, ancient ruins and hundreds of little restaurants, whose waiters
would enthusiastically greet you and follow you down the street telling you to
come sit down and eat food at their place. Many times we heard “we have the
best looking waiters in all of Athens”, as if I chose my food based on
attractiveness, which to be honest, after being in Mongolia for a year and a
half, it did appeal to me as they said it. Many times I did do a couple double takes
to actually see what the waiters looked like. But in actuality, all I wanted to
do was eat my weight in seafood and frozen greek yogurt, it didn’t matter if
Zac Efron himself was serving up my dishes or a homeless man, I just wanted the
food. The first food I ate was fresh greek yogurt with honey, granola and
grapefruit, a chocolate filled crepe and a feta and spinach omelet. Luckily for me, the resort I was staying at
had a top notch breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet, with unlimited wine at
each. The wine came from a tap and you could just fill up pitchers or red,
white or rose. The first day, I spent laying on the beach and the second, the
day before Emily arrived, I spent in the Spa. I signed up for a day long spa
package, which included 2 massages, a body wrap and a facial. It was 5 hours of
absolute bliss. The funny thing was that those two days, I was so full from
eating massive amounts of delicious filling food at breakfast that I was unable
to eat lunch and dinner. It is amazing how real food satisfies hunger, unlike
rice and potatoes.
My
third day in Athens, I woke up early in the morning and went to meet Emily at
the airport. As the flight arrival screen updated and I saw her flight had
arrived, I started crying. It was then 30 minutes later I was waiting outside
the arrival gate and she walked through the door. I have never been so excited
to see someone. After a year and a half of not seeing family or friends, my
best friend in the entire world was here and it was overwhelming! We both hugged
and cried and hugged and cried some more, thankfully, we were still able to
navigate the public transportation system and found the bus that would take us
to the Student and Travelers’ Inn. We wondered the streets trying to find the
hostel, but we couldn’t find it, so we stopped at a little shop and the
sweetest old man gave us directions, not before hugging and kissing us both and
telling us to enjoy Athens. We got to the hostel and dropped our luggage off
and set out for lunch. Right next to the inn, was a delicious greek restaurant,
we ate and then headed off to see the Acropolis. Both of us had no idea what
the difference between the Acropolis or the Parthenon was, I thought that the
Acropolis was just a nickname for the Parthenon. But once we got there, we
figured out all the different buildings, but still had no idea what they really
were or what they were used for. Thank goodness for technology and we were able
to google what the buildings were used for on Em’s Iphone. I was never a
history person. The acropolis was spectacular and it was so cool to be walking
around the ancient ruins. The Parthenon was bigger than I imagined, it was
huge! After we finished at the Acropolis, we went to the tallest location in
Athens to eat dinner and watch the sunrise. We rode up the mountain in a taxi,
ate delicious gyros and drank just as delicious wine. The view was spectacular
and right before the end of the night we met Erin, who was traveling around
Europe and Asia. The three of us then traveled to Santorini and Mykonos
together!
The
next morning, the three of us boarded the ferry to Santorini. It took us eight
hours to reach the island; once we stepped onto land, a bus picked us up and
brought us to our hotel in Imirovigli. The highlight of Santorini had to be the
day we boarded a sail boat and sailed to the volcano. We hiked the active
volcano as our tour guided told us about the history of Santorini and how the
different islands were formed when the volcano erupted. After the volcano, we
got back onto the sail boat and sailed to the hot springs. The boat could not
dock at the hot springs, so any one who wanted to enjoy the springs had to jump
from them deck of the boat into the ocean and swim to the hot springs. It was
so much fun!! The captain took my camera and took pictures of us and then a
series of selfies of himself. After our time at the hot springs was over, we
went for lunch at little seafood restaurant on the water. I had delicious giant
shrimp and more sangria. Once lunch was finished, we hopped back on the boat
which took us back to the main island just in time for us to jump on donkeys
and head up the island to watch the sunset. The donkey ride was hilarious and
so much fun, after more than a couple glasses of sangria we were shrieking and
laughing the entire ride up the hundreds of stairs. Thank god for the donkeys,
I don’t know if we would have made it up all the stairs in time. The donkeys
knew the route and trucked up the steep stairs on autopilot. What a trip! Once
again, we watched the breath taking sunset, this time drinking champagne in
someone’s backyard, while a model doing a photo shoot took place 10 feet next
to us.
Emily
and I also rented ATVs to take us around the island for the day, which was
awesome. We rode down to the different beaches, explored different parts of the
island and woke up early one morning to ride down to a spot to watch the
sunrise. Every point in Santorini is picturesque and photo worthy. While on one
of trips, we ran into a group of guys who were doing the same thing as us, riding
around the island on rented ATVS, we ended up having a wicked fun dinner with
them, sharing our crazy travel stories and life as 20 somethings. I never
wanted to leave Santorini. But after days and days of moving our departure date
(thank god that our hotel room was available and we could tell reception every
morning that we were going to stay another night) ahead, we finally got back on
the ferry and headed to Mykonos, the party island.
We were
greeted by a women who owned the flat we were going to be renting for the next
couple days. She told us how she came to Mykonos 30 years ago from Germany,
fell in love and never left the island. While driving us to the flat, she gave
us a tour and told us of the trendy places to visit. Mykonos did not disappoint,
we had a crazy fabulous night out, dancing and running around the maze like
island, getting lost over and over again. Luckily, we made videos of our night
out and were able to relive the craziness over and over. After our night out,
we needed a day on the beach. We hopped on bus heading to Paradise Island,
which was a little bit of paradise. We perched ourselves under umbrellas on big
over stuffed lounge chairs and spent the day soaking in the sun and reading.
After Mykonos we went back to Athens. This is where we would part, Emily and I
going back to Athens on our way to Istanbul and Erin off to Italy to meet up
with her mom. After a great last dinner together, we boarded our separate buses
and Emily and I were back to Plaka.
We
decided to do a walking tour of Athens, since we had only seen the Acropolis
our first day in Athens. We joined in on the 4 hours walking tour of the city
and it was awesome. We were able to see all the sites and our tour guide was
awesome! After taking millions of pictures we went back to our Hostel to begin
packing for the next part of our journey, Turkey! We went to bed excited to
head off to the next country but then woke up to the TV in the lounge talking
about the new protests erupting in Istanbul, in Taksim Square, the exact location
of the apartment we were renting. We began searching the internet for news on
the protests, learning that someone had been shot in the head and killed and
that water cannons were being used on the protesters. Emily and I decided that
we would be fine, we would just not join in on the protests, we were still
going to Istanbul. I emailed the owner of the apartment and asked if the
situation was actually as dangerous as the news was making it out to be. His
reply “ Brittany, they are just protesting ISIS here, it is not unsafe”, I read
it out loud to Emily and we both were not sold on his reply, but told him we
would still be coming. We showered and headed to the metro with a backpacks on
our back, the whole way trying to decide what we were going to do. We really
wanted to go to Istanbul but was it worth it. We needed others opinions, we
decided to call people and ask them what they thought. No one would give us a
definitive answer, we wanted someone to tell us what to do, but they would not,
I guess that is what happens when you become an adult, you have to make
decisions for yourself. Ugh. Still confused and now really hungry, we decided
we still had some time before we had to go to the metro, so we sit down at a café
and order large frozen yogurts with a ton of toppings. Naturally, frozen yogurt
would solve our problem. We decided we would give ourselves one more night in
Athens and see how Istanbul was in the morning, but as we began to digest more
and more yogurt, it became clear that we had to cancel Istanbul and stay in
Greece. It was crazy to travel somewhere, putting ourselves in danger, we have
years ahead of us to visit Turkey. Turkey would have to wait. But now we had
another dilemma, where would we go now, we still had several days left to our
trip, but we were now bored of Athens (tough life right?) and going back to the
islands was out of the question, neither one of us wanted to board a ferry
again for 8 hours. We sat there semi sulking about Istanbul, but knowing it was
the right decision. Then it hit me, lets go back to the Resort and Spa I stayed
at the first two nights. It was amazing and there is a beach. We booked a room
at the resort online and within 3 hours we were hopping onto the metro to the
airport where the Resort car would pick us up and take us to Attica. This was a
superb decision. We bought the all inclusive pass so we could eat all meals and
have unlimited drinks for the next three days. We never had to leave the resort
complex. The only time we did was to go for runs. The first day we hung out on
the beach all day, the second day was spa day, hair cuts, hydro massages,
hot tubbing and saunas all day and the third day was lay by the pool and drink
all day. The buffets for every meal were amazing. We decided to go back to
Athens to celebrate my birthday.
So trip
3 to Athens, my birthday. I am so happy we went back to Athens to celebrate. We
had been talking about getting tattoos in Greece the whole trip and finally
decided to walk to a tattoo parlor and get them. Twenty minutes later, Emily
and I walked out with small tattoos on our wrists, that were both symbolic of
our adventure and messages about how we live our lives. We went to this little restaurant
that advertised traditional plate breaking throughout dinner. We were seated
right next to the live music and enjoyed delicious Hummus and greek food. We
were given plates to throw and yell “Oopa” when we were happy or excited. So
much fun. The two men playing guitars sang happy birthday to me in greek and English
and the waiter, bus boy and hostman (not sure what to call a hostess who is a
man) grabbed Emily and my hands and we danced to greek music in the middle of
the street. It was amazing. To end the night we were given dessert, shots of
Ouzo and more plates to break. By far the best birthday ever. The next morning
we woke and remembered that we would be leaving Greece the next day. We did
some shopping and more eating. The next morning we woke up and headed back to the
airport. In order to counteract jet lag, we decided we would stay up all
night/earl morning in Starbucks and not sleep until different parts of our
flights that coordinated with the times of night in America and Mongolia. I had
a 17 hour wait till “my night”. I stayed up with Emily until 6am Greece time
and saw her off to her gate, crying once again. I then wondered the airport and
ended up sleeping on a couch at Starbucks for a few hours, wandering some more,
napping again, until finally it was 7pm and I could board my plane.
IT WAS
THE BEST TRIP EVER.
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