Our European Adventures

MYKONOS and SANTORINI 5/26-5/29 We landed in Mykonos in the early morning around 7am. Luckily we did not have to run at all and we were feeling better about our transportation issues. Since we were tired of paying for over-priced taxis, we decided to walk 40ish minutes to Mykonos town where we were staying in an Airbnb. The walk was nice and as we approached the town, we began searching for our Airbnb. Fortunately, we have an app called maps.me which has been a lifesaver. We can download the maps on wifi and then use them to get around when we do not have wifi. Thank you 21st century technology. Yet, we still struggled to find the place since there are little to no street signs and no numbers on the buildings. Once we located our Airbnb it was still too early to check in. We decided to walk the streets to find some breakfast. We ended up sitting right along the water at the Old Port at a cute restaurant. The kitchen still was not open at 8am but we could sit and get coffee. Emily ...

ATHENS 5/25 We came. We saw. We left.  We came: We did not end up staying in the airport until the next day. Instead we risked it and ventured out to Athens.  We saw: Before seeing anything, we ate Greek food at Scholarchio Restaurant. Ordered a meal for two for 30€. So much food: two meat plates, a Greek salad, feta cheese with honey, tzatziki sauce, bread, dessert, water, and a drink. It was a feast! We hiked up to the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon.  We left. Mykonos soon!

BRUSSELS/BRUGES 5/24 Hello everyone! As you may remember from our last post, we were on our way to Brussels. We made it in to Brussels around 10:10pm. Grace’s friend, Ben, lives in Brussels, so we made our way to his place, where we would be staying for the next two nights. Ben’s apartment is so nice! It even has a washer and dryer! Once we arrived, Ben took us out for a beer near his apartment at a neat bar. Belgians love their beer so we had the local brands. After catching up with Ben and learning about his role at the EU Parliament, we headed back to his place for a much needed shower and sleep.  Unfortunately for us, we had to get up early to walk to the train station the next morning for our day trip to Bruges. Luckily, Grace had found a free walking tour online. Both of us expected a small town, but Bruges was much larger than we expected. There was much more to see than we thought so the walking tour was a perfect way to see the city. We made it to the main square ...

AMSTERDAM 5/22-5/23 (morning 8:30 am to next day at 6 pm) HELLO FROM THE BOTH OF US! Our adventure began with trying to find each other at baggage claim, with Emily arriving (from JFK) just an hour before Grace (from Prague). After a lovely reunion, we rushed out of the airport to make it to the Anne Frank House at our scheduled ticket time. We had to drop off our packs (update: Emily fit everything in the 40L pack without upgrading) at the hostel before we could make our way to Anne Frank. After rushing out of the airport, we were greeted by a ginormous line of people waiting for taxis. As we slowly watched our ticket time approach, with little hope of making it...A TESLA TO THE RESCUE! Yes, a tesla taxi. And let us tell you, this guy made it happen for us without even knowing what a hurry we were in. Not only was he driving really fast, he decided that he could use the bus only lane, shaving 10 minutes off google's estimated trip time. So thank you, Sir! For those ...

BERLIN 5/16-5/18 Berlin was very different from what we expected. It was huge and spread out. We took public transportation and walked around the whole city. It was very quiet, especially compared to New York, which was surprising considering it's the capital. When we arrived, our cousin Bobby and his girlfriend Dana picked us up from the airport. It was so nice staying with them and catching up! They live right down the street from a jazz club David Bowie would perform at (see pic below, Faith loves Bowie). We then explored Berlin a bit by seeing the Holocaust Memorial and the Brandenburg Gate. We were pretty exhausted after not sleeping on the plane, so we just hung out at the apartment that night. The next day we checked out the East Side Gallery, where there are beautiful murals on the Berlin Wall. We went on a 4.5 hour bike tour which we would recommend 10/10. This city is very ~bike-able~. We learned about so much of the history and heard a ton of crazy stories about the B...

Hello, Friends and Family! As many of you may know, we are backpacking through Europe for the next 6 weeks and are planning to detail all of our travels here! Grace is starting off the adventure by traveling with her sister to Berlin and Prague. After Emily graduates, she will join Grace in Amsterdam and the adventure begins! Please wish us luck as we are still attempting to fit everything into our 40L backpacks :) (although Emily is already looking to upgrade sizes...). Adventure awaits! Emily & Grace