Trip Highlights

For the past (almost) three weeks, Sarah and I have been travelling throughout the Netherlands, and much of the Mediterranean. We are currently in the town of Wageningen, about an hour outside of Amsterdam, with just a couple days left before we cross the pond back to Ontario. Now that we have some down time, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some trip highlights, including some of the pictures we have from the incredibly beautiful places we visited. Enjoy!

DAY ONE: Amsterdam, just in time for the Pride canal parade

We had taken an overnight flight from Toronto, so when we arrived in Amsterdam at 7am it was actually midnight our time. We managed to stay awake through the day but felt like zombies walking through the city. 

Claire's highlight: spending the morning at a cafe in the park, sleeping, reading, and journaling

Sarah's highlight: the canal cruise we took in the evening, around the entire city. The canals were packed full of boats with people still partying from the pride parade - it was amazing to see.

DAY TWO: Amsterdam

Claire's Highlight: Walking through Vondelpark, which was a beautiful park next to our hostel full of ponds and trees. I loved people watching in Amsterdam, this park was full of families and groups of students who would sit on the grass bbq-ing, drinking beer, tossing the frisbee. It was summer at it's best and I loved observing it. 

Sarah's Highlight: the coconut ice latte she had on the coffee break in the middle of our three hour walking tour. Our extremely enthusiastic German tour guide, Lars-Hendrick, was also a highlight as he was incredibly entertaining - but the coffee takes the win in this case :)

DAY THREE: Malta

We flew to Malta from Amsterdam in the afternoon, but it took us several hours to navigate our way to the hostel (Ha!) The bus took a major detour, and then we could not find out hostel (even though the place we were looking for was exactly where we got off the bus - just started walking the wrong way). So we hiked all up and down the STEEP streets of Malta in 45 degree weather carrying our packs. Needless to say, both of our highlights was finally dropping our stuff and going out for dinner. Above is the delicious restaurant where we had an amazing meal overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. 

DAY FOUR: Malta

Claire's Highlight: Visiting the city of Valetta (seen above). This city dates back to the 1600s and the architecture is absolutely amazing. This picture does not do it justice at all, more to come.

Sarah's Highlight: Also the city of Valetta, as well as our first swim in the Med! 

DAY FIVE: Malta

Claire's Highlight: PARASAILING. Vic bought this for us as a birthday gift to Sarah (lucky me!), and it was sooo fun! Not as scary as I thought, actually quite relaxing and we had a beautiful view of the east coast of the island.

Sarah's Highlight: Also parasailing, as well as the afternoon we spent at a coffee shop enjoying a break from the heat and reading our books. While at the coffee shop, we also did some research about the Apostle Paul's history on the island of Malta (Acts 27 & 28).

DAY SIX: Gozo (northern Maltese island)

HaPpY bIrThDaY sArAh!!!

Claire's Highlight: spending time at the hotel we treated ourselves to for Sar's birthday, above is the hotel view from our balcony.. not bad, eh? Also visiting Xlendi Bay for dinner. One of my highlights from the whole trip was the bus trip back from Xlendi Bay, where we met a family from England. They were really beautiful people and I loved watching them. A man, woman, girl with down syndrome, and teenage boy. While waiting for the bus the boy took out a guitar and started to play and sing, at which point the other three repeatedly walked by pretending not to know him, throwing money in his case and commenting "oh wow! he's good!" and passing by. The mother and daughter then proceeded to dance together while the man joined the boy in performing. Beautiful to see.

Sarah's Highlight: Dinner in Xlendi Bay, where we had a beautiful harbour view and enjoyed fresh seafood. The waiter's were hilarious (and slightly flirty) and we laughed a lot. 

DAY SEVEN: Gozo/return to Malta

Claire's Highlight: We had a lazy morning at the hotel, sleeping in and then reading poolside. We then took a boat cruise to blue lagoon (above), and swam in the unbelievably blue water

Sarah's Highlight: The boat ride back from Gozo to Malta, passing the entire east coast of the island, and having lots of time to listen to music and enjoy the Mediterranean Sea. 

DAY EIGHT: Malta

Claire's Highlight: Sitting cliffside at Blue Grotto, taking in the above view and reading

Sarah's Highlight: Dinner overlooking the sea, followed by gelato and antics with the locals

DAY NINE: Malta

Claire's Highlight: Cliff jumping at Peter's Pool! They don't look high in the picture but they were, and I am such a chicken. Sar jumped in right away, I paced around the top for a solid ten minutes before taking a leap of faith.

Sarah's Highlight: The iced latte (this is typically her highlight) we had in the morning, as well as the hour and a half hike we did through the desert (not kidding) while trying to find Peter's Pool. Thankfully we ran into a lovely couple who gently redirected us to the much needed sea.

DAY TEN: Athens

Claire's Highlight: Dinner! I had been eagerly anticipating our first meal in Greece, and although it was not until 10 pm when we finally got to our hostel, the souvlaki at the restaurant did not disappoint. It was delicious! And on a very cute and quaint pedestrian street where we could take in the Greek culture. 

Sarah's Highlight: The flight to Greece, having time to reflect on the trip and read through past journal entries from earlier in the year. We kept pretty busy in Malta, and the plane ride was a welcome couple hours of peace and quiet. 

DAY ELEVEN: Athens

Claire's Highlight: Seeing all the incredible history in Athens, particularly St. Paul's hill where the Apostle Paul is said to have spoken to the people of Greece in the book of Acts (first pic)

Sarah's Highlight: Fish therapy! We went to one of those spas where the little fishies eat the dead skin off of your feet... it feels SO weird. Also - St. Paul's hill.

DAY TWELVE: Paros

In case it isn't clear from the increase in number of photos, we LOVED Paros.

Claire's Highlight: Floating. I bought an inflatable mattress floaty thing and just floated around the sea, taking in the beautiful views and enjoying the sunshine. Also spent a lot of time reading and journaling on the beach this day.

Sarah's Highlight: Greek coffee, which was not what we expected.. it is essentially a teeny tiny mug of wet coffee grounds. But it was hilarious. Also, we happened to be in Paros for Aug 14/15 which mark a big holiday in Greece, the ascension of Mary or something along those lines? We stumbled upon a ceremony at the Church of 100 Doors, and were able to observe some of the religious customs. Very interesting. 

DAY THIRTEEN: Paros

Claire's Highlight: TUBING. So fun, I don't know if i've ever screamed/laughed like that.

Sarah's Highlight: Everything!! This was an amazing day. Also tubing, particularly the driver who was clearly trying to throw us off, driving SO fast (while also taking our picture)

DAY FOURTEEN: Santorini

Claire's Highlight: Our first view of the Santorini landscape. This island is what led to us even taking this trip, because I have been dying to see Santorini ever since Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants :) You can't really see the typical views upon first arriving because the cities are on the very top of a huge cliff. So it wasn't until we were walking around at night, and went down a tiny lane that I was able to take in the breathtaking and famous views of Santorini. I was so happy. Sarah was very patient with me over and over saying "this is amazing!" "I feel like I am in a postcard!"

Sarah's Highlight: Our first souvlaki pita, which was actually in Paros! So delicious.

DAY FIFTEEN: Santorini

We both loved seeing Santorini in daylight for the first time, the views are incredible. It is on a massive mountain and there is very little incline from sea level to mountain top. The only way to get from the cities to the sea is the one windy road to the port, or an incredibly steep stair case of about 250 stairs. We walked down the stairs, which was painful enough, but on the way up we rode DONKEYS. This was hilarious because Sarah was .. well, less than calm :D I had so much fun going up, and taking pictures of Sarah... who's donkey went a little rogue at times, knocking into mine. This was easily the highlight for both of us. Oh and also the Greek men who run the donkey biz. We were putting sunscreen on before taking our ride, and they repeatedly said things in Greek to us, laughing and gesturing in rubbing on sunscreen.. we think they were asking help?? HA! gross.

DAY SIXTEEN: Santorini

Claire's Highlight: We took a boat tour to the active Volcano across from Santorini, and it was really cool. We hiked to the top which was a work out, and so hot (being on top of lava, and all). We learned all about the past history of the volcano (crazy!), even hearing about how one eruption created a tsunami 100 m high that reached the island of Crete in 20 minutes (it takes four hours by ferry). 

Sarah's Highlight: We found a free pool lounge with a beautiful view where we spent the evening relaxing and reading beside the pool as the sun set.

DAY SEVENTEEN: Rhodes

Claire's Highlight: We were in pretty ridiculous moods on this day, so just walking through Rhodes at night and laughing at the weirdest things was one of my favourite times. Ie: the weird poses happening above... Sar encouraged me to do a little modelling after we watched people taking glamour shots here (and they were serious)

Sarah's Highlight: Gelato with faces on it! Seriously, she bought some for this reason alone.

DAY NINETEEN: Wageningen

Claire's Highlight: A change of pace! We had been going pretty constantly, especially through Greece, so it was nice to return to the Netherlands and have some down time. This started when we each had a row of seats to ourselves at the back of the plane and could get nice and cozy. We are lucky to be spending our last three days with Liz and Tineke Dineen, friends of Sarah and Vic. They've been so hospitable setting us up with a place to crash. It has been nice to be in the quiet streets of the Netherlands for some time before heading home.

Sarah's Highlight: Starbucks!! She was practically running for it out of the arrivals gate :) Also getting to Wageningen and grocery shopping so we could cook our own dinner for once and enjoy some fresh salad .. our first dinner in two weeks that wasn't in a restaurant! So nice.

DAY 19: Wageningen 

Claire's Highlight: Biking!! Okay so I didn't actually bike I just got a ride on Tineke's bike but still, we were in the Netherlands - we had to! There are more bikes than people here, it is amazing. We also visited the site where the Canadian's liberated the Netherlands from the Germans at the end of WWII. 

Sarah's Highlight: Walking around the town of Wageningen and participating in a little Frosh week action with Liz and Tineke. Aka going to the clubs fest and getting lots of free food and stuff! 

..Which brings us to day 20, which is actually tomorrow. Twenty days seems like a really long time, but also nothing at all. Neither of us can believe how much we have seen in done in the last couple weeks, or that in just a few days we will be back to reality in Canada. Bummer. We are excited to see the friends and family we love and miss, but it will certainly be hard leaving this lifestyle and getting back to school life. We have hundreds (literally) more amazing photos that we will share in a couple weeks once we are home and settled. Until then, hopefully this was a nice update to read.

The trip has been incredible, and Sarah and I can amazingly still say we like each other after spending 24/7 together for twenty, soon to be twenty-one, days. I am thankful to have such a great friend to have taken this adventure with.