Follow Troop 2578 and their journey throughout Italy and Greece... Since Girl Scouts are more than cookies, we are on our way to Europe.
Through various fundraising activities we are headed to the beautiful continent of Europe. Garage sales, cookies sales, bake sales, Easter egg hunts, clothes for a cause, clearing trees for neighborhoods and lastly we hosted a haunted trail; these are just a few fundraisers we have completed for this trip.
We chose Italy because of its rich history and delectable food. We also chose Greece due to it's cultural values and to get good deals on souvenirs #brokeneconomy:) Our first blog will be posted on June 24 -- from Lufthansa Airlines!!
Our Blog Day 1: Wednesday June 24th, Lufthansa Airlines: We
all had to wake up really early to get to the airport. We got there around
10:30, then had to wait a really long time to board an even longer flight. Our
first flight was from SeaTac to Frankfurt, Germany, lasting almost 10 hours,
and we got two mediocre meals during it. Between our flights, the great phone
fiasco occurred. One of the moms (who shall remain unnamed) “accidentally”
dropped her phone in a German toilet! Needless to say, her phone no longer
works. L Our second flight was significantly shorter
lasting only two hours. This flight was from Frankfurt to Rome! Exhausted…we
then meet our tour guide, Christina.
-Samantha
Day 2: Thursday June 25th, Rome:
After the long flights from SeaTac to Rome, we finally had
reached our dream destination! Our tour guide, Christina, led us to a square
consisting of three fountains and a beautiful church. The statues holding up
the fountains were incredibly detailed. We were on our own for lunch, so as a
troop we decided to eat at a local restaurant called Cybo, menaing "food" in italian. Our first Italian
meal was the best pasta I have ever had! After lunch we shopped around in open markets. After that
we bused back to the hotel where I completely crashed! Being up for 48 hrs
straight, really drowns you!! We returned to the hotel and received our room
key. The room definitely has character but overall we love it! We were assigned
a handicap room for some reason so it is an open shower, which means that
whenever we use the shower the entire floor is soon covered in water. For diner
we had MORE PASTA… imagine that. It was a very successful first day in Rome!
Thanks for following our journey.
-Lauren
Day 3: Friday June 26th, Rome: Lauren woke us up at 5:00 am, after she woke up, no one else could go back to bed. We decided to watch some water polo on TV but the were speaking Italian. After we had breakfast and took pictures we got on a double decker bus and headed to the Vatican City. In the Vatican we saw a bunch of old statues; some of which had been put back together after being discovered and broken. Also we went to the Sistine Chapel after hearing our guide explain the different painting that Michelangelo had painted on the ceiling. We saw many people take pictures of the ceiling when they were not supposed to(the guards never caught them.. Suddenly I decided to take a picture and of course the guard caught me(but i still got the pictures:)). We also saw St. Peters Basilica, and afterwards we went to the souvenir shop and bought items to be blessed by the Pope. We were victims of American tourism at lunch. After lunch we walked on the streets of Rome and did some major shopping. Erin dropped a load on Italian leather purses:). For dinner we went to Pizza Roma and of course had PIZZA. After pizza we did a sight seeing tour through the streets of Rome at night! Then we returned to our hotel. Our first full day in Rome was incredible.
-Hope
Saturday, June 27th 2015
Today we woke up early… at 5:45. Breakfast was at 6:45. After
breakfast we boarded the bus and headed to the Colosseum. It was beautiful, we
learned a lot about the monument and its importance to Rome. The colosseum is
nearly 2000 years old and very tall. People sat on different levels (heights)
of the Colosseum according to your social class. Then we headed to the Roman
Forum where Caesar was buried. The Roman Forum is located in the center of Rome
and was the most popular place in Rome. After our tour guide was done giving us
the tour, we got on the bus and went to the Spanish Steps. We didn’t find Lizzy
McGuire but we had more more more more more and more opportunities to buy
selfie sticks from illegal people on the street. After dodging requests to go
purse shopping from Erin, we started searching for Rome’s cat sanctuary. We got
lost and had to ask a woman selling belts. She misunderstood and though we
wanted to buy a belt with cats on it. The cats were so cute, and it was my
favorite part of the trip so far. For dinner we had some chicken with pork on
top of it, as well as pasta and potatoes, finally for dessert we had cake.
After that I tried to sleep in the hotel but the other girls were annoying me…
send help...
-Myah
Sunday, June 28th 2015: Capri and Sorrento So today we left Rome and headed for Napoli and Sorrento. But, we also got to visit the beautiful island of Capri. Our time on Capri was wayyyyyy too short though :(. On the island, we got the opportunity to take a short boat tour around the island. Our guide showed us many caves and we even got to see a natural arch in the landscape. After our tour, we rode a trolley up what is equal to about 700 stairs. Glad we didn't have to walk up all of those! After a cramped lunch and about 20 minutes of shopping, our entire group boarded a ferry to Sorrento. In Sorrento we saw a demo about inlaid wood (all of the wood work was AMAZING), and then we got some free time! However short, our free time presented us with many beautiful pictures (maybe we will upload some later) and PASTRIES! WE found a cute little pastry shop, which was very cheap (lucky us). Lauren, Hope and I all tried cannoli's for the first time too -- by the way, they were amazing!!! After touring Sorrento and Capri, we had a relaxing night in a hotel that had balconies with amazing views of lemon trees and the Italian coast.
-Samantha
Sunday, June 29th 2015: Pompeii Today as usual we woke up around 6:30. We packed and left our beautiful hotel in Sorrento. We got on the bus and drove about a hour and a half to Pompeii, which doesn't look like you would expect. The whole city is very modernized like Sorrento but there is a huge mountain/volcano. We toured the entire city of Pompeii that is nearly 2000 years old. Very learned some very intriguing things. Such as what lupas are. Lupo in English means wolf, therefore lupa means she wolf, or in this case prostitute. Over 1750 years ago there were many luparia's in the city of Pompeii. Luparia's were the rooms the lupa's worked in. We toured a room where they were many interesting murals painted on the walls. Each mural displayed a different "position". Men would walk into this almost "restaurant" and chose which "position" they wanted. The person working there would tell them which luparia to enter. Anyways... After we ended our tour in Pompeii we went to a beautiful coral shop where everything thin is hand carved. Then we went to lunch where a man sang to Lana. We then shopped around for a little while and boarded the bus back to Rome. We are spending the night in Rome and then we are leaving tomorrow morning for Delphi, Greece!!!
- Lauren
Tuesday, June 30th: Delphi The day started off as it usually did, wake up early and get packed for the next adventure. Everyone woke up around 6-6:15am but I got to sleep in till about 6:45am. After everyone finished packing and ate breakfast we left to the airport to leave from Rome to Athens. The flight was a long 2 hours but it wasn't as cramped and hot as usual. Though after arriving in Athens we had a 3-4 hour bus drive to Delphi. Ugh. Before leaving the airport the same mom that dropped her phone in the toilet also lost her luggage... Its okay though because she got some new threads at shops near our hotel. When we arrived at the hotel and settled after shopping with the mom who lost her stuff we had alright food and got ready for some clubbin'. We walked down the beautiful streets of Delphi towards the club and danced late. The club was basically filled with other EF tour groups. The club had some jammin' music like some from Jason Derulo and Fifth Harmony. Eventually everyone left around 11:45pm to head back to the hotel for some rest. Until the next adventure... -Hope
Wednesday, July 1st: Athens We woke up early like every other day, ready to see the
world. We ate breakfast like the champions we are.A short bus ride took us to the breath
stealing Temple Of Apollo. There were a lot of cool old buildings made of fancy
rocks. My favorite part was learning about the Oracle who would get high off of
a hole in the ground releasing sulfur and methane and all of that fun stuff.
Delphi was a pretty hot spot back in the day. It had all of the Holy sites and
stuff. We walked up to an old track or place for games like the Olympic Games
but for Delphi. Afterword’s while enjoying dangerous slushies, the unnamed
parent who lost her luggage got a life changing call…………THEY FOUND LANA’S
LUGGAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went into the museum
with one goal in mind, to learn. And we left being marked criminals…..We got in
trouble for taking pictures of each other. With lessons learned and dreams high,
we went out to one of the best lunches we’ve had. Our meal would be envied by
carnivores everywhere. With pork, chicken, and lamb chops.
Our bus driver braved
the rain that was heavier than Dwayne “the rock” Johnson and all of his workout
weights. After another long nap filled bus ride complete with a sketchy rest
stop, we arrived in Athens, Greece. The brave members of our troop went on to
explore the city, not letting the weather bring them down(me included was
brave)(My mom wasn’t).
Finally we settled
into our hotel and recited the Girl Scout law approximately 80 times before
singing taps and bringing down our travel size American flag and going to
sleep.
-Myah
Thursday, July 2nd: Athens
Today we all woke up terribly exhausted. Then we crawled
down to breakfast, where there was not much variety. The majority of us ate
salami and Greek yogurt. It was not very filling. After this we boarded the bus
to go tour the city center that several people had visited the day before. On
our tour of the city we visited many monuments, including the stadium where the
first Olympics took place, acropolis hill, the Athena Parthenon, and a museum.
At the museum there was a LEGO recreation of acropolis hill. It was stunning. After this we had free time. To eat we had
some amazing gyros, and we learned that Greek are fascinated by red hair. At a
jewelry store, Hope, who has red hair, was asked if her hair was real, and if
she was a ginger. At a souvenir store, the owner asked a mom what Hope’s name
was, and then pranked her. Following this, the same shop keeper pranked my own
mom by telling her that all the money she had was counterfeit. You could say my
mom was a little panicked. After dinner we had a meeting about the cruise, then
had dinner. After this some girls decided to go walk around and get macaroons.
But, in my opinion the highlight of the day was when we were told that, “bras
are optional in Greece”.
SAMANTHA
Friday, June 3rd: Transfer to cruise-Mykonos We yet again woke up too early. We got out of bed an slugged to pack our bags. We did the norm as in we eat a subpar breakfasta dn hit the road. the bus ride took a everlasting 4 minutes to get to the port of Pireaus.