Tag Archives: Easter

Easter Abroad

For the holiday weekend, we didn’t have class on Monday, and since my last class finishes at 2pm on Thursday, I had a long Easter weekend to relax and enjoy! A good number of my friends traveled to Cairns, but since I will be visiting there with my mom later on, I stayed in Gold Coast.

Friday(‘s never work)

On Friday we spent the day soaking up the sun at Burleigh beach, where I also tried an acai bowl for the first time! For those of you not informed of this delicious meal, it’s essentially a blended acai base of berries, with granola and fresh fruit, sometimes other added items like shredded coconut or more fruit. Along with fresh squeezed juices and smoothies, acai bowls are very common around this area. An another note, it’s pronounced ah-sigh-ee.

It was a lovely day relaxing on the beach, and after heading back to campus we decided to have a barbeque at one of our friends apartments. Due to it being Good Friday, most businesses were closed, and every other Friday that we have tried to have a fun evening out, it has coincidentally just not been that eventful. Friday evenings don’t seem to be as popular here as in the States, so we decided to make a tradition (with what’s left of the semester) of having a cookout and enjoying some pool and hot tub time on Friday evenings!

Currumbin Rock Pools

The following morning my friends and I had a similar get together, and met at a different friend’s apartment to make a breakfast of pancakes, fresh fruit, and coffee. Enjoying homemade breakfast on the balcony was a great way to start the morning!

Later that afternoon, I visited the Currumbin rock pools, a natural swimming area about a half hour from campus. There are several swimming areas connected through the rock formations, some more shallow or deep than others, as well as a small rock jump and picnic areas. Although it was starting to get later in the day, and cooler with the prediction of rain, it was definitely still a check off my Gold Coast bucket list. I can imagine the area being very enjoyable (but probably crowded) during a hot summer day!

If you happen to be following my blog, you may remember a post I wrote about exploring Currumbin near the beginning of the semester. If not, refer to my post titled “Adventures in Burleigh & Currumbin”. Moral of the story, we hiked down a mountain with the intent of ending up at the rock pools (with little and vague direction), and eventually decided to head home when they seemed too far out of sight and sunset was approaching. As it turns out, if we had crossed the bridge near the small park we were in, then walked five minutes to the left and around the corner, we would have been there. Ironic looking back on that day, but appreciative that I eventually figured out where the rock pools were located, and got to enjoy them!

Currumbin rock pools

Currumbin rock pools

Sunday & Monday

This morning a couple friends and I went for brunch in Broadbeach, then spent most of the day enjoying Easter Sunday (procrastinating) by baking Easter cookies and having a movie night. Monday I spent just about the entire day studying in the library, then joined friends again that evening for a movie night. Although this weekend was not all too eventful, it was an enjoyable weekend taking in the beach culture and relaxation of Gold Coast. With the next few weeks bringing finals exams and multiple groups projects and papers, it was a great weekend of preparation!

Sunday brunch at Lola's

Sunday brunch at Lola’s

Easter cookies

Homeade Easter cookies

Easter Weekend

“It’s the freakin’ weekend, baby I’m about to have me some fun” is what I thought to myself as the Easter weekend rolled around. Easter weekend gave us both Friday and Monday off, meaning that it was time to travel outside the country! I’ve always wanted to travel to Greece, and since Italy is practically right next door I knew this would be the perfect time to visit. We departed from the Rome airport Thursday evening and landed in Athens around 10 p.m. The flight took maybe about an hour and a half, and I sat next to a very “affectionate” couple. But I was glad nothing went wrong like with Barcelona, and I was even more excited to be in Athens, Greece for the first time in my life.

When we landed, we had to take a bus into the city center. The Athens airport is nowhere near Athens. If you pick up a tourist map of the city, the airport doesn’t even make it on there. So the bus ride ended up lasting about an hour. Finally we arrived at Syntagma Square where our hostel was located. We received some beauty sleep and headed out exploring early Good Friday morning. We decided to dedicate all of Friday to exploring the ancient history of Athens. Our first stop was the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium. This stadium hosted the first modern Olympic games in 1896 and is the largest marble stadium in the world. This was surprisingly my favorite part of Athens. We paid only 1.50 euro to enter the stadium and along with that we received an audio tour. The tour told us a bunch of information regarding the construction and history of the stadium. For example, did you know that the term “stada” is the Greek term of the distance around a track, which is where to word “stadium” derives from? We even got to take our photos on the Olympic pedestals, which was the one and only time I would actually feel like an Olympic champion.

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Next, we headed over to the temple of Zeus. In all honesty, anyone who visits Greece should do some research before going because we had no idea what we were looking at for the longest time. We saw a line leading to some ancient temple ruins but had no idea what temple it was or anything else for that matter. The line moved quickly and our entry was free after showing our student visa. Many things in Greece are actually quite cheap because the country is unfortunately bankrupt. The city of Athens itself beyond the historical centers are quite poor. It was disappointing to see a city with so much history and significance be so run down and overdrawn with poverty. Graffiti was even drawn across some of the ruins. But here at the temple of Zeus we took an abundance of selfies with my friend Lynnsey’s selfie stick in where we overheard some guy who was looking at us say, “that is just a whole new level of narcissism.” I guess he didn’t approve of our selfie style and luckily this temple’s beauty was not overrun with graffiti.

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Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant where I ate a traditional Greek gyro. While being in Greece, I also found a new love for Greek food. Hands down one of my favorites. We debated whether or not it was custom to tip (in Italy you pay a cover charge but actual “tipping” isn’t a thing, so we were lost) and then headed over to the Acropolis.

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The Acropolis sits on a hill overlooking all of Athens. It was once the religious center of ancient Athens where a majority of the temples dedicated to Roman Gods and Goddesses resided. The most famous is the Parthenon. The Parthenon is a former temple dedicated to the Roman goddess Athena.

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Saturday we took a ferry over to the Greek island Aegina. The boat ride lasted for about 40 minutes and was a bit bumping. Although that day was a little chilly, the island was still remarkably beautiful. We walked around the island and took pictures by the water while getting our Little Mermaid on! We even made a friend (a stray dog we named Budster) who followed us for hours until he finally found more entertainment in the stray cats on the island. It turned out to be an amazing day, and even though it wasn’t warm enough for us to take a dip in the clear blue water it was nice to just enjoy the chill breeze on our skin and the warm sun on our faces.

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Easter Sunday was a big shock. Let me tell you why: It wasn’t Easter Sunday! We had a late flight out that evening and still wanted to do some exploring in Athens before we left. We planned the whole day just knowing that everything would be closed because of the holiday, but that wasn’t the case. In Greece, the people celebrate Orthodox Easter, which wasn’t until the next Sunday. This was actually great news for us! We looked like fools for not knowing, but it was still great news. We were able to see one last exhibit before we left: The Ancient Agora. The Agora was the heart of ancient Athens. It was to Athens what the Roman Forum was to Rome. There were some more beautiful temples and even churches that still remained.

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Our trip ended with a short shopping spree at an Athenian farmer’s market and a long metro ride back to the airport. All in all, Easter Weekend was a success. It was the first time I had ever really felt kind of homesick while here in Europe because it was also the first Easter I had spent away from home, but I was in Greece. My mood didn’t stay down for long!


Location: Athens, Greece