Since Italy

So, here are a few camping pictures I promised

Our private camping beach 

All of us minus Rav sleeping 

swimming in Kyrenia 

Last weekend the group went to Ayia Napa, which is the party, beach resort area of Cyprus. A weekend of karaoke, swimming, laying out and clubs is always a great time. 

and just to add a few pictures of random nights at the apartments and Ivanhoes ...

Cyprus

Well now that I have been back in Cyprus for a little over a week, I am starting to get settled in. After arriving home from Italy, I woke up the next morning to go volunteer with this organization called Peace Players. The Organization works with uniting children from the Greek side of the island with children from the Turkish side of the Island through basketball. This particular event was called the Peace Day Basketball tournament. We spent the day helping with the tournament by taking score, coaching, and interacting with the children. This will hopefully steer some of these children away from holding the same biases that the older Cypriots hold against each other.

Later that night, we decided to check out a new club around the corner. It was a lot of fun and probably one of out new places. 

the roomie and me 

The rest of the week was filled with classes starting (which don't seem as though they will keep me very busy this semester) and nights mostly spent at our favorite sports bar down the street watching lots of football. Thursday night the roomies and a few of my other favorites made a bowl of Sangria and met up with some others to go check out a free concert at school. It was fun to see all the other students on campus. We then ended up at the boys place all hanging out and playing games. Friday was Cyprus Independence Day, so we did some shopping and came back to get ready to go out and celebrate with the Cypriots. One of the clubs was hosting a Welcome Back to School Party so we all made our way there to meet some other students in the area, which was a blast.

Friday night

 The Saturday morning six of us (Cassidy, Kyle, Ravi, Nickk, Mindi, and I) headed out for an adventure. We crossed over to the Turkish side of the Cyprus and got a bus to their major beach area Kyrenia. We eventually found a secluded cove on the beach that we decided would be perfect for camping. So we spent the night on the beach swimming and laughing more than I probably have since I got here. THe Turkish side is so much nicer than expected and I loved it more than a lot of this side of the Island. It was great to just get away from the city with some of my favorite people here and just relax on a quiet beautiful beach on the Mediterranean. Now it's time for another week of classes. I miss you all so so much and wish yall could be here, because as of now I don't want to ever come home.. love and miss you all <3 Kyle has better pictures of camping so I will add those pictures tonight.. 

Italy

After saying goodbye to Athens, we headed to Rome for two nights. We checked into our hotel and jumped on the subway to go see the Colosseum and go on a walking tour of Rome. 

View from the Colosseum

After the Colluseum, we followed the group on a walking tour for a few minutes. Soon as we saw the forum, Rav and I decided to sneak away to do our own exploring.

Some of the places we stubbled upon 

The next day we all went to see the Vatican. The Sistine Chapel was still amazing, and I made it into St. Pauls with no comments on my outfits or paper pants.  After, we got some lunch and did some more exploring of the city.

We then headed from Rome, to Pisa for the afternoon. 

We then arrived in Florence for two nights. 

Views of Florence 

After seeing views of the city, we went to our hotel and Rose and I got a bottle of wine and hung out on the patio for a while. Later I met up with Ravi and went exploring Florence at night. Day two in Florence consisted of a group trip of the Ufizi Museum. After Rose, Ravi, and I walked around for a while exploring and doing a good amount of shopping. That night we grabbed dinner and then met up with a good amount of the group to head to a nearby bar for the night, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Florence was an amazing city and somewhere I definitely want to go back and spend more time in .

the garden we found

the roomie and me

Some of the girls 

The next day we headed to Venice for the day/night. We got on a water taxi and headed to the main part of Venice to explore. We walked around for a while and grabbed some dinner before heading back. We arrived back at the hotel that night and got a group together to hang out with a few bottles of wine and a deck of cards, which led to a great night. 

waiting for the boat

Sadly the next day we had to leave and head back to Cyprus. Which led to a horrible day of traveling. After arriving at the Venice airport 2 hours to early to begin with so the other group could catch their flight to Barcelona, we discovered our flight was delayed half an hour. No big deal until half hour turned into an hour a half. As we  finally landed in Athens, we discovered our connecting flight was taking off at the same moment. Which led to us sitting in the airport for 5 hours until the next flight was going to leave. After a 16 hour travel day, I finally made it back to the apartment. But besides that the trip was amazing and I was not ready to head back here. I could have spent weeks in each of these places.