Athena - Salvador, Brazil - Singing in the Rain

At the Lighthouse  (Farol da Barra)

Rain, rain go away- that could be the theme for our time in Salvador, Brazil so far. But Tiffany and I are determined to still have fun. Yesterday, we landed here at 4:30am and settled into our apartment. I use the term apartment loosely, it's more like a bigger hostel. Since we didn't sleep a lot the night before (a 2 am flight will do that to you) we slept a lot yesterday. Finally we grabbed some food and it started raining cats & dogs. We ended up staying in the restaurant for a few hours, waiting for the rain to stop before we walked back home.

Athena - São Paolo, Brazil - Another Adventure Begins

Hoi! (Hello)
   This is the beginning of my third day in São Paolo and Tiffany and I are sitting in a lovely French cafe, having just finished a late breakfast. It's been a whirlwind week so it's nice to take some time to slow down and just be still for a little bit. São Paolo has been wonderful so far. We are staying Hugo, the friend of one of our UNC classmates, and he is an awesome host.

Hugo & Tiffany at the Afro Cuban Musem

View from the Sky Bar

Athena - Argentina- The End of San Juan

It's the morning of my last day in San Juan and part of me is very happy to leave, part of me is a little sad. I was bored here, to be honest. I didn't know what to expect, but I thought it wouldn't be this small of a town. I mean tiny, like teeny tiny. For those of you from Michigan (my home) the airport here is smaller than the old MBS airport, which is to say it has less than 5 gates and is about the size of a large barn.

I guess I got bored because I couldn't find a tour to see some of the surrounding sites, I wasn't sure what to do here and I couldn't quite figure out the schedule of things here. Businesses kept closing when I thought they would be open. I was too late or too early for dinner. I couldn't get in sync with the rhythm of life here. So I ended up spending quite a bit of time in my hotel room, much more than I thought I would. My hotel was further away from the city center than I expected, about a 25 minute walk. And it's super hot here, like almost 100 degrees hot.

Athena - Argentina San Juan travels, riots and other misadventures

My travel plans for my last week in Argentina changed on a dime. I was reading lanacion.com (Argentina's leading newspaper) and saw that my first stop, Cordoba, was in the midst of riots. I asked my roommate what was going on there and after showing her the article to make sure. I understood it correctly (it was of course, written in Spanish). We quickly agreed that I should t travel there. The police were on strike, because they wanted higher wages, and some people began rioting and looting local businesses. I reached out to the hostel I planned to stay in and the guy said that no one was in the streets, everyone was staying inside. Nope, definitely not going there now. I thank God that I found all of this out, because I was literally ready to go there the very next day.

Waiting at the Buenos Aires airport at 3:30 am

Tiffany - The Netherlands with My Second Visitor!

We are actually in this picture

My second visitor from home came to visit this week and in just 5 short days, we explored Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Rome! Esi is one of my best friends whom I have known for almost 9 years and since the day we met, we have been like sisters. Our first stop was Amsterdam. Two aspects of Amsterdam that I found surprising: 1)  Amsterdam is one of the most diverse cities in the world (I had no idea!) and 2) it’s numerous canals and modern style row houses make it absolutely gorgeous. For most people, two things that come to mind when Amsterdam is mentioned are the Red Light District and legalized marijuana. Although we didn’t partake in the legalized marijuana which came in the form of everything you can imagine (truffles, brownies, cookies, etc) and in shops on almost every corner, we did take a brief stop the Red Light District and were both surprised by how “in your face” the prostitution is. We briefly considered taking a guided tour of the Red Light District given by a former prostitute but opted to see the Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum instead which by the way were both amazing and inspiring. We had limited time but I think that tour would have definitely been one to remember.

Our second stop was Rotterdam, the 2nd largest city in the Netherlands. One of my classmates at UNC, Joe,  has a girlfriend who lives in Rotterdam and recommended that we check out the city while in Amsterdam because it is only 40 minutes away by train. We stopped there for a few hours and walked all around the city. We were excited to see another city and both surprised by how diverse it was and how super friendly the people there were. We ended our evening in Rotterdam with margaritas with Vivian, my classmates girlfriend who is also completing her undergraduate degree in Rotterdam. I am loving exploring different cities and thrilled by the fact that I am meeting some great people along the way. Next stop....Roma!


Rotterdam

 Amsterdam

 

Athena - Argentina & Brazil- Las Cataratas de Iguazu - Iguauzu Falls

Las Cataratas de Iguazu - Iguauzu Falls


   Then we got back on the bus for three more hours until we arrived at the town of Iguazu. After settling into our hostel we passed the afternoon by chilling in the pool and the a few of us left to walk around the small city. Our tour guides cooked an asado (barbecue) for us. The menu was literally meat (all kinds of beef and sausage), bread, wine. That's it, no side dishes. Must say the chorizo sausage was my favorite. Though it was a painfully slow dinner because there were 50 of us and the meat only came off of the grill bit by bit.

Sunday
  We spent our first day at the waterfalls on the Argentinian side and the falls were amazing. I won't even try to describe them with words...checkout these pics instead. We got really close to the falls and there were places were you could fall of the edge if you weren't careful. We also took a boat ride in the river and, of course, we went underneath one of the falls. It was both awesome and scary; I couldn't believe I was literally underneath one of the coolest waterfalls in the world. Oh, and while we were there we saw a proposal, and of course she said yes. None of us knew the happy couple but it was a wonderful sight to see.

Brazilian Side

Argentinian Side

Me on the boat ride, before we went underneath the falls

More Iguazu pics -Athena-Argentina & Brazil

Most of you know that I'm having technical difficulties on this trip (my laptop died) so please forgive me if some things appear put if place. Here are more pics from Iguazu Falls that I couldn't put in the first post.

Butterfly on my shoulder

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