Postcards from Venice + Santorini

Post Cards from Venice + Santorini

It’s crazy that I’ve almost been in Italy for almost a month now. Time is flying by and everything is getting busier by the week. Projects/ tests/ midterms are hitting…hard and then mix that together with trying to plan and organize trips for the weekends leaves barley anytime to sleep.

With such a limited time here and classes 5 days a week most people trying to make every second on the weekend count. We couldn’t travel for the first weekend due to all the orientation activities but two weeks ago we made the short trek about an hour south to Vencie for the weekend!

There was a group of 12 of us, which made it interesting and fun to travel with such a big group. It helped that I had just been there in May so I kind of knew the spots I wanted to hit again. We left early Saturday and spent the night on the island and then took the boat to Burano (one of my favorite places ever!!) for Sunday. It was so nice to finally get off campus and explore the region we’re living in. It was my first experience in a hostel….which was an experience in and of itself but overall it was a great weekend spend with a great crew of Furman students!

This past weekend my good friend Kayla and I flew to Santorini. The majority of people in our program (there’s 59 of us from a variety of US universities!) headed to Oktoberfest but having lived in Germany for 3 years I really wanted to visit someplace new. Santorini has been on my “must-see” list for as long as I could remember so I was willing to do whatever it took to get there.

We got really lucky and was able to get a direct flight from Venice to Santorini Friday night (we had to take a taxi, train, and bus just to get to the airport!) and then unfortunately the only way to get back to Venice with enough time to make our classes on Monday was to leave Sunday morning. Although we really only had 1 full day on the island it was a spectacular trip and I think it may be one of my new favorite places.

We stayed in Oia, the picturesque town you probably envision when you think of Santorini and got to know our way around the village well. If we would have had more time we definitely would have loved to explored the other parts of the island (like the beaches!) but it was still breath taking none the less. We had the perfect weather (low 80s) and I think I am going to have to go back and visit again very soon.