Horizons Study Ablog : Rosa Villarreal

While Josh hiked with 17 students on Mt. Olympus I gave the remaining students an option to take an overnight trip to Halkidiki, a peninsula and part of the region of central Macedonia in Northern Greece. We got up bright and early to catch a train to Ouranoupoli, a part of Halkidiki. Luckily, our hotel in Thessaloniki has a sister hotel where we were able to get a wonderful corporate rate of 16 euros each for the night.

We easily found the hotel and headed straight to the beach, later on that evening we ate at a beautiful ocean front restaurant. The receptionist at the hotel called the restaurant and a waiter actually picked us up and took us back to the hotel once we were done eating!

The next morning we took a three hour cruise around Mt. Athos. It is a self governing island off of the Halkidiki peninsula. Mr. At how is currently home to 2300 monks that live in one of the 20 breathtaking monasteries. The first monastery was built in 963 on Mt. Athos.

The monks live according to the sun and not traditional time. Their days consist of three parts of eight hours each. Prayer, work, and sleep. No women or children are allowed on the island and few male outsiders are granted privelage to visit.

After our amazing tour we hopped on the bus to head to Thessaloniki in time for our sunset tour. Overall, the trip to Halkidiki was seamless, peaceful, relaxing, gorgeous, and awe-inspiring. The girls and I easily navigated travel and language barriers with ease, although we missed the rest of the group we loved every minute of our adventure!