It's Istanbul, not Constantinople

Just arrived in Istanbul tonight after a lovely week in Greece...and I almost freaked out on the plane when they didn't announce that we were going to Istanbul. It was some strange jumble of sounds that turned out to be Constantinople. Now, this was a Greek airline, but seriously, they should call it what it is. You'd think they'd know the song, anyway. It's Istanbul, not Constantinople, buddy.
To backtrack a bit, Greece was great. We started in Athens with the Acropolis. Gotta say, the city surprised me. I had heard that it was old, dirty, and inefficient, but it apparently cleaned up nicely for the Olympics a few years ago. The metro was cleaner than DC's, and all the signs were in Greek and English, so really easy to get around. The Acropolis was neat, but it's a half day venture. Besides that and shopping, there's not a whole lot to do. Fortunately for us, our second day happened to be the same day the Champion's League Final (that would be European soccer...I had no idea till last week) was being held in Athens. There were literally thousands of Liverpool fans (most without tickets!) that came and filled the city with loud, sometimes belligerent drinking and chants. Lots of chants. And songs. And the same songs over and over and over again. We watched the game on TV with a ton of Liverpool fans, and they even made up a song about going all the way to Athens without a ticket for the game: "If you haven't got a ticket" to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it." Pretty entertaining. Then I spent the most pleasant night in the airport that I've ever had. This was only the third time, but it was amazing compared to Glasgow and Marseille. There were hundreds of people there because the game had just ended and they had early flights (8 of which got canceled). Sad Liverpool fans were sleeping everywhere. We joined some of them in the small museum in the airport till we got kicked out at 4 AM. The best part was finding a Domino's pizza in the airport. It tasted just like home. Greasy goodness.
In order not to make this too long, Santorini was amazing as well. We stayed in Oia (sometimes spelled Ia cause that's how you say it) at a youth hostel that has a courtyard with a fountain in it. Nice place. The first day, Joe, Vanessa, and I found a little "beach." It was more like a rocky cove thing, but it worked. It rained the second day, but we had met this guy at the hostel who we went to the island's main town, Fira, with. Pirates of the Caribbean III was playing in English, so we saw that. About an hour and a half in, the movie stopped playing; I thought it was broken, but no, just intermission. So strange. The movie itself was pretty weak, but seeing a movie in our language at the theater was so great...besides the Greek subtitles, but that was ok too.
The great thing about Santorini was that I didnt even know what day of the week it was. It didnt really matter. Totally felt like the middle of nowhere...geographically, not in terms of people, because the cruise tourists were rampant. The days kind of blend together, but besides the beach and movie, we rented ATVs and drove around the island, found a nifty English bookstore (more about that later probably), and met three of the girls from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (in the bookstore). The island was fun, but after a while, it was more about the people to hang out with than the next beach to go to. We met a lot of really cool people just passing through or overstaying their visas or figuring out what to do with their lives. So that's about it for now, but there's tons more that if I get a chance I'll write about later!

ok, so I realize I havent posted in forever, but I havent even seen a computer since Monday...so here is the update: finished exams on May 10th, and then we all had to pack and clean the apartment for a few days, and it took that long. Dad and Kay got to Rome on the 14th, and for the next few days we saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican, Colosseum, Forum, etc etc. That was the first time I went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. It was rather impressive, but the guards kept yelling at people to be quiet, so the ambience wasnt great. They also have this amazing collection of ancient Egyptian stuff. Some people resent the fact that these mummies (yes, real mummies!) and tombs arent in Egypt, but it was fine by me that they were in Rome. So if youre hanging around the Vatican for the day, definitely hit up the museums, but get there early...as in 1.5 hours before opening because the line is looooong.
On Thursday we caught the train to Cinque Terre, which is in Liguria on the northwest-ish coast. Cinque Terre means Five Lands, and it's just five little towns along the coast connected by hiking trails (and a train). We stayed in Vernazza (google image search that one; it's a pretty sweet view). Unfortunately, I got some kind of a cold the day before leaving Rome, so the first day in Vernazza I was not up to par. 13 hours of sleep later, though, I was up and ready to hike. We did the first part of the trail from Vernazza to the town just south, Corniglia, to get a picture; that one was a bit rough, so we took the train after that to the town furthest south, Riomaggiore, and walked from there north to Corniglia. The walkway was kind of cut into cliffs, so on the left hand side all you saw was the Mediterranean. Amazing is a vast understatement. We also met these Sicilian twin brothers who have a restaurant in Vernazza. They told us all about what they make, etc etc, and showed us where Rick Steves (the European tour guide-extraordinaire) mentioned them in one of his books. Their place wasnt on the water, but the food made up for it.
This morning, we hopped a train to Venice and just arrived. So...I'm gonna check out some gondoliers.