Spring Break and Updates!

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's easy to get distracted here!! Newest update is that our return flight has been changed slightly and we will now be returning on June 8th at 7:10 pm. Can't wait to see all of you soon!

Now, our spring break:
It was fantastic! Both Istanbul and Athens were amazing!
We started our trip by flying from Palma to London (because for some reason we have to fly west to London to catch a connecting flight East to Turkey). But we had an 8 hour layover, so we slept at the airport (with my big uncomfy cast). It's finally time to check into our next flight, and they won't let me on because I don't have a doctors note for my cast. No it doesn't matter that I already flew to get here, no they can't just call my doctor, no there is no way around it, I have to have a doctors note. So I take a taxi to the nearest hospital, spend almost 2 hours in the emergency waiting room (because people are seen based on need, and we'll getting a note isn't a very high priority). I finally see a doctor, he asks me a few questions writes me up a note and sends me on my way (free of charge by the way, yay socialized medicine!) I get back to the airport just in time to miss our flight. The airline company is at least nice enough to book us on the next days flight, with no fees, and gives us a list of local hotels. We find a hotel, do some shopping, order pizza and watch TV in English! After all the doctor stress, it ended up being kind of relaxing. We make it to Istanbul without any more problems. Turkey is awesome. The people are great, the food is great, and everything is SUPER cheap. We spent hours in the Grand Bazaar (one of the largest covered markets in the world and has been in use since 1455) went inside the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, and the underground palace.
Our couch surfing host was super nice and even took us out to a traditional Turkish dinner, yum! Oh, and we found this cute little bakery near our house where we stopped every morning for breakfast. They have this yummy pastry filled with cheese and potato and they put powdered sugar on top. Mmmm..... Oh and they eat A LOT of corn, which is fine by me, I love corn. I saw at least 3 different chains that sell just cups of boiled corn kernels. And there are tons of stands where you can by corn on the cob (grilled or boiled)! And I went to a sweet shop there and bought some real Turkish Delights! Besides some strange flavors (like ginger) they were really good! Turkish is very difficult, but luckily most everybody spoke English, so it wasn't a real problem. And the people are so nice, and trusting! When you get on a bus, if you get on at the back, you can just pass your money up to the front, and then they will pass your change back. No one would ever think to take the money!
We had originally planned to take a ferry from Istanbul to Athens, but apparently the company that use to offer that route, no longer does. So the next best option was the train, which was suppose to take 18 hours, but after all of the delays, took closer to 24. It was definitely an interesting experience.

We finally made it to Athens, and had a great time there as well! We got to see all of the historic stuff, the Parthenon, the Acropolis, Hadrian's Arch, and the Temple of Zeus. All of which were super fantastic of course. Athens was a bit more expensive, but we still got to see a lot of things and eat a lot of great food. Unfortunately a lot of things were closed because it was Orthodox Easter while we were there, but this did make for some interesting parades. We had fun wandering down all of the old little streets, realizing that everything there is so much older than our country.
I thought Turkish was hard, until I tried Greek. I now have a much greater appreciation for the phrase "It's all Greek to me." It sounds vaguely familiar, like I should be able to understand it, but I don't. And there is no hope reading it. Luckily (again) most people spoke english, except this really sweet old Greek couple that sat across from us on the train (that shared their snacks with us.) They kept trying to speak Greek to us, I think (with the help of our phrase book) all we managed to get out was "Thank you."
The only eventful thing that happened on the way home is that we managed to break EVERY SINGLE handle on my red suitcase. By the time we got home Joe was just carrying it. It was a good little bag, but I suppose I've been a bit rough on it :)

Although we had a super fantastic trip, it was nice to get home, and even nice to get my cast off!! Even though I only had the cast on for 3 weeks, my elbow had still lost a lot of its mobility, so I have to do 4 weeks of physical therapy. I'm still working on it, but it's getting better, slowly but surely.

We recently had a four day weekend and decided to take a mini-trip to Barcelona. More on that later. I'm tired of typing now. I hope everyone is well, I can't wait to see you guys soon!