Monasteries, Broken Buses, and Bed Bugs!

Went to visit Meteora Monasteries this weekend. Amazing place. The monasteries are built up on huge cliffs. Seriously one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. On the way there, we stopped in ancient city of Trikala. This is a city mentioned in Homer's epic poems. Quite an um... how should I put this, interesting city. After eating and wandering around we went back to the central square to wait for the bus. While doing so a boy of 8 years old was walking around naked, smoking a cigarette. I could not come to a conclusion whether it was more shocking to see this boy naked or that he was smoking. Well after all the attention we were giving him, his friend got jealous and started to take off his clothes. Then he preceeded to sit on top of a statues head, which ironically, the statue was a naked little boy too. After that we went to stay in our luxurious hotel. First thing I see when we arrive at doorway to heaven, door not shut all the way but still locked...? Then the door opens, one red wall, poorly painted. A gold headboard that covered the light switches and outlets, but not the disgusting growth coming out of the wall. Three single beds. And the balcony door was open. Luckily only had to stay for one night. Morning came, monastery time. Beautiful place that I am so excited to visit again with family. On the edge of departure, our bus breaks down... Bus driver does not know how to fix it. Great. So everyone got anxious and started to explore. Gone for 4 hours. Our chaperone did not even come look for us once. A couple boys almost died but got some great pictures out of it. Finally, a mechanic comes and fixes the bus and we have a wonderful ride to Goody's, basically the McDonalds of Greece. When we finally made it home it was about 10:30 at night. Monday rolls around and the school is right on top of getting our bed bug situation taken care of... however, they are nasty little buggers that don't want to die. We still have some and now my roommate and I are moving rooms, so thank god there won't be any more bites. I'm headed to Athens this weekend. Very excited for an authentic Greek weekend :) Thanks for reading. Stayed tuned. Check out the pictures at the bottom.