The Lavaja Diaries: Birthday Fun

It's crazy how fast time is going by! We will be going home in just two months, which feels like nothing! I am super excited to go home and also for my sister Kirsten to come out and visit! But, the volleyball team STILL hasn't gotten us our visas, so it's stressing me out!! Rusty and I work on it almost everyday, so keep your fingers crossed the President of the volleyball club will actually get it done!

Rusty's volleyball team won their game 3-0 this weekend, so Rusty got Monday off! It was perfect timing too because my birthday was the following day. I Googled things to do near Lamia. There are mostly small villages nearby, so there's not a ton to do, but I did find a National Park about 30 minutes away in a place called Ypati. We decided to go there and look for a hiking trail.

We arrived to find a little village set in the side of a mountain. As we winded up the mountain, we saw a waterfall, which I was so excited to see, I made Rusty pull over immediately haha. We eventually made it to the center of town, which was almost completely empty except for a lady sweeping outside of a shop and an off-duty police officer. We stopped and asked the police man for directions to the park. He said there was no park (which I am still skeptical about because there were multiple signs directing us to the park), but he told us about a famous church on top of the mountain, so we went to check it out. The church was not very impressive, but the location was awesome. It was right on top of the mountain and right down the hill from the church was a huge fighter jet, so we checked that out as well. I don't know if we ever made it to the park or not, but the signs we followed made me wonder if the "National Park" was just all the grassy fields we passed while driving around. I guess I'll never know! haha

We set off to find a spot to have a picnic- I love picnics! We randomly discovered the perfect park (which couldn't have been the National Park because the signs directed us past it). But anyways, it was filled with big trees and flowers and had benches around it. The weather was perfect; the sun was shining through the trees as we ate our lunch. It was a great day!

On my actual birthday, the following day, we ate lunch at our favorite restaurant- I still have no idea what it's called because it is too Greek for me to even sound out haha. After we finished lunch, we went and got a piece of cake, which I love, from a place called Deli House. We have become friends with the manager there. She is from Canada, so she speaks English. She gave me a huge brownie as a birthday gift! After Rusty got home from practice we went out to dinner...and what would a birthday be without cake and candles, so we finished off my 25th birthday by having cake back at our apartment! I can't believe I am getting so old ;)