but I have been REALLY busy! But enough people have told me that I need to post to get me off my lazy butt to do it. hehe. So.. I'm going to start with the trip to Istanbul!
We left for Istanbul on Saturday evening, arriving that night. For the first two nights we stayed in a hotel RIGHT by the Blue Mosque and the Agia Sophia. We didn't arrive until late that evening, so we just ended up putting out stuff in our rooms and splitting up. Mieka and I wandered around all over the place, seeing the Blue Mosque from the outside gates and then heading to a hookah cafe for some snacks. We had a really strange "Cinderella" sandwich with macadamia nuts, mayonaise, lettuce and chicken chunks. It was surprisingly good. We also had some AMAZING rice pudding, which happens to be my favorite dessert. :) After that we went back and went to bed, for an early morning the next day!
On Sunday Morning (April 29th) we got up at 9am and went on a whirlwind tour of EVERYTHING important in the city. We started out at the Blue Mosque -- which had to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was architecture poetry. After that we saw the Hagia Sophia. In order to get into it we had to have our bags x-rayed and go through metal detectors -- some serious security! The interior (much like the exterior) of the Hagia Sophia is a a big mish-mash of things, as it has bee added on to and changed so much over the centuries. There were amazing columns from The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World! As well as tons of other cool stuff plundered from around the world. After that we went to the Roman Cisterns which were AWESOME. They are an underground water storage facility from the time of the Roman Empire in Constantinople. There were these incredible heads of Medusa, also taken from a destroyed temple somewhere, in the far back of the Cisterns. After that we had lunch and went to TopKapi Palace. We saw the Harem and the state jewels and basically it was incredible. By then it was 6pm, and I needed a nap badly! After the nap we went out dinner and then to cool hookah cafe where we made friends with the owner.
The next day we hit the Grand Bazaar which was beyond incredible. It is bigger than anything I could have ever imagined. Anything and everything possible can be purchased there. We bought so much random stuff and had so much fun. We also had our best lunch while we were inside the bazaar! That night we went out an saw a belly dancer at a hostel and then went back to the hookah cafe we went to the night before. There is this Turkish tea called Apple Tea that is AMAZING and kind of like hot apple cider, but not quite, and I must have had a gallon of it every night we were there! The owner of the cafe taught us how to dance Turkish style that night too.
Our last day in Istanbul was a walking day, we toured a bunch of mosques and few more tourist sites, we also went back to the Bazaar for while.
I loved Istanbul and can't wait to get back!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
I am in ISTANBUL!!!
I seriously can't get over this... I AM IN ISTANBUL. This is probably the coolest thing I have ever done, ever. The city is amazing, I alreadydrove by the Blue Mosque and I am going on a full tour of the city tomorrow. I cannot belive I am really here.
Friday, April 27, 2007
2 posts in one day, oh my!
Ok, so I feel like my dinner tonight requires a post of all its own, and so it is going to get one...
Tonight, we went to Roula's. At least, we call this restaurant Roula's, its really Tavernaki a Costas. We randomly found it while wandering in search of food one night, and have been going back religiously ever since. The food there is the best in Greece. If I was an English Major or a poet of any kind, I would I would write an ode to this restaurant's arni me potates (lamb with potatoes in a tomato sauce) and I don't even like Lamb. But, not only is the food amazing, the place itself is adorable. It is in a converted two-story home, with a small front garden. It is a significantly older style home than the 60's era buildings that surround it. It has orange shutters on the windows and a big double wooden door. All of the tables are in the front rooms of the house, and they are decorated with tons of random Greek chachkies and paintings. The walls are painted yellow, and it is a very welcoming interior. The food is also amazingly cheap. A dinner for three with an appetizer and wine is around 25 euros.
So tonight we went there for dinner after class one more time before we all go our separate directions for the 4 day weekend. So, we were sitting at our table, having our AMAZING dinner (I had fried zucchini with tzasiki -mmmmmm!) when suddenly the lights went out! There was a brown out in our neighborhood of a good ten minutes. We remained contently in our seats munching away on our amazing meals in the pitch black, until all of a sudden they flashed back on. We ended up with a dessert on the house (which was also AMAZING!) and then off back to my room for bed time!
Tonight, we went to Roula's. At least, we call this restaurant Roula's, its really Tavernaki a Costas. We randomly found it while wandering in search of food one night, and have been going back religiously ever since. The food there is the best in Greece. If I was an English Major or a poet of any kind, I would I would write an ode to this restaurant's arni me potates (lamb with potatoes in a tomato sauce) and I don't even like Lamb. But, not only is the food amazing, the place itself is adorable. It is in a converted two-story home, with a small front garden. It is a significantly older style home than the 60's era buildings that surround it. It has orange shutters on the windows and a big double wooden door. All of the tables are in the front rooms of the house, and they are decorated with tons of random Greek chachkies and paintings. The walls are painted yellow, and it is a very welcoming interior. The food is also amazingly cheap. A dinner for three with an appetizer and wine is around 25 euros.
So tonight we went there for dinner after class one more time before we all go our separate directions for the 4 day weekend. So, we were sitting at our table, having our AMAZING dinner (I had fried zucchini with tzasiki -mmmmmm!) when suddenly the lights went out! There was a brown out in our neighborhood of a good ten minutes. We remained contently in our seats munching away on our amazing meals in the pitch black, until all of a sudden they flashed back on. We ended up with a dessert on the house (which was also AMAZING!) and then off back to my room for bed time!
Yep..this one is long!
Alright, so clearly I have not been keeping up on this blogging business like I should... so here is an in-brief recap of the last two weeks or so.
All of last week was in Athens taking class. We went on one-day trip to Amphiareion on Thursday -- which really couldn't have been more boring. Our teacher had no idea what anything on any of the sites was, so he just read to us out of his guidebook and I was so frustrated. He also has been just extending our classes over the time allotted without giving us any notice or warning when we should expect it. Basically, I just don't like this teacher.
This past weekend was great. We went out a TON. On Friday night I had a girls night out in our neighborhood with Mieka and Liz. We started out at this cool place called Kasbah Ethnic Club. It had a great lounge atmosphere and an awesome DJ. When the place finally starting filling up though (we went out early so that we could chill and chat with fewer crowds) we realized that it was a MUCH older crowd that frequented this bar, and we couldn't have been more out of place. Haha. So we decided to move on to a different bar/restaurant in our neighborhood that has a very Greek name that I can never remember. We hung out there and danced for a few hours before heading home for the night.
On Saturday a large group of us went to Psirri, which is the clubbing district in Athens. We started out at a very nice lounge called Liquid. Not a dancing kind of place, but a great place to sit and talk while listening to good music. After Liquid we decided we wanted to dance, so we all went to a club called nora.nora. It was Lebanese and has a very harem-like interior. It was PACKED with people and had the loudest music I have ever heard. They had a male and a female belly dancer, as well as hookah at the VIP tables. The place was fun, but the strange Greek music was really hard to dance to after a while, we just couldn't figure out the beat! The music finally became WAY too loud for us (I'm pretty sure I permanently damaged my hearing! haha) so we decided to go in search of a new place to hang out. I wasn't in the mood for more dancing, I just wanted to sit and hang out and meet people, so we ended up at this really popular hookah cafe that stays open until 6am on the weekend. It was full of Greek 20somethings all being really friendly and flirtatious; it was fun to watch. We got a table and hung out there for hours, talking to our waitress in broken Greek/English about the good nightlife spots and what its like to be 22 in Athens... It was just generally a great night.
Sunday was a relaxing day. I only did my laundry, my homework and just hung around the apartment. I did go out to lunch for some really great pizza though – we have found an amazing little place that makes your pizza right when you order it in a wood-burning oven! I thought about going out again, since we didn’t have class on Monday, but two nights a week is really more than I can take. I like my sleep!
Monday I went out shopping and exploring around the city on my own again. I wandered all over the place as always. Every time I get a chance to just go out ad walk around I fall in love with Athens even more. Sometimes I wish I could just stay here for good.
Then on Tuesday we left on our group trip to Delphi. The drive there was 4 hours long, and we were stuck in traffic for at least an hour. Luckily, I slept most of the way, so it didn’t really bother me! We first stopped at the Osios Loukas monastery. It is a famous example of some artist something, but once again, because my teacher is an idiot, I’m not exactly sure why it is famous. It did have some really amazing Byzantine mosaics though. It is still an operational monastery. It is not named after St. Luke the Apostle as you expect actually, but it after a Greek Saint Loukas who was an ascetic. The ultimate test that he passed was lying in bed with a woman without being tempted…hmmmm…. But, when he died the wealthy people in Thrace built the monastery in his honor.
After that we drove to Delphi and checked out the Archaeological Museum and the Gymnasium, neither of which are at the actual site of Delphi and both of which are pretty boring. Then we checked into our hotel. It was a totally gross and depressing hotel with the smallest shower in history, so I was VERY grateful we only stayed there one night. That night we had a group dinner at a big touristy restaurant (not that there is anything u-touristy in all of Delphi) that was quite good. After that I was so exhausted I just fell asleep.
The next morning we woke up and visited the actual site of Delphi. It wasn’t nearly as cool as I expected. It is swarmed with tourists, very little is left of it and what is left of it isn’t the cool parts. My high hopes ended up being for nothing. We did get to spend 2 hours exploring the site on our own, which was great. I tried meditating to channel Apollo and be my own oracle, but no such luck.
After that we had lunch in Delphi town (another tourist trap, but this time not a good one) and then drove the 4 hours to Olympia. When we finally got to Olympia we checked into our hotel. This one managed to be even worse than the last. The beds were made out of two sofa cushions pushed together, there were cockroaches and the place was just generally horrific. I was positive we were going to be murdered in our sleep. (If you ever go to Olympia, avoid the Hotel New Olympia like the plague!) We then went to the museum. The museum was REALLY GREAT. Worth every minute we spent there, if only for the pediment sculptures from the Temple of Zeus at Olympus and the Nike sculpture.
After that, around 7pm, we went to have class outside the museum. We sat in a park to discuss Medea, as our teacher has been unable to stay on schedule. While we were sitting there a homeless man, who was clearly mentally ill, came up and started talking to us. He was having a conversation with our teacher about drinking with Jesus when suddenly he pulled out a knife. Luckily he only pointed it towards himself, but after that we had to get up and leave. We continued our class in the hotel lobby until 8:15pm. After that, we all went to dinner at an AMAZING restaurant. Then pretty much the whole group went out to an Internet café/club to go dancing. But, since we had to be up at 8am again, we were all home by midnight safely in our beds.
The next morning I was so happy to get out of that gross hotel, I cannot even tell you. We started out the morning at the site of Olympia. Olympia was by far the best site we have been at in Greece. Its natural beauty combined with the relatively large number of ruins there made it just a great place to visit. I saw Nero’s house, the Temple of Zeus, a Byzantine Church, Roman and Greek Baths as well as the workshop where the GIANT sculpture of Zeus was created. (Justinian destroyed it during his sack of Constantinople because he was a Christian) There is also an amazing stadium there for the Olympic games. I also saw the altar outside of the Heriaon where they light the modern day Olympic Torch to take it around the world. I would go back to Olympia in a heartbeat – it was worth every minute it took to drive there.
After we left the site I had lunch at the Olympia Palace Hotel, which was delicious and cheap! It is also a beautiful hotel. Then some gelato before we had to hop on the bus for the 6 hour ride back to Athens!
When we finally got back I ran off the bus to get back to my apartment to relax and go to bed! I was exhausted.
This morning I woke up at 9am, put in a load of wash, finally took a shower and read my book for a while, after putting in a load of laundry. Then I went out in search of food, I found some cute clothes along the way, and then had a yummy lunch near Monasteraki. After that I came back here and started on this endless blog entry…. Now I am off to an hour of class and then I have to start packing for Istanbul tomorrow!!!!!
All of last week was in Athens taking class. We went on one-day trip to Amphiareion on Thursday -- which really couldn't have been more boring. Our teacher had no idea what anything on any of the sites was, so he just read to us out of his guidebook and I was so frustrated. He also has been just extending our classes over the time allotted without giving us any notice or warning when we should expect it. Basically, I just don't like this teacher.
This past weekend was great. We went out a TON. On Friday night I had a girls night out in our neighborhood with Mieka and Liz. We started out at this cool place called Kasbah Ethnic Club. It had a great lounge atmosphere and an awesome DJ. When the place finally starting filling up though (we went out early so that we could chill and chat with fewer crowds) we realized that it was a MUCH older crowd that frequented this bar, and we couldn't have been more out of place. Haha. So we decided to move on to a different bar/restaurant in our neighborhood that has a very Greek name that I can never remember. We hung out there and danced for a few hours before heading home for the night.
On Saturday a large group of us went to Psirri, which is the clubbing district in Athens. We started out at a very nice lounge called Liquid. Not a dancing kind of place, but a great place to sit and talk while listening to good music. After Liquid we decided we wanted to dance, so we all went to a club called nora.nora. It was Lebanese and has a very harem-like interior. It was PACKED with people and had the loudest music I have ever heard. They had a male and a female belly dancer, as well as hookah at the VIP tables. The place was fun, but the strange Greek music was really hard to dance to after a while, we just couldn't figure out the beat! The music finally became WAY too loud for us (I'm pretty sure I permanently damaged my hearing! haha) so we decided to go in search of a new place to hang out. I wasn't in the mood for more dancing, I just wanted to sit and hang out and meet people, so we ended up at this really popular hookah cafe that stays open until 6am on the weekend. It was full of Greek 20somethings all being really friendly and flirtatious; it was fun to watch. We got a table and hung out there for hours, talking to our waitress in broken Greek/English about the good nightlife spots and what its like to be 22 in Athens... It was just generally a great night.
Sunday was a relaxing day. I only did my laundry, my homework and just hung around the apartment. I did go out to lunch for some really great pizza though – we have found an amazing little place that makes your pizza right when you order it in a wood-burning oven! I thought about going out again, since we didn’t have class on Monday, but two nights a week is really more than I can take. I like my sleep!
Monday I went out shopping and exploring around the city on my own again. I wandered all over the place as always. Every time I get a chance to just go out ad walk around I fall in love with Athens even more. Sometimes I wish I could just stay here for good.
Then on Tuesday we left on our group trip to Delphi. The drive there was 4 hours long, and we were stuck in traffic for at least an hour. Luckily, I slept most of the way, so it didn’t really bother me! We first stopped at the Osios Loukas monastery. It is a famous example of some artist something, but once again, because my teacher is an idiot, I’m not exactly sure why it is famous. It did have some really amazing Byzantine mosaics though. It is still an operational monastery. It is not named after St. Luke the Apostle as you expect actually, but it after a Greek Saint Loukas who was an ascetic. The ultimate test that he passed was lying in bed with a woman without being tempted…hmmmm…. But, when he died the wealthy people in Thrace built the monastery in his honor.
After that we drove to Delphi and checked out the Archaeological Museum and the Gymnasium, neither of which are at the actual site of Delphi and both of which are pretty boring. Then we checked into our hotel. It was a totally gross and depressing hotel with the smallest shower in history, so I was VERY grateful we only stayed there one night. That night we had a group dinner at a big touristy restaurant (not that there is anything u-touristy in all of Delphi) that was quite good. After that I was so exhausted I just fell asleep.
The next morning we woke up and visited the actual site of Delphi. It wasn’t nearly as cool as I expected. It is swarmed with tourists, very little is left of it and what is left of it isn’t the cool parts. My high hopes ended up being for nothing. We did get to spend 2 hours exploring the site on our own, which was great. I tried meditating to channel Apollo and be my own oracle, but no such luck.
After that we had lunch in Delphi town (another tourist trap, but this time not a good one) and then drove the 4 hours to Olympia. When we finally got to Olympia we checked into our hotel. This one managed to be even worse than the last. The beds were made out of two sofa cushions pushed together, there were cockroaches and the place was just generally horrific. I was positive we were going to be murdered in our sleep. (If you ever go to Olympia, avoid the Hotel New Olympia like the plague!) We then went to the museum. The museum was REALLY GREAT. Worth every minute we spent there, if only for the pediment sculptures from the Temple of Zeus at Olympus and the Nike sculpture.
After that, around 7pm, we went to have class outside the museum. We sat in a park to discuss Medea, as our teacher has been unable to stay on schedule. While we were sitting there a homeless man, who was clearly mentally ill, came up and started talking to us. He was having a conversation with our teacher about drinking with Jesus when suddenly he pulled out a knife. Luckily he only pointed it towards himself, but after that we had to get up and leave. We continued our class in the hotel lobby until 8:15pm. After that, we all went to dinner at an AMAZING restaurant. Then pretty much the whole group went out to an Internet café/club to go dancing. But, since we had to be up at 8am again, we were all home by midnight safely in our beds.
The next morning I was so happy to get out of that gross hotel, I cannot even tell you. We started out the morning at the site of Olympia. Olympia was by far the best site we have been at in Greece. Its natural beauty combined with the relatively large number of ruins there made it just a great place to visit. I saw Nero’s house, the Temple of Zeus, a Byzantine Church, Roman and Greek Baths as well as the workshop where the GIANT sculpture of Zeus was created. (Justinian destroyed it during his sack of Constantinople because he was a Christian) There is also an amazing stadium there for the Olympic games. I also saw the altar outside of the Heriaon where they light the modern day Olympic Torch to take it around the world. I would go back to Olympia in a heartbeat – it was worth every minute it took to drive there.
After we left the site I had lunch at the Olympia Palace Hotel, which was delicious and cheap! It is also a beautiful hotel. Then some gelato before we had to hop on the bus for the 6 hour ride back to Athens!
When we finally got back I ran off the bus to get back to my apartment to relax and go to bed! I was exhausted.
This morning I woke up at 9am, put in a load of wash, finally took a shower and read my book for a while, after putting in a load of laundry. Then I went out in search of food, I found some cute clothes along the way, and then had a yummy lunch near Monasteraki. After that I came back here and started on this endless blog entry…. Now I am off to an hour of class and then I have to start packing for Istanbul tomorrow!!!!!
Monday, April 16, 2007
I am going to do a better job this week, I promise
So, since I have no interest in doing my homework like I should, I am going to write in my blog tonight....
This morning we had free, so I slept late, of course, and then washed my sheets. Fabric Softener is the best invention of human kind ever. Well, that may be a slight overstatement since it is relatively useless without a washing machine, but it has improved my HORRIBLE SCRATCHY sheets about 100%. Consequently, I am about 100% happier. Then off to the grocery store for more food, and hangers for my clothes. I also worked some more on my new, very cool website uchicagostudyabroad.wikispaces.com I am very proud of it, but it is no where near finished yet.
Later today we had our first day of our second class in Greece. This section is going to focus on Ancient Greek drama. We read the play The Persians for class today and discussed the model of Ancient Greek tragedy. The class was interesting, but I did not entirely care for the way our teacher asks vague questions while looking for a very specific answer. My roommate described it as an academic game of "guess what is in my pocket." It got very frustrating very quickly for the entire class because we were not able to provide the answer he was looking for. When we finally got to it, we kind of wanted to strangle him, because his questions actually led us away from his answer in a lot of ways. The one amazing thing he did do though was to shut up the obnoxious kid in our class who often says very dumb things that are barely tangentially related to the subject at hand and are only intended to make him look intelligent, but fail miserably. The teacher pretty much shut him down completely which in my book makes him a good teacher.
After that I had another 2 1/2 hours of Greek class, again. I am about to go ito Greek class overload, but luckily next week only have 1 1/2 hours for the ENTIRE WEEK! I love the class and I love our teacher, but enough is enough, ok?
Then tonight for dinner I went to the Souvlaki Shop in the square that is pretty good. After all of those classes I was starving and ended up eating 1 1/2 gyros in about 2.5 seconds flat. They were amazing but now I may never eat again.
And now I should actually do my homework so that I can go to bed at a reasonable hour...
This morning we had free, so I slept late, of course, and then washed my sheets. Fabric Softener is the best invention of human kind ever. Well, that may be a slight overstatement since it is relatively useless without a washing machine, but it has improved my HORRIBLE SCRATCHY sheets about 100%. Consequently, I am about 100% happier. Then off to the grocery store for more food, and hangers for my clothes. I also worked some more on my new, very cool website uchicagostudyabroad.wikispaces.com I am very proud of it, but it is no where near finished yet.
Later today we had our first day of our second class in Greece. This section is going to focus on Ancient Greek drama. We read the play The Persians for class today and discussed the model of Ancient Greek tragedy. The class was interesting, but I did not entirely care for the way our teacher asks vague questions while looking for a very specific answer. My roommate described it as an academic game of "guess what is in my pocket." It got very frustrating very quickly for the entire class because we were not able to provide the answer he was looking for. When we finally got to it, we kind of wanted to strangle him, because his questions actually led us away from his answer in a lot of ways. The one amazing thing he did do though was to shut up the obnoxious kid in our class who often says very dumb things that are barely tangentially related to the subject at hand and are only intended to make him look intelligent, but fail miserably. The teacher pretty much shut him down completely which in my book makes him a good teacher.
After that I had another 2 1/2 hours of Greek class, again. I am about to go ito Greek class overload, but luckily next week only have 1 1/2 hours for the ENTIRE WEEK! I love the class and I love our teacher, but enough is enough, ok?
Then tonight for dinner I went to the Souvlaki Shop in the square that is pretty good. After all of those classes I was starving and ended up eating 1 1/2 gyros in about 2.5 seconds flat. They were amazing but now I may never eat again.
And now I should actually do my homework so that I can go to bed at a reasonable hour...
Sunday, April 15, 2007
I know its been a week...
So, its been a week since I last posted, but a rather uneventful week so I'll be able to recap relatively quickly...
We had no class on Monday, and I pretty much did nothing, since the WHOLE CITY was still closed. The Easter holiday is the most important for the Orthodox Church, so everyone has at the very least a four day weekend. The students get two weeks off, and a lot of places are closed for the whole week before Easter and the following Monday. I thought about writing my paper, but never actually got around to it...
On Tuesday Morning we visited the Athenian Agora with Cam where he lectured. We had already visited the site one before, but it is still really interesting and the museum there has a large number of very well preserved artifacts. In the afternoon we had discussion class again, but it was FINALLY about Modern Greece which is my actual interest. The discussion got very heated but was much more interesting, in my opinion, than any of the others that we have had. After discussion class I had 2 1/2 hours of my Modern Greek 2 class. Our teacher is really interesting and fun. She has taken into account what we wanted to learn, and has expanded our Greek vocabularies so much already.
Wednesday -- Today was our site visit to Ancient Korinthina (Corinth). This trip was basically the highlight of the week. We had this amazing Archaeologist named Guy Sanders, who is the director of the Corinth site, show us around the site. We started with the original site, which included the famous temple. After that he showed us their most recent, and still ongoing excavations, including one of the graveyards for the city. They had just recently uncovered a new grave, with a stone sarcophagus, indicating the relative wealth and prestige of the person buried there. They had already opened it and removed the important artifacts, but they hadn't been able to move the sarcophagus yet, so we were able to see it in its original location. Guy then went on to describe some of the burial practices of the Christian, Muslim and earlier Pagan people who were buried in the cemetery, as well as some of the more gruesome stories of the people who had been excommunicated before they were buried. These people were buried in specific ways to ensure that they were permanently denied the glory of the afterlife. Then, ironically, it was lunch time...
For lunch we went to some of the very few, and very touristy restaurants to eat. The unique thing about this one is that it has a terrace that overlooks the sit itself. It has probably the best view of the temple in Corinth that you could get in the city. The food was mediocre at best, but the view was worth it.
After lunch it was time to see the ACROCORINTH!!! So, anyone who is from my generation remembers the TV show that was on Nick called Guts. In the show, four "international" kids competed for the championship by climbing up the Agrocrag. The Agrocrag was a fake mountain obstacle course including foam avalanches. Since everyone on my trip is within one or two years of my age, we all had the exact same reaction to the idea of the Acrocorinth -- THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER! and we had to compete to get to the top fastest in order to win our piece of the Agrocrag! Unfortunately, we underestimated how HUGE the Acrocorinth. It is actually a Venetian fortress with cliffs on three sides, so it can only be approached on oe side. It was captured by the Ottoman empire and then in the early 1820's by the Greeks during the independence movement. As a group we finally, but just barely made it to the top of the fortress, where you could see both the Saronic and the Corinthian gulf, with the Corinth Canal running between the two. It was one of the most beautiful sites we have seen yet...but then we had to get down.
On Thursday we had a free morning, which I spent starting my paper, and then mastering all forms of procrastination...such as cleaning my room, cleaning the kitchen, organizing my clothes and books, ect... It was a very productive procrastination morning. Then the rental company came and installed the washing machine we rented in our apartment (hugest life improvement ever) just before it was time for me to go to class. Another day where we discussed Modern Greece, but once again, the classics majors in our class managed to make it about the ancient world.. Then another 2 1/2 hours of Modern Greek before MASSIVE paper writing.
The Friday morning we visited the National Archeology Museum -- which was a mob scene. Every annoying tour group in the entire country was visiting the museum at the same time we were. Our group has had an ongoing war with the rude tour guides since we were shushed while discussing the Parthenon while on the Acropolis (with our teacher!) so that she could give her boring intro to the site. Today, it got even worse. An Italian tour guide actually pulled one of my classmates away from an artifact that he was examining so that her group could crowd around the rather large case. Basically, it was war. But our teacher Cam stepped in and moved us on to the next gallery before a fight broke out in the National Museum. Haha.
We has our last session of the first class we are taking while here (our program is divided up into three, three week intensive classes with modern Greek throughout) on Friday afternoon. We then had another 2 hours of modern Greek. Right after Modern Greek we went to Nodia, a (pretty bad) restaurant on the square near our apartments to have a farewell dinner for Cam, our teacher. We really liked him, and felt like he was a friend to our whole group, so it was a very boisterous yet sad dinner. The food was awful, and the wine was probably a little worse, but it was fun anyway.
Saturday -- I spent the day out shopping with a two other girls from my program - Amanda and Julia. It was Julia's 21st birthday, so first we went to the bookstore to get some more light reading for our downtime, and then we went shopping for clothes on Ermou (the Michigan Ave of Athens. I bought myself a really cute dress, a pink-ish blazer, a t-shirt, a tank top and a tube top. They are all very European cool and I have a feeling I am going to be wearing them constantly while I am here. Then we went to Monasteraki for lunch...mmm gyros! We were exhausted from our excursion after that so we decided to stroll back towards home through the Monaskeraki market. On our way through we found an amazing show store with adorable and really cheap sandals! I bought a pair of gold Grecian style sandals and a pair of bronze wedge heels. Then we actually did make it home weighed down with all of our purchases.
That night we decided to go out clubbing for Julia's 21st Birthday and almost everyone in the program went along. We ended up at a club called Luv with great Trance music and a huge crowd. We stayed there all night just dancing and having a great time.
And now today all I am doing is writing in my blog and being incredibly lazy, because that is what Sundays are made for.
We had no class on Monday, and I pretty much did nothing, since the WHOLE CITY was still closed. The Easter holiday is the most important for the Orthodox Church, so everyone has at the very least a four day weekend. The students get two weeks off, and a lot of places are closed for the whole week before Easter and the following Monday. I thought about writing my paper, but never actually got around to it...
On Tuesday Morning we visited the Athenian Agora with Cam where he lectured. We had already visited the site one before, but it is still really interesting and the museum there has a large number of very well preserved artifacts. In the afternoon we had discussion class again, but it was FINALLY about Modern Greece which is my actual interest. The discussion got very heated but was much more interesting, in my opinion, than any of the others that we have had. After discussion class I had 2 1/2 hours of my Modern Greek 2 class. Our teacher is really interesting and fun. She has taken into account what we wanted to learn, and has expanded our Greek vocabularies so much already.
Wednesday -- Today was our site visit to Ancient Korinthina (Corinth). This trip was basically the highlight of the week. We had this amazing Archaeologist named Guy Sanders, who is the director of the Corinth site, show us around the site. We started with the original site, which included the famous temple. After that he showed us their most recent, and still ongoing excavations, including one of the graveyards for the city. They had just recently uncovered a new grave, with a stone sarcophagus, indicating the relative wealth and prestige of the person buried there. They had already opened it and removed the important artifacts, but they hadn't been able to move the sarcophagus yet, so we were able to see it in its original location. Guy then went on to describe some of the burial practices of the Christian, Muslim and earlier Pagan people who were buried in the cemetery, as well as some of the more gruesome stories of the people who had been excommunicated before they were buried. These people were buried in specific ways to ensure that they were permanently denied the glory of the afterlife. Then, ironically, it was lunch time...
For lunch we went to some of the very few, and very touristy restaurants to eat. The unique thing about this one is that it has a terrace that overlooks the sit itself. It has probably the best view of the temple in Corinth that you could get in the city. The food was mediocre at best, but the view was worth it.
After lunch it was time to see the ACROCORINTH!!! So, anyone who is from my generation remembers the TV show that was on Nick called Guts. In the show, four "international" kids competed for the championship by climbing up the Agrocrag. The Agrocrag was a fake mountain obstacle course including foam avalanches. Since everyone on my trip is within one or two years of my age, we all had the exact same reaction to the idea of the Acrocorinth -- THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER! and we had to compete to get to the top fastest in order to win our piece of the Agrocrag! Unfortunately, we underestimated how HUGE the Acrocorinth. It is actually a Venetian fortress with cliffs on three sides, so it can only be approached on oe side. It was captured by the Ottoman empire and then in the early 1820's by the Greeks during the independence movement. As a group we finally, but just barely made it to the top of the fortress, where you could see both the Saronic and the Corinthian gulf, with the Corinth Canal running between the two. It was one of the most beautiful sites we have seen yet...but then we had to get down.
On Thursday we had a free morning, which I spent starting my paper, and then mastering all forms of procrastination...such as cleaning my room, cleaning the kitchen, organizing my clothes and books, ect... It was a very productive procrastination morning. Then the rental company came and installed the washing machine we rented in our apartment (hugest life improvement ever) just before it was time for me to go to class. Another day where we discussed Modern Greece, but once again, the classics majors in our class managed to make it about the ancient world.. Then another 2 1/2 hours of Modern Greek before MASSIVE paper writing.
The Friday morning we visited the National Archeology Museum -- which was a mob scene. Every annoying tour group in the entire country was visiting the museum at the same time we were. Our group has had an ongoing war with the rude tour guides since we were shushed while discussing the Parthenon while on the Acropolis (with our teacher!) so that she could give her boring intro to the site. Today, it got even worse. An Italian tour guide actually pulled one of my classmates away from an artifact that he was examining so that her group could crowd around the rather large case. Basically, it was war. But our teacher Cam stepped in and moved us on to the next gallery before a fight broke out in the National Museum. Haha.
We has our last session of the first class we are taking while here (our program is divided up into three, three week intensive classes with modern Greek throughout) on Friday afternoon. We then had another 2 hours of modern Greek. Right after Modern Greek we went to Nodia, a (pretty bad) restaurant on the square near our apartments to have a farewell dinner for Cam, our teacher. We really liked him, and felt like he was a friend to our whole group, so it was a very boisterous yet sad dinner. The food was awful, and the wine was probably a little worse, but it was fun anyway.
Saturday -- I spent the day out shopping with a two other girls from my program - Amanda and Julia. It was Julia's 21st birthday, so first we went to the bookstore to get some more light reading for our downtime, and then we went shopping for clothes on Ermou (the Michigan Ave of Athens. I bought myself a really cute dress, a pink-ish blazer, a t-shirt, a tank top and a tube top. They are all very European cool and I have a feeling I am going to be wearing them constantly while I am here. Then we went to Monasteraki for lunch...mmm gyros! We were exhausted from our excursion after that so we decided to stroll back towards home through the Monaskeraki market. On our way through we found an amazing show store with adorable and really cheap sandals! I bought a pair of gold Grecian style sandals and a pair of bronze wedge heels. Then we actually did make it home weighed down with all of our purchases.
That night we decided to go out clubbing for Julia's 21st Birthday and almost everyone in the program went along. We ended up at a club called Luv with great Trance music and a huge crowd. We stayed there all night just dancing and having a great time.
And now today all I am doing is writing in my blog and being incredibly lazy, because that is what Sundays are made for.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Re: Well, somethings are disappointing, and others are better than ever
Alright, so, simply put, my dates were unmitigated disasters. Both guys were boring, one was WAY too forward and I had to get up and leave, while the other talked on his cell phone the whole time. AND they both chain smoked. GROSS. So, leaving that at that, on to the fun part of my trip...
I went to Aegina for a traditional Greek Easter with the family that we met earlier this week. It was pretty much the coolest experience of my entire life. On Saturday at midnight we went to church and lit candles from the holy light that traveled all the way from Israel. After that we went back to their house for a huge feast that included Margheritza, a soup that is only served on the night that Christ rose from the dead (Easter). We played the traditional "crack the red egg" game that I always used to play with my YiaYia and Papoulie. At around 2am we finally stopped eating and went to bed -- only to start right up again the next day.
On Easter Sunday Greek families always get together for tons of food and dancing. They also always roast an entire lamb on a spit. The family we were staying with, did both, and it was awesome. We ate an enormous amount of food and then had to come back to Athens, to write our essays for our class tomorrow. Which is what I should be doing right now, but I am so tired, I am just going to bed.
I went to Aegina for a traditional Greek Easter with the family that we met earlier this week. It was pretty much the coolest experience of my entire life. On Saturday at midnight we went to church and lit candles from the holy light that traveled all the way from Israel. After that we went back to their house for a huge feast that included Margheritza, a soup that is only served on the night that Christ rose from the dead (Easter). We played the traditional "crack the red egg" game that I always used to play with my YiaYia and Papoulie. At around 2am we finally stopped eating and went to bed -- only to start right up again the next day.
On Easter Sunday Greek families always get together for tons of food and dancing. They also always roast an entire lamb on a spit. The family we were staying with, did both, and it was awesome. We ate an enormous amount of food and then had to come back to Athens, to write our essays for our class tomorrow. Which is what I should be doing right now, but I am so tired, I am just going to bed.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Re: I REALLY like Greece
So, my life in Greece is way better than my life in the states. I may never come back again. Just a quick re-cap of today, because it has been even better than normal.
Woke up around 9am and went to Pireaus to sail back to Aegina for a traditioanl Greek Easter with my adopted Greek Grandparents.
Made it to Aegina, and went to a cafe for a snack while waiting for the bus to Agia Marina. I got the MOST amazing chocolate crepe I have ever had in my entire life, and as I am enjoying this amzing crepe (with chocolate ALL over my face, as always), the waiter strikes up a conversation with me. We discuss my plans for my trip, and it all ends up with him asking me out for coffee tonight! I accept and head to Agia Marina.
We check into our hotel, which is even more beautiful than I remember it, but this time, we are given a room with our own private terrace overlooking the ocean. So, I have a hour to kill before getting back on the bus to meet my date, so I changed into my bathing suit and laid (lied? i never understood that part of English grammar) out on my terrace until I had to get dressed to go. So, the bus drops me off in Aegina early for my date, so I decided to wander around until its time for my date (which, by the way is still 10 minutes away). So as I am wandering, I run into the guy Stavros and I met on our last trip here who rents scooters. We had talked with him for a while about Aegina last time we were here, and he remembered me. So, we strike up another conversation, and yes, I get asked out on ANOTHER date for tonight. So I have one coffee date for 6pm tonight and one for 10pm, and then church at midnight followed by a feast.
Yeah, Greece is AWESOME. And to quote Tupac -- "'nuff said."
Woke up around 9am and went to Pireaus to sail back to Aegina for a traditioanl Greek Easter with my adopted Greek Grandparents.
Made it to Aegina, and went to a cafe for a snack while waiting for the bus to Agia Marina. I got the MOST amazing chocolate crepe I have ever had in my entire life, and as I am enjoying this amzing crepe (with chocolate ALL over my face, as always), the waiter strikes up a conversation with me. We discuss my plans for my trip, and it all ends up with him asking me out for coffee tonight! I accept and head to Agia Marina.
We check into our hotel, which is even more beautiful than I remember it, but this time, we are given a room with our own private terrace overlooking the ocean. So, I have a hour to kill before getting back on the bus to meet my date, so I changed into my bathing suit and laid (lied? i never understood that part of English grammar) out on my terrace until I had to get dressed to go. So, the bus drops me off in Aegina early for my date, so I decided to wander around until its time for my date (which, by the way is still 10 minutes away). So as I am wandering, I run into the guy Stavros and I met on our last trip here who rents scooters. We had talked with him for a while about Aegina last time we were here, and he remembered me. So, we strike up another conversation, and yes, I get asked out on ANOTHER date for tonight. So I have one coffee date for 6pm tonight and one for 10pm, and then church at midnight followed by a feast.
Yeah, Greece is AWESOME. And to quote Tupac -- "'nuff said."
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Trip to Aegina Part III
So, now I am safely back in my apartment in Athens, and ready to fill in the remainder of my trip...
We woke up early and met up downstairs in the restaurant/lobby of the hotel. On the way down, of course I trip and almost smack my head on the marble stairs, being the total klutz that I am. After I finally make it down the stairs, we go into the restaurant to check out, and the proprietors wife had just arrived from Athens. We started talking to her and it turned out she was from Elmwood Park! Which is the suburb of Chicago right next to where my Greek grandparents live. She had come to Greece on vacation when she was 20 in 1977 and had fallen in love Aegina Island and then with Nikos, her future husband. They returned to Chicago for 2 1/2 years and then in 1985 they had purchased the Kavos Bay hotel we stayed in, and moved there permanently. After telling us her life story, she invited us to come back to Kavos Bay for Orthodox Easter which is this Sunday. They will be doing the traditional lamb roast on the spit and going to church and just having a huge party! So, of course, we will have to attend, as Easter is a time to leave Athens in Greece and return to your hometown. We are adopting Nikos and Ireni as our extra set of grandparents for this easter! haha. Honestly, Stavros, Lydia and I are already booking the tickets and can't wait!
And all this happened in the first half hour after leaving our rooms.
Then they drove us into town to catch the bus to Aegina Town, where the ferry departs from. Just as we are pulling into town, the bus goes by and our driver flags it down for us and we hop on. After a crazy bus ride up and down hillsides at a break neck speed in a normal sized city bus we arrive in Aegina Town. First, we decided to get breakfast. Then we wandered around until our ferry came. The ferry ride back was uneventful but beautiful, as would be expected. Then we hopped on the metro to Monasteraki. At the stop right after Piraeus an elderly woman got on the train with a live chicken in a box. Stavros and I were incredulous, to say the least, at the site of a live chicken on a throughly modern metro system. The woman asked us, in Greek of course, why we were laughing at her. And we responded, in our broken Greek, no! no! Chicken! And then burst out laughing again, this time the woman joined us. She got off at the next stop, taking her chicken with her.
And now I am back in my room and about to go get myself some Souvlaki before I have to go to class.
We woke up early and met up downstairs in the restaurant/lobby of the hotel. On the way down, of course I trip and almost smack my head on the marble stairs, being the total klutz that I am. After I finally make it down the stairs, we go into the restaurant to check out, and the proprietors wife had just arrived from Athens. We started talking to her and it turned out she was from Elmwood Park! Which is the suburb of Chicago right next to where my Greek grandparents live. She had come to Greece on vacation when she was 20 in 1977 and had fallen in love Aegina Island and then with Nikos, her future husband. They returned to Chicago for 2 1/2 years and then in 1985 they had purchased the Kavos Bay hotel we stayed in, and moved there permanently. After telling us her life story, she invited us to come back to Kavos Bay for Orthodox Easter which is this Sunday. They will be doing the traditional lamb roast on the spit and going to church and just having a huge party! So, of course, we will have to attend, as Easter is a time to leave Athens in Greece and return to your hometown. We are adopting Nikos and Ireni as our extra set of grandparents for this easter! haha. Honestly, Stavros, Lydia and I are already booking the tickets and can't wait!
And all this happened in the first half hour after leaving our rooms.
Then they drove us into town to catch the bus to Aegina Town, where the ferry departs from. Just as we are pulling into town, the bus goes by and our driver flags it down for us and we hop on. After a crazy bus ride up and down hillsides at a break neck speed in a normal sized city bus we arrive in Aegina Town. First, we decided to get breakfast. Then we wandered around until our ferry came. The ferry ride back was uneventful but beautiful, as would be expected. Then we hopped on the metro to Monasteraki. At the stop right after Piraeus an elderly woman got on the train with a live chicken in a box. Stavros and I were incredulous, to say the least, at the site of a live chicken on a throughly modern metro system. The woman asked us, in Greek of course, why we were laughing at her. And we responded, in our broken Greek, no! no! Chicken! And then burst out laughing again, this time the woman joined us. She got off at the next stop, taking her chicken with her.
And now I am back in my room and about to go get myself some Souvlaki before I have to go to class.
Trip to Aegina Part II
As I sit on the balcony of my hotel looking at the sun setting over Aegina, I cannot believe my luck at being here. It is a perfect sunset, over the island, with the Saronic Gulf in the foreground. This island seems too beautiful to be real at times, and then I remember the strange things that have occurred since my arrival, and I am almost sure that it has all been some strange sort of dream.
After checking in and settling into our rooms, Stavros and I decided to explore the island. We left the hotel and wandered down the small road that leads to Agia Marina, the town we are staying in. The town is a 20-minute walk from our hotel. Along the way we climbed down the cliffs at several safe spots to check out the water and just generally explore. Finally we made it into town and decided we were starving. We found an open restaurant with a terrace that overlooked the ocean (as does most of the town) and sat down for lunch. We ate leisurely and VERY well. After our long lunch we decided to explore Agia Marina itself. First we wandered to their empty sandy beaches then down to the supermarket. We bought some chips and snacks for the hotel and decided to head back to the hotel.
We were wandering down the main street on our way to the small road that leads to our hotel when one of the ubiquitous four-wheelers that are rented all over the island buzzed by us. This one, oddly, slowed to a stop in the middle of the dead town, where we were the only people on the street and the man driving called out my name. Shocked, I turned around, only to see an old friend from the small town where I grew up in Florida who had moved to Boston and whom I had not spoken to in 4 years. Tim and I had known each other during the beginning of my senior year of high school and had really not spoken since. Randomly, he happened to be vacationing in Aegina for a few days before he returned to Boston, after a long stay with friends in Santorini. He was there with an ex-girlfriend for some reason, though no explanation was offered, and basically I am still shocked by the whole encounter. We spent an hour walking the beach and catching up, while both marveling at the deep randomness of our encounter. Finally, he had to leave to return his four-wheeler to the other side of the island where he was staying. Stavros and I then walked back to our hotel and fell asleep for the night.
Tuesday April 3
Today we started out our day much earlier, at 9am, for breakfast in the hotel. From there we walked into Agia Marina to try and find an internet café to no avail. After that we decided to visit the ruins on the island of the Temple of Aphaia, which was built in 500 BC to a goddess native to Aegina. It is a remarkably well preserved temple, as it wasn’t destroyed by the Turks and it is relatively new compared to many of the ruins in Greece. We took the local bus up there, about 15 minutes from the town center, and as we are getting off the bus 6 of the other people from our program are sitting at the bus stop eating their snacks before going into the temple. This was decidedly less random than running into Tim, but random nonetheless, as we were the only people who had wanted to go to Aegina when we booked the trip on Sunday. They were only here for the day though, instead of the whole 2 ½ day break like Stavros and I. We wandered around the ruins with them for a while, taking the requisite touristy pictures and then we parted ways, with Stavros and I continuing on to Aegina town.
Our first stop in Aegina was an internet café (where I wrote my previous post), as we both had not checked our e-mails in two days and were DELUGED with them. After an hour in a smoky, airless room we were ready for an outdoor lunch. So we decided to find a place with a patio outside overlooking the port. We happened to luck out ad find a reasonable, local’s hangout with amazing food and fresh octopus hanging from a string outside. We tried their amazing calamari, as well as fried zucchini, tzasiki, and feta cheese. After our lunch we bought ourselves Greek flag towels, to show off our Greek pride and so that we would have beach towels for our trip. (The Greeks can be a bit skimpy on linens, even in nice hotels, from what we have seen so far) Then we went on to the bus and returned to our hotel.
After returning we sat out on my balcony, eating the delicious pistachios that are native to Aegina, and trying complete our reading for our quiz on Thursday. We watched the sun set over the island, and now I am writing my blog entry into word so that as soon as I have internet access I can upload it, without having forgotten a thing. We are both planning on going to bed early tonight, as we want to get to see some more of Aegina town before our ferry leaves at 11am tomorrow, so we will be waking up around 7:30am in order to catch the bus by 8:45 from Agia Marina to Aegina Town. We’ll be there by 9:15 – 9:30amish and then we will need to be on board our boat by 10:30am. The boat should return to Athens by 12:05pm, so that we can make it class by 4:30pm with a large margin for error. We’ll see what actually happens though…
After checking in and settling into our rooms, Stavros and I decided to explore the island. We left the hotel and wandered down the small road that leads to Agia Marina, the town we are staying in. The town is a 20-minute walk from our hotel. Along the way we climbed down the cliffs at several safe spots to check out the water and just generally explore. Finally we made it into town and decided we were starving. We found an open restaurant with a terrace that overlooked the ocean (as does most of the town) and sat down for lunch. We ate leisurely and VERY well. After our long lunch we decided to explore Agia Marina itself. First we wandered to their empty sandy beaches then down to the supermarket. We bought some chips and snacks for the hotel and decided to head back to the hotel.
We were wandering down the main street on our way to the small road that leads to our hotel when one of the ubiquitous four-wheelers that are rented all over the island buzzed by us. This one, oddly, slowed to a stop in the middle of the dead town, where we were the only people on the street and the man driving called out my name. Shocked, I turned around, only to see an old friend from the small town where I grew up in Florida who had moved to Boston and whom I had not spoken to in 4 years. Tim and I had known each other during the beginning of my senior year of high school and had really not spoken since. Randomly, he happened to be vacationing in Aegina for a few days before he returned to Boston, after a long stay with friends in Santorini. He was there with an ex-girlfriend for some reason, though no explanation was offered, and basically I am still shocked by the whole encounter. We spent an hour walking the beach and catching up, while both marveling at the deep randomness of our encounter. Finally, he had to leave to return his four-wheeler to the other side of the island where he was staying. Stavros and I then walked back to our hotel and fell asleep for the night.
Tuesday April 3
Today we started out our day much earlier, at 9am, for breakfast in the hotel. From there we walked into Agia Marina to try and find an internet café to no avail. After that we decided to visit the ruins on the island of the Temple of Aphaia, which was built in 500 BC to a goddess native to Aegina. It is a remarkably well preserved temple, as it wasn’t destroyed by the Turks and it is relatively new compared to many of the ruins in Greece. We took the local bus up there, about 15 minutes from the town center, and as we are getting off the bus 6 of the other people from our program are sitting at the bus stop eating their snacks before going into the temple. This was decidedly less random than running into Tim, but random nonetheless, as we were the only people who had wanted to go to Aegina when we booked the trip on Sunday. They were only here for the day though, instead of the whole 2 ½ day break like Stavros and I. We wandered around the ruins with them for a while, taking the requisite touristy pictures and then we parted ways, with Stavros and I continuing on to Aegina town.
Our first stop in Aegina was an internet café (where I wrote my previous post), as we both had not checked our e-mails in two days and were DELUGED with them. After an hour in a smoky, airless room we were ready for an outdoor lunch. So we decided to find a place with a patio outside overlooking the port. We happened to luck out ad find a reasonable, local’s hangout with amazing food and fresh octopus hanging from a string outside. We tried their amazing calamari, as well as fried zucchini, tzasiki, and feta cheese. After our lunch we bought ourselves Greek flag towels, to show off our Greek pride and so that we would have beach towels for our trip. (The Greeks can be a bit skimpy on linens, even in nice hotels, from what we have seen so far) Then we went on to the bus and returned to our hotel.
After returning we sat out on my balcony, eating the delicious pistachios that are native to Aegina, and trying complete our reading for our quiz on Thursday. We watched the sun set over the island, and now I am writing my blog entry into word so that as soon as I have internet access I can upload it, without having forgotten a thing. We are both planning on going to bed early tonight, as we want to get to see some more of Aegina town before our ferry leaves at 11am tomorrow, so we will be waking up around 7:30am in order to catch the bus by 8:45 from Agia Marina to Aegina Town. We’ll be there by 9:15 – 9:30amish and then we will need to be on board our boat by 10:30am. The boat should return to Athens by 12:05pm, so that we can make it class by 4:30pm with a large margin for error. We’ll see what actually happens though…
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Aegina
Alright, so for the moment I am going to skip over my trip to Napflio, since it is significant less interesting then the trip I am currently on (at least in my eyes, humans are way more interesting than ridiculous numbers of piles of rocks)
So, I am in Aegina, which is the island in the Saronic Gulf only 16 miles from Athens. Its considered an Athenian weekend/summer hangout but since no one is here yet because the season hasn't started the place is practically deserted. So, Stavros and I decided to come here to check it out and find ourselves Greek spouses. Well, we didn't actually decide to go until the day before we were supposed to leave and we just booked everything over the internet without much thought. So, on Monday morning we make it to the ferry OK, and after some difficulty manage to get our tickets from the ticket office. We board the ferry and promptly pass out on the benches for the entire hour trip. We wake up about 10 minutes before we dock and get to see some of the beautiful views of the Island. Once we dock, we realize that we have no idea where our hotel is in relation to the ferry. So, after some initial wandering, we decide to go to the port authority and ask them how to get to our hotel. The exchange goes something like this:
Stavros: "Pou Einai Kavos Bay Hotel," (where is Kavos Bay Hotel?)
Port Authority Lady: "Gibberish, gobbilty goop, incomprehensible greek"
Kara: "Ok. Milate Anglika," (Ok. Do you speak English?)
Port Authority Lady: Points down the hall
So Stavros and I walk down the hall and finally find someone who speaks English. So we ask her, how do we get to Kavos Bay? And she tells us that we should get on the bus to Agia Marina which is on the other side of the Island (which is only 12 kilometers wide) and then when we get there we should ask the bakers wife to call Kavos Bay and they will come pick us up. So we exit the Port Authority and decide to just grab a taxi and ask him to take us there, figuring that they will know how to get there. We grab a taxi just outside of the port authority and tell him we are going to Kavos Bay and he says, ok I'll get you as close as I can. Thinking I misheard him, we say ok, hop in the cab and head across the island at a break-neck speed on these tiny mountain roads. I am absolutely sure that I have gotten Stavros and I into a really bad situation that may end in death, especially since our cab driver shows no interest in looking at the road.
Finally, he stops next to this white and blue house and tells us, "This is as far as I go. Road no good." So we hop out of the cab and decide to go into the house to ask where exactly from here our hotel is. Apparently, this house/restaurant is owned by "familia" of the owners of Kavos Bay, because that is the ONLY word we can make out that this guy is saying. So he tells us, in English finally, to hop in his car and he is going to drive us to to "familia." So, we hop in this run down old blue Mercedes with this man who couldn't be a day younger than 95 and he drives us up and down what could be barely be considered a road until we reach our hotel. We hop out of the cab and are greeted by Nikos, the owner/manager of the hotel, where he says "Oh! We have been expecting you, right this way!" And he leads us down a white and blue hall to our rooms, which, from the looks of it are going to be scary. But when he leads us to our rooms right next door to each other, we see that we each have an incredible balcony that over looks the Saronic gulf as well as the whole town and the cliffs that comprise the whole island. It is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life and the HUGE knot of worries that had developed in my stomach during the trip over finally begins to melt away. And that is just my first hour and 1/2 on this island. I have SO much more to say, but my time at the internet cafe is coming to a close so more will come tomorrow when I return to Athens.
So, I am in Aegina, which is the island in the Saronic Gulf only 16 miles from Athens. Its considered an Athenian weekend/summer hangout but since no one is here yet because the season hasn't started the place is practically deserted. So, Stavros and I decided to come here to check it out and find ourselves Greek spouses. Well, we didn't actually decide to go until the day before we were supposed to leave and we just booked everything over the internet without much thought. So, on Monday morning we make it to the ferry OK, and after some difficulty manage to get our tickets from the ticket office. We board the ferry and promptly pass out on the benches for the entire hour trip. We wake up about 10 minutes before we dock and get to see some of the beautiful views of the Island. Once we dock, we realize that we have no idea where our hotel is in relation to the ferry. So, after some initial wandering, we decide to go to the port authority and ask them how to get to our hotel. The exchange goes something like this:
Stavros: "Pou Einai Kavos Bay Hotel," (where is Kavos Bay Hotel?)
Port Authority Lady: "Gibberish, gobbilty goop, incomprehensible greek"
Kara: "Ok. Milate Anglika," (Ok. Do you speak English?)
Port Authority Lady: Points down the hall
So Stavros and I walk down the hall and finally find someone who speaks English. So we ask her, how do we get to Kavos Bay? And she tells us that we should get on the bus to Agia Marina which is on the other side of the Island (which is only 12 kilometers wide) and then when we get there we should ask the bakers wife to call Kavos Bay and they will come pick us up. So we exit the Port Authority and decide to just grab a taxi and ask him to take us there, figuring that they will know how to get there. We grab a taxi just outside of the port authority and tell him we are going to Kavos Bay and he says, ok I'll get you as close as I can. Thinking I misheard him, we say ok, hop in the cab and head across the island at a break-neck speed on these tiny mountain roads. I am absolutely sure that I have gotten Stavros and I into a really bad situation that may end in death, especially since our cab driver shows no interest in looking at the road.
Finally, he stops next to this white and blue house and tells us, "This is as far as I go. Road no good." So we hop out of the cab and decide to go into the house to ask where exactly from here our hotel is. Apparently, this house/restaurant is owned by "familia" of the owners of Kavos Bay, because that is the ONLY word we can make out that this guy is saying. So he tells us, in English finally, to hop in his car and he is going to drive us to to "familia." So, we hop in this run down old blue Mercedes with this man who couldn't be a day younger than 95 and he drives us up and down what could be barely be considered a road until we reach our hotel. We hop out of the cab and are greeted by Nikos, the owner/manager of the hotel, where he says "Oh! We have been expecting you, right this way!" And he leads us down a white and blue hall to our rooms, which, from the looks of it are going to be scary. But when he leads us to our rooms right next door to each other, we see that we each have an incredible balcony that over looks the Saronic gulf as well as the whole town and the cliffs that comprise the whole island. It is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life and the HUGE knot of worries that had developed in my stomach during the trip over finally begins to melt away. And that is just my first hour and 1/2 on this island. I have SO much more to say, but my time at the internet cafe is coming to a close so more will come tomorrow when I return to Athens.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
SHOPPING!
March 28th - Wednesday
Today we had the morning free so Lydia, Stavros and I went shopping! First we went and had lunch at a small taverna off of Odos Imitou that was run by a man from Chicago who is now a Greek citizen. He asked us about the Super Bowl and the World Series and told us stories. It was really entertaining! After that we strolled along the block the taverna was on and I bought a bunch of great stuff! I got a cool blue velvet blazer, a few shirts and really nice sweatshirt. It is still cold here, and I didn't really pack well for the weather, so I had to buy some warmer stuff! After shopping we came home to read and nap before class.
Class today lasted until 6pm. We discussed Athens and Sparta, in relation to one another. Specifically there similarities and differences with regards to Individualism, Wealth, Women & Family, Ethos... Overall it was really interesting. After class I went to the grocery store to buy snacks and lunch for our trip to Marathon tomorrow. Then Lydia, Stavros and I cooked dinner in our apartment and hung out until now. Now, I am going to go to bed, because I have to get up so damn early tomorrow.
But first, here is our schedule for tomorrow:
Day Trip to Ramnous and Marathon
8am: Buses Leave
9:30am: Ramnous Archaeological Site
11:30am: Lecture at the Tomb of the Athenians
Noon: Lecture at the Marathon Museum
12:30pm: Lecture behind the Museum
1:30pm: Head to Schoinia for Picnic Lunch, free time and sun-bathing (although it is susposed to be overcast and gloomy so we'll see how that works out!)
4:30pm: Departure for Athens
Today we had the morning free so Lydia, Stavros and I went shopping! First we went and had lunch at a small taverna off of Odos Imitou that was run by a man from Chicago who is now a Greek citizen. He asked us about the Super Bowl and the World Series and told us stories. It was really entertaining! After that we strolled along the block the taverna was on and I bought a bunch of great stuff! I got a cool blue velvet blazer, a few shirts and really nice sweatshirt. It is still cold here, and I didn't really pack well for the weather, so I had to buy some warmer stuff! After shopping we came home to read and nap before class.
Class today lasted until 6pm. We discussed Athens and Sparta, in relation to one another. Specifically there similarities and differences with regards to Individualism, Wealth, Women & Family, Ethos... Overall it was really interesting. After class I went to the grocery store to buy snacks and lunch for our trip to Marathon tomorrow. Then Lydia, Stavros and I cooked dinner in our apartment and hung out until now. Now, I am going to go to bed, because I have to get up so damn early tomorrow.
But first, here is our schedule for tomorrow:
Day Trip to Ramnous and Marathon
8am: Buses Leave
9:30am: Ramnous Archaeological Site
11:30am: Lecture at the Tomb of the Athenians
Noon: Lecture at the Marathon Museum
12:30pm: Lecture behind the Museum
1:30pm: Head to Schoinia for Picnic Lunch, free time and sun-bathing (although it is susposed to be overcast and gloomy so we'll see how that works out!)
4:30pm: Departure for Athens
And to continue...
Sunday March 25th
March 25th is Greek Independence Day! (From what, you ask? From the Ottoman Turks in 1821! Which, in case you are wondering, is why the Greeks hate the Turks. They are the "asshole frat boys") So today Lydia and I went to the military parade downtown in Syntagma Square. All of the elite military units were there as well as the tanks, the surface to air missiles and tons of other cool stuff. Basically, the whole Greek Army, Navy and Airforce turned out for this parade. Out side of the Parliament building the Prime Minister and the rest of the important officials sat and watched the parade as well.
After the parade Lydia and I went and explored Athens. We went up to Omonia Square and over to a very untouristy area called Psiri. We explored, but since everything was closed for the holiday we could only look. After that, siesta, as always, and then on to dinner at the Program Director of the Athens Center's house. It was a beautiful traditional Greek house with an amazing central courtyard. She cooked us lots of little finger foods, but afterwards we were still very hungry, so we set out in search of more food. Lydia, Stavros and I ended up finding a great Souvlaki place that is open until 1am on yet another random street a little ways away from our apartments.
Monday March 26th
Our first day of class. We started out the day at 10am for a walk to the highest point in Athens - Mount Linkavantos. Not exactly a difficult climb, but my lazy ass was hurting after all of the walking up and down around Athens for the last three days, so this climb just about killed me. By the time I leave Athens, I will be in the best shape of my life! But the climb was worth every difficult step, because the view was amazing. We could see all of Attica, down to the sea, and up to the mountains. We could even see some of the closer islands off of Athens. If it had been a clear day we could have seen all the way to the Pyrannes (sp?).
After that Lydia, Stavros and I walked to Omonia Square to find lunch. We ended up at this amazing restaurant with great Moussaka and gyros. While we were there it started POURING and so we stayed a while longer to wait out the rain. Then we took the subway back to the Athens center for our afternoon classes. After our afternoon classes we went to the grocery store, then went home and read, and then bed time.
Tuesday March 27th
Our second day of classes began with a walking tour of Ancient Athens, where we saw the Temple of Zeus - the largest of its kind in existence, the Theatre of Dionysis, the Sanctuary of Pan, the road to Pynx (where orators would address the Athenian Senate) with an amazing view of the Acropolis, and finally the Athenian Agora. It was a pretty amazing walk, with some of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life.
After that I split off from the group, tried (unsuccessfully) to find a hotel for my parents, and then went to the market after my own little tour of the city. I bought some food, came home and ate it, then went off to class again.
After class Lydia and I came home to take a short nap, which then turned into us passing out for around 5 hours. We woke up at 12:30am and decided to go to find food. We were unsuccessful, so we came home and made lots of pasta with Stavros and just hung out until around 4am.
Wednesday March 28th
This morning is free and I am planning on going out shopping for some cute Athenian clothes and probably another gyro before class at 4:30. I'll let you know what happens!
March 25th is Greek Independence Day! (From what, you ask? From the Ottoman Turks in 1821! Which, in case you are wondering, is why the Greeks hate the Turks. They are the "asshole frat boys") So today Lydia and I went to the military parade downtown in Syntagma Square. All of the elite military units were there as well as the tanks, the surface to air missiles and tons of other cool stuff. Basically, the whole Greek Army, Navy and Airforce turned out for this parade. Out side of the Parliament building the Prime Minister and the rest of the important officials sat and watched the parade as well.
After the parade Lydia and I went and explored Athens. We went up to Omonia Square and over to a very untouristy area called Psiri. We explored, but since everything was closed for the holiday we could only look. After that, siesta, as always, and then on to dinner at the Program Director of the Athens Center's house. It was a beautiful traditional Greek house with an amazing central courtyard. She cooked us lots of little finger foods, but afterwards we were still very hungry, so we set out in search of more food. Lydia, Stavros and I ended up finding a great Souvlaki place that is open until 1am on yet another random street a little ways away from our apartments.
Monday March 26th
Our first day of class. We started out the day at 10am for a walk to the highest point in Athens - Mount Linkavantos. Not exactly a difficult climb, but my lazy ass was hurting after all of the walking up and down around Athens for the last three days, so this climb just about killed me. By the time I leave Athens, I will be in the best shape of my life! But the climb was worth every difficult step, because the view was amazing. We could see all of Attica, down to the sea, and up to the mountains. We could even see some of the closer islands off of Athens. If it had been a clear day we could have seen all the way to the Pyrannes (sp?).
After that Lydia, Stavros and I walked to Omonia Square to find lunch. We ended up at this amazing restaurant with great Moussaka and gyros. While we were there it started POURING and so we stayed a while longer to wait out the rain. Then we took the subway back to the Athens center for our afternoon classes. After our afternoon classes we went to the grocery store, then went home and read, and then bed time.
Tuesday March 27th
Our second day of classes began with a walking tour of Ancient Athens, where we saw the Temple of Zeus - the largest of its kind in existence, the Theatre of Dionysis, the Sanctuary of Pan, the road to Pynx (where orators would address the Athenian Senate) with an amazing view of the Acropolis, and finally the Athenian Agora. It was a pretty amazing walk, with some of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life.
After that I split off from the group, tried (unsuccessfully) to find a hotel for my parents, and then went to the market after my own little tour of the city. I bought some food, came home and ate it, then went off to class again.
After class Lydia and I came home to take a short nap, which then turned into us passing out for around 5 hours. We woke up at 12:30am and decided to go to find food. We were unsuccessful, so we came home and made lots of pasta with Stavros and just hung out until around 4am.
Wednesday March 28th
This morning is free and I am planning on going out shopping for some cute Athenian clothes and probably another gyro before class at 4:30. I'll let you know what happens!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
To begin...
Well, I am here in Greece and it is lovely. We are living in studio-like apartments in a middle-class neighborhood only 15 minutes from Syntagma Square, which is the heart of Athens. Despite being slightly thrown off by a few odd things in the first few days, I have settled in completely and now no longer want to come home. haha. Greece is beautiful and the people are wonderful, but the food is even better, so basically, everything is wonderful.
As to what I have actually been doing...here is a play by play:
Thursday March 22nd
Arrived at the airport an hour late after a direct flight from JFK to Athens. I had a car waiting so I hopped in and sped off to my new home at 33 Stilponous in Pangrati, Athens (a neighborhood like Lincoln Park or Hyde Park). Spent the whole day sleeping -- really bad idea -- and then we went out to dinner as a group at a nearby Taverna. I waited for my roommate Lydia to arrive from Zurich, her flight was delayed and then we stayed up late hanging out Unpacked and started figuring out how to operate the things in my room... An uneventful, but still stressful day.
Friday March 23rd
Started the day with a walking tour of our neighborhood, Pangrati. It is a beautiful place with tons of cute shops and GREAT food. We live off of an awesome square with great Souvlaki and an awesome bar. We also live behind the stadium that was built for the precursor of the Olympic Games, the Panathenic Games. It is known as Kalimaro Stadium and it is made entirely of marble. It was used for the archery portions of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
After that I went to the Agora, which is basically a farmer's market, that happens every Friday here in Pangrati. All of the farmers from surrounding Attica come in to sell amazing fruits, vegetables, fresh honey, olives and home made wine. I bought an obscene amount of AMAZING fruit for less than 15 euros. Then we went and had Souvlaki for lunch. I got my vodafone turned on after that and found the Greek version of Costco. Finally, I went home and took a siesta until it was time for our program dinner at another taverna. Dinner was ok, not great, but it was really interesting to talk to our Greek program staff in Greek!
After dinner we went out to a restaurant/bar with a belly dancer. We weren't sitting at our table for 5 minutes before she came over and pulled me out of my chair and made me dance with her. I was totally sober and therefore completely embarrassed but still enjoyed myself quite a bit.
Saturday March 24th
On Saturday we had our tour of Athens. We walked through the National Gardens, then on to Sytangma Square (Constitution Square), which is where the Parliament building is, and on to Monasteraki, the Athenian flea market. The city is an incredible mix of new and old, east and west and really doesn't decide to be any of the above.
We then went to get more food...gyros...mmmm in Monasteraki and I bought a skirt and shirt. We then went home for a siesta (gotta love these Mediterranean cultures) . After that Stavros, Lydia and I went out to dinner at a small taverna on an out of the way street that was quite good.
I'll finish up on Sunday, Monday and Today after class!
As to what I have actually been doing...here is a play by play:
Thursday March 22nd
Arrived at the airport an hour late after a direct flight from JFK to Athens. I had a car waiting so I hopped in and sped off to my new home at 33 Stilponous in Pangrati, Athens (a neighborhood like Lincoln Park or Hyde Park). Spent the whole day sleeping -- really bad idea -- and then we went out to dinner as a group at a nearby Taverna. I waited for my roommate Lydia to arrive from Zurich, her flight was delayed and then we stayed up late hanging out Unpacked and started figuring out how to operate the things in my room... An uneventful, but still stressful day.
Friday March 23rd
Started the day with a walking tour of our neighborhood, Pangrati. It is a beautiful place with tons of cute shops and GREAT food. We live off of an awesome square with great Souvlaki and an awesome bar. We also live behind the stadium that was built for the precursor of the Olympic Games, the Panathenic Games. It is known as Kalimaro Stadium and it is made entirely of marble. It was used for the archery portions of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
After that I went to the Agora, which is basically a farmer's market, that happens every Friday here in Pangrati. All of the farmers from surrounding Attica come in to sell amazing fruits, vegetables, fresh honey, olives and home made wine. I bought an obscene amount of AMAZING fruit for less than 15 euros. Then we went and had Souvlaki for lunch. I got my vodafone turned on after that and found the Greek version of Costco. Finally, I went home and took a siesta until it was time for our program dinner at another taverna. Dinner was ok, not great, but it was really interesting to talk to our Greek program staff in Greek!
After dinner we went out to a restaurant/bar with a belly dancer. We weren't sitting at our table for 5 minutes before she came over and pulled me out of my chair and made me dance with her. I was totally sober and therefore completely embarrassed but still enjoyed myself quite a bit.
Saturday March 24th
On Saturday we had our tour of Athens. We walked through the National Gardens, then on to Sytangma Square (Constitution Square), which is where the Parliament building is, and on to Monasteraki, the Athenian flea market. The city is an incredible mix of new and old, east and west and really doesn't decide to be any of the above.
We then went to get more food...gyros...mmmm in Monasteraki and I bought a skirt and shirt. We then went home for a siesta (gotta love these Mediterranean cultures) . After that Stavros, Lydia and I went out to dinner at a small taverna on an out of the way street that was quite good.
I'll finish up on Sunday, Monday and Today after class!
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