one last time...

Yesterday was our last day in Greece. I woke up around 10:30am and proceeded to shower and get ready for the day. Several of us had lunch at Crepes around the world and then we walked through the National Gardens on our way to go shopping. Katie and me went to a few different stores including my new favorite Pull and Bear and Zara’s. I bought a sweater and zip-up and was tempted to buy several other things but didn’t.

That evening, we had a graduation ceremony at the Athens Center. The director gave a speech and we all took pictures with Michael. That night, we all went to dinner where I drank most of our pitcher of wine and ate most of tzatziki on bread. That night I headed back to the hotel to turn in early.

The trip home was a very VERY long one. Wake-up call was at 6:30am and we left the hotel for the airport at 8am. The flight didn’t take off till around 11am. I had a window seat, which was nice. Since Tony had multiple books I read one of them entitled Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. I surprised myself because I read the whole thing in the span of about five hours and it has been a long time since I’ve read for pleasure. We experienced some rather intense turbulence on the way home. I went to the bathroom and almost fell in because of its spontaneity. The view over Iceland was beautiful. I’ve never quite seen anything like it. During our landing I joked about not landing in the Hudson…people didn’t find it very funny.

The lay-over at JFK seemed to last forever! We caught the boring part of the inauguration too so that wasn’t even entertaining. I don’t give a rat’s ass about random marching band from random high school. We finally boarded the tiny jet that would take us back to indy and our flight left about a half an hour late…

From the airport we took a bus back to Greencastle. It seemed to take forever. When I finally got back to campus I trudged across south quad to find myself back at fiji wide-awake and staying up for a total of 28 hours that day...

Shocking!

Today started bright and early with a 6:30am wake-up call. We took a three-hour bus ride to the remains of Delphi. It was probably some of the most impressive remains we’ve seen so far. Delphi was home to the most influential oracle in Greek history and the site of worship for Apollo. The site is chock full of temples, treasuries, a theatre, and a stadium. The journey across the site was quite intense. It was filled with steep hills and winding pathways.

The Delphi museum was beautiful. The sphinx that used to stand in the middle of the site on a ten-meter column was amazing. The sheer size of it was intense. It was also filled with many statues and carvings that depicted Hercules. For the longest time, I heard Heracles and had no idea who was being talked about. To not sound stupid, I never asked. Not until Friday did I realize we have been talking about Hercules the whole time. Heracles is the Greek pronunciation and Hercules is the Roman. Go me! Hahah

The bus ride back seemed to take forever. We stopped at a very large taverna for a late lunch and then I tried to fall asleep on the way back but couldn’t. My ipod managed to not run out of charge-thank gawd!

That night we went to an Italian restaurant where we got wine, salad, pizza, and pasta. It was a great meal and was a great beginning to a great night. We started off with frivolity on four floor and various rooms in the hotel. We then ventured to Classics and Mass Club. It ended for me with Swiss Chocolate gelato and facebooking.

ew

Today was a free day spent getting lost in Athens and Shopping. I bought a pair of black jeans at what seemed a rather trendy store here. For lunch me, Liz, and Katie went to a restaurant where we were kind of herded into and got fed very quickly and had some kind of nasty dessert. By the time we were done we weren’t even sure what had happened.

That evening, almost everybody went to the restaurant of the gods (I think that was the name of it) where I had pasta and a free shot of ouzo…disgusting. Later that night I tried Absinthe for the first time…also disgusting

Spontaneous Combustion

It seemed that no one wanted to wake up today. Breakfast was rather somber and the journey to Agora was not very pleasant. The rain seemed to put everybody in a bad mood. At the Agora we saw very minuscule remnants of different structures. According to Michael we were supposed to imagine an open area because the debris was all put there by the Romans or something of that nature. After talking to Susan about our adventures on this trip we decided, from Michaels lectures, that things that were supposed to be weren’t, that’s a great example of this but not really, that should be there but it’s not, and it could be a number a number of different things but I’m going to go with this one even though it could be totally wrong.

I did really enjoy seeing the Temple of Hephaestus. It’s still in beautiful condition and if I remember correctly very little restoration was needed. I got some decent pictures of it but it was a pretty gloomy day so the light is not amazing.

After the tour I went to the Hardrock Café with a bunch of people and treated myself to a pulled pork sandwich. The BBQ sauce wasn’t that amazing but it was still a pretty good meal : D After lunch I went shopping with the girls, got myself lost, then luckily ran into Susan and Andrew. We then walked to the Athens Center where Michael gave a lecture on Epic Poetry, Theatre, and the importance of the individual versus the state.

That evening we went to a very sheik restaurant called Chocolat where all the 20 year olds of Athens hang out and all the very, very attractive staff wore all white. I got a Pink Mojito and an amazing chocolate mouse with ice cream. Chaos ensued, as it does everywhere we go and it ended up being a great experience. I got back to my room, facebook chatted and then went to bed.

Satan's Piss

What an interesting past couple of days! This trip has been truly amazing. I’ve met some people I’m pretty sure I would have not met if it wasn’t for this crazy little adventure…

Anyways…Yesterday I forgot to blog…again. It’s probably becase I wasn’t feeling well and I slept through dinner for the third night in a row. I’m not the biggest fan of the eating so late thing. Yesterday we went to the theatre museum and Michael gave a lecture. The theatre museum was interesting but was masked by the fact that it was so warm and muggy! I almost had an asthma attack inside that place. No Joke! What I found perhaps even more interesting than the museum itself was the graffiti outside the museum. The anarchist had made their mark on a bust and a statue of a woman who I did not know. Some people were angered that they would mark these works of art, I figure it’s just another part of the culture : )

Michael’s lecture taught me that I should be a follower of Dionysos. For those of you not familiar with Dionysos, he was the god of wine and vitality and he is also directly associated with theatre.

Today started bright and early. We left the hotel at 7:30 this morning and drove all over Greece. Well, it kind of felt that way. We started in the city of Mycenae and took a look at a destroyed palace. I was more attracted to the beautiful landscape. I used to think I was meant to live in a huge city, but some mountains in the background might not be bad…hmmm…we’ll see : p

Our next location was Nauplion. This town was situated along the coast and was gorgeous. I only wish we got to spend more time there! I had lunch at a cute, ittle taverna and stopped in a men’s clothing store. The merchandise looked great but a little too rich for my blood.

Our last stop was Epidaurus. There, we saw the largest, and most well preserved theatre with amazing acoustics. Seating over 16,000 (I think that was the number) you could here a coin drop from the middle of the orchestra. Finally, we made our way back to Athens, where I enjoyed a cappuccino at Orange Green.

"you almost smacked me in the head with your fanny pack"

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat. The water wasn’t warm again and for breakfast we had ham sandwiches on two different kinds of break. Besides that Aegina was amazing! It’s a beautiful island off the coast of the mainland that is supposedly popular for a certain kind of nuts that I can’t recall. Our main stop was the Temple of Athena-Aphaea. It was a rather gloomy day so a lot of the pictures I took did not turn out very well. We also went into the museum, which was frigid, and then made our way to a pottery shop.

The man that ran the shop seemed very friendly. He made some real gems but I don’t like to spend my money on such things. The area behind the shop where he did most of his work was a mess; it would have drove me insane. He had some olives in a bottle where he looked like he cured his own olives. I wanted to taste one really bad. He also had some roosters and a donkey just chilling in his backyard.

I did some shopping and found a couple of nice things-gifts for people are whatnot. The boat ride there and back was quite nice. The smell of smoke everywhere is starting to get a bit overwhelming but I’ll deal. I passed out on the bus on the way back to the hotel and slept the rest of the evening and night away. I feel a little better now but who knows how I’ll feel within the next couple days.

Don't Touch That!

I didn't blog yesterday. I'm sure you are all deeply saddened and disturbed by this but yesterday was one of our free days. We woke up early, around 7:30am, and went to the shops near the Monastiraki. The shop owners and workers are very intense. They almost make you feel obligated because they are ridiculously friendly bordering on creepy!

Me, Alex, and Brooke got lunch at a nice restaurant but were rather surprised when we got the bill. I got a tortellini dish that was about 9 euro-way too much for just pasta and sauce. We spent another half an hour trying to figure out how to get back to the hotel because I’m apparently incompetent when it comes to finding my around places on foot as opposed to car.

We climbed up a hill to a monument, which I can’t seem to remember the name. We started walking up the trail but we decided to off road it a bit and instead dangled off the side of the mountain : P We got some great pictures of the city at that height and some very intense Top Model pictures. On the way down I got some great pictures of Katie right outside of Secretes’ Prison.

Dinner was an awful experience. The man serving us was missing his two front teeth and REEKED of body odor. The Gyro Chicken meal I got wasn’t amazing. The chicken was fatty and some pieces were over cooked and really fatty.

The rest of night was spent on the town with out local bartender Babice as our guide.

I woke up this morning at around 9:30 and then made my way to the parliament building where we watched the guards of the Parliament Building switch. It was very interesting but mildly melodramatic. Me, TJ, Chris, and Tony got lost on the way back to the hotel…I’m really bad at navigating my way around this city.

At 13:00 we went to the Archeological Museum. This has probably been one of my favorite things about Athens so far. The tour went chronologically through time and the work of the later sculptures are beautiful! I’ve always noticed Athena out of all the Gods and Goddesses and looking back on it I think it’s because of my love for strong female figures like Hillary Clinton : )

Sweeping Views

Last night's adventure was ridiculously entertaining! Starting the night off at the bar Classic was great and watching all the men of Athens flirt with Katie is even more entertaining. The larger bar, Vitrine (I think is what it was called), was jam packed with people ranging from my age to maybe somewhere around the 50s. The music was really fun but hardly anyone was dancing : (

The shower this morning was amazing! I reluctantly woke up and decided to not be a scrub and took a shower and the water was so nice and warm.

Today we hiked up the acropolis and looked at various temples, theaters, and other monuments and memorials. The Parthenon was truly a sight to be remembered in addition to the views of the entire city of Athens. Michael's lecture had it's high and low points but the views were probably the most captivating. Sometimes he pushed us too fast along not allowing us to take in some of the "sweeping views" and I know this frustrated some people. I can't remember the last time I did so much walking. My legs are so sore but it's nice to be free of having to drive everywhere.

Me, TJ, and Kinker went to lunch with Susan, her daughter, Andrew, and his family. It was in a section of Athens I would not even dare to spell because I know I would just mutilate the Greek language. I had a Bolognese because I was craving pasta - not quite what I expected but it tasted pretty good.

After returning to the hotel many of us decided to take naps and it took Katie coming up to my room a few times to finally convince me to go and get dinner. Me, TJ, and Katie went to a very pleasant restaurant in the Plaka where I enjoyed a simple salad.

Demonstration

Waking up to a freezing room and a cold shower was not exactly the best way to start out the day but the breakfast spread was quite nice. Dipping bread in yogurt and honey is quite tasty in addition to the olives, feta, and other antipasti.

While the Athens center was a very visually appealing the little bit of Greek that I retained would probably be laughed at by a local. The speaker gave a good speech but it seemed rather on the lengthy side. For lunch I bought some kind of pastry with feta inside and a apple and peach juice. After telling everyone else in the group what me and Katie were eating, the bakery was pretty much sold out of the pastry.

On the way back to the hotel from the Athens Center we took a bus because of the "Demostration" that was supposed to be happening in Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament Building. Because this one could possibly turn in to a riot and become dangerous we were told not to go to the demonstration...I was a little bit disappointed.

Different Shades of Beige

After being in the largest and smallest planes I have been flown in in one day, we get to Athens where the almost every building is a different shade of beige. I was surprised by the large hills in the landscape and enjoyed the cloudy skies. I'm pretty sure my baggage was one of the last to come out which made me all kinds of excited.

The bus ride from the airport to the hotel was marked by almost running over small cars, mopeds, and people. Traffic is rather awful in this city. With the amount of cars parked on the side of the street, some not in the same direction, it's surprising I didn't see anyone take off a side-view mirror. Once we arrived at the hotel, rather, once we arrived in the middle of the street and walked to our hotel, we stood outside because the lobby of the hotel was capable of holding abut seven people. My room was on the top floor, which I carried my suitcase to because I thought I heard that the elevator was broken - it was not.

The rest of the day was filled with sleep and food. Lunch was an experience itself mainly because of figuring out how to order and how much to tip. The titles of the foods were in English but the descriptions were in Greek. My sandwich was made with prosciutto and had zucchini and tomato. The Greek salad that came with it was a nice added surprise. After a couple hour nap we took a tour Syntagma Square and went past many different shops and made our way to a restraunt where we dined on many different side dishes and Souvalki. The dinner was amazing in addition to the Retsina.

The rest of the night was spent roaming the city drinking wine and other various drinks…