Once again, I am sorry it has been so long since my last entry! The past two weeks have FLOWN by!!! Last Monday evening, our whole group from school went to the island Crete until early Saturday morning, and since then this week has been crazy. Right now, I am on an airplane flying to Serbia listening to music and drinking a lovely cup of coffee! I’ll fill you in on what life has been like in the past couple of weeks. I’m already starting to forget details…pathetic really! If you ever wonder why I write SO much on this blog, it’s because my memory lasts as long as a goldfish’s!
A few weekends ago, wherever I left off the last blog, we had classes on Friday, and then for the weekend I relaxed in Athens. I don’t remember exactly what I did honestly, but I took it easy knowing that our Crete trip was going to be quite an ordeal! I did a lot of relaxing and hanging out with friends. It’s been great to meet new people and build friendships! It has been a really great time. Fun cafes, late nights, and lots of laughing… sounds good to me!
The following Monday we had classes as usual, but met up at school at 7 pm to get ready to take a ferry to Crete! It was insane! So we hopped on busses, then ferries to take an overnight ferry to Crete. We were put in sleeping cabins according to alphabetical order, which ended up fun since I met some people I don’t usually see or hang out with. Other than that, I wandered around the ferry some with some friends and ended up going to bed pretty early, as most everyone did. We arrived at about 6 or 7 am on Crete. I slept pretty well, even though it was totally weird sleeping on a boat! I definitely woke up really confused hearing odd announcements and a phone ringing beside my head!
We then got some breakfast, or rather, bread, a piece of cake, and a hardboiled egg! Next, we hopped back on busses and began our Cretan adventures! Our first drive was a bit over an hour, so most people slept on our busses! Lots of bus sleeping took place over the week for sure! We went on Tuesday to sites called Malia and Gournia, both pretty cool! We were studying archaeology of temples in Crete and looking at what a little town might have looked like, We also had lunch and visited an American Archaeological Research Center for East Crete. This place was pretty interesting. After hiking up a hill to get to it through thorns and grass, we entered the Center. This is where they bring finds and where the drawing and architectural people work. It is cool because they have each stage of the archaeological process there, with cleaning, organizing, reconstructing/conservation, scanning, studying, photographing, drawing, you name it! After that, we headed to Agios Nikolaos to check into our hotel. We wandered the cute little town, stared off into the water, and had a nice dinner!
Wednesday, we visited Lato, checking out remains of a little town and wandering Heraklion’s Venetian walls and remains. We had a nice little lunch in Heraklion, including gelato. We also headed to Knossos that afternoon! Pretty awesome place, wandering what the palace could have looked like and thinking about the exciting history of it all! After that, we bussed back to our hotel for the night. The evening was spent relaxing and eating, as usual. But, Wednesday night we did some table hopping. We started with dinner. We then moved to the next restaurant over to try a traditional dessert on Crete (I forget the name) with cheese, pastry, cinnamon… So good! Then, we went to the next restaurant over for some little Greek honey donuts. Then, we headed around the corner for some gelato to finish off the evening! Scrumptious!!!
Thursday, to all of our dismay, upon heading to the Heraklion Museum, at 8 30 am, we could not get in. The electricity was out and they could not open the doors, etc and we had to walk away… Maybe the coolest museum on Crete. Sad, but regardless, we trudged along, sleepy and a bit sad, to Rethymnon. We checked out the little museum for a while and checked out this crazy Venetian fortress, Fortezza. This place was pretty cool, and huge! It overlooked the water, as well as the city, and was just fun to run around in! I feel like as a 10 year old being there with all of my friends, life could not have been better. After Rethymnon, we headed to Chania for our final evening on the ground. Chania was gorgeous and had a great lighthouse and strip of restaurants and shops along the water. I loved my evening there, complete with crepes, wine, and gelato. My favorite part was maybe walking to the lighthouse… It seemed close, but was quite a little hike just walking in a roundabout way. But it was well worth it. We could see the stars and the town by night! So nice.
Friday was different than expected, since our hike of the Samaria Gorge was cancelled. We ended up taking a trip to Phalasarna (I think) and checking out another little archaeological site that had something to do with pirates and such. All of us had the beach on our minds! We then went to a beautiful beautiful beautiful beach on the Western coast of Crete. Beautiful day, beautiful sand, beautiful blue water, could it be better?! We finished up Friday with some nice shopping and wandering of Chania, then transferring to our Ferry. It was pretty similar to the first one, except woke us up at 4 45 am! Our ferry back was so nice, pretty new, and I think the bed was actually better than my bed in Athens!
I’ll spare you all the details, but it was really a great week. Nice to be away from the busy city of Athens and see an island and a new place! It was crazy sleeping in a different hotel every night and being in a new place all of the time.
Anyway, that’s that with my Crete trip. I’ll update photos as soon as I have TIME + INTERNET. It’s tricky to come by these days at the same time. I’ve got a big paper due on Wednesday, so after that I’ll be freer for a while!
I’ll update soon on the rest of the week. I’ll be in Serbia soon!!!!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Crete! Long but great week!
Hey! I just figured I'd quickly update you on what I have been up to! Our school took a field trip to CRETE this week! It was a great time, to say the least! Ferries, busses, hotels, restaurants, museums, sites, shops, beaches, and sunburn! Full week for sure! We saw some awesome things and I took tons of photos, but I do not have the time to update all the details yet! I'll be updating soon this week (hopefully!) but I've got lots of schoolwork to catch up on!
Love you all!
Love you all!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Crazy Week!
Wow! The end of the third week?! Already? I feel like this week has gone by so fast, but last Monday feels like ages ago! It has been a packed and fun week for sure! Thursday ended up being a bust with the concert idea due to rain, so I stayed in and dry!
Friday was much more eventful! It was a pretty regular day of classes with Archaeology class at the Acropolis Museum and a Modern Greek test! The Acropolis Museum is new, just opened this year, and is beautiful! You can’t take any photos throughout the museum, which is a bummer, but I saw so many incredible things there. The kind of things that I read about and studied back at R-MC in my Greek Art and Archaeology class and wondered what they would look like for real. I saw things like the Blue Beard Pediment, Peplos Kore, Moscophoros (calf-bearer), Rampin horseman, Kritios boy, and the Caryatids! Seeing as though you may not know what those are, google them, or just take my word for it that they are super well-known and cool. Our class session there was focused on looking at what kind of things were found at the cave sanctuaries we had looked at a couple of classes prior and the Archaic remains on the Acropolis. We’ll go back there later this semester to look at more stuff, but it was great to check it out. I actually snuck a few pictures, thinking it was okay to take photos on the third floor, and got in trouble…but I kept my photos! After that, I ate some crazy cod stuff for lunch and went to my Greek test. Friday night was really fun!
Friday night I went to a concert sponsored by my absolute favorite juice company here, Amita! It was a free concert in the Olympic complex (from the 2004 Olympics). It was ridiculous. First off, it took us forever to get there since we were waiting at metro stations for a while, but the journey was fun because I went with two girls, Kelsey and Melissa. We were chatting away and enjoyed our super long trip to the concert. Also, there were other CYA students around somewhere, but we didn’t run into anyone else. It was Greek teenage insanity! There were crazy preteens and teenagers everywhere, and the place was packed! We took some fun pictures and people-watched for a while before braving the crowd! Once we braved the crowd, we had other peoples’ sweat all over us and annoying teenagers running into us like crazy! Despite that, it was so fun. It was surprisingly fun to be around people speaking no English! We just got to experience it for what it was, a fun Greek pop concert. The bands that played before the headliner, Akon!, were great and all the crowd knew the words. I even recognized some of the songs! After lots of dancing around and jumping, they played some random American songs, like ‘Beat It’ and a lot of Lady GaGa music. We sang along happily to the words we knew, just enjoying the fact that none of these people would see us again! Finally, Akon came out, which was crazy! Quite an interesting performance! Then it started raining and we headed out a little bit early to TRY to beat some of the crowd, and because we had been standing for hours, but we ended up standing at the metro station for another 45 minutes or so. The trains were not running so often since it was so late. We ended up taking the train the opposite direction, on purpose, so we could hop onto one going the right way and try to get seats. We ended up getting seats and coming back by the stop with everyone waiting from the concert. It was insane!!! People were cheering so loudly when the train came in and were hitting the edges of it and it was ridiculous. One kid even broke the window of the train!!! He actually broke it. I saw it happen! My jaw dropped. Then the train filled up and we had some annoying boy leaning all over us, but we ignored him the best we could and tried to enjoy our sleepy ride home. Eventually, with a pit stop at McDonald’s (haha my first and last time going there!) we headed home, super late! Good thing I had nothing to do on Saturday!
Saturday, I slept in!!! It was nice. I spend a while journaling and reading my book about Mother Teresa and it was a lovely morning. Hungry, I went to get pizzas with two of my roommates. It was sooo good! And was my Sunday food too! After enjoying some pizza and relaxing some more, I headed to the academic center to get some work done and I skyped a while, which was great. I sat out on the balcony at our academic center here with my lovely view! I even watched the sun set behind the Acropolis! Surreal. That night, a few of us went to an Open Air Cinema! Sooo fun! We saw 'Inglorious Basterds,' which was a crazy movie! They show movies here in their original language with Greek subtitles, but the movie is in French and German half of the time! So it was interesting!!! The best part was that we were sitting out on a lovely night watching a movie (which was weird because I have not seen one since I have been here) and the Acropolis was in the background. Ridiculously gorgeous! So that was a great night and a beautiful walk, both there and back!
Sunday morning I went to a Protestant church here, about a 45 minute walk away, with a friend. It was a very interesting experience! I'll probably go back when we are actually in town and not traveling! It was mostly an oriental congregation and things were similar to how they are at most Protestant churches I have been to. The sermon was about judging others and focused on how Jesus speaks about not judging. He distinguished between judgment as unconstructive and harmful as opposed to constructive and lifting up others. He expressed that it is important to judge what right is versus wrong and that we have a role as Christians to help keep fellow Christians on constructive paths. He also spoke about how we often look to other peoples faults and don't recognize our own. One of my favorite things that he said was that it is not about changing other people, but about letting God change us. Also, he said that we would be a lot less judgmental if we took seriously the free grace and love of Jesus since it would remind us that there is nothing better about us that earns God's love. His focus was also on restoration in love as opposed to condemnation. It was strange, but nice to be back at a church, even though it looked a lot different than church from home. After church, I spent the afternoon getting work done and doing laundry, which is quite a task by hand!
Last night, we walked up Lykavittos. So beautiful! First we went up to a friend's apartment which is in the neighborhood below the hill, then we walked up and up and up and up! It was quite a climb and so very beautiful. I will post photos but it was spectacular. Such a great view of the entire city, which is HUGE! There were tons of German tourists and they were all singing! Fun. Anyway, I've got to get and get ready for a field trip, but I love you all and will talk to you soon! :)
Friday was much more eventful! It was a pretty regular day of classes with Archaeology class at the Acropolis Museum and a Modern Greek test! The Acropolis Museum is new, just opened this year, and is beautiful! You can’t take any photos throughout the museum, which is a bummer, but I saw so many incredible things there. The kind of things that I read about and studied back at R-MC in my Greek Art and Archaeology class and wondered what they would look like for real. I saw things like the Blue Beard Pediment, Peplos Kore, Moscophoros (calf-bearer), Rampin horseman, Kritios boy, and the Caryatids! Seeing as though you may not know what those are, google them, or just take my word for it that they are super well-known and cool. Our class session there was focused on looking at what kind of things were found at the cave sanctuaries we had looked at a couple of classes prior and the Archaic remains on the Acropolis. We’ll go back there later this semester to look at more stuff, but it was great to check it out. I actually snuck a few pictures, thinking it was okay to take photos on the third floor, and got in trouble…but I kept my photos! After that, I ate some crazy cod stuff for lunch and went to my Greek test. Friday night was really fun!
Friday night I went to a concert sponsored by my absolute favorite juice company here, Amita! It was a free concert in the Olympic complex (from the 2004 Olympics). It was ridiculous. First off, it took us forever to get there since we were waiting at metro stations for a while, but the journey was fun because I went with two girls, Kelsey and Melissa. We were chatting away and enjoyed our super long trip to the concert. Also, there were other CYA students around somewhere, but we didn’t run into anyone else. It was Greek teenage insanity! There were crazy preteens and teenagers everywhere, and the place was packed! We took some fun pictures and people-watched for a while before braving the crowd! Once we braved the crowd, we had other peoples’ sweat all over us and annoying teenagers running into us like crazy! Despite that, it was so fun. It was surprisingly fun to be around people speaking no English! We just got to experience it for what it was, a fun Greek pop concert. The bands that played before the headliner, Akon!, were great and all the crowd knew the words. I even recognized some of the songs! After lots of dancing around and jumping, they played some random American songs, like ‘Beat It’ and a lot of Lady GaGa music. We sang along happily to the words we knew, just enjoying the fact that none of these people would see us again! Finally, Akon came out, which was crazy! Quite an interesting performance! Then it started raining and we headed out a little bit early to TRY to beat some of the crowd, and because we had been standing for hours, but we ended up standing at the metro station for another 45 minutes or so. The trains were not running so often since it was so late. We ended up taking the train the opposite direction, on purpose, so we could hop onto one going the right way and try to get seats. We ended up getting seats and coming back by the stop with everyone waiting from the concert. It was insane!!! People were cheering so loudly when the train came in and were hitting the edges of it and it was ridiculous. One kid even broke the window of the train!!! He actually broke it. I saw it happen! My jaw dropped. Then the train filled up and we had some annoying boy leaning all over us, but we ignored him the best we could and tried to enjoy our sleepy ride home. Eventually, with a pit stop at McDonald’s (haha my first and last time going there!) we headed home, super late! Good thing I had nothing to do on Saturday!
Saturday, I slept in!!! It was nice. I spend a while journaling and reading my book about Mother Teresa and it was a lovely morning. Hungry, I went to get pizzas with two of my roommates. It was sooo good! And was my Sunday food too! After enjoying some pizza and relaxing some more, I headed to the academic center to get some work done and I skyped a while, which was great. I sat out on the balcony at our academic center here with my lovely view! I even watched the sun set behind the Acropolis! Surreal. That night, a few of us went to an Open Air Cinema! Sooo fun! We saw 'Inglorious Basterds,' which was a crazy movie! They show movies here in their original language with Greek subtitles, but the movie is in French and German half of the time! So it was interesting!!! The best part was that we were sitting out on a lovely night watching a movie (which was weird because I have not seen one since I have been here) and the Acropolis was in the background. Ridiculously gorgeous! So that was a great night and a beautiful walk, both there and back!
Sunday morning I went to a Protestant church here, about a 45 minute walk away, with a friend. It was a very interesting experience! I'll probably go back when we are actually in town and not traveling! It was mostly an oriental congregation and things were similar to how they are at most Protestant churches I have been to. The sermon was about judging others and focused on how Jesus speaks about not judging. He distinguished between judgment as unconstructive and harmful as opposed to constructive and lifting up others. He expressed that it is important to judge what right is versus wrong and that we have a role as Christians to help keep fellow Christians on constructive paths. He also spoke about how we often look to other peoples faults and don't recognize our own. One of my favorite things that he said was that it is not about changing other people, but about letting God change us. Also, he said that we would be a lot less judgmental if we took seriously the free grace and love of Jesus since it would remind us that there is nothing better about us that earns God's love. His focus was also on restoration in love as opposed to condemnation. It was strange, but nice to be back at a church, even though it looked a lot different than church from home. After church, I spent the afternoon getting work done and doing laundry, which is quite a task by hand!
Last night, we walked up Lykavittos. So beautiful! First we went up to a friend's apartment which is in the neighborhood below the hill, then we walked up and up and up and up! It was quite a climb and so very beautiful. I will post photos but it was spectacular. Such a great view of the entire city, which is HUGE! There were tons of German tourists and they were all singing! Fun. Anyway, I've got to get and get ready for a field trip, but I love you all and will talk to you soon! :)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
It's Already Thursday?!
Wow! It is already Thursday! This week is flying by so quickly. After my weekend in Meteora, I came back to a full week of classes and activities! I'll fill you in a bit on what this week has been like here in Athens for me!
Monday morning, bright and early, I started my day going to the hospital. Don't worry! I am not sick or anything, but we all had to take a TB test and get a chest x-ray in order to extend our visas to last the whole duration of the semester. Quite annoying, really, but an experience for sure! A group of about 25 of us met up at the hospital, got a shot and a huge circle drawn on our arms, and waited anxiously for our x-rays. The x-rays were super awkward and the hospital was a bit sketchy, but we survived! Then, I headed to class, late because of the hospital visit, and carried on a normal Monday of classes. That evening, I had my first cooking class! A chef, Stavros, comes to our school and teaches about 5 cooking classes each semesterfor students interested, so I signed up! It was very fun! We made tzatziki, a fun Greek dip made with greek yogurt, cucumbers, and garlic. We also made a fun lentil soup, which I actually ate, vegetables and all! After that, we made our main course, some rice with fun beef somethings on it. It was very good and fun to hang out with about 10 of my fellow students, including my roommates, and cram in a kitchen playing with knives and food! Then, we all sat down and had a nice group meal and conversation. I'm looking forward to my next classes later on this semester.
Tuesday, my archaeology class met on the Acropolis! We were investigating the evidence for Mycenaean inhabitation on the Acropolis. We wandered around the Acropolis as well at many cave sanctuaries, which I had never seen/noticed before! Afterwards, I had some classes and a town meeting. Town meetings here are where we meet up with all the other students in the program and discuss how things are going, etc. We also discussed our upcoming trip to Crete and got some information on how that will be laid out! Exciting!
Wednesday started off with another hospital visit! I had to get my TB test checked and pick up my x-ray. Now I have a huge x-ray just sitting in my room, how helpful?! Afterwards, I had classes and some crazy conversation in my ancient Greek class! We actually may travel to Pylos with my ancient Greek class for a weekend in order to see what we are reading about in Thucydides! Yesterday evening, we had a nice garden party at our president's house, which had yummy food! It was fun to visit with people and not be thinking about school, etc.
Today, my day started with my archaeology class and we met in the Agora. It was crazy to be back there just observing and learning after spending so much time there last summer! I had another modern greek test and am relaxing for the rest of the day! Our Greek dancing class got cancelled again (after being postponed due to rain) so I think I will go to a concert tonight and enjoy the town a bit. We actually have class tomorrow to make up for some sessions we will be missing due to trips this semester.
I guess I should get some reading done!
Love you all.
Monday morning, bright and early, I started my day going to the hospital. Don't worry! I am not sick or anything, but we all had to take a TB test and get a chest x-ray in order to extend our visas to last the whole duration of the semester. Quite annoying, really, but an experience for sure! A group of about 25 of us met up at the hospital, got a shot and a huge circle drawn on our arms, and waited anxiously for our x-rays. The x-rays were super awkward and the hospital was a bit sketchy, but we survived! Then, I headed to class, late because of the hospital visit, and carried on a normal Monday of classes. That evening, I had my first cooking class! A chef, Stavros, comes to our school and teaches about 5 cooking classes each semesterfor students interested, so I signed up! It was very fun! We made tzatziki, a fun Greek dip made with greek yogurt, cucumbers, and garlic. We also made a fun lentil soup, which I actually ate, vegetables and all! After that, we made our main course, some rice with fun beef somethings on it. It was very good and fun to hang out with about 10 of my fellow students, including my roommates, and cram in a kitchen playing with knives and food! Then, we all sat down and had a nice group meal and conversation. I'm looking forward to my next classes later on this semester.
Tuesday, my archaeology class met on the Acropolis! We were investigating the evidence for Mycenaean inhabitation on the Acropolis. We wandered around the Acropolis as well at many cave sanctuaries, which I had never seen/noticed before! Afterwards, I had some classes and a town meeting. Town meetings here are where we meet up with all the other students in the program and discuss how things are going, etc. We also discussed our upcoming trip to Crete and got some information on how that will be laid out! Exciting!
Wednesday started off with another hospital visit! I had to get my TB test checked and pick up my x-ray. Now I have a huge x-ray just sitting in my room, how helpful?! Afterwards, I had classes and some crazy conversation in my ancient Greek class! We actually may travel to Pylos with my ancient Greek class for a weekend in order to see what we are reading about in Thucydides! Yesterday evening, we had a nice garden party at our president's house, which had yummy food! It was fun to visit with people and not be thinking about school, etc.
Today, my day started with my archaeology class and we met in the Agora. It was crazy to be back there just observing and learning after spending so much time there last summer! I had another modern greek test and am relaxing for the rest of the day! Our Greek dancing class got cancelled again (after being postponed due to rain) so I think I will go to a concert tonight and enjoy the town a bit. We actually have class tomorrow to make up for some sessions we will be missing due to trips this semester.
I guess I should get some reading done!
Love you all.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Amazing! Stunning! Incredible!
Where to begin… This weekend was tiring, long, short, spontaneous, unplanned, interesting, stressful, peaceful, gorgeous, and incredible. Before I get into the details, I’ll let you know what I was doing! I, as I mentioned in previous blogs, was traveling to Meteora, and area Northwest of Thessaly in Greece. I had heard of this place last summer, but couldn’t end up going there for whatever reasons, so I knew for sure I wanted to go this trip. I will explain what it is eventually. Patience. But, it was absolutely amazing. But not the whole time! I will begin my story on Friday afternoon and evening.
After having a nice Friday of wandering and visiting the fruit market, exploring Plaka and Monastiraki, and getting absolutely no school work done, my roommate and I decided to go to dinner. After failing to persuade our semi-sick roommate to join us, we ventured out to a little taverna in our neighborhood. We got great food, observed fun Greeks, chatted about random things, laughed a lot, drank lovely wine, and came back, in the pouring rain, much too late to be leaving first thing in the morning to Meteora! Regardless, we came back and got our things packed and ready, me with my backpack and Kara with her purse. Alarms set, we went to bed.
Too soon after closing my eyes to sleep, I awoke to 5:30 am and I was up again and walking outside in the rain to a supposed bus stop in Syntagma (there are tons!) and looking for the stop from which bus 024 departed from. So, using my handy rain cover of my backpack (good choice Mip), I protected my bag and walked around, still dark outside, wet, and hopeful that the weekend would improve. Anyway, our plan (I know, funny) was to walk to Syntagma (15ish minutes), bus to the main bus station in Athens in order to leave at 7:30 am. We ended up taking the bus the wrong direction (ugh!) and ended up on the other side of town, so we waited and were driven back to the actual bus station at about 8 or 8:15. Thus, we decided to take the 9:30 am bus and alter the plan a bit. At the bus station, we ordered our tickets for there and back and relaxed a bit in the station, happy to be out of the rain and with tickets in hand. We got on our bus at 9:30 and set out for our next destination, still not Meteora!
The bus we took from Athens was taking us to a connecting bus in Trikala, which took 4 and a half or 5 hours , even though our tickets included the fare all the way to Kalambaka, the small town below Meteora. We waited about 15 minutes for that bus, hopped on and drove into the rain once again. That was about a 30 or 45 minute bus ride to the town, where we picked somewhere to get off the bus and got some food, wandered, etc. It was about 4 pm or so by this point, and for various reasons (confusion about transportation, not enough time, closing monasteries, etc) we did not go up to Meteora that evening. The plan of the afternoon and evening was to find somewhere to stay, eat, relax, find our bus stop, and figure out how the heck to get to the “city of monastic life on rocks,” as my little tourist books refers to Meteora.
So, we did just that. An old guy on a moped chased us around for a while trying to convince us to stay at his hotel, we got random stares from the townspeople, and we found a nice little gyro place to eat lunch/dinner. We had our meal, ran into some people who spoke English (maybe from Canada?) and asked them for a few tips and recommendations for a hotel. We went to their recommendation to find it was closed…hard to believe, but we went to random places and finally found a simple place. The little old woman in charge was sweet and after giving us a look up and down, listed a pretty good price. So, we looked in a room, decided to stay there. We dropped off some books from our bags and set off to explore and find the bus stop and some sort of plan for the next day. We probably walked those streets a ton of times in that few hour span just checking things out. We saw a sign leading to a Byzantine church for the assumption of Mary and followed it up to the church. It was a good walk and uphill, but gave us a beautiful view of the city and everything. Going into the church was incredible because it was very old and beautifully painted, as are all amazing Byzantine churches. It felt so peaceful and sacred to be in that old church. It was aesthetically beautiful, but also had another sense of beauty that I cannot really describe in words. It got me very excited for the day ahead at the monasteries.
After descending the hill down to the main road in the town, we finally caved and asked someone where the bus stop was as we realized it was in seeing distance! So we got our return ticket filled out with time and a seat number, etc and the lady mentioned a bus that went up to the monasteries! We had heard from everyone else you either had to have a planned tour before coming to the town or had to take a taxi to the monasteries. So we grabbed bus tickets for 8 30 am for 1,40 euro and went back to our hotel to get the books we had dropped off to sit at a nice café and enjoy the night. Well, by this time it had stopped raining, but was chilly! We were drinking hot chocolate and feeling like it was a nice autumn day! So strange for Greece! I journaled a while and read my book with the letters of Mother Teresa in it and had a splendid time. Then, around 8 we headed back to our room, exhausted and just about ready for bed. Once again, we observed a Greek Orthodox wedding! From our balcony, we could see some of the rocks of Meteora, a church, and random other buildings. We saw the bride and did a fair amount of stalking! It was fun. By 10 or so, after reading and journaling and relaxing, we headed to bed in order to wake up early, though not as early as that day, and catch our bus! We knew we only had until about 1 pm to see everything we could because our bus out of Kalambaka to Trikala left at 2:15! We got up to beautiful weather, perfect for all of our walking, and began our day!
Waiting for the bus, we met some other travelers, chatted a while, and discussed the day. Finally, we saw our bus arrive and so began some of the most awestruck and amazing hours of my life. I may seem dramatic, but this place was really incredible. Meteora means something like “suspended in the sky,” which describes the area pretty well! Meteora was deemed “holy ground, unchangeable and unviolated” by the Holy Synod of the Church in Greece in 1995 by civil law. It is also recognized as a “protected Monument for Humanity” by UNESCO and other international organizations and must be maintained “as such for bearing witness to Christian, historical, architectural, agiographic (and generally artistic) and geological evidence.” (By the way, my quotes and snazzy intellectual phrases indicate information taken from my little info book I picked up on site). In addition, the theory most commonly held about the site is that a delta shaped cone made up of river stones and mud poured into the ancient Thessaly basin and that after geological separations the waters found an outlet and the delta shaped mass broke up into huge stones up to 400 meters high. Pretty ridiculous, but cool. So, you can look up more info on the site yourself later if you are interested but I’m going to talk about my experience a bit more! (By the way, my research paper/presentation for my Byzantine History course is going to be on Meteora, so I’ll know more eventually!)
So the bus took us up to the largest and most impressive monastery, the Holy Monastery of Grand Meteoron. From there we were just going to wing it and try to get a taxi back to the town when we were going to leave. That didn’t work quite as well as planned, but I will explain that later! Even riding the bus was a beautiful view and nearly took my breath away. We got off the bus at the first monastery and, as my many photos show, required us to take a lot of stairs! We walked hundreds of stairs in those few hours for sure. Inside the monastery there was an old carpenter’s station, kitchen, ossuary, cellar, etc. There were also a few museums! We could not take photos in the museums, but there were beautiful displays of carvings, paintings, jewelry, silverware, dishes, clothing, documents, books, etc. The artistic detail and precision of the works was amazing and I wished I could take all of it home! I actually bought a print of a copper engraving of the area that a monk had done a long time ago! But after exploring that area and little courtyards, etc we finally went into the church, which words cannot describe. Similar to the church I described earlier, there was such beautiful decoration and paintings coating the interior, but even more than that, the sense sacredness was profound. I could have laid in the floor there and looked up for hours trying to follow all the stories and take in all of the paintings. Alas, we had to leave, but upon leaving, and taking tons of photos, we did not know where to go or how to get there.
So, we saw another monastery in the distance and decided we would try to get to it! So we started walking along the road (probably very dangerous with the way Greeks drive!) and got to the next one, Varlaam, in a little while. It was such a pleasant walk with the view and the weather! Varlaam was smaller than the Grand Meteoron for sure, but it had such a sweet charm and was so nice itself. And after that, we walked to the last one we got to visit, The Holy Monastery of St. Barbara Roussanou. This one was also smaller, with a sweet charm of its own. I do not have as many pictures from these two because they had less in them, and because we weren’t allowed to take photos in the actual churches.
From here, we called a number on a pay phone to a taxi service, wasting money on my phone, since we got disconnected both times and a taxi did not come. We were kind of nervous and almost contemplating asking a random person for a ride… We were almost going to go back UP to the monastery to ask the person at the entrance advice. That would have been quite a hike back up those stairs, and if we did, we could miss our non-existent taxi! So we waited and sat for a little while, contemplating. We saw a random bus drive by that looked like the one we had taken up to Meteora from Kalambaka, tried to wave, but still sat there hoping we were not going to miss our bus! We then saw a bus again in 10 minutes or so and I waved excitedly and they stopped! I don’t think it was actually supposed to, but I guess we looked like we needed it! So back down the mountain we went, saying a sad goodbye to beautiful Meteora.
Getting back into town we had some lunch and ice cream and got our bus back to Trikala. Everything was great…. Nope! My roommate had somehow left her wallet at the bus station in Kalambaka! (As did one of my other roommates, but hers was on a taxi on Saturday, not returned back to her…) She realized it in a minute or so, but the bus could not turn around for it. We had one of the workers on the bus call the station, get her wallet and keep it safely. It turns out they brought it on the next bus to Trikala from Kalambaka and everything was okay. I ended up taking the 3:30 bus as planned back to Athens, as Kara insisted, but she waited for the next one in 2 hours. So after a long and peaceful bus ride brushing up on Ancient Greek Grammar I got to Athens. I waited at the bus stop for ages and ages and finally a bus came to bring me back to Syntagma. I walked back from there to our Academic Center and then to my apartment. All was well. Such a great experience, even with all the traveling to get there!
It was a great weekend and so nice to be away from the busyness of Athens and all the American college-age people! I hope I showed you a glimpse of the beauty of this place. It was incredible! Make sure to check out the pictures on my site. They should go in the same order as the blog and so you should be able to identify most things or follow what they are of!
Lots of love and will update later! Off to catch up on readings!
After having a nice Friday of wandering and visiting the fruit market, exploring Plaka and Monastiraki, and getting absolutely no school work done, my roommate and I decided to go to dinner. After failing to persuade our semi-sick roommate to join us, we ventured out to a little taverna in our neighborhood. We got great food, observed fun Greeks, chatted about random things, laughed a lot, drank lovely wine, and came back, in the pouring rain, much too late to be leaving first thing in the morning to Meteora! Regardless, we came back and got our things packed and ready, me with my backpack and Kara with her purse. Alarms set, we went to bed.
Too soon after closing my eyes to sleep, I awoke to 5:30 am and I was up again and walking outside in the rain to a supposed bus stop in Syntagma (there are tons!) and looking for the stop from which bus 024 departed from. So, using my handy rain cover of my backpack (good choice Mip), I protected my bag and walked around, still dark outside, wet, and hopeful that the weekend would improve. Anyway, our plan (I know, funny) was to walk to Syntagma (15ish minutes), bus to the main bus station in Athens in order to leave at 7:30 am. We ended up taking the bus the wrong direction (ugh!) and ended up on the other side of town, so we waited and were driven back to the actual bus station at about 8 or 8:15. Thus, we decided to take the 9:30 am bus and alter the plan a bit. At the bus station, we ordered our tickets for there and back and relaxed a bit in the station, happy to be out of the rain and with tickets in hand. We got on our bus at 9:30 and set out for our next destination, still not Meteora!
The bus we took from Athens was taking us to a connecting bus in Trikala, which took 4 and a half or 5 hours , even though our tickets included the fare all the way to Kalambaka, the small town below Meteora. We waited about 15 minutes for that bus, hopped on and drove into the rain once again. That was about a 30 or 45 minute bus ride to the town, where we picked somewhere to get off the bus and got some food, wandered, etc. It was about 4 pm or so by this point, and for various reasons (confusion about transportation, not enough time, closing monasteries, etc) we did not go up to Meteora that evening. The plan of the afternoon and evening was to find somewhere to stay, eat, relax, find our bus stop, and figure out how the heck to get to the “city of monastic life on rocks,” as my little tourist books refers to Meteora.
So, we did just that. An old guy on a moped chased us around for a while trying to convince us to stay at his hotel, we got random stares from the townspeople, and we found a nice little gyro place to eat lunch/dinner. We had our meal, ran into some people who spoke English (maybe from Canada?) and asked them for a few tips and recommendations for a hotel. We went to their recommendation to find it was closed…hard to believe, but we went to random places and finally found a simple place. The little old woman in charge was sweet and after giving us a look up and down, listed a pretty good price. So, we looked in a room, decided to stay there. We dropped off some books from our bags and set off to explore and find the bus stop and some sort of plan for the next day. We probably walked those streets a ton of times in that few hour span just checking things out. We saw a sign leading to a Byzantine church for the assumption of Mary and followed it up to the church. It was a good walk and uphill, but gave us a beautiful view of the city and everything. Going into the church was incredible because it was very old and beautifully painted, as are all amazing Byzantine churches. It felt so peaceful and sacred to be in that old church. It was aesthetically beautiful, but also had another sense of beauty that I cannot really describe in words. It got me very excited for the day ahead at the monasteries.
After descending the hill down to the main road in the town, we finally caved and asked someone where the bus stop was as we realized it was in seeing distance! So we got our return ticket filled out with time and a seat number, etc and the lady mentioned a bus that went up to the monasteries! We had heard from everyone else you either had to have a planned tour before coming to the town or had to take a taxi to the monasteries. So we grabbed bus tickets for 8 30 am for 1,40 euro and went back to our hotel to get the books we had dropped off to sit at a nice café and enjoy the night. Well, by this time it had stopped raining, but was chilly! We were drinking hot chocolate and feeling like it was a nice autumn day! So strange for Greece! I journaled a while and read my book with the letters of Mother Teresa in it and had a splendid time. Then, around 8 we headed back to our room, exhausted and just about ready for bed. Once again, we observed a Greek Orthodox wedding! From our balcony, we could see some of the rocks of Meteora, a church, and random other buildings. We saw the bride and did a fair amount of stalking! It was fun. By 10 or so, after reading and journaling and relaxing, we headed to bed in order to wake up early, though not as early as that day, and catch our bus! We knew we only had until about 1 pm to see everything we could because our bus out of Kalambaka to Trikala left at 2:15! We got up to beautiful weather, perfect for all of our walking, and began our day!
Waiting for the bus, we met some other travelers, chatted a while, and discussed the day. Finally, we saw our bus arrive and so began some of the most awestruck and amazing hours of my life. I may seem dramatic, but this place was really incredible. Meteora means something like “suspended in the sky,” which describes the area pretty well! Meteora was deemed “holy ground, unchangeable and unviolated” by the Holy Synod of the Church in Greece in 1995 by civil law. It is also recognized as a “protected Monument for Humanity” by UNESCO and other international organizations and must be maintained “as such for bearing witness to Christian, historical, architectural, agiographic (and generally artistic) and geological evidence.” (By the way, my quotes and snazzy intellectual phrases indicate information taken from my little info book I picked up on site). In addition, the theory most commonly held about the site is that a delta shaped cone made up of river stones and mud poured into the ancient Thessaly basin and that after geological separations the waters found an outlet and the delta shaped mass broke up into huge stones up to 400 meters high. Pretty ridiculous, but cool. So, you can look up more info on the site yourself later if you are interested but I’m going to talk about my experience a bit more! (By the way, my research paper/presentation for my Byzantine History course is going to be on Meteora, so I’ll know more eventually!)
So the bus took us up to the largest and most impressive monastery, the Holy Monastery of Grand Meteoron. From there we were just going to wing it and try to get a taxi back to the town when we were going to leave. That didn’t work quite as well as planned, but I will explain that later! Even riding the bus was a beautiful view and nearly took my breath away. We got off the bus at the first monastery and, as my many photos show, required us to take a lot of stairs! We walked hundreds of stairs in those few hours for sure. Inside the monastery there was an old carpenter’s station, kitchen, ossuary, cellar, etc. There were also a few museums! We could not take photos in the museums, but there were beautiful displays of carvings, paintings, jewelry, silverware, dishes, clothing, documents, books, etc. The artistic detail and precision of the works was amazing and I wished I could take all of it home! I actually bought a print of a copper engraving of the area that a monk had done a long time ago! But after exploring that area and little courtyards, etc we finally went into the church, which words cannot describe. Similar to the church I described earlier, there was such beautiful decoration and paintings coating the interior, but even more than that, the sense sacredness was profound. I could have laid in the floor there and looked up for hours trying to follow all the stories and take in all of the paintings. Alas, we had to leave, but upon leaving, and taking tons of photos, we did not know where to go or how to get there.
So, we saw another monastery in the distance and decided we would try to get to it! So we started walking along the road (probably very dangerous with the way Greeks drive!) and got to the next one, Varlaam, in a little while. It was such a pleasant walk with the view and the weather! Varlaam was smaller than the Grand Meteoron for sure, but it had such a sweet charm and was so nice itself. And after that, we walked to the last one we got to visit, The Holy Monastery of St. Barbara Roussanou. This one was also smaller, with a sweet charm of its own. I do not have as many pictures from these two because they had less in them, and because we weren’t allowed to take photos in the actual churches.
From here, we called a number on a pay phone to a taxi service, wasting money on my phone, since we got disconnected both times and a taxi did not come. We were kind of nervous and almost contemplating asking a random person for a ride… We were almost going to go back UP to the monastery to ask the person at the entrance advice. That would have been quite a hike back up those stairs, and if we did, we could miss our non-existent taxi! So we waited and sat for a little while, contemplating. We saw a random bus drive by that looked like the one we had taken up to Meteora from Kalambaka, tried to wave, but still sat there hoping we were not going to miss our bus! We then saw a bus again in 10 minutes or so and I waved excitedly and they stopped! I don’t think it was actually supposed to, but I guess we looked like we needed it! So back down the mountain we went, saying a sad goodbye to beautiful Meteora.
Getting back into town we had some lunch and ice cream and got our bus back to Trikala. Everything was great…. Nope! My roommate had somehow left her wallet at the bus station in Kalambaka! (As did one of my other roommates, but hers was on a taxi on Saturday, not returned back to her…) She realized it in a minute or so, but the bus could not turn around for it. We had one of the workers on the bus call the station, get her wallet and keep it safely. It turns out they brought it on the next bus to Trikala from Kalambaka and everything was okay. I ended up taking the 3:30 bus as planned back to Athens, as Kara insisted, but she waited for the next one in 2 hours. So after a long and peaceful bus ride brushing up on Ancient Greek Grammar I got to Athens. I waited at the bus stop for ages and ages and finally a bus came to bring me back to Syntagma. I walked back from there to our Academic Center and then to my apartment. All was well. Such a great experience, even with all the traveling to get there!
It was a great weekend and so nice to be away from the busyness of Athens and all the American college-age people! I hope I showed you a glimpse of the beauty of this place. It was incredible! Make sure to check out the pictures on my site. They should go in the same order as the blog and so you should be able to identify most things or follow what they are of!
Lots of love and will update later! Off to catch up on readings!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Wandering, Wandering... Story of My Life!
I don't have quite as large of an update as before, but i figured I would catch up to today before I go out of town this weekend and have more stories to tell! :)
Last night, after classes, I went with a couple of girls to Monastiraki and Plaka. They are two districts in the city with tons of shopping and cool places and are also close to the Acropolis and Agora. So we went wandering and checked out some new places, including Hadrian's Library and TONS of lame tourist shops. But it was a nice walk and really enjoyable for sure. It was also nice to spend some time with those girls, since I am in a couple of classes with them and am getting to know them! After lots of somewhat aimless wandering and fun photo-taking ops, we headed back to our Academic Center. We chatted with some other people and I headed back home after a bit. I had something to eat and relaxed, journaling and reading and listening to music. It was really nice. After I almost fell asleep reading, I decided not to go out and wander some more that evening!
There is a really sweet old man in my neighborhood that I always say hello to, but have not had the courage to actually speak to in Greek! Today he started to talk to me in Greek, as he did yesterday, and after trying to say that I understand little, he smiled and said goodbye. :) I will have a real conversation with him! It's a goal! :)
This morning was great. I got up, after a nice night of sleep, I showered, did laundry, organzied my things, etc. I went wandering and got some school supplies, checked out the awesome fruit market and bought some yummies, and finally got back to an ATM. Then, after that I am back at our Academic Center to get some homework done and eat lunch! :)
Well, I'm heading out for the weekend to Meteora tomorrow morning! I will have tons of stories and updates and photos after the weekend!
Last night, after classes, I went with a couple of girls to Monastiraki and Plaka. They are two districts in the city with tons of shopping and cool places and are also close to the Acropolis and Agora. So we went wandering and checked out some new places, including Hadrian's Library and TONS of lame tourist shops. But it was a nice walk and really enjoyable for sure. It was also nice to spend some time with those girls, since I am in a couple of classes with them and am getting to know them! After lots of somewhat aimless wandering and fun photo-taking ops, we headed back to our Academic Center. We chatted with some other people and I headed back home after a bit. I had something to eat and relaxed, journaling and reading and listening to music. It was really nice. After I almost fell asleep reading, I decided not to go out and wander some more that evening!
There is a really sweet old man in my neighborhood that I always say hello to, but have not had the courage to actually speak to in Greek! Today he started to talk to me in Greek, as he did yesterday, and after trying to say that I understand little, he smiled and said goodbye. :) I will have a real conversation with him! It's a goal! :)
This morning was great. I got up, after a nice night of sleep, I showered, did laundry, organzied my things, etc. I went wandering and got some school supplies, checked out the awesome fruit market and bought some yummies, and finally got back to an ATM. Then, after that I am back at our Academic Center to get some homework done and eat lunch! :)
Well, I'm heading out for the weekend to Meteora tomorrow morning! I will have tons of stories and updates and photos after the weekend!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Thursday!
It's Thursday. Almost the end of our week. Today we went to the National Archaeological Museum with my Archaeology class. We mostly toured and discussed the Mycenaean exhibit. It was pretty cool and I have a few pictures to post, but it was really interesting for me having someone who knows a lot about the exhibits tell me, since when I went last summer I was just reading and going off of what I already knew (not too much).
We got on the bus to head back to school and apartments, and I have a stressful story to tell. Well, not that bad, but it stressed me out for sure! So, we always here about the crazy Greek transportation officials that hassle riders about ticket validation, but never see them... I did! Here's the deal. You can buy tickets many places, but only validate them on the bus or train, etc you are riding with a timestamp (I'm sure this is a very very common thing in cities). The fine for an unvalidated ticket is anywhere from 40 to 60 times the ticket cost here. Today, leaving the museum, I threw my ticket, which I validated, in my bag, not giving it a second thought. An official came up and I COULD NOT FIND MY TICKET! It was the worst! I was like border-line panicking. My professor was next to me and saying, "It's okay...You have it..." and it took me literally minutes to find it in my bag. I was about to cry. It was absolutely terrifying! I pulled almost everything out of my bag and had my professor and friend holding it while that man stared at me. Absolutely ridiculous. At least he was patient with me! Next time, I will make sure to know where I put that silly ticket!
Well I'm off to post pictures and have some lunch! I'm sure I will have more stupid stories of my mistakes/adventures here soon!
We got on the bus to head back to school and apartments, and I have a stressful story to tell. Well, not that bad, but it stressed me out for sure! So, we always here about the crazy Greek transportation officials that hassle riders about ticket validation, but never see them... I did! Here's the deal. You can buy tickets many places, but only validate them on the bus or train, etc you are riding with a timestamp (I'm sure this is a very very common thing in cities). The fine for an unvalidated ticket is anywhere from 40 to 60 times the ticket cost here. Today, leaving the museum, I threw my ticket, which I validated, in my bag, not giving it a second thought. An official came up and I COULD NOT FIND MY TICKET! It was the worst! I was like border-line panicking. My professor was next to me and saying, "It's okay...You have it..." and it took me literally minutes to find it in my bag. I was about to cry. It was absolutely terrifying! I pulled almost everything out of my bag and had my professor and friend holding it while that man stared at me. Absolutely ridiculous. At least he was patient with me! Next time, I will make sure to know where I put that silly ticket!
Well I'm off to post pictures and have some lunch! I'm sure I will have more stupid stories of my mistakes/adventures here soon!
A FULL First Week!
Here it is! I am finally updating my blog! So much has happened this past week! I’ll try to cover everything but not bore you completely! At the moment, I’m having a glass of wine and will try to remember all the events of my first week and a half here in Athens. First, I’ll tell you about my classes and the more school-y aspect of the program. So far, all of my classes have been going well, but are pretty different from classes at R-MC! I am taking four classes, two of which meet on Monday and Wednesday, one which meets on Tuesday and Thursday, and one that meets Monday through Thursday. We rarely have classes on Fridays unless we are making up for a missed session due to a field trip, etc. We are provided lunches with our program, which are usually big enough I am not even too hungry for a big dinner! It is very interesting because our lunches are Greek dishes, so I have begun to taste some more Greek food and have almost been forced to eat it (or go lunch-less), which has made me try new things. I have had Greek burgers, yummy roasted potatoes, curry chicken, some crazy beef things, pastitio (a lasagna-like dish), and chicken with an apricot glaze. If you know me at all, you know this is a big step for me by trying new foods!!! :) Anyway, back to info about my classes.
I’m taking both Ancient and Modern Greek here in Athens. Ancient Greek is pretty tough, especially since I am way out of practice from not translating all summer. But, I’m in the biggest class I’ve been in since Freshman Year; there are six people in my class! :) It is strange to be translating with other students! We are translating Thucydides, an ancient historian, and we are reading about the fifth Spartan invasion of Attica in the Peloponnesian War in 425 BC. It’s pretty interesting, but my vocabulary on war is slightly lacking, and I definitely need to brush up on my crazy verb forms and Greek grammar this weekend! Modern Greek is pretty fun and meets daily. It is nice to be in a conversational language class again, for the first time since High School French. I’m having a pretty good time with it and our teacher is great and fun! We act out little scenes wearing different hats and ask each other questions back and forth. My biggest problem is that I am having a hard time pronouncing Modern after taking Ancient so long (the pronunciations of some letters are different). I’m not really sure how I’ll work that out, but I’m sure I will find a way! We have our first test tomorrow on fun little things like ‘What is your name?’ and ‘I am from America.”
My most ‘regular’ class would probably be my Byzantine History course. It is primarily a lecture course about how the Byzantine Empire and its history is relevant to today and what its influences are on modern Athens. We started off class last week talking about how many groups have different viewpoints on the significance of the Byzantine Empire, and today, we met in a museum! I know very, very little about Byzantine history, although I love the art and architecture, so I’m really looking forward to hearing more about it. Today, we met at the Byzantine and Christian Art Museum in Athens. It is an absolutely beautiful museum and definitely among my favorites of the museums here. We had a guided tour by an archaeologist working at the museum in an effort to get a brief overview of what the empire looked like and what types of art and architecture was left behind. The first part of the museum discusses the transition between the ancient world and its beliefs to the new Christianized culture. The museum showcases lots of sculptures that were ‘re-assigned’ from Greek deities to Christian symbols. For example, there is one sculpture in particular that is of the ancient mythological figure Orpheus, but was put forth as a Christ figure in the Byzantine times. It is really interesting to see how the Christians of old tried to put a spin on ancient traditions to spread Christianity. Also, by looking at the remains of the lifestyles of the early Byzantines, we can see what it looked like for a Christian in the early times living in a world of such mixed and transitioning beliefs. The second part of the museum showcases the other part of the empire, from about 6th century to the 15th century with the Fall of Constantinople. The museum had so much information and BEAUTIFUL art, including icons, architecture, and sculptures. When I go back on my own, I’ll take some photos and post them on my web albums!
My other class, Archaeology of Athens, is definitely the most different than I am used to! We only meet in our classroom three times all semester! We meet on site nearly every class session. Negative: it meets at 8 30 am! Our first class session involved our introduction and summary, but the very next class, Tuesday morning, met on Philopappos Hill here in Athens. (Check the web albums for photos). We will re-visit that site when we actually discuss the monument atop the Hill, but we spent our time Tuesday discussing the topography of Athens. We could see the water, mountain ranges, modern city, Acropolis, Lykavittos, everything!!! This was really helpful in understanding what the ancient city must have looked like and how big, and small, it was! I can barely imagine having to walk all the way to everywhere in antiquity, and how different the world would have been! The weather was really strange that morning, as it has been the past few days, and we were cold before hiking the hill, then hot as could be (and tired), then we were freezing on the hill listening to our lecture. By the time we were hiking back we got hot again, as the sun was coming back out, and enjoyed a nice walk back to our Academic Center and apartments. It’s also a cool experience to get to know some kids from my classes by walking around the city with them.
With our school, we go on field trips with the whole of our program. So far, we traveled to Brauron and Sounion. We have more to come traveling to the Peloponnese, Crete, and Delphi. The trip Saturday was good, except it was really rushed. We went on busses coordinating to our classes, so I was riding with students in my Archaeology class, and our professor led us around the sites. After exploring the site of Brauron, which was devoted mostly to Artemis in antiquity (check out my photos and captions), we went to the museum. The museum actually just opened up after being closed for three years! It was a beautiful museum and had so much in it, including some crazy wooden remains that had been preserved! Then we went to Sounion, which is at the southern-most tip of Attica, where there was an ancient temple to Athena, which has very few remains, and a temple to Poseidon. This temple is more preserved and is very impressive. Last summer, seeing this temple and the beautiful water below at sunset was phenomenal! Unfortunately, we left the site around 1 or 2, so we didn’t get to see sunset, but it was beautiful nonetheless. After a hurried trip to that temple, we hopped back on the busses to go to a beach. We ended up getting to the beach and had a bagged lunch and hopped out for a couple of hours. I waded in the water some, but ended up laying out and reading for a while…very relaxing and nice. I have started reading Atlas Shrugged again! I started it last summer in Greece, so I brought it to finish this time! :)
We came on back after the group field trip to Athens and wandered around our neighborhood (the area we don’t pass heading to and from school). We cleaned up from the gross sea water and decided to explore our neighborhood. We found a yummy gelato place in our wanderings and even saw a Greek Orthodox wedding through an open window at a church! It was nice to observe the night life a bit and just check everything out. Greeks are up and out so late every night it seems! I guess that’s why they drink frappes all the time, to get their caffeine boost from being up so late and awake so early! Our neighborhood is pretty crazy and fun, but I’ve still got to learn some of the streets for sure. :)
Sunday, a group of about eight of us (kind of a large group for exploring) went wandering to Monastiraki and Plaka (two districts of Greece, somewhat close to the Acropolis, etc) a bit. We walked along the edge of the National Gardens, which are beautiful, and passed through Syntagma Square and Parliament, as well as all of the streets I walked oh so many times last summer on the dig. We located the famous shoemaker poet who makes custom leather sandals. I’ll probably get some before I leave…they are pretty impressive. Eventually, the group broke up some and my roommate and I checked out the Monastiraki Flea Market. Such a fun and crazy time!!! There is stuff EVERYWHERE. Random as can be. Imagine the biggest and craziest garage sale and throw it in Athens and you’ve got a picture of this thing. We wandered some more and got some sodas, mmm Fanta, and ended up walking the area between the Agora and Acropolis in an effort to locate a Gyro place I knew from last summer for lunch! We took a very long way to get to it, but thoroughly enjoyed the sights and experience (check the photos) and finally found it! We got our food and wandered back up to Syntagma Square, where we sat at a café for a while and did homework/reading and chatted. I had a lovely frappe and enjoyed people watching as I caught up on some Modern Greek work. After that we headed back to our apartments. I finished up some homework that night and relaxed after a weekend full of walking and sun!
As far as random happenings and adventures that have been fun, there have been a few!
I got lost (more so misdirected) in my neighborhood one afternoon as I tried to explore a new route back to my apartment from our Academic Center. I approached two older ladies, with my very, very poor Greek, and asked directions to my street. They were so sweet as they directed me. I thanked them gratefully and as I went to walk away, one of them grabbed my arm and pulled me close. A bit confused, I went with it, and she asked me where I was from and what I was here for, etc. I told her the answers and such, then she explained my way home again in English, and in Greek! They were so sweet, and reminded me of the friendly Greeks you always hear about, but don’t see all the time!
A group of us decided to go to a free theater production in a park about a 15 minute Tram (which we forgot to validate tickets for immediately!) ride away from our area at the end of last week (Friday night). There were about six of us and we journeyed across the city to go and see Lysistrata! If you know the play, you know it is quite a ridiculous time! Pretty much, the women of Greece are angry that their men are always gone, and that they are so incapable of governing the world, so they decide to withhold sex from the men and overtake the Acropolis! Needless to say, it is quite a riot! We didn’t give ourselves quite enough time to get there apparently, but it was starting as we arrived and there was only room to stand along the edges! It was in Greek (obviously) and there were thousands of people crammed into this little outdoor theater. The actors were almost all men (even the ones playing women) and it was hilarious. I had read the play, as well as seen it performed on a video and at R-MC, so I knew what was going on, even though I understood only the occasional word. That was quite an experience and strange for sure! From annoying Greeks around us to fake naked actors, it was so strange and fun!
Another night, my roommate Kara and I decided to go hang out at a little Taverna one night. She was going to have dinner (I had already eaten) and I was just going to chat and have some wine. After getting thrown out of one place since we didn’t have reservations (after already giving us bread and water!), we wandered to a place close to our Academic Center. The waiter and owner (maybe) were very sweet to us and helped us speak to them in English and practice some Greek. They are familiar with our program since we are so close by, so they were happy to have us. We chatted for a few hours and were trying different foods and enjoying the beautiful evening in a cute little restaurant! Just as we were leaving, the waiter gave us each another glass of wine, which we were obliged to drink, since it was a gift! So we got back a bit later that night, but it was a great night of chatting and enjoying the evening (not to mention people watching!), and getting to know my Roomie! She’s great.
As far as other random happenings, we have gone to a nice little bakery a few times and gotten various treats! Some chocolate cake and little ice cream bars (dark chocolate and butterscotch!) have been my choices so far. Who knows what I will choose the next time! :)
Apart from all of this I do not have much to say. It has been very strange getting used to being here. After about a week and a half, I am feeling much more settled. I’ve got tons of photos on my wall and knick knacks on my desk, as usual! It has not been easy getting used to all of this, but I’m enjoying it and am learning so much! I had been mooching internet in my apartment from a neighbor, but they have security locked the connection! :( Yet, I’m still on Skype and AIM fairly often in the late morning and early afternoon, so if you get a chance, hop on and say hey! Emails are the easiest way to contact me since I have access daily to internet (except on trips).
I’m going to be taking a cooking class that meets like 5 times this semester with a Greek chef and some students from my program, am going to a Garden Party at our President’s house next week, taking Greek dance lessons Friday night, and am looking into some hiking and trips with Greeks!
Also, I’m getting really excited about visiting Dad and friends in Serbia over my 21st birthday, and Mom’s visit over our Fall Break! Also, this weekend my roommate and I are planning to go to Meteora, a really cool monastery area about six hours away from here. I’ll post tons of photos and info I am sure later! So fun, more details on those to come! :)
Always feel free to email or Facebook me with fun questions or anything. Don’t forget to check out my photos. Talk to you soon! Yeia Sas!
I’m taking both Ancient and Modern Greek here in Athens. Ancient Greek is pretty tough, especially since I am way out of practice from not translating all summer. But, I’m in the biggest class I’ve been in since Freshman Year; there are six people in my class! :) It is strange to be translating with other students! We are translating Thucydides, an ancient historian, and we are reading about the fifth Spartan invasion of Attica in the Peloponnesian War in 425 BC. It’s pretty interesting, but my vocabulary on war is slightly lacking, and I definitely need to brush up on my crazy verb forms and Greek grammar this weekend! Modern Greek is pretty fun and meets daily. It is nice to be in a conversational language class again, for the first time since High School French. I’m having a pretty good time with it and our teacher is great and fun! We act out little scenes wearing different hats and ask each other questions back and forth. My biggest problem is that I am having a hard time pronouncing Modern after taking Ancient so long (the pronunciations of some letters are different). I’m not really sure how I’ll work that out, but I’m sure I will find a way! We have our first test tomorrow on fun little things like ‘What is your name?’ and ‘I am from America.”
My most ‘regular’ class would probably be my Byzantine History course. It is primarily a lecture course about how the Byzantine Empire and its history is relevant to today and what its influences are on modern Athens. We started off class last week talking about how many groups have different viewpoints on the significance of the Byzantine Empire, and today, we met in a museum! I know very, very little about Byzantine history, although I love the art and architecture, so I’m really looking forward to hearing more about it. Today, we met at the Byzantine and Christian Art Museum in Athens. It is an absolutely beautiful museum and definitely among my favorites of the museums here. We had a guided tour by an archaeologist working at the museum in an effort to get a brief overview of what the empire looked like and what types of art and architecture was left behind. The first part of the museum discusses the transition between the ancient world and its beliefs to the new Christianized culture. The museum showcases lots of sculptures that were ‘re-assigned’ from Greek deities to Christian symbols. For example, there is one sculpture in particular that is of the ancient mythological figure Orpheus, but was put forth as a Christ figure in the Byzantine times. It is really interesting to see how the Christians of old tried to put a spin on ancient traditions to spread Christianity. Also, by looking at the remains of the lifestyles of the early Byzantines, we can see what it looked like for a Christian in the early times living in a world of such mixed and transitioning beliefs. The second part of the museum showcases the other part of the empire, from about 6th century to the 15th century with the Fall of Constantinople. The museum had so much information and BEAUTIFUL art, including icons, architecture, and sculptures. When I go back on my own, I’ll take some photos and post them on my web albums!
My other class, Archaeology of Athens, is definitely the most different than I am used to! We only meet in our classroom three times all semester! We meet on site nearly every class session. Negative: it meets at 8 30 am! Our first class session involved our introduction and summary, but the very next class, Tuesday morning, met on Philopappos Hill here in Athens. (Check the web albums for photos). We will re-visit that site when we actually discuss the monument atop the Hill, but we spent our time Tuesday discussing the topography of Athens. We could see the water, mountain ranges, modern city, Acropolis, Lykavittos, everything!!! This was really helpful in understanding what the ancient city must have looked like and how big, and small, it was! I can barely imagine having to walk all the way to everywhere in antiquity, and how different the world would have been! The weather was really strange that morning, as it has been the past few days, and we were cold before hiking the hill, then hot as could be (and tired), then we were freezing on the hill listening to our lecture. By the time we were hiking back we got hot again, as the sun was coming back out, and enjoyed a nice walk back to our Academic Center and apartments. It’s also a cool experience to get to know some kids from my classes by walking around the city with them.
With our school, we go on field trips with the whole of our program. So far, we traveled to Brauron and Sounion. We have more to come traveling to the Peloponnese, Crete, and Delphi. The trip Saturday was good, except it was really rushed. We went on busses coordinating to our classes, so I was riding with students in my Archaeology class, and our professor led us around the sites. After exploring the site of Brauron, which was devoted mostly to Artemis in antiquity (check out my photos and captions), we went to the museum. The museum actually just opened up after being closed for three years! It was a beautiful museum and had so much in it, including some crazy wooden remains that had been preserved! Then we went to Sounion, which is at the southern-most tip of Attica, where there was an ancient temple to Athena, which has very few remains, and a temple to Poseidon. This temple is more preserved and is very impressive. Last summer, seeing this temple and the beautiful water below at sunset was phenomenal! Unfortunately, we left the site around 1 or 2, so we didn’t get to see sunset, but it was beautiful nonetheless. After a hurried trip to that temple, we hopped back on the busses to go to a beach. We ended up getting to the beach and had a bagged lunch and hopped out for a couple of hours. I waded in the water some, but ended up laying out and reading for a while…very relaxing and nice. I have started reading Atlas Shrugged again! I started it last summer in Greece, so I brought it to finish this time! :)
We came on back after the group field trip to Athens and wandered around our neighborhood (the area we don’t pass heading to and from school). We cleaned up from the gross sea water and decided to explore our neighborhood. We found a yummy gelato place in our wanderings and even saw a Greek Orthodox wedding through an open window at a church! It was nice to observe the night life a bit and just check everything out. Greeks are up and out so late every night it seems! I guess that’s why they drink frappes all the time, to get their caffeine boost from being up so late and awake so early! Our neighborhood is pretty crazy and fun, but I’ve still got to learn some of the streets for sure. :)
Sunday, a group of about eight of us (kind of a large group for exploring) went wandering to Monastiraki and Plaka (two districts of Greece, somewhat close to the Acropolis, etc) a bit. We walked along the edge of the National Gardens, which are beautiful, and passed through Syntagma Square and Parliament, as well as all of the streets I walked oh so many times last summer on the dig. We located the famous shoemaker poet who makes custom leather sandals. I’ll probably get some before I leave…they are pretty impressive. Eventually, the group broke up some and my roommate and I checked out the Monastiraki Flea Market. Such a fun and crazy time!!! There is stuff EVERYWHERE. Random as can be. Imagine the biggest and craziest garage sale and throw it in Athens and you’ve got a picture of this thing. We wandered some more and got some sodas, mmm Fanta, and ended up walking the area between the Agora and Acropolis in an effort to locate a Gyro place I knew from last summer for lunch! We took a very long way to get to it, but thoroughly enjoyed the sights and experience (check the photos) and finally found it! We got our food and wandered back up to Syntagma Square, where we sat at a café for a while and did homework/reading and chatted. I had a lovely frappe and enjoyed people watching as I caught up on some Modern Greek work. After that we headed back to our apartments. I finished up some homework that night and relaxed after a weekend full of walking and sun!
As far as random happenings and adventures that have been fun, there have been a few!
I got lost (more so misdirected) in my neighborhood one afternoon as I tried to explore a new route back to my apartment from our Academic Center. I approached two older ladies, with my very, very poor Greek, and asked directions to my street. They were so sweet as they directed me. I thanked them gratefully and as I went to walk away, one of them grabbed my arm and pulled me close. A bit confused, I went with it, and she asked me where I was from and what I was here for, etc. I told her the answers and such, then she explained my way home again in English, and in Greek! They were so sweet, and reminded me of the friendly Greeks you always hear about, but don’t see all the time!
A group of us decided to go to a free theater production in a park about a 15 minute Tram (which we forgot to validate tickets for immediately!) ride away from our area at the end of last week (Friday night). There were about six of us and we journeyed across the city to go and see Lysistrata! If you know the play, you know it is quite a ridiculous time! Pretty much, the women of Greece are angry that their men are always gone, and that they are so incapable of governing the world, so they decide to withhold sex from the men and overtake the Acropolis! Needless to say, it is quite a riot! We didn’t give ourselves quite enough time to get there apparently, but it was starting as we arrived and there was only room to stand along the edges! It was in Greek (obviously) and there were thousands of people crammed into this little outdoor theater. The actors were almost all men (even the ones playing women) and it was hilarious. I had read the play, as well as seen it performed on a video and at R-MC, so I knew what was going on, even though I understood only the occasional word. That was quite an experience and strange for sure! From annoying Greeks around us to fake naked actors, it was so strange and fun!
Another night, my roommate Kara and I decided to go hang out at a little Taverna one night. She was going to have dinner (I had already eaten) and I was just going to chat and have some wine. After getting thrown out of one place since we didn’t have reservations (after already giving us bread and water!), we wandered to a place close to our Academic Center. The waiter and owner (maybe) were very sweet to us and helped us speak to them in English and practice some Greek. They are familiar with our program since we are so close by, so they were happy to have us. We chatted for a few hours and were trying different foods and enjoying the beautiful evening in a cute little restaurant! Just as we were leaving, the waiter gave us each another glass of wine, which we were obliged to drink, since it was a gift! So we got back a bit later that night, but it was a great night of chatting and enjoying the evening (not to mention people watching!), and getting to know my Roomie! She’s great.
As far as other random happenings, we have gone to a nice little bakery a few times and gotten various treats! Some chocolate cake and little ice cream bars (dark chocolate and butterscotch!) have been my choices so far. Who knows what I will choose the next time! :)
Apart from all of this I do not have much to say. It has been very strange getting used to being here. After about a week and a half, I am feeling much more settled. I’ve got tons of photos on my wall and knick knacks on my desk, as usual! It has not been easy getting used to all of this, but I’m enjoying it and am learning so much! I had been mooching internet in my apartment from a neighbor, but they have security locked the connection! :( Yet, I’m still on Skype and AIM fairly often in the late morning and early afternoon, so if you get a chance, hop on and say hey! Emails are the easiest way to contact me since I have access daily to internet (except on trips).
I’m going to be taking a cooking class that meets like 5 times this semester with a Greek chef and some students from my program, am going to a Garden Party at our President’s house next week, taking Greek dance lessons Friday night, and am looking into some hiking and trips with Greeks!
Also, I’m getting really excited about visiting Dad and friends in Serbia over my 21st birthday, and Mom’s visit over our Fall Break! Also, this weekend my roommate and I are planning to go to Meteora, a really cool monastery area about six hours away from here. I’ll post tons of photos and info I am sure later! So fun, more details on those to come! :)
Always feel free to email or Facebook me with fun questions or anything. Don’t forget to check out my photos. Talk to you soon! Yeia Sas!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Photos!!!
Here's the link to my photos. Keep checking back for updates!
http://picasaweb.google.com/baylee.dawn.smith
http://picasaweb.google.com/baylee.dawn.smith
I Made It!!!
I finally made it into Athens yesterday afternoon! After a 6 hour delay from the airport, a new plane, a 9.5 hour plane ride, a 1.5 hour bus ride, a 15 minute cab ride, and a hike up a neighborhood hill, I made it to my apartment finally! About 25 of us were on the same flight and 15 of us girls were in a group most of the time chatting and getting to know each other! When we arrived, after a sigh of relief and checking in, four of us braved taking the bus from the airport to our area, instead of a pricey taxi, which was quite a crazy adventure! It was full of passengers' laughter and luggage flopping all over the place. The four of us and our TONS of luggage blocked one doorway completely, and I was practically in the doorway! It was an adventure. I've got a couple of tired arms after that! So after the bus ride, we stopped of on the main street not far from our streets, but too far to tote luggage! So we finally hailed a cab after many passed by us, and split up, heading to our apartments. From there, we went to the Academic Center, which is about a 7 to 10 minute walk from my apartment, in the Pangrati region of Athens. Some other students are staying in the Kolonaki region, which is a neighborhood on the slopes of Lykavittos Hill, which is the same region I lived in last summer for the archaeological dig in the Agora! I'm glad to be in a new neighborhood since I already lived in Kolonaki, but it is making things interesting since I'm just learning my way around and getting used to Athenian heat again!!! Anyway, I digress.
We went the Academic Center to get oriented and get our information, forms, Center keys, schedule, etc... So, last night was good, but long! After getting situated at the Academic Center, some of us met back up at a taverna restaurant and had some food, which was great. So about 10 or so of us were eating and chatting, until we were falling asleep we were so tired! Greeks eat much later at night than Americans, so it'll be interesting getting into that habit! The taverna was hopping at 11! After that, I went back to my place and met my roommates and got used to our apartment. It's cute!
this morning, we went to an orientation and are meeting our administrators and resources, and we've got a neighborhood tour this afternoon to get ourselves familiar with our regions! I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking into cooking classes, dance classes, and kickboxing! :) I'll keep you updated.
I will post photos soon and attach the link for my web album!
We went the Academic Center to get oriented and get our information, forms, Center keys, schedule, etc... So, last night was good, but long! After getting situated at the Academic Center, some of us met back up at a taverna restaurant and had some food, which was great. So about 10 or so of us were eating and chatting, until we were falling asleep we were so tired! Greeks eat much later at night than Americans, so it'll be interesting getting into that habit! The taverna was hopping at 11! After that, I went back to my place and met my roommates and got used to our apartment. It's cute!
this morning, we went to an orientation and are meeting our administrators and resources, and we've got a neighborhood tour this afternoon to get ourselves familiar with our regions! I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking into cooking classes, dance classes, and kickboxing! :) I'll keep you updated.
I will post photos soon and attach the link for my web album!
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