Sounion

On Sunday was Clara's birthday! To celebrate we went to what is supposedly the most romantic place on earth, Sounion, which is 2 hours away by bus.

We woke up and rushed to find the bus stop which was near Syntagma square, which is 10 minutes away from our apartment. We couldn't find the stop, and we thought that it would be there every hour on the half hour, so we were running around. We eventually found the stop like 5 minutes after we thought the bus would get there, but there were people there, so we hadn't missed it. It came like 10 minutes later. Apparently, it leaves it's original stop at every hour on the half hour so we rushed there for no reason. We got on the bus and it took us along a beautiful route along the sea. A couple hours later it dropped us off at Sounion, which is a Greek temple to Poseidon. It was stunning. It was on a peninsula of sorts overlooking the sea on 3 sides, and on the fourth side there was a stunning view of some mountains. We wandered around the site for a while and then decided it was time to go swimming, so we walked down the mountain and stopped at a beach where we spent the next hour or so. We then walked back up the mountain and ate at a cafe there and waited for the bus to take us home.

It wasn't a very exciting day, but it was beautiful. I also don't know if I would classify it as the most romantic place on earth. We didn't stay for the sunset though because we all had homework that we still had to do, and supposedly that is what really makes it romantic.

KPHTH or, in English, Crete!

Sorry I haven't posted in several days. I have been completely off the grid in Crete. Well, not completely off the grid, just without a computer and therefore my blog. Crete was absolutely amazing, as my family knows. The ferry rides there and back are not so amazing (however the ride is much less painful when you have cabins and sleep the whole way there and back). Here is a picture of said cabin with my lovely Vanna's Jen and Pink who shared the cabin with me as we all have last names close to each other.

Once we got to Crete on Tuesday, we got on the bus with our preassigned groups and our group left for Malia, which is a ruin of a Minoan palace from thousands of years ago. Now it is kinda a ruin, but you can still wander and get lost in the surrounding town ruins. The next place we went was Gournia, which was also a ruin of an ancient palace from the Minoan period. Good thing I have been learning about the Minoan period for about a month straight, so I know plenty. We adventured around here for a while. Here is a picture of Jennifer adventuring. After that I found where I want to work when I grow up. It is an American archaeological center where they clean and put together pottery and it has an amazing view of mountains and the Aegean. After that we stopped for lunch on this beautiful seaside town. After lunch we drove to our hotel in Agios Nikolaos went swimming in the ocean, then went out for dinner. All in all a good day.

Wednesday was a very good day. We had to wake up super early, like 6:30 (gasp!) but we ate breakfast in our hotel which had a view of the sea and we saw the sun come up and the breakfast was amazing. A wonderful beginning to a wonderful day. We got on the bus at 8 and stopped at this Byzantine church which was beautiful, but after Turkey, nothing really compares, we got back on the bus and drove to our next stop, which was this absolutely amazing ruined city called Lato. The city was between two mountains and you could see the sea in the distance, and the mountains in the other direction. There was no bad view from anywhere. I really liked this place. Here is another picture of Jennifer adventuring up our first mountain of the day.

After Lato we sat in the bus for a while then got to out next site which is Psychro Cave. Remember my last post about climbing up all the stairs last weekend? Yeah. That was nothing compared to what we had to climb to get up this mountain. Once we got up to the cave, we had to go down stairs to get into the cave, and then back up more stairs to get out of the cave. There wasn't really anything in the cave. After some of the caves that I have been in in my life, this one really doesn't compare. It was beautiful, but after climbing a mountain to get there I was expecting more. Here is a picture of the cave. I still had a wonderful time here. After we got down from the cave we stopped for lunch in the touristy area that was at the bottom of the stairs to get there. Lunch was delicious. Then we got back on the bus for a couple hours and got to our hotel in Heraklion. After we got settled our professor (who was leading our group) showed us around the old town of Heraklion. We wandered around for a while and then got a delicious dinner of Crapes. After dinner I ran into a couple of my roommates who I had been separated from for days and we had a lovely reunion watching Ghost Whisperer in their room.

The next morning, Thursday, was the day that I had been waiting for. We were going to go to Knossos! Finally! (Hey, Parents remember when you wouldn't take me there?) It was huge and there was so much to see! Unfortunately, there was a ridiculous number of tourists who had the same idea, and they took over. You may say "Becca! You are a tourist, in a group from a bus. What makes you different from all those tourists from buses?" To that I would have to reply that I am not a tourist, I am a traveler with lots of prior knowledge to this exact site, and therefore would get more out of the experience. There were entirely too many tourists there to fully enjoy myself or take loads of beautiful pictures. You will have to imagine from this photo. It was beautiful, and restored quite nicely to give a good idea of how it once may have looked which was really a cool thing to see. After spending 3 hours at Knossos, we left for lunch. The random little town that we stopped at for lunch was known for producing pottery, so after lunch we wandered around, watched some masters at work, and we found this awesome shop where everything was super cheap. I bought a tea cup, a vase, and a turtle, all of really good quality for less than 10 euro. It was amazing. After we loaded back on the bus we stopped at a monastery that was known for its history in the 1866 war on Crete. The monks and people from the surrounding areas all holed up inside of the monastery and then, once the opposing side threatened to finish them off they set all the powder from canons off killing all the people inside as well as much of the opposing side, which was really interesting. That said, the monastery was really beautiful and still inhabited. After the monastery we went to our final hotel in Chania, which made me kinda homesick, as we had spent time there this summer. We met with all the other kids in the program and their professors and the professors let us know that we weren't going on a 15 km hike that we had planned on going on the next day. Instead we had a tour of the city at 11, and then free time until 9. After that we all went out to dinner on the harbor. I ate some octopus for the first time, which is surprisingly good. After that we watched some more Ghost Whisperer and then I went to bed.

The next morning I woke up and ate breakfast at a decent hour (not before 9!) and met at 11 for our tour. Our first stop on our tour was at this fascinating Synagogue in the old city where the curator told us the history of it, which is extremely interesting but long, so I won't post it. He went on for a very long time and although it was extremely interesting I was not very comfortable on the wooden bench. After like an hour, we left and our professor showed us some smaller sites, bought us coffee (and orange juice for me), and let us run loose. I spent the rest of the day with Clara and Jennifer shopping. We stopped at the delicious gelato shop that we stopped at last time we were in Chania, and generally did an excellent time of wasting time, including spending too much money and eating a hot dog. At 9, we went back to the hotel, got on a bus and got on the boat at about 10:30. We got another cabin and I went straight to sleep and slept until 6 when we arrived back in Athens.

You may think that that is the end of this extremely long post, but you are mistaken. When we got off the boat at 6 it was POURING RAIN. Walking to the bus from the boat, I got soaked. And of course when I left Crete it was beautiful out so I had packed my raincoat and umbrella and raincoat way on the bottom. They then proceeded to drop everyone off at the school. which is great for everyone who lives in that neighborhood, but they must have forgotten the smaller number of us who had to walk 20 minutes uphill in the pouring rain to get home. Luckily it wasn't raining that hard when we got off the bus so we decided just to walk because no taxis were stopping and there was quite a line of people hoping to get a taxi. I really wish they would have thought that one ahead and provided like one bus to go to our neighborhood so we wouldn't have had to walk in the rain at 7 in the morning when there are approximately no taxis picking anyone up. Mr. Stevens my band instructor in high school always used to tell us that it is always the last note that people remember when they remember a song, and I think this could be applicable here as it kinda ruined the trip, just as a bad last note would ruin a good song. I still had a great time. Don't worry.

Markets and Mountain Climbing

This weekend, we decided not to go anywhere to save a little money, and as we are going on a class trip Monday night to Crete, we figured we didn't have to visit anywhere really cool. It was kinda a quiet weekend, but it for sure had it's highlights.

Since we don't have class on Fridays a couple of my roommates and I went to the Fresh Fruit market to pick up lots of fruit for this coming week and snacks for Crete. It was really nice and cheap. We got lots of fruit and it should last us for a while. The fruit here is generally delicious especially the watermelons and the grapes, so we got plenty of both, as well as apples, nectarines, and peaches. We also got carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and snap peas to cook with dinner. For dinner we made a delicious stir-fry that had some fresh garlic as well as peppers, shrimp, and peas. That night instead of going out, I walked 15 minutes to Crepa-Crepa which has the most delicious crapes, and I foresee most of my money disappearing there this semester. It is totally worth it though. So delicious. I got a nutella, caramel, graham cracker crape that night. Sooo good. I want another one right now.

Saturday we decided that we would climb up a large hill behind us. It was like 90 degrees and about 10,000 stairs with no shade and very little wind. All in all, very hot, but once we got to the top we could look down on the entire city (as this hill is conveniently close to the center of the city), and had a spectacular view of the Parthenon. It took surprisingly little time to get to the top, as our apartment is already part way up the hill, and then we had most of the afternoon to waste, so we went to a department-type store and bought nail polish, went back to the apartment, invited some friends over and had a girly afternoon painting our toenails, and watching Clueless. For dinner we baked a chicken with all the spices in our kitchen, some juice, carrots, and more peas. It was sooo good, but we had a lot left over (we actually mostly finished it for lunch today). That is something we will for sure try again.

After dinner for desert we took a couple people who have never had Crepa-Crepa and showed them what they were missing in their lives. It was the second journey for a couple people in 24 hours, and for a couple others for the weekend, and the first for a couple other people. I want to go back again right now, but three times in the same weekend would be a bad idea, but oh so delicious. After Crepa-Crepa, we went back to the apartment, I skyped Jeanmarie (that reminds me! Everyone needs to become a follower of my blog!) and my roommates, a couple neighbors, and I watched Saved! and went to bed.

This morning we decided to go to the Athens Flea Market, which is about 2 kilometers away. After walking that far, in the morning, it was kinda a disappointment. It seemed that everything was overpriced junk. Not exactly worth it. Whatever, where we were had a good view of the Parthenon, and had lots of random Byzantine churches. Not that I could tell you anything about the Byzantines. Maybe that is my cue to get some work done this weekend.

My next post will in either in or after Crete! (Unless something really exciting happens, like a riot.)

I have a feeling I'm not in Minnesota anymore....

Since coming back from Mykonos, my life has been very quiet. I have gone to class, I have come home from class. I have done work, I have gone to bed, and the cycle continued. Except for a brief interlude yesterday when I went to Heinrich Schliemann's house for a field trip yesterday! I have such a love/hate relationship with him. As in I love to hate him. Here are a couple pictures of his house! Isn't it pretty?

Today however, I decided that I needed to do laundry to add a little spice in my life, as well as a clean towel and clothes. By the time my last class had ended though I wasn't done and decided to throw my stuff in the dryer and hang out at the Academic Center for my clothes to be dry, while going over there though, I noticed a larger number of people in front of the Olympic Stadium than there usually are, I assumed that there were lots of tourists or something, so I went in and started drying my clothes and then I sat on the top floor of the Academic Center which has a great view of the Parthenon, and the Olympic Stadium. Someone mentioned that there was a soccer game tonight Croatia vs. Greece and for some reason the Croatian soccer fans decided to meet in front of the Olympic Stadium. Only they were all quite drunk, and soon the police were called in. And then the riot police. I could feel the tension rising, so I went out on the balcony and watched what was happening. At first, not much. And then, as more and more soccer fans came, it slowly went out of control, and the police were forced to use smoke bombs, and there were people throwing chairs and beer bottles, and a lucky few people got arrested. Luckily I had decided to throw my camera into my bag before I left for my afternoon classes, and so I was able to snap a couple pictures. Feast your eyes on these beauties! Yeah. I'm for sure not in Minnesota anymore.

Mykenos!

Last night at like 2 in the morning I returned from my weekend trip to Mykenos, which is an island several hours away from Athens by ferry. My roommates, Ali, Alice, and Jen (all of whom live in the apartment building next to ours) all shared an apartment meant for 6 people, and all of us except for Jen left at 6 in the morning on Friday to get there as there are no classes on Friday (Jen had to have an appointment to get her visa extension), and so we got there at like one in the afternoon with the rest of the day to do whatever we felt like doing. The island was absolutely beautiful with super picturesque white houses and dark mountains. We ended up going to the beach, which was like 100 meters from the place we were staying, and we spent all afternoon there reading and doing homework. At about 5 o'clock Jen arrived, and we made dinner, and ate it out on our porch with a fantastic view of the mountains and goats. After dinner most of the girls napped, or went to get a coffee. After a while the rest of the girls started getting ready to go out for the evening. I was exhausted so instead of going out I watched the Bourne Identity (the final scene of which was totally filmed on Mykenos!!) and feel asleep at like midnight. I slept in until like 11 with the rest of the girls who had been out later. One thing about Greece is that the hours of everything are completely different than hours in the United States. If you are going out late in the United States, you get there at like 11. Here nothing gets started until well after 2, and you are early for dinner if you get there before 9.

That morning Hannah, Clara, and I went out to the downtown area to see the area and go shopping for souvenirs. It is the cutest downtown I have ever seen in my life. All the houses were white, and the roofs were all blue, the streets were too narrow for even a moped to get through, and you could get lost in all the beautiful winding alleys. I bought some postcards, and a dress. We got back in the afternoon and went back down to the beach to do some more reading. I sat in the shade but still managed to get some sun. I had promised the night before that I would go out that night, so I put on my new dress and we went downtown to get dinner and wait for the nightlife to get started. I ate a delicious crape, and then we went to a club that was free (and kinda sketchy) and we spent the night dancing and having a good time. We got back at about 3, jumped in the Aegean and went to bed.

The next day we had to check out at noon, so we were all up by 10:30 packing up and deciding what we wanted to do. One of the other girls and I really wanted to go to the Archaeological Museum (does that surprise anyone out there?) but it closed early so we wanted to get there soon, but we didn't want to spend the money to get an extra taxi, so we left our bags at home for people to bring later, and we went back downtown and spent the whole day there as our ferry wasn't supposed to leave until like 7:30, so we wandered around the streets, ate lunch on the sea, wrote out postcards, and at like 6, we walked to the ferry. It decided to start raining right as we started out. And lets be frank, the ferry wasn't exactly close. So we bought a warm scarf and walked though the drizzle. We got on the ferry a little late, and we got back to Athens. Overall a very nice vacation with equal amounts of sightseeing, relaxing, and dancing.

A Garden Party and Greek Dancing

Since the last update I have been having my first real week in Athens with real classes and everything. On Monday after my regular Monday-Wednesday classes the President of the college hosted a Garden Party at his home in the suburbs. We all got dressed up in our best (floral) outfit, and at 7 loaded on big tour buses and headed out of the city. They served us a delicious meal of kebabs, pita, and tzatziki which is a delicious mixture of cucumbers and yogurt, and for desert a delicious looking ice cream cone. As much fun as it was, and how nice it was we all had lots of work to do still, so we loaded on the buses and got dropped back at the school at like 10:30, so, of course, it was a round 11 by the time we got back. I was planning on doing more work, but instead both Anna (and Jason), and Jae were on Skype, so I talked to them instead.

Tuesday was uneventful, except for the fact that I got a plane ticket to Rome to meet up with Papa. Which was quite exciting. Also I got to talk to both him and Mama. That was nice. Not quite homesick yet, but it is probably inevitable.

Kathy and I had previously signed up for a Greek dancing class, and so after an "early" dinner, we went back to the academic center with Marti (who was crashing the class), and our neighbor Ali. Our teacher "Dancing George" taught us all how to do different dances from different parts of the nation, including Crete, Thrace, random islands, and many other places. It was tiring, but extremely fun. Here is a picture of the girls from my neighborhood and Dancing George.

This weekend my roommates, Ali, Alice, and another neighbor named Jen are going to Mykenos, which is apparently a party island. You know me though. I will probably be shut up doing Ancient Greek and sleeping. I'll let you know in my next adventure update!

Bonus! Pictures of a typical Alopekis 39 dinner!

First weekend in Athens!

Here we are! I have made it through my first week and weekend in Athens!

On Friday I went to my second day of classes. My first class was at 10:40, so I got to sleep in a little bit, which was really nice. The class, which is on the history of Byzantium, was really boring, but I think I will learn a lot from it (I just read the book, and it is like a soap opera!). After that class we went and had lunch, and because my next class wasn't for another like 4 hours, we decided to go to the fresh fruit market that is open every Friday, and got some delicious, cheap, fresh, fruit. Also, it was one of our roommate's birthdays so we got some special food for dinner, like fresh bread, and other delicious foods. Then I walked back to the apartment to drop off the food. The market was in the other neighborhood, and so it was kinda a long walk up and down hills and stuff, so by the time I got back to the apartment my calves were killing me, as well as getting blisters from my shoes which were too tight. But I still had another class. On the way to class the Greek guards who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and are placed on a street that I pass to get to class, were switching out. They do this like ridiculous dance thing and their shoes have these silly little poofs on them. They are like the Buckingham Palace Guards in that they don't move and aren't supposed to make facial expressions. Here is a picture. I had to go to Ancient Greek, and it is going to be a lot of work, even though I don't think it will be that hard. If that makes any sense.

After class, we made a delicious dinner with bread, cheese, tomatoes, olives, and yogurt. I then begun my ancient Greek homework, and worked for like 3 hours (keep this in mind as this is a repeating theme this weekend). After I worked for several hours, we began Kathy's birthday celebrations! We were going to go to a club on the beach after meeting up with a couple people. Our neighbors Alice and Ali came over with a cake, and then we headed over to the apartment next door, as the people who live there were the only ones who knew how to get to the club. They were getting ready, and there were already like 5 other people over there, so our number was already approaching 15. We left their place, not to get to the club, but to stop at another person's house in the other neighborhood. There we ran into more people. I was getting annoyed, because we were such a big and loud group of people, which I wouldn't have minded if we were actually not in a tiny apartment with like 25 people at like midnight. We made people leave so we could get going, but then no one knew where we were going, so after like 2 hours of getting ready to go, we would have to walk another mile or so to the tram, take an hours tram ride to the beach and stay up for who knows how long. I decided it wasn't worth it, and got a crape instead. The roommates who did go clubbing were out until 5. I'm kinda glad I didn't go. The picture to the left is all my roommates when we were shopping at Syntagma square from left, Clara, Hannah, Marti, and Kathy.

Saturday, my roommates and I went shopping in a couple different places. The first place we went was in the other neighborhood that people in CYA are staying, and found a fantastic store that is like a Forever 21 that we have in the states. I bought I shirt there, and a little bag. Then we took a taxi to Syntagma square, which means Constitution square. There I got a blue floral dress, a skirt, and plain shirt. I only ended up spending like 45 euro, but I guess that is 45 euros more than I wanted to. Whatever. I am happy with my purchases. When we got back I started to work again. For another good three hours. In the meantime I ate some Domino's pizza. At like 10 o'clock, Kathy, Marti and I headed out to a outdoor cinema, to watch a movie.

It was such a unique, fun experience! The theater was like a theater we would go to in the US, but there was no roof or walls. You could see the stars and hear people on the street. It was really cool. The movie that we saw was the Maltease Falcon. I liked it. It was such a good experience. We got back and I went to sleep.

Today, I spent the entire day in the apartment working on my ancient Greek, while my roommates were having fun at the beach. At least we are going to an island next weekend and I will have some decent beach time then.

Days 3 and 4 (so far)

Here we are on my third and fourth days.

Yesterday was a very busy day. We did end up going out the night before, and even though it was quite uneventful and we mostly just wandered around the neighborhood and got ourselves acquainted with the area, I was exhausted. I had to wake up the next day though at 10, to get my books. After I got my books, Marti and I ate lunch with a kid who goes to school with her and is from Minnesota, and the three of us decided to go explore the Plaka and the acropolis. We stopped back at our apartment and Cathy and Hannah decided to come with us, and on the way to the acropolis we ran into a couple girl who live next door to us, one of which sat next to me on the plane over from the US. So the seven of us walked over there, and bought postcards and looked at the shops in the Plaka. Then we went to the acropolis, where we sat on a rock that overlooked the city and had a great view of the Parthenon. We decided not to go into the Parthenon and the part of the acropolis that you have to pay for because most likely we would be there for a class and the professors would know more about it than anyone we were with.

After that we walked back to our apartment, which is not a bad walk, as you can just cut through the national gardens, and that is like 5 blocks from our place. We sat around for a while and then Marti and I went to a crash/survival Greek class because we are the only ones from our apartment who aren't taking modern Greek. It was really difficult. Especially with ancient Greek (which you think would be helpful to learn modern Greek, but it totally is not).

Earlier all five of the girls in my apartment had signed up for a Tavern dinner. So the other three met us at the Academic building and they split us all up to go to different tavernas with other people we didn't know and professors. It was delicious food, and I met some really interesting people.

After that I went to bed. It was a very long day.

Today, was our first day of classes! It is really nice to actually have a schedule. That said it is not nice to wake up for an 8:30 class after such a busy day. Especially if you have to wake up for said class and give yourself a good half hour to walk to that class. Said class was quite interesting, and the professor had a wonderful British accent and really cool stories about archaeology, which are fun to hear about. So, I think that class is worth waking up at 8:30 every Tuesday and Thursday for. My second class for the day is at the most awkward time. Let me say first that lunch is served from noon to 3, and my morning class gets out at 10. My second class starts at 3:50. Also, let me remind you that my apartment is a good 25 minutes away, so to get to lunch I have to get there at like 2:30, and I ate today until about 3, which still gave me a good awkward 45 minutes to just sit around. The class was about Greek Myth and Religion, which I find really interesting.

Then after that class (which gets out at 5:20), I headed back to the apartment, where I have been ever since. Another thing about today is that I am super sore from walking so much yesterday and not wearing shoes with any kind of support. Walking uphill to the apartment was painful. Painful. Oh! I also took a lovely hour nap in that awkward 5 hours, one which will probably not be replicated once I have work to do. Darn.

P.S. If you want to send me anything (Postcards, cupcakes, ect.) my address is:
Becca LaFoy
DIKEMES
5 Plateia Stadiou
GR-116 35 Athens, Greece