Well, the time is here. I'll be heading home in two more days and as it was with everyone else leaving, it's bittersweet for me, too. Though I've considered countless amounts of things I will miss about this city, this country and things that I'm looking forward to going home to, alas, when I sit in front of a computer, I forget most of them. So, here it is - my goodbyes to this country, city, school that has treated me so well for the last few months.
Goodbye, Thessaloniki. Until next year :)
The Top 10 Things to Miss about Greece... 1. Three hour coffee breaks. 2. Evening strolls along the waterfront. 3. Every day being a perfect beach day. 4. Harry's Spot. (Board games, coffee and alcohol, and club music.) 5. Almost endless free time. 6. Not being able to understand what everyone is saying. 7. Open markets. 8. Water, water, water. 9. Relatively efficient public transportation. 10. Siesta hours.
The Less Than 10 Things NOT to Miss... 1. Girls who have difficulties telling the difference between their lips and the open end of a vodka bottle. 2. Euros. (The exchange rate has become horrifying in the last couple weeks.) 3. Dog poop on sidewalks. 4. 50 Euro bills. 5. Not being able to understand what anyone is saying. This list is short.
Ten Things to Look Forward to at Home... 1. Spicy foods :) 2. All the family(ies) 3. Limes. Grocery stores. 4. Pets. Furry, adorable little pets. 5. A real kitchen with useful utensils. 6. Wireless internet. 7. Bar-b-que. 8. Music....including Matt's band. 9. Family. (Yes, that deserves two spots) 10. "Normal" coffee.
Finals have come and gone and the study abroad students are packing up, saying goodbye. The week has been one of fulfilling "final requests" as though we were all on death row.
What a tough life having to bend to everyone's whims....
We went to one of the furthest beaches from Thessaloniki this week and spent a couple nights in a camper. It was the most beautiful beach and we had it almost all to ourselves. A couple modestly-sized campfires made from scavenged wood. Fire-roasted sausages and marshmallows. Reeses smores.
Sigh.
And now for something completely different....
Finals have come and gone! I am a graduate! No more pencils; no more books; no more teachers' dirty looooooooks!
Come one, come all! To the McGovern house on the 4th of July! There will be food, friends and merriment! A celebration of my joyous return to the States, my graduation, and my not-so-joyous entry into the "real world."
What? I'm not convincing enough to get you all to come out to Greece or what?
The last couple of weeks have been spent mostly just winding down from the other endless weeks of travel and excitement.
What does one do to "wind down" in Thessaloniki, you ask? Well, the usual: homework/ final papers, shopping, the local market on Saturdays, three hour coffee breaks, climb the White Tower, tavernas, beaches. Same old, same old.
Homework only happened because the incredibly slow internet connection in my room went out. Go figure. It magically started working this evening. Go figure #2.
Thessaloniki's first specialty might be nightlife, but a very close second is shopping, shopping, shopping. And window shopping. I like window shopping :)
The local market is something that I had been missing hard-core because of all of our weekend traveling. They sell everything imaginable. I always go for the fresh produce (and feta!), but am often fascinated by the homemade wine, random clothing and shoes, and most especially the "everything" tables that sell corkscrews, nailpolish and toilet paper, among other things.
We like to climb the old city walls in the evening, have a cup of coffee and wait for the sun to set. Our "usual" cafe is up the big hill that overlooks the city so you can see the sprawling cityscape of identical 6-ish story buildings with their miniature balconies making their veiled attempt to consume the Thermaic Gulf.
The White Tower is a sort of "symbol" of Thessaloniki. It was built in something like the 14th or 15th Century by the Ottoman Empire, who used it as a prison an execution ground. Legend has it that it was so blood stained when they stopped using it that they painted it white to hide the...well, gross-ness. It stands at the waterfront and was once one of the corners of the city wall system. From the top of it, you get some great panoramic views of the city and the water...and a nice cool breeze!
Tavernas are definitely towards the top of the list of "things to miss" about Greece. It's an atmosphere like none other that I've found in my life, nor like any other to be a part of again. Plus, we have our "usual" place, and we get free wine there....
And what's better than a beach with the clearest sea water you've ever seen being just a 30 minute, 2 euro bus ride from home? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.
I have caught two true epidemics. None of that swine flu tomfoolery. One effects hundred of thousands of high school and college students each year. Another latches on to foreign nationals in Greece. My productivity has declined drastically and I often find myself outside with no other explanation than it helps relieve some of my symptoms.
So that I don't confuse you with the medical terms, I'll use the layman terminology - I have senioritis and "I'm in Greece"-itis. Some have tried telling me that these are very serious medical conditions, but in all honesty, I don't think they're so bad. The two diseases sort of feed off of one another, and I'm left with two fairly minor symptoms: I don't want to do any school work or go to class, and I have an insatiable need to make the most of every moment and opportunity this country and I have left.
Keeping my diseases in mind, this week went as follows...Returned from Turkey at 9am Monday and started class at 11am. Went straight to bed after class. "Work" on Tuesday, then out to dinner at a taverna. Then I wrote my paper that was due Wednesday. Classes Wednesday followed by a walk by the water. "Work" on Thursday, including putting on College Fair with the study abroad students for the high school students. Fried foods and tzatziki for dinner. Friday - Class and taverna. Saturday - pretending to work on a presentation for today, but really sitting outside and anything but work. Drinks and board games. Sunday - some sincere effort on the presentation, followed by the acceptance that my diseases were in full swing. A walk by the water.
Not a question that would've seemed so easily plausible four months ago, that's for sure. The answer, as I'm sure you've guessed at this point, was the same as my answer to, "Hey - You guys want to go to Bulgaria for the weekend?" and "Oh, how do you feel about gallivanting around western Europe for two weeks?"
"Let's do it."
Greece celebrates May Day (May 1) as a national holiday akin to our current celebration of Labor Day. We therefore were left with a long weekend and nothing else to do but hop a bus over to Istanbul and discover yet another historically-rich city.
After a ten hour bus ride (10pm - 8am), we arrived. We went on a somewhat longer than expected quest to find our hotel, had breakfast, and started exploring. We saw the major sights of Istanbul: The Ayia Sofia, The Blue Mosque, the cisterns, the Ottoman Palace. We saw a whirling dervish performance, shopped at the Grand Bazaar and walked to Asia.
My typical blow-by-blow is shortened here because what really struck me about Istanbul was not the sights by themselves, but the contrasts embedded within the city, it's history, and it's current life.
Istanbul has been an important location in history since great civilizations first started forming in the area. Mesopotamians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Ottomans, and others all coveted the land that the city sits on because it straddles the Bosphoros Straight, which separates Europe from Asia and is the only water passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
Because of its geographical importance, Istanbul has always been the home of a variety of tugs of war - competition between religions, empires, and warring armies dominate its history. It's been a Christian city (Eastern Orthodox, specifically), a Muslim city, a Roman city, an Ottoman city, a site for Crusade attacks, coveted by both world powers during the Cold War; it has major manufacturing centers, but yet is not an overly developed city like New York or Boston.
Likely from this historical context, Istanbul developed certain dualities that are evident there as in no other place I've been. I'm sure many of these things could be found most anywhere, but to see so many facets of a place in just three days and know we were only scratching the surface of the web of outlooks, ideologies, ways of life... A week later and I'm still struggling to find ways to describe it. So here are some meager attempts:
Attempt #1. The city sits on two continents, connected physically by bridges, ferries. One of our companions, confused until we showed her a map, continually asked us - are we in Asia now? There was a certain novelty in being able to stroll casually across a continental divide, but it was more interesting to see the sort of neighborhood differences between the parts of the city on the different continents. "Asia" is younger, bustling with locals, full of brand name stores and everyday lives. "Europe" is very tourist-focused and in some places, has the same claustrophobic feeling as parts of New York often do for me. For the major city in a country trying desperately to become part of the European Union, it seems totally un-European after two weeks in France, England, and Spain. But, in reality, after two-plus months in Greece and Bulgaria, maybe it's not such a stretch.
Attempt #2. The people of Istanbul seem to have come to terms with the fact that the Turkish language is a rare, and difficult, language. Most of its residents we met seemed to be proficient in Turkish (obviously), English, Spanish, and Greek. The Greeks do not return that favor. We had some marvelous linguistic miscommunications, however - either intentional or not. While shopping at the very large, indoor Grand Bazaar, I asked a merchant if he would give me a certain price for a pair of cups. He said of course. Turned out, he thought I said per cup. Legit, and a tad funny. He was very nice about it, but I did have to look elsewhere for some less pricey cups. Not so funny or cute: in the middle of the very touristy area, we were looking for a nice place to sit down and have a drink. One restaurant wrangler told us to join them on their rooftop terrace. We looked up - "I don't see a rooftop terrace." "Yes, yes, rooftop terrace." Now, I'm not sure why we would think that a Turkish man in the heart of Istanbul's tourist district would know the correct definition of "rooftop terrace," but it certainly was foolish. We had some refreshing beverages on a closed-in top-floor dining area with really big windows and views of nothing but trees branches.
Attempt #3. Now, in any large tourist area, one would be highly ignorant to expect that you're not about to get ripped off every step of the way. Istanbul is no different. Just walk down the halls of the Grand Bazaar and try to go ten feet without someone offering you some hand painted ceramics...that look exactly like the ones that you saw six feet before that and another four feet down the way. Try walking down a row of restaurants without having five or six restaurant wranglers following you for twenty paces telling you all about the amazing food you could eat on their rooftop terraces. Opportunism abounds. "Oh, beautiful ladies! Can I help you spend your money?" If you take care not to get caught up in these sometimes overly suggestive comments, it's easy to find that the people of Istanbul are actually quite generous. The employees at the hotel we stayed at brought us tea anytime we were in the lobby. In fact, they gave us an extra free breakfast when we showed up at 9am and they didn't have rooms ready for us to check into. We had more tea at the bus station when we arrived early. If you tried to refuse tea on any occasion, they asked what you wanted instead - water, coke, etc. When asking for directions, people often stopped to walk us at least partially in the right direction. A man from the hotel walked us 20-25 minutes from the hotel to the metro to catch our bus home - and we never would have found it without him. This service was offered to us - not, here's how you walk there, or you'll get lost, let us call a cab. Just, "Here, my friend will walk you there."
Attempt #4. This story epitomizes my perception of Istanbul. After walking to and around Asia for a little while, we returned to the bridge where we crossed the Bosphoros, and decided to find a place to get some good seafood before heading back to our hotel. We walked down a row of restaurants on the waterside - the wranglers were in full force. "Eat here, we have the best views"...."There's a building in front of your restaurant, that's all you can see."...."No, there's no building."..."You're insane..." Then, we noticed that there were big sun umbrellas on top of one of the buildings. Looking in front, it was indeed a restaurant, but no one was heckling us. So, we walked in, asked if we could sit on the roof, and were led to their - gasp! - rooftop terrace. We sat in the sun, in the perfect weather, had delicious, homemade, authentic Turkish seafood meals, and watched the hustle and bustle in the Bosphoros and on the bridge. And we sat. And we talked. We had time to kill. We listened to the call for prayer from a mosque on a hill in Europe. They brought one of the dishes we ordered much later than the rest, and it didn't get finished because we were all full. The owner came to ask us if something was wrong with it! We told him everything was fantastic, and then we were served a round of tea which we hadn't ordered. Eventually, we paid. The owner came back and gave us some business cards. He welcomed us back at any time....and then asked us to go to the restaurant's facebook page and upload our photos and make comments about the restaurant. This little, authentic, beautiful, friendly restaurant. On facebook. Go figure.
After an outdoor prayer time at the Blue Mosque.
Whirling dervish with live music.
Ancient underground cistern (water supply).
Inside the Blue Mosque.
Fishing between continents.
Busy streets in Asia.
Fish kebap. (kebab....the Turkish spelling is kebap for some reason)
Two and a half weeks passed in which I did not spend one moment with you. After two straight months in your warm (compared to New England) and spirited embrace, it was quite the trying time for me to go without you for so long. How did I survive without you, you wonder? Oh, I simply kept myself busy so that my mind did not have time to wander towards thoughts of you, your cooking, your idiosyncrasies - all of those minute details that make you, well, you.
So sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...a (almost) three week tour...
As I could not bring myself to part completely with your Greek ways at first, I traveled with two friends, Kate and Sarah, to the small town of Delphi, Greece. This was the center of the world according to ancient Greeks - the locale where two eagles sent by Zeus from opposite sides of the world met (don't ask me how this works, it was Zeus, he was the man). Because of its important central location, Delphi became home to the temple of Apollo, the Oracle of Delphi, a temple to Athena and the treasuries of most of the Greek kingdoms of the age. Because of its completely non-central location in modern times, this site is also one of the least-destroyed of the ancient Greeks that I've seen.
My two companions and I then made our way back to Athens to give this city a second go-around (first time for Sarah). Thanks to some very generous maneuvering by our boss at the College Counseling Office, Eva, we had a hotel almost right next to the Parliament building for about 1/3 of the price (Eva also secured us a free room in Delphi). We re-visited the Acropolis and its sites, which were much less crowded this time and made it into the site of the Temple of Zeus, too.
We also managed to see a changing of the guards at Parliament and leave with all of our wallets intact. We stayed out until about 1am for dinner and ice cream and wandering, and I left the hotel at a not-so-bright hour of 4am to catch a flight at the Athens airport.
You see, dearest Thessaloniki, by this time I had traveled far enough from so many of your familiar features that I was prepared to take the plunge and return to an English-speaking country! I arrived in London around 9am and slowly made my way from one airport to another. Around 9pm, I met someone at the airport who seemed to be from another world (and then I remembered I actually knew him quite well!).
On our first whole day together, we explored the city of London. We started nearby Big Ben and Parliament, but found no legendary roundabout nearby. We saw Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street - the homes of the heads of state and government for this bizarre English-speaking land. We walked through beautifully manicured gardens, found an Arc de Triumph and some odd-ball war memorials. We found Trafalgar Square teeming with people and missionaries proselytizing the "pagan" Easter. After, we dined in Soho for lunch and then walked along the muddy River Thames. As the sun fell in the sky, we found the "Tower" of London and the famed London Bridge. Then we returned to our lodgings on the London Underground to allow our weary legs some rest.
The next day was mostly consumed by travel to the city of Paris. We found our way to our hosts' home around 9pm, had some friendly conversation, and then were off to bed again.
We awoke and had a typical Parisian breakfast - espresso and a croissant. Just as in London, we walked incredible distances here. After buying our train tickets to travel to Barcelona the next day at 9am, we discovered a monument commemorating the storming of the Bastille (which is considered the start of the French revolution), found a tourist swarm at Notre Dame (but no Quasi Modo), and visited a lonely old church instead of paying to enter the famous, crowded one. We stopped for lunch at a cafe and ordered meals from a blackboard menu, though we could only decipher the meaning of a few words (how comforting it was to be in the dark about the language around you again! Ha!). We got lost in some small alleyways and then emerged to find the Louvre and its gorgeous, old buildings. From here, we proceeded following the famed Champs-Elysees (lined with trees, gardens and palaces, and then high-end stores) to the "real" Arc de Triomphe. Making our way to the Eiffel Tower, we stopped to rest our feet and watch a Sri Lankan protest and hunger strike(not sure what their cause was since everything was in French). When we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, the lines were long, so we decided to have a glass - or bottle - of wine before returning to ascend the landmark. (Imagine that, dearest Thessaloniki, in Paris, people wait in lines! Insane!) The sunset while we were part way up, but it was too overcast and hazy to see a beautiful sky. Again, after such a long day, we returned to our hosts' home and went to bed straight away.
We left the next morning to catch our 9:20am train to Barcelona, but arrived belatedly at 9:23. We had to buy an upgrade to first class to make a train out on the same day. Since when are the French supposed to be timely, Thessaloniki? They have the same reputation for timing as you do! This error, though, allotted us some time to buy a pair of fresh baguettes (1.50 euro), some espresso, and a Paris postcard - all things that we would've been terribly disappointed to leave Paris without. At 11:20am, we were sure to be more than on time to settle into our first class seats to Barcelona. We had a quick "layover" on the way in a town called Montpellier, just enough time to grab some lunch at the train station. We arrived in Barcelona around 8pm and were to meet our host at a central location - Burger King. Sound like a good place to eat dinner, Thessaloniki? You're right, it's not, but after a day of traveling, and seeing a beer tap at the counter, you've got to try it, right? The beer and the food are of equal quality.
We started our first day in Barcelona with two surprising things: first, a over-excited but very sweet and friendly representative of Doctors Without Borders who asked us to sing a song in Spanish with them; and second, a hail storm while we were eating an early lunch.
The weather for the rest of the day was equally as odd - it rained lightly when the sun was out and stopped as soon as a cloud covered us. I know, Thessaloniki, you never treat me with such sporadic weather. After the hail, we spent some time getting lost in the winding alleyways that are lined with small shops. We walked to the port then along the beach and dipped our toes in the (freezing!) Mediterranean.
We had a (second?) lunch at a tapas restaurant that was TO DIE FOR. And found our way to the Chocolate Museum, but they had already closed. While trying to find our way back to the place we stayed, we found the most complete fresh market I have ever seen. We stocked up on fruits, veggies, bread, nuts and cheese and fed ourselves off of for the next three days. We stayed in the hostel for the rest of the night and watch some movies and made some friends.
Our second day in Barcelona we returned first thing to the Chocolate Museum - mmmmmm. Then we went off to Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe. We also saw the La Sagrada Familia Catedral which has been under construction for almost a hundred years and is only projected to be completed in the 2020s. Every facade is different, and the one with the worst light for picture taking turned out to be the most beautiful. Oh well. We also visited Barcelona's OTHER famous Catedral which is also under construction. When we went out, there was a band playing barber-shop-like music and a man who must of been in his 80s at least, dancing in front of them with his cane and hunched stature. We bought a CD. We returned to the hostel again to have some dinner, had some laughs with our Israeli friends, and then went out for a couple drinks with our Brazilian friends.
After a slow start and some fruit salad (with red onion - a delightful touch, actually), we hopped on a train for Montpellier. This small town in the south of France was not on our original itinerary, but after we ruled out Lisbon, Portugal because of time and cost, we thought this might be a nice interruption after all the cities we'd visited. We arrived around 9pm (getting to be a theme, eh?) and met our host, Max and his brother Emeric.
This was a Saturday night, so Max and Emeric were ready to celebrate the week with a couple of drinks and a lot of laughs. We compared cultures, towns, beers, musics. We also discovered the truth behind the Space Invaders - that we had seen in Paris, Max showed us in Montpellier, and we later found in Geneva.
On Sunday, Max and Emeric had a lunch date with their parents at their home outside Montpellier. They took us to the local market in the morning, and then were dropped off in a park nearby their parents place to have a lovely picnic. Their parents asked us to join them for dessert. After dessert and some local (sweet) wine, we were off to meet with some of Max's friends and a walk along the beach. We had a cup of coffee, got rained on, and Max's friend bought us a ride across and above the port in the "gondolas." When we got back, we cooked dinner for Max, his girlfriend and Emeric. Max also helped us find a super-discount rate for our next trip - a train ride to Geneva - a first class ticket for less than the economy class. Yay!
The next day we spent the morning exploring Montpellier in the daylight - its Arc de Triomphe, it's ancient aqueduct, gardens, arcitecture, trams. Truely a lovely, though small city. In the afternoon, we hopped back on to the train and headed to Geneva, first class.
We met our host in Geneva, Zoe, at the train station and she took us back to her apartment. For the rest of the night, Zoe pulled out a map of Geneva she had acquired for us and showed us the fun places to go, the must sees, etc. She also fed us a great, ecclectic dinner.
Since Zoe is a nurse and had to work the next day, we were up and out at 6:45am. We found a place to get some coffee, and then followed Zoe's outlined map for us. We took a nap in a park :), found the world's longest bench (supposedly), played on a play ground, explored the "old city," walked along Lake Geneva, took a ferry boat across the lake, explored a couple gardens and met Zoe back at her place for a bit of a refresher. Then, Matt took me out to dinner for a belated birthday present. Though the restaurant didn't look like much, it was a hidden gem! We had a great fondue dish and a steak with a salad. All of it 100% scrumptous. Afterwards, we met up with Zoe for drinks at a local microbrewery.
Here is a story about how Zoe lives her life: We went to a microbrewery that she had never been to before to try it out. The waitress had a bandage on her finger. Zoe asked her what happened, and upon hearing the story, offered to return with us the next day to remove the waitress's sutures so that she didn't have to go 45 minutes and 10 Francs outside of the city to do it.
This being said, the next day Zoe had off, and she wanted to take us to see some of the Swiss country side and vineyards (we kind of asked for it!). She took us to her parents house, we made some delicious lunch (bread, butter and radishes were part of it - who knew?), then grabbed her car and went for a bit of a random drive. We stopped in a small SMALL country town that had some vineyard signs and walked around or a bit. We knocked on one of their doors only to find out that they had "officially" closed for the day. But, told us to come back in 10 minutes for a tasting.
Now, dearest Thessaloniki, I could go on for weeks about how amazing this particular experience turned out. I will keep the description short and sweet, but I first want to ask you, when will you make this happen for me in Greece? I want some locally made, small-time, Greek wine. Do we have an agreement? Good.
Continuing....When we returned, they showed us into their kitchen (not their official tasting room) and proceed to walk us through their music-themed set of wines. We then learned that "the man of the house" actually participated in traditional hunting forrays - uniforms, hound dogs, horses, and those simple, circular horns you see at Christmas time (don't know the name in English - or French for that matter). Actually, he and his group had a practice that same evening. Zoe asked, "Can we watch?" The answer, of course. And so, we got a couple bottles of wine, some additional top-offs of our tasting glasses, some traditional Swiss food, and, though we couldn't understand it ourselves, some traditional Swiss conversation. Then we caravaned down the road and listened to their practice. Incredible. Thanks, Zoe.
When we returned to Zoe's place, Matt and I made some homemade Mac and Cheese. I think we impressed her :) Then we returned to the bar for some suture removal. After a good night's rest, we walked around a bit with Zoe and then stopped off at one of Zoe's favorite spots for a bite to eat. It has a used book library (also available for purchase) and some relatively cheap gourmet menu. Another amazing meal. Afterwards, we had to run to catch our flight to Amsterdam.
We arrived in Amsterdam and found our way to our host, Robert's apartment. Robert had a dinner party at a friend's place, who also invited us! He has two bikes and so Matt got to cart me around on the back of one. We had a fantastic dinner with some really lovely people. Matt got his first chance to pick up a guitar in two weeks (!) and played some fun music.
The next day we rented some bikes. Robert took us around parts of Amsterdam city, and then took us outside of the city, for an almost 20 kilometer ride out to a small island called Marken (SP?). It was a fantasticly beautiful ride on the eyes and brain. The rest of my body was not quite as happy, but hey. We rode through protective marsh land, past windmill farms, through a small village and out to a lighthouse. We saw some interesting water birds, lots of farmland, and even got to try some fresh milk. We returned to the city via its old shipyard which is now a hip locale with a couple bars, more great food and an old Soviet submarine. We stopped at a grocery store on the way back to the apartment and Matt and I concocted some burritos for Robert and ourselves. Then I passed out. Too much bike riding, sore muscles, and a bruised gluteous maximus.
The next day, we strapped on our backpacks and hopped on our rented bikes to return them. We returned them, and got a celebratory beer for making it that far on bikes (mostly for my sake). We then hopped on a plane to head back to London for our final leg of the trip. We stayed in the small town of Stansted, instead of London, which was an interesting, but uneventful experience which included a totally unfriendly "hotel" owner, a 2 hour search for an atm, and an outrageously adorable pub owner. In the morning we got up and returned to the airport. We hung out for a few hours eating some food, playing some cards and preparing to part ways again.
I caught a flight back to Athens, leaving Matt to fend for himself to get back to Boston. My flight was a perfect re-introduction to Greek culture - loud, boisterous, late, chaotic. I met up with Kate and caught an overnight bus ride back "home."
It is amazing how comfortable I felt returning to my life with you, Thessaloniki. After two weeks of English, French, and Spanish-speaking locales, I was comfortable back in your Greek speaking streets. Refreshing to already know the bus number I wanted to take, to already have a key to get to my bed, my own shower, and clean clothes. You have truely become a home away from home, dearest Thessaloniki. Thank you for continuing to welcome me.
This week commenced with a cooking class on-campus where we learned to cook "classic" Greek foods - tzatziki and spanikopita. Tzatziki is a dip for bread, fried zucchini - basically anything you want. It is yogurt-based and has olive oil, cucumber, dill, and, if you want, lemon juice in it. DELICIOUS! Spanikopita is a snack-like dish made with a couple layers o phyllo dough, a layer of spinach, eta, a couple other tasty delights, and then more phyllo dough. ALSO delicious!
The class was an interesting experience - they didn't bother to think about how the chef didn't speak enough English to talk to us and none of us enough Greek to understand him. We also didn't get to participate in the creation of the food. BUT, we did learn some interesting secrets to making better tzatziki than what we have been making and learned how to make our own phyllo dough rather than messing with those annoying dry frozen versions. Yay!
As a highlight of the week, the College Counseling Office, which I have been volunteering with for the last couple months asked me to stay in Greece as long as possible to work with them as an intern. It caused a bit of confusion for a while, but I basically now have a reason to stay in Greece until my visa runs out! They are going to pay for my housing, two meals a day, as well as at least a part of my flight change fee. YAY GREECE!
The week ended with our school sponsored trip to Athens - paid for with our tuition costs. We took a looooooong bus trip down to Athens for most of Friday. Checked into our hotel, had some dinner, took a quick trip downtown where we saw the Parthenon all lit up and had a quick dose of gelato. Saturday, we visited the Acropolis, which is the walled-in group of buildings at the top of a hill in the city. This, of course, houses the Parthenon and a number of other ancient sites. We also visited the ancient agora (market) of the city, some parks, gardens, and winding side streets, and the ruins of the Temple of Zeus (the photo of a bunch of pillars in a big field). The weather was absolutely amazing. 70 degress, sunny and breezy.
On Sunday, we went to see the changing of the guards in front of the Parliament building and went to the Athes Archeological Museum. The guards were wearing traditional military costumes rom the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s. Their shoes weigh six pounds each from the metal inserted in the bottom. This and the way in which they march is meant to imitate horses. Who knows why.
The museum holds many, MANY ancient statues, gravestones, trinkets, frescoes, etc. We were lucky enough to get a guided tour or just five of us, since others on the trip preferred to go shopping! It is a beautiful and fanciful museum full of stories, mythology and history - but not photographs. Guess you'll have to see it for yourselves.
Sounds too good to be true? Guess so.
I had a cold all weekend - bleh. It was a great drain (oh, the pun-tastic-ness!) on my energy and I was fairly done with exploring the city beyond the excursions described above. The seasons changed drastically here and I blame it on that. I'm starting to feel better now.
Also, my wallet was stolen while we were watching the changing of the guards. I had just bought a new purse on Saturday - one that zippered - so that I wasn't traveling with a purse that didn't close. I guess my old one got upset with me because someone managed to unzip my new purse and pull out my wallet without my knowledge. Nothing irreplaceable, though. Such is life.
ALSO, our bus broke down AGAIN, for four hours this time. Woo! We didn't get home until 3am on Monday.
This week has been midterms and spring break prep. I'm leaving in less than an hour for spring break. A couple days in Greece and then meeting Matt in London for a Western Europe excursion.
