[This picture is from the fortress in Nafplion. We're warming our hands on an imaginary fire.]
I know it's a little late, but this is the first chance I've had to update about the Greece trip.
I got back from our 10-day trip around Greece about a week ago. We started by driving 7 hours to the port so we could catch the Superfast VI ferry over to Greece. The ferry trip was overnight and they had a discotec (along with an overpriced bar/cafe thing), so most of UD went. There was a sort of balcony above the round dance floor, so the Gypsies and I spent most of our time watching and just dancing with each other when we felt like it. We sent Reed and Ashlea down to request Ratatat, but they didnt have it. On the way back, a girl was trying to show people how to dance and so we had Ashlea show her how it's done in the hood (aka-how black people do it). We were proud.
I got back from our 10-day trip around Greece about a week ago. We started by driving 7 hours to the port so we could catch the Superfast VI ferry over to Greece. The ferry trip was overnight and they had a discotec (along with an overpriced bar/cafe thing), so most of UD went. There was a sort of balcony above the round dance floor, so the Gypsies and I spent most of our time watching and just dancing with each other when we felt like it. We sent Reed and Ashlea down to request Ratatat, but they didnt have it. On the way back, a girl was trying to show people how to dance and so we had Ashlea show her how it's done in the hood (aka-how black people do it). We were proud.
Our first city in Greece was Olympia. Despite the history and the fact our school found the need to take us there, it had absolutely nothing to offer. We found one cafe, along with the rest of our school, on the one street that went through town. I ordered in Greek and the guy working there thought it was funny, so he helped me learn a couple things. We had been instructed to try ouzo while we were in Greece, so we figured this might as
well be the place to do it. I will never instruct anyone to drink it, unless they like black licorice. The next day, we went to the archeological sites in Olympia and the Greek kids had to do a
reading of Pindar so people could hear ancient Greek. We had a race at the original location of the Olympic games and this film crew for the Beijing Olympics taped it and interviewed the guy who won our guys' race. We thought it was funny.
[Walking to the sites in Delphi.]
Next came Delphi which was WAY better than Olympia! Not only was it absolutely beautiful, but the town had 2 streets! We hung out in a cafe that had White Hot Choco
late and overlooked the valley the first night, then we went to the oracle of Delphi, the stadium, etc. the next day. More dramatic readings happened here, as well as every other location, so I'm just not going to mention them anymore. After we finished in Delphi, we headed to Athens.
Athens was a strange, strange city. If you didn't look up, you just saw a normal city. Gross buildings with too much graffiti, beggars, street vendors, a lot of shady people, trash everywhere...Then you look down an alley and look up at the end. Oh, there's the Parthenon. Over there is the aereopagus. Athens was built on hills, too, but there are fewer and they are higher, so you notice it a lot more. Obviously in Athens we went to the Parthenon, the acropolis, the aereopagus, some museums, etc. When we weren't in class, we just kind of wandered around the city looking for stuff to do. We found a brochure for an Irish pub in the hotel, so we figured we'd go.
[This is the gypsies on the Aereopagus]
About an hour and a half later, we found said pub. We went during happy hour, completely accidentally, so our drinks were only like 6 euro instead of 10. That's right, in American money, drinks were no
rmally $15. We later found out that this was pretty much the only place in Greece that had a happy hour. It was also Monday night, so no one was in the pub, meaning that they felt the need to offer us karaoke. We just hung out in the corner laughing way too much because we were
the only ones there. The metro in Athens was crazy weird! Instead of going through the spinning bars thing when you put your ticket through, it was just air. We had no idea how they kept people from sneaking on, but we were really tempted to just walk through and find out. We didn't though. We were kind of afraid it was an electric current or one of the huge dogs planted in every metro station. One night in Athens, Ashlea, Stephen, and I decided we would split off and headed to Starbucks and discovered the different flavors of drinks they had. That was the same night that we went to our traditional Chinese food restaurant. Okay, it was the Noodle Bar and not quite as authentic as our other cities, but it's still a tradition.
[Gypsies in front of the Parthenon.]After Athens, we headed over to Nafplion. The school knew there wasn't much in Nafplion except a beach, so they told us ahead of time not to expect anything. They were right, again. What they didn't mention was that the beach was SO fun. Stephen, Jordan, Rachel, Ashlea and I climbed along the rocks to get to the beach and
tried to find crabs along the way. Stephen is the only one from a place that has a beach anywhere close, so he would tell us where to look and showed us how to tell the difference between crabs and rocks. He also let us know that we don't want to pick up sea urchins...He laughed at all the mountain/city kids discovering the mysteries of waves crashing into rocks with holes, thus spraying anyone standing over the holes, or of ocean snails, or crabs...We had SO much fun and named one of the snails Sherman. We would throw water on him so that he'd come out of his shell and hold on to your hand, then you could almost flip your hand over without him falling off. When we got to the beach, we saw the man that UD students for years have called "Poseidon". He's this old guy with long hair, a beard, a tank top, and a tattered speedo. We watched in shock that he really did exist, then watched him go into the FREEZING water and float around. This was Nafplion.
[Climbing on the rocks in Nafplion.]
On the way back, we stopped by
Epidaurus. The main attraction here was the theater where you stand in the middle of the theater on this little circle of concrete and angle your head up just a bit and the entire theater can hear you speaking just above a normal inside voice. There were a bunch of annoying Italians and Germans, so we sent a girl to sing in the middle and she finally consented. Once she started singing, they got quieter and quieter until they were shushing each other to silence. It was a really cool theater, which everyone else apparently thought as we saw mini-Epidaurus-like theaters all over. (in playgrounds, etc.)
The ferry back was NOT the Superfast VI and it was not near as nice. It vibrated the ENTIRE ride back to Italy. Yeah, that's like 12 hours. Not only that, but you could feel it rocking. Most of us woke up at 4:30 in the morning because we were falling out of our beds and hitting walls. It was a good experience, though?
[When we had made it to the beach in Nafplion]
The ferry back was NOT the Superfast VI and it was not near as nice. It vibrated the ENTIRE ride back to Italy. Yeah, that's like 12 hours. Not only that, but you could feel it rocking. Most of us woke up at 4:30 in the morning because we were falling out of our beds and hitting walls. It was a good experience, though?
[When we had made it to the beach in Nafplion]Basically, the Greece trip was AWESOME!!! We had SO much fun all over Greece and got to see a really wide variety of what the country is like. We got back on Saturday night and before we had gotten to our rooms, James had already gotten out his ipod deck and was blaring Ratatat's 17 Years in the dorm, so everyone dropped their luggage where they were and ran to the dance party. It was amazing to see not only the people who listen to the song all the time, but a bunch of other people, come pouring out of their rooms to dance to this ridiculously obscure song.
On Wednesday, we got to get up at 5:30 am to go to the Papal Audience. On the bus into Rome, one of the R.A.s was warning us that it's really cut-throat to get good seats and to beware the nuns, especially the Filipino ones with umbrellas. We thought she was exaggerating...then we learned. We were in a huge mass of old people and we were getting pushed all over. Jordan, Ashlea, Stephen, and I were basically holding each other. Once we made it through the metal detectors, we found out that we were apparently supposed to wear sneakers so we could run. Conveniently, we could pass all the old people because their canes only allowed them to run so fast. The entire time, we were like "are they seriously trying to fight us to see the Pope???" Those nuns were intense, though. No one was kidding around. It was a really interesting experience just getting in the doors! The Pope had to read his speech in like 5 different languages, so it kind of took a while. Then everyone said the Lord's Prayer in Latin (it was written on the back of our tickets, we weren't just expected to know it) and the Pope blessed everybody. When it had ended, we still waited around to see if he was going to walk down our aisle so we could take pictures. He didn't, but that had allowed a lot of people to leave, so we didn't have to fight our way out quite as much. The school gave us 6 euro for lunch, so we needed to spend all of it. After the week of disgusting cabbage, pork, and potatoes that was our greece trip, Stephen strongly suggested McDonald's. Ashlea, Stephen, Cory, Anna, and I went to McDonald's. Our plan was the Pantheon McDonald's because Ashlea and I decided to go there before the end of the semester because you can look at the Pantheon from the McDonald's across the fountain, but we ended up at a closer one. Just so you know, in Rome you pay an extra 10 cents for ketchup. You also pay more for extra napkins. The menu is different and we think it's kind of funny. OH! and there are curly fries, resulting in a large conversation of whether we have them in the states now and just dont know, so if anyone has info on that, feel free to pass it on! (they call them dizzy fries here :D)
[The view from Agamemnon's house.]
On Wednesday, we got to get up at 5:30 am to go to the Papal Audience. On the bus into Rome, one of the R.A.s was warning us that it's really cut-throat to get good seats and to beware the nuns, especially the Filipino ones with umbrellas. We thought she was exaggerating...then we learned. We were in a huge mass of old people and we were getting pushed all over. Jordan, Ashlea, Stephen, and I were basically holding each other. Once we made it through the metal detectors, we found out that we were apparently supposed to wear sneakers so we could run. Conveniently, we could pass all the old people because their canes only allowed them to run so fast. The entire time, we were like "are they seriously trying to fight us to see the Pope???" Those nuns were intense, though. No one was kidding around. It was a really interesting experience just getting in the doors! The Pope had to read his speech in like 5 different languages, so it kind of took a while. Then everyone said the Lord's Prayer in Latin (it was written on the back of our tickets, we weren't just expected to know it) and the Pope blessed everybody. When it had ended, we still waited around to see if he was going to walk down our aisle so we could take pictures. He didn't, but that had allowed a lot of people to leave, so we didn't have to fight our way out quite as much. The school gave us 6 euro for lunch, so we needed to spend all of it. After the week of disgusting cabbage, pork, and potatoes that was our greece trip, Stephen strongly suggested McDonald's. Ashlea, Stephen, Cory, Anna, and I went to McDonald's. Our plan was the Pantheon McDonald's because Ashlea and I decided to go there before the end of the semester because you can look at the Pantheon from the McDonald's across the fountain, but we ended up at a closer one. Just so you know, in Rome you pay an extra 10 cents for ketchup. You also pay more for extra napkins. The menu is different and we think it's kind of funny. OH! and there are curly fries, resulting in a large conversation of whether we have them in the states now and just dont know, so if anyone has info on that, feel free to pass it on! (they call them dizzy fries here :D)
