A little disclaimer... This will be an epically long post, considering it will consist of information and experiences gathered not only over the timespan of an entire week, but also conssiting of the Greece EFT. So, prepare yourself. That is all.
Monday: Athens
There's something very, very strange about waking up before the sun is even out, even in London where the sun is often nasty and hides behind the clouds. But seriously, 4 am in the morning? How heinous is that? Quite so. But, Kalie and I were up at this early, early hour, pre-packed and excited, and way too ready to head out on our first EFT- to Greece! So, after a strangely-timed breakfast and carrying of luggage to the bus, we were on our way with the rest of our London house to Heathrow Airport. Considering the early hour, we were met with little complications as we got more lame stamps in our Visas (seriously, what happened to the days of stamps with pictures? I don't want the date- I want a picture!) and then meandered around the airport because Pepperdine is, shall we say... overtly prompt. We had a good 2 and a half hours of wandering time. So, naturally, we decided on a second breakfast, because all of us were strangely hungry again. But I didn't really want breakfast so I got a BLT and potato wedges... Breakfast/lunch of champions right there. Whatever, Greece was a vacation, and we all know that we eat as much as humanly possible on vacation. My father's mentality right there- I totally approve.
So after being strangely twitchy on the plane, we landed in Greece, all out in the middle of nowhere-land in this strange little airport that had rather questionable security procedures. But that's just coming from someone who's been mad-dogged in Texas and LAX airports because the people who work there are ridiculously intense. It took about 45 minutes to get to our hotel, and our tour guide was awesome. I swear, it was like being in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, what with the way he told us how every word came from a Greek heritage. It was hilarious. We also got free hats- picture proof has been given. Yeah, definitely rocking the Aristotle Travel tourism cap. You all know you're jealous.
So we finally got to our hotel in Athens, which was nice enough. Very predictable two-bedroom rooms, a shower that had strange tendencies to flood our bathroom, and hard sheets. But heck- we were in Greece! So, while some people crashed out and napped, I decided to go on a mini tour in a small group to get a feel for our area of the city. It was a little more of a touristy spot, but we went into the Plaka, which is like the marketplace, where there are hundreds of small shops, many selling the same things. It was a crazy experience, what with all the people hawking their wares and basically jumping you to make you buy things. It was almost a little overwhelming- I mean, I loved the place, but there wasn't something that put me a little on guard and out of my comfort zone. However, with our group it wasn't like there were any issues, but it was interesting how I'm far more comfortable wandering around London than I was just walking through the Greek Plaka. Regardless, it was a very cool place and they had some awesome little shops, a few of which I entered. I got a Greek shot glass to add to my collection, as well as some amazingly delicious baklava. Geez... that stuff is freaking delicious. We continued to check out the immediate area until dinner time, when we happily trudged back to the hotel and filled our plates with food. I got to sit through a slightly awkward conversation about my metabolism (not really sure how we got to that point... probably because I had so many potatoes on my plate and one of the girls wanted to know why I wasn't obese... awesome).
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| View from the roof of our hotel- yeah, it is the Parthenon |
After dinner, I finally got to run upstairs and enjoy an amazingly warm shower and clean off all the nastiness of the plane flight. I can't explain how beautiful that shower felt. Yes, it felt beautiful. It was amazing, glorious, t
res fantastique! But seriously. Awesome shower. After this, some people wanted to go out, so I grudgingly agreed, regardless of my exhaustion, and after wandering around aimlessly and indecisively for a good amount of time (I'll admit, my patience was shot at this point), we realized that people normally have dinner around 9 in Greece and the nightlight doesn't start until way later. And it was a Monday night. Fail? Kind of. So we went to some "bar" of which was pretty much empty and sat and chatted for a bit while some people got a drink. Me? I tried not to lapse into a coma derived from an intense lack of sleep. Once everyone else started crashing out as we sat there, we decided to head back to the hotel around 11, and I made immediate friends with my bed. Sleep. Finally.
Tuesday: Athens
This was the day we got to sleep in the most- that is, we got to set our alarms for 7:30. Woohoo? Well, t certainly was better than 4 in the morning. So, with those happy thoughts in mind, Kalie and I made our way from our room to discover the glories of the hotel buffet breakfast. And, honestly, it wasn't half bad. Quite diverse. I was able to grab some ham and croissants and make mini sandwiches and there were these delicious things that reminded me of hush puppies. Totally healthy. And then toast, eggs, breads, cereals, fruit, among many other things. Go hotel- you pleasantly surprised me. After breakfast, we met our new tour guides and received these little headsets to pretty much yell to the whole of Athens that were were a massive tour group. Oh well, it allowed for the guides to speak to us as we walked, which was kind of cool. Other than the whole bit about the headsets being bright yellow boxes with bright blue headphones. With our group appropriately fitted with our tourism sets, we set out on our Athens city tour.
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| The entrance pillars |
We began by walking up the marble pathway (marble everywhere- it made walking after rain a most interesting and slippery experience) to the Acropolis. I swear, it was fascinating! Being in a country with so much history and all these ancient monuments was mind-blowing, especially considering my love of Greek mythology. Just seeing these places, albeit in a tour group, was like stepping into a whole new world. The walk up the Acropolis was peppered with all these amazing spots to turn around and take in the view- and what a view it was that day! It wasn't exactly sunny, but still, as we got higher and higher up the Acropolis we were able to see the vast expanse of Athens.
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| The Parthenon |
The tour continued upwards and we were met with the entrance pillars. Quite a bit was left over, but we could see all these places were fake bits were put in (the whiter stone) in order to help the "monuments" continue standing. Considering that the Parthenon has been destroyed multiple times, there was a large amount of different colored stone, but still seeing all these areas as they once were was quite awesome. So, after walking through the entrance pillars and getting our fair share of pictures, we walked forward and were finally met by the appearance of the Parthenon. It is an absolutely amazing site to see. Situated on the top of the Acropolis, it has this amazing backdrop of sky and the country. It was a completely picturesque scene, and personally, I liked the mildly stormy clouds behind it. It made the scene all the more epic for picture-taking.
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| The Erectheion |
We wandered around the Parthenon for a bit, listening to the tour guide explain history and stories and myths behind it, along with how it was constructed and the reasoning behind pillars shape, size, etc. It was like behind back in Humanities 1 last semester, and yet it was cool being in the actual country and seeing the site, as opposed to just seeing a picture of it. And our tour guide had all these interesting facts and little jokes he's throw in, which made it a more amusing experience, as opposed to just another tour. To the side of the Parthenon was the Erectheion, which holds the Porch of Maidens and was situated right where the battle between Poseidon and Athena was supposed to have taken place. Although much smaller, it was no less impressive. We got to walk around this area for a bit, taking group pictures, talking with some women that were dressed in traditional Greek clothing, before we wandered down again and walked to Mars Hill, where the Apostle Paul delivered a sermon.
At this point it began raining a bit, but not hard enough that Kalie and I weren't able to get our picture with our international hippo cookie. Yeah, that thing is definitely at rock-status now. Oh well. It's touring the world. I'm thinking I should take all the pictures to Dad's donuts and see if I cant get free hippos for life, or something... Yes. This is a good idea. We hit up the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch after this (oh Pepperdine, feeding us American food) and then visited the Acropolis Museum after that. The museum had some more amazing artifacts and the tour guides gave us more information and stories. It was all quite interesting, although I think most of us were pretty dead on our feet at this point. We grabbed some coffee (meaning I just sat and chatted) after the tour, then headed back to the hotel, ran around the Plaka a bit and bought some more souvenirs, including sandals, before attending a lecture on Greek culture and politics by the same guide we had on the bus ride into Athens. I pretty much almost fell asleep because I was so exhausted at this point. I felt bad, because it was interesting information, but heck- we were running on minimum sleep.
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| Entrance to the museum |
After this, we headed out for dinner, where our group once again had to fend off the crazy people that tried to make us go to their restaurant. It got to a point where we just bartered with one place, which ended up being the cheapest, and got 4 free liters of red wine with dinner. Win? I think so. I got my pita and souvlaki and I can't explain to you how delicious that food was- kind of salty, but nevertheless delightful in my belly. Mmm, Greek food. Again with the eating my way through a country problem... After dinner most of the group went out, but I decided on going back to the hotel, showering, and crashing out in preparation for an even earlier morning the following day.
Wednesday: Delphi, Ossios Loukas
Wednesday began with another early morning- 6:30 am, with the same well-spread breakfast, and then onto the bus. We drove through the plains of Boeotia, through towns of Thebes, and finally (after a VERY long bus ride) arrived at Delphi. Most people were pretty irate at this point, considering being squished in a bus for a good 4 hours (and the bus smelled awful after someone threw up...), but c'mon- we were at Delphi. Maybe it was just me, with my love for Greek myths, but the whole Oracle of Delphi in the temple of Apollo thing was kind of exciting. Call me a nerd. I accept it. So we arrived at Delphi, considered the center of the world by the Greeks, and began yet another long walk upward towards the Temple of Apollo. Yet another temple? I think not. Okay, so they all look kind of similar, but it's the history that makes it all the more amazing! The history and myths and legends. Did you know that one of the Oracles is known to have made a prophecy concerning the coming of Jesus? Kind of cool stuff right there.
So we walked upward and saw the remnants of the temple, where the Oracle used to stay and where the fumes rose from the earth (which she would breathe in and then the priests would explain her prophecies or answers to questions), were the sacrifices were slaughtered, a rock that Apollo supposedly threw at a serpent, ancient artifacts that were brought as tribute, Greek writing on large stones, a small "theater" area, among so many other things. After taking the appropriate amounts of pictures after listening to the tour guides through our epic headsets, we hit up the museum for Delphi. This was cool, but slightly redundant, considering the fact that we were running a bit behind schedule and all of us were basically starving. We finally to to lunch around 3, which was decent, but again, not very Greek. Oh well. The place had a beautiful view.
We hopped back into the bus following lunch and made our way to and old Byzantine-style Greek Orthodox monastery. We toured this for a short period of time, looking at the old artwork, learning some more about the history of the place, before we once again made friends with the bus and prepared ourselves for the long ride home. The drive home had some gorgeous scenery, but I was quite excited to reach the hotel. We had dinner on our own again that night, and once we went out the large group was again met with our trademark indecisiveness. So, unwilling to stand around while angry restaurant people kept badgering us with their menus, a few of us just separated from the group and hit up the same place as the night before and enjoyed yet another delicious and cheap dinner. No regrets there. That place was fantastic! After dinner we made our way back to the hotel, and I proceeded to fall into my pattern of showering and crashing out after an extremely long day.
Thursday: Aegina
Oh, early mornings! Once again, a 6:30 wake-up to prepare for the day most of us were looking forward to- the trip to the island of Aegina! We hopped onto our little boat that took us to the island, and after arriving and pretty much drooling over the beauty of the place, we walked from the dock to yet another... bus. Seriously? We were all too busy staring open-mouthed at the quaint little town by the water to really desire yet another bus ride. However, we hopped on and began a tour of the island that actually turned out to be fascinating- and we saw the diverse beauty of the place. We drove through the seaside town first, where the food and tourism places were pointed out, so we knew were to go once we returned and were given our 5 hours of free time to explore and relax and enjoy ourselves. After moving out of the seaside area, we moved upward and deeper into the island.
We stopped for a short period of time at a church. This place was absolutely beautiful, pretty much like most of the island. Aegina was definitely a site to behold. We wandered into the church and the tour guides once again educated us on a little of the history of the church and the religious aspects of the area after the idea of the gods and goddesses faded out. We walked into the church and got to look at more of the older artwork. After such, we were able to take some more pictures (definitely rocking the tourist badge left and right), before we headed back to the bus and continued our island tour.
We drove around the island until we finally reached another temple- the Temple of Athena Aphaia, or the unknown goddess. We walked up to the temple and were once again met with an absolutely gorgeous view of the surround area and the island. Honestly, this was what I expected Greece to look like- far less like the more industrialized Athens and more like this open, gorgeous area. And we were finally met with a beautiful day! We'd been having overcast, rainy days in Athens, so it was lovely enjoying the warm sun and the blue skies as we wandered around the ancient ruins of the temple. After the tour guides were through talking, they allowed us to take some more pictures before we all piled back into the bus and continued our tour around the rest of the island.
We finally landed back in the harbor area, after being pointed in the direction of the one beach we were able to swim at if we were brave enough to face to cold water. Then we were given the rest of the time on the island- a good 5 hours- to do whatever we pleased. So, first we found our food and then began checking out the main street before most of us ended up at the beach. It was so fun being able to chill in the sun after being in London (with its lack of Vitamin D). And honestly- the water really wasn't that cold at all, especially once you got used to it. A ton of us ended up going into the sea and hanging out there for a bit until the breeze picked up and some dark clouds began forming dangerously on the horizon. Well, at least we'd been able to enjoy the sun while we needed it. After leaving the water, we all began doing frantic towel changes as the clouds grew darker and darker. A huge storm broke out just as we were finishing and a few of us hid under the canopy of an old hut as hail and pounding rain began. It was crazy- it went from warm and sunny to pounding rain in all of about 10 minutes! We hid in our spot until the rain finally slowed, then hit a bar across the street and finally went on a mad search for hot chocolate for Kalie, during which the skies opened up again and began a second frantic downpour.
After finally finding a place to hang out in, the rain stopped and the sun decided to grace us with its presence yet again. Crazy weather! We hung out in a cafe for a bit, chatting and trying to avoid the nasty flies that were everywhere, before we tried some of the island's renowned pistachios and finally boarded the boat yet again! We traveled back to the port of Piraeus and drove to a nice seafood restaurant for dinner. We all felt severely underdressed for the place, but at least we all looked semi-awful. Now, to talk about the food- holy hell, this place was delicious, and we got SO much food. They began with a rice dish with mussels and tiny shrimp and a basket of bread. This was followed by salad, calamari, and grab, and then we got our main dishes of either chicken and vegetables or lobster. After that? Some chocolate pudding. I swear, I haven't eaten that much in a long, long time. I'm not a seafood person, but it was so good (except for the lobster... I heard it was a bit overcooked. Good thing I had the chicken). Dinner was followed by a trip back to the hotel where we packed up and then did a quick trip back into the Plaka for some last minute shopping in Athens before bed.
Friday: Corinth
Wow, my hands are actually getting tired from typing this thing out. Okay, ready for the home stretch? Let's go. I'll keep it brief. Hopefully. Friday was met with a trip to Corinth. We began at the Corinth Canal, where about half of our group decided to throw themselves off a bridge over the canal in an insane bungee jumping experience. Me? I decided to forgo this adventure due to my back, which was already angry enough from all the sitting and driving. No worries, though- it was a blast watching everyone else doing it and getting fantastic pictures of this insane daredevil event. We were at the canal for quite an amount of time, but finally finished up with the jump after once again falling behind schedule, and drove to lunch. And... wait for it- Greek food! Lots of it. Again. Gotta love it. We got some pita bread with a delicious salad and a huge plate of fries. After this, we were handed some rice and pork souvlaki and followed with tiny desserts. I swear. They want us to grow into large, round human beings. But it was so delicious, so I'm not really complaining.
After lunch we headed to some more ruins for another Temple to Apollo. It's crazy driving through these towns and seeing these massive pillars jutting out. It's like, "no big deal, we Greeks just have ancient temples in our backyards..." Yeah, The USA doesn't really have anything on them when it comes to such epic history. We wandered around the ruins with the tour guides and our headsets for a bit, saw a small museum, and then returned to the bus just as the sunny skies moved away and rain began falling. Perfect timing? I think so. After this we drove to the airport (look at how efficiently I'm typing this now!), had yet another strangely long flight in which I was twitchy and my media stuff didn't work, ate the plane food which wasn't too bad, landed, got our stuff, and then gasped in shock as we were met with the really cold London weather. What a change from Greece, although I won't miss the mosquitos and flies in Athens. Yuck. So, we drove home to our London house and finally got to relax and unpack.
Well, at least for a bit.
I got the lovely surprise of realizing that someone had decided to kindly invade my room and privacy while we were all gone and steal off of my cash. Excellent. That was exactly the kind of homecoming gift I wanted. So, after spending hours figuring stuff out, dealing with Bank of America, freaking out, and pretty much going from happy to be home to a very unhappy person, I was finally able to shower around 2 in the morning and go to bed. Ugh. What an awful end to such a great trip.
Saturday:
This day was a mix of both good and bad. I woke up and was hit again with the huge awfulness of realizing that I'd been stolen from. I decided that I needed to go to the gym to get this nonsense out of my head, and was informed once I reached the gym that I needed to renew my membership. Awesome. Cause I really wanted to spend the last of my cash on renewing that. So, trying not to break down in front of the lady, I renewed the membership and finally got my stress-reducing gym time in. When I got back to the house, I realized I still had to pay for a package that was being held by customs (awesome... needed that as well. Ugh). I finally got ready to go to Essex with Kalie and Sinjin for their tattoos. It was such a long tube ride, but nice listening to music and chatting with Kalie. We finally got to the parlor and met up with Sinjin. We hung out with him as the artist began working on him. Kalie's artist did hers in all of about 5 minutes about halfway through Sinjin's, so we continued to chat and hang out while his was finished up. This parlor was fantastic- awesome vibe, cool people who were interested in our form of study abroad and California, and such. It was a lovely distraction. We finally made our way home, dropped by the market for some quick 99 pence food, then made it home where we all relaxed. I uploaded my Greece photos finally, watched a few shows, and finally crashed out after having a much-needed conversation with my mom.
Sunday:
Probably the best day out of this weekend. I finally came to terms with my crappy situation, went to the gym for a lovely bout of exercise (I love being back at the gym and not gorging myself on Greek food), and then watched a couple shows and enjoyed a lazy afternoon. This was followed by working on this blog for far too long, a delicious carne asada dinner followed by scary movie night with our group. I'm kind of ready for Monday... I think I need a little scheduling and distractions right now, but hopefully I'll be getting my care packages within the next few days and hopefully I'll figure some sort of solution to this awful situation with the money. I get to talk to our director tomorrow, which will give me further peace of mind. Lovely. For now... sleep. I need it, considering I was woken up way too early this morning by the people next door screeching along to some God-awful song.
Friday was my lazy day. I got to sleep in, and then decided that I really could care less about being productive, and so I consumed an entire bag of goldfish while catching up on a few shows and then watching a movie. I did contemplate the gym at one point, but a romantic comedy just seemed far more enjoyable. So, I pushed some pillows together and watched my movie. This was followed by a quick dinner and then - wait for it- some more laziness in the form of watching Breaking Bad with some of the girls and guys in the house. Seriously, that show is addictive. Go watch it. Now. Regardless of my disgusting amount of laziness this day, I did actually manage to crank out the entirety of my history paper, which was a huge weight off my shoulders. So, a little productivity! And then a good night's sleep. Lovely.
Saturday I decided that I really needed to actually do something with my life, so after making myself a quick lunch (yes, I did sleep in again... gotta love it), I found Kelsey and we made a quick excursion to Portobello Road, where I bought some new boots to replace my old ones. I seriously have the worst luck here. One pair of boots just broke down, the other lost its mate, and my converse have holes in the bottom. Shoe fail? I think so. Anyhow, I bought some new ones, because running around in massive rainboots everyday isn't really acceptable, and then we headed back to the house when it began raining. I decided to hit up the gym to make up for my laziness of the day before, and it honestly did feel lovely. I think I have a strange obsession with the gym... but I guess that isn't exactly a bad thing.
On our way back from getting off the bus and going home, we randomly met some Imperial students running down the road. So, naturally, Kelsey gives one a piggy-back ride and we all become 2-am best friends for the remainder of the walk. After professing our best-friendship upon parting, we made it back to our house, and into the kitchen, where some lovely snacks were pulled from the fridge. I finally bid my friends goodnight, chatted a bit with Kalie who had just gotten back from her outing that night, and crawled into my lovely, warm bed. Seriously... that thing is a beautiful creation.
