Tag: Greece

Posted on

Cruise

Set out for our day cruise today where we laid out on the front of the boat soaking in the sun. On the first island, Aegina, there was a beach near the port so a bunch of us went swimming for about an hour and a half or so which was really fun. It seemed that there was more time spent on the boat to get to the other islands – Hydra and Poros – than there was actually on the islands, but we at least got to wander around a little bit. On Poros there were lots of cats and donkeys which were pretty fun to see. On the about 3 hour long boat ride back to Athens, I lathered on sunscreen in hopes that eventually I might tan a little bit, but even after many reapplications, I got so burned :(. It was a really fun day though, and when we got back we walked around in the rain to get another gyro.

Posted on

Exploring Athens

We had a great breakfast this morning, there was actually normal Greek food instead of just soggy hotel eggs and such. We went up to the Acropolis which was really cool, and we had a great tour guide, Thanos. He was very informative and interesting, and talked a lot about things that weren’t necessarily related to exactly where we were or what we were doing, but more about Greek life and traditions and such. From the Acropolis we could see an ancient theatre which was really huge and cool. We also got to see Mars Hill where Paul gave a speech that’s in the Bible. Thanos took us on a walking and bus tour where we also saw the first modern Olympic stadium, a statue of Harry Truman (thanks to Mrs. King I actually remember the Truman Doctrine), and the grave of the unknown soldier. Our guide was talking about how Lord Byron loved it here and was buried here; this stuck out to me because we visited his castle in Switzerland, and I really enjoy being able to learn about and see these connections across different places. We went out to dinner and got a really delicious cheese ball (reminds me of the hunk a chunka cheese I got in Mexico) and there was a band playing traditional Greek music the whole night. Halfway through dinner a few dancers came out and started folk dancing, and then later they brought up some people (including me) to dance with them. It was a really fun night, and now I can brag to the theatre company about being a part of a real oppa.

Posted on

Off to Greece

Had to say goodbye to most of the peeps I’ve been hanging out with for the past 2 weeks which was kind of a bummer, but I’m super stoked to go to Greece so it’s ok. It’s really strange, I’ve been able to sleep really well on the coach whenever everyone else is awake and talking, but now that everyone’s asleep and it’s silent, I can’t sleep.

The Acropolis museum was very cool; it astounds me 1) how they are able to find all this stuff and 2) how they are able to piece it all together. There were lots of statues of Nike, whom we saw the big statue of in the Louvre. We got a Greek buffet for dinner which was very good – they put some kind of dressing on the cucumbers that made me actually enjoy them, and there was this pastry thing that I have no idea what was in it, but it was very good. Then a couple of us wandered around Athens just exploring. There’s someone playing some type of instrument on basically every corner, and it’s Greek music which makes the situation even cooler.