Last Saturday, we all decided to go out to celebrate a lot of people’s last weekends in Thessaloniki. We walked down to Kamara to meet up with everyone and were surprised to see a lot of other people there too. Kamara is usually a big meeting place, but that night just seemed different. All of a sudden all the people started chanting “Basti, Gorounia, Dolophoni” which means “Cops, Pigs, Murderers.” Luckily, we were with Vicky and Stephanos so they were able to tell us what was going on. Earlier that day, the police in Athens killed a 15 year-old boy in Omonia, a typically anarchist neighborhood. The entire country was outraged and started riots because of it. Turns out, we were at the exact place at the exact time of a riot in Thessaloniki. Once all of the thousands of people started marching in the streets and setting dumpsters on fire, we walked down some side streets to avoid getting caught up in all the mess. It was pretty scary, but we didn’t really know what was happening, and we made it to our destination safely.
On the walk home, several hours later though, we were really able to see the devastation that this first riot caused. Stores had been broken into and looted, all the dumpsters were in the middle of the streets and on fire, and broken glass covered all the sidewalks and roads. Smoke could be seen from streets were stores had been burned.
The next day, we were instructed not to leave our neighborhood. During this time, we all did a lot of research and were trying to figure out why all the violence was happening. The Greek government is very unstable, with the anarchists close to being the majority. Because of this and other previous clashes with law enforcement and government, Greeks generally strongly dislike the police. We were told that contrary to our instincts, in this situation, we should avoid the police at all costs, because wherever they were there would be trouble.
No one really knew how long the violence would last, the only other experience we had with riots were the ones that never even happened on Polytechnic Day. I was really nervous about it because Kayla arrived on Monday, and if I couldn’t leave my neighborhood (and on Monday we weren’t even supposed to leave the building) how was I supposed to get her at the airport, let alone show her around my city? I spent much of Monday afternoon calling taxi services, many of whom refused to come into the neighborhood. Hours later I finally had success when I called a taxi driver friend and he agreed to drive me to and from the airport.
My neighborhood is at the edge of the public university’s campus, where most of the rioting is happening. There is an asylum law in Greece that states that police are not allowed to enter university grounds. Because of this, protesters and rioters use the university as a safe haven to throw their fire bombs and rocks. My apartment is literally on the same street as the university, so most of the roads around here were closed.
I was so relieved to get Kayla to my apartment safely. I could tell the taxi driver was agitated and nervous about driving through my neighborhood, but I’m so glad he agreed to. When we got into the building though, we were informed that we wouldn’t have school on Tuesday because the bus wouldn’t be able to pick us up safely. Normally, I would be overjoyed at this news, but I had finals scheduled that I would now need to find time to make-up. As we were watching a movie that night, we could see fire bombs being thrown from the roofs of some of the university buildings.
While we were told to stay inside the next day, I couldn’t keep Kayla indoors all day, and I too was itching for an outing. The violence was only happening in the heart of the city so I decided to take Kayla up to the Old City Walls, which are on the outskirts of town on top of hill where you can see the whole city. There are also some great ruins on the walk up there. We ate at a taverna on the edge of a cliff so we could see the whole city. Every once in a while, we would see clouds of smoke coming from the university area, rioters no doubt.
Wednesday, we decided to go out to lunch and grocery shopping, against ACT’s suggestions. Because the funeral for the boy was that day, we knew to expect more violence. While we were in the grocery store, a huge crowd of people marched by chanting the “cops, pigs, murderers” thing again. Moments after they passed, police went running after them in all their riot gear. A man in the grocery store started yelling about how it was a peaceful protest until the police intervened and escalated. Coming out of the store, the tear gas hung in the air. Luckily we’d caught on to the European scarf trend, and used them to cover our mouths and noses. Walking past the intersection at the campus, we could see a huge crowd of people running inside the campus gates to avoid the police.
I spent all day at school yesterday taking 4 finals and a midterm that I’d missed when I had strep throat last week. It was rough, but at least I’m finished with the semester! That’s a lie, I still have an ethics paper to write, but that isn’t due until January. We planned a great night out to celebrate, regardless of the riots, but I received some bad news from home, so I wasn’t in a celebratory mood. My grandmother passed away yesterday. I knew it was coming, but the fact that I can’t be home with my family, especially when they are so worried about me anyway, makes it more difficult.
Today Kayla and I went to all the museums of Thessaloniki, and actually went into all the ruins in the squares. I am so glad I went to the museums, and I regret not going sooner. I learned so much about the city that I’ve been living in for the last 3 months. The museums also had a lot of great artifacts and historical items that were really interesting to see.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Italy for the week. Kayla and I will be visiting Venice, Florence, Pisa, and Rome, and two friends from home will also be meeting us to travel together. I know I should be so excited about going to Italy, but really all I want to do is go home. After everything, strep throat, the riots, my grandmother, home is the only place that I want to be right now. But instead, we’re celebrating the end of the semester tonight at Apostoli’s and then going to Dante to reminisce about our first days here. I’ll come back to Thessaloniki for 2 days after Italy to relax and pack up, my only hope is that the riots and everything will be over. Wandering around the city the last few days, it is clear the billions of dollars of damage that was caused. Tsimiski, the street with all the designer shops is basically destroyed as are several of the kiosks and most banks throughout the city. It is crazy to me that these people would destruct the property of their friends and neighbors just to get their point across. But get their point across they did, and Americans could learn from the Greeks to assert their freedom of speech and right to protest. While it was more destructive than it may have needed to be, Americans would never put that much effort into an outcry and to really get noticed and listened to.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Monday, 1 December 2008
EGYPT!
Never in my life have I felt more at home in such an unfamiliar place. My trip to Cairo, Egypt went flawlessly. Maggie, Alex, and I arrived in Egypt at 3 am, a time that could create some uncomfortable situations no matter where you were in the world. After landing, we bought our tourist visas and headed out of the airport. Before we even took a step outside we saw my name on a paper and one of the guys that worked at the hostel. He promptly put us on the bus to the parking lot (vehicles are not allowed to park directly at the terminal for security reasons) and then we were off to find our hostel in a car much nicer than you’d expect a hostel to have. Driving through Cairo in the middle of the night was awesome, a lot of the mosques and other sites were lit up as we drove past. When we got to our hostel though, I didn’t know what we’d gotten ourselves into. It seemed to be in a kinda sketchy neighborhood, and anyone could just wander in from off the street. We sat down in the reception area of the hostel and were offered anything we wanted to drink. I can speak for all of us when I say all we wanted to do was go to sleep, but we didn’t want to be rude. We talked with the guys, Kerim and Ahmed for a while and settled into a short nights sleep.
The next morning we woke to one of the other guys offering us breakfast in our rooms, and he brought bread, jam, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. Ahmed had arranged a driver for us to take us around the city to see some of the sites before the rest of our group arrived later in the afternoon. We drove up the citadel, the former home to the police and military training academies. There were a lot of cool things to see in the mosques and museums there, but by far the best thing was the incredible view of the city. Smog in Cairo is a big problem, but from the citadel we were even able to catch a glimpse of the pyramids! I guess that’s when I got really excited, and it hit me that I was in Egypt. Awesome. We ended up staying too long at the citadel and just headed back to the hostel.
Now would be a good time to explain traffic in Cairo. I thought Greek traffic was crazy. No. Cairo makes Greece look like dirt roads in New Hampshire. There are lane lines in Cairo, but in no way are they observed. Just imagine the worst traffic jam you can, and then imagine all the cars moving in every possible direction in every possible position. One car was even reversing and turning around in the middle of traffic. Right in front of us two cars collided, and without moving their cars they got out and started arguing about it in the middle of traffic. No wonder all the cars in Cairo are all really beat up – it really was just insane.
Somehow we made it back to our hostel and were met with Mike, Luke, Kyle, Dana, Danica, and Erin. Finally everyone was together! While a few of them took a quick nap, the rest of us went out to explore our neighborhood and exchange money and pick up some necessary items. Our hostel was in downtown Cairo, but was still relatively quiet. There were hookah bars everywhere, and pharmacies were as prevalent there as in Thessaloniki.
After our exploring we went back to the hostel to get ready for a night on the Nile. Kerim had arranged a dinner cruise on the Nile, and he came with us to enjoy the night. There were whirling dervishes, belly dancers, and stick fighters. It really was a great night on the Nile. After that, our driver took us to the 24 hour market, where we bargained for souvenirs for a few hours. Bargaining in Egypt is the same as in Istanbul; try to get the most ridiculously low price you can. Men in Cairo were also pretty similar to the ones in Istanbul, but maybe a little more aggressive. They kept offering the guys thousands of camels for us girls, one guy even offered 2 million camels for Maggie, so it became a running joke to see how many camels we could be bargained for. While it was kinda sketchy, it was never really that uncomfortable.
The next morning we were up bright and early for our pyramid excursion. Again everything was arranged by the hostel, making the whole thing really easy for us. They drove us to the camel stable where somehow we got an amazing price for our trip into the desert to see the pyramids of Giza and the sphinx. Getting on and off a camel is certainly an experience, and while we did it several times, I never really got used to it. The camels are sitting down when you get on, and then my camel was the first to stand up, so I had no idea what was happening. Because they do their front and back legs at separate times, you basically have to hang on for dear life until they’re standing up completely. After we went through a security checkpoint we were off into the desert. Our first sight of the pyramids was breathtaking, and every moment that we got closer, the whole thing just got better. Because the pyramids are right outside of the city we were also able to hear the Muslim call to prayer while we were out there coming from all over the city. We had a guide that knew all the good places for photo ops, so we were on and off the camels a lot. Unexpectedly we were also able to climb up the pyramids as far as we wanted to. I had assumed they’d be roped off and untouchable, but that was not the case. So we climbed up the biggest pyramid for a little bit and then were off on the camels to what I think was called Panoramic Mountain, the best place to take a picture of all 3 of the big pyramids. There were also 2 sets of 3 smaller pyramids around the big ones.
Then we went down to the sphinx, which was actually a lot smaller than I had expected, but still very impressive. Everywhere in Giza were people trying to sell their goods, but we were told by our guide not to buy anything no matter what. Even if you want something, the other sellers will see you buy something and pounce. The last thing you want is to be mobbed. We wandered around the sphinx a little bit and then headed back to the stables. Back at the stables, the owner took us into a traditional Egyptian home, just to see what it was like. There were 9 of us just taking a quick peek and the women living in the home offered us something to drink – I can’t say it enough, Egyptian hospitality was outstanding.
We were back in the car and we went to a perfumery, to see how Egyptian perfume was made. They offered us drinks and ice cream and showed us several of the unique kinds of perfume that are sold all over the world with name brands. We’d been to a perfume place in the market, so we knew the prices there were better, so we didn’t want to buy anything. We felt bad that they’d taken the time to show us everything and feed us and we didn’t want to buy anything, so we tried to give the guy a big tip, but he refused to take it.
Our next stop was the Egyptian Museum, which is home to millions of artifacts. Everything found in Egypt of value is placed in the museum. It was huge and extremely easy to get lost in. We saw mummy tombs, scarab beetles, and monuments galore. The only thing that I’d change about the museum was that I’d like more of an explanation of what things were and where they were found. It was hard to put everything into context from the museum. After a while in the museum we walked back to hostel for quick naps and then headed back to the market to pick up any last minute gifts. Maggie, Alex, and I had to leave the hostel at 1:30 am to catch our 4 am flight back to Greece. Back at the hostel we packed up and spent some time with Kerim. The Bedouin Hostel wins Best Hostel Award in my eyes. Never have I felt more at home anywhere that wasn’t my home. They were so welcoming and open to us. Anything that we asked for, we got. They really took care of us too, without them helping to plan everything we either would have gotten lost or terribly ripped-off. I was so grateful to them, and they were so grateful to us.
The Cairo airport was a little confusing, but soon enough we were back in Athens and then off to Thessaloniki. We were circling Thessaloniki for a while, and then had to go back to Athens because it was too foggy to land. It was annoying and an inconvenience, but luckily the flight is only 45 minutes and there are frequent flights between the 2 cities. We got home a few hours later than expected, but it wasn’t too big of a deal.
This was really the best weekend of my life. Looking back on it, I honestly can’t believe that I was in Egypt – even the pictures don’t seem real. Never in my life did I think I would be able to see the pyramids. Studying them in school, they always seemed just too far away, just too mystical to actually be seen.
The next morning we woke to one of the other guys offering us breakfast in our rooms, and he brought bread, jam, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. Ahmed had arranged a driver for us to take us around the city to see some of the sites before the rest of our group arrived later in the afternoon. We drove up the citadel, the former home to the police and military training academies. There were a lot of cool things to see in the mosques and museums there, but by far the best thing was the incredible view of the city. Smog in Cairo is a big problem, but from the citadel we were even able to catch a glimpse of the pyramids! I guess that’s when I got really excited, and it hit me that I was in Egypt. Awesome. We ended up staying too long at the citadel and just headed back to the hostel.
Now would be a good time to explain traffic in Cairo. I thought Greek traffic was crazy. No. Cairo makes Greece look like dirt roads in New Hampshire. There are lane lines in Cairo, but in no way are they observed. Just imagine the worst traffic jam you can, and then imagine all the cars moving in every possible direction in every possible position. One car was even reversing and turning around in the middle of traffic. Right in front of us two cars collided, and without moving their cars they got out and started arguing about it in the middle of traffic. No wonder all the cars in Cairo are all really beat up – it really was just insane.
Somehow we made it back to our hostel and were met with Mike, Luke, Kyle, Dana, Danica, and Erin. Finally everyone was together! While a few of them took a quick nap, the rest of us went out to explore our neighborhood and exchange money and pick up some necessary items. Our hostel was in downtown Cairo, but was still relatively quiet. There were hookah bars everywhere, and pharmacies were as prevalent there as in Thessaloniki.
After our exploring we went back to the hostel to get ready for a night on the Nile. Kerim had arranged a dinner cruise on the Nile, and he came with us to enjoy the night. There were whirling dervishes, belly dancers, and stick fighters. It really was a great night on the Nile. After that, our driver took us to the 24 hour market, where we bargained for souvenirs for a few hours. Bargaining in Egypt is the same as in Istanbul; try to get the most ridiculously low price you can. Men in Cairo were also pretty similar to the ones in Istanbul, but maybe a little more aggressive. They kept offering the guys thousands of camels for us girls, one guy even offered 2 million camels for Maggie, so it became a running joke to see how many camels we could be bargained for. While it was kinda sketchy, it was never really that uncomfortable.
The next morning we were up bright and early for our pyramid excursion. Again everything was arranged by the hostel, making the whole thing really easy for us. They drove us to the camel stable where somehow we got an amazing price for our trip into the desert to see the pyramids of Giza and the sphinx. Getting on and off a camel is certainly an experience, and while we did it several times, I never really got used to it. The camels are sitting down when you get on, and then my camel was the first to stand up, so I had no idea what was happening. Because they do their front and back legs at separate times, you basically have to hang on for dear life until they’re standing up completely. After we went through a security checkpoint we were off into the desert. Our first sight of the pyramids was breathtaking, and every moment that we got closer, the whole thing just got better. Because the pyramids are right outside of the city we were also able to hear the Muslim call to prayer while we were out there coming from all over the city. We had a guide that knew all the good places for photo ops, so we were on and off the camels a lot. Unexpectedly we were also able to climb up the pyramids as far as we wanted to. I had assumed they’d be roped off and untouchable, but that was not the case. So we climbed up the biggest pyramid for a little bit and then were off on the camels to what I think was called Panoramic Mountain, the best place to take a picture of all 3 of the big pyramids. There were also 2 sets of 3 smaller pyramids around the big ones.
Then we went down to the sphinx, which was actually a lot smaller than I had expected, but still very impressive. Everywhere in Giza were people trying to sell their goods, but we were told by our guide not to buy anything no matter what. Even if you want something, the other sellers will see you buy something and pounce. The last thing you want is to be mobbed. We wandered around the sphinx a little bit and then headed back to the stables. Back at the stables, the owner took us into a traditional Egyptian home, just to see what it was like. There were 9 of us just taking a quick peek and the women living in the home offered us something to drink – I can’t say it enough, Egyptian hospitality was outstanding.
We were back in the car and we went to a perfumery, to see how Egyptian perfume was made. They offered us drinks and ice cream and showed us several of the unique kinds of perfume that are sold all over the world with name brands. We’d been to a perfume place in the market, so we knew the prices there were better, so we didn’t want to buy anything. We felt bad that they’d taken the time to show us everything and feed us and we didn’t want to buy anything, so we tried to give the guy a big tip, but he refused to take it.
Our next stop was the Egyptian Museum, which is home to millions of artifacts. Everything found in Egypt of value is placed in the museum. It was huge and extremely easy to get lost in. We saw mummy tombs, scarab beetles, and monuments galore. The only thing that I’d change about the museum was that I’d like more of an explanation of what things were and where they were found. It was hard to put everything into context from the museum. After a while in the museum we walked back to hostel for quick naps and then headed back to the market to pick up any last minute gifts. Maggie, Alex, and I had to leave the hostel at 1:30 am to catch our 4 am flight back to Greece. Back at the hostel we packed up and spent some time with Kerim. The Bedouin Hostel wins Best Hostel Award in my eyes. Never have I felt more at home anywhere that wasn’t my home. They were so welcoming and open to us. Anything that we asked for, we got. They really took care of us too, without them helping to plan everything we either would have gotten lost or terribly ripped-off. I was so grateful to them, and they were so grateful to us.
The Cairo airport was a little confusing, but soon enough we were back in Athens and then off to Thessaloniki. We were circling Thessaloniki for a while, and then had to go back to Athens because it was too foggy to land. It was annoying and an inconvenience, but luckily the flight is only 45 minutes and there are frequent flights between the 2 cities. We got home a few hours later than expected, but it wasn’t too big of a deal.
This was really the best weekend of my life. Looking back on it, I honestly can’t believe that I was in Egypt – even the pictures don’t seem real. Never in my life did I think I would be able to see the pyramids. Studying them in school, they always seemed just too far away, just too mystical to actually be seen.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Istanbul
I spent this last weekend in Istanbul, Turkey on a school trip. The NUin program had organized the trip for their students, but when spots opened up, they offered the trip to the regular study abroad students. We left Thursday night at 9 pm, and didn’t arrive in Istanbul until 10 am the next day. It was a long bus ride, and we spent 3 hours at the border getting visas and such squared away. Turns out the NUin director, Tom, had to bribe the border guards to get us across for 10 euro – I don’t know why though. So we didn’t get much sleep on the bus ride, but as soon as we got off the bus in Istanbul we were off for activities all day long. Our first stop was the German fountain, a gift from the German Emperor to the Ottoman Empire. As we walked further we ran into the Egyptian Obelisks, brought over to be placed in the middle of the hippodromos – or racing track in the middle of Constantinople. Our next stop was the famed Blue Mosque, a giant mosque in the middle of Istanbul. We entered its grounds and heard the Muslim call to prayer while we were there. We couldn’t enter the mosque at this time because of the prayer service, but it was so cool to hear the call to prayer while being on such sacred ground. In my religion class freshman year we learned all about Islam and watched a video of the prayer services at the Blue Mosque. The entire religion class intrigued me, so it was especially awesome to experience it all in person. The next place on our tour of Istanbul was the Agia Sophia, which was the main church of Constantinople. There is a smaller replica of this famous church in Thessaloniki, so it was really cool to see the real thing. The church is no longer used because 95% of Istanbul is Muslim, but the entire inside of it is awe-inspiring. There is evening a wishing wall in which you place your thumb inside a worn in hole in the wall and make a wish as you spin your hand in a complete circle. Our next stop was the Basilica Cistern, a huge underground tank used to store water. There was also a huge aqueduct that we had to drive through in order to get to this part of the city. Inside the cistern there were so many pillars lit from the bottom with dim yellow light. It felt like we were inside an underwater cave. There were also 2 pillars that were held up by statues of Medusa. After the Cistern, we went back to the Blue Mosque to actually go inside it. All along the outside walls were these fountains, where Muslim men wash their hands, feet, and faces before entering the mosque. This ablution is a cleansing process required of Muslims. Muslims are required to pray five times daily, whether they go to the mosque to do so or not. We took off our shoes and covered our heads with scarves before entering the mosque. Inside of the mosque was this huge open space with a very low chandelier covering the entire area. The ceilings are painted with intricate designs and there was a huge golden temple area facing in the direction of Mecca. While we were inside the mosque, we heard the call to prayer again, and got up to leave. One of the guards said that we could stay because we had all been so respectful by covering our heads. Women visitors are not required to cover their heads, but it is a sign of respect, so we all had done it anyways. So we stayed in one of the corners to watch the prayer service. The women needed to pray behind screens in the very back of the church, so we were even separating them from the men. Even in such a huge space all the men crowded up to the front as much as possible, leaving a lot of space still in the middle. The service lasted about a ½ hour with a lot of chanting and a lot of getting up and down and kneeling and praying and repetitions of “Allah u Akbar,” which means “God is great”. When the service was over we left and had some free time throughout the city. We walked over to the Topkapi Palace grounds and wandered around there for a while. After that we decided to find some food (Turkish food does not look appetizing at all, so we went to McDonalds – sad, I know) and head to a Turkish Bath.
The Turkish bath had been on our group itinerary for later that night, but a few of us decided to go earlier to get the most out of the experience and not have to wait with 40 or so other girls. It was a good thing we did that, because it would have been very uncomfortable to be there with them. We didn’t really know what to expect out of a Turkish bath, but what we did experience was definitely not what I was expecting. We’d been given a towel to wrap ourselves in, and we expected to be able to stay in the towel the entire time. When we walked into the room, there were about 10 other women in there completely naked. A Turkish bath is basically a giant steam room with a hot marble slab to lie on in the middle of the room. We stayed in our towels for a while, but when we saw what would happen, we decided to just embrace it, because there was no going back. After about 20 minutes or so a group of women came in and poured hot water all over us and then used a rough towel to exfoliate our entire bodies. After that was done the towel turned into a huge soap bubble holder and we got soap bubble massages. Besides for the initial awkwardness, the whole thing was very relaxing and I don’t think I’ve ever been so clean in my life. After the bath we went back to the hotel to nap for a while and then went back to the area we’d been in earlier in the day to have some dinner and baklava and our first experience with Turkish apple tea. The stuff is amazing…it makes me never want to drink any other kind of hot drink ever again in my life. After dinner we went back to the hotel and to bed.
The next day was bazaar and Asia day! The Grand Bazaar is certainly an interesting experience. 10000 people work in the bazaar and there are over 5000 shops all condensed into a small area with people everywhere. Bargaining is a must, and if you start bargaining, the shop owners expect you to buy. There were about 5 different kinds of shops. Scarf/cloth shops, lamp/hookah shops, ceramic shops, rug shops, and designer knock-off shops. The whole thing was a little intimidating, and I’ve never been hit on so many times in my life. I was in a group of 4 girls and we kept being called the spice girls. Men asked if we were from paradise; some men asked if we were from Japan because they know its ridiculous enough to open the lines of communication.
After a couple of hours of shopping and exploring the bazaar we hopped on a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul. Istanbul is the only major world city to be a part of 2 continents, so it was cool to experience them both. We got off the ferry in Uskudar, the most religiously conservative area of Istanbul. We weren’t in Asia for long, but it was cool to see the entire city of Istanbul from it. After Asia we went back to the hotel to get ready for our night in the Taksim shopping/restaurant district. By this point it was raining heavily, which was kinda a bummer, but we still had a lot of fun. We went to an Irish bar (again. really) but there were 2 guys playing Spanish music there for a while. After that we went to another bar and inadvertently crashed a traditional Turkish birthday party or rehearsal dinner or wedding party or some sort of celebration. It was really cool, but we clearly didn’t belong there.
The next day the bus ride took only 10 hours for some reason, so it was really nice to get home earlier than expected. I really liked Istanbul; it was a lot like Thessaloniki, but more worldly. The culture there is similar to Greek culture except for the heavy Muslim influence. It was a great city to visit, there’s so much history there that was so cool to experience.
Next up: Cairo, Egypt
I decided to book an impromptu trip to Egypt for this weekend. I’d always said I wanted to go while I was in Greece, but I didn’t think it would be possible. A few of my friends managed a trip last weekend though and had such a great experience that I had to see if I could do it too. So, when you’re all eating your wonderful American thanksgiving dinner, I’ll be landing in Egypt for an adventure of a lifetime.
The Turkish bath had been on our group itinerary for later that night, but a few of us decided to go earlier to get the most out of the experience and not have to wait with 40 or so other girls. It was a good thing we did that, because it would have been very uncomfortable to be there with them. We didn’t really know what to expect out of a Turkish bath, but what we did experience was definitely not what I was expecting. We’d been given a towel to wrap ourselves in, and we expected to be able to stay in the towel the entire time. When we walked into the room, there were about 10 other women in there completely naked. A Turkish bath is basically a giant steam room with a hot marble slab to lie on in the middle of the room. We stayed in our towels for a while, but when we saw what would happen, we decided to just embrace it, because there was no going back. After about 20 minutes or so a group of women came in and poured hot water all over us and then used a rough towel to exfoliate our entire bodies. After that was done the towel turned into a huge soap bubble holder and we got soap bubble massages. Besides for the initial awkwardness, the whole thing was very relaxing and I don’t think I’ve ever been so clean in my life. After the bath we went back to the hotel to nap for a while and then went back to the area we’d been in earlier in the day to have some dinner and baklava and our first experience with Turkish apple tea. The stuff is amazing…it makes me never want to drink any other kind of hot drink ever again in my life. After dinner we went back to the hotel and to bed.
The next day was bazaar and Asia day! The Grand Bazaar is certainly an interesting experience. 10000 people work in the bazaar and there are over 5000 shops all condensed into a small area with people everywhere. Bargaining is a must, and if you start bargaining, the shop owners expect you to buy. There were about 5 different kinds of shops. Scarf/cloth shops, lamp/hookah shops, ceramic shops, rug shops, and designer knock-off shops. The whole thing was a little intimidating, and I’ve never been hit on so many times in my life. I was in a group of 4 girls and we kept being called the spice girls. Men asked if we were from paradise; some men asked if we were from Japan because they know its ridiculous enough to open the lines of communication.
After a couple of hours of shopping and exploring the bazaar we hopped on a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul. Istanbul is the only major world city to be a part of 2 continents, so it was cool to experience them both. We got off the ferry in Uskudar, the most religiously conservative area of Istanbul. We weren’t in Asia for long, but it was cool to see the entire city of Istanbul from it. After Asia we went back to the hotel to get ready for our night in the Taksim shopping/restaurant district. By this point it was raining heavily, which was kinda a bummer, but we still had a lot of fun. We went to an Irish bar (again. really) but there were 2 guys playing Spanish music there for a while. After that we went to another bar and inadvertently crashed a traditional Turkish birthday party or rehearsal dinner or wedding party or some sort of celebration. It was really cool, but we clearly didn’t belong there.
The next day the bus ride took only 10 hours for some reason, so it was really nice to get home earlier than expected. I really liked Istanbul; it was a lot like Thessaloniki, but more worldly. The culture there is similar to Greek culture except for the heavy Muslim influence. It was a great city to visit, there’s so much history there that was so cool to experience.
Next up: Cairo, Egypt
I decided to book an impromptu trip to Egypt for this weekend. I’d always said I wanted to go while I was in Greece, but I didn’t think it would be possible. A few of my friends managed a trip last weekend though and had such a great experience that I had to see if I could do it too. So, when you’re all eating your wonderful American thanksgiving dinner, I’ll be landing in Egypt for an adventure of a lifetime.
Life in Greece has been pretty standard for the past few weeks. Besides for going away on a few weekends, its daily life as usual in Thessaloniki, but I’ll tell you about 2 events that shook things up a little bit.
1.The US Election – Throughout my time in Greece, whenever anyone heard us speaking English or heard that we are from America, they would – in the middle of conversation – shout “OBAMA!” Throughout my travels in Europe as well, people were overwhelmingly in love with the man. No one ever really said anything about Bush even; all political talk was centered on Obama. So when election day came around in Greece we were all excited and anxious about the outcome. If McCain had won, we would have been in trouble in the states, but maybe even more so in Europe. A McCain victory would probably have increased anti-Americanism ten-fold, something I would not want to have to experience for the last 2 months of my journey. Because of the time change, we were all well-aware that it would be at least 6 am before we heard anything, but more likely much later than that. Kathryn and I however, kept a live stream of the results on her computer all night long and we listened as we drifted in and out of sleep. At 6 am, right as the polls on the west coast closed, we heard that Obama had won. It was definitely an exciting moment, but I went back to sleep and asked Kathryn to wake me up to hear the speeches. McCain’s speech really impressed me, and if he’d ran his campaign to the tune of that speech, the outcome may have been different. Obama’s speech was fantastic, as we’ve come to expect from him, and even made me tear up a little. What a historical moment for our country and the world. I never thought that there would be a black president in my lifetime, but his victory proves that race lines are diminishing. One part of his speech really struck a chord for me. He said something like, “And for all the people in the far off corners around the world huddled around their radio…” That was us! While we did have video, we were huddled around a computer to watch this historic event. The following day walking around Thessaloniki, I’d hear “Obama” in the middle of several conversations, mainly because it’s a word that clearly stands out in a jumble of Greek language. Besides from that though there wasn’t much more mention of it than that. One of the things I’ve noticed though is that people respond much more favorably when I tell them that I am from the states – which leads into my next event.
2.Polytechnic Day – November 17th marked the 35th anniversary of the Polytechnic riots in Athens against the military junta and the influence on it that America had. In the years following the riots, polytechnic day was a celebratory event with parades and pride that people stood up against the government. However, in more recent years, polytechnic day has become increasingly violent in both Athens and Thessaloniki. I don’t know why violence has erupted, but I think it has to do with tradition and wanting to relive the events of the day. The US Consulate sent a Warden’s message warning about the riots, which have in recent years included Molotov cocktails and firebombing cars and banks and the few American establishments left in the city like Starbucks and McDonalds. We were all a little on edge about the whole thing because while we live in a very safe neighborhood, the university campus is just down the street. The road that the university is on was blocked off all day and there was a huge increase in police presence and command posts popped up all over the city where riots usually occur. A few of my friends wanted to see what the riots would be like, so later that evening they walked down by the campus and what did they find? A concert on the quad. Because Greek people like Obama, and now America, polytechnic day was peaceful for the first time in years. I don’t know if it was the same in Athens, but Thessaloniki experienced a peaceful day.
Next up – Istanbul!
1.The US Election – Throughout my time in Greece, whenever anyone heard us speaking English or heard that we are from America, they would – in the middle of conversation – shout “OBAMA!” Throughout my travels in Europe as well, people were overwhelmingly in love with the man. No one ever really said anything about Bush even; all political talk was centered on Obama. So when election day came around in Greece we were all excited and anxious about the outcome. If McCain had won, we would have been in trouble in the states, but maybe even more so in Europe. A McCain victory would probably have increased anti-Americanism ten-fold, something I would not want to have to experience for the last 2 months of my journey. Because of the time change, we were all well-aware that it would be at least 6 am before we heard anything, but more likely much later than that. Kathryn and I however, kept a live stream of the results on her computer all night long and we listened as we drifted in and out of sleep. At 6 am, right as the polls on the west coast closed, we heard that Obama had won. It was definitely an exciting moment, but I went back to sleep and asked Kathryn to wake me up to hear the speeches. McCain’s speech really impressed me, and if he’d ran his campaign to the tune of that speech, the outcome may have been different. Obama’s speech was fantastic, as we’ve come to expect from him, and even made me tear up a little. What a historical moment for our country and the world. I never thought that there would be a black president in my lifetime, but his victory proves that race lines are diminishing. One part of his speech really struck a chord for me. He said something like, “And for all the people in the far off corners around the world huddled around their radio…” That was us! While we did have video, we were huddled around a computer to watch this historic event. The following day walking around Thessaloniki, I’d hear “Obama” in the middle of several conversations, mainly because it’s a word that clearly stands out in a jumble of Greek language. Besides from that though there wasn’t much more mention of it than that. One of the things I’ve noticed though is that people respond much more favorably when I tell them that I am from the states – which leads into my next event.
2.Polytechnic Day – November 17th marked the 35th anniversary of the Polytechnic riots in Athens against the military junta and the influence on it that America had. In the years following the riots, polytechnic day was a celebratory event with parades and pride that people stood up against the government. However, in more recent years, polytechnic day has become increasingly violent in both Athens and Thessaloniki. I don’t know why violence has erupted, but I think it has to do with tradition and wanting to relive the events of the day. The US Consulate sent a Warden’s message warning about the riots, which have in recent years included Molotov cocktails and firebombing cars and banks and the few American establishments left in the city like Starbucks and McDonalds. We were all a little on edge about the whole thing because while we live in a very safe neighborhood, the university campus is just down the street. The road that the university is on was blocked off all day and there was a huge increase in police presence and command posts popped up all over the city where riots usually occur. A few of my friends wanted to see what the riots would be like, so later that evening they walked down by the campus and what did they find? A concert on the quad. Because Greek people like Obama, and now America, polytechnic day was peaceful for the first time in years. I don’t know if it was the same in Athens, but Thessaloniki experienced a peaceful day.
Next up – Istanbul!
Monday, 10 November 2008
Athens
So Athens. I’ll preempt this post by saying that man, am I glad I chose to study and live in Thessaloniki instead of Athens. It makes me sad to imagine all the people that visit Greece and only see Athens. If you want to see the real true Ellada, don’t go to Athens. It is a very large, americanized city. You can’t even go to a taverna in Athens that isn’t in the touristy section. It’s huge, dirty, confusing, and very easy to get lost in – I would know. Thessaloniki is a lot smaller, a lot more Greek, and nearly impossible to get lost in. I know the city a lot better now, but even in the first few days I felt like I knew exactly how to get back home from anywhere, and not even have to take a taxi to do it. I also feel a lot more welcomed in Thessaloniki, but maybe its just me. People that live in Athens are accustomed to tourists and therefore aren’t at all interested. Yet, when I meet people in Thessaloniki, they seem to very interested in where I’m from and why I’m here.
So we started on our journey not nearly early enough on Friday morning. If you have a 8 hour bus ride ahead of you why in the world would you start at 10:30 am? Anyway, 2 buses each filled with 60 college students and their stuff left the wonderful city of Thessaloniki to begin a very eye-opening weekend. Greek law, or the law of the bus company requires busses to stop for a ½ hour every 2 hours on the road. Ouch – made the journey an even longer one. After some marathon napping, chatting, and even a movie we finally arrived in Athens around 7:30 pm. We had a nice dinner at our hotel on the waterfront and made plans for the night. It was my friend Florida’s birthday on Sunday, but she was running the Athens Classic 10K, so we decided to celebrate on Friday instead. Imagine trying to get 30 or so kids to the same place in a city that no one is familiar with. Can you say disaster? We split up into a bunch of cabs and all told the drivers the same thing. Somehow though, people ended up all over the city. Eventually we were able to get at least most of the group together in some sketchy neighborhood that we later found out was actually not supposed to be sketchy at all – interesting. To sum up the night, we got shooed away, the boys almost got into a fight with these greek men, and Kyle, Alex, and I got lost on the way home and ended up miles from our hotel at 4 am, even though I’m pretty sure we did exactly what we should have done to get home.
On Saturday we started the morning with a bus tour of the city and saw the Olympic Stadium, the university, the temple of Zeus, and made our way up to the Acropolis. I was psyched to see it – literally almost jumping out of my skin to see the Parthenon and the temple of Athena. When I got up there however, I was unfortunately under whelmed. While it is a great site to see and experience, there were tons of people and there was scaffolding on the Parthenon that really took away from what I was expecting it to be. After a few hours at the acropolis we walked down to the Ancient Agora, which was a little more on par with what I was expecting from the acropolis. Afterwards we had lunch in the touristy taverna neighborhood and had some free time to wander the city. Not wanting to wander too far, we pretty much stayed in the same neighborhood for a few hours and then headed back to the hotel for a nap. I fell asleep at 7 pm, woke up at 9 for dinner and a little socializing, and was back in bed by midnight.
The next morning we had the choice of going to the archeological museum, the folk music museum, or to have more free time around the city. I chose to go to the archeological museum, which was a great decision on my part. They had exhibits from all over Greece and even from Egypt. They had statues and jewelry and vases galore and it was really interesting to see artifacts from different time periods and places. After the museum we all got lunch at a different taverna and then left at 4:30 for our journey home. I was hoping to nap, but ended up playing cards with Kaci, Alexa, and Luke for most of the way. It certainly made the time go a lot faster.
I have to say one of my favorite parts of the weekend was that everyone in our program was together for the vast majority of the time. The NUin kids all know eachother really well because they all live in the same building and have to take special classes, but the rest of us regular study abroad students are split between 3 apartment buildings and aren’t in that many classes together. While I’ve met everyone and spent time with everyone, it was so nice to get to know a lot more people a lot better. We all expanded our horizons this weekend, and I think a lot of us needed that change from what we’re used to. I think we’ve all also gotten a little homesick in the last few weeks, but after being in Athens for 2 days, everyone was overwhelmingly excited to get back to Thessaloniki, a city we’ve all come to know and love.
I’m really excited for the last month here in Greece after this past weekend. Next weekend I might go to Bulgaria with a couple of the guys from one of the other buildings – that would definitely be an interesting trip if it ends up working out. Sophia, Bulgaria is just a cheap train ride away, and I know some people who’ve gone and really enjoyed it.
Classes are going great except for econ, but that’s not a surprise. My professor is really just a terrible human being and I wish I was a more aggressive person and that I had stood up for myself in class the other day. I guess I’ll just save it for the evaluation at the end of the semester. She really just sucks at life. I really wish I had known that I could have taken either macro or micro econ to fulfill Stonehill’s requirement, I definitely would have chosen the other one. Oh well, life goes on, and luckily the credit transfers while the grade doesn’t, so all I have to do is pass.
So we started on our journey not nearly early enough on Friday morning. If you have a 8 hour bus ride ahead of you why in the world would you start at 10:30 am? Anyway, 2 buses each filled with 60 college students and their stuff left the wonderful city of Thessaloniki to begin a very eye-opening weekend. Greek law, or the law of the bus company requires busses to stop for a ½ hour every 2 hours on the road. Ouch – made the journey an even longer one. After some marathon napping, chatting, and even a movie we finally arrived in Athens around 7:30 pm. We had a nice dinner at our hotel on the waterfront and made plans for the night. It was my friend Florida’s birthday on Sunday, but she was running the Athens Classic 10K, so we decided to celebrate on Friday instead. Imagine trying to get 30 or so kids to the same place in a city that no one is familiar with. Can you say disaster? We split up into a bunch of cabs and all told the drivers the same thing. Somehow though, people ended up all over the city. Eventually we were able to get at least most of the group together in some sketchy neighborhood that we later found out was actually not supposed to be sketchy at all – interesting. To sum up the night, we got shooed away, the boys almost got into a fight with these greek men, and Kyle, Alex, and I got lost on the way home and ended up miles from our hotel at 4 am, even though I’m pretty sure we did exactly what we should have done to get home.
On Saturday we started the morning with a bus tour of the city and saw the Olympic Stadium, the university, the temple of Zeus, and made our way up to the Acropolis. I was psyched to see it – literally almost jumping out of my skin to see the Parthenon and the temple of Athena. When I got up there however, I was unfortunately under whelmed. While it is a great site to see and experience, there were tons of people and there was scaffolding on the Parthenon that really took away from what I was expecting it to be. After a few hours at the acropolis we walked down to the Ancient Agora, which was a little more on par with what I was expecting from the acropolis. Afterwards we had lunch in the touristy taverna neighborhood and had some free time to wander the city. Not wanting to wander too far, we pretty much stayed in the same neighborhood for a few hours and then headed back to the hotel for a nap. I fell asleep at 7 pm, woke up at 9 for dinner and a little socializing, and was back in bed by midnight.
The next morning we had the choice of going to the archeological museum, the folk music museum, or to have more free time around the city. I chose to go to the archeological museum, which was a great decision on my part. They had exhibits from all over Greece and even from Egypt. They had statues and jewelry and vases galore and it was really interesting to see artifacts from different time periods and places. After the museum we all got lunch at a different taverna and then left at 4:30 for our journey home. I was hoping to nap, but ended up playing cards with Kaci, Alexa, and Luke for most of the way. It certainly made the time go a lot faster.
I have to say one of my favorite parts of the weekend was that everyone in our program was together for the vast majority of the time. The NUin kids all know eachother really well because they all live in the same building and have to take special classes, but the rest of us regular study abroad students are split between 3 apartment buildings and aren’t in that many classes together. While I’ve met everyone and spent time with everyone, it was so nice to get to know a lot more people a lot better. We all expanded our horizons this weekend, and I think a lot of us needed that change from what we’re used to. I think we’ve all also gotten a little homesick in the last few weeks, but after being in Athens for 2 days, everyone was overwhelmingly excited to get back to Thessaloniki, a city we’ve all come to know and love.
I’m really excited for the last month here in Greece after this past weekend. Next weekend I might go to Bulgaria with a couple of the guys from one of the other buildings – that would definitely be an interesting trip if it ends up working out. Sophia, Bulgaria is just a cheap train ride away, and I know some people who’ve gone and really enjoyed it.
Classes are going great except for econ, but that’s not a surprise. My professor is really just a terrible human being and I wish I was a more aggressive person and that I had stood up for myself in class the other day. I guess I’ll just save it for the evaluation at the end of the semester. She really just sucks at life. I really wish I had known that I could have taken either macro or micro econ to fulfill Stonehill’s requirement, I definitely would have chosen the other one. Oh well, life goes on, and luckily the credit transfers while the grade doesn’t, so all I have to do is pass.
Monday, 3 November 2008
On the way to Meteora, the bus stopped for lunch in a small city named Trikala. Trikala was gorgeous. It was a lot like Thessaloniki with the old city walls and castle and a similar street layout. But it was a lot smaller and a lot prettier than Thessaloniki. Trikala isn’t on the ocean, but it had a beautiful river that ran through the center of the city that was lined with trees and fountains and statues.
Long before we got to Kalambaka (the village at the base of the rocks of Meteora) we were able to see the rocks. They are giant rocks formed by an ocean that long ago covered the area. The entire area around Meteora is mostly flat with the exception of these huge imposing rocks. We got to our hotel and got settled into our rooms. When I opened the curtains to our balcony I was faced with a beautiful view of the rocks of Meteora and even one of the monasteries atop of them.
That night we explored the village of Kalambaka. We’d been told that there was a great Mexican restaurant in the town, so a pretty small group of us went there. Pretty soon though, we were joined by almost all of our classmates and the restaurant had to turn people away. After eating we walked around the village and took a lot of annoying touristy photos at the fountains that popped up all over the place. There was a bar that I guess Daphne (a professor at ACT who was our chaperone) had gotten to agree to entertain all of us, so pretty shortly the entire group was in the bar dancing to a mixture of American and traditional Greek music. It got loud and crazy pretty quickly, so a few of us went over to the bar across the street. There were 3 people in there and the bartender wasn’t at all busy so he talked to us for a while. Pretty soon he was playing a bunch of oldies songs that of course we had to dance to. There were 3 older men in the bar, and one of them got up to dance with us. He was probably about 70 years old, but let me tell you, he could boogie. His friend was laughing at him, but we probably gave him the night of his life.
The next morning we were off to the monasteries of Meteora. The first monastery we stopped at was actually a nunnery. When we went inside the girls had to put on these really embarrassing skirts to cover up our pants. We took a tour of their chapel and their grounds and saw the amazing views from their home. On the way to the bigger men’s monastery we stopped at a few places to take pictures of the entire valley. We even stopped at the place where one of the James Bond movies was filmed, and our own dare-devil behavior scared Daphne half to death. So what if we all got really close to the edge?
At the next monastery, which was the Grand Monastery of Meteora, we hiked up a bunch of steps and had to put on the annoying skirts again. We walked through their grounds and saw where they buried the dead monks (we actually saw their skulls and bones!) When we had finished touring their chapel we were free to explore the grounds for a little bit. They had a large patio overlooking the entire area of Meteora, and the view was breathtaking. On a few of the rock cliffs there were some people rock climbing, which looked like it would be really difficult. Because the rocks were formed by water, they were really smooth and at a 90 degree angle. I don’t know how they were able to find any hand or footholds in order to climb those things.
Once we were finished at the monasteries we went back to Kalambaka for lunch at a taverna and some souvenir shopping before heading back to Thessaloniki on a 4 hour bus ride. I’m not looking forward to the 8 hour bus ride to Athens next weekend, or the even longer bus ride to Istanbul in 3 weeks, but I know it’ll be worth it.
Today I have a lot of work to do. I feel like I haven’t done anything all semester (I have, just not nearly as much as I’m used to) so I feel like I need to get myself all caught up with project proposals and maybe even get myself ahead in some of my classes. I have a Greek test tomorrow that is covering a LOT of material, so I’ll need to study a while for that.
Hope everything is going well at home! I’ve been a little homesick lately – this is probably the longest I’ve been away from Hollis and my family and friends. While I still talk to my parents almost every day (thank you skype!!!) it’s really hard to stay in contact with friends because of the time change. I love you guys, but I’m not gonna stay up until 4 am to talk to you. I’m halfway through the program and the time is flying by, and I’m sure it will continue to do so. It feels like just yesterday that I nervously arrived in Thessaloniki and started the adventure of my life.
I love and miss you all!
Here's links to some photo albums on facebook!
Prague:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003943&l=093da&id=1326450028
Prague and Berlin:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003944&l=1e045&id=1326450028
Meteora:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004011&l=24044&id=1326450028
Long before we got to Kalambaka (the village at the base of the rocks of Meteora) we were able to see the rocks. They are giant rocks formed by an ocean that long ago covered the area. The entire area around Meteora is mostly flat with the exception of these huge imposing rocks. We got to our hotel and got settled into our rooms. When I opened the curtains to our balcony I was faced with a beautiful view of the rocks of Meteora and even one of the monasteries atop of them.
That night we explored the village of Kalambaka. We’d been told that there was a great Mexican restaurant in the town, so a pretty small group of us went there. Pretty soon though, we were joined by almost all of our classmates and the restaurant had to turn people away. After eating we walked around the village and took a lot of annoying touristy photos at the fountains that popped up all over the place. There was a bar that I guess Daphne (a professor at ACT who was our chaperone) had gotten to agree to entertain all of us, so pretty shortly the entire group was in the bar dancing to a mixture of American and traditional Greek music. It got loud and crazy pretty quickly, so a few of us went over to the bar across the street. There were 3 people in there and the bartender wasn’t at all busy so he talked to us for a while. Pretty soon he was playing a bunch of oldies songs that of course we had to dance to. There were 3 older men in the bar, and one of them got up to dance with us. He was probably about 70 years old, but let me tell you, he could boogie. His friend was laughing at him, but we probably gave him the night of his life.
The next morning we were off to the monasteries of Meteora. The first monastery we stopped at was actually a nunnery. When we went inside the girls had to put on these really embarrassing skirts to cover up our pants. We took a tour of their chapel and their grounds and saw the amazing views from their home. On the way to the bigger men’s monastery we stopped at a few places to take pictures of the entire valley. We even stopped at the place where one of the James Bond movies was filmed, and our own dare-devil behavior scared Daphne half to death. So what if we all got really close to the edge?
At the next monastery, which was the Grand Monastery of Meteora, we hiked up a bunch of steps and had to put on the annoying skirts again. We walked through their grounds and saw where they buried the dead monks (we actually saw their skulls and bones!) When we had finished touring their chapel we were free to explore the grounds for a little bit. They had a large patio overlooking the entire area of Meteora, and the view was breathtaking. On a few of the rock cliffs there were some people rock climbing, which looked like it would be really difficult. Because the rocks were formed by water, they were really smooth and at a 90 degree angle. I don’t know how they were able to find any hand or footholds in order to climb those things.
Once we were finished at the monasteries we went back to Kalambaka for lunch at a taverna and some souvenir shopping before heading back to Thessaloniki on a 4 hour bus ride. I’m not looking forward to the 8 hour bus ride to Athens next weekend, or the even longer bus ride to Istanbul in 3 weeks, but I know it’ll be worth it.
Today I have a lot of work to do. I feel like I haven’t done anything all semester (I have, just not nearly as much as I’m used to) so I feel like I need to get myself all caught up with project proposals and maybe even get myself ahead in some of my classes. I have a Greek test tomorrow that is covering a LOT of material, so I’ll need to study a while for that.
Hope everything is going well at home! I’ve been a little homesick lately – this is probably the longest I’ve been away from Hollis and my family and friends. While I still talk to my parents almost every day (thank you skype!!!) it’s really hard to stay in contact with friends because of the time change. I love you guys, but I’m not gonna stay up until 4 am to talk to you. I’m halfway through the program and the time is flying by, and I’m sure it will continue to do so. It feels like just yesterday that I nervously arrived in Thessaloniki and started the adventure of my life.
I love and miss you all!
Here's links to some photo albums on facebook!
Prague:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003943&l=093da&id=1326450028
Prague and Berlin:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003944&l=1e045&id=1326450028
Meteora:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004011&l=24044&id=1326450028
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Berlin and Prague
After a late night of packing and prepping for our trip, Heather, Kathryn, Joana, and I woke up early and were off to the Thessaloniki airport for our flight to Berlin. While we were waiting in line, a man came up to me and started asking me questions in German. This was great. No one in Greece assumes that I speak Greek, so it was great to feel like I looked like I belonged. I couldn’t help him at all, but it was awesome that he thought I could. This happened to me a few times in Germany and I loved it. On the plane, when we flew below the clouds over Germany we looked down and saw red, orange, and yellow trees and got really excited. Besides for missing people, fall in New England is what I’m missing most about home right now, so it was great to finally see some fall colors. When we arrived in Berlin we needed to conquer the public transportation in order to get to our hostel. Luckily Kathryn is very travel savvy so she had us hopping on and off the s-bahn until we got to our hostel. We were staying in the outskirts of the city, in Wannsee, for our first night in Berlin. We passed through several neighborhoods on the way to the hostel that were like adorable German villages. Our hostel was right on a lake in Wannsee and that, along with the fall foliage, made really feel like I was home.
After we got sort of settled in our hostel we were back on the s-bahn to the city and on a mission to get train tickets to Prague. After a little confusion at the train station in Berlin we found tickets for the next morning to Prague. We then wandered around Alexanderplatz, a square in Berlin, for awhile and just took in the sights. We saw a guy that looked about our age and asked him where young people went in Berlin. He replied with, “I’m actually from Holland, so I don’t really know, but I’m meeting my friends over there…you’re welcome to join us.” So soon we were sitting at a café with Saskia, Boi, Michel, and a few other people. We ended up chatting for hours about American politics and viewpoints, and it was awesome to hear other European opinions on everything that is going on in America. They were in Berlin with their graduate program looking at internships and learning more about possibilities within their field – which happened to be cognitive neuroscience or something very intimidating like that. After the café closed, we went back to their hostel with them that was down the street and talked some more. We exchanged emails and phone numbers, and when we finally left to go back to our hostel, Joana started crying because she was sad to leave our new friends.
After oh, about 2 hours of sleep we were on a train to Prague. It was about a 4 hour journey through some of the most beautiful villages and mountain and farmland. The train went along a river for most of the time and it even went through Dresden, which was also great to see. Once in Prague we hopped onto their tram system, but ended up going on the wrong direction. While it delayed us for about an hour, we ended up being able to see some beautiful views of the city. I’ve never seen more gorgeous architecture than what I saw in Prague. Each and every building was unique and breathtaking. We got to our hostel, which was more like a hotel, got settled and headed out. Our first mission was to find Czech food. We found a restaurant up the street and we all ordered the first thing on their specialties menu. It was goulash and it was so good. Food in Greece is not what you’d call hearty, so it was great to have a meal that almost instantly filled you up.
Kathryn is a HUGE fan of hockey, and she found out there was a game in Prague that night. We went to a few tourist information places, but they didn’t have any helpful information. We decided to go to the arena to see if there was any way we could get tickets. In the metro we saw a group of men that Joana thought looked like they were going to a hockey game. I don’t know why she thought this – they weren’t wearing jerseys or scarves or anything, but she decided to ask anyway. Turns out that they were in fact going to the game and one of them spoke English so we were able to get directions from him. When we got to the arena, we found a scalper selling tickets. They cost 100 kruna (I think thats the currency – Czech is really difficult) which is the equivalent of about 5 USD. We got tickets and ended up being about 3 rows away from the ice. The arena wasn’t packed so after the first period we went over to the Praha Slavia’s cheering section. These people are serious about their hockey. Prague ended up losing but it was interesting to see the fan-team dynamic. At the end of the game the entire team sat on the ice looking at their fans. The fans cheered something, and then the team got up and applauded their fans.
After the game we wandered around the city some more and found ourselves in an Irish pub. There was a group of people at the table next to us, and the guy asked if we would take their picture. Then we all started talking. Ger, Kate, and Anna were from Ireland and were in Prague to celebrate Kate’s birthday. We talked to them all night and Heather and Joana planned their trip to Ireland with their help. They were only planning on going to Dublin, but our new friends offered to show them around Cork if they made it that way.
The following day we explored the city of Prague. But before we left I went downstairs in the hostel to borrow a towel. While I’m walking into the lobby, I hear my name. No one knows me here, so I was a little surprised. I turn around and see this girl and it takes me forever to place her. Turns out it was Casey, a girl I graduated from high school with. In the same hostel, in Prague. What a small world! She’s studying in Budapest this semester and was in Prague for the weekend.
We started at the castle and did a tour of the grounds there. From the castle you can see almost the entire city – I’ve never seen so many spires in my life. Then we went to the Old Town, Stare Mesto where the astronomical clock is. It’s a 24 hour clock that also has sun and moon positions, and a calendar with months. At each hour the clock chimes and the figured around the clock move. After having lunch in Stare Mesto, Heather and I decided to just get lost in Prague. (Not really lost…they have trams on almost every street. As long as we could see the tracks we wouldn’t really be lost) While I enjoy seeing the touristy parts of cities, it is almost more valuable to just wander around and see where you find yourself. So we just started walking and seeing what there was to see. We ended up in Vinohrady, which is the oldest part of the city. From there we walked along the river from the Fred and Ginger Dancing House to the National Theater and a building we named the Bubble Wrap building. On this walk we walked past someone I sort of recognized but I couldn’t think of where I might know him from, so I didn’t really think anything of it. One of the girls he was with stops dead in her tracks and says, “No way!” Turns out it was the people Heather, Danica and I met in Santorini that let us stay with them in Athens! We chatted for a bit and shared any useful information we had about Prague. Heather and I then went to Charles Bridge, which is a pedestrian only bridge with towers and a beautiful view of the city. We were climbing up one of the towers and spotted this guy Bobby from ACT who was there with his parents to celebrate his birthday. Its crazy how small this world is – to run into 3 separate groups of people in one random city on the same day. That along with the fact that Joana met so many people with connections to Oregon (where she’s from) really just goes to show how connected the world really is.
From the bridge we continued just wandering around the city. We had planned on meeting back up with Joana and Kathryn for a fun night out in Prague at a place one of Joana’s friends had suggested. Heather and I were pretty tired from our long days of traveling and walking so we just decided to go back to the Irish pub we’d been at the night before and head home pretty early to get a good night’s sleep. We stayed for maybe an hour and were just about ready to head home when this guy comes out of the bathroom and asks if he could sit with us. We said sure and asked him a few questions. He had clearly been enjoying the pub for quite some time, so two minutes later he was asleep at our table!!! His friends came over and apologized and tried to wake him up – with no luck. We chatted with them for a little bit – there was a group of them from all over the world. Jamie from Ireland, Tom from Australia, Sleeping guy from England, and another guy from Scotland – who knows how they knew each other! They were hilarious and really fun to talk to, but we still decided to go home early because our bus back to Berlin left pretty early in the morning.
We slept almost the entire bus ride from Prague to Berlin, but luckily it didn’t end up being any longer than the train ride – which we thought it would be. We got back to Berlin and found our hostel pretty easily – it ended up being in the square that we explored the first night in Berlin. We heard that there was a hard rock café in Berlin, so that was our very first stop – we were all craving some American food after 6 weeks of eating Greek. Then we all just wandered around some more and found ourselves at the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. We happened to be there during Berlin’s Festival of Lights, when all the important monuments and buildings are lit up with colorful lights and project images into the sky, which was really cool to see. We wandered around the city some more and went back to the hostel to get ready for a night out. On our way out we walked past another Irish pub that had seemed kinda lame our first night in Berlin, but for some reason we decided to go in for just a bit. Before we had even ordered drinks, a group of about 15 englishmen surrounded our table and started talking to us. They were in Berlin on a “stag weekend” to celebrate their buddy’s upcoming wedding. They were all dressed as nerds as part of their theme and they were wicked funny. We had our own American Idol competition (Heather’s impression of Britney Spears is spot on – so she won) and the guys made Kathryn impersonate Sarah Palin all night. Before we knew it, it was 4 am and we never made it farther than just down the street when we had planned on a more adventurous night out, but it was wicked fun anyway.
The next morning we got an early(ish) start and headed to Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish Museum. The museum was really interesting and had a lot of really cool exhibits. From there we headed to the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall and walked that. We had thought about going to a concentration camp not too far from Berlin, but having had so little sleep and it being mostly dark out, we decided it would probably be too intense for us. Heather and I then decided to get lost in Berlin because we’d had so much success with that in Prague. We wandered and wandered until our feet really couldn’t hold us up any longer (I seriously ended up breaking down and buying a pair of slippers to walk back in). We found a German pub and brewery and got brautwurst, sauerkraut, and german potatoes. Because we had to be at the airport at 4 am the next morning, we decided that we were just going to stay up all night, but when we got to the hostel Heather and I really just needed to nap before even thinking about heading out. When we woke up we just decided to pack up and stay at our hostel and play cards in the lobby instead of trying to find a place to go.
We made it back to Thessaloniki yesterday a group of travel-tired girls. We had a lot of fun and packed a whole lot into the long weekend. Germany made a huge impression on me, and I’m really drawn to all the history that’s there. I know that I will be going back in the near future to see what else the country has to offer.
When I get my pictures online, I’ll post the link on here. Please let me know if the links didn’t work last time.
I have one day of classes tomorrow and then on Saturday I’m off on a school trip to Meteora, which is home to the rock tower monasteries.
Here’s a list of the rest of my travels while I’m abroad – I may try to fit in a trip to Vienna or Sophia, Bulgaria as well, as long as I can do it very inexpensively:
November:
1-2 Meteora
7-9 Athens
15-16 Thessaloniki
21-23 Istanbul, Turkey
29-30 Thessaloniki
December:
6-7 Thessaloniki
9ish – Kayla from Stonehill comes to visit!
13-19 Venice, Florence, and Rome with Kayla and Julie from Hollis
21- Home
After we got sort of settled in our hostel we were back on the s-bahn to the city and on a mission to get train tickets to Prague. After a little confusion at the train station in Berlin we found tickets for the next morning to Prague. We then wandered around Alexanderplatz, a square in Berlin, for awhile and just took in the sights. We saw a guy that looked about our age and asked him where young people went in Berlin. He replied with, “I’m actually from Holland, so I don’t really know, but I’m meeting my friends over there…you’re welcome to join us.” So soon we were sitting at a café with Saskia, Boi, Michel, and a few other people. We ended up chatting for hours about American politics and viewpoints, and it was awesome to hear other European opinions on everything that is going on in America. They were in Berlin with their graduate program looking at internships and learning more about possibilities within their field – which happened to be cognitive neuroscience or something very intimidating like that. After the café closed, we went back to their hostel with them that was down the street and talked some more. We exchanged emails and phone numbers, and when we finally left to go back to our hostel, Joana started crying because she was sad to leave our new friends.
After oh, about 2 hours of sleep we were on a train to Prague. It was about a 4 hour journey through some of the most beautiful villages and mountain and farmland. The train went along a river for most of the time and it even went through Dresden, which was also great to see. Once in Prague we hopped onto their tram system, but ended up going on the wrong direction. While it delayed us for about an hour, we ended up being able to see some beautiful views of the city. I’ve never seen more gorgeous architecture than what I saw in Prague. Each and every building was unique and breathtaking. We got to our hostel, which was more like a hotel, got settled and headed out. Our first mission was to find Czech food. We found a restaurant up the street and we all ordered the first thing on their specialties menu. It was goulash and it was so good. Food in Greece is not what you’d call hearty, so it was great to have a meal that almost instantly filled you up.
Kathryn is a HUGE fan of hockey, and she found out there was a game in Prague that night. We went to a few tourist information places, but they didn’t have any helpful information. We decided to go to the arena to see if there was any way we could get tickets. In the metro we saw a group of men that Joana thought looked like they were going to a hockey game. I don’t know why she thought this – they weren’t wearing jerseys or scarves or anything, but she decided to ask anyway. Turns out that they were in fact going to the game and one of them spoke English so we were able to get directions from him. When we got to the arena, we found a scalper selling tickets. They cost 100 kruna (I think thats the currency – Czech is really difficult) which is the equivalent of about 5 USD. We got tickets and ended up being about 3 rows away from the ice. The arena wasn’t packed so after the first period we went over to the Praha Slavia’s cheering section. These people are serious about their hockey. Prague ended up losing but it was interesting to see the fan-team dynamic. At the end of the game the entire team sat on the ice looking at their fans. The fans cheered something, and then the team got up and applauded their fans.
After the game we wandered around the city some more and found ourselves in an Irish pub. There was a group of people at the table next to us, and the guy asked if we would take their picture. Then we all started talking. Ger, Kate, and Anna were from Ireland and were in Prague to celebrate Kate’s birthday. We talked to them all night and Heather and Joana planned their trip to Ireland with their help. They were only planning on going to Dublin, but our new friends offered to show them around Cork if they made it that way.
The following day we explored the city of Prague. But before we left I went downstairs in the hostel to borrow a towel. While I’m walking into the lobby, I hear my name. No one knows me here, so I was a little surprised. I turn around and see this girl and it takes me forever to place her. Turns out it was Casey, a girl I graduated from high school with. In the same hostel, in Prague. What a small world! She’s studying in Budapest this semester and was in Prague for the weekend.
We started at the castle and did a tour of the grounds there. From the castle you can see almost the entire city – I’ve never seen so many spires in my life. Then we went to the Old Town, Stare Mesto where the astronomical clock is. It’s a 24 hour clock that also has sun and moon positions, and a calendar with months. At each hour the clock chimes and the figured around the clock move. After having lunch in Stare Mesto, Heather and I decided to just get lost in Prague. (Not really lost…they have trams on almost every street. As long as we could see the tracks we wouldn’t really be lost) While I enjoy seeing the touristy parts of cities, it is almost more valuable to just wander around and see where you find yourself. So we just started walking and seeing what there was to see. We ended up in Vinohrady, which is the oldest part of the city. From there we walked along the river from the Fred and Ginger Dancing House to the National Theater and a building we named the Bubble Wrap building. On this walk we walked past someone I sort of recognized but I couldn’t think of where I might know him from, so I didn’t really think anything of it. One of the girls he was with stops dead in her tracks and says, “No way!” Turns out it was the people Heather, Danica and I met in Santorini that let us stay with them in Athens! We chatted for a bit and shared any useful information we had about Prague. Heather and I then went to Charles Bridge, which is a pedestrian only bridge with towers and a beautiful view of the city. We were climbing up one of the towers and spotted this guy Bobby from ACT who was there with his parents to celebrate his birthday. Its crazy how small this world is – to run into 3 separate groups of people in one random city on the same day. That along with the fact that Joana met so many people with connections to Oregon (where she’s from) really just goes to show how connected the world really is.
From the bridge we continued just wandering around the city. We had planned on meeting back up with Joana and Kathryn for a fun night out in Prague at a place one of Joana’s friends had suggested. Heather and I were pretty tired from our long days of traveling and walking so we just decided to go back to the Irish pub we’d been at the night before and head home pretty early to get a good night’s sleep. We stayed for maybe an hour and were just about ready to head home when this guy comes out of the bathroom and asks if he could sit with us. We said sure and asked him a few questions. He had clearly been enjoying the pub for quite some time, so two minutes later he was asleep at our table!!! His friends came over and apologized and tried to wake him up – with no luck. We chatted with them for a little bit – there was a group of them from all over the world. Jamie from Ireland, Tom from Australia, Sleeping guy from England, and another guy from Scotland – who knows how they knew each other! They were hilarious and really fun to talk to, but we still decided to go home early because our bus back to Berlin left pretty early in the morning.
We slept almost the entire bus ride from Prague to Berlin, but luckily it didn’t end up being any longer than the train ride – which we thought it would be. We got back to Berlin and found our hostel pretty easily – it ended up being in the square that we explored the first night in Berlin. We heard that there was a hard rock café in Berlin, so that was our very first stop – we were all craving some American food after 6 weeks of eating Greek. Then we all just wandered around some more and found ourselves at the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. We happened to be there during Berlin’s Festival of Lights, when all the important monuments and buildings are lit up with colorful lights and project images into the sky, which was really cool to see. We wandered around the city some more and went back to the hostel to get ready for a night out. On our way out we walked past another Irish pub that had seemed kinda lame our first night in Berlin, but for some reason we decided to go in for just a bit. Before we had even ordered drinks, a group of about 15 englishmen surrounded our table and started talking to us. They were in Berlin on a “stag weekend” to celebrate their buddy’s upcoming wedding. They were all dressed as nerds as part of their theme and they were wicked funny. We had our own American Idol competition (Heather’s impression of Britney Spears is spot on – so she won) and the guys made Kathryn impersonate Sarah Palin all night. Before we knew it, it was 4 am and we never made it farther than just down the street when we had planned on a more adventurous night out, but it was wicked fun anyway.
The next morning we got an early(ish) start and headed to Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish Museum. The museum was really interesting and had a lot of really cool exhibits. From there we headed to the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall and walked that. We had thought about going to a concentration camp not too far from Berlin, but having had so little sleep and it being mostly dark out, we decided it would probably be too intense for us. Heather and I then decided to get lost in Berlin because we’d had so much success with that in Prague. We wandered and wandered until our feet really couldn’t hold us up any longer (I seriously ended up breaking down and buying a pair of slippers to walk back in). We found a German pub and brewery and got brautwurst, sauerkraut, and german potatoes. Because we had to be at the airport at 4 am the next morning, we decided that we were just going to stay up all night, but when we got to the hostel Heather and I really just needed to nap before even thinking about heading out. When we woke up we just decided to pack up and stay at our hostel and play cards in the lobby instead of trying to find a place to go.
We made it back to Thessaloniki yesterday a group of travel-tired girls. We had a lot of fun and packed a whole lot into the long weekend. Germany made a huge impression on me, and I’m really drawn to all the history that’s there. I know that I will be going back in the near future to see what else the country has to offer.
When I get my pictures online, I’ll post the link on here. Please let me know if the links didn’t work last time.
I have one day of classes tomorrow and then on Saturday I’m off on a school trip to Meteora, which is home to the rock tower monasteries.
Here’s a list of the rest of my travels while I’m abroad – I may try to fit in a trip to Vienna or Sophia, Bulgaria as well, as long as I can do it very inexpensively:
November:
1-2 Meteora
7-9 Athens
15-16 Thessaloniki
21-23 Istanbul, Turkey
29-30 Thessaloniki
December:
6-7 Thessaloniki
9ish – Kayla from Stonehill comes to visit!
13-19 Venice, Florence, and Rome with Kayla and Julie from Hollis
21- Home
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
It’s been a while since I’ve updated this sucker, and my dad keeps asking for an update, so I guess its time. I’ve had a pretty standard couple weeks in Thessaloniki, which is nice because the first few weeks were chock-full of exploring and traveling and just getting settled. It’s really finally starting to feel like home here, which is also a great feeling.
Classes are going really well, I’m finding them to be very interesting. My professor in my soc. of gender class is fantastic. She’s become almost a surrogate mother to us – the class is about 6 study abroad students (all girls) and four greek students. We are able to ask our professor Aigli just about anything – like how to find bleach in the grocery store or whether to accept a job offer at a bar – and she is always willing to pause the class to talk about life for a few minutes. The greek students always laugh at our seemingly inconsequential problems, but it means the world to us to be able to ask someone all these questions that we come up with.
My greek class is going fantastically – well, that might be an exaggeration. But I am finally able to read things. It’s so exciting to walk down the street and be able to read the things that I say – it doesn’t matter that I still don’t know what things mean, being able to read it is awesome. Sometimes I’ll hear bits and pieces of other people’s conversations and when I hear something I recognize I get really excited that I’m able to understand them. I can also now order a few different food items at a restaurant – like chicken, which is kortopoulo. I still don’t know how to order a gyro without tomatoes or onions, so, per usual, I just pick it out. But in greek class we’re learning a lot of great information and conversational things. Taking Spanish classes have really helped me learn Greek – they’re not at all alike – but learning them can be done in the same way. This is what I know how to say in Greek (I also know its variations – questions, referring to other people, that type of thing) – its not a lot, but it can get me pretty far in conversations:
English:
Hello. My name is Heather. I am from America. I live in New Hampshire. Now I am living in Thessaloniki. I am a student. I speak English. I speak a little greek. I don’t understand.
Greek:
γεία σας. με λένε Heather. Είμαι από την Αμερική. στη νέα Hampshire. Τώρα στην Θεσσαλονίκη. Είμαι φοιτητρα. μιλώ αγγλικά. Μιλώ ελληνική λίγο. Δεν καταλαBενώ.
Pronunciation:
Ya sas. Me lene Heather. Ime apo tin Ameriki. Sti Nea Hampshire. Tora stin Thessaloniki. Ime fititria. Milauw anglika. Milauw elenika ligo. Then kataloveno.
Ethics is going well. I’m still finding it very interesting. We had our midterm this week, which was an essay response to a film we watched about religion being the “root of all evil” and whether religion is the basis for morality. Class discussions continue to be very interesting and I look forward to going to that class a lot.
Econ. Oh Econ. I knew I was going to dislike this class a lot. And I do. The material is confusing and my professor just makes it worse. She is really terrifying. I know that’s a horrible thing to say, but we’re all in agreement. She’s just so impatient and makes you think you’re right when you’re actually wrong and then is very condescending when she finally tells you. I’m seriously scared of this woman – we’re gonna start a support group. Luckily she cancelled class on Thursday – I didn’t want to tell her I was going to miss it, in fear of getting scowled at the way she does. So, Econ’s going to be the rough class as I predicted, hopefully I’ll survive unscathed.
And now its time for another installment of “a day in the life…” Get psyched.
Grocery Shopping – Always an adventure. And when I say adventure I mean it. Grocery shopping entails walking into a grocery store and wandering around aimlessly trying to find anything that might look sort of familiar. It usually ends with several laughing fits and serious confusion. Grocery stores here are smaller and have much less variety than in the states – yet you can find the craziest things inside a grocery store – like socks, and underwear, and rugs, and plates, but never any ziplock bags or peanut butter. That’s a lie, peanut butter can be found, but only if you go on the right day. There’s only ever one tiny jar of skippy creamy peanut butter on the shelves – for 5 euro. That’s like 7 bucks – something that would cost less than a dollar in the states (I don’t know this – I’ve never bought peanut butter in the states, this is a guess). Luckily my mom is great and sent me some – Thanks Mom! Nutella, however is everywhere. I’ve never seen so much of the stuff – people must eat it at every meal. Like my roommate, Kathryn. The only food that she’s bought is nutella and bread. She has 3 jars, which I’ve named Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Wow. Olive oil comes in 10 gallon jugs and salad dressing just doesn’t exist. I walked around the grocery store searching for tuna fish and was so excited when I thought I’d found it. I studied the can and concluded that what I thought might be tuna was actually condensed milk - maybe. I’m not sure how its possible to confuse the two, but I did. Then I really found tuna, and it was fantastic – until I opened the can in my apartment and found that what I had gotten was NOT tuna. It was some sort of fishy substance, so at least I got that part right, but into the trash it went.
Laundry – Also an adventure. There are no dryers in this country – unless you wanna pay 8 euro to get it done at a Laundromat about a mile away, which I don’t. We have one very small washing machine, which tends to discolor all white clothing (hence the need to ask Aigli about bleach). I do my laundry about once a week. I put a load in the machine in the basement of my building and I do another load IN. MY. SINK. Yes Mom, I’ve hand washed my laundry. The first time I did it on a bright sunny day and was really excited because the clothes would dry pretty quickly on my balcony. 10 minutes later the clouds came, and 3 days later my clothes were finally dry. Note to self – do laundry a few days before running out of clothes to wear – learned the lesson the hard way.
Tavernas – Now I know I’ve talked about tavernas before, but they deserve their own category because they’re great. Basically you go to a taverna after 10 pm and prepare for a few hours of wining and dining. We’ve recently adopted a certain taverna as our own. It used to be called the secret taverna, but surely enough everyone has since made a trip there. We used to call it the chicken place (Best. Chicken. Ever) but now its Apostoli’s. That’s not the name of the place because all the tavernas kinda mush together so you never really know the name of the place you’re at. Apostoli is the owner of this taverna, and he’s fantastic. He gives us free wine and free dessert and introduces us to all his friends. One night we met some greek men, Nikos (of course that’s his name) and Vasilis who then took us to a Bouzoukia/ Rembetiko, which is a traditional greek club complete with greek dancing. Like holding hands and dancing in circles type of greek dancing. It was so awesome, even though we had no idea how to do the dances. We never would have been able to get into the place on our own, let alone find it, so it was great to go with people who know the inside scoop. Somehow taverna outings always end in an adventure. You can go to a taverna with the intent of staying just an hour or two and then going home, but somehow, someway, it never ends like that.
Now its time for the really big news! In about 12 hours I will be in Berlin! This weekend is our fall break, meaning we have Monday and Tuesday off from school, but we’re leaving a little early. We’ll be in Berlin for one night, take a train to Prague for 2 nights, and then go back to Berlin for another 2 nights. I’m so excited for this trip! I’m going with Kathryn, Heather, and Joana. Whenever the 4 of us get together – which is a lot, we’re next door neighbors – it’s always a good time, so we know this long weekend will be great! I’ll update as soon as I get back!!!
Classes are going really well, I’m finding them to be very interesting. My professor in my soc. of gender class is fantastic. She’s become almost a surrogate mother to us – the class is about 6 study abroad students (all girls) and four greek students. We are able to ask our professor Aigli just about anything – like how to find bleach in the grocery store or whether to accept a job offer at a bar – and she is always willing to pause the class to talk about life for a few minutes. The greek students always laugh at our seemingly inconsequential problems, but it means the world to us to be able to ask someone all these questions that we come up with.
My greek class is going fantastically – well, that might be an exaggeration. But I am finally able to read things. It’s so exciting to walk down the street and be able to read the things that I say – it doesn’t matter that I still don’t know what things mean, being able to read it is awesome. Sometimes I’ll hear bits and pieces of other people’s conversations and when I hear something I recognize I get really excited that I’m able to understand them. I can also now order a few different food items at a restaurant – like chicken, which is kortopoulo. I still don’t know how to order a gyro without tomatoes or onions, so, per usual, I just pick it out. But in greek class we’re learning a lot of great information and conversational things. Taking Spanish classes have really helped me learn Greek – they’re not at all alike – but learning them can be done in the same way. This is what I know how to say in Greek (I also know its variations – questions, referring to other people, that type of thing) – its not a lot, but it can get me pretty far in conversations:
English:
Hello. My name is Heather. I am from America. I live in New Hampshire. Now I am living in Thessaloniki. I am a student. I speak English. I speak a little greek. I don’t understand.
Greek:
γεία σας. με λένε Heather. Είμαι από την Αμερική. στη νέα Hampshire. Τώρα στην Θεσσαλονίκη. Είμαι φοιτητρα. μιλώ αγγλικά. Μιλώ ελληνική λίγο. Δεν καταλαBενώ.
Pronunciation:
Ya sas. Me lene Heather. Ime apo tin Ameriki. Sti Nea Hampshire. Tora stin Thessaloniki. Ime fititria. Milauw anglika. Milauw elenika ligo. Then kataloveno.
Ethics is going well. I’m still finding it very interesting. We had our midterm this week, which was an essay response to a film we watched about religion being the “root of all evil” and whether religion is the basis for morality. Class discussions continue to be very interesting and I look forward to going to that class a lot.
Econ. Oh Econ. I knew I was going to dislike this class a lot. And I do. The material is confusing and my professor just makes it worse. She is really terrifying. I know that’s a horrible thing to say, but we’re all in agreement. She’s just so impatient and makes you think you’re right when you’re actually wrong and then is very condescending when she finally tells you. I’m seriously scared of this woman – we’re gonna start a support group. Luckily she cancelled class on Thursday – I didn’t want to tell her I was going to miss it, in fear of getting scowled at the way she does. So, Econ’s going to be the rough class as I predicted, hopefully I’ll survive unscathed.
And now its time for another installment of “a day in the life…” Get psyched.
Grocery Shopping – Always an adventure. And when I say adventure I mean it. Grocery shopping entails walking into a grocery store and wandering around aimlessly trying to find anything that might look sort of familiar. It usually ends with several laughing fits and serious confusion. Grocery stores here are smaller and have much less variety than in the states – yet you can find the craziest things inside a grocery store – like socks, and underwear, and rugs, and plates, but never any ziplock bags or peanut butter. That’s a lie, peanut butter can be found, but only if you go on the right day. There’s only ever one tiny jar of skippy creamy peanut butter on the shelves – for 5 euro. That’s like 7 bucks – something that would cost less than a dollar in the states (I don’t know this – I’ve never bought peanut butter in the states, this is a guess). Luckily my mom is great and sent me some – Thanks Mom! Nutella, however is everywhere. I’ve never seen so much of the stuff – people must eat it at every meal. Like my roommate, Kathryn. The only food that she’s bought is nutella and bread. She has 3 jars, which I’ve named Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Wow. Olive oil comes in 10 gallon jugs and salad dressing just doesn’t exist. I walked around the grocery store searching for tuna fish and was so excited when I thought I’d found it. I studied the can and concluded that what I thought might be tuna was actually condensed milk - maybe. I’m not sure how its possible to confuse the two, but I did. Then I really found tuna, and it was fantastic – until I opened the can in my apartment and found that what I had gotten was NOT tuna. It was some sort of fishy substance, so at least I got that part right, but into the trash it went.
Laundry – Also an adventure. There are no dryers in this country – unless you wanna pay 8 euro to get it done at a Laundromat about a mile away, which I don’t. We have one very small washing machine, which tends to discolor all white clothing (hence the need to ask Aigli about bleach). I do my laundry about once a week. I put a load in the machine in the basement of my building and I do another load IN. MY. SINK. Yes Mom, I’ve hand washed my laundry. The first time I did it on a bright sunny day and was really excited because the clothes would dry pretty quickly on my balcony. 10 minutes later the clouds came, and 3 days later my clothes were finally dry. Note to self – do laundry a few days before running out of clothes to wear – learned the lesson the hard way.
Tavernas – Now I know I’ve talked about tavernas before, but they deserve their own category because they’re great. Basically you go to a taverna after 10 pm and prepare for a few hours of wining and dining. We’ve recently adopted a certain taverna as our own. It used to be called the secret taverna, but surely enough everyone has since made a trip there. We used to call it the chicken place (Best. Chicken. Ever) but now its Apostoli’s. That’s not the name of the place because all the tavernas kinda mush together so you never really know the name of the place you’re at. Apostoli is the owner of this taverna, and he’s fantastic. He gives us free wine and free dessert and introduces us to all his friends. One night we met some greek men, Nikos (of course that’s his name) and Vasilis who then took us to a Bouzoukia/ Rembetiko, which is a traditional greek club complete with greek dancing. Like holding hands and dancing in circles type of greek dancing. It was so awesome, even though we had no idea how to do the dances. We never would have been able to get into the place on our own, let alone find it, so it was great to go with people who know the inside scoop. Somehow taverna outings always end in an adventure. You can go to a taverna with the intent of staying just an hour or two and then going home, but somehow, someway, it never ends like that.
Now its time for the really big news! In about 12 hours I will be in Berlin! This weekend is our fall break, meaning we have Monday and Tuesday off from school, but we’re leaving a little early. We’ll be in Berlin for one night, take a train to Prague for 2 nights, and then go back to Berlin for another 2 nights. I’m so excited for this trip! I’m going with Kathryn, Heather, and Joana. Whenever the 4 of us get together – which is a lot, we’re next door neighbors – it’s always a good time, so we know this long weekend will be great! I’ll update as soon as I get back!!!
Monday, 6 October 2008
21 and Santorini
I guess I'll start with a little birthday description, but the main content of this post will be my weekend trip to SANTORINI.
So, birthday. I turned the big 2-1 on Wednesday, so we decided to celebrate Tuesday night. A big group of us got back from campus around 8:30 and headed out to an Ouzeri (basically a tabepna. taverna. personally, i like it in greek better) for dinner. We had the most amazing chicken souvlaki ever. You haven't had chicken until you've had this chicken. Anyway, the restaurant gave me a bottle of ouzo for my birthday, which was really nice of them. I don't really like ouzo, it tastes like black licorice, but it was a nice gesture and a great souvenier of my 21st in greece. Around 11:30 we all headed down to the waterfront and got to Dante's just in time to celebrate at midnight. As always, the guys who work there facilitated the party.
Wednesday morning, I woke up early to treat myself to the best birthday present I could think of. I went with my friend Danika to book a trip to Santorini for the weekend. Wednesday night all of the girls in my apartment building gathered in my room for a mini surprise party complete with a cake, a birthday card (in greek, naturally), and even a makeshift birthday candle (we haven't really mastered the grocery stores here yet). I was kinda sad I couldn't spend the day with friends and family from home, so for them to do that for me made the day really special.
So Thursday night, after a full day of classes I quickly packed and Heather, Danika, and I made our way to the train station to catch the 6 hour train ride to Athens. It was quite the experience. You know the train that takes Harry and his friends to Hogwarts...thats the kind of train we took to Athens - with our own(ish) little room and everything. It was pretty great. We got to Athens around 6:30 am and booked it to Piraeus Port. I was a little nervous we wouldn't be able to find our way around the metro, but it was really easy. We boarded the ferry and made ourselves as comfortable as we could for the 8 hour trip. You may think I'm crazy for travelling 14 hours one way for just a weekend in Santorini, but I can promise you it was 100% worth it. I would have travelled twice as far to stay half as long and it still would have been the best decision of my life. The ferry ride was actually pretty pleasant. We watched the sun rise over Athens and we also stopped at Paros and Naxos islands on the way. I thought both of these islands were beautiful, but as soon as I saw Santorini, I knew that that was the island to go to.
As we all herded off the ferry, we saw a whole line of men trying to get people to stay at their hotels. Perfect. We went over and started to bargain. Being college students abroad, our funds were obviously limited. We knew what price we wanted and went for it. Luckily, our bargaining skills paid off and we were able to get a room for 20 euro each for 2 nights. AWESOME. We made it to the hotel within an hour and were off exploring very soon after that. We stayed in Fira, so that was the first town we explored. There were all these little shops leading up to the top of the cliff the town is built on. We meandered our way up and as soon as we saw the view from the top we were speechless. Having seen pictures of Santorini, I knew it would be beautiful, but pictures do the island no justice. I honestly think it was the most gorgeous view I have ever seen in my life.
Once we got a little bit over our ooohs and ahhhs (they never really went away...everything we saw stunned us) we walked past a cafe built right on the edge of the cliff. It was just about time for the sunset, and the man who owned the place started chatting us up. He spoke great english and was just about the nicest most enthusiastic man ever. And of course his name was Nikos, who's isn't? We took a seat at his cafe for some frappes (a foamy iced coffee) and to watch the sunset. We explored a little more and went to a Taverna for dinner. After dinner we decided to grab some gelatto before going to bed early. We stopped at a little gelatto place, where we met Nikos #2, who is the only Nikos we know thats our age. We sat and chatted with him for a while, and he wanted us to wait for him to get off work so we could all go out together. We had a big day planned for Saturday, so we didn't take him up on his offer, but we planned to meet up the following night.
On Saturday morning, we woke up for a few minutes to watch the sunrise from our balcony at the hotel. An hour or so later we trekked down to the old port to catch a boat trip over to Nea Kameni Volcano. We hiked up the volcano with Sophocles, our tour guide, who knew a lot about Santorini and its volcanic activity. On the volcano, we met a group of kids in the College Year Athens program. This isn't important now, but it will be later. I've never been on a volcano before, so that was super cool. After the volcano hike the boat took us the the hot springs where we jumped off and swam in the warm water. Then the boat took us to Thirassia Island for lunch and a little more swimming and sightseeing. Danika, Heather, and I grabbed a quick lunch and walked around the pebbly beaches looking for sea glass and shells. On the way from Thirassia to Oia (pronounced Ia), the glass-bottom boat sailed over a reef with a small shipwreck, which was also really great to see.
Here comes the fun part. When we first saw the donkeys, we knew we had to ride them. So, we rode donkey from the port in Oia to the town above. What an experience. We were all laughing hysterically and half-terrified the entire way up, but it was so awesome to turn the corner on a donkey and see the view of Oia. Oia is a really beautiful part of Santorini. Its on the very edge of the northern corner of the island, so the views are spectacular, and the sunsets breathtaking. We walked around the town for a while, and found it to be considerably more quiet and couple-friendly than Fira. It being the off season for Santorini, the entire island was much quieter than it would have been in the summer time, but the weather was still very warm and sunny and most places were still open for business. After exploring Oia for a while, we walked to the very corner of the island and found a place to watch the sunset. The sign outside the place said that it was the most popular place for marriage proposals, and I believe it. As the sun was setting a sailboat sailed right into the sun's light and it was gorgeous. We grabbed dinner at a taverna and caught the public bus (aka a coach bus....wayyyy nicer than public busses anywhere else in the world) back to Fira for a night out.
Back in Fira, we walked around a bit and wandered into a couple of bars. We saw Sophocles (our tour guide from the volcano) sitting outside the bar (young) Nikos suggested and sat and chatted with him for a while. He imparted several hilarious words of wisdom to us, and even gave us a little grammar lesson in greek. Unfortunatly, Nikos wasn't able to close his shop, so he wasn't able to come out with us Saturday night either. But, he did offer to drive us to the beach sunday morning, so we exchanged phone numbers and he said he'd try to wake up in time.
Sunday we woke up early to get a little shopping in before calling Nikos to wake him up. When calls to Nikos proved unsuccessful, we decided to get innovative. We really wanted to get a little more sun before getting the ferry back to Athens, and our hotel didn't have a pool. So we decided to find one. Sophocles, the night before, reminded us that you never know until you try, and the worse that will happen is that you'll get no for an answer. So, we decided to go to the nearest hotels and give it a shot. The first place was a hands-down absolutely not. The second place, however, looked like there was no one there and that it was closing for the season. We walked in and offered to pay to use their beautiful pool. The lady immediatly said, "if you don't mind the weather, the pool is yours." While it was pretty windy, the sun was still hot, so of course we didn't mind the weather. While we were there, Nikos called back and wanted to meet us in his village or at the port for coffee before we left. We didn't end up having enough time, but I wanted to share the story of Nikos' great hospitality anyway.
Once we got on the ferry, which was a titanic-like endeavor, we saw the guys studying in athens again. Since we landed in Athens at 1 am and didn't leave until 7 am, we decided to ask them if they knew of anywhere we could go to kill some time. Without hesitation, they said that we were more than welcome to get a taxi back with them and crash for a few hours at there place. So thats what we did. It was a little weird, as expected, but we would have been lost without them. They gave us directions from their place to the metro, and we offered our apartments in Thessaloniki to them if they ever wanted it. I've been so impressed with everyone's kindness here in Greece. Granted, there are definitely people who aren't so friendly, but the vast majority of people will do anything to help you out.
It was a long journey to and from Santorini, but it was so worth it. I can honestly say that was one of the best, if not the best, weekends of my life. Before Thursday when people asked, "If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?" I would always answer with Santorini. And honestly, if they asked me now, I would probably still say Santorini.
Here are the links to the photo albums on Facebook...check them out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003813&l=56bd2&id=1326450028
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003814&l=6d859&id=1326450028
Also, if you're interested, here's the link to the photo album of my trip to Mt. Athos and Halkidiki:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003751&l=0d0e3&id=1326450028
So, birthday. I turned the big 2-1 on Wednesday, so we decided to celebrate Tuesday night. A big group of us got back from campus around 8:30 and headed out to an Ouzeri (basically a tabepna. taverna. personally, i like it in greek better) for dinner. We had the most amazing chicken souvlaki ever. You haven't had chicken until you've had this chicken. Anyway, the restaurant gave me a bottle of ouzo for my birthday, which was really nice of them. I don't really like ouzo, it tastes like black licorice, but it was a nice gesture and a great souvenier of my 21st in greece. Around 11:30 we all headed down to the waterfront and got to Dante's just in time to celebrate at midnight. As always, the guys who work there facilitated the party.
Wednesday morning, I woke up early to treat myself to the best birthday present I could think of. I went with my friend Danika to book a trip to Santorini for the weekend. Wednesday night all of the girls in my apartment building gathered in my room for a mini surprise party complete with a cake, a birthday card (in greek, naturally), and even a makeshift birthday candle (we haven't really mastered the grocery stores here yet). I was kinda sad I couldn't spend the day with friends and family from home, so for them to do that for me made the day really special.
So Thursday night, after a full day of classes I quickly packed and Heather, Danika, and I made our way to the train station to catch the 6 hour train ride to Athens. It was quite the experience. You know the train that takes Harry and his friends to Hogwarts...thats the kind of train we took to Athens - with our own(ish) little room and everything. It was pretty great. We got to Athens around 6:30 am and booked it to Piraeus Port. I was a little nervous we wouldn't be able to find our way around the metro, but it was really easy. We boarded the ferry and made ourselves as comfortable as we could for the 8 hour trip. You may think I'm crazy for travelling 14 hours one way for just a weekend in Santorini, but I can promise you it was 100% worth it. I would have travelled twice as far to stay half as long and it still would have been the best decision of my life. The ferry ride was actually pretty pleasant. We watched the sun rise over Athens and we also stopped at Paros and Naxos islands on the way. I thought both of these islands were beautiful, but as soon as I saw Santorini, I knew that that was the island to go to.As we all herded off the ferry, we saw a whole line of men trying to get people to stay at their hotels. Perfect. We went over and started to bargain. Being college students abroad, our funds were obviously limited. We knew what price we wanted and went for it. Luckily, our bargaining skills paid off and we were able to get a room for 20 euro each for 2 nights. AWESOME. We made it to the hotel within an hour and were off exploring very soon after that. We stayed in Fira, so that was the first town we explored. There were all these little shops leading up to the top of the cliff the town is built on. We meandered our way up and as soon as we saw the view from the top we were speechless. Having seen pictures of Santorini, I knew it would be beautiful, but pictures do the island no justice. I honestly think it was the most gorgeous view I have ever seen in my life.
Once we got a little bit over our ooohs and ahhhs (they never really went away...everything we saw stunned us) we walked past a cafe built right on the edge of the cliff. It was just about time for the sunset, and the man who owned the place started chatting us up. He spoke great english and was just about the nicest most enthusiastic man ever. And of course his name was Nikos, who's isn't? We took a seat at his cafe for some frappes (a foamy iced coffee) and to watch the sunset. We explored a little more and went to a Taverna for dinner. After dinner we decided to grab some gelatto before going to bed early. We stopped at a little gelatto place, where we met Nikos #2, who is the only Nikos we know thats our age. We sat and chatted with him for a while, and he wanted us to wait for him to get off work so we could all go out together. We had a big day planned for Saturday, so we didn't take him up on his offer, but we planned to meet up the following night.
On Saturday morning, we woke up for a few minutes to watch the sunrise from our balcony at the hotel. An hour or so later we trekked down to the old port to catch a boat trip over to Nea Kameni Volcano. We hiked up the volcano with Sophocles, our tour guide, who knew a lot about Santorini and its volcanic activity. On the volcano, we met a group of kids in the College Year Athens program. This isn't important now, but it will be later. I've never been on a volcano before, so that was super cool. After the volcano hike the boat took us the the hot springs where we jumped off and swam in the warm water. Then the boat took us to Thirassia Island for lunch and a little more swimming and sightseeing. Danika, Heather, and I grabbed a quick lunch and walked around the pebbly beaches looking for sea glass and shells. On the way from Thirassia to Oia (pronounced Ia), the glass-bottom boat sailed over a reef with a small shipwreck, which was also really great to see.
Here comes the fun part. When we first saw the donkeys, we knew we had to ride them. So, we rode donkey from the port in Oia to the town above. What an experience. We were all laughing hysterically and half-terrified the entire way up, but it was so awesome to turn the corner on a donkey and see the view of Oia. Oia is a really beautiful part of Santorini. Its on the very edge of the northern corner of the island, so the views are spectacular, and the sunsets breathtaking. We walked around the town for a while, and found it to be considerably more quiet and couple-friendly than Fira. It being the off season for Santorini, the entire island was much quieter than it would have been in the summer time, but the weather was still very warm and sunny and most places were still open for business. After exploring Oia for a while, we walked to the very corner of the island and found a place to watch the sunset. The sign outside the place said that it was the most popular place for marriage proposals, and I believe it. As the sun was setting a sailboat sailed right into the sun's light and it was gorgeous. We grabbed dinner at a taverna and caught the public bus (aka a coach bus....wayyyy nicer than public busses anywhere else in the world) back to Fira for a night out.
Back in Fira, we walked around a bit and wandered into a couple of bars. We saw Sophocles (our tour guide from the volcano) sitting outside the bar (young) Nikos suggested and sat and chatted with him for a while. He imparted several hilarious words of wisdom to us, and even gave us a little grammar lesson in greek. Unfortunatly, Nikos wasn't able to close his shop, so he wasn't able to come out with us Saturday night either. But, he did offer to drive us to the beach sunday morning, so we exchanged phone numbers and he said he'd try to wake up in time.
Sunday we woke up early to get a little shopping in before calling Nikos to wake him up. When calls to Nikos proved unsuccessful, we decided to get innovative. We really wanted to get a little more sun before getting the ferry back to Athens, and our hotel didn't have a pool. So we decided to find one. Sophocles, the night before, reminded us that you never know until you try, and the worse that will happen is that you'll get no for an answer. So, we decided to go to the nearest hotels and give it a shot. The first place was a hands-down absolutely not. The second place, however, looked like there was no one there and that it was closing for the season. We walked in and offered to pay to use their beautiful pool. The lady immediatly said, "if you don't mind the weather, the pool is yours." While it was pretty windy, the sun was still hot, so of course we didn't mind the weather. While we were there, Nikos called back and wanted to meet us in his village or at the port for coffee before we left. We didn't end up having enough time, but I wanted to share the story of Nikos' great hospitality anyway.
Once we got on the ferry, which was a titanic-like endeavor, we saw the guys studying in athens again. Since we landed in Athens at 1 am and didn't leave until 7 am, we decided to ask them if they knew of anywhere we could go to kill some time. Without hesitation, they said that we were more than welcome to get a taxi back with them and crash for a few hours at there place. So thats what we did. It was a little weird, as expected, but we would have been lost without them. They gave us directions from their place to the metro, and we offered our apartments in Thessaloniki to them if they ever wanted it. I've been so impressed with everyone's kindness here in Greece. Granted, there are definitely people who aren't so friendly, but the vast majority of people will do anything to help you out.
It was a long journey to and from Santorini, but it was so worth it. I can honestly say that was one of the best, if not the best, weekends of my life. Before Thursday when people asked, "If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?" I would always answer with Santorini. And honestly, if they asked me now, I would probably still say Santorini.
Here are the links to the photo albums on Facebook...check them out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003813&l=56bd2&id=1326450028
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003814&l=6d859&id=1326450028
Also, if you're interested, here's the link to the photo album of my trip to Mt. Athos and Halkidiki:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003751&l=0d0e3&id=1326450028
Monday, 29 September 2008
This past weekend I took a school-sponsored trip to Mt. Athos and Halkidiki. On the way to Ouranoupoli, (the town where we caught our boat tour of Athos) I felt like I was driving through every country and every climate of the world. I had the desert lands of Africa, the green rolling hills and mountains of Ireland, the rocky cliffs and fjords of Norway, canyons of Colorado, and the blue clear waters of the Caribbean. I really enjoyed seeing the land of Greece on our journey. We haven't seen much more than city life since we've been here, so it was nice to see the villages and the nature of Greece.
It was cloudy and chilly when we got on our boat in Ouranoupoli, and while we would have preferred a more sunny and warm day, I was really excited to see what Mt. Athos was. I didn't really know much about it, and I was expecting to see just one dinky monastery. I was definitely wrong. Mt. Athos, which means Holy Mountain, is a large peninsula that is home to about 20 monasteries, built by different countries of the world. The peninsula is covered with cliffs and mountains (reaching up to the actual Mt. Athos at 6,670 ft) and each of the monasteries is very much separated from the rest. Women are not allowed to step foot on the peninsula and are only allowed to see the monasteries from boats at least 500m from shore. This is because of a religious reason, and it is a law that has been followed since the very first monastery was built in 980. Men need an entrance permit, and Orthodox Christians get first dibs. All of the monasteries were impressive - built nestled into the cliffs overlooking the sea, they had beautiful architecture. Its hard to imagine when and how these monasteries were built.
Once the boat turned around to head back to Ouranoupoli, we decided to go downstairs and get out of the chilly wind for a while. Maggie, Dana, and I sat down at a table near an elderly man. When his wife came back she started talking to us in Greek. We quickly pulled out our Greek dictionaries, but it wasn't really helpful at all. We quickly introduced ourselves (mainly because thats the only real Greek that we know) and started talking to them with hand gestures and very very simple language. Demitri and Dana (I think thats his wife's name. She got all excited when Dana told her her name, so we think they had the same one) loved us. Demetri gave us lavendar and Dana kept kissing our cheeks. We also took several pictures of us all together. I'm pretty sure they wanted us to come to their home for lunch, but we had very little time to spend in the village. As we said goodbye we exchanged cell phone numbers, as though we would be able to understand eachother on the phone.
The next day the sun came out, but it was still pretty windy and cold. A few brave souls decided to swim in the Aegean, myself included. Obviously. Why in the world would I miss out on what might be my only opportunity to swim in the Aegean sea? The water was so warm and once you got past where the "waves" broke the sand was soft. It was a great swim, it was only getting out that was the hard part. This is Jaime and I after our swim. We were the only girls to brave it, and we were pretty proud of ourselves. But you guys know me, even if the air and the water had been colder I still would have done it.
We got warmed up and hung around the hotel for a while before having lunch and heading back to Thessaloniki. Its too bad that the wind never died down, I know we all would have enjoyed sunbathing a bit more, but it was a great trip anyway!
It was cloudy and chilly when we got on our boat in Ouranoupoli, and while we would have preferred a more sunny and warm day, I was really excited to see what Mt. Athos was. I didn't really know much about it, and I was expecting to see just one dinky monastery. I was definitely wrong. Mt. Athos, which means Holy Mountain, is a large peninsula that is home to about 20 monasteries, built by different countries of the world. The peninsula is covered with cliffs and mountains (reaching up to the actual Mt. Athos at 6,670 ft) and each of the monasteries is very much separated from the rest. Women are not allowed to step foot on the peninsula and are only allowed to see the monasteries from boats at least 500m from shore. This is because of a religious reason, and it is a law that has been followed since the very first monastery was built in 980. Men need an entrance permit, and Orthodox Christians get first dibs. All of the monasteries were impressive - built nestled into the cliffs overlooking the sea, they had beautiful architecture. Its hard to imagine when and how these monasteries were built.
The village of Ouranoupoli
This is what I thought the monasteries would look like. I was wrong...
The cliffs and hills of the peninsula
The first monastery
The Russian monastery. This one was my favorite. 2000 Russian and Greek monks live here.
A monastery on a cliff
Mt. Athos, called the "Garden of the Virgin" by the monks
Once the boat turned around to head back to Ouranoupoli, we decided to go downstairs and get out of the chilly wind for a while. Maggie, Dana, and I sat down at a table near an elderly man. When his wife came back she started talking to us in Greek. We quickly pulled out our Greek dictionaries, but it wasn't really helpful at all. We quickly introduced ourselves (mainly because thats the only real Greek that we know) and started talking to them with hand gestures and very very simple language. Demitri and Dana (I think thats his wife's name. She got all excited when Dana told her her name, so we think they had the same one) loved us. Demetri gave us lavendar and Dana kept kissing our cheeks. We also took several pictures of us all together. I'm pretty sure they wanted us to come to their home for lunch, but we had very little time to spend in the village. As we said goodbye we exchanged cell phone numbers, as though we would be able to understand eachother on the phone.
Boat and Ouranoupoli
The we drove an hour or so back to our hotel in Halkidiki, a beach resort town. Our hotel was beautiful. It was in its own little cove of crystal clear blue water. Because the summer tourism season is now over, we were the only ones in the hotel except for a family from Germany. We explored the beach before we drove into the village for dinner. This is the taverna we ate at right on the water. Taverna is my favorite word in Greek mainly because with Greek letters it is spelled "TABEPNA" and I think its funny. It also means really good cheap food and free wine, which may also be a reason its my favorite Greek word.
We got warmed up and hung around the hotel for a while before having lunch and heading back to Thessaloniki. Its too bad that the wind never died down, I know we all would have enjoyed sunbathing a bit more, but it was a great trip anyway!
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
I started classes yesterday, and most of my classes seem like they'll be really good. Because I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday (YES!) I'm on campus from 11 am to 8pm. Its a long day, but its worth not having to get to campus every day of the week. My first class is an Anthropology/Sociology class focused on Gender, which I think will be very interesting. After that I have Greek, which clearly will probably be the most useful class that I'm taking. I'm already learning a lot of useful phrases, and I'm learning how to read pretty quickly too. But when I say read, I mean I can slowly sound out things that I see written, I still can't put meaning to it yet though. After Greek I have Ethics, which will probably be my favorite class. I have to take a "moral inquiry" class as a graduation requirement at Stonehill, and I'm so glad that I jumped through all those hoops for them to allow me to take it here instead. Greek students are extremely outspoken and don't care at all about what people think of them, so our discussions are uncensored and very real. On the first day of class we were given an ethical dilemma, and there were already arguments creeping through. I'm sure this class will be very interesting and thought-provoking. My last class is Econ...which i'm not all that excited about, but its a requirement at Stonehill and I think it will be easier here than at home. Classes here seem to be at just about the same difficulty level as the average class at Stonehill, which makes me very grateful to only be taking 4 classes. My professors all remind me a little of Sr. Castro, which is sort of a scary thought. English is their second language and they all seem like they might be a little bit crazy, but hopefully not nearly as crazy as Sr.
Up until this point I've been giving just a basic rundown of what I've been doing each day. Now I'll tell you more about the everyday observations I've made since I've been here. It may seem like I'm ranting and that some of these things bother me, but its just taking a little while to get used to some of the things here.
1. Everyone smokes. And not how people smoke in the states. I mean they SMOKE. In the hour or so we were on the bus with Stephano (the student that picked us all up from the airport) I could swear he smoked an entire pack. ON THE BUS. crazy. Every indoor place you walk into is smoky, which is why we are so grateful that nearly every place is an open-air cafe/bar so you can sit outside and get some fresh air. This has probably been the hardest thing to get used to, and I don't think I will ever get used to it. As college students, we come from a generation that knows how bad smoking is for you, and we're also used to the smoking bans in the states, so this is certainly an adjustment for most of us.
2. Stray Dogs and Cats. Everywhere. I don't know how all these animals ended up on the streets, but they're everywhere. Its really sad to see sometimes. I think its because when people can no longer afford to feed their animals they just let them loose in the city. By no means are these animals starving, there are countless places for them to find food, but its really sad that they don't have homes.
3. Stoop Sitting. Stoop Sitting is an extreme sport here in Thessaloniki, and I love it. People just gather in groups of varying size and sit. For hours. Sometimes they'll try to talk to us when we walk by, sometimes they'll try to imitate us, sometimes they'll say "bella" (which may or may not be the greek word for beautiful. I think its the only word they know that they think we'll understand), sometimes they'll say "I love you," which anywhere else would get really annoying but for some reason its just really funny here. If its a creepy guy saying it though we'll respond with "se agra po" which is "I love you" in Greek and then they get really confused and kind of ashamed, which is also really funny. I think the guy that owns the market on the corner sits on his stoop 20 hours a day with whatever friend has stopped by. We don't think he likes us very much, but why should he? He lives near a bunch of American college students who walk around in large groups at all hours of the day and night, laughing and talking in a foreign language. We don't blame him for not liking us, but we do give him a lot of business. In fact right now, there is a man walking down the street playing an accordian in hopes of receiving some spare change from the stoop sitters.
4. The toast man. His name is Nikos, and he is by far my favorite Greek person. Toast is basically a panini that you can put anything into, and its delicious. He also makes crepes, which before I came here I thought of as a French dessert. Crepes in Greece are a meal, anything you put into a regular sandwich you can put into a crepe. Anyway, Nikos' shop is right down the street and he is adorable. Ordering things has been our biggest challenge here (and most people must think we're idiots when we try to speak greek), but ordering from Nikos is an absolute joy. He knows basically no english, but is always willing to learn. And he tries to teach us Greek too. The other day Heather and I went down for a crepe and he had us try some cheese spread, it was a little spicy, so Heather taught him that word. We were there for a while, and we tried to chat with his as much as we could. He asked our names, and when we both said Heather, he laughed and I'm pretty sure he thought it was the greatest thing in the world, either that or he thought we didn't understand his question, we can't be sure. Last night we were walking by his shop coming back from the bus stop and we waved, and he got all excited and waved back. He is adorable and we love him, he always has a goofy smile on his face and is always so happy to help you.
Thats all for now!
Up until this point I've been giving just a basic rundown of what I've been doing each day. Now I'll tell you more about the everyday observations I've made since I've been here. It may seem like I'm ranting and that some of these things bother me, but its just taking a little while to get used to some of the things here.
1. Everyone smokes. And not how people smoke in the states. I mean they SMOKE. In the hour or so we were on the bus with Stephano (the student that picked us all up from the airport) I could swear he smoked an entire pack. ON THE BUS. crazy. Every indoor place you walk into is smoky, which is why we are so grateful that nearly every place is an open-air cafe/bar so you can sit outside and get some fresh air. This has probably been the hardest thing to get used to, and I don't think I will ever get used to it. As college students, we come from a generation that knows how bad smoking is for you, and we're also used to the smoking bans in the states, so this is certainly an adjustment for most of us.
2. Stray Dogs and Cats. Everywhere. I don't know how all these animals ended up on the streets, but they're everywhere. Its really sad to see sometimes. I think its because when people can no longer afford to feed their animals they just let them loose in the city. By no means are these animals starving, there are countless places for them to find food, but its really sad that they don't have homes.
3. Stoop Sitting. Stoop Sitting is an extreme sport here in Thessaloniki, and I love it. People just gather in groups of varying size and sit. For hours. Sometimes they'll try to talk to us when we walk by, sometimes they'll try to imitate us, sometimes they'll say "bella" (which may or may not be the greek word for beautiful. I think its the only word they know that they think we'll understand), sometimes they'll say "I love you," which anywhere else would get really annoying but for some reason its just really funny here. If its a creepy guy saying it though we'll respond with "se agra po" which is "I love you" in Greek and then they get really confused and kind of ashamed, which is also really funny. I think the guy that owns the market on the corner sits on his stoop 20 hours a day with whatever friend has stopped by. We don't think he likes us very much, but why should he? He lives near a bunch of American college students who walk around in large groups at all hours of the day and night, laughing and talking in a foreign language. We don't blame him for not liking us, but we do give him a lot of business. In fact right now, there is a man walking down the street playing an accordian in hopes of receiving some spare change from the stoop sitters.
4. The toast man. His name is Nikos, and he is by far my favorite Greek person. Toast is basically a panini that you can put anything into, and its delicious. He also makes crepes, which before I came here I thought of as a French dessert. Crepes in Greece are a meal, anything you put into a regular sandwich you can put into a crepe. Anyway, Nikos' shop is right down the street and he is adorable. Ordering things has been our biggest challenge here (and most people must think we're idiots when we try to speak greek), but ordering from Nikos is an absolute joy. He knows basically no english, but is always willing to learn. And he tries to teach us Greek too. The other day Heather and I went down for a crepe and he had us try some cheese spread, it was a little spicy, so Heather taught him that word. We were there for a while, and we tried to chat with his as much as we could. He asked our names, and when we both said Heather, he laughed and I'm pretty sure he thought it was the greatest thing in the world, either that or he thought we didn't understand his question, we can't be sure. Last night we were walking by his shop coming back from the bus stop and we waved, and he got all excited and waved back. He is adorable and we love him, he always has a goofy smile on his face and is always so happy to help you.
Thats all for now!
Monday, 22 September 2008
Agios Demetrious Church
Here's my apartment building from the Old City walls. Its the building with the slanted red roof and the balconies! The lucky ducks on this side of the building have a fantastic view. Ours isn't nearly as nice, but we have bigger rooms. (No, Mom, you can't change rooms in Greece hahaha)
The view of Thessaloniki from the top. Our neighborhood is in the middle far left side of the photo
The Old City's walls
Joana, Allie, Me, and Heather at Vergina in front of King Phillip's undeground tomb
Aristotelus Square
The Arch of Galerius
First night out on the town. Joana, Heather, and Shira are posing under the arch of galerius
Me, Heather, Demetri and Dave at Dante
Kathryn (my roommate) with Angel, the bar's manager. He keeps insisting he's going to take us all to a concert. Apparently he's pretty famous in Thessaloniki, everyone knows of him.
The view of Thessaloniki from ACT's campus...so pretty!Hope you enjoyed just a small sampling of the pictures I took this week. They take forever to load, but maybe the internet on campus is faster and I'll be able to post more tomorrow!
Kalispera!!!
Kalispera!!!
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