I hate to sound like a broken record, but I do truly suck at this blog thing. It would probably be best if you just skimmed through it...it's really just a list of events. Now I'm only a few days behind...argh.
2/23/08 Today we left for Olympia, not to be confused with Olympus. We saw the Temple of Zeus, and raced in the stadium. I totally dominated KC. I also carried Rachel across the finish line. It was victorious. These small towns have been basically empty because it isn't tourist season. They're sort of like ghost towns. Not a terribly eventful day, although we did watch a WONDERFUL documentary on the Mani area. Yeah, it was actually boring beyond belief.
2/24/08 We left Olympia for Areopoli. We had lunch at a restaurant with a gorgeous view! It was above a small cove, and after we ate, we went down and played on the beach for a while. We saw sea urchins, and we skipped stones, and I almost stepped on an octopus!!! I freaked out, but it was quite cute from a distance. Back on the road, we hit some small towns. Italo was one, and we basically doubled the population when we arrived. Emily, Lissie, KC, and I hiked around, and found an old path, and found some amazing views. We found a cactus with fruit, so Sam went to get 3 of them. She tossed them to me, and we cut them open. NEVER TOUCH PRICKLY CACTUS PEARS! They have small prickles all over, and several of us had to get tweezers and pull them out one by one. I still have prickles in my hands, and it sucks. We arrived at the hotel in Areopoli but there was a mix up and they thought we weren't arriving until the next night. So we couldn't get in out rooms quite yet, but we were entertained by the spear fisherman convention that was there. Ha, itwas random. We watched the sunset and walked around town, which was, surprise, very empty.
2/25/08 Today was quite wonderful! We went to the Dinos caves, which have just recently been opened to tourists. We rode in flat boats of four, and a guy paddled and pushed us around the caves. It was very beautiful, and we played on a nearby beach again when we were done. We then hiked to some castle ruins on a peninsula. Lissie wears a pedometer around, and I think we hiked around 8 miles today. Needless to say, I am extremely tired. We ate lunch out on the ruins, and Rachel and I shared a marvelous meal of tsatziki, bread, pita chips, and an ion bar. Tsatziki is a cucumber sauce, delicious, and ion is a brand of chocolate that is absolutely wonderful! Mmm, tasty. A bunch of us ended the evening by watching the sun go down on our large balcony, and then Anchorman.
2/26/08 Another busy day! We left Aereopolis for Tolo today. On the way we went through Sparta, to the Mystras castle ruins. We went to nearby Naflio, where thereis another castle with 1,000 steps leading up to it. Even though the castle was closed, everyone decided to climbup anyway. I did not. Instead, Liz, Sam, and I opted for ice-cream and we walked to the end of a pier and enjoyed the sun. We got to Tolo, and discovered that our hotel was right on the beach. I ended an enjoyable day with a nice walk on the beach with Rachel, Emily, andKC.
2/27/08 We visited the Epidabros theatre today, where Michele and I performed a piece for class. We were scrambling to perform everyone's pieces in between groups of tourist and the lady telling us to stop...we continued on to Mycenae and the palace of Agammemnon, where Jennifer gave her site report. The Lion's Gate is located here~thank you art history! Seriously, while pictures in text books are cool, seeing things in person is so much cooler! There was an ancient water cistern that everyone climbed down into. This required the use of a flashlight as we scouted our way down the stairs to the well. We went back to Naflio for lunch, where there was delicious souvlaki and ice-cream to be had! We got back to the hotel, where Brock, Erik, Sam, Lissie, and I all donned are swimsuits for a little dip in the Mediteranean! Not only was it frickin' cold, but I was thrown in against my will. People on the beach built amazing sand castles and they incorporated medievel castle building techniques. Who knew learning could be so much fun?!?!
2/28/08 We had to leave early anyway, so we all got up to watch the sunrise! It was spectacular. We headed for the port, where we'll take a ferry to Crete. We stopped in Corinth, where Christina gave a fabulous site report. We climbed to the Acrocorinth, and saw the Temple of Aphrodite. We also stopped at the Temple of Poseidon. We found Olin Storvick napping on a wall, and he'll be with us for about a week. He's 83, and he's led around 35 abroad trips~he helped get Concordia's study abroad program where it is today. We then had to part ways with KC. We got on an overnight ferry to Crete, and she went to Athens to catch her flight. Good times KC, hope you enjoyed your spring break! Christina, Brianna, Marit, and I all bunked together on the ferry, and pretty sure we got the smallest out of all the rooms. I slept alright, although, I could only sleep towards the wall, or else I felt like I was going to fall out of bed. Rachel and I shared a lovely dinner of bread, tsatziki, and monk thyme honey. It was delicious. We explored the ferry, and everyone found their sea-legs and no one got sick!
2/29/08 We arrived in Crete bright and early! We dropped our stuff off at the hotel,and then traveled to the Knossos Palace, the most popular site in Greece behindthe Acropolis. It's so nice to behere in the off-tourist season though, because we were the only large groupthere! We got to see peacocks,there were about 20 of them outside the palace, strutting around. We then headed to the archeological museum,which was small, but it had the snake lady and the bull riding mosaic!
3/1/08 Today we visited Gorton, where there was the front part of a Greek Orthodox Church, and a Roman Odeon theatre. We also found Zeus's tree where he had a rendezvous with one of his many lovers. Then we visited another palace at Festus. Also the home to the festus disc. Fabulous. Then we hit up Matala, where we laid on the beach for the afternoon. This was a happening place in the 60s, and there are many caves in the cliff, where hippies would chillax, smoke weed, and spread the love. Haha, we didn't find any weed in the caves, just a good time in the sand and sun. Oh, and my computer charger broke.
3/2/08 Yet another palace today at Malia. Then we drove to a plateau, where there are windmills dotting the landscape. Unfortunately, none of their sails were up, so there were just metal structures everywhere. We hiked up a little way to Dikteon cave, where Rea gave birth. Yeah mythology! We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant just at the foot of the cave. We had succulent pork off the grill with potatoes. They also gave us candied figs, I don't know the actual name, but it was basically sugar. The cheese pies were also good, a little bit of cheese in a pocket of dough dipped in honey. Delicious! We also hit up a monastery on the way back. Just another day in Greece.
3/3/08 Today we had the privilege of sleeping in!!! It was marvelous! David, his son Cameron, and I ventured out for electronics stores in hopes of getting my charger fixed. We stopped by some Best Buy type stores, but I guess Apple isn't very big over here. I looked online and the closest Apple store is in Rome. Well, everyone said they couldn't fix it and they didn't have any replacements, but we were directed to a repairshop. At first the repairman was skeptical, but then he said he'd see what he could do. So I left with high hopes! In the afternoon, we visited another museum that had an exhibit on Nikos Kazantzakis. We are reading his book, Christ Recrucified. If you've never read it, I recommend it. There was also an exhibit with textiles and a loom. It was quite exciting! We got back to the hotel, and surprise! My computer charger had gotten fixed and had been dropped off at the hotel! It works like a dream and I am content!
Sorry it was so long!!! *side note* Herakalion can also be spelled Iraklion. Hope all is well at home!
