Athens

Athens

As our three large blue buses drove into Athens I was surprisingly reminded of Mexico City. After the beautiful natural landscapes of Meteora, and Delphi seeing so much gray was truly shocking and a little bit dissappointing. I almost felt cheated, as if in between so much beauty someone had decided to make a gray patch filled with cars, buildings and shops just for their own benefit. I suppose this is somewhat true, which is slightly sad but of course necesary since Athens holds a third of the population of Greece and is the main big metropolitan spot. Although after three days of seeing Greek on all the signs I was already a bit nostalgic for my own alphabet, it was actually really cool to see the grafitti in Greek on a lot of streets. I guess I never really thought of ‘alpha’ and ‘stigma’ as letters that one would use in street slang grafitti.
Fortunately though, the city was not all a huge patch of gray dissappointment. After settling into our hotel, we were told to meet in the center of the city for our first Athenian lectures. After following the hard street names (our own street was Karageorgi Servias Str. all in the Greek alphabet for example) and avoiding the Athenian drivers (which are very similar to Roman drivers) we all met up in the center and then made our way to the Pnyx.
As we settled unto the Pnyx, the reality of it settled in us as well. This was the very rocky stone where one of the world’s earliest democratic legislatures, the Athenian ekklesia met. The Ekklesia was the popular assembly composed of all the Athenian citizens and was one of the very factors of the Radical Democracy in the Archaic Age of Athens. So we sat on this huge stone, looking down on the Agora and we could see the Acropolis at a distance as we listend to some lectures as well as some students’ reading of Pericles’ Funeral Oration. It was powerful to say the least, to hear such a strong appeal for democracy, which would later inspire great leaders, like the American Founding Fathers, at the very spot where it was first exposed.
We then walked to the Areopagus hill, where the highest governmental council would meet, overlooking the entire city, but still with the daunting image of the Acropolis to the west. We were all getting very anxious to finally see the Parthenon.

Climbinb up the Areopagus

To climb the Areopagus, most of us decided to go up the slippery marble stone steps which St Paul once climbed on, which was just another small cool feat of the hill. Above the Areopagus we listened to more lectures and had another student performance of Aeschylus’ Eumenides. This was perhaps the most memorable performance since all seven actors were extremely committed to their role, especially the ‘furies’ who all kept writhing and making angry faces the entire time. This of course kept us entertained, as well as many other tourists who decided to stay to watch even if they probably did not understand anything.

The 'furies' performing -with our guide dog in front.

(It was actually really weird. At many times, one or two dogs would cling on to us and just follow us and bark at anyone who was not part of our group. How they knew who wasn't part of our group, we had no idea. Why they were so protective of us? No idea. But they really followed us around the Pnyx, and the Areopagus, and when a group went at dawn to the Areopagus the next morning, a new set of protective dogs followed them and barked at the 'strangers'. Truly remarkable.. )

There is something really nice about writing all these memories down: (even weeks late, which I apologize for) the more I write the more I remember, and the more I can make eternal. Fortunately I kept a journal throughout the trip, but I can’t help but wonder at all the moments which are lost or hiding in memory, and when they will come out.

Anyway believe it or not, that was only our first day in Athens. It concluded with a nice group dinner and an early night for most of us since we had not slept much the previous night in Delphi and had to wake up early again for the Acropolis!

The second day in Athens was probably one of my favorite days of the whole trip (though it might be beaten by Nafplion, which I’ll write about hopefully soon). It was filled with everything the Greece Trip is supposed to be. First we visited the entrance to the Agora, and the Agora Museum, and then we made our way around the Agora, seeing each site as something special. One of the coolest places was the Prison. The very prison in which Socrates spent his very last days! Of course as a good UD Greek Trip experience, out came Plato’s Apology, and some students read it aloud. Although every time we read something ‘on site’ I got a very cool almost transcendental feeling, as if we could bend through time, listening to “Socrates’ last words” was possibly the one time I really appreciated the power of reading, teaching, learning and traveling all together.

The prison

After that amazing experience, we made our way (finally) up the Acropolis steps. We sat before the Parthenon as Dr. Lisot explained all the artwork in it and around it (all of which would then land on the midterm...), and Dr. Hatlie explained its main purposes. We then looked at the Erechtheum next and then we were free to go about Athens.

On the west side of the Parthenon

This next bit of the day is also the reason I loved this day so much. My friends and I decided we would visit the Acropolis Museum, which held so many artifacts bits of stones, pediments for about four floors. We then made our way into the center of the city in search of “gyros”. There is apparently a UD tradition between the guys to see who can eat the most gyros during the greece trip (which are very similar to the Turkish Kebabs but with pita bread), so they went at it. My friends and I found a cheap store and sat on the street across from it to enjoy our gyros and a shared baklava. We were all very happy and quite carefree, knowing we had hours before the next lecture or appointed site, just enjoying Greek food purchased for the first time by our account, sharing our thoughts and laughing with each other. It may seem like a very typical thing, especially next to having seen the Parthenon in person, but truly this is something I know I’ll always hold dear to me. Just sharing gyros, baklava and laughter with my friends in some unpronounceable street in Athens.
We continued through the street after our most enjoyable lunch, going into every souvenieur shop trying on things and looking at small artifacts, really just hanging out with our free time. There was an optional hike up the tallest hill in Athens, Mt. Lykabbetos, and so I decided that wasn’t something I wanted to miss out on. Halfway up this huge betraying hill, which did not look that tall from the hotel, I decided maybe it was something I did want to miss out on... but after an hour of hiking up, it was all worth it. The view was incredible. Although you could see the patch of gray I had initially disliked, you could also see the great ancient structures from a new perspective, as well as mountains and the ocean far away. We stayed there for a really long time, taking pictures and talking, and I took the time to write a little on my journal, wondering what it was that made this sight, as well as all the previous ones that week, so beautiful and so enchanting to all of us.

The view from Mt. Lykabbetos

Dinner that night was once again “on UD”, which was appreciated after our wallets had had to come out for lunch and were not really that eager to stay out in exchange for food for a while. It was as always perfectly coordinated, and after that we all set out to explore Athens at night. Or to go to sleep early again jaja.

The next morning we unfortunately had to leave Athens. We didn’t get the chance to see the Archeological Museum of Athens, which truly saddened Dr. Hatlie, and he told us we had to come back to Greece even if only to visit this museum. The reason was that there were major riot threats and we had to leave the city. Looking at the newspapers later that day we saw pictures of one of the most violent riots in Greece on the very plaza where we had loaded everything on our buses just hours before. So it was good that we got out of the city, even if a little earlier than unexpected. An on we made our way, in hopes of reaching Mycenae if it was not closed, before arriving at Nafplion.

Delphi

On our third day of traveling, after the quick stop at Thermopylae, we arrived at Delphi.

Although I still had the marvelous mountains of Meteora on my mind and I was sure those would be the most amazing thing I would be seeing, Delphi really left me aghast.

Remains of the Temple to Hera

We got to the Archeological Site of Delphi a little later than we had planned for, but it only gave us an even nicer weather with the sun starting to set. Starting at the middle of Mount Parnassus we saw the remains of the Temple to Hera, where both Dr. Hatlie and Dr. Lisot gave us lectures on its function and architecture, respectively. Then we made our way to the Temple of Apollo, which we could see in the distance.

On our way up the mountain next to Mount Parnassus we stopped for a while so a second group of performers could read a passage from Aeschylus' Eumenides. Every time we had a group perform, our whole class was involved. We had all read this passage before, we had the background and knew what would happen afterwards, we had all sat in Dr. Osborn's class as he explained its significance and now 5 or seven people were making it come alive at a place where it would have taken life before. (If not by the ancient Greeks, at least by some previous UD students jaja). We all saw as people from different groups of friends joined to make up a scene from a Greek Tragedy, and we all became the audience together.

Hiking/walking around the Sanctuary of Apollo.

After a short hike we stopped again for a lecture on everything we would be seeing once we got to the top. Dr. Lisot talked to us about the importance Siphnian Treasury, the Oracle of Delphi and how it worked (I really need to study this, especially because it's on my Midterm this Friday!), the way that Heracles tried to cheat his way into having the Oracle before all the others in line, talked about the Pythian games (a Panhellenic precursor to the Olympics) which happened at this site and its gymnasium, the sanctuary to Apollo.... and more that we later hiked up a bit to see.

Looking down on the Symphian treasury, with the Temple of Hera in the far left.

Once again we had an amazing vantage point, this time both over the Temple to Hera and to the right over the city of Delphi. The sight was incredible, took my breath away. Seeing the buildings (which were pretty well restored for their age) was also pretty cool, but I couldn't take my eyes away from the mountains. Even when we got up to the theater and listened to our philosophy and literature professors lecture us.

Beautiful, eye stealing mountains

Dr. Nelson talked about Socrates, and although he had told us this before, talked about the oracle of Delphi which had said he was the wisest man alive. Because of this Socrates, made it his goal in life to prove this, and to talk to anyone that thought himself wise in order to do so. Of course, anyone that knows about Socrates knows that this got him in trouble with the politicians and others in power who thought they knew when they did not and were shown so by Socrates.... and so he was eventually convicted to death for this "crime".

Dr. Osborn then talked about Dantes Paradiso, which is part of the trilogy of the Divine Comedy which we all read last year. Cool fact for anyone that has read it: Mount Parnassus is Mount Purgatory! The very mountain I was looking at is the one that Dante imagined himself going up with Virgil as he made his way up to Paradise.

All the (lucky) people (that got this hotel) staring out their balconies at the amazing sight.

After a couple more lectures, we headed to the hotels in Delphi. Since we were about 120+ people with our group and Delphi is not the biggest of cities, we had to split up. Luckily, I was in the fortunate group, that got the hotel with THE most amazing view out our windows and porches, aand we had hot water. Honestly though, I do not think I have ever stared out a window and seen anything close to what I could see in my hotel room in Delphi. It was paradisal. I imagine that if Eden could be compared to anything, it would have been this sight. I could have stayed out in the porch and stared for weeks, especially knowing that as the sun started to set and the stars and moon became more visible, the beauty before me only morphed into different sets of art. There was nowhere that the sun could move to make this sight less marvelous.

The view from our hotel window/porch.

However I had to peel my eyes off from the mountains and water to go to dinner, and then we all went to a Discoteca. While paying five euros to go into a small Greek "club", which looked more like a small rented party room with a bar, with the same 100+ students that you are with all day long may not sound like much... it was actually one of the highlights of the trip.

We completely took over this place for almost three hours. We all danced in our own UD way, very clean and very sober, and everyone went around dancing (or jumping with flailing arms) with people they perhaps didn't talk to as much. Some Greek guys arrived at the club at one point (probably knowing that some American College girls had arrived at their city once more) and tried to dance with us, but it was very sweet to see that all of our guys (though not many) made somewhat of a circle around all the girls, and were on the look out for creepy guys all night. All in all it was an extremely fun night, and to top it off Dr. Osborn was there dancing all three hours with us! When it was almost time for the club to empty, as we all had to go back for curfew, we put Dr. Osborn up on the small stage and he crowd surfed over all of us.

Indubitably, one of the funnest nights of the trip.

Dancing in the Discoteca. Dr. Osborn is the third from the left on stage.

Thermopylae

On our way from Kalambaka (the city where we stayed a night after Dodona and Meteora) to Delphi, we made an unplanned stop in Thermopylae. Although there was not really much to see at this site, it was more incredible because of everything that had happened on the ground we now stood on. The battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans followed Leonidas knowing they were fighting to die for Sparta.

It was a strange almost indescribable feeling, imagining the passion and the bloodshed on that very place, thinking of all the Spartan values and all the war strategy we had learned of the Greeks so far...

The monument to Leonidas. Underneath is inscribed in Greek "Come at us!"

All the boys of course stood in front of the monument statue to Leonidas and took off their shirts and made manly noises yelling for Sparta.

Meteora

Meteora is by far one of the most amazing, surprising, beautiful places I have ever seen or even heard of. When we saw on the itinerary that we would be going to the Grand Meteoron Monastery of Meteora, we expected a beautiful building with a church. None of us expected this beautiful building to be on top of the coolest looking rock/mountains.

The monastery is in the center.

Our bus took us pretty high up, but even then we had to cross a bridge and climb up many stairs to get to the Greek Orthodox Monastery itself. Our History Professor and Director of the Rome Program (a man who gained all of our respect and admiration not only from the first week of school, but by organizing this trip as well) Dr. Hatlie introduced the monastery, telling us its history and cool facts about it. We then got to tour inside of it, and I'll be honest the room of skulls of previous monks and the icons of suffering martyrs inside the church creeped me out... but the sights, the architecture of the monastery, and the fact that this was all built on top of the coolest mountain ever, all made up for an extremely memorable experience.

Fortunately, I have plenty of pictures to share with you.

We climbed up the stairs (which look like a slanted Z). On the right you can sort of see a tower with a dangling basket. This was once how people would bring food and water up to the monks, when they would completely seclude themselves from society. The stairs were built later.

Slightly creepy skulls of previous monks.

We got to explore a bit on one of the cool rocks and to take pictures.
Maggie and me, looking happy but slightly awkward.

Dodona

The Archeological Site and Theater of Dodona was our first taste of ancient Greece. I think the continuously coolest thing of this trip was just how much we learned of the Greek culture before going on this trip, just from classes in Rome. Not only was everything fresh in our memory since we had all just gone a whole week of studying for our Western Civilization Midterm which consisted mainly of the Dark, Archaic and Classical Ages in Greek territory, I also realized just how much we had learned in the other classes when we got to Dodona. Our greek tragedies came alive, the polis culture was evident, and of course we were able to identify the types of architecture found on this site.

The main "ruin" to see was the theater. It was amazing to see how much of it was left, and though we were not allowed on the bleachers, the first group of performing students read a passage from Antigone as we watched from the orchestra pit. (It's a tradition on the Greece Trip for some students to read/perform excerpts from great works that we've studied on site).

While the theater was impressive however, as were the remains of a temple, what really caught my breath were the surrounding mountains.

As I stood up on a torn down wall of what used to be a temple (which was at one point turned into a Catholic church) I saw everything. Nature of course, rocks and rocks of course, people taking pictures, talking, admiring, and (as corny as it may sound) I imagined the ancient Greeks there with us for the first time. I wondered what thoughts had crept into their own minds as they had climbed up the theater excited for the performances to come, what they had thought as they themselves may have stood on a tall point and stared at the magnificent mountains...

Needless to say, it was an extremely good first site to visit.

Due Santi-> Ancona -> Igoumenitsa

We started our voyage last Friday, Sept 30th into our creatively named "Greece Trip" with many, many hours of traveling. Leaving at 7:00 am, slightly late because three guys forgot to set an alarm to wake up, we embarked on our 5 hour bus ride, 2 hours of waiting in Ancona to get on the Ferry "SuperfastXI" and the 16+ hours that we spent on this ginormous boat.

I wish I could say we were all excited as we were leaving campus, but in reality we were all pretty tired. The buses were quiet, some people were reading through their itinerary (which looked really busy and a bit stressful), and most were sleeping, trying to catch up with the sleep that the previous week had drained with its midterms and papers. However it all picked up as soon as we got on the ferry. Perhaps because it reminded us much more of a cruise than the ferry we had all pictured (like those long squares that you put your car on to get to an island in any big city), but also because the reality of going to even another different country started to settle in.

We all started to talk about the places we were headed to, especially as we shared the magnificent view of open blue in the winds of the deck. We took a lot of pictures with our hair flopping everywhere, of course sang the Titanic theme song, and swayed with the boat. It was the first of the many simple and fun bonding experiences that would come for us as a group in this trip.

I just realized that if I keep being this descriptive about each hour of the trip, I shall not even get to a city so I'll wrap this boat up. Basically it gave me personally a lot of time to both talk to my friends and think by myself in front of a vast view of water, to ponder at the size and significance of water and of course my own size and significance, it also gave me my first and quite humbling taste of Greek (it really bothered me not to be able to understand even a single sound, even after having "memorized" the list of suggested words in our packet), a swaying bed that came out of the wall, and of course took me to Greece.

We arrived early in the morning in the port of Igoumenitsa and made our way to the city of Dodona.

A month- catching up

It's been quite a while since I wrote my last entry and promised to try to keep writing more frequently.... almost a month. So I'm sorry about that. My only excuses include papers, midterms, extra classes and of course trips, which are all things I should have written about in the first place.

So anyway, I neglected to write about grape picking, my trip to Madrid and my second weekend in Rome. I shall get to those some other day since I got back from my ten day trip at Greece today, and it is all still fresh in my mind.

It was however, an extremely busy trip, so I'll be doing an entry per city and see how fast I can get to them. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have written about all the best experiences of these past 10 days... and hopefully I'll also be getting pictures for each entry by then.