Olympic Champions

The last stop on our tour of the Peloponnese was Olympia!  We left early in the morning (again...), and started our drive.  We drove through some of the most beautiful mountainsides ever!  I was too busy staring out the window to be car sick even!  There was one part where the cliff hung over the road and our bus barely made it through.  I definitely would pick mountains over beaches. Any day.

When we got to Olympia, we went to the hotel, but no one was there.  Absolutely no one.  No guests, not staff, no one. Beginning to a horror movie?  I think so.  Eventually Robert our prof tracked down a lady and she let us in to drop off our bags, but we couldn't get into our rooms yet.  A.K.A they forgot we were coming.  Sweet.  So, we had a quick stop for lunch, but since it is the off season, most of the restaurants don't have their full menus, so you pretty much eat whatever they have.  After that we did, it was a bit of a rush to get to our meeting spot for our next adventure.  The archaeological site at Olympia closes at 3, so we just missed it, but we went to overlook it and see this BRAND NEW site where they've just recently found a temple to some goddess and the priestess at this temple was the only woman allowed to watch the Olympic games.

That night we had a make-up lecture in the hotel and Robert bought us all drinks and went off on tangents about how much he hates Spartans and how they're barbaric.  It was a very enjoyable class :)  After that was dinner...more meat and potatoes.  We played some card games after with most all of us and Elaine, Andrew and the kids.  It got really funny when I was about to get killed off, but little Finn came to my defense and said that we had been playing Starcraft Warrior all night and there was no way that I could have done it. :)

The next morning we had breakfast. Kayla's parents were along for the trip and they didn't know that Greek yogurt is a lot different from regular, American yogurt, so they were running around telling everyone that it was sour cream.

After breakfast, we went out to the site and did our lecture there.  we even go to go out on the first Olympic track!  We had a race, but I wasn't much in the mood for running, so I skipped and lept the whole 190 meters.  Steve won and there was no way that he would let anyone forget.  Molly interviewed him and accused him of cheating, but he denied it.  Right... ;)

We did a quick tour around the museum after, but not much there was exciting especially after a looonnnggg weekend.  Our bus ride back to Athens was a grueling 5+ hours, I fell asleep so that helped.  And then the bus driver remembered that he had a DVD player and a bunch of movies, so we watched "The Spy Next Door".  We stopped midway at a McDonald's and a bunch of us got 1euro milkshakes.  Then we got yelled at for bringing "things that could spill" on the bus....ugghhh.  So we had to stand outside the bus and chug them before getting back on.  BRAIN FREEZE!  The the bus driver said he was impatient to go, so we could get on with our contraband.  Great, I'd already drank all of mine.

We finally got back to our apartment and we were all filthy and tired.  My room seriously smelt like wet raingear for a week.  Yuck, but it was a really good weekend, especially over a holiday, because then we were more focused on doing fun, new stuff as opposed to being homesick.

THIS IS SPARTA!!!

So the day after Thanksgiving when my retail buddies were getting up at 3am to wrastle with angry Moms fighting for that last $2.99 toaster, I went to Sparta. We left Nauplion early in the morning and first headed to Tiryns for a little site visit.  It was only 15 minutes outside of Nauplion and we could still see the acropolis hill that we climbed the day before.  The site that we visited was a ancient Mycenaean palace.  Robert, our prof, would let us 'walk through the walls', but made us walked around the site as if it wasn't ruins and go through the proper doorways.  I really like that, it made it seem more real.  We had a little lecture about the layout of ancient palaces and then headed out the door.  Robert doesn't mess around.

From there we went to Mycenae to see the biggest Mycenaean palace in the area.  There was quite a bit there that was still intact which was really neat to see including this really deep cistern.  After our lecture, Robert said we could climb down in it.  The first 20 feet or so is just a regular stairwell, but then you round the corner into this tunnel, still with stairs, and it gets really dark.  No one had a flashlight and no one had a cell phone, so people were frantically searching their pockets for iPods and cameras.  We were taking pictures left and right just to see where we were going.  They're some of the most horribly candid shots I've seen :)   Since we were in the complete dark, we started getting a little giddy and excited, much like how you feel in a haunted house.  People we claiming to see snakes and spiders, even though we clearly couldn't see anything.  My personal favorite was Sam yelling "Rachel!  Get your hands off my ass!"  Don't worry, my hands were on the wall trying to feel my way down the well, not trying to feel up Sam.  The bottom was just a boring dead end, but the 20 minute adventure to get down there was worth it.

From Mycenae, we headed to Sparta.  People were running around yelling THIS IS SPARTA! and high kicking people.  Watch 300 if you don't get the references, it's pretty darn good.  There aren't a lot of ruins left from ancient Sparta, which is kind of a bummer, but Robert told us this neat quote from an ancient historian that I quite like, "People will see the remains of Athens and think she was 4 times as great as she was, but they'll see the remains of Sparta and think she was half as great as she was."

That night we goofed off in the hotel.  Kayla's family was there and her mom, Mama Sue, knows a bunch of parlor tricks that we played in the hallway.  After we got shushed enough, we watched 300 and played some card games to end the day.

Corinth, Epidarus, and Nauplion

As part of our History class, our Prof.  Robert takes us on a trip around the Peleponnese -- that's the western part of Greece that looks like an upside-down hand minus a finger.  So we left early on Thanksgiving morning and headed to Corinth. Apparently Robert thought Corinth was only worth 20 minutes, because that's all he scheduled for it.  We stopped at this sketchy little way side rest and looked at the canal and then got some ice cream treats and hopped back on the bus.

From there we went to Epidarus where there is this really well preserved sanctuary to the healing god Asklipius and a theater.  As a part of this god's cult, they used snakes to heal people of all these crazy ailments like being continuously pregnant for 7 years or, as Robert calls it, having a malignant tumor.  Apparently this eternally pregnant woman agave birth to a healthy 7 year old - fully developed and functional - after visiting.  The theater was really awesome.  If someone stood at the center, you could hear a coin drop all the way at the top.  It's true, we tried it.  We had a little impromptu concert of Disney songs and many renditions of Happy Birthday because it was Kyle's 21st on Thanksgiving.

After Epidarus, we went to Nauplion which happens to be the first capital of Greece.  It has this huge harbor and 2 acropoli!  We checked into our rooms, which always seem to be stacked on top of one another and I was leaning out the window eating a Clementine while Abby, a floor below, looked out too.  We decided it would be a great idea to see if I could drop a wedge of my Clementine down if she could catch it in her mouth.  My aim was pretty good, but not great and the wedge hit her right under her nose and made this horrible splat noise.  Who knew that a piece of fruit could reach such a high velocity in such a short period of time.

After the fruit fiasco, we went on a little walking tour of Nauplion.  At the end Robert pointed out the upper acropolis and said that there were stairs leading all the way up.  Ellen told me that this was one of her favorite parts of study abroad,so I rallied some troops and we started.  There were about 15 of us at the beginning, but our numbers quickly shrank to 6.  The entire way up was stairs, no flat patches, just stairs.  It was one heck of a calf workout!  Sam, the jack rabbit, RAN the entire way up.  He calls it ADHD, I call it impressive.  Julie and I played tortoise and took our time, and we all finally got to the top in time to see the sun set into some clouds.

On the way down my legs felt like complete jelly.  It was almost a little harder to go down than up just because I was scared of missing a step and falling all the way down.  We stopped for gelato on the way back to the hotel.  Nauplion is the only place in Greece that has legit gelato and it was delicious!

Back at the hotel, we changed quick for Thanksgiving dinner and then headed down.  We got a real Thanksgiving turkey that was actually stuffed with stuffing made out of rice, lentils, and beef.  We also at some cabbage salad, potatoes, and pudding stuff for dessert.  We demolished that turkey.  Ate every last bit, the boys made sure of that.  After dinner we went out for a little walk by the harbor and stopped at an outdoor cafe for some coffee and drinks.  I, as is my nature, started falling asleep in the chair, but by then a bunch of people were ready to go back, so we put on our pajamas and watched a whole 10 minutes of 300 before falling asleep.

Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron Weasley!

So just because I'm abroad and semi off the grid doesn't mean that I am willing to forgo one of the most important events of my entire life.  I am talking about the premier of Harry Potter 7.

Seriously, it's a bit obnoxious how excited I get for this.  Obsessively watching trailers, reading blogs about what might happen (even though I've read all the books), and planning my sweet, sweet costume for months.  We even went to Theology class all dressed up and took a picture with us.  Anyways, we got our tickets ahead of time to ensure our seats and actually at the theater we went to, they assign your seat with your ticket!  Prevents the rush to the coveted middle of the row seats, but it kind of sucks when people don't buy tickets together and therefore don't get to sit together.  Good thing European seating arrangements are more like suggestions than rules.  

We all showed up at the theater in our costumes.  They were pretty creative.  We had everyone from Harry, Ron, and Hermoine to Hagrid, Doby and a couple of broomsticks.  I was Professor Trelawney.  A pretty convincing Professor Trelawney if I do say so myself.  

The movie was amazing!  It seriously felt like I was in there for only 30 minutes when it lasted for over 2 and a half hours.  As we were leaving, a couple of guys just pointed and laughed at us while standing only 5 feet away.  They were just jealous that they weren't dressed up like the cool kids.  

After the movie, we went over to some of the guys's apartment and a bunch of the other CYA kids were there and thought we were the most ridiculous people in the entire world and not in a 'these kids are cool way', more like a 'everyone from MN is a crazy' way :)

P.S.  Watch this video and then call me in a month when the song is still stuck in your head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

Delphi Day 2: "Anne's directions are shit" - Finn, age 7

So the next morning we wake up bright and early, go eat a delicious breakfast of Greek yogurt, honey, and chocolate chip bread and then get ready to go look at the museum and upper part of the archaeological site.  Now one would think that before bringing 30 students plus the faculty director and her family one would check to make sure the museum was actually open, right?  Well Anne must have chewed some laurel leaves that morning because we got to the museum and there was this big sign that said "CLOSED ON 14 NOVEMBER". Sweet.  Of course, Anne being Anne didn't apologize and tried to pass the blame off on someone else.

So we had a whole day in Delphi with nothing scheduled.  So while Anne was talking to us a bit about the geology of the region, she pointed out this really pointy, steep mountain where, if you were convicted of the worst kind of heresy, you would be marched up there and thrown off.  Anne also said that there was a little path that led up said mountain.  So we decided to hike it.  Good thing I brought shorts, because by 10:30 am it was already pushing 70.  Jealous homies in MN?!?! ;)

So here were the directions Anne gave us to get to the trail.  "Walk into town and find a church.  Then go behind the church and crawl up about 30 meters.  Then find the path.  Once you're at the place with water at the top, find a barbed wire fence, find where it was broken [Anne did this personally herself] and cross it.  Then walk until you see around the mountains."  This prompted Elaine's 7 year old son to proclaim to his Dad, "Anne's directions are shit!"  All Dad said, was "that word's not appropriate" in the most "yup, you're right, but I'm still trying to parent you so I really should correct your language" kind of voice.  The little dudes didn't end up hiking, but the rest of us started off.

I need to run more.  End of story.  I was as red as a strawberry 10 steps in.  But, I didn't let it beat me and kept going, stopping quite a bit to take pictures because the ground was too uneven to look around while you were hiking.  This trail had SO many switchbacks!  You'd think that you were making pretty good progress, but then you'd look down the hill and see that actually you'd only gained about 10 feet in elevation.  So frustrating, it was like the song that never ends in trail form.  Me, Mark and Brittany were lolly-gagging behind all the other people who were trying to go Steve-pace, aka warp speed, so we assumed we'd never catch them, but then we turned the corner and guess what?  The group was all exhausted from trying to be macho and fast that they had to sit down for half an hour to rest.  Slow and steady my friends, slow and steady.

So we had no idea what Anne meant by the place with the water, so we just kept following the trail marked by black and yellow lines.  Eventually we ended up coming across this abandoned goat farm.  And then Kelsey started seeing a bunch of shotgun shells all over the ground.  This prompted the second best quote of the weekend, "I've seen enough Lifetime movies to know that this doesn't end well."  We were all a little unnerved by this, but then, while we were standing by the goat farm, we saw this guy with runs strapped to his back walking around the hills!

We were all freaking out.  And then the guy started walking towards us, ahhhh! Turns out he was just hunting for some birds and sent us on our way.  We were about to head down the mountain when I thought I might have spotted the mythical barbed wire fence.  So we all started running toward it.  Turns out it was just a pen for some more goats.  BUT it did lead us to these really cool rocks where we could climb out and look over the whole of the mountain and the sea.  It was an amazing view.  Everything looked so big, but it wasn't overwhelming.  More like we were alone in a big back yard.  

After taking the opportunity to take some good pictures and just sit there and look a while, we made our way down the mountain.  While the way up was a pain because of endurance, the way down was not so friendly to my knee joints.  Too many uneven rocks.  So by the time we got down, we were all hurting pups.  We spent a while sitting in town before we had to catch our bus.  A couple of the guys had gotten lost on the way down and were late getting on the bus.  Anne took this opportunity to chew them out over the loudspeaker for being tardy.  She then turned around and was 30 minutes late getting on the bus after lunch...

I fell asleep on the way back and good thing because that bus smelled sooooo bad backed with 30 sweaty, dirty, hikers.  Even Talulah refused to sit in the back with us because it was so stinky.  A shower was in order when I got back to my apartment and I couldn't even wait long enough for the hot water heater to do its magic before hopping in.

Delphi Day 1: Laurel Leaves do not make you Prophecy

The day started off rather traumatically as we saw a dead cat on the plaza on the way to the bus.  It was really gross, but we were all more concerned about how Talulah, a self-proclaimed cat lover and 10 year old kid would react.  She did pretty good props to Andrew the dad for diffusing that situation.

We rode the bus for about 2 hours before getting to this little monastery to walk around.  It was really beautiful and there were two incredible Byzantine churches there.  Unfortunately due to an earthquake, time, and moisture nearly all of the frescoes were complete restorations.  The scenery was breath taking too.  Lot of giant mountains everywhere.  And it was raining a bit so you could see the clouds that were getting caught in the mountains.

We toured the monastery for a bit, more like wandered around in the rain, and then got back on the bus and headed to this little town right outside of Delphi for lunch.  Anne, our prof, told us that they make really good fried cheese and I thought "I like cheese and I like fried things, so let's get some."  So we went to Anne's favorite place for lunch.  Two hours later.....we're still sitting there and should have been on the bus 45 minutes ago.  Whoops!  But Anne stopped on the way back to look at slippers, so we had an impromtu family photo shoot with all the shaggy haired people.  We had a bunch of fun, my stand in brothers and I, poking fun at each other.  Funny thing is, we all do kind of look related....

We finally got to Delphi and went down to the lower part of the sanctuary were the temple to Apollo is.  There we had a little lecture.  Anne was mostly rambling about how here and her friends like to reenact the oracle by fasting and chewing laurel leaves to see if they have hallucinogenic properties.  Yup, she went to Berkley in the 60s.

After my daydreaming hour, we checked into our hotel.  It smelled really good, like the Yankee Candle store.  A bunch of the girls just hung out and had a super stereotypical girl talk hour before we went to dinner.  Dinner was good, but nothing really to write home about.

After dinner, I went with Sienna and Ryan back to his room to watch Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief.  You know those awkward situations where you are totally the third wheel and Mr. Handsy totally wants you to leave so he can make a move on your roommate?  That was my life for an hour.  So uncomfortable, so I decided I was 'really tired' and left.  I ended up having another girl talk and then hitting the hay.  

Halloween Re-Do

So because the actual day of Halloween was lame-o, we decided to do it up right the next weekend, costumes and all.  One of the other kids at our school really likes planning parties, so he rented out the entire 3rd floor of the Hard Rock Cafe in Athens for us to have a Halloween Party. Score!

A bunch of girls and I decided to be the stray cats of Athens (seriously, they're everywhere!) and Sienna was the mouse that we were chasing around.  We had to make ears out of paper, color them with crayons and attach them to head bands, but this was the most comfortable Halloween costume I have had since Princess Leia in '02: a t-shirt, leggings and athletic shorts :)

-- Note to boys everywhere : Gap cologne smells good! --

We went over to some of the guys's apartment and hung out for a while, playing card games and taking pictures. Then we headed out.  It took a while to get to the Hard Rock, but it was worth it.  The DJ played all those old school, "oh yeah I forgot about that song, but I love it!" songs and we just sang and danced the night away.  There were some creepers there (as there always are), but the vast majority of the other CYA kids were super friendly!  A bunch just came over and introduced themselves which is great! Apparently the other half of our program wasn't as open to new people, so they're extra glad were sociable!  And thank goodness we didn't have much to do the next day, because I didn't get back till 3am and fully intended on sleeping till noon.

Halloween Abroad

So we got into Athens on the early morning of the 28th and spent the next couple days lounging and kicking butt on the scavenger hunt.  Then came the 31st aka the best day of the entire year.  The only bummer was we were going on a day trip to Sunion and wouldn't be returning until all Hallow's Eve was well under way, so no dressing up this year for me. First in 22 Halloweens :(

Anyways, sentimental moment over, that morning was the 2500th anniversary of the original Athens marathon, so me and my roommates headed out to the finish line and watched the poor suckers who were running come in.  We saw a bunch of the 10K-ers cross and they just looked so proud of themselves!  It was great.  And then we heard this big roar and saw the rent-a-cops (who were really cute btw, see my creeper pic below if you don't believe me :) freak out and then the truck with the time clock drove by and then......the winner of the marathon ran literally 10 feet in front of me!  And he didn't even look like he was working that hard!  We saw a few more finishers including the first woman - who looked like she could kick anyone's ass - and the first Greek.

Awesome runners in costume (yay Halloween!) They ran 10K in sandals!

THE WINNER!!!

Kara - you would love it here :)

After all this, we hopped on the best and went to Sunion which is at the southern most tip of Greece.  The bus ride was rather painless, no motion sickness this time.  We got there and thought that it was going to be a kind of structured trip like all our others had been, but we got off the bus and Elaine said "be up at the Temple of Poseidon at 5, have fun on the beach."  So we had nearly 5 hours to frolic around.

The water was a little too chilly for my liking, but some braver souls (or stupider) jumped in.  I wandered around, played soccer on the beach, and got a tan.  Jealous?  It was the first Halloween when I didn't have to try to figure out how to discreetly wear 95 layers of clothing to keep warm :).  We also buried Elaine's kids in the sand and decorated it to look like Sand Mermaids and Sand Gremlins.  Best costumes ever!

It came about time for us to head up to the mountain.  We had heard tales of a foot path the led you up so you didn't have to walk back to the highway and then go us, but it turned out to be pure fable.  Or we were too stupid to find it.  So I decided that the best idea was to just climb up the mountain - in a skirt and nature sandals.  I made it, led the way actually, and the stupid wussy boy following kept complaining, but we made it up to the temple a good 20 minutes before the people who took the highway so hah!

The temple was really cool!  We watched the sunset over the sea and took lots of pictures, but sat and just looked a lot too. And because of daylight savings, the sunset an hour earlier so we left and hour earlier and I had time to watch Buff the Vampire Slayer (the movie of course) with the roommates. "What do you have that the other slayers didn't?  My keen fashion sense!" Love that movie (and miss you Bri!).