Où est Mikayla?: Greece III.

The view from our hotel in Porto Héli.

Day 5

April 14, 2011

We left Delphi and headed toward Athens in another multiple-hour bus ride. If I remember correctly, we were watching the movie “Troy” in the bus. Ironic, isn’t it? We were watching a movie about Greeks while in Greece. It was a nice little history lesson though, because a few days later, we saw the Tomb of Agamemnon, and Agamemnon is a character in the movie.

Anyway, we finally arrived in Athens. And drove around. And around. And around. And around. We passed the Olympic Stadium three or four times at least. We just kept driving in circles. Eventually we stopped and asked for directions to get to the restaurant we would be eating at that night. We drove a little bit more, and then turned down the street to get to the restaurant. And catastrophe struck. Again. I swear that bus was alive and purposely trying to make things go wrong on this trip. See, the bus got stuck halfway through the turn to get onto the street with the restaurant. We couldn’t go backwards, we couldn’t go forward. We could move about 10 inches in either direction. Add this to the fact that many, many, many people on said bus needed to get to a toilet, and we were all STARVING and exhausted, and you have quite the situation on your hands. After about half an hour of going back and forth, pushing parked cars out of the way, and with the help of a few Greek men, we managed to escape. This is when we found out that we had been approximately 20 steps from the restaurant, and we could have easily walked there and not had to sit through the torturous wait on the bus. But hey, that time just gave us more opportunities to bond.

The restaurant had floor-to-ceiling windows and we were literally out ON the water. We could see boats coming in and out of the port and all of the people milling around after a long day’s work. It was another magical moment. The awesome view was the icing on the cake; the food at this restaurant was DELICIOUS. We had calamari for an appetizer, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. Then we had some sort of fish for the main course. I wasn’t a fan of this fish, as random fragments of bone kept popping up while I was chewing, but regardless, it was yummy. And it was a wonderful change from the chicken and fries we’d been having EVERY SINGLE DAY.

That night, we stayed in a hotel in Athens. Our room was super awesome; we had 2 separate bedrooms and a large bathroom to share between us. The boys were always jealous of our awesome hotel rooms, which we found to be extremely funny.

Day 6

April 15, 2011

The next morning, we were up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to take on the city of Athens. We drove into town and parked, then headed off in our different groups. Our first visit was a museum across from the ruins. It was quite large and very, very white. It got to be a little much after a while… all of the white statues with white pedestals and white floors, white walls… It was kind of like the color was sucked out of the world. I thought it was very interesting that the Greek statues used to be colored, but the colors have faded away over time. You can still see some traces of color on some of them; bits of red and blue, sometimes green. It’s hard to imagine those things being bright and eye-catching, when I’ve always seen photos of them in their current state (white marble). Another cool thing about this museum: as you’re walking in, the sidewalk becomes plexiglass (I’m assuming… or fiberglass… some sort of hard plastic) that you can see through. Underneath are a bunch of ruins, and you can watch workers restore them. It’s amazing how what looks like a bunch of rocks and dust and dirt can come to life! There’s also a wishing-well part. Yes, I did wish. Hey, you never know!

After the visit in that museum, we went to the ruins. There were TONS of people there, as is to be expected. But still, it was a bit overwhelming.

TIP: The Ancient Greeks were very fond of making their pathways out of very smooth, very slippery rock. You MUST wear shoes that have grippy soles, or you will fall. Be careful even with the grippy shoes. You never know.

We walked up the pathways to the temples and listened to a couple explanations about the history of the site and how the temples were built. Did you know that the temples are actually an optical illusion? The four corner columns are made to lean in about 7 centimeters (they don’t go straight up, like the other columns) so that the eye is drawn upward, toward the heavens/Zeus. If you look closely, you can actually see how the columns tilt. While on said site, we saw: the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Zeus’ Temple, the Temple of Hephaestus, and the Theater of Dionysus. It was a lot for one visit! I was, again, blown away by the fact that I was SEEING history. These are monuments that I’ve learned about in school, seen in movies, and read about in myths. It seems as though I’ve always known about them… ever since I was a kid in elementary school and we learned about the Ancient Greeks and how advanced their society was. The number of people who have marched the same paths I did, and seen the same things… It’s impossible to describe. After we finished our visits, we ran around taking pictures and marveling over the amazing views of Athens. The ruins are up on a hill, you see, and you’re able to look over the entire city. It’s just SO BEAUTIFUL!

After that visit, we were given free time in Athens. Jordan, Emily, Christian and I found the BEST GYROS EVER and ate outside on a park bench. There were pigeons everywhere, and they took a distinct liking to Jordan, which kept us amused. Once we had finished our gyros, we walked around a bit and did some souvenir shopping before meeting up again at the bus. Emily and I bought matching bracelets and we ate some very yummy ice cream as well, so I think of it as a successful day.

We drove the rest of the afternoon to Porto Héli (quick stop by the Corinth Canal, which I didn’t bother to go see, because the plan they gave us stated that we were going to take a tour through it. We didn’t.), a sea-side resort town on the western coast of Greece. We stayed in that hotel for two nights, and it was LOVELY. The views were spectacular; we were literally ON the coast, so we could see the sunrise/sunset, and walk a little bit on the beach. Emily and I went down one morning to take pictures, and they sure are beautiful.

That night, we had dinner at the hotel, which was a buffet, so we could opt out of the chicken and fries (halleluuuuujah!). I think I ate mostly salad. I miss vegetables. We were also told that the hotel would be holding a “soirée” that night, which is to say, a disco, which is to say a dance. There was a lot of loud, techno music (which I have learned to love) and very over priced cocktails. As it turned out, there was a group of rhétos (seniors) from a school near Namur (about ½ an hour from me by train) who were doing their voyage de rhéto (senior class trip. Yeah, they do those in STYLE in Europe). We ended up hanging out with some kids from that school, and it was nice to make new Belgian friends. Whoda thunk that we’d make Belgian friends while in Greece?! Stranger things have happened, I suppose…

Day 7

April 16, 2011

This was arguably the best day of the entire trip. We got up nice and early, as usual, and then headed off on a boat trip to the island of Hydra. The boat ride to the island was about 2 hours, and we spent most of it asleep. When we finally arrived, we were told that we would have the entire day to ourselves to do what we wished, we just had to be back at the boat at 3:30. After stopping to use the washrooms (as Christian calls them) at a local restaurant, my friends and I headed off to do some souvenir shopping and exploring. There were all sorts of cute little shops and such, so we poked around those. On the main “road” (there are no cars on this island, only donkeys. Wait. The police have a car. But they’re the police, so…), there were men standing around with donkeys, offering to let us ride for 10 minutes for 10 euro. HA. No way, José. That’s a ridiculous amount of money. It was cool, however, to see how the donkeys were used for transportation. As we watched, a group of men strapped a TREE to the back of a donkey and started leading it down the road. An entire tree. It was amazing. We also saw cats. Cats cats cats cats cats. Cats EVERYWHERE. All shapes, sizes, ages, colors, etc. Just EVERYWHERE.

The donkey carrying the tree. Just in case you didn't believe me.

After poking around for a while, Christian, Jordan, Emily, Aditi, Gabby and I decided that it would be a good idea to climb to the top of the island to see the view from above. There are monasteries or something of that sort up there as well, so we didn’t plan on hiking into the wilderness… To get our adventure started, we asked a local lady how to get to the top and how long it would take. She said it would be quite a while, and that all we had to do was to follow the steps going up up up. This sounds simple, I know. But, in Greece, there are steps EVERYWEHERE. There was no defined path up the mountain, just loads and loads and loads of steps, so we just headed off in random directions. Jordan and Emily got lost for a while, and then Gabby disappeared (don’t worry, we were all reunited – this story has a happy ending). After Christian, Aditi and I had reunited with Jordan and Emily, we realized that we weren’t exaaaaaaactly on the right path. Jordan, trail blazer that he is, said something like, “Well… this looks like a path up here…” and hey, if it looks like a path, that’s good enough for us. We started following said trail and ended up in some sort of donkey pasture on the side of the mountain. There were pricker bushes and big rocks and flowers and dirt and bugs and sticks and donkey… leavings and all manner of random things in this donkey field. We went up up up up (Aditi decided to stay behind halfway through) and finally, after probably an hour or so of climbing (in a dress and flip-flops, carrying a purse and waving a camera around), Emily, Christian, Jordan and I made it to the top. We sat down to enjoy the view, and I can’t possibly describe it. The moments when we all sat together on the mountainside, talking about everything and nothing, watching boats go by and seeing the miniscule people move below us; those moments will stay with me forever. Needless to say, we took loads and loads of pictures, some of which can be seen below. Aditi popped up below us, lower on the mountain, and she snapped a picture as well, which is one of my favorites from the entire trip. Just being up there made me realize how much I’ve experienced this year. The friendships I’ve made and the new things I’ve tried… it’s amazing to look back at the month of August and to think about the person I was at the beginning of this adventure.

After we took all of our pictures and marveled at the view, we worked our way back DOWN the mountain, which was somewhat easier than hauling ourselves up it. It was a bit nerve-wracking all the same, as there was a dog barking and donkeys braying around us (luckily, none were in the pasture with us… that would have been quite terrifying). When we got to the bottom, we were all starving, but decided to stop and take some pictures anyway. I was rather homesick at this point, because all of the water reminded me of my grandparents’ house on Lake Michigan, and the mountains reminded me of Colorado.

I’ll throw this bit in here: As we drove through the mountains of Greece, everyone kept exclaiming over their beauty. I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t quite as enthralled as everyone else… I see beautiful mountains every day, so I’m used to them, you know? Still, it was funny to see everyone’s reactions. Every time we turned a corner, there would be a collective gasp of amazement.

Those two homesickness triggers combined had made me quite melancholy, and I really just wanted to be alone. I let everyone go on ahead and I spent a little bit of time by myself, trying to clear my mind and relax. Jordan came back and sat with me for a while, and he really helped me handle my feelings. I’m lucky to call him my friend.

We went to lunch after that, and then Emily and I ran back to a jewelry store we had visited earlier in the day. A very cute little old man owned it, and he spoke 6 languages! Greek, English, French, Arabic, Italian, and another one I don’t remember. He was a very interesting man, and we spent quite a bit of time chatting with him. He had some cute rings, too, and Emily and I were both duped into buying one. Mine broke not 24 hours later. But oh well, sometimes you just have to be a tourist.

That night, there was another soirée at the hotel, but instead of going to that, I hung out with some new friends from the school near Belgium. It was a bit of a rough night, and I was glad to finally go to sleep.

Now, photos!