Greece IV.

Day 8

April 17

The 17th was a pretty miserable, rainy day. We spent a lot of time in the bus (comme d'habitude), and drove around to see the Tomb of Agamemnon and Mycenae. After that, we drove to the ruins of Epidaurus, home of the famous theater. This theater has AMAZING acoustics. You can hear everything, regardless of where you're sitting in the stands. Tour guides will often have the groups of visitors scatter throughout the stands and then will light a match from the stage. Everyone in the crowd can hear the sound. An exchange student from Florida, Lily, sang the Star Spangled Banner for us, and we could all hear her perfectly. It's really quite extraordinary.

Overall, it was a pretty low-key day. We didn't do anything super exciting (and we were all exhausted!) and everyone went to bed and waited for the next day.

Day 9

April 18

OLYMPIA!

On the 18th, we visited Olympia, our final stop in Greece. We saw Zeus' Temple (which used to contain one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World), Heras' Temple and the Philppieon. We weren't there for long, and after a quick visit and some pictures, we got back in the bus to go to Patras, where we were catching our ferry to Italy.

While driving down the streets of Patras to the port, we all received a rather massive shock. There were mobs on both sides of the road trying to climb into the truck in front of us, and when that didn't work, they tried to climb under our bus and into the luggage compartments.

Needless to say, some of the exchange students were terrified and with good reason. Throughout the year, we have all learned that there are many "sans-papiers" (without papers) living in Europe. Many, many immigrants come from Romania, Moldova, Turkey, Serbia, etc to live in Western Europe. They're the equivalent of illegal immigrants from Mexico in the US, except that once they arrive in certain countries in Europe (like Belgium, for example), they are given papers and benefits like social security and unemployment. There are huge political wars raging over this right now, but that's not the point of this post. The point is that it was SCARY when the bus was mobbed by people. Granted, they didn't try to harm us, but it was scary knowing that they were underneath the bus, practically dragging along the ground. It made me realize how lucky I am in life; I'll never have to experience that level of desperation, trying to make a better life for myself in another country. I'm lucky to be an American citizen.

After a few scares with people underneath the bus, we made it onto the boat and settled in for a night of sea-travel. We arrived in Italy the next day, ate at Gino's restaurant again, and finally made it home on the 20th.

And that, my good folks, is the end of Greece!