The City of Amore

Okay so every time I think I have a favorite site we have visited, my opinion is changed by the next site. Case in point; I also love the Palamidi Fortress we visited before retiring our travels for the day on July 4th. The castle at Palamidi was built by the Venetians around 1711 and was sometimes used as a prison for condemned criminals. For example, War of Independence hero Theodoros Kolokotronis spent several years here after being condemned for treason. He was kept in a small, dark room with no windows and it was quite claustrophobic (we got to walk into it).

This is the small doorway that led to the cell Kolokotronis had to live in for two years.

 For me, this place literally came alive. It was almost natural to feel what it was like to live here. You can feel the history oozing from the walls and taking you back in time. Walking through the castle, it was like I could sense the presence of those who had been there before me. The Kaplan's have a friend named Vasillis, who is Greek but lives in America. He travels with us on the weekends and I'm so glad he does! Listening to this wise man talk is memorizing. He speaks with such passion and with a poetic nature. I loved listening to him talk about the castle and give some of the history on it. Vasillis makes a great travel companion, he's full of insight and valuable information. He also led a few of us into the church of St. Andrew located in the castle. Upon entering, Vasillis gave an offering so that we could light a candle, say a prayer and place it in the candle holder. 

Literally feeling the history of this remarkable castle

One thing is for sure, the people who were lucky enough to live here had some of the most stunning views.

In the far right corner is an island with a building that served as a prison (like Alcatraz)

 

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city of Nafplion, also known as the City of Amore {love}. Lily, Sarah Kim and I took a walk through the tunnel located on the peninsula of the town. Vasillis mentioned that the tunnel is seen as a way to leave your old life behind, and enter into the city of love with new joy for life. It sounded to me a lot like baptism, shedding your old life and beginning a new one. So of course we had to go check it out!

Goodbye old life, hello new life!

Our view from our hotel, yes we're spoiled.

We never get tired of swimming in the crystal clear waters!

Rich in History: July 4th

Our weekend was once again filled with lots of visits to different historically important sites around Greece. Since we celebrated July 4th a day early, we spent Independence Day traveling all day. We set out on a road trip for Corinth, Mycenae, Nafplio, Monemvasia, Mystra and a picture stop at Sparta. The history surrounding each of these sites is absolutely astounding. Honestly, I never realized how much history the country of Greece possesses. At each site, we discussed a certain period of Greek history, from Ancient Greece and Byzantine Greece to Turkish Greece, Independent Greece, modern-day Greece and everything in between. It's a little mind-blowing trying to fit all the pieces together and understand the history as a whole. I'll be honest, I really didn't know much at all about Greek history until this trip. And I've absorbed and learned more than I ever could in a classroom. Actually experiencing the history and visiting these sites make the history feel alive.

The Temple of...no one knows!

The detail on this stone absolutely amazes me!

The holes in the middle of this stone were created by men who would play a game similar to Mancala. They played so often that eventually it wore holes into the stone, providing little cups to hold the playing beads. The men would sit here and watch who came into the city (and also checked out the ladies! Guess some things don't change!)

Our first stop was at Corinth, where we learned that what is commonly known as the Temple of Apollo is actually not  100% correct. Scholars and archaeologists are no longer positive that it is a temple built to Apollo. Either way, the temple was beautiful to see.

Artifacts housed at the Corinth museum.

When we visited the museum at Corinth, the guide told us the story of when 274 artifacts were stolen from the museum in 1990 (and a guard almost died during the break-in). Apparently some of the artifacts were found at an auction in the United States and eventually they were all returned to their rightful place in the museum. Who knew ancient artifacts had such exciting adventures?

Our stop at Mycenae might be my favorite stop of the whole weekend because I saw something we specifically studied in my Art in Athens class. For those of you who know about my class scheduling catastrophe, I finally picked a class! After my dance class was cancelled, I went to The City of Athens as Myth (too much reading), PR for Non-Profit (already studied that) before finally settling on the perfect class- Art in Athens. The class is taught by a British professor who lives in Greece and the class is actually very interesting! I've never been an "artsy" person but being in the culture of the art we are learning about is intriguing. In our art class, we analyze and learn about the different techniques, patterns, and stories behind Greek art. When Erika, Micah, Erin and I got to actually visit Mycenae, we were able to see in real life things we had only seen in pictures in class. We were easily the most excited out of the group for this visit!

The students who are taking the Art in Athens class, standing in front of a piece of art we discussed in class: The Lion Gate of Mycenae, the entrance to the city. 

The Lion Gate

Some of the girls on our hike to the underground cave.

The Way to Anyone's Heart: Their Stomach

I don’t think food in the U.S. will ever taste as good again. Everything in Greece just tastes better! My favorite thing so far has to be the Market. The Market is right near our dorm building but it only occurs on Mondays from 8-3ish so we have to stock up for the week .Last week I stocked up on fruit: cherries, bananas, apples, white peaches, kiwi, oranges, peaches and apricots. I spent maybe like 10 euro total. The produce here is more colorful, tastier and juicer. If I wasn't already in love with the culture, I'm in love with the fruit. Is that a thing? Oh well, I'm sure daddy would rather me fall in love with the fruit than a boy!

 

Each  Monday we have a potluck with our whole group and last week I think we set the bar pretty high for ourselves. I made dessert (of course) of sliced peaches, topped with butter, sugar and cinnamon. And volia! A healthy dessert (kinda). 

The girls in our dorm room are also spoiling each other. Morgan, one of my suitemates is really gifted at finding amazing Pinterest recipes and we actually make them. One night we decided to make homemade chicken souvlaki pizza and it might have been the best thing ever. We all pitched in to help, from cleaning and cutting the vegetables, marinating the chicken and creating our own tzatziki sauce. The end product was worth the wait. And we devoured it in about 10 seconds. And for dessert we made Cinnamon Dumpling cookies. 

We are definitely making this pizza again!

 

One morning we decided to make Nutella French toast and this is definitely something I will have to make back in the states. What better way to start your day than with Nutella? And we made fresh-squeezed orange juice from the oranges from the market.

Our favorite thing as a group is finding the best gyro spot, which we lovingly nickname Taco Bell. Don’t get me wrong, I actually hate Taco Bell but the very first place we nicknamed Taco Bell  was because they were fast, cheap, and open super late. Except the gyros are wayyy better than tacos. I never had a gyro until I got to Greece but it is definitely something I will have withdrawals from when I get back to the States.

My very first gyro in Santorini

Fun fact: Greek salads in Greece are nothing like Greek salads in the States. It actually has no lettuce in it. The salad is comprised of tomatoes, onion, green pepper, cucumber, olives and a block of feta cheese on top. It's actually much better than what I originally thought was a Greek salad.

I finally know how to order properly in Greek. We had our first outside lesson in our Survival Greek class at a coffee shop with our whole class, a few Greek students and our Greek professor, along with Dr. Kaplan. It was a very different experience from when I observed an American coffee shop. In Greece, people use coffee as a reason to hang out and catch up. When we asked Sophia (our Greek professor) what the average amount of time would be a coffee date on average she said anything less than 2 hours is short. I was like um, what? If I can even fit coffee dates into my schedule they are like 30ish minutes long on a good day. It blows my mind that Greeks will spend that much time at a coffee shop. But then again, it really isn’t about the coffee, it’s about the company you are with which shows that Greeks value relationships much more than we do as Americans. I'm already looking forward to hopefully having some more coffee dates with the Greek students because having their perspective on Greek life is very interesting and helpful.

The most important meal of the day! Withe fresh-squeezed orange juice.

A chocolate filled crepe is the perfect way to end a travel day.

Trying squid for the first time (tasted like a scallop)

A Greek specialty called souvlaki (which we all love!)

Probably the first thing I didn't enjoy eating. You are supposed to eat the anchovy whole, but I just couldn't take more than a bite!

 I can almost promise you that there will be more food posts in the future! It's just too yummy not to share.

Happy Birthday America!

Being in a foreign country can't stop us from celebrating America's birthday! (and Ellie's birthday!) The Kaplan's (our professors) cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for us with watermelon and potato salad. This is probably the most American meal we've had since we've been here. And of course what 4th of July celebration is complete without sparklers? And no one caught anything on fire so there's that. Luckily, our college is called The American College of Deree, which means that we get to observe our American holiday  by not having class on Friday!

Since we have been studying so much history about Greece, it's crazy to see what a young country we are. Greece's history is so rich and complex it's hard to even listen to it all, much less try and put all the pieces together and understand how all of the outside influences helped create the country that stands today. Don't get me wrong, I love the USA but I'm also beginning to love this country more and more too. It's still surreal to think that I am actually living in this country! From Greece to America: Happy 4th of July yall!

Happy Birthday America!

Who doesn't love sparklers?

Third Time's a Charm!

Great news: I finally mastered the transportation system. Morgan, Erika and I went to downtown Athens to visit the Museum of Greek Popular Music Instruments before class. This trip required us to ask for directions in Greek multiple times because apparently Greeks just like to pass you along to the next person to ask for directions again. For example, this is how most of our conversations would go (but in Greek):
Me: Where is the Museum of Greek Musical Instruments?
Greek person: Go right and then left, follow the fence then ask someone else.
And then I would go to the next person and they would direct me a little further and then tell me to ask someone else. It seemed like we were being led on a wild goose chase until eventually we found it. At least I got some good practice asking for directions! 

Outside of the Museum.

 The museum was comprised of a collection of about 1200 Greek popular musical instruments dating from the 18th century to the present day. Along with displays of the instruments, headphone sets allow the visitor to listen to musical examples of the sound, musical range, playing techniques and combinations of the displayed instruments. Walking around and listening to the different headsets really had me wishing I was musically gifted. The sounds were just so beautiful and engaging. I could have listened to the drums and guitars play all day!

Morgan enjoying the sound of the drums.

One things about the Greek transportation system: no one is in a rush. There is no schedule to meet, it's not the end of the world if the buses aren't on time. Which we learned as we almost missed our class. The transportation system reflects the culture here, laid-back.

The 407 bus: it's like two buses held together by an accordion-looking contraption.

The Greek Secret

The Greeks know a thing or two about hardship, from hundreds of years under Ottoman rule to civil wars and now a staggering unemployment rate of 51.4% for young adults my age (16-25). Yet the Greeks hold a secret. A secret to surviving and even enjoying the tough times: kefi.
According to the Greek online dictionary, kefi is defined as jolliness, joyfulness, liveliness and vivaciousness. It's more than that though, it's also spirit, adrenaline, passion, happiness and so much more. Kefi is a Greek word and most people haven't heard of it, unless maybe you've seen the movie My Life in Ruins.

""People reconnect with their souls, they find their mojo.  In Greece, it's called kefi, which means passion, joy, spirit."- My Life in Ruins


Once you know what kefi is and once you see people who possess kefi, you find yourself wanting to find your own kefi. At least that's where I'm finding myself right now. I generally consider myself a positive person, but kefi is so much more than that. It's living large and full of emotion in every moment. It's not worrying about the future that we can't control, it's about absorbing the very moment you are in and enjoying the people you are surrounded by. Back home, I am constantly stressed out between my balance of school, sorority, work, family life and a social life. Why do I over commit myself all the time? During the semester I am constantly stressing out about something or freaking out about a huge test (just ask my parents). But this is such a waste of energy. Here in Greece, the vibe is so much more laid back. That is the culture, laid-back. I don't see people in a huge rush to get somewhere. Drivers aren't yelling at each other to go faster, people are casually walking down the sidewalks and around town. There is no sense of stress that I have found. Even at restaurants. I work at a restaurant back home and I wish it was as chill as it is here. The waiters are never in a rush to get food out as soon as possible and the customers don't complain about how long their food is taking. Imagine if we could adopt this mentality in the States.

There are certain people I have met here in Greece that seem to ooze kefi from their veins. Demetria is the shopkeeper we met in Santorini and she was so full of life from the moment we met her. Walking down the streets, she lured us into her shop with samples of free wine which led to a full tasting of olive oils and olives as well. She also told us about her family's restaurant and we ended up spending our last night in Santorini with her at the restaurant just enjoying each others company and good food. It amazed me how outgoing, vivacious, joyous and animated she was in conversation. I think it's safe to say she held all of our attention and we were all content just listening to her talk. 

Sarah Kim and I hanging out with Demetria.

 The Greeks know the secret to surviving even in the harder or stressful times of life. Possessing kefi added with a midday siesta (naptime) into the daily is the key to living large and living happy in Greece. I'm on my own mission to find my own kefi and bring it back to the States with me. 

Cheers to the Weekend

The weekends are my favorite part of our trip. Each weekend our professors have something new and exciting for us to do. This past Saturday we woke up unnaturally early at 5:30 a.m. to hike up a close mountain, but it was a great way to start the day. The views of the city never get old, especially at the very top of a mountain where you can see all of Athens. After enjoying the view from the top, someone (and we still can't figure out who) decided that we should make our own path back down the opposite side of the mountain....not our best idea as Honors students. But definitely entertaining, despite the steep hills of unstable rocks, prickly trees and slippery slopes. We made it back down the mountain with only one wound, and it wasn't me this time!

Enjoying the sunrise

Some of us decided to venture into downtown Athens via the Greek way of public transportation which involves getting on and off the right bus, and then transferring to the metro (or subway) and getting off at the correct stop. If you know me, you know this is a recipe for disaster. Fortunately I had some of our group with me to lead the way. The city was so alive, even later at night. Dallas, Nick and I spent a few hours exploring and stumbled upon the Parliament building which looks beautiful when it is lit up at night. I was surprised to see that as we were walking by an exchange of the guards was happening. I really thought that was only a British thing, but we stood and watched as the guards did their procession. We were trying to figure out if the guards were guarding someone's grave at the base of the building so we ventured over to a local and asked the reasoning behind the guards. Her response was simple: a guard from long ago is buried there. No other explanation.

The Parliament Building

Standing next to a traditionally dressed guard.

Heading back to our dorm was almost uneventful. Until we got back to what we thought was the bus stop. We had literally just missed the B5 bus and assumed another one would soon be on the way. So we waited...and waited...and 45 minutes later another bus finally came. Little did we know that the buses stop running at midnight and it was about 11:45 when we finally got on the bus. Then we were dropped off further away from our dorm than we thought, so it was a nice long walk back. It could have been worse though, so hopefully next time we'll be pros at it!

Sunday we got to do something that I never in my life thought I would have the opportunity to do. Visit the Acropolis and the Parthenon. It was so surreal to actually visit such an amazing piece history and architecture. It was full of tourists and it's weird because I was kind of annoyed with all the tourists, like get out of the way....like I'm not a tourist myself. Although really, that is the point of our trip. To become culturally immersed in the culture and even though we have only been in Greece for a little over a week, I already feel like we aren't tourists anymore. However, I'm sure the Greeks would disagree. This place already feels kinda like home!

  We celebrated our fearless leader's (Dr. Kaplan) birthday at lunchtime and then explored the city some more before heading back to our dorms. And getting somewhat lost...again. To our defense, we knew where we were going but we were all so exhausted that we kinda fell asleep on the bus ride and missed our stop. And then walked the wrong way, before finally straightening ourselves out and arriving home safely. Third time's a charm so hopefully the next travel experience will go smoothly.