Friday December 4th: Ali, Holly, Nick, Alex and I caught our flight and arrived in Istanbul around 3:30 in the afternoon. Our hostel provided us with a shuttle from the airport, and I realized that this was the first time I have ridden in a vehicle smaller than a bus since I left the States! Seven others from our group had flown over earlier in the day, and we met them at the hostel, then the five of us decided to explore the area a bit before dinner. It turns out that our hostel was only a few blocks away from both the Blue Mosque and the Haggia Sophia, which are two of the biggest tourist sites in Istanbul, and we were also within walking distance of the Grand Bazaar – a huge underground market. We admired the outsides of the mosques – the architecture was so cool; you could definitely notice the Eastern flavor of the city overall – and took a brief walk through the Grand Bazaar and a smaller bazaar near the Blue Mosque. One thing I will say about Istanbul: the men, especially those working in shops, are absolutely ridiculous when it comes to their attention towards women. We heard every comment and cheesy pick-up line under the sun. Anyway, at this point it was time for dinner, so we made our way back to the hostel because the rest of our group had made reservations for everyone at the restaurant next door. The food was delicious – I ordered a lamb kebab with apple tea. After dinner our entire group went out and walked around the Blue Mosque and the Haggia Sophia, then sat up on the hostel’s roof terrace. We met a guy from Scotland and talked to him for awhile.
Saturday December 5th: I was awakened by the sound of the morning call to prayer (for Muslims) at 5 a.m. blasting from all the nearby mosques, and even though it caused me to lose sleep, it was really cool. Basically it’s chanting and the sound hops from mosque to mosque, so one second it’s close and the next it’s far away. We all met for breakfast at the hostel and it was a little unusual but pretty tasty. It just wasn’t the type of food I am accustomed to seeing at breakfast: break, tomato and cucumber slices, salty soft cheese, sliced meat that Ali said was in-between bologna and summer sausage, green olives, golden raisins, and a delicious scrambled egg dish with peppers and tomatoes (spicy), and a selection of teas. They even had sugar cubes for the tea! After breakfast we toured the Haggia Sophia – an Eastern Orthodox church turned Mosque turned Museum. Much of the inside was under renovation, but we could still see plenty. The central part of the building, including the central dome, is absolutely gigantic; I don’t know how it was constructed so long ago (6th Century) and in only 5 years! It was incredible. The upper level and the Christian altar area contain the remains of mosaics of Jesus, Mary, Gabriel, and various Emperors, while almost every other inch of surface area is covered in Eastern designs. After the Haggia Sophia we walked through the cistern, which held water for the palace and surrounding area. Basically it’s a huge cave supported by over 300 columns (Corinthian and Doric – thank you Paolo), and now they have platforms running over the water so you can walk through it. There are lots of fish in the water, and they have red lights below the columns so it’s dim and a little creepy looking. Two of the columns have giant stone Medusa heads as bases – one head is upside down and the other is on its side. Archeologists aren’t really sure why they were put there. We wandered down to the harbor next and said hello to Asia. Yes, the continent. Half of Istanbul is actually in Asia Minor and you can see it across the harbor. At this point our group split up and Ali, Nick, and I went to the Topkapi Palace. There were a lot of treasuries with objects of sultans on display, like jeweled pendants, thrones, and everyday objects such as diamond-encrusted combs. We also saw the courtyard, audience chambers, and kitchen building. We could have toured the harem as well, but it was an additional 20 Turkish Lyra (about 9 Euro, so 15 USD). Afterwards the three of us spent some more time in the Grand Bazaar and the small bazaar by the Blue Mosque. We returned to the hostel around 6:00 and had dinner at the same restaurant as on Friday night. This time I ordered the Vegetarian Casserole, which consisted of sautéed eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, and peppers in a spicy sauce, and apple tea again. Once more, it was all delicious. We were all pretty tired from a long day of walking, but we did wander around our area again for a little while before calling it a night.
Sunday December 6th: Ali, Nick, Alex, Holly and I had breakfast at the hostel again (the others had left for Athens early in the morning), then we went to tour the Blue Mosque. It rained all morning, so it was a wet walk. We had to remove our shoes before entering and we three girls covered our heads with scarves to be respectful. I think I like the outside architecture of the Blue Mosque better than the Haggia Sophia, and the inside was gorgeous as well. The floor was covered in a thick red Persian-style carpet with floral designs, and the white walls, pillars, and domes were entirely painted in different Eastern patterns like the H.S. For such a large space, the atmosphere was quite cozy. There were also numerous stained glass windows on the eastern walls. After leaving the mosque we walked through the streets and shopped a bit more until it was time to catch our shuttle to the airport. Once again, everything went smoothly, and we landed in Athens a little after 5 o’clock. It took us about two hours to actually arrive back at our apartments though because instead of being able to take the bus straight back we had to get off about halfway and ride the metro. We learned later that this was because it was the 1 year anniversary of a teenage boy getting shot by a police officer and people were rioting in the Syntagma area (which is near where we live). We didn’t see anything, but a couple of the guys in our group checked it out on Monday and ended up being tear-gassed, and the rioters were throwing chunks of marble from the nearby Polytechnic School at the cops. So it was pretty intense, and I’m happy I missed it. Just to be clear, the rioting was by Anarchist extremists causing trouble, not the general population of Athens. These guys are becoming a bit of a problem here.
This past week has been a blur of finishing up classes and preparing for finals week. I did manage to have some fun though – Ellen and I baked apple pie on Thursday, which was an adventure because we couldn’t read the labels of most of the ingredients we bought (we thought for awhile that the shortening we purchased was actually cheesy mashed potatoes) and we didn’t have many utensils to work with. On Friday night we went to a Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in Syntagma Square. There was a band playing Christmas Carols and when they actually lit the tree they had a fireworks show. Afterwards another band came on and played covers of popular American music, which was exciting for us (this was more of a rock band, not a concert band like the earlier one). We stood close to the front and were having so much fun singing and dancing along with the music that we didn’t notice one of the official camera men had been filming us for a good five minutes. So it’s possible we were on Greek TV, haha. Yesterday Beatrice, Lisa, and I went to the Temple of Poseidon ruins in Sounion. Unfortunately it was downpouring, so we only stayed on the site for about 10 minutes, but the drive was great because we went along the coast. It was worth the trip.
This might be my last entry while I’m abroad, since I leave Athens on Thursday – I can’t believe it’s the end of the semester already! But first I’ll go to London for five days, then spend a few days in Germany with my cousin, then go back to Rome for a week to meet my family! Lot’s of exciting things. I’ll see you all in the New Year!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving in the Peloponnese!
During the weekend of Nov. 20th thru Nov. 22nd, I stayed in Athens.
Thursday Nov. 19th: My apartment had dinner with the other 5-girl apartment. We had intended to order pizza from the Dominos across the street (we were craving American pizza), but they were closed for remodeling, so we went with frozen pizza, spanicopita (spinach pie) and cheese pie. Afterwards, a group of us walked to the mall theater to see New Moon! Unfortunately the earlier showing was sold out, but a few of us decided to go to the one at midnight. I was very pleased with it – yay!
Friday Nov. 20th: I spent the morning on homework, then after lunch a bunch of us went shopping near the Plaka. We went to the sandal maker’s first – he is a 3rd generation leather sandal maker/playwrite, and his family’s shop is known for their custom sandals. I bought a pair, as did several other girls in the group. Basically, you pick out a style and size, then they adjust them to fit your feet. I got the “Plato” style, and I really like them. We spent the night watching “The Princess Bride.”
Saturday Nov. 21st: In the afternoon, Lisa, Emily, Beatrice, and I took the metro to a Christmas Bazaar across the city. We met Mike and Jane Kathman on the metro going to the same place, and together we searched it out. It was geared toward young kids, so we didn’t stay very long, but they did have an ice rind which I never expected to see in Greece. It was around 80 degrees that day, so the ice was melting pretty fast! I did buy a Charlie Brown Christmas card in Greek though. On our return we joined the Kathmans at a champagne and wine tasting at a hotel near our apartments. We felt pretty out of place and underdressed, but once we figured out how things worked it was fun. I spent the rest of the afternoon making pita chips, doing a little homework, and watching another movie – Mama Mia this time. I miss movies.
Sunday Nov. 22nd: I had to attend a Greek Orthodox Church service or my Theology class, which was quite interesting. We couldn’t understand any of it because it was in Greek, but I had a basic idea of what was going on because we’ve studied the structure in class and it’s really very similar to a Catholic Mass. One of the biggest differences is that they chant instead of sing, but the cantors were excellent and I didn’t miss the music at all. After church I crawled back into bed for a couple hours. My roommates were ambitious and tried to make crepes from a box mix, which turned out ok. It wasn’t their fault – the mix was bad. Emily has made them from scratch several times since and they have been excellent!
Last week we only had class through Wednesday, and I spent most of my time either in class or catching up on homework.
Thursday Nov. 26th: This morning we left for our weekend in the Peloponnese, and our first stop was at the Isthmus of Corinth, which divides the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. We continued on to the ruins of Epidauras, and the coolest part was seeing the gigantic theater there. The acoustics are so great that if you sit in the top row, you can hear a coin drop in the orchestra area. Don’t worry, we tested it. Like many of the sites we visited over this weekend, Epidauras is situated in the mountains, so the surrounding views are fantastic. After Epidauras we continued on to Napflio, which was the capital of Greece prior to Athens. We still had most of the afternoon, so a group of us decided to climb up to an old Venetian fortress on the hill above the town. Over 1000 steps later, we arrived at the fortress and were greeted by amazing scenes of the town and the sea surrounding it. We toured the fortress itself, which was huge, and found a wall to sit on to watch the sunset. On our way back to the hotel, a few of us browsed through the shops and found a great gelateria! Black Cherry gelato = amazing. Our hotel provided us with a Thanksgiving dinner, so we all dressed up and prepared to stuff ourselves. The meal was pretty close to normal: there was turkey, French fried potato wedges, hamburger and rice stuffing, salad and flan for dessert. I missed pumpkin pie!!! However, it was all delicious. We spent the night in Napflio.
Friday Nov. 27th: We had breakfast at the hotel, then drove north to Mycenae to see the ruins there. The gate of this city is well-preserved and has the bodies of two huge animals carved above the entrance (they are called lions but may actually have been griffens). We focused on the palace complex and were able to climb down into a grave shaft (not as exciting as it sounds). The coolest part was when we left the city walls and entered a giant tomb and treasury that was built into the side of a hill. It was dome-shaped and bigger than my house! After Mycenae we drove a couple hours to Sparta. I know, you’re getting images of 300 in your mind, but there is actually relatively little to see here. The modern town is small, and the excavated ruins consist mostly of a Roman Theater. Apparently, the Spartans were so focused on war that they neglected to cultivate any sort of culture, such as drama, music, or writing, that archeologists know next to nothing about them. We stopped here mainly because our history professor is currently excavating the site. However, Carissa and I did get to re-enact a moment from 300, which turned out to be a pretty funny picture. After Sparta we had a four hour drive to Olympia, where we would spend the rest of the weekend.
Saturday Nov. 28th: We spent the morning at a museum of the history of the Olympic Games and the ruins of Olympia, and I ran on the original Olympic track! The site is quite large, though not much else survives from the Olympics, but we did see a few temples. We went to another museum in the afternoon, then had the rest of the time to ourselves. I went back to the ruins to see parts that we hadn’t covered in class, and then browsed through some shops in the modern city. While in one jewelry shop, we had the chance to hold an actual Olympic torch from the opening ceremonies of a recent Olympics (one of the owners of the shop had made it). We had supper at the hotel again, and afterwards we crammed half our group in one room to watch Harry Potter 4, which was on tv. It was very exciting.
Sunday Nov. 29th: We spent most of Sunday in the bus on our way back to Athens. I pretty much did homework for the rest of the night.
Thursday Nov. 19th: My apartment had dinner with the other 5-girl apartment. We had intended to order pizza from the Dominos across the street (we were craving American pizza), but they were closed for remodeling, so we went with frozen pizza, spanicopita (spinach pie) and cheese pie. Afterwards, a group of us walked to the mall theater to see New Moon! Unfortunately the earlier showing was sold out, but a few of us decided to go to the one at midnight. I was very pleased with it – yay!
Friday Nov. 20th: I spent the morning on homework, then after lunch a bunch of us went shopping near the Plaka. We went to the sandal maker’s first – he is a 3rd generation leather sandal maker/playwrite, and his family’s shop is known for their custom sandals. I bought a pair, as did several other girls in the group. Basically, you pick out a style and size, then they adjust them to fit your feet. I got the “Plato” style, and I really like them. We spent the night watching “The Princess Bride.”
Saturday Nov. 21st: In the afternoon, Lisa, Emily, Beatrice, and I took the metro to a Christmas Bazaar across the city. We met Mike and Jane Kathman on the metro going to the same place, and together we searched it out. It was geared toward young kids, so we didn’t stay very long, but they did have an ice rind which I never expected to see in Greece. It was around 80 degrees that day, so the ice was melting pretty fast! I did buy a Charlie Brown Christmas card in Greek though. On our return we joined the Kathmans at a champagne and wine tasting at a hotel near our apartments. We felt pretty out of place and underdressed, but once we figured out how things worked it was fun. I spent the rest of the afternoon making pita chips, doing a little homework, and watching another movie – Mama Mia this time. I miss movies.
Sunday Nov. 22nd: I had to attend a Greek Orthodox Church service or my Theology class, which was quite interesting. We couldn’t understand any of it because it was in Greek, but I had a basic idea of what was going on because we’ve studied the structure in class and it’s really very similar to a Catholic Mass. One of the biggest differences is that they chant instead of sing, but the cantors were excellent and I didn’t miss the music at all. After church I crawled back into bed for a couple hours. My roommates were ambitious and tried to make crepes from a box mix, which turned out ok. It wasn’t their fault – the mix was bad. Emily has made them from scratch several times since and they have been excellent!
Last week we only had class through Wednesday, and I spent most of my time either in class or catching up on homework.
Thursday Nov. 26th: This morning we left for our weekend in the Peloponnese, and our first stop was at the Isthmus of Corinth, which divides the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. We continued on to the ruins of Epidauras, and the coolest part was seeing the gigantic theater there. The acoustics are so great that if you sit in the top row, you can hear a coin drop in the orchestra area. Don’t worry, we tested it. Like many of the sites we visited over this weekend, Epidauras is situated in the mountains, so the surrounding views are fantastic. After Epidauras we continued on to Napflio, which was the capital of Greece prior to Athens. We still had most of the afternoon, so a group of us decided to climb up to an old Venetian fortress on the hill above the town. Over 1000 steps later, we arrived at the fortress and were greeted by amazing scenes of the town and the sea surrounding it. We toured the fortress itself, which was huge, and found a wall to sit on to watch the sunset. On our way back to the hotel, a few of us browsed through the shops and found a great gelateria! Black Cherry gelato = amazing. Our hotel provided us with a Thanksgiving dinner, so we all dressed up and prepared to stuff ourselves. The meal was pretty close to normal: there was turkey, French fried potato wedges, hamburger and rice stuffing, salad and flan for dessert. I missed pumpkin pie!!! However, it was all delicious. We spent the night in Napflio.
Friday Nov. 27th: We had breakfast at the hotel, then drove north to Mycenae to see the ruins there. The gate of this city is well-preserved and has the bodies of two huge animals carved above the entrance (they are called lions but may actually have been griffens). We focused on the palace complex and were able to climb down into a grave shaft (not as exciting as it sounds). The coolest part was when we left the city walls and entered a giant tomb and treasury that was built into the side of a hill. It was dome-shaped and bigger than my house! After Mycenae we drove a couple hours to Sparta. I know, you’re getting images of 300 in your mind, but there is actually relatively little to see here. The modern town is small, and the excavated ruins consist mostly of a Roman Theater. Apparently, the Spartans were so focused on war that they neglected to cultivate any sort of culture, such as drama, music, or writing, that archeologists know next to nothing about them. We stopped here mainly because our history professor is currently excavating the site. However, Carissa and I did get to re-enact a moment from 300, which turned out to be a pretty funny picture. After Sparta we had a four hour drive to Olympia, where we would spend the rest of the weekend.
Saturday Nov. 28th: We spent the morning at a museum of the history of the Olympic Games and the ruins of Olympia, and I ran on the original Olympic track! The site is quite large, though not much else survives from the Olympics, but we did see a few temples. We went to another museum in the afternoon, then had the rest of the time to ourselves. I went back to the ruins to see parts that we hadn’t covered in class, and then browsed through some shops in the modern city. While in one jewelry shop, we had the chance to hold an actual Olympic torch from the opening ceremonies of a recent Olympics (one of the owners of the shop had made it). We had supper at the hotel again, and afterwards we crammed half our group in one room to watch Harry Potter 4, which was on tv. It was very exciting.
Sunday Nov. 29th: We spent most of Sunday in the bus on our way back to Athens. I pretty much did homework for the rest of the night.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Athens, Crete, and Delphi!
I'm sorry; I have really been neglecting my blog! I'll try to recap the past 3 weeks...
My classes in Athens are going well and I like most of my professors a lot. Greek is definitely a challenge, and it doesn't help that I can barely retain the alphabet.
During my second weekend in Greece, my entire group went on a trip to Crete. We took a really nice overnight ferry and arrived about 6 a.m. We drove to Knossos and visited the ruins of one of the earliest Greek civilizations, then stopped at a museum where most of the actual artifacts from this site are kept. The site was alright, but it had been restored in a very obvious and gaudy way, so it wasn't as cool as others we saw in Italy. After Knossos we drove across Crete to Hania, where we spent the remainder of our trip. Emily and I walked through the city on Friday night and managed to find a public garden/park, a couple markets, and the harbor, where we watched the end of the sunset. There is a gorgeous lighthouse in the harbor, and the entire area is lined with cafes and restaurants. That night the Kathmans' took us to dinner at a restaurant near the harbor, which was delicious. I remember there being an excellent flan.
On Saturday Nov. 7th, a small group of us walked out to the lighthouse. There was a great view of the harbor, and it was a warm and sunny day so the weather was perfect. Since it was so nice we decided to go to the beach! There were a few giant cliff-like rocks about a quarter mile out, so we swam out to them. Most of our group was already out there and were jumping off the rocks into the ocean. Of course, I had to join them! The climb up wasn't very fun because the rocks were very jagged, and I stayed on top for awhile to enjoy the view of the beach and the ocean behind me. Then, I jumped. I was only up about 15 feet, but since the water below wasn't very deep, that's probably a good thing! It was exhilarating. Afterwards, we swam back to shore and lounged around. A few of us went looking for shells and watched a couple of the boys "hunt" for fish with a net and makeshift spear. After the beach, Emily, Beatrice and I went back out to the harbor to watch the sunset, and I got a great picture of a hang-glider with the sunset in the background. We had to head to the port by this time in order to catch our ferry back to Athens. Another overnight trip, and we were back in the city by 6 a.m.
Sunday Nov. 8th: After a quick stop at the apartment, Katelynn, Alyssa, Sarah, Lisa, Beatrice and I met at CYA (my school) to join up with other volunteers for the Athens Classic Marathon. I worked at a water stop and was able to hand water out to the runners - it was very cool. Later on, I learned one of the runners I saw is a friend of one of my cousins! How crazy is that? I was pretty exhausted after the Marathon, so it was an early night.
Classes continued as usual this week (Nov. 9-13). On Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15, my class went to Delphi. It was about a four hour drive, and on Saturday we saw the lower area of the Delphi ruins, including the gymnasium and track areas and a few treasuries. We checked into our hotel in the modern city of Delphi around mid-afternoon, so there was plenty of time to check out the city. Emily and I made our way up the mountain a little ways, so we were sitting just above the city as the sun set. From our angle it went down right behind the bay of Corinth - pretty amazing! The Kathmans' took us to dinner around 8 p.m., and while the food was delicious, I would rate it a little lower than the meal we had in Crete. But it did have amazing Vanilla Ice Cream! I stayed in Saturday night (Delphi doesn't have much night life anyway) and a few of us enjoyed the luxury of having a tv. We enjoyed it so much that we actually sat through the entire Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses, which was the only thing on. And it was in Greek. Funnily enough, I'd seen this movie several times over the summer with the kids I babysit, so I was able to keep my friends posted on the complex plot. :-) The movie finished around midnight, and suddenly everyone in the room broke into a round of "Happy Birthday!" I had just turned 21.
Sunday Nov. 15th: I awoke on my birthday to find my hotel room covered in posters that my Athens roommates had made. It was very sweet of them all, and one even made me a birthday crown with 21 individual candles (go Lisa!). I was greeted with a lot more Happy Birthdays at breakfast, and a round of "Happy Birthday" singing by my entire group on the bus. We drove back to the Delphi ruins and toured the top part (the main part), which included more treasuries, the stadium, and the Temple of Apollo (where the legendary oracles made their prophecies). I tried to find out if the oracle had any advice for me regarding my future, but unfortunately she was absent (according to the history prof, she only worked 9 days of the year, so it's no wonder I missed her) :-). We went to the Delphi Museum after that, then to St. Luke's Abbey, which was on our way back to Athens. The abbey was Greek Orthodox, and you could definitely see its eastern influences. It also had a fantastic view of the valley below. The rest of the way back to Athens was uneventful, and I stopped back at CYA to do some homework before heading back to the apartment. When I did arrive home, I was greeted by the smell of chocolate cake! My roomies had found a box mix somewhere, as well as candles and a bottle of wine, so I had my official birthday dinner. Lisa had bought trick candles (whether on accident or intentionally, I don't know), so that was fun and unexpected. We had an assortment of leftovers for dinner, but as they were homemade chicken noodle soup and cheese pies, I am definitely not complaining.
Monday Nov. 16th: Interesting events of the day - scrap basketball and a poetry reading. Our group got together at some nearby bball courts and played a fun game, and afterwards I went to a poetry reading given by an Irish poet who lives part-time in Greece. The poetry in his new book was all about Greece, and he was very engaging and entertaining. I went with Mike and Jane Kathman, and there were a lot of "culturally elite" people in attendance.
Tuesday Nov. 17th: We were all excited about the annual protest (and sometimes riots) that take place in Athens on Nov. 17th every year (the anniversary of a student lock-in against the Military Junta of the '70s). Nothing much of interest happened in our area, which was probably a good thing.
Wednesday Nov. 18th: We went to the National Archeological Museum for art (for the second time).
Thursday Nov. 19th: Most of my roommates and I went to see New Moon at a movie theater in the mall! Needless to say I was pretty excited, and the movie met my expectations. It was fun to see the movie with Greek subtitles and since it was a midnight showing we avoided the troops of screaming teenagers.
Friday Nov. 20th: I spent the morning doing homework and the afternoon shopping! Most of us girls went to a leather sandal maker in the Plaka, and I bought a pair of sandals. The man who makes them is famous throughout the world and his father made shoes for Jackie Kennedy Onnasis and John Lennon! Basically, there are a bunch of styles to choose from, and once you pick your style and size, the owner customizes them to your feet. I have the "Plato" style. We wandered around the Plaka a bit more, then I went back to the apartment for the night.
Saturday Nov. 21st: On Saturday, my roomies and I went to a Christmas Bazaar. It was outdoors and mostly aimed at young kids, but they did have an ice rink - which was odd because it was 80 degrees. Afterwards, Beatrice, Emily, Lisa, and I went with the Kathmans to a wine and champagne tasting in a hotel near our apartments. It was really awkward at first because we had no idea what we were doing, but after observing for awhile we grew braver and tried a few kinds. Homework took up the rest of the day, though that night we watched Mama Mia!
Sunday Nov. 22nd: In the morning I went to a Greek Orthodox church service for my theology class, which was really interesting even if I couldn't understand what was being said. The style of these churches is very different from what I'm used to, but the actual service is essentially the same, just with a few variations. I took a long nap after church and awoke to Emily and Ellen attempting to make crepes. Eventually we settled for eggs on pita, but the crepes that did turn out were pretty good. We blame our stove.
There, that was nice and long! Now I need to go ice my hands... haha. I'll try to be more diligent in the future!
My classes in Athens are going well and I like most of my professors a lot. Greek is definitely a challenge, and it doesn't help that I can barely retain the alphabet.
During my second weekend in Greece, my entire group went on a trip to Crete. We took a really nice overnight ferry and arrived about 6 a.m. We drove to Knossos and visited the ruins of one of the earliest Greek civilizations, then stopped at a museum where most of the actual artifacts from this site are kept. The site was alright, but it had been restored in a very obvious and gaudy way, so it wasn't as cool as others we saw in Italy. After Knossos we drove across Crete to Hania, where we spent the remainder of our trip. Emily and I walked through the city on Friday night and managed to find a public garden/park, a couple markets, and the harbor, where we watched the end of the sunset. There is a gorgeous lighthouse in the harbor, and the entire area is lined with cafes and restaurants. That night the Kathmans' took us to dinner at a restaurant near the harbor, which was delicious. I remember there being an excellent flan.
On Saturday Nov. 7th, a small group of us walked out to the lighthouse. There was a great view of the harbor, and it was a warm and sunny day so the weather was perfect. Since it was so nice we decided to go to the beach! There were a few giant cliff-like rocks about a quarter mile out, so we swam out to them. Most of our group was already out there and were jumping off the rocks into the ocean. Of course, I had to join them! The climb up wasn't very fun because the rocks were very jagged, and I stayed on top for awhile to enjoy the view of the beach and the ocean behind me. Then, I jumped. I was only up about 15 feet, but since the water below wasn't very deep, that's probably a good thing! It was exhilarating. Afterwards, we swam back to shore and lounged around. A few of us went looking for shells and watched a couple of the boys "hunt" for fish with a net and makeshift spear. After the beach, Emily, Beatrice and I went back out to the harbor to watch the sunset, and I got a great picture of a hang-glider with the sunset in the background. We had to head to the port by this time in order to catch our ferry back to Athens. Another overnight trip, and we were back in the city by 6 a.m.
Sunday Nov. 8th: After a quick stop at the apartment, Katelynn, Alyssa, Sarah, Lisa, Beatrice and I met at CYA (my school) to join up with other volunteers for the Athens Classic Marathon. I worked at a water stop and was able to hand water out to the runners - it was very cool. Later on, I learned one of the runners I saw is a friend of one of my cousins! How crazy is that? I was pretty exhausted after the Marathon, so it was an early night.
Classes continued as usual this week (Nov. 9-13). On Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15, my class went to Delphi. It was about a four hour drive, and on Saturday we saw the lower area of the Delphi ruins, including the gymnasium and track areas and a few treasuries. We checked into our hotel in the modern city of Delphi around mid-afternoon, so there was plenty of time to check out the city. Emily and I made our way up the mountain a little ways, so we were sitting just above the city as the sun set. From our angle it went down right behind the bay of Corinth - pretty amazing! The Kathmans' took us to dinner around 8 p.m., and while the food was delicious, I would rate it a little lower than the meal we had in Crete. But it did have amazing Vanilla Ice Cream! I stayed in Saturday night (Delphi doesn't have much night life anyway) and a few of us enjoyed the luxury of having a tv. We enjoyed it so much that we actually sat through the entire Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses, which was the only thing on. And it was in Greek. Funnily enough, I'd seen this movie several times over the summer with the kids I babysit, so I was able to keep my friends posted on the complex plot. :-) The movie finished around midnight, and suddenly everyone in the room broke into a round of "Happy Birthday!" I had just turned 21.
Sunday Nov. 15th: I awoke on my birthday to find my hotel room covered in posters that my Athens roommates had made. It was very sweet of them all, and one even made me a birthday crown with 21 individual candles (go Lisa!). I was greeted with a lot more Happy Birthdays at breakfast, and a round of "Happy Birthday" singing by my entire group on the bus. We drove back to the Delphi ruins and toured the top part (the main part), which included more treasuries, the stadium, and the Temple of Apollo (where the legendary oracles made their prophecies). I tried to find out if the oracle had any advice for me regarding my future, but unfortunately she was absent (according to the history prof, she only worked 9 days of the year, so it's no wonder I missed her) :-). We went to the Delphi Museum after that, then to St. Luke's Abbey, which was on our way back to Athens. The abbey was Greek Orthodox, and you could definitely see its eastern influences. It also had a fantastic view of the valley below. The rest of the way back to Athens was uneventful, and I stopped back at CYA to do some homework before heading back to the apartment. When I did arrive home, I was greeted by the smell of chocolate cake! My roomies had found a box mix somewhere, as well as candles and a bottle of wine, so I had my official birthday dinner. Lisa had bought trick candles (whether on accident or intentionally, I don't know), so that was fun and unexpected. We had an assortment of leftovers for dinner, but as they were homemade chicken noodle soup and cheese pies, I am definitely not complaining.
Monday Nov. 16th: Interesting events of the day - scrap basketball and a poetry reading. Our group got together at some nearby bball courts and played a fun game, and afterwards I went to a poetry reading given by an Irish poet who lives part-time in Greece. The poetry in his new book was all about Greece, and he was very engaging and entertaining. I went with Mike and Jane Kathman, and there were a lot of "culturally elite" people in attendance.
Tuesday Nov. 17th: We were all excited about the annual protest (and sometimes riots) that take place in Athens on Nov. 17th every year (the anniversary of a student lock-in against the Military Junta of the '70s). Nothing much of interest happened in our area, which was probably a good thing.
Wednesday Nov. 18th: We went to the National Archeological Museum for art (for the second time).
Thursday Nov. 19th: Most of my roommates and I went to see New Moon at a movie theater in the mall! Needless to say I was pretty excited, and the movie met my expectations. It was fun to see the movie with Greek subtitles and since it was a midnight showing we avoided the troops of screaming teenagers.
Friday Nov. 20th: I spent the morning doing homework and the afternoon shopping! Most of us girls went to a leather sandal maker in the Plaka, and I bought a pair of sandals. The man who makes them is famous throughout the world and his father made shoes for Jackie Kennedy Onnasis and John Lennon! Basically, there are a bunch of styles to choose from, and once you pick your style and size, the owner customizes them to your feet. I have the "Plato" style. We wandered around the Plaka a bit more, then I went back to the apartment for the night.
Saturday Nov. 21st: On Saturday, my roomies and I went to a Christmas Bazaar. It was outdoors and mostly aimed at young kids, but they did have an ice rink - which was odd because it was 80 degrees. Afterwards, Beatrice, Emily, Lisa, and I went with the Kathmans to a wine and champagne tasting in a hotel near our apartments. It was really awkward at first because we had no idea what we were doing, but after observing for awhile we grew braver and tried a few kinds. Homework took up the rest of the day, though that night we watched Mama Mia!
Sunday Nov. 22nd: In the morning I went to a Greek Orthodox church service for my theology class, which was really interesting even if I couldn't understand what was being said. The style of these churches is very different from what I'm used to, but the actual service is essentially the same, just with a few variations. I took a long nap after church and awoke to Emily and Ellen attempting to make crepes. Eventually we settled for eggs on pita, but the crepes that did turn out were pretty good. We blame our stove.
There, that was nice and long! Now I need to go ice my hands... haha. I'll try to be more diligent in the future!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Ireland!
During our week mid-semester break, my friend Beatrice and I traveled to Ireland, then met up with my friend Brianna in Athens (she is studying in London). In case you are wondering what I did during the 2-week period that I have not accounted for in my blog, I will give a brief synopsis: I finished my classes, toured Ostia Antica (ruins of a port city near Rome that are really cool) with the history class, toured the Colosseum and Roman Forum, and studied for finals (which we won't go into). I loved Ireland and wished I could have spent more time there. Beatrice and I spent time in Dublin and Galway, which is a city on the west coast.
Friday, Oct. 23rd: We flew into Dublin, found our first hostel, and walked around Dublin. We went over the Liffy river and saw the outside of Oscar Wilde's birthplace, walked through Trinity College campus (but didn't go in to see the Book of Kells), and while trying to find the adult home of Oscar Wilde (which we never did find) we stumbled on a park dedicated to some Archbishop, so we walked through there. It was nice to see some greenery! We had dinner at Insomnia, which is a coffee shop chain. At least, I had dinner, since Beatrice wasn't feeling well. Because she was feeling sick, we decided to have an early night and went back to the hostel (she was pretty sleep-deprived from studying for finals). The hostel was extremely noisy that night, so I don't think we fell asleep until close to 2 a.m.
Saturday, Oct. 24th: We ate breakfast at the hostel, then walked over to the Guinness Storehouse and took a tour. It was really cool, and once you get to the top you receive a complimentary pint of Guinness and are in a glassed-in bar with 360 degree views of Dublin - it's one of or possibly the highest point in Dublin. It was raining when we left - surprise! - so we stopped in a little tea shop that our hostel recommended. That was an interesting experience. My first thought when I walked in was "I wonder where the hookas are?" and Beatrice describes it as an Eastern version of Professor Trelawny's classroom in HP. But the tea was good and it was warm. And they actually did have hookas there, so my instinct was correct. Afterwords we caught a bus to Galway, where we arrived 4 hours later. We found our hostel, which was a little bizarre in its decor but it was clean and cheap! It also had a great location - just off of Eyre Square which is basically the heart of Galway. We had another night in, and actually got a great night's sleep.
Sunday, Oct. 25th: We toured the Burren (region south of Galway) and the Cliffs of Moher, which are "spectacular" as our guide said about 300 times. The tour included some additional stops: a couple castle ruins, the Aihlwee caves, and we passed through several little villages and a 5000 year old burial place. I probably have about 30 pictures of the cliffs. That night back in Galway we walked around the area near our hostel and through Eyre Square.
Monday, Oct. 26th: We toured the Connemara region (area north of Galway) and Kylemore Abbey with the same tour company as the day before. It's interesting how different the two regions are for being so close together; Connemara is more mountainous and has areas of bog land, whereas the Burren is a bit more lush. Both beautiful though. And Kylemore Abbey is amazing: it's actually a converted 19th century castle in the mountains and on the edge of a lake and has a gothic-style church and a walled Victorian garden. Now it's a Benedictine Monastery. On this trip we took a walk through a "famine village" - small villages founded during the potato famine - where we saw donkeys, Connemara ponies, sheep, and an Irish red setter that came up and let me pet him. We also stopped at Scree Waterfall and Killary Fjord, and drove through several more villages (including Spiddal, where our Galway Study Abroad program is) and Maam Cross, where the movie The Quiet Man was filmed (John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara). On the way home our driver started a "sing-song" - he sang two songs in Gaelic, and others sang in German, French, and English. We ran into another group of CSB people at our hostel when we returned, including Malinda and Lauren from my trip. We knew they were coming to Ireland, but we didn't know where they were staying, and it turned out they were in the same hostel! We went out to a pub that night with them and found some American guys to talk with. The pubs have such a fun atmosphere, and the one we were at had a four-piece band that was playing traditional Irish music, so that was really cool.
Tuesday, Oct. 27th: Beatrice and I went to Galway Cathedral and attended mass there, then we spent the rest of the time just wandering around Galway and checking out the shops. We also had fish and chips at a seafood place, and I liked it much more than I expected. About mid-afternoon we caught our bus back to Dublin. We went to Temple Bar that night, and after checking out several pubs we ended up staying at the actual Temple Bar pub - it had the best music: two men playing guitar and singing traditional Irish songs and U2 (I kept track: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride, and With or Without You). The Temple Bar is HUGE, they must have bought up a couple of the spaces around them and attached them all together. We left after the band was finished - around 1:30 or so.
Wednesday, Oct. 28th: We joined up with a free walking tour of Dublin, which was actually very good. Our guide was funny and gave us a lot of interesting info and history about the places we were seeing. We stopped at Dublin Castle, Christ Church, Adam and Eve Church, and the area of the old Vikings' settlement. We ended up ditching the tour in Temple Bar because we had to get our luggage from the hostel and catch our flight. We got to Rome without a problem and checked into the hostel there (it felt weird staying in a hostel instead of my apartment).
Thursday, Oct. 29th: We had a crazy time catching our flight - we missed our first train and then the next train to the airport was late, so we were racing through the airport and boarded the plane just 10 minutes before it was supposed to take off. But we made it to Athens and met Brianna right away. It was so great to see her again! It took forever to find our apartment because the directions we were given were awful, and by the time we figured out where we were it was too late to pick up our keys. Fortunately some girls from another college rescued us and with their help we found a few of the girls from our trip who were in Athens over the break. We crashed in their place for the night, then got into our apartment on Friday morning.
So now you know all about my whirlwind trip! I start my classes here in Athens tomorrow already, and my class has a trip planned to Crete this weekend, so I'm sure I'll have updates soon!
Friday, Oct. 23rd: We flew into Dublin, found our first hostel, and walked around Dublin. We went over the Liffy river and saw the outside of Oscar Wilde's birthplace, walked through Trinity College campus (but didn't go in to see the Book of Kells), and while trying to find the adult home of Oscar Wilde (which we never did find) we stumbled on a park dedicated to some Archbishop, so we walked through there. It was nice to see some greenery! We had dinner at Insomnia, which is a coffee shop chain. At least, I had dinner, since Beatrice wasn't feeling well. Because she was feeling sick, we decided to have an early night and went back to the hostel (she was pretty sleep-deprived from studying for finals). The hostel was extremely noisy that night, so I don't think we fell asleep until close to 2 a.m.
Saturday, Oct. 24th: We ate breakfast at the hostel, then walked over to the Guinness Storehouse and took a tour. It was really cool, and once you get to the top you receive a complimentary pint of Guinness and are in a glassed-in bar with 360 degree views of Dublin - it's one of or possibly the highest point in Dublin. It was raining when we left - surprise! - so we stopped in a little tea shop that our hostel recommended. That was an interesting experience. My first thought when I walked in was "I wonder where the hookas are?" and Beatrice describes it as an Eastern version of Professor Trelawny's classroom in HP. But the tea was good and it was warm. And they actually did have hookas there, so my instinct was correct. Afterwords we caught a bus to Galway, where we arrived 4 hours later. We found our hostel, which was a little bizarre in its decor but it was clean and cheap! It also had a great location - just off of Eyre Square which is basically the heart of Galway. We had another night in, and actually got a great night's sleep.
Sunday, Oct. 25th: We toured the Burren (region south of Galway) and the Cliffs of Moher, which are "spectacular" as our guide said about 300 times. The tour included some additional stops: a couple castle ruins, the Aihlwee caves, and we passed through several little villages and a 5000 year old burial place. I probably have about 30 pictures of the cliffs. That night back in Galway we walked around the area near our hostel and through Eyre Square.
Monday, Oct. 26th: We toured the Connemara region (area north of Galway) and Kylemore Abbey with the same tour company as the day before. It's interesting how different the two regions are for being so close together; Connemara is more mountainous and has areas of bog land, whereas the Burren is a bit more lush. Both beautiful though. And Kylemore Abbey is amazing: it's actually a converted 19th century castle in the mountains and on the edge of a lake and has a gothic-style church and a walled Victorian garden. Now it's a Benedictine Monastery. On this trip we took a walk through a "famine village" - small villages founded during the potato famine - where we saw donkeys, Connemara ponies, sheep, and an Irish red setter that came up and let me pet him. We also stopped at Scree Waterfall and Killary Fjord, and drove through several more villages (including Spiddal, where our Galway Study Abroad program is) and Maam Cross, where the movie The Quiet Man was filmed (John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara). On the way home our driver started a "sing-song" - he sang two songs in Gaelic, and others sang in German, French, and English. We ran into another group of CSB people at our hostel when we returned, including Malinda and Lauren from my trip. We knew they were coming to Ireland, but we didn't know where they were staying, and it turned out they were in the same hostel! We went out to a pub that night with them and found some American guys to talk with. The pubs have such a fun atmosphere, and the one we were at had a four-piece band that was playing traditional Irish music, so that was really cool.
Tuesday, Oct. 27th: Beatrice and I went to Galway Cathedral and attended mass there, then we spent the rest of the time just wandering around Galway and checking out the shops. We also had fish and chips at a seafood place, and I liked it much more than I expected. About mid-afternoon we caught our bus back to Dublin. We went to Temple Bar that night, and after checking out several pubs we ended up staying at the actual Temple Bar pub - it had the best music: two men playing guitar and singing traditional Irish songs and U2 (I kept track: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride, and With or Without You). The Temple Bar is HUGE, they must have bought up a couple of the spaces around them and attached them all together. We left after the band was finished - around 1:30 or so.
Wednesday, Oct. 28th: We joined up with a free walking tour of Dublin, which was actually very good. Our guide was funny and gave us a lot of interesting info and history about the places we were seeing. We stopped at Dublin Castle, Christ Church, Adam and Eve Church, and the area of the old Vikings' settlement. We ended up ditching the tour in Temple Bar because we had to get our luggage from the hostel and catch our flight. We got to Rome without a problem and checked into the hostel there (it felt weird staying in a hostel instead of my apartment).
Thursday, Oct. 29th: We had a crazy time catching our flight - we missed our first train and then the next train to the airport was late, so we were racing through the airport and boarded the plane just 10 minutes before it was supposed to take off. But we made it to Athens and met Brianna right away. It was so great to see her again! It took forever to find our apartment because the directions we were given were awful, and by the time we figured out where we were it was too late to pick up our keys. Fortunately some girls from another college rescued us and with their help we found a few of the girls from our trip who were in Athens over the break. We crashed in their place for the night, then got into our apartment on Friday morning.
So now you know all about my whirlwind trip! I start my classes here in Athens tomorrow already, and my class has a trip planned to Crete this weekend, so I'm sure I'll have updates soon!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Rome Week 5 and Florence
October 4th – October 11th
On Tuesday the 5th we went to the Farnese Palace for art. The rooms we looked at were decorated with mostly mythological paintings, and I was excited because I could recognize some of the figures and scenes. Raphael’s “Gaeta” fresco is also there. One room is painted to give the illusion that you are standing in an open courtyard, and the views on the walls show how the building was surrounded at the time it was built. That was pretty cool.
On Wednesday we took a Theology field trip to a couple of churches, one of which was the Basilica of Santa Crocce, which contains relics of Christ’s crucifixion. St. Helen (Constantine’s mother) went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the 5th century and just happened to find Christ’s cross, as well as the cross of the Good Thief, and the crown of thorns. A few pieces of Christ’s cross are kept in the church, and we saw those as well as a beam from the Good Thief’s cross, two thorns from the crown of thorns, one of the nails used to crucify Jesus, and a finger of St. Thomas. It was pretty awe-inspiring!
On Thursday night, my apartment hosted one of the other girls’ apartments for dinner. We made pizza and appetizers – everything turned out delicious, and we managed to cram all eleven of us into our tiny living room. It was a fun girls’ night!
This weekend we went to Florence! It was great, but we spent a lot of time in museums, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but you can only look at so much art in 2.5 days. Our art prof. Paolo was on the trip with us since it was a trip for his class, so we had to do a lot of note-taking. On the other hand, it was nice to know what we were looking at and why we were supposed to think it was a masterpiece. We saw Michelangelo's David, which is amazing and worth the hype. We also saw some of Botticelli's famous paintings, like Spring and The Birth of Venus, and other paintings and statues by Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Titian, Mossacio, Alberti and Donatello. It rained on and off for most of Friday and Saturday, so maybe it was a good thing we spent so much time in museums! The cooler weather was a nice change from Rome though, and now it's finally started cooling off here as well - most of this week it's supposed to be in the 60s. We ate at some really good restaurants and had some amazing gelato. I also spent a good amount of time in the markets; Florence is known for its leather goods, so I bought a leather purse! Most of the group did a lot of their shopping here. It was nice not to have to plan anything, especially since Beatrice and I have to get things organized for Ireland (we are going there over our week break at the end of October)!
On Tuesday the 5th we went to the Farnese Palace for art. The rooms we looked at were decorated with mostly mythological paintings, and I was excited because I could recognize some of the figures and scenes. Raphael’s “Gaeta” fresco is also there. One room is painted to give the illusion that you are standing in an open courtyard, and the views on the walls show how the building was surrounded at the time it was built. That was pretty cool.
On Wednesday we took a Theology field trip to a couple of churches, one of which was the Basilica of Santa Crocce, which contains relics of Christ’s crucifixion. St. Helen (Constantine’s mother) went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the 5th century and just happened to find Christ’s cross, as well as the cross of the Good Thief, and the crown of thorns. A few pieces of Christ’s cross are kept in the church, and we saw those as well as a beam from the Good Thief’s cross, two thorns from the crown of thorns, one of the nails used to crucify Jesus, and a finger of St. Thomas. It was pretty awe-inspiring!
On Thursday night, my apartment hosted one of the other girls’ apartments for dinner. We made pizza and appetizers – everything turned out delicious, and we managed to cram all eleven of us into our tiny living room. It was a fun girls’ night!
This weekend we went to Florence! It was great, but we spent a lot of time in museums, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but you can only look at so much art in 2.5 days. Our art prof. Paolo was on the trip with us since it was a trip for his class, so we had to do a lot of note-taking. On the other hand, it was nice to know what we were looking at and why we were supposed to think it was a masterpiece. We saw Michelangelo's David, which is amazing and worth the hype. We also saw some of Botticelli's famous paintings, like Spring and The Birth of Venus, and other paintings and statues by Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Titian, Mossacio, Alberti and Donatello. It rained on and off for most of Friday and Saturday, so maybe it was a good thing we spent so much time in museums! The cooler weather was a nice change from Rome though, and now it's finally started cooling off here as well - most of this week it's supposed to be in the 60s. We ate at some really good restaurants and had some amazing gelato. I also spent a good amount of time in the markets; Florence is known for its leather goods, so I bought a leather purse! Most of the group did a lot of their shopping here. It was nice not to have to plan anything, especially since Beatrice and I have to get things organized for Ireland (we are going there over our week break at the end of October)!
Rome Week 4 plus Herculaneum, Amalfi, and Pompeii
September 28th - October 4th
Amalfi was AMAZING - it's probably my favorite trip so far. Everything was sooooo beautiful, and the group I traveled with was great (it helps that there were only 5 of us, and they are all people I get along with). We went with the class to Naples early on Friday morning and went to the Archeological museum there because that's where most of the artifacts are from Pompeii. Naples was not my favorite place and I 'm glad we spent very little time there - it's still under Mafia control to some extent and it's even dirtier and smellier than Rome. So right after the museum we took a train to Herculaneum and stopped for lunch - my group went to a cafe and I had gnocchi (my first sit-down meal, by the way). It was delicious. We got to the ruins about 2-2:30, by which time most of the other groups were done - they wanted to get back to Rome and go on a pub crawl. Emily, Beatrice, Katelyn, Evan and I stayed and looked at Herculaneum, which is very cool, especially because you can walk through so many of the houses. It's amazing how well things were preserved, overall. It was a cloudy/rainy day and cool, so very nice weather for walking around. We decided to head straight to our hostel in Sorrento after we were done, so we took another train and then a bus to the edge of Sorrento, as our hostel was once again a campground - only 9 Euros a night! Beatrice, Emily, and I stayed in a 3-person cabin (and they even upgraded us to one with a bathroom for no additional charge) and everything was clean so that was nice. We then walked back into Sorrento (it was a little touch and go, because about 400 M of that walk has no sidewalk, just a six-inch shoulder against a stone wall) and had crepes and things at a cafe and checked out some of the souvenir shops, then walked back to our hostel and went to bed.
We woke up early on Saturday morning and walked into Sorrento; the walk is beautiful because you can see the bay and the city as you go. We picked up some fruit at a grocery store, then decided to sit at a gelateria/cafe and splurge on a tastier breakfast - I had a waffle with nutella and cream and it was amazingly delicious. Oh, and I had cappuccino as well. We then walked through the lemon and orange grove that Rick Steves mentions in his book - I really liked this, and they gave us free samples of their Limoncello, which I ended up buying a little bottle of. Around noon we caught a bus to Positano and it was a beautiful ride even though I was getting motion sick. Next time, I am taking the ferry. Positano is absolutely amazing and we spent the afternoon on the beach after picking up a picnic lunch from the Deliketessen Rick Steves recommends in the Positano section. (Can you tell how much we love Rick Steves???) We ate on the beach and then went swimming; I just can't describe how great it was and how beautiful the city looked from the water - the buildings stretch up the cliffs from the bay. I found a painting of it to add to my collection, and it even shows the beach we were at! It took us about an hour and a half to get back to Sorrento that evening because the buses were so full, and I had the misfortune of witnessing the worst "Ugly American" behavior I have seen yet on this trip. A group of American college-age tourists were waiting for the bus as well and were apparently irate that they missed the last two, so they announced that they were going to leave the line "to go get a shot" and then come back and cut in front of everyone - and they wouldn't feel bad because they'd been waiting for over an hour. They also made some comments about how these British girls who made it on the bus ahead of them "were such bitches, the British girls are such Bitches" and I wanted to crawl in a hole and die because the elderly couple ahead of my group was British. I apologized to them after the group left - "I'm so sorry, I want to apologize for their rudeness, not all of us are like that, etc” - and they of course were really nice about it. Emily and I ended up having a nice conversation with them, as well as with a Canadian couple who were also appalled at that group's behavior. The Ugly Americans did eventually return, with wine for those of us at the head of the line as a way of "apologizing" for their speech earlier. They were still being pretty obnoxious, but I took some wine anyway because I figured it was the very least they could do. And it turned out that we all made it on the next bus because it was nearly empty, and despite once again feeling horribly motion sick, we got back to our hostel just fine.
Sunday morning we woke up early again and Emily, Beatrice, and I went to see Pompeii, while Katelyn and Evan took an early train back to Rome. Pompeii was nice, but in retrospect I would have been fine with only seeing Herculaneum - you couldn't go into as many buildings, and there was less variation in what was preserved, so it was a little disappointing after Herculaneum, though there were a lot more classical Roman ruins (columns and pillars). Plus, it was a lot warmer and I got sunburned. We managed to catch a 3:30 train from Naples and arrived back at our apartment around 6:30. It was a great weekend, and more relaxing because we weren't trying to see a ton of things, though looking back I feel like we saw a lot.
Amalfi was AMAZING - it's probably my favorite trip so far. Everything was sooooo beautiful, and the group I traveled with was great (it helps that there were only 5 of us, and they are all people I get along with). We went with the class to Naples early on Friday morning and went to the Archeological museum there because that's where most of the artifacts are from Pompeii. Naples was not my favorite place and I 'm glad we spent very little time there - it's still under Mafia control to some extent and it's even dirtier and smellier than Rome. So right after the museum we took a train to Herculaneum and stopped for lunch - my group went to a cafe and I had gnocchi (my first sit-down meal, by the way). It was delicious. We got to the ruins about 2-2:30, by which time most of the other groups were done - they wanted to get back to Rome and go on a pub crawl. Emily, Beatrice, Katelyn, Evan and I stayed and looked at Herculaneum, which is very cool, especially because you can walk through so many of the houses. It's amazing how well things were preserved, overall. It was a cloudy/rainy day and cool, so very nice weather for walking around. We decided to head straight to our hostel in Sorrento after we were done, so we took another train and then a bus to the edge of Sorrento, as our hostel was once again a campground - only 9 Euros a night! Beatrice, Emily, and I stayed in a 3-person cabin (and they even upgraded us to one with a bathroom for no additional charge) and everything was clean so that was nice. We then walked back into Sorrento (it was a little touch and go, because about 400 M of that walk has no sidewalk, just a six-inch shoulder against a stone wall) and had crepes and things at a cafe and checked out some of the souvenir shops, then walked back to our hostel and went to bed.
We woke up early on Saturday morning and walked into Sorrento; the walk is beautiful because you can see the bay and the city as you go. We picked up some fruit at a grocery store, then decided to sit at a gelateria/cafe and splurge on a tastier breakfast - I had a waffle with nutella and cream and it was amazingly delicious. Oh, and I had cappuccino as well. We then walked through the lemon and orange grove that Rick Steves mentions in his book - I really liked this, and they gave us free samples of their Limoncello, which I ended up buying a little bottle of. Around noon we caught a bus to Positano and it was a beautiful ride even though I was getting motion sick. Next time, I am taking the ferry. Positano is absolutely amazing and we spent the afternoon on the beach after picking up a picnic lunch from the Deliketessen Rick Steves recommends in the Positano section. (Can you tell how much we love Rick Steves???) We ate on the beach and then went swimming; I just can't describe how great it was and how beautiful the city looked from the water - the buildings stretch up the cliffs from the bay. I found a painting of it to add to my collection, and it even shows the beach we were at! It took us about an hour and a half to get back to Sorrento that evening because the buses were so full, and I had the misfortune of witnessing the worst "Ugly American" behavior I have seen yet on this trip. A group of American college-age tourists were waiting for the bus as well and were apparently irate that they missed the last two, so they announced that they were going to leave the line "to go get a shot" and then come back and cut in front of everyone - and they wouldn't feel bad because they'd been waiting for over an hour. They also made some comments about how these British girls who made it on the bus ahead of them "were such bitches, the British girls are such Bitches" and I wanted to crawl in a hole and die because the elderly couple ahead of my group was British. I apologized to them after the group left - "I'm so sorry, I want to apologize for their rudeness, not all of us are like that, etc” - and they of course were really nice about it. Emily and I ended up having a nice conversation with them, as well as with a Canadian couple who were also appalled at that group's behavior. The Ugly Americans did eventually return, with wine for those of us at the head of the line as a way of "apologizing" for their speech earlier. They were still being pretty obnoxious, but I took some wine anyway because I figured it was the very least they could do. And it turned out that we all made it on the next bus because it was nearly empty, and despite once again feeling horribly motion sick, we got back to our hostel just fine.
Sunday morning we woke up early again and Emily, Beatrice, and I went to see Pompeii, while Katelyn and Evan took an early train back to Rome. Pompeii was nice, but in retrospect I would have been fine with only seeing Herculaneum - you couldn't go into as many buildings, and there was less variation in what was preserved, so it was a little disappointing after Herculaneum, though there were a lot more classical Roman ruins (columns and pillars). Plus, it was a lot warmer and I got sunburned. We managed to catch a 3:30 train from Naples and arrived back at our apartment around 6:30. It was a great weekend, and more relaxing because we weren't trying to see a ton of things, though looking back I feel like we saw a lot.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Rome Week 3 plus Subiaco and Assisi
September 21st - 27th
The early part of the week was classes as usual, plus stops at the Borghese Gallery for art and the Roman Forum for history. I absolutely loved the statue of Apollo and Daphne by Bernini in the Borghese, and the ruins were cool as well.
On Thursday night (Sept. 24th) a large group of us girls joined the boys at their favorite bar, Scholars Irish Pub. They were excited because the bar was having a celebration in honor of the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guiness, and they were going to have live Irish music and as well as promoting Guiness. The Irish band was great, and while I didn’t have a Guiness, I did order a cider beer called Strongbow, which was pretty good but not so good that I’m going to seek it out for 5 euro…
On the morning of Friday, Sept. 25th, we left bright and early for Subiaco, which is where St. Benedict founded his first monastery and the Benedictine Order. We visited the monastery which was built into the cliffs where St. Benedict lived for 3 years, and also the Monastery of his sister St. Scholastica, which was in the actual town of Subiaco. The church in the caves is amazing (the monastery is attached, and both were built after St. B died). They jut out from the side of the mountain and half the walls inside are the actual cliff rock covered in frescoes from the 1200s – 1400s. The views of the surrounding mountains and valleys are beautiful - some of the people in our group compared it to the Pacific Northwest. Our tour of the St. Scholastica Monastery was very limited, but they did give us lunch. We arrived back in Rome mid-afternoon, so there was time for some delicious Old Bridge gelato (best in Rome!) and a crepe.
On Saturday the 26th a group of us traveled to Assisi! Assisi looks exactly like I pictured Italy when I imagined coming here – the old town is very medieval-looking. We started out touring the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in lower Assisi (the newer part of the city), which is a Fransiscan Church built AROUND a medieval Benedictine Church – very cool. We then took a bus to the top of the hill/mountain that Assisi is on and saw a Roman Ampitheater (disappointing, most of it had been turned into a restaurant). Then we hiked up to the very top of the hill to Rocce Magiore, which is a medieval castle. The views from up there were so amazing! Caroline and I just sat in front of the castle for about an hour while the others went inside, and I just couldn't get over how beautiful the view was. You can see miles of the valley and the old part of the town (it feels like you’ve gone back in time), and the other side is forest-covered mountains. After the castle we walked down to St. Francis Basilica, and I saw the tomb of St. Francis. This basilica is interesting because it has 3 levels that, like Subiaco, are covered in frescoes. My favorite was a fresco depicting St. Francis “marrying” Lady Poverty. That was about all we had time for. When we got back to Rome that night Beatrice and I went to Piazza del Popolo because MTV and Coca-Cola were sponsoring a free rock concert there. It was sort of a contest I think; the concert was called "The Summer Song" and we think they were voting on each artist after they performed. It was really cool, and the piazza was absolutely packed with people - it was even funnier because we'd just been there on Tuesday to study its architectural history, and now it was in full rock-concert mode.
On Sunday the 27th, Emily, Beatrice and I decided to go to the Vatican Museum because it is free on the last Sunday of the month. First off: never do this unless you are absolutely desperate – the lines are insane and it’s packed. We had to go through the picture gallery for art, so we saw Raphael’s “Transfiguration” among other paintings. We also saw the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael rooms, which were all amazing, but I think I would have enjoyed them more if I was crabby from waiting forty minutes in a packed crowd to get to them. The Sistine Chapel is incredibly detailed and beautiful, but I think I may actually have preferred the Raphael rooms, which include The School of Athens. We went to church in the Vatican again (this time at the main alter!) and afterwards Emily, Lisa, and I sat in front of the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square and did homework.
Another great week!
The early part of the week was classes as usual, plus stops at the Borghese Gallery for art and the Roman Forum for history. I absolutely loved the statue of Apollo and Daphne by Bernini in the Borghese, and the ruins were cool as well.
On Thursday night (Sept. 24th) a large group of us girls joined the boys at their favorite bar, Scholars Irish Pub. They were excited because the bar was having a celebration in honor of the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guiness, and they were going to have live Irish music and as well as promoting Guiness. The Irish band was great, and while I didn’t have a Guiness, I did order a cider beer called Strongbow, which was pretty good but not so good that I’m going to seek it out for 5 euro…
On the morning of Friday, Sept. 25th, we left bright and early for Subiaco, which is where St. Benedict founded his first monastery and the Benedictine Order. We visited the monastery which was built into the cliffs where St. Benedict lived for 3 years, and also the Monastery of his sister St. Scholastica, which was in the actual town of Subiaco. The church in the caves is amazing (the monastery is attached, and both were built after St. B died). They jut out from the side of the mountain and half the walls inside are the actual cliff rock covered in frescoes from the 1200s – 1400s. The views of the surrounding mountains and valleys are beautiful - some of the people in our group compared it to the Pacific Northwest. Our tour of the St. Scholastica Monastery was very limited, but they did give us lunch. We arrived back in Rome mid-afternoon, so there was time for some delicious Old Bridge gelato (best in Rome!) and a crepe.
On Saturday the 26th a group of us traveled to Assisi! Assisi looks exactly like I pictured Italy when I imagined coming here – the old town is very medieval-looking. We started out touring the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in lower Assisi (the newer part of the city), which is a Fransiscan Church built AROUND a medieval Benedictine Church – very cool. We then took a bus to the top of the hill/mountain that Assisi is on and saw a Roman Ampitheater (disappointing, most of it had been turned into a restaurant). Then we hiked up to the very top of the hill to Rocce Magiore, which is a medieval castle. The views from up there were so amazing! Caroline and I just sat in front of the castle for about an hour while the others went inside, and I just couldn't get over how beautiful the view was. You can see miles of the valley and the old part of the town (it feels like you’ve gone back in time), and the other side is forest-covered mountains. After the castle we walked down to St. Francis Basilica, and I saw the tomb of St. Francis. This basilica is interesting because it has 3 levels that, like Subiaco, are covered in frescoes. My favorite was a fresco depicting St. Francis “marrying” Lady Poverty. That was about all we had time for. When we got back to Rome that night Beatrice and I went to Piazza del Popolo because MTV and Coca-Cola were sponsoring a free rock concert there. It was sort of a contest I think; the concert was called "The Summer Song" and we think they were voting on each artist after they performed. It was really cool, and the piazza was absolutely packed with people - it was even funnier because we'd just been there on Tuesday to study its architectural history, and now it was in full rock-concert mode.
On Sunday the 27th, Emily, Beatrice and I decided to go to the Vatican Museum because it is free on the last Sunday of the month. First off: never do this unless you are absolutely desperate – the lines are insane and it’s packed. We had to go through the picture gallery for art, so we saw Raphael’s “Transfiguration” among other paintings. We also saw the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael rooms, which were all amazing, but I think I would have enjoyed them more if I was crabby from waiting forty minutes in a packed crowd to get to them. The Sistine Chapel is incredibly detailed and beautiful, but I think I may actually have preferred the Raphael rooms, which include The School of Athens. We went to church in the Vatican again (this time at the main alter!) and afterwards Emily, Lisa, and I sat in front of the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square and did homework.
Another great week!
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