Island Cruise (3 of 3)

This past Saturday myself and 6 other girls decided to go on a day cruise that stopped at three different islands; Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Oh my gosh I was so positively happy all day I don’t think I stop smiling until I fell asleep. The islands have such a unique feel to them that’s so distinct from the hustle and bustle of Athens. Once again, another little escape was greatly enjoyed. From cliff jumping to pony rides to snorkeling to four-wheeling Saturday might just have been the best day of this entire trip!

Our program directors planned a week long trip for us to visit Nafplion (a city 2 1/2 hours away from Athens along the coast) and spend time researching at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies. I was and continue to be blown away by how beautiful Nafplion it is. Since it’s a city I’d never heard of I didn’t really know what to expect. It’s the sweetest little seaside town I think I’ll ever have the pleasure of visiting. Every cobblestone alley with vines and flowers draping from building to building are the definition of picturesque. I keep having to remind myself that I’m not walking around in a postcard because that’s what it feels like. The sunsets have been breathtaking every evening and I know I’ll miss them dearly once we head back to Athens.

Karathona beach

no such thing as too much gelato

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Nafplion, Greece

Astir Beach

Unfortunately I only have a few pictures to share today because my iPhone decided to take its last and final breaths this last week. Thanks to the amazing superhero that my mom is though she’s managed to get a new one shipped to me this week. Until then it’s just me and the gopro!

Saturday I spent the day at a beach about 30 min away from Athens and it was breathtaking. Just what the doctor ordered!

More Food and Selfies

My father requested that I post more pictures of me actually in them so I’ve made an effort to step up my selfie game. Pictures include our trip to the Herodian Theater at the acropolis where we saw an opera performance of “Othello” and the pictures of food are from the meal we ate before the opera!

Pre-opera selfie. My tan is finally starting to come in!

Traditional veal stew

Turkish dessert

Fresh fruit!

Opera ticket

inside the Herodian

Rocking the (required) swimming cap at our olympic pool!

reading my kindle on campus

before the opera started

rewarded myself with an ice cream bar after a run (sorry mom)

“My surroundings”

My sweet momma who I miss a little too much has requested I upload pictures of my “surroundings” to get a feel of where I’m staying. So per her request here our photos of the city and my school. Enjoy!

farmers market by my apartment! best tomatoes ever

syntagma square

metro station

Monastiraki Square

One of the many gyros I’ve consumed 🙂

west plaka district

our pool that michael phelps trained in!

front entrance

The spot where I sit during class breaks

on my walk to class

Parliament and Strays

This week our program director arranged for a private tour of the parliament building for our group and it was great! It’s a building we walk by quite often so it was really cool to get to go inside and hear the history of the building from a guide. We only walked through one metal detector and our names/identity were never verified….casual. Just a little different than getting into The Capitol! I also included a couple other pictures of the building I’ve taken from either roof top dinners or just walking around

I also have a confession to make. I have fallen in love….with the stray animals of Greece. We all saw this coming, it was only a matter of time. There are little kittens everywhere and all of them playing together is the cutest thing I’ve seen. The dogs are an entirely different story. I did a little bit of research on the stray dogs of athens out of concern and discovered there are multiple well-funded organizations to care for these animals. They provide almost all of them with vaccines and food and tag them so they can be accounted for. Any of the strays that have collars on are all safe and disease-free which is a good thing because I want to cuddle with all of them. I still have to remind myself to approach cautiously even though not a single one has shown even the slightest indication of aggression. Normally they run up and start kissing me faster than Ellie does. I’ve always known dogs can sense when someone is a dog person and this proves it. A few pictures show this one guy who was having the time of his life splashing and rolling around in a park fountain (ellie-style of course) and then walked over to hang out with us. My favorite so far though has been the black mix that immediately laid down and rolled over onto his back asking for belly rubs. It is so evident that these animals are healthy and well-loved, it just warms my heart. Most of the research I’ve done explains how many people live in such small apartments that they’re not able to accomodate larger pets so instead the entire city shares a few dozen dogs. Essentially instead of 1-3 loving owners each stray has hundreds. Which explains why they’re all so well-fed and loving towards people.

Dogs of athens, you get me.

Food and Beaches

The weekend was spent eating amazing food and enjoying incredible beaches. Saturday night we enjoyed a beautiful group dinner at a rooftop restaurant. The picturesque view made me feel like I was in a postcard. The coolest part was when a lightening storm rolled through the other side of town and we could all safely enjoy watching while eating yet again another delicious meal. After dinner we headed to an outdoor movie that was being shown at Greece’s National Garden (google it, breathtaking).

On sunday we took a high-speed ferry (the green thing) to an island called Aegina (ah-gee-nuh), a smaller more authentic destination for locals and celebrities alike. The downtown area was along the marina which was filled with boats, both big and small. We took a short bus to the main beach area and laid out while sipping on cocktails all day. Very surreal. Afterwards we had a group meal at a seafood place which again had unbelievably fresh food. I’m starting to imagine going back to eating processed foods in america might be difficult.

Today was our first day of class and we spent 4 hours learning the modern greek language. I was a bit worried about this class since I have really struggled while trying to learn languages in the past but I surprisingly had SO much fun. Our instructor (who is a professor at the school and native greek) has a linguistic background. Having just taken linguistics this past year I had a fairly easy time understanding the way he explained the general rules of greek grammar and such. We spent a lot of the class learning the alphabet and translating all of our names. Rachel translates to “Pεητσελ”! Tonight we’ll be heading downtown to start our research and interviews. Enjoy the pictures!

Acropolis and Downtown Athens

Hello all! Yesterday was a complete whirlwind of events. I don’t have much time to write a post so please excuse my brevity. We started off the day getting up early to climb the acropolis and see the parthenon to beat the heat. Then we all ate lunch together and the food was AMAZING. We strolled through the plaka (the historical shopping area) and then the central downtown area (more modern shopping). We finished the day eating gyros in the park and checking out the greek night life. I continue to be blown away by how nice everyone constantly is and how willing people are to help us out. We even made a few friends last night who were from London and were spending their “holiday” sailing around the Greek islands. I’ll leave the rest to the pictures!