Thursday, July 21, 2011

Greece

Sunday 17:

Our first day in Greece was pretty uneventful for the most part. We walked around for a bit in Piraeus, the port city where our ship is docked but there really isn’t much to see there. It was very hot and we were told the wrong directions so ended up walking around aimlessly for a while, not so fun. We eventually made it back to the ship, grabbed our bags and caught a taxi to take us to the ferry. We had a very interesting conversation with our driver. He explained to us his opinion on Greek’s economic situation and also informed us that starting tomorrow all taxi drivers will be on a 48-hour strike. When we got dropped off, we got on a 5:45 PM ferry to Mykonos, supposedly the second biggest party island in the Mediterranean after Ibiza. The ferry was enormous and even our economy seats were really nice. On board there was a cafĂ© and a shop. It was a 3.5-hour trip to Mykonos and we were so excited when we finally arrived! Our hotel was called the Acrogaili and was right on the beach. Later on in the evening we explored downtown and had our first gyros in Greece. The place we bought them from stuffed French fries inside so it was pretty much like a heart attack in a meal. Too bad the saying “When in Rome” no longer applies…haha It was absolutely delicious though and I will just make sure I do Insanity back on the ship!

Monday 18:

After eating breakfast at our hotel, we laid out on the beach all day long. The water was so clear and the sand really white. Along the coast you would see lots of white houses with a blue door and shutters. Tanning was interrupted by a late lunch at the restaurant in our hotel where we had bruschetta, grilled salmon and loukoumades, which were very similar to donut holes. At night we went out to Paradise Club, which was this really cool club with a pool in the middle. Martin Solveig was performing that night which could not have been any more perfect since his song “Hello” has kind of become the anthem of our summer so far. My friends and I sing it all the time when we are walking around. We were able to get into the VIP section and had our own table with bottle service. It was a lot of fun and I made it back to our hotel at 6:00 am just in time to see the sunrise.

Tuesday 19:

Because I only got two hours of sleep, waking up this morning was so difficult! But I needed to catch an early morning ferry on my own back to Piraeus so I could see Patra (a friend from home and my freshman college roommate). When I got to the ship, her uncle picked me up and drove me into Athens so I could meet up with Patra and her family at the Acropolis Museum. While we were driving, her uncle informed me that the taxi strike had been extended another 24 hours…great.

The taxi strike has already proved to be extremely inconvenient. Not only will they not drive you anymore, many drivers are now parking their taxis in the middle of the streets blocking off roads. It is just becoming a big nuisance and one SAS trip almost didn’t make it to their destination due to taxis blocking the bus that was taking all of the students. The taxi drivers yelled at the bus driver for not following the strike and eventually all of the SAS students had to get off of the bus and walk with all their luggage to the ferry where the bus was supposed to be taking them. SAS ended up making the Greek news because of this incident!

When I got to the Acropolis Museum, I finally got to be reunited with Patra and it was so awesome seeing her again! We walked around the whole museum and it was pretty cool to see all of the statues, vases, etc. that they had excavated and preserved. Afterwards we went back to her hotel to shower and got ready for dinner where we were joined by her aunt, uncle and two cousins. We ended up eating on the rooftop of a restaurant that had a direct view of the Acropolis. It was a phenomenal meal with so many courses. We had bread, wine, Greek salad, shrimp, tuna salad, swordfish, grouper, yalaktobouriko (a pastry filled with cream), after dinner liquor and Greek coffee. Wow! As we ate the sun began to go down and the Acropolis became lit up at night. After dinner, her aunt drove me back to ship and I was finally able to get some much needed sleep!
           
Wednesday 20:

We started off our day by taking the metro into Athens. At each stop there was a security guard and as soon as we got there we saw loads of protestors and tents where people had been camping out. I met back up briefly with Patra and sadly had to say goodbye to her! Then we headed into the Plaka, which is like the market area of Greece and I bought a cool evil eye bracelet. Then we had a late lunch in a taverna where we ate Greek salad, dolmades (vine leaves stuff with meat and rice with an egg/lemon sauce on top) and moussaka (layered eggplant and meat with a melted cheese on top) all of which was delicious! When we finished eating, we walked up to the Acropolis. There we saw the Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon and Erechtheum all of which were very impressive. The view from the top was pretty remarkable too as you could look out and see the whole city of Athens. Before leaving, we went by the Temple Agora, Theatre of Dionysus and saw the Temple of Zeus. Afterwards we stopped to get some Greek coffee (I’ve become obsessed!) and baklava.  We had dinner at an outdoor restaurant and then caught a 9:00 PM showing of Harry Potter. Yes, I traveled all the way to Greece and still went to go see it! True fan right there! Besides being a great movie, it was actually a pretty cool experience. The movie was all in English but had Greek subtitles and we watched it in an outdoor, roofless theatre in the National Gardens.  When heading back to the ship, we all realized that in exactly one month we will be back in the U.S. I can’t believe it. Time has really flown by!

Thursday 21:

We found out this morning that the taxis are STILL on strike. This means we have the pleasure once again to make the 30-minute walk from our ship to the metro. Lucky us…Our last day was mainly spent just walking around Athens. We noticed that there were even more police patrolling the streets today, especially near Parliament. We got Greek coffee one last time and I finally found a froyo place! First one I’ve seen so far since arriving in Europe. So of course, we just had to stop and get some! Overall I have really enjoyed Greece. Despite the riots, never once did I not feel safe—so don’t worry Mom and Dad! What bothered me more than the protestors was the fact that there were loads of stray dogs walking around the streets and we all know how I feel about that! Haha We have two days of class while we are at sea and then we arrive in Bulgaria!

Pictures: 1. Paradise Club 2. Mykonos 3. Rooftop dinner with Patra 4. Parthenon 5. Temple of Athena Nike 6. Harry Potter movie!





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