Ελλάδα-Italia 2012: Where The Gods Once Stood

Γεια σας!

Hard to believe I've already been in Europe for over a month. Time sure does fly.

Week recap begins....

Now.

When I left off last Sunday, I was hoping for a Vikings win. Unfortunately that never happened, but all the guys in the group had a fun time watching the game anyways. Today's matchup against the Niners doesn't look too promising.

Monday
-Classes resumed as normal. They've all been really interesting and engaging. This week we actually have to start doing some homework so we'll see how that goes.
-We found a new grocery store down the road that sells frozen pizzas for 33 cents. Dinner just got a lot cheaper.
-Carl, Josh, and I started doing the Insanity Workout. It's a daily video workout routine that lasts about 45 minutes. Let me tell you, it's intense. We do it in our living room and we have to mop the floor every night from the buckets of sweat lost. It's rough but it's nice to get back into a workout routine.

Tuesday
-After classes a large group of us went to Plaka and Monistriaki Squares in Athens to go shopping. We all bought authentic Greek shirts. The girls in the group may think they are tacky, but they are super comfy.
-Josh, Sean, and I went into a guitar shop to see if we could play some of the instruments. After a month without a guitar, my fingers were itching to play. The manager there was super nice and gave us a lesson on bouzoukis- traditional Greek stringed instruments. He cut us a deal on a smaller one and I had to buy it. Afterwords, he took us upstairs to see where they hand make the instruments. A really cool experience, here's a picture of my new toy:

Wednesday
-We had another art history class at the National Archaeology Museum. We spent all morning looking at sculpture while our professor told us the significance of the pieces.
-We had a guys night that night and watched the movie "300."
-Adam tried to bake a dessert in the apartment we were in and almost burned the place down. Hilarity ensued as 7 guys with towels tried to fan the smoke out of the kitchen.

Thursday
-It was Paloma's 21st birthday so we went out around the town to celebrate. We couldn't go too far, though, because all public transportation was on strike.

Friday
-This weekend we had a class field trip to the Peloponnese. The Peloponnese is the large peninsula just off of the Greek mainland close to Athens. It is one of the oldest parts of Greece and is filled with mountains and rich farming valleys. Our art history teacher Anne came with us on the trip to lecture us on the different sites we were seeing. Here's a map of all the stops:

A. Athens, where we departed from
B. Mycenae, one of the oldest cities in Europe and seat of the first Greek empire
C. Epidaurus, a holy site in the classical age, complete with a well preserved theater
D. Nauplion, the first capital of Greece and beautiful coastal town
E. Olympia, home of the Olympic games for a thousand years

-Our first stop was the ancient palace Mycenae. The Myceneans ruled Greece from about 1500 to 1200 B.C., and this palace was made in that period. I couldn't believe I was walking in a city built almost 3000 years before our country was founded. And I though the Mayan ruins in Mexico were old! Mycenae was also the home of Agamemnon, the King of the Greeks in the Trojan War, if the stories are true. We got to see his throne room and the bathroom where his wife supposedly murdered him. We also got to examine the Myceneans giant tombs below the earth. They were enormous beehive structures where we got to walk around.
-After lunch we headed to the classical city of Epidaurus. Epidaurus was prominent from about 500 B.C. on. We walked around the theater there which still in great condition and is used today. We also explored the area and found temples, hotels, and monuments.
-That night we stayed in Nauplion, a modern city on the coast. Nauplion is fairly small, and we had a great time watching the sunset and exploring its little shops. After dinner we got the most amazing gelato and sat along the water with fellow Greeks. I ran across a group of children playing soccer in the city square. I asked if I could play with them, and they accepted. They blew me out of the water but I did manage an assist. Booyah.

Saturday
-We got up early to go down the road to Tiryns, another ancient Mycenean city. The city again was impressive, with great massive walls.
-We drove through the mountains and arrived at Olympia in the afternoon. After having lunch in the small town, we went to the ancient site and explored. The original Greek Olympics started here in the 700's B.C. and went all the way until the 4th Century A.D. After exploring the gymnasium, palaestra, and temples, we made our way to the stadium to have a race. The entire class lined up at the starting line and sprinted to other end, about 175 meters. I'm proud to say that I took a respectable fifth in the race. Thankfully we didn't run the race naked, as was the ancient custom.
-We checked into our nice hotel in Olympia that night. We ate at the hotel by the pool and then walked into town for dessert.

Sunday
-We went back to Olympia to finish walking around the site and visit the museum.
-Finally got back to our home in Athens around seven.

Next weekend we are heading to the island of Santorini, should be fun!

Here's some pics from the weekend, enjoy!

Dan