Sadie, everything weighs something.
Leaving. Today. Depressed. Tying myself to an olive tree and never letting go. Goodbyes suck. 23 hours of travel. Airports suck. Yes I am being over-dramatic. Don't care. That is all.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
I only have two levels.
What are they? Sad and stupid?
Today is our last day in Greece. I am unbelievably upset to be leaving tomorrow. It took me a day to fall in love with this place, and I can't fathom possibly never getting to see it again. After our free morning, when Vaggelis dropped us off at the port, I lost it. I cried when we left Irini as well, but saying goodbye to Vaggelis was when it really hit me that I have to go home. I may never see him, Irini, Takis, or many other of the wonderful people I have met here ever again. I am definitely leaving a little piece of myself here in Greece. In such a short amount of time, I have gained a new family and it just sucks to know that we all will never be back here together, experiencing things the way we did. When you live with people in close quarters for a month solid, you learn a lot about those people. I am closer with some of them now than a lot of people that I grew up with for 18 years. Yes, that's completely cheesy I know and very uncharacteristic of something I would say, but it's totally how I feel. I will miss everything about this place, and since I started out this trip with what I missed from America, I am going to end this blog with a list about Greece:
1) First and foremost, I will miss the people. Takis, Irini, and Vaggelis were amazing, and I hope to God that one day I can come back and see them. And for the rest of the people I spent this last month I with, I know most of us will be back in CoMo and reunited soon, but it won't quite be the same back in Missouri. I can't just run down the hall and ask if you want to go get some gelato, and there will definitely be no beaches to entertain ourselves with. Sad day. I love you all. Yes, including you Barnes.
2) The food. Greece is a fat kid's playground. I have never eaten so much good food in my life, and tzatziki has forever changed my life. Not even kidding. I have never cursed and loved food so much at one time in my life. It was great.
3) Greece itself. I have never seen a place with such diverse terrains and climates. From the beaches to the mountains, I fell in love with it all. It has just about everything that anybody could be looking for, and the scenery is beyond gorgeous. I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but I will say that if I could sit at the Temple of Poseidon everyday and just look at the ocean I would definitely die happy. Pictures of the places do not capture what we saw in person, but as Irini told me, these places will forever be engrained in brain.
4) Soccer. I know Americans play soccer, but it is just not the same. Being here for part of the Euro 2012 was one of the craziest experiences of my life.
5) Greek police. No further explanation needed.
6) Every goddamn thing. If I continued on my list would be 100 pages long. This just fueled my fire to travel more and get out of the shelter of the U.S. for awhile. I am so glad in the end that I didn't end up getting to go to Italy last year, because this experience was the best thing of my life.
Now that I am officially sobbing on the plane ride home and have "I Will Remember You" running on repeat, I will stop being a big baby and tell you about my last day. I got to ride a scooter on the crazy streets of Santorini! It was great! We ate lunch with Vaggelis, who could barely speak, and just walked around. Lauren, Katy, Nick, and Sadie rode the donkeys. Katy fell into some donkey shit; that was hilarious. Vaggelis escorted us to the ferry, told us goodbye, and I swear I saw a tear when he left us! Though that might have been my own, I was kind of already a mess at that point. I don't really cry unless I am pissed off so for me to cry when we left was really something. Then we got back to Athens (Takis picked us up and I have never been more excited to see a bus in my life....best bus driver ever!) and went and had our favorite gyros at the Smiley Cafe. The lady who worked there offered to let me live with her since I didn't want to go home. I almost took her up on that; delicious gyros in Greece everyday of my life wouldn't be too bad of a way to live hahahaha. Then bed.
P.S. If I ever see another damn ferry, I will shove my head into a glass window. They are no longer a fun mode of transportation.
Oh, and I already miss Greece. Round two anyone???
What are they? Sad and stupid?
Today is our last day in Greece. I am unbelievably upset to be leaving tomorrow. It took me a day to fall in love with this place, and I can't fathom possibly never getting to see it again. After our free morning, when Vaggelis dropped us off at the port, I lost it. I cried when we left Irini as well, but saying goodbye to Vaggelis was when it really hit me that I have to go home. I may never see him, Irini, Takis, or many other of the wonderful people I have met here ever again. I am definitely leaving a little piece of myself here in Greece. In such a short amount of time, I have gained a new family and it just sucks to know that we all will never be back here together, experiencing things the way we did. When you live with people in close quarters for a month solid, you learn a lot about those people. I am closer with some of them now than a lot of people that I grew up with for 18 years. Yes, that's completely cheesy I know and very uncharacteristic of something I would say, but it's totally how I feel. I will miss everything about this place, and since I started out this trip with what I missed from America, I am going to end this blog with a list about Greece:
1) First and foremost, I will miss the people. Takis, Irini, and Vaggelis were amazing, and I hope to God that one day I can come back and see them. And for the rest of the people I spent this last month I with, I know most of us will be back in CoMo and reunited soon, but it won't quite be the same back in Missouri. I can't just run down the hall and ask if you want to go get some gelato, and there will definitely be no beaches to entertain ourselves with. Sad day. I love you all. Yes, including you Barnes.
2) The food. Greece is a fat kid's playground. I have never eaten so much good food in my life, and tzatziki has forever changed my life. Not even kidding. I have never cursed and loved food so much at one time in my life. It was great.
3) Greece itself. I have never seen a place with such diverse terrains and climates. From the beaches to the mountains, I fell in love with it all. It has just about everything that anybody could be looking for, and the scenery is beyond gorgeous. I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but I will say that if I could sit at the Temple of Poseidon everyday and just look at the ocean I would definitely die happy. Pictures of the places do not capture what we saw in person, but as Irini told me, these places will forever be engrained in brain.
4) Soccer. I know Americans play soccer, but it is just not the same. Being here for part of the Euro 2012 was one of the craziest experiences of my life.
5) Greek police. No further explanation needed.
6) Every goddamn thing. If I continued on my list would be 100 pages long. This just fueled my fire to travel more and get out of the shelter of the U.S. for awhile. I am so glad in the end that I didn't end up getting to go to Italy last year, because this experience was the best thing of my life.
Now that I am officially sobbing on the plane ride home and have "I Will Remember You" running on repeat, I will stop being a big baby and tell you about my last day. I got to ride a scooter on the crazy streets of Santorini! It was great! We ate lunch with Vaggelis, who could barely speak, and just walked around. Lauren, Katy, Nick, and Sadie rode the donkeys. Katy fell into some donkey shit; that was hilarious. Vaggelis escorted us to the ferry, told us goodbye, and I swear I saw a tear when he left us! Though that might have been my own, I was kind of already a mess at that point. I don't really cry unless I am pissed off so for me to cry when we left was really something. Then we got back to Athens (Takis picked us up and I have never been more excited to see a bus in my life....best bus driver ever!) and went and had our favorite gyros at the Smiley Cafe. The lady who worked there offered to let me live with her since I didn't want to go home. I almost took her up on that; delicious gyros in Greece everyday of my life wouldn't be too bad of a way to live hahahaha. Then bed.
P.S. If I ever see another damn ferry, I will shove my head into a glass window. They are no longer a fun mode of transportation.
Oh, and I already miss Greece. Round two anyone???
We're having a Lady and the Tramp moment...
Guess which one you are.
Today was our first and only full day in Santorini. We started out by heading to the Thira Prehistoric Museum. Santorini was actually formed by a giant volcano, and in 1600 BC the volcano exploded, collapsing in on itself forming the shape of the island that we see today. At the museum they had drawings of what the island looked like before and after that time, and it's kind of astounding the difference. I can't imagine being here when it collapsed in on itself; you either plunged into the ocean or were covered with about 20 to 50 feet of ash. It wasn't surprising that everybody died. The caldera (the ring of the volcano) is the main island of Santorini with two small volcano-ash islands in the center that used to be the hotspots for the volcano. It is still active, and as Barnes put it, "We could die any second." The museum had artifacts that were found from Akrotiri (the Grecian version of Pompeii) that were left behind by the people who fled or died during the eruption. Then we headed out to the actual excavation site of Akrotiri. First though, we stopped at the Mountain of Prophet Elijah to take some pictures. From the top you could see the whole island basically, and it was stunning. I can't believe how small Santorini really is. The site of Akrotiri has been covered by a building (thank God we could get out of the sun for awhile) and was really cool to see. Vaggelis said that the area is only about 5% excavated, so there are probably a lot more things to find that just haven't been dug up yet. These houses and buildings were rather nice for the time, but were abandoned when something preceding the big volcano scared people away. The site was unbelievable to see in person, but also haunting to know that those people died in that way and we just came along thousands of years later and picked up the pieces. Crazy. After Akrotiri, we headed out to our THIRD winery of the trip. Yes, the third. We tried raisin wine at this one; that's definitely a first! It actually wasn't horrible. It was really sweet and you couldn't really taste the alcohol in it, but it has the highest alcohol percentage of all the wines we tested. That could be trouble. Apparently it is super rare because of the type of grapes used and the amount of labor that goes into creating it. That means that although a bottle of it was only 20 Euros at the tasting, if we kept that wine for 20 years, it would be worth 300 Euros! I almost bought some just for that sake, but knowing me it won't make it out alive after that long. After the winery, we headed out to the black sand beaches. We were there most of the afternoon, and then we headed back to our hotel. I have been out in the hot sun so much on this trip that my eyebrows are beginning to turn blonde. With my sad eyes (three DIFFERENT Greeks have told me that I have sad eyes) and my blonde eyebrows, I am turning into a freak of nature. After we got ready, we headed out to a small restaurant in Thira so that we watch the sunset as we ate. Beautiful as usual. Dinner was really good, and afterwards we headed out for ice cream. I had been talking about this certain ice cream bar from the little kiosks for days, so Vaggelis said he would buy one for me. It is a cookies and cream ice cream bar with white chocolate on the outside, and is basically crack for a fat kid like me. Well when we got there, I saw a different ice cream bar that I thought looked good so I got that one instead. Vaggelis was beyond pissed at me...it was great! He kept yelling in Greek how crazy I was for getting a different ice cream than the one I had been talking about all this time. Soooo funny. After that we headed to a bar where Vaggelis was supposed to join us, but he apparently had an allergic reaction to something, lost his voice, and had to go get a cortisone shot to get it back. I love him, but him losing his voice for a couple hours would have been nice to experience hahaha. We didn't stay at the bar long because everything in Santorini is so dang expensive, so we headed back to our hotel and were out for the count...as usual.
Frescos from Akrotiri
Akrotiri
Vaggeli's candid photo of our wine tasting haha
Guess which one you are.
Today was our first and only full day in Santorini. We started out by heading to the Thira Prehistoric Museum. Santorini was actually formed by a giant volcano, and in 1600 BC the volcano exploded, collapsing in on itself forming the shape of the island that we see today. At the museum they had drawings of what the island looked like before and after that time, and it's kind of astounding the difference. I can't imagine being here when it collapsed in on itself; you either plunged into the ocean or were covered with about 20 to 50 feet of ash. It wasn't surprising that everybody died. The caldera (the ring of the volcano) is the main island of Santorini with two small volcano-ash islands in the center that used to be the hotspots for the volcano. It is still active, and as Barnes put it, "We could die any second." The museum had artifacts that were found from Akrotiri (the Grecian version of Pompeii) that were left behind by the people who fled or died during the eruption. Then we headed out to the actual excavation site of Akrotiri. First though, we stopped at the Mountain of Prophet Elijah to take some pictures. From the top you could see the whole island basically, and it was stunning. I can't believe how small Santorini really is. The site of Akrotiri has been covered by a building (thank God we could get out of the sun for awhile) and was really cool to see. Vaggelis said that the area is only about 5% excavated, so there are probably a lot more things to find that just haven't been dug up yet. These houses and buildings were rather nice for the time, but were abandoned when something preceding the big volcano scared people away. The site was unbelievable to see in person, but also haunting to know that those people died in that way and we just came along thousands of years later and picked up the pieces. Crazy. After Akrotiri, we headed out to our THIRD winery of the trip. Yes, the third. We tried raisin wine at this one; that's definitely a first! It actually wasn't horrible. It was really sweet and you couldn't really taste the alcohol in it, but it has the highest alcohol percentage of all the wines we tested. That could be trouble. Apparently it is super rare because of the type of grapes used and the amount of labor that goes into creating it. That means that although a bottle of it was only 20 Euros at the tasting, if we kept that wine for 20 years, it would be worth 300 Euros! I almost bought some just for that sake, but knowing me it won't make it out alive after that long. After the winery, we headed out to the black sand beaches. We were there most of the afternoon, and then we headed back to our hotel. I have been out in the hot sun so much on this trip that my eyebrows are beginning to turn blonde. With my sad eyes (three DIFFERENT Greeks have told me that I have sad eyes) and my blonde eyebrows, I am turning into a freak of nature. After we got ready, we headed out to a small restaurant in Thira so that we watch the sunset as we ate. Beautiful as usual. Dinner was really good, and afterwards we headed out for ice cream. I had been talking about this certain ice cream bar from the little kiosks for days, so Vaggelis said he would buy one for me. It is a cookies and cream ice cream bar with white chocolate on the outside, and is basically crack for a fat kid like me. Well when we got there, I saw a different ice cream bar that I thought looked good so I got that one instead. Vaggelis was beyond pissed at me...it was great! He kept yelling in Greek how crazy I was for getting a different ice cream than the one I had been talking about all this time. Soooo funny. After that we headed to a bar where Vaggelis was supposed to join us, but he apparently had an allergic reaction to something, lost his voice, and had to go get a cortisone shot to get it back. I love him, but him losing his voice for a couple hours would have been nice to experience hahaha. We didn't stay at the bar long because everything in Santorini is so dang expensive, so we headed back to our hotel and were out for the count...as usual.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Only I would pick my nose at a Santorini sunset.
Today we headed out from Naxos to Santorini. I was really sad to be leaving Naxos; I fell in love with that island! I was even more hesitant to get on another damn ferry. Good thing this one was a slow-traveling Blue Star, or I would have really been freaking out. The ride here was about 2 hours, and the port at Santorini was PACKED. You can so tell that this is a huge tourist island. We drove to our hotel and got settled in, then headed out for some lunch and then to relax in the hotel. It is damn hot here. Holy crap. I don't know what it is going to be like here in August if it's this hot already. We met Vaggelis to head up to Oia to watch a famous Santorini sunset. The whole island is like 7 miles from tip to tip, so from Thira to Oia it literally took us like 10 minutes with traffic. Oia is where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed and is famous for its cliffside homes and hotels built into the rock. Most likely if you have seen a picture of Greece, it was depicting this area. Vaggelis said that some of these cliffside hotels go for 700 to 800 Euros a night; you definitely have to pay for a view like that. We walked around Oia for a little bit before we finally settled on a spot to sit and watch the sunset. We sat on the roof of one of the hotels and just took it all in. That sunset was worth our entire trip here. I was most excited about coming to this island out of anything that was scheduled for our trip, and with that one sunset I was sold. The architecture here is so unique with its white walls and blue roofs, and it all literally sits on the side of a cliff. It's amazing! After we watched the sunset, we headed back to Thira for dinner. My dinner schedule is so messed up; we don't eat till 9 or 10 every night, and Vaggelis still insists that is too early for him to eat! Vaggelis is quite the character. He was going into the kitchen to talk to the chef and cleaning up our table like he worked there. I swear sometimes he has adult-onset ADHD. He just cannot sit still. Turns out he knew the owners and workers (he lives in Santorini part of the time after all), and it was okay for him to basically cook and serve us at their restaurant, but still. We ended up closing the place down (Vaggelis insisted that we had to be the last table there even if it was one in the morning). I am sort of like the resident punching bag here when Vaggelis is around. Anything and everything I do he makes fun of. Last night it was about my complaining about the mountain climb and my love of food, along with 100 other things. I love it though; in my family that's how we show we like each other. He did tell me though that I could pass for Greek....so legit! Now I just need to learn the language, and you know, move here.
Today we headed out from Naxos to Santorini. I was really sad to be leaving Naxos; I fell in love with that island! I was even more hesitant to get on another damn ferry. Good thing this one was a slow-traveling Blue Star, or I would have really been freaking out. The ride here was about 2 hours, and the port at Santorini was PACKED. You can so tell that this is a huge tourist island. We drove to our hotel and got settled in, then headed out for some lunch and then to relax in the hotel. It is damn hot here. Holy crap. I don't know what it is going to be like here in August if it's this hot already. We met Vaggelis to head up to Oia to watch a famous Santorini sunset. The whole island is like 7 miles from tip to tip, so from Thira to Oia it literally took us like 10 minutes with traffic. Oia is where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed and is famous for its cliffside homes and hotels built into the rock. Most likely if you have seen a picture of Greece, it was depicting this area. Vaggelis said that some of these cliffside hotels go for 700 to 800 Euros a night; you definitely have to pay for a view like that. We walked around Oia for a little bit before we finally settled on a spot to sit and watch the sunset. We sat on the roof of one of the hotels and just took it all in. That sunset was worth our entire trip here. I was most excited about coming to this island out of anything that was scheduled for our trip, and with that one sunset I was sold. The architecture here is so unique with its white walls and blue roofs, and it all literally sits on the side of a cliff. It's amazing! After we watched the sunset, we headed back to Thira for dinner. My dinner schedule is so messed up; we don't eat till 9 or 10 every night, and Vaggelis still insists that is too early for him to eat! Vaggelis is quite the character. He was going into the kitchen to talk to the chef and cleaning up our table like he worked there. I swear sometimes he has adult-onset ADHD. He just cannot sit still. Turns out he knew the owners and workers (he lives in Santorini part of the time after all), and it was okay for him to basically cook and serve us at their restaurant, but still. We ended up closing the place down (Vaggelis insisted that we had to be the last table there even if it was one in the morning). I am sort of like the resident punching bag here when Vaggelis is around. Anything and everything I do he makes fun of. Last night it was about my complaining about the mountain climb and my love of food, along with 100 other things. I love it though; in my family that's how we show we like each other. He did tell me though that I could pass for Greek....so legit! Now I just need to learn the language, and you know, move here.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Put us in coach, we're ready to play.
I had three goals when I woke up this morning: eat, shop, and go to the beach. Free days are the absolute best! We went back to the same place that we had lunch with the crazy old man/owner. He is great and insisted he get a picture with us; I think we're his favorites! After that we shopped...nothing to complain about there. I finally got my Greece jersey (#18 my favorite player bahahaha), and then beach time! Oh yea, and a little day drinking. It was great. But the best thing of the whole day was the jerseys we bought; they were all little kids sizes. This meant it came with the WHOLE uniform, shorts and all. Soooo like the tacky Americans that we are, we decided to go full-out for the Greece-Germany game tonight and wear the whole thing. Best decision of my life. We were like celebrities! As we walked down the main waterfront street, people were high-fiving us, taking pictures, offering us free food....it was great! People loved us, and I have never gotten so much attention in my life. We were being obnoxiously loud as always and we pretty much ran off some Germans that were sitting behind us while we ate. It was great. The atmosphere around game time is already intense, but when Greece scored their first goal, I have never seen anything like it. We had left the restaurant we ate at to go back to the old man's taverna (of course he made room for us even though his restaurant was already over-crowded) and when Greece scored he basically tackled Lauren and I to the ground. I loved every bit of it, and the soccer players aren't half bad to look at either. Greece might not have won, but it is still one of the greatest nights of my life. Probably the closest to stardom I will ever get, and I will definitely take it!
Our favorite old man
Stone cold pack of freaks
The Lion King sunset!
Sunset from the Portara...spectacular.
I had three goals when I woke up this morning: eat, shop, and go to the beach. Free days are the absolute best! We went back to the same place that we had lunch with the crazy old man/owner. He is great and insisted he get a picture with us; I think we're his favorites! After that we shopped...nothing to complain about there. I finally got my Greece jersey (#18 my favorite player bahahaha), and then beach time! Oh yea, and a little day drinking. It was great. But the best thing of the whole day was the jerseys we bought; they were all little kids sizes. This meant it came with the WHOLE uniform, shorts and all. Soooo like the tacky Americans that we are, we decided to go full-out for the Greece-Germany game tonight and wear the whole thing. Best decision of my life. We were like celebrities! As we walked down the main waterfront street, people were high-fiving us, taking pictures, offering us free food....it was great! People loved us, and I have never gotten so much attention in my life. We were being obnoxiously loud as always and we pretty much ran off some Germans that were sitting behind us while we ate. It was great. The atmosphere around game time is already intense, but when Greece scored their first goal, I have never seen anything like it. We had left the restaurant we ate at to go back to the old man's taverna (of course he made room for us even though his restaurant was already over-crowded) and when Greece scored he basically tackled Lauren and I to the ground. I loved every bit of it, and the soccer players aren't half bad to look at either. Greece might not have won, but it is still one of the greatest nights of my life. Probably the closest to stardom I will ever get, and I will definitely take it!
Our favorite old man
Stone cold pack of freaks
The Lion King sunset!
Sunset from the Portara...spectacular.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Ten points for puking in the trash can. C- for the class if you throw up on me.
There were a lot of firsts for me on this trip, and yet another one today; I got seasick for the very first time in my life. And not just sick but SICKKKKKK. Jumping overboard was the best possible solution for the state I was in. We were taking a day tour to Delos and Mykonos, and to get there we had to take a ferry. Vaggeli warned us that with the wind conditions the way they were, the size of the ferry, and its speed, it was a high probability that most of us would get sick. I have been on cruises, speedboats, dolphin tour boats, etc. and not one of those times have I in the least bit been seasick. So I wasn't too worried and when it came time to board, when we had the choice between the less-effective all-natural pill versus dramamine gum, I took the pill. I started out on the top of the ferry, but the waves were so rough that it was like riding the water rides at Silver Dollar City. We were soaked within five minutes, so I decided to come brave the rest of the trip inside the ferry. First off, it was hot and stuffy in the ferry and the boat was rocking side to side so violently that it felt like we were about to flip over. It got airborne multiple times, and it took everything I had to keep it under control. But then, people on the top deck started getting sick, one right after the other and the whole place began to wreak. I went farther up to the front of the ferry to get away from the other sick people, and Lauren was sitting there about to get sick herself. I was trying so hard not to throw up that I was shaking and my hands and face were going numb. Death must feel a lot like that. I didn't even have the energy to get up and try to go outside for some fresh air, or even speak for that matter. I saw Lauren head up to the trash can, and I knew that if I saw her throw up I would right there in my seat. I got up and stumbled to the bathroom, and I guess when Lauren saw me she immediately turned to the trash can and got sick. It was God-awful. Turns out that there were a few of us who were beyond sick. The trip to Delos was the longest of my life and when we finally got there I wasn't really feeling well enough to walk around a practically deserted island for three hours. Delos is a famous island where the sanctuary of Apollo resides. Nobody lives there anymore (except the French archaeologists who are still excavating it) and basically the entire island is covered in statues, temples, and other buildings in his honor. Most of it is in ruin, but the Temple to Isis on the side of one of the mountains is in pretty good condition. I know nobody is allowed to live on that island, but at that point I was willing to risk it in order to not get back on that boat. From Delos we sailed to Mykonos. Mykonos is famous for being a mecca for the gay community to vacation and is where "all the beautiful people party" according to Vaggeli. Basically if you are not a model, you are not welcome on some of its beaches. Needless to say we stayed far, far away from those places. Mykonos was beautiful, but I was still so sick (although I learned if you stayed outside you didn't get as sick) I didn't really get to enjoy much of it. The villages on the island are like a maze, and Lauren and I must have gotten lost I don't know how many times. I don't know how anybody there remembers where they live; it's ridiculous. After Mykonos we got back on the boat to head back to Naxos. I chose the stronger dramamine gum and sat on the top deck, but I was still like having an anxiety attack thinking about sailing on that thing again. Luckily, the ride back was much smoother than the ride there, and I survived it without getting sick at all. When we got back, we cleaned up and headed out for the Mexican restaurant on the island. Even the tacos in Greece are good! And I had a raspberry margarita that was amazing! I have been craving a margarita basically since we got here and it totally hit the spot. After dinner we headed out for the Waffle House (and no, not that white trash restaurant in the U.S.). It's an ice cream shop where they make their own waffle cones. Vaggelis still owed me ice cream after all. He told me I could get the most expensive thing there, but I just got a small. I told him I was a cheap date, but he insisted that he would buy me ice cream again tomorrow, and that I was to get every topping and three scoops of everything then. I'm game.
"This is Spartaaaaa!" To our credit this was before Vaggeli told us no photos posing, and this was just a large hole in the ground, not a monument.
Mykonos
Temple of Isis
Mykonos
There were a lot of firsts for me on this trip, and yet another one today; I got seasick for the very first time in my life. And not just sick but SICKKKKKK. Jumping overboard was the best possible solution for the state I was in. We were taking a day tour to Delos and Mykonos, and to get there we had to take a ferry. Vaggeli warned us that with the wind conditions the way they were, the size of the ferry, and its speed, it was a high probability that most of us would get sick. I have been on cruises, speedboats, dolphin tour boats, etc. and not one of those times have I in the least bit been seasick. So I wasn't too worried and when it came time to board, when we had the choice between the less-effective all-natural pill versus dramamine gum, I took the pill. I started out on the top of the ferry, but the waves were so rough that it was like riding the water rides at Silver Dollar City. We were soaked within five minutes, so I decided to come brave the rest of the trip inside the ferry. First off, it was hot and stuffy in the ferry and the boat was rocking side to side so violently that it felt like we were about to flip over. It got airborne multiple times, and it took everything I had to keep it under control. But then, people on the top deck started getting sick, one right after the other and the whole place began to wreak. I went farther up to the front of the ferry to get away from the other sick people, and Lauren was sitting there about to get sick herself. I was trying so hard not to throw up that I was shaking and my hands and face were going numb. Death must feel a lot like that. I didn't even have the energy to get up and try to go outside for some fresh air, or even speak for that matter. I saw Lauren head up to the trash can, and I knew that if I saw her throw up I would right there in my seat. I got up and stumbled to the bathroom, and I guess when Lauren saw me she immediately turned to the trash can and got sick. It was God-awful. Turns out that there were a few of us who were beyond sick. The trip to Delos was the longest of my life and when we finally got there I wasn't really feeling well enough to walk around a practically deserted island for three hours. Delos is a famous island where the sanctuary of Apollo resides. Nobody lives there anymore (except the French archaeologists who are still excavating it) and basically the entire island is covered in statues, temples, and other buildings in his honor. Most of it is in ruin, but the Temple to Isis on the side of one of the mountains is in pretty good condition. I know nobody is allowed to live on that island, but at that point I was willing to risk it in order to not get back on that boat. From Delos we sailed to Mykonos. Mykonos is famous for being a mecca for the gay community to vacation and is where "all the beautiful people party" according to Vaggeli. Basically if you are not a model, you are not welcome on some of its beaches. Needless to say we stayed far, far away from those places. Mykonos was beautiful, but I was still so sick (although I learned if you stayed outside you didn't get as sick) I didn't really get to enjoy much of it. The villages on the island are like a maze, and Lauren and I must have gotten lost I don't know how many times. I don't know how anybody there remembers where they live; it's ridiculous. After Mykonos we got back on the boat to head back to Naxos. I chose the stronger dramamine gum and sat on the top deck, but I was still like having an anxiety attack thinking about sailing on that thing again. Luckily, the ride back was much smoother than the ride there, and I survived it without getting sick at all. When we got back, we cleaned up and headed out for the Mexican restaurant on the island. Even the tacos in Greece are good! And I had a raspberry margarita that was amazing! I have been craving a margarita basically since we got here and it totally hit the spot. After dinner we headed out for the Waffle House (and no, not that white trash restaurant in the U.S.). It's an ice cream shop where they make their own waffle cones. Vaggelis still owed me ice cream after all. He told me I could get the most expensive thing there, but I just got a small. I told him I was a cheap date, but he insisted that he would buy me ice cream again tomorrow, and that I was to get every topping and three scoops of everything then. I'm game.
"This is Spartaaaaa!" To our credit this was before Vaggeli told us no photos posing, and this was just a large hole in the ground, not a monument.
Mykonos
Temple of Isis
Mykonos
That's just gross.
That's why we all nose-goesed.
*Shwungggg*
One word describes today: painful. Plus a large number of expletives, but I'll get to that later. Today was our first full day in Naxos and we spent the day touring the island with Vaggelis. We started out our day driving to Kouronochori village and then walking through it to get to Melanes village. And this is where the bad words come in to play. First off, Vaggelis told us that this was not a hike, more like a walk between the villages. Wrong. Next he was sprinting through it like we were being chased. We don't always get to see these things, and I would like to be able to look up at the scenery once in awhile instead of looking at my feet the whole time so I won't trip/slip/crash and burn. The walk was pretty cool though because we got to see the typical houses of the small Greek villages, and it is exactly like what I had always pictured in my mind. The second village led to the Kouros statues that were abandoned in the ancient times. They were just left on the ground after breaking and buried over time. The Kouros are on private property, and were found and left as they are today. After the Kouros is when the next round of expletives occurred. Truthfully, probably the most expletives I have ever said in one setting. After the HIKING/SPRINTING, I told Vaggelis to slow down because we wanted to enjoy the scenery and we were having trouble keeping up. Did he? Not one bit. And this time we were climbing up to the top of a mountain to see a supposedly great view of the island. Two minutes he said. Two minutes to climb this giant mountain. Two minutes my ass. And to top it off, this mountainside is COVERED in thorn bushes. Not like rose thorns; think more like barbwire on a stick. The entire climb up I am leaping over bushes and rubble to try to avoid scratching myself, which is basically impossible. I managed to make it up (very, very, very slowly) and the view was amazing. But, I was slightly fuming at Vaggelis. I was already scratched up, sweaty, and hot, and we still had to go back down. The way down was HELL. I fell 3 times INTO thorn bushes. You know what's worse than falling into 3 thorn bushes??? Trying to get back out of said thorn bushes. I have battle wounds. I was bleeding the entire way down the island and had to hop like a kri kri to avoid cutting myself more. I had thorns sticking out of me everywhere, a sprained ankle, and a ridiculous temper by the time we got back down. I was the only one that fell IN the bushes and therefore had to be helped down by Barnes, Steph, Vaggelis, and Kelsi. F*** and s*** have never been said that many times in a row ever, and I complained the whole way down. We all have our days and this was definitely mine. I apologized to Barnes later for being such an ass, but I was in pain so at the time I didn't care. We settled that Vaggelis owes me ice cream...expensive ice cream. After the God-awful mountain we set out for a Kitron distillery. Kiltron is a type of alcohol that is in the family of Raki, but with a more citrusy flavor to it. Not horrible, but still not good. After the distillery we drove to a local pottery maker's workshop. We got to watch him make a pitcher, and it was really something to see. He was talking to Vaggelis the entire time and looking away, yet the pitcher was pretty much perfect within a few minutes. Then Sadie got to try her hand at it. She struggled, but it was funny and he is going to fire the clay and bring her pot to her later. We got to shop around, and his work is amazing! He can make anywhere from 50 to 100 pieces everyday and it ranges from pots, to vases, to unique items you can only find in Naxos. He just sells straight out of his tiny shop which is kind of off the beaten path, and this is where Vaggelis and I got into it about how a shop like that in America would not be able to support itself. Maybe I was still mad about the thorns in my foot; getting your skin ripped off by sharp objects can really put you in a funk for the rest of the day. After the potter's, we went to the Temple of Demeter at Sangri. It is believed to be one of the very first temples in Greece and set the tone for all the temples built after it. It was different from any of the other temples we have seen in that it had full walls on some of the sides instead of just pillars all the way around. It also had a pure marble ceiling instead of the typical roof ceiling found in all other temples. I guess you could say it was more of a prototype for cult temple building in the centuries B.C. The temple was surrounded on all sides by hay fields, and if there wasn't that giant temple there, it would be just like the fields I used to rake at home. So weird, but nice to see something so familiar! Then it was beach time for us. We ate at a Tex-Mex restaurant right on the water, and a taco has never tasted so good! I experienced I guess what you could say was my first semi-nude beach. No, I did not participate. We all don't need to know each other THAT well.
Now back to how my day was painful...again. There is this large rocky/dirt hill that leads from our hotel to the rest of the town. On our way to dinner tonight, I tripped over a rock and busted my toe open. It of course gushed blood and I had to go all the way back up the hill (we were already nearly down) to clean it up, stop the bleeding, and get it bandaged up. The irony is that I was just in the process of explaining to people that I REALLY AM more coordinated than they perceive me to be, then bam. F***. By the time we got back to the hotel, my shoe was covered in blood and my toe was throbbing. Thankfully Steph helped me out and we finally got to dinner. Vaggelis, along with everybody else, proceeded to make fun of the way I walk, my eyes, my complaining today, etc. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, even if it was at my expense. I am just a wreck today and feel like I just need to go to sleep and start this day all over again. Vaggelis did slowly start to win me back though. We taught him the word "swag"; it was great. Now sleeeepppppp!
By the way, we are to the point of smelling our clothes one-by-one to see if they are suitable to wear for the next five days. There are some gray areas, and it's a struggle. These people are going to be surprised when we meet again and they realize that I don't really smell in real life.
My battle wounds
We traded hair!
That's why we all nose-goesed.
*Shwungggg*
One word describes today: painful. Plus a large number of expletives, but I'll get to that later. Today was our first full day in Naxos and we spent the day touring the island with Vaggelis. We started out our day driving to Kouronochori village and then walking through it to get to Melanes village. And this is where the bad words come in to play. First off, Vaggelis told us that this was not a hike, more like a walk between the villages. Wrong. Next he was sprinting through it like we were being chased. We don't always get to see these things, and I would like to be able to look up at the scenery once in awhile instead of looking at my feet the whole time so I won't trip/slip/crash and burn. The walk was pretty cool though because we got to see the typical houses of the small Greek villages, and it is exactly like what I had always pictured in my mind. The second village led to the Kouros statues that were abandoned in the ancient times. They were just left on the ground after breaking and buried over time. The Kouros are on private property, and were found and left as they are today. After the Kouros is when the next round of expletives occurred. Truthfully, probably the most expletives I have ever said in one setting. After the HIKING/SPRINTING, I told Vaggelis to slow down because we wanted to enjoy the scenery and we were having trouble keeping up. Did he? Not one bit. And this time we were climbing up to the top of a mountain to see a supposedly great view of the island. Two minutes he said. Two minutes to climb this giant mountain. Two minutes my ass. And to top it off, this mountainside is COVERED in thorn bushes. Not like rose thorns; think more like barbwire on a stick. The entire climb up I am leaping over bushes and rubble to try to avoid scratching myself, which is basically impossible. I managed to make it up (very, very, very slowly) and the view was amazing. But, I was slightly fuming at Vaggelis. I was already scratched up, sweaty, and hot, and we still had to go back down. The way down was HELL. I fell 3 times INTO thorn bushes. You know what's worse than falling into 3 thorn bushes??? Trying to get back out of said thorn bushes. I have battle wounds. I was bleeding the entire way down the island and had to hop like a kri kri to avoid cutting myself more. I had thorns sticking out of me everywhere, a sprained ankle, and a ridiculous temper by the time we got back down. I was the only one that fell IN the bushes and therefore had to be helped down by Barnes, Steph, Vaggelis, and Kelsi. F*** and s*** have never been said that many times in a row ever, and I complained the whole way down. We all have our days and this was definitely mine. I apologized to Barnes later for being such an ass, but I was in pain so at the time I didn't care. We settled that Vaggelis owes me ice cream...expensive ice cream. After the God-awful mountain we set out for a Kitron distillery. Kiltron is a type of alcohol that is in the family of Raki, but with a more citrusy flavor to it. Not horrible, but still not good. After the distillery we drove to a local pottery maker's workshop. We got to watch him make a pitcher, and it was really something to see. He was talking to Vaggelis the entire time and looking away, yet the pitcher was pretty much perfect within a few minutes. Then Sadie got to try her hand at it. She struggled, but it was funny and he is going to fire the clay and bring her pot to her later. We got to shop around, and his work is amazing! He can make anywhere from 50 to 100 pieces everyday and it ranges from pots, to vases, to unique items you can only find in Naxos. He just sells straight out of his tiny shop which is kind of off the beaten path, and this is where Vaggelis and I got into it about how a shop like that in America would not be able to support itself. Maybe I was still mad about the thorns in my foot; getting your skin ripped off by sharp objects can really put you in a funk for the rest of the day. After the potter's, we went to the Temple of Demeter at Sangri. It is believed to be one of the very first temples in Greece and set the tone for all the temples built after it. It was different from any of the other temples we have seen in that it had full walls on some of the sides instead of just pillars all the way around. It also had a pure marble ceiling instead of the typical roof ceiling found in all other temples. I guess you could say it was more of a prototype for cult temple building in the centuries B.C. The temple was surrounded on all sides by hay fields, and if there wasn't that giant temple there, it would be just like the fields I used to rake at home. So weird, but nice to see something so familiar! Then it was beach time for us. We ate at a Tex-Mex restaurant right on the water, and a taco has never tasted so good! I experienced I guess what you could say was my first semi-nude beach. No, I did not participate. We all don't need to know each other THAT well.
Now back to how my day was painful...again. There is this large rocky/dirt hill that leads from our hotel to the rest of the town. On our way to dinner tonight, I tripped over a rock and busted my toe open. It of course gushed blood and I had to go all the way back up the hill (we were already nearly down) to clean it up, stop the bleeding, and get it bandaged up. The irony is that I was just in the process of explaining to people that I REALLY AM more coordinated than they perceive me to be, then bam. F***. By the time we got back to the hotel, my shoe was covered in blood and my toe was throbbing. Thankfully Steph helped me out and we finally got to dinner. Vaggelis, along with everybody else, proceeded to make fun of the way I walk, my eyes, my complaining today, etc. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, even if it was at my expense. I am just a wreck today and feel like I just need to go to sleep and start this day all over again. Vaggelis did slowly start to win me back though. We taught him the word "swag"; it was great. Now sleeeepppppp!
By the way, we are to the point of smelling our clothes one-by-one to see if they are suitable to wear for the next five days. There are some gray areas, and it's a struggle. These people are going to be surprised when we meet again and they realize that I don't really smell in real life.
My battle wounds
We traded hair!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)