Channeling Zorba the Greek!

The first time that I seriously learned about ancient Greece was in my senior year of high school. I was taking the AP Art History class offered by my favorite teacher, and within the first month of the class, I had fallen in love with the subject. Being on this trip has allowed me to see much of what I have learned about over the years as an art history major. So today, the first day in Greece, I got to do just that as I went on an SAS trip to the Corinth Canal, Epidarus, and Mycenae. The first two sites were pretty impressive… the Corinth Canal is amazing just considering what it took to create it, and the Epidarus theater is awesome. It is the best preserved Greek theater from it’s time, and performances are still put on there today. In the center of the circular orchestra is a smooth stone, and if you stand on it (it’s now level with the ground, very polished and smooth) you are in the center of the acoustics. When you speak, sing, clap or even drop a coin in this place you can hear the sound radiating away from you and the people in even the last row of seats can hear you perfectly clear. Even today they do not use microphones of any kind. As we sat in the top row, other tourists began to sing in various languages and the sounded as if they were just feet away from us… it was pretty incredible!

We next went to Mycenae, where I felt like a failure of an art historian. I completely forgot that the supposed “beehive” tomb of Agamemnon and the infamous Lion Gate could both be found at this site. Fail. Well to my defense, I guess I haven’t truly studied Greek art since that first year of art history. Anyways, the tomb is in excellent condition, it is completely empty, but still has quite exquisite masonry. The Mycenae acropolis is almost in total ruin so it’s hard to imagine what it truly looks like, but the Lion Gate was still in place and clearly depicts the ruler’s power. It was truly a great day for an art nerd like myself, even if I don’t always exactly remember what I’m looking at! That night Lindsey and I walked around the port area of Athens, called Piraeus, ate dinner, then stopped at a little market to get snacks (NUTELLA!) to take back to the ship.

On the second day (at this point I’ve lost all sense of what day of the week it is!) I went on another SAS trip to the Saronic Islands… three islands in one day! The first was Hydra and was probably my favorite. It was the perfect definition of a small Greek town, complete with donkeys! (they really looked more like mules but whatever) We wandered around there for a bit and had some amazing Greek coffee, which is like espresso with milky foam, condensed milk, cinnamon and ice, not absolutely sure though… it’s absolutely delicious, I think I had about 20 in these five days. Everyone drinks them here, they even have reusable cups specific for them that kind of look like frappaccino cups from Starbucks, but with reusable materials, obviously, but seriously everyone has one of these beverages at all times. Cops, taxi and bus drivers, street vendors, pedestrians…. and toursists of course! Anyways… we spent a little bit of time on each island (Hydra, Poros, and Aegina)which took up the whole day. Oh and on the way back to Piraeus, the ferry boat provided some “authentic Greek dancing” (imagine air quotes here) which could not have been cheesier. First a male “comedian” (again air quotes) came out dressed like an old Greek woman and did some awful lip singing to ‘70s music from the States. Then some creepy but “authentic” (so not authentic) dancers came out and did various dances… then again with the “comedian” now dressed as Elvis (oh the horror) and then the ever so creepy dancers. Lets just say I felt embarrassed to be there, and the waiters were even laughing the whole time. Well, it was it was an experience.

On the third day (Friday, I believe) Lindsey and I hit the ruins of Athens hardcore! We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see in one day… the Acropolis, Ancient and Roman Agoras, Hadrian’s Arch and Library, the Temple of Zeus, the New Acropolis Museum…. Oh man my dogs were barking!. All the ruins are so fantastic even in their ancient state… and the Acropolis! Oh man it was AMAZING! Not to mention we ate the BEST food ever It was a very successful day… and we turned in pretty early.

On Saturday we had another SAS trip to Delphi, which is incredible, and is now competing with the Pantheon in Rome as my favorite monument. It lies on the side of a mountain, and you can walk all the way to the top to see the fantastic views of the valley and port below. To get there we had to drive through a small town that is fast becoming a popular ski resort… you can ski and snowboard in Greece! How cool is that?!?! I’m going back for sure! Lunch yesterday was fantastic as well, the Greeks know how to make food that’s for sure! Saturday night, Lindsey, my friend Kari and I were too exhausted to function properly but didn’t want to sit around on the ship because it was still rather early… so we decided to go see a movie! I know, I know… who goes to see a movie in Greece?! But it was a perfect, air-conditioned break! We took a taxi, which was an adventure because the driver spoke about 3 words in English, and the theater was fantastic. Very clean, with assigned seating… pretty fancy! We saw Eclipse ha ha laugh all you want! Our taxi driver on the way back to the ship was very interesting in that he spoke several different languages to us, even though we clearly were speaking English. Within 20 minutes he said “grazie,” “thank you,” and “adios” a couple of times!

Today we just sort of wandered around Athens… and well, ate. I can’t get enough of this food, seriously, it’s amazing. And at the moment, I can feel the rumble of the engines which means we are on our way to Turkey (or Chicken as one of the very young SASers calls it… when I say young I mean like two or so)!!! Does Turkey count as Asia, I mean it’s technically on both continents so does this mean I will have been to Asia now?! Sweet.

LOVE LOVE LOVE